finishing his course in the seminary, was principal of a private classical school till 1882. He has since devoted himself entirely to authorship. His pub- lications in book-form include "' A Concise History of the American People " (3 vols., New York, i860-'82); "Yorktown, 1781-1881" (1881); "The Democratic Party, its History and Influence " (1884) ; " A Brief History of the Pi-esbyterian Church in the United States " and " The Natural Resources of the United States " (1888).
PATTON, James, Canadian lawyer, b. in Pres-
cott. Upper Canada, 10 June, 1824. His father,
Andrew Patton, a native of Scotland, was major
of the 45th regiment. James was educated at
Upper Canada and King's colleges, studied law,
and was admitted to the bar in 1845, and in 1847
received the degree of LL. B. from Toronto univer-
sity. He began practice in Barrie, and founded the
Barrie " Herald " in 1852 and the " Upper Canada
Law Journal " in 1855. In 1856 he was elected a
member of the legislative council of Canada for
Saugeen, and in that year, on the formation of
the Toronto university association, he was elected
its president. In 1857 he was appointed a member
of its senate. He became vice-chancellor of To-
ronto university in 1860, in 1861 chairman of the
Toronto university commission. Queen's counsel in
1862, and in this year was appointed solicitor-
general for Upper Canada. He has been collector
of customs at Toronto since 1881.
PATTON, John Mercer, lawyer, b. in Vir-
ginia in 1796 : d. in Richmond, Va., 29 Oct.. 1858.
He received a classical education, and was gradu-
ated at the medical department of the University
of Pennsylvania in 1818. He subsequently studied
law, was admitted to the bar, and began to prac-
tise at Fredericksburg, Va. He was elected to
congress to fill a vacancy, and four times re-elected,
serving continuously from 6 Dec, 1830, till 1838,
when he resigned. He then removed to Rich-
mond, and resumed practice, taking high rank at
the bar. He was elected and served until his death
as judge of the court of appeals.
PATTON, Robert, patriot, b. in Westport,
Ireland, in 1755 ; d. in New York city, 3 Jan., 1814.
He was brought to this country when he was seven
years of age, and resided in Philadelphia. In Octo-
ber, 1776, he enlisted as a private in the Revolu-
tionary army, was taken prisoner by the British, and
confined for some time in New York city. After
his liberation he rose to the rank of major and served
under Lafayette. He was early a member of the
Society of the Cincinnati. In 1789 he was appointed
postmaster of Philadelphia, that office then being
the most important in the country. He discharged
the duties for nearly twenty years, when he re-
signed and removed to New York city. lie was
intimate with President Madison, and the latter
ofEered him the postmaster-generalship, but Patton
refused the appointment on the ground that he
was unwilling to remove his family from a free to
a slave community. One of his chief character-
istics was his strict integrity. When he was made
postmaster he refused to appoint any of his sons
to a clerkship, and on his resignation he strictly en-
joined them not to apply to be his successor, saying
that the office had been long enough in his family,
and should now go to another. When war was
declared in 1812, and a government loan, which
every one prophesied would prove a failure, was
placed on the market, he went at an early hour on
the first day and subscribed |60,000, asserting that,
if his country should be ruined, his property would
then be valueless. — His son, Robert Bridg'es,
educator, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 25 Sept., 1794; d.
in New York city, 6 May, 1839, was graduated at
Yale in 1817, and received the degree of A.B.
from Middlebury in 1818, and that of Ph. D. from
the University of Gottingen, Germany, in 1821.
He was professor of Greek and Latin at Middle-
bury college until 1825, and then accepted the
same chair at Princeton, but resigned in 1829, to
become principal of the Edgehill seminary at
Princeton, N. J. In 1834-'8 he was professor of
Greek in the University of the city of New York,
and he took high rank as a Greek scholar. He
translated Thiersch's " Greek Verbs " from the
German (New York, 1830), and revised and edited
Donegan's Greek lexicon. — Another son, William,
clergyman, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 23 Aug., 1798 ;
d. in New Haven, Conn.. 9 Sept., 1879, was gradu-
ated at Middlebury in 1818, and, after studying
at Princeton theological seminary, was ordained.
During twenty-six years of his life he was pastor
of churches in New York city. From 1834 till
1837 he was secretary of the American educa-
tion society. He spent the latter part of his life
in New Haven, Conn., engaged in literary and
ministerial work. He was the first to suggest the
idea of the World's evangelical alliance, which he
did in a letter to Rev. John Angell James, of Eng-
land, in 1843. He attended the convention in
London in August, 1846, that organized the alli-
ance. He was a founder of the New York union
theological seminary, and first proposed its estab-
lishment. He made fourteen visits to Europe be-
tween 1825 and 1879. He was an earnest opponent
of slavery, and for forty years a member of the
executive committee of the American home mis-
sionary society. His views on the subject of tem-
perance were equally radical. In the pulpit he
was characterized not so much by breadth and
accuracy of scholarship, finish of style, or elegance
of delivery, as by his strong grasp upon his subject,
his simplicity, directness, aptness, and freshness.
He received the degree of D. D. from the Uni-
versity of the city of New York. Besides editing
President Jonathan Edwards's work on " Revi-
vals" and Charles G. Finney's " Lectures on Re-
vivals" (London, 1839), preparing the American
editions of " The Cottage Bible." of which over
170,000 copies were sold, and " The Village Testament " (New York. 1833), and assisting in editing
" The Christian Psalmist " (1836), he published
" The Laws of Fermentation and the Wines of the
Ancients " (1871) ; " The Judgment of Jerusalem
Predicted in Scripture, Fulfilled in History " (Lon-
don, 1879) ; " Jesus of Nazareth " (1878) ; and " Bible
Principles and Bible Characters " (Hartford, 1879). — Robert's grandson, William Weston, clergyman, b. in New York city, 19 Oct., 1821 ; d. in Westfield, N. J., 31 Dec, 1889, was graduated in New York in 1839 and at the Union theological seminary in 1842. After taking charge of a Congregational church in Boston, Mass., for three years, he became pastor of one in Hartford, Conn., in 1846, and in Chicago, 111., in 1857. From 1867 till 1872 he was editor of "The Advance" in that city, and during 1874 he was lecturer on modern skepticism at Oberlin, Ohio, and Chicago theological seminaries, after which time he became president of Howard university, Washington, D. C, filling the chair of natural theology and evidences of Christianity in its theological department. He took an earnest part in the anti-slavery movement, and was chairman of the committee that presented to President Lincoln, 13 Sept., 1862, the memorial from Chicago asking him to issue a proclamation of emancipation. He was vice-president of the Northwestern sanitary commission during the civil
