Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Cab-Che
CABLE, George Washington, author, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 12 October, 1844. On his father's side he springs from an old family of colonial Virginia. The Cabells originally spelled the name Cable, and their ancient coats of arms introduce the cable as an accessory. His mother was of old New England stock. The family moved to New Orleans soon after the financial crisis of 1837, and for a time the father prospered in business. In 1859 he failed, and died shortly afterward, leaving the family in such straitened circumstances that the son was obliged to leave school and seek employment as a clerk. He was thus engaged until 1863, when, though very slight and youthful in his appearance and but nineteen years of age, he volunteered in the Confederate service, joining the 4th Mississippi Cavalry. He employed the leisure of camp-life in study, but saw his share of active service, and is described as a good and daring soldier. He was wounded in the left arm, and narrowly escaped with his life. Returning penniless to New Orleans, after the over- throw of the Confederacy, he began to earn a living as an errand-boy in a mercantile house, and varying fortune sent him to Kosciusko, Miss., and subsequently, after he had studied civil-engineering, to the Têche Country, where he was attached to a surveying expedition on the levees of the Atchafalaya. There he caught the malarial fever peculiar to the region, and did not fully recover for two years. During this time he collected material that has since done good literary service. He began writing for the New Orleans “Picayune” over the pen-name of “Drop Shot,” contributing critical and humorous papers and occasionally a poem, and he was soon regularly attached to the editorial staff, which connection was abruptly ended on his refusal, from conscientious motives, to write a theatrical criticism. Once more he became a clerk and accountant, this time for a cotton-dealer, and retained his place until 1879, when the sudden death of the head of the house threw him out of employment. But in the meantime his sketches of creole life, published in “Scribner's Monthly” (now the “Century") proved so successful that he determined to give all his time to literature. He has opened a new field in fiction, introducing to the outside world a phase of American life hitherto unsuspected save by those that have seen it. His rendering of the creole dialect, with its French and Spanish variants, is full of originality, and his keen powers of observation have enabled him to depict the social life of the Louisiana lowlands, creole and Negro, so vividly that he has given serious offence to those whose portraits he has drawn. He has been the means through his publications of effecting reforms in the contract system of convict labor in the southern states. He has successfully entered the lecture-field, reading selections from his own writings, and unaffectedly singing to northern audiences the strange, wild melodies current among the French-speaking Negroes of the lower Mississippi. Mr. Cable's published works are “Old Creole Days” (New York, 1879); “The Grandissimes” (1880); “Madame Delphine” (1881); “Dr. Sevier” (Boston, 1883); “The Creoles of Louisiana” (New York, 1884): “The Silent South ” (1885). He has also £ for the government elaborate reports on the condition of the inhabitants of the Têche and Attakapas country in western Louisiana. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 490.
CADWALADER, George, soldier, born in Philadelphia, in 1804; died there, 3 February, 1879. He was a son of General Thomas Cadwalader. His boyhood was passed in Philadelphia, where he attended school, read law, was admitted to the bar, and practised his profession until 1846, when war with Mexico was declared, and he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He was present at the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, and for gallantry in the latter engagement was brevetted major-general. Resuming his law practice in Philadelphia, he followed it until 1861, when the governor appointed him major-general of state volunteers. In May of that year he was placed in command of the City of Baltimore, then in a state of semi-revolt against the national government. He accompanied General Patterson as his second in command in the expedition against Winchester (June, 1861). On 25 April, 1862, he was commissioned major-general of volunteers, and in December of the same year appointed one of a board to revise the military laws and regulations of the United States. He was the author of “Services in the Mexican Campaign of 1847” (Philadelphia, 1848). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 493-484.
CADY, Albemarle, soldier, born in New Hampshire, about 1809. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1829. Joining the 6th Infantry, he served on garrison and frontier duty until 1838, when he served against the Indians in Florida until 1842, being promoted captain 7 July, 1838. In the war with Mexico he was at the siege of Vera Cruz and in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey. In this last engagement he was wounded, and for his conduct was brevetted major. He accompanied the expedition against the Sioux Indians in 1855, and was in the action at Blue-Water, Dakota, 3 September of that year. On 27 January, 1857, he was promoted major. At the beginning of the Civil War he was on duty on the Pacific Coast, and remained there until 1864, when he was for a time in command of the draft rendezvous at New Haven, Connecticut. He was retired 18 May, 1864, for disability resulting from long and faithful service, and received the brevet of brigadier-general U.S.A., 13 March, 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 494.
CALDWELL, Alexander, senator, born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 1 March, 1830. He received a common-school education, and in 1847 enlisted for the Mexican War in a company commanded by his father, who was killed at one of the gates of the city of Mexico. He returned in 1848, became teller of a bank in Columbia, Pennsylvania, and afterward entered business. He went to Kansas in 1861, and was engaged in transporting supplies to various military posts on the plains, afterward becoming interested in the building of railways and bridges. He was elected U. S. Senator as a Republican in 1871, and served till 24 March, 1873, when he resigned. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 496.
CALDWELL, Charles Henry Bromedge, naval officer, born in Hingham, Massachusetts, 11 June, 1823; died in Waltham, Massachusetts, 30 November, 1877. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman 27 February, 1838, and became lieutenant 4 September, 1852. With a detachment from the “Vandalia,” he defeated a tribe of cannibals at Wega, one of the Feejee Islands, and burned their town, 11 October, 1858. In 1862 he commanded the gun-boat “Itasca,” of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron and took part in the bombardment of orts Jackson and St. Philip. On the night of 20 April his gun-boat, with the “Pinola,” was sent on an expedition under the command of Fleet-Captain Bell, to make a for the fleet through the chain obstructions near the forts. Lieutenant Caldwell and his party boarded one of the hulks that held the chains, and succeeded in detaching the latter, in spite of the heavy fire to which they were subjected. The “Itasca” was then swept on shore by the current, in full sight of the forts, and it was half an hour before she was afloat again. She was unable to pass the forts with the rest of the fleet, owing to a shot that penetrated her boiler. Lieutenant Caldwell was in the action at Grand Gulf, 9 June, 1862, and was promoted to commander on 16 July. He commanded the iron-clad “Essex,” of the Mississippi Squadron in 1862-’3, and took part in the operations at Port Hudson, from March to July of the latter year, in command of the “Essex” and the mortar flotilla. He commanded the “Glaucus" of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron from 1863 till 1864, and the “R. R. Cuyler,” of the same squadron, from 1864 till 1865. He became captain, 12 December, 1867, chief of staff of the North Atlantic fleet in 1870, and commodore on 14 June, 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 496.
CALDWELL, Henry Clay, jurist, born in Marshall County, West Virginia, 4 September, 1835. He was educated in the common schools of Iowa, where his father had moved in 1837, studied law in Keosauque, Iowa, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. He was prosecuting attorney of Van Buren County, Iowa, from 1856 till 1858, and a member of the legislature from 1859 till 1861. He enlisted in the 3d Iowa Volunteer Cavalry in the latter year, and became successively major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of his regiment. He was in active military service from 1861 till 4 June, 1864, when he resigned his commission, having been appointed U. S. Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 497.
CALDWELL, John Curtis, soldier, born in Lowell, Vermont, 17 April, 1833. He was graduated at Amherst in 1855. At the beginning of the Civil War he became colonel of the 11th Main Volunteers. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers 28 April, 1862, and brevetted major-general 19 August, 1865. General Caldwell was in every action of the Army of the Potomac, from its organization till General Grant took command, and during the last year of the war he was president of an advisory board of the War Department. He was a member of the Maine Senate, adjutant-general of the state in 1867, and in 1869 was U. S. Consul at Valparaiso, Chili. From 1873 till 1882 he was minister to Uruguay and Paraguay, and in 1885, having moved to Kansas, was president of the board of pardons of that state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 497.
CALHOUN, John C., statesman, born in Ninety-six District, South Carolina, 18 March, 1782; died in Washington, D. C., 31 March, 1850. His grandfather, James Calhoun, emigrated from Donegal, Ireland, to Pennsylvania in 1733, bringing with him a family of children, of whom Patrick Calhoun was one, a boy six years old. The family moved to western Virginia, again moved farther south, and in 1756 established the “Calhoun settlement” in the upper part of South Carolina. This was near the frontier of the Cherokee Indians; conflicts between them and the whites were frequent and bloody, and the Calhoun family suffered severe loss. Patrick Calhoun was distinguished for his undaunted courage and perseverance in these struggles, and was placed in command of provincial rangers raised for the defence of the frontier. His resolute and active character gave him credit among his people, and he was called to important service during the revolutionary war, in support of American independence. By profession he was a surveyor, and gained success by his skill. He was a man of studious and thoughtful habits, and well versed in English literature. His father was a Presbyterian, and he adhered to the religion of his fathers. In 1770 he married Martha Caldwell, a native of Virginia, daughter of an Irish Presbyterian immigrant, whose family was devoted to the American cause, and some of whom were badly treated by the tories. By heredity, John Caldwell Calhoun was therefore entitled to manhood from his race, to vigorous convictions in faith, and to patriotic devotion to liberty and right. He was early taught to read the Bible, and trained in Calvinistic doctrines; and it is said that he was also devoted to history and metaphysics, but was compelled to desist from study because of impaired health.
His father was a member for many years, during and after the revolution, of the legislature of his state, and his counsels made a deep impression on his son, though he died when the latter was thirteen years of age. The son remembered hearing the father say that “that government was best which allowed the largest amount of individual liberty compatible with social order,” and that the improvements in political science would consist in throwing off many restraints then deemed necessary to an organized society. Until Mr. Calhoun was ready for college, he was under the instruction of his brother-in-law, the Reverend Dr. Waddell, a Presbyterian clergyman, and went to Yale in 1802. He evinced great originality of thought, devotion to study, and a lofty ambition, which won him the honors of his class, and the prophetic approval of President Dwight in the declaration, after an earnest dispute with him on the rightful source of political power, that he would reach the greatest eminence in life, and might attain the presidency. He studied law with H. W. Desaussure, of South Carolina, for a time, but was graduated at Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in 1807. He took part in a meeting of the people denouncing the British outrage on the frigate “Chesapeake,” and was soon elected to the legislature, and entered the House of Representatives in November, 1811, in his thirtieth year. Few men were better trained for the career before him. Simple and sincere in his tastes, habits, and manners, strict and pure in his morals, and incorruptible in his integrity, severe and logical in his style, analytic in his studies, and thorough in his investigations, with a genius to perceive and comprehend the mass of elements that entered into the solution of the problems of our political life, and with a capacity for philosophic generalization of principles unequalled by any contemporary, he began, continued, and ended his life, in the manifestation of the highest qualities for debate, for disquisitions upon constitutional government and free institutions, for discussions on foreign relations, for the investigation of political and social economy, and for the conduct with ability of the general affairs and even for the details of departmental administration.
When Calhoun entered Congress, war with Great Britain was imminent. He was a member of the committee on foreign affairs. He drew a report which placed before the country the issue of war, or submission to wrong. He urged a declaration of war, and upheld the cause of his country with an eloquence that inspired patriotic enthusiasm, and with a logical force that gave fortitude and zeal to the army and navy as well as to the people. At the close of the war in 1815 the country was confronted with questions of currency, finance, commercial policy, and internal development, which offered to the genius of Calhoun fruitful subjects for his original and patriotic study. He pressed upon Congress the bank bill, the tariff of 1816, and a system of roads and canals. On these questions he afterward modified his views very greatly, but defended his real consistency of thought, under the appearance of inconsistency, by saying that the remedies proper for one condition of things were improper for others. A question arose in the discussion of the act to carry into effect the treaty of peace, as to the relation of the treaty-making authority to the powers of Congress. He maintained the supremacy of the treaty power; that it prevailed over a law of Congress; and that Congress was bound to pass a law to carry a treaty into effect. The celebrated William Pinkney, then in the zenith of his fame, declared that Mr. Calhoun had brought into the debate “the strong power of genius from a higher sphere than that of argument.” Its power was undoubted, though the truth of his theory may well be questioned.
In 1817 Mr. Monroe called Mr. Calhoun to the war department, which he filled until 1825. In this new field he won real fame; to this day the department, by the testimony of recent secretaries, feels the impress of his genius for organization and for the methodical adjustment of the functions of its various branches to each other and to its head. In his report to Congress in 1823 he truly said that in a large disbursement of public money through a great number of disbursing agents, there had been no defalcation nor loss of a cent to the government; that he had reduced the expenses of the army from $451 to $287 per man, with no loss of efficiency or comfort. He organized the department by a bill that he drew for the purpose; and, under rules prescribed by him, introduced order and accountability in every branch of service, and established a system that has survived, in a large degree, to this day. Mr. Clay, in his eulogy on Mr. Calhoun, said: “Such was the high estimate I formed of his transcendent talents, that if, at the end of his service in the executive department under Mr. Monroe's administration, the duties of which he performed with such signal ability, he had been called to the highest office in the government, I should have felt perfectly assured that, under his auspices, the honor, the prosperity, and the glory of our country would have been safely placed.” During his service in the department, contention arose between him and General Jackson as to the conduct of the latter in the Seminole War, which was the chief cause of the breach between them during Jackson's administration.
In 1824 there were four candidates for the presidency, which resulted in the election of John Q. Adams by the House of Representatives. Mr. Calhoun was elected vice-president by a large majority. His vice-presidency marks the beginning of Mr. Calhoun's life as a constitutional statesman. He said in 1837: “The station, from its leisure, gave me a good opportunity to study the genius of the prominent measure of the day, called then the American system, by which I profited.” From that time he by profound study mastered the principles of our constitutional system, and may be said to have founded a school of political philosophy, of which the doctrines are maintained in his speeches, reports, and public writings. Mr. Clay's American system, to which Mr. Calhoun referred, was in full success. The bank, the protective policy, the internal improvement system, and the “general welfare” rule for constitutional construction, composed this celebrated policy. In 1828 General Jackson was elected president and Mr. Calhoun re-elected vice-president. The Jackson administration was the period during which the Democratic Party under Jackson and the Whig Party under Clay were organized for their great struggle for ascendency.
Mr. Calhoun took from the beginning the most prominent part in the attitude assumed by South Carolina against the protective system, which had reached its climax in the tariff law of 1828. In December, 1828, he drew up the “Exposition,” which, with amendments, was adopted by the legislature of South Carolina; also an address, 26 July, 1831, on the relations of the states to the general government; also a report for the legislature in November, 1831; also an address to the people of the state at the close of that session; also a letter to Governor Hamilton on state interposition, 28 August, 1832; also an address to the people of the United States by the Convention of South Carolina in November, 1832. In these papers he maintained the doctrine of state interposition, or “nullification.” During Jackson's first term, the influence of Mr. Van Buren became paramount with the president, and the alienation between the latter and Mr. Calhoun became irreconcilable. Mr. Van Buren was elected vice-president in 1832. The South Carolina Convention in November, 1832, passed the ordinance nullifying the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832, and Mr. Calhoun was elected to the Senate and took his seat in December, having resigned the vice-presidency. He appeared as the champion of his state, and defender of its ordinance of nullification, standing alone, but firm and undaunted. Both parties were opposed to him, and the administration menacingly so. A man of less intellect or less courage would have shrunk from the conflict. But he was courageous in conviction, and fearless of personal consequences. He gave up the second and surrendered all hope of the first, office in the country, to defend his state in her solitary attitude of opposition to the protective policy. The president's proclamation of November, 1802, was followed by the proposed “force bill.” Mr. Calhoun, in February, 1833, made an elaborate speech against it. To this Mr. Webster replied with great fulness upon certain resolutions proposed by Mr. Calhoun on the general question, whereupon Mr. Calhoun called up his resolutions, and made, 26 February, 1833, a speech of extraordinary force, to which Mr. Webster never replied. The issue in this debate of the giants was on the first resolution, as follows:
“That the people of the several states comprising these United States are united as parties to a constitutional compact, to which the people of each state acceded, as a separate and sovereign community, each binding itself by its own particular ratification; and that the union, of which the said compact is the bond, is a union between the states ratifying the same.” Mr. Webster denied the “compact” theory, and is said to have made use of much of the materials gathered by Judge Story in the preparation of the first volume of his commentaries on the constitution, published in 1833. Almost all of the Democratic Party, and many of the Whigs, held that the constitution was a compact, but denied the right of nullification by a state; and some of these denied the right of secession to a state, holding the indissolubility of the union of these states because bound by a perpetual compact. They admitted Mr. Calhoun's premise of “compact,” but denied his conclusions. Mr. Webster denied his premise, and therefore his conclusion. Many, also, who believed in the right of secession, denied the right of nullification. Mr. Calhoun stood, therefore, alone in the Senate, maintaining the premise of a “constitutional compact,” and his conclusion of the right of a state to nullify a law while remaining in the union, or to secede from the union entirely. The true nature of the doctrine of nullification was this: 1. It was claimed as a remedy within the union, reserved to the state according to the constitution; a remedy for evils in the union; and to save, but not to dissolve, it. 2. It was claimed for the state, as a party to the compact, to declare when it was violated, and to pronounce void an unconstitutional law; not to annul a valid law, but to declare void an unconstitutional law. 3. Its effect was (as claimed) to make wholly inoperative the law so declared void, because unconstitutional, within the state, and it seems that the United States should, according to the doctrine, thereupon suspend its operation elsewhere, and appeal to the states to amend the constitution by a new grant of power to make valid the law so declared void by the state. 4. This declaration of nullity of a law could not be made by the government of a state, but only by a convention of its people; that is, that the people of a state in convention, which had ratified in convention the constitution originally, should have power to declare unconstitutional an act done by the government created by that constitution. The genius of Mr. Calhoun was equal to the plausible and powerful support of this theory, which, however inconclusive from his premise of the constitutional compact, can not impair the truth of that premise, which, with transcendent ability and accurate historic research, he established on an impregnable foundation. The discussion had valuable results. Mr. Clay introduced his “compromise tariff” of 1833, which was passed before the session closed, with the support of Mr. Calhoun. It provided for a gradual reduction of duties during ten years, after which duties should be laid on a revenue basis. This issue ended, the re-charter of the bank of the United States, and the removal of the deposits therefrom by President Jackson, and the general question of currency, became prominent. Executive patronage also came into the debates of the last term of President Jackson. On all these questions Mr. Calhoun acted with the Whig Party. He preferred the bank of the United States to what was called the “pet bank system” of the executive. He condemned what he deemed executive usurpation, and denounced the influence of patronage as tending to the organization of parties upon the principle “of the cohesive power of public plunder.” He claimed to belong to neither party, but to lead the band of “state-rights” men, whose course was directed by principle, and not by the motives of party triumph or personal ambition. He took no part in the presidential election of 1836; but on the accession of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency, and in the extra session called by him in 1837, to consider the financial panic of that year, he took ground for a total separation of the government from a bank or banks, favored the constitutional treasury plan, and acted generally with the Democratic Party, General Harrison was elected president in 1840, but died 4 April, 1841, and was succeeded by Vice-President John Tyler. An extra session of Congress was called in the summer of 1841, when the struggle of Mr. Clay for the restoration of his American system — including a bank, protective tariff, internal improvements, and a distribution of the proceeds of the public lands — brought on a memorable discussion, in which Mr. Calhoun was a leader, and facile princeps, of the Democratic Party. If the student of our history will consult the speeches of Mr. Calhoun in the Senate, on the bank question generally, and on currency, from 1837 till 1842, he will find how thorough his analysis of these abstruse questions was, and how broad were his generalizations of principles. When the tariff question came up again in 1842, the compromise of 1833 was rudely overthrown, and the protective system placed in the ascendent. Mr. Calhoun discussed the question in several able speeches, but delivered one 5 August, 1842, of comprehensive force, in which he discriminated with analytic precision between a revenue and a protective duty, holding a tariff for revenue only to be constitutional and right. He discussed the question of wages, and closed his speech with an animation not to be forgotten by one, who heard him utter these sentences: “The great popular party is already rallied almost en masse around the banner which is leading the party to its final triumph. The few that still lag will soon be rallied under its ample folds. On that banner is inscribed: Free trade; low duties; no debt; separation from banks; economy; retrenchment, and strict adherence to the constitution. Victory in such a cause will be great and glorious; and long will it perpetuate the liberty and prosperity of the country.” The hostility of President Tyler to the American system made its restoration during his administration only partial; but questions of deeper import came before the country, from which results of great consequence have followed. Mr. Tyler had frequently resorted to the veto power to defeat Mr. Clay's measures. Mr. Clay proposed an amendment of the constitution for the abrogation of the veto power, and on 28 February, 1842, Mr. Calhoun delivered a speech against this proposition. He vindicated and sustained the veto as an essential part of “the beautiful and profound system established by the constitution.” The proposition never came to a vote.
In February, 1844, the unfortunate explosion of a gun on the deck of the “Princeton,” near Washington, robbed the country of two members of President Tyler's cabinet. The vacancy in the State Department occasioned by the death of Judge Upshur was filled by Mr. Calhoun, who had ceased to be senator, in March, 1843. Two questions of great importance were considered by the new secretary. At that time the union had no Pacific population, California had not been acquired, and Oregon was not yet within our grasp. Great Britain had an adverse claim to Oregon. Our title rested on discovery and the French treaty of 1803. Access to it there was none but by sea around Cape Horn or across the isthmus. Mr. Calhoun vindicated our rights in a diplomatic correspondence upon grounds on which it was finally adjusted by treaty in 1846. In his speech on the Oregon question, 16 March, 1846, he spoke of the physical elements of civilization steam and electricity. As to the latter (when the telegraph was in its infancy) with wonderful prevision he said: “Magic wires are stretching themselves in all directions over the earth, and, when their mystic meshes shall have been united and perfected, our globe itself will become endowed with sensitiveness, so that whatever touches on any one point will be instantly felt on every other.” Again: “Peace is preëminently our policy. . . . Providence has given us an inheritance stretching across the entire continent from ocean to ocean. . . . Our great mission, as a people, is to occupy this vast domain; to replenish it with an intelligent, virtuous, and industrious population; to convert the forests into cultivated fields; to drain the swamps and morasses, and cover them with rich harvests; to build up cities, towns, and villages in every direction, and to unite the whole by the most rapid intercourse between all the parts. . . . Secure peace, and time, under the guidance of a sagacious and cautious policy, 'a wise and masterly inactivity,' will speedily accomplish the whole. . . . War can make us great; but let it never be forgotten that peace only can make us both great and free.”
Another question, the annexation of Texas, occupied his mind, and gave full scope to his fertile genius. To our internal concerns it was as important as to our foreign relations. It can only be fully comprehended by considering the slavery question, with which it became involved in the act of annexation and in its consequences. In the federal Convention of 1787 the diversity of industries growing up in states where slavery did and did not exist was clearly foreseen. This difference was marked by the terms northern and southern, slaveholding and non-slaveholding, commercial and agricultural states. The well-known antipathy of people, among whom slavery does not exist, to that form of labor gave rise to strong feelings in the northern states for its abolition. Among southern people there was much of regret that it had ever been established; but how to deal with it was to them a practical question for their most serious consideration. As has been well said, “We had the wolf by the ears — to hold on, was a great evil; to let go, who could estimate the consequences?” It was important as a question of property, but of far greater moment as a social and political problem. What relations, social and political, should exist between these diverse races, when both were free and equal in citizenship? One thing the south felt most strongly. The solution of this difficult problem should be left to those who were personally interested in the continuance of slavery, and involved in the consequences of its abolition. Accordingly, the federal constitution left it for the states to deal with, threw around it interstate guarantees, and put it beyond the reach of the federal government. Without these guarantees, the union could not have been formed. The two sections watched their respective growth in population, and their settlement of our territories, as bearing on their related powers in the federal government. The north had a large majority in the House of Representatives, and in the Electoral College. In the Senate, by a species of common law, an equilibrium was maintained between the sections, one free state being admitted with one slave state for nearly fifty years of our history. In 1820-'1 the Missouri agitation arose, which was quieted for the moment by an agreement that no state should be admitted north of lat. 36° 30' which allowed slavery, while south of that line they might be admitted with or without slavery, as the people of the state should decide. The constitutionality of this Missouri compromise was always denied by many constitutional lawyers, though it is said Mr. Calhoun admitted its constitutionality, when applied to the territories, but not as to a state. With a Senate equally divided between the sections, the southern states felt secure against action hostile to slavery by the government. But the equilibrium of the sections in that body being overthrown, they would be subject to the will of a northern majority in both houses, limited only by its interpretation of its constitutional power over slavery. In 1835, Texas, peopled by emigrants from the union, but chiefly from the southern states, carrying their slaves with them, won its independence at San Jacinto, which was acknowledged by the United States in 1836. The territory had once been ours; its people were of our own flesh and blood; emigration pressed into its fields from the south; the government of Great Britain was threatening to keep Texas independent, and, by procuring the abolition of slavery there, to operate to stop slavery extension toward the southwest, and place an abolition frontier upon the borders of Louisiana and Arkansas. Mr. Calhoun was too sagacious not to see the hostile policy of England. In a series of papers he exposed the scheme, and negotiated a treaty with Texas for her incorporation into the union. The treaty failed, but the annexation of Texas became a pivotal question in the presidential election of 1844, and Mr. Polk was elected chiefly upon that issue. Many people looked upon it as an increase of the slave power in the union, but the admission of Texas was made subject, as to any new states to be formed out of it, to the provisions of the Missouri compromise. Mr. Calhoun was elected to the Senate on retiring from the State Department, and did all he could for the peaceable adjustment of the Oregon question, and also to prevent war with Mexico. He deprecated the war with Mexico, and in strong terms declared it was unnecessary. When it was finally determined on, he was greatly disturbed, and predicted evils, which even he could not see. He said: “It has dropped a curtain between the present and the future, which to me is impenetrable; and, for the first time since I have been in public life, I am unable to see the future. It has closed the first volume of our political history under the constitution, and opened the second, and no mortal can tell what will be written in it.” In his speech on the “three-million bill” (9 February, 1847) he explained that what constituted this “impenetrable curtain” was the acquisition of territory as the result of the war, and the slavery question, which would be involved in the legislation respecting it. The slavery question, during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren, had been agitated in many forms. Abolition petitions had poured in upon Congress, and the power of Congress had been invoked to prevent the transmission through the mails of abolition documents. On this point Mr. Calhoun differed with President Jackson; the former maintaining in an able report (February, 1836) that the mail could not be the instrument for incendiary purposes against the laws of the states, but that Congress had no power to decide what should be transmitted and what not, without state action.
Soon after the Mexican War began, the acquisition of territory from Mexico was strongly insisted on; and at once the anti-slavery party proposed what was known as the Wilmot proviso, by which it was declared that slavery should never be allowed in any Mexican territory acquired by treaty. The agitation convulsed the country. On 19 February, 1847, Mr. Calhoun set forth his views in certain resolutions, of which the substance is in the first two: “That the territories of the United States belong to the several states composing the union, and are held by them as their joint and common property; that Congress, as the joint agent and representative of the states of the union, has no right to make any law or do any act whatever that shall, directly or by its effects, make any discrimination between the states of this union by which any of them shall be deprived of its full and equal right in any territory of the United States acquired or to be acquired.” Chief-Justice Taney, delivering the opinion of the court, held the same doctrine in the Dred Scott decision in 1857, in which six of the nine judges concurred. The agitation continued until the session of 1849-'50, when the compromise measures were proposed and passed. Mr. Calhoun made his last speech (read for him by Senator Mason, of Virginia) upon this subject, 4 March, 1850. With the exception of a few remarks made afterward in reply to Mr. Foote and to Mr. Webster, he never again addressed the Senate.
In the last years of his life he prepared two works, the one “A Disquisition on Government,” and the other “A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States,” both comprehended in a volume of 400 pages. These methodical treatises on the science of government and the federal constitution place him in the highest position among original thinkers upon political philosophy. In estimating Mr. Calhoun's position absolutely and relatively, he is liable to a less favorable verdict than his merits demand. He represented a southern state, defended her slave institutions, belonged to a minority section, and his views have been condemned by the majority section of the country. The newspaper and periodical press, therefore, will deny him the pre-eminence which we claim for him as a broad and philosophic statesman, as a constitutional lawyer, and as a leader of thought in the field of political philosophy. His fame results from the possession of an ardent, sincere, and intense soul which gave impulse and motive to a mind endowed with extraordinary analytic force, acute and subtile in its insight, fertile in suggestion, full of resources, careful, laborious, and profound in research and comprehensive in its deduction of general principles. He had a largo imagination, though he displayed little fancy. His vigorous, compact, and clean-cleaving logic put the objects of his creative power into sharply defined shapes, arranged in perspicuous order, with a severe, trenchant, and condensed rhetoric.
In his reply on 10 March, 1838, to Mr. Clay's personal attack he seems to have defined his own characteristics while he denied them to his great opponent. He said: “I cannot retort on the senator the charge of being metaphysical. I cannot accuse him of possessing the powers of analysis and generalization, those higher faculties of the mind (called metaphysical by those who do not possess them) which decompose and resolve into their elements the complex masses of ideas that exist in the world of mind, as chemistry does the bodies that surround us in the material world, and without which these deep and hidden causes which are in constant action and producing such mighty changes in the condition of society would operate unseen and undetected. . . . Throughout the whole of my service I have never followed events, but have taken my stand in advance, openly and freely avowing my opinions on all questions, and leaving it to time and experience to condemn or approve my course.” He believed the constitution to be a “beautiful and profound system,” and the union under it an inestimable blessing. His “Disquisition” and “Discourse” were devoted to showing how the true philosophy of government was realized in that constitution. An epitome of his philosophy may be attempted, though it will fail to do it justice. He believed in the rights of the individual man, for whose benefit society and government exist — “society being primary, to preserve and perfect our race; and government secondary and subordinate, to preserve and perfect society. Both are, however, necessary to the existence and well-being of our race and equally of divine ordination.” But government ordained to protect may, if not guarded, be made a means of oppression. “That by which this is prevented, by whatever name called, is what is meant by constitution. . . . Constitution stands to government as government stands to society. . . . Constitution is the contrivance of man, while government is of divine ordination. Man is left to perfect what the wisdom of the Infinite ordained as necessary to preserve the race.” He then takes up the question, How shall government be constituted so as by its own organism to resist the tendency to abuse of power? The first device is the responsibility of rulers through suffrage to the ruled under proper guards and with sufficient enlightenment of the voters to understand their rights and their duty. This secures those who elect against abuse by those who are elected. But this is far from all that is needed. When society is homogeneous in interests this may suffice, for it insures a control of no man's right by any other than himself and those who have common interest with him. But where, as is generally the case, society has diverse and inimical interests, then suffrage is no security, for each representative speaks the will of each constituency, and constituencies, through representation, may war on each other, and the majority interests may devour those of the minority through their representatives. Suffrage thus only transfers the propensity to abuse power from constituencies to representatives, and despotism is secured through that suffrage which was devised to prevent it. The remedy for this evil is to be found in such an organism as will give to each of the diverse interests a separate voice and permit the majority of each to speak in a separate branch of the organism, and not take the voice of the majority of the whole community as the only expression of the people's will. To do the last bases government on the numerical or absolute majority; to do the first is to base it on the “concurrent constitutional majority.” The latter is a government of the whole people; the former only of a majority of them. This principle is illustrated by all the so-called checks and balances in all constitutional governments, and by the concurrent majority of numbers in the House of Representatives and of states in the Senate in our own federal system. This principle, established with scientific precision, is the fruitful source of all of Mr. Calhoun's doctrines. His vindication of the veto power was against the claim for the numerical majority. His nullification was the requirement of the concurrent majority of the several states to a law of doubtful constitutionality. His proposed amendment of the constitution by a dual executive, through which each section would have a distinct representation, was an application of the same principle; and his intense opposition to the admission of California, by which the Senate was to be controlled by a northern majority, was his protest against the overthrow of the concurrent consent of the south, through an equipoised Senate, to the legislative action of Congress. Mr. Calhoun saw the south in a minority in all branches of the government, and he desired, by giving to the south a concurrent and distinct voice in the organism of our system, to secure her against invasion of her rights by a hostile majority, and thus to make her safe in the union. When the abolition party was small in numbers and weak in organization, and public men treated its menaces with contempt, Mr. Calhoun saw the cloud like a man's hand which was to overspread our political heavens. His prophetic eye saw the danger and his voice proclaimed it. In looking at the growth of the abolition feeling in 1836, he predicted that Mr. Webster “would, however reluctant, be compelled to yield to that doctrine or be driven into obscurity.” He said, further: “Be assured that emancipation itself would not satisfy these fanatics. That gained, the next step would be to raise the Negroes to a social and political equality with the whites.” In 1849 he wrote the “Address to the People of the South,” and, with a precision that is startling, drew the following picture of the results of abolition: “If it [emancipation] ever should be effected, it will be through the agency of the federal government, controlled by the dominant power of the northern states of the confederacy against the resistance and struggle of the southern. It can then only be effected by the prostration of the white race, and that would necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility between them and the north; but the reverse would be the case between the blacks of the south and the people of the north. Owing their emancipation to them, they would regard them as friends, guardians, and patrons, and centre accordingly all their sympathy in them. The people of the north would not fail to reciprocate, and to favor them instead of the whites. Under the influence of such feelings, and impelled by fanaticism and love of power, they would not stop at emancipation. Another step would be taken, to raise them to a political and social equality with their former owners by giving them the right of voting and holding public offices under the federal government. . . . But when once raised to an equality they would become the fast political associates of the north, acting and voting with them on all questions, and by this political union between them holding the south in complete subjection. The blacks and the profligate whites that might unite with them would become the principal recipients of federal offices and patronage, and would in consequence be raised above the whites in the south in the political and social scale. We would, in a word, change conditions with them a degradation greater than has ever yet fallen to the lot of a free and enlightened people, and one from which we could not escape but by fleeing the homes of ourselves and ancestors, and by abandoning our country to our former slaves, to become the permanent abode of disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery, and wretchedness.”
The estimate we have placed upon the genius of this remarkable man is confirmed by the touching tributes of his great rivals at the time of his death. Henry Clay, after paying a tribute to his private character and to his patriotism and public honor, said: “He possessed an elevated genius of the highest order. In felicity of generalization of the subjects of which his mind treated I have seen him surpassed by no one, and the charm and captivating influence of his colloquial powers have been felt by all who have conversed with him.” Daniel Webster, his chief competitor in constitutional debate, said: “He was a man of undoubted genius and of commanding talent. All the country and all the world admit that. . . . I think there is not one of us but felt, when he last addressed us from his seat in the Senate, his form still erect, with clear tones, and an impressive and, I may say, an imposing manner, who did not feel that he might imagine that we saw before us a senator of Rome when Rome survived. . . . He had the basis, the indispensable basis of all high character, and that was unspotted integrity, unimpeached honor, and character. If he had aspirations, they were high and honorable and noble. . . . Firm in his purpose, perfectly patriotic and honest, aside from that large regard for that species of distinction that conducted him to eminent stations for the benefit of the republic, I do not believe he had a selfish motive or selfish feeling.” Mr. Everett once said: “Calhoun, Clay, Webster! I name them in alphabetical order. What other precedence can be assigned them?” Clay the great leader, Webster the great orator, Calhoun the great thinker. John Stuart Mill speaks of the great ability of his posthumous work, and of its author as “a man who has displayed powers as a speculative political thinker superior to any who has appeared in American politics since the authors of 'The Federalist.'” It has been said that Calhoun labored to destroy the Union, that he might be the chief of a southern confederacy because he could not be president of the Union. The writer remembers an interview that he witnessed between Calhoun and a friend within a month of his death, when the hopes and strifes of his ambition were soon, as he knew, to be laid in the grave. The friend asked him if nothing could be done to save the Union. “Will not the Missouri compromise do it?” He replied, the light in his great eyes expressing an intense solemnity of feeling that can never be forgotten, “With my constitutional objections I could not vote for it, but I would acquiesce in it to save this Union!”
Mr. Calhoun in his private life as husband, father, friend, neighbor, and citizen, was pure, upright, sincere, honest, and beyond reproach. He was simple and unpretending in manners, rigid and strict in his morals, temperate and discreet in his habits; genial, earnest, and fascinating in conversation, and magnanimous in his public and private relations. He was beloved by his family and friends, honored and almost idolized by his state, and died as he had lived, respected and revered for his genius and his honorable life by his contemporaries of all parties. He was stainless in private and public life, as a man, a patriot, and a philosopher, and his fame is a noble heritage to his country and to mankind. The view on page 500 represents the summer residence and office of Mr. Calhoun at Fort Hill, to which during his career many men of distinction repaired to enjoy his society and his liberal hospitality. Calhoun's works were collected and edited by Richard K. Cralle (6 vols., New York, 1853-'4). [Appleton’s 1900] pp. 498-504.
CALL, Richard Keith, soldier, born near Peters- burg, Virginia, in 1791; died in Tallahassee, Fla,, 14 September, 1862, was appointed first lieutenant in the 44th Infantry, 15 July, 1814; brevet captain. 7 November, 1814; volunteer aide to General Jackson in April, 1818; captain, July, 1818; and resigned, 1 May, 1822. He was a member of the legislative council of Florida in April, 1822; brigadier-general of west Florida militia in January, 1823; delegate to Congress from 1828 till 1825; and receiver of the west Florida land-office in March, 1825. He was governor of Florida from 1835 till 1840, and led the army against the Seminoles from 6 December, 1885, till 6 December, 1836, commanding in the second and third battles of Wahoo Swamp, 18 and 21 November, 1830. It is said that at the battle of Ouithlacooehie Governor Call personally saved General Clinch and his command from being cut to pieces, contrary to the statement made by the latter in his history of the Florida War. A controversy with Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War in Van Buren's cabinet, relative to the misdirection of the war, cost Governor Call his office. He consequently turned Whig, and worked earnestly for Harrison's election, canvassing the northern states in his behalf. President Harrison reappointed him governor of Florida in 1841, and he held the office till 1844, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the governorship in 1845, when the territory became a state. Although he had sacrificed fortune, health, and popularity to protect the citizens of Florida during the Seminole War, they could not forgive him for turning Whig, and he never held political office again in Florida. But he was major-general of state militia from 1 July to 8 December, 1846. Governor Call took great interest in the development of his state. He projected and built the third railroad in the United States, from Tallahassee to St. Marks, and also located the town of Port Leon, which was afterward destroyed by a cyclone. He always considered himself a Jackson Democrat, as opposed to later democracy. Feeling that he had fought at Jackson's side for every inch of ground from Tennessee to the peninsula, he regarded himself as one of the builders of the nation, and during the Civil War was one of the few men in the south that looked on secession as treason. On 12 February. 1861, Governor Call wrote a long letter to John S. Littell, of Pennsylvania, deploring secession, but defending slavery. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 505.
CALLENDER, Franklin D., soldier, born in New York about 1817; died in Daysville, Illinois, 13 December 1882. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1839, assigned to duty as brevet second lieutenant of ordnance, and in November of the same year was promoted second lieutenant. Until 1840 he was on duty at Watervliet Arsenal. New York, from 1840 till 1842 served in the Florida War, and was brevetted first lieutenant for "active and highly meritorious services against the Florida Indians." Returning to ordnance duty, he organized a howitzer and rocket battery at Fort Monroe in 1846, and commanded it at the siege of Vera Cruz in the war with Mexico, 1847. He was promoted first lieutenant, 3 March, 1847, participated in the succeeding campaigns, and was twice severely wounded at the battle of Contreras. For his conduct during these campaigns he was brevetted captain of ordnance. In 1858 he was promoted captain of ordnance, having been on continuous duty at different arsenals for fourteen years. During the Civil War he was on foundry and general ordnance duty, and was brevetted major in 1862, receiving his promotion to the full grade, 8 March, 1863. He was engaged in the advance against Corinth. Mississippi, in April and May, 1863, and was afterward chief of ordnance of the Department of Missouri. In 1865 he received successive brevets to include the grade of brevet brigadier-general, and was promoted to the full grades of lieutenant-colonel, 6 April, 1866, and colonel of ordnance, 23 June. 1874. He was retired, 29 May, 1879. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 505.
CAMERON, Robert Alexander, soldier, born in Brooklyn, New York, 22 February, 1828. He was graduated at Indiana Medical College in 1850, and practised his profession at Valparaiso, Indiana, till 1861. He was a member of the Indiana legislature in 1860–1. He entered the national service as a captain in the 9th Indiana Volunteers in 1861, became lieutenant-colonel of the 19th Indiana the same year, and colonel of the 34th in 1862. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 11 August, 1863, and commanded the 13th Army Corps after General Ransom was wounded in Banks's Red River Expedition of 1864. After this he commanded the District of La Fourche, Louisiana, till the close of the war, receiving the brevet of major-general on 13 March, 1865, and it is said that he and Crawford are the only physicians that have attained the rank of general officer since Dr. Warren fell at Bunker Hill. He was superintendent of the colony that founded the town of Greeley, in 1870, and of the Colorado Springs and Manitou Colonies in 1871. In 1885 he was made warden of the state penitentiary at Canon City, Cameron Parish, Louisiana, Cameron's Cone, El Paso County, and Cameron's Pass, Laramie County were named for him. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 508-509.
CAMERON, Simon, 1799-1889, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, statesman, U.S. Senator, Secretary of War, 1861-1862, under President Lincoln. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 508; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 437)
CAMERON, Simon, statesman, born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 8 March, 1799; died there, 26 June, 1889. He early received a fair English education, and began to learn the printer's trade when but nine years of age. He worked as a journeyman in Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Washington, and so improved his opportunities that in 1820 he was editing a newspaper in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and in 1822 one in Harrisburg. As soon as he had accumulated sufficient capital he became interested in banking and in railroad construction in the central part of the state. He was for a time adjutant-general of Pennsylvania. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1845 for the term ending in 1849, and during this period acted with the Democrats on important party questions, such as the Missouri compromise bill. This was repealed in 1854, and Mr. Cameron became identified with the “people's party,” subsequently merged with the Republicans, As its candidate he was re-elected to the Senate for the full term of six years beginning in 1857, a period that covered the exciting crisis of secession. During this time he was so earnest an advocate of peace that his loyalty was suspected. At the Republican Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln he was strongly supported for the presidency, and again for the vice-presidency; but lack of harmony in the Pennsylvania delegation prevented his nomination to the latter office. Mr. Lincoln at once called him to the cabinet as Secretary of War, and he proved equal to the arduous duties of the place. He advocated more stringent and aggressive war measures than Mr. Lincoln was prepared to carry out, and when General Butler asked for instructions regarding fugitive slaves, directed him to employ them “under such organizations and in such occupations as exigencies may suggest or require.” Similar instructions were given to General Sherman and other officers in the field. In the original draft of his Annual Report to Congress, in December, 1861, he boldly advocated arming fugitive slaves; but this was modified, on consultation with the cabinet. Mr. Cameron resigned the secretaryship 11 January, 1862, was at once appointed minister to Russia, and his influence undoubtedly tended in a large measure to secure the friendship of that powerful nation during the Civil War. His official conduct in a certain transaction was censured by the House of Representatives, 30 April, 1862; but Mr. Lincoln immediately sent a message assuming, with the other heads of departments, an equal share in the responsibility. He resigned as minister to Russia 8 November, 1862, and remained at home until 1866, when he was elected U. S. Senator, and appointed chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the retirement of Mr. Sumner in 1872. He was sent to the Senate for the fourth time in 1873, but resigned in favor of his son. During the years of his active public life he was a powerful political leader, practically dictating the policy of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, and wielding a strong influence over its policy in the nation at large. The accompanying view represents “Lochiel,” the residence at Harrisburg of the “Czar of Pennsylvania politics,” as Cameron has been called. —His brother, James, soldier, born in Maytown, Lancaster County. Pennsylvania, 1 March, 1801; killed '21 July, 1861. At nineteen years of age he entered the printing-office of his brother Simon, at Harrisburg, and in 1827 moved to Lancaster and assumed the editorship of the " Political Sentinel," studying law in the mean time in the office of James Buchanan. During the Mexican War he accompanied the volunteers of his state as sutler, in January, 1847. When the Civil War began he was living in retirement upon his estate on the banks of the Susquehanna, but upon urgent en- treaty accepted the appointment of colonel of the 79th (Highland) regiment of New York state militia, he was killed while gallantly loading his men in a charge at Bull Run.—Simon's son, James Donald, senator, born in Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 14 May, 1838, was graduated at Princeton, in 1852, entered the Middletown Bank as clerk, became cashier, and afterward president He was also president of the Northern Central railway Company of Pennsylvania from 1863 until the road was leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1874, and in this place did good service to the national cause during the Civil War. The road, although several times cut by the Confederates, was a means of communication between Pennsylvania and Washington, and after the war it was extended, under Mr. Cameron's administration, to Elmira, New York, so as to reach from the great lakes to tide-water. Mr. Cameron has since been connected with various coal, iron, and manufacturing industries in his state, he was Secretary of War under President Grant from 22 May, 1876, till 3 March. 1877, and was then chosen U. S. Senator to fill the vacancy caused by his father's resignation. He was re- elected in 1879, and again in 1885, for the term ending in 1891, He was a delegate to the Chicago Republican conventions of 1868 and 1880, and chair- man of the national Republican committee in the latter year. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. I pp. 509-510.
CAMPBELL, Charles Thomas, soldier, born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, 10 August, 1823. He was educated at Marshall College, and on 18 February, 1847, became second lieutenant in the 8th U.S. Infantry. He served through the Mexican War, becoming captain in August, 1847, and was mustered out in August, 1848. In 1852 he was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He was commissioned colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania Artillery in May, 1861, but resigned in December, and was made colonel of the 57th Infantry. He was wounded three times at Fair Oaks, and twice at Fredericksburg, and a horse was killed under him in each of these battles. He was taken prisoner with his regiment, but they succeeded in releasing themselves and carrying back more than 200 of the enemy as captives. His wounds, seven in number, necessitated a long and tedious confinement in the hospital, and prevented him from seeing any more active service. He was promoted to brigadier-general on 13 March, 1863, and after the close of the war moved to Dakota. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 512.
CAMPBELL, Cleveland J., soldier, born in New York City in July, 1836; died in Castleton, New York, 13 June, 1865. He was graduated successively at the free Academy, Union College, and the University of Göttingen. Early in the war he enlisted in the 44th New York Volunteers, was soon promoted to be a lieutenant on General Palmer's staff, was next adjutant of the 152d New York Volunteers, then captain in Upton's 121st New York Volunteers, and, after passing a most brilliant examination, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and finally colonel, of the 23d Regiment of Colored Troops. He led his regiment into the hottest of the fight at Petersburg, when the mine exploded, and left in and around the crater nearly 400 of his men, killed or wounded. Colonel Campbell himself received injuries from a bursting shell that ultimately caused his death. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 512.
CAMPBELL, John, surgeon, born in New York state about 1822. He was appointed an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army in December, 1847, served in Mexico and was stationed successively in Texas, in California, at forts along the western frontier, and at different eastern posts, including the Military Academy at West Point. He was promoted surgeon in May, 1861, acting through the Civil War in that grade, and at its close received brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel, U. S. A., for faithful and meritorious services. He was advanced to the full rank of lieutenant-colonel, 8 November, 1877, colonel, 7 December, 1885, and placed on the retired list, 16 September, 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 514.
CAMPBELL, John Allen, soldier, born in Salem, Ohio, 8 October, 1835; died in Washington, D.C., 14 July, 1880. After receiving a common-school education, he learned the printing business, and at the beginning of the war entered the army as second lieutenant of volunteers. He became major and assistant adjutant-general, 27 October, 1862, and was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865, “for courage in the field and marked ability and fidelity” at Rich Mountain, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, and through the Atlanta Campaign. He was mustered out on 1 September, 1866, and for a time assistant editor on the Cleveland “Leader.” In October, 1867, he was appointed second lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Artillery, regular army, and at once brevetted first lieutenant, captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel. He served on General Schofield's staff, but resigned in 1869, and was appointed the first governor of Wyoming Territory. He was reappointed in 1873, and in 1875 became third assistant Secretary of State at Washington. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 514.
CAMPBELL, John Archibald, jurist, born in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, 24 June, 1811. His grandfather served in the revolution as aide-de- camp to General Greene. His father, Colonel Duncan G. Campbell, was a distinguished Georgia lawyer, and one of the two commissioners appointed by President Monroe, in 1824, to treat with the Creek Indians for the sale of their lands. John A. Campbell was graduated at the University of Georgia in 1826, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1829 by special act of legislature, as he had not attained his majority. He then moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where he practised law, and was several times a member of the legislature. He was appointed Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Pierce, 22 March, 1853, and held this office till 1861, when he resigned. He exerted all his influence to prevent the Civil War, but though he opposed secession, he believed it to be right. He was afterward assistant Secretary of War of the Confederate States, and was one of the peace commissioners appointed to meet Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward at Fort Monroe in February, 1865. After the war he was arrested and lodged in Fort Pulaski, but was discharged on parole, and afterward resumed his law practice in New Orleans. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 514.
CAMPBELL, Lewis Davis, diplomatist, born in Franklin, Ohio, 9 August, 1811; died 26 November, 1882. On leaving school he was apprenticed to a printer in 1828, and was afterward assistant editor of the Cincinnati" Gazette." He published a Whig newspaper at Hamilton, Ohio, from 1831 till 1836, supporting Henry Clay, and was then admitted to the bar and began to practice at Hamilton. He was elected to Congress as a Whig, and served from 3 December 1849, till 25 May, 1858, being chairman of the Ways and Means Committee during his last term. He claimed to have been elected again in 1858, but the house gave the seat to C. L. Vallandigham. He served as colonel of an Ohio regiment of volunteer infantry from 1861 till 1862, when he on account of failing health. President Johnson appointed him minister to Mexico in December, 1865; but, before leaving for his post, he was a delegate to the Philadelphia union Convention and the Cleveland soldiers' Convention of 1866. He sailed for Mexico, in company with General Sherman, 11 November, 1866, authorized to tender to President Juarez the moral support of the United States, and to offer him the use of our military force to aid in the restoration of law. Mr. Campbell remained in Mexico until 1868, and from 1871 till 1873 was again a member of Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I p. 515.
CAMPBELL, Tunis Gulic, 1812-1891, African American abolitionist, Georgia political leader, moral reformer, temperance activist and lecturer. Lectured with Frederick Douglass. Worked to help resettle recently-freed slaves near Port Royal, South Carolina. Later was Bureau agent for Freedman’s Bureau on Georgia Islands. Resisted acts to reverse gains made by African Americans by President Johnson administration during Reconstruction. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 500; American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 299.)
CAMPBELL, William Bowen, governor of Tennessee, born in Sumner county, Tennessee, 1 February, 1807; died in Lebanon, Tennessee, 19 August, 1867. He studied law in Abingdon and Winchester, Virginia, was admitted to the bar in Tennessee, and practised in Carthage. He was chosen district attorney for the fourth District of his state in 1831, and a member of the legislature in 1835. He raised a cavalry company, and served as its captain in the Creek and Florida Wars of 1836, and from 1837 till 1843 was a Whig member of Congress from Tennessee. He was elected major-general of militia in 1844, and served in the Mexican War as colonel of the 1st Tennessee Volunteers, distinguishing himself in the battles of Monterey and Cerro Gordo, where he commanded a brigade after General Pillow was wounded. He was governor of Tennessee in 1851–3, and in 1857 was chosen, by unanimous vote of the legislature, judge of the state circuit court. He canvassed the state in opposition to secession in 1861, and on 30 June, 1862, without solicitation, was appointed by President Lincoln brigadier-general in the National Army. He resigned, 26 January, 1863, on account of failing health. At the close of the war he was again chosen to Congress, but was not allowed to take his seat until near the end of the first session in 1866. He served until 3 March, 1867, and was a member of the committee on the New Orleans riots. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 516.
CANBY, Edward Richard Sprigg, soldier, born in Kentucky in 1819; killed in Siskiyou County, California, 11 April, 1873. His parents moved to Indiana, where he went to school, and whence he was appointed cadet at the U. S. Military Academy in 1835. He was graduated in 1839 in the same class with Generals Halleck, Isaac Stevens, Ord, Paine, of Illinois, and other distinguished officers. After graduation he was at once commissioned second lieutenant, assigned to the 2d U.S. Infantry, and served in the Florida War as quartermaster and commissary of subsistence from October, 1839 till 1842, and after the close of that War Was engaged in the removal of the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choctaws to the present Indian territory. He was on garrison duty from 1842 till 1845, and on recruiting service in: 1845 and part of 1846. In March, 1846, he was appointed adjutant of his regiment, and three months later was promoted to a first lieutenancy. The outbreak of the Mexican War called his regiment into active service. Serving under General Riley, he was present at the siege of Vera Cruz, at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Churubusco, as well as at the attack upon the Belen gate, city of Mexico. He received the brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel for his services in this campaign, and was promoted to the full rank of captain in June, 1851; but, having been transferred to the adjutant-general's department as assistant £ with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he relinquished his rank in the line. In March, 1855, he was appointed major of the 10th U.S. Infantry, a new regiment, with which he was engaged on frontier duty in western Wisconsin and Minnesota for the next three years, and in 1858 was ordered to Fort Bridger, Utah, where his command included portions of the 2d U.S. Dragoons and 7th and 10th U.S. Infantry. He held this post until 1860, when he was appointed commander of the expedition against the Navajo Indians, and was in command of Fort Defiance, New Mexico, at the beginning of the Civil War. At that critical period, when officers from the border states were daily sending in their resignations, Major Canby did not leave his loyalty in doubt for a moment, and throughout the war was one of the most active and conspicuous defenders of the union. In May, 1861, he was made colonel of the 19th regiment, U. S. Infantry, and was acting brigadier-general of the forces in New Mexico. In 1862 he repelled the Confederate General Sibley in his daring attempt to acquire possession of that territory, and had the satisfaction of seeing the invader retreat, “leaving behind him,” as he observed in his report, in dead and wounded, and in sick and prisoners, one half of his original force.” He was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, 31 March, 1862, and, after transferring the command of the forces in New Mexico, he went to Washington, where he rendered valuable assistance to Secretary Stanton in the War Department. He took command of the U.S. troops in New York City and Harbor during the draft riots of July, 1863, and, by his energetic measures and resolute bearing, assisted materially in the suppression of the rioters. He remained there until November, 1863, when he resumed his place at the war Department. At the opening of the campaign of 1864, General Canby received the rank of major-general of volunteers, and was placed in command of the military division of west Mississippi, a place that he held until some months after the close of the war. His first act in this field of duty was to take charge of General Banks's retreating forces at the Atchafalaya and conduct them safely to New Orleans, where for want of troops he remained inactive throughout the summer and autumn of 1864. While on a tour of inspection on White River, Arkansas, 4 November, 1864, he was severely wounded by Confederate guerillas: but, as soon as he was sufficiently re-enforced, he proceeded, with an army of from 25,000 to 30,000 men, against Mobile, which, with the assistance of the fleet, was captured, 12 April, 1865. On learning of the surrender of the Confederate forces in Virginia, General Richard Taylor, who commanded west of the Mississippi, surrendered to General Canby, and hostilities On 13 March, 1865, General Canby received the brevets of brigadier and major-general of the regular army. He remained in command of Southern Military Departments until 1866, when he was transferred to Washington, and received, 28 July, 1866, the full rank of brigadier-general in the regular army. After the surrender he was placed in command of the different districts having Richmond as its centre, and assumed the responsibility of permitting the paroled cavalry of Lee's army to reorganize for the suppression of “bushwhacking,” which was rife in neighborhood. The measure was entirely successful, and no bad results followed. Subsequently he was appointed a member of the special commission for deciding claims on the War Department, and of the board to prepare plans for a new building for the same department. Afterward he was placed in command of the Department of Columbia, and was during the winter of 1872–3 actively engaged in bringing the Modocs to accept the terms offered them by the government. He was specially adapted for this duty. He had never shared in the bitter hatred of the Indians, so common on the border, but had always leaned to the side of humanity in his dealings with them. Only four days before his death he sent a despatch to Washington, which, read in the tragic light of after-events, shows both his generosity to his slayers and his sagacious doubts of them “I do not question the right or the power of the general government to make any arrangement that may be thought proper; but think they should make such as to secure a permanent peace, together with liberal and just treatment of the Indians. In my judgment, permanent peace cannot be secured if they are allowed to remain in this immediate neighborhood. does are now sensible that they cannot live in peace on Lost River, and have abandoned their claim to it, but wish to be left lava-beds. This means license to plunder and a stronghold to retreat to, and was refused. Their last proposition is to come in and have the opportunity of looking for a new home not far away, and if they are sincere in this the trouble will soon be ended. But there has been so much vacillation and duplicity in their talks that I have hesitated about reporting until some definite result was attained.” On 11 April, in company with two other officers, he met “Captain Jack,” the leader of the Modocs, on neutral ground to confer regarding a treaty of Peace. At a preconcerted signal the Indians killed all the commissioners before the escort could come to the rescue, and escaped to their stronghold in the lava-beds. Subsequently they were captured, and “Captain Jack,” with two of his subordinates, was tried and executed. General Canby was a remarkable instance of an officer of high rank and universal popularity without enemies in his profession. He was so upright that he was very rarely criticised by his brother officers, save by those who gave him reason for official displeasure. He had little ambition beyond his duty, was always satisfied, or appeared to , with any position to which he was assigned, and never engaged in any of those squabbles or intrigues for preferment which deface the record of many able soldiers. He had a singular power of inspiring implicit confidence among those who served under his command. His assignment to any department, where, through incompetence or lack of zeal on the part of the commander affairs, had drifted into confusion, was the signal for the inauguration of order and discipline. The time honored but often misapplied phrase, “an officer and a gentleman,” admirably describes this soldier of the republic. He was tall and athletic, in manner courteous, but rather reserved and silent, the ideal of a thoughtful, studious soldier. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 517-518.
CANNON, William, governor of Delaware, born in Bridgeville, Delaware, in 1809; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1 March, 1865. He united with the Methodist Church in 1825, became a class-leader and exhorter before he had reached his twentieth year, and held these offices until his death. He was elected to the legislature in 1845 and 1849, and was afterward treasurer of the state. In 1861 he was a member of the Peace Congress, where he was "the firm friend of the Crittenden Compromise, and of an unbroken union." In 1864 he was elected governor of the state, which office he held until his death. The legislature was against him; hut he remained true to the union. When, on one occasion, the legislature forbade compliance with a law of Congress, the governor promptly announced, by proclamation, that he would pardon every U. S. officer convicted by a state court for the performance of his duty to the union. In his message to the legislature in 1864 he advised that body to take measures for the emancipation of slaves in Delaware. The illness that caused his death was the result of over-exertion in assisting to extinguish a fire in Bridgeville. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 520.
CAPRON, Effingham L., 1791-1851, New England, Smithfield, Rhode Island, Uxbridge, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, philanthropist, abolitionist. Vice president, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. Vice president, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1836-1840, 1840-1860. (Drake, 1950, pp. 137-140; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)
CARLETON, James Henry, soldier, born in Maine in 1814; died in San Antonio, Texas, 7 January, 1873. He was a lieutenant of Maine volunteers during what was known as the Aroostook war, relative to the northeastern boundary of the United States, and in February, 1839, after the conclusion of that controversy, was commissioned second lieutenant of the 1st U. S. Dragoons. He was promoted to first lieutenant on 17 March, 1845, and was assistant commissary of subsistence of Kearny's expedition to the Rocky mountains in 1846. He served on General Wool's staff in Mexico, became captain on 16 February, 1847, and was brevetted major on the 23d of that month for gallantry at Buena Vista. After the Mexican War he was engaged principally on exploring expeditions and against hostile Indians. On 7 September, 1861, he was commissioned major of the 6th U.S. Cavalry and ordered to southern California. In the spring of 1862 he raised a body of troops known as the "California Column," and marched with them across the Yuma and Gila deserts to Mesilla on the Rio Grande. On 28 April he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers and ordered to relieve General Canby as commander of the Department of New Mexico, where he remained for several years, taking part in several engagements. On 13 March, 1865, he was raised by brevet through all ranks up to brigadier-general in the regular army for his services in New Mexico, and brevetted major-general, U. S. Army, for his conduct during the war. On 31 July, 1866, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 4th U.S. Cavalry, and in June, 1868, promoted to colonel of the 2d U.S. Cavalry and ordered with his regiment soon after to Texas. General Carleton published " The Battle of Buena Vista, with the Operations of the Army of Occupation for one Month" (New York, 1848), and occasionally contributed to military periodicals. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 526.
CARLILE, John Snyder, senator, born in Winchester, Virginia, 16 December 1817; died in Clarksburg, West Virginia, 24 October, 1878. He was educated by his mother until he was fourteen years old, when he became salesman in a store, and at the age of seventeen went into business on his own account. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and began practice in Beverly, Virginia He was a state senator from 1847 till 1851, a member of the state constitutional convention of 1850, and in 1855 elected to Congress as a unionist, and served one term. Mr. Carlile was a prominent union member of the Virginia Convention of 1861, and did all in his power to prevent the secession opposing any action by which Virginia should place herself in an attitude of hostility to the general government. After the passage of the secession ordinance he was a leader in the union movement in western Virginia. He was one of those that issued a union address to the people of West Virginia on 22 May, and was prominent in the Wheeling Convention of June, 1861. He was averse, however, to the formation of a new state, preferring that Congress should recognize the unionist government at Wheeling as the true state government of Virginia. He was again chosen to Congress in 1861, but kept his seat in the house only rom 4 July till 13 July, when he was elected U. S. Senator and served until 1865. In the Senate he was uniformly in favor of a strict construction of the constitution, opposing all measures recognizing that there existed a rebellion of states instead of individuals, and denying the right of Congress to interfere in any way with the slaves. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 526.
CARLIN, William Passmore, soldier, born in Rich Woods, Greene County, Illinois, 24 November, 1829. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1850, and, after serving on garrison duty, became first lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry, 8 March, 1855, and took part in General Harney's Sioux expedition of that year. He commanded a company in Colonel Sumner's expedition of 1857 against the Cheyennes, and took part in the Utah Expedition of 1858. He was in California from 1858 till 1860, and, having been promoted to captain, 2 March, 1861, served on recruiting duty. On 15 August, 1861, he became colonel of the 38th Illinois Volunteers, and defeated General Jeff. Thompson at Fredericktown, Missouri, 21 October, 1861. He commanded the District of south-eastern Missouri from November, 1861, till March, 1862, led a brigade under General Steele in the Arkansas Expedition, and joined Pope's army in season to aid in the pursuit of Beauregard from Corinth. He distinguished himself at Perryville, Kentucky, 8 October, 1862, and was made brigadier-general of volunteers 29 November He defeated Wharton's Confederate cavalry in the skirmish at Knob Gap, near Nolansville, 26 December, 1862, and his brigade bore a prominent part in the battle of Stone River, 31 December, 1862, as is shown by its heavy losses' in that conflict. He was in the Tullahoma Campaign, the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and Missionary Ridge, and brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 24 November, 1863, for his services in the battle of Chattanooga. After a month's leave of absence he became major of the 16th U. S. Infantry, 8 February, 1864, and took part in the invasion of Georgia, being in the actions at Buzzard's Roost and Resaca, the pursuit of the enemy with almost daily fighting during May and June, 1864, and the siege and capture of Atlanta. He commanded a division in the assault on the intrenchments at Jonesboro, 1 September, 1864, and was brevetted colonel in the regular army for his services on that day. He participated in the march to the sea and through the Carolinas, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general for services at Bentonville, North Carolina, and major-general for services during the war. From 1867 till 1868 he was assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in Tennessee. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the 17th U.S. Infantry, 1 January, 1872, commanded at various posts, and became colonel of the 4th U.S. Infantry, 11 April, 1882. See Wilson's "Sketches of Illinois Officers" (Chicago, 1863). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 527.
CARLISLE, John Griffin, statesman, born in Campbell (now Kenton) county, Kentucky, 5 September, 1835. He was the youngest son in a large family, received a common-school education, studied law, taught for a time in Covington and elsewhere, and was admitted to the bar of Kentucky in 1858. He served several terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives, acquiring, in the meantime, an extensive and lucrative law practice. During the Civil War he was opposed to secession. In 1866 and 1869 he was a member of the state senate. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in New York in 1868, was lieutenant-governor of Kentucky from 1871 till 1875, and in 1876 was a presidential elector. The same year he was elected to Congress, taking his seat in March, 1877, and has been five times reelected. He soon became prominent as a Democratic leader, was appointed a member of the committee of ways and means, and attracted attention by an able speech on revenue reform. This and the revival of American shipping he regards as the most important questions before the country. On the organization of Congress in December, 1883, he was elected speaker of the House of Representatives, to which office he was re-elected in 1885 Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 527-528
CARNEGIE, Andrew, manufacturer, born in Dunfermline, Scotland, 25 November, 1835. His father was a weaver, in humble circumstances, whose ambition to raise himself and family, joined to his ardent republicanism, led to his coming to the United States in 1845. The family settled in Pittsburgh, and two years later Andrew began his career by attending a small stationary engine. This work was unsatisfactory, and he became a telegraph messenger with the Atlantic and Ohio company, and subsequently an operator. He was one of the first to read telegraphic signals by sound. Later he was sent to the Pittsburgh office of the Pennsylvania Railroad, as clerk to the superintendent and manager of the telegraph-lines. While in this position he met Mr. Woodruff, inventor of the sleeping-car. Mr. Carnegie immediately recognized the great merit of the invention, and readily joined in the effort to have it adopted. The success of this venture gave him the nucleus of his wealth. He was promoted to be superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad; and about this time he was one of a syndicate who purchased the Storey Farm, on Oil creek, which cost 140,000, and yielded in one year over $1,000,000 in cash dividends. Mr. Carnegie was subsequently associated with others in establishing a rolling-mill, and from this has grown the most extensive and complete system of iron and steel industries ever controlled by an individual, embracing the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & Co.), the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Prick Coke Company, and the Scotia Ore Mines. The capacity of these works approximates 2,000 tons of pig-metal a day, and he is the largest manufacturer of pig-iron, steel-rails, and coke in the world. Besides directing these great iron industries, he long owned eighteen English newspapers, which he controlled in the interests of radicalism. He has devoted large sums of money to benevolent and educational purposes. In 1879 he erected commodious swimming-baths for the use of the people of 1'unfermline, Scotland, and in the following year gave 140.000 for the establishment there of a free library, which has since received other large donations. In 1884 he gave $50,000 to Bellevue Hospital Medical College to found a histological laboratory called Carnegie Laboratory; in 1885, $500,000 to Pittsburgh for a public library, and in 1886, $250,000 to Allegheny City for a music hall and library, and $250,000 to Edinburgh. Scotland, for a free library. He has also established free library’s at Braddock, Pennsylvania, and at other places, for the benefit of his employes. Mr. Carnegie is a frequent contributor to periodicals on the labor questions and similar topics, and has published in book-form "An American Four-in-Hand in Britain (New York, 1883); "Round the World " (1884); and "Triumphant Democracy: or, Fifty Years' March of the Republic" (1880), the last being a review of American progress under popular institutions—His brother, Thomas M., born in Dunfermline, Scotland, 2 October, 1843; died in Homewood, Pennsylvania, 19 October, 1886, was associated with Andrew in his business enterprises. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 529.
CARPENTER, Matthew Hale, senator, born in Moretown, Vermont, 22 December, 1824; died in Washington, D. C., 24 February, 1881. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1843, and two years later he returned to Vermont and studied law with Paul Dillingham (subsequently governor), whose daughter he married. At the age of sixteen he tried a suit in a justice's court in Moretown, against his grandfather, and gained it. He received a gold ring valued at five dollars as his first fee. In November, 1847, he was admitted to the bar of Vermont, and, attracted by the splendor of Rufus Choate's fame, set out at once for Boston, to enter his office. Early in 1848 he left Boston and settled in Beloit, Wis. He soon became prominent, and first attracted attention by a land suit involving several millions of dollars, which he tried against James R. Doolittle, Daniel Cady, and Abraham Lincoln. His appearance in the quo-warranto proceedings that moved William A. Barstow from the gubernatorial chair of Wisconsin, in January, 1856, added materially to his reputation, and he then settled in Milwaukee. At the beginning of the Civil War he left his law practice and espoused the cause of the Union as a war Democrat, making recruiting speeches throughout the west. He was also appointed judge advocate-general of Wisconsin. In March, 1868, by invitation of Secretary of War Stanton, Carpenter represented, with Lyman Trumbull, the government in the McCardle case, brought to try the validity of the Reconstruction Act of 7 March, 1867, for the government of the states lately in rebellion. This, up to that time, was the most important case, not excepting that of Dred Scott, that had ever come before the U.S. Supreme Court. Carpenter gained it, though Jeremiah S. Black was on the other side; and, when he completed his argument, Stanton clasped him in his arms and exclaimed, “Carpenter, you have saved us.” Later he was spoken of by Judge Black as “the finest constitutional lawyer in the United States.” His success in this case led to an appeal to the Republicans in Wisconsin by Stanton and Grant, advocating his election to the U.S. Senate. The advice was taken, and he served from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1875, during which time he was a member of the committees on judiciary, patents, and revision of laws, also becoming president pro tem. At the end of his term he received the caucus nomination for re-election, but was defeated in the legislature by a coalition of a “bolting” minority with the Democrats. He then returned to his law practice, which had become very great. Among other important cases, he appeared as counsel for William Belknap, then late Secretary of War, who was charged by the House of Representatives with “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Belknap's acquittal was due to Carpenter's masterly management and great ability, as a political campaign was pending and the secretary's sacrifice was demanded to apply the cry of corruption. In February, 1877, he appeared before the electoral commission as counsel for Samuel J. Tilden, although he had been partially engaged by Zachariah Chandler to represent the other side, and would have done so had not the Republican managers failed to complete their arrangement within the period agreed upon. In 1879 he was again chosen to the U.S. Senate, and served from 4 March until his death. His greatest speeches in the Senate are those on the French arms case; his defence of President Grant against the attack of Charles Sumner; on so-called loyal claimants in the south; on the ku-klux act; on Charles Sumner's second civil-rights bill; on Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation; on the bill to restore Fitz John Porter; on the iron-clad oath; and on consular courts. For logic, that on Porter stands foremost; while for eloquence and passion, that on Grant against Sumner is considered the greatest. Senator Carpenter opposed the Fugitive Slave-Law, and, although a Democrat, was an advocate of emancipation in 1861. In 1864 he declared that the slaves must be enfranchised, and up to his death insisted that they must be protected at every cost. As early as 1865 he advocated state and government control of railway and semi-public corporations, and he had the satisfaction of seeing all his theories in that direction finally affirmed by the highest courts and recognized as settled law. He was christened Decatur Merritt Hammond, but, his initials having frequently led to the belief that his name was Matthew Hale, he adopted that form about 1852. See the “Life of Hale Carpenter.” by Frank A. Flower (Madison, Wisconsin, 1883). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 531.
CARPENTER, William Lewis, soldier, born in Dunkirk, New York, 13 January, 1844. He received a public-school education in his native city, and in 1864 enlisted as a private in the artillery of the Army of the Potomac. In 1867 he was promoted to a second lieutenancy in the 9th Infantry, U.S. Army, and in 1873 to the rank of first lieutenant. His attention was directed to natural history, and he became in 1873 naturalist to the U.S. Geological Survey, and two years later was called to a similar office on the Geographical Survey. In connection with this work he furnished valuable reports, which were published by the government in the annual reports of the surveys during the years mentioned. In 1877 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 532
CARR, Eugene A., soldier, born in Erie county, New York, 20 March, 1830. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1850, and entered the mounted rifles. In 1852–3 he accompanied expeditions to the Rocky mountains. In a skirmish with the Mescalero Apaches, near Diablo Mountain, 10 October, 1854, he was severely wounded, and for his gallantry was promoted first lieutenant. He took part in the Sioux Expedition of 1855, was engaged in suppressing the Kansas border disturbances in 1856, and was in the Utah Expedition of 1858, receiving promotion as captain on 11 June, 1858. In 1860 he took part in skirmishes with the Kiowa and Comanche Indians, and in May, 1861, marched from Fort Washita to Fort Leavenworth, and at once entered upon active service in the field in General Lyon's campaign in southwestern Missouri. He was engaged at Dug Springs and in the battle of Wilson's Creek, where he won the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for gallantry. In September, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 3d Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, was an acting brigadier-general in Frémont's hundred days' Campaign, served under Generals Hunter, Halleck, and Curtis, was assigned, February, 1862, to the command of the Fourth Division of the Army of the Southwest, and participated in the pursuit of the enemy into Arkansas, holding the rank of brigadier-general, having received his commission on 7 March, 1862. At Pea Ridge he deployed his division on the extreme right in the second day's battle, and, though thrice wounded, held his position for seven hours, contributing, in a large measure, to the victory of the day. For his gallantry he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, dating from 7 March, and was assigned a command under General Curtis. He participated in the operations against Little Rock, and in the march to Helena during the summer of 1862, was promoted major in the regular army 17 July, and during the autumn of 1862 commanded the Army of the Southwest. During the Vicksburg Campaign of 1863 he commanded a division and led the attack at Magnolia Church and at Port Gibson. At Big Black River his division led the column, and opened and closed the engagement, for which he was brevetted colonel, U.S. Army. He led the assault on Vicksburg on 18 May, and on the 22d his division was the first to effect a lodgment in the enemy's works. During the autumn of 1863 he commanded at Corinth the left wing of the 16th Corps, was transferred in December to the Army of Arkansas, was engaged in the expedition into Camden and in the action at the Little Red River, was in command at Poison Spring and took part in the engagements at Prairie D'Ane and Jenkins's Ferry. He was engaged at Clarendon, 20 June, 1865, and distinguished himself at the siege of Spanish Fort. He was brevetted brigadier-general in the U.S. Army for gallantry at Little Rock, and major-general for services during the war. He took the field against the hostile Sioux and Cheyennes in October, 1868, and on 18 October defeated a large party of Cheyennes on Beaver Creek, Kansas; routed them on Solomon River on 25 October, and drove them out of Kansas; commanded an expedition to the Canadian River in the winter of 1868–'9, and one to Republican River in June and July, 1869, defeating Tall Bull at Summit Springs, Colonel, on 11 July, 1869, and securing a lasting peace to the frontier. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 17 June, 1873, participated in a campaign against the Sioux in 1876, afterward to the Black Hills District, and was chief officer of the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition in the autumn of that year. He was promoted colonel of the 6th U.S. Cavalry, to date from 29 April, 1879, directed the field operations against the hostile Apaches in Arizona and New Mexico in 1880, and commanded the expedition to Old Mexico during the Victorio Campaign. In August, 1881, he conducted with great skill the defence of his command against an attempted massacre by the White mountain Apaches at Cibicu Creek. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 533.
CARR, Joseph B., soldier, born in Albany, New York, 16 August, 1828. He was educated in the public schools, was apprenticed to a tobacconist, entered the militia in 1849, and rose to be colonel. In April, 1861, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and in May colonel, of the 2d New York Volunteers. His regiment was the first to encamp on the soil of Virginia, participated in the battle of Big Bethel, and in May, 1862, went to the front and fought through McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, being attached to General Hooker's command. Colonel Carr was acting brigadier-general in the engagements of the Orchards, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, 7 September, 1862, for services in the field, especially at Malvern Hill on 2 July. He fought with conspicuous gallantry at Bristow Station and Chantilly, and participated in the battle of Fredericksburg. In January, 1863, he commanded an expedition that severed the communications of the enemy at Rappahannock Bridge. At Chancellorsville, 3 May, 1863, he took command of the division after the fall of General Berry, and acted as division commander till 1 June. At Gettysburg his horse was killed under him and he was injured by the fall, but refused to leave the field and held his troops together, though two thirds of them were killed or wounded. On 4 October, 1863, he was assigned to the command of the 3d Division of the 4th Corps, participated in the actions at Brandy Station, Locust Grove, and Mine Run, and was then transferred to the 4th Division in the 2d (Hancock's) Corps. On 2 May, owing to a resolution of the Senate that caused him to rank below some of the brigade commanders of his division, he was ordered to report to General Butler, and was placed by him in the outer line of defence of the Peninsula. He afterward commanded divisions in the 1st Corps, had charge of the defences of James River, and on 1 June, 1865, was brevetted major-general for gallantry and meritorious services during the war. Before he was mustered out, on 24 August, 1865, he was nominated as Secretary of State of New York by the Democratic Party. He took a prominent part in the politics ''' York, being elected Secretary of State in 1879, and re-elected in 1881 and 1883. In 1885 he was the Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 533-534.
CARRINGTON, Henry Beebee, soldier, born in Wallingford, Connecticut, 2 March, 1824. He was graduated at Yale in 1845, was a teacher of chemistry and Greek in Irving Institute, New York, in 1846–’7, studied in the law-school at New Haven, and was for some time a teacher in the New Haven ladies' collegiate Institute. In 1848 he began the practice of law in Columbus, Ohio, and was active in the anti-slavery agitation. He was a member of the convention that organized the Democratic Party on 13 July, 1854, and chairman of the committee a pointed to correspond with other states and make the movement national. As judge-advocate-general, on the staff of Governor Chase, he aided in the organization of the state militia in 1857, in anticipation of a Civil War. He was afterward appointed inspector-general, and was adjutant-general of Ohio when the war began. When President Lincoln issued the first call for troops he organized and placed in western Virginia nine regiments of militia before the muster of the three-months' volunteers. On 14 May, 1861, he received an appointment in the regular army as colonel of the 18th U.S. Infantry. He commanded the camp of instruction at Camp Thomas, Ohio, took a brigade into the field at Lebanon, Kentucky, served as chief muster-officer in Indiana in 1862, was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on 29 November, 1862, and on the occasion of Morgan's raid returned to Indiana, commanded the militia of that state, aided in raising the siege of Frankfort, Kentucky, and afterward exposed the “Sons of liberty.” He was mustered out of the volunteer service in September, 1865, and in November was president of a military commission to try guerillas at Louisville, Kentucky. Joining his regiment on the plains, he commanded Fort Kearny, Nebraska, and in May, 1866, opened a road to Montana, amid harassing attacks from the hostile Sioux. He conducted military operations in Colorado till the close of 1869, and on 11 December, 1870, was retired from active service on account of wounds and exposure in the line of duty. From the beginning of 1870 till 1873 he was professor of military science and tactics at Wabash College, Indiana, and after that devoted himself to literary labor. He published, in 1849, “Russia as a Nation ” and “American Classics, or Incidents of Revolutionary Suffering.” Before the assault on Fort Sumter he delivered an address on “The Hour, the Peril, and the Duty,” which was published, with two other orations on the war, in a volume entitled “Crisis Thoughts” (Philadelphia, 1878). He published, in 1868, “Ab-sa-ra-ka, Land of Massacre,” embodying his wife's experience on the plains, extended in later editions so as to embrace an account of Indian wars and treaties between 1865 and 1879, and in 1876 published a work on the “Battles of the American Revolution” (New York). The forty large maps accompanying the work were drawn by the author, who, in 1881, published separately “Battle-Maps and Charts of the American Revolution.” General Carrington has given much time to a work that will appear under the title “Battles of the Bible.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 536.
CARROL, Samuel Sprigg, soldier, born in Washington, D.C, 21 September, 1832. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1856. Entering the 10th U.S. Infantry, he became captain on 1 November, 1861. He was appointed colonel of the 8th Ohio Volunteers on 15 December, 1861, and served in the operations in Western Virginia from 7 December, 1861 till 23 May, 1862. From 24 May till 14 August 1862, he commanded a brigade of General Shields's division, taking part in the pursuit of the Confederate forces up the Shenandoah in May and June, 1862, and in the battle of Cedar Mountain on 9 August On 14 August he was wounded in a skirmish on the Rapidan. He took part in the Maryland Campaign, and in the Rappahannock Campaign from December, 1862, till June, 1863, being engaged in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and receiving the brevet of major for bravery in the latter action. In the Pennsylvania Campaign he was present at the battle of Gettysburg, where he earned the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. In the battle of the Wilderness he won the brevet of colonel, and in the engagements near Spottsylvania was twice wounded and disabled for service in the field during the rest of the war. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers on 12 May, 1864, and on 13 March, 1865, received the brevet of brigadier-general, U. S. A, for gallantry at Spottsylvania, and that of major-general for services during the rebellion. On 22 January, 1867, he became a lieutenant-colonel in the regular army. In 1868 he was acting inspector-general of the Division of the Atlantic, and on 9 June, 1869, retired as major-general for disability from wounds received in battle. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 539.
CARROLL, William H., soldier, born about 1820. He commanded a brigade in General Albert Sidney Johnston's Confederate Army, and was stationed at Memphis when General Zollicoffer was repelled at Wild Cat. Anticipating a general revolt against the Confederacy in Tennessee. General Johnston ordered Carroll to march with his brigade into the eastern part of the state to the support of Zollicoffer. The Unionists rose in scattered bands, but dispersed at the approach of the southern troops. On 14 November, 1862, General Carroll, commanding at Knoxville, proclaimed martial law, but on the 24th rescinded the order. In the rout at Fishing Creek, otherwise called the battle of Logan's Cross-Roads, or of Mill Spring, where Zollicoffer fell, Carroll's brigade formed the Confederate rear, and retreated with comparatively slight losses, but abandoned its guns and supplies, he resigned in February, 1863. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 539.
CARSON, Christopher, better known as “Kit Carson,” soldier, born in Madison County, Kentucky, 24 December, 1809; died at Fort Lynn, Colorado, 23 May, 1868. While he was an infant his parents emigrated to what is now Howard County, Missouri, but was then a wilderness. At the # of fifteen he was apprenticed to a saddler, with whom he continued two years, and then he joined a hunting expedition, thus beginning the adventurous life that made him one of the most picturesque figures of western history. For eight years he was on the plains, leading the life of a trapper, until he was appointed hunter for the garrison at Bent's Fort, where he remained eight years more. After a short visit to his family he met, for the first time, General (then Lieutenant) John C. Frémont, by whom his experience in the backwoods was at once appreciated, and by whom, also, he was engaged as guide in his subsequent explorations. In this capacity he was eminently useful, and to him is probably due much of the success of those explorations. He was perhaps better known to a larger number of Indian tribes than any other white man, and from his long life among them learned their habits and customs, understood their mode of warfare, and spoke their language as his mother tongue. No one man did more than he in furthering the settlement of the northwestern wilderness. In 1847 Carson was sent to Washington as bearer of despatches, and was then appointed second lieutenant in the mounted rifles, U. S. Army. This appointment, however, was negatived by the Senate. In 1853 he drove 6,500 sheep over the mountains to California, a hazardous undertaking at that time, and, on his return to Laos, was appointed Indian agent in New Mexico. Under this appointment he was largely instrumental in bringing about the treaties between the United States and the Indians. He was an instinctive judge of character and knowing the Indians so thoroughly, his cool judgment and wisdom in dealing with them, even under the most trying circumstances, enabled him to render important services to the U. S. Government. During the Civil War he repeatedly rendered great service to the government in New Mexico, Colorado, and the Indian Territory, and was brevetted brigadier-general for his meritorious conduct. At its close, he resumed his duties as Indian agent. In this relation to the Indians he visited Washington, in the winter and early spring of 1868, in company with a deputation of their men, and made a tour of several of the northern and eastern states. Unlike most of the trappers and guides, General Carson was a man of remarkable modesty, and in conversation never boasted of his own achievements. See “Life of Kit Carson, the Great Western Hunter,” by Charles Burdett (Philadelphia, 1869). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p 540.
CARTER, John C., naval officer, born in Virginia in 1805; died in Brooklyn, New York, 24 November, 1870. He was appointed to the naval service from Kentucky, 1 March, 1825, served on the sloop "Lexington" in 1827, and on the frigate "Delaware," of the Mediterranean Squadron, in 1829-'30, was promoted passed midshipman, 4 June, 1831, and commissioned as lieutenant, 9 February, 1837. He served on the steamer " Mississippi," of the Home Squadron, during the Mexican War. On 14 September, 1855, he was made commander. In 1862 he commanded the steamer "Michigan " on the lakes. After the war he was placed in command of the receiving ship " Vermont" and of the naval rendezvous at San Francisco. He was commissioned as commodore on the retired list on 4 April, 1867. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 541.
CARTER, Robert, 1819-1879, Albany, New York, newspaper editor. Member and active in the Free Soil Party. Edited the Boston Commonwealth, a paper of the Free Soilers. Early member of the Democratic Party. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 541-542)
CARTER, Robert, editor, born in Albany, New York, 5 February, 1819; died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 15 February, 1879. He received a common-school education, and passed one term in the Jesuit College of Chambly, Canada. In his fifteenth year he was appointed assistant librarian in the state library at Albany, where he remained till 1838. At this time he began to publish poems and sketches in the daily papers, his first contribution being a long poem, which he dropped stealthily into the editor's letterbox, and which appeared the next day with flattering comments, but so frightfully misprinted that he hardly knew it. This experience and a natural aptitude led him to acquire proof-reading as an accomplishment, at which he became very expert. In 1841 he went to Boston, where he formed a life-long friendship with James Russell Lowell, and together they began “The Pioneer,” a literary monthly magazine, which Duyckinck says was “of too fine a cast to be successful.” Nevertheless, it’s want of success was due, not to the editors, but to the publisher, who mismanaged it and failed when but three numbers had been issued. Among the contributors were Poe, Hawthorne, Whittier, Neal, Miss Barrett (afterward Mrs. Browning), and the sculptor Story. Mr. Carter began in its pages a serial novel entitled “The Armenian's Daughter.” He next spent two years in editing statistical and geographical works, and writing for periodicals. His story, “The Great Tower of Tarudant,” ran through several numbers of the “Broadway Journal,” then edited by Poe. In 1845 he became a clerk in the post-office at Cambridge, and in 1847-'8 was private secretary to Prescott the historian. His elaborate article on the character and habits of Prescott, written for the New York “Tribune” just after the historian's death in 1859, was re-published in the memorial volume issued by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mr. Carter joined the Free-Soil Party in 1848, and in 1850 wrote for the Boston “Atlas” a series of brilliant articles in reply to Francis Bowen's attack on the Hungarian revolutionists. These articles were re-published in a pamphlet, “The Hungarian Controversy” (Boston, 1852), and are said to have caused the rejection of Mr. Bowen's nomination as professor of history at Harvard. At the same time Carter edited, with Kossuth's approval, a large volume entitled “Kossuth in New England” (Boston, 1852). In 1851-'2 he edited, at first as assistant of John G. Palfrey and afterward alone, the Boston “Commonwealth,” the chief exponent of the Free-Soilers. For two years he was secretary of the state committee of the Free-Soil Party, and in the summer of 1854 he obtained the consent of the committee to call a convention, which he did without assistance, sending out thousands of circulars to men whose names were on the committee's books. The convention met in Worcester, 20 July, was so large that no hall could contain it, and held its session in the open air. A short platform drawn up by him was adopted, together with the name “Republican,” and on his motion a committee of six was appointed to organize the new party, John A. Andrew being made its chairman. In 1855 Carter edited the Boston “Telegraph,” in conjunction with W. S. Robinson and Hildreth the historian; in 1856 he edited the “Atlas”; and in 1857-'9 he was Washington correspondent of the New York “Tribune.” His next work was with Messrs. Ripley and Dana on the first edition of the “American Cyclopædia” (1859-'63), in which many important articles were from his pen, including “Egypt,” “Hindostan,” “Mormons,” and the history of the United States. In January, 1864, he was appointed private secretary of the treasury agent whose headquarters were at Beaufort, South Carolina; and from July of that year till October, 1869, he edited the Rochester, New York, “Democrat,” doing such work for it as was seldom done on any but metropolitan journals. When news came of the assassination of President Lincoln, he wrote, without consulting any book or memoranda, an article giving a brief but circumstantial account, with dates, of every celebrated case of regicide. He was editor of “Appletons’ Journal” in 1870-'3, and then became associate editor for the revision of the “American Cyclopædia.” But in 1874 impaired health compelled him to discontinue his literary work, and in the next three years he made three tours in Europe. He was the author of “A Summer Cruise on the Coast of New England” (Boston, 1864), which passed through several editions; and he left unpublished memoirs, of which only the first volume was complete in manuscript.—His first wife, Ann Augusta Gray, was a successful writer of poems and tales for the young.—His second wife, Susan Nichols, is principal of the female art school in Cooper Institute, New York, and has published hand-books of art and contributed largely to periodicals. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. I, pp. 541-542.
CARTER, Samuel Powhatan, naval officer and soldier, born in Elizabethtown, Carter County, Tennessee, 6 August, 1819. He was educated at Princeton, but was never graduated, and on 14 February, 1840, became a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. He was promoted to passed midshipman, 11 July, 1846, assigned to the "Ohio," and served on the eastern coast of Mexico during the Mexican War, being present at the capture of Vera Cruz. From 1851 till 1853 he was assistant instructor of infantry tactics at the Naval Academy. He was made lieutenant 18 April, 1855, assisted in the capture of the Barrier Forts near Canton, China, in 1856, and was complimented for gallantry on that occasion. He was ordered again to the Annapolis naval school as assistant instructor of seamanship in 1857. On 11 July. 1861, he was temporarily transferred to the war Department, for the special duty of organizing troops from east Tennessee. He was appoint colonel of the 2d Tennessee Volunteers, was given the appointment of acting brigadier-general of volunteers in September, and received his full commission 1 May, 1862. He was at Zollicoffers repulse at Wild Cat, Kentucky in October, 1861, at Mill Spring in January, 1862, commanded in the operations against Cumberland Gap, and was at its capture, on 17 June, 1862. In December, 1862, he commanded a cavalry expedition which cut the east Tennessee Railroad, destroying nearly 100 miles of the track, besides inflicting other damage, and received the thanks of the general-in-chief of the army. He commanded the division of central Kentucky in March, 1863, was assigned to the command of the cavalry division, 23d Army Corps, July, 1863, and had the advance when Burnside occupied East Tennessee. He defeated Morgan, 28 August, 1863, and Smith, 29 August, and was present, at the siege of Knoxville, December, 1863. He commanded a division under Scofield in the Carolina Campaign of 1865, and was brevet major-general on 13 March. He was mustered out of the army in January, 1866, and returned to the U.S. Navy, becoming commander 23 June, 1865, as commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis from 1869 till 1872, being promoted to captain 28 October, 1870; was a member of the light-house board from 1876 till 1880, was commissioned commodore 13 November, 1878, and retired 6 August, 1881. On 18 May, 1882, he was made a rear-admiral. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 542-543.
CARTWRIGHT, Peter, 1785-1872, born in Virginia, went to Kentucky in 1790, then to Illinois in 1824, state senator in Ohio (Dumond, 1961, p. 93; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 544-545; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 546)
CARTWRIGHT, Peter, clergyman, born in Amherst County, Virginia, 1 September, 1785; died near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon County, Illinois, 25 September, 1872. His father was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and about 1790 moved with his family to Logan County, Kentucky. At that time, according to his own account, there was not a newspaper printed south of Green River, no schools worth the name, and no mills within forty miles. Clothing was home-made from the cotton and flax, and imported tea, coffee, and sugar were unknown. Methodist preachers had just begun to ride “circuits” in that section, and the Reverend John Lurton obtained permission to hold public services in Mr. Cartwright's cabin when in the neighborhood. After a few years a conference was formed, known as the western conference, the seventh then in the United States. In 1801 a camp-meeting was held at Cane Ridge, at which nearly 2,000 persons were converted. Peter was then a wild boy of sixteen, fond of horse-racing, card-playing, and dancing. He was soon awakened to a sense of his sinfulness, but fought against his convictions for some time, plunging more recklessly than ever into his dissipations, until, after a night's dance and debauch at a wedding some miles from his father's house, he fell under conviction of sin, and began to pray. He sold a favorite race-horse, burned his cards, gave up gambling, to which he was greatly addicted, and, after three months' earnest seeking was converted. He immediately began to preach as a “local,” but in 1803 was received into the regular ministry, and ordained an elder in 1806 by Bishop Asbury. In 1823 Mr. Cartwright moved from the Cumberland District and sought a home in Illinois, settling the year following in Sangamon County, then peopled only by a few hardy and enterprising pioneers. After a few years he was elected to the legislature, wherein his rough-and-ready wit and his unflinching courage made him the victor in many debates. He attended annual conferences with almost unfailing regularity for a series of years, and was always a conspicuous member. Year after year he attended camp-meetings, finding his greatest happiness in them. He was a delegate to numerous general conferences, and retained his interest in religion to the last. From a very early period he was a zealous opponent of slavery, and was rejoiced when the Methodist Episcopal Church was rid of all complicity with it by the division in 1844. Nevertheless, he retained his allegiance to the Democratic Party, and was its candidate for Congress in 1846, in opposition to Abraham Lincoln, who defeated him by a majority of 1,500. For more than fifty years he was presiding elder in the church, which he saw rise, from 72,874 members when he joined it, to about 1,750,000 when he was called away. He was a powerful preacher and a tireless worker. His quaint and eccentric habits, and his exhaustless fund of stories, drawn largely from personal experience, gained favor and popularity wherever he went. Numerous stories are told of his personal prowess in dealing with the rough characters of the frontier, who often sought to interrupt his meetings, and whom, if report be true, he invariably vanquished by moral suasion if possible, or, failing that, by the arm of flesh. In conference meetings he was loved, revered, and dreaded, for he hesitated not to arraign the house of bishops to their face; but his influence was powerful, and his strong good sense often shaped the policy of the whole denomination. He published several pamphlets, of which his “Controversy with the Devil” (1853) was perhaps the most famous. “The Autobiography of the Reverend Peter Cartwright” (New York, 1856) was edited by William P. Strickland. See also Dr. Abel Stevens' “Observations on Dr. Cartwright,” and his many books treating of the history of Methodism, and “The Backwoods Preacher” (London, 1869). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 545-546.
CARY, Lott, 1780-1828, Charles City County, Virginia, formerly enslaved individual. Vice President, American Colonization Society, in 1828. (Burin, 2005, pp. 16-17, 67, 68; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 548; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 555)
CARY, Lott, Negro slave, born in Charles City County, Virginia, in 1780; died in Monrovia, Africa, 8 November, 1828. In 1804 he was sent to Richmond, and hired out as a common laborer. Gifted with a high order of native intelligence, he soon taught himself. with slight assistance, to read and write, and, having a remarkable memory and sense of order, he became one of the best shipping-clerks in the Richmond tobacco warehouses. Until 1807 he was an unbeliever, but during that year became converted to Christianity, and was ever afterward a leader among the Baptists of his own color. In 1813 he purchased his own freedom and that of his two children for $850. As a freeman he maintained his habits of industry and economy, and when the colonization scheme was organized had accumulated a sum sufficiently large to enable him to pay his own expenses as a member of the colony sent out to the African coast in 1822. He was with the colony during its early wars with the barbarous natives, and rendered invaluable services as a counsellor, physician, and pastor. He was elected vice-agent of the Colonization Society in 1826, and during the absence of Mr. Ashmun, the agent, acted in his place. On the evening of 8 November, 1828, he was making cartridges in anticipation of an attack from slave-traders, when an accidental explosion fatally injured him and seven of his companions. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 548
CARY, Mary Ann Shadd, 1823-1893, African American, abolitionist leader. (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 446-447; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 596)
CASE, Augustus Ludlow, naval officer, born in Newburg, New York, 3 February, 1813. He entered U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 April, 1828, and became passed midshipman, 14 June, 1834. From 1837 till 842 he was engaged in the South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition, and was promoted to lieutenant, 25 February, 1841. He served in the Gulf of Mexico from 1846 till 1848 during the Mexican War, and was present at the capture of Vera Cruz, Alvarado, and Tabasco, superintending the landing of men, ordnance, and stores for the siege of Vera Cruz. After the capture of Laguna he was sent with twenty-five men up the Palisada River to capture the town of the same name in the hope of intercepting General Santa Anna. The town was taken and held for two weeks against a large body of cavalry. Lieutenant Case commanded the sloop-of-war “Warren” in 1852–3, and was light-house inspector at New York from 1853 till 1857. He was promoted, 14 Sept: 1855, and commanded the steamer “Caledonia" on the Paraguay Expedition in 1859. At the beginning of the Civil War Commander Case was appointed fleet-captain of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, took part in the capture of Forts Clarke and Hatteras, 28 and 29 August, 1861, and was specially named by flag-officer Stringham in his report of 2 September At Hampton Roads he rendered valuable assistance to Flag-Officer Goldsborough in manning and equipping the many vessels sent to him in an unprepared condition, and was commended in a report, together with Commander Rowan, for “marked ability and sound sense.” He took part in all the operations of the North Atlantic till January, 1863, when he was assigned to the “Iroquois,” which was fitted to look after the “Alabama.” He had charge of the blockade of New Inlet, North Carolina, in 1863, and in August of that year, aided by the steamers “James Adger” and “Mount Vernon,” cut out the steamer “Kate ” from under Fort Fisher and the other batteries at New Inlet. He became captain, 2 January, 1863, and in 1865-6 was fleet-captain of the European Squadron. He was made commodore, 8 December, 1867, was chief of the ordnance bureau from 1869 till 1873, and promoted to rear-admiral, 24 May, 1872. In 1874 he commanded the combined European, North Atlantic, and South Atlantic fleets assembled at Key West at the time of the “Virinius” difficulties with Spain. On 3 February, 1875, he was placed on the retired list, and has since resided in Newport, Rhode Island. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 549-550.
CASEY, Silas, soldier, born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, 12 July, 1807; died in Brooklyn, New York, 22 January, 1882. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1826, and, entering the 2d U.S. Infantry, served on frontier and garrison duty till 1836, becoming first lieutenant on 28 June of that year. He distinguished himself under Worth in the Seminole War of 1837-'42, and was made captain 1 July, 1839. In the Mexican War he was brevetted major, 20 August, 1847, for his gallant conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, and was at Molino del Rey and the storming of Chapultepec, where he was severely wounded while leading the assaulting column. For his conduct here he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 13 September, 1847, and he was thanked by the Rhode Island legislature for his services during the war. After this he was engaged on frontier and recruiting service most of the time till the Civil War. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the 9th U.S. Infantry, 3 March, 1855, was a member of the board for examining breech-loading arms in 1854–5, and commanded Puget Sound District, Washington Territory, from 1856 till 1857. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 31 August, 1861, and charged with organizing and disciplining the volunteers in and near the capital. He was afterward assigned a division in General Keyes's Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and, occupying with it the extreme advance before Richmond, received the first attack of the enemy at Fair Oaks, 31 May, 1862, for which he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, and made major-general of volunteers. From 1863 till 1865 he was president of the board for the examination of candidates for officers of colored troops, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevetted major-general in the regular army. In 1867 he again received the thanks of the Rhode Island Legislature for his services in the rebellion, and especially for his bravery, skill, and energy at the battle of Fair Oaks. In 1862 the southern papers published a letter from General Casey to Secretary Stanton, said to have been found in the former's tent at Fair Oaks, and proposing a plan for the permanent military occupation of the south by an army of 160,000 men after the rebellion should be over. He was retired from active service on 8 July, 1868, and served on the retiring board, New York City, till 26 April, 1869. He published " System of Infantry Tactics" (2 vols., New York, 1861) and " Infantry Tactics for Colored Troops " (1863). —His son, Silas, born in Rhode Island, 11 September, 1841, was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1860, became master in 1861, lieutenant in 1862, lieutenant-commander in 1866, and commander in 1874. He was attached to the steamer "Wissahickon" in 1861, and was in the first attack on Fort Sumter and various engagements with the batteries in Charleston Harbor. He was equipment officer at the Washington U.S. Navy- yard in 1882-'4, light-house inspector in 1885, and in 1886 commanded the receiving-ship " Dale." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 550-551.
CASS, Lewis, statesman, born in Exeter. New Hampshire, 9 October, 1782; died in Detroit, Michigan, 17 June, 1866. He was the eldest son of Jonathan Cass, who at the age of nineteen entered the Continental Army, and served throughout the revolution, attaining the rank of captain. After the conclusion of peace he received a commission in the army as major, and was assigned to duty under General Wayne in the territory northwest of the Ohio, his family remaining at Exeter. During this time Lewis was attending the academy in his native town. In 1799 the family moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where Major Cass was temporarily stationed, and where Lewis became a school-teacher. The next year the family migrated westward, travelling partly on foot and partly by boat, and reaching Marietta, the pioneer town of southern Ohio, in October. Major Cass settled upon a tract of land, granted him by the government for his military services, on Muskingum River, near Zanesville, while Lewis remained at Marietta to study law in the office of Governor Meigs. In 1803 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Zanesville. His abilities as a jurist and pleader were speedily manifest, and soon secured him a lucrative business and a wide reputation in the thinly settled district north of the Ohio. Becoming well established in his profession, in 1806 he married Elizabeth Spencer, of Virginia, and shortly afterward entered upon his public career as a member of the Ohio legislature. Being placed on the committee instituted to inquire into the supposed treasonable movements of Aaron Burr, he framed the law that enabled the authorities to arrest the men and boats provided for the expedition down the river. He also drew up the official communication to the president embodying the views of the Ohio legislature on the subject. The marked ability of this document attracted Mr. Jefferson's attention, and in 1807 Mr. Cass was appointed marshal of the state, a place which he filled until 1813. At the beginning of the second war with England he joined the forces at Dayton under General Hull, and was made colonel of the 3d Ohio Volunteers, he commanded the advanced guard when the army crossed from Detroit into Canada, drew up the proclamation addressed by the general to the inhabitants, and commanded the detachment that drove in the British outposts at the bridge of Aux Canards. Shortly after this Colonel Cass was included in the capitulation known as Hull's surrender, and, being paroled, hastened to Washington, full of indignation against Hull, and made the first report of the affair to the U. S. government. After being exchanged he was appointed to the 27th Regiment of Infantry, and was shortly promoted to brigadier-general. He took part in the defeat of the British under General Proctor, at the battle of the Thames in Canada, 5 October, 1813. At the close of the war he was left in command of Michigan, with his headquarters at Detroit, and almost immediately was appointed civil governor of the territory. In 1814 he was associated with General Harrison in a commission to treat with the Indians, who had been hostile to the United States during the war. The number of white inhabitants in the territory was scarcely 6,000; no land had been sold by the United States, and the interior was a vast wilderness, the abode, it was estimated, of 40,000 savages. Settlers could not obtain sure titles to their locations, no surveys had been made, no roads opened inland, and the savages were relentless in their hostility to the whites. Under these discouraging circumstances Cass assumed the responsibilities of governor, and ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs, his jurisdiction extending over the whole territory. During eighteen years his management of Indian and was governed by remarkable wisdom and prudence. He negotiated twenty-two distinct treaties, securing the cession to the United States, by the various tribes, of the immense regions of the northwest, instituted surveys, constructed roads, established military works, built light-houses along the lake shore, organized counties and townships, and, in short, created and set in motion all the machinery of civilized government. In the administration of the extensive financial trusts incident to his position, Governor Cass displayed the most '' honesty, never permitting even the small sum allowed him by the government for contingent expenses to be transferred to his private account until the vouchers had been formally signed and transmitted to Washington. As yet the northwestern territory was imperfectly known, and at his suggestion and was planned in 1820, in which he himself bore a conspicuous part. Accompanied by the ethnologist, Schoolcraft, and six other gentlemen, with Indian guides, they left Detroit in three canoes, for the exploration of the upper lakes and the head-waters of the Mississippi, and traversed 5,000 miles before their return. The results of this and subsequent expeditions were published in the “North American Review” in 1828–'9, and added not a little to the fame of the author. In 1831, when President Jackson reconstructed his cabinet, Cass was appointed Secretary of War, and cordially approved all the distinctive features of that administration. During his incumbency the Black Hawk war occurred, and was vigorously suppressed. The Indian question, too, passed £ a dangerous crisis in the removal of the Cherokees from their hereditary lands in Georgia and Mississippi. In the nullification troubles of 1832, the nullifiers derived no benefit from his presence in the war Department. In 1836 General Cass submitted a celebrated report to Congress upon the military and naval defences of the '' States, embracing an elaborate summary of existing resources, both offensive and defensive. He recommended the erection of a strong chain of coast fortifications, and the maintenance of a powerful navy. Shortly after this, finding his health impaired, he resigned his secretaryship, and was appointed U. S. minister to France. The diplomatic relations between the two countries were at that time in a critical condition, owing to complications regarding the spoliation claims. General Cass temporarily settled the matter by payment of interest. His most important act as minister was his vigorous protest against the quintuple treaty, whereby Britain sought to maintain the right of search on the high seas. Mainly owing to his representations, France refused to ratify the treaty. The protest, in '' form, had an enormous circulation, and the English were greatly incensed. Lord Brougham assailed him in parliament, and Cass replied very effectively in the Senate. During an interval of his diplomatic duties he made a £ voyage in the U.S. frigate “Constitution,” visiting Constantinople and the Mediterranean ports. Finishing his mission to France, he returned home in 1842, and was given a public welcome at New York and Philadelphia. The country was greatly excited over the annexation of Texas. He had been talked of as a Democratic candidate for the presidency, and his opinions upon the important questions of the day were eagerly sought. In the Democratic National Convention of 1844, James K. Polk received the nomination, and was elected to the presidency in the following November, Mr. Cass cordially supporting him throughout the canvass. In January, 1845, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, which place he resigned on his nomination, in May, 1848, as Democratic candidate for the presidency. After the election of his opponent, General Taylor, he was, in 1849, re-elected to the Senate for the unexpired portion of his original term of six years. Here he wielded a powerful influence. He was a strong advocate of compromise, became the chief ally of Henry Clay, and opposed both the southern-rights dogmas and the Wilmot proviso. The latter of these he had been instructed by the legislature to support; but he declared in the Senate that he should resign his seat in case of a direct conflict between his duty and his principles. Originally General Cass was the most prominent candidate for the chairmanship of the committee of thirteen, but himself u the appointment of Mr. Clay to that place. e passage of the resolution constituting that committee was, by the testimony of its mover, Henry S. Foote, chiefly due to his prompting and assistance. He supported the various measures that it originated. save the fugitive-slave law, on the of which, in the Senate, he declined to vote, though resent in his seat. Being re-elected a senator from Michigan for a second term of six years from March, 1851, he still continued a prominent Democratic candidate for the presidency, but, in 1852, as in 1844, he was unsuccessful. This defeat terminated General Cass's aspirations for the chief magistracy, and he remained a member of the Senate until the expiration of his term. In 1857, when Mr. Buchanan entered upon his administration, General Cass accepted the office of Secretary of State. In the secession movements that followed Mr. Lincoln's election, he was, as in 1850, a friend of compromise, sustaining what were then known as the Crittenden resolutions. President Buchanan's message, '' the existence of any power in the constitution by which the general government can coerce a state, was not openly disapproved by Mr. Cass in the cabinet meeting where it was first read. Eight days afterward, however, he re-asserted the Jacksonian principles of 1832-’3, and, when Mr. Buchanan refused to re-enforce Major Anderson and reprovision Fort Sumter, he promptly resigned. His resignation terminated a public career of fifty-six years duration. After that period he mingled little in society, save in the exercise of the hospitalities of his own home. During the Civil War his sympathies were with the national army, and it was a great satisfaction to him that his life was spared to see the ultimate triumph of the government over a rebellion that for a time threatened its existence. General Cass was a man of great natural abilities, a prudent, cautious legislator, a scholar of fine attainments, of the purest integrity, temperate in all his habits, and personally popular throughout the country. His wealth was largely the result of his fortunate original investment in real estate; but the steady increase of his property in value was also due to" able management. His published works are "Inquiries concerning the History, Traditions, and Languages of the Indians living within the United States " (Detroit, 1828); "France, its King, Court, and Government" (New York, 1840). See "Lewis Cass, Outlines of his Life and Character," by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (Albany, 1848); "Sketches of the Life and Public Services of Lewis Cass," by William T. Young (Detroit, 1852); ' Life and Times of Lewis Cass," by W. L. G. Smith (New York. 1850); and a memorial volume (Detroit, I860.)—His son, Lewis, was appointed charge d'affaires to the papal states in 1849, and in 1854 was promoted to be U. S. minister resident in Italy, where he remained until 1858 Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 551-553.
CATTO, Octavius Valentine, 1839-1871, African American educator, activist, soldier. Opposed slavery. Recruited Black soldiers for the Union Army. Established Union League Association. Served as a Major in the Army. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 611)
CHACE, Elizabeth Buffum, 1806-1899, Society of Friends, Quaker, women’s suffrage leader, penal reform leader, abolitionist leader. Co-founder of the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Fall River, Massachusetts, 1836. Member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, founded by her father, Arnold Buffum, in 1832. Contributed articles for abolitionist newspaper, Liberator. Her home was a station on the Underground Railroad. She resigned from the Society of Friends in 1843 as a result of its continuing pro-slavery position. At the end of the Civil War, she was elected Vice President of the American Anti-Slavery Society. She published her memoirs in 1891, Anti-Slavery Reminiscences. Her grandfather, parents, husband, two sisters, and two brothers-in-law were all abolitionists. (Drake, 1950, p. 158; Mabee, 1970, pp. 225, 280, 290, 424n54; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 44, 218; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 22, 37, 49-52, 58, 67, 69-71, 73, 159, 171, 191-192, 208-209, 219-221, 232n5; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 584; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 158-159; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 609)
CHAMBERLAIN, Daniel Henry, governor of South Carolina, b, in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, 23 June, 1835. He was graduated at Yale in 1862, and at Harvard law-school in 1863. He entered the army in 1864 as lieutenant in the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry, was promoted to be captain, and served in Maryland, Louisiana, and Texas. He went to South Carolina in 1866, and became a cotton-planter. He was a delegate to the constitutional Convention of 1868, and in the same year became attorney-general of the state. On his retirement from this office in 1872 he resumed his law practice at Columbia, South Carolina, and in 1874 was elected governor of the state. In 1875 he refused to issue commissions to two judges who had been elected by the legislature, and who were condemned as corrupt the best men of both parties. For this action the governor was publicly thanked by prominent citizens of Charleston. Governor Chamberlain was renominated by the Republicans in September, 1876. The year had been marked by several serious conflicts between whites and Negroes, and it was reported that more than 16,000 of the former, in all parts of the state, had organized “rifle clubs.” On 7 October, 1876, the governor issued a proclamation commanding these clubs to disband, on the ground that they had been formed to intimidate the Negroes and influence the coming election. An answer to this proclamation was made by the Democratic Executive Committee, denying the governor's statements. Governor Chamberlain then applied to President Grant for military aid, and the latter ordered U.S. troops to be sent to South Carolina. After the election, the returning-board, disregarding an order of the state supreme court, whose authority they denied, declared the Republican ticket elected, throwing out the vote of £ and Laurens counties, on account of alleged fraud and intimidation. The members from these counties were refused admission to the house, whereupon the Democratic members of the legislature withdrew, and, organizing by them: declared Wade Hampton, the Democratic candidate for governor, elected, as he had received a majority of the votes cast, counting those of the two disputed counties. The Republican members declared Chamberlain elected, and he refused to give up his office to Hampton, who was supported by the majority of white people in the state. After the inauguration of President Hayes, both claimants were invited to a conference in Washington, the result of which was that the president withdrew the troops from South Carolina, and Chamberlain issued a proclamation declaring that he should no longer assert his claims. He then moved to New York City, where he resumed the practice of his profession. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 564-565.
CHAMBERLAIN, Jeremiah, 1794-1851, clergyman, educator, abolitionist. President of Centre College, Kentucky, 1822-1825. Founder and President of Oakland College in Mississippi, 1830-1851. Co-founded Mississippi Colonization Society. He was murdered for his anti-slavery stance on September 5, 1851, by a pro-slavery planter.
CHAMBERLAIN, Joshua Lawrence, soldier, born in Brewer, Maine, 8 September, 1828. His grandfather, Joshua Chamberlain, was a colonel in the war of 1812, and his father, of the same name, was second in command of the troops on the Maine frontier in the “Aroostook war.” He attended, in his boyhood, the Military Academy of Major Whiting at Ellsworth, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1852, and at Bangor Theological Seminary in 1855. He was licensed to preach, but never assumed the ministerial office, as he was called in that year to a tutorship at Bowdoin. He was professor of rhetoric there from 1856 till 1862, became also instructor in modern languages in 1857, and in 1861 was made professor in this department, holding the chair till 1865. In 1862 he obtained leave of absence from the trustees, intending to go abroad for study, but with their permission entered the National Army as lieutenant-colonel of the 20th Maine Infantry. He became colonel in 1863, and was promoted brigadier-general on the field by General Grant, 18 June, 1864, for his gallantry on that occasion. General Grant, in his “Memoirs,” describing the movement against Petersburg, says: “Colonel J. L. Chamberlain, of the 20th Maine, was wounded on the 18th. He was gallantly leading his brigade at the time, as he had been in the habit of doing. He had several times been recommended for a brigadier-generalcy for gallant and meritorious conduct. On this occasion, however, promoted him on the spot, and forwarded a copy of my order to the war Department, asking that my act might be confirmed and Chamberlain's name sent to the Senate for confirmation without any delay. This was done, and at last a gallant and meritorious officer received partial justice at the hands of his government, which he had served so faithfully and so well.” General Chamberlain was again wounded at Quaker Road, on 29 March, 1865, and on the same day was brevetted major-general of volunteers for his conduct in the first successful assault on Lee's right flank. He commanded two brigades of the 1st Division of the 5th Corps, leading the advance, in the operations that ended in Lee's surrender, 9 April, 1865, and was designated by the commissioners in charge of the ceremonial to receive the formal surrender of the arms and colors of the Confederate Army. He was engaged in twenty-four pitched battles, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Five Forks, and was six times wounded, thrice severely. After resuming his professorship for a few months, he was elected governor of Maine in 1866, and thrice re-elected, serving till 1871. He was chosen president of Bowdoin College in 1871, and also held the professorship of mental and moral philosophy from 1874 till 1879. He was made major-general of the state militia in 1876, and by his wise and vigorous action in January, 1880, did much toward averting Civil War, which had become imminent on account of the contest between the Republicans and “fusionists,” and the total absence of a state government. In 1878 he visited Europe as a member of the U. S. Commission to the Paris Exposition of that year. He resigned the presidency of Bowdoin in 1883, but continued to lecture there on public law and political economy until 1885. He has delivered numerous public addresses, several of which have been published, including that at the centennial exhibition, entitled “Maine; Her Place in History” (Augusta, Maine, 1877). A special edition of his Paris report on “Education in Europe” was published by the government (Washington, 1879). [Appleton’s 1900] p. 565.
CHAMBERS, Alexander, soldier, born in New York State about 1832. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1853, and made second lieutenant of Infantry. He served first in garrison at Fort Columbus, New York, in 1853-'4, and on frontier and other duty until 3 March, 1855, when he was promoted second lieutenant, took part in hostilities in Florida against the Seminoles, 1856–77, was promoted first lieutenant, 19 January, 1859, and participated in the march to New Mexico in 1860. He became captain in the 18th Infantry, 14 May, 1861, and colonel of the 16th Iowa Volunteers, 24 March, 1862; served in the Tennessee and Mississippi Campaign, 4 April to 19 September, 1862, having been twice wounded in the battle of Shiloh, and was promoted brevet major 7 April for his meritorious services during that action. He was present at the siege of Corinth, and brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 19 September, 1862, for gallant conduct at the battle of Iuka, where he was wounded severely in the Vicksburg Campaign, and was promoted brevet colonel, 4 July, 1863, for meritorious services during the siege; was a brigadier-general of volunteers, 11 August, 1863, and was in garrison at Vicksburg from August, 1863, till 1 February, 1864, when he participated in General Sherman's march to Meridian. He was at Omaha as judge-advocate of the District of Nebraska from January till 7 June, 1866, and in the Department of the Platte from 7 June, 1866, till transferred to the 27th U.S. Infantry, 21 September, 1866. On 5 March, 1867, he became major of the 22d U.S. Infantry. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 566.
CHAMBERS, Ezekiel Forman, 1788-1867, Maryland, jurist, soldier, U.S. Senator from Maryland. Supported the American Colonization Society (ACS) in the Senate. Proposed bill in Senate to support the ACS with federal funding. Defended colonization from detractors. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 566; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 602; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 176, 207)
CHAMBERS, Ezekiel F., senator, born in Kent county, Maryland, 28 February, 1788; died in Charleston, Maryland, 30 January, 1867. He was graduated at Washington College, Maryland, in 1805, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1808. He performed military service in the war of 1812, and subsequently attained the rank of brigadier-general of militia. Though elected in 1822 to the state senate against his will, he took an active part in the legislation of that body, and in 1825 arranged a system for the more effectual recovery of slaves. In 1826 he was elected U. S. Senator from Maryland, and in 1832 re-elected. He distinguished himself as one of the ablest debaters and antagonists in that body. In 1834 he was appointed chief judge of the second judicial district and a judge of the court of appeals, which places he held till 1857, when the Maryland judiciary became elective. In 1850 he was a member of the constitutional convention of the state. In 1852 President Fillmore offered him the post of secretary of the Navy on the resignation of Secretary Graham, but the condition of his health compelled him to decline. Yale conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1833, and Delaware in 1852. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. I p 602.
CHAMBLISS, John Randolph, soldier, born in Wicksford, Greenville County, Virginia, 23 January, 1833; died in Deep Bottom, near Richmond, Virginia, 16 August, 1864. His father, John R. Chambliss, was a delegate to the Virginia secession Convention of 1861. Young Chambliss was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1858, and served at the cavalry school, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, till 4 March, 1854, when he resigned. He then became a planter at Hicksford, Virginia, was major on the staff of the governor from 1856 till 1861, and colonel in the militia from 1858 till 1861. He joined the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War as colonel of an infantry regiment, and afterward became colonel of the 13th Virginia Cavalry. He was subsequently made a brigadier-general, and was killed in action while leading a brigade of cavalry. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 567.
CHAMBLISS, William Parham, soldier, born in Chamblissburg. Bedford County, Virginia, 20 March, 1827. After attending a private school in Giles County, Tennessee, he served through the Mexican War as second lieutenant in the 1st Tennessee Volunteers from June, 1846, till July, 1847, and afterward as captain of the 3d Tennessee Volunteers. From 1850 till 1855 he practised law in Pulaski, Tennessee, and from 1852 till 1855 edited there the " Citizen," a Democratic weekly newspaper. He was also a member of the legislature from 1853 till 1864. He entered the regular army as first lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Cavalry, 3 March, 1855, and was engaged in Texas against hostile Indians most of the time till March, 1861. He was made captain in the 5th U.S. Cavalry, 6 April, 1861, and served through the Manassas and Peninsular Campaigns, receiving the brevet of major, 4 May, 1862, for gallantry at Hanover Court-House, Virginia. At the tattle of Gaines's Mills, 27 June, 1862, he was wounded in several places, lay four days and four nights on the field of battle, and was then taken to Libby prison, Richmond. For his conduct at Gaines's Mills he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel on 28 June, 1882. The wounds that he received on this occasion nearly caused his death, and have partially disabled him for the rest of his life. After his release from Libby prison he underwent treatment in St. Luke's hospital, New York, and then served as instructor of cavalry at the U. S. Military Academy from October, 1862, till June, 1864. He was made major in the 4th U.S. Cavalry, 30 March, 1864, served as special inspector of cavalry, Division of the Mississippi, from August, 1864, till April, 1865, and with his regiment in Texas till 1 November, 1867, when he resigned and became president and general manager of the Cobourg Railway and mining Company, Cobourg, Canada. He has published a pamphlet on "General McClellan and the Presidency'' (1864). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 567.
CHAMPLIN, Stephen, naval officer, born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, 17 November, 1789; died in Buffalo, New York, 20 February, 1870. He was a cousin of Commodore Perry. When he was five years old his parents moved to Lebanon, Connecticut, where he was employed on his father's farm, and received a common-school education. At the age of sixteen he ran away from home to become a sailor, and at twenty-two was captain of a fine brig in the West India trade. He was appointed a sailing-master in the U.S. Navy, 22 May, 1812, placed in command of a gun-boat under Commodore Perry at Newport, and soon after ordered to Sackett's Harbor, New York, where he soon attracted the attention of his superior officers by his remarkable promptness. On 18 July, 1813, he was ordered to take charge of seventy-four officers and men and report to Commodore Perry at Erie, Pennsylvania, going by way of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and marching across the country from Niagara to Buffalo. He made the entire distance, using only setting-poles and oars for propulsion, in five days. He was ordered, on 25 July, to take command of the “Scorpion,” and engaged with that vessel in the battle of Lake Erie, 10 September, 1813, being at that time under twenty-four years of age. The “Scorpion” fired the first shot on the American side, and was fought with great bravery, keeping its place near the Lawrence throughout the engagement. At ten o'clock in the evening of 13 September Champlin captured the “Little Belt,” and in so doing fired the last shot in the battle. He was afterward placed in command of two of the captured prize-ships, the “Queen Charlotte” and the “Detroit.” In the spring of 1814 he commanded the “Tigress,” and blockaded, with Captain Turner in the 'Scorpion,” the port of Mackinac. They cruised for some months in the service, cutting off the supplies of the British garrison; but both vessels were surprised and captured at nine o'clock on the evening of 3 September by a superior force of Indians and British, sent from Mackinac in five boats to raise the blockade. Every American officer was severely wounded, and Champlin was crippled for life by a canister-shot, which passed through the fleshy part of the right thigh and embedded itself in the left thigh, shattering the bone and remained lodged in the limb for eighteen days. He was taken prisoner and carried to Mackinac, where he lay suffering for thirty-eight days, and was then paroled and sent to Erie, and then, by easy stages, to Connecticut, arriving there in March, 1815. He was prevented by his wounds from seeing much active service after this. He had been made lieutenant on 9 December, 1814, and in 1815 was attached to Perry's flag-ship, the “Virginia” He commanded the schooner “Porcupine” from 1816 till 1818, and was employed during 1816 in surveying the Canada boundary-line. He then retired to Connecticut, still suffering from his wound, and undergoing several operations without relief. He lived here, with the exception of a short service on the receiving-ship “Fulton,” from 1828 till 1834, when he moved to Buffalo, and remained there till his death. He was promoted to commander, 22 June, 1838, put in charge of the rendezvous at Buffalo in 1842, and commanded the “Michigan” from 1845 till 1848. He was made captain, 4 August, 1850, and placed on the retired list in 1855. He was raised to the rank of commodore, 16 July, 1862, and was the last survivor of the battle of Lake Erie. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 570.
CHAMPLIN, Stephen Gardner, soldier, born in Kingston, New York, 1 July, 1827; died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 24 January, 1864. He was educated in the common schools, and at Rhinebeck Academy, New York, studied law, and admitted to the bar in Albany in 1850. He moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1853, where he became judge of the recorder's court and prosecuting attorney of Kent County He entered the army in 1861, as major in the 3d Michigan Infantry, and became its colonel on 22 October Among the battles in which he took part were Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Groveton, and Antietam. He received at Fair Oaks a severe wound, which prevented him from seeing active service after his promotion to the rank of brigadier-general, 29 November, 1862, and he was placed on detached duty in command of the recruiting-station at Grand Rapids, dying in the service, from the effects of his wound. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 570.
CHANDLER, Elizabeth Margaret, 1807-1834, poet, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist. Member of the Free Produce Society. Co-founded the first anti-slavery society in Michigan, the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society, in Lenawee County, Michigan Territory, October 8, 1832, with Laura Haviland. Writer for Benjamin Lundy’s Genius of Universal Emancipation after 1829. In 1836, Chandler’s anti-slavery writings were published. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 279-281, 350-351; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 90-91, 97, 111, 113, 120; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 573; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 613; Mason, Martha J. Heringa, ed. Remember the Distance That Divides Us. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2004)
CHANDLER, Elizabeth Margaret, author, born in Centre, near Wilmington, Delaware, 24 December, 1807; died 22 November, 1834. She was the daughter of Thomas Chandler, a Quaker farmer, was educated at the Friends' school in Philadelphia, and began at an early age to write verses. Her poem “The Slave-Ship,” written when she was eighteen years old, gained the prize- offered by the “Casket,” a monthly magazine. She became a contributor to the “Genius of Universal Emancipation,” a Philadelphia periodical favoring the liberation of the slaves, and in it nearly all her subsequent writings appeared. In 1830, with her aunt and brother, she moved to a farm near Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan, and from there continued her contributions in prose and verse on the subject of slavery. A collection of her poems and essays was edited, with a memoir, by Benjamin Lundy (Philadelphia, 1836). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 573.
CHANDLER, Ralph, naval officer, born in New York, 23 August, 1829. He was appointed to the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 27 September, 1845, served on the west coast of Mexico during the Mexican War, and was engaged in skirmishes near Mazatlan. He became passed midshipman, 6 October, 1851, was promoted to master in 1855, and commissioned as lieutenant on 16 September of that year, he was on the "Vandalia" at the battle of Port Royal, 7 November, 1861, and in 1862 was assigned to the " San Jacinto," of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, on which he was present at the capture of Norfolk. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, commanded the "Maumee" at both attacks on Fort Fisher, and was made commander, 25 July, 1866. He became captain, 5 June, 1874, and commodore, 1 March, 1884, and in the same year was appointed commandant of the Brooklyn U.S. Navy-yard. He was promoted to rear-admiral on 6 October, 1886, succeeded in command of the U.S. Navy-yard by Commodore Gherardi on 15 October, and was ordered to relieve Rear-Admiral Davis in command of the Asiatic Squadron. . Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 573
CHANDLER, William Eaton, born 1835, Concord, New Hampshire. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 574.
CHANDLER, William Eaton, cabinet minister, born in Concord, New Hampshire, 28 December, 1835. He studied law in Concord, and at the Harvard law-school, where he was graduated in 1855. For several years after his admission to the bar in 1856 he practised in Concord, and in 1859 was appointed reporter of the New Hampshire supreme court, and published five volumes of reports. From the time of his coming of age Mr. Chandler was actively connected with the Democratic Party, serving first as secretary, and afterward as chairman of the state committee. In 1862 he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, of which he was speaker for two successive terms in 1863-'4. In November, 1864, he was employed by the Navy Department as special counsel to prosecute the Philadelphia Navy-yard frauds, and on 9 March, 1865, was appointed first solicitor and judge-advocate-general of that department. On 17 June, 1865, he became first assistant secretary of the treasury. On 30 November, 1867, he resigned this place and resumed law practice. During the next thirteen years, although occupying no official position except that of member of the Constitutional Convention of New Hampshire in 1876, he continued to take an active part in politics. He was a delegate from his state to the Republican National Convention in 1868, and was secretary of the national committee from that time until 1876. In that year he advocated the claims of the Hayes electors in Florida before the canvassing board of the state, and later was one of the counsel to prepare the case submitted by the Republican side to the electoral commission. Mr. Chandler afterward became an especially outspoken opponent of the southern policy of the Hayes administration. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, and served as a member of the committee on credentials, in which place he was active in securing the report in favor of district representation, which was adopted by the convention. During the subsequent campaign he was a member of the national committee. On 23 March, 1881, he was nominated for U. S. Solicitor-General, but the Senate refused to confirm, the vote being nearly upon party lines. In that year he was again a member of the New Hampshire legislature. On 7 April, 1882, he was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Among the important measures carried out by him were the simplification and reduction of the unwieldy navy-yard establishment; the limitation of the number of annual appointments to the actual wants of the naval service; the discontinuance of the extravagant policy of repairing worthless vessels; and the beginning of a modern navy in the construction of the four new cruisers recommended by the advisory board. The organization and successful voyage of the Greely Relief Expedition in 1884 were largely due to his personal efforts. Mr. Chandler was a strenuous advocate of uniting with the navy the other nautical branches of the federal administration, including the light-house establishment, the Coast Survey, and the Revenue Marine, upon the principle, first distinctly set forth by him, that “the officers and seamen of the navy should be employed to perform all the work of the National government upon or in direct connection with the ocean.” Mr. Chandler is controlling owner of the daily “Monitor,” a Republican journal, and its weekly, the “Statesman,” published in Concord, New Hampshire In June, 1887, he was elected U. S. Senator. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 574.
CHANDLER, Zachariah, 1813-1879, statesman, abolitionist. Mayor of Detroit, 1851-1852. U.S. Senator 1857-1975, 1879. Secretary of the Interior, 1875-1877. Active in Underground Railroad in Detroit area. Helped organize the Republican Party in 1854. Introduced Confiscation Bill in Senate, July 1861. Was a leading Radical Republican senator. Chandler was a vigorous opponent of slavery. He opposed the Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1858, opposed the admission of Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 574-575; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 618; Congressional Globe)
CHANDLER, Zachariah, senator, born in Bedford, New Hampshire, 10 December, 1813; died in Chicago, Illinois, 1 November, 1879. After receiving a common-school education he taught for one winter, at the same time managing his father's farm. He was noted when a youth for physical strength and endurance. It is said that, being offered by his father the choice between a collegiate education and the sum of $1,000, he chose the latter. He moved to Detroit in 1833 and engaged in the dry-goods business, in which he was energetic and successful. He soon became a prominent Whig, and was active in support of the so-called “Underground Railroad,” of which Detroit was an important terminus. His public life began in 1851 by his election as mayor of Detroit. In 1852 he was nominated for governor by the Whigs, and, although his success was hopeless, the large vote he received brought him into public notice. He was active in the organization of the Democratic Party in 1854, and in January, 1857, was elected to the U. S. Senate to succeed General Lewis Cass. He made his first important speech on 12 March, 1858, opposing the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, and continued to take active part in the debates on that and allied questions. In 1858, when Senator Green, of Missouri, had threatened Simon Cameron with an assault for words spoken in debate, Mr. Chandler, with Mr. Cameron and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, drew up a written agreement, the contents of which were not to be made public till the death of all the signers, but which was believed to be a pledge to resent an attack made on any one of the three. On 11 February, 1861, he wrote the famous so-called “blood letter” to Governor Blair, of Michigan. It received its name from the sentence, “Without a little blood-letting this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a rush.” This letter was widely quoted through the country, and was acknowledged and defended by Mr. Chandler on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Chandler was a firm friend of President Lincoln, though he was more radical than the latter in his ideas, and often differed with the president as to matters of policy. When the first call for troops was made, he assisted by giving money and by personal exertion. He regretted that 500,000 men had not been called for instead of 75,000, and said that the short-term enlistment was a mistake. At the beginning of the extra session of Congress in July, 1861, he introduced a sweeping confiscation-bill, thinking that stern measures would deter wavering persons from taking up arms against the government; but it was not passed in its original form, though Congress ultimately adopted his views. On 16 July, 1862, Mr. Chandler vehemently assailed General McClellan in the Senate, although he was warned that such a course might be politically fatal. He was, however, returned to the Senate in 1863, and in 1864 actively aided in the re-election of President Lincoln. He was again elected to the Senate in 1869. During all of his terms he was chairman of the committee on commerce and a member of other important committees, including that on the conduct of the war. In October, 1874, President Grant tendered him the post of secretary of the interior, to fill the place made vacant by the resignation of Columbus Delano, and he held this office until President Grant's retirement, doing much to reform abuses in the department. He was chairman of the Republican National committee in 1876, and took an active part in the presidential campaign of that year. He was again elected to the Senate in February, 1879, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Isaac P. Christiancy, who had succeeded him four years before. On 2 March, 1879, he made a speech in the Senate denouncing Jefferson Davis, which brought him into public notice again, and he was regarded in his own state as a possible presidential candidate. He went to Chicago on 31 October, 1879, to deliver a political speech, and was found dead in his room on the following morning. During the greater portion of his life Mr. Chandler was engaged in large business enterprises, from which he realized a handsome fortune. He was a man of commanding appearance, and possessed an excellent practical judgment, great energy, and indomitable perseverance. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 574-575.
CHANNING, Reverend William Ellery, 1780-1842, Unitarian clergyman, orator, writer, strong opponent of slavery. Active in the peace, temperance, and educational reform movements. Published anti-slavery works, The Slavery Question, in 1839, Emancipation in 1840, and The Duty of the Free States, in 1842. (Brown, 1956; Channing, “Slavery,” 1836; Dumond, 1961, pp. 273, 352-353; Filler, 1960, pp. 33, 34, 59, 80, 88, 93, 101, 128, 141, 184; Goodell, 1852, pp. 419, 560; Mabee, 1970, pp. 15, 16, 43, 51, 79, 105, 384n14; Pease, 1965, pp. xxxix-xl, lvii, lx, 114-118, 240-245; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43, 46, 162, 169; Sorin, 1971, p. 72; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 576-577; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, pp. 7-8; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 160-163; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 680)
CHANNING, William Ellery, clergyman, born in Newport, Rhode Island, 7 April, 1780; died in Bennington, Vermont, 2 October, 1842. His boyhood was passed in Newport, where his first strong religious impressions were received from the preaching of Dr. Samuel Hopkins. As a youth, he appears, though small in person and of a sensibility almost feminine, to have been vigorous, athletic, and resolute, showing from childhood a marked quality of moral courage and mental sincerity. In his college life at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1798, he showed a singular capacity to win the ardent personal attachment of his fellows; and, though he was very young, his literary qualities seem even then to have been fully developed, his style being described by his classmate, Judge Story, as “racy, flowing, full, glowing with life, chaste in ornament, vigorous in structure, and beautiful in finish.” He was also conspicuous in the students' debating-clubs, and shared fully in the political enthusiasms of the day, refusing the commencement oration assigned him until granted permission to speak on his favorite theme. Among the authors of his choice at this time, Hutcheson appears to have inspired his profound conviction of “the dignity of human nature,” Ferguson (“Civil Society”) his faith in social progress and his “enthusiasm of humanity,” and Price (“Dissertations”) that form of idealism which “saved me,” he says, “from Locke's philosophy.” As a private instructor in Richmond, Virginia, in the family of D. M. Randolph, in 1798-1800, he felt “the charm of southern manners and hospitality,” and at the same time acquired an abhorrence of the social and moral aspects of slavery, then equally abhorred by the most intelligent men and women at the south. Here he became eagerly interested in political discussions growing out of the revolutionary movements in Europe, and a keen admirer of such writers as Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and especially Rousseau; but, as if by a certain unconscious reaction against these influences, he gave special study to the historical evidences of Christianity, to which class of evidences he ever after strongly adhered, and was confirmed in his purpose to prepare for the ministry. He also disciplined himself by a vigorously ascetic way of life—exposure to cold, hardship, and fatigue, with scant diet (leading to permanent “contraction of the stomach” with painful dyspepsia), insufficient clothing, and excessive devotion to study. The ill-effect of these practices, aggravated by the exposures of his return voyage to Newport, followed him through life, and “from the time of his residence in Richmond to the day of his death he never knew a day of unimpaired vigor.” After a short stay in Newport, where the influences of early life were renewed and deepened, he returned to Cambridge as a student of theology, with the title and petty income of “regent,” a sort of university scholarship. At this period Bishop Butler and William Law were the writers that chiefly influenced his opinions; and he is represented as having had a tendency to Calvinistic views, though “never in any sense a Trinitarian.” His first and only pastoral settlement was over the church in Federal street, Boston, 1 June, 1803, which he accepted, in preference to the more distinguished place in Brattle square, partly on the ground that a smaller and feebler congregation might not overtax his strength. Here he was shortly known for a style of religious eloquence of rare “fervor, solemnity, and beauty.” His views at this time—and indeed, prevailingly, during his later life—are described as “rather mystical than rational”; in particular, as to the controverted doctrine of Christ's divinity, holding “that Jesus Christ is more than man, that he existed before the world, that he literally came from heaven to save our race, that he sustains other offices than those of a teacher and witness to the truth, and that he still acts for our benefit, and is our intercessor with the Father.” Early in his ministry, however, Mr. Channing was closely identified with that movement of thought, literary and philosophic as well as theological, which gave birth to the “Anthology Club,” and to a series of journals, of which those longest-lived and of widest repute were the “North American Review” and the “Christian Examiner.” Essays published in these journals, especially those on Milton and on the character of Napoleon, gave him literary reputation in Europe as well as at home. The intellectual movement in question was marked by an increasing interest in questions of theological and textual criticism, and by a leaning toward, if not identification with, the class of opinions that began about 1815 to be currently known as Unitarian. Though Mr. Channing was disinclined to sectarian names or methods, though he never desired to be personally called a Unitarian, and would have chosen that the movement of liberal theology should go on within the lines of the New England Congregational body, to which he belonged from birth, yet he became known as the leader of the Unitarians, and may almost be said to have first given to the body so called the consciousness of its real position and the courage of its convictions by his sermon delivered in Baltimore, 5 May, 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks. This celebrated discourse may be regarded less as a theological argument, for which its method is too loose and rhetorical, than as a solemn impeachment of the Calvinistic theology of that day at the bar of popular reason and conscience. And a similar judgment may be passed, in general, upon the series of controversial discourses that he delivered in the succeeding years. For about fifteen years, making the middle period of his professional life—a life interrupted only by a few months' stay in Europe (1822-'3) and a winter spent in Santa Cruz (1830-'31)—Mr. Channing was best known to the public as a leader in the Unitarian body, and the record of this time survives in several volumes of eloquent and noble sermons, which constitute still the best body of practical divinity that the Unitarian movement in this country has produced. Very interesting testimony to the habit and working of his mind at this period is also to be found in the volume of “Reminiscences” by Miss E. P. Peabody (Boston, 1880). A sermon on the “Ministry at Large” in Boston (1835) strongly illustrates the sympathetic as well as religious temper in which he now undertook those discussions of social topics—philanthropy, moral reform, and political ethics—by which his later years were most widely and honorably distinguished. From organized charity the way was open to questions of temperance and public education, which now began to take new shapes; and from these again, to those that lie upon the border-ground of morals and politics—war and slavery. Regarding the last, indeed, which may be taken as a type of the whole, it does not appear that he ever adopted the extreme opinions, or approved the characteristic modes of action, of the party known as abolitionists. But his general and very intense sympathy with their aims was of great moral value in the anti-slavery movement, now taking more and more a political direction. Of this the earliest testimony was a brief but vigorous essay on slavery (1835), dealing with it purely on grounds of moral argument; followed the next year by a public letter of sympathy to James G. Birney (“The Abolitionists”), who had just been driven from Cincinnati with the destruction of his press and journal; and again, in 1837, by a letter to Henry Clay on the annexation of Texas, a policy which the writer thought good ground to justify disunion. The event that, more than any other, publicly associated his name and influence with the anti-slavery party was a meeting held in Faneuil Hall, 8 December, 1837, after the death of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who was shot while defending his press at Alton, Illinois, when for the first time Mr. Channing stood side by side, upon the public platform, with men in whom he now saw the champions of that freedom of discussion which must be upheld by all good citizens. His later writings on the subject are a letter on “The Slavery Question” (1839) addressed to Jonathan Phillips; a tract on “Emancipation” (1840), suggested by a work of J. J. Gurney's on emancipation in the British West Indies; and an argument (1842) on “The Duty of the Free States,” touching the case of the slaves on board the brig “Creole,” of Richmond, who had seized the vessel and carried her into the port of Nassau. His last public act was an address delivered in Lenox. Massachusetts, 1 August, 1842, commemorating the West India emancipation. A few weeks later, while on a journey, he was seized with an attack of autumn fever, of which he died. Interesting personal recollections remain, now passing into tradition, of Channing's rare quality and power as a pulpit orator, of which a single trait may here be given: “From the high, old-fashioned pulpit his face beamed down, it may be said, like the face of an angel, and his voice floated clown like a voice from higher spheres. It was a voice of rare power and attraction, clear, flowing, melodious, slightly plaintive, so as curiously to catch and win upon the hearer's sympathy. Its melody and pathos in the reading of a hymn was alone a charm that might bring men to the listening like the attraction of sweet music. Often, too, when signs of physical frailty were apparent, it might be said that his speech was watched and waited for with that sort of hush as if one was waiting to catch his last earthly words.” Numerous writings of Dr. Channing were published singly, which were gathered shortly before his death (5 vols., Boston, 1841), to which a sixth volume was added subsequently, and also, in 1872, a volume of selected sermons entitled “The Perfect Life.” All are included in a single volume published by the American Unitarian association (Boston). A biography was prepared by his nephew, W. H. Channing (3 vols., Boston, 1848). Translations of Channing's writings “have been, either wholly or in part, published in the German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Icelandic, and Russian languages.” While in America he is best known as a theologian and preacher, his influence abroad is said to be chiefly as a writer on subjects of social ethics. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 576-577.
CHAPLIN, William Lawrence, 1796-1871, abolitionist leader, Farmington, NY. Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839-1840. Agent of the New York Anti-Slavery Society. He was known as “The General.” He was involved in slave freedom lawsuits, “Self-Purchase,” and aided fugitive slaves. Helped plan the “Pearl” ship escape. Supported by Gerrit Smith. (Dumond, 1961, p. 297; Goodell, 1852, pp. 246, 445, 463, 556; Sinha, 2016, pp. 402, 405, 407, 501, 529, 534; Sorin, 1971, p. 113; Radical Abolitionist; Wilson, 1872, Vol. 2, pp. 80-82)
Chapter: “Underground Railroad. - Operations at the East and in the Middle States,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
The case of William L. Chaplin affords another example of what it cost in those days to be honest and humane, to listen to the voice of sympathy and to carry into action the simple precepts of Christian love. In the year 1836 this gentleman, a young lawyer of Eastern Massachusetts, just .entering upon -the practice of his profession, with generous ambition and flattering prospects, was invited, on the very threshold of what· he had marked out as his life's work, to relinquish all these prospects, that he might espouse the cause of the despised and downtrodden slave. Yielding to what he regarded the voice of duty, he relinquished his profession and its prospects, and for a quarter of a century devoted himself to the cause of the oppressed. Having served the National Antislavery Society for several months, he accepted the appointment of general agent of the New York State Society. Possessing energy and marked executive ability, he devoted himself for four years, with large success, to the work of organizing the new forces of freedom in those early years of the reform. Afterward, for several years in connection with others, he made a specialty of procuring and publishing antislavery tracts, documents, and volumes. In 1844 he assumed control of the Albany "Patriot," the paper which Mr. Torrey then in the Maryland penitentiary, had recently started. Becoming the Washington correspondent of his own paper, he often found occasion, during his residence at the capital, to exhibit the philanthropy of his nature by aiding in the purchase of the relatives of those who had previously escaped to the North. During the session of 1850 he was persuaded to assist two young men, slaves of Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, in their endeavor to escape. Being surprised in the attempt, he was arrested and cast into prison, on the charge of abducting slaves. Having lain in prison five months, he was released on the excessive bail of twenty-five thousand dollars.
But his alleged offences, according to the laws of the District of Columbia and of Maryland, would subject him, if convicted, to imprisonment for years, if not for life. The masters of the slaves he had aided were violent and most exacting in their demands, the country was intensely agitated, and the fate of. Torrey was fresh in memory. There was little doubt that,. if brought to trial, he would be convicted. It was deemed advisable, therefore, to prevent .a trial whose probable results would be thus serious, if not practically fatal; and it was determined by his friends that his bail, though so large, should be forfeited and paid. · To do this, his own little property was sacrificed and heavy contributions were made by his friends and the friends of the cause. In this work, Gerrit Smith of New York, with his usual and prompt sympathy, his large-hearted beneficence and princely munificence, became his surety, and contributed a large portion of the amount. And this was the price demanded by the nation, and paid by Mr. Chaplin and his friends, for performing the simple and neighborly act of aiding two young men to escape from the horrible bondage of chattel slavery. But he lived to see the day when those slaves, if living, were not only free, but enfranchised men, and those masters, stripped of all control over them and of their own rights of citizenship, were dependent upon the generosity of the nation for even the privilege of life.
Source: Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 80-82.
CHAPMAN, George H., soldier. He served during the Civil War in the volunteer army, and was appointed a brigadier-general on 21 July, 1864 On 13 March, 1865, he received the brevet of major-general, and was mustered out of service on 7 January, 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 581
CHAPMAN, Maria Weston, 1806-1885, educator, writer, newspaper editor, prominent abolitionist leader, reformer. Advocate of immediate, uncompensated emancipation. Editor of the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberty Bell. Also helped to edit William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, the Liberator. Co-founded and edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard. Leader and founder of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), which she founded and organized with twelve other women, including three of her sisters. The Society worked to educate Boston’s African American community and to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. In 1840, Chapman was elected to the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. She was Councillor of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society from 1841-1865. Her husband was prominent abolitionist Henry Grafton Chapman.
(Dumond, 1961, p. 273; Filler, 1960, pp. 55, 76, 129, 143, 184; Mabee, 1970, pp. 62, 68, 72, 80, 105, 249, 259, 274; Pease, 1965, pp. xliv-l, li, lii, lxx, 205-212; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 199, 367, 402; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 97, 119, 123, 135, 137, 173, 185, 190-191, 206-208; Weston, “How Can I Help Abolish Slavery?, or Councels to the Newly Converted,” New York, 1855; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 581; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, pp. 19-20; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 163-164; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 710; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 315)
CHAPMAN, Maria Weston, reformer, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1806; died there in 1885. She was a daughter of Warren Weston, of Weymouth. After being educated in her native town and in England, she was principal of the newly established Young ladies' high-school in Boston in 1829-'30. She was married in 1830, and in 1834 became an active abolitionist. Her husband died in 1842, and in 1848 she went to Paris, France, where she aided the anti-slavery cause with her pen. She returned to this country in 1856, and in 1877 published the autobiography of her intimate friend, Harriet Martineau. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 581.
CHAPMAN, Mary G., abolitionist leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994)
CHAPMAN, Reuben Atwater, jurist, born in Russell, Hampden County, Massachusetts, 20 September, 1801; died at Fluellen, Switzerland, 28 June, 1873. He was a New England farmer's son, and received but a limited education. At the age of nineteen he became a clerk in a country store in Blanford, where he attracted the attention of a lawyer, who invited him to become a student in his office. This offer was gratefully accepted, and after his admission to the bar he practised successively in Westfield, Monson, Ware, and Springfield. Later he became associated with George Ashmun, and during its twenty years' continuance the firm of Chapman & Ashmun was among the most successful in the state. In 1860 he was appointed an associate justice of the supreme judicial court, and in 1868 was advanced to the chief justiceship. He received the degrees of A. M. from Williams in 1836 and from Amherst in 1841, and LL.D. from Amherst in 1861 and from Harvard in 1864. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 582.
CHAPMAN, William, soldier, born in St. Johns, Maryland, 22 January, 1810. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1831, and promoted to lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry, after which he served on frontier duty at Fort Mackinac, Michigan, in 1831–2, on the Black Hawk Expedition in 1832. Chapman was an instructor at West Point in 1832-’3, and with his regiment at various posts on the frontier until 1845. In 1845–6 he was in Texas during the military occupancy of that country, and in the Mexican War was present at the principal engagements. He received the brevet rank of major in August, 1847, and that of lieutenant-colonel in September, for gallant conduct during the war. Subsequently he again served on garrison duty in Texas and New Mexico, becoming major of the 2d U.S. Infantry in February, 1861. During the Civil War he had command of a regiment in the defences of Washington in 1862, and was with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign, being engaged in the siege Yorktown and at Malvern Hill, and afterward at Manassas, where he received the brevet of colonel. He was retired from active service in August, 1863, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and assigned to the command of the draft rendezvous at Madison, Wisconsin Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 582.
CHASE, Salmon Portland, 1808-1873, statesman, Governor of Ohio, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1864-1873, abolitionist, member, Liberty Party, Free Soil Party, Anti-Slavery Republican Party. “A slave is a person held, as property, by legalized force, against natural right.” – Chase.
“The constitution found slavery, and left it, a state institution—the creature and dependant of state law—wholly local in its existence and character. It did not make it a national institution… Why, then, fellow-citizens, are we now appealing to you?...Why is it that the whole nation is moved, as with a mighty wind, by the discussion of the questions involved in the great issue now made up between liberty and slavery? It is, fellow citizens—and we beg you to mark this—it is because slavery has overleaped its prescribed limits and usurped the control of the national government. We ask you to acquaint yourselves fully with the details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believing that the honor, the welfare, the safety of our country imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the government from slavery.”
“Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles and building up the organization of the party of constitutional freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, the demands upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed severely all my ability… It seems to me now, on looking back, that I could not help working if I would, and that I was just as really called in the course of Providence to my labors for human freedom as ever any other laborer in the great field of the world was called to his appointed work.”
(Blue, 2005, pp. 19, 30, 34, 61, 70-73, 76-78, 84, 123, 124, 177, 178, 209, 220, 225, 226, 228, 247, 248, 259; Dumond, 1961; Filler, 1960, pp. 142, 176, 187, 197-198, 229, 246; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4-5, 8-9, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33-36, 61-64, 67, 68, 70-72, 76, 87, 89, 94, 118, 129, 136, 156, 165, 166, 168-169, 177, 187, 191, 193, 195-196, 224, 228, 248; Pease, 1965, pp. 384-394; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 56, 58, 136, 173, 298, 353-354, 421, 655-656; Wilson, 1872, pp. 167-173; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 585-588; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 34; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 739; Hart, Albert Bushnell, Salmon Portland Chase, 1899)
Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:
CHASE, Salmon Portland, statesman, b, in Cornish, New Hampshire, 13 January, 1808; died in New York City, 7 May, 1873. He was named for his uncle, Salmon, who died in Portland, and he used to say that he was his uncle's monument. He was a descendant in the ninth generation of Thomas Chase, of Chesham, England, and in the sixth of Aquila Chase, who came from England and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, about 1640. Salmon Portland was the eighth of the eleven children of Ithamar Chase and his wife Jannette Ralston, who was of Scottish blood. He was born in the house built by his grandfather, which still stands overlooking Connecticut River and in the afternoon shadow of Ascutney mountain. Of his father's seven brothers, three were lawyers, Dudley becoming a U. S. Senator; two were physicians; Philander became a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and one, like his father, was a farmer. His earliest teacher was Daniel Breck, afterward a jurist in Kentucky. When the boy was eight years old his parents moved to Keene, where his mother had inherited a little property. This was invested in a glass-factory; but a revision of the tariff, by which the duty on glass was lowered, ruined the business, and soon afterward the father died. Salmon was sent to school at Windsor, and made considerable progress in Latin and Greek. In 1820 his uncle, the bishop of Ohio, offered to take him into his family, and the boy set out in the spring, with his brother and the afterward famous Henry R. Schoolcraft, to make the journey to what was then considered the distant west. They were taken from Buffalo to Cleveland by the “Walk-in-the-Water,” the first steamboat on the great lakes. He spent three years in Worthington and Cincinnati with his uncle, who attended to his education personally till he went to England in 1823, when the boy returned home, the next year entered Dartmouth as a junior, and was graduated in 1826. He at once established a classical school for boys in Washington, D. C., which he conducted with success, at the same time studying law with William Wirt. Mr. Chase gave much of his leisure to light literature, and a poem that was addressed by him to Mr. Wirt's daughters was printed and is still extant. In 1830, having completed his studies, he closed the school, was admitted to the bar in Washington, and settled in Cincinnati, where he soon obtained a large practice. In politics he did not identify himself with either of the great parties; but on one point he was clear from the first: he was unalterably opposed to slavery, and in this sentiment he was confirmed by witnessing the destruction of the “Philanthropist” office by a pro-slavery mob in 1836. In 1837 he defended a fugitive slave woman, claimed under the law of 1793, and took the highest ground against the constitutionality of that law. One of the oldest lawyers in the court-room was heard to remark concerning him: “There is a promising young man who has just ruined himself.” In 1837 Mr. Chase also defended his friend James G. Birney in a suit for harboring a Negro slave, and in 1838 he reviewed with great severity a report of the judiciary committee of the state senate, refusing trial by jury to slaves, and in a second suit defended Mr. Birney. When it became evident, after the brief administration of Harrison was over and that of Tyler begun, that no more effective opposition to the encroachments of slavery was to be expected from the Whig than from the Democratic Party, a Liberty Party was organized in Ohio in December, 1841, and Mr. Chase was foremost among its founders. The address, which was written by Mr. Chase, contained these passages, clearly setting forth the issues of a mighty struggle that was to continue for twenty-five years and be closed only by a bloody war: “The constitution found slavery, and left it, a state institution—the creature and dependant of state law—wholly local in its existence and character. It did not make it a national institution. . . . Why, then, fellow-citizens, are we now appealing to you? . . . Why is it that the whole nation is moved, as with a mighty wind, by the discussion of the questions involved in the great issue now made up between liberty and slavery? It is, fellow-citizens—and we beg you to mark this—it is because slavery has overleaped its prescribed limits and usurped the control of the national government. We ask you to acquaint yourselves fully with the details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believing that the honor, the welfare, the safety of our country imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the government from slavery.” Writing of this late in life Mr. Chase said: “Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles and building up the organization of the party of constitutional freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demands upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed severely all my ability. . . . It seems to me now, on looking back, that I could not help working if I would, and that I was just as really called in the course of Providence to my labors for human freedom as ever any other laborer in the great field of the world was called to his appointed work.” Mr. Chase acted as counsel for so many blacks who were claimed as fugitives that he was at length called by Kentuckians the “attorney-general for runaway Negroes,” and the colored people of Cincinnati presented him with a silver pitcher “for his various public services in behalf of the oppressed.” One of his most noted cases was the defence of John Van Zandt (the original of John Van Trompe in “Uncle Tom's Cabin”) in 1842, who was prosecuted for harboring fugitive slaves because he had overtaken a party of them on the road and given them a ride in his wagon. In the final hearing, 1846, William H. Seward was associated with Mr. Chase, neither of them receiving any compensation.
When the Liberty Party, in a national convention held in Buffalo, New York, in 1843, nominated James G. Birney for president, the platform was almost entirely the composition of Mr. Chase. But he vigorously opposed the resolution, offered by John Pierpont, declaring that the fugitive-slave-law clause of the constitution was not binding in conscience, but might be mentally excepted in any oath to support the constitution. In 1840 the Liberty Party had cast but one in 360 of the entire popular vote of the country. In 1844 it cast one in forty, and caused the defeat of Mr. Clay. The Free-Soil Convention that met in Buffalo in 1848 and nominated Martin Van Buren for president, with Charles Francis Adams for vice-president, was presided over by Mr. Chase. This time the party cast one in nine of the whole number of votes. In February, 1849, the Democrats and the Free-Soilers in the Ohio legislature formed a coalition, one result of which was the election of Mr. Chase to the U. S. Senate. Agreeing with the Democracy of Ohio, which, by resolution in convention, had declared slavery to be an evil, he supported its state policy and nominees, but declared that he would desert it if it deserted the anti-slavery position. In the Senate, 26 and 27 March, 1850, he made a notable speech against the so-called “compromise measures,” which included the fugitive-slave law, and offered several amendments, all of which were voted down. When the Democratic Convention at Baltimore nominated Franklin Pierce for president in 1852, and approved of the compromise acts of 1850, Senator Chase dissolved his connection with the Democratic Party in Ohio. At this time he addressed a letter to Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, suggesting and vindicating the idea of an independent democracy. He made a platform, which was substantially that adopted at the Pittsburg Convention, in the same year. He continued his support to the independent Democrats until the Kansas-Nebraska bill came up, when he vigorously opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, wrote an appeal to the people against it, and made the first elaborate exposure of its character. His persistent attacks upon it in the Senate thoroughly roused the north, and are admitted to have influenced in a remarkable degree the subsequent struggle. During his senatorial career Mr. Chase also advocated economy in the national finances, a Pacific Railroad by the shortest and best route, the homestead law (which was intended to develop the northern territories), and cheap postage, and held that the national treasury should defray the expense of providing for safe navigation of the lakes, as well as of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
In 1855 he was elected governor of Ohio by the opponents of the Pierce administration. His inaugural address recommended single districts for legislative representation, annual instead of biennial sessions of the legislature, and an extended educational system. Soon after his inauguration occurred the Garner tragedy, so called, in which a fugitive slave mother, near Cincinnati, attempted to kill all of her children, and did kill one, to prevent them from being borne back to slave-life in Kentucky. This and other slave-hunts in Ohio so roused and increased the anti-slavery sentiment in that place that Governor Chase was re-nominated by acclamation, and was re-elected by a small majority, though the American or Know-Nothing Party had a candidate in the field. In the National Republican Convention, held at Chicago in 1860, the vote on the first ballot stood: Seward, 173½; Lincoln, 102; Cameron, 50½; Chase, 49. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln lacked but four of the number necessary to nominate, and these were given by Mr. Chase's friends before the result was declared. When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated president, 4 March, 1861, he made Governor Chase secretary of the treasury. The difficulty that he was immediately called upon to grapple with is thus described by Mr. Greeley: “When he accepted the office of secretary of the treasury the finances were already in chaos; the current revenue being inadequate, even in the absence of all expenditure or preparation for war, his predecessor (Cobb, of Georgia) having attempted to borrow $10,000,000, in October, 1860, and obtained only $7,022,000—the bidders to whom the balance was awarded choosing to forfeit their initial deposit rather than take and pay for their bonds. Thenceforth he had tided over, till his resignation, by selling treasury notes, payable a year from date, at 6 to 12 per cent. discount; and when, after he had retired from the scene, General Dix, who succeeded him in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, attempted (February, 1861) to borrow a small sum on twenty-year bonds at 6 per cent., he was obliged to sell those bonds at an average discount of 9½ per cent. Hence, of Mr. Chase's first loan of $8,000,000, for which bids were opened (2 April) ten days before Beauregard first fired on Fort Sumter, the offerings ranged from 5 to 10 per cent. discount; and only $3,099,000 were tendered at or under 6 per cent. discount—he, in the face of a vehement clamor, declining all bids at higher rates of discount than 6 per cent., and placing soon afterward the balance of the $8,000,000 in two-year treasury notes at par or a fraction over.” When the secretary went to New York for his first loan, the London “Times” declared that he had “coerced $50,000,000 from the banks, but would not fare so well at the London Exchange.” Three years later it said “the hundredth part of Mr. Chase's embarrassments would tax Mr. Gladstone's ingenuity to the utmost, and set the [British] public mind in a ferment of excitement.” In his conference with the bankers the secretary said he hoped they would be able to take the loans on such terms as could be admitted. “If you cannot,” said he, “I shall go back to Washington and issue notes for circulation; for it is certain that the war must go on until the rebellion is put down, if we have to put out paper until it takes a thousand dollars to buy a breakfast.” At this time the amount of coin in circulation in the country was estimated at $210,000,000; and it soon became evident that this was insufficient for carrying on the war. The banks could not sell the bonds for coin, and could not meet their obligations in coin, and on 27 December, 1861, they agreed to suspend specie payment at the close of the year. In his first report, submitted on the 9th of that month, Secretary Chase recommended retrenchment of expenses wherever possible, confiscation of the property of those in arms against the government, an increase of duties and of the tax on spirits, and a national currency, with a system of national banking associations. This last recommendation was carried out in the issue of “greenbacks,” which were made a legal tender for everything but customs duties, and the establishment of the national banking law. His management of the finances of the government during the first three years of the great war has received nothing but the highest praise. He resigned the secretaryship on 30 June, 1864, and was succeeded a few days later by William P. Fessenden. On 6 December, 1864, President Lincoln nominated him to be chief justice of the United States, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Roger B. Taney, and the nomination was immediately confirmed by the Senate. In this office he presided at the impeachment trial of President Johnson in 1868. In that year his name was frequently mentioned in connection with the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and in answer to a letter from the chairman of the Democratic National committee he wrote:
“For more than a quarter of a century I have been, in my political views and sentiments, a Democrat, and I still think that upon questions of finance, commerce, and administration generally, the old Democratic principles afford the best guidance. What separated me in former times from both parties was the depth and positiveness of my convictions on the slavery question. On that question I thought the Democratic Party failed to make a just application of Democratic principles, and regarded myself as more democratic than the Democrats. In 1849 I was elected to the Senate by the united votes of the old-line Democrats and independent Democrats, and subsequently made earnest efforts to bring about a union of all Democrats on the ground of the limitation of slavery to the states in which it then existed, and non-intervention in these states by Congress. Had that union been effected, it is my firm belief that the country would have escaped the late Civil War and all its evils. I never favored interference by Congress with slavery, but as a war measure Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation had my hearty assent, and I united, as a member of his administration, in the pledge made to maintain the freedom of the enfranchised people. I have been, and am, in favor of so much of the reconstruction policy of Congress as based the re-organization of the state governments of the south upon universal suffrage. I think that President Johnson was right in regarding the southern states, except Virginia and Tennessee, as being, at the close of the war, without governments which the U.S. government could properly recognize—without governors, judges, legislators, or other state functionaries; but wrong in limiting, by his reconstruction proclamations, the right of suffrage to whites, and only such whites as had the qualification he required. On the other hand, it seemed to me, Congress was right in not limiting, by its reconstruction acts, the right of suffrage to the whites; but wrong in the exclusion from suffrage of certain classes of citizens, and of all unable to take a prescribed retrospective oath, and wrong also in the establishment of arbitrary military governments for the states, and in authorizing military commissions for the trial of civilians in time of peace. There should have been as little military government as possible; no military commissions, no classes excluded from suffrage, and no oath except one of faithful obedience and support to the constitution and laws, and sincere attachment to the constitutional government of the United States. I am glad to know that many intelligent southern Democrats agree with me in these views, and are willing to accept universal suffrage and universal amnesty as the basis of reconstruction and restoration. They see that the shortest way to revive prosperity, possible only with contented industry, is universal suffrage now, and universal amnesty, with removal of all disabilities, as speedily as possible through the action of the state and national governments. I have long been a believer in the wisdom and justice of securing the right of suffrage to all citizens by state constitutions and legislation. It is the best guarantee of the stability of institutions, and the prosperity of communities. My views on this subject were well known when the Democrats elected me to the Senate in 1849. I have now answered your letter as I think I ought to answer it. I beg you to believe me—for I say it in all sincerity—that I do not desire the office of president, nor a nomination for it. Nor do I know that, with my views and convictions, I am a suitable candidate for any party. Of that my countrymen must judge.”
Judge Chase subsequently prepared a declaration of principles, embodying the ideas of his letter, and submitted it to those Democrats who desired his nomination, as a platform in that event. But this was not adopted by the convention, and the plan to nominate him, if there was such a plan, failed. In June, 1870, he suffered an attack of paralysis, and from that time till his death he was an invalid. As in the case of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, his integrity was shown by the fact that, though he had been a member of the administration when the government was spending millions of dollars a day, he died comparatively poor. His remains were buried in Washington; but in October, 1886, were removed, with appropriate ceremony, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and deposited in Spring Grove cemetery near that city. Besides his reports and decisions, Mr. Chase published a compilation of the statutes of Ohio, with annotations and an historical sketch (3 vols., Cincinnati, 1832). See “Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase,” by J. W. Schuckers (New York, 1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 585-588.
Chapter: “John Quincy Adams. - William H. Seward. - Salmon P. Chase,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
In the formation of the Liberty Party Mr. Chase had taken an active part. From his pen were issued its platform and address, which have been regarded as the clearest and most discriminating papers of the struggle, upon the constitutional limits, provisions, and obligations concerning slavery and the slave States. This party, basing its action on moral grounds, the pioneer of all subsequent organizations which have been formed for the purpose of resisting slavery by political action, received nowhere else a more enthusiastic support: The nonresistant and non-voting policy found few adherents in Ohio; and the principle of meeting a political evil by political action encountered few who denied its soundness and necessity.
Under these circumstances, and with the fruits of those years of earnest toil, the election of 1848 resulted in a vote of thirty-five thousand for the Free Soil candidate for the Presidency, and in the choice of a legislature in which the friends of freedom held the balance of power. The Senate was equally divided between the Whigs and the Democrats. In the House there were thirty-four Whigs and thirty-four Democrats, and two members elected, in opposition to both parties, as Free Soilers. Several Democrats and Whigs were elected, however, by the aid of Free Soil votes, or by the union of Free Soilers with Whigs or Democrats. The legislature, thus chosen, had nearly the whole appointing power of the State. A United States Senator was to be elected, two judges of the Supreme Court were to be chosen, and a large number of less important offices were to be filled. The existence of what were familiarly termed the “black laws” had been made the subject of discussion during the canvass; the Democrats generally defending them, a majority perhaps of the Whigs desiring a modification, and the Free-Soilers demanding their unconditional repeal. Such was the composition of that legislature, and such was the work to be accomplished. It was the purpose of the friends of human rights to use their power in such a manner as would best inure to the interests of freedom. The results amply vindicated the fidelity and sagacity of their course. Without ignoring the overruling hand of Providence in what secured such large results by numbers so insignificant, from means so seemingly inadequate, and in spite of agencies which threatened defeat, instead of triumph, there are revealed in, this election and its immediate results striking illustrations of what may be achieved by a brave and persistent adherence to principle and a wise use of even the most inconsiderable means.
Soon after the organization of the legislature, the Free Soil members, including Townsend and Morse, the two independent members, and eleven who had been elected by the union of Free Soil and Whig votes, held a caucus. At that meeting a motion was made that each member should attend all the subsequent meetings of the Free Soil caucus, and pledge himself to support its decisions in regard to all matters likely to come up for legislative action. The eleven supported the motion; but the two, recognizing their paramount obligations to use their legislative powers only as fealty to freedom and their constituents demanded, refused to support the motion or to give the pledge. This refusal incensed their associates, who declared them to be no longer members of the Free Soil Party of the House.
The meeting broke up without accomplishing the purpose for which it was called, and to the evident discomfiture of the Free Soil Whigs. The two independent members thereupon informed their Whig associates that, if they were not permitted to attend their meetings, they should constitute themselves the Independent Free Soil Party of the legislature. This position gave them great power with both parties, and no doubt furnishes the key to the extraordinary results which two men, in a legislative body of one hundred and six members, were enabled to accomplish.
Holding the balance of power, they naturally became objects of solitude and electioneering effort with both Whigs and Democrats; the Whigs having the advantage, in that several of their members had been elected by the aid of Free Soil votes. The political objects of special interest and effort at that time were the election of a United States Senator, the proposed action in respect to the "black laws," and the election of judges of the Supreme Court. Of these objects the Democrats were specially solicitous concerning the election of judges, as there existed an impression that the question concerning election districts, in which they were particularly interested, might be brought before them for adjudication; the Free Soil members making it a condition precedent of their co-operation with any party that the “black laws " should be repealed.
The greatest triumph, however, of that remarkable election was found in the repeal of the “black laws," which disgraced the statute-book of the State, and which had been the objects of the special hostility of antislavery men, though they had found earnest Democratic defenders in the previous canvass.
These laws required the colored people to give bonds for good behavior as a condition of residence, excluded them from the schools, denied them the right of testifying in courts of justice when a white man was party on either side, and subjected them to other unjust and degrading disabilities. As Mr. Chase had been an avowed opposer of these inhuman statutes, they very properly selected him as their adviser, and requested him to draught a proper bill. This he did by preparing one that would secure substantially their object, but at the same time excite as little as possible the hostility of members who had at heart small sympathy with the purpose in ,view. Aiming to make the most of the favorable conjunction of circumstances, he incorporated into the proposed bill provisions which the most hopeful hardly expected to be enacted. He was sanguine, however, the Free Soil members were resolute, and the circumstances propitious. It was submitted to the examination and criticism of the Democrats, who unexpectedly accepted it and agreed to support it. How much the considerations they were expecting or had exacted from the Free Soil members had to do with their decision, and how much their indignation at the recent election of General Taylor, a Southern slaveholder, over their Democratic candidate, and their consequent relief from the responsibility for a national administration may never be known. It is sufficient for this purpose to record their assent to its provisions, and its adoption in the House by a large majority. In the Senate it was referred to a committee, who modified it somewhat, and it was then passed. The House concurred, and the bill became a law. Thus, by this wise use of the power their position gave them, was a humane and just law enacted, somewhat, indeed, in advance of the popular sentiment and moral convictions of the people, and yet, being enacted, it was not likely to be reversed, while the very struggle needful to enact it and its presence on the statute-book tended to educate the popular mind and to lift it up to the plane on which it rested. It relieved the colored people from all their most onerous disabilities, gave them entrance into schools, and awakened hopes of the future which have been far more than realized.
No question, however, of all that occupied and agitated public attention at that time excited deeper interest than that of the United States Senatorship. The antislavery men were specially anxious to have a representative in the Senate, where the Slave Power had so long wielded an almost unquestioned sway, and where so few voices had ever been raised for freedom. Thomas Morris had spoken ably. In him Ohio had found a voice potential in behalf of human rights. Otherwise she had shared in the general recreancy, and had been either silent or had spoken at the behest of slavery. There was, indeed, John P. Hale, the Abolition senator from New Hampshire, --strangely as those words sounded, -- that long-time stronghold of the Northern slavery-bestrode Democracy. But he was treated with contumely, and maintained his ground only by his talent and tact, by his unfailing wit and his unbounded good-humor.
Most earnestly, therefore, did the antislavery men, not only of Ohio but of the North, desire that advantage should be taken of this fortunate conjunction of affairs to select and send to the Senate some worthy coadjutor of the eloquent representative of the Granite State. The thoughts of many, perhaps most, of the friends of humanity and equal rights were instinctively turned to Joshua R. Giddings, who had for years maintained an unequal contest with the champions of aggression in the lower house of Congress. His incorruptible integrity, his stern and sturdy independence, his unflinching advocacy of the unpopular cause, pointed to him as the proper person to be selected for that high office, not only for the service to be performed, but for the honor richly deserved.
There were four candidates. The Democrats had selected William Allen; the Whigs, Thomas Ewing; and the two Free Soilers were divided in their choice between Mr. Giddings and Mr. Chase. Mr. Allen was not only proslavery in sentiment, but his views were extreme and violent. Mr. Ewing was of Southern birth, and though not antislavery in his opinions he was opposed to the extension of the peculiar institution. Mr. Giddings was an antislavery Whig. Mr. Chase, though Democratic in principle and sympathy, was not a member of the Democratic Party. He was decidedly antislavery in sentiment and action, and had rendered essential service to the cause of human rights.
In this state of the principal parties, it being understood that the Free Soil members would not give them their votes, it became evident that neither the Whigs nor the Democrats could elect their candidates. Nor could both of the Free Soil members be gratified with the choice of theirs. Some compromise must be effected. The Whigs, in order to defeat the election of the Democratic candidate, and, on the part of the antislavery portion, for the purpose of carrying out their views, were ready to substitute for Mr. Ewing some person of more pronounced antislavery sentiments. The two Free Soil members had agreed that either should vote for the candidate of the other whenever there should be a prospect of his election. The Whigs were ready, and most of them were anxious, with the exception of two members, to vote for Mr. Giddings. As, however, none of the Democrats would vote for him, and as the two recusant members obstinately refused to yield, after three unsuccessful ballotings his name was withdrawn. The Democrats, for the purpose of defeating the Whig candidate, and with the understanding that the Free Soil members would support their candidates for judges of the Supreme Court, having substituted the name of Hon. Rufus P. Spaulding, afterward Republican Representative in Congress, for that of Judge Read, whom they could not consistently support, expressed a willingness to cast their votes for Mr. Chase. By this arrangement he was elected on the fourth ballot. When the vote was announced, an enthusiastic antislavery man in the galleries exclaimed, "Thank God!" to which were many answering responses wherever Mr. Chase was known, not only on account of the service he had already rendered, but for the confident expectation cherished of the large additions of strength and prestige he would bring to the struggling cause on the wider and more conspicuous theatre of the United States Senate.
Many, however, were greatly disappointed that the choice did not fall on Mr. Giddings. Indeed, some of his friends felt that he had been deprived of a position to which, by his longer and more self-sacrificing service, he was fairly entitled. The cause, however, was evidently the gainer by the decision which was finally reached; for, from that time onward, freedom had two potent advocates in the councils ·of the nation, instead of one; both, too, occupying in their respective spheres positions to which each seemed best adapted, and in which each rendered yeoman's service, for which the slave and the slave's friends should ever hold them in grateful remembrance.
Source: Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 167-173.
CHASE, William Henry, soldier, born in Massachusetts in 1798; died in Pensacola, Florida, 8 February, 1870. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1815, and was at once assigned to the Engineer Corps. He was employed in repairing Fort Niagara from 1817 till 1818, and in 1819 was assigned to duty in constructing defences for New Orleans and the gulf ports, which the war of 1812 had shown to be vulnerable points. His first works were Forts Pike and Macomb. He was made first lieutenant, 31 March, 1819, and from then till 1828 was superintending engineer of various important works, including the forts at Rigolets, Chef Menteur, Bienvenue, and the Bayou Dupre passes to New Orleans. He was promoted to captain, 1 January, 1825, and from 1828 till 1854 was in charge of the construction of the defences in Pensacola Harbor, Florida. He was also in charge of Fort Morgan, Alabama, of Fort Jackson, Louisiana, and of the improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi from 1836 till 1839. He was promoted to major, 7 July, 1838, and served on special boards of engineers for the examination of various points. He superintended the improvement of Mobile Bay. His last work was Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida, of which he had charge in 1854- 6, when he was appointed by President Pierce superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy, but resigned from the army on 31 October, before entering upon his duties there, and became president of the Alabama and Florida Railroad Company. Major Chase took an influential part in all projects connected with the development of the region about Pensacola, where he made his home. When the Civil War began, he joined the Confederates, and was active in the seizure of Pensacola Navy-yard, but after this took no prominent part. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 589.
CHASE, William Henry, soldier, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 25 April, 1844; died there, 21 June, 1871. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1865, became a first lieutenant in the Engineer Corps, and served at Willett's Point, New York, St. Paul, Minn., and San Francisco, California. While at St. Paul, he was directed by General Warren to make a topographical survey of the battle-field of Gettysburg. The survey was completed in 1869, and is a valuable contribution to the military history of the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 589
CHEANEY, Person Colby, 1828-1901, Manchester, New Hampshire, statesman, soldier, abolitionist, businessman, paper manufacturer, Republican politician, abolitionist. U.S. Senator, 35th Governor of New Hampshire. His father was abolitionist Moses Cheney. (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 54)
CHEATHAM, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, born in Nashville, Tennessee, 20 October, 1820; died there, 4 September, 1886. He served as captain of volunteers in the Mexican War, distinguished himself at Monterey, Medelin, and Cerro Gordo, and, after the expiration of his twelve months term of service, was again mustered in as colonel of the 3d Tennessee Regiment, and served till the end of the war. He was major-general of Tennessee militia after his return, and was a farmer until 1861, when he entered the army of the seceded states, being one of the first Tennesseans to enlist in the Confederate service, and was early appointed a brigadier-general. He commanded at Mayfield, Kentucky, in September, 1861, and at the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, served subsequently at Columbus, Kentucky, was a division commander in Bragg's army when it entered Kentucky in September, 1862, was soon afterward promoted major-general, and was engaged at Stone River, being wounded and having three horses shot in the second battle, and at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Nashville, and other places. President Grant, who was his personal friend, offered him an appointment in the civil service, but he declined. He devoted himself chiefly to agriculture after the war, but served four years as superintendent of state prisons, and in October, 1885, became postmaster of Nashville. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 596
CHENEY, Abigail, New Hampshire, abolitionist. Wife of abolitionist Moses Cheney. Conductor on the Underground Railroad. (Cheney, 1907)
CHENEY, Ednah Dow Littlehale, 1824-1904, abolitionist, women’s rights activist (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 164-165; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 777)
CHENEY, Moses, 1793-1875, New Hampshire, abolitionist, printer, state legislator from New Hampshire. Cheney printed the abolitionist newspaper, The Morning Star, a Free Will Baptist newspaper. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Peterborough and an associate of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Husband of Abigail Cheney. (Cheney, 1907)
CHENEY, Oren B., 1816-1903, Maine, Free Will Baptist clergyman, state legislator in Maine, educator, newspaper editor, abolitionist. Free Soil Party. Editor of The Morning Star. Founder and President of Bates College. Conductor on the Underground Railroad for seven years. Son of abolitionists Moses and Abigail Cheney. (Cheney, 1907)
CHENEY, Person Colby, 1828-1901, abolitionist, businessman, Union Army officer. Son of Moses and Abigail Cheney. Later, Governor and Senator from New Hampshire. (Cheney, 1907)
CHESTER, Colby M. naval officer, born in Connecticut in 1845. He was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy, assigned in 1863 to the steam sloop "Richmond," of the Western Gulf Squadron, and participated in the operations against Mobile on 5 August, 1864. He was promoted master, 10 November, 1866, commissioned lieutenant, 21 February, 1867, lieutenant-commander, 12 March, 1868, became commander, 15 October, 1881, and was hydrographic inspector of the Coast Survey from 1881 till 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 599.
CHESTNUT, James, Jr., senator, born near Camden, South Carolina, in 1815. He was graduated at Princeton in 1835. From 1842 till 1852 he served in the South Carolina legislature, and from 1854 till 1858 was a member of the state senate. A vacancy occurring in the U.S. Senate, he was appointed to fill the unexpired term, and was formally elected senator on 5 January, 1859. He resigned on 10 November, 1860, in anticipation of the secession of South Carolina; but his resignation was not accepted, and he was formally expelled, 11 July, 1861. In the meantime he had been appointed a delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress. He was commissioned colonel in the Confederate Army, and detailed as aide-de-camp on the staff of Jefferson Davis. In 1864 he was promoted brigadier-general and assigned to a command on the coast of South Carolina. In 1868 he was a member of the National Democratic Convention that nominated Horatio Seymour for the presidency. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 600.
CHETLAIN, Augustus Louis, soldier, born in St. Louis, Missouri, 26 December, 1824. His parents, of French Huguenot stock, emigrated from Neufchâtel, Switzerland, in 1823, and were members of the Red River colony. He received a common-school education, became a merchant in Galena, and was the first volunteer at a meeting held in response to the president's call after the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861. He was chosen captain of the company when General (then Captain) Grant declined, and on 16 April, 1862, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 12th Illinois Infantry. He was in command at Smithland, Kentucky, from September, 1861, till January, 1862, and then participated in General Smith's campaign on the Tennessee River to Fort Henry, and led his regiment at Fort Donelson. He was engaged at Shiloh, distinguishing himself at Corinth, being left in command of that post until May, 1863, and while there organized the first colored regiment raised in the west. On 13 December, 1863, he was promoted brigadier-general, placed in charge of the organization of colored troops in Tennessee, and afterward in Kentucky, and by 1 January, 1864, had raised a force of 17,000 men, for which service he was brevetted major- general. From January to October, 1865, he commanded the post of Memphis, and then the District of Talladega, Alabama, until 5 February, 1866, when he was mustered out of service. He was assessor of internal revenue for the District of Utah in 1867–'9, then U.S. consul at Brussels, and, after his return to the United States in 1872, established himself in Chicago as a banker and stock-broker. In September, 1886, General Chetlain delivered the annual address before the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, at Rock Island, Illinois. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 600.
CHEW, Robert S., chief clerk of the State Department at Washington, born in Virginia in 1811; died in Washington, D. C., 3 August, 1873. He entered the service of the government in his youth, and had served in the State Department more than forty years, when he was advanced to the chief clerkship on the appointment of William Hunter as second assistant Secretary of State in July, 1866.—His eldest son, Richard S., naval officer, born in the District of Columbia, 7 September, 1843; died in Washington, D. C, 10 April, 1875. He was graduated at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1861, commissioned lieutenant, 22 February, 1864, and lieutenant-commander, 25 July, 1866, served on board the frigate "Minnesota," participating in the actions with the "Merrimac" on 8 and 9 April, 1862, being attached to the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron in 1863-'4, and being present at the battle of Mobile Bay. On 2 February, 1875, he was retired for disability. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 601.
