Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/460

426 the commissioners to revise the laws of the state. He was elected to congress in 1862 as a Republican, and served from 1863 till 1871, being at the head of the committee on patents, and of the judiciary committee. His greatest services in congress were the revision of the patent and copyright laws, the general bankrupt law of 1867, and the introduction and adoption of a law for improving and regulat- ing the civil service. He took an active part in the deliberations of the house, and on legal ques- tions was an acknowledged authority. He foresaw the civil war, and urged upon the state and Federal governments active measures to meet it. Witness- ing a torch-light parade in the political canvass of 1860, he said: "It will not take much to turn those men into soldiers." Mr. Jenckes became convinced of the necessity of a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the country, and to that, end his labors, although they met with vigorous opposition, resulted in the bankrupt law of 1867. His services to frame a bill to secure reform in the civil service brought from him, as chairman of the joint select committee on retrenchment, an elabo- rate report on the civil-service laws of the world, 14 May, 1868. His bill met with intense and partisan opposition ; but, convinced of its desirability, he forced it upon the attention of the country and of congress, and, after a struggle, succeeded in secur- ing its passage. His advocacy of the bankrupt and civil-service laws brought him before the New York chamber of commerce and Cooper institute audiences, and elsewhere. In congress he made the presentation address in behalf of his state when the statue of Gen. Nathanael Greene was presented to the nation.

JENIFER, Daniel, member of congress, b. in Maryland in 1723; d. there, 6 Nov., 1790. He took an active part in the movements preceding the Revolution, was a delegate from Maryland to the Continental congress in 1778-'82, and also to the convention that formed the constitution of the United States. — His son, Daniel, diplomatist, b. in Charles county, 15 April, 1791 ; d. in Port Tobacco, Md., 18 Dec, 1855, was liberally educated, became a local magistrate, and was frequently a member of the Maryland legislature. He was a member of congress in 1831-'3, and in 1835-'41, having been chosen as a Whig, and was U. S. min- ister to Austria in 1841-'5.

JENKINS, Albert Gallatin, soldier, b. in Ca- bell county, Va., 10 Nov., 1830; d. in Dublin, Va., 7 May, 1864. He was educated at the Virginia military institute, Lexington, Va., at Jefferson college, Pa., where he was graduated in 1848, and at Harvard law-school, where he was graduated in 1850. He was admitted to the bar, but never practised, devoting himself instead to agriculture. He was delegate to the National Democratic con- vention in Cincinnati in 1856, a member of con- gress from Virginia in 1857-'61, and a delegate from Virginia to the provisional Confederate con- gress in the latter year. He then entered the Con- federate army, and was appointed brigadier-gener- al, 5 Aug., 1862. He commanded a brigade in A. P. Hill's division, and afterward in Stuart's cavalry corps, did good service at Gettysburg, and served in the Shenandoah valley and western Virginia. He was killed in action at Dublin, Va.

JENKINS, Anna Alray, benefactor, b. in Provi- dence, R. I., 1 Sept., 1790 ; d. there, 20 Nov., 1849. She was a member of the Society of Friends, and inherited a large fortune, including the estate of her father, William Almy, most of that of Moses Brown, her grandfather, and the greater part of that of her uncle, Obadiah Brown. She married William Jenkins in 1823, early in life became a prominent preacher among the Friends, and re- peatedly visited various parts of the United States and Europe in this capacity. Her charities to those of her own denomination, and to others, were in- numerable, founding a school, and an orphan asy- lum for colored children in Providence. Mrs. Jen- kins perished in the burning of her residence.

JENKINS, Charles Jones, jurist, b. in Beau- fort district, S. C, 6 Jan., 1805 ; d. in Summerville, Ga., 13 June, 1883. He removed with his parents to Jefferson county, Ga., in 1816, and was educated at the State university and at Union college, where he was graduated in 1824. He became a member of the Georgia legislature in 1830, was attorney- general of the state in 1831, but resigning before the expiration of his term, and was again chosen to the legislature, where he remained from 1836 till 1850, serving as speaker of the house when- ever his party was in a majority. He was brought up in the state-rights, Jeffersonian, school of politics, but supported Harrison for president in 1840, and Clay in 1844. He was a Union mem- ber of the Georgia convention in 1850, and as its chairman was the author of the resolutions known as "The Platform of 1850," in which it was "re- solved that the state of Georgia, even to the dis- ruption of every tie which binds her to the Union, resist any act of congress abolishing slavery." He declined the secretaryship of the interior which was offered him by President Fillmore in this year, was state senator in 1856, and in 1860 was ap- pointed to the supreme bench of Georgia to sup- ply the vacancy caused by the resignation of Lin- ton Stephens. He held this office till the close of the war. In 1865 he was a member of the State constitutional convention that was called on the proclamation of President Johnson, and, being elected governor the same year under the constitu- tion so formed, held office till he was superseded by Gen. Thomas S. Ruger, of the U. S. army, who was appointed provisional governor under the re- construction act of congress in 1868. He then retired to private life, but was president of the Georgia constitutional convention in 1877. For many years he was president of the board of trus- tees of the University of Georgia. See his " Life," by Charles Colcock Jones (Augusta, Ga., 1884).

JENKINS, Edward, British author, b. in Ban- galore, India, in 1838. He was educated in Mon- treal, Canada, and at the University of Pennsylva- nia, was admitted to the bar in London in 1864, and practised till 1873, when he entered politics as an ultra Liberal. In 1870 he was sent to British Guiana on behalf of the Aborigines' protection so- ciety, and was also associated with Sir George Grey in the emigration and colonial movement. He was agent-general for Canada in 1874-'6, and during his absence there was elected a member of parlia- ment. He is the author, among other works, of " Ginx's Baby," a political satire (London, 1870) ; "The Colonies an Imperial Unity " (London, 1871): and "The Coolie" (New York, 1871).

JENKINS, John, pioneer, b. in East Greenwich, R. I., 15 Feb., 1728; d. in Pennsylvania in November, 1784. He was an original proprietor of the Susquehanna company, visited the Wyoming valley in 1753, attended the purchase of the Indian title in 1754, surveyed it in 1755, brought on settlers in 1762-'3, was driven off on 15 Oct., 1763, returned 1 Feb., 1769, and settled in Kingston, but sold out and removed in 1772 to Exeter, of which town he was one of the grantees. He called a meeting of the settlers, 1 Aug., 1775, over which he presided, whereat they resolved "that they will