Military officer; born in
Boscawen, N. H., July 24, 1798.
After he left the academy at
Exeter, N. H., he completed his studies in a French college at
Montreal.
He entered the army as a cadet in 1812, when the war with
England began.
While his father,
Lieutenant-Colonel Dix, was at
Fort McHenry,
Baltimore, young
Dix pursued his studies at St. Mary's College.
In the spring of 1813 he was appointed an ensign in the army, and was soon promoted to third lieutenant, and made adjutant of an independent battalion of nine companies.
He was commissioned a captain in 1825, and having continued in the army sixteen years, in 1828 he left the military service.
His father had been mortally hurt at Chrysler's Field, and the care of extricating the paternal estate from difficulties, for the benefit of his mother and her nine children, had devolved upon him. He had studied law while in the army.
After visiting
Europe for his health,
Captain Dix settled as a lawyer in
Cooperstown, N. Y. He became warmly engaged in politics, and in 1830
Governor Throop appointed him adjutant-general of the
State.
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In 1833 he was elected secretary of
state of New York, which office made him a member of the Board of Regents of the
University and conferred upon him other important positions.
Chiefly through his exertions public libraries were introduced into the school districts of the
State and the school laws systematized.
In 1842 he was a member of the New York Assembly, and from 1845 to 1849 of the United States Senate.
In the discussion of the question of the annexation of
Texas and of slavery he expressed the views of the small Free Soil party whose candidate for governor he was in 1848.
In 1859 he was appointed postmaster of New York City; and when in January, 1861,
Buchanan's cabinet was dissolved, he was called to the post of
Secretary of the Treasury.
In that capacity he issued a famous order under the following circumstances: He found the department in a wretched condition, and proceeded with energy in the administration of it. Hearing of the tendency in the slave-labor States to seize
United States property within their borders, he sent a special agent of his department (
Hemphill Jones) to secure for service revenue cutters at
Mobile and New Orleans.
He found the
Lewis Cass in the hands of the
Confederates at
Mobile.
the
Robert McClelland, at New Orleans, was in command of
Capt. J. G. Breshwood, of the navy.
Jones gave the captain an order from
Dix to sail to the
North.
Breshwood absolutely refused to obey the order.
This fact
Jones made known, by telegraph, to
Dix, and added that the collector at New Orleans (
Hatch) sustained the rebellious captain.
Dix instantly telegraphed back his famous order, of which
a fac-simile is given on the opposite page.
The Confederates in New Orleans had possession of the telegraph, and did not allow this despatch to pass, and the
McClelland was handed over to the authorities of
Louisiana.
As
Secretary Dix's order was flashed over the land it thrilled every heart with hope that the temporizing policy of the administration had ended.
The loyal people rejoiced, and a small medal was struck by private hands commemorative of the event, on one side of which was the Union flag, and around it the words, βthe flag of our Union, 1863β ; on the other, in two circles, the last clause of
Dix's famous order.
After the war the authorship of the famous order was claimed for different persons, and it was asserted that
General Dix was only the medium for its official communication.
In reply to an inquiry addressed to
General Dix at the close of August, 1873, he responded as follows from his country residence:
Seafield, West Haven, N. Y, Sept. 21, 1873.
Your favor is received.
The β order β alluded to was written by myself, without any suggestion from any one, and it was sent off three days before it was communicated to the
President or cabinet.
Mr. Stanton's letter to
Mr. Bonner, of the
Ledger, stating that it was wholly mine, was published in the New York
Times last October or late in September, to silence forever the misrepresentations in regard to it. After writing it (about seven o'clock in the evening), I gave it to
Mr. Hardy, a clerk in the Treasury Department, to copy.
The copy was signed by me, and sent to the telegraph office the same evening, and the original was kept, like all other original despatches.
It is now, as you state, in possession of my son,
Rev. Dr. Dix, No. 27 West Twenty-fifth street, New York.
It was photographed in 1863 or 1864, and you, no doubt, have the facsimile thus made.
was appointed major-general of volunteers May 16, 1861; commander at
Baltimore, and then at
Fort Monroe and on the
Virginia peninsula; and in September, 1862, he was placed in command of the 7th Army Corps.
He was also chosen president of the Pacific Railway Company.
In 1866 he was appointed minister to
France, which post he filled until 1869.
He was elected governor of the
State of New York in 1872, and retired to private life at the end of the term of two years, at which time he performed rare service for the good name of the
State of New York.
General Dix was a fine classical scholar, and translated several passages from
Catullus, Virgil, and
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others into polished English verse.
He made a most conscientious and beautiful translation of the
Dies Irae;. He died in New York City, April 21, 1879.
