The biographical encyclopœdia of Ohio of the nineteenth century:

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPtEI)IA.
of the people had their primary foundation in the truths of
Christianity. In I1849 he made an elaborate speech, in
which he maintained that man could not b)e property, and
that to treat him as such is a crime. In the same year, the
Senate having amended an appropriation bill, by inserting
a provision extending the laws of the coasting trade to California, with the intention, as was believed, to legalize the
trade ill slaves between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, he
called attention to the matter on the last night of the session,
and succeeded ill getting the provision removed. In the
Oregon controversy, he maintained the right of the United
States to the whole Territory, declaring that that right
would be sacrificed by the administration for fear that a war
with Great Britain would lead to the abolition of slavery.
In the celebrated case of the "Armistad," he maintained th e
right of the negroes to take their freedom, and zealously
opposed the effort to induce Congress to indemnify the
Spanish claimants. In 1847 he refused to vote for Robert
C. Winthrop, the Whig candidate for Speaker, deeming him
unsound on the slavery question. He acted generally with
the Whig party till 1848, giving his hearty support to General Harrison and Henry Clay, but refused, o01 anti-slavery
grounds, to support Geiieral Taylor. In. the election of
I848 he acted with the Free-Soil party. In I849 he united
with eight other members of the House in refusing to vote
for any candidate who would not pledge himself to such a
construction of the standing committee, as would secure a
respectful consideration of petitions relating to slavery, in
consequence of which, the Whig candidate for Speaker,
Robert C. Winthrop, after a struggle of three weeks, failed
of his election, Howell Cobb, the Democratic candidate,
being chosen by a plurality of votes. In i85o he took a
prominent part in opposing the enactment of the " compromise measures," so termed, especially the fugitive slave
law. He was also conspicuous in the debates upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in those upon the
subsequent troubles in Kansas. In July, I850, he was distinctly charged with the abstraction of important papers
from the general post-office. A committee composed chiefly
of his political opponents, after a rigid examination, exonerated him entirely, it being conclusively shown that the
charge was the result of a conspiracy against him. On
May 8thl, I856, while addressing the House, he suddenly
fell to the floor in a state of unconsciousness, from which,
however, he soon revived, though in a condition of great
weakness. On January 17th, I858, the same accident
occurred, and for some moments he was supposed to be dead.
He slowly returned to consciousness, but was compelled for
a time to be absent from his post; his disease was an affection of the nervous system acting upon the heart. Having
declined a renomination by his constituents, he was appointed, by Presidlent Lincoln, Consull-General for Canada, lyo h im h antra nls,hsteavn
the duties of whdich office be discharged at Montreal until] aeo peln ote nthi aietnu,ada h
his death. In 1843 he wrote a series of political essays,
signed " Pacificus," which attracted considerable attention.
6X;)
a ELACOURT, LOUIS B., Editor and Proprietor
of the lValional Zeiitiig, and son of Charles A.
W. and Seraphinie (-Haacke) Delacourt, was born
at Colmar, France, January 25th, 1830. He is,
as the names of his parents would plainly inidi cate, of mixed German and French descent. The
family of Delacourt, or, to follow the original orthography,
(/e la Coiii-, is one of ancient French pedigree, and being
royalists inl politics, its members fled across the Rlliiie oli
the break,ing out of the Frenlch revolution, and found safety
in one of the German states till the carnage of that terrible
epoch waas concluded by the triumphs of Napoleon- the First.
Tlhe parents of Mr. Delacourt removed to Magdeburg,
Saxony, the year following his birth, and he received his
edutcation at the renowned polytechnlic school of that city,
graduating from the Department of Engineering in I846.
At the age of eighteen Ml. Delacourt came to New York
and devoted one year to acqulirinlg a perfect Icnouwledge of
the English language, after which he engaged in the tobacco
trade, dealing principally in imported cigars. In i85o he
removed to Charleston, South Carolina, where he remained
five years in the same line of trade as in New York, and
during the last year of his residence occupied the editorial
chair of the' Clh(arleston Zeilun~', the first German paper
established in the State. Leaving Charleston in 1855, he
engaged in the dry-goo(ds trade at New Orleans till the
breaking out of the rebellion in I86I, when he w,ent to
Havana andcl remained a year, coming, in the full of I862,
to Hamilton, where he soon afterwards established the
.atioi. al Ze,ituzi. A man of nervous temperament and
qutick. perceptions, with varied experience and an education
that gave himt perfect command of three languages, Mr.
Delacourt was not long in making his paper a power in the
communify. Being also a good public speaker, he came
frequently before the people in the political campaigns, and
soon bad acquired an acquainltanlce and an influence seconl(I
to no country editor in the State. His paper reaching a
large class of native Germaans ill Butler county and the valley of the Miamai who cannot read English, has the advantage of appealing to them in their native tongue, and as the
organ of the Democratic party, has an influence that is very
pronounced. Mr. Delacourt has been a member of the
509
A volume of his speeches in Congress m,,,is published in
B.,)stoii in 1853; and an interesting narrative of the oppre-ssion exercised by the slaveholdei-s of Florida over the
ne,roes, Inclians, and mixed races of the peninsula, under
the title of 11 The Exiles of Florida," was published in 185S,
at Columbus, Ohio. "A History of the Rebellion, its
Authors and Causes," which. is mainly -t history of the antislavery struggle of the last tweiity-five years-antecedent to
the civil ",ar-in Congress, was published just after his
death, which occurred at Montreal, Canada East, May 27tb,
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