Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/92

 NILES

JJILES

Sargent and was admitted to the bar in 1817. In January, 1817, he established and was manager of the Hartford Tinieti. and obtained for that paper a hirge circiUatiou, lie was an associate judge of the county court, 1821-29; was a representa- tive in the general assembly in 182G, and was de- feated for the state senate in 1827. He sup- ported General Jackson for president, and upon his inauguration, in 1829, President Jackson ap- pointed Maj. H. B. Norton, editor of the Times, postmaster of Hartford, in recognition of the service rendered by the paper during the cam- paign. Against this appointment Niles pro- testeil vigoroush", and the President dismissed Norton and appointed Niles his successor. On the death of Nathan Smith, U.S. senator from Connecticut, Dec. 6, 1836, Niles was elected to complete the term expiring March 3, 1839. In 1S40 President Van Buren appointed him post- master-general in his cabinet, as successor to Amos Kendall, who resigned. May 9. 1840, and Niles held the office until the close of Van Buren's administration, March 3. 1841. He was the Dem- ocratic candidate for governor of Connecticut in 1839 and 1840, and was again U.S. senator, 1843- 49. He was twice married, first June 7, 1824, to Sarah, daughter of William Robinson, and widow of Lewis Howe. She died, Nov. 23. 1842. and he was married secondly. Nov. 26, 1845, to Jane H. Pratt of Columbia county, N.Y.. who died iu September, 18.")0. He made several bequests, in- cluding $70,000 in trust to the city of Hartford, the income therefrom to be devoted to the worthy prior, and his large library to the Connecticut Historical society. Heis the author of: The Inde- pendent Whig (1816); Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rliocle Islaiid (1819); History of the Revolu- tinn in Mexico and South America, trith a View of Texas (1829); The Civil OfTicer (1840); Loss of the Brig Commerce upon the West Coast of Africa ( 1842). He died in Hartford, Conn., May 31, 1856. NILES, Nathaniel, representative, was born in Soutii Kingston, R.I., April 3, 1741; son of Samuel Niles; grandson of the Rev. Samuel and Ann (Coddington) Niles of Braintree, Mass., and great- grandson of Nathaniel and Sarah (Sands) Niles of Block Island. He matriculated at Harvard col- lege and wa-s graduated from the College of New Jersey, A.B.. 1766, A.M., 1769. He studied the- ology under the Rev. Dr. Joseph Bellamy, and also studied law and medicine in New York city, where he taught school. He preached in Nor- wich and Torrington, Conn.; resided in Norwich, where he invented a process for making wire from bar iron, and added to the wire mill, which was run by water, a woolen cord manufactory. He served as a soldier tliroughout the Revolution, and subsequently removed to Vermont, where he purchased a large tract of land, founded the town

of West Fairlee and held religious services in his own house for nearly forty years. He was a representative in the Vermont legislature; speaker and agent to congress in 1784; judge of the supreme court, 1784-88; a member of the council of censors in 1785, 1787 and 1789, and a member of the constitutional convention of 1791. He was a representative from Vermont in the 2d and 3d congresses, 1791-95; was a representative in the state legislature, 1800-02 and 1812-14; a member of the governor's council, 1803-08; a presidential elector, 1805 and 1813, and a member of the constitutional convention of 1814. He led iu formulating the demand of the state for a con- stitutional amendment prohibiting the importa- tion of slaves; was opposed to the bank bill schemes of 1800, but in 1806 voted for the estab- lishment of a state bank. He was twice married: first to a daughter of Rev. Dr. Lathrop of West Springfield, Mass., and secondly to Elizabeth, daughter of William Watson of Plymouth, Mass., and of his sons, Nathaniel was U.S. con- sul at Sardinia, acting plenipotentiary to Austria and secretary of legation at the court of St. James under U.S. Minister Cass. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Har- vard in 1772, and by Dartmouth in 1791. He was trustee of Dartmouth college, 1793-1820. He is the author of: Four Discourses on Secret Prayer (1773); Two Discourses on Sin and Forgiveness (1773); Two Discourses upon Liberty; The Per- fection of Ood (1777), and TJie Fountain of Good (1777). He also wrote an ode entitled The Amer- ican Hero, which was inspired by the news of the battle of Bunker Hill, was set to music by the Rev. Sylvanus Ripley, and became the war song of the New England soldiers. He died at West Fairlee, Vt., Oct. 31, 1828.

NILES, Samuel, clergyman, was born on Block Island, R.I., May 1, 1674; son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Sands) Niles. He was graduated from Harvard college, A.B., 1699, A.M., 1709, and was a preacher on Block Island, 1699-1701; at Kingstown, 1702-10, and was ordained pastor of the Second church, Braintree, Mass., in 1711. He was twice married; first, in 1716, to a daughter of Peter Thatcher of ]\Iilton, Mass., and sec- ondly, in 1732, to Ann Coddington. He returned to Block Island in his latter years and became pastor of a church in Charleston, composed chiefly of the Niantic Indians. He is the author of: A Brief and Sorrouful Accoujit of the Churches in New England (1745); A Vindication of Diverse Imjwrtant Doctrines of Scripture (1752); Scripture Doctrines of Origiwd Sin (1757); History of the French and Indian Wars (1760), and a diary kept by him for sixty years, which forms an in- teresting history of Braintree. He died in Brain- tree, Mass., May 1, 1762.