Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/677

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LAWRENCE
LAWRENCE
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remains of Lawrence and Ludlow were restored to the I'nited States, and received with public honors at Salem. Judge Joseph Story delivered an ora- tion there, and they were buried in state in Trinity church-yard, New York city, where there is a monu- ment to Lawrence's memory, represented in the illustration. The intense disappointment that was caused by the loss of the "Chesapeake" might have led the public to criticise the conduct of Lawrence in accepting a contest for which he was so poorly prepared, had it not been for the mem- ory of his tragic fate and his dying injunction,

  • Don't give up the ship." If he erred in admit-

ting ehivalric traditions into modern warfare, it should not be forgotten that he associated with them courtesy and humanity in the highest degree.


LAWRENCE, Jonathan, author, b. in New York city, 19 Nov., 1807; d. 26 April, 1833. He was graduated at Columbia in 1823, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, where he gave great promise. His writings in prose and verse were collected by his brother (New York, 1833).


LAWRENCE, Joseph Wilson, Canadian author, b. in St. John, New Brunswick, 28 Feb., 1818. He became a manufacturer of furniture in St. John in 1835, and for more than twenty-five years continuously was a director of the Mechanics' institute, of which he has been president. He strongly opposed confederation, and, when the electorate of New Brunswick in 1805 pronounced against the proposed union of that province to the Dominion, and a new administration came into power, Mr. Lawrence was appointed president of the European and North American railway commission, which place he held till the defeat of the government on the question of confederation in 1866. During the Mackenzie administration he was one of a commission to report on the practicability of the construction of the Baie Verte canal. He has attained note as an antiquarian, and has fublished a pamphlet relative to the route of the ntercolonial railway, and " Foot-Prints, or Inci- dents in Early History of New Brunswick " (St. John. 1883); and has in preparation "The Judges of New Brunswick in the first Fifty Years."'


LAWRENCE, William jurist, b. in Mount Pleasant. Jefferson co., Ohio, 20 June, 1819. He was graduated at Franklin college, Ohio, in 1838, and two years later was admitted to the bar. He was appointed commissioner of bankruptcy for Logan county in 1842, in 1845 prosecuting attor- ney for the same county, and from 1845 till 1847 was editor and proprietor of the " Logan Gazette," subsequently conducting the " Western Law Jour- nal." He was in the legislature in 1846-'7, in 1848 a member of the state senate, in 1851 was elected reporter for the supreme court of the state, and in 1853 again elected to the state senate, where he ad- vocated and carried bills to quiet land titles. He was elected judge of the court of common pleas for five years in 1856, and re-elected in 1801, but re- signed in 1864. He served as colonel of the 84th Ohio regiment at Cumberland and New Creek in I 1862, and in 1863 was tendered a U. S. judgeship j in Florida, which he declined. He was then elected to congress from Ohio as a Republican, serving from 4 Dec, 1865, till 3 March, 1871 : and from 1 Dec, 1873, till 3 March, 1877. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalist convention in 1866, and in 1880 was appointed first comptroller of the U. S. treasury, which post he resigned, 20 March, 1885. Judge Lawrence is the only one of the first comp- trollers whose decisions were regularly published. After his resignation he engaged in the practice of law in Bellefontaine, Ohio, and Washington. In addition to monographs and speeches on political and literary topics, he is the author of " Reports of Decisions of the Supreme Court of Ohio" (Colum- bus, 1852): "The Treaty Question " (Washington. 1871) ; " The Law of Religious Societies and Church Corporations" (Philadelphia, 1873-'4); "The Law of Claims against the Government" (Washington, 1875) ; " The Organization of the Treasury Depart- ment of the United States " (1880) ; and "Decisions of the First Comptroller in the Department of the Treasury of the United States" (6 vols., 1881-5). LAWRENCE, William Beach, jurist, b. in New York city. 23 Oct.. 1800; d. there, 26 March, 1881. His ancestor came from England about the middle of the 17th century, and received a patent of land on Long Island. His father, Isaac, was a wealthy merchant of New York. Beach was graduated at Co- lumbia in 1818, studied law, went to Europe in 1821, andon his return to the United States in 1823 was admit- ted to the bar. In 1826 he was ap- pointed secretary of legation in Lon- don, and in 1827 he

was charge d'affaires there. From

London he went to Paris, and on his return to New York, after an absence of four years, he formed a law partnership with Hamilton Fish, and delivered in Columbia college lectures on political economy, which were repeated before the Mercantile library association, and published. He attained eminence at the bar of New York, and promoted the construction of the Erie railway, being a member of the executive committee. About 1845 he purchased Ochre Point, at Newport, R. I., erected on it a summer residence, and resided there permanently after 1850. He was elected lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island in 1851, soon afterward became acting governor of the state, and in 1853 was a member of the State constitutional convention. During his term as governor he exerted himself to procure the abolition of imprisonment for debt, and was instrumental in defeating the passage by the legislature of the Maine liquor law. Gov. Lawrence achieved distinction in appearing before the British and American international tribunal at Washington in 1873 in the case of the " Circassian," involving more than half a million dollars. He won the suit, obtaining for his clients the reversal of a decision of the U. S. supreme court, the only instance of that character that lias occurred in the country's history. Lawrence's argument in the case, on which the decision was rendered, is regarded, both in this country and in Europe, as an authoritative exposition of several important points of international law. He was a lecturer on international law in 1872-'3 in the law-school of Columbian college, Washington, D. C. and was an original member of the " Institute of the Law of Nations." For thirty years he was noted for the generous hospitality that he dispensed at Ochre Point, where he had collected one of the most valuable private libraries in the land. He was an active member of the New York historical society, and from 1836 till 1845 its vice-president. At the annual meet-