engineers. There he became adjutant, and also advocate-general. So highly were his services in the latter office esteemed, and his attainments admired, that he was employed by the government in completing a code of regulations for courts-martial. Lieutenant Macomb was promoted to captain of a corps of engineers, in 1805; and, in 1808, he was raised to the rank of major. In the Summer of 1810, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel; and, on the organization of the army, in April, 1812, he was appointed acting adjutant-general. After the declaration of war, a few weeks later, he was commissioned colonel of artillery, and joined Wilkinson on the Canada frontier. He shared in the mortifications of that campaign of 1813; but at Plattsburgh, in September, the following year, while bearing the office of brigadier, he nobly coöperated with Macdonough on the lake, in a victory so decided and important, as to almost obliterate the shame of former failures. For his gallant services on that occasion he received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal; and the President conferred on him the honor of a major-general's commission. At the close of the war he was retained in the service, and ordered to the command of the military fort at Detroit, his birth-place. In 1821, he was called to the head of the engineer department at Washington city; and on the death of Major-General Brown, in 1828, he was promoted to General-in-Chief of the army of the United States. He died at his head-quarters, Washington city, on the 25th of June, 1841, and was succeeded in office by Major-general Scott, now [1855] the highly honored incumbent. JAMES MONROE. fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, like four of his preland county, on the 2d of April, 1759. His early life was spent in the midst of the political excitements during the kindling of the War for Independence, and he imbibed a patriotic and martial spirit from the stirring scenes around him. He left the college of William and Mary, at the age of about eighteen years. His young soul was fired by the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, then just promulgated, and he hastened to the head-quarters of Washington, at New York, and enrolled himself as a soldier for Freedom. The disastrous battle near Brooklyn had just terminated, but he tasted of war soon afterward in the skirmish at Harlem and the battle at White Plains. He accompanied Washington in his retreat across the Jerseys; and with a corps of young men, as lieutenant, he was in the van of the battle at Trenton, where he was severely wounded. For his gallant services there he was promoted to captain; and during the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, he was aid to Lord Stirling. In the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, he was distinguished for bravery and skill; and desirous of official promotion, from which, as a staff officer, he was precluded, he made unsuccessful efforts to raise a regiment in Virginia. He soon afterward left the army, and commenced the study of law with Mr. Jefferson; but when Arnold and Cornwallis invaded his native State, in 1781, he was found among the volunteers for its defence. He had been sent to the South, the previous year, by the governor of Virginia, to collect information respecting the military strength of the patriots, after the fall of Charleston. In 1782, Mr. Monroe was elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and that body soon afterward gave him a seat in the executive council. The following year, at the age of twenty-five, he was elected to the general Congress, and JAMES MONROE. James Mouror was present at Annapolis when Washington resigned his military commission to that body. He originated the first movement, in 1785, which led to the constitutional convention, in 1787. He was a member of the Virginia legislature in 1787, and the following year he was a delegate in the State convention to consider the Federal Constitution. He took part with Patrick Henry and others in opposition to its ratification, yet he was elected one of the first United States Senators from Virginia, under that instrument, in 1789. He remained in that body until 1794, when he was appointed to succeed Gouverneur Morris as minister at the French court. Washington recalled him, in 1796; and two years afterward he was elected governor of Virginia. He served in that office for three years, when Mr. Jefferson appointed him envoy extraordinary to act with Mr. Livingston at the court of Napoleon. He assisted in the negotiations for the purchase of Louisiana, and then went to Spain to assist Mr. Pinckney in endeavors to settle some boundary questions. They were unsuccessful. In 1807, he and Mr. Pinckney negotiated a treaty with Great Britain, but it was unsatisfactory, and was never ratified. That year Mr. Monroe returned to the United States. Mr. Monroe was again elected governor of Virginia, in 1811, and soon afterward President Madison called him to his cabinet as Secretary of State. He also performed the duties of Secretary of War, for awhile, and remained in Mr. Madison's cabinet during the residue of his administration. In 1816, he was elected President of the United States, and was reëlected, in 1820, with great 306 THADDEUS KOSCIUSCZKO. unanimity, the Federal party, to which he had always been opposed, having become almost extinct, as a separate organization. At the end of his second term, in 1825, Mr. Monroe retired from office, and made his residence in Loudon county, Virginia, until early in 1831, when he accepted a home with his son-inlaw, Samuel L. Gouverneur, in the city of New York. He was soon afterward attacked by severe illness, which terminated his life on the 4th of July, 1831, when he was in the seventy-second year of his age. WE THADDEUS KOSCIUSCZKO. HAT has been said of the American citizenship of La Fayette, Steuben, and De Kalb, is true of Kosciusczko. His deeds naturalized him, and wo claim him as our own, though born in far-off Lithuania, the ancient Sarmatia. That event occurred in the year 1756. He was descended from one of the most ancient and noble families of Poland, and was educated for the profession of a soldier, first in the military school at Warsaw, and afterward in France. Love enticed him from Warsaw. He eloped with a young lady of rank and fortune, was pursued and overtaken by her proud father, and was driven to the alternative of killing the parent or abandoning the maid. He chose the latter, and went to Paris. There he became acquainted with Silas Deane, the accredited commissioner of the revolted American colonies, who filled the soul of the young Pole with intense zeal to fight for liberty in America, and win those honors which Deane promised. He came in the Summer of 1776, and presented himself to Washington. "What can you do?" asked the commander-in-chief. "Try me," was the laconic reply. Washington was pleased with the young man, made him his aid, and, in October of that year, the Continental Congress gave him the appointment of engineer in the army, with the rank of colonel. He was in the Continental service during the whole of the war, and was engaged in most of the important battles in which Washington in the North, or Greene in the South, commanded. He was greatly beloved by the American officers, and was cordially admitted to membership in the Society of the Cincinnati. At the close of the war he returned to Poland, whose sovereign had permitted him to draw his sword in America, and was made a major-general by Poniatowski, in 1789. In the Polish campaign against Russia, in 1792, Kosciusczko greatly distinguished himself; and in the noble attempt of his countrymen, in 1794, to regain their lost liberty, he was chosen general-in-chief. Soon afterward, at the head of four thousand men, he defeated twelve thousand Russians. Invested with the powers of a military Dictator, he boldly defied the combined armies of Russia and Prussia, amounting to more than one hundred and fifty thousand men. At length success deserted him; and, in October, 1794, his troops were overpowered in a battle about fifty miles from Warsaw. He was wounded, fell from his horse, and was made prisoner, exclaiming, "The end of Poland!" "Hope for a season bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusczko fell."-CAMPBELL. The hero was cast into prison, in St. Petersburg, by the Empress Catherine. When she died, the Emperor Paul liberated him, and presented him with his own sword. Kosciusczko courteously refused the blade, and then uttered that terrible rebuke for the destroyers of Poland-that noble sentiment of a Patriot's heart"I have no longer need of a sword, since I have no longer a country to defend." He never again wore a military weapon. In the Summer of 1797, Kosciusczko visited America, and was received with distinguished honors. Congress awarded him a life-pension, and gave him a tract of land, for his revolutionary services. The following year he went to France, purchased an estate near Fontainebleau, and resided there until 1814. He went to Switzerland, and settled at Soleure, in 1816. Early the following year he abolished serfdom on his family estates in Poland. On the 16th of October, 1817, that noble patriot died, at the age of sixty-one years. His body was buried in the tomb of the ancient kings of Poland, at Cracow, with great pomp; and at Warsaw there was a public funeral in his honor. The Senate of Cracow decreed that a lofty mound should be erected to his memory, on the heights of Bronislawad; and for three years men of every class and age toiled in the erection of that magnificent cairn, three hundred feet in height. The cadets of the Military Academy, at West Point, on the Hudson, erected an imposing monument there to the memory of Kosciusczko, in 1829, at a cost of five thousand dollars. His most enduring monument is the record of his deeds on the pages of History. "BOILING war. CHARLES LEE. OILING WATER" was the significant name which the Mohawk Indians gave to Charles Lee, when he resided among them, and bore the honors of a chief. His character was indeed like boiling water-hot and restless. He was a native of Wales, where he was born in 1731. His father was an officer in the British army; and it is asserted that the fiery little Charles received a military commission from George the Second, when only eleven years of age. In all studies, and especially those pertaining to military services, he was very assiduous, and became master of several of the continental languages. Love of adventure brought him to America, in 1756, as an officer in the British army, and he remained in service here during a greater part of the French and Indian He then returned to England; and, in 1762, he bore a colonel's commission, and served under Burgoyne, in Portugal. After that he became a violent politician, in England; and, in 1770, he crossed the channel, and rambled all over Europe, like a knight-errant, for about three years. His energy of character and military skill made him a favorite at courts, and he became an aid to Poniatowski, King of Poland. With that monarch's embassador, he went to Constantinople as a sort of Polish Secretary of Legation, but, becoming tired of court inactivity and court etiquette, he left the service of his royal patron, went to Paris, came to America toward the close of 1773, and, at the solicitation of Colonel Horatio Gates, whom he had known in England, he was induced to buy an estate in Berkeley county, Virginia, and settle there. He resigned his commission in the British army, and became an American citizen. When the Continental army was organized, in June, 1775, Charles Lee was appointed one of the four major-generals, and accompanied Washington to Cambridge. He was active there until the British were driven from Boston, in the Spring of 1776, when he marched, with a considerable force, to New York, and afterward proceeded southward to watch the movements of Sir Henry Clinton. He participated in the defence of Charleston, as commander-in-chief; and after the British were repulsed, he joined Washington, at New York. After the battle 1. His tarry among the Mohawk Indians was at near the close of the French and Indian war, or about the year 1762. They were greatly pleased with his martial and energetic character, adopted him as a son, according to custom, and made him a chief of the nation, with the title of Boiling Water. 308 HUGH SWINTON LEGARE. at White Plains, and the withdrawal of a great portion of the American army to New Jersey, General Lee was left in command of a force on the east side of the Hudson. While Washington was retreating toward the Delaware, at the close of Autumn, Lee tardily obeyed his orders to reinforce the flying army, and was made a prisoner while tarrying in the interior of New Jersey. His services were lost to the country until May, 1778, when he was exchanged for General Prescott, captured in Rhode Island by Colonel Barton. A month afterward he was in command at Monmouth, where, during the hot contest of battle, he was sternly rebuked by Washington, for a shameful and unnecessary retreat. That rebuke on the battle-field wounded Lee's pride, and he wrote insulting letters to the commander-in-chief. For this, and for misconduct before the enemy, he was suspended from command, pursuant to a verdict of a court-martial. Congress confirmed the sentence, and he left the army in disgrace. It had been evident from the beginning that General Lee was desirous of obtaining the chief command, in place of Washington, and it was generally believed that he desired to injure the commander-in-chief by causing the loss of the battle at Monmouth. The verdict gave general satisfaction. The event made his naturally morose temper exceedingly irascible, and Lee lived secluded on his estate in Berkeley, for awhile. Then he went to Philadelphia, took lodg ings in a house yet [1855] standing, that once belonged to William Penn, and there died in neglect, at the age of fifty-one years. General Lee was a brilliant man in many respects, but he lacked sound moral principles, was rough and profane in language, and neither feared nor loved God or man. In his will, he bequeathed his "soul to the Almighty, and his body to the earth;" and then expressed a desire not to be buried within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house, giving as a reason that he had "kept so much bad company in life, that he did not wish to continue the connection when dead." His remains lie in the burial-ground of Christ Church, Philadelphia. HUGH SWINTON LEGARE. NE of the most promising men of the Palmetto State was Hugh S. Legarè, who was ONE "Snatched all too early from that august fame He was born at Dorchester, near Charleston, South Carolina, about the year 1800. He was of Huguenot descent. His father died when he was an infant, and he was left to the charge of an excellent mother. At the age of nine years he was placed in the school of Mr. King (afterward promoted to the bench in South Carolina), in Charleston, and was finally prepared for college by the excellent Reverend Mr. Waddel. He learned rapidly, and at the age of fourteen years he entered the College of South Carolina, where he was graduated with the highest honors. The profession of the law became his choice, and for three years he studied assiduously under the direction of Judge King, his early tutor. He then went to Europe, where he remained between two and three years. Soon after his return, he was elected to a seat in the South Carolina legislature. While there, some of those measures which tended toward political disunion were commenced, but Mr. Legarè was always found on the Federal side of the question, for he regarded the UNION with the utmost reverence. 1. See sketch of William Barton, |