RICHARD CLOUGH ANDERSON.

299

besieged in Charleston by a strong land and naval armament, under General Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot. After making a gallant defence for several weeks, he was compelled to capitulate, and the Southern Army, Charleston and its fortifications, and the inhabitants of the city, were surrendered, unconditionally, into the hands of British power. General Lincoln was permitted to return to his native town, on parole; and, in November following, he was exchanged. He remained in retirement until the Spring of 1781, when he joined the army under Washington, on the Hudson, and was very active in preparations to attack the British on Manhattan Island, the ensuing Summer. Toward Autumn he accompanied the army to Virginia, rendered efficient service in the siege of Yorktown, and had the honor of receiving the surrendered sword of Cornwallis, from the hands of General O'Hara.1 A few days after that event, Lincoln was appointed, by Congress, Secretary of the War Department. He held the office until near the close of 1783, when he resigned and retired to his farm. In 1786-7, he was placed in command of troops called out to quell the insurrection in Massachusetts, known as Shay's Rebellion. He was immediately successful, and then again sought repose and pleasure in the pursuits of agriculture, science, and literature. There he remained until 1789, when President Washington appointed him collector of the port of Boston. He performed the duties of that office for about twenty years, when, on the 9th of May, 1810, his earthly career was closed by death. That event occurred at his residence, in Hingham, when he was about seventy-seven years of age.

General Lincoln was a ripe scholar and humble Christian, as well as a patriotic soldier and honest civilian. The Faculty of Harvard University conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and he was president of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, from its organization, until his death.

RICHARD CLOUGH ANDERSON.

of the earliest natives of Louisville, Kentucky, was Richard C. Anderson, soldier of the War for Independence, and his mother was a sister of the hero of the North-west, George Rogers Clarke. Louisville was a small village at the Falls of the Ohio, at the time of his birth, which occurred on the 4th of August, 1788. At an early age he was sent to Virginia to be educated, for the foot-prints of the schoolmaster were few west of the Alleghanies, at that time. Emigration was then pouring a vast tide into the Ohio valleys, and a few years afterward, villages began to dot its banks at every important point.

Young Anderson was graduated at William and Mary College, studied law under Judge Tucker, and commenced its practice in his native town, then rapidly swelling toward the proportions of a city. He soon stood in the front rank of his profession as an able counsellor and eloquent advocate. Political life presented a high road to fame, and friends and ambition urged him to travel it. For several years he was a member of the Kentucky legislature; and, in 1817, he was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, where he continued four years. It was a period of great excitement in that body, for, during Mr. Anderson's membership, the admission of Missouri was the topic for long and angry debates.

1. Lincoln had been much mortified by the manner of his surrender at Charleston, imposed by the haughty Clinton, and he was now allowed to be the chief actor in a scene more humiliating to British pride than his own had experienced. It was a triumph and a punishment that pleased him.

In these Mr. Anderson took a prominent part, and was highly esteemed for his manly and conciliatory course. His constituents were anxious to reelect him, in 1822, but he declined the honor, because he considered his services to be more valuable, at that juncture, in the legislature of his own State, to which he was elected. He was chosen Speaker of the Assembly, but did not preside in that body long, for, in 1823, President Monroe appointed him the first United States minister to the new Republic of Colombia, South America. There he was received with joy and great honor, and during his residence at Bogota, the capital, he won for himself and family the unaffected love and esteem of all classes. In 1824, he negotiated an important treaty. The following year death took his wife from him, and he returned to Kentucky to make provision for the education of his children. He was again in Bogota, in the Autumn of that year, and remained until the Spring of 1826, when President Adams appointed him envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the diplomatic Congress held at Panama, to consider the welfare of the South American Republics. On his way thither he was taken ill at the village of Tubaco, where he died, on the 24th of July, 1826, at the age of thirty-eight years. He was succeeded in office by William Henry Harrison, afterward President of the United States.

FEW

MATHEW CAREY.

NEW men have exerted so wide and beneficial an influence, in the domain of letters, in the United States, as Mathew Carey, an eminent author and publisher, who was born in the city of Dublin, on the 28th of January, 1760. His early education was comparatively limited, but a love of knowledge when his faculties began to expand on the verge of youthhood, overcame all difficulties. Even while yet a mere child, books afforded him more pleasure than playmates; and before he was fifteen years of age, he had made great progress in the acquisition of the modern languages of Europe. He would have become a distinguished linguist, had opportunity for study been given him; but at the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a printer and bookseller to learn the business which he had chosen as a life-vocation. His first effort in authorship was made when he was seventeen years of age. His topic was Duelling. Two years afterward (1779) he prepared and advertised a political pamphlet, which alarmed the Irish Parliament, and caused that body to suppress its publication. A prosecu tion was determined upon, and his friends judiciously advised him to leave the country. He escaped to Paris, where he became acquainted with Dr. Franklin, and learned much concerning America, The storm subsided; and, in the course of the following year, young Carey, then only twenty years of age, returned to Dublin, and became editor of the Freeman's Journal. In 1783, his father furnished him with means to establish a paper called the Volunteer's Journal. It exerted a wide and powerful political influence; and in consequence of the publication in its columns, in 1784, of a severe attack upon the British government, and an alleged libel upon the Prime Minister, Mr. Carey was arrested, taken to the bar of the House of Commons, and consigned to Newgate prison. The Lord Mayor of London released him in the course of a few weeks; and in the Autumn of 1784, he sailed for America, He landed at Philadelphia with a few guineas in his pocket, chose that city for a residence, and, in January, 1785, commenced the publication of the Pennsylvania Herald. That paper soon became famous for its legislative reports, prepared by Mr. Carey himself. Bold, and faithful to his convictions, in editorship, he often offended his opponents. Among these was

Makerlary

Colonel Oswald, of the artillery corps of the Revolution, who was then editing a newspaper. Their quarrel resulted in a duel, in which Mr. Carey was severely wounded.

In 1786, Mr. Carey commenced the publication of the Columbian Magazine. The following year he issued another publication, called the American Museum, which he continued for six years, when the prevalence of yellow fever, in Philadelphia, suspended it. During that season of pestilence the courage and benevolence of Mr. Carey, as an associate with Stephen Girard and others as health commissioners, were nobly exhibited. Their labors for the sick and orphans were incessant and beneficent. His experience led him to the publication of an able essay on the origin, character, and treatment of yellow fever, in 1794. At about the same time he was active in founding the Hibernian Society, for the relief of emigrants from Ireland. In 1796, he was zealously engaged, with others, in establishing a Sunday School Society in Philadelphia; and the same year he entered into a controversy with the celebrated William Cobbett, with so much logic and energy, that he silenced his antagonist.

The most important effort, made by Mr. Carey in publishing, was in 1802, when he put forth a handsome edition of the standard English Quarto Bible. His chief travelling agent for its sale was Reverend Mason L. Weems, who disposed

of several thousand copies. It was profitable and creditable to Mr. Carey. During the whole exciting period just previous to the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, Mr. Carey's pen was continually busy on topics of public interest; and in the midst of the violent party excitement, in 1814, he published his famous Olive Branch. It was intended to soften the asperities of party spirit, create a thoroughly American sentiment among all classes, and produce peace and conciliation. It was eminently successful; and for this effort, Mathew Carey deserved a civic crown. Ten thousand copies were sold, and its salutary influence is incalculable.

In 1818, Mr. Carey commenced the preparation of his most important historical work, the Vindicia Hiberniæ. He soon afterward directed his attention especially to political economy, and wrote voluminously upon the subject of tarifls. No less than fifty-nine pamphlets upon that and cognate topics were written by him between the years 1819 and 1833, and comprising over twenty-three hundred octavo pages. Besides these, he wrote numerous essays for newspapers, memorials to Congress, &c. Internal improvements also engaged his mind and pen, and his efforts in that direction entitle him to the honor of a public benefactor. Indeed, throughout his whole life Mr. Carey was eminently a benefactor, public and private; and hundreds of widows and orphans have earnestly invoked Heaven's choicest blessings upon his head. Scores of young men, who had been profited by his generous helping hand, loved him as a father; and people of the city in which he lived regarded him with the highest reverential respect, for his many virtues. There was sincere mourning in many households, in Philadelphia, when, on the 17th of September, 1839, that good man's spirit left earth for a brighter sphere. He had lived to the ripe old age of almost eighty years; and, in addition to a large fortune, he left to his descendants the precious inheritance of an untarnished reputation.

DAVID PORTER.

HE motto "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights," which became the text for many

He

broad pennant of Commodore Porter, that floated from the mast-head of his flagship, the Essex, when he sailed on his famous cruise in the Pacific Ocean, toward the close of 1813. The author of that motto was one of the bravest of the American naval commanders during the last war between the United States and Great Britain. He was born in Boston, on the 1st of February, 1780. His parents were in moderate circumstances, and after receiving the rudiments of education, David was compelled to labor most of the time with his hands. had early manifested a great desire to become a sailor; and, at the age of nineteen years, that ardent aspiration was fully gratified. His talent and general energy of character attracted the attention of some influential friends, who procured for him a midshipman's warrant; and at the time when war with France was yet a probability, he sailed in the frigate Constellation. His first experience in naval warfare was during that cruise, when the Constellation, in February, 1799, captured the French frigate, L'Insurgente. Young Porter's gallantry on that occasion was so conspicuous, that he was immediately promoted to lieutenHe was also engaged in the severe action with La Vengeance, a year later; and, in the Autumn of 1803, he accompanied the first United States squadron to

ant.

1. See sketch of Mr. Weems.

ALEXANDER MACOMB.

1

303

the Mediterranean, sent thither to protect American commerce against the Barbary pirates. He was on board the Philadelphia, when that vessel struck upon a rock in the harbor of Tripoli, and was among those who suffered a painful imprisonment in the hands of that barbarous people. After that [1806] he was appointed to the command of the brig Enterprise, and cruised in the Mediterranean for six years. On his return to the United States, he was placed in command of the flotilla station in the vicinity of New Orleans, where he remained until war was declared against Great Britain, in 1812. Then he was promoted to captain; and, in the frigate Essex, he achieved, during the remainder of that year, and greater part of 1813, those brilliant deeds which made him so famous. From April to October, 1813, he captured twelve armed British whale-ships, with an aggregate of one hundred and seven guns, and three hundred men. He also took possession of an island of the Washington group, in the Pacific, and named it Madison, in honor of the then President of the United States. The English sent a number of heavy armed ships to capture or destroy Porter's little squadron; and near Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili, the Essex was captured, in February, 1814, after a hard-fought battle with immensely superior strength. Commodore Porter wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, "We have been unfortunate but not disgraced." When he came home he was every where received with the highest honors. Congress and the several States gave him thanks, and by universal acclamation he was called the Hero of the Pacific. He afterward aided in the defence of Baltimore. When peace came, he was appointed one of the naval commissioners to superintend national marine affairs. In 1817, he commanded a small fleet, sent to suppress the depredations of pirates and freebooters in the Gulf of Mexico, and along its shores.

Commodore Porter resigned his commission in the Summer of 1826, and was afterward appointed resident United States minister, in Turkey. He died near Constantinople on the 3d of March, 1843, at the age of sixty-three years.

ALEXANDER MACOMB.

AMONG the stirring scenes of a military post in time of war, Alexander Macomb

was born, and afterward became a noted martial leader. His birth occurred in the British garrison at Detroit, on the 3d of April, 1782, just at the close of hostilities between Great Britain and her colonies. When peace came, his father settled in New York; and at eight years of age, Alexander was placed in a school at Newark, New Jersey, under the charge of Dr. Ogden. There his military genius and taste became manifest. He formed his playmates into a company, and commanded them with all possible juvenile dignity. At the age of sixteen years he joined a company of Rangers, whose services were offered to the government of the United States, then anticipating a war with France. The following year he was promoted to a cornetcy in the regular army, but the cloud of war passed away, and his services were not needed. He had resolved on a military life, and was among the few officers retained in the regular service, on the disbanding of the army. He was commissioned second-lieutenant, in February, 1801, and first-lieutenant, in October, 1802, when he was stationed at Philadelphia, in the recruiting service. On completing a corps, he marched to the Cherokee country to join General Wilkinson. After a year's service there, his troops were disbanded, and he was ordered to West Point to join a corps of

1. See sketches of Decatur and Bainbridge.