OHN
QUINCY ADAMS, sixth president of the United States, was born in
Braintree, Massachusetts, July 11, 1767, the son of John Adams. At
the age of eleven he was sent to school at Paris, and two years
later to Leyden, where he entered hat great university. He
returned to the United States in 1785, and graduated from Harvard
in 1788. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1791.
His practice brought no income the first two years, but he won
distinction in literary fields and was appointed minister to The
Hague in 1794. He married in 1797, and went as minister to Berlin
the same year, serving until 1801, when Jefferson became
president. He was elected to the senate in 1803 by the
Federalists, but was condemned by that party for advocating the
Embargo Act and other Anti-Federalist measures. He was appointed
as professor of rhetoric at Harvard in 1805, and in 1809 was sent
as minister to Russia. He assisted in negotiating the treaty of
peace with England in 1814, and became minister to that power the
next year. He served during Monroe's administration two terms as
secretary of state, during which time party lines were
obliterated, and in 1824 four candidates for president appeared,
all of whom were identified to some extent with the new
"Democratic" party. Mr. Adams received 84 electoral votes, Jackson
99, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. As no candidate had a majority of
all votes, the election went to the house of representatives,
which elected Mr. Adams. As Clay had thrown his influence to Mr.
Adams, Clay became secretary of state, and this caused bitter
feeling on the part of the Jackson Democrats, who were joined by
Mr. Crawford and his following, and opposed every measure of the
administration. In the election of 1828 Jackson was elected over
Mr. Adams by a great majority.
Mr. Adams entered the lower house of congress in 1830, elected from the district in which he was born and continued to represent it for seventeen years. He was known as "the old man eloquent," and his work in congress was independent of party. He opposed slavery extension and insisted upon presenting to congress, one at a time, the hundreds of petitions against the slave power. One of these petitions, presented in 1842, was signed by forty-five citizens of Massachusetts, and prayed congress for a peaceful dissolution of the Union. His enemies seized upon this as an opportunity to crush their powerful foe, and in a caucus meeting determined upon his expulsion from congress. Finding they would not be able to command enough votes for this, they decided upon a course that would bring equal disgrace. They formulated a resolution to the effect that while he merited expulsion, the house would, in great mercy, substitute its severest censure. When it was read in the house the old man, then in his seventy-fifth
USAN
B. ANTHONY was one of the most famous women of America. She was
born at South Adams, Massachusetts, February 15, 1820, the
daughter of a Quaker. She received a good education and became a
school teacher, following that profession for fifteen years in New
York. Beginning with about 1852 she became the active leader of
the woman's rights movement and won a wide reputation for her zeal
and ability. She also distinguished herself for her zeal and
eloquence in the temperance. and anti-slavery causes, and became a
conspicuous figure during the war. After the close of the war she
gave most of her labors to the cause of woman's
suffrage. 
HILIP
D. ARMOUR, one of the most conspicuous figures in the mercantile
history of America, was born May 16, 1832, on a farm at
Stockbridge, Madison county, New York, and received his early
education the common schools of that county. He was apprenticed to
a farmer and worked faithfully and well, being very ambitious and
desiring to start out for himself. At the age of twenty he secured
a release from his indentures and set out overland for the gold
fields of California. After a great deal of hard work he
accumulated a little money and then came east and settled in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went into the grain receiving and
warehouse business and was fairly successful, and later on he
formed a partnership with John Plankinton in the pork packing
line, the style of the firm being Plankinton & Armour. Mr.
Armour made his first great "deal" in selling pork "short" on the
New York market in the anticipation of the fall of the
Confederacy, and Mr. Armour is said to have made through this deal
a million dollars. He then established packing houses in Chicago
and Kansas City, and in 1875 he removed to Chicago. He increased
his business by adding to it the shipment of dressed beef to the
European markets, and many other lines of trade and manufacturing,
and it rapidly assumed vast proportions, employing an army of men
in different lines of the business. Mr. Armour successfully
conducted a great many speculative deals in pork and grain of
immense proportions and also erected many large warehouses for the
storage of grain. He became one of the representative business men
of Chicago, where he became closely identified with all
enterprises of a public nature, but his fame as a great business
man extended to all parts of the world. He founded the "Armour
Institute" at Chicago and also contributed largely to benevolent
and charitable institutions. 
OBERT
FULTON.--Although Fulton is best known as the inventor of the
first successful steamboat, yet his claims to distinction do not
rest alone upon that, for he was an inventor along other lines, a
painter and an author. He was born at Little Britain, Lancaster
county, Pennsyl-
ARRIET
ELIZABETH BEECHER STOWE, a celebrated American writer, was born
June 14, 1812, at Litchfield, Connecticut. She was a daughter of
Lyman Beecher and a sister of Henry Ward Beecher, two noted
divines; was carefully educated, and taught school for several
years at Hartford, Connecticut. In 1832 Miss Beecher married
Professor Stowe, then of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, and
afterwards at Bowdoin College and Andover Seminary. Mrs. Stowe
published in 1849 "The Mayflower, or sketches of the descendants
of the Pilgrims," and in 1851 commenced in the "National Era" of
Washington, a serial story which was published separately in 1852
under the title of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." This book attained almost
unparalleled success both at home and abroad, and within ten years
it had been translated in almost every language of the civilized
world. Mrs. Stowe published in 1853 a 'Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin"
in which the data that she used was published and its truthfulness
was corroborated. In 1853 she accompanied her husband and brother
to Europe, and on her return published "Sunny Memories of Foreign
Lands" in 1854. Mrs. Stowe was for some time one of the editors of
the "Atlantic Monthly" and the "Hearth and Home," for which she
had written a number of articles. Among these, also published
separately, are ''Dred, a tale of the Great Dismal Swamp" (later
published under the title of "Nina
HOMAS
JONATHAN JACKSON, better known as "Stonewall" Jackson, was one of
the most noted of the Confederate generals of the Civil war. He
was a soldier by nature, an incomparable lieutenant, sure to
execute any operation entrusted to him with marvellous precision,
judgment and courage, and all his individual campaigns and combats
bore the stamp of a masterly capacity for war. He was born January
2!, 1824, at Clarksburg, Harrison county, West Virginia. He was
early in life imbued with the desire to be a soldier and it is
said walked from the mountains of Virginia to Washington, secured
the aid of his congressman, and was appointed cadet at the United
States Military Academy at West Point from which he was graduated
in 1846. Attached to the army as brevet second lieutenant of the
First Artillery, his first service was as a subaltern with
Magruder's battery of light artillery in the Mexican war. He
participated at the reduction of Vera Cruz, and was noticed for
gallantry in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Moline del
Rey, Chapultepec, and the capture of the city of Mexico, receiving
the brevets of captain for conduct at Contreras and Cheribusco and
of major at Chapultepec. In he meantime he had been advanced by
:regular promotion to be first lieutenant in 1847 In 1852, the war
having closed, he resigned and became professor of natural and
experimental philosophy and artillery instructor at the Virginia
State Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia, where he remained
until Virginia declared for secession, he becoming chiefly noted
for intense religious sentiment coupled with personal
eccentricities. Upon the breaking out of the war he was made
colonel and placed in command of a force sent to sieze Harper's
Ferry, which he accomplished May 3, 1861. Relieved by General J.
E. Johnston, May 23, he took command of the brigade of Valley
Virginians, whom he moulded into that brave corps, baptized at the
first Manassas, and ever after famous as the Stonewall Brigade."
After this ''Stonewall" Jackson was made a major-general, in 1861,
and participated until his death in all the famous campaigns about
Richmond and in Virginia, and was a conspicuous figure in the
memorable battles of that time. May 2, 1863, at chancellorsville,
he was wounded severely by his own troops, two balls shattering
his left arm and another passing through the palm of his right
hand. The left arm was amputated, but pneumonia intervened, and,
weakened by the great loss of blood, he died May 10, 1863. The
more his operations in the Shenandoah valley in 1862 are studied
the more striking must the merits of this great soldier
appear. 
AVID
DIXON PORTER, illustrious as admiral of the United States navy,
and famous as one of the most able naval officers of America, was
born in Pennsylvania, June 8, 1814. His father was also a naval
officer of distinction, who left the service of the United States
to become commander of the naval forces of Mexico during the war
between that country and Spain, and through this fact David Dixon
Porter was appointed a midshipman in the Mexican navy. Two years
later David D. Porter joined the United States navy as midshipman,
rose in rank and eighteen years later as a lieutenant he is found
actively engaged in all the operations of our navy along the east
coast of Mexico. When the Civil war broke out Porter, then a
commander, was dispatched in the Powhattan to the relief of Fort
Pickens, Florida. This duty accomplished, he fitted out a mortar
flotilla for the reduction of the forts guarding the approaches to
New Orleans, which it was considered of vital importance for the
government to get possession of. After the fall of New Orleans the
mortar flotilla was actively engaged at Vicksburg, and in the fall
of 1862 Porter was made a rear-admiral and placed in command of
all the naval forces on the western rivers above New Orleans.
ATHANIEL
GREENE was one of the best known of the distinguished generals who
led the Continental soldiery against the hosts of Great Britain
during the Revolutionary war. He was the son of Quaker parents,
and was born at Warwick, Rhode Island, May 27, 1742. In youth he
acquired a good education, chiefly by his own efforts, as he was a
tireless reader. In 1770 he was elected a member of the Assembly
of his native state. The news of the battle of Lexington stirred
his blood, and he offered his services to the government of the
colonies, receiving the rank of brigadier-general and the command
of the troops from Rhode Island. He led them to the camp at
Cambridge, and for thus violating the tenets of their faith, he
was cast out of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. He soon won
the esteem of General Washington. In August, 1776, Congress
promoted Greene to the rank of major-general, and in the battles
of Trenton and Princeton he led a division. At the battle of
Brandywine, September 11, 1777, he greatly distinguished himself,
protecting the retreat of the Continentals by his firm stand. At
the battle of Germantown, October 4, the same year, he commanded
the left wing of the army with credit. In March, 1778, he
reluctantly accepted the office of quartermaster-general, but only
with the understanding that his rank in the army would not be
affected and that in action he should retain his command. On the
bloody field of Monmouth, June 28, 778, he commanded the right
wing, as he did at the battle of Tiverton Heights. He was in
command of the army in 1780, during the absence of Washington, and
was president of the court-martial that tried and condemned Major
Andre. After General Gates' defeat at Camden, North Carolina, in
the summer of 1780, General Greene was appointed to the command of
the southern army. He sent out a force under General Morgan who
defeated General Tarleton at Cowpens, January 17, 1781. On joining
his lieutenant, in February, he found himself out numbered by the
British and retreated in good order to Virginia, but being
reinforced returned to North Carolina where he fought the battle
of Guilford, and a few days later compelled the retreat of Lord
Cornwallis. The British were followed by Greene part of the way,
when the American army marched into South Carolina. After varying
success he fought the battle of Eutaw Springs, September 8, 1781.
For the latter battle and its glorious consequences, which
virtually closed the war in the Carolinas, Greene received a medal
from Congress and many valuable grants of land from the colonies
of North and South Carolina and Georgia. On the return of peace,
after a year spent in Rhode Island, General Greene took up his
residence on his estate near Savannah, Georgia, where he died June
19, 1786. 
DGAR
ALLEN POE.--Among the many great literary men whom this country
has produced, there is perhaps no name more widely known than that
of Edgar Allen Poe. He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, February
19, 1809. His parents were David and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, both
actors, the mother said to have been the natural daughter of
Benedict Arnold. The parents died while Edgar was
