bar. From 1800 to 1802, with Horatio Marbury, he prepared a digest of the laws of Georgia from 1755 to 1800. From 1803 to 1807 he was a member of the State House of Representatives, becoming during this period the leader of one of two personal-political factions in the state that long continued in bitter strife, occasioning his fighting two duels, in one of which he killed his antagonist, and in the other was wounded in his wrist. From 1807 to 1813 he was a member of the United States Senate, of which he was president pro tempore from March 1812 to March 1813. In 1813 he declined the offer of the post of secretary of war, but from that year until 1815 was minister to the court of France. He was then secretary of war in 1815–1816, and secretary of the treasury from 1816 to 1825. In 1816 in the congressional caucus which nominated James Monroe for the presidency Crawford was a strong opposing candidate, a majority being at first in his favour, but when the vote was finally cast 65 were for Monroe and 54 for Crawford. In 1824, when the congressional caucus was fast becoming extinct, Crawford, being prepared to control it, insisted that it should be held, but of 216 Republicans only 66 attended; of these, 64 voted for Crawford. Three other candidates, however, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay, were otherwise put in the field. During the campaign Crawford was stricken with paralysis, and when the electoral vote was cast Jackson received 99, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. It remained for the house of representatives to choose from Jackson, Adams and Crawford, and through Clay’s influence Adams became president. Crawford was invited by Adams to continue as secretary of the treasury, but declined. He recovered his health sufficiently to become (in 1827) a circuit judge in his own state, but died while on circuit, in Elberton, Georgia, on the 15th of September 1834. In his day he was undoubtedly one of the foremost political leaders of the country, but his reputation has not stood the test of time. He was of imposing presence and had great conversational powers; but his inflexible integrity was not sufficiently tempered by tact and civility to admit of his winning general popularity. Consequently, although a skilful political organizer, he incurred the bitter enmity of other leaders of his time—Jackson, Adams and Calhoun. He won the admiration of Albert Gallatin and others by his powerful support of the movement in 1811 to recharter the Bank of the United States; he earned the condemnation of posterity by his authorship in 1820 of the four-years-term law, which limited the term of service of thousands of public officials to four years, and did much to develop the “spoils system.” He was a Liberal Democrat, and advised the calling of a constitutional convention as preferable to nullification or secession.
CRAWFORDSVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Montgomery
county, Indiana, U.S.A., situated about 40 m. N.W. of
Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 6089; (1900) 6649, including 230
negroes and 221 foreign-born; (1910) 9371. It is served by the
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, the Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Chicago & St Louis, and the Vandalia railways, and by interurban
electric lines. Wabash College, founded here in 1832 by Presbyterian
missionaries but now non-sectarian, had in 1908 27
instructors, 345 students, and a library of 43,000 volumes.
Among manufactures are flour, iron, wagons and carriages,
acetylene lights, wire and nails, matches, brick paving blocks, and
electrical machinery. North-east of the city there are valuable
mineral springs, from which the city obtains its water-supply.
Crawfordsville, named in honour of W. H. Crawford, was first
settled about 1820, was laid out as a town in 1823, and was
chartered as a city in 1863. It was for many years the home of
Gen. Lew Wallace.
CRAWFURD, JOHN (1783–1868), Scottish orientalist, was born in the island of Islay, Scotland, on the 13th of August 1783. After studying at Edinburgh he became surgeon in the East India
Company’s service. He afterwards resided for some time at
Penang, and during the British occupation of Java from 1811 to
1817 his local knowledge made him invaluable to the government.
In 1821 he served as envoy to Siam and Cochin-China, and in
1823 became governor of Singapore. His last political service in
the East was a difficult mission to Burma in 1827. In 1861 he was
elected president of the Ethnological Society. He died at South
Kensington on the 11th of May 1868.
Crawfurd wrote a History of the Indian Archipelago (1820), Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries (1856), Journal of an Embassy to the Court of Ava in 1827 (1829), Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China, exhibiting a view of the actual State of these Kingdoms (1830), Inquiry into the System of Taxation in India, Letters on the Interior of India, an attack on the newspaper stamp-tax and the duty on paper entitled Taxes on Knowledge (1836), and a valuable Malay grammar and dictionary (1852).
CRAYER, GASPARD DE (1582–1669), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp, and learnt the art of painting from Raphael Coxcie. He matriculated in the guild of St Luke at Brussels in
1607, resided in the capital of Brabant till after 1660, and finally settled at Ghent. Amongst the numerous pictures which he
painted in Ghent, one in the town museum represents the
martyrdom of St Blaise, and bears the inscription A° 1668 aet.
86. Crayer was one of the most productive yet one of the most
conscientious artists of the later Flemish school, second to
Rubens in vigour and below Vandyck in refinement, but nearly
equalling both in most of the essentials of painting. He was well
known and always well treated by Albert and Isabella, governors
of the Netherlands. The cardinal-infant Ferdinand made him a
court-painter. His pictures abound in the churches and museums
of Brussels and Ghent; and there is scarcely a country chapel in
Flanders or Brabant that cannot boast of one or more of his
canvases. But he was equally respected beyond his native
country; and some important pictures of his composition are to
be found as far south as Aix in Provence and as far east as
Amberg in the Upper Palatinate. His skill as a decorative artist
is shown in the panels executed for a triumphal arch at the entry
of Cardinal Ferdinand into the Flemish capital, some of which
are publicly exhibited in the museum of Ghent. Crayer died at
Ghent. His best works are the “Miraculous Draught of Fishes”
in the gallery of Brussels, the “Judgment of Solomon” in the
gallery of Ghent, and “Madonnas with Saints” in the Louvre,
the Munich Pinakothek, and the Belvedere at Vienna. His
portrait by Vandyck was engraved by P. Pontius.
CRAYFISH (Fr. écrevisse), the name of freshwater crustaceans
closely allied to and resembling the lobsters, and, like them,
belonging to the order Macrura. They are divided into two
families, the Astacidae and Parastacidae, inhabiting respectively
the northern and the southern hemispheres.
The crayfishes of England and Ireland (Astacus, or Potamobius, pallipes) are generally about 3 or 4 in. long, of a dull green or brownish colour above and paler brown or yellowish below. They are abundant in some rivers, especially where the rocks are of a calcareous nature, sheltering under stones or in burrows which they dig for themselves in the banks and coming out at night in search of food. They are omnivorous feeders, killing and eating insects, snails, frogs and other animals, and devouring any carrion that comes in their way. It is stated that they sometimes come on land in search of vegetable food.
Crayfish (Cambarus sp.) from the Mississippi River. (After Morse.) |
On the continent of Europe, Astacus pallipes occurs chiefly in the west and south, being found in France, Spain, Italy and the