MEMOIR

THE appearance of this work has been delayed by the death of its author, which occurred at his residence in Paris, December 27, 1896. His illness was brief; it was only five days before its fatal termination that his pen was laid aside. Although the work now published was substantially completed, some of the later proofs did not receive his final revision, and a considerable number of the closing chapters are printed from manuscripts which had not been given the exact shape and finish he had intended. The introductory 'Word to the Reader,' was left in a somewhat fragmentary condition.

The writer of these prefatory notes, to whom, as a literary friend of the author, treatment of the unfinished chapters has been confided, has in various ways been aided by the General' excellent secretary, Mr. Turner. The most difficult task has been to complete the necessary work of condensation, with which the author was occupied at the time of his illness.

This work, for which General Meredith Read had for eighteen years been accumulating materials, and to which many years of steadfast labour were devoted, must now appear as a monument not only of unwearied researches, but of the man, and on it there may be appropriately inscribed some account of the career so pathetically ended. It may be well, in view of the unreserved tone of the sketch here attempted, to state that it is not given on the suggestion or under the supervision of any relative of General Meredith Read.

Fair accounts of the late General's life have appeared in

various publications, such as Scharf's 'History of Delaware,' and Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography.'

General John Meredith Read was descended from a historical family in England (from which also came the late novelist, Charles Reade), one of whose members, George Reade, was an important figure in the colonial history of Virginia, and was a great-grandfather of General Washington. Another branch of the English family was represented by John Read, son of a wealthy citizen of Dublin, who settled in Maryland, and was connected with the Principio Iron Company. In that colony was born George Read, an eminent senator, a (Delaware) signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a framer of the United States Constitution. A son of the 'Signer' was the Hon. John Read, a lawyer of great influence in the legislature of Pennsylvania, and preeminent in the councils of the Episcopal Church. His son, John Meredith Read, the late Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, was a leading publicist, and is memorable for his early maintenance of the authority of the United States Congress to restrain the spread of slavery into national territories. He was a principal founder of the Republican party, and some of its ablest leaders desired that be should be its first candidate for the Presidency.

The late General John Meredith Read was the son of this Chief Justice, and was born in Philadelphia February 21, 1837. Sprung from a race of learned jurists and statesmen, he was precociously studious, and, at the early age of thirteen, was absorbed in the great work of Gibbon, who remained to the end of life his beloved author. From poring over that history he may have derived the soldierly turn of mind which, it may be conjectured, led to his being first educated in a military academy. He graduated in 1858 at Brown University, Rhode Island, and acted for a time as Aide-de-Camp to the Governor of Rhode Island, with the rank of Colonel. Meanwhile he was studying law, having resolved to adopt the profession of his ancestors, and entered the Law School at Albany, New York, where he gradu

ated in 1859. After a year passed in studying international law in Europe, he returned to Philadelphia, and was there admitted to the bar in 1860. Soon after, however, he removed to Albany.

Being an ardent Republican, young Read threw himself with enthusiasm into the Presidential Campaign of 1860, which resulted in the election of Lincoln. An immediate sequel of that struggle was the cloud of civil war, and, his early military training being known to the Governor of New York, he was, though only in his twenty-fourth year, appointed AdjutantGeneral of that State, with the rank of Brigadier-General. In February 1861 he was placed at the head of the Government Commission which received the President-Elect (Lincoln) at Buffalo and escorted him to Washington-a duty of considerable responsibility, as there were grounds for apprehension concerning the President's personal safety.

During the Civil War the young Adjutant-General was actively engaged in his appointed work of organizing, equipping, and forwarding to the seat of war the forces of the State of New York, receiving for his able and energetic services the thanks of the War Department. His active military work continued until 1866, when he resumed his law practice.

In 1868 General Meredith Read presided over the American Social Science Congress which was held at Albany. In the same year he took a leading part in the election of General Grant to the Presidency. In 1869 he was appointed by President Grant Consul-General for France and Algeria. This was a new post, the details and arrangements of which were well adapted to the General's organizing capacity. His residence had been fixed at Paris, and the outbreak of the war between France and Germany brought on him unexpected labours and responsibilities. On the declaration of war Baron Rothschild resigned his office of Consul-General for Germany in France, and General Meredith Read was requested by Count Bismarck to act in the Consular