"no man could hear him for any length manner is said to have been severe and of time, without being led captive by abrupt, but gracious to the younger his eloquence." In an analysis of his members of the profession, so that he style, the same judicious authority tells gained the admiration of one class us of his "marvellous felicity" in a while he excited the jealousy of anocomplete mastery of the whole com- ther. Mr. Kennedy, who makes this pass of the English language," giving observation in his life of Wirt, tells us to his style "an air of originality, force, also of his popularity as a sportsman, copiousness and expressiveness which his favor as a politician, who had renstruck the most careless observer." In dered good service to party, and of his this restrained use of language, copious "munificent ostentations of living." and at the same time neat and exact, We even hear of his being charged he had an advantage over his occasional with foppery and affectation. These antagonist in the Supreme Court, Wil- are often popular exaggerations of a liam Wirt, whose rhetoric was less at proud mind, which, loftily looking to the command of his judgment. In all great objects, sets a proportionate value that related to the preparations of ora- upon the small. Pinkney always pretory, Pinkney was an adept, sparing served the dignity of his profession. no labor of preparation or art of suc-"He was a great man," wrote Wirt, on cess. He studied his native language his death-" on a set occasion, the as it should be studied by every speaker who would excel as the great masters of eloquence have risen to fame. His speeches in the leading passages were carefully meditated, and even written out beforehand. He even practised declamation in private. Hence, when he came before the public with his full imposing figure and resolute front, delivering his exact logic in words of equal purity and force, the effect was fully proportioned to the means. He was an intellectual combatant whom it was impossible not to respect. To his rivals at the bar his "He greatest, I think, at our bar." JACOB BROWN. published when he had achieved distinction, "was such as the youth of the sect commonly receive; accurate and useful so far as it went, without aspiring to elegant literature, or mere specu MAJOR GENERAL JACOB BROWN, the | says the contemporary biographical defender of the New York frontier in notice in the "Analectical Magazine," the war of 1812, like his predecessor, General Greene, of the war of the Revolution, was of Quaker parentage, a proof that the coolness of temper and resoluteness of mind generated by the principles of the sect, are not unfriend-lative science: but his mind was natu ly, spite of pacific professions, to military employments. Your calm, earnest man, when he is once roused by a great cause-an inferior one is not likely to agitate him—and brought into the field, is apt to be a brave and persistent warrior. General Jacob Brown proved himself a man of this mettle, one upon whom the country could rely in a season of danger and difficulty, who turned a series of disasters into victories, and national depression into exalt ation. He was born in the Revolutionary era, 1775, in Bucks County, Pennsylva nia, a few miles below Trenton, on the Delaware. His father, Samuel Brown, fourth in descent from one of the earliest English settlers on the Delaware, pursued there the life of a respectable farmer, giving his son such advantages of education as his position at that time afforded, and bringing him up with the Quaker views and habits of the family. "His early education," rally too active and inquisitive to rest content with these humble rudiments, and by seizing upon every opportunity of improvement, in the course of his very diversified life, he has gradually acquired a large fund of various and well-digested knowledge." The youth undoubtedly showed some preference for learning, over the usual employments of the farm, which might have afforded him occupation, for we hear of his being engaged at eighteen as the teacher of a respectable Quaker school at Crosswicks, in his native State. This, however, he left on be coming of age, to proceed to Ohio, where he followed the business of a surveyor of the public lands—a calling, even at that comparatively recent period in the West, not unfavorable to the development of his resources and expe rience in the field, preparatory to mili tary service. Indeed, a good general must always have something of the eye of a practical surveyor. From this residence at Cincinnati, Brown returned to the seaboard to engage again in the profession of a teacher at New York, where he had charge of the public school of the society of Friends. To this responsible task he devoted himself for a short time with great energy, acquiring reputation and improving his mind by new studies, and observations of city life. Like many of those who engage in this pursuit, he was led to the study of the law, which he commenced, and which might have engrossed the remainder of his life had he not been diverted by a scheme of land speculation on the borders of Lake Ontario, in the vicinity of Sackett's Harbor, in Jefferson County. He removed thither in 1799, built the first house in what is now the flourishing town of Brownville, which was called after him, shared in the spirit of enter prise and speculation which was then directed to the frontier, became a man of consequence in the new district, and acquired wealth as settlers came to purchase his lands. "As the country continued to improve," in the words of the biography already cited, "Brown rose with it in importance and public estimation. He was appointed a county court judge, and became a leading man in all the public business of that part of the country. He now gradually threw off the dress and manners of his sect, and on a change which took place in the organization of the militia, was appointed to the command of a regi ment; and not long after, promoted to the rank of brigadier general. In this situation, which gave him military rank without affording him much opportu nity for acquiring military knowledge, the late war found him, and when the first detachment of the western militia of New York was ordered into the service of the United States, General Brown was designated by Governor Tompkins to the command of a brigade, and intrusted with the general care of the northern frontier. He applied himself, with his usual diligence and activity, to the discharge of these new and important duties; doubtless, at first, with no further views of military life than the natural and laudable desire of filling the station in which he was placed, for a short term of service, with credit and usefulness.". He was in this first campaign called into the field to repel the assault of the British upon Ogdensburg in Oc tober, 1812. The attack was made by a force of seven hundred and fifty men, who attempted a landing under cover of the fire from the opposite batteries, within easy range, of Prescott. As the enemy approached the shore, they were repulsed by a battery of two guns, and the small arms of the militia, the defence being under the direction of General Brown. The engagement lasted about an hour, when it ended with the retreat of the British, who, unable to effect a landing, suffered a loss of three killed and four wounded, while the only injury the defenders received was some slight damage done to the buildings on the shore.1 The campaign of the following spring opened with the movements of Commodore Chauncey, with the command 'Dawson's Battles of the United States, II. 138. |