The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White & Company, 1895.
    Source Type
    Secondary
    Year
    1895
    Publication Type
    Book
    Citation:
    "Reeder, Andrew Horatio,"The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1898), 8: 340.
    Body Summary:
    REEDER, Andrew Horatio, first governor of Kansas territory (1854-55) was born at Easton, Pa., Jul. 12, 1807. He received an academical education at Lawrenceville, N. J., studied law, and entered upon professional practice in his native city. Here, after the customary vicissitudes of a young lawyer, he rose to a local eminence unsurpassed in eastern Pennsylvania. His political and business life was distinguished for energy, integrity and high intelligence, and as an ardent Democrat he was an active participant in its councils and campaigns previous to his appointment to the governorship of Kansas territory. He was not an applicant for the position and did not know that his name was under consideration until informed that Asa Packer and John W. Forney had interceded with the president on his behalf. When informed that Pres. Pierce had decided to tender him the appointment, he took the matter under advisement, and early in the fall of 1854 concluded to accept, setting out at once for Fort Leavenworth, the territorial capital. Gov. Reeder was supposed to be in sympathy with the administration, and in favor of extending slavery to Kansas territory, but his first public acts indicated that he was not prepared to use the power of his administration to this end. If his mind was not fully clear on this question, the lawlessness of the Missouri border ruffians satisfied him that the extension of slavery into Kansas would be a menace to civilization and leave a stain upon the fair name of the young territory whose destinies were for the time in his keeping. He, however, issued certificates for a sufficient number of the fraudulent election returns to allow the establishment of the pro-slavery convention on the ground that they were evidently correct in form and were not contested. Nevertheless, he showed himself entirely opposed to the policy of the pro-slavery party. As soon as his position was fully understood in Washington, the administration became dissatisfied, and after thirteen months of official life lie was removed from office. Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, headed a delegation which demanded his removal from the president on the ground that he had engaged in various speculations and in the traffic of lots and lands in and near the various towns competing for the location of the territorial capitol. As a matter of fact he had owned but little land in the territory, had made no speculations whatever, and in all respects had been an upright man and honest executive. Gov. Reeder was not embarrassed by his removal from office. He felt that his cause was just, and he was endorsed by being nominated as the free-state candidate for delegate to congress. He received a majority of all the votes cast, but was never seated. A committee consisting of William A. Howard of Michigan, John Sherman of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver of Missouri was appointed by the house of representatives to investigate the election, but the feeling in Kansas was so intense and the difficulty of securing evidence so great that the matter was not pursued. After a short stay in Kansas he made his way East, and, fearing mob violence at the hands of his pro-slavery enemies, traveled from Lawrence to Alton, Ill., disguised. In Alton, his presence occasioned the wildest enthusiasm, and at every town on the way he was detained, and crowds assembled to welcome him and promise protection from any attempt to return him to the territory. Arriving in Easton, he at once entered the campaign for John C. Fremont for president, and in 1860 he was a prominent candidate for vice-president before the national Republican convention. At the breaking out of the war he was appointed brigadier- general in the regular army by Pres. Lincoln, but declined. Gov. Reeder was married, in 1831, to Amelia Hutter of Easton, Pa. They had eight children. He died at Easton, Pa., Jul. 5, 1864.
    Citation:
    “Collins, Charles,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1896), 6: 430.
    Body Summary:
    COLLINS, Charles, tenth president of Dickinson College (1852-60), was born in North Yarmouth, Me., Apr. 17, 1813. He was graduated it Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in 1837, and is chiefly distinguished by his labors as an educator. After his graduation he taught for а rear in the High School at Augusta, Me. On the establishment of Emory and Henry College, at Emory, Va., in 1838, Dr. Collins was made president, and held the office until 1852, -when he was called to the presidency of Dickinson College. He retired in 1860. From this time until his death he was president of the State Female College, near Memphis. Tenn. He preached in the Methodist church, and contributed largely to Methodist journals. A discourse on "Methodism and Calvinism Compared” was published in 1849. He died in Memphis, Tenn., July 10. 1875.
    Citation:
    "Hobson, Edward Henry," The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1894), 5: 13.
    Body Summary:
    HOBSON, Edward Henry, soldier, was born in Greensburg, Ky., July 11, 1825. He received a common-school education in Greensburg and Danville. At the outbreak of the Mexican war in 1846, he enlisted in the 2d regiment of Kentucky volunteers, was soon appointed first lieutenant, and fought bravely in the battle of Buena Vista, Feb. 22-23, 1847. He was mustered out of the service in June, 1847, returned to Greensburg and resumed mercantile business. He was elected a director of the Branch bank of Kentucky in 1853. and served as president from 1857 to 1861. When the civil war was declared he promptly offered his services to the national government, and afterward organized, and became colonel of, the 13th Kentucky volunteers. He joined Gen. Buell's army in the South in February, 1862, and led his regiment with such success at the battle of Shiloh that he was nominated by President Lincoln for a brigadier generalship. Before receiving his commission he took part in the siege of Corinth, was present at Perrysville, and later served at Mumfordsville, Ky., to protect the lines of communication and discipline about 10,000 new troops. Receiving his commission as brigadier-general, he was placed in command of the southern division of Kentucky troops and ordered to Marrowbone, Ky., where he watched the movements of Gen. John Morgan, and, after a slight engagement, pursued him through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. He was appointed to the command of Gen. Burnside's cavalry corps, but ill health prevented him from serving in that capacity, and afterward he again engaged in re-polling raids at Lexington, Ky. He was mustered out of service in September, 1865, since when he has been actively occupied with business interests. He was vice-president of the National republican convention of 1880. Subsequently he became president of the southern division of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad company.
    Citation:
    “Stanton, Elizabeth Cady,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1893), 3: 84-85.
    Body Summary:
    STANTON, Elizabeth Cady, reformer, was born at Johnstown, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1815…In 1840 she married Henry B. Stanton, already well known as a leader and lecturer in the anti-slavery movement. Mr. Stanton being a delegate to the "World's Anti-Slavery convention" held in London in June, 1840, they went to that city on their wedding trip. Here her indignation was stirred anew by the imputation of inferiority cast upon women by the refusal to admit Mrs. Mott and other American women who had been regularly appointed delegates. In Mrs. Mott she met for the first time a liberal-minded thinker among her own sex, and the friendship thus begun continued through forty years, and assisted in determining Mrs. Stanton to devote her life and energies to the social, political and moral elevation of women…In 1846 she removed to Seneca Falls, and, with Mrs. Mott and others, issued the call for the first Woman's Rights convention. It was held at Seneca Falls July 19 and 20, 1848, and inaugurated the woman-suffrage movement. Though in her call she defined the object of the convention to be the discussion of the social, civil and religious rights of women, and made no allusion to women's political rights, yet in her declaration of sentiments, which she prepared as a basis for discussion, she declared it to be the duty of "women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise," which, has ever since been the keynote of the movement. Neither her husband, who had prepared for the convention an abstract of the laws bearing unjustly against the property interests of women, nor Mrs. Mott, who was the ruling spirit of the occasion, approved of Mrs. Stanton's demand for the ballot, and argued that it would only bring ridicule on the cause. Mrs. Stanton persisted, however, and spoke vigorously and eloquently in [defence] of her course, with the result that her declaration and resolutions in detail were adopted by the convention. This new departure of the movement had no sympathizers outside the convention, and of those members who signed, many requested later to have their names withdrawn. Judge Cady, alarmed at his daughter's radicalism, hastened to her home, where he labored anxiously with her, but in vain, to change her convictions. In 1850 Miss Anthony became Mrs. Stanton's associate laborer in reform — the former managing affairs, the latter writing — each supplementing the work of the other, and both laboring with unselfish ambition and enthusiasm for the cause of woman's rights. Whatever may have been imprudent in their utterances, or impolitic in their methods, their motives have always been the result of the highest moral regard for woman's advancement socially and morally. For forty years they have been co-workers and devoted friends, and likened to the two sticks of a drum in keeping up the "rub-a-dub of agitation." Mrs. Stanton has lectured widely to secure the abolition of laws unjust to her sex: she has also frequently addressed state legislatures, asking for changes in the laws relating to intemperance, education, divorce, slavery and suffrage. Her declaration was modeled after Jefferson's declaration of independence, and constituted the first public demand on record for woman suffrage, and she may be considered the originator of the movement. In 1806, believing women to be eligible to public office, though denied the elective franchise, she offered herself as a candidate for congress from the eighth New York district. In her announcement she said: "Belonging to a disfranchised class, I have no political antecedents to recommend me to your support; but my creed is free speech, free press, free men, and free trade — the cardinal points of democracy." She received twenty-four votes. With Miss Anthony and Parker Pillsbury she established and edited in New York the woman's rights journal, called the "Revolution.”…She has resided for many years at Tenafly, N. J., where her home has been an attractive social centre. Her ready wit and good nature, her sympathy with the oppressed, her scorn of wrong, her charity, her love for justice and liberty, her intellectual ability and moral energy, give this woman, admirable in character and life, a unique place in the history of American women. Like Daniel O'Connell, it has been her custom to claim everything for her sex, in order to obtain something; and in devoting her life to securing for women the elective franchise, she has sought to preserve to them all their womanliness, the possibility of which is best illustrated in her own life.
    Citation:
    “Washburn, Israel,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1894), 5: 400.
    Body Summary:
    WASHBURN, Israel, war governor of Maine, was born at Livermore, Me., June 6, 1813; brother of С. С., С. A., and E. B. Washburn. He was descended from John Washburn, who was secretary of the Plymouth colony in England, and who came to this country in 1861 and settled in Duxbury, Mass His grandfather (Israel) was a revolutionary soldier and member of the Massachusetts legislature; his father (Israel 2d) was born at Raynham, Bristol county, Mass., in 1784, removed to Maine in 1806, became a shipbuilder and trader on the Kennebec river, and settled at Livermore, where he died Sept. 1, 1876, leaving seven sons, most of whom became eminent; three of them being in congress at the same lime. The eldest (Israel 3d) became a lawyer in 1834, opened an office at Orono, Penobscot county, Me., and was sent to the legislature in 1842. He was in congress 1851-60, first as a whig, then as an active republican, governor of Maine 1861-62, collector at Portland, Me., 1863-77. He refused in 1875 the presidency of Tufts college, of which he was long president of the board of trustees. Besides sundry speeches, addresses and contributions to periodicals, be published “Notes, Historical, Descriptive, and Personal, of Livermore, Me.” (1874). He received the degree of LL. D. from Tufts in 1872, and died in Philadelphia, Pa., May 12, 1883.
    Citation:
    "DeBow, James Dunwoody Brownson,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1898), 8: 162-163.
    Body Summary:
    DEBOW, James Dunwoody Brownson, journalist and statistician, was born at Charleston, S. C., July 10, 1820. He was descended from distinguished colonial and revolutionary ancestors, who were among the earliest settlers of South Carolina. His father, Garrett DeBow, whose ancestors, James and John DeBow, were soldiers in Washington's army, was a native of New Jersey, but removed when quite young to Charleston, S. C. , where he became a wealthy merchant. Sudden reverses in business, occurring just before his death, left his son an orphan without the means of pursuing his education. Thrown upon his own resources, young DeBow obtained employment in a long-established mercantile house, where he remained seven years, and acquired the methodical business habits which were so useful in his subsequent career. Mercantile pursuits, however, were not congenial to the taste of the ambitious young man. He entered Cokesburg Institute to prepare himself for college. Returning to his native city he entered Charleston College, where he was graduated with distinguished honors in 1843. He then studied law, and was for a short time a practitioner at Charleston, but his fondness for literary and statistical pursuits led him to be a frequent contributor to the "Southern Quarterly Review," then published in Charleston by Mr. Daniel K. Whitaker. His contributions to this periodical marked him as a writer of high literary merit, and some of them became noted, especially "The Life of Robert Sieur de LaSalle"; "The Characteristics of a Statesman," and " Law and Lawyers," and "The Northern Pacific, California, Oregon and the Oregon Question." The last was translated into French, and gave rise to an animated debate in the French chamber of deputies, and was much discussed by British statesmen. In 1844 he became chief editor of the "Southern Quarterly Review." In 1845 he removed to New Orleans, La., and established "DeBow's Review," a journal which acquired a large circulation. In 1848 he was appointed professor of political economy in the University of Louisiana, but soon resigned to become chief of the bureau of statistics for the state of Louisiana, serving three years, and making a valuable report to the legislature. He was appointed by Pres. Pierce, in 1853, as superintendent of the seventh census of the United States. He introduced new and valuable features in census statistics, a large part of which he subsequently compiled in a volume entitled, "A Statistical View of the United States." Congress ordered 150,000 copies of this work to be printed as a compendium of the census of 1850. He remained as superintendent of the census until the latter part of 1855, but during all this time he gave unremitting attention to the duties of editor of "DeBow's Review," which continued to grow in public favor. In 1853 he published a work m three volumes, entitled: “Industrial Resources of the Southwest," which was mainly compiled from his "Review." After retiring from office, he took an active part in the discussion of the vital political questions which preceded the civil war, was a member of every southern commercial convention, and was president of the convention at Knoxville in 1857. In addition he devoted much time to literary labor, as a lecturer and writer on various subjects, and as a contributor to the “Encyclopedia Britannica." He was an ardent friend and admirer of Calhoun, and a strong advocate of the secession of the southern states. His "Review” was a powerful factor in the formation of southern sentiment, and its whole influence was thrown in favor of the contemplated movement. Soon after the formation of the Confederate government, Mr. DeBow was appointed its chief agent for the purchase and sale of cotton. After the close of the war he resumed the publication of "The Review," which had been suspended during the occupation of New Orleans by the Federal forces. Soon afterwards he was elected president of the Tennessee Pacific Railroad Co. Animated by the ardent wish to connect his name with "the construction of a railroad running from the Mississippi to the Pacific, " he labored so assiduously in behalf of this enterprise, at the same time giving devoted work to his "Review," that his health was broken down. Mr. DeBow was twice married: first, to Caroline Poe of Georgetown, D. C., in 1854, and again, on Sept. 4, 1860, to Martha E. Johns, who survived him with three children — James Dunwoody Brownson, Benjamin Franklin DeBow, and Evilina Johns, wife of Col. John W. Thomas, president of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railway. He died at Elizabethtown, N. J., Feb. 27, 1867.
    Citation:
    “McKim, James Miller,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1895), 2: 420.
    Body Summary:
    McKIM, James Miller, reformer, was born at Carlisle, Pa., Nov. 14, 1810. He was educated at Dickinson and Princeton Colleges, and was present at the convention that met in Philadelphia, Dec. 4, 1833, to organize the National Anti-Slavery Society. In 1835 was ordained pastor of a Presbyterian church at Womelsdorf, Penn., but resigned in the following year to become lecturing agent under the auspices of the American Anti-Slavery Society, having become an abolitionist a few years earlier on reading Garrison's “Thoughts on Colonization.” He lectured in Pennsylvania, though often in danger of personal violence, and in 1840 removed to Philadelphia to become publishing agent of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. He subsequently became corresponding secretary, and served in that capacity for twenty-five years, and as general manager of the affairs of the society. He was frequently brought into contact with “underground railroad” affairs, and was actively connected with many slave cases before the courts, chiefly after the passage of the fugitive slave law of 1850. After the capture of Port Royal in 1862, he called a meeting of Philadelphia citizens, to care for the 10,000 liberated slaves, and the meeting resulted in the organization of the Philadelphia Port Royal relief committee. He advocated the enlistment of the colored troops, was a member of the Union League, aided in establishing Camp William Penn, and in the recruiting of eleven regiments. The Port Royal relief committee was enlarged into the Pennsylvania Freedman's relief association in 1863, and Mr. McKim became corresponding secretary, traveling and establishing schools at the South. From 1865 to 1869 he was connected with the American Freedmen’s Union Commission, and endeavored to promote general education at the South, and in the latter year, thinking the commission had accomplished its work, it was disbanded at Mr. McKim's suggestion. He was one of the founders of the “Nation,” New York, in 1865. He has been called “That prudent, rash man.” In “Garrison and His Times,” Johnson says of McKim: “Fitted by his intellectual gifts as well as by education, for any place of influence and power to which he might have chosen to aspire, he devoted himself unreservedly for a generation to the cause of the slave, rendering it service of the very highest character by his pen and his voice, as well as by his wisdom in counsel.” He died in West Orange, N. J., June 13, 1874.
    Citation:
    “Creswell, John A. J.,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1895), 4: 19.
    Body Summary:
    CRESWELL, John A. J., postmaster-general, was born at Port Deposit, Cecil Co., Md., Nov. 18, 1828. He was thoroughly educated, his parents being wealthy and ambitious for his future prospects. After studying in the schools in his neighborhood he was sent to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., from which he was graduated with the highest honors in 1848. He at once began to study law, and in 1850 was admitted to practice at the bar of Maryland. Eventually he took rank as one of the foremost lawyers in Maryland. From the time when he cast his first vote as a whig, Mr. Creswell was earnest and enthusiastic in his study of politics, and in his consideration of party relations. He was a nominee from Cecil county, appointed by the whig party, to the general convention which was held in Maryland in 1850, for the purpose of remodeling the constitution of the commonwealth. He was unfortunate, on this occasion, in being obliged to run against the most popular democrat in a peculiarly democratic county, yet he was only defeated by a very small majority. Upon the breaking up of the whig party, and the formation of the republican organization upon its ruins, Mr. Creswell joined the democrats, and continued to vote with them until the outbreak of the civil war, four years later. This situation brought about a secession feeling on the part of the Maryland democrats, and Creswell, who was naturally a Union man, cut loose from them and declared himself in favor of the Union. Meanwhile, he was not at all aggressive, but worked with great earnestness and fidelity in the direction of a peaceful settlement of the troubles which had befallen the nation. In the autumn of 1861 Mr. Creswell was elected as the representative of Cecil county in the legislature of the state, and in the following year was appointed adjutant-general of Maryland. In 1863 he was chosen a member of the U. S. house of representatives. There he made his mark by delivering an eloquent speech, in which he favored the abolition of slavery. In 1865 he was elected a member of the U. S. senate, to fill out the unexpired term of Gov. Thomas II. Hicks, who died in Washington Feb. 13, 1865. While a member of the senate Mr. Creswell was appointed by congress to deliver a eulogy upon the life of Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, one of the ablest men in the senate. In 1864 he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention. In 1866 he served in the Philadelphia loyalists' convention, and in 1867 he was in the Border States' convention, held in Baltimore. In 1868 he was a member of the national republican convention at Chicago. Mr. Creswell was one of the first members of congress to be engaged in the movement which resulted in the attempt at the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Mr. Creswell was an ardent admirer of President Lincoln, and also of Gen. Grant, and he was a member of the convention which nominated the latter for the presidency. In May, 1868, he was elected secretary of the U. S. senate, but declined. On March 5, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant postmaster-general, being recommended for the position not only by his political friends in Maryland, but by Vice-President Colfax, Senator Ben Wade and other prominent republicans. Mr. Creswell served in the cabinet for five years and four months, and during his administration succeeded in introducing into that department many valuable reforms. On June 22, 1874, he was appointed counsel of the United States in connection with the court of commissioners sitting on the Alabama claims, and, having resigned the postmaster-generalship a few days later, he continued to serve in that capacity until Dec. 21, 1876. From that time forward Mr. Creswell continued to be viewed as a citizen of reputation and importance, and was frequently employed in responsible positions. He was one of the commissioners entrusted with the closing up of the affairs of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company, and was also president of the Citizens' National Bank, at Washington, D. C., and at the time of his death was vice-president of the National Bank at Elkton, Md. Mr. Creswell died at Elkton, Dec. 23, 1891.
    Citation:
    "McClintock, John," The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1895), 6: 432.
    Body Summary:
    McCLINTOCK, John, theologian and author, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 27, 1814. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1835, and in 1836 was appointed to the chair of mathematics in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. He became professor of Greek and Latin in 1840, a position he held for eight years. Previous to his graduation he had preached in the New Jersey conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1848 he was elected by the general conference to edit the "Methodist Quarterly Review," which he did for eight years with scholarly ability, giving to that journal a high literary tone and character. His essays on the philosophy of Comte attracted the French philosopher's notice, and led to a correspondence between them. Dr. McClintock was a delegate, in company with Bishop Simpson, to the Wesleyan Methodist conference of England, in 1856, and also to the assembly of the Evangelical Alliance at Berlin, the same year. In 1857 he became pastor of St. Paul's Church, New York city, and was soon known as one of the most popular and elegant preachers of the metropolis. On the expiration of his term, in 1860, he sailed for Europe, and had charge of the American chapel in Paris during the civil war. At the Wesleyan missionary anniversary held in London during this time, he availed himself at his position as speaker to affirm his reliance in the harmonious relations between England and the United States. He also contributed letters to the "Methodist" which kept his countrymen apprised of the state of European opinion on that great conflict. On his return Dr. McClintock was again appointed pastor of St. Paul's Church, but was soon compelled to resign, owing to delicate health. He was chairman of the central centenary committee in charge of the centennial anniversary of American Methodism in 1866; and when Daniel Drew founded the Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, N. J., in connection with that event, Dr. McClintock was its first president, and retained his connection with the institution until his death. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by the University of Pennsylvania in 1848, and that of L. L. D. by Rutgers in 1866. Besides his contributions to periodical literature, and an important series of Greek and Latin text-books in connection with Rev. George R. Crooks (1836-40), Dr. McClintock was engaged for the last years of his life on a " Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature" (12 vols.), which is a monument of scholarship and theological learning. This was begun in 1853, in conjunction with Dr. Strong, who has gone on with the work, which was not completed at Dr. McClintock's death. Among other publications are:  Neander's  "Life of Christ " (1847), translated in connection with Carolus E. Blumenthal; "Sketches of Eminent Methodist Ministers " (1852); "The Temporal Power of the Pope" (1853); and a translation of Bungener's " History of the Council of Trent " (1858). "Living Words," a collection of sermons by Dr. McClintock (1870), and "Lectures on Theological Encyclopœdia and Methodology" (1873), were issued after his death. He died in Madison, N. J., Mar. 4, 1870.
    Citation:
    "Daniel, Junius," The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1897), 7: 127.
    Body Summary:
    DANIEL, Junius, soldier, was born in Halifax county, N.C., June 27, 1828. His father, John Rivers Jones Daniel, was attorney-general of North Carolina (1834-41), a member of congress (1841-51), and a cousin of J.J. Daniel, a justice of the supreme court. Junius was graduated at West Point after having experienced severe injuries in artillery practice in 1851. He was sent to Kentucky, but left there in 1852, and spent the next four years in forts Albuquerque, Fillmore, and Stanton, and in Indian fighting. Here he was an ardent student of the art of war. He resigned his commission in 1857, and took charge of his father’s large estates in Louisiana. He was commissioned colonel of the 4th, afterward the 14th, North Carolina regiment, C.S.A., June 3, 1861….He was made a brigadier general, Sept. 2, 1862, and was given command of the 32nd, 43d, 45th, 53, and 2d battalions North Carolina troops; and there was, at the time of his appointment, no officer of his grade more distinguished for his soldierly qualities, and none so particularly gifted as an organizer and disciplinarian....was with Rodes’s division at Gettysburg, and the ability to handle soldiers displayed here won him high praise. He continued with the army of northern Virginia, was wounded at Spottsylvania Court House, May 12, 1864, and died of his wounds the next day.
    Citation:
    "Lee, Rober Edward," National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1897), 4: 96.
    Body Summary:
    When the war with Mexico began Capt. Lee was made chief engineer of the U.S. army, and was placed on the personal staff of Gen. Scott, who sought his advice constantly, and ascribed the fall of Vera Cruz to his strategic ability. Lee was thrice brevetted, the last time as colonel, for gallantry at Chapultepec, where he was wounded. Peace declared, he had charge of the construction of works for the defense of the harbor of Baltimore, and then, 1852-55, was superintendent of the academy, West Point, broadening its curriculum and giving it rank with the best military schools of Europe. In 1855 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 2d regiment of cavalry, and until February, 1861, was stationed at Fort Cooper, Texas. While at Arlington, on a furlough, in 1859, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry occurred, and Lee, at the head of a company of U.S. marines, captured Brown and his few remaining followers. In January, 1861, he learned that civil war was impending, and in a letter to his wife said: “I can do nothing to hasten or retard it.” In February he was called to Washington and soon after was offered command of the active army of the United States; but, though deprecating secession and war, he refused to have any part in an invasion of the South.
    Citation:
    "Lee, Rober Edward," National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1897), 4: 96.
    Body Summary:
    Virginia passed an ordinance of secession on April 17th, and finding that he must soon be ordered on duty or be compelled to resign under orders, Lee, on the 20th, after a severe mental struggle, tendered his resignation to Gen. Scott. On the same day he announced his decision to members of his family, assuring them he had no other ambition than to remain at home, and that, save in the defense of his native state, he had no desire ever again to draw his sword. Three days later, on invitation of Gov. Letcher, he appeared before the Virginia convention in session at Richmond, having been nominated by the executive major-general and commander-in-chief of the forces of the state. The prestige of his deeds, and of those of his ancestors, the nobility of his character, his importance as a leader, shown by the efforts to keep him in the U.S. army, all had weight, and he was appointed by acclamation. Assuming command April 23d, he held it until June 8th, when, under an agreement between Virginia and the Confederate government, he turned it over to the latter. In May he was given the additional task of commanding all troops of the Confederate States as soon as they arrived in Virginia.
    Citation:
    "Lee, Rober Edward," National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1897), 4: 100.
    Body Summary:
    He considered that his own life, so far as it related to public affairs, had ended in 1865, and that the exposition of the war and of his own part in it, must be left to history. But, although silent, he was conscious that from the hour when he assumed command of the army of northern Virginia up to the moment when he laid it down, he could not fairly be said to have lost a single battle. H declined offers to become president of corporations and business associations and of several institutions of learning, but finally accepted the presidency of Washington College, Lexington, Va. (now Washington and Lee University), and was inaugurated Oct. 2, 1865. He brought the college from a condition of almost hopeless ruin to one of great prosperity, and impressed his own nobility of character upon every detail of its life and thought.
    Citation:
    “Still, William,” The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1895), 2: 313-314.
    Body Summary:
    STILL, William, philanthropist and historian of the “Underground Railroad” was born at Shumway, Burlington Co.., N 1, Oct 7, 1821 His father had been a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland, who bought his freedom about 1815 and removed to New Jersey, where he acquired property and became a useful citizen.  When William was but a youth he read the "Colored American," and early imbibed the anti-slavery spirit.  He removed to Philadelphia in 1844, and soon afterward was appointed to a clerkship in the Pennsylvania Anti- Slavery Society.  He filled this position for fourteen years.  During this time he took notes of the remarkable and exciting experiences of many fugitive slaves.  These thrilling stories he carefully preserved and in 1878 published them in a volume of nearly 800 pages.  It gives an authentic account of the operations of the Underground Railroad, an organization for the protection of fugitive slaves, and to aid them in their escape northward.  Mr. Still sheltered the wife, daughter and sons of John Brown while he was awaiting execution at Charlestown, Va., in 1859. During the civil war he was post sutler at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia.  He was one of the original stockholders of the "Nation," of New York, was a member of the Freedmen's Aid Union and Commission, helped to organize the Orphans' Home for children of colored soldiers and sailors; is a trustee of Storer College at Harper's Ferry and of the Home for Destitute Colored Children; president of the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons, and a member of the Board of Trade of Philadelphia, where he has prospered as a merchant. He has also published “Voting and Laboring" and "Rights of Colored People in City Passenger Cars."
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