Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/377

 CONWAY

CONWAY

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CONWAY, Moncure Daniel, author, was born near Falmouth, Va., March 17, 1832; son of Walker Peyton and Margaret Eleanor (Daniel) Conway. His father was presiding justice of Stafford county, and his mother a daughter of Dr. John Moncure Daniel, U.S. A., physician in the war of 1812, and granddaughter of Thomas Stone, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. He was graduated at Dickinson college in 1849 and studied law in Warrenton, Va. He expressed his sym- pathy with institu- tions of the south in articles written for the Richmond Es- aminer, of which John Moncure Daniel, his cousin, was editor. He soon abandoned law for the Methodist ministry. His political and religious beliefs hav- ing changed, he entered the Unitarian divinity school at Cambridge, Mass. . where he was gradu- ated in 1854, and became minister of the Unita- rian church in Washington, D. C. His anti-slavery sermons in Washington caused much excitement, and by a small majority he was requested to resign his Washington church in 1857, and was succeeded by W. H. Channing. In 1857 he took charge of the Unitarian church at Cincinnati, Ohio, and during the war settled his father's slaves, escaped from Virginia, at Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1863 he visited England with a view to lecturing and writing in explanation of the connection of the anti-slavery cause with the war for the Union, and was appointed minister of South Place chapel London, whose " Cente- nary History '" he wrote in 189o. He returned to the United States in 1884. He was married to Ellen, daughter of Charles Davis and Sarah Pond (Lyman) Dana. He founded the Difd (montlih') in Cincinnati in 1860; edited the Boston Commonicealth (1861-63); contributed to Fraser's Magazine and the Fortnightly lieview; was London correspondent of the New York Tribune, and afterward of the Cincinnati Commercial; and contributed to Harper's Magazine, "South Coast Saunterings in England"' (1868-69). He was made a member of the Author's club, New York, and of the Phi Beta Kappa association; and in London he was a member of the Anthropological institute, the Folklore society, the Society of au- thors, the Omar Khayyam club and other clubs. He received the degree of L.H.D. from Dickinson college. Among his published works are: Tracts for Today (1858); The Rejected Stone (1861); The

Golden Hour (1862); Testimonies Concerning Slav, ery (1868); The Earthward Pilgrimage (1870); Be- puhlican Superstitions (1872); Sacred Anthology (1874); Idols and Ideals (1817); Demonology and Devil-Lore (1879); A Xecklace of Stories (1880); The Wandering Jeio and the Pound of Flesh (1881); Thomas Carlyle (1881); Travels in South Kensing- ton (1882); Emerson at Home and Abroad (1882); Pine and Palm (1887); Omitted chapters of History disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph (1888); George Washington and Mount Vernon (1889); George Washington's Rules of Civility (1890); Life of Haicthorne (1S90); Prisons of Air (1891); Life of Thomas Paine (2 vols., 1892), which has been translated into French.

CONWAY, Thomas, soldier, was born in Ire- land, Feb. 27, 1733. He was a soldier in the French armj^ and had won the rank of colonel and the decoration of St. Louis, when Silas Deane urged him to join the American army in the war of the Revolution. He sailed to America and offered his services to the Continental congress, which body on May 11, 1777, made hiiu a briga- dier-general and he took j^art in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. Later in the same year he became the conspicuous leader of a plot to displace Washington and give the com- mand of the army to General Gates, then the hero of the hour by reason of the surrender of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. Into this plot a considerable number of members of congress and such statesmen as John Adams, Benjamin Rush and other as prominent patriots were un- consciously drawn. General Gates was made president of the board-of-war and Lafayette the proposed leader of a Canadian campaign in which Conway was to be second in command. Letters from Conwaj' to prominent men, alleging Wash- ington's responsibility for disasters in the south, and even forged papers purporting to be signed by Washington, added to the spirit of discontent until the plot was exposed to Washington, who speedily restored subordination. Lafayette re- fused to lead the Canadian expedition unless he should have as his second officer Baron de Kalb. Conway had meanwhile been promoted to the rank of major-general and congress on Dec. 14,

1777, confirmed the promotion in spite of Washington's disapproval. In the following March, however, he made a conditional offer to resign, which congress promptly accepted, mak- ing it unconditional, and he was obliged to leave the army. Gen. John Cadwallader in July,

1778, cliallenged Conwaj', and the meeting re- sulted in Conway's being badly wounded in the mouth. He complimented his antagonist on his marksmanship and as soon as physically able wrote an apology to Washington. He returned to France, re-entered the armj- and was made