Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/382

356 governor, which place he filled for more than a year. During this period he conducted a corre- spondence with Gov. William H. Seward. of New York, concerning a demand that In- had mad.-. as governor of Virginia, upon thr latter for the ren- dition of fugitive-, winch discussion of constitu- tional obligations won him reputation as a states- man and as a writer. Foryears he a-ar--ui-inti-d in intimate correspondence with the first public men of the day, among them ex-President John Tyler and his relatives. William C. Rives, and President Madison. He was always active in public affairs and of proverbial integrity, and won friends by his courteous manners and profuse and elegant hospi- tality. His portrait is in the capitol at Richmond with those of the other governors and distinguished men of Virginia. At an entertainment at his house Gen. Winfield Scott pronounced his eulogy upon Rohert K. Lee, saying that " he was a head and shoulders above any man in the army of the United States, and that in ease of war on the Canada question he would be worth millions to his country." This expression of opinion had great in- fluence in Lee's being called by Virginia to assume command of the state forces at the opening ,,f the civil war. John's only sou. John Coles, b. in Richmond. Va.. 20 Nov., 1825: d. at Rock Castle, Goochland co., Va. in August, 1866, received a good education, studied one year at Washington college. Va., and was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1842. Subsequently lie' studied law. and practised with success in Gooehland and the adjoining counties. At the age of twenty-seven he was elected to the house of delegates, and he represented hiscountv fortwelve consecutive years, lie was at different times chairman of the most important committees of the house, and was favor- ably known as a debater and writer. He contrib- uted, under the signature of "Sidney," some able articles to the press ; one, on " Banking," published in pamphlet-form, especially gained him literary reputation. He possessed great popularity both as a public man and as a private citizen. He died within the week after his father's death.

RUTHERFORD, Friend Smith. soldier, b. in Schenectady, N. Y..25 Sept., 1820; .1. in Alton. 111.. 20 June, 1864. He was the great-grandson of Dr. Daniel Rutherford, of the University of Edinburgh, who is regarded as the discoverer of nitrogen. I le studied law in Troy, N. Y., remmed to the west, and settled in practice at Alton, 111. On 30 June, ]N(j2. he was commissioned as captain and commis- sary of subsistence, but he resigned on 2 Sept. in order to assume the command of the 97th Illinois regiment, lie participated in the attack on the < onii derate works at Chickasavv Bayou, near Vicks- burg, led the assault on Arkansas Post, and served with credit at the capture of Port Gibson and in the final operations against Vicksburg. He subse- quently served in Louisiana, and died from expos- ure and fatigue a week before his commission was issued as brigadier-general of volunteers. His brothers, REUBEN CLIFFORD and GEORUE VALEN- TINE, served also in the volunteer army during the civil war. and were both made brigadier-general bv brevet on 13 March, 1865.

RUTHERFORD, Griffith, soldier, b. in Ireland about, 1731; d. in Tennessee about ISOO. He set- tled in North Carolina, west of Salisbury, and sat in the Provincial congress that met in i?75. He was a member of the council ol safety, and was appointed a brigadier-general l> the I'nuiuoial gress at Halifax on 22 June, 1776. In Septem- ber. 1776, he marched at the head of 2,4(10 men into the country of the Cherokees. who with the Tories had been ravaging the frontier settlements, and, in co-operation with a force that had been raised in South Carolina by Co!. Andrew William- son, killed a great number of the Indians, destroyed their crops and habitations, and compelled them to make peace and surrender a part of their lands. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Sanders Creek, near Camden. Hi Aug.. 1780, where he was taken prisoner. He was confined at Charleston and afterward at St. Augustine until he was ex- changed on 22 June. 1781, when he took the field again, and was in command at Wilmington when the town was evacuated by the British at the close of the war. He served in the North Carolina sen- ate, with intermissions, till 1786. Subsequently he removed to Tennessee, and in September. 1794. on the creation of the separate territory of Tennessee, was appointed president of the legislative council.

RUTHERFURD, John, senator, b. in New York city in September. 1760; d. in Rutherford, X. J., 23 "Feb., 1840. His father, Walter, a son of Sir John, of Edgerston, Scotland, served in the British army from the age of seventeen, and. after taking part in the Canadian campaign of Sir Jef- frey Amherst, resigned his commission, married a daughter of James Alexander, and became a citi- zen of New York. The son was graduated at Princeton in 1776. studied law, was admitted to the bar. married a daughter of Lewis Morris, was elected clerk of the vestry of Trinity church, and had charge of much of the property of that corporation. In 1787 he removed to Tranquil- lity. Sussex co., N. J. He was a member of the legislature of 'New Jersey, and a presidential elector in 1788, and was twice elected to the U. S. senate, serving from 24 Oct., 1791, till February, 1798, when he resigned to devote his attention to the management of his estate in New Jersey, engaged extensively in agriculture, and was a promoter of public improvements. He was president of the board of proprie- tors of eastern New Jersey. I n 1826 he served on a commission to adjust the boun- dary between New York and New Jer- sey, and in 182!) and 1833 was one of a joint commis- sion to settle boun- dary questions be- tween those slates and Pennsylvania. His grandson, Lewis Morris, physicist, b. in Morrisania. N. Y., 25 Nov. ,1816; d.in Tranquillity, N.J., 31 May, 1892, was graduated at Williams in 1834. and studied law. He was admitted to I hr bar in 1837. ami practised as the associate of Peter A. Jay, and, after his death, of Hamilton Fish, in New York city. In is I!) he abandoned the practice of law and thereafter devoted his leisure to science, principally in the direction of astronomical photography and spedral analysis. In January. 1863, he published in the "American Journal 'of Science" a paper on the spectra of stars, the in 1. ami planets, with diagrams of their lines and a description of the instruments thai he used, which was the first pubh-h. work on Mar-spectra after the great revelations of