Connecticut at a very important time. The adoption of a state constitution in 1818 had caused the overthrow of the Congregational "Standing Order," and effected a revolution, political, social, and religious. The new bishop made good use of his learning and his quiet, practical wisdom, and laid hold of his opportunities. The efforts to establish a church college in Connecticut were renewed, and in 1828 the charter of Washington college (now Trinity), Hartford, was granted by the legislature, and Bishop Brownell was elected its first president. In the winter of 1829-'30, at the request of the general missionary society of the church, he visited the south, travelling down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. He officiated as bishop in Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, and assisted in organizing the church in the two last-named states. A second visit to the church in the south was paid in 1834. In 1831, at the request of the convention of the diocese. Bishop Brownell withdrew from the presidency of the college, and was given the honorary office of chancellor, the active duties of the episcopate demanding all his time. These duties called for no little amount of literary labor, and his publications were of much use to his people. In 1851, on account of growing infirmities. Bishop Brownell asked for an assistant, and the Rev. John Williams, D. D., president of Trinity college, was chosen. The senior bishop officiated from time to time as he was able, his last public service being in 1860. During the forty-five years of his episcopate, for the last twelve of which he had been, by seniority, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church in the United States, he had seen the number of the clergy of his diocese increase fivefold, and he himself had ordained 179 deacons and confirmed over 15,000 persons; and the small number of parishes that he found in 1819, of which but seven could support full services, had increased to 129. A colossal statue of him, the gift of his son-in-law, Gordon W. Burnham, stands on the campus of Trinity college. Bishop Brownell was for many years president of the corporation of the retreat for the insane at Hartford. Among his publications, which included sermons, charges, and addresses, are "The Family Prayer-Book," an edition of the Book of Common Prayer, with ample explanatory and devotional notes, chiefly from English authors (New York, 1823); "Selections on the Religion of the Heart and Life" (Hartford, 1840); "The Christian's Walk and Consolation," and an abridgment of an English commentary on the New Testament. His charge to his clergy, in 1843, on the "Errors of the Times," called forth an animated discussion on the contrasted doctrines and usages of Episcopalianism and Puritanism.
BROWNING, Orville Hickman, senator, b. in Harrison co., Ivy., in 1810; d. in Quincy, Ill., 10
Aug., 1881. He removed to Bracken co., Ky., early
in life, and received a classical education at Augusta college, being at the same time employed in
the county clerk's office. He afterward studied
law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and began
practice in Quincy, Ill. He served in the Black
Hawk war of 1832, and was a member of the state
senate from 1836 till 1840, when he was elected to
the lower branch of the legislature and served till
1843. At the Bloomington convention he assisted
Abraham Lincoln to organize the republican party
of Illinois. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention of 1800, which nominated Lincoln for the presidency, and was an active supporter of the government during the civil war. In 1861 he was appointed by Gov. Yates to the U. S. senate, to fill
the vacancy caused by the resignation of Stephen
A. Douglas, and served till 1863. On 18 July,
1861, he spoke in the senate, declaring in favor of
the abolition of slavery, should the south force the
issue, and on 25 Feb., 1862, took an active part in
the debate on the confiscation bill, speaking in opposition to it. While in Washington he practised law with Jeremiah Black and Thomas G. Ewing. Mr. Browning was an active member of the union executive committee in 1866, and in the same year
was appointed secretary of the interior by President Johnson, serving till 3 March, 1869. After
March, 1868, he also acted as attorney-general. In
1869 he was a member of the state constitutional
convention, and from that time till his death practised his profession at Quincy, Ill.
BROWNLEE, William Craig, clergyman, b. in Torfoot, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1784; d. in
New York city, 10 Feb., 1860. He studied for five
years in the university of Glasgow, and received
the degree of M. A. He was licensed to preach m
1808, married, and came to this country, where he
became pastor of two Associate churches in Washington co.. Pa. He was invited to the Associate
church in Philadelphia in 1813, and in 1815 became rector of the grammar school in New Brunswick, N. J. He was called to the Presbyterian
church in Baskingridge, N. J., in 1817, and ,in 1825
made professor of Latin and Greek at Rutgers.
In 1826 he was installed as one of the ministers of
the Collegiate Reformed Dutch church in New
York. About 1843 Dr. Brownlee had a paralytic
stroke, from which he never fully recovered. He
was prominent as a controversial writer, and was
an earnest opponent of the Roman Catholic church
and the Quakers. He edited the "Dutch Church
Magazine" through four consecutive volumes, and
published "Inquiry into the Principles of the Quakers" (Philadelphia, 1824); "The Roman Catholic Controversy" (1834); "Treatise on Popery" (New York, 1847); "Lights and Shadows of Christian Life" (1847); "The Christian Youths' Book," "Christian Father at Home," "Deity of Christ,"
"History of the Western Apostolic Church," "The
Converted Murderer," and "The Whigs of Scotland," a romance, besides several pamphlets. See "Memorial of Dr. Brownlee" (New York, 1860).
BROWNLOW, William Gannaway, journalist, b. in Wythe co., Va., 29 Aug., 1805; d. in Knoxville, Tenn., 29 April, 1877. He was left an orphan at the age of eleven, but, having earned enough by hard work as a carpenter to give himself a fair English education, he entered the Methodist ministry in 1836, and labored for ten years as an itinerant preacher. He began to take part in politics in 1828 by advocating, in Tennessee, the re-election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency; and while travelling the South Carolina circuit, in which John C. Calhoun lived, made himself unpopular by publicly opposing nullification. He afterward published a pamphlet in vindication of his course. He became editor of the Knoxville "Whig " in 1838, and from his trenchant mode of expression became known as "the fighting parson." He was a candidate for congress against Andrew Johnson in 1843, and in 1850 was appointed by President Fillmore one of several commissioners to carry out the provisions made by congress for the improvement of navigation on the Missouri. Although an advocate of slavery, he boldly opposed the secession movement, taking the ground that southern institutions were safer in the union than out of it. His course subjected him to much persecution. For a time his house was the only one in Knoxville where the union flag was displayed
