the public eye. The message had the effect of diminishing the value of the stock six per cent. lower than before the opening of congress. The subject, however, was referred to the committees on finance, and reports adverse to the president's views having been brought in, the stock recovered itself, and finally attained a higher rate than the original price.

The recent history of the Banks is to be found in a condensed state, introduced without any prescribed place, among the events, as they occurred, of Jackson's and Van Buren's administrations, near the end of the volume."

CHAPTER XIX.-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

ADAMS, JOHN, the second president, was born, in 1735, at Braintree Massachusetts. He was educated at the university of Cambridge, and received the degree of master of arts in 1758. At this time, he entered the office of Jeremiah Gridley, a lawyer of the highest eminence, to complete his legal studies; and in the next year he was admitted to the bar of Suffolk. Mr. Adams, at an early age, espoused the cause of his country, and received numerous marks of the public confidence and respect. He took a prominent part in every leading measure, and served on several commit. tees, which reported some of the most important state papers of the time. He was elected a member of the Congress, and was among the foremost in recommending the adoption of an independent government. It has been affirmed by Mr. Jefferson himself, that the great pillar of support to the declaration of independence, and its ablest advocate and champion on the floor of the house, was John Adams.' In 1777, he was chosen commissioner to the court of Versailles, in the place of Mr. Dean, who was recalled. On his return, about a year afterwards, he was elected a member of the convention to prepare a form of government for the state of Massachusetts, and placed on the sub-committee chosen to draught the project of a constitution. Three months after his return, congress sent him abroad with two commissions, one as minister plenipotentiary, to negotiate a peace, the other to form a commercial treaty with Great Britain. In June, 1780, he was appointed, in the place of Mr. Laurens, ambassador to Holland, and in 1782, he repaired to Paris, to commence the negotiation for peace, having previously obtained assurance that Great Britain would recognise the independence of the United States. At the close of the war, Mr. Adams was appointed the first minister to London. In 1789, he was elected vice-president of the United States, and, on the resignation of Washington, succeeded to the presidency, in 1797. After his term of four years had expired, it was found, on the new election, that his adver sary, Mr. Jefferson, had succeeded, by the majority of one vote. On retiring to his farm in Quincy, Mr. Adams occupied himself with agriculture, obtaining amusement from the literature and politics of the day. The remaining years of his life were passed in almost uninterrupted tranquillity. He died on the fourth of July, 1826, with the same words on his lips, which, fifty years before, on that glorious day, he had uttered on the floor of Congress' Independence forever! Mr. Adams is the author of An Essay on Canon and Feudal Law.

ADAMS, SAMUEL, one of the most remarkable men connected with the revolution, was born at Boston, in 1722. He was educated at Harvard college, and received its honors in 1740. He was one of the first who organized measures of resistance to the mother country; and for the prominent part which he took in these measures, he was proscribed by the British government. During the revolutionary war, he was one of the

most active and influential asserters of American freedom and independence. He was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts from 1766 to 1774, when he was sent to the first congress of the old confederation. He was one of the signers of the declaration of 1776, for the adoption of which he had always been one of the warmest advocates. In 1781, he retired from congress, but only to receive from his native state additional proofs of her confidence in his talents and integrity. He had already been an active member of the convention that formed her constitution; and after it went into effect, he was placed in the senate of the state, and for several years presided over that body. In 1789, he was elected lieutenant governor, and held that office till 1794; upon the death of Hancock, he was chosen governor, and was annually re-elected till 1797, when he retired from public life. He died in 1803. The following encomium upon Mr. Adams is from a work upon the American rebellion, by Mr. Galloway, published in Great Britain, 1780: He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, thinks much, and is most indefatigable in the pursuit of his object. It was this man, who, by his superior application, managed at once the factions in congress at Philadelphia, and the factions of New England.' ADAMS, HANNAH, a native of New England, whose literary labors have made her name known in Europe, as well as in her native land. Among her works are the View of Religions, History of the Jews, Evidences of the Christian Religion, and a History of New England. She was a woman of high excellence and purity of character. She died in 1831, at the age of seventy-six.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, a major-general in the American army, during the revolutionary war, was born in the city of New York, but passed a portion of his life in New Jersey. He acted an important part throughout the revolution, and distinguished himself particularly in the battles of Long Island, Germantown, and Monmouth. He died at Albany, in 1783, at the age of fifty-seven years, leaving behind him the reputation of a brave officer and a learned man.

ALLEN, ETHAN, a brigadier-general in the revolutionary army, was born in Connecticut, but was educated principally in Vermont. In 1775, soon after the battle of Lexington, he collected a body of about three hundred Green Mountain boys, as they were called, and marched against the fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and in each of these enterprises he was successful. He was shortly after taken prisoner, and sent to England; of the events of his captivity he has himself given an interesting narrative. On release from his confinement, he repaired to the head-quarters of general Washington, where he was received with much respect. As his health was much injured, he returned to Vermont, after having made an offer of his services to the commander-in-chief, in case of his recovery. He died suddenly at Colchester, in 1789. Among other publications, Allen was the author of a work entitled Allen's Theology, or the Oracles of Reason, the first formal attack upon the Christian religion issued in the United States. He was a man of an exceedingly strong mind, but entirely rough and uneducated.

ALSOP, RICHARD, a man of letters, was born at Middletown, in Connecticut, and resided in that place during most of his life. His works are numerous, and embrace a great variety of subjects. He was one of the contributors to the Echo, a journal that obtained considerable celebrity, in

its day, for humor and satire. He published various translations from the French and Italian, and left in manuscript a poem of considerable length, called the Charms of Fancy. He died in 1815, at the age of fifty

seven.

AMES, FISHER, one of the most eloquent of American writers and statesmen, was born at Dedham, in Massachusetts, in the year 1758. He was educated at Harvard college, where he received his degree in 1774. About seven years afterwards, he began the practice of the law, and an opportunity soon occurred for the display of his superior qualifications, both as a speaker and essay writer. He distinguished himself as a member of the Massachusetts convention for ratifying the constitution, in 1788, and from this body passed to the house of representatives, in the state legislature. Soon after, he was elected the first representative of the Suf folk district, in the congress of the United States, where he remained, with the highest honor, during the eight years of Washington's adminis tration. On the retirement of the first president, Mr. Ames returned to the practice of his profession in his native town. During the remaining years of his life, his health was very much impaired, but his mind still continued deeply interested in politics, and he published a considerable number of essays, on the most stirring topics of the day. He died in 1808. In the following year, his works were issued in one volume, octavo, prefaced by a biographical notice, from the pen of his friend, the Rev. Dr. Kirkland.

BAINBRIDGE, WILLIAM, a distinguished naval officer, was born at Princeton, New Jersey, on the seventh of May, 1774. From 1793 to 1798, he was engaged in the merchant service, sailing between Philadel phia and Europe. In July, 1798, he received the command of the United States' schooner Retaliation, of fourteen guns, to be employed in the hos tilities which had arisen with France. While cruising off Guadaloupe this schooner was taken by two French frigates and a lugger, and taken in to that island, where she remained three months. He reached home in February, 1799, and his exchange being soon effected, he received a com mission of master-commandant, and sailed in the brig Norfolk, in another cruise to the West Indies. Here he remained for some months, convoying the trade of the United States. On his return, he received a captain's commission, and was appointed to the command of the frigate George Washington, in which he shortly afterwards sailed for Algiers, with the presents which our treaty bound us to make to the regency. After per forming, from motives of policy, a highly insolent exaction of the Dey, captain Bainbridge returned to Philadelphia, in the month of April, 1801. In the following year, he received the command of the frigate Essex, and sailed for the Mediterranean, to protect American commerce from the Tripolitan cruisers. In July, 1803, he sailed in the Philadelphia, to join the Mediterranean squadron, then under commodore Preble. His frigate was unfortunately captured by the Tripolitans, and captain Bainbridge and his crew remained in imprisonment for thirteen months. In 1805, a treaty of peace was concluded between the United States and Tripoli, and the prisoners were liberated. Captain Bainbridge was received with much respect, and was acquitted of all blame, by a court of inquiry, held at his request. From 1806 to 1812, he was employed at times in the merchant service. In 1812, he was appointed to the command of the navy yard at

Charlestown, and when captain Hull applied for a furlough, after his victory over the British frigate Guerriere, commodore Bainbridge was permitted to take command of the Constitution. In a few weeks after sailing, he was running down towards the coast of Brazil, when he fell in with the Java frigate, which he captured, after a severe battle. This frigate was so much injured, that it was impossible to bring her to the United States, and she was accordingly blown up. The situation of the Consti tution soon compelled commodore Bainbridge to return, and he was en gaged in no other action during the war. After the peace of 1815, he su perintended the building of the Independence, seventy-four, and took command of the first line of battle ship that belonged to our navy. In this ship he sailed to the Mediterranean, to form a junction with commodore Decatur, to cruise against the Barbary powers; but matters had been arranged before his arrival. In November, 1815, he returned to this country, was afterwards appointed one of the navy commissioners, and resumed the command of the navy yard in Charlestown. His health gradually declined, and he died at Philadelphia on the twenty-seventh of July, 1833.

BARLOW, JOEL, a poet and diplomatist, was born at Reading, in Connecticut, about the year 1755. His father died while he was yet a lad at school, and left him little more than sufficient to defray the expenses of a liberal education. He was first placed at Dartmouth college, New Hampshire, then in its infancy, and after a very short residence there, removed to Yale college, New Haven. From this institution he received a degree, in 1778, when he first came before the public in his poetical character, by reciting an original poem, which was soon after published. On leaving college, he was successively a chaplain in the revolutionary army, an editor, a bookseller, a lawyer, and a merchant. He next visited England, and published, in London, the first part of Advice to the Privileged Orders; and, in the succeeding year, a poem, called The Conspiracy of Kings. In the latter part of 1792, he was appointed one of the deputies from the London Constitutional Society, to present an address to the national convention of France. Information of the notice which the British government had taken of this mission, led him to think that it would be unsafe to return to England, and he continued to reside in Paris for about three years. It was about this time that he composed his most popular poem, entitled Hasty Pudding. He was subsequently appointed consul for the United States at Algiers, with powers to negotiate a peace with the dey, and to redeem all American citizens held in slavery on the coast of Barbary. After discharging these duties, he returned to Paris, and again engaging in trade, amassed a considerable fortune. In 1805, he returned to his native country, and fixed his residence at Washington, where he displayed a liberal hospitality, and lived on terms of intimacy with most of our distinguished statesmen. He now devoted himself to the publication of the Columbiad, which was based upon a poem written while he was in the army, and published soon after the close of the war, under the title of The Vision of Columbus. This was issued in a style of elegance which few works, either American or European, have ever equalled. In 1811, he was appointed minister to France, and in October of the following year, was invited to a conference with the emperor Napoleon, at Wilna. He immediately set off on this mission, travelling day and night;