Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Pac-Pie
PACKARD, Charles, Lancaster, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-44
PACKARD, John Hooker, surgeon, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 15 August. 1832. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in arts in 1850, and in medicine in 1853. He was surgeon during the Civil War to the Christian street and Satterlee U. S. Army Hospitals, consulting surgeon to the hospitals at Beverly, New Jersey, and Haddington. Pennsylvania, surgeon to the Episcopal Hospital at Philadelphia in 1863-'84, and has held a similar office in the Pennsylvania Hospital since 1884. He was secretary of the College of physicians from 1862 till 1877, of which body he was chosen vice-president in 1886, and is a member of other learned bodies. He translated "Malgaigne on Fractures " (Philadelphia, 1859); published " Philadelphia Medical Directory" (1868, 1871. and 1873); and is the author of "Manual of Minor Surgery" (1863); " Lectures on Inflammation "(1865); "Handbook of Operative Surgery " (1870); and "Sea-Air and Sea-Bathing" (1881). He has contributed largely on medical subjects to various medical journals, to the "Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society," and to the " Pennsylvania Hospital Reports." A paper on " Some of the Surgeons of the Last Century," read before the Ontario Medical Association, is printed in the " Canadian Practitioner" (February, 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 618-619.
PACKARD, Alpheus Spring, naturalist, born in Brunswick, Maine, 19 February, 1839, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1861 and at Maine Medical School in 1864. Meanwhile he was volunteer assistant in 1861-'2 on the Maine Geological Survey, also studying natural history for three years under Louis Agassiz in Cambridge, part of which time he was Agassiz's assistant. In October. 1864, he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the 1st Maine Veteran Volunteers, and he served with the 6th Corps of the Army of the Potomac until July, 1865. During 1865 he was acting custodian and librarian of the Boston Society of Natural History, after which he joined Alpheus Hyatt, Edward S. Morse, and Frederick W. Putnam in the establishment of the Peabody Academy of Science in Salem, of which he was one of the curators in 1868-'76, also serving as director of its museum in 1877-'8. In the winter of 1869-'70 he made zoological collections on the Florida reefs and at Beaufort, North Carolina, and in 1871 at Charleston, South Carolina, and he was state entomologist of Massachusetts in 1871-'3. Professor Packard was one of the instructors in the Agassiz Science School at Penikese in 1873-'4, and was connected with the U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories under Ferdinand V. Hayden in 1875-'7. Meanwhile he delivered lectures on entomology at Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1869-'77, at Maine State Agricultural College in 1871, at Bowdoin in 1873, and on comparative anatomy at Bowdoin in 1876, and he was connected with the U. S. Fish Commission in 1871-'4. In 1878 he was called to the chair of zoology and geology in Brown University, which he has since filled. He was a member of the U. S. Entomological Commission during its existence in 1877-'82, making for it in 1877-80 extensive tours in the western and Pacific states and the territories. His scientific work has been principally in the direction of entomology. In 1863 he proposed a new classification of insects, which has since been generally adopted both in Europe and in this country. He discovered the morphology and mode of development of the ovipositor and sting of insects, the nature of the trachea of insects, and has studied their external anatomy. His contributions to the natural history of the limulus, including the development and anatomy of the brain and nervous system, is considered of great value. In paleontology he has collected and described the post-Pliocene fossils of Maine and Labrador, and the merostomata and crustacea of the carboniferous formations of Illinois and Pennsylvania: and shown the close relationship of the trilobites to limulus. Professor Packard's writings have contributed to the extension of the evolution theory, and he advocates a modern form of Lamarckianism, to which he gives the term of neo-Lamarckianism. In studying this subject he has made observations on variations in insects induced by climate, on salt-water animals, and on cave or blind animals. Professor Packard is a member of many scientific societies in the United States and Europe, and in 1872 was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the founders of the " American Naturalist " and its editor-in-chief until 1886. His bibliography includes upward of 400 titles. His larger scientific memoirs include "Glacial Phenomena of Maine and Labrador" (1866): "Revision of the Fossorial Hymenoptera of North America" (1866-'7); "Structure of the Ovipositor of Insects" (1868); "Development and Anatomy of Limulus Polyphemus “ (1871-85): "Monograph of the Geometrid Moths" (1876); “ The Brain of the Locust " (1881); "Monograph of North American Phyllopod Crustacea" (1883); and "The Cave Fauna of North America" (1888). His popular works and textbooks comprise " A Guide to the Study of Insects" (Salem. 1869); "Record of American Entomology" (1868-72); "The Mammoth Cave and its Inhabitants." with Frederick W. Putnam (1872); "Our Common Insects" (Boston, 1876): "Life Histories of Animals, including Man, or Outlines of Comparative Embryology (New York, 1876); "Half Hours with Insects" (Boston, 1877); "Insects of the West" (Washington, 1877; London, 1878); "Zoology for Students and General Readers" (New York, 187!): briefer course, 1883); "First Lessons in Geology" (Providence, 1882); "First Lessons in Zoology" (New York, 1886); "Entomology for Beginners" (1888); "A Naturalist on the Labrador Coast" (1888); and "Forest and Shade-Tree Insects" (Washington. 1888). See "The Entomological Writings of Dr. Alpheus Spring Packard," by Samuel Henshaw (1887). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 619-620.
PACKARD, Jasper, soldier, born in Austintown, Mahoning County, Ohio, 1 February, 1832. He moved with his father to Indiana in 1835 and studied at Oberlin College, Ohio, and afterward at the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in 1855. He then engaged in teaching, settled at Laporte, edited "The Union" there, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1861. He entered the National Army as a private at the Beginning of the Civil War, served as lieutenant during the Vicksburg Campaign, being wounded during the assault on that place, received two promotions during the Atlanta Campaign, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers for meritorious services. He was mustered out of service in 1866, was auditor of Laporte County in 1866-'8, and a member of Congress from Indiana from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1875. He was U. S. internal revenue agent from January, 1876, till July, 1884. He established the "Laporte Chronicle" in July, 1874, and published it for four years, and has been proprietor and editor of the "Laporte Daily Public Spirit" since 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 620.
PACKARD, Theodore, Shelburn, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-40
PACKER, Asa, capitalist, born in Groton, Connecticut, 20 December 1806; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 17 May, 1879. He received a common-school education, and began to learn the tanner's trade, but in 1822 went to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and served an apprenticeship with a relative who was a carpenter. He worked at his trade in New York City, but soon returned to Pennsylvania, and when the Lehigh Valley Canal was opened established his home at Mauch Chunk, in 1823, became the owner and master of a boat that carried coal to Philadelphia, and acquired an interest in others, but in 1831 gave up boating in order to carry on a store and boat-yard. He took a contract for locks, which he completed in 1837, became well known as a contractor, and in 1838 began to build boats at Pottsville for the transportation of coal to New York by way of the new canal, which soon attracted all the traffic that had before passed through Philadelphia. He became extensively engaged in the mining and transportation of coal, working the mines of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and purchasing and operating new mines at Hazleton. In 1844 he was elected to the legislature, and secured the creation of the separate county of Carbon, with Mauch Chunk for its county-seat, after which he filled for five years the post of county judge. He projected the Lehigh Valley Railroad, secured the necessary subscriptions, and by 1855 had the line completed from Mauch Chunk to Easton, with branches to Hazleton and Mahanoy. Subsequently he procured its extension northward, to connect with the Eric Railroad, thus opening up the anthracite region. Mr. Packer was president of the company, and, though financially embarrassed before the completion of the line, shared largely in the profits of the mining and transportation business that was developed, and became the richest man in Pennsylvania. In 1844 he was elected to the state legislature, he was instrumental in forming county, and for five years was judge of the court. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat. and re-elected as a Nebraska Democrat, serving from 5 December 1853, till 3 March, 1857. In 1868 he received the votes of the Pennsylvania delegates for the presidential nomination in the National Democratic Convention, and in 1869 he was the Democratic candidate for governor. In 1876 he was a commissioner for the Centennial Exhibition. Mr. Packer in 1865 gave $500,000 and 115 acres of land to found Lehigh University at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (see illustration), for the purpose of affording young men of the Lehigh Valley an advanced technical education without charge. The scheme of studies embraces civil, mining, and mechanical engineering, physics, chemistry, metallurgy, French, and German. By his last will he secured an endowment of $1,500,000 to the university and one of $500,000 to the library. His daughter, Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, gave a memorial Carbon County Memorial Church, which was dedicated on 13 October, 1887, the anniversary of the founding of the university. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 620-621.
PACKER, William Fisher, governor of Pennsylvania, born in Howard, Centre County, Pennsylvania, 2 April, 1807; died in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 27 September, 1870. He was of Quaker ancestry. At the age of thirteen he apprenticed himself to a relative, who published a newspaper in Sunbury. After completing his apprenticeship in Bellefonte, he worked for two years as a journeyman in the office of Simon Cameron, then public printer at Harrisburg, read law for a short time in Williamsport, and in 1827 became one of the proprietors and editors of the "Lycoming Gazette," of which he was sole manager from 1829 till 1836. He was the author of an "Address to the People of Philadelphia" (1831), urging the construction of the West Branch Canal as a part of the system of internal improvements that was then under discussion, and was superintendent of that division until the work was completed in 1835. He was one of the founders in 1836 of the " Keystone," at Harrisburg, which became the organ of the Democratic Party in the state. He was a canal commissioner in 1839-'42. In 1843 he disposed of his interest in the " Keystone" and became auditor-general of the commonwealth, which office he held till 1845. In 1847 and 1848 he was elected to the state house of representatives, and was chosen speaker for both terms. In 1849 he was elected a state senator, and while in that body he secured, against strong opposition, the incorporation of the Susquehanna Railroad Company, the beginning of railroad connections with Baltimore. He was made president of the corporation on its organization in 1852, and, when the road was consolidated with others to form the Northern Central Railway, became a director in the latter company. As a member of the National Democratic Convention he labored for the nomination of James Buchanan for the presidency in 1856. in 1857 he was elected governor for the term ending in January, 1861. He opposed the policy of President Buchanan, and in his last annual message denounced the secession of South Carolina as an act of rebellion. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 621.
PADDOCK, Algernon Sidney, senator, born in Glenn's Falls, New York, 9 November, 1830. He was educated at Glenn's Falls Academy, studied law, moved in 1857 to Omaha, Nebraska Territory, and was there admitted to the bar. He engaged actively in politics, was a candidate for the territorial legislature in 1858, a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860, and afterward secretary of the territory, holding the office and performing the duties of governor during much of the time, from April, 1861, till the admission of Nebraska as a state in 1867. He engaged in the manufacture of hydraulic cement at Beatrice, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864, and in 1866 an Independent Republican candidate for Congress. In 1868 he was appointed governor of Wyoming Territory, but declined. He was afterward elected a U. S. Senator by both Republican and Democratic votes, and served from 3 March, 1875, till 4 March, 1881. He was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by Charles H. Van Wyck. They contended again for the nomination at the conclusion of the latter's term, and Mr. Paddock was victorious in the Republican caucus, and on 21 January, 1887, was elected senator for the term ending 3 March, 1893. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 621.
PADELFORD, Seth, 1807-1878, political leader, statesman, abolitionist. 31st Governor of Rhode Island. Worked with New England Emigrant Aid Society, which aided anti-slavery settlers in Kansas. Member of Republican Party. Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, 1863-1865, Governor in 1869-1873.
PAGE, Charles Grafton, physicist, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 25 January, 1812; died in Washington, D. C, 5 May, 1868. He was graduated at Harvard in 1832, and then studied medicine in Boston. In 1838 he settled in Virginia and there followed his profession for two years, when he was called to the chair of chemistry in Columbian University, Washington, D. C. He was made examiner in the Patent-Office in 1840, when there were but two examiners in that office, and continued in that place until his death. As a boy he showed great fondness for scientific studies, and at the age of ten years built an electric machine. He continued his studies in that branch of science throughout his life, and was an accepted authority on the subject. He had for years been engaged in perfecting machinery for the effective and economical use of electro-magnetism as a motive power, and at the time of his death had so far succeeded as to be able to use it for the propulsion of machinery, and to some extent as a locomotive force. Among other things the original discovery of the Ruhmkorff coil is claimed for him. Dr. Page was a frequent contributor to various literary and scientific periodicals, particularly to the “American Journal of Science," and was the author of “Psychomancy, Spirit-Rappings, and Table-Tippinsers Exposed " (New York, 1853). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 623.
PAGE, Thomas Jefferson, born at Shelly, Gloucester County, Virginia, 4 January, 1808, was appointed a midshipman on 1 October, 1827, passed for promotion on 10 June, 1833, and was commissioned as lieutenant on 20 December, 1839. He served on the Coast Survey for several years, circumnavigated the globe in the "Dolphin,'' and on his return home suggested to the Secretary of the Navy, William A. Graham, a plan for a survey of the China Seas, and obtained an appropriation from Congress for the construction of a steamer for the purpose. When John P. Kennedy took charge of the Navy Department, he greatly enlarged the scope of the expedition, and placed Commodore Matthew C. Perry in command, offering the second place to Lieutenant Page, who, however, declined. In 1853 he was placed in command of an expedition for the exploration of the tributaries of the Rio de la Plata and adjacent countries. He was well received by President Carlos A. Lopez, of the republic of Paraguay, and carried out his mission without obstruction till February, 1855, when his steamer, the "Water-Witch," was fired upon from a Paraguayan fort on the Parana River, and one man was killed. He returned the fire, but his vessel was not fitted for offensive operations. He returned to the United States in May, 1856, after an absence of three years and four months. A naval demonstration, in January, 1859, secured reparation from the Paraguayan government. Page, who had been promoted commander on 14 September, 1855, resumed his surveys, and completed them in December, 1860. Turning over to the Navy Department the charts, notes, and journals, which embrace several thousand miles of river navigation previously unexplored, and not yet described in print, he resigned his commission on the secession of his state. He was offered an admiral's commission by the Italian government, which desired his aid in the reorganization of its navy; yet he elected to serve in the cause of the southern states. He commanded the heavy batteries at Gloucester Point on York River, and began the building of gun-boats at West Point, but burned them and retreated after Yorktown was abandoned. In 1862 he was commissioned as commodore, and went to England to take command of an iron-clad then building in the Mersey, and when the British government, under a threat of war from the U. S. minister, took possession of the vessel, he assumed command of a small iron-clad then lying at Copenhagen which put to sea under the name of "Stonewall," and which afterward, when she entered a Spanish harbor, was seized by the officers of Queen Isabella. His career in the Confederate service being thus brought to a close, he went to the Argentine Republic, where the benefits rendered to the country by his explorations found a high recognition. For many years he was associated with his old friend, ex-President Uzquiza, in sheep and cattle farming. Then going to England in the commission of the government, he superintended the construction of two iron-clads and two gun-boats which formed the nucleus of the Argentine Navy. Commodore Page has since resided in Florence, Italy. His son, a fleet-captain in the Argentine Navy, has recently resumed the explorations of the tributaries of the River Plata at the point where ends the descriptive account of his father, who after his return from his first expedition to South America published a narrative entitled "La Plata: the Argentine Confederation and Paraguay," describing 3,600 miles of river navigation and explorations on land extending over 4,400 miles (New York, 1859). [John Page’s grandson]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 625.
PAGE, Richard Churning Moore, physician, born at Turkey Hill, Albemarle County, Virginia, 2 January, 1841, entered the University of Virginia in 1860, but in July, 1861, enlisted in the Confederate Artillery. He was commissioned as captain in April, 1862, and commanded a battery in nearly all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was severely wounded at Gettysburg. In October, 1864, after being promoted major, he was assigned to duty on the staff of General John C. Breckinridge as chief of artillery. He studied medicine at the close of the war in the medical department of the University of the City of New York, and after graduation in 1868 served as house physician in Bellevue Hospital, and afterward as house surgeon in the Woman's Hospital. Dr. Page has been professor of general medicine and diseases of the chest in the New York polyclinic since 1885. he has contributed to the New York "Medical Record" and other periodicals. He is the author of a "Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia" (New York, 1882) and of a "Sketch of Page's Battery, Jackson's Corps, Lee's Army " (1885); also of a "chart of Physical Diagnosis" (1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 625.
PAGE, Thomas Nelson, author, born in Oakland. Hanover County. Virginia, 23 April, 1853, was brought, up on the family plantation, which was a part of the original grant to his ancestor, Thomas Nelson. He was educated at Washington and Lee University, studied law, receiving the degree of LL. B. from the University of Virginia in 1874, and has practised his profession in Richmond, Virginia. The degree of LL. D., was conferred on him by Washington and Lee in 1887. He began to write stories and poems in the Negro dialect for his own amusement, and one of these, entitled "Marse Chan." a tale of the Civil War, when published in 1884, several years after it was written, attracted much attention, and was followed by "Meh Lady" and others in the same vein. A collection of these has been published under the title of "In Ole Virginia " (New York, 1887). His serial, "Two Little Confederates," is now (1888) appearing in the "St. Nicholas." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 625.
PAGE, Simon, Hallowell, Maine, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64
PAGE, William, artist, born in Albany, New York, 23 January, 1811: died in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York, 1 October, 1885. He came to New York City with his parents at the age of nine, and in 1822 received a premium from the American Institute for a drawing in India ink. At the age of fourteen he began to study law in the office of Frederick De Peyster, which he soon left to enter the studio of James Herring, and in less than a year he became a pupil of Samuel F. B. Morse, through whom he was also enrolled as a student in the Academy of design. His drawings in the antique class there won him the silver medal, but. uniting with the Presbyterian church, he determined to enter its ministry. For two years he studied theology at Andorra and Amherst, at the end of which time he returned to art. After painting portraits in Albany for a year he went to New York, where he executed likenesses of William H. Marcy and John Quincy Adams. In 1830 he was elected a National academician, and he was president of the academy from 1871 till 1873. About 1844 he moved to Boston, but he returned in 1847 to New York, whence, after a stay of two years, he went to Europe, where he resided for eleven years in Florence and Rome, coming back to New York in 1860. While he was in Europe he painted the portraits of Robert Browning and his wife, and other well-known Englishmen and Americans, and produced also his "Venus,'' "Moses and Aaron on Mount Horeb," "Infant Bacchus," and " Flight into Egypt." He also took occasion to study the works of the great masters, notably Titian, whom he admired and emulated, and whose method of painting he strove to discover. The copies that he executed of Titian's paintings were so remarkable that one of them was seized by the Florentine authorities under the belief that it was the original. Page made many experiments in his study of art methods and color theories, and published a " New Geometrical Method of Measuring the Human Figure" (New York, 1860). His portraits, for which he was most noted, include those of Hiram Powers, painted in Florence about 1848, Henry Ward Beecher. Wendell Phillips, Charles P. Daly" (1848), in New York Historical Society, James Russell Lowell, Josiah Quincy, Governor Reuben E. Fenton (1870), Charlotte Cushman. General Grant (1880), Thomas Le Clear (1888), and Charles Sumner, which was left unfinished at. the death of the statesman. His full-length painting of Admiral Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay, of which a representation is given in the article Farragut in this work, was purchased by a committee in 1871, and presented to the emperor of Russia. In 1870 Page exhibited a portrait head of Christ which attracted great attention and excited much controversy. His other paintings include, besides those already mentioned, "The Holy Family" (1837); "The Last Interview" (1838); "Head of Christ" (1870); " Ruth and Naomi"; and " Cupid" (1880). In 1874 Page made a second visit to Europe, in order to study the supposed death-mask of Shakespeare that is preserved in Germany, and on his return he executed a large bust and several portraits of the poet (1874-'8). He also possessed mechanical genius, and invented and patented various improvements in boats and guns. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 626.
PAINE, Armancy, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1846.
PAINE, Byron, jurist, born in Painesville, Ohio, 10 October, 1827; died in Madison. Wisconsin, 13 January, 1871. His great-grandfather, Edward, founded Painesville in 1800, and his father, James Harvey, held the rank of general of Ohio militia, and was an early anti-slavery champion. The son studied in Painesville Academy and in 1849 was admitted to the bar of Milwaukee, whither his father moved in 1847. He was judge of the Milwaukee County Court from 1856 till 1859, and associate justice of the state supreme court from 1859 till 1864. He attracted much attention in 1854 as defendant for Sherman M. Booth in his trial for aiding in the rescue of Joseph Glover, a fugitive slave, who had been captured by his master and confined in the Milwaukee Jail. In after-years Judge Paine was active in establishing the right of Negro suffrage. He entered the National Army as lieutenant-colonel of the 43d Wisconsin Infantry on 10 August, 1864, and served till he was mustered out on 27 November, 1865. From 1867 until his death he was an associate justice of the supreme court of Wisconsin, and from 1868 till 1871 was professor of law in the University of Wisconsin, from which institution he received the degree of LL. D. in 1869. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 627.
PAINE, Eleazar A., soldier, born in Parkman, Geauga County, Ohio, 10 September, 1815; died in Jersey City, New Jersey, 16 December, 1882. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1839, and assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry, served in the Florida War of 1839-40, and resigned on 11 October, 1840. He then studied law and practised in Painesville. Ohio, from 1843 till 1848, and in Monmouth, Illinois, from 1848 till 1861. and served in the legislature of Illinois in 1852-'3. In 1842-'5 he was deputy U. S. Marshal for Ohio, and also lieutenant-colonel in the Ohio militia, and he held the rank of brigadier-general from 1845 till 1848. He was appointed colonel of the 9th Illinois Volunteers on 3 July, 1861, and served throughout the Civil War, being made brigadier-general of volunteers on 3 September, 1861, and leading a brigade in Paducah. Kentucky, in 1861, and in Cairo, Illinois, in 1862. On 12 March, 1862, he was assigned to the command of the first Division of the Army of the Mississippi, under General John Pope, and participated in the battle of New Madrid, Missouri, which terminated in its capture, 21 March, 1862. He was also present at the capture of Island No. 10, and took part in the advance on Corinth, the evacuation of which was materially hastened by his operations, his troops being engaged with the Confederates at Farmington, 9 May, 1862. He was in command of Gallatin, Tennessee, and guarded the railroad from Mitchellsville to Nashville, Tennessee, from 24 November, 1862, till 4 May, 1864, and was in command of the District of Western Kentucky from 18 July till 11 September, 1864. General Paine was a personal friend of President Lincoln, from whom he received many commendations for efficient service. He resigned on 5 April, 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 627.
PAINE, Hulbert Eleazar, soldier, born in Chardon, Ohio. 4 February, 1826. After his graduation at Western Reserve in 1845 he studied law, was admitted to the bar of Cleveland in 1848, and moved to Milwaukee in 1857. He entered the National Army in May, 1861, as colonel of the 4th Wisconsin Regiment, and became brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1863. He served mainly in the Army of the Gulf, and lost a leg in the last assault on Port Hudson, Louisiana, where he commanded the 3d Division of the Fifth Corps. He defended Washington during General Jubal A. Early's raid in 1864, was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865, and resigned on 3 May of that year. He was afterward elected to Congress from Wisconsin as a Republican, serving from 4 December, 1865, till 3 March, 1871, and was instrumental in the passage of a bill, dated 19 December, 1869, that provided for taking meteorological observations in the interior of the continent. (See Abbe, Cleveland.) He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' Convention of 1866. and after the expiration of his third term in Congress practised law in Washington, D. C, where he was U. S. Commissioner of Patents from 1879 till 1881. He is the author of "Paine on Contested Elections" (Washington, 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 627-628.
PAINE, Elijah, lawyer, born in Williamstown, Vermont, 10 April, 1796; died in New York City, 6 October, 1858, was graduated at Harvard in 1814, and studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut He became a partner of Henry Wheaton, and assisted in preparing Wheaton's "Reports of the U. S. Supreme Court from 1816 till 1827" (12 vols., New York and Philadelphia. 1826-'7; 2d ed., Philadelphia, 1847). From 1850 till 1853 he was a judge of the superior court of New York, and his decision in the Lemmon Slave Case was particularly able. (See Arthur, Chester Alan.) He was the author of Paine's "U. S. Circuit Reports" (New York, 1827; 2d vol., published by Thomas W. Waterman. 1856); and in connection with John Duer he published "Practice in Civil Actions and Proceedings in the State of New York " (2 vols., 1830). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 628.
PALFREY, John Gorham, 1796-1881, author, theologian, educator, opponent of slavery. Member of Congress from Massachusetts from 1847-1849 (Whig Party). Early anti-slavery activist. Palfrey was known as a “Conscience Whig” who adamantly opposed slavery. He freed 16 slaves whom he inherited from his father, who was a Louisiana plantation owner. While in Congress, Palfrey was a member of a small group of anti-slavery Congressmen, which included Joshua Giddings, of Ohio, Amos Tuck, of New Hampshire, Daniel Gott, of New York, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. In 1848, Palfrey failed to be reelected from his district because of his anti-slavery views. In 1851, he was an unsuccessful Free Soil candidate for the office of Governor in Massachusetts. (Rayback, 1970, pp. 82, 95, 97, 245, 248; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 634; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 169; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 16, p. 932)
PALFREY, John Gorham, author, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 2 May, 1796; died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26 April, 1881, received his elementary education at a boarding-school kept by the father of John Howard Payne at Exeter, and was graduated at Harvard in 1815. He afterward studied theology, and was ordained pastor of the Brattle street Unitarian Church, Boston, 17 June, 1818, as successor to Edward Everett. His pastorate continued until 1830, when he resigned, and in 1831 he was appointed professor of sacred literature in Harvard, which chair he held till 1839. During the period of his professorship he was one of three preachers in the University chapel, and dean of the theological faculty. He was a member of the House of Representatives during 1842-'3, Secretary of State in 1844-'8, and was a member of Congress from Massachusetts, having been chosen as a Whig, from 6 December, 1847, till 3 March, 1849. In the election of 1848 he was a Free-Soil candidate, but was defeated. He was postmaster of Boston from 29 March, 1861, till May, 1867, and after his retirement went to Europe, where he represented the United States at the Anti-slavery Congress in Paris in the autumn of 1867. After his return he made his residence in Cambridge. He was an early anti-slavery advocate, and liberated and provided for numerous slaves in Louisiana that had been bequeathed to him. He was editor of the “North American Review” in 1835-'43, delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1839 and 1842, contributed in 1846 a series of articles on “The Progress of the Slave Power” to the “Boston Whig,” and was in 1851 one of the editors of the “Commonwealth” newspaper. He was the author of two discourses on “The History of Brattle Street Church”; “Life of Colonel William Palfrey,” in Sparks's “American Biography”; “A Review of Lord Mahon's History of England,” in the “North American Review “; and also published, among other works, “Academical Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities” (4 vols., Boston, 1833'52), “Elements of Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, and Rabbinical Grammar” (1835); “Discourse at Barnstable, 3 September, 1839, at the Celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Cape Cod” (1840); “Abstract of the Returns of Insurance Companies of Massachusetts, 1 December, 1846” ( 1847); “The Relation between Judaism and Christianity” (1854); and “History of New England to 1875” (4 vols., 1858-'64). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 634. [Grandson of William Palfry 1741-1780].
PALFREY, Francis Winthrop, lawyer, born in Boston, 11 April, 1831. He was graduated at Harvard in 1851, and at the law-school in 1853. He served in the Civil War as lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was brevetted brigadier-general after receiving a severe wound, and has been a register in bankruptcy since 1872. He is the author of "A Memoir of William F. Bartlett" (Boston. 1879): "Antietam and Fredericksburg," being vol. v. of "Campaigns of the Civil War" (New York, 1882); parts of the first volume of Military Papers of the Historical Society of Massachusetts "; and various articles in the "North American Review." [John Gorham Palfrey’s Grandson]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 634-635.
PALFREY, John Carter, soldier, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 25 December, 1833, was graduated at Harvard in 1853, and at the U. S. Military Academy, at the head of his class, in 1857. He was assigned to the engineers, and during the Civil War served in constructing defences on Ship Island, in repairing Port St. Philip and Fort Jackson, Louisiana, at the siege of Port Hudson, and in the Red River Expedition. He also had charge of the operations at the siege and capture of tort Morgan, Alabama, and from 20 March till 12 April, 1865, he participated in the siege and capture of Mobile. He was chief engineer and assistant inspector-general of the 13th Army Corps from 15 March till 1 August, 1865, and was brevetted major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general. U. S. Army, 20 March. 1865. He resigned on 1 May, 1866, and he has since been connected with manufacturing companies at Lowell, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. He became overseer of the Thayer School of Civil Engineering of Dartmouth in 1868, and is a vice-president of the Webster Bank in Boston. He has contributed to the publications of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, to the "North American Review," and other periodicals. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 635.
PALLEN, Montrose Anderson, educator, born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, 2 January, 1830. His father, a native of Virginia, was professor of obstetrics in St. Louis Medical College for twenty-seven years. The son was graduated at St, Louis University in 1853, and in medicine in 1850. After spending two years in hospital service and study in London, Paris, and Berlin, he began practice in St, Louis, Missouri. During the Civil War he was medical director of General Henry A. Wise's legion in 1861, of General William J. Hardee's army corps in 1862. and afterward of the Department of Mississippi till February, 1863. He was subsequently sent to Canada by the Confederate government to report on the condition of the Confederate prisoners on Johnson's Island. He returned to Richmond in 1864, and after a visit to Paris, France, where he obtained surgical and medical supplies for the Confederate Armies, he was sent to Montreal again, but was captured on his way back to the south, and held on parole in New York City till the end of the war. After occupying chairs in various institutions, he was in 1874 appointed professor of gynecology in the University of the City of New York. In 1883 he assisted in forming the Post-Graduate Medical College in that city. Among other inventions by Dr. Fallen are a self-retaining vaginal speculum, peculiar needles for small and deep cavities, and various uterine supports. He has written much for medical periodicals, and published "Abnormities of Vision and Ophthalmoscope" (Washington, D. C, 1858); "Uterine Abnormities" (Cincinnati, 1800); ' Prophylaxis of Preirnancy" (New York. 1878): and " Dysmenorrhea" (1880). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 634.
PALMER, Alonzo Benjamin, physician, born in Richfield, Otsego County, New York, 6 October, 1815; died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 23 December, 1887. He was educated in various schools and academies in New York State, and was graduated in medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York in 1839. After attending lectures in that city and in Philadelphia in 1847-'50 he went to Tecumseh, Michigan, and afterward moved to Chicago. In 1852 he served as city physician there during a severe cholera epidemic among emigrants from northern Europe, and in that year was appointed professor of anatomy in the College of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Michigan. In 1854 he was transferred to the chair of medical therapeutics and diseases of women and children. In 1860 he was appointed to the professorship of pathology and practice of medicine, which he held at, the time of his death. He became surgeon of the 2d Michigan Regiment of Infantry, and dressed the first wound that was inflicted by the enemy at Blackburn's Ford on 18 July, 1861, but he resigned in September, 1861, and returned to the University of Michigan. He afterward visited the army occasionally as volunteer surgeon, and was president of the American Medical Association during the war. He was instructor of pathology and practice of medicine at Berkshire Medical College, Massachusetts, in 1864, and at Bowdoin in 1869-'70. He was president of the Michigan Medical Society in 1872-'3, and of the section of pathology in the Ninth International Medical Congress in Washington. D. C. in 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 636.
PALMER, D. B., New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)
PALMER, Edward, reformer, born in New England in 1802; died in New York City, 25 February, 1886. He became a printer in Boston, Massachusetts, and attracted attention by writing and publishing a pamphlet in which he demanded the abolition of slavery and the suppression of capitalized monopolies. Moving to New York City, he associated himself with a coterie of philosophers, under the leadership of Marcus Spring, and promulgated many eccentric ideas. He claimed that men should work for higher motives than that of pecuniary gain, and emphasized his teachings by refusing to accept money for his services, confining himself to the barest necessities of life. At his death he had passed out of recollection, as he had lived in retirement for nearly a generation. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 637.
PALMER, George Washington, lawyer, in Ripley, Chautauqua County, New York, 7 June, 1835; died in New York City, 2 January, 1887. He was graduated at Albany Law-School in 1857, and practised his profession. He was active in politics during the Lincoln campaign, and in 1861 was assistant clerk in the U. S. Senate. Receiving an appointment in the War Department, he served in the quartermaster-general's office, and was afterward appointed captain and provost-marshal of the 31st District of New York. In December, 1864, he became military secretary to Governor Reuben E. Fenton, in the following spring was made commissary-general of ordnance of New York State, with the rank of brigadier-general, and in 1868 was charged with the duties of quartermaster. In 1869 he practised law in New York City, but became appraiser of customs, holding this office until 1871, and then resuming his law-practice. In 1879 he was placed in charge of the law department, which post he resigned in 1886. For twenty years he was an active campaign speaker, and his fatal illness was ascribed to his over-exertion in 1884. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 638.
PALMER, Horatio Richmond, musician, born in Sherburne, Chenango County, New York, 20 April, 1834. He studied music with his father, and subsequently pursued his studies in languages, music, metaphysics, and other branches under various masters m New York, Berlin, Germany, and Florence, Italy. Mr. Palmer is known chiefly as a conductor of musical societies and a writer of musical text-books, and is rather a musical theorist than a composer. He has done much to popularize music. He is the author of " Rudimental Class-Teaching " and " Elements of Musical Composition" (1867); "Theory of Music " (1875); "Musical Catechism " (1880); "Vocal Modulator" (1883) and "Brief Statements of Musical Notation" (1883); and "Pronouncing Pocket Dictionary" and "Piano Primer" (1885); and he has also edited collections of music, notably "The Song Queen " (1867) and " The Song King' (1871), and is known as the author of numerous anthems and other musical compositions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 638.
PALMER, Innis Newton, soldier, born in Buffalo, New York, 30 March, 1824. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1840. and assigned to the U.S. Mounted Rifles, in which he became 2d lieutenant on 20 July, 1847, and served in the siege of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. He was brevetted 1st lieutenant on 20 August, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, Mexico, and at Chapultepec he was wounded and brevetted captain. He was also at the assault and capture of the city of Mexico, after which he was on recruiting service in Missouri, and then on frontier duty in Oregon and Washington Territory. He became 1st lieutenant of mounted rifles on 27 January, 1853, captain in the 2d U.S. Cavalry on 3 March, 1855, and major on 25 April, 1861, and on 3 August, 1861, was transferred to the 5th U.S. Cavalry with the same rank. He served throughout the Civil War, was brevetted lieutenant-colonel on 21 July, 1861, for gallant and meritorious service at Bull Run, Virginia, and on 23 September, 1861, was made brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign in command of a brigade in the 4th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He organized and forwarded to the field the New Jersey and Delaware volunteers, and superintended camps of drafted men in Philadelphia before the operations in North Carolina, when he commanded the 1st Division of the 18th Army Corps from 1 January till 10 July, 1863, the Department of North Carolina from 1 February till 2 March. 1863, the District of Pamlico from 10 to 25 July, 1863, the 18th Army Corps from 25 July till 18 August, 1863, and the defences of New Berne, North Carolina, from 18 August, 1863, till 19 April, 1864. He was made lieutenant-colonel on 23 September, 1863, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevetted colonel and brigadier general, U. S. Army, and major-general of volunteers. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on 15 January, 1866, and then served in Kansas and Wyoming. He was colonel of the 2d U. S. Cavalry from 9 June, 1868, till 20 March, 1879, when he was retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 639.
PALMER, James Croxall, naval surgeon, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 29 June, 1811; died in Washington, D. C, 24 April, 1883. He was graduated at Dickinson in 1829, and studied medicine at the University of Maryland, where he took his degree. In 1834 he was commissioned assistant surgeon. He was ordered, on 17 July, 1838, to the store-ship "Relief," of the exploring expedition under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, and in attempting the Brecknock passage into the straits of Magellan, was transferred to the sloop "Peacock." the adventurous cruise of which is recorded m the general history of the exploring expedition. Dr. Palmer recorded one episode in a poem, the last edition of which is entitled "The Antarctic Mariner's Song "(New York, 1868). Alter the wreck of the "Peacock " at the mouth of Columbia River, 19 July, 1841, he commanded a large shore-party at Astoria. On 27 October, 1842, he was commissioned surgeon, and served in the Washington U.S. Navy-yard, where he had charge of those who were wounded by the explosion on the "Princeton." He served in Mexican waters during the annexation of Texas and the consequent war, and in 1857 he was ordered to the steam-frigate " Niagara " on the first effort to lay the Atlantic cable, and originated a plan for splicing the wire in mid-ocean. He was afterward attached to the naval academy in Annapolis, and when it was transferred to Newport, Rhode Island, during the Civil War, he assumed its sole medical charge. He was on the flag-ship " Hartford." as fleet surgeon at the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August, 1864, was ordered by Farragut to go to all the monitors and tell them to attack the "Tennessee," and went around the fleet in the admiral's steam-barge "Loyal" to aid surgeons who had no assistants. Upon his return to the " Hartford," after the battle, he was ordered by Farragut to go on board the enemy's ram "'Tennessee," just captured, and to attend Admiral Franklin Buchanan. He saved the leg of this officer, which had been broken during the engagement, by refusing to resort to amputation, as had been proposed by the surgeon of the Confederate fleet. Dr. Palmer brought about an agreement between Stephen R. Mallory and Admiral Farragut to exempt all medical officers and attendants from detention as prisoners of war. He was afterward in charge of the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn, New York for about four years. On 3 March, 1871, he was commissioned medical director, and on 10 June, 1872, he became Surgeon-General of the U.S, Navy, and was retired on 29 June, 1873. He published some important professional contributions through the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 638-639.
PALMER, John Williamson, author, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 4 April, 1825, was graduated at the University of Maryland in 1847, and studied medicine in Baltimore. He was the first city physician of San Francisco in 1849-'50, and subsequently wrote a series of graphic papers relating to that time for "Putnam's Monthly." In 1851-2 he was surgeon of the East India Company's war-steamer "Phlegethon" in the Burmese War, being the only American that ever held a commission in the East India Company's navy. He was Confederate war correspondent of the "New York Tribune" in 1863-'4, and since that time has been a frequent contributor to journals and magazines. In 1870 he returned from Baltimore to New York, and is now (1888) engaged on the editorial staff of the English dictionary in preparation by the Century Company. In addition to many translations, including Michelet's "L'Amour" (New York, 1860) and "La Femme" (1860), the latter of which he accomplished in seventy-two hours' work, he has compiled a book of "Folk-Songs" (1860) and five volumes of poetry (Boston, 1867). He is the author of "The Golden Dagon, or Up and Down the Irrawaddi" (New York, 1853); "The New and the Old or California and India in Romantic Aspects" (1859): "The Beauties and Curiosities of Engraving" (Boston, 1879); "A Portfolio of Autograph Etchings" (London, Paris, and Boston. 1882): and a novel entitled "After His Indiana" published under the pen-name of "John Coventry" (New York, 1886). He has also written several poems, including " For Charlie's Sake " and "Stonewall Jackson's Way." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 639
PALMER, James Shedden, naval officer, born in New Jersey in 1810; died in St. Thomas, W. I., 7 December, 1867. He became midshipman on 1 January, 1825, and lieutenant, 17 December, 1836, and served on the "Columbia" in the attack on Quallah Battoo and Mushie, in the island of Sumatra. In the Mexican War he was in command of the schooner "Flirt," engaged in blockading the Mexican Coast. He was appointed commander on 14 September, 1855. At the beginning of the Civil War he commanded the steamer "Iroquois," of the Mediterranean Squadron, but was soon afterward attached to the Atlantic Blockading Fleet under Admiral Samuel F. Dupont. He became captain on 16 July, 1862, and in that summer led the advance in the passages of the Vicksburg batteries, and was engaged in the fight with the Confederate ram "Arkansas." At the passage of Vicksburg the flag-ship stopped her engines for a few minutes to allow the vessels in the rear to close up. Fancying that some accident had befallen the admiral, Palmer dropped the "Iroquois," which was the leading ship, down to the "Hartford." Not understanding this movement, Farragut hailed Palmer through his trumpet, saying: "Captain Palmer, what do you mean by disobeying my orders of Palmer replied: "I thought, Admiral, that you had more fire than you could stand, and I came down to draw off a part of it." This piece of gallantry Farragut never forgot, and he remained Palmer's close friend. Palmer was commissioned commodore on 7 February, 1868, and at New Orleans and Mobile he was Farragut's flag-captain. He became rear-admiral on 25 July, 1866, and died of yellow fever while in command of the South Atlantic Squadron in the West Indies. He was popularly known as "Pie-crust Palmer." Loyall Farragut. in his father's " Life and Letters," says of him: "Under a reserve of manner and dignified bearing, which almost amounted to pomposity, Palmer showed a warm and generous nature. He was brave and cool under fire, and always ready to obey his chief's commands. The writer has seen him going into battle dressed with scrupulous neatness, performing the last part of his toilet in buttoning his kid gloves as though he were about to enter a ball-room." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 639
PALMER, John McCauley, soldier, born in Eagle Creek, Scott County, Kentucky, 13 September, 1817. He moved to Illinois in 1832, and in 1839 settled in Carlinville. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1847, a member of the state senate in 1852-'4, a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1856, a presidential elector on the Republican ticket of 1860, and a delegate to the Peace Convention at Washington, 4 February, 1861. He was elected colonel of the 14th Illinois Volunteers in April, 1861, accompanied General John C. Fremont in his expedition to Springfield, Missouri, and was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on 20 December. He was with General John Pope at the capture of New Madrid and Island No. 10., and afterward commanded the 1st Brigade, 1st Division of the Army of the Mississippi. In November, 1862, he was with General Grant's army in temporary command of a division. Subsequently he led a division at the battle of Stone River, and for his gallantry there he was promoted to major-general of volunteers, 29 November, 1862. He participated in the battle of Chickamauga, and led the 14th Corps in the Atlanta Campaign, from May till September, 1864. He was governor of Illinois from 1869 till 1873. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 640.
PARDEE, Ario, philanthropist, born in Chatham, New York, 19 November, 1810. He received a common-school education, and then turned his attention to engineering. His first work was on the construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey, during 1830-'3, after which he went to Pennsylvania and had charge of an engineering corps, running the line for the Beaver Meadow Railroad. In 1836 he began the Hazleton Railroad, and settling there in 1840 opened coal-mines which, being located in the mammoth vein of the anthracite field, proved exceedingly valuable. In 1848 he built a gravity railroad to Penn Haven, a distance of fourteen miles, as an outlet for the product of these mines, but in 1854 the Lehigh Valley Railroad was opened, which, with its improved facilities, caused the abandonment of the old road in 1860. Subsequently he became interested in iron manufacture, and he is now (1888) owner of blast-furnaces at various localities in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Tennessee. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 he fitted out a military company for the National service at his own expense, with which his eldest son, Ario Pardee, Jr., served and attained the brevet rank of brigadier-general on 12 January, 1865. Mr. Pardee became interested in Lafayette College in 1864, and through the influence of William C. Cattell, then president of the college, he gave $20,000 for the endowment of a professorship. At that time this amount was the largest sum that had been given by one person to any educational institution in Pennsylvania, He soon increased his gift until in 1869 it amounted to $200,000, and upon this basis was first established a new curriculum of scientific and technical studies. A new building being needed, Mr. Pardee for this purpose made a further gift of $250,000, to which he afterward added $50,000 for its scientific equipment, thus increasing his donations to $500,000. The building, shown in the accompanying illustration, was erected and called Pardee Hall in his honor. It was regarded when finished as " the largest and most complete scientific college building in the United States," and was formally dedicated in October, 1873. It was burned in 1879, but has been rebuilt. Mr. Pardee is a director of several railroads, including the Lehigh Valley road, and, besides being an active officer in various charitable organizations, is president of the state board that has the oversight and control of the second geological survey of Pennsylvania. He was a presidential elector in 1876, and since 1882 has been president of the board of trustees of Lafayette College. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 644.
PARK, James, iron-master, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 11 January, 1820; died in Alleghany, Pennsylvania, 21 April, 1883. He received a common-school education, and in 1837 began his business career. In 1862 he turned his attention to the manufacture of steel in Pittsburg, and his firm. Park, Brother and County, was among the first to manufacture crucible east steel in the United States. He was one of the syndicate that purchased the patents of William Kelly. (q. v.), and so was interested in the introduction of the Bessemer process for converting iron into steel, becoming in 1860 a member of the Pneumatic Steel Association. In 1863 he was the first to introduce the Siemens gas-furnace into this country. He had a high reputation as a progressive leader among iron-masters, and was active in the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Mr. Park showed great courage in July, 1877, in facing the rioters during the labor troubles of the year, and making an earnest appeal to them at the Union Depot. He was a trustee of the University of Western Pennsylvania, chairman of one of the first law and order associations in the United States, and a member of various religious and temperance bodies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 648.
PARKE, John Grubb, soldier, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 22 September, 1827. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1849, and assigned to the Topographical Engineers. In 1849-'50 he was engaged in determining the starting point of the boundary line between Iowa and Minnesota, and subsequently on the survey of the Little Colorado River, and in charge of surveys for a Pacific Railroad on the thirty-second parallel. He became 1st lieutenant of Topographical Engineers on 1 July, 1856, and was chief astronomer and surveyor in the delimitation of the northwestern boundary between the United States and British America from 2 March, 1857, till the beginning of the Civil War. He was promoted captain of Topographical Engineers on 9 September, 1861, and appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on 23 November. In the beginning of 1862 he accompanied General Ambrose E. Burnside's expedition to North Carolina, receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel in the U. S. Army for services in the capture of Fort Macon. He was promoted major-general of volunteers on 18 July, 1862, and served as chief of staff of the 9th Corps during the Maryland Campaign, being engaged at South Mountain and Antietam. and in the pursuit of the enemy to Warrenton. When General Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac, General Parke was retained as his chief of staff, and was present at the battle of Fredericksburg. He participated in the movement of the 9th Corps in to Kentucky, and commanded it on the march to Vicksburg, arriving before the surrender. In the reoccupation of Jackson, Mississippi, he was in command of the left wing of General Sherman's army, receiving the brevet of colonel for his part in the operations. In the East Tennessee Campaign he was engaged at Blue Spring in the defence of Knoxville, for which he was subsequently brevetted brigadier-general, and in the following operations against General James Longstreet, after General Burnside resumed command of the corps, he led one of its divisions, and in the Richmond Campaign of the Army of the Potomac he was engaged at the battle of the Wilderness and the combats around Spottsylvania, but was then disabled by illness until 13 August, 1864, when he resumed command of the 9th Corps before Petersburg. He was brevetted major-general in the U. S. Army for repelling the enemy's assault on Fort Steadman, and took part in the pursuit of Lee's army until it surrendered. He had been commissioned as major in the Corps of Engineers on 17 June, 1864. After commanding the Districts of Alexandria and Southern New York, he resumed charge of the northwestern boundary survey on 28 September, 1866. He superintended the repair and construction of fortifications in Maryland in 1867-'8, and was on duty in the office of the chief of engineers at Washington, D. C. from 1 June, 1868. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of engineers on 4 March, 1879, and colonel on 17 March, 1884, and in June. 1887, was appointed superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy. He is the author of reports in "Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" (Washington, 1854-6; also of “Compilations of Laws of the United States relating to Public Works for the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors" (1877; revised cd., 1887), and "Laws relating to the Construction of Bridges over Navigable Waters " (1882; revised ed., 1887). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 649.
PARKER, Edward Griffin, lawyer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 16 November, 1825; died in New York City, 30 March, 1868. He was graduated at Yale in 1847, studied law under Rufus Choate. He was admitted to the bar in 1849, and practised in Boston till the beginning of the Civil War. In 1857-'8 he edited the political department of the Boston "Traveller." He became a volunteer aide on General Benjamin P. Butler's staff in 1861, and the next year was adjutant-general and chief of staff to General John H. Martindale during his command of the Department of Washington. He settled in New York after the war, and was in charge of the American Literary Bureau of Reference. He contributed frequently to the press, and published "The Golden Age of American Oratory" (Boston, 1857) and " Reminiscences of Rufus Choate" (New York, 1860). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 650.
PARKER, Ely Samuel, soldier, born in the Indian reservation, Tonawanda, New York, in 1828. He is a full-blooded Seneca Indian, and chief of the Six Nations. After receiving a careful education in schools in New York state, he adopted the profession of civil engineering, and settled temporarily in Galena, Illinois, where he was the personal friend of Ulysses S. Grant, and subsequently, during the Civil War, he became a member of the general's staff, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general with the rank of captain in May, 1863, and was afterward secretary to General Grant until the close of the war. In that capacity he was present at Lee's surrender, and made the first engrossed copy of the terms of capitulation. He was appointed 1st lieutenant of U. S. Cavalry in 1866, resigning in 1869. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on 9 April, 1865, and captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 2 March, 1867. He became Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1869, but retired in 1871 to devote himself to his profession. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 650.
PARKER, Foxhall Alexander, naval officer, born in New York City, 5 August, 1821 ; died in Annapolis, Maryland, 10 June, 1879. He was graduated at the naval school in Philadelphia in 1843, served against the Florida Indians, and was commissioned lieutenant. 21 September, 1850. He was executive officer at the Washington U.S. Navy-yard in 1861-'2. He co-operated with the Army of the Potomac on several occasions in command of seamen, built Port Dahlgren, and drilled 2,000 seamen in the exercise of artillery and small arms, thereby promoting the success of Admiral Andrew H. Foote's operations with the Mississippi Flotilla. He became commander on 16 July, 1862, had charge of the steam gun-boat "Mahaska " in active service off Wilmington and Yorktown, and of the "Wabash," off Charleston, from June to September, 1863, and from the latter date till the close of the war commanded the Potomac Flotilla, which consisted at one time of forty-two vessels, and frequently engaged the enemy. In July, 1866, he was promoted captain for "good service during the rebellion." He became commodore in 1872, was on special duty in Washington in August of that year to draw up a code of signals for steam tactics, and in 1873-'6 was chief signal officer of the navy. He was chief of staff of the united fleets under Admiral Augustus L. Case that assembled for instruction in the Florida waters in December, 1874, and was one of the founders of the U. S. Naval Institute. He died while superintendent of the U. S. Naval Academy, to which he was appointed in 1878. He was for many years a contributor to newspapers and magazines, and published "Fleet Tactics Under Steam" (New York, 1863): "Squadron Tactics Under Steam " (1863): "The Naval Howitzer Afloat"(1865); "The Naval Howitzer Ashore" (1865)—all of which are textbooks in the U. S. Naval Academy; "The Fleets of the World: The Galley Period "(1876); and "The Battle of Mobile Bay and the Capture of Forts Powell, Gaines, and Morgan, under the Command of David G. Farragut and Gordon Granger" (Boston, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 650.
PARKER, William Harwar, naval officer, born in New York City, 8 October, 1826, was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1848, became a lieutenant in 1855, and in 1861 entered the Confederate service. He has, published "Instructions for Naval Light Artillery” (New York, 1862) and "Recollections of a Naval Officer" (1883). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 650.
PARKER, Joel, jurist, born in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 25 January, 1795: died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 17 August, 1875. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1811, and began the practice of law in Keene, New Hampshire, in 1815. He was in the legislature in 1824-'6, appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in 1833, and became chief justice in 1836. In 1840 he was chairman of the committee to revise the laws of the state. In 1847-'57 he was professor of medical jurisprudence at Dartmouth, and from 1847 until his death he was professor of law at Harvard. His publications, exclusive of law reports and periodical essays, include an address on "Progress A (Hanover. New Hampshire, 1840); "Daniel Webster as a Jurist," an address to the Harvard laws School (Cambridge. Massachusetts, 1853); "A Charge to the Grand Jury on the Uncertainty of Law '(1854); "The Non-Extension of Slavery" (1856): "Personal Liberty Laws and Slavery in the Territories" (1861); "The Right of Secession" (1861); "Constitutional Law" (1862); "Habeas Corpus and Martial Law" (Philadelphia, 1862); "The War Powers of Congress and the President" (1863); "Revolution and Construction " (New York, 1866): "The Three Powers of Government" (1869); and "Conflict of Decisions" (Cambridge. 1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 651.
PARKER, Joel, governor of New Jersey, born near Freehold, New Jersey, 24 November, 1816; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2 January, 1888. His father, Charles, was a member of the New Jersey Legislature for several years, and served one term as state treasurer. Joel moved with his father to Trenton in 1821, was graduated at Princeton in 1839, studied law under Chief-Justice Henry W. Green, and settled in Freehold, New Jersey. He began his political career in 1844 as a Democratic speaker, and was in the assembly in 1847-'50, prosecuting attorney in 1852-'7, and a presidential elector in 1860, casting his vote for Stephen A. Douglas. He had been commissioned brigadier-general of militia in 1857, and in 1861 became major-general. He had ardently opposed the Civil War, but when it began he actively supported the National government. He was elected governor of New Jersey in 1862, as a Democrat, served till 1866, and during his occupation of that office conducted the affairs of state with prudence and ability. During Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863 he supplied several organized regiments of New Jersey volunteers that were sent to the protection of that state, but when a levy of 12,000 men was made on New Jersey in 1864, to make good a supposed deficiency in her former quotas, he obtained from President Lincoln the withdrawal of the order. Governor Parker also established a method of settlement of the war debt, so that not a bond of the state of New Jersey was sold below par, and at the close of the war in 1865 there was a surplus of $200,000 in the state treasury. He took strong grounds in favor of an amnesty toward those that had taken part in the war against the National government. In 1868 the New Jersey delegation to the National Democratic Convention, in New York City, cast their full vote for him in every ballot for the presidential nomination. He was again elected governor in 1870, and at the conclusion of his term became Attorney-General of the state. He was chosen a judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1880, and was re-elected in 1887, presiding over the central circuit of the state. In 1883 he declined the nomination for governor. Rutgers gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1872. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 652.
PARKER, John P., 1827-1900, African American, former slave, abolitionist, businessman. Born a slave. Bought his freedom. Worked in aiding fugitive slaves from Kentucky in the Cincinnati area. May have helped more than 1,000 fugitive slaves. Recruited volunteers for the U.S. Colored Regiment. Wrote autobiography, His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 8, p. 592; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 36; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 522-523; Gara, 1961; Griftler, 2004; Hagendorn, 2002; Horton, 1997)
PARKER, Mary S., leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 199; Yellin, 1994, pp. 36, 43, 51-53, 55, 61, 64, 174, 176)
PARKER, Reverend Theodore, 1810-1860, Boston, Massachusetts, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist leader, reformer. Secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859. Opposed Fugitive Slave Act. Organizer, Committee of Vigilance to help fugitive slaves escape capture in Boston, Massachusetts. Wrote anti-slavery book, To a Southern Slaveholder, in 1848. Also wrote Defense. Supported the New England Emigrant Aid Society and the Massachusetts Kansas Committee. Member of the Secret Six group that clandestinely aided radical abolitionist John Brown.
(Chadwick, 1900; Dirks, 1948; Drake, 1950, p. 176; Filler, 1960, pp. 6, 94, 126, 140, 141, 184, 204, 214, 239, 241, 268; Mabee, 1970, pp. 13, 82, 233, 253, 254, 256, 273, 302, 309, 316, 318, 320, 321; Pease, 1965, pp. 654, 656; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 207, 289, 327, 337, 338, 478; Sernett, 2002, pp. 69, 205, 211, 213; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 654-655; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 238; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 43; Commager, Henry S. Theodore Parker. 1947.)
PARKER, Theodore, clergyman, born in Lexington, Massachusetts, 24 August, 1810; died in Florence, Italy, 10 May, 1860. His grandfather, Captain John Parker, commanded the company of minute-men that were fired on by the British troops on 19 April, 1775. Theodore was the youngest of eleven children. From the father, a Unitarian and Federalist, he inherited independence of mind, courage, and Jove of speculation; from his mother, depth of religious feeling. The family were poor, and the boy was brought up to labor on the farm. At the age of six he was sent to the district school, which was then taught by young students from Harvard. The instruction was never systematic, quite rudimental, and very meagre, but the boy's thirst for knowledge overcame all obstacles. At eight he had read translations of Horner and Plutarch, together with such other works in prose and verse as were accessible, including Rollin's “Ancient History.” At the age of sixteen he was allowed to go to a school at Lexington for one quarter, an expensive indulgence, costing four dollars. Here he began algebra, and extended his knowledge of Latin and Greek. At the age of seventeen he taught himself. No school could give him enough. He studied all the time, and remembered all he learned, for his memory was as amazing as his hunger for acquisition. This year militia duties were added, and Theodore threw himself into these with his usual ardor, rose to rank in his company, and learned how to fight. All the time he was the light of his home, charming among his mates, exuberant, joyous, a pure, natural boy in all his instincts. One day in August, 1830, having obtained leave of absence from his father, he walked to Cambridge, was examined, admitted, walked back, and told his unsuspecting father, then in bed, that he had entered Harvard College. For a year he stayed at home and worked on the farm, but kept up with his class, and went to Cambridge only to be examined. Under these circumstances he could not obtain his bachelor's degree, and that of A. M. was conferred on him as a mark of honor in 1840. In March, 1831, he became assistant teacher in a private school in Boston, and toiled ten hours a day. In 1832 he undertook a private school at Watertown. There he remained ten years, becoming intimate with Convers Francis, the large-minded Unitarian minister there, reading his books, teaching in his Sunday-school with Lydia Cabot, whom he afterward married, and working his way toward the ministry. While in Watertown he read Cicero, Herodotus, Thucydides, Pindar, Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, and Æschylus; wrote a history of the Jews for his Sunday-school class, studied French metaphysics, began Hebrew in Charlestown, whither he walked on Saturdays to meet Mr. Seixas, a Jew, and began the pursuit of theology. In 1834 he went to the divinity-school, and his religious feeling took a conservative turn at that time. He seemed rather over-weighted with erudition, though by no means dry. His first venture in preaching was at Watertown from the pulpit of his friend, Mr. Francis. Then followed a period of “candidating” at Barnstable, Concord, Waltham, Leominster, and elsewhere. In June, 1837, he was ordained as minister at West Roxbury. This was a season of study, friendship, social intercourse, intellectual companionship, solid achievement in thought, unconscious preparation for the work he was to do. Here he gradually became known as an iconoclast. He was at West Roxbury about seven years, until February, 1845. During that time the Unitarian controversy was begun, the overworked student had passed a year in Europe, examining, meditating, resolving, clearing his purpose, and making sure of his calling, and the future career of the “heresiarch” was pretty well marked out. In January, 1845, a small company of gentlemen met and passed a resolution “that the Reverend Theodore Parker shall have a chance to be heard in Boston.” This was the beginning of the ministry at the Melodeon, which began formally in December. In that month an invitation from Boston—a society having been formed—was accepted. On 3 January, 1846, a letter resigning the charge at West Roxbury was written, and the installation took place the next day. The preaching at the Melodeon had been most successful, and it remained only to withdraw entirely, as he had in part, from his old parish, and to reside in the city. The ministrations at the Melodeon lasted about seven years, until 21 November, 1852, when the society took possession of the Music hall, then just completed. Here his fame culminated. He had met, at Brook Farm, which lay close to him at West Roxbury, the finest, most cultivated, most ardent intellects of the day; he had made the acquaintance of delightful people; he bad studied and talked a great deal; he had been brought face to face with practical problems of society. He was independent of sectarian bonds, he stood alone, he could bring his forces to bear without fear of wounding souls belonging to the regular Unitarian communion, and he was thoroughly imbued with the modern spirit. His work ran very swiftly. No doubt he was helped by the reform movements of the time, the love of poverty played its part, the natural sympathy with an outcast centred on him, the passion for controversy drew many, and the heretics saw their opportunity. But all these combined will not explain his success. True, he had no grace of person, no beauty of feature, no charm of expression, no music of voice, no power of gesture; his clear, steady, penetrating, blue eye was concealed by glasses. Still, notwithstanding these disadvantages, his intensity of conviction, his mass of knowledge, his warmth and breadth of feeling, his picturesqueness of language, his frankness of avowal, fascinated young and old. He had no secrets. He was ready for any emergency. He shrank from no toil. His interest in the people was genuine, hearty, and disinterested. He aimed constantly at the elevation of his kind through religion, morality, and education. He was interested in everything that concerned social advancement. Peace, temperance, the claims of morals, the treatment of animosity, poverty, and the rights of labor, engaged his thought. He did not neglect spiritualism or socialism, but devoted to these subjects a vast deal of consideration. Mr. Parker's interest in slavery began early. In 1841 he delivered a sermon on the subject, which was published, but it was not until 1845 that his share in the matter became engrossing. Then slavery became prominent in National politics, and menaced seriously republican institutions; then men began to talk of the “slave power.” Wendell Phillips somewhere tells of Theodore's first alliance with the Abolitionists, not in theory, for he did not agree with their policy, but in opposition to the prevailing sentiment. It was at the close of a long convention. There had been hard work. Phillips had been among the speakers, Parker among the listeners. As they left the hall, the latter joined him, took his arm, and said: '”Henceforth you may consider my presence by your side.” And faithfully he kept his promise. Probably no one—not Garrison, not Phillips himself—did more to awaken and enlighten the conscience of the north. By speeches, sermons, letters, tracts, and lectures he scattered abroad republican ideas. As a critic of pro-slavery champions, as a shielder of fugitives, as an encourager of fainting hearts, he was felt as a warrior. His labors were incessant and prodigious. He was preacher, pastor, visitor among the poor, the downtrodden, and the guilty; writer, platform speaker, lyceum lecturer, and always an omnivorous reader. His lecturing engagements numbered sometimes seventy or eighty in a season. In 1849 he established the “Massachusetts Quarterly Review,” a worthy successor of the “Dial,” but more muscular and practical—“a tremendous journal, with ability in its arms and piety in its heart.” The editorship was pressed upon Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sumner, but devolved at last on Parker, who was obliged also to write many of the articles, as his contributors failed him. The “Quarterly,” thanks to him, lived three years, and died at length quite as much through the stress of political exigency as through the want of support, though that was insufficient. The fugitive-slave bill was passed in 1850, and entailed a vast deal of toil and excitement. He took more than one man's share of both, was a leader of the committee of vigilance, planned escapes, and entertained runaway slaves. During the fearful agitations incident to the escape of William and Ellen Craft, the chase after Shadrach, the return of Sims, and the surrender of Burns, his energies were unintermitting. Then came the struggle with the slave-holders in the west, when John Brown came to the front, in which he bore an active part, being an early friend and helper of the hero of Ossawattomie. But for extraordinary strength in youth, a buoyant temperament, love of fun and jest, fondness for work, moderation in eating and drinking, sufficient sleep, exercise in the open air, and capacity for natural enjoyment, such excessive labor must have exhausted even his vitality. These supported him, and but for an unfortunate experience he might have lived to an old age. Indeed, he expected to do so. He used to say that if he safely passed forty-nine he should live to be eighty. But he inherited a tendency to consumption. In the winter of 1857, during a lecturing tour through central New York, he took a severe cold, which finally, in spite of all his friends could do, settled upon his lungs. On the morning of 9 January, 1859, he had an attack of bleeding at the lungs. At once he was taken to Santa Cruz, and in May he left the island for Southampton. The summer was spent in Switzerland, and in the autumn he went to Rome. The season being wet, he steadily lost ground, and could with difficulty reach Florence where he died. He lies in the Protestant cemetery there. (See illustration.) Theodore Parker's system was simple. It was, so far as it was worked out, theism based on transcendental principles. The belief in God and the belief in the immortality of the soul were cardinal with him; all else in the domain of speculative theology he was ready to let go. He followed criticism up to this line; there he stood stoutly for the defence. He was a deeply religious man, but he was not a Christian believer. He regarded himself as a teacher of new ideas, and said that the faith of the next thousand years would be essentially like his. It is sometimes said that Parker was simply a deist; but they who say this must take into account the strong sweep of his personal aspiration, the weight of his convictions, his devotion to humanity, the enormous volume of his feelings. There is no deist whom he even remotely resembled. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Hobbes, Hume, suggest oppositions only. Parker affirmed and denied merely in order to make his affirmation more clear. He was a great believer, less a thinker than a doer. His bulky resources were so much fuel to his flame. His sympathies were all modern; he looked constantly forward, and was prevented only by his plain, common sense from accepting every scheme of his generation that wore a hopeful aspect. But he saw the weak points in reforms that he himself aided. He criticised women while working for their elevation, and laughed at Negroes while toiling against their bondage. He was not aesthetic, and had no taste in painting, sculpture, music, poetry, or the delicacies of literature. He knew about them as he knew about everything, but his power was moral and religious, and it was inseparable from his temperament, which was human and practical on the side of social experiment. He bequeathed his library of 13,000 volumes to the Boston public library. He was a prolific author, publishing books, pamphlets, sermons, essays without number, but never with a literary, always with a philanthropic, intention. His publications include “Miscellaneous Writings” (Boston, 1843); “Sermons on Theism, Atheism, and Popular Theology” (1852); “Occasional Sermons and Speeches” (2 vols., 1852); “Additional Speeches and Addresses” (2 vols., 1855); “Trial of Theodore Parker for the Misdemeanor of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping,” a defence that he had prepared to deliver in case he should be tried for his part in the Anthony Burns case (1855); and “Experience as a Minister.” His “Discourse on Matters pertaining to Religion” (1842) still presents the best example of his theological method; his “Ten Sermons of Religion” (1853) the best summary of results. His complete works were edited by Frances Power Cobbe (12 vols., London, 1863-'5); (10 vols., Boston, 1870). A volume of “Prayers” was issued in 1862, and one entitled “Historic Americans” in 1870. It included discourses on Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. “Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Mind,” selected from notes of his unpublished sermons, by Rufus Leighton, was edited by Frances P. Cobbe (London, 1865). See also “Théodore Parker sa vie et ses oeuvres,” by Albert Réville (Paris, 1865). On the death of Mrs. Parker in 1880, Franklin BORN Sanborn was made literary executor, and he, it is said, intends to issue some new material. Mr. Parker's life has been presented several times; most comprehensively by John Weiss (2 vols., New York, 1864), and by Octavius B. Frothingham (Boston, 1874). Studies of him have been made in French and English. There is a fragment of autobiography and innumerable references to him as the founder of a new school in theology. There are busts of Parker by William W. Story and Robert Hart. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 654-655.
PARKHURST, Jonathan, Essex County, New Jersey, abolitionist. Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)
PARKMAN, John, Greenfield, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-1840, 1840-1841.
PARRISH, Isaac, 1811-1852, Philadelphia, physician, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1834-1837. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 659)
PARRISH, Joseph, Jr., born 1818, Burlington, New Jersey, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1841-1846.
PARRISH, Joseph, physician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11 November, 1818, was graduated at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1844, and then settled in Burlington, New Jersey. He returned to his native city in 1855, and in 1856 was called to fill the chair of obstetrics in Philadelphia Medical College, but soon resigned to go abroad. While he was in Rome his attention was directed to the imperfect management of the insane hospital, and by addressing the pope he succeeded in rectifying the abuse. On his return in 1857 he was appointed superintendent of the Pennsylvania Training-School for Feeble-Minded Children, and this institution, with its buildings, grew up under his management. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the service of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, for which, under orders from the president, he visited many hospitals and camps with orders for supplies and hospital stores. Dr. Parrish also had charge of the sanitary posts of White House and City Point, and subsequently visited the governors of the loyal states, whom he aided in the organization of auxiliary associations for the continued supply of hospital stores. When the war was over he established and conducted for seven years the Pennsylvania Sanitarium for the Treatment of Alcoholic and Opium Inebriety. In 1875 he settled in Burlington, New Jersey, where he has since continued in charge of a home for nervous invalids. He has been most active in relation to the care of inebriates, and in 1872 he was summoned before the Committee on Habitual Drunkards of the British House of Commons. His advice and recommendations were approved and adopted by the committee, and were made the basis of a law that is now in existence. He issued the first call for the meeting that resulted in the formation of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, and has since been president of that organization. Dr. Parrish was vice-president of the International Congress on Inebriety in England in 1882, and was a delegate to the International Medical Congress in Washington in 1887. He is also a member of scientific societies both at home and abroad. In 1848 he established the “New Jersey Medical and Surgical Reporter,” which is now issued from Philadelphia without the state prefix and under new management. He also edited “The Sanitary Commission Bulletin,” and has been associated in the control of other publications, such as the Hartford '”Quarterly Journal of Inebriety.” Dr. Parrish is the author of many papers and addresses on topics pertaining to that branch of medical science, and “Alcoholic Inebriety from a Medical Standpoint” (Philadelphia, 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 659.
PARROTT, Enoch Greenleaf, naval officer, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 10 December, 1814: died in New York City, 10 May, 1879. He entered the U. S. Navy as a midshipman in 1831, became lieutenant in 1841, and was engaged under Commodore Matthew C. Perry against Bendy and the neighboring towns on the west coast of Africa in 1843. He served on the "Congress" during the war with Mexico, and was on John C. Fremont's expedition from Monterey to Los Angeles, and at the capture of Giuaymas and Mazatlan. He was commissioned commander in 1861. He was with the expedition that destroyed the Norfolk U.S. Navy-yard, and in the Brig “Perry " captured the Confederate privateer "Savannah," for which he received the commendation of the Navy Department. He commanded the "Augusta" in 1861-'3, participated in the battle of Port Royal, engaged the Confederate rams at the time of their sortie from Charleston, and commanded the "Canonicus," of the North Atlantic Squadron in the engagements with the iron-clads on James River in 1864, and in the fights with Howett's battery. He commanded the " Monadnock" in the attacks on Fort Fisher in December, 1864, and January, 1865, and was at the surrender of Charleston, South Carolina. He was commissioned captain in 1866, commodore in 1870, rear-admiral in 1873, and was retired in 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 660
PARROTT, Robert Parker, inventor, born in Lee, New Hampshire, 5 October, 1804; died in Cold Spring, New York, 24 December, 1877. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1824, assigned to the artillery, and till 1829 was on duty at West Point as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy in 1824-'6, and of mathematics till 1828, and then as principal assistant in the former subjects. He was promoted 1st lieutenant, 27 August, 1831, and served in garrison till 1834, then on ordnance duty till 1835, and on the stall during operations in the Creek nation in 1836. On 13 January, 1836, he was mode captain of ordnance, and assigned to duty in the Ordnance Bureau at Washington, hut on 31 October of that year he resigned his commission and became superintendent of the West Point Iron and Cannon Foundry at Cold Spring, Putnam County, New York. While in charge of this institution he devised and perfected, by long and costly experiments, the system of rifled cannon and projectiles that is known by his name. These were used extensively by the U. S. government during the Civil War, and were first put to the test of actual warfare at Bull Run. Parrott's guns are of cast-iron, and in the larger calibres are hollow-cast on the plan invented by General Thomas J. Rodman, and cooled from the inside, as in his method, by a stream of cold water running through the bore. They are strengthened by shrinking a hoop or barrel of wrought-iron over that part of the re-enforce that surrounds the charge. Some Parrott guns have shown wonderful endurance. During Gilmore's operations against Charleston a thirty-pounder on Cumming's Point was fired 4,605 times before bursting. Others have burst, owing probably to the wedging of the projectile in the bore. During the war Captain Parrott refused to enrich himself by charging the government an extravagant price for his guns, and at its close he voluntarily cancelled a large contract that had recently been awarded him. From 1844 till 1847 he served as first judge of the Putnam County Court of Common Pleas. His connection with the West Point Foundry lasted till 1867, after which he was president or director of various industrial enterprises. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 661-662.
PARSCHALL, Nathaniel, editor, born in Knoxville, Tennessee, 4 April, 1804; died in St. Louis, Missouri. 13 December, 1866. He was early left an orphan, and entered a printing-office. About 1814 he went to St. Louis and was apprenticed to Joseph Charles, of the “Missouri Gazette." He became part proprietor and editor of the "Missouri Republican" with Edward Charles in 1827, and continued so for ten years, when he engaged in business that was connected with the transfer of lands. This was unsuccessful, and in 1840 he established the "New Era," and for a time was also clerk of the probate court of St. Louis. In 1843 he returned to the " Republican " as co-editor, becoming later editor-in-chief, which place he held until his death. The paper, which was conspicuous for its ability, advocated slavery and opposed the principles of the Republican Party. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 661.
PARSONS, Charles Carroll, soldier, born in Elyria, Ohio, in 1838; died in Memphis, Tennessee, 7 September, 1878. His father died when the son was an infant, and he was brought up in the family of his maternal uncle, a physician in Elyria. He was appointed to the U. S. Military Academy by his cousin, Judge Philemon Bliss, then member of Congress from Ohio, and graduated in 1861, being promoted at once to 1st lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Artillery. He served in West Virginia, and then with the Army of the Ohio in Tennessee and Kentucky, commanding a battery after July, 1862, and covering the retreat to Louisville in September. He was brevetted captain for gallantry at Perryville and major for Stone River. From January till March, 1863, he was on sick leave, and, being unable to return to the field, was assistant, professor of ethics and English at West Point till September. 1864, after which he again commanded a battery till the close of the war. "Parsons's Battery" was noted in both the National and Confederate armies, and many stories are told of his courage and daring. At Perryville. where his battery was temporarily served by partially drilled infantrymen, forty of his men were killed by a furious charge of the enemy, and the rest driven back, but Parsons remained with his guns until he was dragged from them by a huge cavalryman by order of General McCook. At Stone River he repelled six charges, much of the time under musketry fire, and he was often mentioned in the official reports. After the war he was on frontier duty, and in 1867 was chief of artillery in General Winfield S. Hancock's, Indian expedition. He returned to duty at West Point as professor in 1868, and remained there till 30 December, 1870, when he was honorably discharged at his own request, and in 1871 he took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He held charges in Memphis, Tennessee, Cold Spring, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and then again in Memphis, till his death, which took place during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878, after he had worked untiringly for two months among the victims of the disease, both as clergyman and as nurse. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 662.
PARSONS, Levi, jurist, born in Kingsboro, New York, 1 July, 1822; died.in New York City, 23 October, 1887. He was educated at Kingsboro Academy, admitted to the bar, and practised in Little Falls, New York. He emigrated to California in 1849, settled in San Francisco, and was one of the organizers of the Whig Party in that city. He was elected judge of the San Francisco District in 1850, subsequently engaged in business, and built the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, of which he became the first president. He retired from public life in 1866, and spent his subsequent years in travel and in New York City. In 1880 he endowed the public library of Gloversville, New York, with $6,800, and $1,000 worth of books and engravings, and subsequently he gave Union College $50,000 for the support of students from Fulton and Montgomery Counties. Union College gave him the degree of LL. D., in 1881. See "Memorial Address." by Reverend William E. Park (Gloversville, New York., 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 663-664.
PARSONS, Lewis Baldwin, soldier, born in Genesee County, New York, 5 April, 1818, was graduated at Yale in 1840, studied law at Harvard, and settled in Alton, Illinois, where he was city attorney for several years. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1853, and became president and treasurer of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. At the beginning of the Civil War he was one of a commission to examine into the administration of General John C. Fremont in Missouri. He became colonel of volunteers, and was assigned to the staff of General Henry W. Halleck in 1862, with the charge of rail and river transportation in his department, which was subsequently extended to cover the entire country west of the Alleghanies. In 1864 he was placed in charge of all railroad and river army transportation in the United States. In January, 1865, by order of the Secretary of War, he personally supervised the transfer of General John M. Schofield's army of 20,000 men from Mississippi to Washington, D. C., a distance of 1,400 miles, in an average time of eleven days. For this service he was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, 11 May, 1865. In April, 1866, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 664.
PARSONS, Mosby Monroe, soldier, born in Virginia in 1819; died in Camargo. Mexico, 17 August, 1865. He moved to Cole County, Missouri, early in life, practised law, was Attorney-General of Missouri in 1853-'7, and subsequently became a member of the state senate. He was a captain in the U. S. Army during the Mexican War, and received honorable mention for his service at Sacramento. At the beginning of the Civil War he acted in concert with Governor Claiborne F. Jackson in his endeavor to draw Missouri into the Confederacy, was active in organizing the state militia, and raised a mounted brigade which he commanded at Carthage, Springfield, and Pea Ridge, with the rank of brigadier-general, subsequently serving under General Sterling Price until the last invasion of Missouri in 1864. The next year he went to Mexico, joined the Republican forces, and was killed in an engagement with the imperialists. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 664.
PARTON, James, author, born in Canterbury, England, 9 February, 1822. He was brought to the United States when he was five years old, and educated in the schools of New York City and at White Plains, New York. After teaching in Philadelphia and New York City, he became a contributor to the "Home Journal," with which he was connected for three years. He has spent his life since that time in literary labors, contributing many articles to periodicals, and publishing books on biographical subjects. While he was employed on the “Home Journal" he remarked one day to a New York publisher that an interesting story could be made out of the life of Horace Greeley. When asked why he did not do it. he said that it would require an expensive journey and a year of labor. The publisher offered to advance the means, and he collected materials from the lips of Greeley's former neighbors in Vermont and New Hampshire, and produced the " Life of Horace Greeley (New York, 1855; new and completed ed., Boston, 1885), which was so profitable that he determined to devote himself thenceforth to authorship. He has also lectured successfully on literary and political topics. He resided in New York City till 1875, when he moved to Newburyport. Massachusetts. His first book was followed by a collection of "Humorous Poetry of the English Language from Chaucer to Saxe" (1856). Next appeared the “Life and Times of Aaron Burr," prepared from original sources, in which he sought to redeem Burr's reputation from the charges that attached to his memory (1857; new ed., 1864). In writing the "Life of Andrew Jackson," he also had access to inedited documents (3 vols., 1859-'60). His subsequent works are "General Butler in New Orleans" (1863; new ed., 1882); "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin " (1864); "Manual for the Instruction of Rings, Railroad and Political, and How New York is Governed" (1866): "Famous Americans of Recent Times," containing sketches of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster. John C. Calhoun, John Randolph, and others (Boston, 1867); "The People's Book of Biography," containing eighty short lives (Hartford, 1868); "Smoking and Drinking," an essay on the evils of those practices, reprinted from the "Atlantic Monthly'' (Boston, I860); a pamphlet entitled " The Danish Islands: Are We Bound to pay for Them I" (1869); "Topics of the Time," a collection of magazine articles, most of them treating of administrative abuses at Washington (1871); "Triumphs of Enterprise, Ingenuity, and Public Spirit" (Hartford, 1871); "The Words of Washington" (1872); "Fanny Fern: A Memorial Volume" (New York, 1873): "Life of Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States" (Boston, 1874); "Taxation of Church Property," a pamphlet (New York, 1874); "Le Parnasse Francais, a Book of French Poetry from A. D. 1550 to the Present Time" (Boston, 1877); "Caricature and Other Comic Art, in all Times and Many Lands " (New York. 1877); a "Life of Voltaire," which was the fruit of several years' labor (Boston, 1881); "Noted Women of Europe and America" (Hartford. 1883); and "Captains of Industry, or Men of Business who did Something besides Making Money, a Book for Young Americans" (Boston. 1884). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 665-666.
PASCO, Samuel, senator, born in London, England, 28 June, 1834. He was taken by his parents to the British provinces when he was ten years old, and thence to Charlestown, Massachusetts, and was graduated at Harvard in 1858. He moved to Florida, and became principal of the academy at Waukeenah, at the same time studying law. Early in the Civil War he enlisted in the 3d Florida Infantry. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Missionary Ridge, and was detained in Camp Morton at Indianapolis, Indiana, till the close of the war. Returning to Florida, he was soon elected county clerk, and, resuming his law studies, was admitted to the bar, and practised at Monticello. In 1870 he was made chairman of the Democratic State Executive Committee. In 1880 he was a presidential elector, and in that year and 1884 he was proposed as the Democratic candidate for governor, but withdrew his name for the sake of party harmony. He was president of the state constitutional convention of 1885, and in 1886 was elected to the legislature, and chosen speaker. On 19 May, 1887, he was elected U.S. Senator for the term expiring 3 March. 1893. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 668.
PATRICK, Marsena R., soldier, born in Houndsfield, Jefferson County, New York, 15 March, 1811. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1835, became 1st lieutenant in 1839, served in the Mexican War, was made captain in 1847, and brevetted major in 1849 for "meritorious conduct while serving in the enemy's country." He resigned in 1850, engaged in farming in Jefferson County, New York, and in 1859 was appointed president of the State Agricultural College. At the beginning of the Civil War he was made inspector-general of the New York Militia, became brigadier-general of volunteers in March. 1862, and served with General Irwin McDowell in the Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia, and with the Army of the Potomac at South Mountain and Antietam. He became provost-marshal-general of that army in October of the same year, subsequently of the combined armies acting against Richmond, and, after Lee's surrender, of the Department of Virginia. He resigned 12 June, 1865, was president of the New York State Agricultural Society in 1867-'8, commissioner for New York State in 1868-'9, and again in 1879-'80, and since 1880 has been governor of the central branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Ohio. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 670-671.
PATTEN, George Washington, soldier, born in Newport, Rhode Island, 25 December, 1808: died in Houlton, Maine, 28 April, 1882. Patten was graduated at Brown in 1825, and at the U. S. Military Academy in 1830. He served on frontier and garrison duty till the Mexican War, was engaged against the Seminole Indians: in Florida at various times in 1837-'42, and reached the rank of captain, 18 June, 1846. At the battle of Cerro Gordo, during the war with Mexico, he lost his left hand while storming the heights, and was brevetted major for gallant conduct. At the end of the war impaired health forced him to decline a captaincy in the quartermaster's department, and he obtained an absence on sick-leave. After his return to duty in 1850 he served on the frontier till he was made major on 30 April, 1861, and though his disability prevented him from seeing service in the field during the Civil War, he rendered valuable assistance as a member of various military commissions. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, 7 June, 1862, and on 17 February, 1864. retired "for disability resulting from long and faithful service, and from wound and exposure in the line of duty." Colonel Patten achieved some reputation as a writer, and has been called the "poet laureate of the army." His lyrics include "The Seminole's Reply." "Joys that We've Tasted." and “Episode of the Mexican War," which he delivered on 14 September, 1878, the thirty-first anniversary of the capture of the city of Mexico. He published in book-form " Army Manual "(3d ed.. New York, 1863); " Infantry Tactics, Bayonet Drill, and Small Sword Exercise " (1861); "Artillery Drill" (1861): "Cavalry Drill and Sabre Exercise" (1863); and "Voices of the Border," a collection of his fugitive poems (1807). He also edited General Philip St. George Cooke's "Cavalry Tactics" (1863). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 671.
PATTERSON, James Willis, 1823-1893, educator. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire. Congressman 1863-1867. Elected U.S. Senator 1866-1873. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 672; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 303; Congressional Globe)
PATTERSON, James Willis, senator, born in Henniker, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, 2 July, 1823. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1848, and studied divinity at Yale, but was not licensed to preach. He was tutor at Dartmouth in 1852-'4, professor of mathematics there in 1854-'9, and occupied the chair of astronomy and meteorology from the latter date till 1865. He was school commissioner for Grafton County in 1858-'61, and at the same time secretary of the state board of education, and prepared the state reports for five years. He was in the legislature in 1862, was elected to Congress as a Republican in the same year, served till 1867, and in 1866 was chosen U.S. Senator, serving one term, during which he was the author of the measure constituting consular clerkships, and the bill for establishing colored schools in the District of Columbia, and was chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia and of that on Retrenchment and Reform. At the close of the Congressional investigation of the Credit Mobilier (see AMES, OAKES) the Senate committee reported a resolution expelling Mr. Patterson, 27 February, 1873; but no action was taken upon it, and five days later his term expired. He was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution in 1864-'5, and was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' Convention in 1866. In 1877-'8 he was again a member of the New Hampshire legislature, and in 1885 he was appointed state superintendent of public instruction in New Hampshire. Iowa College gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1868. In 1880 he was the orator at the unveiling of the Soldiers’ monument in Marietta, Ohio. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 672.
PATTERSON, John James, senator, born in Waterloo, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, 8 August, 1830. He was graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848, edited the Juniata "Sentinel" in the interest of General Winfield Scott in the presidential campaign in 1852, and for ten subsequent years the " Harrisburg Telegraph." He then engaged in banking and in the management of railroads, and in 1858-'61 was in the legislature. He served in the National Army on General Seth Williams's staff during the Civil War. In 1869 he moved to South Carolina. He was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican in 1872, and served one term. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 672.
PATTERSON, Joseph, banker, born near Norristown, Pennsylvania, 2 February, 1808; died in Philadelphia, 25 September, 1887. His father, John, was a native of Ireland, and his mother, Elizabeth Stuart, was the only daughter of Colonel Christopher Stuart, an officer in the Revolutionary Army, who was second in command at the storming of Stony Point. The son engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1842, when he became president of what is now the Western National Bank. He afterward was largely engaged as a dealer and shipper of anthracite coal, and owned large collieries in Schuylkill County, but continued president of the bank till his death. On 15 August, 1861, Mr. Patterson participated in the memorable conference in New York between Secretary Salmon Chase and representatives of the banking interests of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The secretary asked for a loan of $50,000,000 in gold to aid in defraying the expenses of the war. In view of the alarming condition of the nation's finances, the assembled bankers hesitated to accede to his request. Then Mr. Patterson made an eloquent appeal in behalf of the government, convincing those present that they should furnish the needed money, and the associated banks of the three cities lent the government at that time $50,000,000 at par, and later in the same year $100,000,000 more. From that time the secretary was accustomed to consult Mr. Patterson regarding the financial policy of the government, and his successors in office followed his example. He declined the controllership of the currency twice, and also the post of assistant U. S. Treasurer at Philadelphia. Throughout the Civil War he was treasurer of the Christian Commission. From 1869 until his death he was president of the Philadelphia Clearing-House Association. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 672.
PATTERSON, Robert, soldier, born in Cappagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, 12 January, 1792; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 August, 1881. His father, who was engaged in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, escaped to this country and settled in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Robert was educated in the common schools, and subsequently became a clerk in a Philadelphia counting house. He was commissioned 1st lieutenant of infantry in the war of 1812, and afterward served on General Joseph Bloomfield's staff. He returned to commercial pursuits, engaged in manufacturing and established several mills, became active in politics, and was one of the five Colonel Pattersons in the Pennsylvania Convention that nominated Andrew Jackson for the presidency, and in 1836 was president of the electoral college that cast the vote of Pennsylvania for Martin Van Buren. In 1838, and again in 1844, he was active in quelling local riots. He became major-general of volunteers at the beginning of the Mexican War, commanded his division at Cerro Gordo, led the cavalry and advanced brigades in the pursuit, entered and took Jalapa, and was honorably mentioned in General Winfield Scott's official report. After the war he resumed business, and took command of the Pennsylvania Militia. At the beginning of the Civil War he was the oldest major-general by commission in the United States. On the president's first call for 75,000 men for three months, 15 April, 1861, he was mustered into service as major-general of volunteers, and assigned to a military department composed of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. He crossed the Potomac on 15 June at Williamsport. When General McDowell advanced into Virginia, General Patterson was instructed to watch the troops under General Joseph E. Johnston at Winchester, Virginia. He claimed that the failure of General Winfield Scott to send him orders, for which he had been directed to wait, caused his failure to co-operate with McDowell in the movements that resulted in the battle of Bull Run. He was mustered out of service on the expiration of his commission, 27 July, 1861, and returned to private life. General Patterson was a popular speaker, one of the largest mill-owners in the United States, and was interested in sugar-refineries and cotton-plantations. He was president of the board of trustees of Lafayette College at the time of his death. He published "Narrative of the Campaign in the Shenandoah" (Philadelphia. 1865). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 673-674.
PATTERSON, Francis Engle, soldier, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 24 June, 1827; died in Fairfax Court-House, Virginia, 22 November, 1862. He entered the army from civil life in 1847 as 2nd lieutenant of artillery. Patterson became captain in 1855, resigned in 1857, and devoted himself to commercial pursuits till the beginning of the Civil War, when he took command of the 115th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. He became brigadier-general of volunteers, 11 April, 1862, and participated in the Peninsular Campaign. He was killed by the accidental discharge of his own pistol. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 674.
PATTERSON, Robert, clergyman, born in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland, in 1829. He was educated in his native town and in Londonderry, emigrated to the United States, and after a course in the theological seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was licensed to preach in 1851. He was ordained the next year, engaged in missionary work, and in 1854 became pastor of the 1st Reformed Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was in charge of churches in Chicago, Illinois, from 1857 till 1873, and in San Francisco in 1874-'8, returned to Cincinnati in the latter year, and accepted a call from the Central Presbyterian Church of that city, serving for two years. Since 1880 he has been pastor of the church in Brooklyn, Alameda County, California He has received the degree of D.D. His publications include "The Fables of Infidelity and the Facts of Faith" (Cincinnati, 1800); "The American Sabbath " (Philadelphia, 1868); "The Sabbath, Scientific, American, and Christian " (1870); "Christianity the only Republican Religion" (1871); "Christ's Testimony to the Scriptures" (1872); and "Egypt's Place in History " (1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 674.
PATTERSON, Thomas H., naval officer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May, 1820. He entered the U. S. Navy in 1830 as midshipman, became lieutenant in 1849, and commanded the steamship "Chocura" in Hampton roads. He was present at the siege of Yorktown, made a reconnaissance to West Point, Virginia, and opened the way up the Pamunkey River in support of General George B. McClellan's army. He cooperated with General George Stoneman's advance, at the White House, in checking the approach of the enemy at that point, and from June till October was senior officer of the naval forces in York and Pamunkey Rivers, being in constant co-operation with the Army of the Potomac. He was commissioned commander in July, 1822, was in charge of the steamer "James Adger" till 1865, on blockade duty off Wilmington, North Carolina, and cut out the steamer " Kate" from under the Confederate batteries at New Inlet in July, 1863. He participated in the capture of a flying battery above Fort Fisher in August, 1863, captured the " Cornubia" and the "Robert E. Lee," both filled with arms and stores for the Confederate Army, and the schooner "Ella." He became senior officer of the outside blockade off Charleston, South Carolina, in September, 1864. He was commissioned captain in 1866, commodore in 1871, commanded the U.S. Navy-yard at Washington, D.C., was president of the naval board of examiners in 1870-'7, and in the latter year became rear-admiral. He was retired in 1883. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 674.
PATTISON, Thomas, naval officer, born in New York City, 8 February, 1822. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman. 2 March, 1889, and saw service during the Mexican War. He was commissioned lieutenant, 19 September, 1854, and in 1857 was stationed at the Boston U.S. Navy-yard, serving the next three years on the "Mississippi," of the East India Squadron. In 1861 he was attached to the " Perry," of the Atlantic Squadron. He was then transferred to the " Philadelphia," of the Potomac Flotilla, which he commanded in October. He was made lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and commander, 3 March, 1865. In 1862 he was chief officer of the "Sumpter," of the South Atlantic Squadron, and of the " Clara Dolson," of the Mississippi Squadron, in 1863. From 1863 till 1865 he was in charge of the naval station at Memphis, Tennessee. He was in command of the Norfolk U.S. Navy-yard in 1867-'9, and in July, 1870, was promoted captain. After being in command of the "Richmond " in the West Indies in 1871, Captain Pattison took her to San Francisco the following year, and subsequently commanded the " Saranac " and the receiving-ship " Independence" at the Mare Island U.S. Navy-yard, California. Pattison was promoted commodore, 11 December, 1877, and was for eighteen months in charge of the naval station at Port Royal, South Carolina, when he was transferred to the command of the U.S. Navy-yard at Washington, D. C. He was detached in July, 1883, made rear-admiral the following November, and retired 8 February, 1884. Admiral Pattison was the first American naval officer to enter Jeddo, now Tokio, Japan, and was lieutenant on the "Perry" when she captured the first privateer taken during the Civil War in a night engagement off Charleston, South Carolina. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 676.
PATTON, William, 1798-1879, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clergyman, opponent of slavery, father of abolitionist William Weston Patton. (Appleton’s, 1888; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 317)
PATTON, William Weston, 1821-1889, South Boston, Massachusetts, theologian, educator, college president, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist. Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1845-46. On September 3, 1862, petitioned Lincoln to issue a proclamation of emancipation. President of Howard University, 1877-1889. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 677-678)
PATTON, William Weston, clergyman, born in New York City, 19 October, 1821, was graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1839 and at the Union Theological Seminary in 1842. After taking charge of a Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts, for three years, he became pastor of one in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1846, and in Chicago, Illinois, in 1857. From 1867 till 1872 he was editor of “The Advance” in that city, and during 1874 he was lecturer on modern skepticism at Oberlin, Ohio, and Chicago theological seminaries, since which time he has been president of Howard University, Washington, D. C., filling the chair of natural theology and evidences of Christianity in its theological department. He took an earnest part in the anti-slavery movement, and was chairman of the committee that presented to President Lincoln, 13 September, 1862, the memorial from Chicago asking him to issue a proclamation of emancipation. He was vice-president of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, and as such repeatedly visited the eastern and western armies, publishing several pamphlet reports. In 1886 he went, on behalf of the freedmen, to Europe, where, and in the Orient, he remained nearly a year. He received the degree of D. D. from Asbury (now De Pauw) University, Indiana, in 1864, and that of LL. D. from the University of the city of New York in 1882. He is the author of “The Young Man” (Hartford, 1847; republished as “The Young Man's Friend,” Auburn. New York, 1850); “Conscience and Law” (New York, 1850); “Slavery and Infidelity” (Cincinnati, 1856); “Spiritual Victory” (Boston, 1874); and “Prayer and its Remarkable Answers” (Chicago, 1875). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 677-678.
PAUL, Gabriel Rene, soldier, born in St. Louis, Missouri, 22 March, 1813; died in Washington, D. C, 5 May, 1880. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1834, made 1st lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Infantry, 20 October, 1830, and served in the Florida War in 1839-'42, surprising a camp of Seminole Indians near Tampa Bay in the latter year. He was commissioned captain, 19 April, 1840, took part, in the Mexican War, was wounded at the battle of Cerro Gordo, and brevetted major for gallant conduct at Chapultepec, where he led the storming party that captured the enemy's flag. The following year he was presented with a sword by the citizens of St. Louis, Missouri, for his services in Mexico. In an expedition to Rio Grande River, Texas, in 1852, he took part in the capture of a band of desperadoes, and on 2 October, 1858, he surprised and took a camp of Indians on Spanish Fork, Utah. Later he was promoted major of the 8th U.S. Infantry, became colonel of the 4th New Mexico Volunteers, and did good service in keeping the Confederates out of that territory. He was acting inspector-general of the Department of New Mexico till December, 1861, subsequently in command of the Southern Military District, and on 13 April, 1862, engaged in a skirmish with the enemy at Peralta. He was made lieutenant-colonel on 25 April, brigadier-general of volunteers, 18 April, 1863, and colonel, 13 September, 1864. He was present at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, in which latter engagement he was deprived of the sight of both eyes by a rifle-ball. In the following November he was presented by the 29th New Jersey Volunteers with a jeweled sword for his services in that battle. General Paul was on sick-leave until 10 February, 1865. He served as deputy-governor of the Soldiers' Home near Washington. D. C. till 13 June of that year, and was in charge of the Military Asylum at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, till 20 December, 1866. He was retired from active service, 10 February, 1865, on account of his blindness, and on the 23d of the same month he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, for gallant conduct at the battle of Gettysburg. In December, 1866, Congress granted him the pay and allowances attaching to the full rank of brigadier-general. On 10 December, 1886, a monument erected to the memory of General Paul in the Arlington, Virginia Cemetery, by his comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 678.
PAUL, Augustus Chouteau, soldier, born in Albany, New York, 16 April, 1842, was a cadet at the Kentucky Military Institute in 1861. In May, under the call for three months' troops, he enlisted and was made captain of Kentucky mounted infantry. He was mustered out in the following August, but entered the army again as captain in the 23d Kentucky Volunteers, his commission bearing date 2 January, 1862. He took part with his regiment in the campaigns of the Armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland until 1 June, 1863, when he was appointed assistant adjutant-general of volunteers. In this capacity he served with the Army of the Potomac on the staffs of General Henry Baxter and General Andrew A. Humphreys, and on that of Byron R. Pierce. During this period Colonel Paul took part in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court-House, etc., was captured by the enemy, spent eleven months in Confederate prisons, and was among those officers that were placed by the Confederates under the fire of National guns at Charleston. South Carolina. He was brevetted major for gallantry in the Wilderness, and lieutenant-colonel for meritorious conduct at Spottsylvania Court-House. He was mustered out, 19 September, 1865. On 11 May, 1866, he was appointed 2d lieutenant in the regular army, but declined. He subsequently accepted the same rank in the 3d U.S. Cavalry, and was promoted 1st lieutenant, 20 December, 1872. During the next twelve years Colonel Paul saw arduous service on the western frontier. In May, 1881, his health became so impaired that he resigned his commission. [Son of Gabriel Rene Paul] Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 678.
PAULDING, Hiram, naval officer, born in New York City, 11 December, 1797; died in Huntington, Long Island, 20 October, 1878, entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 September, 1811, and participated in the victory on Lake Champlain under Commodore McDonough on 11 September, 1814, for which he, with others, received a vote of thanks from Congress on 20 October, 1814. He served in the frigate "Constellation" during the Algerine War, was commissioned lieutenant, 27 April, 1816, cruised in the frigate " Macedonian " in 1820-"2, suppressing piracy in the West Indies and commanded the schooner "Shark" in the Mediterranean in 1834-'7. He was promoted to commander, 9 February, 1837, and had charge of the sloop " Levant" in the Mediterranean in 1839-'41. After becoming a captain on 29 February, 1844, he was on the sloop “Vincennes" in the East Indies in 1846-'7 and the frigate "St. Lawrence" in 1849-'50. He was in charge of the U.S. Navy-yard at Washington, D. C, in 1853-'5, and of the home squadron in 1850-'8. On 21 December, 1861, he was retired by law, being over sixty-two years of age, and on 16 July, 1862, he was promoted to rear-admiral on the retired list. During the Civil War he rendered valuable service in command of the U.S. Navy-yard at New York until May, 1865, when he was placed on waiting orders until his death, at which time he was the senior officer on the retired list of the navy. The Navy Department published an obituary order to commemorate his long, faithful, and distinguished service. [Son of John Paulding 1758-1818]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 682.
PAULDING, Leonard, born in New York City, 16 February, 1826; died in the Bay of Panama, 29 April, 1867, entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 19 December, 1840, and was promoted master, 1 March, 1855, lieutenant the following September, lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and commander, 24 December, 1865. Out of twenty-four years in the navy, he was only two years unemployed, seeing service on the survey, off the coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean, on the lakes, in the naval observatory, on the Paraguay Expedition, and on the Pacific. At the beginning of the Civil War he was ordered to St. Louis to superintend the construction of iron-clads, and commanded the "St. Louis." the first vessel of that kind that was built in the United States, doing valuable service at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Island No. 10, Fort Pillow, and in many skirmishes with Confederate gun-boats. While thus employed he was attacked by acute dysentery, but still continued at his post. He was wounded at Fort Donelson. and again at Island No. 10 by the explosion of a 100-pound rifle-gun, which threw him in the air, and killed and maimed more than a dozen others. After a few months' absence on sick-leave he reported for duty, and after being stationed a short time at the Brooklyn U.S. Navy-yard he was ordered to command the "Galena”, of the James River Squadron. After the war he was successively in command of the "Monocacy," "Eutaw," "Cyane," on the Pacific Squadron, and the "Wateree," on board of which he died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 682.
PAULLIN, William, aeronaut, born in Philadelphia, 3 April, 1812; died there, 1 December, 1871. At the age of twenty-one he began the construction of his first balloon, and in August, 1833, he made a trial trip from Philadelphia, inflating with hydrogen gas, followed by numerous ascents, and on 26 July, 1837, made a private effort from the Philadelphia Gas-Works with the view of testing the practicability of using coal-gas for balloon purposes. He succeeded, and was thus the first, in this country at least, to use illuminating gas for balloon purposes. In September, 1841, he sailed for Valparaiso, Chili, and he made numerous ascensions during his stay in South America. On one occasion he rose from St. Jagjo and crossed the volcano, being compelled to ascend to such a height as to distress him severely. The heat was so great as to endanger the balloon, while the fumes that arose threatened the aeronaut with suffocation. Mr. Paullin made ascensions also in Cuba, Hayti, Porto Rico, and Mexico. After an absence of six years he returned to the United States, and made many ascents from the western states, and some in the east. During the Civil War he was connected with the National Army, making his last ascension under General Joseph Hooker. He then resigned, and became a photographer. His intellect was affected for some time before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 682.
PAXTON, Elisha Franklin, soldier, born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, 4 March, 1828; died near Chancellorsville, Virginia, 2 May, 1863. He was graduated at Yale in 1847, studied at the Virginia Military Academy in Lexington, and became president of a bank in Lynchburg. He joined the Confederate Army, in which he rose to the rank of brigadier-general, commanded the Stonewall brigade and subsequently an army corps, and served at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, being killed in the last-named action. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 684.
PAXTON, John R., clergyman, born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, 18 September, 1848. He entered Jefferson College, Canonsburg in 1859, but was not graduated until 1866, having left college to serve in the Civil War, enlisting in the 140th Pennsylvania Regiment, and becoming 2d lieutenant. He studied theology at the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and at Princeton, was ordained in 1870, and was pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C., from 1878 till 1882, when he became pastor of the 42d Street Presbyterian Church in New York City, which charge he now (1888) holds. In 1887 he became chaplain of the 7th Regiment of Now York. Union gave him the degree of D. D. in 1882. He has published several addresses and sermons. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 684.
PAXTON, Joseph, manufacturer, born near New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 3 February, 1786; died in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, 21 August, 1861. He was educated at home by his mother, a Quaker, and during the war of 1812 held successively the commissions of major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of Pennsylvania troops. He was the principal projector of the Catawissa (now Reading) Railroad, and through it did much to develop the mineral and agricultural region between Pottsville and Williamsport. Colonel Paxton was the first to undertake the manufacture of iron on a large scale in the state, and among the first to import short-horn cattle. He was a friend and correspondent of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and an advocate of a protective tariff. —His son, PAXTON, Joseph Rupert, author, born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, 2 July, 1827; died in Houston, Texas, 20 August, 1867. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1845, studied law, and in 1848 was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia, where he engaged in practice. In 1854-'5 he edited the " Bizarre" in that city. Shortly after the inauguration of President Lincoln he was offered a diplomatic appointment abroad, but chose to enter the National service, and became captain in the 15th U. S. Infantry, in which he served until the close of the war, resigning on 1 July, 1865. At the battle of Nashville he was on the staff of General George H. Thomas, rendering valuable services, and being accompanied in the fight by his only son, then a boy, Alexis R. Paxton, who has since become an officer in the regular army. In 1866 he travelled in Europe, with the view of obtaining matter for future literary work. He was well known in Philadelphia for his various acquirements, and also for his genial nature. He dramatized many of Dickens's stories, translated into English several French plays and into French "Reveries of a Bachelor," and was the author of "Jewelry and the Precious Stones, by Hipponax Roset," an anagram (Philadelphia, 1856). His mother, a daughter of Leonard Rupert, of Rupert, Pennsylvania, died, 14 November, 1887, in the hundred and first year of her age, preserving her faculties until the last. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 685.
PAYNE, Edward Duggan, naval officer, born in Reading, Pennsylvania, 2 July, 1836. He was graduated at Jefferson Medical College in 1857, appointed assistant surgeon in the U. S. Navy in 1861, served on the " Congress " in her fight with the "Merrimac," 8 March, 1862, and was assistant surgeon in charge of the " Metacomet" in the action in Mobile Bay in August, 1864. He became passed assistant surgeon in 1865, surgeon in 1871, and was retired in 1876 on account of the failure of his health. He has published reports of cases in "Contributions to Medical Science in the United States Navy Department"; "Medical Essays" (Washington, D. C, 1872); and "United States Naval Sanitary and Medical Reports " (1873-'4). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 685.
PAYNE, Henry B., senator, born in Madison County, New York, 30 November, 1810. His father, Elisha, was an early settler, and judge of Madison County. Henry was graduated at Hamilton College in 1832, studied law in Canandaigua, New York, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1834, and practised law there for the next twelve years. He was a presidential elector in 1848, state senator in 1849-'50, and was defeated in the canvass for U. S. Senator in 1851, and for governor in 1857, Salmon P. Chase being elected by a slight majority. He supported Stephen A. Douglas in the Cincinnati Democratic Convention in 1856, and in the Charleston, South Carolina, Convention in 1860, reporting from the minority of the committee the resolutions that were adopted as the platform of that body. He was a consistent Unionist during the Civil War. Having retired from his profession, he became largely interested in manufactures, railroads, and similar enterprises. Since 1862 he has been president of the Cleveland Sinking-Fund Commission, and he was for several years president of the Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Railroad Company. He was chairman of the Ohio delegation to the Baltimore Democratic Convention in 1872, a member of Congress in 1875-'7, chairman of the House Committee on the Electoral Bill, and a member of the electoral commission in 1876. In 1884 he was elected to the U. S. Senate. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 685.
PEABODY, George, philanthropist, born in Danvers Mass. died in London….edgment of his " more than princely munificence," and adding a painting of herself. The letter and portrait are both to be seen in the Peabody Institute at Danvers. A year later he endowed an art school in Rome, Italy, and in 1869 he made his last visit to his native land, presenting the Peabody Museum at Salem with $150,000, and giving to other objects $105,000. During his absence the Prince of Wales unveiled, 23 July, a fine bronze statue of him, by William W. Story, erected by the citizens of London on the east side of the Royal Exchange. A replica of this seated statue will be erected in Baltimore during the present year (1888). Two months later Mr. Peabody returned to London, and died a few weeks afterward. His obsequies were celebrated in Westminster Abbey on 12 November For the first time in history the gates of Westminster Abbey were opened for the burial of a private citizen of another country, and, although the historic building was not Mr. Peabody's final resting-place, it was only owing to his own desire to sleep by the side of his mother's grave in his native land. Where the funeral service of the English Church was read over him. Mr. Peabody might have reposed forever with the universal consent and approbation of the British nation. The swiftest and finest frigate in the English Navy was selected to bear his body across the broad Atlantic, and it was received from the ship-of-war "Monarch" by an American Squadron commanded by Admiral Farragut, and buried at Danvers (now Peabody). Mr. Peabody never married, and his remaining fortune of $5,000,000 was bequeathed to his relatives. He was the most liberal philanthropist of ancient or modern times. In the words of Mr. Gladstone, he taught the world how a man may be the master of his fortune, and not its slave. It was Mr. Peabody's own testimony, and that of those most intimately acquainted with him, that his great benefactions were really a triumph over a disposition naturally parsimonious, and it was from a sense of benefits conferred on him by Divine providence that, he overcame the natural tendencies of his strong will in giving, till it became a delight to him to give. In the greatness of his benevolence George Peabody stands alone in history. See life, by Phebe A. Hanaford (Boston. 1882); and numerous addresses by Robert C. Winthrop (Boston, 1870); Severn Teackle Wallis (Annapolis. 1870), and others; and numerous eulogies and sermons delivered at the time of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 688-689.
PEABODY, Everett, soldier, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1831; died near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, 6 April. 1862, was graduated at Harvard in 1849, became a railway-engineer, was colonel of Missouri volunteers, and was killed at Shiloh. He completed the biography of his uncle Oliver, and edited the "Literary Remains" of his father (Boston, 1850). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 689.
PEARCE, James Alfred, senator, born in Alexandria, Virginia, 14 December, 1805; died in Chestertown, Maryland, 20 December, 1862. He was graduated at Princeton in 1822, studied law in Baltimore, and was admitted to the bar in 1824, after which he began to practice at Cambridge, Maryland. At the end of a year he went to Louisiana with his father and engaged in sugar-planting for three years. He then returned to Maryland and settled in Kent County, where he resumed the practice of his profession. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1831, in 1835 to Congress as a Democrat, and he served, except during one term in 1839-'41, until 1843, when he was chosen to the U. S. Senate, where he remained until his death. During his long service in the Senate he was especially interested in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Coast Survey. President Fillmore offered him a seat on the bench of the U. S. District Court of Maryland, which he declined. During the same administration he was nominated and confirmed Secretary of the Interior, but this honor was also declined upon the ground that he could be of more use to his country in the Senate. He took a deep interest in educational matters, and in 1832 was elected one of the visitors and governors of Washington College, in which institution he afterward lectured on law. Mr. Pearce was regarded as one of the wisest and safest members of the Senate. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 691-692.
PEARSON, Alfred L., soldier, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 28 December, 1838. He was educated at Jefferson and Allegheny Colleges, admitted to the bar in 1861, and in 1862 became captain and then colonel of the 155th Pennsylvania Regiment. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, September, 1864, for services at Peeble's Farm, and major-general for a charge that he made at Quaker Road, 29 March, 1865, for which he was also complimented by General Meade. His command fired the last shot at Appomattox Court-House. On his return he engaged in the practice of his profession, and was district attorney in 1870, 1872, and 1877. He has been active in militia matters, and as ranking major-general of the Pennsylvania National Guard commanded in Pittsburg during the riots of 1877. He also ended the troubles in Luzerne County, and for his action in firing on the rioters was arrested on a charge of murder, but the grand jury did not indict him. General Pearson edited the "Sunday Critic" in 1886-'7, and is the author of three plays, none of which have yet been produced. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 692.
PEARSON, George Frederick, naval officer, born in New Hampshire, 6 February, 1796; died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 30 June, 1867. He was appointed midshipman, 11 March. 1815, and cruised in the frigates “United States" and "Independence " in the Mediterranean in 1816-'20, and in the West Indies in 1832-'3. He was commissioned lieutenant, 13 January, 1825, commanded the schooner "Shark" at Norfolk in 1839, and served at the Portsmouth U.S. Navy-yard in 1839-'41. He was promoted to commander on 8 September of the latter year, was in the "Falmouth" at Norfolk in 1852-'3, and became captain, 14 September, 1855. He commanded the steamer “Powhatan" in the East Indies in 1858-'60. During the Civil War, he rendered valuable service as commandant of the Portsmouth U.S. Navy-yard, which post he held at his death. He was retired by law, being over sixty-two years old, 21 December, 1861, and became commodore on the retired list, 16 July, 1862, and rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 692.
PEASE, Henry Roberts, senator, born in Connecticut, 19 February, 1835. He was educated for a teacher, followed that calling several years, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. During the Civil War he was a captain on staff duty in the National Army. He was appointed superintendent of education in Louisiana while it was under military rule, became superintendent of the education of freedmen in Mississippi in 1867, took an active part in the reconstruction of that state, and was appointed state superintendent of education in 1869. He also published and edited the "Mississippi Educational Journal." which was the first of that character in the south. He was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican in 1874, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Adelbert Ames, served in 1874-5, and in the latter year was appointed postmaster of Vicksburg, but was removed a few weeks afterward for political reasons. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 693.
PEASE, Phineas, soldier, born in Somer, Connecticut, 10 April, 1826. He was educated in the common schools, and subsequently was employed on railroads in Illinois. He became lieutenant-colonel of the 49th Illinois Infantry at the beginning of the Civil War. He was severely wounded at Shiloh, participated in the battle of Corinth, commanded a brigade at Du Glaise, Louisiana, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Franklin, Missouri, and was at the battle of Nashville, and numerous subsequent small engagements. In March, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers. He became general superintendent of the Indiana, Bloomington, and Western Railroad in 1875, and superintendent of the Ohio Central Railroad in 1880, and in 1885 became receiver and general manager of the Cleveland and Marietta Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 693
PECK, Henry Everard, clergyman, born in Rochester, New York, 27 July, 1821: died in Port au Prince, Hayti, 9 June, 1867. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1841, studied theology, and, entering the Congregational ministry, preached in Rochester. He was associate professor of intellectual and moral philosophy at Oberlin from 1852 till 1865, an ardent champion of the anti-slavery cause, and took an active part in the presidential canvass of 1856. In 1858 he was arrested under the charge of violating the Fugitive-Slave Law, and confined with others in the county jail in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1862 till 1865 he was U. S. commissioner to Hayti, and was then appointed U. S. minister to that republic. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 695.
PECK, John James, soldier, born in Manlius, New York, 4 January, 1821 ; died in Syracuse, New York, 21 April, 1878. His father was one of the earliest settlers in Onondaga County. The son was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1843, assigned to the 2d U.S. Artillery, and was on garrison duty in New York Harbor till he was ordered to Texas in 1845. During the Mexican War he was at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, took part in the assault on Federation Hill at Monterey, and afterward received two brevets for gallantry—that of captain for Contreras and Churubusco, and that of major for Molino del Rey, where he had turned a captured gun on the enemy with great effect. "His name and services," said his division commander, Gen Worth, "will be found in the official account of every battle save one from the commencement of the war to the conquest of the basin of Mexico." He was given a sword on his return home in 1848, and after serving against the Navajo Indians in New Mexico, and on recruiting service, resigned his commission on 31 March, 1853. He was then connected with a projected railroad from New York to Syracuse by way of Newburg. and also organized in Syracuse the Burnet Bank, of which he was cashier till the Civil War. He was also president of the board of education in that city in 1859-'61, and was interested in politics, serving as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention of 1856, and in that at Charleston in 1860, running for Congress in 1856 and 1858, and once declining a foreign mission. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on 9 August, 1861, and served first in the defences of Washington and then in the Peninsular Campaign. He rendered signal service at Yorktown; and at Williamsburg, where he arrived with re-enforcements at a critical point in the battle, his troops, by steadily withstanding repeated attacks from a superior force, did much to preserve the army from rout. At Fair Oaks a horse was shot under him, and he afterward covered the left flank of the army by holding White Oak swamp, he held an important place in the seven days' change of base, leading the rear-guard in the movement from Turkey Creek to Harrison's Landing. He was promoted major-general of volunteers, 4 July, 1862, and till September was in Yorktown, where he put the works in condition for defence. On 22 September, 1862, he was assigned to the command of all the National troops in Virginia south of James River, where he rendered important service by his brilliant defence of Suffolk against a superior force under Longstreet, whose position on Hill's Point he stormed and captured on 4 May, 1863, thus virtually ending the siege. After an absence of several months, which was necessitated by injuries that he had received at Suffolk, he held command in North Carolina till April, 1864, and, after another leave of absence, on the Canada frontier until the close of the war. He was mustered out of service, 24 August, 1865, and in 1866 organized at Syracuse the New York State Life insurance Company, of which he was president till his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 695-696.
PECKHAM, Stephen Farnum, chemist, born near Providence, Rhode. Island, 26 March, 1839. After a special course in the chemical laboratory of Brown he was two years in a pharmaceutical laboratory in Providence, after which he completed his studies in 1861 by a further course in chemistry at Brown. Subsequently, in association with Nathaniel P. Hill (q. v.) and others, he began the manufacture of illuminating oils from petroleum. The works were planned and successfully constructed by him, but their operation was unremunerative, and he became in 1862 hospital steward of the 7th Rhode Island Regiment. He continued in the military service until near the close of the Civil War, having at that time charge of the chemical department of the U. S. Army Laboratory in Philadelphia. His next engagement was as expert for the California Petroleum Company, for which corporation he spent a year in southern California studying the occurrence of petroleum in that region. He subsequently prepared for the geological survey of that state several reports on similar subjects, including a technological examination of Californian bitumen, which he made on his return to the east in 1867. In that year he also began to teach chemistry in Brown, and he afterward held chairs on that subject successively in Washington and Jefferson College, the state agricultural college, Orono, Maine, Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio, and in the University of Minnesota, where he was also chemist to the geological survey of that state. In 1880 he returned to Providence, and he has since been engaged in various chemical industries. Professor Peckham has contributed many articles to current scientific literature, both in the United States and abroad, chiefly on his specialty of petroleum, its manufacture and applications. He served in 1880 as special agent on the United States Census, and contributed to the reports a valuable monograph on the subject, including a full bibliography. In addition to his reports he wrote the article on "Petroleum " for the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and he has published an "Elementary Treatise on Chemistry" (Louisville, 1870). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 697.
PEGRAM, Robert Baker, naval officer, born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, 10 December, 1811. He entered the U. S. Navy as midshipman on 2 February, 1829, served in the Mediterranean Squadron, and on 8 September, 1841, was appointed lieutenant. He was ordered to the "Saratoga," under Captain David G. Farragut. in 1847, served in the Mexican War, and in 1852 took part in the Japan Expedition. In 1855 he participated in a joint expedition from the British ship 'Rattler" and the U. S. vessel " Powhatan " against a piratical flotilla of thirty-one war-junks, and captured sixteen, with 100 cannon. For this service he received the thanks of Admiral Sir James Stirling, flag-officer of the British East India Squadron, of the governor of Hong Kong, and of the British government, and was presented with a sword by the state of Virginia. He served in the Norfolk U.S. Navy-yard in 1856-'8, in the Paraguay Expedition in 1858, and in 1859 was a commissioner to define the limits of the Newfoundland fisheries. He resigned from the U. S. Navy on 17 April. 1861, became a captain in the Virginia service, commanded at the U.S. Navy-yard in Norfolk after its evacuation by the U. S. forces, and erected a battery at Pig Point, Nansemond River, with which he disabled the U. S. steamer " Harriet Lane," which was surveying the river and placing buoys. He afterward commanded the steamer "Nashville," which left Charleston on 26 October, 1861, and returned in the following February, having eluded pursuit and destroyed several merchant-vessels. He was ordered to superintend the shielding and armament of the iron-clad steamer "Richmond." and, after taking her to Drewry's Bluff, was transferred to the "Virginia." In 1864 a fund was raised in Virginia to purchase and equip in England a naval force to be called the " Virginia Volunteer Navy," and to be commanded by Captain Pegram. He had one vessel prepared for service at the time of General Lee's surrender. Since the close of the war he has resided in Norfolk, Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 700.
PEGRAM, John, soldier, born in Petersburg, Virginia, 24 January, 1833: died near Hatcher's Run, Virginia, 6 February, 1865. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1854, assigned to the 1st U.S. Dragoons, became 1st lieutenant, 28 February, 1857, and was actively engaged on frontier duty for several years. He resigned his commission in the U. S. Army, 10 May, 1861, and was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the Confederate Army soon afterward. On 7 November, 1862, he was appointed a brigadier-general in the provisional army, and he subsequently acquired the rank of major-general. His brigade was composed of five regiments of Virginia infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia. As a major-general he commanded General Jubal A. Early's old division. He was engaged in all the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia, and was killed in action at Hatcher's Run. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 700-701.
PEGRAM, William Johnson, soldier, born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1841: died there, 2 April, 1865. Pegram left the University of Virginia, where he was a law student, at the beginning of the Civil War, to enter a Confederate regiment of artillery as a private, and won promotion in that arm of the service at Cedar Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Early in 1865 he was made brigadier-general, and he was killed during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 701.
PEIRCE, Ebenezer Weaver (purse), soldier, born in Freetown, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1822. He received an academic education, and held various local offices in Freetown and Lakeville, Massachusetts. He was commissioned major of the Old Colony Regiment in 1844, and was made brigadier-general of state militia in 1855. In 1859 he became lieutenant of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He commanded as brigadier-general the Massachusetts troops in Virginia in 1861, for three months, and was appointed colonel of the 29th Massachusetts Regiment on 13 December of that year. He lost an arm at White Oak Swamp, Virginia, 30 June, 1862, and commanded a brigade in the 9th Army Corps from September, 1863, till November, 1864, when he resigned, after serving in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. He was appointed in August, 1866, collector of internal revenue for the 1st District of Massachusetts, which appointment was not confirmed by the Senate. He is the author of " The Peirce Family of the Old Colony" (Boston, 1870); "Contributions, Biographical. Genealogical, and Historical" (1874); "Indian History, Biography, and Genealogy" (1878); "Civil, Military, and Professional Lists of Plymouth and Rhode Island Colonies" (1881); and sketches of Bristol and Plymouth County towns. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 703.
PEIRCE, William Shannon, jurist, born in New Castle, Delaware, 3 September, 1915; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 April, 1887. Pierce was descended from Abraham Peirce, an early Plymouth colonist. He was educated in his native town and in the high-school at Philadelphia, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. A few years later he studied law with Charles Chauncey, was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1845, and won reputation in his profession. He was an earnest advocate of emancipation, and was the counsel of the slave in nearly every fugitive-slave case that occurred in Philadelphia under the Fugitive-Slave Act of 1850. The last important case was the great Dangerfield Case, in which trial he and his colleagues argued before the court and jury from the opening of the court in the morning until sunrise the next morning. He took an active part in public affairs, and in 1856 was a delegate to the convention that nominated John C. Fremont for the presidency. In 1866 he became a judge of the court of common pleas in Philadelphia, which office he held by subsequent elections until his death. In 1886 he had been chosen by both parties for a term of ten years. He took an active part in founding the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 703.
PELOUZE, Louis Henry, soldier, born in Pennsylvania, 30 May, 1841; died in Washington, D. C. 1 June, 1878. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1853, assigned to the artillery, and promoted 2d lieutenant on 11 November. In 1857-'8 he was on duty in Kansas during the anti-slavery disturbances, and accompanied the second column of the Utah Expedition as acting assistant adjutant-general. He was commissioned as captain on 14 May, 1861, and served during the Civil War, first on the staff of General John A. Dix. then in the Port Royal Expedition, in Georgia when Fort Pulaski was captured, with General James Shields at Port Republic, and as major on the staff with the 2d Corps of the Army of Virginia in the Shenandoah Campaign until he was severely wounded at Cedar Mountain, 9 August, 1862. After his recovery he served till the close of hostilities as assistant adjutant-general of volunteers with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, being on special duty in the defences of Washington in the autumn of 1862, then with the troops of the Department of Virginia till August, 1863, and in the adjutant-general's department at Washington till May, 1864, and afterward in charge of the records of colored troops in the War Department till 14 June, 1868. For his gallantry at Cedar Mountain he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, and on 13 March, 1865, he received the brevets of colonel and brigadier-general for valuable services in the field and in the adjutant-general's department. He was adjutant-general of the Department of the Lakes in 1869-'73, and afterward till his death assistant in the office of the adjutant-general of the army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 705.
PEMBERTON, John Clifford, soldier, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10 August, 1814; died in Penllyn, Pennsylvania, 13 July, 1881, was appointed to the U. S. Military Academy on his own application by President Jackson, who had been a friend of his father. After his graduation in 1837 he was assigned to the 4th U.S. Artillery, and served against the Indians in Florida in 1837-9, and on the northern frontier during the Canada border disturbances in 1840-'2. He was promoted 1st lieutenant on 19 March, 1842, and was on garrison duty till the Mexican War, during which he served with credit as aide to General Worth, receiving the brevet of captain for gallantry at Monterey, and that of major for services at Molino del Rey. At the close of the war he was presented with a sword by citizens of Philadelphia, and thanked, with other Pennsylvania officers, by resolution of the legislature of that state. In 1848 he married Martha, daughter of William H. Thompson, of Norfolk, Virginia. He was promoted captain on 16 September, 1850, took part in operations against the Seminole Indians in 1849-'50 and 1856-'7, and served at Fort Leavenworth during the Kansas troubles, and in the Utah Expedition of 1858. At the beginning of the Civil War he was ordered from Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, to Washington, and after his arrival there, in spite of the personal efforts of General Winfield Scott to prevent him, resigned his commission and was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Virginia State troops, to date from 28 April, 1861. He was intrusted with the organization of the artillery and cavalry of the state, and became colonel on 8 May, 1861. On 15 June he was made major of artillery in the Confederate Army, and two days later a brigadier-general. On 13 February, 1862, he was promoted major-general, and at the request of General Robert E. Lee, whom he succeeded, was appointed to command the department that included South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, with headquarters at Charleston. Here he strengthened the harbor defences, planning and beginning Fort Wagner and Battery B, and planting submarine obstructions. On 13 October, 1862, he was promoted lieutenant-general, and assigned to the charge of the department that comprised Mississippi, Tennessee, and eastern Louisiana, with headquarters at Jackson, Mississippi. Pemberton's operations around Vicksburg and his defence of that city against General Grant are described in the article GRANT, ULYSSES S. After his surrender of the city and garrison on 4 July, 1863, he returned on parole to Richmond, where he remained until he was duly exchanged. As a man of northern birth he had many enemies at the south during the early period of the war, but he had always the confidence of the Confederate authorities. After his exchange, finding no command that was commensurate with his rank, he resigned, and was reappointed as inspector of ordnance, with the rank of colonel, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. He then retired to a farm near Warrenton, Virginia, but in 1876 returned to Philadelphia, which was the home of his brothers and sisters. In the spring of 1881 his health began to fail, and he moved, in the hope of benefiting it, to Penllyn, near Philadelphia, where he died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 707.
PENDER, William Dorsey, soldier, born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, 6 February, 1834; died in Staunton, Virginia, 18 July, 1863. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1854, and assigned to the artillery, but was transferred to the 2d U.S. Dragoons on 3 March, 1855, and promoted 1st lieutenant, 17 May, 1858. He was engaged in active service on the frontier until 21 March, 1861, when he resigned his commission. He was appointed colonel of the 6th North Carolina Regiment on 27 May, 1861, and brigadier-general in the provisional Confederate Army, 3 June, 1862. He was promoted to the rank of major-general, 27 May, 1863. His brigade was composed of five North Carolina Regiments of infantry, and formed part of Anderson's division, of Ambrose P. Hill's corps, in the Army of Northern Virginia. His division was composed of the brigades of Pender, McGowan, Lane, and Thomas, in the same army. He died from wounds received at the battle of Gettysburg. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 708.
PENDERGRAST, Garrett Jesse, naval officer, born in Kentucky, 5 December, 1802; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 November, 1862. He entered the U. S. Navy, 1 January, 1812. He saw twenty-two years of sea service, becoming lieutenant in 1821, commander in 1841, and captain in 1855. In 1860 he was appointed flag-officer of the Home-Squadron. At the beginning of the Civil War he was in command of the West India Squadron, and subsequently he was appointed to the frigate "Cumberland " at Norfolk U.S. Navy-yard, Virginia, and protected the waters of Hampton Roads. Before the surrender of Norfolk to the Confederates the authorities of Virginia endeavored to get possession of the U. S. ships-of-war lying off that city by sinking obstructions in the mouth of the channel in order to prevent their egress. Among other vessels that were thus blockaded was the " Cumberland," then under Commodore Pendergrast's command. Finding himself in danger of being hemmed in, he sent word to the authorities that if the obstructions were not removed within a specified time he would open fire on the city. This message had the desired effect, and, the channel being cleared, the " Cumberland " and other vessels were brought out in safety. Soon afterward he was appointed commandant of the Philadelphia U.S. Navy-yard, which post he tilled until two days before his death. Under the reorganization of the navy he was twelfth commodore on the retired list, which rank he attained on 10 July. 1862.—His son, Austin (1829-74), entered the navy in 1848, and had attained the rank of commander at his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 708.
PENDLETON, George Hunt, senator, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 25 July, 1825, received an academic education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati. He was a member of the state senate in 1854-'5, and was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1850, serving till 1865. He was a member of the Committee on Military Affairs during each term, and in the 38th Congress served on the Committee of Ways and Means, and as chairman of the Special Committee on Admitting Members of the cabinet to the floor of the House of Representatives. He was nominated for the vice-presidency on the ticket with George B. McClellan for president in 1864. He was a member of the Philadelphia Loyalist Convention in 1860, an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Ohio in 1869, and in the same year became president of the Kentucky Railroad Company. He was elected U. S. Senator in 1878, and during his senatorial service he was chairman of the Committee on Civil-Service Reform, and as such, on 26 June, 1882, introduced a resolution that instructed the committee " to inquire whether any attempt is being made to levy and collect assessments for political partisan purposes from any employes of the government." In 1846 he married Alice, daughter of Francis Scott Key. At the expiration of his term, in 1885, he was appointed by President Cleveland U. S. minister to Germany. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 709.
PENDLETON, William Nelson, soldier, born in Richmond, Virginia, 20 December, 1809; died in Lexington, Virginia, 15 January, 1883, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1830, served as assistant professor of mathematics there in 1831-'2, and the next year resigned to become professor of mathematics in Bristol College, Tennessee. He was ordained deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1837, priest in 1838, and the next year established the Episcopal High-School in Alexandria, Virginia, and became its principal. In 1853 he accepted the charge of the church in Lexington. He joined the Confederate Army as captain of artillery in 1861, was made colonel the same year, and shortly afterward appointed chief of artillery to the Army of the Shenandoah. He was commissioned brigadier-general in March, 1862, and, with three exceptions, participated in every battle that was fought by the Army of Northern Virginia from the first battle of Bull Run to Appomattox, where, with General John T. Gordon and General James Longstreet, he was appointed to negotiate the terms of surrender. He then returned to his charge in Lexington, which he had continued to hold during the Civil War, and so remained until his death. He was largely instrumental in building the Lee Memorial Church in that town. He received the degree of D. D. from Alexandria Theological Seminary in 1868. Dr. Pendleton published "Science a Witness for the Bible" (London, 1860). His only son, Alexander S., served on General "Stonewall" Jackson's staff until his death, and subsequently as adjutant-general to General Jubal A. Early and General Richard S. Ewell. He was killed at Fisher's Hill, Virginia, 22 September, 1864. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 709.
PENNINGTON, James William Charles, 1807-1870, African American, American Missionary Association, fugitive slave, abolitionist, orator, clergyman. Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Published The Fugitive Blacksmith in London in 1844. One of the first African American students to attend Yale University. Served as a delegate to the Second World Conference on Slavery in London. Active in the Amistad slave case. Recruited African American troops for the Union Army. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 330-334; Mabee, 1970, pp. 65, 100, 101, 140, 194, 203, 269, 338, 339, 413n1; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 52, 73, 166, 413-414; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 441; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 300)
PENNINGTON, William, statesman, and governor of New Jersey, born in Newark, New Jersey, 4 May, 1796; died there, 16 February, 1862. Pennington was graduated at Princeton in 1813, admitted to the bar, and began practice in Newark. He was governor of New Jersey in 1837-'43, and at the same time was ex-officio chancellor of that state. During his administration the Broad Seal War occurred, a controversy which grew out of the Congressional election of 1838, when six members were to be chosen by a general ticket in New Jersey. In two of the counties the clerks had rejected some of the township returns for real or alleged irregularities, and thus five of the Whig candidates received majorities which they would not have obtained had all the votes been counted. The sixth, having run ahead of his ticket, was elected beyond dispute. The governor and his council, in accordance with the law then in force, canvassed the votes, and to the six persons who had received the highest number, issued commissions under the great seal of the state. Congress, on convening, found that the five votes from New Jersey must decide the speakership, and this gave, rise to a stormy debate, which lasted several days, and finally ended in the choice of John Quincy Adams as temporary chairman. He decided that all members holding commissions could vote; but the decision, being appealed from, was reversed and a resolution adopted that only the names of members holding uncontested seats should be called. On the twelfth day of the session Robert M. T. Hunter was chosen speaker, and on 28 February the five Democratic members were admitted to their seats. The subject was referred to a committee, which retorted that the sitting members were elected. It was generally admitted that the governor had no option but to fill the commissions as he did. He was clerk of the U. S. District Court in 1815-'26, and afterward declined appointments as governor of Minnesota Territory, and as one of the judges to settle claims under the Mexican treaty. He was elected to Congress as a Republican, served in 1859-'61, and was chosen Speaker in February, 1860, after a contest that lasted over eight weeks. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 717-718.
PENNOCK. Alexander Mosely, naval officer, born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1 November, 1813; died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 20 September, 1876. He was appointed to the U.S. Navy from Tennessee on 1 April, 1828, served on the frigate "Guerriere," in the Pacific Squadron, in 1829-'30, and on the sloop " Natchez," in the Brazil Squadron, in 1834. He was promoted lieutenant, 25 March, 1839, was light-house inspector in 1853-'6, and on 15 December, 1855, was commissioned commander. He was on special duty connected with the steam frigate “ Niagara" in 1857, commanded the steamer "Southern Star," of the Brazil Squadron, and in the Paraguay Expedition in 1859-'60, and was again detailed as light-house inspector in 1861. In the last-named year Commander Pennock was ordered to duty as fleet captain of the Mississippi Squadron, where he remained till the autumn of 1864, gaining a reputation for executive ability of a high order. He was commissioned captain, 2 January, 1863, in 1866-'7 was on duty at the Brooklyn U.S. Navy-yard, and in 1868 was appointed to the frigate "Franklin," then Farragut's flag-ship, of the European Squadron. He was commissioned commodore, 6 May, 1868, and in 1869 was in charge of the European Squadron. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1872. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 718.
PENNYPACKER, Elijah Funk, 1804-1888, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, reformer, abolitionist. Manager, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), 1841-1842. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 719; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 446)
PENNYPACKER, Elijah Funk, reformer, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 20 November, 1804; died in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, 4 January, 1888. He was educated in the private schools in Burlington, New Jersey, taught there, and subsequently engaged in land surveying in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He then became interested in real estate, was in the legislature in 1831-'5, chairman of its committee on banks, and a principal mover in the establishment of public schools. In 1836-'8 he was a canal commissioner. He joined the Society of Friends about 1841, and thenceforth for many years devoted himself to the abolition movement, becoming president of the local anti-slavery society, and of the Chester County, and Pennsylvania state societies. He was an active manager of the “Underground Railroad,” and his house was one of its stations. With John Edgar Thompson he made the preliminary surveys of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He aided the suffering poor in Ireland in the famine of 1848, and subsequently identified himself with the Prohibition Party, becoming their candidate for state treasurer in 1875. He was an organizer of the Pennsylvania Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1869, and was its vice-president till 1879, when he became president, holding office till January, 1887, when he resigned. John G. Whittier says of him: “In mind, body, and brave championship of the cause of freedom he was one of the most remarkable men I ever knew.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 719.
PENTECOST, George Frederick, evangelist, born in Albion, Illinois, 23 September, 1843. He was apprenticed to a printer at fifteen years of age, and was subsequently private secretary to the governor of Kansas Territory, and clerk of the U. S. District Court. He then studied law, and entered Georgetown College, Kentucky, but left to join the National Army, and in 1861-'2 served in the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, resigning with the rank of captain. He was licensed to preach in 1864, and was pastor of Baptist churches in Indiana, Kentucky, and New York till 1877, when he became an evangelist, in which work he has since continued, with the exception of a few years pastorate of a Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. He has been abroad three times on missions, and is a successful revivalist. Lafayette College gave him the degree of D. D. in 1884. He has published tracts and pamphlets, has edited "Words and Weapons for Christian Workers," a monthly, since 188a, and is the author of " In the Volume of the Book" (New York, 1879); "Angel in Marble" (Boston, 1884); and "Out of Egypt" (New York. 1887). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 720.
PEPPER, George, physician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1 April, 1841 : died there. 14 September, 1872. was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1862, and in medicine in 1865. He enlisted on 15 September, 1862, as a private in the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, was promoted to a lieutenancy, and saw much active service, but was disabled in 1863, and on 22 May received an honorable discharge. He was chiefly instrumental in founding the Philadelphia Obstetrical Society, and served as its secretary until illness compelled him to resign. He was a member of many professional bodies, and rapidly acquired practice in the branches to which he devoted himself. His artistic talent, his mechanical ingenuity, his retentive memory, his industry and devotion to his profession, gave assurance of a career of unusual brilliancy. His contributions to the proceedings of the societies of which he was a member were numerous. Among the more important are that on "Adipose Deposits in the Omentum and Abdominal Walls as a Source of Error in Diagnosis " and that on " The Mechanical Treatment of Uterine Displacements." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 720.
PERHAM, Sidney, born 1819. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine. Served in Congress 1863-1869. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Governor of Maine 1871-1874. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 727; Congressional Globe)
PERHAM, Sidney, governor of Maine, born in Woodstock, Maine, 27 March, 1819. He was educated in the public schools, and subsequently was a teacher and farmer. He was a member of the State Board of Agriculture in 1852-'3, speaker of the legislature in 1854, a presidential elector in 1856, and clerk of the supreme judicial court of Oxford County in 1859-'63. He was elected to Congress as a Republican, and served in 1863-'9. He was governor of Maine in 1871-'4. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 727.
PERKINS, George Hamilton, naval officer, born in Hopkinton. New Hampshire, 20 December, 1830. His grandfather, Roger, was an early settler of Hopkinton, and one of the most public-spirited citizens of that town, and his father, Judge Hamilton, was the founder of the town of Contoocookville, New Hampshire. George was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1850, and became 1st lieutenant in 1861. He served with gallantry as executive officer of the "Cayuga" at the passage of Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson, and at the capture of New Orleans in April, 1862, and with Captain Theodorus Bailey received the surrender of the city, passing through the streets in the, midst of a hooting mob, who threatened them with drawn pistols and other weapons. He became lieutenant-commander in December, 1862, was in charge of the gun-boat "New London " in June, 1863, and conveyed powder and despatches between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, ran the batteries at Port Hudson successfully five times, and on 9 July had a severe skirmish with the enemy at Whitehall's Point. He was on blockading duty on the "Scioto," of the Gulf Squadron, from July, 1863, till April, 1864, and at that time was relieved, but volunteered at the battle of Mobile Bay. In his official report of that engagement Admiral Farragut said: "I cannot give too much praise to Lieutenant Commodore Perkins, who, although he had orders to return north, volunteered to take command of the “Chickasaw,” and did his duty nobly." He remained in charge of that ship in the subsequent operations that resulted in the taking of Mobile, the reduction of Fort Powell, Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan. He was superintendent of iron-clads in New Orleans in 1865-6, became commander in 1871, was in charge, of the store-ship "Relief," to convey contributions to the French, from September, 1871, till January, 1872, and in 1882 was commissioned captain. See his "Letters," edited and arranged by his sister, with a sketch of his life by Commodore George E. Belknap (Concord, New Hampshire, 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 728-729
PERKINS, Granville, artist, born in Baltimore, Maryland. 16 October, 1830. He studied drawing in Philadelphia, and painting under James Hamilton. For several years he devoted himself mainly to scene-painting, finding employment in Richmond, Virginia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. He began working for the illustrated papers about 1851, and in 1855 took a post on "Frank Leslie's Weekly." About 1860 he was engaged by Harper Brothers, with whom he remained for several years. He furnished a large number of illustrations for books, his specialty being marine views, and became widely known through his excellent work in that direction. He has exhibited frequently at the National Academy since 1862, and at the exhibitions of the Water-Color Society, of which he is a member. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 729.
PERKINS, Jacob, inventor, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 9 July, 1766: died in London, England, 30 July, 1849. In childhood he was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and at the age of fifteen he carried on the business of a goldsmith in his native town, and invented a method of plating shoe-buckles. When he was about twenty-one years of age he was employed by the state of Massachusetts to make dies for copper coinage, and three years afterward he invented a machine for cutting and heading nails at one operation. Through the mismanagement of his partners he was at this time involved in great pecuniary distress. He made great improvements in bank-note engraving by substituting steel for copper plates. After residing for some time in Boston and in New York, he moved to Philadelphia in 1814, and became associated with a firm of bank-note engravers. In 1818 he went to England, accompanied by Mr. Fairman and several workmen, and obtained a contract for supplying the Bank of Ireland with plates. He carried on his business extensively for many years in London, and was employed in perfecting engines and machines to be worked by steam-power. He originated a process for transferring engravings from one steel plate to another, an instrument called the bathometer, to measure the depth of water, and the pleometer, to mark with precision the speed at which a vessel moves through the water. He constructed a gun in which steam, generated at an enormous pressure, was used for propulsion instead of gunpowder, and with it passed balls through eleven planks of the hardest deal, each an inch thick, placed some distance apart. With a pressure of only 65 atmospheres he penetrated an iron plate a quarter of an inch thick. He also screwed to a gun-barrel a tube filled with balls, which, falling into the barrel, were discharged at the rate of nearly 1,000 a minute. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 729.
PERRIN, Abner M., soldier, born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, in 1827; died at Spottsylvania, Virginia, 11 May, 1864. He was educated at Bethany Academy, South Carolina, and served in the Mexican War as 2d lieutenant in the 10th Volunteers. On his return to South Carolina he studied and practised law until 1861, when he entered the Confederate Army as captain of the 14th South Carolina Volunteers, and was promoted colonel in April, 1863, and brigadier-general in May, 1864. with the command of an Alabama brigade. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 732.
PERRY, Benjamin Franklin, lawyer, born in Pendleton District, South Carolina, 20 November, 1805; died in Greenville, South Carolina, 3 December, 1886. He was educated in Asheville, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1827. On becoming editor of the Greenville "Mountaineer" he boldly attacked the Nullification Party, not sparing its leader, John C. Calhoun, the sturdy defence of his principles and the persistent warfare upon his political enemies led to the formation of a Union Party in the state, and he was the chief spirit, of its convention in 1832. In 1834 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress, but in 1830 was elected to the lower branch of the legislature, serving until 1844, when he was sent to the state senate and labored earnestly for the Union cause. He established in 1850 a Union newspaper at Greenville, entitled "The Southern Patriot." In the legislature of 1850 he delivered stirring appeals to the loyalty of its members. When the state seceded in 1850, although he had tried to prevent the act, he embraced the Confederate cause and sent his sons to serve in the southern army. Under the Confederacy he held the offices of district attorney and district judge, and at the close of the war he was appointed provisional governor. Subsequently he was elected U. S. Senator, but was not permitted to take his seat. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1870. Governor Perry was the author of "Reminiscences of Public Men " (Philadelphia, 1883), and left in manuscript several sketches of American statesmen, which have been edited, enlarged, and published by his wife, entitled "Sketches of Eminent American Statesmen, with Speeches and Letters of Governor Perry, prefaced by an Outline of the Author's Life," with an introduction by Wade Hampton (Philadelphia, 1887).—His son, William Hayne, lawyer, born in Greenville, South Carolina, 9 June, 1837, was graduated at Harvard in 1857, practised law with his father, and served in the Civil War in Brooks's troop of cavalry, which was afterward incorporated into the Hampton Legion. He participated in the chief battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia, and defended the coast of South Carolina. Subsequently he served in the legislature, and was elected as a Democrat to Congress in 1884 and 1880. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 734.
PERRY, James Alexander, soldier, born in New London, Connecticut, 11 December, 1828, is the son of Nathanael Hazard. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1851, assigned to the 2d U.S. Artillery, and served against the Seminole Indians in 1852. He was assistant professor of mathematics at West Point in 1852-'7, in frontier service in the northwest during hostilities with the Sioux and Chippewa Indians, and became captain in the quartermaster's department. He served in the Civil War as chief quartermaster of the Department of Florida, and participated in the relief and defence of Fort Pickens. On 20 April, 1862, he became lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, and in 1864 he was made chief of a bureau in the quartermaster's department with the rank of colonel. He was brevetted major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel, on 13 March, 1865, and also brigadier-general, U. S. Army, for faithful and meritorious services in that department. He was commissioned major on 29 July, 1866, and lieutenant-colonel on 3 March, 1875. Since 1869 he has served as chief quartermaster of various departments, and he is now (1888) assistant quartermaster-general of the Division of the Pacific. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 737.
PERRY, Edward Aylesworth, governor of Florida, born in Richmond, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 15 March, 1833. He entered Yale in the class of 1854, but left college in 1853 and went to Alabama, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and began practice in Pensacola, Florida. At the beginning of the Civil War he became captain of a company that he raised for the Confederate service, and was made colonel of his regiment, which he commanded at Seven Pines and the other battles around Richmond, being wounded at Eraser's farm. He was then made brigadier-general, and led a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, which lost a larger number of men at Gettysburg than any other on the Confederate side, he was wounded a second time at the battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864. At the close of the war General Perry resumed practice in Pensacola. He was elected governor of Florida for four years from January, 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 737.
PETTEGREW, James Johnston, soldier, born in Tyrrel County, North Carolina, 4 July, 1828; died near Winchester, Virginia, 17 July, 1863, was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1847, and became assistant professor in the Naval Observatory at Washington, but shortly afterward began the study of law. He travelled in Europe in 1850-'2, and then began practice in Charleston, South Carolina. He was elected to the legislature in 1856, and in 1858 went abroad again and entered the Sardinian Army; but the peace of Villa Franca prevented him from seeing active service, and after a visit to Spain he returned to South Carolina and devoted himself to the improvement of the militia, in which he was elected captain. In 1860, by order of Governor Pickens, he demanded of Major Robert Anderson the evacuation of Fort Sumter. He was afterward made colonel of the 12th North Carolina Regiment, and in 1862 was promoted brigadier-general in the Confederate Army. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Seven Pines, and after his exchange fought at Gettysburg, where he commanded Heth's division on the third day, took part in Pickett's charge, and was wounded again. On the retreat into Virginia that followed he was surprised by a small party of National cavalry and received wounds from which he died three days later. General Pettigrew published "Spain and the Spaniards" (1859). See " Memorial of J. Johnston Pettigrew," by William H. Trescott (Charleston, South Carolina, 1870). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 747.
PHELAN, James, jurist, born in Huntsville, Alabama. 20 November, 1820; died in Memphis, Tennessee, 17 May, 1873, was apprenticed as a printer to the "Democrat" at fourteen years of age, subsequently edited the "Flag of the Union," a Democratic organ, and became state printer in 1843. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, moved to Mississippi in 1849, and settled in Aberdeen, where he soon established a large practice. He was elected to the state senate in 1860, and on the organization of the Confederate Congress was chosen senator, and was an active member of that body. In 1863 he introduced what was called the "Crucial bill of the Confederacy," which was a proposition to impress all the cotton in the south, paying for it in Confederate bonds, and using it as a basis for a foreign loan. The bill passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate, and created so much indignation among the planters that Mr. Phelan was burned in effigy, and defeated in the next canvass. He then served as judge-advocate till the end of the war, when he settled in Memphis, and practised law in that city until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 750.
PHELPS, Charles Edward, jurist, born in Guilford, Vermont, 1 May, 1833, moved with his parents to Pennsylvania in 1837, and to Maryland in 1841. He was graduated at Princeton in 1852, and at Harvard law-school in 1854. After a tour abroad he settled in practice in Howard County and subsequently in Baltimore, Maryland. Phelps joined the National Army in 1862 as lieutenant-colonel of the 7th Maryland Regiment, soon afterward became colonel, was severely wounded at Spottsylvania, while temporarily commanding a division of the 5th Army Corps, and was captured. He served in the Wilderness Campaign, and in 1864 received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers for "gallant conduct in the battle of Spottsylvania." He was elected to Congress as a Unionist in 1864, reelected in 1866, and at, the expiration of his term resumed the practice of law in Baltimore. In 1867 he declined the appointment of judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals. In 1877 he raised a volunteer regiment to serve during the riots of that summer. In 1882 he was elected associate judge of the superior court of Baltimore, for a term of fifteen years. Judge Phelps has been for many years a member of the American Society for the Advancement of Science, was president of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore, is president of the Alumni Association of Princeton, and professor of equity in the Baltimore Law-School. In 1880, at the request of the Maryland Historical Society, he delivered the address in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Baltimore. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 751.
PHELPS, John Wolcott, soldier, born in Guilford, Vermont, 13 November, 1813; died there, 2 February, 1885. Five of his paternal ancestors were lawyers of high standing. His father, John Phelps, was a lawyer, and a lineal descendant of William Phelps (q. v.), The son was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1836 with the rank of 2d lieutenant, no served against the Creeks and Seminoles, and was engaged in the action at Locha Hutchee in 1838. He was put in charge of the emigration to the west of the Cherokee Indians in that year. At the beginning of the Mexican War he led a company, which was under his command for two years. During that time he was in the battles of Vera Cruz, Contreras, and Churubusco. For gallant conduct he was brevetted captain, but declined to accept the nominal promotion until 1850, when he received the full commission. In 1852 he obtained a leave of absence, and spent a year in Europe, and on his return wrote and published, anonymously, a volume entitled "Sibylline Leaves, or Thoughts upon visiting a Heathen Temple " (Brattleboro, Vermont, 1853). In 1859 Captain Phelps resigned his commission after serving for some time in the Utah Expedition, and returned to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he had previously taken up his residence. He had completed nearly twenty-three years of continuous military service. Much of the intervening period between his leaving the army and the Civil War was spent in writing articles against the aggression of the slave power. He volunteered his services to lead the 1st Company of Vermont Volunteers in 1861, which, together with one regiment from Massachusetts and one from New York under his command, took possession of the mouth of James River. Thence he was ordered to the southwest, where he occupied Ship Island with a New England brigade. On 17 May, 1861, he was made brigadier-general in the volunteer service. Subsequently he took part in the reduction of New Orleans. At that time he conceived the idea of organizing slaves as soldiers, but he was in advance of the time, and the government commander bade him cease and set them at work instead. As he could not conscientiously do the latter, he returned to Vermont, after resigning his commission on 21 August, 1862. During his occupation of Ship Island he issued a manifesto "to the loyal citizens of the southwest," in which he set forth his views on slavery. He declined a major-general's commission when the Negroes were finally armed, and spent the rest of his life in Brattleboro, Vermont. His acquirements as a scholar and linguist were considerable. He became vice-president of the Vermont Historical Society in 1866, and president of the Vermont State Teachers' Association in 1865. He was active until his death in the anti-masonic movement, and was the candidate for president of the American Party in 1880. He contributed largely to current literature, published a volume entitled "Good Behavior," intended as a text-book for schools, which was adopted in western cities (Brattleboro, Vermont, 1880); and a "History of Madagascar" (New York, 1884); and the Tables of Florian " (1888); and translated from the French Lucien de la Hodde's " Cradle of Rebellions " (1864). See his Memoir by Cecil H. C. Howard (Brattleboro, Vermont, 1887). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 751.
PHELPS, Amos Augustus, Reverend, 1805-1847, Boston, Massachusetts, clergyman, editor. Founding member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS), 1832. Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833; Manager, 1834-1835, Vice-President, 1834-1835, Executive Committee, 1836-1838, Recording Secretary, 1836-1840. Editor, Emancipation and The National Era. Phelps was the husband of abolitionist Charlotte Phelps.
(Dumond, 1961, pp. 182, 185, 266, 276, 285; Pease, 1965, pp. 71-85; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 290; Yellin, 1994, pp. 47, 54, 54n, 59-60, 125; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 751; Phelps, “Lectures on Slavery and its Remedy,” Boston, 1834; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 132, 228-229; First Annual Report of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, 1832)
PHELPS, Amos Augustus, clergyman, born in Farmington, Connecticut, in 1805; died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 12 September, 1847. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and at the divinity-school there in 1830, was pastor of Congregational churches in Hopkinton and Boston, Massachusetts, in 1831-'4, became agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society at the latter date, and was pastor of the Free Church, and subsequently of the Maverick Church, Boston, in 1839-'45. He also edited the “Emancipation,” and was secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society for several years. He published “Lectures on Slavery and its Remedy” (Boston, 1834); “Book of the Sabbath” (1841); “Letters to Dr. Bacon and to Dr. Stowe” (1842); and numerous pamphlets on slavery. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 751.
PHELPS, Anson Greene, 1781-1853, merchant, philanthropist. President of the Colonization Society of the State of Connecticut. Director, American Colonization Society, 1839-1840. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 751; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 525; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 135, 240)
PHELPS, Anson Greene, merchant, born in Simsbury, Connecticut, 12 March, 1781; died in New York City, 30 November, 1853. He learned the trade of a saddler, and established himself in Hartford, Connecticut, with a branch business in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1815 he became a dealer in tin plate and heavy metals in New York City. Having accumulated a large fortune partly by investments in real estate, he devoted himself to benevolent enterprises, and was president of the New York Blind Asylum, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the New York branch of the American Colonization Society. He bequeathed $371,000 to charitable institutions, and placed in the hands of his only son a fund of $100,000, the interest of which was to be distributed in charity. In addition to large legacies to his twenty-four grandchildren, he intrusted $5,000 to each to be used in charity. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 751.
PHELPS, Charlotte Brown, first president, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), wife of abolitionist leader Reverend Amos Phelps (Yellin, 1994, pp. 47-49, 47n, 125)
PHELPS, Isaac, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971)
PHILBRICK, Samuel, Brookline, Massachusetts, abolitionist. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1837-1840, 1840-1841, Treasurer, 1842-1860-.
PHILLEO, Calvin, abolitionist, married to abolitionist Prudence Crandall
PHILLIPS, Ann, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS), Boston, Massachusetts (Yellin, 1994, pp. 50, 56, 62, 309, 311n, 333)
PHILLIPS, John, 1823-1903, Richmond, Vermont, physician, politician, abolitionist.
PHELPS, Royal, merchant, born in Sempronius, New York, 30 March, 1809; died in New York City, 30 June, 1884. He received a common-school education, and early in life went to St. Croix, W. L, where he entered the office of a merchant. He began business on his own account in 1840, established houses in Puerto Cabello and Laguayra, and in 1847 settled in New York City as one of the firm of Maitland, Phelps and Company, where he acquired a large fortune. Although a life-long Democrat, he was active in support of the National cause at the beginning of the Civil War. He was a member of the New York legislature in 1862-'3, vice-president of the chamber of commerce from 1855 till his resignation in 1859, and president of the New York Society for the Protection of Game in 1867-'77. He contributed largely by his influence and money to the erection of the statue of Washington that stands in front of the sub-treasury building in Wall street. His only daughter became the wife of John Lee Carroll, of Maryland. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 752.
PHELPS, Samuel Shethar, jurist, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 13 May, 1793; died in Middlebury, Vermont, 25 March, 1855. His grandfather, Edward, a descendant of William Phelps, the colonist, was a representative to the general court of Connecticut in 1744-75, and a large landholder. His father, John, was a soldier of the Revolution and a wealthy citizen of Litchfield. The son was graduated at Yale in 1811, studied law in Litchfield, and in 1812 settled in Middlebury, Vermont, and began the practice of his profession. During the war with Great Britain he warmly espoused the cause of the government, was drafted to serve on the Canadian frontier, and subsequently became a paymaster. He resumed practice in 1814, was in the legislature in 1821—"32, by which body he was elected to the supreme court in the latter year, and held office until he was chosen to the U. S. Senate as a Democrat in 1838, serving by re-election in 1839-'51, and by appointment in 1853-'4 to succeed William Upham, deceased. He opposed the abolition movements in his state, favored slavery in able speeches on the Clayton Compromise and on the anti-slavery resolutions of Vermont, and when he was a member of the Congressional Committee of 1850 that was appointed to discuss the slavery question, dissented from the report that was presented by Henry Clay. At, the end of his senatorial career he returned to practice, and continued to hold the first rank at the bar until his death. He published an "Address on the Council of Censors' (Middlebury, Vermont, 1827); "Speech on the Tariff Bill" (Washington, D. C, 1844); and "Speech on the Oregon Question" (1848). His published judicial decisions, in the Vermont reports, are much esteemed. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp.752-753.
PHELPS, Thomas Stowell, naval officer, born in Buckfield, Maine, 2 November, 1822. He was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1846, became lieutenant in 1855, served in the Indian War in Washington Territory in that year and in 1856, and in the Paraguay Expedition in 1858-'9. At the beginning of the Civil War he was attached to the expedition that was sent to the relief of Fort Sumter, and in June, 1861, was selected to co-operate with the army and navy in preparing a survey of Potomac River. He was transferred in September to the steamer "Corwin" for secret service, examined five of the inlets of North Carolina, surveyed and buoyed Hatteras inlet for the introduction of expeditions into the interior waters of that state, skirmished with Confederate gun-boats in Pamlico Sound, and engaged the gunboat “Curlew" in Hatteras Inlet on 14 November. He was in three engagements with Yorktown and Gloucester point batteries, caused the destruction of two of the enemy's vessels, and thwarted that of White House bridge in April and May, 1862. At the battle of West Point he prevented the conjunction of a large force of Confederates with the main army. He became lieutenant-commander in July, 1862, was subsequently engaged chiefly in surveying and examining dangers in the way of blockades and transports, and commanded the "Juniata " in the Fort Fisher fights in 1865. He was commissioned commander in that year, captain in 1871, commodore in 1879, and rear-admiral in 1884, and retired in 1885. He has published "Reminiscences of Washington Territory" (New York, 1882). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 753
PHELPS, John Smith, statesman, born in Simsbury, Connecticut, 22 December, 1814; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 20 November, 1886, was graduated at Trinity in 1832, studied law under his father, practised a short time in his native state, and in 1837 emigrated to Missouri, near Springfield, Greene County. He served in the legislature in 1840, the next year was appointed brigade inspector of militia, and in 1844 was elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving continuously till 1863. He was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means for seven terms, and was a member of the Select Committee of thirty-three on the rebellious states. During his Congressional career he achieved a national reputation for ability in debate, sagacity, and prudence, and exercised a pacific influence on contending factions. He was appointed colonel of U. S. volunteers in 1861, and brigadier-general of volunteers in July, 1862, the same year serving as military governor of Arkansas, he was a delegate to the National Union Convention in 1860, and the next year a commissioner to settle the claims of Indiana. He was governor of Missouri in 1870-'82, declined to serve on the tariff commission, and did not again accept any public office. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 754
PHILLIPS, Stephen Clarendon, 1801-1857, philanthropist. U.S. Congressman, Whig Party. Also member of Free Soil Party. (Mabee, 1970, p. 161; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 437; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 763)
PHILLIPS, Stephen Clarendon, philanthropist, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 1 November, 1801; died on St. Lawrence River, 26 June, 1857. He was graduated at Harvard in 1819, and began the study of law, but soon discontinued it to engage in business in Salem. He was in the lower house of the legislature in 1824-'30, was elected to the state senate in the latter year, and in 1832-'3 was again a member of the legislature. He was then chosen to Congress as a Whig to fill a vacancy, and served during three terms—from 1 December, 1834, until his resignation in 1838—when he became mayor of Salem, which place he then held until March, 1842. On his retirement from this office he devoted the whole of his salary as mayor to the public schools of Salem. He was the Free-Soil candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1848-'9, and a presidential elector in 1840. Mr. Phillips discharged several state and private trusts, and was many years a member of the State Board of Education. Retiring from public life in 1849, he engaged extensively in the lumber business in Canada, and met his death by the burning of the steamer “Montreal” while coming down the St. Lawrence River from Quebec. Mr. Phillips was president of the Boston Sunday-School Society, and author of “The Sunday-School Service Book,” in several parts (Boston). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 763.
PHILLIPS, Wendell, 1811-1884, lawyer, orator, reformer, abolitionist leader, Native American advocate. Member of the Executive Committee, 1842-1864, and Recording Secretary, 1845-1864, of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Called “abolition’s golden trumpet.” Counselor, 1840-1843, of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Advocate of Free Produce movement.
(Dumond, 1961, pp. 182, 186, 273, 340; Filler, 1960, pp. 39, 42, 45, 59, 80, 94, 130, 138, 140, 183, 204, 206, 214, 275; Hofstadter, 1948; Irving, 1973; Mabee, 1970, pp. 72, 86, 105, 109, 116, 123, 124, 136, 165, 169, 173, 180, 193, 200, 243, 248, 261, 262, 269, 271, 278, 279, 286, 289, 295, 301, 309, 316, 337, 364, 369; Pease, 1965, pp. 339, 459-479; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 56, 169, 309, 399, 476, 602-605; Stewart, 1998; Yellin, 1994, pp. 35, 82, 86, 260, 306, 308n, 309-311, 311n, 333; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 759-762; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 546; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 17, p. 454; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 314-315; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 529-531; Bartlett, Irving H. Wendell Phillips: Brahmin Radical. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961; Sherwin, Oscar. Profit of Liberty: The Life and Times of Wendell Phillips. New York: Bookman, 1958)
PHILLIPS, Wendell, orator, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 29 November, 1811; died there, 2 February, 1884, entered the Boston Latin-school in 1822, and was graduated at Harvard in 1831, in the same class with the historian J. Lothrop Motley. As a student he showed no particular interest in reforms; indeed, he bore the reputation of having defeated the first attempt to form a temperance society at Harvard. Handsome in person, cultivated in manners, and of a kindly and generous disposition, he was popular among his fellow-students, and was noted for his fine elocution and his skill in debate. His heart had responded to Webster's fiery denunciation at Plymouth in 1820 of that “work of hell, foul and dark,” the slave-trade. “If the pulpit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust.” He had taken a boy's part in honoring Lafayette, and in the midst of such associations he was unconsciously fitted for his career. In college his favorite study was history. He gave a year to the story of the English revolution of 1630, reading everything concerning it that he could find. With equal care he studied the period of George III., and Dutch history also so far as English literature enabled him to do so. His parents were of the Evangelical faith, and in one of the revivals of religion that followed the settlement of Dr. Lyman Beecher in Boston he became a convert, and he did not at any subsequent time depart from the faith of his fathers. While he denounced the churches for their complicity with slavery, he made no war upon their creeds. A fellow-student remembers well his earnest religiousness in college, and his “devoutness during morning and evening prayers which so many others attended only to save their credit with the government.” Though orthodox himself, he welcomed those of other faiths, and even of no faith, to the anti-slavery platform, resisting every attempt to divide the host upon sectarian or theological grounds. He entered the Harvard law-school for a term of three years, and in 1834 was admitted to the bar. He was well equipped for his profession in every respect save one, viz., that he appears to have had no special love for it and small ambition for success therein. “If,” he said to a friend, “clients do not come, I will throw myself heart and soul into some good cause and devote my life to it.” The clients would doubtless have come in no long time if he had chosen to wait for them, but the “good cause” presented its claims first, and was so fortunate as to win the devotion of his life. “The Liberator,” founded by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, had already forced the slavery question upon public attention and created an agitation that the leaders of society were vainly endeavoring to suppress. It has been said, probably with truth, that the first person to interest Mr. Phillips in this subject was the lady—Miss Anne Terry Greene—who afterward became his wife and, as he himself has said, “his counsel, his guide, his inspiration,” during his whole subsequent life. Of all the young men of Boston at that period, there was hardly one whose social relations, education, and personal character better fitted him for success as an aspirant for such public honors as Massachusetts was accustomed to bestow upon the most gifted of her sons. But if ambitions or aspirations of this sort were ever indulged, he had the courage and the moral power to resist their appeals and devote himself to what he felt to be a righteous though popularly odious cause. The poet James Russell Lowell has embalmed the memory of his early self-abnegation in a sonnet, of which these lines form a part:
“He stood upon the world's broad threshold; wide
The din of battle and of slaughter rose;
He saw God stand upon the weaker side
That sunk in seeming loss before its foes.
. . . . . Therefore he went
And joined him to the weaker part,
Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content
So he could be nearer to God's heart,
And feel its solemn pulses sending blood
Through all the wide-spread veins of endless good.”
Looking from his office-window on 21 October, 1835, he saw the crowd of “gentlemen of property and standing” gathered in Washington and State Streets to break up a meeting of anti-slavery ladies and “snake out that infamous foreign scoundrel, Thompson,” and “bring him to the tar-kettle before dark”—the same Thompson of whom Lord Brougham said in the House of Lords at the time of the passage of the British Emancipation Act: “I rise to take the crown of this most glorious victory from every other head and place it upon his. He has done more than any other man to achieve it”; and of whom John Bright said: “I have always considered him the liberator of the slaves in the English colonies; for, without his commanding eloquence, made irresistible by the blessedness of his cause, I do not think all the other agencies then at work would have procured their freedom.” The mob, disappointed in its expectation of getting possession of the eloquent Englishman, “snaked out” Garrison instead, and Phillips saw him dragged through the streets, his person well-nigh denuded of clothing, and a rope around his waist ready to strangle him withal, from which fate he was rescued only by a desperate ruse of the mayor, who locked him up in the jail for safety. This spectacle deeply moved the young lawyer, who from that hour was an avowed Abolitionist, though he was not widely known as such until the martyrdom of Elijah P. Lovejoy (q. v.) in 1837 brought him into sudden prominence and revealed him to the country as an orator of the rarest gifts. The men then at the head of affairs in Boston were not disposed to make any open protest against this outrage upon the freedom of the press; but William Ellery Channing, the eminent preacher and writer, was resolved that the freedom-loving people of the city should have an opportunity to express their sentiments in an hour so fraught with danger to the cause of American liberty, and through his persistent efforts preparations were made for a public meeting, which assembled in Faneuil Hall on 8 December, 1837. It was the custom to hold such meetings in the evening, but there were threats of a mob, and this one on that account was appointed for a daylight hour
The hall was well filled, Jonathan Phillips was called to the chair, Dr. Channing made an impressive address, and resolutions written by him, fitly characterizing the outrage at Alton, were introduced. George S. Hillard, a popular young lawyer, followed in a serious and well-considered address. Thus far everything had gone smoothly; but now uprose James T. Austin, Attorney-General of the state, a member of Dr. Channing's congregation, but known to be bitterly opposed to his anti-slavery course. He eulogized the Alton murderers, comparing them with the patriots of the Revolution, and declared that Lovejoy had “died as the fool dieth.” Mr. Phillips was present, but with no expectation of speaking. There were those in the hall, however, who thought him the man best fitted to reply to Austin, and some of these urged the managers to call upon him, which they consented to do. As he stepped upon the platform, his manly beauty, dignity, and perfect self-possession won instant admiration. His opening sentences, uttered calmly but with deep feeling, revealed his power and raised expectation to the highest pitch. “When,” said he, “I heard the gentleman [Mr. Austin] lay down principles which placed the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in the hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer of the dead. Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered on soil consecrated by the prayers of Puritans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned and swallowed him up.”
These stinging words were greeted with applause, which showed that the young orator had but expressed the conviction and the feeling of the vast majority of the assembly, and that it was not in the power of the dissidents to defeat the purpose for which it had been convened. Freedom of speech was vindicated and mobocracy and assassination were rebuked in Faneuil hall, while the hated Abolitionists rejoiced that they had found a champion fitted to maintain their cause in any presence or emergency. From that hour to the end of the anti-slavery conflict the name of Wendell Phillips was everywhere, and among all classes, the accepted synonym of the highest type of American eloquence. In no half-way fashion did he espouse the anti-slavery cause. He accepted without reservation the doctrines that Garrison had formulated—viz.: slavery under all circumstances a sin; immediate emancipation a fundamental right and duty; colonization a delusion and a snare; the blood-guiltiness of the church in seeking apologies for slavery in the Bible, and the spuriousness of the statesmanship that sought to suppress agitation and held that liberty and slavery could be at peace under one and the same government. He did the work of a lecturing agent, obeying every call so far as his strength permitted, without any pecuniary reward. When he could command fifty or one hundred dollars for a lecture on any other subject, he would speak on slavery for nothing if the people consented to hear him. It is hardly possible to estimate the value to the anti-slavery cause of services so freely rendered by a man of such gifts and attainments, in the years when that cause was struggling under a weight of odium which not even his eloquence sufficed to overcome. As a speaker he was above all others the popular favorite, and his tact in gaining a hearing in spite of mob turbulence was extraordinary. His courage lifted him above fear of personal violence, while his wit illuminated his argument as the lightning illumines the heavens. The Abolitionists were proud of a defender who could disarm if he could not wholly conquer popular hostility, who might be safely pitted against any antagonist, and whose character could in no way be impeached. In every emergency of the cause he led the charge against its enemies, and never did he surrender a principle or consent to a compromise. His fidelity, no less than his eloquence, endeared him to his associates, while his winning manners charmed all who met him in social life. The strongest opponents of the anti-slavery cause felt the spell of his power and respected him for his shining example of integrity and devotion.
In the divisions among the Abolitionists, which took place in 1839-'40, he stood with Garrison in favor of recognizing the equal rights of women as members of the anti-slavery societies, in stern opposition to the organization by Abolitionists, as such, of a political party, and in resistance to the attempt to discredit and proscribe men upon the anti-slavery platform on account of their religious belief. In 1840 he represented the Massachusetts Abolitionists in the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where he pleaded in vain for the admission of the woman delegates sent from this country. He took a prominent part in discussing the provisions of the constitution of the United States relating to slavery, and after mature reflection came with Garrison to the conclusion that what were popularly called the “compromises” of that instrument were immoral and in no way binding upon the conscience; and in 1843-'4 he was conspicuous among those who led the anti-slavery societies in openly declaring this doctrine as thenceforth fundamental in their agitation. This was done, not upon the ground of non-resistance, or on account of any objection to government by force, but solely because it was held to be immoral to wield the power of civil government in any manner or degree for the support of slavery. There was no objection to political action, as such, but only to such political action as made voters and officers responsible for executing the provisions that made the national government the defender of slavery. Of course, those who took this ground were constrained to forego the ballot until the constitution could be amended, but there remained to them the moral power by which prophets and apostles “subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness”— the power of truth, of an unfettered press, and a free platform. And these instrumentalities they employed unflinchingly to expose the character of slavery, to show that the national government was its main support, and to expose the sin and folly, as they thought, of maintaining a Union so hampered and defiled. They accepted this as their clearly revealed duty, in spite of the odium thereby involved; and they went on in this course until the secession of the slave states brought them relief by investing the president with power to emancipate the slaves, under the rules of war.
Thenceforth Mr. Phillips devoted himself to the task of persuading the people of the loyal states that they were honorably released from every obligation, implied or supposed, to respect the “compromises” of the constitution, and that it was their right and duty to emancipate the slaves as a measure of war, and as a means of forming a regenerated and disenthralled Union. In this he was sustained not only by the whole body of Abolitionists of whatever school, but by a great multitude of people who had long stood aloof from their cause, and the effort was crowned with success in the president's proclamation of 1 January, 1863. From that moment the Civil War became an anti-slavery war as well as a war for national unity, and thousands of Abolitionists who had followed the lead of Phillips hastened to enter the ranks.
In all these conflicts Phillips stood shoulder to shoulder with Garrison, and was followed by a body of people, not indeed very numerous, but of wide moral influence. In 1864 Mr. Phillips opposed, while Garrison favored, the re-election of President Lincoln. In the spring of 1865, when Garrison advocated the dissolution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, on the ground that, slavery being abolished, there was no further need of such an association, Mr. Phillips successfully opposed him, contending that it should not disband until the Negro had gained the ballot. This division led to some unpleasant controversy of no long continuance. Mr. Phillips became president of the society in place of Mr. Garrison, and it was continued under his direction until 1870.
In the popular discussion of the measures for reconstructing the Union he took a prominent part, mainly for the purpose of guarding the rights of the Negro population, to whom he thus greatly endeared himself. He had previously won their gratitude by his zealous efforts in behalf of fugitive slaves, and to abolish distinctions of color in schools, in public conveyances, and in places of popular resort. He was at all times an earnest champion of temperance, and in later years the advocate of prohibition. He was also foremost among those claiming the ballot for woman. He advocated the rights of the Indians, and labored to reform the penal institutions of the country after the slavery question was settled. He espoused the cause of the labor reformers, and in 1870 accepted from them and from the Prohibitionists a nomination as candidate for governor. He advocated what has been called the “greenback” theory of finance. “The wages system,” he said, “demoralizes alike the hirer and the hired, cheats both, and enslaves the workingman,” while “the present system of finance robs labor, gorges capital, makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, and turns a republic into an aristocracy of capital.” He lent his aid to the agitation for the redress of the wrongs of Ireland. In 1881 he delivered an address at the centennial anniversary of the Phi Beta Kappa of Harvard College, which was pronounced, on very high authority, “an oration of great power and beauty, full of strong thoughts and happy illustrations, not unworthy of any university platform or academic scholar,” though containing some sentiments from which a portion of his audience strongly dissented. As an avowed critic of public men and measures, speaking year after year, almost always extemporaneously, and often amidst scenes of the greatest excitement, nothing less than a miracle could have prevented him from sometimes falling into mistakes and doing injustice to opponents; but it is believed that there is nothing in his record to cast a shadow upon his reputation as one who consecrated great gifts and attainments to the welfare of his country. His last public address was delivered on 26 December, 1883, at the unveiling of Miss Whitney's statue of Harriet Martineau, at the Old South Church, in Boston. A little more than a month after this the great orator passed from earth. The event was followed by a memorial meeting in Faneuil Hall, and by appropriate action on the part of the legislature and the city government. After the funeral the remains were taken from the church to Faneuil Hall, whither they were followed by a vast multitude. Mr. Phillips published “The Constitution a Pro-Slavery Contract” (Boston, 1840) and “Review of Webster's 7th of March Speech” (1850). A collection of his speeches, letters, and lectures, revised by himself, was published in 1863 in Boston. Among his lectures on other than anti-slavery topics were “The Lost Arts,” “Toussaint l'Ouverture,” and “Daniel O'Connell.” His life has been written by George Lowell Austin (Boston, 1888). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 759-762.
PIERCE, Cyrus, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1849-1860-.
PIERCE, John B., San Francisco, California, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1850-1852.
PIATT, Donn, journalist, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 29 June, 1819, was educated at the Athenaeum (now St. Xavier College), but left suddenly in consequence of a personal encounter with the professor of mathematics. He then studied law, and in 1851 was appointed judge of the court of common pleas of Hamilton County. At the end of his term he was made secretary of legation at Paris, under John Y. Mason, during Pierce's administration. When the minister was attacked with apoplexy, Piatt served as charge d'affaires for nearly a year. On his return home he engaged actively in the presidential canvass in behalf of John C. Fremont. During part of the Civil War he was on the staff of General Robert C. Schenck. Having been sent to observe the situation at Winchester previous to Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, he on his own motion, ordered General Robert H. Milroy to evacuate the town and fall back on Harper's Ferry. The order was countermanded by General Halleck, and three days afterward Milroy, surrounded by the Confederate advance, was forced to cut his way out, with a loss of 2,300 prisoners. When General William Birney was sent to Maryland to recruit colored regiments, he was chief of staff, with the rank of colonel. After the war he became Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati ''Commercial." He subsequently founded and edited the Washington "Capital" for two years, making it so odious to many Republican officials that, during the presidential controversy of 1876, he was indicted for conspiring to disturb the peace of the country. Since then he has devoted himself to farming and literature at his residence, Mac-o-chee, Ohio. In all his writings he is apt to take a peculiar and generally unpopular view of his subjects. He has published a sharply critical work, "Memoirs of the Men who saved the Union" (Chicago, 1887).—His wife, Louise Kirby, author, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 25 November, 1826: died 2 October, 1864, possessed rare intelligence and culture, and became widely known for her graceful, spirited, pointed newspaper correspondence. She accompanied her husband to Europe when he was appointed secretary of legation, and contributed letters to the " Home Journal," which were afterward published in book-form as " Bell Smith Abroad" (New York, 1855). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 766.
PIATT, Abram Sanders, farmer, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 2 May, 1821, was educated at the Athenaeum and at the Kinmont Academy in his native city, after which he engaged in agricultural pursuits in the Macacheek Valley, which occupation he has followed with but few interruptions. In 1846 he devoted some time to the study of law, and edited the " Macacheek Press," a journal that he established. At the beginning of the Civil War he was active in raising volunteers for the National service, and was commissioned colonel of the 13th Ohio Regiment. At the expiration of his three months' service he raised at his own expense the First Zouave Regiment of Ohio, of which he became colonel. After the first regiment had been raised, applications to join continued to be received, and he began the organization of the second, with the intention of forming a brigade, but before it was completed he was ordered to the front and made brigadier-general of volunteers on 28 February, 1862. In April, 1863, he resigned his commission, and subsequently returned to his farm. General Piatt has given attention to polities. On the close of the war he became affiliated with the National Greenback Labor Party, and he has been its candidate for the offices of lieutenant-governor and governor. He is a member of the Patrons of Husbandry, and served that organization for two years as its state lecturer. General Piatt is also known by his poetry, which has appeared in his own journal and in the Cincinnati " Commercial." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 766.
PICKENS, Francis Wilkinson, statesman, born in Togadoo, St. Paul’s Parish, South Carolina, April, 1805: died in Edgefield, South Carolina, 25 January, 1869. Pickens was educated at South Carolina College, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and began practice in Edgefield District. In 1832 he was elected to the legislature by the Nullification Party of his district, and soon attracted notice as a debater. At the age of twenty-five he was an active member of the Judiciary Committee, after of that on Foreign Relations Committee. In 1833 he made a sovereignty and allegiance indivisible, and that Congress, as the agent states severally, had no claim to allegiance and could exercise no sovereignty. He was elected to Congress serving from 8 December, 1834, till March, 1836 he made an elaborate speech denying the right of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia without the consent of Maryland and Virginia. In 1844 he was elected to the Carolina Senate from Edgefield with the majority against the “Bluffton Movement," a secession demonstration then progress in the state. After several year of private life he was elected a delegate to the Nashville Southern Convention in 1850-'l, and in 1856 he delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Cincinnati. From 1858 till 1860 he was U. S. minister to Russia, and on his return in the latter year elected governor of South Carolina, He was suspicious with the secession movement, demand of Major Robert Anderson the surrender of Fort Sumter, gave the order to fire upon the "Star of the West," and rendered all the aid in his power to the Confederate cause. He retired from office in 1862. Governor Pickens was a wealthy planter, gave much attention to scientific agriculture, and enjoyed a reputation in the southern states as an orator before colleges and literary societies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. IV, p. 768.
PICKERING, Charles Whipple, naval officer, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 23 December, 1815; died in St. Augustine, Florida, 29 February, 1888. He was appointed midshipman on 22 May, 1822, became lieutenant on 8 December, 1838, and was attached to the Pacific Squadron. In 1854 he served as executive officer or the "Cyane," which conveyed Lieutenant Isaac G. Strain (q. v.) and his exploring party to Darien, and afterward rescued them and brought them to New York. He was at the bombardment of Greytown, Nicaragua, in 1854, which was reduced to ashes after four hours' siege. On 14 September, 1855, he became commander, and in 1859-61 he was inspector of a light-house district near Key West, Florida. He was commissioned captain on 15 July, 1862, commanded the "Kearsarge " in the Mediterranean and in the West Indies, and was in charge of the "Housatonic" when that vessel was destroyed by a submarine torpedo near Charleston on 17 February, 1865. When he had recovered from his wounds he took command of the "Vanderbilt," and in 1865 he was ordered to Portsmouth U.S. Navy-yard. He was placed on the retired list on 1 February, 1867, and made commodore on 8 December of the same year. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 1.
PICKETT, George Edward, soldier, born in Richmond, Virginia, 25 January, 1825; died in Norfolk, Virginia, 30 July, 1875. His father was a resident of Henrico County, Virginia. The son was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy from Illinois, and graduated in 1846. He served in the war with Mexico, was made 2d lieutenant in the 2d Infantry, 3 March, 1847, was at the siege of Vera Cruz and was engaged in all the battles that preceded the assault and capture of the city of Mexico. He was transferred to the 7th Infantry, 13 July, 1847, and to the 8th Infantry, 18 July, 1847, and brevetted 1st lieutenant, 8 September, 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct at Contreras and Churubusco, and captain, 13 September, for Chapultepec. He became captain in the 9th Infantry, 3 March, 1855, after serving in garrisons in Texas from 1849, and in 1856 he was on frontier duty in the Northwest Territory at Puget Sound. Captain Pickett was ordered, with sixty men, to occupy San Juan Island then, during the dispute with Great Britain over the northwest boundary, and the British governor, Sir James Douglas, sent three vessels of war to eject Pickett from his position. He forbade the landing of troops from the vessels, under the threat of firing upon them, and an actual collision was prevented only by the timely arrival of the British admiral, by whose order the issue of force was postponed. For his conduct on this occasion General Harney in his report commended Captain Pickett “for the cool judgment; ability, and that he had displayed,” and the legislature of Washington Territory passed resolutions thanking him for it. He resigned from the army, 25 June, 1861, and after eat difficulty and delays reached Virginia, where he was at once commissioned colonel in the state forces and assigned to duty on Rappahannock River. In February, 1862, he was made brigadier-general in General James Longstreet's division of the Confederate Army under General Joseph E. Johnston, which was then called the Army of the Potomac, but afterward became the Army of Northern Virginia. His brigade, in the retreat before McClellan up the peninsula and in the seven days' battles around Richmond, won such a reputation that it was known as “the game-cock brigade.” At the battle of Gaines's Mills, 27 June, 1862, Pickett was severely wounded in the shoulder, and he did not rejoin his command until after the first Maryland Campaign. He was then made major-general, with a division that was composed entirely of Virginians. At the battle of Fredericksburg this division held the centre of Lee's line. For an account of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, 3 July, 1863, see the articles LEE, ROBERT E., and MEADE, GEORGE G. Pickett was afterward placed in command in lower Virginia and Eastern North Carolina. In May, 1864, he defended Petersburg and saved it from surprise and capture by General Benjamin F. Butler. In the attack on General Butler's forces along the line of the railroad between Richmond and Petersburg, Pickett's division captured the works. General Lee, in a letter of thanks and congratulation, dated 17 June, said: “We tried very hard to stop Pickett's men from capturing the breastworks of the enemy, but could not do it.” At Five Forks his division received the brunt of the National attack, and was entirely disorganized. After the war General Pickett returned to Richmond, where he spent the remainder of his life in the life-insurance business. His biography by Edward A. Pollard is in Pollard's “Life and Times of Robert E. Lee and his Companions in Arms” (New York, 1871). See also “Pickett's Men,” by Walter Harrison (1870). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 5.
PICTON, John Moore White, physician, born in Woodbury, New Jersey, 17 November, 1804; died in New Orleans, Louisiana, 28 October, 1858. His father, Reverend Thomas Picton, was chaplain and professor of geography, history, and ethics in 1818-'25 in the U. S. Military Academy, where the son was graduated in 1824. He was assigned to the 2d U.S. Artillery, but resigned his commission in March, 1832, and in that year was graduated at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. He settled in New Orleans, where he practised his profession for thirty-two years, acquiring reputation as an operator. He served for many years as home surgeon in the New Orleans Charity Hospital, and was president of the medical department of the University of Louisiana. He was a founder of the New Orleans School of Medicine in 1856, in which he was professor of obstetrics from 1856 till 1858.—His cousin. Thomas, journalist, born in New York City, 9 May, 1822, entered Columbia, and subsequently the University of New York, where he was graduated in 1843. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in 1843. Several years later he visited Europe, and, after travelling over the continent, resided in the environs of Paris, participating in the Revolution of 1848 as an officer of the 2d Legion of the Banlien. Upon his return to New York he began the publication of "The Era" in 1850 in conjunction with Henry W. Herbert, and in 1851 he became one of the editors of "The Sachem," afterward entitled the " True American," a vigorous advocate of the Associated Order of United Americans. A little later he edited the "True National Democrat," the organ of the Free-Soilers. On the reorganization of the "Sunday Mercury" he became one of its editors, and contributed to the paper a series of popular stories under the name of "Paul Preston." These were subsequently published in book-form, and had an extensive sale. At the beginning of the Civil War he raised a battalion, which was consolidated with the 38th New York Regiment, with which he went to the field. During the reign of Maximilian in Mexico, Mr. Picton was employed in the service of the Liberals, and wrote a " Defence of Liberal Mexico," which was printed for distribution among the statesmen of (his country. General Rosecrans remarked that this publication had "done more for the cause of Mexico than all other external influences combined." He has translated some of the first modern romances from the French, and several of his light dramas are popular. He is the author of "Reminiscences of a Sporting Journalist," issued in serial form, and. besides the works mentioned, has edited "Frank Forester's Life and Writings" (New York, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 6.
PIERCE, Byron Root, soldier, born in East Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York, 20 September, 1829. He received an academic education at Rochester, New York, and, moving to Michigan, early became interested in military matters. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the 3d Michigan Volunteers, and was commissioned successively captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of that regiment, which served throughout the war with the Army of the Potomac. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 7 June, 1864, brevetted major-general, 6 April, 1865, and mustered out of the service on 24 August At present (1888) he is commandant of the Soldiers’ Home at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 7.
PIERCE, Franklin, fourteenth president of the United States, born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 23 November, 1804; died in Concord, New Hampshire, 8 October, 1869. His father, Benjamin Pierce (born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, 25 December, 1757; died in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1 April, 1839), on the day of the battle of Lexington enlisted in the patriot army and served until its disbandment in 1784, attaining the rank of captain and brevet major. He had intense political convictions, was a Republican of the school of Jefferson, an ardent admirer of Jackson, and the leader of his party in New Hampshire, of which he was elected governor in 1827 and 1829. He was a farmer, and trained his children in his own simple and laborious habits. Discerning signs of future distinction in his son Franklin, he gave him an academical education in well-known institutions at Hancock, Francestown, and Exeter, and in 1820 sent him to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. Among the son's class-mates were John P. Hale, his future political rival, Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, Sargent S. Prentiss, the distinguished orator, Henry W. Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, his future biographer and life-long personal friend. His ambition was then of a martial cast, and as an officer in a company of college students he enthusiastically devoted himself to the study of military tactics. This was one reason why he found himself at the foot of his class at the end of two years in college. Stung by a sense of disgrace, he devoted the two remaining years to hard study, and when he was £i in 1824 he was third in his class. While in college, like many other eminent Americans, he taught in winter. After taking his degree he began the study of law at Portsmouth, in the office of Levi Woodbury, where he remained about a year. He afterward spent two years in the law school at Northampton, Massachusetts, and in the office of Judge Edmund Parker at Amherst, New Hampshire. In 1827 he was admitted to the bar and began practice in his native town. Soon afterward he argued his first jury cause in the court-house at Amherst. This effort (as is often the case with eminent orators) was a failure. But he was not despondent. He '' to the sympathetic expressions of a friend: “I will try nine hundred and ninety-nine cases, if clients continue to trust me, and if I fail just as I have to-day, I will try the thousandth. I shall live to argue cases in this court-house in a manner that will mortify neither myself nor my friends.” with his popular qualities it was inevitable that he should take a prominent part in the sharp political contests of his native state. He espoused the cause of General Jackson with ardor, and in 1829 was elected to his native town in the legislature, where, by three subsequent elections, he served four years, the last two as speaker, for which office he received three fourths of all the votes of the house. In 1833 he was elected to represent his native district in the lower house of Congress, where he remained four years. He served on the judiciary and other important committees, but did not £ largely in the debates. That could not expected of so young a man in a body containing so many veteran politicians and statesmen who had already ' a national reputation. But in February, 1834, he made a vigorous and sensible £ against the Revolutionary claims bill, condemning it as opening the door to fraud. In December, 1835, he spoke and voted against receiving petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In June, 1836, he spoke against a bill making appropriations for the Military Academy at West Point. He contended that that institution was aristocratic in its tendencies, that a professional soldiery and standing armies are always dangerous to the liberties of the people, and that in war the republic must rely upon her citizen militia. His experience in the Mexican War afterward convinced him that such an institution is necessary, and he frankly acknowledged his error. It is hardly necessary to add that while in Congress Mr. Pierce sustained President Jackson in opposing the so-called internal improvement policy. In 1833 he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was the youngest member of that body, and had barrel arrived at the legal age for that office when he too his seat. In January, 1840, he spoke upon the Indian War in Florida, defending the Secretary of War from the attacks of his political opponents. In December of the same year he advocated and carried through the senate a bill granting a pension to an aged woman whose husband, Isaac Davis, had been among the first to fall at Concord bridge on 19 April, 1775. In July, 1841, he spoke against the fiscal bank bill, and in favor of an amendment prohibiting members of Congress from borrowing money of the bank. At the same session he made a strong speech against the removal of government officials for their political opinions, in violation of the £ to the contrary which the Whig leaders had given to the country in the canvass of 1840. During the five years that he remained in the senate it numbered among its members Benton, Buchanan, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Woodbury, and Silas Wright, an array of veteran statesmen and intellectual giants who had long been party leaders, and who occupied the whole field of debate. Among such men the young, modest, and comparatively obscure member from New Hampshire could not, with what his biographer calls “his exquisite sense of propriety.” force himself into a conspicuous position. There is abundant proof, however, that he won the friendship of his eminent associates. In 1842 he resigned his seat in the senate, with the intention of permanently withdrawing from public life. He again returned to the practice of w, settling in Concord, New Hampshire, whither he had moved his family in 1838, and where he ever afterward resided. In 1845 he was tendered by the governor of New Hampshire, but declined, an appointment to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of Levi Woodbury to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also declined the nomination for governor tendered to him by the Democratic State Convention. He declined, too, an appointment to the office of U.S. Attorney-General, offered to him in 1845 by President Polk, by a letter in which he said that when he left the senate he did so “with the fixed purpose never again to be voluntarily separated from his family for any considerable time, except at the call of his country in time of war.” But while thus evincing his determination to remain in private life, he did not lose his interest in political affairs. In the councils of his party in New Hampshire he exercised a very great influence. He zealously advocated the annexation of Texas, declaring that, while he preferred it free, he would take it with slavery rather than not have it at all. When John P. Hale, in 1845, accepted a Democratic renomination to Congress, in a letter denouncing annexation, the Democratic leaders called another Convention, which repudiated him and nominated another candidate. Through the long struggle that followed, Pierce led the Democrats of his state with great skill and unfaltering courage, though not always to success. He found in Hale a rival worthy of his steel. A debate between the two champions, in the old North Church at Concord, aroused the keenest interest throughout the state. Each party was satisfied with its own advocate; but to contend against the rising anti-slavery sentiment of the north was a hopeless struggle. The stars in their courses fought against slavery. Hale was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846 by a coalition of Whigs and Free-Soilers, and several advocates of free-soil principles were elected to Congress from New Hampshire before 1850. In 1846 the war with Mexico began, and New Hampshire was called on for a battalion of troops. Pierce's military ardor was rekindled. He immediately enrolled himself as a '' in a volunteer ' that was organized at Concord, enthusiastically began studying tactics and drilling in the ranks, and was soon appointed colonel of the 9th Regiment of infantry. On 3 March, 1847, he received from President Polk the commission of brigadier-general in the regular army. On # March, 1847, he embarked at Newport, Rhode Island, in the bark “Kepler,” with Colonel Ransom, three companies of the 9th Regiment of Infantry, and the officers of that detachment, arriving at Vera Cruz on 28 June. Much difficulty was experienced in procuring mules for transportation, ' the brigade, was detained in that unhealthful locality, exposed to the ravages of yellow fever, until 14 July, when it began its march to join the main army under General Winfield Scott at Puebla. The junction was effected (after a toilsome march and several encounters with guerillas) on 6 August, and the next day General Scott began his advance on the city of Mexico. On 19 August the battle of Contreras was fought. The Mexican General Valencia, with 7,000 troops, occupied a strongly intrenched camp. General Scott's plan was to divert the attention of the enemy by a feigned attack on his front, while his flank could be turned and his retreat cut off. But the flanking movement being much delayed, the attack in front (in which General Pierce led his brigade) became a desperate struggle, in which 4,000 raw recruits, who could not use their artillery, fought 7,000 disciplined soldiers, strongly intrenched and raining round shot and shells upon their assailants. To reach the enemy, the Americans who attacked in front were obliged to cross the pedregal, or lava bed, the crater of an extinct volcano, bristling with sharp, jagged, splintered rocks, which afforded shelter to the Mexican skirmishers. General Pierce's horse stepped into a cleft between two rocks and fell, breaking his own leg and throwing his rider, whose knee was seriously injured. Though suffering severely, and urged by the surgeon to withdraw, General Pierce refused to leave his troops. Mounting the horse of an officer who had just been mortally wounded, he rode forward and remained in the saddle until eleven o'clock at night. The next morning General Pierce was in the saddle at daylight, but the enemy's camp was stormed in the rear by the flanking party, and those of its defenders who escaped death or capture fled in confusion toward Churubusco, where Santa-Anna had concentrated his forces. Though General Pierce's injuries were intensely painful, and though General Scott advised him to leave the field, he insisted on remaining. His brigade and that of General James Shields, in obeying an order to make a detour and attack the enemy in the rear, struck the Mexican reserves, by whom they were largely outnumbered, and a £ and obstinate struggle followed. By this diversion Generals Worth and Pillow were enabled to carry the head of the bridge at the front, and relieve Pierce and Shields from the pressure of overwhelming numbers. In the advance of Pierce's brigade his horse was unable to cross a ditch or ravine, and he was compelled to dismount and proceed on foot. Overcome by the pain of his injured knee, he sank to the ground, unable to proceed, but refused to be taken from the field, and remained under fire until the enemy were routed. After these defeats, Santa-Anna, to gain time, opened negotiations for peace, and General Scott appointed General Pierce one of the commissioners to agree upon terms of armistice. The truce lasted a fortnight, when General Scott, discovering Santa-Anna's insincerity, again began hostilities. The sanguinary battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec soon followed, on 14 September, 1847, the city of Mexico capitulated, and the war was virtually over. Though Gen. Pierce had little opportunity to distinguish himself as a general in this brief war, he displayed a personal bravery and a regard for the welfare of his men that won him the highest credit. He also gained the ardent friendship of those with whom he came in contact, and that friendship did much for his future elevation. On the return of peace in December, 1847. General Pierce returned to his home and to the practice of his profession. Soon after this the New Hampshire legislature presented him, in behalf of the state, with a fine sword.
In 1850 General Pierce was elected to represent the city of Concord in a constitutional Convention, and when that body met he was chosen its president by a nearly unanimous vote. During its session he made strenuous and successful efforts to procure the adoption of an amendment abolishing the religious test that made none but Protestants eligible to office. But that amendment failed of adoption by the people, though practically and by common consent the restriction was disregarded. From 1847 till 1852 General Pierce was arduously engaged in his profession. As an advocate he was never surpassed, if ever equalled, at the New Hampshire bar. He had the external advantages of an orator, a handsome, expressive face, an elegant figure, graceful and impressive gesticulation, and a clear, musical voice, which kindled the blood of his hearers like the notes of a trumpet, or melted them to tears by its pathos. His manner had a courtesy that sprang from the kindness of his heart, and contributed much to his political and professional success. His perceptions were keen, and his mind seized at once the vital points of a case, while his ready command of language enabled him to present them to an audience so clearly that they could not be misunderstood. He had an intuitive knowledge of human nature, and the numerous illustrations that he drew from the daily lives of his strongminded auditors made his speeches doubly effective. He was not a diligent student, nor a reader of many books, yet the keenness of his intellect and his natural capacity for reasoning often enabled him, with but little preparation, to argue successfully intricate questions of law. e masses of the Democratic Party in the free states so strongly favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory ceded by Mexico that their leaders were compelled to yield, and from 1847 till 1850 their resolutions and platforms advocated free-soil principles. This was especially the case in New Ham shire, and even General Pierce's great popularity £ not stem the tide. But in 1850 the passage of the so-called “compromise measures” by Congress, the chief of which were the fugitive-slave law and the admission of California as a free state, raised a new issue. Adherence to those measures became to a great extent a test of party fidelity in both the Whig and Democratic parties. General Pierce zealously championed them in New Hampshire, and at a dinner given to him and other personal friends by Daniel Webster at his farm-house in Franklin, New Hampshire, Pierce, in an eloquent s h, assured the great Whig statesman that if his own arty rejected him for his 7th of March speech, the £ would “lift him so high that his feet would not touch the stars.” £ the masses of both the great parties gave to the compromise measures a £ acquiescence, on the ground that they were a final settlement of the slavery question. The Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore, 12 June, 1852. After thirty-five ballotings for a candidate for president, in which General Pierce's name did not appear, the Virginia delegation brought it forward, and on the 49th ballot he was nominated by 282 votes to 11 for all others. James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and William L. Marcy were his chief rivals. General Winfield Scott, the Whig candidate, was unsatisfactory both to the north and to the south. Webster and his friends leaned toward Pierce, and in the election in November, Scott carried only Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 42 votes, while Pierce carried all the other states with 254 votes. The Whig Party had received its death stroke, and dissolved. In his inaugural address, 4 March, 1853, President Pierce maintained the constitutionality of slave and the fugitive-slave law, denounced slavery agitation, and hoped that “no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement might again threaten the durability of our institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity.” On 7 March he announced as his cabinet William L. Marcy, of New York, Secretary of State; James Guthrie, of Kentucky, Secretary of the Treasury; Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, Secretary of War; James C. Dobbin, of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Robert McClelland, of Michigan, Secretary of the Interior; James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, Postmaster-general; and Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, Attorney-General. This cabinet was one of eminent ability, and is the only one in our history that remained unchanged for four years. In 1853 a boundary dispute arose between the United States and Mexico, which was settled by negotiation and resulted in the acquisition of a part of the territory, which was organized under the name of Arizona in 1863. Proposed routes for a railroad to the Pacific were explored, and voluminous reports thereon published under the direction of the War Department. A controversy with Great Britain respecting the fisheries was '' justed by mutual concessions. The affair of Martin oszta, a Hungarian refugee, who was seized at Smyrna by an Austrian vessel and given up on the demand of the captain of an American ship-of-war, excited t interest in Europe and redounded to the credit of our government. (See INGRAHAM, DUNCAN NATHANIEL.) In 1854 a treaty was negotiated at Washington between the United States and Great Britain providing for commercial reciprocity for ten years between the former country and the Canadian provinces. That treaty and one negotiated by Commodore Perry with Japan, which opened the ports of that hitherto unknown country to commerce, were ratified at the same session of the senate. In the spring of 1854, Greytown in Nicara# was bombarded and mostly burned by the U.S. Frigate “Cyane,” in retaliation for the refusal of the authorities to make reparation for the property of American citizens residing there, which had been stolen. In the following year William Walker with a party of filibusters, invaded Nicaragua, and in the autumn of 1856 won an ephemeral success, which induced President Pierce to recognize the minister sent by him to Washington. In the winter of 1854–5, and in the spring of the latter year, by the sanction of Mr. Crampton, the British minister at Washington, recruits for the British Army in the Crimea were secretly enlisted in this country. President Pierce demanded Mr. Crampton's recall, which, being refused, the president dismissed not only the minister, but also the British consuls at New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, for their complicity in such enlistments. The difficulty was finally adjusted by negotiation, and a new British legation was sent to Washington. In 1855 President Pierce signed bills to reorganize the diplomatic and consular system of the United States, to organize the court of claims, to provide a retired list for the navy, and to confer the title of lieutenant-general on Winfield Scott. President Pierce adhered to that strict construction of the constitution which Jefferson and Jackson had insisted on. In 1854 he vetoed a bill making appropriations for public works, and another granting 10,000,000 acres of public lands to the states for relief of indigent insane. In February, 1855, he vetoed a bill for payment of the French spoliation claims, and in the following month another increasing the appropriation for the Collins line of steamers.
The policy of Pierce's administration upon the question of slavery evoked an extraordinary amount of popular excitement, and led to tremendous and lasting results. That policy was based on the theory that the institution of slavery was imbedded in and guaranteed by the constitution of the United States, and that therefore it was the duty of the National government to protect it. The two chief measures in support of such a policy, which originated with and were supported by Pierce's administration, were the conference of American diplomatists that promulgated the “Ostend manifesto." and the opening of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to slavery. Filibustering expeditions from the United States to Cuba under Lopez, in 1850 and 1851, aroused anxiety in Europe as to the attitude of our government toward such enterprises. In 1852 Great Britain and France proposed to the United States a tripartite treaty by which the three powers should disclaim all intention of acquiring Cuba, and discountenance such an attempt by any power. On 1 December, 1852, Edward Everett, who was then Secretary of State, declined to act, declaring, however, that our government would never question Spain’s title to the island. On 10 August, 1854, President Pierce directed James Buchanan, John Y. Mason, and Pierre Soule, the American ministers to Great Britain, France, and Spain, to meet and discuss the Cuban question. They met at Ostend, 9 October, and afterward at Aix la Chapelle, and sent to their government that famous despatch known as the "Ostend manifesto." It declared that if Spain should obstinately refuse to sell Cuba, self-preservation would make it incumbent on the United States to wrest it from her and prevent it from being Africanized into a second Santo Domingo. But the hostile attitude of the great European powers, and the Kansas and Nebraska excitement, shelved the Cuban question till 1858, when a feeble and abortive attempt was made in Congress to authorize its purchase for $30,000,000. President Pierce, in his first message to Congress, December, 1853, spoke of the repose that had followed the compromises of 1850, and said: "That this repose is to suffer no shock during my official term if I have power to prevent it, those who placed me here may be assured." Doubtless such was then his hope and belief. In the following January, Sir. Douglas, chairman of the senate committee on the territories, introduced a bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which permitted slavery north of the parallel of 36° 30' in a region from which it had been forever excluded by the Missouri compromise of 1820. That bill was Mr. Douglas's bid for the presidency. Southern politicians could not reject it and retain their influence at home. Northern politicians who opposed it gave up all hope of national preferment, which then seemed to depend on southern support. The defeat of the bill seemed likely to sever and destroy the Democratic organization, a result which many believed would lead to civil war and the dissolution of the Union. Borne onward by the aggressive spirit of shivery, by political ambition, by the force of party discipline, and the dread of sectional discord, the bill was passed by Congress, and on 31 May received the signature of the president. Slavery had won, but there never was a more costly victory. The remainder of Pierce's! term was embittered by civil war in Kansas and the disasters of his party in the free states. In 1854. with a Democratic majority in both houses of the New Hampshire legislature, the influence of the national administration could not secure the 1 election of a Democratic U. S. Senator, and at the next election in 1855 the Democracy lost control of the state. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was soon followed by organized efforts in the free states to fill Kansas with anti-slavery settlers. To such movements the south responded by armed invasions. On 30 March, 1855. a territorial legislature was elected in Kansas bv armed bands from Missouri, who crossed the border to vote and then returned to their homes. That initiative gave to the pro-slavery men a technical advantage, which the Democratic leaders were swift to recognize. The proslavery legislature thus elected met at Pawnee on 2 July, 1855, and enacted an intolerant and oppressive slave code, which was mainly a transcript of the laws of Missouri. The free-state settlers thereupon called a constitutional convention. which met on 23 October, 1855, and framed a state constitution, which was adopted by the people by a vote of 1,731 to 46. A general assembly was then elected under such constitution, which, after passing some preliminary acts, appointed a committee to frame a code of laws, and took measures to apply to Congress for the admission of Kansas into the Union as a state. Andrew H. Reeder was elected by the free-state men their delegate to Congress. A majority of the actual settlers of Kansas were in favor of her admission into the Union as a free state; but all their efforts to that end were treated by their opponents in the territory, and by the Democratic National administration, as rebellion against lawful authority. This conflict kept the territory in a state of confusion and bloodshed, and excited party feeling throughout the country to fever heat. It remained unsettled, to vex Buchanan's administration and further develop the germs of disunion and civil war. On 2 June, 1856, the National Democratic Convention met at Cincinnati to nominate a candidate for president. On the first ballot James Buchanan had 135 votes, Pierce 122, Douglas 33. Cass 6, Pierce's vote gradually diminished, and on the 17th ballot Buchanan was nominated unanimously. In August the house of representatives attached to the Army Appropriation Bill a proviso that no part of the army should be employed to enforce the laws of the Kansas Territorial Legislature until Congress should have declared its validity. The senate refused to concur, and Congress adjourned without passing the bill. It was immediately convened by proclamation, and passed the bill without the proviso. The president s message in December following was mainly devoted to Kansas affairs, and was intensely hostile to the free-state party. His term ended on 4 March, 1857, and he returned to his home in Concord. Soon afterward he visited Madeira, and extended his travels to Great Britain and the continent of Europe. He remained abroad nearly three years, returning to Concord early in 1860. In the presidential election of that year he took no active part, but his influence was cast against Douglas and in favor of Breckinridge. In a letter addressed to Jefferson Davis, under date of 6 January, 1860, he wrote; "Without discussing the question of right, of abstract power to secede, I have never believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without bloodshed; and if, through the madness of northern Abolitionists, that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It will be within our own borders, in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home. . . . I have tried to impress upon our own people, especially in New Hampshire and Connecticut, where the only elections are to take place during the coming spring, that, while our Union meetings are all in the right direction and well enough for the present, they will not be worth the paper upon which their resolutions are written unless we can overthrow abolitionism at the polls and repeal the unconstitutional and obnoxious laws which in the cause of ‘personal liberty' have been placed upon our statute-books.” On 21 April, 1861, nine days after the disunionists had begun Civil War by firing on Fort Sumter, he addressed a Union mass-meeting at Concord, and urged the people to sustain the government against the southern Confederacy. From that time until his death he lived in retirement at Concord. To the last he retained his hold upon the hearts of his personal friends, and the exquisite urbanite of his earlier days. His wife and his three children had preceded him to the tomb. Some years after Pierce's death the legislature of New Hampshire, in behalf of the state, placed his portrait beside the speaker's desk in the hall of the house of representatives at Concord. Time has softened the harsh judgment that his political foes passed upon him in the heat of party strife and civil war. His generosity and kindness of heart are gratefully remembered by those who knew him, and particularly by the younger members of his profession, whom he was always ready to aid and advise. It is remembered that in his professional career he was ever willing, at whatever risk to his fortune or popularity, to shield the r and obscure from oppression and injustice. t is remembered, too, that £ sought in public life no opportunities for personal gain. His integrity was above suspicion. After nine years' service in Congress and in the senate of the United States, after a brilliant and successful professional career and four years in the presidency, his estate hardly £d to $72,000. In his whole political career he always stood for a strict construction of the constitution, for economy and frugality in public affairs, and for a strict accountability of public officials to their constituents. No political or personal influence could induce him to shield those whom he believed to have defrauded the government. Pierce had ambition, but greed for public office was foreign to his nature. Few, if any, instances can be found in our history where a man of thirty-eight, in the full vigor of health, voluntarily gave ' a seat in the U.S. Senate, which he was apparently sure to retain as long as he wished. His refusal at the age of forty-one to leave his law-practice for the place of Attorney-General in Polk's cabinet is almost without a parallel. Franklin Pierce, too, was a true patriot and a sincere lover of his country. The Revolutionary services of a father whom he revered were constantly in his thoughts. Two of his brothers, with that father's consent, took an honorable part in the war of 1812. His only sister was the wife of General John H. McNeil, as gallant an officer as ever fought for his country. To decline a cabinet appointment and enlist as a private soldier in the army of his country were acts which one who knew his early training and his chivalrous character might reasonably expect of him. But for slavery and the questions growing out of it, his administration would have passed into history as one of the most successful in our national life. To judge him justly, his political training and the circumstances that environed him must be taken into account. Like his honored father, he believed that the statesmen of the Revolution had agreed to maintain the legal rights of the slave-holders, and that without such agreement we should have had no Federal constitution or Union. He believed that good faith required that agreement to be performed. In that belief all or nearly all the leaders of both the great parties concurred. However divided on other questions, on that the south was a unit. The price of its political support was compliance with its demands, and both the old parties (however reluctantly) paid the price. Political leaders believed that, unless it was paid, civil war and disunion would result, and their patriotism re-enforced their party spirit and personal ambition. Among them all there were probably few whose conduct would have been essentially different from that of Pierce had they been in the same situation. He gave his support to the repeal of the Missouri compromise with great reluctance, and in the belief that the measure would satisfy the south and thus avert from the country the doom of civil war and disunion. See the lives by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Boston, 1852) and D. W. Bartlett (Auburn, 1852), and “Review of Pierce's Administration,” by A. E. Carroll (Boston, 1856). The steel plate is from a portrait by George P. A. Healey. The vignette on page 8 is a view of President Pierce's birthplace, and that on page 10 represents his grave, which is in the £i at Concord, New Hampshire.—His wife, Jane Means Appleton, born in Hampton, New Hampshire, 12 March, 1806; died in Andover, Massachusetts, 2 December, 1863, was a daughter of the Reverend Jesse Appleton, D. q. v.), president of Bowdoin College. She was brought up in an atmosphere of cultivated and refined Christian influences, was thoroughly educated, and grew to womanhood Surrounded by most congenial circumstances. She was married in 1834. Public observation was extremely painful to her, and she always preferred the quiet of her New England home to the glare and glitter of fashionable life in Washington. A friend said of her: “How well she filled her station as wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend, those only can tell who knew her in these private relations. In this quiet sphere she found her joy, and here her gentle but powerful influence was deeply and constantly felt, through wise counsels and delicate suggestions, the purest, finest tastes, and a devoted life.” She was the mother of three children, all boys, but none survived her. Two died in early youth, and the youngest, Benjamin, was killed in an accident on the Boston and Maine Railroad while travelling from Andover to Lawrence, Massachusetts, on 6 January, 1853, only two months before his father's inauguration as president. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were with him at the time, and the boy, a bright lad of thirteen years, had been amusing them with his conversation just before the accident. The car was thrown from the track and dashed against the rocks, and the lad met his served till July, 1861, when he was detailed to coldeath instantly. Both parents were long deeply neglect the Negroes at Hampton and set them to work affected by the shock of the accident, and Mrs. on the intrenchments of that town. This was the Pierce never recovered from it. The sudden bereavement shattered the small remnant of her remaining health, yet she performed her task at the W#: House nobly, and sustained the dignity of her husband's office. Mrs. Robert E. Lee wrote in a private letter: “I have known many of the ladies of the White House, none more truly excellent than the afflicted wife of President Pierce. Her health was a bar to any great effort on her part to meet the expectations of the public in her high position, but she was a refined, extremely religious, and well-educated lady.” She was buried by the side of her children, in the cemetery at Concord, New Hampshire, where also the remains of General Pierce now rest. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 7-12.
PIERCE, Henry Lillie, member of Congress, born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, 23 August, 1825. He received a good education, engaged in manufacturing, and as early as 1848 took an active part in organizing the “Free-Soil” Party in Massachusetts. He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1860–6, and in 1860 was instrumental in getting a bill passed by both branches of the legislature removing the statutory prohibition upon the formation of militia companies composed of colored men. He was elected to Congress as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Whiting, was re-elected for the next congressional term, and served from 1 December, 1873, till 3 March, 1877, when he declined a renomination. In the presidential election of 1884 he was prominent in organizing an independent movement in support of Cleveland, and has since taken a leading part in the effort to revise the tariff legislation and reduce the taxes on imports. He was mayor of Boston in 1873, and again in 1878. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 12.
PIERCE, Edward Lillie, author, born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, 29 March, 1829, was graduated at Brown in 1850, and at Harvard Law-School in 1852, receiving the degree of LL.D. from Brown in 1882. After leaving the school, Mr. Pierce was for some time in the office of Salmon P. Chase at Cincinnati. He afterward practised law in his native state, and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the 3d Massachusetts Regiment, and beginning of the employment of Negroes on U.S. military works. In ember, 1861, the Secretary of the Treasury despatched Mr. Pierce to Port Royal to examine into the condition of the Negroes on the Sea Islands. In February, 1862, he returned to Washington and reported to the government, and in March was given charge of the freedmen and plantations on those islands. He took with him nearly sixty teachers and superintendents, established schools, and suggested the formation of freedmen's aid societies, by means of which great good was accomplished. In June, 1862, Mr. Pierce made his second report to the government setting forth what he had done. These reports were afterward reprinted in the “Rebellion Record,” and were favorably reviewed both in Europe and the United States. The care of the Negroes on the islands having been transferred to the War Department, he was asked to continue in charge under its authority, but declined. He was offered the military governorship of South Carolina, but was not confirmed. He was collector of internal revenue for the 3d Massachusetts District from October, 1863, till May, 1866, district attorney in 1866–'9, secretary of the board of state charities in 1869-'74, and a member of the legislature in 1875–6. He was a member of the Republican National Conventions of 1876 and 1884, and in December, 1878, was appointed by President Hayes Assistant Treasurer of the United States, but declined. In 1883 he gave to the white and colored people of St. Helena Island, the scene of his former labors, a library of 800 volumes. He also originated the public library of Milton, Massachusetts, where he has resided, and has been a trustee since its formation. He has been a lecturer at the Boston law-school since its foundation. Mr. Pierce has visited Europe several times. His second visit was for the inspection of European prisons, reformatories and the result is given in his report for 1873 as secretary of the Board of State Charities. He has been a frequent contributor to newspapers and periodicals, he has published numerous articles and addresses, and “American Railroad Law” (New York, 1857); “Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner” (2 vols., Boston, 1877, unfinished), and “The Law of Railroads” (Boston, 1881). He also edited “Walter's American Law” (1860), and compiled “Index of the Special Railroad Laws of Massachusetts” (1874). [Brother Henry L. Pierce]. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 12.
PIERPONT, John, 1785-1866, Massachusetts, poet, lawyer, Unitarian theologian, temperance reformer, abolitionist leader, member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. Liberty Party candidate for Massachusetts. Free Soil candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1850. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, p. 14; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 7, Pt. 2, p. 286; Dumond, 1961, p. 301)
PIERPONT, John, poet, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 6 April, 1785; died in Medford, Massachusetts, 26 August, 1866. He was a great-grandson of James, who is noticed below. He was graduated at Yale in 1804, and after assisting for a short time in the academy at Bethlehem, Connecticut, in the autumn of 1805 went to South Carolina, and passed nearly four years as a private tutor in the family of Colonel William Allston. After his return in 1809 he studied law at Litchfield, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised for a time in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The profession proving injurious to his health, he relinquished it, and engaged in business as a merchant, first in Boston, and afterward in Baltimore. In 1816 he abandoned commerce for theology, which he studied, first at Baltimore, and afterward at Cambridge Divinity-School. In April, 1819, he was ordained pastor of the Hollis Street Church, Boston. In 1835 he made a tour through Europe and Asia Minor, and on his return he resumed his pastoral charge in Boston, where he continued till 10 May, 1845. The freedom with which he expressed his opinions, especially in regard to the temperance cause, had given rise to some feeling before his departure for Europe; and in 1838 there sprung up between himself and a part of his parish a controversy which lasted seven years, when, after triumphantly sustaining himself against the charges of his adversaries, he requested a dismissal. He then became for four years pastor of a Unitarian Church in Troy, New York, on 1 August, 1849, was settled over the Congregational Church in Medford, and resigned, 6 April, 1856. He was a zealous reformer, powerfully advocated the temperance and anti-slavery movements, was the candidate of the Liberty Party for governor, and in 1850 of the Free-Soil Party for Congress. After the Civil War began, though seventy-six years of age, he went into the field as chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment, but, finding his strength unequal to the discharge of his duties, he soon afterward resigned, and was appointed to a clerkship in the Treasury Department at Washington, which he held till his death. Mr. Pierpont was a thorough scholar, a graceful and facile speaker, and ranked deservedly high as a poet. He published “Airs of Palestine” (Baltimore, 1816); re-issued, with additions, under the title “Airs of Palestine, and other Poems” (Boston, 1840). One of his best-known poems is “Warren's Address at the Battle of Bunker Bill.” His long poem that he read at the Litchfield County centennial in 1851 contains a description of the “Yankee boy” and his ingenuity, which has often been quoted. He also published several sermons and addresses. See Wilson's “Bryant and his Friends” (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p.14.
PIERRPONT, Edwards (Pierrepont), jurist, born in North Haven, Connecticut, 4 March, 1817, was graduated at Yale in 1837 and at the law-school in 1840, and began practice at Columbus, Ohio. In 1845 he moved to New York City, where he became eminent at the bar. In 1857 he was elected a judge of the superior court of the city of New York, in place of Chief-Justice Thomas J. Oakley. A speech that he made a year and a half before the fall of Fort Sumter, in which he predicted the Civil War, attracted much attention. In October, 1860, he resigned his seat on the bench and returned to the practice of law, and in 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln, in conjunction with General John A. Dix, to try the prisoners of state that were confined in the various prisons and forts of the United States. In 1864 he was active in organizing the War Democrats in favor of the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. In April, 1867, he was elected a member of the convention for forming a new constitution for the State of New York, and one of its judiciary committee. He was employed to conduct the prosecution on the part of the government of John H. Surratt, indicted for aiding in the murder of President Lincoln. Judge Pierrepont has been engaged in many celebrated causes, and he was much employed by railroads and other corporations. At the beginning of the Civil War he was an active member of the Union Defence Committee, and one of the three that were appointed to proceed to Washington to confer with the government when all communication was cut off by way of Baltimore after the attack upon the Massachusetts troops. In the presidential contests of 1868 and 1872 he was an ardent supporter of General Grant, by whom he was appointed in 1869 U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which office he resigned in July, 1870. In the autumn of that year he was one of the most active members of the committee of seventy in opposition to the Tweed ring. In May, 1873, Judge Pierrepont was appointed U. S. minister to Russia, but declined, and in April, 1875, he became Attorney-General of the United States, remaining in the cabinet of President Grant until May, 1876, when he was sent as U.S. minister to Great Britain. During his term of office as Attorney-General he was called upon by the Secretary of State to give an opinion upon a question of international law, in which were discussed the questions of natural and acquired nationality. This opinion gave him a wide reputation. During General Grant's visit to London, Judge Pierrepont urged upon the queen's ministers the propriety of according the same precedence to him as had been given to the ex-ruler of France. This was done, and other governments followed the example of Great Britain. Judge Pierrepont devoted large attention to the financial system of England. On his return in 1878 he engaged actively in his profession, but afterward retired and has taken especial interest in the financial policy of the country, writing several pamphlets upon the subject. In one, issued in 1887, he advocated an international treaty and claimed that by convention the commercial value of the silver dollar might be restored. He has published various orations, including one before the alumni of Yale, (1874). Judge Pierrepont received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Columbian College, Washington, D.C., in 1871. In 1873 the same degree was conferred upon him by Yale. While he was in England Oxford gave him that of D. C. L. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 16.
