Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/190

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162
HELPS
HENCK

until 1867. In 18(57 he returned to Asheville, N. C, where he resided until he settled in New York. He has travelled extensively through North, South, and Central America, in Europe, and also in Africa. He is the projector of the " Three Amer- icas Railway," which he proposes shall eventually form one connected line from Bering strait to the Strait of Magellan. He was the originator and efficient promoter of the commercial commission from the United States to Central and South Amer- ica. Mr. Helper was brought into notice just be- fore the civil war by his " Impending Crisis of the South" (New York, 1857). In this book he ear- nestly opposed slavery on economical grounds, al- though he was not friendly to the colored race. The work was used by the Republican party as a campaign document in 1860, and 140,000 copies were sold between 1857 and 1861. His other works are "The Land of Gold" (Baltimore, 1855); "No- joque, a Question for a Continent " (New York and London, 1867) ; " The Negroes in Negroland, the Negroes in America, and the Negroes Generally " (New York, 1868) ; and " The Three Americas Rail- way " (St. Louis, 1881).


HELPS, Sir Arthur, English author, b. in England in 1817 ; d. in London, 7 March, 1875. He was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, became private secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer, and was appointed commissioner of French, Spanish, and Danish claims. He was after- ward secretary to the chief secretary for Ireland, in 1859 became clerk of the privy council, and was knighted in 1872. Those of his books that refer specially to America are "Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen " (London, 1848) ; " The Spanish Conquest in America, and its Relation to the History of Slavery " (1855); " The Life of Co- lumbus " (1869) : " The Life of Pizarro " (1869) ; and "Life of Cortez " (1871). Most of his works have been re-published in Boston, Mass.


HEMBEL, William, physician, b. in Philadel- phia, Pa., 24 Sept., 1764; d. there, 12 June, 1851. He studied medicine, and was qualified to receive a diploma, but refused to apply for it on account of deafness, which he thought would incapacitate him for practice. He served as a volunteer in the medical department of the Revolutionary army in Virginia, practised gratuitously for many years among the poor of Philadelphia, and was noted for benevolence. He was president of the Acad- emy of natural sciences from 1840 till 1849, when he resigned, owing to his infirmity.


HEMMENWAY, Moses, clergyman, b. in Fram- ingham, Mass., in 1735 ; d. in Wells, Mass., 5 Aug., 1811. He was graduated at Harvard in 1755, and was a classmate of John Adams, with whom he corresponded for many years. After studying theology, he was ordained pastor of the Congrega- tional church in Wells on 8 Aug., 1759, which charge he held until his death. He received the degree of D. D. from Harvard in 1785, and from Dartmouth in 1792. His publications are " Seven Sermons on the Obligation and Encouragement of the Unregenerate to labor for the Meat which endureth to Everlasting Life" (1767); " Vindication of the Power, Obligation, etc., of the Unregenerate to attend the Means of Grace, against the Excep- tions of Samuel Hopkins in his Reply to Mills " (1772) ; " Remarks on Rev. Mr. Hopkins's Answer to a Tract entitled ' A Vindication,' etc." (1774) ; and numerous other sermons.


HEMPEL, Charles Julius, physician, b. in Solingen, Prussia, 5 Sept., 1811; d. in Grand Rapids, Mich., 25 Sept., 1879. After completing his collegiate course at Solingen, he attended lectures at the “Université de France,” in Paris, and assisted Michelet, who succeeded Guizot in the chair of history, in the publication of his “History of France.” He came to the United States in 1835, and for ten years resided in the family of Signor Maroncelli, the intimate friend of the revolutionist Silvio Pellico, where he imbibed an ardent love for music and Italian literature. While attending medical lectures at the University of New York, where he was graduated in 1845, he became associated with several eminent homœopathic practitioners, and soon after his graduation he began to translate some of the more important works relating to homœopathy. He was appointed to the chair of materia medica and therapeutics in the Hahnemann medical college of Philadelphia in 1857, and afterward removed to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he engaged in a large practice. His health failing, he went abroad; but the change was not beneficial, and he returned to Grand Rapids, where he died. Dr. Hempel was one of the earliest honorary members of the British homœopathic society, and was the recipient of diplomas and certificates of membership from many medical colleges and associations. He wrote a work on the “Life of Christ” in the German language, another on “The True Organization of the New Church,” also a “New Grammar of the German Language.” He published numerous translations, including Hahnemann's “Chronic Diseases” (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1846); Hartmann's “Acute and Chronic Diseases” (4 vols., 1849); Jahr's “Mental Diseases and their Homœopathic Treatment” (1853); and “Diseases of Women and Children” (1853); and was the author of “Christendom and Civilization” (1840); a “System of Materia Medica and Therapeutics,” his chief work (1859); “Homœopathic Theory and Practice in Surgical Disease,” with Mr. J. Beakly (1865); and “The Science of Homœopathy” (1874).


HEMPHILL, John, senator, b. in Chester dis- trict, S. C, in 1803 ; d. in Richmond. Va., 4 Jan., 1862. He was graduated at Jefferson college in 1825, settled at Sumter, and edited a nullification paper in 1832-'3. He then removed to Texas, and for many years was chief justice of the supreme court of that state. In 1858 he was elected U. S. senator, serving from 1859 till his resignation and subsequent expulsion on 6 July, 1861. Judge Hemphill was one of the fourteen senators who on 6 Jan., 1861, met in caucus and adopted the reso- lutions recommending to their states immediate secession, " a general convention to be holden in Montgomery, Ala." In February, 1861, he was deputy to the Confederate provisional congress.


HEMPHILL, Joseph, jurist, b. in Delaware county, Pa., in 1770; died in Philadelphia, Pa., 2!) May, 1842. He received an academic education, studied law, and began to practise in Chester coun- ty. He was an active Federalist, and in 1800 was elected to congress, serving one term, and distin- guishing himself by a speech on the judiciary bill in 1801. In 1803 he removed to Philadelphia, was appointed the first president judge of that city and county, and served again in congress from H Deoj 1819, till 1826, when he resigned. In 1829 he was again elected as a Jackson Democrat, and served one term. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1831-'2.


HENCK, John Benjamin, civil engineer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in October, 1816. He was graduated at Harvard in 1840, and became professor of Latin and Greek in Baltimore college. In 1842 he was called to a similar chair in the Germantown academy, Philadelphia, where he remained until 1847. He then turned his attention to civil en-