military operations brought him into close personal relations with Mr. Stanton and Mr. Lincoln, who were accustomed to depend much upon his accurate perception and just estimates of men and measures for information of the actual state of affairs at the front. At the time when Gen. Grant's character and probable usefulness were unknown quantities, Mr. Dana's confidence in Grant's military ability probably did much to defeat the powerful effort then making to break down the rising commander. Of this critical period Gen. Sherman remarks in his “Memoirs”: “One day early in April, 1868, I was up at Grant's headquarters [at Vicksburg], and we talked over all these things with absolute freedom. Charles A. Dana, assistant secretary of war, was there, and Wilson, Rawlins, Frank Blair, McPherson, etc. We all knew, what was notorious, that Gen. McClernand was intriguing against Gen. Grant, in hopes to regain command of the whole expedition, and that others were raising clamor against Grant in the newspapers of the north. Even Mr. Lincoln and Gen. Halleck seemed to be shaken; but at no instant did we (his personal friends) slacken in our loyalty to him.” Mr. Dana was in the saddle at the front much of the time during the campaigns of northern Mississippi and Vicksburg, the rescue of Chattanooga, and the marches and battles of Virginia in 1864 and 1865. After the war his services were sought by the proprietors of the Chicago “Republican,” a new daily, which failed through causes not within the editor's control. Returning to New York, he organized in 1867 the stock company that now owns the “Sun” newspaper, and became its editor. The first number of the “Sun” issued by Mr. Dana appeared on 27 Jan., 1868, and for nearly twenty years he was actively and continuously engaged in the management of that successful journal, and solely responsible for its conduct. He made the “Sun” a democratic newspaper, independent and outspoken in the expression of its opinions respecting the affairs of either party. His criticisms of civil maladministration during Gen. Grant's terms as president led to a notable attempt on the part of that administration, in July, 1873, to take him from New York on a charge of libel, to be tried without a jury in a Washington police court. Application was made to the U. S. district court in New York for a warrant of removal; but in a memorable decision Judge Blatchford, now a justice of the supreme court of the United States, refused the warrant, holding the proposed form of trial to be unconstitutional. Perhaps to a greater extent than in the case of any other conspicuous journalist, Mr. Dana's personality was identified in the public mind with the newspaper that he edited. He has recorded no theories of journalism other than those of common sense and human interest. He was impatient of prolixity, cant, and the conventional standards of news importance. Mr. Dana's first book was a volume of stories translated from the German, entitled “The Black Ant” (New York and Leipsic, 1848). In 1855 he planned and edited, with George Ripley, the “New American Cyclopædia.” The original edition was completed in 1863. It has since been thoroughly revised and issued in a new edition under the title of “The American Cyclopædia” (16 vols., New York, 1873-'6). With Gen. James H. Wilson he wrote a “Life of Ulysses S. Grant” (Springfield, 1868). His “Household Book of Poetry, a collection of the best minor poems of the English language,” was first published in 1857, and has passed through many editions, the latest, thoroughly revised, being that of 1884. His “Reminiscences of the Civil War” appeared in 1898, after his death, in “McClure's Magazine.”
DANA, James, clergyman, b. in Cambridge,
Mass., 11 May, 1735; d. in New Haven, Conn., 18
Aug., 1812. He was a nephew of Richard, and
descendant through Caleb, second son of Daniel,
who was the youngest son of Richard Dana, he
was graduated at Harvard in 1753, and remained
in the college as a resident graduate for several
years, studying theology and general literature.
In October, 1758, he was ordained and made pastor
of the Congregational church in Wallingford,
Conn., succeeding the Rev. Samuel Whittlesey.
After he had accepted this call, the consociation
prohibited his ordination; but the church and
society, together with Mr. Dana, persisted in their
action. Subsequently the consociation pronounced
a sentence of non-communion against them, and
declared the ministers and delegates of the ordaining
council to be “disorderly persons, and not fit
to sit. in any of our ecclesiastical councils until
they shall clear up their conduct to the satisfaction
of the consociation of New Haven county.” The
controversy was essentially between the
“Old-Light” and the “New-Light” parties. Mr. Dana
was regarded as a partisan of the liberal school of
Boston, and the ministers forming the consociation
of New Haven were little disposed to have one of
their prominent churches committed to the care of
a pastor whom they considered as having departed
so far from their own standard of Christian
doctrine. Mr. Dana and the ordaining clergy then
formed an association by themselves, which
continued until about 1772, when the controversy was
terminated by pacific overtures made by the ministers
then constituting the consociation. It is
evident that the ordination was a departure from the
Saybrook platform, because the ordaining council
was not limited to the consociation. It was
tantamount to an assertion of independence of the
church, in disregard of the platform. The
members of the council were regarded as inclining to
Arminianism. However, the prejudice against Mr.
Dana gradually disappeared, and he made himself
very popular by the decided stand that he took in
favor of the American cause in the events that led
to the Revolution. His patriotic sermons, delivered
in New Haven while the legislature was in session,
were effective in winning many to his support. In
1789 he became pastor of the first church in New
Haven, and was installed on 29 April. Here he
came into controversy with Jonathan Edwards and
Samuel Austin; but, for the most part, his ministry
was peaceful, though not eminently successful.
He was succeeded in this pastorate by the Rev.
Moses Stuart in 1805, but his relation was severed
only by an ecclesiastical council. This procedure
deeply wounded Dr. Dana, and thereafter he
worshipped in the college chapel, although subsequent
to Mr. Stuart's departure he again appeared in his
old church and officiated as moderator at the
installation of Dr. N. W. Taylor in April, 1812. The
University of Edinburgh conferred on him the
degree of D. D. in 1768. He published, besides
memorial and other sermons, “Examination of
Edwards on the Will,” anonymous (Boston, 1770),
and “An Examination of the Same Continued”
(New Haven, 1773). — His son, Samuel Whittlesey,
senator, b. in Wallingford, Conn., 13 Feb.,
1760; d. in Middletown, 21 July, 1830, was graduated
at Yale in 1775, and became a distinguished
lawyer. He was elected to congress as a federalist,
and, with subsequent re-elections, served from
3 Jan., 1797, till 1 May, 1810, when he was selected
as U. S. senator to succeed James Hillhouse. He
