er was made a major-general. He died in New York on the 9th of
October 1868. He sided with President Jackson on the question of
nullification; was an efficient supporter of President Polk's
administration during the Mexican War; and was an ardent advocate of
slavery extension into the Territories, but when the Compromise of 1850
had been agreed upon he became its staunch supporter as a Union
Democrat, and on that issue was elected governor of Georgia by a large
majority. In 1860, however, he ceased to be a Unionist, and became a
leader of the secession movement. From the close of the war until his
death he vigorously opposed the Reconstruction Acts.

COBBETT, WILLIAM (1766-1835), English politician and writer, was born
near Farnham in Surrey, according to his own statement, on the 9th of
March 1766. He was the grandson of a farm-labourer, and the son of a
small farmer; and during his early life he worked on his father's farm.
At the age of sixteen, inspired with patriotic feeling by the sight of
the men-of-war in Portsmouth harbour, he thought of becoming a sailor;
and in May 1783, having, while on his way to Guildford fair, met the
London coach, he suddenly resolved to accompany it to its destination.
He arrived at Ludgate Hill with exactly half-a-crown in his pocket, but
an old gentleman who had travelled with him invited him to his house,
and obtained for him the situation of copying clerk in an attorney's
office. He greatly disliked his new occupation; and rejecting all his
father's entreaties that he would return home, he went down to Chatham
early in 1784 with the intention of joining the marines. By some
mistake, however, he was enlisted in a regiment of the line, which
rather more than a year after proceeded to St John's, New Brunswick. All
his leisure time during the months he remained at Chatham was devoted to
reading the contents of the circulating library of the town, and getting
up by heart Lowth's _English Grammar_. His uniform good conduct, and the
power of writing correctly which he had acquired, quickly raised him to
the rank of corporal, from which, without passing through the
intermediate grade of sergeant, he was promoted to that of
sergeant-major. In November 1791 he was discharged at his own request,
and received the official thanks of the major and the general who signed
his discharge. In February 1792 Cobbett married the daughter of a
sergeant-major of artillery, whom he had met some years b