Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/192

168 After the peace, with David Humphreys, Joel Bar- low, and Lemuel Hopkins, he wrote a series of es- says that were designed to check, by the boldness of their satire, the then prevalent spirit of disor- ganization and anarchy. They were extensively copied in the newspapers, under the title of " Ameri- can Antiquities, Extracts from the ' Anarchiad ' and Other Papers." H e became state's attorney for Hartford county in 1789, served in the legislature in 1792 and 1800, and in 1801-19 was a judge of the superior court. In 1808 he received from the legislature the additional appointment of judge of the supreme court of errors, which he held till 1819. He was for several years treasurer of Yale, from which he received the degree of LL. D. in 1818. He removed to Detroit, Mich., in 1825, where he subse- quently resided for six years.

TRUMBULL, Jonathan, patriot, b. in Leba- non, Conn., 12 Oct., 1710; d. there, 17 Aug., 1785. His ancestor came from England about 1639, and settled in Rowley, Mass., leaving three sons. His father, Joseph, was a merchant and farmer. Jona- than was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1727, studied theology, and was licensed to preach, but in 1731 re- signed the minis- try to take the Elace of an elder rother in his fa- ther's store. He afterward adopt- ed the profession of law, was a mem- ber of the assem- bly in 1733 and its speaker in 1739, became an assist- ant in 1740, and was re-elected to that office twenty- two times. He was subsequently judge of the county court, assist- ant judge of the superior court, and in 1766-'9 chief justice of that body. He was deputy governor in 1767-8, and governor from 1769 till 1783, when he resigned. He refused to take the oath of office in 1765 that was required of all officials to support the provisions of the stamp-act. Bancroft says of him in this period of his career (1767) : " He was the model of the virtues of a rural magistrate ; profoundly religious, grave in manner, discrimi- nating in judgment, fixed in his principles." His opinion was formed that if " methods tending to violence should be taken to maintain the depend- ence of the colonies, it would hasten separation," that the connection with England could be pre- served "by gentle and insensible methods rather than by power and force." But on the declaration of war he threw his whole influence on the patriot side, co-operated with vigor in securing the inde- pendence of the colonies, and was the only colonial governor that espoused the people's cause. When Washington wrote to him of the weakness of his army in August, 1776, Trumbull convened his council of safety, and, although he had already sent out five Connecticut regiments, he called for nine more, and to those who were not enrolled in any train-band said: "Join yourselves to one of the companies now ordered to New York, or form yourselves into distinct companies, and choose cap- tains forthwith. March on ; this shall be your war- rant. May the God of the armies of Israel be your leader." At these words the farmers, although their harvests were but half gathered, rose in arms, forming nine regiments, each of 350 men, and, self- equipped, marched to New York just in time to meet the advance of the British. In 1781, when Washington appealed to the governors of the New England states to "complete their Continental bat- talions," Trumbull cheered him with the words that he "should obtain all that he needed." He was the chosen friend and counsellor of Washington throughout the Revolution, who, says Jared Sparks, " relied on him as one of his main pillars of sup- port, and often consulted him in emergencies." The epithet " Brother Jonathan." now applied as a personification of the United States, is supposed to owe its origin to Washington's habit of ad- dressing Gov. Trumbull, and to the phrase that he often used when perplexed : " Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says. In 1783 he extolled Wash- ington's last address in a letter to him dated 10 June of that year, as " exhibiting the foundation principles of an indissoluble union of the states under one federal head." In the next autumn, when he retired from public life after fifty years' service, he set forth to the legislature of Connecti- cut " that the grant to the Federal constitution of powers clearly defined, ascertained, and under- stood, and sufficient for the great purposes of the Union, could alone lead from the danger of anar- chy to national happiness and glory." Washing- ton wrote of him as "the first of patriots, in his social duties yielding to none." The Marquis de Chastellux, the traveller, who saw him When he was seventy years of age, describes him as " pos- sessing all the simplicity in his dress, all the importance, and even all the pedantry, becoming the great magistrate of a small republic/' Yale gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1779, and the University of Edinburgh the same in 1787. See his " Life " by Isaac W. Stuart (Hartford, 1857).— His son, Joseph, member of the Continental congress, b. in Lebanon, Conn., 11 March, 1737; d. there, 23 July, 1778, was graduated at Harvard in 1756, served in the Continental congress in 1774-'5, was commissary-general of the Revolutionary army from 19 July, 1775, till 2 Aug., 1777, and a commissioner of the board of war in 1777-'8, resigning in the latter year on account of the failure of his health. His services were highly eulogized in a report that was made to congress in 1779, and a commission on the sums he had disbursed was voted to his heirs. — Another son, Jonathan, statesman, b. in Lebanon, Conn., 26 March, 1740: d. there, 7 Aug., 1809, was graduated at Harvard in 1759, and for several years previous to the Revolution was a member of the legislature and speaker of the house. At the beginning of the war he entered the patriot army as a paymaster, and held that post till 1780, when he became aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington, with whom he remained until the peace. He was a member of congress in 1789-95, having been chosen as a Federalist, was speaker of the house for the last four years of his service, and became U. S. senator in 1795. in place of Stephen M. Mitchell, who had resigned, but he himself resigned the next year to become lieutenant-governor of Connecticut. From 1798 until his death he was governor. — Jonathan's son, John, artist, b. in Lebanon, Conn., 6 June, 1756 ; d. in New York city, 10 Nov., 1843, entered Harvard at the age of sixteen, and was graduated the following year, 1773. As he has said himself, his " taste for drawing began to dawn early." While at college he studied Brooke Taylor's " Jesuit's Perspective " and William Hogarth's " Analysis