Hea-Hen: Hearn through Henson

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


HEARN, William, abolitionist, Indiana, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-64.


HEATH, William, 1737-1814, Massachusetts, soldier, statesman.  Member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Ratifying Convention. 

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 43; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 154; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 472; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 10, p. 473)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 472:

HEATH, WILLIAM (March 2, 1737-January 24, 1814), Revolutionary soldier, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Payson) Heath. He was primarily a farmer by occupation. On April 19, 1759, he was married to Sarah Lockwood of Cambridge. Although he did not serve in the Seven Years' War, he was enrolled in a militia company, and in 1765 he joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, subsequently becoming a captain, and supplementing his training by a careful study of works on military science and tactics. In the growing dispute with Great Britain, he exerted an influence in arousing a spirit of resistance. Over the pseudonym of "A Militia Man" he published in the Boston Gazette in 1770 two articles advocating military preparedness. In 1761 he had represented Roxbury in the General Court. In 1771 he was again elected to that body and remained a member until its dissolution by Governor Gage in 1774. When the crisis became imminent he was a member of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and served on the committees of safety and supplies. In February 1775 the Provincial Congress commissioned him a brigadier-general, and at the battle of Bunker Hill he won promotion to the rank of major-general. When the Continental Congress took charge of the army before Boston, Heath became a brigadier-general under Washington. A year later he was commissioned major-general in the Continental service. In January 1777, while attempting to carry out Washington's orders in connection with an attack on Fort Independence, Heath handled the affair so badly that he brought upon himself a reprimand from the commander-in-chief. Thenceforth he was used for staff work rather than for active fighting.

During 1777 and 1778, after the Fort Independence episode, Heath was placed in command of the Eastern district, with headquarters in Boston. It fell to him in this position to act as guardian of Burgoyne's surrendered army, until it was removed to Virginia. Then, in the summer of 1778, when General John Sullivan and the Boston populace were threatening the French admiral, D'Estaing, with vengeance, because of disappointment over the proposed attack upon the British in Rhode Island, Washington wrote to Heath to try to prevent the Bostonians from casting unwarranted aspersions upon the French. In June 1779 he was transferred once more to the lower Hudson and remained in command there until the encl of the war, with the exception of a period in 1780 when he was sent to Rhode Island to prepare for the arrival of Rochambeau's French army. On July 1, 1783, Heath returned to his farm in Roxbury, where he spent the remaining thirty years of his life. He served as a member of the state convention which in 1788 ratified the Federal Constitution, in 1791 and 1792 was a member of the state Senate, and in 1792 was judge of probate. In 1806 he was elected to the lieutenant-governorship, but he declined to serve. He seems to have been a man of solid rather than brilliant part s, and probably a better farmer than a strategist or tactician.

[For Heath's letters and papers see the Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 5 series, Volume IV (1878), 6 series, volumes IV (1904) and V (1905). For his own record of his military career see the Memoirs of Major-General Heath (1798), reprinted by Wm. Abbott in 1901 and by R. R. Wilson in 1904. Other sources include J. M. Bugbee, Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati (1890), and th e Boston Daily Advertiser, January 28, 1814.]

R. V. H.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 154:

HEATH, William, soldier, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 7 March, 1737; died there, 24 January, 1814. He was brought up on the same farm on which his ancestor settled in 1636. He was active in organizing the militia before the Revolution, was a captain in the Suffolk regiment, of which he afterward became colonel, joined the artillery company of Boston, and was chosen its commander in 1770, in which year he wrote a series of essays in a Boston newspaper on the importance of military discipline and skill in the use of arms over the signature “A Military Countryman.” He was a representative in the general assembly in 1761, and again in 1771-'4, a member of the committees of correspondence and safety, and of the Provincial congress in 1774-'5. He was appointed a provincial brigadier-general on 8 December, 1774, performed valuable services in the pursuit of the British troops from Concord on 19 April, 1775, organized and trained the undisciplined forces at Cambridge before the battle of Bunker Hill, was made a major-general of provincial troops on 20 June, 1775, and upon the organization of the Continental army was, on 22 June, commissioned as a brigadier-general, and stationed with his command at Roxbury. On 9 August, 1776, he was made a major-general in the Continental army. In March, 1776, he was ordered to New York, and opposed the evacuation of the city. After the battle of White Plains he took command of the posts in the Highlands. In 1777 he was assigned to the command of the eastern department, embracing Boston and its vicinity, and had charge of the prisoners of Burgoyne's army at Cambridge. In June, 1779, he was ordered to the command of the posts on the Hudson, with four regiments, and remained in that vicinity till the close of the war, going to Rhode Island for a short period on the arrival of the French forces in July, 1780. He returned to his farm after the war, was a member of the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, a state senator in 1791-'2, probate judge of Norfolk county in 1793, and was elected lieutenant- governor in 1806, but declined the office. He was the last surviving major-general of the Revolutionary army, and published “Memoirs of Major-General William Heath, containing Anecdotes, Details of Skirmishes, Battles, etc., during the American War” (Boston, 1798). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 154.


HECKER, Friedrich Karl Franz (September 28, 1811-March 24, 1881), German revolutionist, Union soldier, farmer. Though never accepting political office, he was one of the early Republicans, was on the Fremont electoral ticket, stumped the East and West against slavery, especially where Germans had settled, and was an ardent supporter of Lincoln.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 493-495:

HECKER, FRIEDRICH KARL FRANZ (September 28, 1811-March 24, 1881), German revolutionist, Union soldier, farmer, was born in Eichtersheim, Baden. His father was well-to-do, a court counsellor under Furst-Primas von Dalberg; his mother, nee Von Lueders, was of noble family. After an early training in the Lyceum at Mannheim, he studied law and history at the universities of Heidelberg and Munich, receiving at the latter his doctor's degree in law. After a visit to Paris in 1835, he settled down in Mannheim and rapidly gained distinction as an advocate. Drawn into politics by his election in 1842 to the Second Chamber of Baden, he led, with Itzstein and Sander, the liberal movement for parliamentary government. His speech in the Chamber of Baden opposing the incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein with Denmark won him fame throughout Germany, and his popularity increased when on a visit to Berlin in 1845 he was expelled from Prussia. Not willing to compromise on, halfway measures, as were his colleagues Bassermann and Welker, he resigned in 1847 and made a trip to Southern France and Algiers, but he was soon recalled by his constituents. Regarded as the champion of popular rights, he drew up, with Gustav Struve, the program of the Claims of the People of Baden at the Offenburg popular convention, September 12, 1847. Idealist that he was, he thought the German people were ready to throw over their monarchistic and particularistic traditions at once and declare themselves for a united republic. Such a resolution he brought forward in the Preliminary Parliament (Vorparlament) at Frankfurt, March 31, 1848. The moderates won, however, and when the government of Baden resorted to energetic measures, Hecker proclaimed the German Republic from Constance, and summoned the people of the Lake District (Seekreis) and the peasants of the Black Forest to armed resistance. He hoped for a spontaneous uprising in vast numbers of such as had been carried away by his fiery eloquence and magnetic personality, but the poorly armed force of a few thousand that gathered about him was no match for the combined troops of Baden and Hessen under General von Gagern. In the engagement near Kandern, April 20, 1848, Hecker's little army was badly routed and the leader fled across the Swiss border. Hecker was honored with reelection to the Chamber, but the Baden government would not respect his immunity, and the new Frankfurt Parliament refused to admit him to a seat as a member. He decided to emigrate, with the hope of collecting funds for the support of the revolution. The defeated Hecker was received like a conquering hero in New York City, and the ovations were repeated in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. With the aid of friends he selected a farm near Belleville, Illinois., and planned to join the colony of "Latin farmers," but when in May 1849 the Baden government was overthrown, the revolutionary Provisional Government called him home. He got as far as Strasbourg, where he learned that the Prussian armies had already vanquished the revolutionary forces in the Palatinate and Baden, and that the cause upon which he had staked all was lost. Emigration was now compulsory. With his wife (nee Josephine Eisenhardt of Mannheim) and two children he set sail from France and returned to his Belleville farm, situated near what later became the village of Summerfield, St. Clair County, Illinois.

Hecker became a successful farmer, cattle raiser, and viticulturist. A born leader, he could not keep out of politics when great questions agitated his adopted country. Though never accepting political office, he was one of the early Republicans, was on the Fremont electoral ticket, stumped the East and West against slavery, especially where Germans had settled, and was a n ardent supporter of Lincoln. At the age of fifty when the Civil War began he served as a private soldier under General Sigel, until he was made colonel of the 24th Illinois. Difficulties with superior officers caused him to resign hot-headedly, but soon another regiment was recruited for him in Chicago, the 82nd Illinoi s, which he led for the greater part of the war. He was wounded severely at Chancellorsville, but recovered quickly and did his part in the battles of Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and elsewhere. He returned to his farm after the war, but remained a chosen leader of the German element on public occasions and in public affairs. His speech at St. Louis in 1871 (Festrede zur St. Louiser Friedensfeier) was noteworthy, showing his adherence to republican principles. Another address, delivered July 4 of the same year a t Trenton, Illinois, is included in D. J. Brewer's World's Best Orations (1899, Volume VII). He was active in the Liberal Republican movement of 1872 and, although he opposed Greeley's nomination and spoke against him in the campaign, gave hearty support to the state Liberal Republican ticket. In 1873 he visited Germany. He died of pneumonia at his Summerfield farm on March 24, 1881, after a very brief illness. His wife and five children survived him. Reeker's winning personality and inspiring oratory, his integrity, wholeheartedness, and readiness to sacrifice all for the cause in which he believed, made him almost a legendary hero, in spite of his impetuosity, tactlessness, and vanity.

[Allegemeine Deutsche Biographie, Bd. 50 (1905); F. K. F. H ecker, Die Erhebung des Volkes in Baden fur die Deutsche Republik im Friihjahr 1848 (1848); Friedrich von Weech, Badische Biographiee11, Bd. 4 (1891); Karl Mathy, Aus dem Nachlass: Briefe al1s den lahren 1846- 1848 (1898), ed. by Ludwig Mathy; Friedrich Hecker und sein Anteil an der Geschiclzte Deutsch/ands 1md Amerikas (1881); Erinner1111 g an Friedrich Hecker (1882); Redenmd Vorlesungen von Friedrich Hecker (1872); Memoirs of Gustave Koerner 1809- 1896 (1909), ed. by T. J. McCormack; Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (1907); 1848:  Der Vorkan,pf deutscher Einhet und Freiheit (1914); F. I. Herriott, "The Conference in the Deutsches Haus, Chicago, May 14-15, 1860," Trans. Illinois State Historical Society ... 1928 (1928); St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 25, 188 1.]

A.B.F.


HEDDING, Simeon, New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


HEILPRIN, Michael, 1823-1888, opponent of slavery. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 158; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 502)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 158:

HEILPRIN, Michael, born in Piotrkow, Poland, in 1823; died in Summit, New Jersey, 10 May, 1888. He joined the Hungarians in 1848, and was attached in 1849 to the literary bureau of the department of the interior during Kossuth's brief sway. In 1856 he came to the United States, and soon acquired a reputation for scholarship, both in the oriental and modern languages. He was a frequent contributor to literary journals, and his work in connection with the “American Cyclopædia” shows his industry, breadth of view, and exact scholarly attainments. Mr. Heilprin felt a special interest in the Russian-Jewish emigrants to the United States since 1882, and his intelligent direction and ardent personal sympathy led to the establishment of several successful agricultural colonies in this country. He published “The Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews” (vols. i. and ii., New York, 1879-'80).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


HEINZEN, Karl Peter (February 22, 1809-November 12, 1880), German revolutionist, journalist, and author. He founded the radical paper Der Volkerbund, only one number of which appeared. After its financial failure he again edited Die deutsche Schnellpost, subsequently the New Yorker Deutsche Zeitung, and finally the Janus, all of which failed in quick succession. Finding a new great cause in the abolition of slavery, which he wished to agitate in a slave state, he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1853 to become editor of the Herold des Westens. His establishment was burned, but German friends gave him a new start with a paper called the Pioneer, founded in 1854, removed to Cincinnati, then to New York, and finally in 1859 to Boston.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 508-509:

HEINZEN, KARL PETER (February 22, 1809-November 12, 1880), German revolutionist, journalist, and author, was born in Grevenbroich, in the Dusseldorf district of Rhenish Prussia, son of Joseph and Marie Elisabeth (Schmitz) Heinzen. His father during the French Revolution was one of the most ardent of Rhenish republicans, but turned conservative when he accepted the post of Prussian forest inspector in 1815. The early death of his mother deprived the boy of her sympathy and love, and the restraint put upon him at home and at school served to foster a ruling passion for opposing all arbitrary authority. After completing his studies in the Gymnasium of Cleve, he began the study of medicine at Bonn in 1827, but on account of a revolutionary speech was dismissed from the university. Wishing to see the world, he entered the Dutch military service, which brought him the rank of a subaltern officer and a trip to the East Indies in 1829. Some years after he published a graphic picture of his eighteen months' sojourn there, in a work entitled Reise nach Batavia (1841). After he had returned home in 1833, though he had suffered mental tortures under the monotony of a soldier's life, he performed the required year of Prussian military service. His deep attachment for the accomplished and beautiful Luise Schiller during this period was a turning point in his early life. She was the daughter of the lawyer Moras in Cleve, and widow of the cavalry captain, Richard Schiller. She inspired the most beautiful of Heinzen's poems, those lamenting her early death. The care and education of her four children Heinzen, then twenty-six years of age, took upon himself, sacrificing eight years of his life in most distasteful and ill paid clerical service under a bureaucratic government, a life especially galling to a man of his independent spirit. In 1840 the oldest daughter, Henriette Schiller, became his wife, to whom and their son, Karl Frederick, born in 1844, Heinzen dedicated his autobiography, Erlebtes, in remembrance of their having borne bravely and c:heerfully the persecutions and miseries of which the book gives account. His positions in the Prussian civil service were first, that of a tax-collector, later clerk in the Rhenish railway system at Kiln. He then accepted a better paid position with the Aachen Fire Insurance Company, the duties of which also left him some leisure for writing. A volume of poems, Gedichte (1841), was favorably reviewed by the leading critics Menzel and Kurz, who saw in his work virility, genuine emotion, and unconventionality. It was in satire, however, that Heinzen early found his proper sphere. Die Ehre (1842), and Die gehehne Konduitenliste (1842) sharply criticized Prussian civil government, and he became even bolder in his contributions to the radical journals Leipzige Allgemeine Zeitmig and Rheinische Zeitung, which were both forbidden in Prussia. This interdict angered Heinzen into writing his severe arraignment of Prussian bureaucracy, Die preussische Bureai1 kratie (1844), which was widely circulated in spite of the order of confiscation. Criminal proceedings were instituted against the author, who, however, escaped to Belgium and in 1846 went to Switzerland, whence he se nt his broadsides of revolutionary propaganda into German territory, aided secretly and skilfully by liberal friends. Noteworthy among his bitter satires were Bin Steckbrief (1845), Mehr als zwanzig Bogen (1845), Politische und impolitische Fahrten itnd Abentelter (1846), Macht euch bereit (1846). The pens of Heine and of Borne in the preceding decade were not more caustic and effective. The radical of radicals was banished successively from Zurich, Basel-Land, Bern, and Geneva, and in January 1848 he came to the United States. In New York, in conjunction with Ivan Tyssowski, the Krakaur evolutionist, he edited Die deutsche Schnellp ost, founded by Eichthal. When the Paris revolution broke out in February 1848, Heinzen hastened back and took active part in the second Baden revolution, but antagonized most of the other leaders. After the collapse he was not tolerated in France or Switzerland, but was transported with his family to London. When all hope of a third revolution had to be abandoned, he set sail for America, arriving in New York in 1850. There he founded the radical paper Der Volkerbund, only one number of which appeared. After its financial failure he again edited Die deutsche Schnellpost, subsequently the New Yorker Deutsche Zeitung, and finally the Janus, all of which failed in quick succession. Finding a new great cause in the abolition of slavery, which he wished to agitate in a slave state, he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1853 to become editor of the Herold des Westens. His establishment was burned, but German friends gave him a new start with a paper called the Pioneer, founded in 1854, removed to Cincinnati, then to New York, and finally in 1859 to Boston. Into this weekly journal he poured his intellectual powers and his soul for more than twenty years. Extremely radical, always advocating unpopular causes, it yielded at best a hand-to-mouth existence, but the editor never considered his material welfare, and his able wife for long periods reduced publication expenses to a minimum by serving as type-setter and business manager. The Pionier appeared until December 1879, a year before Heinzen's death.

A born satirist, he spared neither friend nor foe; opposition he could not tolerate; the value of tact and cooperation he never learned. A courageous seeker after truth, he could not compromise with truth as others saw it. The most intellectual of all the German revolutionists, he n ever mastered the English language and his works with very few exceptions became known to only a limited few. His masterful German style with its clear flow, caustic wit, and brilliant sallies could not easily be transferred into another language. He thought a truly democratic republic must not be based alone on equal political but also on equal social rights. He did not believe in communism, for th at could be maintained only through an unendurable despotism. The sacredness of property based on individual work he considered a necessity for personal independence. Heinzen's philosophy was materialistic, his religion ethical, non-Christian, anti constitutional. He was opposed to all strongly centralized government, but had nothing constructive to offer in its place.

An edition of his collected works was to comprise twelve volumes, but only five appeared. There is a four-volume collection of his essays and addresses under the title: Teutscher Radikalismus in Amerika: Ausgewahlte Vortrage (1867-79). Among his essays, editions of which appeared in English are: Mankind the Criminal (1864); Six Letters to a Pious Man (1869); The True Character of Humboldt (1869), an oration; What is Real Democracy'! (1871); Lessons of a Century (1876), a Fourth of July oration; What is Humanity? (1877); Separation of State and Church (1882); The Rights of Women and the Sexual Relation (1891).

[Erlebtes, Autobiography, esters Theil (1864), zweiter Theil (18 74); Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Ed. 50 (1905); Heinrich Kurz, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, Ed. 4 (5th ed. 1894); Deutsch-amerikanisches Conversations-Lexicon, Ed. 5 (1877), ed. by A. J. Schem; H. A. Rattermann, Der Deutsche Pionier, April-September 1881; P. 0. Schinnerer, in Jahrbuch der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Historischen Gesellschaft von Illinois . . . 1915 (1916); Boston Transcript, November 13, 1880; manuscript sources in the possession of Henriette M. Heinzen, Cambridge, Massachusetts]

A. B. F.


HELPER, Hinton Rowan, 1829-1909, North Carolina, abolitionist leader, diplomat, writer.  Wrote anti-slavery book, The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It, 1857.  It argued that slavery was bad for the South and its economy.  The book was banned from distribution in the South. 

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 353; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 196, 197, 219, 240, 327; Pease, William H., & Pease, Jane H. The Antislavery Argument. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1965, pp. 163-172; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 60, 63, 114, 225-226, 333-334, 426, 682-684; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 161-162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 517; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 420-422; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 10, p. 542)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 517:

HELPER, HINTON ROWAN (December 27, 1829-March 8, 1909), author, was born in Rowan (now Davie) County, North Carolina. He was the youngest child of Daniel and Sarah (Brown) Helper. His father, whose parents (spelling their name Helfer) emigrated to North Carolina from the vicinity of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1752, had acquired a small farm and several slaves but died the year after Helper was born so the boy grew up in straitened circumstances. He managed to graduate from Mocksville Academy in 1848 and for a time worked in a store in the neighboring town of Salisbury. In 1850 he went to New York and from there, by way of Cape Horn, to California. He returned three years later with his mind greatly stimulated and wrote The Land of Gold (1855). He afterward claimed his publisher forced him to eliminate from this certain criticisms of slavery based upon his observation of free labor in California and thus intensified his dislike of the institution, but the book itself (pp. 221-22, 275-79), hardly supports that explanation of his opinions during the following year when he wrote The Impending Crisis. He moved to New York as a safer place to live after the appearance of this work, which was a brief in behalf of the non-slaveholding whites of the South. Contrasting the economic condition of the free and slave states, he attributed the backwardness of the South to the impoverishment of free labor by slavery. There was no trace of interest in the negro and his real or fancied wrongs. He attacked the slave-holders violently and threatened a slave uprising if necessary to overthrow the system. The book had a significance not then realized as an expression of the growing feeling against slavery among non-slave-holders and small slave-holders in North Carolina. Published in 1857, it caused a sensation, one far greater than Uncle Tom's Cabin produced. It was furiously attacked in the South bitt few dared to read it and it thus remained without an adequate answer. Instead of pointing out the real weakness of the book, those who read it cast doubts on Helper's integrity. Samuel M. Wolfe in Helper's Impending Crisis Dissected (1860, p. 75) accused him of stealing money from his employer. This charge continued to be repeated and believed in spite of Helper's denial (Bassett, post, p. 16) and his attempts to prove its falsity by a certificate from the employer (New Englander, November 1857, p. 647). In the North the book was read and in 1859 a fund was raised to print one hundred thousand copies of it for Republican campaign use in 1860. John Sherman's indorsement of it caused his defeat for speaker of the House in 1859 and the heat which it aroused was a powerful contributing cause of the Civil War.

In 1861 Lincoln appointed Helper consul at Buenos Aires, where he tried to establish close relations with South America, in 1863 married Maria Luisa Rodriguez, and served satisfactorily though uneventfully until he resigned in 1866. He returned to the United States and wrote in quick succession three books on the negro question. Nojoque (1867), often described as an inconsistency, was to Helper logically the next step. It is a furious denunciation of the negro as a menace to the South and to white labor, and the purpose avowed in its preface was "to write the negro out of America ... and out of existence. " Helper was naturally opposed to congressional reconstruction, foreseeing its results and detesting its theory of negro equality. Negroes in Negroland (1868) was an even more elaborate continuation of the theme, while Noonday Exigencies (1871) was a plea for a new political party. His detestation of the negro continued to the end of his life and, as long as his circumstances allowed him any choice, he would not stay where negroes were employed.

After resigning from the consulship Helper acted as attorney to citizens of the United States in the collection of their claims against South American governments and interested himself in the various phases of political and commercial relations with South America, such as the establishment of regular steamship communication, the building of a canal at one of the three feasible sites, the subsidy of a commercial marine, and the character and efficiency of the navy, which he felt failed in its duty to represent a friendly United States in South American waters. His Oddments of Andean Diplomacy (1879) is a collection of papers and letters pertaining to these activities. More and more, however, his time and thought were absorbed in plans to promote a railroad from Hudson Bay to the Strait of Magellan. He offered prizes to the amount of $5,000 for the best essays and poem on the subject and published five of the papers as The Three Americas Railway (1881). He wrote thousands of letters, memorialized Congress, interviewed hundreds of influential men, and paid several visits to South America in the interests of the plan. Becoming a monomaniac on the subject, he called himself "the new Christopher Columbus." He was a man of keen intellect, with a touch of genius akin to madness.

Helper's last years were spent in poverty. Having sacrificed comfort, fortune, and family to his dream, when hope waned he grew despondent and bitter, finally committed suicide in Washington, and was buried by strangers.

[J. S. Bassett, "Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina," Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science, 16 series, no. 6 (1898); S. A. Ashe, Biographical History of North Carolina, Volume VIII (1917); Charlotte Observer, April 18, 1909; W. S. Pelletreau, "Hinton Rowan Helper and His Book," Americana, August 1911; The South in the Building of the Nation, Volume XI (1909); Nation, March II, 18, 1909; Washington Post, March 10, 1909.]

J.G. de R.H.J.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 161-162:

HELPER, Hinton Rowan, author, born near Mocskville, Davie county, North Carolina, 27 December, 1829. He was graduated at Mocksville academy in 1848. In 1851 he went to California by way of Cape Horn, and spent nearly three years on the Pacific coast. He was appointed U. S. consul at Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, in 1861, and held this office until 1867. In 1867 he returned to Asheville, North Carolina, where he resided until he settled in New York. He has travelled extensively through North, South, and Central America, in Europe, and also in Africa. He is the projector of the “Three Americas Railway,” which he proposes shall eventually form one connected line from Bering strait to the Strait of Magellan. He was the originator and efficient promotor of the commercial commission from the United States to Central and South America. Mr. Helper was brought into notice just before the civil war by his “Impending Crisis of the South” (New York, 1857). In this book he earnestly opposed slavery on economical grounds, although he was not friendly to the colored race. The work was used by the Republican party as a campaign document in 1860, and 140,000 copies were sold between 1857 and 1861. His other works are “The Land of Gold” (Baltimore, 1855); “Nojoque, a Question for a Continent” (New York and London, 1867); “The Negroes in Negroland, the Negroes in America, and the Negroes Generally” (New York, 1868); and “The Three Americas Railway” (St. Louis, 1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 161-162.


HEMENWAY, Mary Porter Tileston (December 20, 1820-March 6, 1894), philanthropist. After the Civil War she helped the establishment of schools on the southern seaboard for both whites and blacks. Later, she made gifts to Armstrong at Hampton and Booker Washington at Tuskegee for the further education of the freedmen.

(A Memorial of the Life and Benefactions of Mary Hemenway, 1820-1894 (1927); Memorial Services in Honor of Mrs. Mary Hemenway by the Boston Public School Teachers (1894), ed. by Larkin Dunton; Katherine H. Stone)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 518-519:

HEMENWAY, MARY PORTER TILESTON (December 20, 1820-March 6, 1894), philanthropist, was born in New York of old New England ancestry, the daughter of a shipping merchant, Thomas Tileston, and of Mary (Porter) Tileston. She went to a private school in New York, and at home "was reared," as she said, "principally on household duties, the Bible, and Shakespeare" (Memorial Services, p. 21). On June 25, 1840, she married Augustus Hemenway, a successful merchant, and thereafter she was identified with Boston, Massachusetts. Her husband died in 1876, but she survived him eighteen years, devoting her wealth and her energies to the development of numerous educational and philanthropic projects. She read carefully, loved pictures, and knew well leading writers and citizens. She was a member of James Freeman Clarke's Church of the Disciples. A queenly woman without affectation or condescension, she combined in her philanthropic work enthusiasm with effectiveness. She sought able helpers and her benefactions were generally the result of careful thought.

After the Civil War she helped the establishment of schools on the southern seaboard for both whites and blacks. Later, she made gifts to Armstrong at Hampton and Booker Washington at Tuskegee for the further education of the freedmen. In the course of her welfare work for soldiers' families during the war she had discovered that many of the soldiers' wives did not know how to sew; accordingly, in 1865 she provided a teacher and materials for systematic instruction in sewing in a Boston public school. The experiment brought good results, and the instruction was taken over by the city. In 1883, she started an industrial-vocation school in Boston and two years later, in 1885, she opened a kitchen in a public school, the first venture of its kind in the United States. After three years the city assumed the cost of the kitchen, and cooking as well as sewing became part of the program of public education. Meantime, in 1887, Mrs. Hemenway had started the Boston Normal School of Cooking, which after her death became the Mary Hemenway Department of Household Arts in the State Normal School at Framingham. Next, for a year, she furnished a hundred Boston teachers free instruction in gymnastics, using the Swedish system as best adapted to schoolrooms. In order to interest the public, she promoted in 1889 a conference on physical training, held in Boston, which led to the introduction of gymnastics into the city's public schools, by action of the School Commits tee, and was influential in stimulating nationwide interest in the cause of physical education (F. E. Leonard, A Guide to the History of Physical Education, 1923). In 1889, also, she established the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, which twenty years later became the Department of Hygiene and Physical Education of Wellesley College. She promoted, at much personal effort, the Boston Teachers' Mutual Benefit Association.

In 1876, in order to save from destruction the Old South Meeting-house, famous for meetings of Revolutionary days, she gave $100,000-a quarter of the total sum required-her hope being to make the old church a center for the cultivation of patriotic idealism through education in history. Prizes were offered for essays by high-school pupils, historical lectures were given, the Old South Leaflets, a series of reprints of historical "sources" edited by Edwin D. Mead, were issued, and the young persons who had competed  for prizes were organized into a historical society. At a time when the history of the United States had no place in the school curriculum, the "Old South work" was almost unique. Such scholars as John Fiske and James K. Hosmer [qq.v.] furthered Mrs. Hemenway's plans and were helped by her to publish lectures and biographies. Her interest in American history was further evidenced by her promotion of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition begun in 1886 under Frank H. Cushing [q.v.] of the United States Bureau of Ethnology and continued after 1900 under J. W. Fewkes [q.v.] of the Bureau. The collections made by the expedition are kept in the Hemenway Room at the Peabody Museum at Harvard; the results of its investigations are set forth in five volumes, A Journal of American Ethnology and Archaeology (1891-1908), edited by Fewkes and published at Mrs. Hemenway's expense. Her will provided for the support of her various enterprises for fifteen years, during which time her trustees were able to put them on a permanent basis.

[A Memorial of the Life and Benefactions of Mary Hemenway, 1820-1894 (privately printed, 1927), preface signed by Mary Wilder Tileston; Memorial Services in Honor of Mrs. Mary Hemenway by the Boston Public School Teachers (1894), ed. by Larkin Dunton; Katherine H. Stone, " Mrs. Mary Hemenway and Household Arts in the Boston Public Schools," in Jour. of Home Economics, January 1929; E. D. Mead, The Old South Work (1899); L. V. Briggs, History and Genealogy of the Cabot Family (1927), Volume II; M. D. R. Young, An Ideal Patriot of Peace (1894); E. E. Hale in Lend a Hand, April 1894; C. G. Ames, Ibid., July 1894; Agnes Crane in Leisure Hour, September 1894; Boston Evening Transcript, March 6, 15, 1894; Boston Post, March 7, 1894.]

J.R.B.


HEMPHILL, Joseph, 1770-1842, jurist, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania.  Opposed extension of slavery into the new territories.  Speaking on the concept of citizenship in relation to slavery, he state in the debate of 1820: “If being a native, and free born, and of parents belonging to no other nation or tribe, does not constitute a citizen in this country, I am at a loss to know in what manner citizenship is acquired by birth… when a foreigner is naturalized, he is only put in the place of a native freeman.  This is the genuine idea of naturalization… But citizenship is rather in the nature of a compact, expressly or tacitly made; it is a political tie, and the mutual obligations are contribution and protection.” 

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 107-108, 383n34; 16 Congress, 2 Session, 1820-21, p. 599; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 162; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 521; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 10, p. 556)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 521:

HEMPHILL, JOSEPH (January 7, 1770-May 29, 1842), lawyer, congressman, judge, son of Joseph and Ann (Wills) Hemphill, was born in Thornbury Township, Chester (later Delaware) County, Pennsylvania. His father, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, was a well-to-do farmer. Joseph attended grammar school at West Chester and received the bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. He then studied law and in 1793 was admitted to the bar. From 1797 to 1800 he was a member of the state Assembly, where he was active in securing the final adjustment of the Wyoming controversy. In 1800 he was elected to Congress as a Federalist. His first speech, in opposition to the repeal of the judiciary act (February 16, 1802), earned for him the title, "Single-Speech Hemphill." Charging that the Republicans aimed at destroying the Constitution, he predicted that if the act were repealed, "it will become as much a matter of course to remove the judges as the heads of departments, and in bad times the judges would be no better than a sword in the hands of a party, to put out of the way great and obnoxious characters for pretended treasons" (Annals of Congress, 7 Congress 1 Session, col. 544). In 1804 he moved to Philadelphia to continue his growing law practice. Although he was a Federalist, many of his best friends and clients were Republicans. In the Constitutionalist victory (1805) he was sent to the state legislature, where he assisted in revising the judiciary. In 1811 Governor Snyder, arch-Jacobin, appointed him first president-judge of the district court for Philadelphia City and County, an unusual tribute for those partisan times. He was recommissioned in 1817 but resigned in 1819 owing to his delicate health and weak eyes.

From 1819 to 1831, except for two years, 1827-29, Hemphill was again in Congress. As chairman of the committee on the slave trade he attacked as unconstitutional (December 11, 1820) Missouri's discrimination against free negroes and mulattoes, contending that the provision in the federal Constitution regarding privileges and immunities was a condition precedent and, until complied with, no state was or could be created. A report on the enormities of the slave trade (House Report 59, 16 Congress, 2 Session), which he and Charles Fenton Mercer prepared, evoked favorable comment in England. An administration man throughout this period, a member of the committee on the judiciary and of that on the Cumberland Road (1822), he advocated internal improvements, the encouragement of domestic manufactures, and relief for war veterans. His political career ended with a term in the state Assembly, 1831-32. Having become interested in porcelain manufacturing, after visiting European factories in 1827 he engaged in that business in Philadelphia. The enterprise failed and was soon abandoned. Hemphill married Margaret, daughter of Robert Coleman of Lancaster, on September 11, 1806.

[Sources include: Gilbert Cope and H. G. Ashmead, Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogy and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania (1904), I, 112-13; J. S. Futhey and G. Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (1881); and North American and Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), May 30, 1842. For reception of slave trade report in Great Britain see the Edinburgh Review, October 1821, p. 50, and T. C. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 2 ser., Volume VII (1823), cols. 1400-02.]

J.H.P-g.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 162:

HEMPHILL, Joseph, jurist, born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1770; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 29 May, 1842. He received an academic education, studied law, and began to practice in Chester county He was an active Federalist, and in 1800 was elected to congress, serving one term, and distinguishing himself by a speech on the judiciary bill in 1801. In 1803 he removed to Philadelphia, was appointed the first president judge of that city and county, and served again in congress from 6 December, 1819, till 1826. In 1829 he was again elected, and served one term. He was a member of the state legislature, in 1831-'2. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 162.


HENDERSON, Archibald, 1768-1822, Raleigh, North Carolina, lawyer, former U.S. Congressman.  Officer in the Raleigh auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Brother of Leonard Henderson. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 164; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 523; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)


HENDERSON, John Brooks, 1826-1913, lawyer. U. S. Senator from Missouri.  Appointed Senator in 1863.  Member of the Republican Party.  He opposed President Buchanan's Kansas policy. Henderson strongly opposed the secession of Missouri and was a Union delegate to the convention and one of the most influential forces in preserving the state to the Union. Opposed abolitionist movement. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 163-164; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 527; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 10, p. 569; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 527:

HENDERSON, JOHN BROOKS (November 16, 1826-April 12, 1913), United States senator, was born in Danville, Virginia, the son of James and Jane (Dawson) Henderson. In 1832 the family moved to Lincoln County, Missouri, where a few years later his father was accidentally killed. His mother died soon afterward and he went to live for some years on the farm of a minister where he worked to the advantage of both brain and brawn, acquiring rugged health and obtaining a firm grounding in his studies. From then until the end of his life he was an omnivorous reader and a prodigious worker. At fifteen he began teaching in Pike County and also read law. Admitted to the bar in 1844, he began practice at Louisiana, the county-seat, rapidly built up a large practice, and, fortunate always in investments, accumulated a considerable property which developed ultimately into a large fortune. In politics he was an ardent Democrat and was elected to the legislature in 1848 and again in 1856. In both sessions he was prominent in railroad and banking legislation. During this period he was president of one of the branches of the state bank. He was defeated for Congress in 1850, 1858, and 1860, but he was judge of the court of common pleas for a short time and was offered a seat in the supreme court. In 1856 and in 1860 he was a presidential elector. Independent then as always, he opposed President Buchanan's Kansas policy; and in 1860, supporting Douglas, he was a delegate to the Charleston and Baltimore conventions. He was a state-rights Democrat, or at least so considered himself, but when the issue was drawn in 1861, he strongly opposed the secession of Missouri and was a Union delegate to the convention and one of the most influential forces in preserving the state to the Union. But he was opposed to the coercion of the seceded states. "Has it ever been supposed, by any member of this convention, that any man could be elected President of the United States who could so far disregard his duties under the Constitution and forget the obligation of his oath as to undertake the subjugation of the Southern States by military force? ... If so ... this Government is at an end" (Journal and Proceedings of the Missouri State Convention, post, pt. 2, pp. 91-92). Declaring secession "a damnable heresy," he was bitter against the North and the Abolitionist element of the Republican party which he thought had provoked the trouble and declared that revolution would be the better course for Missouri if Abolitionist doctrines were to prevail. He served on the federal relations committee and its report expressed his views. In the report of the commission appointed to receive the commissioner from Georgia he made a powerful argument for the Union, and his speech, made by request of the convention on March 5, was fiery and eloquent. The fall of Sumter and the call for troops changed his opinion as to coercion, and he raised a brigade of militia of which he became brigadier-general. He saw no active service and on January 17, 1862, was appointed United States senator to replace Trusten Polk. The following year, he was elected for a full term.

In the Senate, where he was next to the youngest member, Henderson quickly became prominent. He served on a number of important committees, including finance, foreign relations, and Indian affairs, and was responsible for much of the financial legislation of the war. He was greatly interested in the purchase of Alaska and aided Seward in arranging the terms. As chairman of the committee on Indian affairs he urged better treatment of the Indians, and in 1867, as chairman of the Indian peace commission, he concluded advantageous treaties, bringing peace with several tribes. He was friendly to Lincoln 's plan for compensated emancipation and voted for the resolution indorsing it. At Lincoln's request he went to Missouri to urge the policy, later introducing a bill to carry it into effect there. Lincoln informed him in the summer of 1862 of the proposed emancipation proclamation, but while approving, he, like Seward, urged its delay. In 1864, believing that an amendment abolishing slavery would pass only if proposed by a border-state member, he introduced the Thirteenth Amendment despite his belief that it meant his political death. He voted for the Wade-Davis bill, but he supported Lincoln's plan of reconstruction. In the session of 1865-66, however, he acted with the radicals, voting for the Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights Bills, and in February 1866, while opposing the Fourteenth Amendment as inadequate, he advocated negro suffrage and offered an amendment to the resolution which was almost identical to the wording used later in the Fifteenth Amendment. In the end he voted for the Fourteenth Amendment, but in 1869, when the Fifteenth Amendment was under discussion, he did not s pea k in its behalf and was absent when it was passed. He doubted the wisdom of the provision for military government in the Reconstruction acts but yielded the point. He was a severe critic of Johnson and voted for the Tenure of Office Act, but, alone of the regular Republican senators, voted against the bill forbidding the president to issue military orders except through the general in command of the army. From a sense of decency he would not vote for the resolution declaring Stanton's removal illegal and during the progress of the trial of Johnson he was liberal with respect to the admission of evidence. He found it hard to reach a decision, harder still to vote against his party, and visibly wavered, even offering to resign that his successor might vote guilty. When an insolent telegram of instructions came from Missouri his poise was restored, and he replied: "Say to my friends that I am sworn to do impartial justice according to law and conscience, and I will try to do it like an honest man" (Henderson, post, p. 208). he voted "not guilty," defied the attempt of the managers to fasten corruption upon him, assuring the Senate that he had no appropriate epithets for B. F. Butler's report, and, if he had, could not, in justice to himself or to the Senate, use them, and filed an unanswerable defense on legal grounds for his votes. He was denounced, threatened, and burned in effigy by Missouri radicals, but more than any other of the recalcitrant Republicans he was forgiven by his party. He was, of course, not a candidate for reelection. Returning to the law, he began to practise in St. Louis. In 1870 he supported the Liberals, but in 1872 he was back in the fold and the party candidate for governor and in 1873, candidate for senator. In 1875 he was appointed special federal district attorney to investigate and prosecute the whiskey ring, but he was soon removed for a speech attacking General Babcock, which Grant thought reflected upon him as well. Henderson knew Grant well and had sought in 1867 and 1868 to guide him away from some of his undesirable political associates. He did not approve of Grant's administration and supported him reluctantly in 1872. In 1876 and 1880 he was a determined opponent of the third-term movement. In 1884 he was president of the Republican national convention and was eager for the nomination of his friend and neighbor, General William T. Sherman.

In 1889 Henderson retired from practice and moved to Washington, D. C., where he spent the rest of his life. He was an interested delegate to the Pan-American Congress of 1889 and for many years, 1892-1911, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He wrote constantly for magazines and the press, preserved a lively interest in public affairs, entered into the social life of the capital with zest, entertaining a great deal, and grew gracefully to old age. He died after a brief illness and was buried at Arlington Cemetery. Although Henderson was a man of warm and affectionate nature, he had a gusty temper not infrequently aroused. In politics he was courageous and never hesitated to differ with his party. A touch of intellectual uncertainty in him is indicated by his frequently voting for measures he opposed in speech. He married, in 1868, Mary Newton Foote, the daughter of Elisha Foote of New York, who survived him.

[J. B. Henderson, "Emancipation and Impeachment," Century Magazine, December 1912; Journal and Proceedings of the Missouri State Convention Held ... March 1861 (1861); D. P. Dyer, Autobiography and Reminiscences (1922); Wm. Hyde and H. L. Conard, Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (1899), Volume II; Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), and St. Louis Republic, April 13, 1913. ]

J. G. de R. H.

Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888,Volume III, pp. 163-164:

HENDERSON, John Brooks, senator, born near Danville, Virginia, 16 November, 1826. He removed with his parents to Missouri in 1836, spent his early years on a farm, and taught while receiving his education. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, and in that year and 1856 was elected to the legislature, originating the state railroad and banking laws in 1857. He was a presidential elector in 1856 and 1860, and opposed Pierce's administration after the president's message on the Kansas question. Mr. Henderson was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention of 1860, and to the State convention of 1861 to determine whether Missouri should secede. In June, 1861, he equipped a regiment of state militia, which he commanded for a time. On the expulsion of Trusten Polk from the U. S. Senate, in 1862, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, and in 1863 was elected for the full term ending in 1869, serving as chairman on the committee on Indian affairs. He was one of the seven Republican senators whose votes defeated the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He was a commissioner to treat with hostile tribes of Indians in 1867, and in 1875 was appointed assistant U. S. district attorney to prosecute men that were accused of evading the revenue laws, but reflected on President Grant in one of his arguments and was removed from this office. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 163-164.


HENDERSON, Leonard, 1772-1833, Raleigh, North Carolina, jurist, former U.S. Congressman.  Officer in the Raleigh auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Brother of Archibald Henderson. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 164-165; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 529; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 71)


HENDRICKS, William (November 12, 1782- May 16, 1850), congressman, governor of Indiana. In the first state election under the constitution in August 1816 he was elected to Congress and was reelected in 1818 and 1820. In the latter year he favored placing an anti-slavery restriction on Missouri in the controversy over the admission of that state. He denounced slavery as "morally wrong," and "an epidemic in the body politic."

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 535-536; Logan Esarey, ed., Governors Messages and Letters, Volume III, which is Volume XII (1924) of the Indiana History Collections; A Biographical History of Eminent and Self-made Men of the State of Indiana (2 volumes, 1880).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 535-536:

HENDRICKS, WILLIAM (November 12, 1782- May 16, 1850), congressman, governor of Indiana, was born at Ligonier, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, the son of Abraham and Ann (Jamison) Hendricks. He received an elementary education in the common schools at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Jefferson (later Washington and Jefferson) College in 1810. In early manhood he mov ed to Cincinnati where he taught school and studied law, and in 1813 he removed to Madison, Indiana, while that state was still a territory. Madison remained his home until his death. In the year of his arrival he joined with a partner in publishing the Western Eagle and in the same year he was elected to the territorial legislature. Reelected in 1814, he was chosen speaker of the Assembly. He was also made territorial printer. In 1816, when the territorial convention met at Corydon to draw a constitution for the new state, Hendricks became secretary of the convention al, though he was not a delegate. In the first election under the constitution in August 1816 he was elected to Congress and was reelected in 1818 and 1820. In the latter year he favored placing an anti-slavery restriction on Missouri in the controversy over the admission of that state. He denounced slavery as "morally wrong," and "an epidemic in the body politic." Contending that Congress had power to impose conditions on a territory, he held that the people of a territory "are not possessed of sovereign State powers when making a constitution, nor when it is made, until Congress shall admit them to the Union" (Annals of Congress, 16 Congress, 1 Session, p. 1345).

In 1822 Hendricks was elected governor of Indiana without opposition, receiving nearly all the votes that were cast. He resigned from Congress to accept the governorship, but in 1825 he was elected to the United States Senate and resigned the governorship to take his seat there. In December 1830, he was elected to a second term in the Senate. During his twelve years of senatorial service he was a member of the committee on roads and canals, acting as chairman from 1830 to 1837. Although he was a Jackson Democrat he was a firm believer in internal improvements and favored the building of roads and canals in all parts of the country. He sought to have the public lands ceded to the states in which they lay, since otherwise he saw no escape from federal appropriations. There was, he contended, no equality between the old states and the new so long as the old states owned their lands while the new states did not. He particularly insisted that the Western states should have title to the public lands within their borders. In financial matters he stood for a central national bank, with its seat in Washington, empowered to establish branches in the states, but only by the consent of the states themselves.

In 1837 Hendricks retired from public life as the result of Whig triumphs in his state. During his nearly twenty years of service in Congress he had followed the habit of sending an annual letter, or report, to his constituents giving an account of his stewardship and setting forth the leading topics and features of the session just closed. He gave faithful and competent service, and his long public life was above reproach. He helped to lay the foundations of his state and made the first revision of the laws of Indiana which he had printed on his own press. He was married, on May 19, 1816, to Ann P. Paul. Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks [q.v.] was his nephew.

[Logan Esarey, ed., Governors Messages and Letters, Volume III, which is Volume XII (1924) of the Indiana History Collections; A Biographical History of Eminent and Self-made Men of the State of Indiana (2 volumes, 1880); Biographical and Historical Catalog of Washington and Jefferson College, 1802-89 (1889); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928). ]

J.A.W.


HENKLE, Moses Montgomery, 1798-1864, Springfield, Methodist clergyman, missionary.  Agent for the American Colonization society in Ohio.  He founded auxiliaries of the ACS in Bellbrook, Bainbridge, Eaton, Full Creek, Germantown, Lancaster and Oxford.  Signed up prominent Ohio politicians to the cause of colonization. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 167; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 138)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 167:

HENKLE, Moses Montgomery, clergyman, born in Pendleton county, Virginia, 23 March, 1798; died in Richmond, Virginia, in 1864, became an itinerant minister of the M. E. church in Ohio in 1819, was for some time a missionary to the Wyandotte Indians, and preached in that state and in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. He established a religious magazine, and associated himself in 1845 with Dr. McFerrin in the editorship of the “Christian Advocate” at Nashville. In 1847 he established the “Southern Ladies’ Companion,” which he conducted for eight years. He taught in Philadelphia and other places, and was thus engaged in Baltimore, Maryland, during the civil war, but was sent within the Confederate lines. He published, among other books, a volume of “Masonic Addresses” (1848); “The Primary Platform of Methodism” (1851); “Analysis of Church Government” (1852); “Life of Bishop Bascom” (1853); and “Primitive Episcopacy” (1856). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


HENRY, Patrick, 1736-1799, Virginia, statesman, founding father, opponent of slavery.  Henry wrote in 1773: “I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them [slaves].  I will not, I can not justify it.  However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to lament my own want of conformity to them.” 

(Bruns, Roger, ed. Am I Not a Man and a Brother: The Antislavery Crusade of Revolutionary America, 1688-1788. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1977, pp. 221, 310, 348-350, 382-383, 389, 508; Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950, pp. 71, 83, 85; Mason, 2006, pp. 21, 250n140, 250n147, 293-294n157; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 95, 152; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 173-175; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 544; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 10, p. 615)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 544:

HENRY, Patrick, statesman, born at Studley, Hanover county, Virginia, 29 May, 1736; died in Red Hill, Charlotte county, Virginia, 6 June, 1799. His father, John Henry, was a Scotchman, son of Alexander Henry and Jean Robertson, a cousin of the historian William Robertson and of the mother of Lord Brougham. His mother was Sarah Winston, of the English family of that name. The father of Patrick Henry gave his son a classical education, but he entered upon business at an early age. At eighteen he married, and, having tried farming and merchandise without success, became a lawyer in 1760. His fee-books show a large practice from the beginning of his professional life; but his surpassing powers as an orator were not discovered till, in December, 1763, he argued what is known as the “Parson's cause.” This was a suit brought by a minister of the established church in Virginia to recover his salary, which had been fixed at 16,000 pounds of tobacco. A short crop had caused a great advance in its market price, and induced the colonial legislature to pass an act commuting the salaries of the ministers into money at the rate of two pence for a pound of tobacco, which was its former price. This act had not been approved by the king, but the house of burgesses determined to enforce it. In his speech for the defence Mr. Henry displayed powers of oratory of the first order, and boldly struck the key-note of the American Revolution by arguing that “a king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience.” The passage of the stamp-act by the British parliament in 1765 was made known in the colonies in May, 1765. They had remonstrated against its proposed passage; but no one was bold enough to counsel resistance to its enforcement until, upon the resignation of a member of the Virginia house of burgesses from Louisa county, Mr. Henry was elected to fill the vacancy. On 29 May, 1765, nine days after taking his seat, and on his twenty-ninth birthday, he moved a series of resolutions defining the rights of the colony, and pronouncing the stamp-act unconstitutional and subversive of British and American liberty. These were resisted by all the men that had been previously leaders in that body. After a speech of great eloquence, which was described by Thomas Jefferson as surpassing anything he ever heard, Mr. Henry carried five of his resolutions, the last by a majority of only one. The whole series were published, and the public mind became so inflamed that everywhere resistance to the tax was openly made, and its enforcement became impracticable. Mr. Henry at once became the leader in his colony. In May, 1773, he, with Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and Dabney Carr, carried through the Virginia house of burgesses a resolution establishing committees of correspondence between the colonies, which gave unity to the Revolutionary agitation, and in May, 1774, he was foremost in the movement to call a Continental congress. At this time the celebrated George Mason first met Henry, and recorded his estimate of him in these words: “He is by far the most powerful speaker I ever heard. Every word he says not only engages but commands the attention, and your passions are no longer your own when he addresses them. But his eloquence is the smallest part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this continent, as well in abilities as public virtues, and had he lived in Rome about the time of the first Punic war, when the Roman people had arrived at their meridian glory, and their virtues not tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that glorious commonwealth.”

He was a delegate to the 1st Continental congress, and opened its deliberations by a speech that won him the reputation of being the foremost orator on the continent. In this speech he declared, “I am not a Virginian, but an American.” In congress, Henry served on several important committees, among which was that to prepare the address to the king. The first draft of this paper is said to have been from his pen; but as it was too advanced for the party represented by John Dickinson, the latter was added to the committee and modified the address, if he did not recast it. At a most critical period in the deliberations of that congress, Joseph Galloway, a Tory, introduced a plan of reconciliation between the mother country and the colonies, which would have left them in somewhat the same relations to each other as were subsequently established between England and Canada. The plan was advocated by some of the foremost members, and it was believed that it had the approval of the government. Mr. Henry led the opposition to it, and was the only one noted by John Adams in his diary as opposing it in debate. It was defeated by the vote of one colony only, and thus the destiny of the continent was changed. On 25 March, 1775, Mr. Henry moved in the Virginia convention that the colony be put into a state of defence at once, preparatory to the war, which was imminent, and carried his motion by a speech that for true eloquence has never been surpassed. In May following he led a volunteer force against Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, in order to compel him to restore the colony's gunpowder, which had been removed by him from the public magazine and put on board a British ship. This was the first resistance by arms to the British authority in that colony. After obtaining from the governor remuneration for the gunpowder, he repaired to the Continental congress, then holding its second session, and at its close accepted the commission of colonel of the 1st Virginia regiment, and commander of all the Virginia forces, which had been given him by the convention of his state in his absence. His want of military experience gave occasion to some jealousy on the part of other officers, and when the Virginia troops were soon afterward taken into the Continental army, congress, in commissioning the officers, made a subordinate a brigadier-general, and offered Colonel Henry the command of a single regiment, which slight was followed by his refusal to accept the commission. He was at once elected to the Virginia convention, which met in May, 1776. Here he arranged the introduction of the resolutions directing the delegates in congress to move for independence, and determining that the colony should at once frame a bill of rights and a constitution as an independent state. By his powers of oratory he overcame all opposition, and obtained a unanimous vote for the resolutions. He was active in the formation of the constitution of his state, which served as a model for the other states, and he proposed the section of the Virginia bill of rights that guarantees religious liberty. Through his exertions, Virginia afterward asked and obtained an amendment to the Federal constitution, embodying in it a similar guarantee. On the adoption of the constitution in 1776, he was elected the first governor of the state, and was re-elected in 1777 and in 1778. Not being eligible under the constitution for four years afterward, he returned to the legislature, but was again elected governor in 1784 and 1785, and in 1786 declined a re-election. He was again elected in 1796, but again declined. During his first service as governor he had to inaugurate a new government in the midst of the Revolutionary war, and his executive talents were put to a severe test, which they stood in such a manner as greatly added to his renown. In 1777 he planned and sent out the expedition, under General George Rogers Clarke, which conquered the vast territory northwest of the Ohio, and forced England to yield it at the treaty of peace. At the close of the war he advocated the return of the banished Tories, and opening our ports at once to immigration and to commerce. He resisted the performance on our part of the treaty with Great Britain until that power had performed her treaty obligation to surrender the northwestern posts. He was a firm and persistent advocate of our right to the free navigation of the Mississippi, whose mouth was held by Spain, a matter of such importance that at one time it threatened the disruption of the Union.

He early saw the defects in the articles of confederation, and advocated a stronger Federal government. He declined the appointment as delegate to the convention that framed the constitution of the United States, because of private reasons; but served in the state convention of 1788, which ratified it. He advocated the adoption of amendments to the constitution before its ratification by Virginia, and offered the amendments that were recommended by the convention, the most important of which have been adopted. Many of his predictions as to the future of the Federal government read like prophecy in the light of subsequent history. Among other things, he distinctly foretold the abolition of slavery by congress, in a speech in the convention, delivered 24 June, 1788 (see Elliott's “Debates,” vol. iii, p. 589), in which he said: “Among ten thousand implied powers which they may assume, they may, if engaged in war, liberate every one of your slaves if they please. And this must and will be done by men, a majority of whom have not a common interest with you . . . . Another thing will contribute to bring this event about. Slavery is detested. We feel its fatal effects; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some future period, press with full force on the minds of congress. Let that urbanity, which I trust will distinguish America, and the necessity of national defence—let all these things operate on their minds; they will search that paper and see if they have power of manumission. And have they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free? and will they not be warranted by that power? This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper speaks to the point. They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it.” The adoption of the first eleven amendments having quieted in a great measure his apprehensions as to the constitution, he sustained the administration of Washington, though not fully approving of all its measures. The earliest manifestations of the French revolution caused him to predict the result, and the influence of French infidelity and Jacobinism upon America excited his alarm, lest they should produce disunion and anarchy. He retired from public life in 1791, after a continuous service of twenty-six years, but continued the practice of law, which he had resumed at the close of the Revolution with great success. He was appointed by Governor Henry Lee U. S. senator in 1794. Washington offered to make him secretary of state in 1795, and afterward chief justice of the United States, and President John Adams nominated him as a special minister to France. But the state of his health, and the care of a large family, caused him to decline these offices. In 1799, on the passage of the Virginia resolutions claiming the right of a state to resist the execution of an obnoxious act of congress, he was induced by an appeal of Washington to offer himself for a seat in the legislature, for the purpose of resisting what they both considered a doctrine fraught with the greatest danger to the Union. He did not approve of the alien and sedition laws, which occasioned the resolutions, and in his speech as a candidate he urged the use of every constitutional means to effect their repeal. He was elected, but died before taking his seat.

The transcendent powers of Mr. Henry as an orator are testified to by so many men of the greatest culture and ability that he justly ranks among the great orators of the world. Among the distinguished men that heard him, and have left on record their impressions, the following may be mentioned; Dr. Archibald Alexander said of him: “From my earliest childhood I had been accustomed to hear of the eloquence of Patrick Henry. On this subject there existed but one opinion in the country. The power of his eloquence was felt equally by the learned and the unlearned. No man who ever heard him speak on any important occasion could fail to admit his uncommon power over the minds of his hearers . . . . The power of Henry's eloquence was due, first, to the greatness of his emotion and passion, accompanied with a versatility which enabled him to assume at once any emotion or passion which suited his ends. Not less indispensable, secondly, was a matchless perfection of the organs of expression, including the apparatus of voice, intonation, pause, gesture, attitude, and indescribable play of countenance. In no instance did he ever indulge in an expression that was not instantly recognized as nature itself; yet some of his penetrating and subduing tones were absolutely peculiar, and as inimitable as they were indescribable. These were felt by every hearer in all their force. His mightiest feelings were sometimes indicated and communicated by a long pause, aided by an eloquent aspect, and some significant use of his fingers.” Thomas Jefferson attended the debate on the resolutions against the stamp act, and wrote concerning it: “I heard the splendid display of Mr. Henry's talents as a popular orator. They were great indeed, such as I have never heard from any other man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote.” And in describing Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Jefferson said of him: “He had not, indeed, the poetical fancy of Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming diction.” Mr. Wirt, in his “Life of Henry,” says that Mr. Jefferson considered him “the greatest orator that ever lived.” John Randolph, of Roanoke, pronounced him the greatest of orators, and declared that he was “Shakespeare and Garrick combined.”

Mr. Henry was twice married—first to Sarah Shelton, daughter of a neighbor, and afterward to Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, a granddaughter of Governor Alexander Spotswood. He was a devoted Christian, and left a spotless character. His life has been written by William Wirt (1817), by Alexander H. Everett in Sparks's “American Biography,” and by Moses Coit Tyler in the series of “American Statesmen” (Boston, 1887).  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

PATRICK HENRY was born of respectable parentage, in the county of Hanover, state of Virginia, on the 29th of May, 1736. He displayed in his youth none of those admirable qualities which, in after life, rendered him the admiration of his country, and the terror of her enemies. Deficient in early education, and deprived of the opportunities of improvement by which the powers of his mind could be developed, his genius, which was at a future period destined to shine so brilliantly, was involved in obscurity until aroused from its dormant condition, by circumstances which brought all its powerful energies into action, and displayed its vigor and splendor to his astonished associates and countrymen. Agriculture and shop keeping were successively pursued and abandoned by him. Failure attended his early career, and in whatever avocations he was engaged, or when struggling to subdue his undisciplined spirits to the useful employments of life, he seemed to be doomed to an humble and unprosperous condition. At the age of eighteen, he married a Miss Shelton. After all other means of subsistence had failed, he determined to exchange manual labor for the practice of the law, and after studying for about six weeks, obtained, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, with great difficulty, a license to practice. It was not, however, until he had reached his twenty-seventh year, that an opportunity occurred for a trial of his strength at the bar, when the powers of his unrivalled genius were exhibited in full relief, and placed him at once in the highest rank of his profession. The cause in which he first made his appearance before a court and jury, was familiary called the parsons’ cause, and involved a question upon which the country was very much excited; the clergy and people being arrayed in opposition. A decision of the court on a demurrer in favor of the claims of the clergy, had left nothing undetermined but the amount of damages in the cause which was pending. The counsel who had been concerned for the defendants having retired from the management of the case, Mr. HENRY was retained, and on a writ of inquiry of damages, he took advantage of the opportunity furnished of addressing the jury, to enter into a discussion of the points which had been previously settled, and although in deviation from regular practice, succeeded by the force of his eloquence in inducing the jury to give but nominal damages. The management of the cause gained for him the most enthusiastic applause, and brought him so prominently before the public, that he became the idol of the people whom he had so efficiently served, and received the most earnest demonstrations of their admiration.

In 1764, he removed to the county of Louisa, and in the fall of that year, appeared before a committee of the house of burgesses, then sitting at Williamsburg, as counsel in the case of a contested election, and amidst the fashion and splendor of the seat of government, the rustic orator commanded attention and respect.

A wider field for the display of his eloquence was soon open to him, and as the controversy with Great Britain began to thicken, the champion of the people’s rights was called into the public counsels, to rebuke the spirit of despotism, and sustain the drooping spirits of his countrymen, by an eloquence which springing from the great fountain of nature, no power could control or subdue. The seat of a member of the house of burgesses was vacated to make room for him, and in the month of May, 1765, he was elected a member. He was now destined to act among the most accomplished and distinguished men of the country. Following no other guide than his pure and patriotic spirit, and using no other instrument of action but his own matchless eloquence, he rapidly ascended to the loftiest station in the confidence and affections, both of the legislature and of the people. Taking at once a bold stand, he rallied around him the opposition, and became the envy and the terror of the aristocracy. His plebeian origin and rustic appearance were singularly contrasted with the rich veins of intellectual wealth, which the collisions of debate and party strife brought to the public view. By his almost unaided skill, he defeated the aristocracy in a favorite measure, and acquired an ascendency at the outset of his public career which enabled him to give the impress of his own undaunted spirit to the future counsels of the state. In 1765, “alone, unadvised and unassisted,” he wrote on the blank leaf of an old law book the resolutions of 1765, denouncing the stamp act and asserting the rights of the people. On offering them to the legislature, they met with violent opposition, which drew from Mr. HENRY one of the most vivid and powerful efforts of his eloquence. Breasting the storm, and bidding defiance to the cries of treason, by which in vain it was attempted to silence him, he secured their adoption, and thus gave an impulse to public feeling, and a character to the contest, which essentially aided the revolutionary cause. In the year 1767, or 1768, he removed from Louisa to his native county, and continued without intermission in public life, until after the close of the war. The higher courts engaged his attention, and although a want of familiarity with the common law, and a dislike to the forms of practice obstructed his progress, he found in the trial of criminal causes an extensive sphere for the exercise of his abilities, and the acquisition of a professional reputation.

In the assembly he continued to espouse the cause of the people, and permitted no opportunity to escape, of stimulating them and their representatives to repel the aggressions of the mother country. Prior to the commencement of hostilities, he predicted the dissolution of the connection which subsisted between her and her colonies, and the triumph of the latter.

The house of burgesses having been, in 1774, dissolved by Governor Dunmore, in consequence of their energetic opposition to tyranny, the members recommended a convention of the people to deliberate on the critical posture of affairs, and particularly to appoint delegates to a congress to be convened at Philadelphia. Mr. HENRY was elected a member of the convention, and by that body was appointed with Messrs Randolph, Lee, Washington, Bland, Harrison, and Pendleton, delegates to congress, which assembled at Carpenter’s Hall, on the 4th of September. The most illustrious men of America who had been heretofore strangers, or only known to one another by fame, were now brought by the common danger which hung over their country, into the closest intercourse. The organized masses of virtue, intelligence, and genius, formed a body which attracted by its wisdom, firmness and patriotism, the admiration of mankind, and must ever reflect unfading lustre on the country whose destinies they controlled, and whose freedom they achieved. Mr. HENRY’S magical eloquence first broke the solemn silence which succeeded their organization, and in breasts so lofty and so pure, the undisciplined and untutored voice of patriotism and of native genius found a response, which sustained its boldest exertions. The impartial judgments of the greatest and most accomplished men awarded to him the highest place among orators.

Unfortunately for Mr. HENRY, he did not excel in composition, for having been placed on a committee to prepare an address to the king, he did not fulfil the expectations which his eloquence had created, and accordingly his draft was recommitted, and John Dickinson added to the committee, who reported the celebrated address which so much increased his reputation.

The Virginia convention met a second time in March, 1775, at Richmond, when Mr. HENRY brought forward a series of resolutions containing a plan for the organization of the militia. In defiance of the opposition of the ablest and most patriotic members of the convention, they were sustained by a torrent of irresistible eloquence from Mr. HENRY, who inspired the convention with a determined spirit of resistance. An opportunity soon occurred for a trial of his courage, as well as of his influence with the people. The prohibition of the exportation of powder from Great Britain, was followed by attempts to procure the possession of magazines in America, by which the colonists would be deprived of the means of defence. A large quantity of gun-powder was clandestinely removed from the colonial magazine at Williamsburg, and placed on board of armed British vessels. The excitement which it produced, extorted from the governor a promise for its return, by which public feeling was for the time appeased, but subsequent threats and rumors of fresh encroachments on the magazine, together with the irritation produced by the battles of Concord and Lexington, aroused the country to arms. The movements of the military corps was, however, arrested by the exertions of Mr. Randolph. But Mr. HENRY, determined not to submit to the aggressions of the British governor, despatched express riders to the members of the Independent Company of Hanover to meet him in arms at Newcastle. Having aroused their patriotism by all the efforts of his eloquence, by the resignation of the captain, he became the commander, and they commenced their march for Williamsburg. The country was electrified. Other companies joined the revolutionary standard of PATRICK HENRY, and at least five thousand men were in arms, rushing to his assistance. The governor issued a proclamation denouncing the movement. The greatest consternation prevailed at Williamsburg; even the patriots were alarmed, and despatched messenger after messenger to induce him to abandon the enterprise; but undaunted, he resolutely pursued his march. The governor, after making preparations for his defence, deemed it most prudent to avoid a conflict, and accordingly ordered Mr. HENRY to be met at Newcastle with a compensation in money for the powder. Another proclamation from the governor denouncing him, not only fell harmless before him, but seemed to render him an object of greater public regard. Mr. HENRY’S journey to congress, which had been interrupted by this event, was now resumed, and became, as far as the borders of Virginia, a triumphant procession.

The affair of the gun-powder brought Mr. HENRY to the notice of the colonial convention in a military point of view, and accordingly “he was elected colonel of the first regiment, and commander of all the forces raised and to be raised for the defence of the colony.” Having resigned his commission, he was elected a delegate to the convention which met on the 6th of May, 1776, at Williamsburg. On the 1st of July, he was elected the first republican governor of Virginia, and was continued in that station by an unanimous vote, until 1778. A wish having been expressed to reëlect him for the fourth term, he declined being a candidate, on the ground that the constitution had declared the governor to be ineligible after the third year, although an impression existed on the minds of some of the members of the legislature, that his appointment for the first year having been made prior to the adoption of that instrument, should not be counted in his term of service under it. Mr. HENRY entertaining a different opinion, communicated his views to the assembly, “that they might have the earliest opportunity of deliberating upon the choice of his successor.” Few opportunities occurred for distinction during his gubernatorial career, but he appears to have performed all the duties of the station, to the satisfaction of the country, and to have retired with an increase of reputation and popularity. During the gloomiest period of the conflict for independence, a project was twice started to create a dictation, and whilst the most satisfactory evidence exists that Mr. HENRY had no participation in it, it is highly honorable to him, that the drooping spirits of his countrymen were turned to him as the safest depository of uncontrolled authority. After retiring from the executive department, Mr. HENRY became once more a representative in the assembly, and continued to enlighten the public councils by the splendor of his eloquence, and his liberal views of public policy. Among the measures which he advocated after the close of the war, the return of the British refugees, the removal of restraints on British commerce, even before the treaty by which that object was accomplished, and the improvement of the condition of the Indians, were conspicuous. On the 17th of November, 1784, he was again elected governor of Virginia. His circumstances, owing to the smallness of the salaries which he had received, and the sacrifices he had made in the public service, had become embarrassed, which induced him to retire from that station in the fall of 1786, whilst yet a year remained of his constitutional term, and also to decline accepting the appointment which was tendered to him by the legislature, of a seat in the convention to revise the constitution of the United States.

“On his resigning the government,” says his accomplished biographer Mr. Wirt, “he retired to Prince Edward county, and endeavored to cast about for the means of extricating himself from his debts. At the age of fifty years, worn down by more than twenty years of arduous service in the cause of his country, eighteen of which had been occupied by the toils and tempests of the revolution, it was natural for him to wish for rest, and to seek some secure and placid port in which he might repose himself from the fatigues of the storm. This, however, was denied him; and after having devoted the bloom of youth and the maturity of manhood to the good of his country, he had now in his old age to provide for his family.” He accordingly resumed the practice of the law, in which the powers of his eloquence secured him constant employment. But it was difficult for him to abstract himself entirely from public affairs, and the formation of the constitution of the United States, respecting which he entertained most erroneous views, enlisted his feelings once more in political struggle as a member of the convention, assembled for its adoption, at Richmond, on June 2d, 1788.

Professing to be alarmed at the character and extent of the powers conferred on the federal government. Mr. HENRY exerted all his great abilities to produce its defeat. Fortunately for the country, Virginia possessed, and was enabled to bring in opposition to his constitutional views, an array of great men, who, although inferior to him in eloquence, surpassed him in knowledge, and by their combined exertions, were able to counterbalance the influence which his skill in debate, unquestionable patriotism, and long continued services, enabled him to wield. Madison, Marshall, Pendleton, Wythe, Nicholas, Randolph, Innis, and Lee, were the bulwarks of that sacred shield of liberty, the constitution of the United States, against which our patriotic orator, with his wonted vigor and matured skill, week after week, cast the darts of his stupendous eloquence. Ridicule, sarcasm, pathos, and argument were resorted to, to accomplish his object, and with untiring energy, he assailed it as a system and in detail, as the one plan or the other seemed best calculated for the purposes of the veteran tactician. He denounced it as a consolidated, instead of a confederated, government, and charged the convention by which it was framed, with an assumption of power, when, by the preamble they declared the instrument to emanate from the people of the United States, instead of the states by which they were appointed. The powers conferred on the government, were, in his opinion, dangerous to freedom, and he condemned the whole system as pregnant with hazard, and ruinous to liberty. Mr. HENRY was combated with admirable skill, and triumphantly defeated.

His failure in the convention did not however affect his influence, and in the subsequent fall, he possessed in the assembly the confidence and popularity which had so long clung to him. He succeeded in procuring the election of candidates for the senate of the United States in opposition to those nominated by his antagonists; and also in procuring the adoption of a series of resolutions favorable to a convention of the states to alter the constitution, which had been so recently adopted. In the spring of 1791, he declined a reëlection to the assembly, with the view of retiring altogether from public life. Necessity compelled him to continue the practice of the law, and in the fall of that year, he argued before the circuit court of the United States the celebrated case of the British debts, with an eloquence and professional ability which extorted the admiration of the bench, and the crowded audience which his great reputation had assembled. Such was the curiosity to hear him, that a quorum of the legislature could not be obtained, and a large concourse were subjected to disappointment by the multitude which thronged the court room. For three days he riveted the attention of a promiscuous audience, whilst discussing the usually uninteresting details of complicated law points. His success in the practice or the law was eminently distinguished, and being relieved by the assistance of other counsel from the necessity of turning his attention to such branches of the practice as were unsuitable to him, his genius had ample scope to range in the direction most congenial to it.

In the year 1796, he was once more elected governor of Virginia, which he declined. He also refused to accept the embassy to Spain, which was offered to him during the administration of Washington, and that to France, to which he was appointed by Mr. Adams. His declining health and advanced age, rendered retirement more desirable to him than ever; but prior to the close of his earthly career, he was induced to forego the comforts and peace of domestic life, to embark in the stormy conflicts of political controversy. Believing that the democratic party in Virginia were yielding to passion, and advocating principles hostile to the safety of the country, and opposed to the constitution of the United States, Mr. HENRY espoused the cause of that instrument, the adoption of which he had so strenuously resisted. The Virginia resolutions of 1798 filled him with alarm, and although subsequent events have shown that the authors of them did not harbor intentions hostile to the union, Mr. HENRY firmly believed that he saw in their train the most ruinous consequences. He presented himself at the spring election of 1799, at the county of Charlotte, as a candidate for the house of delegates, and in an eloquent address to the people, expressed his alarm at the conduct of the party opposed to the national administration, his belief that their measures were not in accordance with the constitution, and his determination to support that instrument. He reminded them of his opposition to it on the very grounds that the powers which they were then condemning, were conferred, denied the right of a state to decide on the validity of federal laws, and declared his firm belief, that the destruction of the constitution would be followed by the total loss of liberty.

His usual success attended him, and he was elected. His health, however, yielded to the disease with which he had been afflicted for two years, and he expired on the 6th of June, 1799.

Mr. HENRY was twice married, and was the parent of fifteen children, eleven of whom survived him. In domestic life, he was conspicuous for his simplicity, frankness, and morality. Without ostentation, his retirement was enlivened by the cheerfulness of his disposition, and the stores of practical knowledge which a long career in public life had enabled him to accumulate. He was a firm Christian, and devoted much of his time in the concluding years of his life to reading works on religion. Temperate in his habits, indulgent to his children, and rigid in his morals, there was but little in his conduct for detraction to act upon. The charge of apostacy was made against him on account of his determination to sustain the constitution of the United States, which he had so strongly opposed; but when we reflect upon the incalculable blessings which it has showered upon the country, and how triumphantly it has refuted, by its practical operations, the objections which were made to it, we cannot but admire the frank and honorable conduct of the patriotic orator, who did not hesitate to sustain a system which experience must have convinced him he had erroneously opposed. The eloquence of Mr. HENRY has been attested by evidence to which every American will yield conviction. Unrivalled in its influence, it was one of the causes of the independence of the country: the remembrance of it deserves to be perpetuated to after ages, as one of the most striking characteristics of the contest for freedom. In recurring to the events of that struggle, with the virtues, patriotism, and heroism for which it was conspicuous, will ever be associated in grateful remembrance, the impetuous, patriotic, and irresistible eloquence of PATRICK HENRY.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Volume 4


HENSHAW, Josiah, abolitionist, W. Brookfield, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1851-60-.


HENSON, Josiah, 1789-1883, born a slave in Maryland, led one hundred slaves to freedom, founded Community of Former Slaves in Ontario, Canada; said to be the basis for Uncle Tom in Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Founded British American Manual Labor Institute in Canada. 

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 337; Lobb, 1971; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, p. 173; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 26, 38, 335-336, 486; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 178; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 544; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 10, p. 621)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 544:

HENSON, JOSIAH (June 15, 1789-May 5, 1883), an escaped slave, active in the service of his race, and the reputed original of Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Toni's Cabin, was born in Charles County, Maryland, on a farm belonging to Francis Newman, about a mile from Port Tobacco. In his early years, under the system of slavery, he saw his mother brutally assaulted and his father mutilated. The master, Riley, into whose hands he fell while still a young boy, was harsh and incompetent. Josiah, however, became a strong and vigorous youth. Before he was grown his ability made him superintendent of the farm, and the crop doubled under his management. At the age of eighteen, never before having heard a sermon, he was deeply moved by the discourse of a godly baker, John McKenny, who was opposed to slavery. One evening, in rescuing his master at a convivial gathering, he offended the overseer of a neighboring plantation, who later attacked him with the assistance of three slaves, broke one of his. arms; and otherwise abused him. At the age of twenty-two he married a slave girl, who became the mother of twelve children. In 1825, Riley, about to be ruined by his improvidence, exacted from Josiah a promise that he would conduct the slaves of the plantation, about twenty in number, to a brother living in Kentucky. In passing through Ohio they were urged to assert their freedom, but Josiah remained true to his word. In Kentucky he worked under more favorable conditions and in 1828 was admitted as a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After trying in vain to purchase his freedom, he was sent to New Orleans to be sold.

Deciding to make a bid for freedom he set forth one night with his wife and four young children. It took him two weeks to reach Cincinnati. Later a Scotchman named Burnham, captain of a boat, assisted him in getting to Buffalo, and, October 28, 1830, he crossed over to Canada. He worked hard, learned his letters from his oldest boy, who now went to school, became a preacher in Dresden, Bothwell County, Ont., and rapidly advanced in influence and esteem. He was interested not only in helping other slaves to escape from bondage but also in cultivating in the negroes the spirit of thrift and in encouraging them to acquire land. He tried to develop a community and to found an industrial school at Dawn, in the territory between Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, to which place he took his family in 1842. Committees in both England and America were interested, but through the incompetence of an age nt the project dragged on for years, little being clone. Henson's own integrity was called in question both in England and by the negroes in the settlement; but he cleared himself to the satisfaction of all concerned. In 1851, on the second of three trips to England, he was awarded a bronze medal for some black walnut boards that he exhibited at the World's Fair, was honored before a distinguished company at the home of Lord John Rus sell, prime minister, and invited by Lord Grey to go to India to supervise cotton raising. Late in life, his first wife having died, he married a widow in Boston, who accompanied him on his third visit to England in 1876. A farewell meeting in Spurgeon's Tabernacle was attended by thousands, and Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle presented him with a photograph of herself framed in gold.

A quarter of a century before, on passing through Andover, Massachusetts, Henson had told his story to Harriet Beecher Stowe. In A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) she had referred to his career; henceforth he was famous as Uncle Tom, though his claim was not without dispute. In 1849 he published The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself. It appeared enlarged and with an introduction by Harriet B. Stowe in 1858, under the title Truth. Stranger than Fiction: Father Henson's Story of His Own Life, and further enlarged was published in 1879 under the title, "Truth Is Stranger than Fiction": An Autobiography of the Reverend Josiah Henson, with a preface by Harriet B. Stowe and introductory notes by Wendell Phillips. He died in Dresden, Ont.

[In addition to works already mentioned, see New York Tribune, May 6, 1883.]

B. B.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 178:

HENSON, Josiah, clergyman, born in Port Tobacco, Charles county, Maryland, 15 June, 1787; died in Dresden, Ontario, in 1881. He was a pure-blooded negro, and was born and bred as a slave. The story of his life served as the foundation for Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe's novel of “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” When a young man and a preacher, he took all his master's slaves to a relative in Kentucky, to prevent their passing into the hands of creditors. There they were hired out to neighboring planters. He worked most of the time for a good-natured master named St. Clair, whose young daughter read to him. His arms were crippled, like those of Uncle Tom in the novel, the result of a blow from the Maryland overseer. He paid $500 toward purchasing his freedom, but was taken to New Orleans by his master's son to be sold, when the latter was attacked with yellow fever, and the slave accompanied him back to Kentucky and nursed him through his sickness. He finally escaped with his wife, carrying his two children on his back through the swamps to Cincinnati, where he had friends among the colored people, and then across the wilderness to Sandusky, whence they were conveyed to Canada by the benevolent captain of a schooner. “Uncle Si,” as he was called, settled with his family at Colchester, Ontario. He was the captain of a company of colored men during the Canadian rebellion. Subsequently he took up a tract of land on Sydenham river, where the town of Dresden was afterward situated. There he prospered as a farmer, and was the pastor of a church. At the age of fifty-five he began to learn to read and write. He met Mrs. Stowe, and described to her the events of his life. He also wrote an “Autobiography,” which was afterward published, with an introduction by Mrs. Stowe (Boston, 1858). In 1850 he went to England, and lectured in London. He visited England again in 1852, and a third time in 1876, on which occasion he lectured and preached in various cities, and was entertained at Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 178.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.