ued ill-health led him to resign his commission in
the army, 29 July, 1828, after having attained the
rank of captain. He then settled in Cooperstown,
N. Y., and began the practice of law. In 1880 he
removed to Albany, having been appointed adju-
tant-general of the state by Gov. Eiios B. Throop,
and in 1838 was appointed secretary of state and
superintendent of common schools, publishing dur-
ing this period numerous reports concerning the
schools, and also a very important report in rela-
tion to a geological survey of the state (1836). He
was a prominent member of the "Albany Regency,"
who practically ruled the Democratic party of that
day. Going out of oflBce in 1840, on the defeat of
the democratic candidates and the election of Gen.
Harrison to the presidency, he turned to literary
pursuits, and was editor-in-chief of " The Northern
Light," a journal of a high literary and scientific
character, which was published from 1841 till 1843.
In 1841 he was elected a member of the assembly.
In the following year he went abroad, and spent
nearly two years in Madeira, Spain, and Italy.
From 1845 till 1849 he was a U. S. senator, being
elected as a Democrat, when he became involved in
the Free-soil movement, against his judgment and
will, but under the pressure of influences that it
was impossible for him to resist. He always re-
garded the Free-soil movement as a great political
blunder, and labored to heal the consequent breach
in the Democratic party, as a strenuous supporter
of the successive Democratic administrations up to
the beginning of the civil war. In 1848 he was
nominated by the Free-soil Democratic party as
governor, but was overwhelmingly defeated by
Hamilton Fish. President Pierce appointed him
assistant treasurer of New York, and obtained his
consent to be minister to France, but the nomina-
tion was never made. In the canvass of 1856 he
supported Buchanan and Breckenridge, and in
1860 earnestly opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln,
voting for Breckenridge and Lane. In May, 1860,
he was appointed postmaster of New York, after
the defalcations in that office. On 10 Jan., 1861,
at the urgent request of the leading bankers and
financiers of New York, he was appointed secretary
of the treasury by President Buchanan, and he held
that office until the close of the administration.
His appointment immediately relieved the govern-
ment from a financial deadlock, gave it the funds
that it needed but had failed to obtain, and pro-
duced a general confidence in its stability. When
he took the office there were two revenue cutters
at New Orleans, and lie ordered them to New York.
The captain of one of them, after consulting with
the collector at New Orleans, refused to obey.
Secretary Dix thereupon telegraphed: " Tell Lieut.
Caldwell to arrest Capt. Breshwood, assume com-
mand of the cutter, and obey the order I gave
through you. If Capt. Breshwood, after arrest,
undertakes to interfere with the command of the
cutter, tell. Lieut. Caldwell to consider him as a
mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If any one
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot
him on the spot." At the beginning of the civil
war he took an active part in the formation of
the Union defence committee, and was its first
president; he also presided at the great meeting in
Union square, 24 April, 1861. On the president's
first call for troops, he organized and sent to the
field seventeen regiments, and was appointed one
of the four major-generals to command the New
York state forces. In June following he was com-
missioned major-general of volunteers, and ordered
to Washington by Gen. Scott to take command of
the Arlington and Alexandria department. By a
successful political intrigue, this disposition was
changed, and he was sent in July to Baltimore to
take command of the Department of Maryland,
which was considered a post of small comparative
importance; but, on the defeat of the Federal forces
at Bull Run, things changed; Maryland became
for the time the centre and key of the national po-
sition, and it was through Gen. Dix's energetic and
judicious measures that the state and the city were
prevented from going over to the Confederate
cause. In May, 1862, Gen. Dix was sent from
Baltimore to Fort Monroe, and in the summer of
1863, after the trouble connected with the draft
riots, he was transferred to New York, as com-
mander of the Department of the East, which place
he held until the close of the war. In 1866 he was
appointed naval officer of the port of New York,
the prelude to another appointment during the
same year, that of minister to France. In 1872 he
was elected governor of the state of New York as
a Republican by a majority of 53,000, and, while
holding that office, rendered the country great
service in thwarting the proceedings of the infla-
tionists in congress, and, with the aid of the legis-
lature, strengthening the national administration
in its attitude of opposition to them. On a re-
nomination, in 1874, he was defeated, in conse-
quence ])artly of the reaction against the president
under the " third-tei-m " panic, and partly of the
studious apathy of prominent Republican politi-
cians who desired his defeat. During his lifetime
Gen. Dix held other places of importance, being
elected a vestryman of Trinity church (1849), and
in 1872 comptroller of that corporation, delegate
to the convention of the diocese of New Y'ork, and
deputy to the general convention of the Episcopal
church. In 1853 he became president of the Mis-
sissippi and Missouri railway company, and in 1863
became the first president of the Union Pacific rail-
road company, an office which he held until 1868,
also filling a similar place for a few months in
1872 to the Erie railway company. He married
Catharine Morgan, adopted daughter of John J.
Morgan, of New York, formerly member of con-
gress, and had by her seven children, of whom
three survived him. He was a man of very large
reading and thorf)ugh culture, spoke several lan-
guages^ with fluency, and was distinguished for
proficiency in classical studies, and for ability and
elegance as an orator. Among his published works
are " Sketch of the Resources of the City of New
York " (New York, 1827); " Decisions of the Super-
intendents of Common Schools " (Albany, 1887);
"A Winter in Madeira, and a Summer in Spain
and Florence " (New York, 1850; 5th ed., 1858);
" Speeches and Occasional Addresses " (2 vols.,
1864); '* Dies Irae." translation (printed privately,
1863; also revised ed.. 1875); and " Stabat Mater,"
translation (printed privately, 1868).--IIis eldest
son, Morg'aii, clergyman, b. in New York city, 1
Nov., 1827, received his early education and train-
ing in Albany, where he resided till 1842. He was
graduated at Columbia in 1848, and at the general
Theological seminary of the Episcopal churgh in
1852, was ordained deacon the same year, and priest
in 1853. In September, 1855, he was appointed an
assistant minister in Trinity parish, New York. In
1859 he was chosen assistant rector of the same
parish, and on Dr. Berrian's death became rector, 10
Nov., 1862. Dr. Dix has been indfiatigahle in the
labors of his office as rector of the largest parish
in America, as well as in the service of the Epis-
copal church in general, and was chosen president
of the house of deputies at the general conven-
tion that was held in Chicago in October, 1886.
Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/206
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DIX