determined to put him to death. During his imprisonment Atahualpa gave orders for the execution of his brother Huascar, which were obeyed. This was one of the charges against him on the court martial by which he was tried, and, being found guilty, was sentenced to be burned, a penalty commuted for strangulation by the garrote on his accepting baptism at the hands of the priests accompanying the invaders.
ATCHISON. David R., senator, b. in Frogtown, Ky., 11 Aug., 1807; d. in Clinton co.. Mo., 26 Jan., 1886. He studied law and began practice in Liberty CO., Mo. In 1834 and 1838 he sat in the Missouri legislature. In 1841 he was appointed judge
of the Platte county circuit court, and in 1843
appointed U. S. senator in the place of Lewis
F. Linn, deceased, and was subsequently elected
and reelected, sitting until 1855. He was prominent in the legislation on the organization of the
territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and was a
leader of the pro-slavery faction in the Kansas
troubles of 1856-"7.
ATEMPANECATL (ah-tem-pah-na-ka'tl), one of the two famous generals and advisers of Moctezuma I., king of Mexico. While the latter was attending to the wants of his people during a great famine, Atempanecatl and Cihuacoatl continued the pending wars with the utmost success.
ATHERTON, Charles Gordon, senator, b. in Amherst, N. H., 4 July, 1804; d. in Manchester, N. H., 15 Nov., 1853. He was graduated at Harvard in 1822, and admitted to the bar in 1825.
He practised at first in Nashua and then in Dunstable. After being a democratic mendier of the
legislature for five years, and for four years speaker
of the house, he was elected to congress in 1837
and sat in the lower house until 1843. He introduced in 1838 the resolution, which remained in
force until 1845, declaring that all bills or petitions, of whatever kind, on the subject of slavery,
should be tabled without debate, and should not be
taken again from the table. This was called " the
Atherton gag." From 1843 to 1849 he was a senator from New Hampshire, and in 1852 he was again
elected to the senate and served as chairman of the
finance committee.
ATHERTON, Charles Humphrey, lawyer, b. in Amherst, N. H., 14 Aug., 1773; d. in Amherst, 8 Jan., 1853. He was graduated at Harvard in 1794, studied law, admitted to the bar, and entered
on the practice of his profession in his native town.
His reputation for solid attainments and exact
habits of investigation kept him at the head of the
Hillsborough co. bar for years. He filled the office
of register of probate for thirty-nine years (1798-1837), served in congress from 15 Dec, 1815, to 3
March, 1817, and was a representative in the legislature in 1823, 1838, and 1839. He prepared various papers for the state historical society.
ATHERTON, Humphrey, soldier, d." in Boston, 17 Sept., 1601. He emigrated from England about 1636, settled at Dorchester, and was a deputy to the general court. In 1654 he succeeded Robert
Sedgwick as commander of the military forces,
with the title of major-general, and was much employed in negotiations with the Indians. He was
killed by falling from his horse while he was reviewing the militia on Boston common.
ATHERTON, Joshua, lawyer, b. in Harvard, Mass., 20 June, 1737; d. in Andierst, N. H., 3 April, 1809. He was graduated at Harvard in 1762, studied law, and began practice in Petersham. Shortly
afterward he removed to Litchfield, and in 1773,
having been appointed register of probate in Hillsborough CO., he settled in Amherst. Here he accumulated much property and was successful in
his profession. During the revolutionary war he
was a firm loyalist, and suffered in consequence
both from loss of property and from cruel indignities. In 1779 he took the oath of allegiance to
New Hampshire, and was admitted to practice in
the supreme court. Later he became a member of
the convention appointed to consider the federal
constitution, and opposed its adoption on account
of the provisions concerning slaves and slavery.
Subsequently he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature, and in 1793 he was made attorney-general of the state. He was also for a time commissioner for the U. S. direct tax.
ATKINS, Henry, navigator of the 18th century. He made numerous trading voyages to Davis straits, and also explored much of the coasts of
Labrador between the years 1729 and 1758. An
account of his experiences has been published in
the "Massachusetts Historical Collections."
ATKINSON, Edward, economist, b. in Brookline, Mass., 10 Feb., 1827. His education was obtained principally at private schools, and his reputation has been made by the numerous pamphlets and papers that he has contributed to current literature on economic topics. The subjects treated
embrace such general topics as banking, competition, cotton, free trade, mechanical arts, and protection. The most important of his addresses are "Banking," delivered at Saratoga in 1880 before the American Bankers' Association; "Insufficiency of Economic Legislation," delivered before the American Social Science Association; "What makes the Rate of Wages," before the British Association for the Advancement of Science; address to the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics at their convention in Boston in 1885; vice-presidential address on the "Application of Science to the Production and Consumption of Food," before the American association for the advancement of science, in 1885; and "Prevention of Loss by Fire," before the millers of the west, in 1885. His pamphlets and books include the following: "Cheap Cotton by Free Labor" (Boston, 1801); "The Collection of Revenue" (1860); "Argument for the Conditional Reform of the Legal-Tender Act " (1874); "Our National Domain" (1879); "Labor and Capital—Allies, not Enemies " (New York, 1880); "The Fire Engineer, the Architect, and the Underwriter" (Boston, 1880); "The Railroads of the United States" (1880); "Cotton Manufacturers of the United States" (1880); "Addresses at Atlanta, Ga., on the International Exposition " (New York, 1881); "What is a Bank?" (1881): "Right Methods of Preventing Fires in Mill? " (Boston, 1881); "The Railway and the Farmer" (New York, 1881); "The Influence of Boston Capital upon Manufactures," in "Memorial History of Boston" (Boston, 1882); and "The Distribution of Products" (New York, 1885). In 1886 he began the preparation of a series of monographs on economic questions for periodical publication. Through his efforts was established the Boston manufacturers' mutual fire insurance company, an association consisting of a number of manufacturers who, for their mutual protection, adopted rules and regulations for the economical and judicious management of their plants. He has invented an improved cooking-stove, called the "Aladdin Cooker."
ATKINSON, Henry, soldier, b. in 1782; d. at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 14 June, 1842. At the age of twenty-six he was appointed, from North Carolina, captain in the 3d infantry. On 25 April, 1813, he was made inspector-general, and during the following year he became colonel of the 45th infantry.
