Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/359

WALKER, Katherine Kent Child, author, b. in Pittsford, Vt., about 1840. She is a daughter of the Rev. Willard Child, D. D., and in 1863 married the Rev. Edward Ashley Walker, who was graduated at Yale in 1856, and died in 1866 after a brief pastorate at the Old South church, Worcester, Mass. She wrote a famous article on the “Total Depravity of Inanimate Things,” which appeared originally in the “Atlantic Monthly” for September, 1864, has contributed to various magazines, and published a version of Bunyan's “Pilgrim's Progress,” for children (New York, 1869); “From the Crib to the Cross” (1869); and a “Life of Christ” (1869). She has also made translations from the German.

WALKER, Robert John, statesman, b. at Northumberland, Pa., 23 July, 1801 ; d. in Wash- ington, D. C, 11 Nov., 1869. His father was a sol- dier of the Revolution, and a judge of the common pleas, of the high court of errors and appeals of Penn- sylvania, and of the U. S. district court. After his graduation in Au- gust, 1819, at the state university at Philadelphia, with the first honor of a large class, he began the practice of law at Pitts- burg, Pa., in 1822, with great success. In 1826 he remov- ed to Mississippi, where he entered

vigorously in to law

and politics, taking an active part in 1832 and 1833 against nullification and secession. In January, 1833, in the Natchez "Journal," he made an ex- tended argument against the doctrine of disunion and in favor of coercion against rebellious states, which was highly extolled by James Madison. In January, 1836, he was Union candidate for the U. S. senate in opposition to George Poindexter, and was elected, and at this time he influenced the legisla- ture of Mississippi to adopt resolutions denouncing nullification and secession as treason. In 1840 he was re-elected to the U. S. senate by a two-to-one majority over the orator Sergeant S. Prentiss. Dur- ing his service in the senate he took an active part in its debates, especially in opposition to John C. Calhoun. He supported the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren ; but when the latter disapproved of the annexation of Texas, Walker opposed him, and in the Baltimore convention of 1844 labored for the nomination of James K. Polk to the presidency. By Mr, Polk he was appointed secretary of the treasury, which office he held till 5 March, 1849. In his course in the senate Mr. Walker opposed the Bank of the United States and the distribution of the surplus revenue among the states, advocating, instead, its applica- tion to the public defences. He opposed a protec- tive tariff, and in a speech on 3 March, 1836, pro- posed the celebrated Homestead bill. He sustained with much energy the treaty for suppressing the African slave-trade, and throughout his political career always and consistently advocated gradual emancipation, exhibiting his sincerity in 1838 by manumitting all his own slaves. He sustained New York in the McLeod case, and introduced and carried the resolution of 1837 recognizing the in- dependence of Texas. He was the first to propose the annexation of Texas by a letter in the public prints in January, 1844, recommending, as a con- dition, a scheme for gradual emancipation and colonization, which was fiercely attacked by John C. Calhoun. While secretary of the treasury he prepared and carried the tariff of 1846, various loan bills, the warehousing system, the Mexican tariff, and the bill to organize the department of the in- terior. After leaving the treasury, he was offered by President Pierce in 1853 the" post of commis- sioner to China, which he declined. The part that he took in the events that immediately preceded the civil war was active. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, though after it be- came a law he supported it on the ground that was assumed by Stephen A. Douglas. In 1857 he accepted the post of governor of Kansas on the pledge of President Buchanan that the state con- stitution should be submitted to the vote of the people; but after rejecting the forged and fraudu- lent returns in Kansas, and opposing the Lecomp- ton constitution, Mr. Walker resigned, and, going before congress, defeated the attempt to force the corrupt measure on the territory. After Abraham Lincoln's election Mr. Walker took ground, ear- nestly and immediately, in favor of re-enforcing the southern forts and of sustaining the Union by force if necessary. In April, 1861, he addressed a great meeting in Union square, New York, advo- cating prompt and vigorous measures, and he did this when many of the best men of both parties deprecated a resort to extremities. His decided course had great influence in shaping the policy of the government. Early in 1863 he joined James R. Gilmore in the conduct of the " Continental Monthly," which the latter had established the year before to advocate emancipation as a politi- cal necessity, and he wrote for it some of its ablest political articles. In the same year he was ap- pointed by the government financial agent of the United States in Europe, and succeeded in nego- tiating $250,000,000 of the 5-20 bonds. Returning to the United States in November, 1864, he de- voted himself thereafter to a large law-practice in Washington, and to writing for the " Continental Monthly " articles on financial and political topics, in which he was understood to present the views of the state and treasury departments. During this period he was influential in procuring the rati- fication of the Alaska treaty and in securing the passage of the bill for a railroad to the Pacific. During his public life of nearly forty years Mr. Walker exercised a strong and often controlling influence on affairs. He had a broad and compre- hensive mind, and a patriotism that embraced the whole country. As a financier he takes high rank.

WALKER, Thomas, planter, b. in Gloucester county, Va., 25 Jan., 1715 ; d. at Castle Hill, Albemarle co., Va., 9 Nov., 1794. His progenitor, Thomas, was an early settler of Virginia, and a member of the Provincial council in 1662. The younger Thomas was educated at William and Mary, adopted the profession of medicine, and settled in Fredericksburg, Va. In 1750 he went on an expedition to the west, and was probably the first white man that entered Kentucky, preceding Daniel Boone by thirteen years. His hatchet with which he marked the trees that divided the lands that he had bought from the Indians was discovered a few years ago, and is preserved in the Louisville, Ky., museum. Walker mountains in southwestern Virginia are named in his honor. He was commissary -general of Virginia troops under George Washington in Braddock's army,