USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 23
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one of great consequence, but the accident of war made it one of the most important of our consulates; for it was in the vicinity of Pernambuco that the Anglo-rebel cruisers " Alabama," "Florida " and "Georgia " committed their most serious depredations on our commerce. It was within that jurisdiction that most of the crews from the captured vessels were landed, and it was from vessels calling at that port that late news of the movements of the piratical cruisers could be obtained and forwarded to our naval commanders.
In May, 1863, Mr. Adamson had under his charge 294 of the men taken prisoners by the " Alabama " and " Florida," for whom he had to provide. At that time the United States Government had given notice that no drafts against it would be accepted if made payable in gold, and no merchant or banker in Brazil would buy a consular draft which was made payable in a rapidly depre- ciating paper currency. At this juncture the personal character of the Consul proved of value to his Government. Ile had secured the entire confidence of a wealthy merchant and banker, Mr. John Mathues, head of the firm of Mathues, Austin & Co .; and to him Mr. Adamson applied, telling Mr. Mathues plainly that he was a poor man, that he had positive orders not to draw on the Govern- „ment for gold, and that he required some five or six thousand dollars to feed, clothe and send home the captured seamen under his charge. The money was handed over without a moment's delay. In consideration of the circumstances the United States Government afterwards permitted the Consul to draw for the amount in gold.
During the same month the "Florida " arrived at Pernambuco, where she landed forty-nine prisoners, and was permitted by the authorities to enter the port to take coal. The Consul made a vigorous protest against such permission being accorded to the " Florida," and in his official correspondence and discus- sion of the case he was pitted against the President of the province, Dr. Joao Silveira de Souza, who had recently been a professor in the law school of Per- nambuco, and was subsequently Minister of Foreign Affairs of the empire. The President of Pernambuco was also assisted by Don Francisco Balthazar de Silveira, an eminent Judge of the Supreme Court, and who has since become the chief legal adviser of the imperial government. For a novice in the consular service the position was an extremely trying one; but the new Consul felt, when he entered the public service, that the way to hold a high place was to acquire the ability to fill it, and he had employed his spare time in studying international law and the laws which govern maritime warfare. His management of the dif- ficult cases he had to deal with secured for him the approval of the Department of State and the commendation of Gen. James Watson Webb, the Envoy-Extra- ordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary of the United States at Rio de Janeiro. Consul Adamson's vigilance in thwarting the designs of the rebel cruisers, his economy in the expenditures of his office, and the extreme care shown by him in all public affairs attracted the attention of the Department of State, and finally led to his appointment, on the Ist of June, 1869, as Consul at Honolulu, the scat
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of Government of the Hawaiian Islands, and the refitting port for our vessels engaged in the Arctic and Pacific whale fishery.
On reporting to the Department of State to receive his instructions, Mr. Adamson was informed that he had been selected from a very large number of applicants for the position, because the Department believed that he was the man of the consular service who would do as he was ordered ; that in carrying out his instructions he might make himself unpopular; that the Department would be disappointed if there were not many complaints made against him; and that, so far as possible, he should be sustained ; but it was also plainly intimated that he must, if necessary, be willing to sacrifice himself for the purpose of carrying out the views of the Department. Amongst the duties to be performed were several extremely difficult tasks, including a reduction of the very heavy expenditures incurred at Honolulu for many years in connection with the United States Marine Hospital at that port ; the collection of the three months' extra wages on discharge of seamen-a legal but very unpopular measure with the masters of whaling vessels; and the protection of seamen from frauds in the settlement of their wages. Mr. Adamson performed his difficult task to the full satisfaction of his superiors, and received in official form the thanks of the Department for his faithful administration ; but, as had been foreseen, he incurred the displeasure of the New Bedford whaling interests, and the New England representatives in Congress had sufficient influence to prevent his nomination from being acted upon by the Senate, although President Grant exerted his influence to have him confirmed.
Mr. Adamson remained in charge of the consulate at Honolulu as Acting Consul until the latter part of October, 1870. During all his residence there he was on particularly friendly terms with the Hawaiian Government, the mission- aries and clergy of the island, and the respectable people of Honolulu in general; and on leaving there he was presented by the citizens with a sandal-wood cane mounted with a solid gold head, and by the Protestant clergymen with a hand- somely bound Bible printed in the Hawaiian language.
On his return home in November, 1870, the Hon. Ilamilton Fish, then Secre- tary of State, tendered to Mr. Adamson the appointment to the Consulate at Singapore, East Indies ; but, as he needed rest and did not wish to displace the worthy incumbent of that post, he asked permission to hold his decision in abeyance for a time, which was granted.
In a personal interview which the Hon. Simon Cameron, Senator from Penn- sylvania, had with the honorable Secretary of State in regard to another appoint- ment for Mr. Adamson, that official remarked that Mr. Adamson had converted the Consulate at Honolulu, which formerly cost the Government some $30,000 a year, into a source of revenue, and that during his first full quarter at Honolulu he had sent to the United States Treasury over $11,000 on account of the fund for relief of seamen. On the 2d of February, 1871, at the special instance of the Hon. William D. Kelley, M. C., and the Hon. Leonard Myers, M. C., and in
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recognition of his valuable services at Honolulu, President Grant commissioned Mr. Adamson as Consul at Melbourne for the important British Colony of Victoria, Australia, to which post he immediately proceeded.
Within a few months after his arrival at Melbourne he received from one of the Cabinet Ministers of the Hawaiian kingdom an intimation that, if he would express his willingness to accept it, he would at once receive from his Majesty, King Kamehameha V., the appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hawaii. The position was the premier one of the country, and very desirable from many points of view ; but, while Mr. Adamson fully appreciated the honor done him by the suggested appointment, his ambition was limited to the service of his own country.
He devoted himself with energy to the duty of promoting measures to increase the commerce of the United States with the great Australian Colonies, and to overcoming any prejudices which might retard the intercourse between the respective countries.
As a natural result of his early training, he took an active interest in works of benevolence, and thus happily dispelled the prejudices of those who thought a foreigner could desire the good only of his own countrymen. He was one of the founders of "The Victorian Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," and also of " The Victorian Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society," both of which held their meetings at the United States Consulate for several years. He was also a member of the Board of Managers of the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, of the Victorian Asylum and School for the Blind, the Seamen's Mission, and other public institutions.
HIis usefulness was recognized by his promotion, on the 17th of June, 1874, to the rank of Consul-General at Melbourne, with jurisdiction over all the United States Consulates in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania-a territory of greater extent than that of any other Consulate-General of our service.
During his term of office at Melbourne he prepared the evidence, to be used before the tribunal at Geneva, for arbitrating the Alabama claims, in the case of the claim of the United States for damages done to American commerce by the Anglo-rebel cruiser "Shenandoah " after her departure from Melbourne, and thus assisted in fixing upon the British Government the responsibility for the acts complained of, and for which £1,250,000 sterling were allowed. 1Ie also discussed with the Colonial Government several important cases affecting our shipping interests, resisting successfully its claims in the premises, and securing for himself the renewed approval of the Department of State at Washington.
In 1877 he obtained leave of absence to visit his home in Philadelphia, whither his wife and sons had gone a few months before in order that the latter might enter the University of Pennsylvania. On his departure from Melbourne he was honored by the citizens with a public farewell and the presentation of an illumi- nated address and service of plate at the Town Hall, and was also the recipient of several complimentary addresses from the various benevolent societies with which he had been connected, and from his colleagues of the Consular corps.
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Before Mr. Adamson's leave of absence had expired, the Ilon. Wm. M. Evarts, then Secretary of State, had recommended President Hayes to transfer him to the Consulate-General at Rio de Janeiro in order to assist in carrying out the views of the Secretary of State in regard to increasing our commerce with Brazil.
The nomination was accordingly made, but the action of the Senate thereon was delayed for a time by a Senatorial friend of the incumbent at Rio de Janeiro. Pending such action the Department of State called Mr. Adamson to Washington, and ordered him to prepare for service as a special Commissioner to the Samoan Islands to investigate certain complications which had arisen there, and to make a treaty with the king of those islands. He proceeded at once to study the case in hand, and to prepare for his contemplated mission ; but before arrangements for his departure had been completed commissioners from Samoa arrived at Washington, and the treaty was made there by the Hon. W. M. Evarts and the Envoy Extraordinary of the Samoan Government, and ratifications exchanged on the 11th of February, 1878.
The appointment of Mr. Adamson as Consul-General of the United States at Rio de Janeiro having been confirmed, he was duly commissioned on the roth of April, 1878, and soon afterwards proceeded toward his post, with orders to stop on the way at Pernambuco and make an investigation into the administra- tion of the Consulate at that port, which duty was performed to the entire satisfaction of his Government.
On arriving at Rio de Janeiro he found the Consulate office like an old ship- worm-eaten and covered with barnacles. The Vice-Consul-General was a Portu- guese subject, who had been clerk to the Consulate for upwards of twenty years, and who, through the ignorance of his principals of the Portuguese language, had made himself master of the situation, and had connected that office with many very questionable practices. Besides the grave abuses which he had permitted to grow and almost to become vested rights of the parasites who fed upon the Consulate, there was a new difficulty to contend with which grew out of the laudable efforts of the honorable Secretary of State to increase our for- eign commerce.
Plausible adventurers established themselves at Rio de Janeiro as commission merchants, dealing only in American goods. They invited consignments, for which they seldom made any returns, except when by doing so they hoped to receive other and more valuable consignments. They demanded of Mr. Adam- son that he should report them as trustworthy persons, and on his failure to do so they complained that he was an obstacle to commerce. The position of the Consul-General was as difficult as when he was sent to Honolulu to break up time-honored swindles there, and he was further embarrassed by the fact that he met with opposition from quarters whence he should have received support. Relying, however, on the knowledge that he was in the right, and would be supported by his Government, he requested the Department of State to cause a full investigation of all the points at issue to be made. A special agent, thor-
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oughly versed in consular duties, was detailed for that purpose, and, after a searching examination, he found the Consul's course without a blemish, and reported that he had never before found a consulate so well managed as that at Rio de Janeiro, or a Consul so efficient as Mr. Adamson.
Mr. Adamson continued in charge of the Consulate-General at Rio de Janeiro until 1882, when the increased political importance of the Isthmus of Panama, caused by the commencement of the Inter-Oceanic Canal projected by Count Fer- dinand de Lesseps, demanded that our growing American interests there should be committed to the care of a thoroughly discreet and experienced officer. On the 17th of April, 1882, Mr. Adamson was appointed to the Consulate at Panama ; but he remained for some six months longer at Rio de Janeiro, in order to deliver over the Consulate-General there to his successor. On his return to the United States he took an early opportunity of paying his respects to the new administra- tion. On calling on the Hon. F. T. Frelinghuysen, then Secretary of State, Mr. Adamson remarked that it appeared that he had " been promoted backward from a Consulate-General to a Consulate." The honorable Secretary replied that he ought to feel highly complimented, as the post was likely to be one of the most important in our service. He also promised that the Department would endeavor to have the office raised to that of a Consulate-General, and to have the salary increased, both of which were afterward accomplished.
On his arrival in Panama he was immediately called to take action in a case in which the local authorities had exceeded their just powers, and violated the. plain provision of the Consular Convention between the respective countries, by imprisoning an officer and two mariners of an American steamship for a matter which did not come within their jurisdiction. The affair became the subject of diplomatic correspondence between the Hon. Wm. L. Scruggs, Minister-Pleni- potentiary of the United States at Bogota, and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Colombian Government. Mr. Scruggs, referring to Mr. Adamson's dis- cussion of the affair with the President of Panama, declared that his arguments were unanswerable and covered the whole ground, making his own side of the case comparatively easy in his controversy with the Government of Colombia. It may be added that Mr. Adamson's views of the case were fully sustained by the Department of State at Washington, and finally admitted by the Colombian Government.
The state of political affairs in Colombia had been gradually becoming more and more disturbed, and finally in June, 1884, the manifestations of coming trouble were unmistakable at Panama. General Benjamin Ruiz commenced the revolt in Panama, and during the following months Consul-General Adamson was continually on the alert to protect American interests and to report all signs of disturbance to his home Government. In December of that year communica- tion with Bogota was cut off, and for five months our Minister there could not communicate with Washington. This left Consul-General Adamson as the only representative of the United States in Colombia with whom our Government
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could communicate, or from whom it could receive information of the progress of the revolution. Between November, 1884, and April, 1885, Panama had six different rulers, constitutional and revolutionary. The town was taken by assault of the Rebel forces on the 16th of March, evacuated by them on the 17th, and retaken on the 31st of March, 1885. On the last named day a notorious guerrilla chief, Pedro Prestan, had captured the city of Colon, imprisoned the United States Consul at that place, and several prominent American citizens, threatening to shoot them. On the evening of the same day he burned the city, thus rendering twelve thousand people homeless in a few hours.
These incidents caused the Government of the United States to send a large military force to the Isthmus of Panama, to protect American interests and to fulfil our treaty obligations there. At one time there were over twelve hundred United States marines and " blue jackets " on shore, and for a short time they occupied and controlled the city of Panama. The events of those days were such as required the utmost watchfulness and prudence on the part of the agents of our Government, and especially so on the part of the ranking officer, Consul- General Adamson, to whom all classes of people came for protection and advice. His exertions were unremitting, and his prudence averted serious and imminent dangers, and finally assisted materially to bring about the peaceable surrender of the revolutionary forces to those of the National Government. To him the people of Panama accorded the credit of saving their city from the terrible fate which had so recently befallen their sister city, Colon.
While all these tragically interesting events were in progress, and the Isthmus was daily experiencing some new horror of fratricidal war, there was a constant necessity for action upon the various emergencies as they arose, and as to which it was simply impossible to await orders from Washington. But the Consul- · General felt himself strengthened by the confidence shown him by the new administration which had just come into office at Washington, the new Secre- tary of State, the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, sending him this message :
"The department trusts to your judicious management and the wise discretion which your long experience in the service enables you to exercise during the present trying times, and will omit no proper effort on its part to sustain you."
On the 29th of April, 1885. the National forces having arrived in the Bay of Panama, a conference was held between the commanders of the National and Revolutionary forces, which resulted in the surrender of the city by the Revolu- tionists, and the entrance of the National army on the following day. The ser- vices of Consul-General Adamson at that time were recognized by the commander of the National forces in a letter bearing date May 2, 1885, thanking him for his " efficacious co-operation in the bloodless pacification of Panama."
. The return of peace to Colombia enabled Mr. Adamson to devote himself more thoroughly to many duties of a more quiet nature, but not of less value to the interests of his country. The influence that he had acquired made it possible to arrange many matters with the authorities before they could become sources
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of irritation, and it is in this quiet way that much of the best work of a Consular officer is really performed. The fact that a foreign agent of the Government is not making a noise is by no means a proof that he is not doing good work.
Political jealousies between Colombian statesmen again brought the Consul- General to the front in March, 1886. One of the results of the recent Civil War in Colombia had been to convert the former "sovereign State of Panama" into the National Department of Panama. A new governor was sent to Panama in February, 1886, and he had been but a few weeks in office when he arbitrarily suspended the publication of the principal newspaper of Panama, The Star and Herald, because the paper had declined to publish as an editorial an article which reflected upon the integrity of a previous governor. The Star and Herald belonged to a company of American citizens incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. The Constitution of Colombia guaranteed the liberty of the press ; the publishers had not violated any civil law; martial law did not then prevail, and our treaty with Colombia was plainly violated by the interference of the governor with the legitimate business of Americans who had established themselves at Panama in accordance with the terms of the treaty.
The governor who committed this act, Gen. Ramon Santo Domingo Vila, was an eminent diplomat, statesman and soldier. He had represented his country at Washington, and was looked upon as a probable future President of Colombia. Consul-General Adamson was not deterred by the prestige of the governor, but firmly vindicated the rights of the publishers of The Star and Herald ; and his arguments received the approval of the Government of the United States, and resulted in the removal of the offending officer from the governorship of Panama.
[We are indebted to F. O. St. Clair, Esq., Chief of the Consular Bureau at Washington, for many of the foregoing facts in Consul-General Adamson's career, and regret that we cannot afford space to give his memorandum in full.]
On the 25th of March, 1856, Mr. Adamson was married to Sarah Victorine Wright, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Wright, by his second wife-Elizabeth Ann Comegys. They have two sons. The elder, Joseph Wright Adamson, is at present the Vice-Consul-General of the United States at Panama, and the younger, Charles, is a member of the Philadelphia Bar.
HON. J. SIMPSON AFRICA.
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J. SIMPSON AFRICA.
J. SIMPSON AFRICA, ex-Secretary of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania, was born at Huntingdon, Pa., on the 15th day of September, 1832. On his paternal side he is of German ancestry, his great-grandfather, Christopher Africa, having emigrated from near Hanover, then in the kingdom of Hanover, now part of Prussia, and settled at Germantown, Philadelphia. Subsequently he became a resident of Hanover, York county. One of his sons, Michael, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, married Miss Catharine Graffins, at York, and removed to Huntingdon in 1791, where he purchased the property now owned and occupied by his grandson. He was one of the founders of and an elder in the Lutheran church in that town. There Daniel Africa, the father of J. Simpson, was born in 1794. He was a man of prominence and influence, was Deputy Surveyor of Huntingdon county from 1824 to 1830, and was a Justice of the Peace for twenty-two years. He had an extensive knowledge of the law, an unusual accomplishment for the magistrates of his day. With many of the English and American decisions he was familiar, especially those of the Penn- sylvania courts, and kept a record of a great number of important cases, many of these relating to the land laws. His son was his constant student and companion.
The great-grandfather of Mr. Africa, on his mother's side, was James Murray, who was born in Scotland, and came to America at an early age, about the year 1730. He settled in Paxton, Lancaster (now Dauphin) county, and was a Cap- tain of one of the Lancaster companies in the Revolutionary War. One of his daughters married John Simpson, of Bucks county, who was also a soldier of Revolutionary days. This couple were the parents of the wife of Daniel Africa, and from such stock is J. Simpson Africa directly descended.
Mr. Africa was educated in the common schools and at the Huntingdon Academy. These gave him all the opportunities that were necessary to fit him for the active and successful business life which was destined to be his. Ile has, however, been a close student notwithstanding-a necessary requisite for any one engaged in practical professional pursuits. After completing his academic studies, he began the practice of surveying and civil engineering with his father and his uncle, James Simpson, who was his principal instructor. His first work as a civil engineer was in 1853 with the now venerable Samuel W. Mifflin, of Louella, Delaware county, then Chief Engineer on the Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad. The locating of the road was begun in January of that yea., at which work Mr. Africa was engaged but a few months, having been called away by other duties. An intimate friendship then sprang up between himself and Mr. Mifflin, which remains uninterrupted to the present time.
The first public office to which Mr. Africa was chosen was that of County
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Surveyor of Huntingdon. When elected he had just passed his twenty-first year. This was in October, 1853. The usual Whig majority in the county at that time was between six hundred and seven hundred, but he overcame this, and had a majority of 165. The result was a great surprise to his opponent. In 1856 Mr. Africa was a candidate against his will for re-election. This being a Presidential year, of course party lines were strictly drawn, and he being indifferent as to the result of his own election, there was a tie vote between Mr. Africa and his Republican competitor. He held over, however, for a few months, when, insisting that the court should make an appointment, his oppo- nent was selected.
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