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ger of being lynched, and fled to Paris. He escaped conscription there in 1814 as an American citizen, and in 1815 began the publication of the paper " L'ami du noir." He was condemned several times to fines and imprisonment for offensive articles, and, when he published his " Lettre au roi sur I'independance de la republique de Haiti et Tabolition de I'esclavage dans les colonies fran- 9aises " and " De la neeessite de faire un traite de commerce avec Haiti " (Paris, 1821), the govern- ment took advantage of Gastine's violent personal attacks to confiscate the work and banish the author. He went to Hayti in 1821, and was en- thusiastically received on his arrival at Port au Prince by the public and President Boyer, who appointed him secretary of foreign relations, and granted him a yearly pension of 5,000 francs. By public subscription a magnificent property at Aux Cayes was presented to Gastine. but he only en- joyed it a few months. He published, besides the two works already mentioned, " Histoire de la re- publique de Haiti,' Fesclavage et le colon " (Paris, 1819); " L'Esclavage aux Etats-Unis" (1819) ; and " Histoire de I'esclavage dans la Louisiane " (1820). GASTON, WiUiam, jurist, b. in Newbern, N. C, 19 Sept., 1778; d. in Raleigh, 23 Jan., 1844. He was the son of Alexander Gaston, an eminent physician of Huguenot descent, who on 20 Aug., 1781, was murdered by the Tories in the presence of his wife and children. The son was educated at Georgetown, D. C, college, and at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1796. He studied law at Newbern, was admitted to the l)ar in 1798, and soon attained distinction in his profes- sion. In 1799 he was elected to the state senate from Craven coun- ty, and in 1808 to the house of delegates, over which he was chosen to preside. He was a member of congress from 1813 till 1815. His speech in op- position to the loan bill, which pro-

posed to place

$25,000,000 at the president's disposal for the con- quest of Canada during the war with Great Britain, was a model of eloquence and was widely read and greatly admired. He was judge of the supreme court of North Carolina from 1834 till his death, and some of the best statutes of that state, as well as its judicial organization, are his work. In 1835 he assisted the convention in amending the state constitution, and suggested and elaborated nearly all the reforms in it. He spoke and voted against the proposition to deprive free colored men of the franchise. He was offered, but declined, the Unit- ed States senatorship in 1840.

GASTON, William, statesman, b. in South Kil- lingly. Conn., 3 Oct., 1820; d. in Boston, 19 Jan., 1894. He was descended from John Gaston, who settled in New England about 1730. He was edu- cated at Brooklyn and Plainfield academies, and at Brown, where he was graduated in 1840. He studied law and began practice in Roxbury, Mass., in 1846, was city solicitor from 1856 till 1860, and mayor in 186i-'2. He was a member of the Mas- sachusetts legislature in 1853-'4 and '6, and of the state senate in 1868. He was mayor of Bos- ton, Mass., in 1871-'2, and was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1875, being the only Democrat that has enjoyed that honor in many years. On retiring from the gubernatorial chair, he resumed his professional labors in Boston.

GATES, Horatio, soldier, b. in IMalden, Essex CO., England, in 1728; d. in New York city, 10 April, 1806. The story that he was a natural son of Sir Robert Walpole is without foundation. His jiarents were the butler and the housekeeper of the Duke of Leeds. Horace Walpole, himself a mere lad, who chanced at the time to be visiting that noble- bleman, good-na- turedly acted as his god-father. He entered the army while a youth, and served in this coun- try in command of the king's New York independent company. Early in 1755 he was sta- tioned at Halifax,

where, under the

protection of the Hon. Edward Cornwallis, at that time governor of Nova Scotia, uncle of Lieut.-Gen. Lord Cornwallis, he rose rapidly to the rank of major. Accompanying Braddock on his unfortu- nate expedition, he was shot through the body at the slaughter of the Monongahela, and for a long time was disabled. In July, 1760, he was brigade- major under Monckton at Fort Pitt, and in 1762 was with that general, as an aide, at the capture of Martinique, rendering effective service and estab- lishing a reputation for military ability. At the close of the war he bought an estate in Berkeley county, Va., where he remained, quietly cultivating his land, until the beginning of the Revolution caused him to offer his sword to congress ; and in July, 1775, he received from that body the appoint- ment of adjutant-general, with the rank of briga- dier. In the following year he was appointed to the command of that portion of the northern army which had been successively commanded in Can- ada by Montgomery, Arnold, Wooster, Thomas, and Sullivan. This step put Gates over Sullivan, his senior in rank, much to the disgust of that officer ; and it marked the beginning of a series of intrigues by which, with the aid chiefly of the New England delegates in congress. Gates was pushed into higher places, at first superseding Schuyler and afterward attempting to supersede Washing- ton. Gates's present command was over " the northern army in Canada," with headquarters at Tieonderoga. When he reached that fortress he found there was no longer any northern army in Canada, because it had retreated into New York. He then set up a claim to the command of this por- tion of the northern army independently of Schuy- ler, who was commander-in-chief of the northern department, with headquarters at Albany. The matter being referred to congress, a discussion en- sued, as theVesult of which Gates was instructed