concluded to remain in the country, to supervise in person his large business interests, compromising with this evil turn of fortune by sending his wife and children in advance to America, three of the children having already preceded them to Philadelphia. Soon afterwards the "Treaty of Florida" between the United States and Spain having been signed, by which treaty the United States was pledged to pay all the just claims of Americans against Spain, in consideration of the cession of Florida to the United States, a satisfactory solution of Mr. Meade's difficulty seemed to be providentially reached, and accordingly, in 1820, three years after the departure of his family, he rejoined it in Philadelphia, and after living there a year, removed with it to Washington, where he expected to be best able to forward the claim which had been transferred by Spain to his own country, and with his own consent. But, as the event proved, he had much better have waited for Spain's recuperation in her finances, for although prosecuted zealously by Mr. Meade, and after his demise by his widow, and although on one occasion passing both Houses of Congress, but not at the same session, and acknowledged to be just by all the legal talent which has examined the claim, it still remains unpaid, whilst Florida, to the ultimate inch of her shores, is the undisputed territory of the United States. The outcome of Mr. Meade's pursuit of justice in the country to which he had returned, his native land, was that, harassed by long suspense and repeated disappointments, his health was affected, and he died in Washington on June 25th, 1828, at fifty years of age.

It became necessary for the widow, under the circumstances of her diminished fortune and numerous family, to live with an economy to which she had never been accustomed. Accordingly, as one means toward it, George Gordon Meade was withdrawn from the boarding-school

where he was, at Mt. Airy, near Philadelphia, and became a pupil in Washington, at a school kept by Mr. Salmon P. Chase, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Lincoln's first Administration. Thence he went for a while to a boarding-school at Mt. Hope, Baltimore. The tastes of the youth were inclined towards a collegiate education, which his mother also favored, but the change in the financial affairs of the family rendering another course desirable, she sought for him an appointment to the Military Academy at West Point. The first application failed, the second succeeded, and during the interval of waiting, George continued at the school at Mt. Hope, and in the summer of 1831 he was appointed to the cadetship which had been promised him. At the Academy he remained during the usual routine course of books and physical training, not particularly high in his stand, nor, on the other hand, particularly low. Nothing is more fallacious, however, than judgment of mental powers and character at an early age, for the reason that some persons have the capacity of indefinite mental growth, and others seem even to retrograde.

George had never intended to remain in the army after his graduation, but merely to serve in it sufficiently long to warrant his resigning, as having afforded an equivalent for his education; so we find him, at the end of the second year of the military course, feeling that the routine is very monotonous. Still he kept on, and passed through the whole four years of the course, and then, securing the customary leave of three months after graduation, he went during that time on the survey of the Long Island Railroad. His health was delicate at this period, his constitution far from confirmed, and some of his friends were very anxious that he should not be exposed to the malarious atmosphere of Florida, where his regiment was stationed, and they even went the length of advising him to resign his position in the

army. He determined, however, to give the climate at least a fair trial, and as, at that juncture, luckily for him, his brother-in-law, Commodore Alexander James Dallas, in charge of the West India Squadron, invited him to take passage to his post on the flagship of the squadron, he started for Florida under the most favorable auspices. After a short detour among the West Indies the ship touched at Havana, and there the intelligence of Dade's Massacre awaited it, and Commodore Dallas, proceeding at once towards the seat of war, and taking measures with reference to the Indian outbreak, was able incidentally to land Lieutenant Meade at Tampa Bay, where his company was stationed. This was the beginning of the Seminole War.

The campaign was conducted by General Winfield Scott. The column with which Lieutenant Meade marched was commanded by Colonel William Lindsay. Lieutenant Meade was not destined, however, to remain long on duty in this campaign. As had been apprehended, his delicate constitution was unequal to the stress put upon it by the climate of the interior of southern Florida, where the Indians lurked in the Everglades and other fastnesses, and he was seized with a low fever which rendered him unfit for the contemplated duty of active pursuit of the enemy. So he was ordered to deport to the North Fork of the Canadian River, Arkansas, a party of Seminoles, who were to be there settled as a measure for the pacification of Florida. This duty performed, he reported in person, under orders, to Washington, where, in July, he was assigned to duty at the Watertown Arsenal, Mass., but did not long remain there, for, towards the close of 1836, he resigned his commission in the army.

He accepted a position at once as assistant-engineer in the construction of the Alabama, Florida, and Georgia Railroad, of which his brother-in-law, Major James D. Graham,

U.S. A., was chief engineer. This took him to Pensacola, Florida, where he was engaged until nearly the middle of July, 1837, when a survey at the mouth of the Sabine River, the boundary line between the United States and Texas, being needed by the War Department, he was recommended to and selected by the Department as a competent person to execute the work. After this survey, which related to the navigability of the waters at the mouth of the Sabine River, he went, as principal assistant-engineer, with Captain Andrew Talcott, U. S. A., who was to make a survey at the mouths of the Mississippi River, with reference to improving the navigation there, his employment on this duty, including office work, lasting from November, 1837, until the early part of 1839. In 1840 Lieutenant Meade was employed as one of the assistants to the joint commission appointed to establish the boundary line between the United States and Texas, and, after the completion of the work, he returned to Washington, where, in August, he was appointed by the Secretary of War one of the civil-assistants on the survey of the Northeastern Boundary, the line between the territory of the United States and that of Great Britain.

In the society of Washington, Lieutenant Meade was accustomed to meet the family of the Hon. John Sergeant, to whose eldest daughter, Margaretta, he became engaged, and the young couple were married on the 31st of December, 1840, at the house of Mr. Sergeant, in Philadelphia, Lieutenant Meade continuing to hold his position as civil-assistant on the survey of the Northeastern Boundary. This new responsibility, however, coming upon him after his experiences of various employments in civil-engineering, all of which had lasted but a short time, induced him to try to procure reinstatement in the army, and, this aim proving successful, he was, in 1842, appointed second-lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, continuing, however,

as assistant-engineer in the survey of the Northeastern Boundary until near the end of 1843, when he was ordered to report to the office of Topographical Engineers, in Philadelphia, where his duties, under Major Hartman Bache, became those of the designing and construction of lighthouses.

He had been fulfilling this assignment to duty for somewhat over a year and a half, when, in August, 1845, he received orders to report for service at Aransas Bay, Texas, with the military force organized with reference to the troubles growing out of the disputed boundary between the United States and Mexico; a force which was at first an army of observation, but which became converted into one of invasion, General Zachary Taylor, soon thereafter to become President of the United States, commanding the American troops at the designated point. Lieutenant Meade was at this time thirty years of age. His constitution had wonderfully hardened between this and the time we found him unable to support the exposure of campaigning in the Seminole War. His appearance had entirely changed within that period. The dandy phase of his existence, mentioned in the concluding chapter of this work, had sloughed away in the rude contact of men and affairs in different climes on the frontier of the country. He was now simply a well-dressed man, but nothing more than that; mindful of the axiom of Lord Chesterfield, never to be the first to adopt a fashion, nor the last to leave it; always particular in his attire, except in the field, where he was singularly indifferent to dress; a statement which the statue of him in bronze, in the Philadelphia Park, confirms, where the artist has sacrificed to the literalness of the brief moment the spirit that should endure through time. His manner was alert, and indicative of quickness of apprehension and fertility of resource, and his manners were those of a man gifted by nature, and by education adapted to shine in society.