Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/24

 BRUCE.

BRUEN.

he was living in Missouri, and he removed to a free state, where he taught school; after which, with the means thus acquired, he pursued an elective course of study at Oberlin college. In 1868 he went to Mississippi, where he engaged in cotton planting with great sviccess. In the following year he was chosen sergeant-at-arms of the Mississippi senate; and in 1871 was elected sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar coimty, and also a member of the Mississippi levee commis- sion. In 1874 he was elected to the U.S. senate. On appearing in the senate chamber March 4, 1875, he Avas without an escort, his colleague failing to present him to the presiding officer, as was customary, and Senator Conkling, noticing the omission, stepped forward and said: "Excuse me, Mr. Bruce, I did not until just now see that you were without an escort. Permit me." He thereupon gave his arm, and the two advanced to the vice-president's desk. After the oath was administered, he escorted Senator Bruce back to the seat. He was made chairman of the committee on Mississippi levees, and of the select committee on the Freedman's savings bank, the affairs of which institution he closed, selling its property, and reimbursing the unfortunate depositors with the proceeds. His first speech was on the admission of P. B. S. Pinchback of Louisiana to a seat in the senate; but his speeches on the investigation of elections in Mississippi, and on the " Chinese Bill," are the most noteworthy of his senatorial term. He was on several occasions called to preside over the senate, and elicited the encomitmis of his fellow senators, by the ease and dignity with which he wielded the gavel of the second officer of the re- public. At the expiration of his term in the senate, Mr. Bruce was appointed register of the treasury by President Garfield, and this position he held imtil the first administration of President Cleveland, when he accepted an engagement as a platform lecturer. His principal lectures were. Popular Tendencies and The Race Problem. He served as a delegate to nearl}- every national Republican convention after the reconstruction era, and he was the first colored man ever called upon to preside over a national convention, wiiicli he did at Chicago in 1880. He was recorder of deeds for tiie District of Columbia, 1891-'93 and 1897- '98. He also served as school trustee. He died in Wasliingtou, D.C., March 17, 1898.

BRUCE, George, type-fovmder, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 26, 1781. In 1795 he joined his brother David, who had emigrated to the United States some years previously, and after learning the printer's trade in Philadelphia, George found employment in New York. He became the printer and publisher of the New York Daily Advertiser in 1803, and was an occa- sional contributor to its colimms. In partner- ship with his brother he opened a book-printing establishment in 1806, and among the first works brought out by the new firm, who did the entire work theJiiselves, was an edition of " Lavoisier's Chemistry. ' ' In their efforts to introduce the art of stereotyping, which David went to England in 1812 to learn, they encountered many mechanical difficulties, which they succeeded in overcoming by inventing new machinery, and casting new type. They sold out the printing business in 1816 and established a type foundry, introduced many innovations, and with the assistance of his nephew, David Bruce, Jr., George invented a type- casting machine, which was in use in 1896. He ^vas a prominent member of the Mechanics' insti- tute, and of the various industrial societies con- nected with the craft. He died in New York city, July 6, 1860.

BRUCE, Wallace, poet, was born at Hillsdale, Colimibia county, N. Y., Nov. 10, 1844. He was graduated at Yale college in 1867, with distin- guished honors, and then visited Europe, where, while in Paris in 1870, he witnessed some of the stormiest scenes of the Franco-Prussian war. Returning to the United States in 1871, he lec- tured before literary societies. In 1875 he deliv- ered his poem, " Parson Allen's Ride," at the centennial celebration at Bennington, Vt. Mr. Bruce was appointed United States consul in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 1, 1889, by President Harrison. While in Scotland he was instru- mental in securing the erection in Edinburgh of a statue of Lincoln to commemorate the service of Scottish- American soldiers in the American civil war. The monument was designed by a Union veteran soldier, and stands in Old Carlton burying-ground, where a nvunber of Scotch- American soldiers are buried. He published in 1878 The Land of Burns, in 1880 The Yosemite, in 1882 The Hudson, in 1883 The Long Drama, a centennial poem, delivered at Newburg, N.Y., in 1884 From the Hudson to the Yosemite. in 1888 Old Homestead Poems, and in 1894 Way- side Poems.

BRUEN, riatthias, clergyman, was born at Newark, N.J,, April 11, 1793. He was graduated from Columbia college in 1812, and after study- ing theology he was licensed to preach in 1816. From 1816 to 1819 lie resided in Eurojie, at first travelling for his health, and having been