Mac: McAboy through McPhail

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.


MCABOY, P. L., Gallia County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36.


MCALLISTER, Archibald, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)


MCBRIDE, John R., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)


MCCLINTOCK, Thomas, Waterloo, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1848, Vice-President, 1848-1856.


MCCLURE, ALEXANDER KELLY (January 9, 1828-June 6, 1909), editor, lawyer, legislator, supporter of the Whig and Republican Parties.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 1, p. 593-594:

MCCLURE, ALEXANDER KELLY (January 9, 1828-June 6, 1909), editor, lawyer, legislator, son of Alexander and Isabella (Anderson) McClure, was born in Sherman's Valley, Perry County, Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. He was reared on his father's farm, educated at home, and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to a tanner. At the same time he learned the printing trade in the office of the Perry County Freeman, where he absorbed Whig political principles. In the late forties he edited and published the Juniata Sentinel at Mifflintown. In 1849 he was commissioned colonel on the staff of Governor Johnson, and in the following year he was appointed deputy United States marshal for Juniata County. In 1852 he became part owner of the Franklin Repository, published in Chambersburg, and shortly afterward he secured full control. Under his direction it became one of the influential newspapers in the state. After failing of election as the Whig candidate for auditor-general in 1853, he turned his attention to law. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 but continued to devote most of his time to the Repository. He took particular interest in the organization of the Republican party and was a member of the state convention that met in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1855. In 1860 he was a member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention which was committed to Simon Cameron for the presidency. When it became evident that two-thirds of the delegates from the other states were in favor of William H. Seward, Curtin and McClure succeeded in switching the Pennsylvania vote from Cameron to Lincoln. McClure was elected chairman of the Republican state committee and in this office perfected a complete political organization in every city, county, township, and precinct in the state. Following a campaign of unprecedented aggressiveness Andrew G. Curtin was elected governor and later Lincoln swept the state by a large majority.

After a term in the state House of Representatives in 1858, McClure was elected in 1859 to the state Senate. There he was spokesman for Pennsylvania's war governor, and as chairman of the Senate committee on military affairs he was active in support of both state and federal governments for the preservation of the Union. In 1865 he was again in the House of Representatives. At the request of President Lincoln, he accepted a commission as assistant adjutant-general of the army and placed seventeen regiments in the field. In 1868 he became a resident of Philadelphia. He opened a law office and immediately became active in civic affairs. He was a delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention that nominated General Grant in 1868. Differing with the dominant Republican leadership in 1872 he became chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Liberal Republican national convention which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. He gave further evidence of political independence by running as a Citizen's candidate, with Democratic indorsement, for the state Senate in the West Philadelphia district; and after a bitter contest was sworn in. In 1874 he was the Citizen's-Democratic candidate for mayor of Philadelphia, making his canvass upon charges of gross corruption in the city administration, but he was defeated. In response to a demand for a newspaper to support the independent forces in Philadelphia, McClure in conjunction with Frank McLaughin on March 13, 1875, established the Times which became a well-known newspaper in the country. McClure was a man of impressive appearance and was in demand as a speaker on public occasions. He was twice married, first to Matilda s: Gray, on February 10, 1852; and second to Cora M. Gratz, on March 19, 1879. His later years we're largely devoted to literary work, his books including Three Thousand Miles through the Rocky Mountains (1869); The South: Its Industrial, Financial and Political Condition (1886); Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times (1892); Our Presidents and How We Make Them (1900); To the Pacific and Mexico (1901); Colonel Alexander K. McClure's Recollections of a Half Century (1902); and Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania (2 volumes, 1905). He edited Famous American Statesmen and Orators (6 volumes, 1902).

[In addition to McClure's books see: Encyclopedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania (1893), volume III; H. H. Hain, History of Perry County, Pennsylvania (1922); Who's Who in  America, 1908--09; J. A. McClure, The McClure Family (1914); the Press (Philadelphia), June 7, 1909.]

L. C. P.


MCCLURE, J. H., Kentucky, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1832-1837. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)


MCCLURG, Joseph Washington, 1818-1900, lawyer, legislator, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  Served in Congress December 1863-1868.  Elected Governor of Missouri in 1868.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Though opposed to slavery in principle, he did not liberate the slaves which his wife had inherited until shortly before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In the House of Representatives he became an ardent disciple of Thaddeus Stevens [q.v.], one the leaders of radical Republicanism and emancipation.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 91; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 1, pp. 597-598; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 1, pp. 597-598:

MCCLURG, JOSEPH WASHINGTON (February 22, 1818-December 2, 1900), congressman, governor of Missouri, a first cousin of A. C. McClurg [q.v.], was born in St. Louis County, Missouri. His grandfather, Joseph, came to the United States from Ireland as a refugee in 1798, his family, including Joseph Washington McClurg's father, also named Joseph, following later. The second Joseph married Mary Brotherton, a native of St. Louis County, Missouri. Their son, orphaned at an early age, was reared by relatives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended school in Xenia; Ohio, and for two years (1833-35) was a student at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He then taught for a year or more in Louisiana and Mississippi; later he was admitted to the bar in Texas and practised law there. From 1841 to 1844 he was deputy sheriff of St. Louis County, having married in the former year Mary C. Johnson. In 1849 he was living in Hazelwood, Missouri, at which time he joined the California gold seekers, in charge of a caravan of twenty-four ox teams. Back in Missouri again in 1852, McClurg, with two partners, established a large wholesale and retail mercantile business at Linn Creek, which was increasingly prosperous.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he immediately took a strong stand for the Union. He organized, equipped (to considerable financial loss), and commanded a home-guard unit, called the Osage Regiment of Missouri Volunteers. Later, he became colonel of the 8th Cavalry, Missouri Militia, but resigned this position in 1862 when he was elected to Congress, in which he served practically three full terms. Though opposed to slavery in principle, he did not liberate the slaves which his wife had inherited until shortly before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Of great significance for his future political career was the fact that in the House he became an ardent disciple bf Thaddeus Stevens [q.v.], the bell-weather of radicalism. Moreover, his bitter attacks upon his congressional colleague, Francis P. Blair [q.v.], a leading conservative Unionist, endeared him to the hearts of all Missouri radicals. In 1868 McClurg resigned his seat in the House to run for governor of Missouri on the Radical Republican ticket.

Because of the military and strictly partisan enforcement of the noted test oath and registry law, enacted by the legislature in 1865-66, McClurg was elected by a majority of nearly 20,000. During the campaign, at the polls, and throughout his administration, the spirit and the principles of Thaddeus Stevens and the carpetbaggers were logically and proudly set forth in the public utterances and policies of McClurg and his advisers. Their aim was not only to disfranchise the "rebels," but also so to control the election machinery as to render the loyal Union Democrats and the Liberal Republicans powerless. The St. Louis Dispatch, in an admittedly partisan broadside (July 17, 1868), asserted that "McClurg is the embodiment of all that is narrow, bigoted, revengeful, and ignorant in the Radical party." If he was ignorant, it was only in the sense that he did -not comprehend the shortsightedness of the radical policies. He was, in fact, less a leader than a follower. Such radicals as Charles D. Drake [q.v.] and others long since forgotten really dominated the party of which McClurg was the nominal head. The controversies relating to negro and white suffrage claimed the major share of his attention during the two years he was in office. With the test oath and the registry law on the shelf in 1870, he was overwhelmingly defeated for the governorship. The memory of the proscriptions which he sponsored was largely responsible for the fact that Missouri remained in the Democratic column for over thirty years.

After his term as governor he lived at Linn Creek and engaged in various business enterprises. In 1885 he moved to Lebanon, where he lived until his death, except for the years 1889 to 1893, when he was register of the Federal Land Office at Springfield.

[General Catalog of the Graduates and Former Students of Miami University, I809-I909 (n.d.); G. G. Avery and F. C. Shoemaker, The Messages and Proclamations of The Governors ... of Missouri, volume IV (1924); T. S. Barclay, "The Liberal Republican Movement in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review, October 1925-October 19, 1926; Pictorial and Genealogy Record of Greene County, Missouri (1893); History of Laclede and Camden Counties, Missouri (1889); Kansas City Times, September 4, 1870; St. Louis Dispatch, July 17, 1868; St. Joseph Herald, December 10, 1869; Columbia Statesman, July 24, 1868; New York Times, April 24, 1872; Booneville Weekly Eagle, May 21, 1870; Missouri Democrat, October 1, 1869; Jefferson City Peoples' Tribune, September 7, 1870; St. Louis Globe-Democrat and St. Louis Republic, December 3, 1900; Booneville Weekly Advertiser, December 21, 1900.]

H.E.N.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 91:

McCLURG, Joseph Washington, legislator, born in St. Louis county, Missouri, 22 February, 1818. He was educated at Oxford college, Ohio, and taught in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1835-'6. He then went to Texas, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and made clerk of the circuit court in 1840. In 1844 he returned to Missouri and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1861 he suffered from Confederate depredations on his property, became colonel of the Osage regiment, and subsequently of a regiment of National cavalry. He was a member of the state conventions of Missouri in 1861-'2-'3, and was elected and re-elected to congress while residing in Linn Creek, Camden county, first as an Emancipation and afterward as a Republican candidate, serving from 7 December, 1863, till 1868, when he resigned. In the latter year he was elected governor and served the full term. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 91.


McCORMICK, Richard Cunningham (May 23, 1832-June 2, 1901), journalist, politician, business man.  McCormick joined in the formation of the Republican party. His anti-slavery opinions and the interest he had shown in 1856 secured him a prominent part in the campaign of 1860, when he became a member of the Republican state committee. During this campaign his friendship with both Lincoln and Seward began.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 1 pp. 610-611:

McCORMICK, RICHARD CUNNINGHAM (May 23, 1832-June 2, 1901), journalist, politician, business man, was born in New York City, the eldest of the seven children of Richard Cunningham and Sarah Matilda (Decker) McCormick. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, a descendant of Hugh McCormick who emigrated from Londonderry to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, before 1735. His father, a liberally educated man and for many years a journalist, gave him a classical education in the private schools of the city with a view to his entering Columbia College. His health, however, was not particularly good, and the family decided that it would be better for him to travel. He spent most of 1854 and 1855 in Europe and Asia. He was in the Crimea during the war and while there acted as correspondent for the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer and other New York journals. Later he published accounts of his travels and experiences in the Crimea under the titles A Visit to the Camp before Sevastopol (1855), and St. Paul's to St. Sophia (1860). Soon after his return to America he became editor of the Young Men's Magazine, holding the position from 1857 to 1859. During the same period he contributed to various periodicals and lectured frequently. In 1861-62 he was in Washington and with the Army of the Potomac as correspondent for the New York Evening Post and the Commercial Advertiser. His description of the battle of Bull Run was considered one of the best journalistic accounts printed.

On returning from Europe, McCormick had enthusiastically entered the movement for the formation of the Republican party. His anti-slavery opinions and the interest he had shown in 1856 secured him a prominent part in the campaign of 1860, when he became a member of the Republican state committee. During this campaign his friendship with both Lincoln and Seward began. In 1862 he was the defeated Republican nominee for the first congressional district of New York. Shortly after he was appointed chief clerk of the Department of Agriculture. In March 1863 he was appointed secretary of the newly organized Arizona Territory, an office which he held until April 10, 1866, when he was appointed governor. In 1869 he was elected territorial delegate to Congress and held the office through three successive terms, but he declined renomination in 1874.

When he went to Arizona he took with him a small printing outfit and started the Arizona Weekly Miner, a publication supposed by some to have been devoted to furthering his own political ambitions (Farish, post, III, p. 46). Whatever these were, his ambitions for Arizona were intelligently and earnestly put before the government and the people. During his terms as secretary and governor, he was continually active in urging the construction of roads and railroads in order to improve communication between Arizona and New Mexico and California, the development of agriculture along with mining, the development of an educational system, and the intelligent treatment of both the friendly and hostile Indians in the territory. While in Congress, he spoke convincingly in favor of sharp and immediate punishment of the unnecessarily brutal Indians, such as the Apaches, and of the advisability of paying the friendly tribes on the reservations for work actually done instead of pauperizing them by gifts outright. He also advocated more government roads and surveys for the territory, restriction of wanton killing of the buffalo, conservation of the forests, and the development of irrigation. In 1876 he was appointed commissioner to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The following year he was offered the mission to Brazil and in 1879 that to Mexico, both of which he declined. In 1878 he was appointed commissioner general for the United States to the Paris Exposition. At the Exposition he was made a commander of the Legion of Honor. On returning to America, he retired from public life and entered business in New York, but resided at Jamaica, Long Island, where he served as president of the board of education and later as president of the local board of managers of the State Normal and Training School. He became interested in several western mining enterprises. From April 12, 1892, until his death he was a trustee of the Citizens' Savings Bank of New York. In 1886 he ran for Congress but was defeated by the Democratic candidate. In 1894 he ran again and was elected, but refused renomination on account of ill health. He died in Jamaica a few hours after he had suffered a stroke of apoplexy. He was twice married: on October 1, 1865, to Margaret G. Hunt, of Rahway, New Jersey, who died in 1867; and on November 11, 1873, to Elizabeth Thurman of Columbus, Ohio.

[T. E. Farish, History of Arizona (8 volumes, 1915-18); H. H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico (1889); S. R. De Long, The History of Arizona (1905); R. E. Sloan, History of Arizona (1930), volume I; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); L. J. McCormick, Family Record and Biography (1896); Arizona Weekly Miner, 1864-69; Young Men's Magazine, 1857-59; the Evening Post (New York), July 22-24, 1861; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 3, 1901.] M. L.B.


MCCORMICK, Richard S., New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1841-1842.


MCCREE, John, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, secretary, Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS), Committee of Twenty-Four.

(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. 225, 238; Nash, Gary B., & Soderlund, Jean R. Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 129)


MCCRUMMELL, James, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, African American, abolitionist, dentist.  Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  President and co-founder of the Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia, which was a part of the Vigilant Association of Philadelphia, an abolitionist organization that protected fugitive slaves.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 329; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, p. 21; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 161; Sinha, 2016, pp. 221, 225, 271, 387-388; Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833)


MCCULLOUGH, Samuel, Shelby County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39.


MCDILL, JAMES WILSON (Mar. 4, 1834-February 28, 1894), representative, senator, member of the Interstate Commerce Commission.


MCDILL, JAMES WILSON (Mar. 4, 1834-February 28, 1894), representative, senator, amber of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the son of Frances (Wilson) and John McDill, who was a graduate of Miami University and a United Presbyterian mini was born in Monroe, Ohio. He was taken by his parents to Hanover, Ind., where his father died in 1840. He added the preparatory department of Hanover College in 1844 and 1845. In that year his mother went back to Ohio to live at South Salem with her father, the Reverend Robert G. Wilson, who had been a Presbyterian minister at Chilicothe and president of Ohio University at Athens. Here the boy profited by the teaching of his grandfather and attended Salem Academy. In 1853 he graduated from Miami University. After a year of teaching in Jefferson Academy at Kossuth, Des Moines County, Iowa, he studied law in the office of Samuel Galloway [q.v.] at Columbus, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. The next year he began practice in Afton, Iowa, and, in August 1857, was married to Narcissa Fullenwider. They had five children. He went to Iowa when pioneer conditions still prevailed and when Eastern settlers led by James Grimes were turning the state from Democracy to Republicanism on the slavery issue. In this movement, as friend and admirer of Grimes, he played his part and has left a vivid picture of the period and its leaders in "The Making of Iowa," which was published in the Iowa Historical Record for October 1891. He became judge of Union County and during the war held minor federal offices in Washington, D. C. Returning to Iowa in 1866, he practised law in Afton, which remained his home until his removal to Creston in 1885. After presiding over the circuit and district courts he was a member of Congress from 1873 to 1877, where he did useful service on the committees on the Pacific railroad and on public lands.

Declining a third term he hoped to return to the practice of law, but a new factor in Iowa politics soon brought him into public service again. Ever since their construction the railroads had been regulated only by the common law. Their officials regarded them "from a purely proprietary standpoint" (Report, post, II, p. 944), and grave abuses had developed. Impelled by the Grange and similar organizations, Iowa in 1874 had passed a law fixing a maximum tariff and forbidding discriminations. The law was sustained by the courts, but it lacked provision for effective enforcement. In consequence there was substituted in 1878 a board of railroad commissioners empowered to supervise the roads, investigate all alleged violations of state laws, and modify unreasonable charges. Governor Gear desired a strong commission and appointed McDill one of the Board. After filling out Samuel J. Kirkwood's unexpired term in the Senate, which extended to March 4, 1883, he was reappointed to the railroad commission for another three years. In 1885 a committee, with Shelby M. Cullom [q.v.] as chairman, was appointed in the United States Senate to investigate the regulation of freight and passenger transportation. As an Iowa commissioner, McDill testified that the chief objection to the Iowa method of regulation was that the commission lacked power to enforce its decisions. He maintained that the only method by which there could be any intelligent and sufficient control would be through a federal commission authorized to lower rates when too high, while the right of appeal to the courts was reserved to the railroads only after they had complied with the orders of the commission (Ibid., II, pp. 948-50). The result of this investigation was the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to which McDill was appointed in 1892 by President Harrison. He died at Creston, while serving in this capacity. As a man he was unpretentious, deliberate in thought and action. As a lawyer he was regarded as a safe counselor, who always tried his cases on law and evidence. On the bench he was fair and approachable though not lacking in dignity. He exercised great care in considering cases and measures and had the confidence of his associates.

["Report on Interstate Commerce, with Testimony, and Establishment Recommended," Sen. Rept. 46, 49 Congress, I Session (1886), pt. II; E. H. Stiles, Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa (1916); B. F. Gue, History of Iowa (copyright 1903), volumes II, III, IV; Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold and Union Counties, Iowa (1887); L: S. Evans, A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio (1917), volume I; Illustrated Centennial Sketches, Map and Directory of Union County, Iowa (1876); A. M. Antrobus, History of Des Moines County, Iowa (1915), volume II, p. 534; General Catalog of the Graduates and Former Students of Miami University (1910?); Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March I, 1894; information from McDill's daughter, Mrs. Elmer Bradford, Watkins, Colo.]

C. E. P.


MACDONALD, Alexander, New York, New York, abolitionist, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1849-1855.


MACDONELL, Miles

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888:

MACDONELL, Miles, governor of Assiniboia, born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1767; died at Point Fortune, on Ottawa river, in 1828. His father, Colonel John Macdonell, of Scothouse, Inverness-shire, at the invitation of Sir William Johnson, came to this country in 1773, with several of his friends, and settled at Caughnawaga, on Mohawk river, in New York. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, Colonel Macdonell migrated with his family to Canada, and took up his residence at St. Andrews, near Cornwall, where he died in 1810. The son Miles, who showed military tendencies at an early age, was appointed ensign in the king's royal regiment of New York in 1792, lieutenant in the royal Canadian volunteers in 1794, and captain in the same corps in 1796. At the request of Lord Selkirk he visited London in 1803, and was induced by that nobleman to assume the post of governor of his projected colony on Red river, Northwest territory. He arrived there with the first body of colonists, composed principally of evicted Scottish Highlanders from the Sutherland estates, in 1812, and was at once met with opposition from the agents of the Northwest company, whose headquarters were at Montreal. On 11 June, 1815, the Northwest company's servants attacked and fired upon the colonists, and demanded the surrender of Governor Macdonell, who, to save the effusion of blood, gave himself up voluntarily. He was taken to Montreal as a prisoner, and charges preferred against him by his enemies, but his case was not tried. During his ten or twelve years' connection with Lord Selkirk's Red river settlement he was its leading spirit and took an active and decided part in the feuds of the Hudson bay and Northwest trading companies. His latter years were spent at his farm at Osnaburg, Upper Canada, but he died at the residence of his brother, John.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


MCDONOGH, John, 1779-1850, New Orleans, Louisiana, philanthropist.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1834-1841.  Allowed his slaves to purchase their freedom at a “moderate” sum.  He sent them to Africa at his own expense. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 239, 243; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 106; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 19)


MCDOUGALL, Francis Harriet Whipple Green, 1805-1878, author, poet, reformer, abolitionist. Women’s rights advocate, labor rights activist.

(American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 558-559; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 1, p. 542)


M’ELHENNEY, William, abolitionist leader, Acting Committee, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 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, p. 92)


MCELRATH, THOMAS (May 1, 1807-June 6, 1888), publisher, partner of Horace Greeley in the publication of the New York Tribune.  He was also among those who protested against the action of Congress in resolving to table without debate, printing, or reference, all petitions regarding slavery.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 36:

MCELRATH, THOMAS (May 1, 1807-June 6, 1888), publisher, partner of Horace Greeley in the publication of the New York Tribune, was born at Williamsport, Pennsylvania. After an early apprenticeship on the Harrisburg Chronicle, he pushed on to Philadelphia, finding employment in a book-printing establishment. He later returned to Williamsport and studied law. Equipped now for a struggle with fortune, he went to New York City, where he was employed as proof-reader and head salesman by the Methodist Book Concern, and subsequently he engaged on his own account in the publication of school books and religious works. In 1828 he was admitted to the bar, formed a partnership with William Bloomfield and Charles P. Daly, and entered upon a lucrative practice. In 1833 he was married to Elizabeth Price of New York City. His ability and attractive personal qualities brought him advancement. Elected as a Whig to the New York Assembly, he won attention by a minority report on the petition for removing the state capital from Albany to Utica, his report closing with a recommendation to transfer the seat of government to New York. During the same session he presented for the judiciary committee an adverse report on a petition for the abolishment of capital punishment. He was also among those who protested against the action of Congress in resolving to table without debate, printing, or reference, all petitions affecting slavery.

In 1841 McElrath became business manager of the New York Tribune, then in its uncertain infancy. On July 31 Horace Greeley made this terse announcement over his name: "The principal Editorial charge of the paper will still rest with the subscriber; while the entire business management of the concern henceforth devolves upon his partner." McElrath declared "his hearty concurrence in the principles, Political and Moral" on which the Tribune had been conducted. Surveying this combination of sanctum and counting-room, James Parton, in his life of Greeley, exclaimed: "Oh ! that every Greeley could find his McElrath and blessed is the McElrath that finds his Greeley!" (post, p. 162). Although the business manager did not share every enthusiasm of his partner's flaming pen, the steady course of the Tribune as a publishing concern insured a constant enlargement of its influence and prosperity. When muscular men of the "bloody sixth" ward, in resentment of plain language, swore to wreck the Tribune building, McElrath did his share to put the office in a state of defense. When he withdrew from the Tribune in 1857, to become corresponding secretary of the American Institute, the paper had risen to a position of social and political leadership.

McElrath had numerous official trusts. He was a master of chancery for New York City in 1840; state director of the Bank of America in 1841; New York alderman in 1845-46; appraiser-general of the New York district in 1861, by appointment of President Lincoln; custom-house officer in 1866; United States commissioner to the Paris Exposition in 1867; commissioner to the Vienna Exposition in 1873 and superintendent of American exhibitions; general executive officer of the New York state commission at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876; and commissioner of the World's Fair in New York in 1884. In 1864 he had resumed the post of publisher of the Tribune and was associated with Greeley in the publication of works issued by the firm. He himself was the author of a standard work of reference, A Dictionary of Words and Phrases Used in Commerce (1871).

[James Parton, The Life of Horace Greeley (1889); Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the U. S. from 1690 to 1872 (1873): J. C. Derby, Fifty Years Among Authors, Books, and Publishers (1864); New York Tribune, June 7, 1888.)

R. E. D.


MCFARLAND, Armor, Coshocton County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36.


MCFARLAND, Samuel, Washington, Pennsylvania, American Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1855-59.


MACFARLAND, William, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Secretary, 1834-1835. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)


MCGILL, George R., acting agent for the Maryland State Colonization Society and the American Colonization Society in the colony in Africa. 

(Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 52, 64, 73-74, 119, 169, 241)


MCGILL, Samuel Ford, Dr., Governor of the colony in Africa established by the Maryland State Colonization Society.  Succeeded John Brown Russwurm as Governor after he died in Africa. 

(Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 119-121, 157, 188, 165-166, 169, 170, 2017, 214, 224, 231-233)


MCGREGOR, Alexander, New York, abolitionist leader

(Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971)


MCHENRY, Jerry, fugitive slave.


MACK, Enoch, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Dover, New Hampshire, abolitionist.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Later, served as a Vice President, AASS, 1841-1844. 

(Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833)


MCKAYE, James, abolitionist, member American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission, U.S. War Department, 1863. 

(Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 165; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV)


MCKEE, C. B., Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-36.


MCKEEN, Silas, Reverend, clergyman.  Member and strong advocate of the American Colonization Society. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 132)


MCKENDREE, William, Sumner County, Virginia, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1836. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)


MCKENNEY, William, Reverend, clergyman.  Successful and effective agent of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  In 1824, set up local societies of the ACS in Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.  Set up societies in Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Lynchburg and Hampton. 

(Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 42-45, 56, 57, 65, 68, 95, 97, 100-103, 189; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 105-108, 114, 115)


MCKIM, Isaac, Baltimore, Maryland, wealthy shipper, merchant.  American Colonization Society Vice-President, 1817, 1833-39.  Member of the Annapolis auxiliary of the American Colonization Society. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 41, 70, 111)


MCKIM, James Miller, 1810-1874, reformer, abolitionist.  Founding member and anti-slavery agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Manager, AASS, 1843-1853.  Lectured on anti-slavery in Pennsylvania.  Publishing agent, Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Editor, Pennsylvania Freeman.

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 136; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 103; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 188, 393n26; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 202, 269, 273, 289, 303, 305, 342, 421n14; Yellin, Jean Fagan and John C. Van Horne (Eds). The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994, pp. 76, 161-162, 162n, 168, 287; Friend of Man, February 1, 1837; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 15, p. 115) 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 103-104:

MCKIM, JAMES MILLER (November 14, 1810- June 13, 1874), anti-slavery leader, born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was the grandson of James McKim who came in 1774 from the north of Ireland to Carlisle and there married Hannah Mcllvaine; he was the son of James McKim (1779-1831) and Catharine Miller (1783-1831), the latter of German descent. Graduating at Dickinson College at the age of eighteen (1828), he studied for a few weeks in 1831 at Princeton Theological Seminary and attended Andover Theological Seminary (1832-33). After ordination by the Wilmington Presbytery in October 1835, he was settled as the first pastor of the Presbyterian church at Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pennsylvania, virtually a home-missionary field rather than the foreign field to which he aspired. William Lloyd Garrison's attack on the American Colonization Society led McKim into the movement for the immediate emancipation of the slaves, and in 1833 he represented a Carlisle negro constituency in the Philadelphia convention at which the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. Being the youngest delegate, he attracted the attention of the leaders, among them Lucretia Mott. His "New School" theology had already closed orthodox Presbyterian doors; his talks against slavery in Carlisle and elsewhere, together with the permanent conversion of the entire membership of his church to the anti-slavery cause, brought him into antagonism with the prevailing public sentiment. Drawn into association and cooperation with James and Lucretia Mott, McKim resigned his charge and, in a letter explaining the growth of his religious convictions, withdrew from the ministry. He became one of the "seventy" gathered from all professions, whom the eloquence of Theodore D. Weld inspired to spread the gospel of emancipation. His stipend of eight dollars a week laid him open to the charge of being bought by "British gold."

In 1838-39 the name of James M. McKim appears on the rolls of the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. On October 1, 1840, he married Sarah Allibone Speakman (1813-1891), great-grand-daughter of Thomas Speakman, who came in 1712 from Reading, Berks, England, and settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania. She was a Quaker beauty who used her feminine attractions to further the anti-slavery cause. They had two children, Charles Follen [q.v.] and Lucy, who married Wendell Phillips Garrison; their adopted daughter, McKim's niece, became Garrison's second wife. The McKims found their service mainly in the protection of fugitive-slaves, and in systematic resistance to legalized slave-hunts and slave-captures. William Still wrote from fourteen years' companionship: "James Miller McKim, as one of the earliest, most faithful, and ablest abolitionists in Pennsylvania, occupied a position of influence, labor and usefulness, scarcely second to Mr. Garrison" (Underground Railroad, p. 655). At the time of his marriage McKim was publishing agent of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, in Philadelphia; he succeeded John Greenleaf Whittier as editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman; then as corresponding secretary he had a share in all the anti-slavery work both local and national. These duties were particularly arduous by reason of the fact that, to use his own expression, the Fugitive-slave Law had "turned Southeastern Pennsylvania into another Guinea Coast" (Still, p. 580).

In 1859 McKim and his wife accompanied Mrs. John Brown to Harpers Ferry to take leave of her husband and receive his body. In the winter of 1862 McKim started the Philadelphia Port Royal Relief Committee to provide for the wants of ten thousand slaves suddenly liberated, and the report on his visit to the Sea Islands of South Carolina was used in America and in Europe as the basis of operations (The Freed Men of South Carolina, 1862). He urged the enlistment of colored men as soldiers and had part in creating Camp William Penn, which added eleven regiments to the Union army. In 1863 he became corresponding secretary of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association, traveling through the South to establish schools and through the North to organize public sentiment. In 1865 he removed to New York as the corresponding secretary of the American Freedman's Union Commission, which he helped to organize with the aim of promoting education among the blacks. On his motion the Commission disbanded (July 1, 1869), its work having been accomplished. In 1865 he raised a portion of the capital required to found The Nation, with which -his son-in-law Wendell Phillips Garrison was so long connected, first as literary editor and finally as editor-in-charge. McKim established the family home at Llewellyn Park, Orange, New Jersey, where he died June 13, 1874.

[William Still, The Underground Railroad (1872); Charles Moore, The Life and Times of Charles Follen McKim (1929); W. L. Garrison, Jr., In Memoriam: Sarah A. McKim (1891), including genealogies; New York Tribune, June 15, 16, 1874.]

C. M.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 136:

McKIM, James Miller, reformer, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 14 November, 1810; died in West Orange, New Jersey, 13 June, 1874. He studied at Dickinson and Princeton colleges, and in 1835 was ordained pastor of a Presbyterian church at Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. A few years before this the perusal of a copy of Garrison's “Thoughts on Colonization” had made him an Abolitionist. He was a member of the convention that formed the American anti-slavery society, and in October, 1836, left the pulpit to accept a lecturing agency under its auspices. He delivered addresses throughout Pennsylvania, although often subjected to obloquy, and even danger from personal violence. In 1840 he removed to Philadelphia, and became the publishing agent of the Pennsylvania anti-slavery society. His office was subsequently changed to that of corresponding secretary, in which capacity he acted for a quarter of a century as general manager of the affairs of the society, taking an active part in national as well as local anti-slavery work. Mr. McKim's labors frequently brought him in contact with the operations of the “underground railroad,” and he was often connected with the slave cases that came before the courts, especially after the passage of the fugitive-slave law of 1850. In the winter of 1862, immediately after the capture of Port Royal, he was instrumental in calling a public meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia to consider and provide for the wants of the 10,000 slaves that had been suddenly liberated. One of the results of this meeting was the organization of the Philadelphia Port Royal relief committee. He afterward became an earnest advocate of the enlistment of colored troops, and as a member of the Union league aided in the establishment of Camp William Penn, and the recruiting of eleven regiments. In November, 1863, the Port Royal relief committee was enlarged into the Pennsylvania freedman's relief association, and Mr. McKim was made its corresponding secretary. In this capacity he travelled extensively, and labored diligently to establish schools at the south. He was connected from 1865 till 1869 with the American freedman's union commission, and used every effort to promote general and impartial education at the south. In July, 1869, the commission having accomplished all that seemed possible at the time, it decided unanimously, on Mr. McKim's motion, to disband. His health having meantime become greatly impaired, he soon afterward retired from public life. In 1865 he assisted in founding the New York “Nation.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 136.


MCKIM, Sarah J., abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Yellin, Jean Fagan and John C. Van Horne (Eds). The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994, pp. 73, 76)


MCLAIN, William, Reverend, clergyman.  Agent, officer and leader of the American Colonization Society. 

(Burin, Eric. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2005, pp. 77, 79, 97, 107, 113, 148-149; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 239-240)


MCLANCE, Louis, Smyrna, Delaware, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)


MACLEAN, John, 1771-1814, Princeton, New Jersey, professor, chemist.  Officer in New Jersey auxiliary of the American Colonization Society. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 143-144; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 127; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 85)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 143-144:

MACLEAN, John, educator, born in Glasgow, Scotland, 1 March, 1771; died in Princeton, New Jersey, 17 February, 1814. He studied chemistry and surgery at Edinburgh, London, and Paris, completed his medical course at Glasgow, and was admitted a member of the faculty of that city at the age of twenty-one. While in Paris he became an adherent of the new theories of chemistry that had been developed by Lavoisier. Embracing republican views, he determined to become an American citizen, and emigrated to the United States in April, 1795. He settled in Princeton, New Jersey, where he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry, and on 1 October, 1795, was appointed professor of chemistry and natural history in the college. In April, 1797, he was appointed professor of mathematics, and natural philosophy also. His chemical instructions embraced the practical applications of chemistry to agriculture and manufactures as well as theoretical science. In the second year of his instructions at Princeton he wrote two “Lectures on Combustion” in answer to a pamphlet by Dr. Joseph Priestley that upheld the phlogistic theory, and a controversy between Priestley and Maclean was carried on for some time in the columns of the New York “Medical Repository.” In 1812 Dr. Maclean accepted the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry at William and Mary college, but at the end of the college year was compelled by sickness to resign. His “Memoir” was written by his son John (printed privately, Princeton, 1885). His son, John, educator, born in Princeton, New Jersey, 3 March, 1800; died there, 10 August, 1886, was graduated at Princeton in 1816, taught for a year, entered the Princeton theological seminary in 1818, and was tutor of Greek in the college while attending theological lectures for two years. In 1822 he was appointed professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. In 1829 he exchanged this chair for that of ancient languages. In 1847 he was relieved of the charge of the Latin department. In 1854 he succeeded Dr. James Carnahan as president of the college, which office he resigned in 1868. He was given the degree of D. D. by Washington college, Pennsylvania, in 1841, and that of LL. D. by the University of the state of New York in 1854. The legislature of New Jersey, in establishing the common-school system of the state, followed the suggestions of a lecture on “A School System for New Jersey,” delivered by Dr. Maclean before the Literary and philosophical society of New Jersey in January, 1828, and afterward published and widely distributed in pamphlet-form (Princeton, 1829). In the discussion of the questions that divided the Presbyterian church into the old- and new-school branches he took an active part, publishing a series of letters in “The Presbyterian,” afterward issued in pamphlet-form, in defence of the action of the assembly of 1837. Notable among his many contributions to the “Princeton Review” were two articles in 1841 controverting the argument that unfermented grape-juice was used by Jesus Christ in instituting the sacrament of the supper, as affirmed in two prize essays that were widely circulated by the temperance societies of England and the United States. After retiring from the presidency he prepared a “History of the College of New Jersey” (Philadelphia, 1877).   Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


MCLEAN, John, 1785-1861, Morris County, New Jersey, jurist, attorney.  U.S. Supreme Court Justice, January 1830-.  Dissented against the majority of Justices on the Dred Scott case, stating that slavery was sanctioned only by local laws.  Free Soil and later Republican Party candidate for President of the U.S. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 144; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 127-128; Longacre, James B. & James Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans.  Philadelphia: American Academy of Fine Arts, 1834-1839)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 127-128:

McLEAN, JOHN (March 11, 1785-April 4, 1861), congressman, postmaster-general, jurist, was born in Morris County, New Jersey, the son of Fergus and Sophia (Blackford) McLean. His parents came to America from Ireland, the father being descended from the Scottish clan of McLean. A weaver by trade, he became a farmer, but having a large family and being limited in means, he soon decided to go West. In 1789 the family moved to Morgantown, Virginia, then to Jessamine, near Nicholasville, Kentucky, thence to Maysville, Kentucky, and finally, in 1799, settled on a farm near Lebanon, in what is now Warren County, Ohio. During these wanderings young McLean's education suffered. He attended school as opportunity offered and as the pressing needs of the family permitted. Determined to get further instruction, he worked for wages and at sixteen was able to hire private tutors. Two years later he went to Cincinnati, where he was formally indentured for two years to the clerk of the Hamilton County court. By working part of the day in the office he was able to support himself. Meanwhile, he read law with Arthur St. Clair, one of the best counselors in the West, and the son of General St. Clair. He also joined a debating club, in which he acquired facility of expression.

In 1807 he was admitted to the bar. The same year he married Rebecca Edwards and moved to Lebanon, where he founded the Western Star, a weekly newspaper. Commencing to practise in Lebanon, he soon won recognition by his industry and scrupulous care. In October 1812 he was elected as a War Democrat to Congress from the Cincinnati district, which then included Warren County. He was reelected in 1814 "by the unanimous vote of all the electors who took part in the election. Not only did no one vote against him, but also no one who voted for any office at the election, refrained from voting for him" (Force, post, 271-72). He vigorously sponsored the war with England and advocated bills to indemnify persons for property lost in the public service, to grant pensions to officers and soldiers, and to pay congressmen a salary of $1500 per annum instead of the per diem allowance. In 1815 he declined to be a candidate for the United States Senate. The following year he resigned his seat in Congress to become judge of the supreme court of Ohio, to which office he had been elected by the state legislature. He remained upon the bench until 1822, when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the land office. The next year he was made postmaster-general, and in the direction of this office he acquired a national reputation as an able administrator. Heretofore, this branch of the public service had been inefficient and disorganized. Under his management contractors were held to their agreements and incompetent and unfaithful officials were removed. He was reappointed by President John Q. Adams and, it is claimed, used his official position to work against the reelection of his superior (Bassett, post, II, 412, 413). McLean was not in sympathy with President Jackson's policy as to removals, and, after declining the portfolios of secretary of war and secretary of the navy, he was nominated by Jackson to be associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. His appointment was confirmed by the Senate on March 7, 1829. "It is a good and satisfactory appointment," wrote Joseph Story, "but was, in fact, produced by other causes than his fitness or our advantage. The truth is ... he told the new President, that he would not form a part of the new Cabinet, or remain in office, if he was compelled to make removals upon political grounds" (W. W. Story, post, I, 564). He was assigned to the seventh circuit, which then included the districts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio; later, the districts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. He took his seat in January 1830 and served until his death. On the bench he was dignified, courteous, painstaking, fearless, and able. Not until his health began to fail, two years before his death, was he absent a single day from his duties. He was not a great judge but his decisions on the circuit were seldom reversed and he was not often in the minority in the Supreme Court. In the celebrated Dred Scott case he dissented from the majority of the court and rendered an opinion of his own, which defined his position upon the slavery question (19 Howard, 558, 559). He held that slavery had its origin merely in force and was contrary to right, being sustained only by local law.

During his term on the bench he was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the presidency. He maintained that a judge was under no obligation to refrain from the discussion of political affairs and steadfastly defended the propriety of his candidacy. He declined the nomination in the Anti-Masonic Convention of 1831, and was proposed as a candidate by the Ohio legislature in 1836. His name was considered by the convention of "Free Democracy" in 1848 and was before the whig Convention in 1852. In the Republican Convention of 1856 he received 196 votes, and, although seventy-five years of age, he still hoped for the nomination in the Republican Convention of 1860.

His first wife, by whom he had four daughters and three sons, died in December 1840, and three years later he married Sarah Bella Garrard, widow of Colonel Jephtha D. Garrard and the youngest daughter of Israel Ludlow.

[M. F. Force, in Memorial Biographies of the New-England Historical Genealogical Society, volume IV (1885); Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in U.S. History (1922); W.W. Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story (1851); J. S. Bassett, Andrew Jackson (1911); B. P. Poor, Perley's Reminiscences (1886); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); 66 U. S. Reports (1 Black), 8-13; F. H. Hodder, "Some Phases of the Dred Scott Case," in Mississippi Valley History Review, June 1929; Cincinnati Commercial, April 5, 1861; Cincinnati Gazette, April 5, 1861.]

R.C.M.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

McLEAN, John, jurist, born in Morris County, New Jersey, 11 March, 1785; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 April, 1861. In 1789 his father, a poor man with a large family, moved to the west and settled, first at Morgantown, Virginia, subsequently at Nicholasville, Kentucky, and finally, in 1799, on a farm in Warren County, Ohio. Young McLean worked on the farm that his father had cleared till he was sixteen years old, then received private instruction in the classics for two years, and at the age of eighteen went to Cincinnati to study law, and, while acquiring his profession, supported himself by writing in the office of the clerk of the county. In the autumn of 1807 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Lebanon. In October, 1812. he was elected to Congress from his district, which then included Cincinnati, by the Democratic Party, defeating two competitors in an exciting contest, and was re-elected by the unanimous vote of the district in 1814. He supported the Madison administration, originated the law to indemnify individuals for the loss of property in the public service, and introduced an inquiry as to pensioning the widows of fallen officers and soldiers. He declined a nomination to the U. S. Senate in 1815. and in 1816 was elected judge of the supreme court of the state, which office he held till 1822, when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the general land-office. In July, 1823, he was appointed Postmaster-General, and by his energetic administration introduced order, efficiency, and economy into that department. The salary of the office was raised from $4,000 to $6,000 by an almost unanimous vote of both houses of Congress during his administration. He was continued in the office by President John Q. Adams, and was asked to remain by General Jackson in 1829, but declined, because he differed with the president on the question of official appointments and removals. President Jackson then tendered him in succession the War and the Navy Departments, and, on his declining both, appointed him an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. He entered upon his duties in January, 1830. His charges to grand juries while on circuit were distinguished for ability and eloquence. In December, 1838, he delivered a charge in regard to aiding or favoring "unlawful military combinations by our citizens against any foreign government with whom we are at peace," with special reference to the Canadian insurrection and its American abettors. The most celebrated of his opinions was that in the Dred Scott Case, dissenting from the decision of the court as given by Chief-Justice Taney, and enunciating the doctrine that slavery was contrary to right and had its origin in power, and that in this country it was sustained only by local law. He was long identified with the party that opposed the extension of slavery, and his name was before the Free-soil Convention at Buffalo in 1848 as a candidate for nomination as president. In the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia in 1856 he received 196 votes for the same office to 359 for John C. Fremont. In the Republican Convention at Chicago in 1860 he also received several votes. He published " Reports of the United States Circuit Court" (6 volumes, 1829-'55); a " Eulogy on James Monroe" (1831); and several addresses. John's son. Nathaniel Collins, soldier, born in Warren County, Ohio, 2 February, 1815. was graduated at Augusta College. Kentucky, in 1832, studied for a year or two longer at Harvard, and took his degree at the law-school there in 1838. He married a daughter of Judge Jacob Burnet the same year, and began practice in Cincinnati, where he attained success at the bar. He entered the National Army on 11 January, 1862, as colonel of the 75th Ohio Volunteers, being commissioned brigadier-general on 29 November, 1862, and resigned on 20 April, 1865.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 144.

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

THE subject of this notice is one of those remarkable men, who, by the force of their own independent exertions, have risen from obscurity into great reputation, and into the highest offices in the nation. History has been said to be philosophy teaching by example; and this is more eminently true with regard to Biography, where every lineament of the character is marked with more distinctness, and is seen under a clearer light. 

JOHN McLEAN was born 11th March, 1785, in Morris County: New Jersey. When he was about four years of age his father removed to the western country. He remained a year at Morgantown in Virginia, and then removed to that part of the State which has since been erected into the State of Kentucky. He first settled on Jessamine, near where the town of Nicholasville is now situated; but in 1793 he removed to the neighborhood of Mayslick, where he continued to reside until the year 1797, when he emigrated to the then northwestern territory (now Ohio), and settled on the farm on which the son now lives. At an early age John was sent to school, and made unusual proficiency for one whose general opportunities were so limited.

The old gentleman being in narrow circumstances, and having a pretty large family, was unable to send John from home to be educated. He continued, therefore, to labor on the farm until he was about sixteen years of age, when his father consented to his placing himself successively under the instruction of the Reverend Matthew E. Wallace and of Mr. Stubbs, by whose assistance he made great advance in the study of the languages. During this period, his expenses, both for board and tuition, were defrayed by himself; for so limited were the circumstances of his father, that he generously refused any assistance from him.

When about eighteen years of age young Mclean went to write in the clerk's office of Hamilton County. This employment, at the same time that it would enable him to support himself, would also initiate him into the practical part of the law, the profession on which he had already fixed his ardent and aspiring mind. The arrangement was, that he should write in the office for three years, but reserving a certain portion of each day for study; and at the same time he was to prosecute the study of law under the direction of Arthur St. Clair, an eminent counsellor, and son of the illustrious General of that name. It is in this way that a mind animated by a genuine ambition, and firm and determined in its purposes, is frequently able to overcome the greatest difficulties, and to show with how much ease industry and virtue can triumph over all the disadvantages of obscurity and poverty.

During his continuance in the office, young McLean was indefatigable in the prosecution of his double duties. He also became a member of a debating society, the first which was formed in Cincinnati; and it is a fact entitled to notice, that most of the young men who contributed to its formation have since distinguished themselves in the public service of their country. Young Mclean took an active part in the discussions which were held in this society. The notice which his efforts attracted still further confirmed him in the determination which he had already taken not to aim at any ordinary mark, but to make the highest intellectual distinction the prize of his ambition.
In the Spring of 1807 Mr. Mclean was married to Miss Rebecca Edwards, daughter of Dr. Edwards, formerly of South Carolina; a lady who, to the most amiable manners, unites the utmost benevolence of character, and who has presided over the cares of a large family with the greatest judgment and discretion.

In the fall of the same year Mr. Mclean was admitted to the practice of the law, and settled at Lebanon. Here he immediately attracted notice, and soon rose into a lucrative practice at the bar. In October, 1812, he was elected to congress in the district in which he resided, by a very large majority over both his competitors. From his first entrance upon public life Mr. Mclean was identified with the democratic party. He was an ardent supporter of the war and of the administration of Mr. Madison; not that he was the blind and undistinguishing advocate of every measure which was proposed by his party; for he who will take the trouble to turn over the public journals of that period, will find that his votes were mainly given in reference to principle, and that the idea of supporting a dominant party, merely because it was dominant, did not influence his judgment, or withdraw him from the high path of duty which he had marked out for himself. He was well aware that the association of individuals into parties was sometimes absolutely necessary to the prosecution and accomplishment of any great public measure. This he supposed was sufficient to induce the members composing them, on any little difference with the majority, to sacrifice their own judgment to that of the greater number, and to distrust their own opinions when they were in contradiction to the general views of the party. But as party was thus to be regarded as itself only an instrument for the attainment of some great public good, the instrument should not be raised into greater importance than the end, nor any clear and undoubted principle of morality be violated for the sake of adhering to party. Mr. Mclean often voted against his political friends; and so highly were both his integrity and judgment estimated, that no one of the democratic party separated himself from him on that account, nor did this independent course in the smallest degree diminish the weight which he had acquired among his own constituents.

The first session which he attended was the extra session in the summer after the declaration of war. At this session, the tax bills were passed to sustain the war. The law which was passed to indemnify individuals for property lost in the public service was originated by Mr. Mclean, and very naturally contributed to add to the reputation with which he had set out in public life. At the ensuing session he introduced a resolution, instructing the proper committee to inquire into the expediency of giving pensions to the widows of the officers and soldiers who had fallen in the military service, which was afterwards sanctioned by law. At this session he also delivered a very able and effective speech in defence of the administration in the prosecution of the war. This was published in the leading journals of that day, and gave an earnest of the future eminence which our subject was destined to attain.

Mr. Mclean was a member of the committees of foreign relations and on the public lands.

In the fall of 1815 he was re-elected to Congress with the same unanimity as before. During the same year he was solicited to become a candidate for the senate, which he declined, inasmuch as the House seemed at that time to present the widest arena for the display of talents and for the acquisition of public fame. Mr. Mclean was at this period barely eligible to a seat in the senate, having just attained his thirtieth year.

Finding that the expenses of a family were greater than the compensation he received as a member of Congress, and having no other resources than were derived from his personal exertions, he consented to become a candidate for the bench of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and was elected to that office in 1816, unanimously. The duties of this station he discharged with great ability. His mind seemed to combine all the leading qualities which are requisite in a Judge, and his advancement to the office was felt to be a public advantage to the whole State. Meanwhile his reputation abroad was increasing in proportion; and in the summer of 1822 Mr. Monroe appointed him Commissioner of the General Land Office. The emoluments of this office were larger than the salary of Judge. This was a consideration which was entitled to great weight. Judge Mclean had a growing family, whom he was anxious to educate; and at the same time that he would now be better able to accomplish this darling object, the schools in the district would present a better opportunity for attaining the higher branches of education. He remained in this station, however, only until the first of July, 1823, when he was appointed Postmaster-General.

Many of his friends endeavored to dissuade him from accepting this office. They urged that the former incumbents had found its duties exceedingly arduous, while at the same time they were not exempted from a large share of that abuse and calumny which is so often wantonly and indiscriminately heaped upon the public servants. It was agreed by many that no one could acquire reputation in the office. But Judge McLean determined to repose upon the virtue and intelligence of the people, and he went into the office with the determination of devoting his days and nights to the discharge of its duties.

The finances of the department were in a low condition, and it did not possess the public confidence. But immediately order was restored, and the public confidence revived. And it soon became evident how easy it is to manage the most complicated business when the requisite ability and industry are put in requisition for the task. In a short time the finances of the department were in a most flourishing condition; despatch and regularity were given to the mails, and the commercial intercourse of the whole country was prosecuted with the utmost celerity and ease. Inefficient contractors were dismissed, and the same course was adopted with regard to the post-masters and other agents of the department. Judge Mclean controlled the entire action of the department. The whole correspondence was superintended and directed by him.  He gave his undivided and personal attention to every contract which was made or altered. All appointments, all charges against postmasters, were acted on by him. In short, there was nothing done, involving the efficiency or character of the department, which was not done under his immediate sanction.

When he accepted the office, the salary of the Postmaster-General was four thousand dollars. A proposition was made to increase it to six thousand, and was sanctioned by the House of Representatives, by an almost unanimous vote, in 1827. There were, indeed, very few votes against it; and some of the members who were opposed to it, regretted that they were compelled to pursue that course. In the senate, the bill passed also, almost unanimously. Mr. Randolph voted against it, and said the salary was for the officer and not for the office; and he proposed to vote for the bill if the law should be made to expire when Judge Mclean left the department.

During the whole period that the affairs of the department were administered by Judge McLean, he had, necessarily, a most difficult part to act. The country was divided into two great parties, animated by the most determined spirit of rivalry, and each bent upon advancing itself to the lead of public affairs. A question of great import was now started, whether it was proper to make political opinions the test of qualification for office. Such a principle had been occasionally acted upon during preceding periods of our history, but so rarely, as to constitute the exception rather than the rule. It had never become the settled and systematic course of conduct of any public officer. Doubtless every one is bound to concede something to the temper and opinions of the party to which he belongs, otherwise party would be an association without any connecting bond of alliance: but no man is permitted to infringe any one of the great rules of morality and justice for the sake of subserving the interests of his party. It cannot be too often repeated, nor too strongly impressed upon the public men of America, that nothing is easier than to reconcile these two apparently conflicting views. The meaning of party is that it is an association of men for the purpose of advancing the public interests. Men flung together, indiscriminately, without any common bond of alliance, would be able to achieve nothing great and valuable; while, united together, to lend each other mutual support and assistance, they are able to surmount the greatest obstacles, and to accomplish the most important ends. This is the true notion of party. It imports combined action, but does not imply any departure from the great principles of truth and morality. So long as the structure of the human mind is so different in different individuals, there will always be a wide scope for diversity of opinion as to public measures; but no foundation is yet laid in the human mind for any material difference of opinion as to what constitutes the great rule of justice.

The course which was pursued by Judge Mclean was marked by the greatest wisdom and moderation. Believing that every public officer held his office in trust for the people, he determined to be influenced by no other principle8, in the discharge of his public duties, than a faithful performance of the trust committed to him. No individual was removed from office by him on account of his political opinions. In making appointments, where the claims and qualifications of individuals were equal, and at the same time one was known to be friendly to the administration, he felt himself bound to appoint the one who was friendly. But when persons were recommended for office, it was not the practice to name, as a recommendation, that they were friendly to the administration. In all such cases the man who was believed to be the best qualified was selected by the department.

On the arrival of General Jackson at Washington, after his election, and when he was about selecting the members of his cabinet, Judge Mclean was sent for to ascertain whether he was willing to remain at Washington. General Jackson having stated the object he had in view in requesting an interview, the Judge remarked to him, before he submitted any proposition on the subject, that he was desirous to explain to him the line of conduct which he had hitherto pursued. He observed, that the General might have received the impression from some of the public prints that the Postmaster-General had wielded the patronage of his office for the purpose of advancing 'the General's election to the Presidency: that he wished it distinctly to be understood that he had done no such thing, and that if he had pursued such a course, he would deem himself unworthy of the confidence of the President elect, or of any honorable man. The General replied with warm expressions of regard and confidence, that he approved of his course, and wished him to remain in the post-office department. He at the same time expressed regret that circumstances did not enable him to offer the Judge the Treasury department. The War and the Navy departments were subsequently tendered to him, but he declined them both. Afterwards General Jackson sent for him, expressed great regret at his leaving Washington, and made unbounded professions of friendship if he would consent to remain. But the Judge's resolution had been taken, and he was determined to adhere to it. The spirit of party had become unusually bitter and acrimonious, and threatened to overleap all the fences with which it had been hitherto confined. He believed that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for him to pursue the even and measured course which he had hitherto followed with so much credit to himself and advantage to the nation. Retirement from political life seemed, under such circumstances, most desirable. The President, however, wishing to avail himself of abilities which had been exerted so long in behalf of the public welfare offered him the place of Judge of the Supreme Court, the highest judicial station in the country; and on his signifying that he would accept, he was immediately nominated, and the nomination ratified by the senate.

Soon after this appointment many of the public journals in the northern, middle, and western states introduced his name to the public as a candidate for the presidency at the succeeding election. Many of the opposition papers adhered to Mr. Clay, and the name of Mr. Calhoun was brought out in some parts of the South. The Anti-Masonic party showed a strong disposition to rally upon Judge McLean, and it was clear that that party could not elect, unless the other elements pf opposition should unite with them.

The Anti-Masons met in convention in the fall of the year 1831, and Judge Mclean addressed a letter to the members of the convention, declining a nomination. In this letter he declared, that " If by a multiplicity of candidates, an election by the people should be prevented, he should consider it a national misfortune. In the present agitated state of the public mind, an individual who should be elected to the chief magistracy by less than a majority of the votes of the people, could scarcely hope to conduct successfully the business of the nation. He should possess in advance the public confidence, and a majority of the suffrages of the people is the only satisfactory evidence of that confidence."

Shortly after the re-election of General Jackson, his name was again brought forward, in the first instance by a nomination of the people in Baltimore, which was followed by similar nominations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and several other States. A majority of the members of the Ohio legislature also nominated him for the same place. At length, in August, 1835, he addressed a letter to the chairman of one of the principal committees, in which he expressed the same sentiments he had declared on the preceding occasion. He was aware that this course would discourage his friends, but he was not desirous to attain the office, except on such terms as would enable him to carry out those principles which would elevate and tranquillize the political action of the country.

Judge Mclean has been a member of the Supreme Court for more than seven years, during the whole of which he has been eminently distinguished for his learning, ability, and eloquence. If there is any one field of jurisprudence in which he is more distinguished than another, it may be said to be constitutional law1 in which, though there is less opportunity for the display of mere learning, there is at any rate wider scope for the exercise of the power of reasoning and investigation. There is no human reputation more enviable than that which is acquired in this office. Independently of the permanent tenure of the station, the opportunities are so frequent for the exertion of the highest intellectual ability, that it would seem to offer greater temptations to ambition than even the office of chief magistrate.

Judge Mclean is still in the vigor of life, and unless withdrawn from this high station by the solicitations of his countrymen, may continue for many years to discharge its duties with the same ability and wisdom which have uniformly distinguished him.

Source: Longacre, James B. & James Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans.  Philadelphia: American Academy of Fine Arts, 1834-1839


MCLEOD, Alexander, 1774-1833, New York, anti-slavery activist, clergyman.  Presbyterian minister. Wrote, “Negro Slavery Unjustifiable, A Discourse by Alexander McLeod,” A.M., Pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation in the City of New York New York, 1802.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 145; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 131-132; Baird, “Collection of Acts,” p. 818; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 80, 87, 348; 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, pp. 45, 90; Mason, 2006, pp. 14, 133, 231, 261-262n12). 

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 131-132:

McLEOD, ALEXANDER (June 12, 1774- February 17, 1833), Reformed Presbyterian clergyman, author, and editor, was the son of Reverend Neil McLeod, pastor of two Scottish Established Church parishes on Mull island of the Hebrides, on which isle Alexander was born. Dr. Samuel Johnson refers to the "elegance of conversation, and strength of judgment" of the elder McLeod, by whom the lexicographer was entertained when he visited Mull (A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775, p. 357). The father having died when Alexander was five years old, care of the boy fell to the mother, Margaret McLeod, daughter of Reverend Archibald McLean, McLeod's predecessor in the parishes. Before he was seven Alexander had mastered his Latin Grammar and had determined to enter the ministry. His mother died when he was about fifteen.

In 1792 he emigrated to the United States and for a time taught Greek at Schenectady, New York. He entered Union College in 1796, and was graduated with high honor two years later. During his first year in the United States, through the influence of Reverend James McKinney, who had arrived from Ireland in 1793, McLeod had united with the Reformed Presbyterian Church. After theological studies under McKinney, he was licensed to preach in 1799. The following year he was called to be pastor at Coldenham, near Newburgh, New York, and also of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church, New York City. When he objected to the Coldenham call because among its signers were several slave-owners, the presbytery formally forbade communicant membership to slave-holders. A revised call was accepted, but the New York parish grew so rapidly that the young man soon gave all his time to it, and he remained connected with it until his death. Within a few years he was recognized as a leader in his denomination, and as. one of America's foremost pulpit orators.

McLeod entered the controversy with the Episcopal Church regarding validity of presbyterial ordination of ministers when, in 1806, he published his Ecclesiastical Catechism. In 1814 his Lectures upon the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation appeared; and in 1816, The Life and Power of True Godliness, which like his Catechism was well received in both America and Great Britain. Among his other publications was a sermon in opposition to slavery, Negro Slavery Unjustifiable (1802), which pointed toward his active aid, some years afterwards, in organizing the American Colonization Society. His Scriptural View of the Character, Causes and Ends of the Present War (1815) accorded with his vigorous defense of the government's war policy. When his synod founded the Christian Expositor, a monthly, McLeod became its editor, continuing as such nearly two years. He frequently contributed to the Christian Magazine, edited by John M. Mason and John B. Romeyn. He was a member of the New York City Historical Society, and helped organize the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews and also the New York Society for Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. Having been in poor health for a long time, he died of heart disease in his fifty-ninth year.

McLeod was a fearless defender of human liberty, whether individual, civic, or religious. Naturally impetuous, lie disciplined himself to restraint and was dignified and urbane in manner. In the pulpit, however, he ordinarily followed his calm and reasoned exposition with an application the eloquence of which was vehement, impassioned, and unconfined. One of his distinguished contemporaries characterized his preaching as that of "a mountain torrent, full of foam, but sending off pure water into a thousand pools." In 1805 he married Maria Anne, daughter of John Agnew.

[W. B. Sprague, Annals American Pulpit, volume IX (1869); S. N. Rowan, Tribute to the Memory of Alexander McLeod, D. D. (1833); R. E. Thompson, A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the U.S. (1895); S. B. Wylie, Memoir of Alexander McLeod, D. D. (1855); New York Standard, February 19, 1833.]

P. P. F.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 145:

McLEOD, Alexander, clergyman, born in the island of Mull, Scotland, 12 June, 1774; died in New York city, 17 February, 1833. His father, Reverend Niel McLeod, was the entertainer of Dr. Samuel Johnson on the latter's visit to Mull. The son came to this country while yet young, was graduated at Union college in 1798, licensed to preach in the following year, and ordained over two churches—one in New York and one in Wallkill, New York. The latter charge he soon resigned; but he retained the former, the first Reformed Presbyterian church of New York, until his death. McLeod was long well known among the clergy of New York city, and was eminent both as a writer and as a preacher. He was for some time one of the editors of the “Christian Magazine.” Among his published works are “Negro Slavery Unjustifiable” (New York, 1802); “The Messiah” (1803); “Ecclesiastical Catechism” (1807); “On the Ministry” (1808); “Lectures on the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation” (1814); “View of the Late War” (1815); “The Life and Power of True Godliness” (1816); and “The American Christian Expositor” (2 vols., 1832-'3). A memoir of McLeod was published by Samuel B. Wylie, D. D. (New York, 1855).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 145.


MCMICHAEL, Morton (October 20, 1807- January 6;-1879), editor, mayor of Philadelphia, supporter of the Republican Party.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 142-142:

MCMICHAEL, MORTON (October 20, 1807- January 6;- 1879), editor, mayor of Philadelphia, was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, and educated in the local schools. His family had come to America from the north of Ireland; his father, John McMichael (1777-1846), was employed on the estate of Joseph Bonaparte; his mother was Hannah Maria Masters. Upon the removal of his parents to Philadelphia, McMichael continued his education there. The statement sometimes made that he attended the University of Pennsylvania is apparently an error. He read law with David Paul Brown and was admitted to the bar in 1827. He was already active in journalism, having become editor of the Saturday Evening Post the previous year. In 1831 he resigned this position to become editor-in-chief of the newly established Saturday Courier. The same year he married Mary, daughter of Daniel Estell of Philadelphia, by whom he had eight children. About this time he began his political career as a police magistrate, displaying early his power of leadership by dispersing a mob in the slavery riot of 1837 and preventing the burning of a negro orphanage. For a number of years he was an alderman and in 1836 was active on the commission for school reform in the city.

The division of his activities between politics and journalism continued throughout his life. He entered upon his career as a newspaper publisher in 1836, when with Louis A. Godey and Joseph C. Neal [qq.v.] he started the Saturday News and Literary Gazette. Eight years later he associated himself with Neal in editing Neals Saturday Gazette. From 1842 to 1846 he was one of the editors of Godey's Lady's Book. In 1847 he became joint owner, with George R. Graham [q.v.], of the Philadelphia North American, which in July of the same year absorbed the United States Gazette. Robert Montgomery Bird [q.v.] joined the enterprise at this time. After the withdrawal of Graham in 1848 and the death of Bird in 1854, McMichael became sole owner. He retained his interest in the paper until his death and by a vigorous and progressive editorial policy succeeded in making it the leading Whig journal of the country. During these early years his activity in publishing brought him into intimate association with Leland, Boker, Poe, Richard Penn Smith, and other well-known literary men then in the city. He contributed to the magazines and other occasional publications, and one of his poems was highly praised by Poe in Graham's Magazine (December 1841).

From 1843 to 1846 he was sheriff of Philadelphia, again displaying unusual vigor and courage in ending the anti-Catholic or "Native American" riots of 1844. Always active in the cause of civic betterment, he lent his support and that of his paper to the hotly contested movement for the consolidation of various independent districts of Philadelphia under one government, and was in no small measure responsible for the ultimate passage of the Consolidation Act of 1854. As early as 1858 he was mentioned as a possible candidate for mayor and eight years later was elected to that office, filling it from 1866 to 1869. During the Civil War, in which two of his sons served with distinction, he was one of the founders of the Union League, and later became its fourth president (1870-74). When the Fairmount Park Commission was formed in 1867 he was made president and was reelected repeatedly until his death. He declined the appointment as minister to Great Britain tendered him by President Grant, on the ground that he could not afford to support the office with the proper dignity. In 1872 he was temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention which renominated Grant for president, and at this time was considered for the vice-presidency. He was a delegate at large to the fourth constitutional convention of Pennsylvania in 1873. After a trip to Europe (1874) he was appointed, in 1875, to the board of managers of the Centennial Exposition: In 1876 he declined, on account of ill health, the chairmanship of the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati. In 1877 he was awarded the degree of LL.D. by the University of Pennsylvania.

Although the only public offices McMichael ever held were in Philadelphia, his influence was wide. By concerning himself with issues and refusing to tolerate personal abuse, he did much to improve the tone of the newspaper press. He was a brilliant speaker and hardly a function in Philadelphia passed without finding him its presiding officer or the orator of the occasion. He died in Philadelphia, and was buried in North Laurel Hill Cemetery.

[North American, January 7, 8, and Public Ledger (Philadelphia), January 7, 9, 1879; J. T. Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia (1884); In re Morton McMichael (privately printed, 1921), ed. by Albert Mordell; J. W. Forney, Memorial Address upon the Character and Public Services of Morton McMichael (1879) and Anecdotes of Public Men, volume II (1881); F. L. Mott, A History of American Magazines (1930); Paulson's American Daily Advertiser, April 28, 1831.]

A. C. B.


MACOMB, Alexander, Washington, DC, General in Chief, United States Army, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841.

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 155; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 155; Longacre, James B. & James Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans.  Philadelphia: American Academy of Fine Arts, 1834-1839)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 155:

MACOMB, ALEXANDER (April 3, 1782- June 25, 1841), soldier, was born at Detroit. His paternal grandfather, John Macomb, had come to New York from Ireland as early as 1742; his father, Alexander Macomb, had built up a prosperous trading business at Detroit, which he did not relinquish until after the close of the Revolution. He then returned to New York, with his wife, Catharine Navarre, daughter of Robert de Navarre, a former French official at Detroit, and with their son, Alexander Macomb the younger. The boy was placed in school at an academy in Newark, New Jersey, where he received "the rudiments of a classical, mathematical, and French education." At the age of sixteen he was enrolled in a New York City main army at Plattsburg was ordered to Sacketts Harbor in August 1814, Macomb was left with about fifteen hundred regulars fit for duty, and such volunteers as could be mustered in the neighboring country, to confront an invading force of some fifteen thousand British veterans under Governor Sir George Prevost (H. Adams, History of the United States, VIII, 1891, pp. 100-11). His position at Plattsburg had been strongly fortified under Izard's direction, and Macomb worked energetically to make it stronger and to give the British an exaggerated idea of his resources. His defense against the attack of September 11 was skilfully conducted, but the precipitate retreat of the British was probably due rather to the destruction of their fleet by Macdonough and the resulting danger to their communications than to the prowess of the small American army. Nevertheless, Macomb and his troops were signally honored by Congress and by the state and city of New York, and Macomb was given the brevet rank of major-general. After the close of the war Macomb was a member of a board which worked out the plan on which the army was reorganized. He was stationed for a short time in New York in command of the third military district and was then shifted to the fifth district with headquarters at Detroit. In 1821 he went to Washington as  head of the Corps of Engineers. On the death of General Jacob Brown in 1828, Macomb was designated to succeed him as senior major-general and commanding general of the United States army-a position which he filled until his death at Washington, June 25, 1841.

Among Macomb's official papers was a "Memoir on the Organization of the Army of the United States" (1826), in which he urged a plan for bringing the militia under more centralized control and better discipline (American. State Papers, Military Affairs, III, 1860, pp. 458-65). In a letter of January 27, 1829, replying to an inquiry of Secretary of War Peter B. Porter, he recommended the abolition of the whiskey ration in the army and should share in the credit for the general order issued the next year discontinuing that ancient practice (Ibid., IV, 1860, p. 84; Subject Index of the General Orders of the War Department, from January 1, 1809, to December 31, 1860, 1886, p. 180). His ability seems to have been primarily of the organizing, systematizing kind, which the army of his day greatly needed. Macomb was married, July 23; 1803, to his cousin, Catharine Macomb, of Belleville, New Jersey, who became the mother of a large family. After her death he was married in 1826 to Harriet (Balch) Wilson, a widow. His second wife took a lively part in the " Eaton war" in the first administration of Andrew Jackson-"more to his [Macomb's] amusement than annoyance," says Van Buren, " for he took such things lightly." Macomb was the author of A Treatise on Martial Law and Courts-Martial (1809) and The Practice of Courts Martial (1840), and edited Samuel Cooper's Tactics and Regulations for the Militia (1836).

[In addition to works cited above see Memoir of Alexander Macomb, the Major General Commanding the Army of the U. S., by Geo. H. Richards, Esq., Captain of Macomb's Artillery in the Late War (1833), and the Daily National Intelligencer, June 28, 1841.]
J.W.P-t.

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

ALEXANDER MACOMB.

" For what of thrilling sympathy,
Did e'er in human bosom vie,
With that which stirs the soldier's breast,
When, high in god-like worth confest,
Some noble leader gives command,
To combat for his native land?
No; friendship's freely flowing tide,
The soul expanding; filial pride,
That hears with craving, fond desire,
The bearings of a gallant sire;
The yearnings of domestic bliss,
E 'en love itself, will yield to this '

JOANNA BAILLIE,

MAJOR GENERAL ALEXANDER MACOMB, now at the head of the army of the United ... States, is one of those men whom his country delights to honor; for he has served faithfully, and risen gradually in the army, and of course, is thoroughly acquainted with his duties. He, perhaps, more than any other man in our army, may be considered as having been a' soldier from the cradle. He was born at Detroit, April 3d, 1782. The city of Detroit, at that time, was a garrison town, and among the first images that struck his eyes were those of the circumstances of war. These early impressions often fix the character of the man.

The father of the subject of this sketch was a fur merchant, respectably descended and connected. He removed to the city of New York while Alexander was yet an infant. When he was eight years of age, he placed him at school at Newark, in New Jersey, under the charge of the Reverend Doctor Ogden, who was a man of mind, be-. longing to a family distinguished for talents. This was a time of high excitement, the French revolution was raging with great fury, and our countrymen took sides. In every enlightened nation, boys are among the first to take impressions, and these are often lasting. It is not a little singular that the present major general of the army of the United States, and the present secretary of war, Governor Cass, were, during the French revolution, officers of Lilliputian bands at the seminaries in which they were educated: the one at Newark in New Jersey, and the other at Exeter academy in New Hampshire. It is not only that military fire is kindled in the hearts of youth, at such an age, but in such associations they learn much of that part of the art of war which depends upon ardor, quickness, and imitative power, rather than upon deep reasoning. Being acquainted with all possible forms in which men can be placed, and the time required for each movement; the officer in battle having all this elementary and practical knowledge at once in his mind, can compare, combine, and decide without hesitation. The deep interest boys take in these military exercises is beautifully described in an unpublished poem, found among the remains of that elegant classical scholar and poet, the late Nathaniel H. Carter, Esq., who was a member of the military corps at Exeter about eight or ten years after the present secretary of war had left the institution.

"And now the labors of the studious day,
Conclude, and give the evening hours to play,
At beat of drum with sword and armor sheen,
The mimic train-band form upon the green.
With snowy frock and trowsers fringed with red,
And blood-tipt feather nodding on his head,
The youthful soldier struts, and slaps with pride,
The jetty box, suspended at his side;
While o'er him waves the motto'd flag of stars,
Which join in friendship MERCURY and MARS.
Meantime the captain, of his station proud,
Unsheaths his sword, and gives the word aloud;
Along the line with gait majestic walks,
And much of discipline, and order talks;
Observes the rogue, and sternly reprimands,
Who turns his head, or disobeys commands;
Then calls subalterns to the grave debate,
And tells of tactics, us'd in ev'ry state,
Explains what code the English corps adopts,
And which the mighty power of Gallia props.
Proud was this Chief of Boys, and happier fur,
Than Europe's scourge, and thunder-bolt of war,
Who terror struck to prostrate prince and throne,
In every clime from Wolga to the Rhone,
Reign'd haughtiest monarch of the world a while,
Then sunk the tenant of a little isle."

In 1798, while Macomb was quite a youth, he was elected into a select company, which was called "The New York Rangers." The name was taken from that Spartan band of rangers, selected from the provincials, who from 1755 to 1763, were the elite of every British commander on lake George, and the borders of Canada. At the time he entered the corps of New York Rangers, congress had passed a law receiving volunteers for the defence of the country, as invasion by a French army was soon expected. This patriotic band volunteered their services to government, which were accepted, but he soon left this corps, and obtained a cornetcy at the close of the year 1798, and was commissioned in January, 1799. General North, then adjutant general of the northern army, soon saw the merits of the youthful soldier, and took him into his staff, as deputy adjutant general. Under such a master as the intelligent and accomplished North, Macomb made great progress in his profession, and in the affections of his brother officers of the army. The young officer that Hamilton noticed, and North instructed, would not fail to be ambitious of distinction. He visited Montreal, in order to observe the discipline and tactics of the veteran corps kept at that important military post, and did not neglect his opportunities.

The thick and dark cloud that hung over the country, passed away,-a great part of the troops were disbanded, and most of the officers and men returned to private life; a few only were retained; among them was Macomb, who was commissioned as a second lieutenant of dragoons, and sent forthwith on the recruiting service, but, it was not then necessary to push the business, and as he was stationed in Philadelphia, he had fine opportunities to associate with the best informed men of the city, and found easy access to the Franklin and other extensive libraries, of which advantages he did not fail to improve.

When his body of recruits was formed, he marched with it to the western frontiers to join General Wilkinson, an officer who had been left in service from the revolutionary war. In the company of Wilkinson (a man of talents and fascinating manners, notwithstanding his vanity,) and of Colonel Williams, the engineer, he must have gathered a mass of materials for future use. With him he went into the Cherokee country to aid in making a treaty with that nation. He was on this mission nearly a year, and kept a journal of everything he saw or heard. This was a good school for one whose duty it might hereafter be to fight these very aborigines, and, in fact, these lessons of the wilderness are not lost on any one of mind and observation. The corps to which he belonged was disbanded, and a corps of engineers formed; to this he was attached as first lieutenant. He was now sent to West Point, where he was by the code there established, a pupil as well as an officer. Being examined and declared competent, he was appointed an adjutant of the corps at that post, and discharged his duty with so much spirit and intelligence, that when the first court-martial, after his examination, was convened, he was appointed judge advocate. This court was ordered for the trial of a distinguished officer for disobeying an arbitrary order for cutting off the hair. Peter the Great could not carry such an order into execution, but our republican country did; and the veteran, Colonel Butler, was reprimanded for not throwing his white locks to the wind, when ordered so to do by his superior. The talents and arguments exhibited by Macomb, as judge advocate on this court-martial, brought him into very great notice as a man' of exalted intellect, as well as a fine soldier. He was now called upon to compile a treatise upon martial law, and the practice of courts-martial, which in a future day of leisure he effected, and his' book is now the standard work upon courts-martial, for the army of the United States.

In 1808, Macomb was promoted to the rank of captain in the corps of engineers, and sent to the sea-board to superintend the fortifications which had been ordered by an act of congress. By this service he became known to the first men in the country, and his merits were duly appreciated from New Hampshire to the Floridas. In 1808, he was promoted to the rank of major, and acted as superintendent of fortifications, until just before the war, when he was advanced to a lieutenant colonelcy. He was again detailed to act as judge advocate on a court-martial for the trial of General Wilkinson, who had called the court on Colonel Butler. He added to his reputation in this case. Wilkinson was his friend, but Macomb discharged his duty with military exactness.

At the breaking out of the war of 1812, he left the seat of government, where he had discharged an arduous duty, in assisting to give form and regularity to the army, then just raised by order of congress. All sorts of confusion had prevailed, from the want of a uniform system of military tactics: he was fortunate in his exertions. when there was honorable war, he could not be satisfied to remain, as it were, a cabinet officer, and wear a sword only to advise what should be done, which seemed to be the regulations of the army in respect to engineers; he therefore solicited a command in the corps of artillery that was to be raised, and was gratified by a. commission as colonel of the third regiment, dated July 6, 1812. The regiment was to consist of twenty companies of one hundred and eighteen each. It was, in fact, the command of a division, except in rank. 

His reputation assisted in raising this body of men, and in November of that year he marched to the frontiers with his command. Macomb and his troops spent the winter at Sackett's harbor. He contemplated an attack upon Kingston, but was defeated in his plan by the fears of some, and the jealousies of others; but he soon distinguished himself at Niagara and fort George: at the same time Commodore Chauncey was endeavoring to bring the enemy’s fleet to battle on Lake Ontario. The next service performed by Colonel Macomb was under General Wilkinson, and if the campaign was not successful, Macomb was not chargeable with any portion of the failure.

In January, 1814, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general; and was appointed to a command on the east side of Lake Champlain. Nothing of importance in the history of General Macomb transpired, although he was constantly on the alert in the discharge of his duties, until the coronal of his fame was won at the defence of Plattsburgh. This defence our limits will not permit us to describe with any minuteness, but suffice it to say, that. in the summer of 1814, Sir George Prevost, governor general of the Canadas, had received a great augmentation of his regular forces, by detachments from the army which had fought in Spain and Portugal, under the Duke of Wellington. These were among the best troops in the world, and he now determined to strike a blow upon our frontiers that should be decisive of the war, and bring our nation to terms at once.  His fleet, on Lake Champlain, was considered superior to that of ours, and he was well informed that we had not there any army of consequence.  Early in September he pushed on towards Plattsburgh, and met, for several days, with little opposition. His error was delay; but he wished to move safely, and saw nothing to prevent his progress. Previous to the 11th, there had been some smart skirmishing, in which the British, found more courage and efficiency than they expected, from troops so hastily called out. Early on the 11th, the British gave battle by land and water-fifteen hundred of the regular army, and uncertain bodies of militia, made up Macomb's army. The enemy was fourteen thousand strong. The battle was a decisive victory on the part of the American forces; Macdonough captured the British fleet, and Sir George returned to Canada the next night. The victory was as brilliant as unexpected. Honors were voted Macomb in every part of the country. New York and Vermont were foremost in their tributes of respect. The president promoted him to the rank of major general, dating his commission on the day of his victory. The event had a happy effect on the negotiations then going on at Ghent, and unquestionably paved the way for a treaty of peace. Whoever wishes to see a detail of this battle should turn to the pages of an excellent memoir of the general from the pen of " George H. Richards, Esq., a captain in Macomb's artillery, in the late war;" but. who has since left the. service. This work comes warm from the bosom of friendship, but contains much beauty and accuracy of detail. We have read, we believe, all that has been written of the general; but acknowledge ourselves indebted to that memoir for many of the incidents in this life of General Macomb.

After the close of the war he commanded at Detroit, his birthplace. He was received at this military post with distinguished honors; many remembered his person, and all had kept his reputation in view as reflecting honor upon the territory in which he was born. He continued at that post attentive to his duty, and devising liberal things for the people of that region, without confining his exertions to any particular portion of territory; until in 1821 he was called to Washington to take the office of chief of the engineer department. On the receipt of this information, he was addressed by all classes of the people of Detroit, in the most exalted language of friendship and regard. On repairing to Washington, he assumed the duties of the bureau he was called to, and discharged them to the satisfaction of the government, and the army. On the death of General Brown, commander-in-chief of the army, General Macomb was nominated to that station. This nomination was confirmed by the senate, and although there were some difficulties in the way, about relative rank, General Macomb was supported in his office not only by the president and the senate, but by the almost entire voice of the people. All matters, which at one time threatened discord and confusion, were happily surmounted, and harmony restored. He has remembered the advantages he received at West Point, and has constantly been the friend of that institution ever since. May he long live to be one of its guardians. Great commanders may arise in the exigencies of a nation, from the bosom of private life; but the regular hopes of the people for military men, must be founded on the provision made to educate youth in the art and science of war; and we must be prepared or war until the time arrives when the sword shall be beaten into a plough-share, and the spear into a pruning hook.

Source: Longacre, James B. & James Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans.  Philadelphia: American Academy of Fine Arts, 1834-1839


MCPHAIL, John, Norfolk, Virginia.  American Colonization Society representative in Norfolk.  Chartered ships for the Society, arranged for supplies, and aided colonists in Norfolk. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 109-110, 115, 159, 179, 180)



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.