R: Rantoul through Root

See below for annotated biographies of Free Soil Party leaders, members and supporters. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.

RANTOUL, Robert, Jr., 1805-1852, statesman, reformer, lawyer, writer, publisher, industrialist, U.S. Congressman.  Democratic and Free Soil Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Served one term, December 1851-1852.  Strong opponent of slavery and the Fugitive Slave laws.  Opposed extension of slavery into the new territories.  Served as defense counsel for escaped slave Thomas Simms in Massachusetts State Court. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 182-183; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 381; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe; Memoirs, ante; United States Magazine, and Democratic Review, October 1850; R. S. Rantoul, Personal Recollections (1916); North American Review, January 1854; Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate … 1841 1845 (1887), Ibid .... 1845  ... 1848 (1887); C. L. Woodbury, "Some Personal Recollections of Robert Rantoul," Essex Institute Historical Coll., volume XXXIV (1898); Sewell, 1976, pp. 221n, 233, 242n, 243)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

RANTOUL, Robert, statesman, born in Beverly, Massachusetts, 13 August, 1805; died in Washington, D. C., 7 August, 1852, was graduated at Harvard in 1826, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and began practice in Salem, but transferred his practice in 1830 to South Reading, Massachusetts. In 1832 he moved to Gloucester. He was elected to the legislature in 1834, serving four years, and assuming at once a position as a leader of the Jacksonian Democracy, in which interest he established at Gloucester a weekly journal. In the legislature he formed a friendship with John G. Whittier, who wrote a poem in his memory. He sat upon the first commission to revise the laws of Massachusetts, and was an active member of the judiciary committee. He interested himself in the establishment of lyceums. In 1836-'8 he represented the state in the first board of directors of the Western Railroad, and in 1837 became a member of the Massachusetts board of education. In 1839 he established himself in Boston, and in 1840 he appeared in defence of the Journeymen bootmakers' organization, indicted for a conspiracy to raise wages, and procured their discharge on the ground that a combination of individuals to effect, by means not unlawful, that which each might legally do, was not a criminal conspiracy. He defended in Rhode Island two persons indicted for complicity in the Dorr Rebellion of 1842, Daniel Webster being the opposing counsel. He was appointed U. S. District attorney for Massachusetts in 1845, and held that office till 1849, when he resigned. He delivered in April, 1850, at Concord the address in commemoration of the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1850 he was the organizer and a corporator of the Illinois Central Railroad. Daniel Webster having withdrawn from the senate in 1850, on being appointed Secretary of State, and having been succeeded by Robert C. Winthrop, Mr. Rantoul was elected, serving nine days. He was chosen as an opponent of the extension of slavery by a coalition of Democrats and Free-Soilers to the National House of Representatives, and served from 1 December, 1851, till his death. In 1852 he was refused a seat in the National Democratic Convention on the ground that he and his constituents were disfranchised by their attitude toward slavery. He was an advocate of various reforms, and delivered lectures and speeches on the subject of educational advancement, several of which were published, and while a member of the Massachusetts legislature prepared a report in favor of the abolition of the death-penalty that was long quoted by the opponents of capital punishment. He took a prominent part in the agitation against the Fugitive-Slave Law. As counsel in 1851 for Thomas Simms, the first escaped slave delivered up by Massachusetts, he took the ground that slavery was a state institution, and that the general government had no power to return fugitives from justice, or runaway apprentices or slaves, but that such extradition was a matter for arrangement between the states. He lent his voice and pen to the movement against the use of stimulants, but protested against prohibitory legislation as an invasion of private rights. After leaving the legislature, where the variety of his learning, the power of his eloquence, and his ardent convictions against the protection of native industry and other enlargements of the sphere of government, and in favor of educational and moral reforms had attracted attention, he became a favorite lecturer and political speaker throughout New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. He edited a “Workingmen's Library,” that was issued by the lyceums and two series of a “Common School Library” that was published under the sanction of the Massachusetts board of education. See his “Memoirs, Speeches, and Writings,” edited by Luther Hamilton (Boston, 1854). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 182-183.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 381;

RANTOUL, ROBERT (August 13, 1805-August 7, 1852), reformer, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, and in his brief life did much to further the political and moral convictions of his parents, Joanna (Lovett) and Robert Rantoul, 1778-1858 [q.v.]. He was graduated from Phillips Academy at Andover in 1822 and from Harvard College in 1826. Members of the class at Harvard remembered him for his facility and rapidity of mental action, for his frankness and independence, and for his modest, scholarly tastes. To the practice of law, which he began in Salem in 1829, he brought erudition, skill in debate; and, above all, moral conviction. On August 3, 1831, he married Jane Elizabeth Woodbury. They had two children. After 1838 he practised in Boston, but he never identified himself with the wealth, power, and society of that city. Without directing the policy of the Democratic party in Massachusetts, he played an important part in it. Jackson's bank veto, the removal of the deposits, the independent treasury, and free trade found in him a vigorous and intelligent champion. He was given a recess appointment as collector of the customs for Boston in 1843, was rejected by the Senate in 1844, but on February 3, 1846, was confirmed in another recess appointment, as di strict attorney for Massachusetts.

He began his humanitarian struggles when, as a member of the judiciary committee of the state legislature, 1835-39, he advocated in a comprehensive and widely cited report the abolition of the death penalty on the grounds of expediency and humanitarianism (Memoirs, Speeches, and Writings of Robert Rantoul, Jr., ed. by Luther Hamilton, 1854, pp. 425-515-). After a notable legal contest, the Massachusetts supreme court upheld in 1842 his reasoning in the defense of the journeymen boot-makers, who had been charged with unlawfully conspiring to compel their employers to recognize collective bargaining (Commonwealth vs. Hunt and Others, 45 Massachusetts Reports, 137). That same year he also defended some of the Rhode Islanders indicted for revolutionary attempts in connection with the Dorr rebellion. A liberal Unitarian, he was a thorough-going advocate of religious tolerance and spoke in the legislature in support of a bill for the indemnification of the Ursuline convent in Charlestown, after it had been destroyed by a mob. He was also one of-the earliest advocates of the lyceum ·and tax-supported public schools. From 1837, when the Massachusetts state board of education was established, until 1842 he was one of its most effective members. By speeches and articles (for example see North American Review, October 1838, pp, 273- 318) he did much to popularize this cause, which he thought would elevate the people and insure them against unjust exploitation by aristocracy and wealth. Against the will of party leadership supported the fifteen-gallon liquor law and advocated the furtherance of temperance by education and moral suasion. He also favored the punishment of the retailer who sold liquor to persons known to make an improper use of it. In lectures and speeches, in newspaper articles, and on the floor of the legislature this reformer attacked special privileges for corporations. He insisted on the necessity of careful inquiries into charters and specific limitations on the powers they granted to their incorporators. Indeed, he never tired, during his entire career in the legislature, of denouncing corporations for stimulating over-speculation and the creation of fictitious wealth. His influence was largely responsible for defeating, in 1836, the petition of Boston bankers and merchants for the chartering of a ten -million-dollar bank. He also attacked the claims of Harvard College to an exclusive control of transportation over the Charles River bridge and insisted on the rights of the people to build and use freely their own bridges and highways.

He became interested, about 1845, in business enterprises in the Mississippi Valley. Although his project for a timber and mining corporation in Minnesota involved him in financial ruin (Personal Recollections, post, pp. 25-26) he successfully carried through the Illinois legislature a liberal charter, which he himself had drawn up, for the Illinois Central Railroad. If he was inconsistent in his attitude towards corporations, it was partly due to his enthusiastic belief that the welfare of the different sections of the country depended on the maximum free interchange of commerce, which would be accelerated by liberal favors to railroads (Letter to Robert Schuyler ... on the value of the Public Lands of Illinois, 1851).

Although his political career was sometimes hindered by his espousal of unpopular causes, it was his opposition to the extension of slavery that led to his election to the Senate in 1851 to fill Webster's unexpired term. In 1851 the coalition between the Free-Soilers and Democrats sent him to the federal House of Representatives. For his political independence and especially for his opposition, on constitutional grounds, to the Fugitive-slave Law he was unseated from the National Democratic Convention in 1852. His early death was a great loss to the anti-slavery Democrats and to the humanitarian causes in which he had interested himself. He achieved some notable victories for human rights· and endeavored, without avail, to check the social irresponsibility of corporate wealth, the character and evils of which he only partly understood.

[Memoirs, ante; United States Magazine, and Democratic Review, October 1850; R. S. Rantoul, Personal Recollections (1916); North American Review, January 1854; Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate … 1841 1845 (1887), Ibid .... 1845  ... 1848 (1887); C. L. Woodbury, "Some Personal Recollections of Robert Rantoul," Essex Institute Historical Coll., volume XXXIV (1898); G. S. Boutwell, Reminiscences (1902), volume I; Charles Sumner: his Complete Works (1900), volume III, ed. by G. F. Hoar; "Rantoul," The Complete Poetical Works of J. G. Whittier (1900), p. 188; Journal of Ralph Waldo Emerson, volume VIII (1912), p. 111, ed. by E.W. Emerson and W. E. Forbes; A. B. Darling, Political Changes in Massachusetts (1925); a portrait by Joseph Ames in state house at Boston; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe].

M. E. C.


RAUM, Green Berry, (December 3, 1829-December 18, 1909), soldier, politician. In 1856 he moved with his family to Kansas, and affiliated himself with the Free-state Party opposing slavery in the territory.

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 186; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, pp. 391-392; Raum's History of Illinois Republicanism (1900); Who's Who in America, 1908-09; F. C. Pierce; Field Genealogy (1901), volume II; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927 (1928);

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

RAUM, Green Berry, commissioner of internal revenue, born in Golconda, Pope County, Illinois, 3 December, 1829. He received a common-school education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. In 1856 he moved with his family to Kansas, and at once affiliated with the Free-state Party. Becoming obnoxious to the pro-slavery faction, he returned the following year to Illinois and settled at Harris. At the opening of the Civil War he made his first speech as a “war.” Democrat while he was attending court at Metropolis, Illinois. Subsequently he entered the army as major of the 56 Illinois Regiment, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brevet brigadier-general. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 15 February, 1865, which commission he resigned on 6 May. He served under General William S. Rosecrans in the Mississippi Campaign of 1862. At the battle of Corinth he ordered and led the charge that broke the Confederate left and captured a battery. He was with General Grant at Vicksburg, and was wounded at the battle of Missionary Ridge in November, 1863. During the Atlanta Campaign he held the line of communication from Dalton to Acworth and from Kingston to Rome, Georgia. In October, 1864, he re-enforced Resaca, Georgia, and held it against General John B. Hood. In 1866 he obtained a charter for the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad Company, aided in securing its construction, and became its first president. He was then elected to Congress, and served from 4 March, 1867, till 3 March, 1869. In 1876 he was president of the Illinois Republican Convention, and in the same year he was a delegate to the National Convention of that party in Cincinnati. He was appointed commissioner of internal revenue, 2 August, 1876, and retained the office till 31 May, 1883. During this period he collected $850,000,000 and disburse $30,000,000 without loss. He wrote “Reports” of his bureau for seven successive years. He is also the author of “The Existing Conflict between Republican Government and Southern Oligarchy.” (Washington, 1884). He is at present (1888) practising law in Washington, D.C. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 186.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, pp. 391-392;

RAUM, GREEN BERRY (December 3, 1829-December 18, 1909), soldier, politician, was born at Golconda, Illinois, the son of John and Juliet Cogswell (Field) Raum, and a descendant of Konradt Rahm, an Alsatian who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1742. John Raum, who had served as an officer in the War of 1812, went to Illinois in 1823, was a brigade major in the Black Hawk War, member of the state Senate, and a clerk of the county and circuit courts. As a boy, Green Berry Raum studied art the public schools and with a tutor, worked on a farm and in a store, and made three trips to New Orleans on a flatboat. In 1853 he was admitted to the bar. He went to Kansas in 1856, but returned in two years to settle in. Harrisburg. In 1860 he was alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention which nominated Douglas and like his leader he supported the administration on the outbreak of war. He was commissioned a major of the 56th Infantry, Illinois Volunteers, which he had helped organize, on September 28, 1861. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel on June 26, 1862, colonel on August 31, 1862, and brigadier-general of volunteers on February 24, 1865. He participated in the siege of Corinth, the attack on Vicksburg, and the attack on Missionary Ridge, where he was seriously wounded in the thigh. Returning to the service on February 15, 1864, he took part in the Atlanta campaign, and was responsible for forestalling an attack by General Hood upon Resaca. The 56th Infantry proceeded on Sherman's march to the sea and the capture of Savannah, Georgia. Raum resigned from the service on May 6, 1865.

After the war he practised law in Harrisburg, Illinois. In 1866 he aided in securing the charter for the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad, and served as its first president. In 1867, now an ardent Republican, he was elected to the Fortieth Congress where he spoke chiefly on railroad measures and others concerning the commercial development of southern Illinois. He opposed Johnson's reconstruction program and voted for all the articles of impeachment. He was defeated for Congress in the next election, but remained active in the party. From 1876 to 1883 he was commissioner of internal revenue and did much to suppress illicit distilling and violence to revenue agents, partly by aiding in the establishment of legalized distilleries. From 1883 to 1889 he practised law in Washington, D. C., and was engaged in various business enterprises.

In 1889 he became commissioner of pensions. His efficiency was attested by the. secretary. of the interior, but Raum himself, his son, Green Jr,, chief clerk of a newly created division of appointments and the operations of the bureau, were investigated by two committees from the House of Representatives. The first committee, by a vote of three to two, exonerated Raum of the charge of using his office to further business interests; the second, by a vote of three to two, upheld similar charges, the minority laying the vote to the impending political campaign. After his retirement from office in 1893 he moved to Chicago, where he began to practise law. He wrote the following books, The Existing Conflict between Republican Government and Southern Oligarchy (1884), and the History of Illinois Republicanism (1900). He was married on October 16, 1851, to Maria Field. They had ten children, eight of which survived their father. Raum died in Chicago and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

[An autobiographical sketch is to be found in Raum's History of Illinois Republicanism (1900); see also, Who's Who in America, 1908-09; F. C. Pierce; Field Genealogy (1901), volume II; Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927 (1928); Report of the Adj. General of the State of Illinois, volume IV (1901); House Document No. 3732, 51 Congress, 1 Session; House Document No. 1868, 52 Congress, 1 Session; Chicago Daily Tribune, December 19, 1909.]

T.C.P.


READ, John Meredith, (July 21, 1797- November 29, 1874), jurist, “U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1837-'44, solicitor-general of the United States, attorney general of Pennsylvania, and chief justice of that state from 1860 until his death. He early became a Democrat, and was one of the founders of the Free-soil wing of that party. This induced opposition to his confirmation by the U. S. Senate when he was nominated in 1845 as judge of the U. S. Supreme Court, and caused him to withdraw his name.” Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 427.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

READ, John Meredith, jurist, born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania, 21 July, 1797; died in Philadelphia, 29 November, 1874. was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1812, and admitted to the bar in 1818. He was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature in 1822-3, city solicitor and member of the select, council, in which capacity he drew up the first clear exposition of the finances of Philadelphia, U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1837-'44, solicitor-general of the United States, attorney general of Pennsylvania, and chief justice of that state from 1860 until his death. He early became a Democrat, and was one of the founders of the Free-soil wing of that party. This induced opposition to his confirmation by the U. S. Senate when he was nominated in 1845 as judge of the U. S. Supreme Court, and caused him to withdraw his name. He was one of the earliest and staunchest advocates of the annexation of Texas and the building of railroads to the Pacific, and was also a powerful supporter of President Jackson in his war against the U. S. bank. He was leading counsel with Thaddeus Stevens and Judge Joseph J. Lewis in the defence of Castner Hanway for constructive treason, his speech on this occasion giving him a wide reputation. He entered the Republican Party on its formation, and at the beginning of the presidential canvass of 1856 delivered a speech on the " Power of Congress over Slavery in the Territories." which was used throughout that canvass (Philadelphia, 1856). The Republican Party gained its first victory in Pennsylvania in 1858, electing him judge of the supreme court by 30,000 majority. This brought him forward as a candidate for the presidency of the United States in 1860: and Abraham Lincoln's friends were prepared to nominate him for that office, with the former for the vice-presidency, which arrangement was defeated by Simon Cameron in the Pennsylvania Republican Convention in February of that year. He nevertheless received several votes in the Chicago Convention, notwithstanding that all his personal influence was used in favor of Mr. Lincoln. The opinions of Judge Read run through forty-one volumes of reports. His " Views on the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus" (Philadelphia, 1863) were adopted as the basis of the act of 3 March, 1863. which authorized the president of the United States to suspend the habeas corpus act. He refused an injunction to prevent the running of horse-cars on Sunday, since he could not consent to stop "poor men's carriages." Many thousand copies of this opinion (Philadelphia, 1867) were printed. His amendments form an essential part of the constitutions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and his ideas were formulated in many of the statutes of the United States. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1860. Judge Read was the author of a great number of published addresses and legal opinions. Among them are " Plan for the Administration of the Girard Trust "(Philadelphia, 1833); 'The Law of Evidence" (1864); and "Jefferson Davis and his Complicity in the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" (1866).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 427;

READ, JOHN MEREDITH (July 21, 1797- November 29, 1874), jurist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the grandson of George Read [q.v.] of Delaware, and son of John [q.v.] and Martha (Meredith) Read. Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1812, he was admitted to the bar on September 7, 1818, served as city-solicitor (1830-31) and member of the select-council (1827-28) of Philadelphia, and represented the city in the state legislature (1823-25). Endowed with talents of a high order and with exceptional family connections, punctual and methodical, and indefatigable in labor, he attained before he was forty a place high among the leaders of the city bar, when that bar was in its golden age. After serving as United States district attorney for eastern Pennsylvania from 1837 to 1841 (Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate, volume V, 1887), he was nominated by President Tyler an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (Ibid., volume VI, 1887), but his opinions on slavery prevented confirmation by the Senate. As a result, at least partly, of the recommendations of James Buchanan (The Works of James Buchanan, ed. by J. B. Moore, VI, 1909, p. 77), he was next appointed attorney-general of Pennsylvania, but occupied the position only a few months (June 23-December 18, 1846, 3 Pennsylvania, 5). Private practice claimed him thereafter until his election in October 1858 for fifteen years to the supreme court of the state, of which he became chief justice by seniority on December 2, 1872. His failing health increased the labors of his colleagues at the end of his term, and for this reason he retired upon its expiration. His judicial opinions were mines of information when they involved historical research; otherwise they were habitually terse and vigorous, characterized perhaps more by a strong sense of justice than by power of legal reasoning. He was known to call bedroom consultations in earliest morning hours and even to open court in mid-winter before daylight. According to a friendly and very competent contemporary, he was a faithful adherent to precedents and defender of vested rights, even to the point of undoing some innovations of his predecessors.

To Philadelphia Read gave on many occasions unstinted service. Ardent in friendships, zealous in advocacy of causes he espoused, a speaker of earnestness and power, he wielded an influence which counted heavily in the state. Despite early anti-slavery tendencies he approved the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War, but he opposed in the state convention of 1849 any extension of slave territory, joined in the creation of the Free-Soil party, and was an early adherent of the Republican party. His Speech ... on the Power of Congress over the Territories, and in Favor of Free Kansas, Free White Labor, and of Fremont and Dayton, Delivered ... September 30, 1856, at Philadelphia (1856) was widely used in the national campaign. The first Republican victory in Pennsylvania sent him to the state supreme court. Pennsylvania was indispensable to Republican success in 1860, and Read received mention in the state convention as a presidential candidate (Philadelphia North American and United States Gazette, February 23, 1860, p. 2), but Simon Cameron's ambitions stood in the way. Rhode Island gave him one vote in the first ballot of the convention. During the war he was one of the bare majority of his court who steadily sustained the legislation of Congress; and several of his opinions, separately printed, received wide circulation. His Views, sustained by Facts and Authorities, on the Suspension of the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, published in January 1863, probably had some influence upon the passage by Congress of the Act of March 3, 1863.

Read was a man of dignity, kindness, courtesy, remarkable energy, and strong opinions, and very persistent in his purposes. The standards he set for himself as a lawyer and a citizen were exceedingly high, and he observed them. He was married on March 20, 1828, to Priscilla Marshall of Boston, by whom he had five children. She died in 1841 and on July 26, 1855, he married Amelia Thompson of Philadelphia, the daughter of Edward Thompson and widow of Theodore Thompson. She, with a son by his first wife, John Meredith Read [q.v.], survived him. His judicial opinions are in volumes 32 to 73 of the Pennsylvania State Reports. His other publications included, aside from unofficial prints of judicial opinions, various pamphlets. His most important reprinted opinions supported the constitutionality of the national draft act of March 3, 1863 (45 Pa., 238, at 284 and 300) and of the legal tender act (52 Pa., 9, at 71), and the operation of street cars on Sunday, as "the poor man's carriage" and therefore within the state constitutional exception of necessity and charity (54 Pa., 401, at 432).

[See: F. M. Eastman, Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania (1922), volume II; J. H. Martin, Martin ' s Bench and Bar of Philadelphia (1 883); E. K. Price, "An Obit. Notice of Chief Justice John Meredith Read," Proceedings American Phil. Society, volume XIV (1 876), which notes his influence in various fields of Pennsylvania Jaw; Proceedings of the R. W. Grand Lodge of Pa. ... December 28th, A.D., 1874 .. . in Reference to the Death of ... John Meredith Read (1875); obituary proceedings of the bar of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Legal Intelligencer (Philadelphia), December 4 and 11, 1874; H. P. Read, Rossiana (1908); F. W. L each, "Old Philadelphia Families," North American (Philadelphia), Magazine Section, February 9, 1908.]

F. S. P.


RIDDLE, ALBERT GALLATIN (May 28, 1816-May 16, 1902), lawyer, congressman. “He was an ardent Whig and was against slavery. Upon the nomination of Zachary Taylor, he issued the call for a mass meeting at Chardon that inaugurated the Free-Soil party of Ohio. Soon afterward, he was nominated by the Whigs and Free-Soilers of his district for the state House of Representatives, was elected, and became at once the recognized leader of these two groups in the House from 1848 to 1850.”

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 591 Sewell, 1976, pp. 208, 209)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

RIDDLE, Albert Gallatin, lawyer, born in Monson, Massachusetts, 28 May, 1816. His father moved to Geauga County, Ohio, in 1817, where the son received a common-school education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, practised law, and was prosecuting attorney from 1840 till 1846. He served in the legislature in 1848–9, and called the first Free-Soil Convention in Ohio in 1848. In 1850 he moved to Cleveland, was elected prosecuting attorney in 1856, defended the Oberlin slave-rescuers in 1859, and was elected to Congress as a Republican, serving from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1863. He made speeches then in favor of arming slaves, the first on this subject that were deliver in Congress, and others on emancipation in the District of Columbia and in vindication of President Lincoln. In October, 1863, he was appointed U.S. consul at Matanzas. Since 1864 he has practised law in Washington, D.C., and, under a retainer of the State Department, aided in the prosecution of John H. Surratt for the murder of President Lincoln. In 1877 he was appointed law-officer to the District of Columbia, which office he now (1888) holds. For several years, from its organization, he had charge of the law department in Howard University. Mr. Riddle is the author of “Students and Lawyers,” lectures (Washington, 1873); “Bart Ridgely, a Story of Northern Ohio.” (Boston, 1873); “The Portrait, a Romance of Cuyahoga Valley” (1874); “Alice Brand, a Tale of the Capitol" (New York, 1875); “Life, Character, and Public Services of James A. Garfield” (Cleveland, 1880); “The House of Ross” (Boston, 1881); “Castle Gregory.” (Cleveland, 1882); “Hart and his Bear” (Washington, 1883); “The Sugar-Makers of the West Woods” (Cleveland, 1885); “The Hunter of the Chagrin" (1882); “Mark Loan, a Tale of the Western Reserve” (1883); “Old Newberry and the Pioneers” (1884); “Speeches and Arguments” (Washington, 1886); and “Life of Benjamin F. Wade’’ (Cleveland, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 248.

American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 1, p. 591;

RIDDLE, ALBERT GALLATIN (May 28, 1816-May 16, 1902), lawyer, congressman, author, was the son of Thomas and Minerva (Merrick) Riddle and the grandson of Thomas Ridel or Riddell who emigrated from Ireland as a child and died in Monson, Massachusetts. The grandson was born there, and the next year the family removed to Geauga County, Ohio. When Albert was only seven years old his father died. When he was twelve he was apprenticed to a well-to-do farmer; but he was not inclined toward farming and in 1831 worked with his two elder brothers as a carpenter. His ambition, though, was for something else, and during the following two years he spent part of his time in study. In 1835 he went to Hudson, where he entered school, and later he attended for a year the academy at Painesville. There he became interested in oratory and debating. He began the study of law under the direction of Seabury Ford in the spring of 1838, and after a period of intensive application to his work he was admitted to practice in 1840. He proved himself a successful political speaker in the Harrison campaign of 1840, and three weeks after his admission to the bar he was nominated for the office of prosecuting attorney, was elected, settled at Chardon, and served six years. He was an ardent Whig and very bitter against slavery. Upon the nomination of Zachary Taylor, he issued the call for a mass meeting at Chardon that inaugurated the Free-Soil party of Ohio. Soon afterward, he was nominated by the Whigs and Free-Soilers of his district for the state House of Representatives, was elected, and became at once the recognized leader of these two groups in the House from 1848 to 1850. In January 1845 he married Caroline Avery of Chardon. They had seven children. He removed to Cleve land in 1850. In 1859 he acted as counsel for the defense in the Oberlin-Wellington (Rescue case (for argument see History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, 1859, comp. by J. R. Shiperd). He won the respect and confidence of his fellows and was very attentive to business. He distinguished himself in many arguments in Congress, among them on the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The first battle of Bull Run was fatal to his congressional career, for in connection with it he made certain confidential critical statements that gained publicity and were used against him. He did not seek reelection in 1862. He again devoted himself to the law, but in the autumn of 1864 he accepted a consulate in Cuba as a convenient pretext for making an examination into the plans and workings of the blockade runners. This service he performed in a satisfactory manner. He then established himself in the practice of law in Washington. He claimed that, by a just construction of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution, women were entitled to vote. He was law officer for the District of Columbia from !877 to 1889.

He was a successful writer as well as orator. His first publication was a series of eight lectures delivered before the law department of Howard University, Law Students and Lawyers (1873). His first novel, Bart Ridgeley (1873), was commented on as the best American novel oi the year. The ensuing year appeared The Portrait and in 1875 Alice Brand, a story of Washington after the war. He prepared many of the biographical sketches in a History of Geauga and Lake Counties (1878). In 1880 he published The Life, Character, and Public Services of John A. Garfield. Old Newbury and the Pioneers was published in 1885 with some family and local history, his Life of Benjamin F. Wade in 1886, and Recollections of War Times in 1895. He did much newspaper 'Work and wrote many short stories. He died in Washington, D. C., and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.

[History of Geauga: and Lake Counties, ante, but sketch not signed by self; Pioneer and General History of Geauga County (1880); Who's Who in America, 1901-02; Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); G. T. Ridlon, History of the Ancient Ryedales (1884); Cleveland Leader, May 16, 1902.]

H. L.


ROBERTS, Jonathan Manning, 1771-1854, Upper Merion County, Pennsylvania, U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman, opponent of slavery.  Called for the prohibition of slavery from Missouri in the Senate. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 274; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe).

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ROBERTS, Jonathan Manning, investigator, born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 7 December, 1821; died in Burlington, New Jersey, 28 February, 1888, studied law, was admitted to the bar at Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1850, and practised his profession for about a year, but abandoned it and engaged in commercial pursuits. These proving financially successful, he found time to gratify his desire for metaphysical investigations. He also took an interest in politics, being an enthusiastic Whig and strongly opposed to slavery. He was a delegate to the Free-soil Convention at Buffalo, New York, that nominated Martin Van Buren for president in 1848, and subsequently canvassed New Jersey for that candidate. When the so-called spiritual manifestations at Rochester, New York, first attracted public attention, Mr. Roberts earnestly protested against the possibility of their having a supernatural origin. After several years of patient inquiry he came to the conclusion that they were facts that could be explained on scientific principles and resulted from the operation of natural causes. This conviction led to his establishing an organ of the new faith at Philadelphia in 1878 under the title of “Mind and Matter.” His fearless advocacy of his peculiar views involved him in litigation and caused his imprisonment. Finding the publication of a journal too great a tax on his resources, he abandoned it, and devoted the rest of his life to study and authorship. Among his manuscript, of which he left a large amount, is “A Life of Apollonius of Tyana” and “A History of the Christian Religion,” which he completed just before his death.  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. V, p. 274.


ROBINSON, Charles, 1818-1894, territorial governor, Kansas, member Free Soil Anti-Slavery Party, 1855. In 1854 Eli Thayer appointed him Kansas resident agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.   

(Rodriguez, 2007, p. 58; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 283; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 34; Annals of Congress; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 18, p. 641)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ROBINSON, Charles, governor of Kansas, born in Hardwick, Massachusetts, 21 July, 1818. He was educated at Hadley and Amherst academies and at Amherst college, but was compelled by illness to leave in his second year. He studied medicine at Woodstock. Vt., and at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he received his degree in 1843, and practised at Belchertown, Springfield, and Fitchburg, Massachusetts, till 1849, when he went to California by the overland route. He edited a daily paper in Sacramento called the “Settler's and Miner's Tribune” in 1850, took an active part in the riots of 1850 as an upholder of squatter sovereignty, was seriously wounded, and, while under indictment for conspiracy and murder, was elected to the legislature. He was subsequently discharged by the court without trial. On his return to Massachusetts in 1852 he conducted in Fitchburg a weekly paper called the “News” till June, 1854, when he went to Kansas as confidential agent of the New England emigrants' aid society, and settled in Lawrence. He became the leader of the Free-state party, and was made chairman of its executive committee and commander-in-chief of the Kansas volunteers. He was a member of the Topeka convention that adopted a free-state constitution in 1855, and under it was elected governor in 1856. He was arrested for treason and usurpation of office, and on his trial on the latter charge was acquitted by the jury. He was elected again by the Free-state party in 1858, and for the third time in 1859, under the Wyandotte constitution, and entered on his term of two years on the admission of Kansas to the Union in January, 1861. He organized most of the Kansas regiments for the civil war. He afterward served one term as representative and two terms as senator in the legislature, and in 1882 was again a candidate for governor. In 1887 he became superintendent of Haskell institute in Lawrence. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 283.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 34;

ROBINSON, CHARLES (July 21, 1818-August 17, 1894), pioneer, first governor of the state of Kansas, was 'born at Hardwick, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan and Huldah (Woodward) Robinson. He grew up in an abolition atmosphere, attended a private school in his native town, and was then sent to Hadley and Amherst academies. He entered Amherst College but was forced to withdraw after a year and a half because of weak eyes. Subsequently he studied medicine under Dr. Amos Twitchell at Keene, New Hampshire, and attended medical lectures at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Woodstock, Vermont. In 1843 he was married to Sarah Adams of Brookfield, and in the same year he began to practise his profession at Belchertown, Massachusetts. Two years later he and Josiah G. Holland [q.v.] opened a hospital at Springfield. After his wife's death in 1846 he joined a brother at Fitchburg and there continued the practice of medicine. In 1849 he accompanied a party of about forty Bostonians to California. After two weeks at mining on Bear Creek he formed a partnership and established a restaurant at Sacramento. In the contest between land speculators and settlers he was chosen president of the squatters' association. In an armed collision with town officials he received a wound thought to be fatal. He was arrested and placed on a prison ship, where he unexpectedly recovered. After miners and squatters had elected him to the legislature, he was admitted to bail and soon became co-editor of the Settlers' and Miners' Tribune at Sacramento. In the state Assembly he was antislavery and supported Fremont for the federal Senate. Eventually a nolle prosequi was entered on charges of assault, conspiracy, and murder. He returned to Massachusetts by way of Panama in 1851, and on October 30 of that year he was married to Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence, a young woman of good birth and education, daughter of Myron Lawrence of Belchertown, Massachusetts. She shared his interests and ambitions and was an important factor in helping him throughout his life. Her Kansas: its Interior and Exterior Life (1856) is a history of the Kansas struggle with a Free-State bias. For two years Robinson edited the Fitchburg News and practised medicine.

In 1854 Eli Thayer appointed him Kansas resident agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. He was well qualified for the position since his California adventure had given him a glimpse of Kansas and had introduced him to the contentious life of the frontier. In July 1854 the company sent him to the territory to arrange for its settlement. He had noted the beauty and fertility of the Kansas valley in 1849, so he explored the Missouri to Fort Leavenworth while a companion followed the Kansas to Fort Riley. He then went to St. Louis to meet the first body of New England emigrants and continued to conduct a second to the territory, which arrived at Kansas City in September. The two groups united at the present site of Lawrence and began the settlement of that town. In the spring of 1855 he conducted another party to the territory, which arrived in time to participate in the election of a legislature on March 30. Although there was illegal voting on both sides, proslavery candidates won a large majority of the seats. Three days after the election he wrote to Thayer for the loan of 200 Sharps rifles and two field pieces. At the first Fourth of July celebration at Lawrence he breathed defiance as he recommended, "Let us repudiate all laws enacted by foreign legislative bodies" (Kansas Conflict, post, p. 152). During the summer and fall of 1855 he attended numerous conferences held to unite antislavery factions in the territory. At the Lawrence convention: of August 14, he was appointed chairman of a Free-State executive committee of twenty-three, but a month later it was superseded by a smaller body headed by James H. Lane [q.v.]. A Free-State party was organized at Big Springs in September, and a constitutional convention was called to meet at Topeka on October 23. He was a delegate and led the radical wing of the party that opposed discrimination against free negroes, but without success. Largely through his influence, however, the convention refused to indorse the principle of popular sovereignty, urged by Lane and the administration faction.

When proslavery Missourians gathered on Wakarusa River in December and threatened to destroy Lawrence, he was appointed commanderin0chief. His cautious policy probably averted bloodshed for the belligerent Lane wished to take the offensive. The timely arrival of Governor Wilson Shannon ended the controversy, and both sides disbanded their forces. Yet the Wakarusa War was significant for it gave Lane the leadership of the radicals. On January 15, 1856, the Free-State party elected officers under the Topeka constitution, and Robinson was chosen governor. A legislature was organized at Topeka on March 4, and he delivered an inaugural address. He was soon indicted by a proslavery grand jury for treason and usurpation of office. While on his way east in May to obtain aid for Kansas he was arrested near Lexington, Missouri After four months of imprisonment at Lecompton he was released on bail, but the charges remained until the following year. In the fall of 1856 he resigned the  governorship and 'went east; but the Free-State legislature did not act upon his resignation, arid he withdrew it when he returned. He and Lane advised participation in the October election of 1857 for members of a territorial legislature. That policy was adopted, the Free-State party captured control of the territorial government, and the Topeka movement came to an end. In 1859 the Republican party supplanted the Free-State organization, and a new constitution was framed at Wyandotte.

Robinson was nominated for governor and elected over the Democratic candidate, Samuel Medary, but of course he did not take office until the state was admitted in 1861. He was sworn in as governor on February 9, and summoned the legislature to meet March 26. His message to the· Assembly was able and comprehensive, and he evinced sound statesmanship in inaugurating the forms and functions of a new state government. Nevertheless, his administration of two years was beset with difficulties. Before he had been in office a year an abortive attempt was made to displace him. An election was held, but the canvassing board refused to count the votes, and the state supreme court held it illegal. Early in 1862 articles of impeachment were preferred against the auditor, secretary of state, and the governor because of alleged irregularities in the sale of state bonds. The first two were found guilty and removed from office, but Robinson was acquitted almost unanimously. Nevertheless, the bond transactions hurt him politically. In raising and officering state troops for the Civil War he and Lane worked at cross purposes. Lane had the confidence of Lincoln and Stanton, controlled Kansas patronage, and even usurped a part of the governor's prerogative. After the expiration of his term of office, he remained a great deal in retirement at his country home of "Oakridge" a few miles from Lawrence, although he engaged in politics sporadically. Always an independent, he joined the Liberal Republican movement. He was elected to the state Senate in 1874 and again in 1876. A decade later he was defeated for Congress on the Democratic ticket, and in 1890 he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor on a fusion ticket composed of Greenbackers, Populists, and Democrats. Throughout his Kansas career he was a promoter of education. As a member of the state Senate he obtained the passage of a comprehensive law regulating the public school system. From 1864 to 1874 and again from 1893 to 1894 he was a regent of the University of Kansas. As superintendent of Haskell Institute, 1887-89, he adopted a policy of industrialization, under which the school began to flourish. He was president of the Kansas State Historical Society from 1879 to 1880 and in 1892 published The Kansas Conflict. Cautious and calculative, logical and shrewd, judicious and argumentative, his greatest service to Kansas was that he gave the Topeka movement equilibrium and was the brake and balance wheel of the Free-State party. He was never very popular, but his common sense and business acumen gave great weight to his judgment, and his decisions were usually sound.

["Webb Scrap Book," 17 volumes, a collection of newspaper clippings, 1854-56, 1859, in the Kansas State Historical Library; The Kansas Conflict and Kansas: its  ... Life, ante; F. W. Blackmar, The Life of Charles Robinson (1902), and "A Chapter in the Life of Charles Robinson, the First Governor of Kansas," American Historical Association Report ... 1894 (1896); Eli Thayer, A History of the Kansas Crusade (1889); Kansas Historical Collections, volume XIII (1915); D. W. Wilder's Annals of Kansas (new ed., 1886).]

W. H. S-n.


ROBINSON, William Stevens, (December 7, 1818-March 11, 1876); journalist, in 1848 he served as secretary of the Free-Soil Convention which met in Worcester. His outspoken opinions on slavery and Massachusetts politics cost him his position, and he returned to Lowell, Mass. to start the Lowell American, which he conducted for nearly four years, becoming recognized as one of the most radical of Massachusetts anti-slavery journalists. Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 58;

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

ROBINSON, William Stevens, journalist, born in Concord, Massachusetts, 7 December, 1818; died in Malden, Massachusetts, 11 March, 1876. He was educated in the public schools of Concord, learned the printer's trade, at the age of twenty became the editor and publisher of the "Yeoman's Gazette " in Concord, and was afterward assistant editor of the Lowell "Courier." He was an opponent of slavery while he adhered to the Whig Party, and when the Free-Soil Party was organized he left the "Courier," and in July, 1848, took charge of the Boston "Daily Whig." His vigorous and sarcastic editorials increased the circulation of the paper, the name of which was changed to the " Republican "; yet, after the presidential canvass was ended, Henry Wilson, the proprietor, decided to assume the editorial management and moderate the tone of his journal. Robinson next edited the Lowell "American," a Free-Soil Democratic paper, till it died for lack of support in 1853. He was a member of the legislature in 1852 and 1853. In 1856 he began to write letters for the Springfield "Republican" over the signature " Warrington," in which questions of the day and public men were discussed with such boldness and wit. that the correspondence attracted wide popular attention. This connection was continued until his death. From 1862 till 1873 he was clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. "Warrington," by his articles in the newspapers and magazines, was instrumental in defeating Benjamin F. Butler's effort to obtain the Republican nomination for governor in 1871, and in 1873 he was Butler's strongest opponent. Besides pamphlets and addresses, he published a "Manual of Parliamentary Law" (Boston, 1875). His widow published personal reminiscences from his writings entitled "Warrington Pen-Portraits," with a memoir (Boston, 1877).—His wife, Harriet Hanson, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 8 February, 1825, was one of the intellectual circle of factory-girls that composed the staff of the " Lowell Offering." She is a sister of John W. Hanson. She contributed poems to the Lowell "Courier" while Mr. Robinson was its editor, and from this introduction sprang a friendship that resulted in their marriage on 30 November, 1848. She was his assistant in his editorial work, and was as devoted as himself to the anti-slavery cause. She has also taken an active part in the woman's rights movement, and in 1888 was a member of the International council of women at Washington. 1). C. Her works include "Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement" (Boston, 1881); "Early Factory Labor in New England" (1883); and " Captain Mary Miller," a drama (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 289-290.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 58;

ROBINSON, WILLIAM STEVENS (December 7, 1818-March 11, 1876); journalist, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, the sixth and last child of William and Martha (Cogswell) Robinson, and a descendant of Jonathan Robinson of Exeter, New Hampshire, who died in 1675. After attending the town school, he learned the printer's trade and in 1837 joined his brother in the office of the Norfolk Advertiser of Dedham, a strong temperance paper. In 1839 he became editor of the Yeoman's Gazette, later The Republican, of Concord, a Whig paper, and as an ardent Whig he attended, as delegate, the Whig Convention in Baltimore in 1840. Two years later he became assistant editor of the Lowell Courier and Journal, acting for a time as its Washington correspondent. In 1845 he went to Manchester, New Hampshire, to edit The American, but soon returned to the Lowell Courier, in which connection his strong anti-slavery views began to attract marked attention among the radicals of Massachusetts. His vigorous condemnation of slavery and caustic comments on Massachusetts politics and politicians finally cost him his position, and in 1848 he removed to Boston to succeed Charles Francis Adams [q.v.] as editor of the Boston Daily Whig, later the Boston Daily Republican, which he conducted through the presidential campaign of 1848. The same year he served as secretary of the Free-Soil Convention which met in Worcester. Again, however, his vigorous opinions on slavery and Massachusetts politics cost him his position, and he returned to Lowell to start the Lowell American, which he conducted for nearly four years, becoming recognized as one of the most radical of Massachusetts anti-slavery journalists. In 1852, and again in 1853, he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, and in the latter year served as clerk of the constitutional convention. Following the failure of the Lowell American in 1854, he joined the editorial staffs of The Commonwealth and the Boston Telegraph and violently opposed the rising tide of Know-Nothingism in Massachusetts. In 1856 his "Warrington" letters on Massachusetts politics and politicians began to appear in the Springfield Republican and at once attracted state-wide attention because of their thorough knowledge of Massachusetts politics and their frank personal comment on the public men of the state. Similar letters over the pen name "Gilbert" were contributed to the New York Tribune, on which paper Robinson was offered an editorial berth in 1859 which, feeling that his best work could be done in Massachusetts, he refused.

The friend of Charles Sumner, John A. Andrew, Henry Wilson, John G. Whittier, and other Massachusetts radicals, he was early associated with the fortunes of the Republican party in the state, and in 1861, on the eve of the Civil War, he aided in editing The Tocsin, a campaign paper "published by an association of Republicans who are in earnest, and who will be heard" ("Warrington" Pen-Portraits, post, p. 94). In 1862 he was chosen as clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a position which he held for eleven years, during which he became known as the "Warwick" of Massachusetts politics. In 1863 he was made secretary of the Republican state committee, which important office he occupied until 1868, writing many of the addresses and memorials of the committee during these critical years of war and reconstruction. The strength of Robinson's political power in Massachusetts was most evident, perhaps, in 1871 and 1872 when he successfully led the opposition against Benjamin F. Butler [q.v.] in the latter's efforts to gain the governorship of Massachusetts. It was due to Butler's machinations, he believed, that he finally lost his clerkship in 1873. He then served for a short time on the staff of the Boston Journal, but in 1874 increasing ill health caused him to make a European trip, following which he returned to complete and publish Warrington's Manual (1875), a handbook of parliamentary law. He died the following year at his home in Malden, Massachusetts.

Robinson is described as "a lymphatic, shut-in man, smiling only around the mouth, which is carefully covered with hair to hide the smile; short, thick-set, with his head ... set ... directly on his shoulders; high forehead; slightly bald; thin hair; ruddy of face; ... the keenest political writer in America, and the best political writer since 'Junius' " (quoted in "Warrington" Pen-Portraits, p. 128). On November 30, 1848, he married Harriet Jane Hanson [see Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson], one of the literary mill girls of Lowell and for many years a leader in the woman suffrage movement in Massachusetts, a cause in which Robinson himself took much interest. They had four children, of whom three survived their father.

[Memoir in "Warrington" Pen-Portraits (1877), ed. by Harriet J. H. Robinson; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, October 1885, July 1890; Springfield Republican, March 13, 1876.]

W.R.W.


ROOT, Joseph M., 1807-1879, Brutus, New York, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, Mayor of Sandusky, Ohio. Whig Congressman and later Free Soil Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Thirty-First Congress.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe; Sewell, 1976, pp. 168, 280).


ROOT, JOSEPH POMEROY (April 23, 1826-July 20, 1885), physician, diplomatist, “he was chairman of the Free-State Executive Committee, and in August 1857 was elected to the Kansas Senate under the Topeka constitution.”

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 150; Topeka Capital, July 22, 1885; Weekly Commonwealth (Topeka), July 23, 1885; The U.S. Biographical Directory, Kansas Vol. (1879); J. P. Root, Root Genealogical Records (1870);

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 150;

ROOT, JOSEPH POMEROY (April 23, 1826-July 20, 1885), physician, diplomatist, son of John and Lucy (Reynolds) Root, was born in Greenwich, Massachusetts. His father was descended from John Roote who settled in Farmington, Connecticut, about 1640. After his early schooling was completed; he attended the Berkshire Medical College; Pittsfield, Massachusetts, graduating in 1850. The following year he moved to New Hartford, Connecticut, and in September married Frances Evaline Alden, by whom he had five sons. He joined the practice of politics to that of medicine, and was elected as a Whig to the Connecticut legislature in 1855. Moved by his social and political convictions to throw himself into the anti-slavery movement, he joined a company of emigrants (the Beecher Bible and Rifle colony) starting for Kansas in March 1856. He settled at Wyandotte, and at once began an active part in the affairs of the distracted territory. He was chairman of the Free-State Executive Committee, and in August 1857 was elected to the Kansas Senate under the Topeka constitution. He was one of the pioneer corps who located the public road from Topeka to Nebraska City, and he was sent East as an agent to obtain arms and aid for the free-soilers.

He contributed editorially to the Wyandotte papers, the Register (1857) and the Gazette (1858). In December 1859 he was elected lieutenant- governor of the new state on the Republican ticket. In 1861 he was chosen one of the officers of the first annual meeting of the Kansas State Temperance Society. During the Civil War he was surgeon of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry (as it was finally designated) and was medical director of the Army of the Frontier. In 1866 he presided over the Republican state convention. On September 15, 1870, President Grant appointed him minister to Chile, an act which recognized his services and at the same time eliminated him from active participation in state politics. He presented his credentials on December 2, 1870, and since diplomatic duties were not pressing, he gave much time to a general interest in Chilean affairs. He traveled extensively. Once he crossed the Andes into Argentina and reported the trip to the Department of State in the form of a treatise on the cause of earthquakes. Later he accompanied the minister of foreign affairs to southern Chile to investigate the Indians. Improvements in transportation fascinated him; he was enthusiastically in favor of an intercontinental railroad, he urged subsidies by the United States to West-Coast steamship lines, and he undertook on his own account to have Chile establish a system of towboats in the Straits of Magellan.

Root won great popularity with the Chileans for his efforts during a frightful smallpox epidemic in 1872. He served on the Santiago Board of Health and contributed his services to hospitals and private patients, laboring to improve the sanitary treatment of the disease. In recognition of his work a street in Santiago, the "Calle de Root," was named for him. He was recalled in June 1873 to make a place for Cornelius Logan [q.v.]. In 1874 he was elected a vice-president of the Temperance Convention which forced the Republican convention to adopt an anti-liquor plank. Governor St. John appointed him surgeon-general of Kansas. In 1876 he published Catechism of Money, advocating green-backism; in this same year he was named a member of the Chilean Centennial Commission. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. Except for two years. (1877-79) when he was on the staff of a sanitarium at Clifton Springs, New York, he lived at Wyandotte until his death. He took a lively interest in the Kansas Historical Society and contributed several manuscript writings to its archives, among them a memoir of his experiences in Kansas in 1856.

[Topeka Capital, July 22, 1885; Weekly Commonwealth (Topeka), July 23, 1885; The U.S. Biographical Directory, Kansas Vol. (1879); J. P. Root, Root Genealogical Records (1870); H. C. Evans, Chile and Its Relations with the U.S. (1927), p. 96, where Root's given name appears incorrectly as Thomas; Trans. Kansas State Historical Society, 1901-02 (1902); D. W. Wilder, The Annals of Kansas (1886); Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the U. S., 1871-73; Root's dispatches (3 volumes) in the Archives of the Dept. of State.]

G. V. B.



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