Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/115

Rh (Philadelphia, 1866) ; and " Deus Semper." When he was eighty years old he wrote " The Song of Eighty," a poem (printed privately, 1886).

THOMPSON, Hugh Miller, P. E. bishop, b. in County Londonderry, Ireland, 5 June, 1830. While he was yet a child his parents removed to the United States and settled in Ohio. He re- ceived his aca- demical education in the schools of Cleveland, and his theological course was taken at Nash- otah House, Wis. He was ordered deacon at Nasho- tah, 6 June, 1852, by Bishop Kem- per, and priest, in St. John's church, Portage, Wis., 31 Aug., 1856. Dur- ing his diacon- ate he had charge of Grace church. Madison, Wis. He removed in 1853 to Maysville, Ky., but remained only one year. In August, 1854, he took charge of mission work in Portage and Bara- boo, Wis., and immediately on his ordination to the priesthood he became rector of St. John's church,- Portage. At Easter, 1857, he engaged in mission work in the city of Milwaukee, and organ- ized the Church of the Atonement. In 1858 he was elected rector of St. Matthew's church, Keno- sha, and after one year removed to Galena, 111., and became rector of Grace church. In 1860 he was made professor of ecclesiastical history at Nasho- tah, and founded Kemper hall. In the same year he became editor-in-chief of " The American Church- man " at Chicago, and he continued in this office until the paper was merged into " The Church- man" at Hartford, Conn. In 1871 he became rector of St. James's church, Chicago, which was burned in the great fire. In January, 1872, he re- moved to New York and took the rectorship of Christ church and the editorship of " The Church Journal and Gospel Messenger." In 1875 he be- came rector of Trinity church, New Orleans, La., where he remained until he was consecrated assist- ant bishop of Mississippi, 24 Feb., 1883. Four years later, on the death of Bishop Green, he succeeded to his office. Bishop Thompson attended the third Pan-Anglican conference in London in 1888, and in August of that year delivered in Westminster Abbey the funeral sermon of Bishop Harris of Michigan. Hobart conferred upon him the degree of S. T. D. in 1863. He is the author of " Unity and its Restoration " (New York, 1860) ; " Sin and its Penalty" (1862); " First Principles" (1868); "Ab- solution " (1872) ; "Copy " (1872) ; " Is Romanism the Best Religion for the Republic V (1873); "The Kingdom of God" (1873) ; "The World and the Logos," a volume of lectures (1885) ; and " The World and the Kingdom " (1888).

THOMPSON, Jacob, cabinet officer, b. in Cas- well county, N. C, 15 May, 1810 ; d. in Memphis, Tenn., 24 March, 1885. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1831, admitted to the bar in 1834, and settled in the Chickasaw country, Miss., where he practised law with success. In 1838 he was chosen to congress as a Democrat, and he served by continued re-election from 1839 till 1857, advocating the repudiation by Missis- sippi of part of the state bonds and opposing the compromise measures of 1850, on the ground that they were not favorable enough to the south. While he was in congress he held for some time the chairmanship of the committee on Indian affairs, and in 1845 he refused an appointment that was tendered him by the governor of Missis- sippi to a vacancy in the U. S. senate. President Buchanan made him secretary of the interior in 1857, and he held that office till 8 Jan., 1861, when he resigned, giving as his reason that troops had been ordered to re-enforce Fort Sumter contrary to an agreement that this should not be done without the consent of the cabinet. In acknowl- edging his letter the president reminded him that the matter had been decided in a cabinet meeting six days before. In December, 1860, while still in office, he had been appointed by the legislature of Mississippi a commissioner to urge on North Caro- lina the adoption of an ordinance of secession. In 1862-'4 he was governor of Mississippi, and afterward he served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Beau- regard. In the summer of 1864 he was sent as a Confederate commissioner to Canada, where he promoted the plan to release the prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, and to seize that city. He has also been charged with instigating plots to burn northern cities and commit other outrages. After the war he returned to the United States. At his death an order of Sec. Lucius Q. C. Lamar to fly the National flag at half-mast over the buildings of the interior department caused much excitement at the north.

THOMPSON, James, jurist, b. in Middlesex, Butler co., Pa., 1 Oct., 1806; d. in Philadelphia, 28 Jan., 1874. After receiving a good education, he began life as a printer, subsequently studied law, and in 1829 was admitted to the bar. He was chosen to the legislature in 1832, 1833, and 1834, during the latter year serving as speaker of the house, although he was the youngest member. He was a presidential elector in 1836, voting for Martin Van Buren, in 1838 a delegate to the Con- stitutional convention of Pennsylvania, and in 1839 was appointed president-judge of the 6th judicial district of the state, in which office he served until 1844. when he was elected by the Democrats to congress, being re-elected in 1846 and 1848. In 1855, against his desire, he was again elected to the legislature, where he remained one term, and after that declined nominations for both the legislature and congress. In 1857 he was elected to the supreme court of the state, and served nine years as justice and six years as chief justice. On the expiration of his term he was re- nominated by the Democrats, but failed of an elec- tion, though running ahead of his ticket. He mingled with his judicial qualities warm affections and genial manners. His judicial opinions are found in the supreme court reports, from vol. xxx. to vol. lxxii. inclusive. After his retirement he re- sumed the practice of law in Philadelphia, and his death occurred suddenly while he was engaged in arguing a cause before the same court over which he had so recently presided, his opponent in the cause being his predecessor in the office of chief justice, George W. Woodward.

THOMPSON, John, political writer, b. in 1777; d. in Petersburg, Va., in 1799. He was the author of articles signed " Casca " and "Gracchus" in the Petersburg " Gazette," in which he attacked John Adams's administration, and also of letters signed "Curtius," addressed to Chief-Justice John Marshall in 1798, which were issued in book-form (1804). His life was written by George Hay.