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litigation and delay, North Carolina allowed him a royalty, and the same was agreed to by Tennessee, but was never paid.

      While his fame rests upon the invention of the cotton-gin, his fortune came from his improvements in the manufacture and construction of firearms. In 1798 the United States government gave him a contract for this purpose, and he accumulated a fortune from it. The town of Whitneyville, Connecticut, was founded by this fortune. Whitney died at New Haven, Connecticut, January 8, 1825.

      The cotton-gin made the cultivation of cotton profitable, and this led to rapid introduction of slavery in the south. His invention thus affected our national history in a manner little dreamed of by the inventor. 


Letter/label or barESTER WALLACK (John Lester Wallack), for many years the leading light comedian upon the American stage, was the son of James W. Wallack, the "Brummell of the Stage." Both father and son were noted for their comeliness of feature and form. Lester Wallack was born in New York, January 1, 1819. He received his education in England, and made his first appearance on the stage in 1848 at the New Broadway theater, New York. He acted light comedy parts, and also occasionally in romantic plays like Monte Cristo, which play made him his fame. He went to England and played under management of such men as Hamblin and Burton, and then returned to New York with his father, who opened the first Wallack's theater, at the corner of Broome and Broadway, in 1852. The location was afterward changed to Thirteenth and Broadway, in 1861, and later to its present location, Broadway and Thirteenth, in 1882. The elder Wallack died in 1864, after which Lester assumed management, jointly with Theodore Moss. Lester Wallack was commissioned in the queen's service while in England, and there he also married a sister to the famous artist, the late John Everett Millais. While Lester Wallack never played in the interior cities, his name was as familiar to the public as that of our greatest stars. He died September 6, 1888, at Stamford, Connecticut. 


Letter/label or barEORGE MORTIMER PULLMAN, the palace car magnate, inventor, multi-millionaire and manufacturer, may well be classed among the remarkable self-made men of the century. He was born March 3, 1831, in Chautauqua county, New York. His parents were poor, and his education was limited to what he could learn of the rudimentary branches in the district school. At the age of fourteen he went to work as clerk for a country merchant. He kept this place three years, studying at night. When seventeen he went to Albion, New York, and worked for his brother, who kept a cabinet shop there. Five years later he went into business for himself as contractor for moving buildings along the line of the Erie canal, which was then being widened by the state, and was successful in this. In 1858 he removed to Chicago and engaged in the business of moving and raising houses. The work was novel there then and he was quite successful. About this time the discomfort attendant on traveling at night attracted his attention. He reasoned that the public would gladly pay for comfortable sleeping accommodations. A few sleeping cars were in use at that time, but they were wretchedly crude, uncomfortable affairs. In 1859 he bought two old day coaches from the Chicago & Alton road and remodeled them something like the general plan of the sleeping


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cars of the present day. They were put into service on the Chicago & Alton and became popular at once. In 1863 he built the first sleeping-car resembling the Pullman cars of to-day. It cost $18,000 and was the " Pioneer." After that the Pullman Palace Car Company prospered. It had shops at different cities. In 1880 the Town of Pullman was founded by Mr. Pullman and his company, and this model manufacturing community is known all over the world. Mr. Pullman died October 19, 1897. 


Letter/label or barAMES E. B. STUART, the most famous cavalry leader of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil war, was born in Patrick county, Virginia, in 1833. On graduating from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1854, he was assigned, as second lieutenant, to a regiment of mounted rifles, receiving his commission in October. In March, 1855, he was transferred to the newly organized First cavalry, and was promoted to first lieutenant the following December, and to captain April 22, 1861. Taking the side of the south, May 14, 1861, he was made colonel of a Virginia cavalry regiment, and served as such at Bull Run. In September, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and major-general early in 1862. On the reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia, in June of the latter year, when R. E. Lee assumed command, General Stuart made a reconnaissance (sic) with one thousand five hundred cavalry and four guns, and in two days made the circuit of McClellan's army, producing much confusion and gathering useful information, and losing but one man. August 25, 1862, he captured part of Pope's headquarters' train, including that general's private baggage and official correspondence, and the next night, in a descent upon Manasses, capturing immense quantities of commissary and quartermaster store, eight guns, a number of locomotives and a few hundred prisoners. During the invasion of Maryland, in September, 1862, General Stuart acted as rear guard, resisting the advance of the Federal cavalry at South Mountain, and at Antietam commanded the Confederate left. Shortly after he crossed the Potomac, making a raid as far as Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, General Stuart's command was on the extreme right of the Confederate line. At Chancellorsville, after "Stonewall" Jackson's death and the wounding of General A. P. Hill, General Stuart assumed command of Jackson's corps, which he led in the severe contest of May 3, 1863. Early in June, the same year, a large force of cavalry was gathered under Stuart, at Culpepper, Virginia, which, advancing to join General Lee in his invasion of Pennsylvania, was met at Brandy Station, by two divisions of cavalry and two brigades of infantry, under General John I. Gregg, and driven back. During the movements of the Gettysburg campaign he rendered important services. In May, 1864, General Stuart succeeded, by a detour, in placing himself between Richmond and Sheridan's advancing column, and at Yellow Tavern was attacked in force. During the fierce conflict that ensued General Stuart was mortally wounded, and died at Richmond, May 11, 1864 


Letter/label or barRANKLIN PIERCE, the fourteenth president of the United States--from 1853 until 1857--was born November 23, 1804, at Hillsboro, New Hampshire. He came of old revolutionary stock and his father was a governor of the state. Mr. Pierce entered Bowdoin College in 1820,

 


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was graduated in 1824, and took up the study of law in the office of Judge Woodbury, and later he was admitted to the bar. Mr. Pierce practiced his profession with varying successes in his native town and also in Concord. He was elected to the state legislature in 1833 and served in that body until 1837, the last two years of his term serving as speaker of the house. He was elected to the United States senate in 1837, just as President Van Buren began his term of office. Mr. Pierce served until 1842, and many times during Polk's term he declined important public offices. During the war with Mexico Mr. Pierce was appointed brigadier-general, and he embarked with a portion of his troops at Newport, Rhode Island, May 27, 1847, and went with them to the field of battle. He served through the war and distinguished himself by his skill, bravery and excellent judgment. When he reached his home in his native state he was received coldly by the opponents of the war, but the advocates of the war made up for his cold reception by the enthusiastic welcome which they accorded him. Mr. Pierce resumed the practice of his profession, and in the political strife that followed he gave his support to the pro-slavery wing of the Democratic party. The Democratic convention met in Baltimore, June 12, 1852, to nominate a candidate for the presidency, and they continued in session four days, and in thirty-five ballotings no one had secured the requisite two-thirds vote. Mr. Pierce had not received a vote as yet, until the Virginia delegation brought his name forward, and finally on the forty-ninth ballot Mr. Pierce received 282 votes and all the other candidates eleven. His opponent on the Whig ticket was General Winfleld Scott, who only received the electoral votes of four states. Mr. Pierce was inaugurated president of the United States March 4, 1853, with W. R. King as vice president, and the following named gentlemen were afterward chosen to fill the positions in the cabinet: William S. Marcy, James Guthrie, Jefferson Davis, James C. Dobbin, Robert McClelland, James Campbell and Caleb Cushing. During the administration of President Pierce the Missouri compromise law was repealed, and all the territories of the Union were thrown open to slavery, and the disturbances in Kansas occurred. In 1857 he was succeeded in the presidency by James Buchanan, and retired to his home in Concord, New Hampshire. He always cherished his principles of slavery, and at the outbreak of the rebellion he was an adherent of the cause of the Confederacy. He died at Concord, New Hampshire, October 8, 1869. 


Letter/label or barAMES B. WEAVER, well known as a leader of the Greenback and later of the Populist party, was born at Dayton, Ohio, June 12, 1833. He received his earlier education in the schools of his native town, and entered the law department of the Ohio University, at Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 1854. Removing to the growing state of Iowa, he became connected with "The Iowa Tribune," at the state capital, Des Moines, as one of its editors. He afterward practiced law and was elected district attorney for the second judicial district of Iowa, on the Republican ticket in 1866, which office he held for a short time. In 1867 Mr. Weaver was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the first district of Iowa, and filled that position until sometime in 1873. He was elected and served in the forty-sixth congress. In 1880 the National or Greenback party in convention at Chicago, nominated James B. Weaver a


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its candidate for the presidency. By a union of the Democratic and National parties in his district, he was elected to the forty-ninth congress, and re-elected to the same office in the fall of 1886. Mr. Weaver was conceded to be a very fluent speaker, and quite active in all political work. On July 4,1892, at the National convention of the People's party, General James B. Weaver was chosen as the candidate for president of that organization, and during the campaign that followed, gained a national reputation. 


Letter/label or barNTHONY JOSEPH DREXEL, one of the leading bankers and financiers of the United States, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1826, and was the son of Francis M. Drexel, who had established the large banking institution of Drexel & Co., so well known. The latter was a native of Dornbirn, in the Austrian Tyrol. He studied languages and fine arts at Turin, Italy. On returning to his mountain home, in 1809, and finding it in the hands of the French, he went to Switzerland and later to Paris. In 1812, after a short visit home, he went to Berlin, where he studied painting until 1817, in which year he emigrated to America, and settled in Philadelphia. A few years later he went to Chili and Peru, where he executed some fine portraits of notable people, including General Simon Bolivar. After spending some time in Mexico, he returned to Philadelphia, and engaged in the banking business. In 1837 he founded the house of Drexel & Co. He died in 1837, and was succeeded by his two sons, Anthony J. and Francis A. His son, Anthony J. Drexel, Jr., entered the bank when he was thirteen years of age, before he was through with his schooling, and after that the history of the banking business of which he was the head, was the history of his life. The New York house of Drexel, Morgan & Co. was established in 1850; the Paris house, Drexel, Harjes & Co., in 1867. The Drexel banking houses have supplied iand (sic) placed hundreds of millions of dollars n (sic) government, corporation, railroad and other loans and securities. The reputation of the houses has always been held on the highest plane. Mr. Drexel founded and heavily endowed the Drexel Institute, in Philadelphia, an institution to furnish better and wider avenues of employment to young people of both sexes. It has departments of arts, science, mechanical arts and domestic economy. Mr. Drexel, Jr., departed this life June 30, 1893. 


Letter/label or barAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE, inventor of the recording telegraph instrument, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 1791. He graduated from Yale College in 1810, and took up art as his profession. He went to London with the great American painter, Washington Allston, and studied in the Royal Academy under Benjamin West. His "Dying Hercules," his first effort in sculpture, took the gold medal in 1813. He returned to America in 1815 and continued to pursue his profession. He was greatly interested in scientific studies, which he carried on in connection with other labors. He founded the National Academy of Design and was many years its president. He returned to Europe and spent three years in study in the art centers, Rome, Florence, Venice and Paris. In 1832 he returned to America and while on the return voyage the idea of a recording telegraph apparatus occurred to him, and he made a drawing to represent his conception. He was the first to occupy the chair of fine arts in the University of New


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York City, and in 1835 he set up his rude instrument in his room in the university. But it was not until after many years of discouragement and reverses of fortune that he finally was successful in placing his invention before the public. In 1844, by aid of the United States government, he had constructed a telegraph line forty miles in length from Washington to Baltimore. Over this line the test was made, and the first telegraphic message was flashed May 24, 1844, from the United States supreme court rooms to Baltimore. It read, "What hath God wrought!" His fame and fortune were established in an instant. Wealth and honors poured in upon him from that day. The nations of Europe vied with each other in honoring the great inventor with medals, titles and decorations, and the learned societies of Europe hastened to enroll his name upon their membership lists and confer degrees. In 1858 he was the recipient of an honor never accorded to an inventor before. The ten leading nations of Europe, at the suggestion of the Emporer (sic) Napoleon, appointed representatives to an international congress, which convened at Paris for the special purpose of expressing gratitude of the nations, and they voted him a present of 400,000 francs.

      Professor Morse was present at the unveiling of a bronze statue erected in his honor in Central Park, New York, in 1871. His last appearance in public was at the unveiling of the statue of Benjamin Franklin in New York in 1872, when he made the dedicatory speech and unveiled the statue. He died April 2, 1872, in the city of New York. 


Letter/label or barORRISON REMICH WAITE, seventh chief justice of the United States, was born at Lyme, Connecticut, November 29, 1816. He was a graduate from Yale College in 1837, in the class with 'William M. Evarts. His father was judge of the supreme court of errors of the state of Connecticut, and in his office young Waite studied law. He subsequently removed to Ohio, and was elected to the legislature of that state in 1849. He removed from Maumee City to Toledo and became a prominent legal light in that state. He was nominated as a candidate for congress repeatedly but declined to run, and also declined a place on the supreme bench of the state. He won great distinction for his able handling of the Alabama claims at Geneva, before the arbitration tribunal in 1871, and was appointed chief justice of the supreme court of the United States in 1874 on the death of Judge Chase. When, in 1876, electoral commissioners were chosen to decide the presidential election controversy between Tilden and Hayes, Judge Waite refused to serve on that commission.

      His death occurred March 23, 1888. 


Letter/label or barLISHA KENT KANE was one of the distinguished American explorers of the unknown regions of the frozen north, and gave to the world a more accurate knowledge of the Arctic zone. Dr. Kane was born February 3, 1820, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of the universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and took his medical degree in 1843. He entered the service of the United States navy, and was physician to the Chinese embassy. Dr. Kane traveled extensively in the Levant, Asia and Western Africa, and also served in the Mexican war, in which he was severely wounded. His first Arctic expedition was under De Haven in the first Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin in 1850. He commanded the second Grinnell expedition


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in 1853-55, and discovered an open polar sea. For this expedition he received a gold medal and other distinctions. He published a narrative of his first polar expedition in 1853, and in 1856 published two volumes relating to his second polar expedition. He was a man of active, enterprising and courageous spirit. His health, which was always delicate, was impaired by the hardships of his Arctic expeditions, from which he never fully recovered and from which he died February 16, 1857, at Havana. 


Letter/label or barLIZABETH CADY STANTON was a daughter of Judge Daniel Cady and Margaret Livingston, and was born November 12, 1815, at Johnstown, New York. She was educated at the Johnstown Academy, where she studied with a class of boys, and was fitted for college at the age of fifteen, after which she pursued her studies at Mrs. Willard's Seminary, at Troy. Her attention was called to the disabilities of her sex by her own educational experiences, and through a study of Blackstone, Story, and Kent. Miss Cady was married to Henry B. Stanton in 1840, and accompanied him to the world's anti-slavery convention in London. While there she made the acquaintance of Lucretia Mott. Mrs. Stanton resided at Boston until 1847, when the family moved to Seneca Falls, New York, and she and Lucretia Mott signed the first call for a woman's rights convention. The meeting was held at her place of residence July 19-20, 1848. This was the first occasion of a formal claim of suffrage for women that was made. Mrs. Stanton addressed the New York legislature, in 1854, on the rights of married women, and in 1860, in advocacy of the granting of divorce for drunkenness. She also addressed the legislature and the constitutional convention, and maintained that during the revision of the constitution the state was resolved into its original elements, and that all citizens had, therefore, a right to vote for the members of that convention. After 1869 Mrs. Stanton frequently addressed congressional committees and state constitutional conventions, and she canvassed Kansas, Michigan, and other states when the question of woman suffrage was submitted in those states. Mrs. Stanton was one of the editors of the "Revolution," and most of the calls and resolutions for conventions have come from her pen. She was president of the national committee, also of the Woman's Loyal League, and of the National Association, for many years. 


Letter/label or barAVID DUDLEY FIELD, a great American jurist, was born in Connecticut in 1805. He entered Williams College when sixteen years old, and commenced the study of law in 1825. In 1828 he was admitted to the bar, and went to New York, where he soon came into prominence before the bar of that state. He entered upon the labor of reforming the practice and procedure, which was then based upon the common law practice of England, and had become extremely complicated, difficult and uncertain in its application. His first paper on this subject was published in 1839, and after eight years of continuous efforts in this direction, he was appointed one of a commission by New York to reform the practice of that state. The result was embodied in the two codes of procedure, civil and criminal, the first of which was adopted almost entire by the state of New York, and has since been adopted by more than half the states in the Union, and became the basis of the new practice and procedure in England, contained in the judicature act. He


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was later appointed chairman of a new commission to codify the entire body of laws. This great work employed many years in its completion, but when finished it embraced a civil, penal, and political code, covering the entire field of American laws, statutory and common. This great body of law was adopted by California and Dakota territory in its entirety, and many other states have since adopted its substance. In 1867 the British Association for Social Science heard a proposition from Mr. Field to prepare an international code. This led to the preparation of his "Draft Outlines of an International Code," which was in fact a complete body of international laws, and introduced the principle of arbitration. Other of his codes of the state of New York have since been adopted by that state.

      In addition to his great works on law, Mr. Field indulged his literary tastes by frequent contributions to general literature, and his articles on travels, literature, and the political questions of the hour gave him rank with the best writers of his time. His father was the Rev. David Dudley Field, and his brothers were Cyrus W. Field, Rev. Henry Martin Field, and Justice Stephen J. Field of the United States supreme court. David Dudley Field died at New York, April 13, 1894. 


Letter/label or barENRY M. TELLER, a celebrated American politician, and secretary of the interior under President Arthur, was born May 23, 1830, in Allegany county, New York. He was of Hollandish ancestry and received an excellent education, after which he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in the state of New York. Mr. Teller removed to Illinois in January, 1858, and practiced for three years in that state. From thence he moved to Colorado in 1861 and located at Central City, which was then one of the principal mining towns in the state. His exceptional abilities as a lawyer soon brought him into prominence and gained for him a numerous and profitable clientage. In politics he affiliated with the Republican party, but declined to become a candidate for office until the admission of Colorado into the Union as a state, when he was elected to the United States senate. Mr. Teller drew the term ending March 4, 1877, but was re-elected December 11, 1876, and served until April 17, 1882, when he was appointed by President Arthur as secretary of the interior. He accepted a cabinet position with reluctance, and on March 3, 1885, he retired from the cabinet, having been elected to the senate a short time before to succeed Nathaniel P. Hill. Mr. Teller took his seat on March 4, 1885, in the senate, to which he was afterward re-elected. He served as chairman on the committee of pensions, patents, mines and mining, and was also a member of committees on claims, railroads, privileges and elections and public lands. Mr. Teller came to be recognized as one of the ablest advocates of the silver cause. He was one of the delegates to the Republican National convention at St. Louis in 1896, in which he took an active part and tried to have a silver plank inserted in the platform of the party. Failing in this he felt impelled to bolt the convention, which he did and joined forces with the great silver movement in the campaign which followed, being recognized in that campaign as one of the most able and eminent advocates of "silver" in America. 


Letter/label or barOHN ERICSSON, an eminent inventor and machinist, who won fame in America, was born in Sweden, July 3!, 1803. In early childhood he evinced a decided in-

 


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clination to mechanical pursuits, and at the age of eleven he was appointed to a cadetship in the engineer corps, and at the age of seventeen was promoted to a lieutenancy. In 1826 he introduced a "flame engine," which he had invented, and offered it to English capitalists, but it was found that it could be operated only by the use of wood for fuel. Shortly after this he resigned his commission in the army of Sweden, and devoted himself to mechanical pursuits. He discovered and introduced the principle of artificial draughts in steam boilers, and received a prize of two thousand five hundred dollars for his locomotive, the "Novelty," which attained a great speed, for that day. The artificial draught effected a great saving in fuel and made unnecessary the huge smoke-stacks formerly used, and the principle is still applied, in modified form, in boilers. He also invented a steam fire-engine, and later a hot-air engine, which he attempted to apply in the operation of his ship, "Ericsson," but as it did not give the speed required, he abandoned it, but afterwards applied it to machinery for pumping, hoisting, etc.

      Ericsson was first to apply the screw propeller to navigation. The English people not receiving this new departure readily, Ericsson came to America in 1839, and built the United States steamer, ''Princeton," in which the screw-propeller was utilized, the first steamer ever built in which the propeller was under water, out of range of the enemy's shots. The achievement which gave him greatest renown, however, was the ironclad vessel, the ''Monitor," an entirely new type of vessel, which, in March, 1862, attacked the Confederate monster ironclad ram, ''Virginia," and after a fierce struggle, compelled her to withdraw from Hampton Roads for repairs. After the war one of his most noted inventions was his vessel, '' Destroyer," with a submarine gun, which carried a projectile torpedo. In 1886 the king of Spain conferred on him the grand cross of the Order of Naval Merit. He died in March, 1889, and his body was transferred, with naval honors, to the country of his birth. 


Letter/label or barAMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth president of the United States, was a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in Franklin county, April 23, 1791. He was of Irish ancestry, his father having come to this country in 1783, in quite humble circumstances, and settled in the western part of the Keystone state.

      James Buchanan remained in his secluded home for eight years, enjoying but few social or intellectual advantages. His parents were industrious and frugal, and prospered, and, in 1799, the family removed to Mercersbur_ Pennsylvania, where he was placed in school. His progress was rapid, and in 1801 he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, where he took his place among the best scholars in the institution. In 1809 he graduated with the highest honors in his class. He was then eighteen, tall, graceful and in vigorous health. He commenced the study of law at Lancaster, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He rose very rapidly in his profession and took a stand with the ablest of his fellow lawyers. When but twenty-six years old he successfully defended, unaided by counsel, one of the judges of the state who was before the bar of the state senate under articles of impeachment.

      During the war of 1812-15, Mr. Buchanan sustained the government with all his power, eloquently urging the vigorous prosecution of the war, and enlisted as a private


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volunteer to assist in repelling the British who had sacked and burned the public buildings of Washington and threatened Baltimore. At that time Buchanan was a Federalist, but the opposition of that party to the war with Great Britain and the alien and sedition laws of John Adams, brought that party into disrepute, and drove many, among them Buchanan, into the Republican, or anti-Federalist ranks. He was elected to congress in 1828. In 1831 he was sent as minister to Russia, and upon his return to this country, in 1833, was elevated to the United States senate, and remained in that position for twelve years. Upon the accession of President Polk to office he made Mr. Buchanan secretary of state. Four years later he retired to private life, and in 1853 he was honored with the mission to England. In 1856 the national Democratic convention nominated him for the presidency and he was elected. It was during his administration that the rising tide of the secession movement overtook the country. Mr. Buchanan declared that the national constitution gave him no power to do anything against the movement to break up the Union. After his succession by Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mr. Buchanan retired to his home at Wheatland, Pennsylvania, where he died June 1, 1868. 


Letter/label or barOHN HARVARD, the founder of the Harvard University, was born in England about the year 1608. He received his education at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and came to America in 1637, settling in Massachusetts. He was a non-conformist minister, and a tract of land was set aside for him in Charlestown, near Boston. He was at once appointed one of a committee to formulate a body of laws for the colony. One year before his arrival in the colony the general court had voted the sum of four hundred pounds toward the establishment of a school or college, half of which was to be paid the next year In 1637 preliminary plans were made for starting the school. In 1633 John Harvard, who had shown great interest in the new institution of learning proposed, died, leaving his entire property, about twice the sum originally voted, to the school, together with three hundred volumes as a nucleus for a library. The institution was then given the name of Harvard, and established at Newton (now Cambridge), Massachusetts. It grew to be one of the two principal seats of learning in the new world, and has maintained its reputation since. It now consists of twenty-two separate buildings, and its curriculum embraces over one hundred and seventy elective courses, and it ranks among the great universities of the word. 


Letter/label or barOGER BROOKE TANEY, a noted jurist and chief justice of the United States supreme court, was born in Calvert county, Maryland, March 17, 1777. He graduated from Dickinson College at the age of eighteen, took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1799. He was chosen to the legislature from his county, and in 1801 removed to Frederick, Maryland. He became United States senator from Maryland in 1816, and took up his permanent residence in Baltimore a few years later. In 1824 he became an ardent admirer and supporter of Andrew Jackson, and upon Jackson's election to the presidency, was appointed attorney general of the United States. Two years later he was appointed secretary of the treasury, and after serving in that capacity for nearly one year, the senate refused to confirm the appointment. In 1835, upon the death of


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Chief-Justice Marshall, he was appointed to that place, and a political change having occurred in the make up of the senate, he was confirmed in 1836. He presided at his first session in January of the following year.

     The case which suggests itself first to the average reader in connection with this jurist is the celebrated "Dred Scott" case, which came before the supreme court for decision in 1856. In his opinion, delivered on behalf of a majority of the court, one remarkable statement occurs as a result of an exhaustive survey of the historical grounds, to the effect that for more than a century prior to the adoption of the constitution they (Africans) had been regarded so far inferior that they had no rights which a white man was bound to respect." Judge Taney retained the office of chief justice until his death, in 1864. 


Letter/label or barOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. --This gentleman had a world-wide reputation as an historian, which placed him in the front rank of the great men of America. He was born April 15, 1814, at Dorchester, Massachusetts, was given a thorough preparatory education and then attended Harvard, from, which he was graduated in 1831. He also studied at Gottingen and Berlin, read law and in 1836 was admitted to the bar. In 1841 he was appointed secretary of the legation at St. Petersburg, and in 1866-67 served as United States minister to Austria, serving in the same capacity during 1869 and 1870 to England. In 1856, after long and exhaustive research and preparation, he published in London "The Rise of the Dutch Republic." It embraced three volumes and immediately attracted great attention throughout Europe and America as a work of unusual merit. From 1861 to 1868 he produced "The History of the United Netherlands," in four volumes. Other works followed, with equal success, and his position as one of the foremost historians and writers of his day was firmly established. His death occured May 29, 1877. 


Letter/label or barLIAS HOWE, the inventor of the sewing machine, well deserves to be classed among the great and noted men of America. He was the son of a miller and farmer and was born at Spencer, Massachusetts, July 9, 1819. In 1835 he went to Lowell and worked there, and later at Boston, in the machine shops. His first sewing machine was completed in 1845, and he patented it in 1846, laboring with the greatest persistency in spite of poverty and hardships, working for a time as an engine driver on a railroad at pauper wages and with broken health. He then spent two years of unsuccessful exertion in England, striving in vain to bring his invention into public notice and use. He returned to the United States in almost hopeless poverty, to find that his patent had been violated. At last, however, he found friends who assisted him financially, and after years of litigation he made good his claims in the courts in 1854. His invention afterward brought him a large fortune. During the Civil war he volunteered as a private in the Seventeenth Connecticut Volunteers, and served for some time. During his life time he received the cross of the Legion of Honor and many other medals. His death occurred October 3, 1867, at Brooklyn, New York. 


Letter/label or barHILLIPS BROOKS, celebrated as an eloquent preacher and able pulpit orator, was born in Boston on the 13th day of December, 1835. He received excellent

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