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(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
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He was born on May 5, 1794 in Putney, Vermont, United States, the son of Samuel and Mary (Washburn) Sargent, and seventh in a family of eleven children. He was a descendant of William Sargent, who emigrated from Northampton, England, to Charlestown, Massachussets, in 1638, and settled in that part of the town which in 1649 was set off as Malden.
After receiving an academic education in his native town, Nathan studied law with Judge Phineas White of Putney; later, he studied in the office of Stephen Ross, Troy, N. Y. , teaching school at the same time.
Admitted to the bar in 1818, he immediately moved to Cahawba, Ala. , where he practised law and served for some time as judge of the county and probate courts.
In 1826, because of ill health, he moved to Buffalo, N. Y. About 1830 he gave up his profession of law and established in Philadelphia, Pa. , the Commericial Herald, a Whig newspaper, which he edited for some years. This venture did not pay financially, however, and he became a successful correspondent. His first letter, signed "Oliver Oldschool, " under which name he became widely known, appeared in that publication on Jan. 3, 1842.
In an age of letter writers, he wrote from Washington, D. C. , where he went to live in the forties, witty, vivid, sarcastic, but gentlemanly reports of the proceedings in Congress and of events at the Capital. His articles were published in many newspapers throughout the North.
He served as sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives (1847 - 51), as register-general of the United States Land Office (1851 - 53), as commissioner of customs (1861 - 71), and for years as the president of the Washington reform school.
Among his publications were Brief Outline of the Life of Henry Clay (1844), reissued under slightly varying titles, and Some Public Men and Events (2 vols. , 1875).
He became a successful correspondent of the United States Gazette, Philadelphia. His first famous letter was signed "Oliver Oldschool", later he was wudely known under this name. His pungent articles were introduced in newspapers as editorials during the forties and his editorial quarrels with the leading Democratic editors were greatly enjoyed by the Whigs. He delighted in poking fun at the Democrats to provoke merriment in their opponents. His other famous publications: Brief Outline of the Life of Henry Clay, Some Public Men and Events.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
He was an ardent Whig and later a devoted Republican.
He accepted the American system and reviewed Tyler's veto message on the tariff in 1842 with pain and indignation. He believed it was suicidal for the Whigs to adopt Tyler in 1840. Congress, he said, was the supreme organism in our free government, not the Jacksonian type of executive. Congress should never strike its flag and legislate at the foot of the throne.
The task which he considered most important was to interpret public opinion for his readers.
A kindly nature and unusual ability as a correspondent gained for him a national reputation. He was honest, faithful to his party, and infrequently very partisan.
His maxim was Fas est ab hoste doceri (It is right to learn from the enemy).
Quotes from others about the person
His description of John C. Calhoun as a debater in Congress is illustrative of his poignant style and manner of describing public characters. "Mr. Calhoun, " he wrote (Aug. 8, 1842), "utters his sentences with surprising rapidity and great indistinctness, pausing long between each; his voice is sharp, unmusical and unmodulated, he seems, therefore, to throw his sentences out by jerks, and to stop as if he had run plump against a post or period. Every sentence appears to be an embodiment of a maxim, principle, or axiom and his whole speech a string of these connected, if at all, by very distant ties of reasoning; hence he is one of the most difficult speakers to report. "
On Feb. 14, 1821, he married Rosina (Hodgkinson) Lewis, who became the mother of his four children, three of whom died in infancy. He was survived by his widow and one daughter.
