Edward Lillie Pierce (born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, 29 March 1829; died in Paris, 6 September 1897) was an American biographer and politician. He wrote a noted biography of Charles Sumner.
Edward Lillie Pierce (born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, 29 March 1829; died in Paris, 6 September 1897) was an American biographer and politician. He wrote a noted biography of Charles Sumner.
He graduated from Brown University and Harvard Law School, receiving the degree of LL.D. from Brown. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted as a private in the 3d Massachusetts Regiment, and served until July 1861, when he was detailed to collect the African Americans at Hampton, Va. and set them to work on the entrenchments of that town. This was the beginning of the employment of African Americans on U. S. military works. In December 1861, the United States Secretary of the Treasury dispatched Pierce to Port Royal, South Carolina to examine conditions for African Americans on the Sea Islands. In February 1862, he returned to Washington and reported to the government.
In March, he was given charge of the freedmen and plantations on those islands. He took with him nearly sixty teachers and superintendents, established schools, and suggested the formation of freedmen's aid societies. In June 1862, Pierce made his second report to the government setting forth what he had done. These reports were afterward reprinted in the Rebellion Record, and were favorably reviewed both in Europe and the United States. The care of the African Americans on the islands having been transferred to the United States Department of War, he was asked to continue in charge under its authority, but declined.
He was offered the military governorship of South Carolina, but was not confirmed. He was collector of internal revenue for the 3d Massachusetts District from October 1863 until May 1866, district attorney in 1866-69, secretary of the board of state charities in 1869-74, and a member of the legislature in 1875-76. He was a member of the Republican National Conventions of 1876 and 1884, and in December 1878, was appointed by President Hayes as Assistant Treasurer of the United States, but declined.
In 1883 he gave a library of 800 volumes for the use of both whites and African Americans of St. Helena Island, the scene of his former labors. He also founded the public library of Milton, Massachusetts, where he had resided, and had been a trustee since its organization. He was a lecturer at the Boston Law School since its foundation.
Pierce was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1892. [1]
Pierce visited Europe several times. His second visit was for the inspection of European prisons, reformatories and asylums, and the result is given in his report for 1873 as secretary of the board of state charities.
Pierce was played in the Civil War movie Glory by actor Christian Baskous.
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He was a frequent contributor to newspapers and periodicals, and published numerous articles and addresses.
In 1865, he married Elizabeth H. Kingsbury from Providence, Rhode Island. They had six children. She died in 1880. In 1882 he married Maria L. Woodheard from Huddersfield, England. They had two children. [2] His brother, Henry L. Pierce, was a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.
Samuel Gridley Howe was an American physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind. He organized and was the first director of the Perkins Institution. In 1824 he had gone to Greece to serve in the revolution as a surgeon; he also commanded troops. He arranged for support for refugees and brought many Greek children back to Boston with him for their education.
George Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice, he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.
Charles Sumner was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate during the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the freedmen. He fell into a dispute with President Ulysses Grant, a fellow Republican, over the control of Santo Domingo leading to the stripping of his power in the Senate and his subsequent effort to defeat Grant's re-election.
Robert Charles Winthrop was an American lawyer and philanthropist and one time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a descendant of John Winthrop.
George Sewall Boutwell was an American politician, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as Secretary of the Treasury under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, the 20th Governor of Massachusetts, a Senator and Representative from Massachusetts and the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was a leader in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson.
Levi Lincoln Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the 13th Governor of Massachusetts (1825–1834) and represented the state in the U.S. Congress (1834–1841). Lincoln's nine-year tenure as governor is the longest consecutive service in state history; only Michael Dukakis, John Hancock and Caleb Strong served more years, but they were not consecutive.
George Luther Stearns was an American industrialist and merchant in Medford, Massachusetts, as well as an abolitionist and a noted recruiter of black soldiers for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
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Dwight Foster was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
John Henry Clifford was an American lawyer and politician from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He served as the state's attorney general for much of the 1850s, retaining the office during administrations dominated by three different political parties. A Whig, he was elected the state's 21st governor, serving a single term from 1853 to 1854. He was the first governor of Massachusetts not born in the state.
Jeremiah Mason was a United States Senator from New Hampshire.
The Port Royal Experiment was a program begun during the American Civil War in which former slaves successfully worked on the land abandoned by planters. In 1861 the Union captured the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and their main harbor, Port Royal. The white residents fled, leaving behind 10,000 black slaves. Several private Northern charity organizations stepped in to help the former slaves become self-sufficient. The result was a model of what Reconstruction could have been. The African Americans demonstrated their ability to work the land efficiently and live independently of white control. They assigned themselves daily tasks for cotton growing and spent their extra time cultivating their own crops, fishing and hunting. By selling their surplus crops, the locals acquired small amounts of property.
William Sumner Appleton Jr. was founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) in 1910. He was the chief force behind much of the preservation of historic homes in the New England area.
Charles Hale (1831–1882) of Boston was an American legislator and diplomat. Intermittently from 1855 to 1877, he served in the Massachusetts state House and Senate. He was Speaker of the House in 1859. In the 1860s he lived in Cairo, Egypt, as the American consul-general. From 1872 to 1873 he worked as United States Assistant Secretary of State under Hamilton Fish.
Richard Frothingham Jr. was a Massachusetts historian, journalist, and politician. Frothingham was a proprietor and managing editor of The Boston Post. He also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and as the second mayor of Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States.
Theron Metcalf was an American attorney and politician from Massachusetts. He was a New England jurist and served as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
George Edward Ellis was a Unitarian clergyman and historian.
Elias Nason was a Massachusetts Congregational clergyman, educator, editor and author.
Jeremiah Colburn was a Boston numismatist. He also collected various other things.
Edward Jarvis was a United States physician.
