University of Virginia Library

Presidents of the United States.

GEORGE WASHINGTON,

First President of the United States, was born February 22, 1732,
and died on the 14th of December, 1799, in his 68th year.

The first of the name of Washington to settle in America were two
brothers, John and Lawrence, who emigrated from England to Virginia
in 1657, and purchased land in Westmoreland county, between
the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. John Washington married
Anne Page of Westmoreland county, became an extensive planter
and a magistrate and member of the House of Burgesses. As Colonel
Washington he led the Virginia militia against the Seneca Indians, and
the grateful people whom he defended named in his honor that district
of Westmoreland county which still bears the name of Washington.

Augustine Washington, grandson of John, was born in 1694 on the
family estate which he in time inherited. He was twice married, his
second wife being Mary, daughter of Colonel Ball, of Virginia, and
their first child, George Washington, born in Westmoreland county.

Not long after the birth of this son Augustine Washington removed
to a family estate in Stafford county, and here the childhood of George
was passed, and he received what instructions could be gathered from
the limited acquirements in reading, writing and arithmetic of one
Hobby, who was one of his father's tenants, and combined the duties
of parish sexton with the swaying of the birch in the little field school
house on the estate.

But in the home circle young Washington had good example and
good instruction in all that constitutes gentle breeding, and from his
ninth year he had the intimate companionship of his eldest half brother,
Lawrence, who had been, as was the custom with the eldest son
of a colonial gentleman, educated in England. There was a difference
of fourteen years in the age of the half brothers, but a warm affection
between them, and George naturally looked upon his cultivated senior
as a pattern after which he should model his own mind and manners.

The death of Augustine Washington in 1743 left the children of his
second marriage to the guardianship of their mother. She was equal to

the trust—prompt to decide and to act, controlled by common sense and by
conscience, she governed her family with a firm hand, and held their love
while exacting their obedience. Through his entire life Washington
acknowledged with love and gratitude how much of what he was he owed
to his mother. He preserved with tender care a manual of instruction
from which she was accustomed to read to her fatherless little ones, and
this manual may now be seen in the archives of Mount Vernon.

When about twelve years of age, Washington went to pass some time
with his brother Lawrence, at Mount Vernon, and to avail himself of better
school facilities, but his education was confined to plain English
branches of study. In the autumn of 1747, he took a final leave of school,
having a good knowledge of mathematics and of surveying, which he put
to practical use.

In March, 1748, he was sent by Lord Fairfax to survey some wild lands
in what was then the western borders of settlement, a difficult task, which he
completed in a month's time. He then received the appointment of public
surveyor, which office he held three years.

For some years the French and English governments had been disputing
the ownership of the North American continent, and each, by diplomacy,
endeavoring to secure the alliance of the Indian tribes. October
30, 1753, George Washington, not yet twenty-two years of age, was sent
by Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, on the important embassy of securing
terms of friendship with the Indian sachems along the Ohio, and to
expostulate with the French commander at Venango for his aggressions on
the territory of His Britannic Majesty. The ability with which Washington
executed his difficult mission, which he accomplished so that he was
able to report, January 16, 1754, may be considered the foundation of his
future eminence. From this date he was the rising hope of Virginia.

French and English alike now began preparations for war, and in Virginia
three hundred militia was raised, and Washington made second in
command, with rank of lieutenant-colonel. On the 2d of April he took
the field at the head of only two companies of men, about 150 in all. For
five years following he was in the royal service, and in several battles was
in command. During the engagement known as "Braddock's Defeat,"
he received four bullet-holes through his coat, and two horses were shot
under him. The interest of the Virginians in the French and Indian
war ended with the expulsion of the French from the Ohio Valley, and
Washington resigned his command.

January 17, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, and having inherited
Mount Vernon at the death of his loved brother, Lawrence, July 26,
1752, they made their home on that estate.

Early in the year of his marriage Washington repaired to Williamsburg
to take the seat in the House of Burgesses to which he had been
elected. By a unanimous vote the house had agreed to greet his installation
with a testimonial of their gratitude for his military exertions in

behalf of Virginia. This was conveyed to him in a graceful speech from
Mr. Robinson, speaker of the House. Washington rose to reply, blushed,
stammered, trembled—and was dumb. "Sit down, Mr. Washington,"
said the Speaker, "your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses
a force of any language I possess."

During the next sixteen years Washington's time was occupied with his
property interests and in attendance on the sessions of the House of Burgesses,
of which he continued a member. His residence was at Mount
Vernon, and his growing reputation drew about him there many distinguished
guests, whom he entertained with true Virginian hospitality.

His own home life was exceedingly simple. He was an early riser,
often leaving his room before daybreak of a winter's morning. He breakfasted
at seven in summer, and eight in winter, his breakfast usually consisting
of two small cups of tea and three or four "hoecakes." Immediately
after breakfast he mounted his horse and made a personal inspection
of the work on his estate. At two he dined, eating heartily, and
drinking small beer or cider, followed by two glasses of old Madeira. He
took tea, of which he was very fond, early in the evening, and retired for
the night at nine o'clock.

The troubles between the colonists and Great Britain engaged the attention
of the House of Burgesses during the last years of Washington's
attendance on that body, and he was a member of that House which was
dissolved by the royal governor for sympathizing with the colonists of
Massachusetts in regard to the "Boston Port Bill."

He was a delegate from Virginia to the first Continental Congress, in
1774, and continued in his seat until in June, 1775, at the request of his
colleagues he resigned to assume command of the Continental army. July
3, 1775, General Washington took up his headquarters at Cambridge,
Massachusetts, welcomed with unbounded enthusiasm by his troops. The
thoughts of a Cæsar, the ambition of an Alexander, might be supposed to
have swelled his heart that day. But at its close, he wrote to his friend
and neighbor, George William Fairfax, then in England:

"Unhappy it is to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a
brother's breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America
are to be either drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative!
But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?"

The eight years of the Revolutionary War now ensued, during which
time Washington was constantly at the post of duty assigned him; now
commanding the battle on the fields of Trenton, of Princeton and of Brandywine;
now quelling the factious spirit of subordinate officers who thought
themselves able to command because they could not obey, and anon
encouraging with kind words and little acts of self-sacrifice the drooping
spirits and failing hopes of his sorely-tried army; now appealing to Congress
for munitions of war for bread for his soldiers, and for soldiers to

recruit his thinning ranks, and anon, kneeling in the snowy darkness
of the winter's night at Valley Forge, and appealing to the God of
battles and of right; now rebuking Lee on the field of Monmouth; and
now seated on his white charger at the head of his victorious troops at
Yorktown, receiving from the representative of Cornwallis the sword whose
surrender betokened the downfall of the British cause in America.

April 19, 1783, eight years from the battle of Lexington, cessation of
hostilities between the two armies was proclaimed, and on the 3d of September
following a definite treaty of peace, as between two equal nations,
was concluded and signed in Paris, by the representatives of Great Britain
and of the United States of America. In October, 1783, Congress disbanded
the troops enlisted for the war, and Washington put forth his farewell
address to the army.

December 4, 1783, in the public room of a tavern at the corner of Broadway
and Pearl streets, New York City, Washington, "with a heart full of
love and gratitude," to quote his words, took leave of the officers who had
served under him. Each in turn grasped his hands in farewell, while tears
fell upon their cheeks, and upon the forehead of each of his companions
in arms he left a kiss of farewell.

At noon on the 23d of December, he entered the legislative hall at
Annapolis, and resigned to Congress the authority with which he had
been commissioned eight years before. Accompanied by his wife he at
once set out for their loved Mount Vernon, which they reached on
Christmas Eve, 1783.

Washington now participated little in public affairs except to attend as
delegate the Philadelphia convention in May, 1787, which framed the Federal
Constitution. He was unanimously chosen to preside over this convention,
which duty fulfilled, he returned to Mount Vernon, and to private
life.

A few months before the disbanding of the army the "Society of the
Cincinnati" was formed, and Washington was made its President-General,
an office which he held until his death. The objects of the association
were to promote cordial friendship among the soldiers of the Revolutionary
army, and to extend aid to such members of the society as might
need it. To perpetuate the association it was provided in the constitution
that the eldest male descendant of a member should be entitled to wear
the "Order" and enjoy the privileges of the society. The "Order," or
badge, consists of a gold eagle suspended upon a ribbon, on the breast of
which is a medallion, with a device representing Cincinnatus receiving
the Roman Senators.

History repeated itself upon the day when, on the 14th of March, 1789,
Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress, waited on Washington to
inform him that he was chosen under the new Constitution as the first
President of the United States. The soldier-farmer-statesman was found
making the daily tour of his fields.

Accepting the office, Washington made immediate preparations for his
journey to the seat of government. His first duty was to his mother.
Toward evening of the day on which he accepted the highest dignity of
the nation, he rode from Mount Vernon to Fredericksburg, and knelt
beside the chair of her to whom he owed the qualities which made him
worthy of the honor bestowed upon him.

It was a touching interview, and, as both felt, their last meeting on
earth, for the venerable lady was now past eighty years of age, and suffering
from an incurable disease. She gave him a mother's blessing, and sent
him to fullfil the high destinies to which Heaven had called him. Before
his return to Virginia her death occurred, in August, 1789.

April 6, Washington left Mount Vernon for New York, accompanied, as
far as Alexandria, by a cavalcade of his neighbors and friends. At every
step of his journey he was greeted with demonstrations of reverence and
love. At Georgetown he was received with honors; at Baltimore he was
feasted; near Philadelphia he rode under a triumphal arch of laurel, and
little Angelica Peall, concealed among the foliage, placed upon his head
a civic crown of laurel, while from the assembled multitude went up a
shout of: "Long live George Washington! long live the Father of his
Country." When he crossed the Delaware at Trenton, scene of his victories
and defeats in his struggle with Cornwallis, he passed under an arch,
supported by thirteen pillars, which had been erected by the women of
New Jersey and bore the words: "The defender of the mothers will be
the protector of the daughters." At Elizabethtown, he was met by a committee
from the two houses of Congress, and by a deputation of civil and
military officers. They had in waiting a magnificent barge manned by
thirteen pilots in white uniforms. In this the president-elect was conveyed
to New York, where every display had been made in honor of his coming.

April 30, 1789, the inauguration took place, the chancellor of New York
State, Robert R. Livingston administering the oath. The bible used was
then and is now the property of the St. John Lodge of Free Masons of
New York City. When the ceremony was ended, President Washington
proceeded at once to the Senate Chamber and pronounced a most impressive
inaugural address, and the new government was ready to enter upon
its duties.

In the fall of 1792, he was elected to a second term as President of the
United States, and served four years longer. Then, declining another
re-election, he took leave of the people in a farewell address, issued to the
country September 17, 1796. In this address he appealed to the people
as the sovereign power in a Republican form of government, to preserve
the Union as the only hope for the continuance of their liberties and the
national prosperity.

His career as President had been a most honorable one, calmly pursued
amid trying difficulties, and though often obstructed by the hostile criticisms
of that factious spirit which is yet the curse of American politics.

Under his administrations the government had been put in
motion, its financial, domestic and foreign policies established, and
its strength maintained and augmented.

The remaining years of Washington's life were passed on his estate
at Mount Vernon. Here, in 1798, he was found at the time of
threatened war between the United States and France, when Adams
appointed him commander-in-chief of the American armies, and the
commission was borne to Mount Vernon by the secretary of war in
person. Washington was in the fields, superintending his grain harvest,
and thither Secretary McHenry repaired. Washington read his
commission, and, without hesitation, answered: "The President may
command me without reserve." Happily the storm-cloud passed
over, and his patriotism did not again call him from Mount Vernon.

December 12, 1799, Washington was exposed to a storm of sleet,
and took a cold which, on the following day, merged into something
like an attack of membranous croup. All that love and skill could
do to save him was powerless, and death ensued between ten and
eleven o'clock on the night of the 14th.

Fitted for all the uses of life, this great man was ready for death.
To his friend and physician, Dr. Craik, he said: "I die hard, but I
am not afraid to go." And his last words were: " 'Tis well."

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

Third President of the United States, was born April 2, 1742, and
died July 4, 1826, at the age of 84 years.

Virginia, glorious in the annals of American history as the birthplace
of a Washington, a Patrick Henry, a Monroe and the Lees, was
also the place of birth of Thomas Jefferson, the framer of the Declaration
of Independence and the Third President of the United States.

He was born at Shadwell, Albemarle county, son of Colonel Peter
Jefferson, a well-known gentleman of means in the province of Virginia,
and Jane (Randolph) Jefferson, daughter of Isham Randolph,
of Goochland county. He received his collegiate education at William
and Mary College, read law with the celebrated George Wythe, afterward
chancellor of the State of Virginia, and began practice in 1767.

In 1769 he became a member of the House of Burgesses, where he
served the interests of the colonists until, March 27, 1775, he was
chosen one of Virginia's representatives in the Continental Congress.
In 1774, he published his defense of the colonists, entitled, "Summary
View of the Rights of British America," wherein he boldly
set forth such doctrines that Lord Dunmore, then governor of
the province, threatened him with a prosecution for high treason.
June 1, 1775, Lord Dunmore presented to the legislature of
Virginia certain resolutions of the British parliament, to which

Jefferson, as chairman of the committee appointed for that purpose, made
response in one of the ablest State papers on record.

Wednesday, June 21, 1775, Thomas Jefferson took his seat in the Continental
Congress, where he soon became conspicuous, both for his talent
and the ardor with which it was devoted to the cause of liberty. He
served during the remainder of that year, and through the following year,
acting on many important committees, and on the 9th of June, 1776, he
was appointed chairman of that committee to whom was delegated the important
duty of preparing a draft of a Declaration of Independence. When
he appended his signature to that document, as amended and accepted, the
moment was to him the greatest and the gravest of his life.

After serving actively in Congress during the summer of 1776, Mr. Jefferson
returned home, and during the remaining years of the Revolutionary
war devoted himself mainly to the service of his own State. June 1,
1779, he was elected governor of Virginia, and as chief magistrate of that
Commonwealth his patriotism and statesmanship made him an invaluable
aid to the harassed and overburdened commander of the Continental
army, then seeing its darkest days. He remained in constant correspondence
with Washington, and gave a soldier's cheerful obedience to any suggestions
and requests that General made concerning Virginia. His term
of office expired June 2, 1780, but as a private citizen he continued to
serve the State until peace was declared.

Near the close of 1782, he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to join
the representatives of the United States already in Europe, but the treaty
of Paris, in 1783, rendered his services unnecessary, and he remained in
America.

June 6, 1783, he was again chosen delegate to Congress, and took his
seat on the 4th of November following. March 30, 1784, he was chosen
to preside in Congress, and was chairman of that committee which performed
the important work of revising and getting in proper working
order the treasury department. May 7, 1784, he was appointed to join
John Adams and Benjamin Franklin in Paris, and negotiate treaties of
commerce for the United States with foreign nations. Accompanied by
his oldest daughter, he set sail in July and joined his colleagues in the following
month.

March 10, 1785, Mr. Jefferson was unanimously chosen by Congress to
succeed Dr. Franklin as minister to the court at Versailles, and, re-appointed
in October, 1787, he remained in France until October, 1789,
in that time successfully conducting many important and intricate negotiations
in the interest of the United States.

Immediately upon his return to America, Thomas Jefferson was
appointed by President Washington Secretary of State, and he conducted
this department of the new and untried government past many perils and
by many momentous and statesmanlike decisions through the four years of

Washington's first administration, resigning the office December 31, 179.

Three years of private life ensued, and then again Mr. Jefferson found
himself in the political arena, this time as the leader of one of the two
political parties into which the American voters had become divided. By
the party then calling themselves Republicans, Mr. Jefferson was nominated
for President, and the Federal party nominated John Adams of Massachusetts
as his opponent. The vote was counted in the presence of both
houses of Congress in February, 1797, and Mr. Adams receiving the
majority was declared President, Mr. Jefferson, as was then the law, becoming
vice-president.

March 4, 1797, he took the oath of office, and as presiding officer in the
Senate, delivered before that body a speech which is yet a model of
dignity, modesty and statesmanship. Much of the four succeeding years,
Mr. Jefferson spent in tranquillity at his country home, Monticello. He had
married New Year's Day, 1772, Martha, daughter of John Wayles, a distinguished
lawyer of Charles City county, Virginia, and their union had been
blessed with two beautiful daughters. The death of the wife and mother
occurred about ten years subsequent to her marriage, and toward his two
children Mr. Jefferson always manifested a mother's tenderness combined
with a father's care.

When the time for another presidential election approached, Mr. Jefferson
was again the candidate of his party, his opponent being Aaron Burr of
New York. The vote was a tie, and the election devolved upon the
House of Representatives. After thirty-five ineffectual ballots, a member
from Maryland, authorized by Mr. Burr, withdrew that gentleman's name,
and on the thirty-sixth ballot Mr. Jefferson was elected president, Colonel
Burr becoming vice-president.

March 4, 1801, President Jefferson delivered his inaugural address
in the presence of both Houses of Congress, in which, among many wise
utterances, were the following words, which embody the only safe principles
for the American government:

"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion,
religious or political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all
nations, entangling alliances with none."

In December, 1801, President Jefferson established the custom of sending
a President's annual message to the houses of Congress. Before that
time the president had in person made the communication, to which the
Speaker, in behalf of Congress, had at once replied in a formal address.

Re-elected to the presidency, Jefferson served two terms, his second term
of office expiring March 4, 1809. The record of his administration's is a
matter of the history of the country.

At the age of sixty-six, Thomas Jefferson retired to private life at Monticello,
nor did he again engage in public affairs. Here he passed fifteen
tranquil years, surrounded by friends and admirers, and in the happy consciousness

of the growing and assured prosperity of the country he loved.

His last public utterances were embodied in a letter addressed June 24,
1826, to a committee who desired his attendance at the coming anniversary
of Independence Day. The letter is marked by that statesmanship which
characterized all his words to the people. Among its utterances was the
following:

"All eyes are opened, or are opening to the rights of man. The general
spread of the lights of science has already laid open to every view the
palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles
on their backs, nor a favoured few, booted and spurred, ready to ride them
legitimately, `by the grace of God!' "

Two days after this letter was written, an indisposition under which Mr.
Jefferson was labouring assumed a more serious form, and his death was
anticipated. But he rallied on the 2d of July, and, on ascertaining the
date, eagerly expressed a wish that he might live to see the dawn of the
fiftieth anniversary of Independence. His wish was granted. He lived
until one o'clock of the afternoon of July 4, 1826, passing then from this
world to another with the tranquillity with which the philosopher's life is
ended.

JAMES MADISON,

Fourth President of the United States, was born March 16, 1751, and
died June 28, 1836, in his 85th year.

He was born at King George, King George county, Virginia, his
father an opulent planter of that province. The oldest of seven children,
he received the best education the times afforded. He was
prepared for college under the instructions of a private tutor, Rev.
Thomas Martin, and entered Princeton, from which university he
was graduated in 1771, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

The movement toward American Independence was thus well begun
when he stepped into the arena of public life. In 1775 he was a member
of the committee of safety of Orange county, and in 1776 represented that
county in the Virginia Convention. In 1777 the House of Delegates
elected him to the executive council of Virginia, and of that body he continued
a leading member until the close of 1779.

In 1779 he was chosen to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress,
where he took his seat March 20, 1780. He remained in Congress nearly
four years, or until the first Monday of November, 1783. He was thus a
member of that body during the last years of the Revolutionary war, and
a part of the first year following the peace. During this time he had an
opportunity to observe the inefficiency of the confederated form of government,
and was active in all the remedial measures that were proposed in
Congress.

In 1784, Mr. Madison was elected to the State Legislature of Virginia,
and by annual re-elections continued a member of that body until
November, 1786, when, having become re-eligible as a candidate for
Congress, he was returned to the national legislature, and resumed official
position there February 12, 1787.

During his membership in the State legislature he became the champion
of religious liberty. In 1784 Thomas Jefferson had introduced in the
Virginia legislature a "Bill for the Establishment of Religious Freedom."
At that time all colonists were taxed for the support of the Church of
England and its clergy, although many were indifferent to that form of
worship, and others were earnestly opposed to it on the ground of
conscientious scruples. The bill failed to pass that year, and in 1785, Mr.
Jefferson being absent from the State legislature, James Madison took up
the bill, and urged and achieved its passage, against strong opposition.

In the same and the following year, as chairman of the judiciary committee,
he presided over and assisted in the revision of the statutes of
Virginia.

May 9, 1787, the committee which prepared the Federal Constitution
was convened at Philadelphia, and James Madison was a delegate from
Virginia. Four months of anxious deliberation and steady labor enabled
this committee to report, on the 17th of September, the articles which,
when amended and adopted, became the Constitution of the United
States.

In 1789, Madison was elected to the first House of Representatives
under the new Constitution. He served until the close of Washington's
administration, and then retired to private life.

In 1794, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Todd, nee Dolly Payne,
widow of a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia. The lady was a Virginian
by birth, a member of the Payne family, and a sister of the wife of
George S. Washington. Her marriage with James Madison was consummated
in what is now Jefferson county, West Virginia, at a substantial
stone mansion which is still standing in an excellent state of preservation.
This house has many historical associations, having been built in 1752 by
Samuel Washington, eldest full brother of George Washington, who
occasionally visited here. Here, too, Louis Phillippe was entertained
during his visit to America, and in the sitting-room where Madison and
Mrs. Todd were married, is a mantle presented to the family by General
La Fayette.

During Jefferson's administrations, 1801-9, Madison was his most intimate
adviser outside of his cabinet, and the friendship between the two
men continued throughout Madison's administration, where the direction
of the statesmanship of Jefferson could be often seen.

March 4, 1809, James Madison assumed the duties of President of the
United States, to which office he had been elected by a majority of 122
out of 175 electoral votes.

Madison's administration continued through eight years, its most important
event being the war of 1812. During this war the British obtained
possession of Washington, August 24, 1814, and plundered and destroyed
with fire a large portion of the city. Mrs. Madison, then presiding at the
White House, was obliged to seek safety in flight. Her carriage stood at
the door, and her friends were urging her immediate departure, when she
returned to her drawing-room and cut from its frame a full-length picture
of Washington. "Save it, or destroy it," she commanded the gentlemen
who were in attendance upon her; "but do not let it fall into the hands of
the British!" Then she entered the carriage which conveyed her, with
other ladies, to a place of refuge beyond the Potomac. The treasure she
took from the White House in her own hands, and held concealed in her
wrappings as she was driven away, was the precious parchment upon
which was engrossed the Declaration of Independence, with its fifty-two
signatures.

March 4, 1817, Madison's long and useful connection with national
affairs terminated, and he retired to his farm of Montpelier in Virginia,
where his life was peacefully ended. Nineteen years of private life preceded
his death, and the time was largely devoted by him to the production
of the voluminous writings which he left to posterity.

From his earliest years he had been a hard student, with tenacious
memory; he led a life of spotless virtue upon which the breath of calumny
never rested; his bearing was both modest and dignified; his speech
always clear and concise; his public career distinguished by honesty and
singleness of purpose.

Some time after his death Congress purchased from his widow, for
$30,000, all his MSS., and a portion of them have been published under
the title, "The Madison Papers."

Mrs. Madison survived her husband some years, dying in Washington,
July 12, 1849, and they left no children.

JAMES MONROE,

Fifth President of the United States, was born April 28, 1758, and died
July 4, 1831, in his 74th year.

His birth was in Westmoreland county, Virginia, and he was a lineal
descendant of one of the first patentees of that province. His father was
Spruce Monroe, a well-known and wealthy planter of Westmoreland
county.

At the time Independence was declared, James Monroe was a student
in William and Mary College. Without finishing his course there he entered
the army as a cadet. His military career, though brief, was glorious.

He gave his young manhood to his country's service in the hour of
her adversity; he joined her standard when others were deserting it; he repaired
to Washington's headquarters when the army had dwindled to the
verge of dissolution, and Great Britian was pouring her native troops and
foreign mercenaries by thousands upon our coasts; he was one of the
heroes who followed Washington in his perilous mid-winter journey across
the Delaware; he fought at Harlem, at White Plains, and at Trenton,
and was wounded in the last named engagement.

He was promoted for gallantry on the field, and returned to the army
to serve as aide-de-camp to Lord Sterling, through the campaign of 177778,
taking part in the engagements of Brandywine, Germantown and
Monmouth.

After this campaign Monroe left the army, and engaged in the study of
law, with Thomas Jefferson. In 1781 he served as a volunteer with the
Virginia forces, when that State was invaded by the armies of Cornwallis
and Arnold, and at the request of the governor of Virginia he visited the
more Southern States, 1780, to collect military information.

In 1782 he was elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and by
the legislature appointed a member of the executive council. June 9,
1783, he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he took his
seat on the 13th of December following. He continued a member of this
body until the close of the session of 1786.

In the last named year he married a daughter of Lawrence Kortright,
of New York City, and took up his residence in Frederickburg, Spottsylvania
county, Virginia. He was elected to a seat in the Virginia legislature,
and served three years.

In 1790 he was chosen United States Senator, and served until 1794.
He was then appointed to succeed Gouveneur Morris as minister at the
French Court. The appointment was made upon the recommendation of
President Washington and one of the first acts of President Adams was to
recall Monroe.

During Monroe's ministry in France, his views upon the question of the
neutrality of the United States in the war between England and France,
then the paramount subject of consideration in America, were not in
harmony with the administration, and his course of action was severely
censured, and his national popularity for a time decreased.

Virginia, however, stood by the son of her soil. His own county,
immediately upon his arrival home, returned him to the State legislature,
and the votes of the people transferred him thence to the gubernatorial
chair. As governor he served three years (1799-1802), the term limited
by the State constitution.

In 1802 he visited France, appointed by Jefferson as envoy extraordinary
to act with Mr. Livingstone at the court of Napoleon. He
assisted in the negotiations for the purchase of Louisiana, and then joined

Mr. Pinckney in Spain, to assist in the settlement of some boundary questions.
In 1807 he went from Spain to England, to protest against the
impressment of American seamen, and with Mr. Pinckney to negotiate
a treaty with Great Britain. Five years had now been given by Mr.
Monroe to public duties abroad, and finding no success attending his efforts
to ratify a treaty with Great Britain, he returned to America, reaching
home in the closing month of 1807.

At the next State election he was again called to the chief magistracy
of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which office he filled until, in 1811,
he was called to a seat as Secretary of State, in the cabinet of President
Madison. This office he held until the close of President Madison's second
term, with the exception of about six months, the last months of the
second war with Great Britain, when he discharged the more arduous
duties of Secretary of the War Department.

On the retirement of President Madison, in 1817, James Monroe was
chosen fifth President of the United States, and in 1821, was re-elected
without opposition. His opponent in the canvass of 1816 was Rufus
King, of New York, who received only 34 electoral votes, Mr.
Monroe receiving 183. Only one vote was cast against him at his second
election, one of the New Hampshire electors voting for John Quincy
Adams. Monroe's electoral vote was 228.

The distinguishing act of President Monroe's administration, at least
that in which posterity is most interested, was the assertion of what has
since become known as "The Monroe Doctrine." It was first formulated
by President Monroe in his annual message to Congress in 1824.

"The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in
which the rights of the United States are involved, that the American
continents, by the free and independent condition which they have
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for
future colonization by any European powers."

In popular language, and in the widest sense of the words, this may be
interpreted as: "America for Americans," including, of course, all who
choose to become American citizens.

During his administrations Monroe encouraged the army, increased the
navy, protected commerce, and infused vigor and efficiency in every
department of the public service. March 4, 1825, he retired to his residence
of Oak Hill, in Loudoun county, Virginia.

In the winter of 1829-30, he presided over a convention called to revise
the constitution of Virginia, but an increasing indisposition necessitated
his withdrawal from the convention before its labors were ended, and he
never again participated in public affairs. In the summer of 1830 his
beloved wife died, and he was unable to bear the solitude of the home her
presence had so many years brightened. He removed to New York City,
making his home with his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouveneur, where the
few remaining months of his life were passed.

Mr. Monroe had been a poor financier in personal matters. Although
he had inherited considerable property, and his wife had
brought him as much more, and although he had received $350,000
for public services, in his last days pecuniary embarassments were
added to his bodily infirmities, and his old age was harassed by debt.
In 1858 the remains of ex-President Monroe were removed, with great
pomp, from New York to Richmond, Virginia, and on July 5th were
re-interred in Hollywood cemetery.

The members of President Monroe's cabinet were: Secretary of
State, John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, 1817-1825; Secretary
of the Treasury, Wm. H. Crawford, of Georgia, 1817-1825; Secretary
of War, Geo. Graham, ad interim; John C. Calhoun, of South
Carolina, December, 1817, to March, 1825. (President Monroe tendered
this position to Isaac Shelby, governor of Kentucky, who did
not qualify, and in December, 1817, declined the office on account of
advanced age.) Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin W. Crowninshield,
of Massachusetts, March, 1817, to November, 1818; Smith Thompson,
of New York, November, 1818, to December, 1823; Samuel L. Southard,
of New Jersey, December, 1823, to March, 1825. Attorney General,
Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, March to November, 1817;
William Wirt, of Virginia, November, 1817, to March, 1825. The
office of Postmaster General for these eight years was filled by Return
Jonathan Meigs, March, 1817, to June, 1823, then by John McLean,
of Ohio, until March, 1825.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON,

Ninth President of the United States, was born February 9, 1773,
and died April 4, 1841, in his 69th year.

On the banks of the James river, in Charles City county, Virginia,
lies the beautiful estate called Berkeley, for several generations the
home of the Harrisons. Here was born Benjamin Harrison, signer
of the Declaration of Independence, and his third son was William
Henry Harrison.

He received his scholastic education at Hampden-Sidney College,
and then began the study of medicine in Philadelphia. But about
that time an army was gathering to be sent against the Indians of the
Northwest, and young Harrison displayed an inclination toward military
life. At the age of nineteen he received from President Washington
an ensign's commission, and joined the army, under General
St. Clair. In 1792 he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and in 1794 he
fought under "Mad Anthony" Wayne, whose aid-de-camp he became.

In 1795, Harrison was commissioned captain and placed in command
at Fort Washington, now the site of Cincinnati. Here he was joined in
marriage with a daughter of John Cleves Symmes, a pioneer in that

locality, who first laid out the tract of country on which Cincinnati now
stands. Harrison's wife survived him more than twenty years, dying at
their home in North Bend, Ohio, February 26, 1864.

In 1797, Harrison was appointed secretary of the Northwestern Territory,
and resigned his military commission. Two years later, he was
elected the first delegate to Congress from the territory. General St. Clair
was then governor of the territory, which included the present States of
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.

In 1801 the Northwestern Territory was divided, Indiana was erected
into a separate territorial government, embracing what is now the States of
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and William Henry Harrison
was appointed first governor of the new territory.

By consecutive re-appointments Harrison was continued chief magistrate
of Indiana until 1813. During this time he also held the official position
of commissioner of Indian affairs, and concluded thirteen important treaties
with the different Northwestern tribes. His knowledge of the Indian
character and the respect with which he was regarded by them on account
of his fighting qualities, enabled him to conduct these treaties greatly to
the advantage of the government.

Before the expiration of his last two years' service as governor, Harrison
had again distinguished himself by his military skill, and was again
embarked upon a military career. Among his other achievements was the
successful resistance of his troop of 800 men against a night attack of the
followers of Tecumseh, led on and incited by his brother, the Prophet.
This was the engagement on the night of the 6th and morning of the 7th
of November, 1811, made famous in subsequent history and song as the
"Battle of Tippecanoe."

As early as the spring of 1810 the hostile preparations of the Indians
of the Northwest, under direction of Tecumseh and his brother, induced
Governor Harrison to call them to account. In August they met the governor
in council at Vincennes, where the appearance of 700 disciplined
troop of militia somewhat abated the ardor of the brothers for an immediate
conflict. In the following year, however, Tecumseh succeeded in
forming a league of the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks against the
whites, and Harrison, using the discretionary power vested in him, gathered
a force from his own territory and from Kentucky, at Vincennes,
and late in September, 1811, marched up the Wabash valley toward the
town of the Prophet, near the junction of Tippecanoe creek and the
Wabash river. On the way he built a fort near the site of the present
city of Terre Haute, which was called Fort Harrison.

In the beginning of November, the governor and his troops encamped
on what became the battle-field of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh had gone south
to arouse the Indians of Florida, and the Prophet rashly undertook to give
battle to Harrison, believing the camp could be surprised and an easy and

bloody victory given his deluded followers. The result made Harrison
the popular hero of Tippecanoe.

Early in 1812, Harrison was brevetted major-general in the Kentucky
militia, and later in the same year, in September, was appointed brigadier
general of the regular United States army, with command of the Northwestern
division. In 1813, he received commission as major-general of
the regular army.

His services in the war with Great Britain were continued until 1814,
during which time the battle of the Thames, and other victories in the
lake country, were added to his laurels. In consequence of a misunderstanding
with Armstrong, secretary of war in 1814, General Harrison resigned
his commission, and retired to his farm at North Bend.

He, however, served the government as Indian commissioner in negotiating
the treaties of peace, and in 1816, resumed public life as member
of Congress, from the Cincinnati district. After serving in the House
three years, he was chosen, in 1819, to the State Senate of Ohio, and
served in that position five years.

In 1824 he became a member of the United States Senate from Ohio,
and was given the chairmanship of the military commission. In 1828
John Quincy Adams appointed him minister to Colombia, South America,
but Jackson recalled him during the first year of his administration.

For the twelve succeeding years General Harrison lived in private life,
his only public functions in that time being the discharge of the
duties of clerk of the court of Hamilton county, Ohio. In 1836 the
Whig party made him their candidate for the chief magistracy, and he
received 73 electoral votes. Van Buren, the Democratic candidate, and
the protege of the retiring president, Jackson, was elected; but the financial
depression which accompanied his administration rendered it unpopular,
and gave the Whigs an opportunity to gain the next election.

December 4, 1839, General Harrison received the nomination from the
Whig party, and the canvass which followed was the most remarkable one
that had been witnessed in American politics to that date. It was the
"log cabin and hard cider" campaign; the "Tippecanoe and Tyler too"
campaign. The press and politicians who rallied about Van Buren
brought forward as a slur against Harrison that he lived in a log cabin and
drank nothing but hard cider. The friends of Harrison caught up the
implied reproach and made it their rallying cry. Their political meetings
were held in halls on whose walls were inscribed the words, "log
cabin and hard cider," their processions were headed by banners bearing
the inscription, and accompanied by miniature log cabins borne in teams
or on the shoulders of Harrison supporters.

A wave of popular enthusiasm swept the country, landing William
Henry Harrison in the White House, March 4, 1841, with 234 electoral
votes, and stranding Martin Van Buren at Kinderhook, he having
received only 60 electoral votes.

The new president, a man of slender constitution and now almost three
score and ten years of age, entered upon his presidential duties after this
exciting campaign, only to fall a victim to an illness which in eight days
from its first appearance culminated in his death just one month from the
day on which he took the oath of office.

JOHN TYLER,

Tenth President of the United States, was born March 29, 1790, and died
January 17, 1862, in his 72d year.

He was born in Charles City county, Virginia, the second son of John
Tyler, a patriot of the Revolution, and governor of Virginia, 1808-11.
John Tyler, sr., was also made a judge of admiralty for Virginia, and was
holding that office at the time of his death, in 1813. His wife, the mother
of the subject of this sketch, was Mary, only child of Robert Armstead,
whose ancestors emigrated to Virginia from Hesse-Darmstadt, in early
colonial days.

John Tyler received a collegiate and legal training, being graduated
from William and Mary College in 1807, and admitted to the bar in 1809.
He was never in active practice of his profession, entering public life in
1811, when he was elected to the State legislature.

He served five years in the legislature, or until his election, in 1816, to
fill a vacancy in Congress. To this position he was twice re-elected. In
the House he was a member of what was becoming known as the Southern
party. He voted in favor of the resolutions of censure on Jackson's conduct
in the Seminole war; and his negative vote is recorded against internal
improvements; against United States banks; against a protective
policy; and he strongly opposed and voted against any restriction on the
extension of slavery into the territories. In 1819 he resigned, on account
of ill health.

1823-5, he was a leading member of the Virginia legislature, and in
December, 1825, was chosen governor of that Commonwealth, serving two
terms of one year each.

In March, 1831, Tyler was chosen to succeed John Randolph of Roanoke,
as United States Senator, and in 1833 he was re-appointed. During
his term in the Senate he was one of the most active members of that body.
His vote was almost invariably recorded against any act favored by Adams
and his cabinet. As in the House, he now set himself against internal
improvements, and a protective tariff. He voted against the tariff bill of
1828, and during the debate on Clay's tariff resolutions, session of 1831-32,
Tyler spoke three days on the question. He opposed direct protection,
and argued for a tariff for revenue, with incidental protection to home industry.

In 1832, he was in sympathy with the nullification movement of South
Carolina, and spoke against the "force bill." The bill passed the Senate
with only one negative vote recorded. Calhoun and others of its opponents
retired from the chamber when the motion was to be put, and only
John Tyler voted against it. He also voted for Clay's "compromise bill,"
by which the trouble was adjusted.

Receiving from his constituents a request that a vote of his should be
expunged from the records, Tyler resigned and returned to Virginia
before the expiration of his second term of service in the Senate. He
removed to Williamsburg, James City county, and became affiliated in
politics with the Southern Whig movement. From this party he received
the nomination for vice-president in 1836, and for that office the electoral
vote was given him in the States of Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina
and Tennessee.

In 1838, the James county Whigs elected him to the State legislature,
where he served until he received the nomination for vice-president in
1839. The Whig delegates convened at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
December 4, 1839, and Tyler was present as a member of the convention
from Virginia. They nominated Harrison and Tyler, and these candidates
were elected in the following year, entering upon their respective
offices March 4, 1841.

On the death of President Harrison, one month later, John Tyler became
his constitutional successor. He was called to Washington from his home
in Williamsburg, by Harrison's cabinet, on the 4th of April (the day on
which the president died), and he reached the national capital at four
o'clock on the morning of the 6th. At noon the ministers called upon him
in a body, and Judge Cranch administered to him the oath of office. To
the supporters of the administration gathered about him, Tyler said:
"You have only exchanged one Whig for another."

His course as chief executive of the nation was not in consonance with
this assurance. Before a year had elapsed he had lost the confidence of
the Whig party, principally by his veto of the bank bill, which was strictly
a Whig measure. When the bill had been amended so as, it was thought,
to meet his approval, and had been again vetoed, his entire cabinet (the
one chosen by Harrison) resigned, with the exception of Daniel Webster,
Secretary of State, who was then engaged in important negotiations with
England, and who resigned as soon as those negotiations were completed.
During the three remaining years of his administration, Tyler was three
times compelled to form a new cabinet.

In May, 1844, a Whig convention assembled at Baltimore, Maryland,
nominated Tyler for the presidency, and the nomination was accepted.
But the convention was not a voice of the people, being composed principally
of office holders under Tyler, and the president, finding that his
defeat at the polls was certain, withdrew his acceptance of the nomination,
and at the end of his four years retired to private life.

Mr. Tyler's administration had been a stormy one, as the many
cabinet changes sufficiently indicate. Sincere in his attachment to
the Whig party, he was no sooner surrounded by its leaders, than he
saw that the policy they would have dictated was one not for the
country's interests. However painful his position was made by that
knowledge, however much his consequent actions, necessarily antagonistic
to party ends, were condemned, he was faithful to his own
more statesmanlike views. In less than twenty years his course was
justified. In less than twenty years the party he had endeavored to
hold in check had become, under another name, a party bent upon
plunging the country into civil war.

In February, 1861, he presided over the Peace Congress which was
convened in Washington, pursuant to a call from the Legislature of
Virginia, but he had no hope of good results from its deliberations.
In a public speech in Richmond, Virginia, the day following that on
which the Congress closed its session, he stated that the South had
nothing to hope, but in separation. Acting upon his convictions, Mr.
Tyler renounced his allegiance to the government, and entered upon
active labors in behalf of the Southern Confederacy. He was one of
the committee who, in April, 1861, transferred to the service of the
Confederate government, the military forces of Virginia, and when
the seat of that government was established at Richmond, Virginia,
he was a member of its Congress. In that capacity he was serving
when his death occurred.

ZACHARY TAYLOR,

Twelfth President of the United States, was born November 24, 1784,
and died July 9, 1850, aged 66 years.

His birth was in Orange county, Virginia, and he was a son of Colonel
Richard and Sarah (Strothers) Taylor, both parents of eminent
Virginia families. The Virginian Taylors were allied to the oldest
and most distinguished families in that State—the Madisons, the
Lees, the Pendletons, the Barbours, the Conways, the Gaineses, the
Hunts, the Taliaferros.

But the character of our twelfth President seems to have been
largely determined by the rude border life in which his childhood
and youth were passed. Battling with the hardships and dangers
of frontier life, rather than Virginia cultivation, stamped the character
of him who was to be known as "Old Rough and Ready."

In 1785, Colonel Taylor settled with his little family in Kentucky, in
what is now Jefferson county, two miles from the Ohio river, and five
miles from the present site of Louisville. Here young Zachary grew to

manhood, his earlier years spent in the acquisition of such book knowledge
as could be obtained; and his time, when he had grown old enough and
strong enough, given to the actual labors of the farm, where he worked
with his father until he was nearly twenty-four years old.

His book learning was confined to a knowledge of reading, writing,
spelling, and plain arithmetic, but during his boyhood's days he also
acquired a love for military life from the many border skirmishes with the
Indians of which he was a spectator, or in which he participated. His
instructor in the arts of warfare was one Whetsel, a noted border character,
who taught young Taylor how to load and "fire running." The latter
accomplishment Taylor never availed himself of.

May 3, 1808, Zachary Taylor received a commission as first lieutenant
in the 7th United States Infantry, and his regiment marched under Harrison
in his expedition against the Indians of the Northwest. Taylor was
now in active service until the close of the second war with England. In
the beginning of the year 1812, President Madison commissioned him captain,
and he was placed in command of Fort Harrison, on the Wabash.

Here he achieved the first of those brilliant victories which in after
years formulated the axiom, "Taylor never surrenders," on which his soldiers
enthusiastically relied. On the night of September 4, 1812, a band
of 400 Indians fell upon the fort, expecting to surprise it and massacre its
garrison. They succeeded, in the first onslaught, in firing the block-house,
in which the garrison's stock of whisky was stored, and it burned with uncontrollable
fury. Captain Taylor, then only twenty-eight years of age,
found himself shut up in a burning fort, with 400 savages outside its
walls, and only fifty men at his command, twenty-six of them sick with
malarial fever, and unfitted for duty. He calmed the women and children,
encouraged the men, directed the control of the flames, held the fort
and defeated the enemy. For this victory he was brevetted major by
President Madison.

In 1816, Major Taylor was ordered to Green Bay, and remained in command
of that post for two years. Then returning to Kentucky he passed
one year with his family, and was then ordered to New Orleans. In 1822
he superintended the erection of Fort Jesup; in 1824 was in the recruiting
service, then ordered to Washington, and thence to the South
again. He had been made lieutenant-colonel in 1819, and in 1832 was
promoted to the rank of colonel. The contest known as the "Black
Hawk War" opened in 1832, and Colonel Taylor commanded the expedition
which resulted in the defeat and capture of Black Hawk. His military
decision was shown in this campaign by his control of his own troops,
as much as by his action against the enemy. The pursuit of Black
Hawk's band had brought the troops to Rock River, the northwestern
boundary of Illinois. Here the militia, called out (as they claimed) to
defend their State, considered their services ended. The orders of Taylor
were to continue the pursuit with his "full army."

The militia held a sort of town meeting, at which Taylor was present.
Deceived by his quiet manner, the leaders of the movement for disbanding
grew insolent, and the spirit of mutiny was augmented by their inflammatory
speeches. When Taylor had listened to several of these gentlemen,
his own speech was ready: "Gentlemen, the word has been passed
on to me from Washington to follow Black Hawk, and to take you with
me as soldiers. I mean to do both. There are the flat boats drawn up on
the shore, and here are Uncle Sam's men drawn up behind you on the
prairie." The militia did not disband that day.

After the Black Hawk war, Colonel Taylor was in command at Fort Crawford,
Prairie du Chien, where he remained until, in 1836, his services were
required in Florida in the Seminole war. In Florida he won the battle of
Okee-chobee, January, 1838, and was promoted to brigadier-general. In
April, 1838, he was appointed to the command of the Florida troops, and
continued in that responsible position until he was relieved in April, 1840,
at his own request.

He was at once appointed to the command of the army of the southwest,
which comprehended the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas
and Louisiana, with headquarters at Fort Jesup, in the latter State.

The annexation of Texas, in 1845, and the consequent war with Mexico,
next called General Taylor into active service. He was ordered to the
frontier of Texas, and made his headquarters on the Rio Grande del Norte.

The war which followed terminated in success to the American arms and
independence for Texas, and recorded the name of General Taylor as victor
at Palo Alto, Reseca de la Palma, Monterey and Beuna Vista.

The battle of Beuna Vista was the last in which General Taylor engaged.
He returned to his home, now in his 63d year, to find that a portion
of the people desired to reward his services by making him the chief
magistrate of the nation. His own views upon accepting the honor tendered
him were expressed in a letter written before he left the seat of war.
He desired to be "elected by the general voice of the people, without
regard to their political differences." His want of knowledge of party
politics is explained, however, in the same letter. He says: "I have
never yet exercised the privilege of voting." The soldier had been too
busy all his life fighting for all America, to interest himself in any sectional
or party question.

He was nominated by the Whig convention at Baltimore, June 7, 1848,
and elected in the November following. His opponent was Lewis Cass,
of Michigan, and the electoral vote stood: Taylor, 163; Cass, 127.

The inaugural ceremonies were observed March 5, 1849, the 4th of
March that year falling upon Sunday. His administration of affairs extended
over very little more than a year, and was principally occupied in
long debates over the adjustment of the questions connected with the new
territory of the United States.

July 4, 1850, President Taylor attended some national demonstrations
in honor of the day, in his usual health and spirits. In the evening,
while overheated, he partook freely of fruits and iced water and
milk. Within an hour he was seized with cramps which took the form
of violent cholera morbus, and after lingering in terrible pain until the
end, death supervened at 1 p. m., July 9th.

Taylor married in 1810, and the wife of forty years knelt at his
death-bed with their weeping children about her, and his last unintelligible
word was an effort to speak to her once more. Of the four children
born of their union, three survived him and were present at his
death-bed, his only son, Colonel Taylor, and two daughters. One of
his sons-in-law was Jefferson Davis, who had served under him in
Mexico, and later became the president of the Confederate States. The
death of President Taylor was widely mourned; the people, who held
him second only to Washington, mourned a popular hero; the army
mourned "Old Rough and Ready." The loss to the Nation was the
loss of a sincere patriot and an honest man. A man of application as
well as of military genius, he has left an enduring record.

GOVERNOR FITZHUGH LEE.

If there be aught of assurance of, and incitation to, worthy exemplification
in a heritage of lineal record of honor and dutiful action, then
might confidence have been held in the career of Fitzhugh Lee, in whom
is united the blood of patriots, whose names and deeds are indissolubly
and imperishably connected with the history of our Union and
of Virginia.

Fitzhugh Lee (or Fitz Lee, as he was familiarly styled in the army,
and is still popularly known, and as he subscribed himself until recently),
son of Commodore Sydney Smith Lee (a brother of General
Robert E. Lee), late of the Confederate States navy, and formerly of
the United States navy, was born at "Clermont," the seat of his grandfather,
General John Mason, in Fairfax County, Va., November 19,
1835. His mother, Anne Mason, was the granddaughter of George
Mason, of "Gunston Hall," the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights.
She was the sister of Hon. James Murray Mason, of Mason and Slidell
fame. The family name of Fitzhugh has been held in cherished recognition
in Virginia for two centuries.

Fitzhugh Lee was appointed a cadet at large to West Point Military
Academy, July 1, 1852, and was graduated July 1, 1856, and appointed
brevet second lieutenant of United States cavalry. Among his
class graduates were Generals Samuel S. Carroll, W. P. Sanders, J. W.

Forsyth, George D. Bayard, Herman Biggs, Francis M. Vinton, Orlando
M. Poe, Miles D. McAllister and John K. Mozart, of the Federal
Army, and Generals Wm. H. ("Mudwall") Jackson and L. L. Lomax,
of the Confederate army. His first service was in the cavalry school at
Carlisle, Pa., where he remained until January 1, 1858, when, at his own
request, he was assigned to duty with his regiment, the Second Cavalry,
on frontier service; was at Forts Inge and Mason, and Camp Radminezbec,
Texas, scouting against the Indians; on May 13, 1859, in a combat
in Nescatunga Valley, Texas, with the Comanches, was shot through
the lungs with an arrow and his life despaired of; later, at Camps
Cooper and Colorado, Texas, near the last of which was engaged in a
hand to hand combat with the Comanche Indians; in November, 1860,
was detached from his regiment and ordered to report to West Point as
instructor of cavalry, a complimentary detail. Under his tuition there
were several who were subsequently famous as cavalry officers—Generals
Kilpatrick and Custer being among them; promoted first lieutenant
of cavalry March 31, 1861; resigned his commission May 31, 1861, and
offered his services to his native state.

His first service in the Confederate States army was in the Adjutant-General's
department, under General Beauregard at Manassas, and in the
battle of July 21, 1861, he served on the staff of General Ewell. In September
following he was, upon the recommendation of General Joseph E.
Johnston (then in command of the army) and General J. E. B. Stuart,
commanding its cavalry, made lieutenant-colonel of the First Virginia
Cavalry (Stuart's old regiment), and at the reorganization of that
command in April, 1862, near Yorktown, he was elected colonel. On
the retreat from Yorktown, Lee's regiment was given the duty of
watching York river, and it was he who first gave information of the
flanking movement of Franklin, and of his locating at Barhamsville.
Lee personally reconnoitered so close to the enemy that he was enabled
to give not only the number but the names of their gunboats and
transports. In the succeeding operations around Richmond, Lee was
with the command of General Stuart, and participated in all of the
enterprises of that officer.

About the middle of June, 1862, Stuart executed his famous raid
around the army of McClellan as it lay in front of Richmond, and Lee,
with his regiment, was selected to accompany him, sharing with one
other regiment and a battalion the hazards of that feat, which "blazed
the way for Jackson's subsequent flank movement." After the battles
around Richmond more cavalry was brought from southern states and
formed into a second brigade under General Wade Hampton, and
Stuart was promoted to the rank of major-general and assigned to the
command of the division, Lee being promoted to brigadier-general and

to the command of Stuart's old brigade, composed of the 1st, 3d, 4th,
5th and 9th regiments of Virginia cavalry, with a battery of horse artillery
under Captain James Bunthed. In the latter part of 1863 the cavalry
of the Army of Northern Virginia was divided into two divisions of
three brigades each, and Hampton and Lee promoted to command them,
the two being under Stuart as senior major-general. The skill and courage
evinced by Fitz Lee occasioned the repeated mention of his name in
the exact reports of the commander-in-chief of the Army of Northern Virginia,
made it familiar to the public, and the latter, in May, 1863, soon
after the battle of Chancellorsville, in a letter, thus warmly commended
him: "Your admirable conduct, devotion to the cause of your country,
and devotion to duty, fill me with pleasure. I hope you will soon see
her efforts for independence crowned with success, and long live to
enjoy the affection and gratitude of your country." Again, he wrote:
"Your division has always had a high reputation. It must not lose
it."

In the disastrous battle of Winchester Fitz Lee was conspicuous in
his gallantry, exposing himself in every part of the field. Three horses
were shot under him, one his beautiful mare, Nelly Gray, a favorite of
the command, and at last he was brought to ground by a minie-ball
which pierced his thigh. He was kept from duty by this wound for
several months. In the spring of 1865 he was summoned to Richmond,
and, by order of the commanding general, placed in command of the
cavalry corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was one of the
three corps commanders (the others being Gordon and Longstreet)
who, with General Robert E. Lee, composed the council of war just
before the surrender at Appomatox C. H., April 9, 1865. The cavalry,
having cut their way through the enemy's lines, to save their horses,
before the surrender, General Fitz Lee, thus without a command,
remained to share with his loved commander and relative the cares
and trials of the bitter closing act of a resplendent drama.

The war over, he turned his attention as earnestly to a peaceful
vocation as he had been devoted in arms, and is said to have literally
put "his hands to the plough." He first farmed at "Richland," in
Stafford county, and later near Alexandria, Va. Accepting the
result of the war, General Lee endeavored by genial influence to aid as
far as in him lay the fraternization of the late contending sections, and
in his utterances and engaging presence, it is claimed, has accomplished
much in the cause of conciliation. His address at the Bunker Hill
Centennial was widely commended. At the Yorktown Centennial in
1881 he was a conspicuous figure. At the inauguration of President
Cleveland he commanded the Virginia Brigade, and received a continuous
and enthusiastic recognition. In several visits north and the west

since, he has been welcomed with the utmost cordiality. On November 3,
1885, he was elected Governor of Virginia over the republican nominee,
John Sargeant Wise, by a majority of about sixteen thousand, and
took his seat January 1, 1886. The administration of Governor Lee,
which has comprehended a serious wrangle by the English bondholders
over the state debt, has been conservative and generally
judicious. Governor Lee was urged as an available candidate for the
nomination of Vice-President by the late National Democratic Convention.
Governor Lee has a bright blue eye, and is of genial presence.
Rather below medium stature, and originally of slight physique, he
has developed into a figure, Napoleonic in bulk. He is happily married,
and has an engaging household. He married Miss Ellen Bernard,
daughter of George Fowle, Esq., of Alexandria, Va., and has five children:
Ellen Fowle, Fitzhugh, George Dashiell, Nannie Fitzhugh and
Virginia, the last named after the state, having been born in the
gubernatorial mansion.

R. A. BROCK.

Robert Alonzo Brock, eldest son and child of Robert King and Elizabeth
Mildred (Ragland) Brock, was born in Richmond, Va., March 9,
1839.

His parents were both natives of Hanover County, Va., and his ancestors
were among the early settlers of the colony, although in him
is intermingled the blood of several nationalities. His father, long a
respected merchant of Richmond, was the son of John Philip and
Elizabeth (daughter of Alexander King) Brock, and his mother the
daughter of Fendall and Sarah (Nelson) Ragland, the granddaughter
of Pettus and Elizabeth (daughter of John Davis, from Wales) Ragland,
and great-granddaughter of John and Anne (Beaufort) Ragland,
from Glamorganshire, Wales. The latter, with sons and
daughters, settled in that portion of New Kent which was subsequently
Hanover county, about 1720, and patented several thousand
acres of land, which descended to his children.

R. A. Brock, although possessed of antiquarian tastes from childhood,
was bred to mercantile pursuits, and, following the conclusion of
the late war between the states, was so engaged until August, 1881,
when he disposed of his interests to give more attention to the Virginia
Historical Society, of which he has been corresponding secretary
and librarian since February, 1875.

He has been a frequent contributor to the press and magazines since
boyhood; was one of the editors of the Richmond Standard, a select

family paper, with departments of science, history, genealogy, etc.,
from 1879 to 1882; has edited seven volumes of the new series of the
"Virginia Historical Collections," published by the Virginia Historical
Society, and one volume of the "Papers" of the Southern Historical
Society (of which he has been the secretary since July, 1887), and
other historical, antiquarian and genealogical works, besides contributions
to standard works, and preparing various statistical and historical
papers for the United States Government, and his native state
and city. The labors of Mr. Brock have met gratifying recognition in
accorded membership in many learned bodies in the United States,
Canada and Europe—about two-score in number. Solicitous to aid,
as far as his ability has admitted, in the general advancement of intelligence,
he has cheerfully met inquiry until his extended correspondence,
although a great pleasure, has become an onerous tax upon his
time.

He married, April 29, 1869, Sallie Kidd, daughter of Richardson
Tyree and Margaret Mills (Watt, said to be of the family of the celebrated
James Watt) Haw, of Hanover county. She died February 6,
1887, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth Carrington and Anne Beaufort,
who compose their father's household. In the late deplorable war
between the states of our Union Mr. Brock served in defense of his
section, entering the service of the Confederate States with "F" company,
a select body from Richmond, which shared the fortunes of the
Army of Northern Virginia, to the surrender at Appomattox C. H.,
April 9, 1865, and whose ranks furnished it many officers from the
grade of subaltern to that of general.

A few survivors are banded together as "F" Company Association,
of which Mr. Brock is the secretary and historiographer. He is also a
member of several secret and benevolent orders, among them that of
the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. His lodge, Richmond Lodge, No.
10 (of which he is historiographer), is the oldest in the city, having
been chartered December 29, 1780. Its membership has comprised
some of the most illustrious of Virginia and of the Union.

Quiet and retiring by nature, and simple in his habits, Mr. Brock,
occupied with his pursuits, has never sought political station, but his
efforts, as in him reasonably lay, have always been earnest in what his
judgment deemed best for the sustenance of the interests of Virginia
and the weal of the nation. He is of robust physique, and six feet in
stature.

MAJOR WILLIAM T. SUTHERLIN.

The Sutherlin family have long been among the honored residents of
Pittsylvania county. George S. Sutherlin, now deceased, the father of
Major Sutherlin, was born near Danville, Virginia. His mother, Polly
S. Norman, was born in Henry county, Virginia. He was born on his
father's estate, near Danville, on April 7, 1822. At Greensboro, North
Carolina, October 18, 1849, he married Jane E. Patrick, who was born
in North Carolina, Sept. 11, 1829. Two daughters were born to them,
Janie Lindsay and Martha Ella. Both are now deceased, the latter
dying in infancy. Mrs. Sutherlin is the daughter of William and
Martha W. (Dict) Patrick, formerly of North Carolina, now deceased.
Janie Lindsay, their eldest daughter, grew up into a beautiful and accomplished
woman, whose lovely character endeared her to all who
knew her. She was born January 24, 1851, and died in Danville, Virginia,
August 24, 1876, and a beautiful monument marks the spot in
Greenwood cemetery, where she is buried. She was the mother of three
children, two died in infancy, and one, Janie Sutherlin Smith, whose
home has been with her grandparents in Danville since the death of her
mother, is now a school-girl, and promises to make an accomplished
and useful woman. November 22, 1871, she married Col. Francis L.
Smith, of Alexandria, Virginia, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute.
He went with the corps of cadets into the late war, and
received in his first battle a severe wound in the neck. Besides filling
other important positions, he has been a member of the State Senate,
and is now one of the leading lawyers in the State.

Major Sutherlin's earliest education was received in a home school,
after which he went to the male academy in Danville three years, then
to the private school of Joseph Godfrey, in Franklin county, Virginia.
Until twenty-one years of age he remained on his father's estate, then
he entered into trade as a dealer in tobacco. From 1846 to the opening
of the war, he was a manufacturer of tobacco in Danville, and one
of the most successful managers of business of that day. He was
mayor of Danville from 1855 to 1861, and was a delegate to the Virginia
Convention which adopted the Ordinance of Secession. He at
once entered the Confederate States Army, but, owing to impaired
health, was unable for field duty, and received appointment as commandant
of the post at Danville. Later he was also made chief quartermaster
for the said post, and he served till near the close of the war,
when his increasing ill health necessitated his giving up all official
duties. The winter after the close of the war he went to Cuba for his
health, and was greatly improved, when he returned to Danville where
he has ever since been engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the development

of his State and section, living at his beautiful home, which
is accounted the most pleasant residence location in Danville, if not in
the State.

Major Sutherlin was elected early in the war a member of the Board
of Public Works. He served two years in the legislature since the war.
Was a prominent director in the Richmond & Danville Railroad for
near fifteen years. He has built two railroads, the Milton & Sutherlin
and the Danville & New River, and it is generally conceded that neither
would have been built but for his energy and ability. He has been
prominent in building up most of the enterprises in Danville for the
past forty years, and contributed liberally of his time and means to
secure them. It was mainly through his sagacity and efforts that
Roman Eagle Lodge of Masons now owns its large and elegant building,
and is one of the wealthiest lodges in the State. It was through
him that the first agricultural society and fair was held in the South
after the war, in Danville, which was successfully kept up for several
years. When the Virginia State Agricultural Society was reorganized
after the war, he was unanimously elected its president and held the
office for two years, and it was chiefly through his untiring efforts that
the Society was placed upon a basis of success.

He secured a charter and established the Danville Bank, and its capital
at the breaking out of the war was three hundred thousand dollars.
He was a very large stockholder and the only president the bank ever
had. It was chiefly through his efforts that the Border Grange Bank at
Danville was established, and he was its first president.

He has been a liberal contributor to the establishment and maintenance
of his church (Methodist) in all her enterprises. He is a trustee of
Randolph-Macon College, and has contributed liberally to its support.
He was a large contributor to the college for young ladies in Danville,
and was the first President of the Board of Directors. His
generous liberality has been continuous all through life, never
withholding his support from any worthy enterprise either in church
or State.

He has often been prominently spoken of for Governor of the State,
and member of Congress from his district, but belonging to that class
of politicians who think the office should seek the man, and not the
man the office, he has been content to serve his party, and not push his
own claims for office.

Major Sutherlin is a clear and forcible writer, and has written many
valuable and interesting papers which have found a large circulation
through the press of the country. As a public speaker he is forcible,
practical and strong, especially in debate, generally getting the best of
his opponent. As an enterprising, practical business man, there is no

one in Virginia who stands higher in the estimation of the people generally
throughout the State than Major Sutherlin.

GEN. V. D. GRONER.

General Groner was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on September 7, 1836.
He married, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in April, 1866, Katherine
Campbell, who was born in Mobile, Alabama, and who was a daughter
of Justice John A. Campbell, formerly a Judge of the United States
Supreme Court, and who, during the Confederacy, was associated with
Vice-President A. H. Stephens, and Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, Senator from
Virginia, as commissioners to meet President Lincoln and Secretary of
State Seward, at Hampton Roads, just before the close of the war.
Their children are three sons: John A. C., Duncan Lawrence and Robert
Newell.

At the age of eighteen the subject of this sketch, who had previously
graduated at the Norfolk Military Academy, organized a military
company, known as the "Independent Greys," and in the succeeding
year he was made lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of Virginia militia,
at Norfolk. After studying law one year, he entered into a business
life, and was two years agent for an express company, then for a time
in the employ of the New York & Virginia Steamship Co. In 1859 he
went to Texas, where he was the guest of Gen. Sam Houston. There
he tendered his services to Baylor's Texan Rangers, and assisted in
subduing the Comanche Indians, and other hostile tribes.

On the election of Lincoln, he left Texas with the intention of returning
to Virginia, but at the request of Governor Pettus of Mississippi
he went to New York, and performed the delicate and valuable service
of purchasing and shipping arms for Mississippi. This accomplished
he returned to Virginia, and perfected a secret organization for the
capture of Fortress Monroe, which would have been successfully accomplished
but for the interference of Governor Letcher. He then returned
to Mississippi, and was tendered commission as adjutant-general of
Mississippi by Governor Pettus, which commission he declined. Going
to Montgomery he was commissioned and appointed captain and
assistant-adjutant general of the regular Confederate States Army, and
assigned to duty at the seat of government, the fifth military appointment
made by the new government. He remained in this service at
Montgomery and in Richmond until after the first battle around the
latter city, when he was directed to take charge of the archives of the
government, which he removed by canal, in the direction of Lynchburg.

During this trip the James River overflowed, and when its waters
receded the canal banks were washed out. Knowing the importance of

this feeder for supplying troops at Richmond, General Groner appealed
for aid to the farmers, and by the labor they furnished, had the canal
thoroughly repaired in twenty-four hours, a work for which he was
warmly commended by the President of the Canal to President Jefferson
Davis.

While the second battle around Richmond was being fought, he
reported on the field to General R. E. Lee, with whom he remained until
after Malvern Hill battle. As a part of his service in the Adjutant
Department, he had charge of the Organization Bureau, and the entire
Confederate Army, so far, had been organized through his office.
Desirous of more active service, he was now assigned to the 59th North
Carolina Cavalry, with headquarters at Franklin, Virginia, and with
this regiment he was engaged in the fighting around Suffolk. At the
time the Army of Northern Virginia was in Maryland, he was made
colonel of the 61st Virginia Infantry, and took charge of the same at
Warrenton, Virginia, defending the bridges both at Warrenton and at
Rappahannock Station.

When Lee's Army moved back from Maryland into Virginia, General
Groner was ordered to Fredericksburg, his command then consisting of
his own regiment, the Norfolk Blues Battery, and a Mississippi Battery,
to which, after he reached Fredericksburg, a portion of Ball's Regiment
of Virginia Cavalry and a Battalion of Mississippians were added.
Arriving in Fredericksburg, he took possession at Falmouth Ford, just
as Burnside's Army reached the opposite shore. He at once engaged
in an artillery duel, so defending the fort until Lee's Army reached
Fredericksburg, two days later.

Shortly after, his regiment was assigned to Mahone's Brigade, with
which he took part in all the subsequent gallant fighting of the Army
of Northern Virginia, except when absent some two months with severe
wounds received at Spotsylvania Court House. While yet on crutches,
he rejoined the army around Petersburg, and engaged in battles there
when he had to be assisted to mount his horse, his wound preventing
the use of his limb. In a number of battles he commanded the brigade.
He surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

After the war was ended he returned for a short time to his home in
Norfolk, then went to New York City, where he and Gen. Joe Davis
(nephew of President Davis) were together some months. He then for
a time accepted the management of a steamship line running between
Virginia and New York, then was a short time general agent at Norfolk
for the Norfolk & Petersburg R. R., and was then appointed general
agent of the Merchants' & Miners' Transportation Co., a position he
has ably filled ever since.

During reconstruction periods, General Groner was a zealous conservative,

and he was largely instrumental in the election of Hon. Gilbert C.
Walker to the Governorship, and received from him tender of commission
as State adjutant-general, and also the tender of post of private
secretary, both of which he declined. He was once candidate for
Governor of Virginia, and has been several times endorsed by his city
for United States Senator. He was president of both branches of the
Norfolk City Council from the re-organization of the city government,
after the war, to about 1880. During his administration, the bonds of
the city appreciated from 47 to 107, and he was instrumental in saving
the city a large amount of interest, for which, as well as for other acts
in the interest of the city, he was, and still is, held in high esteem.

General Groner gives little attention to politics, being immersed in
business, holding the following positions, at once onerous and honorable:
President of the National Compress Association; President of the
Steamship Line run by this Association between Norfolk and Liverpool;
General Agent of the Merchants' & Miners' Transportation Company,
running steamers to Boston and Providence; General Manager of the
Washington Lines, running daily boats between Washington City and
Norfolk; and actively engaged in many other enterprises. Norfolk as
a shipping port is greatly indebted to him.

HON. ALEXANDER DONNAN.

Alexander Donnan was born in Galloway Shire, Scotland, on May 21,
1818, the son of David and Mary (Stewart) Donnan. The same year
his parents came to America and made their home in Petersburg, Virginia.
Both were born in Galloway Shire, Scotland.

Alexander went to school in Petersburg to Young D. Perkins; to the
Public School then taught by Minton Thrift; then to Jonathan Smith;
then to the University of Virginia, session of 1839-40. He
studied law under David May, brother of Judge John Fitzhugh
May, and in May, 1840, commenced practice, which he has followed
continuously since that date. He is senior member of
the firm of Donnan & Hamilton. During the late war, being
a member of the City Council, he performed local duty at
Petersburg. He was in 1859 elected to represent the city in
the House of Delegates of Virginia, but resigned shortly afterward;
has been a member of the Council for several years; is
now and has been for several years the Vice President of the Petersburg
Savings and Insurance Co., the President of the Matoaco Cotton
Manufactory, and a Director in other local companies in Petersburg.

At Williamsburg, Virginia, December 4, 1850, he married Anna E.,
daughter of Daniel Willson, of Amelia County, Virginia. Their children

are nine: Mary Stewart, Allen Edloe, Alexander, William Willson, Harris
Tinker, Etta Edloe, Lena May, Richard Thomas, and David May, all
living but the first and the two last named. Mary Stewart married
Alexander Hamilton. She died in 1877, leaving a son now living.
Etta Edloe married Judge William Hodges Mann, of Nottaway County.
Allen Edloe married Edith, daughter of Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D.,
of Brooklyn, New York.