Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/767

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LINCOLN
LINCOLN
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suits, and was a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, and of the Massachusetts historical society. Harvard gave him the degree of M. A. in 1780. His correspondence during the adoptiqn of the Federal constitution was large and important, including letters from the leading patriots, and a letter from Dr. David Ramsey, the historian, dated Charleston, 19 Jan., 1788, gives an interesting view of the relations then existing between New England and South Carolina. While secretary of war he wrote long letters to his son, which he intended to be read at the meetings of the academy, containing the results of his observations of the physical features of the south. A paper upon his belief that trees receive nourishment from the atmosphere instead of the earth, and one on the ravages of worms in trees, were published in Cary's "American Museum." Many of his writings appeared about 1790, including a paper on the migration of fishes, in an appendix to vol. iii. of Dr. Belknap's "History of New Hampshire," and three essays, published in the collections of the Massachusetts historical society: "Observations on the Climate, Soil, and Value of the Eastern Coun- ties in the District of Maine"; "On the Religious State of the Eastern Counties"; and on the "Indian Tribes, the Causes of their Decrease, their Claims, etc." His portrait was painted by Henry Sargent, a copy of which was presented to the Massachusetts historical society. (See his life by Francis Bowen in Sparks's " American Biography," second series, Boston, 1847.)


LINCOLN, David Francis, physician, b. in Boston, Mass., 4 Jan., 1841. He was graduated at Harvard in 1861, and received his medical degree there in 1864. For eighteen months previous to his graduation he served' as acting assistant surgeon in the United States navy, and in 1865 lie went to Europe, where he studied in the universities of Berlin and Vienna. He established himself in Boston in 1867, and since 1871 has made a spe- cialty of nervous diseases. He is a member of various medical societies, and in addition to essays on school hvgiene and papers in the " Boston Medi- cal Journal " has published " Electro-Therapeutics" (Boston, 1875), and translated a treatise on therageutics from the French of A. Trousseau and II. idoux (9th ed., New York, 1880).


LINCOLN, John Larkin, educator, b. in Boston, Mass., 23 Feb., 1817; d. in Providence. R. I., 17 Oct., 1891. He was graduated at Brown in 1836. He was tutor in Columbian college, Washington, D. C., in 1836-'7, studied in Newton seminary from 1838 till 1840, and was tutor at Brown from 1838 till 1841. He then went to Europe, where he studied in Halle and Berlin, and on his return in 1844 was elected professor of the Latin language and literature at Brown, occupying the chair until his death. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1859. He edited “Selections from Livy” (New York, 1847; new ed.. 1882); “The Works of Horace” (1851; new ed., 1882); “Ovid, with Notes” (1883); “Ovid, with Vocabulary” (1883); and Cicero's “De Senectute” (in preparation, 1887). — His brother, Heman, clergyman, b. in Boston, Mass., 14 April, 1821, was graduated at Brown in 1840, and at Newton theological institution in 1845. He was a pastor in New Britain, Pa., for five years, in Philadelphia for three, in Jamaica Plains, Mass., for six, and in Providence, R. I., for eight, after which he became, in 1868, professor of ecclesiastical history in the Newton institution. This chair he exchanged in 1873 for that of homiletics and pastoral duties. He received the degree of D. D. from Rochester in 1865. Dr. Lincoln has contributed much to the press. He edited the “Christian Chronicle,” published in Philadelphia, from 1844 till 1853, and from 1854 till 1867 was associate editor of the “Watchman and Reflector,” printed in Boston. He has published “Outline Lectures in Church History” (1884), and “Outline Lectures in History of Doctrine” (1885). — Heman's wife, Jane Elizabeth (Larcombe), b. in Colebrook, Conn., in 1829, was before her marriage in 1851 a frequent contributor, under the pen-name “Kate Campbell,” to the magazines published by Godey, Sartain, Peterson, and Neal, and to the annuals. Subsequently she wrote for Baptist journals.


LINCOLN, Levi, statesman, b. in Hingham, Mass., 15 May, 1749; d. in Worcester, Mass., 14 April, 1820. His father, a farmer of Hingham, destined his son for mechanical employment, but, during his apprenticeship, the latter devoted his leisure to study, and entered Harvard, where he was graduated in 1772. When the battle of Lexington occurred he was studying law in Northhampton, but went as a volunteer with the minute-men to Cambridge. He was zealous in the cause of independence, and was the author of numerous patriotic appeals, and a series of political papers entitled “Farmer's Letters.” Between 1775 and 1781 he was successively clerk of the court and judge of probate of Worcester county. In 1779 he was government commissioner for confiscated estates under the absentee acts, and also to expedite the payment of the Continental tax. He was a delegate to the convention in Cambridge for framing a state constitution, and in 1781 was elected to the Continental congress, but declined to serve. In 1796 he was a member of the house of representatives, and in 1797 of the senate, of Massachusetts. In 1800 he was elected to congress as a Whig, in place of Dwight Foster, who had been chosen to the senate, serving from 6 Feb., 1801, till 3 March of that year, when he was appointed attorney-general of the United States. During the few months preceding the arrival of James Madison he was provisional secretary of state. At the end of Jefferson's first term in March, 1805, he resigned, and in 1806 elected a member of the council of Massachusetts. In 1807-'8 he was lieutenant-governor of the state, and, after the death of Gov. James Sullivan in December, 1808, he was acting governor until the following May. In 1811 he was appointed by President Madison an associate justice of the U. S. supreme court, but declined, owing to his failing sight, which terminated in almost total blindness. A partial restoration of vision enabled him afterward to resume his classical studies and the cultivation of his farm. He was an original member of the American academy of arts and sciences, and a member of other learned societies, and from the close of the Revolution was considered the head of the Massachusetts bar. — His son, Levi, governor of Massachusetts, b. in Worcester, Mass., 25 Oct., 1782; d. there, 29 May, 1868, was graduated at Harvard in 1802. He studied law with his father, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and began to practise in Worcester. Between 1812 and 1822 he was elected several times to the legislature, was speaker of the house in 1822, and an active member of the Democratic party. In 1814 he entered warmly into the debate in opposition to the Hartford convention, and drew up a protest against that body, which was signed by seventy-five other members of the legislature and widely circulated. In 1820 he was a member of the convention called to revise the constitution of Massachusetts, was lieutenant-governor of the state in 1823, and in