(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Delve into what it was like to live during the eighteenth century by reading the first-hand accounts of everyday people, including city dwellers and farmers, businessmen and bankers, artisans and merchants, artists and their patrons, politicians and their constituents. Original texts make the American, French, and Industrial revolutions vividly contemporary. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ Library of Congress W021550 New-Haven : Printed by Thomas and Samuel Green, MDCCLXXXII. 1782. 14p. ; 4°
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Josiah Meigs was a native of Middletown, Connecticut. He was the thirteenth child of Return Meigs, a hatter, and Elizabeth (Hamlin) Meigs. He was a descendant of Vincent Meigs, or Meggs, who came from England and finally settled in New Haven about 1644. One of Josiah's brothers, Return Jonathan, 1740-1823, rendered distinguished service in the War of the Revolution, and his son, Return Jonathan, 1764-1824, had a notable political career.
Josiah graduated from Yale in 1778. Among his classmates were Joel Barlow, Noah Webster, Zephaniah Swift, and Oliver Wolcott.
Meigs was teaching at Claverack, New York, when, in 1781, he was elected tutor in Yale College. That year he delivered an oration at the New Haven celebration of the victory over Cornwallis, which was published in 1782. He was admitted to the bar in April 1783, and in February 1784, at the first election following the establishment of city government, was chosen city clerk of New Haven. After resigning as tutor in 1784, with Daniel Bowen and Eleutheros Dana he opened a printing office and established The New Haven Gazette, a weekly newspaper, the first number of which was issued May 13, 1784. In February 1786 Bowen retired, and the name of the publication was changed to The New Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine. After August 2, 1787, Meigs was sole proprietor until its discontinuance at the close of 1788. It supported the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and among the literary contributions which appeared in its columns was "The Anarchiad, " written by Joel Barlow, John Trumbull, David Humphreys, and Lemuel Hopkins. Keenly interested in scientific subjects, in 1787 Meigs delivered lectures at Yale on natural philosophy and astronomy. He retained his position as city clerk until 1789, and at the Fourth of July celebration of that year delivered an oration which was described as "replete with benevolence and Federal ideas". A few months later he left New Haven for St. George, in the Bermuda Islands, to care for the interests of Connecticut clients. As a result of his unpopularity and unguarded statements, he was arrested on the charge of treason, and was acquitted and released only through the exertions of Gov. Henry Hamilton. After his return to the United States, he was appointed, October 8, 1794, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Yale College, of which his friend Ezra Stiles was then president. He had by this time become an ardent Jeffersonian.
In a Federalist stronghold, and with the inexorable Federalist Timothy Dwight as president of Yale Stiles had died shortly after Meigs's appointment it was inevitable that he should get into trouble. Consequently, after several years of friction, in December 1800 he resigned to accept a professorship in the University of Georgia "exiled" from his native state "to the backwoods of Georgia only twelve miles from the Cherokee Indians, " his wife declared with bitterness years later, "for no earthly reason but his stern democracy". Chartered in 1785, this institution was as yet unestablished. Abraham Baldwin was its titular president, and it was at his instigation that Meigs had been called there. Baldwin now resigned and Meigs was elected in his place. He gathered students out of the academies of the state, and instructed them under the trees, in a tavern, and in his own dwelling, until a temporary log building was erected. In 1806 Franklin College, a substantial, three-story brick structure, was ready for occupancy. There were now some seventy students and the institution had acquired reputation throughout the state. Meigs's political pronouncements, however, his ill-concealed contempt for Georgians, whom he considered rude and uncivilized, and his frankness of speech soon made him enemies. The number of students decreased; his salary was reduced; and in August 1810 he resigned the presidency. He continued as professor for a year, and at the end of that time was charged with gross criticism of the trustees, and was dismissed. He published A Statement of the Causes of the Removal (1811). In November 1812 the President appointed him surveyor-general of the United States, and he took up his residence in Cincinnati. Two years later, October 1814, he was made commissioner of the General Land Office of the United States, at Washington. In this city he lived pleasantly for the remainder of his life. From 1819 until his death he was president of the Columbian Institute.
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
Meigs advocated the causes of American claimants of captured property in the Court of Vice-admiralty so successfully as to incur the enmity or those who were directly or indirectly engaged in privateering.
Furthermore, Meigs was a man of hot temper and occasional recklessness of speech. His daughter Clara married John Forsyth, later secretary of state under Jackson and Van Buren; Charles Delucena Meigs was his son; Montgomery C. Meigs and John Forsyth Meigs, were his grandsons.
On January 21, 1782, Meigs married Clara, daughter of Col. John Benjamin of Stratford, Connecticut
16 March 1708 - 22 June 1782
12 February 1712 - 17 September 1762
February 19, 1792 – June 22, 1869 Was an American obstetrician of the nineteenth century who is remembered for his opposition to obstetrical anesthesia and to the idea that physicians' hands could transmit disease to their patients.
October 28, 1782 – May 20, 1861 Was a U.S. Representative from New York.
