Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/446

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BRUCE
BRUCE


in England, where it had a large circulation. The later publications of Mr. Brownson's are: "Essays and Reviews" (New York, 1852); "The Spirit-Rapper, an Autobiography" (Boston, 1854); "The Convert, or Leaves from my Experience" (New York, 1857); "The American Republic, its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny," a work treating of the ethics of politics (1865); "Conversation on Liberalism and the Church" (1870). Translations of several of his works and essays have appeared in Europe. A collected edition of his works has been published in nineteen volumes.

BRUCE, Archibald, physician, b. in New York in February, 1777; d. there, 22 Feb., 1818. He was graduated at Columbia in 1797. His father, William Bruce, head of the medical department of the British army at New York, on being ordered to the West Indies, specially directed that his son should not be brought up to the medical profession. But from the medical lectures of Nicholas Romayne, the teachings of Dr. Hosack, and attendance on the courses of medical instruction of Columbia, he attained a knowledge of the science. He went to Europe in 1798, received the degree of M. D. from the university of Edinburgh in 1800, and, in a tour of two years in France, Switzerland, and Italy, collected a mineralogical cabinet of great value. He married in London, and in the summer of 1803 returned to New York city and began practice. In 1807 he was appointed professor of materia medica and mineralogy in the college of physicians and surgeons, being the first to fill such a chair in the United States. On the reorganization of the college in 1811, he was superseded on account of some disagreement with the management, and after 1812 filled the same chair in Queen's, now Rutgers, college, New Jersey. He projected the "American Mineralogical Journal" in 1810, and edited it until 1814. His chemical analysis "of native magnesia from New Jersey" made known to science the mineral now called after him, "Brucite." He also detected and correctly analyzed the zincite of Sussex co., N. J., and published a valuable paper "On the Ores of Titanium occurring within the United States." Dr. Bruce was one of the original members of the New York historical society, and at the time of his death was a member of many learned societies both in this country and in Europe.

BRUCE, Blanche Kelso, senator, b. in Prince Edward co., Va., 1 March, 1841; d. in Washington, 17 March, 1898. He was born a slave, and received the rudiments of education from the tutor of his master's son. When the civil war began he left his young master, whose companion he had been, and who went from Missouri to join the confederate army. Mr. Bruce taught school for a time in Hannibal, Mo., became a student at Oberlin, afterward pursued special studies at home, and after the war went to Mississippi. In 1869 he became a planter in Mississippi. He was sergeant-at-arms of the legislature, a member of the Mississippi levee board, sheriff of Bolivar county in 1871–'4, county superintendent of education in 1872–3, and was elected U. S. senator on 3 Feb., 1875, as a republican, taking his seat on 4 March, 1875, and serving till 3 March, 1881. He was a member of every republican convention held after 1868. In May, 1881, he entered upon the office of register of the treasury, from which he was removed by President Cleveland. In 1886 he delivered a noted lecture on the condition of his race, entitled "The Race Problem." In 1897 he again became register of the treasury.

BRUCE, Sir Frederick William Adolphus, British diplomatist, b. in Broomhall, Fifeshire, Scotland, 14 April, 1814; d. in Boston, Mass., 19 Sept., 1867. He was the fourth son of the seventh earl of Elgin, a distinguished diplomatist. Sir Frederick was graduated at Oxford in 1834, and was called to the bar of Lincoln's Inn, but, his tendencies being strongly manifested toward diplomacy, he never attempted to gain practice as a barrister. In 1842 he was attached to Lord Ashburton's special mission to the United States for settling the northeastern boundary question. After this he filled various important diplomatic offices, and, while minister to China in 1861, distinguished himself by services toward Americans there. A controversy having arisen in 1864 between this country and the republic of Colombia, he was appointed umpire by the two governments, and discharged the delicate duties to general acceptance. In 1865, when Lord Lyons was removed from Washington to Constantinople, Sir Frederick was selected by the earl of Clarendon to fill the important and difficult position of minister to the United States. His course in the fulfilment of his duties was always judicious. The London "Times" (21 Sept., 1867) is authority for the statements that "it was in accordance with his repeated advice and exhortations that a wise overture toward a settlement" of the Alabama claims was made by the British government, and that it was greatly owing to his representations that the United States government interrupted the preparations for the Fenian raid into Canada in 1866.

BRUCE, George, type-founder, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 5 July, 1781: d. in New York city, 6 July, 1866. He emigrated to the United States, where his brother David had preceded him in July, 1795, and at first attempted to learn the book-binder's trade, but, his master being tyrannical and exacting, he left him, and by his brother's persuasion apprenticed himself to Thomas Dobson, printer in Philadelphia. In 1798 the destruction of Dobson's office by fire, and the prevalence of yellow fever, led the brothers to leave the city. George had yellow fever at Amboy, but recovered through his brother's care. The two went to Albany and obtained employment there, but after a few months returned to New York. In 1803 young Bruce was foreman and a contributor to the "Daily Advertiser," and in November of that year printer and publisher of the paper for the proprietor. In 1806 the two brothers opened a book printing-office at the corner of Pearl street and Coffee-house slip. The same year they brought out an edition of "Lavoisier's Chemistry," doing all the work with their own hands. Their industry and personal attention to business soon brought them abundant employment, and in 1809, removing to Sloat lane, near Hanover square, they had nine presses in operation, and published occasionally on their own account. In 1812 David went to England, and brought back with him the secret of stereotyping. The brothers attempted to introduce the process, but encountered many difficulties, which it required all their ingenuity to surmount. The type of that day was cast with so low a bevelled shoulder that it was not suitable for stereotyping, as it interfered with the moulding and weakened the plate. They found it necessary, therefore, to cast their own type. They invented a planing-machine for smoothing the backs of the plates and reducing them to a uniform thickness, and the mahogany shifting-blocks to bring the plates to the same height as type. Their first stereotype works were school editions of the New Testament in bourgeois, and the Bible in nonpareil (1814 and 1815). They subsequently stereotyped the earlier issues of the