Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/761

This page needs to be proofread.

WRIGHT Ohio, Dec. 14, 1852. She was left an orpha at the age of nine, and was indoctrinated b her guardian with ideas founded on the ph losophy of the French materialists. She trav elled in the United States in 1818-'20 an published " Views on Society and Manners i America" (London, 1821). In 1825 she agai came to America, and purchased 2,000 acre of land in Tennessee, including part of th present site of Memphis, where she establishe a colony of emancipated slaves, who wer afterward sent to Hayti. In 1833-'6 her lee tures upon negro slavery and other social in stitutions attracted large and enthusiastic an diences, and led to the establishment of wha were called " Fanny Wright " societies. He visits were subsequently extended to the prin cipal cities of the Union, but the enunciation of views similar to those contained in he "^Few Days in Athens" met with very de cided opposition. About 1838 she married in France M. D'Arusmont, but soon separatee from him, and resided in Cincinnati till her death. She published "Altorf," a tragedy (Philadelphia, 1819); "A Few Days in Ath ens," a defence of the philosophy of Epicurui (London, 1822); and "Lectures on Free In quiry" (New York, 1829; 6th ed., 1836). WRIGHT, Silas, an American statesman, born in Amherst, Mass., May 24, 1795, died in Can- ton, St. Lawrence co., N. Y., Aug. 27, 1847. He graduated at Middlebury college in 1815J was admitted to the bar in 1819, and settled at Canton. In 1820 he was appointed surro- gate. In 1823 he was elected a member of the state senate as a democrat. Early in 1827 he made a report to the senate, in which he de- veloped the financial policy which he subse- quently enforced as a political measure while governor. He was elected a member of the twentieth congress, and there advocated the protective tariff of 1828, although subsequently he became an advocate of a tariff for revenue only. He also voted for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the expediency of abolishing slavery in the District of Colum- bia. He was controller of New York from 1829 to 1833, when he was chosen as the suc- cessor of Mr. Marcy for four years in the United States senate, of which ho remained a member by reelection for nearly 12 years. He supported Mr. Clay's compromise bill in 1833; defended President Jackson's removal of the deposits ; opposed the recharter of the United States bank ; voted against Mr. Cal- houn's motion not to receive a petition for abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, and in favor of excluding from the mails all " printed matter calculated to excite the pre- judices of the southern states in regard to the question of slavery ;" opposed the distribu- tion among the states of the surplus federal revenues ; supported the independent treasury scheme of President Van Buren; voted in 1838 against the resolution offered by Mr. Rives of Virginia, declaring that the citizens 737 of the states had no right to interfere with the question of slavery in the federal territo- ries, and that the people of those territories had the exclusive right to settle that question ^themselves; opposed the bill requiring the states to choose members of congress by single districts ; and voted for the tariff of 1842 and against the treaty for the annexation of Texas In 1844 he was elected governor of New York He opposed in 1845 the calling of a convention to revise the state constitution, preferring the adoption of amendments then proposed ; ve- toed a bill appropriating money for works on the canals; and recommended legislation against the anti-renters, and on occasion of disturbances produced by them in Delaware co. in 1845 proclaimed the county to be in a state of insurrection and called out a military force. He was renominated in 1846, but was defeated, and returned to his farm in Canton. He was plain in his speech and habits. WRIGHT, Thomas, an English antiquary, born in Wales, April 21, 1810. He graduated at Cambridge, and was one of the founders of the Camden society and of the British archaeo- logical association, and a member of the Percy society and the Shakespeare society. In 1842 he was chosen a corresponding member of the French academy of inscriptions. He made dis- coveries on the site of the ancient city of Uri- conium (see WEOXETEE), and was selected by Napoleon III. to translate his history of Julius Ca3sar (2 vols., 1865-'6). His works include "Political Songs of England from John to Edward II." (London, 1839); " Biographia Britannica Literaria, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo- Norman Periods" (2 vols. 8vo, 1842-'6); "England under the House of Hanover," il- lustrated from caricatures and satires (2 vols, 8vo, 1848; new ed., 1852); "History of Ire- land" (3 vols., 1848-'52, and 1857); "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, a History of the Early Inhabitants of Britain down to

he Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons" (12mo,

1852; 3d revised and enlarged ed., 1875); 'Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial Eng- ish" (2 vols., 1857); "History of France" 2 vols., 1858-'60); "History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England during he Middle Ages " (small 4to, 1862) ; " History >f Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art " (1865) ; " Womankind in Western Ea- ope " (1869) ; and " Uriconium, a Historical Account of the ancient Roman City " (1872). WRIGHT, William, a British orientalist, born n Bengal, India, Jan. 17, 1830. He was edu- ated in Scotch universities and at Halle, be- ame professor of Arabic in University col- 3ge, London, in 1855, in Trinity college, Dub- n, in 1856, and in 1870 at Cambridge, after eing in the interval connected with the de- artment of manuscripts in the British ratise- m. He has edited and translated into English many Arabic works, including the Kamil of 1-Mubarrad, for the German oriental society ^eipsic, 1864-'74), an Arabic grammar (2d