Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/182

156 de Mexico y de Michoacan." to which is appended a biography of the author (Mexico. 1766).

QUIROS, Agustin de (ke-ros), Spanish mission- ary, b. in Andujar in 1566 ; d. in Mexico, 13 Dec., 1622. After serving as attorney of the Inquisition in Seville, Cordova, and Granada, he went to South America, and was attached to the missions of Yu- catan. He became afterward rector of the Jesuit college in the city of Mexico, and in 1611 was elected visitor of the missions of Xew Spain, which office he held till his death. His efforts were al- ways directed toward benefiting the country and developing its resources, and he also showed kind- ness to the Indians, prohibiting the imposition nf heavy labor upon them in the missions under his jurisdiction, building schools, convents, and mon- asteries, and endeavoring to preserve the monu- ments of Aztec civilization. lie wrote commenta- ries on different books of the Bible (Seville, 1632-'3), and left in manuscript " Historia verdadera de la Conquista de Mexico," which, it is said, discloses important facts that are not generally known. The latter is in the archives of Mexico.

QUUTMAN, Frederick Henry, clergyman, b. in Westphalia, 7 Aug., 1760; d. in Rhinebeck, X. Y., 26 June, 1832. The small island in the Rhine on which he was born was subsequently swept away by an extraordinary freshet. He received his classical and theological training at the University of Halle, and after its completion he spent two years as private tutor in the family of the Prince of Waldeck. In the year 1781 he was ordained to the ministry by the Lutheran consistory of Amster- dam, and was sent as pastor of the Lutheran con- gregation on the island of Curacoa in the West Indies. Here he remained until 1795, when the political disturbances, caused by the revolution of the negroes in the West Indies, influenced him to take his family to Xew York, with the intention of returning to Holland, where a life-pension awaited him. But during his stay in Xew York he ascertained the distressing needs of the Lu- theran church in this country, and determined to remain. During the same year, therefore, he ac- cepted a call from the united congregations at Schoharie and Cobleskill. X. Y., where he remained about two years. In 1798 he accepted a call from four congregations near Rhinebeck, X. Y. In 1815 he resigned as pastor of the last two, and in 1825 as pastor of all the congregations except Khine- beck, to which he now devoted all his time. In 1828 he was compelled to retire from all public duties. In 1814 he received from Harvard the de- gree of D. D. He held high offices in his church, and from 1816, the date of the founding of Hart- wick seminary, he was at the head of its board of (Hudson, X. Y., 1814) ; and " Sermons on the Ref- ormation " (1X17) : and edited the " Hymn- Book of the Ministerium of Xew York" (1817). His son, John Anthony, soldier, b. in Rhinebeck, X. Y., 1 Sept., 1799; d. in Xatchez, Miss., 17 July, 1858, was designed by his father for the Lutheran min- istry, and, on the completion of his studies at I l.-irt- wick seminary in 1816, was appointed tutor in its classical department. In 1818 he accepted a pro- fessorship in Mount Airy college, Germantown, Pa. His inclination always had been for the legal pro- fession rather than the ministry, and during his stay hrrr he decided in favor of the former. He went to Ohio in 1819 at the invitation of Platt Brush, a member of congress, in whose family he became a tutor, and with whom he studied law. In he settled in Natchez, Miss., where he soon be- came well known. He served as a trustee of the academy and of the state university, was president of an anti-gambling society, an anti-duel- ling society, and of numerous other asso- ciations that were es- tablished to amelio- rate the condition of his fellow-men. In 1825 he was elected to the legislature of Mississippi, in 1828- '34 he was chancel- lor of the state, and he afterward became president of the state senate. In 1832 he was a delegate to the convention to frame a new constitution for the state. While a member of the state senate in 1835, he was chosen its president, and charged with the functions of governor, that office having become vacant. In 1836 he raised a body of men to aid the Texans against the incursions of the Mexicans, and after the capture of Santa-Anna returned to his home in Natchez, where he became major-general of the state militia. In 1846 he was appointed brigadier-general in the U. S. army, and ordered to report to Gen. Taylor at Camargo. He distinguished himself at the battle of Monterey by his successful assault on Fort Tenerice and by his daring advance into the heart of the city. He led the assault at the siege of Vera Cruz, and subsequently led an expedition against Alvarado, in conjunction with the naval forces under Com. Matthew C. Perry. He was with the advance under Gen. Worth in taking possession of the city of Puebla, for which he was brevetted major-general, and presented by congress with a sword. He stormed the formidable works at Chapultepec, carried the Belen fate by assault, and was appointed by Gen. Wineld Scott governor of the city of Mexico. He administered the affairs of the city with moderation and success, and not only elicited the commendation of his own country, but secured the respect of the conquered people. On his return he was almost by acclamation elected governor of Mississippi. In 1848 and in 1856 he was named in the National Democratic conventions for the vice-presidency, but he was not nominated. Gen. Quitman favored the annexation of Cuba to the United States, and, while he held the office of governor of his state, a prosecution was instituted against him by the U. S. government for alleged complicity in Lopez's filibustering expedition. He resigned the governorship, but the jury was unable to agree, and he was released. He was nominated again for governor, but withdrew from the canvass. In 1854 he was elected to congress, and in 1S5IJ he was re-elected without opposition. During his entire term in congress he was at the head of the military committee. Throughout life lie was an avowed advocate of the doctrine of state-rights and the leader of the extreme southern party. As early as 1851 he claimed for the states the right of secc^ion and the inability of the Federal government to demand or force the return of a seceding state, and suggested the propriety of organizing a southern confederacy. See " Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman. Major-General, U. S. A., and Governor- of the Stale of Mississippi," liy J. F. H. t'l.-ii-borne (Xew York, 1860).