Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/701

Rh striction. Mathew Stephenson led the liberal element. All those that voted with him were natives of slave states, while every native of a free state voted against every proposition looking to- ward the freedom of the slave. The friends of lib- erty sought to have fixed by the constitution a period beyond which slavery should not exist in the state, placing the period in isttli. The points that they made were defended by the Liberals with great power and earnestness, and the journal of the convention shows an advanced sentiment among these men, of whom Mr. Stephenson was the admitted leader.

STERETT, Andrew, naval officer, b. in Bal- timore, Md., about 1700: d. in Lima, Peru, 9 Jan., 1807. He entered the navy as a lieutenant, 25 March, 1798, was the executive officer of the frigate " Con- stellation" under Truxtun. participated in the cap- ture of the French frigate " L'Insurgente," off the island of Nevis, W. I., 9 Feb., 1799. and also took part in the action with the " Le Vengeance " in February, 1800. He commanded the schooner " Enterprise," in which he captured the French ship " L' Amour de la Patrie " in December, 1800, in the West In- dies. He took the " Enterprise " to the Mediter- ranean when war was declared against Tripoli, and in August, 1801, fell in with a Tripolitan cruiser off Malta. A desperate engagement lasted for two hours, when the the Tripolitan hauled down her colors. The Americans left the guns and gave three cheers for victory, whereupon the Tripolitan hoisted her colors and renewed the action. She was compelled to strike again, and then ordered under the quarter of the " Enterprise," but as soon as she got into that position she renewed the fight for a third time. Sterett's superior skill in hand- ling his vessel enabled him to rake the corsair fore and aft, fifty of her crew were killed, and finally her captain threw his colors overboard and begged for quarter. Sterett then ordered her to be com- pletely dismantled and her guns and ammunition to be thrown overboard. A jury-mast was rigged with a tattered sail, and she was sent into Tripoli. The " Enterprise " did not lose a single man. The Tripolitans were humiliated by this defeat by an inferior force. The commander was mounted on a jackass and paraded through the streets as an ob- ject of scorn. He received five hundred bastinadoes for his defeat. Sterett received a complimentary vote of thanks from congress, and the president was authorized to present him with a sword mi account of this heroic action, 3 Feb.. 1802. In the peace-establishment act he was retained as third on the list of lieutenants in 1801. After his return from the " Enterprise " he was promoted to master- commandant. and ordered I" a l>rig that was then building at Baltimore. He had been senior to Ste- phen Decatur. and, on being informed of the decision to promote Decatur above him, he declined further service in the navy, and resigned his commission, 29 June, 1805. He appears afterward to have entered the merchant marine. His first cousin, Isaac Sears, naval officer, b. in Baltimore, Md., 28 Oct., 1801 ; d. in 1863. He entered the United States navy as a midshipman, 24 March, 1819, was commissioned lieutenant, 17 May, 1828, and was variously employed on shore duty and also on leave till 1835, when he made a two-years' cruise in the sloop "John Adams" on the Mediterranean station. He served in the coast survey in 1839-'41. In January, 1842, he sailed as executive of the frigate " United States " to the Pacific station, and upon arrival at Callao took command of the "Re- lief" until April. 1844. During the Mexican war he rendered valuable services in command of the schooner " Reefer." of the Mosquito division of the U. S. naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico. He par- tirip.-ited in the expedition against Frontera and TaliM.-ro, 17-27 Oct., 184G, where he captured the Mexican schooner Tabasco." On 14 Nov., 1846, he took part in the attack and rapturr of Tampico, where five Mexican vessels, forts, and supplies were captured. He was present during the bombard- ment of Vera Cruz, 10-25 March, 1S47. assisted in covering the landing of Scott's army, and engaged the Mexican forts and batteries. After the war he resumed duties at the naval rendezvous in Bal- timore, and was promoted to commander, 5 Feb., 1850. He was governor of the Naval asylum at Philadelphia in 1852-'3 and in 1854 'o command- ed the sloop " Decatur," protecting New England fisheries. He was placed on the reserved list, 28 Sept., 1855, and promoted to captain, 2 March, 1857. When the civil war began he resigned his commission. 23 April. 1861. and entered the navy of the seceded states ; but the only record of his services is as a member of the court to investigate the causes that compelled Com. Josiah Tatnall to destroy the " Merrimac."

STERLING, Richard, educator, b. in County Down, Ireland, in 1812; d. in Mocksville, N. 0., 3 Oct., 1883. He was brought to the United States at the age of twelve by his parents, who settled in Newburg, N. Y. He was graduated at Princeton in 1835, taught in Fredericksburg and Richmond, Va., till 1848, was professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at Hampden Sidney college for the next three years, and then had charge of the Edgworth female seminary, Greensborough, N. C.. till 1864. While there he prepared a series of school-readers and spelling-books that came into general use throughout the southern and southwestern states. In 1870 he became principal of the female seminary at Paris. Tenn. In 1873 he opened a boarding- school in Evansville, Ind., and in 1875 removed to Mocksville, N. C., where he kept a similar school till 1880, when he was elected superintendent of the public schools of the county.

STERNBERG, George Miller, surgeon, b. in Hartwick seminary, Otsego co., N. Y., 8 June, 1838. He was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons, New York, in 1860, and appointed assistant surgeon in the U. S. army on 28 May, 1861. His first duty was with Gen. George Sykes's command in the Army of the Potomac, and, after four months' hospital duty in Rhode Island, he joined Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's expedition to New Orleans, and then served in the office of the medical director of the Department of the Gulf until January, 1864. Subsequently he was on hospital duty in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, till April, 1866, and since he has been stationed at various government posts, being promoted on 1 Dec., 1875, surgeon with the rank of major. In January, 1891, he was made deputy surgeon-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and in June, 1893, he was appointed surgeon-general of the array, with the rank of brigadier-general. In 1879 he was sent to Havana as a member of the yellow-fever commission by the National board of health, and in 1885 he was a delegate to the International sanitary conference in Rome, Italy. Dr. Sternberg is an honorary member of the Royal academies of medicine of Rome, Rio Janeiro, and Havana, and a fellow of tfie Royal microscopical society of London, and, besides membership in other medical and scientific societies at home and abroad, was in 1887 president of the American public health association. The Lomb prize of $ 500 was awarded to him by the last asso-