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 Hon . Amo s Tuce. M. 
 
SKETCH 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 HON. AMOS TUCK 
 
 Read before the Maine Historical Society, 
 December, 1888, 
 
 
 r 
 
 J. W. DEARBORN, M. D. 
 
 PARSONSFIELD, MAINE. 
 

 PRINTED BY B. THURSTON & CO., PORTAND, ME. 
 
The Life and Character 
 
 HON. AMOS TUCK. 
 
 In this brief monograph it is not proposed to 
 present much that is new relative to the career of 
 this noble man, but rather to collect, collate and 
 put in form for preservation, the statements which 
 have from time to time appeared, outlining in some 
 degree the purity of life and nobility of character 
 of one of the many worthy sons of grand old Par- 
 sonsfield, Amos Tuck. 
 
 This is a delicate task, as he was to me an entire 
 stranger, and therefore upon others I am obliged to 
 depend for information and necessary data; there 
 exists also a keen sense of my inability to do ample 
 justice to the subject of this sketch. Again it be- 
 comes a delightful privilege to present this tribute 
 
4 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 to one whose birth was in my native town, and 
 whose ancestors were immigrants thither from the 
 same neighborhood with my own. 
 
 Robert Tuck was the progenitor of all the fam- 
 ilies of that name in New England. Two hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago he emigrated from England 
 and settled in Winnacunnet, now Hampton, N. H. 
 The land granted him by the town continued in 
 his possession and that of his male descendants 
 one hundred and sixty years, and during five gen- 
 erations. He died in 1664, surviving his son Ed- 
 ward, who came from England with him, twelve 
 years, and leaving the homestead to John, son of 
 said Edward, who was deacon of the Congregational 
 church, and who died in 1742, aged ninety years. 
 After him his son Jonathan, also deacon, of the 
 fourth generation, occupied, dying in 1781, ao-ed 
 eighty-three years. His son Jonathan, of the 
 fifth generation lived and here died in 1780, aged 
 forty-four years. His son John with his wife 
 and their two oldest children came to Parsons- 
 field in 1807, where his brothers Josiah and 
 Samuel had already settled. Amos, the son 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 5 
 
 of John and subject of this memoir, was born 
 in Parsonsfield, Aug. 2, 18 10. On his father's 
 farm in the extreme southwestern portion of the 
 town, and bordering on Province Lake, was passed 
 his early life, inured to toil and hardship. It has 
 been very truthfully said, that " It is not in great 
 cities, nor in confined shops of trade, but principally 
 in agriculture that the best stock or staple of men 
 is grown." 
 
 At seventeen he commenced study at Effingham, 
 [N. H.] academy, preparatory to entering college. 
 There and at Hamptqn, he continued his studies, 
 teaching a portion of the time until four years 
 later, in 1831, he entered Dartmouth College, and 
 graduated in 1835. He then commenced teaching 
 at Pembroke academy, but soon left to go to the 
 home of his fathers and take charge of Hampton 
 academy. In 1838 he entered the law office of 
 Hon. James Bell as student, removed to Exeter, 
 was admitted to the bar in the autumn of the same 
 year, and a few months later became the law partner 
 of Mr. Bell, then at the head of his profession in 
 the State, and afterward United States Senator. 
 
6 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 This connection continued for over eight years, and 
 the firm enjoyed a very large practice. 
 
 In 1842 Mr. Tuck was chosen Representative to 
 the Legislature from Exeter. He was by early as- 
 sociation and education a Democrat, and early be- 
 came an active and acknowledged leader; his talents 
 and position as a lawyer offering him brilliant 
 prospects of political life with that party. But his 
 convictions of duty relative to the subject of the ex- 
 tension of slavery led him into a position of antag- 
 onism to the party leaders, at the time when the 
 proposed annexation of Texas brought this issue 
 prominently before the country, and he acted true 
 to those convictions, with the prospect of political 
 disaster. Writing to his old home under date of 
 February 4, 1845, he says: "I am of opinion that 
 it is scarcely possible to be a leading politician in 
 New Hampshire, and retain respect for one's self. 
 I have often been told that I stand well for high 
 office, and that I may reasonably expect it. But I 
 cannot measure out my opinions by caucus resolu- 
 tions, manufactured by unscrupulous and unsound 
 men; consequently I certify you that I shall not 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 7 
 
 rise at present. " This was not only expressive of 
 his loyalty to conscience and duty, but was in some 
 measure the outgrowth of the sorrow he had, that in 
 a certain party vote, upon which course no reproach 
 was then or afterward cast, he had been overper- 
 suaded to yield his convictions. It was about this 
 time that the great act of Mr. Tuck's life was re- 
 corded — engraved upon parchment well-nigh inde- 
 structible, and in characters of living light. 
 
 This was in January, 1845, when John P. Hale, 
 then Democratic Representative in Congress from 
 New Hampshire, wrote his celebrated letter, declar- 
 ing that he could not vote for the annexation of 
 Texas. The party was greatly excited in the 
 Granite State because of this declaration. 
 
 The following extract from a memorial discourse 
 on Mr. Tuck, delivered by Rev. Geo. E. Street, at 
 Exeter, N. H., Jan. 11, 1880, gives an account of 
 the participation of Mr. Tuck in that political 
 movement known as the Free Soil party. Refer- 
 ring to the question of the annexation of Texas and 
 the extension of slavery, Mr. Street says : — 
 
 " This great issue brings us to the most signifi- 
 
8 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 cant chapter of Mr. Tuck's life. A full generation 
 has since passed away ; and it is not easy for any, 
 except the fathers among us, to understand the 
 political status of that time. Let me briefly outline 
 a few facts, therefore, that we may get more clearly 
 the historical surroundings amid which our subject 
 lived and acted. Put yourself back to the year 
 1844, the last of President Tyler's administration. 
 It was before the rise of a distinctively anti-slavery 
 party in the country, when the southern states were 
 dominant at the capital, and only here and there 
 an abolitionist could be found in the North. In 
 New Hampshire the leading political party for 
 nearly twenty years had but echoed the wishes and 
 sentiments of this ruling power in Congress. There 
 had been no breaking out from that party, until one 
 of its popular representatives at Washington, John 
 P. Hale, boldly dissented from the proposal of Pres- 
 ident Tyler, to annex Texas as a slave-holding state, 
 which would increase the already overpowering 
 influence of the South in the national councils. 
 
 "Although the scheme of annexation was not pri- 
 marily devised by the Democratic party, but was 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 9 
 
 rather a personal one of the president, and some 
 Democratic congressmen denounced it, yet Mr. 
 Hale soon found that his position was not approved 
 at home and that his continued opposition to the 
 annexation scheme would prove his death-warrant. 
 But he persisted, although a candidate for re-elec- 
 tion, in the course he had taken, and was accord- 
 ingly dropped from the ticket in the next conven- 
 tion of his party by a unanimous vote. 
 
 " It was this injustice to a brave man, who had 
 gallantly stood by his convictions, which fired some 
 of the younger men of the party, and among them 
 Mr. Tuck. 
 
 "As yet, however, they were isolated and had not 
 met to confer together. Soon after the nomination 
 of Mr. Hale's successor, the chairman of the State 
 Central Committee and the distributor of executive 
 patronage, Hon. Franklin Pierce, made a tour of 
 the southern counties of the State, to bring all 
 party men into accord with that act of the conven- 
 tion. ' We must throw Mr. Hale overboard,' was 
 his argument, 'or we shall lose favor with the 
 southern men.' 
 
10 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 " This was the burden of his appeal to party men 
 in Portsmouth ; this, when he came to Exeter, was 
 the motive by which he carried his party here. 
 One man stoutly refused to go with them ; it was 
 the young lawyer, Amos Tuck. He insisted that 
 if John P. Hale was to be expelled from his party 
 on account of his opposition to slavery, he was 
 ready to be expelled likewise : to which Mr. Pierce 
 replied, that he had met in his travels over the 
 State only one man who had talked in that way, and 
 that was John L. Hayes of Portsmouth. 
 
 " A meeting of these two men (both lawyers) 
 who thus thought alike soon followed. It was at 
 the session of the February term of court in this 
 town in 1845, when it was agreed between them to 
 call a convention of independent men in their party 
 to support Mr. Hale. In the jury-room of the old 
 court-house that call was written, and duplicates 
 made and sent out for signers. This and the 
 neighboring towns were immediately canvassed. 
 Mr. N. Porter Cram, lately deceased, and his 
 brother Joseph, were among the first seen and the 
 first to sign. Between two and three hundred other 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 11 
 
 names were added, and when the convention assem- 
 bled a few days after, on Washington's Birthday, 
 in this place, despite almost impassible roads, a 
 most spirited meeting was held. Among others 
 who came into the movement was Prof. J. G. Hoyt, 
 of the academy, a man of magnetic presence and 
 speech. An organization was then and there 
 effected, which gathered power, through personal 
 and printed appeals to the people, to make itself 
 formidable enough, by the election in March, to 
 defeat Mr. Hale's opponent ; and ultimately, with 
 the Legislature itself, not only to replace Mr. Hale 
 in Congress, but to raise him to the United States 
 Senate for the long term. Why have I given this 
 political incident such prominence here ? For two 
 reasons ; the first is because of its historic impor- 
 tance. I think in the vestry of the old First Church 
 of this town, was the first crystallized opposition to 
 the extension of the slaveholders' rule in the land, 
 the nucleus of that great party which ten years 
 afterward became national, and has made history 
 so rapidly. It was fitting that here in Exeter, 
 where on the 23rd of May 1775, the Colonial Leg- 
 
12 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 islature anticipated the Bill of Rights, which on 
 the 4th of July 1776, became 'The declaration of 
 thirteen states of their independence,' the key-note 
 of liberty should again be sounded in advance, to 
 the rest of the nation. 
 
 " The other reason for mentioning it is because of 
 the impressive picture of heroism these few men 
 present to us ; abandoning party allegiance with 
 certain promotion, to maintain a principle, when 
 to do so was to commit political suicide; — standing 
 two or three of them, by their guns, when they 
 knew not if any reinforcements would come 
 to their aid, trusting only in the righteousness of 
 their cause, and its ultimate vindication by the 
 human conscience." 
 
 Dr. A. P. Peabody speaking of them says, " I well 
 remember the utter hopelessness with which the 
 great public viewed this little band of Independents 
 in New Hampshire. They were thought to have 
 destroyed their political future beyond all retrieve." 
 
 Mr. Hayes writes of Mr. Tuck, " He had no 
 thought of personal or political advancement ; we 
 both supposed it was all over with us. He often 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 13 
 
 said, ' We have a good cause and we will die making 
 a brave fight.' " 
 
 It was Mr. Tuck who gave the name to this bold 
 and fearless band of " Independent Democrats," 
 and it was with the aid of Mr. John L. Hayes, Mr. 
 N. D. Wetmore, Mr. Robert C. Wetmore and Mr. 
 George G. Fogg, that the paper known as the " In- 
 dependent Democrat," first published at Manches- 
 ter, and later at Concord, was established. 
 
 In giving due prominence to the efforts of Mr. 
 Tuck and his above-named associates, the influence 
 of John P. Hale is not forgotten. But in his letter 
 to the Democratic electors of New Hampshire 
 already referred to, he had stipulated that " if they 
 disagreed with his views and his course in Congress 
 he should bow in submission to their decision." 
 Therefore when his name was withdrawn and John 
 Woodbury nominated in his stead, he felt bound by 
 a high sense of honor not to take part in the early 
 proceedings, and did not again until the defeat of 
 Mr. Woodbury released him from his bonds. But 
 he with his associates was bold, fearless and true, 
 and had firm faith in the justness of their cause. 
 
14 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 But their reward came early. Mr. Hale, as I have 
 said, was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1846, and 
 Mr. Tuck to Congress in 1847.* 
 
 It is true, that many and widely separated minds 
 are simultaneously moved by the same wave of 
 advancing thought and therefore it is not strange 
 that different parties often claim priority as actors 
 in great movements. 
 
 That the claim here made for Mr. Tuck that he 
 was the first man to begin the organization of what 
 became later the Republican party is just, I take 
 the liberty to make the following extract from a 
 
 *That Mr. Hale was honest and earnest in his anti-slavery course, one 
 has but to read his brief but eloquent speeches in the Senate, unprepared, 
 but moving the people by their sound common-sense, and the conviction of 
 his honesty of purpose, generous, yet fierce in his denunciation of slavery, 
 and defiant above all its northern abettors. His deep convictions relative to 
 the injustice of the institution, find best illustration in the following brief 
 extract from the plea he made in the celebrated case when that noble phil- 
 anthropist, Rev. Theodore Parker, was on trial for treason in the United 
 States Circuit Court at Boston, before Judge Curtis and a jury. The alleged 
 act of treason was complicity in the rescue of a fugitive slave named Shad- 
 rach, from his master, John Debree of South Carolina. 
 
 Mr. Hale was counsel for the defense and in adressing the Jury he said: — 
 " John Debree claims he owns Shadrach ; owns what ? owns a man I 
 Suppose John Debree should say he owns the moon and has an exclusive 
 right in its beams ! Would a Massachusetts jury find it so ? And yet moons 
 shall wax and wane no more; the earth shall crumble and decay, while the 
 soul of the poor, hunted, persecuted Shadrach shall live on with the life of 
 God himself." 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 15 
 
 speech which he made on the occasion of a " Re- 
 , union of the Freesoilers of 1848," held at Downer's 
 Landing, Hingham, Mass., on August 9, 1877. Mr. 
 Charles Francis Adams, who was called to preside 
 at that meeting, made an address in which he 
 claimed that the Free Soil party of this country 
 originated in Massachusetts in 1848. Mr. Tuck in 
 reference thereto said " Now, you are making up 
 history here, and nobody can make up history bet- 
 ter, or that is likely to last longer, than the people 
 of Massachusetts ; but will you please to take ac- 
 count of things that happened prior to 1848. Will 
 you not bear in mind Mr. Adams, and gentlemen, 
 that two years before, and more than two years 
 previous to that date, people in the state of New 
 Hampshire set an example of a conflict with party 
 leaders that had never been set in this country 
 before ? [Applause.] We organized an opposition 
 to the Democratic party in 1844-45, which we 
 have never given up to this day. [Renewed Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 "And in 1845 we made a declaration of principles 
 that constitued the essence of the Republican party, 
 
16 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 which was formed at Philadelphia eleven years later. 
 I have in my pocket, gentlemen, a call which 
 will prove the truth of what I say. Here is an orig- 
 inal call for a convention on the 2 2d day of Feb- 
 ruary, 1845, signed by two hundred and sixty-three 
 Democrats, and drawn up by my friend John L. 
 Hayes, now of Cambridge, and myself, in one of the 
 jury-rooms in the Exeter court-house. It invited 
 Democrats to assemble on the 2 2d of February, to 
 take into consideration the condition of the party, 
 and to make a declaration of sentiments in regard 
 to the action which Mr. Hale had previously taken 
 in opposition to the annexation of Texas. * 
 
 *Prior to its admission and during the time Mr. Hale was in Congress as 
 representative of the Democratic party, it appears that a portion of the 
 Democracy of the Granite State were opposed to annexation. " The Nashua 
 Gazette" of November 6, 1843, m speaking of annexation said : " The 
 
 object and design throughout all is black as ink — bitter as hell We 
 
 hope and sincerely trust there will be no truckling on the part of our northern 
 representatives when this mighty project shall come up before them in all 
 its questionable shapes." 
 
 "The New Hampshire Patriot" of November 23, 1843, said : "He [the 
 President] and his gang will probably attempt to throw this question into 
 Congress as a fire-brand. It may produce mischief, but we trust that the 
 Democrats have good sense enough to avoid being distracted by the arts of 
 the enemy." 
 
 "The Dover Gazette" in the fall of 1843, published an able article against 
 annexation, and said among other things, "The admission of Texas into the 
 Union would be a public disgrace, and disgrace us in the eyes of the civil- 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 17 
 
 " We were soon denounced by the great organs of 
 the party because we would not assent to the annexa- 
 tion of Texas for the reason given by Mr. Calhoun, 
 or for any reasons whatever. We organized it as a 
 movement of Democrats. Previous to that time 
 many men had remonstrated at different times 
 against the action of the Democratic party in New 
 Hampshire, which was the strongest Democratic 
 state in the Union, but when they were denounced 
 by the party leaders, and either passed over to the 
 Abolitionists or Whig party, they acquiesced in 
 being thus ranked. 
 
 " On the other hand, we insisted on organizing as 
 Democrats. We refused to leave the Democratic 
 party on account of our declaration of sentiments ; 
 we claimed that anti-slavery was true Democracy. 
 We refused to leave the party, and we have re- 
 fused to leave to this day, until we have got a major- 
 ity of the democracy of New Hampshire on the 
 Republican side. [Applause.] Well, gentlemen, I 
 
 ized world. It would carry against us the moral influence of all Christen- 
 dom, and draw upon us the just retribution of an offended God." 
 
 I make these quotations to show that Mr. Hale acted in harmony with the 
 previously expressed wishes of many of his constituents, although he was 
 abandoned by them soon after. 
 
18 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 wish you to correct the history you are making. You 
 have no right, permit me to say, to write on the 
 page of history that the Republican enterprise in 
 this country began in 1848. Previous to 1848, I 
 have told you how we organized the opposition in 
 New Hampshire in 1845. We began in 1844. In 
 1846, at the March election, the Independent Dem- 
 ocrats held the balance of power between the Whig 
 and Democratic parties in New Hampshire. 
 
 " No election of Governor by the people having 
 taken place when the Legislature assembled in 
 June of that year, we said to the Whigs, " We will 
 put your man, Anthony Colby, into office as Gov- 
 ernor of the State, if you will elect John P. Hale to 
 the U. S. Senate." [Applause.] They said they would. 
 This was in 1846. There was a vacancy in the 
 House of Representatives and they concluded after 
 Mr. Hale had been put in the Senate, to nominate 
 myself for the House of Representatives, and after 
 several ineffectual efforts I was elected to Congress 
 in 1847, one year before the Buffalo Convention. 
 You had at that time elected John G. Palfrey, as a 
 regular Whig, to the House of Representatives, and 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. L9 
 
 the Whigs of New Hampshire came in to the sup- 
 port of myself, simply because of my statement to 
 Ichabod Bartlett, the president of the Convention, 
 who was sent to consult with me, that I should ex- 
 pect, if elected, to be found voting with such men 
 as Joshua R. Giddings, and John G. Palfrey. 
 [Applause.] I voted with them ; but at the next 
 electing the Whigs of Massachusetts would not 
 re-elect Mr. Palfrey. Please to put that down on 
 record. [Laughter.] And in the revolution that took 
 place in the United States, bear in mind that the 
 humble state of New Hampshire placed the first 
 anti-slavery senator in the Senate of the United 
 States. 
 
 "Joshua R. Gidding elected as a Whig, John G. 
 Palfrey elected as a Whig, and your humble ser- 
 vant elected as an Independent Democrat, were 
 the anti-slavery members of the House, who took 
 their seats in the thirtieth Congress, which assem- 
 bled in December, 1847. 
 
 " You formed your independent organization in 
 Massachusetts in 1848. But when we organized 
 in 1845, when we elected an anti-slavery man to the 
 
20 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Senate in 1846, when we sent an anti-slavery man 
 to the House in 1847, Charles Francis Adams, 
 Charles Allen, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson 
 stood well in the Whig party. But the Cotton 
 Whigs rejected Dr. Palfrey, adopted General Tay- 
 lor, and you rejected the Cotton Whigs. It was 
 not until the next year that you pronounced the 
 Whig party dissolved. We claim that we helped 
 convert you. [Laughter and applause.] Please to 
 put that down in the history that you are making, 
 because, while we cannot claim much in our little 
 state, we are very jealous of the little we can claim. 
 I say that here are the declarations carefully made at 
 the Exeter meeting, where we published an address 
 and resolutions, and we had no occasion up to the 
 time of the formation of the Republican party, and in 
 all our labors in the Republican party, and in all 
 our votes in Congress or out, to cross a / or dot an 
 /of what we wrote in February, 1845. And there 
 is the document !* Your patent was not taken out 
 until 1848." [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Mr. Tuck was re-elected twice, holding the posi- 
 tion of member of the House of Representatives 
 
 * The document is reproduced as an appendix to this sketch. 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 21 
 
 six years. He took high rank in Congress, was 
 emphatically a business man and a great organizer 
 and won many friends. "As a speaker," says a 
 friend, " his only defect was a want of resonance of 
 voice. " His matter was admirable. He wrote with 
 great readiness, and good taste, and had much sa- 
 tirical power. One of his most important speeches 
 was in favor of reciprocal free trade with Canada. 
 
 It is claimed, on good authority, that as early as 
 1853, Mr. Tuck made an effort to consolidate all 
 those who were thinking alike under different party 
 names, into one party, and standing as he con- 
 tended, with the early fathers, Jefferson and Madi- 
 son, he proposed at that time the name Republican, 
 which was adopted in National Convention in 1856. 
 
 Dr. D. H. Batchelder then of Londonderry, N. 
 
 H. says, " During the month of September, 1853, 
 
 I received a note from Mr. Tuck of which I append 
 
 a copy." 
 
 Exeter, Sept. 28, 18153. 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 We deem it advisable to hold an informal 
 
 meeting composed of some of the principal members of the 
 
 parties at this place on the 12th of October (Wednesday), 
 
 at Major Blake's Hotel. One of the principal objects of this 
 
22 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 informal meeting is to fix on a plan of harmonizing the different 
 party organizations, whereby a more united co-orporation can be 
 secured, and the four parties may pull together under one title 
 of organization. Hale, McFarland and Fogg will be present. 
 We shall expect you and Currier, of Auburn, to be present. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 Amos Tuck. 
 
 It was at this meeting, according to the state- 
 ment of Dr. Batchelder, composed of only fourteen 
 persons, thirteen of whom have passed from earth, a 
 meeting of which no record was made, and no re- 
 porter present, that Mr. Tuck proposed the name 
 of " Republican " to be adopted by all who had acted 
 in accord. A writer in the New York Tribune of 
 August 8, 1884* says, " Horace Greeley named the 
 party in a letter to myself in 1854, sometime in the 
 month of April." But Dr. Batchelder says that in 
 a conversation with Horace Greeley in December 
 of 1853, when Mr. Greeley made his annual visit to 
 his old home at Londonderry, he related to Mr. 
 Greeley confidentially what had taken place in 
 Exeter in October 1853, and the name which Mr. 
 Tuck had suggested. Mr. Greeley replied, "I think 
 it will be necessary to adopt some general name, and 
 
 *A. N. Cole. 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 23 
 
 I think, Republican, would be the best name ; it 
 will sound both Jefferson ian and Madisonian, and for 
 that reason will take well. " Therefore the honor 
 of giving a name to the great Republican party is 
 claimed for Amos Tuck. 
 
 He was a member of the convention at Phila- 
 delphia in 1856, which put in nomination General 
 Fremont for the President, and served on the com- 
 mittee which reported its platform, and in i860 was 
 elected to the Chicago convention where he advo- 
 cated from the first the nomination of Abraham 
 Lincoln. Here also he was a member of the Plat- 
 form Committee, and aided in the formation of the 
 declaration of principles on which the great party 
 rallied and were victorious in the ensuing election. 
 The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was to Mr. Tuck a 
 matter of great satisfaction, for during his service 
 in Congress, a warm personal friendship was estab- 
 lished between them which lasted during the life of 
 Lincoln. He was also a delegate to, and took an 
 active part in, the Peace Convention of 1861, to 
 which he was appointed with Judge Fowler and 
 Hon. Levi Chamberlain to meet delegates from other 
 
24 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 states in the vain attempt of an amicable settlement 
 of difficulties, and hope of preventing hostilities. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln recognized the friendship of former 
 years by appointing, very soon after his inaugura- 
 tion, Mr. Tuck as Naval Officer of the port of 
 Boston, which position he held during the war, re- 
 ceiving a re-appointment by Mr. Lincoln, and a 
 removal at the hands of Andrew Johnson, in the 
 latter part of 1865. Subsequently he was appointed 
 to the office of Land Commissioner of the Atlantic 
 and Pacific Railroad in Missouri, which caused 
 him to make his home at St. Louis for a number 
 of years. 
 
 In his profession he was very successful, a con- 
 scientious, upright, bold and fearless advocate, and 
 a wise and discreet counselor. With him was as- 
 sociated for about ten years, from 1847, Hon. Wm. 
 W. Stickney, of Exeter, and their business was laro- e 
 and lucrative. Later, his son-in-law, Mr. Francis 
 O. French, was connected with him in professional 
 practice. Mr. Tuck traveled quite extensively 
 abroad, having visited Europe several times. In 
 1872 he accompanied his son Edward Tuck, a 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 25 
 
 Dartmouth graduate of 1862, and a member of the 
 banking-house of John Munroe & Co., of New York 
 City, to Paris, to be present at his son's marriage to 
 Miss Julia Stell. 
 
 After his return Mr. Tuck was for sometime as- 
 sociated with the Hon. Austin Corbin, of New York, 
 also a son of New Hampshire, very prominent in 
 banking and railroad circles, and was engaged with 
 him in railroad construction on Long Island. 
 
 Mr. Tuck was a man of fine personal presence ; 
 of pleasing address ; perceptions keen, with purity 
 of character, soundness of judgment; enterprising, 
 sagacious and successful. He accumulated a large 
 property, and during the later years of his life with- 
 drew in a great measure from professional and 
 business affairs. 
 
 Yet it was not in the halls of Congress, not in fo- 
 rensic debate, not as an acknowledged leader of men, 
 not as an organizer of campaigns, not as an advo- 
 cate at the bar, nor manager of business enterprises, 
 that Mr. Tuck was at his best. It was in the purity, 
 steadfastness and generosity of his friendships, and 
 the sweetness of his home life. To him the needy 
 
26 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 never appealed in vain ; he gave of his means most 
 liberally for all purposes that tendered to the eleva- 
 tion of humanity, — schools, churches, missions, tem- 
 perance, and all moral reforms. 
 
 To him the subject of education was ever near 
 and dear. He served as Trustee of Dartmouth 
 College ten years, of Phillips Exeter Academy, 
 nearly thirty years, and was much interested, and 
 took an active part, in the organization of Robinson 
 Female Seminary, being President of the Board of 
 Trustees for several years. 
 
 Mr. Tuck was twice married. First, to Sarah A., 
 daughter of David Nudd, Esq., of Hampton. By 
 this marriage he had eight children, three of whom 
 survive — Mrs. Abby T. Frye, Mrs. Ellen T. 
 French, and Edward Tuck, of New York City, a 
 retired banker. Second, to Catherine P. Shepard, 
 of Salisbury, N. H. 
 
 His love and tenderness toward his family were 
 unbounded, and no father enjoyed more highly his 
 children's society or cared more lovingly for them 
 than did Mr. Tuck. After the death of his first wife 
 he placed the youngest, a babe of a few months, in 
 
OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 27 
 
 the family of an esteemed friend and political co- 
 worker, Mr. Samuel Wiggin, who resided in Mr. 
 Tuck's native town, Parsonsfield. In this family 
 the little one received most affectionate care. His 
 letters, many of which are before me, show him to 
 be possessed of a " woman's heart. " The little 
 one was an invalid and required much attention. 
 Although at a time the busiest of his busy life, yet 
 his anxiety for the little one found expression often, 
 and most lovingly and tenderly. 
 
 Under date of December 28, 1847, Washington, 
 D. C, he writes his dear friend Wiggin : " Indeed 
 I cannot forget you, when you have in your family 
 my dear little motherless babe. I feel very badly 
 about my separation from him so long, but try and 
 comfort -myself with the assurance that he is in hu- 
 mane, kind and patient hands. Brother John has 
 written me about your kind regard and tender love 
 for the little fellow. I thank you from the very bottom 
 of my heart, and beg of you to continue to regard 
 him as a tender, dependent babe. " 
 
 Later he closes another letter by saying, " With 
 great anxiety, and commending him to God and 
 
28 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 your tenderness I remain," etc. A week later in 
 another letter he writes, " You were very kind to 
 assure me of your doing everything possible for my 
 dear little boy. For though I did not doubt your kind- 
 ness before, it seemed a relief to be assured of it 
 again and again." Later on he writes, " Continue 
 to do for him what you can. I will make all the 
 compensation which can be made by money, and 
 remember it while I live with gratitude. I doubt 
 not God also will bless you and your children for 
 the full measure of kindness which you deal out to 
 this boy. I have no suggestions to make, having 
 full confidence in you and in Dr. Sweat, that you 
 will do better than I can tell you. I am deeply 
 thankful to every one who has even looked on him 
 with a blessing, much more to all of you for your 
 kind acts. Tears of gratitude fill my eyes while I 
 write. May God bless the means for the recovery 
 of the child." 
 
 But the "dear little Amos Otis" passed from 
 earth, yet the gratitude of the father to those who 
 had so tenderly and lovingly cared for the babe did 
 not cease with the lapse of time. 
 
OF RON. AMOS TUCK. 29 
 
 Under date of January, 1849, he wrote Mr. 
 Wiggin, " I can assure you that a remembrance of 
 all you did for my dear little Amos Otis is too fresh 
 in my reccollections to allow me to forget you. . . . 
 I am passing my time here as comfortably as could 
 
 be expected separated from my family My 
 
 friends in New Hampshire have nominated me for 
 re-election. Should I come here again I shall take 
 my family with me. Life is too short, and my 
 children are at too important an age to dispense 
 with my presence with them for so long a time as 
 another session of Congress 
 
 " It will give me pleasure to hear from you, as I 
 most sincerely wish happiness to each and every 
 member of your family. I shall rejoice to hear 
 of your prosperity and shall mourn over your 
 adversity." 
 
 These extracts evidence his parental ten- 
 derness and his high appreciation of home and 
 friends. Mr. Wiggin died a few years later, 
 but Mr. Tuck never came to the home of his 
 nativity without visiting this family, and by word 
 and act re-assuring them each and all of his 
 
30 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 deep sense of gratitude for their loving kindness 
 toward his darling son. 
 
 In his genuine kindness and liberal generosity 
 he was one of the best living attestations to the cor- 
 rectness of that old proverb, " The liberal soul shall 
 be made fat ; and he that watereth shall be watered 
 also himself." 
 
 A gentleman of Parsonsfield who had business 
 relations with Mr. Tuck, a man of culture, but a 
 political opponent, says of him : " I have met and 
 had acquaintance with many men who have held 
 high positions in life, but when I formed the ac- 
 quaintance of Amos Tuck I found him to be a most 
 wonderful man." 
 
 " He impressed me as no other man ever did ; can- 
 did, honest, uncontaminated by contact with evil, 
 with a high and noble purpose, magnanimous, kind, 
 generous and deferential, but firm to his convictions 
 of duty as ' the eternal hills.' He was in every 
 sense a gentleman. I never expect to meet his 
 equal. " 
 
 Such is the testimony of those who knew him 
 best. This noble life, devoted to the best interests 
 
OF RON. AMOS TUCK. 31 
 
 of humanity in the broadest sense, was suddenly and 
 unexpectedly terminated by apoplexy at his home 
 in Exeter, on the eve of the nth of December, 
 1879. 
 
 And the end crowned this life-work. He had 
 returned from a sojourn with his children in New 
 York ; in Boston had talked over the battles of 
 1845 with a fellow-soldier in that crusade; had 
 exchanged salutations with his neighbors in his 
 beloved Exeter ; then the summons came, and he 
 laid him down for the last in his own home ; bliss- 
 fully unconscious of the tearful circle that gathered 
 about him while he yet breathed, he only became 
 conscious in eternal bliss. His remains lie in the 
 pleasant valley, surrounded by his family, his neigh- 
 bors, and his friends, close to the acres he had lov- 
 ingly cultivated, within sound of the Phillips Acad- 
 emy bell, near to the scenes of his domestic and 
 professional successes, not far from that humble 
 room in the Court House where a great thought 
 was born and became clothed in flesh with the 
 magnificent lineaments of a national party. 
 
 Friend of the human race rest in peace ! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
DEMOCRATIC MASS MEETING 
 
 GALL. 
 
 To the Democratic citizens of Ex- 
 eter and the neighboring tonus, and all attending the Court of 
 Common Pleas DSB in session :— 
 
 The undersigued members of the Democratic party, believimr 
 that ttc course of our representation in Congress, the Hon. John 
 F. Hale, is approved by the people of Sfew Hampshire, and is 
 onibcl^- " 1 ^ 6 C °" bcconsistantl r aaMca <e'llV UicJrieiuls 
 
 Believing that the present scheme of annexation, is In viola. 
 Hon ol the fundamental principles of democracy, the doctrine of 
 State rights, strict construction ol the Constitution and regard 
 tor equal rights, and wishing: to raise oar voices against a scheme 
 (UiiclLu-iIl tend to extend and perpetuate slavery, and to retaken 
 the influence ot free 1-epresentatiou.in Congress" i 
 
 Believing also, that the late Contention at Concern, has Dal - 
 the parly in a position which Ihev do not wish to occupy t = 
 
 Bespc. •tfiilly request a!! n iio would maintain tlie fundamental 
 principles olthc democratic faith, to assemble at the VFvntv 
 of the FIRST CKtRCHinEXETER, on SiTCRDAT tfi» 
 aSddnyolFEniUAStY^rWnt, at 10 o'clock. ?J "tv. M 
 make a lull declaration of their sentiments, and take into con* 
 Sidcration the present position of oar party. 
 
 X^A SmJ 
 
 V ' 
 
 
 mnto 8 mi« it. 
 
 
 E 
 
 -.. r CMt >■,.,. Suborn 
 
 ' MinliaU. BurWa. Towk, 
 
 
 
 I°M»r. 
 
 1 p cCw K^ T 
 
 irii^i* ' 
 
 
 i, it A*jc*Tl-«-am T -inJtfTiYlB 
 
 \> vi\ 
 
This meeting, on February 22, 1845, was fully 
 attended. A series of resolutions was presented 
 and adopted, asserting the principles of human 
 equality and universal justice to be the basis of the 
 Democratic faith; that the advocacy of slavery was 
 wholly inconsistent therewith, denouncing it as an 
 institution disgracing " our Republic in the eyes of 
 the whole civilized world ; " supporting the course 
 persued by Hon. John P. Hale, in Congress, 
 declaring "that the nomination of another candi- 
 date for Congress at this period is wholly uncalled 
 for by the people," etc., and following said resolu- 
 tions with a long address to the Democrats of 
 New Hampshire. 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS