FELICE, GUILLAUME DE. 



FETIS, FRANCOIS J. 



293 



was vetoed by the President. President Ty- 

 ler then suggested a plan for a bank of mod- 

 erate capital, and, at his request, Mr. Ewing 

 helped to frame a charter, which was immedi- 

 ately passed, and in turn vetoed. Mr. Ewing, 

 with all the other members of the Cabinet, 

 except Mr. Webster, thereupon resigned. In 

 1849 President Taylor appointed him Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, a department then recent- 

 ly created, and not fully organized. ^ The lead- 

 ing measures recommended by him in his first 

 report, December, 1849, were the extension 

 of the public-land laws to California, New 

 Mexico, and Oregon ; the establishment of a 

 mint near the California gold-mines, and the 

 construction of a road to the Pacific. On the 

 slavery question he differed from Mr. Clay and 

 others, who urged the necessity of compre- 

 hensive legislation to settle the matter at once 

 and forever, and agreed with the President in 



thinking the action of Congress uncalled for. 

 In June, 1850, upon the death of President 

 Taylor, this division in the Whig party led to 

 Cabinet changes. Mr. Corwin became Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury under President Fillmore, 

 and Mr. Ewiug was appointed by the Gov- 

 ernor of Ohio to serve during Mr. Corwin's 

 unexpired term in the Senate. In 1851 he re- 

 tired from public life, and resumed the prac- 

 tice of law at Lancaster. He was a delegate 

 to the Peace Congress of 1860, and was also 

 chosen a delegate to the National Union Con- 

 vention in 1866. During the war he gave the 

 Union cause an unflinching support. His son- 

 in-law, General William T. Sherman, and his 

 son, General Thomas Ewing, Jr., were, as is 

 well known, among the most conspicuous of 

 the Union generals. Of late years, in conse- 

 quence of his great age and infirmities, he had 

 lived in complete retirement. 



F 



FELICE, Rev. GUILLAUME DE, D. D., a 

 French clergyman and author, Professor and 

 Dean of the Theological Faculty at Montauban, 

 born about 1803 ; died at Lausanne, Switzer- 

 land, October 23, 1871. He received his edu- 

 cation at Strasbourg. He was at first pastor 

 at Bolbec, a considerable town in the Depart- 

 ment of Seine-Inferieure. In 1838 he was cho- 

 sen Professor of Christian Morals and Homi- 

 letics, in the theological seminary at Mon- 

 tauban, Department of Tarn and Garonne. It 

 was while holding this position that he accom- 

 plished his principal literary labors. For years 

 lie was an assiduous co-laborer of M. Adolphe 

 Monod, in the editorship of the Archives du 

 Christianisme. In 1830 he became corre- 

 spondent for the New York Observer, and con- 

 tinued to send his frequent and always in- 

 teresting letters until a short time before his 

 death. His most remarkable works were: 

 "Memoir upon Bible Societies; " "Appeal for 

 the Immediate Emancipation of Slaves ; " 

 " Conferences in regard to Calvin ; " " History 

 of French Protestants ;" "Appeal to Men of 

 Letters;" "History of the National Synods 

 of the Reformed Churches of France; " "Bi- 

 ography of William Allen." All his writings 

 are pervaded by a spirit of profound attach- 

 ment to evangelical truth and to the Reformed 

 Church. Until the failure of his health, he 

 often preached in the churches of Tdulouse, 

 Saverdun, Mezieres, and Bordeaux, and al- 

 ways with great acceptance, from his eloquence 

 both of matter and manner. He was a man 

 of varied learning, of wide and careful obser- 

 vation, of fervent religious sentiment, and of 

 broad charity and liberal views. 



FETIS, FRANCOIS JOSEPH, a Belgian musical 

 composer, critic, and author, born at Mons, 

 Belgium, March 25, 1784; died at Brussels, in 

 March, 1871. He jvas the son of an organist, 



and at nine years of age was himself appointed 

 organist of Sainte Wanden. In 1800 he be- 

 came a pupil in the Paris Conservatoire, Boiel- 

 dieu> Pradher, and Rey, being his teachers. He 

 established a musical journal in 1804. His 

 first theoretical productions were the "Traite 

 du Contre-Point et de la Fugue," " Graduale 

 de Tempore ac de Sanctis," " Antiphonarium 

 Divinorum Officiorum," the last two elaborate 

 collections of chants of the Roman Church. 

 In 1813 M. Fetis was appointed organist of 

 St. Pierre at Douai, and Professor of Singing 

 and Harmony in the municipal school of that 

 town. He came to Paris, in 1818, to retrieve 

 his fortune, which he had lost a few years be- 

 fore, and was a professor in the Conservatory 

 of Music from that date till 1833, when the 

 Belgian Government offered him the appoint- 

 ment of Director of the Conservatoire at Brus- 

 sels, which post he held until his decease. He 

 took an active part in the musical department 

 of the Paris Exhibition. With astonishing 

 vigor for his advanced age, he composed a 

 symphony a few weeks before his death. 

 There is a long list of instrumental composi- 

 tions which could be cited indicative of his 

 industry, if not of his imagination. It was 

 M. F6tis who had charge of the score of 

 " L' Africaine," after the death of Meyerbeer, in 

 Paris. The learned author had to reduce his 

 MS., in which there was sufficient music for 

 two operas, into proportions for representation 

 at the Grand Opera-House. That he per- 

 formed his labor of love with tact and intelli- 

 gence has been universally recognized. He was 

 a very voluminous writer, not only of music, 

 but of works of instruction on the theory and 

 practice of music, and on the biography, bibli- 

 ography, and philosophy of the science. About 

 1820 he published in Paris a " Treatise on Coun- 

 terpoint and Fugue," which is still highly 



