Edward L. Pierce
Encyclopedia
Edward Lillie Pierce was a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. He wrote a noted biography of Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...

.

Biography

He graduated from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

, receiving the degree of LL.D. from Brown. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...

 in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 he enlisted as a private in the 3d Massachusetts Regiment, and served until July 1861, when he was detailed to collect the negroes at Hampton and set them to work on the intrenchments of that town. This was the beginning of the employment of negroes on U. S. military works. In December 1861, the United States Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...

 dispatched Pierce to Port Royal
Port Royal
Port Royal was a city located at the end of the Palisadoes at the mouth of the Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1518, it was the centre of shipping commerce in the Caribbean Sea during the latter half of the 17th century...

 to examine into the condition of the negroes on the sea islands. In February 1862, he returned to Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and reported to the government.

In March, he was given charge of the freedmen and plantations on those islands. He took with him nearly sixty teachers and superintendents, established schools, and suggested the formation of freedmen's aid societies. In June 1862, Pierce made his second report to the government setting forth what he had done. These reports were afterward reprinted in the Rebellion Record, and were favorably reviewed both in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and the United States. The care of the negroes on the islands having been transferred to the war department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

, he was asked to continue in charge under its authority, but declined.

He was offered the military governorship of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, but was not confirmed. He was collector of internal revenue for the 3d Massachusetts District from October 1863 until May 1866, district attorney in 1866-69, secretary of the board of state charities in 1869-74, and a member of the legislature
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...

 in 1875-76. He was a member of the Republican National Conventions of 1876 and 1884, and in December 1878, was appointed by President Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...

 assistant Treasurer of the United States
Treasurer of the United States
The Treasurer of the United States is an official in the United States Department of the Treasury that was originally charged with the receipt and custody of government funds, though many of these functions have been taken over by different bureaus of the Department of the Treasury...

, but declined.

In 1883 he gave to the white and colored people of St. Helena Island, the scene of his former labors, a library of 800 volumes. He also founded the public library of Milton, Massachusetts
Milton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 27,003 at the 2010 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and architect Buckminster Fuller. Milton also has the highest percentage of...

, where he had resided, and had been a trustee since its organization. He was a lecturer at the Boston Law School since its foundation.

Pierce visited Europe several times. His second visit was for the inspection of European prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

s, reformatories and asylums, and the result is given in his report for 1873 as secretary of the board of state charities.

Works

  • American Railroad Law (New York, 1857)
  • Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner (4 vols., Boston, 1877-93)
  • The Law of Railroads (Boston)
  • Walter's American Law, editor (1860)
  • Index of the Special Railroad Laws of Massachusetts, compiler (1874)

He was a frequent contributor to newspapers and periodicals, and published numerous articles and addresses.

Family

In 1865, he married Elizabeth H. Kingsbury from Providence, Rhode Island. They had six children. She died in 1880. In 1882 he married Maria L. Woodheard from Huddersfield, England. They had two children. His brother, Henry L. Pierce
Henry L. Pierce
Henry Lillie Pierce was a United States Representative fromMassachusetts. He was born in Stoughton on August 23, 1825. He pursued...

, was a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts.

External links

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