Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/180

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CHANDLER.


CHANDLER.


special counsel in the navy yard frauds, and his conduct in the matter led to his appointment by President Lincoln as first solicitor and judge- advocate-general of the navy department. From June 17, 1865. to Nov. 30, 1867, he was first assist- ant to Hugh McCuUoch, secretary of the treas- ury. After his resignation he practised law in New Hampshire and Washington, D. C. He was elected a delegate-at-large to the national Repub- lican convention in 1868, and was subsequently chosen secretary of the national committee, holding the position dm-ing Grant's administra- tions. Meanwhile he had become owner of the largest interest in the Statesman, a weekly, and the Monitor, a daily Republican paper of New Hampshire. In 1876 he was a member of the New Hampshire convention which met to revise the state constitution. In 1880 he was elected a delegate to the Chicago convention. He was nominated by President Garfield as solicitor- general in the department of justice, but on account of his radical views on the southern question his confirmation was opposed by Attor- ney-General MacVeagh and by all the Demo- cratic senators, and was rejected on May 20 by a majority of five votes. He was elected a mem- ber of the New Hampshire legislature in 1880, and served during 1881. On April 7, 1882, he was appointed secretary of the navy by President Arthur, and served until March 7, 1885, making many notable improvements in the department. He ahnost entirely reconstructed the complex and expensive system of conducting the navy, and brought about the beginning of a modern navy by buikling four new cruisers. In 1884 he organized tlie Greeley relief expedition. He was a naember of the U.S. senate, 1887-1901 : was made president of the Spanish claims commission in 1901, and received the degree LL.D. from Dart- mouth college in September, 1901.

CHANDLER, William Henry, chemist, was born at New Bedford, Mass., Dec. 13, 1841; son of Charles and Sarah (Whitney) Chandler, and brother of Charles Frederick Chandler. He was graduated an A.M. at Union coUege in 1861 and until 1867 was chemist at the New Bedford, Mass.; copper works and at the Swan Island guano company. From 1868 to 1871 he was assist- ant in chemistry at the school of mines, New York, and in the latter year was given the chair of chemistry at Lehigh university, Bethlehem, Pa. From 1878 he was also director of the uni- versity library. He was elected a member of various chemical societies in London, Paris, and America, and from 1870 to 1877 was joint editor and proprietor with his brother, Charles F. Cliandler, of the American Chemist. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Hamilton college in 1873. He is the author of Products of Mining


and Metallurgij (1891) ; TJie Construction of Chemical Laboratories (1893), and of various reports of the universal exposition at Paris in 1889.

CHANDLER, Zachariah, senator, was born in Bedford, N. H., Dec. 10, 1813; son of Samuel and Margaret (Orr) Chandler. He attended the com- mon school of Bedford and the academies at Pembroke and Derry, and in 1833 removed to Detroit, Mich., where he commenced trade as a dry -goods dealer, with a capital of one thou- sand dollars, furnished him by his father in lieu of a collegiate education. His busi- ness steadily increased and he eventually ac- quired a large fortune. He was an abolitionist and helped support the ' ' underground r a i 1- road. " In 1851 he was elected mayor of De- troit as a Whig, and in 1852 was an unsuc- cessful candidate for governor of Michigan. He was also Whig candidate for the U. S. senate in 1853. In 1854 he participated actively in the organization of the Republican party. He was elected U. S. senator, Jan. 10, 1857, to suc- ceed Senator Cass, receiving eighty-nine votes against sixteen cast for Cass, and took his seat IMarch 4, 1857. He was a chairman of the com- mittee on commerce after March, 1861. In March, 1858, he opposed the admission of Kansas, under the Lecompton constitution, in a speech before the senate, and the same year made a written agreement with Senators Wade and Cameron in which they combined against Senator Green of Missouri, who had threatened an attack on Senator Cameron for words spoken in debate. He gained notoriety through a letter written to Governor Blair, Feb. 11, 1861, in which he said, " Without a little blood-letting the Union will not in my estimation be worth a rush," and which he was called upon to defend on the floor of the senate. He contributed generously to the sup- port of the w^ar, \vas in favor of confiscation measures, opposed short - term enlistments and expressed himself as sorry that the President did not call for five hundred thousand men, rather than seventy-five thousand. On Dec. 5, 1861, he moved the resolution which resulted in the ap- pointment of a joint committee on the conduct of the war. of Avhich he became a member, but de- clined the chairmanship. This committee opposed General McClellan's military management, and on July 16, 1862, Mr. Chandler made a powerful