The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 76

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, publisher
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

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residing at Salem, he married Mary Ritchie, by whom he had five children. She died, September 8th, 1852. He is thus described by Charles Henry Hart, LL. B., historio- grapher of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia : "One of the most striking points of his char- acter, and one to be fondly cherished, for it reveals better, perhaps, than any other could, the inmost recesses of his heart, was his warm love of nature and of nature's works. The spacious grounds about his residence at Princeton were remarkable for the rich collection of trees and flowers there cultivated, comprising specimens from the remotest parts of the earth. These he tended with an almost pa- rental affection, and the name of each, with its peculiarity and locality, was firmly fastened on his memory. IIc at- tended the services of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and in its councils was an active worker, being repeatedly a Delegate both to the Diocesan and General Conventions, etc."

OBESON, JAMES M., Lawyer, born November Ist, 1819, near Belvidere, the county-seat of Warren county, New Jersey, was admitted to the bar in the year 1848, and held the office of Prosecutor of the Pleas for the county of Warren for a term of five years. He was ap- pointed by the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, in 1872, Law Judge for the county of Warren for the term of five years, which office he held for two years, and re- signed and returned to the practice of the law in his native county of Warren.

ARKE, BENJAMIN, Jurist, Judge, President of the Indiana Historical Society, late of Salem, Indiana, was born in New Jersey in 1777. He was one of the earliest of those hardy and en- tcrprising Western pioneers who carried civili- zation with them into the lonely wilds of the Indian country, and settled in Indiana in 1799 or 1800. He was a delegate to Congress from that Territory in 1805 - 1808; and subsequently was appointed by Mr. Jefferson a Judge of the District Court, which office he held until his decease. He was for several years Presi- dent of the Indiana Historical Society, and during his administration of its affairs ably assisted in promoting its development and prosperity. He died at Salem, Indiana, July 12th, 1835. IIis name is associated with the carly annals of his adopted State ; and he was always a prime mover in the various measures devised and carried into execution to assist in the furtherance of its

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ORCE, PETER, Historian, Journalist, late of Washington, District of Columbia, was born at Passaic Falls, New Jersey, November 26th, 1790. William Force, his father, a revolutionary soldier, moved to New York city in 1793. In that place he learned the printer's trade, and in 1812 was chosen to fill the Presidential Chair of the Typographers' Society. In November, 1815, he removed to Washington, where he began the publication of The National Calendar, in 1820, and continued it with varying success till 1836. From November 12th, 1823, to February 2d, 1830, he pub- lished also The National Journal, a political newspaper, which was the official organ during the administration of John Quincy Adams. He served for several years as City Councilman and Alderman ; from 1836 to 1840 presided as Mayor of the city of Washington ; rose by successive steps to the rank of Major-General of Militia in 1860, and was Vice-President, then President, of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, at the capital. In 1833 he made a contract with the United States government for the prep- aration and publication of a documentary history of the American colonies, of which nine folio volumes have since appeared, covering the period from March, 1774, to the end of 1776, and embodying original documents illustrating the history of the Revolution. He prepared a tenth volume, which is, however, yet unpublished. This important work occupied him for over thirty-five years, and in its prosecu- tion he gathered a collection of books, manuscripts, maps, and papers relating to American history, which in complete- ness and value is not equalled by any other collection in the world on the same subject. He has published also four volumes of historical tracts, relating chiefly to the origin and settlement of the American colonies ; " Grinnell Land," 1852; and " Record of Auroral Phenomena," 1856. His collection, MSS., books, etc., now forms a part of the Con- gressional Library. His son, Manning Ferguson Force, who graduated at Harvard University in 1845, was a Brigadier-General in the war for the Union, appointed August 11th, 1863; and March 13th, 1865, for distinguished services, received the appointment of Brevet Major-General. He died at Washington, January 23d, 1868.

OLLOCK, REV. SHEPPARD KOSCIUSKO, D. D., Presbyterian Clergyman, Professor of Rhetoric and Logic, Author, brother of Rev. Henry Kollock, D. D., late of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, was born in that place, June 29th, 1795, and graduated from Princeton College in 1812. He subsequently filled the position of Professor of Rhetoric and Logic in the University of North Carolina. In June, 1814, he was licensed to preach, and in May, 1818, was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Oxford, North Carolina. From 1825 to 1835 he filled the

pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, Virginia, and afterwards was zealously occupied in pastoral labors in Burlington and Greenwich, New Jersey. In 1822 he published an edition of " Henry Kollock's Sermons, with Memoir," four vols., 8vo. ; and at different periods : " Min- isterial Character," " Best Method of Delivering Sermons," "Eulogy on Edmund M. Mason," "On Duelling," " On the Perseverance of the Saints," and " Pastoral Remi- niscences," New York, 12mo., 1849. He died at Elizabeth- town, New Jersey, April 7th, 1865.

E CAMP, REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN, United States Navy, late of Burlington, was born at Morristown, New Jersey, in 1812. On October Ist, 1827, he received the appointment of Mid- shipman in the navy, from the State of Florida, and was first put on active service in the sloop " Vandalia," on the Brazilian Squadron, in 1829-30. He was promoted to Passed Midshipman on June 10th, 1833. In 1837 he was on duty on the frigate "Constellation," of the West India Squadron, and on February 28th, 1838, was appointed Lieutenant. He was again on the Brazilian sta- tion in 1840, being attached to the sloop " Peacock," and to the sloop " Boston," of the same squadron, during 1845- 46. In the war with Mexico in 1846-47 he distinguished himself at the battle of Vera Cruz. In 1850 he was ordered to the Pacific Squadron on the sloop " Falmouth," and in 1854 to the coast of Africa, attached to the frigate " Consti- tution," receiving his commission as Commander on Sep- tember 14th, 1855. Subsequently he was appointed Light- house Inspector, and was attached to the Brooklyn navy- yard in that capacity. He was next appointed to the store-ship " Relief," and in 1861, on the outbreak of the rebellion, he was ordered to the command of the steam sloop " Iroquois," on the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The " Iroquois," which was one of the fleet of Flag-Officer Farragut, which made the passage of Forts Jackson and Philip on April 24th, 1862, had been placed on picket duty about a mile in advance of the main squadron, on the night of the 23d. In the passage of the forts she was in the second division, under Captain Bell. Early on the morning of April 24th the "Iroquois " hotly engaged the forts, and shortly after four o'clock a rebel ram and a gunboat, which had run astern of her, poured into her a destructive fire of grapeshot and langrage, the latter being composed mostly of copper-slugs. Driving off the gunboat with an II-inch shell and a stand of canister, the " Iroquois " proceeded, and in a little while, still under a terribly severe fire from Fort St. Philip, as she was passing that fort, she was at- tacked by five or six rebel steamers, but giving each a broad- side of shell as she passed, succeeded in completely destroy- ing them. Four miles farther down the river she captured forty rebel soldiers and a well-equipped gunboat. The

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" Iroquois " during the fight was badly injured in her hull, | married Alexander Osborn; and Jane, John Brevard, of the besides having eight of her men killed and twenty-four wounded. From this time forward Commander De Camp took active part in all the engagements on the Mississippi up to and including the capture of Vicksburg. He was commissioned Captain July 16th, 1862, for gallantry at New Orleans. In 1863-64 he commanded the frigate " Wabash," of the South Atlantic Squadron, and was commissioned Commodore September 28th, 1866. He was placed in charge of the " Potomac," store-ship, during 1866-67 at Pensacola, and performed his last active duty as com- mander of the same vessel while she was stationed at Phila- delphia as receiving-ship in 1868-69. He was made Rear- Admiral of the Retired List on July 13th, 1870. Eighteen of the forty-three years he was in the service he passed in active duties at sea, being known during that time as one of the bravest and ablest of the old school of naval officers. An illustration of his bravery is given in the fact that, on one occasion, while ill, he caused himself to be fastened in the chains of his vessel during an engagement, and lost part of one of his ears by a piece of shell from a rebel mortar. In 1871 Admiral De Camp took up his residence in Burling- ton, and, as regularly as his impaired health would permit, attended the service there of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, having, during the closing years of his life, given serious attention to religious matters. A day was fixed for his public baptism in that church, but the event had to be post- poned by reason of an attack of illness. He was, however, baptized by the Rev. Dr. Hills, rector of St. Mary's, while lying on his sick-bed, on June 14th, 1875. He died ten days after, aged sixty-three years, and was buried at Morris- town, New Jersey.

same province. The youngest of the eleven children, Alexander, was born July 15th (O. S.), 1734, the year of the death of his elder brother, after whom he was named. He also was educated for the ministry, and became a very prominent divine of the Presbyterian Church. In 1758 he married Mary, daughter of Robert Cumming, of Freehold, High Sheriff of the county of Monmouth, and sister of General Cumming, of the Continental army. He died July 20th, 1807. His children were: I. Mary, who married Samuel Beebe, a merchant of New York; 2. Ann, who married the Rev. George Ogilvie, rector of the Episcopal Church at New Brunswick ; 3. Alexander Cumming Mc Whorter-the first to change the name from McWhirter -born in 1771, died October 8th, 1808, a distinguished mem- ber of the New Jersey bar, and one of the most prominent citizens of Newark ; 4. John, who married Martha Dwight, of Newark, by whom he had three children ; all of these died without issue. Alexander C. McWhorter married Phoebe, daughter of Caleb Bruen, of Newark; by her he had six children : I. Alexander Cumming, born January 7th, 1794, died August 26th, 1826; he married, in 1818, Frances C. G., daughter of United States Senator John Lawrence, having by her several children, all of whom died save Alexander. Alexander married and abode in New Haven. His marriage was without issue. II. George H., born 1795, died 1862. IIe married, in 1819, Margaret T., daughter of United States Senator John Lawrence, and abode in Oswego, New York, becoming a prominent citizen of that place. He had issue two sons : I. Alexander C., who married Cecilia Bronson, of Oswego, and had issue one son, Alexander C .; and 2. George Cumming, unmar- ried. III. Julia Anna, born 1798, died 1846; married 1826; died without issue. IV. Mary Cumming, born 1800, died 1861 ; married to Josiah B. Howell, by whom she had five children. V. Frances Cornelia, died in childhood. VI. Adriana V. B., born 1808, died 1863; married, 1835, to Herman Bruen, having issue Adriana and Herman.

CWHORTER. This family is of Scotch extrac- tion, the name, as originally written, and as still written in Scotland, being Mc Whirter. The an- cestors of the American branch of the family be- longed to a small clan that bore the name of McWhirter, and, with other lowlanders, emi- grated in the early part of the seventeenth century to the ILLER, HION. JACOB W., Lawyer and States- man, late of Morristown, was born in November, 1800, in German Valley, Morris county, New Jer- sey. He received an excellent cducation, and, having resolved to devote himself to the profes- sion of the law, entered the office of William W. Miller, an elder brother, who died in carly manhood, but whose eloquence still lingers in the traditions of the bar of the State. With this brother he studied the prescribed course of five years, when he was admitted to the bar, at which he soon acquired a large and lucrative practice, par- counsellor. As a lawyer he was remarkable for industry, faithfulness, tact, fervent and impressive oratory, and, above north of Ireland. Of their history little or nothing is known prior to about 1700. Records exist showing Hugh McWhirter to have been settled, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, as a linen merchant, at Armagh. In 1730, at the solicitation of his son Alexander, he emi- grated to America. He settled in the county of New Castle, where he became a prominent farmer and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. By his only wife, Jane, lie had eleven children. He died in 1748. Of his numerous children, the eldest, Alexander, who had been cducated for the Presbyterian ministry and had spent two years at the ticularly in the higher courts, acquiring also distinction as a University of Edinburgh, dicd in 1734 without issue ; John migrated to North Carolina, where he married ; and Nancy

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all, common sense, a kind of sense more rare than genius, of the combination, known as the " Omnibus Bill," some if not more valuable, and which marked his career in the Senate not less than at the bar, stamping indeed its sage imprint on his whole life. He at one time was associated in the practice of law with Mr. Edward W. Whelpley, a young and gifted attorney, who afterwards became Chief- Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. In 1838 he entered public life, the Whigs having nominated him for the State Senate and elected him by a large majority. He represented his district in the Senate of the State for two years with such usefulness and distinction, that at the close of the term, in 1840, he was elected to represent his State in the Senate of the United States, discharging his duties on that high theatre, then crowded with the most illustrious figures of our parliamentary history, so ably and acceptably that, on the expiration of his term, in 1846, he was re- elected, serving two full terms in the upper house of the first legislative body in the world, when that body, in both branches, was at the zenith of its glory. It may be justly said to the credit of his character and his powers, that in a Senate which included Clay, Webster and Calhoun, with Benton, Wright, Grundy, Berrien, Mangum, Crittenden, Buchanan, McDuffie, Corwin, Reverdy Johnson, Cass, Rives, Pearce and Bayard, he was not thrown into the back- ground, but stood throughout among the principal figures of the scene, commanding their respect, enjoying their friend- ship, and participating with honor in their most renowned debates. He, however, spoke but seldom, reserving him- self in general for the more important questions of debate, content as for the rest with a vigilant attention to the busi- ness of legislation, including a diligent study of proposed or pending measures, practising as a statesman the industry, thoroughness and fidelity that had characterized him as a lawyer. It was partly on this account, perhaps, that when he did speak, he spoke with great effect, but certainly much more on account of the knowledge, fairness, ability, wisdom, and eloquence with which he spoke. Towards the close of his first term in the Federal Senate, the annexation of Texas came up in that body, and upon this question he de- livered one of the ablest and most impassioned of his speeches, opposing the measure as contrary to the Constitu- tion, dangerous to the public peace, and dishonorable to the national character, declaring that, for these reasons, he would " reject Texas, were she to bring with her the wealth of the Indies," and concluding with a telling citation of the report made by Aristides to the Athenians on the stratagem that Themistocles had secretly devised for their benefit : " Nothing could be more advantageous, but at the same time nothing could be more unjust." A question still more momentous came up as his second term approached its close, the Compromise of 1850, that is to say; and in the discussion of this complex question, in all its aspects and at all its stages, he bore a prominent and effective part. Op- posing the combination of the several measures of compro- mise into a single measure, he supported, after the rejection

of the measures when put upon their passage separately, and, on the passage in this manner of all of the measures, sustained the compromise as a whole, though not entirely approving every part of it, deeming it, all things con- sidered, a scheme of pacification, in which the best interests of the Union were involved. On this point his position was distinctly and happily stated in one of his latest speeches in the Senate : "But, whatever opposition I may have felt it my duty to make," he said, " to any or either of the meas- ures embraced in the compromise while under discussion, yet, as soon as they were enacted into laws, it became my duty, as it is the duty of every good citizen, to sustain them with as much fidelity as if I had voted for each and all of them. In saying this, I but express the common sentiment of the people of New Jersey, who have always shown their devotion to our republican institutions by a cheerful sub- mission to the voice of the majority, when that voice is ex- pressed in constitutional law. I am now opposed to all further agitation upon this subject. The quiet of the country, and even the sanctity of Congress, demand that we should cease our disputations. Sir, my abhorrence of agi- tation upon this subject is such that it may even carry me beyond my instructions ; for I go against agitation on either side of this question, agitation as well by those who were in favor of the compromise as by those who were against it, agitation from the North as well as from the South, agita- tion in State Legislatures and in the halls of Congress. Of all miserable agitation the most miserable is agitation after the fact. It is the cry of alarm after the danger is passed, for the mere love of the excitement. To revive a spent whirlwind that it may blow down a few more trees, to rouse the sleeping lion merely to hear him roar again, may suit tlie tastes of some, but they who indulge in this kind of ex- citement may find that there is more danger than amuse- ment in the play." Fully to appreciate the point of this lively sally, it should be borne in mind that the occasion of the speech was the presentation of certain resolutions of the Legislature of New Jersey, under the recently-acquired con- trol of the Democratic party, instructing the New Jersey senators " to resist any change, alteration or repeal " of the compromise, instructions which the Whig Senator not un- naturally construed as implying a very unnecessary reflection upon his fidelity to the measure, and treated with derision, as gratuitously feeding the very agitation they condemned. What he thought of this sort of agitation, in whatever quar- ter raised, he had told unequivocally enough in an oration delivered in his home at Morristown the previous July. " I will not say," he observed, on that occasion, " that those men who are continually compassing the government with wordy threats of violence, or horrifying their imaginations with the dissolution of the Union, may be legally chargeable with the desire to bring about the death of our king, the constitution. Yet they are justly chargeable with that moral treason which disturbs the confidence of a loyal peo-

Galaxy, Pur Co Philada

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ple in the safety and stability of their government, and | Whig party was no more. Against this result no man undermines their allegiance. Let us not be moved by the cry of fanatics, nor alarmed at the threats of secessionists ; they are as the angry waves which vainly howl about the battlements and spend their fury upon the unshaken towers of our political fortress. Politicians may fret and fume ; State conventions may resolve and re-resolve ; and Congress itself become the arena of fearful agitations; but above and around, as in a mighty amphitheatre, in undisturbed and undismayed majesty, stands the American people, with steady eye and giant hand, overlooking all and governing all; and wo! wo! to the man, and destruction to the State, that attempts to resist their supreme authority." Something of prophecy had those ringing words. It was about this period of his senatorial career that the landing of Kossuth on our shores called forth from him two or three of the most admirable speeches of his life. Drawing a broad dis- tinction between Kossuth as a private individual and as a political agitator, he contended that the brilliant but unfor- tunate Hungarian should be generously welcomed in the former relation, but in the latter let severely alone, ground- ing his argument on the Washingtonian policy of non-inter- vention in the domestic affairs of foreign countries. " Sir," he exclaimed, in one of these speeches, " it is said that we have a great mission to perform; that it is our duty to in- terfere, not only by the expression of sympathy, but in some other way, which gentlemen do not exactly define, in the cause of distressed humanity in Europe. We have a great trust to execute and a great duty to perform; but, like every other duty, domestic, social and political, it is limited ; it has its errand. If we go beyond that, if we turn crusad- ers, for the purpose of executing that trust and performing that duty in other lands, like all crusaders we may get great honor, we may be renowned in chivalry and song, but we shall neglect the great duties which we have to perform at home, where we can perform them to the advantage of mankind. The altar of our liberty has its own temple. It is here. Here let the oppressed of every land come to worship. Here let them come if they desire to get rid of oppression at home, or to warm their patriotism to return to renewed efforts abroad. Let them come; but let us not take away that altar from our own temple and carry it off into the wilderness of European revolution, there to be taken by the Philistines, or its fires to be quenched forever be- neath an ocean of blood. No, sir; it is here that our duty is to be performed." And to his inspired common sense the whole country did instant justice, plaudits reaching him on account of these speeches, from all quarters of the Union. He had touched with a master's hand the common sense and common sensibilities of the people. With the expira- tion of his second term, in 1852, ended the line of able and accomplished senators that the Whigs of New Jersey fur- nished to the Union-Frelinghuysen, Southard, Dayton, Miller-a line never renewed; for, when power again passed from the hands of the Democracy of New Jersey, the

struggled more zealously or more gallantly than the last Whig senator of the State. In the presidential campaign of 1852 he upheld the Whig banner in a succession of mas- terly speeches ; and when that radiant standard had gone down in what proved to be irretrievable defeat, he still, bating no jot of heart or hope, endeavored to rally the flying squadrons, reform the broken lines, refill the skeleton regi- ments, and reinforce the army in general, publishing as late as December, 1854, with this view, a series of strong and eloquent papers, insisting on the maintenance of the Whig organization and the Whig principles, but recommending, as a concession to the spirit of the times, the substitution of the name "American," and the enlargement of the platform so as " to condense into one efficient power the feeble frac- tions " into which the people were subdivided. But events were too powerful for his logic, and in 1855 he abandoned the struggle, of which he at last realized the hopelessness, and cast in his lot with the Republican party, to which with characteristic steadfastness he adhered for the remainder of his life. But the end was near, and the passage to it thickset with infirmities, so that he was not able to do all that he fain would have done for his country in the crisis of her fate. Yet he did much, with both voice and pen, cheering the despondent, convincing the doubtful, shaming the lukewarm, applauding the ardent, and quickening all. One of the most statesmanly and unanswerable disquisitions that ever appeared on the question of secession came from his pen in the closing days of 1860. He felt no misgivings, even when face to face with the deadly peril. His convic- tion that the Union would be victoriously maintained was clear and abiding. He foresaw the triumph of his country, but, alas ! he did not see it. Sinking beneath increasing infirmities, he died at Morristown, September 30th, 1862, leaving a wife, daughter of the lamented George P. Mac- culloch, and a large family of sons and daughters, one of the former being in the navy, distinguished for gallant conduct in the civil war, and two lawyers of New York, of high abilities and attainments. His eldest daughter is the wife of Mr. A. Q. Keasby.

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The biographical encyclopaedia of New Jersey of the nineteenth century, Part 76

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, publisher Publication date: 1877 Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, publisher
Publication date: 1877
Publisher: Philadelphia, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 924