USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 63
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Among his children were Anne Francis, who married James Tilghman of Talbot County, whose son, Col. Tench Tilghman, was aide-de-camp to General Washington; Tench Francis (2d), who married Ann Willing, of Philadelphia, whose greatgrandson was Hon. Thomas Francis Bayard, of Delaware; Margaret Francis, who married Chief Justice Edward Shippen, of Pennsylvania, one of whose daughters married Gen. Bene- dict Arnold; Turbutt Francis, who married Rebecca Mifflin, before the war of the Revolution. He was a lieutenant in the British Army, but afterward fought with his countrymen and rose to the rank of colonel; Philip Francis, who returned to Talbot county to live and married Hen- rietta Maria Goldsborough, whose grandsons were the late ex-Governor Philip Francis Thomas, formerly secretary of the treasury under Pres- ident Buchanan, and Capt. Charles Thomas, United States Navy.
A very interesting letter was in the possession of the late Senator Bayard, written by Sir Philip Francis, who had just received an appoint-
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
ment in India, to his cousin, Col. Turbutt Francis, of Philadelphia, dated London, 17 July, 1773, in which, among other things, he writes:
I beg of you to do whatever you think proper with my estate, (it was in Talbot county,) for I am determined to keep a little freehold in Ameri- ca. At present I am bound to the Ganges, but who knows whether I may not end my days on the banks of the Ohio. People here mind no more going to India now than they did formerly to Bath. I wish, with all my heart, there was a turnpike road from this to Calcutta, and post chaises at every stage. I sicken at the thought of a six months' voyage, but honor and profit spur me on. Shall we not meet hereafter, my honest Fellow? I don't like to think of the quantity of salt water between us. If it were claret I would drink my way to America. Seri- ously, I intend to be a very jolly old fellow, and laugh at Tilghman's great wig and your wooden leg, for I suppose you'll have lost a limb in the service of your country.
Young Thomas received his earlier elementary education at the Easton Academy, later, he entered Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he remained but two years. Owing to his participation in some college pranks, he was politely advised not to return. Having deter- mined to pursue the study of law, and to enter the legal profession, he became a law student in the office of William Hayward, then one of the leading attorneys of Easton, and at the November term of the Circuit for Talbot County, 1831, a few months after attaining his majority, he was admitted to the bar. Ever since the organization of political parties in this new republic of ours, it has been almost the universal custom for sons to inherit the political proclivities of their fathers, and they usually prided themselves upon the fact that their political ideas as well as their religious convictions were "bred in the bone." This was not the case, however, with the subject of this sketch. His father, Dr. Tristram Thomas, who for a half century was one of the leading physicians of Easton, was a Federalist of the most pronounced type, and, upon the demise of that party, he became an ardent adherent of the Whig party. Philip Francis was rather a wild and erratic youth, and being possessed of very independent ideas of his own, declined to follow the political precepts of his honored parent, and early allied him- self with the Democratic party which laid claim to the advocacy of the right of the masses, or common people, as opposed to those of the aristo- crats, or landed gentry, who for the most part were then Federalists, and later Whigs, and long controlled the majority of the votes in Tal- bot County. The Democratic party, to which he persistently adhered, being apparently in a hopeless minority in his county and congressional
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GOVERNOR PHILIP FRANCIS THOMAS
district, there seemed to be but slight hopes of any political preferment in store for our young hero. Undaunted by successive defeats in the outset of his political career, his persistent zeal in the advocacy of his party principles soon brought him phenomenal success. Running for a seat in the legislature of Maryland in 1834, he was badly defeated, his opponent being elected by a majority of 200 votes. Two years later, in 1836, in opposition to the advice of his friends, he again became a candidate for the same office. This time he was defeated only by 17 votes. Under the amended Constitution of 1838, for the first time in the history of Maryland, the election of governor was by direct vote of people. William Grason, of Queen Annes County, was nominated by a Democratic convention which met in Baltimore in 1838, as their can- didate for governor. Thomas, who had been a delegate to this con- vention, pledged his county to Mr. Grason and made good his pledge, carrying Talbot County for him by 130 majority, while Mr. Thomas, himself, who was for the third time a candidate for the House of Dele- gates, was elected by a handsome majority of 190 votes. Encouraged by his first political success, Mr. Thomas soon sought higher honors. In the following year, 1839, he ran on the Democratic ticket for Congress, against James Alfred Pearce of Kent County, who had been represent- ing his district in Congress since 1835, with credit to his constituents, and whose re-election was confidently expected by the Whig party. To the surprise, even of Thomas's own friends, he was elected over Mr. Pearce by a majority of 188 votes. At the end of his term he declined re-election, and Mr. Pearce having no opposition, was elected to Congress for a third term, while Mr. Thomas applied himself to the practice of his profession. In 1843 he again became a candidate for the House of Delegates and was elected. Again in 1845 he was a successful candi- date for the same office. He took such a prominent part in the legis- lative debates and acquitted himself so creditably in the session of 1846 that he was accorded the gubernatorial nomination by the Democratic Convention which met in Baltimore June 24, 1847. William Tilghman Goldsborough of Dorchester County was the candidate of the Whig party. Thomas was elected governor by over 700 majority.
The Constitution of 1776, although amended from time to time, was generally conceded to be inadequate for the then changed conditions of affairs, seventy-one years after its adoption. One of the first official acts of Governor Thomas was to advocate, in his inaugural address, on Jan. 3, 1848, the passage of an act by the Legislature authorizing the assembling of a convention for the adoption of a new consitution. The
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General Assembly passed the necessary act, and in the closing months of Governor Thomas' administration the Convention met. The new Constitution became operative in 1851, and made many radical changes in the organic law of the State. It created a new office, that of comp- troller of the treasury. Ex-Governor Thomas became the first incum- bent of this office, which office he held until in 1853 when he was appointed, by President Franklin Pierce, collector of customs at the port of Baltimore.
At the close of Mr. Pierce's administration, ex-Governor Thomas removed to the city of St. Louis and began the practice of law there, but he could not be content away from his native heath and his political constituents, and soon returned to Maryland. Not even the governor- ship of the territory of Utah proffered him by President James Buchanan during the Mormon war, could tempt him away from his native state, but when in February, 1860, President Buchanan offered him the posi- ition of commissioner of patents, he accepted it, and in December follow- ing, President Buchanan offered him a seat in his cabinet, made vacant by the resignation of the Honorable Howell Cobb as secretary of the treasury. Governor Thomas occupied this cabinet position for but a single month, from December 10, 1860, to January 11, 1861. The Civil War, which disrupted our country for over four years, was then impend- ing; Governor Thomas, being a Southern sympathizer, was forced into seclusion, and retired to a farm on Peach Blossom Creek called "Oak- land," three miles south of Easton, which was the property of his wife who was Miss Sarah Maria Kerr. His only son then about eighteen years old went South and became a Confederate soldier. In 1866, the war being over, Governor Thomas was elected a delegate to the Legis- lature. At this session, the General Assembly was required to elect a successor to John A. J. Cresswell in the United States Senate, and Gov- ernor Thomas was elected United States Senator, but the accusation of disloyalty having been brought up against him, the then Republican Senate refused to seat him. In 1874, he was elected to the House of Representatives and took his seat in 1875, just 35 years after vacating his seat in Congress in 1840. In 1877 he served in the House of Dele- gates of Maryland and again in 1883. Governor Thomas was a strik- ingly handsome man, of dignified deportment, pleasing manners, affable in conversation, he commanded universal respect, even from his politi- cal enemies. Late in life when a widower of 75 he built himself a modern home in Easton and married Mrs. Clintonia May, widow of Captain
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ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN
William May of the United States Navy, and daughter of Governor Robert Wright.
He died in Baltimore City, October 2, 1890, in the 81st year of his age, having enjoyed more political honors than fall to the lot of most men.
ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN
1800-1874
CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY
After a varied and eventful career, Admiral Franklin Buchanan, late ranking officer in the Confederate Navy, and, at the outbreak of the Civil War, a Captain in the United States Navy, died, at his country- seat, "The Rest," on Miles river, on Monday, May 11, 1874, after a brief illness, in the 74th year of his age.
It was our lot to differ from this gentlemen in the interpretation of our duty at the beginning and during the continuance of the recent un- happy contest between the two sections of the country; and we confess to have shared in that warmth of feeling which all sincere and earnest men, of whichever side, felt for those who were in antagonism to them in those terrible days-a feeling which we are free to confess was not that of amity or fraternity: but we can now say, and say it too without any sacrifice of candor, that after the termination of the conflict, we enter- tained for the distinguished deceased, no sentiments of animosity, while our former admiration of his fine abilities and bravery was not diminished, but only enhanced, by his conduct and daring in that war in which he bore such a notable and creditable a part. Of the dead, nothing except the good, is a maxim not difficult of observance in the case of Admiral Buchanan, of whom so much can be said that is good and so little that is not altogether admirable.
Admiral Franklin Buchanan was born on the 11th of September, in the year 1800, in the city of Baltimore. His father, Dr. Geo. Buchanan, was a physician of distinction, in that city and his mother the daughter of Thos. Mckean, Governor and Chief Justice of Pennsylania, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and President of the State of Delaware. His education was received in the city of Philadel- phia, whither his family had removed very early in his life. In 1815 he obtained his warrant as cadet in the U. S. Navy from President Madison. He was assigned to the frigate Java then refitting at Baltimore, to be
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commanded by Com. O. H. Perry; but she not being ready for sea, he was permitted to take a position in the merchant marine, for the pur- pose of accomplishing himself in practical seamanship. He accordingly made a voyage in one of the ships of Mr. Thomas Tenant, a wealthy shipping merchant of Baltimore, under the command of Capt. James Gibson, an experienced sailor.
The war of 1812 being over before he entered the navy, there was no opportunity for rising in rank except by regular promotion and gradua- tion, for many years. He however distinguished himself in the service, by his thorough seamanship, his own fidelity to duty, and the rigidity with which he exacted similar fidelity on the part of those placed under him. Being a thorough sailor, fond of and devoted to his profession, he sought rather than avoided service, so that he was pretty constantly at sea or upon distant stations. It is said at the date of his resignation he had seen more sea service than any officer of the navy, with a single exception. In every position he acquitted himself with credit and with the approbation of his Government. His ship was always in the most admirable order, his crew under the most accurate and strict discipline, his officers instructed in the best seamanship. He was regarded, in every respect, as one of the first commanders of the service.
In the year 1835 he married the third daughter of Governor Edward Lloyd, of Wye House, Talbot county, and in 1847 he purchased the beautiful seat of Mr. James Conner near Miles River Ferry, which he called "The Rest," and made his home for life. Here he passed those few days of respite from the duties of the service which his active mind allowed him to enjoy; here he spent his declining years, in the bosom of a charming family, and surrounded by admiring friends; and here he finished a life whose record will make a page of the history of his country, that will be read with glowing interest to the utmost posterity.
His own experience and that of other gentlemen of the first standing, if not of the first grade, in the navy, had taught him the necessity of forming a class of officers of a different order from those early command- ing our ships: a class that should be thoroughly trained and instructed not simply in the nautical art but in naval science. He saw that it was necessary to secure for the young men who should enter the service such tuition as was given to those that enter the army, so that the culture of the scholar might be added to the skill of the sailor. To this end he used his well deserved influence with the Department to have estab- lished a school for the education of naval cadets. His efforts and those of his brother officers were, after many days, at last crowned with suc-
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ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN
cess, and in 1845 under the administration of Mr. Polk, the Hon. George Bancroft being the Secretary of Marine affairs, the Naval School was established. Through the representations of Commander Buchanan, who fully appreciated the advantages of the situation, Annapolis was selected as the seat of this school, which has now acquired such efficiency and celebrity. As evincing the appreciation in which he was held by the department, he was made the first commandant at that school, which post he held from 1845 to 1847. Doubtless he was largely and perhaps chiefly instrumental in giving to this institution its admirable organiza- tion, for which it is now so famous, and it was he to whom we are in- debted for that superior class of young officers which gives such distinc- tion to our navy-a class in which culture has been happily grafted upon gallantry, and science upon practical skill.
The Mexican war being in progress, Comdr. Buchanan was no longer content with the comforts and distinction afforded by his station at Annapolis; and therefore he asked to be allowed to participate in the naval operations then going on in the Gulf. In this he was gratified, and being placed in command of the ship Germantown, he cooperated in the reduction of Vera Cruz, and in other operations upon the Mexican Coast, under Commodores Conner and Perry. We may be sure that whatever duty was imposed, or whatever place was assigned, that duty was well performed, and that place was well filled.
After the close of the Mexican war, he had various commands; but in the year 1853 a squadron was formed under the command of Com. Perry, for the purpose of demanding protection for American seamen who might be wrecked upon the coasts of Japan, complaints having been lodged that such unfortunates as had been cast upon the shores of that empire had been harshly treated. The result of this naval expedition are of the most astonishing, as well as beneficent description. Through the measures that were then inaugurated, that great empire was opened to the trade of the world, after having been closed to all but one favored nation, from time immemorial; and treaties of friendship and com- merce were formed, not only with our own government, but most of the nations of Europe. Nor was this the whole of the results of this expedi- tion. The internal structure of the empire was changed, ameliorations were introduced, and an era of progress inaugurated among a people who seem to have been stationary for thousands of years. Comm'dr Buchanan was second in command in this expedition, having charge of one of the vessels. It is said, and perhaps with truth, that he was the first American officer to place his foot on Japanese soil. He shares, at
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least, the credit of having successfully accomplished the grand work of opening to trade, and western civilization, one of those countries that had been closed against the entrance of foreign persons and foreign ideas for ages, and thus breaking down those barriers of prejudice that had stood in the way of the progress of one of the most ingenious and interesting peo- ple upon the face of the globe. Com. Buchanan also had command of the vessel that conveyed the American commissioners to China in 1854 to negotiate a treaty with the leader of the Taiping rebellion, and was among the first to discover and make known to those Commissioners the emptiness of the pretensions of that leader to liberality of sentiment towards foreigners, and the shallowness of his belief in the doctrines of Christianity.
In the year 1855 Commander, became Captain Buchanan, though long anterior to that date he had been acting the part of an officer of that rank.
We now approach a crisis in his life, as well as the life of the nation. In the year 1861 we find him in charge of the Washington Navy Yard. One state after another had passed its ordinance of secession. His own native state, and the place of his home, still hesitated to take the fatal leap. A large portion of her people were urging the following of their southern brethren. The class of citizens with which Capt. Buchanan was intimately connected by social ties of the most intimate character was in sympathy with the southern movement, and it demanded that all who expected to retain their position in this class should share in this sympathy, and show it by their willingness to make every sacrifice. The famous attack upon the northern troops passing through Baltimore was made upon the 19th of April. All Marylanders were called upon to defend their homes from invasion, as it was erroneously called. In the furor of the moment Capt. Buchanan sent in his resignation of his post, which he almost immediately sought to recall, but was not allowed. He was thus precipitated into the vortex, from which there was no escape. We have nothing to say by way of comment upon this fatal step. It deprived his country of one who would have been among her ablest defenders; it gave her enemies a champion of unsurpassed ability and bravery. To him personally it was a step taken at first with pain, and followed ultimately by consequences full of mortification and suf- fering.
After joining his fortunes with those of the Southern Confederacy, he was immediately placed in high command. When he next appears con- spicuous to the view he was a chief participant in the most novel and one
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ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN
of the most wonderful actions in all history-an action that heralds a revolution and marks an era in naval warfare. Reference of course is made to the engagement in August 1862 between the Confederate iron- clad ship, the Virginia, and the Federal fleet in Hampton Roads, and which terminated in the naval duel between the first named vessel and the Monitor. There is no room in a short newspaper article to give an account of this stupendous fight. It is of such recent occurrence how- ever that most readers of the Gazette can recall it with sufficient vivid- ness. Memory has as yet no need of history. In the fight, Capt. Buchanan, we believe he was not then Admiral, exhibited all the quali- ties of a consummate commander. In charge of a vessel of novel con- struction, and untried power, he did not hesitate to attack the Federal fleet, vastly his superior in numbers and weight of metal, and but for the timely interposition of the turreted vessel that entered the harbor while the result of the engagement was pending, he would have succeeded in sinking, capturing or driving off every ship of the squadron. In this engagement the Virginia was finally disabled, and returned to harbor at Norfolk, but not before her commander had been severely wounded. Capt. Buchanan remained in command at Norfolk until the Navy yard at the port was destroyed, and his ship the Virginia blown up, by his own orders. His conduct during this engagement and his subsequent acts were subjected to the examination of a court of inquiry, whose de- cision so far from casting censure upon him was highly commendatory of the ability and bravery he displayed in the fight and his sound judg- ment in the destruction of his vessel, and the public works.
After his recovery from his wound he was placed in command of the Confederate naval forces at Mobile, with the rank of Admiral. When that city was assailed by Admiral Farragut of the Federal fleet, Admiral Buchanan was in charge of the squadron which aided the forts below on the bay in its defence. This most memorable fight took place August 1864. Here too there was great inequality of the naval forces, the su- periority of numbers and metal being with the Federal commander, though the forts perhaps equalized the contestants. After Farragut had passed the forts, and the Confederate fleet had retired up the bay, Admiral Buchanan renewed the engagement, with most desperate energy and bravery. The Federal commander characterizes this fight as "one of the fiercest naval combats on record." The Confederate Admiral was again defeated, his vessel captured, and he himself taken prisoner, after being terribly wounded. The intrepidity and ability displayed by Admiral Buchanan excited the greatest admiration of
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both friends and enemies. This ended his naval career. He returned to his home where he remained till the war terminated.
While absent in the South his house had been accidently burned, on the 4th of April, 1863, but was speedily replaced by the tasteful mansion that now adorns "The Rest." Being deprived of all support fromhis profession, and possessed of small private fortune, he engaged in civil pursuits. The friends of Education in Maryland wishing to revive the prosperity of the Agricultural College, which had succumbed to the war, thought they saw in Admiral Buchanan those very qualifications which would guarantee the success of that institution. They accordingly invited him to assume the charge of the school as President. Under his administration it prospered; but he soon found that this prosperity was secured at too great a cost of personal independence. Unaccus- tomed to submit his opinions to the decisions of others, he could not brook the opposition, nor even the questioning of his coadjutors in the faculty. An occasion for open rupture was not long wanting, and upon his demanding the removal of a member of the professional staff, on account of immoral conduct, and upon the refusal of the faculty and trustees to make the removal, Admiral Buchanan was in self-respect compelled to retire from the Presidency of the college. He then became the manager of a Southern Insurance Company at Mobile, but finding that attention to its duties involved continued absence from his family, he relinquished his position. He returned to Talbot, and never again assumed any public duties, but beguiled the time until his death with the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, and the pleasing duties of a generous hospitality.
There is no longer space to give an estimate of Admiral Buchanan, if indeed we were able-we who have lived so near him in time and place -we who have seen him in his daily walks and listened to his familiar voice among us-we who have been so accustomed to regard him only as a worthy citizen; cordial in feeling, kindly in speech, courteous in manners, that we had almost forgotten that we were looking upon a man of heroic mould, and one whose acts will be the theme of the his- torian, and whose character will be the study and admiration of coming years.
Admiral Buchanan was buried on Thursday morning according to the rites of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a large concourse of neighbors and friends attending his remains from his home at the "The Rest," to "Wye House," the seat of Col. Edward Lloyd, where they are deposited.
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