1860, was compelled to serve as a conscript in the Confederate army in 1863, and after his capture by the national troops at Petersburg, 2 April, 1865, joyfully took the oatli of allegiance and re- turned to his home. He opposed the policy of An- drew Johnson and Gov. Perry, advocated recon- struction in 1866, and was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, in which he introduced tlie resolutions to remove the provis- ional government, opposed the repudiation of the slave debts, and advocated the present homestead law of the state. He was elected to congress in 1868, and, after the removal of his technical dis- abilities, took his seat on 25 July, 1868, and served till 3 March, 1869. He introduced joint resolu- tions for the better protection of loyal men in the reconstructed states and the exclusion of secession- ist text-books from the schools, and earnestly sup- ported the 15th amendment. In 1869 he was ap- pointed a special agent of the U. S. treasury department. He was commissioner of the State board of agricultural statistics in 1870, treasurer of Lexington county in 1874, and a nominee of the independent party for state comptroller in 1882.
CORLISS, George Henry, inventor, b. in Eas-
ton. N. Y., 2 June, 1817 : d. in Providence, R. I., 21
Feb., 1888. In 1825 his father, a physician, moved
to Greenwich, N. Y., where young Corliss attend-
ed school. After several years as general clerk in
a cotton-factory, he spent three years in Castleton
academy, Vermont, and in 1838 opened a country
store in Greenwich. He first showed mechanical
skill in temporarily rebuilding a bridge that had
been washed away by a freshet, after it had been
decided that such a structure was impracticable.
He afterward constructed a machine for stitching
leather, before the invention of the original Plowe
sewing-machine. He moved to Providence, R. I.,
in 1844, and in 1846 began to develop imj^rove-
ments in steam-engines, for which he received let-
ters-jjatent on 10 March, 1849. By these improve-
ments uniformity of motion was secured by the
method of connecting the governor with the cut-
off. The governor had previously been made to do
the work of moving the throttle-valve, the result
being an imperfect response and a great loss of
power. In the Corliss engine the governor does no
work, but simply indicates to the valves the work
to be done. This aiTangement also prevents waste
of steam, and renders the working of the engine so
uniform that, if all but one of a hundred looms in
a factory be suddenly stopped, that one will go on
working at the same rate. It has been said that
these improvements have revolutionized the con-
struction of the steam-engine. In introducing
their new engines, the inventor and manufacturers
adopted the novel plan of offering to take as their
pay the saving of fuel for a given time. In one
case the saving in one year is said to have amounted
to $4,000. In 1856 the Corliss steam-engine com-
pany was incorporated, and Mr. Corliss became its
president. Its works, covering many acres of
ground, are at Providence, R. I., and hundreds of
its engines are now in use. Mr. Corliss received
awards for his inventions at the exhibitions at Paris
in 1867, and at Vienna in 1873, and was given the
Rumford medal by the American academy of arts
and sciences in 1870. In 1872 he was appointed
Centennial commissioner from Rhode Island, and
was one of the executive committee of seven to
whom was intrusted the responsibility of the pre-
liminary work. In January, 1875, he submitted
plans for a single engine of 1,400 horse-power to
move all the machinery in the exhibition. Engi-
neers of high repute predicted that it would be
noisy and troublesome, but it was completely suc-
cessful, owing to the care of Mr. Corliss, who spent
$100,000 upon it above the appropriation for build-
ing it. Special contrivances were necessary to com-
pensate the expansion of the great lengths of steam-
pipe and shafting, which would otherwise have
been thrown out of gear by a change of tempera-
ture. The cylinders were forty inches in diameter,
with ten-foot stroke; the gear-wheel was thirty
feet in diameter ; and the whole engine weighed
700 tons. M. Bartholdi, in his report ito the French
government, said that it belonged to the category
of works of art, by the general beauty of its effect,
and its perfect balance to the eye. Mr. Corliss
invented many other ingenious devices, among
which is a machine for cutting the cogs of bevel-
wheels, an improved boiler, with condensing ap-
paratus for marine-engines, and pumping-engines
for water-works. He was a member of the Rhode
Island legislature in 1808-'70. and was a republi-
can presidential electoi- in 1876. The Institute of
France gave him, in 1878, the Montyon prize for
that year, the highest honor for mechanical achieve-
ment, and in February, 1886, the king of Belgium
made him an " Officer of the Order of Leopold."
CORMIER, Charles, Canadian senator, b. in
St. Gregoire le Grand, jn'ovince of Quebec, 22 June,
1813. He is a grandson of Fran9ois Cormier, who
emigrated from France to Nova Scotia. He is a
mill-owner, and has been mayor of Plessisville,
president of the commissioner's court, and of the
school commissioners. He was a member of the
legislative council of Canada from 1862 until the
union in 1867, when he was called to the senate.
CORNBURY, Edward Hyde, Lord, colonial
governor of New York, d. in London, England, 1
April, 1723. He was the eldest son of the second
Earl of Clarendon, and was one of the first officers
of the household troops to abandon the cause of
his uncle by marriage, James II., in 1688, and join
the standard of the Prince of Orange and the
Princess Anne, his cousin ; in reward for which
service he was appointed governor of New York
and New Jersey. He arrived in New York city, 3
May, 1702. The assembly, which was largely com-
posed of Orange partisans, the followers of Leisler,
welcomed the new governor, voted him £2,000 to
pay the expenses of his voyage, and provided a
revenue for the public service for seven years in
advance. Although Cornbury had been educated
at Geneva, he was a foe to Presbyterianism, and
the colonists soon found that he was an arrogant
and bigoted upholder of despotic power and more
dishonest and rapacious than any of the governors
that had preceded him. After £1,500, voted in
April, 1708, for the specific purpose of fortifying
the Narrows, had been misappropriated, the assem-
bly in June petitioned for a treasurer of its own
nomination. Lord Cornbury declared that the as-
sembly had no rights but such as her majesty was
l^leased to allow them, yet the queen in 1704 ac-
knowledged the right to make specific appropria-
tions, and perniitted the appointment of a treasurer
to take charge of extraordinary grants. The gov-
ernor denied the right of ministers or school-teach-
ers to practise their professions without a special
license from him. He even forged a standing in-
struction in order to favor the English church.
In Jamaica, L. I., he gave to the Episcopalians the
church that had been built by the towns-people ;
but the colonial courts reversed the decree. A
Presbyterian clergyman, who was tried for preach-
ing without a license, was acquitted by an Episco
palian jury. In New Jersey the assembly was as
firm in resisting the governor's demands for money
