Browsing named entities in Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing). You can also browse the collection for 1776 AD or search for 1776 AD in all documents.

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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Adams, Charles Francis, 2nd 1835- (search)
dier-general. He was appointed a member of the Board of Railway Commissioners of Massachusetts in 1869; and was president of the Union Pacific Railway Company in 1884-91. In 1895 he was elected president of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His publications include, Railroads, their origin and problems; Massachusetts, its historians and its history; Three episodes of Massachusetts history; Life of Charles Francis Adams; Richard Henry Dana, a biography, etc. The double anniversary, 1776 and 1863. On July 4. 1869, he delivered the following historical address at Quincy, Mass.: Six years ago, on this anniversary, we — and not only we who stood upon the scarred and furrowed field of battle, but you and our whole country — were drawing breath after the struggle of Gettysburg. For three long days we had stood the strain of conflict, and now, at last, when the nation's birthday dawned, the shattered rebel columns had sullenly with-drawn from our front, and we drew that lo
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Adams, John Quincy, 1767- (search)
f the one was right, that of the other was power. The work of the founders of our independence was thus but half done. Absorbed in that more than herculean task of maintaining that independence and its principles by one of the most cruel wars that ever glutted the furies with human woe, they marched undaunted and steadfast through that fiery ordeal, and, consistent in their principles to the end. concluded, as an acknowledged sovereignty of the United States, proclaimed by their people in 1776, a peace with that same monarch whose sovereignty over them they had abjured in obedience to the laws of nature and of nature's God. But for these United States they had formed no Constitution. Instead of resorting to the source of all constituted power, they had wasted their time, their talents, and their persevering, untiring toils in erecting and roofing and buttressing a frail and temporary shed to shelter the nation from the storm, or rather a mere baseless scaffolding on which to s
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Amherst, Sir Jeffrey, 1717- (search)
Bath. In 1763 he was appointed governor of Virginia. The atrocities of the Indians in May and June of that year aroused the anger and the energies of Sir Jeffrey, and he contemplated hurling swift destruction upon the barbarians. He denounced Pontiac as the chief ringleader of mischief ; and, in a proclamation, said, Whoever kills Pontiac shall receive from me a reward of £100 ($500). He bade the commander at Detroit to make public proclamation for an assassin to pursue him. He regarded the Indians as the vilest race of creatures on the face on the earth; and whose riddance from it must be esteemed a meritorious act, for the good of mankind. He instructed his officers engaged in war against them to take no prisoners, but to put to death all that should fall into their hands. Sir Jeffrey was made governor of the island of Guernsey in 1771; created a baron in 1776; was commander-in-chief of the forces from 1778 to 1795; and became field-marshal in July, 1796. He died Aug. 3, 1797
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Anderson, Alexander, 1775- (search)
Anderson, Alexander, 1775- The first engraver on wood in America; born in New York, April 21, 1775. His father was a Scotchman, who printed a Whig newspaper in New York, called The constitutional gazette, until he was driven from the city by the British in 1776. At the age of twelve years young Anderson made quite successful attempts at engraving on copper and type-metal, and two or three years later he began the study of medicine. In 1796 he received the degree of M. D. from Columbia College, writing for the occasion a thesis on Chronic mania. He Alexander Anderson. practised the profession for a few years, and engraved at the same time, liking that employment better. After the yellow fever in 1798 had swept away nearly his whole family, he abandoned the practice of medicine and made engraving his life profession. Having seen an edition of Bewick's History of quadrupeds, illustrated with wood-engravings by that master, Anderson first learned that Wood was used for such a
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Arctic exploration. (search)
aving set sail from a port in Kamtchatka. In that region Bering perished. Russian navigators tried in vain to solve the problem. Between 1769 and 1772 Samuel Hearne made three overland journeys in America to the Arctic Ocean. The British government having, in 1743, offered $100,000 to the crew who should accomplish a northwest passage, stimulated efforts in that direction. Captain Phipps (Lord Mulgrave) attempted to reach the north pole in 1773; and before setting out on his last voyage (1776), Captain Cook was instructed to attempt to penetrate the polar sea by Bering Strait. He went only as far as 70° 45′. In 1817 Captain Ross and Lieutenant Parry sailed for the polar sea from England; and the same year Captain Buchan and Lieutenant (Sir John) Franklin went in an easterly direction on a similar errand, namely, to reach the north pole. At this time the chief object of these explorations was scientific, and not commercial. Buchan and Franklin went by way of Spitzbergen; but the
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Arnold, Benedict, 1741-1801 (search)
nry Dearborn, Daniel Morgan, and others. Arnold assisted Montgomery in the siege of Quebec, and was there severely wounded in the leg. Montgomery was killed, and Arnold was promoted to brigadier-general (Jan. 10, 1776), and took command of the remnant of the American troops in the vicinity of Quebec. Succeeded by Wooster, he went up Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga, where he was placed in command of an armed flotilla on the lake. With these vessels he had disastrous battles (Oct. 11 and 13, 1776) with British vessels built at St. Johns. Arnold was deeply offended by the appointment, by Congress, early in 1777, of five of his juniors to the rank of major-general. He received the same appointment soon afterwards (Feb. 7, 1777), but the affront left an irritating thorn in his bosom, and he was continually in trouble with his fellow-officers, for his temper was violent and he was not upright in pecuniary transactions. General Schuyler admired him for his bravery, and was his abiding f
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Ashe, John, 1720- (search)
Ashe, John, 1720- Military officer: born in Grovely, Brunswick co., N. C., in 1720; was in the North Carolina legislature for several years, and was speaker in 1762-65. He warmly opposed the Stamp Act: assisted Governor Tryon in suppressing the Regulator movement in 1771, but soon afterwards became a zealous Whig. He was an active patriot, and because he led 500 men to destroy Fort Johnson he was denounced as a rebel. Raising and equipping a regiment at his own expense, he was appointed brigadier-general of the Wilmington District in April. 1776. He joined Lincoln in South Carolina in 1778; and after he was defeated at Brier Creek, in March, 1779, he returned home. General Ashe suffered much at the hands of the British at Wilmington after the battle at Guilford, and died of small-pox, which he had contracted in prison, in Sampson county, N. C., Oct. 24, 1781.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Avery, Waightstill, 1745-1821 (search)
-1821 Lawyer; born in Groton, Conn.. May 3, 1745; studied law in Maryland. and began its practice in Mecklenburg county, N. C., in 1769. He was prominent there among the opposers of the obnoxious measures of the British Parliament bearing on the colonies, and was one of the promoters and signers of the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. He was a delegate to the Provincial Congress at Hillsborough in 1775 which organized the military forces of the State: and in the summer of 1776 he joined the army, under General Rutherford, in the Cherokee country. He was a commissioner in framing the treaty of Holston, which effected peace on the Western frontier. Mr. Avery was active in civil affairs; and in 1779 was colonel of the county militia, serving with great zeal during the British invasion of North Carolina. He removed to Burke county in 1781, which he represented in the State legislature many years. He was the first State attorney-general of North Carolina. He died i
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Balfour, Nisbet, 1743-1823 (search)
Balfour, Nisbet, 1743-1823 British military officer; born in Dunbog, Scotland. in 1743. He was a son of an auctioneer and bookseller in Edinburgh; entered the British army as an ensign in 1761; commanded a company in 1770; was wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill in June, 1775. and again in the battle of Long Island. He was sent home with despatches after the capture of New York in 1776, and was brevetted major in November following. Served under Lord Cornwallis in Pennsylvania and the Carolinas; and was in command at Charleston in 1781, when he reluctantly obeyed the command of Lord Rawdon to execute Isaac Hayne (q. v.). He was then lieutenant-colonel. He was made colonel and aide-de-camp to his king in 1782. a major-general in 1793. lieutenant-general in 1798, and general in 1803. He died in Dunbog, Oct. 10, 1823.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Baltimore, (search)
ick building that stood until within a few years, with fronts on Baltimore, Sharpe, and Liberty streets, and where, on the 23d, Rev. Patrick Allison, first minister of the Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, and Rev. William White, of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, were appointed chaplains. On June 18, 1860, the adjourned convention of Democratic delegates who had assembled in Charleston met at Baltimore, with Mr. Cushing in the chair. The Meeting-place of Congress in Baltimore in 1776. seceders from the Charleston Convention, who had been in session at Richmond, had adjourned to Baltimore, and claimed the right to sit in the convention from which they had withdrawn. Mr. Cushing declined to decide the delicate question which arose, and referred the whole matter to the convention. It was debated for some time, when it was proposed that no delegate should be admitted unless he would pledge himself to abide by the action of a majority of the convention and support its nomine
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