Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/146

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HAWKINS
HAWKINS

1848, and for the next four years was lecturer on public instruction before the teachers' institutes of Maine. In 1849 he was principal of Topsham academy. After studying law at Harvard, and at the Nicole des droits at Paris, France, he travelled for two years, examining European methods of in- struction, under a commission from the governor of Maine. He began the practice of law in 1854 in New York city, where he lived during the re- mainder of his life, and was a frequent speaker and writer in favor of free education, protection, hard money, bi-metallism, and political and municipal reform. The national bureau of education was es- tablished largely through his efforts. His reports on "Sectarian Appropriations of Public Moneys and Property," and on the " Duty of the State to protect the Free Common Schools by Organic Law" (1869 and 1871), caused the repeal of obnox- ious statutes in New York and the adoption of a constitutional amendment forbidding such legisla- tion. In 1875 he delivered an address before the Lowell institute on " The Educational Problem in the Cotton States." His report on the " Extrava- gance of the Tammany Ring" (1871) led to the ex- posure of its fraudulent accounts and to its down- fall. His pamphlet on the " Donations of Public Property to Private Corporations, and the Illegal Exemption of the Same from Taxation " (New York, 1873), brought about an amendment to the constitution of New York prohibiting such dona- tions. Among his other publications are " Tradi- tions of Overlook Mountain " (1873) ; " The Roman Catholic Church in New York City and the Public Land and Public Money" (1880); "Free -Trade and Protection " (1883) ; " The Redemption of the Trade Dollar "(1886); and " The Silver Problem," an address that was delivered at the request of the committee on coinage, etc., of the house of repre- sentatives (1886). — His cousin, Rush Christopher, soldier, b. in Pomfret, Vt., 14 Sept., 1831, left home at an early age and enlisted in the 2d U. S. dragoons, but after a brief term of service in Mexico was dischai'ged for disability contracted in the field. He settled in New York in 1851, studied law, and in 1856 began the practice of his profession. At the beginning of the civil war he raised the 9th regiment of New York volunteers and the Haw- kins zouaves, of which he was elected colonel. He commanded a successful expedition against Wins- ton, N. C, on 16 Feb., and on 19 April his brigade took part in the action at South Mills, where he was wounded. He served with his regiment in Virginia and elsewhere, and with it was mustered out of the service on 30 May, 1863. Since the war he has been active in movements for political re- form. His collection of books from the first 15th century presses was the most comprehensive in the country, and was sold at auction in New York in 1887. Col. Hawkins has contributed to periodical literature and has published " The First Books and Printers of the 15th Century " (New York, 1884).


HAWKINS, Ernest, author, b. in England about 1802. He was graduated at Oxford in 1824, took priest's orders in 1830, and in 1845 became prebend of St. Paul's, London, and secretary to the Society for the propagation of the gospel. Since 1865 he has been a canon of Westminster Abbey. He has published " Notices of the Church of Eng- land's Missions to the North American Colonies Previous to the Independence of the United States" (London, 1845). This is a volume of great historical interest, composed of the manuscript letters, reports, etc., of the missionaries in New York, New England, and Canada, to the Society for the propagation of the gospel. Among his other works are " Annals of the Colonial Church " (1847), and " Annals of the Diocese of Quebec" (1849).


HAWKINS, Sir John, navigator, b. in Plym- outh, England, in 1532; d. at sea, 21 Nov., 1595. His father, William, began the African slave-trade in which England was engaged for nearly three hundred years. John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his success in the same enterprise. In January, 1565, he crossed with a cargo of cap- tives from Guinea to the West Indies, arrived at the- island of Dominica, and traded along the Spanish coasts and Florida un- til about the first of June, when he returned to Eng- land. Hawkins is the first English- man who gives any detailed ac- count of Florida. The struggling French colony of Landonniere was then in the sec- ond year of its existence. He showed them

great kindness,

and left them a vessel in which to return to France. In his narrative regarding Florida he mentions the abundance of tobacco, sorrel, maize, and grapes, and ascribes the failure of the French colony to their lack of thrift, as " in such a climate and soil, with marvellous store of deer, and divers other beasts, all men may live." On his return he was presented with a coat of arms, on which was graven the figure of a savage, bound and captive, and to intimate that the African slave-trade was the true crusade of the reign of Elizabeth, the pilgrims' scallop-shell in gold, between two palmers' staves. In 1567 he embarked on a third voyage with his kinsman, Francis Drake. They captured several hundred negroes in Guinea, crossed again to Dominica, and, when the Spaniards refused to trade with them, stormed the town of Rio de la Hacha, and, notwithstanding the prohibition of the government, exchanged negroes with the planters for jewels and produce. They then crossed the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, were forced to put into San Juan de Ulua for supplies, and the next day engaged in a naval action with the Spanish, in which Hawkins lost his whole fleet except two small ships. Returning to England, he became treasurer of the navy, and in 1588 was vice-admiral of the squadron that was sent against the Spanish armada. In 1595 Drake prevailed upon Elizabeth to send him with Hawkins on another expedition to Spanish America. They sailed from Plymouth with the intention of seizing Nombre de Dios, but the commanders quarrelled and separated. Porto Rico successfully resisted the English, and Hawkins died at sea, overcome by his reverses. He was an able seaman, but rude, cunning, and avaricious. He founded a hospital at Chatham for seamen. Hawkins published " A True Declaration of the Troublesome Voyage of Mr. John Hawkins to the Partes of Guynea and the West Indies, 1567-'8 " (London, 1569).


HAWKINS, John Henry Willis, reformer, b. in Baltimore, Md., 23 Oct., 1799; d. in Parkersburg, Pa., 26 Aug., 1858. He was a confirmed drunkard, when the efforts of his little daughter