UNDER THE CONFEDERACY
33
Mary College, \\'illiamsburg, Virginia, in
1842, and practiced his profession in Wash-
ington City until 1861. During the years
preceding the war, he served on the com-
mission, appointed by President Pierce, for
the codilication of the district laws. He
was also district attorney, and as such con-
ducted the prosecution of Daniel E. Sickles
for the killing of Philip Barton Key. He
retained the office until after the inaugura-
tion of Mr. Lincoln, when he went to Vir-
ginia with his family. In 1861 he was ap-
pointed assistant secretary of war for the
Confederate States, and held the position
during Secretary of War Benjamin's term
of service. Under the cartel of exchange of
prisoners of war, as arranged by Generals
Dix and Hill, in July, 1862, Mr. Ould was
appointed agent of exchange on behalf of
the Confederacy, and in this position, which
he held until the close of hostilities, he
earned the respect of all parties by his
humane efforts to effect the exchange of
prisoners, and his careful attention to all
the details of his office. At Appomattox he
tendered his parole to Gen. Grant, who
declined to treat him as a prisoner, and
sent him under safeguard to Richmond. He
was subsequently imprisoned by order of
Secretary of War Stanton, was indicted for
treason, and tried by a military commission,
which promptly acquitted him. He then
resumed the practice of law in Richmond.
Tyler, Robert, register of the treasury, born at "Cedar Grove," in New Kent county, ^'irginia, September 9, 1818, eldest son of President John Tyler and Letitia Christian. his first wife. In October, 1833, he entered \Villiam and Mary College, Williamsburg, and graduated from the academic depart-
VIR-3
ment B. A., 1835 (the sole graduate in that
year), and from the law department in 1837.
As a young man he displayed fine literary
powers and was the author of various
poems, among them "Ahasuerus," and
"Death, or Medora's Dream." He removed
to Philadelphia, and entered on the practice
of law, and met with success at the bar.
He also engaged actively in political affairs.
-At the age of twenty-eight, was elected
president of the Irish Repeal Association.
During his father's administration, he acted
as signer of patents, and for a time as the
president's private secretary. In 1847 h^
was appointed solicitor of the sheriff of
Philadelphia, holding the office three years,
and was afterwards appointed to the office
of prothonotary of the supreme court of
Pennsylvania, and in which he served until
his removal to Richmond, in 1861. In 1854
he introduced and passed in the Democratic
State Convention of Pennsylvania, the first
resolution passed in any state in favor of a
Pacific railroad, and wrote a largely cir-
culated pamphlet in its favor. In 1858 he
was chairman of the Democratic executive
committee of Pennsylvania. He was active
in promoting the nomination of Mr. Pierce
tor the presidency in 1852, and the nomina-
tion of Mr. Buchanan in 1856. Both these
presidents held him in the highest esteem,
and both offered him missions and offices of
importance, all of which he declined. At
the time of the Mexican war he recruited
and tendered to the government a regiment
in Philadelphia, but which was declined, on
account of the quota of the state being al-
ready filed. He was yet at his post as
prothonotary in 1861, when Virginia, his
native state, seceded. His southern senti-
ments were well known throughout Phila-
