Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/697

Rh STEPHEN, Adam, soldier, b. in Virginia about 1730; d. there in November, 1791. He joined the expedition to the Ohio with a company in 1754, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and in the absence of George Washington commanded the forces at Winchester whence he set out in 1758 with an expedition against the Creeks for the relief of the colonists of South Carolina. He had charge of the frontier defences of Virginia in 1763, performed important services in bringing to a termination the French and Indian wars, and at the beginning of the Revolution was given the command of a regiment. He was made a brigadier-general on 4 Sept., 1776, fought at Trenton, and on 19 Feb., 1777, was promoted major-general. He led one of the attacking columns at the Brandywine. At Germantown his division became involved in a combat with the troops of Gen. Anthony Wayne, owing to a fog. He was held responsible for the blunder, accused of intoxication, and in the winter of 1777 dismissed from the service.

STEPHEN, Sir George, bart., Canadian capitalist, b. in Dufftown, Banffshire, Scotland, 5 Feb., 1829. After passing some time as clerk in a mercantile house in London, he came to Canada in 1850 and entered the warehouse of William Stephen and Co., Montreal. In a few years he obtained a junior partnership, and on the death of his relative, William Stephen, in 1862, he purchased the latter's interest and became head of the firm. He was elected president in 1876 of the Bank of Montreal, in 1878 of the Manitoba and Minneapolis railway, and in 1881 of the Canadian Pacific railway, but resigned the latter post on 7 Aug., 1888. He was granted the confederation medal in 1885, and created a baronet in 1886. In 1891 he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain, with the title of Baron Mount Stephen. With his cousin, Sir Donald A. Smith, he founded in 1885 the Montreal scholarship of the Royal college of music. London, England.

STEPHEN, James, publicist, b. in Poole, Dorsetshire, England, in 1759: d. in Bath, England, 10 Oct., 1832. He was educated at Winchester, became a barrister, and subsequently was a parliamentary reporter. He received an appointment in the prize court in the island of St. Christopher, W. I., returned to England with an ample fortune, and obtained a large practice as advocate in prize cases before the privy council. He was returned to parliament for Tralee, appointed under-secretary for the colonies, and made a master in chancery for his services in drawing up the system of continental blockade against Napoleon. He was connected by marriage with William Wilberforce, whose religious and anti-slavery principles he shared. Mr. Stephen was the author of a pamphlet, which Lord Brougham described as "of great, merit," entitled "War in Disguise, or the Frauds of the Neutral Flags" (London, 1805-6; New York, 1806), which elicited a reply from Gouverneur Morris, "An Answer to 'War in Disguise'" (London and New York, 1806). He also published "Speech of the Hon. John Randolph in H. R., U. S., on Non-Importation, with Observations" (1806); "American Arguments on Neutral Rights." etc. (1806); "Speech in the H. of C. on the Overtures of the American Government" (1809); "The History of Toussaint L'Ouverture" (1814); and "The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated," etc. (2 vols., 1824—'30).

STEPHENS, Alexander Hamilton, statesman. b. near Crawfordsville, Ga., 11 Feb., 1812; d. in Atlanta, Ga., 4 March, 1883. His grandfather, Alexander, founder of the American branch of the Stephens family, was an Englishman, and an adherent of Prince Charles Edward. He came to this country about 1746, settled in the Penn colony, was engaged in several conflicts with the Indians and in the old French war, serving under Col. George Washington. His home was at the junction of the Juniata and Susquehanna rivers. He was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and soon after the peace removed to Georgia. Alexander became an orphan at the age of fifteen. Under the charge of his uncle he attracted the attention of Charles C. Mills, a man of means, and after five months at school he was offered a home in Washington, Wilkes co., and a place in the high-school that was taught by the Rev. Alexander Hamilton Webster, pastor of the Presbyterian church. His middle name, Hamilton, was taken from this gentleman. He regarded this charity as a loan, and afterward repaid the full amount. He also accepted the offer of the Presbyterian educational society to send him to college, with a view to the ministry, with the proviso that he was to refund the cost in case of his change of mind, and in any event when he should be able. He entered Franklin college (now the State university) in August, 1828, was graduated in 1832 with the first honor, and subsequently earned money by teaching to pay his indebtedness. At that period of his life he was much given to morbid introspection, which was partly the result of constitutionally delicate health. On 22 July, 1834, after two months' study, he was admitted to the bar, being congratulated by Senator William H. Crawford and Judge Joseph Henry Lumpkin on the best examination they had ever heard. He lived on six dollars a month, and made $400 the first year. Then he began to win reputation, and he soon owned his father's old homestead, and bought the estate that is now Liberty hall.

In 1836 he was elected to the lower branch of the legislature against bitter opposition because he strove against nullification, while believing in state sovereignty, and opposed vigilance committees and the then common "slicking clubs," the parent of the Ku-Klux Klan. His first speech in the legislature secured the passage of the appropriation for what is now the Western and Atlantic railway from Atlanta to Chattanooga, the property of Georgia. His advocacy secured a charter for the Macon, Ga., female college, the first in the world for the regular graduation of young women in classics and the sciences. In 1839 he was a delegate to the Charleston commercial convention, and in 1843 he was nominated for congress under the "general-ticket system," there being then no division of the state into congressional districts. He was elected by 3,000 majority. His first speech was in favor of the power of congress to pass an act requiring the states to be divided into congressional districts. He seemed thus to question his own right to sit, as Georgia had not obeyed the law. He won both point and seat. It was, in fact, the entering-wedge of the assertion of the power of the general government to legislate in state