Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/777

Rh tribes and their English allies, and defeating all that ventured to oppose him. including a force under Joseph Brant and Sir John Johnson at New- town on i'.i Aug., 1779, drove out of the country thousands of Indian warriors and destroyed their villages and crops. After moving several hundred miles through the wilderness, he returned to Penn- sylvania to learn that D'Estaing had fruitlessly spent his strength in the siege of Savannah and sailed for France. His health being shattered by five years' active and continuous service in the field, he resigned, and was again sent in 1780 to the Continental congress, where he helped to reorgan- ize the army and to establish the finances and public credit. He was chairman of the committee that aided in suppressing the mutiny of Penn- sylvania troops in 1781. Resuming his" practice in New Hampshire, he was president of the state in 1786-'9, a member of the State constitutional con- vention of 1784. councillor in 1781, and a commis- sioner to settle the "New Hampshire grant" troubles with Vermont. In 1786, by intrepidity and good management, he saved his state from anarchy, and in 1788 he was active in securing the adoption of the constitution of the United States. From 1789 till his death he was U. S. judge for his state. Harvard gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1780. See his life by Oliver W. B. Peabody. in Sparks's " American Biography " ; his " Military Services and Public Life," by Thomas C. Amory (Boston, 1868); and "Journals of the Military Ex'- pedition of Major-General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779, with Records of Centennial Celebrations," prepared by order of the state government (Auburn, N. Y., 1887). His son. (jeorge, statesman, b. in Durham, N. H., 29 Aug., 1771 ; d. in Exeter, N. H., 14 June, 1838, was graduated at Harvard in 1790. studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise at Exeter in 1793. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1805, attorney-general of New Hampshire in 1805-'6, a member of congress in 1811-'13, and of the state senate in 1814-'15. and was again attorney-general in 1816-'35. He published orations and pamphlets. Gen. John's brother. James, statesman, b. in Berwick, Me., 22 April, 1744: d. in Boston. Mass.. 10 Dec., 1808, was intended for a military life, which he was pre- vented from fol- lowing by the frac- ture of a limb. He studied law under his brother, was admitted to the bar, began prac- tice at Biddeford, and in 1770 re- ceived the ap- pointment of King's attorney for York county. He early took an active part in the Revolution, was a member of the Provincial con- gress of Massa- chusetts in 1775, and with two others ably executed a difficult mission to Ticonderoga. In the early part of 1776 he was appointed a judge of the superior court, which post he resigned in February, 1782. In 1779-'80 he was a member of the State constitutional convention, and in 1784-'o he was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Con- tinental congress. He repeatedly represented Bos- ton in the state assembly, and in 1784 was a com- missioner to settlr thr controversy between New York and Massachusetts regarding their claims to western lands. In 17s 7 he was of the executive council and judge of probate of Suffolk county, and he served as attorney-general from 1790 till , when he was elected governor of Massachu- setts by the Republican party, and re-elected in . He was one of the commissioners appointed by Washington to settle the boundary-line between this country and the British North American prov- inces, and the projector of the Middlesex canal, which was constructed under the superintendence of his son. John Langdon. He was a member of the American academy of arts and sciences from its institution, and one of the principal founders of the Massachusetts historical society, and for many years its president. Harvard gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1780. He published "Observations on the Government of the United States" (BoM on, 1791); "The Path to Riches, or Dissertation on Banks " (1792) : " History of the District of Maine " (1795); "The Altar of Baal thrown Down, or the French Nation Defended" (1795); "Impartial Re- view of the Causes of the French Revolution" (1798) ; " History of Land-Titles in Massachusetts " (1801) ; " Dissertation on the Constitutional Liber- ty of the Press " (1801) ; " Correspondence with Col. Pickering " (1808) : and a "History of the Penobscot Indians," in " Massachusetts Historical Collections." His life, with selections from his writings, was published by his grandson. Thomas C. Amory (2 vols., Boston, 1859). James's son, William, author, b. in Saco, Me., 30 Nov., 1774; d. in Boston, Mass., 3 Sept., 1839. was graduated at Harvard in 1792, admitted to the bar in 1795, and practised successfully for many years in Boston, where he was long president of the Suffolk bar association. He was frequently a member of the state legislature and council of Massachusetts be- tween 1804 and 1830, and was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1830. He was a brigadier-general of militia, and a member of the Academy of arts and sciences, the Massachusetts historical society, and the American philosophical society. Mr. Sullivan was a fine belles-lettres scholar, and a persuasive orator. Harvard gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1826. He published "Political Class-Book" (Boston, 1831); "Moral Class-Book " (1833) ; " Historical Class-Book " (1833); " Familiar Letters on the Public Men of the Revo- lution, including Events, 1783-1815" (1834: new ed., with a biographical sketch of the author, by his son, John T. S. Sullivan. Philadelphia, 1847); " Sea Life " (Boston, 1837) ; " Historical Causes and Effects, A. D. 476-1517 " (1838) : and many ad- dresses. William's son. John Turner Sargrent, lawyer, b. in Boston, in 1813 ; d. there, 30 Dee., 1838, was educated in German}', studied law. was admitted to the bar. and practised in Philadelphia, Pa., and St. Louis, Mo. His social and convivial qualities made him very popular. He wrote several well-known songs, and, besides the memoir of his father, published translations of stories from the German. Another son of Gov. James. John Langdon, engineer, b. in Saco, Me., 9 April. 1777: d. in Boston. Mass., 9 Feb.. 1865. after engaging in mercantile business travelled in Europe, -nnlicd the construction of canals in France and England, and in 1804 was appointed agent and engineer of the Middlesex canal, between Boston and Concord, N. H. He invented a steam tow-boat, for which he received a patent in 1814, in preference to Robert Fulton, who applied for it at the same time,