Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/739

GRANDIN, Vital Justin, Canadian R. C. bishop, b. in St. Pierre-sur-Orne, France, 8 Feb., 1829. He was educated at Precigne, and in di- vinity at Marseilles, where he was ordained priest in 1854. He was sent to British America in the same year, and in 1859 was consecrated coadjutor bishop of St. Boniface. In 1871 he became the first bishop of St. Albert, Canada. Bishop Grandin, in the discharge of his official duties, has travelled widely for 30 years past over British North America.

GRANDMONT, Louis de, buccaneer, b. in Paris in 1G45 ; d. at sea about 168(5. Pie belonged to a good family. An officer having treated him as a child, Grandmont forced him to accept a challenge, wounded him mortally, and was arrested, but was pardoned, and entered the navy, where he dis- tinguished himself by his bi'avery and intelligence. He obtained command of a privateer and sailed to Martinique, where he captured a Dutch merchant- man, valued at 400,000 francs, but, having spent the entire sum in dissipation, he fled to Santo Domingo, and joined the buccaneers. His fine appearance, distinguished manners, and daring gained for him the confidence of his new associates. Placing him- self at the head of a certain number among them, he captured in 1678 Maracaibo, and in 1679 Puerto Cabello, participated in April, 1683, with Graaf and Van Horn in the capture of Vera Cruz, and in August of the same year succeeded in getting pos- session of the town of Carapeaehy, where he gained a large booty. In order to obtain the freedom of two of his companions, who had been made prisoners by the commander of Merida, he offered in exchange to surrender the governor of Campeacliy, and to release the captured garrison. The cnmniaiider refused to consent, and even answered Grandmont's threat to destrf)y the entire town and massacre all the in- habitants by saying that he had money enough to rebuild it and men enough to repeople it ; where- upon the buccaneer cut off the heads of five Span- iards, burned the city, blew up the fortifications, and on the festival of St. Louis burned logwood valued at 200,000 crowns in honor of Louis XIV., who, as a reward for his courage and military tal- ent, had created him " lieutenant of the king," and had desired to appoint him governor of the south- ern part of Santo Domingo. But Grandmont, with the object of rendering himself still more worthy of the favors of his master, determined to enter on a new campaign, and sailed from Santo Domingo in October, 1686, with a single vessel and a crew of 180 men. The vessel probably perished, as nothing further was heard of it.

GRANGER, Daniel Tristram, lawyer, b. in Saco, Me., 18 July, 1807; d. in Eastport, 27 Dec, 1854. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1826, his part in the commencement being an oration in Fi'ench, then first introduced among the exercises. He studied law in the office of Judge Ether Shep- ley, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and began practice in Newfield. In July, 1833, he moved to Eastport, and became a partner of Frederic Hobbs, and m 1837 he assumed the management of the whole of the extensive business of the firm. In 1854 he was appointed a judge on the supreme bench of Maine, but declined the appointment be- cause of failing health. He was distinguislied throughout the state for his profound legal learn- ing, his sagacity as a counsellor, the extreme care with which his cases were prepared, and the fluency and earnestness with which they were presented.

GRANGER, Gideon, statesman, b. in Suffield, Conn., 19 July, 1767; d. in Canandaigua, N. Y., 31 Dec, 1822. He was graduated at Yale in 1787, became a lawyer, and served for several years in the legislature of Connecticut, where he took a leading part in the establishment of the school fund, of which he has sometimes been called the father. He became postmaster-general of the United States in 1801, and held that office for thirteen years, discharging its arduous duties dur- ing the whole of Mr. Jefferson'sand during a large part of Mr. Madi- son's administra- tion. On leaving Washington, in 1814, he estab- lished himself at Canandaigua, ' N. Y., and a few years afterward became a member of the New York senate. He was conspicuous for his advocacy of the great system of internal improve- ments, with which the name of his illustrious friend,

DeWitt Clinton, is

identified. In 1821 failing health compelled him to withdraw from public service. He delivered a 4th of July oration at Suffield in 1797, which is in print, and his " Political Essays," under the signature of Algernon Sidney and Epaminondas, were published in pamphlet-form. — His son, Francis, statesman, b. in Suffield, Conn., 1 Dec, 1792; d. in Canandaigua, N. Y., 28 Aug., 1868. He was graduated at Yafe in 1811, was educated as a lawyer, and, on his father's removal to Canandaigua in 1814, became a mem- ber of the Ontario bar. For many years he repre- sented Ontario county in the legislature of New York, and was twice an unsuccessful candidate of his party for governor, being defeated by a small Democratic majority. In 1836 he was the candidate of the National Republicans, or Whigs, for vice-president of the United States, on the ticket with William H. Harrison. Two years after- ward he was elected to congress. On the acces- sion of Gen. Harrison to the presidency in 1841, Mr. Granger was called to a place in the cabinet, and discharged the du- ties of postmaster-general with efficiency until the dissolution of the cabinet under President Tyler. He declined the offer of a foreign mission, and was once more elected a representative in congress, of which he had been a member for several previous terms.

At the close of

the 27th congress he declined re-election, and retired to private life. But he still occasionally attended meetings of his old Whig friends, and his silver-gray hair gave the name to a party that originated in a convention of which he was president. He was also, by appointment of the gov-