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STEWART, CHARLES. 



fearing while he disliked him, songht to drive 

 him to resign. Mr. Stanton, however, believ- 

 ing that his remaining in office would better 

 strengthen the aims of his party, refused to 

 resign, although heartily sick of his position. The 

 President, at length, in August, 1867, suspend- 

 ed him from office, and made General Grant 

 Secretary ad interim; but when Congress came 

 together in December, 1867, they decided that 

 Mr. Stanton was still Secretary, and General 

 Grant promptly vacated the office in his favor. 

 The President, thereupon, removed Mr. Stan- 

 ton on the 21st of February and appointed 

 General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary ad interim ; 

 and a day or two later sent a nomination for 

 Secretary of War to the Senate. These meas- 

 ures being regarded as violations of the Tenure- 

 of-offi ce Act, led to the President's impeachment 

 and trial, Mr. Stanton remaining in office till 

 the conclusion of the trial, when, in May, 

 1868, the articles of impeachment failing to 

 receive the constitutional majority, he regard- 

 ed himself as rebuked from any further con- 

 tinuance in a position which for more than a 

 year had been exceedingly tenacious. After 

 leaving the Cabinet, Mr. Stanton sought 

 to regain his health, which had been seriously 

 impaired by his labors ; but it was too 

 thoroughly broken to be fully restored, and, 

 though he appeared in a few cases before 

 the Supreme Court, and manifested much of 

 his old ability, each effort was followed by 

 great prostration. In December, 1869, Presi- 

 dent Grant nominated him for an Associate 

 Justice of the Supreme Court in place of 

 Grier, resigned, and he was promptly con- 

 firmed by the Senate. His commission had 

 not been made out, however, when he died 

 after two or three days' illness. His property 

 being insufficient for the support of his family, 

 Congress ordered a year's salary as Justice of 

 the Supreme Court to be paid to them, and 

 his friends throughout the country made up a 

 memorial fund for them. 



STEWART, CHAELES, Rear- Admiral, U. S. 

 N., and senior flag-officer in the service, born 

 in Philadelphia, July 28, 1778 ; died at Bor- 

 dentown, N. J., November 6, 1869. He was of 

 Irish parentage, and his father, a captain in the 

 merchant service, died when he was but two 

 years old. His mother, a woman of remarkable 

 talent and energy, superintended his education, 

 and guided as carefully as she could the fun- 

 loving and somewhat erratic tendencies of her 

 son. When he was about ten years old, his 

 mother was married a second time to Captain 

 Britton, a former shipping-master, and then a 

 prosperous shipping-merchant of Philadelphia, 

 who had at one time commanded Washington's 

 body-guard. At the age of twelve, he accom- 

 panied his step-father in a formal visit to Gen- 

 eral Washington, whom he had often seen, and 

 for whom he felt a great reverence. The gen- 

 eral spoke to him very kindly and showed him 

 considerable attention, an honor which he 

 remembered to his last day. Some years later 



he had the opportunity of another interview, 

 as the representative of Captain Barry, of the 

 Navy, with Washington. 



At the age of thirteen, Charles Stewart made 

 his first voyage as a cabin-boy in the merchant 

 service, and passing through many and great 

 perils (for, in those days of revolution, bucca- 

 neering, and piracy, a sailor's life was full of 

 dangers), he rose rapidly in his profession, till, 

 at the age of twenty, he was the commander 

 of an Indiaman, a position only attained at his 

 age by nautical skill and consummate courage. 

 But his ambition led him to seek a higher and 

 more honorable position, and the same year 

 (1798) he abandoned the merchant service 

 and took a lieutenant's commission in the 

 navy of the United States. He was at first 

 with Commodore Barry on the West India 

 station, but in July, 1800, he was assigned to 

 the command of the United States schooner 

 Experiment, mounting twelve guns, in which 

 he cruised in the West Indies, capturing French 

 privateers, demanding and obtaining the release 

 of American sailors who had been impressed 

 on English vessels, and protecting the hapless 

 inhabitants of the islands who were the prey 

 of some of the insurgents and revolutionists. 

 He was next ordered to the Mediterranean and 

 employed in the blockade and siege of Tripoli. 

 At the conclusion of hostilities there, he re- 

 turned to New York to superintend, in 1806-'7, 

 the construction of President Jefferson's gun- 

 boats. Subsequently, for several years, with 

 the sanction of the Government, he and several 

 other of the naval officers were engaged in the 

 prosecution of mercantile enterprises in the Med- 

 iterranean, the Arctic, the Adriatic, and the East 

 Indies. In 1812, as soon as war had been declared 

 with Great Britain, Stewart, who already held 

 a captain's commission in the navy, and Captain 

 (afterward Commodore) Bainbridge, hastened 

 to Washington to offer their services to the 

 Government. They were met there with the 

 announcement that the Cabinet, in view of the 

 great superiority of the British Navy, had de- 

 cided to place all the ships-of-war belonging 

 to our navy in the harbor of New York, for 

 the defence of that city. Such a decision seems 

 now so absurd, that we can hardly realize that 

 it could ever have been made ; but the evidence 

 is too conclusive to admit of a doubt. Against 

 this preposterous determination, Captains 

 Bainbridge and Stewart protested so earnestly 

 and indignantly, that the President (Madison) 

 reversed the Cabinet's decision, and directed 

 the Secretary of the Navy to send the vessels- 

 of-war to sea, to seek their enemy, and he 

 would take the responsibility upon himself. 

 Rejoiced at thus gaining permission to meet 

 the enemy, instead of remaining in the harbor 

 awaiting his onset, the two heroes returned to 

 Philadelphia, and Stewart was assigned to tho 

 command of the Constellation, and assisted in 

 defending Norfolk and Craney Island. In 1813 

 he assumed command of the Constitution, of 

 49 guns, and during a year's cruise succeeded 



