Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/801

Rh sent him, with Clarkson N. Potter and Gov. Charles Foster, to New Orleans to investigate the outbreak of the White league against the Louisiana legislature, which had led Gen. Sheridan to denounce the league as " banditti." Both parties finally agreed to abide by the committee's decision, antl the legislature was organized in accordance with their report. From the outset of his congressional career Mr. Phelps showed independence, and on one party measure, the so-called Civil rights bill, which, as a lawyer, he declared unconstitutional (as the courts subsequently held), he voted against the Republicans. This vote cost him his re-election. He was defeated by seven votes in a district that he had previously carried by 2,715. He had become warmly attached to James G. Blaine, then speaker of the house, and was his ardent supporter in the {residential conventions of 1876, 1880, and 1884. n the last two National conventions he was a delegate-at-large from New Jersey. In 1881 President Garfield sent him as U. S. minister to Austria, where his familiarity with the language and customs of the country, his liberal mode of life, and his intense Americanism made him a valuable representative. On the change of administration he at once tendered his resignation, and finally retired in August, 1882. He was immediately elected to congress again from his old district, and has continued to serve through the 48th, 49th, and 50th congresses, always running hundreds, and sometimes thousands, ahead of his ticket. His assignment on committees required him to give much attention to foreign affairs, but he had also taken special interest in discussions on the tariff, the merchant marine, and the congressional library. Among his more notable speeches, separately published, are those on the Franking Privilege, 24 Feb., 1874; Sound Currency, 1 April, 1874; the Civil Rights Bill, 4 Feb., 1875 ; Fitz-John Porter's Case, 1 Feb., 1884; the Laskar Resolutions. 19 March, 1884 ; an oration before Gen. Grant and his cabinet at a Grand army reunion in Paterson, N. J., on " The Dangers of War," and one at Mount Holly, N. J., on Decoration day, 1886. on " The Dangers of Peace"; a tariff address before the Agricultural society of New Jersey, 5 Feb., 1884, and one on Congress before the New England society. New York, 22 Dec, 1886. He was a regent of the Smithsonian institution and a fellow of the corporation of Yale college, was vice-president of the Yale alumni association, president of the Co- lumbia law-school alumni association, and a founder of the Union league and University clubs.

PHELPS, William Wines, Mormon elder, b. in Hanover, Morris co., N. J., 17 Feb., 1792; d. in Salt Lake City, Utah, 7 March, 1872. He was self-educated, but acquired a large amount of miscellaneous information, and became a good oriental scholar. He edited the " Ontario Phenix " in Canandaigua, N.Y., in 1820, and, removing to Missouri, established the first morning paper at Independence, Mo., in 1832. He adopted the Mormon religion, emigrated to Utah, and became an active member of that sect. He was in the Utah legislature in 1850-'7, speaker of the house for several terms, and a justice of the peace. He became " Astromomer, astrologist, and almanac-maker" for his sect, and was the author of the forty signs of the "Deseret Alphabet." He also wrote some of the most popular hymns in the Mormon hvmn-book.

PHILBRICK, John Dudley, educator, b. in Deerfield. N. H., 27 May. 1818; d. in Danvers, Mass., 2 Feb., 1886. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1842, began to teach in Roxbury Latin-school, and two years later went to the English high-school in Boston, whore he introduced new and original methods of instruction. In 1847 he was asked to form a school on his own plans, and the result was the Quiriey grammar-school, which became the basis of a new system in Boston. Prof. Philbrick became principal of the Connecticut normal school in 1852, state superintendent of schools in 185;J, and from 1857 till his resignation in 1874, and again in 1876-'8, was superintendent of schools in Boston. He was a member of many educational bodies, presided over the Massachusetts and Connecticut teachers' association, the American institute of instruction, and the National education association, and was for ten years a member of the Massachusetts boaril o! education. He was commissioner from Massachusetts to the international educational exhibitions at Vienna in 1873, Philadelphia in 1870, and Paris in 1878, and in the last year was made a chevalier of the Legion of honor. He received the degree of LL. D. from Bates college in 1872 and that of D. C. L. from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1879. Prof. Philbrick edited the " Connecticut CommonSchool Journal "in 1854-'6, and the "Massachusetts Teacher," was a popular lecturer, and contributed largely on educational subjects to periodicals. Among his published lectures are a series on "School Government " (1848) and one on "Characteristics of the True Teacher " (1850), both delivered before the American institute of instruction, and he was also the author of several text-books.

PHILES, George Philip, bibliographer, b. in Ithaca, N. Y., 15 April, 1828. He was educated at Ithaca academy and the classical institute of Dr. August Maasberg, Göttingen, and has resided in New York city since 1854, engaged as a bookseller and publisher. Dartmouth gave him the degree of M. A. in 1858. Mr. Philes is a fine linguist and a high authority on American bibliography. He has contributed to literary journals under the pen-name of &ldquo;Paulus Silentiarius,&rdquo; edited &ldquo;The Philobiblion&rdquo; (2 vols., New York, 1862-'3), and assisted in preparing the &ldquo;Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima,&rdquo; compiled by Henry Harrisse (1866). He has also issued &ldquo;The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon&rdquo; (1807); a reprint in black letter of the &ldquo;Proverbes, or Adagies translated from Erasmus,&rdquo; by Rycharde Tauerner, London, 1550 (1867); &ldquo;How to Read a Book in the Best Way&rdquo; (1873); &ldquo;Bibliotheca Curiosa: Catalogue of the Library of Andrew J. Odell,&rdquo; (2 vols., printed privately, 1878-'9); and &ldquo;Monograph on the 'First English Bible' printed in the United States of America,&rdquo; with fac-similes, of which twenty-five copies were printed for private distribution (1887).

PHILIP, Indian chief, d. near Mount Hope, R. I., 12 Aug., 1676. His original name was Metacomet, and he is frequently spoken of as King Philip and Pometacom. His father was Massasoit (q. v.), and his domain extended from Narragansett bay to Massachusetts. Several years before his death Massasoit took two of his sons, Wamsutta and Metacomet to Plymouth, and asked that English names be given them. Thereafter one became known as Alexander and the other as Philip. In 1661. Alexander, the eldest, who succeeded his father in authority, was led to Plymouth as a prisoner, on suspicion of having hostile designs, and on the way suddenly sickened and died in a few hours. His tribe suspected treachery, and maintained that he had been poisoned. In 1662 Metacomet, or Philip, became the chief of his tribe, which was known as the Wampanoags, or Pokanokets. His record shows him to have been brave, sagacious, enterprising, and not without