Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/141

 ROBINSON

ROBINSON

convention at Lawrence, December 2, which re- pudiated the Lecompton constitution, and visited Washington, D.C., in 1858 to urge before congress favorable legislation in regard to railroad exten- sion in Kansas. He was elected governor of Kansas under the Wyandotte constitution in 1859 ; the state was admitted into the Union, Jan. 29, 1861, and Mr. Robinson was sworn into office as governor, Feb. 9, 1861. The first legis- lature convened the last of March and on April 15, 1861, President Lincohi called for 75.000 vol- unteers to put down the rebellion, but none were allotted to Kansas. The governor, however, or- ganized the state militia and when the second call was issued by the President, Kansas was alotted 5006 men, and Governor Robinson fur- nished 10,639. by raising and mustering in the 1st, 2d, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 13th infantry and the 6th cavalry between May 21, 1861 and Sept. 22, 1862 ; the 3d and 4th and the 12th (colored) being raised by Gen. James H. Lane. The legislature, for the purpose of pro- viding and sustaining the volunteer force, au- thorized the governor, secretary of the state and auditor, or a majority of them, to issue $150,000 of state bonds, bearing seven per cent, interest to be sold at a minimum of 70° ^ and the state treas- urer was authorized to sell ten per cent war bonds for $20,000 by which he realized $12,000. The state bonds could not be sold at any price in the market and an exchange was effected with the secretary of the interior for Indian money and 60° Q was realized by the state, although the department paid 85° ^ of the face value, the differ- ence being absorbed in negotiating the sale, and for this the state officers were impeached by a committee of the legislature, Feb. 26, 1862, but subsequently unanimously acquitted. In Jan- uary, 1863, Mr. Robinson was succeeded as gov- ernor by Thomas Carney. He remained in the Republican party, was elected state senator in 1872, and served as state senator, 1875-79. He followed the liberal wnng of the party in the sup- port of Horace Greeley, and in 1866 became a Democrat. He was the defeated candidate for representative in the 50th congress in 1886 and for governor of Kansas in 1890. He was one of the founders of North (Free-State) college on Mt. Oread in 1861, and with S. C. Pomeroy was ap- pointed trustee of the proposed state university, Feb. 14, 1857, securing to the state the transfer of the present university campus, and presenting the university with 46 acres of land to extend the campus. He served as a regent of the uni- versity, 1866-79 and 1892-94, receiving from there the degree of LL.D. in 1889. He also be- came superintendent of Haskell institute, an In- dian school at Lawrence in 1887 ; was a member of the Loyal Legion of Kansas, and president of

the State Historical society. He contributed to newspapers and periodicals, and wrote Tlie Kan- sas Conflict in the winter of 1891. He bequeathed most of his fortune to the University of Kansas, in whose chapel his bust was placed in February, 1898, the gift of the Kansas legislature, and on Feb. 12, 1903, a joint resolution was introduced in the legislature to place his bust in the rotunda of the state capital. See : " Kansas, Its Exterior and Interior Life " by Sara T. D. Robinson (1856). The part that Governor Robinson took in secur- ing to Kansas peace and good government appears to have been entirely free from partisanship and selfishness ; his place in the liistory of that mem- orable conflict is becoming better established as time goes by and there is little doubt that he will in time be credited as the most helpful instru- ment in the adjudication of the Kansas trouble. Governor Robinson died at his country home, " Oakridge," near Lawrence, Kan., Aug. 17, 1894. ROBINSON, Charles Seymour, clergyman and author, was born in Bennington, Vt., March 31, 1829 ; son of Henry and Harriet (Haynes) Robin- son, and grandson of Jonathan (q.v.) and Marj' (Fassett) Robinson. He attended the Union academy at Bennington ; was graduated from Williams college, A.B., 1849, A.M., 1852 ; taught school at Holyoke and Cambridge, Mass., 1849- 51 ; attended the Union (1851-52) and Princeton, (1852-53) theological seminaries, and was or- dained to the ministry by the presbytery of Troy, N.Y., April 19, 1855. He was stated sup- ply at Troy, N.Y., 1854-55 ; pastor there. 1855- 60 ; and was married, Nov, 4, 1858, to Harriet R. Church of Troy, who died in 1895. He was pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Brook- lyn, N.Y., 1860-68 ; of the American chapel, and a church of his own organization in Paris, France, 1868-71, and of the Madison Avenue church. New York, 1871-90. He supplied pulpits at Bing- hamton, N.Y., and in New York city, 1888-89; was pastor of the Thirteenth Street church, New York city, 1890-92, and of the New York church, New York city, 1892-98. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Hamil- ton college in 1867, and that of LL.D, by Lafay- ette college in 1885, He edited the lUustrated Christian Weekly, 1876-77, and Every Tliursday, 1890-91, and is the author of : Songs of the Church (1862); Songs for the Sanctuary (1865); Short Studies for Sunday School Teachers (1868): Bethel and Fennel (1873); Church Work (1873); Psalms and Hymns (1875); Calvary Songs for Sunday Schools (1875); Spiritual Songs for Church and Choir (1878); Studies in the New Testament (1880); Spiritual Songs for Sunday Schools (1881); Spiritual Songs for Social Meet- ings (1881); Studies of Neglected Texts (1883); Laudes Domini (1884); Sermons in Songs (1885);