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DIX, JOHN A. 



DIXON, WILLIAM H. 



else he ever said, and meant ranch for the 

 Union cause. The sentence was the last one 

 of a brief telegram to Treasury Agent "W. 

 Hemphill Jones of Delaware, then at New 

 Orleans. It was sent January 29, 1861. In 

 the same year President Lincoln made him 

 a major-general in the army. His commands 

 during the war comprised in succession the 

 departments of Maryland, of Virginia and 

 North Carolina, and of New York. It was 

 while holding the latter command, on May 16, 

 1864, that he received orders from Washington 

 to place a strong military guard in the newspa- 

 per-offices of the New York "Journal of Com- 

 merce " and " World," and issued warrants for 

 the arrest of the editors and their imprison- 

 ment in Fort Lafayette. At the same time a 

 vessel was lying under steam at one of the 

 wharves to convey them there. The suppres- 

 sion of the papers continued for two days, 

 when the offices were restored to the propri- 

 etors. Governor Horatio Seymour caused the 

 arrest of General Dix and his officers, but an 

 order came from Washington directing the 

 General " not to relieve himself of his com- 

 mand or be deprived of his liberty for obeying 

 any order of a military nature while the civil 

 war lasts." (See " Annual Oyclopredia," 1864, 

 page 391.) In 1866 General Dix was President 

 of the Philadelphia Union Convention. In the 

 same year he was appointed Minister to France 

 by President Johnson ; in 1869 he resigned 

 that position. In 1872 he received the Repub- 

 lican nomination for Governor of New York, 

 and was elected. On the expiration of his 

 term he was renominated, and defeated by 

 Samuel J. Tilden. He afterward made public 

 addresses in political campaigns, but held no 

 other political office. For a short time he 

 acted as President of the Board of Directors 

 of the Erie Eailway. In every sphere of life 

 to which he was called he acquitted himself 

 well. He had many qualities which insure 

 success in public positions. He was careful 

 of details and fond of them. He was punctual, 

 diligent, orderly, and deliberate. This made 

 him a good executive official. Moreover, he 

 had learned the duties of command in the 

 school of obedience, and his career was an 

 ascensive instruction. As a soldier, he was 

 identified with no battles of the civil war. He 

 tempered martial law in loyal or unmenaced 

 posts, and he yielded less to the spirit of arbi- 

 trary arrest than others. An officeholder by 

 profession, he was an honest one, as well as a 

 citizen of many virtues, fair talents, and marked 

 and varied cultivation. Industrious, courteous, 

 abstemious, and honorable in his inclinations, 

 his career will be at least as notable for dura- 

 tion as for service, and his service will be more 

 notable for quantity than for any extraordi- 

 nary results. He was a man of culture and 

 fine literary tastes, and his writings were al- 

 ways models of good English. His works of 

 travel were widely read, and he was the author 

 of a very useful volume on " The Resources of 



the City of New York." His miscellaneous 

 speeches and addresses have been collected 

 into two handsome volumes of interesting read- 

 ing. He remained a scholar throughout his 

 busy life. In manners he was ever the calm 

 and courteous gentleman to all coming into his 

 presence. In person he was erect and soldier- 

 like, with a native dignity of bearing. 



DIXON, WILLIAM HBPWOETH, a British au- 

 thor, born in Yorkshire, June 30, 1821, died 

 December 27, 1879. He had no academic 

 training, but was very observing and fond of 

 reading, and when still quite young made his 

 literary debut by privately printing a five-act 

 tragedy, which has remained unknown to the 

 public. He was an early contributor of verse 

 to Douglas Jerrold's " Illuminated Magazine," 

 and about 1844 became literary editor of a 

 paper at Cheltenham. In 1846 he settled in 

 London as a law student at the Inner Temple, 

 and began contributing to the " Daily News " 

 a series of articles on the "Literature of the 

 Common People " and on " London Prisons," 

 which were well received. His first published 

 book, "John Howard, a Memoir," appeared 

 in 1849. In 1850 he was appointed a deputy 

 commissioner for the organization of the 

 World's Fair of 1851. In 1851 he published 

 a " Life of William Penn," in which he de- 

 fended the celebrated Quaker from the attacks 

 of Macaulay in his " History of England." In 

 1852 he made a tour of the Continent, and the 

 following year became chief editor of the 

 " Athenaum," which post he held until 1869. 

 His treatment of American subjects and Ameri- 

 can authors in this journal, as well as in his 

 books on America, was considered in the 

 United States unjust and incorrect, although 

 he made many friends in his visits to this 

 country. In 1864 he made a long tour in the 

 East, which resulted in a work on " The Holy 

 Land " (2 vols., 1865). He spent a few months 

 in 1866 in travel in the United States, paying 

 especial attention to Mormonism and spiritual- 

 ism. As a result he published his two best 

 known works, "New America" (1867) and 

 "Spiritual Wives" (1868). The former was 

 translated into most of the languages of Eu- 

 rope. In 1869 he made a tour of Russia, the 

 narrative of which he entitled " Free Russia" 

 (2 vols., 1870). His largest work was entitled 

 "Her Majesty's Tower" (4 vols., 1869-'71),' 

 which was supplemented in 1878 by a similar 

 work on " Royal Windsor." He made many 

 other trips to the Continent, and revisited 

 America in 1874-'75. This visit produced his 

 "White Conquest" (2 vols., 1876), which con- 

 tained some useful information about the con- 

 dition of the negroes, the Indians, and the Chi- 

 nese in America, and which was generally 

 regarded as his best book on America. In 

 1878 he visited Cyprus, and wrote a book on 

 that island. Other of his writings are: "The 

 Lives of the Archbishops of York " (1863) ; 

 "The Switzers" (1872); "The History of 

 Two Queens Catharine of Aragon and Anne 



