USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Centennial biography : Men of mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1776-1876 > Part 25
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Dr. Sharp left but little that has been published to the world, and as his manner, presence and oral discourses are not known to many persons of the present day, the inquiry is often made: What was it that gave him his commanding position? Perhaps a true answer would be : his pre-eminent amount of common sense and judgment in the management of men and business. He was very successful in the conduct of his own private affairs. He successfully and economically settled the estates of many of his friends and neighbours. He was frequently consulted by men who were likely to get into litigation, and managed to save them therefrom. He was applied to by men who had become infatuated with strange and unscriptural notions of re- ligion, and dissipated their errors, relieved their doubts and placed their faith on a firm foundation. He was not afraid to labour with his hands and set an example of industry to the community and all that were about him ; but whether at a public gathering, talking with his neighbours, or in the harvest field with the reapers, wherever situate or whatever doing, he was ever a marked man, one that the most ignorant would recognize as a Christian gentleman, and the most cultivated as his pcer in every respect.
Dr. Sharp had a taste for classical literature, and for some years taught a number of young men in studies preparatory to entering college. Among these were Rev. Dr. Robt. Gracy, Rev. T. V. Moore, . D. D., now both dead ; the late Joseph Hannon, M. D., George Grove, M. D., and the Rev. James B. Scouller, to the last of whom we are indebted for the greater part of what is of much value in this article on Dr. Sharp.
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HON. JAMES BUCHANAN.
AMES BUCHANAN was born on the 23d day of April, 1791. His birth-place was a wild and romantic spot in a gorge of the Cove, or North Mountain, about four miles west of Mercers- burg, and bearing the peculiar, but not inappropriate name of "Stony Batter." His father, James Buchanan, Senior, was a native of Ireland, and one of the most enterprising, intelligent and influential citizens of that part of the state. His mother, Elizabeth Speer, remarkable for her superior intellect and genuine piety, was born in the southern part of Lancaster county.
Five years after his birth his parents removed into the town of Mercersburg, then recently laid out, where he was brought up and fitted for college. He entered Dickinson College, Carlisle, then under the Presidency of the Rev. Dr. Davidson, in 1855, being at the time in his fifteenth year. In 1809, he graduated with distinction, and in the same year commenced the study of law in Lancaster, in the office of James Hopkins, Esq. Three years after, or in 1812, he was admitted to the bar. He at once opened an office in Lancaster, and was almost immediately successful in obtaining business ; his studious habits, his fine abilities, his agrecable manners and correct deportment, all com- bining to attract clients to him. He in a very short time took his place among the foremost at the bar, and had the command of as much business as he could attend to. There were soon very few important cases, either in Lancaster, or the neighbouring counties, in which he was not employed, or at least, in which there was not an effort made to secure his services. In a very few years, besides deservedly acquiring the reputation of being one of the ablest and best lawyers in the state. or in the country, he had, from being the possessor of very little, amassed what he considered a competence, and withdrew almost entirely from practice.
His first public employment of any kind was that of Prosecutor for Lebanon county, a position to which he was appointed in 1813, by Jared Ingersoll, Esq., then Attorney-General of the state under Governor Snyder. This office he probably retained but a short time. In the next year, at the age of twenty-three, and only two years after admission to the bar, he was nominated by his friends for the State Legislature, and elected. In the following year, or ($15, he was again nominated
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and elected. In both the sessions of the Legislature in which he sat, he was one of the most prominent members ; by the sensibleness and justness of his views, and the force of his high character and eminent abilities, exerting, though so young a man, not a little influence. He was always, as on a more extended area in after life, at his post, and took an interest in everything that was done. His mode of expressing his views was then, as afterwards, clear and convincing. In the same year in which he was first elected to the Legislature, he went as a private in a company of volunteers to Baltimore, to aid in defending it against an anticipated attack from the British; and thus he carly, by a voluntary exposure of himself to danger, gave evidence of that fire of sincere and true patriotism, which, till the last day of his life, glowed fervidly in his bosom. In the year 1820, his fellow citizens of the Congressional district in which he lived, (composed of the counties of Lancaster, Chester and Delaware,) and without solicitation from him, conferred on him the further honour of electing him to the National House of Rep- resentatives. They elected him again in 1822, 1824, 1826 and 1828,
when he declined further re-election. His term of service in the House expired on the 3d of March, 1831. He was from almost his first entrance into the House, one of its most prominent and leading members, taking rank with such men as Randolph, McDuffie, P. Barbour, and others, and expressing his views in a clear and forcible manner on all the important questions that came before it. His speeches then, as since, were models of lucidness, chasteness and force. One of the most remarkable of them was that delivered at the Bar of the Senate at the conclusion of the trial of Judge Peck, he being chairman of the able committee appointed to conduet the case before the Senate. This speech has rarely been excelled in ability and eloquence.
In the same year in which he ceased to be a member of the Ilouse, he was sent by President Jackson, as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. Petersburg, where he made a most favourable impression, both for himself and his country, and where he negotiated the first Commercial Treaty which this Government ever had with that of Russia. In 1833, he returned from Russia ; and in the same year he was elected by the Legislature of Pennsylvania to fill a vacancy in the Senate of the United States, occasioned by the resignation of William Wilkins, who had been appointed to succeed him at the Court of the Czar. He was afterwards elected for the full term of six years ; though soon after his second election, he resigned to take a place in
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the cabinet of President Polk. His whole term of service in the Senate was the same as it had been in the House; viz : ten years.
In the body of which he was now a member, he took a similarly high rank to that which he had occupied in the House. He frequently measured arms with Clay, Webster and others, and without discredit or disadvantage to himself. He was, during most of the time, the principal leader of the Administration party, and expressed himself at large, and very ably, on all the important questions under discussion. During most of the time, he was chairman of the important Committee on Foreign Relations.
In 1845, he was tendered by the then recently inaugurated Presi- dent, James K. Polk, the position in his cabinet of Secretary of State. This position he occupied with great honour to himself and advantage to the country. While in the State Department, the Oregon boundary question was finally settled, the war with Mexico was carried on and successfully terminated, and California acquired.
In 1849, at the expiration of Mr. Polk's Presidential term, Mr. Buchanan retired to his country seat, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1853, when President Pierce tendered him, of his own accord, the mission to the Court of St. James. This mission he was averse to accepting, but, on its being pressed upon him, he at length accepted it. He remained in England till the spring of 1856. While there he was treated with marked respect by all classes, from the Queen down. Lord Clarendon had reason to respect his abilities ; for he found him more than a match in his diplomatic correspondence with him. His dispatches, while Secretary of War and Minister 10 England, have not been excelled by those of any other Cabinet or other Minister.
In June of the year he returned from England, he was nominated. (again, without any effort on his part) by the Democratic National Convention, which met at Cincinnati, as their candidate for the Presi- dency, and in the following November he was elected. And thus, from an humble beginning, after having previously occupied an unusual number of distinguished and honourable positions connected with the Government, he found himself at the age of sixty-five exalted to what is perhaps really the highest political position on earth. The duties of this high office he discharged with ability, and though much blamed for his course during the last few months of his administration, (a period when the affairs of the country had come to the fearful crisis to which they had been long tending,) yet, in all he did, and in all he abstained from doing, he was actuated by the highest and purest
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motives of patriotism. He did that, and that only, which he believed he was authorized to do, and which he thought it best and his duty to do. He, himself, feared not the verdict of future times, as to his course and as to his policy, and on more than one occasion, within only a year or two of his death, he had been heard to say, that had he to pass through the same state of things again, he could not, before his God, say that he could act otherwise than as he did. In sincere and cordial love for the Union he was second to none. The principal respect in which he differed from many others was, as to what were the best and most legitimate means of preserving or restoring the Union.
At the expiration of his Presidential term, in March, 1861, he returned to his home at Wheatland, where he spent the remainder of his life, enjoying the society of his neighbours and friends, and employ- ing himself with his books and pen. One of the books most fre- quently perused by him was the Bible; in the teachings of which he was a firm believer, and on the promises of which he cheerfully relied. He had always been a believer in the Holy Scriptures, and in the truth of the Christian religion, and besides being always strictly moral in his conduct, had been in many respects, a devout and religious, as well as a kind and charitable man. But he had never made an open profession of being a disciple of Christ until within the last few years of his life, when he became a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. He died calmly and peacefully on Monday, the first day of June, 186S. On the Thursday following, his remains were followed to the grave by such numbers of his fellow citizens, (including a large number of persons from abroad,) as indicated, that however he may have been censured by persons of opposite political opinions while living, he was yet one who, in public estimation, was both a great and a good man. one deserving for his acknowledged strict integrity and his well known benevolence, esteem and regard, as for his learning, statesmanship, eloquence and talents, he commanded deference and respect.
On opening his will, it was found that he had remembered the poor of Lancaster, as well as the church of which he was a member, and had arranged that a handsome addition should be made to the fund which he had appropriated for their benefit, years before. It may be added that in person he was large, in manners courteous and polished, and that his stores of knowledge and his powers of conversation were such that no one could be long in his company without being deeply interested, and without receiving valuable information .- Ra. A. ). Buchanan.
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JOSEPH McCARRELL, D. D.
HE following sketch of this eminent scholar and divine, is from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Forsyth, of Newburg, N. Y., (now Chaplain at West Point, N. Y.)
The Rev. Joseph McCarrell, D. D., son of John McCarrell and Mary McKnight, was a native of Shippensburg, Penn., and was born on the 9th of July, 1795.
His parents were warmly attached members of the Associate Re- formed Church of that place, and the region was one whose history was connected with the carliest annals of the denomination, in the communion of which Dr. McCarrell lived and died, and for which he had an unchangeable affection. His mind was early turned towards the ministry of the Gospel ; and he entered upon studies preparatory thereto, availing himself of such helps as were within his reach, though in the main he had to depend upon his own efforts, and was in fact. to a great extent, a self-made man.
While thus engaged, the war of 1812 came on. In the summer of 1814, Washington was burnt by the British, and Baltimore was threat- ened with the same fate at the hands of the barbarian, Admiral Cock- burn, the wretch who promised his followers "the beauty and booty " of that city. The whole country was aroused; the adjacent counties of Pennsylvania sent as quickly as possible their militia to the point of danger; while from Shippensburg every person capable of bearing arms hurried to the defence of Baltimore. Joseph McCarrell was one of these volunteers. He thus not only had a taste of military life, but from the hill about two miles from the city, on which his regiment was placed, he witnessed the magnificent spectacle of the bombardment of Fort McHenry. And he was one of those who through the long night watched the garrison flag, and when the morning dawned, saw with inexpressible joy the glorious banner still waving defiance to the foc.
Soon after his return home, Mr. McCarrell entered Washington College, Washington, Pennsylvania, and graduated with high honours in the class of 1815. For several years after leaving college, he was engaged in teaching in Bellefonte, in Greensburg, and in Carlisle, while he was at the same time pursuing the studies that would fit him for the sacred profession to which he was looking forward. In isi8. he entered the Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed
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Church, then in New York, under the care of that distinguished man, Dr. John M. Mason. He brought to the Seminary an amount of attainment in certain branches of learning, which very few possess when leaving it, for he had made himself a thorough Hebrew scholar, and had read the whole of the Old Testament in that language. Having finished the prescribed course of study, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Big Spring, Pa., on the 21st of June, 1821. For several months he supplied the Associate Reformed Church in Murray street, New York, (vacant by the resignation of Dr. Mason,) with so much acceptance, that not a few of its members wished to call him as their pastor. But he was destined to spend his life in another sphere.
Dr. McCarrell came to Newburg in the autumn of 1822. He was soon after invited to assume the pastoral care of the Associate Re- formed Church there, and on the 13th of March, 1823, he was ordained and installed. The old church erected in 1795, was in the extreme southern end of the village, on ground now owned by Capt. H. Robi- son. The present edifice was built in 1821, and had been dedicated a few months before Dr. McCarrell arrived in Newburg. He is, con- sequently, the only one who had served the congregation as a pastor since it began to worship in the church at the corner of First and Grand strects. His pastorate was nearly twice as long as the united pastorate of his four predecessors. The society, though one of the oldest in Newburg, was by no means large when he became its pastor, but from that time it steadily advanced in numbers, and has become the mother of two congregations. In 1829, the Seminary, which had been suspended for some years, was revived, established at Newburg, and Dr. McCarrell was chosen Professor of Theology. Towards the close of that year he entered upon his work of instruc- tion, and from that period until near the end of life he continued to discharge his two-fold duties as Pastor and Professor. And all who saw him, as he went out and in among us for so many years, knew that they were looking upon a " living epistle of Christ."
From time to time he took part in the public questions of the day, discussing them in the pulpit and through the press, but only those in which he deemed that some great moral or religious principle was involved. His last years were made sad by various causes, which could not operate upon such a nature as his without reaching and affecting the fountain of physical life. The unfortunate separation from brethren with whom he had been so long and closely connected in ecclesiastical fellowship, the changes in the denomination to which he was so warmly attached, and lastly the loss of a beloved daughter. all helped to make a deep and visible impression upon him. During his last two years,
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it was obvious to all that his strength had been weakened in the way. Still he seemed to have derived so much benefit from a few months' rest, that about the beginning of his last year the hope was enter- tained that he might recover strength before he went hence. He did resume his labour and continued it for a month, but carly in March he was obliged to give it up again. On two succeeding Sabbaths he was able to be in church, though declining to take part in the service. The last Sabbath of his life was the last day on which he conducted family worship, and it is worthy of note that the psalm then sung, in course, was the seventeenth, last four verses. He was mercifully spared all acute suffering and mental wandering during his illness. He was calm, serene, peaceful, and at last fell "on sleep," in Jesus, as quietly as an infant in its mother's arms. He died at an early hour on the morning of Tuesday, 29th of March, 186.1, and was buried in New- burg, in the "Old Graveyard," in the centre of the city, where he is surrounded by his elders-who are also "waiting for the adoption."
Dr. McCarrell's private character I can hardly venture to portray. If I were to do so, I might be charged with presenting an ideal and not a real character. So, at any rate, I would have judged the Doctor's character, had I merely met with it in a description, and not enjoyed the felicity of knowing it. In all his familiar intercourses he was as simple as a child, and when engaged in conversation there was naicc spontaneity and richness in his turns of thought that was exceedingly refreshing. In his speech there was no satire, just because in his nature there was no bitterness. Humour, quaint, fantastic, happy humour, like Paul Richter's-only more elegant-overflowed his table talk, imparted to it the richest flavour. Yet, over all his speech and manner, there breathed a sacred tenderness which flowed not from any earthly source, but was the fragrance of a heavenly spirit. His childlike faith imparted, at all times, a charm to his daily life. His nature so trustful, so affectionate and given to meditation, seemed to be ground well prepared for the seed of God, and surely in it that seed so grew and fructified as it is rarely seen on earth. He always appeared to me like the beloved apostle whose head lay confidingly on the breast of Jesus, and to whom were revealed the most glorious visions of the church's future. The spiritual insight, the purity of conscience, the ecstatic joy, the womanly gentleness of feeling which are especially attributed to that apostle, were all of them charac- teristic of this good old man.
No one could look upon Dr. McCarrell without receiving the impression that he was a man of power, though not of the sort which works with noise and observation. Such was the impression which he
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made upon the Professor of the Military Academy at West Point, many years, when the pulpit was supplied by the minister of the vicinity, during a vacancy in the chaplaincy. With his strong subjective tendency, his modesty and the comparatively sequestered sphere in which he moved, the occasions fitted to show the real grasp and vigour of his intellect were few and rare. But when one did arise, no one who heard him could doubt (though he might not agree with his reasonings,) he was a workman of a high order, and that there slumbered within him the fire of real eloquence. And so too no one could be brought into even casual contact with Dr. McCarrell without seeing that he was a good man. In all my intercourse with men never have i met with one in whom masculine vigour of inteilect was combined with more of the gentler grace of the Gospel; nor one who surpassed him in childlike simplicity, unselfishness and profound reverence for all sacred things. He had his failings, no doubt, but even they leaned to virtue's side.
The ministers whom he helped to train are connected with various branches of the church, and occupy widely scattered fields of labour, but to all of them the tidings that their venerated professor was no more were sad indeed. The student who met him for the first time might get the idea that he was a man of dull and phlegmatic temperament, but he would soon discover that under that calm exterior there beat a large and very tender heart. He had the art of winning his pupil's love, without the least visible effort on his part to do so.
His method of instruction was modeled after that pursued by Dr. Mason, though with some modifications, which, perhaps, were not im- provements. With both, the Bible in its original tongue was one great text book. Dr. McCarrell was very fond of treating subjects analytically, and he was a master of this mode of discussion; but it would have been of advantage to himself and his pupils, if he had com- bined it with the synthetic. Yet no student of right views and feelings, could pass through his hands without becoming a sound theologian, well instructed in the Scriptures.
As a preacher he was solemn, instructive, impressive. As a writer he was clear and forcible. Among his publications were " Sermons on Baptism," a sermon on " The Christian's Hope." and an " Answer to a Discourse preached by Dr. William E. Channing, at the Dedication of the Second Congregational Unitarian Church, New York, December 7th, 1826."
Dr. McCarrell was married to Jane B. Leiper, of Shippensburg, who still survives him. His family consisted of eight children, (four of them are still living.) and one grandson.
EDWARD CRAWFORD, ESQ.
DWARD CRAWFORD, son of Edward Crawford and Eliza- beth Sterritt, was born in 1758. In the year 1776, and at the carly age of eighteen, he entered the military service of his country as an officer of the Revolutionary Army, in which he continued until the war terminated, and peace acknowledged us to be, what we had declared we were, an independent nation. Of his fatigues and exposure during this period nothing need be said; they were common to all who shared the honour and danger of the service, but the modesty and reserve of the deceased on this subject were so remarka- ble, that for many years it did not become known to his most intimate friends, (and it never was communicated to others,) that he received a severe wound during one of the battles in New Jersey, and came near to losing his life at the siege of Yorktown, in Virginia. Soon after the close of the war, and upon the erection of Franklin county, he was appointed to the several offices of Prothonotary, &c .; in one of which he was succeeded by Col. Findlay, of Mercersburg. To the capacity and fidelity with which the organization of these offices was made, the routine of business established, and the various duties discharged throughout the twenty-four years and upwards that he held them, the entire community could bear witness. In connection with Alexander Colhoun, he established the Chambersburg (now the First National) Bank, 1807. He was its first President, and was re-elected to this office for twenty-three years, until removed by death. In any project for the public good he was among the foremost, exerting his extensive influence, and devoting his personal services and pecuniary aid to promote the general interests, with a zeal and liberality not at all abated by advanced and advancing years, and the short hold he seemed to have upon the world.
In addition to the positions of honour, trust and usefulness, already referred to, Mr. Crawford occupied many others. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati; he was elected a manager of the Franklin County Bible Society, December 12th, 1814: he was appointed to meet the soldiers on their return from the defence of Baltimore, and addressed them; for some years he served as a Trustee of Falling Spring Presbyterian Church. As he was one of the oldest, so was he one of the most useful, and one of the most respected citizens of
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