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COBDEN, EICHAED. 



Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, 

 and in 1839, 1840, and 1841 he was elected to 

 the State Legislature. In 1842 he went to 

 Texas as lieutenant-colonel, having raised a 

 company of volunteer troops. On his return 

 he was again elected to the Legislature in 1843- 

 '44 i Q the latter year he also served as Presi- 

 dential Elector. In 1848 he was appointed 

 Governor of the Civil and Military Department 

 of the Gadsden Purchase in Mexico, which po- 

 sition he held until the close of the war. From 

 1849 to 1853 he represented Alabama in the 

 United States Senate, and was again Presiden- 

 tial Elector in 1856. 



Mr. Clemens was a member of the Conven- 

 tion in Alabama which voted the State out of 

 the Union, but protested against its action. He 

 subsequently gave way to the popular tide 

 setting so strongly against him, and for a time 

 accepted office under the Confederacy. In 

 1864, however, he had returned to his former 

 allegiance, and in a letter addressed to his 

 fellow-citizens, warmly advocated the reelec- 

 tion of Mr. Lincoln, and defended his policy. 



Mr. Clemens was one of the ablest men of 

 Alabama, having, perhaps, more genius than 

 any other man the State has produced. He 

 hacl attained eminence at the bar whilst still 

 young, and in the Senate of the United States 

 he took high rank as an able and eloquent de- 

 bater, and was generally esteemed for his genial 

 social habits. He was the author of several very 

 successful novels, among which are "Barnard 

 Lyle" (1853); "Mustang Gray" (1857); and 

 " A Story of the Times of Aaron Burr and 

 Alexander Hamilton." He was also engaged 

 in the preparation of a history of the war, giving 

 an insight into the character, causes, and con- 

 duct of the war in that portion of Northern 

 Alabama where he lived, but which his death 

 leaves unfinished. 



COBDEJST, RIOHAED, an English Statesman 

 and author, the champion of Free Trade and 

 leader of the Liberal party in England, born 

 at Dunford, near Midhurst, England, June 3, 

 1804, and died in London, April 2, 1865. His 

 father was a freehold fanner, and held the 

 small estate of Dunford in his own right. 

 Young Cobden was educated at the grammar- 

 school of Midhurst, which had then a high rep- 

 utation, and on the death of his father, which 

 occurred while he was yet a lad, he was taken 

 under the guardianship of his uncle, who was a 

 London warehouseman, and soon entered his 

 relative's establishment as youngest clerk. 

 After a time he removed to another establish- 

 ment in the same department of trade, where, 

 though diligent in business, he attracted 

 the attention of his employer by his eagerness 

 to acquire information, and the extent and 

 variety of his reading. His employer, a mer- 

 chant of the old school, remonstrated with him 

 often for reading so much, assuring him that if 

 he persisted in the habit, it would ruin him for 

 life. Mr. Cobden took the warning in good 

 part, but lived to see it falsified, for his em- 



ployer failed in business, and Cobden, when a 

 prosperous tradesman in Manchester, sustained 

 him from his own abundant resources. At an 

 unusually early age, Mr. Cobden left the indoor 

 duties of the warehouse to enter upon the ac- 

 tive, but somewhat perilous career of a com- 

 mercial traveller, and in this capacity solicited 

 orders for the house which employed him. In 

 his new sphere he became exceedingly pep-alar, 

 and brought a large amount of orders to the 

 house which he represented, while he carefully 

 avoided the vices which were so prevalent in 

 the class to which he belonged. His frankness, 

 probity, and manliness of character, as well as 

 his evident talent for business, made him friends 

 among the customers of the house ; and when, 

 in his twenty-sixth year, his employers with- 

 drew from business and he had found a busi- 

 ness in which he felt that he could do well, one 

 of these customers, Mr. John Lewis, loaned 

 him five hundred pounds to aid in purchasing 

 the stock and good will of the establishment he 

 was desirous of buying. The young men with 

 whom he had associated himself in his new 

 enterprise established three houses: one at 

 Sabden, near Clitheroe, for the printing of cal- 

 icoes, under the firm name of Sheriff, Foster & 

 Co., and two for their sale, one in London, 

 under the title of Sheriff, Gillet & Co., and 

 another in Manchester, under Mr. Cobden's 

 personal supervision, under the firm name of 

 Richard Cobden & Co. He speedily introduced 

 a new system of business into the cotton print 

 trade. Up to that time it had been the custom 

 of the manufacturers to print a few pieces of 

 their new designs, and watch cautiously and 

 carefully to ascertain what patterns were most 

 acceptable to the public, and then print large 

 quantities of those which were preferred, and 

 supply the retail dealers. Mr. Cobden possess- 

 ing admirable taste, excellent business tact, and 

 a remarkable knowledge of the trade in all its 

 details, abandoned this slow and cautious pol- 

 icy, and fixing upon the best designs, printed 

 off large quantities at once, and pushed their 

 sale energetically throughout the country. 

 Those pieces which remained unsold in the 

 home market were promptly shipped to other 

 countries, and as a consequence the house was 

 soon in a highly prosperous condition. To 

 further the interests of his firm, Mr. Cobden 

 visited the Continent repeatedly, extending his 

 tour with the best results to Greece, Egypt, 

 and Turkey in 1834, and to the United States 

 in 1835. By this time Cobden's prints had be- 

 come fashionable, and such was the admirable 

 taste of the designs, that even the families of 

 the . aristocracy and the Princess Victoria ap- 

 peared in public clad in them. It was in 1835 

 that Mr. Cobden first manifested an interest in 

 political affairs. The occasion was the struggle 

 on the part of the inhabitants of Manchester to 

 procure an act of incorporation for their town. 

 Mr. Cobden contributed a number of able arti- 

 cles in support of this movement to the " Man- 

 chester Times," over the signature of " Libra," 



