sides his joint benefactions with his brother, which are recorded above, he has made a conditional gift of $ 20,000 to the college that bears the family name. His later years have been earnestly devoted to the completion and equipment of the Vassar brothers' hospital. — The first Matthew's cousin, John Ellison, lay preacher, b. near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 13 Jan., 1813 ; d. in Poughkeepsie, 6 Dec, 1878, was the son of Thomas Vassar. In early life he was employed in the brewery of Matthew Vas- sar, but, having become a religious man of very earnest convictions, he left the service of his cousin and devoted his entire life to self-sacrificing labors for the good of others. He was employed in 1850 by the American tract society as a colporteur, his first missionary work being in Illinois and other western states. Subsequently New York and New England were his field of service. During the civil war he was at the front, engaged in religious labors of all kinds among: the soldiers. Just be- fore the battle of Gettysburg he was captured by Gen. James E. B. Stuart's cavalry, who were glad to let him go to escape his importunate exhorta- tions and prayers. At the conclusion of the war he visited, in the service of the Tract society, Vir- finia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida, 'ew men of his day travelled more extensively or were more widely known than " Uncle John Vas- sar," as he was everywhere called. His extraordi- nary mental gifts, in connection with his zeal, made him a lay preacher that was rarely equalled. An account of his life has been published by the Rev. Thomas E. Vassar (New York, 1879).— John Ellison's nephew. Thomas Edwin, clergyman, b. in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 3 Dec, 1834, is son of William Vassar. His plans for entering college were frustrated by family misfortunes, and he was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1857, without the advantages of a formal education. He has been successively settled as pastor at Amenia, N. Y., Lynn, Mass., Flemington, N. J., and Newark, N. J., and is now in Kansas City, Mo. He was for .one year chaplain of the 150th New York regiment, and was at several battles, including Gettysburg. He is the author of a memoir of his cousin, John Ellison Vassar, entitled " Uncle John Vassar " (New York. 1879), of which about 20,000 copies have been sold in America and England. He has received the degree of D. D.
VATRY, Marc Antoine Bourdon (vah-tree),
Baron de, French statesman, b. in Saint-Maur,
near Paris, 21 Nov., 17G1 ; d. in Paris, 22 April,
1828. He was secretary to Count De Grasse in
1780-2, was at Yorktown, and wrote for the admi-
ralty an account of the naval operations in the
Gulf of Mexico and on the coast of North Ameri-
ca. After the battle of Dominica, 12 April, 1782,
in which he was wounded and where Count Do
Grasse was made a prisoner, he became secretary
of Marquis Louis Philippe de Vaudreuil, who suc-
ceeded De Grasse in the command of the French
forces. He was charged with the embarkation at
Boston of Rochambeau's army for Santo Domingo,
and when peace was concluded in 1783 he was ap-
Sointed chief of the colonial bureau in the navy
epartment. He was employed later at Antwerp,
was secretary of the navy in 1798-1800, and was
then named minister to the United States. By a
subsequent decree he was appointed commissary-
general of the Low Countries, and a few months
later transferred to' Havre as maritime prefect.
He opposed the expedition of Gen. Leclerc to San-
to Domingo, of which he foresaw the consequences,
and it is said that Bonaparte answered his objec-
tions and those of the engineer Fairfait with the
significant words : " I want to get rid of the 60,000
republican soldiers of Moreau's army." During his
administration as prefect of Avignon and afterward
of Genoa he built several monuments, constructed
bridges and dams, and opened high-roads. He be-
came under-secretary of the navy and colonies in
1814, and retired to private life after the second
restoration of Louis XVIII. in 1815. His works in-
clude " Expose des operations de l'armee navale du
Comte de Grasse de 1780 a 1782" (Paris, 1785).
VATTEMARE, Alexandre, founder of the sys-
tem of international exchanges, b. in Paris, 8 Nov.,
1796; d. there, 7 April, 1864. He became a sur-
geon, and in 1814 was sent to conduct Prussian
prisoners of war to Berlin. Afterward, being with-
out resources, he became a professional ventrilo-
quist, and under the name of Monsieur Alexandre
was well known throughout Europe and appeared
as such in this country. Subsequently he gave
up this occupation to urge the adoption of his
system of commercial exchanges. At first this
aimed simply at a systematic exchange of dupli-
cates between libraries, especially of government
publications, but he afterward extended it to in-
clude art-objects, maps, specimens of natural his-
tory, and other similar articles. He came to this
country in 1839 and again in 1847, and was granted
money by congress and by the legislatures of sev-
eral states to further his scheme, which met with
more success here than in Europe. His manners
were captivating, and in his addresses he indulged
in the most extravagant flattery of the United
States, promising that by his exertions "the veil
of ignorance which shuts out your country from
view will fall and she will stand in the eyes of Eu-
rope in her true dignity and glory." He also held
out the prospect that "a rattlesnake or a lizard
may procure a copy of the Venus de Medicis." He
was the means of adding 300,000 volumes to the
libraries of this country ; but he lacked judgment
and system, and his scheme was ultimately a fail-
ure. His plan of establishing a government bureau
in Paris in connection with it was not regarded
with favor, and he died a disappointed man. — His
son, Hippolyte, who has contributed to current
literature in France, notably a series of biographi-
cal sketches of American soldiers in the " Revue
contemporaine," has unsuccessfully endeavored to
revive his father's project.
VAUBLANC, Vincent Marie Vienot (vo-blong), Count de, West Indian statesman, b. in Fort Dauphin, Hayti, 2 March, 1756; d. in Paris, France,
21 Aug., 1845. He received his education at the military school of La Fleche in France in 1770-*4, and entered the army as lieutenant in the "La Sarre" regiment. From 1776 till 1782 he served in Santo Domingo, but he resigned in the latter year, was returned to the legislative assembly in 1791, elected its president on 14 Nov., and in 1792 defended at the bar of the assembly Count de Rochambeau, and secured his acquittal by recalling the services that he had performed in the United States. He strongly favored the motion for the enfranchisement of the slaves in the French colonies in America, and defending at the tribune the conclusions of the commission, secured on 9 April, 1792, the passage of the law to that effect. In 1796, as a member of the council of five hundred, he assailed the colonial administration, and secured the recall of Fclicite Sonthonax from Santo Domingo. Being outlawed after the coup d'etat of 4 Sept., 1797, he went to Italy, and, after his return to France in 1799, became a member of the corps 16gislatif in 1800, and its president in 1804. In 1805 he was appointed prefect of the department
