Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/150

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HAWLEY
HAWTHORNE

the battle of Olustee, Pla., where the whole National force lost 38 per cent. His regiment was one of the few that were armed with the Spencer breech-loading rifle. This weapon, which he procured in the autumn of 1863, proved very effective in the hands of his men. He went to Virginia in April, 1864, having a brigade in Terry's division, 10th corps, Army of the James, and was in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, Deep Run, Derbytown Road, and various affairs near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom. He commanded a division in the fight on the Newmarket road, and engaged in the siege of Petersburg. In September, 1864, he was made a brigadier-general, having been repeatedly recommended by his immediate superiors. In November, 1864, he commanded a picked brigade sent to New York city to keep the peace during the week of the presidential election. He succeeded to Terry's division when Terry was sent to Port Fisher in January, 1865, afterward rejoining him as chief of staff, 10th corps, and on the capture of Wilmington was detached by Gen. Schofield to establish a base of supplies there for Sherman's army, and command south-eastern North Carolina. In June he rejoined Terry as chief of staff for the Department of Virginia. In October he went home, was brevetted major-general, and was mustered out, 15 Jan., 1866. In April, 1866, he was elected governor of Connecticut, but he was defeated in 1867, and then, having united the "Press" and the "Courant," he resumed editorial life, and more vigorously than ever entered the political contests following the war. He was always in demand as a speaker throughout the country. He was president of the National Republican convention in 1868, secretary of the committee on resolutions in 1872, and chairman of that committee in 1876. He earnestly opposed paper money theories. In November, 1872, he was elected to fill a vacancy in congress caused by the death of Julius L. Strong. He was re-elected to the 43d congress, defeated for the 44th and 45th, and re-elected to the 46th (1879-'81). He was elected senator in January, 1881, by the unanimous vote of his party, and re-elected in like manner in January, 1887, for the term ending 4 March, 1893. In the house he served on the committees on claims, banking and currency, military affairs, and appropriations; in the senate, on the committees on coast defences, railroads, printing, and military affairs. He is chairman of the committee on civil service, and vigorously promoted the enactment of civil-service-reform legislation. He was also chairman of a select committee on ordnance and war-ships, and submitted a long and valuable report, the result of careful investigation into steel production and heavy gun-making in England and the United States. In the National convention of 1884 the Connecticut delegation unanimously voted for him for president in every ballot. He was president of the U. S. centennial commission from its organization in 1872 until the close of its labors in 1877, gave two years exclusively to the work, was ex-officio member of its committees, and appointed all save the executive. He received the degree of LL. D. from Hamilton in 1875, and from Yale in 1886. Of the former institution he is a trustee. Ecclesiastically he is a Congregationalist. Gen. Hawley is an ardent Republican, one of the most acceptable extemporary orators in the republic, a believer in universal suffrage, the American people and the "American way," is a "hard-money" man, would adjust the tariff so as to benefit native industries, urges the reconstruction of our naval and coast defences, demands a free ballot and a fair count everywhere, opposes the tendency to federal centralization, and is a strict constructionist of the constitution in favor of the rights and dignity of the individual states.


HAWLEY, William Merrill, lawyer, b. in Delaware county, N. Y., 23 Aug., 1802: d. in Hornellsville, N. Y., 9 Feb., 1869. His father, one of the earliest settlers in western New York, was a farmer, and unable to give his children a classical education. William went to the common school, and at the age of twenty-one removed to Almond, Alleghany co., where he cleared a piece of land for tillage. In the spring of 1824 he was elected constable, and began the study of law to assist him in this office. He was admitted to the bar in 1826, removed to Hornellsville the next year, and practised his profession until his appointment in 1846 as first judge of Steuben county. He served in the state senate, was a delegate to the Democratic national convention of 22 May, 1848, which met in Baltimore, and was identified with the "Free-soil radical delegation," which culminated in the National convention of 9 Aug., 1848, held in Buffalo, N. Y., in which Martin Van Buren was nominated for the presidency. Judge Hawley was one of the committee appointed to introduce the resolutions the essential elements of which were afterward adopted by the Republican party. After his retirement from the state senate he did not again enter public life, but, devoting himself to his profession, acquired a large fortune, and practised until a short time before his death.


HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel, author, b. in Salem, Mass., 4 July, 1804; d. in Plymouth, N. H., 18 May, 1864. The family name was spelled Hathorne until the author inserted the w. In 1630 his ancestor, William, at the age of twenty-three, came from Wiltshire, England, with John Winthrop in the “ Arbella,” and settled in Dorchester, Mass. In 1636 he went to Salem, which gave him large grants of land to induce him to remove, holding such a citizen to be “a public benefit.” He was a strict Separatist, a man of strong character and great energy, and in the little village, which was the grimmest of all the Puritan communities, William Hathorne was as stern and almost as conspicuous a figure as John Endicott. His descendant says that “he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil”; and it is easy to fancy the fine, strong roots of the author's genius stretching backward and feeding upon that rank soil of early Puritanism, and transmuting its dark and acrid juices into the weird and exquisite blossoming of the tales and romances. William died in 1681. His son, John, like his father, was a persecutor of Quakers, and he was the chief judge in the witch trials at Salem, in which his treatment of the victims was harsh and cruel. John died in 1717. His son, Joseph, was a quiet farmer, and after him came what Hawthorne calls “a dreary and unprosperous condition of the race.” The