Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/752

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PENDER
PENDLETON

congress elected Gen. Anaya provisional president, but, as it failed to agree on the election of a consti- tutional president, Pena took charge again on 8 Jan., 1848. During his government the American invasion took place, which was ended by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. On 3 June he delivered the government to the constitutional president, Gen. Herrera {q. v.), and returned to the presidency of the supreme court, which he held till his death. He published " Lecciones de practica forense Mexi- cana" (Mexico. 1842).


PENDER, William Dorsey, soldier, b. in Edge- combe county, N. C, 6 Feb., 1834; d. in Staunton, Va., 18 July, 1863. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1854, and assigned to the ar- tillery, "but was transferred to the 2d dragoons on 3 March. 1855, and promoted 1st lieutenant, 17 May. 1858. He was engaged in active service on thefrontier until 21 March, 18G1, when he resigned his commission. He was appointed colonel of the 6th North Carolina regiment on 27 May, 1861, and brigadier-general in the provisional Confederate army, 3 June, 1862. He was promoted to the rank of major-general, 37 May, 1863. His brigade was composed of five North Carolina regiments of in- fantry, and formed part of Anderson's division, of Ambrose P. Hill's corps, in the Array of northern Virginia. His division was composed of the bri- gades of Pender, McGowan, Lane, and Thomas, in the same army. He died from wounds received at the battle of Gettysburg.


PENDERGRAST, Garrett Jesse, naval officer, b. in Kentucky, 5 Dec, 1802 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 7 Nov., 1862. He entered the U. S. navy, 1 Jan., 1812, and saw twenty-two years of sea service, becoming lieutenant in 1821, commander in 1841, and captain in 1855. In 1860 he was appointed flag-officer of the home-squadron. At the beginning of the civil war he was in command of the West India squadron, and subsequently he was appointed to the frigate " Cumberland "' at Norfolk navy-yard, Va., and protected the waters of Hamp- ton Roads. Before the surrender of Norfolk to the Confederates the authorities of Virginia endeavored to get possession of the II. S. ships-of-war lying off that city by sinking obstructions in the mouth of the channel in order to prevent their egress. Among other vessels that were thus blockaded was the " Cumberland," then under Cora. Pendergrast's command. Finding himself in danger of being hemmed in, he sent word to the authorities that if the obstructions were not removed within a speci- fied time he would open fire on the city. This message had the desired effect, and, the channel being cleared, the " Cumberland " and other vessels were brought out in safety. Soon afterward he was appointed commandant of the Philadelphia navy-yard, which post he filled until two days be- fore his death. Under the reorganization of the navy he was twelfth commodore on the retired list, which rank he attained on 16 July, 1862. — His son, Austin (1829-'74), entered the navy in 1848, and had attained the rank of commander at his death.


PENDLETON, Edmund, statesman, b. in Caro- line county, Va., 9 Sept., 1721 ; d. in Richmond, Va., 23 Oct., 1803. His grandfather, Philip, who was descended from Pendleton, of Manchester co., Lancashire, carae from Norwich, England, to this country in 1676. Edmund had few early educa- tional advantages, and began his career in the clerk's office of Caroline county, Va. He was licensed to practise law in 1744, became a county justice in 1751, and in the following year was elected to the house of burgesses. He took an active part in the debates of that body, and in was one of the committee to memorialize the- king. During the session of 1766 he gave the opinion " that the stamp-act was void, for want of constitutional authority in parliament to pass it," and voted in the affirmative on the resolution that the "act did not bind the inhabitants of Vir- ginia." He was one of the committee of corre- spondence in 1773, • county lieutenant of Carolineinl774, a member of the colonial conven- tion of the latter year that was con- sequent on the Boston port bill, and was chosen by that body to the first Continental congress. Accord- ingly, in company with George Wash- ington, Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, Benjamin

Harrison, and

Richard Henry Lee, he attended in Philadelphia in 1774. As president of the Virginia convention he- was at the head of the government of the colony from 1775 till the creation of the Virginia constitu- tion in 1776, and was appointed president of the coramittee of safety in that year. In May, 1776, he presided again over the convention, and drew up the celebrated resolutions by which the delegates from Virginia were instructed to propose a declaration of independence in congress, using the words that were afterward incorporated almost verbatim in the declaration, " that the delegation be instructed to propose to declare the United Colonies free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance or dependence upon the crown or parliament of Great Britain." As the leader of the cavaliers or planter class, he was the opponent of Patrick Henry, and as the head of the coramittee of safety he was active in the control of the military and naval operations and of the foreign correspondence of Virginia. On the organization of the state govern- ment he was chosen speaker of the house, and. appointed, with Chancellor George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson, to revise the colonial laws. In March, 1777, he was crippled for life by a fall from, his horse, but in the same year he was re-elected speaker of the house of burgesses, and on the organization of the chancery court he was unanimously chosen its president. In 1779, on the establishment of the court of appeals, he became president of that body, holding office until his death. He presided over the State convention that ratified the constitution of the United States in 1788. His masterly adyocaey of the document gained him the encomium from Jefferson that " taken all in all, he was the ablest man in debate that I ever met with." " There is no quarrel," said Pendleton, "between governraent and liberty ; the former is the shield and protector of the latter. Who but the people can delegate powers, or have a right to form government'^ The question must be between this government and the confederation : the latter is no governraent at all. Governraent, to be effectual, must have complete powers, a legislature, a judiciary, and executive. No gentleman in this committee would agree to vest these three powers, in one body. The proposed government is not a consolidated government. It is, on the whole complexion of it, a government of laws, and not of