1873,” and an amendment to the bill, in recognition of his services, made the comptroller of the currency a member of the assay commission. The bill provided for the discontinuance of the coinage of the silver dollar and the accompanying report gave reasons therefor. He was continued in the office of comptroller by President Hayes in 1877, and took an active part in the arrangements for making the assistant treasurer a member of the New York clearing-house, and for the resumption of specie payments on 1 Jan., 1879, and in the negotiations with bankers relative to the plan for the issue of 3½ per cent, bonds in 1882. He was again appointed comptroller by President Arthur, but resigned in 1884, and became president of the National bank of the republic in New York city. His twelve annual reports constitute a standard authority on financial questions that have arisen out of the civil war. He has delivered addresses before the American bankers' association and similar bodies, lectured to the students of Johns Hopkins university, contributed articles on financial subjects to cyclopædias, published a monograph on “United States Notes, or a History of the Various Issues of Paper Money by the Government of the United States” (New York, 1884; revised ed., 1887), and collected material for a history of banking in the United States.—John J.'s grandson, George William, missionary, b. in Rome, N. Y. 11 Aug., 1853, was graduated at Hamilton in 1874, and at Auburn seminary in 1877. Immediately after completing his theological studies he sailed for Japan, and engaged in missionary work. He became professor of homiletics in the Union theological seminary of Tokio, and in 1886 professor of ethics in the Imperial university of Japan. He has published in the Japanese language “A Brief System of Theology,” “Outlines of Homiletics” (Tokio, 1884); “Christ the Son of God,” and “The Basis of Ethics” (1885); and in English a work on “The Japanese Systems of Ethics” (1886).
KNOX, Samuel Richardson, naval officer, b. in Charlestown, Mass., 28 Aug., 1811; d. in Everett, Mass., 20 Nov., 1883. His father and grandfather were Boston pilots. After a voyage in a merchant vessel that was commanded by his brother, he entered the navy as a midshipman on 1 April, 1828, served in the Mediterranean and Pacific fleets, and was on furlough and engaged in exploring the northwest coast of North America from November, 1833, till March, 1837. In 1837-'8 he accompanied Lieut. Charles Wilkes in surveys of Savannah and May rivers and George's bank and shoals, commanding the schooner “Hadassah.” He served in 1838-'42 on the Wilkes exploring expedition, as commander of the “Flying Fish.” His schooner approached nearer to the south pole than any other vessel in the squadron. Knox's highland, in latitude 70° 14′ S., was named in his honor. He was promoted lieutenant on 1 Sept., 1841, and during the Mexican war commanded a landing-party of marines and sailors at the capture of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, Vera Cruz, led a shore-party at the assault on Tuspan, and afterward commanded the “Flirt” and the “Wasp.” In 1849-52 he surveyed the coasts of California and Oregon. He was retired on 13 Sept., 1855, but in the beginning of the civil war was engaged in blockading service off Galveston, Texas, where he had a skirmish with the enemy's batteries, and at Barataria and the mouth of the Mississippi, chasing two armed steamers up that river. He was made a captain on the retired list on 4 April, 1867.
KNOX, Thomas Wallace, traveller, b. in Pembroke, N. H., 26 June, 1835. He was educated at the academies in Pembroke and Pittsfield, N. H., became a teacher, and established an academy in Kingston, N. H. In 1860 he went to Colorado to seek gold, and there became a reporter, and afterward city editor of the Denver “Daily News,” and correspondent for various eastern newspapers. He went in the beginning of the civil war to the southwest, and served as a volunteer aid in two campaigns. He sent letters to the New York “Herald,” and, after receiving a wound in a skirmish in Missouri, went to New York to become a journalist and general writer. His letters from the seat of war were republished under the title of “Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field” (New York, 1865). In 1866 he went on a journey around the world as a newspaper correspondent. In Siberia, where he accompanied an expedition that was sent out by an American company to build a telegraph-line, he travelled 3,600 miles in sledges and 1,400 miles in wagons. The narrative of his journey was republished under the title of “Overland through Asia” (Hartford, 1870). He went to Ireland in 1875, and telegraphed the score of the international rifle-match at Dollymount by means of a device of his invention, indicating, by the use of Morse signals, the spot in which each ball struck the target. This he developed into a system of topographical telegraphy, which he sold to the U. S. government for the transmission of weather-maps. In May, 1877, he set out on a second voyage around the world, arriving at Paris in time to serve as a member of the international jury at the Paris universal exposition of 1878. Besides the works already mentioned, he is the author of “Underground Life” (Hartford, 1873); “Backsheesh” (1875); “The Boy Travellers in China and Japan” (New York, 1879); followed by a similar volume on “Siam and Java,” for which the king of Siam conferred on him the order of the white elephant (1880); “How to Travel” (1880); “The Young Nimrods in North America,” “The Boy Travellers in Ceylon and India,” and “Pocket-Guide for Europe” (1881); “The Young Nimrods in Europe, Asia, and Africa,” “The Boy Travellers in Egypt and the Holy Land,” and “Pocket-Guide around the World” (1882); “The Boy Travellers in Africa” (1883); “The Voyage of the ‘Vivian’ to the North Pole” (1884); “Lives of Blaine and Logan” (Hartford, 1884); “Marco Polo for Boys and Girls” and “The Boy Travellers in South America” (New York, 1885); “Robert Fulton and Steam Navigation” (1886); “Life of Henry Ward Beecher” (Hartford, 1887); “Decisive Battles since Waterloo” (New York, 1887); “Dog Stories and Dog Lore”; and “The Boy Travellers on the Congo” (1887).
KNOX, William, British politician, b. in Ireland in 1732; d. in Ealing, England, 25 Aug., 1810. He accompanied Gov. Henry Ellis to Georgia as provost-marshal in 1756, and returned to England in 1761. After the close of the French war he sent a memorial to Lord Bute recommending the creation of a colonial aristocracy, and representation of the colonies in the British parliament. Soon afterward he was appointed agent in Great Britain for Georgia and East Florida; but his commission was withdrawn in 1765 in consequence of his publishing two pamphlets in defence of the stamp-act, which he considered a mode of taxation least likely to meet with objection in America. One of them was entitled “A Letter to a Member of Parliament,” the other “The Claims of the Colonies to an Exemption from Internal Taxes.” In 1768 he published his principal political work, “The Present State of the Nation.” The views of colonial policy that he expressed in this book were controverted
