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Governor Calvert built himself a commodious house at St. Mary's, and was managing the affairs of the province with prudence and energy, when the civil war in England, which resulted in the death of King Charles and the exaltation of Oliver Cromwell to the seat of chief magistrate of the realm, disturbed the repose of all the Anglo-American colonies. Lord Baltimore was deprived of his proprietary rights, and Governor Calvert was superseded by a Protestant appointed by the Parliament. He then retired to Virginia. In 1646, after an absence of almost two years, he returned, with a military force, and recovered possession of the province. In April, 1647, he issued a general pardon, proceeded to St. Mary's to firmly reestablish good government there, and sat down in the midst of an affectionate and loyal people, to enjoy coveted repose. A longer and more profound rest was near, for, on the 9th of June following, he died, at the age of about forty-one years.

"HE

NOAH WEBSTER.

E taught millions to read, but not one to sin," was the glorious and comprehensive eulogy awarded to the memory of Noah Webster, the great lexicographer. He was maternally descended from William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony, and paternally from John Webster, who was governor of Connecticut, in 1656. He was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on the 16th of October, 1758, at the very time when Washington was leading his brave Virginians to the capture of Fort du Quesne. He acquired his early education at a district school, and at the age of sixteen years entered the freshman class in Yale College. The murmurs of the storm of the Revolution were then becoming louder and louder, and, during the four years of his collegiate course, his studies were frequently interrupted by the disturbances of current events. In the Autumn of 1777, he joined the army of volunteers that flocked from New England to the camp of Gates, and he participated in the capture of Burgoyne and his army. He then resumed his studies, and was graduated in 1778. He commenced life as teacher of a district school in Hartford, with one dollar in his pocket, but a noble capital of industry, a good education, and an indomitable will. He studied law during leisure hours, and was admitted to practice, in 1781. Finding little to do in his profession, he went to Goshen, in New York, and there opened a high school, which he called The Farmer's Hall Academy.

While studying law, Mr. Webster perceived the many defects in the English language, and in resolving to improve it, he formed the great purpose of his life, the compilation of a Dictionary. He first prepared an elementary work, which he submitted to several members of the Congress, in 1783, and then published it, at Hartford. It was soon followed by two others, and the whole comprised a spelling-book, an English grammar, and a reader. At least twenty millions of Webster's Spelling-book have already [1854] been sold in the United States, and the sale is still great. After the Revolution, Mr. Webster wrote essays on several national subjects, and he cooperated with Dr. Ramsay in procuring a copyright law for the protection of American authors. He ably supported the Federal Constitution, with his pen; and he established a daily newspaper in the city of New York, devoted to the administration of President Washington. After engaging in other newspaper enterprises in that city, he removed to New Haven, in 1798, and there commenced the preparation of his first Dictionary. It was published in 1806, and in the Preface, he publicly announced that he had now

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entered upon the great work of his life. That was at a time when a growing family and slender pecuniary means appeared great obstacles; but he possessed an iron will, and his spirit was undaunted. He toiled on in the midst of many discouragements; and, in 1812, he made his abode at Amherst, Massachusetts, where his family expenses were less. He returned to New Haven, in 1822, and the Faculty of Yale College then conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was yet engaged in his great labor, and, in pursuit of his object, he went to Europe in 1824, and spent a year in the collection of materials. His mighty task was completed in 1827; and, in 1828, his American Dictionary, the greatest work of its kind ever undertaken, was published. It was soon afterward republished in England, and at once took an exalted position in the world of letters, and gave its author great renown. An enlarged edition, carefully revised by the author, was published in 1841; and so he left it, a precious legacy to his country and mankind. During the long years in which Dr. Webster was engaged on his Dictionary he was no recluse, but was a practicing lawyer, an agriculturist, a legislator, and an academician. His old age, after a life of great activity, was serene, for the pure light of Christianity rested in beauty upon the good man's path. When his physician told him he must die, he replied, "I am ready;" and on the 28th of May, 1843, he went quietly to his rest, in the eightyfifth year of his age. His Dictionary is rapidly approaching the position of highest authority, especially among men of purest taste and most comprehensive knowledge.

226

ISRAEL PUTNAM.

ISRAEL PUTNAM.

FULL of romance and stirring interest was the career of General Putnam, the

hero of two wars, of whom Dr. Ladd said, "He seems to have been almost obscured amidst the glare of succeeding worthies; but his early and gallant services entitle him to everlasting remembrance." And the same pen wrote"Hail, Putnam! hail, thou venerable name,

Though dark oblivion threats thy mighty fame,
It threats in vain-for long shalt thou be known,
Who first in virtue and in battle shone."

Israel Putnam was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 7th of January, 1718. He was descended from one of the first settlers of that ancient New England town. His education was neglected, and he grew to manhood with a vigorous but uncultivated mind. He delighted in athletic exercises, and generally boro the palm among his fellows. At the age of twenty-one years he commenced the life of a farmer, in Pomfret, Connecticut, where he "pursued the even tenor of his way" until 1755, when he was appointed to the command of a company of Connecticut troops, destined for the war with the French and Indians on the northern frontier. He performed essential service under General Johnson at Lake George and vicinity during that campaign; and the following year he had command of a corps of Rangers, and bore the commission of a captain in the provincial army. He had many stirring adventures in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain. In August, 1758 (then bearing a major's commission), he was near the present Whitehall, at the head of the lake, watching the movements of the enemy, and had a severe encounter with the French and Indians, in the forest. Putnam was finally made prisoner, and the savages tied him to a tree, and prepared to roast him alive. A shower of rain and the interposition of a French officer, saved his life, and he was taken to the head-quarters of the enemy at Ticonderoga. From thence he was sent, a prisoner, to Montreal, in Canada, where, through the kindness of Colonel Peter Schuyler, of Albany (who was also a prisoner), he was humanely treated. The following Spring he was exchanged, and returned home. He joined the army again, soon afterward, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. He was a bold and efficient leader during the remainder of the war, and then he returned to his plow and the repose and obscurity of domestic life in rural seclusion.

Colonel Putnam was an active friend of the people when disputes with government commenced ten years before war was kindled; and when the intelligence of bloodshed at Lexington reached him, while plowing in the field, he had no political scruples to settle, but, unyoking his oxen, he started, with his gun and rusty sword, for Boston. He soon returned to Connecticut, raised a regiment, and hastened back to Cambridge, then the head-quarters of a motley host that had hurried thither from the hills and valleys of New England. When, six weeks afterward, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental army, Putnam was chosen to be one of four major-generals created on that occasion. He performed bravely on Bunker's Hill before his commission reached him, and from that time, throughout the whole struggle until the close of 1779, General Putnam was a faithful and greatly-esteemed leader. His ser

1. During one night, a wolf that had been depredating in the neighborhood for some time, killed seventy of his fine sheep and goats. It was ascertained to be a she-wolf, and Putnam and his neighbors turned out to hunt and destroy her. She was driven into a rocky cave, and at ten o'clock at night, Putnam, with a rope fastened to his leg, descended into the den with a gun and torch, and sought out and boldly shot the depredator. Then giving a concerted signal, he was drawn up by the rope. He again descended, seized the dead wolf by the ears, and was again drawn up amid the cheers of his comparions, who were waiting in exultation, in the moonlight above.

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vices were too numerous to be detailed here-they are all recorded in our country's annals, and remembered by every student of our history. At West Point, on the Hudson, his military career was concluded. Late in 1779, he set out to visit his family in Connecticut, and on the way he suffered a partial paralysis of his system, which impaired both his mind and body. At his home in Brooklyn, Connecticut, he remained an invalid the remainder of his days. With Christian resignation, and the fortitude of a courageous man, he bore his afflictions for more than ten years, and then, at the close of the beautiful budding month of May (29th), 1790, the veteran hero died, at the age of seventy-two years. His Memoir, prepared by Colonel David Humphreys, from narratives uttered by the patriot's own lips, was first published, by order of the State Society of the Cincinnati of Connecticut, in 1788, and afterward published in Humphrey's collected writings, in 1790. A neat monument, bearing an epitaph, is over his grave in Brooklyn, Massachusetts.

MARY PHILIPSE.

HE beautiful and accomplished American girl of twenty-six Summers, who

just his is

worthy of the historic embalmer's care, for she forms a part of the story of the great central figure in the group of American worthies of the past generations. Mary Philipse was the daughter of the Honorable Frederick Philipse, Speaker of the New York Colonial Assembly, and one of the early great landholders on the Hudson river, in Westchester county. She was born at the more modern manor-house of the family, in the present village of Yonkers,2 on the 3d of July, 1730. Of her early life we have no record except the testimony which her accomplishments bore concerning her careful education. Her sister was the wife of Colonel Beverly Robinson, of New York, and there Miss Philipse was residing when she made the acquaintance of Washington, above alluded to. It was in the memorable year, 1756, when the whole country was excited by the current events of the French and Indian war. Washington was a Virginia colonel, twenty-four years of age, and had won his first bright laurels at the Great Meadows and the field of Monongahela. On account of difficulties concerning rank, he visited the commander-in-chief, Governor Shirley, at Boston, and it was while on his way thither, on horseback, that he stopped at the house of Colonel Robinson, in New York. There he saw the beautiful Mary Philipse, and his young heart was touched by her charms. He left her with reluctance and went on to Boston. On his return, he was again the willing guest of Colonel Robinson, and he lingered there, in the society of Mary, as long as duty would allow. It is believed that he offered her his hand, but a rival bore off the prize. That rival was Colonel Roger Morris, Washington's companion-in-arms on the bloody field of Monongahela, and one of Braddock's aids, on that occasion. Roger and Mary were married, in 1758, and lived in great happiness until the storm of the Revolution desolated their home. Colonel Morris then espoused the cause of the king; and when the American army, under Washington, was encamped on

1. General Putnam was a professing Christian and member of the Congregational Church at Brooklyn. It is said that after the war he arose in the congregation and apologized for swearing pretty severely on Bunker's Hill, when he could not induce the timid militia to follow him to reinforce Prescott in the assailed redoubt on Breed's Hill. "It was almost enough to make an angel swear," he said, "to see the cowards refuse to secure a victory so nearly won."

2. That old manor-house, row over a century old, is yet standing, and is in the present [1855] possession of the Honorable W. W. Woodworth, who resides there, and has the good taste to preserve it in its ancient condition.

228

ROBERT TREAT PAINE.

Harlem Heights, in the Autumn of 1776, his beautiful mansion, overlooking the Harlem river, became the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief. Both Colonel Morris and his wife were included in the act of attainder, passed by the New York legislature, in 1778. It is believed that she, and her sister Mrs. Inglis, were the only females who were attainted of treason during the struggle. A large portion of their real property was restored to their children, of whom John Jacob Astor purchased it, in 1809, for one hundred thousand dollars, and afterward sold it to the State of New York for half a million.1 Colonel Morris died in England, in 1794, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his wife lived a widow thirty-one years afterward. She died, in 1825, at the age of ninety-six, and was buried by the side of her husband, near Saviour-gate church, York, where their son, Henry Gage Morris, of the royal army, erected a monument to their memory.

ROBERT TREAT PAINE.

"Ne'er was a nobler spirit born,
A loftier soul, a gentler heart;
Above the world's ignoble scorn,
Above the reach of venal art."

THUS sung a genial friend, at the tomb of Robert Treat Paine, a New England bard. He was born at Taunton, Massachusetts, on the 9th of December, 1773, and was the second son of Robert Treat Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was named Thomas, 2 but on the death of his eldest and unmarried brother, Robert Treat, in 1798, he assumed his name, and had his choice legally confirmed by an act of the legislature, in 1801. Paine was educated at Harvard, where his poetic genius was early developed.3 He was intended for the profession of the law, but soon after leaving college he became a merchant's clerk. He was quite irregular in his habits, and became greatly enamored of the theatre. He obtained a medal for a prologue, spoken at the opening of a new theatre in Boston, in 1793; and the following year he assumed the editorial control of a newspaper called the Federal Orerry. It was an unsuccessful enterprise, for the editor was idle, and it expired from want of proper food, in 1796. Paine had married the beautiful daughter of an actor, the year before, which offended his father, and an alienation ensued. The young lady proved an excellent wife, and was an angel at his side when intemperance clouded his mind and beggared his family.

In 1795, Mr. Paine delivered a poem at Cambridge, entitled Invention of Letters, for which he received from the booksellers, fifteen hundred dollars. Two years afterward, his Ruling Passion brought him twelve hundred dollars; and his Adams and Liberty, written in 1798, at the request of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society, yielded him seven hundred and fifty dollars, or more than cleven dollars a line.5 Mr. Paine was appointed master of ceremonies at the

1. This purchase was necessary to quiet the occupants of the land in their possession, for they had purchased from the commissioners under the confiscation act.

2. I have given his signature, written before the death of his brother.

3. A class-mate abused him, in rhyme, upon the college wall. Young Paine had never written a line of poetry, but instantly resolved to answer his antagonist in meter, and did so. To that circumstance he attributed his attention to rhyme. When he was graduated, in 1792, he delivered a poem.

4. The Federal Street Theatre, yet [1855] devoted to the drama. It was destroyed by fire, in 1798, and rebuilt on a larger scale, in the Autumn of that year.

5. Never was a political song more popular, or more widely sung, than this. Paine showed the verses to Mr. Russell, editor of the Boston Centinel. It was in the midst of company at Mr. Russell's house. Paine was about to take a glass of wine, when his host said, "You have said nothing about Washington;

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