he became Dean of the Harvard Law School. He has published various articles in the Harvard Law Review an<l simihir periodicals, and has compiled and edited numerous valuable collections of eases on torts, trusts, and suretyship, and other legal questions. He received the de- gree of LL.D. from New York University (1808), the University of Wisconsin (1898), and the University of Pennsylvania (1899).
AMES, Joseph (1689-1759). An English antiquary
and bibliographer, born at Yarmouth.
He was in some sort of mercantile pursuit, and
in addition to various other compilations published
the Typographical Antiquities (1749),
regarded as forming the foundation of English
bibliography.
AMES, Joseph (1816-1872). An American
portrait painter. He was born in Roxbury,
N. H., and studied at Rome, Italy, where he
painted a line picture of Pope Pius IX. On hi
return to America he lived successively at Boston,
Baltimore, and New York, where he was
elected a member of the National Academy of
Design in 1870. His best portraits are those of
Emerson. Rachel, Ristori, Clarence H. Seward,
Webster, Clioate, and President Felton of Harvard.
Among the paintings treating of ideal
subjects, that entitled "The Death of Webster"
is generally considered the best.
AMES, Joseph Sweetman (1864—). An
American physicist and educator, born at Manchester. Vt.
He graduated in 1S86 at the Johns
Hopkins University, and became professor of
physics there. He was elected an honorary member
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
has edited (New York, 189S) J. von Fraunhofer's
memoirs on Prismatic and Diffractive Spectra,
and has published The Theory of Physics (1897),
Elements of Physics (1900). and The Induction,
of Electric Currents (2 volumes, 1900).
AMES, Mary Clemmer (1839-84). An American
author, best known by her "Woman's Letter
from Wasliington," contributed for many years
to tile New York Independent. She was born at
Utica, New York, and at an early age married
the Rev. Daniel Ames, from whom she was
divorced in 1874. In later life she removed to
Washington, where her home was a literary
and social centre, and in 1883 she married Edmund
Hudson, editor of the Army and Navy
Register. Her works include Eirene, a novel
(1870), Ten Years in Washington (1871), and
Memorials of Alice and Phrebe Cary (1872), of
whom she had been an intimate friend. Her complete
works were published at Boston, 4 volumes
(1885). Consult Hudson, Memorial Biography
of Mary C. Antes (Boston, 1886).
AMES, Nathan P. (1803-47). An American
manufacturer of firearms, ordnance, and cutlery.
In early life he owned extensive cutlery works
at Chicopee Falls, Mass., but afterward removed
to Cabotsville. The works were supplemented in
1836 by a bronze foundry, where most of the
brass guns for the United States Army were cast.
There also the statues of DeWitt Clinton, in
Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn ; of Washington,
in Union Square, New York; and of Franklin,
in School Street, Boston, were cast.
AMES, Oakes (1804-1873). An American
manufacturer and legislator. He was born at
Easton, Mass., and at an early age entered his
father's workshop, where he soon familiarized
himself with every detail of the shovel business,
which, upon the discovery of gold in California
and the impetus thereby given to railroad building,
soon became a most important industry.
In 1864, after others had failed, he was called
upon by President Lincoln and others to build
the Union Pacific Railroad, which great undertaking
he successfully completed on May 10,
1869. He had invested .$1,000,000 in the enterprise,
and had pledged the remainder of his fortune
for the same purpose. He was censured
by the Forty-second Congress for participation
in the Credit Mobilier scheme, but afterward was
vindicated in a resolution passed by the Massachusetts
Legislature (May 10, 1883). From
1862 to 1873 he was a member of Congress from
the second Massachusetts district. His will
contained a bequest of $50,000 to children of
North Easton, Mass. A fine monument in his
memory was erected by the Union Pacific Railroad
at Sherman, Wyoming, 8550 feet above the
sea level—the highest point reached by the railroad.
AMES, Oliver (1831-95). The thirty-first governor of Massachusetts, a son of Oakes Ames (q.v.). He was trained in his father's manufactory, and upon his death undertook the discharge of the numerous financial obligations incurred by the building of the Union Pacific Railroad and other enterprises, paying within a few years debts aggregating millions of dollars. In 1882 he was chosen Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, serving for four successive terms, and in 1886 was elected Governor, to which office he was reelected in 1887 and 1888.
AMES, William (1576-1633). An English
Puritan clergyman and writer on moral philosophy,
born in the county of Norfolk. He studied
at Christ College, Cambridge, and was professor
of theology in the University of Franeker, Friesland,
from 1622 to 1632. His best-known work
is De Conscientia, eius Iure et Casibus (1632).
long highly esteemed in the schools.
AMESBURY, āmz′bĕr-ĭ. A town in Essex
Co., Mass., on the Boston and Maine Railroad,
42 miles northeast of Boston (Map: Massachusetts,
F 2). It has a public library of 7500 volumes,
and extensive manufactures of carriages,
carriage manufacturers' supplies, hats, shoes,
cotton goods, and underwear. The government is
administered by town meetings, held annually.
Originally a part of Salisbury, Amesbury was
virtually separated as New Salisbury in 1654,
and was incorporated in 1606, and named (from
Amesbury, England) in 1607. John Greenleaf
Whittier (q.v.) lived here from 1836 until his
death in 1892. Pop., 1890, 9798; 1900, 9473.
Consult: J. Merrill, History of Amesbury
(Haverhill, 1880).
AM'ETHYST (Gk. ἀμέθυστος, amethytos, a
remedy against drunkenness, from ἀ, a, priv. +
μέθυ, methy, wine). A violet blue or bluish
violet variety of quartz, the color of which is
believed to be due to manganese oxide. It is one
of the most esteemed varieties of quartz, and is
much employed for seals, rings, and other articles
of jewelry. The ancients imagined it to possess
the property of preventing drunkenness, and
those addicted to that habit wore it on their persons.
Amethyst frequently occurs lining the
interior of balls or geodes of agate, and in veins
and cavities in various rocks. The finest specimens
are from Scotland, Siberia, India, and
