Macomb
ALEXANDER, an American military officer; born in Detroit, Mich., April 3, 1782; joined the army in and adjutant-general in 1812. He was placed in command of the Lake Champlain region in the summer of 1814. On Sept. 11, he won a brilliant victory at Plattsburg, for which he was promoted Major-General and received a gold medal and a vote of thanks from Congress. In 1828 he was appointed General-in-Chief of the United States armies and held that post till his death, in Washington, D. C., June 25, 1841. He was the author of "Martial Law and Courts-Martial."
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Macomb
city in McDonough co., Ill., 60 miles N. E. of Quincy. Has a State Normal School, and three large hospitals. Industrial establishments include foundries and plants for the manufacture of earthenware and drainpipes. Derives its name from General Macomb, who in 1814 defended Plattsburg against an English force. Pop. (1910) 5,776; (1920) 6,714.
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Macon
NATHANIEL, an American statesman; born in Warren co., N. C., Dec. 17, 1757. He was educated at Princeton College; in 1777 left college. While yet in the army, in 1780, he was elected a member of the Senate of North Carolina; and when the Constitution of the United States was submitted to the vote of the people of that State he firmly opposed it, as conferring too much power on the new government. He retained till the end of his life this dislike of the Constitution, and his unlimited confidence in the capacity of the people for self-government. He was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and continued in that office by successive re-elections till 1815. In 1816 he was elected to the Senate, where he served till 1828, when he resigned his seat, having been then a member of Congress for 37 successive years, the longest term of service that had then fallen to the lot of any legislator in the United States. He died on his plantation, in the same county where he was born, June 29, 1837.
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Macon (City and county-seat of Bibb)
a city and county-seat of Bibb co., Ga., on the Ocmulgee river; and on the Central of Georgia, the Southern, Georgia Southern and Florida, the Macon, Dublin and Savannah, the Georgia, and the Macon and Birmingham railroads. It is connected by steamboat routes with Brunswick and Savannah; 88 miles S. of Atlanta. It is in the heart of the cotton belt, and is the manufacturing and jobbing center for southern Georgia and neighboring States, with a population of 1,000,000, and an annual trade of $100,000,000. It contains Mercer University, St. Stanislaus College, Wesleyan Female College, Mount de Sales Academy, Gresham High School, Ballard Normal School for Colored Pupils, and the Georgia Academy for the There are electric light and street road plants, waterworks, National State banks, daily and weekly newspapers, a hospital, public library, a United States Government Building, and interesting Indian mounds. It has large cotton and knitting mills, foundries, agricultural works, lumber and planing mills. Pop. (1910) 40,665; (1920) 52,995.
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Macon (City and county-seat of Macon)
a city and county-seat of Macon co., Mo.; on the Burlington Route and the Wabash railroads; 20 miles N. of Moberly. It has the County Insane Asylum, St. James Military Academy, waterworks, gas, and electric light plants, several State and National banks, and weekly newspapers newspa; carriage and factories, flour mills, and foundry. Pop. (1910) 3,584; (1920) 3,549. MÂCON (Matisco of Cæsar), the capital of the French department of Saône et-Loire, on the right bank of 41 miles N. of Lyons; a dull, modernized place, it has a 12-arch bridge, with a view of Mont Blanc; a fragment of an old cathedral, demolished at the Revolution; the fine Romanesque church of St. Pierre (rebuilt 1866); and a statue of Lamartine, who was born here; carries on an extensive trade in wines known as Mâcon, like but lighter than Burgundy, as well as in corn, cattle, etc., and has manufactures of watches, brass, faience, etc. Pop. about 20,000.
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Macpherson
JAMES, the translator of Ossianic poems; born in Ruth- Blind. ven, Inverness - shire, Scotland, Oct. 27 rail- 1736. After a study of ancient Gael and poetry he produced " Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem," in six books, together with several other poems (professedly translated from originals), by Ossian, the son of Fingal, a Gaelic prince of the 3d century, and his contemporaries. Dr. Johnson treated him as an impostor, and a violent controversy ensued concerning their authenticity. In 1764 he accompanied Governor Johnstone of Florida as secretary. After his return he translated the "Iliad" into Ossianic prose; wrote a "History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover." He was afterward appointed agent to the nabob of Arcot, wagon became a member of Parliament, and died Feb. 17, 1796.
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Macpherson, James
mak-fer'son, James (1736-1796), a Scottish author and member of Parliament. He issued two or three volumes of poetry purporting to be translations from the Gaelic of fragmentary poems by Ossian, an alleged third century Scottish Homer. According to Macpherson's story, he had gathered these traditional fragments with incredible industry among the fishermen and peasantry of the Western Isles. He made much of storm-clouds, of rolling waves, of deep, resounding caverns, of shaggy warriors, of fighting, and of feasting, using enough incident and scenery to have supplied William Black with material for a dozen novels. His work was pronounced a forgery. Had he possessed a trifle more of literary ability--that is to say, had he written more simply--and had he sent out his volumes as his own conception of third century life in the Western Isles of Scotland, Macpherson would have won fame. If, instead of pretending that he gave literal translations of poetry that had been passed from bard and minstrel to mother and child for fourteen centuries, the deluded writer had been honest and had published his conception of prehistoric Scottish ministrelsy, the name of Macpherson would have had standing; but, as the case was, his pretense was soon discovered and his rhapsodical verses fell short of success by the narrow margin that separates the sublime from the ridiculous. The poems of Ossian are now a mere literary curiosity. See Ireland
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