Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/304

16 May, 1874. He received a classical education at Transylvania university, studied law, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1809, and began practice al Lancaster. In 1816 he was elected to congress and he served two terms, being chairman of the land committee and a member of the judiciary committee. He was re-elected a second time, but resigned his seat in order to resume the practice ol law He drew up the bill for the establishment oi a territorial government in Arkansas, in the dis- ni"i(>n of which the house was equally divided on the question of prohibiting slavery, an amendment to that effect being carried, but afterward re- scinded by the casting vote of Henry Clay as speaker. The system of selling public lands in small lots to actual settlers at a cash price of $1.25 per acre was projected by him. After his retire- ment from congress he was offered the attoniey- generalship of Kentucky, but declined this and other appointments in order to devote himself to his profession ; yet in 1822 he was elected against his desire to the legislature, and remained in that body until the settlement of the currency question in tiie session of 1837, being a leader of the party that opposed the relief act that made the depreci- ated notes of the state banks legal tender for the payment of debts. He was speaker of the assem- bly from 1823 till 1827, except in 1824. when the inflationists, having gained a large majority in both houses, sought to abolish the court of appeals, which had decided against the relief bill, by creat- ing a new court. He drew up a protest in 1824 that contributed greatly to the final triumph of the anti-relief or old court party, and wrote and spoke frequently on the exciting questions at issue. He was also the author of a manifesto that was signed by the majority of the legislature in 1827. He was offered the governorship of Arkansas, the , mission to Colombia in 1824, and in 1828 the Pe- ruvian mission, but he declined all these appoint- ments. For a time he filled provisionally the office of secretary of state in 1828. In the same year he was made a justice of the court of appeals, and in 1829 he became chief justice, which post he held till 1843, when he resigned and resumed active practice. Prom 1834 till 1857 he was professor of law in Transylvania university. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Centre and Au- gusta colleges. His published works include " In- troductory Lecture to the Law Class " (Lexington, 1836) ; " Biographical Sketch of John Boyle " (Frankfort, 1838} ; and " Scrap-Book on Law, Poli- tics, Men, and Times " (1856). A collection of his speeches, law lectures, legal arguments, and ad- dresses has been published.

ROBERTSON, James, royal governor of New York, b. in Fifeshire, Scotland, about 1720; d. in England, 4 March, 1788. He was in his youth a private and then a sergeant in the British army, and in 1740. at Cartagena, New Granada, gained an ensigncy. He came to the American colonies in 1756 as major of the royal American troops that were raised at that time, was deputy quartermaster under Gen. Abercrombie in 1758, becoming lieutenant- colonel on 8 July, accompanied Lord Amherst to I, akc Cham plain in 1759, and took part in theexpe- dilionto Martinique in 1762. He was for many yr.'irs barrack-master in New York, in which post he acquired a fortune by various methods of pecu- lation and extortion. He paid for government supplies in clipped half-joes and moidores. which came to be known as "Robertsons," until the Chamber of commerce resolved that such coins should be accepted only at their intrinsic value. He was promoted colonel in 1772, ordered to Bos- ton in July, 1775, .and at its evacuation connived at acts of rapine and shared in the plunder. He took command of the 00th regiment on 11 Jan., 1770. commanded a brigade at the battle of Long Island, and in February, 1777, returned to England on leave of absence, and intrigued against Gov. William Tryon and Sir William Howe. He was commissioned as major-general on 29 Aug., 1777, was appointed civil governor of New York on 11 May, 1779. and arrived in New York city on 21 March, 1780. He brought a letter of instructions from Lord George Germaine, secretary of the colo- nies, ordering that the deserted property of rebels should be leased, and the rents appropriated to a fund for the aid of loyalist refugees. He was di- rected to restore the civil law ; yet, instead of re- opening the constitutional courts of justice, he established arbitrary police courts with summary jurisdiction in all classes of cases, first on Long Island, then on Staten Island, and in December, 1780, in New York city, where, however, the new court could not decide civil cases involving more than 10. He ordered the neighboring farmers to deliver up half of their hay, and afterward seized a part of the remainder, had the wood cut on large estates near New York city, sequestrated the reve- nue of the markets and ferries, and committed many extortions in connivance with the military authorities, profiting greatly in his purse by all these acts, yet alienating many who might have been won over to the royal cause. When Maj. John Andre was captured, Gov. Robertson con- ferred with Gen. Nathanael Greene, but, instead of accepting the release of the British spy in ex- change for Benedict Arnold, sealed his fate by showing a letter from Arnold threatening retali- ation on the Americans. On the death of Gen. William Phillips, he obtained the command in Vir- ginia, and set out for the field, but returned when he heard of the arrival of Lord Cornwallis. He was made a lieutenant-general, 20 Nov., 1782, and returned to England on 15 April, 1783.

ROBERTSON, James, pioneer, b. in Bruns- wick county, Va., 28 June, 1742 ; d. in the Chickasaw country, Tenn., 1 Sept., 1814. He was of Scotch- Irish descent, and his father, a farmer, removed to Wake county, N. C., about 1750, where the son worked on a farm, receiving no ed- ucation. In 1759 he accompanied Daniel Boone on his third ex- pedition beyond the Alleghanies. He dis- covered a valley, wa- tered by the Watauga river, which he ex- plored while Boone went to Kentucky, nlanted corn, and then returned to North Carolina, after losing tvis way and being

saved from death by

tmnters. In the following spring Robertson led sixteen families to

he west. The settlers were upon the hunting-grounds of one hundred thousand savages, but they slanted and harvested their corn in peace for fully four years. The emigrants supposed they

were within the limits of the province of Virginia, but when the line was run in the year 1772 was found to be thirty miles to the northward, and they were therefore on the land of the Chero-