Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/507

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WHITE
WHITE

revised ed , 1872) ; " The American View of the Copyright Question " (1880) ; "Every- Day English" (1881): "England Without and Within " (1881) ; " The Riverside Edition of the Works of William Shakespeare" (3 vols., Cambridge, 1883); "The Fate of Mansfield Humphrey," a novel (1884); and a series of articles on the " Failure of the Public School System in the United States." His last literary labor was the gathering of several Shakespeare articles that had appeared in periodi- cals, which were completed and published after his death, under the title of " Studies in Shake- speare" (Boston, 1885). The part that is devoted to glossaries and lexicons is of special interest to scholars. — His son, Stanford, architect, b. in New York city, 9 Nov.. 1853. was educated in his native city in public schools and under private tutors. He studied architecture under Charles D. Cam- brill and Henry H. Richardson, and was chief as- sistant of that firm when they built Trinity church, Boston. During 1878-'80 he studied in Europe, and in 1881 he entered into partnership with Charles F. McKim and William R. Mead. Mr. White has made all of the designs for the archi- tectural work of the statues by Augustus St. Gau- dens, notably the pedestal of the Farragut monu- ment in Madison square, New York city (see illus- tration), and that of the Lincoln statue in Chicago. He has furnished many designs for book-covers, and those of the "Century" and " Scribner's Maga- zine" were by him. The University of the city of New York conferred on him the degree of A. M. in 1882. He is a member of the Tile club, the Ameri- can institute of architects, and other artistic and professional organizations.


WHITE, Samuel, senator, b. in Wilmington, Del., in 1770 ; d. there, 4 Nov., 1809. He was care- fully educated, early engaged in local politics, and from 1801 until his death was U. S. senator from Delaware, having been chosen as a Federalist. During the trial of Timothy Pickering before that body in 1809, on the charge of the embezzlement of public funds, Mr. White defended him in the words : " The accused is not in default, but under the awful visitation of God ; and, as he is deranged, our proceedings scarcely deserve the name of a mock trial." Wilson Cary Nicholas, then congress- man from Virginia, called out : " I will not submit to hear our proceedings called by the name of a mock trial." Whereupon Mr. White at once re- plied: " It is a mock trial, and I am ready to give the gentleman, if he is offended, satisfaction at any time or place." The sentiment in favor of duel- ling was so strong at that time that it does not ap- pear on the records that the president of the sen- ate administered any rebuke to the contestants. Mr. White had a national reputation as a marks- man, and performed remarkable feats in shooting. He ardently opposed slavery, and was a popular and influential member of the Federalist party.


WHITE, Stephen Van Culen, banker, b. in Chatham county, N. C, 1 Aug., 1831. His father was a Quaker and opposed to slavery, and as he de- clined to do police duty to prevent negroes hold- ing meetings at night after the Nat Turner insur- rection, was compelled to leave the state. He moved his family by wagon to Greene (now Jersey) county. 111., when Stephen was six weeks old, and engaged in farming. The son was graduated at Knox college. Ill., in 1854, studied law in St. Louis with Benjamin Gratz Brown and John A. Kasson, was admitted to the bar, 4 Nov., 1856, and began practising in Des Moines. He soon acquired high rank as a lawyer, and was retained in many im- portant cases before the U. S. court. In 1861, in the case of the United States vs. Hill, he success- fully defended the only treason case that was ever tried in Iowa, and in 1863 he saved to investors many millions of dollars, which the state courts had re- pudiated, by a successful argument in the U. S. supreme court in the case of Gelpke vs. Dubuque, involving the constitutionality of municipal bonds issued in aid of railroads. In 1864 he was acting U. S. district attorney for Iowa, and attended to all the civil and criminal business of the govern- ment. In 1865 he removed to New York and en- gaged in banking, and in 1882 he organized the banking-firm of S. V. White and Co. He was elected representative in congress from Brooklyn in 1886, and was appointed a member of the com- mittee on post-offices and post-roads. Mr. White has been noted as a banker for his large and bold operations in the interest of the Delaware, Lacka- wanna, and Western railroad. He has long been a member and trustee of Plymouth church, is an expert astronomer, owns a private observatory, and on the organization of the American astronomical society, in 1883, was elected its first president.


WHITE, Thomas, Canadian statesman, b. in Montreal, 7 Aug., 1830 ; d. in Ottawa, 21 April, 1888. His father, a native of Ireland, carried on business as a merchant in Montreal for many years. The son was educated at the high- school of that city, afterward engaged for several years in mercantile pursuits, and then became attached to the editorial staff of the Quebec " Gazette." In 1853, with Robert Romaine, he established the Peterborough " Review," with which he remained connected till 1860, when he entered upon the study of law at Cobourg. In 1864, with his brother Richard, he became proprietor of the " Spectator " at Hamilton, where he remained till 1870. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Ontario legislature in 1867, and for the Dominion parliament three times, being first elected for Cardwell in 1878. He was re-elected in 1882. and again in February, 1887. In 1885 Mr. White became a member of Sir John A. Macdonald's cabinet, with the portfolio of minister of the interior, and soon afterward he visited the northwest in his official capacity, instituted an inquiry into the causes of the insurrection under Louis Riel, and arranged for the restoration of the functions of government, which had been temporarily suspended. He was managing editor at one time of the Montreal " Gazette," representative for several years of the Montreal board of trade in the Dominion board, member for three years of the executive committee of