State, and in that capacity particularly Society of the year 1828, thus spoke interested himself in the establishment of his distinguished merits in the counof companies for inland lock naviga- cil and the field. "If the military life gation, and may thus be regarded as of General Schuyler," he said, "was one of the fathers of the eminently inferior in brillancy to that of some successful canal policy of the State. others of his countrymen, none of them In 1797 he introduced to the Senate, ever surpassed him in fidelity, activity, and afterwards published in a pam- and devotedness to the service. The phlet, a plan for the improvement of characteristic of all his measures was the State revenues-a topic on which utility. They bore the stamp and he was much at home, from his unerring precision of practical science. fondness for arithmetical investiga- There was nothing complicated in his tions. He was subsequently returned character. It was chaste and severe to the United States Senate in 1797 as simplicity; and, take him for all in all, the successor of Burr. Failing health, he was one of the wisest and most however, soon compelled him to seek efficient men, both in military and civil repose in retirement at his hospitable life, that the State or the nation has mansion at Albany, where his last days produced." Of his more purely persowere visited by domestic affliction in nal traits, Chancellor Kent added: the loss of his wife in 1803, followed "His spirits were cheerful, his conver the next year by the fatal duel of his sation most eminently instructive, his eminent son-in-law, a pillar of strength manners gentle and courteous, and his to the household, Alexander Hamilton. whole deportment tempered with grace General Schuyler survived the event and dignity. His faculties seemed to but a few months, dying at Albany the retain their unimpaired vigor and 18th of November, 1804, at the age of untiring activity; though he had eviseventy-one. dently lost some of his constitutional ardor of temperament and vehemence of feeling. He was sobered by age, chastened by affliction, broken by disease; and yet nothing could surpass the interest excited by the mild radi ance of the evening of his days."

Of the character of General Schuyler we may safely adopt the judgment of one who knew him well, and whose praise was never lightly bestowed, the late Chancellor Kent, who, in his discourse before the New York Historical

DANIEL MORGAN.

An uncertainty hangs over the birth- | Ridge were indebted to the teamsters place of this gallant partisan officer of for their supplies and means of comthe Revolution. Indeed, very little is munication. It was a service which known of his early years. When he required strength and courage, and became celebrated, he appears to have Morgan was fully equal to both detaken little pleasure in such distant mands. His frame was of extraordireminiscences, and the track is too ob- nary vigor, and his manly spirit rapidly scure to be followed by the most zeal developed itself in this free, bold, fronous biographers. The latest and most tier life. authoritative, Mr. James Graham, gives the preference to New Jersey over Pennsylvania, as the State where he first saw the light. He decides that he was born in Hunterdon County, in the former State, in the winter of 1736. His parents, it is ascertained, were of Welch extraction, who landed in America at Philadelphia, and settled upon the Delaware: upon which side of the river they lived at the time of their son's birth is really of little consequence, since neither State could claim much from the man. He really belongs to Virginia, where he first appeared as a runaway from home, in his seventeenth year, a rude, uncultivated farmer's boy, seeking employment in the labors of the field in what is now Jefferson County. He had work in him, proved it to the satisfaction of his employer, and speedily rose to the responsible post of wagoner-for in those days the settlers west of the Blue

It was quite to be expected that such a man, on the breaking out of the French hostilities, and the arrival of Braddock, should be called upon for his services in the war. He was ac cordingly engaged as a teamster, and joined the British forces on their disas trous expedition against Fort Du Quesne. At the time of the defeat he was with Colonel Dunbar, who was following the commander with the heavy baggage. His duties, conse quently, did not call upon him to participate in the fight, though he had his share of the excessive labors of the campaign. A story is told of his prowess, which, as an indication of his career, may be worth repeating. His immediate officer in command was upon the point of engaging with a notorious pugilist and bully who followed the camp. "Captain," says Morgan, "you must not fight that man. It would be a disgrace for you to be flogged. I

will meet him, and save the honor of the company." So he set to work, and gave the fellow a drubbing.

quarters at Winchester, accompanied by two soldiers, when he was met in a disadvantageous position by an Indian ambuscade. The party was fired upon from the rocks above; Morgan's companions were killed, while he himself received a ball in the back of his neck, which passed through his mouth, carrying away the teeth of his left jaw, and coming through his cheek. Not

kept his seat on his horse, while an Indian ran by his side, vainly endeavoring to tomahawk him. Urging on his faithful animal, he was borne out of reach of his pursuer to the fort, where good care and his excellent constitution, in six months carried him in safety out of this extraordinary peril. His grandson afterwards recalled his recollections of Morgan's vivid narra tion of this affair; how he described "the expression of the Indian's face, as he ran, with open mouth and tomahawk in hand, by the side of the horse, expecting every moment to see his victim fall.

There is a less agreeable anecdote related of his frontier service the following year at Fort Chiswell, when he was struck by a British lieutenant, for some real or fancied offence, with the flat of his sword. The Welsh blood of Morgan was up, and he laid the officer, with a blow, at his feet. A withstanding this fearful injury, he still drum-head court-martial was summoned for this flagrant violation of military duty, and Morgan was sentenced to receive five hundred lashes. They were inflicted with terrible severity, cutting the flesh to ribbons, and leaving scars and ridges from his shoulders to his waist, which the soldier wore to his dying day. His constitution, however, made it a smaller matter to him than a less infliction would have been to another. He would, in subsequent years, especially after he had retaliated in the American army upon his old superiors, tell the story how he counted the lashes as they were administered by the drummer, and how that official negligently miscounted one in the process. "I did not," said the veteran, "think it worth while to tell him of his mistake, and let it go so." In the military movements of 1757, he was taken into the army-he had hitherto been but a wagoner-and distinguished himself at Fort Edward in repelling a formidable attack of French and Indians. The following year he held an ensign's commission, and met with an adventure which very nearly cost him his life. He was bearing dispatches from one of the western forts to head

But when the panting savage found the horse was fast leaving him behind, he threw his tomahawk, without effect, and abandoned the pursuit with a yell of disappointment." 1

The next that we hear of Morgan, after this confinement, is generally set down by his biographers as not particularly to his credit. He became much of a hard tavern roysterer, and the prize-fighting hero of the region about the present Berrysville, in Clark County, adjacent to his first Virginia

A biographical sketch of General Morgan, by Morgan Neville, quoted in Graham's Life.