Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/354

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BOUCHER
BOUCHETTE


French minister at Washington, formed the basis of a volume prepared by Mr. Botts, "The Great Rebellion, its Secret History, Rise, Progress, and Disastrous Failure!" (New York, 1866). After his release from prison Mr. Botts returned to his home at Culpepper, where he was continually persecuted by the enemy. His farm was repeatedly overrun by both armies, and dug over at various times for military operations. When the war had closed, Mr. Botts again took a deep interest in political matters. He labored earnestly for the early restoration of his state to the union, but without success. He was a delegate to the national convention of southern loyalists in Philadelphia in 1866, and in 1867 signed his name on the bail-bond of Jefferson Davis.—His brother, (Charles T., b. in Virginia in 1809; d. in California in 1884, was a Californian pioneer and politician. He went to the territory as naval store-keeper at Monterey in 1848, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1849, taking part prominently in the discussions upon the right of the people of the territory to form a state without the previous sanction of congress, and in the discussion concerning the proposed boundary of the new state. Later he was a lawyer in San Francisco, then a journalist, and for some time a district judge in Sacramento, and afterward a lawyer in San Francisco until his death.


BOUCHER, Jonathan, clergyman, b. in Blencogo, Cumberland, England. 13 March, 1738; d. in Epsom, England, 27 April, 1804. He came to America at the age of twenty-one, and was for some time a private teacher, afterward took orders in the Anglican church, and was appointed rector of Hanover, and then of St. Mary's parish, Va. Gov. Eden gave him also the rectory of St. Anne. Annapolis, and that of Queen Anne in St. George's county. He took a firm stand in opposition to the prevalent doctrines of independence, and gave such offence to his congregation that he was obliged to return to England in 1775. He was appointed vicar of Epsom, and employed himself during the last fourteen years in compiling a glossary of provincial and obsolete words, which was purchased from his family in 1831 by the proprietors of the English edition of Webster's "Dictionary," with the intention of making it an appendix to that work. He published in 1799 "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution," dedicated to Gen. Washington, consisting of fifteen discourses delivered in North America between 1763 and 1775, and containing many anecdotes illustrating the political condition of the colonies at that time.


BOUCHER, Pierre, Sieur de Boucherville, Canadian pioneer, b. in Perche, France, in 1632; d. in Boucherville, Canada, 20 April, 1717. In 1635 he came to America with his father. He was engaged in the wars with the Iroquois, whom he frequently defeated, and was also for many years an interpreter of the Huron dialect. He was sent as a deputy hj the colony to France in 1661, to lay the condition of the country before the court, and this led to the publication of his little work entitled "Histoire veritable et naturelle des moeurs et des productions de la nouvelle France" (Paris, 1665). He was ennobled for his services, made governor of Three Rivers in 1663, and, receiving a grant of the seigneurie of Boucherville, settled there in 1668. He was esteemed as a man of courage, intelligence, piety, and integrity. From him are descended many prominent families of Canada. "The Adieux of Grandfather Boucher," addressed to his children shortly before his death, is characteristic of the man and the times.


BOUCHERVILLE, Charles Eugene Boucher de, Canadian senator, b. in Boucherville, Quebec, in 1820. He was educated at St. Sulpice college, Montreal, and was graduated in medicine at Paris. He entered Lower Canada house of assembly in 1861 as a conservative, was appointed to the Quebec legislative council in 1867, and elected speaker of that house. In 1873, when the premier, Mr. Chauveau, disagreed with his cabinet and resigned, Mr. De Boucherville became premier, secretary and registrar, and minister of public instruction. In 1876 he left the department of public instruction for that of agriculture and public works. In December of the same year the Hon. Luc Letellier de St. Just, a liberal senator, was appointed lieutenant-governor of Quebec on the recommendation of Mr. Mackenzie's dominion government. On 1 March, 1878, Mr. Letellier dismissed the De Boucherville cabinet, although it was sustained in the legislative assembly by a majority of twenty or more, and in the legislative council by more than two to one. The lieutenant-governor attempted to justify himself by preferring various charges against the De Boucherville administration, most of which were baseless, or trivial. The premier met one charge with a denial that the province was in a state of penury. A much graver accusation was to the effect that the premier had acknowledged that certain railway grants had been necessitated by political considerations; that without them the support of the members of the legislature whose counties were traversed by those railways could no longer be secured by the government; that there would be no means of having a majority; that the members formed "rings" to control the house. Mr. Letellier claimed that in consequence of this admission he was justified in assuming that Mr. De Boucherville did not possess a constitutional majority in the legislative assembly. Mr. De Boucherville, in his explanations to the governor-general with reference to this particular charge, claimed that the railway subsidy legislation, whether good or bad, had been sustained by a large majority of the people at the subsequent general elections, and was therefore no longer a proper subject for discussion in the connection in which it had been introduced; he also denied that he had been controlled, by "rings." Both houses of the Quebec legislature passed a vote of censure on the lieutenant-governor. The following year Mr. De Boucherville was called to the senate. When the conservatives came into power. Sir John A. Macdonald's cabinet advised the dismissal of the lieutenant-governor of Quebec; but the governor-general. Lord Lome, referred the whole matter to the colonial secretary at London. The latter requested the governor-general to take the advice of his ministers, and the consequence was that Lieut.-Gov. Letellier was dismissed.


BOUCHERVILLE, George Boucher de, Canadian author, b. in the province of Quebec about 1812. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Lower Canada in 1837; was one of the commissioners to consolidate the public general statutes of Lower Canada and Canada respectively in 1856 ; was appointed secretary to the first lieutenant-governor of Quebec, 6 July, 1867, which office he resigned on being made clerk of the legislative council on 30 Oct. of the same year. His published works include "Programme de etude pour la formation d'une banque agricole nationale pour le Bas Canada" (1862).


BOUCHETTE, Joseph, Canadian topographer, b. in 1774: d. in Montreal, 9 April, 1841. He was a son of Com. Bouehette, who distinguished him-