CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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PHN M. OLIN LIBRARY

Cornell University Library F 142H9 P85 + Portrait and bographical record of Hunt

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The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.

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Containing Portraits and Biographies of many well known Citizens of the Past and Present.

Together with Portraits and Biographies of all the Presidents

of the United States.

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CHAPMAN	PUBLISHING COMPANY
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	1898
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'HE greatest of English historians, Macaulay, and one of the most brilliant writers of the present century, has said: "The history of a country is best told in a record of the lives of its people." In conformity with this idea, the Portrait and Biographical Record of this county has been prepared. Instead of going to musty records, and taking therefrom dry statistical matter that can be appreciated by but few, our corps of writers have gone to the people, the men and women who have, by their enterprise and industry, brought the county to a rank second to none among those comprising this groat and noble state, and from their lips have the story of their life struggles. No more interesting or instructive matter could be presented to an intelligent public. In this volume will be found a record of many whose lives are worthy the imitation of coming generations. It tells how some, commencing life in poverty, by industry and economy have accumulated wealth. It tells how others, with limited advantages for securing an education, have become learned men and women, with an influence extending throughout the length and breadth of the land. It tells of men who have risen from the lower walks of life to eminence as statesmen, and whose names have become famous. It tells of those in every walk in life who have striven to succeed, and records how that success has usually crowned their eiforts. It tells also of many, very many, who, not seeking the applause of the world, have pursued "the even tenor of their way," content to have it said of them, as Christ said of the woman performing a deed of mercy — ' 'They have done what they could. ' ' It tells how that many in the pride and strength of young manhood left the plow and the anvil, the lawyer's ofiice and the counting-room, left every trade and profession, and at their country's call went forth valiantly "to do or die," and how through their efforts the Union was restored and peace once more reigned in the land. In the life of ever^ man and of every woman is a lesson that should not be lost upon those who follow after.

Coming generations will appreciate this volume and preserve it as a sacred treasure, from the fact that it contains so much that would never find its way into public records, and which would otherwise be inaccessible. Great care has been taken in the compilation of the work, and every opportunity possible given to those represented to insure correctness in what has been written, and the publishers flatter themselves that they give to their readers a work with few errors of consequence. In addition to the biographical sketches, portraits of a number of representative citizens are given.

The faces of some, and biographical sketches of many, will be missed in this volume. For this the publishers are not to blame. Not having a proper conception of the work, some refused to give the information necessary to compile a sketch, while others were indifferent. Occasionally some member of the family would oppose the enterprise, and on account of such opposition the support of the interested one would be withheld. In a few instances men could never be found, though repeated calls were made at their residences or places of business.

Chapman Publishing Co.

July, 1898.

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Portraits and Biographies

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PRESIDENTS

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l^ 4

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

HE Father of our Country was bom in West- moreland County, Va., February 22, 1732. His parents were Augustine and Mary (Ball) Washington. The family to which he belonged has not been satisfactorily traced in England. His great-grandfather, John Washington, emi- grated to Virginia about 1657, and became a prosperous planter. He had two sons, Ivawrence and John. The former married Mildred Warner, and had three children, John, Augustine and Mildred. Augustine, the father of George, first married Jane Butler, who bore him four children, two of whom, I^awrence and Augustine, reached maturity. Of six children by his second mar- riage, George was the eldest, the others being Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles and Mildred.

Augustine Washington, the father of George, died in 1743, leaving a large landed property. To his eldest son, Lawrence, he bequeathed an estate on the Potomac, afterwards known as Mt. Vernon, and to George he left the parental resi- dence. George received only such education as the neighborhood schools afforded, save for a short time after he left school, when he received private instruction in mathematics. His spelling was rather defective. Remarkable stories are told of his great physical strength and develop- ment at an early age. He was an acknowledged leader among his companions, and was early noted for that nobleness of character, fairness and veracity which characterized his whole life.

When George was fourteen years old he had a desire to go to sea, and a midshipman's warrant was secured for him, but through the opposition of his mother the idea was abandoned. Two

years later he was appointed surveyor to the im- mense estate of Lord Fairfax. In this business he spent three years in a rough frontier life, gaining experience which afterwards proved very essential to him. In 1751, though only nineteen years of age, he was appointed Adjutant, with the rank of Major, in the Virginia militia, then being trained for active service against the French and Indian's. Soon after this he sailed to the West Indies with his brother Lawrence, who went there to restore his health. They soon returned, and in the summer of 1752 Lawrence died, leaving a large fortune to an infant daughter, who did not long survive him. On her demise the estate of Mt. Vernon was given to George.

Upon the arrival of Robert Dinwiddie as Lieu- tenant-Governor of Virginia, in 1752, the militia was reorganized, and the province divided into four military districts, of which the northern was assigned to Washington as Adjutant- General. Shortly after this a very perilous mission, which others had refused, was assigned him and ac- cepted. This was to proceed to the French post near Lake Erie, in northwestern Pennsylvania. The distance to be traversed was about six hun- dred miles. Winter was at hand, and the journey was to be made without military escort, through a territory occupied by Indians. The trip was a perilous one, and several times he nearly lost his life, but he returned in safety and furnished a full and useful report of his expedition. A regiment of three hundred men was raised in Virginia and put in command of Col. Joshua Fry, and Maj. Washington was commissioned Lieutenant- Colo- nel. Active war was then begun against the French and Indians, in which Washington took

20

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

a most important part. In the memorable event of July 9, 1755, known as "Braddock's defeat," Washington was almost the only officer of dis- tinction who escaped from the calamities of the day with life and honor.

Having been for five years in the military serv- ice, and having vainly sought promotion in the royal army, he took advantage of the fall of Ft. Du- quesne and the expulsion of the French from the valley of the Ohio to resign his commission. Soon after he entered the legislature, where, although not a leader, he took an active and important part. January 17, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha (Dandridge) Custis, the wealthy widow of John Parke Custis.

When the British Parliament had closed the port of Boston, the cry went up throughout the provinces, ' ' The cause ot Boston is the cause of us all! " It was then, at the suggestion of Vir- ginia, that a congress of all the colonies was called to meet at Philadelphia September 5, 1774, to secure their common liberties, peaceably if possible. To this congress Col. Washington was sent as a delegate. On May 10, 1775, the congress re-assembled, when the hostile inten- tions of England were plainly apparent. The battles of Concord and Lexington had been fought, and among the first acts of this congress was the election of a commander-in-chief of the Colonial forces. This high and responsible office was con- ferred upon Washington, who was still a member of the congress. He accepted it on June 19, but upon the express condition that he receive no sal- ary. He would keep an exact account of ex- penses, and expect congress to pay them and nothing more. It is not the object of this sketch to trace the military acts of Washington, to whom the fortunes and liberties of the people of this country were so long confided. The war was conducted by him under every possible disadvan- tage; and while his forces often met with reverses, yet he overcame every obstacle, and after seven years of heroic devotion and matchless skill he gained liberty for the greatest nation of earth. On December 23, 1783, Washington, in a parting address of surpassing beauty, resigned his com- mission as Commander-in-Chief of the army to the

Continental Congress sitting at Annapolis. He retired immediately to Mt. Vernon and resumed his occupation as a farmer and planter, shunning all connection with public life.

In February, 1789, Washington was unani- mously elected President, and at the expiration of his first term he was unanimously re-elected. At the end of this term many were anxious that he be re-elected, but he absolutely refused a third nomination. On March 4, 1797, at the expiration of his second term as President, he returned to his home, hoping to pass there his few remaining years free from the annoyances of public life. I,ater in the year, however, his repose seemed likely to be interrupted by war with France. At the prospect of such a war he was again iirged to take command of the army, but he chose his sub- ordinate officers and left them the charge of mat- ters in the field, which he superintended from his home. In accepting the command, he made the reservation that he was not to be in the field until it was necessary. In the midst of these prepara- tions his life was suddenly cut off. December 12 he took a severe cold from a ride in the rain, which, settling in his throat, produced inflamma- tion, and terminated fatally on the night of the 14th. On the 1 8th his body was borne with mili- tary honors to its final resting-place, and interred in the family vault at Mt. Vernon.

Of the character of Washington it is impossible to speak but in terms of the highest respect and admiration. The more we see of the operations of our government, and the more deeply we feel the difficulty of uniting all opinions in a common interest, the more highly we must estimate the force of his talent and character, which have been able to challenge the reverence of all parties, and principles, and nations, and to win a fame as extended as the limits of the globe, and which we cannot but believe will be as lasting as the exist- ence of man.

In person, Washington was unusually tall, erect and well proportioned, and his muscular str'eno-th was great. His features were of a beausiful sym- metry. He commanded respect without any an pearance of haughtiness, and was ever serin«e without being dull. ^"°"®

JOHN ADAMS.

30HN ADAMS, the second President and the first Vice-President of the United States, was born in Braintree (now Quincy) Mass. , and about ten miles from Boston, October 19, 1735. His great-grandfather, Henry Adams, emigrated from England about 1640, with a family of eight sons, and settled at Braintree. The parents of John were John and Susannah (Boylston) Adams. His father, who was a farmer of limited means, also engaged in the business of shoe- making. He gave his eldest son, John, a classical education at Harvard College. John graduated in 175s, and at once took charge of the school at Worcester, Mass. This he found but a ' ' school of affliction, ' ' from which he endeavored to gain relief by devoting himself, in addition, to the study of law. For this purpose he placed himself under the tuition of the only lawyer in the town. He had thought seriously of the clerical profes- sion, but seems to have been turned from this by what he termed "the frightful engines of ecclesi- astical councils, of diabolical malice, and Calvin- istic good nature," of the operations of which he had been a witness in his native town. He was well fitted for the legal profession, possessing a clear, sonorous voice, being ready and fluent of speech, and having quick perceptive powers. He gradually gained a practice, and in 1764 married Abigail Smith, a daughter of a minister, and a lady of superior intelligence. Shortly after his marriage, in 1765, the attempt at parliamentary taxation turned him from law to politics. He took initial steps toward holding a town meeting, and the resolutions he offered on the subject be- came very popular throughout the province, and were adopted word for word by over forty differ- ent towns. He moved to Boston in 1768, and became one of the most courageous and promi- nent advocates of the popular cause, and was chosen a member of the General Court (the I.eg-

islature) in 1770. . Mr. Adams was chosen one of the first dele-

gates from Massachusetts to the first Continent- al Congress, which met in 1774. Here he dis- tinguished himself by his capacity for business and for debate, and advocated the movement for independence against the majority of the mem- bers. In May, 1776, he moved^nd carried a res- olution in Congress that the Colonies should assume the duties of self-government. He was a prominent member of the committee of five ap- pointed June 1 1 to prepare a declaration of inde- pendence. This article was drawn by Jefferson, but on Adams devolved the task of battling it through Congress in a three-days debate.

On the day after the Declaration of Independ- ence was passed, while his soul was yet warm with the glow of excited feeling, he wrote a letter to his wife, which, as we read it now, seems to have been dictated by the spirit of prophecy. "Yesterday," he says, "the greatest question was decided that ever was debated in America; and greater, perhaps, never was or will be de- cided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, 'that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and in- dependent states.' The day is passed. The Fourth of July, 1776, will be a memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treas- ure that it will cost to maintain this declaration and support and defend these States; yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means, and that posterity will triumph,

24

JOHN ADAMS.

although you and I may rue, which I hope we shall not."

In November, 1777, Mr. Adams was appointed a delegate to France, and to co-operate with Ben- jamin Franklin and Arthur Lee, who were then in Paris, in the endeavor to obtain assistance in arms and money from the French government. This was a severe trial to his patriotism, as it separated him from his home, compelled him to cross the ocean in winter, and exposed him to great peril of capture by the British cruisers, who were seeking him. He left France June 17, 1779. In September of the same year he was again chosen to go to Paris, and there hold 1 jm- self in readiness to negotiate a treaty of peace and of commerce with Great Britain, as soon as the British cabinet might be found willing to listen to such proposals. He sailed for France in No- vember, and from there he went to Holland, where he negotiated important loans and formed im- portant commercial treaties.

Finally, a treaty of peace with England was signed, January 2 1 , 1783. The re-action from the excitement, toil and anxiety through which Mr. Adams had passed threw him into a fever. After suffering from a continued fever and becoming feeble and emaciated, he was advised to go to England to drink the waters of Bath. While in England, still drooping and desponding, he re- ceived dispatches from his own government urg- ing the necessity of his going to Amsterdam to negotiate another loan. It was winter, his health was delicate, yet he immediately set out, and through storm, on sea, on horseback and foot, he made the trip.

February 24, 1785, Congress appointed Mr. Adams envoy to the Court of St. James. Here he met face to face the King of England, who had so long regarded him as a traitor. As Eng- land did not condescend to appoint a minister to the United States, and as Mr. Adams felt that he was accomplishing but little, he sought permis- sion to return to his own country, where he ar- rived in June, 1788.

When Washington was first chosen President, John Adams, rendered illustrious by his signal services at home and abroad, was chosen Vice-

President. Again, at the second election of Wash- ington as President, Adams was chosen Vice- President. In 1796, Washington retired from public life, and Mr. Adams was elected President, though not without much opposition. Serving in this office four years, he was succeeded by Mr. Jefferson, his opponent in politics.

While Mr. Adams was Vice-President the great French Revolution shook the continent of Europe, and it was upon this point that he was at issue with the majority of his countrymen, led by Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Adams felt no sympathy with the French people in their struggle, for he had no confidence in their power of self-govern- ment, and he utterly abhorred the class of atheist philosophers who, he claimed, caused it. On the other hand, Jefferson's sympathies were strongly enlisted in behalf of the French people. Hence originated the alienation between these distin- tinguished men, and the two powerful parties were thus soon organized, with Adams at the head of the one whose sympathies were with England, and Jefferson leading the other in sympathy with France.

The Fourth of July, 1826, which completed the half-century since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, arrived, and there were but three of the signers of that immortal instrument left upon the earth to hail its morning light. And, as it is well known, on that day two of these finished their earthly pilgrimage, a coinci- dence so remarkable as to seem miraculous. For a few days before Mr. Adams had been rapidly faiUng, and on the morning of the Fourth he found himself too weak to rise from his bed. On . being requested to name a toast for the cus- tomary celebration of the day, he exclaimed "Independence forever!" When the day was ushered in by the ringing of bells and the firing of cannons, he was asked by one of his attend- ants if he knew what day it was ? He replied, " O yes, it is the glorious Fourth of July— God bless it — God bless you all!" In the course of the day he said, "It is a great and glorious day. ' ' The last words he uttered were, ' ' Jeffer- son survives." But he had, at one o'clock resigned his spirit into the hands of his God.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

'HOMAS JEFFERSON was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Va. His parents were Peter and Jane (Ran- dolph) Jefferson, the former a native of Wales, and the latter born in I^ondon. To them were bom six daughters and two sons, of whom Thomas was the elder. When fourteen years of age his father died. He received a most liberal educa- tion, having been kept diligently at school from the time he was five years of age. In 1760 he entered William and Mary College. Williams- burg was then the seat of the Colonial court, and it was the abode of fashion and splendor. Young Jefferson, who was then seventeen years old, lived somewhat expensively, keeping fine horses, and going much into gay society; yet he was ear- nestly devoted to his studies, and irreproachable in his morals. In the second year of his college course, moved by some unexplained impulse, he discarded his old companions and pursuits, and often devoted fifteen hours a day to hard study. He thus attained very high intellectual culture, and a like excellence in philosophy and the lan- guages.

Immediately upon leaving college he began the study of law. For the short time he continued in the practice of his profession he rose rapidly, and distinguished himself by his energy and acuteness as a lawyer. But the times called for greater action. The policy of England had awak- ened the spirit of resistance in the American Col- onies, and the enlarged views which Jefferson had ever entertained soon led him into active politi- cal life. In 1 769 he was chosen a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. In 1772 he mar-

ried Mrs. Martha Skelton, a very beautiful, wealthy, and highly accomplished young widow.

In 1775 he was sent to the Colonial Congress, where, though a silent member, his abilities as a writer and a reasoner soon become known, and he was placed upon a number of important com- mittees, and was chairman of the one appointed for the drawing up of a declaration of independ- ence. This committee consisted of Thomas Jef ferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson, as chairman, was appointed to draw up the paper. Franklin and Adams suggested a few verbal changes before it was submitted to Congress. On June 28, a few slight changes were made in it by Congress, and it was passed and signed July 4, 1776.

In 1779 Mr. Jefferson was elected successor to Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia. At one time the British ofiicer Tarleton sent a secret expedition to Monticello to capture the Governor. Scarcely five minutes elapsed after the hurried escape of Mr. Jefferson and his family ere his mansion was in possession of the British troops. His wife's health, never very good, was much injured by this excitement, and in the summer of 1782 she died.

Mr. Jefferson was elected to Congress in 1783. Two years later he was appointed Minister Pleni- potentiary to France. Returning to the United States in September, 1789, he became Secretary of State in Washington's cabinet. This position he resigned January i, 1794. In 1797, he was chosen Vice-President, and four years later was elected President over Mr. Adams, with Aaron

28

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Burr as Vice-President. In 1804 he was re- elected with wonderful unanimity, George Clin- ton being elected Vice-President.

The early part of Mr. Jefferson's second ad- ministration was disturbed by an event which threatened the tranquillity and peace of the Union; this was the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. Defeated in the late election to the Vice-Presidency, and led on by an unprincipled ambition, this extraor- dinary man formed the plan of a military ex- pedition into the Spanish territories on our south- western frontier, for the purpose of forming there a new republic. This was generally supposed to have been a mere pretext; and although it has not been generally known what his real plans were, there is no doubt that they were of a far more dangerous character.

In 1809, at the expiration of the second term for which Mr. Jefferson had been elected, he de- termined to retire from political life. For a period of nearly forty years he had been continually be- fore the public, and all that time had been em- ployed in offices of the greatest trust and respon- sibility. Having' thus devoted the best part of his life to the service of his country, he now felt desirous of that rest which his declining years re- quired, and upon the organization of the new ad- ministration, in March, 1809, he bade farewell for- ever to public life and retired to Monticello, his famous country home, which, next to Mt. Vernon, was the most distinguished residence in the land.

The Fourth of July, 1826, being the fiftieth an- niversary of the Declaration of American Inde- pendence, great preparations were made in every part of the Union for its celebration as the nation's jubilee, and the citizens of Washington, to add to the solemnity of the occasion, invited Mr. Jeffer- son, as the framer and one of the few surviving signers of the Declaration, to participate in their festivities. But an illness, which had been of several weeks' duration and had been continually increasing, compelled him to decline the invita- tion.

On the 2d of July the disease under which he was laboring left him, but in such a reduced state that his medical attendants entertained no hope of his recovery. From this time he was

perfectly sensible that his last hour was at hand. On the next day, which was Monday, he asked of those around him the day of the month, and on being told it was the 3d of July, he ex- pressed the earnest wish that he might be per- mitted to breathe the air of the fiftieth anniver- sary. His prayer was heard — that day whose dawn was hailed with such rapture through our land burst upon his eyes, and then they were closed forever. And what a noble consummation of a noble life! To die on that day — the births day of a nation — the day which his own name and his own act had rendered glorious, to die amidst the rejoicings and festivities of a whole nation, who looked up to him as the author, un- der God, of their greatest blessings, was all that was wanting to fill up the record of his life.

Almost at the same hour of his death, the kin- dred spirit of the venerable Adams, as if to bear him company, left the sqene of his earthly honors. Hand in hand they had stood forth, the cham- pions of freedom ; hand in hand, during the dark and desperate struggle of the Revolution, they had cheered and animated their desponding coun- trymen; for half a century they had labored to- gether for the good of the 'country, and now hand in hand they departed. In their lives they had been united in the same great cause of liberty, and in their deaths they were not divided.

In person Mr. Jefferson was tall and thin, rather above six feet in height, but well formed; his eyes were light, his hair, originally red, in after life be- came white and silvery, his complexion was fair, his forehead broad, and his whole countenance intelligent and thoughtful. He possessed great fortitude of mind as well as personal courage, and his command of temper was such that his oldest and most intimate friends never recollected to have seen him in a passion. His manners, though dignified, were simple and unaffected, and his hospitality was so unbounded that all found at his house a ready welcome. In conversation he was fluent, eloquent and enthusiastic, and his language was remarkably pure and correct. He was a finished classical scholar, and in his writ- ings is discernible the care with which he formed his style upon the best models of antiquity.

JAMES MADISON.

(Tames MADISON, "Father of the Consti-

I tution," and fourth President of the United G/ States, was born March i6, 1757, and died at his home in Virginia June 28, 1836. The name of James Madison is inseparably connected with most of the important events in that heroic period of our country during which the founda- tions of this great repubhc were laid. He was the last of the founders of the Constitution of the United States to be called to his eternal reward.

The Madison family were among the early emi- grants to the New "World, landing upon the shores of the Chesapeake but fifteen years after the settle- ment of Jamestown. The father of James Madison was an opulent planter, residing upon a very fine estate called Montpelier, in Orange County, Va. It was but twenty -five miles from the home of Jef- ferson at Monticello, and the closest personal and political attachment existed between these illustri- ous men from their early youth until death.

The early education of Mr. Madison was con- ducted mostly at home under a private tutor. At the age of eighteen he was sent to Princeton Col- lege, in New Jersey. Here he applied himself to study with the most imprudent zeal, allowing him- self for months but three hours' sleep out of the twenty-four. His health thus became so seriously impaired that he never recovered any vigor of constitution. He graduated in 1 77 1 , with a feeble body, but with a character of utmost purity, and a mind highly disciplined and richly stored with learning, which embellished and gave efiiciency to his subsequent career.

Returning to Virginia, he commenced the study of law and a course of extensive and systematic reading. This educational course, the spirit of the times in which he lived, and the society with which he associated, all combined to inspire him with a strong love of liberty, and to train him for his life-work as a statesman.

In the spring of 1776, when twenty-six years of

age, he was elected a member of the Virginia Con- vention to frame the constitution of the State. The next year (1777) , he was a candidate for the Gen- eral Assembly. He refused to treat the whisky -lov- ing voters, and consequently lost his election; but those who had witnessed the talent, energy and pubUc spirit of the modest young man enlisted themselves in his behalf, and he was appointed to the Executive Council.

Both Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were Governors of Virginia while Mr. Madison re- mained member of the Council, and their apprecia- tion of his intellectual, social and moral worth contributed not a little to his subsequent eminence. In the year 1780 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress. Here he met the most il- lustrious men in our land, and he was immediately assigned to one of the most conspicuous positions among them. For three years he continued in Con- gress, one of its most active and influential mem- bers. In 1784, his term having expired, he was elected a member of the Virginia I^egislature.

No man felt more deeply than Mr. Madison the utter inefficiency of the old confederacy, with no national government, and no power to form trea- ties which would be binding, or to enforce law. There was not any State more prominent than Virginia in the declaration that an efficient na- tional government must be formed. In January, 1786, Mr. Madison carried a resolution through the General Assembly of Virginia, inviting the other States to appoint commissioners to meet in convention at Annapolis to discuss this subject. Five States only were represented. The conven- tion, however, issued another call, drawn up by Mr. Madison, urging all the States to send their delegates to Philadelphia in May, 1787, to draft a Constitution for the United States, to take the place of the Confederate I^eague. The delegates met at the time appointed. Every State but Rhode Island was represented. George Washing-

32

JAMES MADISON.

ton was chosen president of tlie convention, and tlie present Constitution of the United States was then and there formed. There was, perhaps, no mind and no pen more active in framing this immortal document than the mind and the pen of James Madison.

The Constitution, adopted by a vote of eighty-one to seventy-nine, was to be presented to the several States for acceptance. But grave solicitude was felt. Should it be rejected, we should be left but a conglomeration of independent States, with but little power at home and little respect abroad. Mr. Madison was elected by the convention to draw up an address to the people of the United States, ex- pounding the principles of the Constitution, and urging its adoption. There was great opposition to it at first, but at length it triumphed over all, and went into effect in 1789.

Mr. Madison was elected to the House of Repre- sentatives in the first Congress, and soon became the avowed leader of the Republican party. While in New York attending Congress, he met Mrs. Todd, a young widow of remarkable power of fas- cination, whom he married. She was in person and character queenly, and probaby no lady has thus far occupied so prominent a position in the very peculiar society which has constituted our republican court as did Mrs. Madison.

Mr. Madison served as Secretary of State under Jefferson, and at the close of his administration was chosen President. At this time the encroach- ments of England had brought us to the verge of war. British orders in council destroyed our com- merce, and our flag was exposed to constant insult. Mr. Madison was a man of peace. Scholarly in his taste, retiring in his disposition, war had no charms for him. But the meekest spirit can be roused. It makes one's blood boil, even now, to think of an American ship brought to upon the ocean by the guns of an English cruiser. A young Ueutenant steps on board and orders the crew to be paraded before him. With gfeat non- chalance he selects any number whom he may please to designate as British subjects, orders them down the ship's side into his boat, and places them on the gundeck of his man-of-war, to fight, by compulsion, the battles of England. This right

of search and impressment no efforts of our Gov- ernment could induce the British cabinet to re- linquish.

On the 1 8th of June, 1812, President Madison gave his approval to an act of Congress declaring war against Great Britain. Notwithstanding the bitter hostility of the Federal party to the war, the country in general approved; and Mr. Madison, on the 4th of March, 181 3, was re-elected by a large majority, and entered upon his second term of office. This is not the place to describe the various adventures of this war on the land and on the water. Our infant navy then laid the found- ations of its renown in grappling with the most formidable power which ever swept the seas. The contest commenced in earnest by the appearance of a British fleet, early in February, 1813, in Chesapeake Bay, declaring nearly the whole coast of the United States under blockade.

The Emperor of Russia offered his services as mediator. America accepted; England refused. A British force of five thousand men landed on the banks of the Patuxet River, near its entrance into Chesapeake Bay, and marched rapidly, by way of Bladensburg, upon Washington.

The straggling little city of Washington was thrown into consternation. The cannon of the brief conflict at Bladensburg echoed through the streets of the metropolis. The whole population fled from the city. The President, leaving Mrs. Madison in the White House, with her carriage drawn up at the door to await his speedy return, hurried to meet the officers in a council of war. He met our troops utterly routed, and he could not go back without danger of being captured. But few hours elapsed ere the Presidential Mansion, the Capitol, and all the public buildings in Wash- ington were in flames.

The war closed after two years of fighting, and on February 13, 18 15, the treaty of peace was signed at Ghent. On the 4th of March, 1817, his second term of ofiice expired, and he resigned the Presidential chair to his friend, James Monroe. He retired to his beautiful home at Montpelier, and there passed the remainder of his days. On June 28, 1836, at the age of eighty-five years, he fell asleep in death. Mrs. Madison died July 12, 1849.

JAMES MONROE.

3 AMES MONROE, the fifth President of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Va., April 28, 1758. His early life was passed at the place of his nativity. His an- cestors had for many years resided in the province in which he was born. When he was seventeen years old, and in process of completing his educa- tion at William and Mary College, the Colonial Congress, assembled at Philadelphia to deliberate upon the unjust and manifold oppressions of Great Britain, declared the separation of the Colonies, and promulgated the Declaration of Independence. Had he been born ten years before, it is highly probable that he would have been one of the signers of that celebrated instrument. At this time he left school and enlisted among the pa- triots.

He joined the army when everything looked hopeless and gloomy. The number of deserters increased from day to day. The invading armies came pouring in, and the Tories not only favored the cause of the mother country, but disheartened the new recruits, who were sufficiently terrified at the prospect of contending with an enemy whom they had been taught to deem invincible. To such brave spirits as James Monroe, who went right onward undismayed through difficulty and danger, the United States owe their political emancipation . The young cadet j oined the ranks and espoused the cause of his injured country, with a firm determination to live or die in her strife for liberty. Firmly, yet sadly, he shared in the melancholy retreat from Harlem Heights and White Plains, and accompanied the dispirited army as it fled before its foes through New Jersey. In four months after the Declaration of Inde- pendence, the patriots had been beaten in seven battles. At the battle of Trenton he led the van- guard, and in the act of charging upon the enemy he received a wound in the left shoulder.

As a reward for his bravery, Mr. Monroe was promoted to be captain of infantry, and, having re- covered from his wounds, he rejoined the army. He, however, receded from the line of promotion by becoming an officer on the staff of lyord Ster- ling. During the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, in the actions of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, he continued aide-de-camp; but be- coming desirous to regain his position in the army, he exerted himself to collect a regiment for the Virginia line. This scheme failed, owing to the exhausted condition of the State. Upon this failure he entered.the office of Mr. Jefferson, at that period Governor, and pursued with consid- erable ardor the study of common law. He did not, however, entirely lay aside the knapsack for the green bag, but on the invasion of the enemy served as a volunteer during the two years of his legal pursuits.

In 1782 he was elected from King George County a member of the I^egislature of Virginia, and by that body he was elevated to a seat in the Executive Council. He was thus honored with the confidence of his fellow-citizens at twenty- three years of age, and having at this early period displayed some of that ability and aptitude for legislation which were afterward employed with unremitting energy for the public good, he was in the succeeding year chosen a member of the Congress of the United States.

Deeply as Mr. Monroe felt the imperfections of the old Confederacy, he was opposed to the new Constitution, thinking, with many others of the Republican party, that it gave too much power to the Central Government, and not enough to the individual States. Still he retained the esteem of his friends who were its warm supporters, and who, notwithstanding his opposition, secured its adoption. In 1789 he became a member of the United States Senate, which office he held for

36

JAMES MONROE.

fotir years. Every month the line of distinction between the two great parties which divided the nation, the Federal and the Republican, was growing more distinct. The differences which now separated them lay in the fact that the Repub- lican party was in sympathy with France, and also in favor of such a strict construction of the Constitution as to give the Central Government as little power, and the State Governments as much power, as the Constitution would warrant; while the Federalists sympathized with England, and were in favor of a liberal construction of the Con- stitution, which would give as much power to the Central Government as that document could pos- sibly authorize.

Washington was then President. England had espoused the cause of the Bourbons against