SECRET COMMITTEE SECTARIAN INFLUENCES

ern power upon the treasury and archives Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of of the government."

In order to carry out the design of the few leaders of the secession scheme to have the whole fifteen slave-labor States belong to a projected Southern Confederacy, four of the State conventions which adopted ordinances of secession appointed commissioners to go to these several States as missionaries in the cause. The names and destinations of these were as follows: South Carolina sent to Alabama A. P. Calhoun; to Georgia, James L. Orr; to Florida, L. W. Spratt; to Mississippi, M. L. Bonham; to Louisiana, J. L. Manning; to Arkansas, A. C. Spain; to Texas, J. B. Kershaw. Alabama sent to North Carolina Isham W. Garrett; to Mississippi, E. W. Petters; to South Carolina, J. A. Elmore; to Maryland, A. F. Hopkins; to Virginia, Frank Gilmer; to Tennessee, L. Pope Walker; to Kentucky, Stephen F. Hale; to Arkansas, John A. Winston. Georgia sent to Missouri Luther J. Glenn; to Virginia, Henry L. Benning. Missis sippi sent to South Carolina C. E. Hooker; to Alabama, Joseph W. Matthews; to Georgia, William L. Harris; to Louisiana, Wirt Adams; to Texas, H. H. Miller; to Arkansas, George B. Fall; to Florida, E. M. Yerger; to Tennessee, T. J. Wharton; to Kentucky, W. S. Featherstone; to North Carolina, Jacob Thompson, the Secretary of the Interior; to Virginia, Fulton Anderson; to Maryland, A. H. Handy; to Delaware, Henry Dickinson; to Missouri, P. Russell.

the world, and that they lay their correspondence before Congress when directed, and that all expenses that might arise by carrying on such correspondence, and for the payment of such agents as the committee might send on this service, should be defrayed by the Congress." This was the germ of the American State Department, and the initial step in the foreign diplomacy of the United States. The members chosen were Benjamin Harrison, Dr. Franklin, Thomas Johnson, John Dickinson, and John Jay. A correspondence was immediately opened with Arthur Lee, in London, and C. W. Dumas (a Swiss gentleman), residing in Holland.

Sectarian Influences. In 1775 the American members of the Church of England had, through natural affection for the mother Church, an aversion to a severance, in any particular, from Great Britain; and a large number of these, especially of the clergy, took sides with the crown in the conflict that ensued. The other denominations, excepting the Friends, or Quakers, were generally among the friends of the colonists. The Congregational ministers of New England and their flocks were almost without exception Whigs, and the larger part of the Presbyterians, who derived their origin from the dissenting section of the Scotch Church, were in political sympathy with the Congregationalists. Both had opposed the scheme of the Anglican Church, through the society for the propagation of the Gospel Ordinances of secession were passed in in foreign parts, to establish an Episcoeleven States of the Union in the following pacy in the colonies. These two branches order: South Carolina, Dec. 20, 1860; Mis- of the English dissenting body cherished sissippi, Jan. 9, 1861; Florida, Jan. 10; a traditionary opposition to British conAlabama, Jan. 11; Georgia, Jan. 19; trol, political or ecclesiastical, and the Louisiana, Jan. 26; Texas, Feb. 1; Vir- Congregationalists had just passed through ginia, April 17; Arkansas, May 6; North a bitter controversy on the subject of the Carolina, May 20, and Tennessee, June 8. introduction of bishops into America. Only one of these ordinances was ever Witherspoon, who was at the head of submitted to the people for their consid- the Presbyterian College of New Jersey, cration. See CONFEDERATE STATES OF was sent as a delegate to the Continental AMERICA; articles on the States compos- Congress, and was very active in that ing the Confederacy; and suggestive titles body. of the persons and events that were conspicuous in the Civil War.

Secret Committee. On Nov. 29, 1775, the Congress resolved "That a committee of five be appointed for the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in

The native-born Presbyterians were nearly all Whigs, while the Scotch Presbyterian emigrants, who were mostly in the Southern colonies, adhered to the crown. Such was the case of that class in the interior of New York, under the

influence of the Johnson family in the ton Feb. 4, 1861, and of the first ConfedMohawk region. In Virginia, where Epis- erate Congress; and was Secretary of War copacy was the established and prevailing in the cabinet of Jefferson Davis in 1862form of religious organization and mode 65. He died in Goochland county, Va., of worship, sectarian zeal had not been Aug. 19, 1880. excited, and sectarianism had very little Sedgwick, CATHERINE MARIA, educator; influence on political questions. Even the born in Stockbridge, Mass., Dec. 28, 1789; scheme for an American bishop was de- and conducted a private school for fifty nounced by the Virginia Assembly as "the years. Her publications include A New pernicious project of a few mistaken England Tale; Hope Leslic, or Early Times clergymen." The Friends, who, governed in Massachusetts (2 volumes); The Linby their " peace principles," had, while woods, or Sixty Years Since in America, having control of the legislature of Penn- etc. She died near Roxbury, Mass., July sylvania, opposed all measures for the 31, 1867.

public defence of the province that seemed Sedgwick, JOHN, military officer; born to involve the necessity for the use of in Cornwall, Conn., Sept. 13, 1813; graduweapons of war, now deprecated the action ated at West Point in 1837; served in of the Whigs for the same reason, and they the Seminole War and the war against were almost universally Tories, though Mexico, where he became highly distingenerally of the passive kind; yet there guished; was commissioned a brigadierwere many noble exceptions among them, who did what they could to promote the independence of the colonies.

While the Provincial Convention of Pennsylvania was in session early in 1775, and after it had passed a resolution that, "if the British administration should determine to effect by force a submission to the late acts of Parliament, in such a situation we hold it an indispensable duty to resist, by force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America "-a position strongly sustained by Thomas Mifflin, a Quaker member of the convention-the Friends, in a yearly meeting assembled, put forth a testimony, in which the members of the society were called upon "to unite in abhorrence of every measure and writing tending to break off the happy connection of the colonies with the mother country, or to interrupt their just subordination to the King." They were not always passive Tories. This "testimony," which gave great offence to many Friends who were patriots, led to the arrest of several leaders and their banishment from the province, and the execution of two of them for active participation with the British. See QUAKERS.

general of volunteers in August, 1861. In May, 1862, he was promoted to majorgeneral, and led a division in Sumner's corps in the Peninsula campaign imme

Seddon, JAMES ALEXANDER, lawyer; born in Falmouth, Va., July 13, 1815; diately afterwards. At the battle of Angraduated at the law school of the Uni- tietam he was seriously wounded, and in versity of Virginia; was a member of December he was put in command of the Congress in 1845-47 and 1849-51; of the 9th Army Corps. In February, 1863, he peace convention which met in Washing- took command of the 6th Corps, and in

the Chancellorsville campaign, in May, he convention in Massachusetts, in 1788. He was United States Senator from 1796 to 1799, and from 1802 until his death, in Boston, Jan. 24, 1813, was a judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.

Sedition Laws. See ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS.

made a brave attack upon the Heights of Fredericksburg, and carried them, but was compelled to retire. During the Gettysburg campaign he commanded the left wing of the army; and in November following, near the Rapidan in Virginia, he captured a whole Confederate division. Seeley, LEVI, educator; born in North He entered earnestly upon the Richmond Harpersfield, N. Y., Nov. 21, 1847; gradcampaign in the spring of 1864, and per- uated at the Albany Normal School, formed signal service in the battle of the and studied three years in German uniWilderness. Afterwards, while superin- versities; was appointed Professor of tending the planting of a battery, he was Pedagogy at the Trenton Normal School shot by a sharp shooter and instantly in 1895. He is the author of The Amerikilled near Spottsylvania Courthouse, can Common School System; The Grube May 9, 1864. System of Numbers; The German Common School System and its Lessons to America; History of Education, etc.

Sedgwick, ROBERT, military officer; born in England in 1590; was one of the first settlers of Charlestown, Mass. (1635); an Seelye, ELIZABETH EGGLESTON, author; enterprising merchant, and for many years born in St. Paul, Minn., Dec. 15, 1858; a deputy in the General Assembly. Hav- daughter of EDWARD EGGLESTON (q. v.); ing been a member of an artillery com- received a private school education; was pany in London, he was one of the found- married to Elwyn Seelye in 1877, and seters of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery tled near Lake George. She is the auof Boston, in 1638, and was its captain thor of Tecumseh, Montezuma, Pocahonin 1640. In 1652 he was promoted to the tas (with Edward Eggleston); The Story highest military rank in the colony. In of Columbus; The Story of Washington; 1643 he was associated with John Win- Lake George in History; Saratoga and throp, Jr., in the establishment of the first Lake Champlain in History, etc. furnace and iron-works in America. In 1654, being in England, he was employed by Cromwell to expel the French from the Penobscot; and was engaged in the expedition of the English which took Jamaica from the Spaniards. He was soon afterwards promoted to major-general. He died in Jamaica, May 24, 1656.

Sedgwick, THEODORE, jurist; born in Hartford, Conn., in May, 1746; entered Yale College, and left it without graduating in 1765. Abandoning the study of divinity for law, he was admitted to the bar in 1766. An earnest patriot, he entered the military service and served as aid to General Thomas in the expedition to Canada in 1776, and was afterwards active in procuring supplies for the army. fore and after the Revolutionary War he was a representative in the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1785-86 was a delegate in the Continental Congress, also in the national Congress from 1789 to 1797. He performed efficient service in putting down Shays's insurrection; and he was one of the most influential advocates of the national Constitution, in the

Seelye, JULIUS HAWLEY, educator; born in Bethel, Conn., Sept. 14, 1824; graduated at Amherst College in 1849; and later studied theology in Auburn Seminary and in Halle, Germany; was ordained and became pastor of the First Reformed Dutch Church in Schenectady, N. Y., in 1853; Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Amherst College in 185875; elected to Congress in 1874; president of Amherst College in 1876, resigning in 1890. He died in Amherst, Mass., May 12, 1895.

Seelye, LAURENUS CLARK, educator; born in Bethel, Conn., Sept. 20, 1837; graduated at Union College in 1857; and later at Andover Theological Seminary, and at Be- Berlin and Heidelberg universities; was pastor of the North Congregational Church, Springfield, Mass, in 1863-65; Professor of English Literature and Oratory at Amherst College in 1865-74; organized and became the first president of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., in 1873.

Seeman, BERTHOLD, traveller; born in Hanover, Germany, Feb. 28, 1825; educated at the University of Göttingen. In 1846

he was appointed naturalist on the British government vessel Herald, which made an exploring expedition around the world. He published Popular Nomenclature of the American Flora, etc. He died in Nicaragua, Oct. 10, 1871.

Seidel, NATHANIEL, missionary; born in Lauban, Silesia, Oct. 2, 1718; was ordained in the Moravian Church; came to America in 1742, and became an untiring evangelist among the settlers and the Indians; spent eighteen years of uninterrupted travel principally in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New England as far as Boston. In 1753 he founded a Moravian colony in North Carolina; in 1761 was made presiding bishop of his church, and discharged the duties of that office with great faithfulness until his death in Bethlehem, Pa., May 17, 1782.

ing of Parsifal. He died suddenly in New York City, April 28, 1898.

Self-defence, LAW OF. See LIVINGSTON, EDWARD: Capital Punishment.

Selfridge, THOMAS OLIVER, naval officer; born in Boston, Mass., April 24, 1804; joined the navy in 1818; served in the Mexican War in 1847-48 as commander of the sloop Dale, and participated in the capture of Matanzas and Guaymas. He served creditably during the Civil War; was retired on reaching the age limit in April, 1866; and promoted rear-admiral in July following. He died in Waverly, Mass., Oct. 15, 1902.

Selfridge, THOMAS OLIVER, naval officer; born in Charlestown, Mass., Feb. 6, 1836; son of Thomas Oliver Selfridge; graduated at the United States Naval Academy in 1854; was promoted lieutenant in February, 1860; was second lieutenant on the Cumberland when she was sunk in Hampton Roads by the Merrimac; was commander of the iron-clad steamer Cairo when she was destroyed in the Yazoo River by a torpedo; participated in the capture of Vicksburg and in numerous other important actions; promoted to the rank of captain in 1881; made rearadmiral in 1896; and retired in 1898, at which time his father's name was first and his own last on the list of admirals (retired).

Seidl, ANTON, orchestral conductor; born in Budapest, Hungary, May 7, 1850; studied music at the Leipsic Conservatory, and later became a confidential friend and amanuensis of Richard Wagner during the latter's labors at Bayreuth. After rapidly rising in fame as Wagner's assistant conductor and as a general conductor at Leipsic in 1878 as the leader of the Angelo Neumann tour with the Nibelungen dramas, and at the Bremen Opera House in 1883-85, Mr. Seidl was engaged, in 1885, as conductor for the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, Seligman, EDWIN ROBERT ANDERSON, to succeed Dr. Leopold Damrosch. Dur- educator; born in New York City, April ing his incumbency of this post, there 25, 1861; graduated at Columbia College were produced under his direction, for the in 1879; became Professor of Political first time in America, Wagner's Das Economy and Finance in that institution Rheingold; Siegfried; Götterdämmerung; in 1891. He is the author of Railway Tristan und Isolde; and Die Meistersänger. He died in New York, March 28, 1898.

In addition to his duties as conductor at the Metropolitan Opera House, Mr. Seid was, at various times during his residence in the United States, conductor of the New York Philharmonic Society, the Seidl Society, the Brighton Beach concerts, the Astoria concerts, and various other musical enterprises. With his orchestra he made several tours through the country, giving concerts in nearly all of the principal cities. In the summer of 1897 he was one of the conductors at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, where he attracted much attention by his read

Tariffs; Finance Statistics of American Commonwealth; The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation; Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice, etc.

Seminole Indians, a tribe of Florida Indians, made up of two bands of the Creeks, who withdrew from the main body in 1750, and remnants of tribes who had come in contact with the Spaniards. The Seminoles were hostile to the Americans during the Revolutionary War and afterwards. The Creeks claimed them as a part of their nation, and included them in a treaty with the United States in 1790; but the Seminoles repudiated it and made war upon the Americans, and affiliated with the Spaniards in 1793. They