JOHN CARROLL.

49

EZRA STILES.

A FEW weeks before the British under Governor Tryon, entered New Haven,

in Connecticut, with incendiary intent, a diminutive man of fifty years, with a face beaming with benevolent emotions, and a heart burning with love for his country and his race, was elected President of Yale College. It was Ezra Stiles, a most excellent Christian scholar, who was born at North Haven, on the 15th of December, 1727. He was educated at Yale, where he was graduated in 1742. He possessed a clear intellect, brilliant genius, and remarkable grace in deportment. He became a tutor in the College, and prepared himself for the Christian ministry. Ill health afflicted him, and with it came a state of mental suffering which almost made shipwreck of his character. He doubted the divinity of Christianity, and turned to the law as his chosen profession for life. Thorough investigations of the subject of revealed religion resulted, as usual, in convincing him that the teachings of Jesus proceeded from the great Father of us all. Under this conviction, Mr. Stiles resumed his clerical studies, and became a shining apostle of truth, as pastor of a Congregational society in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1755.

When the storm of the Revolution burst over Narraganset Bay and vicinity, and Rhode Island became a prey to the British invaders, Mr. Stiles' congregation was dispersed, and he preached in various places, until the year 1777, when, on the resignation of Dr. Daggett, he was elected President of Yale College. It was a wise choice, for his fame as a classical and Oriental scholar, and a thorough disciplinarian, had reached to Europe. He already corresponded extensively with leading men of science and learning in the old world, and he has ever been regarded as the most accomplished scholar who has yet filled the presidential chair of "Old Yale." He occupied that important seat until his death, which occurred on the 12th of May, 1795, when he was in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Dr. Stiles left a very interesting manuscript journal, which has never been published. It is in the library of Yale College.

IT

JOHN CARROLL.

is a fact worthy of notice, that the Maryland charter, granted by King Charles the First, in 1632, to Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic gentleman of fortune and influence, was the first of all the royal patents granted for settlements in America, which guaranteed freedom of thought and worship to all who professed a belief in Christ. Then came Baltimore's descendant (Leonard Calvert), with a Roman Catholic colony, and first settled that beautiful country "between North and South Virginia;" (named Maryland, after Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles the First,) and to this day, men of that faith have held a controlling influence in the affairs of the colony and state, in civil, military, political, and religious life. One of the most eminent lights of the Roman Catholic Church in Maryland, was John Carroll, a relative of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and for many years a faithful and highly esteemed archbishop, of the archiepiscopal see of Baltimore. He was born on the 8th of January, 1735, at Upper Marlborough, in Maryland, and was remarkable for his docility in childhood, and activity of mind during his earlier years. At the age of thirteen he was sent to the college of St. Omer, in French Flanders, where he remained until he was transferred to the Jesuits' college, at Liege,

six years afterward. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1769, renounced all claims to the estate left him by his father, and then became a teacher at St. Omer, and afterward at Liege. In 1773, the Jesuits were expelled from France, and he was obliged to abandon his professorship in the college at Bruges, to which he had been lately appointed, and retire to England. He wrote an able vindication of the Jesuits, but it availed nothing, for he dared not print it, and the manuscript is lost. In England, the accomplished young ecclesiastic became secretary to the Jesuit Fathers there. He also accompanied the son of Lord Stourton (an English nobleman) on a continental tour, as governor, during which time he kept an interesting journal. On his return to England he became a resident in Lord Arundel's family. The quarrel between England and her colonies was now waxing warm, and Mr. Carroll returned to his native country, in 1775. He immediately commenced the duties of his office of priest in his native county.

Mr. Carroll was now called to other duties. Congress was very desirous of winning Canada to the confederation of the American colonies against the

1. This journal is published in the Biography of Archbishop Carroll, written by his nephew, John Carroll Brent, and published, in Baltimore, in 1843.

JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE.

51

mother government, or at least to obtain its neutrality; and for that purpose, appointed Dr. Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, commissioners to proceed thither, to confer with the leading men there. Father Carroll was invited to accompany them, because his sacred office, his thorough acquaintance with the French language, and his conceded talent, would be of great service. The mission proved unsuccessful, however, and the devoted priest returned to his ministerial labors. Throughout the war, he was attached to the patriot cause, yet he did not neglect his religious duties. His talent and devotion were widely known; and in 1786, he was appointed vicar-general, and took up his residence at Baltimore. At that time his church was in a languishing state in America; but, like Dr. White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Mr. Carroll labored assiduously for the growth of his Zion, and may be justly called the Father of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He was consecrated a Bishop (the first for the United States) in 1790; and the following year he founded the college at Georgetown. The whole Republic was then but one diocese, under the title of the see of Baltimore. Under his fostering care, and the tolerant principles of our government, the church thrived, and men of every creed regarded Bishop Carroll as one of the best men of the day. Congress, by unanimous vote, invited him to deliver an eulogy on the death of Washington, and that service was admirably performed in St. Peter's church, in Baltimore, on the 22d of February, 1800. In 1808, Baltimore was erected into a metropolitan see. Four suffragan bishops were created, and Dr. Carroll became Archbishop. With every additional duty laid upon him, the venerable prelate's zeal seemed to increase, and he labored faithfully until his death, which occurred on the 3d of December, 1815, at the age of eighty years.

JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE.

HE name of Oglethorpe ought to be held in grateful remembrance as one of the noblest of the colonizers of our beautiful land, for he came not hither for personal gain, but for the purpose of perfecting a benevolent scheme which his tender heart and sound judgment had conceived. He was born in Surrey, England, on the 21st of December, 1698. He was educated for the military profession, and became an aide-de-camp to the great Prince Eugene. While a representative in Parliament, in 1728, he was placed upon a committee to inquire into the condition of imprisoned debtors in Great Britain. His benevolent heart was pained at the recitals of woe that fell upon his ears. The virtuous and the good were alike cast into loathsome prisons. A glorious idea was awakened in his mind; and in 1729, he submitted to Parliament a plan for establishing a military colony south of the Savannah river, as a barrier between the Carolinians and the Spaniards in Florida, to be composed of the virtuous debtors then in prison throughout the kingdom. The plan was heartily approved. A royal charter for twenty-one years was granted to a corporation "in trust for the poor," to establish a colony to be called Georgia, in honor of King George the Second, then on the English throne. Oglethorpe was a practical philanthropist; and when sufficient money had been subscribed, and the emigrants were almost ready for departure, he offered to accompany them as governor. He went up the Savannah river early in 1733, and upon Yamacraw Bluff he held a "talk" with some of the Creek chiefs; and there he founded the city of Savannah. In the prosecution of his benevolent enterprise he crossed the ocean several times. His colony rapidly increased, and within eight years twenty-five hundred settlers

52

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

were sent over by the trustees, at an expense of four hundred thousand dollars. The jealousy of the Spaniards at St. Augustine was aroused, and they menaced the Georgia colony with war. Oglethorpe promptly built forts in the direction of Florida, and by skillful military movements, including some fighting, he kept back the enemy, and secured permanency to his colony.

Oglethorpe took final leave of Georgia in 1743, and in 1745 was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-general in the British army. He was employed, under the Duke of Cumberland, in quelling the Scotch rebellion of 1745; and in 1747, he was promoted to Major-general. When General Gage, who was governor of Massachusetts, and commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, went to England in 1775, the supreme command in this country was offered to Oglethorpe. The merciful conditions upon which, alone, he would accept the appointment did not please the ministry, and general Howe was sent. Oglethorpe died at his seat at Grantham Hall, on the 30th of June, 1785, at the age of eighty-seven years.

THE

JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.

HE fine arts were but little appreciated and less practiced in America, previous to the revolution; and those artists of American birth who became famous, obtained their laurel-crowns in England. There West and Copley both gained fortune and great fame. The latter was born in Boston in 1738. He possessed a genius for art, and became a pupil of Smibert, a celebrated English portrait painter, who accompanied Dean Berkeley to Rhode Island. Smibert settled in Boston when Berkeley returned to England, where he married and died. Copley was his only student who became proficient; and after his master's death, in 1751, he stood alone in his profession. He painted many full-length portraits, and a lucrative and honorable career was opening before him, when the early storm-clouds of the revolution began to appear. His business waned, and, in 1769, he went to England. This circumstance, and the fact that his father-inlaw was one of the consignees of the East India Company's tea, which was destroyed in Boston Harbor in 1773, caused him to be classed among refugee loyalists. He was patronized by Benjamin West, then in the meridian glory of his renown; and in 1770, he was admitted a member of the Royal Academy, then lately established under the auspices of the young king. He visited Boston in 1771, where he remained several months, and then returned to England. In 1774, he went to Italy; and on his return to England in 1776, he there met his wife and children, whom he had left in Boston. They had come with his fatherin-law, who was one of the many loyalists who fled to Halifax when Washington drove the British from Boston in the Spring of that year. Copley devoted himself assiduously to portrait painting, for a livelihood, and occasionally produced an historical picture, which attested his fine talent for such composition. On the recommendation of West, he was employed to paint two pictures: one for the House of Lords, the other for the House of Commons. He chose for his subjects, The Death of Chatham, and Charles the First in Parliament. These established his fame, and he secured a fortune by his profession. His name-sake son, who was born in Boston, in 1772, he educated for the bar. It was a wise choice, for he became as eminent in the profession of the law, as his father had in painting. He was rapidly rising in honor when his father died, suddenly, on the 25th of September, 1815, at the age of seventy-seven years. Twelve years later, the Boston-born son of Copley became Lord Chancellor of England, and was elevated to the peerage, with the title of Lord Lyndhurst.

BECAU

the throne, episcopacy was regarded with jealous fear by the great body of American colonists, and every attempt to establish it in the New World failed, until after the revolution. Episcopal ministers in America could obtain ordination in England and Scotland, only, until 1785, when Dr. Seabury was consecrated a bishop. William White, the son of a sound Philadelphia lawyer, was the second who received that exalted honor in the church, in America. He was born in Philadelphia, on the 4th of April, 1748, and entered the college in that city, at the age of fourteen years. He had serious religious impressions at the age of sixteen years, and these were greatly deepened by the persuasive eloquence of Whitefield, in 1763. Young White was graduated at the age of eighteen, and soon afterward commenced the study of theology. In October, 1770, he embarked for Europe, and with letters to the Bishop of London, he made application to that prelate for deacon's orders. He was successful; and after remaining eighteen months in England, and becoming acquainted with Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and other men of letters, he received priest's orders. He was ordained in April, 1772, and in June embarked for America. In the Autumn of that year, he was settled as assistant minister in the parish of Christ Church and St. Peter's, in Philadelphia; and for sixty-four years he was a faithful pastor in the church of his choice. Nor were his pious labors confined to the ser