PATTERSON, ROBERT. 



725 



with a capital of $500,000. New colonies, 

 sugar-factories, and other industries, were in 

 contemplation, and some already started. But 

 the best proof of the improved condition of 

 things in Paraguay is the increased value of 

 the Government promises to pay. Treasury- 

 orders, which were as low as 8 per cent, have 

 risen to over 25 since General Caballero en- 

 tered office; and the hopes of the English 

 bondholders are not altogether groundless. 

 The exports' are augmenting, and it has been 

 asserted that in the course of a few years Par- 

 aguay " will regain its position among the states 

 of the Plate." 



PATTERSON, ROBERT, born in Oappagh, 

 county of Tyrone, Ireland, January 12, 1792 ; 

 died in Philadelphia, August 7, 1881. His 

 father was actively engaged in organizing the 

 Irish rebellion of 1798, and after that effort 

 escaped to America, settling near old Middle- 

 town Presbyterian Church, in Delaware Coun- 

 ty, Pennsylvania. Here his son received such 

 instruction as was obtainable at the ordinary 

 schools of that day, effectively supplemented 

 by judicious home-training. After leaving 

 school, he assisted his father whose robust 

 frame and magnetic influence over men he had 

 inherited in the management of his farm, 

 finding time to participate in all manner of 

 athletic exercises, in many of which, horse- 

 manship especially, he attained singular pre- 

 eminence. Later on, he went to live in Phila- 

 delphia, where he entered the counting-house 

 of Edward Thomson, the leading American 

 merchant in the China trade. In the war of 

 that period Robert Patterson was commis- 

 sioned first-lieutenant of infantry, and after- 

 ward served on the personal staff of General 

 Bloomfield. It is recorded of him that his 

 skill and intrepidity saved a North Carolina 

 vessel, lying' in the Delaware River in 1814, 

 which was in imminent danger from a British 

 seventy- four, one of a fleet blockading Phila- 

 delphia. After the conclusion of peace and 

 the disbandment of his regiment, Captain Pat- 

 terson returned to the business he had origi- 

 nally chosen. In his early manhood he found 

 time to exercise a great influence in local poli- 

 tics. He was one of " the five Colonel Patter- 

 sons" in the Pennsylvania Convention that 

 nominated Andrew Jackson for the presidency, 

 and engaged in that campaign with all the en- 

 thusiasm of his nature. His last appearance 

 before the people as a candidate for civil office 

 was in 1836, when he headed the Democratic 

 electoral ticket, and became president of the 

 electoral college which cast the vote of Penn- 

 sylvania for Martin Van Buren. 

 " On the occasion of President Jackson's first 

 official visit to Philadelphia, June, 1838, the 

 city councils violated the custom of granting 

 the use of Independence Hall to such citi/en* 

 as might desire to pay their respects to him, 

 and refused it. General Patterson entertained 

 the President at his residence in the even in-, 

 after escorting him through the principal 



streets of the city at the head of the largest 

 body of citizen soldiery ever assembled there 

 before the civil war. The municipal authori- 

 ties, to manifest their disapprobation of Jack- 

 son, had arranged a counter-procession, entire- 

 ly civic, with Black Hawk, just brought in 

 prisoner from the Northwest, at its head. 

 General Patterson halted his column long 

 enough to let the carriage containing the may- 

 or and Black Hawk pass, then, posting the 

 First Troop to bar all further egress in that 

 direction, sent a staff officer to say to Black 

 Hawk that his " young men " would be glad 

 to show him how many more, besides those he 

 had already encountered in the West, he would 

 have to fight if he made trouble again. 



At the October election of 1838 in Pennsyl- 

 vania, when the fever of party spirit threat- 

 ened a popular outbreak, General Patterson 

 obeyed the Governor's call for troops with his 

 entire division, and by his firmness and pru- 

 dence prevented a resort to arms. General 

 Patterson's military services were efficacious 

 on various occasions in quelling local disturb- 

 ances, notably the " Red Row riots " in 1838, 

 and the " Native American riots " in 1844. 



When volunteers were called for in the 

 spring of 1846, for the Mexican War, General 

 Patterson was appointed major-general, and, 

 reporting in person to General Taylor, was 

 placed in command at Camargo. Of the 13,- 

 000 volunteers turned over to him, 4,500 were 

 on the sick-list. When they were fit for serv- 

 ice, he was directed to meet General Taylor 

 at Victoria, with a view to a combined move- 

 ment on Tampico. Patterson's march of two 

 hundred and fifty miles, partly through a desert 

 without water, was accomplished without loss. 

 He was directed to move against Tani]iic<>, 

 about two hundred and ten miles distant, and 

 the town surrendered to him without resist- 

 ance. From this point Patterson's division 

 was transferred by water to General Scott's 

 column, with which, at the siege of Vera 

 Cruz, he rendered conspicuous services. He 

 remained with the army until the conclusion of 

 the peace, to which his prudent counsel and 

 good offices largely conduced. 



After the war General Patterson resumed 

 his mercantile pursuits, and the command of 

 the Pennsylvania militia. 



The civil war found him the oldest majjor- 

 goneral in continuous commission in the United 

 States. He was selected in April to command 

 the Pennsylvania troops, ana General ~- 

 placed him over the Department of Washing- 

 ton, which then included the SMI-- ol" Mary- 

 land, Delaware, New .Icr-cv. ; m<l Pennsylvania, 

 with headquarters at Philadelphia. <>n the 

 day lie received the order, he confided his large 

 private business to others, concentrated his en- 

 ergies upon the ctVective organization of a vol- 

 unteer army, and such other preparation* as 

 he deemed essential to ultimate success. Un- 

 limited powers were conferred upon him, with 

 authority to suspend the writ of habea* cor- 



