e arch-rebel
at Zranta, whereupon Chmielnicki took the oath of allegiance to the tsar
(compact of Pereyaslavl, February 19, 1654), and all hope of an
independent Cossack state was at an end. He died on the 7th of August
1657. With all his native ability, Chmielnicki was but an eminent
savage. He was the creature of every passing mood or whim, incapable of
cool and steady judgment or of the slightest self-control--an
incalculable weather-cock, blindly obsequious to every blast of passion.
He could destroy, but he could not create, and other people benefited by
his exploits.

See P. Kulish, _On the Defection of Malo-Russia from Poland_ (Rus.)
(Moscow, 1890); S.M. Solovev, _History of Russia_ (Rus.) (Moscow,
1857, &c.), vol. x.; Robert Nisbet Bain, _The First Romanovs_, chaps.
3-4 (London, 1905). (R. N. B.)

CHOATE, JOSEPH HODGES (1832- ), American lawyer and diplomat, was born
at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 24th of January 1832. He was the son of
Dr George Choate, a physician of considerable note, and was a nephew of
Rufus Choate. After graduating at Harvard College in 1852 and at the law
school of Harvard University in 1854, he was admitted first to the
Massachusetts (1855) and then (1856) to the New York bar, and entered
the law office of Scudder & Carter in New York City. His success in his
profession was immediate, and in 1860 he became junior partner in the
firm of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, the senior partner in which was
William M. Evarts. This firm and its successor, that of Evarts, Choate &
Beaman, remained for many years among the leading law firms of New York
and of the country, the activities of both being national rather than
local. During these busy years Mr Choate was associated with many of the
most famous litigations in American legal history, including the Tilden,
A.T. Stewart, and Stanford will cases, the Kansas prohibition cases, the
Chinese exclusion cases, the Maynard election returns case, and the
Income Tax Suit. In 1871 he became a member of the "Committee of
Seventy" in New York City, which was instrumental in breaking up the
"Tweed Ring," and later assisted in the prosecution of the indicted
officials. In the retrial of the General Fitz John Porter case he
obtained a reversal of the decision of the original court-martial. His
greatest reputation was won perhaps in cross-examination. In politics he
allied himself with the Republican party on its organization, being a
freque