Lucius Manlius Sargent
Lucius Manlius Sargent | |
---|---|
Boston, Massachusetts | |
Died | June 2, 1867 Boston, Massachusetts | (aged 80)
Education | Phillips Exeter Academy Harvard College |
Spouses | Mary Sarah Binney
(m. 1816; died 1824)Sarah Cutler Dunn (m. 1825) |
Children | 4, including Epes Sargent (grandfather) |
Lucius Manlius Sargent (June 25, 1786 – June 2, 1867) was an American author, antiquarian, and temperance advocate who was a member of the prominent Sargent family of Boston.[1]
Early life
Sargent was born in
He was the brother of businessman politician
Education
Lucius Manlius attended a number of elementary and secondary schools, including Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he passed to Harvard in 1804.[1] He did not complete his studies there, for a pamphlet published by him in 1807, No. 1 of the New Milk Cheese, pours furious scorn on an official of the college with whom he had had a dispute about the quality of the food at the commons table. He studied law after leaving college and was admitted to the bar on February 19, 1811, but he never practised to any extent, for he inherited wealth and greatly increased it by conservative speculation.[3]
Career
He turned to literature as a vocation, publishing The Culex of Virgil; with a Translation into English Verse and a collection of Latin riddles in 1807 and Hubert and Ellen, a volume of poems, in 1812. At the Boston peace celebration on February 22, 1815 (following the War of 1812), an ode of his, "Wreaths for the Chieftain," was sung. He wrote constantly for the newspapers and became well known for his literary interests.[4]
Temperance
He found a popular subject in temperance reform, which he took up with characteristic assertiveness. From 1830 till the approach of the Civil War he spoke and wrote on this theme so frequently and vigorously that he became one of the most uncompromising and conspicuous leaders in the crusade against liquor.[5] He wrote Three Temperance Tales (2 vols., 1848), twenty-one stories of a tract-like nature bearing such titles as "My Mother's Gold Ring",[6] "I Am Afraid There Is A God", "Groggy Harbor", and "An Irish Heart", first published in separate issues between 1833 and 1843. These were widely distributed by religious and temperance societies as well as by Sargent himself. His temperance tales were translated into several languages.[7]
Antiquarian
He also achieved prominence as an
Though he showed enthusiasm for the past, his efforts were generally directed towards blasting something offensive to him out of existence. At seventy-five he published The Ballad of the Abolition Blunder-buss (1861), which abuses Ralph Waldo Emerson and others for their antislavery views as violently as his Temperance Tales do the saloonkeeper.[3] Even one of his obituaries refers to him as a man of "harsh prejudices", though it acknowledges the urbanity of his manners in his ordinary dealings and the warmth of his attachment to his family and friends.
He also wrote Reminiscences of Samuel Dexter (1858) and The Irrepressible Conflict (1861). His numerous poems were never printed in book-form.
Personal life
On April 3, 1816, he married Mary Binney (1786–1824), a sister of Horace Binney of Philadelphia. Her sister, Susan Binney was married to John Bradford Wallace and were the parents of Horace Binney Wallace. Before her early death, they had three children together, including:[1]
- Mary Turner Sargent (1818–1841)
- Horace Binney Sargent (1821–1908), who married Elizabeth Little Swett (1822–1866)
After the death of his first wife in 1824, Lucius Manlius married Sarah Cutler Dunn (1797–1868) on July 14, 1825. Their son:
- Lucius Manlius Sargent, Jr. (1826–1864)
Sargent died in Boston on June 2, 1867.[1]
Descendants
His son,
His younger son, Lucius Jr., graduated at Harvard in 1848, and at the medical school there in 1857, becoming house surgeon and dispensary physician at the
Honors
In 1842, Harvard conferred the degree of A.M. on him, thereby recognizing his public services and condoning his undergraduate rebellion, for the violence of which he often expressed regret. He was preeminently a good hater, but he was a conspicuous man in his day and helped to develop a sentiment in favor of prohibition, besides making rather valuable contributions to local history.
References
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Sargent, Winthrop (1922). Early Sargents of New England. Privately printed. p. 13. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ISBN 9781139456838. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ a b c "Lucius Manlius Sargent". www.bostonathenaeum.org. Boston Athenæum. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ "Lucius Manlius Sargent". hymnary.org. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ISBN 9781372821141. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ISBN 9781598844795. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ Sargent, Lucius Manlius (1852). The Temperance Tales. Boston: John P. Jewett & Company. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ISBN 9780674526624. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- Sources
- "Sargent, Lucius Manlius". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1928–1990.
- Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.