SAI, ut, married the daughter of R. B. Marcy, and a soc H's home on Orange Mountain was

saprofe with many wjets & art

JOHN MCLEAN.

JUSTICE OF UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, 1830-1861.*

THE father of Mr. McLean was a poor man with a large family. In 1789 he moved from New Jersey to the West, settling first at Morganstown, Va., afterward near Nicholasville, Ky., and finally in 1797, in what is now Warren County, Ohio. Here he cleared a farm upon which he resided forty years.

John McLean was born in Morris County, New Jersey, March 11, 1785; died at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 4, 1861.

His early advantages were limited, and he labored on the farm until sixteen years of age. When eighteen years of age he went to Cincinnati and commenced the study of law under direction of Arthur St. Clair, maintaining himself by writing in the office of the clerk of the county. Admitted to the Bar in the autumn of 1807, he commenced practice at Lebanon, Warren County Ohio.

He was elected Representative to Congress in 1812; from 1816 to 1822 was Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio; in 1823 was appointed United States Postmaster-General. The department being in an inefficient condition, he secured order, vigor and economy. The salary of the office was raised from $4000 to $6000. He was appointed by President Jackson a Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1829, entered upon his duties at January term, and held the office thirty-one years.

Says Rev. Dr. D. W. Clark, of Mr. McLean's early religious experience: "Through the instrumentality of that eminent minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Rev. John Collins, he was brought from a state of sceptical doubt and unbelief, into the enjoyment of the clear sunlight of the truth and faith of the Gospel."

Appleton; Drake; Lanman; "Discourses," William B. Sprague; D. W.

Clark.

Says Rev. Dr. Sprague: "Not only was he a diligent student of God's Word, but you saw at once that he was familiar with the best writers on practical Religion. The morning that I left his pleasant dwelling, I was obliged to rise early as I had to ride three or four miles; but notwithstanding the haste incident to my departure, he proposed that we should not part, till we had knelt together once more at the domestic altar. Judge McLean was, during his whole religious life, a Methodist; but a Christian of nobler type, or one who was more at home in heavenly places than he, you would have to search for, a long time before you would find him."

He was twice married, first to Rebecca Edwards. A daughter and two sons by this marriage survived him. John McLean, Jr., became clerk of the United States Supreme Court. His second wife was Mrs. Garrard, daughter of Israel Ludlow.

SAMUEL MILLER.

REPRESENTATIVE IN VERMONT LEGISLATURE, 1797.

*

SAMUEL MILLER was born in West Springfield, Mass., in 1764; died at Middlebury, Vt., April 17, 1810.

"At the age of twelve years, his father, who was a shoemaker, put him to learning his own trade. This, together with agriculture, for which he entertained through life a peculiar fondness, constituted his early employment."

He applied himself to books, and without instruction gained a considerable knowledge of geometry, navigation and surveying.

In 1785 he began the study of law in Wallingford, Vt.; was licensed to practice by the Rutland County Court at their March term in 1789; and in May following settled in Middlebury.

He represented the town in the State Legislature in the year 1797; was one of the founders of Middlebury College; and was a member of the Vermont Missionary Society. In the year 1801, the Corporation of Yale College conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

"In the fall of the year 1805, when surrounded by worldly prosperity, when religion could not be said to be fashionable in Middlebury, and when no earthly motive can be conceived to have influenced his determination, he made a public profession of his faith, and avowed himself an humble follower of the cross. From that time he took a very active and decided part in the cause of his Lord and Master."

To a friend in Boston, he writes from Middlebury, December 6, 1809: "This village has, for six or eight weeks past, thanks to

*"Vermont Adviser," v. 2; " Panoplist"; Librarian of State Library.

the God of all grace, experienced an effusion of the Holy Spirit, in a most remarkable degree. I have no knowledge of a more powerful work of Divine grace, in any part of New England. It has hitherto been confined to this village, and almost entirely to a circle not exceeding half a mile each way from the meetinghouse. It is principally among the youth of both sexes. The college has shared largely in the blessing. There has been nothing enthusiastic or wild; but it is a still, yet solemn thing . . No particular external means had been used, to which infidels can ascribe this work. Their mouths appear to be stopped, and little opposition is made. Some who have been most accustomed to oppose, and express their bitterness against Christians, are subjects of the work. We have hopes of fifty or sixty, as already enjoying the blessing of a new heart. The college at this time consists of about eighty students, seventeen of whom were professors of religion before this recent attention. They now reckon nearly fifty. Let me solicit the prayers of yourself, and all your Christian friends, that God will be pleased to continue the present glorious effusions of his Spirit among us, and that the same may spread through the world."

To Middlebury College, Mr. Miller made liberal gifts; and by his will, he bequeathed to the Congregational Society of the town, one thousand dollars; to the Vermont Missionary Society, five hundred dollars.