He attracted the special attention of Washington, and in March, 1777, the commander-in-chief appointed him his aid-de-camp, with the rank of lieutenantcolonel. During the remainder of the war, until the capture of Cornwallis in the Autumn of 1781, he was Washington's chief secretary, and was also the leader of a corps of light infantry, under La Fayette, at the siege of Yorktown. After that event he left the army, and, in 1782, was admitted to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He was a member of Congress during that year, but declined a reëlection. He had married a daughter of General Philip Schuyler, in 1780, and he looked to his profession for the support of his family. He rose to distinction very rapidly, yet in the midst of his extensive business, he found time to employ his pen upon subjects of national importance. He was a member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and in connection with Madison and Jay, wrote the series of articles in favor of that instrument, known as The Federalist. Of the eighty-five numbers, Hamilton wrote fifty-four. He was also a member of the State convention, held at Poughkeepsie in 1788, that ratified the Constitution. When, in 1789, the new government was organized, Washington, on the earnest recommendation of Robert Morris, placed Mr. Hamilton at the head of the Treasury. It was a wise choice, for financial difficulties were more formidable than any others in the way of the administration, and no man was more capable of bringing order out of confusion, than Mr. Hamilton. His consummate skill soon regulated money matters; but while he was improving the fiscal condition of the government, he was injuring his own. He accordingly resigned his office, in 1795, and turned his attention to his profession. When a provisional army was raised, in 1798, Washington accepted the commission of commander-in-chief, only on condition that Hamilton should be his associate, and second in command. This was Hamilton's last public service. In the Winter of 1804, he became involved in a political dispute with Colonel Aaron Burr, which resulted in a duel in July following. They met at Hoboken, and upon the same spot where his son was killed in a duel a few years previously, Hamilton was mortally wounded, anʼl died the next day, July 12th, 1804, at the age of little more than forty-seven years. His wife survived him, in widowhood, fifty years. She died on the 9th of November, 1854, at the age of ninety-seven years and three months. The voluminous papers of General Hamilton were purchased by Congress, and after being arranged by his son, John C. Hamilton, they were published in seven octavo volumes, in 1811.

WILLIAM GRAY.

THE successful and honorable merchant is one of the most valuable integrals of a nation's strength, for he is the factor of the nation's labor and capital. One of the most eminent in this profession was William Gray. He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1751, and when quite a small boy, was apprenticed to a merchant in Salem. He finished his commercial education with Richard Derby,' of that port; and such was his character for enterprise and strict integrity during his apprenticeship, that when, soon after its close, he commenced

1. After the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in session at Watertown, with Joseph Warren at its head, prepared a full and elaborate statement of the affair, with an Address to the People of Great Britain. Richard Derby (the master of young Gray) was employed to carry these documents to England, and place them in the hands of Dr. Franklin, in London. He arrived there on the 29th of May, and the Address and Statement were published in the London papers. This was the first information the British public had of the affair.

DAVID HUMPHREYS.

215 business for himself, he had the entire confidence and good-will of the whole community. Prosperity waited upon him in all his transactions, and in less than twenty-five years after he commenced business, he was taxed as the wealthiest man in Salem, notwithstanding some of the largest fortunes in the United States belonged to men of that town. His enterprise and industry was wonderful; and at one time he had more than sixty sail of square-rigged vessels on the ocean. For more than fifty years he arose at dawn, and was ready for the business of the day before others had finished their last nap. Although he had millions of dollars afloat on the sea of business, he was careful of small expenditures-those leaks which endanger the ship-and his whole life was a lesson of prudent economy, without penuriousness.

Mr. Gray was a democrat, and his sincerity was evinced by the fact that during the embargo, he took sides with Jefferson, notwithstanding all New England was in a blaze against the president, and it was an injury to the amount of tens of thousands of dollars to the great merchant's business. In the midst of the commercial distress, he removed to Boston, and having pleased the people while a State Senator, he was chosen lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth. He used his immense riches for the wants of government, and never took advantages of the exigencies of the times, to speculate in government securities. After the war of 1812-'15, he engaged largely in business again, but he lost often and heavily. Yet he died a rich man, honored and beloved for his virtues, on the 4th of November, 1825, at the age of about seventy-four years.

IT

DAVID HUMPHREYS.

[T is inscribed upon a neat granite monument, in a cemetery at New Haven, Connecticut, that "David Humphreys, doctor of laws, member of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, of the Bath [Agricultural Society] and of the Royal Society of London," was "a distinguished historian and poet; a model and a patron of science, and of the ornamental and useful arts." He was born in Derby, Connecticut, in 1753, and was graduated at Yale College, in 1771. A few months afterward, he went to reside, as a tutor, in the family of Colonel Philipse,' of the Philipse Manor, on the Hudson. How long he remained in that capacity we have no record, and we lose sight of the future "historian and poet" until the war of the Revolution began, when we find him at the head of a company of Connecticut militia. He afterward joined the Continental army, with a captain's commission, and was under the immediate command of General Putnam until 1778, when that officer made him one of his aids, with the rank of major. He held that commission until the Autumn of 1780, when he was promoted to the office of aid to Washington, with the rank of colonel. He remained in the military family of the commander-in-chief until the close of the war. For his valor at Yorktown, where Cornwallis was captured, Congress honored him with a vote of thanks, and the present of an elegant sword.

In May, 1784, Colonel Humphreys was appointed secretary to the commission for negotiating treaties with foreign powers, and with his friend Kosciusczko, accompanied Mr. Jefferson to Paris. He returned in 1786, and was elected to a seat in the Connecticut legislature. He was appointed to the command of a regiment raised for the western service, but was not called to the field; and from

1. Brother of Mary Philipse, wife of Colonel Roger Morris. See page 227.

1786 till 1788, he resided at Hartford, where, with Trumbull, Barlow, and Hopkins, he wrote the Anarchiad. By invitation of Washington, Colonel Humphreys resided in the family of the great Patriot from 1788 until appointed by his illustrious friend minister to Portugal, in 1790. He went thither in 1791, and returned in 1794. He was soon afterward appointed minister to Spain, and took up his abode at Madrid, early in 1795. While there he negotiated treaties with Tripoli and Algiers, and was successful in all his diplomatic duties. He was succeeded in office by General Thomas Pinckney, in 1802, and then returned home. The year previously, he sent a flock of one hundred merino sheep to America, the first ever seen in this country, and the cultivation of this valuable stock was his chief employment during the latter years of his life. He took command of the militia of Connecticut, in 1812, but was not in actual service. Being blessed with ample pecuniary means,' he lived in elegant retirement until his sudden death, which was caused by an organic disease of the heart. That event occurred on the 21st of February, 1818, when he was sixty-five years of age.

Colonel Humphreys wrote much in prose and verse. In 1782, he published quite a long poetical address to the armies of the United States. He wrote a number of smaller poems, a tragedy, and several political tracts; and, in 1788, he wrote a Life of General Putnam, from narratives uttered by the old hero's lips, carefully written out.

THE

JOHN MARSHALL.

THE long-honored patriot, and eminent chief justice of the United States, John Marshall, was born at Germantown, in Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 24th of September, 1755, and was the eldest of fifteen children by the same mother. He received some classical instruction in early youth, and from childhood he evinced a taste for literature and general knowledge. He becamo physically vigorous by field sports, and his solitary meditations were generally amid the wildest natural scenery. When Dunmore invaded Lower Virginia, in 1775, young Marshall was appointed lieutenant in the "minute battalion," and, with his father, performed good service in the battle at the Great Bridge, near the Dismal Swamp. In July, the following year, he was attached to the Virginia Continental line, with the same commission; and, early in 1777, he joined the army under Washington. He was in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, suffered at Valley Forge, and fought at Monmouth in the Summer of 1778, as commander of a Virginia company. He remained in service until early in 1780, when he turned his attention to the study of the law. He attended the lectures of Mr. Wythe (afterward chancellor of Virginia), and toward the close of Summer was admitted to practice. A few months afterward, Virginia was invaded by Arnold, and Marshall again joined the army in defence of his native State. There being a redundancy of officers, he soon resigned his commission, but he had no opportunity to practice his profession until after the capture of Cornwallis, in the Autumn of 1781. He then soon rose to distinction as a lawyer; and, in the Spring of 1782. he was elected to a seat in the Virginia legislature. In the Autumn of that year he was chosen a member of the executive council.

In January, 1783, Mr. Marshall married a daughter of the treasurer of Virginia, and they lived together about fifty years. He resigned his seat at the

1. In 1797, Colonel Humphreys married the daughter of a very wealthy English merchant, of Lisbon.

council board, in 1784, and immediately afterward (though a resident of Richmond) he was chosen to represent his native county in the legislature. He represented Henrico county, in 1787. In the Virginia convention called to consider the Federal Constitution, Mr. Marshall was one of the most zealous and effective supporters of that instrument. He served in the Virginia legislature until 1792, when he again devoted his whole time to his profession. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, in 1795, and nobly defended Jay's memorable treaty. His speech, on that occasion, made a profound impression in America and Europe. Soon afterward, he was sent as one of three envoys extraordinary to the government of France. On his return, he was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress. Within three weeks after entering upon his duties there, he was called upon to announce, in that body, the death of Washington! His words, on that occasion, were few but deeply impressive. His career in the national legislature was short, for, in 1800, he was chosen first Secretary of War, and then Secretary of State; and, in January, 1801, he was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From that time he discarded party politics, and in his lofty station he performed his exalted duties with great dignity and unsuspected integrity, during the remainder of his life. He was

not unmindful of the claims of his native State, and as his residence was at its capital, he frequently assisted in public duties. This eminent jurist died at Philadelphia, on the 6th of July, 1835, in the eightieth year of his age. Two days before his death he enjoined his friends to place only a plain slab over the graves of himself and wife, and he wrote the simple inscription himself. Judge Marshall's Life of Washington, published in 1805, and revised and republished in 1832, is a standard work.

IT

has been well observed that "it is the peculiar felicity of our republican institutions, that they throw no impediment in the career of merit, but the competition of rival abilities." Hundreds of the leading men in our Republic have illustrated the truth of this sentiment, and none more so than the accomplished William Wirt. He was born at Bladensburg, in Maryland, on the 18th of November, 1772, and was left a poor orphan at an early age. His paternal uncle took charge of him, and at the age of seven years he was placed in a school at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. From his eleventh until his fifteenth year he was at the same school in Montgomery county, continuously, where he was taught the Latin and Greek languages, and some natural philosophy. He there had the advantages of a good library, and improved it; and as early as his thirteenth year, he commenced authorship with promise. Young Wirt was a tutor in the family of the late Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois, for about eighteen months. After a brief residence at the South, on account of ill-health, he commenced the study of law at Montgomery Court-house, and was licensed to practice, in the Autumn of 1792. He commenced his professional career, the same year, at Culpepper Court-house, in Virginia, and soon became eminent. With vigorous body and intellect, pleasing person and manners, he became a favorite, and married the daughter of an accomplished gentleman (the intimate friend of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe) residing near Charlottesville. wife died in 1799, and in deep distress Wirt left the scenes of his late happy life, went to Richmond, and was clerk of the House of Delegates during three sessions. There he was greatly esteemed for his talents and social accomplishments, and he received the appointment, in 1802, of chancellor of the eastern district of Virginia. In the Autumn of that year he married an accomplished young lady of Richmond, and soon resumed the practice of the law. In 1803-4, he wrote his beautiful essays under the name of The British Spy, and at about the same time he took up his abode in Norfolk. He returned to Richmond, in 1806, and the following year he was engaged in the trial of Aaron Burr, for treason. His great speech on that occasion was warmly applauded. He was a member of the Virginia legislature, in 1808, and from that time until after the war, he

His

1. Their graves are in the plain cemetery on Shoccoe Hill, Richmond, and the inscription is as follows: "JOHN MARSHALL, Son of THOMAS and MARY MARSHALL, was born on the 24th of September, 1755; intermarried with MARY WILLIS AMBLER, the 3d of January, 1783; departed this life the 6th day of July, 1835." Judge Marshall was an exceedingly plain man, in person and habits. He always carried his own marketing home in his hands. On one occasion, a young housekeeper was swearing lustily because he could not hire a person to carry his turkey home for him. A plain man standing by, offered to perform the service, and when they arrived at the door, the young man asked, "What shall I pay you "Oh, nothing," replied the old man, "you are welcome; it was on my way, and no trouble." "Who is that polite old gentleman who brought home my turkey for me?" inquired the young man of a bystander. "That," he replied, "is John Marshall, chief justice of the United States." The astonished young man exclaimed, "Why did he bring home my turkey" "To give you a revere reprimand," replied the other, "and to learn you to attend to your own business." The lessen was never forgotten.