BUCKMINSTER, JOSEPH STEVENS, a celebrated pulpit orator, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1784. His male ancestors, on both sides, for several generations, were clergymen, and some of them of considerable eminence. He was graduated at Harvard college, in 1800 with much distinction, and spent the ensuing four years in the study of theology and general literature. He was ordained minister over the church in Brattle-street, Boston, in January, 1805. In the ensuing year, he embarked for Europe, with the hopes of repairing his constitution, which had suffered much from attacks of epilepsy. He returned in the autumnof 1807, and resumed the exercise of his profession; his sermons placing him in the first rank of popular preachers. In 1810, he superintended an American edition of Griesbach’s Greek Testament, and wrote much in vindication of this author’s erudition, fidelity, and accuracy. In 1811, he was appointed the first lecturer on Biblical criticism, at the university of Cambridge, on the foundation established by Samuel Dexter. He immediately began a course of laborious and extensive preparation for the duties of this office, but was interrupted by a violent attack of his old disease, which prostrated his intellect, and gave a shock to his frame which he survived but a few days. He died in 1812, at the completion of his twenty-eighth year. Two volumes of his sermons have been collected and published since his decease; one in 1814, the other in 1829. The first was prefaced with a well-written biographical sketch.
CABOT, GEORGE, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1752, and spent the early part of his life in the employment of a ship-master. He possessed a vigorous and inquisitive mind, and took advantage of every opportunity of improvement and acquisition, even amid the restlessness and danger of a seafaring life. Before he was twenty-six years of age, he was elected a member of the provincial congress of Massachusetts, which met with the visionary project of establishing a maximum in the prices of provision. There he displayed that sound sense, and that acquaintance with the true principles of political economy, for which he afterwards became so much distinguished. Mr. Cabot was a member of the state convention, assembled to deliberate on the adoption of the federal constitution, and in 1790, was elected to a seat in the senate of the United States. Of this body he became one of the most distinguished members, and enjoyed the unlimited confidence and friendship of Hamilton and Washington. In 1808, he became a member of the council of Massachusetts, and in 1814, was appointed a delegate to the convention which met at Hartford, and was chosen to preside over its deliberations. He died at Boston, in 1823, at the age of seventy-two years. He possessed a mind of great energy and penetration, and in private life was much loved and esteemed. As a public man, he was pure and disinterested, of high sagacity and persuasive eloquence. His favorite studies were political economy and the science of government.
CADWALLADER, JOHN, was born in Philadelphia, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general during the revolutionary war. He was a man of inflexible courage, and possessed, in a high degree, the esteem and confidence of Washington. In 1778, he was appointed by congress general of cavalry, an appointment which he declined, on the score of being more useful in the situation he then occupied. After the war, he was a member of the assembly of Maryland, and died in 1786, in the forty-fourth year of his age.
CARROLL, CHARLES, was born on the twentieth of September, 1737, at Annapolis, in Maryland. At an early age, he was sent to St. Omers to be educated, whence he removed to the college of Louis le Grand, at Rheims. After prosecuting for some time the study of the civil law, at one of the best institutions in France, he entered the temple. After becoming well versed in the principles of the common law, and completing his studies and travels, he returned to his native land, at the age of twenty-seven. At this period, the difficulties between the colonies and the mothercountry had commenced, and the struggle was soon carried on with considerable warmth. Mr. Carroll wielded a vigorous pen, and was soon known as one of the most powerful writers in Maryland. He foresaw at an early hour that the appeal to arms must finally be made, and boldly recommended due preparation.
Early in 1776, he was sent as one of the commissioners to Canada, to induce the people of that province to join us in the opposition to the mother country. This mission was ineffectual. Mr. Carroll returned in June, 1776, and immediately took his seat as a delegate in the convention of Maryland. Being afterwards elected a member of the congress, he presented his credentials to this body at Philadelphia on the eighteenth of July, and on the second of August following subscribed his name to the declaration of independence.
At the time he was considered as one of the most fearless and daring men of the age; as his property was immense, and its ultimate loss was considered rationally certain. On his entrance into congress, he was immediately appointed to the board of war, of which he was an efficient member. During the war, he bore his part with unabated vigor, and was often, at the same time, a member of the continental congress and of the convention of his native state; discharging his duties in both relations with fidelity, energy, and attention. In 1778, he left congress, and devoted himself to the councils of his native state. When the constitution of the United States went into operation, Mr. Carroll was elected a senator from Maryland, and took his seat at the organization of the government, on the 30th of April, 1789. To this office he was elected for a second term.
In 1801, he quitted public life at the age of sixty-four, and for upwards of thirty years enjoyed a life of tranquil honor, and unalloyed prosperity. He survived all his companions of the immortal instrument of our independence, and on the fourteenth of November, 1832, the ‘patriarch was gathered to his fathers.’
CARTER, NATHANIEL H., a man of letters, was born in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated at Dartmouth college in 1811. In 1816, he was chosen professor of languages at the college where he was educated, and was subsequently editor of the New York Statesman. He is the author of a few occasional poems, and of Travels in Europe, in two vols. 8vo. He died in Marseilles, where he had gone on account of his health, in January, 1830.
CARVER, JONATHAN, a celebrated traveller, born in Connecticut, in 1732, was a grandson of the governor of that province. He was educated for the medical profession, but embraced a military life, and served with reputation till the peace of 1763. The years 1766, 1767, and 1768, he spent in exploring the interior of North America, and he added considerably to our knowledge of the country. He visited England, in 1769, hoping for the patronage of government, but he was disappointed. In 1778, while in the situation of clerk of a lottery, in Boston, he published his travels, and, subsequently, a Treatise on the Cultivation of Tobacco. After having long contended with poverty, he died, in 1780, of disease which is believed to have been produced by want. His narrations have all the interest of fiction, and it has been suggested that they may in some respects be considered the work of fancy.
CHASE, SAMUEL, judge of the supreme court of the United States, was born in Somerset county, Maryland, in 1741. He was educated by his father, a learned clergyman; and after studying for two years the profession of law, he was admitted to the bar, at Annapolis, at the age of twenty. In 1774, he was sent to the congress of Philadelphia as a delegate from Maryland, and he continued an active, bold, eloquent, and efficient member of this body throughout the war, when he returned to the practice of his profession. In 1791, he accepted the appointment of chief justice of the general court of Maryland; and in 1796, president Washington made him an associate judge of the supreme court of the United States. He remained upon the bench for fifteen years, and appeared with ability and dignity. It was his ill fortune, however, to have his latter days embittered by an impeachment by the house of representatives at Washington. This impeachment originated in political animosities, from the offence which his conduct in the circuit court had given to the democratic party. The trial of the judge before the senate is memorable on account of the excitement which it occasioned, the ability of the defence, and the nature of the acquittal. Judge Chase continued to exercise his judicial functions till 1811, when his health failed him, and he expired on the nineteenth of June, in that year. He was a sincere patriot, and a man of high intellect and undaunted courage.