Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/716

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LEGASPI
LEGGE

three years, and spent the next two in study and travel abroad. On his return to Charleston he en- gaged in planting cotton on John's island. In 1820- '2 he was in the legislature, and at the latter date he removed to Charleston and began the prac- tice of law, but met with little success. He represented Charleston in the legislature in 1824 -'30, was then elected attorney - gen- eral, and during the nullification excite- ment ardently sup- ported the Union in public speeches. At this time Legare be- came the coadjutor of Stephen Elliott in the publication of the "Southern Review," a quarterly magazine. He wrote the initial article for the first

number on " Classical

Literature," and continued its principal contrib- utor until the death of Elliott, when he became editor. At the end of the eighth volume the magazine was suspended. Meanwhile he ably filled the office of attorney-general. In 1832 he became charge d'affaires at Brussels. In the au- tumn of 1836, after an extended tour of the con- tinent, he returned home, and was immediately elected to congress as a Union Democrat, taking his seat in the extra session of 1837 that was called to deliberate on the financial embarrassments of the country. He greatly increased his reputation in the debates that followed, but his course in opposition to the sub-treasury project caused his defeat at the next election. He returned to his profession, was soon employed in cases of magni- tude that were then pending in the courts of South Carolina, and in the case of " Pell and Wife vs. the Executors of Ball" achieved a triumph that decided his place at the Charleston bar. In the presidential canvass of 1840 he favored the election of Gen. Harrison, and at this time he began a series of brilliant papers in the •' New York Review " on " Demosthenes," " Athenian Democracy," and M The Origin, History, and Influence of the Roman Law." In 1841 he was appointed by President Tyler attor- ney-general of the United States, and after the withdrawal of Daniel Webster on the ratification of the Ashburton treaty, in the composition of which, especially in the part regarding the right of search, Mr. Legare had rendered important service, he discharged for some time the duties of secretary of state. He died suddenly in Boston while at- tending, with President Tyler, the ceremonies at the unveiling of the Bunker Hill monument. Chief-Justice Story said of him : " His argumen- tation was marked by the closest logic ; at the same time he had a presence in speaking I have never seen excelled." A memoir of him, with selections from his writings, including addresses, despatches, and his diary at Brussels, was edited and published by his sister, Mary Swinton Legare Bullen (Charleston, S. C, 1848). She attained some suc- cess as a painter, and removed in 1849 to West Point, Lee co., Iowa, where she founded and en- dowed Legare college for women.


LEGASPI, Miguel Lopez de (lay-gas'-pee). Spanish soldier, b. in Zumarraga, Guipuzcoa, in 1524; d. in Manila, 20 Aug., 1572. He came to New Spain in 1545, and was for some years chief notary to the common council and the civil gover- nor of the city of Mexico. The viceroy, Luis do Velasco, appointed him in 1564 commander of the expedition that he was preparing by order of Phil- ip II. for the conquest of the Philippine islands. The viceroy died in July of that year, but the au- diencia, governing provisionally, completed the ar- mament of the expedition, and on 21 Nov., 1564, Legaspi sailed, with four ships and a numerous force, from the port of Navidad. After visiting the whole Philippine archipelago and conquering Slin* doro, he despatched one vessel, to report his prog- ress, to Mexico, which arrived in Acapulco, 20 Aug., 1569. In 1570 he conquered the island of Luzon, and founded the city of Manila, where he died two years afterward. He wrote several despatches to the king about his conquest, which, under the title "Cartas al Rey Don Felipe II. sobre la expedicion, conquistas y progresos de las islas Felipinas." are preserved in manuscript in the archives of the In- dies at Seville, Spain.


LEGENDRE, Napoleon Narcisse Gabriel, Canadian author, b. in Nicolet, Canada, 13 Feb., 1841. He was educated at the Christian brothers' college, Point Levis, and at St. Mary's Jesuit college, Montreal, where he received the degree of licencie-en-loi in 1864. He was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in 1865, and edited " Le journal de l'instruction publique " from 1871 till 1876, when he was appointed clerk of French journals of the legislative council of Quebec. He was made by the governor-general, the Marquis of Lome, a member of the Royal society of Canada, in the section "de la litterature Francaise," at the time of its formation. In addition to many articles and essays published in French and Canadian periodicals, he is the author of " Sabre et scalpel," a romance (Montreal 1872) ; " Albani," a biography (Quebec, 1874); " A mes enfants " (1875); "Echos de Quebec " (2 vols., 1877) ; " Notre constitution et nos institutions" (Montreal, 1878); and "Les Perce-Neige," poems (Quebec, 1886).


LEGGE, William, second Earl of Dartmouth, English statesman, b. in England in 1731 ; d. there in 1801. His grandfather, George, first Baron of Dartmouth, was master of the ordnance, and afterward admiral of the fleet, under James II., whose fortunes he fol- lowed in the revo- lution of 1688, and his father, William, was made an eari by Queen Anne, at whose death he was a lord -justice of Great Britain. The son succeeded to the title in 1750. He took much in- terest in education in the colonies, and was a subscriber to the fund that was collected in Eng- land by Sampson

Occum, a young

Mohican Indian, for the benefit of the Indian charity-school that had been planned by Occum, and partially endowed by Joshua Moor, in Lebanon, Conn. (See Wheelock, Eleazar.) Lord Dartmouth became president of the trustees of this fund, and when, in 1769, the institution was chartered as a college and removed to Hanover, N. H.,