80 



BURLEIGH, WILLIAM H. 



BUXTON, CHARLES. 



ing the forces, charging furiously upon his 

 opponents, his voice ringing like a clarion in 

 the thickest of the fight. He knew nothing 

 of concession, or compromise, or toleration; 

 but pushed his views and measures to ex- 

 tremes, with the boldness, energy, and faith 

 of one who had a special warrant from God 

 to guide the Church. Violent as he was in 

 debate, there were also a gallantry, chivalry, 

 and brilliancy in his attacks, that made them 

 splendid to witness. No debater in ecclesias- 

 tical or civil courts ever commanded ^ more 

 rapt and admiring attention than he in the 

 days of his power. Yet he trampled upon 

 laws of order, the amenities of life, and some- 

 times frightened the timid by his fierce on- 

 slaught upon what he would overwhelm. A 

 man of his boldness and fearlessness could not 

 but possess decided political opinions, espe- 

 cially in a family which was for two or three 

 generations prominent in the national service. 

 Dr. Breckinridge was not only a politician, 

 but a very active and earnest one. Previous 

 to the late war, he had been inclined to con- 

 servatism, though disposed to deprecate sla- 

 very ; but when the war came he was from 

 the first intensely, fiercely loyal, though one 

 of his sons, and his nephew John C. Breckin- 

 ridge, went over to the Confederacy. He pre- 

 sided over the National Republican Convention 

 at Baltimore in 1864, which renominated Mr. 

 Lincoln for the presidency. 



BURLEIGH, WILLIAM HENET, an American 

 journalist, reformer, and poet, born in Wood- 

 stock, Conn., in February, 1812; died in Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y., March 18, 1871. He was educated 

 mostly by his father, and when he was about 

 fifteen years of age his school-days were ter- 

 minated by his father's blindness. Thencefor- 

 ward he commenced a life of toil. At first ap- 

 prenticed to a printer, he speedily began to 

 contribute to the columns of the newspaper it 

 was a part of his duty to print, not in written 

 communications, but by setting up his articles 

 without the intervention of writing. From 

 the autumn of 1882 to 1835 he was almost 

 constantly engaged in editorial duties, and in 

 charge of papers advocating one or all of the 

 great reforms then agitating the public mind 

 antislavery, temperance, and peace neither 

 of which was then very popular. Though nat- 

 urally one of the most genial and amiable of 

 men, Mr. Burleigh was stern in his adherence 

 to principle, and was many times subjected to 

 mob violence for his unpopular opinions. In 

 1836 he added to his editorial duties the labor 

 of lecturing in behalf of the American Anti- 

 slavery Society, and defending their views. 

 He became about this time the editor of the 

 Pittsburg Christian Witness, the organ of the 

 Western Pennsylvania Antislavery Society. 

 In 1843 he removed to Hartford, Conn., and 

 became the editor and proprietor of the Char- 

 ter Oak, a vigorously-edited and brilliant de- 

 fender of the antislavery and temperance re- 

 forms. He struck hard, trenchant blows at 



popular vices and political depravity in Loth 

 papers, and received his reward more than 

 once in mob violence. But while he deemed 

 this heroic defence of unpopular doctrines a 

 duty, and maintained it with unfaltering 

 heart, his soul loathed controversy, and, when- 

 ever he could command the means for it, he 

 would launch a purely literary paper, which, 

 though generally short-lived, always contained 

 gems of poetry and prose from his prolific 

 pen, and always avoided any controversial 

 topics. He possessed in large measure the 

 poetic faculty ; and his poems, though generally 

 struck oif at a white heat, and hence sometimes 

 lacking the polish and finish which come of 

 long and patient attrition, yet possessed great 

 merit. A volume of them was, we believe, 

 published between 1845 and 1850. In 1850 he 

 disposed of the Charter Oalc to the Free- 

 soilers, the nucleus of the Republican party 

 which came a little later, and removed to Syra- 

 cuse, and subsequently to Albany, N. Y., to be 

 the general agent and lecturer of the New York 

 State Temperance Society, and the editor of 

 their organ. He continued in this position till 

 1855, winning golden opinions from all with 

 whom he was brought into contact, when 

 Governor Clark offered him, unsolicited, the 

 position of harbor-master of the port of New 

 York. He accepted it, and removed to Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y. For the next fifteen years he was 

 either harbor-master or port-warden, but 

 found time for a good deal of literary and some 

 political labor. In the political campaigns he 

 was always in demand as a speaker, and his 

 thorough knowledge of all the questions before 

 the people, and his winning eloquence, made 

 him very popular. He was also in great re- 

 quest as a lyceum lecturer, and contributed 

 to literary papers and reviews. A part of his 

 poems have been collected since his death, 

 and published, with a memoir, by his widow. 



BUXTON, CHARLES, M. P., an eminent liter- 

 ary critic, member of Parliament, and leader 

 in'the educational movement, in Great Britain, 

 born in Weymouth, England, in 1823 ; died in 

 London, August 10, 1871. He was the eldest 

 surviving son of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 

 the celebrated reformer and colleague of Wil- 

 berforce. The son was educated at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, where he graduated with 

 honors in 1843. His father died in 1845, 

 leaving him a share in the great brewery he 

 had established, and which continues to yield 

 a princely income to its proprietors. In 1857 

 Charles Buxton was elected to the Britisli 

 Parliament for Newport, Isle of Wight, and 

 continued in Parliament to the time of his 

 death, representing successively that city, 

 Maidstone, and East Surrey. In 1848 he ap- 

 peared as an author. He published at that 

 time the memoirs of his father, with selec- 

 tions from his correspondence. The book was 

 well received, and attained a third edition. 

 One review pronounced it " one of the most 

 thoroughly well-written pieces of biography 



