Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/608

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CHANDLER
CHANDLER

the celebrated Whitefield, who made a visit to Elizabethtown in the winter of 17(J3-'4. He re- ceived, in 1766, the degree of D. D. from Oxford. The year following he published an earnest and spirited " Appeal in Behalf of the Church of Eng- land in America," and urged the appointment of bishops for the colonies. A controversy arose in consequence. Dr. Chauncy, of Boston, being the chief opponent of Dr. Chandler's views, which was conducted on both sides with acknowledged ability. On the approach of the Revolution, Dr. Chandler, not being in sympathy with his countrymen in the matter at issue, went to England in 1775, and re- mained there for ten years, being occupied chiefly in study and writing. He was offered the bishopric of Nova Scotia, but, on the score of infirm health, declined the appointment. He returned to the United States in 1785, and resumed his relations with the church in Elizabethtown, but was unable to engage in public service.


CHANDLER, William Eaton, cabinet minis- ter, b. in Concord, N. H., 28 Dec, 1885. He studied law in Concord, and at the Harvard law-school, where he was graduated in 1855. For several years after his admission to the bar in 1856 he practised in Concord, and in 1859 was appointed reporter of the New Hampshire supreme court, and published five volumes of reports. From the time of his coming of age Mr. Chandler was actively con- nected with the republican party, serving first as secretary, and afterward as chairman of the state committee. In 1862 he was elected to the New Hampshire house of repre- sentatives, of which he was speaker for two successive terms in 1863-'4. In November, 1864, hewasemployed by the navy de- partment as spe- cial counsel to

prosecute the

Philadelphia navy-yard frauds, and on 9 March, 18G5, was appointed first solicitor and judge-advo- cate-general of that department. On 17 June, 1865, he became first assistant secretary of the treasury. On 80 Nov., 1867, he resigned this place and re- sumed law practice. During the next thirteen years, although occupying no official position ex- cept that of member of the Constitutional conven- tion of New Hampshire in 1876, he continued to take an active part in politics. He was a delegate from his state to the Republican national conven- tion in 1868, and was secretary of the national committee from that time until 1876. In that year he advocated the claims of the Hayes electors in Florida before the canvassing board of the state, and later was one of the counsel to prepare the case submitted by the republican side to the elec- toral commission. Mr. Chandler afterward became an especially outspoken opponent of the southern policy of the Hayes administration. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican national conven- tion, and served as a member of the committee on credentials, in which place he was active in secur- ing the report in favor of district representation, which was adopted by the convention. During the subsequent campaign he was a member of the national committee. On 23 March, 1881, he was nominated for U. S. solicitor-general, but the senate refused to confirm, the vote being nearly upon party lines. In that year he was again a member of the New Hampshire legislature. On 7 April, 1882, he was appointed secretary of the navy. Among the important measures carried out by him were the simplification and reduction of the unwieldy navy-yard establishment ; the limita- tion of the number of annual appointments to the actual wants of the naval service ; the discontinu- ance of the extravagant policy of repairing worth- less vessels ; and the beginning of a modern navy in the construction of the four new cruisers recom- mended by the advisory board. The organization and successful voyage of the Greely relief expedi- tion in 1884 were largely due to his personal efforts. Mr. Chandler was a strenuous advocate of uniting with the navy the other nautical branches of the federal administration, including the light-house establishment, the coast survey, and the revenue marine, upon the principle, first distinctly set forth by him, that " the officers and seamen oi' the navy should be employed to perform all the work of the National government upon or in direct connection with the ocean." Mr. Chandler is controlling owner of the daily " Monitor," a republican journal, and its weekly, the " Statesman," published in Concord, N. II. In June, 1887, he was elected U. S. senator.


CHANDLER, Zachariah, senator, b. in Bedford, N. H., 10 Dec, 1818 ; d. in Chicago, Ill., 1 Nov., 1879. After receiving a common-school education he taught for one winter, at the same time managing his father's farm. He was noted when a youth for physical strength and endurance. It is said that, being offered by his father the choice between a collegiate education and the sum of $1,000, he chose the latter. He removed to Detroit in 1833 and engaged in the dry-goods business, in which he was energetic and successful. He soon became a prominent whig, and was active in support of the so-called "underground railroad," of which Detroit was an important terminus. His public life began in 1851 by his election as mayor of Detroit. In 1852 he was nominated for governor by the whigs, and, although his success was hopeless, the large vote he received brought him into public notice. He was active in the organization of the republican party in 1854, and in January, 1857, was elected to the U. S. senate to succeed Gen. Lewis Cass. He made his first important speech on 12 March, 1858, opposing the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, and continued to take active part in the debates on that and allied questions. In 1858, when Senator Green, of Missouri, had threatened Simon Cameron with an assault for words spoken in debate, Mr. Chandler, with Mr. Cameron and Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, drew up a written agreement, the contents of which were not to be made public till the death of all the signers, but which was believed to be a pledge to resent an attack made on any one of the three. On 11 Feb., 1861, he wrote the famous so-called "blood letter" to Gov. Blair, of Michigan. It received its name from the sentence, " Without a little blood-letting: this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a rush." This letter was widely quoted through the country, and was acknowledged and defended by Mr. Chandler on the floor of the senate. Mr. Chandler was a firm friend of President Lincoln, though he was more radical than the latter in his ideas, and often differed with the president as to