CRAWFORD, NATHANIEL M. 



CROSWELL, EDWIN. 



245 



bis honest, genial friendliness won him innu- 

 merable ardent friends. He was returning 

 home from a trip to Philadelphia, and with his 

 wife stopped in Harrisburg for medical treat- 

 ment, when his sudden death occurred. 



CRAWFORD, NATHANIEL MACOX, D.D., 

 an American clergyman, scholar, and college 

 president, born near Lexington, Oglethorpe 

 County, Ga., March 22, 1811 ; died at his 

 residence near Atlanta, Ga., October 2V, 1871. 

 He was a son of Hon. William Crawford, a 

 cabinet officer and Vice-President under Madi- 

 son and Monroe. He graduated from Frank- 

 Jin College (University of Georgia) in 1829, and 

 commenced the study of law with his father, 

 and was admitted to the Georgia bar, but did 

 not enter upon the practice of his profession. 

 In 1837 he was elected Professor of Mathe- 

 matics in Oglethorpe University, and retained 

 the position till the end of 1841. About this 

 time he was led to change his denominational 

 views, and, though brought up a Presbyterian, 

 ha became from conscientious conviction a 

 Baptist. He soon determined to enter the 

 ministry in that denomination, was licensed 

 to preach in 1843, and ordained in 1844. He 

 was pastor, successively, of Baptist churches 

 in Washington, Ga., and Charleston, S. C. In 

 184V he was elected Professor of Biblical Lit- 

 erature in Mercer University, Penfield, Ga., 

 and seven years later was chosen president of 

 the university. He resigned at the beginning 

 of 185V, and accepted temporarily the chair of 

 Mental and Moral Philosophy in the University 

 of Mississippi, but in the autumn of that year 

 accepted a professorship in the Western Bap- 

 tist Theological Seminary at Georgetown, Ky. 

 The pressure upon him was so strong to re- 

 tarn to the presidency of Mercer University, 

 that heat last consented, and in the 'autumn 

 of 1858 resumed his old place and duties. In 

 1857 he was elected president of the Bible Re- 

 vision Association. The occurrence of the war 

 disabled, where it did not entirely destroy, 

 most of the Southern colleges, and Mercer 

 University did not escape the general ruin. 

 Dr. Crawford maintained a nominal connec- 

 tion with it for some years, but on the death 

 of Rev. Dr. Campbell, president of George- 

 town College, Ky., he was elected to the presi- 

 dency of that thriving institution, and con- 

 tinued to preside over it until the beginning of 

 1871, when, his health failing, he returned to 

 his native State to die. Dr. Crawford ranked 

 as a pulpit orator anion<? the most eloquent of 

 Southern preachers. He had not published 

 many books, though a very fluent and grace- 

 ful writer. A work, entitled " Christian Para- 

 dozes," from his pen, published in 185V, was 

 favorably received, and, with a number of small 

 books on denominational topics, and several 

 occasional sermons, addresses, etc., constitutes 

 the sum of his published works. 



CROSWELL, Eowitf, an influential journal- 

 ist and politician of New York for many years, 

 born at Catskill, N. Y., May 29, 1V9V ; died at 



Princeton, N. J., June 13, 18 VI. He was of a 

 family of editors, his father and his uncle, the 

 famous Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell, being both 

 engaged in editing and publishing newspapers 

 long before his birth. Mr. Croswell received a 

 good education, and on leaving school entered 

 at once into journalism, becoming assistant edi- 

 tor of the Catskill Recorder, his father's paper. 

 His first article was a defence and vindication 

 of the soldiers who were drafted for the defence 

 of New York during the war with Great Britain. 

 His management of the Recorder after the re- 

 tirement of his father was such as to attract 

 the attention of the most prominent leaders of 

 the Democracy, and place Mr. Croswell in the 

 position of an influential leader of his party. 

 In 1824 he was invited to Albany by Martin 

 Van Buren, Benjamin F. Butler, and others, 

 to assume the editorial control of the Argus 

 of that city, as successor to Judge Cantine, its 

 editor, and also State printer. He accepted 

 the invitation, and for thirty years after was 

 a resident of the State capital. Mr. Croswell's 

 career as editor of the Argus was a notable 

 success, both in its journalistic and political 

 sense. " He converted the paper from a semi- 

 weekly into a daily journal," says one of his 

 biographers, "increased its circulation very 

 largely, and made it one of the chief organs 

 of the Democracy, not merely in the State, but 

 in the country." These were the palmy days 

 of the famous " Albany Regency," when the or- 

 ganization of the Democratic party had reached 

 a state of perfection never before equalled by 

 any political party in the United States, and 

 only equalled since by the Tammany Society. 

 As a member of the "Regency," Mr. Cros well's 

 work was delicate and important. The duty 

 devolved upon him of putting an end to diffi- 

 culties which arose in the ranks of the Democ- 

 racy of the State, and of preserving order in 

 the party. These were done through the col- 

 umns of the Argus, and to his ability, tact, and 

 energy, were due, to a considerable extent, the 

 long ascendency maintained by the Democrats 

 in New York. All the leading articles which 

 appeared in the Argus were copied in the mi- 

 nor party papers throughout the State as em- 

 bodying all that was sound of Democratic prin- 

 ciples; and the fact speaks for itself of the great 

 influence wielded by Mr. Croswell through his 

 paper, that for many years it was regarded 

 as equivalent to political apostasy to question 

 or discredit the authority of the Argus. Of 

 course, an end came to the vast power wielded 

 by the Regency, and when it fell Mr. Croswell 

 fell with it. In 1840 the Whigs obtained pos- 

 session of the State, and he, after having 

 been State printer for sixteen years, was suc- 

 ceeded in that office by Thurlow Weed. Four 

 years later he obtained the position again, and 

 kept it for three years more, when the Democ- 

 racy were once more driven from power, and 

 did not return for many years after. Intestine 

 difficulties, rigidly repressed by the discipline 

 of the Regency, broke out with great fury in 



