David Hartley (the Younger)
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David Hartley, the younger (1732 - December 19, 1813), statesman, scientific inventor, and the son of the philosopher David Hartley. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull, and also held the position of His Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary, appointed by King George III to treat with the United States of America. He was a signatory to the Treaty of Paris. Hartley was the first MP to put the case for abolition of the slave trade before the House of Commons, moving a resolution in 1776 that "the slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and the rights of men"[1].
[edit] Life
Hartley was born in Bath, Somerset, England in 1732. He marticulated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, April 6, 1747 at age 15; proceeded to a B.A. March 14 1750, and was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford until his death. He became a student of Lincoln's Inn in 1759. During the 1760's he gained recognition as a scientist and, through mutual interests, he met and became an intimate friend and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin. Hartley was sympathetic to the Lord Rockingham's Whigs, although he did not hold office in either Rockingham ministry. He represented Hull in parliament from 1774 to 1780, and from 1782 to 1784, and attained considerable reputation as an opponent of the war with America, and of the African slave trade.
He was expert in public finance and spoke frequently in parliament in opposition to the war in America. Although a liberal on American policy, Hartley was a long-time friend of Lord North and strongly disliked the Prime Minister, Shelburne. He supported the Coalition by voting against Shelburne's peace preliminaries. It was probably owing to his friendship with Franklin, and to his consistent support of Lord Rockingham, that he was selected by the government to act as plenipotentiary in Paris, where on September 3, 1783 he and Franklin drew up and signed the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States of America. He died at Bath on December 19, 1813, in his eighty-second year.
His portrait was painted by George Romney and has been engraved by J. Walker in mezzotint. Wraxall says that Hartley, "though destitute of all personal recommendation of manner, possessed some talent with unsullied probity, added to indefatigable perseverance and labour." He adds that his speeches were intolerably long and dull, and that "his rising always operated like a dinner bell" (Memoirs, iii. 490).
[edit] Writings
Hartley's writings are mostly political, and set forth the arguments of the extreme liberals of his time. In 1764 he wrote a vigorous attack on the Bute administration, "inscribed to the man who thinks himself a minister." The most important are his Letters on the American War, published in London 1778 and 1779, and addressed to his constituents. "The road," he writes, "is open to national reconciliation between Great Britain and America. The ministers have no national object in view . . . the object was to establish an influential dominion of the crown by means of an independent American revenue uncontrolled by parliament." He seeks throughout to vindicate the opposition to the war. In 1794 he printed at Bath a sympathetic Argument on the French Revolution, addressed to his parliamentary electors.
In his last years, Hartley studied chemistry and mechanics. in 1785 he published Account of a Method of Securing Buildings and Ships against Fire, by placing thin iron planks under floors and attaching them to the ceilings, partly to prevent immediate access of the fire, and partly to stop the free supply of air. He built a house on Putney Heath to verify the efficacy of his invention, and on the occasion of a fire at Rchmond House, December 21, 1791 wrote a pamphlet urging the value of his fire-plates. Hartley edited his father's well-known Observations on Man, in London 1791 and (with notes and additions) in 1801.
In 1859 a number of Hartley's papers were sold in London. Six volumes of letters and other documents relating to the peace went to America and passed into the collection of L.Z. Leiter of Washington; others are in the British Museum.
[edit] References
- ^ The History of the Rise, Progress and Abolition of the African Slave-Trade (1839), Thomas Clarkson (available at Project Gutenberg)
- Dictionary of National Biography - Volume IX: Harris - Hovenden (1908), edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, The Macmillian Company, New York, NY
