H: Hale through Hurlbut

See below for annotated biographies of anti-slavery Whigs. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

HALE, Nathan (August 16, 1784-February 8, 1863), journalist. His newspaper Advertiser was first Federalist, then Whig, and finally Republican, that it opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, and that Hale supported those parties in their successive incarnations and opposed all measures seeking to extend slavery or to establish it more firmly.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 109-110:

HALE, NATHAN (August 16, 1784-February 8, 1863), journalist, born in Westhampton, Massachusetts, was of English ancestry, a descendant of Robert Hale who settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1632, and the son of Reverend Enoch and Octavia (Throop) Hale. Nathan Hale [q.v.], who was hanged as a spy by the British, was his uncle. After receiving his early education from his father, he entered Williams College, from which he received the degree of A.B. in 1804. For a short time he studied law in Troy, New York, and then went to Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, where he taught mathematics until 1810, in which year he received the degree of A.M. from Dartmouth. Returning to his native state, he completed his law studies in Boston and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1810. In 1814 he abandoned the legal profession and began his long career in journalism. After a brief editorship of the Boston Weekly Messenger, in the spring of 1814 he purchased the Boston Daily Advertiser, the first daily newspaper to be established in that city, which he edited until 1854, when he retired from its active control. To him a newspaper was the means for swaying public opinion as well as for recording events. He applied this belief, however, only to the world of government, business, and political affairs, for he long excluded from his paper news and opinions of books, art, plays, and music. For many years he was a participant in politics and public affairs, taking sides upon all the great questions of the day, in city, state, and nation. He was one of the first American editors to introduce editorial articles as a regular feature, and a file of the Advertiser reflects his own political opinions and his attitude towards all the great problems that contributed to the making of history during nearly fifty years. When it is said that the Advertiser was first Federalist, then Whig, and finally Republican, that it opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, it will be seen that Hale supported those parties in their successive incarnations and opposed all measures seeking to extend slavery or to establish it more firmly. His interest in all the leading local movements of his time was no less than his interest in national affairs. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1820 to 1822 inclusive, of the Senate from 1829 to 1830, and of two constitutional conventions. As acting chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Internal Improvements, he was an early advocate of the establishment and extension of railroads in New England, and he became the first president of the Boston & Worcester Railroad when it was organized in July 1831, holding that position until June 1849. His services as a railroad organizer give him high place in the hi story of American transportation. He was a leading spirit in other public enterprises, and among his contributions to the betterment of Boston was his work as chairman of the commission that established the Boston water system. His interests seem to have been widespread and in the forwarding of them all his newspaper was a powerful factor.

From time to time, moreover, he engaged in other journalistic undertakings. In 1815, as a member of the Anthology Club, he helped to found the North American Review; he was also one of the founders of the Christian Examiner, which first appeared in January 1824, and from 1840 to 1846 he published and edited the Monthly Chronicle. His series of stereotype maps of New England became a standard geographical authority, and were reprinted from time to time with the necessary additions and revisions. He also published the Journal of Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of Delegates Chosen to Revise the Constitution of Massachusetts (1821), and many pamphlets on railroads, canals, and other practical schemes for public improvements. In 1816 he married Sarah Preston Everett, daughter of Judge Oliver Everett, and sister of Edward Everett [q.v.]. Their children were Lucretia Peabody, Charles, Edward Everett [qq.v.], Nathan, a journalist, and Susan, an artist. He was a member of the Brattle Square Church and a deacon there for many years.

[Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the U. S. from 1690 to 1872 (1873); Justin Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston (4 volumes, 1881-83); S. A. Allibone, Critical Dir. of English Literature (1859); S. K. Lothrop, "Memoir of Hon. Nathan Hale, LL.D.," Proc. Massachusetts Historical Society, XVIII (1881), 270-79; Calvin Durfee, Williams Biog. Annals (1871), obituary in Boston Daily Advertiser, February 9, 1863.]

E. F. E.



HALL, Hiland, jurist, born in Bennington, Vermont, 20 July, 1795; died in Springfield, Massachusetts, 18 December, 1885. Served in congress from 1833 till 1843, elected as a Whig. Judge Hall was an earnest advocate for anti-slavery, and a delegate to the first National Republican Convention in 1856. In 1858 he succeeded Ryland Fletcher as governor of Vermont, and was re-elected in 1859.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 131-132:

HALL, HILAND (July 20, 1795-December 18, 1885), historian, jurist, and governor of Vermont, descended from John Hall, born in Kent, England, in 1584, who came to New England in 1633 and some five or six years later settled in Hartford, Connecticut, was born at Bennington, Vt. He was the oldest of the seven children of Nathaniel and Abigail (Hubbard) Hall. His youth was spent on his father's farm in Bennington. He was educated in the common schools of the locality supplemented by one term in the academy at Granville, New York, and by private study. He studied law, was admitted to the bar of Bennington County in December 1819, and settled down to the practice of his profession in his native town. He was a representative of his town in the legislature in 1827, clerk of the county court in 1828, and state attorney for the county from 1829 to 1831. In January 1833 he was elected to fill a vacancy in Congress and served till March 3, 1843.

In 1842 he declined to stand for reelection. During the next decade and a half he filled the offices of state bank commissioner, 1843-46, judge of the supreme court of Vermont, 1846-50, second comptroller of the treasury, 1850-51, and federal land commissioner for California, 1851-54. Up to this time he had been a member of the Whig party, but his anti-slavery principles led him in the middle fifties to identify himself with the rising Republican party. He was a member of the Vermont delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1856, and was nominated as the Republican candidate for governor in 1858. He was elected by a substantial majority, and reelected for a second term in 1859. At the expiration of his second term as governor he retired from public life, except for a brief service as a member of the famous Peace Convention held on the eve of the Civil War. Notwithstanding the numerous offices he held, Hall is best known as a historian of his native state. From his early youth hi story and biography were his favorite studies, and he made the early history of Vermont his special field. In 1859 he became president of the Vermont Historical Society and held the office for six years. Later as chairman of the committee on printing and publication he brought about the publication of the first two volumes of the society's Proceedings. In 1868 he published his most important historical work, The History of Vermont, From Its Discovery to Its Admission into the Union in 1791. This is an excellent piece of historical research, based upon a careful study of the original documents and showing sound historical scholarship, although the Vermont sympathies of the author are evident in his treatment of New York's claim to juris diction over the Vermont settlements. Besides this work, Hall presented a number of carefully prepared papers before various historical societies, and contributed to historical periodicals.

He was married on October 27, 1818, to Dolly Tuttle Davis. They had eight children and lived to celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary. Hall died at the home of his son Charles, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in his ninety-first year.

[Two memoirs by Hall's son, Henry D. Hall, in New-England History and Genealogical Register, January 1887, and in A. M. Hemenway, Vermont Historical Gazetteer, Volume V (1891), pt. III (section relating to Bennington), pp. 83-96; W. H. Crockett, Vermont, V (1923), 112-13; M. D. Gilman, The Bibliog. of Vermont (1897); D. B. Hall, The Halls of New England (1883); Springfield Daily Republican, December 19, 1885; Burlington Free Press and Times, December 21, 1885.]

A.M.K.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 41:

HALL, Hiland, jurist, born in Bennington, Vermont, 20 July, 1795; died in Springfield, Massachusetts, 18 December, 1885. He was educated in the common schools, was admitted to the bar in 1819, and elected to the Vermont Legislature in 1827. He was State attorney in 1828-'31, and served in congress from 1833 till 1843, having been elected as a Whig. He was then appointed bank-commissioner, became judge of the state supreme court in 1846, and in 1850 2d comptroller of the treasury, and land-commissioner to California to settle disputed titles between citizens of the United States and Mexicans. Judge Hall was an earnest advocate for anti-slavery, and a delegate to the first National Republican Convention in 1856. In 1858 he succeeded Ryland Fletcher as governor of Vermont, and was re-elected in 1859. He was a delegate to the Peace Congress that was held in Washington, D. C, in February, 1861. Governor Hall was president of the Vermont Historical Society for twelve years, and for twenty-five years was vice-president of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. He is the author of a " History of Vermont" (Albany, 1868). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 41.



HARLAN, James, 1820-1899, statesman. Whig U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Elected senator in 1855 representing Iowa. Re-elected, served until 1865, when appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Lincoln. Re-elected to Senate in 1866, served until 1873.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 83-84; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 269; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 10, p. 94; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 83-84:

HARLAN, James, statesman, born in Clarke County, Illinois, 25 August, 1820. He was graduated at the Indiana Asbury University in 1845. held the office of superintendent of public instruction in Iowa in 1847, and was president of Iowa Wesleyan University in 1853. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1855 as a Whig, and served as chairman of the committee on public lands, but his seat was declared vacant on a technicality on 12 January, 1857. On the 17th of the same month he was re-elected for the term ending in 1861, and in the latter year was a delegate to the Peace Convention. He was re-elected to the Senate for the term ending in 1867, but resigned in 1865, having been appointed by President Lincoln Secretary of the Interior. He was again elected to the Senate in 1866, and was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' Convention of that year. He was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia and Indian affairs, and also served on those on foreign relations, agriculture, and the Pacific Railroad. In 1869 he was appointed president of the Iowa University. After leaving the Senate in 1873 he became editor of the " Washington Chronicle." From 1882 till 1885 he was presiding judge of the court of commissioners of Alabama claims. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 83-84.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 268;

HARLAN, JAMES (August 26, 1820-October 5, 1899), United States senator, secretary of the interior, was a product of the frontier, of its opportunity and of its limitations. He was descended from George Harland, a Quaker, who emigrated from the vicinity of Durham, England, to County Down, Ireland, and thence in 1687 to America, settling finally in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His parents, Silas and Mary (Conley) Harlan, natives of Pennsylvania and Maryland respectively, were married in Ohio and then joined the stream of western migration, locating in Clark County, Illinois, where he was born. Four years later the family removed to the "New Discovery" in Parke County, Ind., a typical clearing settlement. Monotonous toil was relieved chiefly by visits of Methodist circuit riders who made the Harlan home their "preaching place." The frontier youth supplemented his log-school instruction by books secured from a county library. After teaching district school he attended a local "seminary" and entered Indiana Asbury (later DePauw) University in 1841. College life was interspersed by a trip to Iowa and a term of school teaching in Missouri. As a student his interest in politics was already marked; he was an ardent Whig. In 1845, the year that he took his degree, he was married to Ann Eliza Peck.

The young couple, true to type, sought the pioneer life in Iowa where Harlan became principal of the Iowa City College. Almost immediately his long and stormy political career began. In the first state election, in 1847, he was chosen superintendent of public instruction on the Whig ticket, but the election was declared illegal and in the contest to fill the vacancy he was defeated by methods that he regarded as highly irregular. Following this unfortunate experience, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1850 and in the same year declined the Whig nomination for governor. Before full establishment in his new profession, he was called to head the Iowa Conference University (now Iowa Wesleyan), which he served as president from 1853 to 1855. Under most discouraging conditions, both financial and academic, he was laying the foundations of one of the earliest trans-Mississippi colleges when the Free-Soil agitation put an end to his educational activities and career.

From the beginnings of the Free-Soil movement Harlan had been an active promoter. Put forward by friends as the new party's candidate for the United States Senate he was elected, in 1855, by a rump legislature after one house had formally adjourned. This irregularity led to the vacating of his seat in January 1857. He was promptly returned by a sympathetic legislature and in 1860 was the unanimous Republican choice for a second term. During his first senatorial contest he built up a personal organization throughout the state which he utilized effectively in later contests. As senator he concentrated on Western measures, homesteads, college land grants, and especially the Pacific railroad act, which he personally directed. He gave loyal support to the war measures of the administration and was intimate with President Lincoln; his daughter later married Robert Todd Lincoln [q.v.]. At the beginning of Lincoln's second term Harlan became secretary of the interior. This position was the disastrous turning-point of his career. Departmental policies created bitter enmities and led to charges of improper appointments and of corruption in the disposal of Indian and railroad lands. These charges persisted, although, according to one of Harlan's biographers, "each of the accusations was fairly and squarely met by facts which were a matter of record, and proven to be without foundation" (Brigham, post, p. 250). The most notable of his many dismissals in pursuance of his policy of economy was that of Walt Whitman [q.v.] from a clerkship in the Indian Office (Ibid., p. 208). The reconstruction contest caused a break between Harlan and Johnson, and Harlan resigned his portfolio in July 1866.

Before leaving the cabinet he had been making plans for a return to the Senate, and he had so influential a following that he was elected in 1866, but at the cost of the friendship of Samuel J. Kirkwood and James W. Grimes [qq.v.]. Upon returning to the Senate he was definitely aligned with the radical administration group and his most notable acts were his support of Johnson's impeachment and his spirited defense of Grant's Santo Dominican policy. The growing cleavage in the party, which was to culminate in the Liberal Republican movement, was reflected in the Iowa senatorial contest in January 1872 in which Harlan's opponents combined so effectively that he was defeated by William B. Allison [q.v.]. This defeat ended his official career at a comparatively early age. Though candidate for senator and governor at various times, he was never again successful in an election. His only remaining official service was as a member of the second court of Alabama claims, 1882-86. He was an active member of the Methodist Church, and the support that he received from Iowa Methodists occasionally figured in political controversies. He was president of Iowa Wesleyan again for a short time in 1869-70. Tall, dignified, impressive looking, Harlan was strong of body and of will. He was a zealous partisan and a persistent fighter, tenacious of conviction whether based upon reason or prejudice.

[The Harlan papers, including autobiographical sketch of early years and a large correspondence, are in the possession of Harlan's daughter, Mrs. Robert Todd Lincoln, and were used and quoted extensively in Johnson Brigham, James Harlan (1913). See also Congressional Globe, 34-42 Congress; Report of the Sec. of the Interior, 1865; Diary of Gideon Welles (3 volumes, 1911); D. E. Clark, History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa (1912); A.H. Harlan, History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family (1914); Historical Sketch and Alumni Record of Iowa Wesleyan Coll. (1917); E. H. Stiles, Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Iowa (1916); Christian Advocate, October 19, 1899; Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 6, 1899.)

E. D.R.



HARLAN, John Marshall, lawyer, jurist, born in Boyle County, Kentucky, 1 June, 1833. On 29 November, 1877, became associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, as successor of David Davis.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HARLAN, John Marshall, lawyer, born in Boyle County, Kentucky, 1 June, 1833, was graduated at Centre College in 1850, and at the law department of Transylvania University in 1853. In 1851 he was adjutant-general of Kentucky, and in 1858 became judge of Franklin County, Kentucky. He was afterward an unsuccessful Whig candidate for Congress, and at the beginning of the Civil War entered the Union Army as colonel of the 10th Kentucky Infantry. He was Attorney-General of Kentucky in 1863-'7, and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor of the state in 1871 and 1875. He was a member of the Louisiana Commission that was appointed by President Hayes, and on 29 November, 1877, became associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, as successor of David Davis. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 83.



HARRIS, Ira, 1802-1875, jurist. Republican U.S. Senator from New York. Served as U.S. Senator from 1861-1867. Served as U.S. Senator from 1861-1867. In 1861 he was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican. He succeeded William H. Seward, defeating Horace Greeley and William M. Evarts. In the Senate he was a member of important committees and exercised considerable influence. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 91; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 2, p. 310; Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 91:

HARRIS, Ira, jurist, born in Charleston, Montgomery County, New York, 31 May, 1802; died in Albany, New York, 2 December, 1875. He was brought up on a farm, was graduated at Union College in 1824, studied law in Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. During the succeeding seventeen years he attained a high rank in his profession. He was a member of the assembly in 1844 and 1845, having been chosen as a Whig, and in 1846 was state senator and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. In 1848 he became judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, and held that office for twelve years. In February, 1861, Judge Harris was elected U. S. Senator from New York, as a Republican, serving from 4 July, 1861, to 3 March, 1867. In the Senate Mr. Harris served on the committee on Foreign Relations and Judiciary, and the select Joint Committee on the Southern States. Although he supported the administration in the main, he did not fear to express his opposition to all measures, however popular at the time, that did not appear to him either wise or just. Judge Harris was for more than twenty years professor of equity, jurisprudence, and practice in the Albany Law School, and during his senatorial term delivered a course of lectures at the law-school of Columbian University, Washington, D. C. He was for many years president of the board of trustees of Union College, was one of the founders of Rochester University, of which he was the chancellor, and was president of the American Baptist Missionary Union and other religious bodies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 91

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 310:

HARRIS, IRA (May 31, 1802-December 2, 1875), jurist, was born in Charleston, Montgomery County, New York, the son of Frederic Waterman and Lucy (Hamilton) Harris. His father's ancestors came from England to Rhode Island; his mother was of Scotch descent. The family moved to Cortland County in 1808 and the boy worked on the farm until he was seventeen. He attended Homer Academy, then entered the junior class of Union College in 1822, graduating with honors two years later. He began the study of law at home but later he was received into the office of Ambrose Spencer [q.v.] in Albany and in 1827 he was admitted to the bar. He began his career in Albany, where his success at the bar was immediate. In time he was drawn into politics. He was elected to the Assembly, as a Whig, with Anti-Rent support, for the sessions of 1845 and 1846, was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1846, and in 1847 was a member of the state Senate. Later in 1847 he was elected to the state supreme court for the short term of four years. In 1851 he was reelected for a full term of eight years and in the same year became a member of the first faculty of the Albany Law School. In 1861, after a year in Europe, he was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican. He succeeded William H. Seward, defeating Horace Greeley and William M. Evarts. In the Senate he was a member of important committees and exercised considerable influence. Though he generally supported the administration and was a close friend of Charles Sumner, he was never an intense partisan and vigorously opposed the expulsion of Senator Jesse D. Bright, of Indiana, who had given a friend a letter of introduction to Jefferson Davis. While in Washington he lectured in the law school of Columbian College (later George Washington University). At the end of his term he was defeated in the Republican caucus by Roscoe Conkling but was chosen a delegate at large to the state constitutional convention the same year. During Harris' stay in Washington his connection with the Albany Law School had not been entirely broken. On returning to Albany he resumed his place on the faculty and continued to lecture almost up to the time of his death. His interest in education was intense. He was one of the founders of the Albany Medical College (1838), for many years a trustee of Vassar College and Union College, and trustee and chancellor of the University of Rochester (1850-75). Prominent also in Baptist affairs, he was for many years a deacon in Emmanuel Baptist Church in Albany and served as chairman of the American Baptist Missionary Union. He was an eloquent advocate, a graceful orator, and an excellent judge. For almost fifty years he was a prominent figure in Albany and gave lavishly of his time and energy to any movement to advance the intellectual and moral interests of the community. He was twice married: first, to Louisa Tubbs, who died May 17, 1845, and second, to Mrs. Pauline Penny Rathbone, who with two sons and four daughters survived him. His brother, Hamilton Harris (1820-1900), was a prominent lawyer and Republican politician in Albany.

[A. I. Parker, Landmarks of Albany County (1897); G. R. Howell and Jonathan Tenney, History of the County of Albany, New York (1886); Memorial of Ira Harris (Albany, 1876); Irving Browne, "The Albany Law School, " Green Bag, April 1890; D. S. Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, Volume II (1906); J. C. Cooley, Rathbone Genealogy (1898); Albany Argus, New York Tribune, December 3, 1875; Albany Law Journal, December 11, 1875.]



HARRISON, Henry Baldwin (September 11, 1821-October 29, 1901), governor of Connecticut. Active in politics, he was successively a Whig, a Free-Soiler, and a Republican. In 1854 he was elected to the state Senate on the Whig ticket. In the Senate he was chairman of the committee on corporations and a member of committees appointed to consider a revision of the statutes and to compile laws regarding education. He introduced the personal-liberty bill which was passed by this session of the General Assembly of Connecticut to nullify in the state the Fugitive-Slave Law passed by Congress.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 341-342; Journal of the Senate of the State of Connecticut, May Session, 1854; Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Connecticut, May Session, 1865, May Session, 1873, January Session, 1884).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 341-342:

HARRISON, HENRY BALDWIN (September 11, 1821-October 29, 1901), governor of Connecticut, the son of Ammi and Polly (Barney) Harrison, was born in New Haven. He prepared for college at the Lancasterian School there under John E. Lovell, its founder, and by private study with George A. Thacher, at that time a student in the Yale Divinity School. While he was a student Harrison taught for a time in the Lancasterian School. He entered Yale in 1842 and graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1846. After leaving college he studied law in the Yale Law School and in a New Haven law office. He was admitted to the bar in 1848 and began to practise in New Haven with Lucius G. Peck. Although he later was known especially as a corporation lawyer, he attracted attention in 1855 by his successful defense of a client charged with murder, on the then unusual plea of insanity. Active in politics, he was successively a Whig, a Free-Soiler, and a Republican. In 1854 he was elected to the state Senate on the Whig ticket. In the Senate he was chairman of the committee on corporations and a member of committees appointed to consider a revision of the statutes and to compile laws regarding education. He introduced the personal-liberty bill which was passed by this session of the General Assembly of Connecticut to nullify in the state the Fugitive-Slave Law passed by Congress. He was the Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1856, but was defeated. In 1865 he was elected to the lower house of the Connecticut legislature as a representative of New Haven, and in this session was chairman of the committees on railroads and on federal relations. He advocated an amendment to the state constitution which would give the negro the ballot. He was again elected to represent New Haven in the legislature of 1873, and served as chairman of the committee on a constitutional convention the bill for which was defeated-and as a member of the judiciary committee. In 1874 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the governorship. Representing New Haven in the lower house of the state legislature for the third time in--1884, he was chosen speaker of the House. In that year he was again a candidate for governor. No candidate received a majority of the popular vote, though the Democrats had a plurality. In the joint convention of the legislature made necessary by this situation Harrison was elected, 164 to 91. He served for two years, beginning J an. 7, 1885. He was a member of Trinity Church (Episcopal), New Haven, and a member of the Yale Corporation, 1872-85, and, ex officio, 1885-87. He was married in 1856 to Mary Elizabeth Osborne, daughter of Thomas Burr Osborne. From this marriage there were no children. Harrison survived his wife. His death occurred in his eighty-first year at his home in New Haven.

[Journal of the Senate of the State of Connecticut, May Session, 1854; Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Connecticut, May Session, 1865, May Session, 1873, January Session, 1884; New Haven Morning Journal and Courier, esp. October 30, 1901; New Haven Evening Register, October 29, 1901; Yale College Class of I846 (1871); Obituary Record Graduates Yale University, 1902; E. E. Atwater, History of the City of New Haven (1887); F. C. Norton, The Governors of Connecticut (1905).)

De F . V-S.



HARVEY, Louis Powell, governor of Wisconsin, born in East Haddam, Connecticut, 22 July, 1820; died in Savannah, Tennessee, 19 April, 1862. Edited a Whig newspaper.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 108:

HARVEY, Louis Powell, governor of Wisconsin, born in East Haddam, Connecticut, 22 July, 1820; died in Savannah, Tennessee, 19 April, 1862. In l828 he moved with his parents to Ohio, where he was educated in the Western Reserve College. He went to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1840, taught there, and edited a Whig newspaper, but moved to Shopiere, Rock County, in 1850, and engaged in manufacturing. He was a member of the first state constitutional Convention, and served in the state senate from 1855 till 1857. Soon afterward he was elected secretary of state, and in 1861 became governor. He was drowned while on his way to Pittsburg Landing, with supplies for the relief of wounded soldiers, after the battle of Shiloh. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 108.



HAWES, Richard, lawyer, born in Caroline County, Virginia, 6 February, 1797; died in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 25 May, 1877. He was a member of the legislature in 1828, 1829, and 1836, and in the latter year he was elected to Congress as a Whig, serving until 1841.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 119:

HAWES, Richard, lawyer, born in Caroline County, Virginia, 6 February, 1797; died in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 25 May, 1877. He emigrated to Kentucky in 1810. After being educated at Transylvania University he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began his practice in Winchester, Kentucky. He was a member of the legislature in 1828, 1829, and 1836, and in the latter year he was elected to Congress as a Whig, serving until 1841. He subsequently became an ardent Democrat, advocated the southern cause during the Civil War, and left Kentucky with Breckinridge and others in 1861. On the death of George W. Johnson, at Shiloh, he was elected to succeed him in the nominal office of "provisional" or Confederate governor of Kentucky. When Bragg entered the state, Hawes went with him to Frankfort, and was installed governor, 4 October, 1862, but was compelled to retire immediately, in consequence of the advance of a division of Buell's army. After the close of the war he returned to Paris, Kentucky, and in 1866 was appointed county judge, which office he held until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 119.



HAYES, Rutherford Birchard, 1822-1893, Delaware, Ohio,, 19th President of the United States, 1877-1881. Governor of Ohio, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1865-1867, abolitionist, lawyer, soldier. Defended fugitive slaves in pre-Civil War court cases. His wife, Lucy, Webb, was also an abolitionist. Member of the Whig Party and early member of the Republican Party. Served with distinction as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War.

(Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 134-143)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 134-143:

HAYES, Rutherford Birchard, nineteenth president of the United States, born in Delaware, Ohio, 4 October, 1822. His father had died in July, 1822, leaving his mother in modest but easy circumstances. The boy received his first education in the common schools, and began early the study of Latin and Greek with Judge Sherman Finch, of Delaware. Then he was sent to an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, and in 1837 to Isaac Webb's school, at Middletown, Connecticut, to prepare for college. In the autumn of 1838 he entered Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio. He excelled in logic, mental and moral philosophy, and mathematics, and also made his mark as a debater in the literary societies. On his graduation in August, 1842, he was awarded the valedictory oration, with which he won much praise. Soon afterward he began to study law in the office of Thomas Sparrow, at Columbus, Ohio, and then attended a course of law lectures at Harvard University, entering the law-school on 22 August, 1843, and finishing his studies there in January, 1845. As a law student he had the advantage of friendly intercourse with Judge Story and Prof. Greenleaf, and he also attended the lectures of Longfellow on literature and of Agassiz on natural science, prosecuting at the same time the study of French and German. On 10 May, 1845, after due examination, he was admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio as an attorney and counsellor at law. He established himself first at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), where, in April, 1846, he formed a law partnership with Ralph P. Buckland (q. v.), then a member of Congress. In November, 1848, having suffered from bleeding in the throat, Mr. Hayes went to spend the winter in the milder climate of Texas, where his health was completely restored. Encouraged by the good opinion and advice of professional friends to seek a larger field of activity, he established himself, in the winter of 1849-’50, in Cincinnati. His practice at first being light, he earnestly and systematically continued his studies in law and literature, also enlarging the circle of his acquaintance by becoming a member of various societies, among others the literary club of Cincinnati, in the social and literary entertainments of which at that time such men as Salmon P. Chase, Thomas Ewing, Thomas Corwin, Stanley Matthews, Moncure D. Conway, Manning F. Force, and others of note, were active participants. He won the respect of the profession, and attracted the attention of the public as attorney in several criminal cases which gained some celebrity, and gradually increased his practice.






On 30 December, 1852, he married Miss Lucy W. Webb, daughter of Dr. James Webb, a physician of high standing in Chillicothe, Ohio. In January, 1854, he formed a law partnership with H. W. Corwine and William K. Rogers. In 1856 he was nominated for the office of common pleas judge, but declined. In 1858 he was elected city solicitor by the city council of Cincinnati, to fill a vacancy caused by death, and in the following year he was elected to the same office at a popular election by a majority of over 2,500 votes. Although he performed his duties to the general satisfaction of the public, he was, in April, 1861, defeated for re-election as solicitor, together with the whole ticket. Mr. Hayes, ever since he was a voter, had acted with the Whig Party, voting for Henry Clay in 1844, for General Taylor in 1848, and for General Scott in 1852. Having from his youth always cherished anti-slavery feelings, he joined the Republican Party as soon as it was organized, and earnestly advocated the election of Frémont in 1856, and of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. At a great mass-meeting, held in Cincinnati immediately after the arrival of the news that the flag of the United States had been fired upon at Fort Sumter, he was made chairman of a committee on resolutions to give voice to the feelings of the loyal people. His literary club formed a military company, of which he was elected captain, and this club subsequently furnished to the National Army more than forty officers, of whom several became generals. On 7 June, 1861, the governor of Ohio appointed Mr. Hayes a major of the 23d Regiment of Ohio volunteer Infantry, and in July the regiment was ordered into West Virginia. On 19 September, 1861, Major Hayes was appointed by General Rosecrans judge advocate of the Department of Ohio, the duties of which office he performed for about two months. On 24 October, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On 14 September, 1862, in the battle of South Mountain, he distinguished himself by gallant conduct in leading a charge and in holding his position at the head of his men, after being severely wounded in his left arm, until he was carried from the field. His regiment lost nearly half its effective force in the action. On 24 October, 1862, he was appointed colonel of the same regiment. He spent some time at his home while under medical treatment, and returned to the field as soon as his wound was healed. In July, 1863, while taking part in the operations of the National Army in southwestern Virginia, Colonel Hayes caused an expedition of two regiments and a section of artillery, under his own command, to be despatched to Ohio for the purpose of checking the raid of the Confederate General John Morgan, and he aided materially in preventing the raiders from recrossing the Ohio River and in compelling Morgan to surrender. In the spring of 1864 Colonel Hayes commanded a brigade in General Crook's expedition to cut the principal lines of communication between Richmond and the southwest. He again distinguished himself by conspicuous bravery at the head of his brigade in storming a fortified position on the crest of Cloyd mountain. In the first battle of Winchester, 24 July, 1864, commanding a brigade in General Crook's division, Colonel Hayes was ordered, together with Colonel James Mulligan, to charge what proved to be a greatly superior force. Colonel Mulligan fell, and Colonel Hayes, flanked and pressed in front by overwhelming numbers, conducted the retreat of his brigade with great intrepidity and skill, checking the pursuit as soon as he had gained a tenable position. He took a creditable part in the engagement at Berryville and at the second battle of Winchester, 19 September, 1864, where he performed a feat of extraordinary bravery. Leading an assault upon a battery on an eminence, he found in his way a morass over fifty yards wide. Being at the head of his brigade, he plunged in first, and, his horse becoming mired at once, he dismounted and waded across alone under the enemy's fire. Waving his cap, he signaled to his men to come over, and, when about forty had joined him, he rushed upon the battery and took it after a hand-to-hand fight with the gunners, the enemy having deemed the battery so secure that no infantry supports had been placed near it. At Fisher's Hill, in pursuing General Early, on 22 September, 1864, Colonel Hayes, then in command of a division, executed a brilliant flank movement over mountains and through woods difficult of access, took many pieces of artillery, and routed the enemy. At the battle of Cedar Creek, 19 October, 1864, the conduct of Colonel Hayes attracted so much attention that his commander, General Crook, on the battle-field took him by the hand, saying: “Colonel, from this day you will be a brigadier-general.” The commission arrived a few days afterward, and on 13 March, 1865, he received the rank of brevet major-general “for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Virginia” Of his military services General Grant, in the second volume of his memoirs, says: “On more than one occasion in these engagements General R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as president of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry, as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than mere personal daring. Having entered the army as a major of volunteers at the beginning of the war, General Hayes attained, by his meritorious service, the rank of brevet major-general before its close.” While General Hayes was in the field, in August, 1864, he was nominated by a Republican District Convention at Cincinnati, in the second District of Ohio, as a candidate for Congress. When a friend suggested to him that he should take leave of absence from the army in the field for the purpose of canvassing the district, he answered: “Your suggestion about getting a furlough to take the stump was certainly made without reflection. An officer fit for duty, who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress, ought to be scalped.” He was elected by a majority of 2,400. The Ohio soldiers in the field nominated him also for the governorship of his state. The accompanying illustration is a view of his home in Fremont.





Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, pp. 446-451:

HAYES, RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD (October 4, 1822-January 17, 1893), president of the United States, was born at Delaware, Ohio, the posthumous son of Rutherford Hayes, a farmer, who had married Sophia Birchard in 1813. Both parents sprang from old New England families and through the paternal line he was descended from George Hayes who emigrated from Scotland as early as 1680 and settled in Windsor, Connecticut. The place of a father was taken for him by his uncle Sardis Birchard, a Vermonter by birth, who helped furnish means for his education. From the academy at Norwalk, Ohio, the boy was sent to the private school of Isaac Webb at Middletown, Connecticut. He dreamed of Yale, but the expense and lack of full preparation decided the family to send him to Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio. Here he displayed great earnestness. "I am determined,'' he wrote at eighteen, "from henceforth to use what means I have to acquire a character distinguished for energy, firmness, and perseverance" (Diary and Letters, I, 57). When graduated in 1842 he had obtained a fair literary training, good moral discipline, and a Middle-Western point of view that he would have missed at Yale. He had early made up his mind to the law, and some dull months in reading Blackstone and studying German in the office of Sparrow and Matthews in Columbus, Ohio, were followed by a year and a half in the Harvard Law School. Here he studied under Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf, attended lectures by Jared Sparks, and was fired by glimpses of John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster. In addition, he found time to attend theatres, dabble in Latin and French, and read philosophy. The experience also had social value. He discovered that his chief defect was "boyish conduct" and that he needed "greater mildness and affability." Returning to Ohio, he was admitted to the bar on March 10, 1845, and began practice in Lower Sandusky (later Fremont), Sardis Birchard's home.

Lower Sandusky held Hayes for five leisurely years, spent over small cases, the English and French classics, and natural science, for he always had a roving intellectual taste. He considered volunteering for the Mexican War in order to benefit a bronchial affection, but gave up the plan on the advice of physicians (Ibid., I, 203-09). In the winter of 1848, however, he journeyed to Texas to visit a college classmate, Guy M. Bryan, studying plantations at close range, seeing the rough, lawless side of the frontier, and finding slavery a kindly rather than cruel system. Not returning till spring, he witnessed impassively the feverish gold rush to California. "There is neither romance nor glory in digging for gold," he concluded. The value of this trip in enlarging his horizon was increased by steady later correspondence with Bryan. At the beginning of 1850 he opened his own law office in Cincinnati, still so poor that his first hotel bill worried him and he slept in his office to keep expenses at thirty dollars a month. But his business grew steadily and he sorely regretted "the waste of those five precious years at Sandusky." He also made friends rapidly and was keenly alive to the world about him. He joined the Literary Club of Cincinnati, helped it to entertain Emerson, saw Charlotte Cushman play "Meg Merrilies," heard Beecher and Edward Everett lecture and Jenny Lind sing, attended the Episcopal church, though his own views tended toward agnosticism, and joined the Sons of Temperance and Odd Fellows. In several criminal trials, notably that of one Nancy Farrer accused of murder, he distinguished himself by clever defenses (Eckenrode, post, p. 33). By the end of 1852 he had saved enough money to marry, on December 30, a boyhood sweetheart, Lucy Webb, whose attractiveness, shrewdness, and poise contributed much to his later success. By September 1854, largely through the generosity of his uncle (Diary and Letters, I, 469), he was able to move into his own $5,500 house, where two of his eight children were born.

In 1851 Hayes entered the local politics of Cincinnati, attending ward and county meetings, and making stump speeches. His Ohio associations had made him a Whig of the Thomas Corwin school, and he spoke for Winfield Scott in 1852. The struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill intensified his interest in public affairs; in 1855 he was a delegate to the state Republican convention; and in 1856 he supported Fremont, as he wrote, "hopefully, ardently, joyously," though he predicted defeat. Naturally cool of temperament, he refused to condemn slavery in the extreme terms used by other Free-Soilers, but strongly opposed its extension. In 1857 he was mentioned for Congress and in 1858 was elected city solicitor at a salary of $3,500 a year. In the campaign of 1860 he characteristically refused to grow excited, making only a few speeches for Lincoln and writing his uncle that "a wholesome contempt for Douglas, on account of his recent demagoguery, is the chief feeling I have" (Diary and Letters, I, 564). He hoped to see war averted, advocating conciliation, negotiation, and even compromise; but when the conflict began he could not be restrained. "I would prefer to go into it if I knew that I was to die or be killed in the course of it than to live through and after it without taking any part in it," he said (Ibid., II, 16). He made patriotic speeches, helped recruit men, and accepted the post of major (June 27, 1861) in the 23rd Ohio under Colonel William S. Rosecrans [q.v.]. Serving first in western Virginia, he enjoyed the guerrilla fighting "as if it were a pleasure tour"; by the end of the year, now a lieutenant-colonel, he was in command of the regiment.

Hayes's military service was varied and capable but not distinguished. He acted for a time as judge-advocate, trying court-martial cases under General Jacob Cox and General Rosecrans; he fought under Fremont at the time of "Stonewall" Jackson's Valley Campaign, was ordered east as a part of General Cox's division in August 1862, was wounded in the arm at the battle of South Mountain the following month, and later was sent back to West Virginia for the winter. In July 1863 he was sent with the troops who administered to Morgan's raiders a sharp check near Gallipolis, Ohio. Later placed in command of General George Crook's first infantry brigade, he was with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley during the campaign of 1864, fought well at Winchester, where his flags were the first to enter the town, and was at Cedar Creek when Sheridan defeated Early. From that time until the end of the war he was chiefly on garrison duty. Somewhat tardily, on October 19, 1864, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and on March 13, 1865, he was brevetted a major-general of volunteers.

Meanwhile, in July 1864, Hayes had been nominated for the House of Representatives from the 2nd Ohio (Cincinnati) district, but had wisely refused to take the stump, writing that "an officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped" (Diary and Letters, II, 497). In October he was elected by a heavy majority. Resigning his commission in June 1865, he took his seat in December. In Congress he obeyed the Republican caucus on important questions and was hostile to the "rebel influences ... ruling the White House," but disapproved of the extreme radicalism of Thaddeus Stevens. When General Schenck proposed an amendment by which Southern representation would be based on suffrage, he suggested an educational test for the ballot. His best work was as chairman of the library commission, for he sponsored a bill shifting the Smithsonian Institution's collection of books to the Library of Congress, carried an appropriation of $100,000 to purchase Peter Force's collection of Americana, and developed the botanical gardens. He served his constituents well and gained the name of the soldier's friend. He was reelected in 1866, but his congressional career was brief. The Ohio Republicans needed him as candidate for governor, for Jacob Cox was unpopular in that office, and when nominated in June 1867 he resigned from Congress. An arduous campaign, in which Hayes made more than seventy speeches, ended in his election over Allen G. Thurman by the narrow majority of 2,983, though the proposed amendment to the state constitution for universal manhood suffrage, which he favored, was defeated by about 50,000 votes. A Democratic legislature sent Thurman to the Senate and thwarted the chief recommendations of Hayes. He was able, however, to carry through important prison reforms and a measure for the better supervision of charities. In 1869 a campaign for reelection against weakened opposition gave him a majority of about 7,500 and some measure of national prestige; and this time the Republicans gained control of the legislature. Hayes made a determined stand against extravagance and higher taxes, obtained reform s in the care of the insane, urge d the establishment of a state agricultural college, and denounced current abuses in railway management. He recognized the merit principle in his appointments, placing able Democrats in office; he combated election frauds; he helped create the geological survey of Ohio, and chose an accomplished scientist as its head; and he encouraged the preservation of historical records. As his reputation as a courageous administrator grew, some of his public addresses were widely reported and read. Urged in 1871 to stand for a third term, he refused to violate the unbroken precedent of the state.

An astute governor, Hayes was also a n astute politician. In 1872 he shrewdly rejected the suggestion that he seek election to the Senate as an opponent of the cold, unpopular, but able John Sherman. In that year, though sympathizing with many aims of the Liberal Republicans, of whom his friend Stanley Matthews was a leader, he refused to leave his party and campaigned vigorously for Grant. He was himself beaten for Congress because of the party split. Retiring to the "Spiegel Grove" estate near Fremont which his uncle Sardis Birchard had bequeathed him, he devoted himself to law, the real-estate business, and the promotion of public libraries. His successor as governor, General E. F. Noyes, was badly beaten by William Allen in 1873, while in 1874 the Democrats carried Ohio by 17,000 plurality and elected thirteen out of twenty congressmen. As Republican leaders sought his aid Haye's ambition awoke. In his diary, on April 14, 18 75, he wrote: "Several suggest that if elected governor now, I will stand well for the Presidency next year. How wild ! What a queer lot we are becoming !" None the less, he dreamed of the presidency. Nominated for governor by an overwhelming vote in the state convention of 1875, he opposed William Allen in a campaign which drew national attention and which brought in Carl Schurz and Oliver P. Morton to stump the state. His election by a majority of 5,544 was a triumph which made him a national figure. By virtue of his liberalism, taste for reform, war record, and loyalty to his party he was one of the distinctly "available" figures for the next presidential nomination, and he added to his reputation by another wise state administration.

Hayes was brought forward for the presidency by John Sherman and Garfield, with Ohio Republicans united behind him. In May 1876, he ingratiated himself with the Eastern reformers by a letter of sympathy for Richard H. Dana of Massachusetts, just rejected by the Senate for the mission to England (Diary and Letters, III, 318). His Ohio managers won a preliminary victory when they succeeded in having Cincinnati made the convention city, for the friendliness of the crowds and press counted heavily. The leading rival candidates were Blaine, Conkling, Bristow, and 0. P. Morton. For a time it seemed that Blaine might be named, but the refusal of the convention to ballot immediately after Robert G. Ingersoll's brilliant nominating speech destroyed his chances. Repeated conferences were held by the managers of the Hayes, Morton, and Bristow candidacies, with Stanley Matthews, who was ostensibly for Bristow but really for Hayes, in a key position. The result was that when Blaine made dangerous gains on the sixth ballot the opposing delegates united on Hayes, and on the next ballot nominated him with 384 votes against 351 for Blaine. Hayes had awaited the result calmly. Just before it came he wrote in his diary: "I have kept cool and unconcerned to a degree that surprises me. The same may be said of Lucy. I feel that defeat will be a great relief-a setting free from bondage. The great responsibility overpowers me" (Diary and Letters, III, 326). His nomination pleased the reformers under Schurz, Bristow, and G. W. Curtis, satisfied the practical politicians, was applauded by Civil War veterans, and did much to hold the recently chaotic Republican party together. In the vigorous campaign which followed Hayes benefited by the activities of an unexampled group of stump speakers-Blaine, Evarts, Sherman, Schurz, Bristow, Curtis, Ingersoll, Logan, Garfield, Harrison, and even Mark Twain (Eckenrode, post, p. 145). He himself played an inactive part, though late in October he visited the Centennial Exhibition for Ohio Day and inspired extraordinary interest. In October Hayes stated that the chances of his opponent, Tilden, appeared better than his. The first returns on November 7 seemed to show that the election was lost and he went to bed apparently in that belief.

His hopes revived when on November 8 Zachariah Chandler sent out his telegram "Hayes has 185 votes and is elected." That day, according to the Ohio State Journal of November 9, he "received those who called in his usual cordial manner, and was very unconcerned, while the greatest office on the American continent was trembling in the balance." When it became clear that the result hinged on contested returns from South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, he was resolutely opposed to any attempt at a "compromise." At the outset he was dubious regarding Louisiana, but his misgivings were soon stilled by friends and party managers, and on December 6 he telegraphed Schurz: "I have no doubt that we are justly and legally entitled to the Presidency" (Diary and Letters, III, 386). His original demand was that the electoral votes be counted by the president of the Senate, but chiefly as a result of Schurz's arguments he consented to the creation of the Electoral Commission. When the composition of this body was decided he awaited the issue with confidence. There i s evidence that as the work of the Electoral Commission approached its close, especially after Louisiana's votes were counted for Hayes, Republican agents were in close touch with Southern Democrats who cared less about the presidency than the restoration of white rule in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. The speech of Charles Foster, representative from Hayes's former Cincinnati district, who on February 23, 1877, declared that it would be Hayes's policy to wipe out sectional lines and conciliate the South, was regarded as an olive branch from Hayes himself. In the conferences with Southerners in Washington, Foster, Stanley Matthews, Ex-Governor Wm. Dennison, and John Sherman were the chief representatives of Hayes. These meetings bore fruit in "the bargain," an agreement in the interests of party peace and sectional amity, dictated by powerful public considerations (P. L. Haworth, The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 1876, 1906, pp. 271 ff.). Hayes even gave verbal assurances in his Ohio home. L. Q. C. Lamar wrote him on March 22, 1877: "It was understood that you meant to withdraw the troops from South Carolina and Louisiana .... Upon that subject we thought that you had made up your mind, and indeed you so declared to me" (Hayes Papers). Once the alliance between the Hayes forces and the Southern Democrats was cemented the end came quickly. On March 2 Hayes was awarded the presidency with 185 electors to Tilden's 184. Hayes had left for Washington the previous day, was entertained at dinner by President Grant on Saturday evening, March 3, and took the oath of office that night privately and on March 5 in public.

Hayes made his administration notable by his policy of Southern pacification, his attention to reform, and his insistence on a conservative treatment of financial questions. The choice of his cabinet indicated a partial break with the elder statesmen. Before leaving Ohio he had selected William M. Evarts for secretary of state, John Sherman for the treasury, and Carl Schurz for the interior. He had also considered nominating General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate leader, as secretary of war, but encountered an opposition too fierce; he compromised by selecting Senator David M. Key, a former Confederate of Tennessee, to be postmaster-general. Though the "Stalwart" Republicans in the Senate showed their indignation by referring all the cabinet nominations to committees, public pressure forced a prompt confirmation. Hayes's first important measure was to carry out "the bargain" by withdrawing the Federal troops from the South. He called Wade Hampton and D. H. Chamberlain, rival claimants for the governorship of South Carolina, to Washington, discussed the situation with them, and on April 3 ordered the Secretary of War to end the military occupation of the South Carolina state house. An investigating commission was sent to Louisiana, it advised Hayes to remove the Federal soldiery, and orders to that effect were issued on April 20. For these steps he was fiercely attacked by Ben Wade, Garrison, Blaine, Wendell Phillips, and Ben Butler, and lost so many Republican machine' workers "that it could be said that within six weeks after his inauguration Hayes was without a party" (J. F. Rhodes, History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley, 1919, p. 12; see also Letters of Mr. William E. Chandler Relative to the So-Called Southern Policy of President Hayes, 1878). But the wisdom of his course was shown by the immediate end of violence and the establishment of relative prosperity and contentment at the South. The restoration of full autonomy to the states was his greatest achievement, and one which Tilden could not have effected without arousing a far greater storm. Hayes continued to excite the hostility of the "Stalwarts," and particularly the New York faction under Conkling, by his measures of civil-service reform. He had declared in his inaugural that there must be such reform, that it must be "thorough, radical, and complete," and that it must comprehend appointment on the ground of ability alone, security of tenure, and exemption from the demands of partisan service. With Hayes's encouragement, Secretary Schurz at once reformed the interior department. Other department heads took similar action. Hayes had Secretary Sherman appoint an investigating committee under John Jay to examine the New York custom house, and he made the recommendations of this body the basis for a vigorous letter (May 26, 1877) forbidding partisan control of the revenue service, political assessments upon revenue officers, and any participation by such officers in the management of conventions, caucuses, or election campaigns. This order, which caused consternation, was reinforced by another letter on June 22, 1877. When Chester A. Arthur, collector at New York, and Alonzo B. Cornell, naval officer, defied these orders, Hayes asked for their resignations; and when they ignored his request, he appointed two men to take their places. The Senate, with Roscoe Conkling as leader, at first refused to confirm these nominations. But Hayes bided his time, presented two new names when the Senate reassembled in December 1878, and, by the skilful use of a letter from Secretary Sherman which thoroughly exposed the custom-house scandals, secured the needed confirmation.

Facing an unsatisfactory monetary situation, Hayes declared in his inaugural against "an irredeemable paper currency" and for "an early resumption of specie payments." His courage and skill were tested by a dangerous demand in both parties for repeal of the act for resumption of specie payments on January 1, 1879, and for the free and unlimited coinage of silver as a full legal tender. Bills for both purposes were carried in the House in the fall of 1877. Hayes met the threat by a vigorous discussion of the monetary question in his December message, insisting on resumption and on payment of the public debt in gold or its equivalent. His determined stand helped prevent the Senate from passing the bill to postpone resumption, but did not defeat the Bland-Allison Bill. He vetoed it on February 28, 1878, and, after it passed over his veto, urged in his message of December 1879 that Congress suspend the silver coinage. In 1880, pointing out that the market value of the silver dollar had declined to eighty-eight and a half cents, he vainly urged that the treasury be authorized to coin "silver dollars of equivalent value, as bullion, with gold dollars," instead of silver dollars of 412,½ grains. With his support, Secretary Sherman successfully effected resumption at the date fixed. The early part of the administration was marked by business distress and labor troubles. Hayes did not fully understand the social and economic problems of the time and did nothing to strike at the root of unrest, but he showed firmness in calling out federal troops to suppress the railroad riots of 1877. The latter years of his term saw a revival of business prosperity. He showed firmness also in vetoing a popular Chinese exclusion bill as a violation of the Burlingame treaty, and in combating congressional usurpation. He waged a successful struggle with Congress in 1879 over its action in tacking "riders" to two essential appropriation bill s, maintaining that this process was an effort to force the president into submission to Congress in a fashion not contemplated by the Constitution. Congress gave way and removed the riders. But Hayes remained unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade Congress to pass a permanent civil-service act. Little by little his hardworking habits, conscientiousness, system, and responsiveness to moral forces impressed the nation; the original Democratic bitterness decreased; and he became genuinely esteemed. Lucy Hayes, though ridiculed for her temperance rules, was even more generally liked.

Hayes firmly believed that a president could most effectively discharge his duties if he refused to entertain the idea of a second term; and in his letter accepting the nomination in 1876 he expressed an inflexible determination to serve but one term. He returned from Washington in March 1881 to "Spiegel Grove," where his modest house was enlarged into a mansion. Here he spent his remaining years, devoting much time to his extensive library, filling many engagements as a speaker, and enlisting in a variety of humanitarian causes. He was president of the National Prison Association from 1883 to the end of his life, was a member of the board of trustees of both the Peabody Education Fund and Slater Fund, and was interested in the Lake Mohonk conferences. The death of his wife in June 1889 was a heavy blow, but he remained active to the last. Exposure while attending a meeting of trustees of the state university hastened his end. His funeral was the occasion for a national tribute to his strong though not brilliant abilities, patriotic devotion, and zeal for common-sense reforms.

[An exceedingly full biographical record is presented in Chas. R. Williams, Life of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (2 volumes, 1914); while there is a shorter, more incisive, and genuinely critical biography by H. J. Eckenrode, Rutherford B. Hayes, Statesman of Reunion (1930). A campaign life worthy of notice is William Dean Howells, Sketch of the Life and Character of Rutherford B. Hayes (1876). Special interest attaches to the conscientious Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, edited by C.R. Williams (S volumes, 1922- 26). J. W. Burgess, The Administration of President Hayes (1916), is a eulogistic set of lectures; there is a better-balanced estimate by James Ford Rhodes in his Historical Essays (1909). Special aspects of Hayes's life are treated in Paul L. Haworth, The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 (1906), and V. L. Shores, "The Hayes-Conkling Controversy, 1877-79," Smith Collected Studies in History, Volume IV (1919). Illuminating first-hand impressions of the administration are contained in both volumes of John Sherman's Recollections of Forty Years (1895), and James G. Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, Volume II (1886). The Hayes Papers, with other material on his life, are housed in a memorial library at Fremont, Ohio.]

A. N.



HOAR, Ebenezer Rockwood (February 21, 1816-January 31, 1895), lawyer, jurist, anti-slavery conscience Whig and Free-Soil member. U.S. congressman. Hoar was opposed to the extension of slavery into the new territories. U.S. attorney-general.

(Moorfield Storey and E. W. Emerson, E. R. Hoar (1911); G. F. Hoar, Autobiography of Seventy Years (2 volumes, 1903); Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 series, IX (1895); Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 86-87:

HOAR, EBENEZER ROCKWOOD (February 21, 1816-January 31, 1895), jurist, congressman, attorney-general, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Hoar and brother of George Frisbie Hoar [qq.v.]. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Roger Sherman [q.v.]. He graduated from Harvard College in 1835, taught a year, began to read law in his father's office, and continued in the Harvard Law School, where he received the degree of LL.B. in 1839. He rapidly rose to eminence in practice, being associated in various cases with Choate and with Webster. He entered politics in 1840 as a delegate to the Whig young men's convention for Middlesex County. Five years later he was one of the organizers of an anti-annexation meeting at which was adopted a pledge written by himself and Henry Wilson to "use all practicable means for the extinction of slavery on the American Continent." A few months later as an anti-slavery Whig he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, where his declaration that he would rather be a "Conscience Whig" than a "Cotton Whig" gave the slogan to the anti-slavery movement, of which he became a leader. His call to the people of Massachusetts in protest against the nomination of Taylor for president led to the Free Soil convention at Worcester on June 28, l848.

In 1849 he was appointed a judge of the court of common pleas. One of the notable features of his service on the bench was his charge to the grand jury in the trial of the men who attempted to free the fugitive slave, Anthony Burns [q.v.]. In 1855 he resigned to resume practice but in 1859 he became an associate justice of the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, a position which he held for a decade. Then called by President Grant to the post of attorney-general, he proved one of the most effective department heads. He exerted his influence against the recognition of the Cuban insurgents as belligerents. When nine new circuit judgeships were created, Hoar's sturdy insistence that these positions be filled by men of high character and fitness was keenly resented by many senators who wished to treat them as patronage. Accordingly, a few months later when the President nominated him for a seat upon the supreme bench, the Senate rejected the nomination, ostensibly because he did not live in the district to which he was to be assigned. "What could you expect from a man who had snubbed seventy Senators!" said Simon Cameron (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, post, p. 304). The charge that Grant and Hoar connived to pack the Supreme Court so as to obtain a reversal of its stand upon the legal-tender issue has been conclusively refuted (G. F. Hoar, The Charge against President Grant and Attorney General Hoar of Packing the Supreme Court, 1896; Storey and Emerson, post, pp. 199-202). In 1870, with dignified loyalty to his chief, he retired from the cabinet when Grant sought to secure the support of some Southern senators who were demanding that the Attorney-General be displaced by a man from the South; but the next year he yielded to Grant's request to serve as a member of the joint high commission which framed the Treaty of Washington to settle the Alabama claims. He served a single term in Congress (1873-75), where his brother, George F. Hoar, was one of his colleagues. Here he opposed the Sherman Resumption Bill and the Force Bill. He was a valuable member of the committee to which was referred the revision of the United States statutes and he served as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. At the end of his term he returned to Concord. In 1876 he was induced to enter the campaign as a candidate for Congress against Benjamin F. Butler [q.v.], to whose influence in national and in state politics he had for many years been the most vigorous opponent, but he was heavily defeated by that astute politician. As a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876, he supported Bristow till the last ballot, when he voted for Hayes. In 1884 he supported Blaine. In his later years he declined to reenter public service though urged to be a member of the commission to investigate governmental conditions in Louisiana and to act as counsel for the United States before the fishery commission.

He was a devoted son of Harvard College, serving for nearly thirty years either as overseer or as member of the corporation. In the American Unitarian Association he was a dominant force. At the bar he was noted for the closeness of his reasoning and the keenness of his wit. He was a brilliant conversationalist and for nearly forty years was a member of the Saturday Club, which numbered many of the brightest intellects in New England. On November 20, 1840, he married Caroline Downes Brooks. Of their seven children, the youngest, Sherman Hoar, was elected as representative to Congress in 1890, third of the family in direct descent to hold that position.

Moorfield Storey and E. W. Emerson, E. R. Hoar (1911); G. F. Hoar, Autobiography of Seventy Years (2 volumes, 1903); Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 series, IX (1895); H. S. Nourse, The Hoar Family (1899); Boston Transcript, February 1, 1895.]

G. H. H.



HOAR, Samuel, lawyer, statesman, born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 18 May, 1788; died in Concord, Massachusetts, 2 November, 1856. Elected a representative in Congress as a Whig, serving from 7 December, 1835, till 3 March, 1837. Founding member of the Massachusetts Free-Soil Party, founding member of the Massachusetts Republican Party. Anti-slavery political leader.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 220, Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 89-90); Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 220:

HOAR, Samuel, statesman, born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 18 May, 1788; died in Concord, Massachusetts, 2 November, 1856. His father, Captain Samuel Hoar, was a Revolutionary officer, and served for many years in the legislature. The son was graduated at Harvard in 1802, and was for two years a private tutor in Virginia. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1805, began practice at Concord, and was for forty years one of the most successful lawyers in the state. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1820, a member of the state senate in 1825 and 1833, and was then elected a representative in Congress as a Whig, serving from 7 December, 1835, till 3 March, 1837. In 1844 he was sent by the legislature to South Carolina to test the constitutionality of acts of that state authorizing the imprisonment of free colored persons who should enter it. His appearance in Charleston caused great excitement, and on 5 December, 1844, he was expelled from that city. On that day the legislature of South Carolina passed resolutions authorizing his expulsion. Mr. Hoar received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1838, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Bible Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He married a daughter of Roger Sherman. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 220.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 89-90:

HOAR, SAMUEL (May 18, 1778-November 2, 1856), lawyer, congressman, was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, the son of Susanna (Pierce) and Samuel Hoar, a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, later a magistrate and member of the Massachusetts House and Senate. He was a descendant of John, one of the brothers of Leonard Hoar [q. v.]. He was prepared for college by the Reverend Charles Stearns of Lincoln and was graduated from Harvard College (B.A.) in 1802. The next two years he spent as tutor in a private family in Virginia, where he developed a life-long abhorrence of domestic slavery. He studied law in the office of Artemas Ward [q.v.] and in 1805 began practice in Concord. He rose rapidly in his profession and for forty years was one of the eminent lawyers in the state, ranking in court practice with Webster and Choate. He was a conservative in the Massachusetts constitutional convention of 1820, served several terms in the state Senate, and at seventy-two was elected to the House of Representatives, where he was successful in defeating an attempt to abolish the corporation of Harvard College and to substitute a board to be chosen by the legislature. Harvard's president declared: "Other men have served the College; Samuel Hoar saved it" (G. F. Hoar, Autobiography, I, 29).

In politics he was first a Federalist, then a Whig. He was a representative in Congress, 1835-37, and vigorously upheld the power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and opposed the recognition of the independence of Texas. He was a delegate to the convention which nominated Harrison for president. In 1848, believing that the nomination of Taylor marked the Whig party's abandonment of its opposition to the spread of slavery, he at once exerted himself to bring about united political action by men of all parties opposed to the nominations of Cass or Taylor. He was the first to sign the call written by his son, E. Rockwood Hoar [q.v.], for the convention, over which he presided, at Worcester on June 28, 1848, and in the ensuing campaign his name headed the electoral ticket of the Free Soil party in Massachusetts. In 1854 he led in the movement which, at the Worcester convention in September, first placed "Republican" candidates in nomination for state offices. The following year he was chairman of the committee which called the convention that formally organized the Republican party in Massachusetts.

In 1844 the governor, as authorized by the legislature, employed him to test the constitutionality of certain South Carolina laws under which many Massachusetts colored citizens, seamen on vessels touching at South Carolina ports, were seized on arrival, put in jail, and kept imprisoned till their vessel s ailed or, if their jail fees were not then paid, sold as slaves. On the day of Hoar's arrival in Charleston the legislature, only one member dissenting, by resolution requested the Governor to expel "the Northern emissary" from the state. Warned by the mayor and the sheriff that his life was in danger and urged to depart, he replied that he was too old to run and that he could not return to Massachusetts without an effort to perform the duty assigned him. Under threat of violence from the mob that surrounded his hotel, at the earnest request of a committee of seventy leading citizens, he consented to walk instead of being dragged-to the carriage waiting to convey him to the boat. The indignity to which this venerable citizen of Massachusetts had been subjected produced hot indignation throughout the North.

After he had retired from active practice of the law, for nearly twenty years he devoted his energies to the service of the church, of temperance, and of various organizations for the promotion of peace, colonization, and education. He was an overseer of Harvard College but not less interested and conscientious in his duties a s a member of the Concord school committee. He was a Unitarian, strict in observance of the Sabbath, and for many years teacher and superintendent in the local Sunday school, He was of imposing appearance, of great courtesy especially to women and little children, and tender to all who were the victims of injustice. He married (October 13, 1812) Sarah, daughter of Roger Sherman [q. v.] of Connecticut. Six children were born to them. Four of his descendants followed him in service in the national House of Representatives: his sons, E. Rockwood and George F. Hoar [q.v.]; and two grandsons, Sherman and Rockwood Hoar.

[G. F. Hoar, Autobiography of Seventy Years (1903), Volume I; G. F. Hoar, in Memorial Biographies New England Historical Genealogical Society, Volume III (1883); Proceedings Massachusetts Historical Society, 1 series, Volume V (1862); Barzillai Frost, A Sermon Preached in Concord (1856); Joseph Palmer, Necrology of Alumni of Harvard College (1864); H. S. Nourse, The Hoar Family (1899); R. W. Emerson, in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, December 1856; Boston Transcript, November 3, 1856.)

G. H. H.



HOWARD, Jacob Merritt, 1805-1871, lawyer. Republican U.S. Senator from Michigan. U.S. Congressman 1841-1843. Founding member of Republican Party in 1854. Elected in 1862. Served until March 1871. As a member of the judiciary committee he drafted the first clause of the Thirteenth Amendment. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 277; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 278-279; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 313; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 11, p. 304; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 278-279:

HOWARD, JACOB MERRITT (July 10, 1805-April 2, 1871), congressman and senator from Michigan, was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, the son of Otis and Polly (Millington) Howard. His education was obtained in the district school at Shaftsbury, the academies 'in Bennington and Brattleboro, and Williams College, from which he graduated in 1830. He began the study of law in Ware, Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar in 1833 in Detroit, Mich., to which place he had moved in the preceding year. Although he soon became one of the leaders of the bar of Michigan, his chief interest lay in politics. He supported the Whig party until 1854, when he became a Republican. From 1838 to 1871 he held public office almost continuously while his party was in power. In 1838 he was elected to the state legislature as a representative from Wayne County and was active in the enactment of the Revised Laws of that year, in railroad legislation, and in the legislative examination of the state's wildcat banks. He served as a member of Congress from 1841 to 1843.

In 1854 he was one of the leaders of the movement that led to the organization of the Republican party at Jackson on July 6, and was the author of the resolutions that were adopted at that time. In the same year the party nominated and elected him attorney general of Michigan, a position which he held until 1861. From 1862 to 1871 he was a member of the United States Senate. Here he distinguished himself as a radical and outspoken leader. During his first term, he held influential positions on the important committees on the judiciary and on military affairs; as a member of the former committee he drafted the first clause of the Thirteenth Amendment. During the stormy period following the Civil War, he was an outspoken opponent of executive reconstruction and favored extreme punishment for the South. He served during the session of 1865-66 on the joint committee on reconstruction and was assigned to investigate conditions in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He drew up the report of the committee on military affairs on the removal of Stanton. He also served as chairman of the committee on the Pacific Railroad from the creation of the committee, January 6, 1864, until the end of his term. President Grant offered him the presidency of the Southern claims commission, but this he refused. He died in Detroit as a result of an apoplectic stroke within a month after the expiration of his last term as senator.

Howard was an eloquent speaker, although his style was somewhat ponderous. He appealed to reason rather than to the emotions. He had a wide reading knowledge not only of law and history, but also of literature. He is said to have been an excellent classical scholar, and he knew both English and French literature. In 1848 he published a translation, in two volumes, of M. A. Le-Normand's Historical and Secret Memoirs of the Empress Josephine. He was married, October 8, 1835, to Catharine A. Shaw, whom he had met in Ware, Massachusetts. She died in 1866. He was survived by two daughters and three sons.

[Published sources include: H. G. Howard, In Memoriam: Jacob M. Howard of Mich. (1906) and Civil War Echoes (1907); Calvin Durfee, Williams Biog. Annals (1871); Detroit Free Press, April 3, 5, 1871; editorials in the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, April 3, 1871, and in the Detroit Daily Post of the same date; R. B. Ross, The Early Bench and Bar of Detroit (1907); American Biographical History . . . Mich. Volume (1878), pt. I, p. 79; H. M. Dilla, The Politics of Mich., 1865-78 (1912); W. C. Harris, Public Life of Zachariah Chandler (1917); Life of Zachariah Chandler (1880), by the members of the Post and Tribune staff, Detroit. The Burton History Collection in the Detroit Public Library has thirty bound volumes of manuscript letters, etc., by Jacob M. Howard.]

J. O. K.



HOWE, Dr. Samuel Gridley, 1801-1876, abolitionist leader, philanthropist, physician, reformer. Actively participated in the anti-slavery movement. Whig and Free Soil candidate for Congress from Boston in 1846. From 1851-1853 he edited the anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth. Active with the Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. Member of the American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission, 1863. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown. Husband of Julia Ward Howe.

(Filler, Louis. The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960, pp. 43, 56, 117, 181, 204, 214, 238, 241, 268; Mitchell, Thomas G. Antislavery Politics in Antebellum and Civil War America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, pp. 32, 117, 119-120, 213; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 165, 207, 327, 388, 341; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 296-297; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 453-456; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 11, p. 342)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 296-297:

HOWE, SAMUEL GRIDLEY (November 10, 1801-January 9, 1876), champion of peoples and persons laboring under disability, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to sturdy, middle-class parents. He was a descendant of Abraham How or Howe who settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, about 1637. His mother, handsome Patty Gridley, came from a martial family. Through her he probably inherited his love of adventure and his soldierly bearing, as well as his beauty of person. His father, Joseph Neals Howe, was notably businesslike and frugal. Deciding to send but one son to college, he chose Sam, because he read aloud the best from the big family Bible; and Brown University, because it was less under Federalist influence than Harvard. The boy graduated in 1821, being more noted for pranks and penalties than for scholarship. He had, however, according to a college contemporary, a mind that was quick, versatile, and inventive, and he saw intuitively and at a glance what should be done (Julia Ward Howe, Memoir, post, p. 83). In 1824 he received the degree of M.D. from Harvard. Being allured by the romantic appeal of Greece, then battling against the Turk, like a crusader he set sail for that land, where, as fighter in its guerrilla warfare, surgeon in its fleet, and helper in reconstructing its devastated country and in ministering to its suffering people, he spent six adventurous years, during one of which he rushed home to plead for help and went back with a shipload of food and clothing. These supplies he distributed wisely, giving them outright to the feeble, but requiring the able-bodied to earn them through labor on public works. This procedure was the index of his future career; his chivalric zeal had become practical. His idea of real charity then and always was far in advance of his time and, together with much else that was momentous and permanently useful in his later life, seemed to spring full-fledged from his active and original brain.

Meanwhile, in 1829, Massachusetts had incorporated a school for the blind and in 1831 Howe was engaged to open it and carry it on. He went again to Europe and inspected such schools there. Incidentally, for bringing American aid and comfort to Polish refugees in Prussia, he was held six weeks in prison, secretly, and under harrowing conditions which profoundly affected him and explain some things in his after career. Returning home, he started the school (August 1832) in his father's house, with six pupils. He is said to have gone about at first blindfolded, the better to comprehend their situation. Having trained them by instrumentalities created by himself and according to his maxim, "Obstacles are things to be overcome," he exhibited their accomplishments, thereby obtaining funds and the gift of the Perkins mansion, whence the name Perkins Institution was derived. Never thereafter did he fail to win friends to his cause or money for his work and for the embossing of his books, which were in the "Boston line" (Roman letter) or "Howe" type. He showed the world that the young blind both could and should be brought up to be economically and socially competent. His annual reports-philosophic common-sense put into clear, pure, and forcible language were widely read. Succeeding educators must needs recur to them for re-inspiration. Horace Mann, one of his board of trustees, allowed himself to say in 1841: "I would rather have built up the Blind Asylum than have written Hamlet" (Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, post, II, 107). In the forty-four years of Dr. Howe's directorship of his school he visited seventeen states in behalf of the education of the blind, and in the 1870's he generously released several of his best teachers to further the American principles of training, then being introduced under Francis Joseph Campbell [q.v.] in London. He awakened the deafblind child, Laura Bridgman, to communication with others, educating her to usefulness and happiness at that time an astounding achievement which, done in the face of general disbelief, became of vast importance to human psychology, education, and hopefulness.

His knight-errantry was extended into many fields. He supported Horace Mann in his fight for better public schools and for normal schools; promoted the use of articulation and of the oral, as against the sign method, for instructing the deaf; so pioneered in behalf of the care and training of children then called idiots that Dr. Walter E. Fernald, one of his successors at the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble Minded Youth, declared these labors to be the chief jewel in his crown. He agitated for prison reform and the aiding of discharged convicts; helped Dorothea Dix by private and public support in her campaign for the humanitarian care ~f the insane; and from 1865 to 1874 he was chairman of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities, the fir st in America, and wrote its annual reports, therein stating his principles which have since become the orthodoxy of charity (F. G. Peabody, Hibbert Journal, post). Though tardy in joining the anti-slavery movement he finally plunged headlong into it, opening his town office as a rallying point. He served for the needed years as chairman and whip of a Boston vigilance committee, self-constituted, to prevent the forcible return South of fugitive slaves. With Julia (Ward) Howe [q.v.], whom he married April 27, 1843, he was co-editor for a while of the anti-slavery paper, The Commonwealth. He even ran for Congress in 1846 as the candidate of the "Conscience" Whigs; but here he suffered defeat, as he did also for reelection to the Boston school committee. Politics, indeed, was no forte of his, while action as a freelance was. Therefore, though much of the time ill from overwork, he threw himself with better success into helping save Kansas to the Free-Soilers. In this enterprise, as in his aiding and abetting the purposes of John Brown, he obeyed conscience rather than law. There are those who cannot excuse him for this "obfuscation," especially for his public letter disclaiming advance knowledge of Brown's raid, and his own subsequent disappearing into Canada. Later, when public excitement had quieted, he went to Washington and testified before a Senate committee of inquiry regarding his knowledge of the affair. During the Civil War he was an active and useful member of the Sanitary Commission. Secretary Stanton appointed him one of the President's Inquiry Commission. He supported his friend, Senator Sumner, in behalf of negro suffrage as a politic al measure, and the education of freedmen as essential to their citizenship.

In 1866-67 he was protagonist in raising funds and clothing for the suffering Cretans, then waging a losing fight for freedom, and, accompanied by wife and children, again went to Greece to manage the distribution of supplies. He even stole into Crete itself, a hazardous undertaking, and while at Athens opened an industrial school for the Cretan refugees. In 1871, President Grant appointed Howe, Senator Wade of Ohio, and President White of Cornell, commissioners to report on the advisability of the United States' annexing the island of Santo Domingo. After spending about two months there they recommended such action, advice which mo st people considered quixotic. "He was never the hero of his own tale," says Dr. F. H. Hedge (Julia Ward Howe, Memoir, p. 95). He disliked being in the limelight, and his greater services were temporarily overshadowed by his gifted wife who long outlived him. His aggressive personality inspired both love and fear: he could be harsh and exacting or tender and generous. He had a host of friends; his enemies were few.

[F. B. Sanborn, Dr. S. G. Howe, the Philanthropist (1891); Julia Ward Howe, Memoir of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe (1876); " The Hero," poem by John Greenleaf Whittier; J. L. Jones, "Samuel Gridley Howe," in Charities Review, December 1897; P roc. at the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, November 11, 1901 (1902); F. P. Stearns, "Chevalier Howe," in Cambridge Sketches (1905); Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe (2 volumes, 1906-09), ed. by his daughter Laura E. Richards; F. G. Peabody, "A Paladin of Philanthropy," in Hibbert Journal, October 1909; D. W. Howe, Howe Genealogies, Abraham of Roxbury (1929); J. J. Chapman, Learning and Other Essays (1910); L. E. Richards, Laura Bridgman, The Story of an Opened Door (1928); Boston Transcript, Boston Herald, Springfield Republican, January 10, 1876; see also Dickens' American Notes (1 842) for a short appreciation of Dr. Howe.]

E. E. A.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 283:

HOWE, Samuel Gridley, philanthropist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 10 November, 1801; died there, 9 January, 1876. He was graduated at Brown in 1821, and at the Harvard medical school in 1824. After completing his studies he went to Greece, where he served as surgeon in the war for the independence in 1824-'7, and then as the head of the regular surgical service, which he established in that country. In 1827 he returned to the United States in order to obtain help for the Greeks when they were threatened with a famine, and later founded a colony on the isthmus of Corinth, but in consequence of prostration by swamp-fever he was obliged in 1830 to leave the country. In 1831, his attention having been called to the need of schools for the blind, for whose education no provision had been made in this country, he again visited Europe in order to study the methods of instruction then in use for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the education of the blind. While in Paris he was made president of the Polish committee. In his efforts to convey and distribute funds for the relief of a detachment of the Polish army that had crossed into Prussia, he was arrested by the Prussian authorities, but, after six weeks' imprisonment, was taken to the French frontier by night and liberated. On his return to Boston in 1832 he gathered several blind pupils at his father's house, and thus gave origin to the school which was afterward known as the Perkins institution, and of which he was the first superintendent, continuing in this office until his death. His greatest achievement in this direction was the education of Laura Bridgman (q. v.). Dr. Howe also took an active part in founding the experimental school for the training of idiots, which resulted in the organization of the Massachusetts school for idiotic and feeble-minded youth in 1851. He was actively engaged in the anti-slavery movement, and was a Free-soil candidate for congress from Boston in 1846. During 1851-'3 he edited the “Commonwealth.” Dr. Howe took an active part in the sanitary movement in behalf of the soldiers during the civil war. In 1867 he again went to Greece as bearer of supplies for the Cretans in their struggle with the Turks, and subsequently edited in Boston “The Cretan.” He was appointed, in 1871, one of the commissioners to visit Santo Domingo and report upon the question of the annexation of that island to the United States, of which he became an earnest advocate. In 1868 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown. His publications include letters on topics of the time; various reports, especially those of the Massachusetts commissioners of idiots (Boston, 1847-'8); “Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution” (New York, 1828); and a “Reader for the Blind,” printed in raised characters (1839). See “Memoir of Dr. Samuel G. Howe,” by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe (Boston, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 283.



HOWE, Timothy Otis, 1816-1883, lawyer, jurist. He was an ardent Whig. Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. Elected 1861, served until 1879. During his long career he served on the committees of finance, commerce, pensions, and claims, was one of the earliest advocates of universal emancipation, and in a speech in the senate on 29 May, 1861, advocated in strong terms the negro-suffrage bill for the District of Columbia. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’, 1888, Vol. III, p. 284; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 1, p. 297; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 11, p. 343; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HOWE, Timothy Otis, senator, born in Livermore. Maine, 24 February, 1816; died in Kenosha, Wis., 25 March, 1883. He received a common-school education, working on a farm during his vacations. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Readfield. He was an ardent Whig and admirer of Henry Clay, and in 1840 was in the legislature, where he was active in debate. Impaired health occasioned his removal to Wisconsin in the latter part of this year, and opening a law office in Green Bay, then a small village, he continued his residence there throughout his life. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1848, and two years afterward was elected circuit judge. The circuit judges were also judges of the supreme court, and during part of his term he served as chief justice of the state. Resigning his judgeship in 1855, he resumed his profession, and was an efficient Republican speaker in the canvass of 1856. In the trial that was held to ascertain whether William Boynton or Coles Bashford was lawful governor of Wisconsin, Mr. Howe appeared as Bashford's counsel and gained his case, and his success largely increased his reputation. In 1861 he was elected U. S. Senator as a Republican, serving till 1879. During his long career he served on the committees of finance, commerce, pensions, and claims, was one of the earliest advocates of universal emancipation, and in a speech in the Senate on 29 May, 1861, advocated in strong terms the Negro Suffrage Bill for the District of Columbia. He also urged the right of the National government to establish territorial governments over the seceded states. He made able speeches in 1865-'6 against the policy of Andrew Johnson, and voted in favor of his impeachment. He supported the silver bill in 1878, denounced President Hayes's policy regarding civil-service reform in the southern states, and opposed the anti-Chinese bill. On the death of Salmon P. Chase, President Grant offered Judge Howe a judgeship in the supreme court, which he declined. He had left the Senate when the third term question came up, but favored the election of Grant, and in 1880 spoke strongly in its support. In 1881 he was a U. S. delegate to the International Monetary Conference in Paris. In December, 1881, he was appointed Postmaster-General by President Arthur, and, although his term of service was little more than a year, a reduction of postage was effected, postal-notes were issued, and reform measures urged with great force. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, p. 284.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 297-298:

HOWE, TIMOTHY OTIS (February 24, 1816- March 25, 1883), senator and postmaster general, was born in Livermore, Maine, the son of Betsy (Howard) and Dr. Timothy Howe and the descendant of John Howe, who emigrated from England before 1639 and settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts. He was educated in the common schools and in the Maine Wesleyan Seminary. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar and opened his office at Readfield, Vermont, where he practised until he moved to Green bay, Wisconsin, in 1845. In 1848 he was defeated in the election for Congress, but two years later he was elected judge of the 4th circuit and, by virtue of that office, justice of the state supreme bench, on which he served until 1853, when he resigned to resume his law practice. Being a Whig his sympathies naturally turned to the new Republican party, in which he became candidate for United States senator to succeed Henry Dodge, whose term expired in 1857. He lost the nomination, however, because he had become very unpopular with the large group in Wisconsin that adopted the state sovereignty doctrine, embodied in the Kentucky resolution of 1798, in order to defeat the operation of the Fugitive-Slave Act of 1850. When a fugitive slave, arrested by his master in Milwaukee, was rescued by a mob, composed partly of prominent citizens, the supreme court of Wisconsin, after the prosecution in the United States court (case of Ableman vs. Booth, 21 Howard, 506-66), refused to obey the mandate of the United States Supreme Court. The Wisconsin courts (II Wisconsin Reports, 498-554) and the legislature (General Laws Passed by the Legislature of Wisconsin, 1859, 1859, pp. 247-48) practically nullified the law. Almost alone Howe opposed this defiance of federal authority. In 1861, when public opinion had reversed itself to favor his position in support of the rights of the United States government, he was elected to the Senate, to which he was reelected in 1866 and again in 1872, each time without the formality of a caucus. Upon the death of Chief Justice Chase, President Grant offered him the empty post, but Howe declined because he believed it to be a breach of trust to give the Democratic governor of Wisconsin the opportunity to appoint a Democrat to the vacancy. For the same reason, he refused the appointment as minister to Great Britain. He was one of the earliest advocates of universal emancipation, strongly favored the suffrage bill of the District of Columbia, urged the federal government's right to establish territorial government over the seceded states, spoke vigorously against Andrew Johnson's policy and voted in favor of his conviction, supported the silver bill in 1878, advocated the repeal of the law restricting the number of national banks, and was one of the first to urge the redemption of the green-back currency. Perhaps the best expression of his political opinions is in the pamphlet, Political History ... "The Session" by Henry Brooks Adams, Reviewed by Hon. T.O. Howe (1870), reprinted from the Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) for October 7, 1870. His wife, Linda Ann Haynes, whom he had married December 21, 1841, died in 1881, leaving two children. In that same year President Garfield appointed him as commissioner to the Paris monetary conference, and at the end of the year President Arthur made him postmaster general, in which capacity he served until his death in Kenosha some months later. During the time he was postmaster general, a reduction of postage was accomplished, postal notes were issued, and reform measures vigorously urged.

[J. R. Berryman, History of the Bench and Bar of Wisconsin (1898), Volume I; P. M. Reed, The Bench and Bar of Wisconsin (1882); The Columbian Biographical Directory, Wisconsin Volume (1895); Maurice McKenna, Fond du, lac County, Wisconsin (1912), Volume I; J. B. Winslow, The Story of a Great Court (1912); Report of the Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin State Bar Association Held . . . 1900 (1901); D. W. Howe, Howe Genealogies. ... John Howe of Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachusetts (1929); Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), March 26, 1883; Milwaukee Sentinel, March 26, 1883.]

R.B.W.



HOWELL, James Bruen, senator, born near Morristown, New Jersey, 4 July. 1816; died in Keokuk, Iowa, 17 June, 1880. In 1841 he moved to Kosauque, Iowa, practised law, and engaged in politics, and was the editor of the "Des Moines Valley Whig." A loyal Whig, he early took leadership in that party in Iowa; but with the joining of the issue over the extension of slavery, he was among the first to urge the merging of all free-soil elements in a new organization and signed the call for the convention to organize the Republican party in the state. He was a delegate to the first national convention of the Republicans in 1856. He was an ardent admirer of Lincoln and opposed the administration only when it seemed to falter in its policy regarding slavery.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 302-303; S. M. Clark, "Senator James B. Howell, " Annals of Iowa, April 1894).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284-285:

HOWELL, James B., senator, born near Morristown, New Jersey, 4 July. 1816; died in Keokuk, Iowa, 17 June, 1880. His father, Elias, moved with his family to Ohio in 1819, and, settling in Licking County, was state senator, and in 1830 a member of Congress. James was graduated at Miami University in 1839, and settled in Newark, Ohio. In 1841 he moved to Kosauque, Iowa, practised law, and engaged in politics, and was the editor of the "Des Moines Valley Whig." In 1849 he moved with his paper to Keokuk, and abandoning law devoted himself to politics and to his journal, which he now published under the title of the 'Daily Gate City." He was one of the earliest advocates for the formation of the Republican Party in the state, and in 1856 was a delegate from Iowa to the convention that nominated John C. Fremont for president. He supported Abraham Lincoln in the presidential campaign of 1861, and vehemently opposed slavery. In 1870 he was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican, to fill the unexpired term of James W. Grimes, and served till 3 March, 1871. Shortly after the close of the session of 1871, President Grant selected him as one of the three commissioners that were authorized by the act of 3 March, 1871, to examine and report on claims for stores and supplies that had been taken or furnished for the use of the National Army in the seceded states. He was engaged in this work until 10 March, 1880. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 284-285.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 302-303:

HOWELL, JAMES BRUEN (July 4, 1816- June 17, 1880), pioneer editor, political journalist, was born near Morristown, New Jersey, but in 1819 he was taken by his parents, Elias and Eliza Howell, to Licking County, Ohio. His father served in the state Senate and in Congress. James was educated in the Newark, Ohio, schools and at Miami University, where he graduated in 1837. As a student he had a reputation for aggressive leadership. He studied law at Lancaster, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. The following year he was an enthusiastic Harrison supporter and served the cause as an unsuccessful candidate for prosecuting attorney. Owing to failing health, in 1841 he took a western horseback journey in the course of which he came to Keosauqua, in Iowa Territory, a town which seemed a promising location for a young lawyer, and in time he settled there. He soon came to rank as one of the leading lawyers of the territory, but abandoned the law to purchase, in 1845, with James H. Cowles, the Des Moines Valley Whig. Three years later the paper was removed to Keokuk, which seemed to offer an opportunity for a larger constituency. In 1854 he and Cowles established a daily called the Whig, rechristened the next year the Gate City. Howell remained the active editor until 1870.

Howell has been termed, not inaptly, the Horace Greeley of Iowa. He had the same intense zeal for a cause, the agitator's conviction that permitted no qualification or concession. He was a hard fighter who gave no quarter and expected none. His editorial style had no adornments but was simple, direct, specific, immediately understandable to all readers, and, in harmony with the standards of the time, not lacking in personalities. "From 1845 to 1865 J. B. Howell was the most potent maker of newspaper opinion in the Des Moines Valley and in Iowa" (S. M. Clark, post, p. 350). A loyal Whig, he early took leadership in that party in Iowa; but with the joining of the issue over the extension of slavery, he was among the first to urge the merging of all free-soil elements in a new organization and signed the call for the convention to organize the Republican party in the state. He was a delegate to the first national convention of the Republicans in 1856 and in the campaign sought in every way to promote party harmony and solidarity. At the Chicago convention, where he was one of the party counselors, he hailed the ticket with enthusiasm and lent every effort for its success. He was an ardent admirer of Lincoln and opposed the administration only when it seemed to falter in its policy regarding slavery. Inevitably he was a pronounced radical in bitter opposition to Johnson's Reconstruction policy. He was a consistent supporter of Grant.

Although Howell sought public offices from time to time, he held but few. In the first state election he was an unsuccessful candidate for district judge. On several occasions his name was before the legislature for the United States senatorship, but he served only to fill out an unexpired term (January 1870-March 1871). His tenure was too brief to provide opportunity for constructive service, but he was active throughout and attracted attention by his vigorous opposition to additional railroad grants. At the end of his te rm he was appointed by Grant a member of the court of Southern claims upon which he served to the completion of its work in 1880. During the last twenty years of his life he labored under serious physical disability as a result of an accident which contributed ultimately to his death. He was married, on November 1, 1842, to Isabella Richards, of Granville, Ohio. Following her death he married, on October 23, 1850, Mary Ann Bowen of Iowa City.

[S. M. Clark, "Senator James B. Howell, " Annals of Iowa, April 1894; D. C. Mott, "Early Iowa Newspapers," Ibid., January 1928; D. E. Clark, History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa (1912); General Catalog of Graduates and Former Students of Miami University ...1809-1909; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); files of the Des Moines Valley Whig and the Gate City, especially the latter for June 18, 19, 20, 1880. ]

E.D.R.



HUNT, Washington (August 5, 1811-February 2, 1867), governor of the state of New York. Although early in his career he had been a Democrat, he joined the Whigs and in 1842 he was elected to Congress. He served continuously until 1849, and in the Thirtieth Congress he was chairman of the committee on commerce. Opposed to human servitude and political proscription in every form, he severely criticized President Tyler because he believed Tyler labored zealously for the extension of slavery in the Southwest. In 1849, thanks to the efforts of Thurlow Weed, for many years Hunt's intimate friend and political backer, Hunt was chosen comptroller of the state of New York.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 395-396:
C. Z. Lincoln, ed., State of New York: Messages from the Governors (1909), Volume IV; D. S. Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, volumes II (1906) and III (1909)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 395-396:

HUNT, WASHINGTON (August 5, 1811-February 2, 1867), governor of the state of New York, son of Sanford and Fanny (Rose) Hunt, was born at Windham, New York. He was descended from Jonathan Hunt; who moved from Connecticut to Northampton, Massachusetts, about 1660. In 1818 his parents moved to Portage, New York, where he attended common school. In 1828 he moved to Lockport and two years later he took up the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1834. In 1836 he became the first county judge of the newly organized Niagara County and in a comparatively short time was recognized as one of the political leaders in the western section of his state. Although early in his career he had been a Democrat, he was led to join the Whigs and in 1842 he was elected to Congress. He served continuously until 1849, and in the Thirtieth Congress he was chairman of the committee on commerce. Opposed to human servitude and political proscription in every form, he severely criticized President Tyler because he believed Tyler labored zealously for the extension of slavery in the Southwest. In 1849, thanks to the efforts of Thurlow Weed, for many years Hunt's intimate friend and political backer, Hunt was chosen comptroller of the state of New York. The following year, by 262 votes, he defeated Horatio Seymour for the governorship of the state.

Hunt's administration as governor was far from brilliant. Personally honest, and scrupulous in the performance of his duties, he was not always tactful and as a consequence he became a party to a legislative squabble regarding the Erie Canal. When in 1852 Seymour defeated him for reelection he retired to his farm near Lockport. His interest in politics, however, did not cease and in 1856 he was chosen temporary chairman of the last national Whig convention. His refusal to ally himself with the rising Republican party, largely on the ground that it was a sectional organization, led to his estrangement with Weed. In 1860 he served as chairman of the Constitutional Union convention at Richmond, Virginia, which nominated Bell and Everett, he himself declining the nomination for the vice-presidency. He was also influential in fusing the Douglas-Bell electoral tickets in New York. In the presidential campaign of 1864 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention and offered a resolution calling for a convention of the states, which was defeated in committee. He strongly opposed the reelection of Lincoln arid in return was severely criticized by the Republican press. His last appearance on the political stage was in 1866 as a delegate to the National Union Convention. Personally Hunt was very well liked and possessed a wide circle of friends. In 1834 he married Mary Hosmer Walbridge, daughter of Henry Walbridge of Ithaca, New York. He was a lifelong member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and a prominent lay delegate to many of its conventions. He was interested in agriculture and devoted much of his time and effort to administering his large landholdings. He died in New York City.

[C. Z. Lincoln, ed., State of New York: Messages from the Governors (1909), Volume IV; D. S. Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, volumes II (1906) and III (1909); P.A. Chadbourne and W. B. Moore, eds., The Public Services of the State of New York: History, Statistical, Descriptive and Biographical (1882); T. W. Barnes, "Memoir of Thurlow Weed" (1884), which is Volume II of the Life of Thurlow Weed; C. E. Fitch, Encyclopedia of Biography of New York (1916), Volume I; S. J. Wiley and W. S. Garner, Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Niagara County, New York (1892); T. B. Wyman, Genealogy of the Name and Family of Hunt (1862-63); New York Times, February 3, 1867.]

H. J. C.



HURLBUT, Stephen Augustus, Union soldier, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 29 November, 1815: died in Lima, Peru, 27 March, 1882. He was a presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1848, was a member of the legislature in 1859. 1861, and 1867, and presidential elector at large on the Republican ticket in 1868.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

HURLBUT, Stephen Augustus, soldier, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 29 November, 1815: died in Lima, Peru, 27 March, 1882. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1837, and practised in Charleston until the Florida War, in which he served as adjutant in a South Carolina regiment. In 1845 he went to Illinois and practised his profession in Belvidere. He was a presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1848, was a member of the legislature in 1859. 1861, and 1867, and presidential elector at large on the Republican ticket in 1868. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers, and commanded at Fort Donelson after its capture in February, 1862. When General Grant's army moved up Tennessee River, Hurlbut commanded the 4th Division, and was the first to reach Pittsburg Landing, which he held for a week alone. He was promoted major-general for meritorious conduct at the battle of Shiloh, was then stationed at Memphis, and after the battle of Corinth, in October, 1862, pursued and engaged the defeated Confederates. He commanded at Memphis in September, 1863. led a corps under Sherman in the expedition to Meridian in February, 1864, and succeeded General Nathaniel P. Banks in command of the Department of the Gulf, serving there from 1864 till 1865, when he was honorably mustered out. He was minister resident to the United States of Colombia from 1869 till 1872, and then elected a representative to Congress from Illinois as a Republican for two consecutive terms, serving from 1873 till 1877. In 1881 he was appointed minister to Peru, which office he retained till his death.

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.