Fis-Fol: Fish through Follen

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


FISH, HAMILTON (August 3, 1808-September 6, 1893), statesman.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, pp. 397-400:

FISH, HAMILTON (August 3, 1808-September 6, 1893), statesman, the son of Nicholas [q.v.] and Elizabeth (Stuyvesant) Fish, was born in New York and received his primary education in the private school of M. Bancel. He graduated with highest honors from Columbia College in 1827 and, after studying law in the office of Peter A. Jay for three years, was admitted to the bar and formed a partnership with William B. Lawrence, editor of Wheaton's Elements of International Law. True to the Federalist principles of his father, he adhered to the Whig party and became its candidate for. the state assembly in 1834, failing to carry his Democratic district. His next candidacy, for Congress in 1842, was successful, but he was not returned for another term. He was defeated also in 1846 for the lieutenant-governorship of th e state by the opposition of the "anti-renters," whose attacks on the patroons' land-leasing system he had denounced. Next year, however, he was chosen for the office in a special election, and in 1848 he was elected governor. His administration was signalized by the passage of acts establishing free schools throughout the state and by extensions of the canal system. His attitude on the main national question of the time, as indicated by the declarations in his annual messages against the opening of California and New Mexico to slavery, was satisfactory enough to permit his selection for the treasury post in a reconstruction of the cabinet planned by President Taylor but cut off by his death (Autobiography of Thurlow Weed, 1883, p. 591).

Fish was not renominated for governor, but was supported by the Seward-Weed Whigs for the United States Senate in 1851. A deadlock in the legislature lasting over two months, caused by one Whig senator's dissatisfaction with his refusal to commit himself to the compromise measures of 1850, was only broken in his favor by a vote taken in the absence of two Democrats. In the Senate he achieved no special distinction. He followed his senior colleague, Seward, and his friend, Sumner, in their opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, though he was not disposed to make slavery a dominant issue in politics. Regretting the demise of the Whig party, he finally joined the Republican as the one according most nearly with his principles, but did not enter very energetically into its earlier activities. After the expiration of his term as senator he took his family to Europe for a stay of two years. By the time he returned his convictions had crystallized sufficiently to warrant him in working for Lincoln's election and in advising the outgoing administration to adopt a firm policy toward South Carolina and the seceding states. He was concerned in the outfitting of the Star of the West for supplying Fort Sumter, and expressed to General Scott the opinion that the firing on the ship meant war. During the Civil War he served on the Union defense committee of his state and as a commissioner of the federal government for the relief of prisoners, contributing to the ultimate negotiation of the exchange agreement.

He had no special political or personal claim to a place in Grant's cabinet, although their acquaintanceship had extended to his entertainment of the General in his home. He had no desire for office and was unresponsive to suggestions of a ministerial post. When, after encountering several difficulties in early appointments, the President offered him the post of secretary of state, he promptly declined by telegraph, but followed his refusal by a reluctant acceptance through a personal mission of General Babcock (New York Tribune, January 25, 1879). He was commissioned March 11, 1869. Intending to serve only until the administration had become stabilized, he remained in office through both of Grant's terms, despite repeated offers of resignation. He became a pillar of the administration and an influence for moderation in all its policies. In his own department he was an efficient executive, introducing reforms in the organization of personnel and classification of records. He brought to bear upon his duties a calm and orderly legal mind, a generally cautious temperament, and a fund of patience in working toward his ends against discouraging odds.

Fish's conduct of foreign relations in general was greatly affected by the question of annexation of the revolution-torn Dominican Republic. He sanctioned a mission of General Babcock thither which, from an inquiry concerning the acquisition of a naval base at Samana Bay, developed into an irregular agreement with the government in power for annexation. Grant strongly favored the project, and Fish, though doubtful, authorized the negotiation of a formal treaty, concluded November 29, 1869, which failed of ratification by the Senate. Grant's attempt, in 1871, to put the measure through by joint resolution was likewise defeated, despite the removal of Senator Sumner, its powerful opponent, from his position as chairman of the foreign relations committee. The President's need of Fish's support in these efforts and his antipathy toward Sumner, which arose out of their failure, favored the success of the Secretary's policies in other fields, albeit the breach of Fish's friendship with Sumner, which he attempted vainly to avert, was a painful experience.

The most notable achievement of Fish's administration of his office was the settlement of the controversy with Great Britain over damages suffered by Northern commerce during the Civil War through the British government's conduct as a neutral. The central factor in this controversy was the havoc wrought by Confederate cruisers equipped or supplied in British ports; and, commemorating the most famous of these, the American demands became, as stated in the final treaty, "generically known as the 'Alabama claims.'" But behind these lay a mass of obscure grievances which in some minds extended to holding England's recognition of Confederate belligerency responsible for doubling the length of the war, with resulting liabilities which transcended monetary compensations and could only be extinguished by such a gesture as the cession of Canada. This view of the case was put, in part by implication, by Senator Sumner in the debate which led to rejection, in April 1869, of a convention concluded by the previous administration. Since the President inclined to the same view, Sumner's speech set the tone of Fish's official policy for nearly two years, as expressed in instructions to Motley, the minister in London, and conversations with Thornton, British minister at Washington

(Senate Executive Document 11, 41 Congress, 3 Session, pp. 2-5; Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, III, 1873, 329-36; E. L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, 1,893, IV, 409-rn, 414; Adams, post, pp. 156-57, 160). Informally, however, he let it be understood that he was disposed to accept much less drastic terms, and a personal exchange of views to this effect was begun with Sir John Rose, a Canadian commissioner in the confidence of the British government, in July 1869 (J. C. B. Davis, Mr. Fish and the Alabama Claims, 1893, pp. 45-46). Not until November 1870, when Sumner's influence was waning through his opposition to the President's Dominican policy, did Fish intimate to the British minister the possibility of a settlement not including territorial compensation (Adams, post, p. 162). In January 1871 an understanding was reached through Rose for a joint high commission to arrange a settlement of the Alabama claims in connection with various questions regarding Canada at issue between the two governments boundaries, fishing rights, navigation, and trade (J. B. Moore, History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States Has Been a Party, I, 1898, 523-31). Sumner's now categorically expressed opinion, that a definitive settlement could be based only on "the withdrawal of the British flag ... from this hemisphere," was brushed aside. His removal from his committee chairmanship took place before the resulting agreement reached the Senate for ratification, but he did not then oppose it.

The commissioners began their work in March and on May 8, 1871, signed the Treaty of Washington, providing for arbitration of the Alabama claims under a set of definitions of neutral duties which held a neutral power bound to "use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, arming, or equipping" of belligerent cruisers in its ports. The arbitration conducted at Geneva encountered difficulties owing to the fact that, since the British government refused to admit in advance its neglect of these duties and its consequent liability, the American government refused to limit its claims, but put forward a number of indirect ones in addition to the damage directly inflicted by the Confederate cruisers. These were at last eliminated, in accordance with Fish's design, by the tribunal which, on September 14, 1872, rendered a decision on the direct claims against Great Britain, fixing the amount of damages at $15,500,000. A most disturbing controversy was thus honorably settled. Some of the Canadian questions dealt with in the treaty, such as fishing rights and arrangements regarding trade, dragged on; but the water boundary in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca was adjusted in favor of the United States by an arbitral decision of the German Emperor in October 1872.

A stubborn insurrection in Cuba gave rise to a set of problems which embarrassed Fish throughout his eight years in office, obliging him to press on the Spanish government the claims of Americans for reparation of injuries at the hands of local authorities and to respond to its complaints regarding filibustering activities in the United States. Efforts to persuade Spain to an accommodation with the rebels accompanied his exertions to defeat advocates of recognition of them as belligerents and of intervention in their favor. Fish was personally opposed to such recognition, but he had to keep the possibility of its expediency in mind. The President was disposed to favor recognition of belligerency. On August 19, 1869, during an absence from Washington and while Fish was in the midst of an earnest though futile correspondence with Spain over a plan of pacification based on Cuban independence and the abolition of slavery, he signed a proclamation of neutrality. Fish deferred promulgating this document and later received Grant's acknowledgment that it had been a mistake (Adams, post, p. 19). Largely because of Grant's need of his support in the policy of Dominican annexation, Fish persuaded the President to reverse his attitude and declare recognition of belligerency unjustified in his annual message of December 6. The same situation helped him to secure a still stronger special message on June 13, 1870, when the advocates of recognition attempted, unsuccessfully, to push through a joint resolution of Congress in its favor. Meanwhile the American government's efforts with Spain were met with fair promises of reforms and redress of grievances, of which the fulfilment continually fell short. The tension was somewhat relieved, however, by an agreement, reached February 11, 1871, for a joint commission at Washington to decide on American claims for damages.

The situation in Cuba, which remained unimproved, continued to present fresh difficulties, and Fish's instructions to Sickles, the minister at Madrid, had been displaying for a year a rising impatience with the Spanish government, when, in November 1873, a crisis arose which threatened to bring on hostilities. The steamer Virginius, under American registry and with a mainly American crew, but belonging to the Cuban revolutionary committee in New York and employed in its filibustering enterprises, was captured and taken into a Cuban port, where the Spanish authorities summarily executed the captain and fifty-three of the crew and passengers. In an ultimatum to the Spanish government of November 14, Fish demanded release of the ship and survivors, signal punishment of the culpable officials, and a salute to the American flag within twelve days under threat of a severance of diplomatic relations. Warlike feeling rose in both countries, and Sickles had actually asked for his passports, when, on November 27, Fish reached an understanding with the Spanish minister at Washington to dispense with the salute if his government was able to prove the illegality of the ship's registry. This condition was easily met. The critical phase of the affair lasted only a fortnight, but the questions of indemnities and punishment of the responsible officials dragged on as additions to the already numerous causes of friction with Spain.

A fresh start toward a general settlement was made with the appointment of Caleb Cushing as minister to Spain in February 1874. By holding up recognition of the new government of Alfonso XII until the Virginius indemnity claims were met, an award was secured, March II, 1875 (Department of State, Instructions, Spain, XVII, 177; Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1875, Volume II). With this question disposed of, the way was opened for negotiations of a broader scope looking toward the independence or autonomy of Cuba. These were initiated by Fish's instruction to Cushing of November 5, 1875, which was to be read to the minister of foreign affairs. It pointed out the necessity of bringing about the pacification of Cuba if relations between the United States and Spain were to continue "even on their present footing"; otherwise, "it may be the duty of other governments to intervene." Copies of the instruction were sent for communication to the British and the principal Continental governments, inviting them to express similar views to Spain. This diplomatic campaign was upset by the transmission to Cushing, on November 15, of a Spanish note meeting by specific undertakings all the particular points raised in recent correspondence. Fish finally, in an instruction of March 1, 1876, reduced his suggestions regarding Cuban administration to reforms in the direction of self-government and the effective abolition of slavery. The Spanish government parried these by noncommittal replies while pouring into Cuba reinforcements which practically extinguished the insurrection by the end of the year. With the satisfaction of American claims by awards of the joint commission and the elimination of various other causes of complaint, the discussions over Cuba ended.

In the course of Fish's long tenure of office, many other problems of foreign relations came before the United States. The government assumed the protection of the interests of North German subjects in France during the Franco-Prussian War and vainly offered its good offices for peace and its counsel for a moderate settlement. Fish and the minister at Paris, E. B. Washburne, successfully confronted Bismarck in asserting the right to pass sealed dispatches through the German lines during the siege of the city. Fish's advice contributed to the attainment of an understanding between the belligerents which prevented the extension of hostilities into the Far East. Concerning America's own relations with China, Fish upheld rigidly the special position of American citizens under early treaties, and he pursued a policy of cooperation with the European governments in affirming and extending foreign rights and prestige. An attempt by an armed expedition to extort a convention from Korea on the treatment of shipwrecked sailors was unsuccessful. American interests in the Pacific area were greatly promoted by a treaty of commercial reciprocity with Hawaii in 1875, which virtually incorporated those islands into the economic system of the United States.

Two attempts were made by Fish to secure agreements for the construction of an interoceanic canal. The first was with Colombia for use of the Panama route, but the treaty signed at Bogota on January 26, 1870, was so amended by the Colombian Senate that the strategic value of the enterprise was destroyed and' the United States failed to ratify. The second attempt was made in negotiations at Washington with a special envoy of Nicaragua, in February 1877, but no agreement could be reached as to the status of a proposed neutral zone. Among other questions which occupied Fish's attention, but which were marked by no definite developments, were almost incessant troubles on the Mexican border, handled generally with tactful regard for Mexican susceptibilities, and a controversy with Great Britain over the principles of extradition, in which Fish upheld the view that, in the absence of definite provisions to the contrary, embodied in a convention, the charge brought in court need not be identical with that on which surrender was obtained. One of the unpleasant incidents of his official business was the recall at his demand of the Russian minister Catacazy, in 1871, for interference in the Alabama claims negotiation s and public abuse of the President.

After his retirement from office Fish did not again emerge from the private life of a gentleman of ample means and cultivated tastes. Not least, indeed, among his qualifications for the principal office he held was his eminently respectable personality, combining cordiality with dignity, which gave a tone of culture and refinement to an otherwise rather tawdry administration. He had married, on December 15, 1836, Julia Kean, descendant of William Livingston, first governor of New Jersey. She created for him a charming home life, and her graciousness and tact as a hostess effectively adorned the generous hospitality which made their house the social center of Washington and contributed notably to the smooth conduct of official business. They had eight children, three of them sons. Nicholas, the eldest, was for some years in the diplomatic service, finally resigning the legation in Belgium to devote himself to banking. Hamilton was private secretary to his father as secretary of state, member and speaker of the New York Assembly, assistant treasurer of the United States at New York, and member of the Sixty-first Congress. Stuyvesant [q.z.1.J became a financier and railway executive. Like his father, Fish played a prominent part in non-political civic and social affairs. For long periods of years he served as trustee of Columbia College and as president-general of the Society of the Cincinnati. He was also a president of the Union League Club and of the New York Historical Society, besides taking an active part in other literary and philanthropic organizations and in the affairs of the Episcopal Church.

[C. F. Adams, Jr., Lee at Appomattox and Other Papers (1902), contains extracts from diaries and letters. See also A. E. Corning, Hamilton Fish (1918); Senator G. F. Edmunds, Proceedings of the Leg. of th e State of New York in Memory of Hon. Hamilton Fish, held ... April 5, 1894; J. V. Fuller, in American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy, with bibliographical note, Volume VII (1928); De A. S. Alexander, A Political History of the Slate of New York, II (1906); New York Tribune, J an. 25, 1879, September 8, 1893; New York Times, September 8, 1893.]

J. V.F.


FISHER, George Purnell (October 13, 1817-February 10, 1899), lawyer, jurist.  In Washington in 1861, he soon won the high regard of Lincoln, becoming the almoner of federal patronage in his state and helping to prepare a bill to carry out Lincoln's plan of gradual emancipation in Delaware.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, pp. 408-409:

FISHER, GEORGE PURNELL (October 13, 1817-February 10, 1899), lawyer, jurist,  was descended from John Fisher who came to Pennsylvania with William Penn in 1682. His father, Thomas, was twice high sheriff of Sussex County, Delaware, and twice high sheriff of Kent County-an unparalleled distinction-and commanded a brigade of Sussex County militia in 1812. He moved to Milford, Kent County, in 1815, where his third wife, Nancy Owens, daughter of Robert and Sallie Owens of Sussex County, gave birth to her only son, George Purnell Fisher. Fisher's early education was received in the county schools. At seventeen he attended St. Mary's College, Baltimore, but the following year transferred to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1838. He at once entered the law office of John M. Clayton, a family connection, and at the same time tutored the latter's sons. In 1840 he married Eliza, daughter of Truston Polk McColley, a Milford merchant of Scotch ancestry, and after his admission to the bar in 1841, he settled at Dover, winning "marked success from the beginning" (Lore, post, p. 7).

It was not long before the young lawyer became enamored of politics, serving his political apprenticeship as clerk of the state Senate (1843), member of the state House of Representatives from Kent County (1844), and secretary of state of Delaware under the Democratic governors Joseph Maull and William Temple (1846-47). When John M. Clayton became secretary of state (1849-50) under President Taylor, Fisher served as his confidential clerk and participated actively in the negotiations which led to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. By Taylor's appointment, he adjudicated certain claims of American citizens against Brazil (1850-52), and at Fillmore's request, he acted as his private secretary until Fillmore's son came to Washington. In March 1855 Governor Causey appointed Fisher attorney-general of Delaware for a term of five years, at the expiration of which he was the candidate of both wings of the People's party for election to the Thirty-seventh Congress, being elected by a majority of 247, although the state was normally Democratic. By 1862, however, when he was renominated by the Republican party, the state had swung back again and he was defeated.

At Washington in 1861, he soon won the high regard of Lincoln, becoming the almoner of federal patronage in his state and helping to prepare a bill to carry out Lincoln's plan of gradual emancipation in Delaware. The project failed, but Fisher's efforts so impressed Lincoln that, on the abolition of the old courts and the creation of a supreme court for the District of Columbia, he appointed Fisher as one of the four justices, on March 11, 1863, eight days after his congressional term had expired. Fisher is said to have displayed great ability on the bench and was praised especially for his conduct, in January 1867, of the first trial of John H. Surratt for participation in Lincoln's assassination. In May 1870 he was appointed by President Grant as United States attorney for the District of Columbia, but five years later he returned to Delaware. He was recalled to public life by President Benjamin Harrison in June 1889 to serve as first auditor of the treasury, a position which he held until the change of administration in 1893. The last years of his life he devoted to reading and literary pursuits, dying after a brief illness at Washington. Three years before his death he wrote to his daughter his reminiscences of houses and people in Dover when he was a lad of seven ("Recollections of Dover in 1824," Delaware Historical Society Papers, no. LV, 1896). His biographers describe him as without vindictiveness, a lovable and agreeable gentleman.

[Chas. B. Lore, "The Life and Character of George P. Fisher," Delaware History Society Papers, no. XXXVI (1902); H. C. Conrad, History of the State of Delaware (3 volumes, 1908); Job Barnard, "Early Days of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia," Columbia Historical Society Records, XXII (1919), 1-35; obituaries in Washington Post and Evening Star (Washington), February 11, 1899.]

H.F.W.  


FISHER, George T., New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


FISHER, Miers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lawyer, abolitionist, Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS), founded 1775.  Represented PAS in legal cases opposing slavery.  Founding member, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1787.

(Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005, pp. 80, 92)


FISK, John M., abolitionist, West Brookfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40, 1840-55.


FISK, Lydia M., abolitionist, Oberlin, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41.


FISK, Sereno, Billerica, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-.


FISK, Wilbur, 1792-1839, Middletown, Connecticut, educator, President of Wesleyan University.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1836-1840. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 467-468; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 415; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 132, 231)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 467-468:

FISK, Wilbur, educator, born in Brattleboro, Vt., 31 August, 1792; died in Middletown, Vt., 22 February, 1839, was graduated at Brown in 1815, and studied law, but, after a long and serious illness, abandoned the profession and entered the itinerant ministry in 1818, when he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church. He took high rank as a pulpit orator, was pastor for two years in Craftsbury, Vt., and in 1819 removed to Charlestown, Massachusetts. At the conference of 1820 he was admitted into full membership, ordained as a deacon in 1822, and from 1823 till 1827 was presiding elder of the Vermont district, which then comprised the whole of Vermont east of the Green mountains. He was placed upon the superannuated list, but was requested, in so far as health would allow, to act as agent for Newmarket academy, at that time the only Methodist institution in New England. While here, he was chosen to make the address of welcome to Lafayette in 1824. He was also a delegate to the general conference in that year, and was chosen to write the address to the British conference. He was chaplain of the Vermont legislature in 1826, and was one of the founders and principal of the Wesleyan academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, 1826-'31, and a delegate to the general conference of 1828, when he was elected bishop of the Canada conference, but declined. In 1829 he also refused the presidency of La Grange college, Alabama, and a professorship in the University of Alabama. In 1830 he was chosen first president of the Wesleyan university, in whose organization he had materially aided. The duties of that office were entered upon in 1831; the institution under his direction became the most influential of any in the Methodist denomination in America. At the general conference of 1832 his appeals in behalf of Indian missions resulted in the organization of the Oregon mission, and he was at this time instrumental in founding Williamstown academy. For years he was useful to educational interests at large by recommending or furnishing professors and presidents to the rapidly multiplying colleges of the far west. In search of health, he passed the winter of 1835-'6 in Italy, and the summer of 1836 in England, when he also represented the M. E. church of the Wesleyan conference as a delegate. He was elected bishop of that church in 1836, but declined. In 1839 he became a member of the board of education of Connecticut. He was said to be unsurpassed in eloquence and fervor as a preacher, and was often compared to Fénélon, being endowed with like moral and mental traits. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Augusta college, Kentucky, in 1829, and by Brown in 1835. His published works are: “Inaugural Address” (New York, 1831); “Calvinistic Controversy” (1837); “Travels in Europe” (1838); “Sermons and Lectures on Universalism: Reply to Pierpont on the Atonement, and other Theological and Educational Works and Sermons.” His account of his European travels had a wide circulation and wits greatly admired. His “Life and Writings” were published by the Reverend Joseph Holdich, D. D. (New York, 1842). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


FITCH, Charles, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1837-38.


FITCH, Eleazer Thompson, 1791-1871, New Haven, Connecticut, educator, theologian.  Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.

(Bruns, Roger, ed. Am I Not a Man and a Brother: The Antislavery Crusade of Revolutionary America, 1688-1788. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1977, p. 514; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, p. 92; Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 470)


Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 470:

FITCH, Eleazar Thompson, educator, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 1 January, 1791; died there, 31 January, 1871. He was graduated at Yale in 1810, and afterward was a teacher at East Windsor Hill, and subsequently in the New Haven Hopkins grammar-school. In 1812 he entered Andover theological seminary, where, after completing the regular course, he remained, pursuing advanced studies, giving assistance in instruction, and preaching, until his election, in 1817, to succeed President Dwight in the office of professor of divinity at Yale. One branch of his work was to teach theology to graduates, and in this his classes increased so that he was led to urge upon the corporation the founding of a theological department, which was organized in 1822. In this department he filled the chair of homiletics, at the same time being college preacher and pastor, and giving instruction in the academical department in natural theology and the evidences of Christianity. He delivered to successive classes a series of sermons in systematic theology, and some of his doctrinal views thus presented becoming publicly controverted, he was compelled to defend them as publicly. Impaired health compelled him to resign his office as professor, yet he retained his connection with the theological seminary as lecturer until 1861, and with the theological faculty as professor emeritus until his death. At his resignation he became a member of the “Circle of retired Clergymen and Laymen,” in whose meetings he took an active part. He wrote theological reviews and other articles for periodicals, and a volume of his sermons was published in 1871. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 470.


FITZHUGH, Carroll Ann, 1805-1875, abolitionist, women’s rights activist.  Wife of abolitionist leader Gerrit Smith.  Actively involved in the aid of fugitive slaves.  Prominent supporter of the abolitionist movement.


FITZHUGH, William Henry, 1792-1830, Ravenswood, Virginia, philanthropist.  Vice-President of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Wrote articles promoting the ACS. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 475; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 114, 174, 177)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 475:

FITZHUGH, William Henry, philanthropist, born in Chatham, Stafford county, Virginia, 8 March, 1792; died in Cambridge, Maryland, 21 May, 1830. He was a son of William F. Fitzhugh, a patriot of the Revolution, was graduated at Princeton in 1808, and settled on the patrimonial domain of “Ravensworth,” Fairfax county, Virginia. He was elected vice-president of the American colonization society, and took an active interest in it, supporting it both with voice and pen. In 1826 he published a series of essays in behalf of the cause, over the signature of “Opimius,” in the columns of the Richmond “Inquirer.” He was also the author of an address delivered on the ninth anniversary of the association, and of a review of “Tazewell's Report” in the “African Repository” (August and November, 1828). In one of his essays he expresses the opinion that “the labor of the slave is a curse on the land on which it is expended,” which seems like a truism now, but was bold doctrine then. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


FLAGG, Azriah, 1790-1873, Orwell, Addison County, Vermont, newspaper editor, painter, political leader.  Soldier, veteran of the War of 1812.  Opponent of slavery.  Published, The Republican newspaper in Plattsburg.  Secretary of State for New York, 1826, 1829.  Railroad president.  Member of the Free Soil Party.  Opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Later active in Republican Party. 

(Foner, 1970, pp. 153, 154, 159, 160, 164; Raybeck, 1970, pp. 63, 66, 67, 75, 177, 206; Appletons’, Volume II, p. 476).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 447;

FLAGG, AZARIAH CUTTING (November 28, 1790-November 24, 1873), editor, politician, traced his ancestry from Thomas Flegg, a member of an old Norfolk family, who, leaving Scratby, England, in 1637, settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1641, and whose descendants apparently about 1700 changed their name to Flagg. His father, Ebenezer Flagg, married Elizabeth Cutting of Shoreham, Vermont, and resided at Orwell, Vermont, where he was born. When eleven years old he was apprenticed to a cousin of his father's, a printer in Burlington, Vermont, with whom he spent five years. In 1806 he entered the employ of a firm of publishers, where he found opportunities to remedy the deficiencies of his early education. In 1811 he moved to Plattsburg, New York, and on the outbreak of the War of 1812 was commissioned lieutenant and quartermaster in the 36th Regiment, New York militia. He was engaged in the defense of Plattsburg, being present at a number of engagements, and was rewarded by Congress for gallant service. In 1813 he joined the staff of the Plattsburg Republican, became its editor, and continued as such till 1825. Entering with ardor into the political field where DeWitt Clinton and Van Buren were the leading New York figures, he developed a capacity for vigorous writing and trenchant speaking which soon brought him to the front. In 1823 he was elected to represent Clinton County in the New York Assembly and subsequently was admitted to the inner circle of the "Albany regency." In 1826 Governor DeWitt Clinton appointed him secretary of state, an office which he held for seven years. He was elected by the legislature state comptroller under Governor Marcy in 1834, serving till 1839. In 1842 he was reelected and continued in the position until the state constitution of 1846 came into operation. During his nine years' tenure of this office he established himself as "an able, methodical, keen and sagacious financier" (Proctor, post), though his views regarding public improvements have been stigmatized as short-sighted. In 1842 the legislature adopted the "stop and tax policy" of suspending all public works and imposing a direct tax, pledging a portion of the Erie Canal revenues to provide a sinking fund for the extinguishment of the public debt. Flagg was not, as has been mistakenly asserted, the originator of the scheme, but he was active in its support. He was a strong opponent of the Bank of the United States.

In 1846 he removed to New York City where he took an active part in the organization of the "Barnburners' " faction of the Democratic party, becoming one of its most prominent leaders. In 1852, after the reunion of the Democratic party, he was elected comptroller of the city of New York, and, being reelected in 1855, held office till 1859, when he retired from public life. His political career was distinguished for his unassailable integrity, consistent adherence to principles, and an unwavering support of Van Buren throughout all the latter's vicissitudes. A believer in "Free speech, Free labor, and Free men," he vehemently combated the pro-slavery sentiment within his party. For fourteen years prior to his death he was totally blind, but this affliction did not affect his naturally high spirits and he continued to the end to take a keen interest in political events. He was a frequent contributor to newspapers on public questions of the day, and was also the author of "Internal Improvements in the State of New York," a series of articles which appeared in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine in 1851, and A Few Historical Facts Respecting the Establishment ... of Banks ... in the State of New York from 1777 to 1864 (1868). He was married to Phoebe Maria Coe on October 20, 1814.

[N. G. and L. C. S. Flagg, Family Records of the Descendants of Gershom Flagg (1907), p. 48; Annual Register, 1873, p. 291; L.B. Proctor, The Bench and Bar of New York (1870), p. 289; P. S. Palmer, History of Plattsburg, New York (1877); De A. S. Alexander, A Pol. History of the State of New York, volumes I and II (1906); H. D. A. Donovan, The Barnburners (1925); J. D. Hammond, Life and Times of Silas Wright (1848); New York Times, November 26, 1873; Flagg letters in the Tilden Library, New York Public Library]

H.W.H.K.


FLANNER, William, Jefferson County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-38.


FLETCHER, Calvin, 1798-1866, Indianapolis, Indiana, banker, farm owner, state legislator.  Member of the Whig, Free Soil and, later, Republican parties.  Supported colonization movement in Indiana.  During Civil War, he promoted the organization of U.S. Colored Troops in Indiana. 

(Diary of Calvin Fletcher)


FLETCHER, Leonard, abolitionist, Chester County, Pennsylvania, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1838-40.


FLETCHER, Thomas Clement (January 22, 1827-March 25, 1899), lawyer, soldier, and governor of Missouri. Politically, he was a Benton Democrat, and a strong opponent of slavery, although he came of a slave-owning family. After 1856 he became a Republican and, as a delegate to the Chicago convention, was an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln for the nomination in 1860.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 468:

FLETCHER, THOMAS CLEMENT (January 22, 1827-March 25, 1899), lawyer, soldier, and governor of Missouri, was born at Herculaneum, Missouri, the son of Clement B. Fletcher and Margaret (Byrd) Fletcher, emigrants from Maryland to Missouri in 1818, and both descended from early colonial ancestors. He received his education in the subscription school at Herculaneum, where he had for a teacher Willard Frissell, an emigrant from Massachusetts. At the age of seven teen he was given work in the circuit clerk's office and in 1846 was appointed deputy circuit-clerk. Three years later, at the age of twenty-two, he was elected to that office. He was married to Mary Clara Honey in 1851, admitted to the bar in 1856, and appointed land agent for the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad (now the St. Louis & San Francisco), whereupon he moved to St. Louis. Politically, he was a Benton Democrat, and a strong opponent of slavery, although he came of a slave-owning family. After 1856 he became a Republican and, as a delegate to the Chicago convention, was an ardent supporter of Abraham Lincoln for the nomination in 1860.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was appointed by General Lyons as assistant provost-marshal-general with headquarters at St. Louis. He became colonel of the 31st Missouri in 1862, was wounded and captured at Chickasaw Bayou but exchanged in May 1863, was present at the fall of Vicksburg and the battle of Chattanooga, and commanded a brigade in the Atlanta campaign. Returning home on account of illness in the spring of 1864, he recovered in time to organize the 47th and 50th Missouri regiments and to command the Union army which, at the battle of Pilot Knob, Missouri, checked General Price's army and probably saved St. Louis from capture. For this achievement Fletcher was given a vote of thanks by the Missouri legislature and brevetted brigadier-general by President Lincoln. While with Sherman he was nominated by the Republicans for governor over Charles D. Drake. He was elected by a large majority and reelected in 1866. Thus he served as governor of Missouri from January 1865 to January 1869, during the most trying period of reconstruction.

His administration was confronted with many serious problems; notably: amnesty for those who had fought against the United States; the disposal of the railroads which the state had acquired through the failure of the railroad companies to pay interest on the bonds which the state had guaranteed; and the reorganization of public education. The roads were sold under a guarantee of early completion and the state debt materially reduced; the public-school system was thoroughly reorganized and great progress was made in free education for all children of the state. The governor was unsuccessful, however, in his repeated efforts to obtain a constitutional amendment abolishing the test oaths as a qualification for voting and for engaging in the professions. Subsequent events soon proved the wisdom of his recommendations. He strongly advocated normal schools for training teachers, greater support for the state university, and especial attention to agricultural education, Upon the conclusion of his term as governor, he returned to St. Louis and practised law for a time and then moved to Washington, D. C., where he engaged in the practise of this profession until his death.

[Biography by J. H. Reppy, in The Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of the State of Missouri, Volume IV (1924), ed. by G. G. Avery and F. C. Shoemaker; H. L. Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Volume II (1901); W. B. Stevens, Centennial History of Missouri (1921), I, 407; sketch in Boonville Weekly Advertiser, March 31, 1899; obituary in Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), March 27, 1899; articles in Jefferson City People's Tribune, March 27, April 3, June 26, 1867.]

C.H.M.


FLETCHER, Ryland, Proctorville, Vermont,  governor of Vermont, born in Cavendish. Vermont, 18 February, 1799; died in Proctorsville, Vermont, 19 December, 1885, studied in the Norwich Military Academy, and became a farmer. He was active as an anti-slavery agitator, was chosen to the state senate, and lieutenant-governor of Vermont from 1854 till 1856. when he was elected governor of the state by the Free-Soil Party, serving until 1858. From 1861 till 1864 he was a representative in the legislature. In 1864 he was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket.  Vermont, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 480.


FLINT, George, abolitionist, Rutland, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1859-60-.


FLOY, JAMES (August 20, 1806-October 14, 1863), Methodist Episcopal clergyman. His ecclesiastical career had an unfortunate opening. Having, presumably, pledged himself to refrain from agitating the church by discussing the slavery question, as required of those made deacons, he aided in the preparation of an anti-slavery tract and attended an anti-slavery convention. Accordingly, at the Conference of 1838, with two others, he was charged with contumacy and in subordination, tried, and suspended.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, pp. 480-481:

FLOY, JAMES (August 20, 1806-October 14, 1863), Methodist Episcopal clergyman, noted in his church as an editor, writer, and hymnologist, was born in New York. His father, Michael, was an emigrant from Devonshire, England, by occupation a practical horticulturist, who in 1802 married in New York, Margaret Ferris, a native of that city. James received a good secondary school training and entered Columbia College, but his father, deeming a practical education of more value, withdrew him, and sent him to England to study and practise horticulture at the Royal Gardens, London. Upon his return he worked for a time with his father, and in 1829 was married to Jane Thacker. His parents were devoted Methodists, and in 1831 when he himself experienced conversion, he was in the employ of Waugh and Mason, the Book Agents of the denomination. He became teacher in an African Sunday-school, and through the gradations of class leader, exhorter, and local preacher, finally stepped into the ministry, being admitted to the New York Conference on trial in May 1835; ordained deacon in 1837; and elder in 1839.

His ecclesiastical career had an unfortunate opening. Having, presumably, pledged himself to refrain from agitating the church by discussing the slavery question, as required of those made deacons, he aided in the preparation of an anti-slavery tract and attended an anti-slavery convention. Accordingly, at the Conference of 1838, with two others, he was charged with contumacy and in subordination, tried, and suspended. Upon his written promise to conform to rule in the future, however, the suspension was lifted. (See J. M. Buckley, A History of Methodists in the United States, 1896, p. 390.) Notwithstanding this event he soon rose to prominence in the Conference, and later, when it was divided, in the New York East Conference. He was appointee to important churches, served as presiding elder of the New York district, and was a member of the General Conferences of 1848, 1856, and 1860, at the latter having the gratification of seeing the Discipline put on an anti-slavery basis. It was in the literary field, however, that he became most widely known. Upon his motion the General Conference of 1848 ap pointed a committee which recommended a revision of the church hymnal. The revised version which appeared in 1849 was largely the work of two laymen, R. A. West and David Creamer [q.v.], and Floy, and owed much to the latter's knowledge and taste. The General Conference of 1856 elected him corresponding secretary of the Tract Society and editor of the National Magazine, which he ably conducted until lack of financial support caused its discontinuance in 1858. Keenly interested in religious education, he prepared Graduated Sunday School Textbooks, three volumes (1861-62). For almost a quarter of a century he was one of the foremost contributors to the Methodist Quarterly Review. Some of his articles for this periodical may be found in a posthumous edition of his writings, Literary Remains of Reverend Dr. Floy: Occasional Sermons and Reviews and Essays (1866). A companion volume, Old Testament Characters Delineated and Illustrated, appeared the same year. Death came to him suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in New York. His first wife having died about 1859, he later married Emma Yates, whose death occurred a few weeks before his own.

[The edition of his writings mentioned above contains a memoir. See also Minutes of the New York East Annual Conference (1864); Daniel Curry, "James Floy, D.D.," Methodist Quarterly Review, January 1864; address es in In Memoriam: Memorial Services of the Reverend James Floy, D.D. (1864); and obituary in Christian Advocate (New York), October 22, 1863.]

H. E. S.


FOGG, George Gilman (May 26, 1813- October 5, 1881), lawyer, editor, diplomat. He was active in politics, being a pioneer in the Free-Soil movement, and in 1846 was chosen secretary of state for a term of one year. A few years later he took an active part in the organization of the Republican party.  As a delegate to the Republican Convention of 1860, he was a strong supporter of Lincoln.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, pp. 485-486.

FOGG, GEORGE GILMAN (May 26, 1813- October 5, 1881), lawyer, editor, diplomat, the son of David and Hannah Gilman (Vickery) Fogg was born at Meredith Center, New Hampshire. He attended New Hampton Academy, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1839, studied law at Harvard and in the office of Judge Warren Lovell in Meredith Village, and began practise at Gilmanton Iron Works in 1842. After four years he moved to Concord and maintained a residence there for the rest of his life. He never married. He was active in politics, being a pioneer in the Free-Soil movement, and in 1846 was chosen secretary of state for a term of one year. A few years later he took an active part in the organization of the Republican party. He was the founder of the Independent Democrat of Concord and from 1846 to 1861 devoted himself largely to journalism. Under his direction the paper became one of the most influential in the state, and his editorial utterances were widely quoted throughout New England. From 1855 to 1859 he was state law reporter and for some years state printer as well. As a delegate to the Republican Convention of 1860, he was a strong supporter of Lincoln and in 1861 was appointed minister to Switzerland, holding the post until October 16, 1865. Switzerland offered few of the problems found at London or Paris where belligerent rights, neutral duties, and the ever present possibility of intervention required so much diplomatic activity. In July 1861, he reported that, "here . . . the rebels have no friends," and on the close of the war, that Lee's surrender caused almost as much rejoicing as though it had been a Swiss victory. The dispatches published in Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs show that his work was largely of routine character, but performed to the satisfaction of both countries. In 1864 he represented the United States at the Geneva conference on the amelioration of conditions for the sick and wounded in time of war.

In 1866-67 Fogg served out the unexpired term of Daniel Clark in the United States Senate. He resumed editorial work but was now on bad terms with several of his party leaders, due, in part at least, to his failure to secure another diplomatic post. Although he continued to be active in both journalism and party management for some years longer, his influence seems to have declined. He was interested in the New Hampshire Historical Society and many local organizations in Concord, and was a trustee of Bates College. For several years prior to his death he was broken in health and able to do little work. He was one of the ablest journalists in the history of the state, and it was as a newspaper editor that he made his chief contribution to political history.

[C. H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire (1894); J. O. Lyford, History of Concord, New Hampshire (1903); J. 0. Lyford, Life of Edward H. Rollins (1906); Concord Daily Monitor, October 6, 1881; the People and New Hampshire Patriot (Concord), October 13, 1881.]

W.A. R.


FOLGER, Charles James (April 16, 1818- September 4, 1884), jurist, secretary of the treasury. While originally a Democrat, Folger passed into the Republican party over the Free-Soil bridge in 1854. In 1861 he was elected to the state Senate.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, pp. 486-487:

FOLGER, CHARLES JAMES (April 16, 1818- September 4, 1884), jurist, secretary of the treasury,
son of Thomas Folger, was born on the island of Nantucket, from which, at the age of twelve, he removed with his parents to Geneva, New York. His ancestors for generations had been New England whalers, tracing their origin to John Folger who came over from Norfolk, England, in 1635. Folger attended Geneva (now Hobart) College, from which he was graduated with the highest honors of his class in 1836. He took up the study of law at Canandaigua, was admitted to the bar in Albany in 1839, and started practise in Lyons, Wayne County. After a year he returned to Geneva where he maintained his home throughout the remainder of his life. On June 17, 1844, he married Susan Rebecca Worth.

Folger assumed his first important public office at the age of twenty-six, when, in 1844, he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas of Ontario County, and soon after was made master and examiner in chancery. From 1851 to 1855 he served as county judge. While originally a Democrat, Folger passed into the Republican fold over the Free-Soil bridge in 1854. In 1861 he was elected to the state Senate and was reelected three times, serving until 1869, and acting for four years as president pro tempore, and, throughout the period, as chairman of the judiciary committee. In the latter capacity he was noted for his conservative course and his stanch resistance to any modification of the law of marriage and divorce (Geneva Courier, September 10, 1884), and to important reforms in criminal procedure (Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, I, 137). Throughout these years Folger was one of the keenest critics of unsound legislation. “Whenever a bill was read a third time he watched it as a cat watches a mouse," wrote a contemporary (Ibid., p. 101). He consistently opposed the "accursed mildew of town bonding" (Geneva Courier, September IO, 1884), and was an uncompromising foe to stockjobbers. He attracted special attention during these years by his hostility to Governor Reuben E. Fenton of his own party and by his prominence in the legislative contest of 1868 between Vanderbilt and the New York Central and Gould and the Erie.

His most valued service to his state was rendered in the field of constitutional reform and interpretation. In the state convention of 1867 he was chairman of the judiciary committee, and to his efforts are attributed material changes in the judicial system. He was the foremost public sponsor of the proposed constitution, which was rejected by the people in 1869. He was elected an associate judge of the state court of appeals in 1870. The fact that he had been the choice of both the Republican and Democratic tickets in that election led to charges of a corrupt Tammany alliance (New York Times, May 17, 18, 1870). On the death of Chief Justice Church in 1880, Folger was designated by Governor Cornell to fill the unexpired term of that office. In November of that year he was reelected to the bench of the court of appeals, which he left shortly to take up his duties in the cabinet of President Arthur. In his term on the bench Folger rendered frequent opinions which revealed a valuable grasp of questions of constitutional law (see, for example, People ex rel. Lee vs. Chautaitqua County, 43 New York, 10; People vs. Bull, 46 New York, 57).

During this later period of his life Folger assumed a more active role in national politics. He was a prominent candidate for the United States senatorial nomination in 1867, but finally withdrew in favor of Conkling. In the following year he was active at the Republican National Convention at Chicago in demonstrating to other state delegations that New York was not solid for Reuben E. Fenton for Vice-President (New York Times, May 20, 1868). In 1869 he resigned from the state Senate to accept an appointment from President Grant as United States assistant treasurer in New York City, in which capacity he served for one year. Although he first refused the office of attorney-general in Garfield's cabinet, he finally accepted the treasury portfolio under President Arthur in 1881. Under his administration the public debt was reduced over $300,000,000, the largest reduction; which had ever been effected up to his time. During his administration offices in the Treasury Department were put in the classified service under Civil Service rules. His correspondence with James B. Butler, chief of the appointment division of the Treasury Department, reveals that even before these reforms, Folger attempted to maintain a high standard of personnel.

In 1882, through the joint efforts of President Arthur and Conkling, Folger was given the Republican nomination for governor, despite the stiff fight which Governor Cornell made for renomination in an administration-packed convention (New York Times, September 22, 23, 1882; Harper's Weekly, September 30, October 21, 1882). His Democratic opponent was Grover Cleveland, who polled almost 200,000 votes more than Folger, the largest majority which had ever been scored in a contested election. Folger was a man of distinguished personal appearance, gentle in bearing, modest and even diffident, but withal an impressive speaker and conscientious in the execution of his public duties. His correspondence discloses the saving grace of a rich sense of humor.

[Outlines of Folger's career m ay be found in S. R. Harlow and S. C. Hutchins, Life Sketches of the State Officers, Senators. and Members of the Assembly of the State of New York in 1868, pp. 81-84; and in Chas. Andrews, An Address Commemorative of the Life of the Late Hon. Chas. J. Folger (1885). See also Homer A. Stebbins, A Pol. History of the State of New York, 1865-69 (1913); Chas. Z. Lincoln, The Constitutional History of New York, 5 volumes (1906); and De A. S. Alexander, A Pol. History of the State of New York, Volume III (1909). The New York Public Library has a collection of the unofficial correspondence of Secretary Folger with James B. Butler, 1881-84. Obituaries in New York Tribune, New York Times, and New York Evening Post, September 5, 1884; and Geneva Courier, September 10, 1884.]

R.B.M.


FOLGER, Robert H., abolitionist, Massillon, Ohio, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-41. 


FOLLEN, Charles Theodore, 1796-1840, Massachusetts, educator, professor, writer, clergyman, Unitarian minister, abolitionist.  Fired from Harvard University for his anti-slavery oratory.  Wrote Lectures on Moral Philosophy, which strongly opposed slavery.  Influenced by abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier and abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, he became active in the New England Anti-Slavery Society.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice President, 1834-1835, 1836-1837, Member Executive Committee, 1837-1838, 1860-1863.  Counsellor of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1859-1960.  Wrote anti-slavery Address to the People of the United States, which he delivered to the Society’s first convention in Boston.  Supported political and legal equality for women. 

(Goodell, 1852, pp. 418, 469; Pease, William H., & Pease, Jane H. The Antislavery Argument. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1965, pp. lxi, 224-233; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 288; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 491-492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 492; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 301-302)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 492:

FOLLEN, CHARLES (September 4, 1796-January13, 1840), German liberal refugee, first professor of German literature at Harvard, Abolitionist, Unitarian preacher, was the son of Christoph Follenius, a prominent judge at Giessen, Hesse-Darmstadt. He entered the university of his native town in the spring of 1813, not yet seventeen years old, devoting himself. to the study of law and ethics, but soon, at the rising of the German people against Napoleon, joined a company of volunteers. He as well as two of his brothers served throughout the campaign on French soil. After the conclusion of peace in 1814, resuming his studies at Giessen, he eagerly plunged into the progressive student movement-the so-called Burschenschaftsbewegung. A commanding personality, a fiery orator, an inspiring writer of verse, he easily rose to leadership among the radical youths of the Giessen Burschenschaft, pledged to republican ideals and the overthrow of the old feudal order. Although he was himself absent in 1817 from the great liberal demonstration on the Wartburg, he was one of its chief promoters and organizers. Even after his appointment, in 1818, to a lectureship at the University of Jena, undismayed by official warnings and censures, he carried on what was in effect revolutionary propaganda, and it is not surprising that, when on March 23, 1819, the reactionary writer Kotzebue was assassinated by Karl Sand, a close student friend of Follen's, the latter should have been arrested and tried as an accomplice. No evidence could be found against him, however, and he was acquitted, but since he was dismissed from the university and placed under strict police surveillance, so that all avenues for a useful public career in Germany seemed closed to him, he decided to leave the country and serve the cause of freedom elsewhere. After a brief stay in Paris early in 1820, where he made the acquaintance of Lafayette, he went to Switzerland, and taught Latin and history for a year in the cantonal school of Chur, until in the autumn of 1821 he was called as lecturer on jurisprudence and metaphysics to the newly reorganized University of Basel. Here he spent three active and highly successful years. In 1824, however, the Prussian government, fearful lest his democratic and cosmopolitan teachings should spread in Germany, not only forbade its subjects to attend the University of Basel, but, supported by the other members of the Holy Alliance, demanded Follen's extradition, on the charge of his subverting the foundation of society. Now America seemed the only asylum left. On November 1, 1824, Fallen and his friend Karl Beck sailed from Havre for New York.

Follen's American career also was a tragic mixture of high aspirations and deep disappointments. At first his ideals appeared to be realized in the new country. Through George Ticknor, to whom he was introduced by Lafayette, he received an offer from Harvard College of an instructorship in German, which he accepted with the understanding that he should also have an opportunity to give lectures on law. He entered upon this position in December 1825, and in the next few years displayed a most remarkable versatility. In addition to teaching the German language to college classes and lecturing on jurisprudence before select audiences of Boston lawyers, he gave practical lessons in the new art of gymnastics made popular by "Father" Jahn, wrote linguistic text-books, literary readers, theological and philosophical essays, preached occasionally in Unitarian churches and around Boston, and in 1829 even accepted an additional regular instructorship in ethics and history at the Harvard Divinity School. It is no wonder that a man of such parts should have been gladly received by the intellectual and social elite of New England. In September 1828, he married a woman of aristocratic breeding, Eliza Lee Cabot. In March 1830, he acquired American citizenship; in April of the same year, a son was born to him; in August, he was appointed, for a term of five years, professor of German literature at Harvard College.

Even before the appearance, in January 1831, of Garrison's Liberator, Follen had boldly spoken out against slavery in his Boston "Lectures on Moral Philosophy" of 1830, but it was Garrison's and Whittier's example which urged him into action against slavery. In 1834, he joined the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and at its first convention held in Boston, well knowing that he thereby risked his own future, he drafted the "Address to the People of the United States." There seems no doubt that this address was the immediate cause of the severance of Follen's connection with Harvard College. When the tenure of his professorship expired in August 1835, it was not renewed, although his striking success as a teacher had widely and emphatically been recognized. From now on all the more eagerly he devoted himself to upholding his ideals of reform and progress in every sphere of life. At a hearing before a committee of the Massachusetts legislature in January 1836, he protested with vigor and dignity against a proposed attempt to inhibit the publication of Abolitionist writings. In an article in the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine, October 1836, he laid bare all the various forms of oppression which seemed to him to endanger true democracy in this country, among them the political and legal inferiority of women, the general subserviency to wealth, the sectarianism of the churches, the formalism and conventionality of academic instruction. In the various positions which he filled during the following three years, as private teacher, lecturer, and Unitarian minister, he never ceased to make the training of original and independent individuals his primary object. His last ministry was at East Lexington, Massachusetts. On the return trip from a course of lectures on German literature before the Merchants' Library Association in New York, he perished with nearly all the passengers and crew of the steamer Lexington, which caught fire in Long Island Sound, during the night of January 13-14, 1840.

[The Works of Chas. Follen, with a Memoir of his Life (5 volumes), the first volume (1842) of which contains the admirable Life by Mrs. Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, herself a gifted writer of stories, essays, and verse; Kuno Francke, "Karl Follen and the German Liberal Movement," in Papers of the American Historical Assn., Volume V (1891), pp. 65-81; Geo. W. Spindler, Karl Follen; a Biographical Study (1917), a critical monograph, containing an excellent bibliography.]

K.F.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 491-492:

FOLLEN, Charles Theodore Christian, educator, born in Romrod, Germany, 4 September, 1796; died in Long Island sound, 13 January, 1840. He was the second son of Christopher Follen, an eminent jurist. He was educated at the preparatory school at Giessen, where he distinguished himself for proficiency in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and Italian. At the age of seventeen he entered the University of Giessen, and began the study of jurisprudence, but presently, on hearing the news of Napoleon's defeat at Leipsic, he enlisted in a corps of riflemen. A few weeks after enlisting, his military career was cut short by an acute attack of typhus fever, which seemed for a time to have completely destroyed his memory. After his recovery he returned to the university, where he took the degree of doctor of civil law in 1817. In the following year he lectured on the pandects in the University of Jena. Here he was arrested on suspicion of complicity with the fanatical assassin, Sand, in the murder of Kotzebue. The suspicion was entirely groundless. After his acquittal he returned to Giessen, but soon incurred the dislike of the government through his liberal ideas in politics. His brother had already been thrown into jail for heading a petition begging for the introduction of a representative government. Dr. Follen, perceiving that he was himself in danger, left Germany and went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Lafayette. In 1820 the French government ordered all foreigners to quit France, and Dr. Follen repaired to Zurich, where he became professor of Latin in the cantonal school of the Grisons. He was soon afterward transferred to the University of Basel, as professor of civil law, and here. in association with the celebrated De Wette, he edited the literary journal of the university, and published an essay on the “Destiny of Man,” and another on “Spinoza's Doctrine of Law and Morals.” In 1824 the governments of Russia, Austria, and Prussia demanded of the Swiss government that Dr. Follen should be surrendered to “justice” for the crime of disseminating revolutionary doctrines, and, finding the Swiss government unable to protect him, he made his escape to America, and, after devoting a year to the study of the English language, was appointed instructor in German at Harvard. He studied divinity with Dr. W. E. Channing, began preaching in 1828, and also served as instructor in ecclesiastical history in the Harvard divinity-school. In 1830 he was appointed professor of German literature at Harvard. There was no regular foundation for such a professorship it was merely continued from time to time by a special vote of the corporation. About this time Dr. Follen became prominently connected with the anti-slavery movement, which was then extremely unpopular at Harvard, and in 1834 the corporation refused to continue his professorship. Thrown thus upon his own resources, after nearly ten years of faithful and valuable service at the university, Dr. Follen supported himself for a time by teaching and writing, living at Watertown, Milton, and Stockbridge. In 1836 he was formally ordained as a Unitarian minister, and preached occasionally in New York, Washington, and Boston. He continued conspicuous among the zealous advocates of the abolition of slavery. In 1840 he was settled over a parish in East Lexington, Massachusetts, but while on his way from New York to Boston he lost his life in the burning of the steamer “Lexington.” He published a “German Reader” (Boston, 1831; new ed., with additions by G. A. Schmitt, 1858); and “Practical Grammar of the German Language” (Boston, 1831). His complete works, containing lectures on moral philosophy, miscellaneous essays and sermons, and a fragment of a treatise on psychology, and a memoir by his widow, were published after his death (5 vols., Boston, 1842). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 491-492.


FOLLEN, Eliza Lee Cabot, 1787-1860, co-founder, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) in 1833, writer, church organizer. American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee member, 1846-1860.  Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1846-1860.  Wrote “Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs” and “A Letter to Mothers in the States.” 

(Hansen, 1993; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 42, 288; Sterling, 1991; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 491-492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 492)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 2, p. 492:

FOLLEN, ELIZA LEE CABOT (August 15, 1787-January 26, 1860), author, and prominent member of the Massachusetts anti-slavery group, was born in Boston, the fifth of the thirteen children of Samuel and Sarah (Barrett) Cabot. Her father, a descendant of John Cabot who, coming from the island of Jersey in 1700, settled in Salem, Massachusetts, was engaged in foreign commerce. For a number of years during Eliza's girlhood he was in Europe where he served as secretary of the commission to England under the Jay Treaty to settle the American spoliation claims. Her mother, a woman of strong character and notable mental attainments, was the daughter of Samuel and Mary (Clarke) Barrett, the latter a daughter of Richard Clarke [q.v.], and sister of Susannah Farnum Clarke who married John Singleton Copley [q.v.]. Eliza received an excellent education, and became a cultivated woman of marked intellectual ability, deeply interested in religious and social problems, and firm and outspoken in her convictions. After the death of her father in 1819, her mother having died ten years earlier, she and two of her sisters established a home of their own. Her family connections brought her into contact with many of the leading people of Boston; she was prominent in literary and religious circles, and numbered among her friends such personages as William Ellery Channing and Henry Ware [qq.v.].

She was one of a little group of men and women who established a Sunday-school in connection with the Federal Street Church, and with other members of the group was accustomed to meet once a week in Dr. Channing's study for the discussion of religious questions. When Charles Follen [q.v.] came to Boston and had been introduced to Miss Cabot by Catharine M. Sedgwick [q.v.], she took him to these gatherings and an intimate friendship between Follen and Channing ensued. Dr. Follen, in fact, nine years younger than Miss Cabot, became her protege; she suggested to him that he enter the ministry; and encouraged him to think that, though a foreigner, he would succeed. The woman in Germany to whom he was engaged re, fusing to leave home and friends for America, on September 15, 1828, he and Miss Cabot were married. Thereafter their fortunes were joined until his tragic death a little more than eleven years later. A son, Charles Christopher, was born to them on April 11, 1830. In 1841-42 she published in five volumes The Works of Charles Follen, with a Memoir of His Life.

Mrs. Follen's interest in the education of children and her connection with the Sunday-school movement gave direction to her literary activity. For two years beginning in April 1828, she edited the Christian Teacher's Manual; and from 1843 to 1850, the Child's Friend. Her books for the young were voluminous, some of them passing through numerous editions. The Well Spent Hour (1827) was especially popular. Writing from Liverpool, Mrs. John T. Kirkland remarked in a letter dated August 23, 1830: "Among the literary productions of America which have found their way across the Atlantic is our cousin Follen's Well-Spent Hour and Christian Teacher's Manual. ... She seems to be considered one of the lights of the New World, associated with Dr. Channing and Mr. Ware" (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 series, Volume XIX, 1906). Mrs. Follen also published Selections from the Writings of Fenelon, with a memoir of his life (1829); The Skeptic (1835); Sketches of Married Life (1838); and Poems (1839).

In addition to her writing she undertook the work of preparing her son and other boys for Harvard College; and was active in the support of the anti-slavery movement, furnishing numerous tracts and poems, and serving on the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. She was also a counselor of the Massachusetts Society, and a member of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Altogether she was for years one of the notable personages of Boston. Every one respected her, but not every one loved her. J. Peter Lesley [q.v.] wrote to his stepmother, June 21, 1847, "We called together on Mrs. Fallen, relict of the lamented Dr. Fallen who perished in the Lex in g ton, last evening and found her one of those enthusiastic, partisan souls, who can see no faults in friends, nor virtues in enemies" (Mary Lesley Ames, Life and Letters of Peter and Susan Lesley, 1903). In general, however, she was spoken of with great reverence. James Russ ell Lowell, writing of the women who conducted anti-slavery bazaars in Faneuil Hall, characterized her thus:

"And there, too, was Eliza Follen,
Who scatters fruit-creating pollen
Where' er a blossom she can find
Hardy enough for Truth's north wind,
Each several point of all her face
Tremblingly bright with inward grace,
As if all motion gave it light
Like phosphorescent seas at night."

Her death, occasioned by typhoid fever, was coincident with her "annual festival," the meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society.

[See L. Vernon Briggs, History and Genealogy of the Cabot Family (2 volumes, 1927); Annual Report American Anti-Slavery Society, 1860 (1861); Mary E. Dewey, Life and Letters of Catharine M. Sedgwick (1871); Geo. W. Cooke, Unitarianism in America (1902); Liberator, January, February, 1860. Mrs. Follen's biography of her husband contains valuable but meager information about herself. Lowell's lines appeared in the Pennsylvania Freeman, December 27, 1846, and are reprinted in W. P. and F. J. Garrison, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, III (1889), 179.]

H. E. S.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 491-492:

FOLLEN, Eliza Lee Cabot, author, born in Boston, 15 August, 1787; died in Brookline, Massachusetts, 26 January, 1860, was the daughter of Samuel Cabot, of Boston, and married Dr. Follen in 1828. After her husband's death she educated their only son, whom, with other pupils, she fitted for Harvard. She edited the “Child's Friend” in 1843-'50. Mrs. Follen was an intimate friend of William Ellery Channing, and was a zealous opponent of slavery. Besides the memoir of her husband, mentioned above, she published “The Well-Spent Hour” (Boston, 1827); “The Skeptic” (1835); “Poems” (1839); “To Mothers in the Free States” (1855); “Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs” (1855); “Twilight Stories” (1858); and “Home Dramas” (1859). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 491-492.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.