Barlow, who had now established him. self at his seat, Kalorama, at Washing. ton. A work was published by Ful. ton, fully describing his proceedings, entitled, "Torpedo-war; or, Submarine Explosions"-with the motto, The Liberty of the Seas will be the Happi ness of the Earth. An appropriation was made by Congress, and new expe riments ordered at New York, before a board of observation in 1810. Commodore Rodgers was at the head of the commission. Extraordinary precau tions were taken to defend the vessel exposed to attack, which had the effect of baffling the inventor's efforts, while they proved the formidable nature of the assailant which they were intended by a new swarm of opponents. The very men, perhaps, who laughed at his folly before his invention was completed may assist in robbing him of its results. Success, too, is sometimes expensive. It requires constantly new outlay to meet its own vociferous demands. What with the rapid increase of travel, the consequent enlarged expenditure, the necessary dependence upon stewards, and above all the legal attacks upon his patent, Fulton may have felt with Frankenstein, that his mechanism had given birth and powers to a monster, destined to vex and crush him in its embrace. Instead of reaping the rewards of the invention, he was entangled in a business enterprise of a costly character, beset with legal difficulties. to guard against. Old naval officers The exclusive navigation of the waters of New York was too wide a privilege to be given by the Legislature of a single State; so that the discussion of the grant became a grave political ques-lated affair, which, if it did not cention. This conflict of laws was especially disastrous to Fulton, in the difficulties which arose in New York and New Jersey in respect to the ferry, at the city, between the opposite shores, from which he expected a considerable reve nue. are chary of new inventions, and, it was thought by some, hardly showed Fulton's contrivances fair play. The report to the Government was a muti sure, found little to commend. The invention, however, was not lost sight of when a period of actual warfare called such defences into requisition. His devices seem to have had the effect, at least, of infusing a wholesome dread into the minds of British officers, cruising about the waters in the vicin ity of New York. Having now seen Fulton place steamboat navigation on a permament foot- An incident related of Fulton, about ing, on the Hudson, we may return to this time, by his earliest biographer, his favorite studies of the arts of mili- Cadwalader D. Colden, may be narrated tary warfare, in the destruction of ene- as an amusing exhibition of a not my's ships afloat. We find him follow-uncommon popular absurdity. An uning up the successful exhibition of the scrupulous, scientific quack, named Red"torpedo" off the Battery, by fresh heffer, had deluded the Philadelphians appeals to Government, seconded by into the belief of his discovering the social influence of his friend, Joel species of perpetual motion. He suc ceeded in a thorough mystification, it the appearances of having suffered a is said, of some very clever people, long imprisonment, seated on a stool, whose brains were entangled in his quite unconscious of what had hap wheels and weights; for there is, at pened below, with one hand gnawing times, no more credulous person than a crust, and with the other turning a your man of science, who spins a web crank."1 The mob demolished the for his own imprisonment. Ingenious machine, and Redheffer disappeared theories were not wanting to account with his vaporous delusion. for the prodigious working of the ma In these later years of his life, for chine. Some recondite speculations, unhappily he was now approaching its well-fortified with figures, will be found close, Fulton was mainly employed at in the old "Port Folio." The appa- New York, in building and equipping, ratus was brought to New York, under the supervision of Government, and set up to the admiration of the his famous cannon-proof steam-frigate, gaping crowd, who dropped their dol- named after him, the Fulton, and in lar at the door into the pockets of perfecting his favorite devices of subthe showman, capacious as their own marine sailing vessels, in connection credulity. Fulton was, at length, in- with the torpedo warfare. The steamduced to join the crowd. The machine frigate was launched in October, 1814, was in an isolated house in the sub- but its projector did not live to witness urbs of the city. Fulton had hardly its completion. He may be said, inentered, when his practised ear detected deed, to have been a martyr to the an irregular crank motion. The whole undertaking. His constitution, not of secret was betrayed to him in this the strongest, was exposed to a severe whisper. Presently entering into con- test in mid-winter, in January, 1815, versation with the showman, he de- in a passage across the Hudson, amidst nounced the whole thing as an imposition; the usual amount of virtuous indignation was expended by the exhibiter; the visitors became excited; Fulton was resolute. He proposed an inspection behind the scenes, promising to make good any damage in the process. A few thin strips of lath were plucked away, apparently used only to steady the machinery, which betrayed a string of catgut, connecting the work with something beyond. Following this clue through an upper room, there was found, at its termination, the secret of the wondrous effect, in "a poor, old man, with an immense beard, and all the ice in an open boat. He was returning from the Legislature of New Jersey, at Trenton, whither he had gone to give evidence in the protracted steamboat controversy. He was taken ill on his return home, and before he was fully restored, ventured out to superintend some work on the exposed deck of the Fulton. This brought on increased illness, which speedily terminated in death, February 24, 1815. Thus perished, at the age of fifty, in the midst of his labors, one of the most ingenious and eminent inventors 1 Colden's Life of Fulton, p. 219. America has produced. Nor was he a had a valuable collection, including mere mechanician distinguished in a West's Ophelia and King Lear, to a single department. His genius took a proposed National Academy at the wide range. He was an excellent seat of Government. The amiable sowriter, and might have acquired fame cial qualities of Fulton are remembered as a painter had he pursued the pro- in New York by many yet living, who fession. He always retained an affec- were his companions. "He had too tion for art, from his early efforts at much sense," remarks his friend and Philadelphia and first intimacy with biographer, Colden, "for the least affecWest in London. When his friend, tation." "He was emphatically,” adds Joel Barlow, reproduced his early poem, his younger associate, Dr. Francis, “a "The Vision of Columbus" as the man of the people, ambitious, indeed, "Columbiad," in a costly quarto edi- but void of all sordid designs; he purtion, the beautiful illustrations were sued ideas more than money." His planned by Fulton, and executed under home in State street is spoken of as his direction; and it is to his pencil the seat of a genial hospitality. In that we owe the characteristic portrait person, he was tall and slender, but of the author prefixed to the work. well proportioned. The portrait by From his will, we learn that Fulton West has a certain reserved look of expended five thousand dollars for the the gentleman, with an air of medita engravings, printing of plates, and let-tion and refinement. His grave is in terpress of the poem. He mentions our midst in New York, in the family this for the sake of resigning all pro- tomb of the Livingstons, in the ground perty in the work to the widow of his of Old Trinity. Adjoining Wall street friend, the author. He also in his will exchanges millions borne on every sea provides, in certain contingencies, for on the wings of his enterprise. Does she the gift of his pictures, of which he ❘ not owe her benefactor a monument? JAMES MONROE. JAMES MONROE, the fifth President | paigns of 1777 and 1778, and distinof the United States, was born in April, guished himself at the Brandywine, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Vir- Germantown and Monmouth. Being ginia, on the Potomac, a region remark- thrown out of the regular line of proable in the history of the country as motion by accepting his staff appointthe birth-place of Washington, Madi- ment, he was anxious to regain his posi son, and of the distinguished family of tion in the line, and for this purpose the Lees. Monroe's ancestors had been was sent by Washington to raise a long settled on the spot. The names regiment in Virginia. Failing to ac of his parents were Spence Monroe and complish this object he remained in the Elizabeth Jones; and, to our regret, State and directed his attention to the the scant biographies of the President study of the law, under the direction tell us nothing more of them. Their of Jefferson, then recently elected Goson was educated at the college of Wil- vernor. He took no further part with liam and Mary, which he left to take the army at the north, but was active part in the early struggles of the army as a volunteer when Virginia became of Washington-a cause which in the the theatre of the war in the successive breasts of Virginians superseded all invasions of Arnold, Phillips and Cornordinary occupation. Like Marshall wallis. He was specially employed by and others, the future civilian began his career in the pursuits of war. He joined the forces of Washington at New York, in time to participate in the courageous retreat after the battle of Long Island. He was in the action at Harlem Heights, and the subsequent battle of White Ple ns, and was in the retreat through the Jerseys. He led a company in the van of the battle of Trenton, and was severely wounded, a service in the field which procured him a captaincy. He was with Lord Stirling, acting as his aid in the cam Governor Jefferson in 1780, to visit the southern army as a military commissioner, to report on its conditions and prospects, a duty which he performed to the full satisfaction of the Executive. In 1782 he was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature, and shortly promoted by that body to a seat in its executive council. In June of the next year he was chosen member of Congress and sat in that body at its meeting at Annapolis when Washington resigned his military commission at the close of the war. The immediate pressure of |