Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/315

Rh railway reports, and numerous scientific paper- in periodicals and transactions, he has published "A Practical Treatise on the Teeth of Wheels" (New York. 1876); "Railroad Economies, or Notes with Comments" (1882): and "Strength of Wrought-Iron Bridge Members" (1882).

ROBINSON, Stuart, clergyman, b. in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, 14 Nov., 1S14; d. in Louisville,' Ky., 5 Oct., 1881. The family settled in Ni'w York city in 1817, and several years later removed to Berkeley county, Va. The son was graduated at Amherst in 1836, studied theology at Union seminary, Va., and at Princeton, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister on 8 Oct., 1841. He preached and taught for six years at Maiden, Va. From 184? till 1852 he was pastor of the church in Frankfort, Ky., where he established a female seminary. He accepted the pastorate, of an independent church in Baltimore in 1852, but resigned in 1854, and with a large part of the congregation organized a regular Presbyterian church. He established and conducted a periodical called the "Presbyterial Critic" (1855-'6). In 1856-'7 he was professor of church government and pastoral theology at Danville seminary. In 1858 he took charge of a church in Louisville, Ky., which removed soon afterward into a large new edifice. He purchased the "Presbyterian Herald," changed its name to the "True Presbyterian," and in its columns maintained with zeal the doctrine of the non-secular character of the church, which brought him into sharp conflict with the section of the Presbyterians in Kentucky who upheld the con- trary view. His loyalty being called in question, his paper was suppressed in 1862 by the military authorities, and the editor removed to Canada, where he preached to large audiences in Toronto till the close of the war. In April, 1866, he returned to his church in Louisville, and resumed the publication of his paper, changing the title to the " Free Christian Commonwealth." He was expelled from the general assembly of 1866 at St. Louis on account of his action in signing what was known as the "Declaration and Testimony." which protested against political deliverances by that body. Dr. Robinson and his colleagues of the presbytery of Louisville were, by an order of that I H idy, debarred from seats in the courts of the church, and, after an earnest controversy with the Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge, he induced the .synod of Kentucky to unite with the general assembly of the Southern Presbyterian church in 1869, of which he was chosen moderator by acclamation. He was instrumental in inducing the Southern church to join in the Pan-Presbyterian alliance at Edinburgh in 1877, which he attended as a delegate, and in securing the adoption of a revised book of government and discipline. Prom the period of his ministry in Frankfort he was accustomed to expound the Old Testament on Sunday evenings. These lectures were widely read in pamphlet-form and subsequently published in a volume. One of these discourses, 'delivered in Toronto in February. 1805. on the subject of " Slavery as Recognized by the Mosaic Civil Law. and as Recognized also and Allowed in the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Christian Church," was expanded and published (Toronto, 1865). He was also the author of "The Church of God as an Essential Element of the Gospel" (Philadelphia, 1858), and of a book of outlines of sermons entitled "Discourses of Redemption" (New York, 1866).

ROBINSON, William Erigrena, journalist, b. in Unagh. Ireland, 6 May, 1814 ; d. in Brooklyn, 23 Jan., 1892. He attended Cookstown classical school, and entered the Royal academical institution at Belfast, but was compelled by sicUne-s in leave. He emigrated to the United States in 1836, was graduated at Yale in 1S41, and studied in the law-school there. While a member of the college he founded the "Yale Banner," and wrote editorial articles for tin' daily press. He was engaged as editor of the New Haven " Daily Courier," but left it on account of its Know-Nothing sentiments, and became a journalist in New York city. His articles, signed "Richelieu." in the Tribune," established his reputation. He was editor for a time of the Buffalo "Express," and subsequently of the " Irish World." He organized the movement for the relief of Ireland in 1847, and procured the authorization by congress of the sending of the frigate "Macedonian" with provisions to Ireland. In 1848-'9 he edited a weekly paper called "The People." An address on " The Celt and the Saxon " that he delivered before a college society in 1851 at Clinton, N. Y., was published, and provoked animadversions in English newspapers and reviews and in the debates of parliament. In 1854 he entered on the practice of law in New York city. He was appointed U. S. assessor of internal revenue for Brooklyn in 1862, and held that office for five years. He was elected to congress as a Democrat in 1866, and was again elected in 1880, and continued in his seat by re-election in 1882. His management and persistent advocacy secured the passage in 1868 of a bill asserting the rights of expatriation and naturalization, which resulted in the abandonment of the doctrine of perpetual allegiance by Great Britain and Germany. Besides his political writings in the daily press, he had produced popular poems and delivered lectures and addresses on literary subjects. He was preparing for publication a book on Irish-American genealogies.

ROBINSON, William Stevens, journalist, b. in Concord, Mass., 7 Dec., 1818; d. in Malden, Mass., 11 March, 1876. He was educated in the public schools of Concord, learned the printer's trade, at the age of twenty became the editor and publisher of the &ldquo;Yeoman's Gazette&rdquo; in Concord, and was afterward assistant editor of the Lowell &ldquo;Courier.&rdquo; He was an opponent of slavery while he adhered to the Whig party, and when the Free-soil party was organized he left the &ldquo;Courier,&rdquo; and in July, 1848, took charge of the Boston &ldquo;Daily Whig.&rdquo; His vigorous and sarcastic editorials increased the circulation of the paper, the name of which was changed to the &ldquo;Republican&rdquo;; yet, after the presidential canvass was ended, Henry Wilson, the proprietor, decided to assume the editorial management and moderate the tone of his journal. Robinson next edited the Lowell &ldquo;American,&rdquo; a Free-soil Democratic paper, till it died for lack of support in 1853. He was a member of the legislature in 1852 and 1853. In 1856 he began to write letters for the Springfield &ldquo;Republican&rdquo; over the signature &ldquo;Warrington,&rdquo; in which questions of the day and public men were discussed with such boldness and wit that the correspondence attracted wide popular attention. This connection was continued until his death. From 1862 till 1873 he was clerk of the Massachusetts house of representatives. &ldquo;Warrington,&rdquo; by his articles in the newspapers and magazines, was instrumental in defeating Benjamin F. Butler's effort to obtain the Republican nomination for governor in 1871, and in 1873 he was Butler's strongest opponent. Besides pamphlets and addresses, he published a &ldquo;Manual of Parliamentary Law&rdquo; (Boston, 1875). His widow published personal reminiscences from his writings entitled &ldquo;Warrington Pen-Portraits,&rdquo; with a memoir (Boston, 1877).—His wife, Harriet Hanson,