Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/451

Rh Wedderburn replied: "Till the spirit of independence is subdued, revisions are idle ; the Americans have no terms to demand from your justice, whatever they may hope from your grace and mercy." He was burned in effigy in Philadelphia, and justly regarded as one of the most unscrupulous foes to the liberties of the people. He became attorney-general in 1778. chief justice of the court of common pleas in 1780, and the same year was raised to the peerage as Lord Loughborough, Baron of Loughborough in the county of Leicester. In April, 1783, he assisted Lord North in forming the famous coalition ministry, in which he was the first commissioner of the great seal. After its dissolution he remained out of office till 27 Jan., 1793, when he became high chancellor under William Pitt. On his resignation of that office in April, 1801, he was created Earl Rosslyn, in the county of Mid-Lothian. When George III. heard that Wedderburn was dead, he remarked: "He has not left a greater knave behind him in my dominions." He published a "Treatise on English Poor Laws " and " Management of Prisons" (London, 1793).

WEED, Edwin Gardner, P. E. bishop, b. in Savannah, Ga., 23 July, 1837. He was graduated at the General theological seminary, New York, in 1870, ordered deacon, 24 Aug., 1870, and ordained priest, 29 Aug., 1871. He became rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Summerville, Ga., his first and only charge, which he held for fifteen years. He was consecrated third bishop of Florida in St. John's church, Jacksonville, Fla., 11 Aug., 1886. The degree of S. T. D. was conferred upon him by Racine college, Wis., and that of D. D. by the University of the south. He has taken great interest in the work of the church among the colored people of the south, and is an active member of the commission in charge of that work.

WEED, Stephen Hinsdale, soldier, b. in New York city in 1834 ; d. near Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July, 1863. He was graduated at the New York free academy in 1851, and at the U. S. military academy in 1854, and assigned to the artillery. After frontier duty in Texas, and service against the Seminoles in 1856-'7, he was engaged in quelling the Kansas disturbances in 1858, and then on the Utah expedition, participating in skirmishes with hostile Indians at Egan Canon, 11 Aug., 1860, and Deep Creek on 6 Sept. He was promoted captain on 14 May, 1861, and served in the peninsular, northern Virginia, and Maryland campaigns, in command of a battery. From 3 Dec, 1862, till 23 Jan., 1863, he was chief of the artillery corps at Falmouth, Va. After a short leave of absence he took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, and on 6 June, 1863, was made brigadier-general of volunteers for gallant conduct there. After 10 May, 1863, he commanded an artillery brigade in the 5th army corps. At Gettysburg, while holding the position on Little Round Top, he was mortally wounded, exclaiming as he fell: "I would rather die here than that the rebels should gain an inch of this ground." The point was essentially important to retain, and it is historically marked as "Weed's Hill."

WEED, Thurlow, journalist, b. in Cairo, Greene co., N. Y., 15 Nov., 1797; d. in New York city, 22 Nov., 1882. At twelve years of age he entered a printing-office in Catskill, N. Y. Soon afterward he removed with his father's family to the frontier village of Cincinnatus, Cortland co., N. Y., and aided in clearing the settlement and in farming, but in 1811 returned to the printing business, and was successively employed in several newspaper offices. At the beginning of the second war with

Great Britain he enlisted as a private in a New York regiment, and served on the northern frontier. In 1815 he removed to New York city, where he was employed in the printing establishment of Van Winckle and Wiley. They were the publishers at that time of William Cobbett's &ldquo;Weekly Register,&rdquo; and Weed became acquainted with the eccentric author by carrying proof-sheets to him. He went to Norwich, Chenango co., N. Y., in 1819, established the &ldquo;Agriculturist,&rdquo; and two years afterward removed to Manlius, N. Y., where he founded the &ldquo;Onondaga County Republican.&rdquo; In 1824 he became owner and editor of the &ldquo;Rochester Telegraph,&rdquo; the second daily paper that was published west of Albany. While Mr. Weed was editing that journal Lafayette visited the United States, and Weed accompanied him in a part of his tour throughout the country. Difficulties arising out of the anti-Mason excitement caused Mr. Weed's retirement from the &ldquo;Telegraph&rdquo; in 1826, and in the same year he founded the &ldquo;Anti-Mason Enquirer.&rdquo; He was a member of the legislature in 1825. In 1830 he established the Albany &ldquo;Evening Journal,&rdquo; which took a conspicuous part in the formation of the Whig and the Republican parties, being equally opposed to the Jackson administration and to nullification. During the thirty-five years of his control of that organ it held an influential place in party journalism, and brought Mr. Weed into intimate relations with politicians of all parties. His political career began in 1824 in the presidential conflict that resulted in the election of John Quincy Adams. He succeeded in uniting the Adams and Clay factions, and was acknowledged by the leaders of his party to have contributed more than any other to their success in that canvass. He was active in the nomination of William Henry Harrison in 1836 and 1840, of Henry Clay in 1844, of Gen. Winfield Scott in 1852, and of John C. Frémont in 1856. In 1860 he earnestly advocated the nomination of William H. Seward for the presidency, but he afterward cordially supported Abraham Lincoln, whose re-election he promoted in 1864. He subsequently aided the regular nominations of the Republican party, and did good service in the canvass of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for the presidency. Especially in his own state he influenced the elections, and in the constitutional crisis that arose from the presidential election in 1876 he guided in a powerful degree the decisions of his party. He had visited Europe several times before the civil war, and in 1861 with Archbishop Hughes and Bishop McIlvaine he was sent abroad to prevail on foreign governments to refrain from intervention in behalf of the Confederacy. In this service he stoutly defended the national interests, and, through his influence with English and French statesmen, brought about a result that permanently affected the feeling of Europe toward the United States. His &ldquo;Letters&rdquo; from abroad were collected and published (New