Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/644

604 Washington led to a popular demonstration against Oswald in Baltimore, and to the issuance of a chal- lenge by the latter to Col. Samuel Smith, who de- clined to fight a duel. Oswald removed to Phila- delphia, Pa., and in April, 1782, began the publi- cation of the '• Independent Gazetteer, or the Chronicle of Freedom," which he made the vehicle of violent partisan attacks. He reopened William Bradford's London coffee-house in 1783, and while conducting it published the monthly " Price Cur- rent," the earliest commercial paper in the United Stales. In August, 178(3, he offered to lead a vol- unteer company of infantry, of which he was cap- tain, to the northern frontier in order to capture from the British the posts that they occupied in violation of the articles of peace. From 1782 till 1787 he published in New York city the " Inde- pendent G-azette, or New York Journal Revived," which had formerly been conducted by John Holt, a kinsman of his wife. He was a strong opponent of the political principles of Alexander Hamilton, and challenged the latter to a duel, but their friends adjusted the matter. In 1792 he went to England, and shortly afterward to France, where he joined the Republican army, was commissioned as a colonel of artillery, and commanded a regiment under Gen. Charles F. Dumouriez, at Jemmapes. The government sent him on a secret mission to Ireland to report on the political condition of that country and the feasibility of the projected French invasion. He reached Ireland by a journey through Norway and Scotland, reported to the minister of foreign affairs in France, and, not receiving further instructions, returned to the United States, where he died of yellow fever shortly after his arrival.

OTERO, Rafael (o-tay-ro), Cuban author, b. in Havana in 1827; d. there in 1876. He began to write for the theatre when he was a mere boy, his first comedy being performed when he was only fifteen years old. From that time, and in spite of poverty and unfavorable circumstances, he gave a great deal of time to literature, and wrote several comedies, including " Un novio del dia," " El Co- burgo," "Mi hijo el Frances," " Del agua mansa," and "Elmuerto lo manda," which were performed in the theatres of Havana and Matanzas. He also published the novel " La perla de la Diaria " (1866), and "Cantos Sociales" (1868), but a great part of his writings remain uncollected.

OTEY, James Hervey. P. E. bishop, b. in Liberty, Bedford co., Va., 27 Jan., 1800; d. in Memphis, Tenn.. 23 April, 1863. His father, Isaac Otey, was a farm- er in easy circum- stances, and fre- quently represent- ed his county in the house of bur- gesses. James was one of the young- er children in a family of twelve. He early evinced a love of study and of general reading, and, after attending an excellent school in his native county, was sent in his seventeenth year to the University of North Carolina, where he was graduated in 1820. He received honors in belles-lettres, and was immediately appointed tutor in Latin and Greek. In he took charge of a school in Warren ton, N. C. There his attention was turned to the ministry, and he was ordained both deacon and priest in the Protestant Episcopal church by Bishop Ravenscroft. In 1827 he removed to Tennessee and settled in the town of Franklin, but he changed his residence to Columbia in 1835, and finally to Memphis. On 14 Jan., 1834. he was consecrated bishop of Tennessee. Next to the duties of his episcopate the bishop's heart was most engaged with the work of Christian education. It seemed to be a passionate desire with him to establish in the southwest a large institution in which religion should go hand-in-hand with every lesson of a secular character, and young men be prepared for the ministry. Accordingly, after establishing, with the assistance of Rev. Leonidas Polk, a school for girls, called the " Columbia Institute," he devoted a great part of his laborious life to the realization of his ideal. For full thirty years (1827-'57) he failed not, in public and in private, by night and by day, to keep this subject before the people of the southern states, until the successful establishment of the University of the south at Suwanee, Tenn., in which he was also aided by Bishop Leonidas Polk. The life of Bishop Otey was one of hard and unceasing labor. He lived to see the few scattered members of his church in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida, as well as Tennessee, organized into dioceses and in successful operation. He was known throughout the south and southwest as the Good Bishop. Though he was strongly opposed to secession, he wrote a letter to the secretary of state, remonstrating against coercion. The reply to this letter changed his views on the subject, and he declined to attend the general convention of his church in the seceding states that was held in Georgia soon afterward. In person the bishop was of a commanding stature, being six feet and two inches in height, and of fitting proportions. He published many addresses, sermons, and charges, and a volume containing the "Unity of the Church " and other discourses (Vicksburg, 1852).

OTIS, Bass, artist, b. in New England in 1784; d. in Philadelphia, 3 Nov., 1861. As a youth he was apprenticed to a scythe-maker, and his only known composition is a large picture of the interior of a smithy, which was first exhibited at the Pennsylvania academy of the fine arts in 1819, and presented by the artists to that institution, where it now is. It is hard in its technique, but the grouping and management of light are nicely treated. It is not known from whom Mr. Otis gleaned any instruction in art, but in 1808 he was painting portraits in New York, and in 1812 he had settled as a portrait-painter in Philadelphia. His portrait of President Jefferson was engraved for Delaplaine's "Portrait Gallery," and in the exhibition of original historical portraits at the Pennsylvania academy of the fine arts in 1887-'8 there were a dozen of his works, including likenesses of Alexander Lawson, the engraver, John Neagle, the painter, and Dr. Phil!p Syng Physick, which last Otis reproduced in a crude mezzotint engraving. A portrait of himself, which he painted shortly before his death, is a fine piece of work. In 1815 Otis invented the perspective protractor, which was well received by many of his co-workers, and he produced what is said to be the earliest lithograph that was made in the United States. It appeared in the " Analectic Magazine " for July, 1819. Otis made the design upon a stone that was brought from Munich, and did the printing himself. The print has little resemblance to the modern lithograph, the lines being incised or corroded, and