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This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Faustus Socinus And The Revival Of Unitarian Principles
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Samuel Osgood was an American politician who served as the country's first Presidential mansion, represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress and was the fourth Postmaster General of the United States.
Background
Samuel Osgood was born on February 3, 1747, in Andover, Massachussets. He was descended in the fifth generation from Capt. John Osgood who came to Massachusetts in 1638 and settled at Andover about 1645. Samuel was the third son of Capt. Peter Osgood and Sarah, daughter of Captain Timothy and Catherine (Sprague) Johnson.
Education
Samuel Osgood was educated at Harvard and graduated in 1770.
Career
After the university Samuel had planned to enter the ministry, but he joined his brother Peter in business. Ill health is assigned for this change of purpose. With the outbreak of the Revolution young Osgood joined the army as captain of a company of minute men, became major and aide-de-camp to Gen. Artemas Ward, and subsequently attained the rank of colonel. His legislative apprenticeship included service in the Essex convention (1774), in the Provincial Congress (1775 and after), in the constitutional convention of 1779, in the state Senate (1780), and in the Philadelphia convention for the limitation of prices (1780). Elected in February 1781, he took his seat in the Continental Congress on June 12, and was reelected until, by virtue of the three-year limitation prescribed by the Articles of Confederation, his services were terminated, March 1, 1784. As a member of Congress he was alert and capable, serving on many important committees and having a hand in the preparation of numerous constructive measures, particularly those relating to business and finance. He was, for instance, appointed by Congress a director in the Bank of North America (1781) and was a member of the important treasury board throughout his three years of service.
Marbois, the secretary of the French legation, himself favorably impressed with Osgood's ability and character, recorded that he was much esteemed for his good sense and integrity. Osgood, for his part, was among those who became decidedly suspicious of the designs of France. He was, in fact, one of that numerous group with whom fear of centralized power and of "aristocratical influence" was becoming an obsession. A particular manifestation of this feeling during the latter part of Osgood's career in Congress was directed against the one-man power in finance (Robert Morris) and the outcome was that in 1784 the treasury was put into commission. As Gerry, one of the promoters of the measure, had planned, on January 25, 1785, shortly after Congress had removed to New York, Osgood was chosen one of the three commissioners of the treasury. These - Osgood, Walter Livingston, and Arthur Lee - conducted the business of the treasury until the establishment of the new system, with a secretary at the head, in September 1789.
It was altogether in keeping with Osgood's trend of thought in this period that he should oppose the new Constitution. It had cost him, he wrote to Samuel Adams, "many a sleepless night to find out the most obnoxious Part of the proposed Plan, " and he had finally fixed upon "the exclusive Legislation in the Ten Miles Square. " Along with numerous others he had favored a "perambulatory" Congress. Nevertheless, he became sufficiently reconciled to the new government to seek an appointment under it, and Washington made him postmaster-general (confirmed September 26, 1789). Osgood's plan for the postal service emphasized the importance of connecting the capital with the "extremes, " but Congress failed to enact a new measure respecting the department until after his retirement. Upon the removal of the government to Philadelphia he resigned and was succeeded by Timothy Pickering in August 1791. No doubt the ties he had established in New York influenced his decision to remain there.
In the ten years following 1791 Osgood appears to have taken only minor parts in politics, devoting himself particularly to theological studies. In the campaign of 1800, however, he won election to the New York assembly, and was chosen speaker. He also won in this campaign a most unflattering portrait from the vitriolic pen of "Aristides, " who referred to him sarcastically as "that learned and pious expounder of the prophecies. " A friend of Jefferson since Congressional days and now a thoroughgoing Republican, Osgood lost no time in offering to the new President his services, and was rewarded with the office of supervisor of internal revenue for the district of New York. A more desirable appointment shortly followed, May 10, 1803, when he was made naval officer of the port of New York. This office he retained until his death in 1813.
Samuel Osgood was a founding member of the Public School Society, the American Academy of Fine Arts, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Connections
His first wife, Martha Brandon, to whom Osgood was married January 4, 1775, died in 1778 and on May 24, 1786, he married Maria (Bowne) Franklin, widow of Walter Franklin of New York City.