Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/573

Rh he was chosen to the same body, which adopted a constitution and changed its title from &ldquo;Provincial congress&rdquo; to the &ldquo;Convention of the state of New Jersey.&rdquo; In 1778 he was elected, on joint ballot of the legislature, to represent New Jersey in the Continental congress he was strongly averse to accepting this position, declaring that the trust was too important for his years and abilities. In the following year he resigned it, but in 1782 and 1783 his name may be found on the rolls of the Continental congress as a representative from New Jersey. He was instrumental, it is said, in raising a corps of artillery, of which he became captain, and at the head of which, while still holding his seat in the Provincial congress, he took part in the battle of Trenton. There is a tradition that it was by a shot from his pistol that Colonel Rahl, the commander of the Hessian forces, was mortally wounded. Having been made colonel in the militia of his native County, he became actively engaged in the war. He was present in the skirmishes at Springfield and Elizabethtown, as well as at the battle of Monmouth Court House in June 1778. After the war had been brought to a close he received appointments to various offices in the County and state, and in 1793 was chosen to a seat in the senate of the United States, but, on account of family bereavements, resigned this position in 1796. In 1794, when General Washington undertook to put an end to the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania, he summoned, among other forces employed for that purpose, the militia of New Jersey, placing Governor Howell at their head, and giving to Mr. Frelinghuysen a major general's command. In 1804 he fell seriously sick, and, on taking to his bed, predicted that the end was at hand, and that he would die on his ensuing birthday. The prediction was verified. &mdash; Gen. Frederick's eldest son, John, lawyer, b. near Millstone, Somerset County, N. J.. 21 March 1776; d. there, 10 April 1833, was graduated from Queen's College (now Rutgers) in 1792, and admitted to the bar in 1797. By reason of his great aversion to public speaking he figured but little in the courts, but as an office lawyer enjoyed an extensive practice. For many years he was a member of the state council, and for three consecutive terms, of five years each was surrogate of his County. Inheriting from his father, General Frederick Frelinghuysen, a great fondness for military life, he promptly offered his services at the beginning of the second war with Great Britain and was for many months encamped with a regiment of New Jersey militia, which he commanded, at Sandy Hook, with a view to preventing the enemy's vessels from passing up the bay to attack New York. At the close of the war he was made a brigadier general. He was a man of profound piety, and while on duty at Sandy Hook frequently conducted public services at the head of his regiment. So tenderly did he care for his soldiers that the sick among them were sheltered in his own tent, and made to eat at his own table. He freely used his own means to relieve their wants, even going so far as to embarrass his estate for this purpose. &mdash; Gen. Frederick's second son, Theodore, lawyer, b. in Franklin, Somerset County, New Jersey, 28 March 1787; d. in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 12 April 1861, was sent at the age of eleven to the grammar school connected with Queen's College (now Rutgers), where he remained two years, but,, on the resignation of the rector of the school, returned to his home at Millstone. Having no great disposition to apply himself to study, he persuaded his father to give him the privilege of remaining at home and becoming a farmer. But consent to

this plan had been only partially obtained when his father was called away on public business. His stepmother, a wise and estimable woman, believing that this arrangement would not be a judicious one, packed young Theodore's trunk and sent him to the classical academy recently established at Baskingridge, New Jersey, by the Rev. Dr. Robert Findley. Here he completed his preparatory studies, and in 1802 was admitted to the junior class of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, from which he was graduated with high honors in 1804. In the mean time, his father having died, his elder brother, John a lawyer, had taken charge of the homestead at Millstone. In the office of this brother he began the study of law, and, after being admitted to the bar, removed to Newark, New Jersey, where he married, and entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he soon attained eminence. In 1817 he was appointed attorney general by a legislature whose majority was opposed to him in politics. Twice afterward he was reappointed on the expiration of his term of office, and finally resigned it in 1829, having been elected a senator of the United States. Prior to this, how ever, he had declined the office of justice of the Supreme Court tendered to him in 1826. The first important matter on which he addressed the senate was the bill for the removal of the Indians beyond the Mississippi river. This speech availed nothing, however, except to bring its author prominently before the nation, and to give to him the title of the &ldquo;Christian statesman.&rdquo; He also took an active part in the discussion of the pension bill, the president's protest, the removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, the compromise, and the tariff. His senatorial term expired in 1835 when he resumed his professional labors in Newark. In 1836 Newark was incorporated as a City. In the following year Mr. Frelinghuysen was elected its mayor, and in 1838 he was re-elected to the same position. In 1839 he was unanimously chosen chancellor of the University of New York, and while in the occupancy of this office was, in May 1844, nominated by the Whig national convention at Baltimore for the vice-presidency of the United States on the same ticket with Henry Clay. He continued in the discharge of his duties as chancellor of the University until 1850, when he accepted the presidency of Rutgers College, and in the same year was formally inducted into that office, continuing in it until the day of his death. Mr. Frelinghuysen was an earnest advocate of the claims of organized Christian benevolence, and it is said of him that no American layman was ever associated with so many great national organizations of religion and charity. He was president of no less than three of these during some period of their existence, while his name may be found on