ADAMS, JOHN, the second president, was born, in 1735, at Braintree Massachusetts. He was educated at the university of Cambridge, and received the degree of master of arts in 1758. At this time, he entered the office of Jeremiah Gridley, a lawyer of the highest eminence, to complete his legal studies; and in the next year he was admitted to the bar of Suffolk. Mr.Adams, at an early age, espoused the cause of his country, and received numerous marks of the public confidence and respect. He took a prominent part in every leading measure, and served on several committees, which reported some of the most important state papers of the time. He was elected a member of the Congress, and was among the foremost in recommending the adoption of an independent government. It has been affirmed by Mr.Jefferson himself, ‘that the great pillar of support to the declaration of independence, and its ablest advocate and champion on the floor of the house, was John Adams.’ In 1777, he was chosen commissioner to the court of Versailles, in the place of Mr.Dean, who was recalled. On his return, about a year afterwards, he was elected a member of the convention to prepare a form of government for the state of Massachusetts, and placed on the sub-committee chosen to draught the project of a constitution. Three months after his return, congress sent him abroad with two commissions, one as minister plenipotentiary, to negotiate a peace, the other to form a commercial treaty with Great Britain. In June, 1780, he was appointed, in the place of Mr.Laurens, ambassador to Holland, and in 1782, he repaired to Paris, to commence the negotiation for peace, having previously obtained assurance that Great Britain would recognise the independence of the United States. At the close of the war, Mr.Adams was appointed the first minister to London. In 1789, he was elected vice-president of the United States, and, on the resignation of Washington, succeeded to the presidency, in 1797. After his term of four years had expired, it was found, on the new election, that his adversary, Mr.Jefferson, had succeeded, by the majority of one vote. On retiring to his farm in Quincy, Mr.Adams occupied himself with agriculture, obtaining amusement from the literature and politics of the day. The remaining years of his life were passed in almost uninterrupted tranquillity. He died on the fourth of July, 1826, with the same words on his lips, which, fifty years before, on that glorious day, he had uttered on the floor of Congress—‘Independence forever!’ Mr.Adams is the author of An Essay on Canon and Feudal Law.

ADAMS, SAMUEL, one of the most remarkable men connected with the revolution, was born at Boston, in 1722. He was educated at Harvard college, and received its honors in 1740. He was one of the first who organized measures of resistance to the mother country; and for the prominent part which he took in these measures, he was proscribed by the British government. During the revolutionary war, he was one of the most active and influential asserters of American freedom and independence. He was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts from 1766 to 1774, when he was sent to the first congress of the old confederation. He was one of the signers of the declaration of 1776, for the adoption of which he had always been one of the warmest advocates. In 1781, he retired from congress, but only to receive from his native state additional proofs of her confidence in his talents and integrity. He had already been an active member of the convention that formed her constitution; and after it went into effect, he was placed in the senate of the state, and for several years presided over that body. In 1789, he was elected lieutenant governor, and held that office till 1794; upon the death of Hancock, he was chosen governor, and was annually re-elected till 1797, when he retired from public life. He died in 1803. The following encomium upon Mr.Adams is from a work upon the American rebellion, by Mr.Galloway, published in Great Britain, 1780: ‘He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, thinks much, and is most indefatigable in the pursuit of his object. It was this man, who, by his superior application, managed at once the factions in congress at Philadelphia, and the factions of New England.’

ADAMS, HANNAH, a native of New England, whose literary labors have made her name known in Europe, as well as in her native land. Among her works are the View of Religions, History of the Jews, Evidences of the Christian Religion, and a History of New England. She was a woman of high excellence and purity of character. She died in 1831, at the age of seventy-six.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, a major-general in the American army, during the revolutionary war, was born in the city of New York, but passed a portion of his life in New Jersey. He acted an important part throughout the revolution, and distinguished himself particularly in the battles of Long Island, Germantown, and Monmouth. He died at Albany, in 1783, at the age of fifty-seven years, leaving behind him the reputation of a brave officer and a learned man.

ALLEN, ETHAN, a brigadier-general in the revolutionary army, was born in Connecticut, but was educated principally in Vermont. In 1775, soon after the battle of Lexington, he collected a body of about three hundred Green Mountain boys, as they were called, and marched against the fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and in each of these enterprises he was successful. He was shortly after taken prisoner, and sent to England; of the events of his captivity he has himself given an interesting narrative. On release from his confinement, he repaired to the head-quarters of general Washington, where he was received with much respect. As his health was much injured, he returned to Vermont, after having made an offer of his services to the commander-in-chief, in case of his recovery. He died suddenly at Colchester, in 1789. Among other publications, Allen was the author of a work entitled Allen’s Theology, or the Oracles of Reason, the first formal attack upon the Christian religion issued in the United States. He was a man of an exceedingly strong mind, but entirely rough and uneducated.

ALSOP, RICHARD, a man of letters, was born at Middletown, in Connecticut, and resided in that place during most of his life. His works are numerous, and embrace a great variety of subjects. He was one of the contributors to the Echo, a journal that obtained considerable celebrity, in its day, for humor and satire. He published various translations from the French and Italian, and left in manuscript a poem of considerable length, called the Charms of Fancy. He died in 1815, at the age of fifty-seven.

AMES, FISHER, one of the most eloquent of American writers and statesmen, was born at Dedham, in Massachusetts, in the year 1758. He was educated at Harvard college, where he received his degree in 1774. About seven years afterwards, he began the practice of the law, and an opportunity soon occurred for the display of his superior qualifications, both as a speaker and essay writer. He distinguished himself as a member of the Massachusetts convention for ratifying the constitution, in 1788, and from this body passed to the house of representatives, in the state legislature. Soon after, he was elected the first representative of the Suffolk district, in the congress of the United States, where he remained, with the highest honor, during the eight years of Washington’s administration. On the retirement of the first president, Mr.Ames returned to the practice of his profession in his native town. During the remaining years of his life, his health was very much impaired, but his mind still continued deeply interested in politics, and he published a considerable number of essays, on the most stirring topics of the day. He died in 1808. In the following year, his works were issued in one volume, octavo, prefaced by a biographical notice, from the pen of his friend, the Rev. Dr.Kirkland.

BAINBRIDGE, WILLIAM, a distinguished naval officer, was born at Princeton, New Jersey, on the seventh of May, 1774. From 1793 to 1798, he was engaged in the merchant service, sailing between Philadelphia and Europe. In July, 1798, he received the command of the United States’ schooner Retaliation, of fourteen guns, to be employed in the hostilities which had arisen with France. While cruising off Guadeloupe this schooner was taken by two French frigates and a lugger, and taken in to that island, where she remained three months. He reached home in February, 1799, and his exchange being soon effected, he received a commission of master-commandant, and sailed in the brig Norfolk, in another cruise to the West Indies. Here he remained for some months,convoying the trade of the United States. On his return, he received a captain’s commission, and was appointed to the command of the frigate George Washington, in which he shortly afterwards sailed for Algiers, with the presents which our treaty bound us to make to the regency. After performing, from motives of policy, a highly insolent exaction of the Dey, captain Bainbridge returned to Philadelphia, in the month of April, 1801. In the following year, he received the command of the frigate Essex, and sailed for the Mediterranean, to protect American commerce from the Tripolitan cruisers. In July, 1803, he sailed in the Philadelphia, to join the Mediterranean squadron, then under commodore Preble. His frigate was unfortunately captured by the Tripolitans, and captain Bainbridge and his crew remained in imprisonment for thirteen months. In 1805, a treaty of peace was concluded between the United States and Tripoli, and the prisoners were liberated. Captain Bainbridge was received with much respect, and was acquitted of all blame, by a court of inquiry, held at his request. From 1806 to 1812, he was employed at times in the merchant service. In 1812, he was appointed to the command of the navy yard at Charlestown, and when captain Hull applied for a furlough, after his victory over the British frigate Guerriere, commodore Bainbridge was permitted to take command of the Constitution. In a few weeks after sailing, he was running down towards the coast of Brazil, when he fell in with the Java frigate, which he captured, after a severe battle. This frigate was so much injured, that it was impossible to bring her to the United States, and she was accordingly blown up. The situation of the Constitution soon compelled commodore Bainbridge to return, and he was engaged in no other action during the war. After the peace of 1815, he superintended the building of the Independence, seventy-four, and took command of the first line of battle ship that belonged to our navy. In this ship he sailed to the Mediterranean, to form a junction with commodore Decatur, to cruise against the Barbary powers; but matters had been arranged before his arrival. In November, 1815, he returned to this country, was afterwards appointed one of the navy commissioners, and resumed the command of the navy yard in Charlestown. His health gradually declined, and he died at Philadelphia on the twenty-seventh of July, 1833.

BARLOW, JOEL, a poet and diplomatist, was born at Reading, in Connecticut, about the year 1755. His father died while he was yet a lad at school, and left him little more than sufficient to defray the expenses of a liberal education. He was first placed at Dartmouth college, New Hampshire, then in its infancy, and after a very short residence there, removed to Yale college, New Haven. From this institution he received a degree, in 1778, when he first came before the public in his poetical character, by reciting an original poem, which was soon after published. On leaving college, he was successively a chaplain in the revolutionary army, an editor, a bookseller, a lawyer, and a merchant. He next visited England, and published, in London, the first part of Advice to the Privileged Orders; and, in the succeeding year, a poem, called The Conspiracy of Kings. In the latter part of 1792, he was appointed one of the deputies from the London Constitutional Society, to present an address to the national convention of France. Information of the notice which the British government had taken of this mission, led him to think that it would be unsafe to return to England, and he continued to reside in Paris for about three years. It was about this time that he composed his most popular poem, entitled Hasty Pudding. He was subsequently appointed consul for the United States at Algiers, with powers to negotiate a peace with the dey, and to redeem all American citizens held in slavery on the coast of Barbary. After discharging these duties, he returned to Paris, and again engaging in trade, amassed a considerable fortune. In 1805, he returned to his native country, and fixed his residence at Washington, where he displayed a liberal hospitality, and lived on terms of intimacy with most of our distinguished statesmen. He now devoted himself to the publication of the Columbiad, which was based upon a poem written while he was in the army, and published soon after the close of the war, under the title of The Vision of Columbus. This was issued in a style of elegance which few works, either American or European, have ever equalled. In 1811, he was appointed minister to France, and in October of the following year, was invited to a conference with the emperor Napoleon, at Wilna. He immediately set off on this mission, travelling day and night; but, sinking under the fatigue, and want of food and sleep, to which he was obliged to submit, he fell into a state of debility and torpor, from which he never recovered. He died in December, 1812, at Zarnowica, a village in Poland, near Cracow.

BARNEY, JOSHUA, a distinguished naval commander, was born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1759. He went to sea at a very early age, and when the war commenced between Great Britain and the colonies, Barney offered his services to the latter, and obtained the situation of master’s mate in the sloop of war Hornet. During the war, he was several times taken prisoner by the enemy, and displayed, on numerous occasions, great valor and enterprise. In 1795, he received the commission of captain in the French service, but in 1800 resigned his command, and returned to America. In 1812, when war was declared against Great Britain, he offered his services to the general government, and was appointed to the command of the flotilla for the defence of the Chesapeak. While in this situation, during the summer of 1814, he kept up an active warfare with the enemy; and in the latter part of July, he was severely wounded in a land engagement near Bladensburg. In the following year, he was sent on a mission to Europe. He died at Pittsburg, in 1818, in the sixtieth year of his age.

BARRY, JOHN, a distinguished naval officer, was born in Ireland, in 1745. He arrived in America when only fourteen or fifteen years old, and obtained employment from some of the most respectable merchants of the day, until the commencement of hostilities between the colonies and the mother country. Embracing the cause of the colonies, his reputation for skill and experience procured for him one of the first naval commissions from congress. During the war, he served with great benefit to his country, and credit to himself, and after the cessation of hostilities, he was appointed to superintend the building of the frigate United States, in Philadelphia, which was designed for his command. He was highly respected in private life, and died, much lamented and honored, in 1803.

BARTRAM, JOHN, one of the most distinguished of our botanists, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1701. He was a simple farmer, self taught in the science of botany, and in the rudiments of the learned languages, medicine, and surgery. So great was his progress in his favorite pursuit, that LinnÆus pronounced him the ‘greatest natural botanist in the world.’ He contributed much to the gardens of Europe, and received honors from several foreign societies and academics. At the time of his death, which happened in 1777, he held the office of American botanist to GeorgeIII. of England.

BARTRAM, WILLIAM, a celebrated naturalist, son of the preceding, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1739. In early life, he was occupied with mercantile pursuits, but an attachment to natural science induced him to relinquish them, and, in 1773, he embarked for Charleston, with the intention to visit the Floridas and the western parts of Georgia and Carolina, to examine their natural productions. In this employment he was engaged nearly five years; and in 1790, he published an account of his travels and discoveries, in one volume, octavo. After his return from his travels, he devoted himself to science, and was elected a member of several learned societies, both at home and in Europe. His contributions to the natural history of our country have been highly valuable. He died suddenly, in 1823.

BAYARD, JAMES A., an eminent lawyer and politician, was born in Philadelphia, in 1767, and educated at Princeton college. In the year 1784, he engaged in the study of the law, and on admission to the bar, settled in the state of Delaware, where he soon acquired practice and consideration. He was elected to a seat in congress towards the close of the administration of Mr.Adams, and first particularly distinguished himself in conducting the impeachment of senator Blount. In 1804, he was elected to the senate of the United States, by the legislature of Delaware, and remained for several years a conspicuous member of that assembly. In 1813, he was appointed by president Madison one of the ministers to conclude a treaty of peace with Great Britain, and assisted in the successful negotiations at Ghent, in the following year. He then received the appointment of minister to the court of St.Petersburgh, but an alarming illness induced him to return immediately to the United States. He died soon after his arrival home, in July, 1815.

BELKNAP, JEREMY, an eminent historian and divine, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1744, and was graduated at Harvard college, in 1762. He was first settled in the Christian ministry at Dover, New Hampshire, and afterwards in his native town. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and devoted much of his time to the promotion of its objects and interests. His published works are, the History of New Hampshire, American Biography, and a number of political, literary and religious tracts. His writings are characterized by great research, clear arrangement, and perspicuity of style. He died at Boston, in 1798.

BENEZET, ANTHONY, a philanthropist, was born in 1713, at St.Quentin, in Picardy, of Protestant parents, who first settled in London, and afterwards at Philadelphia. He was intended for a merchant, but apprenticed himself to a cooper, and subsequently became a school-master, and a member of the society of Friends. His whole life was spent in acts of benevolence, and he was one of the earliest opponents of the atrocious slave trade. Afew hours before his death, he rose from his bed, to give, from his bureau, six dollars to a poor widow. His funeral was attended by thousands; and at the grave, an American officer exclaimed, ‘Iwould rather be Anthony Benezet, in that coffin, than George Washington, with all his fame.’ Benezet died at Philadelphia, in 1784. He is the author of a Caution to Great Britain and her colonies; and an Historical Account of Guinea.

BIDDLE, NICHOLAS, an American naval officer, was born in Philadelphia, in 1750. He entered the British fleet in 1770, having previously served several years as a seaman on board merchant ships. On the commencement of hostilities between the colonies and the mother country, he returned to Philadelphia, and received from congress the captaincy of the Andrew Doria, a brig of fourteen guns, employed in the expedition against New Providence. Towards the close of 1776, he received command of the Randolph, a new frigate of thirty-two guns, with which he soon captured a Jamaica fleet, of four sail, richly laden. This prize he carried into Charleston, and was soon after furnished by the government of that town with four additional vessels, to attack several British cruisers, at that time harassing the commerce of the vicinity. He fell in with the royal line-of-battle ship Yarmouth, of sixty-four guns, on the seventh of March, 1778 and, after an action of twenty minutes, perished, with all his crew except four, by the blowing up of the ship.

BLAKELY, JOHNSTON, a captain in the United States navy during the late war, was born in Ireland, in 1781. Two years after, his father emigrated to the United States, and settled in North Carolina. Young Blakely was placed, in 1796, at the university of North Carolina; but circumstances having deprived him of the means of adequate support, he left college, and in 1800 obtained a midshipman’s warrant. In 1813, he was appointed to the command of the Wasp, and in this vessel took his Britannic majesty’s ship Reindeer, after an action of nineteen minutes. The Wasp afterwards put into L’Orient; from which port she sailed August27. On the evening of the first of September, 1814, she fell in with four sail, at considerable distances from each other. One of these was the brig of war Avon, which struck, after a severe action; but captain Blakely was prevented from taking possession, by the approach of another vessel. The enemy reported that they had sunk the Wasp by the first broadside; but she was afterwards spoken by a vessel off the Western isles. After this, we hear of her no more. Captain Blakely was considered a man of uncommon courage and intellect.

BOONE, DANIEL, one of the earliest settlers in Kentucky, was born in Virginia, and was from infancy addicted to hunting in the woods. He set out on an expedition to explore the region of Kentucky, in May, 1769, with five companions. After meeting with a variety of adventures, Boone was left with his brother, the only white men in the wilderness. They passed the winter in a cabin, and in the summer of 1770, traversed the country to the Cumberland river. In September, 1773, Boone commenced his removal to Kentucky, with his own and five other families. He was joined by forty men, who put themselves under his direction; but being attacked by the Indians, the whole party returned to the settlements on Clinch river. Boone was afterwards employed by a company of North Carolina, to buy, from the Indians, lands on the south side of the Kentucky river. In April, 1775, he built a fort at Salt-spring, where Boonesborough is now situated. Here he sustained several sieges from the Indians, and was once taken prisoner by them, while hunting with a number of his men. In 1782, the depredations of the savages increased to an alarming extent, and Boone, with other militia officers, collected one hundred and seventy-six men, and went in pursuit of a large body, who had marched beyond the Blue Licks, forty miles from Lexington. From that time till 1798, he resided alternately in Kentucky and Virginia. In that year, having received a grant of two thousand acres of land from the Spanish authorities, he removed to Upper Louisiana, with his children and followers, who were presented with eight hundred acres each. He settled with them at Charette, on the Missouri river, where he followed his usual course of life,—hunting and trapping bears,—till September, 1822, when he died, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He expired while on his knees, taking aim at some object, and was found in that position, with his gun resting on the trunk of a tree.

BOUDINOT, ELIAS, a descendant of one of the Huguenots, was born in Philadelphia, in 1740. He received a liberal education, and entered into the practice of the law in New Jersey, where he soon rose to considerable eminence. In 1777, he was chosen a member of congress, and in 1782, was elected president of that body. On the return of peace, he resumed his profession, but, in 1789, was elected to a seat in the house of representatives of the United States, which he continued to occupy for six years. He was then appointed by Washington director of the national mint, in which office he remained for about twelve years. Resigning this office, he retired to private life, and resided from that time in Burlington, New Jersey. Here he passed his time in literary pursuits, liberal hospitality, and in discharging all the duties of an expansive and ever active benevolence. Being possessed of an ample fortune, he made munificent donations to various charitable and theological institutions, and was one of the earliest and most efficient friends of the American Bible Society. Of this institution he was the first president, and it was particularly the object of his princely bounty. He died in October, 1821.

BOWDOIN, JAMES, a governor of Massachusetts, was born at Boston, in the year 1727, and was graduated at Harvard college in 1745. He took an early stand against the encroachments of the British government upon the provincial rights, and in 1774 was elected a delegate to the first congress. The state of his health prevented his attendance, and his place was afterwards filled by Mr.Hancock. In 1778, he was chosen president of the convention which formed the constitution of Massachusetts, and in 1785, was appointed governor of that state. He was a member of the Massachusetts convention assembled to deliberate on the adoption of the constitution of the United States, and exerted himself in its favor. He was the first president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, established at Boston in 1780, and was admitted a member of several foreign societies of distinction. He died at Boston, in 1790.

BOYLSTON, ZABDIEL, was born at Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1684. He studied medicine at Boston, and entered into the practice of his profession in that place. In 1721, when the small pox broke out in Boston, and spread alarm through the whole country, the practice of inoculation was introduced by Dr.Boylston, notwithstanding it was discouraged by the rest of the faculty, and a public ordinance was passed to prohibit it. He persevered in his practice, in spite of the most violent opposition, and had the satisfaction of seeing inoculation in general use in New England, for some time before it became common in Great Britain. In 1725, he visited England, where he was received with much attention, and was elected a fellow of the Royal society. Upon his return, he continued at the head of his profession for many years, and accumulated a large fortune. Besides communications to the Royal society, he published two treatises on the small pox. He died in 1766.

BRADFORD, WILLIAM, an eminent lawyer, was born in Philadelphia, in 1755. After graduating at Princeton college, he pursued the study of the law, and in 1779, was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. In 1780, he was appointed attorney-general, and in 1791, he was made a judge of the supreme court of his native state. In 1794, he was appointed attorney-general of the United States, and held this office till his death. In 1793, he published an Inquiry how far the Punishment of Death is necessary in Pennsylvania. He died in 1795. He was a man of integrity, industry, and talent.

BRAINARD, J.G.C., a poet and man of letters, was born in Connecticut, and was graduated at Yale college, in 1815. He pursued the profession of the law, and entered into practice at Middletown, Connecticut; but not finding the degree of success that he expected, he returned in a short time to his native town, whence he removed to Hartford, to undertake the editorial charge of the Connecticut Mirror. His poems were chiefly short pieces, composed for the columns of that paper, and afterwards collected into a volume. They display much pathos, boldness, and originality. Brainard died of consumption, in 1828.

BRAINERD, DAVID, the celebrated missionary, was born at Haddam, Connecticut, in 1718. From an early period he was remarkable for a religious turn of mind, and in 1739, became a member of Yale college, where he was distinguished for application, and general correctness of conduct. He was expelled from this institution in 1742, in consequence of having said, in the warmth of his religious zeal, that one of the tutors was as devoid of grace as a chair. In the spring of 1742, he began the study of divinity, and at the end of July, was licensed to preach. Having received from the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, an appointment as missionary to the Indians, he commenced his labors at Kaunameek, a village of Massachusetts, situated between Stockbridge and Albany. He remained there about twelve months, and on the removal of the Kaunameeks to Stockbridge, he turned his attention towards the Delaware Indians. In 1744, he was ordained at Newark, New Jersey, and fixed his residence near the forks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, where he remained about a year. From this place, he removed to Crosweeksung, in New Jersey, where his efforts among the Indians were crowned with great success. In 1747, he went to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he passed the remainder of his life in the family of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. He died, after great sufferings, in 1747. His publications are a narrative of his labors at Kaunameek, and his journal of a remarkable work of grace among a number of Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 1746.

BRANDT, a noted half-blooded Indian chief, of the Mohawk tribe, was educated by Dr.Wheelock, of Dartmouth college, and made very considerable attainments in knowledge. In the revolutionary war, he attached himself to the British, and headed the party which destroyed the beautiful village of Wyoming. He resided in Canada after the war, and died there in 1807.

BROOKS, JOHN, the son of a respectable farmer, was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in the year 1752. After receiving a common school education, he was placed with Dr.Tufts, to study the profession of medicine. On completing his studies, he commenced practice in the neighboring town of Reading, a short time before the commencement of the revolution. When this event occurred, he was appointed to command a company of minute men, and was soon after raised to the rank of major in the continental service. He was distinguished for his knowledge of military tactics, and acquired the confidence of Washington. In 1777, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and took a conspicuous part in the capture of Burgoyne, at Saratoga. On the disbanding of the army, colonel Brooks resumed the practice of medicine in Medford and the vicinity, and was soon after elected a member of the Massachusetts Medical society. He was, for many years, major-general of the militia of his county, and his division rendered efficient service to the government in the insurrection of 1786. General Brooks also represented his town in the general court, and was a delegate to the state convention for the adoption of the federal constitution. In the late war with England, he was the adjutant-general of governor Strong, whom, on his retirement from office, he was chosen to succeed. He discharged the duties of chief magistrate with much ability, for seven successive years, when he retired to private life. His remaining years were passed in the town of Medford, where he died in 1825.

BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN, a distinguished novelist and man of letters, was born at Philadelphia, in January, 1771. After a good school education, he commenced the study of the law in the office of an eminent member of the bar. During the preparatory term, his mind was much engaged in literary pursuits, and when the time approached for his admission into the courts, he resolved to abandon the profession altogether. His passion for letters, and the weakness of his physical constitution, disqualified him for the bustle of business. His first publication was Alcuin, a Dialogue on the Rights of Women, written in the autumn and winter of 1797. The first of his novels, issued in 1798, was Wieland, a powerful and original romance, which soon acquired reputation. After this, followed Ormond, Arthur Mervyn, Edgar Huntley, and Clara Howard, in rapid succession, the last being published in 1801. The last of his novels, Jane Talbot, was originally published in London, in 1804, and is much inferior to its predecessors. In 1799, Brown published the first number of the Monthly Magazine and American Review; a work which he continued for about a year and a half, with much industry and ability. In 1805, he commenced another journal, with the title of the Literary Magazine and American Register; and in this undertaking he persevered for five years. During the same interval, he found time to write three large political pamphlets, on the Cession of Louisiana, on the British Treaty, and on Commercial Restrictions. In 1806, he commenced a semi-annual American Register, five volumes of which he lived to complete and publish, and which must long be consulted as a valuable body of annals. Besides these works, and many miscellaneous pieces, published in different periodicals, he left in manuscript an unfinished system of geography, which has been represented to possess uncommon merit. He died of consumption, in 1810.

BROWN, JOHN, was born, in 1736, in Providence, Rhode Island, and was a leader of the party which, in 1772, destroyed the British sloop of war Gasper, in Narragansett bay. He became an enterprising and wealthy merchant, and was the first in his native state who traded with the East Indies and China. He was chosen a member of congress, and was a generous patron of literature, and a great projector of works of public utility. He died in 1803.

BUCKMINSTER, JOSEPH STEVENS, a celebrated pulpit orator, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1784. His male ancestors, on both sides, for several generations, were clergymen, and some of them of considerable eminence. He was graduated at Harvard college, in 1800 with much distinction, and spent the ensuing four years in the study of theology and general literature. He was ordained minister over the church in Brattle-street, Boston, in January, 1805. In the ensuing year, he embarked for Europe, with the hopes of repairing his constitution, which had suffered much from attacks of epilepsy. He returned in the autumn of 1807, and resumed the exercise of his profession; his sermons placing him in the first rank of popular preachers. In 1810, he superintended an American edition of Griesbach’s Greek Testament, and wrote much in vindication of this author’s erudition, fidelity, and accuracy. In 1811, he was appointed the first lecturer on Biblical criticism, at the university of Cambridge, on the foundation established by Samuel Dexter. He immediately began a course of laborious and extensive preparation for the duties of this office, but was interrupted by a violent attack of his old disease, which prostrated his intellect, and gave a shock to his frame which he survived but a few days. He died in 1812, at the completion of his twenty-eighth year. Two volumes of his sermons have been collected and published since his decease; one in 1814, the other in 1829. The first was prefaced with a well-written biographical sketch.

CABOT, GEORGE, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1752, and spent the early part of his life in the employment of a ship-master. He possessed a vigorous and inquisitive mind, and took advantage of every opportunity of improvement and acquisition, even amid the restlessness and danger of a seafaring life. Before he was twenty-six years of age, he was elected a member of the provincial congress of Massachusetts, which met with the visionary project of establishing a maximum in the prices of provision. There he displayed that sound sense, and that acquaintance with the true principles of political economy, for which he afterwards became so much distinguished. Mr.Cabot was a member of the state convention, assembled to deliberate on the adoption of the federal constitution, and in 1790, was elected to a seat in the senate of the United States. Of this body he became one of the most distinguished members, and enjoyed the unlimited confidence and friendship of Hamilton and Washington. In 1808, he became a member of the council of Massachusetts, and in 1814, was appointed a delegate to the convention which met at Hartford, and was chosen to preside over its deliberations. He died at Boston, in 1823, at the age of seventy-two years. He possessed a mind of great energy and penetration, and in private life was much loved and esteemed. As a public man, he was pure and disinterested, of high sagacity and persuasive eloquence. His favorite studies were political economy and the science of government.

CADWALLADER, JOHN, was born in Philadelphia, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general during the revolutionary war. He was a man of inflexible courage, and possessed, in a high degree, the esteem and confidence of Washington. In 1778, he was appointed by congress general of cavalry, an appointment which he declined, on the score of being more useful in the situation he then occupied. After the war, he was a member of the assembly of Maryland, and died in 1786, in the forty-fourth year of his age.

CARROLL, CHARLES, was born on the twentieth of September, 1737, at Annapolis, in Maryland. At an early age, he was sent to St.Omers to be educated, whence he removed to the college of Louis le Grand, at Rheims. After prosecuting for some time the study of the civil law, at one of the best institutions in France, he entered the temple. After becoming well versed in the principles of the common law, and completing his studies and travels, he returned to his native land, at the age of twenty-seven. At this period, the difficulties between the colonies and the mother country had commenced, and the struggle was soon carried on with considerable warmth. Mr.Carroll wielded a vigorous pen, and was soon known as one of the most powerful writers in Maryland. He foresaw at an early hour that the appeal to arms must finally be made, and boldly recommended due preparation.

Early in 1776, he was sent as one of the commissioners to Canada, to induce the people of that province to join us in the opposition to the mother country. This mission was ineffectual. Mr.Carroll returned in June, 1776, and immediately took his seat as a delegate in the convention of Maryland. Being afterwards elected a member of the congress, he presented his credentials to this body at Philadelphia on the eighteenth of July, and on the second of August following subscribed his name to the declaration of independence.

At the time he was considered as one of the most fearless and daring men of the age; as his property was immense, and its ultimate loss was considered rationally certain. On his entrance into congress, he was immediately appointed to the board of war, of which he was an efficient member. During the war, he bore his part with unabated vigor, and was often, at the same time, a member of the continental congress and of the convention of his native state; discharging his duties in both relations with fidelity, energy, and attention. In 1778, he left congress, and devoted himself to the councils of his native state. When the constitution of the United States went into operation, Mr.Carroll was elected a senator from Maryland, and took his seat at the organization of the government, on the 30th of April, 1789. To this office he was elected for a second term.

In 1801, he quitted public life at the age of sixty-four, and for upwards of thirty years enjoyed a life of tranquil honor, and unalloyed prosperity. He survived all his companions of the immortal instrument of our independence, and on the fourteenth of November, 1832, the ‘patriarch was gathered to his fathers.’

CARTER, NATHANIEL H., a man of letters, was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated at Dartmouth college in 1811. In 1816, he was chosen professor of languages at the college where he was educated, and was subsequently editor of the New York Statesman. He is the author of a few occasional poems, and of Travels in Europe, in two vols. 8vo. He died in Marseilles, where he had gone on account of his health, in January, 1830.

CARVER, JONATHAN, a celebrated traveller, born in Connecticut, in 1732, was a grandson of the governor of that province. He was educated for the medical profession, but embraced a military life, and served with reputation till the peace of 1763. The years 1766, 1767, and 1768, he spent in exploring the interior of North America, and he added considerably to our knowledge of the country. He visited England, in 1769, hoping for the patronage of government, but he was disappointed. In 1778, while in the situation of clerk of a lottery, in Boston, he published his travels, and, subsequently, a Treatise on the Cultivation of Tobacco. After having long contended with poverty, he died, in 1780, of disease which is believed to have been produced by want. His narrations have all the interest of fiction, and it has been suggested that they may in some respects be considered the work of fancy.

CHASE, SAMUEL, judge of the supreme court of the United States, was born in Somerset county, Maryland, in 1741. He was educated by his father, a learned clergyman; and after studying for two years the profession of law, he was admitted to the bar, at Annapolis, at the age of twenty. In 1774, he was sent to the congress of Philadelphia as a delegate from Maryland, and he continued an active, bold, eloquent, and efficient member of this body throughout the war, when he returned to the practice of his profession. In 1791, he accepted the appointment of chief justice of the general court of Maryland; and in 1796, president Washington made him an associate judge of the supreme court of the United States. He remained upon the bench for fifteen years, and appeared with ability and dignity. It was his ill fortune, however, to have his latter days embittered by an impeachment by the house of representatives at Washington. This impeachment originated in political animosities, from the offence which his conduct in the circuit court had given to the democratic party. The trial of the judge before the senate is memorable on account of the excitement which it occasioned, the ability of the defence, and the nature of the acquittal. Judge Chase continued to exercise his judicial functions till 1811, when his health failed him, and he expired on the nineteenth of June, in that year. He was a sincere patriot, and a man of high intellect and undaunted courage.

CHURCH, BENJAMIN, a physician of some eminence, and an able writer, was graduated at Harvard college in 1754, and, after going through the preparatory studies, established himself in the practice of medicine in Boston. For several years before the revolution, he was a leading character among the whigs and patriots; and on the commencement of the war he was appointed physician general to the army. While in the performance of the duties assigned him in this capacity, he was suspected of a treacherous correspondence with the enemy, and immediately arrested and imprisoned. After remaining some time in prison, he obtained permission to depart for the West Indies. The vessel in which he sailed was never heard from afterwards. He is the author of a number of occasional poems, serious, pathetic, and satirical, which possess considerable merit; and an oration, delivered on the fifth of March, 1773.

CLINTON, JAMES, was born in 1736, at the residence of his father, in Ulster county, New York. He displayed an early inclination for a military life, and held successively several offices in the militia and provincial troops. During the French war he exhibited many proofs of courage, and received the appointment of captain-commandant of the four regiments, levied for the protection of the western frontiers of the counties of Ulster and Orange. In 1775, he was appointed colonel of the third regiment of New York forces, and in the same year marched with Montgomery to Quebec. During the war, he rendered eminent services to his country, and on the conclusion of it retired to enjoy repose on his ample estates. He was, however, frequently called from retirement by the unsolicited voice of his fellow-citizens; and was a member of the convention for the adoption of the present constitution of the United States. He died in 1812.

CLINTON, GEORGE, vice-president of the United States, was born in the county of Ulster, New York, in 1739, and was educated in the profession of the law. In 1768, he was chosen to a seat in the colonial assembly, and was elected a delegate to the continental congress in 1775. In 1776, he was appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Ulster county, and some time after a brigadier in the army of the United States, and continued during the progress of the war to render important services to the military department. In April, 1777, he was elected both governor and lieutenant-governor of New York, and was continued in the former office for eighteen years. He was unanimously chosen president of the convention which assembled at Poughkeepsie, in 1788, to deliberate on the new federal constitution. In 1801, he again accepted the office of governor, and after continuing in that capacity for three years, he was elevated to the vice-presidency of the United States; a dignity which he retained till his death at Washington, in 1812. In private he was kind and amiable, and as a public man he is entitled to respectful remembrance.

CLINTON, DE WITT, was born in 1769, at Little Britain, in Orange county, New York. He was educated at Columbia college, commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar, but was never much engaged in professional practice. He early imbibed a predilection for political life, and was appointed the private secretary of his uncle, George Clinton, then governor of the state. In 1797, he was sent to the legislature from the city of New York; and two years after was chosen a member of the state senate. In 1801, he was appointed a senator of the United States, and continued in that capacity for two sessions. He retired from the senate in 1803, in consequence of his election to the mayoralty of New York; an office to which he was annually re-elected, with the intermission of but two years, till 1815, when he was obliged to retire by the violence of party politics. In 1817, he was elected, almost unanimously, governor of the state, was again chosen in 1820, but in 1822 declined being a candidate for re-election. In 1810, Mr.Clinton had been appointed, by the senate of his state, one of the board of canal commissioners, but the displeasure of his political opponents having been excited, he was removed from this office, in 1823, by a vote of both branches of the legislature. This insult created a strong reaction in popular feeling, and Mr.Clinton was immediately nominated for governor, and elected by an unprecedented majority. In 1826, he was again elected, but he died before the completion of his term. He expired very suddenly, whilst sitting in his library after dinner, Feb.11, 1828. Mr.Clinton was not only eminent as a statesman, but he occupied a conspicuous rank as a man of learning. He was a member of a large part of the benevolent, literary and scientific societies of the United States, and an honorary member of several foreign societies. His productions are numerous, consisting of his speeches and messages to the state legislature; his discourses before various institutions; his speeches in the senate of the Union; his addresses to the army during the late war; his communications concerning the canal; his judicial opinions; and various fugitive pieces. His national services were of the highest importance; and the Erie canal, especially, though the honor of projecting it may belong to another, will remain a perpetual monument of the patriotism and perseverance of Clinton.

CLYMER, GEORGE, one of the signers of the declaration of independence, was born in Philadelphia, in 1739. He was left an orphan at the age of seven years, and after the completion of his studies, he entered the counting house of his uncle. When the difficulties commenced between Great Britain and the colonies, Mr.Clymer was among the first to raise his voice in opposition to the arbitrary acts of the mother country, and was chosen a member of the council of safety. In 1775, he was appointed one of the first continental treasurers, but resigned this office soon after his first election to congress, in the ensuing year. In 1780, he was again elected to congress, and strongly advocated there the establishment of a national bank. In 1796, he was appointed, together with colonel Hawkins and colonel Pickens, to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee and Creek Indians, in Georgia. He was subsequently president of the Philadelphia bank, and the Academy of Fine Arts. He died in 1813.

COLDEN, CADWALLADER, was born in Dunse, Scotland, in 1688. After studying at the university of Edinburgh, he turned his attention to medicine and mathematical science, until the year 1708, when he emigrated to Pennsylvania, and practised physic with much reputation, till 1715. He then returned to England, and attracted some attention by a paper on Animal Secretions, which was read by Dr.Halley before the Royal society. Again repairing to America, he settled, in 1718, in the city of New York, and relinquishing the practice of physic, turned his attention to public affairs, and became successively surveyor general of the province, master in chancery, member of the council, and lieutenant-governor. His political character was rendered very conspicuous by the firmness of his conduct during the violent commotions which preceded the revolution. In 1775, he retired to a seat on Long Island, where he died in September, of the following year, a few hours before nearly one fourth part of the city of New-York was reduced to ashes. His productions were numerous, consisting of botanical and medical essays. Among them were treatises on the Cure of Cancer, and on the Virtues of the Great Water Dock. His descriptions of between three and four hundred American plants were printed in the Acta Upsaliensia. He also published the History of the Five Indian Nations, and a work on the Cause of Gravitation, afterwards republished by Dodsley, under the title of The Principles of Action in Matter. He left many valuable manuscripts on a variety of subjects.

COOPER, SAMUEL, a Congregational minister, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1725. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1743, and, devoting himself to the church, acquired great reputation as a preacher, at a very early age. After an useful and popular ministry of thirty-seven years, he died in 1783. He was a sincere and liberal christian, and in his profession perhaps the most distinguished man of his day, in the United States. He was an ardent friend of the cause of liberty, and did much to promote it. With the exception of political essays in the journals of the day, his productions were exclusively sermons.

COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON, a distinguished painter, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1738. He began to paint without any instruction at a very early age, and executed pieces unsurpassed by his later productions. He visited Italy in 1774, and in 1776 went to England, where he determined to remain, in consequence of the convulsed state of his native country. He therefore devoted himself to portrait painting in London, and was chosen a member of the royal academy. His celebrated picture, styled The Death of Lord Chatham, at once established his fame, and he was enabled to pursue his profession with success and unabated ardor till his sudden death in 1815. Among his most celebrated productions, are Major Pierson’s Death on the island of Jersey; CharlesI. in the house of commons, demanding of the speaker the five impeached members; the Surrender of Admiral De Winter to Lord Duncan; Samuel and Eli; and a number of portraits of several members of the royal family.

CRAFTS, WILLIAM, a lawyer and miscellaneous writer, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1787. He received his education at Harvard college, and studied law in his native city, where he acquired some reputation for talent and eloquence. He was a member of the South Carolina legislature, and for some time editor of the Charleston Courier. He died at Lebanon springs, New York, in 1826. Acollection of his works, comprising poems, essays in prose, and orations, with a biographical memoir, was published in Charleston, in 1828.

CRAIK, JAMES, was born in Scotland, where he received his education for the medical service of the British army. He came to the colony of Virginia in early life, and accompanied Washington in his expeditions against the French and Indians, in 1754; and in the following year attended Braddock in his march through the wilderness, and assisted in dressing his wounds. At the commencement of the revolution, by the aid of his early and fast friend, general Washington, he was transferred to the medical department in the continental army, and rose to the first rank and distinction. He continued in the army to the end of the war, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, on the memorable 19th of October, 1781. After the cessation of hostilities, he removed to the neighborhood of Mount Vernon, and in 1798 was once more appointed by Washington to his former station in the medical staff. He was present with his illustrious friend in his last moments, and died in 1814, in the 84th year of his age. He was a skilful and successful physician, and Washington mentioned him as ‘my compatriot in arms, my old and intimate friend.’

DALE, RICHARD, an American naval commander, was born in Virginia, in 1756. At twelve years of age he was sent to sea, and in 1776, he entered as a midshipman on board of the American brig of war Lexington. In the following year he was taken prisoner by a British cruiser, and after a twelve-month confinement he escaped from Mill prison, and succeeded in reaching France. Here he joined, in the character of master’s mate, the celebrated Paul Jones, then commanding the American ship Bon Homme Richard. He was soon raised to the rank of first lieutenant, and signalized himself in the sanguinary engagement between the Bon Homme Richard and the English frigate Serapis. In 1794, the United States made him a captain in the navy, and in 1801, he took command of the American squadron, which sailed in that year from Hampton roads to the Mediterranean. From the year 1802, he passed his life in Philadelphia, in the enjoyment of a competent estate, and much esteemed by his fellow-citizens. He died in 1826, leaving the reputation of a brave and intelligent seaman.

DALLAS, ALEXANDER JAMES, was born in the island of Jamaica, in 1759; and was educated at Edinburgh and Westminster. In 1783, he left Jamaica for the United States, and settled in Philadelphia; taking the oath of allegiance to the state of Pennsylvania. In 1785, he was admitted to practise in the supreme court of the state, and in four or five years in the courts of the Union. During this time he prepared his Reports, and was engaged in various literary pursuits, writing much in the periodical journals. He occupied successively the offices of secretary of Pennsylvania, district attorney of the United States, secretary of the treasury, and secretary of war. On the restoration of peace, in 1816, Mr.Dallas resigned his political situation, and resumed the successful practice of his profession. His services as an advocate were called for in almost every part of the union; but in the midst of very flattering expectations he died at Trenton, in 1817.

DAVIE, WILLIAM RICHARDSON, governor of North Carolina, was born in England, in 1756. He was brought to America at the age of six years, and received his education at Princeton, New Jersey, where he was graduated in 1776. After pursuing for a short time the study of the law, he entered the army as a lieutenant in the legion of Pulaski, and distinguished himself by his efficiency and courage as an officer. On the termination of the war, he devoted himself with eminent success to the practice of the law. In 1787, he was chosen a delegate from South Carolina, to represent that state in the convention which framed the constitution of the United States. Unavoidable absence prevented him from affixing his name to that instrument. In 1790, he was elected governor of North Carolina, and in 1799, was appointed one of the commissioners for negotiating a treaty with France. He died at Camden, in 1820. He was a man of a dignified and noble person, courage as a soldier, and ability as a lawyer.

DEANE, SILAS, minister of the United States to the court of France, was born in Connecticut, and educated at Yale college. He was elected member of congress in 1774, and sent two years after as agent to France, but was superseded, in 1777, and returned. Involved in suspicions from which he could not extricate himself, he lost his reputation, and returning to Europe, died in poverty in England, in 1789.

DECATUR, STEPHEN, a distinguished naval officer, was born in Maryland, in 1779, and received his education in Philadelphia. He entered the navy in 1798, and first distinguished himself when in the rank of lieutenant, by the destruction of the American frigate Philadelphia, which had run upon a rock in the harbor of Tripoli, and fallen into the hands of the enemy. For this exploit, the American congress gave him a vote of thanks and a sword, and the president immediately sent him a captaincy. At the bombardment of Tripoli, the next year, he distinguished himself by the capture of two of the enemy’s boats, which were moored along the mouth of the harbor, and immediately under the batteries. When peace was concluded with Tripoli, Decatur returned home in the Congress, and afterward succeeded commodore Barron in the command of the Chesapeake. In the late war between Great Britain and the United States, his chief exploit was the capture of the British frigate Macedonian, commanded by captain Carden. In January, 1815, he attempted to sail from New York, which was then blockaded by four British ships; but the frigate under his command was injured in passing the bar, and was captured by the whole squadron, after a running fight of two or three hours. He was restored to his country after the conclusion of peace. In the summer of the same year, he was sent with a squadron to the Mediterranean, in order to compel the Algerines to desist from their depredations on American commerce. He arrived at Algiers on the twenty-eighth of June, and in less than forty-eight hours terrified the regency into an entire accession to all his terms. Thence he went to Tripoli, where he met with like success. On returning to the United States, he was appointed a member of the board of commissioners for the navy, and held that office till March, 1820, when he was shot in a duel with commodore Barron. He was a man of an active and powerful frame, and possessed a high degree of energy, sagacity, and courage.

DENNIE, JOSEPH, born in Boston, in 1768, displayed an early fondness for polite literature, and entered Harvard college in 1787. In 1790, he left this institution, and commenced the study of the law; but made little progress in the practice of his profession, in consequence of a strong attachment to literary pursuits. In the spring of 1795, he established a weekly paper in Boston, under the title of The Tablet, but it died from want of patronage. Soon after, he went to Walpole to edit the Farmer’s Museum, a journal in which he published a series of papers with the signature of the Lay Preacher. In 1799, he removed to Philadelphia, where he had received an appointment in the office of the secretary of state. He subsequently established the Port Folio, a journal which acquired reputation and patronage. He died in 1812. Mr.Dennie was a man of genius, and a beautiful writer, but wanted the industry and judgment, which might have secured him a competent subsistence and a permanent reputation.

DEXTER, SAMUEL, an eminent lawyer and statesman, was born in Boston, in 1761. He received his education at Harvard college, where he was graduated with honor, in 1781. Engaging in the study of the law, he soon succeeded in obtaining an extensive practice. He enjoyed successively a seat in the state legislature, and in the house of representatives and senate of the United States; and in each of these stations he secured a commanding influence. During the administration of Mr.Adams, he was appointed secretary of war, and of the treasury; but on the accession of Mr.Jefferson to the presidency, he resigned his public employments, and returned to the practice of his profession. For many years he was extensively employed in the courts of Massachusetts, and in the supreme court of the United States, where he was almost without a rival. He died suddenly, at Athens, New York, in 1816. Mr.Dexter was tall, muscular, and well formed. His eloquence was clear, simple and cogent; and his powers were such as would have made him eminent in any age or nation.

DICKINSON, JOHN, a celebrated political writer, was born in Maryland, in 1732, and educated in Delaware. He pursued the study of law, and practised with success in Philadelphia. He was soon elected to the state legislature, and distinguished himself as an early and efficient advocate of colonial rights. In 1765, he was appointed by Pennsylvania a delegate to the first congress, held at New York, and prepared the draft of the bold resolutions of that body. His celebrated Farmer’s Letters to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies were issued in Philadelphia, in 1767; they were reprinted in London, with a preface by Dr.Franklin, and a French translation of them was published at Paris. While in congress, he wrote a large number of the most able and eloquent state papers of the time, and as an orator he had few superiors in that assembly. He conscientiously opposed the declaration of independence, and his opinions upon this subject rendered him for a time unpopular; but they did not permanently affect his reputation and influence. He was afterwards a member of congress, and president of Pennsylvania and Delaware, successively. He died at Wilmington, in 1808. Mr.Dickinson was a man of a strong mind, great knowledge and eloquence, and much elegance of mind and manners.

DORSEY, JOHN SYNG, professor of anatomy in the university of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia in 1783, and received an excellent elementary education at a school of the society of Friends. At the age of fifteen he commenced the study of medicine, and pursued it with unusual ardor and success. In the spring of 1802, he was graduated doctor in physic, having previously defended with ability an inaugural dissertation on the Powers of the Gastric Liquor as a Solvent of the Urinary Calculi. Soon after he received his degree, the yellow fever reappeared in the city, and a hospital was open for the exclusive accommodation of those sick with this disease, to which he was appointed resident physician. At the close of the same season he visited Europe. On his return, in 1804, he immediately entered on the practice of his profession, and soon acquired, by his popular manners, attention and talent, a large share of business. In 1807 he was elected adjunct professor of surgery, and remained in this office till he was raised to the chair of anatomy by the death of the lamented Wistar. He opened the session by one of the finest exhibitions of eloquence ever heard within the walls of the university; but on the evening of the same day, he was attacked by a fever, which in one week closed his existence. He died in 1818. His Elements of Surgery, in two volumes 8vo, is considered the best work on the subject. It is used as a text book in the university of Edinburgh, and was the first American work on medicine reprinted in Europe.

DRAYTON, WILLIAM HENRY, a statesman of the revolution, was born in South Carolina, in 1742. He received his education in England, and on its completion returned to his native state. Taking an early and active part in the defence of colonial rights, he wrote and published a pamphlet under the signature of Freeman, in which he submitted a ‘bill of American Rights’ to the continental congress. On the commencement of the revolution he became an efficient leader; in 1775, was chosen president of the provincial congress; and in March of the next year, was elected chief justice of the colony. In 1777, Mr.Drayton was appointed president of South Carolina, and, in 1778, was elected a delegate to the continental congress, where he took a prominent part, and distinguished himself by his activity and eloquence. He continued in congress until September, 1779, when he died suddenly, at Philadelphia. He left a body of valuable materials for history, which his only son, John Drayton, revised and published at Charleston, in 1821, in two volumes 8vo, under the title of Memoirs of the American Revolution.

DWIGHT, TIMOTHY, an eminent divine and writer, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. At the age of thirteen he entered Yale college; and after having graduated, took charge of a grammar-school at New Haven, where he taught for two years. In 1771, he became a tutor in Yale college, where he remained for six years. In 1783, he was ordained minister of Greenfield, a parish in the town of Fairfield, in Connecticut; where he soon opened an academy that acquired great reputation. In 1795, Dr.Dwight was elected president of Yale college, and his character and name soon brought a great accession of students. During his presidency, he also filled, the office of the professor of theology. He continued to discharge the duties of his station, both as minister and president of the college, to the age of sixty-five; when, after a long and painful illness, he died, in January, 1817. He was endowed by nature with uncommon talents; and these, enriched by industry and research, and united to amiability and consistency in his private life, entitled Dr.Dwight to rank among the first men of his age. As a preacher, he was distinguished by his originality, simplicity, and dignity; he was well read in the most eminent fathers and theologians, ancient and modern; he was a good biblical critic; and his sermons should be possessed by every student of divinity. He wrote Travels in New England and New York; Greenfield Hill, a poem; The Conquest of Canaan, a poem; a collection of theological lectures; and a pamphlet on The Dangers of the Infidel Philosophy.

EATON, WILLIAM, general in the service of the United States, was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, in 1764, and was graduated at Dartmouth college, in 1790. In 1792, he received a captain’s commission in the army, and served for some time under general Wayne, on the Mississippi, and in Georgia. In 1797, he was appointed consul to the kingdom of Tunis, and continued there engaged in a variety of adventures and negociations, till 1803, when he returned to the United States. In 1804, he was appointed navy agent for the Barbary powers, for the purpose of co-operating with Hamet bashaw in the war against Tripoli; but was disappointed by the conclusion of a premature peace between the American consul and the Tripolitan bashaw. On his return to the United States, he failed in obtaining from the government any compensation for his pecuniary losses, or any employment corresponding with his merit and services. Under the influence of his disappointments, he fell into habits of inebriety, and died in 1811. His life, published by one of his friends in Massachusetts, is full of interesting adventure.

EDWARDS, JONATHAN, was born at Windsor, in the province of Connecticut, in 1703. At the age of twelve years he was admitted into Yale college, and at the age of seventeen received the degree of bachelor of arts. He remained nearly two years longer at Yale, preparing for the ministry; and in 1722, went to New York, and preached there with great distinction. In September, 1723, he was elected a tutor in Yale college, and remained there till 1726, when he resigned his office, in order to become the minister of the people of Northampton, where he was ordained in February, 1727. After more than twenty-three years of service in this place, a rupture took place between him and his congregation, and he was dismissed by an ecclesiastical council, in 1750. In the following year he accepted a call to serve as missionary among the Indians at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1757, he was chosen president of the college at Princeton, New Jersey, and accepted the invitation. In January, 1758, he repaired to Princeton, where he died of the small-pox, in the March following. His chief works are a Treatise on Religious Affections; an Inquiry into the Notion of Freedom of Will, which is considered the best vindication of the doctrine of philosophical necessity; a Treatise on Original Sin; and numerous tracts and sermons. Various narratives of his life, and editions of his works, have been printed both in Great Britain and the United States. The latest is in ten octavo volumes, published in New York, in 1830, and edited by Sereno E. Dwight.

ELLIOTT, STEPHEN, a botanist and man of letters, was born at Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1771, and received his education at Yale college. On his return home, he applied himself to the improvement of his paternal estate, devoting his leisure hours to history and poetry. At the age of twenty-two he was chosen to the legislature of his native state, where he obtained considerable influence, by his knowledge, attention, and power of argument. He was chosen president of the state bank, established in 1812, and continued to discharge the duties of this office with ability to the time of his death. His two volumes of the botany of South Carolina are held in high estimation, and his lectures before several literary and learned societies obtained great applause. His acquisitions in literature and science were extensive, and he left a valuable collection in the several branches of natural history, scientifically arranged. He was the chief editor of the Southern Review, and the author of some of its best articles. He died in 1830. Most of his productions remain in manuscript.

ELLSWORTH, OLIVER, an American judge and statesman, was born at Windsor, Connecticut, in 1745, and was graduated at the college of Nassau Hall, at Princeton, in 1766. Devoting himself to the practice of the law, he soon rose to distinction, by the energy of his mind and his eloquence. From the earliest period of discontent, he joined the cause of the colonies, and in 1777 was elected a member of the continental congress. In this body he remained for three years, and in 1784 he was appointed a judge of the superior court of the state. He was a delegate to the convention for framing the federal constitution, and was a senator in the first congress. In 1796, he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court of the United States, and in 1799 was sent envoy extraordinary to France. The decline of his health induced him to resign his seat on the bench, and he retired to his family residence, at Windsor, where he died in 1807.

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, a philosopher and statesman, the son of a soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, was born in 1706, at Boston, in America. He was apprenticed as a printer, to his brother, at Boston. It was while he was with his brother, that he began to try his powers of literary composition. Street ballads, and articles in a newspaper, were his first efforts. Dissatisfied with the manner in which he was treated by his relative, he, at the age of seventeen, privately quitted him, and went to Philadelphia, where he obtained employment. Deluded by a promise of patronage from the governor, Sir William Keith, he visited England to procure the necessary materials for establishing a printing office in Philadelphia; but, on his arrival at London, he found that he had been deceived, and he was obliged to work as a journeyman for eighteen months. While he was in the British metropolis, he wrote a Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. In 1726, he returned to Philadelphia; not long after which he entered into business, as a printer and stationer, and, in 1728, established a newspaper. His prudence soon placed him among the most prosperous of the citizens, and the influence which prosperity naturally gave was enhanced by his activity and talent. Chiefly by his exertions, a public library, a fire-preventing company, an insurance company, and a voluntary association for defence, were established at Philadelphia. In 1732, he began Poor Richard’s Almanac. His first public employment was that of clerk to the general assembly of Pennsylvania; his next, that of postmaster; and he was subsequently chosen as a representative. Philosophy, also, now attracted his attention, and he began those inquiries into the nature of electricity, the results of which have ranked him high among men of science. In 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster-general of British America; and from 1757 to 1762, he resided in London, as agent for Pennsylvania, and other colonies. The last of these offices was intrusted to him again, in 1761, and he held it till the breaking out of the contest, in 1775. After his return to America, he took an active part in the cause of liberty, and, in 1778, he was dispatched by the congress as ambassador to France. The treaty of alliance with the French government, and the treaties of peace, in 1782 and 1783, as well as treaties with Sweden and Prussia, were signed by him. On his reaching Philadelphia, in September, 1785, his arrival was hailed by applauding thousands of his countrymen, who conducted him in triumph to his residence. He died April 17, 1790. His Memoirs, written by himself, but left unfinished, and his Philosophical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works, have been published by his grandson, in six volumes, octavo.

FULTON, ROBERT, an American engineer and projector, was born in 1765, at Little Britain, in Pennsylvania. Abandoning the trade of a jeweller, he studied for some years under West, with the intention of being a painter; but, having become acquainted with a fellow countryman, named Rumsey, who was skilled in mechanics, he became fond of that science, and ultimately adopted the profession of a civil engineer. Before he left England, he published, in 1796, a treatise on Inland Navigation, in which he proposed to supersede locks by inclined planes. In 1800, he introduced, with much profit to himself, the panorama into the French capital. For some years he was engaged in experiments to perfect a machine called a torpedo, intended to destroy ships of war by explosion. After his return to America, he gave to the world an account of several inventions, among which are a machine for sawing and polishing marble, another for rope making, and a boat to be navigated under water. He obtained a patent for his inventions in navigation by steam, in 1809, and another for some improvements, in 1811. In 1814, he contrived an armed steam ship for the defence of the harbor of New York, and a submarine vessel large enough to carry one hundred men; the plans of which being approved by government, he was authorized to construct them at the public expense. But before completing either of those works, he died suddenly, in 1815. Though not the inventor of it, he was the first who successfully employed the steam engine in navigation.