Daniel Webster, Thomas Benton, Silas and, with few exceptions, their children Wright, and others—have championed the are also dead, but grandchildren and cause of these claims in Congress with great-grandchildren may at least reap the much eloquence. In 1883 a bill passed benefit of tardy justice. the Senate authorizing the court of claims Frenchtown, MASSACRE AT. In the to investigate these long-standing cases middle of December, 1812, General Harriand report upon them. This bill passed son wrote the War Department that, if the House in January, 1885, and was ap- no political or other necessity existed proved by the President. The original for the recovery of Michigan and the inclaimants have long since passed away, vasion of Canada, the enormous expense of transportation, and the sufferings of men and beasts in the task, pleaded for a remission of efforts to attain that recovery until spring. He was directed to use his own judgment in the matter, and was assured that immediate measures would be taken for recovering the control of Lake Erie to the Americans. He was instructed, in case he should penetrate Canada, not to offer the inhabitants anything but protection; and, secondly, not to make temporary acquisitions, but to proceed so surely that he might hold fast any territory he should acquire. Other troops having arrived, Harrison resolved to attempt the capture of Fort Malden. His whole effective force did not exceed 6,300 men. He designated the brigades from Pennsylvania and Virginia, and one from Ohio, under Gen. Simon Perkins, as the right wing of the army; and the Kentuckians, under Gen. James Wilkinson, as the left wing. So arranged, the army pressed forward towards the rapids of the Maumee, the designated general rendezvous. Winchester, with 800 young Kentuckians, reached there on Jan. 10, 1813, and established ately succeeded in a shower upon the a fortified camp, when he learned that camp. The Americans, seizing their arms, a party of British and Indians were tried to defend themselves. Very soon occupying Frenchtown, on the Raisin the soldiers fled to the woods, when River (now Monroe, Mich.), 20 miles south of Detroit. He sent a detachment, under Colonels Allen and Lewis, to protect the inhabitants in that region, who drove the enemy out of the hamlet of about thirty families, and held it until the arrival of Winchester, on the 20th, with about 300 men. General Proctor was then at Fort Malden, 18 miles distant, with a considerable body of British and Indians. With 1,500 of these he crossed the Detroit River, and marched stealthily at night to destroy the Americans. Winchester was informed late in the evening of the 21st that a foe was approaching. He did not believe it, and at midnight was in perfect repose. The sentinels were posted, but, the weather being intensely cold, pickets were sent out upon roads leading to the town. Just as the drummer-boy was beating the reveillé, in the gray twilight of the 22d, the sharp crack of a rifle, followed by the rattle of musketry, awoke the sleepers. Bomb-shells and canister-shot immedi the savages, who swarmed there, smote them fearfully, with gleaming hatchets. The British and their dusky allies made it a war of extermination. Winchester was captured, and he concluded an arrangement with Proctor to surrender his troops on condition that ample provision should be made for their protection against the Indians. The promise was given and immediately violated. Proctor, knowing Harrison (who had advanced to the Maumee) to be near, hastened towards Malden with his captives, leaving the sick and wounded prisoners behind. The Indians followed awhile, when they turned back, murdered and scalped those who were unable to travel as captives, set fire to the houses, and took many prisoners to Detroit to procure exorbitant prices for their ransom. Proctor's indifference to this outrage, and the dreadful suspicion, which his character warranted, that he encouraged the butchery of the defenceless people, was keenly felt all through the West, particularly in Kentucky, for most of the victims were 1865. His poetry was highly commended by Scotch and English literary critics. He died near Freehold, N. J., Dec. 18, 1832. of the flower of society in that State; and for a long time afterwards the most inspiriting war-cry of the Kentucky soldiers was, Remember the River Raisin!" French West Indies, THE. Canada conquered, the British turned their arms against the French West India Islands, in which the colonies participated. Gaudeloupe had already been taken. General Monckton, after submitting his commission as governor to the council of New York, sailed from that port (January, 1762), with two line-of-battle ships, 100 transports, and 1,200 regulars and colonial troops. Major Gates (afterwards adjutant-general of the Continental army) went with Monckton as aide-de-camp, and carried to England the news of the capture of Martinique. Richard Montgomery (afterwards a general in the Continental army) held the rank of captain in this expedition. The colonial troops were led by Gen. Phineas Lyman. Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent's-indeed, every island in the Caribbean group possessed by the French-fell into the hands of the Eng lish. The French fleet was ruined, and French merchantmen were driven from the seas. British vessels, including those of New York and New England, now obtained the carrying-trade of those islands; also, under safe conducts and flags of truce, that of Santo Domingo. Freneau, PHILIP, "the Poet of the Revolution;" born in New York City, Jan. 2, 1752; graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1771. He was of Huguenot descent, and evinced a talent for rhyming as early as the age of seventeen years, when he wrote a poetical History of the Prophet Jonah. He was in the West Indies during a part of the Revolutionary War, and while on a voyage in 1780 was captured by a British cruiser. After his release he wrote many patriotic songs, and was engaged in editorial duties, notably on the Democratic National Gazette, of Philadelphia, the organ of Jefferson and his party. He continued to edit and publish newspapers. His productions contributed largely to animate his countrymen while struggling for independence. An edition of his Revolutionary Poems, with a Memoir and Notes, by Evert A. Duyckinck, was published in New York in Friendly Association. In the middle of the eighteenth century the descendants of William Penn, who succeeded to the proprietorship of Pennsylvania, departed from the just course pursued by the great founder of the commonwealth towards the Indians and the white people, and exasperated both by their greed and covetousness. The Indians were made thoroughly discontented by the frauds practised on them in the purchase of lands and the depredations of banditti called traders. So much had they become alicnated from the English that in 1755 the Delawares and others joined the French in making war. For some time the Friends, or Quakers, had observed with sorrow the treatment of the Indians by Thomas and John Penn and the traders, and, impelled by their uniform sympathy with the oppressed, they formed a society in 1756 called the Friendly Association for Regaining and Preserving Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures. The society was a continual thorn in the sides of the proprietors and Indian traders, for the active members of the association watched the interests of the red men with keen vigilance, attended every treaty, and prevented a vast amount of fraud and cheating in the dealings of the white people with the natives. Charles Thomson, afterwards secretary of the Continental Congress, was a very efficient co-worker with them, making truthful reports of the proceedings at treaties, and preventing false or garbled statements. The Friendly Association continued until 1764. Friends, SOCIETY OF, otherwise known as Quakers, claim as their founder GEORGE Fox (q. v.), an Englishman; born in Drayton, Leicestershire, in 1624. The first general meeting of Friends was held in 1668, and the second in 1672. Owing to the severe persecution which they suffered in England, a number of them came to America in 1656, and landed at Boston, whence they were later scattered by persecution. The first annual meeting in America is said to have been held in Rhode Island in 1661. It was separated from the London annual meeting in 1683. Me. Annual meetings were founded in This meeting was held regularly at New- Maryland in 1672, in Pennsylvania and port till 1878, since when it has al- New Jersey in 1681, in North Carolina ternated between Newport and Portland, in 1708, and in Ohio in 1812. The Friends have no creed, and no sacraments. As the flotilla passed the palace at Green They claim that a spiritual baptism and a spiritual communion without outward signs are all that are necessary for men. They believe in the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, and, therefore, accept the atonement and sanctification. Belief in the "immediate influence of the Holy Spirit" is said to be the most prominent feature of their faith. They have monthly meetings, embracing a number of local meetings. They also have quarterly meetings, to which they send delegates, and these latter may deal with cases of discipline and accept or dissolve local or monthly meetings. The highest body, however, is the yearly meeting, to which all other meetings are subordinate. The Friends in the United States are divided into four bodies, known as the Orthodox, Hicksite, Wilburite, and Primitive. The first mentioned greatly exceeds the others in strength. In 1900 they reported 1,279 ministers, 820 meeting-houses, and 91,868 members. The last reports of the other branches showed: Hicksites, 115 ministers, 201 meeting-houses, and 21,992 members; Wilburites, 38 ministers, 52 meeting-houses, and 4,329 members; and Primitives, 11 ministers, 9 meeting-houses, and 232 members. See QUAKERS. Fries, JOIN, rioter; born in Bucks county, Pa., in 1764. During the windowtax riots in Northampton, Bucks, and Montgomery counties, Pa., in 1798-99, Fries headed the rioters, liberated several prisoners whom the sheriff had arrested, and in turn arrested the assessors. Fries was arrested and tried on the charge of high treason, pronounced guilty, and sentenced to be hanged in April, 1800. President Adams issued a general amnesty which covered all the offenders. Frobisher, MARTIN, navigator; born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, about 1536; was a mariner by profession, and yearned for an opportunity to go in search of a northwest passage to India. For fifteen years he tried in vain to get pecuniary aid to fit out ships. At length the Earl of Warwick and others privately fitted out two small barks of 25 tons each and a pinnace, with the approval of Queen Elizabeth, and with these he sailed from Deptford in June, 1576, declaring that he would succeed or never come back alive. wich, the Queen, sitting at an open window, waved her hand towards the commander in token of good-will and farewell. Touching at Greenland, Frobisher crossed over and coasted up the shores of Labrador to latitude 63°, where he entered what he supposed to be a strait, but which was really a bay, which yet bears the name of Frobisher's Inlet. He landed, and promptly took possession of the country around in the name of his Queen. Trying to sail farther northward, he was barred by pack-ice, when he turned and sailed for England, bearing a heavy black stone which he believed contained metal. He gave the stone to a man whose wife, in a passion, cast it into the fire. The husband snatched the glowing mineral from the flames and quenched it in some vinegar, when it glittered like gold. On fusing it, some particles of the precious metal were found. When this fact became known a gold fever was produced. Money |