Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/658

* STEVENS. 564 STEVENS. participated in all of its important engagements. In 18-t'J he became the assistant in charge of the Uuitftl States Coast Survey office at Washing- ton, but resigned from the army in 1852 to ac- cept the Governorship of Washington Territory. In 1855 the Washington Indians revolted. Ste- vens at once sternly suppressed the insurrection, and arrested Chief .Justice Edward Laniler, who had issued writs of habeas corpus for Indian prisoners. On the outbreali of the Civil War he was commissioned colonel of the Seventj'-ninth Kew York ^'olunteers, and a few months later was jiromoted to the rank of brigadier-general. He participated in the actions on Stone River and at Secessionville. On July 4, 1862. he was jnomoted to the rank of major-general, and during August he took part in the campaign in northern Virginia, participating in the second battle of Bull Run and the battle of Chantilly. While leading his men in a charge during the latter, he was killed, September 1, 1862. He pulilished Campaigns of the Rio (intnde and Mexico, with Notices of the Recent Work of Major Ripley (1851) ; and a Report of Explora- tions for a Route for the Pacific Railroad near the J,~th and YJth Parallels of North Latitude, from Saint Paul, Minn., to Puget Sound, printed by order of Congress (1855-60). STEVENS, .John (1749-1838). An American inventor, engineer, and steamboat builder. He was born in New York City, and in 1768 gradu- ated at King's ( now Columbia ) College. He then studied law, and in 1771 was admitted to the bar. In 1790 he petitioned Congress for legis- lation for the protection of American inventors, and through his efforts a bill was passed which laid the foiuidations for the present patent sys- tem of the country. As early as 1788 lie had be- gun experiments in the application of steam as a motive power, and in 1792 took out two patents for marine engines under the new law. Subss- (juently, in association with Nicholas Roosevelt and Robert R. Livingston, he built a steamboat, and attempted to obtain from the New Y^ork State Legislature the exclusive right of naviga- tion of the Hudson River, but the boat, when com])leted in 1801, failed to fulfill the speed conditions imposed, and Livingston subsequently became associated with Fulton in his more suc- cessful attempt. In 1804 he built a steamship propelled by twin screws, and in 1807. with his brother Robert, built the paddle-wheeled steam- boat Phrenix, which was put in successful opera- tion only a few days after Fulton's Clermont. The Phwnix was shut out of the waters by the monopoly of Fulton and Livingston, but was operated for six years on the Delaware River, to reach which the Phoenix sailed around from New Y^'ork City, and was thus the first steamship to navigate the ocean successfully. In October, 1811, between Hoboken and New York City he estab- lished the first steam ferry in the world. He invented and designed many improvements in steamboat and steam-engine construction, and de- signed in 1812 a circular iron-clad floating bat- tery for harbor defense. In 1826 he constructed a locomotive model after bis own designs, which he exhibited in operation in Hoboken. and which "vvas said to have been the first locomotive ever to run on a track in America. STEVENS, John Austin (1795-1874). An American banker and financier, born in New Y'ork City. He graduated at Yale in 1813, and in 1818 became a partner in the extensive mer- cantile business of his father, Ebenezer Stevens, in New York City. During the Civil War he was one of the principal financial advisers of the Government, and his greatest public service was rendered as chairman of the famous 'treasury note committee' of New Y'ork, Boston, and Phila- delphia bankers, which played a prominent part in placing the first 7-30 and later war loans. STEVENS, John Austin (1827—). An American author, born in New Y''ork City. He graduated at Harvard in 1846; was secretary to the New Y'ork Chamber of Commerce from 1862 to 1868; and later was for some yeara librarian of the New Y'ork Historical Society. He founded the Society of the Sons of the Revo- lution and the Loyal League. In 1877 be estab- lished the Magazine of American Historif, of which he was the editor until 1883. His publica- tions include: The Valley of the Rio Grande ( 1804) ; Colonial Records of the Neu> York Cham- ber of Commerce (1867); The Expedition of Lafayette Against Arnold (1878); and Life of Albert Gallatin (1884), in the "American States- men Series." STEVENS, John Leavitt (1820-95). An American journalist and diplomat, born at Mount Vernon, Me. In 1855 he became associate editor of the Kennebec (Me.) Journal, and in 1857 chief editor of the paper. He was an advocate of the Republican Party, in whose organization in Maine he assisted. He was iliuister Resident to Uruguav and Paraguay from 1870 until 1873. In 'l877-83 he was Minister Resident to Sweden and Norway, and in 1889 became Minister Resident to the Hawaiian Islands. His title was made Envoy Extraordinary and Jlinister Plenipotentiary in 1890. Upon the outbreak of a revolution against the royal Gov- ernment in 1893, and the establishment of a provisional government (see Hawaiian Islands, History), he established a protectorate over the islands. This action was disavowed by the Sec- retary of State of the L^nited States, and subse- quently Stevens was recalled, and was exonerated by the Senate. His publications include a scholar- ly and valuable History of Cfustavus Adolphus (1884). STEVENS, Phineas (1707-56). A colonial soldier in America, born at Sudbury, Mass. About 1711 he removed with his father to Rutland, N. H. (now in Vermont), and in 1723 was a cap- tive for a time among the Saint Francis Indians. He was one of the pioneer settlers of "Township No. 4" I now Charlestown, N. H. ), and in April, 1747, during King George's War, as commandant of the fort there, repelled the attack of 400 French and Indians luider Niverville. He was twice (1749 and 1752) sent to Canada to negoti- ate an exchange of prisoners. A journal kept by him during his first trip to Canada is printed in the Scir Hampshire Historical Collections, vol. v. STEVENS, Robert Livisoiston (1787-1856). An American inventor and marine engineer, son of John Stevens (q.v.), born in Hoboken. N. .T. He applied the wave line to shipbuilding, in- vented a percussion shell (the rights to which were bought by the Government), was one of the first to use anthracite coal in steam navigation, and introduced many improvements in the con-