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RICHARD HENRY DANA (1815-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 793 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RICHARD See also:HENRY See also:DANA (1815-1882)  , son of the last-mentioned, was See also:born in See also:Cambridge, See also:Massachusetts, on the 1st of See also:August 1815 . He entered Harvard in the class of 1835, but at the beginning of his junior See also:year an illness affecting his sight necessitated a suspension of his See also:college See also:work, and in August 1834 he shipped before the See also:mast for See also:California, returning in See also:September 1836 . The rough experience of this voyage did more than endow him with renewed See also:health; it changed him from a dreamy, sensitive boy, hereditarily disinclined to any sort of active career, into a self-reliant, energetic See also:man, with Broad interests and keen sympathies . He re-entered Harvard in See also:December 1836 and graduated in See also:June 1837 . He was a student at the Harvard See also:law school from 1837 to 1840, and from See also:January 1839 to See also:February 184o he was also an instructor in elocution in the college . In 184o the notes of his See also:sea-trip were published under the See also:title Two Years Before the Mast . The See also:book attained an almost unprecedented popularity both in See also:America and in See also:Europe, where it was translated into several See also:languages; and it came to be considered a classic . Immediately after the See also:appearance of this book See also:Dana began the practice of law, which brought him a large number of maritime cases . In 1841 he published The See also:Seaman's Friend, republished in See also:England as The Seaman's See also:Manual, which was See also:long the highest authority on the legal rights and duties of See also:seamen . After gaining recognition as one of the most prominent members of the See also:Suffolk See also:bar, he became associated in 1848 with the See also:Free See also:Soil See also:movement, and took a prominent See also:part in the See also:Buffalo See also:convention of that year . This step, which caused him to be ostracized for a See also:time from the See also:Boston circles in which he had been reared, brought him the cases of the fugitive slaves, Shadrach, See also:Sims and See also:Burns, and of the rescuers of Shadrach . On the See also:night following the surrender of Burns (May 1854) Dana was brutally assaulted on the Boston streets .

In 1853 he took a prominent part in the See also:

state constitutional convention . He allied himself with the Republican party on its organization, but his inborn dislike for See also:political manoeuvring prevented his ever becoming prominent in its See also:councils . In 1857 he became a See also:regular attendant at the meetings of the famous Boston Saturday See also:Club, to the members of which he dedicated his See also:account of a vacation trip, To See also:Cuba and Back (1857) . He returned to America from a trip See also:round the See also:world in time to participate in the presidential See also:campaign of 1860, and after See also:Lincoln's inauguration he was appointed See also:United States See also:district See also:attorney for Massachusetts . In this See also:office in 1863 he won before the Supreme See also:Court of the United States the famous See also:prize See also:case of the "Amy See also:Warwick," on the decision in which depended the right of the See also:government to See also:blockade the See also:Con-federate ports, without giving the Confederate States an inter-See also:national status as belligerents . He brought out in 1865 an edition of See also:Wheaton's See also:International Law, his notes constituting a most learned and valuable authority on international law and its See also:bearings on See also:American See also:history and See also:diplomacy; but immediately after its publication Dana was charged by the editor of two earlier See also:editions, See also:William See also:Beach See also:Lawrence, with infringing his See also:copyright, and was involved in litigation which was continued for thirteen years . In such See also:minor matters as arrangement of notes and verification of citations the court found against Dana, but in the See also:main Dana's notes were vastly different from Lawrence's . In 1865 Dana declined an See also:appointment as a United States district See also:judge . During the Reconstruction See also:period he favoured the congressional See also:plan rather than that of See also:President See also:Johnson, and on this account resigned the district-attorneyship . In 1867—1868 he was a member of the Massachusetts See also:House of Representatives, and in 1867 was retained with William M . See also:Evarts to prosecute See also:Jefferson See also:Davis, whose See also:admission to See also:bail he counselled . In 1877 he was one of the counsel for the United States before the See also:commission which in accordance with the treaty of See also:Washington met at See also:Halifax, N.S., to arbitrate the See also:fisheries question between the United States and See also:Great See also:Britain .

In 1878 he gave up his law practice and devoted the See also:

rest of his See also:life to study and travel . He died in See also:Rome, See also:Italy, on the 9th of January 1882 . See See also:Charles See also:Francis See also:Adams, See also:Richard See also:Henry Dana: a See also:Biography (2 vols., Boston, See also:Mass., 1891) .

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