PROMINENT PERSONS
139
served through the Valley Forge campaign,
and was a Federalist representative in the
Sixth United States congress, 1749-1801.
Levin Minn Powell was appointed mid-
shipman in the United States navy, March
I, 1817; assigned to the Franklin, and was
engaged in suppressing piracy in the Medi-
terranean and China seas, the Gulf of Mexi-
co and the West Indies. He was promoted
lieutenant, April 28, 1826; commanded sev-
eral expeditions against the Indians in the
Seminole war; was wounded in a fight with
them on the Jupiter river in January, 1837 ;
received the thanks of the navy department
for his services in Florida, and commanded
two surveying expeditions on the eastern
coasts and harbors of the Gulf of Mexico.
He was promoted commander, June 24,
/843 ; was made assistant inspector of ord-
nance in October, 1843, ^""i continued on
ordnance duty until 1849. He commanded
the sloop John Adams on the coast of South
America and Africa, 1849-50; served as ex-
ecutive officer of the United States navy
}ard at Washington, D. C., 1851-54, and
commanded the flag-ship Potomac on a
cruise in the North Atlantic and West In-
dies, 1854-56. He was promoted captain,
September 14, 1855 ; served as inspector of
contract steamers in 1858, and as captain of
the frigate Potomac, in the Gulf squadron,
1861-62, having been retired December 21,
1861, six months before he left his ship. He
was promoted commodore on the retired
list, July 16, 1862 ; served as inspector of
the third lighthouse district, 1862-66; on
special service, 1867-72, and was promoted
rear-admiral on the retired list. May 13.
1869. He died in Washington, D. C., Janu-
ary 15, 1885.
Summers, George Washington, born in
Favette county, Virginia, March 4, 1804;
completed preparatory studies and was
graduated from Ohio University ; studied
law, and was admitted to the bar in 1827 ;
began practice in Kanawha, Virginia ; mem-
ber of the state house of delegates, 1830-
40 ; elected as a Whig to the twenty-seventh
and twenty-eighth congresses (March 4,
1841-March 3, 1845) ; delegate to the state
constitutional convention in 1850; Whig
candidate for governor in 185 1 ; judge of the
eighteenth judicial circuit of Virginia, 1852-
58 ; member of the famous peace congress
of 1861 ; the convention was called at the
recommendation of the \'irginia legislature
for the purpose of effecting a general and
permanent pacification ; it adopted what be-
came known as the "Guthrie Plan," named
from its sponsor, Hon. James Guthrie, of
Kentucky, which provided that neither the
constitution nor any amendment thereof
should be construed to give power to con-
gress to interfere with the status of persons
held to service in labor as it now exists in
any of the territory lying south of thirty-
six degrees and thirty minutes. As this
action materially departed from the terms
of Mr. Crittenden's compromise resolutions
and neither defined the meaning of the word
"status" nor used the word slave, many of
the Southern members deemed it ambigu-
ous, and a majority of the Virginia delega-
tion refused to vote for Mr. Guthrie's propo-
sitions. On being reported to the senate
they were rejected by a large vote, and in
the house of representatives the speaker
was refused permission to present them.
Nevertheless, in the Virginia convention
Mr. Summers afterward supported them in
a strong speech, as the best means of pacifi-
