Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ingersoll, Jared

INGERSOLL, Jared, stamp-agent, b. in Milford, Conn., in 1722; d. in New Haven, Conn., in August, 1781. He was graduated at Yale in 1742, and in 1765 arrived in Boston from England charged with the commission of stamp-agent for Connecticut, which Benjamin Franklin had advised him to accept. After the demonstrations against the obnoxious act in various parts of the colonies, Ingersoll, assured of the governor's protection, tried to reason the people of New Haven into forbearance. Surrounding his house, they demanded him to resign. “I know not if I have the power to resign,” he replied. He promised, however, that he would re-ship any stamps that he received or leave the matter to their decision. He was finally compelled to offer his resignation, which was not satisfactory to the people of other sections, and, in order to save his house from an attack, he rode from New Haven, resolving to place himself under the protection of the legislature in Hartford. Several miles below Wethersfield he met a body of 500 men on horseback, preceded by three trumpeters and two militia officers. They received him and rode with him to Wethersfield, where they compelled him to resign his office. Entering a house for safety, he sent word of his situation to the governor and the assembly. After waiting for three hours the people entered the house. Ingersoll said: “The cause is not worth dying for,” and made a written declaration that his resignation was his own free act, without any equivocation. “Swear to it,” said the crowd; but this he refused. They then commanded him to shout “Liberty and property” three times, and, throwing his hat into the air, he obeyed. He was then escorted by a large crowd to Hartford, where he read to the assembly the paper that he had just signed. About 1770 he was made admiralty judge of the middle district, and resided for several years in Philadelphia, after which he returned to New Haven. He was the author of a pamphlet on the “Stamp-Act,” which is now very rare (New Haven, 1766).—His son, Jared, jurist, b. in Connecticut in 1749; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 31 Oct., 1822, was graduated at Yale in 1766. He then went to London, studied law at the Middle Temple for five years, and was then more than eighteen months in Paris, where he formed the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin. On his return he became a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, and, although the son of a loyalist, espoused the cause of the colonies in the Revolution. He was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental congress in 1780-'1, a representative in the convention that framed the Federal constitution in 1787, twice attorney-general of Pennsylvania, U. S. district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and received and declined the appointment of chief judge of the Federal court. In 1812 he was the Federal candidate for vice-president of the United States, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was presiding judge of the district court of Philadelphia county.—The younger Jared's son, Charles Jared, statesman, b. in Philadelphia, 3 Oct., 1782; d. there, 14 May, 1862, received a liberal education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia. He then travelled in Europe, and was attached to the U. S. embassy to France. He was afterward elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1813 till 1815, when he became U. S. district attorney, and held that office until he was removed by Gen. Jackson in 1829. Soon afterward he served in the legislature. He was a member of the Canal and internal improvement convention at Harrisburg in 1825, and also of the Reform convention there in 1837, and in Philadelphia in 1838. In 1837 he was appointed secretary of legation to Prussia. He served again in congress from 1841 till 1847, as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, and distinguished himself as a Democratic leader. In 1847 he was nominated, by President Polk, U. S. minister to France, but was rejected by the senate. He was the author of “Chiomara,” a poem published in the “Port-folio” (1800); “Edwy and Elgira,” a tragedy (Philadelphia, 1801); “Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters on American Literature and Politics” (New York, 1810); “Julian,” a dramatic poem (1831); and a “Historical Sketch of the Second War between the United States and Great Britain” (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1845-'52). He also published numerous anonymous contributions to the “Democratic Press” of Philadelphia, and to the “National Intelligencer” of Washington, on the controversies with England before the war of 1812 (1811-'15); several “Speeches” concerning that war (1813-'15); a discourse before the American philosophical society on the “Influence of America on the Mind,” which was republished in England and France (1823); a translation of a French work on the freedom of navigation, in the "American Law Journal" of 1829, and many other literary and political discourses. At the time of his death he was preparing a “History of the Territorial Acquisitions of the United States.”—

Another son, Joseph Reed, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 14 June, 1786; d. there, 20 Feb., 1868, was graduated at Princeton in 1804, studied law with his father, and practised extensively in Philadelphia. In 1835 he was elected to congress as a Whig, and served till 1837, and again from 1843 till 1849. For a time he was chairman of the judiciary committee. He was an advocate for protection and a firm supporter of Henry Clay. One of his best efforts in the house was a defence of Mr. Clay's tariff of 1842. In 1852 he was appointed by President Fillmore minister to England, as successor to Abbott Lawrence, and held this office about one year, when he was succeeded by James Buchanan. He then retired to private life, devoting himself to literary pursuits. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Lafayette and Bowdoin in 1836, and that of D. C. L. by Oxford in 1845. He was a warm adherent of the Union, and at the time of the civil war prepared an able essay entitled “Secession, a Folly and a Crime.” He published a translation from the Latin of Roceus's tracts “De Navibus et Naulo” and “De Assecuratione” (Philadelphia, 1809), and was the author of a “Memoir of Samuel Breck” (1863).—Another son, Edward, wrote poems under the pen-name of Horace for the “Port-folio,” and contributed articles to “Walsh's Gazette.” He was the author of “Digest of the Laws of the United States” (Philadelphia, 1821).—Charles Jared's son, Edward, author, b. in Philadelphia, 2 April, 1817, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1835. He has published a work on the “History and Law of Habeas Corpus and Grand Juries” (Philadelphia, 1849); and “Personal Liberty and Martial Law” (1862); and has edited Hale's “Pleas of the Crown,” “Addison on Contracts,” and “Saunders on Uses and Trusts.”