Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/55

Rh and entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice. He was ordained by Archbishop Bayley in 1874, being ap- pointed his secretary and assistant at the cathedral, and he was created Isishop of Wilniinston in 1886.

CURTIS, Alva, physician, b. in Columbia, N". H., 3 June, 1797; d. in Ohio in 1881. He lectured in the Botanic medical college of Ohio, and from 1837 till 1852 was editor of the " Botanico-medi- cal Recorder," also of the " Journal of Education and of Physiological and Medical Reforms." Dr. Curtis published " Medical Discussions " (1833) ; " Lectures on Midwifery " (1838) ; " Theory and Practice of Medicine" (1842, republished in Eng- land) ; and " Medical Criticisms " (1856).

CURTIS, Benjamin Robbins, jurist, b. in Watertown, Mass., 4 Nov., 1809 ; d. in Newport, R. I., 15 Sept., 1874. He was graduated at Har- vard in 1829, ad- mitted to the )jar in 1832, and, after practising for a short time in North- field, Mass., re- moved to Boston. The extent and readiness of his at- tainments, his ac- curacy, and his logical mind, soon made him promi- nent in his pro- fession. In 1851 President Fillmore appointed him to the U. S. supreme bench. In the celebrated " Dred Scott " case he dissented from the decision of the court and made a powerful argu- ment in support of his conclusions. He upheld the right of congress to prohibit slavery, and declared his dissent from " that part of the opinion of the majority of the court in which it is held that a person of African descent can- not be a citizen of the United States." On this memorable occasion only one other justice of the seven coincided with the opinion of Judge Cur- tis. He resigned in 1857, and resumed practice in Boston, frequently appearing before the su- preme court at Washington in important cases. He was for two years a member of the Massachu- setts legislature, but took little part in politics, devoting himself with earnestness to his profession. In the impeachment trial of President Johnson in 1808 Judge Curtis was one of the counsel for the defence. The answer to the articles of impeach- ment was read by him, and was largely his work. He opened the case in a speech that occupied two days in delivery, and that was commended for legal soundness and clearness. He was the democratic candidate for U. S. senator in 1874. He published "Reports of Cases in the Circuit Courts of the United States " (2 vols., Boston, 1854) ; " Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States," with notes and a digest (22 vols., Boston) ; and " Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States." from the origin of the court to 1854. Of his "Memoir and Writings" (2 vols., Boston, 1880), the first volume contains a memoir by George Ticknor Curtis, and the second " Mis- cellaneous Writings." — His brother, Ueorgre Tick- nor, lawyer, b. in Watertown, Mass., 28 Nov., 1812 ; d. in New York city, 28 March, 1894, was gradu- ated at Harvard i]i 1832. He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and engaged in the practice of the law in Boston till 1862, when he removed to New York. While in Boston, Mr. Curtis held the office of U. S. commissioner, and as such, in 1851, returned to his master a fugitive slave named Thomas Sims, for which act he was severely denounced by the aboli- tionists. He also served for two or three years in the Massachusetts legislature, but allowed politics to interfere but little with his profession and his historical investigations. Mr. Curtis published a " Digest of English and American Admiralty Decisions " (Boston, 1839) ; volumes ii. and iii. of a " Digest of the Decisions of the Courts of Com- mon Law and Admiralty in the United States" (3 vols., 1840-'6) ; " Rights and Duties of Merchant Seamen" (1841); " American Conveyancer " (1846); "Law of Copyright" (1847); "Law of Patents" (1849 ; 4th ed., 1873) ; " Equity Precedents " (1850) ; " Inventor's Manual," " Commentaries on the Juris- prudence, Practice, and Peculiar Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States " (2 vols.. 1854-'8) ; " History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States " (2 vols., 1855-'8) ; " Life of Daniel Webster " (New York, 1870) ; " Life of James Buchanan " (1883) ; and " Creation or Evolution " (1887).

CURTIS, Calvin, artist, b. in Stratford, Conn., 5 July, 1822. He studied art in the National acad- emy in 1841, and also under Daniel Huntington. After painting portraits in New York for some years, he went to Bridgeport, Conn., in 1850, and afterward to Stratford. His works include por- traits of Chief-Justice Thomas B. Butler, Gen. W. U. Noble, Judge C. B. Beardsley, and Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Hewitt. Mr. Curtis has also given some time to landscape-painting. He has suffered from a spinal disease for thirty years, and it has been said that " every touch of his pencil has been at- tended with a twinge of nervous pain."

CURTIS, George William, author and orator, b. in Providence, R. I., 24 Feb., 1824; d. on Staten Island, N. Y., 31 Aug., 1892. He removed to New York with his father in 1839, and for a year was a clerk in a mercantile house in that city. He with his elder brother, in 1842, joined the community of Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Mass., and, after eighteen months of study and farm labor, the brothers went to Concord, Mass., where they spent eighteen months more in a farmer's family, afterward tilling a small piece of land on their own account for six months. In 1846 Mr. Curtis went abroad, living for some time in Italy and Germany, and afterward travelling in Egypt and Syria. He returned to this country in 1850, and soon afterward became one of the editorial staff of the New York &ldquo;Tribune.&rdquo; Mr. Curtis was one of the editors of the first series of &ldquo;Putnam's Monthly&rdquo; from its appearance in 1852 till it ceased to exist. About three years after it was established the magazine passed into the hands of the firm of Dix, Edwards & Co., in which Mr. Curtis was a special partner, pecuniarily responsible, but taking no part in its commercial management. In the spring of 1857