Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/94

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74
DANFORTH
DANIEL

Violence to their Knowledge, a Sermon" (1710)- " A Sermon on King Hezekiah's Bitterness and Relief " (1710) ; " Judgment begun at the House of God and the Righteous scarcely Saved " (171G) ; '• Two Sermons occasioned by the Earthquake, to which is added a Poem on Peter Thatcher, of Milton, and Samuel Danforth, of Taunton " (1727) ; also, " Kneeling to God, at Parting with Friends ; or the Fraternal Intercessiory Cry of Faith and Love : Setting Forth and Recommending the Primitive Mode of taking Leave," to which were annexed poems to the memory of Mrs. Anne Eliot, and John Eliot, the apostle to the Lidians (Boston, 1697).— Samuel, another son of Samuel, clergyman, b. in Roxbury, Mass., 18 Dec, 1666 ; d. in Taunton, Mass., 14 Nov., 1737. He was graduated at Har- vard in 1683, and subsequently became pastor of the Congregational church in Taunton. All of his contemporaries represent him as a person of great learning and as having influence among young people. During 1705 unusual attention to religion prevailed among his congregation, of which he gives an interesting account in three letters pub- lished in Prince's " Christian History." He also published " A Eulogy on Thomas Leonard " (1713) ; " An Election Sermon " (1714) ; and " An Essay concerning the Singing of Psalms" (1723). >Ir. Danforth "left a manuscript Indian dictionary, a part of which is now in the library of the Massa- chusetts historical society. It seems to have been formed from Eliot's Indian Bible, as there is a reference under every word to a passage of Scrip- ture. — Samuel, son of John, b. in Dorchester, Mass., in 1696 ; d. in Cambridge, Mass., in 1777. He was graduated at Harvard in 1715, and became prominent in the Massachusetts colony. For sev- eral years he was president of the council, and also a judge of probate for Middlesex county. In 1774 he was made a mandamus councillor. Subsequent to the last appointment, the county convention adopted the following: "Resolved, That, whereas the Hon. Samuel Danforth and Joseph Lee, Es- quires, two of the judges of the inferior court of common pleas for the county, have accepted com- missions under the new act, by being sworn mem- bers of his majesty's council, appointed by said act, we therefore look upon them as utterly in- capable of holding any office whatever." Mr. Dan- forth was distinguished for his love of natural philosophy and chemistry. — Samuel, son of the third Samuel, physician, b. in Cambridge, Mass., in August, 1740; d. in Boston, Mass., 16 Nov., 1827. He was graduated at Harvard in 1758, and studied medicine with Dr. Isaac Rand. At first he settled in Newport, but soon removed to Boston, where he acquired a valuable practice. During the Revolutionary war his professional pursuits were disturbed, and he was harshly treated by the whigs on account of his loyalty to Great Britain, but later he regained the confidence of his pa- tients. In all difficult medical cases his opinion was relied on as being the utmost effort of human skill. He practised with success until nearly eighty years of age, and increased his reputation by his chemical studies. Dr. Danforth was a member of the Academy of arts and sciences, and from 1795 till 1798 was president of the Massachusetts medi- cal society. — Thomas, son of the third Samuel, lawyer, b. in Massachusetts about 1742 ; d. in Lon- don, England, in 1825. He was graduated at Harvard in 1762, and was one of the addressers of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. Subsequently he studied law, and became a councillor in Charles- town. He was the only lawyer in that town, as well as the only inhabitant, who sought protection from the parent country at the beginning of the Revolution. After being proscribed and banished, he departed for Halifax in 1776, and later took up his residence in England.


DANIEL, Antony, clergyman, b. in Dieppe, France, in 1601 ; d. in Canada in 1648. He became a Jesuit at the age of twenty, and was sent to Canada in 1633. He labored at first among the Indians of Cape Breton, but from July, 1634, till July, 1648, gave his attention exclusively to the Hurons. Although he made St. Josephs his prin- cipal residence, he ministered to the entire tribe. When celebrating mass, on 4 July, he heard a con- fused noise, and, as soon as he had finished the service, he ran to the quarter from which the cries proceeded. He was at once surrounded by women and children, and learned that the village was being attacked by a hostile tribe while the warriors were absent. Father Daniel exhorted all who could to escape to the woods, and endeavored to inspire those who were unable to do so, from sickness or age, with a sentiment of Christian heroism. He himself refused to escape, and, in order to gain time for his flock to reach the forest, he advanced toward the enemy. At first the savages recoiled, awed by his calmness and daring. When they recovered from their astonishment, they shot their arrows at him and he fell to the ground, and, after lingering some time in agony, was despatched by an Indian.


DANIEL, John Moncure, editor, b. in Stafford county, Va., 24 (Jet., 1825 ; d. in Richmond, Va., 30 March, 1865. His father was the son of an emi- nent surgeon in the U. S. army, who married a daughter of Thomas Stone, of Maryland, signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Mon- cure was educated mainly by his father, and studied law with Judge Lomax in Fredericksburg, Va., but, did not complete his studies, his father's death ren- dering it necessary to earn a support for himself and aid his brothers. In 1845 he went to Rich- mond, where he obtained the place of librarian in a small public library, which, though it brought little money, supplied opportunity for indulging his passion for reading. The first exhibition of his prowess as a writer was on an agricultural monthly, " The Southern Planter," to which he attracted so much notice that he was invited to a place on the staff of a new democratic newspaper (1847), the " Richmond Examiner," which speedily became the leading paper of the south. The brilliant invective of the paper led to his fighting several duels. Mr, Daniel's " democratic " principles were of the philo- sophical European school, and he was enabled to harmonize his pro-slavery radicalism with these by the adoption of Carlyle's theory (in " The Nigger Question "). which he interpreted as meaning that negroes were not to be considered as men in the same sense as whites. He was heretical in religious opinions, and his columns bore witness to much admiration for Emerson and Theodore Parker. He even published Parker's famous sermon on Web- ster in his paper. The literary character of the " Examiner " was very high. Mr. Daniel was a friend of Edgar A. "Poe, whom he aided with money, and of whom he wrote a remarkable sketch in the " Southern Literary Messenger." Some of Poe's poems were revised for this paper. Mr. Dan- iel was perhaps the earliest apostle of the seces- sionists in Virginia. In 1853 he was appointed by President Buchanan minister to the court of Victor Emanuel, and while there he took high ground in demanding the same immunities for an Italian naturalized in the United States and visiting Sar- dinia as for any other American, and was indig- nant that Mr. Marcy did not support him in threat-