Mea-Met: Meacham through Metcalfe

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.


MEACHAM, Alfred Benjamin, 1826-1882, clergyman, reformer, author, historian, Native American rights advocate, abolitionist.


MEADE, William, 1789-1862, Virginia, clergyman, soldier.  American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1834-1841.  Influential member of the Colonization Society.  Freed his slaves. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 27-28, 53-54, 70-74, passim 189-190; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 282-283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 480)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 282-283:

MEADE, William, P. E. bishop; born near Millwood, Frederick (now Clarke) county, Virginia, 11 November, 1789; died in Richmond, Virginia, 14 March, 1862, was graduated at Princeton in 1808, studied theology, was made deacon, 24 February, 1811, and ordained priest, 10 January, 1814. He began his ministry in his native parish as assistant to Reverend Alexander Balmaine, but in the autumn of 1811 he became rector of Christ church, Alexandria, Virginia, where he remained for eighteen months. He then returned to Millwood, succeeding the rector on the death of the latter in 1821. Being independent in his pecuniary circumstances, Mr. Meade officiated gratuitously for many years in his own parish and in the surrounding country. ln 1813-‘14 he took an active part in procuring the election of Dr. Richard C. Moore, of New York, as the successor of Bishop James Madison in the episcopate of Virginia, and contributed materially to the establishment of a diocesan theological seminary at Alexandria, and various educational and missionary societies connected with his denomination. In 1819 he went to Georgia as a commissioner to negotiate for the release of certain recaptured Africans who were about to be sold, and succeeded in his mission. On his journey he was active in establishing auxiliaries to the American colonization society, and was similarly occupied during a subsequent trip through the middle and eastern states. He emancipated his own slaves, but the experiment proved so disastrous to the negroes that he ceased to advise its repetition by others. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


MECHLIN, Joseph, Dr., colonial agent in Africa for the American Colonization society.  Replaced Dr. Richard Randall, who had died in Africa in April 1829.  Served four years, until 1833. 

(Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 47-50, 64, 72-73; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 164-167, 207, 222, 226)


MEDILL, Joseph (April 6, 1823-March 16, 1899), journalist. With three younger brothers he purchased the Coshocton Whig in 1849 and immediately renamed it the Republican. Within two years he moved to Cleveland and established the Daily Forest City. A year later he consolidated it with a Free-Soil journal and established the Cleveland Leader. Accepting the election of 1852 as foreshadowing the end of the Whig party, he labored diligently for the organization of a new party to be called Republican. In March 1854 a secret meeting was held in the office of the Cleveland Leader and plans adopted for the new anti-slavery party. There is evidence to show that he was the first man to advocate the name Republican even before the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 491-492:

MEDILL, JOSEPH (April 6, 1823-March 16, 1899), journalist, was born in a village near St. John in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. He was of Scotch-Irish stock, and for generations his ancestors had been shipbuilders in Belfast. His father, William Medill, emigrated to America in 1819 and settled in an area that was later awarded to Canada by the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842. When he was nine his parents moved to Stark County, Ohio, and there he worked on the farm and received such education as the district schools and an academy in Massillon afforded. Upon reaching the age of twenty-one, he determined to enter a law office and after several years of study was admitted to the bar in 1846; but as law practice was at best uncertain, he turned to journalism. With three younger brothers he purchased the Coshocton Whig in 1849 and immediately renamed it the Republican. Within two years he moved to Cleveland and established the Daily Forest City. A year later he consolidated it with a Free-Soil journal and established the Cleveland Leader. Accepting the election of 1852 as foreshadowing the end of the Whig party, he labored diligently for the organization of a new party to be called Republican. In March 1854 a secret meeting was held in the office of the Cleveland Leader and plans adopted for the new anti-slavery party. There is evidence to show that he was the first man to advocate the name Republican even before the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed (A. J. Turner, "Genesis of the Republican Party," Wisconsin State Register, March 1898; Cleveland, post, p. 85).

In the winter of 1854-55 he visited Chicago and with Dr. Charles Ray bought an interest in the Chicago Tribune, which was experiencing financial difficulties. He was at that time thirty-two years of age and fired with enthusiasm for the Republican party and the cause of freedom. In the campaign of 1856 he played an important part in the welding of discontented political groups into a compact Republican party and during the Lincoln-Douglas debates threw the resources of his paper behind the Republican candidate. He was a clos e friend of Abraham Lincoln, and more than once Lincoln conferred with him in the office of the Tribune. Although at first in favor of Salmon P. Chase, he soon arrived at the conclusion that Lincoln was the most available candidate and urged him on that ground. He always told with pleasure how he urged Carter of Ohio to change several votes to Lincoln in the Chicago convention, with the result that a landslide was started in favor of the Illinois candidate (Cleveland, post, p. 85). At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was opposed to any compromise with the South and at all times demanded an active prosecution of the war. Taking his stand in favor of emancipation and confiscation of southern property, he continually urged the administration to adopt a more radical course of action. He was among the first to advocate the arming of the slaves and insisted from the beginning of the conflict that the soldier in the field should not lose his right to vote. It was largely due to his efforts that several states in the Northwest passed laws to that effect in 1864 (Chicago Tribune, January 8, 21, February 4, 1864; Graphic, December 19, 1891; Andreas, post, volume II, p. 51). He was also one of the organizers of the powerful and influential Union defense committee, which became the mainstay of the government during the uncertain days of civil strife. In the reconstruction of the South following the war, he supported Congress and was heartily in favor of the radical policies of the Republican party.

He was elected to the Illinois constitutional assembly in 1869, and was the chairman of the committee on electoral and representative reform that wrote the minority-representation clause (Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention ... Illinois…  1869, 1870, volume I, pp. 56o-61). He served as one of the first civil-service commissioners under President Grant. Following the great fire which swept over Chicago in 1871, he was elected mayor and during his term of office labored diligently to remove the municipal government from politics. He greatly enhanced the appointive and removal po we r of the city administration. In 1874 he bought a majority of the stock of the Tribune company and during the remainder of his life controlled the policy of his paper. He had able colleagues, but it was he who gave the paper its impetus and direction. Until the day of his death he was actively in charge of the paper. While in San Antonio, Tex., he was ta k en ill with heart disease and died at the age of seventy-six. The day before his death he had written a short editorial, which appeared in the same issue of the Tribune that carried the news of his death. His last words were, " What is the news?" (Chicago Tribune, March 17, 1899). He was married on September 2, 1852, to Katharine Patrick, the daughter of James Patrick of New Philadelphia, Ohio. During the Civil War she took part in the labors of the sanitary commission and was active in all phases of war work. There were three children.

[Lyman Trumbull MSS. in Library of Congress; miscellaneous MSS. in Chicago Historical Society Library; manuscript biography written in I90i by M. Dodge in the office of the Chicago Tribune; H. I. Cleveland, "A Talk with ... the Late Joseph Medill," Saturday Evening Post, August s, 1899; Th e W. G. N.; a Handbook of Newspaper Administration (1922); Pictured E11cyc. of the World's Greatest Newspaper (copyright 1928); W. J. Abbot, "Chicago Newspapers," Review of Reviews, June 1895; A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago, 3 volumes, 1884-86; Chicago Times-Herald, March 17, 1899, Chicago Tribune, March 17, 1899.]


MELENDY, John, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1836-38.


MELENDY, Luther, Amherst, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-1842, 1845-1852.


MELLEN, Prentiss, 1764-1840, lawyer.  U.S. Senator from Maine, 1818-1820.  Chief Justice, Maine Supreme Court, 1820-1834.  First President of the Portland Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 292; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 517)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 292:

MELLEN, Prentiss, jurist, born in Sterling, Massachusetts, 11 October, 1764; died in Portland, Maine, 31 December, 1840, was graduated at Harvard in 1784, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He began practice at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, removed in 1792 to Biddeford, and in 1806 to Portland, Massachusetts. (afterward Maine), and was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts in 1806-'9 and 1817. He was elected U. S. senator from Massachusetts in place of Eli P. Ashmun, who had resigned, and served from 16 November, 1818, till 15 May, 1820, when he resigned in consequence of the separation of Maine from Massachusetts. He was elected the first chief justice of the new state, and served from 1820 till 1834, when he was disqualified by age. He afterward practised law at Portland, Maine. Judge Mellen was a trustee of Bowdoin from 1817 till 1836. His judicial decisions are published in the first eleven volumes of the “Maine Reports.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 292.


MERCER, Charles Fenton, 1778-1858, Leesburg, Virginia, soldier, political leader, opponent of slavery.  Vice President, American Colonization Society, 1834-1841, Director, 1839-1840, life member.  Called the “American Wilberforce.”  Introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress for the federal government to “make such regulations and arrangements, as he deem expedient, for safeguarding, support and removal of” the Africans in the United States.  $100,000 was appropriated by the bill.  It became the Slave Trade Act of 1819.  It became law on March 4, 1819. 

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 61; Mason, 2006, pp. 124-125, 269; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 163; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 31, 48, 50-51, 70, 73, 176-178, 184, 207, 307; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 300; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 539)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 539:

MERCER, CHARLES FENTON (June 16, 1778-May 4, 1858), congressman from Virginia, was born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, the youngest son of Eleanor (Dick) and James Mercer [q.v.]. His mother died when he was two years old and thirteen years later his father died leaving heavy debts, which the son later undertook to pay. The boy entered the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1795 and graduated in 1797 at the head of his class. In college he began his lifelong friendship with John Henry Hobart [q.v.] and became a devout Episcopalian. From 1797 until 1802 he read law at Princeton and at Richmond, Virginia. When war with France threatened in 1798 he volunteered and was twice offered a commission in the army, but since the threat of war had already passed he declined. In 1802 he was licensed to practise law. Soon afterward he went to England on business and also visited France. On his return he settled at Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia, and began the practice of his profession. He became a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia in 1810 and served until he resigned in 1817 to enter Congress. While a member of the legislature he took a leading part in efforts to increase the banking capital of Virginia, to found a new bank, to promote the colonization in Africa of free negroes from the United States, and to build roads and canals. He offered a bill to provide for a complete system of public education, from common-school to state university, which was defeated in the Senate in the spring of 1817 after having passed the House (see his Discourse on Popular Education: Delivered in ... Princeton ... September 26, 1826, 1826). He was also the author of the act by which a sword and pension were given to George Rogers Clark. During the War of 1812 he served with the Virginia troops, rising to the rank of brigadier-general.

His enthusiasm for internal improvements, the suppression of the slave trade, and the colonization of free negroes gave direction to his efforts when he became a member of the federal House of Representatives in 1817. He was chairman of the committees on roads and canals and on the District of Columbia. Though a member of the Federalist party until its dissolution and then a Whig, he was never an ardent party man. He enjoyed the friendship of Monroe and of John Quincy Adams. He disliked Jackson and Van Buren and on January 26, 1819, delivered an address in Congress in which he assailed Jackson's course in the Seminole War (Annals of Congress, 15 Congress, 2 Session, cols. 797-831). He was a strong Unionist but was alarmed at the rapidly increasing power of the president and was opposed to the executive's control over federal patronage. He was active in the movement that resulted in the building of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and was for five years, from 1828 to 1833, president of the company. He was a leader in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829-30, in which he advocated manhood suffrage, equal representation, and the popular election of important officers with the whole power of his distinguished oratorical ability.

Resigning from Congress on December 26, 1839, he became cashier of a bank in Tallahassee, Florida. He was original grantee, partner, and agent of the Texas association, a company which obtained a contract to settle colonists in Texas and to receive pay from the Republic in land. When the convention in 1845 declared colonization contracts unconstitutional he and his associates brought suit to force payment, but the case was decided against them in the United States courts. In 1845 he published An Exposition of the Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States. In 1847 he built a house near Carrollton, Kentucky, which he made his home until 1853, when he disposed of his property there. For three years he traveled in Europe, working in the interest of the abolition of the slave trade. Ill with cancer of the lip, he returned to Fairfax County, Virginia, where he was nursed by relatives until his death. He was never married.

[J. M. Garnett, Biographical Sketches of Hon. Charles Fenton Mercer (1911); W. F. Dunaway, "Charles Fenton Mercer," manuscript thesis in the Library of University of Chicago; Wm. and Mary College Quarterly, January 1909, p. 210; The Correspondence of John Henry Hobart, esp. volume III (1912); John McVicar. The Early Life and Professional Years of Bishop Hobart (1838); Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, ed. by C. F. Adams, volumes IV-X (1875-76), esp. X, p. 360, for Adams' explanation of Mercer's becoming a bank cashier at Tallahassee.]  

C.F.A.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 300:

MERCER, Charles Fenton, soldier, born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 6 June, 1778; died in Howard, near Alexandria, Virginia, 4 May, 1858. He was graduated at Princeton in 1797, and commissioned captain of cavalry the next year by General Washington, in anticipation of war with France, but subsequently studied law, and after a tour abroad in 1802-'3, practised his profession. He was a member of the Virginia legislature in 1810-'17, and during the war of 1812 was aide to the governor and in command of the defences of Norfolk, with the rank of brigadier-general. He was chairman of the committee on finances in the legislature in 1816, and introduced the bill for the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, of which he became president. He was elected to congress as a Federalist in this year, and returned till 1840, a longer period of continued service than that of any of his contemporaries. He was an active protectionist, and an opponent of slavery. He visited Europe in 1853 and conferred with eminent men of several countries in the interests of abolition. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 300.


MERCER, John Francis, 1759-1821, soldier, statesman, planter.  Delegate to the Continental Congress.  Congressman from Maryland.  Voted against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 301; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 543; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 61; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Annals of Congress, 2 Con., 2 Session, p. 861; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 15, p. 327).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 543-544:

MERCER, JOHN FRANCIS (May 17, 1759- August 30, 1821), soldier, congressman, and governor of Maryland, belonged to the distinguished Mercer family of Virginia. His father, John Mercer, its founder, came of a family which originated in Chester, England. Born in Ireland, he emigrated in 1720 to Virginia, where he became known as an able lawyer and wealthy man of affairs. By his first wife, Catherine Mason, he had ten children, one of whom was James Mercer [q.v.]. His second wife, the mother of John Francis, was Ann Roy of Essex County, Virginia. The son, fifth of her nine children, was born at "Marlborough," his father's estate in Stafford County, Virginia, and received his higher education at the College of William and Mary. Since war with England seemed inevitable, early in 1776 he enlisted as lieutenant in the 3rd Virginia Regiment. He was promoted to a captaincy September 11, 1777, and in the following year became aide-de-camp to General Charles Lee [q.v.]. When, after the battle of Monmouth, the latter was court-martialed and disgraced, Mercer resigned his commission (October 1779) and returned to Virginia. In the fall of 1780 he reentered the war as lieutenant-colonel of infantry under General Lawson; and the following May he recruited a small group of cavalry to aid Lafayette, under whom he served for a short time. He then raised a corps of militia grenadiers, whom he commanded, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

During the first interval in his military service (1779-80) Mercer studied law for a year at Williamsburg under the direction of Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia; and between his service under Lawson and that under Lafayette he practised law at Fredericksburg. This appears to have been the extent of his experience as an active practitioner. Subsequently, he devoted most of his time to politics. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1782 and in 1785-86. In December 1782, he was elected member of Congress from Virginia, to succeed Edmund Randolph who had resigned; and the following year he was reelected. Early in 1785 he married Sophia Sprigg of Maryland, and soon thereafter took up his residence at "Cedar Park," an estate in Anne Arundel County inherited by his wife from her father. He was a member from Maryland of the Federal Convention of 1787, and was so strongly opposed to the centralizing character of the document drawn up that he left before the gathering finished its work. As a delegate to the Maryland ratification convention, he spoke and voted against the Constitution; and after it was adopted, aligned himself with the Republicans. He was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1788-89 and 1791-92. Elected in 1791 to the federal House of Representatives to take the place of William Pinkney, resigned, he was reelected, but resigned his seat in April 1794 and retired to "Cedar Park." This terminated his career in national office.

He was again a member of the state House of Delegates in 1800-01, and in November 1801 was chosen Republican governor of Maryland by the state Assembly. The term of governorship was one year, and in the following autumn he was reelected. During his incumbency a constitutional amendment providing for manhood suffrage and vote by ballot was adopted, but Mercer appears to have had no special part in bringing this action about. His second term as governor ended, he served in the House of Delegates, 1803-06. When the trouble with England began in Jefferson's administration, he broke with the Republicans, virtually allied himself with the Federalists, and worked hard to avert war.  During his last few years; because of poor health, he lived quietly at "Cedar Park." Death came to him in Philadelphia, where he was seeking medical aid. Margaret Mercer [q.v.] was his daughter.

[The biographical sketch in H. E. Buchholz's Governors of Maryland (1908) contains many errors, but the article by James Mercer Garnett in Maryland Historical Magazine, September 1907, is dependable and quotes some rare documents. See also, in addition to the Annals of Congress and Maryland legislative journals: J. M. Garnett, Genealogy of the Mercer-Garnett Family of Essex County,. Virginia (1910); W. C. Ford, The Writings of George Washington, volumes XI, XII (1891); The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Ed.), volumes VIII, IX, XI (1903-04); Gaillard Hunt, The Writings of James Madison (9 volumes, 1900-10); S. M. Hamilton, The Writings of James Monroe (7 volumes, 1898-1903); Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (3: volumes, 1911) E. G. Swem and J. W. Williams, A Registry of the Geno. Assembly of Virginia (1918); F. B. Heitman, Historical Registry of Officers of the Continental Army (1893); Baltimore Patriot and Mercantile Advertiser, September 8, 1821.]

M. W.W.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 301:

MERCER, John Francis, statesman, born in Stafford county, Virginia, 17 May, 1759; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 August, 1821. He was graduated at William and Mary college in 1775, entered the 3d Virginia regiment as lieutenant in 1776, became captain in 1777, and was aide to General Charles Lee till the battle of Monmouth, when his sympathy with that officer in his disgrace induced him to resign from the army. He returned to Virginia, but soon afterward raised and equipped, at his own expense, a troop of horse, of which he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and, joining General Robert Lawson's brigade, he served with it at Guilford and elsewhere until it was disbanded. He then attached his command to the forces under Lafayette, with whom he remained until the surrender at Yorktown. After the war he studied law with Thomas Jefferson, and from 1782 till 1785 was a delegate from Virginia to the Continental congress. He married Sophie, daughter of Richard Sprigg, of West River, Md., in 1785, removed to “Cedar Park,” his wife's estate, and soon became a leader in Maryland politics. He was a delegate to the convention that framed the U. S. constitution, but opposed the plan that was adopted, and withdrew without signing the document. He was in congress in 1792-'4, served in the legislature for several years, was governor of Maryland in 1801-'3, and after several years of retirement was again in the legislature. Governor Mercer was the trusted personal and political friend of Jefferson. He died while on a visit to Philadelphia for medical advice. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 301.


MERCER, Margaret, 1791-1846, Lynchburg, Virginia, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, reformer, educator.  Active supporter of the American Colonization Society in Lynchburg.  Slaveholder who freed her slaves in 1846 and paid their way to Liberia.  Raised money for colonization.  Daughter of the Governor of Maryland, John Francis Mercer. 

(Burin, Eric. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2005, pp. 34, 38, 39, 60, 67, 103-104, 115; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 301; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 546; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 110-231; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 15, p. 331)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 545-546:

MERCER, MARGARET (July 1, 1791-September 17, 1846), anti-slavery worker and educator, was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the daughter of John Francis Mercer [q.v.] and his wife, Sophia Sprigg. Most of her childhood was spent in Annapolis, while her father filled various public offices, or at "Cedar Park," the estate of her maternal grandfather in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which was the country home of the Mercer family for many years. She had a superior mind and a strong scholarly bent, and her education, carefully supervised by her father, was exceptional for a woman of her period.

From a religious motive, she began in her early youth to devote herself energetically to altruistic service. To Sunday schools-which then offered elementary education to the poor, as well as religious instruction-she gave time and money, working in connection with her church, the Protestant Episcopal. For the Greeks, then struggling for independence from Turkey, she also helped raise funds. Through many years, however, her chief interest was probably the antislavery cause as represented by the activities of the American Colonization Society, which aimed, through the removal of free negroes to Liberia, to encourage manumission and thereby ultimately to eliminate slavery from the United States. She urged emancipation upon others and after her father's death set an example by freeing her share of the family slaves and sending to Liberia those who were willing to go. She also raised money to purchase the freedom of other slaves, and for educational work in Liberia.

Much of the later part of her life was given to teaching. Cedar Park Institute, her first school, was conducted in her home; but later she moved her school to Franklin, near Baltimore; and, finally, settled at Belmont, near Leesburg, Virginia, where, on a run-down farm, she started a new boarding-school for girls which soon became noted for its high academic standards and strong religious and moral influence. In the interest of spiritual and ethical training, she wrote two books: Studies for Bible Classes, published some time before 1841, and Popular Lectures on Ethics or Moral Obligation for the Use of Schools (1837). The Belmont school soon developed into what was virtually a social settlement, including a little church built from money she had raised. The humble inhabitants of the region brought their problems to the leaders of the school, and sent their children to the free classes which it offered in primary subjects and agriculture. During most of Margaret Mercer's busy life she was handicapped by frail health, due to a tendency to tuberculosis; and from this disease she died in the home which she had developed in Virginia.

[Caspar Morris, Memoir of Miss Margaret Mercer (1848), which is a eulogy rather than a biography, contains many of her letters, and is the fullest account of her life; her Popular Lectures on Ethics, referred to above, throws light upon her ideals and intellectual ability; obituaries appeared in the Maryland Colonization Journal, November 1846, and the Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D. C.), September 22, 1846. See also J. M. Garnett, Genealogy of the Mercer-Garnett Family of Essex County, Virginia (1910).]

M. W.W.


MERCUR, Ulysses (August 12, 1818-June 6, 1887), congressman.  In 1856 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. He had been a Democrat, but he favored free-soil doctrines and opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In 1860 he went so far as to serve as a presidential elector on the Lincoln and Hamlin ticket.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 547:

MERCUR, ULYSSES (August 12, 1818-June 6, 1887), congressman, jurist, a son of Henry and Mary (Watts) Mercur, was of Austrian ancestry. His father, who was educated abroad, returned to America and settled in 1809 at Towanda, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where Ulysses was born. His early life was spent on a farm and in the common-schools of the vicinity. When sixteen years old he became a clerk in his brother's country store. His father intended to establish him as a farmer, but because of the boy's desire to go to college, he sold his farm in order to finance his son's schooling. Ulysses entered Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (later merged with 'Washington College at Washington, Pennsylvania, to form Washington and Jefferson College), and graduated in 1842. He read law with Judge William McKennan and in 1843 began his career as a lawyer at Towanda. On January 12, 1850, he married Sarah Simpson Davis. In 1856 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. He had been a Democrat, but he favored free-soil doctrines and opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In 1860 he went so far as to serve as a presidential elector on the Lincoln and Hamlin ticket. He was associated with the group which was led by Galusha A. Grow and David Wilmot, and upon the election of Wilmot to the Senate in 1860 was appointed to fill his place as presiding judge of the thirteenth judicial district of Pennsylvania. At the election for the next full term as judge, he was chosen without opposition, and he served in this position till March 4, 1865.

Mercur was elected to Congress in 1864 and served continuously as a member of the lower house from March 4, 1865, to December 2, 1872. In Congress he was particularly active as an advocate of the extreme measures in dealing with the Southern States, and as an opponent of luxury taxes, especially the taxes on tea and coffee. In connection with Reconstruction, he once said that if the Southern states "will not respect the stars they must feel the stripes of our glorious flag" (Heverly, post, II, p. 123). He resigned as a member of Congress to become associate justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. He held this position from 1872 till 1883, and from 1883 till his death in 1887 he was chief justice of the court. He died at Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and was buried at Towanda. Just as the distinctive policy of his group in Congress in connection with Reconstruction was reversed and discredited, so his conception of the judiciary was soon regarded as antiquated. As a judge, he was described by an associate as "conservative and cautious, looking to the old landmarks" (116 Pennsylvania, xxiii). By the end of his career the old landmarks were rapidly being destroyed by the necessity of adjusting government and law to conditions alien to his generation.

[Sources include: Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); 116 Pennsylvania Reports, xix-xxxi; Legal Intelligencer (Philadelphia), June 10, 17, 1887; Pittsburgh Legal Journal, June 8, 15, 1887; H. C. Bradsby, History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania (1891); C. F. Heverly, Pioneer and Patriot Families of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, volume II (1915); the Press (Philadelphia), June 7, 1887. Mercur's judicial opinions are in 73-116 Pennsylvania Reports.]

W. B-n.  


MEREDITH, William, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, bank president.  Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 303; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 39)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 303:

MEREDITH, William Morris, cabinet officer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 8 June, 1799; died there, 17 August, 1873. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1812, studied law, and about 1820 began practice. He was in the legislature in 1824-'8, president of the select council of Philadelphia in 1834-'49, and a member of the State constitutional convention of 1837. He became secretary of the U. S. treasury in 1849, and held office until the death of President Taylor. He was attorney-general of Pennsylvania in 1861-'7, and president of the State constitutional convention in 1873. As a lawyer, Mr. Meredith occupied for many years the foremost rank in his native state, and was constantly engaged in important cases in the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and that of the United States. As a ready and able legal debater, he had few superiors in this country. Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


MERRILL, Amos B., Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Recording Secretary, 1842-43, Executive Committee, 1842-


MERRILL, Joseph, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40.


MERRILL, Samuel (October 29, 1792-August 24, 1855), Indiana official. During the existence of the Whig party, he adhered to it-with a strong anti-slavery leaning-and was an active party worker, and a manager of the State Colonization Society.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 563-564:

MERRILL, SAMUEL (October 29, 1792-August 24, 1855), Indiana official, was the second of nine sons of Jesse and Priscilla (Kimball) Merrill of Peacham, Vermont. His first American ancestor, Nathaniel Merrill, settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1635. Samuel Merrill attended an academy at Peacham and studied for a year, 1812-13, as a sophomore at Dartmouth College. He then taught school and studied law for three years at York, Pennsylvania. In 1816 he settled at Vevay, Switzerland County, Indiana, in the next year was admitted to the bar, and soon took his place as an active member of the community. Appointed tax assessor, he made the round of the county on foot for necessary economy; he was a contractor in the erection of a stone jail; superintendent of a town Sunday school started as early as 1817; and a representative of the county in the General Assemblies of 1819-20, 1820-21, and 1821-22. The General Assembly elected him state treasurer on December 14, 1822, and he held the office for four terms, till 1834. In 1824 he moved the state offices from Corydon to Indianapolis, one wagon sufficing for all the records and money. It took eleven or twelve days to cover the distance (125 miles by present highways); the road through the wilderness was impassable in some places, and a new way had to be cut through the woods.

He lived henceforth at the capital. In the absence of teachers, he personally conducted a school; he acted for a time as captain of the first military company, served as a commissioner for the erection of the state capitol building, which was finished in 1835, was an early president of the Temperance Society, a manager of the State Colonization Society, a trustee of Wabash College, and the second president of the Indiana Historical Society, 1835-48. He was active in the organization of the Second Presbyterian Church (New School) and an intimate friend of Henry Ward Beecher during his pastorate. On January 30, 1834, the General Assembly elected him president of the State Bank of Indiana. In this capacity he personally examined each of the thirteen branches twice a year. An excellent law and the efficient service of such officers as Merrill, Hugh McCulloch, and J. F. D. Lanier [qq.v.] combined to develop one of the best of all the state banks. After two terms in the office, Merrill was replaced by the choice of a Democratic legislature. From 1844 to 1848 he was president of the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, during which time it was completed to Indianapolis. He spent the next two years compiling a third edition of the Indiana Gazetteer and in 1850 he bought Hood and Noble's bookstore, which later, under the name of the Merrill Company, undertook some publishing and event usually entered into the Bowen-Merrill (now the Bobbs-Merrill) publishing company. He also, with others, constructed a mill on Fall Creek.

On April 12, 1818, Merrill married Lydia Jane Anderson of Vevay, daughter of Captain Robert and Catherine (Dumont) Anderson. Ten children were born to them. Aft er his wife's death in 1847, he was married, second, to Elizabeth Douglas Young, of Madison, Indiana. Throughout his life he was the personification of traditional New England Puritanism: conscientious, industrious, and devout. He is said to have read the entire Bible every year after he reached the age of twelve. The square-cut features, tightly closed lips, and clean-shaven face shown in most of his portraits reveal a sober, straightforward, uncompromising character. A bitter, twenty-four page pamphlet which he published in 1827 attacking Governor James Brown Ray illustrates the  roughness with which he performed "an unpleasant task." During the existence of the Whig party, he adhered to it-with a strong anti-slavery leaning-and was an active party worker. He died in Indianapolis and was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, […].

C. B. C.


MERRILL, Selah (May 2, 1837-January 22, 1909), Congregational clergyman, archeologist, consul. In 1864 he was ordained as a Congregational minister, and was appointed chaplain of the 49th United States Infantry, a colored regiment, with which he served at Vicksburg, 1864-65.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 564-565:

MERRILL, SELAH (May 2, 1837-January 22, 1909), Congregational clergyman, archeologist, consul, was born at Canton Center, Hartford County, Connecticut. His parents, Daniel Merrill and Lydia (Richards), sprang from old New England stock; an ancestor, Nathaniel Merrill (or Merrell, as the name was then spelled), is known to have been at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1635. After preparing for college at Westfield, Massachusetts, as well as at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Merrill entered Yale with the class of 1863, but left college before graduation to study at the Yale Divinity School. In 1864 he was ordained as a Congregational minister, and was appointed chaplain of the 49th United States Infantry, a colored regiment, with which he served at Vicksburg, 1864-65. After the war he preached in Le Roy, New York, 1867, San Francisco, 1867-68, and Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, 1870-72.

Though he received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale "for special services in Biblical learning," and spent two years (1868-70) at the University of Berlin, his lack of an adequate academic training was later to affect the value of his work very seriously. His interest in the Holy Land was whetted by an extended tour through Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, in 1869, but it was not until 1874 that his archeological career began. Before it was well under way he had been thrice married: first, March 15, 1866, to Fanny Lucinda Cooke, who died the following year; then, September 16, 1868, to Phila (Wilkins) Fargo, who died in 1870; and on April 27., 1875, to Adelaide Brewster Taylor, a direct descendant of Elder Brewster of the Mayflower.

[Annual of American Schools of Oriental Research, volume VIII (1928); Merrill's own books, especially East of the Jordan; Samuel Merrill, “A Merrill Memorial" (1917-28), 2 volumes, mimeographed, in Library of Congress; Congregationalist Year-Book, 1910; Who's Who in America, 1908-09; Congregationalist, January 30, 1909; San Francisco Examiner, January 23, 1909.]  

W. F. A.


MERRILL, Stephen Mason (September 16, 1825-November 12, 1905) Methodist Episcopal bishop and writer,  Merrill, though not a radical, was against slavery and supported the Union.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 565-566:

MERRILL, STEPHEN MASON (September 16, 1825-November 12, 1905) Methodist Episcopal bishop and writer, was born near Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, the fifth in a family of eleven children. His father, Joshua, was a farmer and shoemaker of New Hampshire birth and Revolutionary ancestry, descended from Nathaniel Merrill who settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1635; his mother, Rhoda (Crosson), was the daughter of a Revolution ary soldier of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Both were plain pioneers, with small school learning, but characterized by sturdy moral fib er and strict Methodist piety. Stephen grew up in Clermont County, Ohio. His schooling ceased after a term or two in the rural academy at South-Salem. He learned his father's trade of shoemaker, but did not stick to his last, for having "experienced religion," after the thorough Methodist manner, he joined the Methodist Society at Greenfield, Ohio, in 1842, and resolutely set about preparing himself to preach the gospel, working at his bench by day and toiling over his books far into the night. In his twentieth year, when he was teaching school, he was licensed to preach. Two weeks before he was twenty-one he was admitted to Ohio Conference on trial and appointed to Georgetown, a "hardscrabble" circuit of twenty-two preaching places. On July 18, 1848, he married Anna Bellmire, who survived him by only a few days. They had one son.

Ordained deacon in 1849 and elder in 1851, Merrill rode hard circuits, read hard books, and meditated for eleven years. His salary was $216 and "table exercises." Then h e w as advanced to be pastor of a church, and from that position rose to the captaincy of a district, as presiding elder. In 1859 he was transferred to Kentucky Conference, but in 1863 returned to Ohio Conference. During these years he conquered a tendency to pulmonary disease and acquired rugged health. He also developed unusual gifts as a close student of the doctrines and especially the discipline of his denomination, and won recognition for power of lucid and logical statement in the public forum and in the church press.

Nor was he solely concerned with defending Arminian theology and Methodist polity against polemic Calvinists, Universalists, and others. In that seething ante-bellum period, his sound judgment, deep conviction, and knowledge of constitutional law were thrown into the discussions that sprang up wherever men gathered. Merrill, though not a radical agitator, was against slavery and for the Union. In his first General Conference (1868) he made his reputation as a Methodist leader, when his unanswerable argument defeated the popular project for admitting laymen to the Methodist legislature without duly amending the constitution. The General Conference was so impressed with his ability, " mental equipoise, mastery of constitutional principle and clearness of expression" that it elected him, though a newcomer, to the editorship of the Western Christian Advocate (Cincinnati). After four years in the editorial chair, where he gave ample demonstration of his intellectual resources, he was elected a bishop (1872). For eight years he resided in St. Paul, Minn. He was then assigned to Chicago, where he made his headquarters thereafter. In 1904 he retired from active duty at his own request, and died suddenly the following year while on a visit in Keyport, New Jersey.

Merrill's talents were rather solid than showy, and he had not the imaginative qualities essential to popularity a s a preacher or occasional orator. He was no revivalist or stump speaker, but his power of massive argument, which his admirers likened to that of Daniel Webster, bore down all opposition. His knowledge of Methodist law was encyclopedic, and all his resources were at instant call. Physically he was tall and gaunt, with head of unusual size and the features of a Roman senator. He had a voice whose heavy tones were under complete control, and he pursued the course of his thought to its conclusion unruffled by contrary argument. As a bishop his calm judgment and dispassionate attachment to known principles of law made him a useful counselor. Only one man, Joshua Soule [q.v.], is rated his superior as an expounder of the Methodist constitution. In 1888 Merrill wrote the Episcopal Address to the General Conference, out of which came in substance those sections of the present constitution of the Methodist Episcopal Church which treat of the composition, powers, and limitations of the General Conference. He shone as a parliamentarian, and was a model presiding officer. In his handling of men in the appointive function of the episcopacy he was wise, sympathetic, and just. His quiet humor eased many difficult situations. His most valuable book was A Digest of Methodist Law (1885). Other works included: Christian Baptism (1876); The New Testament Idea of Hell (1878); The Second Coming of Christ (1879); Aspects of Christian Experience (copyright 1882); Outline Thoughts on Prohibition (1886); The Organic Union of American Methodism (1892); Mary of Nazareth and Her Family (1895); The Crisis of This World (1896); Sanctification (1901); Atonement (copyright 1901); Discourses on Miracles (copyright 1902).

[R. J. Cooke, "Bishop Stephen Mason Merrill," Methodist Review, May 1907; Western Christian Advocate, September 2, 1896; Christian Advocate (New York), September 17, 1896; autobiographical statement in Journal of the Twenty-fourth Delegated General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1904); Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1846-51 (1854); Samuel Merrill, "A Merrill Memorial" (1917-28), 2 volumes, mimeographed, in Library of Congress; J. B. Doyle, 20th Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio (1910); New York Daily Tribune, November 14, 1905.]

J.R.J.


MERRITT, Joseph, Merrit, Michigan, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-1864.


MERRITT, Timothy, 1775-1845, clergyman, opposed to slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 308)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 308:

MERRITT, Timothy, clergyman, born in Barkhamsted, Litchfield county, Connecticut, in October, 1775; died in Lynn, Massachusetts, 2 May, 1845. He began preaching in 1794, and served as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church in various parts of New England. While at Malden, Massachusetts, in 1831, he was an editor of “Zion's Herald,” published in Boston, and from 1832 till 1835 he resided in New York city as assistant editor of “The Christian Advocate and Journal.” While in Boston he established a monthly entitled “A Guide to Christian Perfection.” Mr. Merritt was an able writer, an eloquent preacher, an accomplished debater, and occupied a high place among the Methodist ministers of his time. He atoned for early deficiencies by subsequent vigorous intellectual discipline. He published “Christian Manual” (New York, 1824); “Memoir of Miss S. H. Bunting” (1833); “Convert's Guide and Preacher's Assistant” (1841); “Discussion against Universal Salvation”; “On the Validity and Sufficiency of Infant Baptism”; and “Lectures and Discourses on Universal Salvation,” with Reverend Wilbur Fiske, D. D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 308.


METCALFE, Thomas, 1780-1855, Kentucky, political leader, Governor of Kentucky, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator.  Supported the American Colonization Society and colonization. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 312; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 584; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 312:

METCALFE, Thomas, governor of Kentucky, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, 20 March, 1780; died in Nicholas county, Kentucky, 18 August, 1855. His parents, who were poor, emigrated to Kentucky and settled in Fayette county. After a few months in a country school the son worked with a stone-cutter, devoting his leisure to study. He served in the war of 1812, and in 1813 commanded a company with credit at the battle of Fort Meigs. While he was absent on this campaign be was elected to the legislature, in which he served three years. He was afterward chosen to congress as a Henry Clay Democrat, serving from 6 December, 1819, till 1 June, 1828, when he resigned. From 1829 till 1833 he was governor of Kentucky. He was a member of the state senate in 1834, and president of the board of internal improvement in 1840. Governor Metcalfe was appointed U. S. senator in place of John J. Crittenden, resigned, serving from 3 July, 1848, till 3 March, 1849, when he retired to his farm between Maysville and Lexington. He was a friend and follower of Henry Clay, and often boasted of his early labors as a stone-mason, delighting in being called the “Old Stone Hammer.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.



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.