the sea-board, in 1781, Rutledge convened a legislative assembly at Jacksonborough, and thoroughly re-established civil government. After the war he was made judge of the Court of Chancery. He was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the United States; and in 1789, was elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court of the Republic, as associate justice. He was appointed chief justice of South Carolina, in 1791; and in 1796, he was called to the duties of chief justice of the United States. In every official station he displayed equal energy and sterling integrity; and while yet bearing the robes of the highest judicial office in the Republic, he was summoned from earth. His death occurred in July, 1800, when he was about seventy years of age,

JOHN LANGDON.

1

# OUR head will be a button for a gallows rope," said Secretary Atkinson to young John Langdon, toward the close of 1774, after he and others, among whom was the future General Sullivan, had seized the fort at Portsmouth, and carried off a hundred barrels of powder, and a quantity of small arms, before Governor Wentworth even suspected such a daring enterprise. That brave hero and future statesman was born in the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1740. He was educated at a public grammar school, prepared himself for mercantile life, and prosecuted business upon the sea until the great ocean of public feeling began to be agitated by the tempest of the Revolution. Then he espoused the republican cause, and his first overt act of rebellion and treason was the seizure of the powder and arms, above alluded to. In January, 1775, he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress. There he remained until 1776, when affairs in his own State demanded his presence there. He also served as a volunteer in some military expeditions. In 1777, he was Speaker of the New Hampshire Assembly; and when Burgoyne was approaching the Hudson with his invading army, and the whole North and East were in commotion, Langdon offered to loan the State three thousand hard dollars, and the avails of his silver plate and some West India goods, to equip men for the army under Gates, remarking that if the American cause should triumph, he would get his pay, if not, his property would be of no value to him. He did more, for, with many members of the New Hampshire legislature, he served as a volunteer in the battles at Saratoga, which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne. Mr. Langdon was president of the New Hampshire convention that framed the State Constitution, in 1779; and the same year he was appointed Continental agent to contract for building some ships for the service of Congress. He was again elected to a seat in Congress, in 1783, and in March, 1785, he was chosen chief magistrate of his native State. He represented New Hampshire (with Nicholas Gilman) in the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, was its zealous supporter, and after serving another term as governor, or president of his State, was chosen to a seat in the United States Senate, where he served about ten years. He was afterward an active member of the State Legislature, and was governor of the State almost four years. He retired into private life, in 1812, whither he carried the most profound respect of his countrymen. That venerable patriot died at his birth-place, on the 18th of September, 1819, at the age of seventy-eight years.

1. Atkinson was Langdon's personal friend, and was in earnest. The crowd present assured Langdon that they would protect him at all hazards. Atkinson advised him to flee from the country, but the young patriot remained, and in all the trying scenes that soon followed he was nobly sustained by his fellow-citizens.

THE

The Fulton

ROBERT FULTON.

HE genius of Fulton was of no ordinary mold. It began to unfold in less than ten years after his birth, which occurred at Little Britain, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1765. His parents were industrious and virtuous natives of Ireland, in easy but not affluent circumstances, and Protestants in religious faith. His early education was meagre, but application in after life supplied all deficiencies. At the age of seventeen years he was painting landscapes and portraits in Philadelphia, and educating his mechanical faculties by observations in the workshops of that capitol. Pleased with his love of art, his friends sent him to London, at the age of twenty-one years, to receive instruction in painting, from the eminent Benjamin West. He formed one of that artist's family for several years; and then, for a season, he resided in Devonshire, and enjoyed the society of the Duke of Bridgewater and Earl of Stanhope,1 whose tastes for mechanics developed and encouraged those of Fulton.

Internal navigation by canals, and improvements in machinery, now engrossed his attention, and having heard of Fitch's experiments in the application of

1. Stanhope was the inventor of the printing press, known by his name, and which was in general use until succeeded by the invention of Andrew Ramage.

156

HUGH WILLIAMSON.

steam to the propulsion of boats, a new and glorious vision filled his mind with its splendors. He abandoned the profession of a painter, and became a civil engineer. In the Summer of 1797, he entered the family of Joel Barlow, in Paris, and there, for seven years, he assiduously pursued the study of the nat ural sciences and of modern languages. There he became acquainted with the wealthy and influential Robert R. Livingston. That gentleman fired the zeal of Fulton, by representing the immense advantages to be derived from the use of steam in navigating the inland waters of the United States. Wealth, talent, and genius joined hands, and Fulton and Livingston navigated the Seine, by a steam-boat, in 1803. They came to America, and in 1807, the steamer Cler mont, Fulton's experiment boat, made a voyage from New York to Albany, one hundred and fifty miles, in thirty-six hours, against wind and tide! His triumph was complete and his fame was secured.

Fulton received his first patent in 1809, and for several years he was engaged in the perfection of steam-boat machinery, and in the improvement and construction of submarine explosive machines, called Torpedoes, to be used for blow, ing up vessels of war. He was successful in the construction of submarine batteries; and his great heart was delighted, in 1814, by the appropriation by Congress of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, for the construction of a steam ship-of-war, under his directions. The Fulton was launched in July of that year; and he who saw in her another triumph of his own genius and skill, was marching onward in the pathway of renown to great emoluments, when he was suddenly laid in the grave. He died on the 24th of February, 1815, at the age of fifty years. Six steam-boats were then afloat on the Hudson, and the honor of first crossing the ocean by steam power was just within his grasp, for he was building a vessel, designed for a voyage to St. Petersburg, in Russia.

ONE of

HUGH WILLIAMSON.

of the most distinguished of the adopted sons of North Carolina, both for his intellectual acquirements, and his varied public services, was Hugh Williamson, a native of Nottingham, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 5th of December, 1735, the eldest of ten children. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1757, and then prepared himself for the gospel ministry. He was licensed to preach, but ill health compelled him to abandon that vocation, and in 1760, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics, in the institution where he was educated. He resigned his professorship in 1764, and went to Edinburgh to study the science of medicine. He pursued the same studies, for awhile, at Utrecht; and in 1772, he returned to Philadelphia, and commenced the successful practice of his profession. He took much interest in the subject of popular education, and near the close of 1773, he sailed from Boston for England, with Dr. Ewing, to solicit aid for an academy at Newark, in Delaware. The vessel in which they sailed conveyed the first intelligence to Europe of the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. As Dr. Williamson saw the occurrence, he was summoned before the Privy Council, in February, 1774, to give information on the subject. He gave a lucid account of the public feeling in America, and assured the Council that a persistance in enforcing parliamentary measures offensive to the colonists, would result in civil war. Soon after this he went to Holland and the Low Countries, and remained on the Continent until intelligence of the Declaration of Independence

RICHARD MONTGOMERY.

157

by the Continental Congress reached him, when he sailed for America. Off the capes of the Delaware the vessel was captured by a British cruiser, but Dr. Williamson escaped in an open boat, with some important despatches.

In 1777, Dr. Williamson went to Charleston, and with a younger brother engaged in mercantile speculations. To avoid capture, he ordered his vessel, which he had laden with merchandise for Baltimore, to proceed to Edenton, North Carolina, where he disposed of the cargo, and settled as a practising physician. The following year, he served as surgeon under Colonel Richard Caswell, and was at the head of the medical staff of that officer in the disastrous battle at Camden, in August, 1780. He was permitted to attend his wounded countrymen within the British lines, and was instrumental in relieving much suffering. He resumed his profession, at Edenton, when peace was promised; and in 1782, he represented that district in the North Carolina legislature. He was elected to Congress, in 1784, where he represented his adopted State for three years; and in 1787, he was a member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. That instrument was not regarded with favor, in North Carolina, and because of his zealous advocacy of it, Dr. Williamson lost much of his popularity, for awhile. The cloud soon passed away, and from 1790 until 1792, he represented the Edenton district in the Federal Congress. He then retired to private life, and devoted himself to literary pursuits, making the city of New York, (where he married his wife in 1789), his place of residence. His most important production was a History of North Carolina, in two volumes, published in 1812. Two years afterward, he was associated with Dewitt Clinton in establishing the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York; and he was active in social life until the last. Dr. Williamson died suddenly, while taking an evening ride, on the 22d of May, 1819, at the age of eighty-four years.

RICHARD MONTGOMERY.

IN September, 1759, the accomplished General Wolfe perished in the arms of victory on the Plains of Abraham, at Quebec, at the early age of thirty-two years. Near him, when he fell, was a handsome young soldier, ten years his junior, who, a little more than sixteen years later, was the commanding general in a siege of the same city, and also perished in the midst of his troops. That young soldier was Richard Montgomery, who was born in the north of Ireland, in 1736, and entered the British army at the age of twenty years. After the conquest of Canada, he was in the campaign against Havana, under General Lyman; and at the peace in 1763, he took up his residence in New York. He finally left his regiment, returned to England, and made unsuccessful attempts to purchase a majority. He sold his commission in 1772, came to America, and purchased a beautiful estate on the Hudson, in Dutchess county, New York. He soon afterward married a daughter of Robert Livingston. It was a happy union, but those dreams of long years of domestic peace were soon disturbed by the gathering tempest of the Revolution. Montgomery, with all the ardor of the people of his birth-land, espoused the patriot cause, joined the army under General Schuyler, destined for the invasion of Canada, and was second in command, in the Autumn of 1775, bearing the commission of a brigadier. Illness of the chief devolved the whole duty of leadership upon Montgomery, and he went on successfully until St. John, Chambly, and Montreal, were in his power. Congress gave him the commission of major-general, and amid the snows of December, he pressed forward to join Arnold in an assault upon Quebec. For three weeks he

besieged that city; and early on the morning of the 31st of December, while snow was fast falling, an attempt was made to take the town by storm. Montgomery was killed while leading a division along the shores of the St. Lawrence, beneath the precipitous Cape Diamond. Arnold was also wounded at another point of attack, and the great object of the expedition failed. For forty years the remains of Montgomery rested within the walls of Quebec. At the request of his widow, in 1818, they were disinterred, conveyed to New York, and placed beneath a mural monument, erected by order of Congress, on the external wall of the front of St. Paul's church, in that city. Millions of people, passing along Broadway, have looked upon that monument, the memorial of one whose praises were spoken in Parliament by the great Chatham and Burke, and of whom Lord North said, "Curse on his virtues; they have undone his country." He was in the fortieth year of his age when he fell.1

THA

JOSEPH BRANT.

HAYENDANEGEA, one of the most renowned of the warriors of the Six Nations of Indians in the State of New York, was a Mohawk of the pure native blood. His father was an Onondaga chief, and Thayendanegea (which signifies a bundle of sticks, or strength), was born on the banks of the Ohio, in 1742. There his father died, and his mother returned to the Mohawk Valley with her two children-this son, and a sister who became a concubine of Sir William Johnson. She married a Mohawk, whom the white people called Barent, which, in abbreviation, was pronounced Brant. Sir William Johnson placed the boy in Dr. Wheelock's school, at Lebanon, in Connecticut, where he was named Joseph, and was educated for the Christian ministry among his own people. Sir William employed him as secretary and agent in public affairs, with the Indians, and his missionary labors never extended much beyond the services of an interpreter for Mr. Kirkland and others. He was much employed in that business from 1762 to 1765. Under the stronger influence of Johnson and his family, Brant resisted the importunities of Mr. Kirkland to remain neutral when the war of the Revolution approached, and he took an active part with the British and Tories. In 1775, he left the Mohawk Valley, went to Canada, and finally to England, where he attracted great attention, and found free access to the nobility. The Earl of Warwick caused Romney, the eminent painter, to make a portrait of him, for his collection, from which the prints of the great chief have been made. Throughout the Revolution, he was engaged in predatory warfare, chiefly on the border settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, with the Johnsons and Butlers; and he was generally known as Captain Brant, though he held a colonel's commission, from the king. Brant again visited England, in 1783, to make arrangements for the benefit of the Mohawks, who had left their ancient country, and had settled on the Grand River, west of Lake Ontario, in Upper Canada. The territory given them by the government embraced six miles on both sides of the river from its mouth to its source. There Brant was

the head of the nation until his death. He translated a part of the New Testament into the Mohawk language, and poral welfare of his ruined people. 1807, at the age of sixty-five years. Niagara frontier, in the war of 1812; of Niagara, in 1824.

labored much for the spiritual and temThere he died on the 24th of November, One of his sons was a British officer on the and a daughter married W. J. Kerr, Esq.,

1. The inscription on his monument says that he was thirty-seven years old. This is a mistake.