whether he was on the bench or in the drawing-room; while the latter finally became such a habit that he was its slave. He lived a bachelor, and was the soul of every dinner-party, whether abroad or at his own house. Inebriation finally clouded his intellect, and at length his body became excessively dropsical. On one occasion, when his physician had "tapped" him, and while the water was flowing freely, the judge coolly observed, "I wonder where all that water can come from, as I am sure that I never drank as much since I arrived at years of discretion." On being assured by one of his friends that he would be better after the operation, he replied, "Nothing in my house is better after being tapped." His levity continued until his last moments, and he died as "the fool dieth" because he had "lived as the fool liveth." He was one of many sad examples which young men of talent should study as warnings. He died at Charleston, on the 30th of March, 1802, at the age of fifty-nine years, and was buried in the grave-yard of the Episcopal Church, near Jacksonborough.'

THE

JOHN TRUMBULL.

HE name of Trumbull is identified with the history of New England, in various ways. We have already given sketches of the governor and the artist, of that name; we will now consider Trumbull the poet. He was born in Watertown, New Haven county, Connecticut, on the 24th of April, 1750. He was an only son, delicate in physical constitution, and a favorite of his accomplished mother. He was an exceedingly precocious child, and at the age of seven years was considered qualified to enter Yale College, as a student. There he was graduated, in 1767, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and remained a student three years longer. He turned his attention chiefly to polite literature, as well as the Greek and Latin classics, and became a most accomplished scholar. He and Timothy Dwight became intimate friends, and the bond of mutual attachment was severed only by death. They were co-essayists, in 1769; and, in 1771, they were both appointed tutors in the college. The following year young Trumbull published the first part of a poem entitled The Progress of Dulness. He selected the law as his profession, and devoted much of his leisure time to its study. He was admitted to the bar in 1773, but immediately afterward went to Boston, and placed himself under the instruction of John Adams. He commenced the practice of law at Hartford, in 1781, and soon became distinguished for legal acumen and forensic eloquence. During his residence in Boston, he had conceived the idea of a satirical poem, in which the British and Tories should figure conspicuously; and, in 1782, his MFingal was completed, and published at Hartford. He was soon afterward associated with Humphreys, Barlow, and Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, in the production of a work which they styled The Anarchiad. It contained bold satire, and exerted considerable influence on the popular taste.

In 1789, Mr. Trumbull was appointed State Attorney for the county of Hartford; and, in 1792, he represented that district in the Connecticut legislature. His health failed; and, in 1795, he resigned his office, and declined all public business. Toward the close of 1798, a severe illness formed the crisis of his

1. Many anecdotes are preserved concerning Judge Burke's absent-mindedness. It was the custom for the judges in Charleston, during the sessions, to leave their gowns at a dry-goods store near the courthonse, when they went to their meals. The owner of this store was Miss Van Rhyn, a middle-aged maiden lady, who carefully hung the judicial robes upon pegs where her own clothing was suspended. On one occasion, Judge Burke took down his robe (as he supposed) hastily, went with it under his arm, and proceeded to array himself preparatory to the opening of the court. He found much difficulty in getting it on, when all at once he exclaimed, before an audience uproarious with laughter, "Before God, I have got into Miss Van Rhyn's petticoat!"

260

STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER.

nervous excitement, and after that his health was much better. He was again elected to a seat in the State legislature, in May, 1800, and the following year he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. From that time he abandoned party politics, as inconsistent with judicial duties. In 1808, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. In 1820, he revised his works, and they were published in Hartford, in handsome style, by S. G. Goodrich, now [1854] American consul at Paris. He received a handsome compensation for them. He and his wife afterward went to Detroit, and made their abode with a son-in-law. There Judge Trumbull died, on the 10th of May, 1831, at the age of eighty-one years.

FIFTH

STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER.

in lineal descent from Killian Van Rensselaer, the earliest and best known of the American Patroons,' was Stephen Van Rensselaer, one of the best men of his time, in the highest sense of that term. He was born at the manor-house, near Albany, New York, on the 1st of November, 1764. He was the eldest son, and inherited the immense manorial estates of his father, known as the Patroon Lands. That parent died when Stephen was quite young, and the boy and the estate were placed under the supervision of guardians, one of whom was Philip Livingston, his maternal grandfather. Born to a princely fortune and highest social station in the New World, young Van Rensselaer was educated accordingly. He was a student in the college at Princeton, for some time, and completed his education at Harvard University, where he was graduated in 1782. The War for Independence had just closed when he attained his majority, but the conflicts of opinion respecting the establishment of a new government had yet to be waged. In these discussions Mr. Van Rensselaer took a decided and active part, and he was repeatedly elected to a seat in the New York Assembly. He was a warm supporter of the Federal Constitution, and battled manfully for it and the administration of Washington, side by side with Hamilton, Jay, and Madison. In 1795, he was elected lieutenant-governor of his native State, when John Jay was chief magistrate, and he held that station six years. His friends predicted for him, a brilliant official career, but the defeat of the Federal party, in 1800, and the continued ascendency of the Republican, closed his way to distinction through the mazes of political warfare.

When war was declared against Great Britain, in 1812, Mr. Van Rensselaer, bearing the commission of a major-general, was placed, by Governor Tompkins, in command of the New York militia, destined for the defence of the northern frontier. Those were a part of his troops, under General Solomon Van Rensselaer, who assisted in the battle at Queenstown. After the war, General Van Rensselaer was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, where he served his country during several consecutive sessions. By his casting-vote in the delegation of New York, he gave the presidency of the United States to John Quincy Adams. With that session closed the political life of Stephen Van Rensselaer, but he still labored on and hoped on in the higher sphere of duty of a benevolent Christian. Like his Master whom he loved, he was ever "meek and lowly," and "went 1. To encourage the emigration of an agricultural population to New Netherland (as New York was originally called), the Dutch West India Company, under whose auspices the province was founded, granted to certain persons who should lead or send a certain number of families to make a settlement in America, large tracts of land with specified social and political privileges. Among the directors of the company who availed themselves of the offer, was Killian Van Rensselaer, who became the proprietor of Rensselaerwick, a territory in the vicinity of Albany about forty-eight miles long, and twentyfour wide. It was established in 1637, and the proprietor was called a Patroon, or patron; a name derived from the civil law of Rome, which was given to owners of large landed estates.

S. Vandenpelae

about doing good." Frugal in personal expenditures, he was lavish, yet discriminating, in his numerous benefactions. He did not wait for Misery to call at his door; he sought out the children of Want. To the poor and the ignorant he was a blessing. In 1824, he founded a seminary for the purpose of "qualifying teachers for instructing the children of farmers and mechanics in the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural history, to agriculture, domestic economy, the arts, and manufactures." He liberally endowed it, and the "Rensselaer School" is a perpetual hymn to the memory and praise of its benefactor. In the cause of the Bible, Temperance, and every social and moral reform, Mr. Van Rensselaer's time and money were freely given; and in these labors he continued until death. He was an early and efficient friend of internal improvements, and, on the death of Dewitt Clinton, he was appointed president of the Board of Canal Commissioners. He held that station during the remainder of his life. That "good citizen and honest man" died on the 26th of January, 1840, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

262

WASHINGTON ALLSTON. WILLIAM MOULTRIE.

WASHINGTON ALLSTON.

NWashington one of painters,

O man ever possessed a more exquisite appreciation of the Beautiful, than

ever kept the Beautiful in more severe subordination to the Good and True, in the productions of both his pencil and pen. That appreciation made him shrink from frequent efforts in the higher department of his art, for he felt the impuissance of his hand in the delineations of the glorious visions of his genius. It has been well observed by Professor Shedd, that Allston accomplished so little, because he thought so much. This gifted painter and poet was born in South Carolina, in 1780, and was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in the year 1800. His genius for art was early developed; and, in 1801, he went to Europe, to study the works of the best masters there. He remained abroad eight years, and enjoyed the friendship of the most distinguished poets and painters of England and the Continent. In painting, West, Reynolds, and Fuseli were his instructors; and Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge, were his chief literary companions. No private American ever made a better or more lasting impression abroad, than Washington Allston. As a colorist, he was styled the American Titian. A small volume of his poems was issued in London, in 1813; and in later productions of his pen, he exhibited a power in writing elegant prose, surpassed by few. But he is chiefly known to the world as a painter, and as such posterity will speak of him. His chief works are The Dead Man restored to Life by Elijah; Elijah in the Desert; Jacob's Dream; The Angel liberating Peter from Prison; Saul and the Witch of Endor; Uriel in the Sun; Gabriel setting the Guard of the Heavenly Host; Spalatro's Vision of the Bloody Hand; Anne Page, and several exquisite smaller works. He was engaged on his greatest work-Belshazzar's Feast-when his final sickness fell upon him, and he was not permitted to finish it. It exhibits great powers of intellect and taste; and, as far as it is completed, it presents the embodiment of the highest conceptions of true genius. Most of his life was spent at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was educated; and there the "painter-poet and the poetpainter" left earth for the sphere of Intelligence and Beauty, on the 9th of July, 1843, when in the sixty-fourth year of his age.

SEVER

WILLIAM MOULTRIE.

EVERAL of those who, during the War for Independence, acted its history, have since written its history, and the truths of those great events can never be obscured by the fictions of posterity. Among those who have played that two-fold part in the drama recorded in our annals, is William Moultrie, whose valor won the honor of having the fort he defended bear his name. He was a native of South Carolina, where he was born, in 1730. He was descended from one of that Huguenot company of which Marion's ancestor was a member, and inherited the patient endurance, courage, and love of liberty of that persecuted people. History first notices him as a subaltern in an expedition against the Cherokee Indians, in 1760, under the command of Governor Littleton. was also prominent in subsequent expeditions against that unhappy people. He was active in civil affairs before the Revolution; and, when the hour for decision in that matter came, he was found in the ranks of the patriots as a military officer. When, early in the Summer of 1776, a strong land and naval force

He

menaced Charleston, Moultrie, bearing the commission of a colonel, took command of Fort Sullivan, in the harbor, and bravely defended it while cannons on British war-vessels were pouring an incessant storm of iron upon it.' For that gallant defence he was promoted to a brigadier, and the fort was named Moultrie, in his honor. From that time until the fall of Charleston, in 1780, General Moultrie was one of the most efficient of the Southern officers, on the field of action, or as a disciplinarian in camp. After the surrender of Charleston, he was kept a prisoner in the vicinity, for awhile, and was then paroled to Philadelphia, where he remained until the close of hostilities, in 1782. After his return home he was chosen governor of his native State, and was repeatedly reëlected to that office. His integrity as a statesman and public officer was a bright example; his disinterestedness was beyond all praise. His fellow-citizens honored him with truest reverence, and his intimate acquaintances loved him for his many private virtues. The infirmities of age at length admonished him to retire to private life; and in domestic repose he prepared his Memoirs of the Revolution in the South, which were published in two octavo volumes, in 1802. Like a bright sun setting without an obscuring cloud, the hero and sage descended peacefully to his final rest, on the 27th of September, 1805, at the age of seventyfive years.

JOHN LAMB.

THE HE Sons of Liberty in New York were distinguished for their loyalty to republican principles, their zeal in the promotion of popular freedom, and their boldness in every hour of difficulty and danger. Among the most fearless of those early patriots was John Lamb, son of an eminent optician and mathematical instrument maker. He was born in the city of New York, on the 1st of January, 1735. He received a good common education, and learned the business of his father. He abandoned it in 1760, and became an extensive wine merchant. Through all the exciting times until the kindling of the War for Independence, Mr. Lamb was extensively engaged in the liquor trade, and, at the same time, was one of the most active politicians of the day, after the passage of the Stamp Act had aroused the American people. He spoke French and German fluently, was a good scholar, and was exceedingly expert in the use of his tongue and pen. These he devoted to the public good. On one occasion, in 1769, when an inflammatory hand-bill had called "the betrayed inhabitants to the fields," Lamb harangued the multitude in seditious words. He was taken before the Legislative Assembly to testify concerning the authorship of the handbill, but was soon discharged. This event intensified his zeal, and he continued

1. During the action, a cannon ball cut the American flag-staff, and the banner fell outside of the fort. Sergeant William Jasper, of Moultrie's regiment, immediately leaped down from the parapet, picked up the flag while the balls were falling thick and fast, coolly fastened it to a sponge staff, and unfurled it again over the bastion of the fort. For this daring feat, Governor Rutledge presented Jasper with his own sword, the next day, and offered him a lieutenant's commission. The young hero modestly refused it, saying, "I can neither read nor write; I am not fit to keep officers' company; I am only a sergeant."

2. On the day when the enemy departed from Charleston, Mrs. Bernard Elliott (a niece of Mrs. Rebecca Motte), presented General Monltrie's regiment with a pair of elegant silk colors, wrought by the ladies of Charleston. These were afterward planted upon the fortifications at Savannah, when Lincoln and D'Estaing besieged that city, in October, 1779. Both the young officers who bore them were killed. Sergeant Jasper was there, and, seizing one of them, he mounted a bastion, when he, too, was killed by a bullet. These flags were surrendered at Charleston, in 1780, and were afterward trophies in the Tower of London.

3. The ground now occupied by the City Hall and its surrounding Park was called "the fields." There a "Liberty Pole" was erected, and there the popular assemblages were held.

4. The hand-bill was written by Alexander MacDougall, afterward a general in the Continental army.