Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/491

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FISH
FISH
463

Massachusetts, and then entered the Union theo- logical seminary in New York, where lie was gradu- ated in 1 845. On the following day he was ordained pastor of the Baptist church at Somerville, N. J., and remained there till January, 1851, when he en- tered on the pastorate of the 1st Baptist church in Newark, N. J. In 1858 the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by tlie University of Rochestei", N. Y. At the beginning of the civil war he ac- tively supported the National government, spread the flag of the United States on his altar, and caused the National anthems to be sung in his church services. On 1 June, 1804, he was drafted into the military service, and, determining at once to go to the field, he notified the officers of the church to that effect. He was persuaded with great difficulty to relinquish his purpose, and allow a substitute to be sent in his stead. He was a man of great industry, and was actively engaged in ad- vancing the interests of education and missions. He also did much by his writings to popularize life insurance. Beside a large number of tracts and sermons, he was the author of " Primitive Piety Revived," a prize essay (1855 ; Dutch translation, Utrecht, 1860); "The "Price of Soul Liberty, and Who Paid it" (1860); "Harry's Conversion" (1872); "Harry's Conflicts" (1873); "Hand-book of Revivals" (1874); and "Bible Lands Illustrated" (1876). Among his numerous compilations, abounding with annotations, are " History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence " (1856) : " Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century " (1857) ; " Select Discourses translated from the French and German " (1858); and "Heaven in Song" (1874).


FISH, Melanthon Williams, physician, b. in Kortright, Delaware co., N. Y., 20 March, 1828. He was educated in the Wesleyan seminary at Albion, Mich., studied medicine in the Rush medical col- lege, Chicago, 111., where he was graduated in 1854, travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and in 1856 went to Shanghai, China, where he filled for thi-ee years the office of inspec- tor of the imperial customs. lie was also for a time U. S. vice-consul in that city. In 1862, after residing six years in China, he returned to the United States, and entered the national army, in which he, served as regimental, brigade, and di- vision surgeon till the end of the war. He then settled in Oakland, Cal., where he became in 1872 professor of physiology in the medical department of the University of California.


FISH, Nicholas, soldier, b. in New York city, 28 Aug., 1758 ; d. there, 20 June, 1833. He enten^d the College of New Jersey at the age of sixteen, but soon left and began the study of law in the office of John Morm Scott. In the spring of 1776 he was appointed aide-de-camp to Gen. Scott ; on 21 June of that year, major of brigade under the same officer ; on 21 Nov., major of the 2d New York regi- ment, and at the close of the war was a lieutenant- colonel. He was in both battles of Saratoga, in 1778 was a division inspector under Steuben, com- manded a body of light-infantry at the battle of Monmouth, served in Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in 1779, was attached to the light-in- fantry under Lafayette in 1780, and in 1781 took an active part with his regiment in the operations that resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis. He was major of the detachment under Hamilton which gallantly stormed a Britisli redoubt at York- town. Col. Fish was an excellent disciplinarian, was an intimate friend of Alexander Hamilton, and possessed in a high degree the confidence of Wash- ington. He was appointed adjutant-general of the state of New York in April, 1786, an office which he held many years. He was a supervisor of the revenue luider Washington in 1794, and an alder- man of New York city from 1806 to 1817. He married Miss Stuyvesant, a descendant of the Dutch colonial governor of New Amsterdam. Col. Fish was an active member of many of the be- nevolent, literary, and religious institutions of his native city, and became president of the New York society of the Cincinnati in 1797. — His son, Hamilton, statesman, b. in New York citv, 3 Aug., 1808 ; d. at Garrison's, N. Y., 7 Sept., 1893, was graduated at Columbia in 1827, and studied law. He was for several years a commissioner of deeds. In politics he was a Whig, and was the de- feated candidate of that party for the state assembly in 1834. In 1842 he was elected a representative in congress from the sixth district of New York over John McKeon, the Democratic candidate, and served one term. In 1846 he was a candidate for lieutenant-governor. The Whig candidate for gov- ernor, John Young, was elected, but Mr. Fish, who had incurred the hostility of the anti-renters by his warm denunciation of their principles, was defeated. His successful competitor, Addison Gardiner, a Democrat who had received the support of the anti- renters, resigned the office in 1847 on becoming a judge of the court of appeals, and Mr. Fish was elected in his place. In 1848 he was chosen gov- ernor by about 30,000 majority, the opposing can- didates being John A. Dix and Reuben H. Wal- worth. In 1851 he was elected U. S. senator in place of Daniel S. Dickinson. In the senate he op- posed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and acted with the Republican party from its forma- tion to the end of his term, though he was not espe- cially prominent in the party. When his sena- torial term ex- pired in 1857 he went to Europe with his family, and remained till shortly before the beginning of the

civil war. On his

return he took an active part in the campaign that resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. In January, 1862, in conjunction with Bishop Ames, he was appointed by Sec. Stanton a commissioner to visit the \J. S. soldiers imprisoned at Richmond and elsewhere, " to relieve their necessities and provide for their comfort." The Confederate government declined to admit the commissioners within their lines, but intimated a readiness to negotiate for a general exchange of prisoners. The result was an agreement for an equal exchange, which was carried out substantially to the end of the war. In 1868 he aided in the election of Gen. Grant, was appointed secretary of state by him in March, 1869, and was reappointed at the beginning of his second term in March, 1873, serving from 11 March, 1869, to 12 March, 1877. He introduced a system of examinations of applicants for consulates, to test their knowledge of subjects connected with their duties, On 9 Feb., 1871, the president appointed him one of the commissioners on the part of the United States to negotiate the treaty of Washington, which was signed by him on 8 May of that year