Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/24

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GRISWOLD
GROSE

and partly in central Europe. As a youth he was apprenticed to the publisher of a newspaper, where he acquired a knowledge of type-setting and the routine of a publication-office, and sometimes acted as assistant editor. Tiring of the press-room, he studied theology, and became a minister of the Baptist denomination. He preached with success. and had obtained the degree of D. D., when he sud- denly forsook the pulpit to become a journalist and book-compiler. Prom 1841 till 1843 he edited, with freat credit, "Graham's Magazine," published in 'hiladelphia. Thereafter he became associate edi- tor of several weekly newspapers in Boston and New York city, among them the " New Yorker," " Brother Jonathan," and " New World." In 1852 he edited the "International Magazine" in New York city, which was for a time a rival to Harper's, but was afterward absorbed by that periodical. Gris- wold was an indus- trious worker, and his publications show him to have been a thoughtful writer and a man of extensive reading. But his estimates of contemporary American writers, with manyof whom he came into liter-

ary and personal

rivalry, is frequently partial and perverted. His works include " Poets and Poetry of America" (Philadelphia, 1842), which has passed through twenty editions; "Bio- graphical Annual " (1842) ; " Christian Ballads and other Poems" (1844); discourse on the "Present Condition of Philosophy " (1844) ; " Poets and Poet- ry of England in the Nineteenth Century " (1845) ; " Prose Writers of America" (1846); " Washington and the Generals of the Revolution," in connection with other writers (2 vols., 1847) ; " Napoleon and the Marshals of the Empire," with Horace B. Wallace (2 vols., 1847) ; " Female Poets of Amer- ica " (1848) ; " Sacred Poets of England and Amer- ica" (1849); "The Republican Court" (New York, 1854) ; and " Scenes in the Life of the Saviour." He also compiled "Curiosities of American Lit- erature," which was attached to an American edition of Isaac D'Israeli's writings, and edited the earliest edition of Milton's prose works published in the United States. He was also one of the edi- tors of the " Works of Edgar Allan Poe " (3 vols., New York, 1850), and to this publication he fur- nished a biographical sketch, which has been much criticised. At the close of Griswold's career he was engaged in a revision of his several works on American literature.


GRISWOLD, Stanley, senator, b. in Torringford, Conn., 14 Nov., 1763; d. in Shawneetown, Ill., 21 Aug., 1815. After working on his father's farm and attending a district-school, he entered Yale, where he graduated in 1786. He was then principal of a high-school for a year, studied divinity, and on 20 Jan., 1790, was installed as colleague pastor at New Milford, Conn., where his eloquence and social qualities made him popular. He early became an admirer of Thomas Jefferson, who was then regarded by most of the New England clergy as little less than an athiest, and in 1797 he was excluded from the association of ministers of which he was a member on account of alleged heterodoxy. His congregation, however, supported him, and he continued to preach in New Milford till 1802, when he resigned. In 1801 he delivered a sermon at a Democratic jubilee in Wallingford, Conn., avowing political sentiments so unusual for a New England clergyman the he became widely known. After preaching for a short time in Greenfield, Mass., he abandoned the pulpit, and in 1804 edited with spirit and ability a Democratic newspaper at Walpole, N.H. In 1805 he was appointed by President Jefferson secretary of Michigan territory, but shortly afterward resigned on account of some difficulty with the governor, Gen. William Hull, and removed to Ohio. In 1809-'10 he served in the U.S. senate, having been appointed to fill a vacancy, and was afterward U.S. judge for the Northwest territory, holding that office at the time of his death. He published the sermon alluded to above, with the title “Overcome Evil with Good” (Hartford, 1801 ; 2d ed. New Haven, 1845).


GROESBECK, William Slocomb, lawyer, b. in New York city, 24 July, 1815. He received an academic education, studied law, practised in Cincinnati, and was in 1851 a member of the state constitutional convention. In 1852 he was a member of the commission to codify the laws of Ohio. He was in congress from 7 Dec., 1837 till 3 March, 1859, serving on the committee on foreign affairs, was a member of the peace congress in 1861, and in 1862 a member of the Ohio state senate. He was elected a delegate to the National union convention held in Philadelphia in 1866, and was one of the counsel for President Johnson in the impeachment trial of 1868. Mr. Groesbeck was nominated for the presidency in 1872 by a convention of Liberal Republicans who were dissatisfied with Horace Greeley, but the ticket was entirely forgotten during the excitement of the canvass, although Mr. Groesbeck received a single electoral vote for the vice-presidency. He was appointed in 1878 U.S. delegate to the International monetary congress held in Paris.


GROSE, William, soldier, b. in Dayton, Ohio, 16 Dec, 1812. Both of his grandfathers served in the Revolution, and his father was a soldier in the war of 1812. The son received a common-school education. He was a presidential elector on the Pierce ticket, and an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for congress in 1852, but joined the Republican party on its formation and was elected to the legislature in 1856. He was chosen a judge of the court of common pleas in 1860, but resigned m August, 1861, and recruited the 36th Indiana infantry, of which he became colonel. At Shiloh his regiment was the only part of Buell's army that joined in the first day's fight, and after the engagement he commanded a brigade. He was with the Army of the Cumberland in all its important battles, served through the Atlanta campaign, and, at the request of Gens. Sherman and Thomas, was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, receiving notice of his appointment while under fire in front