Free Soil Party, founded August 9-10, 1848, in Buffalo, New York.  It included members of the “Conscience Whigs” Party, Democrats and members of the Liberty Party.  The motto was, “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men.”  It was a third party, whose main purpose was opposing the expansion of slavery into the Western territories acquired after the war with Mexico.  The party argued that free men on free soil was a morally and economically superior system to slavery.  The party agreed with the Wilmot Proviso, and tried to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans.  The party was active from 1848 to 1852.  The party’s support came largely from the areas of upstate New York.  The party membership was absorbed by the Republican Party at its founding in 1854. It sent two senators and fourteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives to the Thirty-First congress in 1849. (References)

• Chapter by Henry Wilson, "Coalition in Massachusetts. Election of Mr. Sumner," in Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
• Officers, members and supporters of the Free Soil Party - Part 1 and Part 2

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Chapter: “Coalition in Massachusetts. Election of Mr. Sumner,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872:

In the year 1848 there were thousands of Democrats who sympathized, for various reasons, with the Free Soil movement, though they gave a reluctant support to General Cass. But when the election was over, and the government had passed from Democratic rule, and the Southern pressure was in some measure lifted by both the removal of the responsibility of power and what was deemed Southern recreancy in deserting General Cass for General Taylor, there were many who hoped that their party would place itself in better position. This was specially manifested in Ohio in the organization of its legislature, in the election of judges, and also in the election of Mr. Chase as United States Senator. In Connecticut the Democrats and Free-Soilers combined in the election of members of Congress; Mr. Booth, who had voted the Free Soil ticket, Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Waldo, who had publicly indorsed the Free Soil platform, being chosen members of the House. In Vermont, too, a similar fusion was effected, and the Democrats passed antislavery resolutions.

The Massachusetts Democratic State convention met in Springfield on the 19th of September, 1849. It consisted of about six hundred members, who adopted with hardly a dissenting voice, and with general applause, resolutions avowing opposition "to slavery in every form and color" ; pronouncing "in favor of freedom and free soil wherever man lives throughout God's heritage"; and declaring that "slavery is a mere municipal regulation," that it " does not exist in the Territories by municipal law," that " Congress has no power to institute it," that " the local laws of our State can never be transported there," that it " can never exist there but by local law sanctioned by Congress." They also declared their opposition to the extension of slavery to the Territories, and in favor of restricting it to the limits within which it exists by the local laws of the States. Those resolutions were drawn up by Benjamin F. Hallett. On his way to the convention he read them to Charles C. Hazewell, then editor of the Boston “Times," and to Mr. Wilson, then editor of the Boston “Emancipator and Republican." Mr. Hazewell was a gentle man of vast historical acquisitions, of extraordinary memory, and of progressive views. He approved of the sentiments of the resolutions; but he asked Mr. Hallett what the Southern Democrats would say to them. To this question that gentleman promptly replied: "I do not care what they say. We have risked everything for them. They deserted General Cass and elected General Taylor. They can take care of themselves and we can take care of ourselves." They were indorsed by the Boston “Post “on the morning after the convention, and the opinion was expressed that the two minority parties could act together on State affairs. There was cooperation in many of the senatorial and representative districts, but it was mainly for local purposes. In Wisconsin, too, there was a like co-operation between the Free-Soilers and the Democrats, the Democratic State convention passing a series of resolutions of the most thorough antislavery character.

The New York Democratic State committee invited the Free Soil State committee to unite with them in calling a union convention for the nomination of a union ticket. In response the committee reiterated their convictions concerning slavery, declared it to be a social and political evil, avowed their attachment to the ordinance of 1787, and stated that they could form no combinations that would require its abandonment. They expressed their gratification that Democrats in other States were taking ground against slavery extension. Not withstanding this reply, the two parties met simultaneously in convention at Rome on the 16th of August. The Democratic convention passed resolutions in favor of the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories and in the District of Columbia, but would not pass any making slavery a test question. The Free Soil convention adopted resolutions embodying the principles of the Buffalo platform. Committees of conference were appointed, but the Democratic convention refused to accept the resolutions of the Free Soil body. And yet the latter, under the lead of John Yan Buren, proposed to merge the two conventions in one. But the proffer was declined, and the two adjourned. The Free-Soilers immediately issued an address to the public in which they arraigned with much severity the course of the Democratic convention.

The Democratic State convention was held at Syracuse on the 5th of September, nominated a State ticket, and, singularly enough in view of what had transpired and of their hitherto unsuccessful efforts at union, proposed that the Free-Soilers should name a portion of the candidates to be voted for, providing, however, that they should be well-known Democrats, and that they should " impose no principle or test " upon the candidates " inconsistent with the resolutions " adopted at Rome by the Democratic convention, conditions that effectually disfranchised the old members of the Liberty party and the forty thousand Whigs who had voted with the Free Soil party.

In the Free Soil, or Barnburner, convention at Utica, both the resolutions and the speeches were antislavery in character, and strong hopes were expressed that the Democratic Party would soon be found occupying that ground. In one of the resolutions adopted it was declared to be “dishonorable to New York if the Democracy of this great Commonwealth should reject the teachings of her Tompkins and her Wright, and refuse to assist in this great work of regeneration, the foundations of which were laid by Thomas Jefferson." “We expect to make the Democratic party of this State," said John Yan Buren, “the great antislavery party of this State, and through it to make the Democratic party of the United States the great antislavery party of the United States." Said Henry B. Stanton: " Here and to-day we are doing up the work of centuries, and God help us to do it well!” He expressed the belief that the people, the masses, could be “trusted on the question of slavery."

But, notwithstanding these distinct and loudly proclaimed avowals of antislavery sentiments, the convention proceeded to the acceptance of the Syracuse proposition for the union of the parties in the ensuing election. Without any security that the sentiments they had just avowed should become the principles of the united party, or any assurance other than their professed ability to convert the Democratic organization to their faith, they entered into an organic union with a party whose past history and current policy were in direct antagonism with the avowed principles and purposes of their own. As might have been expected, the only effect was disastrous. Instead of converting the Democratic Party, they themselves apostatized from their loudly proclaimed faith, accepted the compromise measures of 1850, helped elect and sustained Franklin Pierce, whose administration was the most intensely proslavery on record.

When the Whig majority in the Massachusetts legislature rejected Mr. Wilson's proposition to request Mr. Webster to vote against the pending compromise measures, he declared his determination to co-operate with anybody of men to drive the dominant party from power, and to send to the Senate a statesman who would fitly represent the cherished and distinguishing opinions of the Commonwealth. Avowing himself as opposed to the fusion of parties except on “the basis of the full and complete recognition of the principles embodied in the Buffalo platform," he advocated a “coalition” between the Free Soil and Democratic parties, each party to retain its distinctive organization, principles, and policy. He kept the pledge thus made on the floor of the House of Representatives, and during the spring and summer of 1850 did what he could to secure the co-operation of the masses of these parties. The death of President Taylor, the reactionary course of Mr. Fillmore, the activity of Mr. Webster, the defection of Northern Whigs, and the assured triumph of the com promise measures, seemed to him to make a coalition a necessity and its success a duty. To aid that result he, as chairman of the State committee of the Free Soil party, invited one hundred of the leading Free-Soilers of the State to meet with the committee on the 10th of September. The meeting was held at the Adams House in Boston. Some fifty or sixty were present. It was a meeting remarkable for its large proportion of thoughtful and cultivated men, and men, too, of irreproachable character and unblemished integrity. They were persons who would very naturally think independently, and differ, too, on the new questions that were pressing their claims and clamoring for answers. Mr. Wilson presided, and stated that the purpose of the meeting was to consider the policy of co-operating with the Democrats at the coming election. He expressed the belief that a large majority of the Free Soil party were in favor of a coalition for the purpose of securing a United States Senator for six years, and that, if the State committee and other leading Free-Soilers united upon that policy, it would be successful. It was for the purpose of canvassing the question and ascertaining their views that he had called them together.

The discussion was opened by John G. Palfrey, who ex pressed his decided opposition to the proposed movement. He thought the value of electing a United States Senator had been exaggerated, that there were doubts of their ability to carry out such a programme, and that the proposed coalition might prove disastrous to their own organization. Charles Francis Adams expressed a similar opposition in language very decided and unequivocal. With similar emphasis and decision did Richard H. Dana, Jr., Samuel Hoar, and Stephen H. Phillips also oppose the proposed coalition. On the other hand, Marcus Morton, William Jackson, Dr. Caleb Swan, and

John B. Alley favored it, and augured the best results there from. But, at the suggestion of Mr. Adams, William A. White moved that no action should be taken committing the State committee or the party, but that each member should be left to act according to his sense of duty. His motion received the concurrence of the meeting. A majority of those present were unquestionably opposed to the plan, but a minority believed it could be made a success, and were determined to make the trial. There can be no doubt, however, that, though these men differed in regard to the proposed policy, they were actuated by a common purpose. Among those who favored the proposed action was William Jackson, who had been long an antislavery man, a prominent member of the Liberty party, but who held all parties as matters of secondary importance, to be subordinated to the paramount claims of freedom. He made an earnest speech. Though, he said, he did not expect to live to see the day when the Liberty or Free Soil party would have a majority in the State or the nation, he was anxious that they should throw their votes so that they should be felt, that they should be as faithful to liberty as the slaveholders were to slavery. “I want to make my vote tell," he said, " and it will not do to be too straight and perpendicular for the sake of principle." Dr. Swan, too, a veteran and earnest antislavery man, strenuously advocated the proposed coalition. A campaign paper was started, called the "Free-Soiler," edited by Francis W. Bird, John B. Alley, and Horace E. Smith. It advocated the proposed union on the distinct ground of censuring the action of Mr. Webster, repudiating the compromise measures and the administration, and electing a Free Soil senator. The " Emancipator and Republican," edited by Mr. Wilson, the Dedham " Gazette," by Mr. Keyes, the Worcester " Spy," by Mr. Earle, the Lowell " American," by William S. Robinson, the Northampton " Courier," by Mr. Gere, advocated a coalition upon the same basis.

The Free Soil State convention met in Boston on the 3d of October. The convention was called to order by Mr. Wilson, Amasa Walker was made temporary chairman, and Joseph T. Buckingham was made permanent president. Both Stephen C. Phillips and John Mills sent letters declining to be again candidates for governor and lieutenant-governor. These letters and the question of candidates were referred to a committee of one from each county. The committee reported the names of Mr. Phillips and Mr. Walker as candidates, and they were nominated by acclamation and a rising vote. These nominations were very satisfactory to the party and commanded a hearty support. Mr. Phillips was among the earliest advocates of antislavery in the ranks of the Whig party. He was a successful merchant, of liberal education and culture, a ready, earnest, and forcible speaker, eminently conscientious and practical, and always ready to make personal sacrifices for the cause he espoused. Mr. Walker was also a merchant. Though he belonged to the Democratic Party he was an early and earnest antislavery man. With wealth, practical sagacity, mental culture and acumen, he was an earnest and effective worker in the ranks of the new party.

Charles Francis Adams reported a series of resolutions in which the compromise measures were declared to be " shocking to the best feelings of the human heart," and the Fugitive Slave Act " an insult to humanity, a disgrace to free America, and a dishonor to the civilization of the age "; that to " such a law no obedience can spring from the heart;" and that " no duty is more imperative than that of laboring from this time forward for its immediate and unconditional repeal." Brief and eloquent speeches were made by Julian of Indiana, Free Soil member of Congress, Sumner, Adams, Burlingame, Keyes, Leavitt, Bradburn, and White.

Horace Mann had been selected by the Whigs of the Eighth District to succeed John Quincy Adams. His antislavery opinions were well known when elected, and he had never exhibited any faltering in Congress from the position he had maintained at home. His severe criticism and condemnation of Mr. Webster and his course were, however, very distasteful to his Whig constituents, and he was rejected as their candidate for the pending election. But what had so grievously offended the Whigs recommended him to the Free-Soilers. A District convention was held at Dedham, over which Mr. Adams presided. In his address he said that " there was no question that the striking down of the Representative in this District would be considered by the slaveholders as the greatest triumph yet achieved, because he had the courage to do what no other public man had done. He had boldly taken the great traitor by the throat and held him up to the view of the people of Massachusetts." He said that the present afforded a fine opportunity to “overlook the rigid lines of party," and to extend the hand of fellowship to the men of other parties who agreed with them in “support of great principles." As for himself, he declared his determination never to be a candidate for office "upon a ticket formed by any combination of parties unless it was founded on Free Soil principles." Speeches were made by Edward L. Keyes, Francis W. Bird, and Edwin Thompson. Mr. Mann received the unanimous vote of the convention, and was triumphantly elected by the people.

The Free Soil and Democratic conventions of Middlesex County were held at Concord for the nomination of six Senators on the same day; George F. Farley presiding over the former, and Benjamin F. Butler over the latter. Mr. Farley, on taking the chair, gave a searching review of the Whig party, vindicated the principles of the Free Soil organization, and justified the proposed union of forces for the triumph of the principles of the new party. A committee of conference with the Democrats was appointed. John A. Bolles, William A. White, Chauncy L. Knapp, James M. Stone, and S. P. Adams vindicated the proposed policy for local purposes, for the condemnation of the administration, and the election of a United States Senator pledged to freedom. Mr. Stone gave pertinent expression to the great thought of the movement by saying that he would “use the weapon of the Whig party to strike power out of the grasp of the Democratic Party, and the weapon of the Democratic party to strike power out of the grasp of the Whig party."

Mr. Wilson defined the grounds on which he favored the proposed union. Not State issues, but liberty, afforded the motive that influenced him in his action. By temporarily uniting with the Democrats he hoped to secure the balance of power, and place the Free-Soilers in a position to direct the policy of Massachusetts and place the Old Commonwealth “in the van in the great contest to rescue the government from the grasp of the Slave Power." He wished, above all, to send a true and tried champion of freedom to the Senate of the United States, “to stand side by side with Hale, Seward, and Chase, to fight the battles of liberty for the next six years." Whatever measures might be needful for the glory of the State would receive their support; “but all these measures," he said,” must be subordinate to the great question of the age." In the nomination of Mann and Fowler the Free-Soilers had shown their readiness to unite with Whigs whenever by so doing they could advance their principles. The proffer was accepted by the Democratic convention, the desired arrangement was made in the senatorial and representative Districts, and the nominations, thus made, secured the almost unanimous support of the Free Soil and Democratic parties.

The Free Soil speakers and presses placed their appeal for popular support on the same basis. The views of the masses of the party were well expressed by Mr. Sumner, a few days before the election, in a speech in Faneuil Hall. " It is because," he said, " I place freedom above all else that I cordially concur in the different unions and combinations throughout the Commonwealth, in Mr. Mann's District, of Free-Soilers with Whigs; also in Mr. Fowler's District, of Free-Soilers with Whigs; and generally in senatorial Districts, of Free-Soilers with Democrats. By the first of these, two good men may be secured in Congress, while by the latter the friends of freedom may obtain a controlling influence in the legislature of Massachusetts during the coming session, and thus advance our cause. They may arbitrate between both the old parties, making freedom their perpetual object, and in this way contribute more powerfully than they otherwise could to the cause which has drawn us together." These sentiments, thus fully and frankly expressed by Mr. Sumner, not only embodied the sentiments of the great body of the Free Soil party, but unquestionably contributed largely to his selection as candidate for the senatorship after its success. The coalition triumphed. There was no choice for governor, and decisive majorities were secured in both houses of the legislature. When it assembled in January, 1851, committees of conference were appointed by the Free Soil and Democratic caucuses. With entire unanimity, the Free Soil members authorized their committee, at the head of which was placed the venerable John Milton Earle, to express their entire readiness to elect Mr. Boutwell governor, and to allow Democratic candidates to fill the other State offices, on the sole condition that a Free-Soiler, selected by Free-Soilers, should be elected for the long term to the Senate of the United States. For this they had fought the battle, and for this they were willing to sacrifice everything else. The Democrats acquiesced in the arrangement, though they expressed a preference that Free-Soilers should fill some of the State offices.

But this arrangement was not made without opposition. Mr. Palfrey addressed a letter to the Free Soil members of the legislature in deprecation of the proposed measure, expressing similar sentiments to those he had avowed at the conference. He reiterated the idea that they were overestimating the importance of having a Senator, who must necessarily be in a lean minority, while the risks to the Free Soil party were great, -- too great to be wisely run for a boon of such questionable value. He expressed the conviction that they were on the eve of great changes, and of new combinations in the political world, and that they should keep themselves free from entangling alliances, and hold themselves in a position to profit by any new developments which might be, at any time, expected. Mr. Adams wrote a letter to the Boston “Atlas," expressing concurrence in the views maintained by Mr. Palfrey. He expressed confidence in “the purity of purpose” of the Free Soil party, and, though he might not agree with the majority in the means to the end, he believed “the end we mean to reach is one and the same, -- the predominance of the principles of freedom in the national policy." He confessed that he felt almost as strongly as any of his party the temptation to overlook the difficulties in his desire to secure the results. “Most especially should I be reconciled," he said, " to everything short of the dissolution of the party into old-line Democracy, if it could ring the political knell of one whose course has done more, in my humble judgment, to shake the wavering principles and unsettle the highest policy of Puritan New England than that of any man known in its history."

The Free Soil proposition was accepted. Henry Wilson was made president of the Senate, and Nathaniel P. Banks, Jr., speaker of the House; Mr. Boutwell was chosen governor, Mr. Cushman was made lieutenant-governor, Amasa Walker, the Free Soil candidate for lieutenant-governor, was made Secretary of State, the Free-Soilers had four of the nine councillors, and Robert Rantoul, Jr., proposed by the Democrats, was accepted and elected to the United States Senate for the remainder of the time ending March 4, 1851. Mr. Simmer was unanimously selected by the Free-Soilers, receiving eighty-two votes as their candidate for Senator for the long term, and after a somewhat exciting debate his nomination was accepted by the Democratic caucus. A few Democrats, under the lead of Caleb Gushing, opposed his nomination, as also did the "Morning Post," the organ of the party, and several other Democratic papers. Samuel D. Bradford addressed a letter to the Democratic members of the legislature, in which he warned them of the peril to the party the proposed coalition would bring; and he told them they were standing " on the very brink of political annihilation," and implored them not to disturb the country by sending " a firebrand into the councils of the nation."

Robert C. Winthrop was selected as the Whig candidate for Senator. In the Senate Mr. Sumner received twenty-three votes, Mr. Winthrop fourteen, and Henry W. Bishop one. On the first ballot in the House Mr. Sumner received one hundred and eighty-six votes, Mr. Winthrop one hundred and sixty-seven. As one hundred and ninety-three votes were necessary for a choice, Mr. Sumner lacked five of the requisite number. The recusant Democrats gave twenty-three votes, and there were a few scattering ballots cast. This failure to elect Mr. Sumner caused a deep feeling of disappointment both in and out of the legislature. Conferences and caucuses were held by the Free Soil members almost daily. A committee on organization was appointed, of which Mr. Wil son was chairman. This committee labored with tireless zeal and unfaltering faith. They insisted from the beginning that their candidate could be elected and should be elected, and that no change or compromise should be made. They were sustained by the Free Soil masses and presses and by leading Free-Soilers in and out of the State. Adams, Dana, and Phillips, and others who opposed this alliance with the Democracy, were gratified with the selection of Mr. Sumner as the candidate, hoped for his election, and were opposed to his withdrawal or abandonment.

But, after weeks spent in unsuccessful struggles, some of the Free-Soilers, hoping that some other candidate would be more acceptable, counselled a change. Some of the seceding Democrats intimated that another candidate would command votes that Mr. Sumner had failed to receive. Indeed, Mr. Gushing took occasion to say that Mr. Sumner's cause was “a lost cause." Governor Boutwell, also believing that the contest was hopeless, counselled a change from Mr. Sumner to Stephen C. Phillips. On the 22d of February, Mr. Sumner wrote to Mr. Wilson, requesting him to communicate to the Free Soil members his desire that they should not hesitate to transfer their support to some other candidate faithful to their cause, if success could be thus achieved. In this letter he said: “Abandon me, then, whenever you think best, without notice or apology. The cause is everything; I am nothing."

But the great body of the Free-Soilers were firm, and, not withstanding the fierce opposition arrayed against their candidate, the timidity of friends, the counsels of the governor, and the inflexibility of the “indomitables," as the twenty-three Democrats styled themselves, they still adhered to their candidate. The contest continued until the 24th of April, when, on the twenty-sixth ballot, Mr. Sumner received just the requisite number, and was elected. With that majority was Nathaniel B. Borden of Fall River, an antislavery Whig and former member of Congress, who gracefully yielded to the wishes of a majority of his Whig constituents, as expressed in a memorial, circulated through the tireless efforts of James Buffinton. Of the twenty-three Democrats, it is believed that Israel Haynes of Sudbury finally gave his vote for Mr. Sumner.

The result of the vote was hailed with marked demonstrations of delight, and the Free-Soilers who had doubted the wisdom of the arrangement rejoiced in its success. In the evening an immense meeting was held in State Street, at which congratulatory speeches were made by Thomas Russell, Joseph Lyman, and Henry Wilson. This meeting then moved to the house of Mr. Sumner, but he had retired to the home of a friend in Cambridge, preferring to avoid the anticipated demonstrations of victory. The joyous crowd then went to the house of Mr. Adams, who addressed them, saying: "I am glad of the opportunity to congratulate my friends upon the glorious triumphs of liberty in the election of Mr. Sumner." But Mr. Sumner was by no means ungrateful to his friends for their long and persistent support. In a letter to Mr. Wilson, written on the day after his election, he disowned and warmly expressed his deprecation of the idea of seeming " cold and churlish in thus withdrawing from all the public manifestations of triumph to which our friends are prompted," saying that by so doing he was only following " the line of reserve " he had pursued throughout the contest. To Mr. Wilson's share in the contest he thus referred: “To your ability, energy, determination, and fidelity our cause owes its present success. For weal or woe, you must take the responsibility of having placed me in the Senate of the United States. I am prompted to add, that while you have done all this I have never heard from you a single suggestion of a selfish character, looking in any way to any good to yourself; your labors have been as disinterested as they have been effective."

Opprobrious epithets were plentifully bestowed upon those who planned and participated in the coalition. But the results abundantly vindicated both the principle and the policy of that movement. By it was placed in the Senate of the United States one who has borne a conspicuous part in the councils of the nation and rendered large service to the cause of freedom. By it was elected to the same high station, though for a brief period, Robert Rantoul, Jr., who, though a member of the Democratic Party, was a gentleman of recognized ability and clearly pronounced antislavery convictions, so pronounced that he lost caste with his party and was discarded therefor. It sent, too, or aided in sending, Charles Allen, Horace Mann, Orrin Fowler, and Robert Rantoul, Jr., to the House of Representatives for the XXXIId Congress. Conscious of the purity of their motives and aims, and gratified arid satisfied with the result, the advocates of the coalition turned from the hasty and harsh denunciations of the present, and appealed with assured confidence to the calmer judgments of the future. To those charges of “bargain and corruption” that were then so freely made against the Free Soil leaders Horace Mann replied. Referring to a similar charge, which had been made against the administration of John Quincy Adams, he said: “I believe the same charge against the Free Soil party will have come twenty years hence to the same result, that of conferring honor upon its object and infamy upon its authors.”

Source:  Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 338-351.

Hale, John P., 1806-1873, New Hampshire, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party.  President of the Free Soil Party, 1852.  Elected to Congress in 1842, he opposed the 21^st Rule suppressing anti-slavery petition to Congress.  Refused to support the annexation of Texas in 1845.  Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846, he was the first distinctively anti-slavery Senator.  Adamantly opposed slavery for his 16 years in office.  In 1851, served as Counsel in the trial of rescued slave Shadrach.  In 1852, he was nominated for President of the United States, representing the Free Soil Party.  As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 35, 51-54, 74, 100-102, 121, 126, 152, 164, 170, 205, 220; Filler, 1960, pp. 187, 189, 213, 247; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 20, 28, 29, 33-37, 43-46, 51, 60, 63-65, 68, 72, 254n; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 298; Sorin, 1971, pp. 130, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 33-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 105; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 862; Congressional Globe).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HALE, John Parker, senator, born in Rochester, New Hampshire, 31 March, 1806; died in Dover, New Hampshire, 19 November, 1873. He studied at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1827. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman, and continued them with Daniel M. Christie in Dover, where he was admitted to the bar, 20 August, 1830. In March, 1832, he was elected to the state house of representatives as a Democrat. On 22 March, 1834, he was appointed U. S. District attorney by President Jackson, was reappointed by President Van Buren, 5 April, 1838, and was moved, 17 June, 1841, by President Tyler on party grounds. On 8 March, 1842, he was elected to congress, and took his seat, 4 December, 1843. He opposed the 21st rule suppressing anti-slavery petitions, but supported Polk and Dallas in the presidential canvass of 1844, and was nominated for re-election on a general ticket with three associates. The New Hampshire legislature, 28 December, 1844, passed resolutions instructing their representatives to vote for the annexation of Texas, and President Polk, in his message of that year, advocated annexation. On 7 January, 1845, Mr. Hale wrote his noted Texas letter, refusing to support annexation. The state convention of his party was reassembled at Concord, 12 February, 1845, and under the lead of Franklin Pierce struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket, and substituted that of John Woodbury. Mr. Hale was supported as an independent candidate. On 11 March, 1845, three Democratic members were elected, but there was no choice of a fourth. Subsequent trials, with the same result, took place 23 September and 29 November, 1845, and 10 March, 1846. During the repeated contests, Mr. Hale thoroughly canvassed the state. At his North Church meeting in Concord, 5 June, 1845. Mr. Pierce was called out to reply, and the debate is memorable in the political history of New Hampshire. At the election of 10 March, 1846, the Whigs and Independent Democrats also defeated a choice for governor, and elected a majority of the state legislature. On 3 June, 1846, Mr. Hale was elected speaker; on 5 June, the Whig candidate, Anthony Colby, was elected governor; and on 9 June. Mr. Hale was elected U. S. Senator for the term to begin 4 March, 1847. In a letter from John G. Whittier, dated Andover, Massachusetts, 3d mo., 18th, 1846, he says of Mr. Hale: “He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embraces of slavery. The tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dykes of party, has at last broken over all barriers, and is washing down from your northern mountains upon the slave-cursed south, as if Niagara stretched its foam and thunder along the whole length of Mason and Dixon's line. Let the first wave of that northern flood, as it dashes against the walls of the capitol, bear thither for the first time an anti-slavery senator.” On 20 October, 1847, he was nominated for president by a National liberty Convention at Buffalo, with Leicester King, of Ohio, for vice-president, but declined, and supported Mr. Van Buren, who was nominated at the Buffalo Convention of 9 August, 1848. On 6 December, 1847, he took his seat in the Senate with thirty-two Democrats and twenty-one Whigs, and remained the only distinctively anti-slavery senator until joined by Salmon P. Chase, 3 December, 1849, and by Charles Sumner, 1 December, 1851. Mr. Hale began the agitation of the slavery question almost immediately upon his entrance into the Senate, and continued it in frequent speeches during his sixteen years of service in that body. He was an orator of handsome person, clear voice, and winning manners, and his speeches were replete with humor and pathos. His success was due to his powers of natural oratory, which, being exerted against American chattel-slavery, seldom failed to arouse sympathetic sentiments in his audiences. Mr. Hale opposed flogging and the spirit-ration in the navy, and secured the abolition of the former by law of 28 September, 1850, and of the latter by law of 14 July, 1862. He served as counsel in 1851 in the important trials that arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach from the custody of the U. S. marshal in Boston. In 1852 he was nominated at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by the Free-Soil Party for president, with George W. Julian as vice-president, and they received 157,685 votes. His first senatorial term ended, and he was succeeded by Charles G. Atherton, a Democrat, on 4 March, 1853, on which day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated president. The following winter Mr. Hale began practising law in New York City. But the repeal of the Missouri Compromise measures again overthrew the Democrats of New Hampshire; they failed duly to elect U. S. Senators in the legislature of June, 1854, and in March, 1855, they completely lost the state. On 13 June, 1855, James Bell, a Whig, was elected U. S. Senator for six years from 3 March, 1855, and Mr. Hale was chosen for the four years of the unexpired term of Mr. Atherton, deceased. On 9 June, 1858, he was re-elected for a full term of six years, which ended on 4 March, 1865. On 10 March, 1865, he was commissioned minister to Spain, and went immediately to Madrid. Mr. Hale was recalled in due course, 5 April, 1869, took leave, 29 July, 1869, and returned home in the summer of 1870. Mr. Hale, without sufficient cause, attributed his recall to a quarrel between himself and Horatio J. Perry, his secretary of legation, in the course of which a charge had been made that Mr. Hale's privilege, as minister, of importing free of duty merchandize for his official or personal use, had been exceeded and some goods put upon the market and sold. Mr. Hale's answer was, that he had been misled by a commission-merchant, instigated by Mr. Perry. The latter was moved 28 June, 1869. Mr. Hale had been one of the victims of the “National hotel disease,” and his physical and mental faculties were much impaired for several years before his death. Immediately upon his arrival home he was prostrated by paralysis, and shortly afterward received a fracture of one of the small bones of the leg when thrown down by a runaway horse. In the summer of 1873 his condition was further aggravated by a fall that dislocated his hip. Appleton’s 1892 p. 29.


Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886, newspaper publisher and editor.  Free Soil Party nominee for Vice President of the U.S. (lost), 1848.  Son of former President John Quincy Adams.  Grandson of President John Adams.  Opposed annexation of Texas, on opposition to expansion of slavery in new territories.  Formed “Texas Group” within Massachusetts Whig Party.  Formed and edited newspaper, Boston Whig, in 1846.

(Adams, 1900; Duberman, 1961; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 32-33; Pease, 1965, pp. 445-452; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 51, 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 12-13. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 40-48).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ADAMS, Charles Francis, diplomatist, son of John Quincy Adams, born in Boston, 18 August, 1807; died there, 21 November, 1886. When two years old he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, where he learned German, French, and Russian. Early in 1815 he travelled all the way from St. Petersburg to Paris with his mother in a private carriage, a difficult journey at that time, and not unattended with danger. His father was soon afterward appointed minister to England, and the little boy was placed at an English boarding-school. The feelings between British and Americans was then more hostile than ever before or since, and young Adams was frequently called upon to defend with his fists the good name of his country. When he returned after two years to America, his father placed him in the Boston Latin school, and he was graduated at Harvard College in 1825, shortly after his father's inauguration as president of the United States. He spent two years in Washington, and then returned to Boston, where he studied law in the office of Daniel Webster, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1828. The next year he married the youngest daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks, whose elder daughters were married to Edward Everett and Reverend Nathaniel Frothingham. From 1831 to 1836 Mr. Adams served in the Massachusetts legislature. He was a member of the Whig Party, but, like all the rest of his vigorous and free-thinking family, he was extremely independent in politics and inclined to strike out into new paths in advance of the public sentiment. After 1836 he came to differ more and more widely with the leaders of the Whig Party with whom he had hitherto acted. In 1848 the newly organized Free-Soil Party, consisting largely of Democrats, held its convention at Buffalo and nominated Martin Van Buren for president and Charles Francis Adams for vice-president. There was no hope of electing these candidates, but this little party grew, six years later, into the great Democratic Party. In 1858 he was elected to Congress by the Republicans of the 3d District of Massachusetts, and in 1860 he was reelected. In the spring of 1861 President Lincoln appointed him minister to England, a place which both his father and his grandfather had filled before him. Mr. Adams had now to fight with tongue and pen for his country as in school-boy days he had fought with fists. It was an exceedingly difficult time for an American minister in England. Though there was much sympathy for the U. S. government on the part of the workmen in the manufacturing districts and of many of the liberal constituencies, especially in Scotland, on the other hand the feeling of the governing classes and of polite society in London was either actively hostile to us or coldly indifferent. Even those students of history and politics who were most friendly to us failed utterly to comprehend the true character of the sublime struggle in which we were engaged— as may be seen in reading the introduction to Mr. E. A. Freeman's elaborate "History of Federal Government, from the Formation of the Achaean League to the Disruption of the United States" (London, 1862). Difficult and embarrassing questions arose in connection with the capture of the Confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell, the negligence of Lord Palmerston's government in allowing the "Alabama" and other Confederate cruisers to sail from British ports to prey upon American commerce, and the ever manifest desire of Napoleon III, to persuade Great Britain to join him in an acknowledgment of the independence of the confederacy. The duties of this difficult diplomatic mission were discharged by Mr. Adams with such consummate ability as to win universal admiration. No more than his father or grandfather did he belong to the school of suave and crafty, intriguing diplomats. He pursued his ends with dogged determination and little or no attempt at concealment, while his demeanor was haughty and often defiant. His unflinching firmness bore clown all opposition, and his perfect self-control made it difficult for an antagonist to gain any advantage over him. His career in England from 1861 to 1868 must be cited among the foremost triumphs of American diplomacy. In 1872 it was attempted to nominate him for the presidency of the United States, as the candidate of the liberal Republicans, but Horace Greeley secured the nomination. He was elected in 1869 a member of the board of overseers of Harvard College, and was for several years president of the board. He has edited the works and memoirs of his father and grandfather, in 22 octavo volumes, and published many of his own addresses and orations. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 12-13.


Bailey, Gamaliel, 1807-1859, Maryland, abolitionist leader, journalist, newspaper publisher and editor.  Publisher and editor of National Era (founded 1847), of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Co-founded Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.  Corresponding Secretary, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. Assistant and Co-Editor, The Abolitionist newspaper.  Liberty Party.  Co-founder of the Free Soil Party.  Published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1851-1852.

(Blue, 2005, pp. 21, 25-26, 28, 30, 34, 52, 55, 67, 148-149, 166, 192, 202, 223, 248; Dumond, 1961, pp. 163, 223, 264, 301; Filler, 1960, pp. 78, 150, 194-195, 245, 252; Harrold, 1995; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 5, 14, 23, 24, 26, 27, 44, 46, 54, 61, 63, 69, 88-89, 91, 103, 106; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 185; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 136; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 496-497; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 1, p. 881)


Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862, Kinderhook, New York, lawyer, political leader.  Eighth President of the United States.  While President, Van Buren was against the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.  He did this in order to prevent futher sectional divide in his party.  He was opposed, in principle, to slavery.  During his presidency, he opposed the annexation of Texas and the extension of slavery to the territory.  Free Soil Party nominee for President of the U.S. (lost), 1848.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 230, 234; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. XIX, pp. 152-156)


Chase, Salmon Portland, 1808-1873, statesman, Governor of Ohio, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1864-1873, abolitionist, member of the Liberty Party, co-founder of the Free Soil Party, and member of the Anti-Slavery Republican Party.  “A slave is a person held, as property, by legalized force, against natural right.” – Chase.

 

“The constitution found slavery, and left it, a state institution—the creature and dependant of state law—wholly local in its existence and character.  It did not make it a national institution… Why, then, fellow-citizens, are we now appealing to you?...Why is it that the whole nation is moved, as with a mighty wind, by the discussion of the questions involved in the great issue now made up between liberty and slavery?  It is, fellow citizens—and we beg you to mark this—it is because slavery has overleaped its prescribed limits and usurped the control of the national government.  We ask you to acquaint yourselves fully with the details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believing that the honor, the welfare, the safety of our country imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the government from slavery.”


“Having resolved on my Fpolitical course, I devoted all the time and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles and building up the organization of the party of constitutional freedom then inaugurated.  Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, the demands upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed severely all my ability… It seems to me now, on looking back, that I could not help working if I would, and that I was just as really called in the course of Providence to my labors for human freedom as ever any other laborer in the great field of the world was called to his appointed work.”


(Blue, 2005, pp. 19, 30, 34, 61, 70-73, 76-78, 84, 123, 124, 177, 178, 209, 220, 225, 226, 228, 247, 248, 259; Dumond, 1961; Filler, 1960, pp. 142, 176, 187, 197-198, 229, 246; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4-5, 8-9, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33-36, 61-64, 67, 68, 70-72, 76, 87, 89, 94, 118, 129, 136, 156, 165, 166, 168-169, 177, 187, 191, 193, 195-196, 224, 228, 248; Pease, 1965, pp. 384-394; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 46, 56, 58, 136, 173, 298, 353-354, 421, 655-656; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 585-588; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 34; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 4, p. 739; Hart, Albert Bushnell, Salmon Portland Chase, 1899).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CHASE, Salmon Portland, statesman, b, in Cornish, New Hampshire, 13 January, 1808; died in New York City, 7 May, 1873. He was named for his uncle, Salmon, who died in Portland, and he used to say that he was his uncle's monument. He was a descendant in the ninth generation of Thomas Chase, of Chesham, England, and in the sixth of Aquila Chase, who came from England and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, about 1640. Salmon Portland was the eighth of the eleven children of Ithamar Chase and his wife Jannette Ralston, who was of Scottish blood. He was born in the house built by his grandfather, which still stands overlooking Connecticut River and in the afternoon shadow of Ascutney Mountain. Of his father's seven brothers, three were lawyers, Dudley becoming a U. S. Senator; two were physicians; Philander became a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and one, like his father, was a farmer. His earliest teacher was Daniel Breck, afterward a jurist in Kentucky. When the boy was eight years old his parents moved to Keene, where his mother had inherited a little property. This was invested in a glass-factory; but a revision of the tariff, by which the duty on glass was lowered, ruined the business, and soon afterward the father died. Salmon was sent to school at Windsor, and made considerable progress in Latin and Greek. In 1820 his uncle, the bishop of Ohio, offered to take him into his family, and the boy set out in the spring, with his brother and the afterward famous Henry R. Schoolcraft, to make the journey to what was then considered the distant west. They were taken from Buffalo to Cleveland by the “Walk-in-the-Water,” the first steamboat on the great lakes. He spent three years in Worthington and Cincinnati with his uncle, who attended to his education personally till he went to England in 1823, when the boy returned home, the next year entered Dartmouth as a junior, and was graduated in 1826. He at once established a classical school for boys in Washington, D. C., which he conducted with success, at the same time studying law with William Wirt. Mr. Chase gave much of his leisure to light literature, and a poem that was addressed by him to Mr. Wirt's daughters was printed and is still extant. In 1830, having completed his studies, he closed the school, was admitted to the bar in Washington, and settled in Cincinnati, where he soon obtained a large practice. In politics he did not identify himself with either of the great parties; but on one point he was clear from the first: he was unalterably opposed to slavery, and in this sentiment he was confirmed by witnessing the destruction of the “Philanthropist” office by a pro-slavery mob in 1836. In 1837 he defended a fugitive slave woman, claimed under the law of 1793, and took the highest ground against the constitutionality of that law. One of the oldest lawyers in the court-room was heard to remark concerning him: “There is a promising young man who has just ruined himself.” In 1837 Mr. Chase also defended his friend James G. Birney in a suit for harboring a Negro slave, and in 1838 he reviewed with great severity a report of the judiciary committee of the state senate, refusing trial by jury to slaves, and in a second suit defended Mr. Birney. When it became evident, after the brief administration of Harrison was over and that of Tyler begun, that no more effective opposition to the encroachments of slavery was to be expected from the Whig than from the Democratic Party, a Liberty Party was organized in Ohio in December, 1841, and Mr. Chase was foremost among its founders. The address, which was written by Mr. Chase, contained these passages, clearly setting forth the issues of a mighty struggle that was to continue for twenty-five years and be closed only by a bloody war: “The constitution found slavery, and left it, a state institution—the creature and dependant of state law—wholly local in its existence and character. It did not make it a national institution. Why, then, fellow-citizens, are we now appealing to you? . . . Why is it that the whole nation is moved, as with a mighty wind, by the discussion of the questions involved in the great issue now made up between liberty and slavery? It is, fellow-citizens—and we beg you to mark this—it is because slavery has overleaped its prescribed limits and usurped the control of the national government. We ask you to acquaint yourselves fully with the details and particulars belonging to the topics which we have briefly touched, and we do not doubt that you will concur with us in believing that the honor, the welfare, the safety of our country imperiously require the absolute and unqualified divorce of the government from slavery.” Writing of this late in life Mr. Chase said: “Having resolved on my political course, I devoted all the time and means I could command to the work of spreading the principles and building up the organization of the party of constitutional freedom then inaugurated. Sometimes, indeed, all I could do seemed insignificant, while the labors I had to perform, and the demands upon my very limited resources by necessary contributions, taxed severely all my ability. It seems to me now, on looking back, that I could not help working if I would, and that I was just as really called in the course of Providence to my labors for human freedom as ever any other laborer in the great field of the world was called to his appointed work.” Mr. Chase acted as counsel for so many blacks who were claimed as fugitives that he was at length called by Kentuckians the “attorney-general for runaway Negroes,” and the colored people of Cincinnati presented him with a silver pitcher “for his various public services in behalf of the oppressed.” One of his most noted cases was the defence of John Van Zandt (the original of John Van Trompe in “Uncle Tom's Cabin”) in 1842, who was prosecuted for harboring fugitive slaves because he had overtaken a party of them on the road and given them a ride in his wagon. In the final hearing, 1846, William H. Seward was associated with Mr. Chase, neither of them receiving any compensation. 

When the Liberty Party, in a national convention held in Buffalo, New York, in 1843, nominated James G. Birney for president, the platform was almost entirely the composition of Mr. Chase. But he vigorously opposed the resolution, offered by John Pierpont, declaring that the fugitive-slave-law clause of the constitution was not binding in conscience, but might be mentally excepted in any oath to support the constitution. In 1840 the Liberty Party had cast but one in 360 of the entire popular vote of the country. In 1844 it cast one in forty, and caused the defeat of Mr. Clay. The Free-Soil Convention that met in Buffalo in 1848 and nominated Martin Van Buren for president, with Charles Francis Adams for vice-president, was presided over by Mr. Chase. This time the party cast one in nine of the whole number of votes. In February, 1849, the Democrats and the Free-Soilers in the Ohio legislature formed a coalition, one result of which was the election of Mr. Chase to the U. S. Senate. Agreeing with the Democracy of Ohio, which, by resolution in convention, had declared slavery to be an evil, he supported its state policy and nominees, but declared that he would desert it if it deserted the anti-slavery position. In the Senate, 26 and 27 March, 1850, he made a notable speech against the so-called “compromise measures,” which included the fugitive-slave law, and offered several amendments, all of which were voted down. When the Democratic Convention at Baltimore nominated Franklin Pierce for president in 1852, and approved of the compromise acts of 1850, Senator Chase dissolved his connection with the Democratic Party in Ohio. At this time he addressed a letter to Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, suggesting and vindicating the idea of an independent democracy. He made a platform, which was substantially that adopted at the Pittsburg Convention, in the same year. He continued his support to the independent Democrats until the Kansas-Nebraska bill came up, when he vigorously opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, wrote an appeal to the people against it, and made the first elaborate exposure of its character. His persistent attacks upon it in the Senate thoroughly roused the north, and are admitted tohave influenced in a remarkable degree the subsequent struggle. During his senatorial career Mr. Chase also advocated economy in the national finances, a Pacific Railroad by the shortest and best route, the homestead law (which was intended to develop the northern territories), and cheap postage, and held that the national treasury should defray the expense of providing for safe navigation of the lakes, as well as of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 

In 1855 he was elected governor of Ohio by the opponents of the Pierce administration. His inaugural address recommended single districts for legislative representation, annual instead of biennial sessions of the legislature, and an extended educational system. Soon after his inauguration occurred the Garner tragedy, so called, in which a fugitive slave mother, near Cincinnati, attempted to kill all of her children, and did kill one, to prevent them from being borne back to slave-life in Kentucky. This and other slave-hunts in Ohio so roused and increased the anti-slavery sentiment in that place that Governor Chase was re-nominated by acclamation, and was re-elected by a small majority, though the American or Know-Nothing Party had a candidate in the field. In the National Republican Convention, held at Chicago in 1860, the vote on the first ballot stood: Seward, 173½; Lincoln, 102; Cameron, 50½; Chase, 49. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln lacked but four of the number necessary to nominate, and these were given by Mr. Chase's friends before the result was declared. When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated president, 4 March, 1861, he made Governor Chase secretary of the treasury. The difficulty that he was immediately called upon to grapple with is thus described by Mr. Greeley: “When he accepted the office of secretary of the treasury the finances were already in chaos; the current revenue being inadequate, even in the absence of all expenditure or preparation for war, his predecessor (Cobb, of Georgia) having attempted to borrow $10,000,000, in October, 1860, and obtained only $7,022,000—the bidders to whom the balance was awarded choosing to forfeit their initial deposit rather than take and pay for their bonds. Thenceforth he had tided over, till his resignation, by selling treasury notes, payable a year from date, at 6 to 12 per cent. discount; and when, after he had retired from the scene, General Dix, who succeeded him in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, attempted (February, 1861) to borrow a small sum on twenty-year bonds at 6 per cent., he was obliged to sell those bonds at an average discount of 9½ per cent. Hence, of Mr. Chase's first loan of $8,000,000, for which bids were opened (2 April) ten days before Beauregard first fired on Fort Sumter, the offerings ranged from 5 to 10 per cent. discount; and only $3,099,000 were tendered at or under 6 per cent. discount—he, in the face of a vehement clamor, declining all bids at higher rates of discount than 6 per cent., and placing soon afterward the balance of the $8,000,000 in two-year treasury notes at par or a fraction over.” When the secretary went to New York for his first loan, the London “Times” declared that he had “coerced $50,000,000 from the banks, but would not fare so well at the London Exchange.” Three years later it said “the hundredth part of Mr. Chase's embarrassments would tax Mr. Gladstone's ingenuity to the utmost, and set the [British] public mind in a ferment of excitement.” In his conference with the bankers the secretary said he hoped they would be able to take the loans on such terms as could be admitted. “If you cannot,” said he, “I shall go back to Washington and issue notes for circulation; for it is certain that the war must go on until the rebellion is put down, if we have to put out paper until it takes a thousand dollars to buy a breakfast.” At this time the amount of coin in circulation in the country was estimated at $210,000,000; and it soon became evident that this was insufficient for carrying on the war. The banks could not sell the bonds for coin, and could not meet their obligations in coin, and on 27 December, 1861, they agreed to suspend specie payment at the close of the year. In his first report, submitted on the 9th of that month, Secretary Chase recommended retrenchment of expenses wherever possible, confiscation of the property of those in arms against the government, an increase of duties and of the tax on spirits, and a national currency, with a system of national banking associations. This last recommendation was carried out in the issue of “greenbacks,” which were made a legal tender for everything but customs duties, and the establishment of the national banking law. His management of the finances of the government during the first three years of the great war has received nothing but the highest praise. He resigned the secretaryship on 30 June, 1864, and was succeeded a few days later by William P. Fessenden. On 6 December, 1864, President Lincoln nominated him to be chief justice of the United States, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Roger B. Taney, and the nomination was immediately confirmed by the Senate. In this office he presided at the impeachment trial of President Johnson in 1868. In that year his name was frequently mentioned in connection with the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and in answer to a letter from the chairman of the Democratic National committee he wrote: 

“For more than a quarter of a century I have been, in my political views and sentiments, a Democrat, and I still think that upon questions of finance, commerce, and administration generally, the old Democratic principles afford the best guidance. What separated me in former times from both parties was the depth and positiveness of my convictions on the slavery question. On that question I thought the Democratic Party failed to make a just application of Democratic principles, and regarded myself as more democratic than the Democrats. In 1849 I was elected to the Senate by the united votes of the old-line Democrats and independent Democrats, and subsequently made earnest efforts to bring about a union of all Democrats on the ground of the limitation of slavery to the states in which it then existed, and non-intervention in these states by Congress. Had that union been effected, it is my firm belief that the country would have escaped the late Civil War and all its evils. I never favored interference by Congress with slavery, but as a war measure Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation had my hearty assent, and I united, as a member of his administration, in the pledge made to maintain the freedom of the enfranchised people. I have been, and am, in favor of so much of the reconstruction policy of Congress as based the re-organization of the state governments of the south upon universal suffrage. I think that President Johnson was right in regarding the southern states, except Virginia and Tennessee, as being, at the close of the war, without governments which the U.S. government could properly recognize—without governors, judges, legislators, or other state functionaries; but wrong in limiting, by his reconstruction proclamations, the right of suffrage to whites, and only such whites as had the qualification he required. On the other hand, it seemed to me, Congress was right in not limiting, by its reconstruction acts, the right of suffrage to the whites; but wrong in the exclusion from suffrage of certain classes of citizens, and of all unable to take a prescribed retrospective oath, and wrong also in the establishment of arbitrary military governments for the states, and in authorizing military commissions for the trial of civilians in time of peace. There should have been as little military government as possible; no military commissions, no classes excluded from suffrage, and no oath except one of faithful obedience and support to the constitution and laws, and sincere attachment to the constitutional government of the United States. I am glad to know that many intelligent southern Democrats agree with me in these views, and are willing to accept universal suffrage and universal amnesty as the basis of reconstruction and restoration. They see that the shortest way to revive prosperity, possible only with contented industry, is universal suffrage now, and universal amnesty, with removal of all disabilities, as speedily as possible through the action of the state and national governments. I have long been a believer in the wisdom and justice of securing the right of suffrage to all citizens by state constitutions and legislation. It is the best guarantee of the stability of institutions, and the prosperity of communities. My views on this subject were well known when the Democrats elected me to the Senate in 1849. I have now answered your letter as I think I ought to answer it. I beg you to believe me—for I say it in all sincerity—that I do not desire the office of president, nor a nomination for it. Nor do I know that, with my views and convictions, I am a suitable candidate for any party. Of that my countrymen must judge.” 

Judge Chase subsequently prepared a declaration of principles, embodying the ideas of his letter, and submitted it to those Democrats who desired his nomination, as a platform in that event. But this was not adopted by the convention, and the plan to nominate him, if there was such a plan, failed. In June, 1870, he suffered an attack of paralysis, and from that time till his death he was an invalid. As in the case of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, his integrity was shown by the fact that, though he had been a member of the administration when the government was spending millions of dollars a day, he died comparatively poor. His remains were buried in Washington; but in October, 1886, were removed, with appropriate ceremony, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and deposited in Spring Grove cemetery near that city. Besides his reports and decisions, Mr. Chase published a compilation of the statutes of Ohio, with annotations and an historical sketch (3 vols., Cincinnati, 1832). See “Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase,” by J. W. Schuckers (New York, 1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 585-588.


Julian, George W., 1817-1899, Indiana, Society of Friends, Quaker, statesman, lawyer, radical abolitionist leader from Indiana.  Free Soil Party nominee for Vice President of the U.S. (lost), 1852.  Member of U.S. Congress from Indiana, 1850-1851.  Was against the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.  Fought in court to prevent fugitive slaves from being returned to their owners.  Joined and supported early Republican Party.  Re-elected to Congress, 1861-1871.  Supported emancipation of slaves.  Husband of Ann Elizabeth Finch, who was likewise opposed to slavery.  After her death in 1860, he married Laura Giddings, daughter of radical abolitionist Joshua Giddings. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 486; Blue, 2005, pp. ix, 9, 10, 11, 13, 161-183, 210, 225-229, 259-260, 265-270; Riddleberger, 1966; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 54, 354-355; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 245; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 486-487; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 315)


Alley, John B., 1817-1896, Lynn, Massachusetts, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1863-1876, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Alley was a member of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties.

(Congressional Globe; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872).


Andrew, John Albion, 1818-1867, reformer, anti-slavery advocate, lawyer, Governor of Massachusetts, member Conscience Whig, Free Soil Party, Republican Party.  Opponent of slavery.  In Boston, he took a prominent part in the defense of fugitive slaves Shadrach, Burns and Sims.  Supported John Brown in legal defense.  (American National Biography, Vol. 1, 2002, p. 489; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 279; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 72-73)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ANDREW, John Albion, statesman, born in Windham, Maine, 31 May, 1818; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 30 October, 1867. His father, descended from an early settler of Boxford, Massachusetts, was a prosperous merchant in Windham. John Albion was graduated at Bowdoin in 1837. He was a negligent student, though fond of reading, and in his professional life always felt the lack of training in the habit of close application. He immediately entered on the study of the law in the office of Henry H. Fuller, in Boston, where in 1840 he was admitted to the bar. Until the outbreak of the war he practised his profession in that city, attaining special distinction in the fugitive-slave cases of Shadrach Burns and Sims, which arose under the fugitive-slave law of 1850. He became interested in the slavery question in early youth, and was attracted toward many of the reform movements of the day. After his admission to the bar he took an active interest in politics and frequently spoke on the stump on behalf of the Whig Party, of which he was an enthusiastic member. From the year 1848 he was closely identified with the anti-slavery party of Massachusetts, but held no office until 1858, when he was elected a member of the state legislature from Boston, and at once took a leading position in that body. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Chicago Republican Convention, and, after voting for Mr. Seward on the early ballots, announced the change of the vote of part of the Massachusetts delegation to Mr. Lincoln. In the same year he was nominated for governor by a popular impulse. Many feared that the radicalism of his opinions would render him unsafe in action, and the political managers regarded him as an intruder and opposed his nomination; yet he was elected the twenty-first governor of Massachusetts since the adoption of the constitution of 1780 by the largest popular vote ever cast for any candidate. He was energetic in placing the militia of Massachusetts on a war footing, in anticipation of the impending conflict between the government and the seceded states. He had announced this purpose in his inaugural address in 1861, and, upon being inducted into office, he sent a confidential message to the governors of Maine and New Hampshire, inviting their cooperation in preparing the militia for service and providing supplies of war material. This course of action was not regarded with favor at the time by a majority of the legislature, although his opponents refrained from a direct collision. On receiving the president's proclamation of 15 April, 1861, he despatched five regiments of infantry, a battalion of riflemen, and a battery of artillery to the defence of the capital. Of these, the Massachusetts 6th was the first to tread southern soil, passing through New York while the regiments of that state were mustering, and shedding the first blood of the war in the streets of Baltimore, where it was assailed by the moborn Governor Andrew sent a telegram to Mayor Brown, praying him to have the bodies of the slain carefully sent forward to him at the expense of the common wealth of Massachusetts. He was equally active in raising the Massachusetts contingent of three years' volunteers, and was laborious in his efforts to aid every provision for the comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers. He was four times reëlected governor, holding that office till January, 1866, and was only then released by his positive declination of another renomination, in order to attend to his private business, as the pecuniary sacrifice involved in holding the office was more than he was able to sustain, and his health was seriously affected by his arduous labors. In 1862 he was one of the most urgent of the northern governors in impressing upon the administration at Washington the necessity of adopting the emancipation policy, and of accepting the services of colored troops. In September, 1862, he took the most prominent part in the meeting of governors of the northern states, held at Altoona, Pennsylvania, to devise ways and means to encourage and strengthen the hands of the government. The address of the governors to the people of the north was prepared by him. Governor Andrew interfered on various occasions to prevent the federal authorities from making arbitrary arrests among southern sympathizers in Massachusetts previous to the suspension of the habeas-corpus act. In January, 1863, he obtained from the Secretary of War the first authorization for raising colored troops, and the First Colored Regiment (54th Massachusetts Infantry) was despatched from Boston in May of that year. Governor Andrew was particular in selecting the best officers for the black troops and in providing them with the most complete equipment. Though famous as the war governor of Massachusetts, he also bestowed proper attention on the domestic affairs of the commonwealth. In his first message he recommended that the provision in the law preventing a person against whom a decree of divorce has been granted from marrying again, should be modified; but the proposition met with strong opposition in the legislature, especially from clergymen, and it was not till 1864 that an act was passed conferring power upon the supreme court to remove the penalty resting upon divorced persons. He also recommended a reform in the usury laws, such as was finally effected by an act passed in 1867. He was strongly opposed to capital punishment, and recommended its repeal. A law requiring representatives in Congress to be residents of the districts from which they are elected was vetoed by him on the ground that it was both unconstitutional and inexpedient, but was passed over his veto. Of the twelve veto messages sent by Governor Andrew during his incumbency, only one other, in the case of a resolve to grant additional pay to members, was followed by the passage of the act over the veto. His final term as governor expired 5 January, 1866. In a valedictory address to the legislature he advocated a generous and conciliatory policy toward the southern states, “demanding no attitude of humiliation; inflicting no acts of humiliation.” Governor Andrew was modest and simple in his habits and manner of life, emotional and quick in sympathy for the wronged or the unfortunate, exceedingly joyous and mirthful in temperament, and companionable with all classes of persons. The distinguished ability that shone out in his administration as governor of Massachusetts, the many sterling qualities that were summed up in his character, his social address, and the charm of his conversational powers, together with his clear and forcible style as an orator, combined to render him conspicuous among the state governors of the war period, and one of the most influential persons in civil life not connected with the federal administration. Soon after the expiration of his last term as governor he was tendered, but declined, the presidency of Antioch College, Ohio. He presided over the first national Unitarian Convention, held in 1865, and was a leader of the conservative wing of that denomination—those who believed with Channing and the early Unitarians in the supernaturalism of Christ's birth and mission, as opposed to Theodore Parker and his disciples. After retiring from public life Mr. Andrew entered upon a lucrative legal practice. In January, 1867, he represented before the general court about 30,000 petitioners for a license law, and delivered an argument against the principle of total prohibition. His death, which occurred suddenly from apoplexy, was noticed by public meetings in various cities. He married, 25 December, 1848, Miss Eliza Jane Hersey, of Hingham, Massachusetts, who with their four children survived him. See “Memoir of Governor Andrew, with Personal Reminiscences,” by Peleg W. Chandler (Boston, 1880), “Discourse on the Life and Character of Governor Andrew,” by Reverend E. Nason (Boston, 1868), and “Men of Our Times,” by Harriet Beecher Stowe. A life of Governor Andrew, by Edwin P. Whipple, was left unfinished at the time of Mr. Whipple’s death in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.  pp.72-73.


Ashley, James Monroe, 1824-1896, Ohio, Underground Railroad activist. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Adamant opponent of slavery.  Member, Free Soil Party, 1848.  Joined Republican Party in 1854. (Dumond, 1961, p. 339; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 110; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, pp. 389-390; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ASHLEY, James Monroe, Congressman, born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 14 November, 1824. His education was acquired while a clerk on boats on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Later he worked in printing-offices, and became editor of the "Dispatch." and afterward of the "Democrat," at Portsmouth, Ohio. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1849, but never practised. Subsequently he settled in Toledo, where he became interested in the wholesale drug business. He was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1859, and was reelected four times, serving continuously from 5 December, 1859, till 3 March, 1869. He was for four terms chairman of the Committee on Territories, and it was under his supervision that the territories of Arizona, Idaho, and Montana were organized. He was nominated for the 41st Congress, but was defeated, and in 1869 was appointed governor of Montana. In 1866 he was a delegate to the loyalist convention held in Philadelphia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 110.


Atkinson, Edward, 1827-1905, industrial entrepreneur, economist, abolitionist, activist.  Opposed slavery as a supporter of the Free Soil Party.  He was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which aided fugitive slaves.  Atkinson also supported John Brown’s efforts by supplying him rifles and ammunition for his raid on the US arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859.  Opposed Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt’s imperialist ambitions in the Philippines and in Cuba.  After 1898, became a full-time supporter of the American Anti-imperialist League.  (Pease & Pease, 1972; Appletons’ Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1900, Vol. I, p. 114; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 407)


ATKINSON, Edward, economist, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, 10 February, 1827. His education was obtained principally at private schools, and his reputation has been made by the numerous pamphlets and papers that he has contributed to current literature on economic topics. The subjects treated embrace such general topics as banking, competition, cotton, free trade, mechanical arts, and protection. The most important of his addresses are “Banking,” delivered at Saratoga in 1880 before the American Bankers' Association; “Insufficiency of Economic Legislation,” delivered before the American Social Science Association; “What makes the Rate of Wages,” before the British Association for the Advancement of Science; address to the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics at their convention in Boston in 1885; vice-presidential address on the “Application of Science to the Production and Consumption of Food,” before the American association for the advancement of science, in 1885; and “Prevention of Loss by Fire,” before the millers of the west, in 1885. His pamphlets and books include the following: “Cheap Cotton by Free Labor” (Boston, 1861); “The Collection of Revenue” (1866); “Argument for the Conditional Reform of the Legal-Tender Act” (1874); “Our National Domain” (1879); “Labor and Capital-Allies, not Enemies” (New York, 1880); “The Fire Engineer, the Architect, and the Underwriter” (Boston, 1880); “The Railroads of the United States” (1880); “Cotton Manufacturers of the United States” (1880); “Addresses at Atlanta, Georgia, on the International Exposition” (New York, 1881); “What is a Bank” (1881); “Right Methods of Preventing Fires in Mills” (Boston, 1881); “The Railway and the Farmer” (New York, 1881); “The Influence of Boston Capital upon Manufactures,” in “Memorial History of Boston” (Boston, 1882); and “The Distribution of Products” (New York, 1885). In 1886 he began the preparation of a series of monographs on economic questions for periodical publication. Through his efforts was established the Boston manufacturers' mutual fire insurance company, an association consisting of a number of manufacturers who, for their mutual protection, adopted rules and regulations for the economical and judicious management of their plants. He has invented an improved cooking-stove, called the “Aladdin Cooker.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 114.


Babcock, James Francis, journalist, born in Connecticut in 1809; died in New Haven, Connecticut, 18 June, 1874. He began newspaper work at an early age, and in 1830 became editor of the New Haven " Palladium," which soon began to issue a daily edition and which he conducted for thirty-one years. He controlled the nominations of the Whig Party for many years, and, though hostile to the Free-Soil Party at its inception, he finally gave it a hearty welcome in 1854. He retained his prestige with the Republican Party for some years, took an active part in furthering the national cause during the war, and, shortly after his resignation as editor of the " Palladium," was appointed, by President Lincoln, collector of the port of New Haven. He retained that office under President Johnson, whose policy he supported; and, after the rupture between the president and the Republicans, Mr. Babcock acted with the Democratic Party, and, after an angry and excited contest, was nominated by them for Congress, but was defeated by the Republican nominee. He was elected by the Democrats to the state legislature in 1873. The legislature of 1874 elected him judge of the Police Court of New Haven. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 125.


Baldwin, John Denison, 1809-1883, journalist, clergyman, Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives 1863-1867, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Editor of the anti-slavery journal, Republican in Hartford, Connecticut.  Owner, editor of Free-Soil Charter Oak at Hartford, Connecticut.  In 1852 became editor of the Commonwealth in Boston.  Supported Negro causes. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 148-149; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 537; Congressional Globe)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BALDWIN, John Denison, journalist, born in North Stonington, Connecticut, 28 September, 1809; died in Worcester, Massachusetts, 8 July, 1883. He supported himself from the age of fourteen, pursued academical, legal, and theological studies in New Haven, and received the honorary degree of master of arts from Yale College. He was licensed to preach in 1833, was pastor of a church in North Branford, Connecticut, for several years, and made a special study of archaeology. He became editor of the “Republican,” an anti-slavery journal, published in Hartford, and subsequently of the “Commonwealth,” published in Boston. From 1859 he owned and edited the “Worcester Spy.” He was elected to Congress in 1863, and reelected twice. He published “Raymond Hill,” a collection of poems (Boston, 184 7); “Prehistoric Nations” (New York, 1869, and “Ancient America” (1872). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 148-149.


Banks, Nathanial Prentiss, 1816-1894, Waltham, Massachusetts, statesman, anti-slavery political leader.  Republican U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Union General.  Governor of Massachusetts.  Member of the Free Soil and, later, Republican parties.  He was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854.  He was also opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, as this repeal favored the slave power.  Banks was called, “the very bone and sinew of Free-soilism” (Scribner’s, 1930, p. 578)

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. 1, pp. 158-159; Scribner’s, 1930, pp. 577-580; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 348)


Beatty, John, soldier, born near Sandusky, Ohio, 16 September, 1828. He received a common-school education and entered on a business career in a banking-house at an early age. He took an active banking-house at an early age. He took an active part in public affairs, and was identified with Free-Soil Party until it was merged in the Republican. In 1860 he was a Republican presidential elector. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the 3^rd Ohio Infantry, and was appointed  successively captain and Lieutenant-Colonel. He took part in the early western Virginia Campaigns, became a colonel in 1862, and commanded a brigade in the fight at Stone River, 31 December 1862, to 2 January, 1863.  In 1863 he was commissioned a brigadier general and served through the Tennessee and Chattanooga Campaigns.  He was elected to the Fortieth Congress  and was twice re-elected. In 1884 he was Republican presidential elector at large. In 1886 he was a member of the board of state charities. He has written "The Citizen Soldier" (Cincinnati. 1876) and "The Belle o' Becket's Une" (Philadelphia. 1882). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 208-209.


Berry, Nathaniel Springer, governor of New Hampshire, born in Bath, Maine.. 1 September, 1796. His father was Abner Berry, a ship-builder; his grandfather, John Berry, captain of infantry in the revolutionary war. His mother was Betsy, daughter of Nathaniel Springer, a captain of artillery in the same war, killed in battle. When he of the family was such that his lot was cast among strangers, and his educational advantages were limited. He became an apprentice as a tanner and currier at Bath, New Hampshire, at sixteen, and served until twenty-one. In April, 1818, he moved to Bristol, New Hampshire, and in 1820 engaged in the manufacture of leather, which business he followed about thirty-five years. He was colonel of the 34th Regiment of New Hampshire Militia for two years, was a judge of the court of common pleas from June, 1841, till June, 1850, and judge of probate for the five years ending 5 June, 1861. In 1828, 1833, 1834, and 1837 he represented Bristol in the state legislature, in 1854 represented the town of Hebron, and in 1835 and in 1836 was a state senator for the 11th District. Politically he acted with the Democratic Party for twenty-two years, and was a delegate to its national convention at Baltimore in 1840; but the action of this convention on the subject of slavery caused him to break his party ties, and he became one of the organizers of the Free-Soil Party in New Hampshire. At its first state convention. in 1845, he was nominated for governor, and received votes enough to prevent an election by the people. He was re-nominated at the four succeeding conventions. In March, 1861, he was elected Governor by the Democratic Party, inaugurated in June following, and re-elected in March, 1862, serving until June, 1863. He was indefatigable in his efforts to aid the general government in the suppression of the rebellion; and enlisted, armed, equipped, and forwarded to the seat of war more than 16,000 men. He signed, with the other northern war-governors, the letter of 28 June, 1862, to President Lincoln, upon which he made the call of 1 July, 1862, for 300,000 volunteers. In 1823 Mr. Berry became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1872 was a delegate to the general conference. He lost his wife in 1857, and in 1886 was residing with his son in Bristol. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 250.


Bird, Francis William, 1809-1894, anti-slavery political leader, radical reformer.  Member of the anti-slavery “Conscience Whigs,” leader of the Massachusetts Free Soil Party.  Led anti-slavery faction of the newly formed Republican Party.  Supported abolitionist Party leader Charles Sumner.  Opposed Dred Scott decision.  “Bird Club” greatly influenced radical Republican politics in Massachusetts and in the U.S. Senate.  Organized Emancipation League.  Supported enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army and emancipation of Blacks in the District of Columbia.  Supported women’s rights, Indian rights, suffrage rights for Chinese, and other causes. Editor of the Free Soiler newspaper. 

(American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 805; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, p. 343)


Blair, Francis Preston, soldier, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 19 February, 1821; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 8 July, 1875, was son of Francis P. Blair noticed above. After graduation at Princeton, in 1841, he studied law in Washington and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1843, and began to practice in St. Louis. In 1845 he went for his health to the Rocky Mountains with a company of trappers, and when the war with Mexico began he enlisted in the army as a private. After the War he returned to the practice of his profession in St. Louis. In 1848 he joined the Free-Soil branch of the Democratic Party, was for a time editor of the “Missouri Democrat,” and from 1852 till 1856 was a member of the Missouri legislature. In 1856 he joined the newly organized Republican, Party, and was elected to Congress, where, in 1857, he spoke in favor of colonizing the Negroes of the United States in Central America. In 1858 the Democratic candidate for Congress was returned. Mr. Blair successfully contested the seat, but immediately resigned, and was defeated in the election that followed. He was, however, elected again in 1860 and in 1862. Soon after the South Carolina secession Convention was called, in November, 1861, Mr. Blair, at a meeting of the Republican leaders in St. Louis, showed the necessity of immediate effort to prevent the seizure by the state authorities of the St. Louis Arsenal, containing 65,000 stand of arms belonging to the government. He became the head of the military organization then formed, which guarded the arsenal from that time; and it was at his suggestion that the state troops under General Frost were captured on 10 May, 1861, without orders from Washington. It is claimed that he thus saved Missouri and Kentucky to the union. Entering the army as a colonel of volunteers, he was made brigadier-general 7 August, 1861, and major-general 29 November, 1862, resigning his seat in Congress in 1863. He commanded a division in the Vicksburg Campaign, led his men in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and was at the head of the 17th Corps during Sherman's Campaigns in 1864–5, including the march to the sea. In 1866 he was nominated by President Johnson as collector of internal revenue at St. Louis, and afterward as minister to Austria; but in each case, his opposition to the reconstruction measures led to his rejection by the Senate. He was afterward commissioner of the Pacific Railroad. His dissatisfaction with the Party of the Republicans led him to return to the Democratic Party, and in 1868 he was its candidate for the vice-presidency. In January, 1871, General Blair again entered the legislature of Missouri, and in the same month he was elected to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, where he remained until 1873, when he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was state superintendent of insurance. He published “The Life and Public Services of General William O. Butler” (1848). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp.  281.


Blanchard, Jonathan, 1811-1892, clergyman, educator, abolitionist, theologian, lecturer.  Worked for more than thirty years for the abolition of slavery.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society.  President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 1845-1858.  President, Illinois Institute.  Vice president, World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, England, 1843.  (Bailey, J.W., Knox College, 1860; Blanchard Papers, Wheaton College Library, Wheaton, Illinois; Blanchard Jonathan, and Rice, N.L. [1846], 1870; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Kilby, 1959; Maas, 2003; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 196-197; Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 350-351)


Bliss, Philemon, 1813-1889, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, 1854, Chief Justice, Dakota Territory in 1861, elected Supreme Court of Missouri, 1868.  Helped found anti-slavery  Free Soil Party.  Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  (Blue, 2005, p. 76; Dumond, 1961, p. 165; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 375-376)


Booth, Sherman M., 1812-1904, Wisconsin, abolitionist leader, orator, politician, temperance activist.  Editor of anti-slavery newspaper, the Wisconsin Freeman, in Racine, Wisconsin.  Member, Free Soil Party, and helped found the Liberty Party.  Published Liberty Party newspaper, American Freedman.  Assisted runaway slave Joshua Glover.  Was arrested, tried and convicted for violation of Fugitive Slave Law.  Booth was acquitted under Wisconsin State law. (Blue, 2005, pp. 6-7, 13, 117-137, 267, 268; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 62, 151; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)


Booth, Walter, U.S. Congressman from Connecticut, Free Soil Party. (Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, p. 338)


Boutwell, George Sewall, 1818-1905, statesman, lawyer.  Governor of Massachusetts.  Helped organize the Republican Party.  Member of Congress, 1862-1868.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senator.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 331-332; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 489-490; Congressional Globe; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 348)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BOUTWELL, George Sewall, statesman, b. in Brookline, Mass., 28 Jan., 1818. His early life was spent on his father's farm until, in 1835, he became a merchant's clerk in Groton, Mass. He was afterward admitted to partnership, and remained in business there until 1855. In 1836 he began by himself to study law, and was admitted to the bar, but did not enter into active practice for many years. He also began a course of reading, by which he hoped to make up for his want of a college education. He entered politics as a supporter of Van Buren in 1840, and between 1842 and 1851 was seven times chosen as a democrat to the state legislature, where he soon became recognized as the leader of his party. In 1844, 1846, and 1848 he was defeated as a candidate for congress, and in 1849 and 1850 he was the democratic nominee for governor with no better success; but he was finally elected in 1851 and again in 1852 by a coalition with the free-soil party. In 1849-'50 he was state bank commissioner; in 1853 a member of the state constitutional convention. After the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854 he assisted in organizing the republican party, with which he has since acted. In 1860 he was a member of the Chicago convention which nominated Lincoln, and in February, 1861, was a delegate to the Washington peace conference. President Lincoln invited him to organize the new department of internal revenue in 1862, and he was its first commissioner, serving from July, 1862, till March, 1863. In 1862 he was chosen a member of congress from Massachusetts, and twice re-elected. In February, 1868, he made a speech advocating the impeachment of President Johnson, was chosen chairman of the committee appointed to report articles of impeachment, and became one of the seven managers of the trial. In March, 1869, he entered President Grant's cabinet as secretary of the treasury, where he opposed diminution of taxation and favored a large reduction of the national debt. In 1870 congress, at his recommendation, passed an act providing for the funding of the national debt and authorizing the selling of certain bonds, but not an increase of the debt. Secretary Boutwell attempted to do this by means of a syndicate, but expended more than half of one per cent., in which he was accused of violating the law. The house committee of ways and means afterward absolved him from this charge. In March, 1873, he resigned and took his seat as a U. S. senator from Massachusetts, having been chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Henry Wilson to the vice-presidency. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes to codify and edit the statutes at large. Mr. Boutwell was for six years an overseer of Harvard, and for five years secretary of the Massachusetts state board of education, preparing the elaborate reports of that body. He afterward opened a law office in Washington, D. C. He is the author of “Educational Topics and Institutions” (Boston, 1859); a “Manual of the United States Direct and Revenue Tax” (1863); “Decisions on the Tax Law” (New York, 1863); “Tax-Payer's Manual” (Boston, 1865); a volume of “Speeches and Papers” (1867); and “Why I am a Republican” (Hartford, Conn., 1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 331-332.


Bradburn, George, 1806-1880, Nantucket, Massachusetts, politician, US Congressman representing the Free Soil Party, newspaper editor, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, lecturer.  Member, American Anti-Slavery Society.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1840-1845.  Attended World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in June 1840, where he protested the exclusion of women from the conference.  Lectured for the American Anti-Slavery Society with fellow abolitionists William A. White and Frederick Douglass in 1843.  Editor, the Pioneer and Herald of Freedom from 1846 to 1849 in Lynn, Massachusetts.

(Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 345)


Brainerd, Lawrence, 1794-1870, anti-slavery activist, temperance activist, capitalist, statesman, U.S. Senator, elected 1854, member of the Liberty and Free Soil Parties.  Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1833-1839.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 358; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, p. 594)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BRAINERD, Lawrence, senator, b. in 1794; d. in St. Albans, Vt., 9 May, 1870. He was active in forwarding the political, commercial, and railroad interests of Vermont, and was for several years candidate for governor. After the death of Senator Upham, Mr. Brainerd was chosen to the senate as a free-soiler for the remainder of the term, serving from 5 Dec., 1854, till 3 March, 1855. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 358.


Broderick, David Colbert, 1820-1859, Washington, DC, forty-niner, political leader, elected to the California State Senate in January 1851.  Elected U.S. Senator from California in 1857.  Member of the Free Soil Party.  He was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the admission of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton constitution.  He left the Democratic Party on the issue of slavery in 1858.  California had much pro-slavery sentiment, and this affected Broderick’s career.  Broderick was killed in a dual with California Supreme Court Chief Justice David S. Terry.  Terry was a leader of the pro-slavery movement in California.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 382.  Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. III, pp. 61-62; Lynch, Jeremiah, A Senator of the Fifties, 1911).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BRODERICK, David Colbreth, senator, born in Washington, D.C., 4 February, 1820; died near Lake Merced, California, 16 September, 1859. His father, who had emigrated from Ireland, was employed in cutting stone for the capitol. In 1823 the family moved to New York, where young Broderick received a public-school education, after which he was apprenticed to learn the stone-cutter's trade. He became actively connected with the volunteer fire department of New York, and at the same time acquired considerable political influence. In 1846 he was defeated as a Democratic candidate for Congress from New York. Three years later he went to California, where he at once became prominent in politics. In 1849 he was a member of the California constitutional Convention. He was elected to the state senate in 1850 and again in 1851, when he became the presiding officer of that body. In 1856 he was elected U. S. Senator from California, serving from 4 March, 1857, until his death. He was eminent as a debater, the admission of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton constitution, and became separated from the Democratic Party on the slavery question in 1858. His death resulted from a wound received in a duel fought with David S. Terry, chief justice of the supreme court of California. Political differences and personal abuse in public speeches, of which Terry and Broderick were about equality, led to the duel. Judge Terry was the challenger. Mr. Broderick fell at the first fire, his own pistol being discharged before he could level it. . Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 382.


Brown, Benjamin Gratz

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BROWN, Benjamin Gratz, lawyer, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 28 May, 1826; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 13 December, 1885, was graduated at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1845, and at Yale in 1847, was admitted to the bar in Louisville, Kentucky, and soon afterward settled in St. Louis. He was a member of the Missouri legislature from 1852 till 1859, and in 1857 made there a remarkable anti-slavery speech, which is said to have been the beginning of the Free-Soil movement in that state. He edited the “Missouri Democrat,” a journal of radical Republican principles, which had for its most violent political opponent “The Missouri Republican,” a Democratic sheet of the most uncompromising character. For five years (1854–'9) he constantly opposed the pro-slavery party, and was often threatened with personal violence, on one occasion being wounded by a pistol-shot. In 1857 he was the Free-Soil candidate for governor, and came within 500 votes of election. At the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, he gave all his influence to the support of the union, and was in close consultation with General Lyon when he planned the capture of Camp Jackson and broke up the first secession movement in St. Louis. Brown commanded a regiment of militia on that occasion, and afterward, during the invasion of the state by Confederate generals Price and Van Dorn, commanded a brigade. He was a member of the U.S. Senate from 1863 till 1867, and lent his powerful influence in 1864 to favor the passage of the ordinance of emancipation by the Missouri state Convention. In 1871 he was elected governor of Missouri, on the liberal Republican ticket, by a majority of 40,000. In 1872 he was the candidate for vice-president on the Democratic ticket with Horace Greeley, and after the election, which resulted in the defeat of the Democrats and the election of the Republican candidate, General Grant, he resumed his law practice. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 403.


Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1874, author, poet, editor, abolitionist.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  Free Soil Party.  Editor of the Evening Post, which supported Congressman John Quincy Adams’ advocacy for the right to petition Congress against slavery, and was against the annexation of Texas.  After 1848, the Evening Post took a strong anti-slavery editorial policy and supported the Free Soil Party, supporting Martin Van Buren.  It opposed the Compromise of 1850.  Bryant and the Post opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854.  In 1856, the Post broke with the Democratic Party, endorsing the new Republican Party and its anti-slavery faction.  They supported John C. Frémont as the presidential candidate.  Bryant opposed the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court.  He endorsed John Broan’s raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in1859.  He strongly supported the nomination of Lincoln as the Republican candidate for president in 1860.

(Rodriguez, 2007, p. 326; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 101-102; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 422-426; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 200; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3)


Buckingham, Joseph T., Free Soil Party. (Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, pp. 255, 344)


Burlingame, Anson, Anson, 1820-1870, New Berlin, New York, diplomat, lawyer, orator. Massachusetts State Senator, elected 1852.  Republican United States Congressman, elected in 1855 and served 3 terms.  Burlingame was a member of the Free Soil Party and an early co-founder of the Republican Party in Massachusetts.  Anti-slavery activist in the House of Representatives.  He delivered a speech in reprimand of Senator Preston Brooks after he assaulted Senator Sumner on the Senate floor.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 456-457; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 289; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, pp. 308, 336, 491-493).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

BURLINGAME, Anson, diplomatist, b. in New Berlin, Chenango co., N. Y., 14 Nov., 1820; d. in St. Petersburg, Russia, 23 Feb., 1870. He was the descendant of a family who were among the early settlers of Rhode Island. His father, a farmer, removed, when Anson was three years old, to a farm in Seneca co., Ohio, where they lived for ten years, and in 1833 again removed to Detroit, and after two years more to a farm at Branch, Mich. In 1837 Anson was admitted to the University of Michigan, and six years later went to Cambridge, Mass., and entered the law-school of Harvard university, where he was graduated in 1846. He began the practice of the law in Boston, and a year or two later became an active member and a popular orator of the free-soil party, then recently formed. In the political campaign of 1848 he acquired a wide reputation as a public speaker in behalf of the election of Van Buren and Adams. In 1849-'50 he visited Europe. In 1852 he was elected to the Massachusetts senate, and in 1853 he served as a member of the state constitutional convention, to which he was elected by the town of Northborough, though he resided in Cambridge. He joined the American party on its formation in 1854, and in that year was elected by it to the 34th congress. In the following year he co-operated in the formation of the republican party, to which he ever afterward steadily adhered. In congress he bore himself with courage and address, and was recognized as one of the ablest debaters on the anti-slavery side of the house. For the severe terms in which he denounced the assault committed by Preston S. Brooks upon Senator Sumner, in 1856, he was challenged by Brooks. He promptly accepted the challenge, and named rifles as the weapons, and Navy island, just above Niagara Falls, as the place. To the latter proposition Mr. Brooks demurred, alleging that, in order to meet his opponent in Canada, in the then excited state of public feeling, he would have to expose himself to popular violence in passing through “the enemy's country,” as he called the northern states. The matter fell through, but the manner in which Mr. Burlingame had conducted himself greatly raised him in the estimation of his friends and of his party; and on his return to Boston, at the end of his term, he was received with distinguished honors. He was re-elected to the 35th and 36th congresses; but failing, after an animated and close contest, to be returned to the 37th, his legislative career ended in March, 1861. He was immediately appointed by President Lincoln minister to Austria; but that government declined to receive, in a diplomatic capacity, a man who had spoken often and eloquently in favor of Hungarian independence, and had moved in congress the recognition of Sardinia as a first-class power. He was then sent as minister to China. In 1865 he returned to the United States with the intention of resigning his office; but the secretary of state urged him to resume his functions for the purpose of carrying out important projects and negotiations that he had initiated. To this he finally consented. When, in 1867, he announced his intention of returning home, Prince Kung, regent of the empire, offered to appoint him special envoy to the United States and the great European powers, for the purpose of framing treaties of amity with those nations—an honor never before conferred on a foreigner. This place Mr. Burlingame accepted, and, at the head of a numerous mission, he arrived in the United States in March, 1868. On 28 July supplementary articles to the treaty of 1858 were signed at Washington, and soon afterward ratified by the Chinese government. These articles, afterward known as “The Burlingame Treaty,” marked the first official acceptance by China of the principles of international law, and provided, in general, that the privileges enjoyed by western nations under that law—the right of eminent domain, the right of appointing consuls at the ports of the United States, and the power of the government to grant or withhold commercial privileges and immunities at their own discretion, subject to treaty—should be secured to China; that nation undertaking to observe the corresponding obligations prescribed by international law toward other peoples. Special provisions also stipulated for entire liberty of conscience and worship for Americans in China, and Chinese in America; for joint efforts against the cooly trade; for the enjoyment by Chinese in America and Americans in China of all rights in respect to travel and residence accorded to citizens of the most favored nation; for similar reciprocal rights in the matter of the public educational institutions of the two countries, and for the right of establishing schools by citizens of either country in the other. The concluding article disclaims, on the part of the United States, the right of interference with the domestic administration of China in the matter of railroads, telegraphs, and internal improvements, but agrees that the United States will furnish assistance in these points on proper conditions, when requested by the Chinese government. From America Mr. Burlingame proceeded in the latter part of 1868 to England, and thence to France (1869), Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Prussia, in all of which countries he was favorably received, and in all of which, but France, to which he intended returning, he negotiated important treaties or articles of agreement. He reached St. Petersburg early in 1870, and had just entered upon the business of his mission when he died of pneumonia, after an illness of only a few days. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


Butler, Ovid, 1801-1881, Augusta, New York, lawyer, newspaper publisher, university founder, abolitionist.  Founded abolitionist newspaper, Free Soil Banner, in 1849. Helped found Northwestern Christian University in 1855.  It was later renamed Butler University.


Carter, Robert, 1819-1879, Albany, New York, newspaper editor.  Member and active in the Free Soil Party.  Edited the Boston Commonwealth, a paper of the Free Soilers.  Early member of the Democratic Party.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 541-542)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CARTER, Robert, editor, born in Albany, New York, 5 February, 1819; died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 15 February, 1879. He received a common-school education, and passed one term in the Jesuit College of Chambly, Canada. In his fifteenth year he was appointed assistant librarian in the state library at Albany, where he remained till 1838. At this time he began to publish poems and sketches in the daily papers, his first contribution being a long poem, which he dropped stealthily into the editor's letterbox, and which appeared the next day with flattering comments, but so frightfully misprinted that he hardly knew it. This experience and a natural aptitude led him to acquire proof-reading as an accomplishment, at which he became very expert. In 1841 he went to Boston, where he formed a life-long friendship with James Russell Lowell, and together they began “The Pioneer,” a literary monthly magazine, which Duyckinck says was “of too fine a cast to be successful.” Nevertheless, it’s want of success was due, not to the editors, but to the publisher, who mismanaged it and failed when but three numbers had been issued. Among the contributors were Poe, Hawthorne, Whittier, Neal, Miss Barrett (afterward Mrs. Browning), and the sculptor Story. Mr. Carter began in its pages a serial novel entitled “The Armenian's Daughter.” He next spent two years in editing statistical and geographical works, and writing for periodicals. His story, “The Great Tower of Tarudant,” ran through several numbers of the “Broadway Journal,” then edited by Poe. In 1845 he became a clerk in the post-office at Cambridge, and in 1847-'8 was private secretary to Prescott the historian. His elaborate article on the character and habits of Prescott, written for the New York “Tribune” just after the historian's death in 1859, was re-published in the memorial volume issued by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Mr. Carter joined the Free-Soil Party in 1848, and in 1850 wrote for the Boston “Atlas” a series of brilliant articles in reply to Francis Bowen's attack on the Hungarian revolutionists. These articles were re-published in a pamphlet, “The Hungarian Controversy” (Boston, 1852), and are said to have caused the rejection of Mr. Bowen's nomination as professor of history at Harvard. At the same time Carter edited, with Kossuth's approval, a large volume entitled “Kossuth in New England” (Boston, 1852). In 1851-'2 he edited, at first as assistant of John G. Palfrey and afterward alone, the Boston “Commonwealth,” the chief exponent of the Free-Soilers. For two years he was secretary of the state committee of the Free-Soil Party, and in the summer of 1854 he obtained the consent of the committee to call a convention, which he did without assistance, sending out thousands of circulars to men whose names were on the committee's books. The convention met in Worcester, 20 July, was so large that no hall could contain it, and held its session in the open air. A short platform drawn up by him was adopted, together with the name “Republican,” and on his motion a committee of six was appointed to organize the new party, John A. Andrew being made its chairman. In 1855 Carter edited the Boston “Telegraph,” in conjunction with W. S. Robinson and Hildreth the historian; in 1856 he edited the “Atlas”; and in 1857-'9 he was Washington correspondent of the New York “Tribune.” His next work was with Messrs. Ripley and Dana on the first edition of the “American Cyclopædia” (1859-'63), in which many important articles were from his pen, including “Egypt,” “Hindostan,” “Mormons,” and the history of the United States. In January, 1864, he was appointed private secretary of the treasury agent whose headquarters were at Beaufort, South Carolina; and from July of that year till October, 1869, he edited the Rochester, New York, “Democrat,” doing such work for it as was seldom done on any but metropolitan journals. When news came of the assassination of President Lincoln, he wrote, without consulting any book or memoranda, an article giving a brief but circumstantial account, with dates, of every celebrated case of regicide. He was editor of “Appletons’ Journal” in 1870-'3, and then became associate editor for the revision of the “American Cyclopædia.” But in 1874 impaired health compelled him to discontinue his literary work, and in the next three years he made three tours in Europe. He was the author of “A Summer Cruise on the Coast of New England” (Boston, 1864), which passed through several editions; and he left unpublished memoirs, of which only the first volume was complete in manuscript.—His first wife, Ann Augusta Gray, was a successful writer of poems and tales for the young.—His second wife, Susan Nichols, is principal of the female art school in Cooper Institute, New York, and has published hand-books of art and contributed largely to periodicals.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. I,  pp. 541-542.


Cheney, Oren Burbank, 1816-1903, Maine, Free Will Baptist clergyman, state legislator in Maine, educator, newspaper editor, abolitionist.  Free Soil Party.  Editor of The Morning Star.  Founder and President of Bates College.  Conductor on the Underground Railroad for seven years.  Son of abolitionists Moses and Abigail Cheney.  (Cheney, 1907; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, pp. 53-54)


Christiancy, Isaac Peckham, born 1812, Johnstown, New York. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 611.


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CHRISTIANCY, Isaac Peckham, senator, born in Johnstown (now Bleecker), New York, 12 March, 1812. He was educated at the academies of Kingsborough and Ovid, New York, and when thirteen years old became the main support of his father's family. After teaching school he studied law with John Maynard till 1836, when he moved to Monroe, Michigan, and, on the completion of his law studies, was admitted to the bar. He was prosecuting attorney for Monroe county from 1841 till 1846, and in 1848 was a delegate to the Buffalo Free-Soil Convention, having left the Democratic Party on the question of slavery. He was a member of the state senate from 1850 till 1852, and in the latter year was the Free-Soil candidate for governor. He was one of the founders of the Democratic Party in Michigan, and was a delegate to its first national convention in Philadelphia in 1856. He purchased the Monroe “Commercial” in 1857, and became its editor, and in the same year was an unsuccessful candidate for U. S. Senator. He was elected a judge of the State supreme court in 1857, re-elected in 1865 and 1873, both times without opposition, and became chief justice in January, 1872. He was elected U. S. Senator in 1875, and, resigning in February, 1879, on account of ill health, was sent as minister to Peru, where he remained for two years. During the Civil War Judge Christiancy was for a time on the staff of General Custer and that of General A. A. Humphreys. His judicial opinions, which are to be found in the “Michigan Reports” from volumes 5 to 31, inclusive, contain the best work of his life. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 611.


Clarke, George L., 1813-1890, Massachusetts, abolitionist.  Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.  Member of Free-Soil and Liberty Parties.


Cleveland, Chauncy Fitch, 1799-1887, Hampton, Connecticut, lawyer, Governor, U.S. Congressman, reformer, Free Soil Party.  Elected Governor of Connecticut in 1842 and in 1843.  Elected Congressman in 1842.  Opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Salve Law.  Joined the new Republican party in 1856.  (Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, p. 338; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 203)


Cushman, Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, Free Soil Party.  (Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 348)


Cutler, Hannah Tracy, 1815-1896, Becket, Massachusetts, abolitionist, physician.  Leader of the Temperance and women’s suffrage-rights movements, lecturer, educator, physician.  Helped found Women’s Anti-Slavery Society, member of the Free Soil Party, organizer of the Woman’s Kansas Aid Convention in 1856.  Served as President of the Western Union Aid Commission in Chicago, 1862-1864. 

(Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 46)


Cutler, Hannah Maria Tracy, 1815-1896, Becket, Massachusetts, abolitionist, physician.  Leader of the Temperance and women’s suffrage-rights movements, lecturer, educator, physician.  Helped found Women’s Anti-Slavery Society, member of the Free Soil Party, organizer of the Woman’s Kansas Aid Convention in 1856.  Served as President of the Western Union Aid Commission in Chicago, 1862-1864.  (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 46)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

CUTLER, Hannah Maria Tracy, physician, born in Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 25 December, 1815. She is a daughter of John Conant, and was educated in the common school of Becket. In 1834 she married the Reverend J. M. Tracy, who died in 1843. Subsequently she prepared herself for teaching, and was matron of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1848-'9. In July, 1851, she visited England as a newspaper correspondent at the World's Fair. She was also at the same time a delegate from the United States at the Association in London, and while in England delivered the first lectures ever given there on the legal rights of women. In 1852 she married Samuel Cutler and moved to Illinois, where she labored assiduously for the reform of the laws relating to women. She was president of the Western Union Aid commission, Chicago, Illinois, in 1862-'4. In 1873 she visited France, in company with her son, J. M. Tracy, artist, and remained there till 1875. After her graduation as a physician at the Homoeopathic College in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1879, she settled at Cobden, Illinois, where she has practised with success. She is the author of "Woman as she Was, Is, and Should be" (New York, 1846); "Phillipia, or a Woman's Question" (Dwight, Illinois, 1886): and "The Fortunes of Michael Doyle, or Home Rule for Ireland " (Chicago, 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 46.


Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 1815-1882, author, lawyer, anti-slavery activist.  Co-founder of the Free Soil Party and delegate to its convention in Buffalo, New York, in 1848.  He was the lawyer who represented the Fugitive Slave Shadrack in Boston in 1851 and Anthony Burns in Boston in 1854.  Wrote Two Years Before the Mast (1840).  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 71-72; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, pp. 60-61)


Dayton, William Lewis, 1807-1864, lawyer, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Senator.  Member of the Free Soil and Whig Party.  Opposed slavery and its expansion into the new territories.  Opposed the Fugitive Slave bill of 1850.  Supported the admission of California as a free state and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.  First vice presidential nominee of Republican Party in 1856, on the ticket with John C. Frémont.  Lost the election to James Buchanan.  (Goodell, 1852, p. 570; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 59; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 113; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 166; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 280)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DAYTON, William Lewis, statesman, born in Baskingridge, New Jersey, 17 February, 1807; died in Paris, France, 1 December, 1864. He was graduated at Princeton in 1825, and received the degree of LL. D. from that college in 1857. He studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in 1830, beginning his practice in Trenton, New Jersey In 1837 he was elected to the State Council (as the Senate was then called), being made chairman of the judiciary committee, the supreme court of the state in 1838, and in 1842, he became associate judge of was appointed to fill a vacancy in the U. S. Senate. His appointment was confirmed by the legislature in 1845, and he was also elected for the whole term. In the Senate debates on the Oregon question, the tariff, annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War, he took the position of a Free-Soil Whig. He was the friend and adviser of President Taylor, and opposed the Fugitive-Slave Bill, but advocated the admission of California as a free state, and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In 1856 he was nominated by the newly formed Republican Party for vice-president. In March, 1857, he was made attorney-general for the state of New Jersey, and held that office until 1861, when President Lincoln appointed him minister to France, where he remained until his death.—His son, William Lewis, who was graduated at Princeton in 1858, and practised law in Trenton, was appointed by President Arthur minister to the Netherlands. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 280.


Dix, John Adams

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DIX, John Adams, born in Boscawen. New Hampshire, 24 July, 1798; died in New York City, 21 April. 1879. His early education was received at Salisbury, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the College of Montreal. In December, 1812, he was appointed cadet, and going to Baltimore aided his father, Major Timothy Dix of the 14th U. S. Infantry, and also studied at St. Mary's College. He was made ensign in 1813, and accompanied his regiment, taking part in the operations on the Canadian frontier. Subsequently he served in the 21st U.S. Infantry at Fort Constitution, New Hampshire, where he became 2d lieutenant in March, 1814, was adjutant to Colonel John De B. Walback, and in August was transferred to the 3d Artillery. In 1819 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Jacob Brown, then in command of the Northern military department, and stationed at Brownsville, where he studied law, and later, under the guidance of William West, was admitted to the bar in Washington. He was in 1820 sent as special messenger to the court of Denmark. On his return he was stationed at Fort Monroe, but continued ill-health led him to resign his commission in the army, 29 July, 1828, after having attained the rank of captain. He then settled in Cooperstown, New York, and began the practice of law. In 1830 he moved to Albany, having been appointed adjutant-general of the state by Governor Enos B. Throop. In 1833  Dix was appointed secretary of state and superintendent of common schools, publishing during this period numerous reports concerning the schools, and also a very important report in relation to a geological survey of the state (1836). He was a prominent member of the "Albany Regency," who practically ruled the Democratic Party of that day. Going out of office in 1840, on the defeat of the Democratic candidates and the election of General Harrison to the presidency, He turned to literary Pursuits, and was editor-in-chief of "The Northern light," a journal of a high literary and scientific character, which was published from 1841 till 1843. In 1841 he was elected a member of the assembly. In the following year he went abroad, and spent nearly two years in Madeira, Spain, and Italy. From 1845 till 1849 he was a U. S. Senator, being elected as a Democrat, when he became involved in the Free-Soil movement, against his judgment and will, but under the pressure of influences that it was impossible for him to resist. He always regarded the Free-Soil movement as a great political blunder, and labored to heal the consequent breach in the Democratic Party, as a strenuous supporter of the successive Democratic administrations up to the beginning of the Civil War. In 1848 he was nominated by the Free-Soil Democratic Party as governor, but was overwhelmingly defeated by Hamilton Fish. President Pierce appointed him assistant treasurer of New York, and obtained his consent to be minister to France, but the nomination was never made. In the canvass of 1856 he supported Buchanan and Breckenridge, and in 1860 earnestly opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln, voting for Breckenridge and Lane. In May, 1861, he was appointed postmaster of New York, after the defalcations in that office. On 10 January, 1861, at the urgent request of the leading bankers and financiers of New York, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Buchanan, and he held that office until the close of the administration. His appointment immediately relieved the government from a financial deadlock, gave it the funds that it needed but had failed to obtain, and produced a general confidence in its stability. When he took the office there were two revenue cutters at New Orleans, and he ordered them to New York. The captain of one of them, after consulting with the collector at New Orleans, refused to obey. Secretary Dix thereupon telegraphed: " Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell. Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." At the beginning of the Civil War he took an active part in the formation of  the Union Defence Committee, and was its first president; he also presided at the great meeting in Union square, 24 April, 1861. On the president's first call for troops, he organized and sent to the field seventeen regiments, and was appointed one of the four major-generals to command the New York state forces. In June following he was commissioned major-general of volunteers, and ordered to Washington by General Scott to take command of the Arlington and Alexandria Department. By a successful political intrigue, this disposition was changed, and he was sent in July to Baltimore to take command of the Department of Maryland, which was considered a post of small comparative importance; but, on the defeat of the Federal forces at Bull Run, things changed; Maryland became for the time the centre and key of the national position, and it was through General Dix's energetic and judicious measures that the state and the city were prevented from going over to the Confederate cause. In May, 1862, General Dix was sent from Baltimore to Fort Monroe, and in the summer of 1863, after the trouble connected with the draft riots, he was transferred to New York, as commander of the Department of the East, which place he held until the close of the war. In 1866 he was appointed naval officer of the port of New York, the prelude to another appointment during the same year, that of minister to France. In 1872 he was elected governor of the state of New York as a Republican by a majority of 53,000, and, while holding that office, rendered the County great service in thwarting the proceedings of the inflationists in Congress, and, with the aid of the legislature, strengthening the national administration in its attitude of opposition to them. On a renomination, in 1874, he was defeated, in consequence partly of the reaction against the president under the "third-term" panic, and partly of the studious apathy of prominent Republican politicians who desired his defeat. During his lifetime General Dix held other places of importance, being elected a vestryman of Trinity Church (1849), and in 1872 comptroller of that corporation, delegate to the convention of the diocese of New York, and deputy to the general convention of the Episcopal Church. In 1853 he became president of the Mississippi and Missouri Railway Company, and in 1863 became the first president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, an office which he held until 1868, also filling a similar place for a few months in 1872 to the Erie Railway Company. He married Catharine Morgan, adopted daughter of John J. Morgan, of New York, formerly member of Congress, and had by her seven children, of whom three survived him. He was a man of very large reading and thorough culture, spoke several languages with fluency, and was distinguished for proficiency in classical studies, and for ability and elegance as an orator. Among his published works are "Sketch of the Resources of the City of New York " (New York, 1827); " Decisions of the Superintendents of Common Schools" (Albany, 1837); "A Winter in Madeira, and a Summer in Spain and Florence" (New York, 1850; 5th ed.. 1833): "Speeches and Occasional Addressee" (2 vols., 1864); "Dies Irae," translation (printed privately, 1863; also revised ed., 1875); and "Stabat Mater," translation (printed privately, 1868).   Son, Charles Temple, artist, born in Albany, 25 February, 1838; died in Rome, Italy, 11 March, 1873, studied at Union, and early turned his attention to art. He had made good progress in his studies when, at the beginning of the Civil War, he was chosen aide-de-camp on the staff of his father, and won credit from his faithful performance of duty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 183-184.


Durkee, Charles

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DURKEE, Charles, senator, born in Royalton, Vermont, 5 December, 1807: died in Omaha, Neb. 14 January. 1870. He was educated in his native town and in the Burlington Academy, after which he engaged in business, and later emigrated to the territory of Wisconsin, where he was one of the founders of Southport, now Kenosha. He was a member of the first territorial legislature of Wisconsin, held in Burlington (Iowa and Minnesota being then parts of the territory). In 1847 he was again a member of the territorial legislature, and in 1848 was elected to the first state legislature of Wisconsin. He was elected as a Free-Soiler to Congress, serving from 6 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1853, and was the first distinctive anti-slavery man in Congress from the northwest. In 1855 he was chosen as a Republican to the U. S. Senate from Wisconsin, succeeding Isaac P. Walker. He was a member of the Peace Congress in 1861, and was appointed governor of Utah in 1865, holding that office until failing health compelled him to resign. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 272-273.


Dwight, Theodore, 1796-1866, Connecticut, abolitionist, author, reformer, son of Theodore Dwight, 1764-1846. Supported Free-Soil movement in Kansas. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 47, 113; Locke, 1901, pp. 93, 103f, 103n, 126, 151, 155, 166, 170, 171, 178, 183; Mason, 2006, pp. 31, 86, 147, 225, 229, 293-294n157;  Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 570; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 195)


Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

DWIGHT, Theodore, author, born in Hartford, Connecticut, 3 March, 1796; died in Brooklyn, New York, 16 October, 1866, was graduated at Yale in 1814, and began to study theology with his uncle, President Dwight, but illness forced him to abandon it in 1818, and he visited Europe for his health. He moved to Brooklyn in 1833, and engaged in various public and philanthropic enterprises, becoming a director of many religious and educational societies, and being active from 1826 till 1854 in multiplying and perfecting Sunday-schools. In 1854-'8 he engaged with George Walter in a systematic effort to send Free-Soil settlers to Kansas, and it is estimated that, directly or indirectly, they induced 9,000 persons to go thither. Mr. Dwight was a prolific writer, and at various times was on the editorial staff of the New York “Daily Advertiser,” his father's paper, the “American Magazine,” the “Family Visitor,” the “Protestant Vindicator,” the “Christian Alliance,” the “Israelite Indeed,” and the “New York Presbyterian,” of which he was at one time chief editor and publisher. In his later years he was employed in the New York custom-house. Mr. Dwight was familiar with six or eight languages. At the time of his death, which was the result of a railroad accident, he was translating educational works into Spanish, for introduction into the Spanish-American countries. He published “A Tour in Italy in 1821” (New York, 1824); “New Gazetteer of the United States,” with William Darby (Hartford, 1833); “President Dwight's Decisions of Questions discussed by the Senior Class in Yale College in 1813-'4” (New York, 1833); “History of Connecticut” and “The Northern Traveller” (1841); “Summer Tour of New England” (1847); “The Roman Republic of 1849” (1851); “The Kansas War; or the Exploits of Chivalry in the 19th Century” (1859); and the “Autobiography of Gen. Garibaldi,” edited (1859). He was also the author of numerous educational works. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol.


Earle, John Milton, 1794-1874, Leicester, Massachusetts, businessman, abolitionist, statesman, political leader, newspaper publisher, pioneer and leader in the anti-slavery/abolitionist movement.  Member of Whig and Free Soil parties.  Husband of abolitionist Sarah H. Earle.  (Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 347)


Edgerton, Sidney, 1818-1900, U.S. Congressman from Ohio, Chief Justice of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court, and Territorial Governor of Montana, abolitionist.  Delegate to the Free Soil Convention in Buffalo, 1848.  Delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1856.  Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1858.  He served two terms.  (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 20).


Eliot, Thomas Dawes, 1808-1870, lawyer.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, 1854-1855, 1859-1869.  Founder of the Republican Party from Massachusetts.  Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as a member of Congress.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Active in the Free-Soil Party.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 325; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ELIOT, Thomas Dawes, Congressman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 20 March, 1808; died in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 12 June, 1870. He was graduated at Columbian College, Washington, D. C, in 1825, studied law in Washington and New Bedford, and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. After being a member of both houses of the legislature, he was elected to Congress as a Whig, to fill the unexpired term of Zeno Scudder, serving from 17 April, 1854, till 3 March, 1855, and making an eloquent speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which was published (Washington, 1854). He was prominent in the Free-Soil convention at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1855, and on the dissolution of the Whig Party was active among the founders of the Republican Party in Massachusetts, he declined its nomination for attorney-general in 1857, but was afterward elected to Congress again for five successive terms, serving from 1859 till 1869. Mr. Eliot took an active part in the proceedings of the house, particularly in the legislation on the protection and welfare of the Negroes.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 325.


Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882, author, poet, essayist, transcendentalist, abolitionist. Wrote antislavery poetry.  Founder of the Transcendentalist Club.  Became active in the abolition movement in the mid-1830s.  Emerson opposed the annexation of Texas, and signed petitions to that effect.  Also against the forced removal of Cherokee Indians during the Van Buren administration.  He addressed meetings of abolition societies calling for emancipation, and aiding and defending fugitive slaves.  Called for disobeying immoral laws that supported slavery.  In 1851, in his speech opposing the Fugitive Slave Law, he declared “an immoral law makes it a man’s duty to break it at every hazard.” (Sinha, 2016, pp. 328, 488-489, 519-520, 550, 557, 562; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 132; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 343-348).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo, author, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 25 May, 1803; died in Concord, Massachusetts, 27 April, 1882. He was the second of five sons of the Reverend William Emerson, minister of the 1st Church, Boston.

…he had given seven lectures in Freeman place chapel, Boston, and another in New York, and had also made addresses before the Anti-slavery Society in both cities. While in the ministry he alone had opened a church to abolition speakers, and his sympathies were always on the side of emancipation. In 1835 he countenanced Harriet Martineau in her outspoken condemnation of slavery, and in the height of her unpopularity invited her to his house. Again, in 1844, he spoke stirringly on the anniversary of West Indian emancipation, and scourged his countrymen for tolerating Negro servitude. His own plan was to buy the slaves, at a cost of $2,000,000,000, and he put faith in moral and spiritual influences to remove the evil, rather than in legislation. He never formally united with the abolition Party, but he encouraged it, and his influence was great. As the contest grew warmer, he rose to the emergency and took a more active part, even making campaign speeches for John G. Palfrey, who, having missed re-election to Congress on account of his anti-slavery course in that body, was nominated as Free-Soil candidate for governor of Massachusetts. The assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks called forth another vigorous speech. In November, 1859, he said before the Parker fraternity that John Brown, were he to be hanged, would “make the gallows glorious, like the cross.” A few days afterward he spoke at a John Brown meeting at Tremont temple, with Wendell Phillips, and took part in another at Concord, and in still a third at Salem, Massachusetts. In January, 1861, also, he addressed the Anti-slavery Society at Boston, in the face of disturbance by a mob. Though he was not a chief agitator of the cause, these efforts, so alien to his retired habits as a student, poet, and meditative writer, made him a marked advocate of freedom.


Farley, George F., Middlesex County, Massachusetts, political leader, Free Soil Party. (Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 345)


Fletcher, Calvin, 1798-1866, Indianapolis, Indiana, banker, farm owner, state legislator.  of the member of the Whig, Free Soil and, later, Republican parties.  Supported colonization movement in Indiana.  During Civil War, he promoted the organization of U.S. Colored Troops in Indiana.  (Diary of Calvin Fletcher)


Fletcher, Ryland, governor of Vermont, born in Cavendish. Vermont, 18 February, 1799; died in Proctorsville, Vermont, 19 December, 1885, studied in the Norwich Military Academy, and became a farmer. He was active as an anti-slavery agitator, was chosen to the state senate, and lieutenant-governor of Vermont from 1854 till 1856. when he was elected governor of the state by the Free-Soil Party, serving until 1858. From 1861 till 1864 he was a representative in the legislature. In 1864 he was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 480.


Foster, Lafayette Sabine, 1806-1880, statesman, Connecticut State Representative, Mayor of Norwich, Connecticut, U.S. Senator 1854-1867, Republican Party, opposed to slavery.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 512-513; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 553; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

FOSTER, Lafayette Sabine, statesman, born in Franklin, Connecticut, 22 November, 1806: died in Norwich, Connecticut, 19 September, 1880. His father, Captain Daniel, was an officer of the Revolution, who was descended on his mother's side from Miles Standish, and served with distinction at the battles of White Plains, Stillwater, and Saratoga. The son earned the means for his education by teaching, was graduated with the first honors at Brown in 1828, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar at Centreville, Maryland, while conducting an academy there in 1830. He returned to Connecticut, completed his legal studies in the office of Calvin Goddard, who had been his first preceptor, was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in November, 1831, and opened an office in Hampton in 1833, but in 1834 settled at Norwich. He took an active interest in politics from the outset of his professional life, was the editor of the Norwich " Republican," a Whig journal, in 1835, and in 1839 and 1840 was elected to the legislature. He was again elected in 1846 and the two succeeding years, and was chosen speaker. In 1851 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown University. In 1851-'2 he was mayor of Norwich. He was twice defeated as the Whig candidate for governor, and in 1854 was again sent to the assembly, chosen speaker, and elected to the U. S. Senate on 19 May, 1854, by the votes of the Whigs and Free- Soilers. Though opposed by conviction to slavery, he resisted the efforts to form a Free-Soil Party until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He delivered a notable speech in the Senate on 25 June, 1850, against the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and opposed the Lecompton Constitution for Kansas in 1858. He was a member of the Republican Party from its organization in 1856, and in 1860 was again elected to the Senate. In December, 1860, he spoke in approval of the Powell resolution to inquire into the distracted state of the country, though he was one of the few who at that time believed that the southern leaders would force a disruption of the Union, and was in favor of resisting the extension of slavery beyond the limits recognized in the constitution, even at the cost of Civil War. Mr. Foster was intimately connected with the administration, and was often a spokesman of Mr. Lincoln's views. On 11 March, 1861, he moved the expulsion of Senator Lewis T. Wigfall, of Texas. In 1863 he advocated an appropriation for the gradual manumission of slaves in Missouri. In 1864, on the question of the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act, he spoke in favor of preserving the earlier law of 1793, and thereby incurred the reproaches of the radical members of his party. He also opposed the bill granting the voting franchise to colored citizens of the District of Columbia without an educational qualification. He served on the committees on Indian affairs and land claims, and was chairman of the committee on pensions, and during the Civil War of that on foreign relations. In 1865 he was chosen president of the Senate pro tempore. After Andrew Johnson became president, Mr. Foster was acting vice-president of the United States. During the subsequent recess he travelled on the plains as member of a special commission to investigate the  condition of the Indians. His senatorial term of office expired in March, 1867, and he was succeeded by Benjamin F. Wade in the office of vice-president. On account of his moderate and conservative course in the Senate his re-election was opposed by a majority of the Republicans in the Connecticut Legislature, and he withdrew his name, though he was urged to stand as an independent candidate, and was assured of the support of the Democrats. He declined the professorship of law at Yale in 1869, but after his retirement from the bench in 1876 delivered a course of lectures on "Parliamentary Law and Methods of Legislation." In 1870 he again represented the town of Norwich in the assembly, and was chosen speaker. He resigned in June of that year in order to take his seat on the bench of the supreme court, having been elected by a nearly unanimous vote of both branches of the legislature. His most noteworthy opinion was that in the case of Kirtland against Hotchkiss, in which he differed from the decision of the majority of the court (afterward confirmed by the U. S. Supreme Court) in holding that railroad bonds could not be taxed by the state of Connecticut when the property mortgaged was situated in Illinois. In 1872 he joined the liberal Republicans and supported Horace Greeley as a candidate for the presidency. In 1874 he was defeated as a Democratic candidate for Congress. He was a judge of the Connecticut superior court from 1870 till 1876, when he was retired, having reached the age of seventy years, and resumed the practice of law. In 1878-'9 he was a commissioner from Connecticut to settle the disputed boundary question with New York, and afterward one of the three commissioners to negotiate with the New York authorities for the purchase of Fisher's Island. He was also a member of the commission appointed in 1878 to devise simpler rules and forms of legal procedure for the state courts. By his will he endowed a professorship of English law at Yale, bequeathed his library to the town of Norwich, and gave his home for the free academy there. See "Memorial Sketch" (printed privately. Boston, 1881).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 512-513.


Fowler, Orin, 1791-1852, Lebanon, Connecticut, clergyman.  Free-Soil U.S. Congressman, temperance activist, strong opponent of slavery.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 517; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 565)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

FOWLER, Orin, clergyman, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, 29 July, 1791; died in Washington, D. C., 3 Sept., 1852. He was graduated at Yale in 1815, studied theology under President Dwight, taught in the academy in Fairfield, Connecticut, for a year, was licensed to preach on 14 October, 1817, made a missionary tour in the Mississippi valley in 1818, and in 1819 was settled over a Congregational Church in Plainfield, Connecticut. He was dismissed by this society in 1831, but was immediately called to a church in Fall River, of which he remained pastor until he entered Congress. In 1841 he delivered three discourses containing a history of Fall River since 1620, and an account of the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was appointed by a committee of citizens to defend the interests of the town before the boundary commissioners, published a series of articles on the subject in the Boston “Atlas,” and was elected in 1847 to the state senate, where he secured the rejection of the decision of the boundary commission by a unanimous vote. His constituents were so pleased with his ability as a legislator that they elected him in 1848 as a Free-Soil Whig to the National House of Representatives, and re-elected him for the following term. He was an advocate of temperance laws, and a strong opponent of slavery. In March, 1850, he replied to Daniel Webster's speech in justification of the Fugitive-Slave Law. He was the author of a “Disquisition on the Evils attending the Use of Tobacco” (1833), and “Lectures on the Mode and Subjects of Baptism” (1835). His “History of Fall River, with notices of Freeborn and Tiverton,” was republished in 1862 (Fall River). Appletons’ Cycolpædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 517.


Frémont, John C., 1813-1890, California, Army officer, explorer, anti-slavery political leader.  In 1856, was first candidate for President from the anti-slavery Republican Party.  Lost to James Buchanan.  Early in his career, he was opposed to slavery and its expansion into new territories and states.  Third military governor of California, 1847. First U.S. Senator from the State of California, 1850-1851.  He was elected as a Free Soil Democrat, and was defeated for reelection principally because of his adamant opposition to slavery.  Frémont supported a free Kansas and was against the provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.  On August 30, 1861, General Frémont issued an unauthorized proclamation to free slaves owned by secessionists in his Department in Missouri.  Lincoln revoked the proclamation and relieved Frémont of command.  In March 1862, Frémont was given commands in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. 

(Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 10, 12-13, 58, 77, 78, 105, 131, 153, 173, 178, 206, 225, 239, 245, 252, 261-263, 268-269; Chaffin, 2002; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 89, 93, 94-95, 97-98, 138, 139, 145, 149, 159, 161, 172, 215, 219-225, 228-230, 243; Nevins, 1939; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 59, 65, 140, 242-243, 275, 369, 385, 687; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 545-548; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 19; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 459; Chaffin, Tom, Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire, New York: Hill and Wang, 2002; Eyre, Alice, The Famous Fremonts and Their America, Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1948; Nevins, Allan, Fremont: Pathmarker of the West, Volume 1: Fremont the Explorer; Volume 2: Fremont in the Civil War, 1939, rev ed. 1955)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

FRÉMONT, John Charles, explorer, born in Savannah, Georgia, 21 January, 1813; died in New York City, 13 July, 1890. His father, who was a Frenchman, had settled in Norfolk, Virginia, early married Anne Beverley Whiting, a Virginian lady, and supported himself by teaching his native language. After his death, which took place in 1818, his widow moved with her three infant children to Charleston, South Carolina. John Charles entered the junior class of Charleston College in 1828, and for some time stood high, especially in mathematics; but his inattention and frequent absences at length caused his expulsion. He then employed himself as a private teacher of mathematics, and at the same time taught an evening school. He became teacher of mathematics on the sloop-of-war “Natchez” in 1833, and after a cruise of two years returned, and was given his degree by the college that had expelled him. He then passed a rigorous examination at Baltimore for a professorship in the U. S. Navy, and was appointed to the frigate “Independence,” but declined, and became an assistant engineer under Captain William G. Williams, of the U. S. Topographical Corps, on surveys for a projected railroad between Charleston and Cincinnati, aiding particularly in the exploration of the mountain passes between North Carolina and Tennessee. This work was suspended in 1837, and Frémont accompanied Captain Williams in a military reconnaissance of the mountainous Cherokee country in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, made rapidly, in the depth of winter, in anticipation of hostilities with the Indians. On 7 July, 1838, while engaged with Jean Nicolas Nicollet in exploring, under government authority, the country between the Missouri and the northern frontier, he was commissioned by President Van Buren as 2d lieutenant of topographical engineers. He went to Washington in 1840 to prepare his report, and while there met Jessie, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, then senator from Missouri. An engagement was formed, but, as the lady was only fifteen years of age, her parents objected to the match; and suddenly, probably through the influence of Colonel Benton, the young officer received from the war department an order to make an examination of the River Des Moines on the western frontier. The survey was made rapidly, and shortly after his return from this duty the lovers were secretly married, 19 October, 1841. In 1842, Frémont was instructed by the War Department to take charge of an expedition for the exploration of the Rocky mountains, particularly the South pass. He left Washington on 2 May, and in four months had carefully examined the South pass and explored the Wind River mountains, ascending their highest point, since known as Frémont's peak (13,570 ft.). His report of the expedition was laid before Congress in the winter of 1842-'3, and attracted much attention both at home and abroad. Immediately afterward, Frémont determined to explore the unknown region between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, and set out in May, 1843, with thirty-nine men. On 6 September, after travelling over 1,700 miles, he came in sight of Great Salt lake. His investigations corrected many vague and erroneous ideas about this region, of which no accurate account had ever been given, and had great influence in promoting the settlement of Utah and the Pacific states. It was his report of this expedition that gave to the Mormons their first idea of Utah as a place of residence. After leaving Great Salt Lake, he explored the upper tributaries of the Columbia, descended the valley of that River to Fort Vancouver, near its mouth, and on 10 November set out on his return. His route lay through an almost unknown region leading from the Lower Columbia to the Upper Colorado, and was crossed by high and rugged mountain-chains. Deep snow soon forced him to descend into the great basin, and he presently found himself, in the depth of winter, in a desert, with the prospect of death to his whole party from cold and hunger. By astronomical observation he found that he was in the latitude of the Bay of San Francisco; but between him and the valleys of California was a snow-clad range of mountains, which the Indians declared no man could cross, and over which no reward could induce them to attempt to guide him. Frémont undertook the passage without a guide, and accomplished it in forty days, reaching Sutter's Fort, on the Sacramento, early in March, with his men reduced almost to skeletons, and with only thirty-three out of sixty-seven horses and mules remaining. Resuming his journey on 24 March, he crossed the Sierra Nevada through a gap, and after another visit to Great Salt lake returned to Kansas through the South pass in July, 1844, having been absent fourteen months. The reports of this expedition occupied in their preparation the remainder of 1844. Frémont was given the double brevet of 1st lieutenant and captain in January, 1845, at the instance of General Scott, and in the spring of that year he set out on a third expedition to explore the great basin and the maritime region of Oregon and California. After spending the summer in exploring the watershed between the Pacific and the Mississippi, he encamped in October on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, and after crossing the Sierra Nevada with a few men, in the dead of winter, to obtain supplies, left his party in the valley of the San Joaquin while he went to Monterey, then the capital of California, to obtain from the Mexican authorities permission to proceed with his exploration. This was granted, but was almost immediately revoked, and Frémont was ordered to leave the country without delay. Compliance with this demand was impossible, on account of the exhaustion of Frémont's men and his lack of supplies, and it was therefore refused. The Mexican commander, General José Castro, then mustered the forces of the province and prepared to attack the Americans, who numbered only sixty-two. Frémont took up a strong position on the Hawk's peak, a mountain thirty miles from Monterey, built a rude fort of felled trees, hoisted the American flag, and, having plenty of ammunition, resolved to defend himself. The Mexican general, with a large force, encamped in the plain immediately below the Americans, whom he hourly threatened to attack. On the evening of the fourth day of the siege Frémont withdrew with his party and proceeded toward the San Joaquin. The fires were still burning in his deserted camp when a messenger arrived from General Castro to propose a cessation of hostilities. Frémont now made his way northward through the Sacramento valley into Oregon without further trouble, and near Klamath Lake, on 9 May, 1846, met a party in search of him with despatches from Washington, directing him to watch over the interests of the United States in California, there being reason to apprehend that the province would be transferred to Great Britain, and also that General Castro intended to destroy the American settlements on the Sacramento. He promptly returned to California, where he found that Castro was already marching against the settlements. The settlers flocked to Frémont's camp, and in less than a month he had freed northern California from Mexican authority. He received a lieutenant-colonel's commission on 27 May, and was elected governor of California by the American settlers on 4 July. On 10 July, learning that Commodore Sloat, commander of the United States Squadron on that coast, had seized Monterey, he marched to join him, and reached that place on 19 July, with 160 mounted riflemen. About this time Commodore Stockton arrived at Monterey with the frigate “Congress” and took command of the squadron, with authority from Washington to conquer California. At his request Frémont organized a force of mounted men, known as the “California battalion,” of which he was appointed major. He was also appointed by Commodore Stockton military commandant and civil governor of the territory, the project of making California independent having been relinquished on receipt of intelligence that war had begun between the United States and Mexico. On 13 January, 1847, Frémont concluded with the Mexicans articles of capitulation, which terminated the war in California and left that country permanently in the possession of the United States. Meantime General Stephen W. Kearny, with a small force of dragoons, had arrived in California. A quarrel soon broke out between him and Commodore Stockton as to who should command. Each had instructions from Washington to conquer and organize a government in the country. Frémont had accepted a commission from Commodore Stockton as commander of the battalion of volunteers, and had been appointed governor of the territory. General Kearny, as Frémont's superior officer in the regular army, required him to obey his orders, which conflicted with those of Commodore Stockton. In this dilemma Frémont concluded to obey Stockton's orders, considering that he had already fully recognized that officer as commander-in-chief, and that General Kearny had also for some time admitted his authority. In the spring of 1847 despatches from Washington assigned the command to Gen Kearny, and in June that officer set out overland for the United States, accompanied by Frémont, whom he treated with deliberate disrespect throughout the journey. On the arrival of the party at Fort Leavenworth, on 22 August, Frémont was put under arrest and ordered to report to the adjutant-general at Washington, where he arrived on 16 September, and demanded a speedy trial. Accordingly a court-martial was held, beginning 2 November, 1847, and ending 31 January, 1848, which found him guilty of “mutiny,” “disobedience of the lawful command of a superior officer,” and “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline,” and sentenced him to be dismissed from the service. A majority of the members of the court recommended him to the clemency of President Polk. The president refused to confirm the verdict of mutiny, but approved the rest of the verdict and the sentence, of which, however, he remitted the penalty. Notwithstanding this, Frémont at once resigned his commission, and on 14 October, 1848, set out on a fourth expedition across the continent, at his own expense, with the object of finding a practicable passage to California by way of the upper waters of the Rio Grande. With thirty-three men and 120 mules he made his way through the country of the Utes, Apaches, Comanches, and other Indian tribes then at war with the United States. In attempting to cross the great Sierra, covered with snow, his guide lost his way, and Frémont's party encountered horrible suffering from cold and hunger, a portion of them being driven to cannibalism. All of his animals and one third of his men perished, and he was forced to retrace his steps to Santa Fé. Undaunted by this disaster, he gathered another band of thirty men, and after a long search discovered a secure route by which he reached the Sacramento in the spring of 1849. He now determined to settle in California, where, in 1847, he had bought the Mariposa estate, a large tract of land containing rich gold-mines. His title to this estate was contested, but after a long litigation it was decided in his favor in 1855 by the Supreme Court of the United States. He received from President Taylor in 1849 the appointment of commissioner to run the boundary-line between the United States and Mexico, but, having been elected by the legislature of California, in December of that year, to represent the new state in the U. S. Senate, he resigned his commissionership and departed for Washington by way of the isthmus. He took his seat in the Senate, 10 September, 1850, the day after the admission of California as a state. In drawing lots for the terms of the respective senators, Frémont drew the short term, ending 4 March, 1851. The Senate remained in session but three weeks after the admission of California, and during that period Frémont devoted himself almost exclusively to measures relating to the interests of the state he represented. For this purpose he introduced and advocated a comprehensive series of bills, embracing almost every object of legislation demanded by the peculiar circumstances of California. In the state election of 1851 in California the Anti-slavery Party, of which Frémont was one of the leaders, was defeated, and he consequently failed of re-election to the Senate, after 142 ballotings. After devoting two years to his private affairs, he visited Europe in 1852, and spent a year there, being received with distinction by many eminent men of letters and of science. He had already, in 1850, received a gold medal from the king of Prussia for his discoveries, had been awarded the “founder's medal” of the Royal geographical Society of London, and had been elected an honorary member of the Geographical Society of Berlin. His explorations had gained for him at home the name of the “Pathfinder.” While in Europe he learned that Congress had made an appropriation for the survey of three routes from the Mississippi valley to the Pacific, and immediately returned to the United States for the purpose of fitting out a fifth expedition on his own account to complete the survey of the route he had taken on his fourth expedition. He left Paris in June, 1853, and in September was on his march across the continent. He found passes through the mountains on the line of latitudes 38 and 39, and reached California in safety, after enduring great hardships. For fifty days his party lived on horse-flesh, and for forty-eight hours at a time were without food of any kind. In the spring of 1855 Frémont with his family took up his residence in New York, for the purpose of preparing for publication the narrative of his last expedition. He now began to be mentioned as an anti-slavery candidate for the presidency. In the first National Republican Convention, which met in Philadelphia on 17 June, 1856, he received 359 votes to 196 for John McLean, on an informal ballot, and on the first formal ballot Frémont was unanimously nominated. In his letter of acceptance, dated 8 July, 1856, he expressed himself strongly against the extension of slavery and in favor of free labor. A few days after the Philadelphia Convention adjourned, a National American Convention at New York also nominated him for the presidency. He accepted their support in a letter dated 30 June, in which he referred them for an exposition of his views to his forthcoming letter accepting the Republican nomination. After a spirited and exciting contest, the presidential election resulted in the choice of Mr. Buchanan by 174 electoral votes from nineteen states, while Frémont received 114 votes from eleven states, including the six New England states, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Maryland gave her eight electoral votes for Mr. Fillmore. The popular vote for Frémont was 1,341,000; for Buchanan, 1,838,000; for Fillmore, 874,000. In 1858 Frémont went to California, where he resided for some time. In 1860 he visited Europe. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War he was made a major-general of the regular army and assigned to the command of the newly created Western Department. After purchasing arms for the U. S. government, in Europe, he returned; he arrived in St. Louis on 26 July, 1861, and made his headquarters there, fortifying the city, and placing Cairo in security by a demonstration with 4,000 troops. After the battle of Wilson's Creek, on 10 August, where General Nathaniel Lyon was slain, Frémont proclaimed martial law, arrested active secessionists, and suspended the publication of papers charged with disloyalty. On 31 August he issued a proclamation assuming the government of the state, and announcing that he would emancipate the slaves of those in arms against the United States. President Lincoln wrote to him, approving all of the proclamation except the emancipation clause, which he considered premature. He asked Frémont to withdraw it, which he declined, and the president annulled it himself in a public order. In the autumn Frémont moved his army from the Missouri River in pursuit of the enemy. Meanwhile many complaints had been made of his administration, it being alleged that it was inefficient, though arbitrary and extravagant, and after an investigation by the Secretary of War he was, on 2 November, 1861, relieved from his command just as he had overtaken the Confederates at Springfield. It is claimed by Frémont's friends that this was the result of a political intrigue against him. On leaving his army, he went to St. Louis, where he was enthusiastically received by the citizens. In March, 1862, he was given the command of the newly created “mountain district” of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the early part of June his army engaged a superior force under General Jackson for eight days, with constant sharp skirmishing, the enemy retreating slowly and destroying culverts and bridges to cause delay. The pursuit was terminated with a severe engagement on the evening of 6 June, in which Jackson's chief of cavalry, General Ashby, was killed, and by the battle of Cross-Keys on 8 June. It is claimed by General Frémont that if McDowell's force had joined him, as promised by the president, Jackson's retreat would have been cut off; as it was, the latter made good his escape, having accomplished his purpose of delaying re-enforcements to McClellan. On 26 June the president issued an order creating the “Army of Virginia,” to include Frémont's corps, and giving the command of it to General Pope. Thereupon Frémont asked to be relieved, on the ground that he could not serve under General Pope, for sufficient personal reasons. His request having been granted, he went to New York to await further orders, but received no other command during the war, though, as he says, one was constantly promised him. On 31 May, 1864, a convention of Republicans, dissatisfied with Mr. Lincoln, met at Cleveland and tendered to General Frémont a nomination for president, which, he accepted. In the following September a committee of Republicans representing the administration waited on him and urged his withdrawal, as “vital to the success of the party.” After considering the matter for a week, he acceded to their request, saying in his letter of withdrawal that he did so “not to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the election of the Democratic candidate.”

Since 1864 General Frémont has taken little part in public affairs, but has been active in railway matters. He procured from the Texas legislature a grant of state land in the interest of the Memphis and El Paso Railway, which was to be part of a proposed trans-continental road from Norfolk to San Diego and San Francisco. The French agents employed to place the land-grant bonds of this road on the market made the false declaration that they were guaranteed by the United States. In 1869 the Senate passed a bill giving Frémont's road the right of way through the territories, an attempt to defeat it by fixing on him the onus of the misstatement in Paris having been unsuccessful. In 1873 he was prosecuted by the French government for fraud in connection with this misstatement. He did not appear in person, and was sentenced by default to fine and imprisonment, no judgment being given on the merits of the case. In 1878-'81 General Frémont was governor of Arizona. He has published “Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, and to Oregon and North California in 1843-'4” (Washington, 1845; New York, 1846; London, 1849); “Colonel J. C. Frémont's Explorations,” an account of all five of his expeditions (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1859); and “Memoirs of my Life” (New York, 1880). See also the campaign biographies by John Bigelow (New York, 1856), and Charles W. Upham (Boston, 1856). His wife, Jessie Benton, born in Virginia in 1824, has published “Story of the Guard; a Chronicle of the War,” with a German translation (Boston, 1863); a sketch of her father, Thomas H. Benton, prefixed to her husband's memoirs (1880); and “Souvenirs of my Time” (Boston, 1887). [Appleton’s 1900]


Frisby, Leander F., Wisconsin Attorney General, Free Soil Party


French, Robert, 1802-1882, politician, abolitionist, Temperance activist.  Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts.  Massachusetts State Senator.  Co-founder and President of the New Bedford Young Man’s Anti-Slavery Society.  Member of the Whig and Free Soil parties.  Opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and successfully passed legislation to oppose it in New Bedford.


Gage, Francis Dana Barker, 1808-1884, journalist, poet, reformer, temperance leader, women’s rights, anti-slavery leader.  Lectured on abolition and was often threatened with physical violence.  Her home was burned three times.  During the Civil War, she taught newly freed slaves and was active as a volunteer with the Sanitary Commission.  In 1863, she was appointed Superintendent of a refuge of more than 500 freed slaves at Paris Island, South Carolina.  Gage was married to abolitionist James L. Gage, a lawyer from McConnelsville, Ohio.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 568-569; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 84; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 326-328; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 605; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 321)


Gates, Seth Merrill, 1800-1877, abolitionist leader, lawyer, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, Whig Party, Western New York.  Anti-slavery political leader in House of Representatives.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 295; Mabee, 1970, p. 128; Sorin, 1971, p. 104; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 615-616)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GATES, Seth Merrill, lawyer, born in Winfield, Herkimer County, New York, 16 October, 1800; died in Warsaw, New York, 24 August, 1877. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1827, and began practice in Le Roy. He was elected to the state legislature in 1832, but declined a re-election. During this session he was instrumental in procuring a charter for the first Railroad in western New York, being a portion of the present New York Central. In 1838 he purchased the " Le Roy Gazette," which he edited for several years. He was elected to Congress in 1838, and re-elected in 1840. On the expiration of his Congressional service, he moved to Warsaw, and continued his law-practice. On account of his hostility to slavery, a reward of $500 was offered by a southern planter for his "delivery in Savannah, dead or alive." In 1848 he was the Free-Soil candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York, but was defeated. He drew up the protest of the Whig members of Congress in 1843 against the annexation of Texas, erroneously attributed in several histories to Mr. Adams's pen; and the correspondence between Mr. Gates and ex-President John Quincy Adams, who signed the protest, is still in the possession of his son. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888,Vol.II, pp.615-616


Giddings, Joshua Reed, 1795-1865, lawyer, statesman, U.S. Congressman, Whig from Ohio, elected in 1838. First abolitionist elected to House of Representatives. Worked to eliminate “gag rule,” which prohibited anti-slavery petitions. Served until 1859.  Leader and founder of the Republican Party. Argued that slavery in territories and District of Columbia was unlawful.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Was censured by the House of Representatives for his opposition to slavery.  Opposed Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and against further expansion of slavery into the new territories acquired during the Mexican War of 1846.

(Blue, 2005, pp. 69, 84, 86, 100, 163, 165, 188, 199, 201, 202, 216, 218-220, 221, 224, 245; Dumond, 1961, pp. 243-245, 302, 339, 368; Filler, 1960, pp. 103, 145, 186, 224, 247, 258, 264, 268; Locke, 1901, pp. 64, 175; Mabee, 1970, pp. 56, 63, 261, 305, 306; Miller, 1996; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 6, 23-26, 32-33, 45, 48-49, 54-55, 60, 61, 63, 65, 69-72, 131, 136, 162-163, 166-167; Pease, 1965, pp. 411-417; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 45, 47-49, 56, 173, 305, 316-318; Stewart, 1970; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 641-642; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 260; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 946).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GIDDINGS, Joshua Reed, statesman, born in Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 6 October, 1795; died in Montreal, Canada, 27 May, 1864. His parents moved to Canandaigua, New York, and in 1806 to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where the boy worked on his father's farm, and by devoting his evenings to hard study made up somewhat for his limited educational advantages. In 1812 he enlisted in a regiment commanded by Colonel Richard Hayes, being the youngest member, and was in an expedition sent to the Peninsula north of Sandusky Bay. There, 29 September, 1812, twenty-two men, of whom he was one, had a skirmish with Indians, in which six of the soldiers were killed and six wounded. Mr. Giddings afterward erected a monument there to the memory of his fallen comrades. After the war he became a teacher, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1820. He was elected to the Ohio legislature in 1826, served one term, and declined a re-election. In 1838 he was elected, as a Whig, to Congress, where he had hardly taken his seat before he became prominent as an advocate of the right of petition, and the abolition of slavery and the domestic slave-trade. He had been known as an active abolitionist before his election. His first attempt to discuss the subject on the floor of Congress, 11 February, 1839, was thwarted by the gag rule; but two years later, 9 February, 1841, he delivered a notable speech on the war with the Indians in Florida, in which he maintained that the contest was waged solely in the interest of slavery, the object being to enslave the Maroons of that state, who were affiliated with the Seminoles, and break up the asylums for fugitives. This subject he set forth more elaborately years afterward in his “Exiles of Florida” (Columbus, Ohio, 1858; new ed., New York, 1863). In the autumn of 1841 the “Creole” sailed from Virginia for Louisiana with a cargo of slaves, who got possession of the vessel, ran into the British port of Nassau, N. P., and, in accordance with British law, were set free. In the excitement that followed, Daniel Webster, secretary of state, wrote to Edward Everett, U. S. minister at London, saying that the government would demand indemnification for the owners of the slaves. Thereupon Mr. Giddings, 21 March, 1842, offered in the House of Representatives a series of resolutions in which it was declared that, as slavery was an abridgment of a natural right, it had no force beyond the territorial jurisdiction that created it; that when an American vessel was not in the waters of any state it was under the jurisdiction of the United States alone, which had no authority to hold slaves; and that the mutineers of the “Creole” had only resumed their natural right to liberty, and any attempt to re-enslave them would be unconstitutional and dishonorable. So much excitement was created by these resolutions that Mr. Giddings, on the advice of his friends, withdrew them, but said he would present them again at some future time. The house then, on motion of John Minor Botts, of Virginia, passed a resolution of censure (125 to 69), and by means of the previous question denied Mr. Giddings an opportunity to speak in his own defence. He at once resigned his seat and appealed to his constituents, who re-elected him by a large majority. In the discussion of the “Amistad” case (see Cinque), Mr. Giddings took the same ground as in the similar case of the “Creole,” and in a speech a few years later boldly maintained that to treat a human being as property was a crime. In 1843 he united with John Quincy Adams and seventeen other members of Congress in issuing an address to the people of the country, declaring that the annexation of Texas “would be identical with dissolution”; and in the same year he published, under the pen-name of “Pacificus,” a notable series of political essays. A year later he and Mr. Adams presented a report discussing a memorial from the Massachusetts legislature, in which they declared that the liberties of the American people were founded on the truths of Christianity. On the Oregon question, he held that the claim of the United States to the whole territory was just, and should be enforced, but predicted that the Polk administration would not keep the promise on which it had been elected — expressed in the motto “Fifty-four forty, or fight” — and his prediction was fulfilled. In 1847 he refused to vote for Robert C. Winthrop, the candidate of his party for speaker of the house, on the ground that his position on the slavery question was not satisfactory; and the next year, for the same reason, he declined to support the candidacy of General Taylor for the presidency, and acted with the Free-Soil Party. In 1849, with eight other Congressmen, he refused to support any candidate for the speakership who would not pledge himself so to appoint the standing committees that petitions on the subject of slavery could obtain a fair consideration; and the consequence was the defeat of Mr. Winthrop and the election of Howell Cobb, the Democratic candidate. Mr. Giddings opposed the compromise measures of 1850, which included the fugitive-slave law, and the repeal of the Missouri compromise, taking a prominent part in the debates. In 1850, being charged with wrongfully taking important papers from the post-office, he demanded an investigation, and was exonerated by a committee that was composed chiefly of his political opponents. It was shown that the charge was the work of a conspiracy. In 1856, and again in 1858, he suddenly became unconscious, and fell while addressing the house. His Congressional career of twenty years' continuous service ended on 4 March, 1859, when he declined another nomination. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him U. S. consul-general in Canada, which office he held until the time of his death. One who knew him personally writes: “He was about six feet one inch in height, broad-shouldered, of very stalwart build, and was considered the most muscular man on the floor of the house. Whenever he spoke he was listened to with great attention by the whole house, the members frequently gathering around him. He had several affrays on the floor, but invariably came out ahead. On one occasion he was challenged by a southern member, and promptly accepted, selecting as the weapons two raw-hides. The combatants were to have their left hands tied together by the thumbs, and at a signal castigate each other till one cried enough. A look at Mr. Giddings's stalwart frame influenced the southerner to back out.” Mr. Giddings published a volume of his speeches (Boston, 1853), and wrote “The Rebellion: its Authors and Causes,” a history of the anti-slavery struggle in Congress, which was issued posthumously (New York, 1864). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 641-642.


Gillette, Francis, 1807-1879, Windsor, Connecticut, anti-slavery political leader, activist.  U.S. Senator, Free Soil Party, co-founder of the Republican Party.  Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in the Senate in 1854. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 652; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 490).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GILLETTE, Francis, senator, born in Windsor, now Bloomfield, Hartford County, Connecticut, 14 December, 1807: died in Hartford, Connecticut, 30 September, 1879. He was graduated at Yale in 1829 with the valedictory, and then studied law with Governor William W. Ellsworth. Failing health compelled him to relinquish this pursuit, and he settled in Bloomfield as a farmer. In 1882 and again in 1836 he was sent to the legislature, where he gained notice in 1838 by his anti-slavery speech advocating the striking out of the word "white" from the state constitution. In 1841 he was nominated against his own will for the office of governor by the Liberty Party, and during the twelve following years frequently received a similar nomination from the Liberty and Free-Soil parties. He was elected by a coalition between the Whigs, temperance men, and Free-Soilers, in 1854, to fill the vacancy in the U. S. Senate caused by the resignation of Truman Smith, and served from 25 May, 1854, till 3 March, 1855. Mr. Gillette was active in the formation of the Republican Party, and was for several years a silent partner in the "Evening Press," the first distinctive organ of that party. He was active in the cause of education throughout his life, was a coadjutor of Dr. Henry Barnard from 1838 till 1842, one of the first trustees of the State Normal School, and for many years its president. Mr. Gillette took interest in agricultural matters, was an advocate of total abstinence, and delivered lectures and addresses on both subjects. He moved to Hartford in 1852, and passed the latter part of his life in that city.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 652.


Gove, William Hazeltine, politician, born in Weare, New Hampshire, 10 July, 1817: died there, 11 March, 1876. He received a common-school education, taught in Lynn, Massachusetts, one Year, and an equal length of time in Rochester, New York. He also studied law a short time in Boston. He early became an active worker in the anti-slavery cause, a supporter of the Liberty Party, and later a prominent Free-Soiler. While connected with the latter party he became well known as a stump speaker, and gained the title of the " silver-tongued orator of New Hampshire." He was a member of the first Free-Soil Convention, held in Buffalo, New York, in 1848, was a candidate of his party for the legislature year after year, and in 1851, by a combination of Free-Soilers and Whigs, he was elected. He was re-elected in 1852 and 1855. After the Free-Soil organization was merged in the Republican Party, Mr. Gove was for many years an active Republican. During the administrations of Lincoln and Johnston he held the office of postmaster. In 1871, having become dissatisfied with his party, he engaged in forming a labor reform party, whose voters, combining with the Democrats, elected him to the lower branch of the legislature, of which body he was chosen speaker. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati, and acted thence forth with the Democratic Party, which elected him to the state senate in 187&-'4." In the latter year he was made its president. As a young man Mr. Gove was engaged in the Washingtonian temperance movement, and spoke and wrote eloquently in aid of the cause. He edited for a short time the "Temperance Banner." published at Concord.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 697-698.


Grimes, James Wilson, 1816-1872, statesman, lawyer.  U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Governor of Iowa, 1854-1858.  Supported by Whigs and Free Soil Democrats.  Elected as Republican Senator in 1859.  Re-elected 1865. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 767; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 630; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 9, p. 617; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

GRIMES, James Wilson, statesman, born in Deering, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, 20 October, 1816; died in Burlington, Iowa, 7 February, 1872. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1836, and in the same year went west and began to practise law in Burlington, Iowa, then in what was known as the " Black Hawk Purchase," in the territory of Michigan. From 4 July, 1836, till 12 June, 1838, it was part of Wisconsin territory, and in 1837-'8 Mr. Grimes was assistant librarian of the territorial library. After the formation of Iowa Territory he was a delegate to its assembly in 1838 and 1843, and in 1852, after its admission to the Union, was a member of the legislature. He was governor of the state in 1854-'8, having been elected by Whigs and Free-Soil Democrats, and while holding the office did much to foster Free-Soil sentiment in his state. On 28 August, 1856, he wrote an official letter to President Pierce protesting against the treatment of Iowa settlers in Kansas. He was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican in 1859, and re-elected in 1865. His first speech, delivered on 30 January, 1860, was a reply to Senator Robert Toombs, who had accused Iowa of passing laws in violation of the rights of sister states, and after this he spoke frequently, and was known as a hard-working member of the Senate. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Peace Convention. He was a member of the committee on naval affairs from 24 January, 1861, till the end of his service, and was its chairman from December, 1864. He strongly advocated the building of iron-clads, and the abandonment of stone fortifications for harbor defence. Mr. Grimes was noted for his independence of character, which frequently brought him into conflict with his party associates in the Senate. Thus, although he favored a vigorous prosecution of the war, he considered President Lincoln's enlargement of the regular army in 1861 a dangerous precedent, and later he opposed a high protective tariff. In the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, Mr. Grimes was one of the few Republican Senators who voted "not guilty," and this act brought upon him a storm of condemnation which lasted but a short time, owing to the evident fact that his vote had been strictly in accordance with what he considered his duty. Mr. Grimes had a stroke of paralysis in 1869, and in April of that year went abroad, resigning his seat in the Senate on 6 December. He returned in September, 1871, apparently improved, but died soon afterward of heart disease. Mr. Grimes founded a professorship at Iowa College, at Grinnell, and gave money for scholarships there and at Dartmouth, receiving the degree of LL. D. from both colleges. He also established a free public library in Burlington, Iowa. Sec " Life of James W. Grimes," by William Salter (New York, 1876).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 767.


Harlan, James, 1820-1899, statesman., laywer, university president.  Early anti-slavery activist in the Free Soil Party.  Free Soil U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Elected Senator in 1855 representing Iowa.  Re-elected, served until 1865, when appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Lincoln.  Re-elected to Senate in 1866, served until 1873. 

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 83-84; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 269; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 94; Congressional Globe)


Hawley, Joseph Roswell, 1826-1905, statesman, clergyman, lawyer, editor, opponent of slavery, Union officer.  Member of the Free Soil Party.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Chairman of Connecticut Free Soil State Committee.  He opposed pro-slavery Know-Nothing Party and aided in anti-slavery organizing.  Helped organize and found the Republican Party in 1856.  In 1857, became editor of the Republican newspaper, Evening Press in Hartford.  Enlisted in the Union Army, rising to the rank of Brigadier General, commanding both a division and a brigade.  (Appletons, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 421; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 351)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, statesman, born in Stewartsville, North Carolina, 31 October, 1826. He is of English-Scotch ancestry. His father, Reverend Francis Hawley (descended from Samuel, who settled in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639), was born in Farmington, Connecticut He went south early and engaged in business, but afterward entered the Baptist ministry. He married Mary McLeod, a native of North Carolina, of Scotch parentage, and the family went to Connecticut in 1837, where the father was an active anti-slavery man. The son prepared for college at the Hartford grammar-school and the seminary in Cazenovia, New York, whither the family moved about 1842. He was graduated at Hamilton in 1847, with a high reputation as a speaker and debater. He taught in the winters, studied law at Cazenovia and Hartford, and began practice in 1850. He immediately became chairman of the Free-Soil state committee, wrote for the Free-Soil press, and spoke in every canvass. He stoutly opposed the Know-Nothings, and devoted his energies to the union of all opponents of slavery. The first meeting for the organization of the Republican Party in Connecticut was held in his office, at his call, 4 February, 1856. Among those present were Gideon Welles and John M. Niles. Mr. Hawley gave three months to speaking in the Fremont canvass of 1856. In February, 1857, he abandoned law practice, and became editor of the Hartford "Evening Press," the new distinctively Republican paper. His partner was William Faxon, afterward assistant Secretary of the Navy. He responded to the first call for troops in 1861 by drawing up a form of enlistment, and, assisted by Drake, afterward colonel of the 10th Regiment, raising rifle company A, 1st Connecticut Volunteers, which was organized and accepted in twenty-four hours, Hawley having personally engaged rifles at Sharp's Factory. He became the captain, and is said to have been the first volunteer in the state. He received special praise for good conduct at Bull Run from General Erastus D. Keyes, brigade commander. He directly united with Colonel Alfred H. Terry in raising the 7th Connecticut Volunteers, a three years' regiment, of which he was lieutenant-colonel. It went south in the Port Royal Expedition, and on the capture of the forts was the first sent ashore as a garrison. It was engaged four months in the siege of Fort Pulaski, and upon the surrender was selected as the garrison. Hawley succeeded Terry, and commanded the regiment in the battles of James Island and Pocotaligo, and in Brannan's expedition to Florida. He went with his regiment to Florida, in January, 1863, and commanded the post of Fernandina, whence in April he undertook an unsuccessful expedition against Charleston. He also commanded a brigade on Morris Island in the siege of Charleston and the capture of Fort Wagner. In February, 1864, he had a brigade under General Truman Seymour in the battle of Olustee, Florida, where the whole National force lost 38 per cent. His regiment was one of the few that were armed with the Spencer breech loading rifle. This weapon, which he procured in the autumn of 1863, proved very effective in the hands of his men. He went to Virginia in April, 1864, having a brigade in Terry's division, 10th Corps, Army of the James, and was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Deep Run, Derbytown Road, and various affairs near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom. He commanded a division in the fight on the Newmarket road, and engaged in the siege of Petersburg. In September, 1864, he was made a brigadier-general, having been repeatedly recommended by his immediate superiors. In November, 1864, he commanded a picked brigade sent to New York City to keep the peace during the week of the presidential election. He succeeded to Terry's division when Terry was sent to Port Fisher in January, 1865, afterward rejoining him as chief of staff, 10th Corps, and on the capture of Wilmington was detached by General Schofield to establish a base of supplies there for Sherman's army, and command southeastern North Carolina. In June he rejoined Terry as chief of staff for the Department of Virginia. In October he went home, was brevetted major-general, and was mustered out, 15 January, 1866. In April, 1866, he was elected governor of Connecticut, but he was defeated in 1867, and then, having united the "Press" and the "Courant," he resumed editorial life, and more vigorously than ever entered the political contests following the war. He was always in demand as a speaker throughout the country. He was president of the National Republican Convention in 1868, secretary of the committee on resolutions in 1872, and chairman of that committee in 1876. He earnestly opposed paper money theories. In November, 1872, he was elected to fill a vacancy in Congress caused by the death of Julius L. Strong. He was re-elected to the 43d Congress, defeated for the 44th and 45th, and re-elected to the 46th (1879-'81). He was elected senator in January, 1881, by the unanimous vote of his party, and re-elected in like manner in January, 1887, for the term ending 4 March, 1893. In the house he served on the committees on Claims, Banking and Currency, Military Affairs, and appropriations; in the senate, on the committees on Coast Defences, Railroads, Printing, and Military Affairs. He is chairman of the committee on Civil Service, and vigorously promoted the enactment of civil-service-reform legislation. He was also chairman of a Select Committee on Ordnance and War-Ships, and submitted a long and valuable report, the result of careful investigation into steel production and heavy gun-making in England and the United States. In the National Convention of 1884 the Connecticut Delegation unanimously voted for him for president in every ballot. He was president of the U. S. Centennial Commission from its organization in 1872 until the close of its labors in 1877, gave two years exclusively to the work, was ex-officio member of its committees, and appointed all save the executive. He received the degree of LL. D. from Hamilton in 1875, and from Yale in 1886. Of the former institution he is a trustee. Ecclesiastically he is a Congregationalist.  General Hawley is an ardent Republican, one of the most acceptable extemporary orators in the republic, a believer in universal suffrage, the American people and the "American way," is a "hard-money" man, would adjust the tariff so as to benefit native industries, urges the reconstruction of our naval and coast defences, demands a free ballot and a fair count everywhere, opposes the tendency to federal centralization, and is a strict constructionist of the constitution in favor of the rights and dignity of the individual states.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 123-124.


Hawley, William Merrill, 1802-1869, lawyer, jurist, State Senator.  Member, Free-Soil Radical Delegation in August 1848.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 124

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HAWLEY, William Merrill, lawyer, born in Delaware County, New York, 23 August, 1802; died in Hornellsville, New York, 9 February, 1869. His father, one of the earliest settlers in western New York, was a farmer, and unable to give his children a classical education. William went to the common school, and at the age of twenty-one moved to Almond, Alleghany County, where be cleared a piece of land for tillage. In the spring of 1824 be was elected constable, and began the study of law to assist him in this office. He was admitted to the bar in 1826, moved to Hornellsville the next year, and practised his profession until his appointment in 1846 as first judge of Steuben County. He served in the state senate, was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 22 May, 1848, which met in Baltimore, and was identified with the “Free-Soil radical delegation,” which culminated in the National Convention of 9 Aug., 1848, held in Buffalo, New York, in which Martin Van Buren was nominated for the presidency. Judge Hawley was one of the committee appointed to introduce the resolutions the essential elements of which were afterward adopted by the Republican Party. After his retirement from the state senate he did not again enter public life, but, devoting himself to his profession, acquired a large fortune, and practised until a short time before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 124.


Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Storrow, 1823-1911, author, editor, Unitarian clergyman, radical abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, secretly supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, on October 16, 1859.  Served as a Colonel in the 1^st South Carolina Volunteers, the first African American regiment formed under the Federal Government.  (Edelstein, 1968; Mabee, 1970, pp. 309, 312, 318, 319, 321, 336, 345, 377; Renehan, 1995; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 138, 207, 327, 337-338, 478-479; Rossbach, 1982; Sernett, 2002, pp. 205, 208, 211, 213, 325-326n3; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 199; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 16; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 431-434; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 757; Wells, Anna Mary. Dear Preceptor… 1963.  Higginson, Thomas, Army Life in a Black Regiment, 1870)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HIGGINSON, Thomas Wentworth, author, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 22 December, 1823, was graduated at Harvard in 1841 and at the divinity-school in 1847, and in the same year was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational Church in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He left this church on account of anti-slavery preaching in 1850, and in the same year was an unsuccessful Free-Soil candidate for Congress. He was then pastor of a free Church in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1852 till 1858. when he left the ministry, and devoted himself to literature. He had been active in the anti-slavery agitation of this period, and for his part in the attempted rescue of a fugitive slave (see Burns, Anthony) was indicted for murder with Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, and others, but was discharged through a flaw in the indictment. He also aided in the organization of parties of free-state emigrants to Kansas in 1856, was personally acquainted with John Brown, and served as brigadier-general on James H. Lane's staff in the free-state forces. He became captain in the 51st Massachusetts Regiment, 25 September, 1862, and on 10 November was made colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers (afterward called the 33d U. S. Colored Troops), the first regiment of freed slaves mustered into the national service, he took and held Jacksonville, Florida, but was wounded at Wiltown Bluff, South Carolina, in August. 1863, and in October, 1864, resigned on account of disability. He then engaged in literature at Newport, Rhode Island, till 1878, and afterward at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has since resided. He is an earnest advocate of woman suffrage, and of the higher education for both sexes. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1880 and 1881, serving as chief of staff to the governor during the same time, and in 1881-'3 was a member of the state board of education. He has contributed largely to current literature, and several of his books consist of essays that first appeared in "The Atlantic Monthly." His first publication was a compilation with Samuel Longfellow of poetry for the sea-side, entitled "Thalatta " (Boston, 1853). He is the author of "Out-door Papers" (Boston, 1863); "Malbone, an Oldport Romance "(1869); "Army Life in a Black Regiment" (1870; French translation by Madame de Gasparin. 1884): "Atlantic Essays" (1871); "The Sympathy of Religions" (1871); "Oldport Days" (1873): "Young Folks' History of the United States " (1875; French translation, 1875; German translation, Stuttgart, 1876); "History of Education in Rhode Island " (1876): " Young Folks' Book of American Explorers" (1877); "Short Studies of American Authors" (1879); "Common-Sense about Women" (1881); "Life of Margaret Fuller Ossoli" (" American Men of Letters " series, 1884); "Larger History of the United States" to the close of Jackson's administration (New York, 1885); "The Monarch of Dreams " (1880); and " Hints on Writing and Speech-making" (1887). He has also translated the "Complete Works of Epictetus" (Boston, 1865), and edited "Harvard Memorial Biographies" (2 vols.. 1866), and "Brief Biographies of European Statesmen " (4 vols., New York, 1875-'7). Several of his works have been reprinted in England.—Thomas Wentworth's nephew, Francis John, naval officer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 19 July, 1843, was graduated at the Naval Academy in 1861, and ordered into active service. He participated in the boat expedition from the "Colorado" that destroyed the Confederate privateer "Judith" in Pensacola U.S. Navy-yard, and was present at the passage of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, acting as signal midshipman to Captain Theodoras Bailey. He took part in the blockade of Charleston. South Carolina, and the bombardment of Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, was on board the " Housatonic" when she was blown up by a torpedo off Charleston, and commanded a detachment of launches operating by night on the communications between Morris Island and Charleston. He became lieutenant in 1862, lieutenant-commander in 1866, and commander in 1876, and is now (1887) in charge of the torpedo station at Newport, Rhode Island.—The first Stephen's great-grandson, Henry Lee, banker, born in New York City, 18 November, 1834, entered Harvard in 1851, but left before the end of his second year. He served in the Civil War, attaining the rank of major and brevet lieutenant-colonel in the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, and was severely wounded at Aldie, Virginia. in 1863. Since the war he has engaged in banking in Boston. He has devoted much of his income to the promotion of music there, and especially to the organization of „the symphony orchestra.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 199.


Howe, Dr. Samuel Gridley, 1801-1876, abolitionist leader, philanthropist, physician, reformer.  Actively participated in the anti-slavery movement.  Free Soil candidate for Congress from Boston in 1846.  From 1851-1853 he edited the anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth.  Active with the U. S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.  Member of the American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission, 1863. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown. Husband of Julia Ward Howe.  (Filler, 1960, pp. 43, 56, 117, 181, 204, 214, 238, 241, 268; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 32, 117, 119-120, 213; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 165, 207, 327, 388, 341; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 296; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 453-456; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 342)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWE, Samuel Gridley, philanthropist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 10 November, 1801; died there, 9 January, 1876. He was graduated at Brown in 1821, and at the Harvard Medical school in 1824. After completing his studies he went to Greece, where he served as surgeon in the war for the independence in 1824-'7, and then as the head of the regular surgical service, which he established in that country. In 1827 he returned to the United States in order to obtain help for the Greeks when they were threatened with a famine, and later founded a colony on the isthmus of Corinth, but in consequence of prostration by swamp-fever he was obliged in 1830 to leave the country. In 1831, his attention having been called to the need of schools for the blind, for whose education no provision had been made in this country, he again visited Europe in order to study the methods of instruction then in use for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the education of the blind. While in Paris he was made president of the Polish committee. In his efforts to convey and distribute funds for the relief of a detachment of the Polish Army that had crossed into Prussia, he was arrested by the Prussian authorities, but, after six weeks' imprisonment, was taken to the French frontier by night and liberated. On his return to Boston in 1832 he gathered several blind pupils at his father's house, and thus gave origin to the school which was afterward known as the Perkins institution, and of which he was the first superintendent, continuing in this office until his death. His greatest achievement in this direction was the education of Laura Bridgman (q. v.). Dr. Howe also took an active part in founding the experimental school for the training of idiots, which resulted in the organization of the Massachusetts school for idiotic and feeble-minded youth in 1851. He was actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement, and was a Free-Soil candidate for Congress from Boston in 1846. During 1851-'3 he edited the “Commonwealth.” Dr. Howe took an active part in the sanitary movement in behalf of the soldiers during the Civil War. In 1867 he again went to Greece as bearer of supplies for the Cretans in their struggle with the Turks, and subsequently edited in Boston “The Cretan.” He was appointed, in 1871, one of the commissioners to visit Santo Domingo and report upon the question of the annexation of that Island to the United States, of which he became an earnest advocate. In 1868 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown. His publications include letters on topics of the time; various reports, especially those of the Massachusetts commissioners of idiots (Boston, 1847-'8); “Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution” (New York, 1828); and a “Reader for the Blind,” printed in raised characters (1839). See “Memoir of Dr. Samuel G. Howe,” by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe (Boston, 1876). —


Hussey, Erastus, 1800-1889, Battle Creek, Michigan, political leader, abolitionist leader, agent, Underground Railroad.  Helped more than one thousand slaves escape after 1840.  Co-founder of the Republican Party.  Member of the Free-Soil and Liberty Parties.  (Dumond, 1961, p. 339)


Jay, John, 1817-1894, New York, diplomat, lawyer.  Grandson of Chief Justice John Jay.  President of the New York Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society in 184.  Active and leader in the Free soil Party and founding member of the Republican Party.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 413-414; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 10; Drake, 1950, pp. 95, 98)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JAY, John, diplomatist, b. in New York city, 23 June, 1817; d. there, 5 May, 1894, was graduated at Muhlenberg's institute, and at Columbia in 1836. After his admission to the bar in 1839 he became well known by his active opposition to slavery and his advocacy of St. Philip's colored church, which was admitted to the Protestant Episcopal convention after a nine years' contest. He was secretary of the Irish relief committee of 1847, and was counsel for many fugitive slaves, including George Kirk, two Brazilian slaves that were landed in New York, Henry Long, and the Lemmons. (See ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN.) In 1854 he organized the meetings at the Broadway tabernacle, that resulted in the state convention at Saratoga on 10 Aug., and in the dissolution of the Whig and the formation of the Republican party at Syracuse, 27 Sept., 1855. During the civil war he acted with the Union league club, of which he was president in 1866, and again in 1877. In 1868, as state commissioner for the Antietam cemetery, he reported to Gov. Reuben E. Fenton on the chartered right of the Confederate dead of that campaign to burial, a right questioned by Gov. John W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, and Hon. John Covode. In 1869 he was sent as minister to Austria, where his diplomatic work included a naturalization treaty, the establishment of a convention on trademarks, and the supervision of the U. S. commission to the world's fair of 1873. He resigned and returned to the United States in 1875, afterward residing in New York city. In 1877 he was appointed by Sec. Sherman chairman of the Jay commission to investigate the system of the New York custom-house, and in 1883 was appointed by Gov. Cleveland as the Republican member of the state civil service commission, of which he was made president. Mr. Jay was active in the early history of the American geographical and statistical society, and was long manager and corresponding secretary of the New York historical society. He was also the first president of the Huguenot society, organized in 1855 in New York. In connection with his political career, Mr. Jay delivered numerous addresses on questions connected with slavery, and also bearing on its relation to the Episcopal church, of which he was a leader among the laity. His speeches and pamphlets, which have been widely circulated, include “America Free, or America Slave” (1856); “The Church and the Rebellion” (1863); “On the Passage of the Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery” (1864); “Rome in America” (1868); “The American Foreign Service” (1877); “The Sunday-School a Safe-guard to the Republic”; “The Fisheries Question”; “The Public School a Portal to the Civil Service.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 413-414.


Julian, George Washington, 1817-1899, Society of Friends, Quaker, statesman, lawyer, radical abolitionist leader from Indiana, vice president of the Free Soil Party, 1852.  Member of U.S. Congress from Indiana, 1850-1851.  Was against the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.  Fought in court to prevent fugitive slaves from being returned to their owners.  Joined and supported early Republican Party.  Re-elected to Congress, 1861-1871.  Supported emancipation of slaves.  Husband of Ann Elizabeth Finch, who was likewise opposed to slavery.  After her death in 1860, he married Laura Giddings, daughter of radical abolitionist Joshua Giddings.  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 486; Blue, 2005, pp. ix, 9, 10, 11, 13, 161-183, 210, 225-229, 259-260, 265-270; Riddleberger, 1966; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 54, 354-355; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 245; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 486-487; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 12, p. 315).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

JULIAN, George Washington, statesman, b. near Centreville, Ind., 5 May, 1817; d. in Irvington, Ind., 7 July, 1899. He taught for three years, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1840. He was elected to the Indiana house of representatives in 1845 as a member of the Whig party; but becoming warmly interested in the slavery question through his Quaker training, severed his party relations in 1848, became one of the founders and leaders of the Free-soil party, was a delegate to the Buffalo convention, and was then elected to congress, serving from 3 Dec., 1849, to 3 March, 1851. In 1852 he was a candidate for the vice-presidency on the Free-soil ticket. He was a delegate to the Pittsburg convention of 1856, the first National convention of the Republican party, and was its vice-president, and chairman of the committee on organization. In 1860 he was elected as a Republican to congress, and served on the joint committee on the conduct of the war. He was four times re-elected, and served on the committee on reconstruction, and for eight years as chairman of the committee on public lands. He espoused the cause of woman suffrage as early as 1847, and in 1868 proposed in congress a constitutional amendment conferring the right to vote on women. During the discussions on reconstruction he was zealous in demanding the electoral franchise for the negro. In 1872 he joined the Liberal Republicans, and supported Horace Greeley for president. His most strenuous efforts in congress were directed to the championship of the homestead policy and the preservation of the public lands for the people. In May, 1885, he was appointed surveyor-general of New Mexico. He had published “Speeches on Political Questions,” containing a sketch of his life by Lydia Maria Child (Boston, 1872), and “Political Recollections” (Chicago, 1884), and had contributed to magazines and reviews articles dealing with political reforms.

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References

(Blue, 1987; Blue, 1973; Blue, 2005, pp. 3, 4, 7, 9-13, 35, 54-55, 66, 68-75, 121, 123, 139, 142, 144-145, 146, 170-171, 184, 198-205, 212, 214, 218-219, 236, 245; Duberman, 1968; Dumond, 1961; Earle, 2004; Filler, 1960, pp. 108, 122, 132, 182, 187, 189, 200, 213, 219, 223, 228, 233, 237, 253; Foner, 1995; Maybee, 1970, pp. 98, 110, 161, 173, 178, 247, 253, 261, 278, 279, 391n29; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4, 7, 9, 19, 22, 26, 35, 44-47, 53-56, 60-73; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 50, 133-136, 173, 225, 297-298, 354, 514, 650-651; Sernett, 2002, pp. 124-127, 152; Smith, 1897)