The American Encyclopedia of History, Biography and Travel / Comprising Ancient and Modern History: the Biography of Eminent Men of Europe and America, and the Lives of Distinguished Travelers.

by Thomas H. Prescott

Omar Pasha who commands the Turkish army, is an Austrian subject, and a native of Coroalia. He was born in 1801, at Vaski, a village situated in the circle of Ogulina, thirteen leagues from Fiume. His family name is Lattas. His father was lieutenant-administrator of the circle; his uncle was a priest of the United Greek Church. Admitted, when very young, into the School of Mathematics of Thurm, near Carlstadt, in Transylvania, after having completed his studies with distinction, the young Lattas entered the corps of the Ponts et Chaussees, which, in Austria, is organized on a military footing. In 1830, in consequence of a misunderstanding with his superiors, he left for Turkey, and embraced Islamism. Khosrew Pasha, who was then Seraskier, took him under his protection, procured him admission into the regular army, and attached him to his personal staff. He then gave him his ward in marriage, who was one of the richest heiresses in Constantinople, and a daughter of one of the Janizaries, whose head he had caused to be cut off in 1827, when that corps revolted against Sultan Mahmoud. In 1833, Lattas, who had taken the name of Omar, was chief of battalion, and was appointed aid-de-camp, and interpreter to General Chrzanowski, who had charge of the instruction of the Ottoman troops encamped near Constantinople. Omar was thenceforward actively employed in the reörganization of the Turkish army, and, still protected by Khosrew Pasha, obtained successively important missions and command in the army. The troubles of Syria, and the Albanian insurrection of 1846, gave him occasion to distinguish himself, and attracted to him the attention of the Sultan. He was sent to the Kurdistan, and succeeded in obtaining the submission of that province, which was nearly independent of the Porte. Named in 1848 to the command of the army, sent to the Danubian provinces, he made the authority of the Sultan respected, while at the same time he respected the susceptibilities and the privileges of those provinces, placed, as they were, under the double protection of Russia and Turkey. The year 1851 was the most brilliant period of the military career of Omar Pasha. Named commander-in-chief of Bosnia, the principal chiefs of which had refused to recognize Tanzimat—​that is, the new organization of his empire—​he combatted successfully, though with an inferior force, the Beys of that country. At last he was sent to Montenegro, where he found himself for the first time commanding an army of 30,000 men. The intervention of Austria, as is known, put a term to that expedition before decisive operations could be commenced. At the present date, Omar Pasha is at the head of nearly 100,000 men in the Crimea.

OMAR PASHA.

EDWARD EVERETT.

Edward Everett, an American orator, scholar, and diplomatist, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in April 1794. His father was a respectable clergyman in Boston; and his elder brother was minister at the court of Spain. He received his early education at Boston, and entered Harvard college when little more than thirteen years old, leaving it with first honors four years later, undecided as to a pursuit for life. He turned his attention for two years to the profession of divinity; but, in 1814, he was invited to accept the new professorship of Greek literature at Cambridge, Massachusetts, with permission to visit Europe. He accepted the office; and, before entering on its duties, embarked at Boston for Liverpool. He passed more than two years at the famous university of Göttingen, engaged in the study of the German language and the branches of learning connected with his department. He passed the winter of 1817–18 at Paris. The next spring he again visited London, and passed a few weeks at Cambridge and Oxford. While in England, he acquired the friendship of some of the most eminent men of the day; among others, of Scott, Byron, Jeffrey, Campbell, Mackintosh, Romilly, and Davy. In the autumn of 1818, he returned to the continent, and divided the winter between Florence, Rome, and Naples. In the spring of 1819, he made a short tour in Greece. Mr. Everett came home in 1819, and entered at once upon the duties of his professorship. Soon after his return, he became the editor of the ‘North American Review,’ a journal, which, though supported by writers of great ability, had acquired only a limited circulation. Under its new editor, the demand increased so rapidly that a second and sometimes a third edition of its numbers was required. One of his first cares as editor was, to vindicate American principles and institutions against a crowd of British travelers and critics, who were endeavoring to bring them into contempt. The spirit with which he performed his task checked this system of assault; and Campbell, who had inadvertently admitted into ‘The New Monthly Magazine’ a paper of the same description, made a handsome amende. In 1824, Mr. Everett delivered the annual oration before the Phi-Beta-Kappa Society, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The entire discourse was favorably received; but the peroration, being an apostrophe to Lafayette, who was present, touched a chord of sympathy in an immense audience, already excited by the unusual circumstances of the occasion. This was the first of a series of orations and addresses delivered by Everett on public occasions of almost every kind during a quarter of a century, and lately collected in two volumes. Up to 1824, he had taken no active interest in politics; but his articles in the review had evinced his acquaintance with the wants and spirit of the nation, and his recent oration had brought him prominently before the public. The constituency of Middlesex, Massachusetts, without any solicitation on his part, returned him to congress by a great majority over the regular candidate. For ten years he sat in congress, and proved himself a working member, never taking advantage of his superior powers to detain the house with oratorical display, but taking part in every debate of importance. In 1835, he retired from congress, and was for four successive years chosen governor of Massachusetts. In 1839, he was again a candidate for the same honor, but was defeated on local questions by a majority of one out of more than 100,000 votes. In 1841, he was appointed to represent the United States at the court of St. James, a position for which he was peculiarly qualified by his knowledge of the European tongues, and his acquaintance with the then mooted boundary question. Although the secretaryship of state at Washington was held by four different statesmen, of various politics, during Everett’s mission, he enjoyed the confidence and approbation of all. His firmness, high intelligence, and assiduous habits, won him great respect in England; and his scholarship was recognized in the bestowal of the degree of D. C. L. by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He returned to America in 1845, and was chosen president of Harvard college, which office he resigned in 1849. He now lives at Boston, employed on his promised ‘Treatise on the Law of Nations.’

WASHINGTON IRVING.

Washington Irving was born in the city of New York, April 3, 1783, in which place his father, William Irving, had been settled as a merchant some twenty years. After receiving an ordinary school education, at the age of sixteen, he commenced the study of the law. Three years later he contributed, under the signature of Jonathan Oldstyle, a series of letters to the ‘Morning Chronicle,’ a newspaper of which his brother, Peter Irving, was editor. These juvenile essays attracted much notice at the time, were extensively copied by other journals, and in 1823 or 1824 were collected and published without the sanction of the author. In 1804, in consequence of ill health, he sailed for Bordeaux on a visit to Europe, and traveled through the south of France to Nice, where he took a felucca to Genoa, in which city he remained some two months. He then went by sea to Sicily, made the tour of the island, crossed from Palermo to Naples, passed through Italy, meeting Allston at Rome, who strongly recommended his devoting himself to art, thence over the St. Gothard, through Switzerland to Paris, where he remained several months. He then went to Holland, whence he embarked for England, where he spent part of the autumn, and returned to New York in March, 1806, completely restored to health. He again resumed the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in November of that year, but never practiced. Shortly after he took the chief part in ‘Salmagundi,’ the first number of which appeared in January, 1807, and the last in January, 1808. In December the following year, he published his ‘Knickerbocker’s History of New York.’ In 1810, two of his brothers, who were engaged in commercial business, one being at the head of the establishment in New York, and the other in Liverpool, gave him an interest in the concern, with the understanding that he was not to enter into the duties and details of the business, but pursue his literary avocations. During the war with Great Britain, in 1813–14, he edited the ‘Analectic Magazine,’ and in the fall of the latter year, joined the military staff of the governor of the state of New York, as aid-de-camp, and military secretary, with the title of colonel. On the close of the war, May, 1815, he embarked for Liverpool, with the intention of making a second tour of Europe, but was prevented by the sudden and great reverses which followed the return of peace, overwhelming, after a struggle of two or three years, in which Mr. Irving took an active part to avert the catastrophe, the house in which his brothers had given him an interest, and involving him in its ruin. In 1818, he determined to try his pen as a means of support, and commenced the papers of the ‘Sketch-Book,’ which were transmitted piecemeal from London, where he resided, to New York for publication. Three or four numbers were thus published, when, finding that they attracted notice in England, he had them published in a volume, February, 1820, by Mr. John Miller; but he failing shortly after, the work was transferred to Mr. Murray, with a second volume, published in July of that year. Mr. Murray had bought the copyright for £200, but its success far surpassing his expectations, he sent Mr. Irving, of his own accord, first £100, and the sale still increasing, an additional £100. After a residence of five years in England, Mr. Irving removed to Paris in August, 1820, and remained there till July of the following year, when he returned to England and published his ‘Bracebridge Hall’ in London and New York in May, 1822. The following winter he passed in Dresden, returned to Paris in 1823, and crossed to London in May, 1824, to publish his ‘Tales of a Traveler,’ which appeared in August of that year in two volumes, and in four parts in New York. In August, he returned to Paris, and in the autumn of 1825, visited the south of France, spending part of the winter in Bordeaux. In February, 1826, he left that city for Madrid, where he remained two years. Here he wrote the life of ‘Columbus,’ which appeared in 1828. In the spring of 1828, he left Madrid on a tour to the south of Spain, visiting Granada and the main points mentioned in the ‘Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada, by Fray Agapida,’ of which he had made a rough sketch. This he prepared for the press at Seville, and transmitted to London and New York for publication; it appeared in 1829. In the spring of this year he again visited Granada, and resided some three months in the Alhambra, where he collected materials for the work published under that name in 1832. In July he went to England, being appointed secretary of legation to the American embassy in London, which office he held until the return of Mr. M’Lane in 1831, when, after remaining a few months as chargé, he resigned, on the arrival of Mr. Van Buren. While in England, in 1830, Mr. Irving received one of the fifty-guinea gold-medals, provided by George IV, for eminence in historical composition; the other was awarded to Mr. Hallam, the historian. In 1831, the university of Oxford conferred on Mr. Irving the degree of LL.D. In the spring of 1832, he returned to New York, after an absence of seventeen years. His return was greeted on all hands with the warmest enthusiasm; a public dinner was given to him, at which Chancellor Kent presided; and similar testimonials were offered in other cities, but which he declined. In the summer of this year he accompanied Mr. Ellsworth, one of the commissioners for removing the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi, and whom he had met on a tour to the west, on his expedition. The most interesting portion of this journey has appeared in the ‘Tour on the Prairies,’ published in 1835. This was followed in the same year by ‘Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey,’ and ‘Legends of the Conquest of Spain.’ In 1836 he published ‘Astoria,’ and in the following year he published ‘The Adventures of Captain Bonneville.’ In 1839 he entered into an engagement which lasted two years, with the proprietors of the ‘Knickerbocker Magazine,’ to furnish monthly articles for that periodical. In February, 1842, he received, unsolicited, the appointment of minister to Spain. He left for Madrid on the 10th of April of that year. His official duties terminating in the summer of 1846, he returned to this country, and, in 1848, commenced the publication of a revised edition of his works which had long been out of print. In 1849 he published ‘Oliver Goldsmith, a Biography,’ and ‘Mahomet and his Successors,’ 1849–50. He has recently published a life of Washington. Mr. Irving is essentially the man of his works, genial, warm-hearted, and benevolent; so much so, that all who see him would be apt to forget the author in the man. He has a countryseat, ‘Sunnyside,’ on the banks of the Hudson, twenty-five miles from the city of New York, which is now his home.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

William Cullen Bryant, an American journalist and poet, was born at Cummington, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, November 3d, 1794. His forefathers, for three generations, were medical men; but this family penchant for physic did not exist, apparently, in the case of our poet, who changed the professional current by becoming a lawyer. For ten years he followed the tortuous course of legal practice, but at last gave it up for the more genial profession of literature. In 1808, Mr. Bryant published a little collection of poems, written before he had completed his fourteenth year, entitled, ‘The Embargo, and other Poems.’ In 1821, he published at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the volume entitled, ‘The Ages, and other Poems.’ In 1825, he came to New York, when he became one of the editors of the ‘New York Review’ (which, however, had but a short existence), and published several poems and tales, which quickly became popular. From this point he went on successfully, writing in the chief periodical publications, in conjunction with some of the leading American authors of his day, and becoming, moreover, the editor of a New York paper, the ‘Evening Post.’ In 1834–35, and also in 1845, he traveled in Europe, writing descriptions of what he saw for his journal in America. Mr. Bryant again visited Europe in 1849, and on his return published his ‘Letters of a Traveler,’ being a resume of his tours in Europe and this country. He has gained a high reputation by his poems; and his political writings in favor of free trade and free discussion, against monopolies of all kinds, are marked with clearness and vigor. He has labored earnestly to diffuse a taste for the fine arts in this country, and was president of the Apollo Association, prior to its incorporation as the American Art Union.