an alleged deserter from the British navy, his ship at the time lying under the guns of Gibraltar. When war with England broke out, in 1812, he was ordered to cruise in the lakes between Canada and the United States, with his headquarters on lake Champlain. He was instrumental in saving New York and Vermont from invasion by his brilliant victory of lake Champlain gained, on the 11th of September 1814, with a flotilla of 14 vessels carrying 86 guns, over Captain George Downie’s 16 vessels and 92 guns. For this important achievement New York and Vermont granted him estates, whilst Congress gave him a gold medal.
MacDOWELL, EDWARD ALEXANDER (1861–1908), American
musical composer, was born in New York City on the
18th of December 1861. His father, an Irishman of Belfast,
had emigrated to America shortly before the boy’s birth. He
had a varied education in music, first under Spanish-American
teachers, and then in Europe, at Paris (Debussy being a fellow
pupil), Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Weimar, where he was chiefly
influenced by Joachim, Raff and Liszt. From 1879 to 1887
he lived in Germany, teaching and studying, and also appearing
as solo pianist at important concerts. In 1884 he married
Marian Nevins, of New York. In 1888 he returned to America,
and settled in Boston till in 1896 he was made professor of
music at Columbia University, New York. He resigned this
post in 1904, and in 1905 overwork and insomnia resulted in
a complete cerebral collapse. He died on the 24th of January
1908. MacDowell’s work gives him perhaps the highest place
among American composers. Deeply influenced by modern
French models and by German romanticism, full of poetry
and “atmosphere,” and founded on the “programme,” idea of
composition, it is essentially creative in the spirit of a searcher
after delicate truths of artistic expression. His employment
of touches of American folk-song, suggested by Indian themes,
is characteristic. This is notably the case with his orchestral
Indian Suite (1896) and Woodland Sketches for the piano.
His first concerto, in A minor, for piano and orchestra, and
first pianoforte suite, were performed at Weimar in 1882.
His works include orchestral suites and “poems,” songs,
choruses, and various pieces for pianoforte, his own instrument;
they are numbered from op. 9 to op. 62, his first eight numbered
works being destroyed by him.
See Lawrence Gilman, Edward MacDowell (1906).
McDOWELL, IRVIN (1818–1885), American soldier, was born in Columbus, Ohio, on the 15th of October 1818. He was educated in France, and graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1838. From 1841 to 1845 he was instructor, and later adjutant, at West Point. He won the brevet of captain in the Mexican War, at the battle of Buena Vista, and served as adjutant-general, chiefly at Washington, until 1861, being promoted major in 1856. In 1858–1859 he visited Europe. Whilst occupied in mustering volunteers at the capital, he was made brigadier-general in May 1861, and placed in command during the premature Virginian campaign of July, which ended in the defeat at Bull Run. Under McClellan he became a corps commander and major-general of volunteers (March 1862). When the Peninsular campaign began McDowell’s corps was detained against McClellan’s wishes, sent away to join in the fruitless chase of “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, and eventually came under the command of General Pope, taking part in the disastrous campaign of Second Bull Run. Involved in Pope’s disgrace, McDowell was relieved of duty in the field (Sept. 1862), and served on the Pacific coast 1864–68. He became, on Meade’s death in November 1872, major-general of regulars (a rank which he already held by brevet), and commanded successively the department of the east, the division of the south, and the division of the Pacific until his retirement in 1882. The latter years of his life were spent in California, and he died at San Francisco on the 4th of May 1885. As a commander he was uniformly unfortunate. Undoubtedly he was a faithful, unselfish and energetic soldier, in patriotic sympathy with the administration, and capable of great achievements. It was his misfortune to be associated with the first great disaster to the Union cause, to play the part of D’Erlon at Quatre-Bras between the armies of Banks and McClellan, and finally to be involved in the catastrophe of Pope’s campaign. That he was perhaps too ready to accept great risks at the instance of his superiors is the only just criticism to which his military character was open.
MACDUFF, a police burgh and seaport of Banffshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 3431. It lies on the right bank of the mouth of the Deveron, 1 m. E. of Banff and 5014 m. N.W. of Aberdeen by the Great North of Scotland railway. The site was originally occupied by the fishing village of Doune, but after its purchase by the 1st earl of Fife, about 1732, the name was altered to Macduff by the 2nd earl, who also procured for it in 1783 a royal charter constituting it a burgh. In honour of the occasion he rebuilt the market cross, in front of the parish church. The harbour, safer and more accessible than that of Banff, was constructed by the duke of Fife, and transferred to the burgh in 1898. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the herring fishery, but there is some boat-building, besides rope-and-sail making, manure works, saw-mills and oilcake mills. A stone bridge across the Deveron communicates with Banff. Good bathing facilities, a bracing climate and a mineral well attract numerous visitors to Macduff every summer. The burgh unites with Banff, Cullen, Elgin, Inverurie, Kintore and Peterhead (the Elgin burghs) in returning one member to parliament.
McDUFFIE, GEORGE (1788–1851), American political leader,
was born in Columbia county, Georgia. He Was admitted to the
bar in 1814, and served in the South Carolina General Assembly
in 1818–1821, and in the national House of Representatives in
1821–1834. In 1821 he published a pamphlet in which strict
construction and states’ rights were strongly denounced; yet
in 1832 there were few more uncompromising nullificationists.
The change seems to have been gradual, and to have been
determined in part by the influence of John C. Calhoun. When,
after 1824, the old Democratic-Republican party split into
factions, he followed Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren
in opposing the Panama Congress and the policy of making
Federal appropriations for internal improvements. He did
not hesitate, however, to differ from Jackson on the two chief
issues of his administration: the Bank and nullification. In
1832 he was a prominent member of the South Carolina Nullification
Convention, and drafted its address to the people of the
United States. He served as governor in 1834–1836, during
which time he helped to reorganize South Carolina College.
From January 1843 until January 1846 he was a member of
the United States Senate. The leading Democratic measures
of those years all received his hearty support. McDuffie, like
Calhoun, became an eloquent champion of state sovereignty;
but while Calhoun emphasized state action as the only means
of redressing a grievance, McDuffie paid more attention to the
grievance itself. Influenced in large measure by Thomas
Cooper, he made it his special work to convince the people
of the South that the downfall of protection was essential
to their material progress. His argument that it is the producer
who really pays the duty of imports has been called the
economic basis of nullification. He died at Cherry Hill, Sumter
district, South Carolina, on the 11th of March 1851.
MACE (Fr. masse, O. Fr. mace, connected with Lat. mateola, a mallet), originally a weapon of offence, made of iron, steel or latten, capable of breaking through the strongest armour.[1] The earliest ceremonial maces, as they afterwards became, though at first intended to protect the king’s person, were those borne by the serjeants-at-arms, a royal body-guard established in France by Philip II., and in England probably by Richard I. By the 14th century a tendency towards a more decorative serjeant’s mace, encased with precious metals, is noticeable. The history of the civic mace (carried by the serjeants-at-mace) begins about
- ↑ The mace was carried in battle by medieval bishops (Odo of Bayeux is represented on the Bayeux tapestry as wielding one) instead of the sword, so as to conform to the canonical rule which forbade priests to shed blood.—[Ed.]
