Hitchcock

terpretation of the observance of the Lord's Sup-
per (1795), established open communion, healed
a breach of forty years with another church,
and worked for friendliness and candor among
the different denominations. His own teaching
aimed to instil a sense of dependence upon God
and a love of universal goodness and benevo-
lence; the orthodox doctrines of election, orig-
inal sin, and imputed righteousness found no
place in his sermons, which were methodical
and well-digested, calculated "to improve the
understanding and amend the heart" He be-
lieved that religion aids government, that well-
supported churches make prosperous and happy
communities, and that attendance at public wor-
ship is "the best school of good manners." These
opinions, with his knowledge of men and affairs,
sound business management, and liberal spirit,
won the support of substantial families and
brought lasting prosperity to his Providence
church. He bequeathed $2,500 for the support
of the ministry in the society.

Hitchcock furthered his own ardent hopes for
the success of the American government by un-
tiring labors for the cultivation of public virtue
and the education of youth. His Fourth of July
orations to the Society of the Cincinnati (1786
and 1793), Discourse on the Dignity and Excel-
lence of the Human Character, Illustrated in
the Life of General George Washington (1800),
Discourse on Education (1785) advocating free
public schools, and his two books, Memoirs of
the Bloomsgrove Family,. .. Containing Senti-
ments on a Mode of Domestic Education (2 vols.,
1790), and The Farmer's Friend, or The His-
tory of Mr. Charles Worthy (i793)» a11 have
these ends in view, together with the teaching of
sound political and economic doctrine.

[Manuscript diaries of Enos Hitchcock in the R. I.
Hist. Soc.; Gad Hitchcock, A Sermon Preached at the
Ordination of the Rev. Mr. Enos Hitchcock . . . May
ist, 1771 (1771) ; David Tappan, A Funeral Discourse
Delivered . . . after the Interment of Enos Hitchcock
(1803); "Diary of Enos Hitchcock, a Chaplain in the
Revolutionary Army," with a memoir by Wm. B.
Weeden, in R. I. Hist. Soc. Pubs., n.s., vol. VII
(1900); C. A. Staples, A Hist. Discourse Delivered on
the isoth Anniversary of the Organisation of the First
Congreg. Ch. in Providence, R. I. (1879) ; C. M.
Young, A Hist. Retrospect of the First Congreg. Soc.
in Providence, R. I. (1910) ; C. A. Staples, "A Chap-
lain of the Revolution," Unitarian Rev., Apr. 1891;
M. L. J, Hitchcock, The Geneal. of the Hitchcock Fam-
ily (1894); R. I. Lit. Repository, Sept. 1814; Provi-
dence Gazette, Mar. 5, 1803.] E.M. S.B.

HITCHCOCK, ETHAN ALLEN (May 18,
1798-Aug. 5, 1870), soldier, author, was born
at Vergennes, Vt. Descended from Luke Hitch-
cock (1606-1659) of New Haven and Wethers-
field, Conn., he was the son of Samuel Hitch-
cock, a United States Circuit judge, and of Lucy

Hitchcock

Caroline (Allen) Hitchcock, a daughter of
Ethan Allen [g.^.], the Revolutionary patriot.
At the age of sixteen, on the death of his father,
he obtained an appointment to the United States
Military Academy at West Point where he grad-
uated, July 17, 1817. He rose by the usual
stages to the rank of captain on Dec. 31, 1824.
From Jan. 31, 1824, until the spring of 1827 he
acted as assistant instructor of infantry tactics
at West Point. Meanwhile he had plunged into
the study of philosophy in an effort to answer
various doubts that troubled him on the subject
of religion. He reached the satisfactory con-
clusion that "The great Whole is one, and all
the parts agree with all the parts"—a conclusion
which he was to reaffirm, much later, in volume
after volume. As a result of refusing to sit on
a court of inquiry at West Point which, he held,
contravened the 92nd Article of War, he was
ordered to rejoin his company, then at Fort
Snelling, but on his way West he stopped in
Washington and laid the case before President
Adams. When after investigation his conten-
tion was found correct, he was, in 1829, returned
to West Point as commandant of cadets. Most
remarkably, he retained the friendship of the
commanding officer whom he had opposed. Jef-
ferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. John-
ston, W. T. Sherman, and other officers of Civil
War distinction, as well as the poet, Edgar Al-
lan Poe, sat under his instruction. Toward the
end of his stay at West Point he protested vig-
orously against President Jackson's interference
with discipline, and in consequence found his
promotion in the service less rapid than it might
otherwise have been.

In 1833 he declined the offer from the Amer-
ican Colonization Society of the governorship of
Liberia (an offer renewed and again declined
in 1837). From 1833 till 1836 he served on fron-
tier duty at Fort Crawford, Wis. During the
brief "Florida War" he was acting inspector-
general on the staff of Edmund P. Games. His
testimony at a court of inquiry as to the rivalry
between Gaines and Winfield Scott won him the
dangerous enmity of Scott. From 1837 to 1840
he was on Indian duty in the Northwest, where
he administered the disbursing agency with an
integrity which obtained well-merited recog-
nition. On Sept. 28, 1841, he was sent by the
War Department to investigate the frauds against
the Cherokees; his report, however, proved so
much more trenchant than was expected that the
Department sought to suppress it and the diffi-
culty experienced by Congress in obtaining it
was one of the high points of the political season.
During two more years in Florida, the 3rd In-

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