Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/305

 BERRIAN.

BERRY,

BERRIAN, William, clergyman, was born in New York city in 1787. He was graduated at Columbia college in 1808. and ordained to the priestliood of the Episcopal church in 1810. He accepted a curacy in Trinity parish, New York, in 1811; became rector of the church in 1830, trustee of Columbia college in 1832, and of Hobart college in 1848, holding these offices up to the time of his decease. In his fifty-one years of service as rector of Trinity church he had also the oversight and direction of the several chapels connected with the parent church. He edited the works of Bishop John Henry Hobart, with a memoir (three volumes. New York, 1833), and pubUshed an "Historical Sketch of Trinity Church," New York, as well as numerous devo- tional works, and " Travels in France and Italy" (1820). Columbia gave him the degree S.T.D. in 1828. He died Nov. 7, 1862.

BERRIEN, John Macpherson, jurist, was born near Princeton, N. J., Aug. 23, 1781, son of Maj. John Berrien, an officer in the Contin- ental army. His mother was a sister of John MacPherson, who was an aide-de-camp to General Lafayette, and subsequently served on the staff of General Laclilan Mcintosh. Major Berrien settled in Georgia in 1782, but his son John passed his school days in New York and New Jersey, and was gradviated at Nassau hall, Princeton, in the class of 1796. He studied law and was ad- mitted to the Georgia bar in 1799, practising in Chatham county. In 1809 he was appointed so- licitor-general of the eastern disti-ict of the state, and two years later was elected judge of his cir- cuit, holding the judgeship until 1821. Soon after the beginning of the war of 1812 he entered the army as major of cavalry. The legislature of Georgia in 1812, to relieve the debtor class among the citizens of that state, passed laws which practically closed the doors of the courts to creditors. At a convention of the judges of the state, four cases were presented and a unani- mous opinion, prepared by Judge Berrien, was rendered that the laws impaired the obligation of contracts, and were therefore unconstitutional. This is held as the ablest exposition made on that question. On the expiration of his term as judge he was elected a member of the state senate. In 1824 he was elected to the senate of the United States. He resigned his seat as senator in 1829, and was appointed attorney -general in the cabinet of President Jackson. In June, 1881, he resigned with the other members of the cabinet, receiving a letter from the President expressing his ap- proval of his zeal and efficiency, and tendering him the mission to Great Britain, which he declined. He returned to his home at Savannah and re- sumed the practice of law. In 1841 he was returned to the United States senate, taking his

seat the 4th of March, and serving for a time as chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1845 he was made judge of the supreme court of Georgia, and in 1847 was once more elected to the United States senate, resigning his seat in May, 1852, when, being in his seventy-first year he retired to private life. In 1844 he was a dele- gate from Georgia to the national Whig conven- tion at Baltimore that nominated Henry Clay for President. His speech in the senate on the constitutionality of the bankrupt law won gen- eral commendation, and drew from Mr. Clay a graceful compliment in open session of the senate. His argument on "the right of instruc- tion " was complimented by Mr. Justice Story, who proposed to insert it in a new edition of his work on the Constitution. He was one of the board of regents of the Smithsonian institution, Washington. The college of New Jersey con- ferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1829. The county of Berrien, in the state of Georgia, is named in his honor. He died in Savannah, Ga., Jan. 1, 1856.

BERRIEN, John Macpherson, naval officer, was born in Savannah, Ga., in 1802; son of John Macpherson Berrien, attorney-general in the cabi- net of Andrew Jackson, and grandson of Major John Macpherson, a Continental soldier. He was appointed to the navy as midshipman, and was on the Constellation in 1827 in the West Indies. After serving on the frigate Chierriere in the Pacific squadron and on the sloop Vincennes he was promoted lieutenant in 1837, and assigned to the Natchez of the West India squadron. He was at the capture of Tabasco, Mexico, as commander of the Bonito, and in 1856 was commissioned commander. Subsequently he served in the Portsmouth, N. H., navy yard, and two years later commanded the John Adams in Hong Kong, China. In 1862 he was promoted captain and made assistant inspector of ordnance at Pittsburg, Pa. He served in Boston harbor and at the Norfolk, Va., navy yard, in 1865; was commis- sioned commodore, Sept. 20, 1866; apiwinted inspector of light-houses, 1866-"69; and was retired in December of that year. He died in Philadelphia, Nov. 20, 1883.

BERRY, Abraham J., physician, was born in New York city, in 1799, and became prominent as a physician. In 1832, when Asiatic cholera was raging in New York, he refused to follow the advice of his friends and the examples of most of his brother practitioners, but worked with in- domitable energy to conquer the plague, and for his zeal and sacrifice received the thanks of the municipality. Dr. Berry was elected the first mayor of Williamsburg. N. Y., when that village was incorporated as a citv, his family having been the original owners of at least half