GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 Horm L-9-15jn-8,*26
 
 DoRMAN B. Eaton 
 
 1823- 1899. 
 
 ' ' / think everyone, according to the way Providence has 
 placed him in, is bound to labor for the ptiblic good as 
 far as he is able."— Jo hs Locke. 
 
 >'%'. : 

 
 
 DORMAN B. Eaton was born in Hardwick, Vt., 
 June 27, 1823. He was the son of the Hon. Nathaniel 
 Eaton and Ruth Bridgeman Eaton. The earliest Ameri- 
 can Eaton was John of that name, who, coming from 
 England in 1635, settled in the Massachusetts Colony. 
 Dorman B, Eaton graduated at the University of Vermont 
 in 1848 and the Harvard Law School two years later, 
 -;^ taking the prize for the prize essay upon his graduation. 
 H A member of the Prize Committee for the award was 
 Qj Judge William Kent, of New York City, sou of Chan- 
 CQ cellor Kent, the author of the "Commentaries." Judge 
 ^ Kent immediately offered young Eaton employment in 
 New York as his assistant in editing the ' ' Commentaries ' ' 
 of the elder Kent. Mr. Eaton was admitted to the New 
 York bar in 1857, ^"^ eighteen months after graduation 
 became the partner of Judge Kent. He at once attracted 
 attention by his legal ability, and entered upon a dis- 
 tinguished career, not only in active practice, but as a 
 writer upon legal and civic subjects.
 
 He was married in 1856 to Miss Annie S. Foster, of 
 New York City. 
 
 Mr. Eaton drafted the health laws which inaugurated 
 the administration of that department in New York City. 
 He was, also, counsel for the Erie Railway and for the 
 Boston, Hartford and Erie. The sharp contests in which 
 railroad administration was involved at that time brought 
 Mr. Eaton into active opposition to the administration of 
 Fiske and Gould. His successes in the legal contention 
 with these men brought about active enmity upon their 
 part toward him. On the night before an important 
 action in the courts an attempt was made upon Mr. Eaton's 
 life upon Fifth Avenue by unknown persons, and he was 
 seriously injured. This painful incident did not deter 
 Mr. Eaton from opposition to wrongdoing, but upon his 
 recovery he entered upon his life work as a worker 
 in municipal reform and for the reform of the Civil 
 Service. 
 
 In connection with Civil Service reform Mr. Eaton 
 made two extended tours in Europe for the study of the 
 subject, both in England and on the Continent. In 1873 
 President Grant appointed Mr. Eaton Chairman of the 
 National Civil Service Commission at Washington, in
 
 which place he succeeded the Hon. George W. Curtis. 
 When the reform was practically abandoned by the Gov- 
 ernment in 1875 Mr, Eaton renewed his efforts in its 
 behalf, speaking and writing with such good effect that, 
 after making a report for President Hayes, in 1 880, upon 
 the condition of the Civil Service in the Post-Office and 
 Custom House in New York City, the Government 
 returned to the serious consideration of the Civil Service. 
 In 1883 Mr. Eaton was appointed again upon the Com- 
 mission by President Arthur, and was reappointed by 
 President Cleveland in 1886. The national law for the 
 administration of the Civil Service was drawn by Mr. 
 Eaton, and remains practically unchanged to-day. How 
 well Mr. Eaton exemplified his own theory respecting the 
 Civil Service may be seen in the fact that he served under 
 four administrations as Commissioner. 
 
 His public service was rendered, for the most part, out- 
 side of ofl&cial life, as a private citizen, working for the 
 public good. In 1870 he gave up a lucrative practice 
 and all private business and for thirty years devoted him- 
 self to the high vocation of a publicist and student of 
 municipal conditions. His last-published work, "The 
 Government of Municipalities," issued from the press
 
 only a few months before his death, and was the best 
 fruit of his ripe wisdom and rich experience. He died 
 at his home in New York, after a brief illness, on the 
 morning of December 23, 1899, and was buried in the 
 burial ground of the family at Montpelier, Vt., on 
 December 26th.
 
 nDemorial Service 
 
 OF 
 
 DoRMAN B. Eaton, 
 
 HEI,D IN THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ALL SOULS, 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 January 21, 1900.
 
 Voluntary, Largo by Handel, - Organ and Violoncello 
 Prayer, . . . - Rev. Thos. R. Slicer 
 
 Our Father, we pray thee that the divine spirit may be 
 in this service ; that we, whose love is restricted to the 
 duty of memory, and longs for its other offices, may be 
 able to feel that life grows more sacred, and its duties 
 gather sanctity, and that the will of God sounds more 
 clearly, calling us to complete the work laid down by 
 thy workman who has gone before. O spirit of the 
 living God, who art in our lives the breath of life, in our 
 hearts the divine affection, and in our lives the law 
 divine, brood us, we pray thee, this hour, kindling our 
 diviner nature to its highest offices, and leading us by the 
 paths that have been marked out before us, along the 
 ways God shall choose. 
 
 We thank God that we may hold this service in this 
 hour with unclouded hearts ; that there is naught within 
 us to dim our vision save our grief, and naught in us to 
 give bitterness save our loss ; and that in the fidelities of 
 life, in the splendid achievements of human intercourse 
 and human service, we call God to witness the work in 
 man's behalf, and through man, and the fidelity and 
 courage and devotion of his child. From this hour may 
 we be better — better as workers, better as well-wishers, 
 better as aspiring spirits, unto the higher levels of life ; 
 and to this end we give ourselves again to God, and 
 dedicate ourselves unto thy will. Amen.
 
 Hymn, 
 
 Congregation 
 
 O God, the Rock of Ages, 
 
 Who evermore hast been. 
 What time the tempest rages, 
 
 Our dwelling-place serene : 
 Before thy first creations, 
 
 O Lord, the same as now, 
 To endless generations 
 
 The everlasting thou ! 
 
 Our years are like the shadows 
 
 O'er sunny hills that fly. 
 Or grasses in the meadows 
 
 That blossom but to die ; 
 A sleep, a dream, a story 
 
 By strangers quickly told. 
 An uuremaining glory 
 
 Of things that soon are old. 
 
 O thou, who canst not slumber. 
 
 Whose light grows never pale. 
 Teach us aright to number 
 
 Our years before they fail. 
 On us thy mercy lighten. 
 
 On us thy goodness rest. 
 And let thy spirit brighten 
 
 The hearts thyself hath blessed. 
 
 Address, 
 Address, 
 Solo, - 
 
 Dr. Stephen Smith 
 
 Hon. Carl Schnrz 
 
 Violoncello
 
 lO 
 
 Address, 
 Address, 
 
 Mr. John Harsen Rhoades 
 
 Rev. Thos. R. Slicer 
 
 Hymn, 
 
 Congregation 
 
 How happy is he born or taught. 
 Who serveth not another's will ; 
 Whose armor is his honest thought, 
 And simple truth his highest skill ; 
 
 Whose passions not his masters are ; 
 Whose soul is still prepared for death, 
 Not tied unto the world with care 
 Of prince's ear or vulgar breath ; 
 
 Who God doth late and early pray 
 More of his grace than goods to lend ; 
 And walks with man, from day to day, 
 As with a brother and a friend. 
 
 This man is freed from servile bands 
 Of hope to rise, of fear to fall ; 
 Lord of himself, though not of lands, 
 And having nothing, yet hath all. 
 
 Sir Henry Wotton. 
 
 Benediction, 
 
 Rev. Thos. R. Slicer 
 
 Vioi«ONCEi.i<o and Organ.
 
 B^^ress b^ H)r. Stepbcn Smitb. 
 
 The progress of the race is largely affected in each gen- 
 eration by a few pioneers who, with toil and sacrifice, 
 prepare the way for the advance. Of these pioneers 
 some blaze the future course in the unexplored and track- 
 less forest ; others remove the obstructions which impede 
 the builders ; while a few expert engineers bridge the 
 rivers, tunnel the mountains and lay broad and deep the 
 foundations of the great highway along which humanity 
 passes to a higher civilization. Unfortunately these pio- 
 neers are not always known to public fame, and far too 
 often, though benefactors of their race, pass away with- 
 out a proper recognition of their services. This apparent 
 neglect is not due to a lack of appreciation of their work 
 by the people, but rather to the fact that their labors are 
 performed in obscurity, and hence are unknown. Far in 
 the wilderness, or deep in the tunnel, or in the mire of 
 the caisson, they toil all unseen by their generation, sacri- 
 ficing health and often life while searching for the true 
 pathway or laying its foundations. When the bridges 
 are builded, the tunnels completed and the broad high- 
 way is thrown open for travel and traffic, few or none of 
 the passing throng give a moment's thought to the 
 labors and sacrifices of the builders, or the tribute of a 
 sigh to the memory of those who perished at their work. 
 
 Impressed with a sense of public obligation and of a 
 duty to the memory of a citizen with whose labors and
 
 12 
 
 sacrifices in the interests of this city I had special oppor- 
 tunities to become familiar, it has been a grateful task to 
 place on record some of the incidents in the life of Hon. 
 Dorman B. Eaton as they came under my personal obser- 
 vation. He was by nature, education and association a 
 reformer of the civil administration. Born and bred in 
 the rural communities of Vermont, educated at Harvard, 
 a partner of the famous Judge Kent, of this city, and an 
 associate of men of the type of William Curtis Noyes, 
 Charles O' Conor and others of equal reputation, Mr. 
 Eaton was admirably equipped for the great work to 
 which he devoted so much of his life and energies. Nor 
 was he a reformer whose methods were simply destructive 
 of what he regarded as wrong or evil in the municipal 
 government ; on the contrary, his mind was eminently 
 constructive, and consequently he sought to remedy de- 
 fects by substituting the new and best for the old and 
 worst with as little friction and disturbance as possible. 
 Thus he quietly and without observation, as a master 
 builder, laid the foundations and reared the massive 
 superstructures of four of the best organized and most 
 efficient departments of our city government— viz., the 
 Department of Health, the Fire Department, the Depart- 
 ment of Docks, the Police Judiciary. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with Mr. Eaton began in 
 the year 1864, when we became associated in an effort to 
 secure reforms in the sanitary government of the City of 
 New York. Although prior to this date there had been 
 periods of agitation in favor of a more efficient health 
 organization, especially when epidemics, like cholera, 
 visited the city and the utter worthlessness of our health
 
 13 
 
 officials became apparent, yet there had been no such 
 organized effort as that of 1864. Previons agitation had, 
 however, been very useful in preparing the way for the 
 final struggle, by creating a popular interest in these 
 reforms and in rendering the public mind both sympa- 
 thetic and receptive. Some of the incidents leading up 
 to the events of 1865 and 1866 are worthy of mention. 
 In 1865 the Academy of Medicine appealed to the Legis- 
 lature for relief from the evils of an insufficient health 
 organization, and as a result a committee of that body in- 
 vestigated the sanitary condition of the city. It appeared 
 that there were four separate departments devoted to the 
 conservation of the public health. First, was the Board 
 of Health, composed of the Aldermen and Mayor. When 
 this body was organized as a Board of Health it had 
 supreme power, both in the abatement of nuisances 
 and the expenditure of money. So much and so 
 justly was this Board feared, that Fernando Wood, 
 while Mayor, refused to call it into existence during 
 an epidemic of cholera, declaring that the Board of 
 Health was more to be feared than the pestilence. 
 Second, was the Commissioners of Health, composed 
 of the Mayor and the Recorder, the City Inspector, 
 the Health Commissioner, the Resident Physician, and 
 the Port Health Officer. This body had no adequate 
 power and was perfectly useless both for good and evil. 
 Third, was the Resident Physician, whose duties were 
 limited to vi.siting the sick poor. Fourth, was the City 
 In.spector, a most formidable official politically, for he 
 had the right to expend annually $1,000,000 without 
 "let or hindrance." His jurisdiction extended to the
 
 H 
 
 cleaniug of the street, gathering vital statistics and pre- 
 serving the public health by the appointment of health 
 wardens for each ward. The investigation showed that 
 this department, the only one which actually exercised 
 public-health functions, was permeated with corruption, 
 ignorance and venality. The City Inspector was the 
 lowest type of ward politician, the vital statistics were 
 crude and unreliable, there was no pretense of cleaning 
 the streets, and the Health Wardens were for the most 
 part keepers of saloons. It was shown in the evidence 
 that no Health Warden ever dared to visit a house where 
 there was a case of contagious disease. One, who was 
 asked what is the best method of preventing small-pox, 
 replied : ' ' Burn sulphur in the room. ' ' Another, asked 
 to define the term " hygiene," said : " It is a mist rising 
 from wet grounds. ' ' The report of this committee created 
 a profound sensation and gave the first impetus to a 
 reform movement. A number of prominent physicians 
 and influential citizens became deeply interested in the 
 subject and determined to secure proper legislation. 
 Health bills were annually prepared and sent to the 
 Legislature only to be rejected under the direction of 
 the City Inspector, whose $1,000,000 was expended 
 freely in the lobby at Albany. But the agitation 
 increased in force with successive defeats, a large and 
 still larger number of people were added to the ranks 
 of the reformers until the movement culminated in 
 the organization of the Citizens' Association in 1864, 
 with Peter Cooper as president, andupwardsof a hundred 
 of the leading citizens as members. The moving spirit 
 in organizing and managing this powerful bod}^ was Mr.
 
 15 
 
 Nathaniel Sands, an ardent and enthusiastic sanitarian. 
 Two departments were created in the Association through 
 which the principal work was to be done ; viz. , a Council 
 of Law and a Council of Hygiene. Mr. Eaton was an 
 active member of the former, and I was for a considerable 
 time secretary of the latter. Thus we were brought 
 into frequent consultation over a public health law, which 
 the Association had determined to have prepared for 
 introduction into the next Legislature. It was decided 
 that the Council of Hygiene should make a first draft of 
 the bill in which should be incorporated the necessary 
 sanitary provisions. This draft was then to be submitted 
 to the Legal Council for completion in legislative form. 
 As secretary of the Council of Hygiene I had to prepare 
 the first draft of the bill, which was done along the lines 
 of former bills and seemed to the members to be a very 
 perfect piece of work. When, however, the bill came 
 from the Legal Council, scarcely a shred of the original 
 draft was recognizable. 
 
 Though the Legal Council was composed of the lead- 
 ing lawyers of the city at that time, the revision and 
 completion of the health law was committed to Mr. Eaton, 
 a junior member. This selection proved to be of immense 
 importance to the immediate sanitary interests of this 
 city, and secondarily to the creation and administration 
 of the health laws of the United vStates. The field of 
 sanitary legislation was entirely uncultivated in this 
 country at that time, and the principles on which health 
 laws should be based were unrecognized except by the 
 more advanced students. Mr. Eaton fortunately proved 
 to be one of the few citizens who had kept pace with the
 
 i6 
 
 progress of sanitary reforms in England, and entered 
 fully into the spirit of the great movement that for a 
 quarter of a century agitated the people of that country. 
 Alarmed by the high death rate annually reported by the 
 Registrar General, and informed that the larger part was 
 due to preventible diseases, the public demanded adequate 
 remedial measures of Government. The contest was long 
 and most exciting, the issues often being carried into the 
 arena of politics. The Prime Minister once declared that 
 there was such a craze about sanitation that the rallying 
 cry of an election campaign might well be " Sanitas sayi- 
 itatis omnis sanitas. ' ' The triumph of the reformers was 
 finall}'^ complete, and England adopted a code of health 
 laws that are models of excellence, and which, in their 
 enforcement, have made its cities and towns the healthiest 
 in the world. 
 
 When our health bill came from the hands of Mr. Eaton 
 it was evident in every line that he had made an exhaustive 
 study of the English health code and had become thor- 
 oughly imbued with its spirit. The language was not 
 altogether familiar, and in the involved sentences there 
 were intimations of extraordinary powers quite unknown 
 to our jurisprudence. When he brought the com- 
 pleted bill before the Legal and Medical Councils for 
 adoption it was subjected to a most searching criticism. 
 While most of its sections were clear and readil)^ under- 
 stood, there were portions which were so obscure, owing 
 to the methods of expression employed, that the legal 
 members were in doubt as to the proper construction to 
 be put upon them, while the medical members were 
 altogether at a loss as to their meaning. Mr. Eaton
 
 17 
 
 explained the theory of modern health legislation as 
 illustrated by the English laws, and contended that a 
 thoroughly organized and efficient Board of Health must 
 have extraordinary powers, and must not be subordinated 
 to any other branch of the civil service, not even to the 
 courts. What it declares to be a nuisance — dangerous to 
 life and detrimental to health — no one should call in ques- 
 tion. When it orders a nuisance to be abated within a 
 given fixed time no mandamus should avail to stay its 
 action or the enforcement of its decree. A Board of 
 Health, in his opinion, should make its own laws, exe- 
 cute its own laws and sit in judgment on its own acts. 
 It must be an imperium in imperio. England, the fore- 
 most country in the world in the cultivation of sanitary 
 science and in the application of its principles to practice, 
 had by its legislation for a quarter of a century estab- 
 lished a precedent which it was right and safe for us to 
 follow. He predicted that if this bill became a law its 
 operations would be so beneficial that it would not only 
 become very popular in this city, but that it would be the 
 basis of future health legislation in this country. He 
 believed, however, that no Legislature would pass a bill 
 containing such powers if these powers were made a 
 prominent feature of the bill. For that reason he had 
 adopted that involved expression peculiar to English law 
 which required a judicial interpretation to determine the 
 precise meaning. The bill was approved in the form 
 presented by Mr. Eaton, and preparation was made to 
 secure its passage. 
 
 As the City Inspector with his Health Wardens always 
 appeared at Albany when a health bill was before the
 
 i8 
 
 Legislature, denying vociferously the alleged unsanitary 
 condition of the city, Mr. Eaton advised that the Asso- 
 ciation make a careful inspection of the city with its own 
 inspectors. This inspection was organized by the Council 
 of Hygiene and prosecuted during the summer of 1864 
 by young physicians, and was the most exhaustive 
 study of the sanitary condition ever made of a city, 
 even by officials. The results were published in a large 
 volume which has been pronounced by authorities at 
 home and abroad as equal to the best official reports of 
 European cities. The bill was early introduced into the 
 Legislature of 1865. In due time it came before a joint 
 committee of both houses, with Senator Andrew D. White 
 in the chair. The City Inspector, with his Health 
 Wardens, was present, and a large attendance of mem- 
 bers with several prominent citizens of New York. At 
 Mr. Eaton's request I described the deplorable sanitary 
 condition of the city as revealed by our inspections and ex- 
 plained the medical features of the bill. He followed with 
 a brilliant and exhaustive speech on the nature of sanitary 
 legislation and the value to cities of adequate health laws 
 administered by well-organized boards of health. At the 
 conclusion of the hearing the members of the Committee 
 assured us that if the two houses were in session they 
 would pass the bill at once. But we were doomed to dis- 
 appointment. The City Inspector secured delays, and 
 meantime employed through his agents the means at his 
 command to defeat the bill. The agitation, however, 
 was continued during the year, chiefly through the New 
 York Times, then under the management of Mr. Raymond, 
 an ardent reformer. Mr. Eaton advised the Medical
 
 19 
 
 Council to interest the physicians of the country, and 
 especially urge them not to nominate men who had voted 
 against the bill in the last Legislature. This plan was 
 carried out, and seventeen former members failed of re- 
 nomination to the Assembly. The result of this scheme 
 succeeded admirably, for the new Legislature was to some 
 extent pledged to support the bill when they came to the 
 Capitol. The bill promptly passed both hou.ses early in 
 the session of 1866, and in March the Metropolitan Board 
 of Health was organized. Mr. Eaton accepted the posi- 
 tion of counsellor to the Board, which position he retained 
 several years. 
 
 As he had anticipated, a suit against the Board was 
 early commenced to test the constitutionality of the law. 
 He was very apprehensive of the results, and made the 
 most thorough preparation to argue the case. He was 
 successful in the lower courts, and finally won in the Court 
 of Appeals by a majority of one. He always regarded 
 his success in the management of this case as one of the 
 most important events of his Ufe, for on the decision of 
 the highest court depended the fate of health legislation 
 in this country. 
 
 No one unfamiliar with the sanitary condition of this 
 city prior to 1864 can form any adequate conception of 
 the enormous benefits conferred, not only upon this 
 metropolis, but upon the entire country, by the labors 
 of Mr. Eaton and his associates in securing to it the 
 Metropolitan Health Law. During the former period 
 New York was a prey to ever}' form of pestilence known 
 to man. Smallpox, the most preventible of contagious 
 diseases, was epidemic in this city every five years, and
 
 20 
 
 created a large death rate among the children. Scarlet 
 fever and diphtheria spread through the city without the 
 slightest effort on the part of the officials to control them. 
 Cholera visited us once in ten years without any adequate 
 measures of prevention. The annual mortality was 
 greater than any city of a civilized country, it being esti- 
 mated that 7,000 people died yearly from preventible 
 diseases. The tenement-house population lived under 
 the most unhealthy and degrading conditions, a prey to 
 greedy landlords, and without any possible relief or 
 redress. In one notorious building, which covered an 
 ordinary city lot, were fifty families, with a total popu- 
 lation of five hundred persons. Here every form of 
 domestic pestilence could be found at all seasons of the 
 year. Still more deplorable was the condition of the 
 tenants of cellars. Of these so-called "Troglodytes" 
 there were 5,000 living in rooms the ceilings of which 
 were below the level of the surface of the street. To 
 the present generation it may appear incredible that 
 there was neither law, ordinance nor department of the 
 city government capable of giving the slightest relief. 
 This was illustrated in an attempt to break up a fever 
 nest in i860. The landlord refused to make the slightest 
 repairs, or cleansing, in a tenement house from which 
 upwards of one hundred cases of fever had been removed 
 to the hospital. The attorney to the Police Department 
 was unable to find any law or ordinance by which he 
 could be compelled to cleanse, repair or vacate the house. 
 It was only by confronting him in court, to which he had 
 been brought on a fictitious charge, with a reporter, that 
 he was induced to take any steps to improve his tenement.
 
 21 
 
 Now everything relating to the public health is so 
 changed that it is almost impossible to realize the con- 
 dition of the city in 1866. The change began with the 
 very organization of the Metropolitan Board. Within a 
 few days of that event, cholera, which had devastated 
 portions of Europe, made its appearance in this city ; but 
 it met with a far different reception than that of former 
 visitations. The first case was quarantined within an 
 hour of its occurrence ; the clothing of the patient was 
 destroj'ed, the room di.sinfected, and a sanitary guard 
 placed over the house. No other case appeared in that 
 quarter of the city. There were several similar outbreaks 
 in different parts of the town, but each was treated with 
 the same \ngilance and energy, and the result was that 
 the contagion never secured a foothold in the city or the 
 metropolitan district. Though cholera has since ap- 
 peared in Europe at its usual intervals, and has several 
 times been at our doors, it has not been able to invade 
 the city for a period of thirty-four years. Small-pox, 
 which once decimated the child population every five 
 years, has not been epidemic in a whole generation. 
 Diphtheria and the whole brood of domestic pestilences 
 are diminishing in frequency and fatality. Even con- 
 sumption, so common and fatal among the poor, is rap- 
 idly disappearing in consequence of the improved condi- 
 tion of the tenement houses. And what a vast change 
 has been made in the homes of the poor ! No human 
 habitation is underground ; the ancient rookery with its 
 five hundred inhabitants is a past number ; the dark, 
 foul courts are disappearing, and in their places have 
 arisen the modern tenements, with their light, airy and
 
 22 
 
 cheerful apartments, and all the conditions necessary to 
 family health and domestic happiness. The laws and 
 ordinances all conspire to compel the landlords to remedy 
 every defect on complaint of the tenant ; the penalty 
 being that the latter need not pay rent nntil his home is 
 made habitable in a sanitary sense. The vital statistics 
 show that human life is lengthening in this city, and that 
 the entire metropolis is more healthy as a place of resi- 
 dence than the surrounding country towns. 
 
 But the beneficent results of the labors of Mr. Eaton 
 and his associates in the field of sanitary legislation are 
 not confined to New York. As he predicted, the Metro- 
 politan Health I,aw became the basis of sanitary legisla- 
 tion throughout the country. At the time of its 
 enactment the municipalities of the United States were 
 as destitute of health laws and regulations as the City of 
 New York. To-day there is not a city, or even village, 
 that has not its laws and ordinances relating to the 
 preservation and promotion of the public health based on 
 the original law drawn by Mr. Eaton. And the same 
 remark is true of the organized health administration of 
 the States of the Union, for on analysis it will be found 
 that their sanitary legislation is in harmony with the 
 provisions of that law. 
 
 At that period the old Volunteer Fire Department was 
 quite as discreditable to the city as was its health organi- 
 zation. Intrenched in the political organizations of the 
 city, it wielded a power second only to that of the great 
 political parties themselves. It required the strength and 
 courage of a Hercules to purify this department by 
 removing the existing elements, reconstructing the entire
 
 23 
 
 organization, substituting a paid for a volunteer mem- 
 bership, and requiring a high grade of qualification of its 
 officers. But, aided by the Citizens' Association, Mr. 
 Eaton undertook this reform, and after a fierce and pro- 
 longed struggle carried it to a successful conclusion. The 
 law creating the Fire Department, like that creating the 
 Health Department, is a model of intelligent discrimina- 
 tion of all the conditions essential to the efficiency of the 
 service and its permanent freedom from the vices inher- 
 ent in the old system. 
 
 Scarcely had these reforms been perfected when Mr. 
 Eaton's attention was turned by the Citizens' Association 
 to the necessity of having a department in the city gov- 
 ernment devoted exclusively to the care and management 
 of the public docks, wharves and other water-front inter- 
 ests of the city. This movement resulted in the passage 
 of law drawn by Mr. Eaton creating the Department of 
 Docks. Though this department was to occupy an 
 entirely new field in the municipal administration, the 
 law shows in every section the same mastery of all the 
 details peculiar to Mr. Eaton's legislative work. 
 
 Finally, Mr. Eaton undertook, single-handed, to reform 
 the police judiciary. He prepared a bill creating the 
 civil magistrates to take the place of the police justices 
 and reforming in many particulars the methods of pro- 
 cedure. This law is regarded as a great improvement 
 upon the previous police judiciary, but the bill became a 
 law only after a protracted struggle with the old police 
 justices, a struggle which Mr. Eaton maintained alone, rely- 
 ing upon the merits of the measure which he advocated. 
 The consensus of opinion of legal authorities is that the new
 
 24 
 
 law effected radical reforms of great importance in these 
 inferior courts of criminal jurisprudence in New York City. 
 
 If we may estimate Mr. Eaton's mental traits bj^ the 
 laws which he drafted in the interests of municipal reform 
 we can readily conclude that he had a remarkable genius 
 for constructive legislation. Though he was compelled to 
 weave into the very woof of those laws extraordinary 
 powers which he acknowledged were of vital importance 
 to their efficiency, and yet would be a menace to the 
 public if the laws were administered by unscrupulous 
 persons, he succeeded in so guarding those powers that 
 these laws have been in operation upwards of a quarter 
 of a century ; and, while those who have from time to 
 time been called to administer them have not always had 
 the best reputation for intelligence and civic virtue, yet 
 there has at no time been any complaint of injustice in 
 their execution, nor has there been any serious lapse in 
 their vigorous enforcement. To-day, as a generation 
 ago, they are accomplishing the full measure of usefulness 
 for which they were designed by their author. 
 
 Standing now at the close of a life so largely devoted 
 to the service of his fellow- men and consecrated to the 
 amelioration of human suffering, and where we may, in 
 some slight degree, estimate the vast and ever-increasing 
 fruition of its labors, how sublime it appears ! Monu- 
 ments and memorials can but faintly symbolize its great- 
 ness and perpetuate its enduring force. Mr. Eaton's own 
 thought of true fame once was expressed to me thus : 
 ' ' I ask only to be remembered as one who in his sphere 
 of life's duties endeavored to improve the conditions of 
 human life around him."
 
 BObress bp IHon. Carl Scbur3. 
 
 That man is indeed to be envied who, at the end of his 
 life, may trutlifully say to himself that his days have been 
 useful to his fellow-beings; and no one who knows the 
 career of our departed friend, Mr. Dorman B. Eaton, will 
 deny that he was fully entitled to that happiness. I have 
 been honored with the request that I should speak a few 
 words of the service he rendered to the cause of Ci\nl 
 Service Reform. I suppose I owe that honor to the fact 
 that I am the President of the Civil Service Reform Asso- 
 ciation of New York and of the National Civil Service 
 Reform League. With that quiet, unostentatious courage 
 that characterized him, Mr. Eaton gave himself to that 
 cause at a time when the idea that the offices of the Gov- 
 ernment were the legitimate prize and spoil of political 
 party warfare seemed so deeply embedded in the minds, 
 not only of politicians, but of the whole American people, 
 that any design to upset it, or even seriously to question 
 it, was apt to be regarded as no less foolish, and no less 
 hopeless, than an attempt to swim against the current of 
 Niagara. The early Civil Service Reformers were looked 
 upon, not only by active politicians, but by the public 
 generally, as a very amiable, gentle and inoffensive set of 
 persons, who were infatuated with a fine-spun theory too 
 good for this world, the practical introduction of which in 
 our political life was entirely out of the question, and 
 might, therefore, be regarded as an absolutely negligible 
 quantity in the actual issues of politics.
 
 26 
 
 To be laughed at is certainly a sore trial to any man of 
 self-respect, and to expose one's self to ridicule in working 
 for the public good requires a large measure of civic 
 heroism. Mr. Eaton was one of the first so to defy the 
 ridicule of his countrymen. The Civil Service Reformers 
 of that early day quietly, but persistently and faithfully, 
 endeavored to indoctrinate the country with their belief, 
 and they had the satisfaction of gradually convincing a 
 constantly-growing circle of their fellow-citizens not only 
 that the spoils system was a great evil, lying at the bot- 
 tom of most of the incompetency and wastefulness of our 
 public service, and being the source of much of the 
 demoralizing influences which endangered the very life 
 of our democratic institutions, but that they, the Civil 
 Service Reformers, could also point out a remedy which 
 would not only be practicable, but also promised to be in 
 a high degree eflScient. 
 
 About the time of the first administration of General 
 Grant the Civil Service Reformers had made a sufficient 
 impression upon the public opinion of the country to 
 induce the President to consider that moment opportune 
 for an actual experiment of the Merit System in the 
 public service of the country. He called to his aid an 
 Advisory Board, in which our dear and lamented friend 
 and leader, Mr. George William Curtis, took a leading 
 part. But no sooner was that first attempt inaugurated 
 than the politicians of the country saw what the success 
 of that experiment would cost them in the loss of that 
 time-honored prerogative of distributing the patronage 
 which they considered their own, and they made up their 
 minds that the experiment should not succeed if they
 
 27 
 
 could prevent its success. Mr. Curtis soon had very 
 serious disagreements with the President about various 
 matters. He came to the conclu.^ion that the Executive 
 would not be steadfast enough to prevent a reaction, and 
 laid down his position in the Advisory Board. Mr. Dor- 
 man B. Eaton was called to fill his place, and he undertook 
 the forlorn hope with that courage and devotion charac- 
 teristic of him. But it soon turned out that Mr. Curtis' 
 foresight had been correct. When Congress refused to 
 make the appropriation necessary for the sustenance of 
 the Merit System in the public service the President at 
 once decided that he could not prevail against that opposi- 
 tion, and that he would abandon the experiment. Thus 
 the Advisor}' Board, of which Mr. Eaton was a member, 
 had nothing further to do. But, with the advent of 
 General Hayes to the Presidency, the attitude of the 
 Executive toward Civil Service Reform became one of 
 warm friendship, and it was then that the eminently 
 useful career of Mr. Eaton as a Civil Servnce Reformer 
 began. At his suggestion, and, it may be added, at his 
 personal expense, he was sent to England for the purpose 
 of studying the origin, working and the success of the 
 Merit System in that field upon which it had been most 
 extensively applied, and the result was a report in the 
 form of a book, which may well be called the mo.st 
 valuable contribution to the literature of Civil Service 
 Reform made in this country by any man. But still 
 Congress continued to refuse the appropriation. 
 
 In 1882 came one of those sudden upheavals in political 
 life, which, as we know, are sometimes apt to frighten 
 politicians into spasms of virtue, and which, in this
 
 28 
 
 instance, received through the assassination of President 
 Garfield a peculiar significance. All of a sudden the 
 politicians yielded to the demand for Civil Service Reform. 
 The}' saw in it something like an anchor of safety. The 
 time had arrived for legislation, and then came into play 
 Mr. Eaton's remarkable constructive capacity. Several 
 bills had been drawn up by various Members of Congress, 
 but after consultation a draft made by Mr. Eaton proved 
 so far superior to all others that it was adopted by all ; 
 and this was the origin of that celebrated Pendleton Act, 
 which in its essential features is the Civil Service Law of 
 this country to the present day, and which was really 
 Mr. Eaton's work. The Civil Service L,aw of the State 
 of New York was likewise drawn up by him ; and it may 
 be said that all the civil service legislation we have in 
 this country was upon lines laid down by Mr. Eaton, 
 with such variations as local requirements demand. 
 Dorman B. Eaton may therefore well be called the legis- 
 lative architect of the reformed Civil Service in the 
 Republic of the United States. 
 
 It is needless to say that as a member, and temporarily 
 as the head, of the National Civil Service Commission, 
 Mr. Eaton performed his ofl&cial duties with the constancy, 
 the devotion and that conservative spirit which was 
 peculiar to his mind. When his official service ceased, 
 he devoted himself to the work which was mapped out, 
 and in great measure prosecuted by the Civil Service Asso- 
 ciation of this city and of the National Civil Service Reform 
 League, which he had himself helped to create ; and he 
 constantly added to the literature of Civil Service Reform 
 for the enlightenment of the pubHc opinion of the country.
 
 29 
 
 I speak for these associations when I say that the work 
 he has done for them, and through them for the public 
 interest of the United States, was made especially valu- 
 able by the largeness of his knowledge, the vastness of 
 his experience, and the wisdom of his coimcil. But, 
 above all things, we should not fail to remember the 
 spirit in which these services were rendered. I can affinn 
 that in all the experience of my long life I never met a 
 man whose public efforts were more free from selfish 
 motive. He was not one of those who are tortured 
 by a constant anxiety as to whether they will get 
 public credit enough for that which they do for the 
 common weal. He never asked himself whether his 
 name would be sufficiently mentioned in the newspapers. 
 He would always, with unflagging zeal, do the task 
 that fell to his lot, inquiring not how he could make 
 himself most conspicuous, but how he could make 
 himself most useful. He may have considered himself 
 entitled, by his experience and the great service which 
 he had rendered, to some authority among the associ- 
 ates with whom he worked. He was indeed entitled 
 to that ; but I am sure that I speak for all these as- 
 sociates when I say that in our discussions, which, as 
 is usual with the discussions of reformers, were not with- 
 out a certain liveliness of temper and a certain tenacity 
 of argument, no man could have borne himself with 
 greater dignit}' or with more kindly tolerance of adverse 
 opinions. And so we cherish in our hearts for him, not 
 only the profoundcst respect and gratitude, but also the 
 warmest affection. Thus he stands in our memories and 
 in the memories of all who have known him, or who
 
 30 
 
 know of him, as a true model of the American citizen — 
 eminent, very eminent, by his superior capability and 
 acquirements, by his singularly disinterested public spirit, 
 by his efficient efforts for the public good, and by the 
 high degree of usefulness which he attained among his 
 fellow-citizens. Let us hope that the results of that use- 
 fulness be as enduring as they certainly will never cease 
 to reflect the highest honor upon his name.
 
 H&&re00 bs /iDr. Jobn iDarsen lRboat)e0. 
 
 President of thk Board ok Trtstees of xni: Church of All Sorts. 
 
 No nation has achieved and maintained lasting great- 
 ness which has not been builded upon foundations cre- 
 ated by those who have recognized that obedience to the 
 moral laws which govern the universe must be welded 
 into the State, and who, forgetful of self and inspired by 
 unselfish love for their fellow-men, have given their lives 
 to public service for the public good. And it is for rea- 
 sons such as these that we are here to-day to do honor 
 to the memory of our friend, and to set the seal of our 
 commendation upon the record of his life. 
 
 Others, far better fitted for the task, will tell the story 
 of the public service Dorman B. Eaton has rendered to 
 the nation. It is for me to speak of what he has done 
 for this church in which he worshipped for forty years, 
 and for the cause of Unitarian Christianity which he 
 held most dear. 
 
 Many years ago I was told by his partner and friend 
 the story how, when engaged in a contest to wrest the 
 control of a great corporation from the hands of those 
 who had proved unworthy of the trust confided in them, 
 he received many threatening letters of a character to 
 alarm his friends, who begged him to withdraw, saying 
 that he was powerless in the hands of those who had 
 threatened his life, but his only reply was: "I cannot; 
 I have my duty to perform and I will perform it." And 
 after the (threatened) blow fell with the attempt upon
 
 32 
 
 his life, he still remained the same undaunted, coura- 
 geous man, always resolved that, come weal or woe, when 
 duty called he would obey. 
 
 Of great force of character, self-reliant, kind and cour- 
 teous, earnest and loyal, solid and old-fashioned, given 
 to deep thought and plain living, simple in taste, dislik- 
 ing show and ostentation, throwing his soul into all that 
 he did when once convinced that what he was about to 
 do was right and true — such was his character as seen 
 by those who knew him best. 
 
 His religion was to him not only a name and a pro- 
 fession of faith, but a living, vital force, which filled his 
 nature to the full, and guided him in all things which he 
 professed and performed. Faith in God, faith in immor- 
 tality and trust in his fellow- man — these cardinal prin- 
 ciples of our religion were to him both meat and drink ; 
 and upon the broad platform of the Unitarian Church he 
 stood a champion for the cause, a leader in the ranks. 
 
 To this church he was a tower of strength. Did it 
 prosper, he rejoiced. Did it need his help, he gave with 
 free and loving hand. Was it discouraged, he spoke 
 words of hope and cheer. Did it falter in its task, he 
 spurred it on to renewed effort. Was he told that the 
 fires burned low upon the altars of his faith, he stirred 
 the embers, and pointed to the beacon lights burning 
 brightly all around him, which marked the progress of 
 the race upward and onward to nobler conceptions of 
 duty, a clearer insight into the workings of a Divine 
 Providence, and a better knowledge of the destiny of 
 man and the relations the human soul holds to the all- 
 wise Creator Who gave it life.
 
 33 
 
 And so, through long and pleasant years, this reserved, 
 self-possessed man has moved in our midst, and given of 
 his strength for our welfare and our need ; and now, in 
 the hour of the leaving, let us hope that as the grass, 
 sweet emblem of returning life, will, year by year, grow 
 green upon the sod which covers his grave, so may his 
 memory abide with us, and the truths he taught be woven 
 into the web and woof of our lives, for, as Chadwick 
 sweetly sings : 
 
 " It singeth low in every heart. 
 
 We hear it, each and all, 
 The voice of those who answer not, 
 
 However we may call ; 
 They throng the silence of the breast, 
 
 We see them as of yore. 
 The kind, the true, the brave, the sweet, 
 
 Who walk with us no more. 
 
 " 'Tis hard to take the burden up 
 
 When these have laid it down ; 
 They brightened all the joys of life. 
 
 They softened every frown. 
 But oh ! 'tis good to think of them 
 
 When we are troubled sore ; 
 Thanks be to God that such have been. 
 
 Although they are no more ! " 
 
 " ' May God continue this, the First Congregational 
 Church, long after he has laid us all beneath the sod ! ' 
 That would be almost my la.st prayer were I dying ; and 
 I pray you, if you have any love for me or my memory, 
 when I am gone, to show it by your devotion to the 
 church and the cause to which I have so happily and 
 gratefully, however feebly, devoted my life."
 
 34 
 
 Such were the words which, at the close of forty years 
 of ministry in this pulpit, and but a few years before his 
 death, fell from the lips of Dr. Bellows, and which, in the 
 heart of our friend, found their true echo and a perma- 
 nent abiding place ; and, could he speak to us, such 
 would be his parting injunction to us now — his dying 
 wish to those who, within these walls, with him have 
 found spiritual rest and peace and comfort and inspira- 
 tion for daily life. 
 
 " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
 
 a^^rce0 bi? IRcv. zrbonia9 1R. Sltccr* 
 
 Pastor of the Church of All Souls. 
 
 The pastors of this church have been blessed by the 
 friendship of DormauB. Eaton, and by that finest form of 
 loyalty to their service, not found in personal affection 
 alone, but in loving the things that they loved. No one 
 who serves in the dignity of the ministry cares so much 
 for affection directed toward himself, as that he and those 
 to whom he ministers shall meet in one common object, 
 and labor for one common end. 
 
 Dorman B. Eaton has been described by the last speaker 
 most aptly as a force and an inspiring instrument of 
 usefulness in this church. He was more than that to me ; 
 for although I had the good fortune to be counted among 
 his friends, and he was for years before my coming into 
 the pastorate of this church my personal friend, and I 
 believe my well-wisher in the ministry, yet I was always 
 conscious when speaking to Mr. Eaton that his eye was 
 looking above my head, and that the direction of his 
 thought was on things higher, and not on me. He had 
 the rare gift of giving you his whole attention, and the 
 distinguished excellence in converse of making you 
 feel that what you were saying was of importance to 
 him. I have over and over again gone from his presence 
 with a sort of abashed feeling that I should have 
 taken his time, or attempted to engage his attention ; 
 and yet it arose not so much out of the sense of my own 
 un worth as out of the sense of his distinction. But
 
 36 
 
 whatever the subject that might engage our conversa- 
 tion — whether some high civic ideal or some necessary 
 civic duty, or some most unpleasant civic severity, or 
 whether it were the value of the church itself or that high 
 faith which we hold and which he adorned, which has 
 been often described, not as a body of doctrine, but as a 
 way of looking at life and a method of living — always 
 there was the impression that, however well he lived, he 
 could not do without the church ; but I think he did not 
 really need it. He had deliberately made the contribu- 
 tion of himself to the service of religion, not only in its 
 great ideals, but in its painstaking details of loyalty and 
 fidelity. The small fidelities which come of constant 
 attendance upon the service of religion were not too little 
 for his regard. I was as sure to see him sitting yonder 
 as I rose to preach as the men who preceded me had seen 
 him during forty years — my predecessors, Mr. Williams, 
 and that great servant of God, Dr. Bellows, for forty- 
 three years of his ministry the pastor of this church. I 
 was sure to see Mr. Eaton sitting yonder with the calm 
 intelligence of his face as I rose to speak, and I was sure 
 that, however unkindled his face might be by any appeal 
 that I might make, it was because his thoughts had 
 covered with the canopy of their intervention the glowing 
 expression of divine enthusiasm and sacred affection 
 for things religious. He was a calm man, a deliberate 
 man ; but afterward, in any review of what had been 
 said — never, I am thankful to say, in any critical spirit, 
 nor, also, I am thankful to say, in any spirit of praise or 
 adulation — I was aware that the best thing I had to say 
 was heard with an attention that lifted it to a higher
 
 37 
 
 plane, and the simplest thing was heard with an attention 
 that gave to it an added weight, even in my own regard. 
 I want to speak very simply for a moment upon the 
 attitude of Mr. Eaton to the church itself. He was not 
 only an earnest and devoted member of the denomination 
 represented by this church, but he also contributed of his 
 wisdom and counsel to the organization of the National 
 Conference, which in 1865 marked a real departure from 
 our isolated loneliness as churches to our organized work 
 as a denomination — a movement in which Doctor Bellow'S 
 led, with Mr. Eaton beside him, in a time that was peril- 
 ous ; for it was a difficult thing to enter upon any discus- 
 sion of things that touched men deeply, following that 
 acute irritation that had been caused by the civil strife 
 which had torn the country asunder four years before. 
 Not only was this true, but the individual church — this 
 church — seemed to him necessary to the health of the 
 community. What he did in devising laws for the 
 health of the city — what he did in providing methods, 
 wise in counsel, nervous in action and stern in their un- 
 relenting devotion in moral rectitude and righteousness 
 in matters civic — he no less exemplified not simply in his 
 personal religion, but in his belief in the inviolable sanc- 
 tity of the church idea. He did not, as some of us, say : 
 ' ' We are of the oldest church ; we are of the most rational 
 form of faith, that turns away from authority and tradi- 
 tion in order that it may rest the soul in God, its final 
 experience." He believed, as I believe, that the com- 
 munity depends upon the church, and he urged me a 
 year ago, on lines that he outlined to me in his study, 
 with a fervor and glow of enthusiasm that kindled him 
 
 85924
 
 38 
 
 in unwonted degree in the recital, to preach a course of 
 sermons in which I should declare for the unabated and 
 undimmed necessity of the Christian Church in a city 
 like this. This was not to him a mere vision on which 
 he brooded when alone, and sought to quicken to new 
 enthusiasm a minister his junior in years, but the deepest 
 conviction of his life : that the church, not as an ecclesias- 
 tical profession simply — not as perpetuating the historic 
 continuity of great ideals — but as the saving instrument 
 of society, deserves its place, and deserves the attention 
 which was given to it by men like himself. 
 
 I could have been quite content not to have found 
 Dorman B. Katon in a church — quite content to have 
 said of him that his moral passion was enough to inscribe 
 the moral law upon the fleshly tables of his heart ; but 
 when in addition to that he was willing to give himself 
 to the work of the denomination in which his service was 
 rendered, and to the individual church in which he 
 served, he exhibited, in my judgment, that fine example 
 of a man who does not need individually the reassurance 
 of religion that the church provides, but who deliberately 
 contributes his reassurance to weaker men that the 
 church is the instrument at once of their instruction, 
 their consolation and their inspiration. It is a splendid 
 thing for a strong man to give himself without need, 
 where weak men need to give themselves. 
 
 I was very much struck, in my intercourse with Mr. 
 Eaton, with the entire absence in him of any mock 
 enthusiasm and of easily kindled emotions, because I 
 found there a better thing. In our view of religion, 
 emotion is the flower which a deep-set root bears ; it is
 
 39 
 
 not the thing itself, it is the bloom of the thing itself ; 
 and, when he rose to the point of emotional interest over 
 things divine, it was as surprising as that out of the 
 brown soil of the early spring the flush of color of the 
 tulip sends its flame. I found in him this better thing 
 than easily-kindled emotion — steady-moving thoughts 
 and deep-rooted convictions, and holy aspirations. The 
 incense of his sacrifice never dimmed the heaven into 
 which he prayed ; and the depth of his conviction held 
 him fast, whoever may swing at anchor or break their 
 chain. 
 
 I am personally bereaved not to have him here. I am 
 reminded of those splendid words of Seneca : "It is an 
 ill construction of Providence to grieve more that my 
 friend is taken away than to rejoice that I have had him. 
 The past we are sure of; it is impossible to make it not 
 to have been." And those words, nearer our own time, 
 of Herbert Spencer, seem to fit his tone and temper better 
 than any others that come to me (those of Seneca for 
 myself and those of Spencer for him) : ' ' Not as adventi- 
 tious will the good man think the faith that is in him. 
 The thing he sees clearly he will fearlessly utter, being 
 sure that in doing this he is playing his right part in the 
 world. If he can achieve the end he aims at, well ; if 
 not, well also, but not so well. ' ' 
 
 The gentlemen of the Bar Association who are here 
 know what he did for their association by his association 
 with them. You have heard from Mr. Rhoades of the 
 feeling of the Trustees of the Administrative Board of this 
 church concerning his service and the loss that they have 
 sustained. You have heard from Mr. Schurz how he
 
 40 
 
 lived to see, together with men who worked with him, 
 the triumph of Civil Service Reform — that quixotic idea 
 of the good become the fear of the evil ; and from Doctor 
 Smith we have heard how, thirty-five years ago, he 
 wrought for the city's health, removing the conditions 
 which were the impediment of its moral sanity. And 
 now I have said these few words because the church sor- 
 rows for his loss. That strange thing has happened to 
 us — that we are divided to know whether we most sorrow 
 that he is not or that we are most glad that he has been ; 
 for the sense of our loss is held, together with the treas- 
 ure of our devotion to his memory. This place is sacred 
 because of his fidelities, and we go our way with firmer 
 foot because we worked with him and walked with him 
 the ways of life.
 
 Sermon 
 
 DEUVERED IN 
 
 Brattleboro, Veraiont, 
 
 SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 28, 1900, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. EDMUND Q. S. OSGOOD.
 
 42 
 
 MiCAH, vi : 8. " What doth the L,orcl require of thee but to do 
 justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." 
 
 This lesson is a broad one ; at the same time intensely 
 practical and addressed to each individual soul. 
 
 The prophet bids us to be just, merciful, humble. 
 " Rend your heart and not your garment " is the burden 
 of his message. 
 
 Outward worship is nothing ; sacrifice is nothing ; even 
 prayer is nothing, if the life itself be not a worthy gift. 
 Let each character be moulded in harmony with what is 
 divinely just ; let it be enriched by a true and thoughtful 
 mercy ; let it be clothed upon by that humility which 
 ennobles even kings to wear — these with all forms simply 
 beautify and make more perfect the life. 
 
 We will take up now these qualities, one after another, 
 and notice the special significance of each : 
 
 I. To be just is to render to everything its due. But 
 justice is a very comprehensive term. It includes God 
 and man and self in its sweep. Let us touch upon these 
 objects of justice briefly in turn. 
 
 In our thoughts we are constantly thanking the Supreme 
 Power for the blessings we enjoy. Our words, when we 
 address each other, not seldom bear witness to this grate- 
 ful instinct. As we say ''Good morning,^'' or ''Good 
 evening'" — heartily and sincerely — being impressed by 
 the fresh gladness of the hour, we are, though we think 
 it not, praising the Heavenly Father for his gifts. Our 
 prayerful aspirations betray how dependent are the lives
 
 43 
 
 we lead upon this higli source. Laden are thej' with 
 tender gratitude because of strength given to resist evil, 
 or to find consolation in sorrow. 
 
 Yet, were we to ask ourselves if, having entertained 
 thoughts of gratitude, having spoken words of thank- 
 fulness, having poured forth our .souls in fervent 
 prayer, we are thereby absolved from further duties as 
 regards this Almighty Being, we at once answer in the 
 negative. No; we shall not, if we stop here, be " doing 
 justly ' ' by the all-loving power so far beyond and above 
 ourselves. Not only our thoughts and our words, but 
 our deeds as well, must be made fair and beautiful for the 
 Father's sight. To be just toward him and to render 
 unto him that which is wholly due, into our faltering 
 human lives must the divine life flow, putting strength 
 in the place of weakness, a grand uplifting faith in the 
 place of doubt and despair, and courageous hope in the 
 place of that foreboding sorrow which so often shrouds in 
 darkness the soul ! 
 
 But justice to man and justice to self follow materially 
 this justice toward God. Indeed, they are included in it. 
 For no one is " doing justly " by this omniscient pres- 
 ence if he is constantly committing acts of unrighteous- 
 ness which affect human kind. 
 
 Justice requires that we should pay our debts ; that we 
 should not think ill of people or speak ill of them with- 
 out absolute cause and for the furtherance of some good 
 end. The life must be examined from every point of 
 view. These may be glaring faults on this nearer side, 
 but elsewhere tokens of a character such as can only win 
 our reverence and esteem. Patience and forbearance
 
 44 
 
 should enter into every judgment of ours. Above all, 
 should we never forget that in each soul glows a spark of 
 the divine fire— frequently covered deep with ashes, 
 doubtless, and not imparting to the spirit within the 
 ferv^or it should ; yet never wholly lacking these ! 
 
 Again, to be just to selfis to render to 5^^ what is due. 
 Sometimes I think we forget the significance of this. 
 Wishing to throw every atom of zeal and strength into 
 some great task or into the advancement of some cause 
 very dear to our hearts, we over-estimate the amount 
 that can safely be accomplished at our hands. The best 
 of people are wont to fail here. While ever quick to 
 accord strict justice to others, they will not to themselves. 
 They do not reflect that their lives may prove of double 
 worth to those around them if these lives are rightly 
 cared for — if they receive a portion of that attention so 
 gladly bestowed upon other objects. 
 
 Then, too, we ought to regard with strict justice our 
 own shortcomings and apparent failures. Possibly we 
 are prone to err because of being too lenient toward them. 
 This frequently happens, no doubt. But it is a simple 
 act of injustice, whether inflicted by another's will or our 
 Q^n — this magnifying of the harm committed ; this con- 
 stantly dwelHng upon it until it appears a thousand times 
 blacker than it really is. Having once made the mis- 
 take or done the wrong, the only wise thing to do is to 
 try to repair the evil, and to have the life in all coming 
 time the purer and the holier in contrast. In the cour- 
 ageous and hopeful spirit of the Apostle: "Forgetting 
 those things which are behind, we should press forward 
 towards those things which are before ! ' '
 
 45 
 
 II. The prophet's words, however, are not confined 
 to this element of justice alone. "What doth the Lord 
 require of thee," he adds, " but to love mercy and to walk 
 humbly with thy God ? " 
 
 Be merciful I It is not strange that by the side of jus- 
 tice this second virtue should be placed. The two quali- 
 ties are both needed to make up the perfect man. Justice 
 should never be false to its high mission — should not 
 swerve or falter for an instant when a plain question of 
 right and wrong is at stake. Nevertheless, its decrees 
 need not be carried out in a needlessly harsh and forbid- 
 ding fashion. 
 
 We all know in what different ways a severe yet right- 
 eous act may be performed. How, by one person, the 
 object of it all is crushed and embittered to his heart's 
 core by the relentless, unforgiving spirit .so clearly mani- 
 fest ; and how, by another, with precisely the same cause 
 for grievance, the erring one is shown his wrong, it is 
 true, and is obliged to make swift reparation, yet is 
 treated in such a forbearing and gracious manner that he 
 is able to feel still that there is a chance for him to rise 
 from his shame and to prove himself entitled to love and 
 respect and confidence once more. 
 
 In the one case we see displayed that which, in the 
 narrowest use of the term, is called "justice. ' ' In the latter 
 is there justice and something in addition — ^ju.stice tem- 
 pered and exalted b}' mercy that is not only mortal, but 
 divine ! 
 
 Let the Master's voice be heard and paid heed to, 
 which bids the unforgiving and revengeful one " to do 
 unto others as he would have others do unto himself" —
 
 46 
 
 " to love his enemies ; to do good to them that hate him ; 
 to pray for them that despitefully use and persecute him — 
 that he may be the child of his Father who is in Heaven." 
 
 Nay — 
 
 "The quality of mercy is not strained : 
 It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, 
 Upon the place beneath. It is twice blesssd : 
 It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." 
 
 III. But, apart from the practice of justice or mercy, 
 must we " walk humbly " with our God? Something is 
 indicated here of a richer and more enduring value than 
 what is termed modesty or humility in common speech. 
 It is not repression of self in the presence of others, nor 
 the guarded, carefully- chosen word, nor the unobtrusive 
 act, that in this place is to be taken especially to heart. 
 On the contrary, it is a humbleness shown not so much 
 by the outward sign as by the state of the inner life 
 itself. A bending is it of the human nature before the 
 nature that is divine; known, too, in its perfect fullness 
 to the sight that is infinite and all-wise, alone. 
 
 The strongest and noblest souls — such, for instance, as 
 Jesus of Nazareth or the Apostle Paul — have this element 
 in them, oftentimes, the most highly developed. They 
 are conscious of having advanced so short a distance on 
 their course ! For ever before them and above them 
 towers a life that is absolutely perfect. In the presence 
 of this mightier power they stand in awe. People won- 
 der at their gentleness; their light esteem for what they 
 do ; their gaze forever fixed upon some point beyond. 
 But they are assured that their deeds are meagre when
 
 47 
 
 compared with those of God. Not in contrast with low 
 and transitory results do they place their own, but side 
 by side with those that are highest and best. " Be ye 
 therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is per- 
 fect," are the words of inspiration which are constantly 
 urging them on, making their present task merely a 
 stepping-stone to one which the future holds in store ! 
 
 " What doth the Lord require of thee, then, but to do 
 justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy 
 God?" 
 
 As I take these words upon my lips, friends, in order 
 to sum up the beautiful and inspiring lesson they con- 
 tain, I have a concrete example in mind, which, I be- 
 lieve, will illustrate very simply, yet very perfectly, my 
 meaning. 
 
 I refer to one honored and beloved by us all, but who 
 now, in the fullness of his years and with his life-work well 
 done, has entered upon a larger and a diviner ser\'ice in 
 his Father's Kingdom. 
 
 Last Sunday afternoon, in the City of New York, in 
 the Church of All Souls, so dear to him, touching tributes 
 were paid by devoted friends to the memory of Dorman 
 B. Eaton. His faithful and wise endeavors in behalf of 
 pure municipal government were gratefully alluded to as 
 well as the heroic labors he wrought for the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of Civil Sen'ice Reform. By 
 others the story of his achievements at Washington, look- 
 ing to the welfare of his fellow-citizens everywhere 
 throughout the United States, was eloquently told. Nor 
 was it forgotten that he was a loyal and unselfish disciple 
 and apostle of our liberal faith ; working always in sea-
 
 48 
 
 son and out of season to make the truths expounded by 
 Channing and Martineau and Theodore Parker a source 
 of blessing to the world. 
 
 To the tribute here paid, as well as to the many other 
 tributes that have appeared in the daily press, we can 
 only give our reverent Amen. 
 
 But somehow or other we, in our Httle company (of 
 which for so many summers he has been glad to form 
 one), would think of Mr. Eaton for a moment — in this 
 church among the hills, likewise so dear to him — simply 
 as a kind neighbor; as one interested in our village 
 doings ; as a fellow- worshipper and a thoughtful and sym- 
 pathetic friend. 
 
 Was he not one (if any man ever was) who "did 
 justly and loved mercy and walked humbly with his 
 God" ? Certainly, these words of the prophet outline 
 my conception of the character of Mr. Eaton more clearly 
 and more fully than any other words could possibly have 
 the power to do. 
 
 He was 2ijust man, I think we will all agree ; and this 
 characteristic was as evident in his relations with the town 
 life of Brattleboro, and his connection with this church 
 and society, and his dealings with this entire community, 
 as in the larger affairs of State and country. His face 
 revealed, as perhaps few faces do, the judicial spirit 
 within — an interpretation borne out so richly in speech 
 and act. He was just toward God; he was just toward 
 his fellow-men ; and if, perchance, in his zeal and anxiety 
 to do well "his Father's business," he was not always 
 quite just to himself, but laid upon his own shoulders 
 burdens too heavy safely to bear, yet his life of upwards
 
 49 
 
 three-score years and ten bore fruit until its very close, 
 and evinced a wise restraint and a careful husbanding of 
 resources fit to serve as a wholesome example to many of 
 his countrymen in these days of intense activity and 
 almost reckless competition. 
 
 Then ''he loved mercy'' as who can doubt who has 
 been conversant with the deeds of kindness so unobtru- 
 sively performed that marked the long life of our friend ? 
 How tenderly you must all call up to remembrance what 
 Mr. Eaton has been to this church of our faith during 
 the score of years that he has been connected with it ! 
 Thoughtful and loving counsel has he freely given to en- 
 hance its highest welfare ; words of generous cheer for 
 both parishioners and ministers have his lips let fall, and 
 with his substance has he striven ever to aid in every 
 substantial way each good work that this society has 
 taken upon itself to do in the service of God and man. 
 We shall long miss his stately, yet gracious, presence 
 in our midst ; his warm hand-clasp, his hearty greeting 
 and the consciousness of a loyal, sympathetic and en- 
 tirely wholesome and Christ-like spirit shining behind 
 it all ! 
 
 Finally, did "he not walk humbly with his God " ? 
 No ueed for me — no need for you, my friends — to expand 
 this thought. Our answer must be that, together with 
 justice, tempered with mercy, there existed a sincere 
 humility of thought and utterance. In no other man of his 
 depth of knowledge, of his breadth of vision, of his faith- 
 fulness in deed and attainment, have I ever seen this 
 virtue more sweetly, more perfectly, revealed. He was a 
 child of God : he would walk in the footsteps of the
 
 50 
 
 Master as in those of a brother and a teacher in holy- 
 things, yet he was conscious of shortcomings and failures 
 which he trusted might be replaced by more perfect ful- 
 fillment in time yet to come. 
 
 And so would we leave him, friends, and take to our 
 own hearts reverently and with renewed purpose and a 
 higher consecration this lesson of Justice, of Humbleness 
 and of Love !
 
 ZTributee of jfrien^6bip♦
 
 Borman B. i£aton. 
 
 By Rev. Theodore C. Williams. 
 [From The Christian Register, January, igoo.] 
 
 Dorman B. Eaton has been for many years an honored 
 presence at every Unitarian gathering, and a leader 
 everywhere among the small number of men who give 
 disinterested thought to public questions. His public 
 services and his writings are well known, and have already 
 been described in the Christian Register. The cause of 
 Civil Service Reform, in which he was a protagonist, has 
 now no abler defense than his writings. 
 
 But his public Hfe, though he gave to it a whole-hearted 
 devotion, was far from exhibiting the whole man. One 
 had only to hear a few moments of his conversation to 
 receive far-reaching suggestions, and feel the presence of 
 a mind of the first order. His style of talk was simple, 
 utterly free from pedantry or dogmatism, yet his thought 
 carried judicial weight, and his exact and comprehensive 
 knowledge was often almost dazzling. He resembled 
 Gladstone in his genius for being thoroughly informed. 
 
 He was a sober mind. His extraordinary intellectual 
 powers seemed but the practical expression of a certain 
 moral energy which might be described— Matthew Ar- 
 noldwise — as public spirit touched by emotion. When 
 the moral note was struck, he instantly grew musical and 
 eloquent. He was the farthest possible from the fanatic 
 or the reformer with one idea. Civil Service Reform was
 
 53 
 
 to him the supreme present duty of the republic. But 
 all questions that concern the welfare of states or the 
 health of single souls were interesting to him ; and he 
 discussed no question without finding somewhere in the 
 vast range of his clearly ordered knowledge the illu- 
 minating fact, the convincing point of view. This combi- 
 nation of ethical passion with intellectual resource was 
 his most remarkable characteristic. He never lost the 
 moral purpose, nor failed to furnish his conscience with 
 solid knowledge and logical argument. In his character, 
 as in his personal appearance, there was something 
 Roman. He was too honest to be a Cicero, too modest, 
 too unselfish. But with a proper toga he could have 
 passed for Cato Major — let us say a Cato Christianized — ■ 
 with that touch of rusticity, too, which the greatest 
 Romans always had. He was equally at ease in the 
 forum, debating the safety of the republic, or on his pleas- 
 ant Brattleboro farm, consulting of crops and cattle. 
 
 In the best sense of the word, he was an ' ' old-fashioned ' ' 
 man ; namely, of the fashion which is a wholesome model 
 for any generation. If he ever opened a fiti de sitcle 
 book, which is not likely, he certainly never finished one. 
 He saw New York grow up. He feared and disliked the 
 ostentation and luxury which, beginning with the newly 
 rich, have multiplied in modern life for all classes. His 
 own tastes were ' ' for home-felt pleasures and for simple 
 scenes." 
 
 But, though he feared the overblown luxuriance of our 
 new America, it was not in his nature to be censorious. 
 He trusted his country and his countrymen. He watched 
 the new times with kindly as well as philosophic interest.
 
 54 
 
 But he himself remained of the generation of Emerson, 
 of Curtis, of Peter Cooper, for whom plain living and 
 high thinking were inseparable, and to whom personal 
 gorgeousness was no temptation. 
 
 Some of his critics have thought that he demanded of 
 public men too high a standard of disinterested patriotism. 
 He judged others by himself. He could probably have 
 said that his patriotism never brought him a dollar, and 
 it certainly cost him thousands. It is one of the strange, 
 sad things about American politics that men of Mr. 
 Eaton's type are not popularly thought of for office-hold- 
 ing. Like the late David A. Wells or Gen. Walker or 
 President Eliot, Mr. Eaton instructed "statesmen" and 
 remained a private citizen. He had essentially the 
 statesman's mind. 
 
 In religion he was a loyal Unitarian, broad and profound 
 in thought, but adhering reverently to the Christian 
 tradition and name. He was a warm friend of Dr. Bel- 
 lows, and cordially sustained the succeeding ministers of 
 All Souls' Church. His gifts to the church were large, 
 and, in proportion to his means, unequaled. His 
 private charities were constant, cheerful and judicious. 
 
 " Take him for all in all," he was a great soul. A few 
 such men, "if peradventure there be fifty found," can 
 avert destruction from any city in which they live. 
 Such a life interprets the text, " Ye are the salt of the 
 earth." 
 
 To such antique models of citizenship— benevolent, in- 
 structed, industrious— must the rising generation look if 
 the " strenuous " life is to be in the strength of a higher 
 national righteousness.
 
 /IDc. Eaton at "fcome. 
 
 By Augusta Larned. 
 
 Few men of our time have lived a life so homogeneous 
 as he of whom I write ; few have achieved success so 
 early in life, having deserved it so well ; few have pur- 
 sued their aims with such singleness of purpose, keeping 
 the ideal proposed so steadily in view. 
 
 The gentle dignity, even benignity, of his demeanor ; 
 the humor that played round his speech and illumined 
 his face in those hours when he gave himself loyally to 
 his friends and to fireside joys; the memories he loved to 
 summon of his early life, when as a country boy among 
 the Vermont hills he lived close to nature — all come back 
 as I recall those pleasant Sunday evenings spent in his 
 home, when he threw aside his absorbing work, his tire- 
 less endeavors for the public good, to give himself a few 
 hours of rest and recreation. 
 
 Some have asked : ' ' Did Mr. Eaton ever unbend ? 
 Had he a humorous side — a side adapted to social con- 
 verse and the lighter, more amusing phases of life ? ' ' 
 That he was essentially a thinker, a serious man engaged 
 on grave and weighty problems, we all know ; but the 
 question of his pleasant phases, his genial moods, could 
 never be asked by those who were admitted to share in 
 the good hours when he consented to talk by his own 
 hearthstone. Years after New York had ceased to care 
 for such friendly occasions as a Sunday evening tea, he
 
 56 
 
 and his wife, who shared his taste for all that was gen- 
 uine and unostentatious, for all that was easy, cordial 
 and familiar, were wont to receive their friends at this 
 time, seldom in large numbers ; a selected few ; just 
 enough to draw cosily around the tea-table and to enter 
 unitedly into the pleasant converse. They knew how to 
 make others happy in that good, simple fashion that unfor- 
 tunately has gone out of vogue with the growth of more 
 formal manners, and a more specious and hollow conven- 
 tionality. In the old days of New York the Sunday evening 
 tea was a favorite institution ; a time of cheery reunion for 
 friends and neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Eaton cherished it 
 beyond the day of its renown ; made for it a little space 
 of warmth and comfort, and summoned friends who could 
 appreciate such genuine hospitality and real intercourse ; 
 a renewing of heart and mind ; a free exchange of ideas, 
 opinions and convictions. It was then, while sitting in 
 his favorite armchair, the centre of a little sympathetic 
 circle, that Mr. Katon's face gathered sunshine ; that his 
 eye smiled and the corners of his mouth took those pecu- 
 liar indescribable lines of humor and good fellowship that 
 made him one of the most delightful of companions, 
 showing how thoroughly he enjoyed the good, warm, 
 friendly side of life. 
 
 His habits of domesticity and home-keeping were formed, 
 perhaps, before New York became a city of palatial clubs, 
 where men contrive to forget the dullness of their fire- 
 sides in the joys of a sumptuous hotel, designed exclusively 
 for their own sex. I think he could be called in no dis- 
 tinctive way a clubman, but rather a home lover, who 
 found his best hours under his own roof, and was pleased
 
 57 
 
 with his old-fashioned ideal of entertaining, where one 
 gives not only bread and salt, or even nectar and ambrosia, 
 to his guest, but something far finer — the hospitality of 
 thought and feeling. I remember him as a delightful 
 story-teller, when he opened his budget of things new 
 and old and drew forth anecdote, reminiscence, interest- 
 ing bits of history, characterization of men and things 
 gathered from his long experience of affairs and wide 
 knowledge of the world. Then his laughter rang out 
 merrily, and a new, and perhaps unexpected, side of his 
 nature was revealed. 
 
 But a deeper impression, always left with me after talk- 
 ing with Mr. Eaton, was his unbounded generosity. No 
 man ever gave himself more unstintedly to all who needed 
 his knowledge or advice or counsel. His public services 
 to the city and the nation bear the same impress. Such 
 services as his are not in the market for sale ; they mu.st 
 be given ; and how royally he gave himself and his labors ! 
 The fact that just at the period of middle life he judged 
 himself rich enough for his needs and desires, and deliber- 
 ately chose to withdraw from his profession, and devote 
 himself to the public service, without expectation or wish 
 for money payment or the rewards of office, shows con- 
 clusively the temper of his mind. 
 
 In his social relations it was the same. He loved to 
 give of his best to those who asked or desired to receive. 
 He would take infinite pains to make clear the things he 
 was interested in, and by the tempered enthusiasm of his 
 nature he was singularly happy in making the things 
 nearest his heart of \'ital importance to the listener. His 
 earnestness, his depth of conviction always given forth so
 
 58 
 
 calmly, carried a tremendous force, and was one of the 
 secrets of his signal success in accomplishing the aims he 
 had in view. One came away from a talk with Mr. Baton 
 with no vapid sense of emptiness and ennui, but with a 
 feeling of refreshment and invigoration, a new tension 
 of the brain, a new sense of courage to live and strive. 
 
 One should mention the generous free gift of his time, 
 his interest, his advice and counsel to those who needed 
 extrication from difficulties. Neither did he despise 
 small things and little troubles. He gave as careful 
 attention to the legal perplexities of a poor woman, or an 
 old servant, as to the most important case. No matter 
 how busy he might be, he was there at home for the help 
 of others, often of humble people who could not afford 
 to pay a fee. 
 
 Another trait in Mr. Eaton's character that always 
 struck me as unusual and most admirable was the 
 judicial fairness of his mind. He was profoundly ap- 
 preciative of the good in others. He sought for it and 
 acknowledged it gladly. His breadth of view was 
 always stimulating. He could do justice to those to 
 whom by temperament and conviction he was most op- 
 posed. He could see round and over a subject, and was 
 capable of judging both sides. He was never imprisoned 
 by his prepossessions, and was singularly free from nar- 
 rowing and belittling prejudices. In the men to whom 
 by principle he was an adversary he could see a hopeful 
 gleam of something good and compensating if it existed. 
 In those he opposed most persistently — in the corrupt 
 city government which he would have reformed perma- 
 nently out of power had it been possible — still if there
 
 59 
 
 appeared any extenuating trait he was sure to mention 
 it, to give it due credit. His own painful experience 
 had left no trace of bitterness. He could judge the pas- 
 sions that drive men to crime, or to corrupt practices, be- 
 lieving that still the nature may harbor some little 
 hidden germ of virtue. He had a profound belief in the 
 worth of human nature, in spite of all the malevolent in- 
 fluences revealed by his wide experience. His optimism 
 had not grown from emotional impulse, but from the 
 calm weighing of motives and deep insight into the facts 
 of life. He judged all things dispassionately; made up 
 his mind from thorough investigation, which was sin- 
 gularly evidenced by the last talk I ever had wnth him, 
 on the last of those memorable Sunday evenings a few 
 weeks before his death, while he was still able to see 
 friends. 
 
 He told me that the rapid spread of Christian Science 
 had led him to the conclusion that it was worth looking into 
 as one of the religious phenomena of the time ; therefore, 
 he had felt that he ought to read Mrs. Eddy's book to 
 discover, if possible, the secret of its power. Conse- 
 quently, he had procured the book, and had read it care- 
 fully from cover to cover; and while he had found a 
 philosophy — if such it can be called — that .seemed absurd, 
 assumptions that made impossible claims, still he had 
 discovered excellent precepts for the conduct of life, 
 which if followed would tend both to mental and bodily 
 health. This seems perfectly to illustrate Mr. Eaton's 
 habitual attitude — his desire to do perfect justice to all, 
 to weigh all the evidence, and never to allow prejudice 
 or passion to utter hasty conclusions.
 
 6o 
 
 So unambitious for himself, he was strenuous for the 
 good of the world. His large inclusive sympathy he 
 gave most liberally to every good cause. His mind was 
 open and unhampered in its movement by any alliance 
 that would hinder him in siding with truth and right- 
 eousness. He was of the best American type that 
 inscribes "I serve" upon its banners. 
 
 It is sad to thmk of his departure, but it is joyful to 
 think that he has lived. To the one who loved him most, 
 who shared his thoughts, lived in his convictions and 
 ideals, sympathized with all his aims, was so completely- 
 one with him in sentiment, in hope, in aspiration, the 
 benefactions of his life will in time outweigh the poign- 
 ancy of grief. The fires of memory will ever burn the 
 brighter, for his was a character so substantive and real, 
 so rounded and compacted with meaning and purpose, 
 that the change of death seems but a slight thing before 
 the great assurance of continuity of life that exists in 
 what he did — the good he accomplished for his kind, his 
 services to humanity, and his forgetfulness of self. 
 
 " He who though thus endowed as with a seuse 
 And faculty for storm and turbulence. 
 Is yet a soul whose master bias leans 
 To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes ; 
 Sweet images ! which wheresoe'er he be 
 Are at his heart ; and such fidelity 
 It is his darling passion to approve ; 
 More brave in this, that he hath much to love."
 
 Dorman B. lEaton. 
 
 By John B. Pine. 
 [From TJie Columbia University Quarterly, March, /goo.'\ 
 
 In the will of Dorman B. Eaton, Columbia University 
 is named as the recipient of a bequest of $100,000, paya- 
 ble on the death of Mr. Eaton's widow, to be held as a 
 permanent fund for the endowment and maintenance of 
 a professorship of municipal science and administration ; 
 and to Harvard University is left a like sum for a pro- 
 fessorship of the science of government. In connection 
 with the Harvard professorship, Mr. Eaton's will con- 
 tains the following statement : 
 
 " I do not attempt to prescribe the specific iustruction to be given 
 through this professorship ; bnt I may say that I have endowed it, 
 not only in the faith that it will be always filled by an able and 
 patriotic citizen, zealously devoted to its purpose, but in the hop>e 
 that, through its teaching, the great principles upon which our 
 national constitution is based, and in conformity to which admin- 
 istration should be carried on, will be vindicated and strengthened ; 
 that the fit relation between parties and government will be made 
 plain ; that the obligations of the moral law and of patriotic 
 endeavor in party politics and all official life will be persuasively 
 expounded ; that the just relations between public opinion, party 
 opinion and individual independence will be set forth ; that an 
 effective influence will be exerted for making public administration 
 and legislation in the United States worthy of the character and 
 intelligence of their people ; and that not only the salutary lessons 
 of history will be presented, but that the most appropriate and 
 effective means of practical wisdom, in our day, will be considered 
 for preventing corruption and partisan despotism in politics and
 
 62 
 
 government, and for inducing and enabling the most worthy 
 citizens to fairly exercise a controlling power in the republic. It 
 seems to me that these lessons — and especially such as may be 
 drawn from the history of the ancient Italian and Dutch republics 
 and from that of England — have been by no means adequately 
 expounded in the teachings of our political sciences." 
 
 In regard to the endowment given to Columbia, the 
 will provides as follows : 
 
 " The explanations which I have made as to the other profess- 
 orship are largely applicable here ; but, without attempting to 
 prescribe the instruction to be given, I wish to add these words : 
 The problem of municipal government is one of great diflBculty 
 and peril, and there is little in our early constitutions to aid in its 
 solution. A true and safe municipal system is yet to be created 
 in the United States. Nowhere is patriotic and wise leadership 
 on such a subject more needed, or can it be more useful, than in 
 the City of New York. To determine a definite sphere within 
 which cities and villages shall substantially control their own 
 affairs ; to clearly mark the limits of co-operation between them 
 and the states beyond this sphere ; to provide the best methods of 
 municipal administration ; to create councils in cities and villages 
 which shall, in substance, exercise their local authority and rep- 
 resent their public opinion rather than their party opinion ; to 
 greatly reduce the number and frequency of elections in munici- 
 palities ; to prevent the control of their affairs by parties and 
 factions, and to make good municipal government the ambition 
 and endeavor of the worthiest citizens — these seem to me to be 
 great problems of statesmanship, towards the solution of which 
 I trust this professorship will largely contribute. Through it, I 
 hope municipal wisdom, gathered from the most enlightened 
 cities of other countries and from all the best-governed munici- 
 palities of the Union, will find effective expression." 
 
 In providing for the endowment of the latter professor- 
 ship, there can be no doubt that Mr. Eaton had in mind
 
 63 
 
 the chair of administrative law established at Columbia 
 in 1891, with which he was thoroughly familiar and in 
 which he was greatly interested. 
 
 It has been remarked in a recent editorial article that 
 there could be no more fitting time than the present to 
 endow professorships to " vindicate and strengthen " the 
 "great principles upon which our constitution is based ; " 
 " to provide the best method of municipal administration ; 
 to prevent the control of municipal affairs by parties and 
 factions, and to make good municipal administration the 
 ambition and endeavor of the worthiest citizens." With 
 equal force it may be said that no individual could more 
 fitly be commemorated by the.se endowments than Dor- 
 man B. Eaton ; for the greater part of his life was de- 
 voted to the attainment of the objects which these profess- 
 orships are intended to promote, and his final benefaction 
 is, therefore, but the continuation of his life-work. That 
 work was so fruitful in results as to render it impossible to 
 mention here any but the most important. Among these, 
 the first in chronological order was the enactment of the 
 law creating the Metropolitan Board of Health for New 
 York and Brooklyn, which was passed in 1866 (Laws 1866, 
 Chapter 74), and which was the first statute enacted in 
 this country providing for a municipal sanitary system. 
 Up to that time there had been practically no organization 
 which could properly be considered a Health Department, 
 either in New York or elsewhere in the United States ; 
 and in consequence the city suffered to an appalling extent 
 from cholera, small-pox and other diseases engendered and 
 propagated by filthy streets, over-crowded tenements and 
 a complete lack of sanitary regulations. Acting for the
 
 64 
 
 Citizens' Association, Mr. Eaton prepared a bill which not 
 only created a Health Board, but embodied the principles 
 essential to any sound system of public sanitation, and 
 vested the Board with arbitrary powers of an extent and 
 character until then unrecognized in this country, but 
 absolutely essential to effective administration. Among 
 Mr. Eaton's associates in the work were Charles O' Conor, 
 William Curtis Noyes and other eminent lawyers ; but it 
 fell to him to draft the bill, and it was largely due to his 
 personal exertions that it was finally passed and became 
 a law. In March, 1866, the Metropolitan Board of 
 Health was organized, with Mr. Eaton as its counsel, 
 and a system of sanitary regulations was forthwith put 
 into operation which had the immediate effect of greatly 
 improving the physical condition of the city, of prevent- 
 ing the spread of contagious diseases and of largely re- 
 ducing the rate of mortality. Great as were these re- 
 sults, they were only a part of what the passage of this 
 act served to accomplish ; for its enactment led to the 
 adoption of similar laws for other cities, and its funda- 
 mental provisions are to-day embodied, not only in the 
 charter of New York, but in the sanitary code of every 
 city and town in the United States. 
 
 As soon as the new Health Board had been fairly 
 established, Mr. Eaton devoted himself to the reform of 
 the Fire Department, which up to that time had de- 
 pended entirely upon volunteer service, and he prepared 
 and aided largely in securing the enactment of the 
 Charter of 1870, reorganizing the local government of 
 the city (Laws 1870, Chapter 187). The features of this 
 law which were especially the work of Mr. Eaton were
 
 65 
 
 the sections creating a paid Fire Department in place of 
 a wholly inadequate volunteer ser\nce, and a Department 
 of Docks, there having been up to that time no depart- 
 ment especially charged with the care of the water front. 
 Mr. Eaton next undertook the reorganization of the 
 Police Justices' Courts, which, under a system of electing 
 the justices, had become a public scandal. Mr. Eaton's 
 act abolished the elective system and provided for the 
 appointment of police justices by the Mayor, sul)ject to 
 confirmation by the Board of Aldermen, for a term of ten 
 years, and required them to devote their whole time to 
 the duties of the office. The act provided in the most 
 complete manner for a judicial system, which was not 
 only greatly in advance of that which preceded it, but 
 which it would be difficult in improve upon. (Laws 
 1873, Chapter 538.) 
 
 The next reform to which Mr. Eaton devoted himself 
 was that of the Civil Service, and he was among the first to 
 encounter the storm of ridicule and contumely which it at 
 once evoked. This he met with the quiet courage which 
 characterized him ; and, when George William Curtis re- 
 signed in despair the chairmanship of the Advisory Civil 
 Service Board appointed by President Grant, a successor 
 willing to assume the apparently hopeless task was found 
 in Mr. Eaton. As events proved, however, the politicians 
 controlled the Administration ; and it was not until the 
 election of President Hayes that the principles of Civil 
 Service Reform had a true friend at the head of the Admin- 
 istration. He reappointed Mr. Eaton chairman of the 
 Commission and sent him to England, though at his 
 private expense, to study the development and working
 
 66 
 
 of Civil Service Reform in that country. As the result of 
 his observation and study, which was of the most exten- 
 sive and thorough character, Mr. Eaton published a 
 volume which Mr. Schurz declares to be the most valua- 
 ble contribution to the literature of Civil Service Reform. 
 In 1882 came the opportunity of the reformers. Even 
 the politicians had then become convinced that some 
 measure of reform in the Civil Service was necessary. A 
 number of bills were prepared by Congressional commit- 
 tees and others. Mr. Eaton was requested to prepare a 
 bill and did so, with the result that his draft was con- 
 sidered so immeasurably the best that it was accepted in 
 preference to all others. It was introduced in Congress, 
 where it was known as the " Pendleton Act," and subse- 
 quentlj' became a law. Mr. Eaton also drew up the Civil 
 Service Law of this State, which has served as the basis 
 for similar laws in almost all the other States. 
 
 Speaking of the remarkable constructive capacity shown 
 by Mr. Eaton in drafting these statutes, Mr. Schurz said 
 of him that he might be considered " the legislative archi- 
 tect of Civil Service Reform ; " and, as has already been 
 shown, his creative power was exercised to almost, if not 
 quite, as great an extent in the cause of municipal reform. 
 Mr. Eaton's last literary work, "The Government of 
 Municipalities," published only a few months before his 
 death by the Columbia University Press, bears much the 
 same relation to municipal reform that his earlier volume 
 did to the Civil Service. It contains not only a statement 
 of the author's conclusions as to the best methods of 
 municipal administration, based upon years of reading 
 and investigation both at home and abroad, but it is a
 
 67 
 
 compendium of information upon the subject ; and his 
 theories are supported by a mass of facts and authorities 
 which render the work a veritable storehouse to the 
 future student of municipal affairs. It was largely for 
 this purpose that the volume, which absorbed Mr. Eaton's 
 most mature years and deliljerate thought, was prepared ; 
 and his motive in writing it was identical with that 
 which led him to endow this professorship at Columbia. 
 Not content with having expended a great part of his life 
 and the most indefatigable industry in efforts to benefit 
 his country and his countrymen, in which he evinced an 
 entire disregard of selfish or personal considerations, he 
 has sought in the disposition of his property to further 
 the realization of his ideals through the aid of education. 
 As an educator of public opinion Mr. Eaton has had 
 few equals ; for it must be remembered that every one of 
 the important statutes which he brought forward repre- 
 sented a distinctly new idea, and that public opinion had 
 to be educated up to the point of supporting it before it 
 could become a law. That he did so educate opinion is 
 proved by the enactment of these laws. In many other 
 ways tending to the public good his influence was exerted 
 in a less tangible, but not less real, manner ; nor can it 
 be doubted that his personal example had its effect in 
 developing that higher standard of citizenship which has 
 found its expression in late years in numerous civic move- 
 ments and which these professorships are intended to 
 further develop. Few men have so impressed themselves 
 upon the statute law of their country as Mr. Eaton has 
 done, and as evidence of his broad and wise statesmanship 
 these enactments are his enduring memorial ; Init it
 
 68 
 
 remained for him after his death, by the terms of his will, 
 to give expression to the profound sense of public duty 
 which governed all his public acts. In associating him- 
 self with the University, as he has done in endowing the 
 chair which will doubtless bear his name, Dorman B. 
 Eaton has bequeathed to it a legacy which he has en- 
 riched by his personal character and by the record of a 
 life which proved him to be, in the truest sense of the 
 words, " an able and patriotic citizen."
 
 Dorman 35. lEaton. 
 
 By Frederick G. Burnham. 
 [Prom The Berts/tire Industrial Farm Record, March, rgoo.] 
 
 When the late Judge William Kent, son of the great 
 Chancellor in 1850, awarded the prize essay at the Cam- 
 bridge Law School to Dorman B. Eaton, he suggested to 
 him to come to New York City and aid him in editing a 
 new edition of his father's " Commentaries." At the 
 end of eighteen months Mr. Eaton became a member of 
 the law firm of Kent, Eaton & Davis, the latter being I. 
 C. Bancroft Davis, subsequently so well known as Assist- 
 ant Secretary of State, and now a Judge of the Court of 
 Claims. This law firm immediately became a leader at 
 the New York bar, and transacted an immense amount of 
 the great corporation-law business that centres in New 
 York City. Mr. Eaton quickly became the counsel of a 
 large number of these great corporations, and managed 
 their great interests with consummate skill and ability. 
 If his reputation had not already been established as a 
 profound lawyer and master of the great principles under- 
 lying our jurisprudence, and as an inveterate and tena- 
 cious antagonist, he would easily have acquired this rep- 
 utation in the great Erie Railroad litigation, during the 
 continuance of which, and just as his efforts were being 
 crowned with success, Mr. Eaton was sandbagged one 
 night as he was turning from Fifth avenue to his resi- 
 dence just around the comer.
 
 70 
 
 There he lay senseless and crushed until a passerby- 
 took him up and placed him in his home. The strong 
 man with a constitution of iron and intellectual gifts and 
 acquirements that easily placed him with the leaders of 
 the American bar lay in his bed for weeks. After a long 
 time, regaining sufficient strength to be taken to the 
 steamer, he and his devoted wife went abroad and passed 
 two years in simply winning back his strength. On his 
 return home he did not again enter professional life, but 
 from that time devoted himself largely to questions of 
 public interest. With the late George William Curtis 
 and their noble fellow-laborers, he pushed the great cause 
 of Civil Service Reform, and spent in that work so neces- 
 sary to our national life, a large part of his splendid 
 powers. From this time on he also drafted much of the 
 reform legislation of the State, and spent the larger part 
 of his energy and superb acquirements for the public. 
 Such devotion to the public reform is seldom seen, and 
 goes unrecognized by the multitude. Upon this fearless 
 citizen and great lawyer never came a stain of dishonor, 
 or even a shadow of a stain. It was one of my great 
 privileges to know him well for forty years, and the 
 memory of this great and pure and good man is one of 
 my choicest possessions. He was greatly interested in 
 our institution from the very start, and came on our 
 Board as a Director. Whilst serving in this capacity he 
 was, it need not be said, a faithful and wise counsellor. 
 When he passed away our Farm lost one of its truest 
 friends. Where can we hope to secure his successor ?
 
 H)orman B. Eaton. 
 
 By Hon. Hknry K. Howland. 
 [From the Annual /Report for iSgij of the Century Association.] 
 
 DORMAN B. Eaton was_ for many years one of the 
 ablest and most prominent lawyers in New York, engaged 
 with Judge William Kent in an extensive practice and 
 prominent in many of the largest and most important 
 cases in the courts. He was well equipped in his pro- 
 fession, sound, forcible, thorough, and contributed largely 
 to the legal literature of his time. 
 
 He was one of the most public-spirited citizens in the 
 city, was prominent in the attack upon the Tweed Ring, 
 and in resistance to the tide of corruption which threat- 
 ened to overwhelm the courts and bar of New York, and 
 as a consequence was marked for assassination by those 
 who were its agents, a fate which he narrowly escaped, 
 with health so impaired that he withdrew from the active 
 practice of his profession for a time. 
 
 But it is as one of the most foremost advocates of Civil 
 Service Reform that he will be best remembered. To him 
 more than to any other man, unless it be to our honored 
 member Everett P. Wheeler, is due the credit for the 
 passage of the first Civil Service Act, of which he was 
 the draughtsman, and to his wise conserv^atism is largely 
 due its inauguration and extension. Realizing that the 
 introduction of such a system required moderation and 
 time to accustom politicians and public men to such 
 a radical change in opposition to all the traditions of 
 our Government, and seeing that the tree must take
 
 72 
 
 root before putting out its spreading branches, by careful 
 study at home and abroad he prepared himself for the 
 work, and by persuasion, b}^ elaborate reports, by un- 
 answerable arguments, and by unremitting labor he pre- 
 pared the way for its final firm establishment by convinc- 
 ing legislators of its value, -and creating an irresistible 
 demand for it by the people. Undaunted through dis- 
 couragement and failure, in season and out of season, as 
 a member of the first Civil Service Commission, and after- 
 wards as its chairman, through the administrations of 
 General Grant, Hayes, Arthur and Cleveland, he saw 
 finally the fruitfon of his labors both in the State and 
 Nation, and the system of such inestimable value to the 
 country well founded, never to be abrogated. Such a 
 work is a lasting monument to any man. 
 
 In addition he was a close student and an efficient 
 worker upon municipal problems. At the request of 
 Congress he prepared a code of laws for the District of 
 Columbia. He drafted a law for the establishment of a 
 Board of Health and for the paid Fire Department, and 
 the establishment of Police Courts in this city, fearlessly 
 advocating them before the Legislature and meeting 
 opposition and insult from the disreputable advocates of 
 tlie old system with characteristic calmness and dignity, 
 which brought success to his efforts. He labored in every 
 good cause, was prominent in public enterprises, earnest 
 in church and benevolent work, was known and respected 
 throughout the city, was especially happy in his domestic 
 relations, and will always be remembered as a leading 
 citizen and ornament in the city in which he lived and 
 labored so long.
 
 IRceolutions*
 
 Cburcb of Ell Souls. 
 
 DoRMAN B. Eaton died on the twenty-third day of 
 December, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, in the City 
 of New York, where his life since eighteen hundred and 
 fifty had been largely spent. 
 
 Born in Vermont, he was graduated at the University 
 of Vermont, and aftersvards at the Har\'ard Law School. 
 In eighteen hundred and fifty he began the active prac- 
 tice of law in New York City, and was thereafter identi- 
 fied with the life and interests of this State. 
 
 A man of great force and power, yet of remarkable 
 simplicity of character, he seemed ever actuated by the 
 highest aims and ideals. With him there was never any 
 compromise with wrong permitted. Time-serving, in his 
 eyes, was an abomination. 
 
 For many years Mr. Eaton devoted his life with tireless 
 energy to the cause of Civil Ser\'ice Reform, and suc- 
 ceeded in accomplishing much permanent good. It was 
 largely through his instrumentality that public sentiment 
 became so aroused that to-day we see, as the concrete 
 results of his endeavors, thousands of offices held by the 
 incumbents under tenure of faithful performance of duty , 
 rather than under the tenure of political .servitude.
 
 76 
 
 As a member of this congregation he was always an 
 upholder of what was best, and spared neither time nor 
 money in furthering the interests of the Society. 
 
 As one of the Board of Trustees, his faithful discharge 
 of the duties of office and conservative judgment made 
 him a most valued member. 
 
 Now, whereas. The Trustees of this Society are desirous 
 of expressing their feelings of respect for the life, character 
 and achievements of Domian B. Eaton, and attesting 
 their sorrow at his death : 
 
 Be it resolved. That the Board of Trustees of the First 
 Congregational (All Souls') Church record on the minute 
 book of this Society this statement, preamble and reso- 
 lution as the expression of their feeling, and that a 
 proper copy thereof be forwarded to Mrs. Eaton as an 
 expression of our sorrow and of our sympathy in her loss. 
 
 FREDERICK F. FORSTER, 
 
 Secretary.
 
 Hmerican sanitarian Hssociation. 
 
 The Directors of the American Unitarian Association 
 adopted the following resohition and spread the same 
 upon the minutes of the Board : 
 
 Voted, That this Board records its sense of the loss 
 sustained in the death of its Vice-President, the Honor- 
 able Donnan B. Eaton, lawyer, statesman, reformer ; a 
 life-long servant of the truth and laborer for social bet- 
 terment ; a pioneer and steadfast supporter of the cause 
 of Civil Service Reform ; a public-spirited citizen ; a loyal 
 disciple of pure Christianity. 
 
 SAMUEIv A. ELIOT. 
 
 Secretary.
 
 "Clnitarian Conterence of tbe ^iC)Me States 
 an& Cana&a. 
 
 The Board of Directors of the Unitarian Conference of 
 the Middle States and Canada, at its regular meeting, 
 January 29, 1900, appointed Rev. John W. Chadwick and 
 Rev, Thomas R. Slicer a committee to prepare resolu- 
 tions expressing the sentiments of the Board in relation 
 to the death of Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, President of the 
 Conference. The following were submitted : 
 
 Whereas, The Honorable Dorman B. Eaton, President 
 of the Unitarian Conference of the Middle States and 
 Canada, has by the hand of death been taken from the 
 service of our Conference and the cause it represents, 
 
 Be it resolved, That by the death of Mr. Eaton the 
 Conference has lost a presiding officer who, in his several 
 terms of service, was unselfishly devoted to its work, 
 giving freely of his time and trained ability to the further- 
 ance of its various ends, by the wisdom of his counsels 
 guiding it through many narrow straits, and by his persis- 
 tent energy inspiring others to fresh courage. 
 
 Resolved, That, while we remember his relations to our 
 Conference and our personal relations with him with 
 peculiar pleasure, we gratefully appreciate the larger 
 aspects of his Unitarian faith and service, his confidence 
 in Unitarian ideas and beliefs and principles as deserving
 
 79 
 
 of the utmost loyalty, and his own staunch and liberal 
 support of these as represented by the American Unitarian 
 Association, the Church of All Souls and the Unitarian 
 denomination at large. 
 
 Resolved, That, as an ethical movement in sympathy 
 with reform, Unitarianism has had in Mr. Eaton's wise, 
 persistent and effective interest in the reform of the Civil 
 Service and Municipal Government a noble and impres- 
 sive illustration, while in all things making for good 
 citizenship he has been an example of which we have 
 been justly proud. 
 
 Resolved, That in all the personal and intimate relations 
 of his life he manifested a character in keeping with his 
 religious faith and his great public reputation, and by his 
 uniform kindness and consideration won the deserved 
 respect of those who knew him well, and the sincere 
 affection of those who knew him best. 
 
 It was directed that these resolutions be transmitted to 
 Mrs. Eaton and the Christiaii Register.
 
 Hll Souls' Cbiircb, MasbiUGton, D. C. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of All Souls' 
 Church, held January 25, igoo, it was unanimously 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Hon. Dorman B. Eaton 
 the country has lost one of its most patriotic citizens, 
 ever striving to advance the cause of purity in govern- 
 ment, a liberal and generous giver, both in life and in 
 death, to all good objects, and a worker in both word and 
 deed for everything that makes for righteousness. 
 
 Resolved, That we recall with pride that Mr. Eaton was 
 a lifelong Unitarian, and more especially that he was, 
 from 1884 to 1886, an honored and useful member of this 
 Board. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary transmit a copy of these 
 resolutions to Mrs. Eaton, with the assurance of our per- 
 sonal sorrow at the passing away of one whom we so 
 highly valued as a citizen and a man. 
 
 WM. C. KEECH, 
 
 Secretary.
 
 Clvtl Service IRcform Bssociation. 
 
 A minute adopted by the Civil Service Reform Asso- 
 ciation at a special meeting held in the City of New York, 
 Wednesday, December 27, 1899 : 
 
 By the death of our associate and friend, Dorman B. 
 Eaton, the country has lost a model citizen and the cause 
 of our good government one of its truest and foremost 
 champions. 
 
 He was in the best sense of the word a public man 
 in private station. His active life furnished a striking 
 example of the great service a private citizen ma}' under 
 our free institutions render to the public interest, and 
 without possessing official power. The rectitude of his 
 character and his enlightened public spirit made liim a 
 natural enemy of misgovernment in every form, and he 
 brought into the struggle against the forces of disorder 
 and corruption not only the most unselfish devotion and 
 untiring energy^ but also superior abilities armed with 
 large knowledge and an uncommon constructive skill. 
 
 He was a maker of laws without ever being a mem- 
 ber of a legislative body. Important acts of legislation 
 originally drawn by him stand on the statute books of 
 the United States as well as of the State of New York. 
 He may well be said to have been the legislative archi- 
 tect of Civil Service Reform in this republic, for every 
 law now in force that embodies the true principle of
 
 82 
 
 Civil Service Reform was either originally framed by 
 him, or at least shaped in its principal features upon the 
 lines which he had originally laid down. 
 
 To the cause of Civil Service Reform he gave the 
 most instructive literature ; to it he devoted the last 
 efforts of his life, and with it his name will forever be 
 most honorably identified. 
 
 Thus the American people owe him a large debt of 
 gratitude ; but those who, like ourselves, have had the 
 privilege of being long and closely associated with him in 
 his endeavors, can best bear testimony to the quiet enthu- 
 siasm, the noble disinterestedness and the courageous 
 constancy of his zeal for the public good ; to the wisdom 
 of his counsel, sustained by a rare breadth and accuracy 
 of knowledge, as well as to the kindly and courteous 
 dignity of his bearing and his unfailing amiability in his 
 intercourse with his co-workers. We shall never cease 
 to hold his memory in the highest esteem and affection, 
 and to the members of his family he left behind him we 
 offer our most heartfelt sympathy in their painful 
 bereavement. 
 
 C. SCHURZ, 
 
 President. 
 
 GEORGE McANENY, 
 
 Secretary.
 
 TUnion Xcaouc Glub. 
 
 The Union I,eague Club, at a meeting held on the 8th 
 clay of February, 1900, directed the following minute to 
 be entered upon its records as a tribute to the memory of 
 Mr. Dorman B. Eaton : 
 
 The Union League has lost, in Mr. Dorman B. Eaton, 
 a member who has been unselfishly active in the further- 
 ance of its purposes throughout its entire history. He 
 was elected at the first meeting after its organization, on 
 the nomination of Dr. Henrj' W. Bellows ; and from that 
 time till the day of his death his public spirit and high 
 sense of dut> led to his fearless and zealous support of 
 all the worthy movements in which this Club has been 
 concerned. 
 
 His life was purely professional and reformatory. The 
 only high public office he ever held he resigned twice, 
 each time after a comparatively brief incumbency. His 
 public activities were never a source of private profit ; 
 nor did they seem to be directed by a desire for either 
 promotion or popularity. Certainly he never sought to 
 have any man his friend who practiced a corrupt use of 
 public patronage or strove merely to make money out of 
 oflBce-holding. 
 
 But he habitually gave his own time and labor un- 
 stintedly to work which he believed essential to the gen- 
 eral welfare, and his name is indelibly associated with
 
 84 
 
 three great reforms. He was the author of the law 
 organizing our Board of Health and of the Sanitary Code 
 under which the death rate in this city was greatly 
 reduced. He was the author of the National Civil 
 Service Act of 1883. And, thirdly, he was the origi- 
 nator of the paid Fire Department of this city, the 
 author of its system of Police Courts, of other details in 
 Municipal Reform, and at last of a comprehensive scheme 
 for the non-partisan goverment of municipalities to which 
 the latest efforts of his useful life were devoted. 
 
 Mr. Eaton was born at Hardwick, Caledonia County, 
 Vermont, June 23, 1823. He was graduated from the 
 University of Vermont, 1848, and from the Harvard Law 
 School, 1850. Thereafter, he was a lawyer in this city 
 till his death. He was an associate editor of the seventh 
 edition of "Kent's Commentaries," editor of "Chipman 
 on Contracts, ' ' author of a work on the development of 
 the English Civil Service, prepared at the request of 
 President Hayes and first published by Congress; of a 
 similar report, published b}^ Congress on the administra- 
 tion of the New York Custom House and Post-Oflfice, and 
 of a work on municipal government. He was appointed 
 Civil Service Commissioner by Presidents Grant, Arthur 
 and Cleveland. He was repeatedly Chairman of this 
 Club's Committee on Political Reform. He died in this 
 city December 23, 1899. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to enter the 
 foregoing minute of Mr. Eaton's public services and of 
 The Union League Club's regard for him upon our 
 records and forward a copy to his family.
 
 Cit^ Club ot IRew lt)or!?. 
 
 Resolutions passed at the annual meeting of the City 
 Club of New York on April 4, 1900 : 
 
 I. Resolved, That in the death of our esteemed and ven- 
 erable brother, Dorman B. Eaton, this Club, in common 
 with the city and the nation, has suffered a great and irrep- 
 arable loss ; that, while deeply deploring his death, we 
 look with pride and satisfaction upon the achievements of 
 his life as a reformer, and regard their ever-widening and 
 increasing influence as the strongest encouragement to 
 our cause and a high incentive to patient, unselfish and 
 persevering effort on the part of the private citizen for 
 the uplifting of the city and the State and the advance- 
 ment of the science of government. 
 
 II. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed 
 by the President, to be known as the "Eaton Memorial 
 Committee," with power to add to its numbers, the pur- 
 pose of which Committee shall be to provide a suitable 
 memorial of Mr. Eaton, in form of a portrait or marble 
 bust, to be placed in the Club House, in recognition of his 
 great public ser\'ices, high and scholarly attainments so 
 unselfishly devoted to the public good, his faithful service 
 to this Club and his devotion to its objects, and, above 
 all, that those who shall succeed him and us in carr>'ing 
 forward the high purposes of the City Clul) may be 
 encouraged by the remembrance of his life and character
 
 86 
 
 and know that we in our time were not unmindful of the 
 debt we owed to the great reformer, Dorman B. Eaton. 
 
 III. And be it further resolved, That such Committee 
 be authorized to collect subscriptions from members of 
 the Club to carry out such purpose, and that the Com- 
 mittee be requested, as soon as such bust or portrait is 
 completed, to appoint an evening when it may be pre- 
 sented to the Club with appropriate ceremonies. 
 
 The President, Wheeler H. Peckham, appointed the 
 following Committee : J. Noble Hayes, Alfred R. Conk- 
 ling, Frederick Middlebrouk.
 
 IRattonal %caQ\\c tor tbe protection ot 
 Bmerlcan Unstltutions. 
 
 The National League for the Protection of American 
 Institutions desires to place on record its sense of loss in 
 the death of Dorman B. Eaton : 
 
 At the first meeting of the Board of Managers, Decem- 
 ber 26, 1889, he was elected a member of the Law Com- 
 mittee of the League, and continued to hold that position 
 until his death. On November 10, 1892, he was chosen 
 a member of the Board of Managers, and two years later 
 was elected Vice-President, to succeed the late Justice 
 William Strong, of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. He performed all the duties devolving upon him 
 in connection with the League with the utmost fidelity 
 and with distinguished ability. 
 
 He was a man of rare public spirit, and was signally 
 devoted to the noblest ideals of the Republic. With a 
 keen appreciation of our national perils and defects, he 
 was not a mere critic, but applied his conspicuous powers 
 and matured wisdom to remove defects and to defend the 
 institutions which he loved. 
 
 His sustained devotion depended neither upon public 
 recognition nor upon private emolument. Its flame was 
 fed by the oil of a genuine patriotism which was as con- 
 stant as his country's needs.
 
 88 
 
 The loss which we sustain in his death is shared by his 
 city, his State and the nation. 
 
 By order of the Directors of the National League for 
 the Protection of American Institutions. 
 
 W. H. PARSONS, 
 
 President. 
 
 JAMES M. KERNY, 
 
 Secretary. 
 New York, January 30, 1900.
 
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