JACOB BURNET.

SENATOR IN CONGRESS, 1829-1831.*

ICHABOD BURNET, grandfather of Jacob, was a native of Scotland, educated at Edinburgh, removed to America soon after his education was finished, and settled at Elizabethtown, N. J., where he practiced his profession with great success as a physician and surgeon, until his death in 1773, at the age of eighty years.

William Burnet, father of Jacob, graduated at the College of New Jersey in the second class that graduated at the institution, 1749, and studied medicine with Dr. Staats, of New York.

He was elected member of the Continental Congress in the fall of 1776. Early in the session, Congress divided the thirteen States into three military districts and Dr. Burnet was appointed Physician and Surgeon-General of the Eastern District. He accordingly resigned his seat in Congress, and entered upon his office, holding the appointment to the close of the war, in 1783. He then returned to his family, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. Soon after he was appointed presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas, by the Legislature of New Jersey, and was also elected President of the State Medical Society. Being a fine classical scholar, on taking the chair he read an elaborate essay in Latin, on the proper use of the lancet in pleuritic cases. He was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Newark. His subscription to the First Church Building Fund was £100.

*"Biographical Encyclopædia," of Ohio; Alexander's "Princeton Graduates of the Eighteenth Century"; Atkinson's "History of Newark"; Stearn's First Church, Newark; Discourse by Rev. Samuel W. Fisher, D.D.

Jacob Burnet, subject of this sketch, was born in Newark, N. J., February 22, 1770, died at Cincinnati, O., May 10, 1853. Graduating at Princeton College in September, 1791, he studied law for one year in the office of Richard Stockton, and afterwards with Elisha Boudinot. He was admitted to the bar in 1796, removed to Cincinnati, O., and there entered upon his profession. "In these early times, he was accustomed to travel on horseback from court to court, carrying his blanket and provisions, and at night camping in the woods, there being neither tavern, bridge, ferry, nor even road in his route."

He served in the State Legislature, in 1821, was subsequently appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and resigned the position in December, 1828. Immediately afterwards he was elected to the Senate of the United States, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of General Harrison, and served until 1831.

The following incident is recorded, referring to Mr. Burnet's game at cards in his early manhood.

"While in company with a number of the officers of the army, cards were introduced, and he was invited to join. He declined at first, stating that he did not play; that in fact he

did not know one card from another. They volunteered to teach him. Yielding to their solicitations he sat down to a card table. He soon mastered the game, and before he was aware of it, became deeply interested in play. Money was staked, lost and won. When the morning dawned, and the card-party broke up, he found himself the winner of a considerable sum. No sooner, however, had he risen from the table, than reflection came, and with it astonishment at the terrible power of an excitement that had so suddenly mastered his deepest convictions and well-settled principles. He refused to take the sum he had won. That was his first and last game at cards-his first and last experiment in gambling."

Rev. Dr. Fisher speaks as follows of the religious character of Mr. Burnet:

"No sooner had he a home of his own, than he welcomed to that home the ministers of Christ. The Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati was organized in his house; for years the

meetings for social prayer were attended there more frequently than elsewhere, and usually he was himself present. To see this man at the age of fourscore, refusing the aid of a carriage, yet always present at Divine Service, morning and afternoon, the whole year round when not absent from the city, was a living sermon, an encouragement to all who loved the sanctuary.

"It would be a crowning excellence of this long and worthily distinguished life, could it be said that in early life he publicly professed his faith in connection with the church of Christ-that ever since he had fulfilled the duties and borne the responsibilities of a Christian. But this cannot be said. What then can be said to warrant the assurance that he submitted his heart to the humbling truths of the Gospel? A few months before his death in several conversations he unfolded to me the state of his feelings. He stated that although he had for many years endeavored to have a conscience void of offence toward all men, he felt himself to be a sinner, in himself, wholly unworthy the divine favor, and as a sinner, he rested his hopes only on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. He stated that he had for years a critical difficulty in respect to the institution of the Lord's Supper; on which, however, as he differed from the church generally, and might be in error, he had kept silence; that had he entertained the usual views of that ordinance, he never would have thus delayed to become a communicant."

Mr. Burnet published in 1847 a work entitled, "Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory."

He was married January 2, 1800, at Marietta, O., to Rebecca, daughter of Rev. Matthew Wallace, a Presbyterian clergyman ; with whom he lived in wedlock fifty-three years, and by whom he had eleven children.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 1833-1838.*

JONATHAN BUTLER, great-grandfather of Benjamin F., was of Irish descent, and settled in Connecticut about the year 1710. His son Ezekiel married Mabel Jones, descendant of John Jones and Catherine, sister of Oliver Cromwell.

Medad Butler, father of Benjamin F., a native of Branford, Conn., served an apprenticeship in New Haven to a scythemaker; emigrated in 1787 to the State of New York, and established himself as a merchant at Kinderhook Landing. The common school system went into operation in 1813, and for some years previous Mr. Butler maintained in Kinderhook a New England teacher, paying the bills, and taking upon himself the risk of collecting. He became a member of the State Legisla ture, and for a number of years was one of the Judges for Colum. bia County.

Benjamin Franklin Butler was born in Kinderhook, December 14, 1795, died at Paris, France, in 1858. In his boyhood he assisted in his father's store, and in the forwarding business as connected with his Hudson River sloops. In the mean time he attended school more or less. In 1811, he began the study of law at Hudson, in the office of Martin Van Buren, devoted his spare time to general reading and literature, and was admitted to the bar in 1817.

In 1822 he was appointed District Attorney for the city and county of Albany; in 1824, was chosen one of three lawyers to revise the laws of New York; in 1827, was elected to the State Legislature; in 1829, was chosen a Regent of the New York

"Democratic Review,” v. 5, 1839; Lanman; Addresses by Revs. Sprague, Bethune, and Adams, published by D. Appleton & Co.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUtler.

95

University, and resigned the position in 1832; in 1833, became a member of President Jackson's Cabinet as Attorney-General of the United States, and continued the office one year with President Van Buren.

On the occasion of his leaving Albany to assume the office of Attorney-General at the seat of Government, citizens of the city addressed to him the following letter.

"SIR:

"ALBANY, November 26, 1833.

"Your friends and fellow-citizens have heard with much concern, that you are about to leave a city in which you have resided many years, and in which you commenced an honorable career of professional distinction and public service, to fill a highly important office in the General Government. We cannot suffer you to depart from us, without expressing to you our high estimation of your character and talents, and our regret for the loss of our personal intercourse with you, and your valuable services in our benevolent institutions, and in relation to the interests of our city and the State. . . .”

Notwithstanding the cares of public life, he made proficiency in the Italian, German, French and Spanish languages; in the last named after holding the office of Attorney-General. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Union College and by Williams College; that of LL. D. by Rutgers College.

He sailed for Europe, accompanied by his two daughters, in the autumn of 1858, but did not live to return. In a letter dated November 4, he says: "I cannot tell you, if I had the physical strength, which I have not, of the delights of our forty hours at Rouen. But the sight-seeing, though intensely interesting, proved too much for me, and I was consequently brought to Paris an invalid. I am in good hands and decidedly convalescent."

Mr. Butler was a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church, having united by profession in the year 1817. The causes of moral and religious philanthropy engaged his attention;-of the temperance reformation, he was from the first a warm advocate.

Says the Rev. Dr. Sprague, of Albany: "He was not afraid to stand forth as a witness for Christ. At the weekly prayer meetings of the church, he considered it a privilege to be present as often as his engagements would allow. In his family he was a model of conjugal and parental fidelity and the last time I saw