V \ i GIFT OF Ba&croft LIBRARY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS, NOW LIVING. Philosophy Teaching by Example. BY JOHNLIVINOSTON, PUBLISHED AT 157 BROADWAY, For Sale by all Booksellers. on& on : 26 BELL YARD, LINCOLN S INN. 1853. 33? L-5 Entered according to Act of Congress, in tbe year 1852, by JOHN LIVINGSTON, In the Clerk s Office of the Southern District of New- York. GIFT OF Bancroft LIBRARY AUTHOR S NOTICE. THIS work contains the memoirs of some of those Americans now living, whose talents, energy and enterprise, while affording an instruc tive lesson to mankind, seem worthy of being held up as examples for emulation. That the memory of persons who occupy the higher positions of accredited usefulness, besides being treasured in the hearts of relatives and friends, should also have its public record, is peculiarly proper ; because a knowledge of those whose substantial fame rests upon their attainments, character and success, must exert a wholesome influence on the rising generation of the American people ; while to those who have arrived at a period in life not to be benefited by les sons designed for less advanced age, it cannot fail to prove interest ing. Individual enterprise, which is so justly the boast of our country, will be strikingly exhibited in this work. While transmitting to pos terity the memory of illustrious persons of the present day, it will teach us, and our children, that honor and station are the sure reward of continued exertion and that, when compared to a good education, with habits of honest industry and economy, the greatest wealth would be but a poor legacy. If in these pages the reader shall find the memoirs of many who have enjoyed every advantage which affluence and early education can bestow, he may also trace the history of those who, by their own unaided efforts, have risen from the obscurity of penniless and friendless youths, to the highest and most responsible trusts in the land ; and we think it will be found that success has more generally waited upon men who, in early life, were not encumbered with a bountiful supply of " this world s goods." Pope s lines are more truly applicable in our country than in any other : " Honor and fame from no condition rise ; Act well your part ; there all the honor lies." The record of life, from an humble roof up, through the arduous paths of manhood, to wealth and station, will kindle honest ambition, 864530 iv invigorate patriotic resolves, and cheer afresh struggling poverty to renewed and more vigorous exertion. The author begs to say, this publication makes no pretensions to completeness, and that another and much enlarged edition, containing about nine hundred pages, is now in press, and will soon appear, in which each memoir will be accompanied by the most exact and best executed portrait of its subject, engraved on steel, expressly for the work, from daguerreotypes. The first talent in the country is em ployed on the engravings ; and as over twenty thousand dollars have already been expended for the portraits alone, the work will be splendid as well as valuable one which would equally adorn the library or embellish, the parlor. The price of the new edition, which will be for sale by all the principal booksellers, is to be ten dollars : it will contain about one hundred and twenty-five steel portraits, alone worth more than that price. It is needless to descant on the extended information and delight which we derive from the multiplication of portraits by engraving, or on the more important advantages resulting from the study of biogra phy. Separately considered, the. one affords an amusement not less innocent than elegant, inculcates the rudiments, or aids the progress of taste, and rescues from the hand of time the perishable monuments raised by the pencil and the Daguerrean art. The other, while it is, perhaps, the most agreeable branch of historical literature, is certainly the most useful in its moral effects ; stating the known circumstances, and endeavoring to unfold the secret motives of human conduct ; selecting all that is worthy of being recorded; bestowing its lasting encomiums and chastisements ; it at once informs and invigorates the mind, and warms and mends the heart. It is, however, from the com bination of portraits and biography, that we reap the utmost degree of utility and pleasure which can be derived from them, as, in contem plating the portrait of an eminent person, we long to be instructed in his history, so, in considering his actions we are anxious to behold his countenance. So earnest is this desire, that the imagination is gener ally ready to coin a set of features, or to conceive a character to supply the painful absence of one or the other. It is impossible to conceive a work which ought to be more interesting than one which will exhibit before our progenitors their fathers as they lived, accompanied with such memoirs of their lives and characters as shall enable them to compare persons and countenances with sentiments and actions. New- York, January 1, 1853. CONTENTS. ALABAMA-- EZEKIEL PICKENS, eminent Lawyer, Judge, &c., . . 161 ARKANSAS W. P. GRACE, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . . .295 CHRISTOPHER C. SCOTT, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, . . , . . . . .422 CALIFORNIA- ALFRED WHEELER, United States Attorney, . . 438 CONNECTICUT- LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, eminent Lawyer, . . .203 NOAH POMEROY, President of the Meriden Bank, . .107 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA- RICHARD S. COXE, Member of the Washington Bar, . 9 GEORGIA- DANIEL S. PRINTUP, a distinguished Lawyer, . . 80 INDIANA- HORACE P. BIDDLE, eminent Lawyer, Statesman, Author and Judge, . .... 363 SAMUEL HALL, Judge of the U. S. District Court, . . 494 ALLEN HAMILTON, President of the Fort Wayne Branch State Bank of Indiana, ..... 485 KENTUCKY- WILLIAM F. BULLOCK, eminent Lawyer, &c., . . 469 JOHN P. DOBYNS, President of the Maysville Branch of the Farmers Bank of Kentucky, ..... 207 ANDREW M. JANUARY. President of the Maysville Branch of the Bank of Kentucky, . . . . .75 GEORGE W. NORTON, President of the Southern Bank of Ky. ; 143 V1 CONTENTS. LOUISIANA ZENON LAB AUVE, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . . 364 PIERRE A. ROST, Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 461 MAINE- WILLIAM H. MILLS, Cashier of the Eastern Bank, . . 422 MARYLAND- WILLIAM B. CLARKE, eminent Lawyer, . . 376 MASSACHUSETTS JOSIAH BRIGHAM. President of the Quincy Stone Bank, . 66 LEONARD CHURCH, President of the Lee Bank, . . 72 PLINY CUTLER. President of the Boyleston Bank. . .179 DAVID DEVENS, President of the Bunker Hill Bank, &c., . 133 HENRY H. FULLER, eminent Lawyer and Author, (deceased since the publication of his Memoir,) . . . 121 JOHN A. KNOWLES, President of the Appleton Bank, . 492 WILLIAM MASON, Manufacturer, and President of the Machinists Bank, ... . 426 PLINY MERRICK, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, . 134 WILLIAM PARKER, President of the Atlantic Bank, . 184 WILLARD PHILLIPS, Author and eminent Lawyer, . . 95 THOMAS WHITTEMORE, President of the Cambridge Bank, Editor, Minister ofthe Gospel, Financier, &c., . . 300 MICHiGAN- H. H. EMMONS, eminent Lawyer and Author. . . 387 M1NNESOTA- B. B. MEEKER, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, . . ... . . 480 MISSISSIPPI- T. COOP WOOD, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . 445 GEORGE H. GORDON, eminent Lawyer aiid Planter, . 499 MISSOURI- JOHN F. DARBY, Member of the XXXIId Congress, . .192 HUGH A. GARLAND, eminent Lawyer and Author, . . 296 R. SEAL, Lawyer and Planter, . . ^ . . 299 NEW-HAMPSHIRE RICHARD HAZEN AYER, President of the Amoskeag Bank, of Manchester, . " . . .49 JOSEPH M. HARPER, President of the Mechanics Bank at Concord, . . / - . . . . 56 CONTENTS. v [{ NEW-YORK LUTHER BADGER, Lawyer, &c., . . 117 SAMUEL A. BROWN, eminent Lawyer, . . 252 JACOB GOULD, President of the Farmer s and Mechanics Bank at Rochester, .... 45 A. G. GRIDLEY, President of the Kirkland Bank, * .483 H. J. MINER, President of H. J. Miner s Bank, . . 314 LOVELAND PADDOCK, President of the Black River Bank, . 211 OLIVER TEALL, President of the Onondaga County Bank, .ill REUBEN HYDE WALWORTH, the last of the New- York Chancellors, . , . . . m 17 NORTH CAROLINA- CALVIN GRAVES, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . . 365 OHIO- JACOB BURNET, LL. D., formerly Judge, U. S. Senator, &c., . 1 REUBEN CULVER, President of the Logan Branch Bank, . 371 WILLIAM LAWRENCE, Reporter to the Supreme Court, and eminent Lawyer, . . . . . .218 OREGON- THOMAS NELSON, Chief Justice of Oregon Territory, . 69 PENNSYLVANIA- JAMES L. BOWMAN, President of the Monongahela Bank, . 197 JOHN L ANDES, President of the Lancaster County Bank, . 365 RHODE ISLAND- ISAAC SAUNDERS, President of the Citizens 7 Union Bank, . 377 SOUTH CAROLINA N. R. EAVES, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . . . 226* ROBERT H. GOODWYN, President of the Bank^of the State of South Carolina, . . . . . .81 BENJAMIN F. HUNT, distinguished Lawyer, . . .144 JAMES L. ORR, Member of the XXXIId Congress, &c., . 172 ANGUS PATTERSON, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . .138 BENJAMIN F. PERRY, eminent Lawyer and Planter, . 261 TENNESSEE- AARON V. BROWN, late Governor of Tennessee, and formerly Member of Congress, . .62 A. J. MARCHBANKS, Judge, &c., . . . .170 V CONTENTS, TENNESSEE A. W. OVERTON, Judge, &c., . . . . .277 JOHN POPE, President of the Memphis Branch of the Union Bank of Tennessee, . . . . . 432 VIRGINIA- JOHN C. CAMPBELL, President of the North-Western Bank of Virginia, . . . . * . . . .34 JOHN W. NASH, Judge of the Circuit Court for the 2d Circuit, 458 DANIEL A. WILSON, Judge of the Circuit Court for the 9th Circuit, . . , . . . * % . 474 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. "WITH PORTRAITS. HON. JACOB BURNET, LL. D., OF OHIO. JUDGE BURNET is the son of Doctor William Burnet, the elder, of Newark, New-Jersey, who was a member of the second class that gradu ated at the College of New- Jersey, in 1749, before the institution was removed to Princeton ; and who was elected a member of Congress under the Confederation, in the fall of 1776, and in the winter follow ing was appointed physician and surgeon-general for the eastern dis trict of the United States, which appointment he held till the close ot the war. Doctor Ichabod Burnet, grandfather of the judge, was born in Scotland, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and was educated at the university in that city. Soon after he completed his collegiate and professional studies, he married, and emigrated to Elizabethtown, in the province of New-Jersey, where he lived to a very advanced age, in the practice of his profession as a physician and surgeon. The subject of this sketch was born on the 22d February, 1770. In 1791 he graduated at Princeton college, during the presidency of the venerable Doctor Witherspoon. He studied law in the office of Judge Boudinot, of New-Jersey, and was licensed to practise his profession, by the Supreme Court of that state, at the May term of 1796. Im mediately after his admission to the bar, he removed to Cincinnati, which has been the place of his residence ever since. On his arrival at the place selected as the field of his subsequent labors, he found it a small village of log cabins, with a few frame houses made principally of the timber and plank of the Kentucky boats on which they had floated to the place of their destination. It contained a population ot from four to five hundred, of all ages, exclusive of the troops at Fort Washington, then commanded by Captain Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, and the attaches of the army, amount ing to about an equal number. The court being in session when Mr. Burnet arrived, he was immedi ately admitted to the bar, and before the close of the term, was re tained in a large portion of the cases then on the docket. The popula- 1 2 ; .SKETCHES QE EMINENT AMERICANS. tion of the town, houg]\ nja|l, contained ,an unusually large proportion of respectable^. *4tri^iVfan-:ili;es, ana single individuals, sufficiently numerous to form a very pleasant, interesting society. Notwithstand ing the isolated situation of the place, being several hundred miles within an unsettled wilderness, which rendered it difficult to procure the necessaries, and much more so the conveniences and luxuries of life, yet the hospitality of the inhabitants was general, and limited only by their means of indulging it. In 1795, the year in which the Indian war was terminated 1 ,, by the treaty of Greenville, the governor and judges of the General Court undertook to ascertain, as correctly as possible, the number of white inhabitants in the entire territory, extending from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River, and from the Ohio to the lakes ; and reported it to be about fifteen thousand, not including Detroit and the settlement in its vicinity, which were then in the possession of Great Britain. At that time the only judicial courts organized in the territory were at Marietta, Cincinnati, Vincennes, and Kaskaskia. In the succeeding year, and about the time Mr. Burnet arrived at Cincinnati, Detroit, Mackinaw, and Fort Simco, at the foot of the rapids of the Maumee River, with the settlements in their vicinity, were surrendered under the pro visions of Jay s treaty to General Wayne, who had been appointed by President Washington to receive the same. Immediately there after Governor St. Clair erected the territory, thus surrendered, into a county, and gave it the name of Wayne county, in honor of the veter an soldier whose victory over the savages in 1794 had hastened the measure. Courts of justice were immediately after established at Detroit, which commenced their sessions in the succeeding year. At that early period the territory was without roads, bridges, or other facilities for traveling, and the county seats were some hundred miles apart, separated from each other by an uncultivated wilderness, yet the subject of this memoir attended every term of the general court at Cincinnati, Marietta, and Detroit, from his first arrival in the territory till the establishment of the state government. Asa matter of course, he and those who traveled with him carried their provisions, slept on the ground, and swam on their horses all the water courses that were too deep to be forded. During his continuance in practice he was devoted to the duties of his profession, and was justly ranked among the most distinguished members of the bar. In 1799 it was ascertained that the territory contained five thousand free white male inhabitants, and consequently was entitled by the or dinance of 1787 to enter on the second grade of territorial government, and to have a General Assembly consisting of a legislative council ap pointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and a House of Representatives chosen by the people, in which body the legislative power of the territory was vested, subject to the un qualified veto of the governor. Mr. Burnet was nominated to the Senate, and with their advice and consent appointed, by President Adams, one of the legislative council, and continued a member of that body till the territorial government was abolished, and a state government established, in the winter of 1802-3. JACOB BURNET, OF OHIO. 3 It appears from the territorial journal, that Mr. B. was a very- active, laborious member of that legislature, and that a large part of the business transacted by the council was prepared and reported by him. From the first settlement of the northwestern territory the Com monwealth of Kentucky claimed exclusive jurisdiction on the Ohio River, which had been reluctantly submitted to by the people of the territory, and from which very serious difficulties and embarrassments had resulted. Persons arrested by territorial officers for crimes committed -on board of boats lying at, or floating near the shore of the territory, were released on habeas corpus, or discharged on pleas to the juris diction of the territorial courts. Those who set up this exclusive right claimed that it extended to high-water mark, and insisted that when the river, at a high stage, passed a portion of its waters through a bayou, or over low ground into the main stream below, the ground so separated was an island within the meaning of the act of session, the jurisdiction and soil of which was vested in Kentucky. This condition of things was highly embarrassing, and frequently resulted in the escape of criminals from deserved punishment. The claim was considered extremely oppressive, and was loudly and justly complained of. Many persons of intelligence expressed the opinion that the cession of the entire country northwest of the river, including jurisdiction as well as soil, in connection with the fact, that the river had been declared a public highway, to be used freely as such by all the citizens of the United States, might be considered as giving the people of the territory the jurisdiction they claimed. Mr. Burnet, then a member of the legislature, with others, was dis posed to maintain that opinion, and to assert it as the only remedy for the embarrassments experienced by their magistrates and courts of justice. Accordingly, in the early part of the session of 1799, on leave granted for that purpose, he introduced a bill in which the right of jurisdiction on the river was affirmed, and the service of process, civil and criminal, made on any river or water-course within or bounding the territory, was declared legal. That bill passed by a unanimous vote in each house, and was ap proved by the governor, with the distinct understanding that it asserted the right of concurrent jurisdiction over the whole river. From that time, the tribunals of the territory, and afterwards of the state, sus tained the legality of arrests made on the Ohio River. Kentucky, however, continued to dispute the right, though no serious effort was made to resist it for a number of years ; but subsequently the opposi tion on the part of that state was revived, and became so serious, that the legislature of Ohio passed a resolution requesting their governor to correspond on the subject with the governor of Kentucky. At a sub sequent session the legislature were informed, that the governor of that state had declined holding any correspondence on the subject. When that result was communicated. Mr. B. was a member of the house, and, having had something to do with that matter in the territo rial legislature, he determined to give it a thorough investigation. Ac- 4 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. cordingly, he examined the entire legislation of Virginia in regard to it. He found that the act passed in December, 1789, authorizing the district of Kentucky to form a separate government, was in the form of a compact, and set forth distinctly the terms and conditions on which, and on which alone, the district should be permitted to form a govern ment for themselves. One of them declared in express terms, that the state to be formed in the district should never claim the exclusive jurisdiction on the Ohio River, but that it should be forever common to them, and to the people and states on the opposite side. These conditions were agreed to by the people of Kentucky, and a state constitution was formed in 1792, containing a clause that the compact with the State of Virginia should constitute a part thereof. The result of that examination was communicated to the legislature, and produced a perfect conviction that the right for which they had been attempting to negotiate was secured to them, as far as Kentucky was concerned, by the prudence and foresight of the commonwealth of Virginia. Since that time there has not been any difficulty with the state or people of Kentucky. A similar embarrassment, however, may arise with the State of Virginia as to our right on the river above the mouth of Big Sandy. But, judging from what she had done to secure the jurisdiction below that point, it is not presumed she will desire to restrict it above. During the war of 1812 he was elected a member of the state as sembly was re-elected the succeeding year, and was solicited to be a candidate again, but declined, in consequence of its interference with his professional duties. During his membership he took an active part in supporting the va rious propositions that were brought before the legislature to sustain the war, and, as far as the means within their control would permit, they were put in requisition to aid the government in the accomplish ment of their plans to bring the contest to a successful close. In 1821 he was appointed by the governor of Ohio one of the su preme judges of the state, and was subsequently elected by the legis lature to the same office, in which he continued discharging the onerous and responsible duties it imposed till December, 1828, when he re signed his seat on the bench, and was in a few days thereafter elected to the Senate of the United States, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of General Harrison, who had been appointed minister to the government at Bogota. Having previously made up his mind to retire from public business, which had induced him to leave the bench, he at first declined the appointment, but, on the solicitation of friends, he yielded to their wishes, on condition that he should not be considered a candidate for re-election. Soon after his appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court, he was chosen by the legislature of the State of Kentucky one of the com missioners to adjust the matters in controversy between that state and the commonwealth of Virginia, involving the objections of the latter against the statute of limitations, and the occupying claimant law of the former, and involving also the validity of the location of a large amount of Virginia military land-warrants in the district of Green River; and in the fall of 1821, he proceeded to Washington City, in JACOB BURNET, OF OHIO. 5 company with the Hon. Henry Clay, who had been designated by the legislature to superintend the investigation on their part the Hon. Ben jamin Watkins Leigh having been appointed by Virginia to attend to the same duty on their behalf. It so happened, however, that the Vir ginia commissioners failed to attend, by which the object of the arrange ment which had been previously made by the two states was defeated. About the same time, Mr. Burnet was appointed a professor in the law- school connected with the Transylvania University, at Lexington ; but at that time the state of his health, and the pressure of official duty at home, prevented him from accepting the appointment. Soon after, that institution conferred on him, unsolicited, the honorary degree of LL. D. ; and at a subsequent period the same honorary degree was conferred on him by the trustees and faculty of his Alma Mater, at Princeton. Under the system established for the sale of the public domain by the law of 1800, and the acts supplementary thereto, an immense debt was contracted, and became due to the government of the United States from the people of the West, exceeding by estimate the entire amount of money then circulating in the western states. That debt had been accumulating more than twenty years, and was swelling daily with in creasing rapidity. In 1821 it far exceeded the ability of the debtors to pay. Neither the speculator, who had purchased with a view of selling at a profit, nor the farmer, who bought for the purpose of cultivation and who ex pected nothing more than to obtain a subsistence for his family, could procure the money which was necessary to secure his title. It is well known that the first emigrants to the West, and the greater part of those who followed them from time to time, were compelled, by necessity, to purchase on credit. Some of them exhausted their means to the last dollar in raising the first payment on their entries, and others were not able to make up that sum without the aid of their friends. Judge Burnet, who was one of the early adventurers to the West, was residing in the Miami country before and at the time the sales of the public lands commenced, and had a general knowledge of the situa tion of the great mass of purchasers who were indebted to the govern ment. It was his opinion, repeatedly expressed in conversation and in the newspapers of the day, that nine-tenths of those debtors would lose their lands and improvements under the laws then in force unless relief should be obtained from Congress. That opinion was founded on the general condition of the country. It was manifest that the pecuniary embarrassment which prevailed was great and universal that the banks in the western states had all suspended payment that credit was at an end that money was not to be had, because it was not in the country, and, of course, that no property could be sold for cash on any terms. This appalling prospect spread a gloom on the countenance of the community. The people were sinking in despair ; hope had de serted them, and they were preparing to meet their fate with the best resolution they could command. The debt due to the government in 1820, at the different land offices in the western states, amounted to twenty-two millions of dollars, a 6 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. sum which more than tripled the ability of the country to pay. There was, in fact, a crisis in its affairs ; and the most buoyant spirits could not indulge a rational hope that the gathering storm could be scattered, or its ruinous consequences be repaired. Thousands of industrious men, some of whom had paid one, some two, and others three instalments, on their lands, and had toiled day and night in clearing, inclosing, and improving them, became convinced that they would be forfeited, and their money and labor lost. The amount of the debt, beyond the means of payment, was so great, as to threaten a general bankruptcy throughout the West. When this state of things became generally known and understood, politicians and patriots, in every part of the country, felt serious fears that an attempt to enforce payment, by a forfeiture of the land, under the laws of Congress, would produce resistance, and probably terminate in a civil war. It was very evident that more than half of the men northwest of the Ohio River were in debt to the government ; and it was a reasonable calculation, that all the residue felt a warm interest operating in their favor. A similar state of things, though not perhaps to the same extent, ex isted in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri. An interest so universal, and so exciting to the feelings, pervading such a vast extent of country, might well create forebodings of danger in the minds of reflecting men. Portions of this debt were due from individuals, who had purchased for the purpose of selling at an advance; and although less sympathy was felt for them than for the actual cultivators of the^soil, yet, in point of fact, their claims were equally strong. But be that as it may, it was quite evident that if any attempt had been made to enforce the penalty of the land laws, the influence of that class would have been much the most operative in organizing and sustaining a plan of resist ance. Prom that consideration the farmers had no disposition to sepa rate from their fellow-sufferers, by presenting a claim on their own behalf, founded on the peculiarity of their situation. When the nation discovered the real condition of these debtors, a feeling of sympathy was produced in their behalf throughout the Union ; and at the same time many anxious fears were excited, as to the con sequences of an attempt to enforce payment. Judge Burnet being one of the sufferers, and discovering a disposi tion manifested everywhere to remove the difficulty directed his anxious attention to the subject, with a view of devising a plan ot relief. It was very manifest, without pausing to deliberate, that the debt could never be paid, and consequently that no plan, pre dicated on an extension of time, would be of any avail, and that the only effectual method of removing the difficulty was to extinguish the claim at once. That object might be accomplished, it was believed, by obtaining permission to relinquish as much of the land entered as the purchaser could not pay for ; with the privilege of applying the money, which had been paid in on relinquished tracts, to the credit of such other tracts as might be retained, in such manner as to save the improvements of the JACOB BURNET, OF OHIO. 7 actual settler. That privilege, and a release of back interest, it was believed, would fully accomplish the object. This view of the subject he stated to his friends, Mr. G. A. Worth, cashier of the Branch Bank at Cincinnati, and Judge Burke, post master at that place, both of whom cordially approved of the plan. He then drew up the form of a memorial to Congress, setting forth the facts, and praying that a -law might be passed granting relief to the memorialists, in the specific manner stated above, which was submitted to the persons beforenamed, and approved of. More than a thousand copies of it were then neatly printed, on letter paper, by Messrs. Morgan and Lodge, who, being furnished with the materials, declined receiving any compensation for their labor. The memorials were accompanied by a circular letter, drawn by Judge Burnet, explanatory of the object, and were sent to every post- office in the states and territories in which public lands had been sold ; directed to influential men, who were earnestly requested to multiply copies, and send them to every village and neighborhood in the states and territories in which they resided. Among others, a copy was sent to Governor Worthington, of Ohio, who approved of the plan, and exerted his influence, w-hich was very prevailing, to carry it to a suc cessful termination. The scheme met with universal approbation, and in a short time copies of the memorial were in circulation in every part of the Ohio and Mississippi valley. The consequence was, that, at the succeeding session of Congress, the tables of both houses were literally loaded with these memorials, signed by thousands of the inhabitants of all parts of the western and southwestern country ; and, with here and there an exception, they were in the precise form drawn by Judge Burnet, and printed at Cincinnati. The subject was taken up in Congress with great earnestness, and tfo act of 182 1 was passed, granting relief in the form requested in the memorial. In the discussion of the subject, it was evident that the leading mem- bers were induced to support the measure, from an apprehension of the consequences to which the continuance of the debt would lead ; and ffom a conviction that it was necessary to change the land system, so as to require all sales thereafter to be made in cash. Under the in- fhence of those considerations, the Hon. Rufus King, of New- York, discussed the subject in the Senate with great talent and energy. He advocated the plan, because it united the double object of extinguishing tie existing debt, and of preventing the accumulation of another. To reconcile the community to this important alteration in the land system, Mr. King proposed to reduce the price of the public land from ;wo dollars to one dollar and twenty-five cents ; and to sub-divide the surveys into tracts of eighty acres, so as to put it in the power of every citizen, who was not a confirmed loafer, to become an independent freeholder. With these modifications, the plan proposed in the memorial was adopted, with a degree of unanimity almost unparalleled. By the success of that project, performed and put in operation by Mr. Burnet, he had the satisfaction of seeing the entire West relieved 8 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. from a state of depression, which, had it been continued, must havo produced results too distressing to be contemplated. In practice, the plan adopted was effective. It relieved the nation from apprehensions, and the people of the West from embarrassment, and it strengthened their confidence in the benignity of the general go vernment, while it removed a cause of disquietude and distress which threatened the peace of the country. In 1828 Congress granted to the State of Ohio, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of the Miami canal, from Dayton to the lake, by the Maumee route, a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sec tions in width, on each side of the canal, from Dayton to the mouth of the Auglaize River, on the express condition that the work should be commenced in five years, and completed in twenty years, or the state should be bound to pay the United States the price of the lands. The state was also required to pass a law expressly accepting the condition ; without which, the grant should be inoperative. The legislature were fearful of the embarrassment that might result, and refused to pass the law required, by which the law became inope rative, and the grant was lost. Thus the matter stood in 1830. Judge Burnet being then a member of the Senate of the United States, and feeling a deep interest in the completion of that work, determined to make an effort to obtain the passage of a-law for the purpose of reviving the former law, removing the penalty it imposed, and obtaining an additional grant, without which it was evident the extension of the Miami canal would be aban doned. He mentioned the subject to his colleague, Judge Ruggles, and to most of the Ohio members of the house. They gave it as their opinion that the attempt would be a failure, particularly that part of it which proposed an additional grant ; but all expressed their readiness to aid in supporting the measure. For the purpose of bringing the subject before the Senate, he offered a resolution, instructing the committee on public lands to investigate the subject, and report to the Senate. At the request of the commit tee, Mr. Burnet appeared before them, explained the object of the reso lution, and stated in detail the claims of his state on the government, and the grounds on which they relied for relief and assistance. The result was, that they reported a bill reviving the former grant ; revoking the forfeiture, and making an additional grant of about t\to hundred and fifty sections of land. That bill passed both houses dur ing the session, and furnished the means by which the Miami extension canal was completed. Judge Burnet was for many years actively engaged in projecting and sustaining the various enterprises set on foot in Cincinnati, and in othet parts of the state, for the purpose of advancing the health, intelligence, and general prosperity of the community, as will appear from the fol lowing facts : that he took a leading part in establishing the Lancaste- rian Academy of Cincinnati, at an early day, and in the subsequent es tablishment of the Cincinnati College, of vrhich he was the first presi dent that he had an agency in procuring the re-organization of the Medical College of Ohio, and was president of that institution a num- RICHARD S. COXE, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 9 ber of years that he was president of the Cincinnati Branch of the United States Bank, chartered during the administration of Mr. Madison that he was the first president of the Colonization Society of Cincinnati, and devoted much time in promoting the great object of its founders that he was a member of the Society for the Cultivation of Sacred Music, and was president of that association that he was the first president of the Astronomical Society of Cincinnati, and ren dered essential and material aid to the efforts of Professor Mitchell, who is universally regarded as the father and founder of that noble in stitution that he was among the most liberal contributors to the Cincinnati Museum and the town library, both of which, however, proved to be failures. In 1847 he published a volume of five hundred octavo pages, enti tled "Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory," which is considered as containing much interesting information, parti cularly as to that part of the territory now constituting the State of Ohio; the progress of which he has witnessed, from a. district of about twelve thousand souls, to a state whose population may be estimated at two millions. On the application of General Lafayette, the friend of Doctor Bur- net, the father, and the bosom friend of Major Burnet, the brother of the Judge, he was elected a member of the French Academy of Scien ces, a compliment hitherto very sparingly bestowed on foreigners. HON. RICHARD S. COXE, LL. D., OF WASHINGTON, D. C. MR. COXE holds an eminent position among the distinguished lawyers of the United States. Though his residence for many years, and dur ing the principal portion of his professional life, in the District of Co lumbia, has not given him the opportunity to receive those marks of political distinction which are generally conferred, in the states of the Union, upon advocates who have attained to similar celebrity, and gained as large a share of general confidence and reputation ; yet it has contributed to place him in a sphere where his talents, ability and learning have been brought to the notice of his country, and received its approving judgment, as fully, and with justice as impartial, as if they had been rewarded with the highest professional or judicial honors. At the bar of the Supreme Court, and among the distinguished circle of advocates which that high tribunal collects from every part of the United States, there are few who are so largely engaged in the various cases which are brought before it by its diversified and extensive juris diction ; nor is there any one to whom they can be entrusted with greater certainty, that no exertion of intelligent industry, no applica tion of legal learning, study and research will be wanting, to their able and eloquent presentation in that forum of ultimate resort. Though a resident for the last thirty years in the city of Washing- 10 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ton, Mr. Coxe is a native of the State of New-Jersey. He was born in the picturesque and attractive city of Burlington, on the banks of the River Delaware, in January, 1792. He was the second oon of the late William Coxe, whose name, though not without merited distinction in the legislative annals of the state, has become most widely known from his successful devotion to agriculture, and especially by his introduction and cultivation of every variety of fruit, and his publications, by which he allured and attracted the notice and industry of his countrymen into paths of horticulture, which, before his day, they had scarcely begun to explore. His family had been long settled in New-Jersey ; indeed, for more than a century it had filled a prominent position in its history. Dr. Daniel Coxe, an English gentleman of ancient connections and consid erable wealth, possessed very extensive proprietary rights in the pro vince of New-Jersey before the beginning of the eighteenth century, and he even appears to have been entitled to hold the office of governor in virtue of those rights. He had been the physician to the Queen of Charles II., and subsequently to Queen Anne, and was also a governor of St. Bartholomew s Hospital in London ; his portrait, from the pencil of Kneller, still remains in the possession of his descendant at Wash ington. The conflicts and difficulties which arose shortly after the English revolution, between the proprietaries and the British govern ment, led him at last to assent, and to induce the other proprietaries, none of whom were so largely interested as himself, to surrender to the crown the privilege of government which they had held and exercised ; but his extensive domain was not relinquished or impaired, and he was long known by the designation of the " great proprietor ;" nor was his political influence destroyed, nor even that of his family, for it continued to be represented in the royal council, probably with out an interval, as long as the colony formed a portion of the British empire. The son of Dr. Daniel Coxe, who bore the same name, succeeded on his father s death to his possessions in America, which he visited in person in the early part of the eighteenth century. In addition, how ever, to his patrimonial estate in New-Jersey, he inherited a claim to a large tract of country, granted under the name of the Province of Caro lina, by King Charles I., in the year 1630, by a royal charter to Sir Robert Heath, his heirs and assigns. Though its boundaries were not defined with accuracy or minuteness, they seem to have embraced the broad valley of the Mississippi from Florida nearly to the Ohio ; and even to have extended on the east and west to the shores of both oceans. Colonel Daniel Coxe entertained a sanguine hope of settling this vast region with English emigrants from the Atlantic colonies, and counteracting the plans which had been already commenced by the French and Spaniards on the Mississippi, both at the Gulf of Mexico and in the regions where it approaches the great northern lakes. He promoted, and probably took part in several adventurous expeditions into the vast wilderness, and made every exertion to ascertain correctly the geography, soil and products, and the character and disposition of its Indian tribes. It is a matter of tradition, that two vessels dispatch ed by him for the purpose of ascending the Mississippi as far as possi- RICHARD S. COXE, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 11 ble, and bearing the English flag for the first time on that stream, were arrested in their progress by the French already settled in Louisiana, and compelled, at the place which still retains the name of the " Eng lish Turn," to retrace their voyage. A curious little volume was pre served in the Library of Congress until the late conflagration, and may still be found in some of our public libraries, in which he has recorded the result of these efforts. It traces the Mississippi from its mouth as far north as the, Illinois ; describes with unexpected minuteness the rivers which flow into it on either side ; depicts the country, with its facilities for trade and agriculture ; and anticipates the intercourse that is to occur with the colonies beyond the Alleghany, and the facilities which this is to derive from the chain of northern lakes, and the rivers whose valleys almost interlock in the mountain range. He looks for ward at that early period to the vast cultivation of cotton, which he says, " may be turned to great account, and in time perhaps manu factured either in the country or Great Britain, which will render it a commodity still more valuable." What is yet more remarkable, as indicating a judicious forecast, he proposed, at that distant day, a federal union of all the colonies appertaining to the crown of Great Britain on the North American continent ; so that, to use his own language, they might be united under a legal, regular, and firm estab lishment, over which a lieutenant or supreme governor should be con stituted, and two deputies be annually elected by the council and assembly of each province, to be in the nature of a great council, and to meet together to consult and advise for the good of the whole. " A coalition or union of this nature," he observed, " tempered with and grounded on prudence, moderation and justice, and a generous encou ragement given to the labor, industry and good management of all sorts and conditions of persons inhabiting, or any ways concerned, or interested in the several colonies, will, in all probability, lay a sure foundation of dominion, strength, and trade sufficient, not only to secure and promote the prosperity of the plantations, but to revive and greatly increase the late flourishing state and condition of Great Britain, and thereby render it once more the envy and admiration of its neighbors." William, the second son of Daniel Coxe, dwelt, during a considera ble portion of his life, in the city of Philadelphia, where he married the daughter of Tench Francis, then attorney-general of the Province of Pennsylvania, son of the dean of Christ Church in Dublin, and brother of Dr. Philip Francis, so well known among men of letters as the translator of Demosthenes and Horace. Of this gentleman, RICHARD SMITH COXE was the grandson, being named after his maternal grand father, who was a merchant of the city of Philadelphia. During his infancy and early childhood, the feebleness of his consti tution scarcely allowed the indulgence of a hope that his life would be prolonged to manhood ; but the energy of his character was already apparent in his resolute struggles to lesist and overcome his bodily infirmity ; and by habitually exposing himself to every vicissitude of weather, by courting all the manly sports and exercises of youth, he succeeded at last in conquering every weakness, so that, during the re sidue of his life, he has been remarkable for the unusual vigor of his 12 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. bodily health. He was only seven years of age when he was placed under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Staughton, at the academy in Bur lington, with whom he remained until the age of thirteen ; from that time until his admission into Princeton College, the Rev. Dr. Wharton, long known as the learned and estimable rector of St. Mary s Church, in Burlington, aided him with private lessons, and prepared him for matriculation. In the year 1805, he was enrolled at Princeton as a member of the freshman class, being at that time and for months afterwards, the young est student in the institution. From his first entrance into college, how ever, he was influenced by a steady ambition, and throughout his three years term always maintained a conspicuous position, which was crowned, on his graduation in 1808, with a high and well-deserved honorary distinction. His first instruction in classical literature, while under the care of Dr. Staughton, had not been profound, but his tastes and habits, which had imbued him from his earliest youth with a strong love of reading, and induced him ardently to cultivate general literature and history, awakened in him a love for the great masters of Grecian and Roman poetry and eloquence, which increased in the progress of collegiate studies, and has been nourished and indulged among the busy occupations of subsequent life. Under the care of President Smith, a gentleman of accomplished manners, and a scholar who, with many elegant and varied attainments, had especially cultivated, and ably and successfully explained the moral and mental sciences ; and of Dr. John M Lean, the professor of chemistry and natural philosophy, who com bined the Doric simplicity of his countryman Burns with the same spi rit of accurate and searching inquiry into the truths of experimental science which had largely contributed to the fame of Professor Black, whose pupil in Scotland he had been, Mr. Coxe acquired, while at Princeton, a fondness for every branch of study and reflection con nected with the moral and physical sciences ; this he has ever since re tained, and ever continued to indulge in as far as the engagements of his profession have permitted. The associations of his collegiate days were the basis of friendships then formed with persons of whom many have since risen to deserved distinction. Stevenson Archer, of Maryland, afterwards the distin guished chief justice of that state, and already beloved by all who knew him, for the purity and excellence of his character, was conspi cuous among his associates ; and in his room-mate and most inti mate companion, Charles W. Monk, a native of Canada, he found a friend, who, from his superiority of years, commanded as much de ference as by his talents, early and remarkably developed, he attracted admiration, and by his amiable character won and secured respect and love. To these chosen companions of his collegiate life he added se veral others some of them students in the same class whose names have been made familiar to their countrymen by their subsequent emi nence and worth. Bishop Meade, of Virginia ; Mr. Justice Wayne, who has been alike distinguished in the halls of Congress and on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States ; Mr. Booth, the le^r ed chief justice of the State of Delaware ; and Mr. George Wood, who has risen to deserved professional distinction among the bar of RICHARD S. COXE, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 13 New- York, were some of those with whom ties of youthful friendship were formed at Princeton. Leaving college on his graduation as a bachelor of arts, at the pre mature age of sixteen, Mr. Coxe, after an interval of only a few weeks, was entered as a student of law in the office of the late Judge William Griffith, then residing in Burlington, who had been for many years the intimate personal and political associate of his father, and with whose family his own had long been united by close ties of familiar and at- tached friendship. In the office of Mr. Griffith he zealously pursued, for three years, his legal studies, only diverting his attention to such collateral branches of literary inquiry as were consistent with his in tention, already formed, to make success in his profession the object of his undivided aspirations and efforts. Unforeseen reverses in his father s affairs, during the period of his studies, only served to strengthen a re solution which, without them, would have been in accordance with his self-relying spirit and disposition. When he had completed his course of study with Mr. Griffith, he was yet too young to claim admission to the bar, and he removed to Philadelphia with the view of occupying the interval in the larger field of practical observation and instruction which was afforded by its courts. He placed himself under the direc tion of Mr. Binney, who was already rapidly rising to that distinction and high reputation which he has since attained. He also united zea lously and actively in the formation of an association among the legal students of Philadelphia, for the purpose of mutual improvement, which has been ever since continued with advantage and success. The late learned Mr. Duponceau, at the instance of the students, consented to become the president of this association, and to deliver formal written opinions upon questions which were discussed by them before him. For several years he devoted his time and extensive and various learning, with ready generosity, to this duty, and secured for himself the lasting and grateful recollection of those to whom this useful in struction was given, among whom no one has more frequently ex pressed his sense of obligation than Mr. Coxe. In the year 1812, a few weeks before he attained his majority, Mr. Coxe underwent his examination, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. His original intention had been to settle himself, at the commencement of his professional life, in the western part of that state ; and with this view he had devoted much of his attention to the law of real property, and to the somewhat pe culiar legal system connected with the land titles of Pennsylvania. This plan, however, circumstances induced him to relinquish, and he commenced the practice of his profession in the city of Philadelphia, where he remained until the year 1816, when he married a lady who had been the object of his early and long-continued affections, the daughter of Judge Griffith, of Burlington, with whom his first legal studies had been pursued. Shortly after this event he determined to return to his native state, where, in May, 1817, he was admitted as an attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court. With the encouraging assistance of friends already conspicuous at the bar, and with the reputation already ac quired of professional learning and industry, it was not long before he 14 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. found himself engaged in several cases of importance; and from the time of his first engagement at the New-Jersey bar until he finally left it, his success was such as to present to a youthful lawyer brighter prospects than those which too generally attend the earlier years of his laborious profession. With many of the distinguished members of that bar he formed or renewed the most friendly relations. From Mr. Richard Stockton, then holding the high position in the profession to which his talents, learning and worth entitled him, he received that va luable aid and friendly consideration which were congenial to his na ture, and which largely contributed to lighten the first difficulties of a young lawyer s career. He counted, too, among his friends, Mr. Southard, at that time a judge of the Supreme Court, and afterwards a Senator of the United States, and a member of the administration of Mr. Adams ; Mr. Charles Ewing, subsequently chief justice of the state ; Mr. Wall, who represented New-Jersey for some years in the Senate ; and Mr. Frelinghuysen, then the attorney-general. From the latter Mr. Coxe received the appointment of deputy attorney-general for his native county a situation which afforded him opportunities for the exhibition of his professional qualifications, and largely extended his acquaintance and popularity ; so that his share of the professional business of West Jersey soon became considerable in all of the state courts. Nor was it confined to these ; it extended to the Circuit Court of the United States, over which then presided, with distinguished ability, the late Judge Washington, an early friend of his father, who, to the end of his life, continued and exhibited the same friendly regard to his son. In the year 1822, circumstances occurred which induced Mr. Coxe to contemplate a removal to the District of Columbia. Strong induce ments were held out to him to make it the place of his future resi dence and the field of his professional exertions ; and encouraged by the advice of friends, and strengthened by the letters of Judge Washing ton, Mr. Southard and others, to whom he was well known, and who felt a strong interest in his welfare, he established himself at Washing ton, in December, 1822. Admitted immediately to the bar of the Circuit Court of the District, and, at the commencement of the ensuing term to that of the Supreme Court of the United States, he plunged at once into the active and engrossing professional occupation which has from that time, without an interval, engaged him. He found him self at that period surrounded by, and associated with, men most emi nent in the profession of the law; on the bench, before which he pleaded, sat Marshall, Washington, Johnson, Livingston, Todd, Duval and Story, all of whom, in the progress of his professional life, he has seen gradually pass from that high judicial station ; at the bar, his daily associates in forensic discussion were Wirt, Webster, Harper, Ogden, Emniett, Jones, Key and Swann, few of whom now remain to meet him in the scenes of their early and agreeable association. During the long interval of thirty years that have since elapsed, Mr. Coxe has been engaged in the full practice of his profession in the local courts in the District of Columbia ; occasionally in those of the State of Maryland, and constantly in the Supreme Court of the United States. To the extent of his practice and the importance of the cases entrusted RICHARD S. COXE, OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 15 to his charge, the volumes of reports of the latter tribunal, made by Messrs. Wheaton, Peters and Howard, bear a continuous and abun dant testimony ; they afford, however, most imperfect and inadequate materials from which to form a just judgment of the learning, skill and ability of the advocate, for, with few exceptions, they present scarcely an outline of his arguments, and are confined to a summary of the principal points which he presented, and the authorities he re lied on. Among the earliest of them was one which he argued in the year 1825, that circumstances concurred to invest with peculiar inter est to himself. It was an appeal from the judgment of the Circuit Court of New-Jersey, in the suit of Wright v. Denn, which had been there instituted on the advice of Mr. Stockton, who, in opposition to several eminent counsel, had given a decided opinion in favor of the plaintiff s right, and which, after a contest in the Circuit Court, con ducted with equal zeal and ability, had been there sustained. When the case was taken by the defeated party to the Supreme Court of the United States, in the confident expectation that this decision would be reversed, Mr. Stockton was unable personally to participate in the ar gument in Washington. He confided it to his young friend, with an earnest exhortation to sustain the opinion he had given, as well as the professional reputation of his native state ; and this he successfully did, the judgment of the Circuit Court being affirmed without a dis senting opinion. In the argument of this cause, Mr. Coxe met at the bar, for the first time, his old college friend and companion, George Wood. Although natives of the same county, members of the same class at Princeton, admitted to the bar nearly cotemporaneously, and pursuing their profession in the same state, yet the practice of the one had been principally in the northern and eastern counties, while that of the other was chiefly in the western circuits ; so that they now met for the first time upon a distant field, and before a new tribunal. It was not long after the settlement of Mr. Coxe in Washington, that a class of cases involving property of great value, and presenting legal and political questions of delicacy and importance, began to occu py the attention of the Supreme Court, which they continued to do for many subsequent years. These were controversies growing out of the cession of Louisiana and Florida to the United States. Not only did they depend mainly upon the local and colonial land laws of Spain, France and Great Britain, but they required a most careful examination and construction of the treaties made with those governments, and the political negotiations which had preceded and accompanied them ; so that the advocate was required to master a system of jurisprudence greatly at variance with our own, and to apply to private rights the stipulations of public and political documents, which were wanting in those elements of minute certainty that characterize the statutory enactments which affect the property and rights of the individual citi zen. Into this class of cases Mr. Coxe was early drawn, appearing for clients living remote from Washington, and thus invested with a se rious responsibility, in addition to that which resulted from the nature of the controversy and the magnitude of the amount involved in it. Though few traces of his elaborate arguments in the many cases of this in which he appeared are to be collected from the Reports ; yet 16 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the notes preserved by the reporter in the suits of Forster v. Neilson, one of the earliest of the class, may afford some evidence of the re search and talent by which they were distinguished. In cases, also, which have involved the construction of the Constitution of the United States, and the application of its provisions, not only to the transac tions of individuals, but to acts of Congress and the legislation of the states, he has been repeatedly engaged, evincing at all times in his ar guments that careful preparation and study which such subjects pecu liarly demand, and holding in their discussion a high position among the advocates to whom they have been entrusted. Though Mr. Coxe, since his residence in Washington, has kept him self aloof from public office, making his profession the exclusive object of his attention ; yet in one branch of legal duty, connected with the administration of the government, his services have been engaged on many occasions. In the absence of a legal officer authorized by law to represent the government in prosecutions before courts-martial, he has been engaged in some of the most important cases to fill the post of judge-advocate; and he has discharged its duties not merely with ability as a lawyer, but with that moderation and judgment which are made peculiarly necessary alike by the character of the tribunal, the nature of the alleged offences, and the large discretion which belongs to the office. Among the most important cases in which he was thus employed by the government, were those of Commodore Stewart and Commodore Porter, in the year 1825. Such has been the professional life of Mr. Coxe passed in the active and continuous exercise of the various duties of ah advocate and a counselor, and attaining, by his integrity, talents and industry, a posi tion which has secured for him the respect of the bench and the bar, and the confidence of those who have profited by his services. In his private life, his conduct has ever evinced a sincere submission to that sense of religious obligation which he has ever cherished ; and in his intercourse with his friends, and with all around him, he has constantly exhibited a liberal and hospitable spirit, which has drawn to him, in Washington, a large association with the men of eminence and worth, who have successively passed across that changing scene during the thirty years of his residence there. Having experienced many years since the death of the lady to whom he was married in his youth, Mr. Coxe continued a widower until the spring of 1840, when he formed a second matrimonial connection with Mrs. Susan R. Wheeler, the daughter of the late and sister of the present Mr. John Warren, of New-York a lady whose intelligence, manners and disposition have largely added to the attractions of the social circle which he has gather ed around him. His eldest daughter was married some years since to Major Weightman, now a delegate in Congress from the territory of New-Mexico, and whose gallant conduct was particularly conspicuous throughout the brilliant campaign in which Colonel Doniphan, with his little army of adventurous spirits, achieved some of the most romantic exploits that characterized the war with Mexico. REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 17 HON. REUBEN H. WALWORTH, -% THE LAST OF THE NEW-YORK CHANCELLORS. UNDER a government like ours, where there are no privileged classes, and where no hereditary distinctions exist, it very frequently happens that the most important and responsible offices are held by those of whom it may very properly be said, they have been the pio- x~ I neers of their own fortunes men who haverfeceived little or no assist ance from wealthy or influential relatives, but who are indebted for their success in life to their own industry and perseverance. Indeed, this is generally the case in the United States ; and it is easy to see why it should be so. Native talent is not confined to any class of society ; though, as a general rule, it may reasonably be presumed that the children of intellectual parents will have more natural talent than the children of the ignorant, the stupid, or the imbecile. The sons of the wealthy, however, or of those who occupy situations of ^ ^ great power or influence, are too often found to rely upon the wealth or the influence of their parents, afld seldom acquire those habits of industry, perseverance and energy which are essential to succcess. On the other hand, those whose parents are poor, or belong to the middle classes of society, being early taught the necessity of relying upon their own exertions, will be more apt to acquire that information and those business habits which alone can fit them for the discharge of important public trusts, and that industry and perseverance which usually ensure success. The subject of this biographical sketch was the third son of Benja min Walworth ; and as many of the children and descendants of the latter have been members of the legal profession, or otherwise con nected with the administration of justice, it may not be improper here to give a brief account of his family. Benjamin Walworth, who was the youngest of nine brothers and sisters, was the grandson of William Walworth, of Groton, in Con necticut, who came to this country, from the neighborhood of London, near the close of the seventeenth century, with Governor Fitz John J Winthrop. He lost his father in 1750, when he was only four years >-; of age. He learned the trade of a hatter, and worked at it for several ^ *^ years after he arrived at manhood. In the early part of the Revolution he was adjutant of Colonel Stevens New- York regiment, in the service - of the United States, and was in the battle of White Plains. After the term of service of the regiment had expired, he was engaged in mer chandise for a few years, but relinquished it soon after his marriage, - and became a farmer, which business he followed until his de-ath, in 1812, leaving a small patrimony to each of his ten children. He was for many years an active politician in the county of Rensselaer, where he resided for the last thirty-nine years of his life; and was a supporter of the administrations of Jefferson and of Madison, and usually filled some of the local offices in the town where lie resided. He was also 2 18 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. a personal, as well as a political friend of the first Governor Clinton, afterwards Vice-President of the United States, and of his brother, General James Clinton, ...with whom he became acquainted in eariy life, while boarding with a n ear relative of theirs at Poughkeepsie. He married Apphia Hyde, a daughter of the Rev. Jedediah Hyde, a Separatist, or Baptist clergyman, of Norwich, who, at the time of her marriage, was the widow of Samuel Cardell, of Bozrah. On her father s side she was descended from William Hyde and Matthew Marvin, two of the first settlers of Hartford ; and through her mater nal grandfather, Joseph Ti>&cy, the second son of Mary Winslow, who married the first John Tra^y, of Norwich, she was the fourth in descent from Mary Chilton, who^came to Plymouth in the Mayflower, in 1620, and married John Winslow, a brother of the governor. Mrs. Walworth was a very talented and intellectual lady, and had received as good an education as iti was usual for any females to re ceive previous to the Revolution ; and she was very careful to infuse into the minds of her children the principles of morality, religion and virtue, and to inculcate thos^- habits of prudence, industry and perse verance, which were afterwards so conducive to their success in life after they left the paternal roof. William S. Cardell, her only c/ild by her first husband, but who died many years since, became a cnstfnguished scholar and teacher, and was the author of some valuable school-books and other literary and scientific works. Major John Walworth, her first son by the chancel lor s father, was an officer in the army of the United States during the last war with England, and distinguished himself at the taking of Little York, where he led the advances under the command of General Pike, and was wounded by the side of that gallant officer at the time that the latter was killed. At the close of the war. he left the army and settled at Plattsburgh, and was subsequently elected to the office of clerk of Clinton county, and continued to be elected from time to time until 1829, when he was appointed assistant-register of the Court of Chancery. He held this last office until his death, in 1839, and discharged its duties to the perfect satisfaction of the court and the bar. James Clinton Walworth, the second son, is a successful farmer in the county of Otsego, and was for many years a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of that county. Benjamin, the fourth son, is a distin guished physician and surgeon, residing at Fredonia, and was for seve ral years one of the associate judges of the county of Chautauque. Jedediah H. Walworth, the fifth son, was a member of the bar of Washington county, but died in 1827, a year or two after he was licensed to practice. Hiram, the youngest son, was, during the life of his brother, the assistant-register, his deputy. He had the exclusive management of the financial concerns of the office, and the investment and control of several millions of money which were brought into court in the city of New- York ; which duty he discharged with great prudence and fidelity. Upon the death of his brother, he succeeded him in the office of assistant- register, which he held until he was in duced to resign it on accqunt of the loss of his sight. Oliver L. Bar- bour, the present reporter of the Supreme Court, is a son of the oldest REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW- YORK. 19 daughter ; and Chancellor Walworth has three other nephews who are members of the bar in this state, and another who is a member of the profession in Wisconsin. Reuben Hyde Walworth, the late chancellor, was born on the 26th of October, 1789, at Bozrah, a part of the nine miles square originally- embraced within the bounds of the town of Norwich, in Connecticut ; and in February, 1793, he removed with his father s family to the town of Hoosick, in the State of New- York. He was brought up a farmer until the age of seventeen, with no advantages of education but such as could be obtained by attending the ordinary public schools of that day, during that part of the year when his services were not required on the farm. " Yet so anxious was he to get an education that, at the age of twelve, he went from home and worked through the winter, mornings and evenings, for his board, that he might have the advantage of a better common school than that in the vicinity of his father s residence. At the age of sixteen, he was himself a teacher of a village school during the winter months. He was also engaged in the same employment during the following winter." The only classical education which he ever received was for about fourteen weeks, while he was for the first time engaged in the business of school teaching himself. During that time, when he was not engaged in his school, he studied the Latin language and mathematics, under the advice and direction of Mr. Cardell, his half brother, who had received a liberal education. To a disability similar to that which the unrivaled success of the great Scotch novelist is attributed, the people of New- York were in debted for the last of their chancellors. In the summer after he at tained his seventeenth year, he met with an accident which incapa citated him for a long time from working on a farm, and changed the whole course of his life. While engaged with an elder brother in drawing in a load of wheat from the harvest field, the loaded wagon was overturned, and both the wheat and the wagon were thrown down a precipice. Being on the top of the load, he, with his brother, was pitched down the precipice with it, and fell beneath the load of grain and the wagon, by which one of his ankles was so badly injured that his parents supposed he would be a cripple for life. As soon as he had sufficiently recovered from the effects of this acci dent, which had unfitted him for farming, as to be able to engage in any other business, he went into a country store for a short time as a clerk. While there, he became acquainted with an attorney in the neighborhood of the store, and he then determined to endeavor to over come the obstacles of a defective education, and to prepare himself for the bar. He entered his name with the attorney, and continued to study law under the direction of the latter for a few months, while he continued to discharge the duties of a merchant s clerk. But as the lawyer under whose direction he commenced his legal studies possessed very few books, and not a very extensive practice, he finally induced his father to furnish him the means of pursuing his studies at what was then the village of Troy the place where the courts of the county were held, and where there were several lawyers of eminence in their profession. 20 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. In the selection of an office in which to pursue his legal studies, he was particularly fortunate in obtaining a first-rate legal instructor, whose office has become somewhat celebrated for the number of judicial officers who have received the whole or some part of their professional education there. The gentleman whose office he entered at Troy, and who had recently removed from the county of Washington, was Mr. John Russell, formerly state s attorney for the northern district of New- York, who died in the prime of life some forty years since. This gentleman, whose name as counsel frequently appears in the first ten volumes of Johnson s Reports, was one of the eminent lawyers of his day, and was said to be the best common law practitioner in the state. Hence, although Mr. Walworth was the only student in the office at the time when he first entered it, he had six or seven associates before he left there, three years afterwards. Among them were two others who have filled high judicial stations William L. Marcy, afterwards one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New-York ; and George Monell, who subsequently was the chief justice of the State of Michigan, were among the number. John Woodworth, who became the attorney-general of the State of New- York, and was subsequently a judge of the Supreme Court, built the office, and occupied it for several years ; and Chief Justice Savage, and Nathan Williams, for many years circuit judge for the fifth circuit, as well as Mr. Russell, who subsequently owned and occupied the same office, were among the students who received their legal education therein. For the purpose of enabling him to pursue his studies to greater ad vantage, Mr. Walworth, when he commenced his studies there, had a sleeping-bunk placed in the office, and lodged there most of the time during the three years he continued to be a student with Mr. Russell. At the end of the first year he had been so successful in acquiring a knowledge of the practice and of legal principles, that his legal instructor entrusted him with the whole charge of the office, and with the draft ing of all the ordinary pleadings and proceedings ; and at the end of the second year he voluntarily offered him a year s board, on account of the services he performed beyond what was usually expected of students preparing themselves for the bar. At the age of twenty he was admitted to the bar of the Court of Common Pleas, and, in con nection with Mr. John Palmer, who was licensed as an attorney of the Supreme Court about the same time, he commenced the practice of the law at Plattsburgh, in the county of Clinton. Mr. Russell, who, in his official capacity of public prosecutor or dis trict attorney for the northern district of New-York, had frequently visited Plattsburgh, and was well acquainted there, gave to his late stu dent letters of introduction to some of the most influential gentlemen of Clinton county, strongly recommending him to their patronage and support, as a talented, industrious, and well-informed young lawyer. This enabled him to get some legal business at once, without those har assing delays which so often discourage young gentlemen of the bar at the commencement of their professional career. But according to the then practice of the courts, process was only made returnable at the regular terms ; and no trial, or even judgment by default, could b<> REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 21 entered thereon until the. seco-nd term after the return of the capias. The firm of Palmer and Walworth, therefore, had no suits of their own to attend to in court, until about nine months after they first located themselves at Plattsburgh. Mr. Walworth, however, was not idle in the meantime. Soon after he removed to Plattsburgh he was attacked by an epi demic that then prevailed there, and was prostrated thereby for three or four weeks, which is the only severe sickness that he has ever expe rienced of more than a day or two s continuance. That epidemic proved fatal to many adults ; and, among others, to one of the members of a legal firm in an extensive practice, who usually attended to the argu ment and trial of the co-partnership causes. Shortly after Mr. Wal worth had recovered from his sickness so far as to be able to attend to business, the surviving member of that firm applied to him for profes sional assistance, informed him that his deceased partner had left him with about twenty causes to be argued upon questions of law, or to be tried by jury, at the term which was to be held in the ensuing month. And although he was offered only the stinted fee of fifteen dollars for the service, Mr. Walworth readily accepted the offer, wisely concluding that what he failed to receive as an adequate pecuniary compensation, would be made up to him in professional reputation as a source of future profit. He accordingly prepared himself for the trial and argu ment of all those causes, and at the next term of the court performed the service required of him to the perfect satisfaction of his employer, and also of the clients. The result was, as he had anticipated, that he secured to his own firm the future business of many of those clients. It also brought him to the notice of many business men of the county, who attended court at that term, as an energetic and talented young lawyer, to whom they or their friends might safely entrust the prose cution or defence of their legal rights. The other member of the firm, Mr. Palmer, who was likewise a man of talent, and a good advocate, assisted in the trial and argument of some of the causes, by which he was also brought to the notice of the public. From that time business began to flow into their office rapidly ; and during the eleven or twelve years that the co-partnership of Palmer and Walworth continued, no legal firm in the county did a more profita ble professional business. Although Mr. Walworth made it a rule to accept no office or employ ment which would interfere with his professional business and his duty to his clients, and frequently declined the offers of his friends to present his name as a candidate for the state legislature, he readily availed him self of the offer of local offices connected with the law, the duties of which could be discharged by him without interfering with his practice in the courts. Two years after he settled at Plattsburgh, he was appointed by Gover nor Tompkins a justice of the peace for the county of Clinton, and a master of the Court of Chancery. Both of these offices he held, with the exception of a single year, until his appointment as circuit judge, in the spring of 1823. In 1817 he received the appointment of notary public. In the ensuing year the legislature passed a law creating the office of commissioner to perform certain duties of a judge of the Supreme Court, I 22 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. for the northern part of the state. And shortly afterwards Governor Clinton tendered that office to Mr. Walworth, which he accepted. The writer of a recent biographical sketch of the late chancellor says. that " in confidence of his ability, by his professional talents, to sustain the burthens and expenses of a family, Mr. Walworth, soon after he became a lawyer, formed that happy matrimonial connection, the disso lution of which, by the death of his wife, in 1847, may be deemed the greatest misfortune of his life. Though he lost, in 1812, by the acci dental destruction of his house by fire, all the avails of his previous la bors, events soon proved that his reliance on his own powers were not misplaced. He had at once entered on a most successful practice, which would have conducted not only to professional eminence, but to pecu niary affluence, had he not, at an age at which few young men can be con sidered to have seriously engaged in the business of life, been called by his fellow-citizens to the councils of the nation, his labors in which had scarcely terminated before his talents \vere demanded in the then new organization of the judiciary of the state." The lady above alluded to, who became the wife of Mr. Walworth, in January, 1812, a few days after she had entered upon her seventeenth year, was Maria Ketchum Averill, the eldest daughter of Mr. Nathan Averill, of Plattsburgh. And as the success in life of every one, par ticularly of a professional man, is intimately connected with the selec tion which he makes of a wife, it may not be inappropriate here to introduce the following extract from a published sermon, upon the oc casion of the death of the late Mrs. Walworth. In reference to her domestic and social character, her pastor says : " In all the relations of the family circle she was most faithful and successful ; as daughter, wife and mother, she will be mourned by those who survive, as few are mourned. " In her native character, there was an uncommon loveliness, most attractive to all around her, making it easy for her to secure the friend ship of her acquaintances; and an artlessness and ingenuousness which were certain to retain the affection which had been gained. Few persons, it is believed, had so many warm friends. These are all left with bleed ing hearts to seek to comfort each other with the recollection of the virtues of the departed. "Perhaps if any single trait of her character were to be specified as surpassing all others in distinctness and excellence, her philanthropy, her almost unbounded benevolence, should be named. And yet this was the result of a combination of qualities of the highest order, and was merely the exhibition of these in action. Her liberality was of the kind which shrinks not from sacrifice. She was ready at all times to deny herself personal gratification, that she might thus add to the already large amount which every year she contributed for human happiness. She had a heart open to every demand of charity. She did not over look the heathen because they are far away, her attachment to the missionary cause, and to missionaries themselves, will be attested by many a herald of the cross in the distant parts of the world. At the same time she did not overlook the wants of those suffering around her, nor did she shrink from labor and toil in their behalf. She went to the houses of the poor and needy, dispensing her charity everywhere, REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 23 and making it doubly precious by her sympathy and kindness. In this, she was, all her life, a model most worthy of imitation. There was no claim upon her kind feeling or benevolent action which was not at once promptly met. Everything especially which related to the poor and the degraded, awakened her warmest sympathy. In the Sabbath-school cause she was deeply interested, as the tears of the little children crowding around her lifeless body bore witness. For the poor inebriate she felt great solicitude, some, reformed by her influence, live to call her their best earthly benefactress, and to lament her death. With her dying hands she made a generous contribution, I believe the last of a public nature, to relieve the wants of the suffering families of the intemperate. There was no impulse in her manner of giving and acting for her Master, it was the natural, every-day movement of her soul. Her name became a proverb among us for beneficence, and as such, cannot be forgotten until all have followed her to the grave who knew her. She seemed to be acting continually as if she would merit the language of approbation which the Master bestowed upon one of her sisters in olden time: She hath done what she could and who among us has better deserved it?" By this lady, Chancellor Walworth had two sons and four daughters, all of whom, except the youngest daughter, who died at the age of five years, are still living. In the spring of 1851, Chancellor Walworth formed a second matri monial connection with Mrs. Sarah Ellen Hardin, of Jacksonville, in the State of Illinois, the talented and accomplished widow of the late Col. John J. Hardin, of the first regiment of Illinois volunteers in the late war with Mexico, who fell at the battle of Buena Vista, and who was one of the most distinguished members of the bar in the western states. By this lady the late chancellor has one son. But to return to his early professional history and pursuits. Residing near the northern frontier of the United States during the late war with England, which commenced in 1812, and lasted three years, and Platts- burgh being a military post during most of the time, he became ac quainted with many of the officers of our army, and was frequently employed by them as their professional adviser, and often extricated them from difficulties in which they became involved with citizens. In the spring of 1814, while the army, under the command of Maj. Gen. Wilkinson, was stationed at Plattsburgh, a subaltern officer belonging to the British army came to that place in the character of a deserter, and in the disguise of a common soldier, and as such received a permit from the commanding officer to pass into the interior as far as Albany ; but his real object was to ascertain the number and situation of our army on the northern frontier, and to learn the progress which had been made in the construction of the vessels of war which our government was then build ing at Vergennes for the lake service. Having accomplished the ob- joct for which he came out, he was returning into Canada, in a citizen s dress, with the information he had obtained, when he was recognized and arrested within a few rods of the British lines, and was brought back as a prisoner to the American camp at Plattsburgh. A general court martial was immediately ordered for his trial. And such was the standing which Mr. Walworth had already acquired at the bar, although 24 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. he was not yet entitled to an admission as a counselor of the Supreme Court, that he was selected and appointed by General Wilkinson as the judge advocate to conduct the proceedings upon that important trial, and on the trial of a colonel in the army, whose case was to be brought before the same military tribunal. Those services were per formed with credit to himself, and to the entire satisfaction of the com manding general ; and the unfortunate Lieut. Baker was condemned and executed as a spy of the enemy. The village in which Mr. Walworth resided was twice visited by the enemy during that war ; and, as might be expected from what -has been before stated, he could not remain a mere spectator when his country was not only engaged in what he deemed to be a just war, but was actually invaded by the enemy s troops. lie sought for and ob tained the appointment of aid to Major-General Mooers, with the rank of major in the militia of the state. He was in the service of his country in that capacity in 1813, when a brigade of the enemy, under the command of Colonel Murray, landed at Plattsburgh, and destroyed the arsenal, and the barracks at Pike s cantonment. But General Mooers, and the small body of militia which was called out at that time, were obliged to retire before a much superior force. When the British again invaded the northern part of New- York with an army of 14,000 regular troops, in September, 1814, and came as far south as Plattsburgh, Brigadier-General Macomb, who had been left by General Izard in command of the forts at that place with a garrison of 1,500 regulars, made a requisition upon Major-General Mooers, under authority from the President, to order into the service of the United States his whole division, with the exception of the brigade in Columbia county. The division was called out accordingly ; and Gen. Mooers, being the superior officer, took the command of the militia called out. and of such volunteers as arrived at Pittsburgh previous to the retreat of the enemy, though he left General Macomb in command of the forts. Major Walworth, who was still one of the aids of the major-general, was assigned by the latter to discharge the duties of adjutant-general of the forces under the command of the latter. When we recollect the despondency which the capture of Washing ton, and the destruction of the capitol by the British, during the preced ing month, had universally created, and when we connect the victory of Commodore McDonough on Lake Champlain with the achievements of the militia and volunteers under Major-General Mooers, and of the regulars under Brigadier-General Macomb, the occurrences at Platts burgh must be reckoned among the most glorious events to which the war of 1812 gave rise. The whole American forces consisted of 700 militia and 1,500 regulars, while the British troops amounted to 14,000 ; a disparity even far surpassing that at New-Orleans. On the evening of the 5th of September, the right wing of the British army was advanced on the Beekmantown road to within seven or eight miles of the village of Plattsburgh. Sometime in the evening Major- General Mooers, whose head-quarters were on the same road, some two or three miles nearer the village, expressed his regret that he had no regular troops to support the militia and volunteers in the anticipated conflict with the advancing enemy the next day. The acting adjutant- REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 25 general immediately volunteered his services to proceed at once to Brigadier-General Macomb s quarters at the village, and near the forts, with an order for him to detach two or three companies of infantry and one of light artillery from the garrison under his command, and that they should report themselves to General Mooers at Beekmantown the next morning. An order to that effect was accordingly made out, and Major Walworth proceeded at once to General Macomb s quarters and delivered such order. The night being very dark, he did not deem it prudent to attempt to return to Beekmantown that night. He slept upon the floor of his own deserted mansion in the village until daylight, and then rode back to head-quarters. He had just finished a light breakfast, when information was brought that the enemy was upon the advance. He was thereupon ordered by the general to select two companies of the Clinton county regiment of militia, and proceed about a mile to the creek which crossed the road, and take up the bridge, so as to retard the advance of the enemy s artillery. The order was promptly obeyed, so far as to proceed to the place indicated by the order. But just as the detachment under the command of Major Walworth commenced the destruction of the bridge, the enemy approached in force and commenced firing upon them, wounding two of the detachment severely, and one of them mortally. The fire was returned ; and the detachment was then ordered to fall back to where Major Wool, with about 150 regulars, who had been de tached from the garrison under the order of the evening previous, had already arrived and was stationed. The regulars were then formed in the highway, and with the detach ment of militia on their flanks, waited the approach of the enemy, when a heavy fire was opened upon the head of the British column and momentarily arrested its progress. But the brigade of the enemy which was advancing being 3,500 strong, the regulars under the gal lant Wool, as well as Major Walworth s detachment of militia, were sooii compelled to give way and fall back to where the commanding general, with the main body of the militia and volunteers, was station ed. At that point the fighting became general, and continued so at intervals until the enemy s forces reached the village, and our troops had placed themselves behind the Saranac, which runs through the vil lage north of the forts. In a published account of this battle of the 6th of September, 1814, commonly called the Battle of Beekmantown, Major Walworth is specially named as one of the officers who, in connection with Major Wool, succeeded in rallying the militia and regulars that awaited the approach of the enemy at Culvus Hill, about four miles from Platts- burgh ; which position was maintained with so much firmness as to compel the enemy to fall back for a time. It was then that the gallant Willington, Lieut.-Colonel of the 3d. Buffs was killed, while leading his regiment to the charge against our forces, and where several British officers were wounded. Major Walworth was also in the battle of the llth of September, when a British brigade, under Major-Gen eral the Baron De Eotten- burgh, crossed the Saranac at Pike s cantonment ; and where, in the language of General Macomb, " they were repulsed by the brave vol- 26 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. unteers and militia, and suffered severely in killed, wounded, and prisoners." Shortly before that action, he had been sent by General Mooers to order the Vermont volunteers, then upon the lake shore, to take a position on the Saranae, at the place where the battle after wards commenced. While in the performance of that duty he had the pleasure of witnessing the termination of the naval engagement on the lake ; and he brought to his commanding officer, just as the enemy approached the river to cross, the first intelligence of the result of that engagement, which not only secured to us the command of Lake Champlain, but, with the evidences of bravery and prowess already ex hibited on the part of the militia as well as the regular army, left to the enemy no hope of a successful invasion of our country. After the termination of the w r ar, Major Walworth received a commission from Governor Clinton, appointing him division judge advocate, with the rank of colonel. As we have already seen, Mr. Walworth sprang from a democratic stock ; and he has from his boyhood continued to be a consistent mem ber of the democratic party, though many of his most devoted per sonal friends belonged to the party to which he was politically op posed. He has seldom been a candidate for any political office, and never when there was any probability of success at the time of his nomination. But in 1821, in connection with General Pitcher, who was after wards lieutenant-governor, he was elected to the Congress of the United States, from the double district comprising the counties of Washington, Warren, Clinton, Essex, and Franklin. And some idea of his personal popularity at that time may be formed from the fact, that he everywhere was a-head of his ticket, and was elected by about 1,200 majority over the highest of the opposition candidates, in a dis trict where the majority given the year previous for the political party, to which such opposition candidates belonged, was much larger the other way. During the two years, from 1821 to 1823, that Mr. Walworth \vas in the House of Representatives, it may be safely affirmed that no member of Congress was more indefatigable in the performance of his public duties. It would be difficult to find any occasion, where the yeas and nays are recorded, in which his name is omitted. Scarcely a day passed, in which the journals do not attest his presence by a reference of the petitions presented by him, many of which came from his im mediate constituents, and to which, as arising from the invasion of our state during the then recent war, he himself, an actor in the memorable events at Pittsburgh, could not be insensible ; by the resolutions which he offered on matters interesting to his district, the state, or the Union; and by the reports which he made on behalf of the military committee to which he was appointed early in the session, on the resignation of General Solomon Van Rensselaer, and of which he was thenceforward the most prominent member. It was in the discharge of these duties that he had occasion to bring to the notice of Congress the heroic achievements of a gallant band of his fellow-soldiers, at the siege of Pittsburgh, composed like the garde mobile, during the late struggle in Paris of youths below the ordinary REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 27 age for military duty, of volunteers between 15 and 17. He asked for each of them, what Gen. Macomb had promised on the field of battle, a rifle, as a memento for his services. The act obtained the assent of the House, but it was not until a subsequent session that it became a law, through the exertions of the Hon. Aaron A. Ward, of Westches- ter, who, as an officer of the regular army, had participated in the de fence of Plattsburgh. In December, 1821, before he became a member of the military com mittee, a resolution of the House had instructed that committee to in quire and report whether the army had been reduced according to the provisions of the act of March, 1821, to reduce and fix the military peace establishment. After Colonel Wai worth was substituted in the place of the member of the committee who had resigned his seat in Congress, he was requested by the chairman, Dr. Eustis, who had him self been at the head of the war department a few years previous, to examine the legal objections which were made to the manner in which Mr. Calhoun, the then Secretary of War, had carried into effect the law for the reduction and reorganization of the army. He subsequently prepared a very able report on the subject, fully sustaining the of the course which had been pursued in reducing the army ; although one of the decisions of Mr. Calhoun involved the dismissal from the service of a distinguished officer, who had been, and still was, one of Colonel Walworth s personal friends. This report received the appro bation of Dr. Eustis, and most of the other members of the military committee ; and the member who had prepared it was instructed to present it to the House. This report, however, gave offence to a distinguished individual whose feelings had become strongly enlisted upon the other side of the ques tion, and in hostility to Mr. Calhoun ; and at whose request, as was supposed by the friends of the Secretary of War, the resolution of in quiry had been brought before the House. To this course alone the late chancellor attributes the unfriendly feelings of that gentleman ; and which induced him a few years since to exert his influence as a senator of the United States, to prevent a confirmation of the nomination of Mr. Walworth as one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court. It was within the scope of Mr. Walworth s congressional duties, not only to defend the conduct of General Jackson, as governor of Florida, in the imprisonment of Colonel Callava, who, at the instigation and in connivance with others, attempted to defraud the orphan daughter of a deceased Spanish officer, by carrying off the papers containing the evi dence of her rights in a suit pending in the military tribunals of the territory, but he also had an opportunity to sustain, against the assaults of political opponents, the Indian Agency of General Cass, in Michigan, and thus early to vindicate the public services and unimpeachable fame of that distinguished individual. In connection with his friend and colleague, the late William B. Rochester, who was subsequently the democratic candidate for governor, he succeeded in defeating the attempt of one of the federal representa tives of the state to deprive of their pay the officers of the court martial, which had tried and condemned the recreant militiamen, who had refused to turn out at the call of their country, when the state was invaded by 28 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the British army. But one of his happiest efforts on the floor of Con gress, was his speech, in January, 1823, in favor of the bereaved sister of Lieutenant Allen, who was killed by the pirates, and whose mother had died before the contemplated provision in her behalf could be pass ed. " I hope and trust," said he, "that the sister whose desolate situ ation gave an additional pang to the heart of the dying hero she, who has thus been deprived not only of the support of a kind and worthy brother, but also of the guardian care of a pious and affectionate parent, may receive that bounty which Congress intended to bestow upon the mother." Though he voted against the bankrupt law, which was proposed while he was in Congress, he offered to meet the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on the insolvent laws, by provi ding, by an amendment to the Constitution, that, " till Congress shall establish uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States, it shall be lawful for the several states, or any of them, to enact bankrupt laws, in the same manner, and with the like effect, as they might have done previous to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Walworth gave his vote in favor of an appropriation to enable the President to recognize the independence of the Spanish American states. He also called the attention of the House of Eepresentatives to the British act of 5th August, 1822, which imposed upon our trade with Canada the most onerous restrictions, and by his course led the way to the assertion of our right to the navigation of the St. Lawrence a right of inestimable value to the citizens of northern New- York. By the constitution of 1821, which went into operation on the 1st of January, 1823, the organization of the judiciary was materially affect ed; and by its provisions, a circuit judge was required to be appointed in each of the eight senatorial districts. The duties of these judges were not only to preside in the Courts of Oyer and Terminer, and to try civil causes at Nisi Prius, but they were made, subordinate to the chancellor, equity judges in their respective circuits. Mr. Walworth was appointed judge of the fourth circuit, and immediately removed to Saratoga Springs, his present residence. It is foreign to our intention to enter upon an analysis of Judge Walworth s judicial services. During the five years that he acted as a circuit judge, opportunities occurred to extend the reputation which he had previously acquired at the bar and in Congress. The charges and sentences of the court were extensively circulated in the cases of the Thayers and of Vedeto, and to which, from the heinousness of the culprits guilt, general attention was attracted. The sentence of the court in the former case is published in a popular treatise on elocution, as a specimen of judicial eloquence. Though the decisions of the cir cuit judges were not embraced within the purview of the State Reports, yet such was the ability with which Walworth already grappled with the niceties of chancery law such the extent of his attainments in all the cognate branches of jurisprudence, that with regard to him an ex ception was made, and the reporter, the late Judge Cowen, introduced some of them with the declaration, that no excuse need be made for laying before the profession " such able and luminous discussions." REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW- YORK. 29 In 1828, on Chancellor Jones retiring from the office of chancellor, Judge Wai worth naturally supposed that the office would be filled by one of the justices of the Supreme Court, and that his friend, and for mer colleague in Congress, General Pitcher, then the acting governor, would offer him the vacant seat upon the bench of the last mentioned court ; which office he would have accepted without hesitation. But on calling at the governor s room, as he was casually passing through Al bany, he was surprised with an offer of the appointment of chancellor. He at once told his friend, the governor, that he ought to give the office to Chief Justice Savage, who was every way competent to discharge the duties thereof; and that if he preferred to retain the situation of chief justice, Mr. Justice Sutherland should be appointed. And it was not until both of those gentlemen had been consulted, and had absolutely refused to undertake to discharge the arduous and responsible duties of the office of chancellor, that Mr. Walworth, after some hesitation, con sented to accept the highest judicial office in the state. As Mr. Justice Woodworth would in a few months be constitutionally disqualified to hold the office, it was not deemed necessary to consult him on the subject. Chancellor Walworth received his appointment on the 22d of April, 1828, just five years from the time he accepted the office of circuit judge, and on the 28th he held his first court as chancellor, and delivered writ ten opinions in several cases which appear in the reports. In his address to the bar on assuming his seat, he thus modestly referred to his past and present position: "Brought up," says he, "a farmer till the age of seventeen, deprived of all the advantages of a classical education, and with a very limited knowledge of chancery law, I find myself, at the age of thirty-eight, suddenly and unexpectedly placed at the head of the judiciary of the state a situation which has heretofore been filled by the most able and experienced members of the profession." As chancellor, not only was he called upon to decide upon the many complicated questions growing out of trusts, frauds, and the various other branches of equity jurisprudence, and also all matters involving the rights of infants and lunatics, as well as appeals from the surrogates of the fifty-nine counties of the state, and who administer what in Eng land is a distinct branch of jurisprudence; but, as a member of the Court of Errors, he was required to review all the intricate legal decisions which had been passed on by the Supreme Court, and as to which either of the litigating parties might be dissatisfied. Chancellor Walworth s adjudications in his own court are collected in the fourteen volumes of Paige and Barbour, while the opinions which he pronounced in the Court of Errors are to be found in the thirty- eight volumes of Wendell, Hill and Denio. The reported cases, how ever, constitute but a small portion of the decisions made by him during the twenty years ke held the office of chancellor. In addition to the oral decisions made in open court upon the close of the argument, or in cases where a mere memorandum of the decision was indorsed upon the papers, his written opinions fill thirty-nine large folio volumes in manuscript. By a report made to the senate, in 1836, it appears that the number of decrees, and decretal orders, and other special orders 30 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and decisions made by the chancellor in one year only, including de cisions in cases brought before him on appeals from vice-chancellors and surrogates, was eleven hundred and forty ; of these one hundred and thirty-eight were decrees made in calendar causes. But his calen dar causes did not embrace his numerous decisions in cases upon ap peals from interlocutory orders of vice-chancellors ; which appeals were heard at the motion terms of the court, and were not placed on any calendar. No one can examine the volumes which contain Chancellor Wai- worth s reported adjudications, without being satisfied, not only that he is a profound lawyer, but that his attainments in all collateral branches of learning are most extensive ; and that in no respect does he yield to any judge by whom the judicial annals of our state have been illustrated. To learn the general sentiments of the profession, it is only necessary to recur to what may be every where found conceded in the contemporary reports of other states. We have the authority of the late Justice Story, given at a time when he expected to have him as an associate on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, for asserting that "Walworth is the greatest equity jurist now living;" and his own illustrious predecessor, Chancellor Kent, did not hesitate to bear the most ample testimony to the merits of his decisions, declaring that he had referred to them in his Commentaries, wherever he could make them apply, and adding in reference to them, " I am proud of my own native state." Although Chancellor Walworth owed nothing to colleges in early life, the most celebrated universities of the country have vied with one another in according to him their highest distinctions. In 1835 the degree of LL.D., was conferred. on him by the college of New- Jersey, at Princeton ; and the same honors have been since bestowed on him by Yale College at New-Haven, and by Harvard University at Cambridge. In all associations for ameliorating the moral condition of mankind, Chancellor Walworth has been a prominent and efficient actor ; but by no trait is he more distinguished than by the extent of his benefactions, and which, considering his limited means, may be deemed truly muni ficent. Though to the religious denomination with which he is con nected, his contributions have been most ample, amounting in one case to |2,000, his charities have been limited by no sectarian standard. After the ravages of the yellow fever in New- York, in 1819, Mr. Wal worth, then a young lawyer at Plattsburgh, sent unsolicited a draft for $100 for the suffering poor, accompanied by a letter to the mayor, the Hon. Cadwallader D. Golden, which was published at the time to induce others to do likewise, and from, which we learn the fact of the donation. Chancellor Walworth was among the foremost to stimulate his coun trymen to afford efficient relief to the people of Ireland, when suffering from the famine of 1847. He acted as one of the vice-presidents, and addressed the meeting at Albany on the 12th of. February, 1847, at which the governor of the state presided. Before leaving that city he sent to the committee a donation of $200, accompanied by a letter in dicating the most advantageous mode of its application, and on his re turn home, he presided at another meeting, convened at Saratoga Springs, for the same object. He shortly afterwards made another REUBEN II. WAL WORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 31 remittance, for the suffering people of Scotland, to the president of the St. Andrew s Society of New-York, and which was publicly acknowl edged at the time. He was one of the earliest friends of the temperance cause ; and at the organization of the State Society in 1829, he was its first presiding officer ; to which situation he was annually elected until his appoint ment as president of the American Temperance Union, in 1843, upon the resignation of General Cocke, of Virginia. For many years he has been one of the corporate members of the American Board of Commis sioners for Foreign Missions ; and is one of the most active and influ ential lay members of that board. Since he left the bench, he has been elected to the situation of one of the vice-presidents of the national Tract Society. He is also a vice-president of the American Bible Society ; and a corresponding member of the British and Foreign Tem perance Society. More than thirty years since, he made a profession of religion, and united with the Presbyterian Church, and is now one of its elders. Though Chancellor Walworth did not deem it consistent with the character of his judicial station to enter into the arena of active politics, he was not, during the twenty-five years that he occupied a seat on the bench, insensible to the interests either of his party or of his country. When, in 1832, a collision arose between the Supreme Court of the United States and the State of Georgia, growing out of the Indian titles in that state, and which led to the imprisonment of certain mis sionaries, Chancellor Walworth, who, as a member of Congress, had fully investigated the subject, and come to the conclusion in favor of the claim of Georgia to the prompt extinguishment by the national government of the Indian titles within her limits, successfully inter posed, as a private individual, with Governor Lumpkin, and obtained the liberation of the missionaries ; thus terminating what might other wise have resulted in a most unhappy controversy between the powers of a sovereign state and the highest judicial authority of the Union. In the performance of this patriotic duty, he acted in concert with the Rev. Dr. Nott, of Union College, and Benjamin F. Butler, Esq., who was afterwards the attorney-general of the United States ; to whom their co- ntry is deeply indebted for their exertions on that occasion. When the Canadian outbreak took place, in 1837, some of the most influential men of both provinces were driven from their homes by the tyranny of those who then held rule there. The chancellor, although he advised against a hopeless contest which, he was aware, would only end in the ruin of the oppressed colonists, deeply sympathized with the unfortunate exiles, furnished funds for their relief, and took into his own family the son of the amiable and excellent Papineau, the former speaker of the parliament of Lower Canada, while he gave erery aid and encour agement in his power to the learned and estimable Bidwell, the former speaker of the parliament of the Upper Province, who is now a respect ed member of the New-York bar. On the death, in 1844, of Judge Thompson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, public opinion pointed to Chancellor Walworth as his successor. His name was presented to the President (John Tyler) 32 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. by a majority of the New- York delegation in Congress, and he was also recommended for the office by many of the leading members of the bar of the state of both political parties. Among others, Chief Justice Nelson, who afterwards received the appointment, wrote a strong letter to the President on the subject ; and after the rejection of Mr. Spencer by the Senate, the President sent in the name of Chancellor Walworth. The nomination was referred to the judiciary committee, who delayed making a report, and finally the appointment was laid upon the table or postponed until after the next presidential election, apparently by a mere party vote. Near the close of the next session of Congress, how ever, it was ascertained that there had been a secret agreement between a whig member of the judiciary committee and one of the democratic senators from the west, that the nomination of Mr. Walworth should not be acted on during Mr. Tyler s presidential term. And, although every member of the New-York legislature and many of the leading members of the bar of both political parties, sent memorials to the Senate, urging a confirmation, the nomination was never brought before that body by the judiciary committee, either for confirmation or rejection. A few days before the expiration of his term of office, the President, being satisfied that the nomination would not be acted on during his continuance in office, reluctantly withdrew it, and sent in the name of the friend of Chancellor Walworth, Chief Justice Nelson. The Court of Chancery was abolished by the constitution of 1846 ; but the convention, which formed that constitution for the purpose of enabling the chancellor to hear and decide the equity cases then pend ing before him, and which were ready for argument- provided for the continuance of his office and his salary until the 1st of July, 1848. In April, 1847, the legislature, desirous of securing to the state the benefit of the legal learning of Chancellor Walworth for a longer period, placed him at the head of the commission organized under the provi sions of the new constitution, to reduce into a written and systematic code the whole body of the statute and common law of the state ; and they subsequently extended the time for his taking the oath of office several months, for the purpose of inducing him to accept the appoint ment after the new judiciary system of the state should have gone into operation. After considering the subject two days, the chancellor, in a letter to the legislature, which is full of instruction, respectfully de clined the appointment. He put his declension of this important duty upon the ground, that the commission was not so organized as to give the commissioners sufficient time and means to frame such a code as would carry out the principle of the constitution on the subject, and be creditable to the commissioners and to the state, and not because he supposed such a codification of the laws to be impracticable. In his letter to the legislature, he says : " I am not one of those who believe it is wholly impracticable to carry out the provisions of the constitution on this subject. On -the contrary, I think it not only prac ticable. but highly expedient to collect the general principles of the unwritten commercial and other civil laws, and of our equity system, as well as the criminal law of the state, now scattered through some thousands of volumes of treatises, commentaries, digests, and reports of judicial decisions, and to arrange them under appropriate heads, divi- REUBEN H. WALWORTH, OF NEW-YORK. 33 sions and titles, in connection with the statute law on the same subjects. Such modifications of the law should also be suggested and incorporated into the code as are necessary to adapt the laws of the state to the present advanced condition of society, and to the principles of our free institutions." The same reasons which induced Chancellor Wai worth to decline the appointment of commissioner of the code at that time, prevented him from accepting the same office when it was tendered to him by Governor Fish two years afterwards; And that he was right in supposing the commission was not properly organized for a creditable codification of the laws of the state, is evident from the fact that it proved an entire failure, and was ultimately abandoned. Chancellor Walworth held his last regular term for the hearing of causes in May, 1848. At a meeting of the members of the bar of the state, attending the general term of the Supreme Court, a few days afterwards, at which meeting the attorney-general presided, the follow ing resolution was unanimously adopted, which shows the estimate placed upon the judicial services of the late chancellor by those who had been in the habit of attending his court : " Resolved That we deem the close of our former judiciary system a fitting occasion for the expression of our respect and regard for the eminent jurist, who, for so many years past, has discharged the labori ous and responsible duties of chancellor of this state, and whose last term for hearing arguments has recently ended ; that the published volumes of his decisions evince a degree of acuteness and discrimina tion, love of truth, sound morality, and thorough legal research, unsur passed by any others, and honorable alike to himself and to the juris prudence of our state." At the close of his judicial labors on the 1st of July thereafter, of the numerous causes and motions which had been argued before him, or submitted by counsel for his decision, he left but eight undecided. Since he left the bench he has not returned to the practice of his pro fession at the bar, but confined himself to the business of chamber counsel, and to the investigation of legal questions submitted to him, or for his examination or decision, by the parties interested in such ques tions. In that branch of professional labor his legal talents and attain ments have been put in requisition by clients from nearly every part of the United States. In reference to the correctness of his adjudications while at the head of the most important equity court in the Union, and the character of Chancellor Walworth as a judge, we may say with the late Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University, that "never, perhaps, were so many decisions made where so few were inaccurate as to facts, or erro neous in law. If it was destined that the Court of Chancery should fall under a reform which apparently designs to obliterate the history as well as the legal systems of the past, it is a consolation to reflect that it fell without imputation on its purity or usefulness, and that no court was ever under the guidance of a judge purer in character or more gifted in talent than the last Chancellor of New- York." 3 34 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. JOHN C. CAMPBELL, M. D., PRESIDENT OF NORTH-WESTERN BANK OF VIRGINIA, WHEELING. JOHN C. CAMPBELL, of whom we propose to write a brief biographical sketch, is now past the meridian of life, and, though yet of unimpaired vigor both of body and mind, and in the active discharge of numerous and important public and private duties, has already passed through a career of usefulness and successful struggle with the difficulties of life, which may well be held up for the contemplation and encourage ment of the many in our country, who, as he was, are dependent upon their own exertions for their success. Success, though sometimes apparently flowing from the caprices of fortune, is, after all, the surest test of real merit ; and it is encouraging to every young man, who, repining not at the accidents of his birth, looks up with a trustful spirit to higher spheres of usefulness and fame, to know that others have gone before him with prospects no fairer than his own, and have triumphed. The success of others gives us confidence in ourselves. What they have done, we may do, and thus the example of those who have successfully trod any of the diversified paths of life becomes the mental heritage of every aspiring spirit, more valuable than houses or lands. It is the capital which plumes the pinions of hope the stock in trade which gives confidence to the mind when failure might else point to despair. The value of biography as a study for the young has always been highly appreciated ; but it has been too much the fashion to direct our young men to the lives of Plutarch rather than to the achievements of men in our own times. Not only is much of the moral force, which it is the peculiar advantage of biography to impart, lost by the purely ideal aspect in which the youthful imagination contemplates a Grecian sage or a Roman hero, but the spheres of distinction in which they were illustrious were so different from those to which men are now attracted, that very little either of wholesome incentive or needed en couragement can be derived from them. Great antiquity, far-off dis tance of time, invests the character of even a common mind with a glory beautiful as a picture, but no ways encouraging as an example. We look at them to admire, but not to imitate. In full harmony, therefore, not only with the spirit of the age, but no less with the wants of our nature, we are gratified to see a growing tendency towards the publica tion and study of a cotemporaneous biography ; not in a few depart ments of life only, but in every walk in which the human mind may usefully and honorably exert itself. Every pursuit needs the encour agement of successful examples, and it is in the hope of presenting one such, in addition to the many already before the public, that we record the following particulars in the life of Dr. Campbell : John C. Campbell was born in the County Tyrone, Ireland, in the year 1800. His parents were of a highly respectable class of people, and Presbyterians of the severest moral and religious character. Strict observers of every divine institution, the Sabbath-day was to them a JOHN C. CAMPBELL, OF VIRGINIA. 35 day of unbroken holiness. Like the Jews in the days of their purity, they did not allow themselves to think their own thoughts nor to speak their own words. Under the parental roof, therefore, John C., who was a younger son, was subjected to a discipline well calculated to inspire his mind with the purest principles of virtue, and if not to make him religious, at least to fill him with an abhorrence of vice. The awful sanctions of the Divine Justice, as descanted upon in the morning and evening instructions at the family altar, could not fail to fill him with a deep sense of its abstract excellence and value ; and the undeviating in tegrity of his parents in every moral and religious duty of life, early begot in him a feeling of earnestness and responsibility, which have been the prime secrets of his success through life. The impression was thus early made upon him insensibly, but indelibly made, that every man is designed for a part in life, and that it is the duty and highest honor of each to act his own part well. The utmost watchfulness was exerted to keep him from the evil influence of bad example, and his early years passed under the undoubting conviction that every body was as honest as his own parents, and that the whole world belonged to the church. But this state of seclusion and innocent ignorance was not allowed to continue. It happened that his oldest brother, who had been from home for some years engaged in mercantile pursuits, paid a visit to the paternal roof at the time of sacrament in the church to which his father belonged. This was an occasion of unusual solemnity, and it was with unfeigned surprise that John witnessed in his brother the absence of that serious reverence which he had been taught to ex pect of all men and everywhere on sach occasions, much more of his own father s son, and in his own father s house. His brother did not take of the sacrament, did not go to the church yea. was not even serious, but the rather merry, for he stayed at home and disturbed the solemn silence of the Sabbath with the merry tones of music ! Pie was holding communion with his flute, and regardless alike of the Sabbath and the fears of little John. In his eyes such license was no less than sacrilege; but it made him think it broke the spell of his narrow training, opened his eyes to a wider world than he had ever known of before, and awakened desires which ultimately brought him to the United States. His early education had been directed by his parents, in the hope that his mind might be inclined to the choice of the ministry as a pro fession. With this view, his classical and other studies had been com mitted to the private instructions of a cousin who was preparing for the ministry, and in this course of training he was contented to remain un til about the period already referred to. His tastes and disposition, however, were naturally un suited to such a career, and various incidents soon occurred to induce his parents to give a reluctant and almost con strained assent to a different coarse. The troubles on the continent, created by the successful but desolating ambition of Napoleon, were then agitating all Europe, and England was preparing herself for a cri sis which the wisdom of her statesmen foresaw to be inevitable. Both the army and navy called incessantly for recruits, and opened up a field for distinction and glory ever inviting to those ambitious of fame. The call did not fail to reach the subject of this memoir. A near rela- 36 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tion, who was a surgeon in the British navy, opened up to him the charms of naval life, and found it no difficult task to incite in him a de sire to enter the service as surgeon s mate. With this view he accompanied his cousin to London, and there en tered upon a course of anatomical and surgical studies under the lec tures and instructions of Surgeon Carpu. combined with the practical advantages of the Westminster Hospital, in which, at that time, Sir Astley Cooper was a regular lecturer. From these preparatory studies he passed to the Royal College of Dublin, and entered as a regular stu dent of the medical and surgical course in that institution. He had thus the most ample opportunities to thoroughly prepare himself for the profession to which he aspired, and his subsequent history proved how well he improved them. The course of events, however, gave a different direction to his fortunes. A single experimental voyage satis fied his thirst for naval life. The curtain was lifted from the realities of the life he must lead if he persisted in his purpose of prosecuting in the British navy the profession for which he had so energetically been preparing. The immoral and vulgar habits of the crew filled him with abhorrence and disgust. Human nature was here presented to him in forms so revolting to the principles of virtue, which had early been in stilled into his mind, that he drew back from the contact with almost instinctive dread. The charm which his young and ardent hopes had thrown around a seafaring life was broken, and he was, most willingly, ready to abandon the pursuit. Meantime, the triumph of the British arms at Waterloo had sent Napoleon into exile, and returning peace put an end alike to the pros pect of preferment and the demand for professional service. He was now fifteen years old, and, finding the career upon which he had entered with so much industry and hope cut short by the termination of the French Revo lution, he came to the United States to seek his fortune upon a theatre always open to merit, and where industry and perseverance seldom or never fail of their appropriate reward. Finding that the practice of medi cine is generally combined in this country with that of surgery, and hav ing in his previous studies, according to the custom of the profession in Great Britain, directed his mind almost exclusively to a preparation for the practice of the latter, he immediately entered upon a more thorough preparation for the practice of every branch of the healing art, and un der the special office instructions of Dr. M. Spaulding, of Amherst, N. H., was prepared to stand for the degree of M. D., which was regularly conferred upon him at the commencement of Dartmouth University, N. H., (now, as formerly, Dartmouth College,) in the year 1818. Up to this time he had been supplied with the necessary means for his support by his parents ; but these were now withdrawn. He was informed that, for the future, he must take care of himself. This an nouncement was unexpected as it was sudden, and we may well con ceive of its influence upon one so young, far from home and friends, a stranger, and alone in a strange land. Every true-minded man must have observed, periods in his life s history turning points, at which he was made to halt to review the past, and to calculate for the future They are the pauses which nature decrees for the gathering of fresh strength, that she may be prepared for another and higher step in life s JOHN C. CAMPBELL, OF VIRGINIA. 37 progress the moultings of the mind struggling into form for states of nobler being. Well for him who meets them with an earnest spirit, and takes his departure with a trustful heart and a noble aim ! It was so with Dr. Campbell. He felt the full measure of his responsibility as a man, and hesitated not as to his course. Though without the patronage of friends, he had resources within himself a native energy and integrity that could not falter, and a thorough acquaintance with his profession that could not but lead to success. The mighty valley of the Mississippi was then, as it still is, an inviting field for professional employment and distinction, and he resolved at once to make his way to its great emporium, the city of New-Orleans. Accordingly, he bade adieu to the few passing friends he had made at Amherst, and turned his face towards the West. On reaching Pittsburg, Pa., he learned that an opening for a young physician was about to occur in the town of Wells- burg, Va., some eighty miles below on the Ohio River, and concluded to avail himself of its advantages for a short time, that he might- be the better enabled to set himself up in New-Orleans. In the fall of 1818. therefore, and in the 18th year of his age, he offered his professional services, as a doctor of medicine, to the good people of Wellsburg and the surrounding country. The energy of his character, his decided adherence to honorable principles, his fearless reliance in his professional skill, and his thorough education in medical science, soon attracted to him a large share of public attention ; and it was not long till his successful treatment of disease began to secure to him an extensive and lucrative practice. A characteristic boldness and self-reliance in all cases, where his judgment was satisfied, could not fail to bring upon him more or less of that professional envy which always struts itself across the path of rising merit ; but this only served to increase his energy and urge him to more striking displays of his superior professional skill. Many characteristic anecdotes might be told, illustrative alike of his fearless confidence in the conclusions of medical science, and his skill in their application ; but the limits of this paper will not allow of their introduction here. His boldness and success, however, as a practical surgeon, claim a special notice. At the period to which we refer, this part of the medi cal profession was but very imperfectly understood and practised by western physicians, especially those in small towns and the country. The consequence was that many cases, perfectly in the control of scien tific skill, were allowed to go on to a fatal issue, and the patient given over to suffering and death. Such as these afforded a fine opportunity for displaying the prestige of superior science, and Dr. Campbell was not slow to avail himself of the advantage. Soon after he commenced practice, an aggravated case of strangulated hernia occurred. Mortifica tion of the part had taken place, and other circumstances of difficulty, which it is not necessary to detail, were manifested, so that the attend ing physician gave it up as irremediable. As is usual, however, in such eases, he called a consultation, less in the hope doubtless of strik ing out a remedy than in that of dividing the responsibility. Dr. Campbell, young, and stranger as he was, was invited to the consulta tion. The case was re-examined, and the general opinion given, that it was hopeless. Not so with the young graduate of Dartmouth ; 38 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. when asked for his opinion, he replied, " The man may be saved ;" and "how, sir," asked the attendant physician; "By an operation; treat it as a gun-shot wound, and remove the diseased part," was his prompt and unhesitating reply. This startling proposition was received with a doubting shake of the head ; but as the case was otherwise des perate, it was finally agreed upon. Still the attending physician would not consent to do the cutting ; none of the older members would un dertake it ; the disagreeable work, and the odium and disgrace, should the operation fail, as they expected it would, must fall upon the bold boy who had advised it. He saw the critical position into which he was thus brought, and knew well how much his future prospects depended upon the issue ; but his judgment was clear and his hand ready. The opera tion was performed in the presence of the oldest and most distinguish ed physicians of the country, by a boy of 19 ; and the patient lived many years to tell the story of his cure ! Other cases, scarcely less striking, and, to the backwoods people of that day, as unheard of before, in a short time spread his fame, far and near, and in a period less than that usually required by others for a fair commencement, Dr. Campbell was upon the full tide of professional success. In difficult cases, his services were sought for from great dis tances, and the utmost stretch of his physical endurance was taxed to meet the demand upon his professional assistance. He now concluded to abandon his original purpose of going to New- Orleans, and determined to permanently locate himself in the town of Wellsburg, Va. The extensive range of practice made it very labo rious, and it was not long till he saw that it presented but few higher trophies for his ambition than those he had already won ; besides, his natural disposition led him to desire that mental conflict, in which strong minds always delight, and the contests with disease did not and could not afford this. Under the promptings, therefore, of a mind confident of its ability, and thirsting for opportunities of more active and public display, he turned his thoughts to the law, not only as a more congenial profession, but also as affording a readier access to pre ferment of other kinds. Accordingly he commenced the study of the law, under the advice and instruction of the late Philip Doddridge, a gentleman distinguished for the highest elements of greatness, both as a lawyer and a statesman, and by the time he had reached his legal majority, was prepared for the practice. He was regularly admitted to the bar in the year 1821, and combined with the practice of medicine also that of the law. This double labor growing, in a short time, too much for one man to properly discharge, he associated with himself in the practice of medicine a young gentleman who had studied in his office, and thus was enabled to give more time to the profession of the law. Divided as his mind was, however, between law and medicine, he could not give to the latter that entire devotion of his powers which it requires in order to the highest success. Still, such was his native force of intellect, and the industry with which he prepared himself on his cases, that he soon rose to a high degree of eminence at the bar. His integrity and prompt attention to business, combined with the faithfulness with which he ever labored for his clients interest, secured for him a very liberal share of the practice, JOHN C. CAMPBELL, OF VIRGINIA. 39 and gave him a professional prominence equaled but by few of his contemporaries. Holding, as he now did, so high a place in the public confidence, he could not but participate in the political excitements of the day. He was a whig from principle, and from the commencement of his public life took an active part in the fortunes of his party. In 1824, the western part of the State of Virginia agitated the propriety of constitu tional reform, and a general convention was proposed to be held at Staunton, for consultation and concert upon several points deemed of primary importance in the fundamental law of the state. To this end pri mary meetings were called in the various counties, and the measures of proposed reform generally discussed before the people and delegates appointed to attend the convention called to be held in Staunton. In these primary movements, Dr. Campbell took an active and prominent part. The movement, though designed for no higher purpose than to excite the public mind and to form opinions into greater concert, was nevertheless deemed of the highest political importance, and therefore the ablest and most discreet men that could be found in the country were selected as delegates. In no state perhaps in the Union has there been greater reverence manifested for the constitutional law than in Virginia, and it was long a cherished doctrine of all parties, that none but the sagest statesmen ought to touch this sacred instrument. Under the influence of a sentiment like this were the delegates to the Staunton Convention selected, and it was no small evidence of the strong hold which Dr. Campbell had in the confidence of his county, that he was at so early an age chosen as a member to stand beside the distinguished lawyers and statesmen of Virginia in deliberations such as those which engaged that honorable body of patriots. The con vention met ; its report was thrown before the people, and in a few years its influence was developed in the call, by the legislature, of a convention to revise and amend the constitution of the state. This action of the legislature was received with enthusiasm by the western portion of the state, and gave rise to the most active measures for its accomplishment. Statesmen of the first ability were nominated for the important trust of delegates, and the most zealous exertions of friends and foes put forth for and against the various condidates. Dr. Camp bell, though not himself a candidate, took the most decided and active part in these contests, and distinguished himself for the zeal and ability with which he advocated the claims of his friends. In 18*29 he was appointed Commonwealth s Attorney for Brooke county, in the Superior Court, which office he held until the month of July, 1852. At this time, Dr. Campbell had removed from the county of Brooke, and the office of Commonwealth s Attorney having been made elective, he declined a contest for it, and it passed into other hands. In the discharge of the trust committed to him in this office, he showed himself, at all times and under all circumstances, the fearless and impartial advocate of the true spirit and intent of the law. In no instance would he prosecute, where the evidence did not clearly satisfy him of the offender s guilt. He regarded his office as that of a public guardian of the state, not simply as a hired prosecutor of the accused, and 40 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. it was, therefore, his practice, as it was his pleasure, to look upon those who were charged with offence against the laws as entitled to his impartial consideration, in virtue of their rights as citizens of the commonwealth, whose welfare was, in a measure, entrusted to his keeping. Under a spirit so enlarged, impartial and liberal as this, the law ceases to be a terror, save to the really guilty ; and the state, instead of being erected into an engine to oppress the people, becomes, as it should be, the in strument of the people s rights. In 1830, the new constitution of Virginia was adopted by the people, and delegates were chosen to provide for its practical administration. So many and radical were the changes from the former constitution, that nearly every department required to be remodeled and adapted to the new order of things. To aid in this difficult and important work, Dr. Campbell was. for the first time, brought before the people of Brooke, as a candidate for the Virginia house of delegates. Brooke county was at that time, as it has ever been, most decidedly democratic; but such was the public confidence in the ability and liberal patriotism of Dr. Campbell, that he was elected against democratic opposition, and in spite of a clear party majority of three or four to one against him. This was a triumph of no ordinary kind, and showed how unequaled was the influence he held over the confidence of his county. When the legislature met, in the winter of 1830, Dr. Campbell was placed upon the committee on courts of justice, one of the most im portant committees under the constitution, and soon distinguished him self for the zeal and industry with which he discharged the duties of his new and responsible position. His services and conduct during this session of the legislature met with the most cordial approval of his constituents, and he was again elected for the session of 1831 and 32. During this session the subject of slavery was forced upon the con sideration of the legislature, by one of the most horrid and alarming butcheries that has ever occurred in the history of that institution in Virginia. It will be remembered as the Nat. Turner insurrection, and was accompanied with such circumstances of savage ferocity, as filled the community with apprehension and alarm. The details are too fresh in the memory, to require more than a passing allusion here. Under the general exitement which ensued, all minds were turned to the serious consideration of some means whereby the state could be secured against the recurrence of evils so deadly, and which seemed in separably connected with the institution itself. The question was brought before the legislature, and agitated by the first patriots of Vir ginia of all parties, and from every portion of the state. In these movements Dr. Campbell fully sympathized, and when the proposition was brought forward to raise a committee to examine into the subject and report upon the practicability of a remedy, he gave it his warm and unreserved support. The motion, however, failed in a great mea sure through the obtrusive and ill-judged interference of northern abo litionists ; and the men who would then have been in favor of some system of gradual emancipation, are now driven, by a sense of duty to themselves, their families and the peace of the state, to assume the most decided opposition to all agitation of this vexed and difficult question. JOHN C. CAMPBELL, OF VIRGINIA. 41 Thus, to the presumptuous and infatuated intermeddling of fanatics from abroad, must we refer the present position of Virginia on the subject of slavery ! In 1832 and 33, Dr. Campbell was again returned as the delegate from Brooke, in which relation he continued to hold a high and com manding influence. During this session, the difficulty between the general government and South Carolina, one of the sovereign states of the Union, came to its decisive crisis. The tariff of 1828 had given rise to the Colleton addresses, in which the doctrine of " open resistance to the laws of the Union" was boldly avowed, and Gen. Hamilton had publicly declared that " a nullification of the unauthorized act was the rightful remedy." Still no decisive measures to carry out these alarm ing principles were taken till 1832. In May, 1832, congress again re vised the tariff, for the purpose, among others, of rendering some of its duties more agreeable to the southern states. The changes, however, were not satisfactory, and opposition now began to assume a more pointed and practical form. Mr. Calhoun, in a letter dated " Fort Hill, SOth July, 1832," declared that nullification was a peaceful remedy, and that it was necessary to the preservation of other powers. In the Octo ber following, the legislature of South Carolina passed an act calling a con vention of the people to consider the several acts of Congress on the sub ject of the tariff, to determine the character thereof, and to consider the means of redress. The convention met in November, and passed the celebrated ordinance of nullification. This was followed, on the 10th of December, by the no less celebrated proclamation of the President, Gen. Andrew Jackson, exhorting all persons to obey the laws, and de nouncing in clear and decisive terms the principles set forth in the ordinance of South Carolina. Thus, the general government and a sovereign state, after four years of exciting controversy, were at length in open defiance, and the whole Union was agitated with apprehension for the consequences. It was a crisis in the affairs of our country which apparently portended inevitable ruin : nothing short of the horrors of civil war and the pouring out of kindred blood, by those who were de scended from a common ancestry, seemed adequate to placate the in censed spirit of political strife. Resolutions were passed by most of the southern states, repudiating the doctrines of the South Carolina ordinance but to no purpose : the general government was deter mined to execute the laws, and South Carolina had declared that she would make her mountain passes " Thermopylaes of America." It was under these circumstances that the difficulties were brought before the legislature of Virginia. She, in common with South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, had, through her dele gates in Congress, voted against the tariff of 1828, and many of her people, and not a few of her able statesmen, now sympathized with South Carolina in her bold stand to resist the execution of its provisions The fiery crest of nullification raised itself in the halls of Virginia legis lation and claimed to revive and rally under the spirit of 1798. Bold defiance was thrown at those who might vindicate the sanction of the laws, and the issue was waited for with apprehension and alarm. All eyes were turned to Virginia, and it was generally conceded that her course would determine the fates of the controversy and decide for 42 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. peace or for war. In this perilous crisis of our affairs, when most men were too much excited to act with wisdom, who is not grateful to the statesmen who had the courage to stand up for the supremacy of the laws, and the wisdom and calmness to commend the milder measures of peace ! Foremost and conspicuous among these stood the subject of this memoir; and it must be one of the most gratifying recollections of his public life, to reflect that, though upon the constitutional ques tion involved, he was most decidedly with the government, yet he had the magnanimity and the honor to exert his best endeavors, and to con tribute, in no small degree, towards the adoption of those prudent and conciliatory measures, which are so well known to have opened the way to the final and peaceful adjustment of this fearful controversy. In the beginning of 1833, resolutions were passed by the Virginia legislature, commending Congress to modify the tariff; and South Carolina to re scind her ordinance. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, one of her most dis tinguished statesmen, was appointed commissioner to bear and urge these resolutions, and in a short time the difficulty was settled. Con gress did modify the tariff, and South Carolina rescinded her ordinance ; the ominous clouds of war were lifted from our heavens, and the stars of our Union were once more seen moving harmoniously on, each in its own glorious sphere ! During the three years that Dr. Campbell served the county of Brooke in the Virginia legislature, he exerted himself in every legitimate way to promote the interest and welfare of his constituents, and to no one, who ever served her in this relation is she more indebted for her pre sent advantages than to him. Through his influence, a branch of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia was established at Wellsburg, the coun ty seat of Brooke, and in honor of his exertions in procuring the charter, as well as from confidence in his abilities as a financier, he was ap pointed her first president. This office he continued to hold till after his removal to the adjoining county of Ohio, in 1849, when he was elected president of the mother bank, in the city of Wheeling, Va. Not only as her delegate in the Virginia legislature, but also as a citi zen at home, Dr. Campbell ever lent his best energies to develop the resources of his county and town. Various schemes of improvement and county policy whose good practical effects are now being enjoyed by his old constituents, originated with him. Not only was his head ready to devise, but his purse ever open to sustain and carry into operation plans for increasing the growth and strengthening the permanency of her prosperity. He contributed freely towards the improvement of the public roads and bridges ; to the establishment of lines for the trans portation of the mails ; to the encouragement of the manufacturing in terests in various forms; engaged in the practical pursuits of agriculture and wool-growing ; interested himself in the prosperity of the farmer, the miller, the merchant and the river trader ; devised plans for extend ing the blessings of education, and, in short, threw his decision, and energy, and clear mind, into every department of social life, where he saw an opportunity for promoting the general welfare. In 1836 he was married to a highly accomplished lady, a daughter of Bishop Alexander Campbell, President of Bethany College, Virginia, with whom he enjoyed for a few years the highest pleasures of domes- JOHN C. CAMPBELL, OF VIRGINIA. 43 tic happiness. During this period he withdrew altogether from the practice of medicine, except in the case of special friends, who solicited his advice. In 1838, he lost a lovely, and, at that time, his only child, and in 1839 his wife also died. Strong-minded and self-relying as he had always been, these were calamities beneath which he bowed with almost insupportable heaviness. His domestic affections, naturally strong, and weaned, as they were, from all earthly relationships, save those of his own fireside, had been concentrated upon these with an absorbing intensity which but few can feel, and when these were taken away, the interest of life seemed to depart with them. His health gave way under the affliction, and in 1840 he embarked on a voyage for the West Indies. For several years after his return, though he con tinued the practice of law, he sp ent the greater portion of his time in the country, and gave a large share of his attention to the management of his extensive farms and numerous flocks. In 1844 he was again married to Mrs. Vance, a daughter of the late Samuel Sprigg, a dis tinguished lawyer of Wheeling, and is now enjoying, on his farm near that city, the rewards of a well-spent life, in the midst of opulence, and those sweet domestic comforts which his gifted lady and a promising family of children throw around the hearth of his home. Dr. Campbell is now in the 52d year of his age, and is still engaged in the most active pursuits of private and public life, being still the president of the Northwestern Bank of Virginia, and one of the largest and most successful growers of fine wool in the United States. His habits of unwearying industry, combined with the high power which distin guishes him, of concentrating all his mental energies upon whatever business he has in hand, have enabled him, beyond most men in life, to carry forward to successful issues every enterprise to which he has given his personal attention, whilst the good principles of his early and paren tal training have ever shielded him from the temptations of a life, full of exposures too strong for most men, left, early as he was, without friend or fortune, to battle with -the world. As a physician, the character of Dr. Campbell may be sufficiently in ferred from what we have already written. His acquaintance with the science was thorough, and his popularity and success unequaled. As a lawyer, though from the other numerous engagements of his mind, he had not the time for that extensive reading which is essential to the highest eminence, he was, nevertheless, a very successful practitioner. His high moral character, his fairness and frankness in the conduct of his cases, the clearness of his judgment, the elaborate and practical common-sense ex positions which he gave of the subject, and the faithfulness and promptness with which he watched over every interest entrusted to his management, constituted the principal features of his character as a practitioner at the bar. His example served to give dignity and tone to the profession, and was a standing reproof of the pettifogging spirit which is too gene rally in the ascendant in newly-settled countries. As a speaker, he was not so eloquent as strong. Forcibleness was written upon every thing he did, and, next to the clearness of his judgment, and that happy equipoise of powers which led him almost intuitively to correct conclu sions upon whatever subject was submitted to him, was the blasting power of his sarcasm. Altogether fearless of consequences, and naturally pos- 44 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. sessed of the strongest feelings of indignation, he spared neither epithet nor trope, to utter the scorn and abhorrence he felt for chicanery and vice in all their forms, and no matter by whom exhibited. As a financier, Dr. Campbell s views are liberal and enlarged, and his policy prudent and generous. Under his management, moneyed cor porations are relieved of much of the odium which usually attaches to them, and enjoy not only the trade but the confidence and respect of the public. As a politician, he has ever been a prominent and a leading Whig, and even when his party has not been in the ascendant, he has freely lent his influence and his aid in questions involving the common welfare. Sincerely attached to the Union, and convinced of the in estimable importance of its preservation, he has ever watched over its fortunes with the most patriotic concern, and, even when not in such political stations as to officially participate in the deliberations of her great statesmen, he has ever labored to hold up their hands and sus tain them in their efforts by his influence with the people. In his views of constitutional law, he is of the school of Chief Justice Mar shall and Story, with whose political principles on this subject he be came, very early in life, fully imbued. Adopting, ex animo, the doctrines of these great expounders of constitutional law, he fully ap proved of the stand taken by the President in the difficulty with South Carolina, to which w r e have already referred, and justified, as the proper constitutional ground, the position taken in the proclamation. Still, with the true spirit of enlarged patriotism which animated the noblest friends of the Union on that trying occasion, he raised the voice for peace, and, with his principles unchanged, united in commending mea sures of mutual concession and compromise. As a citizen, Dr. Campbell holds a position which but few ever reach. No man, perhaps, who has attained to a high standing among his con stituents ever did less than he for the purpose of courting popularity. His motives have ever been lofty and patriotic, and his mind of that self-relying and independent stamp which goes forward towards the accomplishment of its ends, for their own sake because it sees they are wise and good and does not stop to inquire what other people think of them or of him. This is characteristic of every man of com manding influence. He acts with reference to a good end, nor. when he has acted, does he pause to gather up his reward of human praise. He leaves the action to speak for itself, and goes about something better, anticipating the wants of the community, and jostling others in their old conceits, with a rudeness by no means agreeable. And herein consists his character, and the key to its influence. He asks not nor seeks favor of the people, but the people have learned to expect service from him. They see that his work is already in the line of their in terest in fact, work for them, and they bid him work on. They look to him as their exponent ; they ask him to represent them, because they see that he knows their wants in the case better than they themselves. Thus is character greater than deeds ; what a man does in the form of recordable service is not a just measure of his moral and citizen power. He is, in his influence, in his character, more than his individual achievements, and his mind and his energy can only be estimated in the life they beget in the wide circle over which they radiate. We JOHN C. CAMPBELL, OF VIRGINIA. 45 feel, therefore, in this hasty sketch, which we have given of the public career of Dr. Campbell, that we have produced but a very imperfect idea of his real character, but it is all that the circumstances justify us in attempting. A word or two more, and we shall conclude. We have not pre tended to give anything concerning the private character and standing of Dr. Campbell, because it would have been traveling out of the special design of this paper to have done so. Still, we beg indulgence, while we gratify a personal feeling of our own, in saying a word of his character as a gentleman and a friend. In these respects the writer of this article would not, perhaps, be considered an impartial witness ; yet, if to have known him long and intimately, both in his public re lations, and in his private, social, and domestic life, be a sufficient quali fication to speak on this head, then may he testify with full confidence. We speak both from observation and experience, when we say, that it is in these points that are found not only the noblest but the strongest elements of his nature. But few men have had truer and more de voted friends than Dr. Campbell has always formed for himself where- ever he has been intimately known. The sentiment of friendship with him partakes much of that high nobility to which the Roman orator arid philosopher so beautifully refers, in his treatise de amicitia, and im parts an interest to him as a man which commands at once the admira tion and esteem of his associates. Of course, it cannot be promiscuous, but is confined to such kindred spirits as are not only worthy of, but can also reciprocate the honorable affection which he himself feels. For such, however, his respect and esteem are unreserved and entire. He does not see, or seeing, has not the heart to notice a fault in one whom he admits as a friend. Towards others he is generous ; with a friend, he is more than fraternal ; in promiscuous society his manners, though free, are blunt, and too readily sarcastic ; but in the fireside circle of congenial companions, he is familiar, easy, good-natured, and humorous. He reverences only what he truly admires, and can love no one whose character he does not really respect. With these high sentiments, which must ever ennoble the man who cherishes them, Dr. Campbell has won for himself many a warm and devoted friend, both in his public and private relations ; and when, a few years ago, he left Wellsburg, the town of his early adoption, to be come a citizen of Wheeling, all parties and conditions united in ex pressing their regrets that her most tried and valued friend had left her. But his public services are permanently recorded in her institu tions and her growth, and his friendships still live in the hearts of her best citizens. May he long enjoy them, and yet live many years to add much to the well-earned fame which already gathers around his name ! 46 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMET.ICAN3. GENERAL JACOB GOULD, PRESIDENT OF THE FARMERS AND MECHANICS BANK, ROCHESTER, NEW-YOTilf, WAS born in Boxford, Essex county, Massachusetts, on the 10th day of February, 1794. His father, Capt. Jacob Gould, was a native of the same town. His grandfather, of the same name and place, was lieuten ant of the militia in said town, in the American Revolution, and was oc casionally on duty. His mother was a Peabody, from the adjoining town of Middleton, in which and in Danvers, and the now city of Salem, reside many of the same name, having descended from the same an cestry ; some of whom are extensively known as most successful as well as honorable in the commercial world. The subject of this brief sketch lived with his parents, who were poor but respectable, on the old farm hallowed by having descended from father to son, where naught new was allowed to come ; indeed, the whole town was filmed for its at that time called stability ; it had no public house, no justice of the peace, and for years and years not a law suit, small or great, amongst its inhabitants. Squire Perly, as he was called, represented the town in general court, Boston, for nineteen years in succession ; in the twentieth year, when a young man of forty was elected in his place, an excitement was produced such as had never been experienced by the oldest inhabitants. The schools were of the ordinary class of Massachusetts country schools, kept three months \n winter by a man, the same time in summer by a woman. To these the subject of this sket2h went when his labor on the farm could be con veniently dispensed with. When twelve years of age, he had permis sion from his father to labor for a neighbor eight days in the fall, doing the work of a man for the wages of a boy, viz : a shilling per day, Massachusetts currency. With this money he bought Morse s geo graphy, which had in it two maps, the world and North America. This was at the time considered extravagant, and caused great jealousy when it was taken to school with one other, to unite with the art of reading a knowledge of the world. The next year a similar process brought forth Perry s dictionary, which constituted quite a library. At the age of sixteen it was deter mined he should learn the shoemaker s trade, and for this purpose a bargain was made to serve a year with a man living about a mile from his father s, the Sabbaths to be spent at home during the year. His master being exacting, he had no opportunities for improvement except in his trade : in this he was quite successful ; the last week of school in his district he was, however, permitted to attend, at the request of the teacher, (now the Hon. Benjamin A. Gould, of Boston, then seventeen years of age, whose great success afterwards as a teacher in Boston is well known,) and take part in the examination. The year after, he was hired to a man near the centre of the parish, to work at his trade and tend a small West India goods store in the absence of his principal. The succeeding year he worked at his trade, except occasionally as sisting on the farm. During the winter he attended school, which was JACOB GOULD, OF NEW-YORK. 47 taught by a respectable but unqualified teacher. Soon after this, he was afflicted with a severe cold, which so alarmed the family that further labor at his trade was abandoned. During the following season, 1812, he spent three months at West Bradford Academy, renowned the world over as the school where Harriet Atwood, afterwards Harriet Newell, Miss Hazeltine, Mrs. Judson, were instructed, with many other choice, kindred spirits. Here also the subject of this biography first resolved to serve the Lord. The succeeding winter, 1812-13, he taught school ; the one after, 1814, in his native district ; his third and last winter in Massachusetts as a teacher, Mr. Gould instructed in the village of East Bradford, where he became acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Perry, D. D., the clergyman of the parish, who had spent a year at Union College, Schenectady, a.s tutor, and by whose advice, in the spring of 1815, being twenty-one years of age, he took the journey to Albany without friends or associ- ates, literally alone, with a letter from Dr. Perry to the Hon. Gideon Hawley, then Superintendent of Common Schools for the State of New- York. With a letter from Superintendent Hawley, Mr. Gould proceeded west, intending to go into the interior, as far as Utica, seeking em ployment as a teacher. On arriving at Schenectady, he was invited by the Rev. J. Mabon, who had charge of Union College Grammar School, to stay over and visit the president and professors of the college, and, at their request, he took charge of the English department in said school, at his own risk as to pay, charging a reasonable tuition. Here he continued to teach with good success for four years the last three in connection with the Rev. D. H. Barnes, afterwards a prominent teacher in the City of New-York, whose untimely death numerous friends and an affectionate family will never cease to mourn. Owing to some misunderstanding between the trustees and teachers, Mr. Barnes went to New- York and Mr. Gould to Rochester, a small but promising village of ten or twelve hundred inhabitants, situated on feoth sides of the Genesee River, at its falls the east side being the county of Ontario, the west side the county of Genesee. The business of teaching being abandoned for the more active em ployment of merchandising, he went into the business of manufactur ing and selling boots and shoes. This was continued for more than twenty years, connected with an extensive wholesale trade in leather, &c., to as great, if not greater extent, than any other establishment in Western New- York. Occasionally he was honored with office his military career was of a character peculiar to those times. In 1824 he was elected captain, of a nearly lifeless artillery company, but as he never intended to do things by halves, he, by his energy, revived the spirits of those already enlisted, which had the effect to encourage others, so that a handsome company was soon the result. Some difficulty the winter following, at a court-martial, caused an application to the adjutant-general for a division of the regiment, which was promptly made. The subject of this sketch was elected colonel. The same process in another quarter caused a division of the brigade ; before the colonel s 48 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. commission arrived he was duly elected brigadier-general, and in that capacity appeared before a regiment the same fall. The winter following, a major-general had to be appointed by the governor and senate. Here a principle had to be settled causing no little trouble. The subject of this sketch was a few days the senior brigadier, and had held a commission but a little over a year, while the junior brigadier was an old officer of more than twenty years service, and claimed the appointment from Governor Clinton and the senate on this account ; it was settled, however, and has since been referred to as a precedent, governing subsequent action in similar cases, that Mr. Gould was entitled to the appointment, which he received, going from a citizen to that of major-general of artillery in less than two years. In 1829 he was appointed, by President Jackson, collector of the customs for the district of Genesee, and re- appointed ; and again ap pointed by President Van Buren. Soon after this he resigned the office to attend with more diligence to his private affairs. In 1836 he was elected president of the Rochester City Bank; held the office two years, and then resigned. Subsequently, when some diffi culty arose in said institution, he was invited to its presidency again, which office he held until all trouble was past. He was twice elected mayor of the city of Rochester, which was incorporated in 1834. In 1845, unexpectedly to himself and friends, he was appointed U. S, Marshal for the Northern District of New- York by President Polk, which office he held four years. To show the energy w T ith which these duties were performed, it may be stated, that there were more convictions for counterfeiting coin, rob bery of the mails, etc., during his term, than for twenty years previous. In his duties he was ably sustained by the court, and especially by Judge Allen, of Oswego, the U. S. District Attorney, and George W. Clinton, Esq., of Buffalo, his successor in office. At present he is the financial officer of the Farmers and Mechanics 1 Bank of Rochester, a bank under the general banking Jaw of the state. The difference between the subject of this sketch and many others, has been a perseverance in whatever was undertaken, until all obstacles were overcome, and success complete. His first political efforts were to sustain his most esteemed friend, Governor Clinton, in 1820, and afterward until his death. After that mournful event, with untiring energy he labored to elect Gen. Jackson to the presidency. He recollects being in Portsmouth, N. H., in the summer of 1826, visiting, when he announced himself as a Jackson man. The next day he was introduced as such by his friends, as a cu riosity in those parts, being the first known. He has cordially sup ported the democratic party, and always received the confidence of his political friends of both high and low standing, which confidence has never been abused for selfish or improper purposes. Socially, the subject of this sketch has been proverbially affectionate and kind. Being the second child and oldest son, much responsibility rested upon him in early life, on account of a lameness of his father, occurring from an accident, when the subject of this sketch was only- eight years old. RICHARD HAZEN AYER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 4$ He married, at the age of twenty-two. Ruby Swan, of North Ando ver, Massachusetts, with whom he lived happily twenty-four years. She was then called to that <; bourne from which none return." She left three children, two daughters and a son, all of whom are eligibly con nected and settled. He married again, in 1847, Miss Sarah T. Seward, principal of the Seward Female Seminary, in Rochester, by whom he has had three children. His labors and efforts have not been confined to his own family and relatives. For many of these he has done much ; but he has educated, and helped to educate many, and also to establish the deserving in business. In all these efforts a desire to do good has been apparent, and results might be cited showing that these labors have not been in vain. In religion, the subject of this sketch has been always decided. He united with the Presbyterian Church in Schenectady in 1817 ; was su perintendent of the Female Sabbath School just established in that city, and afterwards in Rochester ; was for a number of years an active elder in, and still continues his connection with, the First Presbyterian Church in Rochester, to which he took a letter when he left Schenectady, in 1819. At that time it was the only church of any denomination in Rochester ; now there are nearly or quite one hundred. He built, in 1825, the first good dwelling-house, and is now living in the same, in Rochester, that has been suffered to remain and occupied by its owner and builder in a city of now over forty thousand inhabitants. What progress ! what improvement ! from a wilderness to a beautiful city in a little over a quarter of a century ! The times are portentous. What is now done in minutes formerly took days, and even weeks, to accomplish. The subject of this sketch has taken part in the improvements as they passed has been connected with most of them, and still continues to apply himself as steadily and perseveringly as in his youth : it is his habit. How necessary that early habits be correct ! Learn to assume responsibility in youth, then it will become easy in riper years, and in old age not be a burthen. As a man and a citizen his character is above reproach. His cheer ful disposition and courteous manners endear him to a large circle of acquaintances. As a husband and father he possesses the deep affection of his family. HON. RICHARD HAZEN AYER, PRESIDENT OP THE AMOSKEAG BANK, MANCHESTER, NEW-HAMPSHIRE. IT is one of the beauties of our government, that it acknowleges no hereditary rank or title no patent of nobility save that of nature ; leaving every man to establish his own rank, by becoming the artificer of his own fortune. Places of honor and trust, rank and preferment, being thus happily placed before every individual, high or low, rich or 4 50 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. poor, to be strived for by all, but earned alone by perseverance ancl sterling worth, are most always sure to be filled with deserving men, or by those, to say the least, who are possessed of energy and talent. Every man, as it were, being thus a candidate for the highest offices that are the objects of the elective franchise, has an incentive to action to attain every acquirement within his reach that shall in any way ex pand his mind or improve his understanding, and these make him de serve well of his friends and become useful to the community. This principle leads to the happiest results. It is this principle that lies at the foundation of our success in the great experiment of self- govern ment by the people ; and which, in the short period of three quarters- of a century, has made our nation the astonishment or admiration of the nations of the earth. Had not this principle been part and parcel of our constitution, or had the tenure of our public offices been hereditary, or for life even our government would still have retained the swad dling clothes of puerile infancy, instead of attaining the strength and beauty of stalwart manhood ; or would have become the mere append age of some family of rank and fortune, to be governed by the whims and caprices of the accidental heir of its wealth and imbecility. Thanks to the wisdom self-denial of our revolutionary worthies, for the incorporation of this truly wise and republican principle into our glorious constitution. Nowhere is this principle so fully developed as in the New-England states, or in that section of them remote from closely populated and wealthy towns and cities. In large towns and cities, where wealth con centrates in the hands of the few, or where the facilities are afforded for accumulating large fortunes, power is in the hands of the few, and the control of public affairs is often confined to the narrow circle of families or classes ; but in the country towns of those states, where wealth is more generally diffused, and the concentration of great wealth in a sin gle family is of rare occurrence there the principle of which we speak is fully developed ; and generally a man s success in life depends upon his own merit, his energy, and his talents. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the northern states of New- England, Maine, New-Hampshire and Vermont. Occasionally in those states " shoots of old stocks" may be found, high in public confidence, shining lights in the bar, the pulpit, and the legislative hall ; but generally the destinies of these states, for weal or for woe, are in the hands of that efficient class of men, called by Cicro, new men; or, in other words, men who have made themselves ; men who, without the advantages of birth or the assistance of friends, solely through their own resources of energy and talents, have made a deep-lined mark in the community in which they live, and have won an enviable position among their fellow-men. At the present writing, we have in our minds eye scores of men scattered over these states, who, under this fostering principle of our glorious constitution, unaided and alone, save by their own energy, enterprise and talents, and such friends as these are sure to make, stand in the highest rank of public confidence, can command any place within the gift of their fellow- citizens ; and who will leave behind them names associated with the noblest qualities of man. RICHARD HAZEN AYER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 51 Such a man is the Hon. Richard H. Ayer, of Manchester, N. H. Richard Hazen Ayer was born at Concord, N. H., January 12, 1778. His father, Richard Ayer, moved to Concord in 1777, from Haverhill, Mass., being the son of Samuel Ayer, a respectable yeoman of that ancient town in the Bay State. About the time of his removal to Con cord, Mr. Ayer was united in marriage with Miss Susannah Sargent, grand-daughter of the Rev. Christopher Sargent, of Methuen. Mass., by whom she had been adopted and educated, her mother having died in her infancy. In Concord, following his trade of tanner and currier, and purchasing lands as they came into market for cultivation thus uniting the callings of mechanic and farmer he soon became independent in circumstances ; and by his habits of industry and integrity, secured the confidence of his fellow-citizens. Though often solicited, he generally declined being a candidate for public office ; yet he served the town re- ^spectably as selectman in 1797 and 1798, and as representative in 1815 and 1816. His children were eleven in number ; of which, Samuel, a respectable physician of Eastport, died November 11, 1832 ; Susan, the wife and widow of the late Governor Hill, now lives at Concord ; Elizabeth, wife of Richard Beadley, Esq., now resides at Concord also ; Mary, wife of J. T. Williams, Esq., resides in the same town ; and Charlotte, wife of W. Williams, Esq., now resides at Portsmouth. Richard Hazen Ayer, the subject of this memoir, is the oldest of the family. At the age of fourteen he went into the yard of his father and took his chance as an apprentice. In this position he continued three years, working early and late, and enjoying but scanty opportunities for schooling. In the eighteenth year of his age, an accident occurred, that, though distressing at the time, and the source of much pain and anxiety for many months ; yet, in the end, changed his entire plan of life, and was the real source of a long life of prosperity and usefulness. His father often purchased the fat beeves of the neighboring towns for slaughter, and thus made a double profit by selling their meat, and se curing their hides at a reduced price, for his tan-vats. Young Ayer having been sent into the west part of the town to purchase cattle, in getting over a fence, jumped down upon a small stone and dislocated a bone in his right ancle. He succeeded in purchasing his cattle, and getting them home, but not without much pain and difficulty. A phy sician was called, but his limb grew worse under his care, and finally the young man passed the winter hobbling about the village upon crutches, with the prospect of being a cripple for life. In this situation, after months of suffering, he happened into the store of Jacob Abbott, Esq., who advised him to visit Andover, Mass., and put himself under the care of the celebrated Dr. Thomas Kittredge of that town. Said the good old man, "go down to Andover, and put your self under his care ; it will take some time to cure you, but then he ll do it, and while he is curing your limb you can go to the academy and get a good education ; and, young man, the injury to your limb will be the best thing that ever happened to you." The thing was talked over, and in the following spring young Ayer went to Andover, got encouragement from. Dr. Kittredge as to the pro bability of curing his limb ; made arrangements to put himself under his care, and spent the summer at Andover, attending the academy under 52 SKETCHES OF EMXNENT AMERICANS. Mr. Newman, during the week ; and on Saturday, constantly riding over to see Dr. Kittredge, and receive his attention to his crippled limb. Thus he spent four months ; at the end of which time, he had so far re covered from his lameness, as to be able to walk without crutches, and at the same time, had laid the foundation of a good business education. The following winter he spent in the store of Mr. Towne, of Hop- kinton, as an accountant. In the spring he had so far recovered his strength as to resume the business of his father, and he continued with him until his majority, when he went in foreman of the establishment, vrith the privilege of stocking certain vats on his own account. At the end of a year he was appointed a deputy by Gen. George Reid, of Lon donderry, sheriff of Rockingham county. This was a situation well calculated to develop his business capacities, and at the same time was a profitable one, as there was no other deputy in the west end of Rock ingham county, and a large and increasing population. He continued as deputy until 1807, having been deputized by Judge Peabody, of* Exeter, who succeeded Gen. Reid in 1805 as sheriff of Rockingham county. At this time, the lawyers who did the leading business in that sec tion were Samuel Green, of Concord, and Daniel Webster, of Bosca- wen, and it was there that Mr. Ayer secured the friendship of Mr. Webster, so pleasantly continued to the present time. In 1806 he was one of four contractors who built the bridge across the Merrimack, at " Isle of Hooksett Falls," and eight miles of the road from that place to Concord, for the Londonderry Turnpike Corporation. This, for those days, was a great undertaking, and during its comple tion Mr. Ayer was much upon the line of the road. This gave him op portunities to become acquainted with the capabilities of the regions of country about " Isle of Hooksett Falls," and his sagacity led him to determine upon settling at that place. His friends endeavored to dis suade him from his determination, but without avail ; and in the sum mer of 1807 he took up his residence on the west side of the Merri mack, at the foot of " Isle of Hooksett Falls," in the town of Dumbarton. In February of the same year he had married Miss Mary Green, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Colonel Peter Green, who had been a lawyer of great respectability at Concord, who married, for his second wife, Rebecca, a daughter of the Rev. John Mellen, of Hanover, Mass., by whom he had five children Mrs. Ayer being the fourth child. John B. Green, an eminent banker of Paris, lately deceased, was the second son. Mrs. Ayer is a specimen of the sterling wife ever attentive to the interests of her husband, and at the same time making his abode one of pleasure after the perplexities of business, and ever one of agreeable and substantial hospitality to their numerous friends. The fruits of this marriage were two daughters, Susan Rebecca, the wife of Dr. Enoch B. Barnes, a lady of much literary taste, and who died at the residence of her father, July 8th, 1852 ; and Mary Green, the wife of Dr. Amos G. Gale, a distinguished physician of Manchester. At the " Isle of Hooksett" Mr. Ayer soon obtained a lucrative busi ness, and entered largely into the lumber trade, his position proving a most favorable one for prosecuting the same to advantage and profit. In 1808 he was first commissioned as a justice of the peace for Hills- RICHARD HAZEN AYER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 53 borough county, in which office he has been continued in the various counties in which he has resided until the present time, having been for the last fifteen years a justice of the peace and of the quorum through out the state. *His business capacity socn attracted attention, and in 1810, though at the extreme line of the town, he was chosen a repre sentative from Dunbarton, and represented that town for seven years in the legislature. In the House he attained a commanding influence, his opinions ever being formed with judgment and supported by sound sense. Of the democratic party, he was yet tolerant of others views ; and thus, while a stern leader in his own party, he yet commanded the respect of those of opposite views. In 1816 he was chosen an elector of President and Vice-President of the United States, the Electoral Col- lege, with the venerable Captain Thomas Manning as its chairman, throwing its votes for James Monroe. In 1817 he was returned to the Council from the county of Hillsbo- rough, succeeding Gen. Benjamin Pierce, who had been appointed sheriff of the county, and being in the Council of Governor Plumer. He was elected to the Council for five successive years, the last four being of the Council of Governor Samuel Bell. He brought to the council board the prime qualities of decision, sound judgment, and unbending in tegrity qualities which have marked his course through life. His intercourse with Governor Bell resulted in a project long in his mind- that of the improvement of the " Isle of Hooksett Falls" as a water- power for manufacturing purposes. In 1823, in company with Gov ernor Bell, John Bell, and Isaac Hill, he commenced arrangements for building a large cotton factory at these Falls, which was completed in 1824, at an expense of $80,000. This was then one of the best and largest factories in the state. In June of 1822, principally through the exertions of Mr. Ayer, the town of Hooksett was incorporated out of territory comprised in the towns of "Chester, Goffstown, and Dunbarton, which three towns each made an angle near the " Isle of Hooksett Falls." At the March election following, he was chosen representative and chairman of the board of selectmen of the new town, which last office he held for seven successive years. While a member of the house from Hooksett in 1823, the new county of Merrimack was formed, and Governor Woodbury made Mr. Ayer the high-sheriff of the new county He held this office until the close of the term in 1828, when the government of the state being in the hands of his political opponents, one of their number was appointed his successor. The loss of office was to him no disappointment, as his extensive business required more of his immediate personal supervision. But he did not long remain in retirement, as, upon the commence ment of the new national administration, Gen, Jackson tendered him the office of naval store-keeper at the Navy Yard at Portsmouth, which he was induced to accept, as it would give him. rest from the turmoil of active business. He removed to Portsmouth in 1829, and entered upon the duties of his office, which he held for eight years, during the administration of Gen. Jackson. During his residence at Portsmouth, he received many 54 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. marks of the confidence of its citizens. lie was chosen chairman of the board of selectmen ; chairman of the committee to build the new alms- house, and during his entire residence was an efficient member of some board for the transaction of the affairs of the town. At the same time he entered earnestly into the private interests of the place, and the city of Portsmouth owes it mainly to his public spirit and enterprise, that she can boast one of the most substantial and best appointed hotels in the country, the splendid " Rockingham House," having been first started by a few individuals, who saw the need of a first-class hotel, of whom Mr. Ayer was first and foremost. At length, in 1837, he resigned the office of naval store-keeper, and returned to Hooksett, to resume the cultivation of his farm, and to pur sue a less exciting course of life. But a life of inactivity to such a man is impossible; and Mr. Ayer soon found himself as actively engaged is bu siness as ever. It was about the time of the germination of the " Spindle City" of Manchester ; and a proposition having been made, and accept ed, to merge the stock of the Hooksett factory in that of the Amoskcag Company at Manchester, Mr. Ayer found his interests at once blended with one of the largest corporations in New- England. Of course it was a capital investment ; but aside from this direct advantage, the connection conferred upon him still greater indirect advantages. As the result of his foresight, he was the owner of immense tracts of wild lands in Hooksett and its neighborhood, and an inexhaustible deposit of clay. The latter had been purchased by the late Judge Blodgett, who first im proved the hydraulic power at " Amoskeag Falls," and constructed a canal about the same, for the express purpose of furnishing bricks for a future, city of Manchester. Judge Blodgett lived a half century be fore his time, and did not see the consummation of his sanguine specu lations. But Mr. Ayer, with equal sagacity, entertained the same opinion with Judge Blodgett, that the " Amoskeag Falls" must of ne cessity be occupied for manufacturing purposes, and give rise to a large manufacturing town ; held on to his clay and woodlands, and thus was able to supply the immediate and pressing demand for bricks raised by the building up the city of Manchester. The result has been the addi tion of a handsome sum to an already ample fortune. But the result has not been for his benefit alone ; others have come in freely for its advantages. The cutting and hauling the wood for burning ; the making and boating to Manchester, a distance of eight miles, of from one million to four millions of bricks annually, for the last fifteen years, have given employment to a large number of men; and Mr. Ayer is no niggard of prices to men who do his work faithfully. In 1840, he was again returned to the legislature from Hooksett, and also in 1841-2. About this time he commenced investing largely in real estate in Manchester, and finally, in 1845, he took up his residence in that city. In 1848, he was chosen a member of the Electoral College, and, upon organization, was chosen its president, which cast its votes for Gov ernor Cass for president. And here we would remark, that few men can preside over any public body with more aptitude or dignity than Mr. Ayer. Ready, self-possessed, with a fine commanding person, he makes a pattern presiding officer. RICHARD HAZEN AYER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 55 In December of 1848, upon the organization of the " Amoskeag Bank," Mr. Ayer was made its president, which office he still most ac ceptably holds. In 1850, he was chosen, from the city of Manchester, a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state. In this body he was a most efficient member, ever favoring the incorpora tion of the most liberal provisions into that instrument. By his straightforward, judicious and liberal course, he won the re spect of all and the esteem of most of that convention. Professor Sanborn, of Dartmouth College, a member of that convention, and a political opponent, in sketching the characters of its most prominent members, thus spoke of Mr. Ayer : " One of the oldest men in the convention was Richard H. Ayer, of Manchester. He has been much in public life, and has exerted a powerful influence in the politics of New-Hampshire for the last forty years. He has been in his day a man of commanding eloquence, strong in debate and energetic in action. He was very appropriately denominated by Joel Eastman, the Ajax Telamon of the democratic party in the convention. In past years, he has undoubtedly espoused and advocated the particular policy of that party with great warmth and power. He is now in the winter of life. His passions are subdued, but his judgment is mature. He showed, in all his votes and speeches, an unwonted liberality of sentiment. He evidently aimed at justice and equality in the measures he advocated, rather than the success of the party of which he was an honored member. In this assembly, his recorded votes and opinions publicly expressed do honor both to his head and heart." This is his last public office, as Mr. Ayer has frequently expressed the wish to his friends to keep entirely free from public business of any kind, wishing to secure that freedom from cares his advanced age so peremptorily demands. This is the more to be desired, as the care of a large estate still demands his continued attention, and receives it with a punctuality and directness that should be an example to men of business, his junior by many years. In person, Mr. Ayer is above a medium height, with a strong, well- knit frame, capable of great endurance in middle age; and now, although inclined to corpulency, and in the very " sear and yellow leaf of life," still active and capable of much service ; a broad and expanded forehead, a full blue eye and a wide full face, in which the predominant reading is benevolence most strikingly illustrated by the charities of a long life. For no man in New-Hampshire can better have judged of the truth of that saying, " It is more blessed to give than to receive." No charitable enterprise, deserving his patronage, appeals unsuccessfully to his open purse ; no unfortunate but deserving indivi dual goes unsatisfied from his door ; while his continual kindness of feeling prompts him to the bestowal of those unasked but equally de serving, and often more charitable alms, which, " unseen of men," yet sure in their effect, bring comfort to the afflicted,, relief to the unfortu nate, and to the giver, the blessing of HIM who took note of the mitt of the " poor widow," because bestowed in the pure spirit of charity. Such is a brief sketch of Hon. Richard Hazen Ayer a self-made man in every sense of the word ; an example of that sentiment of the great feet, that " worth makes the man," so happily recognized and guaran tied by our glorious constitution. 56 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. HON. JOSEPH M. HARPER, PRESIDENT OF MECHANICS BANK, CONCORD, NEW-HAMPSHIRE. THE subject of this memoir was born in Limerick, Maine, on the 21st of June, A. D., 1787, and of the independence of the United States of America, the eleventh. At that early period of our country s history, the sources of wealth were not sufficiently developed to afford the new settlers those comforts and conveniences of life which are at this era of national prosperity so widely diffused, and so abundantly enjoyed by millions of intelligent and happy freemen. The father of Joseph M. was a farmer in comfortable, but not afflu ent circumstances, and with a family of ten children depending upon him for support and maintenance, found it impossible to afford them other than very limited privileges of obtaining education. Joseph M. was consequently employed in labor on the farm from the beginning of the spring to the latter part of the autumn months ; and in the winter, tending the stock and driving a lumber team to Portland, Saco, and Kennebunk, seaport towns, about twenty-six miles from Limerick. He was released from this employ about eight weeks in the winter to attend a district school ; the town being in its infancy, this was all the educational privilege afforded. Of these early scenes, he says in a small memorandum kept by him self years after : "I spent my time at school in a manner to gain this appellation, Joe. Harper is the best scholar and biggest rogue in school for if there was any boyish mischief afoot, I was sure to be among the leaders, and as sure to have my lessons ready at the teach er s call." Working on a farm was never suited to his taste ; and as time ad- vaneed he grew more and more averse to it, and at length made appli cation to his father to permit him to seek some other kind of manual employment, or afford him some means to procure an education. The former he did not choose to do, the latter he could not. Of this period he says in his memorandum : " There then appeared but two alterna tives ; to continue my labor at farming, or leave my father and look out for myself." I decided on the latter course, and on the 22d of May, 1803, being then about 16 years of age, I left home and bent my steps toward Portsmouth, N. H. ; without any definite idea of where I was to go, or what business 1 was to follow. I traveled as far as New- ington, and let myself for one month to a Mr. Pickering for the sum of nine dollars. Before the time had expired I began to repent my bargain. A local disease, from which I had for a considerable length of time experienced much inconvenience, increased upon me, so that I found I could not, without risking permanent loss of health, continue the hard labor of a farm. My education being insufficient for teaching, I was at a loss what course to pursue. At this crisis, my father came to see me, and advised me to return home. I accordingly did so, and continued with him till the spring of 1806, performing some light labor JOSEPH M. HARPER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 57 in the summer months, and attending school through the winter, or reading and studying at home. About the 1st of June, 1806, I was sent to the academy at Fryeburg, Me., and continued there five or six months; the ensuing winter taught a school in Limington, and at its close, a second in Buckston, at which latter place, I boarded with a Dr. Brewster, and the hours I was not engaged in the school-room, read different medical authors, and prepared medicines under his supervision. These circumstances tended to strengthen a desire I had for some time cherished of becoming a member of the medical faculty, and I soon after commenced a regular course of study with Dr. William Swasey, in my native town, under whose tuition I remained till July, 1808, and then went to Canterbury, N. H., and spent my last year with Dr. Jonathan Kittredge. I then attended the private anatomical and physiological lectures of Dr. Eamsay, a celebrated Scotch anatomist at Fryeburg, Me., and Concord, N. H., and afterwards a course of medical lectures in Boston, Mass. "I was now ready to establish myself in my profession, and for seve ral months remained unsettled, traveling through different portions of Maine and New-Hampshire, unable to fix upon a stand that suited me in all respects. I at length concluded to settle for a while in Sanborn- ton, N. H., and did so about November, 1810 remaining through the winter ; but there being several of the faculty in the place, the prospect of gaining a tolerable share of practice was rather dubious, and in April of the next year, a more eligible situation presenting at Canterbury, (a place to which I was more strongly attached than any in the world, for what reason I could not tell,) I went there and commenced business to better advantage than I had hitherto done. About this time I ex perienced religion, and became a member of the Free Will Baptist Church. " Here, it is to be regretted, his memorandum ceases, and the remain der of this sketch is made up of such facts and incidents as now recur to his memory. With this in view, it will be evident, that through a long life, chequered and varied as his has been, though what is collected may be undoubtedly correct, many points it might be well to notice may be glanced over, and things of interest lost or forgotten. During the whole course of the troubles with Great Britain, out of which grew the war of 1812, he was an unwearying and unflinching ad vocate for his country, for free trade and sailors rights. He sustained the embargo, the non-intercourse, and every act of the government up to the declaration of war, and when that came he engaged heartily in its support, encouraged enlistment, and urged the necessity of carrying it on with all the resources and energy of which the nation was capable. He was at that time in the practice of his profession, with good pros pects of success. He left this, and joined the army in Jan., 1813, in the capacity of second surgeon of the 4th regiment of U. S. infantry, com manded by Colonel Robert Purdy, and continued in that capacity until the close of the war in 1815. He then returned to Canterbury, and resumed his practice of physic arid surgery for several years, devoting his time and talents almost exclusively to his profession. He was about this time elected a Fellow of the New-Hampshire Medical Society. June 6th, 1816, he married Miss Elizabeth Clough, daughter of Oba- 58 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. diah Clough, Esq., of Canterbury a lady, as time has proved, abun dantly possessed of those female virtues which serve to adorn the walks of private life. While she has ever given home the first-fruits of her care and affection, she has to the fullest extent obeyed the scriptural injunction, " Remember the poor." Kindness and benevolence are riot less her characteristics than a gentle, but firm decision, adherence to established principles, independence of nature, and strong attachment to friends. Three children blessed this union two sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Joseph C. Harper, Esq., is married, and resides in London, N. H. He has two years represented that town in the state legislature, and as a magistrate and a man of business stands high among the first class of citizens-ill his community. The second son, Charles A. Harper, was a graduate of Dartmouth College, A. D. 1834, at the age of nineteen. He read law, and com menced practice in Clarksburg, Va., where he remained several years, and then, on account of enfeebled health, was induced to resort to a milder climate. In 1845 he went to Texas, and became deeply inter ested in the war with Mexico. When a volunteer regiment was called for from that state, he joined the one commanded by Colonel Jack Hays, was chosen adjutant, and acted as such through the campaign. At the seige of Monterey this regiment was with General Worth s division, and in the advance during the three days hard fighting, being the first that entered the city. He is now married, and resides at Indianola, Texas, in the practice of his profession. The youngest, a daughter, now resides with her parents. She pos sesses fine literary taste, and is to some extent known as a poet and prose writer. Her health is extremely delicate. Aside from the duties of the medical profession, Joseph M. Harper has transacted during his life a large amount of business pertaining to the functions of the law such as executor of wills, suits at law, re ferences, and probate affairs. In political matters he has ever taken an active interest, being always a staunch democrat of the old school. When a boy of seventeen, he took an active part in advocating the claims of Mr. Jefferson at his second election to the presidency in 1804. He voted, for the first time in his life, for James Madison, on his coming into power in 1808 ; and during the great struggle between the republican and federal parties, as they were then styled, from Jefferson s second election to the declara tion of war in 1812, and through the war, he acted a noble and con spicuous part, attended the meetings of the democratic party in town, county, and state, making frequent speeches, and producing arguments for the support of republican government and rule in the halls of the nation. His remarks were never long and windy, but brief and to the point, as were the articles he from time to time presented for the pub lic press. From a printed copy of an address, delivered by him at Sanbornton, New-Hampshire, on the fourteenth anniversary of Gen. Jackson s victory at New-Orleans, we present an extract, as elucidating his views upon the two dominant parties which arose in the infancy of our country, JOSEPH M. HARPER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 59 and have, with different degrees of success, sought ascendency and control down to the present time : " But it will be necessary for me on the present occasion to turn back the page of modern history a few years, and give a brief and succinct account of the two parties in our country, from the close of the Revolutionary war up to the time of the recent and signal victory gained by the Jeffersonian republicans in the triumphant election of the hero of New-Orleans to the presidency. " At the commencement of that war two distinct parties arose, which have continued to agitate this happy land down to the present time. At one time they have appeared to be nearly swallowed up in the prosperity and quietude of the country ; at another, to threaten our very existence as an independent nation by their violence of contested opinion and party fury. " They were first known by the appellation of Whig and Tory. And it would have been for the peace, honor, and dignity of the common wealth, had they been known to the present day by no other names, and the lines between them marked with that precision they were when Washington was in the field, or Jefferson in the counsels of the nation. " During the struggle for liberty and independence, the whigs risked everything a patriotic people could risk for their country s freedom. Heaven smiled propitious ; victory turned on the side of the rights of man; but. while the whigs were fighting their country s battles, the tories remained idle spectators, or fled to the enemy s raiiKs for safety from their own people s indignation. After the close of the war a remnant of this recreant party was left in our midst. They were, as a body, wealthy, compared with the whigs, who had expended without sparing their property in the glorious contest. They possessed talents, craft, and subtlety, and began to declaim loudly of their respect for American rights. By their plausible conduct and fair speeches many of them wormed themselves into places of trust and power. " At the formation of our most excellent constitution some of the whigs had so far joined the tory party as to advocate a stronger form of government, more aristocratical, with an hereditary president and senate. And the worshipers of titles, stars, and garters so rapidly increased, that in 1797 an advocate for the divine right of kings was placed in the chair of state, and a reign of terror commenced. The aristocratical party assumed the specious name of federalists, declared the tory party extinct, became vociferous for American rights, and mounted the black cockade as a token that they were pledged to the then reigning dynasty, and would support the illustrious house of Braintree ; and piously branded all who would not hold up the hand or kiss the book, with the epithets of Jacobins and French citizens. " Among the arbitrary and anti-republican measures of this ad ministration were the sedition law, the alien law, the raising of a standing army, the odious stamp act, and a direct tax on almost every species of property. " Such were some of the leading features of the young federal govern ment, with the first Adams at its head ; all of which had a direct ten dency to remove the veil from the minds of the substantial yeomanry 60 SKETCHES OP EMINENT AMERICANS. of the nation, and pave the way for the elevation of the immortal Jefferson to the presidency in 1801, thus effecting the ascendency of the democratic party." In March, 1826, he was elected to represent his town in the state legislature and again in 1827, which office he filled to the entire satis faction of his constituents. He took an active part in the house of representatives. In 1829, he was elected to the senate of New-Hampshire, where he sustained himself as a worthy member. During the June session of that year, a resolution was passed by the legislature, authorizing the governor, with consent of council, to appoint some one as an agent of the state, to go to Connecticut and gather facts and general information concerning the culture of the mulberry tree, the methods of raising the silkworm and the manufacturing of the silk. He received this appointment, and the July following proceeded to Connecticut, collected all the information possible on the subject, and made a report at the June session of 1830, which was printed in pam phlet form and circulated gratuitously through the state. He was re-elected this year (1830) to the senate, and on organizing, chosen president of that body, over which he presided with honor to himself and general satisfaction to the public. By the constitution of New-Hampshire, the president of the senate acts as governor in case that office is vacated by death, resignation or otherwise. On the 28th of February, 1881, Hon. Matthew Harvey, then gover nor, resigned his office, being appointed district judge of the U. S. Court, for the district of New- Hampshire. Consequently, J. M. Harper assumed the title and held the office till June of the same year. In March, 1831, he was elected one of the representatives from New- Hampshire to the twenty-second Congress of the United States, it being the second Congress of the first term of Gen. Jackson s presidency. He took his seat in the month of December of the same year. In 1833, he was re-elected, and served in that capacity the two first years of President Jackson s second term. During the whole four years he was in Congress, there was much party strife, and frequently a high state of animosity between the two great political parties throughout the country, as well as between their respective representatives in the congressional halls. The whigs contended that the welfare and prosperity of the nation de pended on a national bank, a protective tariff, and an extensive and liberal system of internal improvements instituted by the national or general government. The president, the cabinet, and democratic party opposed these leading measures of the whigs, and the contest was ardent and discus sions able and protracted on both sides. He was a strong and faithful supporter of Jackson s administration, and though not a fluent speaker, did much by steadfast, unyielding at tachment to the cause he had espoused. He uniformly sustained the president in his bold measures of the removal of the deposits of the public funds from the United States Bank, his veto of the bill to re- JOSEPH M. HARPER, OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. 61 charter the same, his proclamation in relation to South Carolina nulli fication, and others of like character; for which marked and decided course he received much vituperation from the whig party. For the two last years of his term, he was on the committee of com merce, and during the last session acted as chairman a large portion of the time. He was always in his seat in the house, and always present at the meetings of the committees, discharging duty with promptness and fidelity. He closed his congressional career in March, 1835, and with it his political life, as to any public office or station ; yet he has not been an indifferent spectator of what relates to his country s prosperity. He is still a warm supporter of the republican cause, and feels a lively in terest in the universal emancipation of the whole human family from tyranny and oppression. He is, and ever has been, an uncompromising advocate for universal suffrage in politics, and universal toleration in religious faith; believing that that faith cannot be materially wrong which produces good effects. He experienced religion October 5th, 1810 ; was baptized by immer sion, and united with the F. W. Baptist Church in Canterbury, of which he still continues a useful and honorable member. In April, 1838, he was ordained an elder to take the lead in meetings of public worship, and administer the ordinances. For several years, the church being destitute of a pastor, he officiated in that capacity, yet never considered himself called to relinquish all other business and devote himself en tirely to the ministry. He, notwithstanding, possessed a gift of exhor tation and teaching which proved salutary in the church, and tended much toward its prosperity and enlargement. On leaving public life, he retired to his farm in Canterbury, where he still resides, not as an idler or drone in society, but is still recognized as an industrious, persevering, energetic man, constantly employed either on his farm or in transacting business for his friends and neigh bors, in the capacity of agent, trustee, referee, attorney, &c., &c. He is and has been president of the Mechanics Bank, in Concord, for many years ; also one of the directors of a savings bank in that city, and president of an insurance company in Canterbury. By industry and economy he has accumulated a sufficiency of this world s goods to place him in easy circumstances for the remainder of life. He still resides on his farm in Canterbury, in the enjoyment of good health, with the exception of a slight rheumatic affection, and hopes for a better inheritance beyond the grave. 62 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. AARON V. BROWN, LATE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE. AARON V. BROWN, late Governor of Tennessee, was born on the 15th of August, 1795, in the county of Brunswick, Virginia. His father, the Rev. Aaron Brown, enlisted, when not yet of lawful age, f>r three years in the Revolutionary army. He was in the battle of Trenton, and participated in that ever-memorable march through the Jerseys, where the course of the American army was known to the enemy by the blood of its bare-footed soldiery. He was also one of the sufferers in the encampment, at Valley Forge, during the severe winter of 1777-8, where disease, and famine, and nakedness, so often drew tears from the illustrious Washington. At the close of his term of service, he returned to the county of Brunswick, where he continued to reside for nearly forty years in the midst of those who had witnessed his early and pa triotic career, respected and beloved by all as a faithful and useful min ister of the gospel, of the Methodist persuasion ; an upright civil magistrate, a staunch republican of the old Jefferson school, and an honest man. The subject of this memoir was the issue of his second marriage, with Elizabeth Melton, (corrupted from Milton,) of Northamp ton county, in the State of North Carolina. Except in the simplest elements, Gov. Brown was educated in the last-mentioned state. He was sent when very young to Westrayville Academy, in the county of Nash, in order to be placed under the care of Mr. John Bobbitt, one of the best scholars and teachers of the time. After continuing here for two years, he was transferred, in the year 1 812, to the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. He graduated in this institution, in 1814, in a large class, of which Senator Mangum and ex-Governor Manley, of North Carolina, were also members. The duty was assigned to him by the faculty, and confirmed by the trustees, of delivering the valedictory oration on commencement day, and the ser vice was performed in a manner which produced the most striking im pression on the large assembly then in attendance. The collegiate career of but few young men is marked by incidents of sufficient im portance to be recited in a notice like this. Industry in preparing for and punctuality in attending at the hour of recitation, as well as the most cheerful conformity to the rules of the institution, were the most striking characteristics of his educational course. Having finished his educational course. Gov. Brown returned to his parents, who, in the previous year, had removed to the county of Giles; in the State of Tennessee. About the beginning of the year 1815, he commenced the study of law in the office of the late Judge Trimble, in the town of Nashville. With this gentleman he continued to read for two years, and now often refers to him as one of the most systema tic, able and upright men he ever knew. Having obtained a license, he opened an office in Nashville, and commenced practice in that city with the most flattering prospects of success. About this time, how- AARON V. BROWN, OF TENNESSEE. 63 ever, Alfred M. Harris, who was engaged in a very extensive practice in nearly all the southern counties of Middle Tennessee, accepted a place on the bench, and solicited Gov. Brown to remove to the county of Giles and close up his extensive business for him. The opportunity was inviting, and that being the residence of his now aged parents, he determined to settle in that county. Taking charge at once of an ex tensive practice, both civil and criminal, including the land litigation, then an important and almost distinctive branch of the profession, Gov. Brown found all the resources of his mind brought into immediate re quisition. No time was to be lost in idleness none to be devoted to pleasure. We remember that one of his maxims about this period was, " Always to be first at court, and never to leave it until the ad journing order was made." Under such habits it was no matter of sur prise to those who observed them, that there were but few causes of importance in the counties in which he practised, in which he was not engaged. In a few years after Gov. Brown commenced his career in Giles, the late President Polk commenced his in Columbia, in the adjoining county of Maury. They soon formed a partnership in their profes sion, thereby extending the field of their professional labors into more counties than they could have done without that arrangement. This partnership continued for several years, and until Mr. Polk engaged in his congressional career. Its dissolution brought no termination to that cordial friendship, personal and political, in which it had com menced, and which continued unabated until the death of the late lamented president. Gov. Brown continued engaged in his profession until the year 1839, when, having been elected to Congress, he gave it up altogether. Much of the time in which he was in regular and full practice he was also a member of one branch or the other of the state legislature. This service being near home, and the counties he repre sented being those in which he practised, produced no material impedi ment to the progress of his professional business. But the case was different in the distant service in the Congress of the United States. Gov. Brown served as a senator, from the counties of Lincoln and Giles, at all the sessions of the legislature, regular and called, from 1821 to 1827, inclusive, except the session of 1825, when he was not a candi date. In the session of 1831 and 1832, he was the representative of the county of Giles in the other branch of the general assembly. His course was distinguished at all times, as a legislator for the state, for his determination to sustain an independent and able judiciary, and to build up an enlightened, liberal, and impartial system of jurisprudence in the state ; and, we hazard nothing in saying, that, in searching through the statutes, one will find more laws of a general and permanent nature which emanated from him than from any one of the other public men of the state. He was longer in that service, and, by professional ex perience, may be presumed to have understood the defects of existing laws, and how to remedy them. Throughout his service in the legis lature he evinced a strong disposition to diminish the number of offences which should be capitally punished. He did not propose or wish to abolish such punishments altogether, but only to reduce and limit them 64 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. down to the smallest possible number of cases, consistent with the necessary self-defence of society against the aggressions of the lawless and abandoned. At the session of 1831-32, by the order of the judici ary committee, he prepared an elaborate and able report, which he submitted to the house, on the subject of capital punishments, which attracted great attention throughout the Union. Gov. Brown first became a candidate for Congress in 1839. At two former elections the whigs had carried his district by majorities rang ing from eleven to twelve hundred votes. His competitor, the Hon. E. J. Shields, had served in the two preceding Congresses. He was a gentleman of fine talents, and one of the most plausible and handsome debaters of his party. When the election came off, however, Gov. Brown was found not only to have overcome the large party majority against him, but to have overcome it by the immense majority of six teen hundred and one votes. He was re-elected for the called session of Congress in 1841, without having any opposition. In 1843, the con gressional district was altered so as greatly to diminish the democratic majority by which Gov. Brown had been usually elected in the old dis trict. This induced hopes that he might possibly be beaten in the new one, and all the regular steps were taken to present a competitor in the person of the Hon. N. S. Brown, now minister to Russia. The result, however, demonstrated that the democracy of the new district, although not in so large a majority as in the old one, was nevertheless equally invincible. During the period of his congressional service, beginning in 1839 and ending in 1845, Gov. Brown seems to have been an active mem ber, taking a part in nearly all the great questions which came up dur ing that eventful portion of our political history. In May, 1840, he delivered a speech in reply to Mr. Bell, on the bill introduced by that gentleman, " to secure the freedom of elections." He also made a speech on the celebrated New-Jersey case, having been a member of the committee which reported on the same. His speech on the burning of the Caroline, to be found in the Congressional Globe and appendix of 1841, was listened to by the house with profound at tention and emotion, and is regarded by his friends as one of his ablest efforts in Congress. He was a member of the committee which framed the tariff of 1842, and united with the minority in presenting an able and conclusive report against the principles and details of that measure. When the bill came up for discussion, Gov. Brown made a clear and powerful argument against it, opening the debate on the democratic side of the house. On the 4th of August, 1841, he delivered a speech against the fiscal bank bill, which occupied so large a portion of pub lic solicitude at that time. He made speeches in 1844 on the remis sion of the fine imposed on Gen. Jackson at New-Orleans, and against receiving and reporting on abolition petitions ; also, on the right of members elected by general ticket to their seats. It was in December, 1844, that Gov. Brown found it necessary to reply to sundry speeches of Mr. Adams, made in Massachusetts, in re lation to the negotiation of the Florida treaty. That reply having a direct reference to incidents occurring in the congressional career of AARON V. BROWN, OF TENNESSEE. 65 Gov.. Brown, may be seen in the Daily Globe of December 14, 1844. A reply to Mr. Adams, on the Oregon bill, may be seen in the "Consti tution" of January 29, 1845, and also a reply to another speech of Mr. Adams may be seen in the National Intelligencer of February 3, 1845. On the 12th March, 1844, Gov. Brown, as chairman of the commit tee on territories, reported a bill to extend the civil and criminal juris diction of the several courts of the territory of Iowa over the territory of Oregon, and for other purposes. At the next session he reported another bill, organizing a territorial government for Oregon, which passed the house by a large majority, but was lost in the senate. Governor Brown s service in Congress ended with the commence ment of President Folk s administration. He declined any office under the administration, and determined to return home and devote himself to the education of his children and the management of his own private affairs. Before he reached home, however, he was nominated by the democratic party as its candidate for governor. He met the news of this nomination at Pittsburg, and hesitated many days whether he would accept it or not. It conflicted with all his purposes to retire to private life to accept it, and opened a wide field of labor with but little prospect of success. Mr. Polk had failed twice for the same office, and could not carry the state in his presidential race, under all the zeal and excitement which it created. Besides this, Mr. Polk, in organizing his administration, and selecting his friends for different offices, had withdrawn from the state some of- the most influential and powerful members of the party. He himself was gone, Hon. Cave Johnson was gone, General Robert Armstrong was gone, and several others whose weight had been always felt in state elections. Dis couraging, however, as were the prospects, he finally determined to take the field against Colonel Foster, a late senator, and one of the most popular and able men of the whig party. The discussions of the canvass turned chiefly on the tariff, the Texas and the Oregon questions. In this canvass Gov. Brown was elected by a majority of 1,500 or 1,600; but in that of 1847, he was defeated by about half that number. For the last twelve years parties have been so nearly balanced in Ten nessee that they have carried the state alternately against each other. The one last defeated brings to the polls at the next election a little more zeal and determination to retrieve their last misfortune, and are therefore very apt to prove triumphant. In the next year, 1848, Gov. Brown was a candidate for elector for the state at large, and canvassed it with great vigor, sustaining and even surpassing the reputation which he had previously acquired. In 1850, he was a member of the Southern Convention held at Nash ville. He concurred fully in the resolutions passed at the first session of that body, but dissented from and protested against the address. At the second session of that body in November following, Gov. Brown dissented altogether from the report submitted by the committee on resolutions; and, to exhibit his own views and those of the democracy of the state, prepared what was called and known as the Tennessee Platform, which, after being submitted to the delegation of the state and being approved by them, was by their order submitted by General 5 66 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Pillow to the convention. His whole course at both sessions was emi nently conservative. At neither session, and at no stage of the slavery- agitation, would he hear or think of a dissolution of the Union. He considered secession or a dissolution of the Union as no remedy for alleged grievances. His favorite remedy against the whole series of aggressions was retaliation, as set forth in the Tennessee Platform. This he believed would soon exhibit to the North a greater power to injure them than they have had to injure the South ; and that, upon the simple principle of self-interest, both sections would presently cease the profitless controversy. The last public station which Gov. Brown has occupied was that of a delegate from the state at large in the late Baltimore convention. He introduced a very important resolution into that body, raising a com mittee of one from each state, to be appointed by the delegates from each state, to whom all resolutions relative to the principles or platform of the democratic party should be referred without debate. The im portance of such a reference, without debate, was instantly peiceived, and the resolution was adopted. He was unanimously appointed the chairman, and subsequently reported the platform, which has given such general satisfaction to his party in every portion of the United States. Gov. Brown has reason to be proud of the concurrence of his party in the platforms which, at different times, he has prepared for them. He was the author of the Tennessee platform in the Southern Convention. He prepared and presented the platform which was unanimously sanc tioned in the convention at Nashville, on which the last gubernatorial battle was fought in Tennessee ; and that he had the honor assigned to him of reporting the national platform of democratic principles at the late convention was highly gratifying to his numerous friends. JOSIAH BPJGHAM, ESQ., OF QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS, PRESIDENT OF THE QUINCY STONE BANK. FROM the town which has been rendered illustrious as the birth-place and residence of two presidents of the United States, the Adamses, father and son, and of John Hancock, and Josiah Quincy, the patriot, we present the subject of the following sketch. Mr. Brigham, for his fidelity and success in commercial pursuits, and in other trusts, through nearly half a century, is entitled to a notice in these pages. We find early mention of the family in England. Nicholas Brigham, it appears, who died in 1559, was a native of Oxfordshire ; educated at Harthall and at one of the Inns of Court. He was eminent not only as a lawyer but as a poet and an author, and was so partial to Chaucer that he removed his remains to the south transept of Westminster Abbey, where he erected a monument to his fame. Thomas Brigham, supposed to be the progenitor of all the Brighams in this country, came from England at the age of thirty, with his wife, (Mercie Herd,) to Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 1634. It ap- JOSIAH BRIGHAM, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 67 pears that he was made freeman in 1637. One son, Thomas, accom panied him. Two others were born at Cambridge John, March 9, 1644, and Samuel in 1652. The father died there, January 8, 1653. The widow and her children next appear in Sudbury, where she married Edmund Rice, March 1, 1655. They removed to Maryborough, where he died, May 1663. His widow then married William Hunt, in 1664. He died in Marlborough, October, 1667 ; and she (his widow) died December 23, 1693. Thomas, the elder of three brothers, " married Mary, his wife," so runs the record, December 27, 1665. They had three sons, Nathan, David, and Silas. David married Mary Newton, and by her had one daughter and two sons, Jonas, born 1716, and Levi, born 1717. Levi (Col.) married Susanna Grout, of Watertown, June 6, 1745. They were the grand-parents of the subject of this sketch. He died in 1787, aged 70, and his widow in 1816, aged 96 years. They had eight children. Levi, born 1746, settled in Fitzwilliam, New-Hampshire. Joseph, born 1747, who was suddenly killed by a fall, 1760. Elijah, born 1750, graduated at Dartmouth College, 1778, and engaged in trade at Westborough with Breck Parkman. He was afterwards appointed one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas in Massachusetts. He was for several years representative in Con gress ; and, while a member of the house, died suddenly at Washing ton from an affection of the croup, February 22, 1816, aged 66. Josiah, born 1753, physician in Westborough, and died 1788. Susanna, born 1754, wife to Breck Parkman. Winslow, the father of the subject of this notice, was born at Northborough, 1756, and died there, Septem ber 4, 1837, aged 81 years. His widow, a worthy and much esteemed woman, died there February 7, 1847. at the age of 90. Mindwell, born 1760 and died 1784, and Anna, born 1763 and died 1790, com plete the list. Winslow, the sixth child, married Alice Gushing, daughter of the late Colonel Job Gushing, of Shrewsbury. Their children, who lived to grow up, were Nathaniel, Alice, Josiah, Lucy, Gushing, Nancy, Emery, Mindwell, Lydia, and Winslow. Three others died in infancy. Josiah, the fourth son, and subject of this memoir, was born at North- borough, Massachusetts, September 1, 1788. His father was a farmer, and owned and occupied one of the pleasantest and most valuable estates in the town, on which he had spent the whole period of his life, with the exception of one year of service in the war of the Revolution. The same estate had been owned and occupied by his father, Colonel Levi Brigham, also by his grandfather, David Brigham, and also by his great-grandfather, Thomas Brigham, son of the first Thomas who came to this country, as above stated. He, the second Thomas, about the year 1665, took up as common land, and settled upon said estate, to gether with other lands adjoining the same, comprising about 500 acres, which now compose several other separate estates, and all which, for many years, were owned by the Brighams, one of which is that large and beautiful farm in Weetborough, now owned by the state, on which is located the State Reform School for boys. The Brigham estate is situated in front of Little Chauncy Pond, on the southerly line, between Northborough and Westborough, adjoining said state farm. Nathaniel 68 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. an elder brother of the subject of this memoir, now owns the said estate. It has thus been owned and occupied by the family for nearly two hundred years, and through five successive generations. The other estates have all passed out of the names. Josiah remained at home till he was 21 years of age, enjoying the care of virtuous and pious parents. The advantages for general edu cation afforded the young at that period were comparatively limited, and were confined to a few months instruction each year in the district schools. Agriculture was a favorite pursuit with his father, but for this Josiah had little fancy. Knowing that he must depend upon his own exertions for support, he concluded to fit himself for teaching school, and for this purpose was entered a pupil at Leicester Academy. In the winter of 1899-10, he was engaged as teacher in one of the public schools in East Sudbury. The same school he taught the succeeding winter. In April 1811, he removed to Quincy, where he has ever since resided. He went there as teacher in the only annual public school then in town, and continued in the same school three successive years. In this important and responsible office he was very successful, having qualities which won for him alike the confidence of parents, and the re spect and good-will of his pupils. From boyhood he had been inclined to mercantile pursuits, and he accordingly relinquished the office of school-teacher in the spring of 1814, and engaged in trade at Quincy. Here, for nearly forty years, he has been thus employed the upright and successful merchant. He married, November 23, 1814, Miss Eliza beth, daughter of Mr John Fiske of Northborough. Mr Fiske died, March 26, 1837, aged 76. His wife, the daughter of the Rev. Abner Ballou, a baptist clergyman of Cumberland, Rhode Island, died January 3, 1819, aged 57 years. They had five children, James Ballou, Nathan, Elizabeth, John, and Horace S. Mrs. Brigham, the only daughter, is a very worthy lady, of strong mind, but of slender constitution. She is most faithful and devoted in all domestic concerns, industrious and energetic ; and it may with truth be said of her, that " she looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." Mr. Brigham has two children, Abigail Fiske, born December, 30, 1816, and Elizabeth Ann, born April 2, 1820. The former married, November 10, 1842, James A. Stetson, M. D., of Quincy ; and the latter married, November 4, 1840, Charles F. Baxter, merchant, of the firm of W. & S. Phipps & Co., Boston. Thus happy in his domestic relations, Mr. Brigham has enjoyed the uninterrupted confidence of the community in which he has resided. In August, 1814, he became associated with the Quincy Light Infantry, an ancient and respectable military company, then under the command of Captain Thomas Tirrell. This company was drafted into the service of the country in the war of 1812 with Great Britain, and was ordered to Boston on the 12th of September, 1814. It was encamped at South Boston with the troops there stationed under the command of General Maltby. Mr. Brigham was with the company through this service ; and in 1823, having previously filled every subordinate office in the same, he was elected its commander. It was one of the best disciplined companies in the state. In the year 1826, Mr. Brigham was chosen THOMAS NELSON, OF OREGON. 69 lieutenant-colonel of the third regiment of the first brigade in the first division of the Massachusetts Militia; but having been several years in the service, he saw fit to decline the honor. By diligence, and fidelity, and unswerving integrity, Mr. Brigham has enjoyed the confidence of those with whom he has had intercourse and dealings. The esteem of his fellow-citizens has been manifested in their selection of him to fill the various offices of honor and trust in the town, and in the parish with which he is connected, as clerk, assessor, treasurer, member and chairman of the General School Committee. He has been for many years trustee or director in several moneyed institutions, clerk and treasurer of the Quincy Canal Corporation from its first organization in 1825 to the present time, and is at this time trustee and president of the Board of Investment of the Quincy Savings Bank, and president of the Quincy Stone Bank. The commission of justice of the peace he first received from Gov ernor Everett. Possessed of excellent judgment, he has never en gaged in hazardous speculations, but confined himself principally to the legitimate operations of his vocation. For more than twenty years, Israel W. Munroe, a worthy, upright, and efficient gentleman, has been associated with him as partner in trade. By personal appli cation to business, by perseverance, and economy, and unsullied honor, he has acquired for the evening of his life a competent estate. Amidst the cares and responsibilities of commercial and civil life, he has not been unmindful of his religious obligations. He is never absent, fore noon or afternoon, from the stated worship of the Sabbath, and both he and his lady are found at the communion-table of Christ. His regular and temperate habits through life have secured for him general health and vigor of constitution. In social intercourse he is frank and affable. In manners, he well illustrates the Christian gentleman. Through life he has given the constant weight of his example to the cause of good order, of sound morals, of virtue and piety in the com munity. We take pleasure in presenting his upright and successful career to the young men of our country seeking the paths either of mer cantile or official trusts and preferment. While encouraging them in the honorable pursuit of wealth and outward reputation, so will it especially teach them of the only secure basis on which outward repu tation and success can rest a character strong in integrity and in that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. THOMAS NELSON, WAS born at Peekskill, in Westchester County, New- York, on the 23d of January, 1819, and is, of course, now in the thirty-fourth year of his age. He is the third son of the Honorable William Nelson, late a re presentative in Congress from the Eighth Congressional District of New- York a gentleman whose earnest and successful devotion to the labo- 70 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. rious profession of law in early life, and practical wisdom as a politician and statesman, as well as his virtues as a man of principle, have won him the suffrages and respect of a large majority of his fellow-citizens, who have several times testified by popular vote their confidence in his principles, public spirit, and private worth. As a youth, and during the earlier years of boyhood, young Nelson was the subject of those wholesome family influences which give the rjght direction to moral character ; and to early parental precept and example may, doubtless, be traced, in a large measure, the germs of that honorable and manly ambition which now distinguishes Judge Nelson as a public man. Mr. Nelson graduated at Williams College, in 1836, at the early age of seventeen ; and although it has always been with him a matter of regret since that he entered college so young, yet he distinguished himself as a scholar, and graduated honorably as a boy of great promise, for he was tiien but a boy. It was, therefore, thought advisable, before entering on his clerkship as a student at law, that he should continue the scien tific and literary habits he had formed in college by prosecuting his studies for some time longer in the city of New- York. He there chose his residence in the family of a French gentleman, a professor of the French language and literature, that he might have the opportunity of acquiring not only a thorough theoretic knowledge of that language, but a correct idiomatic use of it, while at the same time he attended, as an amateur, a regular course of lectures at the Medical College in that city, giving his attention chiefly, however, to the study of anatomy and physiology. A love of general knowledge, and a desire for liberal and elegant culture, have always been marked characteristics of Mr. Nelson s mind, and given scope to his general reading and studies ; for though a successful student and practitioner of law, and not undistinguished at the bar, he is still more remarkable as a general scholar, having a full, ready, and well-furnished mind, to which refined culture has added the grace of a polished literary and cesthetic taste. Having completed this course of medical lectures, he entered his father s office as a student at law, where he continued until he was of age, when he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New- York ; and, in due time, he was also admitted as a counselor of the same court, a solicitor and counselor of the Court of Chancery of that state, and an attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States. After Mr. Nelson had finished his professional studies, and before en tering on the practice of the law, he expressed a strong desire to visit the old world. He had in this a twofold purpose : one was to in crease his general health by travel ; and the other, to gain that knowl edge of men and things which books cannot give. In this wish his family and friends very readily acquiesced. And Mr. Nelson accord ingly spent the greater part of the year 1842 in England and Conti nental Europe, making himself familiar with every thing during his travels which he thought would be most useful to him, as a well-read and well-informed man. This tour not only afforded him opportunity for personal observation THOMAS NELSON, OF OREGON". 71 on the present condition of European society and institutions, but it gratified and strengthened that taste for classic scenes and reminiscences with which his academic and collegiate studies had early inspired him. As a scholar, however, Mr. Nelson s knowledge is by no means limited to the acquirements of a college class-room. He has made himself, in the broad sense of the word, a scholar, by a critical study of the English classics, and an extensive acquaintance with the literature of modern Europe, Mr. Nelson s^temperament and refined taste, as well as his correct moral judgments, naturally incline him to a quick and instinctive admi ration of beauty, goodness and truth in character, as well as in art and literature. This was early manifested when, at the age of seventeen, he chose for the theme of the oration assigned him when he graduated, " The character of John Jay" a choice which showed that young Nel son had, from his earliest recollections, not only loved and admired in Gov. Jay the scholar, the patriot, the jurist, and the statesman, but that he also reverenced the Christian as the highest style of the man. The oration was well conceived, and delivered in an easy and graceful man ner. As a whole, it would have been creditable to a graduate of maturer years, for it gave to all unmistakable evidences that he was destined, ultimately, to rank among the distinguished men of the com monwealth and the country as a man of capacity, principle, and untiring industry. On Mr. Nelson s return from his European tour, he entered vigor ously on his profession, (as a partner with his father in Westchester county,) which he pursued with great success until he was appointed Chief Justice of Oregon, in January, 1851, when he entered upon his dudes as a judge of that distant territory. Mr. Nelson has, as the lawyers call it, a good legal mind, clear and discriminating fond of investigation, and whilst he has a dislike to what is called the drudgery of his profession, yet during his practice of the law, he invariably prepared his cases with such care and research, that he was always ready for any emergency in the progress of the trial of his causes. He was ardent and persevering, and invariably summed up his causes before a jury with ability, and not unfrequently with great force and eloquence. At the bar of the court of his native state he discussed questions of law with a clearness and ability, manifesting a research and a knowledge of the reasons and principles of law greatly beyond his years. During the few years he has been engaged in his profession, he has earned a reputation as a skilful advocate, an eloquent speaker, and a lawyer, such as but few of his age have attained. His manners and address, as a public speaker, as well as in his private intercourse with his friends and fellow-citizens, are modest, courteous and agreeable. His social and domestic character is faultless. His truthfulness and integrity are unquestioned and unquestionable. Few men are held in higher esti mation by those who know him, as a gentleman of refined manners, a ripe scholar and a lawyer of no ordinary attainments. As the Chief Justice of Oregon, Mr. Nelson has proved himself to be all that his friends desired or expected of him, faithful to duty, capable, and of unflinching integrity. Unfortunately for Oregon, in the course of 72 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the last year an exciting controversy sprung up among the people of that territory concerning the location of its seat of government, whether it was by law at Oregon city or Salem. This as a legal and constitu tional question came before the Supreme Court of the territory for its adjudication, and a majority of that court (Judges Nelson and Strong) held and so decided that by law the seat of government was Oregon city. But a majority of the members of the legislature of that terri tory chose to regard Salem as the seat of government, and acted ac cordingly. This of course produced much excitement and confusion in Oregon. Whatever the merits of the question as to where the seat of government, as a matter of expediency, ought to be, no sensible and unprejudiced man, certainly no good lawyer, who had examined the ques tion, could doubt, at the time it was presented to the court for its adju dication, that by law the seat of government was Oregon city. And the court being called on to decide, not from considerations of policy or expediency, but by those rules that should always govern in settling a legal and constitutional question, we cannot see how Judges Nelson and Strong, as intelligent and impartial jurists, could have decided other wise than they did. And, indeed, such is the opinion generally ex pressed by the best lawyers who have looked at the subject. LEONARD CHURCH, PRESIDENT OF THE LEE BANK, MASSACHUSETTS. THERE are two classes of biography : one, of men of such eminence in the political, literary or religious world as to awaken the admiration without inspiring the hopefal emulation of the reader; the other, of characters in humbler walks, whose success in life may serve to instruct and stimulate the zeal of the most obscure. Sketches of the latter sort, though less brilliant, are often more useful. The life of Normand Smith, the Hartford saddler, will carry lessons of practical wisdom and of sound Christian morality into the business and bosoms of tens of thousands of the sons of toil; while the more eventful career of a more public man may have fewer available lessons for the masses of youth ful aspirants in the ordinary spheres of life. Let the models for the study of young Americans be such as they may safely and hopefully imitate, and their power will be none the less that they are not beyond their reach. The great lesson to be instilled into the youthful mind is that of industry and. fidelity in whatever position in life. The faithful discharge of present duty in an humble sphere, is the surest road to promotion. An eminent man, who rose from obscurity by regarding this principle, was once reminded that in his boyhood he had blacked the boots of one who was mean enough to taunt him with his humble origin. With perfect equanimity he replied : " Didn t I do it well?* Here lies the clue to wealth, fame all that is worth seeking in this life, and perhaps all that is valuable in immortal hopes. The following brief sketch will illustrate this thought : LEONARD CHURCH, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 73 LEONARD CHURCH, the successful merchant, manufacturer and banker, was born in East Hartford, Conn., July 18th, 1800. He was the youngest son of Samuel Church, a paper manufacturer. His father s family, consisting of nine children, removed in 1806 to Lee, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, which was at that period the far west. He erected the first paper-mill built in the county on the spot still occu pied by the widely-known firm of Owen and Hulbert. Since that time Lee has become one of the most extensive centres of this important branch of the manufacturing interest, containing twenty-one paper mills, including the largest in this country. Mr. Church, senior, was a man of great modesty, industry and uprightness, and his example contri buted largely to the formation of the character of the subject of this sketch. He lived a life of usefulness and died in 1844, at peace with all men and with his Maker, at the house of his son Giles, Ogden, N. Y., aged 84 years. Mrs. Church was a woman of unusual energy of character, and in the training of her household, sought to lay broad and deep foundations in the principles of morality and religion drawn from the Holy Scriptures. She lived to witness the fruits of her ma ternal fidelity, and died in 1830, at the age of 71 years. Leonard continued under the paternal roof till 1817, when he com menced his clerkship with his brother Charles, who was the first mer chant in the town of Ogden, N. Y. At that period there were but two framed houses in the town, and a room in one of these served as the store. The terms of his engagement were that, besides his board, he was to receive the full sum of fifteen dollars for his first year s services! From his salary he must proeure his clothing, furnishing a lesson of economy which was not lost in after life. Soon after his clerkship be gan, his brother threw the whole management of the concern upon the young lad, while he went to New- York to replenish his stock. It re quired an absence of four weeks, in the days of lumber wagons and corduroy roads, to accomplish the task of a couple of days in our own times. Then it took the six-horse teams some six weeks to go to Albany and back with the goods. During the absence of the brother the clerk was entrusted with the erection of a new store, to be com pleted in time for the new stock. At the age of seventeen, in a new place, and with the new duties of a merchant and an architect, his powers were put to the test ; but with the promptness and fidelity which have characterized his subsequent life, the thing was done, and " done well." It is worth noting, by the way, that the brother with whom this clerkship was served, who commenced his business in western New- York without a dollar of personal capital, died at Rochester, in 1850, leaving an estate inventoried at more than $200,000. He was a man of principle, energy and liberality. Returning to Lee, in 1819, at the solicitation of his father, and with the aid of an elder brother residing at Hartford, he commenced mer cantile life. His services were considered as an offset to the small capital furnished by his brother, and the profits of the concern were shared jointly. In December, at the age of nineteen, he made his first; trip to New- York to purchase his stock in trade. The passage of three days was made in a sloop from Hudson. It can now be made in three 74 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. hours. He examined the market with all the care that should charac terize a first independent enterprise. His money all expended and his assortment completed, he returned, compared his bills and began a suc cessful traffic. He has often remarked that his first purchase was the best and most judicious of his life. About one year after this beginning, he purchased a small paper- mill, which was successfully carried on in the manufacture of bank note paper. In 1826 he bought another paper-mill. Meanwhile his mercantile business prospered. He kept but a single clerk, and for many years he had the general supervision of his mills, purchased all the stock, made all the sales, and after the business of the day was closed, posted all his books. In 1829, he erected a large mill for fine paper, which is still run by Platner and Smith. While this was in progress a new article of ladies gear, called the Navarino bonnet, came into fashion, imported at large prices from the old world. It was made of paper. With his accustomed foresight and promptness this new placer was worked, with more than California success. He set Robert Hoe upon the manufac ture of copper plates for tasteful patterns ; established a steam-mill in New-York, and commenced making Navarinos by the thousand. Finding water power most available, his establishment was transferred to Lee, and two of his paper-mills were driven on this single article, turn ing out two or three thousand bonnets daily. For a year and a half, and until the fashion changed, he accommodated the dealers in bonnets at the market price, which bore a strange proportion to the prime cost of the article. The net profits of this single enterprise form no inconsiderable part of a very considerable fortune. In 1846 he sold his interest in the last mill he erected, and closed his connection with that branch of business. In 1844 he was chosen president of the Lee bank, of which he had been a director for ten years, and has continued in that office till the present time, with eminent skill and success, ft is enough to say that under his prudent management that institution has not lost a dollar in bad debts during the last nine years. Mr. Church has shrunk from political life. He was, however, re turned to the state legislature for the years 1839 and 40, and accepted the appointment of justice of the peace in 1846. He is an exemplary and influential member of the Congregational Church, and a generous friend of literary and benevolent institutions. A few simple principles lay open the secret of his successful career. They will serve for all who are entering on a business life. 1. Strict integrity. Doing right is the way to do well. 2. Diligence and fidelity in every trust. It would have been easy to have forecasted the honorable result, when Mr. C s. character had passed the first test at Ogden. " Seest thou a man diligent in his busi ness : he shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before mean men." 3. Promptness and decision in action, He has seized the golden op portunities of life as they have presented themselves ; and while others have mused, he has acted. Such a thing as a protested note or a suit at law cannot be found in all his business history. Alas, that they should ever needlessly mar the fortunes and the peace of men ! ANDREW M. JANUARY, OF KENTUCKY. 75 4. Strict economy. Not parsimonious and niggardly ; that makes misers of the wealthy. But by carefully ascertaining every year the gains of the year, and always bringing the expenditure within the pro fits, will render accumulation certain if not rapid. A regard to such principles has enabled Mr. Church to amass all of wealth that heart can wish; and still higher principles seem likely to control the expenditure of his fortune in a way to make him a bene factor to his race. HON. ANDREW M. JANUARY, PRESIDENT OF THE MAYSVILLE BRANCH OF THE BANK OF KENTUCKY. THE department of biography is crowded with the lives of men dis tinguished in war, politics, science, literature and the professions. All the embellishments of rhetoric and the imagination have been essayed to captivate, stimulate and direct into these " upper walks of life," as they are entitled, the youthful mind and ambition of the country. ,Not content to make the academies and higher educational institutions hot beds and nurseries to germinate and train aspirations for fame, military and civic, the most brilliant achievements in the field, the forum, the hall, and at the bar, of the great men of the past and present, have been ex hibited in colors warm and glowing, to charm and inspire. Example has been added to precept ; the teachings of the lecture-room have been enforced by illustrations from real life, and the chaplet of glory and re nown has been held up as the great and only prize. The result of this system is manifest, and by no means fortunate. The ranks of the professions are filled and overflowing. Pettifoggers, quacks, pedants, demagogues and militia officers are manufactured by wholesale. Thousands of young men of respectable abilities, entirely capable of achieving competence and character in the useful and more unpretending employments, are annually allured into professions for which they are entirely unsuited, and in which they can never succeed. Disappointment and idleness, or charlatanry and vice, are unfortunately the too frequent results, instead of thrift, independence and respectabili ty flowing from wiser counsels. To instill into the minds and hearts of the young respect for great attainments, reverence for great virtues, and to excite the generous emulation, by holding up, as examples for admiration and imitation, the lives of the wise, and great, and good, is commendable and right. But the field of example should be extended, and lessons on industry, ener gy, usefulness, virtue, honor, the true aims of life and the true sources of happiness, should be gathered and enforced from all the various pro vinces of human labor however humble. Our country is eminently in need of increased intelligence in commerce, agriculture and mechanism. Those great divisions of labor should be rendered not only lucrative and respectable, as they are but honorable and attractive to the young 76 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. in all classes of society. The lives of eminent merchants, farmers, manufacturers, mechanics of all who by honest labor have achieved distinguished success in the different occupations, should be written and commended to the young men of the republic. The path of labor and usefulness should be indicated as the highway to honor. In this view we have selected the subject of this sketch ; a man of humble but honest parentage, born at the pioneer period in the history of Kentucky, reared in the forests, with a slight elementary education, and no accomplishment but his trade ; who, by the force of high purpose and invincible resolution, industry, energy, enterprise, and a bold and vigorous mind and an honest heart, has not only achieved inde pendence, but won a name for sagacity, public spirit, punctuality and probity amongst the foremost and most distinguished men of business in the west. ANDREW M. JANUARY was born 3d August, 1794, in Jessamine coun ty, Kentucky, about 12 miles from the city of Lexington. His father, Ephraim January, who was born in Pennsylvania, was the grandson of a French Huguenot. The persecution which drove the emigrant from his native land confiscated his estate, which was said to be very large. Ephraim January married Sarah McConnell, near McConnellstown, Pennsylvania, whilst they were both very young. In 1780, they emi grated to Kentucky, and passing down the Ohio River, with several other families, in small flatboats fitted up to resist the attacks of In dians, landed safely at Louisville in the spring. They took their little property to a fort called Spring Station, six miles from Louisville, and remained there six months. They then removed to the fort at Har- rodsburg, Kentucky, where they lived twelve months ; they afterwards went to the fort at Lexington, and remained there till the fall of 1783. Such was the unsettled condition of the country at that period, and the character of the savage warfare waged by the Indians, that a family was only safe when inside of a fortification. Andrew McConnell, the grand father of A. M. January, and from whom he was named, was killed at the battle of the Blue Licks, which occurred in the summer of 1782. Although that battle resulted disastrously, additional forces pressed upon the Indians and drove them out of Kentucky, and an increase of emi gration in the course of a year so checked the incursions of the Indians, that families were justified in making locations of their own in the neigh borhood of Lexington and some other parts of the territory. Ephraim January accordingly obtained a pre-emption right to 1000 acres of land in the county of Jessamine, built a small log cabin on it in the midst of the forest, and moved his family, consisting of his wife and two young children, into it in 1783. His nearest neighbor was six miles distant. There he raised a family of eleven children five sons and six daughters and there the father and the mother lived and died he, in 1823, in the 64th year of his age; she, in 1850, in her 87th year. They were both persons of ardent piety, belonging to the Associate Reformed, a branch of the Presbyterian Church, and gave great care to the religious training of their children. The family was large, and the father unable to provide capital to set up his sons in business. They all remained at home and worked on the farm until they were 17 or 18 years old. Each was then suffered to select some mechanical branch of business. ANDREW M. JANUARY, OF KENTUCKY. 77 In 1812, Andrew became an apprentice to the silver-plating business in Lexington, Ky., and served in that capacity three years and a-half. Being a high-spirited boy, and feeling that his father was unable to fur nish him with any other than the plainest clothing, he applied himself assiduously to the business and interests of his employer, and soon gained his confidence and good-will. He was allowed to do over-work, for which he received full price, and often worked as late as 12 o clock at night. He was soon enabled to make one dollar per day for over-work. and thus to present a reputable appearance in society during his ap prenticeship. He found his early religious training of great service to him at this period. He was beset by temptations from many quar ters, but steadily resisted them. He had promised his mother, on leav ing home, that he would avoid all evil company and the vices of the town, and he did so. Young and inexperienced as he was, possessing only the common English education of that day, obtained mostly in the winter season, and during rainy days, when work could not be done on the farm, he nevertheless determined to overcome all obstacles he might encounter, fix his mark high, and force his way upward to fortune and honor. In the spring of 1816, he commenced business on his own account, in Lexington, and in the ensuing winter married Sarah Huston, daughter of William Huston, an old and highly esteemed resident of that place. He continued business there until the spring of 1818. It had promised well at first, but the country, shortly after peace was declared between the United States and Great Britain, became flooded with goods and manufactured articles. The silver-plating business suffered with others to such an extent that ware could be bought in the stores for less money, in many instances, than the cost at home of the rough material. Mr. January soon found that the time spent in qualifying himself for his business, had been to a <>reat extent lost ; to pursue it was useless ; and with that promptness and decision which have ever marked his career, he determined to abandon it. Maysville, a town in northern Kentucky, on the Ohio river, was then as it has been since, the great point of ship ment and distribution of the productions and merchandise of that por tion of the state. In the summer of 1818, he removed to that place and opened a small grocery ; and in October of that year he purchased an interest in a commission house conducted by his uncle. In the spring of 1819, he bought the entire interest of the concern, and his uncle retired from the house. This was a bold step, as he had but slight experience and very limited means. He purchased on stipulated payments of one, two and three years. Few persons under such cir cumstances would have undertaken such a responsibility ; but he had rare industry, energy and resolution, and a self-sustaining confidence in his own abilities. Every payment, as it fell due, was promptly met. He soon found that, by close application to the interests of his cus tomers, his business was increasing from year to year. After paying for his establishment, he had in a short period accumulated quite a handsome sum, and was in a full tide of prosperity, when the whole was suddenly swept from him by the instrumentality of an individual in whom he had unfortunately confided, and he found himself involved to the amount of $3,000. This heavy reverse did not dishearten him ; 78 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tie met it courageously, and determined to retrieve his losses. He continued his business, retained his customers, sustained his credit, and in one year realized enough to pay off all demands. His business con tinued to improve and enlarge under his close application and judicious management. Maysville, at that time, contained a population of only 1,200 or 1,500 inhabitants; but few of the streets were paved, there was no paved road to the river, and the landing was bad. All the roads to the interior were rough ; poor even in the summer, almost impassable in the winter and spring. He therefore turned his attention to the subject of internal improvements, and in a few years, with the assistance of other enterprising citizens, he succeeded in having all the streets paved, and good roads made to the river. In 1828, when there were not twenty miles of turnpike road in the state, a charter was procured from the legislature for a turnpike road from Maysville to Washington, a town four miles from the river in the direction of Lexington. The stock was soon subscribed, and the road put under contract. In the summer of that year, being sanguine that the road could be extended a distance of sixty miles to Lexington, he mounted his horse, and in com pany with an engineer, explored the intervening country, and raised a subscription along the line to pay the expenses of a survey. When at Lexington, he issued a card for a public meeting, had a conference with Hon. Henry Clay, enlisted him in the enterprise, and induced him to address the meeting in its behalf. The meeting was successful ; public attention was excited, and means to defray the expenses of the neces sary surveys secured. The next winter a charter was obtained extend ing the road from Washington to Lexington. As this road subse quently became famous in national politics, a short history of the efforts and means by which it was completed will be pardoned. At that time but few persons in Kentucky had ever seen a turnpike, still fewer appreciated the benefits such an improvement could confer. Very few believed such a work practicable ; the cost was considered beyond the resources of the country. The state, up to that time, had contributed nothing to the cause of internal improvements. It was an enterprise of great boldness, and required great energy, perseverance and firmness. Upon the petition of the company to the legislature, a law was passed authorizing a subscription of $25,000 on behalf of the state so soon as $50,000 should be subscribed by individuals. By great ex ertions on the part of the directors of the road, of which Mr. January was one, the requisite amount of $50,000 was obtained from individuals, and the sum of $75,000 thus secured. The road was im mediately put under contract to the extent of that sum ; and at a suc ceeding session, the legislature was induced to subscribe $50,000 more upon the condition that individuals should raise an additional $75,000. This was done in a few months by extraordinary efforts, and the $125,- 000 secured. It required $200,000 more to complete the road ; and as it would be used by the United States government for the transporta tion of the great eastern and western mails, the directory determined to petition Congress for aid to the amount of $150,000. The petition was favorably received, and a bill was passed appropriating that sum. The country recollects the fate of that measure. President Jackson struck ANDREW M. JANUARY, OF KENTUCKY. 79 it down with his veto, and left the enterprising company to their own resources. They resolved to carry the work forward. The directory negotiated loans upon their individual responsibility, and issued the scrip of the company to the amount of $70,000. The whole road was put under contract, and the legislature appealed to for further aid. It was granted by a subscription of stock equal to that of individuals ; and in four years the road was completed at a cost of $426,000, being the first good McAdamized road in the United States, and the pioneer work of internal improvement in the State of Kentucky. This import ant enterprise, commenced and completed mainly by the public spirit and perseverance of four or five citizens of Maysville, including A. M. January, gave a powerful impetus to the whole system of internal im provements in the state; and is still the best work of the kind proba bly in the United States. That road completed, Mr. January engaged heartily in the construction of two or three other turnpike roads leading into the interior, and at the same time conducted with great and increasing success an extensive commission business. His habits of business were then, and still are, of the most systematic and laborious character. He neglects nothing; he attends punctually to everything. His correspondence has always been conducted chiefly by himself, and has been so heavy and extensive, as for many months during the year to occupy his time until twelve and one o clock at night. Situated at a way-port between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, where boats stopped at all hours of the night to deliver and receive freight, his life was for many years one of great hardship, trial and ex posure. His whole life has been spent in constant activity, and faith ful and energetic attention to business. He has been successful, and has deserved success. He is now fifty-eight years of age, and although his constitution has been much broken by exposure and over work, he is still a man of great labor and unrelaxing energy. Upon the location of a branch of the Bank of Kentucky at Maysville, in 1835, he was appointed its president, which post he fills at the present time. He is also president of the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, having been connected with that road from its com mencement in 1828. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Maysville and Lexington Rail-road Company ; and no enterprise of a public nature has ever been undertaken in Maysville for the last thirty-four years, in which he has not taken a prominent and zealous part. And yet he has never sought any office, declining many indeed that have been offered. He throws his whole energies into whatever he undertakes, and success is almost certain to attend his efforts. His motto through life has been " Whatever is worth doing, should be well done." Mr. January, many years since, attached himself, along with his wife, to the Presbyterian church. His walk and conversation as a Christian have been uniformly consistent and exemplary. His benefactions to the church have been consta nt and liberal for the support of his own particular church, for the erection of churches, and the support of the gospel at home and abroad. His purse is ever generously open to every object of real benevolence or charity. In his intercourse with his fellow-citizens of all classes, Mr. January 80 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. is frank and direct, but kind and courteous. Perfectly simple and unos tentatious in all his habits ; unbounded in his hospitality ; warm, con fiding and firm, in his friendship ; sagacious and independent in thought ; prompt, practical and vigorous in action ; punctual in all his engage ments ; modest and unassuming, yet courageous and dignified, he bears about him every mark of the gentleman and the man of business; and presents as fair a model as can be found for the encouragement and imitation of the youth of the West who have friends, fame and fortune yet to win. COLONEL DANIEL S. PRINTUP, OF ROME, GEORGIA, WAS born January 22d, 1823, in Montgomery county, New- York. His father was of English descent ; his mother s parents emigrated from Holland. Colonel Printup s early education was very limited, but, like many men who have risen to eminence in the legal profession in this country, this defect in his education only served to call forth the energies of his mind. A common school in his native county furnished him with the elements of an education, and at the early age of fourteen he left the paternal roof, and, with a sorrowful heart, turned his face to the cold, calculating world. For the space of two years he engaged in various pursuits, which not only afforded him a subsistence, but en abled him to devote three months of his time to study, which short period was spent at a select school in the village of Fultonville, New- York. Much benefited by the knowledge he obtained, gladly would he have prolonged his stay, but the want of means prevented him at this time. He left this school with the intention of going to New- York, which he soon reached, and soon procured a situation as clerk in a mercantile house. Nob relishing this sort of life, he determined to relinquish it ; and, accordingly, in the month of September, 1839, he sailed for the " sunny south," and arrived in Georgia. Here, contrary to his inclination, he was induced to accept of a situation similar to that he had so lately and so heartily relinquished, yet still looking forward to a brighter day, when he might be enabled to complete his education. While here, he saved his salary with such scrupulous care that, at the end of two years, he had a sufficient sum to warrant him in pursuing his studies. Accordingly, February, 1842, he entered an academy in Paulding county, Georgia. The principal of this institution was a sound scholar and excellent teacher. He soon perceived that his pupil was a youth of more than ordinary capacity, with an ardent thirst for know ledge, consequently he afforded him every facility in his power. The student applied all his energies, and with such unparalleled success, that in the short period of nine months he was, in the opinion of his pre ceptor, sufficiently prepared for admission to college. The legal pro fession he had always liked, and at this time made up his mind to qualify himself for the bar, if possible, his limited means appearing the only barrier; he however received such assurances of assistance from his ROBERT H. GOODWIN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 81 brother, Joseph J. Printup, as to induce him to make the necessary arrangements for entering college. This he accomplished ; and in the month of April, 1843, entered in advance Union College, Schenectady, New- York, furnished by his excellent teacher, Benjamin T. Mosley, Esq., with a letter of recommendation to the president of that institu tion a part of which letter we here transcribe. Mr. Mosley says : " I take pleasure in recommending to your friendly regards a young gentleman, who possesses talents of a high order, to the cultivation of which (though neglected in early youth) he is most ardently devoted. He comes to seek from your institution that preparation which will best qualify him for the profession of law." During his collegiate course he sedulously husbanded every hour, (after preparing his recitations and attending his classes,) and devoted himself to his legal studies. His college-life was emphatically one of labor, but the youth was now the man, and throughout the three years of college-course he ranked among the first in his class. An incident occurred at the commencement of the second term of the " senior year," which serves to show the position he occupied in the esteem of his class-mates. This was his election to the office of class-marshal by his fellow-students, notwithstanding he was opposed by a young gentleman, the son of one of the first men in the United States. Subsequently he was also elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and we would state that this honor is only confer red on persons of the highest standing for scholarship. Having gradu ated in 1846, he returned to Georgia, and was admitted to the bar of that state in April of the following year ; his practice soon became respectable, and at the present time it is quite lucrative. Connected with his legal practice, he has held for years the office of agent for the principal bank of the State of South Carolina. His present residence is Eome, Georgia. Col. Printup in stature is at least six feet, and of rather slender form for one so high ; his appearance is that of a great student ; he is thought ful and grave, but very pleasant in conversation. We predict for him, if he lives, a bright career and an unenviable fame ; and as a lawyer and high-toned gentleman, he richly deserves it. ROBERT H. GOODWYN, PRESIDENT OF THE BANK OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. A tumbling torrent rushing down a mountain s side, rumbling and roaring as its waters dash from obstacle to obstacle along its rocky bed, sending the glittering spray-drops in showers over the looker-on, is a more attractive object to the tourist, retains a place in his memory longer, usurps a page in his note-book broader, than does the noble, deep and gently gliding river that bears upon its broad, bright bosom, the wealth of a nation. The traveler journeys toilsome miles to scale with weary feet the jagged heights of rugged volcanoes, whose gloomy, cavernous mouths open but to belch forth death and destruction. The fearful summit reached, awe-stricken he stands ; and feeling himself re- 6 82 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. paid by gazing upon the dreariness around, overpowered by the novelty of the scene, he utterly forgets the many lovely, luxuriant valleys, ra diant with tropic fruits and flowers, the dwelling-places of breathing plenty, he. passed to reach that grand but gloomy and desolate goal. As in nature we find it is not the most truly useful nor the most in trinsically charming and beautiful objects that attract the greatest amount of attention, but nearly always those whose picturesque attri butes, or romantic or wonderful associations best please the eye or furnish most food for the imagination irrespective of any more solid claims so do we also find the same false standard governing men s estimate of each other, and graduating how wrongfully and unfairly we daily see the place that each shall occupy in the temple of renown. The Almighty Creator, in his supreme wisdom, has so ordered the disposition of affairs in this world, that, perforce, the grand and leading features of his noble design must be carried out. The end to be at tained is fixed ; but the means by which that end shall be accomplished, are, to a certain extent, left to the volition of the actors. In the olden time, when man was almost an animal, when society was in a state of barbarism, when the softly-beaming light of cheering Christianity was as yet obscured, and the moral world was groping in darkness in those dark days, when the hand of power was really the hand that was strongest in those heathen times, when might was right, and when the keen arrow and the bright spear were necessary to retain what the sharp sword had won in those bloody eras, the fame of the warrior was justly entitled to the applause of the multitude, was the only renown coveted by the ambitious, was the only greatness that could be appreciated by the people. The soldier then was an instru ment in Deity s hand working unwittingly for a purpose. Mind then was not sufficiently developed, had not been cultivated enough to re ceive lasting impressions, save through the medium of its elder brother, the body. Force then, was necessary to restrain the baser belongings of the full-grown passions, that the moral qualities might have time to strengthen. Now, however, the diviner essence is steadily and surely claiming its birthright, assuming the mastery ; and though each body is not altogether controlled by the promptings of its own mind, yet even now mind does rule the world ; and the voice of public opinion is found to be more powerful than a vast army with all the paraphernalia of war. As one general directs the operations of a campaign, so do the bright thoughts of a single mind control the actions of hundreds of its fellows; and, therefore, the success of the business of life necessitates a much larger proportion of prompt and vigorous actors than it requires of deep and careful thinkers. For this reason it is that even now, in our age so comparatively enlightened, we see deeds of merely physical daring actions almost the result of accident men distinguished by scarce aught save unblushing effrontery receive an amount of adulation, ac quire a degree of reputation, complimented by a fulness of public con fidence, that sober reason assures us they are by no means justly en titled to. No desire have we to detract a line s breadth from the fair fame or deserved name of any man or class of men, for we know that reckless ROBERT H. GOODWYN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. S3 courage is possessed by many who are blessed by moral bravery also in an eminent degree. We are sure that the boldest warrior can also be a gentle Christian, and we believe that a politician may be a patriot ; but just in proportion as these nobler traits are found in conjunction with the more common attributes, in the same ratio are their possessors entitled to increased honors. Whilst, therefore, we would have a proper meed awarded to all the meritorious, we only hope the day will some time come when the actions and sentiments of none but the truly wor thy will be held up as beacons for the guidance of their own and succeeding generations. One bright and glorious feature of the present era, of the nineteenth century, wherein it stands out in bold relief, far in advance of any former period, and which, more than aught else, proves the moral and intellectual advancement of mankind, is the fact, that now, more than ever before, is ready, cheerful and cordial approbation accorded to those real benefactors of their race, those noble-minded, true men, who, seeking not popular favor, striving not after political power, craving not per sonal aggrandizement, yet disinterestedly devote the labor of their great minds, and the force of their pure intellects, to the amelioration of the condition of their brethren, and the advancement of the happiness, social and moral, of their fellow-countrymen. No easy task is theirs no faint heart or coward will is competent to the fulfilment of their mis sion ; laboriously they toil, strenuously they strive, courageously they battle, undismayed they suffer, for the sake of principles, which they know must result in benefactions to those very maligners who hesitate not to heap contumely upon their heads and slanders upon their names. Dauntless, however, upheld by inward strength, still onward do these gallant ones press, until at last, triumphing by their virtue s might, the world hails them conquerors, society strives to do them honor, and their country ranks them as its chiefest ornament. Deserving of a foremost place in the ranks of this glorious band, in- titled to a prominent position amid this noble brotherhood, is the sub ject of this brief sketch ; for though we are aware that his merits, great as they are, are exceeded by his modesty, yet we are confident that his benevolence will induce him to pardon us for giving voice to the feel ings of his friends and the opinions of the public regarding his worth, rather than to his own too low estimate of his abilities. For no single dazzling achievement for no one act of brilliant reck lessness, flashing, meteor-like, red, lurid, and startling, across the path way of his life s sky, making an impression vivid and memorable only in proportion to the sombre sameness that preceded and followed the evanescent brightness, is Robert H. Goodwyn distinguished. These are the accidental and extrinsic circumstances that have given a place on history s page to too many men of but ordinary abilities, of but doubt ful moral worth. But by the intrinsic and heaven-bestowed qualities of bright intellectual capacity, of strict integrity, of pure morality, of correct judgment, of wide-reaching benevolence, of disinterestedness, and of ample courage to do and to dare, morally or physically, what conscience dictates by these, the attributes that govern circumstances and control events by these, the only characteristics that can com mand permanent respect, ensure lasting regard, and challenge universal 84 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. admiration, is Robert H. Goodwyn distinguished in a remarkable de gree. A soldier, a physician, a statesman, a banker, and a financier, has he been; and in each capacity has he so truly played his part, so excelled in every sntuation, that, for the time he occupied it, each seemed his only proper sphere. This is the most severe as well as the most correct test of human ability ; for the inward power to be thoroughly great in one capacity enables its possessor to be distinguished in aught to which his mind is directed energy, intellectuality and honesty being alike, under all circumstances, the real basis of true greatness. But few there are to whom this test can be satisfactorily applied. The many noble examples to the contrary furnished by the lives and actions of citizens of our country, from the earliest days of the republic down to the present time, have conclusively shown that distinguished ancestry is not essentially necessary to the creation and development of eminent and patriotic men. Whilst, however, the lack of attainments by his progenitors detracts nothing from the fame of him who has achieved a place and a name upon the record of his age, yet we cannot avoid feeling that an additional charm is lent to the character of one esteemed for his own worth, when we know that his father and his grandfather before him were possessed of the same excellent qualities for which their son and grandson is now admired and beloved. This good fortune of having parent and grand-parent, both paternal and ma ternal, whose deeds he could emulate, and whose example he could imitate with equal pride and pleasure, has been inherited by Colonel Goodwyn ; and a rich and a glorious heritage will his children enjoy in receiving as an heir-loom the character of such a father as theirs a dia mond link connecting them with the golden chain of the past. CAPTAIN ROBERT GOODWYN, the paternal grandfather of Robert H., was a native of Virginia, but emigrated from the Old Dominion to South Carolina, when very young. Here he settled a large plantation, and, during a long life of usefulness, won troops of friends by his kind ness and hospitality, and crowds of admirers by his patriotism and de votion to the interests of his country and adopted state. His wife was Miss Sarah Taylor, a daughter of Captain James Taylor, and a niece of Colonel Thomas Taylor both of which gentlemen were daring and efficient officers during the darkest days of our Revolutionary struggle. Colonel Thomas Taylor, particularly, was a most active partisan, and deserves a more conspicuous place than is allotted him in the history of those trying times. He served with Marion, and with Sumpter was always foremost in the actions against the tories, evincing on all occa- ions the most daring bravery and the coolest judgment ; and also com manded a regiment at the siege of Charleston. In this regiment ot Colonel Taylor s, Captain Robert Goodwyn commanded a company, and, after having done himself great credit by his conduct at the bom bardment of Fort Moultrie, was made a prisoner of war by the British upon the surrender of the city of Charleston. John Goodwyn, Esq., the father of Robert H., was a native and pro* ininent citizen of Richland District ; a gentleman of finished education, high moral worth and great benevolence, and blessed, too, with pecu niary means sufficient to enable him to give his feelings scope, he was ever actively engaged in promoting measures that had for their object ROBERT H. GOODWYN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 85 the advancement of his state and district, or the benefit of his fellow- citizens. Possessing the fullest confidence of the community, he was several times elected to represent their interests in the state legislature. Although but a lad when the scathing fires of partisan warfare were desolating our land, yet John Goodwyn proved that he inherited, in a full degree, the brave and patriotic spirit that has ever distinguished his family, by achieving a deed of daring, &c., when but a boy of fourteen years. This was no less a feat than shooting dead the notorious tory, Stallings a man of gigantic stature and a terror to the neighborhood who came within the reach of the youthful patriot s rifle, when John was serving with a volunteer company of whigs, whom he had run away from school to join. Mr. John Goodwyn died about 1809, leav ing ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest son now living. Robert H. Goodwyn was born in Richland District, July, 1795. After a thorough preparatory course, he entered the South Carolina College an institution that has given to the Union an unusually large number of distinguished men and here, such was his industry and so great were his acquirements, that he graduated with honor when but in his seventeenth year. This was in the latter part of 1812, when the last war with Great Britain was in progress, and our youthful graduate, having a strong natural ptedilection for a military life, and burning with a desire to lend what aid he might to the cause of his country, eagerly sought admission into the United States army. His applica- "tion was rewarded by a commission as ensign in the 10th regiment of infantry. Immediately upon the receipt of his appointment he hastened to join his corps, which was then serving under General Izard, on the northern frontier. Here his talents, as an officer, were so apparent, that, very shortly after his junction with his regiment, its commander, the gallant Colonel Clinch, appointed the newly-made ensign to the responsible office of adjutant a high and flattering compliment for so young a man and so recently commissioned an officer, but one that was fully deserved by the recipient and in this capacity he served until peace was declared in 1815. After the cessation of hostilities, many of the regiments were dis banded and the others re-organized, and young Goodwyn was attached to the seventh regiment of foot. At this time, what is now the wealthy State of Georgia dotted with handsome cities and flourishing villages, intersected by rail-roads, and covered with valuable plantations groan ing under luxurious crops was then nothing but a vast wilderness sparsely inhabited ; its woods, swamps and savannas, infested by bands of savage Creek and Seminole Indians, whose unruly and predatory habits caused the white citizens no small amount of uneasiness and anxiety. To keep these lawless inhabitants within due bounds and to repress their outrages, the seventh regiment was stationed in their country. Here, for eighteen months, did young Goodwyn remain with his regiment ; and, though opportunities for winning distinction there were none, yet trials, privations and dangers, were plenty. The greatest peril, however, which officers in such situations where the living is hard, the duty disagreeable and female society out of the question are threatened with, arises from the natural craving for excitement that 86 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. is implanted in an ardent breast; and the sparkling wine-cup and allur ing gaming-table, are too often resorted to by the mature in years as well as by the youthful soldier, to their own ultimate undoing. But, even here, where the temptation was so great, young Goodwyn main tained intact that moral integrity which has ever characterized him and succeeded in preserving those habits of strict temperance which enabled him in after years, and in an arduous campaign, to bear unhurt privations that wore out younger men. The friends of Goodwyn, seeing that an opportunity of his gaining eminence, as a military man, had passed with the termination of the war, and appreciating his character too justly to rest satisfied that he should be wasting his time in the routine of camp-life, so earnestly be sought him to relinquish the army, that, although his own strong pas sion for the service would have induced him to remain, in hopes of better days, he yielded to their solicitations and resigned his commis sion in 1817 ; being then in his twenty-second year. Debarred by circumstances from following his first choice of a profes sion, as soon as he returned home from the army, young Goodwyn com menced the study of medicine, and entered the office of that highly-es teemed and well-known physician, Dr. Edward Fisher, of Columbia: Devoting himself with constitutional ardor to the acquirement of the Vast array of facts that are necessary to be mastered by the honest student of the sublime science of medicine, he was, in a brief while, pre pared to attend with profit the lectures of the schools. The Medical College of New-York under such men as Hosack then enjoyed the reputation of being the best medical school in the Union ; and, after attending two courses of its lectures, from this institution, young Goodwyn obtained his diploma. A profession obtained, a permanent location and settlement prepara tory to the actualities of life was next to be thought of. Shortly after the possession of his doctorate, therefore, he sought in marriage and ob tained the hand of Miss Charlotte Ann Thompson, of St. Matthew s Parish, the amiable and lovely grand-daughter of the chivalrous Colonel William Thompson, who so bravely commanded the land forces at the siege of Charleston. Settling in St. Matthew s Parish, Doctor Goodwyn s time was most thoroughly employed, and he found full scope for his natural industry in the management of his large and valuable plantation, superadded to the laborious duties consequent upon an extensive medical practice in the country. Here, for ten years, did he continue bestowing those benefits upon the community in which he resided which no man has it in his power to bestow with such a liberal hand, as has the skilful and conscientious physician ; and, at the same time, setting an excellent ex ample to his neighbors by the judicious manner in which he conducted the business of his plantation. The requirements of his other interests demanding more of his atten tion than was compatible with his professional engagements, in 1828, after ten years faithful service as a physician, he relinquished the prac tice of medicine. This was the year in which the nullification question first began to be seriously advocated by the people of South Carolina ; and Dr. Goodwyn, not pausing to count the chances, nor disposed to EGBERT H. GOODWYN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 87 wait and discover which would prove the popular side ; but, governed then, as he has ever been, by his own conscientious belief, at once, with heart and soul, threw himself into the ranks of the state-rights party. The entire community having implicit reliance in Doctor Goodwyn s integrity of purpose, and entertaining great respect for his ability and judgment, his influence and example wonderfully strengthened the nul lification interest in his section of the state, and by that party he was elected as the most fearless and able exponent they could find for the expression of their opinions and the maintenance of their views in the legislature. Dr. Goodwyn was, therefore, an active and influential member of the legislature which called the convention for the purpose of nullifying the acts of the general government. He also, at this time, was complimented by being elected colonel of a regiment of riflemen, raised in Orangeburg district, to act in defence of the state.. Having served two terms as a representative with great honor to himself, and having vastly contributed to the advancement of the views of his constituents, Dr. Goodwyn was, immediately after his retirement from the House, elected senator from St. Matthew s Parish. This was in 1834. The Seminole war in Florida broke out in the following year, and the then Governor of South Carolina, the lamented and distinguished George McDuffie, gave the most unequivocal evidence of his own, as well as the best testimony of the public s high opinion of Dr. Goodwyn s talents, ability, and patriotism, by appointing him colonel of the mag nificent regiment of mounted riflemen furnished by the Palmetto state for service in the Florida campaign. True to his country s cause, prompt to obey her summons, and ready to devote his services to his state in whatever capacity he could best subserve her interests, Dr. Goodwyn at once accepted the tendered command, and, resigning for a season the senatorial toga, he entered with all his characteristic enthusiasm upon the laborious duties of the soldier. The regiment of which Colonel Goodwyn was commander, was com posed of the pride and flower of Carolina s chivalry ; and, thanks to their gallant leader s thorough knowledge, his untiring zeal, and his un remitting attention to his own duties and their necessities, it was, in a very brief time, one of the handsomest and most effective regiments in the service. We heard one who had the pleasure of seeing them say, " that Goodwyn s regiment, nine hundred strong, as it performed its evolutions with the precision of the old guard, and with the rapidity and fire that none but freemen can exhibit, was one of the most beauti ful and captivating sights he ever witnessed." The privations, the sickness and suffering endured by the army during that tedious Indian war ; the hardships of all kinds they were compelled to encounter from hunger and exposure, from lack of sufficient camp equip age, and from the ravages of the climate, in addition to the ordinary and usual troubles consequent upon a life of active service in an enemy s country, are historical facts with which every one is familiar. Of all these ills, and their name was truly legion, the regiment of mounted riflemen received their full share. But one advantage did these noble fellows enjoy over their brave companions in the army : in their colonel they found not only an able and efficient officer, a worthy head, compe tent ever to direct, and willing always to lead them in the line of duty, 88 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. but in him they also found a kind and considerate friend, a gentle com panion in their hours of sickness, a faithful protector and a prudent ad viser in their dark and dreary days ; for, true to his stern republican principles, then, as ever, acting as he spoke, practising what he preached, Colonel Goodwyn only made use of the advantages conferred upon him by his rank for the benefit of his men. Stinting himself with Spartan self-denial to contribute to the wants of the sick and weak ones of his command, he fared as did the poorest of his soldiers, sharing with them every toil, suffering every privation, bearing uncomplainingly every discomfort, and only differing from his men by the greater amount of labor, anxiety, and responsibility, that fell to his lot in consequence of his rank. The war in Florida, where the foe were skulking savages, dodging from swamp to swamp, firing upon their adversaries from skilfully- planned ambuscades, or harrassing their flanks in the gloomy night- hours, was not one calculated to afford the ambitious soldier many chances for brilliant display. But on one occasion Colonel Goodwyn had an opportunity of showing the quality of the metal he was made of, and right clearly and truly did it ring ; proving that, if his heart was kind, and ever ready to throb at pity s call, his courage was as bright and polished, as firm and durable, as the tempered steel of his sword. It was a picture for the pencil of an artist. The dusky twilight of a summer s evening was beginning to envelop in a murky mantle the face of nature. The nine hundred mounted men, defiling with lagging tread, wearied by a summer s-day march, were slowly winding their long drawn-out line along a narrow wood-path, scarce wide enough to permit two horsemen abreast. In their front a high knoll arose : its sides and summit, save for a space some sixty yards in diameter, stud ded with high-reaching, wide-branching, huge old forest trees. Here, in the clearing on the hill-top, out in bold relief, out in the bright light beyond the shadows, Colonel Goodwyn turned his horse and paused to view his advancing men. But scarcely had he turned, when, from every tree, trunk and bunch of bushes, before, behind, on either side, flashed the glare of discharged rifles, and thick and fast around him flew the deadly leaden hail dispatched by an Indian volley. By providential interposition, the rush of hurtling missiles passed him harmless by ; and, undisturbed, undismayed, undaunted, there, exposed to volley after volley from the savage fire, did Colonel Goodwyn remain for at least the space of ten minutes, as coolly and collectedly as if he had been upon review. At last, his men coming up, he charged upon the cowardly foe and scattered them. So charmed was General Eustis with Colonel Goodwyn s admirable conduct under such a galling fire, that he solicited him to make a re port of the engagement to General Scott, then commander-in-chief; but Goodwyn s modesty prevented him from reporting an action in which he had borne such a conspicuous part, and he was deaf to Eustis en treaties, mentioning the matter, in his official despatch, merely as a slight skirmish. After returning from the Florida campaign, Colonel Goodwyn again entered the Senate, and was at once appointed chairman of the com mittee on military affairs. At that time that committee was the most ROBERT H. GOODWYN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 89 important one in that body, as it was occupied in revising and re organizing the entire military system of South Carolina. The clear intellect, the practical knowledge, and the far-seeing wisdom brought to this task by Colonel Goodwyn, are clearly exemplified by the result of the labors of this committee, of which he was at once chairman and chief director ; for, to their suggestions and recommendations is our beloved state indebted for the perfect system of military organization which now distinguishes her above any of her sister sovereignties. In 1837, the development of his family necessitated the removal of Colonel Goodwyn to Columbia, for the purpose of availing himself of the greater facilities there afforded for the thorough education of his children, of whom he is blessed with eight. No sooner was he located at the capital, than his fellow-citizens be came desirous of again availing themselves of his tried ability and known judgment and integrity ; and he was appointed by the legis lature to fill the responsible and arduous post of president of the Branch Bank of the State of South Carolina. This position he has ever since filled, and still holds, with equal honor to himself, profit to the state, and to the pleasure of every citizen of the commonwealth who has dealings with the institution over which he presides. To show fully how many attributes are requisite for the possessor of the position Colonel Goodwyn now occupies to make clearly manifest the amount of judgment, of kindness, and of virtue, that one in his situation must be master of, to enable him to do his duty to his fellow-citizens, his state and himself we will here make a short diversion, and take a brief glance at the THE BANK OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. Money, in one sense, as far as the dictionary defines its uses, is but a circulating medium. But money, in point of fact, is really and truly now the visible type of everything that man in his unregenerated con dition craves. In itself, intrinsically, money, like iron, is but an im passive and inanimate metal, insufficient for any single necessity of life ; but occupying the position a high state of civilization has formed for it, it is the representative of time, of power, of comfort, of inde pendence, of luxury ; indeed, so many desirable requisites are at its com mand, that its name is almost universally recognized by the bulk of our race as a synonym for that undiscovered something which every mortal hopes for under the title of happiness. Wherever, therefore, a large quantity of the precious commodity is accumulated, there, necessarily, will a great share of public attention be directed ; and those persons who have the control of this so keenly sought-after end and aim of human effort and ingenuity, will ever find themselves subject to a more than usual amount of suspicion, slander, and misrepresentation. Let the motives that actuate them be as pure and as holy as those that inspire the mother who risks her own life to save her child s ; let their actions be as open as the boundless sky ; let their private characters be as spotless as an infant s, yet all will not suffice ; and they must be patient whilst they hear the purity of their intentions doubted, the honesty of their deeds questioned, and the in tegrity of their principles canvassed. Just in proportion, too, as they exert the power confided to them for the benefit of their fellows in an exact ratio to the amount of good they effect, in inverse measure to 90 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the degree of happiness they confer, and to the misery and suffering they avert will they always and invariably find themselves be-rated, slurred, and stigmatized. At the first glance this appears unnatural, unfair, and incredible ; but facts, every day transpiring, demonstrate its truth, whilst only slight observation is necessary to discover its cause. The passion of avarice is a moral simoon, that blights and shrivels every finer feeling of the human heart before its deadly breath ; every tender sentiment vanishes, every gentle emotion departs, every throb of pity flies, every sprig of generosity dies, every bud of charity withers and wilts leaving to the unhappy object over whom it sweeps, nothing but an insane greed for gain, that will be gratified, regardless of all prin ciple or moral law. These monomaniacs we will not call them des picable, for they are not sane who so miserably mistake the means for the end, and so brutishly devote their energies and prostitute their abilities for the purpose of heaping dollars upon dollars merely to leave when death calls the gatherer away find their greatest harvests in seasons of public calamity, or in cases of private necessity or indivi dual misfortune. Whoever, then, interposes between this soulless class and what they consider their legitimate prey, must expect as they will assuredly feel the full weight of their unscrupulous wrath. This is the source the envenomed tongues of disappointed usurers from whence arise the first inuendoes, the half-uttered suspicions, the mutter ed misgivings, that, fanned by their originators, cherished by their care and propagated through their influence, gradually accumulate force and volume, and eventuate in public slanders against those men to whom the people really are under countless obligations. For, having the power, the honest and conscientious controllers of money, governed by high and patriotic notions, always avert public calamities, remedy private misfortunes and soothe personal sufferings and others prevent these traffickers in blood and tears, these dealers in human woe, from having a plethora of victims, and render it impossible for them to realize vast profits ffom the miseries of their fellows. Standing, as it does, a strong, embattled and impregnable rampart between the people and the money-dealers an ark of safety, open always to the meritorious necessitous, affording them a perfect shelter against the grinding exactions of the Shylocks of the land it is most natural that the Bank of the State of South Carolina should have been slandered, and abused, and misrepresented, as it has been for years past. But it is now also time that these slanders should cease, and that the intelligence of the people of a gallant state should be no longer outraged by the propagation of falsities, coined by the heartless misers and circulated by designing demagogues, for the sole purpose of ad vancing their own base and selfish ends, particularly when these grovel ling aims can only be accomplished at the expense of high-minded and noble-spirited gentlemen, and by the prejudice and embarrassment of a glorious institution, which has contributed so eminently to the honor and reputation of the state, so generally to the welfare of its citizens, and so undeniably to the security of the entire commonwealth. Created by the power of the people, through their delegates, the legis lature ; its capital furnished by the state, and the credit of South Caro- ROBERT H. GOODWYN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 91 Una, in its sovereign capacity, pledged for the redemption of its liabili ties and the fulfilment of its promises, under the constant supervision of the public representatives, its officers are appointed by the state, and having no object separate from the welfare of the institution, it is simply absurd to imagine that the interests of the bank can be other than identical with the interests of the people. Having faithfully and accurately kept books in which every transac tion is legibly recorded by competent and careful clerks, and these ac counts open at all times to the inspection of the legislature, who annu ally appoint intelligent and disinterested committees to examine them ; with such a man as C. M. Furman as president of the Mother Bank ; and with such men as R. H. Goodwyn and J. Salmon as presiding offi cers of its branches each, too, acting by the advice and with the as sistance of twelve directors gentlemen of high social standing, unim peachable veracity and great business ability all pledged to act im partially ; with all these requisites, safeguards and appliances, it is merely ridiculous to suppose that the operations of the bank can be any thing but honorable, praiseworthy and judicious because, for them to be otherwise is both physically and morally impossible. Physically impossible, because it must be impracticable and beyond the power of man to conceal deviations or prevent the discovery of peculations. Morally impossible for wrong to be done, or favoritism shown, because the whole legislature, the entire corps of officers and clerks, and every .one of the thirty-six directors, would all, each and individually, have to be corrupt, unprincipled and perjured, before such things could be ac complished. Yet, in the face of these facts, which of themselves are sufficient to convince any intelligent and candid man, that the stories current against the bank are merely malicious fabrications yet, we repeat, in the face of these indisputable facts, by the instrumentality of political aspirants in want of hobbies, backed by the influence of thwarted usurers, so many tales have been palmed upon the public, under so many and such specious guises, so often repeated and presented in such multifarious shapes, that many worthy citizens of the Palmetto state, who would scorn to harbor an unworthy thought, have been made to believe that the bank of the State of South Carolina is a most corrupt establishment, support ed exclusively as a means of popular oppression. Those who thus be lieve, in consequence of the misrepresentations of designing ones, we can readily forgive for the wrong they unintentionally commit, but what must be the debasement of the moral standard of those who have caused them thus to think ? Our limits debar us from making any extended remarks, either as to the bank or its policy, though we are certain that the few plain facts we have stated will carry more weight with them the more thoroughly they are investigated and the more closely they are sifted. We can not close, h owever, without indulging ourselves in the pleasure of stat ing one or two instances which came within our knowledge, that will clearly and conclusively show both the manner in which the bank bene* fits the people, and also how and where it interferes with the transac tions of the usurers, and consequently excites their energetic wrath and active animosity. 92 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The first is the case of an honest and industrious but illiterate farmer of the up-country. A long life of economy and toilsome effort had enabled him to possess a small but unusually productive and fertile plan tation. This was his all ; upon it he lived and labored ; and in the society of his wife and children, and in the management of his luxuriant crops, his life passed happily by. Upon either side of this farmer s land were situated the fields of two rich neighbors, who, with covet ous eyes, daily looked upon the poor man s smiling acres, and longed to add them to the thousands they already owned. Time and again had they endeavored to purchase them, but in vain. At last, as he was falling into the sere and yellow leaf, this hitherto care ful farmer contracted the fatal habit of indulging too freely with the bottle ; embarrassments necessarily followed, and in a few years he found himself in debt, to the amount of five thousand dollars. Pay ment of his notes was demanded, and, to his astonishment, he found that all his liabilities were in the hands of his two wealthy neighbors. He asked them for time, and offered unexceptionable security, but they would not grant it, and insisted upon having the money at once, or threatened to sell him out by the sheriff. Almost heart-broken, the old man made every exertion that he could to raise the necessary funds, but to raise large sums of money in the country, at particular seasons of the year, is almost impossible, and all the farmer s efforts were unavailing. Judgment was entered up; the day of sale was announced; and the old man had resigned himself to despair, when a sympathizing friend, who had a knowledge of business, asked the distressed farmer if he had applied to the bank for help. "No," he answered, "I hardly know where the bank is, and I am not acquainted with a single officer of the institution, and know nothing about bank business." His friend assured him that this made no difference; and, in consequence of this wise adviser s solicitations, the old man, in his homespun suit, made his way to Columbia, and presented himself before the president of the branch bank. His story was soon told ; the worth of his plantation was ascertained to be at least ten thousand dollars, and the directors immediately ad vanced him, upon the security of a mortgage, the money necessary to liquidate his liabilities. Joyfully did the relieved citizen turn himself homeward, the sun seeming brighter, the way shorter, and the air sweeter, than it had ever before appeared to him. The next day was the time appointed for selling the homestead, but no longer did he dread its advent ; for, early in the morning, much to the astonishment, but more to the chagrin and disappointment of his creditors, he settled the notes they held against him, and prevented the execution of their un holy scheme to dispossess him of his home at half its value by a forced sale. Deep and dire were the maledictions uttered by those rich men against the institution which enabled a poor man to guard against their machinations. But the heartfelt praises of the rescued farmer more than counterbalanced them before the tribunal on high, if they were not heard so loud on earth ; for, startled by the danger in which he had been placed, never more did he touch the ruinous wine cup, but took a fresh start in energy and industry ; paid off, in a few years, principal and interest of the money so opportunely advanced ; and, thanks to the wise liberality of the bank, instead of dying, as most probably he would ROBERT H. GOODWYN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 9g have done, a degraded and homeless drunkard, to be buried at the ex pense of the district, he is living under the shelter of his own vine and fig-tree, and a respected and useful citizen. Another case : In Spartanburg district, a few years since, during a season of unusual business depression, and at a time when commercial difficulties had rendered the money-market remarkably stringent, a citi zen died who was possessed of a large and valuable estate, valued at some twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. The executor had hardly entered upon the duties of his office, when to his astonishment he was informed by a noted money-lender in the vicinity, that he held a con fession of judgment against the deceased for the sum of ten thousand dollars. The immediate payment of this large sum was demanded. The executor reminded the holder of the judgment of the great scarcity of money throughout the entire country, and told him that even in the cities the capitalists were all short, and reminded him of the perfectly safe nature of the security he had for the liquidation of the claim. All this the creditor admitted, but insisted upon having his money without delay, or he would realize by selling the estate through the sheriff. The executor knew that the hard-hearted man had the power to do as he threatened ; he also knew that if the estate was put up by the sheriff, to be sold for cash, that it would not bring, in the then state of the money-market, more than one-third of its just value ; he also was aware, if things took this course, that the widow and orphans of his deceased friend would be cast penniless and homeless upon the world ; and be sides, he felt certain that the object of the money-lender in demanding a settlement then, was to force the property into market, so that he might become the purchaser, and add to his already overgrown fortune at the expense of the widow and the fatherless ones. Determined to avert the threatened calamity from the heads of those who had been intrusted to his care, if it were in his power, he made every exertion to find the money. Individual after individual did he apply to, but without accomplishing his object. Almost despairing, he, as a last re course, thought of seeking aid from the bank, though he had but little hope of receiving aid there, for he knew how much at that time the in stitution was straitened. But he applied, stated the case plainly and fairly to the president of the Columbia branch, and at once received his assurance that, if it were possible, the bank would lend the requisite aid. The next day the executor told his story to the board of direc tors, and they, like the president, sympathizing strongly with the un protected ones, at once dispatched a special messenger to Charleston to lay the matter before the mother bank and ask her aid, for the branch had received orders not to let out a dollar. The messenger went to Charleston and returned with the necessary money, which, on the secu rity of a mortgage, was handed over to the executor, who, when hope had become hopeless, found himself able, by the bank s generosity, to pay the claim of the money-lender, and to preserve to the family of his departed friend the handsome competency which had been bequeathed to them, but which, but for the assistance of the bank, would have been refc from them. The anger of the usurer, when he found the prize he had calculated upon as already his taken from his grasp, was fearful ; he swore that he would never cease striving to have the infernal institu 94 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tion which had caused him the disappointment, put a stop to, for, said he, "this is the third time it has caused me to lose a splendid bargain, and it is no use to be rich in South Carolina as long as this blasted bank keeps a man from taking advantage of hard times." One more instance, and we have done ; for though we could cite simi lar cases by the score, these are enough to prove conclusively the real spirit by which the actions of this admirable institution are governed. During a period of scarcity, a rich and distinguished gentleman of Fair- field district applied to the branch bank for a discount of one thousand dollars. For several weeks he was unable to obtain the accommoda tion he desired, when, hearing that in this interval several of his neigh bors, who were poor, had obtained money from the bank, he became offended, and proceeding to Columbia, requested of the president an explanation of the cause why he, whose security was of the first class, could not get what he wished, when his comparatively very poor neigh bors could procure money." "That," replied the president, "is the very reason they got it because they were poor. The help they wanted they could obtain in no other place, and it was absolutely essential to prevent them from suffering. But with you the case is different ; you can obtain credit anywhere, and though you may be inconvenienced, you cannot be injured by a denial here. We have but little money at our disposal just now, and the wants of the community are great, so we help those who most stand in need of assistance." The force of the reasoning and the justice of the action were at once apparent to the gentleman, and he exclaimed " God bless the bank ! and may it ever be preserved to benefit the state !" Yet, this is the institution which has been so vilely slandered by politicians, writers and speakers. May it hereafter have justice done it ! When we remember that banks and all other public institutions are in themselves moral nonentities, and that it is the officers and directors there of who are actually the parties referred to, when the management and ac tions of corporations are spoken of, the necessity of introducing the fore going remarks in relation to the bank of the state in this article, becomes at once apparent. And the fact that the subject of this sketch has for so many years since given unqualified satisfaction both to the friends and enemies of the institution, speaks louder than words in proof of his pos sessing the many admirable and uncommon traits of character which are here attributed to him. Truly is Robert II. Goodwyn a citizen of whom any state might be proud, a gentleman whose presence would benefit any community, a man whose name would reflect honor upon any office. Mentally, he is independent, firm, energetic and discrimi nating ; morally, he is conscientious, upright and pure whilst socially, he is the very personification of a southern gentleman polished in his manners, affable and conciliatory in his deportment, hospitable, generous and benevolent in his domestic intercourse. That he may long be per mitted to enjoy the vigorous health which a good constitution, tem perate habits and a clear conscience now bless him with, and that his valuable life may be spared for many years, are the sincere wishes of his countless friends. WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 95 HON. WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS WILLARD PHILLIPS is one of the many Americans, especially New- Englanders, who are the architects of their own fortunes, having com menced life under what are usually esteemed, and, to many young men, are in fact great disadvantages in the way of -obtaining an advan tageous social position. In his case, as in many others, the bearing up against the obstacles from want of pecuniary means and external helps, and overcoming them, constituted, of itself, a very useful part of edu cation. Bridgewater, in the county of Plymouth, or The Old Colony, as it is more frequently called, in Massachusetts, was his native town, where he was born on the 19th of December, 1784. His infancy was passed there, and his childhood on the borders of Northampton and Williamsburgh, in the county of Hampshire, where his relatives re sided, and his youth, to the age of nineteen, in the town of Cumming- ton in the same county. To that age his only means of education were the common schools of the time, namely, at first that of a school mistress in summer, and a schoolmaster for the winter months, and afterwards only the latter, in which Noah Webster s spelling-book was the principal classic. At the age of eighteen, having gone through the usual transformation of New-England boys of any bookish propensi ties, from pupil to instructor, he took charge of a school in the neigh boring town of Goshen. He has recently, as he relates, passed through this same neighborhood, which, after an intervening half century, sug gested thick- coming reminiscences and reflections. He at first, on re visiting the scene, supposed himself to be alone, near his old boarding- house, now going to decay, in the midst of another and strange genera tion, until the past and present were brought into connection, by meet ing with one of his younger pupils, whose vivid and affectionate recol lection of his early teacher occasioned a cordial greeting, and who gave an account of the fortunes and fates of those of the former old people, now dead, and former young people, now old. Young Phillips had always been in the advanced rank among those of his own age in the studies then pursued in the public schools, the attendance on which were interludes to his agricultural employment. At the age last above-mentioned, after teaching a second time for a few months in the town of Chesterfield, he broke ground in the Latin Ian. guage under the instruction of his fellow-townsman, companion and friend of the same age, Calvin Briggs, who having graduated at Wil liams College, was then studying under Dr. Bryant, a distinguished medical practitioner, and father of William Cullen Bryant, since so well known by his literary reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Between the last named and Judge Phillips, a friendship subsequently sprung up and still subsists. Dr. Briggs, by whose assistance Phillips was initiated into the rudimental mysteries of Latin, afterwards set- tied in Marblehead, where he continued in medical practice until his death, in the present year of 1852, between whom and his former 06 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. pupil, a mutual regard was always maintained, although their differ ent paths seldom admitted of their meeting. Phillips early decided on Harvard as the place of his education. The prospect was not without its discouragements. Education at this or any similar institution, cannot be obtained without a considerable expense for one whose only means are his learning and his credit, but he " bated not a jot of heart or hope," being always cheered on by his friends. He next pursued his studies for a considerable time with Mr, James Thomas, of Bridgewater, who had in his youth been pronounced bachelor of arts by the authority of the government of Harvard Col lege, and by the same authority commissioned to teach others a privilege of which he had availed himself to some extent, but had never made teaching, or either of the employments sometimes by courtesy denominated the learned professions, his regular business. His residence was on his own grounds, in the midst of pleasant orchards and fields ; he kept large feathered flocks, carried on his farm, laboring himself withal, in which his pupil joined him a part of the time. At this time and afterwards, until pretty well advanced in life, Mr. Thomas continued a bachelor, not only as far as the arts and sciences, and the commission issued by authority committed to the president of Harvard College, were concerned, but also in respect to what Mr. Oldbuck would call " the woman kind." Mr. Phillips was afterwards for a few months the pupil of the Rev. Mr. Niles, of Abing- ton, finished his studies, preparatory to entering college, at the academy of what was at that time the south parish of Bridgewater, a flourishing institution in a pleasant locality then under the preceptorship of Richard Sanger, who had been recently a tutor in Harvard College, and was accordingly well versed in all the learning necessary for matriculation there. While at this institution Phillips boarded in the family of Dr. Noah Fearing, the principal physician of the place, whom he takes pleasure in commemorating as from that time one of his most at tached and kindest friends, who with one other subsequently advanced to h\m all the means requisite (in addition to his earnings by teaching and otherwise) for completing his education, solely on his own personal responsibility. The debt thus contracted was finally discharged with interest, when he said to Phillips, that soon after the latter became an inmate of his family, he had resolved to become the creditor of his new acquaintance to any amount requisite to meet the expenses of the university. After filling the period of two years and a half with study, and teaching others in the towns of Abington, Easton and Marshfield, with other auxiliary industry, Phillips found himself on horseback with Mr. Sanger s certificate of his moral character in his pocket, on the day of the annual commencment in the summer of 1806, with his face set Cam- bridge- ward. The route was, as he states, by the way of Boston, on a somewhat cloudy evening, through streets rather perplexing. The scene was one of an exhilarating mysterious tumultuousness, to a solitary wayfarer in the night time on his first visit, if a thronged city is new to him, he does not soon forget the interminable rows of lamps in the streets and on the bridges; throngs of people jolting each other, and WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 97 hurrying to and fro, seemingly not knowing whither or wherefore ; rumbling of carriages on the pavements and on the bridges far and near, and sounds of voices and musical instruments in the dwellings, and apparitions in gay attire seen here and there through an open door or window. When all these novelties were left behind, and the uproar of the city had subsided into a distant " solemn roar" of the bells giving signal to exemplary people to extinguish their lights, the scene changed, and Cambridge presented itself with tents arranged in the manner of streets on the common, with shows, music, dancing, and revelries, menageries of wild beasts, jugglers, and all the antics, and frolics and follies which constituted the fifth act of the commencement drama of the good old time. On the following day the trial of the candidates, conducted by in quisitors in black dresses, being passed, Phillips found himself one of a band of sixty-four admitted freshmen, quite a large class for those times. A number of these, then new acquaintances, in his case (as often happens) have contributed very materially to those sociabilities, sympathies and mutual good offices, which go to make up an important part of what is called one s life, not merely for the four college years of it, but also the subsequent ones. Among the number were some who have since been known to the public, viz. : Joseph G. Kendall, member of Congress from Massachusetts ; Jas. G. King, of New-York, who has -also been member of Congress from New-Jersey ; Win. F. De Saussure, of South Carolina, member of the Senate of the United States in 1852; Francis Boot, now of London, distinguished by his attainments in natural history, and known to every American who visits England, as a skilful, respected, and esteemed physician; Theodore Lyman, of Boston, lately deceased, who published some account of his travels in Europe, also a statistical and economical treatise, who enjoyed civil distinctions in his own state, and is commemorated for his donations while living, and for his bequests for charitable foundations, especially to the state reform school in Massachusetts; Octavius Pickering, known by the Reports which bear his name; Francis Bassett and John Davis, both successively clerks of the courts of the United States ; Dr. William J. Walker, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, highly distin guished in his profession, particularly as a surgeon ; Benjamin Faneuil Hunt, of Charleston, South Carolina, known in the profession of the law ; John Cotton, distinguished in the medical profession in Marietta ; Stephen Fales, a member of the senate in Ohio ; Jonas Wheeler, who was during a session president of the senate in Maine, and others of professional and civil distinction, and others again, some of whom are subsequently mentioned, less known to the public, perhaps, but not less meritorious or worthy to be remembered, if it were the present purpose to give a full catalogue of Judge Phillips intimate friends. There were, however, two other of his classmates who were fellow- graduates with him whom he desires to be particularly mentioned ; one of them, his very intimate friend and companion, Joseph Swasey Farley, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, the first scholar and most talented member of his class. Farley gained the first prize, and Phillips the second, for dissertations then, as now, given to the Sophomores. He engaged in 7 98 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. mercantile life, and died early in the East Indies. The other classmate referred to was Edward Strong, youngest son of Caleb Strong, then, and for some years afterwards, Governor of Massachusetts. Strong was Phillips chum in their senior year. He was talented and accom plished, but extremely unpretending, to which, in some degree, was at tributed his being omitted in the distribution of parts for public per formance at the graduation of his class. His friend and chum thereupon used his influence with the class to have him elected to make the ad dress to them on leaving college, which is usually assigned to one holding a distinguished rank for scholarship. Strong came off with much eclat, and fully justified the appointment. He died soon after being graduated, and his memory is affectionately remembered by all who knew him, especially by his chum. Judge Phillips relates that, after one of the vacations, Strong men tioned, that Greek studies happening to be the subject of conversation at some time while he had been at home in Northampton, his father, then considerably advanced in years, surprised him by incidentally re peating, unhesitatingly, from memory, some fifty lines, more or less, of the beginning of the Iliad an indication of early scholarship and of a retentive memory which few of his successors at college could give. The subject of this sketch was on intimate terms of friendship with most of those above mentioned, and with some others of the class sub sequently mentioned, and the friendship continued with those who have de ceased during their lives, and still continues with the survivors ; and he states, that he does not recollect to have had any misunderstanding, or reciprocation of injuries, resentments, or jealousies, with any of his uni versity associates during his life ; and they have afforded him material help in his social, literary, professional, and business pursuits, during his subsequent years, which he has been ready to reciprocate. In his junior or senior year, there was assigned to him the leading per formance at one of the exhibitions, which, as it happened, was the occasion of his contracting one of his most grateful and cherished friendships. Mr. Peter Wainwright, and Mrs. Wainwright, his wife, the daughter of the distinguished Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, formerly of Boston, and mother of Dr. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, of New- York, were then residing in Cambridge. Mrs. Wainwright happened to be present at the exhibition. Something in Phillips performance, or his manner not his good de livery, for he did not speak set performances well struck Mrs. Wain- wright s attention and excited her interest, and she invited him to her house ; and from that time until her death, some twenty years after- wards, the most intimate, and mutually-confiding, and never varying friendship continued to subsist between them, and still subsists between Judge Phillips and her surviving sons. Mrs. Wainwright was, in many respects, an extraordinary woman. She was of a social disposition, and possessed surpassing powers of conversation ; she was philanthropic, liberal-minded, and intellectual ; somewhat adventurous and specula tive, but high-toned in her habits of thinking; a very considerable reader ; had resided some years in England ; had a wide acquaintance with leading and distinguished persons ; was a good observer, and did not forget what she had learned. She was, accordingly, an exceedingly interesting and useful friend to one who was in the period of his social WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 99 noviciate, when the society of an intelligent, cultivated female, of greater age and experience, is most material. Besides the small fund of some hundred and thirty dollars with which Phillips started at the university, with such economy as he could practice, and such alleviations of the expense as the college could lend, and such auxiliary aid as teaching during the winter vacations would afford, he found himself, on leaving college, encumbered with a liability of some six hundred dollars, which it behooved him to provide for while he was acquiring his profession. He, accordingly, immediately became an assistant to the Rev. Dr. Asa Eaton, in a school in Boston, giving part of his time to professional studies by reading Coke upon Littleton with his friend and classmate, Kendall. In the latter part of the year, through the influence of his classmate in college, and ever since intimate friend, Thomas A. Dexter, Esq., he began a school on his own account, which he gave up before the end of the year, on being appointed tutor in college, as teacher in Latin at first, and afterwards in arithmetic, geometry, and natural philosophy, during four years in the whole. In his senior year his eyes had begun to be weak, so that he depended partly upon his chum, Strong, for reading, particularly during evenings. Their habit was, when the next morning s lesson had been studied or neglected, and all the preparations for sleep made, except extinguishing the light placed near to Strong s bed conveniently for reading, to give the remaining hour to some English classic, whose pages Strong s melo dious tone, fluent, distinct utterance, and graceful inflexions and ca dences, (all spontaneous, and inherited from his father,) made more interesting. ^ Judge Phillips sight has been occasionally quite weak, and never strong to the present time, so that he has not usually been able to use his eyes for continuous reading, at most, over two or three hours in the twenty-four. He has accordingly depended partly upon some friend for eyesight, which, though it has compelled him to total abstinence from the delightful solitary nocturnal reveries of intemperate reading, to which he might otherwise have had the satisfaction of addicting him self, yet it has been attended, like most troubles, with its compensa tions, for he has most of his life, since reading some of the best authors with Strong, to the present time, had some associate with whom to read with mutual interest on one subject or another, and much of the time his companions have been such that social reading has been as instructive, as well as more agreeable, than solitary could have been. The period of years passed by him at the university was in the early part of Dr. Kirkland s presidency, whose friendship towards Mr. Phillips then began, and continued during his life, which the latter reckons as one of the most fortunate circumstances of his own. Every one who was on terms of intimacy with Dr. Kirkland cherishes the remembrance of him with admiration and affection. He was, in person, well organ ized and proportioned ; his features, which may now be witnessed, as rescued from time, in the likeness painted by Stewart, hanging in Har vard hall, were of a fine cast ; his aspect was winning, and full of be nignity ; his manners were marked by a gentlemanly, polished, serene, negligent ease, and civil frankness. He had an instinctive perception of the characters of people, and was quick to observe their foibles and 100 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. weaknesses, as well as their excellencies; and so free was he from jealousy, envy, selfishness, and conceit, that no person more heartily admired and applauded those excellencies and performances which came most nearly in competition with his own pretensions. He had read largely, and remembered well ; his taste was accurate ; he had a keen wit, and great felicity of phrase. His very deficiencies, such as de- sultoriness, want of steadiness, fixedness, and tenacity of purpose, and of a sustained sturdy self-reliance, helped to prevent those barriers which are not unfrequently raised between persons of trancendent cha racter and their intimate acquaintances, and served to endear him to his friends rather than to alienate them. Such is a fragmentary sketch of the characteristics of the distinguished Dr. John Thornton Kirkland. He treated Mr. Phillips with the greatest kindness, from their first acquaintance, introduced him to some of the leading men at that time in Massachusetts, particularly to the Hon. George Cabot, to whose kind ness Mr. Phillips was afterwards greatly indebted. While Mr. Phillips was instructor in Harvard College the system of the scale of merit since used in that institution was introduced. It had been difficult to assign the performances at commencement and exhibitions, for each professor and tutor would, in many instances, assign to the same student a different rank of scholarship, and a different degree of merit in other respects, and it was not easy for any one to determine the comparative merit of the students from those different opinions, as it was not possible to understand from a mere general statement how much, on the whole, each instructor considered any one to have the lead of others in respect to whom the comparison was made, so that no notion could be formed of the aggregate result of the various judg ments. The distribution of parts at some exhibition being in discus sion, and the questions becoming more difficult to decide at each suc cessive meeting of the faculty, Mr. Phillips at length proposed that each should make a scale of merit of the students in question in his de partment. This was opposed by some, particularly one of the older professors, on the ground that it would be reducing all the depart ments to an equality, to which Mr. Phillips replied, that they might, if the majority chose to do so, give different degrees of weight to the different departments. Still it was strenuously opposed. In the mean time Mr. Phillips made a list of the different students to whom the dis cussion related, and asked one member after another, separately, while the desultory discussion was still going on, what number to put down for each, and in this way constructed a scale, and made up the result ing aggregate, all which was done in the course of half of an hour or less, without hindering the debate, which was still proceeding to very little p-jrpose. Mr. Phillips then read the aggregate of the different responses. The process had the effect of putting an end to the discussion, for each one being thus furnished with a key to the com parative judgments of the others, readily made up his own, and the matters in question were quickly settled, either by an entire unani mity, or by so decided a majority as to preclude further debate. The method was so obvious, convenient, and even necessary to any satisfactory decision, that it has prevailed ever since in the university, not merely in reference to the assignment of parts and awarding dis- WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 101 tinctions, but has been carried too far into the entire discipline in the opinion of some persons of weight and authority, so as to cause the marks about trivial matters to make too great a figure, and give the de cisions too much of a merely clerical character. They think that the scale should not be carried to great minuteness, and that the propor tionate weight of different matters should be regarded, and that the addition should not be itself the final judgment, but be subject to the exercise of a large discretion. Parts of Adams s Roman Antiquities were added to the course of in struction in the college at Mr. Phillips suggestion, though his impres sion is, that the book was introduced after he left. This branch has since been enlarged and other more recent text-books substituted. He, also, at the request of President Kirkland, made a sketch for a change in the system of instruction, the main features of which were, first, that the students should, during their freshman year, have such local accommodations as to give them easy access to their instructors, at all times of the day, and subject their conduct and studies to more constant and direct supervision, while their habits of study and deport ment were forming, besides having regular exercises, as tests of their application and proficiency; second, that, in each different branch of study, the initiatory training should be much more thorough, and the recita tions and examinations as frequent as practicable, but that, afterwards, when the student had made such progress as to be able more success fully to instruct himself, less time should be lost by a whole class or division, in waiting for abortive attempts to extort evidence of diligence or intelligence from pupils who have made no attempt, or only ineffec tual ones, to learn ; third, that the concurrence and succession of dif ferent branches of study Should be modified, so as to render one, in a greater degree, a relief and auxiliary to another. These propositions have not been specifically acted upon, and there may be less chance for improvement, and more practical difficulties in the way, than Mr. Phillips supposed on a hasty and imperfect investiga tion. During this period, Mr. Phillips made his earlier attempts in print. One was a pamphlet printed during the war of 1812, entitled, "An Appeal to the Public Spirit of the Federalists and the Good Sense of the Democrats," which, however, attracted little notice, and is probably forgotten by everybody but the writer, and hardly remembered by him. It was an exhortation to both parties, to united energy in defence of the country and prosecution of the war. His other attempts were in the newspapers, the most elaborate of which was a review of the works of Robert Treat Paine, published about 1813, in the Boston Repertory, which was more successful than the pamphlet. During this second college life, Mr. Phillips, after the first year, pur sued his professional and other studies in company with his classmate, Kendall, then his co-instructor and constant companion, and ever after, during the life of the latter, his most familiar friend. In the latter part of this period, he entered his name in the office of the late Honorable William Sullivan, then, in 1815 and 1816, in large practice, an accom plished gentleman, of easy, polished manners, among the leaders in fash ionable life, and also among the leaders, on the federal side, in public 102 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. affairs ; having then and afterwards, during his life, a cordial and con stant regard for his disciple in the law, which was fully reciprocated by the latter. During December, 1814, and January, 1815, while Mr. Phillips was still one of the instructors of Harvard University, an association was formed, consisting of President Kirkland, Edward T. Channing, since professor in Harvard, Mr. Phillips, and others, for starting a literary periodical, under the title of the " New-England Magazine and Review," Mr. Phillips being the proposed editor. Articles of association were adopted, and sundry meetings were held, the records of which, kept by Mr. Channing, as secretary, he has preserved. In a letter written by Mr. Channing, January 5th, 1815,- he says to his correspondent, "How you would have laughed could you have peeped into my snug office for two or three days past, and have seen the great men learned doc tors of law and of divinity, tutors at colleges, editors and publishers holding solemn debate on the magazine ; one writing a prospectus, another talking about style, a third counting the cost and chance of suc cess, and, lastly, your correspondent himself listening to all that was said, and recording it as secretary of the meeting." When the preparations had been made for announcing the publica tion, the associates learned that a similar one was proposed by Mr. William Tudor, then just returned from his travels in Europe, and since known as author of the Life of James Otis, and other literary productions, and also as American Consul at Rio Janeiro, a gentleman in high estimation for his manners, accomplishments, literary talents and acquirements. He was a personal friend of some of the associates. The field was thereupon left open to him. The first number of the bi-monthly " North American Review and Miscellaneous Journal" accordingly came out under Mr. Tudor s editor ship in May, 1815, and was continued during a year, at the end of which period he put it at the disposal of Mr. Phillips, Mr. Tudor voluntarily proposing and choosing to continue editor for one year longer without salary. In the mean time Mr. Phillips had commenced the practice of law, as junior in the office of the Hon. Benjamin Gorham, at that time of high forensic reputation, and subsequently a distinguished member of Con gress. The Review, at the time of the pecuniary responsibility being assumed by Mr. Phillips, needed the utmost economy as well as all the activity, talent and learning that could be brought to its aid to bear it up, and Mr. Phillips, seeing that the usual publishers commission weighed heavily upon its resources, had the copies of the number for May, 1816, sent from the printers to his office, and a part of them were ther.e inclosed and dispatched to subscribers. Messrs. Wells and Lilly, then the leading publishing firm in Boston, who had published the work the preceding year, very soon, and before all the copies of that number had been distributed, liberally offered to publish it during the year free of commissions, which helped materially to carry it through that year. On Mr. Tudor s retiring from the editorship in 1817, an association of contributors was formed, consisting of some of the old associates and some new ones, viz. : John Gallison, known as the reporter of the early WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 103 decisions of Judge Story, a lawyer of early eminence, who died young, much respected, beloved and regretted ; Nathan Hale, editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser ; Richard H. Dana, since well known in the literary world ; Edward T. Charming ; Mr. Phillips ; William Powell Mason, successor of Mr. Gallison as reporter of the decisions of Judge Story ; and Jared Sparks, then tutor in Harvard, whose name is since familiar to the public as an author, and as president of Harvard Col lege. Mr. Sparks was editor, during that year, of the fifth and sixth volumes. The associates held weekly meetings for reading and deciding upon communications, and selecting and distributing subjects to be written upon. These, though in some sort business meetings, were kept up with much interest, vivacity and harmony, at which the literary friends of the associates not unfrequently attended, and the zeal and spirit of the association were by degrees infused into the Review, and the effect was manifested in reaction by subscriptions and communications. At the end of that year, in May, 1818, Mr. Channing succeeded to Sparks as editor, at the commencement of the seventh volume, and edited the seventh, eighth and ninth volumes, until his appointment in October, 1819, as Boylston professor in Cambridge University. With the eighth volume the Review began to be published quarterly instead of once in two months as before. Mr. Everett succeeded to Mr. Channing as editor. The proprietorship of the Review was in the same association from May, 1818, until it was transferred to Mr. Sparks, in 1823, when he resumed the editorship. Mr. Phillips was a frequent contributor for some years, and an occa sional one subsequently until about 1836. One of his early articles was upon Professor Hedge s logic, then just published, and one of his later, on Lord Brougham s ethical volume, upon which Dr. Henry Ware, Jr., then professor in the Cambridge Theological school, ex pressed himself in quite commendatory terms in a note to the writer. The logic article, though favorable to Professor Hedge s book, was not entirely satisfactory to him, because it did not treat the subject with sufficient gravity. Most of Mr. Phillips articles were upon works of imagination and taste, the reviewing of which did not require any special preparation, and accordingly did not interfere with his professional and other business pursuits. About six years after commencing practice, Mr. Phillips began to collect materials for the first edition of his Treatise on Insurance, which which was published in 1823, in one volume. The materials for the work were collected entirely by resort to the original authorities. In the general distribution of the subjects, and the arrangement and order of the topics, no prior treatise was followed, and Chancellor Kent stated to the author, early after the latter became personally known to him, that he had given Mr. Phillips division of the subject the preference in his lectures, now well known as Kent s Commentaries ; the distribution of subjects in which, however, varies considerably from Mr. Phillips Treatise. This remark is mentioned here, because it is some evidence that Mr. Phillips had not wholly failed in attempting the very difficult labor of distributing the subjects and arranging tta topics, so much en tangled and interlaced together in this title of the law, and because he 104 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. cherishes the remembrance of the token of favorable opinion given then by Chancellor Kent. In this treatise, the author availed himself of Valin s Commentaries on the French Ordinance of 1681, much more largely than previous elementary writers had, looking upon those commentaries as one of the richest magazines of this branch of commercial law, abounding in doc trines which are applicable in all countries, and which do not become obsolete ; esteeming Emerigon, though a model in lucidness, learning, faithfulness and accuracy, less masterly and profound. In preparing this treatise the author was much indebted to the great practical experience, science and learning of the late Hon. George Cabot, who most obligingly permitted Mr. Phillips to consult him in all matters of doctrine and practice in marine insurance, and besides, always during his life in the most friendly manner gave the author the benefit of his wide experience in affairs and great knowledge of men, communicated with the affable dignity, easy grace and coloquial fluency for which he was distinguished, and which gave a charm to his conversation. In the preface to the first edition of that treatise, the author also ac knowledged his obligations to the late Christian Mayer, Esq., of Balti more, the president of the Patapsco Insurance Company of that place, a well-informed and able practical underwriter, who obligingly and elabo rately replied to the numerous inquiries addressed to him relative to the principles and practice of insurance ; and the author was under no less obligation to his since deceased friend, Joseph Balch, Esq., of Bos ton, former president of the Merchant s Insurance Company, a gentle man of great ability and indefatigable application in studying and prac tically applying the science of marine insurance, but who through modesty declined any public acknowledgment by the author. This treatise was well received, and its publication had a favorable effect on the author s professional business, as had also his treatise on patents, published in 1837, of which Judge Story has spoken in very favorable terms in some of his judicial opinions. Both of these works were introduced by Judge Story as part of the ancillary course of read ing in the law school of Harvard College. In 1825 and 1826, Mr. Phillips was a member of the legislature from Boston ; and in 1827, on account of his health having been somewhat affected by rather severe application in his sedentary pursuits, he with drew from professional practice for a time, and passed one season in the town of Palmer, near Springfield, superintending the erection of build ings and structures for a manufacturing establishment, his interest in which, and other similar investments, in the depression which followed, swept away the fruits of his previous industry, and left him to start dc tiovo at the age of forty-two in making provision for the future. At this period he made a voyage to Cuba on business, with a view to the re-establishment of his health. His stay in the island was partly in Havana, with his ever since intimate friend, John Morland, and partly in the country, at the plantation of the late Mr. Nathaniel Fellows. The climate, the objects, the people, and mode of life, have a great in terest for a stranger from the North; and Mr. Phillips, not unfrequently in conversation, refers to the scenes and incidents of the excursion, -which made a greater impression, as his other travels have extended WILLARD PHILLIPS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 105 only from Portland to Washington on the coasts, and inland to the in terior of New- York, on visits to his, at the time, surviving parent, in Broome County, and southwesterly to the valley of Wyoming, in Pennsylvania, and northerly to Niagara Falls and Quebec ; so that, for a person of these times, his journoyings have been quite limited. The reminiscences of this voyage to Cuba furnished the materials for a part of an article published some time subsequently in the North Ameri can Review, on a journal of a similar excursion by the Rev. Dr. Abbot, of Beverly, in which article the incidents of the voyage were read with a gool deal of interest by the late Dr. Bowditch, as he himself stated to the author, as being a faithful description of the sea-faring life of a pas senger. In 1828, Mr. Phillips resumed professional practice, taking as his junior associate Richard Robins, Esq., recently deceased. About 1845 he sub stantially withdrew from practice, though he has continued to be occa sionally consulted by his old clients, and sometimes by others, in mat ters with which he was more particularly conversant. In 1837, under an act of the legislature of Massachusetts, a commis sion was issued by Governor Everett, for Charles Jackson, formerly judge of the Supreme Court, as chairman, and Mr. Phillips and others as associates, for reducing so much of the common law as relates to crimes and their incidents to a code. Judge Jackson was obliged by the state of his health to retire early from the commission, whereupon Mr. Phillips became chairman. The other members were changed by resignation and death, and new appointments from time to time. In 1839, a preliminary report was drawn up by Mr. Phillips, and a specimen of the form proposed to be adopted, in the preparation of which the late James C. Alford, of Greenfield, then a member of the commission, took an active part. He was at the time elected member of Congress, though prevented by his decease from attending any session. A code of the law of crimes and punishments was eventually reported by Mr. (then Judge) Phillips and his friend, the Hon. Samuel B. Wal- cott. Judge Phillips assiduously devoted all the time he could com mand, by early rising, and avoiding interfering engagements, as much as was practicable, for full four years, to the arduous work of preparing this code, every part of which, before being printed, had been sub mitted to skilful and experienced lawyers, not of the commission, who had given their approbation. The plan was not to make laws by pro pounding new provisions grounded upon speculative doctrines, but merely to express the law as it then existed, and introduce amend ments where the books were contradictory or the defects were palpable, the instances of which were always specifically pointed out in the notes. The phraseology was studiously selected and guarded, that it might not embarrass jurisprudence, and at the same time should enable the peo ple, who are bound by the law, or those whose profession it was to give legal counsel to others, to learn, at least, its outlines in matters of crimes and punishments, which knowledge is not easily gained in the multifarious repositories in common use. But the greater part of the profession in Massachusetts were then sturdily opposed to the codifi cation of the common law, considering any attempt of the kind to be wholly experimental, and theoretical and dangerous a sort of Jeremy 106 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Beutham-ism. Accordingly, when the reported code was before the Se nate, some one of the members, after making a few disparaging remarks on codification in general, read, by way of illustration, the definition of larceny, which seemed to him open to the grave objection that the sen tence was a long one, and thereupon it was voted to dismiss the subject. Such for the time was the result in the legislature of the four years arduous labors of Judge Phillips, besides those of the other members of the commission. The reported code, however, has been of import ant use in Massachusetts, and has been sought for elsewhere, and not a few testimonies have been given to the fidelity, elaborateness and skill in the execution of the work, by jurists both in and out of Massachu setts, whose authority is of weight, and who have examined it for other purposes than measuring the sentences. Judge Phillips had anticipated for some time what would be the result in the legislature, but still pro ceeded with unabated intensity in the execution of the work, out of re gard to his own reputation, which had of course become in some degree implicated in the issue, and which he is understood to be still willing should rest upon that report. While Mr. Everett was governor of the state, in 1839, Mr. Phillips was appointed Judge of Probate for the county of Suffolk, an office which he held until December, 1847, when he resigned, because he had other sufficient and preferable occupations, especially that of president of the New-England Mutual Life Insurance Company, which had been put into operation in 1843 by numerous leading and public-spirited men in Boston, as an institution much needed, and which would be of great utility, as in fact it has proved to be. The object of this sketch is not to eulogize the subject of it, or to say the utmost that truth might justify. It may, however, be said without risk of the imputation of partiality, that Judge Phillips dis charged his judicial duties, during the eight years while he held that office, satisfactorily to the public, and generally to those who had busi ness in the court. In 1833 Judge Phillips married Hannah Brackett Hill, daughter of the late 1 Hon. Aaron Hill, who had been many years postmaster in Boston. This lady survived her marriage between three and four years. He married for a second wife, Harriet Hill, a sister of the former. At the time of his judicial appointment, he resided in Boston, where he continued to reside during the winter season, and part of the spring, so long as he held the office, passing his summer in Cambridge, where he has since resided, though Boston is his place of business and cor respondence. Judge Phillips is at present occupied with a third edition of his Treatise on Insurance, which will be published soon after this sketch. Besides the legal publications and literary contributions already men tioned, Judge Phillips contributed divers articles, including one on Poli tical Economy, to the Encyclopedia Americana, translated and edited by Professor Francis Lieber, now of South Carolina ; and made a di gest of the first eight volumes of Pickering s Reports in 1832, with the assistance of his friend, Edward Pickering, Esq., and edited the first American edition of Collyer on Partnership, with the assistance of NOAH POMEROY, OF CONNECTICUT. 107 the same collaborator. He also published a treatise under the title of " A Manual of Political Economy," in 1829, a great part of which was lost by a fire, and in 1850 a duodecimo volume entitled " Propositions concerning Protection and Free Trade." On this subject he hopes to write still more, if his health and leisure permit, for the purpose of ex posing what he is well known to consider the groundless and extraordi nary dogmas and assumptions which are current under the title of "Free Trade," and which have been put into circulation as a part of the science of Political Economy, and are taught in our public seminaries as such. On this subject Judge Phillips takes a deep interest, because he con siders it next to the preservation of the Union, and hardly second to it, the most vitally decisive of the prosperity and progress of the country. NOAH POMEROY, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT, PRESIDENT OF THE MERIDEN BANK. UNDER a popular government like ours, where the democratic idea of equality is as fully developed as the present imperfect condition of mankind will permit, we expect, as its legitimate fruit, the triumph of individual worth and energy over all the competitors that wealth and class may put against them. The avenues to wealth and distinction are alike open to all, but this enhances, rather than detracts from, the merit of those whose energy and integrity have triumphed over all the obstacles intervening between friendless indigence and their attainment. Poverty and labor, at no time dishonorable in themselves, never assume more attractive features than when the former appears as the nurse of those virtues, which the latter by years of honest and wearisome toil transplants in a higher and richer soil ; and the biographies of those men, whose sterling worth and active enterprise have won for them a strong pre-eminence and commanding influence in the society in which they move, must be re plete with those facts which should encourage and instruct the young. Such is the subject of the following sketch : Noah Pomeroy was born March 1st, 1786, in Say brook, Connecticut, and was the youngest of five children ; three sons and two daughters. His father, Charles Pomeroy, was a merchant of that place, and died a short time previous to the birth of his youngest child. If a long and honorable line of known ancestry had been capable of conferring dis tinction, the subject of this sketch could scarcely have desired a more auspicious birth, for his family trace their ancestry into the eleventh century, to a distinguished Norman knight who fought at the battle ol Hastings under William. One of the descendants of the knight, Eltwood Pomeroy, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1630, from England, and was well known in the early Indian wars of New-England ; and the history of the Indian, French and Revolutionary wars, bears honorable record of the bravery 108 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and patriotism of many of his descendants. Noah Pomeroy is des cended from Eltwood, and his only inheritance was the good name and strong physical and mental capacities of his ancestors. After the death of his father, his brothers and sisters were kindly cared for and educa ted by his paternal grandfather, a man of considerable property and good standing in Colchester, Conn. ; while he from necessity remained with his mother, who removed with him to Meriden. When about five years old his mother contracted a second marriage, which to him proved of little advantage. He continued to live with his mother and father until he was ten years old, when, penniless and scarcely possessing a knowledge of the English alphabet, he com menced the world for himself. His first great object was to secure an education which would enable him to transact the common business incident to a life of action and enterprise, such as his youthful percep tion had already foreshadowed as his. In attempting to accomplish this, he was obliged to struggle with difficulties which those alone can rightly estimate who have had the same to contend with. The meagre earnings of the summer afforded a bare surplus, with the most rigid economy, to apply to the purpose of his education during the winter ; and often this was lawfully claimed and obtained by his step father. At fifteen he commenced peddling tinware, but this gave offence to some of his nearest relatives, because they regarded it as an occupa tion which was discreditable to their family an idea engendered by a false pride which finally leads to the absurd conclusion that all manual labor is demeaning. After repeated solicitations by other members of the family, he was induced about three years afterwards to commence an apprenticeship with a carpenter and joiner; a trade in those days being esteemed next to a profession. He continued, however, but a short time in this employment. He had already selected the business most congenial to his feelings for his future occupation, and returning to his peddling wagon, he made use of it as the most direct and honorable means within his power, wherewith he could eventually make himself master of the business, and establish himself in the manufacture of tin ware. Accordingly at twenty he apprenticed himself to a tinsmith for six months, for which he paid a stipulated sum, and in that almost in credibly short period gained such an insight into the business, as to enable himself to become a complete master of the trade which usually required four or five years to learn. In the succeeding year he engaged in the manufacture of plain tinware, with the advantage of but about two years common school education, which was all he ever possessed. During the same year he married Miss Mary Merriman, a lineal des cendant of Lieut. Nathaniel Merriman, who was one of the first settlers in Wallingford, Connecticut, and who commanded in the early Indian wars. During the eleven years succeeding, he prosecuted a small, yet suc cessful business at various localities. In the autumn of 1807, he re moved to Plymouth, Conn., where he continued his business until 1815, with the exception of one winter spent in Baltimore. It was during his residence at Plymouth that the second war with Great Britain com menced, of which he was an enthusiastic supporter. NOAH POMEBOY, OF CONNECTICUT. 109 His strong judgment, his probity and resistless energies, had at this time so won upon the admiration of his friends, that through them he was tendered a lieutenant s commission in the regular army. Flatter ing as the compliment was to his ambition, and strongly as it appealed to his sense of duty to his country, there was with him a still higher duty which he owed to his fast-increasing family which forbade its acceptance. He had felt all the distressing pangs which penury could inflict ; of neglect and bitter scorn, its only heritage, from pride and wealth he had been no common recipient, and having virtuously braved them all, his soul was filled with a desire of burning intensity to attain a degree of opulence which should remove the children which were gathering around him, from not only the privations but from the frigid indiffer ence, contempt and temptations which society bequeaths to indigence ; and all the power of his iron will was concentrated upon its honorable acquisition. In 1815 he returned to Wallingford, from whence he removed to Meriden in 1818, where he permanently established his business, and purchased the farm on which he now resides. From this time he con tinued gradually to increase the yearly amount of his manufactures, yet not so fast as to endanger his credit. He was among the first to engage extensively in the manufacture of japanned and ornamented tinware in this country ; and while others, who were engaged in it at the same time, failed entirely, or succeeded but indifferently, he prosecuted it with complete success. Through all the revulsions by which the business of the country was entirely prostrated between the years of 1818 and 1839, he passed unaffected, except in one or two instances, where the failure of his friends for whom he had indorsed caused him slight em barrassment. In his strict economy and industrious and persevering habits may be found the secret of his success. A useless waste, either of labor or ma terial, had to him an appearance of criminality, which he made it a constant care to prevent. Destitute of that arrogance which success too often awakens, he knew no sympathy for those expenditures for ostentatious display which are its accompaniments. His habits of industry have always been remarkable, and indolence in others has always been an unforgiven fault with him, and to them a sure guaranty of a loss of situation if in his employ ; but faithfulness and perseverance have never lacked encouragement and assistance at his hands whenever in a condition to bestow them. A faithful discharge of every obligation has been one of his governing principles. The ad monition of an elderly friend, to whom he applied for assistance in pay ing the first promissory note he ever gave, that, his " friends would always have money when he wished to borrow if he was punctual in the payment of it, otherwise they w r ould always be destitute," was never forgotten. It has always been his maxim to regard his verbal as sacred as his written promise, and his care that neither was dishonored. In 1839 he retired nominally from his business, which he left to his sons, and applied his energies, which were not in the least abated, to the improvement of his farm, which he found in the lowest state of cultiva tion. Here his practical judgment and untiring activity wrought an 110 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. almost magic change, and his farm, which was unsightly, and compara tively sterile, assumed an appearance of beauty and productiveness which elicited the second premium at the New-Haven County agricul tural fair in 1843. Although to the present time he has steadily pur sued his agricultural improvements, it has been more as a pastime than. a labor, since the first few years of barrenness and stubborn resistance to his efforts were subdued, and its productiveness and susceptibility of easy cultivation established. Incapable of rest, his mind then reverted to the business which had brought him comparative affluence, and over the financial and economi cal departments of which, until the present year, he has exercised a general superintendence when not entirely absorbed with official du ties. Nor has he been inattentive to the improvement of the machinery necessary to its successful prosecution. Possessed of much more than ordinary mechanical genius, he has suggested improvements and made inventions which, in point of facility for the economical and rapid manu facture of the articles to which they are applied, place the establishment at the head of all its competitors. Since his settlement in the town in which he now resides, he has, during a greater portion of the time, exercised a controlling influence in its affairs. He has held all the offices within its gift, and that of select man repeatedly, until he declined an election. He has filled the office of justice of the peace, by appointment of the state legislature, as long as it possessed the power to appoint, during his whole residence in Meriden, scarcely ever being removed by a change of party politics; and his knowledge of common law, and his impartial judgment, may be estimated from the fact, that, of all the cases which were ever brought before him, an appeal from his decision was never carried to the county court. An ardent advocate of progression and reform, and contending for the broadest religious and political liberty, he earnestly urged the ne cessity of calling the convention which remodeled the constitution of the state, and expunged many of those statutes which have been known as " blue laws." In 1832 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, and in 1837 he was chosen senator from the Sixth District, and in that capacity exerted his influence for the abolition of the law which im prisoned for debt. From the establishment of the Meriden Bank, in 1833 to the present time, he has held the office of director without interims sion, and in 1849, much against his inclination, was chosen president, which office he resigned about six months afterwards. Modest and un ambitious, he has never sought political distinction, but when urged by influential friends to accept the nomination, when success was certain, for congressional representative, he unhesitatingly declined, as he would have done had it been any other office within the people s gift, when convinced that there were others better qualified to fill it. In his politics he has always been a consistent democrat. An ardent admirer of the principles of Jefferson and Madison, Munroe was but his second choice, and the banking principles of Adams were so entirely contrary to his own, that he was one of four who supported Jackson in his town in 1828. In the last presidential contest, he had the misfor- OLIVER TEALL, OF NEW-YORK. 1 1 * tune to differ from many of his political friends on the question of southerr rights. Noah Pomeroy is now in his 67th year, possessing, in a remarkable degree, the enjoyment of his mental and physical powers. In person he is about the medium size, with a marked countenance, expressive of decision, firmness, and intelligence. His naturally warm and benevo lent impulses, which a seeming austerity of manner partially conceals, are unmasked in the presence of his intimate friends, and, without a moral blemish on his character, he lives to command the respect and esteem of a large circle of acquaintances. CAPTAIN OLIVER TEALL, OF SYRACUSE, NEW-YORK, PRESIDENT OF THE ONONDAGA COUNTY BANK. WHOEVER has known much of Syracuse must have known something of Oliver Teall. He has been a conspicuous man in this place from the time that the village first made its appearance in the Cedar Swamps, through all its stages of growth until now that it has become a thriving city, spreading its skirts upon the surrounding hills. Thirty -three years ago he was to be seen early and late, vigorously directing, as general superintendent, the repairs and improvements on the middle section of the Erie canal, extending from near the village of Rome to the village of Camillus. This brought him daily into contact with large numbers of persons, and he was extensively known for his activity, efficiency and exactness. Subsequently, the buyers or sellers of real estate have found it con venient, if not needful, to have somewhat to do with Captain Teall, whose wise foresight of the future growth of Syracuse led him to be* come an owner of valuable lots in many parts of what is now the city. Then, again, when the municipal project to introduce good water into the village was about to be abandoned to individual enterprise, he be came, and was for a number of years, the almost sole proprietor of the aqueduct ; and the Teall water came to be as familiarly spoken of in Syracuse as the Croton in New-York, if we may compare so small a matter with so large a one. The quality of the water, at first so named, was very poor, but the indefatigable man spared no pains until he had found and become the owner of a copious spring of a pure article, formed an able company, and introduced, by a well-made aqueduct, an abundant supply of water, which he need never be ashamed should bear his name. Every part of the construction of this valuable improvement was superintended by him personally, so that t<j all the inhabitants, from the least to the greatest, this public servant was familiarly known. When the Onondaga County Bank, the first institution of the kind in Syracuse, was established, Captain Teall was elected one of its direc tors, and subsequently its president, in which position he still stands. 112 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. At certain hours of the day, therefore, he has been generally seen in or near the house where men having money, or needing money, are wont to congregate, and his shrewdness, foresight and incorruptible integrity have served many a man a good turn, who was at his wit s end to get out of a pecuniary embarrassment, or to make a profitable investment of some surplus gains. The cause of education in Syracuse, too, acknowledges him to have been one of its earliest and most earnest promoters. Travelers, who pass over the rail-road by daylight, can hardly fail to notice an unduly tall brick building at the end of Syracuse from the east. If benevolent, they will rejoice to learn that it is now an asylum for orphan children, and children worse off than orphans ; an institution well endowed, and sustained by the united, cordial co-operation of all the protestant sects in the city, giving a comfortable home and an excellent discipline to a hundred destitute little ones. But, if they inquire into its history, they will be informed, that it was not originally intended for the charitable purpose to which it is now put. It was erected, about fifteen years ago, by Captain Teall, Aaron Burt, Esq., Hon. Harvey Baldwin, and others, for an academy, and was so used for a dozen years ; but, being located too far from what subsequently became the centre of the city, to be convenient as a day-school, and yet too near to be resorted to as a boarding-school, it languished, notwithstanding the exertions of its three principal patrons ; and about five years ago became the property of the Onondaga Asylum. It is, however, still a monument to the enterprise of Captain Teall and his associates, and of their zeal in the cause of education. But it has not been merely as a man of business and thrift that the subject of this memoir has been principally known to his fellow-citizens and heard of throughout the state. He was one of the earliest and has been of the most steadfast friends of the Temperance Reform. His name will go down to posterity as the untiring fellow-laborer of E. C. Delavan, and Gerrit Smith, and Herman Camp, and Charles A. Wheaton, and Chancellor Wai worth, and other pioneers in this great enterprise. His labors have not been most conspicuous, however, at public meet ings. Although a frequent attendant at them, he has always been a diligent laborer at home and throughout his immediate neighborhood. He has not contented himself with recommending to others a disagree able and laborious duty. Were pledges to be obtained or memorials to the legislature to be circulated for signatures, Captain Teall has been ever ready to present them to his neighbors and townsmen, and press them upon their favorable regards. There is not a person, probably, who has been resident in Syracuse a year, that does not know that Oliver Teall is an uncompromising total abstinence man ; and few who have not heard this vital principle of temperance advocated by him. His abstinence, however, reaches farther than to intoxicating liquors. lie would include in his proscription whatever articles of food or habits of living are known to be prejudicial to the health, or mental, or moral, vigor of man. He has canvassed Syracuse in person, and appealed to thousands of its inhabitants to dissuade them from the use of tobacco. It may be too true that his unwearied exertions have made but little visible impression upon those who were addicted to this nauseous weed ; OLIVER TEALL, OF NEW-YORK. 113 but very many, through his influence, are rejoicing in their exemption from the offensive habit. He would never concede that reason and conscience, and health, and purity, should be subjugated to appetite. But he has insisted, with a distinctness, pertinacity, and earnestness, which have evinced his deep sincerity, and commanded the respect of many who have not yielded to his appeals, that it is a sin to violate any of the laws of life and health, laws instituted by Almighty God, as plainly as those that were proclaimed by Moses from Mount Sinai. This great doctrine he has inculcated wherever he could get ears to hear it, and has enforced it by a life eminently consistent, and by the manifestation in his own person of a degree of health, vigor, and power of endurance, seldom seen in a man of his years. Although the temperance cause has received so much attention from Captain Teall, and has made such large demands upon his time and his purse, he has also entered with zeal into other important reforms. He early engaged, in opposition to the law, by which debtors might be incarcerated like felons, nor did he cease from his efforts until that law was repealed. In the height of the controversy on that reform he was one of a number who went to the Onondaga county jail, paid the jailor s demands against all the debtors in his custody, threw open the prison doors, and led them forth into the light and air of freedom, of which misfortune ought never to deprive a man. He was also untiring in his efforts to procure the passage of the homestead exemption law. Nor has he yet relinquished his labors on that behalf, believing, as he does, that ar still larger amount of property should be ensured to the families of men against the contingencies of trade, as well as the rapacity of hard-hearted creditors. To mention but one more of the objects of benevolence, to which he has addressed himself, the law authorizing married females to hold property independently of their husbands, was, in its very inception, duly appreciated by Captain Teall, and warmly advocated. This is an important step in the restoration of women to that condition of equality in which they were originally created, and to which they have an un- alienable right. Now, whoever knows anything of the origin of human laws, will ac knowledge that we are much more indebted for our social improve ments to the wisdom, benevolence, and exertions, of private citizens, than we are to the final action of legislators, who tardily follow where the leaders of public opinion draw them, and, at last, merely give a governmental sanction to what has already become the known will of the sovereign people. Captain Teall has been, in fact, for the last thirty years, one of the law-makers of this state. Some of the best laws that have been put upon our statute-book, within that time, have been enacted by the influence that he, and men like him, have exerted upon the public mind. It will, therefore, be interesting to our readers to know some of the principal facts of his personal history what was his parentage what the circumstances and discipline of his youth by what influences his character was formed, and those mental and moral properties were de veloped, that have made him so useful in his day and his generation. It will be particularly instructive and encouraging, to young men of 8 114 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. limited means and few literary advantages, to be informed that Captain Teall has qualified himself for great usefulness in society by the force of good common sense, fidelity to every obligation, and the fearless avowal of whatever he has believed to be true and right. Oliver Teall was born August 5. 1788, in the town of Killingsworth, Conn. His great-grandfather came from Holland, and settled in this country, a number of years previous to the Revolution. His father, with four brothers, served their country in the war for American inde pendence, in all, nearly six years each. Eighteen months of his term his father spent as a prisoner, having been captured at Horse Neck, at the time when General Putnam made his almost miraculous escape. Soon after the close of the war his father, Dr. Timothy Teall, re sumed his profession, and, about 1791, removed with his wife (whose maiden name was Phoebe Hull) and several children from Killings- worth into the town of Manlius, Onondaga county. He was one of the first settlers in this region. Being poor, he purchased a farm on credit. It was a tract of military land, and he was put to no little trouble and expense to get a good title to it. He pursued his medical profession until called into public life. He served many years as a magistrate and a deputy-sheriff, and transacted a great deal of business for his fellow-citizens, in various capacities. Shortly after their re moval into Manlius, Mrs. Teall died, leaving her husband with six children, four daughters and two sons. Oliver, the subject of this bio graphy, was then but about four years of age. The oldest child was a daughter, of but twelve years, and upon her devolved the principal charge of the family, much of the time, too, in the absence of their father. Oliver, so soon as he was able, was put to work upon the farm, much of it then being yet unreclaimed from the woods. And there he con tinued to toil until he was 17 or 18 years old, when he was allowed to deal for himself, with the understanding that he was to work on the farm when not otherwise employed. His facilities for acquiring literary information all this while were, of course, very slender. He has been heard to say that all his schooling did not amount to more than one year at a common district school. Yet, so soon as he had been taught to read, he began to occupy his little leisure time in the perusal of such books as were within his reach. Often did he pursue his studies by fire or torch light, until, at about the age of 20, he was thought to be qualified to be a teacher. Instructing others is the most profitable mental and moral discipline to one who undertakes the task with the determination to be faithful. While thus engaged, and during the winter months of several years, before and after, Mr. Teall himself made very rapid improvement. About this time he read several of his father s medical works, thinking that he might, at a future day, become a physician. Afterwards he read Blackstone s Commentaries, not knowing but his preference would be for the law. Before, however, he was twenty years of age, he concludedUo take his chance in the world without any particular profession. He soon after engaged in various branches of business. For a while he conducted a limekiln, laboring at it himself very hard. Then he OLIVER TEALL, OF NEW- YORK. 115 entered into partnership in the tanning, currying and shoemaking busi ness. Afterwards he engaged in iron smithing, in its various branches. Thus he acquired a great deal of practical information in a variety of useful arts, which has been of inestimable value to him in subsequent life. Habits of economy were commenced in him almost as soon as his habits of industry. When quite a boy, he had earned twelve shillings, and that small sum (which was then a great one to him) he put out to interest at 7 per cent. This was the beginning of his financial opera tions, a suitable prelude to that course, which has led him to become the president of a bank, and the head of several large pecuniary invest ments. At an early period of life, Capt. Teall commenced his speculations in real estate, the buying of water-powers, erecting mills, carrying them on a while, and, when he had made them valuable, selling them to ad vantage. The experience which he gained in these transactions, quali fied him for an enterprise which, in the event, greatly enhanced his property, and made him more than ever known and respected by the business-men of this part of our empire state. In 1818 he took what was then a large contract on the middle section of the Erie Canal. The whole work was an experiment. Many persons in the state were ut terly incredulous of its success. The amount involved in the job he had taken was much larger than he had ever before attempted to man age. Laborers were not so easily obtained then as now. Difficulties sprang up thickly in his way. He became alarmed at the undertaking, and offered the canal commissioners $500 to release him from his con tract. They utterly refused to do so. This roused all his energies. He addressed himself to the work with a determination that few could command. He accomplished it some time before the day specified; and disclosed those qualities, that were so appreciated by the commis sioners, that, at the completion of the middle section of the canal, he was appointed superintendent of a portion of it, and served in that capacity for six years. Here he was called upon to direct important improvements and repairs, and to expend very large sums of money. The thoroughness of the work done under his supervision, and the accuracy of his accounts, inspired all who were cognizant of his skill and fidelity with the highest confidence. It was during this period that he invented the machine, called " The Under-water Excavator," for deepening canals. It answered the purpose well, and he obtained a patent for it. But it was at a still earlier date that he embraced a principle, which, could it be universally adopted by the people from Albany to Buffalo, would be an incomparably greater blessing to the state and the country, than this far-famed canal has been. In 1819 Capt. Teall followed the then almost universal custom of furnishing ardent spirits to his work men, and of drinking with them himself. It so happened, that when erecting a grist-mill in the town of Sullivan, his foreman had hired a man somewhat famous in that neighborhood as a hard-drinker. This annoyed Mr. Teall. He was willing to drink with decent men, but to join in his potations with a drunkard, was mortifying to his self-respect. Probably some words to that effect dropped from his lips, which were 116 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. reported to the new-comer. For, the next day, when the captain had drank himself, and, as usual, passed the bottle to his workmen, all par took, excepting only the man at whom he had taken oflence. The re puted inebriate utterly refused the tempting draught. Though urged, he would not be induced to taste it. This unexpected occurrence awakened in the captain s mind a train of reflections, which led to the determination that he would never again be instrumental to the seduc tion of sober men, or the temptation of those whom the sin of intem perance most easily beset. He at once renounced the use of distilled spirits, and shortly after intoxicating drinks of every description. To the resolution then formed he has adhered without deviation to the . present day. His early studies of the laws of life and health, already referred to, disposed htm the more readily to refrain from an indulgence which the slightest observation is sufficient to show is most prejudicial to the physical, mental, and moral welfare of man. For the same reason, Mr. Teall abstained from the use of tobacco. Subsequent observation and thought have led him to abandon the use of tea and coffee, and, since 1840, of flesh, fish and fowl. In these respects, many regard him as abstemious overmuch ; and are willing to believe that he has rejected what the divine Author of all intended for the food of man, and what therefore cannot be rejected without injury. But the subject of our memoir is surely one living witness against all the common assump tions on this point. He is daily before us, at the age of sixty-four, in the enjoyment of perfect health, free from every kind of ache or pain, able to endure as much bodily exertion as any man in the city, and to expose himself with impunity to all kinds of weather, seldom if ever wearing an outer garment. He has not lost a day by sickness, nor ex pended a shilling in the purchase of medicine for many years. Indeed he has come to consider sickness prima facie evidence of some moral obliquity. " How is your health 1 ?" we said to him one morning. " Very good," was his reply ; " what think you I have been doing, that I should be sick ?" But with all his physical hardihood, and his indomitable energy and perseverance, though he has never been known to relinquish a purpose he had determined to accomplish, Capt. Teall has always manifested a peaceable and friendly spirit. So averse to litigation has he ever been, that, notwithstanding the magnitude of his business transactions, and the great number and variety of persons he has dealt with, he has never in his life had a contested lawsuit. In the settlement of his father s estate, he left it to be divided by his brother and sisters as they might see best. And in all his intercourse with men, at the same time that he has been noted for shrewdness, he has been uniformly fair and honorable. In 1809 Capt. Teall married Catherine Walter, a farmer s daughter, in the town of MaJilius. She was frugal, industrious, gentle, distinguished for her general benevolence, and for her untiring devotion to her family. She died September 30, 1836. By her he had five children, two sons and three daughters. The eldest son was educated at West Point Academy, and has since deceased. His other children are settled re spectably, near him. LUTHER BADGER, OF NEW-YORK. 117 Soon after his marriage, he purchased a farm in Manlius, and erected a commodious stone-house, which he expected would be his dwelling- place so long as he should live on earth. But on his appointment to a superintendeney upon the Erie Canal, he removed to that part of Syracuse which is called Lodi, purchased of the state the right to the surplus waters of the west end of the Eome level, and erected mills, which for a number of years he managed in addition to his public business. Thus he became MI inhabitant of this place in its infancy. He has grown with its growth, and strengthened with its strength ; and he is now highly respected as one of the conscript fathers of Syracuse. HON. LUTHER BADGER, OF BROOME COUNTY, NEW-YORK. PRAISE is always due to merit, and especially where merit is the product of unassisted toil and perseverance. The "self-made man" commands our highest respect. Those struggles, by means of which he has risen from obscurity to honorable distinction, cannot fail to en list our sympathy and call forth our warmest applause. The annals of our country furnish many bright examples of this kind, and among them the subject of this sketch occupies a conspicuous place. Luther Badger was born April 10th, 1785, in Patridgefield, (now the town of Peru,) Berkshire county, Massachusetts. His father, Lemuel Badger, was a volunteer in the Revolutionary contest which separated us from the mother country, and bore a com mission under Gen. Montgomery in the invasion of Canada. In the fall of 1786, while Luther was yet an infant, the family emigrated to v/hafc WAS at that time considered the " far west," and settled on the Susquehanna River, in Broome county, New- York. That whole tract of country, now so densely populated, and justly regarded as one of the finest agricultural sections of the state, was then an unbroken wilderness, where the whoop of the Indian, the scream of the panther, and the howl of the wolf, were sounds much more familiar than the voice of civilized man. There, amid the wild scenes of nature in her primeval dress, subject to the inconveniences, privations and hardships inseparably connected with life in the new settlements, Luther Badger grew up to manhood. Few boys thus reared would have had the courage to face the diffi culties that must of necessity stand in the way of literary pursuits. Very few thus situated, with no means for acquiring an education but such as they were able to procure by their own industry, would ever have attempted to scale the lofty barriers that surround the learned professions, to gain a place at the bar. 118 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Bat with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, noble ambition, and a firm determination to rise in the world, Luther Badger looked out from the deep forests, in the shades of which he had been nurtured, and re solved that nothing short of absolute impossibilities should prevent him from occupying a commanding position in society.* By making the best use of his scanty opportunities, he succeeded in gaining such an acquaintance with the common branches of an English education as at the age of nineteen to enter the Hamilton and Oneida Academy, (now Hamilton College,) where he pursued his studies two years, though some portion of this time he was out of the institution engaged in teaching a common school. In 1807 he commenced the study of law under the tuition of William Eager, Esq., in Manlius, Onondaga county, New- York, and three years afterward entered the law office of Randall and Wattles, in New-Hart ford, Oneida county. At the May term of the Supreme Court, in 1812, he was admitted to the bar. The examination on this occasion, which was conducted by Judge Van Ness, was uncommonly strict and critical ; but Mr. Badger acquitted himself so well throughout, as to gain the admiration of the class and the respect of all present. He now returned to Manlius, the place where he commenced his studies, and opened an office. There he practised twelve years with large and constantly increasing success. But though gifted with a natu rally strong constitution, his close and intense application to the duties of his profession so impaired his health, that he was compelled to retire from practice, which he did not resume until 1832. In 1824, soon after he had retired from business, he was elected by the people of Onondaga, and represented them in the 19th Congress, though he was not connected with the strongest political party in that district. Mr. Badger is above the middle size, and uniting with dignified man ners a correct taste, he was fitted to adorn any circle in which he was called to move. Add to this his undoubted integrity of character and fidelity to all his business engagements, and it will not appear at all strange that many trusts, both civil and military, should have been committed to his keeping. He was, in 1809, attached to the staff of Colonel Thaddeus M. Wood as serjeant-major, and three years afterward was appointed quarter- * Mr. Badger, in speaking of this period of his life says, that ke used often, when a boy, to ascend a bold promontory or cliff that was situated in the rear of his father s residence, and seating himself where he had an extensive view of the Sus- quehanna valley and the surrounding hills, covered with dense forests, unbroken, as yet, except at a few points, by the axe of the settlers, he used to muse and specu late for hours together as to what would be the ultimate fate of this region, and what was now the condition of other sections of country. Would these forests ever be cleared away 1 Would these hills ever be cultivated 1 What must be the principal differences between this and other and older settlements 1 And, said he, " I determined that I would know something about the world, and if there was a better country I would try to find it." This was while he had never seen airy other section than that in which he lived. LUTHER BADGER, OF NEW-YORK. 119 master by Governor Tompkins. He was several times called out with his regiment to Oswego, Smith s Mills, and other points along the lines, in the last war with Great Britain, but was not in any engagement. In. 1819, Mr, Wood having been raised to the rank of brigadier- general, made Mr. Badger his aid-de-camp, and the next year Governor Clinton appointed him judge-advocate for the twenty-seventh brigade of infantry of the State of New- York. This last office he held eight years, and then resigned it, and retired from military service. During several years Mr. Badger was engaged in the mercantile busi ness, but in that calling he was by no means successful. In 1832 he returned to the county of Broome, and resumed the prac tice of law, which he has since continued. Of his success as a lawyer, neither himself nor his friends have reason to complain or be ashamed. In the course of his business he has had the management of many important suits in the Supreme Court, in the Court of Cha\ieery, and in the United States Courts, which he has almost invariably managed to the satisfaction of his clients, seldom failing to secure their rights. On one occasion, while practising in Onondaga, he was called to de fend a strongly-contested suit in Oswego. The opposing counsel were several of the most distinguished members of the legal profession in the state, among whom was General Wood. Mr. Badger, in his defence, displayed so much ability, and such ma ture acquaintance with the system of American jurisprudence, that he was strongly solicited by several of the most prominent citizens of Os wego to settle in their village, and to accept of the office of first judge of that county ; but his engagements at the time were such as prevented him from complying with their request. The circumstances of his admission to the Court of Chancery as a solicitor, which took place in 1819, are somewhat amusing. Being in Albany, he concluded to call and ask admission to practise in that court. He did so, and was ushered by a servant into the chancellor s room, Mr. Kent was seated behind a table, at the further end of the room, writing, with his face turned towards the door through which Mr. Badger entered. But he did not stop writing, or look up, until Mr. Badger reached the middle of the room, when he arose from his chair, and the following dialogue occurred : Chancellor Kent. " How do you do, sir ? how do you do, sir ? What is your name ?" Mr. B." Luther Badger." Chan." Where do you live?" Mr. B." In Onondaga," Chan. " You belong to the learned profession, do you not ?" Mr. B. "I do. 1 Chan. " Well, you have come to be admitted to my court ?" Mr. B." That is the object for which I have called." Chan. " Well, what do you know about chancery f Mr. B." I confess that I know but little about it." Chan. Well, how then do you expect to be admitted ? What have you to show 1 Mr. B. " I have an attorney s license." 120 SKETCHES OP EMINENT AMERICANS. Chan. " Let me see it ? [taking it, and eyeing it a moment.] Yes; James Kent James Kent ; I signed that. Have you anything else V* Mr. B. " I have a counselor s license." (Producing it.) Chan, " Smith Thompson Smith Thompson. Yes ; that is his hand writing I know his signature. Have you anything else 1" Mr. B. " Not anything." Chan. " Were you ever thrown over the bar ?" Mr. B. " Not that I know of." Chan. " Well, suppose that I should admit you as a solicitor, and that a man were to come to you and wish to commence a suit in chan cery, what would you do 1 what is the first thing 1 How would you commence ?" Mr. B. " I would sit down and draw a bill, and copy it, and file a copy in the office of the clerk of chancery, and then issue a subpoena, and cite the party against whom the suit was commenced to appear and answer to it." Chan. " That is right that is right ; that is exactly the way to commence a suit in chancery. I will admit you. You go down to Gould s book-store, and get you a blank solicitor s license, and then call on my brother, Moss, who is register, and request him to come down with you to my office, and I will admit you." All this time the chancellor remained standing behind his table, and Mr. B. in the middle of the room. The incident brings out some of the peculiar characteristics of both men. Three years later he was admitted as counselor, and in 1840 was ap pointed by the Senate of the State of New- York an examiner in chan cery, on the recommendation of Governor Seward. He was admitted to practice in the United States courts in 1826, while he was member of Congress. In 1840 he was appointed Commissioner of United States Loans, which office he held three years. He afterward practised as proctor, solicitor, counselor, and advocate, in the United States Courts of the Northern District of New-York. The people of Broome county, in 184G, gave an expression of their confidence in Mr. Badger by electing him to the office of district attorney for that county. He resigned the office in the fall of 1849. In politics Mr. Badger is a stanch and decided whig, and on every suit able occasion is ready to defend and advocate the principles and measures of his party. He is a man who keeps up with the times. Familiar not only with the leading papers that are the acknowledged organs of the whig party in this state, but to a considerable extent also with the cur rent literature of the day, Mr. Badger is able to take a comprehensive view of the affairs of our country, and to form conclusions more just and reliable than most men are competent to do. Among those who are best acquainted with him, his opinions are always received with re spect, and the results generally show that the confidence reposed in them is not misplaced. Mr. Badger was married, in 1811, to a daughter of Mr. John Wells, of East Hartford, Conn. Mrs. Badger died in 1846, and he subsequently married Mrs. Betsey D. Avery, daughter of the Hon. Davts Dimmoek, of Montrose, Pa. Judge Dimmoek and his family are well known to HENRY H. FULLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 121 the public. He has, during many years, both before and since he was raised to the bench, been a very successful and highly-respected minis ter of the gospel belonging to the Baptist denomination, and, though becoming somewhat superannuated, still continues to preach. His daughter, the widow A very, was, when married to Mr. Badger, a mem ber of the same church with her father, and Mr. Badger has since con nected himself with that denomination. Since his union with the Baptist Church, he has made liberal use of his property for the support of the various benevolent institutions patronized by the denomination, as well as to sustain the ministry in the church and congregation of which he is a member. At his house, those who were laboring to promote the cause of religion as ministers and agents, have often found a welcome and a home. His beneficence has not been confined within denominational limits. Being a man of strong feelings, and easily moved, he has ever been found ready to re spond to the calls of the needy and deserving, and willing to lend a helping hand to all worthy enterprises, so far as consistent with his means. HENRY H. FULLER, ESQUIRE, / OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. THE subject of the following notice, Henry Holton Fuller, was born in Princeton, Massachusetts, on the first of July, 1790, and was the third son of the Rev. Timothy Fuller, the first minister settled in that town. His father, although a clergyman, like most New-England cler gymen of that day, in our agricultural towns, was also a farmer. He accordingly brought up his sons, like those of other farmers about him, to engage in all the labors of the homestead. Having relinquished his ministerial relations with his parish some years previously, he removed from Princeton to Merrimack, in New-Hampshire, in 1796, where he died in 1805. Up to the period of his father s death, the son spent his life upon the farm at Merrimack. Left at the early age of fifteen years, without father or patrimony, he was called upon to decide for himself as to his future course and profession. He had no difficulty in making this de cision, so far as his inclinations were concerned, having from his earliest recollections conceived a preference for the law, and a desire for such an education as would best prepare him for that profession. The death of his father rendered it doubtful if the son s preferences could be grati- NOTE. Timothy Fuller was the third in descent from Thomas Fuller, who joined the Massachusetts colony at Charlestown, in 1638. He was one of the thirty-two persons who founded the town of Woburn, in 1640, under the lead of the famous poet and historian, Edward Johnson. He afterwards settled at Mills Hill, then Salem Village, now Middleton. See Frothingham s Hist. Charlestown, pp. 106, 107. 122 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. fied. His anxiety was, however, soon relieved by the kindness of his oldest brother, then recently admitted to the practice of the law in Bos ton, and who generously offered to furnish him the means of obtaining a collegiate and professional education. Accepting this proposal, Mr. Fuller still continued to be employed upon his mother s farm until December, 1806, when he commenced preparing for admission to the university. His father had never permitted any of his sons to attend the public schools or academies, preferring to teach them himself at home. Having thus far received only parental instruction, Mr. Fuller resolved to fit himself for college, studying at home, and taking occasionally a lesson from the minister of his town, who lived a few miles distant. He began with the Latin grammar, in eight months went through the Latin and Greek classics and other studies required for admission, and was received into the freshman class of Harvard University at Cam bridge in the autumn of 1807. Although self-instruction has some advantages* in the intellectual strength and acumen it gives, it has also numerous disadvantages. These latter Mr. Fuller experienced, to some extent, in joining his college class. He could ascertain the meaning of an author not before studied, and pursue a new branch of study with more certainty and confidence than those accustomed to the assistance of a teacher. But in the grace and ease of rendering the classics, in the pronunciation of the languages, and in composition and elocution, he found himself far behind those who had been trained at the Latin school in Boston, or at other prominent institutions, where young men were then prepared for college. These, however, were defects which diligence and effort could cure, and such the ambition and earnestness of him, who now felt them, would not permit long to exist. To remedy them, he passed the win ter vacation, of seven weeks, which commenced at the close of his first term in college, with Dr. Joshua Bates, then a clergyman in Dedham, Massachusetts, afterwards president of Middlebury College. During these few weeks, he applied himself to the study of Latin and Greek authors, not required of his class, desiring to supply, as far as could be done in so short a space, the deficiencies of his previous preparation. Mr. Fuller graduated in 1811. Of his college course it is enough to say, that he took the second honor and place in a class eminent for the number of its distinguished men. Among these may be named, Hon. Edward Everett, Hon. Ebenezer Lane, the late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Benjamin F. Dunkin, present Chancellor of South Carolina, Rev. Drs. Samuel Gillman, Nathaniel L. Frothingham and Joseph Allen. This list might be still further extended, and em braces several in the foremost rank of their respective professions in their different localities. Immediately upon his graduation from col-lege, Mr. Fuller went to Exeter, New-Hampshire, where he passed a year, as assistant-teacher in the academy, then under the charge of the late Dr. Benjamin Abbott, as principal. At that time, Exeter was the Athens of New-Hampshire, and the residence of a galaxy of distinguished men of the old school of politics and law. Amongst these were the late Governor and Chief Justice, Jeremiah Smith, Judge Oliver Peabody, George Sullivan, one HENRY H. FULLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 123 of the most accomplished advocates and men of the Granite state, Governor John Taylor Gilman, and many others well known in the history of their own commonwealth. Mr. Fuller enjoyed and appreciated the society in which he was here introduced, and doubtless some of the political opinions, to which he has steadfastly adhered, received bias and strength, if they did not de rive their origin, from the social intercourse of this period of his life. Upon leaving Exeter, in September, 1813, Mr. Fuller became a stu dent at the law school, under the charge of Judge Tappen Reeve and Judge James Gould, at Litchfield, Ct., which at that time was the only institution of the kind in the United States. The idea of such a school was then new in this country. As soon as Mr. Fuller ascertained its existence, he determined to avail himself of its facilities. He entered it at a most interesting and exciting period of our history, and found himself a fellow-student with large numbers of young men from nearly every state in the Union, bringing with them all shades and varieties of opinion prevailing in their respective localities. He had hitherto had comparatively little intercourse with the world. He had passed from the quiet of his youthful home to the seclusion of an assiduous college- life. The leisure hours of his twelve months at Exeter found him in the midst of a refined and intelligent society, but, in its predominant influences, representing one class of opinions only. There is a vast difference, too, in the effect upon the mind, between an association with those to whose sentiments age and eminence impart an authority, and with those of our own age and standing, who as equals bring to our notice and discussion all the diversities of sentiment and feeling of the time. The tendency of the one is to the quiet reception of opinions upon trust; of the other to induce thought and independence. At Litchfield, Mr. Fuller enjoyed a more favorable position for enlarging and liberalizing his views and sentiments than he had had before, and he has never failed to appreciate and acknowledge the beneficial results which his sagacity anticipated. These and other benefits have now so estab lished law schools as a necessity, that we hardly realize they were so recently an experiment. It had been Mr. Fuller s design to make the State of New- York his professional home, when he should commence practice. With this view, after remaining at the school in Litchfield one year, he went to Albany in September, 1813, and became a student in the office of Messrs. Bleecker and Sedgwick, a distinguished law firm in that city. At that time the English forms of pleading and practice were retained in the New- York courts, and they contrasted so unpleasantly with the simplicity of the pleadings and practice in Massachusetts, as to be quite distasteful to Mr. Fuller. Such forms required much manual, but little intellectual labor, and to a young man, seeking an intellectual profession, they were uninteresting and irksome. Mr. Fuller was, however, induced to abandon his purpose of settling in New-York by other considerations. His oldest brother, Timothy, to whom we have before alluded, proposed to him to come to Boston, finish his studies. 124 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and become a partner with him. The elder Fuller* was then in full and large practice in the counties of Middlesex and Suffolk, and this offer, both favorable and flattering, was accepted. Having completed his studies in his brother s office, Mr. Fuller was admitted to practice, September 10th, 1815, and then became a part ner with his brother in professional business. Thus called at once into full practice, he had less time for professional and other studies than he would have desired. But this had its com pensation in a speedy familiarity with, and knowledge of practice, and the acquisition of large experience in the trial and management of causes before juries and judges. The first case tried by Mr. Fuller was one of some interest. It arose out of a mercantile adventure to the West Indies, entered into immediately after the war of 1812. It was tried before that eminent statesman and orator, the late Harrison Gray Otis, then holding the office of Judge of the Boston Court of Common Pleas, and at the same time a senator in Congress. Mr. Fuller was counsel for the plaintiff, and his opponent was the late professor of rhetoric and oratory in Har vard College, some years his senior in the profession. The natural embarrassments of a young counselor, trying his first case, were felt more than they were manifested by him, but they did not prevent his success. A verdict satisfactory to his client was obtained. From that time to the present, Mr. Fuller may be said to have been in full and lucrative practice. The election of his brother to Congress, as the representative of the Middlesex district, in 1818, devolved the whole business of the partnership upon the junior member of the firm, for a considerable portion of the year, which continued to be the case till his dissolution with his brother in 1823. This called him at once to the performance of a large amount of professional labor, and developed the extent of his powers and acquire ments. He had not the slow and useful training of most young lawyers, struggling unaided into the practice of a crowded profession, but he distinguished himself by a rapid acquisition of professional experience and skill in the transaction of business, in and out of court. Well versed in the elements of law, with a quick and clear apprehension, he found no difficulty in sustaining and advancing his position at the bar. Self-reliant, cautious and persevering, as well as patiently laborious, his cases were prepared and tried in a manner to secure the confidence of clients and commendations of courts. At the close of the first ten years of his practice probably Mr. Fuller had tried as many and varied cases as any lawyer of his age in the state. His business was then, and has ever been, mostly in the civil courts, although he has tried many causes in the criminal tribunals, and is well read in the principles of law there administered. He was a thorough master of the prin ciples and technicalities of that great system of special pleading, then in full vigor, but now obsolete in Massachusetts, except in the federal courts. Rarely did his clients suffer in the practice of this system in * Father of the late Margaret Fuller Ossoli, whose melancholy fate, off Fire Island, on board the bark Elizabeth, with her husband and child, will be remember ed by our readers. HENRY H. FULLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 125 his hands. His business was not only large in the Boston courts, but then and since was extensive in the adjoining populous and active county of Middlesex, which, after Suffolk, probably furnishes the largest law business of any county in the state. Mr. Fuller s ambition has ever been in the line of his profession, and to this he has assiduously devoted himself, allowing nothing to turn him from its practice. He has, however, always held and maintained decided views upon the political questions of his time, and exerted an extended influence upon parties in the commonwealth. Seeking no office himself, sharing largely the confidence of his political associates, he had great tact and skill in party management, and in directing the right measures and men for success. Latterly he has retired from this field, but those whose recollection goes back a quarter of a century well know that few men now living at one time exerted more in fluence in his own party in Boston and the state than Mr. Fuller. Mr. Fuller was a federalist, and, in 1824, a warm supporter of Mr. Crawford for president against John Quincy Adams. In that year he was elected a representative in the state legislature from Boston. At that session the question of incorporating the college at Amherst came up. Mr. Fuller distinguished himself in opposition to this measure, and, by his speeches and efforts, made himself many friends, as well as many opponents. The matter assumed rather the aspect of religious controversy between the friends of the college and the supporters of what are termed liberal views. Mr. Fuller himself was and is a de voted and active Unitarian. In 1825 the effort, which was finally successful, to unite the fede ralists and democrats as one party in the commonwealth, was made. Mr. Fuller took a very active and decided part for this union, on the federal side, and carried it in their caucus against the strenuous efforts of some of the most able and distinguished members of the party. That year he was again run for representative upon the amalgamation ticket, and lost his election in Boston, although Governor Lincoln was their first elected governor on the same ticket in the state, and Mr. Fuller s brother, Timothy, a representative from Cambridge, chosen by the same party, was made speaker of the house. Although defeated in part in Boston, the ticket was successful in the state, and a consoli dated party formed, which held the political power of the common wealth uninterruptedly for fifteen years, and with two transient ex ceptions, until 1851. In 1828 Mr. Fuller was again elected a representative from Boston, and was chairman of the committee on Probate and Chancery, the second committee in rank in the house, until the Hon. Francis Baylies, then appointed a foreign minister, resigned the place of chairman of the committee on the Judiciary, the first and most important committee, when Mr. Fuller succeeded him in that position. In 1832 he w r as again elected a representative, and was again chairman of the committee on the Judiciary. After this, his health became some what enfeebled, and hardly adequate to the demands of his business, and he declined all further solicitations or nominations tendered for a seat in the legislature, until 1850 and 51, in both of which years some radical changes in the rules and practice of law being contemplated. Mr 126 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Fuller was induced to be again a candidate, and was elected, and is now a member of the House of Representatives. In both these years the whig party, with which Mr. Fuller acts, was in the minority. In 1832 Mr. Fuller, aided only nominally by two individuals, pro jected and established the Boston Atlas newspaper, now the leading whig journal of New-England, and procured the late Richard Haugh- ton as its editor. Mr Fuller continued interested in this paper till 1835, when, it having become well established, his pecuniary interest in it ceased. In 1826, Mr. Fuller was married to Mary Buckminster Stone, daugh ter of the late Daniel Stone, of Framingham. Mr. Fuller, from the first, has taken great interest in the cause of internal improvement in Massachusetts. He enlisted only in favor of rail-roads, and gave them his earnest, efficient, and constant support, in their darkest days. The first charter for a rail-road in this state, after the short quarry road at Quincy, was drawn by him. Of the area composing Boston proper, more than one half has been reclaimed from the sea. A large portion of this reclaimed land is in cluded in what is termed the South Cove, and has been filled up by a company incorporated for that purpose. It is now thickly covered with rail-road stations, churches, warehouses, and dwellings. Its recla mation has added millions of dollars to the taxable property of the city, and most essentially advanced the prosperity and wealth of the citizens. Mr. Fuller was among the leading and active promoters of this enter prise, and perseveringly gave it his time, energies, and influence. The energies of Mr. Fuller have, however, been mostly directed steadily to the practice of his profession, when his taste and his feel ings inclined him. In this he has enjoyed from the first an extended and lucrative business, in all its departments, although from his liberal expenditures, and some unfortunate investments, that too general mis fortune of lawyers, he has not probably accumulated, or at least retained means sufficient to enable him to quit entirely his devotion to the law, did his wishes incline him so to do. His practice has been large and important in both the state and federal courts in Boston, and the ad joining county of Middlesex, and has occasionally extended to the bars of other counties of the commonwealth. He is still in the same active business. For a period of more than thirty years Mr. Fuller may be said to have been in full practice in all the courts at the Suffolk bar. It is no derogation to any section of our country to say that this bar, during that period, has in no respect been surpassed by that of any portion of the United States. Among its eminent and brilliant leaders, in the earlier and later portions of that time, were, or are : Otis, Sullivan, Gorham, the Dexters, father and son ; the Judge Hubbard, the present Chief Justice Shaw, and Judges Fletcher, Curtis, and Sprague, Choate, Loring, C. P. Curtis, Bartlett, Rand, Professor Greenleaf, and pre eminent over all, he whose world-wide and peerless fame as a states man alone obscures his position as the leader of the American bar, Daniel Webster. Such have been, or are the leaders, while the younger arid less distinguished members have ever pressed hard and earnestly upon their superiors and elders. In this school Mr. Fuller has been HENRY H. FULLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 127 trained, and under the standard of professional eminence and honor, created by such men, and amid the energetic competition of such a bar, to acquire and retain the position which, for a generation, he has held, evinces a power and ability, as well as legal learning and diligence of a high order. As a lawyer he is thoroughly read, both in the common law and equity. Few men are more familiar with elementary principles and their nicer distinctions, or the cases in England and America which illus trate and apply them. His reading, from the necessities of his prac tice, has kept pace with the progress of the law. His diligence in, and devotion to the quiet and unambitious pursuit of his profession, has been characteristic. He possesses indomitable perseverance, is of a nervous and elastic temperament, hopeful, and never depressed by the adverses and unexpected turns of a cause. He prepares his cases with care, and in their trial is never apparently disturbed by any of the un foreseen contingencies which the best preparation cannot always antici pate. Clear and remarkably quick in his apprehension, subtle in mak ing distinctions, sometimes even more refined and plausible than real, he is rarely taken at a disadvantage by his adversary, and extricates himself from an embarrassment with dexterity. He is of medium stature, slender in person, with a pale, intellectual look, quick in motion, and dresses with scrupulous nicety and neatness, but with some peculiarities, evincing independence, if not a little eccen tricity. He adheres somewhat to the fashions of an earlier day, and almost or quite alone at the Boston bar, clings with unwavering tena city to the simple but ministerial white cravat and plaited ruffle bosom. Mr. Fuller has a strong, logical, and practical mind, a retentive memory, and, as we have already said, great clearness and quickness of apprehension. He seizes a point at once, and states it clearly and precisely. He has much wit and vivacity, as well as great power of sarcasm and invective, which he sometimes, as we have thought, calls into too large and frequent action before the jury, and which he unrelentingly uses when he believes it de served. He is a fluent speaker and a cogent reasoner, but sometimes indulges in too much diffuseness of statement. He speaks with great distinctness, rapidity, and rarely changes or hesitates for a word. The compass of his voice is not great, and he has little gesticulation, but argues with animation, and with unusual ingenuity and force, and en tirely exhausts his subject. No man treats his equals with more cour tesy and candor, his superiors on the bench or at the bar with more re spect and deference, and his juniors and inferiors with more affability and kindness. No young man, in the inexperience of his first admission to the bar, ever sought from him favor or information and met a repulse. Liberal and honorable in his practice with his professional brethren, scorning all subterfuge, trick, or unfair advantage, he is ever ready to impart, when sought, the knowledge which his extensive reading and experience have accumulated. Whensoever in his power, he never fails to aid and advance the young and deserving. As a citizen, he is pub lic-spirited and generous. His hand is open in charity, and his heart responds to the demands of suffering and misfortune. He has great con versational powers, and is a vivacious, genial, and agreeable companion, Keenly alive to the pleasures of social intercourse, he is more so to those 128 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. of domestic life, and finds his purest enjoyment and sweetest hours in the bosom of an almost idolized home, which, as we write, is made deso late by the death of the partner of his life. He takes great interest in all that relates to his religious denomination, and is a devoted and con sistent member of the Unitarian Church. Mr. Fuller is a good classical scholar. He has also taken much in terest in biblical literature and studies, and is well versed in them. In connection with these, and attracted by his tastes, he has devoted much reading to the modern discoveries in Egypt and the East, and is very familiar with the works of Wilkinson, the Champollions, and others who have explored this most interesting field. He also keeps himself well acquainted with the current literature in all departments. In 1823 he delivered the annual address before the Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, at Cambridge. He has occasionally prepared an article or pamphlet upon some of the topics of the day, and writes with ease, energy, force, and elegance. He has, however, culti vated letters, as his leisure would permffc, rather in the gratification of a refined taste than as subservient to distinction out of his profession. Upon the recent death of the late Benjamin Rand, LL. D., an eminent counselor, and long the friend and associate of Mr. Fuller at the Suffolk bar, a meeting of its members was called, and a series of resolutions, expressive of their high sense of Mr. Rand s virtues and accomplish ments, adopted. Mr. Fuller was chairman of this meeting, and, by re quest, presented the resolutions to the Supreme Judicial Court upon its coming in on the next day. We cannot better close this imperfect me moir than by subjoining the proceedings of that meeting, and Mr. Ful ler s address, and the reply of the court. We do this because the ad dress is a fair specimen of Mr. Fuller s style and manner of speaking, although with little preparation ; while both the proceedings and ad dress are a just and glowing tribute to the memory, as well as an epitome of the life of a distinguished practitioner, whose too early death alone has prevented our assigning him in these volumes that conspicu ous place which, up to that time, he held, and deserved to hold, among eminent living American lawyers. We are indebted for these proceedings and for Mr. Fuller s address to the Monthly Law Reporter for May, 1852. We extract as fol lows : " The meeting was called to order by Charles G. Loring, Esq., whereupon, H. H. Fuller, Esq., was chosen chairman, and George Bemis, Esq., secretary. " Appropriate remarks were made by Mr. Fuller, on taking the chair, and also by E. H. Derby, Esq. "The following resolutions were offered by George S. Hillard, Esq. : " Resolved, That the members of the Suffolk bar have heard with sorrow of the death of their late friend and associate, Benjamin Rand, Esq. " Resolved, That the professional life of Mr. Rand, crowned, as it was, with the most various and affluent learning, dignified by a stern sense of honor, and marked by a single-hearted devotion to the interests of his clients, and by an unselfish love of the law, for its own sake more HSITOY H. FULLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 129 than for its honors or its emoluments a life passed in modest tran quillity amid the unambitious toils of the bar, and in the calm atmos phere of legal studies commends itself to the gratified and honoring remembrance of his brethren, and presents a model for imitation to all who survive him. "Resolved, That the massive and copious learning of Mr. Eand, wherein he had no superiors and few equals, was less to be commended than the manly and moral worth which waited upon his daily profes sional life, than that love of truth, that intolerant scorn of meanness, and that generous disdain of unfair advantages and opportunities which were leading traits in his character, sometimes expressed more fervidly and uncompromisingly than a cold self-interest would prompt. We delight to honor the memory of the lawyer who, armed with all the weapons and resources of the law, used and valued them only as instru ments to insure justice and protect the right, who contended for truth and not for victory, and who would have disdained a triumph bought at the price of self-respect. If the movements of Mr. Rand s mind sometimes showed the effects of a too exclusive devotion to legal studies, his mo ral sense passed unharmed through all the temptations which our pro fession presents. His studies never hardened his heart, and his prac tice never warped his perceptions of right and wrong. His daily life shone with the light of truth, honor, courage and disinterestedness. We feel a melancholy satisfaction in thus expressing and recording our sense of the excellence of Mr. Rand s personal and professional character, and we gratefully and affectionately cherish his memory. " Resolved, That these resolutions be presented to the Supreme Ju dicial Court, now in session, with a request that they be entered upon the records. " Resolved, That the secretary be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions, and of the proceedings of this meeting, to the family of the deceased, as an expression of the sympathy of the bar in the great loss which they have sustained." The chairman of the meeting was requested to present the above resolutions to the Supreme Court, upon its coming in on the next day. Upon the coming in of the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, April 28th, Mr. Justice Bigelow presiding, H. II. Fuller, Esq., ad dressed the court as follows : " May it please your Honor : It has become my melancholy duty, in obedience to the request of my brethren of the Suffolk bar, to announce to this court the decease of our brother, Benjamin Rand, Esq., one of the counselors of this court. A great man has fallen in our midst a mighty spirit has taken its flight from this earthly sphere and winged its way to heavenly mansions, to join that company of kindred intellects whose works and thoughts were his study and delight while he remain ed with us. " Mr. Rand died at his residence in this city, surrounded by his family and friends, early on Monday morning last, of a disease which had con fined him to his home for some weeks. He was a native of Weston, in our neighboring county of Middlesex, where he was born on the 18th of April, in the year 1785. After the usual academical preparation afc 9 130 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Andover, he entered Harvard University, and was graduated at that institution in the year 1818. At the close of his collegiate course, having striven generously and manfully with the master spirits of his class, for literary pre-eminence, he was found standing foremost in the front rank. " After leaving the university, he commenced the study of the law in the office and under the charge of Isaac Fisher, Esq., a distinguished counselor in his native town, and afterwards he completed his profes sional studies in this city, in the office of our late judge, the Honorable Artemas Ward, and was admitted to practice in the courts of this county. He immediately opened his office here, and continued in the practice of his profession until the close of his life. " During the early part of his professional life the first eight or ten years of it Mr. Rand had very little encouragement in his profession. The earnings of his labors, in that period, were not sufficient to give him a comfortable support. Being a man of modest and somewhat diffident manners, and a stranger in our city, he labored under many disadvantages in the acquisition of clients and business, which were only overcome after years of toil and struggle. " But this period of inactivity in his profession was not lost or wasted by Mr. Rand. Indeed, upon looking back to that state of things, which "was painful and disheartening in the highest degree, and most grievous to be borne at the time, we can now see plainly that in it and by it he was led to that course of occupation and study which laid the foundation of his future distinction and professional eminence. During those weary years of melancholy waiting, he not only devoted himself to the most thorough study of his profession, properly so called, the com mon, civil, maritime and ecclesiastical law, reading all writers, common or rare, upon those subjects, tracing the streams to their fountains, in the remotest antiquity of the science ; but he plunged into other branches of learning with an enthusiasm and avidity which seemed to outside lookers-on as truly amazing. He made himself thorough master of most of the living languages of Europe, except those of the Czar and the Sultan, so that he could readily read the best authors and profit by the best thoughts of the great minds who had used those languages. He seemed to have brought home to his soul, with practical effect, the charming maxim of his great Roman exemplar, "Omnes artes, qua) ad humanita- tem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum, quo inter se conti- nentur;" and he took it in its most literal and liberal interpretation. During this period he pursued the study of medicine, acquiring a vast amount of learning in that science ; he dipped into those wonderful dis coveries of Egyptian antiquities, then just beginning to attract public notice through the labors of Dr. Young, of England, and of the two Champollions, Le Jeune and Figeac,of France, and studied geology, min eralogy, (sciences then new amongst us,) and engaged in many other branches of learning. Most of these studies proved of wonderful use to him in after life, at a time when his professional labors allowed him no time to acquire them for the occasion. "But the period of these luxurious revellingsin the fields of learning, unlimited and unrestrained by professional necessities, drew towards a close. It was the fortune at that time of Mr. Rand to be retained in a HENRY H. FULLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 131 suit involving all the intricacies and niceties of special pleading in rela tion to the breach of covenants under seal. It related to a contract for the erection of certain private palaces for some of our merchant princes in this city. The action lasted several years, involving many questions of fact and more of law, and coming before the whole court several times upon those questions. For this warfare Mr. Band was already armed and equipped, and possessed the consciousness that he was clad in fresh armor, and that he had at his command all that the books could furnish. It is sufficient to say, that before this controversy was fully ended, and all questions therein were settled, Mr. Rand found himself amongst the foremost in the highest ranks of his profession, not only in the estimation of his legal brethren but of the public generally. " From that time he was rendered happy and placed at ease, both in pecuniary and in all other senses. During the remainder of his life his professional engagements and labors were incessant, and the rewards of them were entirely satisfactory to himself and to his friends. " From that time, also, his true character as a man was freely devel oped without fear or restraint. Early imbued with an ardent love of learning, he now could gratify his taste in this respect by the purchase of the best works and by drinking at the purest fountains. " But in the midst of this wide world of learning, the natural and ac quired taste of Mr. Rand led him to the law, not merely as a business or employment, but as an intellectual exercise and discipline ; he loved its philosophical precision and exactness, and its logical results, partak ing so much of mathematical demonstration and certainty. He may truly be said to have loved the law, and he wooed and won with the genuine fire of that passion. Indeed, looking at his professional career, he seems, after an observation of the whole of it, to have practised our noble profession as a mere amateur and for the pleasures it yielded in its pursuit. The natural rewards or recompense, in a pecuniary view, he did not and could not refuse to receive ; but he never manifested the least thought or care for them until all was over and the client naturally desired to know his pleasure in that regard. Indeed, money or riches never seemed to be in his thoughts ; he could truly say, if ever a man could, " Nunquam divitias Deos rogavi, contentus modicis!" And yet a proper gratification of his tastes, even in his profession, re quired large resources. When it is considered that he possessed him self of the most valuable and well-selected private law library which is known to exist in these United States, the necessity of large profes sional earnings is obvious. " Our deceased brother was a man of many and varied excellences of character. Possessed of stupendous learning in his appropriate pro fession, so much so as to have been pronounced by eminent judges and jurists to have at least as much legal learning as any other living man, and that more accessible for ready use, besides his acquirements in other branches of learning ; yet he bore himself at all times with the unaffected simplicity and ingenuousness of early youth. It hardly seemed possible with such manners that he should ever have been the close and laborious applicant to study, so necessary for such vast accu mulations of knowledge. He was remarkable for a noble generosity and ready sympathy, which opened his heart freely and promptly to 132 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. every fellow-creature. His learning seemed so natural, and sat so easily upon him, that he never appeared to consider that any part of it was to be used for lucre or gain. Whenever a professional brother needed aid in threading the mazes of any legal question, if he ap proached Mr. Rand, instantly, without a selfish thought or impulse, the fountains of the law were opened freely and cheerfully ; and so much pleasure did he take in imparting portions of his vast knowledge, that when a proper opportunity was offered he would not permit his brother to depart till he had pointed him to the leading works, and even cited the most pointed cases applicable to the question in hand. There was no affectation or display in his manner of doing this ; the whole resulted from his irresistible impulse to do good and to give pleasure to his friends and" fellow practitioners, and the ease and readiness with which he could do it, and give a clue to all branches of the law in its most recondite departments, never ceased to surprise and astonish all who knew him. " It was the good fortune of Mr. Rand, some eighteen years ago, to visit England, the home of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, and the native land of the common law. His professional reputation had preceded him. He was received with great cordiality and marked distinction by the bar and the bench. The acquaintance formed by him on that occasion with the leading minds of our profession in that country, was followed by a correspondence between himself and some of those per sons which discloses the high appreciation which they had formed of his talents and learning. This visit was the source of great pleasure and enjoyment to him. The enthusiastic delight with which he de scribed his first visit to that cradle of the common law, Westminster Hall, where that wonderful monument of human learning and acumen has been built up by the judicial decisions and labors of seven centuries, can never be forgotten by those who have heard his narrative. " But, sir, our friend has departed. He has left us behind ; we are to follow. " Omnes eodem cogimur ; omnium V ersatur urna, serius ocius Jnra nvifnrn " Sors exitura " But let us not say this in tears, or in sadness. Death is the gate of Heaven, it is a station-house on the road of an unavoidable and pre destined progress through the ages. It is our best friend and deliverer from, a finite and limited existence; from a narrow world, which the genius of our race has already learned to span as with a girdle, and speak around it, in half an hour. It is the only entrance to those boundless mansions above the visible canopy which overshadows us, through which we may enter, and unite ourselves with those mighty intellects, those resplendent spirits, whose efforts and thoughts have elaborated and transmitted to us that wonderful fabric of Christian civilization and culture which has transformed this terrestrial abode, from a place of mere animal development and enjoyment, into a school of intellectual and spiritual discipline and progress, and thus made it worthy of immortals. " May it please your Honor : The members of the Suffolk bar have unanimously adopted certain resolutions, expressive of their sense of I DAVID DEVENS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 133 the great worth and distinguished excellence of our deceased friend. They have directed me to request this honorable court to cause them to be entered at large upon its records, that they may remain, so long as the principles of that noble science, the common law, so dear to the deceased, shall continue to be the rule of decision, and the protection and bulwark of our rights and liberties, as a memorial of their feelings and sentiments, and a monument, such as winged words may constitute, to commemorate the acquirements, the genius, and the virtues of a de parted brother." Thereupon, Mr. Justice Bigelow said in substance : "I regret that some one of my associates is not present on this occa sion, who, having been more nearly a cotemporary with Mr. Rand, and more familiar with his professional life and character than myself, would be better able to make a fitting response to these resolutions. I have, however, known our deceased brother long and well enough to bear testimony to his exalted worth, and to the great loss which the profession and the public have sustained in his death. " His varied and profound learning, his uncorruptible integrity, his honorable ambition, the highest aim of which was to illustrate our jurisprudence, and advance and elevate the profession to which his life was devoted, were the great and shining qualities, which won for him universal respect and admiration, and which render the example of his life so worthy of imitation. To these may be added that beautiful trait of his character, already alluded to by our learned brother, which led him to regard the treasures of learning with which he had stored- his mind, not as means to be used to promote selfish ends, but as a com mon stock in which all were welcome to share. This was shown, not only by his readiness to impart his knowledge in personal intercourse with his brethren, but by the full and learned annotations with which he enriched several elementary treatises, and the early volumes of our own reports. " I can only add, that I most cordially concur in the resolutions of the bar, and in compliance with the request therein contained, shall order them to be entered on the records of the court ; and as an addi tional mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, I shall not pro ceed with the business of the court, but shall adjourn it to another day." HON. DAVID DEVENS, OF CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, PRESIDENT OF THE BUNKER HILL BANK. MR. DEVENS is descended from an ancient and honorable family in New-England, and is the grandson of the late Richard Devens, whc was an active member of the committee of public safety in 1775. His parents resided in Charlestown when the war of the Revolution com menced. Their property was destroyed, and they were driven out by the burning of the town, on the 17th of June, 1775. David Devens was bom in Boston in 1777, and removed to Charles 134 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. town in 1790. With a borrowed capital of only two hundred dollars, he commenced business in 1799 as a wood and lumber dealer, and for more than forty years continued to do business on the same spot, dur ing which period he became a successful merchant, and was deeply con cerned in navigation and commerce, in voyages to Europe, the East and West Indies, &c. He has been treasurer of Charlestown ; has been honored with many town and state offices ; is now director in insurance offices, Bunker Hill Monument Association, and other corporations. He is also presi dent of the Bunker Hill bank, with which he has been officially con nected for twenty-seven years. HON. PLINY MERRICK, OF MASSACHUSETTS. MR. MERRICK is a descendant from a family of English emigrants, who came to this country soon after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. His ancestor, Thomas Merrick, arrived here about the year 1630, and was one of the first settlers of the town of Springfield, on the Connecticut River, where he is known to have resided in 1636, and until his death, nearly fifty years afterwards. His descendants are numerous and respectable. Many of them still dwell in the valley ot the Connecticut, near the location he selected for his residence, while others have found homes in different and distant states of the Union. The father of Mr. Merrick was a member of the legal profession. He established himself at Brookfield, a pleasant village, situate nearly midway between Springfield and Boston, in the midst of a prosperous agricultural community. He was a good lawyer j but his personal in tegrity, more than his professional ability, gave him title to the respect he possessed. He died before his son had completed his collegiate education. Mr. Merrick was born in Brookfield in 1794, and was graduated at Harvard University in 1814. He maintained there a good reputation for talents and scholarship, in a class of which Professor Walker, of Cambridge, William H. Prescott, the historian, and others well known in their respective avocations, were members. Immediately after leav ing college, he entered the office of Gov. Levi Lincoln, of Worcester, one of the most distinguished of the lawyers of Massachusetts, as a student, and continued under his tuition until his admission to the courts as an attorney in 1817. His subsequent life has been given almost exclusively to his profession. He brought to the bar qualities which, sooner or later, are sure to command success. A quick, clear, vigorous mind, well trained and enlarged by liberal culture generous and manly aims graceful and winning manners a love of justice, and a thorough detestation of every species of craft, low cunning, and fraud, could not fail to be ultimately appreciated and rewarded by an intelligent community. 135 He commenced, his professional practice in Worcester, under the pressure of a considerable indebtedness, which had been incurred in the expenses of his education, and from which it cost him the struggle of several years to extricate himself. But he never despaired, and was never unmindful that it was one of the first of his duties to discharge the pecuniary obligations he was under to those whose kindness had afforded him assistance. Anxious to make this return, but not meeting with the immediate encouragement at Worcester which would enable him to effect it so early as he desired, he removed, in the hope of im proving his condition, to the county of Bristol. He remained there until 1824, being a part of the intermediate time a law partner of Gov. Marcus Morton. He then returned to Worcester, where he has ever since resided. During the early part of his professional life his business was incon siderable, and his prospects were apparently unpromising ; but, though he felt some solicitude for the future, he never gave way to idle de spondency, nor once thought of being diverted from the course he had resolved to pursue. He had leisure for study, for observation, and for the acquisition of practical knowledge, and he used it with a wise fore cast. In these years of apparent failure, he laid the foundation for a higher and wider success than that which results in mere accumulation of gain and profit. While diligently seeking to make himself acquainted with the science of the law, he did not neglect more graceful and gener ous studies ; nor in the seclusion of study did he forget to qualify him self for a life of activity and business, by obtaining a practical knowledge of men and the affairs of society. Very early after his return to Worcester a great change occurred in his circumstances, and happier prospects opened to his exertions. His retainers were increased, his engagements multiplied, and his rise from that period was marked and rapid. He entered then into the higher walks of his profession as a counselor and advocate. He had now ample use for all the materials which his previous diligence had col lected ; and, almost at once, he advanced into an extensive and varied practice ; limited, in fact, only by his capacity of labor and power of endurance. It frequently occurred that he was employed as senior counsel in every cause that was tried at the terms of the courts in the county of Worcester. He was retained also in important causes in other parts of the commonwealth, and occasionally also in the neigh boring states of New-Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island. His habits of business had become thoroughly regulated, his perceptions were rapid, and his application close, constant, and unremitting. It was by these means that he was enabled to bring the multifarious en gagements in which he was employed to a prosperous issue. He derived no advantage from any system of division of labor, for in pro fessional practice in the interior counties of Massachusetts no such division was known. The advocate was there required not only to bo familiar with the principles of law in its various departments, but to be capable also of adapting himself to the management of the minutest details of proceeding in the courts, and in the preliminary preparation for trial. To meet every exigency without faltering or hesitation tu do all that is rapidly and continually falling upon his hands with con 136 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. summate tact and ability and to add to the work the charm of eloquence, and the finish which liberal studies alone can impart de mands no trifling measure of original power, invigorated by the acquisi tions of untiring industry. Such vigor of application and such constancy of employment pro- duced their inevitable consequences. Mr. Merrick relieved himself from all pecuniary embarrassment, and succeeded to a position, not, indeed, of affluence, but of ease, of competency, and independence ; and, what to a generous mind is of still higher gratification, he found himself surrounded by friends, and sustained by the confidence of the public, alike in his personal and professional character. While in full private practice, he was appointed attorney for the commonwealth in one of the four districts into which it was divided. He retained the office, by successive appointments, until he was trans ferred to the bench. Firm, but courteous and humane, intimately conversant with the criminal law, and accustomed to great exactness in the conduct of all his affairs, he made an admirable prosecuting officer. While he forbore no labor and spared no pains to fix upon the guilty the legal penalties of transgression, he was never known to press for a conviction merely because an accusation had been made, or an indict ment presented. His labors in this department of the government, so essential to the welfare of the state and the security of its citizens, were rewarded by their constant and warmest approbation. In 1843, Mr. Merrick was placed upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, which, in Massachusetts, is invested with an extended civil and criminal jurisdiction, and which has been adorned by some of her best jurists. In accepting a judicial office, he assumed the discharge of duties in which the eminent advocate is by no means always success ful. But he was not of the number who fail ; he soon increased the reputation he had acquired at the bar. He carried to the bench the manners of a gentleman, and presided in his court not only with dignity, but with urbanity and kindness. His clear and discriminating mind, his ready perception of the true issues to be investigated, his quick analysis, and his happy faculty of laying everything clearly and plainly before the jury, enabled him to execute his office acceptably, and very early established a high judicial reputation. In the autumn of 1848, he was urgently solicited to come to the rescue of an enterprise thought to be of great importance to the city of Worcester, which had been commenced, but was then laboring under the severest depression and embarrassment. He yielded somewhat reluctantly to that solicitation, and, resigning his judicial office, was chosen president of the Worcester and Nashua Rail-road Company. To the new species of labor to which he was thus called, he applied himself with vigor, and evinced in it sound discretion and great practi cal intelligence. His energy, perseverance and personal influence over came all obstacles in its way. He carried forward the work of the corporation, till their road was done, their buildings completed, and their cars running on the track ; and he then chose to withdraw from the company, and leave their operations to be conducted by those who had a more direct and immediate interest in its prosperity. But though he was thus temporarily diverted from his own appro- PLINY MERRICK, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 137 priate avocations, he was unwilling long to be absent from those pursuits to which it had been his constant purpose to devote his life. Having brought the enterprise in which he had been engaged to a prosperous termination, he turned again, with undiminished zeal and unabated power, to his chosen profession. His services were promptly sought for in the circle of his former labors with eagerness and avidity, and he was renewing a full career of employment in the courts, when a vacancy occurred upon the bench he had left. The seat was tendered to him by Gov. Briggs, and was accepted ; being the only instance in Massachu setts in which an individual has been re-appointed to a judical office from which he had once voluntarily retired. This second appointment was the more honorable to him, as it was conferred by a chief magistrate to whom, politically, as the representative of the predominant party in the state, he had been long and constantly opposed. Judge Merrick has been seen but little in political life. The demo cratic party with which he is associated have not often secured the as cendency in Massachusetts, and it has not therefore been in its power to confer distinction upon its members by party patronage. But he has enjoyed the confidence of his political friends, who have accorded to him such manifestations of respect and attachment as a minority can bestow. He has often been their candidate for places of trust and posts of honor and responsibility, and under their nomination he was elected, in 1849, to the Senate of the Commonwealth. As one of the most prominent members of the party, he occupied an important position in the legislature, and exercised an effective and salutary influence over the proceedings of the body to which he belonged. Had he been con tinued in that sphere of action, valuable results might have been antici pated from his wide experience and judicious counsels ; but before the occurrence of another session of the legislature, he was again in judicial office under his second appointment. It is in his professional character, as an advocate and as a judge, that he is chiefly known, and will be hereafter remembered. As an advo cate, he was eminently successful ; yet it was against no feeble minds that he achieved his distinction at the bar. Better lawyers are seldom seen in our courts than John Davis, now a senator in Congress from Massachusetts ; and Samuel Hoar, of Concord, whose solid learning and inexhaustible ingenuity are themes of praise wherever he is known. It was with such men that he had to contend, and he proved himself equal to the contest. Always buoyant and indefatigable, he never failed to be ready at the commencement of the race, nor exhibited fatigue till ho had reached its close. One must have heard his addresses to a jury, fully to have understood his merits as a jury lawyer. His approaches to them" were in the gentlest terms, and he secured a lodgment in their hearts before he began his appeal to their understanding. His manner was easy and graceful ; fluent in his delivery, his voice was clear, rich in its tones, and admirably modulated. He had a singular felicity in the command of language : copious without redundancy, the right word always fell in the right place. He saw distinctly the point in issue which he was to reach, and he went directly to it. In grouping facts, seemingly remote and disconnected, and in bringing them to bear with combined effect upon the designed end, his talent and ingenuity some- 138 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. times seemed wonderfully great. He reasoned with the caution and closeness of a logician. But his powers of persuasion surpassed even his force of argument; and his eloquent and touching appeals to the hearts of his hearers, revived in his own county the memory of Francis Blake a brilliant genius of an earlier day, of whose superior merits too little is remembered, and of whose productions too few have survived him to ensure the durability of the fame he deserved. Judge Merrick has been of counsel in many causes which will have a lasting remembrance. But of his forensic efforts few were ever re ported, and no written trace remains of arguments which, in the hour of their delivery, held listening audiences in admiring attention. Of the inconsiderable number of those which have been preserved, allusion may be made to his defence of Professor Webster. The report of his argument on that occasion, contained in the full and accurate report of the trial published by George Bemis, Esq., one of the counsel for the government, fully sustains the opinion expressed of it by those who were present at its delivery. No criminal trial has occurred in the United States which attracted such universal attention or excited so intense and painful an interest. Nor was there ever one in which coun sel for the accused discharged their duty under a pressure so severe and terrible. It is impossible for those at a distance from the scene to appreciate its force. They who were spectators, who carefully watched the whole proceedings, and who felt as well as saw the fatal character of the evidence growing hourly in irresistible conclusiveness, witnessed also the devoted ability and skill with which it was met and contested. They, and among them were some of the most distinguished and dis criminating citizens of the commonwealth, bore the strongest testimony to the vigor and ingenuity with which the prosecution was resisted ; and gave assurances in various ways to Judge Merrick, that his closing ad dress to the jury was, under the distressing and overwhelming circum stances against which he had to contend, one of the ablest and most eloquent arguments ever heard in the courts of Massachusetts. The life of Judge Merrick, as an advocate merely, is undoubtedly finished. He is now upon the bench under his second appointment, en joying the confidence of all parties, and the cordial esteem and respect of the bar. By those who are the more immediate witnesses of his course in that responsible station, a gratifying testimonial has been re cently tendered to him ; and the hope emphatically expressed, that his life and health may be preserved, and the public permitted for many years to enjoy the benefit of his judicial labors. HON. ANGUS PATTERSON, OF BARNWELL DISTRICT, SOUTH CAROLINA, Is the son of Alexander and Elizabeth Patterson, who were of Scotch extraction. They belonged to a colony of Highlanders who emigrated to North Carolina before the Revolution, and settled in the ANGUS PATTERSON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 139 counties of Cumberland, Moore, Eichmond, and Robeson. Angus was born in the latter, on the 5th day of December, 1790. His parents were as well educated as the times and the then state of the country admitted ; they were, in common with most of their neighbors and countrymen, poor but moral, religious, contented, industrious, economi cal, and anxious for the education and advancement of their children. They could, though they did not, generally speak the Gaelic language, which at that time was the common dialect of the elder inhabitants of the Scotch settlement. They were, as were all their countrymen, rigid Presbyterians, and a branch of the Kirk of Scotland ; no clergyman was allowed to preach, permanently at least, in their churches, who was not sent out and recommended by the Kirk the ability to preach in Gaelic being an indispensable qualification. His paternal grand-parents were Daniel and Mary Patterson ; the maiden name of the latter was McMillan ; they emigrated twelve or fifteen years before the Revolu tion, and first settled in Cumberland, but soon removed to the Raft Swamp in Robeson county, where a few of their descendants still re side. His maternal grand-parents were John and Isabel Patterson. They lived and died at a very advanced age in Moore county, near the head of Rockfish, a tributary of the Cape Fear. John Patterson was 16 years of age when he came to America, and must have been amongst the first emigrants, as he had acquired considerable property, and had several children grown at the commencement of the Revolutionary war. His maternal grandmother, whose maiden name was McDuffie, spoke Gaelic imperfectly, and was born in America ; her family, or rather her brother, Archibald McDuffie, the only portion of her family we ever heard of, lived in Cumberland, near Fayetteville. The family is now extinct, or removed to parts unknown. His father was too young to take part in the Revolutionary war, and both his grandfathers were, as were most native Scotchmen, neutral. A brother of his mother served in the American army at Guilford, and probably in other engagements. His father s and mother s maiden name were pronounced alike, but the families were not connected, and, besides, they spelled the name differently, one with one t, arid the other with two. His grand-parents, on both sides, left a numerous offspring, who have generally removed to the west, south, and south-west, and are to be found in every state, from the Cape Fear to the Rio Grande. His father, as far back as he can recollect, worked with one or two slaves on his farm in summer, and for two years in winter taught a small school, a little more than a mile from his residence. To this school our subject was carried, sometimes by his father, and sometimes by a servant. He must have been young, and could have learned but little. About 1803 or 1804, several young Scotchmen, having acquired a classical education, became Presbyterian ministers, and opened several academies in the Scotch settlement. To one of these, located at Solemn Grove, in Moore county, in charge of the Rev. Murdoch McMillan, Mr. Patterson was sent, where he remained nearly two years, boarding gratuitously in the family of a maternal uncle who lived in the neigh borhood. There he made some progress in Latin, and reviewed English Grammar. 140 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. About this time he became sensible that he would have to shift for himself; that for further progress in obtaining an education he would have to rely on his own exertions. Though his father had increased his property a little, he had a number of children, by three marriages, of whom Angus was the oldest. He saw that he could expect no material pecuniary aid from him. When he left Solemn Grove he was invited by his kinsman, Kenneth Black, to act as his assistant in the Lumberton Academy, of which he had charge. Mr. Patterson in structed the lower classes during school hours, for which he received a small salary, scarcely sufficient to pay for board and clothing, and had the privilege of joining a class. Mr. Black was a pretty accurate classi cal scholar, and afforded his pupils every facility he could. Mr. Patter son read portions of Ovid, Virgil, Horace, and Cicero s Orations, and managed to keep up with his class, but it may be supposed that he did not indulge in much sleep. He could understand Horace best, and he was his favorite author. He made a little, and but little, progress in Greek. Here Mr. Patterson resolved to direct all his efforts to the acquisition of a collegiate education. His plan was to obtain the neces sary funds by teaching school ; and, accordingly, in December, 1808, failing to get employment nearer home, he came to South Carolina, and succeeded in obtaining a school in Colleton District, near Patter son s Bridge. He had a Virgil and Horace, and spent most of his time, when not in school, in reading them. Not liking the manners of the neighborhood, he gave up his school at the end of the first quarter, and obtained employment as a private tutor in the family of Mr. John Witsell, in the same district, near Jacksonborough, then the seat of justice of Colleton district. There he remained a year in charge of three boys, who improved but little under his instruction. He at tended the Court of Common Pleas, as a spectator, and became ac quainted with one or two lawyers, who suggested the idea of giving up going to college, and to read law. Having conceived a fondness for forensic proceedings, be readily adopted this suggestion, and borrow ing a copy of Blackstone s Commentaries, read it through, and portions several times, while living in the family of Mr. Witsell. Near the end of his engagement with Mr. Witsell, he received an offer from the late Johnson Hagood, Esq., of Barnwell District, to understand the nature of which it is necessary to premise, that Mr. Hagood had been a lawyer of considerable practice, but having become a planter, was withdrawing from the profession. He had a good library, both law and miscellane ous. The proposal was to instruct a few children certain hours, for a small pecuniary compensation, and the use of the library and office. This situation was well adapted to his views. Mr. Hagood still had some professional business, which he soon left almost entirely to Mr. Patterson s management, visiting the office occasionally, when Mr. Patterson requested his advice. He issued writs, drew declarations, and prepared cases for trial, by noting the facts and looking up the law. He had ample time, and took no step without consulting every book in the office treating of the matter under investigation. In this way he became pretty well acquainted with the rules of pleading and evidence. Special pleading in those days was countenanced, if not encouraged, by the bench and the bar, though it is quite different now, the declaration ANGUS PATTERSON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 141 is seldom looked into, and a special demurrer is regarded with little favor. Besides books of practice, he read Burlamaqui on Natural Law, Montesquieu s Spirit of Laws, Vattel on International Law, Fearne on Contingent Remainders, Foublanque s Equity, and some history, bio graphy, and poetry. He was advised by most persons whom he con sulted, as to the proper course of reading, to study Coke on Littleton attentively. He accordingly commenced the task several times, but never could get more than half through the book. He began with Mr. Hagood in July, 1810, and in November, 1812, he went to Charleston and entered the office of the late John S. Richardson, then attorney- general of the state, and for many years subsequently a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He now bid adieu to the business of school master, having succeeded in it but poorly. To him it was a labor of necessity, and not of love. His principal employment in the office of Mr. Richardson was drawing indictments and declarations, but he made shift to look into many of the then modern cases, such as are reported in Burrows, Douglas, &c. For the principles established in the old re ports he relied on Comyn s Digest, and Viner s and Bacon s Abridge ments. Here he first resorted to the practice of acquiring a general knowledge of the contents of a book without reading it^ which proved of much advantage to him when pressed for time, in subsequent life. While in Charleston, he attended a session of the circuit and appeal courts, and was complimented by the late Judge Calcock for his at tention. From that time that able judge, and amiable man, as long as he lived, was his personal friend. In May, 1813, he was admitted, by the court of appeals in Columbia, to practice in the courts of law. He forthwith opened an office in the village of Barnwell, and Mr. Hagood having died, in the mean time, he purchased his law library, and fell heir to some of his cases and clients. Mr. Patterson had but little local competition. The late Hon. William D. Martin had studied law in Barnwell, where he had respectable connections, and was deservedly personally popular. He had been admitted some months, perhaps a year, before Mr. Patterson, and settled in the adjoining district of Beaufort, but, through a partnership, had an extensive and increasing practice in Barnwell. With that gentleman Mr. Patterson practised long and pleasantly. The transient bar was numerous, considering the quantity of business, and formidable for talents. The principal mem bers were Robert Stark, solicitor of the circuit ; Richard Gantt, after wards Judge Gantt, Edmund Bacon, John J. Chappell, Etheldred Simpkins, and John M. Felder. The three last named have since been members of Congress and of the state legislature. By these gentlemen he was treated with marked kindness, particularly by Mr. Stark, who, not only gave Mr. Patterson his countenance and advice, but aid. All these gentlemen, except Col. Chappell, have " shuffled off this mortal coil." There is nothing a young man remembers so long or so gratefully as the courtesies of his senior brethren. Mr. P. came to the bar a stranger an inexperienced youth, without money, and with no friends except a few whose confidence he had gained in the office of Mr. Hagood. These adhered to him as long as they lived, and he has had the pleasure of rendering important professional service to some of 142 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. their descendants. Before his admission he lived very retired, avoid ing rather than seeking society; and was bashful to an unreasonable degree. Conscious of having made all the preparation he could, he did not lack confidence in himself; yet he was so timed, excitable and ner vous, that after an argument, he could scarcely recollect a word uttered. Nothing but necessity enabled him to overcome this timidity. His business increased rapidly, and by 1818 he was in full practice. From 1820, as long as he continued an active member of the bar, he had as much and sometimes more business than he could do justice to. In 1818 he first appeared as counsel in the Court of Appeals. He early commenced investing a portion of his income. He first became a farmer. In 1827 he began to plant with a moderate capital, which was increased from time to time. In common with most pro fessional men, at least of the South, he was passionately fond of agri cultural pursuits, but never permitted them to interfere with his pro fessional engagements, and therefore had to divide the proceeds of his planting interest with agents and managers. In 1818 he was elected to the House of Representatives, re-elected in 1820, and after serving four years in that house, was elected to the Senate in 1822 and re-elected every four years until he retired in 1850. The sessions of the legislature of South Carolina are so short, never more than twenty days, that a seat in it does not interfere with professional duty. While on the floor of the Senate he acted as chair man of one of the working committees, at the same time serving as a member on several others. At the session of 1832 he was appointed chairman of the special committee to which the ordinance of nullifica tion was referred, and of which the Hon. A. P. Butler and the Hon. James Gregg were members. A similar committee was raised in the House of Representatives, of which the Hon. B. F. Dunkin, now Chancellor Dunkin, was chairman, and the Hon. Wm. C. Preston and other gentlemen since distinguished, were members. In the nullifica tion contest, party spirit ran high, and was in some instances bitter. Though his political course was decided, he retained throughout the contest many personal friends in the ranks of political opponents. While in the Senate, he had the happiness to be associated with many of the most distinguished men who appeared on the political stage in the state during the present century. They have now, with a few excep tions, passed away. In December, 1838, he was elected president of the Senate, and being re-elected every two years, occupied that office while he continued a member of that body. On the adjournment of the session of 1849, he became engaged in preparing for the Court of Chancery, which was to sit early in February. About the middle of January his health suddenly gave way. In a few days he became so feeble as to be scarcely able to walk, had a troublesome cough, and lost his voice almost entirely. As advised, he went directly to East Florida. By this movement he escaped the cold of February, March and April, and his health improved a little, more probably from the repose enjoyed, and which he stood much in need of, than from any other cause* It is doubted whether the climate was favorable to his case. On returning home he purchased a residence in the town of Aiken, which he intends to make his principal place of abode. GEORGE W. NORTON, OF KENTUCKY. 143 His health has gradually improved, his voice is in some measure restored, but he is still feeble. In 1819 he married a daughter of the late Francis Tratti. His wife is of Italian, Greek and Irish descent. Their union has been one of uninterrupted happiness. Of eleven children, two died in early infancy, a third left an infant a few days old, now grown ^ to be a promising boy, and supplies to some extent the place of his mother in the affections of the family. GEORGE W. NORTON, ESQ., OF RtJSSELLVILLE, KENTUCKY, PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN BANK OF KENTUCKY. WILLIAM NORTON, the father of George W. Norton, removed from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Russellville, Kentucky, in 1811, and is now one of the oldest residents of that town. In 1813, he married Miss Mary Hise, a lady distinguished for her intelligence, energy and prac tical good sense. He is universally esteemed for probity and industry. George W., who is the oldest child, was born and educated in Rus sellville, and is now in his thirty-eighth year. In his fifteenth year, he went into a dry-goods store as a clerk ; by industry and attention to his du ties gained the confidence and regard of his employers, and was enabled to begin business on his own account in his nineteenth year. He was actively and successfully engaged in commercial pursuits until the au tumn of 1849, when he determined to retire from active employments until his naturally feeble constitution and usually feeble health could be somewhat restored. The charter of the Southern Bank of Kentucky, with a capital of two millions of dollars, having been amended by the recent legislature of his state, the friends of the institution, in the spring of 1850, determined to put it into operation at once. Upon the organization of the board of directors, at the very urgent solicitations of the stockholders and di rectors, Mr. Norton was induced to accept the presidency of the bank. His success in commercial pursuits gave confidence to the community that the bank would be prudently and judiciously managed expecta tions which have not been disappointed. The Southern Bank of Ken tucky has the confidence of the public to an extent not surpassed by any similar institution. In his intercourse with his fellow-men, he has endeavored to be influ enced by strict integrity as a consequence, he has the confidence and esteem of all who know him. At the age of about 18, he became a member of the Church, and has endeavored to live the life of a Christian. In 1847, he was married to Miss Martha Stewart Henry, daughter of the late Major M. W. Henry, of Kentucky. 144 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. BENJAMIN FANEUIL HUNT, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. [We have been furnished with the following memoir from the pen of a literary friend and cotemporary of Col. Hunt, in Charleston. EDITOR.] THE subject of this memoir was born on the 29th day of February, 1792, at Watertown, near Boston, Massachusetts. His father was the descendant of a clergyman, who emigrated with the early settlers of the state. Having completed his education at Harvard University, on the morning of the day of Bunker s Hill, his father accompanied General Warren, at that time his guest, to the battle-ground, where his conduct merited such approval as to induce General Washington, on his arrival in Massachusetts, to appoint him quarter-master in the American army. His original books remain in the possession of his son, and contain many curious details of that interesting period. After the war he com menced his career as a lawyer, and became extensively engaged in busi ness, which continued until his death in 1804. Maternally, the subject of this memoir is equally well related. His mother was a daughter of George Bethune of Brighton, and Mary Fa- neuil, a descendant of the Huguenots, who left France at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.* At the death of his father, in 1804, Mr. Hunt was left to complete his education and prepare himself for business, Apt to learn, he became ambitious of receiving a liberal education, and, such was his determined * The name of Faneuil is thus derived, as appears by a communication in the Boston Evening Transcript : " In 1685, at the period of the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, there were living in or near Rochelle, in France, three brothers and two sisters of the Faneuil family. When the persecution commenced, so ably and touchingly described by James Saurin, two fled for safety to foreign lands. An drew, the elder brother, escaped into Holland, and took up his abode in Amsterdam, where he married that pre-eminently beautiful lady whose portrait is now in the possession of Col. Benjamin Faneuil Hunt, whose mother was Jane Bethune, a daughter of Mary Faneuil. Andrew, before many years, came to this country as early as 1709. In Holland he acquired his passion for flowers, which he gratified in his seven-acre Eden. He acquired a large estate, which he distributed among the public funds in France, England and Holland. He died February 13th, 1737. Benjamin Faneuil, his brother, was closely associated with that little band of Hu guenots, who clustered around about the town of Narragansett, at the very close of the 17th century. In 1699, he married a French lady, Anne Bureau. The transcript is thus, in French (translation): The 28th July, 1699, Benjamin Fa neuil and Anne Bureau were married at Narragansett, in New-England, at tbe house of Mr. Peter Ayross, by Mr. Peter Daille, minister of the French church in Boston. Benjamin Faneuil, the praepositus or stirps, became the father of eleven children by his wife, Anne Bureau, all born in New- Rochelle, in the State of New- York. Peter, who was the donor of Faneuil Hall, was born 20th June, 1700. Benjamin, his brother, and maternal grandfather of Col. Hunt, was born December, 1701. He was a merchant and frequented England and France. Peter died in 1742-43, and left a large possession, which fell to his brother Benjamin, who survived until October, 1785, when he also died. He resided at Brighton, near Boston, and was two months less than eighty -four years old when he died. He had for many years BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 145 purpose and confidence of future success, that his mother was induced to furnish the necessary means to defray the expenses of his academical and collegiate education. Accordingly, in 1806, he entered Harvard University, and four years afterwards, in his twentieth year, graduated. His health being delicate, and his family physician advising that a warmer climate could alone save him from consumption, a disease which had carried off all his brothers, he removed to Charleston, South Carolina, which has ever since been the place of his abode. On the first day of November, 1810, Mr. Hunt reached this city. He brought with him a good education, a few letters of introduction, a mother s blessing and a determination to succeed. His reception was marked by the proverbial hospitality and kindness of the place ; but intending to become a citizen, he at once determined to put aside the claim of guest and take his place on an equality with others in the competition of use fulness and honor. The late Keating Lewis Simons was, at that time, a distinguished lawyer at the Charleston bar. Mr. Hunt entered his office for instruction, and, during the time of his studies, no student per haps ever worked more faithfully. With classical studies he was fami liar, from the excellent training of his particular tutor, the late Profes sor Frisbey. After two years study, Mr. Hunt applied for admission to practice law, and was duly admitted to the bar. To a less resolute and hopeful mind, the opening prospect would have proved anything but inviting. Eminent men crowded the Charleston bar ; and, for most of them, family wealth and parentage had done quite as much as in trinsic merit. Mr. Hunt saw this, and his friends were so discouraged at his prospect, that they even advised him to abandon the vain hope of breaking through such an array of established practitioners and leave the metropolis for some less thronged theatre. prior to his death, adopted his grand-daughter, Jane Bethune, the mother of Col. Hunt, who became his reader and amanuensis, and thus acquired an early know ledge of the realities of life, and acquired those clear and strong views of its obliga tions and duties that so peculiarly marked her character and rendered her one of the best examples of an old-time lady. On the birth of her son, she gave him the name of her venerated grandfather." The following description of this patriarch is taken from a description attributed to a distinguished writer of the article, Dealings with the Dead." Speaking of Benjamin Faneuil, hesays : "This veteran had been a generous liver all his days. He was not a man whose devotion was ab dominal, whose God was his belly. He was no anchorite in this species of devo tion, but as an advocate for social worship, he was pre-eminently hospitable. For more than forty years from the period when Peters death afforded him the means, his hospitality had been a proverb, a by-word, but never a reproach. There was a refinement about it. It was precisely such hospitality as Apicius would have prac ticed had Apicius been a bishop. His appetite never forsook him. He died sud denly ; ate a cheerful dinner on the day of his death, and went not to his account on an empty stomach, a nephritic malady occasioned his decease." His grand-daughter also attained the venerable age of eighty-three, and lived to see her son and her son s sons gathered around her, and retained her early acquired habit of reading until a few months of her death, in 1846. She was a lady of un usual firmness and good sense, and of great decision of character. She continued even m the evening of her days an example of the dignified manners of the age in which she was educated, and her mansion was the cherished resort of her relatives and friends, young and old, and she carried to her tomb the love and veneration of her posterity and the profound respect of the community which she adorned by her excellent judgment and uniform kindness and benevolence. EB. 10 146 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. He differed with them however, and argued that the ability of his antagonists would rather tend to sharpen than discourage his faculties and stimulate his exertions ; that the people were his family, and he could always find relations enough among them to supply the necessary amount of professional business. Nor was he mistaken. Just at this time, a new order of things was taking place in South Carolina. The agricultural interest, though not less extensive than before, was not the only one of importance. Family influences, if not passing away, were then becoming less material, and Mr. Hunt felt that he had that within him which, in the legal conflicts likely to arise, would enable him to become a bold and efficient advocate. Such a reliance implied great mental courage on his part. It will be seen that he neither misjudged himself nor mistook events. Soon after his admission, Mr. Hunt found oppor tunities of coming into collision with some of the most distinguished members of the bar, and instead of lingering for years on the outskirts of the profession, he was almost at once entrusted with the management of important cases. It is a truth, now, as then, that lawyers and doc tors are employed not so much from favor, as a security to the lives and estates of those who employ them, and when either of these is at stake, those interested are not slow in discovering where the most avail able assistance is to be found. Mr. Hunt was already pointed to as one of those young men who had determined * To scorn delight and live laborious days," and his fellow-citizens did not miscalculate in supposing that their busi ness would be properly managed when entrusted to his care. Unusual success attended his efforts, and, while the profession were literally bewildered to learn why such favorable issues attended most of his cases, the public, not regarding the reason, but only looking at the re sult, steadily increased its patronage. Envy and malice are the sha dows which usually follow success, and the former redouble as the latter increases. Such was Mr. Hunt s case. The young man, whom it was safe to smile upon, while struggling up the professional ladder, was now reaching too crazy a height, and professional brethren were not wanting who were willing to bring him back to reason by stopping his too rapid ascent. " Kill or cure," was the practice suggested for the patient ; nor were those wanting who were ready to administer the pre scription. As Mr. Hunt had been brought up in a society where " pri vate war" was seldom resorted to, his forbearing temper was, perhaps, too much relied upon. It became necessary to disabuse his opponents on this point at once. Accordingly, he made up an issue with them, invited them to the field, and proving the better marksman, his weapons have been permitted to rust ever since, and he has prided himself upon healing ihe controversies of his friends by an open, candid admission when wrong, united with a firm resolve to suffer no injustice himself nor permit others who confided in him to do so. Mr. Hunt now found that he had taken a vantage ground, to maintain which demanded ceaseless vigilance and industry. If dangers, however, surrounded him if sometimes he doubted whether friends would stand true to him, he did not quail, but, falling back upon himself, he sus- BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 147 tained himself in the rule of the wise man " Take counsel of thine own heart, for none can be more faithful unto thee." In 1818, Col. Hunt s popularity* had increased so much that he was elected to represent Charleston District in the state legislature. In this capacity he has, at intervals, served his fellow-citizens to the present time. Nor have his services been without eminent advantages to the jurisprudence of the state. The act of 1822, requiring the legislature to sanction every act of emancipation, has wisely brought the whole mat ter under the control of the whole state, and put an end to the death bed follies which servants were able to induce by working upon the im becilities of owners. The wisdom of this act has been abundantly mani fested in the increased peace and order of the slave in his relations with those around him. Mr. Hunt was also successful in procuring the abolition of the old common law rule, confining debtors, admitted to jail bounds, to within a hundred yards around th e jail walls a cruelty perfectly gratuitous, as it moved the unlucky debtor from his home, and compelled him to remain in idleness and want, and without the power of exertion. He finally succeeded in having the limits extended to the boundaries of the judicial district an amelioration which has greatly diminished the suf fering of the unfortunate without impairing the rights of any one. But to proceed with Mr. Hunt s professional career. To the well-read lawyer, Mr. Hunt s numerous legal triumphs are familiar. A brief review of some of them, however, may not prove unininteresting. . The State v. Antonio, for coining, was among the first cases that established his reputation at the bar. From design or blunder, the re porter has placed another name instead of Mr. Hunt s as the counsel engaged in the management of the suit. The case was tried in the Ap peal Court as early as 1816, while as yet Mr. Hunt had only been three years at the bar. At that day, instead of a simple " concurrence," each judge was required to deliver his own separate reasons for his decision. Antonio was indicted for coining a silver dollar, the current coin of the United States. Coining, under the state law of 1785, anterior to the constitution of the United States, was punishable with death, but the act of Congress punished the offence with only imprisonment. To save the life of the prisoner, it became important to remove the case from the state to the United States Court. Mr. Hunt made the attempt, which was considered almost ridiculous by a majority of the bench and bar. His argument, however, arrested the attention of that acute and able ornament of the Carolina bench, Judge Nott, who, against the opi nion of all the other judges, sustained Mr. Hunt s position, not only as * On the declaration of war in 1812, Mr. Hunt aided in organizing a company, which was drafted, during the war, into the service of the United States, and throughout its continuance faithfully fulfilled the responsible duties of his com mand. He successively rose through the intermediate grades, and about the year 1818, was promoted to the colonelcy of the sixteenth regiment, and served in that capacity nearly twenty years. Since then, Mr. Hunt has been popularly and fami liarly known as " Colonel Hunt." In his military position he has always manifested the characteristic traits of energy, fearlessness, and ability, both as a soldier and a tactician, that have so singularly distinguished him as a lawyer and a legislator. 148 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to the jurisdiction of the court, but for a new trial. This opinion being overruled by a majority of the court, Antonio was sentenced to be hanged. But Mr. Hunt was bent upon saving the prisoner, and he was not to be baffled in his purpose. Casting about for a remedy, he fear lessly entered a prosecution against his client in the United States Court, charging him as guilty of counterfeiting the current coin of the United States, and caused application to be made to Judge Johnson, of the Federal Court, for Antonio s arrest. The application was granted, and a collision arose between the marshal of the United States and the sheriff of South Carolina as to who should hold the prisoner; the former to have him tried, and the latter to have him hanged. The case was a novel one, and, from the daring position taken by so young a practitioner, and from the ability with which he fortified it, great excitement was created. In this dilemma the pardoning power of the governor was ap pealed to, when he, appreciating the correctness of Mr. Hunt s position, granted a free pardon to the condemned, and the necessity of executing the Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum was prevented. In Nott and McCord s Reports for the year 1819, page 546, is the case of the State v . Hey ward, for perjury. Mr. Hunt s argument shows how scientifically he had studied his profession. So strong and well sustained was his position, that Judge Cheves reversed his own decision on circuit, and arrested the judgment. In the same Reports, page 132, is another important case, displaying Mr. Hunt s legal ability. The question involved the liability of the owner of goods received at an intermediate place for pro rata freight. Mr. Hunt obtained a verdict for his client against Lorent and Steinmetz. From this, Mr. Simons, his former preceptor, appealed, and, although opposed by such formidable talent, Mr. Hunt sustained his verdict. In the case of Gough v. Walker, (Nott and McCord s Reports, page 469,) involving the question, " whether a renunciation of dower must be recorded to render it valid," Mr. Hunt did not only succeed in re versing the circuit decree, but evoked from Judge Cheves, in his dis senting opinion, a high encomium on the argument of counsel. The Reports of Nott and McCord for the years 1819 and 1820, con tain a large number of cases involving a variety of complex questions, in most of which Mr. Hunt had a part, and always appeared to advan tage. Although Mr. Hunt has been so frequently censured for making con stitutional questions, he has nevertheless seldom failed in them. In Harper s Reports, are several cases famous in their day. In Dunn v. City Council of Charleston, page 189, he procured a prohibition against the city, because the state law was unconstitutional, taking the whole lot of an individual to widen a street, when part only was necessary, and the city attempting a speculation on the residue. This was in 1824. It met the high encomium of that eminent jurist, Justice Nott, (see page 195,) the whole of whose decision is the most perfect specimen of constitutional argument in our books, and worthy of the careful study of every lawyer. The case of Singleton v. Bremar (Harper 201) is one in which Mr. Hunt was matched against the reporter, the late Chancellor Harper, one of the ablest men at the Carolina bar. BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH. CAROLINA. 149 The case of Marshall vs. White (page 122) involved a question novel in South Carolina, as to whether the right to a pew in a church was real estate which was decided in his favor. The case of John Stoney vs. The Union Insurance Company (Harper s R., p. 235) is somewhat characteristic. Mr. Hunt had obtained a ver dict, and the court ordered a new trial; when a verdict was a second time rendered against the charge of the judge. At the next trial, the Judge (Huger) instructed the jury, that the case had been decided by the Appeal Court. Mr. Hunt told the jury "that unless the judge granted a nonsuit he had no right to dictate a verdict, which twelve men were to swear was a true verdict." The jury a third time found for his client. Upon this another appeal was made, and the Appeal Court again ordered a new trial, Mr. Hunt still insisting that the court was wrong, and so said the jury. When the case came up once more, it was argued in May, and Mr. Hunt requested the court to take the interval to the winter sitting, to read his authorities. In January, Judge Nott, who was appointed to write the decision before the court opened, called Mr. Hunt and handed him what was intended to be, the opinion of the court, now sustaining the verdict, but strange to say, the judges, who had not studied the case, refused to concur. A new trial was therefore ordered, and a new verdict obtained. This time the ap peal court was changed, and consisted of three justices : Judge Nott presiding, and Colooek and Johnson associates. Judge Johnson, how ever, being sick, Judge Huger supplied his place, and two being a majority, Judges Nott and Huger, who had both been convinced, refused a, new trial, and Mr. Hunt recovered the amount from the insu rance company. It is curious, that Mr. Hunt has seldom had any associate. Most of his cases have been argued by himself, and generally from his original notes. The case of the Medical College (2 Hill s Reports, 368) is one illustrating the tenacity with which he adhered in the appeal court to his first view of his client s case. His arguments are not crowded with a parade of obsolete legal learning. He ascertains what legal posi tions the facts of the ease give rise to, and these he maintains by a close application of the principles of the law sustained by the decided cases. His practice in the court of equity kept pace with that at law. Among his first cases was a bill filed by McBurney against Dillon. Dillon was a surveyor, and was employed by one Thompson to survey the present site of Walterborough, and pass it to a grant under the location laws of South Carolina. Dillon made the survey but took out the grant to himself, and the bill was filed to set aside the grant as fraudulent and void, and raised the novel question, " whether the judicial power extended to setting aside a grant under the great seal ?" In England, it was conceded that it would not, but Mr. Hunt insisted that no such deference was due to wax and parchment, and there was no majesty so high as to sanction fraud. Opposed in this view by some of the oldest and most learned solicitors, he successfully maintained his position. The grant was declared void, and McBurney got his title to the village as heir of Thompson. A notice of a few of his cases before the court of equity, will serve to show his mode of reasoning. The case of the Vestry and Wardens 150 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. of Christ Church vs. Thomas Barksdale (Strobart s Equity R.) exem plifies his way of stating his propositions. A majority of the vestry of one of the oldest established Episcopal Churches in South Carolina, removed in the summer to a sea-shore residence. There, they erected a summer church, and invoked the patronage of the old church, protest ing they would not interfere with its funds. But by dint of getting a majority in the vestry, they applied a long-established charity to pur poses unknown to the donors. Mr. Barksdale, a descendant from the old stock, resisted, and Chancellor Dunkin ruled in favor of the powers that be the modern vestry, stating, "that a complete remedy exists through the quiet remedy of the ballot-box." Mr. Hunt, before the appeal court (page 208), replied, "that the reference to the ballot- box is unfortunate in a case where the law is appealed to to protect the minority, which is its most honored function." This case he insists was a perversion of the law of public charities. There it stands, how ever, and when no pressing antagonistic prejudices shall longer exist, this case will remain a simple, but characteristic monument of his claim to his professional rank. In the celebrated case of Pell and Ball, Mr. Hunt occupied a distin guished part. Mr. and Mrs. Ball both perished in the Pulaski, a steamer blown up at sea. No witnesses saw either actually perish. The wife, however, was heard screaming for her husband, but amid the general confusion, no one could find him. On the fact, " whether the wife or husband was the survivor, " an estate depended. This fact, a single judge undertook to decide ; not by direct testimony, for there Was none; but by the civil-law style of arguing. The opinion of Chancellor Johnson ruled, " that the husband probably perished first, because he was a man and quietly went about to seek a rescue, and that his screaming wife, being the last heard from, was the survivor, and the estate, thus vesting in her during the few seconds they were in articulo mortis] went to the wife s representatives." Mr. Hunt insisted that es tates ought not to pass on such pure conjectures, and his argument is sub mitted to the profession, and the good sense of the public, as conclusive. The next branch of this prolific case is in 1 Richardson s Chancery R. 361, and 419, in which the jurisdiction and practice of the court of equity are directly called in question. Mr. Hunt in that court challenged the circuit decree of Chancellors Johnson and Harper, that an appeal from the circuit decree did not per se act as a supersedeas. He waived all British authorities and relied on the statute of the state establishing the appeal court. Judges Johnson and Harper placed their decree on the cases of Riggs and Murray, Green and Winter, (8 Johnston s Chan, cases, 70, 160,) "that an appeal does not suspend the execution of a decree, and until reversed, it operates as a full authority to the officers acting under it" (p. 366). Mr. Hunt chal lenged this, as a decision in the very teeth of the law of South Carolina, and the express rule of the court, " that no execution to enforce a decree could issue until thirty days after the final decree of the appeal court." Nevertheless, it is true, that he proved to demonstration that neither of the chancellors had ever read the ease on which they relied as authority, for it was exactly an authority tho other way, but in no manner was it an authority in South Carolina, BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 151 whose own laws ruled the case.* The bold manner in which Mr. Hunt charged the court in this case, with clear and palpable error, may imply that he is no favorite with the bench. Such, if true, may be accounted for in the fact that he believes the election of a man to the bench, if he is of fairly balanced intellect, may strengthen his re solve to mete out equal justice to all, yet he has always denied that it coaveyed any such exemption from intellectual or moral infirmities that admit no possibility of error. Believing all men liable to the infirmities of our nature, from which even an election to the bench does not entirely exonerate them, he has seen too many instances in which personal antipathies, or personal predilections, if they have not corrupted, have misled. That judges have listened to tales outside the sanctuary, affecting the moral justice of cases that never could have passed legitimately its threshold; thus the scales of justice become uneven, and her bandage becomes mesmerically luminous, and enables a judge to see who will gain, and who will lose by his decree. No honest lawyer, who is not afraid to tell the truth, can deny that he has seen favored lawyers who will exercise undue influence beyond the law and the facts, or that judges have sat in judgment on the rights of men, who stood a better chance than absolute indifference would have left them. It is within the range, at least of possibility, that a judge may be so self-confident in his own integrity, as to sit in judg ment when his relations to the party would render a man who pos sessed a more nervous conscience, to distrust himself, and in all such cases, a lawyer owes it as a duty to warn him, and by ceasing to push himself into such cases a judge may at least " avoid the appearance of evil." Let each lawyer say, if he has not often calculated "who would hold the next court," not purely to select the best talent, but to get a judge whose prepossessions at least are not adverse. Mr. Hunt has never asked any other favor than to be listened to, by a court willing to get at all the facts, and weigh all the legal authori ties and principles adduced. When so treated he has never come in collision with any member of the bench. It is true, he speaks plain English, and intends to speak the truth, and no one rejoices more in repairing an inadvertent error ; but he can never be turned aside by mere power or fear of consequences. But when a judge refuses, with cold indifference, to answer his positions, or even rule against him, he is certainly rather impatient, and does not often fail to indi cate it very unequivocally. The slightest exhibition of arbitrary power by a judge raises his indignation ; and some of his finest bursts of elo quence have been on occasions of this kind. He maintains that judges are the paid servants of the people, not the owners of judicial authority ; that the bar represent the people, " their well-approved good masters," and are entitled t/o a patient and respectful hearing, and to a fair and impartial decision, without favor or affection; and that true judicial dignity is most surely obtained by an upright and civil performance of judicial functions. He insists, therefore, that a lawyer is as much a publie functionary as a judge, and in his place equally independent. His argument, at page 382, gives an almost ludicrous view of the gravity of quoting a wrong case. The late Mr. Bailey, attorney-general, * See note at end of memoir. 152 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. supported Mr. Hunt in the same case, and, at page 384, confirms the position that the court was " right wrong." These two branches of the case of Pell and Ball place Mr. Hunt where his friends are willing to leave him.* In relation to the equity jurisdiction, to which he prefers to limit his practice, he regards the system of South Carolina as wholly behind the age. The necessity of requiring a defendent to answer on oath, and thus purge what he may not possess a conscience is absurd. His testimony, if voluntarily asked for, is required at peril. But to ex tend to every defendant a right to answer all direct allegations, is only equaled by the still greater absurdity which gives to such an in terested answer not only the effect of ordinary disinterested testimony but even renders it conclusive, unless controverted by two positive witnesses, or one with corroborating circumstances. This iniquitous rule, which has banished more than half the practice from the court, is a remnant of monkish pretension. The defendant is supposed to be put to his purgation by the interrogatories of the bill, arid his father confessor, the court, is supposed to scour him out, and exhibit the truth of what he knows, believes, or has heard. As Chancery is no longer a court of conscience, but a place to administer the law, according to the more comprehensive rules of equity, Mr. Hunt considers such pro ceedings the merest folly. He objects also to the very unsatisfactory mode of obtaining testimony. Under existing circumstances a master or commissioner is neither a judge nor a jury, and has no right to give his opinion on testimony, although it is the practice to do so. He should simply record facts, otherwise it only acts as an excuse for the judge to avoid the responsibility of deciding himself, and places suitors in the power of a weak, prejudiced, or ignorant master. He maintains that it is still more against principle for the appeal court to refuse to review a decision of the master, on facts, when the circuit judge coin cides, which he may do to avoid the necessity of a strict consideration of the case. It is this very imperfect mode of ascertaining the truth of facts that destroys public confidence in our courts of equity. Mr. Hunt very properly maintains that if the defect is not remedied the court will be superseded, and its rules and principles retained to be applied to facts more satisfactorily established. Mr. Hunt s views on the subject of special pleading are equally clear and simple. He holds special pleading to be a severe logical system. But, as lawyers and judges are not always strict logicians, its rules are so liable to be perverted and turned to purposes of chicanery, delay and false issues, that it has degenerated into a wretched system of pro * The case of the state of South Carolina against the banks of that state, reported by the late Attorney-General Bailey, contains Mr. Hunt s argument in full in that case. The question was, whether the suspension of specie payments by the banks worked a forfeiture of their charters. This argument states fully Mr. Hunt s views of the nature and obligations of bank charters, and was well considered by the Court of Errors, who sustained his position. In this case the attorney-general ex hibited his extensive learning and great power of argument. Colonel Hunt was .associated with him by the governor of the state. The report of this, case, with the arguments in full, occupies a large octavo volume, and was published by order of the legislature of South Carolina. The case was one of great importance, and com prises all the law of banking and bank corporations, and as such, is extremely valu- .ablo to the mercantile as well as to the legal portion of the community. BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 153 fessional and technical peculation.* In the beginning, pleadings were settled by the judge from the oral statements of the litigants. But when pleading was committed to the lower orders of the law, it became a science of quirks and quibbles, and even all the learning of the Eng lish bench has been unable to save special pleading from universal and well-merited obloquy. Nor would Mr. Hunt destroy the old plan without a remedy. He prefers such rules of practice as will present the points at issue plainly and clearly, and especially notify both par ties what they are to litigate, and thus avoid the trickery of snap-judg ments and nonsuits on points not affecting the true merits of the case. In short, he esteems the law too grand and elevated a profession for its members to devote so much of their time and study to low trickery and disingenuous prevarications. In his arguments, he insists that the great requisites in a good judge, is a proper appreciation of facts. The habit of catching at an isolated fact and applying it to some old legal saw is the very character istic of a self-important and downright pettifogger. A case is no more dependent on one fact than the countenance is on one feature. There may be, and is, in all faces, one leading outline, but the full expression and character depend entirely on the grouping of all the parts. It is so much easier and saves so much labor to seize on one fact and one fa miliar rule than to compare all the facts with all the rules and the proper deductions, that inferior minds seldom take such trouble. The instance of Lord Eldon is an admonition in point. He doubted, and reviewed, and reconsidered all his cases carefully, but he said that, " although he may have delayed cases, he felt a satisfaction in the reflection, that he never took an estate from one who was justly entitled to it, or gave one to a person who had no good right to it." Mr. Hunt often illustrates this truth by bringing up cases which, at the first blush appearing hopeless, are listened to with impatience by those slightly considering them. Al though there may appear an air of boldness and novelty in most of Mr. Hunt s legal positions, as presented in the books, yet, when well coaai- dered, they will be seldom found to deviate from the sound rules of law. Among his most successful cases was the celebrated " Jewel case," argued in the Supreme Court of the United States. In this case he was matched by that accomplished lawyer and scholar, the late Attorney- General, Hugh S. Legare. Mr. Legare admitted the case to be a fair trial of his strength. Sanguine of a complete triumph over Mr. Hunt, he stated to one of the judges of that court, that " if there ever was a * It is a somewhat singular fact, that over three-quarters of the decisions reported in the older books were decided and adjudicated on purely technical grounds, involv ing merely the niceties of special pleading, without in any way touching or affecting the merits of the question at issue between the parties. In this way the blunders of the lawyer must be paid for by the client, perhaps in ruin and desolation. There are many "instances on record, where judges have confessed that their decisions have worked great hardship, and, upon the facts, perhaps, should have been decided the other way. Every lawyer familiar with the old reports will perceive at once the truth of the above observation, and the correctness of Mr. Hunt s views on this subject. The doctrine of stare decisis is at once wholesome and injurious. An enlightened judiciary can alone discriminate between the evil and the good, aided oy the sound views and practical experience of able lawyers and jurists. ED. 154 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. case suited to his powers it was this." After a full argument, in which he had the reply, Mr. Hunt was successful. The case was briefly this: " Jewel in early life, being a Jew, intermarried with a young refugee from St. Domingo, and lived with her upwards of twenty years, during which time they had born to them, seven or eight children, who became grown-up and respectable men. She lived in Charleston with him, and was always called and treated as his wife, even to the execution of a release of dower, on the sale of some real estate. But the actual ceremony which took place thirty years before the trial, was not the subject of written proof. After aiding in accumulating his estate, she, growing old, Jewel married again according to the full ceremonies of the Jews, a young Hebrew, by whom he had several children. He lived with his last wife in Louisiana, but on a voyage returning from New-York, he was drowned at sea." The question was, " who were the heirs at law of his estate ?" In a word, " which set of children were legitimate ?" both having acquired great respectability. A case in ejectment, for a trifling piece of property made the case. The verdict was for the first set of children. An appeal carried the case to Wash ington, and involved the whole question of lawful marriages. Mr. Legare brought all the rich resources of his legal learning to the case, and felt sure of success. After the opening for the appellant, one of the ablest lawyers of the New- York bar, then attending at court, said to Mr. Hunt, "You will lose this case!" Mr. Hunt s reply was: " Audi alteram partem" When Mr. Hunt had concluded an argument of two days, the critic began to question his prediction, and the opinion of Judge Taney settled his doubts. The contemporaneous opinions of the press abroad, to whom Mr. Hunt was an utter stranger, are the best evi dence of the effect of this forensic effort. Of the interest which this case created at the time, and of the able manner in which it was conducted, argued and decided, all the Washington correspondents at the time, speak in high terms of appreciation. A writer in the United States Gazette thus describes it: "Mr. Hunt occupied the whole of yesterday, with out concluding, in an argument which, for beauty and terseness of lan guage, cogency of argument, force of reasoning, profoundness of research and legal learning, has rarely been surpassed, even in this theatre (if I may be allowed thus to express myself), where the great minds of the nation meet and grapple in manly and generous conflict." Under circumstances highly flattering to his reputation, Mr. Hunt has also been called to argue cases out of the state. He has extended his practice to Georgia, where he was employed in a very interesting case : that of the Executors of Wightman vs. Dewes, in which the pre sent Judge Berrian, then at the bar, was on the other side. In Newark, New-Jersey, he also argued the case touching the will of the late Thomas Gibbons, assisted by Judge Hornblower and Governor Pen- nington, of that state, and opposed by David B. Ogden and George Wood, of New- York, two of the ablest lawyers in the United States. The case excited deep interest, and to the bar there must be referred the character of his argument. He was also engaged in the City of New- York in the case of Stoney against Dudley and Stuyvesant, and established the first mortgage, although unrecorded, against the subsequent one to the Josephs and BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 155 others, and thus secured twenty valuable lots of ground to his clients. The bankrupt case of Laffan and Redmond, he argued before Judge Betts in the same city, and again sustained the reputation of the Carolina bar. Last year, before Judge Woodbury, at Boston, he argued the case of B. D. Herriott and Son vs. Assignees of Smith, affecting directly the question of cash purchases on the eve of in solvency, and succeeded fully to the extent of the fund. Generally, however, he has confined his practice to the courts of South Carolina and to the Supreme Court of the United States.* In Washington he is on neutral ground, and takes his appropriate stand free from all local predilections or prejudices, for the impar tiality of strangers is more reliable than opinions formed by rivals. But in citing cases in which he has appeared, we only weary the at tention of our readers. Clear as the demonstration appears when com mitted to paper, it is only when the mathematician himself works out his problem that all its beauty and logic are apparent. So with Mr. Hunt. To appreciate his full powers, he must be seen and heard on some great occasion. No matter how high public expectation may have been raised, he has never been known to fall below it. What, it may be asked, has given him such power ] The answer is plain. A mind singularly active and full of natural strength, and withal so well trained * The case of Lambert and Brothers against the ship Martha and owners, in ad miralty, argued before the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, dur ing its last session, and decided recently by that court, (though not yet published,) was the last distinguished legal triumph in Mr. Hunt s career. The District and Cir cuit Courts at Charleston, in a case of libel in admiralty against Abraham Rich and others, owners of the ship Martha of Boston, alleging damages sustained by the cargo in a voyage from Liverpool to Charleston, condemned the vessel to be sold, and the amount of damages ascertained by the register, and all costs of the litiga tion, to be paid out of the fund. Col. Hunt contended that the injury to the cargo was caused by sea risks, excepted out of the bill of lading, and was a loss to be borne by the insurers, and not by the owners as common carriers. The court be low having very peremptorily overruled him, the case was carried by appeal at once to the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, where it was argued in February last, by Mr. Hunt, and Mr. George Evans, of Maine, for the appellants, and Mr. Coxe and Judge Butler, of South Carolina, for the appellees. The case at circuit had been carefully prepared by B. F. Hunt and son, the proctors on record. Twenty witnesses from Boston, and as many from New-York, comprising the most experienced officers of insurance companies, masters of vessels, and importing mer chants, were examined by them upon commission. After the circuit decree, one point, the seaworthiness of the vessel at the time of leaving Liverpool, was still fur ther fortified, by issuing a new commission, read for the first time in the Supreme Court, according to the admiralty practice. The reply on the argument fell to Mr. Hunt as senior counsel. His success was as astounding to the bar and mercantile public in Charleston, as it was in itself complete. All the judges, except the judge whose decree was reversed, united with Mr. Justice Nelson, who read the decision, in reversing the decree of the court below, and on the precise grounds taken on the appeal. It is the intention, we understand, of Mr. Hunt to devote himself hereafter to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, and have a resident associate there to prepare business, as that city is more accessible than many districts of his own state. His efforts in that court, have hitherto been almost uniformly successful, and conclusively attest that it is the tribunal where long experience and professional industry will ever find the most adequate remu neration. ED. 156 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. by constant and judicious exercise as to improve by art all that nature ever gave it. Quick to perceive, ingenious to plan, bold to execute, always hopeful, willing, and able to encounter either mental or bodily labor to an almost incredible extent ; not exultant in victory or cast down by defeat these are the elements that would make any man great, and are characteristic of the subject of this memoir. The same traits which have marked Colonel Hunt s professional career belong to him as a legislator. On entering the legislature of South Carolina, after an interval of some years, he was placed at the head of the committee on Federal relations. To this committee all matters concerning the laws and operations of the general government are entrusted, and his reports upon the leading questions of the day the tariff, the tenure of the presidential office, and the distribution of the sales of the public lands, are elaborate and well written, and have been received as texts-books of states-rights democracy. On the subject of the tariff, he maintained the doctrine that the general welfare clause gave no sanction to protection ; that it was a fraud upon the donors; and a breach of trust to distribute the sales of the public lands among the states, expressly given for general and national uses. He maintained that to render an incumbent ineligible for a second term of the presidency, was in fact to fetter the people, who have a right to elect whom they please, and that a faithful dis charge of duty to their satisfaction ought not to be a disqualification, since in time of war it might be vitally important to avoid any executive change. He maintains the wisdom of placing a qualified veto, as designated by the constitution, in the president, to protect the public from ill-con sidered P,nd hasty legislation ; that the president being the chosen repre sentative of the people is the proper guardian of their interests ; that if two third of Congress will not sustain a measure, by him considered of doubtful constitutionality, it is safer to give it up. In 1842 Colonel Hunt retired from the committee on Federal rela tions, and was made chairman of the Judiciary committee, by far the most important and responsible office in the state. With the excep tion of a single term, he has presided over this committee ever since. Of Mr. Hunt s usefulness as a legislator, not a session passes without evoking from every quarter the highest commendation of his labors. We never knew a man who represented his constituency more faithfully, and we very much doubt if there ever was a legislator who attended to his duties more industriously, and with greater usefulness. The follow ing, from the Winy aw Observer of 1842, published in Georgetown, South Carolina, is a tribute of praise, in the justness of which every mem ber of the South Carolina legislature will unite : " Colonel Hunt is one of the most useful, able, and efficient legislators we have ever known a real working man, as his many able, instruc tive, and, we believe, always successful reports at the two last sessions most amply evince; indefatigably industrious and persevering, re markably clear-headed, sound-principled, and well-informed ; never speaking or acting but to enlighten the subject, and excite the interest and respect even of those who differ from him, and never wasting a moment either of his own time or that of the house. He is truly a BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 157 most valuable acquisition to the legislature a man to whom the whole democratic people of the state may well feel deeply grateful for his most able and efficient labors in their cause, both in and out of it, and whose public services they might well deeply regret the loss of a loss we trust they will not soon have to experience." The constitution of South Carolina contains many anti-democratic features, against which Mr. Hunt has been battling for years. One of the most objectionable is the life tenure of judges. He holds that age ought not to prove a disqualification. One man is older at fifty than another at sixty ; but a life tenure is a violation of all the analogies of a republican government. We choose a governor for two years, a re presentative for two years, and a senator for four years. These last make the laws, but a judge holds for life. This is wholly against prin ciple. Each generation has the right to choose its own rulers, legisla tive or judicial ; but a judge, elected twenty years ago, may still hold office when the generation that elected him is gone. The people alone continue sovereign. A man is chosen a judge before he is tried. He may disappoint all expectations, and yet he is fastened on the state for life, without the people having any redress. He ought, at least, to pass a probation. The people seldom do any lasting wrong. All their in terests prompt them to select pure and able men. If judges were re sponsible, at intervals, to the people, they would be careful to deserve re-election. Independence in the judiciary is desirable, but the advan tage of being independent of the sovereign power itself is not so clear. In time, people will wonder why they adhered so long to a thing thus against principle, as to except judges, out of all other magistrates. A life tenure is purely a monarchical feature in our jurisprudence. Sena tors, representatives, and governors, are trusted no longer than four years without being again approved by the people, and yet we perpe tuate a judge, perhaps elected to get him out of the way of an impatient aspirant to his official emoluments of practice. There he must remain through a long life, perhaps an incumbrance to the administration of justice, and an example of the lingering love of our people to the aristo cratic and monarchical usages of our English progenitors. Col. Hunt holds the life tenure of judges a practical reproach upon the provisions relative to all the other chief agents of the people who are periodically called on to give an account of their stewardship. He regards it as demonstrating how slowly republican principles supplant monarchical practices in the conservative State of South Carolina, and how hesitating some men still are of the ultimate good sense and true conservatism of a free and educated people. Mr. Hunt has been frequently called upon to act the orator on public occasions and at popular gatherings. He has never failed to satisfy. Nor has the satisfaction been confined to his spoken addresses only ; he is equally successful in print. One of his most elaborate orations was that before the Washington Society of Charleston, delivered on the 4th day of July, 1839. In expansiveness of thought, philosophy of reflec tion, force and vividness of expression, in the clear development of the causes which have produced the American Eevolution, and in the wise exposition of the best means of perpetuating its principles, this will well compare with any similar production in our country. 158 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. In 1840, Colonel Hunt was invited to address a mass meeting of the democracy in the Park in the city of New-York. His speech on that occasion elicited the highest commendation from friends and foes. It was delivered at the same moment Mr. Webster addressed the mer chants of the same city at the corner of Wall and William streets. In deed a portion of Mr. Webster s speech was struck off and handed to Mr. Hunt while speaking on that occasion. A few days after this he ad dressed the democratic young men of Boston at Faneuil Hall, and made what his friends considered one of his best efforts. Even the whig papers admitted that it put their party to their best to reply to it; and the re putation of the speech was followed by another invitation to appear on a similar occasion before the democrats of Salem. At New-York, from fifteen to twenty thousand persons attended to hear him, and all who were present speak of the triumphant manner in which he acquitted himself. Of the Boston speech, the editor of the Charleston Mercury thus writes : " At the great meeting of our Massachusetts friends the other day, Mr. Woodbury, the Rock of New-England Democracy, made a speech wKich was powerful in its effect, and which, to judge fr6m a report that professes to be no more than a mere sketch, must have been unusually interesting, insisting as it does upon that equality which involves the simple justice, which is all the South demands, and which usurpation would hazard the Union in withholding, by making the confederacy a burden and curse instead of an advantage and a convenience to the several states which ordained it. We wish it had been fully reported. " He was followed by Col. Hunt, of this city, in a speech chiefly de voted to the Texas question, of which also we regret to have received no more than a meagre sketch, and which, judging ex pedeHerculem was as successful and effective as Mr. Woodbury s. It was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and the Boston Times eulogizes the merits of CoL Hunt as a speaker very highly ; but not a whit overmuch, as all who have heard him thoroughly warmed on a great political question can avouch, and which those who never having heard him will readily con jecture, if they will read his speech delivered in the Park at New-York, in which he met Daniel Webster upon every point of an elaborate harangue, and signally defeated him on all. The name of the old Hall Faneuil is part of his own name, and the kindred associations it excited, could not have failed to inspirit him on the late occasion. He ought to have his speech reported fully. He is always strong, even when wrong, and when right he makes a deep and lasting impression from the di rectness and true vigor of his language." The speech was afterwards published and hailed by democrats all over the Union as a most noble and unanswerable vindication of their principles. In 1844, while on a professional tour to Savannah, he was again called on to address the democracy of that place. The speech, which was published, did much for the cause in Georgia, and while the whig papers denounced the conclusiveness of its arguments, all of them ad mitted its ingenuity and force. The Savannah Georgian, a democratic paper, says that " The speech of Col. Hunt did not disappoint his audience, and this BENJAMIN F. HUNT, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 15J) speaks volumes in its praise. It was one of the ablest efforts of the human mind which we have ever had the pleasure of hearing. He ar gued the propriety of the immediate annexation of Texas with a force of logic which could not have failed to convince any doubter who might have heard him. His remarks upon the character of the democratic candidates, and upon the nature of the present political contest, were just all of them just and true to a word. The contrast which he drew between the two political parties of the country, in relation to their devotion to men and principles, was clear and striking. The whigs of the country, like the blind disciples of the Grecian philosophers, look up for direction to the ipse dixit of Mr. Clay ; and when asked why they support this measure, or oppose that, their only answer is, The master says so. It were useless for us to attempt to portray the power of eloquence and of argument displayed by our distinguished guest. When he had concluded, no one could have been surprised at the fact, that his voice had gone with more power to the hearts of the people in Faneuil Hall, than the voice of the great man of Massachusetts him self, and that Daniel Webster found a hard customer to deal with in this able Carolinian. What wonder is it that the people of Carolina are so proud of their great men V Within the present year, Mr. Hunt has been bereaved in the loss of his wife, a Carolina lady, whom he married early in life. She has left him three sons and a daughter. One of the former is his associate in business. Col. Hunt s extensive practice and constant employment have chiefly absorbed his time, and in a measure restricted his opportunities for so cial intercourse. When, however, he does indulge in society, few men are more pleasant or entertaining. Full of information, racy in anec dote, and large in the experiences of the world, it is seldom that any one converses with him without learning-something new and instructive. He is now in his sixty-first year. His faculties are in unimpaired vigor, and time has only given additional impressiveness to a person, always commanding, dignified and manly. Of his early struggles, of the intrepidity with which he encountered and overcame them, of his numerous triumphs as a lawyer, of his usefulness as a legislator, of his splendid achievements as an orator, and of the manliness and indepen dence of his character, we could add much to what we have already written. But we must forbear. When his full course shall have been run, those better qualified than ourselves shall gather the many memo rials of his life, and do them fitting honor before his countrymen. NOTE, BY A MEMBER OF THE NEW-YORK BAR. The novelty and the gravity of the charge made by Colonel Hunt and the late attorney-general, Mr. Bailey, who was alike distinguished for learning and accuracy, has induced us to look into this matter. If the allegations are true, they serve to illustrate still further the tenacity of Colonel Hunt in practising at all before a tri bunal which can be so blinded by its antipathies, but renders the admitted fact of his unusual success still more remarkable, and imposes upon the friends of both Judges Johnson and Harper and, indeed, all the court of error who signed the decree no slight obligation to vindicate their judicial character by some conclusive refutation of the fact, that Colonel Hunt, or rather his client, Nonus Ball, wa- 160 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. denied the benefit of an appeal secured by the constitution of South Carolina, and that his lands and slaves were sold pending an appeal upon the very question whe ther he was entitled to have them delivered to him under partition ! If true, South Carolina must re-organize her appeal system, or lose that precious reputation which she has hitherto sustained. Our knowledge of her courts of equity is chiefly derived from Chancellor De Saussure s first volume of reports. We there find both the acts of her legislature and her rules of court. By these it appears that, in 1808, the state was subdivided into equity circuits, and a court of appeals established. 1 Dess. Reports, p. 91-93, the law expressly provides "how appeals are to be made." The 25th rule, made two years after, is thus : " 25. No execution or attachment for the en forcement of a decree shall issue until thirty days after the rising of the court during which such decree was pronounced ; and if ther-e be an appeal, then such execution shall not issue until thirty days after the adjournment of the court of appeals at which the cause shall be determined," 8fC. If language has any meaning, the course of both Chancellors Harper and Johnson will render them liable in an action to this young man ; and no title to his lands can be good under a sale so palpably illegal ; at least no other civilized people would sub mit to so clear a wrong. We confess that the enormity of this case of Pell and Ball leaves us in doubt how we can trust our own conclusions ; and yet, there is the report, and here is the rule. When we advert to the cases quoted from Chan cellor Kent, in our own reports, our wonder is increased ; for it is not to be ques tioned that no authority is found here that an appeal from the circuit is not a super- sedeas, but the very reverse ; and we fear that, instead of reading for themselves, these learned chancellors leaned too much upon counsel, who, in their own cases, are not safe judicial monitors. The decision would render appeals all but a delu sion ; and yet so scrupulous was South Carolina on this point, that in her very con stitution she secured to her citizens the benefit of an appeal. The case of Green vs. Winter (1st Johnson s Chancery Rep., p. 79) was heard in June, 1814 ; and the very point of the case, and all its authority, depends upon a statement of how the case came up. It was a petition, stating the previous pro ceedings, from the filing of the bill to the decree. An appeal had been taken, and the petition prayed " that the cause might proceed, notwithstanding the appeal." Chancellor Kent decided (p. 82) "that the application for leave to proceed, &c., is denied with costs." How learned judges can rely on such a decision as authority for the position that an appeal is no supersedeas, passes all conjecture. The whole matter is, that in the English Chancery, until 1798, long after the Revolution, an appeal to the-House of Lords did work a supersedeas. Since then, the question, whether it shall or not, depends on rules and orders adapted to each particular case. But Chancellor Kent is explicit, and the subsequent cases where, on motion of the appellee, special order was made to preserve the fund, pending the appeal, so far from weakening the rule sustains it, and so an ordinary acquaint ance with the reports would prove. From the case of Green and Winter we learn that Lord Chancellor Apsley, in Pomfret vs. Smith, Wyatt s Prac. Reg., 35, 36, decided " that the practice, on appeal to the House of Lords, was, that the chancel lor s jurisdiction was susperseded, only as to the matter appealed from." In this case the matter appealed from was the authority of a circuit chancellor to sell the real estate and slaves of young Ball. Chancellor Kent says, " I believe the prac tice in this court has always been according to the more ancient opinion in the English chancery, and the appeal has been considered as a stay of proceedings. This appears also to have been the understanding of this court as declared in the 35th, 36th, and 37th rules of June 1806. My conclusion is, that an appeal does, in the first instance, stay proceedings on the point appealed from, and that, if any party wishes to proceed, notwithstanding the appeal, he must make application to the chancellor for leave to proceed," &c. The difference between the English practice and ours is, that by the former the plaintiff must apply for an order to stay proceed ings, but here the defendant in appeal must apply for leave to proceed. M. EZEKIEL PICKENS OF ALABAMA. 161 / HON. EZEKIEL PICKENS. OF ALABAMA. No profession develops, with so much of accuracy and masculine vigor, the native intellectual predominancies as that of the law. Whilst it opens a vast field for profound philosophic inquiry, it, at the same time, imperiously demands an acute and close observation of the daily workings of practical life. In its history and principles, reaching back into the misty regions of ages long since become historical, yet, in the application of those principles to daily use, the possessor must keep his eye constantly fixed upon the gigantic progress of modern improve ment and the far more extended and complicated machinery of modern society. A moment s reflection will serve to show that, aside from the patient and laborious toil necessary to accomplish successfully a task of such vast proportions, he who would rise to successful eminence must possess a clear, discriminating and practical judgment. He must be capable of extracting great principles of jurisprudence from amid the rubbish of ages, and stiff, stern and inflexible though they be, they must be in his hands sufficiently malleable to be applicable to the ra pidly changing necessities of a progressive and gradually developing state of society. The mere declaimer, or sentimental dreamer, will find here no field suited to his exertions. The lofty aims of a practical wisdom, of a far-reaching and sagacious philosophy, can alone be tole rated in this arena. And it is not, perhaps, saying too much to insist that these capabilities are more eminently demanded in the " frontier settlements" of our western and southwestern than in the older states of our vast Republic. In the latter, the youthful aspirant for forensic honors finds moulded, and fashioned, and ready for use, all the forms and appliances necessary to professional success and development. The current of society flows smoothly and majestically on without change or detriment, except such changes -as gradually develop a new principle, or a new application of an old one. Not so, however, in the former ; everything is in its primitive state. The materials for the formation of society, which are scattered around broadcast and in profusion, often the most heterogeneous and crude, have to be moulded and fashioned into form and symmetry by the application of great principles. These rude materials and these great principles have to be fused together in the crucible, and the process of melting down and refining the former is undergone by firm and unyielding contact with the latter. The very- highest development of intellectual vigor, the most profound and com prehensive knowledge of principle, is often found inadequate to this ar duous task, for with these must be united a clear and quick sagacity, an adaptation to the habits and modes of thought by those surrounding the legislator or judicial functionary, or all his well-meant labors will, like the fabled fruit of the plain, " turn to ashes on the lip." Amongst those who have acted conspicuously in thus moulding and fashioning society in our state, stands eminently forward the gentleman whose name heads this paper. 11 162 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. JUDGE PICKENS, with all his apparent eccentricity, is eminently & practical man. All his philosophy has in view some practical end, and that which is not good and useful meets with but little favor from him, At an early period of our history, being then quite a youth, he pitched his tent amongst us, and from that time up to the present moment, has been constantly and honorably identified with the interest and progress of Alabama. He has been for many years on our circuit court bench, and the acceptable manner in which he has discharged the duties of that arduous and responsible station is best evidenced by the fact, that when the election of judges was given to the people, (at the session of 1849- 50 of the legislature,) he came before the constituency of a district largely whig, (himself being an unflinching democrat,) and though opposed by gentlemen of high intellectual and professional attainments, of enlarged experience and high moral qualities, he received more votes than both the candidates who opposed him. The people were deter mined to show their appreciation of his long-tried services, and his tri umphant election was justly regarded by his friends as a most signal and satisfactory indorsement of his great moral worth and unflinching judicial integrity. In his manners, habits and modes of thought, Judge Pickins is per fectly unique. There is about him an appearance of drollery, which often makes his auditors shake their sides with laughter, and what gives it greater zest is the fact, that it is clear, that is not assumed for effect, but is entirely natural. Many amusing anecdotes are told of him, and many of his expressions or sayings have become almost household words with our people, even with the children. Whatever he believes, he " believes with all his might," and, being satisfied that he has found a principle correct, he places thereon the most implicit and unyielding faith. An anecdote is told of him, as true, which will illustrate this characteristic. He is a strong believer in phrenology, and never is a supposed violation of the law brought before him, but that he brings to bear upon the offender s "bumps," his -keen, dark and searching eyes. In one of the " Wire-grass" counties, where he was presiding in a small, temporary court-house, where the people, bar and officers were indiscriminately mixed up, (on " criminal day" especially,) an offender, who had been convicted by the jury of larceny, was brought up by the sheriff s officer to receive his sentence. He was told by the judge to stand up, upon which the prisoner, and the officer having him in cus tody, rose to their feet, and standing but a short distance apart, the judge fixed his eyes upon the supposed criminal, and began to favor him with a lecture. The most withering denunciations of crime and criminals in general, and this offence and this offender in particular, were poured from the lips of the indignant judge. The utter meanness of the crime, the disgrace and reproach he had deliberately brought upon himself, his family and county, formed the theme for a most withering lecture. All this time, the members of the bar were con vulsed with suppressed laughter, and the poor constable was writhing in agony. Humanity, at last, prompted some knight of the green bag to inform his honor that the person whom he was addressing was not the criminal, but the officer having him in charge, that the other " form EZEKIEL PICKENS, OF ALABAMA. 163 erect" was the offender, against whom all his bitter invective should be hurled. He paused fora moment, and all expected that he would make to the offended and suffering officer an ample apology but not so. Scrutinizing him for a moment, as if doubting whether it were possible that he could be mistaken, he looked him full in the face, and, pointing his forefinger toward him, said, " Ah, well you had better take care mind I tell you you ve got a mighty bad head !" In the administration of the criminal law, he has the reputation, with many, of being harsh and severe. It is not to be disguised that he has an innate horror for crime, and, unlike many others in this respect, that horror increases with the magnitude of the offence. He is not carried away by what Mr. De Quincy would call, I suppose, " the poetry of crime," and led thereby to pour all the vials of his wrath upon the pet ty offender. Very far from it. Whilst these meet with little or no favor or commiseration, it is the great criminal that calls him fully out. But, I am by no means willing to admit, that the charge of harshness is well sustained. I have never known him to deny to any the full mea sure and benefit of all the defences that the law gave them, whilst, at the same time, in charging the jury, he depicts, with strong, original, and often powerful effect, the enormity of crime. No judge upon the bench of our state is listened to, by juries, with more earnest attention ; and their great confidence in him, as a man and as an officer, often, doubtless, gives to his remarks more weight than was intended by him. Upon the whole, his administration of the criminal law has been highly suc cessful and beneficial to the community. In his charges to the juries, in both civil and criminal cases, he is generally clear and explicit. He uses the most simple language, and, comprehending himself, very readi ly, legal principles, he labors so to simplify them as to make them clear to the unprofessional mind. In this he is eminently successful. His charges, too, are often presented with a manner and language perfectly original. A nod, a gesture, or a frown, will often convey more mean ing than words. It is not to be denied, but that his mind is acute and clear, and, whilst he adheres with tenacity to well-considered opinions, no man on the bench seems more free from "pride of opinion ;" he never regards it as disreputable, or, in the slightest degree, compromis ing his dignity, to change, if convinced that he is wrong ; and no man will do so with more ingenuousness or promptitude. From this habit of mind results the fact, that there is not a judge upon the Circuit Court bench who will, to use a lawyer s phraseology, and which lawyers know means so much, " give a fairer bill of exceptions." In the discharge of his official duties Judge Pickens is a most dili gent and laborious officer. He is never known to omit holding a court at the appointed time, if physically possible ; and considering his apparent feebleness of body ho performs a prodigious amount of labor. In the conduct of business in court he is always prompt and energetic, and ordinarily a patient listener to whatever may be urged by counsel. To sum up, he is to the bar courteous, affable, and easy of access. la his courts, without an apparent effort on his part, the most perfect order is preserved, and prompt obedience seems to be rendered by the 164 SKETCHES OP EMINENT AMERICANS, populace, more through love than fear, and yet the refractory have ample cause to fear him if he should find it necessary to exert his judicial power over them. I have already stated that h is administration of the criminal law has been highly beneficial to the community, and I can state, with equal truth, that such has been the case with his general administration. A high regard for " law and order," and a clear appreciation of the rights and obligations of each member of society, marks and defines his general conduct as a man and as an officer. In the conduct of causes, if he has prejudices, either for or against the parties litigant, the most accurate observer would not be likely to detect them. It has been often said that he is less lenient to his friends than his enemies. However this may be, it is very certain that he is no Themistocles in his habits. His attention to evidence in the progress of a trial forms a peculiar characteristic in his administration. His memory is re markably tenacious, and he is rarely at fault in his recollection of testi mony. As one of the many evidences which could be produced of the esti mation in which he is held by the people, we subjoin the following. It was in his own county, where he had lived and labored longest, where the people knew him best, that at the close of a long and tedious ses sion he received this testimonial : " To the Hon. Ezekiel Pickets, judge of the second judicial court. " We, the undersigned jurors, for the third week of the circuit court, of Dallas county, who compose jury No. 1, would respectfully say to your honor, after having discharged their duties as said jurors during the present week, and being as such discharged by the court, that they are unanimous in the desire to express to your honor their entire satis faction at the kindness and consideration with which they have been uniformly treated during the week, and also to assure your honor that, under the circumstances, they have discharged, to the best of their ability, the very arduous and responsible duties of serving as jurors. " In taking leave of the court, though happy to be at liberty to re turn to our respective homes, we regret the termination of the pleasant intercourse which, during the week, has existed between your honor as the presiding officer and themselves as a component part of the court, and we beg leave, respectfully, to assure you that we remain, one and all, " Respectfully, your friends, " G W. HARDY, Foreman." Signed by eleven others. On the 25th December, 1838, the democratic republican delegates assembled in convention at Tuscaloosa to nominate a candidate to re present this district in the Congress of the United States, and the choice fell upon Judge Pickens. He was, however, compelled, by private reasons, to decline accepting, but as he did so he set out at full length his views of the politics of that exciting period, in a letter addressed to the convention. We regret that our space forbids its insertion, and will be content to give a few extracts : " On the crash of the artificial system under which most of us had EZEKIEL PICKENS, OF ALABAMA. 165 been raised, and therefore, for the moment, knew little of any other,, there was much apparent reason with those who proposed a national bank as the only means of restoration. The crisis occurring subsequent to withholding a renewal of charter, looked very like cause and effect, and seemed to authorize the then confident prediction that there could be no relief but by a national bank. " Those who thought the malady was in the system ; that the less artificial a system, the less subject to disorder ; who believed in the absolute necessity of not only having a legal measure of values, but of giving it practical operation ; who believed the constitution only autho rized the general government to furnish the measure, but forbid it to organize any agent to substitute a different measure; such proposed, as one remedy, the gradual but finally entire separation of the finances from, the banks, which had heretofore furnished the only practical mea sure, if that which was never at two intervals of the same length, can be so called, and proposed the collection of the government dues in the constitutional standard, gold or silver. " The results anticipated were, that the national government, bound to raise, feed, and pay an army and navy for the protection of our commerce, our national rights, and national honor, might, at all times, at every moment, be in an attitude to perform her functions and be placed be yond contingency as to means and medium. Another scarcely less de sirable was, that by giving a practical application to the most unerring measure of values, excessive paper issues, synonymous with false mea sures, would be restrained, and thus a sound currency given to all, as far as the fiscal action of the government could effect the object, leav ing whatever else might be required to state legislation. " The proposed remedy was characterized by those in favor of the other system, as intended to give a good currency to the office-holder, but a bad one to the people ; as calculated to break up all banks, and annihilate the credit system; with similar arguments, appealing directly to the interest of the stockholder, and the terror of all under their grasp." ************ " A false currency cannot circulate unless there are those to take and transmit. When the merchant or money-dealer refuses, its deficiency being exposed, it goes backward till its origin is found ; the better takes its place, and so the action continues until the best becomes common. The general government is our largest dealer, and though nothing com pared with the aggregate dealers, yet, being the largest, and its financial operations diffused, pervading the whole circle, exerts a powerful in fluence for restoration. On the other hand, whatever the government takes, the importer will take ; what he takes, the whole mercantile community will take, and what they do every one will ; and so long as the government will take, the worse it is, the more anxious all are to get, to put it on the government. No department, no class, no line of business left, whose duty or habit is to apply the standard, convenience to day becomes habit to-morrow ; confidence becomes credulity ; the thing is looked upon as money, and so the tide rolls on until the whole financial system becomes rotten. Men and government, property and prosperity, in- 166 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. gulfed in a deluge, and without ark. No.no! not all ingulfed, the banks, sagacious, entitled to superior privileges, usually are armed with legal instruments of more efficacy and more speed than are enjoyed by the mass, to meet a coming storm; which their position, too, affording superior means of foresight, render them less regardful of its approach ; especially so, when general disaster does not necessarily reduce bank profit. But infinitely is this tendency to depreciation increased, when the money of the government, or what it takes as money, is returned back to those who put it forth, not for redemption, but to be again placed as a credit to the government and re-issued as money. In all this there is no money, no measure, no application of standard. This system and mode of operation it is which invites excessive issues, creates a show of prosperity, excites hope but to destroy its victim ; this it is which commences by appearing to raise the value of property, stimulates speculation, whets avarice, invites thousands to abandon honest and honorable occupations to pursue the phantom of sudden wealth, requiring continual increase of issues to keep pace with the rise in property still no money, no measure ; this it is which would speedily convert the large mass of the nation into consumers instead of producers, into speculators instead of merchants, into swindlers instead of honest men. In such a state of things, when he sees others, as he supposes, getting rich around him, can w r e expect the public agent to be satisfied with the slow gains of official pay 1 No; if he is the keeper of money, with moderate fortitude, he will risk it on the advancing tide of speculation, the weaker will embezzle. In this thing, in this artifi cial gain without work contrived, unbridled system, is the source of corruption, and when this state of things is brought about, the very agent in the mischief has art enough, pecuniary or otherwise, to have it sanctioned. Of this, however, we will see." These brief extracts will suffice to show upon which "side of the fence" Judge Pickens is to be found. As a man and a citizen, Judge Pickens stands deservedly high. As a man, there rests not a single stain upon his reputation. Such is the strict fidelity of his dealings with his fellow-men so perfectly free from all disguise, by which he himself could reap benefits to the detriment of others, that even Cato the Censor would have given him his approval. As a citizen, he is eminently public spirited, and engages eagerly and earnestly in all the improvements of the day. He is fully up with this progressive age in carrying forward the physical, moral, social and in tellectual developments. I have intimated above, that a stranger would regard the judge as eccentric. He certainly is so, but it is more an eccentricity of manner than anything else, and if originally assw-med, has become a part now of his very nature. The chief characteristic of this eccentricity is droll- ness, if I may use such an expression, which forces upon you an irre pressible disposition to laugh at all he says or does. He seems him self not insensible to this, and possessing a keen sense of the ludicrous, he often enjoys the laugh even at his own expense. I am very far from saying that Judge Pickens is a faultless character, but I do say, and I think his neighbors, those who have known him longest and best, will bear me testimony, that his prominent virtues so EZEKIEL PICKENS, OF ALABAMA. 167 far excel his faults, that he may be safely set down as a most upright and worthy citizen, as well as a most laborious, able and faithful officer. With a short personal sketch I close this brief notice. EZEKIEL PICKENS was bom in December, 1794, in the city of Charles ton, South Carolina. His father, Ezekiel, was the eldest son of Gen. Andrew Pickens, a sketch of whom may be seen in the " National Portrait Gallery," and of his wife in " The Women of the Revolution." The family name of his mother was Bonneaux, of Huguenot descent. Both parents dying about 1811 or 1812, he was placed by his uncle, Colonel Andrew Pickens, who was then in the army, at school. Shortly afterwards he entered South Carolina College, and after com pleting his course, graduated with a law honor, though the judge at this day tells us that he knew none of the studies accurately, and is more than ever at a loss to account for the manner in which he obtain ed it. In 1816 or 1817 he left college, and acted for a short time as private secretary to his uncle Andrew Pickens, who was then governor. His next step was to remove to Abbeville in order to enter the office of his brother-in-law, Col. Patrick Noble, to study law. In March, 1820, he removed to Alabama, and stopped where his uncle had just located, near Cahawba, the then seat of government, rapidly developing, and crowded with lawyers. He was admitted to practice in May of that year before the Supreme Court, and although he stood a good examination, he tells us that he knew little of the law. It is proper here to state that the time from the period he entered the office of Col. Noble was not wholly occupied in study. Becoming dis satisfied and distrustful of his powers, and feeling sadly the waste of his college hours, he abandoned his law books and visited the northern cities. He spent in New-England nearly two years, which left him. scarcely two years to pursue his studies. His first effort at law was a decided failure, and he seriously thought of quitting the profession. But his feelings of pride restrained him, and he doubled his efforts to succeed. His relations urged him to remain at Cahawba, but seeing the number of lawyers already there, he was deterred. In January, 1821, he removed to Linden, (then called Screamersville,) Marengo county. He soon had a log-cabin erected, in which he opened his office (this was the first law office in Marengo) a house twelve feet by fifteen a door of rived pine boards, with wooden hinges, which caused an audible screech whenever opened or shut. Here he settled, and as he has often since said, soon became contented. There was no other lawyer within twenty miles, and to this may be attributed much of his success. He was thrown upon his own resources and turned for aid to his books. Young lawyers are gene rally deficient in that branch of their profession which is familiar to the most ignorant backwoodsman, and they are very apt to take up an ineradicable notion about the merits or demerits of a " limb of the law." He tells us that he always (at that period) viewed the ap proach of a client with " fear and trembling," and only discovered every day how little he knew. This, however by a diligent applica tion to his books soon wore off, and he saw business flowing to his little log office. 168 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Among his first cases was one where an English tailor named Marks had been bound over by a man named Hainsworth for a breach of the peace. Marks had engaged him, and detailed the circumstances at the request of P. in writing, which statement the young attorney thought carried verity on its face. He, however, doubted whether a bill would be found, as Hainsworth was a man of property violent in his disposition so much so that the neighborhood were kept in constant dread of him. He therefore paid but little attention to the matter ; yet one was returned for an assault with intent to murder. He therefore prepared himself for the trial, and advised the employ ment of more experienced counsel to assist. The only witness Marks relied on was an old woman of humble station, and who, as he learned afterwards, Hainsworth had used every means to destroy in reputation, and for reasons other than those connected with this transaction. She was the only witness to meet this artful rnan, and while Hainsworth was under examination P. became very uneasy and provoked turn ing to Marks he upbraided him with having deceived him. He replied with confidence, " Call Mrs. Lane," " call Mrs. Lane." His manner re-assured him. Hainsworth made out a clear case seemingly, and the prosecution closed. The defence then opened. Mrs. Lane was called to the witness stand and told her story, as none but a woman can tell it every effort was made to entrap her in vain. Her story was directly contrary to Hainsworth s. The assistant counsel for the de fence proceeded to address the jury in a cold, desponding speech, and sat down without accomplishing anything. It was evident he felt it a bad case. Not so however with Pickens. He believed that he had right on his side; the conviction stirred within, and filled him with indignation. He rose under such feelings to address the jury; his bashfulness forsook him, and he advocated the cause of the injured man in a speech of remarkable power. Dealing in no polished language, or finely turned periods, he confined himself strictly to the facts, and presented a concatenation of circumstances so intricately interwoven, that the guilt of Hainsworth was irresistible. The jury in a few minutes returned a verdict of " not guilty." Which result he has been heard to say gratified him more than any he has since obtained. In the latter part of 1820 he removed from " Screamersville" or Lin den, to Erie, in Greene county, the then seat of justice. Here he formed a partnership with Seth Barton, Esq., late minister of the United States to Chili, who resided then in Tuscaloosa. In 1825, Erie proving sickly, he removed to Greensborough, now a flourishing town in Greene coun ty, his business steadily increasing. Shortly after this the seat of gov ernment was removed from Cahawba to Tuscaloosa, and Mr. Pickens yielded to the intreaties of his relatives and removed to Dallas county, and settled near Selma. With the removal of the capital a good deal of business and lawyers left the county, and he felt himself better able to cope with those who remained than formerly. About 1837 he pur chased ft small tract of land, where he now resides, and having no slaves of his own, invited his brother Samuel Pickens, who possessed a number of slaves, to reside on and cultivate it. He did so, and they resided together until the death of his brother a short time since. The EZEKIEL PICKENS, OF ALABAMA. 169 judge, however, realized from his practice sufficient to enable him to purchase at intervals slaves and also to add to his farm, and he is at this time enjoying a fair competency. In Dallas* he formed a partnership with James M. Calhoun, Esq., a lawyer of marked ability, and who has since risen to eminence in the state. Shortly after their dissolution, which was occasioned by Judge Cal- houn s entering the political arena, he formed a partnership with James B. Clarke, Esq., now chancellor of the middle division of the state. Being constitutionally feeble, the increase of business nearly pros trated him, and at the solicitation of his friends he appeared before the legislature, at the session of 1834, a candidate for judge of the circuit court. He was beaten, however, by John S. Hunter, Esq. Judge Hun* ter resigned in a short time, and Judge Pickens was commissioned to his vacancy in August, 1835, and in the winter of that year was elected by the legislature over George W. Gayle, Esq., by a large majority. At the session of 1836, the salary of the circuit judges thereafter to be elected was increased, and with all the other judges but one, he resigned and was immediately re-appointed by the governor. He was elected by the legislature again in 1837, and was elected again in 1842. In 1847 he had again determined to be a candidate, but being on the cir cuit until three days before the election, he found on his arrival at Montgomery, that Judge Cook had thoroughly canvassed the legislature, and that from some unknown cause great efforts were made todefeat him. He made no great effort to obtain votes, merely mentio ing to his friends his desire to run. Upon counting the votes it was found that out of one hundred and eighteen votes, Cook succeeded by but four votes. His term lacked about eighteen months of its expiration, but deeming the vote of the legislature the expression of its opinion he re signed, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits, with no expecta tion or desire of again appearing in public life. At the session of 1849, the legislature enacted a law, giving the elec tion of judges to the people, and Judge Pickens, understanding that it was the general wish he should become a candidate, yielded at the sac rifice of his private feelings. This election was conducted on all sides with marked courtesy, and an agreement among the several candidates at the outset, to the effect that they would abstain from electioneering, was I believe strictly adhered to. The election resulted, as before stated, in the triumphant election of Judge Pickens, he receiving 2424 votes and his two competitors receiving jointly but 2077 votes. The judge was elected to the legislature once from Greene and once from Dallas, and three years ago was spoken of in connection with the gubernatorial chair. But he positively declined being considered a can didate before the convention for the nomination. There is little doubt, had he consented to it, that he would have been elected. Judge Pickens is in stature about five feet two or three inches, and well formed ; eyes large and a dark brown color, and when excited in dicate action and intenseness, his forehead is elevated but not promi nent, dark hair and complexion. He bears his age well and gives promise of many years of usefulness and activity. 170 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ANDREW J. MARCHBANKS, OF TENNESSEE. THE subject of this sketch was born in Jackson county, Tennessee, on the 21st of November, 1804. During his infancy his parents removed with him to, and settled in Overtoil county. His father, William Marchbanks, was of Scotch descent, was a farmer in moderate circum stances, had a large family, and his sons were compelled to labor in the field for a support. The present judge was, from time to time, sent to school until, he acquired a tolerable knowledge of the sciences and an im perfect knowledge of Latin. In 1823, and in his nineteenth year, he commenced the study of the law, under Major H. H. Atkinson, in the town of Monroe, the county seat of Overton county. There he continued to read with but little advantage until the summer of 1824; and having at that time become quite idle, and being satisfied that he was doing no good, he determined upon, and accordingly returned to the residence of his father, taking with him a few law-books, and which he occasionally read until the early part of the winter of 1825, at which time he resolved to renew his stu dies with increased energy ; and to do this, he thought it best to avoid relapsing into his former idle habits, to select a new location at a place where he would have no acquaintances, and where, without the danger of any evil temptations, he might form new acquaintances and new habits. It was with determinations of this kind that young Marchbanks again, in the early part of February, 1825, left his father s roof. He located himself in the town of McMinnville, and there re-commenced his studies under Major Stokeley D. Romer, a gentleman of considerable celebrity and distinction at the bar. Our student now, in good faith, gave up all of his former idle habits, and with singleness of purpose devoted himself to his studies, and so continued to do until the fall of that year, when he was licensed to practise law. At this period his license to practise law constituted his all it was his only hope ; and the want of the means to go elsewhere, as much as anything else, induced him to make a permanent settlement at McMinn ville, and there to make an effort, humble as he was, to establish him self in his profession. Under su2h circumstances as these, young Marchbanks, without a dollar in the world, and without family connec tion or patronage of any kind to usher him into business, embarked in his profession ; his only hope for success was a determination on his part to devote himself to its duties with unwearied industry, and to live an upright and an honorable life. In a short time after he was licensed he got into a small practice, principally in the county courts. For two years his business did not yield a sufficient income to defray his expenses. About the expiration of that time he got into a profitable practice, and which he continued down to the time when he was elevated to the bench. In 1828, Marchbanks was elected elector from his native district to vote for President and Vice-President of the United States, and which ANDREW J. MARCHBANKS, OF TENNESSEE. 171 duty he performed by casting the vote of his district for Jackson and Calhoun. The Electoral College of Tennessee was at that time consti tuted of eleven members. Of the entire number of persons then con stituting it, it is believed the subject of this memoir, together with Dr. Alfred Flournoy, at present of Shreveport, Louisiana, constitute the only survivors. In 1836 he was elected to the Senate in the state legislature, and served in the called session of that year. In 1837, Marchbanks was elected by a whig legislature (he being a democrat) judge of the thirteenth circuit in Tennessee for the term of eight years ; and upon the expiration of that term, in 1845, he was again, by the unanimous vote of the legislature, re-elected for the same term, and which office he now holds. In his addresses to the grand juries he has constantly impressed upon them the fact, that our government is founded upon the morals and intelli gence of our citizens, and that, to perpetuate our free institutions, the religion and intelligence of our people must also be perpetuated ; that only a few brief days ago the government was in the hands of our fa thers ; that to-day it is in our hands, and that in a very few more days it will be in the hands of our children ; and as it is to devolve upon them to sustain it, it is all-important that they should be well prepared to perform that high and important duty, and that, to so prepare them, the most anxious and unremitting care should be bestowed upon their education. In the earlier part of the judge s professional service, he was, as as sisting counsel, retained in several heavy and complicated actions of ejectment. This caused him at that early period of his life to give to the land law of his state a thorough examination. He has now been upon the bench for more than fourteen years, and during that time he has decided many actions of ejectment, a number of which have gone to the Supreme Court by appeal, and out of that number only two have been reversed. One of them is the case of Miller vs. Miller, (Meig s Eeports, 484,) and the other Wait s Lessee vs. Dolly, (8th Humphrey s Reports, 192 ;) and in deciding the latter case, it was at the time be lieved that he was following the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Lee vs. Crossna, 6th Humphrey s Reports, 281. As a judge, he makes it a rule never to decide a case, where there is any doubt about the law of it, without an examination into the authori ties, when it is at all practicable to do it. He also makes it a rule, in all cases of any magnitude, to give to the juries who try them written in structions in regard to the law of the case, and to make out and keep full notes of the evidence, insomuch that, in many cases of the utmost importance, where appeals have been taken from his judgments, the par ties have adopted his notes as containing a full history of the case. The Judge was first married to a Miss Savage ; she dying, he then married his present wife, Mrs. Martha C. Flournoy , daughter of the late Doctor John H. Camp, of Giles County. He lives upon a farm within about two miles of McMinnville, where his intelligent lady employs her time in the raising and cultivation of flowers and shrubbery. 172 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. HON. JAMES L. ORB OP SOUTH CAROLINA. THE subject of this sketch was born at Craytonville, in Anderson district, South Carolina, on the 12th day of May, 1822. His father was Christopher Orr, and his mother Martha McCann. His paternal grandfather was John Orr, a native of Wake county, North Carolina, and a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His maternal grandfather was Robert McCann, a native of the County Down, Ireland, who emi grated to the United States about 1786. His father commenced life without pecuniary means, but by a successful prosecution of mercantile pursuits acquired the means of educating thoroughly a family of three sons and two daughters. At an early age he was placed at a country school, and after acquiring the rudiments of an English education he was placed at an academy at Anderson and commenced the study of the languages (Latin and Greek) under the Rev. J. L. Kennedy, a teacher of considerable reputation in the upper districts of Carolina. His academical education was completed under Mr. Wesley Leverett, a classical scholar of fine attainments, and a teacher who has educated more young men who are useful in society than any man of his age in the region of country where he has taught. Whilst prosecuting his academical course his education in business and human nature was not neglected. On public days, in the village where his father resided, he was transferred from the school-room to the merchant s counter and counting-room, and made a most efficient salesman and book-keeper. The knowledge he thus obtained of practical business and of men has perhaps been one of the most active influences in moulding his subsequent career, which has thus far been more successful than most men of his age. In later years he has often remarked that the best school for a boy to learn the practical duties of life in, and especially the learned professions, is behind the counter of a village or country merchant. It brings him in contact with his species in every station and calling, and men usually show as much of their true character in trading as in traveling, or in the army, and the temptation to vicious habits is far less in the former than in the latter situations. He ac quired most distinction in the mathematics, natural and moral science, and in elocution and oratory. The teacher was successful in organizing and giving interest to a de bating society connected with the academy, and so great was the emu lation and interest excited, that all his classical students spent their Saturdays at the academy in debating. The result was, that most of them became ready, fluent debaters, and some of them orators of merit. The subject of this sketch derived very great advantage from this exer cise, and attributes his fluency at the bar and in the forum to this early training. In the eighteenth year of his age he matriculated a student at the University of Virginia, preferring that institution for the reason that he could devote himself to such studies alone as would be peculiarly JAMES L. ORR. OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 173 serviceable to him in prosecuting the profession of the law, which he had at this early period determined to embrace. His first year was spent profitably in pursuing the following studies : Natural, mental, and moral philosophy ; political economy ; logic, rhetoric, belles-lettres, medical jurisprudence, geology, and miner alogy, as also international, constitutional, and the elements of com mon law. He was graduated the first year in moral philosophy, including meta physics, political economy, and medical jurisprudence. The second year he devoted his entire time to the law, under the direction of the late J. A. G. Davis, professor in the university, but before its termi nation Professsor Davis was most unfortunately killed by one of the students, and the board of visitors, in the emergency presented, feeling the necessity of supplying Professor Davis place at once, as the law class numbered some sixty or seventy students, gave the temporary appointment for the remainder of the term to a young lawyer of Rich mond, but as he had little experience in his profession the subject of our memoir determined to return to his home, where he supposed he could prosecute his studies with more profit in some office in his own state. The course of study prescribed at the university was very comprehensive, and he who waded through it, understandingly, could hardly fail in making himself a good elementary lawyer. Mr. Orr studied here the commentaries of Lord Coke upon Littleton, and ad vanced as far in exploring this fountain of English jurisprudence as the youthful mind could go ; and he has often declared that his knowledge of the principles of the English common law, and more especially those governing real estate, was derived from this quaint but profound jurist. It is much to be regretted that so few of the lawyers of the present day have any familiarity with the commentaries of Coke, for it is really the foundation-stone of the common law, and none can understand the law of real estate satisfactorily without its comprehension. He who bravely encounters its quaintness and intricacies, and reaches his beauti ful benediction to the student, where he says, " And now farewell to our jurisprudent ! We wish unto him the gladsome light of jurisprudence, the loveliness of temperance, the stability of fortune, and the solidity of justice," has indeed achieved an intellectual and professional triumph, and has panoplied himself in such solid legal learning as never to cause the heart to quail in encountering a professional rival. The year 1841, being the first after his return from college, was spent in society, and in reading history, ancient and modern, Hume s and Lingard s, with the same care as law-books ; and the former is as indispensable to the course of a lawyer s reading as Blackstone or Kent. In January, 1842, he entered the office of J. N. Whitner, Esq., then the solicitor of the western circuit, who has since been promoted to a judgeship, and commenced reading the course of study prescribed by the law court of appeals of South Carolina, preparatory to applying for admission to the bar. The course is very comprehensive, and applicants for admission are subjected to a strict examination thereon, in presence of the whole court, before granting a license ; if found prepared, upon the exami nation, are admitted ; if not, are rejected. Judge Whitner was, in per forming the duties of his office, necessarily absent from home at least 174 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. six months in the year, and whilst Mr. Orr was his student very much of the office business and practice was devolved upon him. He not only issued cases and prepared the pleadings, but often, ex necessitate^ gave counsel to Judge Whitner s clients, and he derived two very im portant advantages therefrom first, it familiarized him with the practice in the courts of law and equity, and furnished the occasion of applying the elementary principles of his reading to actual cases ; and secondly, it gave him confidence in his judgment, and capability to determine a legal proposition. He completed the course, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1843, at the age of twenty-one. He opened an office at Anderson, South Carolina, where he was reared and educated, and within a few miles of his native place. He was more fortunate than most young lawyers, for within eighteen months after he was licensed he was surrounded with quite a respectable practice. In the fall of 1843, having a taste for politics from boyhood, he established a newspaper in the town in which he resided, entitled the Anderson Gazette, and took the chair editorial, which he filled for one year. In November, 1843, he married Miss Mary Jane Marshall, second daughter of Dr. Samuel Marshall, of Abbeville district. In the follow ing spring he became a candidate for the legislature, and after an ani mated contest he was elected at the head of the ticket, and by an over whelming majority over his whig opponents. He canvassed the district very closely, and every voter had the opportunity of hearing him on the stump. His party friends were highly gratified at the ability he ex hibited in the canvass, and appreciated in no stinted measure the signal services he rendered in the democratic cause and in favor of Mr. Folk s election to the presidency. In this connection it is proper to relate the fact, that Mr. Orr from boy. hood intermingled freely amongst the people, and before he was twenty ho was personally acquainted with most of the citizens of his district. His bland manners, his address and his conversations made him a favorite in all ranks. This favorable knowledge of him, as a boy and youth, se cured him friends and practice at the bar, and when he was a little more than twenty-two years old he was elected to the legislature, re ceiving about 2500 votes. The same district in 1840 gave a majority for the whig candidate for the presidency. He entered the legislature, having received a higher vote than any man in the state, but being a new member he participated only occasionally in debate. In the dis cussions in which he participated he acquitted himself to the entire satis faction of his friends and constituents, and at the next election he was re-elected. He entered actively into the debates of these two sessions. There have never been reporters of the proceedings of the South Caro lina legislature, and we have consequently none of his speeches pre served. His principal speeches were made on reforming the free school system, giving the election of presidental electors to the people, (now selected by the legislature on joint ballot,) in advocacy of extending the aid of the state in constructing the Greenville and Columbia, the Charlotte and South Carolina, and the Wilmington and Manchester rail-roads, and on various questions connected with the federal relations of the state. In 1845 he formed a copartnership in the law with J. P. JAMES L. ORR, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 175 Reed, Esq., now the solicitor of the western circuit, which continued until the spring of 1848, when he became a candidate for Congress. The records of the court shew that nearly one-half of all the business of the courts of law and equity was transacted by this firm ; and they had quite a good practice at some others of the courts of the circuit. Mr. Orr has studied human character to great profit in the management of his causes in court. His perception of the strong features of his case is clear and quick, and he consequently does not make long speeches to the jury. His most elaborate argument in a will case, in which he took a deep interest, was concluded in a little more than one hour. His speeches are argumentative, put principally in the style of interrogation, without any effort at oratorical display. The court of chancery has always been his favorite branch of juris prudence. The success with which he has practised in that court is an enduring memorial of the excellence of his tact and judgment in fram ing bills and answers. The first bill he ever drew was in a case involved in the greatest intricacy, and the presiding chancellor said of it that it was the most skilfully drawn bill he had seen out of the city practice in Charleston. In 1848, as we have already stated, he became a candidate for Con gress. His opponent was a lawyer of talents and great professional reputation, with much experience in political affairs, having served some fifteen years in both branches of the state legislature. They were both democrats, and the contest was therefore purely personal. The canvass was an exciting one, both the aspirants devoting nearly their whole time to it for six months preceding the election, which took place in October of that year. When th e votes were counted it was ascertained that Mr. Orr had beaten his opponent about seven hundred votes. Uii- der all the circumstances it was a most signal manifestation of the con fidence and esteem by the people for one so youthful. He took his seat in December, 1849, a member of the 31st Congress, a Congress which has been distinguished for more startling incidents than any other in the history of this government. He was opposed to the settlement of the sectional question on the basis of what was denominated the compromise. He believed that the settlement did injustice to his sec tion of the country; that one or the other side was cheated in the or ganization of the territorial governments of Utah and New-Mexico, the north asserting that Mexican law excluded slavery, and the south the opposite opinion ; that Congress had no constitutional power to buy a part of a sovereign state and place the population thereon under a ter ritorial government ; that if the land belonged to Texas, the govern ment had not the right to buy ; if it belonged to the United States then, it was wholly indefensible to take $10.000,000 from the public treasury to pay for that which was already their property ; and lastly, that Cali fornia was admitted with excessive territory, without an enumeration of her citizens, having formed her constitution without the authority of Congress and against all the precedents existing in the previous history of the government. The principal speech he made at this session was on the slavery agitation, in which he discussed very elaborately the tendency and ultimate end of agitation if it was not arrested, and also presenting views why California should not be admitted into the Union 176 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. before she had passed a territorial pupilage. He therefore voted against all the measures of compromise except the fugitive slave law. He participated occasionally in the general debates of the house at this session as also at the next. When he returned home in March, 1851, at the close of the short ses sion, the State of South Carolina had called a constitutional convention, and delegates thereto had been elected, a large majority of whom were pledged to vote for the secession of that state from the Union, on ac count of the injustice of the compromise. Mr. Orr advised originally against the call of the convention, as, we believe, did a majority of the South Carolina delegation in Congress, as he was unwilling that South Carolina should incur all the hazards attendant upon secession without she had the co-operation of other sister southern states. The constitu tion of South Carolina provides for calling a convention when two- thirds of both branches of the legislature concur therein ; and when the convention was called the separate state actionists had not quite two- thirds, the other third being in favor of providing simply for the election of delegates to a southern congress, as recommended by the Nashville Convention, and opposed to isolating South Carolina from the South. Neither party could carry their measure, and the two were blended into one bill, entitled, an act " to provide for the appointment of deputies to a southern congress, and to call a convention of the people of the state," and passed, the minority having been induced to vote for the call of the convention to have the state ready to co-operate with any other state or states, or, in the event of a failure, to act then, that a convention might be ready to ratify or reject what might be done in the southern congress, if it assembled. The elections were ordered in February, as already stated, and resulted in the choice of a large majority who were favor able to separate action, and the pretence was then set up by the seces sion organs that this was the original purpose for which the convention was called. Colonel Orr s congressional district had elected about two delegates in favor of secession to one against it, and such was the state of parties when he returned home. He, however, notwithstanding his belief that he was in a minority of one-third, openly proclaimed his op position to the policy of those who claimed to be a majority ; and in a public speech at Pickens, a few weeks after his return home, he warned his countrymen against the disasters which would inevitably follow if the policy of separate secession was carried out not denying, however, the right of a state to secede from the Union if she chose to do it ; for he has always expressed the opinion that there was but one effectual shield against a central despotism by the general government, and that was in upholding and maintaining the rights of the several states who are parties to the federal compact. The right of peaceable secession he holds to be the highest attribute of sovereignty, and its denial leads ir retrievably to consolidation. Early in May he attended as a delegate the convention of the southern rights associations, held in Charleston. It was a body of great intelligence, and numbering some 450 delegates; but, representing the southern rights associations, it was made up of the most ultra men in the state, and the moderates did not exceed thirty. Among that number, however, was the Hon. R. W. Barnwell, late United States senator from South Carolina, Judge Butler, the present JAMES L. ORR, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 177 senator, and Colonel Orr, each of whom addressed the convention in opposition to the policy of the majority. Colonel Orr introduced the resolution upon which the minority founded their report, and which af terwards formed the basis of the co-operation party ; for the one was known as the secession, and the other as the co-operation party. Col. Orr s speech was the most effective he ever made on any theatre, and so highly was it appreciated that it was published by the executive committee of the party in Charleston, and circulated in every district and parish in the commonwealth. The election of delegates to a southern Congress was ordered for October, and as no other popular election was to occur, except that, until the probable meeting and action of the convention, the co-opera tion party determined to test the strength of parties in that election. Two deputies were to be chosen in each congressional district, and the party, by common consent, determined to bring forward Colonel Orr and Colonel Irby, of Laurens, as their candidates. The secessionists, after declining to run opposition to those gentlemen, subsequently brought forward two gentlemen, who enjoyed more personal popularity than any other two persons in the congressional district. The Hon. R. F. Simpson, a member of Congress for several years, a gentleman of high character and great moral worth, and the Hon. H. C. Young, long a member of both branches of the legislature, a distinguished lawyer, a man of talents, and enjoying a sweeping practice at the bar. Colonel Orr commenced the canvass early in August, and was either on the stump or on the road almost every day, until the second Monday in October. After finishing the tour of his own district, he went into the adjoining districts, on special invitations from his political friends. He encountered the eloquence and personal popularity of his Excellency Gov. Means, who was reviewing the militia in that section of the state who, when the drill was ended, would address the people, and urge them that secession was not only practicable, but that it was their only remedy against the wrongs of the federal government. The governor and Colonel Orr each addressed six of the eight regiments of militia in the 2d district ; Colonel Orr subsequently addressed the remaining two. Upon counting the votes, it appeared that Colonel Orr had received 5,010, and his highest opponent 1,806, giving the former a majority in his district, of 3,204 votes. When the canvass opened, five of the six newspapers in his district assailed his position and brought all their influence to bear against him. When the canvass ended, he expressed the opinion that there had not been such a change of public opinion as was supposed, that the opposition to secession had merely developed itself, and that the secessionists had deceived themselves in assuming that the majority was overwhelming in their favor in the outset. Du ring the same month, the Circuit Courts commenced, and his labors turned to a new field ; in most of the important cases at Anderson and Pickens he was retained. He added, during this circuit, much to his reputation as a jurist and advocate. His duties at Washington prevent him from attending, every other year, the spring courts of his cir cuit and the courts of chancery, and, all the time, the appeal court. This has and will militate much against his practice whenever a lawyer consents to embark in politics, he may make up his mind, in a great 12 178 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. measure, to give up his profession. In the great press of political and legal pursuits, Colonel Orr has found time to prepare several orations on various topics. He delivered, in 1845, the anniversary oration be fore the literary societies of Erskine College, and, in 1851, before the literary societies of Mercer University, Georgia. His style of speaking is earnest and impressive. His voice is strong and clear, and his enun ciation distinct. He is never tedious, but secures attention by the sound and sensible views which he takes of the subjects which he dis cusses. The character of his intellectual efforts discloses the fact that he is capable of close and continued application, and possesses, in a high degree, the power of discrimination and analysis much of his success is referable to confidence in his ability to achieve what he undertakes, and a temper naturally sanguine, sustained by an unusually healthy phy sical organization. Naturally cheerful, he loses none of his energies in despondency, and will always make the most of the knowledge he may acquire. He is a striking illustration of the frankness of the southern gentleman in his manner with fine colloquial powers and a decidedly social turn, he is a most agreeable companion, always contri buting his share to social pleasures. He writes with facility and cor rectness, and has acquired a style well adapted to his pursuits. There is little artificial either in the manner of his speaking or writing, and much of the force of both is derived from this circumstance. Indeed, the frank and honest earnestness with which he impresses his views give great force and effect to his efforts as a speaker or writer, and a fund of sound infor mation, always at his command, must necessarily secure to him decided influence. Col. Orr is stout and athletic, exhibiting the vigor of matured manhood combined with a striking personal appearance ; his phrenological developments indicate quickness and decision combined with consider able powers of analysis. Kind and courteous, his intercourse with his fellow-men will always increase the number of his friends, and, should he continue in public life, he is destined to render valuable services to his country. He represents the district in which the distinguished and lamented Calhoun resided, and, in common with all who knew him, venerates the memory of that illustrious statesman. Like most of the politicians of his state, he cherishes an enthusiastic attachment to South Carolina and her interests, which has, at all times, so secured to such public servants the confidence of their constituents, as that the term of office, as a representative, although nominally but two years, is conti nued by renewal as long as they desire to serve. To this continuance of the same individuals in Congress for a number of years is to be at tributed the great influence of that state in the public counsels a poli cy founded in wisdom and justified by experience. PLINY CUTLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 179 HON. PLINY CUTLER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, PRESIDENT OF THE ATLANTIC BANK. THE springs that move society are often concealed from the common eye. We observe with interest the movements of those secular and religious enterprises, which obviously affect our welfare and that of our children ; our minds are justly turned towards the men who espouse and direct their maturity and vigor ; but few of us trace their sources and appreciate the services of those who, amidst doubt and dis couragement, brought them into being and protected their feeble infancy. They as frequently originate with men in the business walks of life, whose histories are unwritten, as with men whose literary or political career has given them a place on the historic page. Nor is there so much difference, in degree between the intellectual activity and attainments of men in business and those of professed scholars, as we are prone to imagine. The education of the one class has respect to different objects from that of the other; their habits of thought and their relative views of theoretical and practical subjects, more or less vary ; but the amount of valuable mental activity is perhaps quite as large on the one side as on the other. It is therefore as justly due, and as important to mankind, to record the history of men who have rendered noble service in the walks of business, as that of men who have figured on the more public arenas. These facts are illustrated in the history of him whose name is at the head of this article. The Hon. Pliny Cutler, of Boston, was born May 17th, 1783, in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, to which place his grandfather removed from Lexington, about 1740. His family descended from Sir Gervase Cutler, of Norfolkshire, England, three of whose sons, according to tradition, came over to this country previ ous to 1640. The subject of this memoir descended from one of them, who settled in Cambridge Farms, since named Lexington. His imme diate father, the eighth of nine sons, was the late Deacon Joseph Cutler, a highly respectable farmer of West Brookfield, whose sterling virtues are fresh in the recollections of many still living. Descended directly from the Puritan stock, he inherited its wonted integrity, energy and perseverance. Settling in an unbroken forest and contending with all the adverse circumstances resulting from the Revolutionary war with England, he subdued the wilderness, gained an honest and independent living, trained up a numerous family in habits of elevated virtue and industry, and left his name and example as a lasting heritage to the town. For nearly fifty years he was deacon of the church under the pastoral care of Rev. Ephraim Ward, sustaining the character not only of an estimable citizen, but of an eminently devoted and consistent Christian. His views and habits were of the strict Puritan stamp. All work of man and beast upon his farm ceased on Saturday afternoon, an hour before sunset ; the men shaved themselves and prepared for holy time before the s un went down ; the work within doors was also completed, even to the preparing of the food for the following day ; and from the ISO SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. going down of the sun on the eve of the Sabbath to the going down of the sun on the Sabbath day, no work, excepting that of absolute necessity and mercy, not even the making of a bed nor the sweeping of a room, was allowed. The whole time was devoted to rest, and to the solemn duties of religion. Although he lived three miles from the place of worship, yet he was ever promptly there, with all his family, morning and afternoon ; neither heat, nor cold, nor storm, being able to turn his steadfast steps from the sanctuary of God. These facts are recorded, not as peculiar to Deacon Cutler ; they were common to the Puritans of that period, and they are mentioned in this connection to refresh the memories of the aged, and to admonish the young of this generation, of those granite-like religious sentiments which lie so much at the foundation of the present New-England character and institutions. Pliny was the youngest of a family of five sons and five daughters. He labored upon his father s farm, enjoying the advantages of only a common school education, till he was sixteen years old, when he was placed as an apprentice in a store in Boston, to a firm with which his elder brother Joseph was connected. This firm was then doing an extensive wholesale business in West India goods, supplying the coun try stores over a large part of New-England, and receiving produce in return. He served out his apprenticeship of five years with this firm, devoting himself with intense application and severe labor to the interests of his employers, and industriously husbanding his spare fragments of time to remedy the imperfections of his earlier education. He continued in the service of the firm one year after he became of age, and in 1805 commenced business for himself. At the expiration of a year, his brother Joseph died, and he formed a connection with one of his brother s partners, Asa Whitney, and also Daniel Hammond, under the firm of Whitney, Cutler and Hammond. This firm carried on a very extensive trade, probably surpassed by none in New- England, which continued without interruption until 1824, when Mr. Whitney withdrew. The business was then conducted by the firm of Cutler and Hammond, on a large scale, until 1826, when it was principally relinquished to Crockett, Seaver & Co., who continued it with equal success, retaining the undiminished confidence and patronage of a numerous class of customers extending over the north ern states. In 1831, Mr. Cutler retired in part from the more active labors of mercantile life, and accepted an invitation to become president of the Atlantic Bank in Boston, and treasurer of the York Manufactur ing Company, to both of which institutions he has ever since sustained the same relations. Few, if any, banking and manufacturing establish ments have been more successful than these. They have gone forward with a steadily increasing activity, and have ever retained their hold upon the public confidence, through all the fluctuations of business and trade, for more than twenty years, during which time Mr. Cutler has been connected with them. Previous to 1836, the merchants of Boston had for sometime ex- PLINY CUTLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 181 perienced the want of more ample accommodations for business. Most of the stores on Kilby and the other wholesale streets were too con tracted, and the lots were not of sufficient depth to admit of buildings on a large and improved plan. In 1836, Mr. Cutler turned his atten tion particularly to lots in Milk and Pearl streets, then mostly occupied by dwelling-houses, and conceived the plan of occupying them for wholesale mercantile houses. He purchased several lots and built some stores on Milk-street, in advance of others then in use for depth and convenience, so far from the centre of trade, that most men predicted a failure. Within two years, however, the tide of business turned in that direction ; the value of land on these streets doubled and quadrupled; and the most ample and splendid stores of the city were erected upon them. The largest wholesale business in dry goods is now done upon these streets. In other parts also of the city, his agency was exerted in a similar manner. But it is the example which he has given us of the manner in which mercantile business ought to be conducted, that we are mostly to con sider. He is one of the few merchants that NEVER FAILED. He has always met every engagement, promptly and fully. The time in which he has been variously engaged in business in Bos ton, embraces a period of about half a century. During this period, vast changes and reverses in business, occasioned by embargoes, by war with Great Britain, by the closing and failure of banks, by disas trous speculations and unforeseen casualties, have prostrated, once and again, the hopes and fortunes of a large portion of those engaged in trade. But while Mr. Cutler has shared in these losses, it has never been his misfortune to contribute to them. He has always paid his debts fully and honorably, when they were due. Much of his success in business, he has often been heard to say, is to be ascribed to the assiduous appli cation and unbending integrity of his partner, Daniel Hammond, who is still living in the midst of a numerous and happy family, to enjoy the fruits of his labors. It is pleasant to record, that during the entire period of their connection in business, in circumstances often very trying and vexatious, not an unkind feeling or hasty word ever occurred between them. Their business was conducted with that steady caution, prudent foresight and unwavering integrity, which never failed to ensure confi dence and success. Such an example is worthy of the study and imitation of all young merchants. It is such examples that have given to Boston merchants the high reputation which they have so justly enjoyed. The interest which Mr. Cutler early acquired in agricultural pursuits, did not forsake him after engaging in the more exciting employments of mercantile and public life. He has usually owned and carried on a farm in the country, and has spent some portions of his time upon it, furnishing practical examples of cultivating and enriching- lands, and of improving the various arts of husbandry, which have been of essential value to farmers. Much of the time which most gentlemen devote to traveling and recreation, in seasons of leisure, he has spent upon his farm, thus securing relief from the feverish agitations of business, in a way to combine usefulness and health with rational enjoyment. He 182 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. has thus reached his threescore and tenth year in the full vigor of manhood. Mr. Cutler has been to some extent engaged in public life. In 1822 and 1823 he was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1830 and 1831 he was a member of the Senate. He rendered important services to his constituents, and was especially useful on committees. But it is his connection with moral and educational interests which we deem more particularly deserving of notice. He early commenced a systematic appropriation of time and money to charitable and religious objects. He was associated with a few other gentlemen in efforts to check the progress of vice in Boston, and to elevate the standard of morals. With this view they met, in 1817, at the house of Rev. Joshua Huntington, pastor of the Old South Church, and formed what was called " The Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the Poor." Direc tors were appointed, and two gentlemen were designated to open a school on the next Sabbath. These gentlemen were Mr. Cutler and William Thurston, Esq. They procured a place in Short (now King ston) street, where the first Sabbath-school was opened. It was super intended by these two gentlemen, one of them taking charge of it in the forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. This school was afterwards removed to Mason-street, where it has prosperously continued to the present time. Sabbath-schools have since greatly multiplied, and have extended over the whole country. The Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the Poor, re ferred to above, early turned its attention to the wants of seamen. This society employed the Rev. Dr. Jenks to preach to them half of the day on the Sabbath, and the other half of the day to a neglected population, including a class of degraded females, in the west part of the city. Several of them expressed a desire to return to virtuous habits, but they had no friends to receive them. The society opened a correspondence with institutions in London, to obtain light upon this subject, which resulted in the purchasing of a house and the establishing of a Penitent Female Refuge, under the charge of an aged matron. By this instrumentality many females have been rescued from the path of vice and restored to respectability and virtue. The Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the Poor gave birth, also, to the Seamen s Friends Society, of which Mr. Cutler was one of the earliest and most liberal benefactors, and for many years the president. From the same source originated the Savings Bank for Seamen in Boston, now called the Suffolk Savings Institution, of which Mr. Cutler was also the president. The Sailors Home and the Mariners Church are indebted for their existence to the same instrumentality. This society also employed city missionaries, whose object was to reach and evangelize the classes not connected with any religious worship ; which led to the formation of a City Missionary Society. All of the above societies are still in effective operation. The same parent Society for Religious and Moral Instruction ascer tained that many children who offered themselves to the Sabbath PLINY CUTLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 183 School were unable to read, and were thus prevented from entering the public grammar schools. The society chose a committee, who visited every house in the city, and reported a large number of children grow ing up in ignorance, for want of early instruction at the public expense. The society sent a committee to New- York and Philadelphia to examine the Lancasterian schools there established, who reported against the expediency of introducing them. It was at length resolved to establish primary schools, for the instruction of children between the ages of four and seven, that they might be fitted for admission into the grammar schools. After much opposition by leading men, this plan was adopted in town-meeting, and money was appropriated for the object. These schools have now increased to nearly two hundred, and are second in usefulness to no others in the city. In the establishment of all these institutions, Mr. Cutler took an active part, and devoted his full share of time and influence to sustain and cherish them. It is interesting thus to notice the great results which come from small beginnings. Most men now upon the stage are unapprised of the state of things, in a moral and religious view, half a century ago. This obscure Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the Poor, then scarcely known but by the few individuals who formed and sustained it by their personal efforts and benefactions, at a time when there was but little doing to raise the standard of morals and reclaim the wandering, has been silently instrumental, as we have seen, in bringing into existence many of those cherished institutions which are now blessing our country and the world. Mr. Cutler was most happy in his domestic relations. He early formed a connection, by marriage, with the widow of his brother Joseph, a daughter of Rev. Ephraim Ward, who was a settled minister in West Brookfield nearly half a century, over the church of which his father was deacon. Her mother was a Colman, grand-daughter of Mr. John Colman, an eminent merchant of Boston, brother of Dr. Benjamin Colman, pastor of the Brattle-street church. Mrs. Cutler was a woman of great excellence. She died in March, 1852, having ever been the light and joy of her domestic circle, and having contributed, in the highest degree, to the happiness and useful ness of him with whom she had been connected in marriage over forty- two years. The following extract from a " biographical sketch of Mrs. Cutler," published soon after her decease, will not be inappropriate here: " Seldom has the church militant sustained a greater loss, or the church triumphant received a greater accession, than by the death of this excellent woman. As her life has been a bright example, so her death was a glorious witness, of the beauty and power of Christian faith. The daughter of an excellent clergyman the late Rev. Ephraim Ward, of West Brookfield she was early taught that religion, and her heart cordially received it, which shone with such a calm and clear lustre through a long and useful life, and which rendered her so signal ly triumphant over the protracted sufferings of mortality and the terrors of death. " Her first religious connection in Boston was with the Old South 184 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Church, of which she has been a steadfast and devoted member forty- five years, extending to the time of her death. Very many, especially clergymen, in our own and in foreign lands, will never cease to remem ber the cordial hospitalities of the parlor and the table, the kind and unwearied attentions to their comfort, the delightful seasons of social prayer and Christian interviews which in years past they have enjoyed in her house. Few have done more than she, while health and strength permitted, towards contributing to the hospitalities of Boston." Mr. Cutler has been a member of the Old South Church for forty-two years, and for the last twenty-six years of that period has sustained in it the office of deacon. The life of Mr. Cutler furnishes an encouraging example to young men. They here see that by a course of industry and strict integrity, they may not only elevate themselves to affluence and honor, but that they may do it in a way which also confers large and lasting benefits upon mankind. Too many are eager only for personal wealth and renown. By following the example here furnished, by making the pursuits of gain and honor subordinate to personal character and the welfare of mankind, they may surely realize the highest and brightest hopes of early ambition. HON. WILLIAM PARKER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, PRESIDENT OF THE BOYLSTON BANK. IN our sketch of the Lawyers of America, we alluded to the absence on this side of the Atlantic of privileged classes, and in the allusion, as particularly applied to Chancellor Walworth, we asserted that native talent was prescribed to no class of country. The climate and early history of New-England afford numerous illustrations of the remark; and our readers will have discerned, if there is a field for talent and worth, of all others that section of the Union supplies the arena for com petition, and perhaps for the greatest contest of mind with mind above others the most severe. The general diffusion of elementary education among the masses has usually brought out a higher standard for emi nence among themselves than in most other states, and although we will allow the meed of distinction to native talent, still, without dispar agement to their assiduity and perseverance, we will venture the asser tion, that with few exceptions the great men of the eastern states, are more indebted to their industry and pertinacity in contending with the obscurity and indigence which they may have inherited, than to gifts of intellectual supremacy. Under other conditions it is not easy to conjecture the relative quantum of talent which should be legitimately awarded to this section of our whole country ; we are, however, still apt to look at results, all other things being duly considered, than to lely on assumptions or theories. It cannot indeed be denied, that the WILLIAM PARKER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 185 eastern states, whence emigration is so general, and we would say so valuable to the adopted locality, be it where it may, afford much talent and erudition ; but we will indorse the jocular assertion of one of their own great men, that it is a good place to come from. We mean no reflection in the remark, but would follow out the analogy of vegetable economy, that from transplanting and ingrafting native productions, the energy and vigor of the scion are better developed. There is a class of minds which are brought out at a later period than others, and the staid and sober training which early, severe, and perhaps rigid education has prescribed, does not attain its due versatility until mature years, and important changes of habits and associations have imparted a more enlarged field of observation and experience. Acade mical discipline does much to contract and narrow the scope of action of many a youth destined for busy life ; and habits of abstraction are often to be unlearned before the business of life, and intercourse with those engaged in its pursuits, can be assumed with advantage and suc cess. It may be inferred that those individuals, who in the onset of their career have been compelled to embrace some profession as a means of livelihood, too often have discovered the choice unsuited to their temperament and taste, if not entirely hostile to their fame and interest ; and in their irksomeness and repugnance, have found a change of pursuits imperative. In later life many individuals have been fortu nate enough to have realized the poet s theme- The first inconstancy of unripe years Is nature s error, on its way to truth." And should our readers meet with any instances of this kind in the course of our series of biographical memoirs, the future success of the in dividuals who may be the subject of our pages, may be attributed to such an error, and will afford its own apology. Such, however, was not the case with the subject of our present memoir. William Parker is the fifth of seven sons, and one of thirteen chil dren of the late Rt. Rev. Samuel Parker, D. D., Bishop of the eastern states of New-England. He was born in Boston, in Massachusetts, on the 7th of November, 1793. The father was a native of Portsmouth, in New-Hampshire, and was first settled in Trinity Church, in Boston, as assistant minister, and received the order of deacon and priest in the city of London, from the hands of Dr. Tench, then bishop of that see. He afterwards was made rector of Trinity Church, the incumbent hav ing left the country in the Revolutionary war. The firmness and con stancy of Bishop Parker in preserving the faith and ritual of the Epis copal Church, under the most persecuting circumstances, is well known to those who are conversant with the history of the Episcopal Church of the United States. The mother of Mr. Parker, Anne Cutler, was the daughter of John Cutler, Esq., who lived to an advanced age, and was a well-known and respectable citizen of Boston. She survived her husband, and died at the advanced age of ninety-one years. We find the ancestry of Mr. William Parker were in the direct line from Eng lish descent, and in the paternal branch from the Stanley family, which had then at its head the Earl of Derby, who was in the immediate an cestral line of the present Premier of England. The daughter of the 186 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Ear], Zeorate Stanley, having emigrated to Portsmouth, in New-Hamp shire, there married William Parker, the great grandfather of our pres ent subject. The education of Mr. Parker was altogether one which may be deemed private, he having been fitted for the senior class of Harvard University under private tutors and one of the professors of that college. The event of his father s death deprived him of the means, at that time, of completing the course of academical study, and, consequently, of a diploma, which was gratuitously conferred afterwards by Brown Uni versity at Providence. He was entered a student-at-law in the office of Samuel D. Parker, Esquire, the late district-attorney of Massachu setts ; with this gentleman he remained until the year before his admis sion to the state courts as a practitioner, in 1818, and completed his course of study with the late Thomas O. Selfridge, Esquire, with whom he afterwards continued, and, in cases from that office, was retained as junior counsel. His straitened circumstances required his entire efforts to maintain himself, being a young man with no other means than his own professional assiduity. Aware of his position, and revolting at the thought of leaning on the scanty means of his widowed mother, whose numerous family required all her rigid economy, from the age of sixteen, he obtained a livelihood for himself, and did what was in his power to aid her to bring up her younger and dependent children. Having passed through the usual stages of professional advancement prescribed by the courts of Massachusetts, and being retained in a cause of some importance by a public institution in Hartford, involving principles of new impression as well as a large amount, which originated in a fraudu lent assignment, as was then supposed, with eminent counsel on both sides, in 1826, he was admitted a counselor at the Supreme Court of the United States. The case, although decided adversely against the clients of Mr. Parker, was a leading case, being one of first impression, and the clients of Mr. Parker were satisfied with his professional dili gence and attention, and afterwards recommended to his care others, who consulted and employed him in cases very similar, involving ques tions which afterwards were decided in favor of the principles estab lished by the decision alluded to. By excessive application to the du ties of his profession, he contracted a disease, which seemed to forbid a continuance of his professional labors. During the intervals of profes sional duties, he was a contributor to several literary periodicals of the day, and several offices of emolument were proffered him, which his health required him to decline. For several years a strict regimen was enjoined him by his medical advisers, and, notwithstanding the most abstemious diet and exact regimens were adopted, it was found that an entire omission of professional and sedentary employment be came indispensable. A residence in a southern climate was recom mended, and he left his native city, in a sailing-ship, for Charleston, in South Carolina; in January, with, as he then supposed, little hope of a return. The voyage was tempestuous, and the vessel had a passage of fifteen days, the greater part of which was in the gulf-stream, during which a continual storm, with thunder and lightning, rendered the ves sel in a perilous condition. At that time, it was usual with large ves sels, bound from the eastern states to the extreme southern ports, to WILLIAM PARKER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 187 cross the gulf and to make the southing on the outside of it, thereby avoiding the dangerous navigation of approaching the land near Frying- pan Shoals or Cape Hatteras. This voyage, and the milder skies of a southern latitude, proved highly beneficial to the subject of our memoir ; and although, at the time of his embarkation, he was in a state of ex treme debility, and hardly able to walk without aid, the effort of brac ing himself to meet the dangers of a sea voyage seemed to rally his energies, and was the means of his convalescence. In Charleston and in Savannah, whither he extended his tour, )ie was received with the well-known hospitality for which the citizens of those states are renown ed, and was introduced to the society of public men, to whom his in troductory letters gave him access. The genial air of the climate ren dered his strength sufficient to travel homeward by land. His letters introductory were unsolicited, and were from individuals of the first rank, on whom his diffidence would have deterred him from calling. They contained orders for unlimited credit, and, to his surprise, the corres pondents called upon him in the expectation that his drafts would have been to a large amount. He, however, did not have occasion for the use of any further funds than he had taken with him. The good intentions of his friends had preceded his arrival, as he was surprised that they had placed at his disposal their money and credit. The mind of Mr. Parker was too active, and his sense of obligation too keen, to remain unem ployed, and, from a conscientious duty to himself, he scorned to eat the bread of idleness. On his return home he resumed his duties as a lawyer, and in 1826 he was married to the daughter of the late Isaac Stephens, Esq., of Boston, a gentleman well known for his extensive intercourse in Virginia, and for his public spirit and philanthropy at home. The benevolence of this gentleman in enterprises of a public nature, and his helping and encouraging hand to young men who ex hibited a proper respect for themselves by attention and engagements in mercantile enterprises, has made his name conspicuous among the commercial community of his adopted place. The mental accomplish ments of this lady, with her acknowledged personal attractions, contribut ed, in no small degree, in promoting the welfare and happiness of her hus band ; for, although unambitious for the gaity of fashionable society, for which she had but little partiality, she soon proved one " who was not born to blush unseen," and her many admirers were surprised by the announcement of the affianced one on whom she had bestowed her hand. It has been the good fortune of this alliance to have bred four children, two of whom are females, now married and well settled, and a son who attained academical honors at Harvard University, and the remaining daughter, now in early womanhood. It has fallen to the lot of Mr. Parker, who, it may be remarked, never sought political notoriety, to have enjoyed the confidence of the party to which he was attached. From step to step he has been ad vanced from the regular grade of municipal office, through the direction and management of the public schools, a seat in the city council, an alderman for five years, during the last of which he was chosen chair man, and as such discharged the duties of mayor of the city, and re ceived the salary appendant to the office for several months. While absent on a journey, his name was canvassed as candidate for that 188 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS, office, and the opposing candidate was elected, by some dozen votes, during the excitement of the native American party. The duties of the legal profession are onerous to any one who enjoys a moderate share of practice, and more particularly, where the common law embraces so large a share of the jurisprudence of the state, as is the case in Massachusetts. The commerce of a metropolis, however, renders the practice of the law, within its precincts, peculiar to the bar and the bench in the country ; and it is no creditable exhibition to place a country practitioner on a circuit which includes the city practice, where questions are of daily occurrence which necessarily must be local. Indeed, we are assured, that when a member of a circuit court of Com mon Pleas held his first session in the city of Boston, in a cause of no novel impression, where the relative duties of master and seaman were discussed, the judge, in his charge to the jury, informed them, that he was unacquainted with maritime law, and would not undertake to give them any instructions as to the rights of either party, and it was their province, under such circumstances, to return such a verdict as their discretion might dictate. By the assiduity and close application to the cares of his profession, the symptoms of his former complaint re-ap peared, which admonished Mr. Parker of the necessity of a radical change in his pursuits. He supposed himself so well acquainted with the management of his complaint, that he could mitigate, if not subdue, its attacks, by closely watching his diet and adopting a regimen which seemed to be incompatible with the attention due at business hours, and a faithful discharge of duties to his clients. Under these circumstances, active life suggested to him the only terms which would probably relieve the inroads of disease. A proposal was made to him by both partners in the mercantile house of his father-in-law, to become an associate in the concern. This proposal being duly considered, he determined to accept, and accordingly he entered upon a mercantile career in March, 1833. The transactions of the firm were large as well as extensive, and the financial branch of the business was assigned to him. The commercial embarrassments of 1836 and 1837 proved a severe check to the mer cantile community, and, in a commission house, where large advances had been made upon shipments, which must necessarily remain on hand, or must have been disposed of at prices ruinous to shipper and consignee, it was no easy task to manage the affairs of the joint inter est with firmness and safety ; and while others were obliged to submit to exorbitant terms for means to sustain their operations, the affairs of this house were conducted with apparent ease, and with but little appre hension. While their negotiated paper was returned upon their hands, they were compelled to sustain others who had no claim to their aid, and from the known character of the members of the firm, on account of their firmness and promptitude, they enjoyed the full confidence of all with whom they were connected. Mr. Parker remained a partner in this connection until the death of the senior partner, a period of about six years, when the connection expired by its own limitation. Having the affairs of the family on his hands, he retired from further mercantile operations until the affairs of the late partnership were adjusted, and the family of his wife were in a position not to require mercantile aid. WILLIAM PARKER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 189 In April, 1844, Mr. Parker went to Europe, having been entrusted with government dispatches to the United States minister at the court of St. James ; thence with his wife he made a tour through the conti nent by way of France, Italy, Germany, and the Khine, to Belgium, and returned through France to England, whence he visited Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. On his return, in 1845, he was again solicited by his constituents to take a part in the management of the city government, and was elected senior alderman, where he remained several years. The many important trusts which this apparently in considerable office involves require not only the exercise of a sound dis cretion but also an impartial discharge of duty amid conflicting interests. He was president of several committees, to whom are committed the disbursement of large sums of money from the public treasury, and also a committee of superintendence of the accounts of the treasury itself, from which millions were annually issued. He was also president of the board of directors of the public lunatic hospital for several years. In this latter institution Mr. Parker felt a warm interest, and as a means of extensive charity, as well as a field for the exercise of phil anthropy, he devoted much time to its management and direction. Persuaded, by closely investigating the causes of the malady of the inmates, that in most cases physical rather than moral causes produced the state in which the patients were found, he directed his attention to the remedial treatment under such a belief, and the treatment, in many cases, effected a restoration of the patient to his reason and his friends. The statistics and reports made by Mr. Parker to the city government proved the fact, and although many remained for years, who had been deemed incurable, and were afterwards relieved, yet in the majority of cases physical remedies were found to have produced a permanent cure. We can hardly imagine a greater sphere of utility than to relieve the poor, the abandoned and friendless, from the effects of a malady which ranks in the catalogue of human infirmities as the most deplorable. During this period (1846) Mr. Parker was elected to the state legis lature. The duties of legislative committees are laborious, and some what irksome. To those who are acquainted with the machinery of legislative preliminaries it will afford no great information to detiil the fact, that one or two members of a committee generally determine questions of moment, and the report is then entrusted to the master, spirits of the assembly, and in ordinary cases bills may be carried in both houses as it were sub silentio. Mr. Parker was placed on com mittees of importance on towns, assessment of taxes, and subjects re lating to banks, and by diligence and searching investigation reported bills which now remain in the statute book permanent laws. Holding office simultaneously in the municipal government, subjects requiring legislative action, in which the interests of the city were involved, were committed to him, and the result was, the objects in view in behalf of the city were attained. During the period alluded to, the great question of the introduction of pure water into the city of Boston was agitated, and Mr Parker was a member of the committee, for several years, to accomplish that ob ject. The distance through which the only abundant source of supply could be obtained, and the large expenditure which the estimated cost 190 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. required, was an obstacle which embarrassed the minds of many of the most enlightened citizens, who were eminent as civilians and promi nent as capitalists. For, although it was contemplated as a corporate undertaking of the city, the powers which the municipality possessed were inadequate to the accomplishment of the object. The course of the survey was directed through valuable farms, and over rivers, which it required legislative authority to sanction, and it proved in the same ratio as the necessity of the city required, that exorbitant prices were affixed by those proprietors whose permission was to be first obtained. It was also found that adverse interests were at stake in prescribing the location ; and, as an alternative, other sources of supply were suggested and strongly advocated. Spot Pond, Charles River, the Merrimac, and others were advocated, and the popular predilection in favor of these places was exhibited. The only one, however, which was finally adopted, proved the proper source, and the committee met with many and almost insurmountable difficulties in their task. The relative merits of each underwent severe scrutiny, and were the subjects and theme of many voluminous pamphlets and public journals, and probably the city council was not much more unanimous in their discussions. In the management of the question before the legislative committee, Mr. Parker took a prominent part, being then the senior alderman, and had a directing voice ; and although the matter was to be consummated under a succeeding administration, his efforts were influential in its final accomplishment. To the exertions of the pioneers of this ex tensive work are the citizens of Boston indebted for the fruits of its ac complishment, the advantage and benefits of which future generations will acknowledge and appreciate. To the curious of the present day the arguments and prophetic predictions which the authors of those vplumes adduced in opposing this useful enterprise will appear strange and illogical, and it may afford much diversion to perceive how the minds of sensible and discreet individuals may be misled, and by how dim a medium their intellectual vision was obscured since the introduc tion of Cochituate water into the metropolis of New-England. The question of itself had but a local application, and would hardly afford interest to those who are remote from its locality ; yet it will ex hibit, in strong terms, how fallacious is the judgment of prominent men, even when the mind is unswayed by self-interest, or unbiassed by popular opinion. Upon a recurrence to two incidents this will be more plainly revealed. Upon an untimely visit during the month of August or September, Spot Pond, one of the localities selected and strongly advocated, was visited by the city council, and its bed was found nearly dry, and the stream of Charles River was fed, in the immediate vicinity of the contemplated aqueduct, by tributaries, into which the back water of paper-mills, dye-houses, and water-closets, were flushed. Still more strange, to carry out the principle of the dangerous tendency of first impressions, it was found a gentleman at the head of the government of the city, and who has received much of the credit for the present valuable selection for supply, strongly opposed it as too capacious and expensive. The un dertaking, at length, was accomplished, and by means which no one will doubt were fairly effected, but which, at the time, it was not necessary to reveal in an uninformed popular excitement, not conversant with the WILLIAM PARKER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 191 details and obstacles which lay in its way. So strong were the rea sons which weighed upon the minds of the committee, that it was de termined, at all events, to secure the site of the proprietor ; and Mr. Parker, who then had declined further office in the municipal govern ment, was employed to obtain the refusal of the premises, under the assurance that the bargain would be ratified by the proper authority. This was effected, and the ample and permanent supply was obtained. On the visit of President Tyler, and also of President Polk, to the city of Boston, Mr. Parker was delegated by the city government as chair man of a committee to go to New-York to receive them and conduct them thither. The private affairs of Mr. Parker having been somewhat ne glected by his numerous public avocations, he determined to relinquish further participation in them. The first duty, previously to the decease of his mother, who survived her ninetieth year, was to effect a sale of the paternal mansion a tract of land, with the mansion-house, in a central part of the city. To this place of their birth there was attached a rev erence which would have deterred the members of the family from part ing with a relic which had created so many pleasant and profitable as sociations. It was the annual rendezvous of the Episcopal clergy of New-England, and had received into its hospitable threshold the poor and friendless of every rank and degree, without regard to sect or party. In early life it was the practice of the clergy to associate with more cor diality than is done at present, when the dogmas of theological contro versy are more rank and acrimonious, and the shades of creeds are more exactly defined. It was then that the social circle possessed its charms, fearless of assault upon questions of biblical erudition. Still, as the succeeding generation had outgrown these associations, which had been blended by their parents into tradition, it was deemed expedient to dis pose of the estate, and this was effected by the efforts of the subject of our memoir. His desire was that some public institution should be erected on its foundation, and by his influence this object was attained. It was purchased by the city of Boston for the Latin Grammar School- house, and now that edifice stands on the site. The requisitions of this seminary are eminent, and those of its pupils who have passed through its academical course stand in no need of encomium or eulogy. It has fur nished to the University of Cambridge some of its most distinguished ornaments, and can number among its pupils some of the most erudite scholars of the age. Mr. Parker has enjoyed the confidence of many public institutions, of which he has been a director, trustee, and treasurer. He was elected, some short period since, president of an insurance company in Boston, which office he held a year ; but, finding the duties such as required more time and attention than could be devoted to the proper manage ment of it, he preferred relinquishing its emoluments, rather than as sume more than he could discharge satisfactorily to himself and others. His office of president of a bank, which he has held since its commence ment, with several private trusts, gives him full employment for the ex ercise of his financial abilities. It has always been a principle which he has prescribed for himself not to attempt an undertaking which he was unable or unwilling to accomplish. 192 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. JOHN FLETCHER DARBY, OF MISSOURI. IN glancing over the biographical history of our country, and espe cially the western country, any man who has not maturely thought upon the tendencies of our popular institutions, would be astonished at the number of our eminent men who have raised themselves from obscurity to the high places of power and usefulness by their own unpatronized ener gies. The fact, while it is a source of honest pride in every American heart, teaches a lesson of deep philosophy. It enables every right- thinking man to rise in his own estimation, and to put a juster estimate upon his own intrinsic worth. It proves to him that the seeds of ability and virtue have not been hoarded up for a favored few, but have been sowed broadcast among the people, and with a liberal hand, and that nothing is wanted to make them sprout and grow into plants of useful ness and honor but the virgin soil of a new country, and the light and heat of free institutions. Where the prize is open to all many will con tend for it, and, though all cannot gain the highest point, every effort to attain it is an advance towards the great end of individual and national prosperity, and a benefit alike to the public and to the man who makes the courageous effort. Mr. Darby has earned a place in that honorable company of self-made men, whose success in life makes us justly proud of our country and its institutions. He is, in many respects, a peculiar man. He possesses a rare genius, and, although aware of his powers, is yet not misled by vanity and self-conceit, which so often happens. His knowledge of mankind and of the springs of human action is deep ; his perceptions are- rapid and his judgment sound ; his will strong and unflinching ; his manners are kind and obliging ; his disposition generous and confiding ; his habits regular and abstemious, and his industry untiring. Those qualities, brought into constant and energetic action, and directed by principles of high moral obligation, afford a satisfactory explanation of his surprising success in all his undertakings from his boyhood up to the present time. He learned, when a boy, the great truth, which few men learn during their lives, that energy is talent, and throughout his life he has acted upon that knowledge with unvarying success. John Fletcher Darby is a native of Person county, North Carolina; bom on the 10th of December, 1803. His father, John Darby, a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was carried to North Carolina in his childhood, and; settling there, raised to comfort and competency by his industry and good conduct. He was a planter of cotton and tobacco. Of the middle rank, he was neither rich nor poor ; independent of his neighbors, yet dependent on his own industry and skill in the manage ment of his small estate. In 1818, John Darby, the father, moved to Missouri with his family, including our subject, then under fifteen years of age, and settled, as a farmer, in the western part of St. Louis county. The old gentleman brought with him from North Carolina several ne groes, but not enough to cultivate his new farm in the manner and to tho JOHN FLETCHER DARBY, OF MISSOURI. 193 extent he desired, and so the boy, Fletcher, (being so familiarly called,) was put up on the place as a regular hand. There, from 1818 to 1823, when his father died, he plowed and hoed, and chopped and tended the stock, and went to mill as constantly as any other hand on the farm ; in short, during these five years he did the same kind of labor, and as much of it, as any hand on the farm, his father intending him for a farmer. Young Darby being thus laboriously occupied in employments level to the capacity of the most ignorant, it might be supposed that, like them, he would be content with his humble lot, and find no time for the cul ture of his mind, and no incentive to higher and nobler aspirations. But with him it was far otherwise. There were obstacles to his prog ress which a spirit less resolved would have deemed insurmountable, but they only served to nerve his courage and fix his purpose. " Where there is a will there is a way." He knew the truth of that proverb, and boldly determined that, as no one had provided him a way, he would make a way for himself. In his native home he had received the elements of a good English education, and still better, had acquired a taste for books and formed a habit of reading. In Missouri he kept alive that excellent habit amidst the labors of the farm. Of nights, on Sundays, and in the daily inter vals of work, he eagerly read the few books that he could procure. As they were few, and he had no instructor, he read them on his own plan, revolved their contents in his mind, unbiased by other men s theories, and drew from them his own corollaries. What he lost in this way, by lack of instruction and advice, perhaps was compensated to him in the habit they forced upon him of self-reliance and mental indepen dence. The book that made the greatest impression on his mind, and probably fixed his character for life, was Dr. Franklin s Autobiography. He read it with perfect delight, for it taught him the solid reality of what before then had fluttered before his mind only as a bright vision of hope, that every man may be the maker of his own fortune and fame. He was now resolved. His purpose was fixed to overcome all obsta cles, and as a public man, to run an honorable course, doing good for himself and for his country. It is pleasant and instructive to watch the workings of an ingenious mind struggling for a higher level, and the early history of Mr. Darby is rich in such instruction. The patient industry, the active zeal, the shrewd contrivance to save time and labor, and all directed to the ac complishment of the one engrossing object, are worthy of the respect and regard of all men, and present an example full of encouragement to the young and unfriended. Young Darby eagerly read, during mo ments snatched from the labors of the farm, after nightfall and on Sun days, all the works that he could borrow, and by this course of miscel laneous reading and hard study, he constantly increased his store of knowledge. He went to St. Louis, and with what little money he had been able to raise purchased Button s Mathematics, and boldly ven tured unaided and alone upon the study of that abstruse science. He never wasted his money in the purchase of finery or in idle or mis chievous dissipation. Soon afterwards he borrowed a compass and chain and went about the farm and neighborhood surveying fields and 13 194 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. meadows, in order to prove to himself that he practically understood the principles which he had labored so hard to learn. Down to this time young Darby knew no language but his mother tongue, and probably thought Latin and Greek beyond the possibility of his condition. But a small circumstance changed his mind in this particular. There was in the neighborhood a gentleman of education and talents, Col. Justus Post, who kept in his family an accomplished teacher for the instruction of his children. A certain youth of St. Louis, now an eminent merchant in the city, was sent to that family school as a boarder, and being of a social and friendly turn, soon made ac quaintance with young Darby, although their pursuits and prospects were so very different. Darby, finding that his new friend was study ing Latin, came to the desperate resolution, without counting the odds, to study Latin too. To will was to do. The next time he went to town, as he had bought Button s Mathematics before, he bought a Latin grammar and dictionary, and the way in which he studied the noble language of the Romans would sound like a marvel if told to the me thodical instructor and well-trained pupils of the best preparatory school of the country. He learned the Latin grammar literally be tween the plow handles. This was his method going to work in the morning, he put his grammar in his bosom ; when he turned his horse into a long row of smooth ground, where he could steady the plow with one hand, he pulled out his book, and studying as he walked com mitted to memory sentence by sentence, and seldom failed to have mastered by noon, a lesson as long as the daily task of a boy in our grammar schools who has nothing else to do. At noon, the hour of rest and refreshment for man and beast, as he rode his horse to water at the creek, he repeated over and over the lesson he had just learned, in order to know that he had it safely, and had garnered up for future use that much of his intellectual crop. In this manner he thoroughly learned the whole Latin grammar and commenced reading Latin in the course of one summer s plowing. This great feat accomplished (and it was truly great) we need not won-der that the aspiring young farmer, with the aid of an occasional lesson from Mr. Russell, the accomplished teacher at Col. Post s, soon learned to read and to relish the classic beauties of Ovid and Virgil. Early in the year 1823 both his parents died suddenly, and Fletcher, having no other arrangement made, could do no better for the present than continue his labor on the farm. So with his own hands he raised a crop of corn, which when ripe he sold, as it stood in the field, for one hundred dollars. With this small outfit, he started on a visit to his aged grand-parents, (William and Jane McDaniel,) in North Carolina, and made the whole journey on horseback. They received him with all possible kindness, and were ready to do him any favor in their power. And he, still true to his one great object, availed himself of their generosity, and for a year and a half devoted himself exclusive ly to the study of Latin and Greek, under the instruction of the Rev. William Bingham, of Orange county, North Carolina, one of the most accomplished scholars in the southern country ; and otherwise im proved himself by the advantage which time and comparative leisure had given him for more general and miscellaneous reading. JOHN FLETCHER DARBY, OF MISSOURI. 195 In the summer of 1825 he applied for an appointment in the Military Academy at West Point, but not being backed by friends of sufficient influence, he failed in the enterprise, and returned home, to find or to make some other safe road up the hill of life. His early self-instruc tion had indelibly impressed upon his mind whatever he read and studied ; and he was certainly better prepared for the mixed labors and conflicts of social life, than many young gentlemen who come creditably out of college with their degrees of A. B. in their pockets. He had studied in the school of adversity, and learned to depend upon himself, and to feel his ability to conquer difficulties by patient industry. He studied alone, and although doubtless he l@st much by the want of instruction, yet he gained at least originality ; he was forced to think for himself, and thus his thoughts whether good or bad, wise or simple, were his own, and not merely the remembered thoughts of other men. This is emphatically a country of law ; our government is nothing but law; and most of the great functionaries are men of the law. The people love and honor the law, because it is the only legitimate sovereign. They respect and cherish it, because it is the safeguard of the feeble; the only protection of right against power. And hence, when a young man of sense and spirit and honest ambition, is poor and out of employment, he is almost sure to take to the law. And so it was with Darby. He sold out a portion of his interest in his father s estate, for a few hundred dollars ; and with that slender provision went to Frankfort, Kentucky, to study law. At first he obtained a place in the office of Mr. Patrick Henry Darby (no relation of his, but, I believe, a brother of the celebrated geographer, William Darby.) Mr. P. H. Darby, though esteemed an able lawyer, was so engrossed by the strifes of party politics, that his office was neither pleasant nor profitable to a devoted student of the profession ; and Fletcher conse quently soon changed his position. At that time, Thomas F. Marshall, since so distinguished as an orator and man of talents, was studying in Frankfort under Mr. Crittenden, the present attorney-general, and Mr. Darby was so fortunate as to make an arrangement with Mr. Marshall to room and study together. This pleasant course of study continued for some time, and until his money gave out an accident which many a young man would have considered a serious misfortune. But it was no great matter to Darby he was used to being out of money. He made his case known to Mr. Swigert, clerk of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, who kindly gave him employment, in the way of copying for the office. His wages, thus earned, were quite sufficient to support him, to the end of his regular course of legal study. It was hard work certainly studying all day, and writing half the night but he was well used to hard work, and did not mind it. He had a great end to gain, which, in his estimation, would have justified the means, if they had been twice as hard. In due time he received a license to practice from the Supreme Court of Kentucky ; and returning to Mis souri, read for a short time in the office of Mr. Gamble, now the pre siding Judge of the Supreme Court, in order, before commencing the practice, to review his former studies, and familiarize himself with the local statutes and decisions. In May, 1827, Mr. Darby took license in Missouri, and commenced 196 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. his professional life. And here it may be worth the while of any young brother of the bar, to pause and ponder upon the elements and like lihood of professional success. Mr. Darby s success was certainly rapid and great. In a very few years he had a run of business as large and as lucrative as that of any member of the St. Louis bar a bar which abounded in talents, professional learning and laborious habits. At the outset his practice was confined chiefly to the pecuniary affairs and common business transactions of society, in which department he was eminently successful, and well paid for his successful labors. As time advanced and opportunity for study was afforded, he progressed in his knowledge of the law, and extended his business into every department of practice. His success in the management of his cases through years of practice affords abundant proof of his ability in con ducting them. In arguing his cases before a jury he was eminently successful j and in the closing speech before a jury he had few if any superior at the St. Louis bar : winning and obtaining verdicts against the ablest and strongest members of the profession, and not unfrequent- ly against the instructions of the court. But it is not only nor indeed chiefly as a practising lawyer, that Mr. Dar by has been conspicuous and useful to the community in which he lives. He has filled many important and responsible offices, always by popular election. I think he has never held an office by executive appointment. He served once in the city council, as an alderman. Four times he has been chosen mayor of the city of St. Louis ; and once a member of the state senate. Into all these offices he carried the same steady purpose and indomitable energy which marked his character for life, in all his personal and professional affairs; and the community has much cause to remember with lasting gratitude, the good services he has done. In August, 1850, Mr. Darby was elected a member of Congress, and his friends, relying upon his sound judgment and eminently practical character, looked to him confidently for useful and valuable services not in party arrangements and electioneering contrivances, but in the solid business of the country. But we have been sadly disappointed. On his way to the seat of government, he received a severe contusion by an accident on a boat, which resulted in paralysis of the extremities, depriving him entirely of the present use of his hands and feet. For tunately his head and heart are untouched by the blow. His mind is as bright and his affections as warm as ever, and his jocund spirit still sheds its cheerful light on all around him, and thus takes away more than half the evils of his misfortune. His friends indulge the confident hope that he will soon be restored to health and to the discharge of the high duties which they have imposed upon him. In 1836, he married a lady of St. Genevieve, a daughter of the late Captain Wilkinson, United States army, and a member of the nume rous family of Valle, one of the most intelligent and influential connex ions among the French provincials. By this lady he has a numerous family of children, who, while they mourn over his present bodily mis fortune, must profit by the good example he has set them, and may well indulge a feeling of honest pride in the well-earned reputation of their father. JAMES L. BOWMAN, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 197 JAMES L. BOWMAN PRESIDENT OF THE MONONGAHELA BANK, BROWNSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA. THE subject of the following notice was born at Brownsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 23d day of June, 1794, and is the eldest son of Jacob Bowman, Esq. On his paternal side he was of German descent, his grandfather having emigrated from Germany previous to the Revolution, and settled in the frontier part of what was then Freder ick, now Washington county, Maryland. The Indians were trouble some, and the family were frequently obliged to fly and take refuge in a fort some miles distant. In one of their incursions he had a grand- uncle killed and another taken prisoner by them. His mother was Isabella Lowry, a native of Castiefin, county of Donegal, Ireland, who came to the United States when a young girl. She possessed a comprehensive mind, and was a lady of great energy of character and remarkable for the judicious management of her family and domestic affairs. She was a beautiful reader, and fond of the substantial kinds of literature ; and we might here state a characteristic connected there with, which might very profitably be adopted by other mothers. In stead of permitting her children to run about in the evenings, acquiring vicious and improper habits from the evil-disposed of their associates, it was her invariable rule, so soon as they respectively acquired a facili ty for reading, to have them take their seats by her side and read aloud a certain number of pages of history, and such was her knowledge of history, that she could, from memory, correct any mistake committed by them. To her judicious management may be attributed the happi ness and satisfaction she experienced in after life, in knowing that her nine children, five daughters and four sons, were comfortably situated in life, worthy of and possessing the highest respect of the community, without a blur in their character and habits, and without a black sheep in the flock. We have already stated that the grandfather settled in Maryland; he was a mechanic, and, as such, located in Hagerstown, which was then a small village, where the father of the subject of this notice was born, on the 17th day of June, 1763. He was a sprightly boy, of fine appearance and correct habits, and acquired the notice and friendship of Col. Robert Elliott, the father of the late Commodore Elliott of the navy, and of Col. Eli Williams, the brother of the dis tinguished General Otho Holland Williams, of the Revolutionary army. Those two gentlemen were then connected in an extensive mercantile business at Hagerstown, and, pleased with young Bowman,- solicited his father to let him enter their house as an apprentice, which was granted, and he remained there until the termination thereof, exhibiting a superior business talent, and acquiring the confidence and lasting friendship of his employers. Soon after the time of the expiration of his apprenticeship, 1787, the firm of Elliott & Williams became the commissaries, or, as they were then called, the governmental contractors for furnishing supplies to the western armies, deliverable at the different 198 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. posts occupied by them. They were well acquainted with the business qualifications and energy of young Bowman, and, although he had only reached his twenty -fourth year, he was dispatched by them to the " back woods" to attend to the business and make the purchases. At that time, that part of Western Pennsylvania known as the Monongahela valley, was the extreme western frontier, and it was in that region that the contractors were dependent for the obtainment of the army supplies. Young Bowman made his head-quarters at Itedstone old fort, now Brownsville, on the Monongahela River, and continued in that connection until the year 1794, when Colonel Elliott was killed by the Indians and their contract terminated. In that year, however, the rebellion, known as the Whisky Insurrec tion, broke out in the four southwestern counties of Pennsylvania, and it was deemed necessary by General Washington, the then president, to dispatch troops for its suppression. Col. Williams received the ap pointment of commissary of the left wing of that army, commanded by General Lee. The services of Jacob Bowman were again called into requisition by the contractors, and he was appointed assistant-commis sary. The acceptance and performance of the duties assigned to him, he was well aware, might jeopard his life, inasmuch as his residence was in the infected district, in the midst of the insurgents, and any aid given to the army would be considered inimical to their cause. Ever pos sessing a warm and patriotic feeling for his country, and obedience to her laws, he was not deterred, but entered upon the duties thereof; con siderable finesse, however, had to be used to prevent the destruction of the supplies. We will here mention an incident which took place between General Lee and Colonel Williams, which evidences the implicit confidence reposed in the energy, firmness and business tact of Mr. Bowman. When the army was about to take up the line of march from Fort Cumberland to the seat of aggression, General Lee sent for Colonel Williams, the commissary, and informed, him he want ed so many rations at certain points and times designated. Colonel Williams told the general that they should be at the places mentioned. " What, sir !" replied the general, " do you expect to obtain your sup plies in the enemy s country 1 ?" "Yes, sir," said Colonel Williams; "I have now a young man in their midst, whose resolution and firmness I can vouch for, and, if the rations are not as desired, I will forfeit my honor as a commissary, and my right arm to boot." The supplies were at the stated points when the army reached its destination, and such was the surprise and gratification of General Lee, that he person ally complimented the young commissary, and solicited him to enter the regular army as an officer, tendering his influence at head-quarters for the attainment of a commission. Jacob Bowman continued his residence at his adopted location, engaged in an extensive and profitable mercantile business, and, by the exercise of a remarkably sound judg ment and judicious management, acquired a large fortune. He held several appointments under the general government. He was Indian agent through his hands, under the then existing arrangements, all the annuity goods and supplies passed, and, in return, the furs which were obtained in barter therefor. He was appointed postmaster during the administration of Washington, and retained it under the various con* JAMES L. BOWMAN, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 199 flicting heads of that department, until the accession of General Jackson to the presidency, with whom he was personally acquainted, but from the habits and disposition of the man, he had misgivings as to his qua lifications for the office. He therefore hesitated not in bestowing his suf frage upon his opponent. At the time of his displacement, he had held the office longer than any postmaster in the United States. He was the originator and organizer of the Monongahela Bank of Brownsville in 18J4, of which he was elected president, and annually re-elected, without opposition, until his voluntary retirement, in 1843, in consequence of his advanced years and a desire to retire from the turmoils of busi ness. He died on the 2d of March, 1847, at the advanced age of 84 years. As an accountant, systematic business man and financier, he was excelled by few. A frontier settlement, with a sparse population, affords but a meagre opportunity for educational purposes. Teachers seldom pre sent themselves, and such as do are not very profound in literature, nor do they possess the capacity for imparting such learning as they may possess to others. The subject of this memoir had to obtain the first rudiments under such disadvantages. His father, however, was always anxious to afford his children a good education, and when in his thirteenth year a teacher was employed with more advanced preten sions as the head of a select school, under whose direction he com menced the study of the Latin language, appropriating a portion of his time to his farther advancement in the English. When under the tuition of this teacher he acquired more instruction in one year than in several before, thus showing that it is cheaper in the end for a parent to employ a competent instructor, at a higher rate, than the ordinary ones at their minimum prices. At the age of fourteen he entered Washington college, where he continued until his graduation, in 1813. One of his class-mates was General Stokely, of Ohio, who has recently received from the president the appointment of chief justice of Utah territory. During his collegiate course the war of 1812 was declared, and the surrender of General Hull caused a great excitement in western Pennsylvania, inasmuch as it was currently reported that the enemy, with a considerable force, had landed on the south shore of Lake Erie, and were about to make a descent upon Pittsburgh. The intermediate territory, being at that time thinly settled, would have afforded but little detriment to their progress. Volunteers were called for to resist the invasion, and the student of whom we are now treating, willing to give his country his services when needed, enrolled himself as a volun teer in a company formed for the emergency, although he had not yet reached the years of legal enrollment. . The line of march was takeri up, but the company had not proceeded far when the report of the danger proved to be untrue, and the orders were countermanded. Possessing a fine personal appearance, and a conciliatory happy dis position, he was a general favorite with the students and the citizens ot the place ; hence the years spent in his college course were of the most pleasant kind. He had a disposition for a military life, and after having completed 200 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. his course at college he returned and spent an extra session wholly in the study of navigation, with the view of qualifying himself for the ob- tainment of a commission in the navy. His parents were averse to it, and not wishing to cross the hopes and desires of kind and indulgent parents, he abandoned his intention, and determined to turn his atten tion to the profession of the law. In 1814 he entered as a law student the office of the Hon. John Kennedy, at that time at the head of the bar in Fayette county , and afterwards one of the supreme judges of Pennsylvania, with whom he had to remain for three years in compliance with the law and rules of court, in consequence of the commencement being made in his minority. In 1817 he was regularjy admitted to the bar of Fayette and adjoining counties, and his prospects of success in the practice were quite flattering, but his views were again frustrated and his career in life directed to a different avocation. His father had been for many years an industrious, energetic, and enterprising merchant and manufacturer, and wishing to withdraw himself in some measure from the confinement of mercantile pursuits, had given an interest therein to a young man whom he had raised as a clerk, and whose devotedness to his interest and capacity for business deserved his aid and patronage. One year had but passed when the young man s health failed, and he was advised to seek, for a time, a more southern clime ; to do so he must relinquish the business in which he had embark ed, and not wishing to introduce a stranger, or one who might not be agreeable, a proposition was made to the subject of this notice to purchase his interest and take his place therein, which being acceptable to the other partner, was acceded to. The musty law books were thrown aside, and the yard-stick, the ledger, and quill, substituted in their stead. His attention was now directed to his mercantile concern, and continued with success until 1825, when he married Miss Mirtilla Beaver, the only daughter of John Beaver, Esq., of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, who was an early and enterprising pioneer of western Pennsylvania. After marriage it was thought advisable to concentrate his accumulations and commence business on his separate account. In interior towns every concern has its own regular customers; when a new one opens it has to construct a foundation for itself. Such was the case in this instance, but by his conciliatory manners, popularity, and business tact, he was not long in doing so. A friend to improvement and the advancement of his native place, he gave a portion of his time and influence for that purpose, and heartily responded to any measures with that tendency. He was a prominent member of committees, and, although young, was frequently elected a councilman and mayor of the borough, and solicited by members of both political parties to become a candidate for the legislature, but having no aspirations for political preferment he declined. There was one object of improvement he had much at heart, and greatly desired to see accomplished, and that was the improvement of the Monongahela River by locks and dams. The whole valley of that stream abounds in the finest veins of bituminous coal, from which the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi were dependent for their supplies of that mineral. It could only be gotten out in time of freshets, which JAMES L. BOWMAN, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 201 caused an uncertain investment a scanty and unsteady supply to those dependent upon it. The hills immediately around Pittsburgh, from the immense quantities consumed there, were becoming somewhat ex hausted, and would soon have to look to the region of the river above for a supply, and being in the occupancy of a few, transportable by wagons, resisting competition, the price was likely to advance beyond the endurance of manufacturers. Hence the necessity for an improve ment of the navigation of that stream, by means of which a steady supply could reach them, and a competition be introduced to regulate the price and retain it within the limits of manufacturers. A petition therefore was drawn up by the subject of this notice, ask ing the legislature for an act of incorporation. A correspondence was kept up by him with the leading members of that body, and his wishes eventuated successfully. He was appointed therein a commissioner for opening the books and receiving stock, in which he took an active and laborious part. His hopes and prospects were measurably frustrated by the parsi monious subscription of a wealthy man, known to be much interested, pecuniarily, in its completion. Those less favored by means and interest were deterred, and said if that individual did not put his shoulder to the wheel it was useless for them to do so. At Pittsburgh, too, where the most important benefits were to be gained, no attention was paid, and not a single share of stock taken on the day appointed for opening the books. He who had taken an active part in getting up the measure was necessarily absent in a distant state at that period, and on his re turn, was assailed by the declarations, " it s a failure the jig s up it has fallen through, no use to try farther, Mr. wont toe the mark, Pittsburgh wont do anything," &c., and other declarations of similar import. It is true, he felt mortified and chagrined at the result, but not deterred from another effort. He was well aware that there was an uncertainty in depending upon capitalists going forward to apply their funds to an untried investment. Upon reflection he determined to avail himself of a trial of personal application, and by argument and figures, to endeavor to convince them, that their doubts were errone ous, and that it must eventually prove a lucrative investment. After a week thus spent in his own neighborhood, he was successful beyond his most sanguine expectations. The gentleman before alluded to, quintupled his original amount, and others followed suit. Thus encour aged, he determined to visit Pittsburgh and adopt the same modus operandi. In company with a gentleman whom he knew was anxious for the work, they perambulated the streets, alleys and by-ways of that city for days in succession, with the stock-book under the arm, seek ing out the capitalists and manufacturers, showing the advantages of the contemplated improvement to them as such the certain competi tion in the regular supply of fuel and consequent stability of price, and also expostulated with them in not permitting the favorable opportu nity to pass. Their efforts were successful a sufficiency of stock had now been subscribed to obtain letters patent and organize the company, which was done. Thus the reader will see that he might be called the father of that im- 202 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. provement ; and so well satisfied were the stockholders of his efficiency in the project, that at the organization thereof, he was strongly so licited, though young in years, to become a candidate for the presi dency of the company, which he declined, wishing it to be conferred upon one who had more practical knowledge in the construction of im provements of that kind. He was however elected a manager for several consecutive years. In process of time, through periods of dis couragement, the work was completed, and has realized all the predicted benefits and profitableness of investment beyond anticipation. From a few thousand dollars, proceeds of the mineral brought into that valley, along the extent of the improvement, it has increased to six hundred thousand dollars and yearly is increasing, and from the inex haustible quantities of that mineral, its accessibility and superior quali ty, the Monongahela valley must become the richest and most desirable portion of the United States. The salubrity of the climate, the pro ductiveness of the soil, and the trifling expense in preparing for and mining operations, must attract thither a dense population. Agriculture was at a low ebb. The land was naturally productive, but the skimming process too much pursued. He thought a great im provement might be made in the grain resources of the country, by in fusing into the minds of the farmers a better system of cultivation. A good farm was purchased in the vicinity of his native town, and a por tion of his time and pecuniary means directed to its improvement. Periodical and other publications, on agricultural subjects, were obtain ed, and attentively perused and studied, and he became a scientific farmer. Opportunities were sought for conversation with farmers, by which he might impart his obtained information, and urged upon them the importance of subscribing for some agricultural paper, by means of which they could obtain the experience of hundreds, dispersed over our extended country. A good deal of prejudice existed against what they termed " book-farming," and many were unwilling to take a paper, although he pledged himself that, at the end of the year, if they did not like it, or found no advantage from it, he would repay the cost. One person to whom the proposition was made acceded, and at the end of the year came forward with a list of the names of fifteen persons who desired the " Albany Cultivator" to be addressed to them for the then succeeding year. In the township in which that person lives, there are now eighty agri cultural papers taken, a township society formed, and a greater spirit for the improvements of stock and farming generally prevails than in any other section of the county. He had been a director of the Monongahela Bank of Brownsville for many years, when under the presidency of his father an institution which has sustained an unparalleled confidence in the community, and is probably the only similar institution which, in all the mutations of commercial elations and depressions, has never suspended specie payments. In 1843, when the elder gentleman retired from the presi dency, the subject of this notice was unanimously elected the president thereof, and each year since has thus been honored, and we are pleased to say, that under his guidance the confidence reposed therein has not LA FAYETTE S. FOSTER, OF CONNECTICUT. 203 Deen diminished or impaired. Having an abundance of what is termed " this world s goods," and an only son to inherit the same, he is not over-solicitous for its greater accumulation, and has therefore measurably withdrawn himself from business, devoting his time to the institution over which he presides and the cultivation of his farm. LA FAYETTE S. FOSTER, LL. D., OF CONNECTICUT. THE subject of the present sketch was born in the town of Franklin, New London county, Connecticut, a part of the ancient town of Nor wich, on the 22d of November, 1806. His father, Captain Daniel Foster, was a man in moderate circum stances, of honest and industrious habits, and much respected in the neighborhood where he resided. Captain Foster, in company with most of his cotemporaries, served in the Revolutionary war, and was personally present and engaged at the battles of White Plains, Still- water, Saratoga and others of about the same period. His patriotism and ability were then recognized, and during the time he was in active service, in the campaign of 77, he held the honorable position of adju tant of one of the Connecticut regiments, Col. Latimer s, discharging the duties connected with his office much to his own credit and the en tire approval of all of his superior officers. Captain Foster was mar ried in 1802 to his second wife, Welthea Ladd, of Franklin, by whom he had two children. Fidelia W. Foster and La Fayette S. Foster, the subject of these biographical details, who was born as before stated in 1806. The ancestors of Mr. Foster were English, from the county of Lan cashire, in England, and he is descended directly from Miles Standish, who came with the first band of Pilgrims in the Mayflower, and landed at Plymouth in 1620. With such ancestors, his remote one, the most distinguished captain of his time in New-England, a Pilgrim of the first Pilgrim band, and his immediate one, a brave and faithful officer in the war of the Revolution, Mr. Foster inherits as much of true greatness and family character as it is possible to inherit in this republican coun try. An honored name, brave deeds and an unstained character were the legacies of the past, and the only ones which were transmitted to him. Captain Daniel Foster died January 28th, 1824, aged 79. Mrs. Fos ter, his wife, died February 14th, 1851, aged 88, having lived to see her son, of whom she was justly proud, attain the high position in which he now stands in his native state. From the time he was of suitable age to attend school until he was 16 years old, the subject of our sketch enjoyed only those limited means of education, common to every boy in New-England, afforded by the 204 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. common school. In the fall of 1822, then about 16 years of age, he went to Hartford and studied with the late Rev. Abel Flint, D. D. Dr. Flint s school was one of that class, common at that time, where a few pupils were received into the family of the teacher, and under his personal care and supervision, educated and fitted to enter college. He remained at Hartford about nine months, diligently improving all the advantages within his reach, when Dr. Flint, by reason of de clining health was compelled to give up his school. His conduct during the time he was in Dr. Flint s family rendered him an especial favorite of his teachers, who showed him many favors and much kindness. During the winter of 1823 and 24 he taught school in his native town, although then hardly eighteen years of age. The following spring, in May, 1824, he again commenced his course of study and preparation for college with the Rev. Cornelius B. Everest, of Windham, with whom he remained until February, 1825, when he entered Brown University, in Providence. He remained in Brown University about four years, and was graduated at that institution in September, 1828, receiving the highest honors of his class. The winter succeeding his graduation he taught in Providence as an assistant in the school of Mr. Roswell C. Smith. The following spring he returned to Norwich and commenced the study of the law with the late Hon. Calvin Goddard, one of the most distinguished lawyers of his day in Connecticut, with whom he remained until December of the same year. He then went to Centreville, Queen Anpe s county, Maryland, where he passed a year as principal of an academy. While in Centreville, he was admitted to the Maryland bar, but did not commence the practice of the law. He returned, after his admission to the bar in Maryland, to the office of Judge Goddard, with whom he had previously studied, and continued his studies with him another year. At the completion of this period, in 1831, he was admitted to the bar of New-London county, Connecti cut, at Norwich, and immediately afterwards opened an office and com menced the practice of his profession at Norwich town. In 1833, at the solicitation of some of his friends, he removed from Norwich to Hampton, in Windham county, and there practised for a little more than a year. From Hampton he returned to Norwich city and opened an office, where he has remained and is still in the full practice of his profession. In the spring of 1835 he took the editorship of the Norwich Republi can, a whig journal, but finding this to interfere with his rapidly increas ing legal business, he soon withdrew from it to devote himself entirely to his profession. In October, 1837, he was married tp Joanna Boylston Lanman, daughter of the Hon. James Lanman, one of the leading men of the state, a judge of the Supreme Court, and also a senator in Congress. Their union has been blessed with three children, all of whom have, in the course of Providence, been taken from them at an early age. Mr. Foster has represented his town frequently in the state legisla ture from 1839 to 1849. LA FATETTE S. FOSTER, OF CONNECTICUT. 205 In the autumn of 1846, Mr. Foster visited Europe, and passed some time traveling in England and on the Continent. In 1847 he was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives of Connecticut, and again in 1848 was re-elected to the same responsible and honorable position. While Speaker, he so acquitted himself of the onerous and delicate duties of the office as to command the unqualified approbation of the entire house over which he presided. His reputation as a presiding officer has never been exceeded, if ever equaled by any person in the state. In the winter of 1850, Mr. Foster received the nomination of his party for the office of governor of the state of Connecticut, and was their candidate for two successive years ; after which, although strongly urged, he peremptorily declined a re-nomination. In 1851 he received a nomination by the whig party for the office of senator of the United States from Connecticut, to fill the seat now occupied by the Hon. Isaac Toucey. The whig party being in the mi nority, he of course failed of an election. In the autumn of 1851, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him at the annual commencement of Brown University. He was elected Mayor of the city of Norwich in the summer of 1851, and again in 1852 re-elected by a unanimous vote, not a single oppo sition ballot being cast against him a compliment as gratifying as it was deserved, coming as it did from those with whom he had always lived, and who knew him best. As a lawyer, Mr. Foster stands in the front rank of his profession in his native state. He is now in the prime of life, in the full vigor and strength of his mental powers, and in the enjoyment of unimpaired health. Mr. Foster, in the commencement of his legal studies, made a thorough elementary preparation, and having a retentive and disciplined memory, combined with a brilliant quickness or readiness of manner, he is enabled to make instantly available all his learning and expe rience. It was in a great measure owing to these circumstances that he was enabled so soon to attain a commanding position in the profes sion. He excels both as an advocate and as a counselor, and it is that happy union arid blending of all the qualities necessary to a good prac titioner that has made him so successful in his profession. His style of speaking is classic and severe, distinguished by power of argument, appositeness of illustration and close logical demonstra tion. One of its most striking features consists in the entire sincerity with which he argues his cause, leaving no doubt on the minds of his auditory as to his own belief of the truth of what he is saying. His elo cution is good, although the intonation of his voice is somewhat sharp. Having a fine command of the purest English, and a knowledge of its weight and value seldom attained, he is enabled to make his argu mentative efforts the more effective from the precision and perspicuity with which they are rendered. This makes him powerful in arguing intricate points of law before a court. When addressing a jury, he manages to fix the attention of the jurors at the outset, before going into the merits of the case, and steadily retains it unbroken to the end. His manner is perfectly self-possessed, his language is in the purest 206 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. taste, and his arguments are embellished with those graces of oratory which indicate the finished scholar and accomplished lawyer. He is thus enabled in a double manner to influence a jury both by the power of argument and the swaying force of eloquence. In the examination and cross-examination of witnesses, by reason of his strong powers of investigation, he is peculiarly effective, and displays a rare knowledge of human nature. The fast witness he checks, the timid witness he en courages, the reluctant witness he draws out, and the lying witness he so tangles in the mazes of his own falsehoods that he strengthens the very cause he undertook to injure. He must needs be a skilful and well-disciplined liar who can come unscathed and unexposed from one of Mr. Foster s cross-examinations. Mr. Foster s highest ambition has been to excel in the line of his profession, to attain a thorough understanding and mastery of legal science, and to this end, with a singleness of purpose, he has directed the untiring industry and energies of a lifetime. Shrewd and keen, ever on the look-out to detect the weak points of an adversary s position, and, if open to ridicule, his ready exposure of the weakness frequently gives a force and influence favorable to his cause beyond the power of the severest logic or closest reasoning. He possesses the highest powers of wit, together with a keen sense of the ridiculous, and his retorts, on occasions suitable for displaying those powers, are unanswerable. Another marked feature in the professional career of Mr. Foster is his faithfulness and untiring devotion to the interests of his clients. No matter how trifling the amount, or how uncertain the prospect of remuneration for his services, he works just as hard, and with the same zeal, as though the case involved large interests and abundant reward. His practice is very large, extending regularly through all the eastern counties -in Connecticut, and to a con- siderable extent in other portions of the state. The private life of the subject of this sketch has been marked by the strictest honor, integrity, benevolence, and justice. Although his life has been passed in active business among all classes of men, he has yet preserved a guileless simplicity of character. In his political experience, though ever ready to devote his time and talents to the party to which he belongs, yet his strength of principle and upright character have ever prevented his playing, in the least, the demagogue, and led him to an honest scorn of the means often used, and used successfully, too, for the attainment of place and power. He has ever avoided rather than sought the arena of political life, though always ready to assume whatever burden of duty his political friends might deem it expedient for him to bear. This is owing, in a great measure, to those genial influences which have gathered about his own hearth-stone, he being blessed with a companion who combines such rare attainments of mind and graces of character that he has ever been ed to seek his highest happiness in his own domestic circle, a result which must inevitably have been produced upon a man of talent, learn ing and refinement. Mr. Foster possesses, in a high degree, those social qualities which uster around the finished gentleman. With a range of intelligence and information the gathered product of careful study and discrimina- JOHN PORTER DOBYNS, OF KENTUCKY. 207 tion rarely surpassed he adds colloquial powers of the highest order, a brilliant and flashing wit, and language and expression in the purest taste. In all his attainments he is modest and unpretending, but at the same time fearless in the expression of his own opinions, and the advocacy of his own views, on any subject which may chance to be under discussion. With a large charity and Christian benevolence his liberality is bounded only by his ability, and he gives freely to every worthy ob ject for which application is made to him for assistance. Mr. Foster early in life connected himself with the Congregational church and society in Norwich town, and has ever sustained the character of a con sistent Christian. Firm in his religious belief, avoiding bigotry and fanaticism, his aim has been to regulate his life and conduct in accord ance with the doctrines and principles of HIM whom he strives to follow, and in whom he has professed faith. He writes as he speaks, in a style of the tersest and most direct ex pression, and in the purest English. He has on several occasions been called upon to lecture before colleges and literary societies and lyceums. On all such occasions he makes thorough preparation, elaborates with much thought and research, and invariably gives to his hearers a brilliant and profound discourse. Mr. Foster commenced life with only that inheritance and resource, so often the sole dependence of a New-England boy, viz. : himself. By a life of strict integrity, laborious study, energetic action, and devotion to the duties and business of the profession he assumed, he has raised himself to rank among the foremost in his native state. Beloved with a fervent warmth of attachment by all who know him personally, and respected by all men of all parties, he stands now just in the prime of life, at the head of his profession, in the eastern part of the state, and the acknowledged leader of his party. In the coming future there are no honors to which he may not aspire, and no place which he would not fill with dignity and honor to himself and credit to his state and country. JOHN PORTER DOBYNS, OF MAYSVILLE, PRESIDENT OF THE MAYSVILLE BRANCH OF THE FARMERS BANK OF KENTUCKY. THE life of an eminent merchant or successful business-man, though full of activity and incidents, usually presents but few salient points to excite the interest of the general reader. But to achieve distinction or great prosperity in such pursuits requires qualities of a high order. These will be readily appreciated by all who tread the busy thorough, fares of trade. Ordinary merit may attain a respectable position and enjoy a moderate competence ; but to spring from poverty and ob- 208 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. scurity to the first place of monetary credit and power can only be the fortune of a gifted personage. Eminent business talent is composed of a combination of high mental and moral attributes. It is not simply energy and industry ; there must be sound judgment, breadth of capa city, rapidity of thought, justice and firmness, the foresight to perceive the course of the drifting tides of business, and the will and ability to control them ; and withal, a collection of minor but important qualities to regulate the details of the pursuits which engage attention. The sub ject of this memoir affords an exemplification of this talent, if not in its highest development, yet of an extraordinary character ; and nothing but the limited theatre of his operations and the nature of his pursuits has prevented his reputation from becoming national. John Porter Dobyns was born in Mason county, Kentucky, on the 6th day of June, 1815, of respectable parents, whose fortune, however, did not admit of their starting their son in life with those advantages which, to a certain extent, supersede the necessity of relying upon one s own exertions. His education was limited, but practical. Considerably before the period of his majority he commenced the business of a dry- goods merchant in Elemingsburg, Ky. Here he was, for a number of years, a member of the family of his uncle, Thomas Porter, now living in Covington, Ky. a man of great worth and integrity, who commenced life poor, and by his energy and capacity has acquired a large fortune. He is a model business-man, of sound judgment, and true nobility of character. Mr. Dobyns association with him was fortunate. To his counsel and encouragement and example he is much indebted for his success in life, and has always been proud to acknowledge his indebted ness. Mr. Dobyns continued in Flemingsburg until his marriage. The bu siness in which he was engaged, in a small country town, wanted that excitement which his mind required ; neither did it afford an opportu nity for the development and exercise of the abilities with which he had been endowed ; consequently he abandoned an occupation which pro mised so little reward, and settled in Maysville, Ky. This city is ad vantageously situated on the Ohio River, one of the great thoroughfares of western trade, and is the business mart of the northeastern portion of Kentucky. The country surrounding it is noted for the rich growth of several of the staple and most important articles of produce; conse quently, the attention of the capitalists and business-men of the nation has been drawn to it as a depot for the collection and sale of these pro ducts. This, with the return trade, which is the offspring of it, has made Maysville an active and thriving city. Here, Mr. Dobyns, without means, and almost an entire stranger, commenced business as a grocery and commission merchant. Sur rounded on all hands by men of experience at the head of old established houses, with nothing to oppose to their capital and influence but his en ergy and capacity, he started boldly, and with judgment and hope, into the competition for business, fortune, and public usefulness. Very soon the community perceived that a master-mind was among them. His energy and industry, the system and judgment which characterized his operations, and the uniform success which attended them, attracted the attention of the public, and established the basis of a sound and endur JOHN PORTER DOBYNS, OF KENTUCKY. 209 ing credit, and of a profitable business. His prosperity was not built upon the ruin of others, but was mostly the result of such business as he himself had drawn to the place. His sagacity as a speculator has been, indeed, extraordinary, and the repeated success of his ventures adds ra pidly to a growing fortune, and brings with it the confidence of the peo ple, who are glad to avail themselves of his advice in the disposition of their commodities. The reputation which he thus acquired in his own community has extended itself to the business public at large having correspondence or intercourse with the city ; and he has thus obtained, one by one, extensive and lucrative agencies to purchase the staple com modities of the country, and in no instance has he failed to demonstrate his intelligence, activity, and fidelity. Such has been his constant fidelity in this department of business, and the consequent increase of his patronage, that he has been compelled to surrender into other hands the grocery and commission business in which he originally embarked, and which he conducted so prosperously. In connection with Mr. Coons, a man of eminent worth and great prac tical business talent, he is the owner of a large pork establishment, in which the business of purchasing, slaughtering, and packing pork, is ex tensively carried on ; and such is the reputation of their establishment that speculators and capitalists from abroad here make their purchases, and have their packing done, that their meat may go into market with a brand so widely and favorably known as that of Coons & Dobyns. Systematic, prompt, and persevering in the management of his diver sified operations, he allows no derangement of his affairs, but with the practical steadiness of a pilot directs a complicated traffic with unerring precision and success. In the short space of ten years, from being an unknown name upon change, he is now, by general consent, the fore most merchant of his city, with a reputation for foresight, prudence, and energy, unequaled by that of any man of his age in the western country. While thus lucratively engaged in his own private pursuits, he is not forgetful of his duties as a citizen. His public spirit is as remarkable as his individual energy. Every enterprise for the promotion of the material or moral interests of his city and county finds in him an ardent and constant friend. He has been liberal in his contributions towards the erection of churches and for their support. He takes special interest in the cause of colonization ; and although he has become a large slave holder, (by the purchase of slaves, who, in working for him, had become so much attached to him as to beg him to buy them,) he looks forward with confidence to the establishment of some just and beneficent scheme by which we may be relieved from the unfortunate institution. Some twenty years since, when the spirit of internal improvement was rife in the land, a project was started of constructing a turnpike road from Maysville to Mount Sterling, which would open an avenue to one of the richest portions of the state. By state, municipal and individual subscriptions of stock, it was finished for a short distance. For many years it had been discontinued for want of means. Some few years since, the attention of Mr. Dobyns was directed to the neces sity of its continuance, and, by the energy and skilful financial manage ment of the board of directors, of which he was an efficient member, 14 210 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the road has been entirely completed, and now throws into the lap of Maysville the trade of as fair a country as there is upon the globe. Eecently, the citizens of Kentucky have embarked, with considerable zeal, in the work of rail-road improvements. The effort has been to establish through the state a great thoroughfare of trade and travel from the east to the southwest, which would also subserve the purposes of local commerce. Mr. Dobyns is actively engaged in this enterprise, and is a member of the board of directors of the Maysville and Big Sandy Rail road Company. By means of the vigorous and skilful operations of that board, with the herculean efforts of its president, Thomas B. Ste venson, Esq., that road is about being commenced, and will certainly be constructed ; and thus the only gap in Kentucky, in the great line of connection between the seaboard and the Mississippi, will be filled up. Mason county is one of the wealthiest in the state ; but, owing to the want of scientific knowledge, association and competition, its re sources have not been fully developed. This difficulty is now being overcome, and a new era in the history of the county commenced by an agricultural and mechanical association, originated by Mr. Dobyns and a few others. No other enterprise could give higher tone or better direction to industry, and thus confer more real service on the county. The growing commerce of Kentucky requiring an addition to its banking capital, the legislature, in 1850, chartered the Farmer s Bank, a branch of which was located in Maysville. Mr. Dobyns was promi nent among those whose representations to the legislature, as to the necessity of that institution, and whose influence with that body led to its establishment; and, as one of the commissioners to obtain stock, he has been remarkably successful in inducing capitalists and business citizens at home to make investments in the stock of the bank. Thus it has been commenced under very favorable auspicies. With one consent he was selected as the president of the branch at Maysville, and, to disparage no one, we may justly say, that a better selection could not have been made. To be satisfied of this, it is only necessary to look to the reports of the operations of this branch, and the amount of its dividends since its establishment. They will demonstrate a finan cial skill and an administrative ability in its head, unsurpassed, and perhaps unequaled. A very marked characteristic of Mr. Dobyns is, that he never ap pears to be hurried. However multifarious may be the affairs upon his hands, he preserves his equanimity, and you would never dream that he was making any extraordinary exertions to keep his business going. This arises from the tact, promptitude and system (to which we before alluded) with which he conducts his affairs. In business, Mr. Dobyns is affable and accommodating. Aside from business, he is a most agreeable companion. His disposition to please, the readiness of his wit, the fluency of his language, the fertility of his fancy and his good sense, and acute perception of the ludicrous, make him an accomplished conversationalist. A visitor to his elegant resi dence, about a mile from the city, where, under the management of his amiable lady, the evidences of taste and refinement are rapidly accumu lating, will never fail to be delighted with his entertainment. To his su- LOVLAND PADDOCK, OF NEW-YORK. 21 1 perficial acquaintances he has an air of coldness which too often gives an unfavorable impression of his character; but you have but to know him, in order at once to see that this apparent pride is, in truth, but the consequence of a natural diffidence and reserve, which are characteristic of a true gentleman. Thre is no man living to whom his friends would more readily apply for a favor, and with better assurance of success, than to Mr. Dobyns. In one particular, in which business-men are, unfortunately, too gene rally negligent, Mr. Dobyns excels : he has cultivated his epistolary style to a degree that is truly remarkable in one who has been so con stantly engaged in active business ; and all who are familiar with his letters will bear testimony to the chaste and beautiful language in which they are written, and the perspicuity and precision with which his mean ing is conveyed. He does not confine himself to the stereotyped forms of business ; but the liveliness of his fancy rarely fails to relieve the most ordinary communication of its dullness by the sudden introduction of some humorous sentence, or the happy turning of a period. But were we called upon to state the quality which distinguishes Mr. Dobyns, and to which, above any other, he is indebted for his success, we would say it is the determination and energy with which he com mences and prosecutes every undertaking. This led to the bold ven ture of settling in Maysville without friends or fortune ; this sustained him amid all the embarrassments and the temporary clouds and reverses incident to the beginning of his trade. It has impressed itself so deeply on the community, that he can command more credit than any man of his means in the state ; and the confidence of the people in the triumph of any enterprise is at once secured if he becomes enlisted in it with zeal. This is so true that it has become almost a popular motto. With his other qualities it is certain to give him the highest success; and it is not indulging unreasonably in the spirit of prophecy to say, that, if his life is spared, the most brilliant fortune and the happiest future await him. The likeness which accompanies this brief memoir is a correct repre sentation of its subject, and at once strikes the beholder as indicative of manliness, nobility, boldness, and talent. LOVLAND PADDOCK, PRESIDENT OF THE BLACK RIVER BANK, WATERTOWN, NEW- YORK. IN the life of a business-man, whose time has been principally de voted to mercantile and financial operations, it will not be expected that we shall be startled by the brilliant achievements which cluster around the records of a military genius, nor shall we be charmed by those bril liant bursts of eloquence, which, like flowers glistening with the morning dew, were decked in their brightest gems as they came sparkling from the lips of an orator; neither shall we be oppressed by the heavy weight which hangs upon the broad shoulders of a statesman, as he removes 212 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. some crumbling-stone, or strengthens some weakened part of a govern- ment s foundation. But may we not admire the perseverance of the penniless boy, who, having engaged in business, we find on the road to opulence 1 Shall we not find that he has had battles to fight and ene mies to conquer 1 that he has, day by day and year by year, traveled steadily on, cutting his way through brambles, and clambering over rugged rocks, thus shunning that vale to the right, rich in golden fruit, but ready to be buried beneath the trembling rocks above, and avoiding to cull those flowers to the left whose very roots drink of the miry lake beneath ? May we not often, in following such a boy from youth to age, find a guide for the rising generation, less brilliant, but more gene rally useful, than in that of military heroes "? It may, perhaps, be men tioned, in reference to the parents of the subject of this memoir, as a singular circumstance, that four brothers of the name of Paddock mar ried four sisters of the name of Lovland. The third sister, both as to age and as to time of marriage, having seen her two elder sisters joined in the bands of matrimony two brothers to two sisters declared that she would never marry a Paddock, because she would not do just as her sisters did. Time caused a change in her resolution, and the offered hand of a third brother was accepted. The offspring of this marriage was five sons and four daughters, of which children, Lovland Paddock, the sub ject of this sketch, was the youngest but one. He was born at Middle- town, Connecticut, on the 15th day of March, 1795. His father was an officer in the Revolutionary war, and, after the restoration of peace, be came owner and commander of a vessel, which he sailed from Middletown to the West Indies. Leaving the perils of the " vasty deep," he re moved to the town of Frankfort, in Herkimer county, New-York, which was at that time almost a wilderness, and looked upon as being in the far West. Here, with his small means, he purchased a farm, of about one hundred and twenty acres, upon the highlands east of Utica, where the sweeping winds must have often reminded him of past dan gers on his ocean home, but where, in the peaceful pursuit of agricul ture, he no longer sailed in danger of storms or shoals, but lived and died an American farmer. The subject of this memoir was less than two years old at the time his father purchased the above-mentioned farm. Having arrived at a suitable age, he commenced attending a district school, distant about a half-mile from his home. Here, both the heat of summer and the cold of winter found him a constant visitor up to the age of ten, after which he attended school only winters, de voting his time during the summers to the labors of the farm, to which he applied himself most diligently. The country to which his father removed was calculated to instill in his youthful mind vigor and perse verance, as well as to form habits of economy and upright dealing ; for nowhere can be found a better nursery for youth than in our farmers homes, with their just principles of honesty and republican simplicity. Here, in a new country, he saw the brawny arm of the woodsman sink the axe deep in the hardy beech, that, stroke after stroke, told on its trunk as it came crashing to the ground, and that perseverance stood triumphant; that tree followed tree, and forest followed forest, till the yellow grain waved where once the sunshine struggled with the wild- wood shade to smile upon the earth ; that the hands which felled the LOVLAND PADDOCK, OF NEW- YORK. 213 oak or held the plow received no disdainful grasp for their honest labors. Being often sent to Dtica by his father to purchase some articles of mer chandise, or to dispose of some of the products of the farm, he became acquainted with several merchants of that place, and, catching some of their business spirit, he dwelled so much upon the idea of being a merchant that he became dissatisfied with the dull routine of farm life, and earnestly requested his father to allow him either to learn a trade or to become a clerk in some store, the latter of which he preferred, both because it suited his inclination best, and because he had an offer from a merchant at Utica to teach him the business. At this time he had a brother, older than himself, who, having some years previously left for the Black River country, had settled at Watertown, Jefferson county, New-York, where he was engaged in keeping a country store, containing such goods as were suited to the wants of a new and sparsely- settled country. With this brother his father finally consented to his stopping. Elated with the prospect of having his most anxious wishes of being a clerk soon realized, the farmer boy, unschooled in the ways of the world, bid adieu to the hills of his early association, and the orchards he had planted on their sides, with only three dollars in his pocket, to seek his fortune amidst busy scenes of life, where many, ex perienced in all the ways of trade, seek but in vain. It being a new country, the barter system was the only one that prevailed to any ex tent ; and in the hard work of cutting wood, measuring grain, packing pot-ashes, and occasionally selling goods, there was little fear of his suf fering for the want of exercise, or of lessening that bodily strength which his farm life had previously given him. Here he readily gained considerable knowledge of the business in which he was employed, and soon found that his time could be more profitably used in selling goods and keeping books. In the year 1812 or 1813, his brother, with whom he was stopping, became interested in two stores at Brownville, and being also made sheriff of the county, was obliged to leave his store at Watertown in charge of his brother-in-law, whom he had associated with him as partner. Soon after the war of 1812 was declared, a large force was collecting at Sacket s Harbor, distant ten miles from Watertown ; he proposed to this brother-in-law to let him take to that place from three to five hundred dollars worth of goods. After much doubt as to the success of this operation and consequent delay, his brother-in-law con cluded to furnish him with about four hundred dollars in goods which he moved into a small room near the barracks at Sacket s Harbor. Being somewhat acquainted with the officers he commenced doing a profit able business in a small way ; he continued to replenish his small stock from time to time, as needed, for some three months, at the end of which time General Wilkinson s army was ordered to rendezvous at Sacket s Harbor, and there not being a sufficiency of barrack-room, the buildings in the vicinity were used, the one he occupied among others, and he was obliged to leave. He returned to Watertown, and on settlement found that he had made over six hundred dollars profits in the three months. His brother-in-law claimed that he had furnished the goods at his own risk, and that he ought to have one half the profits; this was finally agreed to. He remained with his brother-in-law for 214 SKETCHES OP EMINENT AMERICANS. some time in the spring and summer of 1815. He also received direc tions from his brother John to take charge of the building of two large brick stores at Watertown. He labored so hard in the building of these stores that in the fall, worn out and exhausted, he became quite sick for a time. The fall of the same year he engaged his services at twenty-five dollars per month and board (at that time considered to be be very high wages in the country) to Mr. O. Pierce, to take charge of one of the two stores, the building of which he had the previous year been overseeing, and which Mr. Pierce had now rented and filled with a stock of goods. While he was a clerk in his brother s store, merchants from New- York, Albany, and other cities, occasionally went to Watertown and other parts of the country for the double purpose of collecting debts and making new customers, and frequently made his brother s house their stopping-place. There were no livery-stables at that time at Watertown, and his brother would -often send his horse and carriage, and him to drive, to take these gentlemen to different parts of the country. In this way he became acquainted with a number of whole sale merchants in New- York and other cities. . He often expressed to them his desire to become a merchant, and they, seeing his anxiety and feeling that they might safely encourage him, told him that whenever he might feel disposed to commence business, to call on them, and they would supply him with goods, for which he might pay them when he could. In the month of May, 1816, at the age of twenty-one, he left for New-York, with only three hundred dollars, (it being his half of the profits made at Sacket s Harbor) without knowing what prospects lay before him, and being in doubt whether he should seek employ ment as a clerk, or endeavor to obtain a stock of goods. He passed through the Black Eiver country to Utica, and from thence to Albany in mud-wagons, coaches then being a luxury not enjoyed on this route ; and after lodging one night at Albany, took what was called a fast steamboat for New- York, which arrived at the latter place in twenty-six hours, it being considered at that time a rapid passage, the whole time of traveling from Watertown to New- York occupying four days, a strong contrast to the present speed of iron-horse, which glides over the distance in ten hours. After arriving at New- York he called on the merchants whose acquaintance he had made at Watertown ; the most of them received him with pleasure, and with invitations to stop with them at their homes. He had prepared himself with recommenda tions from many of the most respectable persons of his own county, all of which spoke highly as to his business capacity and integrity, but frankly stated that he possessed but little pecuniary responsibility. With several offers which he had from good houses to stop with them as clerk at good salaries, he was much pleased, but felt really surprised upon the simple statement that he was poor but honest, and competent to have any reasonable amount of goods that he might wish for offered to him on his own individual responsibility. He was so touched by this kindness and interest in his favor, that he delayed several days to think it over, as he dreaded a failure. After due consideration and advice, he concluded to take the goods, and selected about seven thou LOVLAND PADDOCK, OF NEW YORK. 215 sand dollars worth of such kinds as were suitable to a country store. To secure his creditors against loss as far possible, he promptly got these goods insured in the Howard Insurance Company, it being the first policy issued in Jefferson county. He hired a store of his brother, the building of which he had superintended, and com menced business in good health, full of ambition, and with a determi nation, to succeed. He had calculated that as he was a good salesman, and was well acquainted with most of the inhabitants of his own county, he could safely rely upon them for help in this undertaking ; in this he was not disappointed, for upon the first opening of his store he had all that himself and a boy could conveniently attend to. Knowing that his future credit must stand or fall with the promptitude with which he should meet his present obligations, he did not wait for them to become due, but whenever he could remit a few hundred dollars, did so, taking care to send each creditor an amount proportionate to his claim. In this manner he had been able to remit about three thousand dollars in about three months, which not only strengthened his credit in New- York, but was a matter of convenience to him, as there were no banks in his own village. By close attention to his business, he was able, before the expiration of the first year, not only to pay off all his first purchase, but also in part for goods ordered. In the mean time his brother, John Paddock, who had been largely engaged in trade, died, leaving his affairs in an embarrassing condition, which, together with the failure of one of his partners to a large amount, leaving a large debt against the firm, nearly exhausted his brother s estate. Although the subject of this notice was in no manner connected with his brother in business affairs, and although he had prospered to his highest expectations, he nevertheless feared that the loss of his brother, and consequently the loss of influence which his reputation would give, might discourage his creditors in supplying him with a full stock of goods. In May, 1817, about one year from the time of making his first purchase, he made his second trip to New- York. On his arrival in the city he found that most of his creditors had full confidence in him, and were willing to supply him with what goods he might wish to purchase. He con tinued on prosperously until the fall of 1820, when he discovered that his success in business had awakened the envy of his competitors. Rival merchants had preceded him to New- York, and there they had whispered into the ears of his creditors tales of falsehood, thinking that by casting foul blots of suspicion on his responsibility, they might relieve themselves from competition. The seed they had sown had taken root, and he found of all his creditors but one who stood by him. John Stewart, Jr., now the Hon. John Stewart a generous man, and a noble merchant not only supplied him with goods, but came for ward and gave his name in pledge for goods purchased of other mer chants, who,having become frightened by false reports, refused to for ward them without security. His strong desire to prosper as a merchant was now increased by the knowledge that he had enemies to revel over his downfall, and a noble friend to suffer by the same. He therefore determined that no neglect or want of perseverance on his part should prevent him from meeting every obligation ; in this he 216 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. was successful ; and, when in the following fall he again visited the city, found no difficulty in obtaining goods. In the following spring, being twenty-three years of age, he married Sophia A. Foster, a native of Kowe, Massachusetts, whose only fortune consisted of herself, but in whom he found an amiable, intelligent and industrious wife, who was well calculated to encourage and sustain him in the arduous duties of life, and who found more pleasure in making her household expenses conform to the dictates of reason, than she would have done in squandering larger sums in the frivolities of fashion and folly. Feeling it to be her duty as a wife and a mother to devote her time to the care of the family circle, she found her greatest pleasure beneath the roof of her husband s house. With the simplicity of her ancestors, pilgrims in the May-FJower, she now finds in her hus band s ample fortune, no pride to bar her from association with the low and the humble, whenever help and sympathy may sooth them in their sorrows. About once in six months he continued to make purchases ; having gradually extended his business, he found it still necessary to obtain his goods on credit, especially 4s he made most of his sales on time. He continued on in this way up to the year 1828, when he found that he was able to purchase his entire stock of goods for cash ; having a sufficiency to do so, over and above his stock in trade, debts due him, and stock in the Jefferson County Bank, of which he was elected a director. This success in business he attributes greatly to the care with which he incurred liabilities, and the promptitude with which he met them. Having extended his mercantile business as far as the de mand for goods would admit of, it became necessary for him to find other sources of investment for his surplus means, which were continu ally increasing. Having gained some knowledge of banking by being a stockholder and director in the Jefferson County Bank, he concluded to take a considerable amount of stock in the Sacket s Harbor Bank, of which he was also elected a director. At that time, as well as at the present, he was deeply impressed with the belief, that under a republi can form of government, every person should enjoy like rights and privileges, and was therefore very hostile to all kinds of monopolies and special privileges, particularly those enacted by legislative bodies in favor of particular persons or corporations. The old safety-fund system of banking he believed to be wrong, both because it gave to certain individuals rights which it withheld from the great body of the people, and also because it offered but an uncertain security to the bill-holder. When the policy of passing the free banking law was agitated, he felt much interest in its success ; as it was general in its character and free to all, he considered that it would act as a great leveler to special legislation. He saw that in the security provided for the redemption of bills, the poor laborer would no longer be rob bed of his hard-earned dollars. At this time he was considerably interested in the safety-fund banks, but felt willing to suffer any loss that might be caused by the depreciation of his stocks, should the free- banking law pass, in consideration of the great general benefit it would confer. By close attention to business he had greatly increased his capita), and in order to invest his surplus funds, associated with others in 1839, LOVLAND PADDOCK, OP NEW-YORK. 217 soon after the passage of the free banking law, for the purpose of start ing a bank under its provisions ; he took largely of the stock and was elected president of the same; he continued to be connected with this institution as its president for about two years, when becoming dissat isfied with the disagreement among, and the bad management of some of its officers, he disposed of his interest at a sacrifice, and resigned his office. In the spring of 1842, he relinquished the mercantile business, and in the summer of 1844 established a bank of his own, which he named the Black River Bank. He continues proprietor of this institution at the present time, and has increased its capital to four times its original amount. While prosecuting his mercantile business, he had at various times, as favorable opportunities offered, made investments in real es tate with his surplus capital ; on some of these purchases he erected stores and houses, while others already built upon he greatly improved. A fire which occurred in May, 1849, at Watertown, destroyed nearly all the business portion of the village ; on this occasion he had six stores and his banking-house reduced to ashes. He immediately com menced to remove the smouldering rubbish preparatory to the erection of several splendid stores, for the plan of which he visited some of our cities most noted for their beautiful buildings. In a few months an ele gant structure facing the public square graced the spot where so short a time previously laborers were nimbly flinging the heated bricks from the blackened mass of ruins. The following spring he built the arcade, which is widely celebrated for its beauty and singularity ; it extends from Washington-street to Arcade-street. On each side of a large and airy hall, which is beautifully sky-lighted, is a row of stores filled with rich goods. Easy flights of stairs lead to balconies above and in front of offices occupied by artists, lawyers, doctors and others. The whole building is well lighted and aired, and is, both as to size and beauty, superior to every other of the kind in the empire state. At all seasons of the year arid in all weather it affords a pleasant promenade ; in the evening an additional charm is lent to its beauty as the gas-lights throw their brilliant rays "o er the fair and the brave" who congregate there in numbers both for pleasure and business. Although busily engaged in his mercantile and banking operations, he has found leisure moments to cultivate his mind by reading and study, and to improve and beau tify the grounds about his home, not only by the help of laborers but with his own hands. The cultivation of a garden has always afforded him a great source of pleasure, which by early rising he has found time to enjoy, and at the same time to feel his body invigorated and his mind elevated by this healthful employment. The many trees which have been planted, grafted, trimmed and otherwise carefully attended to some with their deep cool shade, others with their ripened fruit are now repaying him most bountifully for the attention he bestowed upon them while others were dreaming on their downy couch. The asso ciations of farm life still cling about him. Some two and a half miles from Watertown he owns and carries on a very large farm ; here he is often found not only suggesting improvements, but sometimes engag ing in them personally. From his extensive acquaintance, influence and capacity, he might have received high political favors ; but feeling that in accepting of office he would, by attending to its duties properly 218 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. sacrifice his business interests, left them to those who had time to spare and political wishes to- be gratified. In reference to his acquisition of property, it has been said of him as of others, that everything he touched turned to gold, carrying the idea, perhaps, that chance was on his side. When, however, we take into consideration that his whole life has been one of strictly business habits ; that he has been temperate in all things; that he has pursued his calling with diligence and perseverance ; that he has neither turned to the right nor the left in pursuit of jack-o -lanterns we say, when these things are taken into consideration, that it can be only the superficial observer who would attribute his success to chance. In thus taking a glance at the life of the subject of this sketch, we find that the plowboy, now as an able financier and a wealthy capitalist, adds another to the number of those living self-made men, who, like marked trees in a dense wilderness, point out the way to places of prosperity. HON. WILLIAM LAWRENCE, OP OHIO, LATE REPORTER TO THE SUPREME COURT. No country presents so many incentives to laudable ambition as the United States of America. Under the equalizing and liberal policy of our republican institutions obscurity of birth is no bar to the attain ment of any distinction for which the head and the heart are qualified. They encourage talent to venture on a career of emulation, and insure to virtuous merit a rich and ample reward. Beautifully was the in fluence of this generous policy portrayed by the subject of this sketch in one of his youthfu-l orations : " We recognize no favored class, no privileged few, with greatness thrust upon them. Titles, and distinc tion, and name, come not by blood or birth. The contest for honor, andpower, and place, is open to all whom philanthropy or patriotism or glory may prompt to participate. No royal munificence dispenses its patents of nobility or entwines the laurel wreath round skulls of empti ness. No feudal charter here makes kings or peers. Ours is the no bility of merit, the offspring of genius and talent and virtue. Its only patent is the seal of Omnipotence, its only patronage the suffrage of freemen." Nobly has the subject of this brief sketch illustrated the sentiment to which his youth gave utterance. No ancestral fortune unlocked for him the treasures of knowledge. For him no ancestral name secured the favor and society of the learned, the opulent, and great, relieving the way to eminence of half its ruggedness. But by an energy and genius exclusively his own, he has, in an eminent degree, exemplified the maxim : * Quisque suse fortune faber." A century or more ago, during the early settlement of Pennsylvania, two brothers, by the name of Lawrence, emigrated from Europe, per haps Sweden, and purchased a large tract of land on the Delaware River, near Philadelphia. They embarked with a vessel in trade on WILLIAM LAWRENCE, OF OHIO. 219 the river, and lost their land by permitting the claim of adverse occu pants to ripen into title. One of these brothers emigrated to western Pennsylvania, settled near Brownsville, and is perhaps the ancestor of the western Pennsylvania Lawrences. The other brother married a French lady, and had a numerous offspring. One of these was David Lawrence, a substantial farmer, who died about 1805, near Philadelphia, leaving a family of several children, without any estate. Amongst them was Joseph, an orphan boy, friendless and portionless, who was apprenticed for seven years to the business of blacksmithing, and faith fully served out his term. At the expiration of his term, while yet a youth, he enlisted as one of the Philadelphia Guards, in the war of 1812, and served during the war. On the restoration of peace he re moved to Ohio, where he was married to Temperance Gilchrist, a native of Virginia, a lady of great benevolence, of exemplary piety, and many virtues. WILLIAM LAWRENCE, the subject of this memoir, the only surviving representative of these parents, was born at the beautiful village of Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, Ohio, June 26th, 1819. At this place the father pursued his calling as a mechanic for many years, but subsequently removed to Bellefontaine, in Logan county, Ohio, where, engaged in the quiet pursuits of agriculture, he still sur vives to rejoice with parental pride and satisfaction in the success and reputation of his son ; the mother sleeps in the little graveyard near by. At Mount Pleasant, William was early placed at the village school, where he soon evinced an ardent love of books, and discovered a pre cocity and sprightliness indicative of his future success. With un usual rapidity, and a thoroughness which would have been creditable to riper years, he mastered the branches taught in the village school, and displayed at this early day those superior powers and qualities of mind with which his subsequent career has shown him to be so emi nently gifted. In the spring of 1830, his father retired to a farm which the fruits of his industry had enabled him to purchase near the village of Richmond. Here he engaged in the twofold occupation of husbandman and mechanic, in which the village school-boy, the blacksmith s son, was associated, and for a time forced to relinquish his devotions to Minerva, and wor ship alternately at the shrines of Vulcan and Faunus. The change was by no means agreeable to the taste of young Lawrence. The visions of forensic encounters and legislative triumphs had already be gun to arise in his youthful imagination. He had " tasted the Pierian spring," and thirsted to quaff the full goblet. Like the exile for his native shore, he sighed for those pleasures and pursuits more congenial to his tastes. Yet years were destined to separate him from his idol. But they were years in which he emphatically " Learned to labor and to wait." It. was the remark of the great Roman poet, that Nil sine magno, Vita, labore, mortalibus dedit." " There is no excellence without labor. It is the fiat of fate from which no power of genius can absolve us." He is a melancholy pic- 220 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ture, whose active and soaring genius is the tenant of a frail and feverish body, whose delicate physical frame refuses to support the grasp and vigor of a giant intellect, and the ambition that impels him onward. Mr. Lawrence is gifted with a vigor of constitution and power of en durance, without which few could accomplish the immense labor he has performed ; and a yet smaller number at his age attain the emi nence he enjoys a vigor and power which he is proud to attribute to the manly exercises of the workshop and the farm, and by which he has sustained that labor which the " fiat of fate" has made inseparable from excellence. But the cultivation of letters was not entirely neglected during these years. Not more easily can genius be subdued to contentment in the daily rounds of mill-horse drudgery, than the caged eagle to forget his native mountains. The aspirations of young Lawrence were not to be confined solely to the anvil and the plow. Each leisure moment found him indulging in the perusal of works of history and poetry, and during the winter months, a " quarter" was generally spent, under the instruc tion of the " dominie," at the " log school-house" one of those " col leges of the people," famous in the annals of the northwest. These are the pillars of our political fabric, in which is early instilled into the minds of American youth that first great principle of government, namely, "how to be governed." But even here is most pertinaciously maintained the " glorious right of rebellion" in vindication of which, it is related that young Lawrence was sometimes found overstepping the bounds of " obedience to law," and heading an assault, which not un- frequently terminated in the capture of the dominie. But the young rebels always restored their captive to liberty, upon the invariable condition that he would " treat" for peace, and proclaim a general am nesty. But young L. was destined to find a theatre more favorable to the development of his intellectual powers. In the autumn of 1833, he was placed under the instruction of the Eev JOHN C. TIDBALL, who had then recently opened a classical seminary near the Ohio River, above Steubenville. With this gentleman, who was a ripe and accomplished scholar, he made rapid progress in the acquisition of knowledge, and laid the foundations of his fine classical education. Notwithstanding the interruptions experienced, by being frequently summoned to aid in the labors of his father s farm, he was never behind his class, but was dis tinguished for the ease with which he mastered the sciences, and the elegance of his translations of the Greek and Latin languages. He was continued at this institution of learning until the spring of 1836, when his father, who appreciated habits of business no less highly than the advantages of an accomplished education, procured for his son a situation as a merchant s clerk in his native village. In this vocation, young Lawrence, in despite of entreaties and remonstrances to the con trary, was doomed to pass the summer of that year. His feelings on the occasion are expressed thus, in a letter to a young friend. " I have quit the academy ; it may be forever have been constrained to ex change the society of the muses for the companionship of mammon the heroes of Homer and Virgil for the hucksters of thimbles and tape ; and to feel that this is the end of all my hopes, the ultima ihule of WILLIAM LAWRENCE, OF OHIO. 221 my ambition ! Oh, I could weep more tears than the Pleiad sisters ! But, farewell a long farewell to you, my S., my books and all my greatness. I shall no more be with you, my S. inter sylvas academi qucerere verum" But that was a fortunate day for Mr. L. on which he became a merchant s clerk. He there acquired what books cannot sup ply accurate and active business habits, which have secured to him the character of a " first-rate business man" a name he has justly earn ed by the astonishing rapidity and systematic method with which he dispatches the business transactions of his profession. It was about this time that Mr. Lawrence first witnessed a display of forensic eloquence which kindled his youthful ardor into enthusiasm. He had read with intense delight the models of Greek and Roman oratory, and the richest gems of British and American eloquence. But now he had seen and heard that of which he had before only read. Writing to a young friend, to whom he described the scene, and the effect it produced on his own mind, he said, " I, too, will be a lawyer." Accordingly, with the reluctant consent of a parent now overcome by entreaties irresistible for their pathos, and the glowing representations of future distinction which sprung from the fevered fancy of an enthu siastic boy, young Lawrence was entered as a student of Franklin Col lege, at New Athens, Ohio, in the autumn of 1836. Well does the writer of this sketch remember the light heart and buoyant step with which he set forward on foot to enter upon this new career. In the fall of 1838, he was graduated, by the faculty of that institution, with the degree of A. B. ; and the complimentary honor of pronouncing the valedictory oration, on the occasion of the commencement, was con ferred upon him. In 1846, the degree of A. M. was conferred on him by the same institution. It was an exceedingly short period which Mr. Lawrence employed to achieve the honors of college, but " Laurus dig- nissimo detur" was the proffered palm, and he determined to win and wear it. He appreciated the value of a thorough classical education, as the sure foundation of future eminence, and for it he "trimmed the midnight taper." But he was not a " book- worm" merely, With a zealot s devotion he made everything subservient to his future profession. With reference to this, all his studies were directed. To acquire a fluency in speaking, the graces of declamation and skill, and delibera tion in debate, he entered heartily into all the exercises and polemics of the literary societies. Many of his college fellows still remember the adroitness with which he rarely failed to prostrate his antagonist and carry his point in triumph. On leaving college, Mr. L. immediately proceeded to Morgan county, Ohio, to which place his parents had then recently removed. There he commenced the study of his favorite profession under Jas. L. Gage, Esq., then the oldest and ablest member of the McConnellsville bar. Under the instruction of this excellent gentleman, he prosecuted his studies with characteristic vigor and success, until the winter of that year. Becoming impressed at that time with the necessity and importance of self-reliance, and determined thenceforth to enjoy " The glorious privilege Of being independent," 222 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. he took charge of a district school, and turned " dominie" during that winter. In the following summer he became associated with Miss Cor nelia, daughter of Col. William Hawkins, of McConnellsville. in con ducting the " Village School." This amiable and accomplished lady Mr. Lawrence subsequently "led to the altar, and followed to the tomb." During the period Mr. L. was engaged in teaching, his devotion to his favorite profession was in nowise relaxed. He continued to pursue it with his accustomed zeal and industry, and had already become quite a formidable adversary. Many an anecdote is told of his forensic en counters at this time, before "the dignitaries who presided on the township bench." The law granting the right of trial by jury before magistrates had then recently gone into operation. The members of the profession were frequently summoned to appear as advocates before these juries thus impanneled. Before these courts, Mr. L., though not yet admitted to practice in the higher courts, had frequent opportunities of meeting the veterans of the profession ; many of whom still remem ber the skill with which he baffled their experience, and the power with which he combated their arguments. Such was the original of his reputation as an advocate. It was not the offspring of a first great triumph, springing into full life, like the fabled Juno from the brain of Jove; it was the polished column, rather than the mountain tossed up by a throe of nature. In the fall of 1839, Mr. L. was entered as a student of law in the law department of the Cincinnati College. At this institution he enjoyed the instruction of the Hon. Timothy Walker, author of " The Introduction to American Law," and one of the most profound jurists of this or any other country. Under the instructions of Judge Walker, adorned and enriched by the varied learning and classical taste of that distinguished man, Mr. L. laid broad and deep the foundations of his future reputation at the bar. His application was intense. He devoted sixteen hours each day to study and the exercises of the lecture-rooms. He reaps the reward of his industry now. In March, 1840, he was graduated at this institution with the degree of L. B. But he had not yet attained to the age of majority, and was therefore compelled to defer making application for admission to the bar. In November, 1840, he was admitted, and opened an office at McConnellsville, where the recollection of his encounters introduced him at once to a full and lucrative practice, in which he continued how ever but for a short time. He had been invited the previous winter to report the proceedings of the Ohio legislature then in session at Columbus, which he declined. At the earnest solicitations of Charles Scott, Esq., publisher of " The Ohio State Journal," he accepted the position, and reported the proceedings of the Ohio House of Repre sentatives for the columns of that paper, during the session of 1S40- 41. During which session he was also the Columbus correspondent of two political papers. Mr. L. wields the pen of a ready writer, which ren dered the labors of the position but little more than an agreeable relaxa tion from the pursuit of his favorite study. The able and excellent manner in which he discharged the duties of reporter may be seen by reference to the files of the Journal. The speeches of members rarely WILLIAM LAWRENCE, OF OHIO. 223 suffered in the reporting. In fact, he is suspected in some instances of playing the part which Sam. Johnson is said to have done for certain worthies of the British Parliament, "reported their speeches in his garret." Whilst here, he formed an acquaintance with many of the most dis tinguished men of the state, which has since ripened into an intimacy that has been of great advantage to him, in both his professional and political career. By strict attention to the rules and proceedings of the house, he also acquired an accurate knowledge of the details of legislation, which has since made him formidable as a parliamentary tactician. In the summer of 1841, Mr. Lawrence located in Bellefontaine, Ohio, where he accepted the tender of, and formed a professional copartner ship with the Hon. Benj. Stanton, which continued for the period of three years. During this period he gave abundant evidence of his great accu racy in the details of professional business, a promptness and punctu ality in the discharge of its duties, and an extensive and profound knowl edge of the principles of law, which early secured to him the confidence of clients, and a deservedly high reputation as a lawyer. Since the disso lution of the copartnership, he has continued the practice of his profes sion with marked ability and eminent success. Scarcely an important* cause has been tried in Logan county in which he has not been retained in some stage of its progress ; and now, though still a young man, he enjoys an extensive practice of the highest order on the circuit, and in the state and federal courts. But the anecdotes of trials at the bar, and the traditions of the pro fession, have but " a local habitation." These soon pass away and are forgotten. The only imperishable monuments of fame are the works and recorded memorials which men leave behind them. Mr. Lawrence has already secured for himself a place in the judicial history of his native state, and has inscribed his name upon the reported volumes of her judicial decisions. Although in the volumes of reports but meagre sketches of the arguments of counsel are given, yet enough however remains to bear evidence of his ability, laborious research and profound judicial learning. On the 20th March, 1851, the general assembly of Ohio, by joint resolution, elected Mr. Lawrence reporter of the supreme court in bane. It was a flattering compliment to his legal attainments, that he should be proposed for nomination by the Hon. Charles C. Convers, an eminent lawyer, and elected by the legislature of his native state, as the succes sor of Charles Hammond, Esq., P. B. Wilcox, author of the Digest, Edwin M. Stanton, now of the Pittsburgh bar, and Hiram Griswold, of the Cleveland bar. In the capacity of reporter Mr. L. prepared for the press the 20th volume of the Ohio reports, the last of the series under the then constitution of the state. In the preparation of this volume he has not disappointed the high expectations of those who confided it to him. In propriety of arrangement, in the classification of cases, in the digest of arguments, in copiousness of index and citation of authorities, this volume is not inferior to any of its predecessors. Of this volume the Cincinnati Atlas, the editor of which is a lawyer, thus speaks : SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. " For the first time in the Ohio reports an attempt has been made in this volume to reduce the arrangement of the decisions to something like a system. A division is made as follows : <; 1. Criminal cases. " 2, Civil cases at law. "3. Chancery cases. " Interspersed through the work are the notes of the reporter, refer ring to previous cases in the Ohio reports upon the same points, as well as to the reports of other states, a service which cannot fail to recom mend itself favorably to the consideration of all the members of the legal profession. " Much as the name of Charles Hammond is revered in certain lo calities, we cannot but wish that some one possessing the systematic ability of Mr. Lawrence had commenced the arrangement of the Ohio reports." The Western Law Journal, in alluding to the volume, says : " The reporter is a very learned and accomplished lawyer, and has rendered important service to the state as a legislator. * * * The performance is a very complete one, quite equal to the best of its pre decessors," &c. The re-organization of the judiciary system under the new constitution and the consequent revulsion in politics, terminated the services of Mr. Lawrence as reporter. Such is a brief outline of his professional career. As a lawyer he has acquired a reputation for technicality in pleadings and practice. But it is the technicality of learning, and is always em ployed honorably. He never resorts to an unfair advantage even in the most desperate cause. His intercourse with his brethren of the profession is characterized by the utmost candor, integrity and frank ness. He is polite and respectful to the court, mild and gentlemanly in his examination of witnesses, and courteous in his address and de portment to the jury, which qualities have rendered him a general favorite of the bar. His humanity is no less commendable than his learning. No man, however indigent, ever vainly solicited his professional services in a just cause ; and once engaged, he makes the cause his own. His chief error, if error it may be called, is in the pertinacity with which he vin dicates the persecuted and friendless. Mr. Lawrence is gifted with a mind remarkable for the equipoise of its faculties rather than for any striking singularity. He is endowed with great powers of analysis and quickness of perception, which enable him instantly to discover the strong and weak points of a cause, and with an astonishing subtilty of logic, by which he rarely fails to fortify or expose them as the case may require. The dexterity with which he conducts a cause, and the merciless minuteness with which he sifts the conscience and the memory of a witness, leaves little room for more than a discussion of the legal principles addressed to the court. Yefc if the emergency demands it he is no less formidable as an advocate than ^ tactician. The clear statement of his propositions, the perspicuity of his diction, and the marked dignity and earnestness of his manner, T7ILLIAM LAWRENCE, OF OHIO. 225 rarely fail to carry conviction. His eloquence cannot be characterized as powerful or imposing. He seldom wields a herculean club, but he throws a polished shaft with unerring precision and irresistible effect, and on proper occasions he rises to the emergency and deals herculean blows. The eminent ability of the gentlemen with whom his profes sion has brought him in contact, occasionally afforded a field for this higher order of forensic disputation. The Hon. Sampson Mason, now U. S. District Attorney for Ohio, Hon. Charles Anthony, and the late Hon. Israel Hamilton, both formerly occupying the same position, Hon. Joseph E. Swan, the learned author and jurist, Hon. John A. Corwin, of the supreme bench, Hon. "Win. A. Rogers, Hon. B. Stanton, and others of acknowledged ability and deserved reputation, are the class of men whom Mr. Lawrence has been accustomed to meet on the circuit and encounter at the bar. But his powers of oratory have found a field for their highest display on a different stage. Mr. Lawrence has had a brilliant, though as yet but a brief career as a politician. In his early youth he became an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Clay, and espoused the political faith of that distinguished states man. As early as 1840 he arrayed himself under the banner of the late President Harrison, and lent his youthful powers to carry the elec toral vote of Ohio for her loved and honored hero. His reputation as a popular orator gave him prominence before the public, and in 1845 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Logan county, an office which he held one year and resigned. In 1846 he was elected to represent the counties of Logan and Hardin in the lower house of the Ohio legis lature. Having served with much ability in this position for two suc cessive sessions, he was promoted to the senate by the counties of Marion, Union, Hardin and Logan. During his first session in the legislature in 1846 and 47, though one of the youngest members, he took a prominent stand on every important measure of policy intro duced, and in their discussion discovered talents for legislative debate of a very high order. * * * * * ***** The versatility of Mr. L. s powers is equal to the generous impulses of his heart. Whether the occasion demands the persuasion of eloquence or the power of the pen, he is alike prepared for either. Many of his orations and addresses have been published, but we cannot go further into detail. The influence of his oratory has been felt at the bar, before the popular assembly, and in the councils of his native state. The pro ductions of his pen have adorned and dignified the political and periodi cal literature of the times. But we must bring our sketch to a close. We will merely add that, with the people, Mr. L. is deservedly a favor ite. His familiar address, his popular manners, his unaffected sympathy with the masses, could not fail to secure to him many and devoted friends, which, on all occasions when a candidate for the popular suf frage, has obtained for him more than the vote of his political party. In an eminent degree was this shown on a recent occasion, when, as a can didate for judge of the Court of Common Pleas of his judicial district, the political complexion of which is largely of the opposition, he received some six hundred votes above his party strength. Though unsuccessful, 15 226 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. yet defeat, under such circumstances, was not less gratifying and com plimentary to one so young, than victory, achieved by mere force of party drill, with diminished vote. At the recent whig state convention, he was selected from his congressional district as the candidate for pie- sidential elector on the ticket for General Scott. HON. NATHANIEL KIDLEY EAVES, J OF SOUTH CAROLINA. THE honorable Nathaniel Ridley Eaves was born in the State of Virginia, in the town of Bellfield, on the Meherrin Eiver. His mother died when he was but five days old, leaving three sons and a daughter. His father was a native of Greenville county, Va., and served in the Re volutionary war, at the close of which, being then quite young, he was stationed at Nansemond River, where he became acquainted with the mother of Mr. Eaves, and, after the war terminated, married her. She was a Holiday, and her ancestors were among the first permanent set tlers in Nansemond county. Mr. Eaves father, shortly after the death of his wife, removed to the State of South Carolina, and settled in Chester District, on the Catawba River. Mr. Eaves received most of his academical education at Mt. Bethel Academy, in Newberry District, after which he entered the South Caro lina College, and graduated in the year 1815. He was always greatly attached to his alma mater, and in his subsequent senatorial career was devoted to its interests and prosperity, being usually a member of the standing committee, whose more special duty it was to superintend the concerns of the college, education, and religion. [NOTE. In the preparation of this biographical sketch, the writer acknowledges his great obligations to the following gentlemen, whose names alone are a sufficient guarantee for the correctness of their statements, viz. : to Major Matthew Williams, an eminent lawyer of Chesterville ; to Captain John A. Bradley, a native of the same place, a gentleman of high respectability and great intelligence, and who has known Mr. Eaves intimately ; to Lieutenant J. T. Walker, a gallant officer of the Palmetto regiment, who was with him in all the battles fought in Mexico ; to J. F. G. Mittag, Esq., of Lancaster, a gentleman well known for his learning and scientific character, and who studied law with him ; and to 0. D. Melton, Esq., an eminent member of the Chesterville bar. In some instances, the writer has incorporated the memoranda of these gentlemen into the narrative without the slightest alteration. He has been solicitous to present only the most prominent points in the character and career of the distinguished individual, who, from considerations of friendship and a long ac quaintance, flatteringly committed to him the task of preparing some notice of him lor publication. He has omitted much that is interesting that he might have said, and which he would be fully sustained in saying by a large amount of official and documentary testimony, of the highest character, that lies before him ; but had he published all, a brief and hasty narrative would have swelled into the proportions of a history, and would have been wholly unfitted to the pages of the work in which this sketch appears.] NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 227 After receiving his degree of bachelor of arts, he entered, as a law student, the office of the late Colonel Joseph Gist, of Union District, one of the most eminent and successful practitioners at the bar in the up- country of South Carolina. In the spring of 1819, Mr. Eaves, having received his license, commenced the practice of the law at Chester Court-house ; and so great was the esteem in which he was held by his late instructor, that the latter, having proposed terms, entered into a co partnership with him in the practice of his profession. The father of Mr. Eaves was possessed of but a small estate. His children were justly entitled to a handsome property in right of their mother ; but being on his way to Virginia to claim it in their behalf, he was taken sick, and died ; and during the long minority which fol lowed, there being no person to represent and prosecute the claim, the property was dissipated. The small patrimony left Mr. Eaves from his father s estate was wholly exhausted in obtaining an education ; and at the period of his entering upon the active duties of life, he had little or nothing upon which to depend but his own exertions. Under these discouraging circumstances, he entered upon the duties of his profession in the midst of a community comparatively rude, and which had not then attained to the high degree of social refinement which has since dis tinguished it. By his energy and indomitable perseverance, coupled with habits of economy, he soon triumphed over all difficulties, acquired the confidence of his fellow-citizens as a man of ability and unflinching integrity, and attained to a very lucrative practice in his profession. A literary friend says, it is difficult to understand the secret of Mr. Eaves singular success at the bar ; but he was successful, above all men he ever knew, in the management of intricate cases of old date and long standing, which had been given up by other members of the profession as hopeless. He was patient, hopeful, and persevering, above most men. Owing to his skill in the management of financial affairs, and his high reputation for probity, he has been entrusted, to a large extent, with the management of the property of widows and orphans, and the administration of the estates of intestates, and in all cases has he dis charged these delicate and responsible trusts with fidelity and justice. Recollecting the difficulties he had to encounter himself when he entered upon his profession, he has been especially kind to young men laboring under similar difficulties, and has generously assisted a number to ob tain an education and profession when he saw but little prospect of re muneration. Mr. Eaves, as a lawyer, is not so remarkable for the quickness with which he arrives at his conclusions, as for their certainty, and for the caution with which he expresses a legal opinion. If he is not always prepared to solve an intricate query, he reserves his judgment until, by a patient examination of authorities, his mind is fully made up on the subject, and he then gives his reply without hesitation. He has thus acquired the confidence of his clients in the correctness of his judg ment on all occasions. As a speaker at the bar, as well as in the Senate chamber, his style is rather discursive, but he always succeeds in presenting the strong points of his case with a force that produces conviction, sometimes indulging in*witticisms and original remarks at the expense of an opponent, which are a source of amusement to the 228 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. court and jury. His learning is less profound than accurate, less com prehensive than particular. He is endowed with a large share of what is called hard common sense a most invaluable trait in a lawyer, and which compensates for the absence of more showy accomplish ments to which he adds what is equally essential to success in any of the walks of life, a thorough knowledge of mankind. There may be much in his speeches that is irrelevant to the matter in hand, but what is relevant and important is sure to be found in them ; and if a particu lar string in the human heart is to be touched, he knows where, when, and how to touch it, so- as to obtain the response he calls for. The same characteristic enthusiasm and perseverance which have marked his career in other respects have distinguished his course at the bar. If he undertakes a case, he devotes himself to it, heart and soul, for the sake of justice, truth, the cause of his client, and his own reputation. He is overborne by no difficulties, and dispirited by no failures in the progress of his cause. It is his determination to succeed, in defiance of all obstacles, that so often crowns his labors with singular success, con trary often to the expectations of his friends and his opponents. Since the year 1824, Mr. Eaves has generally represented his dis trict, either in the house of representatives or the Senate of South Carolina. He has great personal popularity and influence, but in ob taining his seat in either branch of the legislature he has generally en countered pretty serious opposition, with the exception of the last can vass, in 1848, when he was returned to the senate without opposition. As a politician he has no consolidation propensities, but is a thorough consistent state-rights democrat, of the Jefferson school. In 1830, Mr. Eaves, in common with many other politicians, was somewhat slow in making up his mind as to the expediency of nullification, but finally avowed himself in favor of that measure. His hesitation, however, prevented his obtaining a seat in the state convention, which passed the nullifying ordinance, although he received the nomination of his friends. The same cause operated to prevent his return to the state senate at the next election, when he was defeated by a most respect able and popular opponent. The question with him then was simply a question of expediency. In principle he is, and always has been, an advocate of the doctrines of state-rights and state-sovereignty, as laid down in the celebrated Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 98 and 99. Perceiving his error on that occasion, he has always since ex pressed his opinions on all vital questions with promptitude, firmness, and decision, and after having once taken his position, has maintained his opinions with intrepidity and zeal, suffering nothing to divert him from his purpose. In the recent controversy of South Carolina with the federal government, growing out of the slavery agitation, he was among the first to take part with the secessionists, and to advocate a withdrawal of the state from the Union, as preferable to a continuance in it in a state of perpetual hostility. He believed that it was not only the right, but the duty of the state to secede, rather than submit longer to unjust and unconstitutional legislation, which placed in continual jeopardy not only the property, but the lives of his fellow-citizens, and threatened to overthrow the pillars of constitutional liberty itself. Though the party with which he acted on this occasion was ultimately NATHANIEL RIDLEY BATES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 229 defeated, he has not seen cause to retract or abandon its principl< principles which he adopted from a thorough conviction of their con servative character, and which he still approves. Mr. Eaves is, at this time, a member of the state senate, but having signified his intention to terminate his long legislative career, he has declined being a candi date for re-election. We now turn to a portion of Mr. Eaves history upon which his friends are apt to dwell with no less pride than pleasure, and which ought to render his name conspicuous in our American annals. When a requisition was made, by the general government upon the state of South Carolina, for one regiment of volunteers to serve during the war with Mexico, Mr. Eaves was among the first to volunteer his services, and took an active part in raising the company which marched from Chester District the first district in the state which responded to the call for volunteers. He made several speeches at the court-house, appealing to the patriotism of his fellow-citizens, and persuading them, with all the enthusiasm so peculiar to him, to enrol their names in the company. But when he beheld the tears and distress of the women, who were alarmed at the prospect of a temporary, if not a final, separa tion from their husbands, his own sympathies were deeply moved. He then insisted that no married man should volunteer that they should stay at home and take care of the women and children a proposition which was applauded by all present, and which diffused joy and kindled gratitude where only feelings of grief and sadness were experienced be fore. As the young men rushed forward to enrol their names as volun teers, he exclaimed, amidst the applauses of the crowd, " We are mak ing soldiers faster than the Mexicans can make bullets to kill them !" The company thus raised was composed of young unmarried men of unblemished character. Mr. Eaves neither sought, nor would he accept, any office in the company, except that of bearing the flag presented to it by the ladies, but volunteered in it as a mere private soldier, although he had long held a military commission of a high grade. Subsequently, however, when the regiment went into active service, he was appointed by Colonel Butler to disburse the appropriation of twenty thousand dollars made by the state for the use of the regiment. At the termina tion of the war, he accounted to the state for every dollar of the fund expended by him as disbursing officer. Although unaccustomed to hard labor, he endured, through all the vicissitudes of a trying campaign, the fatigues of a common soldier much better than numbers who were accustomed to labor on a farm. By strict attention to his diet, he ge nerally enjoyed excellent health, and, while many young men returned home with constitutions impaired by an unwholesome climate and habits of indulgence, he returned to his country in better health than he enjoyed when he left it. He fought in the ranks as a private, in every battle in which his regiment was engaged in Mexico, in all of which battles he displayed the coolest bravery, and was always found in the front rank inciting to victory. He used a fine percussion -lock musket, presented to him by Major Huger, of the United States Ord nance Department. After the army had arrived at Puebla, and during the time of their stay there, an order was issued by General Scott for 230 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the soldiers to return their muskets to the ordnance department, in or der that such as required it should be repaired for service, inasmuch as the army was about to march in a few days for the city of Mexico. Major Huger, having heard favorably of Mr. Eaves, sent for him, and told him ; he wanted to make him a present of a musket, on condition that he would not dishonor it, and would name it the Huger gun." Mr. Eaves replied, that " he would cheerfully name it as requested, and that his bones should bleach on the heights of Puebla before he would dishonor the gun !" They separated, and next met in the city of Mex ico, when Major Huger said, " he rejoiced to meet him ; that he had heard a good report of him ; that when he gave him the gun, he felt confident that he would sustain his character for bravery." Mr. Eaves brought this gun home with him, and values it highly. It may be interesting and profitable to follow the course of this gal lant soldier from the time of his leaving South Carolina, early in Janu ary. 1847, till his return home the following December, and to point out some of the most interesting incidents that happened to him and his brave associates during the interval. Fortunately, most of the letters written by him to his friends during his absence, have been preserved, so that he may be made the narrator of his own progress. The order calling the regiment into immediate service and directing the several companies composing it to rendezvous at Charleston, was issued during the session of the legislature of the state, and whilst Mr. Eaves was in attendance as a member of the senate. Having obtained leave of absence, he returned to Chester court-house in time to take up the line of march with his company from that point. This march he performed on foot to Columbia, a distance of sixty miles, starting on the 5th of December, 1846, and reaching Columbia on the 8th day of the the same month. He proceeded thence with the company to Charleston. After being regularly mustered into service, and the regiment not be ing ready to proceed, he obtained a furlough, and returned to Columbia on the 13th December, to attend to his legislative duties. The follow ing letter was then written by him to his sister, Mrs. Esther Buford, of Chester C. H. " COLUMBIA, Dec. 14, 1846. " DEAR SISTER, I received your kind letter on my arrival yester day, from Charleston. I am well ; but the blisters on my feet, which were occasioned by marching from Chester to this place, are not yet well, and they are somewhat painful. Friends from all quarters of the state greet me whenever they see me. The Charleston people speak iu the highest terms of the Chester company. Yesterday morning, I left the company at Camp Magnolia, three miles this side of Charleston all well, except a Mr. Brakefield, who was quite indisposed from a cold taken on the route. I called at his tent before I left, and found him better. " I obtained a furlough to repair to this place to perform my duties in the legislature to the end of the session. I shall return to the camp on Saturday, the 1st proximo. " Please go to my farm and see that my negroes are well clad. Do NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 231 the best you can for me in my absence. I have an abiding hope of seeing you all again. Remember me to your daughters. " I remain, affectionately, your brother, "N.R. EAVES." The next letter in order before us is one addressed to C. D. Melton, Esq., attorney-at-law, Chester C. H., and is dated, " OFF MOBILE BAY, January 29, 1847. " DEAR SIR, I have only to say that we have encountered unpa ralleled hardships. We have been anchored in this bay one day and night, and experienced a storm yesterday and throughout last night, not equaled or surpassed in this region for twenty years back. Our sufferings are, at this time, extreme. One vesssel came in sight of us with volunteers who wished to get on board. The storm was so great they had to fly for safety. In attempting to get ashore, the small ves sel was wrecked, and they had to swim three quarters of a mile. They are this morning being placed on the Alhambra, the vessel in which the colonel and suite, with myself and four companies, are. There were one hundred and sixty persons, it is said, on board a steamboat that was blown up last night, including nearly one hundred ladies. The ladies, it is said, were nearly all saved the men nearly all lost their lives. This morning, those who witnessed the catastrophe represent it as the most awful sight they had ever seen. I am in good health. " Your s truly, N. R. EAVES." We hear nothing further of Mr. Eaves till his arrival in Mexico. His first letter written thence is addressed to his connections, Messrs. S. Alexander and C. D. Melton, and is as follows : "Loses, MEXICO, February 28, 1847. " GENTLEMEN, I have not received a letter from any one in South Carolina since I left Camp Johnson, at Hamburg. We arrived at this place on the 12th instant, and have been here ever since. We start to morrow for Vera Cruz. Forty or fifty ships will sail at the same time. The enemy have been looking and preparing for us. All the dis tinguished men of the army are here, except Generals Taylor and Worth. It is believed we shall be received with a severe struggle. La Vega is commander of that place. It is General Scott s determination to attack it, for weal or for woe, between this and the tenth of March. We expect to encounter great peril in landing, as it will doubtless be under a heavy fire from the enemy. Time must develop the result. u We have suffered since we left Hamburg more than I will here at- fcempt to describe. After we arrived at Griffin, Georgia, we had to encounter all the inconveniences of cold incident to a severe winter, until we reached Mobile. When we left that point and got aboard the ship Alhambra, we were seventeen days in crossing the gulf of Mexico, till our arrival at the place we now are. We encountered all the perils of three northers, known to be so dangerous in this region. In fact, we all thought we should be lost. One ship in our company was 232 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. lost, filled with Louisianians, about ten miles from this point, aacl between this point and Tampico. The next day we passed the wreck, and saw many Mexicans on the shore, gathering the valuables that were drifted from the ship. The poor ship-wrecked fellows all got on shore in the enemy s country, about three hundred of them, and only saved fifty of their guns. They struck for Tampico. The Mexicans heard of them, and assembled a large force ; but before they attacked them, they called on them to surrender. The officer in command asked for four hours to consider what to do. As soon as the Mexicans retired to their location, the officer caused a large number of fires to be built, with a view to delude them. As soon as the fires began to burn, he struck for Tampico, the nearest point of safety, and arrived there without being attacked by the Mexicans. " In one of our vessels, there were between five and six hundred souls soldiers and officers. We encountered every peril incident to sea-life, except a shipwreck. One poor soldier died on the voyage. We buried him on Sunday, in the usual method of burials at sea, by envi roning his body in a coarse sail-cloth shroud and a blanket tightly corded over it. To the feet were attached about 400 Ibs. of bricks. He was laid on a broad plank on the edge of the ship, and, after the reading of a solemn and impressive service, the body was plunged into the water, and went down as so much lead. I was anxious to see the last of the poor volunteer, and got a good way up on the ropes above the hull of the ship, when I witnessed the whole ceremony. " On the 12th of February we landed off the island, and, on the 13th, went on shore. It is a fairy little spot, about one mile in circumfer ence, and six miles distant from the main land. It was covered with vines and shrubbery of numberless kinds, with the India-rubber and the lime tree, together with flowers of every variety of hue, and in great abundance. The island appears to be a formation of decom posed shells, of which there are many rare and curious specimens. The climate, during the day, is intensely hot, and during the northers, which occur about every six days, and which continue to blow from one to three days, there is a continual north wind, the harshness and cold ness of which try the stoutest constitutions. After this, the weather becomes calm and serene, and the heat continues to increase in intensity until it becomes almost intolerable. Then, after about six days, another norther commences, and these variations of climate and tem perature continue until about the 15th of April. " Colonel Butler is with us, and will continue with us during our stay on this island. General Twiggs called on us yesterday, and will remain with us until to-morrow, at which time we shall all leave for Vera Cruz. He speaks of the Palmetto regiment as one of the finest he ever saw. This small island, but a few days back, was a desert wild ; now it is lined with tents, and has five or six thousand occupants. Several thousands have not landed, but remain in the vessels. Adieu! " Yours truly, "N.B. EAVES. * An anecdote is told of Mr. Eaves, which proves that the most intrepid valor is not proof against the overpowering assaults of NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 233 sickness. On the passage from Mobile bay to Lobos Island, a violent storm arose, during which most of the soldiers, including the colonel of the regiment, were very sea-sick, and retained their berths. Mr. Eaves, getting out of his, seized hold of the cabin door in order to sus tain himself, uttering as he did so some exclamations, which afforded his friends, particularly the colonel, much merriment, and which were often repeated afterwards at his expense. Not aware that he had auditors, Mr. Eaves thus soliloquized : " Here am I, N. R. Eaves, from Chester. I had friends, home and wealth, as much as any reason able man should ask, and here have I thrown myself on the mercy of a rude element that has no mercy. But give me one foot again on terra frma, and I defy creation !" It appears from a letter subsequently written to Mr. Melton, that the army did not leave Lobos Island until the 3d of March. On the 9th, the disembarkation of troops commenced ; on the 13th, the investment of the city was completed; on the 18th, trenches were opened at night; on the 22d, the city was summoned to surrender, on refusal, seven mortars opened a fire of bombs ; on the 24th, the navy battery, consist ing of three long thirty-two pounders and three sixty-eight pounders, Paixhan guns, opened a fire in the morning, distance 700 yards ; on the 25th, another battery opened a breach in the wall of the city. The fire was very destructive to the town. Early in the morning of the 26th, the enemy proposed a surrender, commissioners, on the American side, Generals Worth and Pillow, and Col. Totten. On the 29th, negotiations were completed ; the city and castle surrendered, and the Mexican troops marched out and laid down their arms. The American troops occupied the city and batteries of the town and castle. At noom of that day, the American ensign was hoisted on both, and was saluted by the American vessels. The garrison of about four thousand men, laying down their arms as prisoners of war, were sent to their homes on parole. Five generals, sixty inferior officers, and two hundred and seventy company officers, were among the prisoners. The total loss of the American army, from the day of landing, (March 9th,) was sixty- five persons in killed and wounded. The slaughter of the Mexicans was immense. The commanding general was stationed in the city, while his second in command held the castle. Their regular force was about three thou sand, arid they had about the same number of irregulars. Outside the city was General La Vega, with a force of from six thousand to ten thousand cavalry. Colonel Harney, with between two hundred and four hundred United States dragoons, charged on and repulsed this im mense force with terrible carnage, scattering them in all directions. Such was the intelligence brought by the Princeton, which sailed from Vera Cruz on the 29th March, after the surrender had taken place, bear ing dispatches to our government, intelligence which diffused joy, pride and exultation throughout all our cities and our whole Amirican popu lation. Never had a siege, undertaken under such disadvantageous cir cumstances, been attended with such glorious results. It is without a parallel in the annals of military warfare. In a letter addressed by Mr. Eaves to the late Samuel Weir 3 Esq., 234 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. of Columbia, South Carolina, a spirited account of the investment and surrender of Vera Cruz is given. The following is the letter : " VERA CRUZ, April 9, 1847. " DEAR SIR, I have but a few moments to write, but comply with my promise to write you when anything of importance occurs. We have taken this place, and also Alvarado, forty miles distant. " Had I time to give you a full description of the capture of Vera Cruz, it would interest you greatly. Laying a map of Mexico before you, you will conceive of the chaparal, from shore to shore, as lined with fifteen thousand persons. You will see a small island two miles below the city and castle. Between that island and the shore, imagine you behold fifty-odd vessels, which comprise the fleet. Half of the above number of men are put into surf-boats, forming one grand line. After these boats are filled with the required number, all strike for the shore. When the ardent souls approach within fifty feet of the land, they leap out of the boats in four feet of water, and rush to the shore with almost deafening shouts. The boats soon return for the balance of the army, to which our regiment was attached. As soon as they are all landed the line of march is formed to surround the city, keeping out of reach of its bombs and cannon-shots, as an incessant firing was com menced upon us from the time of landing. This was on the 10th of March, and we had all our cannon, munitions of war and provisions to land, and roads to cut through the roughest country your eyes ever beheld. It took us from this time to the 21st to fix the batteries and get prepared for the attack. In the mean time, the infantry had made the necessary roads, and the road was now filled, from shore to shore, two miles in extent, with living souls. During their advance, frequent skirmishes took place, when some were killed, and Colonel Dickinson and others were wounded. " The line being completed, no Mexican was permitted to go into the city or to leave it. Eumor said there were five hundred trying to get in, but they were afraid to make the attempt. About one-third of the cannons and bombs were fixed on batteries, and delay was threatening to be an evil. General Scott determined to commence an attack on the 22d March, which he did. General Worth s battery was placed six hundred yards southeast of the town, and the marine battery between this and the gulf, east of the town, and some three or four guns west of Worth s. Matters being thus arranged, we commenced a heavy and incessant fire on the town, which was kept up day and night, till the evening of the 25th, when the enemy sent out a white flag, soliciting a truce of twenty-four hours, in order to bring in their dead. The General granted them four. Early in the morning of the 26th they again com municated with General Scott, proposing to surrender the town, castle, military stores, cannon, &c., and stating that they would be prepared to make the surrender on the 29th, which accordingly they did. " I should have stated, that before we commenced cannonading and bombarding the town, the General sent in a white flag requiring them to surrender, and if not disposed to do this, requesting them to remove the women and children, and also giving an opportunity to the minis. NATHANIEL KIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 235 ters of other nations to leave. General Morales disdainfully replied to this by saying that he would not surrender, nor would he remove the women and children ; that he would defend the city with his best skill and ability so long as one particle of the materials of which it was com posed adhered to another, and then turned and walked off. The minis ters did not leave, nor the women and children. " On the night of the 22d, the soldiers having nothing to do but await the order for a charge, and the nights being clear with moonlight, 1, with hundreds of others, ascended some barren sand hills to witness the fir ing. I must say the scene was grand beyond description, each party apparently contending with the other which should shoot the most and the fastest. I became much excited at times, when it would appear that the enemy had the advantage of us ; but soon again we could see our bat teries again letting loose on them. We could see the bombs coursing through the air by the match and hear them falling on the houses and in the streets. Many houses were greatly injured, and are, at the time I now write, undergoing repairs. Such is the case with the great tavern situated on the Plaza where I am quartered. " After we had taken this city, General Quitman s division, to which the Palmetto regiment was attached, was ordered to go and take Alva- rado, forty-five miles distant. We started on the 30th March for that place, but on our arrival, found it perfectly defenceless. All had fled except a few who were friendly to us. We took thirty-four pieces of cannon and placed them on board our ship, which is still left there. We returned in eight or nine days from the time of starting from this place, and have been here ever since. The army has been marching by parcels, for several days back, to Jalapa. We expect to follow in three or four days. " I remain, yours truly, "N. R. EAVES." Mr. Eaves complains, in his letter of the 28th February, written to Messrs. Melton and Alexander, that he had received no letters from South Carolina since he left. It must have been highly gratifying to his feelings, therefore, when perhaps he began to believe himself neglected by his friends, to receive the following kind and complimentary letter from his Excellency David Johnson, then Governor of South Carolina, written in reply to a letter of Mr. Eaves, of the 22d March : "COLUMBIA, 15th May, 1847. "Mr DEAR MAJOR, Your favor of the 22d March, although written so long ago, contains so many exciting incidents that I took the liberty to give it to the press for publication, in the belief that it would be ac ceptable and interesting, not only to your personal friends but to the public generally. By me it is the more appreciated as coming from a tried friend, one who, prompted by patriotism alone, has given up all the comforts that wealth could afford, and the enjoyment of social life in the midst of numerous friends, to become the tenant of " the tented field," and breast the dangers of the battle-field. But you will have your reward. Our people, one and all, take the deepest interest in all the privations and sufferings of our gallant Palmetto regiment, and will 236 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. receive all our sons, on their return, with open arms. Old Chester will not forget her own. " Our last advices locate the Palmetto regiment at Jalapa, and the advance of the army at Perote, driving the enemy before you, or rather scattering them to the winds. Such is our confidence in our children that there is an universal regret and sympathy felt for you that you were not in a position to share in the signal and glorious vic tory of Cerro Gordo. We know, however, that it was not of your own seeking, or your own fault. It w T ould be cruel to wish it ; but if another trial of strength must come I should delight to hear that the Palmetto banner waived in the front of the storm, for I know the regi ment will prove worthy of the state they represent. " We have very little local news of interest. The most exciting is a visit from the Hon. Daniel Webster, of the Bay state. He is now here, having visited Charleston. He has received, both here and in Charleston, the attentions and courtesies due to his high attainments and character, and will go away better informed of our peculiar in stitutions, and well satisfied with the usage he has received at our hands. Of your immediate connections I have no information of re cent date, and I suppose they keep you advised of everything that con cerns themselves. The courts of appeal are now in session, and necessarily all the judges and your friends of the bar are present, all in good health and spirits, except our friend Chancellor Harper, whose health, although much improved, is not yet perfectly restored. " Pray let me hear from you frequently, at least from every stage on your route to the city of Mexico, which is understood to be your destination. Remember your friends when revelling in the halls of Montezuma. "Very truly and sincerely, " DAVID JOHNSON. " MAJOR N. R, EAVES." The next letter of Mr. Eaves which informs us of the progress of events and of the army in Mexico, is one bearing date June 3, 1847, written from Puebla, and addressed to Messrs Melton and Alexander. It is a voluminous epistle, containing a narrative of the most important events that had happened to himself and to the Palmetto regiment from the time of their leaving South Carolina up to the time when the letter was written. As an account of many of these occurrences has been given in previous letters, we shall make only such extracts from the one before us as seem to be necessary. Some misapprehension appears to have prevailed at home as to the part which the Chester company had taken in the investment and capture of Vera Cruz. Mr. Eaves, anxious to maintain the honor of that very gallant company, says of it, in the letter before us, in the way of vindication : " I see that it is the impression of the Chester people that their boys took no part in this victory. This is a great mistake. Immense work had to be done before the bombardment of the city could take place. This work was to be done during the night-time. Hence our regiment had to furnish its quota, which was one hundred men every night, and NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 237 never did men labor harder or more zealously than they did in digging ditches, and in making embankments, and forts, which were erected within six hundred yards of the city. The enemy all this time were firing on us from the city, and we literally had to dodge them, or their balls would have destroyed hundreds of our men while they were con structing roads to surround the city through immense sand hills. These sand hills are enclosed with shrubbery of every kind, while the valleys are filled with chaparal and vines, all appearing parched to death for want of rain. Now, sirs, I assert that our regiment did as much, and I say more, in preparing for the bombardment than any other part of the army, up to the time of loading and shooting the cannons, which be longed alone to the gunners of the army." In this letter we have an account of the surrender of the city, and as it is peculiarly characteristic, we shall take leave to insert here : " I was present," he says, " at the scene. As I looked around on the pretty green plain, about two miles long and one wide, lined all around with soldiers, clad in their best attire, I thought I had never witnessed a grander or more imposing sight. Scott, Worth, and the other officers of the army standing in the centre of this plain, looked as if anxiously waiting to march into the city. On the arrival of the appointed hour thirty -five hundred or more Mexicans, coming from the city, first form a line of about a mile, and after stacking their guns, form a line within the stacked guns. Presently come all the citizens, from the infant slung to its mother s back, up to the oldest, including the sick, the lame, halt, and blind, so as to include all. When I ran my eyes up the American line, grandeur, greatness, and power, occupied my thoughts. When I cast them along the Mexican line, nothing but misery and wretchedness appeared, and sorrow and pity agitated my breast. I began to regret that I had ever come so far to fight such a miserable, pitiful, and worth less people. This scene repaid me for all my sorrows, trials, and difficulties. After all the officers on both sides had advanced, and the necessary forms of surrender had been gone through with, the whole of the Mexicans were ordered to march, which they did, advancing into the country, and our army, at the same time, commenced marching into the city. They marched slowly, with five or six bands of a choice quality accompanying them. " At this period I was at a loss how to follow, as Colonel Butler was not present. Being unwell, I thought I would play old soldier on Gen. Scott and all the rest. I was neatly clad in my military habit, with polished sword and belt. As the officers passed me, I called up some twenty young men, who were well mounted, and asked them if they wished to go into the city with the first Americans who entered, and see the Mexican flag go down, and the American flag go up. They said they would do anything I ordered to get a-going. I then told them to form a line two deep. I took the head ; ordered them to march on, which they did all giving way to us, recognizing us as a guard. I halted in the Plaza, which is a long space, with extensive buildings on all sides. There I remained till the officers dismounted, and took their seats in their respective departments. I then ordered my men to march, took them through all the streets, in order to witness the destruction that had been effected, and then dismissed them to go to their respective quarters." 238 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Reasons are assigned in this letter why Mr. Eaves and the Palmetto regiment were not present at, and did not participate in, the battle of Cerro Gordo. "We returned from Alvarado," he says, "under a forced inarch, in order to overtake Generals Worth and Twiggs, who had commenced their march onward to Mexico. They had a severe fight at Cerro Gordo on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of April. We, under a hurried march, en deavored to be with them; but the battle ended on Sunday, the 19th, and we arrived there on Wednesday, the 22d, following. Gen. Scott probably intended that our regiment should remain behind, that it might serve as a rear guard, upon which the army might fall back in case of necessity. As an evidence of this, after we had taken up the line of march, he ordered our regiment to remain at a village some seventeen miles from Vera Cruz, and there wait until further orders. " I, now having leisure, rode over the entire battle-ground, and so horrible a sight 1 never before beheld. Hundreds and hundreds of dead Mexicans lay putrifying in the sun some with their legs, some with their arms, and many with their heads, gone. The scene was enough to melt with pity the most obdurate heart. I then went to the hospitals. There I saw numbers of our men who had lost their limbs some a leg, others an arm, some shot through the body, some through the thigh, others through the arm, and others again through the foot. Many of them suffered extreme agony. I went also to see the wounded Mexi cans, where similar spectacles were exhibited, except that our own men had to wait on them and feed them, as all the well Mexicans were off, being frightened almost out of their lives. There was a marked differ ence between the character of the different hospitals. The Americans were cheerful, though suffering much, while the Mexicans were greatly depressed and dispirited. Indulging my curiosity in this way, I could usually delay one or two hours, and then catch up with the army." In this letter, we have a description, from the pen of Mr. Eaves, of the great national road. " In reaching this point," he says, " we have passed over the great na tional road leading from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico. It is the most splendid work of the kind, probably, to be found in any country. It is said to have cost the Spaniards forty millions of dollars! The paving is of solid stone all the way over the mountains, being thirty feet in width throughout nearly the entire distance, with a wall of cement on each side, wherever circumstances require it. The bridges which are set over the water-courses are of a style and durability which cannot be surpassed in any country in the world." Having thus made allusion to this celebrated road, he returns, in his narrative, to Cerro Gordo. "We marched on from that point to Jalapa, Generals Scott, Worth, and others, having taken possession of it before we arrived. Jalapa is a large city, abounding with every kind of fruit. It is situated on the side of a large hill, so large that it may almost be called a mountain. All the streets are paved. We encamped two and a half miles beyond the city, on the way to Perote, where we remained several days. We then took up the line of march, intending, as we proceeded, to attack that ill-fated place where every tenth man of the Texans who were cap- NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 239 tured by the inhabitants was shot. I saw in the castle there the skulls and bones of the Texans thus killed, heaped up in a mound, in the centre of which was a cross. Perote is quite a handsome city, situated at the foot of several mountains, and near the great perpetual snow-mountain called Orizabo. " From Perote we marched to this city, Puebla, where we arrived on the 13th May, after passing through many fine villages. At Anco- zoque, twelve miles distant, Santa Anna, lying hid behind some large sand-hills, with fifteen thousand men, suffered General Worth to* pass on without interruption. His object was to attack our division, which was enfeebled by disease and forced marches up the mountains, he sup posing that we were a day s march behind Worth ; but in this he was mistaken. By pursuing our course with great expedition, night and day, we had nearly come up with General Worth s division, who, dis covering that Santa Anna was between him and us, turned upon the old fox, and soon put him and his forces to flight. Our regiment arrived in time to form a line of battle. The sight of us coming up precipitated their flight. Had we been aware that we were so near the enemy, we could have intercepted and captured Santa Anna without failure. At this battle, as he called it in his dispatches, he admitted that he had lost one hundred and fifty men, but stated, at the same time, that he had killed fifty Americans. The truth is, we lost none. " We then took up the line of march, with three thousand effective men and one thousand sick, together with wagoners and teamsters, making in all four thousand. We marched until we got within one mile of this city, and halted. Soon after this was done the citizens hoisted a white flag. This was the day of the election of President. As we passed through the city, they looked voracious enough to eat up our little band alive. I tried to make the best observation I could, and I do believe, although in this I may err, that there were eighty or a hundred thousand Mexicans present on this occasion. We got possession of the second finest city in Mexico, and have been stationed here ever since. " Puebla is the handsomest city I have seen, in or out of our government. It is about two and a half miles long and one and a-half wide. The streets are straight, and run parallel with each other. The side-walks are all elegantly flagged or paved with hewn stone. It is called the "City of Steeples." There are forty -four splendid cathedrals in the city, some of which are said to have cost ten millions of dollars. There are three hundred resident priests, whose personal appearance and dress are somewhat peculiar and worthy of note. They have upon their heads a round place from which the hair is shaved, in circumfer ence about the size of an ordinary tin cup. In some the denuded spot is smaller. Around the head, an inch above the ears, and up to this point and all below, front and rear, the hair is shaven off. At a dis tance, they look as if they had a black belt two inches wide around their heads ; and, to complete the picture, they have the body part of their hats made low and round, apparently to fit their heads close ly, with a brim a foot wide, which they bind over the crown in the centre. They wear this hat on all occasions lengthwise, front and rear. In other respects, their dress is not wholly unlike that of the priestly order in Catholic countries. I must defer giving you a description of the 240 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. cathedrals, convents, and other public edifices, to another opportunity. They are costly, and built on a scale of great magnificence. " When Santa Anna made his escape from our troops, he fled to Mexico, where he caused himself to be proclaimed president ; but in a few days his seat became so uneasy to him, that he called together the powers of the government, gave up the national keys, and announced his intention to retire to private life or leave the empire. " We will march shortly to the city of Mexico, at what time pre<- cisely I cannot say. Our fates we cannot predict, but our watchword is Onward, let come what may ! " I am in a wonderful country, and cannot understand how a popula tion of eighty thousand souls should allow an army of only three thou sand effective men to take such a populous and magnificent city as this. " Your s truly, "N. R. EAVES." The next letter of Mr. Eaves is addressed, like the preceding one, to Messrs. Melton and Alexander. It is as follows : " SAN AUGUSTIN, MEXICO, Aug, 30, 1847. " GENTLEMEN, I wrote you both by Captain Kennedy. I hope you got those letters, as they furnished a detail of facts up to our arrival at Puebla. I here send you an account of occurrences from that period to the present. " We left Puebla on the 8th of August, and, after a fatiguing march, arrived at this place on the evening of the 19th inst. The battle of Contreras was commenced by the divisions of Generals Pillow and Twiggs ; and the New- York and South Carolina regiments, which com posed the second brigade of General Quitman s division, under the command of General Shields, were sent to their support. Contreras is a strongly -fortified place, situated on a road leading to the city of Mexi co from the west, and about eight or nine miles distant from it. From this place our regiment passed through a pathless region of country, almost inaccessible, over precipices of rock that appear to have been thrown up by some volcanic eruptions, and, through a dense shrubbery, with all kinds of cactus, which made it more difficult to pass. Our regiment was on the march that night until one o clock, when a halt was made at the village of Contreras, about one mile above the battle ground, and between it and Mexico. It rained hard all night, which made it the most disagreeable night I ever experienced. I was not in the battle of Contreras with the regiment, owing to this cause : I had a horse, and not being able to ride or to lead him over the precipitous pathway, I followed on till I quite lost the route of the regiment, and it being very dark, I was injured by a fall on a cluster of cactus. Falling in with Captain Martin s artillery force, I there remained all night. " By daylight in the morning, Colonel Riley, with his regiment of rifles, and I with them, charged the enemy. They fled before the charge, and were intercepted by the Palmetto regiment, which was situated be tween Fort Contreras and the city of Mexico, about a half mile from the fort. The fort, cannon and munitions of war were soon in our pos- NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 241 session. We captured a hundred and eighty-one Mexicans, and left a hundred and twenty dead on the field. Among the prisoners of war was General Mendoza, who surrendered his sword to Colonel Butler, while the junior officers and soldiers surrendered their swords and guns to Captain Dunovant. Captain Marshall was left at this battle-ground to guard the cannon and munitions of war, and to take care of the pri soners. During his stay there, he took forty odd prisoners more. Of course, he, and those with him, were not in the subsequent battle that was fought, which they regretted exceedingly. It is said that the Pal metto regiment displayed a degree of skill and bravery in the battle at Contreras unsurpassed by any regiment in the army. I joined my regiment early that morning, before the close of the battle, and before they had prepared to commence their line of march to the subsequent battle, that of Churubusco. In this battle, all the officers and soldiers of the Chester company were engaged, and won for themselves unfading glory." Mr. Eaves, while twining round the brows of his companions in arms deserved laurels, omits, with his characteristic modesty, to refer to the part which he himself enacted on this occasion, but which, from the gallantry and coolness he exhibited, richly deserves notice, and cannot be omitted in this connection. Having to take care of the prisoners and the wounded, the Palmetto and New- York regiments were delayed and prevented from being present in season for the first attacks on Churubusco and Tete-de-Pont. They were ordered, on their arrival, to make a demonstration back of the forts and the city, where they en countered the rear-guard of Santa Anna s army. The New-York regi ment was in advance of the Palmetto, and, upon the first fire, which was very heavy, they recoiled and took shelter behind a hacienda. The South Carolina regiment came forward, formed a line, they being the left regiment, and Mr. Eaves, being a member of company B., the left company of the regiment, was thrown in a position where he could be well noticed by all who were engaged. He stepped to the left, and in advance of his company some five paces, and there, although exposed to a galling fire of seven thousand escapades, by which one-half of the Palmetto regiment fell, either killed or wounded, Mr. Eaves, still maintaining his self-possession, on each time after discharging his gun, would cock it and blow into the muzzle to ascertain if the touch-hole was clear and open, and then deliberately re-load and fire. The gallant Colonel Butler, who was the mess-mate and bosom com panion of Mr. Eaves, fell at Churubusco. It made quite a change in his camp life a change that he was entirely unprepared for. His servant Edmond, who had followed him through the campaign with the greatest fidelity, was sick. So it became necessary for the hero of this biogra phy, who has been so properly entitled " the little warrior," to mess about with his companions without any definite place for shelter. But his position was a proof of how much he had endeared himself to each member of the regiment and other officers of the army, for all claimed him as their friend, and were anxious to prove the fact by giving him the largest share of their scanty meals. Eventually he became tne mess-mate of the officers of the Chester company. They were proud that he had cast his lot among them instead of choosing for his com- 16 242 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. panions those who were higher in office and who had intreated him to partake of their fare. On the 13th of September, he was at the charge on Chapultepee. The hill and castle are surrounded by low, flat grounds, with deep ditches made there for the double purpose of defence to the castle and irrigation of the tillable lands. They are so deep that the soldiers could only pass through them with the aid of each other. It was his misfortune to be in one of the deepest of these ditches until his com panions, who had passed through by his assistance, were all on the flat lands. Forgetting that they had left him in this position, they advanced at double quick time. He strove to climb the bank, but all his efforts were vain. He then commenced wading through the mud and water, hoping by some chance to gain his regiment again. Discovering some soldiers of another regiment who had deposited themselves there for safe-keeping, he told them that " they were cowards, and unworthy the name of American soldiers," and commanded them to assist him out of his difficulty. But they were so panic-struck that they threw him out on the wrong side, when he had the mortification to see his regi ment approaching the wall at the base of the hill beneath the enemy s batteries. There he stood a target for a thousand escapades, yet re solved to die fighting. It was at this time and place that, as he raised his head to aim his musket at some one whom he thought worthy of being shot by him, a ball struck the palmetto on his cap, and passed through, slightly grazing his head and tearing private papers which he had placed in his cap for safe-keeping. When the regiment arrived beneath the wall and were secure from the enemy s fire until a breach could be made in it through which to pass, Mr. Eaves perilous position was seen by all. He was not able to proceed, and was too brave to occupy that much detested ditch, which seemed to defeat his dearest purpose, to live or die with his regi ment. But he was no sooner seen than some of his brave companions volunteered to bring him to the regiment or perish with him a pur pose which they triumphantly accomplished, but not until he was twice wounded and his clothes much torn. He reached his regiment just as the breach in the wall was made sufficiently low to be scaled, and being assisted by his companions, he was in their eagerness literally thrown over, being among the first to enter. Regaining his feet, he seized the Palmetto flag, mounted the cliff, rushed up through the castle, where, having first assisted to run up the American flag, he mounted the parapet, and with his gun in one hand and his regimental banner in the other, he stood conspicuous, waving it with the oft-repeated excla mation, " Hurra for South Carolina !" The cheering was not confined to his regiment alone, but all who saw it with one impulse joined in a long and loud huzza for the flag and the gallant spirit who bore it ! But the glories of that day were not yet ended. There were other lories to be yet achieved by that gallant army before the sun had set. carcely had the army realized the fact that the castle was theirs, when they were ordered to advance along the aqueducts, in order to charge the forts and take possession of the city of Mexico, which lay about one league distant. The gallant Quitman, who commanded the division against the Garita de Belen, to effect his object with the more certainty, NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 243 put a rifle and a musket alternately, that whilst the latter was making the charge the former might act as sharp-shooters to take the enemy from their cannon. The promptness and decision, with which the com mander s orders were executed soon rendered victory complete, and the Palmetto banner floated triumphantly in the city of Mexico two hours in advance of any other American standard. (See General Quitman s Report.) In this engagement Mr. Eaves acted with his accustomed coolness and intrepidity. His conduct was observed by Gen. Quitman, who exclaimed, " See little Eaves, how cool he is ; as though he were shooting at snipes !" When the division entered the city, it was impossible to get the heavy American cannon of Captain Drum s command over the high and well ditched fortifications of the Garita de Belen ; but there was a piece of artillery within the breastworks, placed in such a situation that the Mexicans could not get it out. Drum had but few soldiers with him, and he called upon some of the Palmetto regiment to assist him. There were two companies of the Pennsylvania regiment and the rifle regi ment present. Upon the call being made upon the Palmetto regiment, Mr. Eaves and several others obeyed the call, and assisted in adjusting the piece, and turning it upon the enemy, continued to man the piece until the ammunition was exhausted. Drum, putting his hand on the shoulder of Eaves, exclaimed, " We have given it to them !" and after leaving the cannon two or three paces, was shot in two !" After the entrance of the army into the city of Mexico, Mr. Eaves found many occasions for the exercise of his feelings of humanity and generosity. Hundreds of the wounded Mexicans lay in the streets, neglected by their countrymen and exposed to all the anguish of their sufferings without the kindly ministrations of a friend, or even the com fort of a shelter from the weather. As these instances would fall under his observation he would set about the relieving of their condition, a work in which he would often draw liberally on his own purse. In other instances he would, assuming an air of authority, compel the heartless citizens, who carelessly passed by their suffering fellows, to remove them into houses and provide for their necessities. The same promptings of generosity influenced his conduct towards his companions in arms. The sick found in him an attentive and watchful friend, who would suffer them to want for nothing which money could purchase. His purse was, indeed, at all times open to the drafts of his companions, and no one ever found his necessities disre garded. To various members of his regiment he liberally supplied the means of returning to their friends and their country, and that, too, very often without the prospect of being repaid. It was the intention of Mr. Eaves, when he left South Carolina, to return home in season to perform the duties that devolved on him as senator at the ensuing session of the general assembly. The war was now, in fact, ended. All the fighting that was to be done was over, and there was nothing, so far as the honor of his country was concerned, to detain him longer in Mexico. He accordingly applied, soon after the entrance into the city, for leave of absence for six months, which, in consideration of the circumstances, was readily granted, and he was honorably discharged. 244 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The following are the documents connected with his discharge : " CITY OF MEXICO, October 26, 1847. To CAPT. H. L. SCOTT, A. A. A. General. "SiR: I have the honor to request a furlough for six months, to enable me to return home to discharge the duties of my civil office, being Senator from Chester District, South Carolina. The legislature of that state convenes on the 4th Monday in November next, and it is important that I should be there as early as practicable. " N. R. EAVES, Private Co. B. " Palmetto Regiment." " I certify that private N. R. Eaves is the State Senator from Chester District, South Carolina ; that he has been doing duty in my company, and was present, fighting valiantly, in all the battles fought in the valley of Mexico, (except at Molino del Rey, in which the Palmetto Regi ment was not engaged,) and that he behaved with credit and distinction to himself, having been slightly wounded in four places. I therefore respectfully recommend that his request be granted. "R, G. M. DUNOVANT, Capt. Co. B. " 8. C. Volunteers." " Approved. " A. H. GLADDEN, Major Com. Pal. Reg. S. C. V. " CITY OF MEXICO, October 26, 1847." " Respectfully referred and recommended. "SAML. E. WATSON, Lt. Own. First Brig. V. D." "CITY OF MEXICO, October 26, 1847. "To CAPT. H. L. SCOTT, A. A. A. General. " It is due to N. R. Eaves, private in Company B., Palmetto Regi ment, S. C. V., to state that he is the State Senator from Chester Dis trict, and whilst discharging his duties at Columbia, S. C., in that office, a call was made by the Secretary of War upon the state for one regiment of volunteers, to serve during the war with Mexico. He left his seat in the Senate, and promptly repaired to his district and enrolled his name as a private. " From the high position he occupied, and the patriotic motives that induced him to volunteer, the field-officers were induced to place in his hands the $20,000 appropriated by the state and placed at their dispo sal. He has therefore acted in the capacity of paymaster to the regi ment. As that fund is now nearly exhausted, and feeling disinclined to see him shoulder his musket, the call for his civil services induces me respectfully to request that his petition be granted. He has been in all the battles fought in the valley of Mexico in which his regiment participated. On these occasions, he shouldered his musket, and behaved with great gallantry and bravery. " Very respectfully, "A. H. GLADDEN, Major Pal. Reg. S. C. V." " I have known Major Eaves since his arrival at Lobos, and found him always attentive to his duty, and at all times ready for any service. " D. E. TWIGGS, Br. Gen. U. S. A? NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 245 " I have commanded the Palmetto Regiment at all the battles fought in the valley of Mexico, and can vouch for the bravery and gallantry of Major Eaves in all those battles, as well as for his good conduct on all occasions. " JAMES SHIELDS, Brig. Gen" " Respectfully referred and recommended. "SAML. E. WATSON, Lt. Col. Com. 1st Brig. Vol. Div." "Recommended by " J. A. QUITMAN. Maj. Gen? " Honorably discharged, " By command of Major-General SCOTT." " H. L. SCOTT, A. A. A. General. * " Head-quarters of the Army, October 26, 1847." "NATIONAL PALACE, MEXICO, October 28, 1847. " MAJOR EAVES, Sir : Allow me to take the liberty, now that you are about to leave for your native land, to present to you my heart felt regret at your departure. " A companion and soldier, one who has shared all the perils and fatigues of this campaign, cheerful under every sky, and foremost in every engagement! 1 am certain, sir, you have nobly represented your district and state, and I trust a grateful country will respect your patriotic disposition. " With great respect, " Your friend and servant, " N. J. WALKER, Capt. Co. K, S. C. F." Shortly after receiving his discharge, Mr. Eaves embarked for South Carolina, via New-Orleans. Upon his arrival in Columbia, at night, a torchlight procession was formed, and he was conducted through the city in triumph. The legislature being then in session, the Senate, of which he was a member, adopted, on the next day, a report and resolutions highly complimentary to him. The following is the report of the Senate committee to whom were referred the documents and correspondence connected with his discharge : " The Committee on the Military and Pensions, to which was refer red certain documents in relation to the Honorable N. R. Eaves, sub mits the following report : " The committee have given the subject referred due deliberation: The documents show, that in December last, the Honorable N. R. Eaves was the Senator in the present General Assembly from Chester District ; which fact comes within the knowledge of your committee, and of the whole Senate: that he united himself as a private in the company of the Palmetto Regiment raised in Chester, his native dis trict,* and, although in affluent circumstances, and arrived to an age when military service is not required by law, he cheerfully submitted * In this the committee were in error. As already stated, Mr. Eaves was a native of Virginia. ED. 246 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to all the privations and dangers of a perilous and harrassing campaign. He was entrusted with^the responsible duty of disbursing the appropri ation of twenty thousand dollars, made by this state for the use of the Palmetto Regiment, and from this and other considerations, service in the ranks was not exacted. Voluntarily and from his own impulsive and chivalrous nature, he shouldered his musket and fought in the ranks as a private, in every battle in which his regiment was engaged in Mexico. At Vera Cruz, at Contreras, at the bloody fields of Churu- busco, Chapultepec, and the Garita, he was found in the front rank, leading on the advance, cool, collected and brave. " Such patriotic devotion in one of its own members deserves the special notice of this Senate. " Your committee recommend that the documents referred be entered on the journals of the Senate, as a tribute of regard for patriotism and public virtue. " Respectfully submitted, " JOHN BUCHANAN, Chairman" When the venerable president of the Senate, Angus Patterson, rose to read the resolutions, the Senate chamber was crowded to the utmost extent of its capacity. The scene was an exceedingly inter esting one. Mr. Eaves, anxious to take his seat in the Senate cham ber, was, as we have seen, one among the first to return from Mexico after the war was over ; and his presence again in the Senate chamber, after an arduous and glorious campaign in a foreign land, in which the chivalry of the state was triumphantly vindicated by the Palmettoes, coupled also with the mournful reflection that the blood of a Butler, a Dickinson, and a host of others equally patriotic, had sealed their devo tion to their beloved state, altogether produced an excitement, and gave rise to emotions of no ordinary character. Mr. Eaves responded in terms very graceful and delicate. "He thanked the Senate," he said, "for the very cordial manner in which he had been welcomed again to his seat in that body. After the hard campaign, in which the American troops had been engaged, to be thus met on their return to their native land, was grateful to that sensibility so natural on such an occasion. In entering the service of his country, he had done what he conceived to be his duty. A call had been made by the Federal Government upon the State of South Carolina for a regiment to be engaged for the war. He regarded the honor of the state as involved, and that the call should be responded to promptly. The state had been traduced, and we had been jeered as par excellence the chivalry. When the opportunity therefore was presented to her people to vindicate their title to the just renown emblazoned on the pages of their history, it found him ready. The promptitude with which the call was met, was in the remembrance of all. How the Pal metto Regiment performed its duty, history will tell. Its decimated ranks and orphan condition told a tale more eloquent than anything he could say. He left it to others to fill up that picture which would sparkle amid the lustre of those achievements which adorn our history." He concluded by again thanking the Senate for the kindness they had manifested towards him. NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 247 Mr. Eaves had then to encounter a storm of congratulations from his surrounding friends, which was equal in intensity to that which he faced at Churubusco, though of a far different and more agreeable kind. His excellency. Governor Johnson, was among the first of his dis tinguished friends to welcome him on his return. The following note was addressed to him by that high functionary on the occasion : " MY DEAR MAJOR, Welcome, thrice welcome back to us ! I want to see you much ; but I learn that you are so surrounded by inquiring friends, that I fear there is no hope of having that quiet communion with you that I wish to-night. How are you 1 ? How are your gallant com panions 2 Where are they ? " Very sincerely, " DAVID JOHNSON. " UNITED STATES HOTEL, Monday Evening." The warm reception which this brave man met with from his excel lency, the governor, and from the legislature, was not more gratifying to his feelings than that which awaited him from the people at large. His entire career in Mexico was known to all and applauded by all. From the mountains to the sea-board there was but one sentiment felt and expressed as to his merit. But nowhere was his welcome more cordial and enthusiastic than in the district he represented, old Chester. He had performed his duty nobly, and the state was not only delighted to see him return, unscathed by the numberless perils through which he had passed, but seemed desirous to evince their gratitude and admira tion by bestowing upon him some signal honor, as a reward for his ser vices. He was accordingly, in various sections of the state, almost simultaneously, on his arrival home, nominated by the press for the office of governor ; and there can be but little doubt, if the election had come on when the popular enthusiasm was at its height, that he would have been elected to the office by an overwhelming vote ; and there can be as little doubt, that had he been elected when the contest did come on, his practical good sense and executive abilities would have qualified him to discharge the duties of the gubernatorial function to the entire satisfaction of the people of the state. The relations which the South then sustained to the Federal Government were of a delicate nature, and wore a threatening aspect \ and there were those who feared that the impetuosity of Mr. Eaves temperament unfitted him for the crisis. Others, again, were influenced by an aversion, common to the people of the state, of bestowing the gubernatorial office as a reward for military services. That his election was anticipated and desired by the whole body of the Palmetto Regiment, then in Mexico, is evident from the tenor of the following letters, with the introduction of which we shall close this rather prolix narrative : "SAN ANGEL, MEXICO, January 13, 1848. "MY DEAR FRIEND: I had thought you would have written me be fore this, but I suppose you are determined to treat me with the same indifference that my other friends do. * I am told that you met with a cordial and warm reception at home 248 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and that every body was glad to see you. You richly deserve to "be esteemed and honored by your whole country for the gallant services rendered by you on the battle-fields, and I hope that your name will be handed down to posterity as one of the heroes of Churubusco, and Chapultepec and Garita. "The boys frequently talk about you, and re gret that your civil duties called you away from among us. They frequently ask me if I think the state will recompense you for your trials and sufferings, by making you governor, or sending you to Con gress. I tell them that I think she will. * * * " I remain, very respectfully, " R. G. M. DUNOVANT." The above letter, it will be seen, was written by Captain Dunovant, from Mexico, shortly after Mr. Eaves arrived in South Carolina. The following, from Lieutenant Walker, was written about three months later : "SAN ANGEL, MEXICO, 2lst March, 1848. " DEAR MAJOR, I am just contemplating and trying to fathom how many honors you have, how many you have received, and how many more you are entitled to receive. We hear some news in regard to you occasionally, and it is quite good, to be sure, but I think they seem to be rather slow in awarding honors in a mariner to be felt as lasting and important to one who has devoted so much of his time to the best interests of his district; one who, when the call of his country was heard, was ready to throw off honor, wealth, and ease, to engage in the capacity of a soldier, and who, in the short space of twelve months or less, has passed, with distinction, through four of the bloodiest battles on record. If services like these do not entitle a man to the highest gift in the state, what can he do to entitle him to such honors "? To this I can only answer, that it is perhaps requisite that he be a representa tive of the lower part of the state. " When your friends speak of you why do they not do it with more energy, with more zeal, and speak to be understood ? Yet there are some omens of good, and one of the strongest of these is, that we do not hear you spoken of for the governorship in one or two districts, but it comes in letters from every district in tJie state, and all that is wanting is more heat. In all probability there is enough of that at home, though not sufficient to satisfy your friends here. " The boys are all well and in good spirits, but we miss you very much. The days and nights are tolerably long at times, and if we had your company it would be a great assistance in making time glide by. I wish, if there is no hope of our getting home soon, that you would keep the young ladies from marrying until we do return ; and also in form us, by some means, what you are doing with them for us. But I must inform you of a slander that Major Mat. has put out on you. He says you are trying to marry yourself, and if that is the case I fear you will not do much for your friends. How is it ? And, by the way, I should like to have you write, for you best know just what would please us. NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 249 "Captain Brooks says, By Ned, Eaves shall be governor! He sends his best respects to you. Major Dunovant ditto, and all the boys unite in sending their best wishes to you. " Your obedient servant, "J.T.WALKER." We find among the numerous documents connected with Mr. Eaves, campaign in Mexico, a series of letters in relation to a certificate of merit to which he was entitled, but which, having not been filed in the office of the secretary of war, or if placed there, having been lost or mislaid, has unfortunately, up to this time, not been recovered. The facts are briefly these : General Scott, after the battles in Mexico, issued an order directing the captains of companies each to report two soldiers of his company who were most worthy of distinction. In accordance with this order Captain Dunovant, of company B., Palmetto regiment, reported Mr. Eaves to General Quitman, as having especially distin guished himself during the campaign, and General Quitman, as is sup posed, reported him in like manner to General Scott. But Mr. Eaves having left Mexico before the army was disbanded did not receive his certificate of merit. Considering himself, however, as entitled to it, he made application for it through his friends, supposing that a copy of ib would be found on file in the office of the secretary of war. Among those friends who interested themselves in this matter was Lieutenant D. D. Baker, of the marines, in service in Mexico, a gallant officer, who was promoted to a captaincy after the battle of Chapultepec. We have from him the following letter : 41 PORTSMOUTH, N. H., Feb. 15, 1848. " MY DEAR OLD SOLDIER, I was in Washington a few days ago, and made inquiries at the office of the adjutant-general for your certificate of merit, but was informed it had not been received at that office. I have no doubt it will be forthcoming in due time. It gave me great satisfaction to hear from you, both on the account of your good health and also the flattering manner in which your fellow-citizens received you on your arrival home. I am sure that nothing in the way of notice can equal your merits, for a more gallant and devoted soldier on the field I never saw. I send you herewith a note from the office of the adjutant-general, about your certificate of merit. " Believe me to be your friend and fellow-soldier, " D. D. BAKER." The following is the note from the adjutant-general, referred to in the above letter of Captain Baker : " ADJUTANT-GENERAL S OFFICE, "WASHINGTON, July 19, 1848. " DEAR SIR, In returning herewith the letter of Mr. Eaves, I respect fully inform you that not a single recommendation in favor of volunteers for certificates of merit, under the 7th section of the act of March 3, 1847, has been received at this office. The orders of Major-General Scott, alluded to by Mr. Eaves, have been referred to, and are such as 250 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. he represents, but what action, if any, was taken under them, I regret my inability to say. The law referred to, I had supposed, did not em brace the volunteer service. For, if otherwise, it would present the incongruity of one of the subalterns of a company of volunteers receiv ing his commission from the president of the United States, while the others, the captains and field-officers, derive their commissions from the governor of the state. " I am, dear sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " K. JONES." There are numerous others letters of correspondence on this subject, which are omitted. It is certain that the order of General Scott to the captains of companies, volunteers as well as regulars, to report those who had, in their respective companies, most signally distin guished themselves, was promptly obeyed by the captain of the com pany to which Mr. Eaves was attached, and that he was singled out and reported as being the most worthy of the certificate of merit. To the soldier nothing is dearer than his honor, and nothing more gratify ing to his feelings than the having his merit duly recognized and ac knowledged, and it is much to be regretted that, so richly deserving the meed of praise awarded him, he has been unable to obtain its formal acknowledgment in a "certificate of merit." We are happy to find that the opinion we expressed, in the earlier part of this sketch, of the legal character and attainments of Mr. Eaves is fully sustained by the opinions of a gentleman of great worth, who has long known him intimately. " The success," he says, " which has attended him in the practice of his profession has been far beyond that which ordinarily falls to the lot of those who have made the law their study. Without having a high reputation as a learned lawyer, he nevertheless, by the assiduity and perseverance with which he managed every case entrusted to him, se cured a lucrative practice. Men who entertained no very exalted opi nion of his legal attainments were willing to entrust their interests with him, knowing that, if anything would be made in the progress of the cause, his diligence and untiring efforts would be sure to accomplish it. Like a cork on the water, if put down in one place, he would be certain to rise in an another. His success, in a great measure, is to be attributed to the extraordinary industry and untiring devotion he invariably brought to the management of every cause in which he has been en gaged, no matter how unimportant it may be. Slow to announce an opinion at first, he would, when engaged in the cause, apply the whole powers of his mind to its thorough examination, and never rest until he had completely mastered it. His great knowledge of human nature has enabled him to command success where other men would have failecL The precise adaptation of the means to the end has secured him many triumphs. Oftentimes, in cases of great doubt and difficulty, when the law s delay would have given him time, he seldom failed, at the last moment, to seize upon and present something that would be de cisive of the issue. If he could not carry his point by a coup de main, he was very certain to do so by slow and regular advances." NATHANIEL RIDLEY EAVES, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 251 Another friend, who knew him equally well, having pursued his legal studies under his direction, and who is every way competent to judge, says of him : " Mr. Eaves is not so much to be judged "by his conver sational talents, his forensic powers, or his skill as a writer, as by the happy adaptation of himself to the circumstances under which he has passed his entire career." Mr. Eaves was never married ; but one of the most pleasing traits in his character is its tenderness, liberality, and gallantry, to the fair and better sex, particularly to the widow and orphan, and to those who are in any kind of distress. No man is more consistent in his friendships. Once a friend he is always one never abandoning an acquaintance so long as he retains merit, and often adhering to him even after others have forsaken him. With all his wealth and success at the bar, he is free from pride and an aristocratic temper, being equally the friend of the poor and the rich, and disposed to treat all with justice and humanity, without regard to their station. If he has his partialities, they lean, and justly, too, rather to the side of the feeble and unfortunate than to that of the strong and prosperous. He is especially kind to those who are indebted to him, and against whom he has claims of a long standing. He prefers aban doning the claim and releasing the debtor, to subjecting him to distress and inconvenience. If he were to meet an old acquaintance in China in destitute circumstances, he would greet him with cordiality, and relieve his necessities. Notwithstanding his remarkable generosity, he has ac cumulated a large fortune by his industry, which he does not hoard up, but devotes to useful ends and public improvements, particularly to the improvement of the place where he lives, with whose interests and pros perity he is so closely identified, that to destroy him w r ould be to de stroy the very elements of the society around him, of which he forms the soul and centre. But he is not known only at home favorably. There is scarcely an individual in the state to whom his name is not fa miliar ; and he could not go into any village or town in South Carolina where his presence would not be welcomed with cordiality. Upon the whole, Mr. Eaves, if not a great man, is a useful one. What he lacks in genius is better supplied by common sense want of a knowledge of books, by a knowledge of the world, and by a shrewd insight into the springs of human action. A man that has succeeded as he has done must be judged by results ; and judged by that rule he must, as he does, possess moral and intellectual worth. Rich in wealth, he is far more rich in honor and integrity. He has the simplicity of a child and the boldness of a lion. He is a man of undoubted courage and a keen sense of honor. Nothing would induce him to do a mean action. In fine, we shall sum up all his good qualities by affirming that he is an honest man, and that he is fairly entitled, in the judgment of his cotemporaries, to that patent of nobility to which the poet refers whea he says : " An honest man s the noblest work of God." 252 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. HON. SAMUEL A. BROWN, OF JAMESTOWN, NEW- YORK. IT was remarked by Dr. Johnson, the celebrated moralist, sage, and biographer of the last century, " that there has scarcely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not have been useful." Believing in the truth of this opinion, expressed by one of the greatest and best of men, the writer of this narrative takes pleasure in presenting a few incidents in the life of one, who, by industry, perseverance, tem perance, and integrity, has attained an honorable distinction among his brethren of the profession. Samuel A. Brown, the subject of this memoirj was the youngest of seven children, and was born at Hebron, Tolland county, Conn., on the 20th of February, 1795. At the commencement of the Revolution, his father, Daniel Brown, was a merchant in Hebron, but on account of the deranged and uncer tain state of mercantile business, he changed his profession, and in June, 1775, volunteered his services in behalf of his country. Commissary- General Trumbull gave him a temporary clerkship in his department, with the assurance that he should be promoted, and on the 17th of June committed to his charge a wagon-load of rum, which he delivered, as he was commanded, to the fatigued and exhausted soldiers at Bunker-Hill. This acceptable offering the worn-out but not dispirited militia received gladly, and, breaking in the heads of the casks with the butt-end of their guns, partook freely of the invigorating beverage, to prepare them for the bloody conflict which immediately ensued. This clerk in the de partment was soon after commissioned by the Continental Congress as deputy commissary-general, with the rank and pay of colonel, which office he held for more than five years, a part of the time attached to Putnam s division, but most of the time to General Green s. When he retired from the army, a country, grateful for services, but bankrupt in money, could pay only in continental paper, or " public securities," the latter of which he fortunately chose, as the former, in the event, became worthless, and the latter, after the adoption of the constitution, and the establishment of a regular government, were sold at a premium. With the aid of these " securities," and the income of a farm of about one hundred acres, on which he settled at the close of the war, he was enabled to give his children a respectable education. Daniel B. Brown, the eldest son, graduated at Yale College in 1799, read law with Gould & Sill, of Whitesborough, and settled at Batavia, Genesee county, New- York, in 1804, and died in 1822, at the age of 41 years. He held the office of master in chancery and district attorney of that county, and was distinguished for his legal erudition, for his lite rary and scientific acquirements, for strict integrity, elegance of man ners, public spirit, and charity. The father kept an exact account with his son, and ascertained that his collegiate and law education cost four hundred pounds, Connecticut currency, or 81,333 33. He therefore fixed on this amount as the sum to be given to each of his children, sons SAMUEL A. BROWN", OF NEW- YORK. 253 and daughters alike, not as a debt, but as a portion, with the privilege of expending it in such manner as their judgment might direct. The subject of this memoir received a good common-school education in his native parish ; then he pursued Latin and other studies, under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. Bassett, for about two years ; after which he learned the art of surveying, being taught by George Gillett, Esq., after wards surveyor-general of Connecticut. While pursuing Latin, he trav eled on foot daily more than two miles to recite, boarding at home, and rendering many services to his parents. When he was not at school, he was industriously engaged on his father s farm, an employment which was pleasing to him, and useful then and in after life. Eeared in the land of " steady habits," in a rural parish, (Gilead,) inhabited by free holders, each owning a farm of from fifty to one hundred and fifty acres, some of which had been occupied for three successive generations, with one congregational church, one store, and a temporary tavern for mili tary parades and other public occasions, he never acquired, through the influence of vicious associates, a habit of idleness or dissipation, for his days were spent in manly labor, his evenings in useful study, and his Sabbaths in learning the will of God to man, as revealed in his oracles of truth. Having arrived at the age of eighteen years, the subject of this me moir became tried in deciding upon the avocation to be pursued during life. On the one hand, his second brother* and his kind and endeared parents were anxious that he should be a farmer, and retain the home stead, and be their stay and staff in their declining years, while on the other, his three brothers, two of them lawyers, and the other a physician,f all settled in the State of New- York, and all in very successful and prosperous business, were urging him to choose some profession ; and between the two, after much reflection, he chose the study of the law. The sad and painful hour had now arrived when it became necessary for this youth to bid farewell to beloved parents, two affectionate sisters, and a home which had been " the seat of domestic joys," and seek a se cond home in a land of strangers and in a wilderness world. On his way west, it became necessary for him to get a judge s order, for the purpose of getting the time he pursued classical studies in Con necticut allowed, to the end that his law clerkship should be but five in stead of seven years. He accordingly called on Chancellor Kent, at Albany, then chief justice of the state, who swore him to the truth of Dr. Bassett s certificate of study. This was his first oath ; and the youth ful Greek, when ushered into the presence of Mentor, could not have felt more veneration for his teacher than did this novitiate in the law, in * Mr. Thomas Brown was a fanner, in Hebron, Tolland county, Connecticut, where he amassed quite a fortune, being the wealthiest of the family, which shows that farming is often a surer source of wealth than a profession, and that property can be acquired on granite hills as well as on western prairies, or where providence " showers down her golden sands." He died in 1851, at the old paternal mansion, aged sixty-eight years. t Dr. Ephraim Brown settled at Bat avia, New- York, had a very extensive prac tice, and for a time held the office of president of the Medical Society of that county. He fell a victim to his unremitting desire to be useful to himself and to his fellow- beings, and died of a pulmonary complaint in 1826, at the age of thirty-nine years. 254 SKETCHES OP EMINENT AMERICANS. beholding, for the first time, the face of that great and distinguished jurist. In August, 1813, his name was entered as a student at law in his brother s office, at Springfield, Otsego county, New- York. The die was now oast th farm was now left in the back ground and forgotten ; and the young student, with a fixed and oneness of purpose, looked forward with pleasing anticipation to the time when his name should be enrolled as a member of one of the learned professions, and be permitted to en ter the list as a competitor for honorable distinction and fame. A bet ter office could not have been chosen. This brother had a well-selected and pretty extensive library, was in good business, insomuch that the student, by copying his law papers, could become familiar with practice; and besides the principal felt the responsibility of his trust, and rigidly examined daily his youthful charge, which is a duty too often neglected by lawyers in extensive practice. He continued in this office more than three years, and during the latter part of his clerkship did considerable business in justices courts as a pettifogger a practice which we think is beneficial to a student, if Blackstone and Kent are not thereby ne glected. In the winter of 1813 and 14, he taught school three months in a pleasant district in Springfield, called " Continental." pleasantly situated at the head of Otsego Lake, and so called from the fact that General Sullivan and his army encamped there in his Indian excursion in 1779. Mr. Brown, though he took the place of a teacher, whom the scholars first, and afterwards the trustees had turned out of school, has always spoken of his three months term as a pedagogue with pleasure, confi dently believing that he taught an excellent school and gave universal satisfaction, and that his patience and diligence would have fitted him well for an instructor of youth, had he not chosen another profession. He has often remarked that he never enjoyed a winter better than while boarding around among the wealthy farmers of the district and teaching school in Continental. In the fall of 1814, it was believed that the British meditated an at tack on Sacket s Harbor, and a draft of the Otsego militia was made, with orders to march to its relief, at which time the subject of this me moir was drafted. He was strongly urged to avoid the draft by re turning to his native state, but patriotism would not suffer him to heed the treasonable counsel. Himself a democrat of the Jeffersonian school, reared in that school and taught by a beloved father, (who had often represented his town in the Connecticut legislature, when the demo cratic party succeeded,) that its principles were right, he was constrained by a sense of duty to obey his country s call. With knapsack and blanket on his back, he and the other soldiers marched on foot to Utica, about thirty miles, and there joined a company composed of drafted men, drew their rations of sea biscuit and beef, and with this hard fare they set their faces towards the Harbor. The season was wet and stormy, the road from Utica to Lowville intolerably bad, and their only lodging was in barns or on the floors of taverns ; yet, notwith standing these hardships and privations, this youthful soldier performed his tour of duty, and returned only when his country gave him leave. In the fall of 1816, another trial awaited him more severe and SAMUEL A. BROWN, OF NEW- YORK. 255 anxious than when he left his paternal roof. He was then about to leave his brother s office to seek a permanent home in the western world, where a wild field was said to be opened for enterprise. But before we proceed any further, we hope it will not be digressing too much to make brief mention of a brother, from whom the subject of this sketch received so much kindness and aid. The Hon. Henry Brown was a graduate of Yale College, and read law successively with his brother, Daniel B. Brown, of Batavia, Howel and Greig of Canandaigua, Dickinson, of Troy, and Van Vechten, of Albany, and settled in Otsego, in 1810. "When a convention was called in 1821, to amend the constitution of New- York, he was nomi nated by the democratic party of Otsego county as one of its delegates to represent that county in the convention ; he however resigned in favor of the Hon. Martin Van Buren, late President of the United States, who was elected in Otsego, as his own county (Columbia) was so strongly tainted with federalism it would not have returned him. After the new constitution was adopted he was appointed first Judge of Herkimer county, the duties of which office he ably and faithfully dis charged. He afterwards removed to Batavia, and while there wrote the history of Anti-Masonry in one volume, as connected with the ab duction of Wm. Morgan. In 1836, he moved to Chicago, and opened an office there, devoting business hours to his profession, and his leisure time in writing the History of Illinois, which he completed in one vol ume, in 1844. Judge Brown died with the cholera, in 1849. The subject of this memoir, in 1816, with but eighty dollars in his pocket, set out on horseback to discover the El Dorado in the west, which was drawing so many young men from their eastern homes. With anxious and inquiring mind he traveled over a part of the Wes tern Reserve and along the lake shore as far westasPainsville,and found to his mortification and regret that the lawyers in Ohio were not receiv ing as high fees nor doing as much business as those in New- York, and therefore, after taking a "sober second thought," he resolved to retrace his steps. He accordingly turned backward, (an incident which, per haps, ought not to be mentioned in a lawyer s history,) and directed his course to a place called the Rapids, so called from the fact that the outlet of Chautauque Lake had a very strong current there, which would seem to indicate to the scrutinizing mind of a yankee, that water machinery, with its accompaniments houses, stores, shops and churches would ere long be erected there. He stopped here and resolved in his mind the anxious inquiry, Shall this be my future home ? Shall I fore go for a season the pleasures of eastern society, refinement and luxury, and settle down in this lonely spot ? We speak with confidence when we say, that there is no period in the life of a professional man more embarrassing and anxious than when he casts himself upon the wide world, perhaps with small or no pecuniary means, and among strangers, and for the first time makes the momentous inquiry, Shall this be my home 1 ? Jamestown, which is situated on said rapids, about twenty miles from Mayville, the county seat, at that time had no post-office, and did not contain more than ten or twelve houses, not one of which was painted or plastered. The tall pines stood in awful majesty waving their 256 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. cloud-capped tops to the wind; exposing a portion of the dwellings by their fall, the time-enduring stumps seemed to present a perpetual barrier to agricultural improvement, while their branches and tops, in many places piled up mountain high, presented obstacles more difficult to pass than a Mexican chaparal. Notwithstanding the forbidding ap pearance of the place, Mr. Brown resolved to stay, at least for a time, for he foresaw that the water power would make it a place of business, and he knew that industry and perseverance would subdue the rugged face of nature ; and besides all this, the tedium of loneliness and sus pense was relieved by two retainers of five dollars each, in as many days. At the November term he was admitted as an attorney and counselor- at-law in the court of Common Pleas, of the county of Chautauque, having attained his 21st year the February previous. In 1817, he pur chased five village lots, which he still owns and occupies, of the Hon. James Prendergast, the patron of the village, his early and constant friend, on which he soon after erected an office. The next year he was licensed as an attorney of the Supreme Court at the city of New- York, and was appointed a justice of the peace, which was a source of some profit to him. In March, 1819, he was married to Miss Prudence O. Cotes, the daughter of Captain John Cotes, an innkeeper and farmer of Springfield, and a sister of John Cotes, his brother-in-law, a physician and surgeon of high standing, of Batavia, New- York, and immediately repaired with his wife to Jamestown. A house could not be rented, and board was very indifferent, on which account the rear room of the office, fourteen by sixteen feet, was used for a kitchen, bed-room and parlor, until a house could be erected and finished. In those days wives were not ladies, according to modern customs^ but helpmates and com panions. In 1824, Mr. Brown was nominated as a candidate for the assembly, on the Clintonian ticket, which party had been in the minority by a pretty large vote. Judge Mixer, the Bucktail candidate, received 1250 ancl Mr. Brown 1248 votes, being the closest election ever had in the coun ty. In 1 826, the same candidates ran again, when Mr. Brown obtained a majority of 70 over his former competitor, and in 1827 took his seat in the legislature. Though Mr. Clinton was elected governor, yet, in the house, his political friends were greatly in the minority. Mr. Brown was the youngest member in the house but one, and though a seat in a legislative body ordinarily should not be sought by a young lawyer, yet, as the laws were thoroughly revised at that session, it was of last ing benefit to one wishing to become thoroughly conversant with statute law. During this session, petitions without number were sent to the legis lature, praying for the passage of a law to tax the lands of the Holland company for roads and bridges as high as those of the settlers. Wil liam Willinck, and others, commonly known by the name of the Hol land Company, had purchased 3,300,000 acres of land, situated in Western New- York, which embraced the whole of Chautauque county, containing about 800,000 acres. The company, their agents, and sub- agents, had amassed princely fortunes from the rise of land, which had increased in value, principally by the toil of the settlers. On this pur- SAMUEL A. BROWN, OF NEW-YORK. 257 chase, the tax to improve the roads and bridges was extremely onerous on the residents. Each town had a right by law to raise 250 dollars on property for roads and bridges, which tax wits raised on property, and of this the company paid their share, but the settlers had a heavy road-tax to pay beside. This state of things was manifestly unjust. The wealthy aristocracy of the state had always opposed the passage of such a law as the settlers asked for, and thus far had succeeded. N The company did not pay a military tax, w r hich, of course could not be im posed, while the settlers paid yearly a heavy tax by way of militia trainings. Under such circumstances, Mr. Brown was constrained by a sense of duty he owed his constituents, to take a bold and fearless stand. He addressed the house for about an hour in an able speech, which was extensively circulated, and which was not without its influence, for the bill at this session was so strongly urged by its friends, that it became a law, and it has remained in full force to this day. Mr. Brown was chairman of the committee of the whole, during the able debates, when the bill for the relief of the settlers in Putnam and Dutchess counties was under consideration. The lands in question had been confiscated during the Revolutionary war for the toryism of the supposed owner, and sold by the state, which title proved to be defect ive. John Jacob Astor purchased the rights of the real owners in Eng land, and brought ejectment suits, and recovered in the United States court. To quiet the reasonable claims of the settlers, their bill was passed, which gave Mr. Astor 400,000 dollars. It is, perhaps, worthy of a passing remark, that in the House of As sembly of the Empire State, composed of one hundred and twenty- eight members, three, namely General Root, the speaker ; Mr. White,, of Madison county, and Mr. Brown, were all born and raised in He bron, a second-rate town in Connecticut. In 1828, Mr. Brown was appointed by the judges of the court of Common Pleas district attorney for the county for three years, which office he held for ten successive years, under three different appoint ments. The duties of the office were ably, fciithfully and impartially discharged by him, which accounts for the fact, that he was appointed by a court opposed to him in politics. Mr. Brown always investigated the case of the prosecution with as much care and attention as he would that of a client in a civil action, and was ever cautious to prevent bills from being found when he was convinced that they would not traverse. By this means the county was saved expense, and innocent men were not harrassed with groundless accusations. Mr. Brown often sat up till two in the morning to draw indictments, and spent the whole of the following day in trying them. He was often called upon to try indict- dictments of a peculiar character. The county was in a flourishing condition, and many mills had been erected to supply its wants and promote its happiness. These often overflowed acres of land, which caused the timber and shrubbery to die, the decaying of which threw out a poisonous miasma, occasioning much distressing and mortal sickness. These ponds became nuisances in law, and the owners were indicted, to the end that the dams might be abated. Tne trials generally occupied from three to five days, and often from forty to sixty witnesses were ex amined, half a score of whom were medical men, differing in their views, 17 258 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. (for doctors sometimes disagree,) all of which required the greatest de gree of patience, assiduity and skill on the part of the prosecuting attorney. But the most exciting indictment tried by Mr. B. was that of Joseph Damon for murder, which was the first trial of the kind in the county. The prisoner had been to a neighboring village, where he got a jug of whisky, and returned home, its contents not entirely exhausted, and with the malignity of a fiend inflicted seven blows with an iron poker, any three of which would have been mortal, on the head of a weak and feeble woman, humbled by an habitual fear of her husband, and accus tomed to tremble at his approach. He was ably defended by Mr. Mullett, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court, on the ground of insanity, but the trial resulted in his conviction, and he was executed in May, 1835. Mr. Brown held the office of master in chancery for 20 years, having received five commissions, each of which came to him from governors opposed to him in politics, excepting Clinton and Seward. To be eligi ble to the office of district-attorney or master-in-chancery, it was neces sary that the incumbent should be of the degree of counsel in the Su preme Court, and it is no discredit to the integrity and ability of Mr. Brown, when the reader is informed that there were from thirty to forty lawyers in the county, most of whom were counselors. In 1828, the Cherry Valley company purchased of the Holland company all the unsold lands in certain towns in the county, and Mr. Brown had the agency of 40,000 acres, with unlimited power to sell. All of these lands are not yet sold, and there is a large debt still remaining unpaid. In the list of principals were the Honorable Levi Beardsley, for eight years a state senator ; the Hon. Daniel Cady, one of the justices of the Supreme Court ; Hon. James O. Morse, first judge of Otsego county ; and Alvin Steward, Esq., and other individuals dis tinguished for wealth, talents and integrity. Mr. Brown has ever cau tioned his students, and other young lawyers, if they wished to attain a high st&niing in their profession, never to engage in any vocation that would infringe upon their legitimate duties as lawyers. But the quiet em ployment of a land-agent he never considered as belonging to this class. Mr. Brown, for twenty years past, has held the responsible trust of director and attorney for the Chautauque County Bank, and no institu tion in the state has sustained a fairer reputation, or been conducted on fairer principles than this. In 1843 he wrote the history of the county, (and no person was bet ter qualified, as he had lived to see its population increase from four to fifty thousand,) giving a faithful account of the dangers, diffi culties and disappointments the pioneers encountered in settling a new country, and presenting a practical and statistical view of the physical, political and moral improvements which had been effected by the per severance and industry of her inhabitants a work which is sought for and relied on as a correct and faithful narrative. In 1843, Mr. Brown was nominated for the assembly at a whig con vention, but he and all the whig candidates were defeated by the union of the democratic and "people s party," the majority against the regular whig nominees varying from seven votes to nine hundred the majority against Mr. Brown being less than that of any other can didate on the ticket. SAMUEL A. BROWN, OF NEW-YORK. 259 In 1844 Mr. Brown was again nominated by the whigs, and was elected by a large majority. The session of 1845 was not one of any great interest. A strong effort was made to divide the county, which Mr. B. constantly opposed ; and the state loan of $3,000,000 to the New- York and Erie Rail-road was released on certain conditions ; Mr. Brown, before committees and on all proper occasions, using his influence to obtain the release, as the road was of vital importance to his constituents, passing through and terminating in his county. The Leake case (which had often been before the legislature) was again brought up, and Mr. Brown being on the committee on aliens, with great labor and research waded through the voluminous papers in the case, and made an elaborate report. John G. Leake s father, before the Revolution, had been commissioned by the King of Great Britain a commissary -general of North America, who left about $400,000 to his son, who lived and died a bachelor. The city of New- York claimed his property, by virtue of a paper pur porting to be his will, which he drew many years before his death, but never signed nor sealed, and of which he had never made any mention. He gave his property to the city to found an orphan asylum, and under this pretended will, the city had received more than two-thirds of his estate, and had purchased lands, erected an asylum, and now asked for more. Twenty-one Scotch claimants appeared, by the Hon. John L. Wendell (state reporter) and asked for the property, on account of pre tended heirship. Mr. Brown reported against this claim. The follow ing is an extract from the report: "In reporting against the Scotch claimants, no injustice will be done to the memory or the wishes of the dead. John Watts, the intimate friend of John G. Leake, and one of his executors, Abraham Casey, his servant, and Dr. Hosack, who attended him in his last sickness, all swear that he said he had no relatives living on earth. " If the clear and unequivocal wishes of the deceased could be pre sented to our imperfect vision, we would feel it our duty, even if legal forms had not been strictly pursued, to carry out that intent. We would say that the shipwrecked passenger who wrote his will upon the sand and perished, and whose dead corse, alone and solitary, lay as a living witness that his last will was recorded there, should be as valid as though written on parchment, or engraved in brass. But in the opinion of your committee, the paper which purports to be a will, and his subsequent declaration, is conclusive evidence that he never intended that his distant and unknown relatives in Scotland should ever inherit his princely domains. We therefore say, that all the Scotch claims fall * still-born from the hands of your committee ; and though they have come up before successive legislatures, like " Macbeth s witches," another and still another, yet we now hope they are all dead and buried, and from their sepulchre there will be no resurrection." The report concluded by saying that, in the opinion of the committee, neither the city of New- York, nor the Scotch claimants, had any right to the property that it had escheated and belonged to the state. The report was adopted by a vote almost unanimous. Mr. Brown has long been a decided friend of temperance, has held the office of president of the county society, and manifests his high 260 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. regard for the cause, by always attending the meetings in his town, no matter how dry or uninteresting the speaker may be. He voted for the temperance law of 1845, and in 1846 delivered an address to the Jamestown Society, which was published. In his address (among other things) he speaks of the blessings of religious reformation under Luther, that of government by the American Revolution, and lastly that of morals under the temperance reform, and concluded by saying: " The reformation of 76 cost our country millions and millions of mo ney, the blood of the choicest and purest spirits was shed upon the field of battle, and the sighs of the widow and the orphan floated on the breeze ; but this moral reformation has never cost our country a dollar, no human lives have been sacrificed, not a tear has been shed by the widow and orphan, and no bosom has throbbed with anguish." In the winter of 1847 Mr. Brown delivered a course of lectures to the students of the Jamestown Academy, on the " History of Elli- cott," the town of his residence, which was published. In the summer he attended the Chicago (Harbor) Convention, being sent as a delegate from his county. Mr. B. has done a pretty extensive pension business since 1818, His father, who died in 1832, at the age of 85, could not be pensioned Under this act, as poverty was made the test of merit, but his mother, who died in 1837, at the age of 83, drew the pension of a colonel, under the act of 1836. Mr. B. did not, like many sharks and vampires, rob the soldier and the widow of half their pittance, but charged as he would for conducting a suit of the same magnitude and labor, through a court of record. This year, (1848,) Deacon Asa Moore, who was the last of his religious pensioners, died, and in writing his obituary, Mr. B. says : " It is worthy of a passing remark, that the patriots of the Revolution, unlike the mercenary soldiers of other wars, were many of them devoted and humble Christians. The writer of this obituary can well remember, and it will ever remain in his mind, in vivid recol lection, of the time when Osborn. Babcock, Wood, Barney, Fenton, Palmeter, Maples, and Moore, used to meet on the same spot to draw their country s pittance, when they would talk with pleasure of their country s pension, but higher and more exalted thoughts filled their aged bosoms at parting, when they dwelt upon their pension granted by the King of kings. " Mr. B. has never been a speculator, but in the speculating times of 1836 indorsed liberally for friends, by whom he lost $6,000, which was nearly half the property he had then accumulated. This we think is an incident in the life of a lawyer worth noticing, as those who succeed him may profit by his experience. He is temperate, industrious in his office and out-door, generally working an hour or so each day, in the summer, with his own hands, in his garden, orchard, or among orna mental trees, to make his home pleasant and agreeable, to which habits he imputes his excellent health, which has been such, that (except when in the legislature) he has not been absent from a regular term of court for thirty-five years. System has always been observed in his office, and his business has been conducted in the most perfect order, all places for papers of a particular kind being properly labeled, all papers duly in dorsed, and all papers, perhaps not to be used again, carefully tied up in BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 261 bundles, arranged chronologically and alphabetically, to the end that a paper used thirty years ago can be found with as much facility as that used the next week. The subject of this sketch is an active member of society, having been a long time a teacher in the Sabbath-school, and a member and elder in the Presbyterian Church. He has also been a friend of education, ever taking a lively interest not only in the dis trict school (in which he has been a clerk for sixteen years) but in the higher departments of learning. He donated $200 towards the estab lishment of the Jamestown Academy, which, through his influence and others , was incorporated in 1836, since which time he has been con stantly one of its trustees, and over which he is now officiating as president. Mr. B. s prevailing characteristics are his untiring industry, methodi cal business habits, x liberality to the needy temperance and economy, sociability of manners, strict integrity, and the correctness of his legal opinions and religious sentiments. BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA. THE Honorable Benjamin Franklin Perry, a distinguished member of the South Carolina bar, and still more distinguished for the ability and firmness with which he resisted the late disunion movement in South Carolina, was born November the 20th, 1805, in the district of Pendle- ton, now Pickens, one of the mountain districts of South Carolina, and long the residence of Mr. Calhoun, and also the birthplace of Senator Rusk of Texas, General Waddy Thompson, Judge Whitner, General Howard of Indiana, and Senator Adams of Mississippi. Benjamin Perry, the father of the subject of this memoir, was a native of Massachusetts. His ancestors were English. There were three brothers, who emigrated to America in the early settlement of Massachusetts. Two of them remained in the old Bay state, and the third moved to Rhode Island. From that brother has descended the family of Commodore Oliver H. Perry. At the early age of sixteen Benjamin Perry volunteered his services in the army of the Revolution, and was in the attack on Rhode Island, in 1778, made by the com bined forces of General Sullivan and Count D Estaing, with the French fleet. Immediately after the close of the American Revolution, he entered a store in Boston as a clerk, where he remained till his re moval to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1784. Thence he came to Greenville, where he married Ann Foster, daughter of John Foster, of Virginia, who bore a lieutenant s commission in the army of the Revolution. Having purchased valuable lands on the Tugaloo, in Pendleton district, he quitted the mercantile business, and became an industrious cultivator of the earth. He lived to a very advanced age, 262 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and through his long life it is believed that no one ever attributed to him an intentional wrong. The mother of Benjamin F. Perry, like the mother of almost all dis tinguished men, was a woman of great vigor of intellect and character. She possessed as warm a heart and as affectionate a disposition as ever fell to the lot of woman. Her memory is revered and cherished by her son with more than ordinary filial affection. The childhood and youth of Benjamin F. Perry were spent amidst his native hills and mountains, alternately going to school and working on the farm, till he was sixteen years old. During that period he mani fested a great passion for books, and read everything he could lay his hands on, even to the American Encyclopedia, in ten or fifteen volumes. This early and strong manifestation for learning induced his uncle, Robert H. Foster, to advance him, as a loan, the requisite funds for his education and professional studies. He was accordingly sent, at the age of sixteen, to a classical school at Asheville, North Carolina, over which the Rev. Mr. Porter, a Presbyterian clergyman, presided. There he found David L. Swain, afterwards governor of North Caro lina, and now president of Chapel Hill University, a pupil of Mr. Porter s, and was for some months his associate in the school, and boarded in the family of Dr. Swain, the governor s father. The Latin grammar was put into the hands of our student on Tuesday morning, and such was his intense application, combined with remark able facility of learning, that he memorized the whole of it before the coming Saturday evening ! He was then put in a class with a little son of Mr Porter s, who had been reading Latin several months, but they parted company after the first lesson, and he was never classed again with any other of the pupils. In eight months he overtook and passed by all the classes in school, having read in that short period, Historia Sacra, Viri Roma3, Csesar, Virgil, Cicero s Orations, and Horace; memor ized the Greek grammar ; read one or two books of the Greek Testa ment, Grecse Minora, and a portion of Grecse Majora ! He studied sixteen hours in twenty-four, every day during that time, without im pairing in the slightest degree his health. In the fall of 1 822 he quitted school and returned to his father s resi dence, where he spent the winter and spring in reviewing his classical studies, reading history and the standard works of English literature. John Lee, Esq., an old English merchant who had failed in business, and was residing in the neighborhood with a fine library, kindly ten dered the use of his books to our young student. The next year he resumed his studies at Greenville court-house, un der the direction of the Rev. Mr. Hodges, a Baptist clergyman, and prepared himself for admission to the South Carolina college. But un willing to embarrass his father, or to trespass further upon the the kind ness of his uncle, he determined to return to his father s and there pursue his^ studies as best he could, only assisted by his own indomitable am bition and firm resolve to make himself a name. He had already commenced laying the foundation of his present library, which is one of the largest and best selected private libraries in South Caro lina. His father had given him a horse, which he had sold, and had invested the proceeds in books purchased of a book merchant at BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 263 old Pendleton. The autobiography of Dr. Franklin was the first book he selected, and it had a powerful influence in stimulating his young ambition, as it has that of so many highly gifted young aspirants, struggling to ascend " The steep where fame s proud temple shines afar." In 1824 Mr. Perry entered the law office of Judge Earle, and as he was then only eighteen years old he was enabled to furnish his mind with those rich stores of general information and literature which have since enabled him to mingle, with the labors of a large professional practice, very many able articles to the periodical literature of the coun try. He varied his reading daily between law, history, poetry, novels and the drama. He finished his course of legal study in the office of that eminent lawyer, Col. Gregg, of Columbia, and was admitted to the bar in 1827. In Columbia he had large opportunities of improvement in listening to the arguments in the courts of appeals, and the discus sions in the legislature. It was at this time, that he was inspired with an ardent interest in politics, which he has never since lost. There was at that time an array of talent and eloquence in that body rarely equaled in any deliberative assembly. Judge Cheves was heard to say of that legislature, that there was not an equal number of able and eloquent men in the Congress of the United States. Judge O Neall was the speaker of the house, and no where else have we ever seen his equal as a presiding officer, and such men on the floor as Chancellor Harper, Senators Preston, Butler, Rhett and Barnwell, Hugh S. Legare, Attorney General of the United States, Waddy Thompson, Minister to Mexico, Chancellor Dunkin and Judges Wardlaw and Whitner. In the senate were Judge Smith, Governor Wilson, Governor Williams, Governor Miller and Thomas S. Grimke. In the law class in which Mr. Perry was admitted to the bar, there were fifteen applicants. How happy and joyous were they ! They had their commissions in their pockets, and thought they had nothing to do but to open an office and at once commence receiving fees, little dreaming of the trials and discouragements which lie in the way of the aspirant for professional eminence. At this moment Mr. Perry is the only one who still pursues the profession. He had more than the usu ally severe probation of young lawyers, for besides that there was very little business, there was an unusual number of eminent members of the bar on the western circuit, of which Greenville, where he settled, formed a host. His first effort was in defence of a man indicted for the murder of his wife, at Pendleton court house. The case had excited some interest by the enormity of the crime, and the ladies of the village came into the court house to hear the argument of the counsel. But argument on the part of our young debutant, there was none. He rose so much embarrassed, we have heard him say, that there was not, when he looked the judge in the face, an idea in his head except a consciousness that the whole court, ladies and all, were looking at him and expecting to hear him say something. After a few brief words, uttered in great confusion, he 264 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. sat down in great humiliation and distress. His proud spirit, irrepres sible ambition, and a consciousness of talent, nevertheless sustained him, and enabled him to make another effort. He had great consolation and took new courage from the example of the great Sheridan. His next effort was at Greenville, the week after, -and it was eminently suc cessful. He was complimented by the judge and praised by the bar, and more than all, he acquitted a guilty client. It is generally a great mistake, although a common one, for young men to make their debut at the bar in a murder case. Mr. Perry has pursued the laborious study of his profession even more assiduously since than before his admission, and has realized, by a commanding practice, on the circuit which he rides, the rich rewards of emolument and reputation, to which talents of a high order, great labor and study, high personal character, and speaking talent of a high order, so well entitle him. It is the great glory of the profession that a spurious and fraudulent reputation cannot be maintained at it. His eminent success is all his own. He owes none of it to the adventitious circumstances of powerful friends or the arts of the pettifogger. In the exciting and memorable nullification contest of 1832, Mr. Perry took charge of the editorial department of a newspaper, then published in the town of Greenville, where he resided. Nearly all of his friends, Judge Earle, Warren R. Davis, General Thompson, and others, who would have been most likely to have influenced and con verted his opinions, and would have converted those of almost any other so young a man, w r ere all nullifiers. Most of the young men of the state were on the same side as they are always apt to be on the side that seems to be that of honor and patriotism, because, perhaps, it is the side of danger. But the opinions of Mr. Perry were fixed and undoubting in favor of the Union, the result of much reading and re flection, not crude and hastily formed. The whole theory of nullifica tion, as set forth by Mr. Calhoun, in his various publications, was, in the judgment of Mr. Perry, at war with the fundamental principles of our federal government, and impracticable in its operation. But it was a painful struggle for him to separate from cherished and honored friends, and from a large portion of the embodied chivalry and honor of the state. The crisis was one, however, which demanded the sacri fice, and he made it ; and firmly and resolutely did he pursue the path of duty, as he regarded it, which is always the path of honor. "The Mountaineer" soon became a powerful and leading organ of the Union party, and all sorts of influences were used to bring over its bold and talented young editor. Appeals to old and cherished friendships, to patriotism, courage, interest, and honor, to go with his state and friends, were all made, and made in vain. In the course of that angry and exciting struggle Mr. Perry became inTolved in a duel with the editor of a nullification paper, published in the same town. His adversary was mortally wounded on the first fire. This, we have reason to know, has been the most painful circum stance of Mr Perry s life, although he has nothing to reproach himself with in the circumstances which led to it. His adversary was com paratively a stranger to him, and a young man of talent and promise, BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 265 to whom he entertained nothing approaching a feeling of unkindness. But under the circumstances of the case, the temper of the times, and the prevalent feeling in South Carolina, there was no alternative. A convention of the Union party assembled in Columbia, August, 1832, for the purpose of adopting measures to counteract the move ment of the nullifiers. Mr. Perry was a delegate to that convention from Greenville, and his colleagues in that body were the venerable Revolutionary hero and patriot, Colonel Thomas Taylor, Judge Huger, Judge O Neall, Chancellor Johnson, Poinsett, Petigru, Governor Manning, Judge Richardson, Governor Middleton, Judge King, and many others of the most distinguished names of the state. The op- ?osition of the Union party at home, and the denunciations of President ackson s proclamation, seemed only to madden almost to fury a gallant and already highly excited people. In the ensuing fall a regular convention of the people of the state was convened, by order of the legislature, in the capitol at Columbia. Mr. Perry was elected a member of this convention from Greenville, at the head of the ticket. His colleagues were Governor Middleton, Colonel Brockman, and Silas B. Whitten, Esq. This state convention met and nullified the tariff laws, adjourned till after the session of Congress, then re-assembled and repealed their ordinance of nullification. All this belongs to the general history of the country, and the limits of this article will not admit of that history being repeated. Although as ardent and uncalculating, whilst the con^ flict raged, as any other individual on either side, now that he regarded the war as ended, both the great war with the federal government and the petit guerre amongst ourselves, Mr. Perry made a speech in the convention, urging an utter oblivion of past differences, and the resto ration of an era of good feeling. He had opposed the action of the state, because he believed it would be futile, not that he favored the tariff system, or did not feel its injustice to the southern states. But in this effort at the restoration of harmony and good feeling in South Carolina, Mr. Perry was disappointed. The nullification party passed an oath of allegiance, which was aimed at the Union party, and calculated to exclude them from all offices, civil and military, in the state ! This oath of allegiance kept up party divisions for seve ral years, was nullified by the court of appeals, modified and re-enacted by the legislature, and ultimately a compromise took place between the two parties. During this agitation there were frequent conventions, public meetings, and assemblages of each party in South Carolina. Mr. Perry was active and prominent on the Union side, and in 1834 was put in nomination by that party, in the districts of Anderson, Pickens, and Greenville, for Congress. Six thousand votes were polled at the election, and he was beaten by a majority of only sixty, by that highly gifted and most popular man, the Hon. Warren R. Davis. Mr. Davis dying before he had entered upon his new term, Mr. Perry was again brought forward as a candidate, in opposition to General Thomp son, and was again unsuccessful. General Thompson would, doubt- less, have been elected, under any circumstances, but his majority was much increased by the fact that Mr. Perry, being thrown from his 266 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. carriage, and severely injured, was confined to his chamber till after the election. He now withdrew from politics, as he had long previously done from the editorial chair, and devoted himself exclusively to his pro fession and general literature. Few lawyers in the state have enjoyed a larger practice, and none have exhibited more learning and ability, and been crowned with a more general success. The record of the life of an eminent lawyer would be little else than a book of reports, and unfit for such an article as this. Very soon after Mr. Perry s admis sion to the bar, he took a high position, and has been engaged in most of the important cases on his circuit, civil and criminal, and has well deserved and established his title to be ranked with the first lawyers of the state able, learned, eloquent, firm, and just. We give the following interesting cases in which Mr. Perry was em ployed, as a specimen of the character of his practice, which, we hope, will not be uninteresting to the professional reader ; and, as we are writing the life of a lawyer, it does seem proper to say something of the cases in which he was concerned. It would certainly be a strange anomaly to write the biography of a general who had been all his life in the field, and say nothing of the battles he fought ! But it would not do, however, to encumber his life with a minute detail of all his military orders, plans of action, and so forth. The trial of old Allen Twitty, for passing counterfeit money, was deeply interesting on many accounts. He had been for more than a half century at the head of a gang of counterfeiters, extending from Ca nada to New-Orleans. He had been convicted in North Carolina, and banished the state. In Greenville he took up his abode, and was again indicted. The offence in South Carolina, at that time, was a capital one. Hence the extraordinary efforts made by this arch villain to escape conviction. Judge Wardlaw and Mr. Perry were his counsel. The state was represented by General Thompson. After a most laborious trial of several days, the prisoner was acquitted on the ground, taken by his counsel, that his confederate, who turned state s evidence, was not to be credited. So confident, however, was the presiding judge of his guilt, that he ordered him to be transferred to the Federal Court, and there prosecuted him for forgery on another bill on the bank of the United States. In the Federal Court, Twitty was defended by other counsel and convicted. He had been well known, in his younger days, to General Andrew Jackson, and was then a man of character and fortune. In consequence of this acquaintance, and moved by the extreme age and infirmity of the old man, President Jackson pardoned a portion of the imprisonment and set him at liberty. Tom Fiendly was tried for murder at Pickens court, and defended by the Hon. A. Burt and Mr. Perry. After the- homicide, the defendent fled the country, and being in constant apprehension of arrest by some one, he thought it best to return, surrender himself to the law, and stand his trial ! Mr. Perry was sent for by Fiendly, and consulted as to the propriety of his surrendering himself, and advised strenuously against his taking such a step. "If you do," said Mr. Perry, "you will be convicted." Fiendly replied, " Be it so, but I am determined to BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 267 stand my trial !" When put upon his trial, he was anxious to take a juror whom Mr. Periy objected to. The prisoner said, "I know him. well, and he is an intelligent, firm, conscientious man." " For that very reason, 1 object to him," said Mr. Perry. The trial resulted in an entire acquittal ! After it was over, the juror objected to, said to the counsel, " It was well I was not of the panel, for 1 never would have consented to such a verdict." The trial of a distinguished gentleman in a neighboring state, who has since become known to the whole Union for his great ability and elo quence in the Congress of the United States, was in every respect a most painful one to Mr. Perry. This gentleman had read law in his office, and was a great favorite with him. For his honor, spirit, friend ship, high and pure character, Mr. Perry entertained the most sincere re gard. In a moment of high excitement, and under deep provocation, he shot down in the street a gentleman of family, fortune and character, who died in a few hours ! The trial resulted in a verdict of man slaughter. Great efforts were made on the part of the state, and addi tional counsel employed by the family of the deceased. The defence was conducted by Judge Wardlaw, the Hon. A Burt and Mr. Perry, and never did gentlemen exert themselves more in any case. Miss Wells, a northern school-mistress, who came to Greenville highly recommended, and was highly connected at the north, was tried for infanticide, and defended by Mr. Perry alone. The case was an ex traordinary one. No one had suspected the defendant of any impro priety until the child was discovered concealed in a basket, the umbilical cord being around its neck. A most respectable family were present and around the bed during her confinement ! The speech made by Mr. Perry in defence of Miss Wells gained him some praise and a verdict of not guilty. One or two years after this unfortunate circumstance, Mr. Perry was called upon to defend a brother of Miss Wells, for shooting down in the streets her seducer with a double-barrel gun ! It was cool and de liberate, and done without any warning to the deceased. The trial re sulted in a verdict of guilty, and the defendant was pardoned by Gover nor Aiken. Some years since, Mr. Perry had a case on the issue docket at Spartanburgh, and had summoned an old man to prove a deed on which the case depended. Whilst attending court he killed two of his room mates, and came very near killing a third, with a little pocket-knife ! His companions had been bedeviling the old man a great deal. When put on his trial, Mr. Perry was retained with Colonel Seitner to defend him. His defence was conducted with all the power and ability which his counsel possessed, but the jury returned a verdict of guilty. They had no notion of seeing a man acquitted who had killed two of his com panions in one frolic ! But the governor took a more compassionate view of the matter and pardoned him. The old man, after his pardon, was sworn as a witness in court, and on his testimony Mr. Perry gained his lawsuit. Recently, Mr. Perry was employed on the part of the state, for the first time, in a case of murder. Judge Butler, now one of the senators in Congress, from South Carolina, was called from Washington to de- 268 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. fend the accused, and Mr. Perry was sent for, out of his circuit, to pro secute. The prisoner and the deceased had been friends, and were both young men of fortune and great respectability. The trial was one of extraordinary interest, and the ladies of the village of Newberry came in to hear the arguments, and sat from morning till night without going to dinner ! The jury, after being out all night, returned a verdict of not guilty. The speech of Mr. Perry is spoken of by all as one of unusual ability and eloquence. This is high praise, when it is remem bered that Senator Butler was engaged in the same case, and made a speech of unusual power and eloquence even for him. On the civil side of the court, Mr. Perry has, likewise, had a fine practice in the districts of Greenville, Anderson, Pickens, Spartanburgh and Laurens. He has assisted in the Court of Appeals, in law and equi ty, and in the Court of Errors, composed of both the chancellors and law judges, in the settlement of some highly important principles. The case, William J. Alston and others, vs. W. Thompson, 1 Chev. 271, involved the question, whether a deed in South Carolina was valid to convey lands without witnesses. This case went to the court of errors, and was decided against the validity of the deed ! Mr. Petigru and Mr. Perry were in favor of the deed, and both still think the decision of the court wrong. Judge O Neal], one of the members of the court, declared a dissenting opinion, and adopted the written argument of Mr. Perry as a part of his opinion. The case of Vardry McBee ads. Henning s creditors, went to the court of errors, on the question, whether a deed of conveyance for land in South Carolina was valid against the judgment creditors, without being recorded. This was a case of great interest and involved a large amount. A majority of the court decided in favor of the deed without recording. Mr. Perry was for the deed, and wrote out his ar gument at great length, with all his authorities. The case of McBee and others vs. Hoke, was decided in the Law Court of Appeals after elaborate argument. This case involved the question whether the acts of a coroner, appointed by the legislature, but who had not qualified, or given bonds, as required by law, were valid and binding or not. Mr. Perry was for the affirmative, and the court sustained him. The most novel case, however, in which Mr. Perry ever had any thing to do, was in reference to the executors of Mrs. Mayroot s will being appointed by implication. He lost both sides of this case, and finally established the opinion he had first given in the case ! He said there was an appointment by implication. The Court of Appeals decided against him. He then filed a bill in equity to carry out the opinion of the Court of Appeals, and the Court of Errors reversed the opinion of the Court of Appeals and dismissed his bill ! In the Court of Equity we will mention one case, in which Mr. Perry filed a bill for an old man, to set aside his marriage with a woman of bad character, on the ground that he was not in his proper mind when the marriage took place. Ally Mattison, the complainant, had been drinking till he was under mania a potu, and conceived the idea, that the Almighty had commanded him to marry the defendant, or he should die in three days ! The chancellor dismissed the bill for want BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 269 of jurisdiction, and it went to the Court of Appeal in Chancery, and thence to the Court of Errors. Mr. Perry and General Thompson argued the case at great length in the Court of Errors, but the decree of the chancellor was affirmed. The court held that they had no right to dissolve a marriage contract for fraud or want of capacity, unless it came up on some collateral issue ! How this can be, Mr. Perry confesses he cannot perceive. In South Carolina the marriage contract is entirely a civil contract, and as such ought to be set aside, like all other con tracts, on account of fraud or incompetency to make it. In the fall of 1836 Mr. Perry was elected a member of the state legislature without opposition. A good many Union members were returned from Charleston, and other districts throughout the state. At the instance of Mr. Perry, they united with him in electing Judge Wardlaw speaker of the House of Representatives. In the formation of the com mittees, Mr. P. was placed on the judiciary and the committee of federal relations ; James L. Petigru, Esq., one of the ablest and most accom plished lawyers in the United States, was chairman of the judiciary com mittee, and David L. McCord, an able and old member of the house, was at the head of the committee on federal relations. The subject of slavery came up before Mr. McCord s committee, on several occasions, by messages and other documents, sent by the northern states, but it was then thought best in South Carolina not to agitate the question. The annexation of Texas to the United States was brought before the legis lature by Governor McDuffie, in a message strongly denouncing that measure. Mr. Perry made a speech eminently successful on this question, which elicited from Mr. Petigru a very high compliment " laudare a laudato." Whilst Mr. Perry most cordially sympathized with the Texans in their struggle for independence, he did not think it in good faith for the United States to extend their government over them. Nor was he satisfied as to the policy of extending the boundaries of the republic. This, too, was the opinion expressed about that time by Governor Hayne in conversation with Mr. Perry, arid of which conver sation he has a full note in his journal. The Louisville and Cincinnati Rail-road came before the legislature this session, and Mr. Perry was its warm advocate and defender. In order to save the road and charter, through the limits of South Carolina, it became necessary for the legislature to make heavy loans and subscriptions of stock. These measures were also voted for by Mr. Perry, and the success of the road, together with the present price of the stock, proves the wis dom of the measure. In 1838 Mr. Perry was re-elected to the legislature, and in con sequence of his attention to the correctness of all claims and appropri ations made by the legislature, he was placed at the head of the com mittee on claims, and in that position saved the state many thousands of dollars by his thorough and searching investigation of all matters presented to the house. In all the active business of the legislature, and iiT all of the discussions of the house, Mr. Perry took a decided and prominent part. He brought forward, whilst a member of the house, various measures of reform and improvement in our laws and state government. 270 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The establishment of a penitentiary system in South Carolina was one of these measures. He was appointed chairman of a special com mittee on this subject, to collect information and report the same to the legislature. This task he performed with great care and labor. He opened a correspondence with the agents and keepers of several of the northern penitentiaries. He obtained from the clerks of the courts throughout the state a vast deal of statistical information, in regard to the various convictions and prosecutions in their courts. He was the means of obtaining from Dr. Lieber, of the South Carolina College, a valuable pamphlet on the penitentiary system, which was widely dis tributed over the state. The report of Mr. Perry included a great deal of information, but it met with no favor from the legislature. Accom panying the report he likewise submitted a code of laws compiled by himself, adapted to the penitentiary punishment. In his report and speech before the legislature, Mr. Perry endeavored to show that the object of punishment was not revenge, but the reformation of the criminal, and the protection of society against future crimes. The tenure of the office of judge Mr. Perry thought should be limited to the age of seventy. He introduced a bill to alter the constitution in that respect, which at one session passed both houses by a constitutional majority, but was defeated at the session of a new legislature. Mr. Perry was in favor of blending the courts of law and equity, so as to have the same judge preside in both courts, but to keep the jurisdictions separate and distinct. Pie was opposed to all connection between bank and state, and in concert with Col. Memminger he advocated the wind ing up of the state bank. He was in favor of giving the election of electors of President and Vice-President to the people in South Carolina, as was the case in all the other states of the Union. He was also in favor of giving the election of governor to the people, and equalizing the basis of representation between the upper and lower country. In 1844, Mr. Perry was elected to a seat in the State Senate from the district of Greenville. He was there placed at the head of the com mittee on finance and banks, and during the four years he continued in the Senate, no member of that body took a more active and promi nent part in all of its proceedings and debates. He was in the Senate when Mr. Hoar was sent by Massachusetts to South Carolina, He was the only member of the Senate who voted against the expulsion of that gentleman from the state. This he did, because, in his opinion, it was contrary to both the state and federal constitutions. Although in a mi nority of one, he said this carried no terrors to his mind whilst discharg ing a duty to himself and his country. There was only one member of the house, Colonel Memminger, who had the boldness to vote against this expulsion, without trial by jury, as the constitution guarantees. It was, too, on the part of the legislature, an usurpation of judicial power. South Carolina has been, for the last twenty-five years, a disunion state, and Mr. "Perry has been consistently a Union man ever since he entered public life. He is, therefore, in a lean minority, which has ef fectually excluded him from all state honors and offices. But he has BENJAMIN F. TERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 271 never aspired to any before the legislature. He has been voted for, once or twice, for chancellor, and president of the state bank. When General Cass was a candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Perry, who was not then in the legislature, was elected, by the legislature, an elector to represent the state at large in that election. This honor was conferred on him in consequence of his defeat for Congress the same fall, on ac count of his preference for General Cass over General Taylor. The whigs all sustained, with a few exceptions, his opponent, Colonel Orr, in consequence of his going for General Taylor ; and being a democrat, Colonel Orr divided that party with Mr. Perry. Whilst he has thus been proscribed from the honors of the state, he has never, directly or indirectly, sought office or favor from the federal government a rare instance, in these times, of self-sacrifice and abne gation. Some gentlemen talk on this subject as if there was no such thing as venality and office-seeking except with those who seek federal office. They forget that there are many more, and much more desirable offices, within the reach of South Carolinians, from South Carolina, than from the federal government. It is not impossible that the political course of some gentlemen may be directed by a secret wish (perhaps unconscious influence of the fascination) of a seat on the bench, in the Se nate, or the gubernatorial chair. But surely no one will impute selfish motives or personal ambition to one like Mr. Perry, self-restrained from the honors and offices of the state, who has never, in any manner, sought either from the federal government. Mr. Perry has, in the course of his life, made a good many public speeches, and has been frequently called on to deliver addresses before literary societies and schools. Like all young men preparing for the bar, he was selected, whilst a student, to deliver an oration on the fourth of July, which was well received. After his admission to the bar, he was forced to make another address, on the anniversary of American In dependence, to the citizens of Greenville. Whilst a member of the legislature, he delivered an address before the several literary socie ties. During the political excitement in 1833, he was called on to deliver an address, on the anniversary of the battle of the Cow- pens, on the battle-field. Whilst canvassing for Congress, he de livered an address before the female seminary at the Limestone Springs. Mr. Perry has occasionally written for the Southern Review and other periodical and literary journals. He reviewed, at some length, the Lives of the Lord Chancellors, by Lord Campbell, in the Southern Quarterly. He also wrote for this journal an article on the Revolu tionary history of South Carolina, and one in favor of giving the election of electors of President and Vice-president to the people. In the Mag nolia, he wrote a variety of articles embodying the Revolutionary inci dents of the upper part of South Carolina, which were republished in a great many of the southern papers. For the last twenty years Mr. Perry has kept a journal of his life, in which he has recorded not only the incidents connected with himself, but the conversations he has had with others, after the fashion of Bos- well s Life of Johnson. He has also drawn sketches of many of the prominent men of South Carolina, which will one day be of some in- SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tercst to the public. For thirty years past, too, he has kept a minute and correct account of all the money received by him, and for what re ceived, as well as an account of all the moneys he has spent, and how they were spent. He has also kept a file of every letter that he has re ceived, and has had several volumes bound. In the investigation of cases for court, Mr. Perry has made it a rule to preserve all his notes of authorities and arguments. This he has found of assistance when similar cases came before him again. In some im portant cases he has written out the whole arguments. Whilst profess ing to be a thorough democrat in politics, Mr. Perry alleges that he is a conservative in everything. He thinks our system of government the wisest that can be formed, and he therefore tries to preserve it. He wishes in the same way to preserve everything that is good, or may be useful hereafter. Even his newspapers, pamphlets, and reviews, are all preserved and bound. He has several hundred volumes of this character now in his library, bound by his directions. In all the public improvements of the country Mr. Perry has taken an active part, and contributed most liberally in proportion to his means. The Greenville and Columbia Rail-road, the greatest enter prise ever undertaken in the upper part of South Carolina, owes its origin, in a great measure, to him. The road was suggested by another; but Mr. Perry brought the public mind to bear on it and undertake it. His friend. Judge O Neall, has the honor of carrying out the enterprise. In 1850 the secession and disunion feeling rose so high in South Caro lina, that it was said the state was a unit in favor of breaking up the government and forming a new confederacy. Mr. Perry, however, re mained " faithful amidst the faithless," and boldly proclaimed his oppo sition to secession and disunion as destructive of liberty and the very institutions of the South, for the preservation of which the Union was to be dissolved. The secession party wished to make a demonstration in Greenville, and invited Colonel Memminger to a public meeting. Every free voter in the district was present, and they made such a hurra in opposition to General Thompson and Mr. Perry, that the news went abroad Greenville had gone for secession, and Perry was put down, never to rise again. His friends lamented his fate, and his enemies were in ecstasy at his downfall in a district which had ever stood by him through good report and through evil report. Mr. Perry, how ever, was not at all alarmed. He everywhere declared that Greenville was still true to her ancient faith, and adhered to the Union, although ready to defend her rights when they were invaded. He, moreover, said that he had no fears of the state, and that this whole matter would end in a big fuss nothing more as nullification had done. In the early part of the fall of 1850, Mr. Perry suggested the pro priety of establishing a Union paper, at Greenville, as a rallying point for the dismembered and broken party throughout the state. He thought it would be a nucleus for them to form on, and ultimately save the state from revolution and disunion. At that time there was not a newspaper in South Carolina or a public man who dared express any. opposition to the action of the state. Such opposition was branded as treason, and the opposers as traitors. This, however, did not, in the least, deter Mr. Perry from his project of establishing a Union paper, and letting the BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 273 honest and thinking people hear both sides of the question. Some of his personal friends came to him and said, that if he persevered in estab lishing his newspaper, his property would be destroyed, and his life en dangered. His reply deserves being repeated. He said : " I will go on with the paper if it sinks every cent of property I have in the world, and sacrifices my life in its defence." The crowning glory of Mr. P. s life is the more than Roman courage with which he took this position in the late exciting and dangerous crisis in South Carolina. No one who resides out of the state can adequately appreciate the terrific excitement of the people at that most dangerous crisis. It was literally true that " the boldest held their breath for a time." Men who had never quailed before, were afraid to express one sentiment of affection for the Union given us by our fathers, or wish for its continuance on any terms ! It was a curse per se, and abolendus est was the watch- word, and knave, traitor and coward was he who did not echo that war-cry ! It was under such circumstances of danger, of odium, of self-sacrifice, that he willingly and fearlessly assumed the editorship of the " Southern Patriot." The difficult and dangerous path which was before, he trod with courage, patriotism, wisdom and a high courtesy, which have won the respect and admiration of even his op ponents. The legislature met in November, and Mr. Perry was a member. Two of his colleagues, Col. Buchanan and Mr. Dean, and himself, were the only avowed Union men in that assembly ! When the question of federal relations was discussed in the house, Mr. Perry opposed the action of the state, in a speech of great length, and boldly assured his persecutors that the Union was a blessing and not a curse ; and that slavery was protected by it, and we had no cause to break up the government, on account of the compromise which had just passed Congress, and which was acceptable to all the southern states except South Carolina. After concluding his speech, Mr. Perry said to a friend : " I intend that my argument to-day shall be published to the world, and will leave it as a legacy to my country and my children. They will, at some future day, appreciate the truths it contains, although this house now spurns and contemns them." The speech was published, and has been republished throughout the southern states. Ten thousand copies of it were struck off in Charleston, at the expense of two or three gentlemen, for distribution in South Carolina and Georgia. It was hailed at Washington and New-Orleans as a ray of light from South Carolina, and was certainly the first cheek which secession and disunion received in the state. The election for members of the state convention to dissolve the Union took place in February, 1851. The speech of Mr. Perry had been published in the Carolinian, and was sent throughout the state just preceding the election. In Greenville it was widely circulated, and had its influence. The Union party of that district were, however, disunited. They remembered the Memminger meeting, and looked upon themselves as standing alone, against the whole state, and the newspapers said, the whole South. They were unwilling, therefore, to show fight in the election of members to the convention, and thought they would be de feated. Mr. Perry replied, that after defeat, it would be time enough 18 274 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to think of surrendering ; but that surely they should not think of this, as brave cavaliers, on the eve of battle. The election in Granville re sulted in favor of the Union ticket three to one ! In other portions of the state the people kept away from the polls, and only a few fire-eaters voted. In Charleston, where they can poll three thousand votes, as many hundred elected ! In Pendleton district, where the vote is five or six thousand, four or five hundred elected ! The Southern Patriot was first issued immediately after the election, and Messrs. Perry and Elford became its editors. It was everywhere denounced by the newspapers in South Carolina, but its subscription list immediately became the largest of any country paper in the state. It had the precise effect predicted by Mr. Perry, and immediately a change came over the state. Secession was abandoned, and co-opera tion substituted in its place. This, too, has died away, and the state is now quiet, and at peace once more with herself and the federal government. The state has been saved, and the Union preserved. In the summer of 1846, Mr. Perry, in company with his friends, Colonel Fair and Mr. Moore, made the tour of the northern states, and went down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec. The Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, who then resided near Greenville, and with whom Mr. Perry was on terms of great friendship and intimacy, took great pains to make his travels interesting, by giving him letters to a great many of the distinguished men at Washington, and throughout the northern states. Congress was in session, and Mr. Perry had this opportunity of seeing the assembled wisdom and greatness of the American Re public. He was very much disappointed in the appearance of the members of the House of Representatives. He thought they were in ferior looking men, and their deportment and debates did not impress him favorably. On entering the Senate chamber, and looking at the members, he was more struck with the appearance of Colonel Benton than that of any other senator. Mr. Archer, of Virginia, kindly pro posed to him to name any of the senators who attracted his attention. He was greatly disappointed in the personal appearance of Mr. Critten- den of Kentucky. The high bearing, talents, eloquence, and high sense of honor which had characterized Mr. Crittenden s public career, had induced Mr. Perry to believe that he was a tall, fine-looking, and polished gentleman. This idea of Mr. Crittenden s appearance was not realized in the diminutive person, homely features, and plain manners of the gentleman before him. When he afterwards met him at Senator Archer s, and saw him pull off his coat, and take a seat at the whist table with Mr. Bodisco, the Russian minister, and some other gentlemen, his beau ideal was gone. Through the kindness of General Thompson, Mr. Perry was invited one Sunday evening to see Mr. Webster at his own house, in Wash ington. He found the defender of the constitution sitting in his portico, in his shirt sleeves, and looking like some old farmer who was waiting for Monday, to gear up his horse and go to plowing again. Mr. Webster ordered some refreshments, and immediately commenced the most interesting and brilliant conversation to which Mr. Perry had ever listened. On his route from Albany to Boston Mr. Perry stopped at Kinder BENJAMIN F. PERRY, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 275 hook, to see Mr. Van Buren. He was very much pleased with him. The New- York convention was in session, and Mr. Perry was greatly surprised to hear Mr. Van Buren express himself in favor of electing all the judges by the people. He had formerly been of a different opinion, and was then shocked to hear Mr. Jefferson express the views which he now entertained. In Albany, Mr. Perry had the pleasure of seeing Governor Wright and Mr. Governeur Kemble, with both of whom he was very much pleased. He thought Mr. Poinsett s opinion of Governor Wright was true, that he possessed the fairest mind in argument and the clearest one in explaining his views that he had ever encountered in life. Mr. Polk was at this time President of the United States, and Mr. Perry was a strong supporter of his administration. He now thinks it is perhaps the most brilliant and the best the country has ever had. But the personal appearance and manners of Mr. Polk did not strike him as being anything extraordinary. The manners and appearance of Mrs. Polk made a different impression on his mind. He thought her the most interesting and charming woman that he had seen in his travels. Mr. Perry was most favorably impressed with the appearance of Bos ton and its inhabitants. He thought the citizens generally the finest- looking that he had anywhere seen. He visited Mr. Everett, who was the president of Harvard College, and found him a most pleasant and agreeable gentleman. He took a stroll over the college buildings, and spent some time in the library. The collection of books did not seem so large as he had expected to see. In Philadelphia, Mr. Perry searched out the houses in which William Penn and Dr. Franklin had once resided. They were very humble buildings, and that of Dr. Franklin s had been appropriated to a grocery. This he looked upon as almost sacrilegious. Mr. Perry has always taken an interest in agriculture, the occupation of his youth. He has made several agricultural addresses, which have been published and republished in several of the papers of the state. He made one before the Farmers Society of Pendleton, at their anni versary celebration. Mr. Calhoun was present, and expressed himself much gratified by the address. But Mr. Perry s chief occupation has been with his books. The State Convention of South Carolina, elected for the purpose of dissolving the Union, assembled in April last. Mr. Perry was a mem ber of this convention, as has been already stated. In the formation of the committee of twenty-one, which consisted of the ablest members of the convention, including several judges, chancellors, senators, ex-gover nors, and members of Congress, Mr. Perry was placed on this commit tee, and was the only member of it who spoke and voted against the constitutional right of a state to secede from the Federal Union. He said that secession was a revolutionary right, paramount to all constitu tions, political compacts, or agreements the right of a brave people "to alter or abolish" their government, when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted, and ceases to protect them in the en joyment of their " lives, liberty, and pursuit of happiness ;" but that it was deceiving the people to tell them it was a constitutional right. For 276 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. himself he preferred calling things by their right names. The people of South Carolina ought to know that it is a right which they will have to fight for. When that evil day does come which is to terminate this Fe deral Union, he preferred appealing directly to the sword rather than searching charters and constitutions for a right which he knew the other parties to the compact would deny. He admired the English baron who, when called on by his sovereign to produce the titles to his estate, threw down upon the table his sword, and said, "This is the title by which my an cestors have held these lands, and it is the one by which I now claim them." Mr. Perry denied that we had any just cause for breaking up the Union and resorting to revolution. He admitted that great wrongs and injustice had been done the South, but that it would not do to break up a government every time it went wrong. He had regarded the union of the states, in the language of the father of his country, as the " pal ladium of our independence," " tranquillity," " peace," " safety," " pros perity," and " liberty." It was, therefore, right and proper, honorable and patriotic, that we should " suffer while evils were sufferable, rather than right ourselves by abolishing the forms to which we have been ac customed." He contended that African slavery was moral and correct, and a great blessing to the slave himself; that it was absolutely neces sary to the peace and prosperity of the southern states, and should be forever defended and maintained by them at any and all hazards, and to the last extremity of their existence as a people. Mr. Perry said, in the report which he submitted to the convention on the part of himself, as a member of the committee of twenty-one, that the union of the several states of this confederacy was formed for the purpose of protecting equally the interests of all the states, their do mestic institutions, property, and industrial pursuits ; and the existence of African slavery in the southern states at the formation of the Federal Union, was not only recognized in the constitution, but guaranteed, and made the basis, in fact, of their representation in the Congress of the United States. He also stated that it would be good cause for South Carolina to resist, in company with the other southern states, or alone, if need be, by all the means which Nature and God have given her any and every attempt on the part of Congress to interfere with slavery in the states, or the slave-trade between the states, or to abolish slavery in the district of Columbia, without the consent of the owners, or to exclude slavery from the southern territories of the United States, or the forts and navy-yards in the slave-holding states, or refuse the admission of a state into the Union on account of slavery, or refuse to carry out the ex isting constitutional provisions on the subject of the rendition of fugitive slaves, or alter or change the federal constitution in any respect touch ing slavery. The report submitted by Mr. Perry met the approval of a large num ber of the moderate-thinking men throughout the state. Even Barnwell Rhett, the arch secessionist of Carolina, said to Mr. Perry that his re port had put to the blush both secessionists and co-operationists, and that Mr. Barnwell, the leader of the co-operation party, had, too, admit ted the same thing, and it was, in some respects, preferable to the re port adopted by the convention. ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON, OF TENNESSEE. 277 Mr. Perry is a member of the board of trustees of the South Carolina College, which board is elected by the legislature every four years ; and ne takes a deep interest in the prosperity and reputation of the college. On many occasions, in the Senate and House of Representatives, he has defended the college when assailed by senators and members. Several of the professors are his warm personal and political friends. Two years ago, on a visit to Columbia, one of them called on him at his lodgings to lament the approaching end of the Union. Mr. Perry laughed at the apprehensions of the learned professor, and said that, so far from seced ing, South Carolina would be, in ten years, the most thorough-going Union state in the Republic. After the adjournment of the convention, this professor reminded Mr. Perry of what he had said, and that a por tion of it was now true. " Yes," said Mr. Perry, " and the other por tion will be true. I shall have to defend the states-rights doctrines of Virginia, in a few years, against the consolidation principles of South Carolina !" In 1837, Mr. Perry was married in the city of Charleston to Miss Elizabeth Frances McCall, daughter of Robert McCall, Esq., a niece of General Robert Y. Hayne, a lovely and accomplished woman. He has five children, three sons and two daughters. Mr. Perry has always lived like a gentleman, in a style happily combining elegance and fru gality, only extravagant in the purchase of books. He has saved a com petency, and has a handsome income from his profession. His person is tall and commanding, with a face more than ordinarily intellectual. His manners are at the same time grave, cordial and refined. His nature is frank, confiding, generous, impulsive and quick more quick to forgive and forget than to take offence. In all the domestic relations of life he is without fault and without blemish. As a lawyer, able and learned. In public affairs, as firm as Cato, and as just as Aiistides. ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON, OF TENNESSEE. THE subject of this memoir is a native of Virginia, and descended from an ancient and highly respectable family. His paternal grand father, Capt. James Overton, emigrated from England sometime prior to the Revolutionary war, and settled in the then colony of Virginia, where he intermarried with Ann Waller, whose father was also a native of England, and a relation of the distinguished English poet, Waller. She bore him five sons, three of whom participated in the Revolutionary struggle for independence. The eldest of these was Waller, the father of the subject of this notice, who served an apprenticeship with a carpenter, named Dabney Minor. After the expiration of the term of his apprenticeship he worked at his trade several years, and received as the consideration for his 278 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. labor continental money, which ultimately became valueless in his possession. This circumstance disgusted him with his trade, which he immediately abandoned, and determined to seek his fortune in the wilds of Kentucky. He accordingly left his native home and repaired to that country, which was still occupied by many of the aborigines, and was an almost trackless wilderness in 1776. Here he became acquainted with the memorable Daniel Boone, with whom he associated about twelve months, sharing with him his toils and his dangers. During this perilous adventure, he was present and witnessed at Boonesboro the celebration of the first marriage ever consummated among the white population of that country. He also built a log-cabin, and cultivated a crop of corn, in the now neighborhood of Lexington, which, under the existing laws, entitled him to a claim of a settlement and pre emption. After completing his cabin, and the cultivation of his crop, he returned to Virginia, where he soon after intermarried with Martha Rag- land, the daughter of Major Samuel Ragland,a respectable and wealthy farmer of Louisa county, Virginia. The fruit of this union was six sons and four daughters. Archibald Waller Overtoil, their second son, and subject of this memoir, was born on the 12th day of August, 1783, in Louisa county, Virginia. Soon after this his father removed from Virginia to his new home in the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, where he permanently settled a"hd resided until his death. Archibald Waller was sent by his father to a common English school in the neighborhood, at which he learned to read, write, and cypher to the " rule of three." In a short time afterwards he was sent to a grammar school, where he studied the Latin and Greek languages under the tuition of an eminent linguist by the name of Dunlevi. At the age of sixteen or seventeen years he was entered as a student in the Transyl vania University, where he remained until he graduated, and left it with distinguished credit, as a young gentleman of talent and high promise. In a short time after leaving the University he entered upon the study of the law, under the direction and supervision of the Hon. Henry Clay, to whom he is greatly indebted for his kind attention, care, and patronage, in early life ; and for whose public and private character he entertains the most profound respect. At that time Mr. Clay was in the zenith of his power, as a lawyer and a statesman, and as an advocate he stood unrivaled in the western hemisphere. For the benefit of his students, he organized a moot court in which fictitious suits of every description were instituted the pleadings regularly and technically made up, and every step taken in the causes, from the original writ to final judgment and execution. This court was eminently useful in imparting to the student a knowledge of plead ing, and the practice generally. He also organized a legislature, composed of his law-students, in which committees were appointed, bills introduced and amended, referred, and reported upon, by the appropriate committees, and all the regular steps taken to effect the passage of a bill in conformity to the requirements of the " Lex Parliamentaria." Jefferson s Manual was always referred ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON, OF TENNESSEE. 279 to as the ruling authority oil the subject of parliamentary law. Mr. Clay often presided as speaker of the body, in which capacity he spared no pains in his endeavors to facilitate his students in the acquirement ot a thorough knowledge of parliamentary law. Mr. Overtoil was a strict attendant upon the moot court, and a prominent and leading member of the legislature ; in both of which he was esteemed a student of unusual talent and promise. These two fruitful sources of information greatly facilitated the prog ress and improvement of Mr. Overton in the acquirement of all the elements of legal and parliamentary learning, necessary to constitute a scientific lawyer, By the eminent example presented in the distinguished person of Mr. Clay, together with an intimate communion and frequent inter course with him, and being pleased with his style, his manner and ad dress, he selected him as his model. In the year 1805, his uncle, Judge John Overton, invited him to visit Tennessee ; he accepted the invitation, and in the fall of that year arrived at the residence of his uncle in the vicinity of Nashville, without means, without friends or acquaintances, when, by the advice and solicitation of his uncle, he re mained in his office for the space of twelve or eighteen months, revising and extending his legal reading ; during which time he made himself acquainted with the statutes of the state, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the duties of a clerk in the office of the late Randal McGavock, Esq., at that time the clerk of Mero district court a man of eminent worth, and perhaps the most accomplished clerk in the state. About the same time, a new district was laid off and organized in Middle Tennessee, by the name of Winchester District, composed of the counties of Franklin, Warren, White, Overton, Jackson and Smith; the court to be holden at Carthage, in the county of Smith. Mr. Overton being a good clerk in theory, became a candidate for the clerkship, opposed by several young gentlemen of talent and high character over whom, he was unanimously elected. At that time the county courts possessed an almost unlimited jurisdiction, both in civil and criminal cases. After his election to the clerkship, he immediately applied for and obtained a license to practice the law, and commenced his professional career ; his circuit embracing the six counties composing the district of Winchester. These counties had been newly laid off, and the places of holding their respective courts, fixed and established by legislative enactment. New clerks were appointed, who knew little or nothing of their duties, and Mr. Overton, being fresh from the office of McGavock, was enabled to give them all the necessary instructions. He accord ingly boarded with the clerks, and after the adjournment of the court, he often sat up all night making their entries for them, and instructing them in the proper manner of making up their records ; and in the morning, at the opening of the court, he was at his post at the bar, ready to attend to the business of his clients. In this way he paid his board on the first circuit he attended as a lawyer. His practice soon became large and lucrative, and in the course of a few years there were but few causes in his circuit, either civil or criminal, in which he was not retained. In the month of March, 1810, he intermarried with Mary 280 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Greenway Dixon, the eldest daughter of Major Tilman Dixon, a dis tinguished officer in the war of the Revolution. He was at the siege of Charleston and the storming of Stony Point, under the command of Gen. Wayne, at which latter place he was severely wounded ; when Wayne fell, being stricken down by a g]ancing musket-ball, Major D. assisted in bearing him into the fort. Major Dixon had three brothers and two nephews in the service from the beginning to the close of the war. After his marriage Col. Overton removed to Carthage, in Smith county, where he settled himself in possession of an extensive and profitable practice, until a change in the judiciary system took place. The Dis trict Courts were abolished, and Circuit and Supreme Courts established in their stead. One of the Supreme Courts sat at Carthage, and Col. Overton was elected as its clerk, which office he held until the year 1823 at the same time exercising his profession in the Cir cuit and County Courts of the six counties above named, assisted by his brother, John W. Overton, as his deputy in the clerk s office, who in the mean time studied the law with him. In the year 1823 he resigned his commission as clerk of the Supreme Court, and was elected to a seat in the senate of the state for the county of Smith, and served as a member of that body during the regular ses sion of 1823 and the called session of 1824. After the close of the ses sion of 1824, Col. Overton returned to his constituents, (who gave the strongest indications that they had been ably and faithfully represented,) and resumed the practice of his profession with zeal and diligence, and continued to do so until the year 1829. In the mean time (about the year 1828) he was appointed by General Samuel Houston, then gover nor of Tennessee, judge of the fourth judicial circuit of the state. Being however at this time in possession of an extensive practice, and the important interests of numerous clients demanding his personal attention, he declined its acceptance. After this period, in the year 1829, he was again elected to a seat in the house of representatives of Tennessee from the county of Smith. After the close of the session of 1829 he again returned home and resumed the practice of his profes sion, (which still continued to increase,) until 1836, when his private business becoming onerous and extensive, and requiring his exclusive attention, he declined the practice of the law, removed to his farm on the bank of the Cumberland River in the neighborhood of Carthage, where he now resides with his family in the enjoyment of good health, both of body and mind, with ample means to afford him all the com forts of life the common reward of industry and a faithful and honora ble practice of the legal profession. Col. Overton has shared the providential destiny of many of his illus trious predecessors he has no issue which situation he sustains with cheerfulness and contentment. In his legislative service in the senate and house of representatives of the state, he was placed on the most important committees, took an active and prominent part in preparing and advocating some of the most important and leading measures passed and adopted during the three sessions in which he was a member of those bodies, particularly in fixing and settling the policy of the state in relation to the disposition of her public domain, thereby affording to the poor and indigent classes an opportunity of obtaining a freehold by ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON, OF TENNESSEE. 281 occupancy and pre-emption at a small expense. He warmly and ably advocated the penitentiary system which was adopted during the ses sion of 1829, and is now the settled law of Tennessee. He was con sidered an able and eloquent debater and an attentive and diligent member always advocating with commendable zeal the interests of his own immediate constituency. He practised the law twenty-five or thirty years in the now fourth judicial circuit, formerly the district of Winchester ; has been stationary in his residence during that period, and now resides in the same county in which he commenced his legal career. Few men have shared more liberally in the public confidence and patronage as a lawyer. Even to the close of his professional life, he was employed in many highly important criminal cases in which the superiority of his powers as an orator and advocate were most strongly evinced. In the case of the State vs. Eagland, indictment for murder, tried in the Circuit Court of Warren county at McMinville, at term 18 , Judge Stewart on the bench, on a change of venue from the county of Smith, he appeared alone as counsel for Eagland. The case was one of deep interest and highly excited feeling, the prosecutor and defendant both respectable, witnesses subpoenaed and in attendance from distant parts of the country, and the most eminent lawyers em ployed to assist the attorney-general in the prosecution. Under these trying and dangerous circumstances to the accused, Col. Overton ap peared as counsel for the defendant. I will not attempt an analysis of the case it would be inconsistent with the scope and design of the narrative of which this memoir is intended to be only a brief. The defendant was honorably acquitted, and it was conceded by all who heard the defence, the bench, the bar, the jury and the bystanders, that the defence of Col. Overton surpassed in ability and eloquence any effort they had ever heard on a similar occasion. This was one amongst the last causes of importance in which he appeared at the bar. As an evidence of his unusual and almost unparalleled success as an advocate, no case can be found upon the records of the courts in the circuit, in which he practised for nearly thirty years, in which his client was con victed of a capital felony. He adopted a general rule in his criminal practice from which he never departed, which was, never to be employed on the part of the state in the prosecution, fearful that perchance he might be instrumental in the conviction of an innocent man always bearing in mind the humane and merciful principle inculcated by Lord Mansfield, that it was " much better that ninety-nine guilty persons should go unpunished, than that one innocent man should suffer." His speeches at the bar, when occasion seemed to justify and require it, were replete with wit and satire, severe invective, and the most bitter and scathing sarcasm. A case occurred in the county of Jackson many years ago it was a suit instituted by a Yankee doctor before a justice of the peace against an old Irishman, to recover the amount of a medi cal bill for services rendered by the doctor to the son of the old Irish man while he was at school. The Irishman boarded his son in Gainsboro , the county seat of Jack son county, in order that he might be convenient to the school. The doctor, who had recently arrived there from Massachusetts, and located in the town for the purpose of practising his profession, boarded at the 282 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. same house with the Irish boy. The doctor soon became intimate with the lad, and proposed to him that if he would feed and attend to his horse, that he (the doctor) would, in the event the boy should be sick, attend him as Jiis physician. The proposition was acceded to by the lad, and the contract consummated between the parties. The contract was strictly and faithfully complied with on the part of the boy ; the Yankee s horse was fed, watered, curried and rubbed daily, and he soon became as flit as a seal and as sleek as a mole. In two or three months after the contract was made, the lad was attacked with bilious fever, or some other manageable disease. The doctor accordingly attended him for a few days and he recovered his health. Not long after this, the doctor presented his patient s father with an exorbitant medical ac count for services rendered his son, which the old man refused to pay. A suit was brought by the doctor against the old man before a justice of the peace, where he recovered the amount of his account. An ap peal was taken to the County Court, where the result was the same. It was then taken to the Circuit Court by appeal. When the cause was called for trial, all the parties being ready, the old Irishman went to Col. O., and desired to know how much he would charge him to appear in his behalf in the cause. To this Col. O. replied, that it was then too late to be employed ; he knew nothing of the character of the case, the testimony, &e., and that it was then too late to obtain the necessary information. The old man, who appeared very much excited, replied, that he had already one lawyer employed who would do the bulk of the speaking, but that " he wished to employ him to give the doctor s pedigree to the jury." Overton told him that for dollars he would attend to and argue that branch of the cause. The old man without hesitation agreed to pay the required fee. The cause was opened by the plaintiff s counsel, who presented and read the doctor s medical account, the items of which were written in good or bad Latin. Overton directed his client to have all the doctors in the village sum moned instanter, w r hich was accordingly done. Their examination as to the meaning or true construction of the account was ludicrous beyond description. One gave it one construction, another a different construc tion, while a third gave it a meaning different from them both. The plaintifFs counsel knew nothing of the Latin language, and therefore was unable to explain the meaning of the bill ; nor was either of his compeers better informed. The testimony having closed, the plaintiff s counsel opened the cause and virtually surrendered it, there being no testimony to sustain it. Col. O. said it was a plain case of mutual contract between the parties, that his client had, in every particular, faithfully performed his part of the contract, as the testimony incontro- vertibly snowed ; and upon that ground the defendant ought to be dis charged. But he would ask the indulgence of the court and jury to submit a few remarks in relation to the " medical bill," and the charac ter and conduct of its author. Here he portrayed the Yankee charac ter in its true and native colors. He said, that he had read of "wooden nutmegs," and a case in which one Yankee had stolen the grave of his neighbor, and many others of a " similar stripe," but this " bill," and the circumstances under which it originated, exceeded them all in point of fraud, ingratitude and atrocity. The "bill" itself, "per se? ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON, OF TENNESSEE. 283 bore on its face every vestige, and was clothed with every badge of fraud and corruption known to the law; made out and exhibited in a foreign language against an aged and illiterate Irishman, whether it was Written in Latin, Greek or Hebrew no witness could tell, not even his own compeers, and gentlemen of his own profession. He said that such a doctor required a doctor, and that the jury would do justice and their duty by medicating him with a verdict against him. The arguments of counsel having closed, the jury retired, and in a few minutes returned with a verdict in favor of the defendant, to the great gratification of all present, the doctor excepted, who looked as if he had a short time pre vious swallowed an aperient which was then about to operate. He left the court in a rage, leaving the balance of the case, as to the costs, which were heavy, to be adjusted and settled between himself and the sheriff. Very many incidents in the early part of Col. Overton s life evinced a strong proclivity and peculiar adaptation of his mind to the profession which he selected. While at Transylvania University, one of the professors became ob noxious to the charge of malfeasance in office. A meeting of the stu dents was held a committee was appointed by them to draft the charges and specifications against the professor, and to take the neces sary steps and adopt such measures as might be deemed proper, to bring the professor before the board of trustees of the university. Overton, who was then not more than 17 or 18 years of age, was se lected, in connection with several other students of distinction, to pre pare and conduct the proceedings before the board of trustees the board being composed of gentlemen of the first intelligence and charac ter in the country, his father being among the number. The case pro duced great popular excitement and deep interest among the friends of the professor and the parents and friends of the students. The profes sor was a Presbyterian clergyman, and had, to a very great extent, en listed the feelings and solicitude of the church in his favor. The trial of the case continued ten or fifteen days, and brought to gether people of every class and denomination, from all parts of the country, anxious to hear the result. Young Overton, as a member of the committee, acted a very prominent part in the preparation of the charges and specifications, the management of the testimony, and the examination of the witnesses before the board. His argument on the occasion was. for a youth, esteemed eloquent and forcible. After the examination of the testimony, and the arguments for and against the professor closed, the board took time to advise, and in a short time came to the conclusion that the professor ought to be dis missed, and he was dismissed accordingly. Young Overton acquired great credit and applause for his distinguished talent, tact, and eloquence, in the management of the case, both from the board of trustees and au dience. Another and still more remarkable case occurred in his early history, evincing, most clearly, his eminent capacity and fitness for his profession. In the year 1805, while on his way, for the first time, to Tennessee, he called at Glasgow, then a small village, immediately on the road from Lexington to Nashville, in the county of Barren, Ky., where his eldest brother, Thomas J. Overton, then resided, and prac tised the law. He arrived there late in the evening, and put up for the 284 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. night at the inn of a Mr. Dickerson, a Virginian, a justice of the peace, and a social and hospitable man. His brother and all the lawyers who resided in the village were ab sent at court in another county. On the morning after his arrival, an old man, whose name the writer does not now recollect, came to the inn and inquired of the proprietor where he could find a lawyer. Mr. D. informed him that they were all absent. The old man seemed much distressed, and observed that he knew not what he should do ; that his son John, about seventeen or eighteen years of age, had, on the day pre vious, been arrested, and was then in custody of the sheriff, on a charge of biting off the nose of James Fowler, and he feared it would go hard with him unless he could find a lawyer. Dickerson told him that it was an unfortunte situation to be placed in, but that a young gentleman had arrived there the night before, who he understood was a lawyer, and that he ha.d better apply to him. The old man was accompanied by Mr. D. to the room of young Mr. O., and introduced to him made a statement of his son s case to Mr. O., and informed him that he wished to employ him to defend his son before the called or Examining Court, which was to sit on that day at the court-house in Glasgow. Mr. O. in formed the old man that he had no license to practise the law that he was traveling to Tennessee that he had been reading law, but had never appeared in any court or in any cause, and that he did not consi der himself qualified to do justice to his son in his defence, and advised him to obtain a continuance of the ease. The old man still insisted, in the most earnest manner, aided by Mr. Dickerson, until Mr. Overton agreed to appear, not as a lawyer, but as a friend, in defence of.his son. He procured the key of his brother s office, found 4th Blackstone s Com mentaries, and some other books on criminal law, and appeared at the bar of the court, at its opening, with the old man and his son at his back. When the testimony was closed, both on the part of the state and the defendant, it appeared that a quarrel had taken place between the prosecutor and defendant ; provoking language passed on both sides, and a fight ensued, in which the defendant was knocked down, the prosecu tor jumped upon him, and commenced gouging him with both his thumbs in defendant s eyes. In this situation, underneath, and suffering under the pain and torture of the gouging operation, he threw up his head, and snapped off about an inch of the prosecutor s nose. Who struck the first blow, or commenced the fight, did not appear in the proof on either side. Mr. O., in his argument, made it appear, to the satisfaction of the court, from the law and the facts, that it was most clearly a case of <: son assault demesne," and that if death had ensued it would have been a case of justifiable homicide "se defendendo" and therefore the de fendant ought to be discharged ; and such was the opinion of the court, and the defendant was discharged accordingly. This was the first time that Mr. Overton ever appeared in or addressed a court without prepa ration, and without a license. Unlike most men of his acknowledged ability and merit, he does not aspire to political elevation, believing as he does that the employment of those means generally used, and well calculated to insure the success of the politician, are inconsistent with the feelings of an honorable and just man. He adheres firmly to the demo cratic creed, as adopted and pursued by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, ARCHIBALD WALLER OVERTON, OF TENNESSEE. 285 and Jackson. He advocated and sustained the administrations of these illustrious statesmen to the extent of his capacity. He voted for Jackson when a candidate for the United States Senate, and supported his ad ministration throughout. He was Jackson s intimate acquaintance and warm personal friend until his death. He is thoroughly conversant with constitutional and international law, as well as the form and structure of the American government. Pie believes that the constitution of the United States is a delegation of well-defined powers by the several states to the general government, the limits to which should under no circum stances be transcended. In person, Colonel O. is below the medium stature, very well propor tioned, and of nervous and sanguine temperament. He is urbane in his manners, kind and hospitable in his feelings, and dignified in his deport ment rather inclined to be taciturn in mixed assemblies, but among his friends and particular acquaintances he is animated in his conversa tion, witty, interesting, and highly instructive. No man enjoys his friends with higher zest or greater cordiality, nor abides their fortunes, whether in prosperity or adversity, with greater cheerfulness and tena city. To his clients, whilst practising his profession, he was at all times accessible, patient, and accommodating, in hearing the statements of their cases ; and if, in the trial of their causes, the result should prove unfavorable to their interests, they always left him. well satisfied "that his best efforts had been employed in their behalf. Colonel Overton has ever been charitable to the poor man, the widow and the orphan, cheerfully devoting his services to them, whenever called upon in a professional capacity, without fee or reward, as well as afford ing them, in other respects, the free and liberal contributions of a bene volent and generous neighbor and friend. His father reared and edu cated ten children, six sons and four daughters, All his sons studied the law, but none of them practised this profession except Archibald W. and his eldest brother, Thomas J. Overton. All of them who were able to bear arms, except the subject of this notice, were active participants in the war of 1812. Thomas J. Overton, who commanded a company of infantry in the regiment commanded by Colonel "Wells, of Kentucky, fell in the battle of the river Eaisin, and Dr. James Overton, his third bro ther, who acted as aid-de-camp to the commanding general, was taken pri soner at the same time. His fourth brother, Samuel R. Overton, was commissioned by General Jackson to adjust the Spanish claims in the territory of Florida, who, after transacting the business for which he was commissioned, married, settled in Pensacola, and died there. John Waller Overton, his fifth brother, volunteered, and served a campaign in the Creek war as first lieutenant in Captain Walton s company of Colonel Allen s regiment, Tennessee volunteers. The sixth and last son is Dabney Carr Overton, a highly reputable farmer in the vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, a gentleman of cultivated mind and great moral worth. Thus it will be seen that the subject of this memoir is the oldest living member of his father s family. His mind is probably as clear, as active, and as vigorous at present as at any time during a long and eventful life. In fact the tenacity with which he retains both his mental and physical powers is truly remark able. He makes no formal pretensions to religion, but regards the 286 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. " Holy Scriptures" as the only reliable plan of salvation. He is emi nently tolerant in his sentiments on the subject, and is hence a friend to all sects and denominations who conform to the doctrines of the Bible. He has been long and well known to the writer of this memoir, who has here to regret his inability to portray more fully the great excellence and distinguished merit of his friend, whom justly to appreciate in all relations, the foregoing synopsis of his life, taken from recollection, we are obliged to regard as greatly defective in material. To esteem him rightly in the whole circle of his character, it were needful to have en joyed his personal acquaintance, for, by all allowance, his character can not be given by any assemblage of mental or moral attributes drawn from the portraiture of ordinary men. From early life to his present age his individuality of character has ever been prominently remark able, to be impersonated by few, if any, and to be known fully by those only by whom he is personally and intimately known. By such he will ever be recollected as a man of high intellectual endowments, moral worth, and professional eminence. HUGH A. GARLAND, ESQ., OF MISSOURI. THE subject of this memoir was born in what is now Nelson county, Virginia, on the first day of June, 1805. His father was Mr. Spots- wood Garland, the son of General John Garland, who was accidentally killed at Charlottesville, while he was in command of the troops that kept guard over Burguoyne s captured army. His mother was Lucinda Rose, daughter of Colonel Hugh Rose, of Geddis, Amherst county. At the time of Mr. Garland s birth, Nelson was a part of Amherst county. It was formed into a county in 1809, and Mr. Spotswood Garland was elected the clerk of the county. This office he held until the day of his death, the 30th August, 1850. At the time Mr. Spotswood Garland moved his family to the place which had been selected as the seat of justice for the county, the neigh borhood in which he lived might have been regarded as something like a frontier settlement. The manners of the people were plain and simple ; and what is known in Virginia as an old field-school was the only seminary of learning to which parents could send their children to be educated. Mrs. Garland, who was a woman of great piety and possessed of strong natural abilities, preferred that her children should remain at home rather than they should be exposed to the evil in fluences which would be exerted upon them in such a school. She took upon herself the task of imparting to them the first rudiments of education, and it was not until a private teacher could be procured in the family that the subject of this memoir entered upon a regular course of English and classical studies. When he was 13 years of age he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Richard W. Fox, a fine mathematician and classical scholar, who came to teach school in his HUGH A. GARLAND, OF MISSOURI. 287 father s neighborhood. Mr. Garland s application to study, even at this early age, was very great. The usual hours of recreation he gener ally employed in reading history ; and in a debating society, formed by his companions in study, he first acquired, in some slight degree, the habit of public speaking. At the age of 16 he entered the freshman class in Hampden Sydney College, at that time the most flourishing literary institution in Virginia. Its president and professors were men of profound learning, and had the talent of exciting an enthusiastic zeal in their pupils in the pursuit of knowledge. Hugh A. Garland was a diligent student during the four years he remained at college, and graduated with distinguished honors. The first year after graduating Mr. Garland spent in the office of his father as deputy-clerk. His leisure hours were devoted to the Greek classics and mental philosophy. In September, 1826, when just 21 years of age, he was elected by the trustees of Hampden Sydney College, professor of Greek language and literature. In October he married Miss Anne P. Biirwell, daughter of the late Colonel Armistead Bur- well, of Mecklenburg. For four years Mr. Garland devoted himself with unremitting ardor to the laborious duties of his office. He also found leisure to prosecute the study of the French, Spanish, and Italian languages, under the instruction of Colonel Gaspari, the professor of modern languages. During this period Mr. Garland frequently wrote essays for the political newspapers, and delivered addresses on public occasions ; one in particular the writer remembers, on the "Importance of classical studies, as a branch of a liberal education." Mr. Garland s favorite studies at this time were the writings of Samuel Taylor Cole ridge. His old preceptor, Dr. James Marsh, had just published an American edition of The Friends, the Aid to Reflection, and the States man s Manual ; these books, together with the Biographia Literaria, by the same author, he devoured with eagerness. Such studies could not fail to develop all the faculties of his mind, and to cultivate a habit of profound thought and deep research. The writer was intimately acquainted with Mr. Garland during this period, and remembers the enthusiasm with which he discoursed on the great themes of "morals, politics, and religion," the principles and sources of which were so pro foundly investigated by his favorite philosopher and guide, Dr. Marsh. In 1830, Mr. Garland resigned his professorship, and repaired to the University of Virginia to prosecute his studies more thoroughly. In this institution he devoted one year to the study of physiology and anatomy, under the instruction of Dr. Dunglison ; he also attended the lectures of Doctors Paterson and Emmet, on natural philosophy and chemistry. He took German lessons from Dr. Blatterman, and attended his courses on Italian, French, and Spanish literature. The whole day was given to these scientific and literary pursuits; the night was devoted to the study of law. Mr. Garland did not devote him self to the details of practice, his great object was to acquire a thorough knowledge of the sources and principles of the English common law. In December, 1831, Mr. Garland settled in Boydton, the county seat of Mecklenburg, and opened an office for the practice of law. He was an entire stranger in the county, and for more than a year being 288 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. without practice, Mr. Garland devoted himself to the study of his pro fession. Tucker s Commentaries and books of practice were his daily- companions. The idleness and dissipation of a village life had no temptations for him. Abstemious in his habits, his whole time was devoted to the acquisition of knowledge. When not employed in pro fessional studies he read history, or perused the poetic works of Shaks^- peare, Wordsworth, and Burns, and always returned with renewed pleasure to his old favorite author, Coleridge. To eke out their limited resources, Mrs. Garland undertook to teach a female school, with Mr. Garland s general superintendence and occa sional aid. The school soon became popular and profitable. Many a virtuous and accomplished lady in that part of the country will readily acknowledge their lasting obligations to the moral and mental train ing to which they were subjected in Mrs. Garland s excellent school. Brought up in luxury and affluence, both husband and wife, they were not ashamed, when the hour of adversity came, to toil for their daily bread, in an occupation which is really the noblest of human pursuits, although it has been degraded, by a false public sentiment, below the level of other professions. On the 3d Monday of November, 1832, Mr. Garland addressed the people of Mecklenburg for the first time on political subjects. The same day witnessed the assembling of the celebrated nullification con vention in South Carolina. The minds of the people were greatly ex cited on the subject, and it constituted the theme of Mr. Garland s dis course. His speech made a great impression on the public mind, and he was immediately announced by his friends as a candidate for a seat in the state legislature. Although he was a stranger in the county, at the ensuing spring elections he obtained a small majority over several very formidable competitors. Until the meeting of the legislature in 1833, Mr. Garland devoted himself to the duties of his profession, which had now become to him a source of interest and of profit. The winter of 1833-4 was a time of great excitement on political subjects throughout the Union. The war between the government and the bank was at its height. General Jackson had removed the public deposits from the bank, and had thereby created a great panic in the commercial world. The leading object of the whig party, then just or ganizing itself, was to procure a restoration of the deposits, and a pro longation of the life of the bank, whose charter had just been vetoed by the President. The excitement in Congress and the Virginia legislature was very intense. Clay, Webster and Calhoun were never more powerful in their opposition to the measures of the administration than they were at that time. General Jackson seemed to be left almost friendless and alone. The legislature of Virginia, at the time of the election in April, 1833, was in favor of the administration, almost without any show of opposi tion. But when it assembled in December, or at least a few weeks afterwards, under the influence of the panic speeches delivered in Wash ington, and from other causes, scarcely any of its members had sufficient moral courage to stand up and declare themselves to be friends of the administration. Mr. Garland was one of the few who were bold enough to do so. About the latter part of January, he made his maiden HUGH A. GARLAND, OF MISSOURI. 289 speech in the legislature, denouncing the coalition which had been formed at Washington to destroy General Jackson, and to defeat his efforts to put an end to that corrupting institution, the Bank of the United States. He had been a silent member of the house up to that period. His vehement and earnest manner, his clear and logical style of reasoning, took every body by surprise, and at once established his character as an able and eloquent debater. The writer of this memoir happened to be in the lobby of the house, and well remembers the effect produced by this first effort of Mr. Garland on the floor of the legis lature, and the assurance which it gave to his friends of his future emi nence as a politician and a statesman. Having taken a decided position in the political world, Mr. Garland maintained and defended it with untiring energy and zeal. He called to his aid all the rich stores of knowledge which he had been diligently laying up for so many years. He wrote an elaborate address to the people of Virginia, giving an historical account of the, political parties and of the great controversies which were then agitating the country. The doctrines set forth in that address only met the approbation of the members then composing the minority of the legislature. To them it was acceptable in the highest degree, but none of them had the bold ness to sign it but Mr. Garland and Col. Joseph S. Watkins, of Gooch- land. This address was extensively circulated in the state, and called forth elaborate answers from several gentlemen of distinction in the whig party. It is said to have exerted great influence in giving direc tion to public sentiment, which, up to that time, had been much dis tracted and divided by the startling and agitating events which had so recently taken place in such rapid and quick succession. At the close of the session, Mr. Garland met with strong opposition at home, but was re-elected by a very handsome majority. When the legislature assembled again in December, 1834, the friends of the ad ministration were still in a minority, but their numbers had greatly in creased. During this session, Mr. Garland delivered an elaborate speech, in which he expressed his views fully on the constitution, on the relation of the states to the federal government, and on the importance of judging our political institutions by rules purely American, and not by principles of interpretation derived from governments wholly dissi milar to our own. No copy of this speech is in our possession, or we would gladly make some extracts from it, to illustrate Mr. Garland s political views and to give an idea of his mode of reasoning and his style of composition. At the close of the session, he put forth another minority address to the people of Virginia. It was signed by all the members of the mi nority, a fact which clearly proved what a great change had taken place in public sentiment in the course of a single year. In the spring of 1835 a strenuous and determined effort was made to defeat Mr. Garland s election. The strongest men were brought out as candidates by the opposite party, and all the wealth and influence of the county were arrayed against him. But he resorted to no unwor thy or extraordinary means to secure his election. He made it a rule to speak to the people at large on public affairs appealed to their in telligence and sense of justice. Having given an account of his steward- 19 290 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ship he left the result in the hands of his constituents. He was again re-elected by an increased majority. From this time forth he was elected without opposition, so long as he remained a citizen of the county of Mecklenburg. The next legislature, 1835 and 3G, found the administration in the majority, but another subject of agitation threw its true friends into a minority. This was a season of great excitenrent on the abolition question. In the summer before, meetings had been held in all parts of the state, denouncing " abolition societies" and requiring strict legis lation to put them down. The whig party, especially the Calhoun por tion, which did not separate from the whigs till 1837, advocated ultra measures and were warm for a southern convention and a southern or ganization. Mr. Garland opposed their views with great ability. The debate was protracted and animated. Mr. Garland took the lead in the discussion and spoke frequently in reply to those who opposed the con ciliatory course he advocated. His speeches on that occasion are to be found in the Richmond Enquirer of that day. He said " that the battle had to be fought in the northern states, and that the democracy of those states would maintain the cause of the south if the south should be true to them. He had faith in the northern democracy and would take no steps to alienate them from the south." He was chairman of the committee to whom was referred the petitions and resolutions of the people on the abolition question. The majority reported resolutions opposed to his views. He wrote a minority report in which this whole subject of slavery and abolitionism is reviewed. In December, 1836, some months before the deposit banks suspended specie payments, Mr. Garland offered in the Virginia legislature a series of resolutions advocating an independent treasury system. These reso lutions were followed by a series of essays in the Richmond Enquirer, urging the necessity of separating the government altogether from banks and of restoring the public treasury to its constitutional character. In the session of 1837 and 38, Mr. Garland wrote the report on the right of instruction, and was mainly instrumental in carrying it through the legislature. It met with much opposition, and strenuous efforts were made to amend and modify it ; but it was adopted in the form and language in which it was originally reported. Mr. Garland was for five years a member of the Virginia legislature and took an active and leading part in all its proceedings, made many speeches, drew up many able reports, and wrote many essays, which were published and highly complimented in the newspapers of the day. With the view of withdrawing from politics and devoting his whole time to the practice of the law, he removed from the county of Meck lenburg and settled on a farm in the neighborhood of Petersburg. He opened an office in that town in the spring of 1838. In December following he was unexpectedly invited by some of the leading mem bers of Congress to become a candidate for the clerkship of the House of Representatives. He consented and was elected. At the meeting of the twenty-sixth Congress, which took place in December, 1839, as the clerk of the preceding House of Representatives, he was called to act on the famous New-Jersey question. After the house was finally organized, Mr. Garland was re-elected as its clerk. HUGH A. GARLAND, OF MISSOURI. 291 On the passage of the independent treasury bill, the 4th of July, 1840, Mr. Garland was invited to address a mass meeting in Castle Garden, in the city of New- York, in commemoration of that great event. His speech is now before me. The commencement of it is very poetic, and the style throughout is very lofty and ambitious. In this speech Mr. Garland attempts to give a short and condensed view of the progress of human opinions on the subject of government and of the gradual de velopment of the principles of civil and religious liberty, ending in the all-absorbing topic with him the downfall of the United States Bank, and the restoration of the government to its original and primitive foun dation. This speech exhibits Mr. Garland s usual ability, and the straightforward and guileless simplicity of his unsophisticated nature. He cannot help being in earnest when engaged in the pursuit of what he considers essential to the welfare and happiness of the human family, or when contending for the honor and glory of his country. The twenty-seventh Congress, which was called together in an extra session by General Harrison, May, 1841, having a whig majority, elected Matthew St. Clair Clarke, clerk of the house. Mr. Garland retired to his farm near Petersburg, and devoted himself for some years exclusively to literary pursuits. Having a moderate com petence, and no aspirations after wealth, he gave himself up with re newed zeal to his favorite studies. Coleridge, Carlyle, and Kant, the " Critic of Pure Reason," were his daily companions. The composi tions that came from his pen at this time have never been given to the public. Some two or three speeches, delivered on various occasions, were published, and among others was a eulogy on the life and ser vices of General Jackson, delivered in Petersburg in July, 1845. It exhibits the characteristic traits of Mr. Garland s mind, his enthusiastic admiration of General Jackson s character, and his devoted attachment to what he considers the peculiar and fundamental principles of the constitution of the United States. About this time an important change took place in Mr. Garland s pecuniary affairs, which has given quite a new direction to his efforts and his labors. He had embarked a small sum of money in a mercan tile partnership, in Petersburg, Virginia, and entrusted the entire management of it to the young gentleman who was his partner in business, and in whom he had the most implicit confidence. He sel dom visited the store, but devoted himself at home to pursuits of science and literature. In a short time the partnership was involved in bankruptcy and ruin. This was a, severe and unexpected misfor tune to Mr. Garland and his young family. No event is better calcu lated to test the strength of a man s character than one like this. Mr. Garland did not hesitate on this trying occasion. He surrendered all his private fortune for the benefit of the creditors of the partnership. He reserved nothing for himself or his helpless family. At the age of forty he began life again without a farthing. He removed to St. Louis, and again commenced the practice of the law. His spirits have not nagged. He devotes himself to labor and intense study with the same ardor that characterized him when the writer first knew him, as a fellow-student, at Hampden Sydney College. The field of law, as it exhibits itself in Missouri, is peculiarly fitted 292 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to his mind. Where there are so many conflicting elements, common law, civil, French, and Spanish law, statute law congressional, terri torial, and state it requires a mind trained as his has been to grapple with so many different and conflicting codes of law, and to reduce them to a consistent, sound, and just system. Mr. Garland at present de votes himself exclusively to his professional pursuits, and takes a true pleasure in profound legal investigations. He hardly allows himself time for keeping up with the politics, science, and literature, of the day, so intense is his zeal in his favorite pursuit. His summer vaca tions, immediately after his removal to St. Louis, were devoted to the composition of the life of John Randolph, which work was published in 1850. Mr. Garland still takes an interest in those great political principles of the democratic party to which he .devoted so much of his life, but he has taken no active part in politics since he became a citizen of Missouri, and has kept aloof from the party strifes that have distracted the democracy in this state for the last four or five years. In the important causes entrusted to Mr. Garland, he has made it a rule, to write out in full, and to print the argument by which he sus tains his cause. We have some of them before us at this time ; they evince his capacity for research, his thorough knowledge of the great principles of jurisprudence, his devotion to the interests of his clients, and his invincible determination to go to the bottom of the cause he is investigating. Mr. Garland s ability as a lawyer has not yet become fully known in the state to which he removed only a few years since. His habits are reserved and retiring. He loves the retired seclusion of his office, and the profound study of his favorite authors, too much to be as much conversant with the busy world around him as would be conducive to his fame, and have a greater tendency to promote his pecuniary interests. His talents are not superficial and brilliant, shining forth at once with the most intense splendor, and gradually diminishing their brightness until they seem to fade away from the eye of the beholder. On the contrary, they are solid and substantial, only developing themselves as occasion calls for their exercise, and they are most highly estimated by those who are most intimately acquainted with him. He is esteemed by his associates at the bar as a profound and learned jurist, and his opinion as to intricate, difficult, and abstruse points of law is held by them in the highest reverence. His great learning, his unwearied diligence, and his unblemished integrity, will no doubt yet secure for him a brilliant professional career. It is certainly to be regretted, on some accounts, that he so early em barked on the stormy sea of politics, and that so much of his life has been spent amid the strifes and contentions that vex and disturb the political firmament. Successful as he has been in accomplishing so much in the hazardous and dangerous pursuit in which he was so long engaged, it is evident that he was more eminently qualified to distin guish himself in another and a very different sphere. Had he never been tempted to forsake the calm and peaceful performance of his pro fessional duties had he given his whole soul and all his energies, with out interruption, to the study of the great principles of jurisprudence, his fame as a lawyer would have been much greater ; and yet it admits HUGH A. GARLAND, OF MISSOURI. 293 of a doubt, if his experience in political life, has not in some respects more fully prepared him for the perfect investigation, and just appre hension of many of the difficult questions, which must necessarily come before the man, who is engaged in the practice of law in the United States of America. Mr. Garland, by the publication of the life of John Randolph, has, beyond all question, acquired for himself no little reputation in the lite rary world. It was a work prepared for the press under great disad vantages. It was commenced about the time that Mr. Garland ex perienced the great reverse in his pecuniary circumstances, which was so peculiarly painful to himself, and which would have completely overwhelmed a man of less firmness and decision of character. It was partly written during the prevalence of the cholera, as an epidemic, in the city of St. Louis. Hundreds were dying around him daily. The more wealthy citizens were flying with consternation from the scene of contagion and of death. But Mr. Garland had a large and helpless family to support. He had a broken down fortune to repair, and neither the heat of summer, nor the presence of a malignant epidemic, which filled the minds of other men with terror, could induce him to suspend his labors, or to seek safety in flight ; calmly putting his trust in an overruling Providence, he toiled on at his task, and accomplished the object he had in view. The favor with which Mr. Garland s life of John Randolph was re ceived by the public, bears a sufficient and satisfactory evidence as to the literary abilities of its author. The work met with a ready sale. It has already passed through several editions, and has been a source of very considerable profit to Mr. Garland. If any fault is to be found with it, it is that the author attempted to extend his work rather beyond the legitimate limits of a biography. Mr. Garland evidently designed to make it a political history of the times, in which Mr. Randolph lived, tracing very clearly to their source the different changes which have taken place among politicians in our country, with reference to the powers of the general government. In this effort Mr. Garland very happily succeeded. His work furnishes a vast amount of information with respect to the state of public opinion, and the attitude of our different political parties during the long and interesting period that Mr. Randolph held a seat in the Congress of the United States. Mr. Garland s delineation of John Randolph s character was faithful and striking. He gave a just promi nence to his many virtues, and rare and excellent qualities, both of head and heart ; but did not forget, or attempt to conceal his peculiarly morbid nervous excitability, which rendered him so wonderfully eccen tric in his manners, and so completely unlike all other men. Ample justice was done by Mr. Garland to Mr. Randolph s surprising talents and matchless eloquence in debate ; but it was impossible for him, or anv other man, to give the world a correct idea of the quickness of Mr. Randolph s powers at repartee, of the brilliancy of his genius, of his withering sarcasm, or of the delicate strain of wit and humor which ran through his speeches in the Senate, and all his familiar conversations at the fire-side with his intimate friends. There was a combination of op posite and conflicting qualities in Mr. Randolph s character, which it 2 C J4 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. was hard to delineate ; but Mr. Garland succeeded in painting and em bellishing a faithful portrait of Mr. Randolph s private character of his peculiarities and his rare endowments, which has certainly been no small contribution to the literature of our country. Mri Garland s success as an author, has been a temptation to him to engage in the composition of some more elaborate and important his torical work ; but he has been prevented from doing so by the urgent nature of his professional duties. He wields a ready pen, and literary labors are to him a source of pleasure, rather than of irksome and fatiguing toil. In this brief memoir the peculiar traits of Mr. Garland s mind have perhaps been sufficiently developed, although it has been done incident ally in giving a hasty narrative of his life. Patient thought and a habit of profound investigation, constitute his grand mental peculiarity. His diligence and untiring application to study has made him the master of a rich store of varied knowledge. His reading has taken a wide range. He has explored the domains of ancient and modern literature. He has made himself familiar with most of the ancient and modern languages. The beauties of poetry and the subtilties of metaphysics have not been without their charms for him; and his ability as a writer, and his readiness as a debater, and eloquence as a speaker, have enabled him at all times to employ efficiently and successfully whatever knowledge he had obtained from books, or by his study of the different characters of men in his intercourse with the world. Mr. G. is as yet only in the prime of life. Possessed naturally of a good constitution, his abstemious habits and his constant activity have preserved his strength unimpaired. Years have only improved his judg ment, without diminishing his capacity for labor ; and should no untimely blight overtake him, or unlooked-for calamity overshadow his prospects, we may anticipate for him a long career of usefulness and of honor. But justice would not be done to the subject of this memoir if some thing more was not said with reference to his private character. He has been long known to the writer of this imperfect sketch, and he can truly say, that he never knew any man more perfectly amiable in all the domestic relations of life. As a friend, as a father, as a husband, and as a Christian, his conduct has ever been most exemplary and blameless. His uprightness and integrity have never been called in question. They have passed unharmed through a series of the most severe trials, and still more dangerous temptations. As a public offi cer, and as a private citizen, his character has been alike free from re proach. No temptation could allure him from the path of rectitude. No danger, however formidable, could deter him from the performance of his duty. A child-like simplicity characterizes his intercourse with society. There is no appearance of malice or of guile about him. He is mild and unassuming in his manners, and yet stern and unflinching in his adherence to truth and justice. He reminds us of a portrait drawn by the hand of a master in the delineation of human character : Justum ac tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida, fteque Auster. WILLIAM P. GRACE, OF ARKANSAS. 295 WILLIAM P. GRACE, OF PINE BLUFF, ARKANSAS. WILLIAM P. GRACE, the subject of the present memoir, was born in Caldwell county, in the State of Kentucky, on the 21st day of Novem ber, 1822. The grandfather of Mr. Grace, James Grace, was a native of South Carolina, and lived there till his death, which took place about the year A. D. 1810. Shortly after his death, the widow, finding her self left with seven children, all small, and with but slender means to raise and educate them with, determined to remove to Kentucky, think ing that a new country, where lands were cheap, would offer more ad vantages to her young family of boys as they should become men than the old and more closely-populated State of South Carolina, and prompted by these views, the widow, in the year A. D. 1812, moved to and settled in Caldwell county, Kentucky. At this time, Preston Grace, her oldest child, and the father of the subject of this memoir, was about twelve years old, and was the only assistance, beyond her own efforts, his mother had for maintaining and educating her large family. About this time the widow, through necessity, hired her eldest son to work in a brick-yard, at two dollars per month; and the boy, as he grew to be a man, having no better avocation by which to gain a livelihood for himself, learned the bricklaying business as a trade, and finally in after life pursued it as a business. In the year A. D. 1818, he was married to Miss Jane Kilgore, of the same county, by whom he had a large family, the subject of this memoir being the third. The family of Mr. Grace was exceedingly poor, and, from necessity, as fast as his sons were able to be of any assistance, they were placed in the brickyard and from thence to the building, thus allowing them no chance for educational pursuits other than about two of the coldest winter months, and Sabbath-schools. But, notwithstanding the early opportunities for intellectual pursuits and educational acquirements of young Mr. Grace were so few, still he did not fail to turn those few to the best account, and at the age of eighteen he, by his own strict appli cation, was far superior in general information to many of those who had done little or nothing from their childhood but con our school exercises. Thus, between daily labor and nightly reading was the life of Mr. Grace passed, until the fall of A. D. 1844. At that time, Mr. Clay and Mr. Polk were candidates for the presidency. The country trembled with party excitement, and every man was bound to come out and take a position to be neutral was impossible. Both parties used all possible means to organize their strength. The whigs of Cald well county had formed themselves into what they called a " Clay Club," and would meet once a week, compare notes, and have a speech from some whig orator. It so happened that at one of these meetings no whig who was in the habit of public speaking was in attendance. To go off without a speech would not do. First one was called for, and then another, but none would take the stand. At last, one of the company 296 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. seeing Mr. Grace sitting far back in one corner of the room, and know ing him to be a warm whig, called for him ; others then joined in the call. The young bricklayer arose to excuse himself, but while making his excuse, he overheard a lady remark, " who thinks he could make a speech" Immediately young Grace burned with indignation, and, in stead of continuing his excuse, he immediately marched to the stand and addressed the house for about an hour. The ease and elegance of his style was such that the audience was completely electrified, and they gave him one round of applause from about the middle of his speech to its conclusion, and when he took his seat, the cry of " Go on" was universal. Although Mr. Grace had many warm personal friends before the de livery of this speech, that centred attention more immediately on him, and many of the leading men about Princeton at once beset him to quit his trade and study law. To this he was disinclined, however, for he knew his education was insufficient to promise great success in that learned profession, and he was destitute of the means to give himself those educational qualifications which he regarded as being indispensably neces sary to a successful lawyer. At last, however, he gave way to their im portunities, and, in the winter of A. L). 1844, entered Cumberland Col lege as a student. His correct moral deportment and rapid progress, from the time he entered that institution until he left it in the spring of A. D. 1846, did not only win for him the esteem of the professors of that institution, but gave to the public increased confidence in his abili ty and integrity. In the spring of A. D. 1846, finding his finances in a low condition, he left college, and entered the law-office of Livingston Lindsay, then a leading member of the bar in Caldwell county, and remained there until the spring of A. D. 1847 ; in the mean time forsak ing everything like pleasure or even recreation, he pursued his studies with untiring efforts, not allowing himself more than five hours in the twenty- four for sleep and refreshment. In the spring of A. D. 1847, having mastered some of the elemental principles of the law, and being unwilling to draft further upon the in dulgence and charity of his friends, he determined to make application for admission to the bar, and accordingly did make application and was admitted. Now the next thing was a location, and this was not a ques tion of easy solution. However, with his usual promptness, in the course of a few days he determined to remove to Arkansas, and in the course of ten days bid farewell to his native state and his early friends, and on the 16th day of April, A. D. 1847, landed at Pine Bluff. While traveling up the Arkansas River he examined the geography of the country, and made inquiry of those on board, who seemed to be best acquainted, of the different portions of the state. Ascertaining that Pine Bluff was the county town of one of the first counties in the state in point of wealth and business, he by the time the boat reached that point had determined to make that his home. The morning after he landed at Pine Bluff, the circuit court for that county commenced its spring session, and through the kindness of one of- the members of the bar, Mr. Grace was presented to the court, and after an examination the court admitted him a member of the bar. There stood indicted in that court a slave for the murder of his o % ver WILLIAM P. GRACE, OF ARKANSAS. 297 seer, and a free negro for larceny. Neither of them had counsel. It devolved upon the court to appoint them counsel. The court appointed Mr. Byers and Mr. Grace in the one case, and Mr. Anderson and Mr. Grace in the other. The murder case was taken up immediately. Of couree Mr. Grace relied on his co-counsel in the choice of the jury. When the evidence was gone through with, it made it a clear case of murder, so clear that the counsel for the state declined making an open* ing argument, and it devolved upon Mr. Grace, as he was the junior counsel in the defence, to make the first argument. Judge, if you please, of the feelings which must have taken possession of the young lawyer as he arose to make his first effort at the bar. Not only was it his first effort, but he was to speak to a court and jury he had never seen before, on a case he had not as much as one hour to make himself acquainted with, and in the presence of an audience upon whose good opinion of him depended his very bread. But notwithstanding all this he arose, and, without apology, proceeded with ease. After he had been speaking for some time and got a little collected, he said something to the jury as being law, when the court interfered, and informed the jury that Mr. Grace was right at common law, but that the legislature of Arkansas had changed it in that particular. Mr. Grace bowed, thanked the court for the correction, and went on, and not long after the court corrected him again in the same manner as before. He then turned to the jury, and told them that he had never read the criminal code of Arkansas, having been in the state but four days, and consequently did not know what its provisions were, but he supposed that the legislature of Arkansas had not passed any law that was con trary to common sense and common justice, and for the future, in that case, he would leave the law to the court, and take common sense and the facts for it. It is hardly necessary for me to say that the defendant was found guilty. The above circumstance is mentioned merely to show the nerve and cast of the character of Mr. Grace. On the follow ing day the free negro was tried and convicted. And notwithstanding he had such bad luck (if you call it luck) with his two first cases, still he made a favorable impression on the public mind, and commenced at once to do some practice, which has gone on steadily increasing up to this time, and now he is regarded by many as among the first lawyers in the southern part of the state. As a jurist, perhaps there are those in the state who stand, in the es timation of the community in which he resides, as the superior of Mr. Grace, on account of their age and experience ; but certainly he has no superior with the same amount of practice. His forte consists not so much in the preparation of his cases for trial (though in this he is quite accurate) as in the peculiar adroitness with which he manages his cases in court. In the presentation of a cause either to the court or jury, there is a degree of candor and fairness that characterizes his statements that wins its way to a fair audience, and pre-engages the mind to a just ap preciation of the conclusions he may draw from the premises. The premises being laid, he proceeds to unfold the evidence in his cause in the same manner and the same order he has made his statements, pre senting the weaker points of testimony first, and, gradually approaching a climax, reserving the most clenching testimony for the last, and there 298 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. he rests his cause. He is exceedingly tenacious of the theory he has formed of his cause, and from the order with which he endeavors to invest every case, he is sometimes, in an adverse case, exceedingly tedious, resulting from an endeavor to draw out the evidence so as to fit his theory of the case. His mode of conducting the examination of a witness is Con ciliatory, and well calculated to disarm prejudice, leading slowly but certainly to some point he desires to make in the case. He relies mostly on the strength of his own testimony ; and if the main point of his testi mony has been obscured by a cross-examination, he goes back and re develops it, much after the same fashion he drew it out at first ; and while he is sometimes tedious in the examination of a dull witness, from whom he thinks he can extract some valuable testimony, he is, on the contrary, exceedingly laconic with a known adverse witness, rarely, if ever, putting a cross-interrogatory, unless it is a dishonest witness, whom he sometimes castigates most unmercifully. His style of speaking is easy and fluent, sometimes declamatory and vehement, but never harsh. His voice is soft and full, and well modu lated, with a great flow of language ; he is never at a loss for a word ; and perhaps it would be just criticism to say that his flow of language is too great, and, as a consequence, his sentences sometimes want the terse ness and energy that characterize some other speakers. His manner of handling his subject is much after the style of developing the evidence of the case, commencing with the weaker, and concluding with the stronger ; he follows up his own side of the case, paying but little atten tion to the arguments and conclusions of the opposing counsel. His style of reasoning is by analogy rather than by induction, which, while it may be less certain and conclusive, is always more striking and per suasive. There is, at times, when he does attempt to reply to an op ponent, a vein of sarcasm, chaste and severe, that tells most wonderfully, though it is not often that he attempts the use of it. Perhaps the most just criticism that can be passed upon his style of speaking is an effort to make the whole of his argument too perfect, by dwelling too much on minor points, and not coming direct enough to the main point and conclu sion ; and sometimes,. when he has reached the climax, an effort to en force it too elaborately. This is an error, however, which he is fast correcting. He is yet quite a young man, and, from his uniform courtesy to other members of the bar, his quiet and active intellect, and his indomi table energy and perseverance, the writer will predict for him an emi nence at the bar that is attained by but few, with the enjoyment of that wealth and influence that always accompanies such distinction. R. SEAL, OF MISSISSIPPI. 299 HON. RODERICK SEAL, OF BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI. HON. RODERICK SEAL, the subject of this memoir, is a native of North Carolina, and was born in Richmond county on the 31st day of December, 1817. His father, Colonel Jacob Seal, removed from North Carolina to Mississippi, and located himself in Hancock county. The country to which he had removed was almost a wilderness. The beauty of the primeval forest had scarcely been touched by the march of improvement, or the soil broken by the hand of cultivation ; conse quently the subject of this sketch passed his early days amid scenes and excitements incident to frontier life, and little calculated to form the character now witnessed in him. Although surrounded by such unfa vorable circumstances, yet an impulse was given to his young mind which has never been lost. His aspirations were upward, and he de sired to follow other pursuits than those presented in the wilderness in which he was situated. He therefore became restless and discontented. To a mind like his the inglorious life of the farmer was little suited. His father, therefore, sent him to the best schools in the country, dis covering that it would not be expedient to keep him at home so much against his inclination. At the age of nineteen years he was placed under the care of Captain John S. Brush, a graduate of West Point, with whom he completed his academical education ; and his future success was, no doubt, owing in a great degree to the interest which Captain Brush took in his young pu pil s education, discovering in him faculties of the mind, which he was accustomed to say, when fully developed, would render him eminent in any position in life. His professional studies in the law were prosecuted under Judge Julius C. Monet, whose high attainments, purity and elevation of character, rendered him peculiarly fitted to train a young mind of such noble and generous impulses. He was admitted to the bar in March, 1843 ; yet such was his desire to become thoroughly acquainted with the theory of law, that he did not commence the practice until 1846 ; and, as had been predicted, the ambitious student soon rose to eminence in his profession, and the ex pectations of his friends were fully realized. The powers of his mind were soon called into action. Being engaged in some important land cases, growing out of old Spanish grants, his arguments showed a clear and discriminating mind, and were uttered with that force and precision which have since rendered him so successful with the jury, and while yet young, was considered fully competent to grapple with the ablest coun sel in the state ; and although employed in almost every criminal case arising in his district, yet is said never to have lost a single case. In the summer of 1849 he was married to Miss Charlotte E. Orr, of New-Orleans, daughter of Captain John D. Orr, late of the United States army, and removed to Biloxi, his present place of residence, where he had previously been -engaged in the practice of his profession. Being a 300 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. highly intelligent and accomplished lady, endowed with an elasticity and sprightliness of spirit, her pleasant society contributed much to sweeten the pathway of his life, surrounded with all the difficulties and perplexities of the young practitioner.* In the fall of 1849 he was elected to the state legislature by a large majority over his opponent, who had the decided advantage in the politi cal issues of the day. So high was the approval of his course as a legis lator, that on his return after a long and exciting session, he was received and welcomed by the public authorities of Biloxi ; and the speech de livered on that occasion, so fraught with fervid eloquence, will long be remembered by those who were so fortunate as to hear it. He was re-elected to the legislature in the year 1851, in which he took an elevated position. His high legal attainments, connected with that integrity of principle and force of character which have always characterized his life, rendered him peculiarly fitted to modify and restrain the excited feeling which so strongly marked that session ; and the fearlessness and independence with which he advocated his measures, were looked upon with astonishment by the trafficking politicians of the day. Being placed on the committee of education, one of the most import ant in the House, he showed his thorough knowledge of the wants of the state by strenuously advocating and finally passing a bill appropria ting three hundred thousand dollars for educational purposes, remember ing the want of an institution of this kind in his early days ; and what ever may be his future destiny, he has the gratification to know that his public life thus far has received the approbation of both parties, and his private is not stained with dishonor. THOMAS WHITTEMORE, ESQ. OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. A BIOGRAPHY of this individual will show perhaps as much variety of character as generally falls to the lot of one man. In the earlier part of his manhood he was a clergyman and a clergyman only ; and was the pastor of a small society in the town of Milford, county of Wor cester, Massachusetts, and afterwards of a society in Cambridge, Mas sachusetts, in the vicinity of Harvard University. Notwithstanding all his other pursuits, the character of a clergyman has not been given up. In 1828, he commenced a religious newspaper in Boston, which has now been continued successfully for a quarter of a century, almost entirely under his sole care. In the month of May, 1831, he began a somewhat distinguished career in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, as a member from Cambridge ; and about the same time he commenced to issue various works from his own pen. These works have been multiplied by his assiduity to several volumes, on subjects of ecclesi astical history, dogmatical theology, biography and music. For some THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 301 ten years, commencing in 1834, he was an eminent temperance lecturer in New-England, not abating in the least during this time his zeal in prosecuting his duties in the characters heretofore referred to. In October, 1840, he was elected a director, and in December, 1842, president of Cambridge Bank an office which he holds with honor to himself at this day. In the meantime he served his town as an efficient member of the board of selectmen; and, since Cambridge has become a city, as one of the aldermen. To all these responsible stations, one other highly important one is to be added : he was elected in the month of February, 1849, a director of the Vermont and Massachusetts Rail road, and became president of that institution a few months afterwards. Notwithstanding this great increase of cares, Mr. Whittemore resigned no one of his former duties, as a preacher of the gospel, an editor, and the president of the bank. Such is the varied character of the individual whose biography we now present. From a biographical sketch by Rev. T. J. Sawyer, D. D., first pub lished in February, 1849, we gather the following facts : " The gentleman whose name stands at the head of this article has been now (in 1849) for more than twenty-eight years in the ministry of the reconciliation. During a large part of this time he has stood at the head of one of our most popular religious journals, and has thus occupied a commanding and influential position. Aside from his editorial labors, he has also added several volumes to our theological literature, and both as an author and a publisher has become widely known throughout the denomination. A sketch of his life, it has been thought, would interest and please many in our country who have never seen him, and perhaps never may, and who yet would gladly know more of one whose name they have so often heard, and from whose labors they have derived so much instruction. To gratify this natural desire is the object of this sketch. " Thomas Whittemore was born in that part of Boston known as Copp s Hill, on January 1st, 1800. He is a descendant of an old family in New-England, and traces his ancestry back to one Thomas Whitte more, who is supposed to have emigrated from England to Massachu setts, and settled in that part of Charlestown called Mystic North Side, and which in 1649 was incorporated as Maiden. Among a large family of children was a son John, who was probably born in England, and came a minor with his father to this country, and having married in Maiden, removed to Charlestown. Here he became the father of one Joseph, who in his day was an innkeeper, and who in turn had a son Joseph, who was a house-joiner, and who, not to be out-done by those who went before him, himself had a son Joseph, who lived by some honest trade, like his ancestors, and was the great-grandfather of our divine. He, among other children, had a son Thomas, who was a chaise-maker, and who luckily married one Elizabeth Rand, who is still remembered and honored as one of the best of women. Thomas died at the age of 33, leaving his wife with an only son, Joseph, who, in 1 794, at the age of 28, married a young woman of 19, named Comfort Quiner. They had ten children, of whom Thomas, the subject of this sketch, was the fourth. The good grandmother lived many years, to bless with her 302 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. lessons of piety and religion, and her holy living, both her son and his wife and children. " Thomas was duly baptized in the Brattle-street Church, Boston, within a fortnight of his birth, by Rev. Peter Thatcher, D. D. ; and when he was five years of age, his father removed to Charlestown, and established himself in the baking business. Here the father continued, feeble in health and not very successful in business, till January, 1814, when he died, a poor but good man, at the age of 47, leaving a widow and seven children. "Thomas was not an over quiet boy; and, to tell the truth, he occasioned his poor father a great deal of anxiety ; not that he was really wicked, but a restive, roguish, rambling youngster, who loved stories better than study, and play far better than either. " At the age of seven, Thomas was placed in one of the common schools of Charlestown, where he acquired all the education he ever re ceived under a teacher, if we except three months at an evening school just before he was twenty-one, and a few weeks of private tuition after that time. At the age of fourteen he went as an apprentice to a morocco-dresser in Charlestown ; but, disliking restraint, he was, at his earnest solicitation, taken home again by his mother. He was next placed to learn th trade of a brass-founder, but soon grew weary of this also ; and being told that he must remain, he trusted in the legs of a 5oy, and ran away. His mother found him at night, and per suaded the boy to return and the master to receive him again. But notwithstanding the lad s promises to do his best, he soon grew weary, and ran away once more. This ended his connection with his second master. Still the mother continued true to the best interests of the boy, and sought him a place at the ladies shoe- making business in Lynn, that town of shoes and shoe-makers. Here, among other apprentices, he was contented ; but his master was poor, and under the hard times in the darkest days of our late war with Great Britain, it became neces sary for his mother to seek him another place. In this she was fortu nately successful, and apprenticed him to Mr. Abel Baker, a boot maker, of Boston, to whom he was bound by legal indentures, and with whom he lived till he arrived at the full age of twenty-one. " It was during the last year of his apprenticeship that he became acquainted with the Rev. Hosea Ballou, a distinguished clergyman of Boston. Mr. Ballou had taken and occupied a part of the house in which Mr. Baker resided. Young Mr. Whittemore was anxious to make his acquaintance, for the purpose of completing his English gram mar, which he had studied in the evening-school before-mentioned. He Ventured, therefore, to call upon him one evening, to lay the subject before him, and solicit his assistance. He was received with much kindness, and having stated the object of his visit, was requested to write an article for inspection, when he should receive such advice as he needed. In a day or two he prepared an article of poetry, as a matter of course, and presented it. Philosophers tell us that the poetic was the first form of language, and they probably draw that conclusion from the fact that young writers almost always try their unfledged wings first in poetry. Mr. Ballou was pleased with the article, and after offering THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 303 such remarks as he deemed advisable, he begged the favor of being permitted to retain it. Judge of our young boot-maker s surprise, when a few days afterwards it appeared in the poet s corner of the * Universalist Magazine, which was then in the first year of its existence, under the editorial conduct of Mr. Ballou. The gratified writer looked and looked again ; but, there it was, all in print, and he was an author! The sun, when he went down that day, had seen in all his course no happier heart than that of our apprenticed shoe-maker. The publi cation of this little article had fired his soul with the thought, the hope, that possibly at some future time he might be able to write for the press ! " The good understanding thus established between Rev. Mr. Ballou and young Whittemore continued. Mr. Whittemore wrote pieces for Mr. Ballou s inspection, and the latter often published them. It seems that Mr. Ballou supposed his young friend was preparing himself for the ministry, but as yet the thought had not entered his mind. About this time Mr. Whittemore was employed to play the bass viol in Mr. Bal lou s church. His salary was raised by the change of places, (for he had previously been hired at a Baptist church,) and besides, he was now enabled to listen to the preaching of one whom he had come to know and esteem. At this point we may date the shaping of Mr. W. s future course. Here he took much of his direction for life. The character of Mr. Ballou s preaching is well known. It is eminently scriptural as well as logical; and it soon engaged the undivided attention of young Whittemore. His Sabbaths now began to be days of delight, and he looked forward to them more and more, with the most earnest expec tations of pleasure. Every argument was heard and pondered ; every word was listened to. In the course of two or three months, he entered upon a new existence. The Bible, his faith in which had been weakened by the belief that certain absurd doctrines were taught therein, once more assumed its place in his heart s faith, and its blessed doctrines shed their influence over his whole spiritual being. " About the time he began to attend the preaching of Mr. Ballou, the latter propounded to him the question if he did not think of preparing for the ministry. No, sir, he replied, the thought never entered my mind. Yet from that moment the fear came over him that he should become a preacher. The more he thought of it, the more he dreaded it; but still it seemed to become more and more certain that it would be so. Under this impression, he began the study of the Bible in earnest, and with the best helps at his command. He read Paley s Evidences of Christianity, and listened with the utmost attention to the preaching of Mr. Ballou, as I have before remarked. Gradually the doctrine of Christ began to open his mind, and especially the great doctrine of the atonement, which is so lovely when properly understood, but so revolt ing as taught by some sects. He began to see how beautifully the Scriptures harmonize, and, as before said, he entered a new existence. The dread of being a preacher gradually subsided, and gave place to an ardent desire for that holy office. During the summer and fall of 1820 he devoted every leisure hour to the study of the Scriptures. " We have now arrived at a period of much interest in Mr. Whitte- more s life. Though not yet twenty-one, he had formed his purpose, 304 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and just three weeks before he gained his majority he preached his first sermon. This was in Roxbury, Mass., where his fellow-believers were then engaged in building a meeting-house. His text was Rom. i., 16: * I am not ashamed of the gospel, etc. His master endeavored to di vert him from his course, and especially from entering the ministry among those with whom he was then associated. When he reached the 1st of January, 1821, he closed the shop of his master on Saturday night at ten o clock, for the last time it devolved upon him to do it, and on the next Monday morning we find him in the family of Mr. Ballou for the purpose of studying for the ministry. He was known to be poor, and Mr. Ballon had kindly laid his case before some of his society, who generously furnished the means necessary to defray his expenses for one year. I mention this instance of genuine benevolence towards a deserving young man, and of sincere regard to the welfare of our holy cause, with the more pleasure, because it is so worthy of imitation. "Mr. Whittemore remained with Mr. Ballou only a few months, for in April following (1821) he received and accepted an invitation to settle with a society in Milford, Massachusetts. Here he formed an ac quaintance with Lovice, daughter of John Corbett, Esq., whom he married in September of the same year. Three months after mar riage, while he was absent on a ministerial exchange, the house he oc cupied was burned to the ground, and everything belonging to him was destroyed, except his young wife, who was saved by leaping from the chamber window. The pecuniary loss they suffered was made up to them by the liberality of Mr. Ballou s society, and some other socie ties of his faith in the neighborhood. " After spending a year in Milford, he removed to Cambridgeport, and took charge of a new society there. His pastoral relations with this society continued for nine years, when, owing to the pressure of other duties, he resigned his office, but has ever remained a resident of the place. On his removal to Cambridgeport, he became joint editor of the Universalist Magazine, with Rev. H. Ballou and H. Ballou, 2d. His articles sometimes bore the signature of " W," and sometimes that of " Richards," by which they may be known in the nine volumes of that periodical. Each volume extended through an entire year. During this period his labors were frequent beyond the limits of his parish. He often gave evening lectures in Medford, Maiden, West Cambridge, Newton, Quincy, etc., etc., and preached, both on the Sabbath and on other days of the week, in many towns in the neigh borhood of Boston. At that time the cause he had espoused was in its infancy, even in Massachusetts, and this kind of labor was in con siderable and increasing demand. "It was about the year 1823 that Rev. H. Ballou, 2d, (a relative of the gentleman before named.) proposed to Mr. Whittemore to engage in making preparations for a history of the doctrine they believed. Ac cording to their arrangement, Mr. Ballou was to take the department of its ancient, and Mr. Whittemore that of its modern history. The time of the Reformation was to constitute the dividing line between the two. For the better performance of his part in this undertaking, Mr. Whittemore commenced the study of the French language. The German would have been vastly more useful, but of this little or THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 305 nothing was then known. It is, perhaps, impossible to form any just conception of the difficulties which impeded every step in the progress of their task. The field was quite new, and the materials which were to form their novel structure were first to be found, then mined, and lastly, fitted to their respective places. Without a guide, much labor must necessarily have been lost in the execution of their work. But I shall revert to this subject at a later date, when the histories appeared. During the course of their labors in this field, Mr. Ballou brought out, in the magazine referred to, Memoirs of Origen, Winchester and Chauncey ; and Mr. Whittemore also published a memoir of Vidler. "In the autumn of 1827, Mr. Whittemore made a journey to Cin cinnati, Ohio, where he remained, preaching to immense audiences, for several weeks, and received a pressing invitation to remove there and take charge of a society in that city. This invitation he was strongly inclined to accept, but was dissuaded from doing so by his friends in Massachusetts. On his way he preached in Philadelphia, and the re sult was, he was invited by both societies in that city, to whom he preached, to become their pastor. He did not accept of either invi tation. "In the spring of 1828, Mr. Whittemore became impressed with the thought that the interests of the doctrine he believed demanded a larger and more attractive paper than the Magazine. The name Trumpet occurred to him as one peculiarly appropriate, for whether we sound an alarm in Zion, or speaking with an inviting voice, a trumpet is alike employed. This paper has now continued for more than twenty- four years (1852), under the control of Mr. Whittemore, and from a subscription of seven hundred has gone up to nearly six thousand. It is but justice to say, that it has been one of the most efficient of the re ligious magazines. Its extensive circulation shows how it is appreciated by the public. " In January, 1830, Mr. Whittemore published his Modern His tory of Universalism, a work too well known to require any notice here. But, having myself devoted much attention, for the last ten or fifteen years, to the history of our faith and cause, says Dr. Sawyer, * I must be allowed to express the increasing admiration I have felt for the variety and general accuracy of its facts, and the immense labor which I know the work must have cost. Of this work, as well as that of Mr. Ballou, I have taken occasion to speak in some of my reports to the Historical Society. " In March, 1831, Mr. Whittemore resigned the pastorship of the society in Cambridgeport. This step was rendered necessary by the rapidly increasing business of his religious journal, which forbade the proper attention to parochial duties. In May following, he was elected a representative for Cambridge, in the Massachusetts legislature. It is no uncommon thing, it seems, for clergymen in New-England to repre sent their fellow-citizens in almost every civil capacity. Mr. Whitte more represented Cambridge for several years, and did his town, and the state, honor, by the prominent part he took in effecting a change in the third article of the bill of rights, or constitution of Massachusetts. This article provided for the compulsory support of religion ; that is, it made religion a matter of state, and provided for its support by law. 20 306 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Mr. Whittemore, like Jefferson, Madison, and others, believed that the support of religion might be safely entrusted to the piety and good sense of the public. He moved the reference of certain petitions to a select committee, of which he was made chairman, a post that he held through three successive sessions. The first year, 1831, the amend- ment passed the house by a vote of two-thirds, but was lost in the Senate. The next year it passed through both branches of the legis lature, by a vote of two-thirds in the house, and a majority in the Senate, without which, a change in the constitution cannot take place. The constitution also required that it should pass both branches a second year, which was done in 1833. It was then submitted to the people, and was adopted by a large majority, and thus religion in Massachusetts became free."* On a subject of such great interest it was to be expected Mr. Whittemore would address the house a body composed of nearly five hundred legislators, at that time. After expressing his regret that it had fallen to him, among his other numerous engagements, to take the lead in this movement of reform, he went on to show at some length the character of the petitions received, and the reasons assigned by the petitioners for the change they asked. A few extracts from the subsequent parts of his extended speech must suffice : "For one, Mr. Whittemore thought it worthy of consideration, whether the civil power can, with propriety, interfere in the concerns OT religion to compel people to support it. Jesus Christ never designed that his religion should be supported by the civil power. He did not apply to the civil power for support ; he never had the support of the civil power, but was always opposed by it. And, furthermore, he has left no directions to his followers to seek the aid of civil power. A man s views of piety, religion, and morality, are a concern solely be tween his conscience and his God. He is not accountable for them to civil government, unless he disturbs the public peace. Our common Master did not hold himself accountable to Jewish law in this respect. " Men whom he should call political religionists, answer this argu ment as follows: That government has aright to legislate on that which tends to the public good, and that we may legislate on religion for the same reason that we legislate concerning schools. Every man is obliged to pay taxes for the support of the public schools, not ex cepting him who has no children, because these schools are for the public good, and he, indirectly, at least, enjoys the benefit of them. For the same reason every man should be compelled to support re ligion, for he enjoys the benefit of the religious state of society, though he never attends public worship. Mr. Whittemore, in reply, said, that religion and education are two entirely different things. So long as a man s religion does not disturb the public peace, the laws have nothing to do with it. But education is a fair subject of human legis lation. On this all the citizens are agreed they are not split into in- * Thus far this sketch has been principally made, from a memoir from the pen of Rev. T. J. Sawyer, D.D., first published in 1849, but various alterations have been indulged in. THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 307 numerable sects, with a thousand conflicting interests and prejudices and no one s conscience suffers violence. " But, (said Mr. Whittemore,) the argument th&tpure religion tends to the stability of government, goes to show that we should not establish it by law. The way to keep religion pure is to leave it to the free will of the people. No religion but that which is voluntary can do good. If you force people to support it, it is only their money you can get you do not cause them to respect religion, and therefore you do hurt, for you excite their ill will. The benefit which religion gives to the sta bility and good order of society, is greater without the aid of law than with it ; because the benefit of religion to any individual consists in its being left entirely to his conscience and his choice. Religion, to do any man good, must operate on his heart ; it must regulate his affections ; it must subdue his passions ; it must impress its likeness on his soul ; but this, a mere artificial support can never do this a legal enactment never will effect." Mr. Whittemore maintained, therefore, that legal support was a clog to pure aud undefiled religion it was a mill-stone hung around its neck, with the preposterous object of elevating it in public estimation. This has been precisely the effect of the legal sup port of religion in Massachusetts. The commonwealth has been split up into numberless and unnamable sects the oldest parishes in the several towns have been injured by the laws that were designed to sup port them and unless they have been sustained by gifts, bequests and funds, they have become weakened, until they can with difficulty breathe the breath of life. Religion has flourished most among the dissenters from the oldest parishes a fact undeniable in the estimation of every one acquainted with the state of religion throughout the commonwealth. " Moreover, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Whittemore, " you always lower the standard of religion by connecting it with human law. This, all ec clesiastical history proves. Religion has always been the purest when totally disconnected from the civil power, and even when persecuted by it. This fact is stronger than a volume of speculations, conjectures and fine drawn inferences. What history teaches in its plainest forms what the experience of eighteen centuries fully proves should not be lightly passed over. In the primitive ages of Christianity, the religion of our common Master shone in its primeval lustre ; but does any one need to be told that he was not supported by human law, but opposed and persecuted and crucified by it 1 His followers were pursued from city to city they were scourged, stoned and sawn asunder. But their religion was pure. Three centuries afterwards, when Constantine, the first of the Roman emperors who was converted to Christianity, linked the religion with the state, it soon became debased. Its ministers were corrupted they grew proud, indolent and arrogant they perverted the word of God to sustain the state that indulged and pampered them ; and it was not long before few traces of the original purity of the re ligion of Christ could be found. This," said Mr. Whittemore, " is a solemn fact that should not be forgotten, and he begged of the house not to forget it. Follow religion through the dark ages, while it was the close ally of the civil power, and what do you find of that beautiful system of piety, doctrine and morals bequeathed to the world by Jesus Christ, except the mere name and shadow of if? When the voice of 308 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Martin Luther broke the silence of a thousand years, and he endeavored to call back the church from its wanderings and errors, by whom was he opposed 1 By civil rulers under the dominion of a corrupt clergy ; and although one or two of the petty potentates of Germany espoused the cause of the Reformation, it is indisputable that the Emperor Charles V. and the civil rulers generally at first opposed it ; and at last they were induced to aid it, principally because it gave them deliver ance from the terrific power of the Roman Pontiff. The pages of ec clesiastical history are black with the accounts of the evil that has been done to religion by associating it with human law. " The petitioners say, sir, that religion will be abundantly supported without compulsion. Mr. Whittemore mentioned this, because it is sometimes said, if we do not afford religion legal support it will come to nought. Are gentlemen, then, willing to say that the Supreme Being cannot sustain religion without man s feeble aid ? Where religion has power upon men s hearts, there need be no fear that they will not sup port it ; and where it has not, all support is utterly vain. " It does not follow, Mr. Speaker, because a thing is beneficial to society, therefore we must legislate about it. The shining of the sun is of vast benefit to the commonwealth, but is far above the power of human legislation ; and so is that religion above human legislation which is the Sun of righteousness and the light of the world. The falling of the rain is of incalculable benefit to the commonwealth, but it is above the power of human constitutions and statutes ; and so is that religion which * drops like the rain, which distils like the dew, like the small rain upon the tender herb, and the showers upon the grass. It is for the benefit of society that persons should enter into the mar riage relation, but we make no laws to compel them to be married. What should we do if the farmers should refuse to till the earth *? So ciety would be in a most lamentable situation ; but no one thinks it necessary to enact laws to compel them to do this. Such things are governed by laws which sway men with an irresistible force, far above the power of formal statutes. Government would very soon come en tirely to an end, if every person should refuse to eat. But is it neces sary to ordain that persons shall eat. and threaten them with penalties if they neglect ? No sir. The laws which God has ordained in man regulate that matter. Well, sir, to apply this comparison, the laws of the human mind and conscience will regulate religion with as much cer tainty. Religion is the aliment of the soul the bread and water of life the soul cannot live without it. The matter is made certain by the laws of the human constitution ; it is above, far above all legis lative enactments ; they can have in the nature of things no more effect in sustaining religion, than discussions concerning the motions of Saturn can control the revolutions of that planet." After having stated these general principles which apply in the case, Mr. Whittemore turned to the operation of the then existing constitu tional enactment concerning religion, as it was seen in Massachusetts. This formed a very important part of his speech, and had a great effect at the time, but is omitted here for want of room. He concluded by saying : " The voice of the people, Mr. Speaker, calls loudly for the alteration THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 309 of the third article of the bill of rights. In this country they are the supreme power. Popular opinion, in its steady course, is like the cur rent of a river, but in its violence it is like a cataract which nothing can withstand. What are we, sir, but the straws that are borne on the sur face ] We are the servants of the people sent here to represent them. The power of public opinion always will be felt, more or less, even in those countries where it is restrained by constitutional provisions; and where it has not legal redress it will break forth in violence. Look at the exhibition of public sentiment in England on the rejection of the reform bill by the House of Lords. It convulsed the nation. The castles of the offending peers were leveled in the dust. We have no fear of such an issue here," said Mr. Whittemore, " because the people, when aggrieved, can always avail themselves of constitutional redress. And they will. If the desired alteration does not take place now, they will speak in a voice of seven thunders, and they will be heard. We cannot resist them. There is great force and beauty in the classical apotheosis of public sentiment vox populi vox Dei. Sir, bid the Mis sissippi roll back its waters to the north ; say to the earth, cease thy revolution ; speak to the sun in mid-heaven command him to turn to the east ; and you shall be obeyed, when the force of public opinion in Massachusetts can be successfully resisted." While engaged in his labors as an editor, as a preacher, and also as a representative, Mr. Whittemore found time to bring out another valu able volume, entitled " Notes and Illustrations of the Parables." The first edition appeared in 1832, which was carefully revised and much enlarged in the summer of 1833, and a second edition appeared in 1834. " It is an admirable work," says Dr. Sawyer, " which immediately took its deserved place in libraries of clergymen and others, and has done much towards correcting public opinion on these portions of Scripture." In No vember, 1833, Mr. W. held an oral discussion in Danvers, with the Rev. Mr. Braman, a clergyman of that place. This was published in a pamphlet. Mr. Braman did not well understand the task he assumed. The discussion occupied but a single day. About this time, Mr. Whitte more commenced a series of labors, continued for more than a dozen years, as a temperance lecturer. In town-houses, city-halls, meeting houses of all sects, on Sabbaths and secular days, his voice was heard in favor of this good cause. Few men in Massachusetts took a deeper interest in this subject, or labored with more success. And he desisted from his efforts only when disease admonished him that, sturdy as his constitution was, there is still a limit to all human endurance. He preachec^ the occasional sermon before the Massachusetts con vention of the sect to which he belonged in 1836 and 1851, and in 1837 before the United States Convention, in Philadelphia. During 1839, besides other duties, he prepared " The Plain Guide to Universalism," which was published the following year. It was designed as a popular work, and its plan embraced a large range of topics. It is not so ela borate as some of his other works, but perhaps it has done its work still better than if it had been so. Few books have sold so extensively, ten or twelve thousand copies having been disposed of since its first publication. The "Songs of Zion," on which he had been laboring for two years 310 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. or more, appeared in 1836. It is a book of church music, of 360 pages, and many of the tunes and anthems are his own composition. In the fall of 1841, he also published the " Gospel Harmonist," another book of church music, the same size, and, like the former, containing many original pieces from his own pen. During 1842, there appeared his first book, and in 1843, his second book of " Conference Hymns." In 1844, he also published his " Sunday-school Choir," a book consisting of services, tunes and hymns for Sunday-schools. This may be regard ed as Mr. Whittemore s musical period, though from his youth he had been very fond of Church music. It has been already stated that, in 1840, Mr. W. was elected a direc tor of the Cambridge Bank, and in a short time was made president. By mismanagement and misfortune this bank had been seriously in jured, and Mr. W. went into the direction at the most unfavorable time. The stock sold at about 30 per cent, discount. He used his influence to bring the bank under the management of a board in favor of reform. The president, an excellent man, resigned his office, and Mr. W. was immediately placed at the head of the institution. By the aid of the new members, a course of measures was carried out which soon increased public confidence. Directors of unsettled pecuniary standing were induced to resign ; the accommodation paper was gradually changed to that of a good business character ; demand loans to directors were called in, and by these means the bank was brought up to its present high condition. No bank in Massachusetts, it may truly be said, gave greater satisfaction to the board of bank commissioners, at their recent examination, (1852,) than the Bank of Cambridge. Mr. W. s connection with the rail-roads of Massachusetts commenced in 1849. One hundred millions of dollars had been invested in rail roads in that state. The roads first built were prosperous, such as the Lowell, the Worcester, the Fitchburg, the Eastern. This fact increased the rail-road mania; and because the rail-roads which had a terminus in Boston were good property, it was hastily concluded that all others would be. Due allowance was not made for the greater cost of building rail-roads among the mountains, sometimes crossing rivers at every mile, the roads being left therefore exposed to destructive freshets. Neither was due allowance given to the fact, that unless a road should have a profitable through business, the farther it was extended into a sparsely settled country, the smaller its business must be. Hence some of the New-England rail-roads have presented the discouraging spectacle of running an engine of 20 or 25 tons with two, and sometimes only one passenger car, and that half full, and a freight business corres pondingly small. As if this class of misfortunes were not ruinous enough, two or three lines of rail-road have been built on certain great courses of transit ; and each road, in its efforts to get the business, has underbid the others, until the receipts of roads, which might otherwise have paid a dividend to their stockholders, have fallen below their run- ing expenses. That the rail-road mania has been a benefit to the whole country there is no doubt, albeit it has been decidedly the reverse to those at whose expense the interior roads were built. Among these in terior roads, is the " Vermont and Massachusetts," extending from Fitchburg to Montague, 48 miles, and there branching northwardly to THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 311 Battleboro , Vermont, 22 miles, and westward!/ to Greenfield, Massa chusetts, eight miles, making 78 miles in length. This road has 24 ex pensive bridges, of which two cross the Connecticut River, the two last named costing not less than $120,000. These different lines of interior roads were being pressed on to completion, with subscriptions to their capital stock altogether inadequate to the expenditures. It was soon found that rail-roads could not be built without large amounts of money. Many persons became fearful of loss, and hesitated, and some, at last, refused to pay for the shares for which they had subscribed. These things threw the executive officers of these boards, with their en gineers and contractors, into great embarrassments. They had either to stop the works as they were, and thus sink all they had invested, or they had to raise money by extraordinary means. They sought to obtain it by issuing stock, first at 25 per cent, discount from the par value, then at 50 ; and one of the roads issued at 70 per cent, dis count, and that was probably 30 per cent, more than the stock was worth. Stocks were hawked about the country ; they were exchanged for anything of which rail-roads could be made, or on which laborers could subsist while they were making-them. The market was overbur dened, and the consequence was that the stocks of almost all the interior roads were sold at prices ruinous to the holders. All these roads were greatly in debt. They were obliged to borrow money ; and, as their paper was mistrusted, they had to pay high commissions to individual ndorsers. As evils never go singly, those numerous calls for money, added to other things, caused it to become very scarce , and, in addi tion to the commissions paid to individual indorsers, two per cent, a month was frequently paid for the use of money, and so difficult was it to get it even at that price that another commission had to be paid to the broker to raise it. At the crisis now described, certain of the large stockholders in the Vermont and Massachusetts Rail-road applied to Mr. Whittemore to allow himself to be run as a candidate for a seat at the board. This was done for the avowed purpose of changing the character of the board almost entirely, and the proposition produced a great opposition from the friends of the old directors. The new ticket, however, prevailed by a large majority. This happened in February, 1849, and in the course of the following summer the former president resigned, and Mr. W. was elected in his place. The new board had great difficulties to overcome land damages to be settled a series of suits in the courts buildings to be erected a branch road to be finished and they also found the corporation floating on a sea of debt on which it was doubtful how much longer they should be able to keep it afloat. The new board scanned all these matters carefully, and they were not long in coming to the conclusion, that upwards of a million of dollars must be raised, and that the best way to raise the sum would be by the issue of bonds secured by the mortgage of the road. This measure was carried through, and bonds to the amount of $1,100,000 were issued and sold at a sacrifice of from 12 to 20 per cent. This measure gave great relief for the time. Great care has been exercised in the expenditures on this road ; every effort has been made to increase its business, and, so far as possible, to get a remunerative price for it. Mr. W. has taken a 312 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. deep interest in aiding the project of a tunnel through the Hoosac Moun tain, at North Adams, Massachusetts, which would remove the last ob struction to a through road from Boston to Troy, New-York, via Northern Massachusetts, twenty miles shorter than the Western Rail road, and with but slight grades. While the subject of a loan for this object was before the legislature of Massachusetts, in the spring of 1851, Mr. W. wrote many articles in aid, the chief of which was his pamphlet entitled "A Letter to a Boston Representative," &c. &o. If this tunnel should be made, that part of the Vermont and Massachu setts Rail-road between Fitchburg and Greenfield, 56 miles, will consti tute a very important part of the line. How much longer Mr. W. will consent to remain the chief officer of this road, it is impossible now to say ; but of one thing there can be no doubt, viz. : that, with the aid of a careful and untiring board of directors, he has conducted the corpora tion through a series of trials which seemed at first almost utterly over whelming. There are other points in Mr. W. s life which we cannot fully notice. Subject as the town of Cambridge was to conflagrations, it being princi pally built up of wood, Mr. W., while one of the select men, pro cured, by private subscriptions and public appropriations, some thirty reservoirs of water to be put down in a single year, which have proved of immense service. And a few years since, when an effort was made by the citizens of " Old Cambridge," so called, it being that section in which Harvard College stands, to obtain a division of the town, Mr. W. opposed it with all his energy. He appeared as the agent of the town authorities, before successive committees of the legislature ; and it was principally by his instrumentality that the design was frustrated. So impressed was he with the injustice of the attempt, that he described the petitions to the committee as a proposition to incorporate the wealth into one town, and the expenses into another. Hon. Robert Rantoul, on one of these occasions, was the opposing counsel to Mr. W. Shortly after, these petitioners were defeated, and to set the matter of a division at rest, Mr. W. advised an application for a city charter, which was ob tained, and the town was changed to the " City of Cambridge." In the debates before the legislative committee, on the subject of the charter, Mr. Whittemore met, as the opposing counsel, Hon. J. G. Palfrey. Having thus given as brief a sketch as possible of the biography of Mr. W hittemore, it becomes us now to describe his character. This we shall do in the language of Dr. Sawyer. He says : " Having thus glanced at the principal events of Mr. Whittemore s life, I now propose to enter upon the more delicate part of my subject, and offer some remarks upon his character. After what I have already said, it must be unnecessary for me to add that we meet here with great activity and energy. Mr. Whittemore s life has been strikingly active. His industry is untiring. No man, perhaps, in the denomination, and few in the country, have, during the same time, accomplished more than he. One needs but to turn to the files of the Magazine,* and of the 4 Trumpet, in order to see how great his industry has been in this de partment of his labor. Besides this, he is the author of several volumes, as his Modern History/ Notes and Illustrations of the Parables, The Plain Guide, and Exposition of the Book of Revelation, besides nu- THOMAS WHITTEMORE, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 313 merous smaller works in the shape of pamphlets, etc., etc., and a variety of musical works. His indomitable energy is seen in the readiness with which he undertakes the most difficult tasks, and the unyielding perse verance with which he prosecutes them to a favorable issue. That he is unprepared by previous study is a matter of no consequence whatsoever. He prepares himself, and goes on with his work. He carries the same activity and energy into every department of life. This is one of the se crets of his success. Thus he was designed by Nature for an active and laborious life. He is, perhaps, a little below the middle height, with a broad chest and muscular frame. His head is rather large, and indica tive of very active powers. His temperament is good, and implies much endurance. This would account for his multifarious labors, and his suc cess in them. We see in him, what we so frequently meet with in New- England, an innate force of character, which no circumstances, however adverse, can repress, and which, amidst difficulties and trials, rises supe rior to everything that would oppose its progress. With a very limited education, we see him, by his almost unaided efforts, raising himself to eminence. " As a writer, Mr. Whittemore is distinguished rather by force than elegance. Neither his early education, the character of his mind, nor his habits, qualify him to be ambitious for the artificial charms of style. He never writes without having something to say, and that he usually says in the most direct and simple manner in his power. The polished sen tence, the rounded period, he willingly leaves to others, and strikes with all his force at the object before him. Perhaps some may think him wanting in refinement and grace, and others, I know, regard him as at times bolder and plainer than necessary. That he deals severely with some of his opposers, is certain ; yet, with all this severity, there is a frankness and manliness which challenges the respect even of his enemies. Then it is but just to remember the school in which he has been disciplined. With him it has been no warfare for paper hats and silk gloves. The head needed a helmet of steel, and the hand must know how to grasp the sword and spear. Reflect, for one moment, on the antagonists with whom Mr. Whittemore has been called to con tend, and then tell me if the old soldier has not come out of the fight with charity and kindness worthy of admiration. Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus; Whittemore has been scarcely more fortunate in Boston. " Considered as a preacher, Mr. Whittemore ranks very much as a writer. He has an indifferent voice, and few think him handsome in person, or graceful in action. But he who listens to him when he preaches will find something else to do, than to admire or even think of his person or his voice. He speaks distinctly, and without too great rapidity. He has nothing of the so-called eloquence of the schools ; yet he is often eloquent in a higher and better sense. He warms as he proceeds with his subject ; he speaks in earnest, and with a natu ral tone and emphasis, and almost necessarily commands attention. His subject is generally unfolded in a simple and easy manner, and he never fails to make himself perfectly understood. His style is simple and familiar, bordering too much, perhaps, upon the colloquial, to con* form to the higher rule of pulpit oratory ; and his illustrations are al- 314 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ways chosen from common life, or well-known sources. His principal aim is not elegance, but he speaks like a man who has something to say, and goes about it at once and in earnest. " During the recent outbreak of infidelity, under the specious genius of New-England transcendentalism, or the arrogant pretensions of clair voyance, he has stood like a rock, and repelled the angry and turbid waves that threatened to involve whatever came within their reach. The good temper with which he resisted those who thus opposed them selves, has been remarkable. Himself a sincere believer in the Chris tian religion, he cannot but look with regret upon every effort to cor rupt it. He knows, from his own experience, the vast difference be tween faith and unbelief. " Upon the whole, Mr. Whittemore is a man whose life and charac ter deserve high consideration. He has faults, no doubt, enough to spoil some puny characters ; but then they are overbalanced by many and great virtues. When in health, and in the full flow of animal spirits, he is too humorous and jocose to be quite clerical ; and his wit, of which he has much, is sometimes too broad or too caustic to be relished by all. He is supposed by some to be too much a party man, and to consult with too much exclusiveness the interests of the deno mination of which he is so prominent a member. Perhaps it is so ; but, if this charge is sustained against him, I hope," says Dr. Sawyer, " 1 may be included in the same condemnation. He loves the truth, and would promote it. God grant him a long and ever useful life." H. J. MINER, OF H. J. MINER S BANK, AT FREDONIA, NEW-YORK. INSTRUCTION is often most effectually given by example. Not a few men, it is believed, pass their lives in obscurity and want, mainly be cause, from the unfavorable circumstances in which their lives com mence, they pass the period of youth under a vague but general im pression that eminence, in any important respect, is unattainable by them ; and hence they form no fixed purpose to attain it. A better means of dissipating this delusion, and of rousing the minds of young men and lads, in the humbler walks of life, to high and noble aims, and of stimulating them to the achievement of such aims, can hardly be adopted, than holding before them the example and history of others who have pushed their way upward into affluence, honor, and useful ness, from amidst circumstances not less discouraging than their own. Impressed with this thought, the writer of the following sketch here offers to his readers the example of one who, from a condition of abso lute poverty, with all its attendant embarrassments, and having no family distinction or influential friends to help him, has, by his own patient and persevering exertions, passed from his early penury through competence up to opulence, acquiring by the way increasing respect HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 315 and esteem by men, and living apparently in favor with God, until now, in the meridian of life, from the position of one of the most pros perous bankers in the country, he is able to look back on his path, strewed with achievements, which are alike honorable to himself, satis factory to his friends, and useful to society. Our subject, now the president and sole proprietor of " H. J. Miner s Bank of Utica," located in Fredonia, New-York, is descended from an obscure but respectable ancestry, who, on his father s side, emigrated from England, and on his mother s side, from Wales. The former came to America about the year 1700, and settled soon after in Wood- bury, Connecticut, and the latter, about fifty years earlier, came and settled in Weymouth, Massachusetts. His mother was the daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Jones, a Baptist clergyman, who, for his third wife, married, in 1779, a widow, by the name of Quithel. In the early part of the Revolution she resided on Long Island, where she lost her former husband, and where, being a whig in principle, and having espoused the cause of her country with marked decision, she, like many others of similar spirit, suffered much privation and sacrifice. At length, to escape the dangers of a battle then raging between the Americans and English, she was compelled to relinquish all, and fly with her little children, and such valuables only as she could bear away in her apron. With these, she betook herself to a little boat, and afterwards landed at Stonington, Connecticut. Here she became acquainted with, and married Eev. Ebenezer Jones. Soon after their marriage they re moved from Stonington to Stephentown, New- York. By this woman Mr. Jones had two children, Matthew and Eunice. Matthew is now a Baptist clergyman, in Stephentown, having succeeded to his father s pastorate ; and Eunice became the wife of John Miner, and mother of him who is the subject of the present sketch. She was a woman of active and clear mind, remarkable for patience, perseverance, and hope, combined with mildness and amiability of temper, and withal, a de cided and exemplary Christian. She died in Westmoreland, New- York, October 30, 1836, at the age of fifty-five years. John Miner, the father of Hiram J., was the son of Timothy Miner, a deacon of the Congregational church in Woodbury, Connecticut, who, by his first wife, had four sons, Judson, Gerry, Treat, and John ; and three daughters, Betsy, Mary, and Anna ; and by his second wife, three sons and one daughter. One of these latter sons, Timothy, became an Episcopal clergyman, and recently died in the city of New- York. John, the youngest son, by the first wife, was born in Woodbury, August 29, 1776. Having lost his father in boyhood, he enjoyed very small advantages for education, and was early apprenticed to the carpenter s trade, which occupation he continued to follow through life. His marriage with Eunice Jones took place in Stephentown, October, 1801. By her he had four sons and four daughters, viz. : Eunice, Hiram, John, Isaac, Eliza, Mary, Caroline, and Heman, all of whom, except Mary, who died in infancy, are now living, married, and members of Christian churches. Although Mr. Miner was a man of good natural abilities, much decision and energy of character, and commanded a large share of public influence for one in his condition, yet he was not without serious faults, owing, however, in a great measure to the faults of his time. 316 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. But whatever were his errors in practice, the precepts which he enjoined on his family were always those of integrity, morality, and reverence for religion. Possessed of a generous and social disposition, his earn ings were not always husbanded wisely, and, as a natural consequence, he was unstable in his residence, and always poor. He died of cholera, in Westmoreland, New- York, August 2*2, 1835, aged fifty-nine years. HIRAM J.* MINER, whose biographical sketch we purpose now to give, is the eldest son of John Miner, and was born in Stephentown, Rensse- laer county, New- York, 1804. The sun of his existence arose under a cloud of temporal adversity, from which it did not emerge until after he had begun to act for himself under his own direction. The effect of his father s poverty he often sorely felt during the period of his mi nority ; and yet, by throwing him upon his own energies, and denying him the supports of voluptuous indolence or the means of youthful ex travagance which many sons of the rich possess, it led him to the forma tion of those stricter habits which, in a great degree, have constituted the basis of his eminent success. In order to give the reader a proper view of his early life, and of the disadvantages and embarrassments out of which he has arisen, as well as to elucidate his natural traits of character, it will be necessary briefly to trace the family of his father while he remained connected with it. In 1806, when Hiram was two years of age, his father removed from Stephentown to Hamilton, Madison county, New- York, and thence in 1808, to Westmoreland, Oneida county. Just before the family removed from Hamilton, when about four years old, Master Hiram met with an accident which nearly cost him his life. In attempting to ascend the rude ladder by which the chamber of their log-house was to be reached, the adventurous boy lost his hold and fell from the top. He alighted on one of the cooking utensils, which laid open his nose longitu dinally to the bone, and was taken up senseless, supposed to be dead. But medical aid was soon procured, and the little sufferer was again restored. Whilst Mr. Miner resided in Westmoreland, which was some seven years, Hiram was accustomed to attend the district school during the summer terms, but in winter he remained at home on account of the distance of the school from his father s residence. He was at first a dull scholar, although abundantly capable of making rapid progress. Full of the amusement afforded by his mischiefs, he had no disposition to fix his mind on the unexciting pages of his book. Fun was his de light and his principal aim. And yet, his experience proved to him even then that " the way of the transgressors is hard." Abundance of chastise ments made him more familiar with the lessons of the rod than with the lessons of his book ; and he was rapidly becoming a most trouble some member of the school fraternity, when an incident occurred which wholly changed his character as a pupil. This was when he was about six years of age. On a certain day, as the school-dame was preparing to administer his accustomed discipline, she remarked with a somewhat impatient gravity, " I expect to have to lick this boy every day, as regu larly as the day comes/ " That is true," replied Hiram to himself, mentally" That is true, and it shall be so no more. I will do letter? * The J. is inserted by himself, as the initial of Jones, his mother s name. HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW- YORK. 317 And from that hour he did " do better," and thereafter became a very respectable inmate of the school, and in some of the departments of study he surpassed others much older and at first more promising than himself. It was about two years after this, at the age of eight, when the idea and the purpose of becoming a merchant first took possession of his mind a purpose which he never relinquished until it was accomplished. In company with his parents he had gone from Westmoreland to Au gusta to see the elephant. While there, his father handed him his snuff box with a penny, and directed him to go to a store and get a penny s worth of snuff. He took the box and the penny, and entering Chan dler s store, purchased the snuff. While standing there in waiting for the article, the thought came into his mind, which he instantly formed into a resolve, and he said to himself, " / will be a merchant." From that moment it became, until it was realized, his ruling desire and aim to enter a store as a merchant s clerk. Mr. Miner, at this time, and during the war with England, lived on the "Seneca turnpike," a route much traversed by the troops going west or east , so that Hiram had frequent opportunities of seeing them and of feeling the inspiration of their military display and their reported exploits, as well as of listening to the tale of British aggression and British barbarity. His father was of the war party, and in these cir cumstances the lad naturally acquired a strong bias in favor of the po litical principles which were then in the ascendant, and has continued a firm democrat ever since. After the ratification of peace, as soon as the fact was known, Mr. Miner with his family set off for "the Holland Purchase," then regarded as " the far west" Their destination was the township of Sheldon, Genesee county, (now Wyoming county,) New- York. The journey was long and tedious, occupying nearly a month, and was attended with much expense, not a little peril, and some disaster. The Gene- see River at that time overflowed all its banks, and was crossed at great hazard. On leaving the ferry they were obliged to pass over meadows buried so deeply in the water that for a considerable distance the loaded wagons were upborne and floated. They however suc ceeded in crossing and passed on to Sheldon, where they arrived March 21, 1815. Here Mr. Miner " took up" an entirely new lot of land, covered with a heavy Genesee forest, and on it hastily erected a rude log-house, in which he placed his family, and commenced the labor of " clearing." Hiram was now eleven years of age. But young as he was he entered with his father on the work of removing the forest with zeal, and energy, and hope. He was valiant in felling the trees ; cutting, and piling, and burning the brush; " niggering off" the logs, &c., &c., anticipating the day when, instead of the dark forbidding woods, he should look upon clear and well-fenced fields, dressed in richest green; and upon waving meadows, golden harvests, and thriving herds. Often, during the three years of their residence in Sheldon, these visions of hope would dance before the imagination of the boy, and fire his zeal, and stimulate his courage, and fortify his patience to meet and endure, 818 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. or surmount, the almost incredible trials and hardships which befel him there. Those who remember the severities which rested on the new settle ments of Genesee during the years 1816 and 1817, on account of the frosts and consequent scarcity of provision, will be the better pre pared to appreciate the sufferings of this family of pioneers in that part of the state during " the cold seasons." The subject of this sketch has said to the writer that what he was there compelled to witness and to suffer loft an impression on his mind never to be forgotten ; and that the honest poor man can never fail to excite his commiseration, or to find in him a sympathizing friend. During the first summer and autumn, Mr. Miner succeeded in clear ing off a few acres which, in the following spring, were planted mostly in com. Then came the frosts of June and July, 1816, and destroyed it all, and with it, all visible dependence, or source of hope to the family for subsistence through the approaching winter. The protracted and expensive journey to the west, the maintenance of his family thus long in the woods, and now this cutting off of his crops, effectually stripped Mr. Miner of what little means he possessed, and lefthim, with his family then a wife and six children to the buffetings of poverty in its most appalling form the want of daily bread. The succeeding winter, and the summer of 1817, was a period of dreadful suffering to nearly all the log-cabin settlers in that new country, and particularly so to the family of Mr. Miner. And when, again, the crops of 1817 were also destroyed by frost, it threw a shade of gloom over their condition and prospects which language fails to express. His little property entirely consumed, and all hope of securing a livelihood by clearing off and cultivating new land being extinguished, by the continued severity of the seasons, and fearing absolute starvation, Mr. Miner and his family were compelled to resort to every honest expedient to maintain sub sistence at all. Sending his children to school was out of the question. He could not meet the expense. The boys who were old enough wrought for the more favored neighbors for whatever wages they could get, and sometimes even for their bread. At one time Hiram and his younger brother, John, were employed by a neighboring landholder in cutting and piling " under-brush," and in picking up potatoes, at twelve and a half cents per day, paid in potatoes, which they would carry home at night to feed the rest of the family. Potatoes were then worth from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel. At other times the most profitable expedient was a resort to fishing. Mr. Miner was obliged to leave home and search for employment at his trade where- ever a day s work could be procured. Often, with his tools on his back, he would wander off many miles, and be gone one to two weeks ; then bring home upon his shoulders the avails of his labor to feed his famished family. His entire earnings for a week he could very con veniently carry home upon his back. While labor was extremely low, all kinds of provision were unprecedently high. At some sea sons of the year wheat was worth $3 00 per bushel ; Indian corn, $1 50 to $200; and potatoes, $1 00; while other provisions bore correspond ing prices. Their own backs were the only beasts of burden ; and when a bushel of corn or of wheat was procured, Mr. Miner would HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 319 swing it upon his shoulder, and, along with young Hiram, tramp away to " Colonel Verry s mills," and get it ground. Then the boy, taking the bran, would set off close upon the footsteps of his father bearing the flour, and thread the unbroken forest four miles, to reach the hungry ones who waited at home. Sometimes pausing to rest upon a log beside the path, the father would cheer up the spirits of the lad by relating some stirring incident in his own life, or rouse his hope to anticipate future good, by telling what he expected his Hiram would yet attain to. Hiram had even then not only a strong sense of the straits they were in, but also a ludicrous conception of the appearance which his father and himself presented in these pedestrian milling excursions. Often would he amuse his father with his boyish suggestions for relief. At one time, on their return from mill, as they sat resting on a log, he pro posed the following improvement in their mode of travel : " Suppose," said he, " that you should let me get astride of your grist and ride until you become tired, and then you do the same by me and so we alter nate; and by this means save the time of stopping to rest." Naturally of a proud spirit, and stung to the quick by the sense of bitter poverty and hardship which this playful thought of the boy awakened, yet sup pressing his emotion and affecting merriment, he started to his feet, ex claiming : " King Hiram,* shoulder your grist and keep up if you can !" then set off upon a run with " King Hiram" close upon his heels. On one occasion, during the summer of 1817, in the absence of Mr. Miner, the family had consumed their last morsel of food ; and Mrs. Miner, accompanied by Hiram, went to a neighbor s house two miles distant through the woods, in hope of procuring something for herself and children to subsist upon for a few days, until her husband should return. But she did not succeed; and on returning at night, they found that the children, having been without food through the day, had been vainly trying to allay the cravings of hunger with bark from the twigs of the birch. A pile of denuded brush met them at the door, and told too plainly the tale of want within. " That scene," remarks the sub ject of this sketch, in narrating the circumstance to the writer "That scene pierced my young heart, and gave me so strong and vivid a con ception of our situation as it then was, that no distance of time can ever efface the impression. It remains before me now, fresh as of yester day." He adds: " During all this period of want, nothing like des pondency was ever discoverable in our parents. My mother, especially, was at all times cheerful. However sad she might feel, (and she doubt less had her painful forebodings,) towards her children she was ever cheerful and hopeful ; saying often : I trust in Providence. Hope for the future. All is for the best, and will turn out so at last. " The scarcity of provisions continued. It became almost impossible to procure food, even with money. The older settlements were a little better off in this respect ; and in these occasionally Mr. Miner could procure a little work at his trade. Commonly he would be gone * The boy was named for Hiram, King of Tyre ; and in his merry moods, his father used commonly to call him, " King Hiram." 320 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. a week or more distant twelve to fifteen miles, and return with what he could bring on his back, as mentioned above. The family were, of course, kept on the smallest allowance which nature could endure. On one occasion Mr. Miner, having been at first unsuccessful in seeking employment, was gone longer than the time fixed upon. Mrs, Miner had, for the last few days, tasked herself to the utmost to keep up the drooping spirits of the children ; and had resorted to every expedient to lengthen out the little store of provision. But the appalling time came when the last cake was baked, and the last morsel was eaten. For several days they had been restricted to only a fraction of what nature demanded. Again night was coming on. The anxious mother gazed long and vainly for relief in her returning husband. No father, no bread. The children were gathered about the door of the humble cabin with piteous looks, and hungry. The younger ones were crying for food, and asking, " When will father come 1 ?" Mrs. Miner, in her extremity, said : "I don t know but we shall perish if he does not come soon. But we will not give up yet, nor go to bed till we have made another effort to get up one more supper. He may possibly be home in the morning." She then went to a neighbor s and borrowed six pota toes all she could get and returned. The potatoes were buried in the hot embers and roasted. A little wheat bran which remained in the house was wet with water, and made into a cake and baked. The cooking being accomplished late in the evening, and there being no pros pect of other relief that night, the table was set as usual. The roasted potatoes, with salt, were distributed to the places of the several children. The bran cake occupied the centre of the table ; and beside it stood an iron candlestick, bearing a hemlock knot lighted for the occasion. When all was ready, the family took their seats at the table with usual formality. The knot candle threw up a dingy flarne, with a cloud of black curling smoke, which found egress through the open gable, as no chimney was there. The pitchy light shed a sombre hue upon the table, and on all around. It was a melancholy scene, and felt to be such by every member of that suffering group. For a moment, all sat in mute and motionless solemnity, contemplating the sad spectacle. Pre sently the silence was broken by the mother in a subdued and plaintive tone, " Oh, la me ! this is poverty indeed !" At that instant the light went out ; and the next, a roar of laughter broke from every child each at the same time grasping and devouring his potato in the dark. When the light was again restored, nothing appeared on the table but the bran cake. This was served around the board in dubious suspense in regard to its fate. To eat such a thing had not been attempted by them before. The trial was made, but it was impossible. They could not swallow it. A cake of sawdust could have been eaten as well. " It would have required," says Mr. Miner, " a force-pump to get it into our stomachs." So, the remainder of the repast was abandoned, and all went to bed ; when the children, at least, forgot in sleep their hunger for that night. Early the next morning the father returned with his usual bag of flour or meal, and relieved the distress of that occasion. It often happened that Hiram was sent several miles with a few shil lings to purchase articles for the family, and in these excursions he was HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 321 generally accompanied by his brother John. At one time, the boys were dispatched to a distance of some two miles to make a trifling pur chase, and arrived at their destination just as the family were taking their dinner. The lads were kindly asked to sit by and dine with them. But Hiram modestly declined, saying, he thought it was "not worth while ;" or, as John would have it, "not so file ;"* and was pro ceeding to thank the gentleman for his kindness, while John had doffed his hat and was down at the table long before Hiram had finished his speech. Then, as a matter of course, Hirarn had to yield and accept the invitation. We mention this to show that, hungry and faint as he then was, he did not feel at liberty to accept the hospitality of this family without, at least, manifesting some modesty in its acceptance. After dinner, the boys paid for the articles they had purchased and re turned home. John gave his version of the adventure, and Hiram his ; but to this day, if Hiram makes objection to a proposition from one of his brothers, he is met with " I suppose you think it l not so file. " Soon after this, the condition and prospects of the family, as regarded food, began to brighten. Mr. Miner obtained regular employment at his trade in Attica, some 12 to 15 miles distant, whence flour and other provisions were sent, or brought by himself as often as he return ed home. Hiram was now 13 years old, and was frequently employed in the transportation of supplies from Attica to his father s house. He would work for a neighbor a week or more, to pay for the use of a horse, then, ride to Attica and return with flour and other provisions. Much of the way was only what was called " a woods road" a narrow pass opened through the forest by clearing away the underwood wide enough for a wagon-path. And he did not always escape disaster, from the narrowness of the road. On one occasion, as he was returning home with 60 pounds of flour, and some other articles, upon his horse s back, the road being rough and the mud deep, the animal was quite disposed to sheer from the main track, in many places, to avoid the difficulties of the way. Hiram felt the danger to which these sidelong plunges exposed him, and for the most part managed his rein with becoming caution. But it happened, in an unguarded moment, that his fastidious steed, spying an unlovely-looking mud-hole, darted sideways and brought up against a tree. The unfortunate concussion tore a hole in the bag, and cast both rider and grist into the mud. It was a cruel ca tastrophe ; but the young hero was equal to the emergency. He had held fast the rein, and thus prevented the horse s escape, but how to se cure and replace on his back the half-buried grist was now the question. He was small, and of a light frame, and to lift the bag by main strength and put it upon the animal was impossible. He was in the centre of a dense forest, five miles from home, and to wait for some passer-by seemed preposterous. He therefore resolved on a desperate effort to help himself. Putting forth all his strength, he dragged the bag of flour from the mud, and stopped the breach by crowding in leaves and small twigs. Next he led his horse up beside a high log and made him fast A blunder of articulation occasioned by his embarrassment, 21 322 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to the limb of a tree ; then, with much labor, he succeeded in getting the bag on the log, and thence upon the back of the horse. He was soon mounted again, and completed the journey without further mishap. But both the bag of flour and his own apparel very distinctly proclaim ed that he had been "in the ditch." During his father s residence in Sheldon, Hiram, though so young, was made practically familiar with all the varieties of labor, as well as all the hardships and privations incident to a new country. He was employed at intervals in the various processes of clearing new lands chopping, piling and burning logs and brush ; in riding horse to plow out newly-cleared fields of com the roots and stumps every few rods jerking him nearly off the animal s back ; in gathering and boiling the sap of the maple in the manufacture of sugar ; in attending upon pits of burning charcoal ; in peeling bark for the roofs of log-houses ; in pound ing out buckwheat in the open fields ; in gathering ashes, and manufac turing black salts and potash. He was always ready and willing to engage in any honest employment which promised remuneration es teeming no work unworthy of him which needed to be done. In this manner he acquired an interest and a sympathy in the employments of the laboring poor which has characterized him in all his subsequent life, and materially helped to make him what eminently he appears to be the virtuous poor man s friend. His opportunities for schooling in this place were very limited, being restricted to a part of one winter and one term of summer. The privilege of attending religious meet ings and listening to the gospel was seldom enjoyed. Once in a great while he heard a sermon from some traveling missionary ; but his reli gious instruction was chiefly derived from his mother. She did not fail to urge on her children, above everything else, the duty of reverencing the authority of God, and of looking by faith to the Saviour, who died for sinners, and rose again. She taught them to be honest in word and ac tion, true to each other, and kind to all. And she promised that, if Providence spared their lives, they should yet rise from their present condition, and become respected and esteemed among men. This pledge she gave them, confiding in the words of Christ, " Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." And before her death, she was permitted to see her assurances to them becoming literally fulfilled, especially in the case of her eldest son. Early in the winter of 1817-18, Mr. Miner, having sold out in Shel don, removed with his family into the township of Attica, four miles south from the village of that name. Here, in the neighborhood of " Cotton s Mills," on the Tonawanda Creek, he occupied a log-house, surrounded by forest. He remained in this place through the winter; and in the spring of 1818, having secured the job of building a house for Dr. Disbrow in the village, he removed his family thither. During the winter at "Cotton s Mills," Hiram was variously em ployed as occasion required sometimes cutting and hauling to the door, on his hand-sled, the necessary fuel ; sometimes making and furnishing to the market birchen splint brooms; often ranging, for one purpose or another, over the snow-clad hills, or penetrating the deep forests ; some times on snow-shoes, and accompanied by his brother John. In these HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW- YORK. 323 rambles they had frequent opportunity of trying their speed and prov ing their prowess in pursuit of the deer a privilege which they never failed to improve when the snow was deep and its crust sharp, as was often the case during the winter and early spring. In such circum stances, though destitute of fire-arms or other effective weapons, if they saw a deer, they were ever ready to give him chase. Hiram was the master spirit, but John was resolute to follow wherever Hiram would lead. As a specimen of their daring and unyielding perseverance, let the following incident be related: Hiram was now in his fourteenth year, and John in his twelfth. One morning about sunrise the boys having just arisen as Mrs. Miner was commencing her preparations for breakfast, on opening the door she called out : " Here, boys, are two deer before the door, walking in the road; and "they move very slow, as if they were tired." The boys rushed to the door ; and. on seeing them, the deer plunged into the deep snow, and soon disappeared in the thick forest. Hiram stepped back to the table, and seizing a large butcher-knife, said to John : " Come on, my boy, let us give chase." John was ready at the word, and instantly they were off at the top of their speed. The crust of the snow was sufficient to bear up the boys ; while the deer, when kept on the bound, sank through to the bottom at every leap. The underwood being so thick, the boys did not come in sight of the animals but once, until they had run the distance of five miles. But now the deer were so hard pressed by the young pursuers that, leaving the woods, they sought refuge in an adjacent barn-yard among the cattle. But they were not long permitted to pause, before the furious sportsmen were rushing upon them. Again they took to the woods. At this place the boys were joined in the pursuit by the farmer with his rifle But after accompanying them a few miles, he gave out, and returned home. Not so the lads. Only one thought filled their minds. They started with the purpose to catch and kill one or both of these deer ; and until that was accomplished, they could -think of nothing else. They kept on the trail, coming every now and then in sight of their objects; when, although they expected soon to have a knock-down fight with the beasts, they would brandish the butcher-knife, and with new vigor press on resolved to hazard a battle, whatever might be the event. At length one of the deer, in passing under a fallen tree which laid somewhat elevated from the ground, was wounded by a sharp pro jecting knot which penetrated the flesh so as to bring blood. Tln> gave the boys new hope. Very soon after, the animals parted, takin fe different directions. The fierce pursuers chose the trail of the wounded beast distinguished by its bloody track. Onward they rushed, with all their remaining strength. It was now late in the afternoon. Although the race had been most of the time in a dense forest, they had kept their reckoning so as not to get lost, and were encouraged by perceiving that the creature was taking a course towards their home. At length he began to flag from fatigue, and made for a clearing about two miles from their father s house. As he rieared the open field, he was seen by a man armed with a rifle, and was shot. The boys were only a few rods be hind, ignorant that any one was near until they heard the crack of tho rifle. They came up and looked on the deer for a few moments, feel 324 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ing a little chagrined that they had not been permitted to fight and kill him themselves; but in the main satisfied the beast was dead. Then, faint and exhausted with fatigue and want of food, they hastened home, much to the relief of their anxious mother, who had feared they were lost and would perish in the snow. But the boys were proud of their feat. They had, indeed, been from seven o clock in the morning until four in the afternoon, without breakfast or dinner, in a furious race through the dark woods ; but they had accomplished .their object ; and until that was effected, they would not give up. Illustrative of the same trait of character stopping at no difficulty and shrinking at no hardship in the pursuit of an object once fixed upon let another scene of boyhood be presented. Sometime in the autumn following the occurrence related above, while the family were living in the village of Attica, there was a cattle show and fair held in Batavia, twelve miles distant. Hiram and John desired to see it. It was, to be sure, a good way off; and they had no horse, or money, or shoes for their feet. But, despite the obstacles, the expedition was re solved on. Accordingly, on the morning of the appointed day, they set off, in pedestrian style, bare-footed, and with not a sixpence in their pockets their only resource for the expenses of the journey being a " Barlow knife." On arriving at Batavia, they sold the knife for twelve and a half cents. This fund they spent a penny at a time through the course of the day, in obedience to the demands of ap petite; and returned at night with merry hearts, to relate to the younger children the adventures they had had, and the sights they had seen. The next winter, 1818- 19, Hiram was at school. An opportunity was offered him to board in the family of Harvey Putnam, Esq., of Attica, where, by working mornings and evenings, he could pay for both his board and tuition. This was a privilege which he gladly embraced ; and he made rapid progress in study, under the instruction of Mr. (now Rev.) Asa Mahan, late president of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio. Here he commenced the study of English grammar ; and particularly distin guished himself in spelling ; having mastered Dabol s arithmetic the previous winter by himself at home. During this winter, an accident occurred in which, almost as by miracle, he escaped instant death. While he was at school one day, and out with the boys during a recess, an ox team attached to a sled passed along, and the boys all jumped on. The driver applied his whip to the lads, when Hiram leaped from the sled into the path. Just at that moment, a span of horses and sleigh, filled with men fresh from a neighboring tavern, were rushing by at full speed. Instantly he was struck by the horses and thrown down, the team pass ing directly over him. With perfect presence of mind he hugged the ground as closely as possible, so as to let the beams of the sleigh pass over him. But just as he came under the roller, the team was stopped ; and he crawled out from the heels of the horses but slightly wounded, to the great joy of his terror-stricken companions. As he rose to his feet, the intoxicated driver, with an oath, demanded what he was there for. Hiram bowed with a grateful heart, thanking the wretch for not killing him outright ; then took his seat in the school-room, bathed in tears, and overflowing with gratitude to his Maker that his life was HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 325 spared. The serious impression produced by this narrow escape from death continued with him during the remainder of the school. The removal of Mr. Miner s family into the village of Attica made an important change in the condition, views, and manners of Hiram. Instead of the retiring bashfulness of a backwood s lad, he here ac quired the more easy and familiar manners of a village boy. He was brought more into contact with men and things; found new oppor tunities for gaining information ; and his knowledge of the world about him became essentially enlarged. During the/owr years of his father s residence in that place, he enjoyed his best and last advantages for schooling. The first two winters he was enabled to attend school steadily, and also a part of the third. And here it was that he com menced his operations in money -making. He says to the writer, " The first money that I recollect of earning, and laying aside as my own, was gained in the following manner : the teacher of our school offered, that if I would make the morning fires during the winter, I might have the ashes for my pay. I did so ; and in the spring had collected some ten or twelve bushels, which I sold at twelve-and-a-half cents per bushel, and received my cash all at once, which I thought was a pretty large pile" At the age of sixteen he left school altogether, and with many regrets. Yet, for a long time after, he did not entirely abandon the hope that, in some way, he might be permitted to resume his studies. But in this hope he was disappointed. His time and services were re quired by his father in helping to support the family. During his continuance in Attica, when not in school, Hiram was occupied in every variety of labor that could be turned to best account. He assisted his father in house-building, shingling, painting, and other light work ; cultivated land on shares ; hired out to farmers at twenty- five cents a day ; wrought in the brick-yard ; ground bark in the tannery, &c., &c. On one occasion, when the mail-carrier was sick, he was employed to transport the mail on horseback between Attica and Buffalo, a distance of forty miles, and much of the way through the woods. His compensation for performing this trip was fifty cents, paid in advance. But, unfortunately, from the jolting of the horse a hard trotting one the money in some way, as was supposed, bounded from his vest pocket, and was lost. Consequently he returned minus the fifty cents, and had the pleasure and the pounding of the trip to re ward him for his services. And the pounding part he thought was by no means inconsiderable, for he was so bruised by the ride of eighty miles, on the back of suck a horse, in the heat of summer, that it was a full week before he was able to go out again to his usual labor.* And yet his visit to Buffalo had in it much to interest the mind of such a stripling in his early teens. The village at that time contained about 110 houses, and exhibited in strong features the traces of the British fire of 1813. He left the mail at the post-office, near a corner of the public square, on which the first Presbyterian Church now stands, and put up at a hotel, in what was then the upper part * It is an interesting fact that, over this same route, between Attica and Buffalo, the mail is now transported by steam in about forty minutes. 326 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. of the town, nearly opposite to where the "American" now is. Having arrived early in the afternoon, he walked out to see the wonders of the place. Passing the ruins on the site of the fire, where still were naked walls and chimneys standing, he went down to the har bor, and there, on the lake and in the creek, had his first view of the great sloops. He also cast a look of indignant scorn over upon His Majesty s dominions, lying in the distance across from Black Rock. After gazing as long as he wished, swelling with haughty contempt, and bidding defiance to the hated enemies of his country, with a proud step and excited brain he returned to his hotel for the night, and the next morning at six o clock was off for home. While in Attica he enjoyed access to the village library, at a trifling expense, and read many valuable works, which, in some degree, com pensated his feelings for the deprivation of school instruction. And often there did he urge his father to procure him a situation as clerk in one of the village stores, then kept by Gains B. Rich, Esq., and David Scott. His father as often made application for him, but without suc cess, perhaps because the merchants saw nothing of special interest in the young aspirant, or perhaps, (which was the more probable reason,) because of the want of influential friends. From some cause, other young men always filled the vacancies which not unfrequently occurred in the stores. But with purpose unflinching, he had made up his mind to be a merchant, and he doubted not that sooner or later he should attain to the long-desired situation of merchant s clerk. The affairs of Mr. Miner being in an unpropitious state, he resolved on another change of location. Accordingly, in the winter of 1821-2 he removed to Hopewell, Ontario county, leaving Hiram and his eldest sister, Eunice, behind. Hiram was engaged to labor for a neighboring farmer, a Mr. Howe, at $5 per month, for a couple of months, to pay some trifling debts which his father had left. After completing this engagement, he entered into a conditional contract with the same man to labor in his employ one year. The conditions were, that he should not be able to secure a clerkship in the time, and that he should not be called away by his father. His compensation was to be $5 per month in winter, and $6 in summer, to be paid in clothing and in live stock cattle and sheep, as he might choose. His plan was to let out his stock, to be returned double in three years, according to the then existing custom of the country. Upon the carrying out of this plan he set his heart with a good deal of interest, in the expectation of realizing something for himself. But, after laboring about four months, until late in June, his hopes were dashed by a summons from his father to come home. He was bitterly chagrined ; but the principle of obedience to parental authority was firmly fixed in his creed and in his heart, and at once he prepared to obey the mandate, much to the disappointment of Mr. Howe and his kind family. After paying the debts, and settling for the clothing he had received, about one dollar was paid him in cash, to bear his expenses on the way. The usual modes of traveling then were, either with one s own horse, or else on foot. The latter was the only means available for Hiram. Out of one of his shirts Mrs. Howe constructed a knapsack, into which were put his clothing, and two days provision; and in the gray of morn- HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 327 ing, staff in hand, he bid the family "good by," and commenced the journey. Two miles on his way he called at the place where his sister Eunice was stopping. She was looking for him, and met him at " the bars." With a laugh she exclaimed, " Why, Hiram ! what a ridi culous appearance you make ! I wonder if you intend to go home with that big pack on your back. I am ashamed of your appearance ; and what will our folks say 1" He replied : " I have no other means to go. They have sent for me, and I can go it." They parted in tears ; she sit ting on the fence, looking after him, until he passed over the hill out of her sight. The morning was lovely, and he trudged on over hill and valley, ruminating sadly on the past, and nerved up with bright anticipa tions of the future. In his reveries he almost forgot the huge pack, which contrasted so strongly with his little body ; and the pedestrian efforts he was making ; as, taking off his hat. he wiped away with the sleeve of his shirt the perspiration rolling from his brow. The day be came extremely warm, but he faltered not, nor abated his motion till the sun stood high in the meridian. Then he paused at an humble dwelling, for the purpose of taking his midday meal. As he approached the door, the good woman stopped her spinning wheel, while, as politely as he knew how, he asked her for a cup of water, and permission to eat his dinner in the shade. With an expression of countenance seen only in a woman and a mother, she offered him a chair, and then hasted to get him the water, which she mingled liberally with milk. He laid off his knap sack, took out and ate his dinner, drank the refreshing beverage, and then sat a little time to rest himself. He had now traveled nearly twenty miles. After about an hour s pause, he thanked the lady for her kindness, shouldered his pack, and resumed his journey. The heat was exceedingly oppressive, and some of the way was rendered peculiarly wearisome by the deep and burning sand. But he pressed forward, and crossed the Genesee River just above Geneseo, at the same place where, seven and a half years before, he had crossed with his parents in moving to the West. Instead of the angry flood, covering all its banks and the adjacent flats, it was now reduced to a comparatively small stream. He descended to the boat, which was in waiting, and the oars man put him across for four cents no charge for baggage! About sun set he arrived in the village of Geneseo. He had made but one stop during the day, and was now tired, and his feet were sore; and prudence seemed to demand that he should here rest for the night. But, as he scanned the aspect and dimensions of the hotel, he fancied there was a little too much the appearance of style in it for one in his present plight ; and Learning that there was another public house about two miles fur ther on, he resolved to proceed. In Geneseo he inquired for the residence of Gen. Wardsworth, which was pointed out; and at the same time he was told that Mr. Wardsworth owned all the adjacent Genesee flats ! As he stood in front of the man sion, he cast a wondering look over the vast flats below, and then again upon the house ; and contrasted the condition of the princely proprietor with his own humble lot. And he was to-ld that this man of immense wealth commenced life comparatively poor. The thought arose in his mind, " Is it within the reach of man, by his own exertions, to achieve 328 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. all this ?" And the example inspired him with new hope, and excited the spirit of emulation within him. After surveying this scene to his satisfaction, he passed on to the tavern two miles ahead. On approaching it, he was gratified to find it bearing an appearance of plainness which, in some measure, relieved the embar rassment he felt on account of his own rustic plight. It bore the inviting signal, " Traveler s Home." He had now walked forty miles, most of the way in a hot sun, and was thoroughly exhausted. He entered the bar-room, which was lighted with candles, and nearly filled with trav elers who had stopped for the night, and were sitting around the room on rude benches and chairs. With much trepidation he advanced to the bar and attempted to speak to the landlord. But his tongue would not obey his will in the office of articulation. After repeated efforts bashfully stammering he succeeded in making the man understand that he wanted lodging for the night. The landlord did not instantly answer ; but scanned the youngster from head to foot with a piercing eye. If he had stood in the presence of a king, Hiram could not have trembled more. After a moment s suspense, he was relieved by the landlord s reply, "Yes, my brave lad, you shall be accommodated 1 ?" He laid off his pack, called for a dish of bread and milk, ate it, and went to bed. The next morning he arose early, settled his bill, and at tempted to proceed on his journey. But he found his feet so badly swollen and blistered that he could not walk in his shoes. So he took them off, and bearing them in one hand, with his staff in the other, and his pack on his back, he started again, accompanied by an old man and his son who had passed the night at the same house. Occasionally these fellow-travelers, with much kindness, would relieve our young hero by carrying his pack. When they had come within five miles of Canan- daigua, they were overtaken by the mail wagon, and, for twenty-five cents each, were carried to Blossom s Hotel in the village. Here young Miner parted with his obliging companions ; and replacing his shoes on his feet until he had passed out of the village, as he had done in passing through other villages during the day, he walked on over the remaining nine miles to his father s residence in Hopewell. In passing through a piece of woods within the last six miles, an animal somewhat larger than a black squirrel darted across the road just in front of him. He had never before seen the like, and knew not what it was. Instantly all the boy in him was roused. Forgetting his fatigue, and the soreness of his feet, and the burden on his back, he rushed, pell-mell, over the logs, and through the brush, in pursuit of the strange creature. On his coming up, the animal paused to show fight ; and seemed to beckon him on by & peculiar wag of its tail. The young assailant then advanced with some caution, until he came within reach of his cane. After making several feint passes, to try the temper of the animal, which coolly kept its posi tion, he presently dealt the creature a severe blow on the tip of the nose. At the instant, a rapid discharge from its magazine convinced the aggressor what sort of animal it was; and he beat a hasty retreat. Fortunately the fire took effect only on his cane ; which, however, afforded decisive proof to his younger brothers, after his arrival home, that he had had an inglorious fight with a . HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 329 A little short of his parents residence, he came where his father was building a new house for a farmer. Mr. Miner saw him coming ; and, mortified with his appearance, met him at the door to prevent his entrance. After the first greeting the father said : " How like Satan you look ! Come, let us go home." So, taking the sack from the son s shoulders, they walked on together ; the father swinging the uncouth burthen in his hand, and saying : " This will do for mother s rag-bag ; else I would throw it away, with your dinner, clothes, and all." They Were soon at the log-house in which the family resided. Hiram was met by his mother at the door, who greeted him with much maternal joy ; and was also warmly welcomed by all the household. Though greatly fatigued, and with feet badly blistered and swollen, he was comparatively happy in thus meeting with his friends, all in usual health and spirits. After a few days of rest, he was out at work again ; either on the land occupied by his father, or among the neighboring farmers. In this place he commonly attended the Methodist Church on the Sabbath, at u the Sulphur Springs" now " Clifton Springs ;" and felt himself not a little dressed up, when clad in his nankeen coat, and nankeen or bleached tow pantaloons. During this summer his father found opportunity to engage him as clerk to Jonathan Mayhew, now of Buffalo, NY Y., then merchant in Manchester, Ontario county, on a salary of $50 for the first year. He commenced his clerkship, with a glad heart, in September, 1822, in the 19th year of his age, and continued with Mr. Mayhew until April, 1824. Sometime in the winter of 1823-4, his father removed his family back to Westmoreland, and, soon after, Hiram was requested by his parents to return also to Westmoreland, and try to get a situation nearer home. The inducements for him to remain longer at Manchester were not great. Mr. Mayhew was engaged in the cast-iron business, and in the manu facture of patent plows, so that his mercantile operations were quite limited, and did not afford to young Miner all the advantages which his ambition desired. He felt, however, that he had no cause of complaint or dissatisfaction with his employer. Mr. Mayhew had given him every facility to acquire a knowledge of trade, which his business afforded, had taken him from the field, with no recommendation but his appear ance a retiring, bashful boy, small of stature, and looking much younger than he was and had given him his first lessons in mercantile life. He regarded this gentleman as a high-minded, honorable, and up right man, and his wife as one of the most amiable, affectionate, and lovely of women. To them and their family he had become strongly attached, and the example and instruction which he there enjoyed have been happily felt in all his after life. Still he could discover nothing in- the prospect which promised much advantage in remaining longer with his present employer. He felt a strong desire to be in an active and extended mercantile house, where he could anticipate future ad vancement. This, together with the desire to gratify the wish of his parents in being nearer them, determined him to go home and stand his chance of better employment. Immediately he acquainted Mr. Mayhew and family with his design. Mrs. M. replied that " the advice which mothers give should, in general, be obeyed ; but when it related to business, she somewhat doubted whether, in all cases, it 330 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. could be done with propriety, since their maternal affection, and desire to have their sons near them, were liable to outweigh considerations which would otherwise be seen to have the advantage." The force of this remark he afterwards strongly realized, as it was nearly three years before he again obtained the situation of merchant s clerk; and he now believes that if it had not been for his unalterable determination to be come a merchant, the scenes of the next three years (considering the bu siness which, as he thought, he was compelled to pursue, or do worse with its trial of patience and principle, and the examples it held continu ally before him) would have eventually made him, perhaps, a stage- driver, or a common day-laborer, and have thus prepared him to drag out a miserable and comparatively useless life. But that determination never wavered that object of his ambition was never lost sight of. On all occasions he kept a steady eye to the mercantile business as his future employment. Agreeably to the request of his parents, early in April, 1824, he left Manchester for Westmoreland, and, taking the stage at Canandaigua, he arrived at his father s house the next day. As usual, all were glad to see him home again, and he enjoyed the merriment for a time. But he could not long remain idle. After visiting all his young friends and former acquaintances, he became uneasy, and must have something to do. For want of better employment, he assisted a Mr. Cushman, an innkeeper at Lairdsville, in the post-office and about the house, for a few months. At length, failing in every effort to obtain a clerkship, he engaged in the employment of H. Y. Stewart, proprietor of the stage- house and keeper of the post-office in Vernon village. Mr. Stewart s business was large, and, finding in it active employment, Hiram con tinued in this service about two years. While here he was brought into contact and association with the very bane of society, and particularly with the drinking men of the day. Scarcely did a stage-load of gentle men arrive, but each, as a matter of course, wanted his glass of brandy, gin, or other liquor, at the bar. Besides, it was the custom of the house to take a dram on rising in the morning, and again before every meal. In all this Hiram shared with the others. He was accustomed to be up at all hours of the night whenever the stage arrived, and the cup was the remedy for his broken rest. In such circumstances it was almost mira culous that he escaped the dreadful gulf into which so many noble ones have fallen ; but a sovereign Providence employed the disgusting ex cesses of others as the means of his deliverance. Commonly, at the first peep of day, the sated customers at the bar would be in for their morn ing dram. Among them was one old man in particular, whose appear ance and habits especially affected the mind of Hiram. With trembling hand he would fill his glass, and greedily swallow its conten-ts. But .sometimes abused nature would rebel. A sudden convulsion of the stomach would hurl back the vile stuff, which the poor old wretch would receive again in the tumbler held close to his lips. Then, with counte nance distorted almost fiendish rather than lose the horrid draught, he would again, the second time, force the filthy poison down. " That," says Mr. Miner, " was more than I could bear. Sickened and disgusted, I resolved that thenceforth and forever I would use no more spirituous liquors as a beverage, which resolution I have thus far sacredly kept." HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 331 While here in Vernon, he made earnest and repeated efforts to ob tain other employment better suited to his inclination and taste, but, as usual, without success, in whatever business he was engaged it was al ways his ambition to progress, and strive to reach the highest mark ; hence he was always looking out for a more advantageous position. In the summer of 1826, through the influence of Hon. John E. Hinman, he obtained the situation of bar-keeper in u Bagg s Hotel," Utica, which was then kept by A. Shepherd. This position he continued to occupy until December following, and performed the business of the office to the en tire satisfaction of his employer. While in this place, he had opportu nity to see most of the distinguished men 01 the time. The grand cele bration had on the occasion of opening the Erie Canal, took place while he was there ; and Governor Clinton, with other prominent men who accompanied him on that occasion, put up at this house. The opportu nity thus afforded him of seeing and hearing the great men of the age, was a privilege which he highly prized, although his employment was by no means satisfactory, nor could anything meet his desires which did not appear to lie in the direct path of his ambition, and his fixed resolve to become a merchant. But his experience in hotel-keeping, considering the acquaintance with men and the ways of the world which it afforded, although so eminently beset with peril, was not without advantage to him, especially if we take into the account the important resolution mentioned above, which was formed and confirmed in view of the evils he was thus compelled to witness. In December, 1820, Mr, Miner, now nearly 23 years of age, made an arrangement with Mr. Starr Clark, a merchant at Vernon Centre, now of Mexico, New-York, for a clerkship in his store. Gladly did he quit the precincts of the hotel for the more congenial employment of mer chant s clerk, even in a country store, and at a much smaller pecuniary compensation. He found the change decidedly grateful to his feelings. He was now permitted to resume that employment which was the choice and purpose of his heart. Opportunity for reading and meditation was afforded him, and the Sabbath became to him a day of rest He applied himself closely to the business of the store, and made Mr. Clark s inter est his own. He soon gained the confidence and affection of his em ployer and family, and now says, that he looks back to his stay in that family as one of the most agreeable passages in his life. While there, under the ministry of Rev. John Barton, of the Presbyterian Church, during the great revivals of 1826-7, he became interested in the subject of personal religion, and was believed to be spiritually renewed ; and he publicly espoused the Christian cause by uniting himself with the Pres byterian Church of that place in 1827. It was there that he became acquainted with Miss Adeline M. Hungerford, a young lady whom he afterwards married, and who is now his wife. Mr. Clark s was an ordinary country retail business, consisting much in credit and barter trade, and chiefly confined to the little community of Vernon Centre. Consequently it was small, and ill-adapted to satisfy, for any considerable time, the aspiring spirit of young Miner. Being a jnan of fine feelings and benevolent heart one who can hardly do enough for his friends Mr, Clark was willing to forego a personal ad vantage for the sake of serving the interest of his clerk. He had ascer- 332 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. tained the business talents of the young man, as adapted to a larger sphere of action, and knowing that he would not long be content to re main in Vernon Centre, proposed to write to a friend of his in the city of New-York, and get a situation for him. He did so ; and in Septem ber, 1827, Mr. Miner visited the commercial metropolis for the first time. He remained a few weeks with Messrs. Keeler & Lynes, whole sale merchants in Pearl-street; and the knowledge he there acquired was of much service to him afterwards. But he did not find New- York to be quite what he had fancied it. Failing to get a situation to his mind, he returned to Vernon Village, and was employed in the store of Messrs. Hitchcock & Stevens, until February, 1828. He then went again to New- York, and entered as clerk in the store of Arthur Tappan & Co., then extensively engaged in the silk trade. Here he had a fine opportunity for improvement, which he did not fail to take advantage of, and turn to the best account, by making himself acquainted with the various kinds of goods, their qualities, prices, &c. When he engaged for Mr. Tappan, he did it intending to remain a long time, and ultimately become a New-York merchant. But after carefully calculating the chances between the city and country for a poor clerk, without money, or credit, or influential friends, he changed his mind, and resolved to make the country the theatre of his enter prise. Hence, while in the city, he was actuated by an earnest zeal to acquire knowledge and experience which should aid him in his future operations, rather than by any particular interest he felt in city life. He remained with Mr. Tappan through the spring trade, and then left again for the country, without knowing, or very much caring, where he went, so that he found a position which suited him. Mr. Tappan had kindly given him a letter recommending him to the favor of mercantile men, which he knew would procure him admittance into any store where he could find a vacancy. He first went up into Westchester County, and spent a few weeks visiting an uncle in Tarry town. Here he was invited to the house of Isaac Van Wart, one of the captors of the British spy, Major Andre, and enjoyed the satisfaction of hearing the old man rehearse the whole story, which imparted to it fresh and peculiar interest. After visiting the different towns along the Hudson Kiver, he pro ceeded by canal to Syracuse, and thence to Oswego. His passage from Syracuse to Oswego Falls (now Fulton) was made in the best manner which the conveniences of the time afforded, viz. : by a small sail-boat, tracing the length of Onondaga Lake, and then down the Oswego River. Sometimes the boat was rowed, and sometimes was drawn with ropes by men walking on the river-shore, and sometimes was hurried over rapids on a rushing current. But it was, altogether, a delightful pas sage, because so new and wild. From the Falls the stage conveyed him to Oswego. The first morning after his arrival in Oswego came near to being made disagreeably memorable to Mr. Miner, by the loss of his little earthly all. He had stopped over night at a public hotel, and, on retiring to bed, placed his pocket-book, containing every dollar he was worth, un der his pillow, as he was wont. He arose early in the morning, and walk ed out to survey the grounds of the old fort. He had not been long out HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 833 before he discovered his error he had left his pocket-book under hia pillow. With not a little anxiety he hastened back to his room. The chamber-maid was there, just finishing her work. Instantly he inquired if she had found a pocket-book. " Which bed did you occupy, sir V she asked. (There were two in the room.) On his pointing to the one he had slept in, she drew the pocket-book, yet unopened, from her bosom and presented it to him, saying, " You are a careless fellow." He compensated her for the honest act ; and ever after that, when tra veling, it has been his practice, on retiring to bed, if he wished to place anything valuable under his pillow, first to enclose it in one of his stockings, assuming that none but a crazy man would put on his cold boot or shoe, minus the stocking, without knowing it. From that time he has never had occasion to hurry back to his room in a hotel to recover aught from his bed, nor ceased to remember the admonition of the ho nest chambermaid " A careless fellow." After passing a few days in Oswego, and not feeling altogether satis fied with the appearance of things, he passed on over a fine agricultural region, through New-Haven, Mexico, Richland, Ellisburg, and Adams, to Watertown, the shire town of Jefferson county. In the course of this tour his mind was far from being idle. Being a close observer, he was all the time gathering an intellectual fund for future use, and sought every day to make some profitable advance in knowledge. It was, in deed, a characteristic habit of his mind to be continually reaching for a higher mark in his qualifications for business,* as well as business achievements. Whether at home or on a journey, at the desk or be hind the counter, his thoughts were ever active, calculating results, balancing advantages, estimating probable value, or counting the chances of profit and loss in this or that enterprise, or, while contem plating the present, trying to picture in imagination the improvements of the future. As he passed through Richland, the magnificent farm of Judge Meacham, containing several hundred acres, was pointed out to him, with which he was much delighted. It was said to be the largest and best form in that county, and on which the judge at one time made, from his own dairy, a cheese weighing 1600 pounds. This cheese Mr. Meacham transported to Washington, and presented to General Jack son, then President of the United States. On arriving in Watertown Mi-. Miner put up at the stage-house, then kept by D. Hungerford, where he remained incog, for several days. He was much pleased with the appearance of the place. Beebee s large cotton factory, since destroyed by fire, was then in full operation a noble structure, built of stone from the proximate -quarries, from which also the material for most of the better class of houses was ob tained. This gave them an aspect of strength and durability, espe cially pleasing to such a mind as his. Then there was the almost un limited water-pow r erf which seemed to promise permanent prosperity * He assures the writer that in all his changes during the period of his clerk ship, it was-never a question with him what salary he was to receive, but what ad vantages for acquiring a knowledge of business he could enjoy. t The Black River passes on one side of the village, with its deep and foaming 334 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to the place, surrounded as it was by a rich farming community. On the whole, it appeared to him that this was the place for him to stop, provided he could get a situation to suit him. lie had no acquaint ance in Watertown, but having learned that Silas Clark, a brother of his friend and patron, Starr Clark, was a druggist in that place, he sought him out and introduced himself to him, making known his de sire to get a situation in a store. Mr. Clark remembered him with favor able impressions, having seen him in his brother s store at Vernon Centre. This, together with letters which he bore from gentlemen in New-York and elsewhere, at once excited Mr. Clark s interest in his behalf, and he generously invited Mr. Miner to make a home in his house until he could secure a clerkship to his mind. Mr. Clark also went around with him, and introduced him to various merchants of the village. In the course of a week Mr. Miner made an arrangement with John Safford for a clerkship, at $12 50 per month, with nothing definite as to time, leaving it for either to terminate the engagement at pleasure. Mr. SafTord kept a cash store, and sold for ready pay, thus repudiating both barter and credit. It was a novel thing at that time for a country mer chant to hold his goods for cash only ; and especially was it so to our young friend, who had always been taught the old-fashioned practice of giving six months credit, the custom then everywhere prevalent, and supposed there was no other way for a merchant to get rid of his goods. Mr. Safford was nearly the first, if not the very first merchant in north ern New- York who confined his whole trade to cash pay. He kept an excellent assortment of goods, and did a respectable amount of business. torrent driven along rapids, between high and rocky banks. Near the village, Mr. Mirier was shown a point of rock projecting over the rapid current, called " Mother Whittlesey s Rock," of which the following story was told him by the citizens of the village, and, he thinks, by one of the actors in the scene : " Sometime during the war of 1812, a man by the name of Whittlesey, then pay master for troops stationed at Sacket s Harbor, received a large sum of money from the government, and on his way to Watertown, professed to have been robbed. He exhibited wounds, and his saddle-bags cut, while the money was gone. But after a time, strong suspicions began to be entertained that all was not right on his part respecting the alleged robbery. The two gentlemen who were his bail, Messrs. Fairbanks and Keys, of Watertown, at length becoming satisfied of the truth, determined upon apian to make him acknowledge the fact, and disgorge the money. In a neighboring swamp a pit was dug large enough to submerge a man. Then the two gentlemen, having arranged for a physican to be at hand, under pretence of hunting, persuaded Whittlesey to accompany them into the swamp. Coming near the^pit they seized him and bade him confess the truth, and tell where the money was, or they would put him under the mud. He resolutely maintained that he was robbed, and denied all present knowledge of the money. They thrust him in. But on being withdrawn, he still refused to admit his guilt. Under the water again he went. After the operation had been repeated two or three times the last proving almost fatal he yielded, and said they would find most of the money quilted into his wife s under-skirt. Forthwith they repaired to his house and demanded the garment, which was then upon the lady s person. It was surrendered with its inwrought treasure. But Madam Whittlesey, going immediately out, proceeded to the bank of the river, and from this rock threw her self into the furious stream, on which she was seen to float a little distance, and then disappeared for ever. From that day the spot has been pointed out to visitors as Mother Whittlesey s Rock. " HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 335 But this selling goods for cash down presented to Mr. Miner a new idea altogether. It opened before him an entirely new path of enterprise. He could now see plainly, as he thought, the only safe course for him self. Prior to this, all had been darkness before him. He felt little confidence in the credit system, especially for a young merchant without capital or influential friends to back him up. But now all was clear to his mind. The cash plan, carried out with industry and energy, pro mised, to his judgment, all success, while only disaster and probablede- feat could be seen in the credit system. The course was at once marked out, which he firmly resolved to embark in as soon as favoring circum stances would permit. Mr. Safford was a fair business-man, careful and honest, but not of enlarged views. He marked his goods in common figures, so that his customers might see the prices, and from these he would not deviate. He relied more on the low prices to sell his goods than on any tact or skill in trade. Mr. Miner applied himself closely to the business of his employer, and in a few months made himself fully acquainted with it. He thought the system capable of being somewhat modified to advan tage. He felt sure that, if Mr. Safford would permit him, in order to secure a trade, sometimes to drop a little from the marked price, he could guarantee an increased amount of daily cash sales. Mr. Safford did riot enter into his views, but insisted on a rigid adherence to the one- price system. Sometimes, however, the temptation to effect a trade was more than the clerk could resist, when, by varying the price a mere trifle, he could thereby make a large bill ; but the unbending merchant would be always displeased, and often express his disapprobation in no pleasant terms, whatever present pecuniary profit might have been gained to him. In. these circumstances, feeling himself controlled and guided in all his movements, like a machine, by these fixed prices, Mr. Miner became restless. He wanted more space to throw off the pent- up steam which was daily gathering force within him, and which only needed opportunity in order to bring out the merchant the man of bu siness. There were many things to attach him to Watertown. I ts location, its advantages for trade, its beauty, and its good society, all combined to invite him to remain ; but personal activity in business his leading aim appeared to require a change, and he resolved to leave. During his brief residence in Watertown, he attended on the ministry of Rev. George S. Boardman, then pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that village, and formed many agreeable acquaintances with whom he was loth to part; but the time came when he thought it best to go, and he could not be detained. About this time he had received an offer from John H. Whipple, Esq., of Adams, in the same county, which he felt inclined to accept. Mr. Whipple was a merchant of high repute. Accordingly, he went to Adams, and there made an engagement to become the clerk of Mr. Whipple, on the same salary as he was then receiving. He closed his connection with Mr. Safford, and commenced with Mr. Whipple in No vember, 1828. This change proved much to his advantage. He found Mr. Whipple all that had been represented, and more a mer chant of the first capacity. He was doing a heavy cash and credit 336 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. business, kept a large and well-selected stock of goods, was always on hand and behind the counter, commanded an extensive trade, and, although in some respects unstable in his views, was entitled to the credit of much sagacity in business, and was, in fact, a scientific and practical merchant. In his store Mr. Miner made rapid advances, and now affirms that, during the six months of his being in Mr. Whipple s employ, he gained more valuable information and experience than he ever did before or since in the same length of time. The example of neatness and order, and the perfect arrangement of his goods, and of other things in and about the store, was especially pleasing to Mr. Miner, and what he ever after imitated, or tried to improve upon, in his own business pursuits. Here he attended on the ministry of Rev. John Sessions, of the Presbyterian Church, and united with the church in that place by certificate fiom the church in Vernon Centre. In the spring of 1829 Mr. Miner made an arrangement with a new firm opening in Adams, Messrs. Doxtater & Burch, for one year, at a salary of $150. In this firm, although the partners were men of capital, neither of them was acquainted with mercantile operations, and they therefore needed an experienced clerk. This was a grand opportunity for Mr. Miner. He could now move comparatively untrammeled. After due preparation, he went to New-York, in company with Mr. Burch, one of the partners, and purchased a stock of goods. The usual spring freshets that season had considerably damaged the canal, and de layed transportation. Large quantities of goods were piled upon the wharves and in the store-houses at Troy, awaiting the opening of the canal ; consequently the goods of many merchants were delayed several weeks before they could be got out. This firm of Doxtater & Burch being a new one, and, considering their competition, they felt it to be especially important to get their goods in town first. It was therefore decided that Mr. Miner should repair to Troy, and attend to the re-shipment and forward ing of the goods. Accordingly he went, and, after all necessary inquiry, he could see no prospect of getting them on short of many days, and perhaps weeks. He was advised by the forwarders to go home, and assured that th, goods would go on as soon as if he remained. But " No," said he, " I am going to stick to you until I see them in the canal- boat, and going up the canal, too." He then went and engaged his board by the week ; and from early morning until late at night he was on the dock for nine days before all the packages were out of the different tow-boats. While the goods of most other merchants as they were taken out went into the store-houses, Mr. Miner had those of Dox tater & Burch piled on the dock, and covered with an awning at night. For a few shillings put into the hands of one or two of the dock men, all his wishes were readily attended to. When at last he saw the goods all safely lodged in a canal-boat, he, too, stepped on board, and accompanied them as far as Schenectady, when he took the stage and hastened on to Adams. The result was, Messrs. Doxtater & Burch re- ceivcd their goods from three to Jive weeks in advance Of every other merchant of that place or its neighborhood, although the others had gone to the city ahead of them. That fact gave them a start in trade, which the firm continued afterwards, in a great measure, to maintain. This HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW- YORK. 337 was Mr. Miner s first mercantile exploit where he had the direction of his own efforts. The result exceeded the highest anticipations of his employers, and they gave him due credit for unusual perseverance in the matter. In the course of the season competition became sharp between the merchants. Good customers were watched for as they came into the village, and goods were put down to the smallest profit, and sometimes to about cost. All this required much activity and no little skill to keep the lead in trade, and was well calculated to bring out the hitherto unseen talents of the young head clerk, whose diminutive stature and juvenile aspect had always stood in the way of his proper appreciation. Mr. Miner s efforts in the employ of Doxtater & Burch placed him several rounds higher up the ladder, and he now began to think serious ly of acting more immediately for himself, by doing business on his own account. Consequently, at the close of this year he began to write to persons in various places, making inquiries in order to fix upon a pro per location. Among others, he corresponded with Rev. Lewis H. Loss, then pastor of the congregational church in Camden, Oneida County. He had formerly been acquainted with Mr. Loss at Vernon Centre, during the great religious revival there in 1826. At that time, while his attention was thoroughly awakened to the subject of religion, Mr. Loss held a long conversation with him ; and, although he was full of cavil, the apparent solemnity of the Rev. gentleman, his frank arid pungent remarks, and his obvious kindness of purpose, disarmed the young man, and, under the Divine Spirit, did much towards deepening those convictions for sin which issued in his hopeful conversion to Christ. Mr. Loss readily interested himself in the matter of Mr. Miner s com munication ; and replied that, in his opinion, Camden was a good point one where trade could be secured for 20 miles in nearly every direc tion. He believed that a cash store was just what was needed to concen trate the trade ; and that if a merchant of the right stamp were to come in and put forth appropriate efforts, a large and profitable business might be secured. And, moreover, he believed Mr. Miner was exactly the right man for such an enterprise. He stated further, that he had conversed with Dea. Upson, a gentleman who, in connection with the tin and sheet-iron business, was selling a few dry goods ; and had re ceived a proposition for the rent of his room and the purchase of what goods he had on hand, and concluded by inviting Mr. Miner to come and look at Camden, and put up at his house. In March, 1830, Mr. Miner left Adams, taking letters of recommen dation to New-York merchants from Doxtater & Burch ; and on his way, called for a few days in Camden, stopping with his clerical friend, Mr. Loss. While there, he made an arrangement with Dea. Upson for the rent of his shop, and the purchase of his goods, on condition that, after visiting other places, he should finally fix upon and send his goods to Camden. There were many of the citizens who thought the enterprise a visionary one, since the farmers were mostly poor and could not trade, as was sup posed, unless they could pay for goods in rye, Indian com and lumber, which constituted the staple produce in and around Camden. But Mr. Miner felt sure as to what would be the effect of low prices upon the farm ing community, since goods were sold by the merchants then in business 22 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. at high rates, and mostly on credit, payable in farming produce and lumber. Having made this arrangement in Camden, Mr. Miner passed on to Vernon Centre. After paying his addresses to the young lady who, not long afterwards, became that to him without which man is of little worth, and consulting with his friends, particularly with Mr. Clark, he visited other places in the southern part of Oneida County and in Ma dison County, without finding any location which offered greater at tractions than Camden. He therefore finally fixed upon that as the place of beginning. After collecting a little money which was due him in Vernon, he found himself able to command in all $270. This was nis entire capital with which to commence mercantile business alone, and with no one to whom he could look for help in case of misfortune. Thus was he thrown emphatically upon his own resources ; which, so far as related to money, were meagre indeed. But the time had ar rived. He was now to launch his little barque on an uncertain and often stormy sea, where breakers threatened on every hand ; without pilot or crew, but guided by integrity and impelled by industry. Mr. Clark gave him a letter to Charles Underbill, head clerk of " J agger & Rathbone," merchants in Maiden Lane. Before leaving Vernon, he called on Messrs. Hitchcock & Stevens, who also gave him letters of intro duction to " Suydam, Jackson & Co.," and " John Steward & Co.," dry goods houses in Pearl-street, and to "Smith, Mills & Co.," grocers in Front-street. His letters from Doxtater and Burch were to " Davison & Van Pelt," and to " Tilden & Roberts," dealers in dry goods. Thus equipped, on the 15th of April, 1830, with a small valise in hand containing a few articles of linen, he set out for the city of New-York ; resolved that, in the event of the New-Yorkers refusing him credit, he would lay out the $270 to the best advantage, and commence trade with this small stock rather than relinquish his purpose and again accept a clerkship. On arriving in the city, he called around on the several merchants to whom he had letters of introduction. After making the usual inquiries as to the amount of his capital, means of payment, &c., and being frankly told that his capital was scarcely $300, and that he relied solely on his cash sales to meet the payment on any goods they should see fit to credit him with, most of them showed evident signs of interest in his behalf, mingled with surprise at the boldness of his under taking ; for, although he was then 26 years of age, his appearance indicated a youth of 20. He was told by all except one house, viz. : that of Da vison & Van Pelt, that, although they must decline to credit him with a, fall bill of goods, they were willing to sell him, on six months credit, to the amount of two to three hundred dollars each. Messrs. Smith & Mills offered to credit him, at four months, with one-half of the bill he might wish to buy of them. When these matters were adjusted, he returned to his room at the hotel, and after figuring up, he found that at all the places together he could obtain a credit of about $1,000. This, with the $270 cash capital, would enable him, by a careful selection, to secure a little of the usual assortment kept in country stores. Before leaving home, he had prepared a memorandum of what he wished to purchase, provided he should get the desired credit, noting the probable cost of each article and extending the same. When footed HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW- YORK. 339 up, it amounted to about $2,200. But he now saw that to keep with in his limits, and at the same time preserve his assortment, be must buy just one-half the quantity of each article indicated on the memo randum. With this purpose he went flb work. After looking over the the market two days, examining styles, prices, &c., and contracting for the price of shipment and freight of goods, he commenced going over the stocks at the three dry -goods houses where he was to make his se lections, viz. : Jagger & Rathbone, Suydam, Jackson & Co., and Tilden & Roberts. But here another difficulty met him. In order that he might get the assortment in so small a quantity as to keep within the limits of his credit, goods would have to be cut and divided, which is not always readily done, nor usually expected to be done, in selling goods at wholesale. Therefore, before he ventured to select and " lay under" an article, he went to the house of Jagger & Rathbone, and said to Charles Underbill that he would commence the purchase with him, provided he would divide or cut each and every article so far as neces sary to make up the assortment which he desired the bill to comprise. Mr. Underhill promptly and characteristically replied, "Yes, sir; and I will even divide a row of pins with you, if you wish, to make the assortment complete." At once Mr. Miner commenced the purchase of him ; and the first article of goods bought and " laid under," or " in the pigeon-hole," for the young merchant, was, " % doz. white cotton hose at $4 75 per doz." He went on selecting, cutting and dividing, until the bill amounted to $353 75. The goods were then packed in a box, and marked " Cam- den" He also made a bill with Suydam, Jackson & Co. of $284 35, and one with Tilden & Roberts of $54. His grocery bill with Smith, Mills & Co. was $397 87, on which he paid $100, and was credited the balance for four months. On receiving his bills at the several houses he gave his notes,* except in the case of Jagger and Rathbone, who told him, on handing his bill, that it was charged to his account on book. Mr. Underhill, observing * These were the first notes to which Mr. Miner had ever affixed his name. As he signed the note to Tilden and Roberts, he said to J. B. Hyde, then clerk in this nouse now of the firm of Hill and Hyde, New- York that he did not design to give many such notes, but hoped soon to be able to pay down for his goods. Mr. Hyde replied, " Young man, if you make money, yon will never sec the day when you are tut of debt so long as you are a merchant. 1 Mr. Miner did not at the time intend .hat this remark should prove true, nor did he entirely comprehend its philosophical accuracy. But it did prove exactly true, and his own experience taught him the sagacity of Mr. Hyde s remark. During his whole mercantile career he was never for a day out of debt, because his financial prosperity continually demanded such ^ncumbrance . Mr. Miner had no more dealing with that house, or further acquaintance or com munication with Mr. Hyde. But some twenty-two years afterwards, in a note ap pended to a business letter addressed to him as a banker, Mr. Hyde writes : " J. B. Hyde s respects to H. J. Miner, and asks whether that young merchant ever got out of debt." Mr. Miner replied, " Never while a merchant, and the remark of Mr. Hyde was always remembered, and operated as a stimulus in business." 340 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. his excited expression of countenance caused by this mark of confidence, placed his hand on Mr. Miner s shoulder and said, "Young man, I will guarantee your success. We will trust you all you will buy of us ; and if at any time you need, order us, and we will promptly forward to you." This token of confidence attached Mr. Miner to that house, and he con tinued to make there his largest bills as long as they continued .in trade. Its effect on him at the time was to strengthen the principle which he had previously adopted, viz. : to be firm and resolute in purpose and faithful to promise, relying on the application of industry and skill for success. His goods were shipped with much care, he following the carman to the boat and attending personally to their delivery. When he had seen them all safely on board, he settled his bill at the hotel and has tened away to Camden, the theatre of his future action, and where cen tred his earthly hopes. He was not without anxiety about the result. One thing appeared to him certain that he should either rise above or sink far below the common standard of business men. But the grand resolve never for a moment forsook him, that if he should fall, he would fall, as he expressed it, " in a forward march, with the armor of integ rity on." With these thoughts crowding his mind he entered Camden, Tuesday, the 4th of May. After perfecting the arrangement with Dea. Upson and invoicing the few goods he had on hand, Mr. Miner next proceeded to prepare the store for the reception of his new goods, which he daily expected. His purchases in New-York had amounted to about $1300, and his debts to about $1100. He now commenced his cash account on the credit side with $15.75 money which he brought back from the city, and which he immediately sent to New-London, on the canal, to pay on the freight bills. His goods arrived 1 in Camden on Wednesday, the 5th, and on Thursday morning, May 6, 1830, his store was opened for trade. The first article he sold was a copy of the New Testament at twenty- five cents, which he called a good beginning. The first day his sales amounted to about $12. The first month they were $355,75, and the first year $4,140. Thus his average daily sales for the first year were only $13 23. At first he had no clerk, boarded in the family of Dea. Upson and slept under the counter. His store was the front end of a tin-shop, about 18 by 22 feet the deacon, meantime, occupying the rear for his business. But the location was a central one, just suited to his wants. He held his goods for cash down and offered them at Utica prices. It was hard commencing. The country around was new and poor, and to sell for cash, and no trust, was an innovation upon all former practice in that region. There were three other mercantile firms in the place A. Trobridge & Co., A. Hinkley & Co. and Caverly and Sheldon all crediting and barter establishments. Men daily said to him, " I will trade with you if you will trust." And as often they assured him, "You can t sell at cash in this place. The people have nothing but lumber or produce to pay for goods." But he held on for cash only under all discouragements. To credit his goods and run the risk of meeting his notes in New- York was out of the question. He resolved to have either the money or the goods when his notes should become due. He kept a daily account of his profits, and ascertained HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 341 that he gained from $2 to $2.50 per day, which, he thought, all things considered, was not very bad; The old merchants of Camden at this time had the reputation of selling goods " dear," and the people who had means to go and make a cash bill, would go to Rome or to Utica for their supplies, and it re quired much patience and long and labored effort to turn the tide of trade. Yet, with untiring industry, with energy unflinching, he put forth his efforts to sell for cash ; but to one less persevering and hopeful, it would have been a disheartening work. Frequently his sales fell to one, two, or five dollars per day. As often as he got out of an article a supply was immediately ordered, and soon he began to add to his little assortment articles not kept at the other stores. Almost every thing wanted by the people could be had of him, although kept in so small quantities that one good customer would sometimes break his assortment; but then it was immediately replenished by a fresh order. There was no bank where he could deposit his money nearer than Utica thirty-two miles, and the receipts for his first five months sales he carried in his pocket by day, and at night placed under his pillow in the stocking. Most of the bread used at that time by the inhabitants of Camden was of the coarser kind rye and Indian corn. Mr. Miner, after a little time, brought in wheat flour, and offered at retail by the pound or barrel. Salt he had previously introduced soon after commencing trade. He was the first merchant, and probably the first man, to offer flour by the barrel in that town. His first purchase in this article was a lot of three barrels, superfine, from Utica, the cost of which, at his store, was $6 per barrel, and which he sold at $6 25. The first cus tomer who ventured on so large a supply as to take a whole barrel was Reuben Bettis. His first barrel of salt was sold to a Mr. Flanagan, of Amboy. Occasionally, during the first few months, when the curtain of night was dropped, as he lay alone in his little bunk under the counter, a feeling of sadness a,nd discouragement would come over his spirit. The prospect of success looked gloomy, his sales averaging only about $10 per day. The probability of being able to meet his notes seemed dubious. Thoughts of failure at the end of six months of goods seized and sold of being " a broken merchant," with notes dishonored and reputation lost would haunt his hours of rest, and darken his visions of the brilliant future. But on the return of morning light, he would rise with renewed courage, and new determination, and fresh hope. Let it be borne in mind that, in all his previous mercantile exer tions while a clerk, he had had no training in the arts of managing such business with limited means, for his employers were men of capital ; nor had any care or responsibility rested on him other than simply what belonged to his position as a clerk ; and that now his situation was directly the reverse he had no means; no capital in trade, or next to none; was in a new country, among strangers, and without influence; alone, having no clerk, because his small business would not warrant the expense ; maintaining an attitude opposed to all former practice of merchants in that region, in rejecting the credit system ; subject to the 342 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. taunts and jeers of the trade pointed against a "cash store" with such an insignificant stock of goods, cooped up in one end of a tin-shop, in a room eighteen by twenty-two feet ; let all these things be borne in mind, and his slow progress at the first is certainly not to be wondered at. The marvel rather is, that he did not yield to these adverse cir cumstances, and give up altogether. That he did not can only be ascribed to his inflexible decision, to that characteristic firmness of pur pose which nothing less than the extinguishment of life itself seemed capable of breaking up. Perhaps in this connection it ought to be said, that his purposes, so fixed, were never rashly taken. He was cautious of unconsidered acts, carefully estimating and balancing probable results, and especially sensitive to the danger of dishonor from unpaid debts. As an example of his cautiousness and decision, let the following incident be given : Sometime in August of this year, he was expecting a visit from his brothers, John and Isaac, from Westmoreland, and had sent to John an order for a small bill of cotton goods and groceries, with a request that he would purchase the same in Utica, and bring them up with him. The order specified the exact amount of each article wanted. John went to Utica to make the purchase, but, finding cotton goods cheaper than he expected, ventured to take some four or five pieces of sheeting more than was ordered, and, instead of the prescribed " half bale of batting," he took a whole bale. The brothers went to Camden with a one-horse wagon, through the deep sand, in the heat of summer, to make Hiram a visit, taking with them the goods to replenish his stock. The load of goods and tho sand of the road made it necessary for, at least, one of them to walk a large part of the way. It was an all-day s work for them to get there. Mr. Miner was glad to see his brothers. They were the first of his friends who had ventured to visit him since he became a merchant. But on examining the goods, and finding that John had transcended his Order, he was not a little displeased, and said to his brother, that he must return the half bale of batting and the excess of sheeting, in all amounting to about $20. " Very well," says John, " I can do it. But it seems a pity, after dragging them through the sand, besides foot ing it most of the way, that now a part of them should have to be re turned." Such considerations, however, were unavailing. The laconic reply was, " You should have gone by my order, and all would have been right." And so. after remaining a day or two, John, on his re turn, took with him the excess of goods, and restored them to the merchant in Utica. It seemed that, from the first, he had some appre hension of the result, for at the time of taking them, he had engaged for the privilege of returning the excess, in case they were refused. With Mr. Miner this has ever been a marked characteristic from early life, exacting strict and literal obedience to rightful authority. When a rule of conduct or plan of action is once marked out, he will suffer no deviation from it. The motto which, in all his business, he has ever impressed on his clerks, is, " Obey orders, if you break owners" And to this rigid exactitude he ascribes much of his success. ^ Camden is situated eighteen miles northwest from Rome, and thirteen miles from New-London, the nearest point on the canal. HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW- YORK. 343 Merchandise, therefore, had to be transported in wagons for a con siderable distance, and over a road of deep sand. It was a hard day s work for a team to go to the canal and return with a load the same day. Hence heavy goods, when sold at Utica prices, afforded little or no profit. He shortly learned that he must make the increased profits on light articles compensate for the want of profit on the heavier and more common goods, keeping the latter especially low. Adopting this system in trade, which, though common now, had not then been much if any introduced, he saw at length that he began to make an impression among the people ; and after a few months his trade began materially to increase. With the increase of trade his courage and confidence, of course, increased. It was not, therefore, strange that then other thoughts should crowd upon him, and that, on another topic, hope long deferred should present her claim. He was a man, with the sentiments and affections of humanity, and he thought that if, to help smooth the rough sea of life, and make his career a more agree able, if not a more prosperous one, he should establish a firm, by taking in a perpetual partner of the gentler sex, it certainly would be no crime, and might be attended with many conveniences and delicate comforts, and he resolved to MARRY. Forthwith he proceeded to make the needful arrangements for house keeping, renting a small house of his friend, Dea. Upson. Then, having procured the attendance of his brother John in the store during his ab sence, he set off to New-York for his fall supply of goods, taking Vernon Centre in his way. Here, in his visit to Miss Adaline, the prelimina ries of the wedding were settled, and he passed on to the city. He had been able to realize, from the sale of goods, about $1,213, which after the necessary appropriations for other purposes, gave him nearly enough to meet his notes, although they were not yet due. Arriving in New- York, he first took up all his notes, paying as far as his money went, and for the small balances giving short bank-notes. He found all his creditors quite willing to sell him goods on six months time, and from, that day forward he found no difficulty in obtaining all the goods he chose to buy on credit. At this time he ventured to purchase to the amount of a little over $2,000. His selections were made with great care, and the goods shipped under his own eye. Having completed his business in the city, he returned to Vernon Centre, where, at eight o clock on the morning after his arrival, October 19, 1830, he was married, by Rev. Mr. Garrison, to Miss Adaline M. Hungerford, second daughter of widow Celinda Hungerford, then and for many years a resident of that place. Mrs. Miner s father was Lot Hungerford, a descendant of a Puritan family of that name who emigrated from England in the seventeenth century, and located in East Haddam, Connecticut, and from whom sprang most of the Hungerfords in this country. He died in Vernon Centre, January 8, 1827.* Immediately after their marriage they set off for Camden, in a one- * Sextus H. Hungerford, Esq., the present banker of Westfield, Chautauque county, New- York, is a son of Lot Hungerford, and brother of Mrs. Miner. 344 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. horse wagon, going by the way of Westmoreland, and calling a short time on Mr. Miner s parents. They had intended to go through the same day, but the evening was stormy and dark, and they were com pelled to pause for the night at a tavern some miles short. Next morn ing they arrived in Camden. After taking board some two weeks in the family of Mr. Humphrey Brown, they commenced housekeeping "in their own hired house."* Mrs. Miner was well fitted for her new station, and to be the compa nion of such a man. She had been brought up as a farmer s daughter, and was skilled in all her household duties. She was retiring and do mestic in her habits, content in her appropriate sphere, and never con cerning herself with her husband s business, but relying with entire con fidence on his prudence and sagacity. Her disposition in this respect was especially suited to Mr. Miner, who always acted with independ ence and decision, and would never endure interference from any quarter in his business transactions. After the new goods arrived, and had been properly marked and ar ranged for sale, John returned to Westmoreland, and Isaac, then twenty- two years old, came to Camden and entered his brother s store as clerk, October 20, 1830. His salary was at first only $50 a year, but was gradually increased through a period of seven years, at the end of which he was taken in as a partner.f Isaac had previously been accustomed from early youth to hard labor, working in the summer with his father at the trade of carpenter and joiner, and often, during the winter, chopping firewood at twenty-five cents a cord. But although he had been totally unused to business, except laboring at the bench or in the field, he soon made himself decidedly useful as a clerk. He was active, quick, and always on hand. His whole attention was directed to selling goods; and in a few years his older and more experienced brother was obliged to yield the palm to him in sales at the counter. Mr. Miner says of him, " I confidently believe his equal as a salesman, while in his prime, could scarcely be met with in country or city, and I feel that I owe much of my prosperity to the efficient aid I received at his hand." He would never practise deception to effect a sale, but accomplished his end by tact and skill. He read at a glance the disposition of a cus tomer, and then, by adopting his conversation to please, and by the offer of cheap articles, he managed to win confidence. That point gained, he had little else to do but to cut off and put up the goods wanted, make out the bill, and receive the cash. He also had the faculty to hold his customers. He made himself a favorite with them, so that if they traded with him once, they would be quite sure to come again. * Their marriage has been subsequently blessed with five children, two sons and three daughters ; but death has been among them, and only the eldest daughter, now a young woman, remains, together with a little son, adopted in 1844, while an infant, on whom Mr. Miner has bestowed his own name, and who, he intends, if spared, shall share his property. t The partnership continued something more than three years, when it was dis solved, and Hiram again went on in the business separately as before. But Isaac has since, in his own operations, secured a high and honorable reputation as a merchant. HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW- YORK. 345 After the first year the business of the store rapidly increased. Customers began to come from a greater distance, and the reputation of Mr. Miner for selling goods "cheap" became widely extended, so that his cash sales for the second year amounted to upwards of $10,000. Thus he continued to augment his trade year by year, until it reached a large amount probably as large as that of any other similar establish ment out of the city. In the autumn of 1832 his business had become so much enlarged that he could no longer be confined in the little room in which he com menced, but needed the whole building. The deacon not caring to rent all his shop, Mr. Miner purchased the entire premises, together with a small dwelling-house adjoining, for $1,000. At once he removed his family into the dwelling-house, and proceeded to lengthen his sales room some twenty feet, and occupied the rear for a store-house. But after about two years more, his business demanded a still larger space for the exhibition and sale of goods ; and accordingly another lengthen ing of the room was made, by extending it through the whole building, some sixty feet ; while a store-house was erected in the rear. He had now a very fair space for his trading operations. Sometime in the second .year of his business, Mr. Miner had begun to receive most kinds of produce in exchange for goods, but still hold ing on to the ready-pay principle. For nearly five years, his charged accounts were very insignificant. Now and then he would give credit to a farmer of undoubted responsibility, but always at cash prices. Proceeding in this manner, his trade continued steadily to increase for about ten years. He skilfully adapted his business to the wants of the community, keeping almost every article required by the people, and receiving all kinds of produce. Whatever a farmer wanted, or what ever product he had to sell, either for cash or in exchange for goods, here was the merchant. In the spring of 1836, he lost his two little sons both in the space of about one week. This was a severe blow, and felt to be such. " I regarded it," says Mr. Miner, " as a deserved chastisement of Divine Providence. 1 had been wholly absorbed in the pursuit of business ; but here was a stop a rest. I now saw how uncertain is our hold on earth. Property, business, all all receded for a time. I paused and reflected. But soon business called. Engagements were to be fulfill ed. I reluctantly resumed my position in the store, and was shortly after crowding my work with usual zeal." About this time, or very soon after, Mr. Miner received into his store as clerk his youngest brother, Heman, then sixteen years of age. He was of a different turn altogether from Isaac, being of few words, and not so much a favorite with customers. He was, however, a fair sales man ; correct and honorable in all his deal ever acting openly, and despising meanness ; and withal, possessed of a marked talent for dis patch. He has since succeeded well in business ; and, both as a mer chant and a citizen, occupies a very respectable position. In the spring of 1837, he extended his business by starting a store in Westfield, Chautauque county, New-York, in connection with hi? brother-in-law, S. H. Hungerford. Mr. Hungerford had always been a farmer, and had accumulated a small property in Vernon, by agricul 346 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ture ; but was now determined to seek his fortune in the West. He traveled as far as Westfield, where he stopped for a few days; and, being in conversation with Mr. Babcock, then a merchant of Westfield, the latter offered to sell his goods, and rent his store for a term of five years. Mr. Hungerford at once made a conditional agreement to take the goods and the premises, if he should wish to do so after seeing his brother-in-law, Mr. Miner, whom he thought might probably be induced to engage in the enterprise with him. Thereupon he left Westfield, and on horseback, over muddy roads, in the month of March, hastened back to Vernon, and thence to Carnden, where he arrived late in the evening. After a brief conversation, suited to the occasion, he revealed his errand to Camden. Mr. Miner had only known him as a farmer ; but, in that character, as a man of clear, sound judgment, and nicely discriminating perceptions. After hearing his representation, and receiving his pro position each to furnish $3,000 capital, Mr. Miner promptly said to him : " Do you return to Westfield, invoice the goods, make out the memorandum for new goods, and forward it to me at New-York, where I shall be about the 10th of April ; and if it reaches me before 1 leave for nome, I will purchase and send on the stock." Early the next morning Mr. Hungerford was off; proceeding in the same manner on horse back, through mud and storms, to Westfield again. Mr. Miner heard no more of him until he had purchased his goods for Camden, and was about to leave the city for home, when he received through the mail a communication from Mr. Hungerford, containing his memorandum. At once he bought the goods, amounting to about $5,000, of which he had $3,000 charged to himself, and forwarded them to Westfield. Thus commenced, they continued in business together until the end of the five years, when Mr. Miner bought Mr. Hungerford s interest in the establishment, and has since continued it in connection with the for mer clerk, Mr. Thomas Knight. Mr. Hungerford subsequently com menced the Bank of Westfield, of which he is now the sole proprietor, and is doing a successful banking business. Mr. Miner says : " I visited Westfield only once during the five years in which I was in business with Hr. Hungerford. I knew what he must be as a merchant and financier, from my acquaintance with him as a farmer only ; nor had I any anxiety as to the result. His success in mercantile pursuits, and his later operations in banking, indicate whether or not I judged him correctly. Whatever impetus he may have gathered by his connection with me, he is emphatically a self-made man." It will be remembered that the time when the Westfield enterprise commenced, (1837), was one of great commercial embarrassment all over the country. The banks had stopped specie payments, and mer chants as well as all other business men every where severely crippled. But Mr. Miner moved right on, as if all were easy. He even bought and sold larger quantities of goods than usual. From 1837 to 1839, his stock in the Camden store would invoice from twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars ; and his notes were all promptly met. In 1839, finding his business continually increasing, he determined to build a store suited to the wants of his accumulating trade. The size decided upon was 22 by 90 feet on the ground, and three stories high, except 20 feet of the rear, which was to be two stories high. Having HIRAM J. MINER OF NEW-YORK. 347 completed his design, the little dwelling-house was removed, and the new store erected on its site. The whole was so constructed as conve niently to meet the wants of business, and at the same time preserve neatness and taste in the arrangements. Its cost was about $4,000 ; and for commodiousness, elegance, and substantial work, there are few if any wood buildings of the kind in country towns which surpass it even at the present time. It was commenced in April, 1829, and completed and filled with goods in September following five months. Being now in possession of a store of sufficient size, Mr. Miner was able to enlarge his assortment so as to meet the demands of trade. He entered more extensively into the purchase of produce, such as grain, pork, and the various kinds of lumber. He was also more liberal in extending credit to such as desired it. But still he held out the cash and ready-pay principle as the basis of his trade; and his credit business was comparatively small. Although, at this time and afterwards, he had the farmers in debt to him to an amount ranging generally from ten to twenty thousand dollars, this was never relied upon in his calcu lations to meet a debt for goods in New- York or elsewhere. For such purposes he relied upon cash sales solely. He scarcely ever dunned a good customer on going to the city. While he was himself never sued, in not more than two or three instances did he serve a legal process, and never sold property to collect a debt. And although he continued his trade in that town about twenty years, one thousand dollars would cover the entire losses of his mercantile business in Camden. In his pur chase and transportation of goods from New-York he was equally suc cessful, because equally careful. He never met with accidents, as others do, growing out of ill-advised proceedings, or from trusting to others what should be done by himself; and therefore had no claims to be adjusted with transportation companies in courts of justice. The same watchfulness, and close personal attention to his business with which he began, he continued to maintain, acting ever the maxim of Doctor Franklin, which in early life he adopted as his own, viz. : " If you want a thing done, do it yourself; if not, send some one." During his first ten years in Camden, Mr. Miner enjoyed almost un interrupted good health, and was able to endure much fatigue. When occasion seemed to require it, he would be out at mid-day or midnight, regardless of weather. If attending to engagements, nothing could de ter him : they must be fulfilled at any hazard. When abroad, if other conveyance could not readily be had, he would take to his feet rather than be detained an hour after his business was accomplished. The following fact will illustrate his manner of attending to business, and driving it forward in the face of difficulties : " It was usual for him to delay the purchase of flour and salt until the last of boating, late in the fall. * On one occasion it was delayed until the latter part of Novem ber. The ice began to make in the canal ; and there was danger that if a boat-load were ordered from Syracuse, whence he was accustomed to procure it, it would get froze in before reaching New-London. To prevent such a result, and get it through if possible, he determined to superintend the matter in person. Accordingly he repaired to New- London, hired a boat and crew of J. I. Carlcy, and proceeded to Syra cuse about forty-five miles. The weather was freezing cold, and ice 348 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. was rapidly accumulating in the canal ; but he loaded his boat with flour and salt, and commenced the return trip. The old man, who filled the double office of captain and helmsman of the boat, indulged rather free ly in his cups, * to keep off the cold ; and was thus, in a great measure disqualified for his business. At nearly every bend of the canal he would bank the boat, at the imminent risk of sinking the load. After remonstrating with him to no purpose, Mr. Miner at length, taking ad vantage of a favorable position of the captain, seized and shoved him into the stern cabin, and fastened him in. Then taking the helm him self, he ordered the driver to go on ; while, with no previous experi ence, he steered the boat safely through ice and snow, and around bends, from near Syracuse to New- London. On his arrival, Mr. Carley remarked that he was very sorry to see him in that position helmsman for his boat. Mr. Miner assured him that, to prevent sinking the load he had headed a mutiny, and put the captain in the hold ; and that now he would resign his usurped authority into Mr. Carley s hands." After seeing the boat safely moored at the dock, Mr. Miner returned to Cam- den ; and in a few days the canal closed for the season. In February, 1841, he was appointed postmaster for Camden, and resigned the office in February, 1847. This was the only official public trust ever conferred on him. Confining himself closely to his private business, he has never sought office of any kind, nor desired the burden and perplexity attending it. The same year with his receiving the appointment of postmaster he increased the number of his clerks by the addition of his brother John; who, a little before had sold out his own goods at Lairdsville, and moved his family into Camden. Mr. Miner had now a pretty strong corps for a country merchant, consisting of his three brothers, and two others, besides himself six in all. Nor did his business admit of any idleness among them. On the contrary, they were crowded continually. Soon after this Mr. Miner had another narrow escape from instant death by a fall. He was in the habit of taking home at night, in nis hand, a heavy tin trunk, containing books, papers, &c., and going out at the back door. Nearly under this door, on the outside, was a natchway leading to the cellar. On one occasion, some person had care lessly left the hatch-door open; and as Mr. Miner was going out with trunk in hand, the evening being dark, one of the clerks held a light be fore him, the glare of which so blinded his eyes that he did not see the open hatchway ; and stepping from the door-sill he was instantly pre cipitated to the bottom a distance of ten feet. He held fast the trunk, the weight of which brought him down head foremost, and he struck upon his shoulders. In his descent he just grazed the stone wall, which tore the coat from his back. A slight variation might have dashed his head against the wall. As it was, he was severely stunned, and did not fully recover from its effects for nearly a year. In the fall of 1844, Mr. Miner, in company with his brothers, John and Isaac, made a visit to Sheldon and Attica for the first time since their father s removal from Genesee county. It was, of course, an occasion of peculiar interest to them. On reaching the home of their childhood in Sheldon, they were deeply impressed with what they saw. But twenty-seven years had passed, yet how wonderful the changes HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 349 "both real and apparent ! Instead of forests and half-cleared lands, clean and well- fenced farms with broad fields of grain appeared. The great hills seemed to have fallen from half their height. The deep gulf was now only a small ravine. The stream in which was once their swimming holes and fishing places had dwindled to a small rill. That little wil low, planted next the fence in front of the log-cabin by the hand of their dear departed mother, was grown to be a large tree. In the shade of its wide-spreading branches Hiram stood, and gazed, and thought. He walked a few steps aside, then turned and gazed again upon the willow. He remembered the hand that planted it. He thought of that mother s cares, her sad trials, and the many affecting scenes enacted upon this very spot. The log-cabin was no more; but before his quickened imagination it rose, and stood in its rustic simplicity. He could see its rude door the latch the string the wooden pin hanging on the inside to fasten the door with at night the open gable end his mother just coming around the corner of the house with her pail of water dipped up from the little brook in the rear the tea-kettle hang ing on the trammel suspended from a horizontal pole above the fire the humble meal in preparation and the children in all their glee. Another look was cast upon the willow. Its very leaves seemed sacred, it brought so freshly to mind his mother all her features, her looks, and her oft-repeated counsel and encouragement, " Do right, and all will be well." He raised his hand and plucked carefully a small branch, and walked sadly away. Then they looked on the grave of their sister. A stone marked the spot where she was laid. They thought and talked of how young she was when taken from them, and how old she now had been, if living. The elder brother, especially, felt re proached by the reflection that twenty-eight years had rolled by since the remains of that little sister had rested in this lone spot ; and yet, after the first year when the family removed, he had not visited it. Then, with sad emotions and serious thoughts, they bid adieu to the hallowed place. After going over the neighborhood and introducing themselves to some old acquaintances, who had known them among the pioneers of the town as poor, destitute, half-starved lads, and talking over with them the scenes of by -gone days, they directed their course to Attica. Here they spent a day or two in visiting the spots and wandering over the grounds of their youthful sports and toils. From the interesting reminiscences thus awakened they at last turned thoughtfully away, to renew again the conflicts of life. Mr. Miner s mercantile career in Camden seemed, in 1844, to have reached the maximum of enterprise and prosperity which the location admitted of. He had begun in 1830 at the very lowest point, and risen rapidly until he had reached the present elevation ; but from this stand he was unable to make any perceptible progress. But he was now a merchant of the highest character. The strictest order and regularity was maintained through all his operations. Each clerk knew exactly his place and his duties. His customers were always furnished with a bill of the goods purchased, which had been previously examined and called back by a second clerk. By a careful attention to the convenience and interest of his customers he knew he promoted his own. All alike 350 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. were noticed who entered his store, whether the poor with their pennies, or the rich with their dollars. Children sent to his store by their parents or guardians were attended to with special promptness and care. Regard was had, not merely to what could be made on one bill sold to a person, but to what might be made in the long run, b} such treat ment as should secure him for a permanent customer. In this way, from the smallest beginnings he had gathered a large trade. He had erected a store* after his own ideas of convenience, neatness, elegance, and space. He had connected with it every available branch of trade belong ing to, or which could be advantageously managed in, a mercantile establishment. He had combined in his assortment almost every variety of dry goods, groceries, hardware, and drugs. He had divised a new plan for keeping accounts without books. He had, in a great measure, overturned the old method of doing business, and introduced another to the saving of much time and treasure. He had repudiated, for the most part, the credit system, and established the principle of selling goods for ready cash. He had broken in upon high prices, and demonstrated that more money could be made by selling at small pro fits than high. He had made Camden, in no small degree, the mart for its own productions, and given it a wide reputation as the place where goods were to be bought "cheap." In his own store he had laid it down as a principle, to sell goods at least a little cheaper than any other merchant in the place. And when ever a neighboring merchant ventured to challenge this principle by a practical test, the demonstration was given without any flinching. At one time the trial was made on a paper of tobacco, worth one shilling. The run was commenced by a merchant across the street, who offered it to a customer for a penny less. The man reported the oiler at Mi ner s store, when instantly it was put a penny below the opposite offer. Back the customer went, and was offered it a penny lower still ; then returned to Miner s, where another penny was underbid. Thus the sport went on the countryman trotting back and forth across the street until he grew tired, when he took his stand in the middle of the road, while a clerk stood in each door echoing his principal within. The strife went on, each side alternately offering a penny below the jther, until the was reached, when the reverse order commenced, at a penny a time, to pay the man for taking it. Higher and higher the bids rose, first on one side, then on the other the countryman standing in ecstasy between until at length Miner bid a shilling, when the other merchant, beginning to fear the result, held up, and the man took his tobacco of Miner, with a shilling to boot. Insignificant as this incident was in itself, it was widely reported, and had an essential influence in establishing the impression that Miner would sell goods cheaper than any other man. At another time, a run was made on a barrel of salt, the regular price of which was $2. Mr. IT W , one of Mr. Miner s customers, came for a barrel, and was told sixpence less by a merchant over the way. Miner replied, " We will sell for sixpence less than you * Besides this, he erected numerous other buildings in Camden, which contribu ted much to improve the place. HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 351 can buy it elsewhere." " Well," said the customer, " I will buy where I can get it the cheapest," and he drove his team back and forth, from one store to the other, each falling sixpence below the other every time, until it was run down to a mere trifle, when the other merchant yielded, and Miner sold the salt. A few incidents of this kind fixed Mr. Miner in the public mind as the merchant who would not be undersold. Whatever the price of an article might be elsewhere, the general con viction was, " At Miner s it is cheaper." An amusing story is told by Mr. George S. Ferris, formerly postmaster in Camden. A lad came into the post-office, and inquired for a letter for his family. He was told there was one. He asked the price of it, and was answered, " One and six-pence."* He pertly replied, " I will not take it at that price ; I can buy one at Miner s for a shilling" Mr. Miner believed that generosity was an essential element in the basis of real prosperity. And however much or little of this principle might characterize his constitutional tendencies, he judged it to be of great importance to the business man, and especially to the merchant. His doctrine was, " There is a natural affinity between the liberal man and the popular masses. A contracted, stingy dealer cannot extend his business, or gain an influence much beyond the eaves of his store." Hence he was always among the first in all matters of village improvement. He gave freely to all the religious societies in town. Although a Presbyterian himself, he liberally assisted both the other societies Methodist and Episcopal in erecting and repairing houses of worship, and generally paid more or less to each for the support of their min istry. He had now accumulated a large capital, and acquired an influence which was strongly felt in all that region, and especially throughout the range of his extensive trade. His yearly profits were satisfactory he could make money enough out of the business he was now doing. But that did not prevent the feeling of uneasiness which he began to realize because he could see no further progress, or prospect of extension or improvement of his business in the little town of Camden. He wanted more room larger business-space to operate in; and he began to think of the city. Camden was then an isolated town, shut away from the great thoroughfares of business and travel, and approached only^ by heavy sand roads. With these thought sand feelings, he was meditating a change, when, in 1845-6, the project of the " Rome and Watertown Rail-road" began to be gravely agitated. This was a capi tal idea for Mr. Miner. He wanted some new project for improvement something that would promise enlargement of business. Hence the projected rail-road through Camden awakened new hopes, inspired fresh zeal, and his ambition was enlisted to help it forward. He be lieved it would open new avenues of trade ; develop the hitherto hid den resources of that section, and not only open a market for the farm ing productions of the country farther north, but also bring into market the vast lumber region in and around Camden. He had also confidence that the stock of the road would pay well, and he gave the project his Under the old law. 052 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. hearty co-operation. Numerous meetings in regard to it were held, and not a little enthusiasm was enkindled. Camden had heretofore - been so excluded from the great improvements of the day, that any thing which promised good, like the present enterprise, was seized on with avidity. Mr. Miner at first subscribed to the stock $5,000. At a subsequent meeting he increased his subscription to $10,000, on con dition that other citizens of Camden and vicinity should raise the sum to $50,000. A committee was appointed to urge on the subscription, which went up to $47.500. Mr. Miner then offered to take one quarter of the balance, but through the remissness of some, and on account of the discouragements occasioned by a stringent money-market, the sub scription was then allowed to linger ; and finally failed altogether, for want of the stipulated amount necessary to make it binding. The uncertainty which seemed to hang over the prospects of this en terprise in 1846 and 47 contributed to Mr. Miner s restlessness, and in June of 47 he removed his family to the city of Utica. as the first step towards an ultimate change of business. Another and perhaps no less efficient cause of his removal at that time was a desire to educate his three daughters, then approaching the age which required all the ad vantages that parental affection could afford to qualify them properly for the duties of subsequent life. After his removal to Utica, some time in 1848, the Eome and Water- town Rail-road was undertaken anew, when Mr. Miner took $3000 of the stock, which he still holds. The road was commenced and com pleted in 1819-1851, and is now reckoned among the best paying rail roads in the country. While his family were residing in Utica, Mr. Miner still continued his business in Camden and prosecuted it with unabated vigor for three years. He usually went to the city on Saturday afternoon, and re turned to Camden on Monday morning. Commonly he went from Camden to Rome in private conveyance, and thence to Utica by rail road, after arriving in the city at midnight, and again leaving at the same hour in the night following. On many a cold winter s night, be tween 1 o clock and early dawn, did he perform the trip from Rome to Camden, wrapped up in his cloak, and perched upon boxes or bales of goods, making no stop, however cold or stormy it might be. Nothing could deter him from attending to engagements at the appointed time. Neither his family in Utica nor his business in Camden could be ne glected. All were cared for, and none but himself was permitted to feel the inconvenience of his situation. But it was a draft upon his strong constitution which could not fail of its effect it sensibly impaired his health. Early in the autumn of 1847, the "Fort Stanwix Bank" at Rome was commenced with a capital of $100,000. Mr. Miner took $5,000 of its stock, assisted in its organization, and was chosen one of its first directors. This was his introduction to the business of banking. Very soon after this the subject of a Camden bank began to be agitated. Judging from the position and resources of Camden, encompassed by poor farming lands and rather light farmers, having few capitalists and comparatively little commercial business, Mr. Miner did not think fa vorably of the project and at first gave it no encouragement. But HIRAM J. MINER, OP NEW- YORK. 353 others viewed the matter differently were sanguine in the belief that Camden was a favorable location for such an institution, and set about its establishment by getting subscriptions to its stock. When much effort had been expended in raising the subscription, Mr. Miner, from the urgent solicitation of its friends, at length took stock in the concern, and at its organization in the following winter was unanimously elected president. He had, however, from the first, serious doubts about the policy of connecting himself with the institution, and especially as one of its officers. But moved solely by respect to the feelings of his fel low-townsmen, he accepted the distinguished mark of confidence, and entered on the responsible duties of president of the bank. The next few months were occupied in perfecting its arrangements, and in May, 1848, "the Camden Bank" commenced business. The beginning of this year was made memorable to Mr. Miner and- his family, as a period of deep affliction. Death entered again the little circle of children and wrested two more from the arms of the agonized parents. On his accustomed resort to Camden, Mr. Miner had left his family in their usual health. But a hurried messenger came informing nim that Gertrude, his second daughter, was sick. He hastened home with all speed, and arrived about two o clock in the night. On enter ing the -door he was told that the doctor had given her up as past re covery. The words were arrows in his heart. He approached her bed and impressed a kiss upon her lips. " Now," said she, " I am willing to die 1 have seen father again."* She lingered until about two o clock the following day, when with calmness and perfect clearness of mind she expired. f This stroke of Providence was severely felt by Mr. and Mrs. Miner, and yet they had hardly recovered from the first shock before it was repeated. In just one month from the death of Gertrude, Adeline, the youngest daughter, was attacked with the same disease (ulcerated sore throat) and died. On receiving the intelligence of her sickness, by messenger, as before, Mr. Miner again hastened home, and the next day she expired. J * Previous to Mr. Miner s arrival, her mother had asked her if she was willing to die, when she replied " Yes, mother, but I would like to see father first," and re quested his likeness to be brought to her. t About an hour before her end a neighbor was conversing with her about death, when she requested him to read from the Sunday-school book " Memoir of Nathan W. Dickerman," by Rev. G. D. Abbctt. He inquired what part she would have him read. She said, " The little verses." After he had read in several places, she said, " That is not it ; let me find it." She took the book and pointed out the fol lowing verse to be read : "Begone, unbelief! My Saviour is near ; And for my relief, Will surely appear." In less than an hour more her spirit had taken its happy flight. Her remains were conveyed to Camden and interred beside those of her little brothers. J She was emphatically her mother s child, and the last words she uttered were to inquire after her mother. When she was past seeing, Mr. Miner said to her, aa her mother entered the room, " Adeline, mother is come." Raising her little hand as if to feel, she replied, " Mother ! is she? Where is she"?" She spoke no more. Her remains were interred by the side of the other three, in Camden cemetery. 23 354 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The feelings of Mr. and Mrs. Miner on this trying occasion cannot oe described. Their little domestic circle was dreadfully broken. They were prostrate in the dust. This was enough. They saw that they had greviously departed from their duty as Christians, and be lieved they saw why they were chastened. They felt deeply hum bled under the hand of God, and were brought to realize in an unusual degree how uncertain is the tenure by which life is held, and how important it is to be in constant readiness for the last account. They justified the Lord in view of the earthliness of their affections, and endeavored to secure a sanctified improvement of what he had done. Known duties, long neglected, were now resumed, and their thoughts were more of death and heaven, as they saw more clearly the vanity of a life spent in the pursuit of baubles. Mr. Miner then re solved, in reliance on divine grace, that he would never go back into the world again as he had done; and that he would give more and do more for the cause of religion than hitherto. During his residence in Cam- den he had never removed his church relation from Adams ; but now, as soon as circumstances would permit, he procured a certificate from the church in Adams, and united with the first Presbyterian church in Utica. And from that time forward, he affirms to the writer, property- has had little or no attraction for him other than as the means of ac complishing honorable business purposes and doing good. The summer of 1848 Mr. Miner devoted chiefly to his mercantile business at Camden, appropriating, however, a portion of his time to the affairs of " Camden Bank." He met with the board of directors weekly, when the ordinary business was usually disposed of. But, in presiding over a board of fifteen bank directors, he soon realized the re sponsibility of his position, and thought he had good reason for wishing to retire ; yet, for the time, he was induced to remain in his place by the apparently urgent solicitations of a large majority of the board and other friends of the bank, who assured him of their entire confidence in the policy he proposed to pursue in its affairs. But during the winter of 1848-9, he became thoroughly convinced of the folly of his continuing longer in the board without a radical change, and particularly a change of certain of its officers. Anything aside from the perpendicular in matters of business he was unwilling to counte nance ; and where his confidence in character had been once destroyed it could not again be restored, nor could anything less than entire dis connection in business with a distrusted person afford him a feeling of safety. He felt that both his pecuniary interest and his honor in busi ness demanded one of two things, viz., the change which he sought, and which he believed the welfare of the bank required, or his own resigna tion as president, and total separation from the concern. After a fair and full discussion on the whole subject, there was one vote wanting in the board to sustain Mr. Miner s position. In order, therefore, to be self-consistent, maintain self respect, and secure his own safety as a busi ness-man, he sold his stock in the bank $10,000 at ninety-five cents on the dollar, and resigned his office. He had now no object to detain him longer in Camden, except to ar range his mercantile business, so that he could leave it. He therefore received into partnership his two brothers, Isaac and Heman, the former HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 355 of whom had been trading in Rome, but now removed his goods to Camden, and joined the firm. This left Mr. Miner at liberty, and at once he resolved to commence an individual bank, depending, under Provi dence, upon his own resources and skill for success. But his retiring from Camden cost him the sacrifice of much feeling, and the sundering of many ties. He had been long engaged in business there, made all his property there, and formed many strong attachments there. The community had become endeared to him by unnumbered associations ; they had ever treated him and his family with great kindness and con sideration, and he could not leave them but with many regrets ; but his judgment taught him that he had better go, and he bade Camden an af fectionate adieu. Immediately he began his arrangements for a bank on his own re sponsibility. His resources were collected and prepared during the summer and autumn. In the course of the following winter his stock was purchased, and all his arrangements completed, and in March, 1850, he commenced the business of banking in Utica. Utica was an unfavorable point for an individual bank. He had there to compete with numerous and well-regulated banks of large capi tal and long standing. He soon saw that, to make it profitable, he must either go into an association and increase the capital, or he must seek a new and unoccupied location. Many strong considerations urged him to the former course. He had spent about thirty years of his life in Oneida county. Here were the birthplace and the graves of his chil dren here, also, the graves of his parents and other friends, and long had he cherished the hope that here he might spend the residue of his life, and be laid at last by the side of those whom he loved. But to re main in Utica, and form an associated institution, would be to abandon the governing principle of his whole business-life, viz., to act for himself untrammeled, and guided by his own views and judgment, irrespective of, and, if occasion required, in opposition to, the views and opinions of others. He could not entertain the thought of such a change. Every other consideration must yield to his fixed purpose of individual bank ing. Accordingly, after examining other parts of the state, he directed his way to Chautauque county, and visited Fredonia. Here he was in terested. Its central position in the lake border of the county its proximity to Dunkirk,* the terminus of the New- York and Erie Rail road its rich farming lands, equal to any in the state its merchants of the best class its enterprise and stability apparent at a glance, toge ther with its salubrity and exceeding beauty all marked Fredonia as a desirable place for an individual bank, and Mr. Miner fixed upon it. Having now chosen his location, he returned to Utica, and informed his family of the place selected for their new home. Immediately the trunks were packed and the baggage made ready, and the next day his house was closed, with the furniture all in its place, when, with his family, he stepped on board the cars, and was off for the West. They arrived in Fredonia, June 25, and took rooms at the " Johnson House" for some three months, until their furniture could be got up from Utica, and pre- Three miles. 356 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. parations be made for keeping house. After a few days of necessary delay, " H. J. Miner s Bank of Utica" was opened for business in Fre- donia, July 4, 1850. Mr. Miner commenced his banking operations in Fredonia without an acting cashier ; but, to supply the deficiency, he requested the busi ness-men of the place to make choice of some respectable gentleman to sign his bills as cashier, when an election took place, and the choice fell on Hon. John Crane, who signed the new bills up to January, 1852. At this time, Mr. James H. Madison, four years teller in the " Bank of Silver Creek," was employed, and entered on the duties of acting cashier. When he commenced at Fredonia, Mr. Miner knew but little of the internal business of a bank, its correspondence, and especially the modes of keeping books. He was also an entire stranger in the town, and but very little known in the county. But he knew how to work. He had been accustomed to act long and untiringly in a straightforward mercan tile course, and he believed that all which was necessary was to apply the same common-sense practical talent to the banking business, and success must crown the effort. During the first year and a half in this place he employed very little help, preferring to attend personally to the various duties of the bank, so as to learn exactly its wants, and familiarize himself with its detail processes ; in a word, he determined to understand his business, and therefore compelled himself to perform it in person. But it required a prodigious amount of effort. He was obliged to apply himself closely to labor not less than sixteen hours on a daily average in order to keep up. None but an iron-like constitution could have sustained such a draft upon body and mind for so long a time ; but he went on without giving much, if any, outward manifestation of unusual toil. His commencement of banking in some respects differed from, and in others much resembled, his commencement in merchandise. In respect to preparatory training it differed totally. His mercantile career was introduced by a long clerkship. In his banking he stepped directly from behind the merchant s counter to the cashier s desk, having no other ac quaintance with the duties required than any bank director may acquire, which, for practical purposes, is really nothing at all ; but in other re spects there is a striking analogy. As in merchandise he took his stand among strangers, so in banking. His first mercantile operations were light, and conducted with much caution. The same was true in his banking. In the former case he commenced without a clerk, so in the latter. His mercantile business steadily advanced until it comprised an extensive trade : the same is true in the commencement, and is likely to be true in the issue, of his banking. His progress was at first gra dual, but he advanced, step by step, with an increase of business almost daily perceptible, until now, after the short period of less than two and a half years, his business extends across the Atlantic, and equals in discounts and deposits that of most of the associated banks of $100,000 capital. As in his mercantile career he laid aside antiquated and cumbrous forms, and led off in an unbeaten track, so in his banking. Having no previous acquaintance with the modus operandi of the busi ness, but guided by his practical common sense, he arranges his books and accounts in the simplest manner, and aims to arrive at his point in HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 357 the shortest possible way. Thus he studies the convenience of both himself and his customer, regardless of old forms, which serve only to embarrass action, multiply clerks, mistify outsiders, and hinder pro gress, Mr. Miner has entered on his banking career with an apparent deter mination to strip the business, as far as possible, of all mystery in the eyes of the people, to resist and subdue, at least in himself, its aristo cratic tendencies, and make it as unembarrassing for the most simple and rustic person to approach the cashier s counter for business as the counter of a country merchant. That crabbed taciturnity which is some times met with in other banks, and which is always so disgusting to men of sense, finds no place in the institution of Mr. Miner. He is always kind and complaisant, whether he is able to accommodate you or not, and seems to feel, when called on for business, that he is rather the obliged than the obliging party. His property does not appear to have inflated him at all, but he seems the same modest and accessible person as when, on the 6th of May, 1830, he opened his little store in the end of good Dea. Upson s tin-shop, with a capital of $270, all told ; and when he discounts your note it is with the same affable grace as when he pocketed the net profit of eight cents on the first article purchased from his store a copy of the New Testament sold for twenty-five cents, cash in hand. In keeping with this characteristic complaisance, he has especially desired the writer to speak of his sense of obligation to the citizens of Fredonia, and especially to the merchants and other busi ness-men, for their early confidence, manifested by deposits and other wise. And not only in the bank, but every where in social life, his bland and gentlemanly bearing has won for him the respect and esteem of this community; while the writer, as his pastor, takes pleasure in attesting the high regard in which he is held by the religious society and church of which he is here a member. In conclusion, it may be instructive to inquire, What are the elements in Mr. Miner s character to which, under Providence, must be attributed his eminent success as a business man? The writer has held extensive cor respondence with persons who have known him long and intimately ; and from their letters may readily be gathered a satisfactory answer to this inquiry. Starr Clark, Esq., with whom his longest clerkship was served, says of him : " As a clerk in my store, his moral character, so far as I knew, was good. He was an attentive and good clerk, honest and upright; and one who attended to his own business." Mr. William Doxtater, of the*former firm of " Doxtater and Burch," speaks as follows : " I always esteemed him an honest, faithful young man, and remarkably trustworthy. He was likewise uncommonly active, mild, ambitious, and persevering as a salesman ; and seemed as anxious to promote the interest of his employer as his own, which I con sider one of the most prominent traits in his character." Mr. Thomas Burch, the other partner, writes in a corresponding strain. Dr. Horatio G. Tarbert, of Camden, says: " Mr. Miner commenced business something more than twenty years ago in this place, and was, I believe, a poor boy. His motto was, ready pay; and by his un tiring industry and indomitable perseverance, soon established the 358 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. character of a successful merchant, and monopolized the trade. He was always very active, esteemed a useful citizen, and wielded an extensive influence." Mr. II. Brown, of Camden, writes as follows : " When Mr. Miner commenced business here, in the spring of 1830, there were but two or three merchants in the place, which was then quite new; and they were selling goods very high. Mr. Miner put them down to Utica prices, and soon drew the largest part of the trade. I never heard any one say but that he dealt fairly and honestly. I have dealt with him, I think I may say, thousands of dollars, and I never thought he was dishonest with me. He was quite a public spirited man, did much in building up this place, and was very liberal with the religious societies." Mr. E. S. Dunbar, of Camden, says : " Mr. Miner was, we may say, almost the founder of our now flourishing village ; a man of strict integrity honest and upright in all his deal ; and for energy and enter prise not often equaled. He was possessed of uncommon business tal ent ; a financier ; and a benevolent and much respected citizen. His departure from Camden was much regretted at the time, and has been more deeply felt since." Mr. E. Rockwell, one of the directors of " The Camden Bank," writes : " Mr. Miner was a merchant of this village about twenty years, commencing without much capital or the aid of wealthy friends. But, by his own energy, stability, and close application to business, he succeeded in every undertaking ; and at the same time while he was making a fortune, he was gaining a character for strict integrity. Although a rapid advance of fortune sometimes creates envy, his integ rity was admitted by all. Nor was he destitute of public spirit. To all improvements of the place which he approved, he gave liberally. I have often heard him referred to, to prove that it is no great misfortune to begin the world poor." Judge T. D. Penfield, of Camden, says : " As far as I am acquaint ed, his habits and moral character were good ; and his charities and con tributions to benevolent institutions and the poor were quite abundant. But he was more particularly noted for his business and financial traits of character. Few men apply themselves with greater diligence and perseverance than did Mr. Miner, and few are rewarded with more abundant success." Hon. Israel Stoddard, of Camden, says: "I have known Hiram J. Miner over twenty years. He is a self-made man. He came to this place about twenty-two years ago poor, and commenced a cash store. It was looked upon as no go ; since a store of that kind was unheard of in this region. But his energy and decision of character overcame every obstacle. Go-ahead-ativeness seemed stamped on all his under takings. He was sure to succeed. His business was never neglected. He was prompt in all his engagements ; of quick decision, and great firmness. I have done much business with him, and his honesty in deal was unquestionable. I consider him a man who feels for the poor. He has done much to build up this place ; yes, I may say, as much as all others combined. We feel his loss, and it is a great one ; but what is our loss is Fredonia s gain. Yes, I know him well. His untiring in dustry, kind words, and marked attention to customers, would attract HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 359 your notice at once, and interest you in his favor. He has left in this place many warm friends who regret his departure from his old home and birthplace of business." Mr. James Dutton, at present, and for many years, a very respect able merchant of Utica, writes as follows : " Yours of the 30th ultimo, requesting my views and opinion respecting the character of Hiram J. Miner, 1 have but just received. Although it is some eighteen or twenty years since 1 first became acquainted with Mr. Miner, still I must say that I have known him only as a business man. In all my commercial transactions with him, which in former years have been of no inconsider able amount, he has ever seemed to be governed by the rules of strict honor and the most rigid integrity. From what I know of his habits, I should not attribute his success in business to what is usually termed Muck; but rather to his great energy, and untiring perseverance. His mental constitution is of a turn essentially utilitarian. Hence his con versation and inquiries, when allowed to take their natural or habitual direction, were uniformly on topics immediately connected with busi ness. Possessing a brain-power apparently nowise superior to that of others less distinguished in business, he seems to have been able, by a concentration of that power, to render his will almost omnipotent; and to have been able to bring to bear upon a single point, with effect, only such an amount of power as is often expended by others without effect, when applied to a number of objects. To will with him was synony mous with to do. Convinced, in the management of his store, of the propriety of keeping an unbroken assortment of merchandise, his list was almost always kept full. When goods were wanted, and could be ob tained, they were had, whether they could, at that particular time, be obtained at remunerating prices or not." We will detain the reader with but one more communication, which is from the pen of Mr. A. W. Ransom, a retired merchant, now of Cam- den. Mr. Ransom says: "Your favor of the 30th ultimo, asking rny views of the character of our old and respected townsman, Hiram 3. Miner,, has been received. He has been connected closely with the rise and progress of our village, and his energy and thrift constitute one of its prominent landmarks. To one gifted in the analysis of character, his would form a fruitful and interesting theme. His career with us marked from the commencement an original and self-reliant mind He first became known to the inhabitants of Camden as the cash trader in the little yellow store. He started as the enemy of the book -credit system, which was encouraged among the merchants of this then out post of civilization. He found the small traders here selling goods on a scale of profits that would astonish the importer ; and readily saw that, by selling at a fair price, people would purchase of him for cash;, and while he was counting his gain in hard coin, his neighbors had only the pleasure of inventorying their notes and accounts. His capital soon grew from a few hundreds to as many thousands ; and customers and cash seemed to roll in upon him to his heart s content. He was able, like all successful business men, to read a customer his wants, capaci ties, arid idiosyncracies at the first glance. Consequently, he had pre cisely what a customer wanted, and at just the price desired. The word can t was not retained in his vocabulary. Nothing was impossible 360 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. within the reach of human effort. His plans were to be executed, any body s opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. He was public- spirited and liberal in all schemes for the improvement of the village; yet he often disregarded others, and set public opinion at defiance. The energy with which he pursued an object commonly resulted in dis couraging all opposition, and he was left master of the field. This remarkable energy and positiveness of character, together with his master policy, was the secret of his success. No one doubted that a man who had shown himself so admirable a financier as a merchant must be successful as a banker. This latter career he has but just entered upon ; and his friends have the fullest confidence that his success in this will be no less marked and decided." The above are but a few of the many communications of a similar character which have been received from Camden and other places. But these are sufficient for our purpose; and will throw important light upon the minds of young men, respecting the elements of charac ter and principles of action which have formed the basis and support of Mr. Miner s brilliant business career. In view of these testimonials and of the facts presented in the preced ing narrative, the following characteristics are deemed especially worthy of being commended to the consideration of youth. 1. Decided purpose. Mr. Miner has always had an object in view, and a decided purpose to attain it. There are those who seem to have no very definite aim or purpose in regard to any thing. They just give themselves up to the influence of circumstances as they may chance to arise, without any decided attempt to control and order circum stances. Such persons never became truly MEN. Mr. Miner, when eight years old, said, " 1 will be a merchant." Here was a decided purpose ; and all his after-life has been regulated by definite design. 2. Steadiness of purpose. He never could have attained his pre sent position with shitting aims. Stability of design adherence to settled plans has marked all his career, and constituted an important element in the foundation of his prosperity. 3. Industry. From his earliest youth he has always been active ; and when he could not obtain the employment he desired, he would en gage in the best he could get. He would not be idle. Idleness is fatal to eminence in every thing honorable and good. This is the experience of the whole world. He who hopes to acquire wealth or honorable dis tinction among men, without unabating industry, had better emigrate to the land of dreams. 4. Patience. Mr. Miner would not be discouraged where there was a possible ground for hope. How long was he delayed in obtaining a clerkship ! How slow his progress to the head of a mercantile estab lishment ! In what unpromising circumstances did he commence his independent business operations ! But in all the tedious path his hope never forsook him. He pressed on, and would not be disheartened. Nor did he allow himself to fret and complain because his ends were not more speedily attained. Calmly, patiently, he applied his industry, until Providence was pleased to grant his desire. 5. Energy and perseverance. One of the main-springs of his prosper ity is found in his unconquerable energy his determination to succeed HIRAM J. MINER, OF NEW-YORK. 361 in all he undertakes. He says of himself, " The expression Can t do it I never could find use for. To do it is all I know; and until it is ac complished, I cease not to strive." 6. Carefulness. Multitudes fail of success because they will not give themselves the trouble to maintain a watchful attention to their own affairs, or to the affairs of others with which they may be charged. They are heedless of consequences liable to result from inattention to little things ; and hence they are continually met by unlooked-for losses, perplexities and disasters. Mr. Miner, though quick in decision, and energetic and persevering in action, is never unmindful of little facts and circumstances little interests and dangers which, as in the case of every one, continually surround him, and lie strewed along his path. To all these he is wakeful and attentive. Hence he seldom suffers any thing from oversight, or is baffled by mishaps and vexations which worry and defeat the careless. 7. Neatness and order. Both in his clerkship, and in the manage- ment of his own store, he would suffer no needless filth or rubbish to defile or encumber the area of his charge. Everything must wear a look of cleanliness, convenience and comfort. He would have " a place for everything," and " everything [must be] in its place." Thus were his premises made attractive to customers, and facile for his own pro ceedings. 8. Faithfulness. In his youth his employers found him reliable, and learned to confide in him. The remark of Mr. Doxtater is in point, "He seemed as anxious to promote the interest of his employer as his own." In all his coarse, when an engagement had been made it must be met, and at the appointed time. No regard to his own ease or con venience must be allowed to prevent. Promptness and punctuality faithfulness to trust, have inspired public confidence, and thus given him advantage. 9. Honesty and integrity. The tricks of trade by which the sim ple are overreached, and the ignorant defrauded, he has religiously abjured from the first. Frankness, openness and honesty have been among the most strongly-marked traits in his character. His word could be relied on ; and customers soon learned that they could deal with him in any circumstances without danger of being cheated. 10. Zeal for knowledge, and especially practical knowledge. See it in all his course, from the moment when, at six years of age, standing Before his provoked and reproving school-mistress, he said to himself, "I will do better." See it in his eager desire for schooling when a lad in his teens. See it in his clerkship the chief object sought in nearly or quite every change of employers. See it in the commencement of his banking operations. Useful knowledge knowledge capable of being turned to practical account he has been continually reaching after. In this way he becomes master of his business, and is enabled to succeed where other men would fail. 11. Modesty. He never disgusts you with egotism or boasting. He never takes on airs of pomp or magisterial dignity. He never offends by officiously obtruding his counsel or service, nor by thrust- ing himself forward where he does not belong. His simplicity and modesty have done much to win for him favor and success. . 362 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. 12. Kindness and generosity. In the language of Mr. Stoddard, "His kind words and marked attention to customers would attract your notice at once, and interest you in his favor." His sympathy for the poor has made him many friends. His considerate regard to their feelings and their welfare has embalmed his memory in many hearts. Whatever may be his zeal to acquire or retain wealth, he will not be mean for the sake of money. Service rendered him is sure to meet a liberal reward. And public interests do not appeal to him in vain, as the numerous testimonials from Camden show. All this reacts upon liis own interests in a thousand favorable forms, and becomes to him an important source of prosperity. 13. Catholicity in religion. He is an honest and decided Presbyte rian, but lays no claim to infallibility in faith or practice. The rights of conscience he freely accords to every man ; and finds no difficulty in discovering much of good in religious communities differing in some important respects from his own. Hence, religious or sectarian preju dices which might otherwise be arrayed against him are happily avoided, or enlisted in his favor. 14. Mildness in politics. His democratic principles are, and have always been, unwavering. But the same spirit of gentleness and tole ration towards those who differ with him which marks his religious ac tion also characterizes his politics. Among his warmest personal friends are not a few of opposite political views from himself. 15. Freedom from office-seeking . His own words are, I could never discover any charm in office-seeking or office-holding. In the station of a private citizen I could see freedom of thought and opinion ; but in office-seeking and office-holding only double-dealing, deception, bit terness, anxiety, defeat, and at last poverty, and perhaps dishonor" 16. Independence. Mr. Miner has always been accustomed to think for himself; and, since his majority, to act for himself. Though he listens respectfully to the opinions, and notes carefully the practices of others, yet he fearlessly thinks, speaks and acts agreeably to his own convictions, whoever may object, or whatever may oppose. In making up his mind on a given subject, he never waits to learn first what others think, or how others will act ; but, from his own stand point, views the matter in the clearest light he can get, and then decides, without regard to anybody else. 17. Humility, or freedom from an aristocratic spirit. He never solicits especially the favor of the rich, nor despises the condition of the poor. The acquisition of wealth does not appear to have changed his sympathies or affinities at all. He seems to meet the poorest laborer as on a level ; while, in the presence of the wealthy and the great, he acknowledges frequent embarrassment. This accessibleness, or dispo sition to fraternize with the mass of the people, procures him general favor, and makes him a peculiarly popular business-man. Of course it multiplies his business and increases his prosperity. 18. Aspiring after progress. It does not seem to be so much a reaching after some definite point or object which he sees above or be yond him, and which, for the time being, is the ultimatum of his desire, but when attained, is succeeded by another equally attractive it does not seem to be with him so much this common characteristic of human HORACE P. BIDDLE, OF INDIANA. 363 nature, as an insatiable desire to progress for the sake of progression. He strives to advance because he craves advancement. His motto em phatically is " Excelsior." It matters not what eminence he may reach in any respect, he struggles continually to go higher. This undying zeal to improve, ascend, progress, combined with his other characteris tics, as developed above, has raised him from the lowest point of pov erty and obscurity to the honorable and affluent position \vhich he now occupies, and bids fair to advance him onward and upward while his faculties remain. HON. HORACE P. BIDDLE, OF LOGANSPORT, INDIANA, Is the youngest of nine children, whose father removed to Marietta, in 1789, under the auspices of General Putnam. He resided on the Mus- kingum River, sharing the hardships and vicissitudes incident to a new country and Indian warfare, until 1802, when he moved to the valley of the Hockhocking, in Fail-field county. Our subject, after reading law with H. H. Hunter, Esq., of Lancaster, was admitted to the Supreme Court of Ohio, at Cincinnati, in April, 1839, and spent the summer of that year on the circuit of Fail-field, Pickaway, Perry, Licking and Franklin counties. In October of the same year he settled in Logans- port. Indiana, where he has ever since resided. In 1844, he was placed as a candidate on the electoral ticket, and advocated the election of Henry Clay to the presidency. The canvass was a heated and severe one, and resulted, in the district, in a majority of two hundred and sixty-three for Mr. Clay, since which time it has always been carried by the other party. In 1845, he stood a poll for representative to the legislature, and was beaten. His opponent was an old citizen and a very wealthy man. His wealth gave him the "sinews of war," which Mr. Biddle could not command. The canvass has ever since been, and was then called the "conflict of talent and wealth." In December, 1846, Mr. Biddle was elected president judge of the eighth judicial circuit over a powerful opposition. The patronage of nominating the judges of the Supreme Court, held then by the governor, (the late James Whitcomb,) was brought to bear directly on his elec tion. It was understood that if Mr. Biddle s opponent succeeded, the governor would nominate Judge Dewey on the Supreme Bench, one of the ablest men in the state, whom many desired to be the judge; but if Mr. Biddle succeeded, that he would nominate one of his own parti sans. This of course arrayed Judge Dewey and his friends against Mr. Biddle s election. The parties stood a tie on joint ballot, the method then of electing president judges. 364 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. He has now presided over the largest circuit in the state nearly six years, and but three of his opinions have been reversed by the Supreme Court. In the spring of 1850, he was solicited to become the senatorial can didate for the convention to revise and amend the constitution of Indi ana : very reluctantly he consented and was elected by over two hun dred majority, although the politics of the district were decidedly against him. His course in that body may be found in the published journals and debates. Mr. Biddle is not unknown to the literary world as an author and poet of considerable talent. HON. ZENON LABAUVE, OF PLAQUEMINE, LOUISIANA, WAS born in the parish of West Baton Kouge. State of Louisiana, on the 16th of February, 1801, of French descent. His father, Pierre Labauve, was born in the parish of St. James, in the same state ; his mother was a native of France. In July, 1834, he was elected to the State Senate against a very strong man who had been in that body for years. In 1838 he was a candidate again, but was defeated by his former competitor, on the ground that in 1836 he had been at first opposed to the pledge of the faith of the state in favor of the Citizens Bank, although he afterwards voted for the measure, under instructions of a large number of constitu ents. In 1842, the failing of the bank threw the people in a great alarm and confusion ; they saw he was right, and they elected him in July, 1842, to his former seat. But this election having been protested and canceled on pretence of illegal votes, he was re-elected in July, 1843, by a larger majority than before. A convention having been called to adopt a new constitution he was elected a member of that body, in July, 1844. The convention met at Jackson, Louisiana, in August of the same year, and adjourned after a three weeks session to New-Orleans. He had then to attend both the Senate and the Convention, and was also on the judiciary committees in both bodies. After the adjourn ment, he determined to retire from public life, and communicated this to his friends, notwithstanding which the convention to nominate a can didate for the Senate, from the county of Iberville, having met at Pla- quemine, nominated him ; but being present at the meeting, he posi tively declined, requesting his friends to let him rest. At the election in November, 1851, he was re-elected to his seat in the State Senate: he had no opposition. He has now nine children six daughters and three sons ; and, by his industry and economy, has amply provided for his family. CALVIN GRAVES, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 365 JOHN LANDES, PRESIDENT OF THE LANCASTER COUNTY BANK, PENNSYLVANIA, WAS born in 1785. He has filled many of the most important offices in his county, and has been at the head of the institution over which he now presides since its establishment in 1841. In 1848 he was one of the presidential electors. He has now retired from all active business, except that pertaining to the bank. HON. CALVIN GRAVES, OF NORTH CAROLINA. WHEN eminent abilities, valuable public services, an unblenched political integrity and a stern private virtue, derivable only from the daily practice of religion and piety, contribute to adorn the character of an individual, then is it most proper to be set prominently forth as an example to those who would make themselves useful to their fellow- men. And the writer cherishes the belief that he will perform this ac ceptable service to the public, in giving a brief sketch of the public services and private character of the Hon. Calvin Graves, of North Carolina. He was born in the county of Caswell, North Carolina, in January, 1804. His father, Azariah Graves, was a member of a large and respect able family of the same name, and ranked high as an intelligent and enterprising farmer in a community long regarded as among the most enlightened and prosperous agriculturists of the South. His mother was the daughter of Col. John Williams, who was appointed by the general Congress of the province in 1775 lieutenant-colonel of a battalion raised in the Hillsboro district ; and who subsequently distinguished himself by the active part he bore in the war of the Revolution. After the termination of hostilities, he resumed the practice of his profession in Caswell, being the first lawyer who located in that county. Mr. Graves received his primary education at the academy under the charge of the Rev. William Bingham, in Orange county, which was established on a footing but little inferior to the colleges of that day, and from the high character of the learned divine who controlled its operations, gained an extended and deserved reputation. From this school, in the year 1823, he was transferred to the University of North Carolina, where he remained one year, when, at the request of his father, he withdrew to commence the study of the law. During the whole of his academical and collegiate course, Mr. Graves, by the uniform urbanity of his manners and kindness of his disposition, 366 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. retained the respect and esteem of his fellow-pupils ; and is not known to have incurred at any time the displeasure certainly never the cen sure of his teachers, but by a punctual discharge of his duties, uniform ly won their applause. His first year of professional study was prosecuted under the instruc tion of his brother-in-law, Judge Settle, of Rockingham county; after which, he entered the law school of Chief Justice Henderson, of Gran- ville county, where were educated some of the most distinguished jurists that now adorn the bench and bar of more than one of the southern and western states. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and in the following year com menced the practice in his native county. Then, as now, the patience of young practitioners was often sorely tried by the long tenor of probation required of them before they were allowed to enjoy the profits of their profession. This is especially in convenient to such persons, because of the constant expenditure of money required of them ; and vexations of this character have doubt less made many a one feel the force of the legal witticism that character ized " the prospects of a young lawyer as a contingent remainder that requires a particular vested estate to support it." Mr. Graves was so fortunate as to be exempted from this usual de lay, for in a short time he gained for himself a lucrative practice in the county of his residence which was doubtless greatly owing to the con fidence the public had in his character from their long acquaintance with himself and his family. As an advocate, he ever maintained a character for candor and an undeviating adherence to truth, which, together with his well-known dis like of what are usually termed the tricks of the profession, gave him influence with courts and juries. He drew no distinction between the suppression of the truth and the statement of a falsehood, and his argu ments, whether to the jury or the court, were always based upon a full and fair statement of the evidence and the authorities. In eliciting tes timony, his manner was uniformly respectful to the witnesses of his opponent, and he never failed to protect his own when unjustly assailed. In his arguments at the bar, whether upon questions of law or of fact, he was clear and convincing, to which quality, he owed many triumphs in his profession. Not to this alone, however, is his success to be attri buted, for his mind was well stored with the learning of his profession; and habits of close application enabled him to preserve that strict mental discipline which is indispensable to eminence in the profession of the law. At an early period, the pursuits of his profession were interrupted by other requisitions made of him by the people of Caswell, and increasing public employments claimed so large a portion of his time that for several years past he has entirely withdrawn from the bar. It is as a legislator that Mr. Graves is more extensively known. He first entered lie publife as a member of the state convention in 1835, called to reform the constitution of his native state. Being amongst the youngest members of that august body, he preferred the position of a laborer, and a listener to the renowned statesmen with whom he was CALVIN GRAVES, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 367 associated, to that of aspiring to honors in debate. His characteristic modesty and good taste dictated this course, for he was sensible of the fact, that such men as Macon, Gaston, Fisher, Meares, and others of the wisest and most intellectual gentlemen of the state, who were members of the convention, would be listened to with more interest than a young man without experience in parliamentary affairs. He was subsequently active in urging the adoption by the people of the amendments recom mended by the convention, the general tendency of which was, to liberalize the basis of representation, enlarge the right of suffrage, and to extirpate in part the religious intolerance that marred some of the features of the old constitution. He made several addresses to the people of Caswell on this subject, which were much commended by all parties, and fully evinced the distinguished part he was destined to bear in public affairs. He was returned as a member from Caswell to the House of Com mons in 1840, and from his position was required to engage actively in the canvass of that year, which will long be remembered as one characterized by fierce party conflicts from one extent of the country to the other. Mr. Graves passed through this trying ordeal with credit to himself, as an able political debater, and without having incurred the displeasure of a single political adversary. Having been trained by his father, from early boyhood, to regard the political principles taught by Jefferson and Madison as indispensable to the successful operation of our republican system of government, he has upon all occasions advocated the cause of the democratic party. During the session of J840, he was assigned a prominent position as a debater, and was useful to his party, as a discreet and judicious leader. He was re-elected in 1842, when, the democratic party having a majority, he was chosen speaker of the house. At any time this would have been considered no common honor, but to one of Mr. Graves short parliamentary experience, it was peculiarly complimentary. In this situation, he fully sustained his reputation and gained the approba tion of all parties, by the impartiality and justness of his decisions, which was evidenced by a unanimous vote of thanks at the close of the session. In 1844 Mr. G. was again a member of the house, when, the whig party being in the ascendency, he was succeeded in the speaker s chair by the Hon. Edward Stanley. At this session he was elected, by joint vote of the two houses, to the station of trustee of the university, by the highest vote of either of the four who were chosen at the same time, several of the most distinguished of the whig party being in nomination. This vote well attests the estimation in which he was held by the mem bers of the legislature generally, without distinction of party. He was returned to the State Senate, from Caswell, in the session of 1846, where he was placed in the front rank of every political discus sion. During this session a proposition was made by the whig party to re-organize the congressional districts in the state, so as to give them selves additional strength in the House of Representatives. The districts had been laid off by the legislature four years previously, according to law, so as to conform to the scale of representation fixed under the cen sus of 1840. The uniform custom had been to arrange the districts the 368 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. first session after each census, and to permit them to remain unaltered during that decade. The proposition to re-district the state was re garded by many as a dangerous innovation, and by some as being such a radical change of the policy of the state government as to amount to a violation of the spirit of its constitution. The bill to effectuate this object passed the lower house, and was sent to the Senate, where the whig party advocated, and the democrats opposed its passage. Among the former were many gentlemen of brilliant intellect and high ora torical accomplishments. Messrs. Hugh Waddell, Gilmer, Lillington, and Woodfin, distinguished names in the whig party and in the state, were all members of the Senate during this session. The debate on the democratic side devolved mainly on Mr. Graves, and well did he sus- . tain himself in this responsible situation. It was the pleasure of the writer of this article to hear his speech upon that occasion, and, as a specimen of clear, convincing argument, bold yet persuasive eloquence, he has rarely heard it equaled. He took a statesman-like view of the question, entering minutely into the character and structure of our go vernment, its history, and its practical operation, and the dangerous consequences that would result from a change of policy such as proposed by the bill. At its termination, as one of his hearers, I felt deeply the convincing influences of his speech; and the general commendations be stowed upon it by those near me, without distinction of party, satisfied me that 1 was not singular in my appreciation of this great effort. I be lieve it was regarded at the time as not admitting of a successful reply at all events none was attempted, but the debate on the other side turned mainly on considerations of mere temporary party expediency. During this session the speaker fell sick, when Mr. Graves was una nimously elected speaker pro tern. a rare instance in this country of a gentleman being selected to preside over a legislative body contain ing a party majority against him. In the session of 1848 he was again a member of the Senate, when parties were precisely balanced in that body. He was elected speaker, and by his dignified and gentlemanly bearing in this high office gave universal satisfaction. This session of the legislature of North Carolina will long be remem bered for the benevolent and liberal enterprises of state improvement it put on foot. An act was passed for the construction of a lunatic asy lum, which is now in rapid course of construction. It embraces all the modern improvements, and is, perhaps, the largest building of the kind in the United States. There was much opposition to this charitable measure on account of the heavy appropriation of money it would re quire, involving an increase of taxes. From the character of Mr. G. it may be readily concluded that he was not one of those who would ne glect a duty of the Christian legislator for any mere selfish purpose. He gave the measure an efficient support, and was named in a supplemen tal act as one of the commissioners to superintend the construction of the building. During the same session, a proposition was introduced to construct a rail-road connecting the seaports with the far interior of the state, in volving an appropriation of two millions of dollars on the part of tho state CALVIN GRAVES, OF NORTH CAROLINA. In those localities where the natural resources have been so fully de veloped, by a construction of works of this kind, and where their utility is daily manifest to every observer, it is difficult to conceive how a mea sure of this great public importance could meet with opposition. But when it is remembered that the people of North Carolina have expe rienced to a limited extent only the benefits resulting from such works, that they are really uninformed as to their advantages, but are liable to be imposed upon by the misrepresentations of demagogues and time serving politicians, it is but natural to expect opposition to all measures involving heavy outlays of public money. This measure passed the house by a close vote ; and after a warm and acrimonious debate in the Senate, it was found, upon a count, that there was a tie among the voters. It devolved upon Mr. G., as speaker, to cast his vote in the one scale or in the other against the bill, upon which hung the best hopes of the state, or for it, to the great joy of those who had the public good art heart. His situation was rendered more than ordinarily embarrassing in consequence of the views of his imme diate constituents of Caswell, who, though an intelligent people, were opposed to the state s taking part in works of this kind, more from a be lief that the legislature did not possess the power to make appropria tions for such purposes than from a reluctance to contribute their part of the public burthens which would be thereby imposed. Mr. G. con sidered that the legislature possessed the power to make the appropria tion, and with him the question resolved itself solely into one of expe diency, which left his liberal mind no room to doubt as to his course. The path of duty being laid open before him, he had the moral courage to pursue it, regardless of consequences. He voted for the measure at the hazard of popularity, resigning all selfish views to accomplish the best interests of the state. As was anticipated, this vote was not approved of by many of Mr. G. s constituents ; but it is confidently believed that when this great work shall have been completed, and its beneficial influences shall have been felt by the many communities through which it is constructed when it shall make the ; waste places" glad, and cause the " desert to blossom as the rose" dispensing wealth, intelligence, and happiness, where now can only be seen poverty, ignorance, and vice a returning sense of justice in that " sober, second thought of the people, which is never wrong," will accord to -him unreserved praise for the stern, self- sacrificing spirit in which this vote was given. He subsequently took an active part in raising the amount of stock required of individuals to this work ; and some delay having occurred in the subscriptions, he, with ex-Governor Moorehead, Gen. Saunders, and Mr. Gilmer, was requested by a convention of the friends of the improvement to canvass the state along the line of the -contemplated road for more than two hundred miles, which they did. and, after much labor, their efforts were crowned with success ; since which time the work has been regularly and actively prosecuted. The board of internal improvements in North Carolina consists of the governor of the state and two commissioners. Governor Manly appointed Mr. Graves as one of these commissioners when he came into- office in 1849, and his successor, Governor Reid, again renewed the ap- 24 370 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. pointment with the approbation of his Council of State. He has given much attention to the important duties of this situation. Fondness for domestic life, the absence of ambition for popular favor, and a deep anxiety to be successful in forming the habits and character of his children, have confined Mr. G. to a sphere more limited than his friends deemed it proper he should occupy. Several times he refused to allow his name to be presented for nomination to a seat in Congress, when a nomination was equivalent to an election. Preferring to be useful to being prominent, he has ever been unambitious of mere per sonal distinction. To listen attentively to the counsels of others, but to form opinions of his own, and to act upon them, has been a prominent feature of his character through life. Asa legislator, he participated in all the important debates, but sel dom in discussions upon mere local matters, and was always listened to with attention. His personal influence as a member, which was not inconsiderable even with opposition members, was uniformly exerted for useful pur poses of legislation, never for selfish ends. Few members performed more labor than he did. Being a ready and accurate draftsman, he per formed much labor in drawing bills, reports, and resolutions for other members. His speeches, being designed to affect the opinions and actions of those who heard them, were seldom written out for the press, and not at any time except through the solicitations of others. There being no report ers of the proceedings of the legislature, his printed speeches will bear a very small proportion to the many important ones delivered by him. Such is the character of Mr. Graves as a public man. His private walk is surrounded by all those virtues that adorn the character of the Christian gentleman. Affable and polite in his demeanor towards others, mild in disposition, sincere in all his declarations, he never fails to gain the confidence and esteem of those with whom he associates. In 1830 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Mr. John C. Lea, of Caswell county, of which happy union he is comforted with a family of interesting children, to whose intellectual and moral culture he bestows a watchful attention. Having been reared upon a farm, and trained, in a measure, to agri cultural pursuits in early life, he contracted a fondness for them which has induced him to give all the attention that could be spared from other employments to .the culture of the soil. In this occupation he has been successful, and has earned for himself the name of an intelligent and scientific farmer. In 1837 he became a member of the Baptist Church, and has since exerted an active influence in behalf of the benevolent enterprises and institutions of that denomination of Christians. He has also made him self useful in the administration of their church government. A conscientious discharge of duty, whether in public or private sta tions, has gained for Mr. Graves a confidence in the public mind that gives him great power for good; and being now but in the prime of life, a fair promise is held out that he will be one of the most useful men of the age. REUBEN CULVER, OF OHIO. 371 REUBEN CULVER, OF OHIO, PRESIDENT OF THE LOGAN BRANCH BANK. THE subject of the present sketch was born on the 4th day of Octo ber, 1798, at the town of Waterford, on the Muskingum River, eighteen miles above Marietta. His parents were of the number of New-Eng- landers, who a year before made a settlement at that place. His family are regularly descended from the pilgrims who came over in the "May flower," and who ever showed themselves the strenuous supporters of the principles embodied in the creed of the early puritans. When came the struggle for American independence, foremost among its advocates were found many of his kin : his maternal grandfather, Buell, particu larly distinguished himself as an officer in the militia: other stations of trust and posts of honor were also held by different ancestral relations during the stormy period of the Revolution. In 1796, his parents emigrated from Litchfield, Connecticut, to Ma rietta, then the most considerable town in the county, known only as the "Territory Northwest of the Ohio." After remaining a year at this place, during which time arrangements were making for a more perma nent residence, they removed to Waterford, near which, having located a tract of land, they began to reclaim it from its primeval wildness, subjected as they were to all the inconveniences and privations incident to the lives of the " first settlers." Under these circumstances commenced his life, and his earlier days were spent upon the spot which had lately been the scene of Indian depredations and murders. His play-grounds were within a few rods of the " block-houses" which had sheltered the pioneers from the toma hawk and scalping-knife of the ruthless savage. Here were enacted many deeds of noble daring which, having been preserved in history or transmitted orally from generation to generation, have now assumed the appellation of "legends of the olden time." Perhaps American history does not present another instance of a colony being founded by emigrants who possessed more of the public and social virtues than did those who, upon the lands of the Ohio Com pany s Purchase, laid the foundation of a great western empire, which has so increased in population, wealth and refinement, as to exceed even the wildest dreams of fancy. Among such men, amid such privations and hardships, and depressed by all that makes poverty intolerable, the youth of him whose brief biography we trace was passed. Although the education of their chil dren has always been one of the first considerations with the New-Eng- landers, it is not to be expected that the country, at so early a day as that we now speak of, could afford any great facilities for educating the youth who were growing up, inasmuch as those who were the better qualified to act as instructors could not be found, or if they were to be found, were themselves engaged in the severer labors which occupied the time of all who chose the rugged fortunes of the " new country." There was, however, very fortunately, a Mr. Fry, liberally educated, 372 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. who had been engaged in the arduous services of the Indian war, but being released by the conclusion of a treaty of peace, he spent his win ters among the settlers in teaching the " young idea how to shoot" and receiving as a compensation the moderate salary of eight or ten dollars per month. It was under his tuition that young Culver obtained the rudiments of his education. Situated as he was where books were not at ready command, it was esteemed quite a turn of fortune when he became possessed of "Webster s Spelling-Book," the greater portion of which became memorized. To this succeeded writing, geography, &c. The family library, consisting of but few books, comprised the Bible, Watts Hymns and Psalms, Fox s History of the Martyrs, and others of this class. With such help as these he improved his mind, and occu pied his leisure, until quite a cloud was thrown over his prospects. Being the oldest of the family of children he was required to render more constant assistance at home, so that in accordance with the demo cratic doctrine of "rotation" the younger children might " go to school." This was a severe stroke, yet he did not surrender his studies for lack of time to pursue them without interruption, but gave them such atten tion as was in his power. Until now, however, he had not commenced the study of mathematics, even in its elementary branches, and when he did propose beginning, another difficulty presented itself which was also overcome a "cyphering book" was required, and none could be procured in the whole neighborhood ; but by continued exertions sev eral successive additions were made to the fund for that purpose, until quite sufficient was amassed to purchase the desired treasure, and a neighbor shortly after going to town, some sixteen miles distant, kindly undertook to procure the book. Slowly passed the day in awaiting his return, and often was the .sun watched in its descent to the west, but as in the days of Joshua it apparently " stood still in the midst of the heavens and hastened not to go down." But night came, and with it the long-coveted prize, and on the same evening his first lessons were taken under the instruction of a young man in the neighborhood, whose knowledge of arithmetic already ex tended to the " Rule of Three," and who was striving to make still farther advances. By the compact then entered into, the pupil, in considera tion of the instruction given, was to furnish "lights" for both. About this time, an intelligent Scotch gentleman attached himself to this social circle, bringing with him a library of thirty or forty choice volumes, the free access to which was tendered to the young literary aspirant with a generosity which none but those placed in similar circumstances can fully appreciate; and his gratitude for the kindness was testified by the avidity with which the contents of the various works of theology, history, travels, biography, &c., were devoured. Such were the means by which his taste for study was cultivated, until he was impelled by it to leave his home and seek, amid other as sociations, and under more favorable auspicies, its gratification. Ac cordingly, at the tender age of fifteen, he bid adieu to relatives and friends with no expectation of ever again returning to share their for tunes and their smiles, without any other possession than such as were contained in the wallet slung upon his shoulder, and no recommenda tion save that of honest and industrious habits and a tolerable English REUBEN CULVER, OF OHIO. 373 education. With these he entered an office for the purpose of acquiring the printer s trade. In the industrious and faithful discharge of his du ties, five of the succeeding years of his life were spent. This was during the war with Great Britain. His increased opportunities for reading were now improved, as his earlier ones had been and he was proffered, by those whom he had won as friends, what were considered choice situations but he preferred directing his attention more fully to the acquirement of an education and, at the age of twenty, having accumulated some pe cuniary means, he relinquished his avocation and prosecuted the study of the languages, under Rev. Calvin Chaddock, an eminent teacher and divine, whose friendship he enjoyed until deprived of it by the death of the latter. In 1819, he went to Virginia, and commenced the study of medicine, taking charge of an academy during a portion of the time as a means of support. He had here the good fortune to enlist the friend ship of several families of the true Virginia stamp, whose kind offices did much to render pleasant and agreeable the time spent in the com pletion of his professional studies. After a period of five years thus occupied, he set out with the view of selecting a location where he might try his success at the healing art. Passing through the Hocking Valley, he was induced to remain for a short time at Logan, and the opening for practice proving very flattering, he afterwards concluded to make a permanent settlement here. He was soon after his location united in marriage to a daughter of Judge Biddle, who had been a resi dent of the place for many years previous, and had acquired an honora ble reputation among all who knew him. This union was, however, destined to be of but -short continuance, as he lost his companion with in a year after their marriage. Being again alone in the world, he re linquished his business and left the village. But after remaining unset tled for a while, he located a second time in Thorn ville, Ohio, at which point an important enterprise was being carried on, employing a vast number of workmen, and where his professional duties would be greatly enhanced, while the amount of travel would be correspondingly dimin ished. His stay here was of two or three years continuance, during the latter part of which period he became acquainted with Miss Brooke, of Zanesville, whom he afterwards married. In 1831, he returned to his former residence at Logan, but not with the design of giving his attention so unremittingly to professional labor as he had hitherto done, but anticipated engaging, at an early day, in the more pleasant pursuits of agriculture. With this aim he purchased a valuable tract of land, and had the prospect of adding to it extensively from the lands of the "Ohio Company." He then moved upon his farm while it was yet in its natural state, inhabited by the wild forest- denizens wolves, deer, &c., and undertook, with his own hands, to "clear" it and render it fit for cultivation. His labor here was more severe than ever, as he always assumed the most difficult portion of the toil even when having in his employ rugged laborers inured to every hardship. Cut off" from all society, except that of his own family and a few others who lived almost entirely by hunting, which pastime also occupied a portion of his leisure, affording pleasant recreation and the means of furnishing his table with dainties, of which the city market could not boast, he lived happily in the hope of soon reclaiming from 374 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the forest a farm which would give him both a home and an easy inde pendence. But, owing to the interference of another person, he was disappointed in extending the limits of his domain as he had expected, and having a liberal inducement to dispose of what he had already im proved, he did so, and purchased a fine property adjoining the village which he had lately left, where he has since continued to blend the prac tice of his profession with the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. His last remove was undoubtedly a fortunate one, for it placed him in a much more pleasant relation with respect to society ; and by the changes which he had hitherto made, having each contributed to his pecuniary resources, he found himself in possession of a respectable amount of means which were judiciously employed in real-estate speculations, and yielded him returns amounting to a fair competency. This change in his circumstances was accompanied by a correspond ing change in his studies and pursuits. Being relieved from the press ing necessity for constant exertion, he was enabled to devote more time to literature and the sciences. Among the latter he formed a somewhat extensive acquaintance with geology, mineralogy, &c., which has been a source of unalloyed pleasure to himself, and has enabled him to con tribute some observations to the friends of these sciences made during these investigations. It was his custom while riding upon his profes sional tours to make accurate examinations of the geological formation of the country, and to collect mineralogical specimens for his cabinet, which became quite extensive by the additions made to it in this wav. To assist in procuring them he always carried with him a small steel hammer with which to break fragments of rock, &c. He also received a great many specimens from persons through the country, who, on finding anything which they regarded as peculiar, sent it to him as a curiosity, and by exchanges with persons at a distance he enlarged his collections of foreign minerals. As the Hocking valley lies in the cen tre of the great mineral region of southern Ohio, he has tried to make himself familiar with almost every stratum exhibited in the country, with its different places of development, extent, &c. He takes a deep interest in observing whatever may have an influence to induce the general improvement of the country ; and enterprises of every kind, aiming to benefit the moral, social and intellectual condition of society, meet his hearty co-operation and are advanced by his exertions in their behalf. Nor is his private generosity less creditable. Indeed, in its exercise his own interests have often suffered. Whilst engaged in a pioneer practice he trusted too much to the honor and gratitude of his patients for his remuneration. This was of course in many instances sufficient to insure payment, but in a large proportion his only reward is the ap probation of his own heart, and that he has honestly and faithfully en deavored to alleviate the sufferings of his fellow-beings, and the con sciousness that what he does possess has cost no orphan s cry or widow s tear. As an instance of the principles which sometimes govern with regard to compensating services rendered in the hour of suffering, one whose flim \\y fancied that they required an unusual amount of medicine demurred to the whole system of "paying the doctor" as wrong. On being asked his reasons he replied, " Why he can live without it easier REUBEN CULVER, OF OHIO. 375 than I can pay it." This was a " poser," and through a long course of years which has since elapsed, the sturdy agrarian has never been troubled by a demand for the payment of the " doctor s bill." By but few practitioners, perhaps, has so large a proportion of professional ser vices been gratuitously rendered to the indigent, fatherless and widow, as by him, and this without ostentation. He never sought public preferment, although frequently solicited by his friends to sustain positions in political life which would have given his name and character no little prominence. He has, notwithstanding, always firmly avowed and maintained his political opinions without seeking to make them the source of emolument or honor to himself. Until 1838, Logan was without a single attorney, and as some one was required as " legal adviser" he was frequently referred to for coun sel with regard to disputed questions in law and equity, and for the drawing of written instruments, &e. This led him to pay some farther attention to the gaining of legal in formation. As his services were always gratuitous he was at times overrun with "cases" which were not to be treated with pukes and purges" He has twice received from the legislature of Ohio the appointment of associate judge for his own county. The first term commenced ] 834 and imposed upon him the transaction of nearly ail the business with in the jurisdiction of the associate bench. He was elected a second time in 1848 and served until the office was abolished by the new constitution. Although once possessed of a vigorous constitution, exposure and over-exertion in former years have left their impress upon his system, so that he has lately been compelled to relinquish his practice almost entirely, and seek in rest from toil the recovery of his declining health. Such is his natural disposition, however, that cessation from employment would be worse than active service. His time is consumed in the dis charge of lighter duties and study, and with such effect that it is hoped that he may long live to enjoy the society of his family and the exten sive circle of his friends, for which he is so peculiarly fitted by the social qualities of his character. Such is a summary of the incidents in the experience of one who, if his name may not have attained a wide distinction, yet presents to the youth who may read this sketch an example of how the disadvantages of early life may be overcome by a course of unwearied industry, and his patient toil rewarded by the smiles of a beneficent providence, the approval of his own conscience, and an honorable reputation at least within the circle of his own acquaintance. 376 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. HON. WILLIAM B. CLARKE, OF HAGERSTOWN, MARYLAND, WAS born September 4th, 1817. His father, George Clarke, was a Pennsylvania!! by birth. He removed to Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, in 1808, where he practised with great success his profes sion (medicine), and married Maria Beverley, daughter of Robert Beverley, of Blandfield, Essex county, State of Virginia. At the age of nineteen years, the subject of this memoir graduated at Nassau Hall. He commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia, and before completing his studies married Sophia Duckett, only daughter of William Price, Esq., of Hagerstown, Maryland, under whose direction he finished his legal course, In 1839 he commenced the practice of the profession he had selected, (in Washington county, Maryland.) In 1842 he was appoint ed prosecuting attorney for his county by the then Attorney-General, Josiah Bailey, Esq., which office he held until the death of the late At torney-General Geo. R. Richardson, (February, 1851.) During this period, from 1839 to the present time, Mr. Clarke has sustained a repu tation as an advocate, and an attentive business man, having the entire confidence of the people. Mr. Clarke has received important trusts from the people of his county. In 1844 he was elected to the House of Delegates, and in 1846 to the Senate of Maryland ; in both positions he sustained himself, and re ceived from the whigs of Maryland the nomination made in June, 1850, for the office of governor. The canvass was an exciting one. He sus tained his reputation as a public speaker throughout the state, and although he received the largest vote ever given in the counties, he was defeated. Baltimore city, regarding him as opposed to reforms she had so long desired, gave a majority to his opponent sufficient to overcome that of the counties. He was a member from the second congressional district to the late national whig convention. And from the proceedings it will be seen he was placed upon the two most important committees composed of one member from each state. ISAAC SAUNDERS, OF RHODE ISLAND. 377 ISAAC SAUNDERS, PRESIDENT OF THE CITIZENS 5 UNION BANK, RHODE ISLAND. THE following is a brief sketch of the life of a plain, honest business man. It is furnished at the very unexpected solicitation of the publisher of this volume; but not without the confidence that if it lack some of the more glaring recommendations of the class of writings to which it belongs, it possesses not a few others, both rare and valuable. Mr. Saunders would be the last man to sit for a romance, or become the sub ject of fancy sketches. His life has been isolated, and rendered remark able by no strange and mysterious adventures no wonderful and lucky accident. He is one of those rare persons whose integrity and force of character must force them up into an admirable notoriety which their modesty never seeks who will command the respect of their contem poraries and their posterity. Business men are not unfrequently brought into special notice by the rapid growth of their fortune. The stream of wealth flows in upon them broad, deep and impetuous. They hasten to be rich. Their riches give them notoriety. Their influence is great. But it is the influ ence of money. Take this away, and like the swamp-bird with broken wing, .they fall quite out of sight. They are themselves worshiped, be cause they have a golden god. So also are business men sometimes pushed forward into notice by a course of thrift, which has all the way along depended upon a shrewd, selfish policy, utterly inconsistent with the great social welfare. Men of but one idea the idea of riches and subjugating every thing to it, they become wealthy, and consequently noted. The world applauds them, disregard to whose interests has given them their glory. But not thus the subject of this memoir. He is no millionaire. He is the favored son of no lucky accident or speculation. He is no sordid victim of avarice, victimizing, by a selfish shrewdness the world around him ! He is only a man of handsome fortune, high repu tation, open character, and sound and elevated Christian integrity, re spected by all, but by none so much as by those who know him best. Having arisen to his present position in society from the nothingness which the sequel describes, his life may be profitably studied by those young business men who deem a selfish shrewdness or a cold calculating policy necessary to their success. To such persons it is commended as well worthy their attention. And if it shall but inspire any young aspirant with the sentiment, that honesty is the best policy, and that perseve rance is a law of success, the subject of it will not regret its publication. ISAAC SAUNDERS was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on the eighth day of November, 1808. His father, Caleb Saunders, was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, and by trade a shoemaker. His mother was the daughter of Robert Harkness, whose father was born in England, and emigrated to this country. He was formerly owner of the Black- stone estate in Blackstone, Massachusetts. His maternal ancestors were Quakers. 378 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Isaac s opportunities for education were very limited. At the age of six years he was sent to the public school. From that time till his eleventh year, he continued to attend it more or less. Then, having made little progress, he left it forever. His parents were^too poor to admit of his remaining at school a single day, after acquiring strength of mind and muscle to aid them at all by his labor. At eleven, his arm can support a candy-board, and the school-books with which he had become a little familiar must be laid aside and forgotten. At the stern demand of poverty, science must be exchanged for candy ; and through the streets and lanes of the city he wanders, exposing his twisted treasure to as many eyes as his adroitness can catch. Poor boy ! Ignorant of his danger, he might have felt some of that pride which an^Irishman is said to have felt who wrote home exultingly, that he now drove his own cart [wheelbarrow.] He is now a somewhat independent salesman, found, almost every morning, upon the steps of Brown University, for trade with its students. How many of these deem that the poor candy boy with whom they were trading, was to write his name above their own upon the scroll of history. And when, he blundered down stairs, as he did in a fright on one occasion amid their laughter, who could have deemed that he was the boy whose name in manhood should be registered among the noted business men. of the nation 1 But to return. This candy-calling for a boy of eleven years was one of great and peculiar exposure. It required him to follow " the multitude doing evil." He must mingle in all the holiday crowds, elbowing his way as best he could. He must witness all their follies, and breathe the noxious atmosphere of the low grog-shops, which at that day abounded, often waiting at the drinking board till the man had taken the glass from his lips to ask him if he wanted to buy some candy ! He must meet all the demoralizing influences of city street-life, becoming every day more privy to the ways and haunts of sin, and more and more strongly tempted to enter them. Such was the exposure of a candy-boy in the city of Providence, when Isaac left the school, took the board upon his arm, and went forth, with no watchful eye but God s upon him, not to make his fortune, but- to do something for the support of the family. That his character was scathed by it, is not remarkable. The wonder is that it did not lay the foundation for his utter ruin. And indeed it would seem that it did lay such foundation ; but, unlike too many, he in after years refused to build upon it. He continued to follow the candy business until the death of his father, which occurred in 1821. At the age of twelve or thirteen, the age at which boys enter the rough currents of passion, become head strong, and consequently most need parental restraint, he is left with no earthly guardianship, save that of a mother, of whom he ever speaks as "kind and indulgent." While his father lived, he was often pun ished, but as he himself thinks with very little good effect. His mother never attempted to punish him but once; and then he brought in a four-foot stick of wood for her to use upon him; she laughed, and there the matter ended. On the death of his father, Isaac laid down the candy-board and took up the bread-basket. Sometimes he carried his bread in a wheelbar- ISAAC SAUNDERS, OF RHODE ISLAND. 379 row. In this, as his former business, the proceeds are all sacredly de voted to the support of the family, which was very poor. By dint of industry and frugality, however, they struggled on till a better day should dawn. Isaac continued in the bread trade about one year, when he let himself to a farmer for the summer, and marketed his fruit. In the fall and winter of the same year he assisted in a grocery store. The following spring and summer found him again on a farm. In the fall he returned again to the city, and to use his own language, " did but little but rove about with such associates as lived in idleness." It was now 1823, he being about fifteen years old. We have now seen our young hero, born and cradled in the city, favored with a little education and running through the candy, bread, fruit and grocery trade. And now, after a little country respite from immoral influences, we find him again plunged into them without a father, with only a kind, indulgent mother ; and what is worst of all, without employment. Loosely afloat upon the sea of temptation, swept by the furious storms and cross-winds of passion, what can be anticipated for him less than utter shipwreck and sinking in the depths below! With no human eye to watch him and no hand sufficiently strong to hold and guide him, who but must have been ready to pronounce him a ruined boy ? To him the way to the grog-shop, the theatre and every other haunt of city vice, was all exposed. He was in the broad way of destruction, under circumstances which render escape to the narrow way of life highly improbable ; though, as the event proved, and in prov ing affords encouragement to others under like circumstances, not im practicable. Says an eminent divine, " Every young man, especially in a great city, is called to stern moral conflict with the leagued posts of evil a battle in which, now and then, there comes a critical moment whereon his destiny is suspended." Such a moment had now come in the life of the subject of this memoir. We shall see in the sequel how he passed it. Hitherto, Isaac appears to have acted in the choice of situations only in reference to the necessities of the family. For aught that appears to the contrary he has not yet very fully awaked to the probable in fluence of callings and circumstances upon the formation of his own character. But now, while roving about the city without employ, a new feeling comes over his soul a new element of soul is developed which is to influence his whole future life. He now comes to himself. He begins to see that by his present mode of living he is exposing himself to a greater evil than poverty, and his mother and sisters to a greater shame than that against which his willing toil would guard them. Ke- flection comes to his aid. He reasons. Speaking of himself at the critical moment to which we are now referring, after speaking of his indolence and indolent associates in the city, he says, " [ began to reason with myself, that if I continued in the city with rny associates, with no one but a kind and indulgent mother to control my vicious propensities, I must unavoidably become a misera ble citizen. I came to the conclusion that I would be a wholesome citi zen ; but in order to do this, I felt that at my age it was under the cir cumstances necessary to break off all intercourse with old associates a thing that could not well be done while I remained in the city. There- 380 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. fore, though it would be a trial to leave it, yet to do so I felt deter mined, if I could obtain any employment." Resting in this determi nation he availed himself of the first opportunity for executing it, which was a three-months job of tending a wool-carding machine for his uncle, ten miles from the city. In this decision and action Mr. Saunders clearly evinced that love of virtue, self-respect, independence of thought and energy of will which so completely characterized his after life. He evinced a love of virtue, in that he could not consent to yield to his " vicious propensities ;" self-respect, in that he determined to be a wholesome citizen ; inde pendence of thought, in that he appears to have acted upon the strength of his inwrought convictions. We hear of no one advising him to the course he pursued. He showed energy of will, in that he, from the force of his own mind, broke off from all intercourse with his old vicious associates, stemmed the current of influences which held the young in the city, and turned his back upon all its enchantments. And as he goes forth from it on foot, a journey of ten miles, he reminds us of Bunyan s Christian flee ing from the City of Destruction, and of just Lot led forth by an angel- hand from the devoted cities of the plain to a place of safety. Whether our hero reached his Zoar just as the sun was up or down, he lost his way and wandered on twenty-two miles for ten. His angel took him. away to a safer condition, but did not do it by the shortest way. Nor does it ever seem to have been Mr. Saunders lot to find the shortest ways to what the world calls success. Extraneous influences have done little for him. He never received the gift of a single dollar in his life. Whatever he is, he has developed from himself. He is now in the country. But his contract, to his uncle s entire satis faction, is soon fulfilled, and no alternative is left but to return to the city. There he spent the winter. And for him a sad one it was. Writing in reference to it, he says, " Having no employment and no one to use his influence to get any for me, again coming in contact with my old associates, and being of an age to be easily persuaded, I spent the winter in doing very little but mingle with those who hung about grog-shops and the like places till the following March." Few are sufficiently aware of the dangers of city life to one young and floating indolently about it, as was Isaac during this winter. Says a vigorous writer, " Tempting and hostile influences hover over the crowded thoroughfares of city life in myriad invisible forms, as the legions of spiritual forces discovered to the eyes of the prophet over the moun tains of Israel. They infest the paths of youth as sharks follow a navy or ravens an army. The incitements of passion are always present, the objects of passion always available, and the concealment of transgression always ready, imparting to all temptations inconceivable facilities, ad dress and power." Says the same writer, addressing the young man, " Against this array of influences nothing can save you but virtue en shrined in your heart a deep and abiding conviction of God s omni science that he sees through the dark cloud, the shadows of the night, the concealment of bolts and bars and complicated precautions, and that soon every secret fault as well as public act shall meet the fearful award of a final judgment." ISAAC SAUNDERS, OF RHODE ISLAND. 381 Isaac spent the winter under the full blast of these hostile influences. Yet he fell not that he should not rise. He had virtue enshrined in his heart. He is conscious of his peril. A year ago we found him reason ing about it. He reasons still, and again resolves to leave the city. "I decided," so he writes, "to leave the city if I could get nothing more than my board, for I could see nothing before me but misery if I stayed in it." If some one should seem to see a weakness here, and say, " He ought to have nerved himself to the conflict, and maintained his virtue where he was," we reply, that force of character is quite as clearly exhibited in fleeing from a temptation which it is not necessary to meet, as in with standing that which cannot be avoided. In grasping those passions which find their fuller gratification in the excited city, and holding them at bay, while for his moral good he left the city for the sober country, our young hero evinced a degree of moral force which no reader will regard less than remarkable. On going into the country, however, he is able to get a little more than his board. Twenty-five dollars extra to it is the condition upon which he now engages to work a year at a cotton factory in North Sci- tuate, Rhode Island. This was a small sum with which to clothe him, but it was the best he could do, and he complained not. The reader will perceive, all the way along, that Isaac is necessarily his own man. Deep meaning there is in those words of his, " I had no one to use any influence to get me employment." It is now the spring of 1824. Isaac is now in his sixteenth year. We have followed him through his city life ; we have seen him again and again thirsting for freedom from the temptations which he feared would be too hard for him in the city. His wish is answered ! Henceforth the country is his home. Though earning but about $25 a year, yet breathing freer, and more secure of his character, he murmurs not. The business tact, however, of the boy who sold candy, and bread, and fruit, is soon discovered. Isaac is one day summoned into the store. " Can you read, write and cipher?" he is asked. He replies, " A very little." The result of this interview was that he was sent into the store, with no change of wages. A few years previously to this, while he was yet unable to write, a wealthy man to whom he was sent on an er rand from his family, wondered at his inability to write his name. He says, "I looked him in the face and thought, you, sir, are able to send me to school if you had a mind to." Isaac finds his new situation, though not more profitable, more satis fying. But it demands better clothing than his wages ($25 per year) will buy. To meet the new necessity he spends the hours during which he could be absent from the store in " tending gardens," for which, together with what he receives for milking the cow on Sundays, he receives $17 extra for the year. This nearly clothes him; and a handsome suit of satinet furnished by his mother completes his ward robe. And yet not quite ; for it was not till his eighteenth year that he had any overcoat, which his mother furnished also. Of this he says he was so proud that he threw it on, and thereby gave himself a regu lar sweat on a warm fall day. The following incident will show with what feelings he still looked 382 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. upon the city. Tie had been absent from it about four months, when his mother and sisters desired him to come to Providence and visit them. He writes : t; I obtained permission to be absent from the store two days; went to the city in the morning, talked over all the particu lars of my new situation, heard what news they had to communicate, and in the afternoon went down street; there, falling in with a man that was going out to Scituate that evening, I took passage out with him, sending word back accordingly to my mother and sisters;" "for," he adds, " I did not dare stay in the city all night; or, I determined I would not, lest I should fall in with my old associates, and be led away by them." This was not because he delighted in the society of his indulgent and kind mother and most amiable sisters less, but because he dreaded the city more. We have seen him ever determined to be something. He now has taken on a stronger and more hopeful self-respect, and is car rying out his determination most discreetly. Neither over-cautious of danger on the one hand, nor reckless of it on the other, he is as cou rageous to flee from it as he is to meet it at the call of duty. To return. Isaac s new situation was one of peculiar temptation to defraud his employer. Pressed as he was for means to clothe him self decently, a feebler moral nature would have yielded to purloining. His character, however, continued quite above suspicion. He continued in his new employment until June 18, 1829, when sickness, which it was supposed would terminate in consumption, " laid him up" seventeen weeks. When sufficiently recovered, he was removed to Attleboro , Massachusetts, where his mother was then residing. The March fol lowing, having been released from his engagement at Scituate, he ac cepted an offer of work in a mill at Attleboro , thus being enabled to re side with his family. In this he continued two years, when his employer decided to hire a small mill in Smithfield, Rhode Island. It is peculiar to free governments, that merit should find promotion. This is strikingly illustrated, on a small scale, in the life of Mr. S. He is ever rising, however gradually. Fro m an operative, doing the bid ding of his employer, he is now his equal, working side by side with him in the conduct of business affairs. The partners, having run their hired mill successfully for three years, bought a mill-seat in North Scituate, built upon it in 1835, and commenced operations in 1836. Mr. S., feel ing that the establishment did not afford sufficient business for two men, it was decided that his partner should reside in it, while he accepted an offer for the management of a mill in North Providence. This was un fortunate. The principal man in the company for which he was man aging died, and he lost his salary. In the spring of 37, he removed to Scituate. The partners had now engaged in the manufacture of negro- cloth, which shift proved so disastrous, that, in the spring of 38, they were compelled, under the general depression, to stop their mill. This was a gloomy day to Mr. S. ; one for the gloom of which he was not himself responsible, and the darkness of which his own con scious integrity streaked radiantly. He felt the reverse, however, most keenly ; and yet, as a means of disciplining him to a still wiser forecast, and, not least, of isolating him from co-partnership, it can now be justly regarded only as a blessing in disguise. He was too much of a man to need a partner in the conduct of business affairs, and his indi- ISAAC SAUNDERS, OF RHODE ISLAND. 383 viduality was too marked to invite one. He is now, however, at the mercy of his creditors. What can be done ? Happy, thrice happy, for Mr. S. that, though his monetary credit is, for the time being, gone, his moral credit is still sound, his creditors themselves being judges. Nor has any part which he has acted, in the way leading to his present busi ness failure, brought his ability, as a manager of business affairs, undei the remotest suspicion. His creditors come upon his premises, look into his affairs, and, instead of taking all he has, say to him, "Go on." Such is their confidence in his ability and integrity, that they leave him to go on unmolested with his business. But, notwithstanding the for bearance of his creditors, his friends thought that the extent of his em barrassments rendered his prospects gloomy indeed. And so they were. But he says, " I thought that if I could manage to start again, and alone, when all the responsibility would be on me, I could succeed. At any rate, I determined to make the attempt rather than give up in despair." He did so, and we shall see how he succeeded. At the time of this reverse, either of three weaknesses, some one of which will be found to attach to most men, would have ruined him in business. First, if his integrity had been weak, his creditors would not have trusted him with the establishment a single day. Had it not been decidedly strong in their estimation they would have knocked the establishment off at auction, and divided the sacrifice among them selves, leaving him again at the foot of the mountain he had climbed with so much difficulty. But his heart was strong in virtue. His cre ditors understood it, and acted accordingly. They feared not that his uprightness would prove pervious to the stronger temptations to fraud, with which his heavy embarrassments would now ply him. Mr. S. was, at this time, and still continues to be, a member of the F. B. Church. Or, secondly, if Mr. S. s business talent had been thought questionable, as would be likely to be the case in this hour of his misfortune, his credi tors would have arranged with him only by taking all ; for everything indicated that nothing short of the most prudent and skillful manage ment of the concern could be rewarded with success in retrieving his fortune, while bad management, however honest, might rob them of a share of the part pay which was now at their option. But their confi dence in his business ability being equal to their confidence in his busi ness integrity, they consulted, and told him to go on. Or, thirdly, had Mr. S. been a man easily discouraged, or one whom misfortune unnerves, he would have given all up in despair, and gone back to begin the world over again, or, losing his ambition, to plod dro- nishly through the rest of his life. But of neither of these weaknesses was he the victim. Their absence left him to successfully struggle up out of his embarrassments, dropping off one creditor after another, until at length he is free from debt, and the establishment his own. Nor does his prosperity end here. The business talent and prudent forecast which had enabled him to relieve himself of embarrassment, soon elevate him " quite above board." For that mother and those sisters with whom he did not spend the night in the city through dread of its influences a mother and sisters worthy of such a son and brother the son builds a neat residence, and settles them very comfortably at his village. 884 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. His prudent policy has enabled him to pass securely all the reverses in the manufacturing interests in which so many have sunk around. His prosperity has been constant, holding himself up and others too. His fortune is now handsome it is needless here to say how handsome ; it is sufficient to say that it is handsome enough. He declines not a little commission business, which his known talent causes to seek him, while at the same time he transacts not a little. More he does not want, and will not have. Mr. S. never could be a millionaire : he lacks the essential element of character necessary to becoming one. He does not worship Mam mon. With him property is a means, not an end. Money is with him valuable only for its uses. His soul was never touched with the ambi tion that will be rich that says, Astor-like, I will one day be rich as some model Croesus. He knows nothing of subjugating himself to the one idea of getting money ; for that his soul is quite too large, his views of human duty quite too comprehensive. Benevolence in his heart ever stands above avarice. As a business-man, he holds money firmly ; as a benevolent man, he holds it very loosely. His beneficence, however, is ever subject to a wise discretion, always remembering the church and the poor. To be sure, he is unable to make the large benevolent be- stowments that endow colleges, &c. ; but he is ever endowing hearts, which appears to be more to his satisfaction. So well is his liberality and public spirit understood, that whenever any enterprise for the pub lic good is set on foot in the community, requiring voluntary subscrip tion for its execution, he is about certain to be the first to be spoken of and called upon. And all this is quite inconsistent with the idea of a person ever becoming a millionaire under any circumstances. Mr. S., in his detesta tion of the miserly inhumanity which takes advantage of another s ne cessities to build itself up, must ever remain a man. He can never sink into the insignificance of mere avarice, or become a mere golden pa geant. Immeasurable must be his backsliding before his treasury shall become like the cave the fox would shun because all the tracks aimed in. Since the commencement of his course of steady prosperity he has enlarged his home business scarcely at all. By this he has shown him self impervious to that vanity for display, to which so many have, un der similar circumstances, fallen victims within a few past years. The result has been that he has found himself almost constantly in a condi tion to gratify his benevolent sentiment by assisting others under pecu niary embarrassment. This, however, he does where money is not wanting. On one occasion a neighbor of his had become deeply in volved, and was about making an assignment of his property. This came to the ears of Mr. S. He at once called on him, and, notwithstand ing the treatment he had before received from him was calculated to provoke anything but kindness, at once offered his services in treating with his creditors. The offer being readily accepted, he undertook for him. It was the coldest of weather, and the snow was deep, and drifted through the many miles and ways Mr. S. had to go to find the creditors ; but he found them, and succeeded in quieting them till his embarrassed neighbor had time to turn round and save his property ; so that it is not without some good reason that the neighbor now says that Mr. S. has done more for him than his father and all his relatives. This one ISAAC SAUNDEBS, OF ERODE ISLAND. 385 instance, showing the disposition of the subject of this memoir, must stand for a chapter. But not a few will, in the great day of final account, point to him as their disinterested benefactor; all which but confirms the position that he is not the man to become immensely rich. Some one has said that the time is coming when men will be afraid to die so. And is it not the shadow of this fear, cast forward, that causes so many rich men to endow benevolent institutions just when they can keep their money no longer 1 But Mr. S. prefers to enjoy his beneficence while living. He perceives the wants of the world too clearly, and has a heart to feel for them too warmly, to postpone his charities till a dying hour. Immeasurable must be his backsliding before he can live to himself alone. He is at this moment the principal in offering a reward for a prize essay on a benevolent subject. But recently he said to a student, " If you need any assistance, call on me." These instances must serve as in dices to the whole series. The biography of a living man, for his own gene ration, must be modestly written. Many things must be modestly, and, in reference to other living persons, respectfully suppressed. Mr. S. has frequently been called into public life by his fellow-citizens. In 1841 he was elected justice of the peace. In 42 he threw up his commission in disgust, as he says, with the petty cases he was called to try, and cases he might be called to try, growing out of the Dorr troubles. On national questions his sentiments were alw r ays whig ; but he was never so wedded to partyism as to lose his individuality. In 44 he was a zealous supporter of Henry Clay for the Presidency. In 46 he was elected by the suffrage party to the General Assembly. In an ticipation of this election, however, he distinctly avowed that, if elected, he should act and vote on whig principles. This avowal was highly cha racteristic of the man. He is frank, almost and sometimes quite to a fault. He is too independent for secret colors or mental reservation. But he was, in common with the democratic party, in favor of the resto ration of Mr. Dorr to citizenship. He believed many of the people to be as much to blame as he was. Had they not encouraged him, he would not have taken up arms. As, however, he had no sympathy with Dorr s politics, he voted against him as a candidate for the United States Senate in 46. During the time that, from the force of peculiar circum stances, he acted with the democratic party, he was understood by that party to be, not a democrat, but a liberal whig. And when the name " law and order" was abandoned, and the name " whig" resumed, he again took his stand with the party whose general political principles he had always held and avowed. It is characteristic of Mr. S. to see a fault in a friend as readily as a foe in his own party as readily as in another ; nor has he any fear to govern himself accordingly. In 1846 Mr. S. was elected to the Court of Probate, and in 48 and 49 was elected again to the General Assembly, where he appears ever very satisfactorily to have served his fellow-citizens. In his own town, whichever political party may be in the ascendency, such is the confidence felt in him as a presiding officer, that he is ever made moderator of the town meeting when he will consent ; and when drawn juryman, he has invariably been made foreman. He is president of three corporate associations in his town, one of which is the Citizens Union Bank : all which goes to show that the candy boy, blundering 25 386 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. down the steps of Brown University in affright, is now a full, strong, honest business-man. It was very much through the influence of Mr. S. that the old prac tice of selling the keeping of the poor at auction, to the lowest bidder, was abandoned in his town. He was also one of the committee for car rying out the plan for town asylum, which is now in successful opera tion. But we hardly need particularize further, our object being simply to indicate tho estimation in which Mr. S. is held by his townsmen. He is, as before remarked, a member of the F. W. Baptist Church. He is a constant attendant upon public worship, and liberal in its support. He never has had a case in court growing out of his own business, and ever advises settling disputes without an appeal to the law, when it can be done without sacrificing principle. The ease and dispatch with which he transacts business is a subject of frequent remark and surprise. He keeps his own books; has no bustle on days of settlement ; never ban ters in trade ; learns the state of the market ; sets his price, or makes his offer, and there the matter ends. He is never in a hurry always has time to be sociable with his friends. Persons in his employ are ever strongly attached to him, and this too notwithstanding his independent, and sometimes even blunt mode of dealing with them. His principal workmen have been in his employ from nine to eighteen years. It is a rare thing for a family to leave his village. .His case gives proof experimental that there is no necessity for that want of sympathy between the capitalist and his workmen so often discoverable. Mr. S. makes no effort at display and equipage above that of an ordinary common-sense man. His native independ ence renders him incapable of using any undue influence to secure pre ferment. He feels, to "use his own language, " that the public can dis cern a man s character and worth by his general course of life, and will be likely to deal with him accordingly." Connected with his manufac turing establishment he has a small farming business, which he feels to be more congenial to his inclination, and to which, if more would turn their attention, he thinks it would be better for the community. He is now, at the age of forty-five, in good health, spending his days very qui etly, and in the enjoyment of conscious virtue, and of the respect of his fellow-citizens. His aged and virtuous parent, and his amiable, indus trious, and virtuous sisters, are settled but a few steps from his door in his quiet village, happy, doubtless, and grateful in being blessed with such a son and brother. Should any reader of this brief memoir chance to call at his house, he shall not fail to be received with a cordial and unstudied hospitality which will at once assure him of his welcome. H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 387 H. H. EMMONS, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN. WHEN Mr. E. submitted to the writer of this the propriety of com- plying with the request to furnish a memoir for the present work, he remarked, that " if the intention of the work was, at this day, to present to the profession a portraiture of the great leading lawyers of the nation, who thus far had most materially aided in laying the foundations of her jurisprudence, and constructing the framework of her constitution those of whom the country was justly proud, and whose lives the American citizen would delight to hear read, criticised, and contrasted with the sages of the law in foreign lands if such is the high object of the work, then," said he, " my own short, obscure, and wholly common-place history, has no business there. Its insertion would be absurd, and but a distasteful repetition, in another department, of those farcical exposures of littleness and vanity which so many inconsiderable men of modern times are making in the political reviews. Since the days of old jEsop the asses have never worn with success the skin of the lion. I have not yet begun to hope that, if Providence shall spare my life for thirty years to come, and suffer me still to toil on in the laborious path I have so sa tisfactorily thus far followed, that I shall even then have been enabled so to keep up with the enlightening and growing spirit of modern juris prudence, so to aid in improving its principles, in ameliorating the modes of its administration, and in leading the long list of able men which my state opposes to the efforts of any man who would lay claim to the first high station at its bar, as to place my name in a similar volume which shall, at that distant day, record the greatness of the American bar. There is no doubt whatever of the distinction between a distinguished American lawyer^ and. a young, faithful, rising, successful leader of the bar in the newer states of the northwest. " As yet, we have few indeed, no old, experienced, and profoundly learned lawyers. Our greatest boast must now be that our young men are as laborious and faithful, present as strong an array of talent and in dustry, and, therefore, as many of the elements of future greatness, as the more aged and experienced bars of the East. Our time has not come to claim a place in a work which details the successes and glories, the great ness and power, of the\American judiciary, and its most learned and able counsellors. " But if the work proposes to furnish to the student and young pro fessional man a guide and stimulus to exertion, by detailing the successes of living men, thus enabling them to see the precise road which others, succeeding at the same period, and in all respects circumstanced like them selves, have followed up to wealth, high respectability in life, and eminent professional standing, then our own state may well furnish her quota of illustrations. Some of these results, in a slight degree, my own short history may illustrate ; and if the policy is to set forth instances of pro fessional prosperity from each state, then I have no objection to have pre pared the simple detail of my hard, unremitted twelve years toil, its 388 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. professional rewards, and quite moderate triumphs. If those who are starting on behind me can see aught in it worthy of imitation, or tend ing to stimulate a just professional ambition, I shall, indeed, be happy to know that thus early in life a far higher and better use of my labors can be made than I had ever dared to hope." The great mass of history writers have treated the acts of the politi cian, the place-holder, and the military leader, as though they alone guided the destiny of their country, and moved on the wheels of civiliza tion, and of social and intellectual progress. They overlook the mighty impulses, the revolutions and great principles, which the quiet and noiseless philosopher and the moral reformer are ever producing in the world. The men who enact into laws the profound principles which the historically unknown lawyer has eloquently demonstrated at the bar. and which the judge has elaborated, matured, and announced from the bench, alone find a place on the records of their time. They who are but in struments, who but float along on the popular tide, and utter the thoughts and mature convictions which studious and unostentatious intellectual greatness has impressed on its country and age, alone figure in the columns of the political journal, and find a place on the historical page, while the real sources of human progress are unrecorded and unknown. The possession of place, of public political places, is not only falsely assumed as high evidence of official fitness, but, still more unfortunately, is it frquently treated by the general historian and the memoir writer as the sole evidence of distinguished talent, and of public power and influ ence. And more especially is it true that the great mass of American authors who have essayed to write the life or notice the success of an eminent lawyer, have seemed to labor under a sense of the littleness and obscurity of their hero until his purely professionalise was abandoned until he could be spoken of as no longer enthusiastically devoted to one of the most noble and ennobling studies in the whole round of human inquiry, and as having successfully entered that partisan field where thousands and tens of thousands of low, mean, and ignorant men rise to high position and influence. It is only when they have been elected to something, that tangible evidence of eminence, greatness, and power, is supposed to be discovered, and the subject raised up to the dignity of legitimate history. They hardly touch upon the early life of the stu dent, the struggles manfully made with the discouragements of poverty, ill health, obscure locations, meagre libraries, and poor instruction, all overcome by perseverance and energy, in the details of which the young reader may see a picture of difficulties conquered, which, in his own case, he had supposed unconquerable. The early professional obstacles, when, without books, clients, money, or influential friends, a meagerly- furnished office has been opened with faint hopes and dreary prospects the excitements of early practice the varied character of success, whe ther brilliant, sudden, and attractive, or gradual, solid, and noiseless the course of investigation the manner of constructing arguments and briefs the mode of preparation for trial, and peculiarities in its con duct the extent and kind of professional practice the treatment of clients the degree of pecuniary success, and the nature and limits of the reputation won by the life whose picture is drawn, are all, in the great majority of instances, wholly overlooked. The law, with all its H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 389 great responsibilities, its solemn duties, its showy, popular, and ambition- gratifying successes, its power and influence upon every state and nation, where its principles are cultivated and studied as a science, its high and powerful positions, is considered as an instrumentality only in the hands of its professors for merely partisan political achievement. It is not treated as an ultimate object, but rather as a road leading to loftier fields of public activity above and beyond it. These things have so moulded public taste that the details of success, however great and sudden, of merely legal attainments, however pro found and varied, when unassociated with any manifestation of popular favor beyond extensive professional employment, appear, to the minds of the great majority, tame and trivial. But very few of the really great lawyers of our country have risen to political eminence. They who have thus shone in both departments have a long list of professional triumphs to grace their history before they have entered that field of party servitude, outside of which, during the last half century, no public man has obtained or preserved a place and political power in our country. And he whose life offers no extra ordinary attainments, success, or power, at the bar or upon the bench, which presents no incidents indicative of great talent and industry, or adaptation to the profession, and is in no way distinguished from the great mass of lawyers around him, except that he has, in common with ten thousand men, who are not even nominally lawyers, succeeded in procuring a party nomination, can have no peculiar interest for the pro fession, or afford any useful instruction or guide for the young and am bitious student. On the contrary, the incidents in the life of one who has been exclusively devoted to his profession, never held an office, ob tained or sought a nomination, never attended a political caucus, or en deavored to control the selection of a candidate, and who has risen to the first rank in his profession, obtained wealth, high standing and influ ence, a gratifying reputation, and, indeed, everything which legitimately attaches us to the fortunes of a learned, laborious, arid eminently suc cessful lawyer, are all well worthy of a student s examination, and will encourage his perseverance, or correct his mistakes. It is with these views that the following memoir is presented to the profession, in full confidence that it will safely stand the test of our cri ticism. There may be some men in Michigan, besides its one great leading statesman, better known beyond the limits of the state than Mr. E. But, as a thorough technical lawyer, he has no equal of his age, and no superior at all at the Michigan bar. No man so thoroughly and exhaustingly argues a legal question, nor more closely and success fully conducts causes before a jury. There are some his superiors in the mere beauties of declamation some his equals in shrewdness and management at the circuit, and among the older lawyers and on the bench, perhaps, he may be equaled in technical learning ; but I know the common judgment of the state is but echoed, when I say that, for a union of all the qualities which go to make up the strong lawyer, for a combination of natural talent, logical accuracy, extraordinarily laborious habits, universal preparation, instantaneous perception of error, and readiness of answer ; for strong, illustrative and convincing argument, and, when great principles are concerned, impassioned eloquence ; for 390 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. subtlety of distinction, without ever being known to be indistinct or vague ; for fairness, for boldness, for all allowable strategy and manage ment which the detection of falsehood and the support of truth demand; for that general walk in life, that course in court which wins the confi dence and secures influence with the bench ; for a union of all these high qualities, he is beyond all comparison, thus early in his professional life, the first man in his state. The vast extent of his practice, and the magnitude and variety of his employments, prove that this high praise is in nowise beyond the practical and constantly-manifested judgment of the community in which he lives. The professional success of Mr. E. was rapid beyond parallel. He had no probation, but entered immediately upon the highest and se verest labors of the law. He has been at the bar but little more than twelve years, and at the time when, a few months since, ill health com pelled him to turn over for a time his immense business, while he makes an attempt, by travel, to recruit his strength, his practice was not only larger than any other man in his own state, but, so far as the writer believes, it had no equal in the northwest. He was engaged in nearly all the more important and more severely-contested cases in Michigan, and was frequently employed as counsel in the adjoining states. His immense practice was by no means obtained or aided by the moderation of his charges. Five hundred, and one thousand dollars are familiar items of credits for retainers on his books, and, in many in stances, double the latter sum has been received. Considering the standard charges of the bar at w r hich he practises, these rates evince an employment in the very highest walks of his profession, and in the most important and difficult cases. It is true he has had the benefit of a most popular and talented partner, a man of considerable eloquence and power as a jury advocate, which, in many instances, it is highly probable has induced the retainer of his firm. But it is well known that the legal questions presented in each contest have mainly depended upon the efforts of Mr. E. Had he pursued his profession alone, and years ago confined his attention solely to the argument of legal questions in the court of last resort, and the duties of counsel in the trial of causes at the circuit, as he now does, he would have obtained a still higher fame, as a jurist, than he at present enjoys. In the early history of Mr. E. there is nothing extraordinary. Its particulars are worthy of notice only as they illustrate how unnecessary for eminent future success are remarkable and precocious natural deve lopments or premature devotion to study. During his boyish years, he was characterized more for boldness and vigor of action, an untiring spirit which usually gave him the leadership of young companions than for studious and intellectual habits. Though seldom tyrannically ex ercised, he was celebrated for an uncommon degree of physical courage, and, when exasperated, of even recklessness. A degree of boldness in the assertion and defence of what he esteemed his rights, far beyond the common measure, when but a mere lad, obtained for him much no toriety. The author of this memoir being present at a meeting between Mr. E. and a gentleman who knew him intimately in youth, listened with great interest and wonder to an extended list of really extraor dinary feats and contests of which he was the hero. Some really H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 39l amusing and inherent interest had been selected for insertion, but the length to which other more illustrative and instructive materials have extended this notice has caused their erasure. They all evince a bold, determined spirit, and if the particulars were not glossed by the lapse of time and the partialities of friendship, they indicated, also, a sense of justice and early devotion to truth and honor which must have wholly assuaged any fears which the violence attending some of them may have elicited for his future life. The same indomitable perseverance and unceasing activity with which he accomplished his early exploits mark, in an eminent degree, his after-life. It has carried him through difficulties and professional contests of a peculiarly trying and afflicting nature, and caused him to pass triumphantly through scenes of conflict and unusual opposition, which would have crushed ninety-nine men in the hundred. It, beyond all doubt, characterizes his public reputation, and produces that rankness of grasp with which he seizes upon every thing of a public nature which succeeds in enlisting his sympathies. He does nothing by halves; what he touches he leads in. It impels him forward wholly irrespective of personal consequences. So marked is the latter peculiarity, that when the health of Mr. E., at a public dinner, had been proposed, that portion of the preliminary remarks which ac corded to him the advocacy of what he deemed right, irrespective of its popularity or its personal effect, called from the audience an audible and universal assent. To his political party he owes nothing. No clique, or combination of men, have aided his advancement. And, although extensively known as a public man, without his profession, it is more as a leader and friend of the various movements for intellectual and moral improvement than as a party politician. It is true he is. in his own peculiar mode, an ardent politician, but it is only because he is ardent in everything which he deems essential He goes out to a political argument as he goes up to the Supreme Court prepared. Having a definite object, obtaining which, or learning it is unattainable, he returns to his library as if no agitating contest had ever solicited his labors from. it. So fixed are his rules and habits, that he returns to his office invariably after a public political effort, and however difficult the duty, forces his mind back, before retiring to rest, to the legal subject he left for his political study. The family of Mr. E., which, though never wealthy, and sometimes, by the accident of business, really poor, was yet eminently respectable, always commanding a high social position, and stimulating in the do mestic circle habits of thoughtfulness, and sound, substantial conversa tion. Though neither himself, nor either of his talented or distinguished brothers, was regularly educated at schools, the activity of the family mind, the constant discussion of current topics, fitted him, at an early day, for those professional contests in which, w r ith a success equal to that of any man in the northwest, he has subsequently engaged. Nor is this reference to the intellectual activity of the family of Mr. E., one of those meaningless things which is so frequently said of the family relatives of a successful man. He has a younger brother at Milwaukie, in Wisconsin, who read his profession in his office, and who, like Mr. E., left a mercantile clerkship for the study of the wofessioD. 92 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. He has equal talent, is making equal progress, and is, though but just commencing his profession, in the very first rank, doing the most im portant, lucrative, and extensive business of any lawyer of his state. He has never been in school since a mere lad, and from a very early age was constantly engaged in laborious mercantile pursuits. Eminent success, repeated triumphs over old, educated and experienced men in such circumstances is conclusive evidence of the very highest talent. He has another brother in Michigan, whose brilliant and extraordi nary career has been impeded by that cruel and common misfortune which so often strikes down the warm-hearted and talented young men of our country. But before the great curse of our nation arrested his rapid rise, it was far more sudden and brilliant than that of either of his brothers. His talents are indeed remarkable. At the age of six teen, alone, he came to Michigan as a mercantile clerk, without a friend to aid him, or a letter of introduction, without education save that which the natural intellectual activity of his whole family impelled him to acquire in the midst of his business labors. When scarcely nineteen, two years before, according to the laws and constitution of the state, he was entitled to hold the office, he was elected secretary to the legislature in opposition to several old and leading politicians of the state. The first volume of the laws of the State of Michigan were published under the supervision of young J. P. C. Emmons, a lad of nineteen, who was elected to the post which imposed the duty, not by the collateral influ ence of others, but because, having acted in the same department in a subordinate capacity the former year, his talents and popular manners made nearly every member unwilling to place another above him, how ever old, experienced and influential. He also read law with Mr. H. H. E., and until his habits became unsteady bid fair to outstrip every competitor. He has been once a member of the state legislature. He is again, with reformed habits, applying himself to duty, and if sustain ed by Providence in his present resolutions, but few years will compel the professional lines to open and let him pass on to the front rank. A third brother, beloved by the whole city, whose precocious mind had already attracted much attention, died two years since, at the age of sixteen. He had been but little at school, but like each of his older brothers, had early entered a store as a clerk, and like them, had de voted himself arduously to study. Such works as Alison s Europe, Macauley s England, Thier s Revolution, Bancroft s United States, had not only been read carefully by him, but their historical assertions ex amined, and the political views analyzed and reviewed at great length. He left voluminous manuscripts of a character indicating a mind of the noblest and loftiest cast, and the most precocious and singular acute- ness. Had he been spared none can doubt that he would have over topped the most successful of his talented family. No boy of his age was ever mourned by a greater number of admiring and sincere friends than Frederick A. Emmons. His mother and sisters have no public literary reputation, but those who know them, perceive that the great source of their brother s success may be traced to the leading traits of mind common to every member of the family. His father was admitted to the bar in the State of New-York, but H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 303 being early led into the field of party politics his profession was aban doned for the editorship of a political journal. As a partisan writer, he was celebrated for originality and strength. His paper attracted much attention in the state; and when at a later period in life he concluded to return to the practice of the law, he received advantageous offers of connections from the learned and talented editors of several of the lead ing journals of the eastern cities. During the few years that he devo ted himself to the study and practice of the law at Detroit, few men ever made more rapid progress in professional learning. Indeed few knew and none would have suspected that the thirty preceding years had been spent in the editorial chair instead of labors at the bar. Until his death, a few years after his arrival at Detroit, he maintained a leading place in his profession. Mr. Emmons commenced his professional studies without any regu lar course of scientific education. He was not, however, without the ad vantages of great study and mental discipline. He is not held up as one of those mental wonders who are great without effort, know much without any investigation, and astound the world by their instinctive profundity. We do not believe in such prodigies. When they are supposed to be discovered, it is but mistaking the energetic and deter mined man who educates himself, for one who has not been educated at all. The study and acquirements of Mr. Emmons are worthy of notice only as their extent and success may encourage others who de sire the results he has obtained, but erroneously believe that they have no opportunity, no time, no power, to attain them. The business of his father s office, while an editor, engaged nearly the entire time of Mr. Emmons, who was the eldest son. The establish ment of routes, the circulation of the journal, and political circulars and pamphlets, and the collection of dues, kept him from school at that age when ninety-nine boys in the hundred, in the same rank in life, are care fully kept there. But, although absent three days in the week, he was universally up with his classes. His Latin grammar lessons were nearly all learned in the saddle, except three months at a select school. He never had any other instruction besides that which he obtained in the common schools of his town. During his clerkship, although win ning invariably the confidence of, and giving entire satisfaction to his em ployer, he was a close student, never retiring to his bed without giving at least two hours to his books. In winter, he seldom rose later than half-past four or five, and thus secured to himself some two or three hours for study before the business of the day commenced. Yet he was still intending himself for a merchant; and with no object beyond the love of study, and a determination to take a stand among intelligent and learned gentlemen, he was pursuing this indefatigable course. He had two early friends, each of whose example, he has frequently said, alternately controlled his intention and revolutionized his resolutions. James P. Cronkhite, Esq., now a wealthy and indefatigable merchant of New-York city, but who is at the same time entitled to rank among the leading literary men of his state, was among the most intimate com panions of his boyhood. He was some years older than E., and his early habits of study amidst his business avocations he has frequently said influenced his own application. John H. Martindale, Esq., a lead- 394 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ing and talented young lawyer of Western New- York, now practising at Rochester, in that state, was also an equally intimate associate; and when the latter obtained an appointment at West Point, a constant cor respondence was kept up between them. While E. was a clerk, Mar- tindale was a cadet at the military academy, earning fame and triumph as a laborious and successful student. Before they parted they pur sued their studies together, and with the romance and confidence of in experienced lads, laid many plans for future professional efforts, and drew many a picture of public success. Letter after letter came from Martindale filled with expressions of wonder, regret, and expostulation, that the bright plans they had formed for the future could thus be given up. Though at first all this made but slight impression, other things combined to aid their effect, and the counting-room, was at last aban doned for the bar. He was entirely without means, but relied upon what he might earn as a student in inferior courts, and being relieved from anxiety by a knowl edge that, if necessary, he would receive from home everything to render him entirely comfortable and respectable. Boarding at his father s house, and avoiding thus the little expenses which young men in society away from home are obliged to incur, his personal expenses were very small, and it soon appeared that the result of his justice-court practice would not only give him a handsome support but enable him to lay up something for the future. Mr. Emmons entered the office of Messrs. Stowe and Stetson, at Keeseville, in the northern part of the State of New- York, men of de cided ability and fair practice, but neither of them inclined to devote any time to the examination of a student or the direction of his studies. The universal, and as Mr. Emmons insists, the inappropriate four vol umes of Blackstone were put into his hands. These he found dry and uninteresting, and although short-hand notes of each of the chapters were made, he became but little interested. Against the advice of others and the usual custom, he read before finishing them other more practical treatises. Chitty s Contracts, Cowen s Justice Court Treatise, Colyer s Partnerships, Phelp s Evidences, Kent and other works were better relished. But no work was ever passed rapidly through. A sufficient number of the citations were examined to thoroughly understand the application of principles. This course is always recommended by Mr. Emmons to his students. He insists that nine law-books in ten actu ally misinform the student. The writer has heard him put the following illustration : Take twenty intelligent, educated men, and read to them some familiar legal maxim, and ask each for his understanding of its meaning and application, and no two will agree, and probably no one be right. But read to them the reported cases in full, from which the rule is deduced, and each, with the additional reading which the cases would undoubtedly stimulate, would perceive its true meaning and prac tical effect. His habits of notation are carried, to say the least, to the limit of usefulness. They were acquired when a student, and he now declares himself unable to arrive at just conclusions without continu ing the habit. He commenced when a student elaborate preparations of his causes in justice s court. Everything was of course new. The mode of proving title to a promissory note, and the rule of damages, H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 395 were mapped out as methodically, and all the cases, ancient and modern, as critically analysed, as though he were going to ask the court of last resort in the nation, to overturn some long conceded doctrine. The mode of notation was full and minute, bringing out boldly and conclu sively the point to be established. If the contrary was contended by- counsel ; if the statement of facts showed it the only point in the case ; if the judge met and expressly overruled the precise distinction, antici pated in argument on his own cause ; if the case questioned or sanc tioned former ones ; if it had a peculiar history in court, all was men tioned in the memoranda. Short suggestive notes of its general appli cation in his own cause were carefully made. Some leading fact or thing in the case is selected by way of aiding the memory to recall its details. Experience taught him the title of the case would not do so; but if, in ever so meagre a manner, he stated the most simple outline of its facts, a glance at his memoranda instantaneously brought up the details of the case. For his opponent to announce Doe vs. Smith in replevin, trespass, or ejectment, seldom enabled him to recognize the report. But the moment he reached a single fact in the statement, all was in the memory as fresh as if he had just risen from the book. During his clerkship his course of study was not methodical, or so far as professional reading was concerned, excessively laborious. His pre paration for particular arguments was always masterly ; indeed, he seemed to require the stimulus of anticipated contest to arouse him to great effort. It was in his extraordinarily large justice-court practice, and in the preparation for counsel of briefs for the argument of the va rious certioraris and appeals to which his almost invariable successes gave rise, that his great progress when a student w r as made. His four years clerkship passed without anything remarkable beyond the ordinary flattery which a tolerably industrious student, a popular speaker, frequently called to officiate as orator on public occasions, so commonly receives. That he was the leading and most promising young man in that portion of the state no one doubted ; but the feeble ness of his health, and frequent recurrence of severe attacks of sickness, forbade a prophecy of eminent success in a laborious profession on the part of his more intimate friends and family. The last two years were spent in the office of the Hon. Henry H. Ross, of Essex, a gentleman of fine education, great attainments as a law yer, of wealth and local influence, who, in return for service as a clerk merely nominal, received him as a member of his family, and afforded the advantages of an extensive library, and what was then to him of great consequence, and which he feels daily influencing his future pro fessional life, the benefits of many a useful lecture upon the pathway before him. Mr. Emmons says, that "General Ross had quite pardon ably got the idea that I thought much of my oratorical powers, and counted on w r ell-turned sentences entirely too much for future success. I heard on this subject very little theory. Not a word was said directly imputing such a taste .or such a reliance. But, as though by way of in teresting professional reminiscences, (and such they really were,) the early history of all the great lawyers whose names I saw from day to day in their reports, and who graced the high judicial places in the state, were detailed, and the fact prominently brought out, that as students 396 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. they were privately and unostentatiously studious ; that they had no reputation for mere eloquence, made no public speeches, and grew to greatness so gradually, and so quietly attracted public attention, that no one ever dreamed of calling the best of them a genius. Another class was also passed in review whose precocious and showy talents had early led them aside from the profession, when, without future growth, or any considerable success, they must even rest satisfied with the low praise of possessing bright parts and active talents, and with the power of success, but wanting the application and energy to achieve it. The force of habit, the irresistible power of the early tendencies, were illus trated by hundreds of examples, till I believe 1 saw in a new light the road before me. I discovered dangers to my ardent and headstrong temperament which, but for these timely and kindly cautions, I might not have avoided. "I determined to seek a standing at the bar first, to do my whole duty to my clients, and never seek without the profession the slightest ad- vancement. If collateral success or reputation came, I determined it should be accidental, or when I had faithfully tried my utmost efforts at the bar." Mr. Emmons was on two occasions permitted to address juries in the Supreme Court, while yet a student, a thing, the author ventures to say, with but few parallels in the State of New- York. His own statement of the circumstances do not show that it was so much to add strength to the cause, because eminent counsel were engaged, as out of friendship to himself; but the fact shows that he had made much progress, and was quite ready for practice when he came to the bar ; indeed, his future history must amply illustrate this. The first cause which he ever tried, or rather had tried in a court of re cord for with all his experience he had not the courage to try it without assistance was that of Bromley vs. Flack in the Essex Common Pleas, an appeal from a judgment given against his client by a local magis trate. The case was trover for five tons of hay, which in evidence turned out to be part of a larger quantity from which it had never been severed. He had intended to try his cause alone. The amount in con troversy was small and his client poor, but when the docket of causes before it was nearly exhausted, his confidence foiled him, and applying to Mr. Stow, with whom he had studied, then engaged in the defence of a criminal, obtained his promise of assistance. There was no oppor tunity for an interview until the cause was called, and hence Mr. Stow knew nothing of its merits. He gathered all from the opening of the plaintiff s counsel, and immediately moved a nonsuit upon the ground before suggested. Mr. E. immediately put a book into his hand to sustain the objection. In reply, the opposing counsel read several cases fully supporting the action. These had all been carefully noted in the brief of Mr. Emmons, and the judgments overruling them referred to at length. They too were passed to his counsel, and owing to the want of an interview before the trial, all was necessarily done in a manner to attract considerable attention. The cases, as every lawyer knows, are directly in conflict, and before a court of no very extended legal learn- * n gi just calculated to beget what then happened a very spirited and altogether the most attractive merely legal argument of the term. The H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 397 plaintiff was nonsuited, and Mr. E. s client came off victorious. But this is not the point, in so ordinary a transaction, which makes it worthy of notice here. After the judge had announced the opinion, and before the jury left their seats, before an. overflowing court house, Mr. Stow rose and said he felt it his duty to make a few remarks, with which he doubted not every member of the bar would sympathize, and the pro priety of which he deemed justified by the presence of a number of stu dents and younger members of the bar. He then unfolded the legal "brief of Mr. E., turning it slowly over, page after page, so as to make the greatest display of its extent, reading from time to time the short condensed statement it contained of the principles of the cases analyzed. He then served the brief of testimony in a similar way, calling atten tion particularly to the fact that every question of competency and relevancy which could have arisen, had the trial preceded, had been anti cipated ; and although defeat was not anticipated, that the rule of damages was thoroughly considered, and authorities noted in support of all the positions taken. He concluded by saying that, in the whole course of his professional life, without any reference to its magnitude or interest, he had never known a cause better prepared than the present. It seemed complete in all its parts, and recommending an examination of the papers as models for his young friends, he returned them to Mr. E. The thing was so unexpected, so uncommon, so bold a deviation from the usages of courts, that it nearly overwhelmed the subject of the ex traordinary compliment. Mr. Emmons has said since, that when he was obliged to ask a senior to go forward in the cause, to give up as he thought the oppor tunity of developing the results of his industry, and fidelity to his client, that he felt sad and disappointed ; that he had looked ahead to a personal triumph, as well as one for his client, and resigned the oppor tunity of making an argument with feelings of reluctance; that when the extraordinary expose of his counsel thus gave him all, and a thousand lold more than he dreamed of achieving, he said he began to realize how private and noiseless study would make its results known to the public without public orations or political speeches ; that few single incidents of his life have so decidedly encouraged laborious preparation as this. He remembers the author of the compliment with great gratitude and warmth. As the only return he has ever been able to make is a con stant practice of great liberality and encouragement towards beginners in the profession, which so striking an example taught them, this he has faithfully followed. His law library, one of the largest in the West, his own great fund of legal information, without fee or charge, is ever ready for the student or young lawyer. His extensive case of briefs is filled with slips noticing their loan to various professional friends. Arguments the most elaborate, costing months of labor, are readily handed out as containing a leading to doctrines sought by young professional inquirers. Whatever of liberality he has received, and he confesses to much from the learned members of the bar among whom he counts his good for tune to have read, it has been amply repaid in the mode of all others they would most desire in a similar generosity towards others. Soon after his admission to the bar, although located in a distant part of the state, he received from Nicholas Hill, Esq., then of Saratoga 398 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Springs, one of the learned authors of " Cowen and Hill s Notes," an oner of copartnership. He was at first pleased with the offer, and daz zled with the prospect of thus immediately approaching the focus of legal learning in the state. But as he looked over the long lists of learned men at the New-York bar, and reflected upon his own feeble health, he feared his ability for the iron labors of that incessant study which could alone distinguish him at Saratoga and at Albany. Influ enced by the common error of the East, that at the West there is but little legal learning, he thought that with less labor, if his health should fail, he could there succeed. Accordingly he made choice of Cleveland, in Ohio, and formed a professional connection with a gentleman of that city. His father had just before removed to Detroit, in Michigan, and without communicating to him his expectation, had taken it for granted that his son would follow. Though the elder Mr. Emmons had, as be fore stated, in early life been admitted to the bar, and was a man of far more than ordinary talent as a writer, of great knowledge of the world, and unusually industrious habits, still he had been so long from the practice as to be wholly unfitted to proceed alone. He had commenced in a strange city, with a large family, and when the subject of our memoir reviewed the circumstances, and learned his father s expecta- tations and wishes that he would remain with him, he felt that he had no choice left; and though far less pleased with Detroit than Cleveland, he followed the suggestions of duty, and immediately entered upon that laborious and successful career which has so undeniably placed him in the front rank of his profession. In order fully to appreciate the circumstances which follow, it is necessary to bear in mind that Mr. Emmons procured no letter what ever to a single citizen of Michigan ; he had laid all his plans, issued his cards, and obtained his introduction, and formed his connections, for a different state. His father too was quite unexpectedly located at Detroit. They were both entire strangers, without an acquaintance at the bar or on the bench, and open therefore to all the force with which any unlucky accident or mistake might affect their reputation. In these circumstances was commenced by the Messrs. Emmons the case, much celebrated in the West, of Fitch & Gilbert vs. Newberry & Godell, (reported in 1st Douglas, Mich. Rep. 1.) At this day and in many localities, it may seem strange that the question involved could excite so severe a contest, and that an erroneous opinion of the law should so unusually prevail at a really talented and learned bar. The same question however has been since thought of sufficient doubt to be considered and decided by the Supreme Court of the State of New- York ; and his Honor Judge Metcalf, of Massachusetts, in correspond ence not long since with Mr. Emmons, informed him that the court of last resort in that state had followed the decision in F. & G. vs. N. & G. It was moreover, at the time of its decision, published in all the leading journals in the western states, and became the theme of much newspaper controversy. At least in Michigan, the doctrine that a common carrier had a lien for his freight on all goods which, in the ordinary course of trade he received and carried in good faith, without reference to the letter or authority of the consignor to ship them, had never been questioned. The diction of Chief Justice Holt, in the old case of York vs. Greenough, H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 399 Had always "been followed. When, without paying the demanded charges, a writ of replevin was issued by the Messrs. Emmons to take from the hands of a forwarding merchant a large quantity of merchandise, who had innocently paid the freight and charges of the carrier, and succeeded to all his rights, claiming to maintain the suit on the ground that the owner had never consented to the shipment of the goods, and might therefore take them wherever found, it was a doctrine so novel, so at war with what had for years been conceded to the law, that the defendant, under the advice of one of the leading firms of the city, arrested for perjury the plaintiff who made the affidavit and procured the writ of replevin. And seldom has a criminal complaint and arrest, when neither life nor limb has been periled by the imputed crime, been attended with more intense excitement and indignation, or greater offi cial energy and zeal for punishment on the part of the prosecution. Mr. Emmons appeared for his client, and though he presented his legal views in justification of the affidavit-at much length, and with his usual clearness and force, there was too much prejudice and feeling for their appreciation by the magistrate, and his client was discharged solely upon the ground, that he was a young and inexperienced man. and had been misadvised by injudicious counsel ! The magistrate was a leading lawyer, the prosecuting attorney for the state was among the oldest pro fessional men of the former territory, and p. man of much influence and standing. It was moreover deemed proper by the prosecuting attorney to prove by witnesses what the law actually was, and several members of the bar rather ludicrously swore on their oaths that Mr. Emmons had grossly misadvised his client. Everybody, lawyers and laymen, great and small, learned and unlearned, looked upon and proclaimed the new comers as desperate and ignorant practitioners. All this did not in the least daunt our hero. There never was an emotion of fear in his nature. His young client was sympathized with, calls were made upon him, and goodly advice tendered to abandon his suit, and thus show that although falsely he had innocently sworn. Fortunately he too proved to be a man of mettle, and with unshaken confidence in his counsel, who, he had judgment enough to see, adduced most abundant authori ty for the advice he had given, determined still implicitly to follow it, and early the next morning, under Mr. Emmons direction, arrested Mr. Newberry, who acted as complainant in the prosecution for perjury against himself, for slander and malicious prosecution. This, in the cir cumstances, was indeed a bold measure. And when it is considered how difficult is the support in evidence of the latter count, it will pro bably be thought injudicious and rash. But Mr. Emmons deemed a prosecution for slander too easily sustained. He saw that such an action was maintainable even if his own advice were wrong. For if his client swore falsely, yet innocently, the accusation of Newberry, many times repeated that he was perjured, would subject him to an action, whereas malicious prosecution could not be sustained without showing not only that Mr. Newberry s counsel were mistaken as lo the law, but that the advice was so eminently absurd, so at variance with common-sense, that no man of ordinary intelligence and common pru dence would have followed it. This, when the citizen acts upon tho advice of counsel, is the strong rule in such cases, and to comply with 400 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. its rigid terms before a jury he fearlessly undertook. To show that the furor against himself and client was not only without law, but against natural reason, he not only argued before the magistrate, but by prompt prosecution assumed to establish judicially in court. The arrest of Mr. Newberry added fuel to the flames of professional indig nation ; some who had rather pitied, as indiscreet and inexperienced, now yielded to the prevailing opinion that he was reckless and unprincipled. Added to his really spirited and bold action was a manner unfortunately uncompromising, and in moments of excitement bitter and retaliatory. He was a ready debater, clear and illustrative in his arguments, with a natural tendency to tartness of reply, and great facility at rendering a position laughable and absurd. Opposition but increased all these cha racteristics, and that which, coming in the pathway of a less fiery tempera ment, would have been gently and temporarily bent to, till its force was spent, and time and reason had developed its errors and injustice, was increased and perpetuated by the invariable alacrity with which Mr. Emraons, then just past his majority, with but little knowledge of the world, drew his sword for combat with every man who gave provoca tion. Many scenes unusual, and of far more than ordinary interest in detail, attended his immediately succeeding practice. Their revival now would however only keep alive the recollection of that which nothing but passion produced, and whose actors, then angry and hostile, are now his firmest friends. They have, at Mr. E. s request, been omitted. He says the great fault lay in his own impetuous and unyielding nature ; that, though he was guilty of no professional wrong, and the arrest, in the outset, of his client for perjury was really an outrage, and the abuse of himself cruel and unjust, yet all those who were engaged in it were sincere, and really believed the law had been violated ; that, though fully sustained by the courts, though gratified by the publication of his successes in the journals of the day, all this would have been just as full and pleasing had he omitted to throw into the cup of his triumphs the bitter dregs of continued contest and fierce opposition. The full and complete triumph which he obtained in the replevin suit against Newberry arid Goodell, and the suit against Newberry by Gil- lett, for malicious prosecution, not only solaced his feelings, but gave him at once a standing as a talented and resolute lawyer. His argu ments in these causes were masterly and learned. That they were never exceeded in research and close analysis by a young man of twenty-two, who had been but twenty-eight months at the bar, is fearlessly affirmed. Especially are his triumphant reply and keen, cutting criticism, his dis posal of the argument that the practice had made the law, his humorous illustrations, in which an imaginary code, springing from such a foun tain, figu red conspicuously, worthy of attention and of an insertion here, did not too narrow limits prevent it. That a jury under the charge of a court, to say the least, not unfavorably disposed towards Mr. Newberry, should find that, in the circumstances proven, a man of ordinary intelligence and common prudence would not have followed the advice of the eminent counsel whom he employed, capped the climax of Mr. Emmons triumph. The professional rise of Mr. E. was rapid almost beyond precedent. H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 401 When he arrived in Michigan he had been but just admitted to the bar, had never argued a question of law to a court in bane, in his life, and was wholly unacquainted with the laws and practice of the new state in which he was settled. The reports of the state and the records of the courts, both state and federal, will show, that within the very first year of his arrival he stood forward among the largest, and especially the most suc cessful, practitioners in the state. In 1840, 41, 42, and 43, no firm in the state tried more causes than his own ; and when their attractive ness, the large amounts recovered, the questions involved, and the learn ing displayed in their conduct are considered, it may thus early be said of him that, within three years after his admission, so far as the amount and character of his business and the mode of its conduct were concerned, even then he had no superior. That his reputation had then equaled that of many of the old territorial lawyers, of course cannot "be said. This was being earned, and has now been most abundantly accorded. And this peculiarity attended his early practice : the most important matters were confidently submitted to his sole management and argu ment, without counsel, in opposition to lawyers of twenty-five and thirty years standing. In no one instance was this confidence regretted. In the second and third years of his practice he received very many consul tation fees, and thus early furnished many a brief from which others argued in court. That this is unusual, need not be said to lawyers who have plodded for twenty years before they have commanded large coun sel fees. Nor was it owing to the want of opposition, to absence of old, experienced, and learned counselors located and in active practice in the same city. The Hon. William Woodbridge, since governor of the state, and United States senator, was there then, and frequently acted as coun sel ; Hon. Daniel Goodwin, long United States District Attorney, judge of the Supreme Court of the state, and now a judge of the Upper Penin sula, an old, able, and powerful lawyer, was in full practice ; Alexan der D. Frazer, Esq., a laborious lawyer of forty years extensive read ing, was then, as now, ever ready for retainers, and he ranks among the ablest professional men in the northwest. His law library is proba bly more extensive than any other private one west of Albany, unless it be equaled by that of Mr. E. ; the Hon. B. F. C. Withereil, H. J. Backus, Esq., Hon. A. S. Porter, since a United States senator, and many others, together with a long list of younger men, well established and in good practice when Mr. E. arrived in the city, gave the Detroit bar a legal force^. brilliancy and talent, which equaled that of any city of its numbers. For a young man just past his majority, with no legal experience, an entire stranger, without money or influential friends, in the midst of an extraordinary, and, as was sometimes thought, over cruel opposition, to step at once into the highest rank of such a profes sional circle, without waiting for a moment to learn the discipline, and become familiar with the lower, is the most conclusive evidence of de cided ability, and devotion to the means of success. Rise in such cir cumstances must be substantial and merited. It was secured in this in stance by laboriously-prepared, clearly-reasoned, and well-delivered arguments. It depended on no fortuitous circumstances. By his talent, industry, fidelity, and zeal, he won success in the face of a fierce and violent opposition. 26 402 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Even in his best cases he seemed never relieved from labor in the slightest degree by the oldest or most able counsel. But every point was studied by himself. Having submitted his plan of trial to his as sociate he adopted and transferred to his own memoranda any sugges tions he deemed an improvement. But he never sat down before a jury compelled to say, "About this part or that department of the cause I know nothing and leave it to my counsel." He made it all his own and \vent forward in the case accordingly. The following anecdote will illustrate the early age at which he took responsibility upon himself and went forward in the most important causes. Among his earliest cases of considerable consequence, and very soon after his admission, was that of Hale and Hale vs. the ship Mil- waukie, (reported in error in 1 Douglass. Mich., p. ,) and which had been instituted by Mr. Emmons in the face of a decision made at Buf falo, in the State of New- York, against other parties claiming for goods lost by the same casualty. The whole history of the case is novel and interesting, but I feel at liberty here to occupy room by the insertion of those particulars only more immediately connected with the main incident I wish to introduce. On a former trial the evidence of the master and crew had readily relieved from all responsibility the owners of the ship. This evidence could readily be contradicted by abundant proof, and there was there fore reason to expect an entirely different relation of circumstances from the same witnesses now. The substance of the story Mr. Em mons by correspondence had obtained second-hand from others, but the only man who had recorded it, or who could furnish a copy of it, was the counsel of the defendants who tried the cause in which it was given. To withhold it of course was their duty. One man alone could be procured who would assume to swear to the captain s former testi mony, and he, though a respectable witness, was an entire stranger to the jury and was a party somewhat interested in the question at issue. The plaintiff rested, after making out the usual prima facie case against the vessel attached, when the master and his sailors, one after the other, took the stand, and swore to courses run, to a state of weather, the con dition and capacitv of the ship, and the conduct of the seamen, entirely different from the Buffalo statements. It seemed to all that the defence was clear. The plaintiff s counsel had fully interrogated the defen dant s witnesses as to their former statements and evidence, but, they having been informed that the plaintiff coul d make n* proof whatever of their former oaths, all. with unblushing boldness and flippancy, was denied. The plaintiff s only witness, a plain, intelligent man, who clear ly and positively rehearsed their former testimony, stated that as an in terested party he was present, remembered it distinctly and could not be mistaken. He was, however, boldly sworn down by the captain and seamen. At this point the court adjourned for the evening; the coun sel associated with Mr. Emmons asked the clerk to suffer him to take home certain depositions, which, as he supposed, he received in a court envelop from the hands of the proper officer. On reaching home he found, instead of the court files, the clerk had put up the copies of the depositions furnished to one of the counsel for the defendants. Per ceiving at first nothing private in their nature, and that they were copies H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN". 403 of what was wanted, he commenced their perusal and soon came to a paper headed, " Copy of Dickson s testimony taken at Buffalo" For tune had thus, at that late stage of the trial, placed in the hands of plain tiff s counsel the long-sought evidence. The paper was immediately- taken to Mr. Emmons office, and in his absence a copy made and laid upon his table, leaving to him the responsibility of using it thus ob tained. The depositions were then re-inserted in the court envelop and returned to the clerk, and again came into the possession of the court with out any knowledge that they had been seen by any one. The matter was discussed in the morning, and Mr. Emmons, learning that no fraud had been used in obtaining it, declared that he would not only willingly assume the responsibility of its use, but should esteem it a flagrant cowardice and breach of duty thus to suffer a corrupt witness to escape and sacrifice his client s interest, when to prevent it nothing need be done but to read, copy and use a paper which belonged to the oppos ing party, but which, upon no principle of morality or enlightened prac tice, could be withheld for the protection of known perjury, if such had been committed. The testimony thus obtained agreed minutely with that given by the plaintiff s witness, and still farther and more essen tially contradicted the defendant s witnesses on the present trial. The whole day was adroitly spent in collateral points, when toward^ even ing the main witness of defendant was recalled by the plaintiff under permission of the court for further cross-examination. Mr. Emmons produced a chart containing a projection of the courses and distances then sworn to by the witnesses, showing that they led many miles away into the woods of Wisconsin, and after sufficiently confusing them in an unavailable attempt to re-adjust their story and make it consis tent with any plausible hypothesis, he suddenly called for the chart, and walking up toward the witness, said, "Captain Dixon, it is but fair that I should at last inform you that I have a copy full and complete of your Buffalo testimony ; that I know you have read it since it was taken down have assented to its truth within a very recent period. Listen, while I read the first sentences of your testimony then given, and answer upon your oath whether you so swore." He then read the first portion, and the witness in great trepidation remained silently looking upon his counsel. Mr. Emmons, without insisting upon an answer, proceeded through the whole paper, submitting each sentence and subject in a distinct question, without eliciting any other reply from the witness than that to some portions of it he thought he did not pre cisely so state. Impliedly all was conceded ; still, the witness had not in terms admitted its truth. The plaintiff had no means of proving it was a copy further than finding it among the papers of the defendant s counsel so labeled, and this proof of doubtful efficacy the associate of Mr. Em mons, in the circumstances of its procuration, was unwilling to submit at all. In this dilemma, the plan was to let it all pass off with a flourish of contempt, to rely upon the witness s silence and confusion, rather than goad him up to a denial of its authenticity, for which they really believed him sufficiently bold. In preparing for this course, and to dis miss the witness from the stand under the most impressive circum stances, and more especially to inform in some way \\\Q jury of the fact, Mr. Emmons, who frequently keeps up a running comment with his 404 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. witness, on cross-examination, with great deliberation and emphasis, re marked, that the paper he held in his hand was an exact copy from that then actually held in the hand of the defendant s own counsel. No sooner had these words fell from his lips than the counsel of defendant, excited beyond all control, and taking it for granted his own clerks had betrayed him, or that his paper had been stolen, sprung to his feet, and in language somewhat extravagant asserted that he had no such original. The denial was full and distinct, but beyond all doubt what the eminent and unimpeachable counsel who made it did not intend to say, and what he was hardly conscious of his saying at all. Indeed, his succeeding ac cusations and concessions evinced that he did not suppose he had made such denial. Still it was promptly seized on by Mr. Emmons. He arrested the onset of his opponent at this first issue, whether he had such a paper. He would not proceed to the settlement of other mat ters till the decided advantage given him by this unlucky, and as he after the trial said, he had no doubt entirely involuntary denial, was fully employed before the jury with its full effect. The scene which ensued is indescribable. The witness, in confusion on the stand ; the jury all on their feet, staring with wonder at the devel opments of the chart, and amazed at the hardihood which stood so clearly and instantaneously developed, and which had seemingly stood impregnable the test of five days siege ; the extraordinary spectacle at the bar of high words, and hard accusations, every one seemingly forgetting the cause, the proprieties of the court and the respect due to each other, until when the scene was over it was discovered that the court had actually adjourned de facto , without having gone through the forms of such a proceeding. I said all had seemed to forget the cause. There was one who, though but just admitted to practice, then engaged almost in his first important case, did not for an instant forget the issue or the jury. It is for the exemplification of this so early developed characteristic that we insert this anecdote. In the midst of, 1 had al most said the tumult, for it nearly approached one, Mr. Emmons, turn ing from his antagonist, and then summoning his clerks and the as sociates of his opponent to declare the fact that the original of what he had read was then existing in the bundle of his adversary, appealed to the jury in the most solemn and energetic manner not to suffer their minds to be for a moment distracted from the guilty cause of all which had happened, as he considered the course of the counsel so complete a confession of everything they desired to show, he deemed it wholly un necessary to keep him longer on the stand as a witness. When it was discovered that the judge was gone, the jury sepa rated, the clerk s desk locked, and the bar filled with the bystanders, it was quite naturally concluded that they were no longer in court; and, though somewhat less excited, a more minute and deliberate inquiry and discussion of the mysterious procuration, of the copy commenced. Here Mr. D. necessarily left his counsel, through whose agency it had been obtained, to his own explanations, if any he saw fit to give. This was very imperfectly done, and the result was, its procuration was pro nounced dishonorable, and the most severe epithets were applied to counsel, which the gentleman concerned but feebly parried. The jury were still present, and it seemed to Mr. E. that the current was actually H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 405 being turned and setting in against his cause, and that more odium was about to rest upon the mode of procuring the copy than upon the false hood and corruption which its production developed. He had started to leave the court-room, when this state of things arrested hi? atten tion. He hastily returned, laid down his books, and, after assum ing fully the responsibility of everything which had been done, with great earnestness and even vehemence, he reviewed the whole testimo ny of the captain, commented upon the fact of withholding the paper, and suffering him to swear when it must have been known he was swearing falsely, the guilt of trying now in the presence of the jury to arrest attention from this, by magnifying a petty discourtesy into a great offence one, he said, happening in circumstances which demanded the dashing in pieces of ten thousand such laws and was at great length, and with a violence which defied all interruption, proceeding to rear a methodical justification for the act, interwoven with an equally convinc ing statement about his former correspondence to procure the copy, and the secretion of this one, until the attorney of record, on the other side, appealed to him to desist, as the iury were present. To this he said he would yield, and was sorry it had not occurred to him to address it to his own counsel immediately upon the adjournment of the court. The old and eminent counsel engaged with Mr. E., and for the de fence, met the following morning, and agreed upon a statement to be made in court, which would reconcile, consistently with the honor of each, the procuration of the paper by the one and the denial by the other, and Mr. E. was informed of what was deemed by all parties an. eminently happy adjustment of so severe and violent a difficulty. To their mutual surprise the young attorney, wholly blind to personal conse quences, and intent only on securing in the rninds of the jury every fact demanded by his long and laborious legal brief, rejected promptly the arrangement. He demanded that the matter should be left where the last evening he had placed it, without one word or comment other than to say, in the most general terms, that each acquitted the other of any dishonorable motive ; or the entire facts, just as they occurred, should be open to the use of each before the jury, with all the license which the court should deem proper to tolerate; or a statement immediately drawn by himself, which impliedly conceded the main fact he wished to establish, must be adopted. No argument could move him from this po sition. The counsel yielded, and the cause proceeded with a concession, as it untimately turned out, of what the plaintiff could not otherwise have proved. Considering the age, experience and eminence of the counsel concerned, the youth and short standing at the bar of Mr. E., his resolute and persevering course was as extraordinary as it was suc cessful. The following is given as an instance of the bold character of his strategy and his masterly conduct of jury causes. A man of respectability was on trial for perjury, for swearing falsely in relation to the confessions of two of the defendants in one of the fa mous Michigan slave cases. The case of Timberlake, the owner of the slaves, against Osborn and others, had been once tried, and the jury had disagreed, differing, it was believed, mainly upon the credence to be given to the testimony of the person whom they had now procured 40G SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. to be indicted. A case of great intricacy and interest is seldom tried. The original causes had been the subject of resolves in the Kentucky legislature, and of notice in the halls of Congress. Poli tics had freely mingled in the contest, and every element of excitement and stimulant to energy combined to add vigor and deterrninaiion to the prosecution. The government was eminently successful, so far as literal testimony went, not only in contradicting the oath of the prison er, pointedly and fully, but also on proving that neither of the parties to whom the admissions were imputed had any opportunity to make them, and hence that they were impossible. To read the bare oaths of the witness for the prosecution it would seem there was no escape for the prisoner. It was perceived that the whole defence rested entirely upon shaking the credulity of the government witnesses by cross-examination, for direct impeachment was impossible. They were all Quakers of the strict est sect, and of good standing in the order. We must pass over the mas terly cross-examination of old Mr. Osborn, which so shook its strength as to leave it of little value in the cause. The great reliance of the gov ernment came at last to be upon the testimony of the son. lie w r as called first to prove what the person actually sw r ore to on the former trial, and then to contradict it by denying, under oath, that he ever made the confessions imputed to him by the oath. Owing to certain con cessions of legal principles on a former argument, rather unguardedly made by the learned counsel for the government, Mr. E. submitted several objections to the competency of this witness growing out of the first portions of his evidence. Jt is unnecessary to particularize them, but such was the extraordinary character of the witness s sudden alterations of his evidence, to avoid the objections of Mr. E., that he not only lost all confidence in his integrity, but perceiving his readiness to accommo date his statements to the supposed necessities of the case, he instantly conceived one of the boldest schemes to overthrow a dishonest man ever witnessed in a court of justice. In order that the almost miracu lous success of the following stratagem may be appreciated, let it be re membered that Mr. Howard, the counsel for the government, drew the indictment ; that the portion upon which the scheme was based had been a dozen times read during the trial. Counsel, judge, witness and jury were all familiar with it. Mr. E. turned to the attorney with whom he was associated, and said, " Don t interrupt me, no matter what extraordinary thing I say ; I have no time to explain ;" and suffer ing the witness to proceed for a few moments, he suddenly rose, took the indictment from the table, and again objected that the witness should not proceed further, as his w T hole evidence was entirely at war with the oath set forth in the record. He commenced with great vehe mence and apparent excitement, as every one supposed, reading from the indictment, accompanying his seeming quotations with all proper inuendocs and formal statements. Such was the almost mesmeric in fluence of Mr. E. s violence at one time talking to the court, then ex postulating with the witness that no one discovered that the recitation of Mr. E. varied most materially from the oath set out in the indictment. In order to affect the mind of the witness, and impress him with the importance of the testimony, he remarked that the liberty of his client rested upon the success of this one objection. He therefore insisted that H. H. KMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 407 unless the witness could say that he remembered clearly and positively that the prisoner swore literally just as he (Mr. E.) had read the oath from the indictment, that he should not be suffered longer to put in be fore the jury a mass of uncertain and irrelevant evidence. Here, as if overcome by his own violence, he paused a moment, and, assuming a more subdued and mild demeanor, said, that excited as he had appeared, he did not, after all, wish anything more than that the witness should, in the first instance, keep his mind on the precise facts to be sworn to, and, without putting the learned counsel to a reply, or the court to a decision, he would temporarily withdraw his objection, to see if the wit ness, after all, could, without being led by the counsel for the govern ment, state that he now remembered the oath of the prisoner as he had read it in his hearing. With eager readiness the meek thee-and-thou man affirmed that he did most positively and clearly remember such was the oath of the prisoner. Of course, such was not the oath set out in the indictment, or sworn to by the other witnesses for the govern ment. The witness was completely and hopelessly trapped by his own dishonest eagerness. By a series of objections, admissions of facts, and concessions of law, in relation to what further they wished to show in relation to the former evidence of the prisoner, he continued to bear off for the time all attention from the record as it really was. On cross- examination, the witness was asked if he had always so remembered the evidence ; if he had so stated to the counsel for the government before the trial ; if, when Mr. H. read him the indictment the night before, he recognized the oath, as there set out, without prompting or leading, and a series of similar questions, which will readily suggest themselves to the mind ; to all of which, with great readiness, the witness answered in the affirmative. He said that he had always so remembered it, using various forms of strong expression to impress the jury with the clear ness of his memory ; until when, in the final summing up, it was shown that the indictment had been misread, and the witness swearing to false hoods by the wholesale. There was no attempt whatever to protect him by the prosecuting attorney. He was abandoned as the victim of his own eagerness, and one of the most bold, masterly conducted, and almost incredible stratagems ever witnessed in court. The only conso lation the attorney for the government had, was to condemn, in severe terms, the practice by which his witness had been tempted and de stroyed. The jury stood nine for acquittal and three for conviction. Though upon those technical rules upon which the weight of evidence depends the prisoner should have been acquitted, yet there was, after all, in the successful indirect impeachment of the witnesses of the government, an inherent improbability in the prisoner s oath which stung his defence to the quick, and by which, but for the extraordinary course which stripped of all legal force the testimony against him, he must inevitably have been convicted. The case has never been tried again, and in all proba bility never will be. The peculiar structure of the indictment and the course of the cause certain accidental occurrences which, by a strange and unusual combina tion, suggested the possibility of such an achievement to Mr. E., are too complicated, and give too tedious a detail for insertion. That they 408 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. should have been thus suddenly seized, and instantaneously woven with so deceptive and successful a delusion as to lead astray a whole jury, two learned opposing counsel, a really able, old, and experienced judge, and a witness who came fully trained upon the stand, first from a care ful reading of the indictment as it actually was, proves the possession of personal power, and an ability instantaneously to seize upon the ac cidents of a trial, and wield them to a client s advantage, which few men possess in the same degree. In the early part of the trial of a case of much pecuniary importance and general interest, some warm words fell from the plaintiff s counsel. Mr. E. was highly excited, but, as in later years he has eminently suc ceeded in doing, continued to resist its manifestation. He resolved, however, to reward, during the trial, his professional opponent, who, though a man of high standing at the bar, a powerful advocate, of high literary attainments and general powers, was but ill matched with Mr. E. in the trial of a long, technical, and difficult cause. He hit upon a plan, novel indeed, in which to effect the punishment of his opponent one which never could have occurred to a man not more than ordinarily familiar with all the rules of evidence, the whole law applicable to the case on trial, and the practice of the court. Having discovered from the course thus far of his opponent that he entirely misconceived several important rules of evidence, and in one respect the general law of the case, he deemed it almost certain that he might suffer him to go through his cause, and so far as Mr. E. pleased he could put in his own defence, and that he could then, upon merely technical grounds, quite aside from the merits, compel him to submit to a nonsuit after he had summed up to the jury. In ordinary cases such a victory would be profitless, as another action might be brought ; but in this case the defence was but half prepared, some of the jury were suspected, and Mr. E. felt fully authorized to obtain the permission of his client to the course he adopted, by which he would hear fully the plaintiff s case, go far enough to call out his argument before the jury, and then nonsuit him. To do this in the manner most mortifying to his opponent was the object. He also resolved to obtain against him as great a number of rulings as possible on questions arising during the trial, and then, in one well- arranged digest of errors, present all in a series to the court and jury. This somewhat laborious and novel plan he most triumphantly executed. The trial lasted some ten days, during which, by frequently making an offer to prove certain facts in a doubtful and hesitating mode, he elicited an objection from his adversary which was promptly overruled by the court. These ran up to twenty-seven in number. Although the plan was to suffer plaintiffs counsel to sum up fully, and then to follow him with a severe expose of his want of technical learning,, the cause had lasted so long, and Mr. Emmons engagements positively demanded him elsewhere, that after suffering a part of the speech of plaintiff s counsel to be delivered, the first distant allusion he made to the amount to be recovered, Mr. Emmons called him to order upon the ground that there was no evidence of the amount of damages competent for the con sideration of the jury. The learned judge readily ruled, on having his attention drawn to the law applicable to the case, that out of some H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 409 $6,000 claimed, there was only the inconsiderable sum ci* about sixty dollars so proven, that he could suffer in relation to it any comment to the jury. This was the more mortifying to counsel, as he perceived at once that it was all along designed by Mr. Emmons. He remembered that the subject had been with apparent indifference passed by the defence, subject to such objections as they chose before the close of the case to make. He had most injudiciously passed on in his cause, over confident in himself, and regardless of his experienced and adroit adver sary. The court was asked for a few hours adjournment, in order that the plaintiff s counsel might elect what course to pursue, as the objection was unexpected and therefore unprepared for. Mr. Emmons, with provok ing and most complacent liberality, seconded his opponent s request, assuring the court that this one passed, other impediments still more difficult lay in the plaintiff s pathway to a verdict. The plaintiff at the adjourned hour came into court and submitted to a nonsuit. Another suit for the same cause was never commenced, and the re sult was a defence of his client from a large and really dangerous claim. The rebuke was probably as mortifying and complete as ever an offended lawyer gave another. It was, too, administered in a way of which there could be no complaint without a pre-admission of profes sional inferiority. Such an one was not likely to be put forth. He was once retained as counsel to defend a cause of great local interest, prosecuted by the administrators of one deceased brother against the estate of another. The plaintiff s estate was very wealthy, that of defendant barely sufficient to sustain with comfort the widow, and give small portions to a numerous family of children. The suit was upon a note of some $6,000, the payment upon which would sweep the entire property of the defending family. The defence which had theretofore been relied upon, was that the consideration of the note was fraudulent, in that the elder and more wealthy brother, who first came from Scotland to this country, had sent word to the intestate of the de fendant, that if he would come to America and settle, he would buy him a farm. This it was contended made the elder brother an agent, and that he was in the law bound to give the other the farm at the same price for which he purchased it, and inasmuch as he had included in this note several thousand dollars of profit it was to this extent void, being a gain made by the agent out of his principal s con tract. Mr. Emmons saw at a glance the fallacy of such a defence. It was an agency, if any, concerning real estate. No money was advanced by his client s intestate, no promise was made to take the farm when bought, or the slightest evidence that the land in question was bought for the purpose of this particular sale. All the great leading elements of a legal agency were wanting. There was beside no certainty that they could make it appear that the price of the farm constituted a part of the consideration of the note, which bore date years after the sale. At best it was to be left to the jury upon circumstantial evidence. The unconscionable price moreover for which the farm sold was perhaps quite as much dependent upon the temporary mania as to the price of real estate, as to any really hard-hearted overreaching on 410 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the part of the elder and wealthy brother. And although the enforce ment of the claim would have been hard and even cruelly unjust, and the case was one calculated not only to justify but to stimulate to the utmost the energy of a lawyer in saving all he possibly could for his client, still it fell so far short of a legal fraud, either at law or in equity, that Mr. Emmons knew well the learning and experience of his Honor Judge Whipple, before whom the cause was tried, would beyond doubt discover the weakness of the defence, and in leaving the cause to the jury tell them the plaintiff was entitled to recover. In these circumstances he saw the only hope ultimately for his client consisted in a settlement. To effect this advantageously was the sole object of his exertions. He took to his hotel the eldest son of his widowed client, a young man of integrity and real intelligence, and fully explaining to him the fallacy and hopelessness of the pretended defence, obtained from him such terms as the family would consider just and satisfactory for a compromise. He instructed him to make no commu nication to any one, to be in constant attendance with his witnesses that the cause would proceed with all possible energy and apparent confidence of success, but that the first favorable opportunity would be seized to secure a settlement upon the best terms which could be pro cured. The occasion watched for by Mr. Emmons was one of those temporary flashes of triumph on the one side, and dejection on the other, which so frequently attend the trial of long and spiritedly con tested causes when the respective legal rights are not thoroughly and definitely understood. Fortune threw into the cause the precise inci dent he wanted. To the successful accomplishment of Mr. Emmons plan he deemed it of great importance to secure the right to begin and close the case to the jury. This he did by admitting a prima facie cause of action for the plaintiff, assuming the burden of showing the note was fraudulent and void. His application for this privilege was entirely novel at that time at the Oakland bar, and the motion was therefore received with much mirth and ridicule by the plaintiff s attorney and counsel, and when readily granted by the learned presiding judge, they were corres pondingly disappointed. This, as he anticipated, greatly aided his hope of a compromise, and he proceeded to make the most of the advantage thus obtained. A careful and guarded opening was made, in which the details of the evidence to show agency were wholly omitted, but abun dant citations of books and authorities, to show that it was a fraud for an agent to speculate upon the contract of his principal, were read and commented on at length. That there was an agency was adroitly as sumed, and proceeding at once to the only point at which it was con ceded any difficulty was anticipated, that of proving that the note in question was really given in part payment for the land the facts and circumstances from which this was to appear were fully explained in ad vance. The effort was so happy on the jury and bystanders, and it was believed, upon the court and opposing party, that Mr. Emmons at one time believed this early stage in the cause sufficiently propitious to warrant his attempt at settlement. An accidental difficulty between the parties however prevented his efforts then, and the defence proceeded in the usual manner. It gave rise to numerous questions of competency H. II. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 411 and relevancy, in which Mr. Ernmons was careful in the extreme not to get a ruling against himself; yielding every thing of doubt, and when he possibly could, inviting an objection from his opponents when he was sure it would be overruled. The papers of the estate had never been examined by the defendant s attorneys. Among them Mr. Em- mons caused a faithful examination to be made, as the cause progressed, until, in the evening of the fourth day, and after a great number of wit nesses had been sworn, to prove the consideration of the note, a written settlement, signed by the parties, and showing beyond all controversy the very fact they had been laboring by so many witnesses to establish, was discovered. It was found at a fortunate time, when a long and spirited argument was going on in relation to the competency of some offered evidence. The next morning this argument was suffered for some time to proceed, that the audience might collect, the excitement of the opposing counsel to come again up to its maximum, when Mr. Emmons, as if he had been unwillingly detained, came hastening into court with a paper in his hand, and begged his associate counsel, who was addressing the court, to yield him the floor for a moment. This, of course, as had been arranged, was readily done. Mr. Emmons then re marked that they owed an apology to the court and jury for the days they had uselessly spent in endeavoring to defend against an unjust claim, by such tedious and indirect modes as their ignorance of their own cause compelled them to adopt. He was now happy to inform them that the cause would soon close on their part ; that they had at length found amongst the papers of the estate the written admission of the plaintiff s intestate of the very fact which had been for so many days denied before the jury ; he therefore withdrew the offered evidence to which his opponents were objecting, and all the other evidence in the case which the plaintiffs did not desire should remain before the jury. The paper which he held in his hand was all the defendants needed to secure a verdict. This announcement was received with sensible manifesta tions of good- will in the crowded auditory. He suggested, as the case had taken so sudden a turn, as the defendants were so unexpectedly re lieved from several days farther examination of witnesses upon this con tested point, that the court take a recess for an hour that the defence might conclude what additional proofs it was necessary to put in ; that to proceed then would quite probably but use the time of the court in that which with some reflection might be deemed unnecessary. To this there was no objection, as the other party seemed really annoyed and surprised by the sudden production of the paper. Without sitting down, and before adjournment, Mr. Emmons took the plaintiff by the arm, and walking down the centre aisle to the far end of the court room, in a tone of high confidence and decision, said to him : " You know I am the counsel of the defendants, and I want you to make no reply to what I say, but desire simply that you will report it to your counsel, as you will of course follow their advice. I am instructed by my client to say that she desires this controversy to be settled wholly irre spective of any legal advantage which might be obtained on the trial of this cause. I am authorized now, notwithstanding the certainty of our defence, to offer a compromise, leaving to the estimate of indifferent men the true value of the farm when her husband bought it, What is due 412 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. shall be immediately paid in land by appraisement." The plaintiff readily replied that he knew his own business, did not want to see his counsel, that he had never been asked to settle until now, and was ready ;oe to close with the offer. Mr. Emmons refused to consider it ,*d till approbated by the plaintiff s counsel. This was but a mat ter of form, for before the forms of the adjournment were concluded the settlement was acceded to by all the counsel, and the court by both par ties asked to adjourn till after dinner. At that time the account had been settled, the deeds executed, and whether substantially or formally only, the writer knows not, but the large families of contending cousins had" shaken hands in token of reconciliation. The defendants were saved a handsome fortune, and the plaintiff got all which in justice was due, or which they in mercy could have taken. It is evident that with great legal experience opposed to him, such a plan could not have been executed, but the opponents of Mr. Emmons though never of large practice, were esteemed good lawyers ; indeed, leaders in their county. The judge upon the bench was learned and experienced, and the successful accomplishment of such a plan evinces a high degree of talent and address, as well as legal acuteness and in dustry, on the part of counsel. The skill consisted in adroitly keeping back "out of the way of discussion the really weak points in his case, and offering a settlement in the only moment when perhaps it would have been accepted. Fortunate accidents sometimes occur which much resemble this arrangement. But this was all arranged and fully antici pated, and had not this lucky paper turned up, a complicated, and what wo venture to say a successful plan kid been arranged to produce on the following day similar results. Instances of equal interest and success could be multiplied from the extensive trial lists of Mr. Emmons. These are given only as a sam ple of the energy, the devotion and force with which he tries a cause. "When on the defence, judges are many times annoyed by the clear ness with which an error appears in the bill of exceptions, which they would by no means have committed had the matter been as fully de veloped "on trial as it is made to appear in the record. Many times it will appear that a far better defence can be made on another trial, and his success in suffering a verdict subject to fatal exceptions is unparal leled. In such an experiment he never failed. The stamp of authority has no influence on the judgment or the fear less expression of Mr. Emmons opinions. The following is but one instance out of hundreds illustrative of his criticisms. In 184*2, the Supreme Court of the United States adopted rules for practice in equity for the several circuit courts under an act of Congress. Soon after some questions arose under them in the Michigan circuit. Mr. Emmons took occasion to criticise them with the greatest severity. He analyzed and showed the absurdity of several rules which subse quent experience has compelled the court which so injudiciously adopted them to repeal. About this time the Supreme Court of the state ap pointed a committee to adopt rules for practice in equity, and the com mittee reported and the court adopted several of the innovations from the rules of the United States courts. Mr. Ernmons, without consulta tion with any one, or giving any intimation of his rather novel motion, H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 413 moved the court in bane, for an order appointing a new committee which should point out the objects to be obtained and the evils to be remedied by the new rules ; thai all was incomprehensible to the bar except their annoyance and inconvenience. Some gentlemen of the bar most promptly and patronizingly replied that they were taken, word for word, from the rules of the Supreme Court of the United States, assuming that the high source of their origin would be a most satisfactory as surance of their propriety. "Yes," said Mr. Emmons, " I was aware they had a similar absurdity in that court, and have long experienced the vexatious inconveniencies of complying with their requirements. That we have fellow-sufferers in other courts by no means inclines me to withdraw my motion. I would still press for the committee, if it pleases your honors." The rules, it seems, had already attracted the at tention of the learned judges at the circuits, and the chief justice good naturedly replied that the court would appoint Mr. Emmons sole com mittee, of which he would of course be chairman, to draft an order re scinding the rules complained of. In the early practice of Mr. Emmons, he obtained a very large num ber of criminal defences, and among the number was that of a somewhat celebrated offender who for many years sustained a high reputation in his county and managed large amounts of property with great apparent prosperity and business success. But he was arrested successively for arson, smuggling, forgery, bribing jurors, assault and battery, with intent to commit rape, for stealing and harboring felons and receiving stolen horses, and was almost universally considered as one of the leaders of a desperate band of offenders, who terrified by their depredations the whole community. This man, when his standing was generally good, retained Mr. Emmons in his defence. He was considered by most men. then, and especially by his counsel, a persecuted man. His defence in many successive trials was successful. But other arrests and indict ments still followed, and though by a series of the most pains-taking and adroit defences, he was cleared upon some six or eight different trials, and actually recovered verdicts against leading citizens who had published him as a dangerous man and a villain, still so clear at last did his guilt in some matters appear to Mr. Emmons, and so repugnant to his better feelings were these efficient and zealous labors for those whom he more than suspected, and knowing that he could do nothing by halves, he resolved wholly to abandon the defence of criminals. He found the name of his firm upon the defence of every indictment which stood for trial in the criminal court but two, during a long and active term. He had it stricken from every case but one, and from that time to this he has not appeared as attorney in a single criminal case, and but in three or four instances has he acted as counsel. His explanation is that the ardor of his temperament and the habits of his professional life were constantly urging him up to, if not over, what he deemed the line of duty in favor of a criminal. Believing there were enough, who from choice would defend all who deserved it, he did not deem it a duty to continue a practice which was distasteful. This sudden and marked abandonment of a large and lucrative branch of business we deem high evidence of a nice sense of honor and love of principle. In 1843 Mr. E. was left alone in business by the death of his father, 414 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. and he continued thus to practice until his present accomplished partner, Joseph A. Van Dyke, Esq., offered him, in 1844, a connection, which, owing to his growing taste for study, and dislike of the details of busi ness, he accepted. The result of this connection was to remove Mr. E. somewhat from the ordinary litigations in court. The union of his own large, miscellaneous business with that of Mr. V. D., threw into his hands a mass of chancery practice and business in the higher courts, which from that time forward has kept him constantly in his library, and compelled him to devote his entire time to professional study. His part ner being a successful jury advocate, of great shrewdness, and a good lawyer, all the ordinary trials, when clients did not insist upon the pre sence of Mr. E., were conducted by the former. The legal investiga tions, however, if difficult and doubtful, were made by Mr. E. It was quite common for him to seat himself at the trial, listen to his partner s opening, the cross-examination of the first witness by the opposing coun sel, or hear the plaintiff s opening, if his firm was on the defensive, and when he had ascertained that it was highly probable the true points in the case had been fully anticipated, and that his partner was in posses sion of them all, return to the pursuit of those extensive and exhausting investigations in which for the last eight years he has been constantly engaged. At the bar of the circuit and before juries, therefore, he has been seen far less than his showy and active partner, who, as an advo cate. I think stands at the head of the Michigan bar. It seldom happens that two such men are united in business as Joseph A. Van Dyke and H. IT. Emmons. Together, they seem to embody all the requisites of a masterly, perfect prosecution and defence. If I were obliged to part with either in a great cause, of course the technical learning of Mr. E. could with less safety be spared ; and at the period when he volunta rily withdrew from the more showy departments of jury advocacy, he commanded a much larger practice there than his partner ; but this, I apprehend, was not owing to the fact that he excelled or even equaled him in mere declamatory powers ; but for the union of high legal attain ments, with powers as an advocate of no ordinary kind, and as a clear, simple, illustrative reasoner, an acute examiner, argus watchful ness of every point in the cause, he was ever signally distinguished. The association of such a man as Mr. Van Dyke, and the absence of all ambition on the part of Mr. E. for fame elsewhere than before the chan cellor, the federal judges, and the court of last resort in his own state, has most materially affected the character of his practice and reputation. The frequent and indeed almost constant efforts of a popular kind, made in hi* earlier practice, won him high reputation as an advocate and a successful manager. A few years since nearly all the original business of the state was turned into a new tribunal (now fortunately abolished) called the county court, and so fully had Mr. E. withdrawn from the miscellaneous business of his firm, that during its three years existence he tried but three causes in it. One of these was a very celebrated cause, lasting some thirty-one days in the trial, and raising a question of title to the immense estate held by the Catholic Bishop of Michigan. In the United States Court his jury practice has been more extensive. But it is not as a man of eloquence, of great persuasive powers, or as a man of popular influence, that he is deserving of notice, or his course H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 415 deemed worthy of imitation, hut as a lawyer strictly; as a successful reasoner, because he studies and prepares his reasons ; as a man eminently ready in reply, because he is deeply versed in the principles which his opponent has mistaken ; who surprises his adversary by a won derful foresight and far-reaching calculation of effects, not by any extra ordinary natural gift or peculiar conformation of mind, but by a perfect familiarity with every fact he will himself put in evidence, and, far often er than the contrary, by being more familiar with what his oppo nent s testimony will legally sustain than that opponent himself. Mr. E. rejects the idea of genius for the profession, and claims that the great line of distinction is drawn in its ranks by indolence on the one hand, and activity on the other. In the court of last resort of the state, Mr. E. has delivered a long list of masterly arguments. They are never superficial such an argument he never made. When asked to aid in discussions involving principles with which he is not familiar, his reply is, he does not like lecturing be fore an audience knowing just as much of the subject as himself. In deed, without preparation immediately for the occasion, or previous general familiarity with the question, he never speaks in court, unless forced to do so by the accidents of a trial. He never harangues, re peats, or wanders. Though he is minute, and, beyond doubt, sometimes unnecessarily protractive, one moment s time is never spent in discussing irrelevant doctrines. The bench has never to say, " we do not see the application." It is ever clear, and receives at his hands an actual appli cation. The memoranda from which he speaks is unusually full, having kept up the habits of his early years, to which we have referred. He sometimes offers the bench the choice of a copy of his own full notations, or simply his propositions and authorities. The judges have never been known to choose the latter. Too much labor is saved by an accurate and learned analysis of a long and complicated case, cited to the support of a principle which it only inferentially supports, for any man to reject its aid, and voluntarily assume the labor of examination anew ; and whether the point is positively decided, whether the case shakes some reason only upon which a hostile decision was grounded, or is of still lower power in argument, being merely one whose facts might have jus tified, but in which eminent counsel did not raise the point relied on by his adversary, or whatever use is sought to be made of a citation, that use is, in plain and unmistakable terms, fully declared. It rarely happens that a case is cited against Mr. E. in an appellate court, or any other where the point has been anticipated, with which he is not entirely fami liar. Nor does he ever, as is too frequently the case, affect to recall it from the sjreat storehouse of his general reading, if it has had in reality a recent examination, but, sitting at the bar with his brief of " cases contra" in his hands, adds to his already labored-written review which it contains, such suggestions as the comments of counsel cause to occur. In this list of cases contra are noted all the strongest grounds against himself which he deems tenable from the citations, with replies and re ferences to his brief for the court. Thus armed, he is ever ready in re ply, as it is termed, because ready when he entered court. Mr. E. is not, in the ordinary sense of the term, a party politician ; and yet the common judgment of his opponents is that he is among the 416 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. most ardent and uncompromising whigs in his state. He never solicits office for himself or others seeks no prominence or influence in his party. He never attends caucus nominations, or interferes in the man agement of its general affairs ; and yet, when particular issues excite his interest, no man is more zealous or efficient. He takes the field of pub lic argument with the same indefatigable application with which he tries a cause. Jf he deems particular measures of action expedient they are proposed, forced through, and consummated, just as he would execute a plan in court, or in the ordinary affairs of life. There is no halting for forms no awaiting for other men s conclusions, approbation, or assist ance ; but the proposition is made, and its execution entered upon with a directness and promptness which show that the scheme has bee ma tured in his own mind before his proposition, and its success generally demonstrates its justness and propriety. And this peculiarity by no means attends his political action alone. In every field of public labor in which he acts at all, the same definite action and directness of princi ple mark his course. A few illustrations out of many will illustrate this striking peculiarity in his political, moral, and benevolent exertions. Some few years since, one of those extraordinary and sudden changes from heat to cold which characterize the Michigan winter, and send misery and suffering to the needy and fireless homes of the unclad, ill- sheltered poor, aroused the attention of Mr. E. to their probable condi tion. On retiring for the night to his own well-warmed and comfortable room, he remarked to his wife, that the sudden appearance of such intense cold succeeding many weeks of uninterrupted warm weather could not but find the needy wholly unprepared for its severity. At that time, no plank roads led into the country, and so nearly impassable, by continu ous rains, had the roads become, that wood, then the sole fuel used in the city, had arisen from $1 75 to $5 and $6 per cord. It was, indeed, entirely beyond the reach of the poor, and they must be relieved promptly, immediately, or actually freeze. It was just the emergency demanding the prompt energy of the man who assumed the duty of their relief. Early the following morning, immediately after a break fast taken before daylight, Mr. E. was on the move. He did not wait for consultation or advice as to the lest mode. He resolved forthwith, and within an hour, to have the citizens together, and, in the next, to see the cars in motion distributing fuel to the suffering. The first man he met in the city he accosted thus : " Are you around notifying V "Notifying what?" replied the citizen. "The meeting at the United States court-room, to take measures immediately to distribute wood to the poor," said Mr. E. " It takes place at nine, and, without instant relief, death will, beyond all doubt, occur." "I had not heard of it," replied the citizen, "but will most gladly do what I can." "Very good," said Mr. E. " Suppose you notify those on your street immediately, and hasten all you see along to the court-house." Thus he served the next, and each succeeding man he met, engaging, in the work of notifica tion and in spreading the excitement, (for such it really became,) every one whom he deemed efficient and earnest. Never, in so short a time, were so great a number of earnest men called together, save by the fire- bell at midnight. The crying necessity of the case touched each man s H. H. EMMONSj OP MICHIGAN. 417 heart. Mr. E. says, in an hour, he heard twenty times the hearty res ponse, " That s right ; I was just thinking of that myself." The court room was filled to overflowing. Thousands were subscribed in less than an hour, and the immense piles in the wood-yard of the Michigan Central Rail-road were thrown open, at cost price, to the committee of the people. Within less than ninety minutes from the time when the first man was asked if he was " around notifying," proclamation was made, hundreds of poor men, women and children were seen with wood in their arms, issuing from the gates of the company, all eagerly pressing homeward to kindle a fire upon the family hearth. The fund raised was more than double what was needed, and it was invested for future use, and subsequently sent comfort to the homes of many a needy suf ferer. The meeting itself was a mystery. No one knew who called it, and when noticed, as it was most extensively, in the newspapers of the whole country, it was spoken of as the spontaneous gathering of the people of Detroit to relieve the poor. The writer of this knew, about the time of the occurrence, the cause of the gathering, but beyond two or three, none ever knew the origin of the much- celebrated "wood donation to the poor." Mr. E. was on no committee. In the published proceedings inserted in the city papers, with all the parade which the great benevolence and extraordinary success of the movement merited, his name in no way appeared. It is but an illustration of his whole life. He has never been known to seek a public place of the most inconsiderable kind. We have said that he was celebrated for the fearless and independ ent stand which, regardless of personal consequences, he so frequently took in relation to public and popular questions. Some years ago, when Irish repeal associations were popular, Mr. E. and a few tempe rance friends started, as an adjunct and aid to their abstinence move ments, a repeal association. It was first small and obscure. It soon, however, attracted the attention of the politicians. It grew to a large popular gathering, when it was useful and common for demagogues to utter sentiments wholly at war with the principles and constitution of the association. Mr. E. appeared there but little after it assumed its more popular form, until, on an occasion of great excitement, the whole Irish population of the city had gathered to pass censure upon the Rev. Dr. Duffield, a learned, widely-known and highly-esteemed Presbyte rian clergyman, who, in one of a series of lectures which he was deliv ering to his congregation against Catholicism, was supposed to have said something derogatory to the character of the Irish nation generally, and the repeal association in particular. The meeting was among the largest and most excited ever convened in the city. The Rev. Catholic bishop of the diocese, and several learned and talented priests, were among the presiding officers of the evening, and numerous inflammatory speeches and denunciatory resolutions had been introduced, when, somewhat late in the evening, Mr. E. came forward, and, in one of the boldest and most masterly arguments to which it has ever been my privilege to listen, defended the right of an American Protestant cler gyman to preach against Catholicism, Irish repeal, temperance, or se cret societies, or whatever he conscientiously believed to be injurious to 418 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. the welfare, temporal or eternal, of his fellow-citizens. It would lead to unpardonable prolixity to follow the ingenious argument by which he committed his audience enthusiastically and with repeated plaudits to certain abstract propositions, beautifully and pathetically illustrated by a simple story which went right to the heart of an Irishman, and which, by an application clear and irresistible, compelled the immense au dience before him, without one dissenting voice, to reject the whole mass of censorious resolutions, and adopt, with acclamation, a mild, courteous resolve, referring to Dr. D., in terms of great respect, accord ing fully the right of discussion and opinion, but simply asserting his mistake of certain facts, and pointing out the pardonable and natural cause of his error. A clergyman present pronounced it the greatest tri umph he ever witnessed over the excitements, the prejudices and pas sions of a public audience. Mr. E. subsequently received the formal thanks of many leading citizens for his fearless and powerful effort. Before it was made, his proposed resolution was read to an Irish friend; he said to Mr. E., " You can do much, undoubtedly, with this audience, they will hear from you what they would not from very many ; but I fear you are attempting too much." But the very boldness of the thing controlled those uncultivated but really generous hearts, whose noble impulses might be successfully appealed to a thousand times more frequently than they are, with far greater success and power, than attends the low arts of the demagogue and the flatterer. In the cause of temperance, he has ever been a leading and influential man. His uncompromising stand on this subject has made him some bitter opposers, and given his attitude, in his own city, sometimes a false appearance of unpopularity. No man of his age, however, stands better, more strongly with the vast majority of the citizens of his city and state. But there are certain noisy classes, the pot-house politicians, and the demagogue leaders, who have no peculiar attachment to the man who lashes their habits and never courts their good opinion. Mr. E. has for several years frequently spoken in public upon the impolicy of associating the idea of revenue with the sale of ardent spi rits. He was always in favor of a prohibitory law, and claims that the first step towards this was to place the traffic in alcoholic drinks, in the first instance, upon the same basis as all other commodities. While the state convention, to revise the constitution of Michigan, was in ses sion, numerous petitions were presented to the body, praying the adop tion of a clause totally prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits in the state. These were presented to Mr. E. for signature, but deeming the mea sure wholly impracticable, that so much was asked, that nothing would be obtained, he refused to place his name among the petitioners. To the surprise of the great masses of the people, there was found in the new constitution a prohibition of the entire old-fashioned license sys tem ; the hobby of Mr. E., as it had been termed, was actually a part of the fundamental law, a constitutional provision of the state. No public meeting had been called, he had not figured as president, or committee- man in any public body. The newspapers had not sent his name abroad as a noisy agitator for the doctiine ; and yet it would be idle to impute to any one else, than the only man who ever publicly advocated H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 419 the doctrine before the meeting of the convention, and who corres ponded actively on the subject during its sitting, the enactment of the clause. The meaning of the provision, the extent of its effect in cities and in corporated villages, came before the Supreme Court of the state at the January term, 1852. And the court, beside delivering an opinion upon the only really necessary point in the case, at the strong solicitation of counsel, the judges intimated the inclination of their minds on seve ral questions which had been discussed on the argument. The result was a pretty free expression of opinion, both on the bench, and by way of inquiry and explanations also at the bar. Several remarked that the general object of the provision was utterly incomprehensible ; that it opened the sale to all, and so could not have emanated from temperance men; that it prohibited all revenue, and consequently could not have been asked by the tax-payers. It was pronounced the very acme of folly and absurdity. Mr. Emmons, after having patiently listened to all who seemed to have anything to say, rose and said that he would relieve the minds of learned gentlemen from the truly distressing perplexity in which they seemed laboring ; that he could not speak of course for a majority of the convention, but for those who drew the provision and originated its introduction, he could speak with absolute certainty. It was fully anticipated that its first and immediate effect would be an in jurious one, by increasing that which all admitted to be the great lead ing curse of the country, the traffic in alcoholic drinks But it had been found by experience that every application to the legislature for a totally prohibitory law had been defeated by the pot-house politicians, by those little locally great men of the cities and villages, a large portion of whose petty revenues were derived from the power to regulate inns and groceries. That while the delusion of taxation, the monstrous absurdity of the community being paid for the privilege of destroying its members, remained, it was utterly impossible to reach the mayors and aldermen of the cities and the boards of the villages. The loss of the revenue was an unanswerable motive for their action, if not an argument in their mouths ; and after the most careful and solemn deli beration, believing that the very best thing had been done for the ulti mate good of the state, a few leading and thoughtful friends of temper ance concluded it was the best to ask for, and the convention in its liberality and good sense had concluded to insert, a provision which would leave the evils or benefits of selling rum, gin, and brandy naked ly exposed to the judgment of the people. If the public good really required the sale there was no reason under Heaven why a man should pay for the liberty of selling it any more than for that of disposing of bread and of beef. If it were an unmitigated wrong, then it was mon strous to suffer under the sanction of law any mar for money to com mit the crime. It has been thought best to leave the rum traffic to stand or fall by its own merits. The decision of the bench accords exactly with the actual motives of the provision. It was simply to sever the spirit traffic from revenue. "And, gentlemen," said he, turn ing round to the auditory, "the trade and society are before you; per petuate the former to the injury of the latter just as long as you please, tut you can no longer add insult to the infliction by telling us that we 420 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. are paid for our suffering and our shame. My own opinion is, that the insertion of that wise provision is one of the longest strides towards a total prohibition of the spirit traffic which has ever been taken in the State of Michigan. This was the sole motive of those who asked for it. If the provision still appears absurd, at least, gentlemen, its motives will no longer remain mysterious and incomprehensible." But this extended notice must be brought to a close. The great dif ficulty has been to select from the great mass of materials which the active and impulsive life of Mr. Emmons affords for the writer. Few men are more felt in society. Few have succeeded more extensively in impress ing upon it, and the laws and institutions, judicial, political, moral, and benevolent of his state their own peculiar opinions and theories, and his name nowhere appears. There is but one class of men for the last quarter of a century who figure in American history. The party poli tician, the dominant party politician alone is mentioned. His doings, sayings, and theories are chronicled. He may be but yielding to the mighty influences which bold, energetic reformers have set in action. But enacting into laws the great theories and recommendations which the discussions of the bar and the bench have originated and matured, and his name alone is known beyond the precincts of his state, Gover nor A., Senator B., and Congressmen C., D. and E., standing for the time being as the governmental body through which the soul and active impulse of society are manifesting its thoughts and emotions, are heralded abroad as its great men ; while the very life of the state s prosperity, all which gives it intellectual character and sustains its high position as a powerful and prosperous commonwealth among the nations of the earth; her leading, active, honest and influential professional men, giant commercial managers, find no place in public records or prints. Our newspapers but seldom report a learned, eloquent, and masterly argument at the bar, though it may touch a thousand practical rights which lay close beside the hearthstone, the freehold, and the character. But the most pitiful ebullitions of the political demagogue are hawked about in our party papers as if the salvation of the nation rested upon their perusal. As for fortune, Mr. Emmons has not, and unless he greatly changes his expensive habits, he never will become a very wealthy man. He does not know what economy is when the comfort and enjoyment of his family are concerned. In personal enjoyments aside from his home he expends nothing. But his home is spacious and even elegant. His residence is among the best in the city in which he resides. In the ex tent and elegance of his grounds, the costliness of their decorations, they surpass any in the city and equal any in the state. These things for a young man who twelve years ago started without a dollar, are wholly incompatible with great wealth ; still Mr. Emmons is entirely independ ent, has a fortune between thirty and forty thousand dollars. He says he has no desire to leave his wife and little ones with any more than to enable them with economy to live respectably. He does not desire them to be enabled to dispense with the one, or in style exceed the modest limits of the other. His style of living is plain and democratic, and his whole family are characterized for sentiments and practices which rebuke the affectations H. H. EMMONS, OF MICHIGAN. 421 of superficial and irrationably fashionable society. They set a -whole some example of that practical medium style, that judicious regard for comfort in the midst of abundance, that familiarity with all around them, which so befits a prosperous American citizen. There are very few to whom the father could point as an example for his son to follow with more safety than to him. When we have said this, the highest praise that can be bestowed upon any man has been given. It would be unjust to close this memoir and the secrets and causes of success but half told, did we withhold one of the chief elements in the happiness and consolations in the progress of Mr. Emmons. The un obtrusive and eminently domestic tastes of his intelligent and beautiful lady would be wounded by more than a general reference to her per fections as a mother and wife. When led to the altar Miss Williams was among the most beautiful women of her state, and a thorough, sound, practical education, high religious principles, and naturally liberal and kind emotions, made her all which the high merits of the man she chose so richly deserved. The happiness of the married life has been wholly without alloy. Even between those bound together by more than ordinary affection there will sometimes creep in little matters of difference to ruffle the temper and show they are mortals. And though no exemption from the imperfections of the clay is claimed, still it is by no means common for seven years of matrimonial life to pass without one angry word or a single subject of unpleasant difference. Such is the fortunate history thus far of Mr. Emmons and his much respected as well as much loved wife. Nor is this peace around the hearthstone the result of tyranny on the one side and slavish servility on the other. Mrs. Ernmons is the uncontrolled and supreme ruler of her house and household. Her checks are answered at the banker s and there is no supervision of accounts. Mr. Emmons insists that nine ladies in ten would be more economical than their husbands if they were made their confidants, trusted with responsibilities, and knew they were looked to and treated as equals and advisers. Should Mr. Emmons regain the health which his too indefatigable labors have now so seriously impaired it cannot be doubted that results will follow his continued activity which, when his whole course is run, will entitle the writer who notices his life to omit all that preliminary justification and apology which was deemed appropriate for its notice now. 42*2 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. HON. WILLIAM H. MILLS, OF BANGOR, MAINE. Hox. WILLIAM H. MILLS, a gentleman of middle age, was born in the State of Vermont, and migrated to Portland, Me., when quite young, where he was for several years engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1835 he removed to the city of Bangor for the purpose of entering upon the duties of cashier of the EASTERN BANK, then just chartered, which situation he still holds. Colonel Mills belongs with that class of reliable men in whom all have confidence, and who, from a natural kindness of heart and urbanity of manners, never have enemies. He has been repeatedly elected to either branch of the city council, and twice unanimously elected to the office of mayor of the city, which office he declined to hold longer, the public drafts being too heavy upon the duties of his profession. Colonel Mills has long been a great admirer of the illustrious soldier and statesman who is now the candidate of the whig party for the Pre sidency, and labored hard for his nomination in 1848, and subsequently did much to bring about the great unanimity of sentiment in his state in favor of that great and good man. He represented the Fifth Con gressional District in the whig national convention at Baltimore in June last, where he evinced an untiring zeal to effect the nomination of his fa vorite candidate, and no one rejoiced more than he at the glorious con summation of his wishes. The "Maine Delegation" will not soon be forgotten by the members of that convention or the country at large. HON. CHRISTOPHER C. SCOTT, OF ARKANSAS. IN presenting to the profession a short sketch of the past life of the subject of this article, now a judge of the Supreme Court of Arkansas, It may not, perhaps, be out of place to state that his family was inti mately connected with our struggle for national independence. His father, John B. Scott, of Halifax county, Virginia, at the age of sixteen, ran off from Hampden Sidney College, and volunteered as a private soldier in Lee s Legion, in whfch his elder brother was a captain. He continued in the Revolutionary army until the close of the war, and by his spirit and devotion to the cause of liberty attained the grade of lieutenant. He was subsequently elected brigadier-general of the militia by the legislature of Virginia, and, during Mr. Jefferson s administra tion, served as colonel-commandant at several of the military posts of the United States. During the late war with Great Britain he organized CHRISTOPHER C. SCOTT, OF ARKANSAS. 423 a company, composed of the old heroes of the Revolution, for the de fence of Norfolk, when threatened by the enemy. Of this company, the "Silver Greys," he was captain when he died in February, 1813. He was also a lawyer of some eminence, at different periods a member of the legislature of Virginia, and was a candidate for Congress, without opposition, when he died. The Hon. Christopher C. Scott was born on the 22d of April, 1807, and was only six years old at the period of his father s death. He had the misfortune to lose his mother also at a very early age; but her place w r as in some sort supplied, for a short time, by the generous care and affection of his brother William s wife. Upon her death, at the age of fourteen, he went into a counting-room at Prince Edward court-house, where he remained with William Henry Yenable two years; and then accompanied his brothers and sister upon their removal to Alabama. In the following year he returned to Virginia, and entered Washington College, where he completed his collegiate course in his twentieth year. Fully sensible of the irreparable loss that he had sustained by the al most total neglect of his education during the preceding three years, he devoted himself with energy and industry to the prosecution of his studies. At this period he bent all the energies of his mind to the mastery of Burlamaqui on national and political law; and to that au thor attributes his abandonment of the " free opinions" upon the sub ject of religion, so common at that time to young men of his age. It was not, however, until later in life, that he became a member of the Methodist church, of which he continues to be a cherished and a worthy member. On leaving college he returned to Alabama and commenced reading law with Mr. Van De Graff, but remained under his direction only about a year, when he entered into a mercantile business and cotton specula tion, from which he retired at the expiration of about two years, with the loss of nearly all his patrimonial estate. Thus thrown upon his own exertions, and conscious that his future success depended upon his own efforts, he returned to Virginia and commenced the study of law at the Staunton Law School, with the determination of qualifying him self for the practice. Here he had access to the fine library of John H. Peyton, Esq., who, in a late sketch of 1 his life in the Literary Messenger, is styled the "Model Lawyer." He had also the advantages of* a moot court, and the lectures of Judge B. G. Baldwin and Doctor Waddell, of all which he availed him self to the utmost effort of his power. In speaking of this period of his life, and of the industry and avidity with which he pursued the study of the law, I have heard him say that he was absolutely " hungry for law knowledge," and that Coke on Littleton was as interesting to him as any book that he had ever read. He completed the legal course in July, 1832, and early in August married Elizabeth Strother Smith, then in the eighteenth year of her age a lady whose personal graces are only equaled by the higher and nobler virtues of the heart, and whose intellectual acquirements have won for her the admiration and respect of all who know her personally, or by her contributions to the periodi cal literature of the day the second daughter of Hon. Daniel Smith, for many years president of the general court, and at the time of his 424 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. death, in November, 1850, President of the Special Court of Appeals of Virginia. Immediately after his marriage, Col. Scott went to Alabama for the purpose of pursuing his profession in that state. After spending a few months in Greensborough, and attending a term of the Supreme Court, where he earned his first fee, he determined upon settling at Gainsville, Sumpter county a town, like most of the new towns in the south and west, rather in prospect than in being at that time. Accordingly, erecting a log-cabin for his family, and an office for business, he com menced the practice of the law, and by a close and steady attention to professional duty, was enabled to earn a comfortable support for his family at the outset. It may not be uninteresting to the younger members of the profes sion to learn, that at the commencement of his professional career, Judge Scott accepted the office and discharged the duties of justice of the peace. And now, whilst occupying a seat upon the highest judicial tribunal of one of the sovereign states of the Union, he may with pride look back to the time when he presided in the most inferior court with an equal desire to administer the law, and do justice between man and man. His practice increasing rapidly, and being engaged in the prose cution of several important land claims before the department at Wash ington City, he formed a partnership in January, 1836, with Jonathan Bliss, Esq., (now a wealthy lawyer of Alabama,) with whom he con tinued in a lucrative and extensive business until June, 1838. At this period occurred what may well be termed a calamity to him and his, and which I would pass over in silence, but that it might be deemed, by those acquainted with the circumstances, that his friends and himself shrink from all reference to it ; and I know that, whilst he regrets the necessity, his judgment approves and his conscience condemns not his participation in the affair. Opposed in principle to the banking corporations that sprang into existence about this period, and deeply sympathizing with the poorer classes of the community, who were suffering much from the ebbs and flows of a depreciated, paper currency thrown broadcast among them, he strongly denounced, in a public meeting in which he was invited to speak, the entire banking system, state and national, and especially the operations of the banking agencies located in the section of country in which he lived. This, of course, raised up against him the opposition of all connected with, or who had favors to ask of these moneyed cor porations, and also excited the enmity of principals and agents. The result was a personal difficulty into which he fell with one of the latter. Though prosecuted to the utmost rigor that money could command or enmity excite, the penalty was simply a pecuniary fine, from which he was relieved, on the petition of the bar, by a full pardon by the then governor of Alabama. Colonel Scott immediately recommenced the practice of law, and as an evidence that he still retained the confidence and respect of the com munity in which he lived, and who were cognizant of the whole affair, he at once obtained a full share of practice ; and although professional business continued to decrease during the five years afterwards that he remained at Gainsville, he was fully sustained whilst he resided there. CHRISTOPHER C. ECOTT, OF ARKANSAS. 425 He had determined, however, to remove as soon as he felt that it would seem as if he acted of his own free will ; and therefore proceeded quietly to close his extensive unsettled business. Having done so, he moved to Arkansas, and in May, 1844, settled at Camden, in the vicinity of which town he still resides, where he again commenced the practice, which yielded a sufficient support for his family. In the following year he formed a partnership with Major Abner A. Stith, which continued, with gradually increasing profits, until November, 1848, when Colonel Scott was unanimously elected by the legislature judge of the eighth judicial circuit, the duties of which office he discharged to the general satisfaction of the bar. until July, 1848, when he was appointed by the governor judge of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of the Hon. W. S. Oldham. At the following Novem ber session of the legislature, Judge Scott was elected for the unexpired term of Judge Oldham, by a vote which almost evinced the absence of opposition. At the November session, 1850, he was unanimously re- elected by the legislature for the full term under the constitution, and has since continued to discharge the duties pertaining to the office with general satisfaction to the bar and country. This is, perhaps, neither the time nor occasion, to attempt an analysis of the decisions emanat ing from one now in the active discharge of his judicial functions. A difference of opinion, as to the result in particular cases, may well exist among the members of the profession who are familiar with and partial to the decisions, often conflicting, of the different states from which they come ; yet all, I doubt not, are willing to concede to him honesty of pur pose, and impartiality and ability in the discharge of his judicial duties. The labors of an appellate court in a new state, the construction of whose constitution is, in many respects, unsettled, and whose code of laws is confessedly a legislative anomaly, are much more arduous than in the older states. The subject of this article, however, brings to his aid, in his judicial labors, as well the results of a matured judgment and ex tensive legal research, as the patient industry so necessary to a correct exposition of the law ; and has already, by his decisions, made an impress upon the constitution and laws of the state, which will remain, with the acquiescence of the abler members of the bar, as long as the constitu tion and laws themselves shall stand. If I were inclined to specify a fault in his opinions, it would be the metaphysical train of thought which sometimes runs through them, and which leads him, too often perhaps, to disregard the blind yet convenient rule, stare decisis, and in quire into first principles, or the foundation upon which adjudications rest. As to his private life he is keenly sensitive to the quiet happiness of the domestic hearth, enjoys much the pleasures of the social circle, has proved himself ever ready to spend and be spent in the service of his friends, and meets all who approach him with that frankness, cour tesy, and kindness, which ever attend the union of the cultivated mind and generous heart. 423 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. WILLIAM MASON, OF TAU1TTON, MASSACHUSETTS. IT h;is been often questioned with a good deal of seriousness whether the times make eminent men or eminent men the times. After all the argumentation, hov;ever, upon the matter, we have come to no very de cisive result, sines it is one so nicely balanced that it is difficult to tell which way the beam inclines. Certain it is that, since the opening of the present century, there has been a marked development of practi cal science, and practical skill. Every year has increased this develop ment. The demand for men who can concentrate their minds or turn their hands for the purpose of bringing out a desired result has been un paralleled in the history of our race. The supply has been as wonder ful as the demand. The times have called for the men, and the men have met and hurried forward the times. Next to the fact that the New-England States have furnished more men of eminence in the liberal professions than any other of the United States of the same relative number of inhabitants, is the interesting fact that they stand in singular prominence as the rearers of inventive genius, and the producers of cunning and curious workmanship. Of these New-England States, Massachusetts and Connecticut decidedly take the lead in these respects. The stern character of their soil, and the liberal provision made in both for common-school education, drive the sons of these two neighboring territories to the exercise of their wits, and teach them how to use them. In illustration of this, let me carry you to the little village of Mystic, in the latter state, and from thence trace the his tory of one who, in his residence within both these states, has exerted a well-known and far-reaching influence on a prominent branch of in dustry. William Mason was born in the just-named village, A. D. 1808, of poor but respectable parentage. When he was three years of age, the family removed to a small island at the mouth of the Mystic River, now known as Bradford s Island, where he lived three years. Here there was no school, nor was there any opportunity of acquiring even those simple rudiments of education which are usually imparted to children at this tender age. The strong bent of his taste displayed itself neverthe less in a very interesting way. He busied himself in watching the ma noeuvres of the vessels which plied on the river, and experimented very successfully till, from time to time, he sent out quite a fleet to seek their fortune. None of these, it is believed, have ever been reported either at a native or a foreign harbor ; but the fact of their having been so long missing has never given the builder any serious anxiety. From this re tired island he removed to North Stonington, where his father cultivated a little farm, and worked at his trade as a blacksmith. During the se ven years of his being in this town, he attended school in the winter, and worked at home in spring, summer, and autumn. But, like other boys, he managed to have a portion of his time devoted to childish sports. These pastimes, however, were not conducted in the usual way for boys WILLIAM MASON, OP MASSACHUSETTS. 427 of his age, but generally took a mechanical or artistic turn such as making and sailing miniature vessels, making drawings on paper, &c. Owing to the very limited circumstances of the family, he could not procure the toys which are so liberally sho T .72red rpon the children of our day ; but if his parents could not buy he could make them. Any thing that he saw that interested him he would at once set out to make, and, considering the disadvantages under which he labored, his success was wonderful. His principal tool in wood- work was his father s jack- knife, which he could wield with great precision ; but it was a long time before he could have one that he could call his own. This important instrument he finally procured by making pen-and-ink drawings, and selling them for pennies. " He hoarded every cent till he could get it, And leUt no stone unturned till he could whet it." He also worked in iron like a young " Vulcan." This part of his opera tions was carried on in his father s smithy. A jews-harp is a difficult thing to manufacture, requiring nice skill in the whole process ; .yet at eight years of age he made the article with his own hands; and he made not only one but quite a number, and they were capital good ones too. He had seen them in the hands of other boys, and heard them played upon. He could not purchase one, but he set out and made it by his own handicraft. He always had better skates and nicer sleds than any of his playmates, and they were always of a unique pattern, and of his own manufacture. Musical instruments, of various kinds, he attempted to manufacture, and often with good success. At twelve years of age he made a drum. Taking an inch-thick whitewood board, and planing it down thin, for the barrel, he steamed it over the kitchen kettle, and bent it round over his mother s weaving-beam ; then he bought a couple of sheep-skins for the heads, cured them, made the hoops, put it together, and varnished it. This drum was a well-toned instrument, and was " swapped of," as the yankee boys say, to a regular drummer. At thirteen years of age he entered a cotton factory in Canterbury, Connecticut. This was one of those old-fashioned establishments which a few of us can remember, and those who have seen them can easily contrast them with the magnificent structures which are now reared for this branch of business. It was literally a day of small things with this form of industry. To our young friend, however, it seemed quite an affair to become a cotton-spinner. Although associated with a class of fellow-operatives which would compare as unfavorably with the tidy workers in Lowell and Lawrence as would the mill in Canterbury with the " Bay State" or the " Atlantic" mills, he was quite proud of his elevation. The four years spent at this work were doubtless as in teresting as any of his afier days, and self-development went on as much as at any period of his life. No time lay idle on his hands. When the necessity of repairs stopped the wheel, or when he could snatch a few hours or minutes of an evening or a holiday, he was always busy. As a proof of this, as well as of his constantly increasing ingenuity, we may mention the fact that he made a "hurdy-gurdy," that is considered a very curious piece of workmanship. He had seen but one, and that was in the hands of a musician in a traveling caravan, and he was not permitted to 428 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. examine it except at a distance. This instrument of course could not be made without a pattern, or a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of music. At least, the maker must be so far acquainted with the philosophy of music as to be able to " stop" a single string in all the places required to produce all the tones in the " scale" twice over, which is a very nice point. Young Mason was not long in possessing himself of all the knowledge necessary in order to make his hurdy- gurdy "discourse sweet music;" and if any of our readers have any doubt as to this fact, they can be introduced to the veritable instrument by its original maker and proprietor, at his house in the good old town of Taunton. One year of these cotton-spinning days was spent at Lisbon, Connec ticut, where was a thread factory. A little incident which happened here tells its own story. One of the machines became entirely disar ranged and no one could manage it, save our young friend. He saw the difficulty at once and remedied it. This instance of skill was heard of at East Haddam, where they were setting up a thread-mill, and he was sent for, though only fifteen years old, to start their machines. When seventeen years of age he left the cotton manufactory to familiar ize himself with the work of a machine-shop. One of these was attached to the cotton-mill at Canterbury, and employed some ten or a dozen hands. This was rather a limited school for a young man of ingenuity, but it was about as good as any in those days. He confined himself very closely to his work, and mastered all the elements of education necessary to a practical machinist. With his stay there closed his period of apprenticeship, and, for the rest of our space, we must look at him as working his way forward in the world, with the skill thus far acquired and constantly increased by experience and observation. While in the cotton-mill he acquired the reputation of a first-rate spin ner in the machine-shop he was esteemed a master of his tools. At twenty years of age he made his first excursion from his native state. Regarding New- York as the great centre of enterprise, he went there in search of work. Owing to the depressed state of business at that time he got nothing to do, and, in three weeks, went to New-Hart ford, near Utica, New-York, where he made an engagement in a machine-shop. A month after making this arrangement the company failed and closed the establishment for a short time. Upon the re opening of it on a more limited scale, he was at once re-engaged as one of their best workmen. After he had been here about six months his old master, D. Packer, sent to inquire about the manufacture of diaper linen which they had heard was carried on in the vicinity of Utica. He answered them that he could find no manufactory of that article, save, by hand, but that, if they wished to have machines for this kind of work, he could build them some. On this they sent for him back to Canterbury, where he made and set up the first power-looms in this country, and, it is believed, the first in the world, for this kind of work. Some of them are even now running. They answered the purpose admirably; He also constructed and set up a very beautiful and involved machine for weaving damask table-cloths, figured and figure-bordered, but, being thought rather complicated, it was stowed away in the garret for a while, and, when taken out through the front upper window of the build- "WILLIAM MAJ302T, C7 MASSACHUSETTS. 429 ing, the gearing gave way and the whole was broken to atoms on the pavement below. All this skill and ingenuity were here doomed to sad and early disappointment. The establishment failed, and with it went the hard earnings of the young machinist, jj or a while the misfortune was well nigh changing his whole future course. In one of his vacations, while in Canterbury, a strolling artist had ap peared there, and greatly excited his curiosity and interest. Mr. Mason has said, in the hearing of the writer, that he had always had a taste for art, especially for the art of painting ; and that, if he had followed his natural bent, he should have been an artist. Whether this be so, or not, when the said painter set up his instruments for reflecting the hu man face divine, Mason was determined to see what he could do with paint and brush. With a little assistance from the painter, and with what he had learned before, he set up for portrait-painter during the rest of his vacation, and so far excelled the itinerant, that he made "him evacuate the place in a very sudden and crest-fallen manner. When this failure of his employers, and its accompanying misfortunes overtook him, he instinctively turned to his easel as a favorite friend, and as a means of honorable support. Fortunately, however, as we must re gard it, when he had reached the age of 23 or 24, Mr. John Hyde, of Mystic, sent to him an order for some diaper-looms. He had no shop. He had no means of taking the contract, but he got an advance on his job, made a contract for the necessary frames at Willimantic, secured the privilege, for himself and another man, of working in the shop where the frames were building, so that he might do the nicer work, and thus made a very encouraging job, in which he realized his ten dol lars per day. Here we have him again as a machinist, and the idea of turning artist was abandoned after he reached the age of 25. The success of his job for Mr. Hyde gave him at once a reputation, and he was invited by Mr. A. Lampher to Killingly, a little town on the eastern border of Connecticut. At an establishment in this place they were engaged on what was called the " ring-traveler," but they could not make it work. The thing had become a by-word. Just as Mr. Mason was beginning to make the thing succeed, Mr. Lampher failed, and Mr. Mason took the concern in charge on behalf of the cre ditors, he to have a specified per-centage on each frame. He now made thorough work. The old " travelers" had been of a poor kind and poorly made by hand. He now got up a machine for making a new ar ticle, and on this new article and its arrangement there has never been any improvement, nor is it thought there can be. The old, uncouth form of the frame was changed, and a new and very tasteful one was designed. For these, at first, there was but a limited demand, owing to the prejudice attached to the former machine built in this shop, but he was indefatigable in his efforts to introduce them, promising to re ceive them back wherever there was any dissatisfaction. None were ever returned, and none were ordered, in a single instance, without a second or more frequent order. It still occupies a high place in the confidence of skilful men, and is decidedly the most popular instru ment for what is called " throstle," or " frame spinning." After two years stay in Killingly, Mr. Mason received an invitation from the then flourishing firm of Crocker & Richmond, to go to Taun- 430 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. ton, in Massachusetts. An offer of $1,000 per annum, with some other considerations, were presented to induce him to come. This invitation he accepted in the spring of 1836, considering the field as much more favorable for progress than that which he occupied. For the first year he worked steadily on his ring-frames, his inventive faculties all the while wide awake, and constantly developing. In 1837, there was a crash, the whole concern going by the board, and owing him heavily. Here he was again crushed under the disasters of others. This was a sad disappointment, but he did not sit down and cry over it. His energies were only the more stirred up. He at once devised a " speeder," or " roving machine," and secured a patent for it. Shortly afterward, Leach & Keith took the old machine shop, and Mr. Mason. was employed by them, as a sort of foreman, to build this speeder. The building of this soon gave way to the manufacture of the great in vention of his life, the " self-acting mule." On this he experimented two years, and took out a patent, October 8, 1840. About this time, the so-called " Scotch mule" was patented in America, but it was no rival worth noticing to that built at Leach & Keith s. Many of these original mules are running in some of our nicest mills at this moment, as, for instance, in the Bartlett mills, Newburyport. A more formidable rival appeared, 1841, in the mule of Sharp & Roberts, imported from Eng land by the Fall River Machine Company, and patented for America. It was supposed by some of Mason s best friends that he was now out done. But not so. He immediately went to work and made an entire new mule, different from his own first make, from the Scotch and from the English mule, for which he got a new patent. In the winter of 1842, when just completing this new machine, and at the most critical point of his labors, he was taken seriously ill, and Leach & Keith failed, owing him pretty much all he was worth. On his recovery, he went forward once more with an indomitable will. Securing enough from the wreck to start a few of his new mules, he has gone forward, from, that time to the present date, in a remarkable, if not an unbroken cur rent of success. Soon after the failure just alluded to, he was invited to Lowell, with flattering prospects, but he had become attached to Taunton, and, moreover, he wished to set up in business for himself, where he could work after his own way, and for his own best advan tage. The machine-shop of Leach & Keith being for sale low, a Taun ton friend suggested to J. K. Mills, Esq., of Boston, the expediency of aiding Mr. Mason to purchase it and take charge of it. An interview took place between the gentlemen, which resulted in the establishment of Mr. Mason, as controller and manager of the whole works. The prosperous times, commencing in 1842, carried everything forward on the flood-tide. During the summer of 1845, a noble set of buildings, arranged according to his own notions of convenience, was reared on an area of six acres. The main building, which is three stories, besides the attic, for half its length, and two, with the attic, for the other half, 315 feet long. The foundry, especially its furnaces the smithy the large building for setting up machines, are all worthy of a careful ex- animation. The man of skill in mechanics, or of taste in that depart ment, will find, in a thousand little niceties of arrangement and com bination, the presence of a master mind that knows well what it is WILLIAM MASON, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 431 about. There is a perfect exuberance of the inventive faculty manifest. ed at every point. No one who knows anything about these matters should spend a day in Taunton without giving a part of it to a visit of inspection. Whoever happens in, when a set of machines is getting ready for delivery, will admire the fine taste of their outlines, as well as the beauty of the exact and delicate workmanship. No more ap propriate temple of industry could be reared than that of one of our first-class factories fitted out with them. We may here add, that when Mr. Mason completed these works, he found himself half owner of them, and owing no man anything. Some times he has had as many as four hundred men in his employ. He is now laying the foundation of a large building, to be devoted to locomo tive-building. We should riot be at all surprised should he do as much for the branch of mechanics as he has for cotton machinery. He is yet in the very prime and vigor of his faculties, and he cannot do anything in a humdrum, routine way. His mind and taste will be strcngly concentrated upon the subject before him, raid he will, most assuredly, bring forth new things constantly. One thing is certain ; we shall, at least, have some better-Zoo/fct m; locomotives some in which the lines of beauty will be more prominent. We want them, of course, strong workers, but we want them also good lookers. We have too much respect and admiration for the iron horse to allov/ his legs to be all straightened out and his lines all angularized. As good taste has been successfully at work on cotton machinery, we shall hope to see some thing soon on the rails that does not look exactly like a " cooking-stove on wheels." We may also add, that, as a fruit and reward of his skill and devotion to business, the subject of this brief memoir is in possession of a resi dence, which, taken all in all, may be pronounced the finest specimen of domestic architecture in the state. It is built of brick, painted in imitation of the Portland stone, with a massive base, portico, rustic- work corners, window-sills, &c., &c., of the Jersey freestone. When we say it is the work of Richard Upjohn, Esq., and built for a man who knows how to let an architect build for him without spoiling his designs by impertinent and ignorant dictation, we are sure that the admirers of that pre-eminent artist will be satisfied that all is right. The appoint ments of the place throughout are characterized by simplicity and marked elegance. Long may the owner live to enjoy it. In wishing him this wish, we do but echo the sentiment of his many friends. Friends he has many, for his prosperity has never inflated him. He bears it modestly and strongly. May that prosperity continue ! While he and all of us should remember that it is traceable to a kind over ruling Providence, none can deny that, so far as second causes are con cerned, it has been, also, the legitimate result of great inventive genius, of unceasing industry, and of unconquerable perseverance. The life-record of such a man as this reads to our young men a lesson that cannot easily be mistaken or set aside. While, in its prominent outlines, it is parallel with the history of all men who have reached en viable eminence in any department, it is also, in some of its details, singularly inspiring to young men of genuine talent in America, and especially in New-England. In the Old World, say the best that can 4.32 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. be said, inventive genius and practical skill are generally cramped and crowded down by the fores of circumstances and the ill-balanced organ isms of society, but here it is not so. Every one who has the power and the will to make anything of himself can do so. We can all reach the level to which we are entitled by our own intrinsic or acquired qua lifications. Mere fancy-men, mere theorists, mere cabin-window cap tains, can do nothing, for they are nothing. There is nothing in them, and consequently nothing can come out. But all that is real, all that is valuable, especially in this day, all that is practical, can command re spect, command place, and command remuneration. Let no young American, then especially no young son of New-England ever de spond, so long as he feels that he has anything rital and vigorous about him. With the single example which has been here set before you in your eye, go forward with a stout heart, a sturdy patience, an active hand and a steady purpose. With these you will conquer every obsta cle, and become what hundreds have become before you self-made men. And be assured that a self-made man is the highest style of man. JOHNPOPE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNION BANS OF TENNESSEE AT MEMPHIS. THE individual who devotes his time and talents to such pursuits as render him useful to his country, while, at the same time, they accom plish for him, personally, the objects of honorable employment, is " per forming well his part in the drama of life." To succeed in such designs is to deserve the gratitude and admiration of the world. Such conduct, under any circumstances, is highly commendable. But when we find one of polished education, surrounded with all the means of gratifying his tastes in the most elegant and refined manner, and indulging his love of social intercourse, voluntarily abandoning such pleasures to mingle in the toils, and share the dangers and privations incident to settling in a new country, that he might take a leading position in developing its hidden resources, he has tenfold claims to our admiration. Neither the novelty of life in a cabin in a wilderness, nor the excitement of the chase, lured him away from the land of his birth ; but the nobler im pulses of that ambition which led him to participate in the labors and hardships of subduing the wilderness and converting the forests, brakes and swamps of the margin of the Mississippi into grain-fields and cot ton-plantations a work of but little less peril to health and life than the vicissitudes of war the beneficial results of which, however, are of equal importance in a national point of view. Yet such has been the tendency of human applause towards military leaders, that the talented, devoted, self-sacrificing artisan, the adventurous pioneer, and the enter prising, laborious agriculturist, have been overlooked and forgotten as JOTIN POPE, OF TENNESSEE. 433 benefactors, in the eagerness of the multitude to give everything to the bloody and clamorous renown of the warrior. COLONEL JOHN POPE, the subject of this memoir, is a native of Georgia, and son of Leroy Pope, a prominent merchant of that state, and received the early part of his education at the distinguished academy of Dr. Moses Waddell, in South Carolina. He was a particular favorite of the old Doctor, and it was under his admirable discipline that he ac quired his studious and moral habits of character. It was a proverbial saying of the Doctor that he had a golden head. He stood at the head of his class, and particularly in composition. On leaving the institution at sixteen years of age, on the occasion of the annual exhibition, the highest honor for composition was awarded him by his class. In his youth he manifested a decided penchant for punning. As an evidence of which the following may be cited. It occurred while a boarder in Dr. Waddell s family at the Wellington Academy. It was a practice with the old Doctor to put out Latin phrases to the students at table, to translate impromptu. On one occasion, coming to little Pope s turn, the Doctor challenged him with, " Dum vivimus vivamus." Good butter was a luxury with which the students were but seldom indulged. Prompted by an irresistible impulse to give the words a free and pointed translation, he quickly replied: " Whilst we have butter, let us have it." Accordingly, at the next meal, Aunt Betsey the familiar soubriquet by which all the students called the Doctor s wife pre sented them with a plate of fresh butter by the positive dictum of the old Doctor. It was a custom with the old Doctor to catechise his boarders, on every Sunday evening, on the Scriptures, the students standing in array in the room of his family worship. On one of these occasions, he put the question to a youth, who had taken his stand for the first time (and who from appearances was fresh from the purlieus of a negro quarter) : " Who made you ?" " The devil, Sir." " Out of what were you made?" "Out of a log of w r ood, Sir." The solemn countenance of the old Doc tor was suddenly startled, and he exclaimed : " John Pope, what do you think of such a Hottentot of a boy f Pie replied, "I think he would make excellent fuel for old Nick." It may be well to recall to public recollection the internal administra tion of this celebrated academy. That great conservative feature of criminal jurisprudence the trial of offenders by a jury of their peers was adopted and successfully practised by President Waddell. Moni tors or inspectors were appointed weekly, and every Monday evening, in the presence of the students assembled in the Academy Hall, they made a public expose of all the transgressions and delinquencies ob served during the preceding week. Whereupon, a jury of seven stu dents were appointed by the president, and the case of the offenders referred, with instructions to bring in their verdict the next afternoon. And no criminal judge on record was ever more stern and inflexible in the prompt execution of the verdict of the jury. In the performance of this duty an amusing incident is related of the subject of this memoir. The monitor had reported an allegation against one of the students that he was " guilty of lying, and dodging from his recitations." He was foreman of the jury, brought in a true bill, and recommended, as a 28 434 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. remedy for his almost incurable malady, that the president administer 28 grs. of hickory powder, in broken doses, at intervals of five minutes, by the stimulating application of the same to the naked calves of his legs, and that he be deprived of his daily rations at twelve o clock, for a week, by two hours close confinement in the dungeon (alias the Academy Hall.) A few days after this, Augustus B. Longstreet, then a student, and the distinguished author of the "Georgia Scenes," wrote a very humorous parody on the whole transaction. About this time his father removed to Huntsville, Alabama, and he was sent to Cumberland College, (now the University of Nashville,) at that time under the presidency of Dr. Priestly, a celebrated scholar and divine, who devoted many of the best years of his life to teaching. The Hon. E. H. Foster and John Bell were his classmates, with whom mutual feelings of strong personal regard were formed, which have been warmly cherished to the present day. After remaining about one year he was transferred thence to Yale College, where he completed his edu cation, after a term of three years. His residence in Yale was charac terized by studious habits, and a devoted attention to the cultivation of his literary taste apart from his classical studies: hence the high reputation he acquired in his class in the department of composition. The class was large, and distinguished for its many talented members. Among the number were the Hon. John M. Clayton, and Isaac Holmes, of South Carolina. It was during his residence in college a literary periodical was established, edited by the three best writers from the senior class. When the time arrived for making these selections, the honor was con ferred on him with two others the most distinguished writers of the class the Hon. Thomas A. Marshall, of Kentucky, and John D. Eckles, of North Carolina, who took the first honors of the class. In the distribution of commencement honors he was among the highest participants. On leaving college he promptly commenced the study of law in Georgia. But in this he was suddenly checkmated by the marriage of a Miss Louisa Rembert, the daughter of a wealthy and a highly respectable planter a lady no less remarkable for her per sonal beauty than for all the amiable and accomplished qualities of her sex. Becoming possessed of an independent estate, his vocation was sud denly and permanently changed into that of a cotton-planter. His loca tion was in the vicinity of Huntsville. No man is more fascinating in his manners entertaining or instructive in his conversation lively, but never frivolous happily mingling dignity with easy familiarity. His disposition naturally inclined to the facetious ; with a playfulness of manner that made him a favorite in every circle in whichh e moved, he possessed in a high degree the.artof infusing into others the joyous- ness of his own feelings. The frankness of his deportment and the purity of his morality have exercised over his youthful associates a last ing and beneficial influence. On the third year of his residence he was elected to the legislature. During the session several questions of important state policy were discussed. In the debates he took a prominent part. He was conspicu ous for his efforts to change the system of voting by balloting into viva voce, and lost the measure by only two votes. His speeches on this JOHN POPE, OF TENNESSEE. 435 subject were published, and highly lauded at the time. After the close of the session, on his return to his family, he was warmly received by his constituents, and urged to become a candidate for Congress in opposi tion to the Hon. Gabriel Moore, an old and popular politician. But he declined, excusing himself on the ground that he was too young a man to take the field against such an old political stager. The following year he removed to an adjoining county, where he zealously devoted himself to his favorite pursuit, in which he was always emulous of that prominent success that has marked his career. After a few years resi dence in his new abode, the voice of the people urged him to become a candidate for the legislature, for the avowed purpose of reforming the odious practice of treating, according to the fashionable system of electioneering, at that time prevalent throughout the southwest. Upon him devolved the duty of denouncing the practice from the stump. This he did in a bold and fearless manner, and was triumph antly elected. The demoralizing tendency of treating was so glaring, and regarded as such a school of intemperance, that good and patriotic men doubted whether the country had not better give up the right of suffrage, provided the exercise of it could not be separated from a practice so fruitful of evil. It was a common declaration, that no man could be elected to office who did not resort to it. Yet Col. Pope not only refused to treat, but during the whole electioneering campaign denounced the custom as improper pernicious to morals the whole tendency of which was to corrupt and trammel the freedom of the ballot-box. The power and eloquence with which he assailed this pernicious custom were such, that from that time the practice has fallen into disuse. During the session he was a prominent advocate of all works of in ternal improvement. He also prepared an able report on the subject of disposing of the public lands, granted by the Federal Government to the State of Alabama, for removing the obstructions in the Muscle Shoals in the Tennessee River. The wisdom of the suggestions of that report time has proved, though the legislature rejected the most prominent of them. He also made zealous and spirited efforts to change the common law, so as to give to married women a vested interest in property, independent of their husbands a measure, the wisdom, the equity, and the utility of which has been recognized by the action of the legislatures of most of the states. On this occasion, however, though his efforts were sustained by the best talent of the legislature, yet the " lordly pride of man" was invincible, and its defeat stood as a blot on the legislative escutcheon of the state, until within a year or two past the gallantry and justice of her sons revived the mea sure, and passed it into a law. The claims of a growing family, and his still increasing fondness for agricultural pursuits, caused him to turn a deaf ear to the urgent solici tations of his numerous personal and political friends to continue longer in public life. The following year he moved to the western district of Tennessee, at a period when the new, undeveloped condition of the country presented a fine field for the enterprising devotee of agriculture Here he resolved to devote his individual attention to his favorite voca tion of cotton planting, in which he was not only emulous to increase his fortune, but to elevate the dignity of the pursuit, by bringing to its aid not 436 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. only practical science, but skill and observation, and all the appliances of personal emulation. With this view he was prominently instru mental in organizing an agricultural association in the vicinity of Mem phis. The beneficial results which this association has effected for the cotton-growing interest of West Tennessee and North Mississippi, are best told by the fact, that before the improvements introduced by it, Memphis cottons were in low repute ; but since that period they have been so much improved in quality, as to command the highest prices given for short-staple cotton. Yet Memphis is near the limit of the cotton-growing region. A further evidence of the value of these im provements, and of the superiority of the Memphis cottons, is to be found in the fact that, at the " World s Fair," it stood at the head of the list of short-staple cotton received three medals,* and the highest com mendations from the vast multitudes that inspected them. There is, perhaps, no man in all the southwest to whom more justly belongs the high merit of having shown how two blades of grass might be grown where but one grew before than Colonel Pope. He was not only industrious, enterprising, and successful as a planter himself, but was the exciting cause of the same elements in others. Many of the, most valuable hints for the improvement of the quality of cotton (the> chief object to which his attention, as an agriculturist, has been directed; are of his suggestion. Mechanics have availed themselves of his valua ble opinions as to the construction of gins and other machinery for cleans ing cotton. Nor have his thoughts on the best mode of tillage been less valuable. He stands this day a living example of the superiority of a\ educated mind when directed to agricultural pursuits. When he located his cabin in the beautiful and fertile " Western District" of Tennessee, the whole country, for a hundred miles around Memphis, in every direction, was an unbroken wilderness. What ia now the city of Memphis was then but little more than an Indian trad ing post, the staple commodity of which was deer-skins and venison hams. The country was almost without roads streams without bridges churches and schoolhouses few and far between. All these wants were to be supplied, not by money, but by the labor of the pio neer. In these labors he was an active and zealous co-operator. But his efforts in the way of improvement did not stop here. As the re sources of the country developed, he early foresaw the necessity and value of a higher and more extended system of improvement. He was among the very first ever to speak of the practicability, importance, and necessity of connecting the Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic sea board by a railway. The writer of this sketch remembers an animated conversation between General E. P. Gaines and Colonel Pope on this subject, nearly twenty years ago. Indeed the scheme of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was first concocted at an internal improvement convention held at Bolivar, Tennessee, in 1834. General Gaines, John Pope, and Robertson Topp, were appointed by the convention to address memorials to Congress, and to the legislatures of the states directly in terested, and also to the people of the Mississippi Valley generally. It * John Pope, G. L. Holmes and Samuel Bond. JOHN POPE, OF TENNESSEE. 437 devolved upon Colonel Pope to address the memorials to the states. The memorials were handsomely responded to by the governors of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. With the sagacity of an educated mind, he early foresaw the great geographical advantages possessed by his new location, and set himself to work with vigor to avail himself of them. His spirited example was followed by others, and the result has been a revolution in the appear ance and the productions, as magical as ever the transforming wand of industry performed in any other part or era of the world. In every en terprise, from marking out and opening the most obscure road to the giant scheme of the Memphis and Charleston Railway, Colonel Pope has taken an active, willing, and conspicuous part. Nothing was too high or too low for his active zeal if its tendency was to develop the re sources or add to the conveniences of the country. And one of the chief beauties of all these excellencies of private character and public spirit is, that it has all been done without his seeming to know or think that he had done anything more than every one else, or that he has more than half discharged what his feelings told him was his duty. In 1832 he was invited by a public meeting to become a candidate for the convention to revise the state constitution, and repeatedly after wards to represent the county in the state legislature. He was also named as a candidate for Congress all of which he respectively de clined. In November, 1845, the great internal improvement conven tion, of which the Hon. John C. Calhoun was president, assembled in Memphis. For general intelligence and acknowledged ability this con vention has certainly never been surpassed by any similar body of men assembled in the Union, Colonel Pope was chairman of a committee on agriculture, and submitted a luminous and elaborate report on the condi tion of the agricultural interests of the country, and particularly pointed out the causes of the depressed condition of the cotton trade. The remedies which were then indicated for the evils so ruinous to southern interests are now acknowledged to be true to diversify labor by a more extensive growth of provisions, and the introduction of manufacturing establish ments. The city of Memphis conferred on him the honor of addressing Gen. Taylor on his way to Washington to be inaugurated President. In 1837 he experienced a severe misfortune in the death of his first wife. Two years after her decease he married Miss Elizabeth Hem- phill Jones, of Wilmington, Delaware, during a visit to her sister, Mrs. Mary P. Govan, in Marshall county, Miss., widow of the late Honorable Andrew R. Govan, and a lady of distinguished personal and intellectual accomplishments. Of all the fortunate incidents of his life he accounted his marriage with this lady one of the most auspicious. With a mind of the first order, and uncommonly well cultivated, she united those ad mirable virtues in the character of wife and mother that tender affec tion and devoted solicitude that shed such a cheerful light upon the path, and upon all the domestic joys of life. But, in the twelfth year of his marriage with this estimable woman, the severe calamity fell upon him in her death on the 23d June, 1852. For the last eight years he has been president of the Branch Union Bank of Memphis, Tennessee a station which he has filled to the entire 438 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. satisfaction of the public, and the officers and stockholders of that insti tution. He is also president of the Memphis and Somerville Plank- road Company. This enterprise is, perhaps, of more importance to the city and surrounding country than any other work of internal improve ment yet projected, except the great Memphis and Charleston Rail-road. This work owes more to his zeal, personal influence, and diligent atten tion than to any one else. Indeed he is justly called the father of this road. In 1851 the whig party of Shelby county had great difficulty in uni ting on a candidate to represent them in the legislature. Very much against his wishes, for the purpose of reconciling the differences among his political friends, and in answer to one of the most flattering calls ever made upon a citizen for the use of his name, he became a candidate. By one of those shameful tricks but too often resorted to betting on elections to the disappointment even of his political opponents, and to the unmitigated chagrin of his friends, he was defeated by fifteen votes. Upon a review of his course, though it has been mainly in the capa city of a private citizen, we see sufficient reasons to claim for him the character of a public benefactor. Nor is there any reason for regret that he withdrew so early from public life ; for, although by talent and education he was fully competent for the highest political positions, it may nevertheless be justly questioned whether his services in a public capacity would have been more beneficial to his country. Indeed but few politicians of this day have equal claims upon the gratitude of their country. HON. ALFRED WHEELER, OF CALIFORNIA. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, April, 1852. THE statesmanship of a Webster, and the eloquence of a Clay ; the learning and wisdom of a Marshall, a Story, or a Kent these would make pages of life for the philosopher to admire, and the student to emulate. Their greatness has been accomplished, and their histories have become immortal ; but men, who have as yet but begun to do, might prove weak guides and uninteresting examples to those who aim at greatness and have the genius to achieve it. Such as my life has been, I have concluded to send it to you ; and, as no one so well as ourselves can know the motives that guide us in our career, or which instigate the prominent incidents of our own histories, I have thought it better, for the sake of truth and frankness, to write it myself than to trust th task to a friend, whose prejudice might dimin ish the faults and magnify the virtues. Should it seem to you, as it ALFRED WHEELER, OF CALIFORNIA. 439 does to me, tame and uninteresting, consign it to the flames, and make light of it. I was born in New-York city, on the 30th day of April, 1822. My father was, at that time, and for many years afterwards, a merchant of considerable business in New- York, and a descendant of one of the pil grims of Plymouth Rock memory, and an officer in the war of 1812. My mother was the grand-daughter of John Suftern, Esq., of Rockland county, New- York, for many years first judge of that county. I have never traced out a pedigree of great and heroic ancestors, and I believe that the only nobility to which they could aspire was that of worth and honesty, and to have served their country during the days of 76. My parents had married for love I was the eldest son, and, as they have told me, the one of whom they had much hope. I would probably have been, like most of eldest sons, a spoiled child, were it not that, fearing the unwholesome air of a city life might cut short my career and their hopes, they sent me down east, as soon as I could leave a nurse s charge, to receive the foundation of an education, and breathe the invigorating air of a country life. It is with the town of Greenwich, State of Connecticut, that my ear liest associations and recollections are blended. The old school-house, where I first learned Latin from my teacher, and love from a little blue-eyed sweetheart; the old church with a tall, straight spire, that seemed to me to scrape the sky ; the old hill, called " Putnam s Hill," and down which General Putnam rode at full gallop, when the British soldiers chased him, and where I used to look, with boyish wonder, for some stray footprint of his horse s hoof; and the old house on top of the hill which stood there when he ran down, and which, they said, was a, hundred years old, and in which I lived, while there at school, every summer for six or seven years. These are the chief recollections of my boyhood, until I was brought home to New-York to prepare for college and for manhood. The earliest ambitions which I cherished were to be twenty-one years of age and a lawyer. The first, to my boyish mind, constituted a man, the second, a great man. My father aimed at. giving me as good an education as money and care could bestow, and, being of strict religious principles and belief, hoped to direct my inclination to the church ; but the purpose and hope never found favor nor consent with me, as I did not feel fitted for the station, cither in my heart or my head. I loved gayety and mirth, and was ambitious. At sixteen, I entered the freshman class of the New- York University. The books which I loved the most were rhetoric, oratory and the poets. I had a remarkable memory, and had exercised it from childhood. I could readily commit to memory whole pages, and could retain the re collection as easily. 1 was quick of apprehension, and could, with half the study that many would require, accomplish the same task. Fun. was my delight. I omitted no opportunity to let off sallies of wit to my professors, when it could be done with respect to them, and to excite the mirthfulness of the class. Being naturally ready with the pencil, I caricatured everything. The black-boards were filled with my illustra tions, and the walls about the building had my pencil-mark upon them, I read volumes of poetry and scribbled pages of rhyme, and every text- 440 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. book which I used had on every fly-leaf doggerel rhyme and improvise sketches. There was no portion of college routine in which I took so much interest as I did in that of oratory. On every Saturday represen tatives from each class appeared in the chapel, before the faculty and students, to exercise and exhibit their oratorical powers. To this reci tation I always looked forward with pleasure. The histories of the Greek and Roman orators, and no less those of modern times, were to me a delightful study. I read and committed to memory their best orations, and daily recited them to myself in my own room. I studied elocution, to the neglect of Greek and Latin, and thought that to be an orator was to be the greatest of men. I had not been long in the University before a great change took place in the pecuniary circumstances of my father. The reverses and convulsions of 36 swept from him a moderate fortune, which he had acquired by his own industry and talent, and he was compelled to aban don a style of city life which had been elegant and independent, for one of strict economy in the country. Till this time he had lived in New- York city, but having a large family to educate and rear, he removed to a small village upon the Hudson, where my mother had a farm which she had inherited from her father. I had thus far lived at home. Now, if I remained at the University my expenses would be increased, and situated as my father was, he felt compelled to tell me that he could not afford to keep me at college. He proposed to me to go to the country with the rest of the family, and pursue the study of law in a coun try lawyer s oflice there and board at home, or to enter a lawyer s office in New- York city as a clerk, and thus earn sufficient to pay my own expenses. This was at first a great blow to me and a damper to my hopes ; but I revolved the matter in my mind and came to the conclu sion to adopt neither of his suggestions, but to remain at college, sup port myself as I best could, and, if necessary, rough it out. I had never earned a dollar in my life and did not know how to go about it, but I had the determination to persevere and the hope to succeed, and trusted to my ingenuity for assistance. I told my mother of my resolve, and she, with a mother s anxiety and affection, asked me what I should do for a livelihood, to which I replied, that others had found opportunities to make a living and I did not know why I could not ; that I had some leisure hours which I could devote to labor of some kind, and that, at least, I was determined to try. She begged me to go with the family to the country, but I said no, and asked her to leave me such furniture as would be necessary to make a room in college comfortable, and to prepare for me a small stock of provisions, sufficient to supply me for a week or two, as I would not go to board until 1 had business that would enable me to pay my expenses, and meanwhile, would keep bachelor s hall. She accordingly stored a large two-bushel basket with all the good things that a mother would think of a few cold roast chickens, a boiled ham, some pies, bread, butter, cheese, and not for getting such delicacies as cake and sweetmeats and with this hamper of things for the inner man and furniture for my room, a good stock of clothing and five dollars in my pocket, I parted with my family as they sailed away, and I started on my own career. I hired a room in the University building, paid one dollar out of my ALFRED WHEELER, OF CALIFORNIA. 441 five for cartage of my goods and chattels to it, and having taken posses sion, swept it out and arrayed my furniture, I spread a table and took a solitary meal. It was rather lonesome and depressing to my spirits at first, but I felt the pride of determination and independence, and I thought of the future. My little stock of stores lasted me nearly a month, and I began to fear that when they had gone I should be in a predicament with but four dollars in my pocket, and too honest to in cur a debt without the means of paying, too spirited to borrow, and too proud to tell a solitary friend of my situation. One day, as I sat before my fire, (it was only at meal-time that I in dulged in the extravagance of a fire,) toasting a slice of ham upon a fork preparatory to my afternoon meal, a rap at the door started me from a reverie into which I had fallen while gazing upon the glowing coal and enjoying in anticipation the relish that appetite gives to food. I hastily hid within the pantry the evidence of my occupation, and taking a book in my hand, with the look of one absorbed in study, opened the door. My visitor was an early college friend and companion, who had often visited me at my father s house in town, and had eaten peaches and other delightful fruit from our beautiful garden, and knew nothing of the change that had happened to me. " Wheeler," said he, as he en tered, " what an intolerable smell of cooking there is of Jate about this building. I fancy our janitor must have brought his kitchen into the college." " I have noticed it," said I in reply. " Perhaps some one of our professors is about to give us a lecture with practical illustrations in the art of cuisine. I am sure I should take great interest in it." He remained but a few moments and left without discovering the secret that I would not have had him know for a thousand dollars. As the provisions grew less, so I made my appetite conform, but at last they were all gone, and the few dollars I had were resorted to. After dark I used to take a little basket in my hand and go to the near est grocery and purchase a loaf of bread, some slices of bacon or dried beef, a few crackers with some cheese, and with this simple fare keep body and soul together, feeding upon hope to make up what I lacked in provisions. During this little period of darkness, I lived for one week upon less than fifty cents, indulging in no luxury other than bread for that period, and eating this with a relish that I had never enjoyed be fore. The secret of my life was my own. I told it to no one; and my replies to my mother s fond inquiries of how I was getting along, were, that I was accomplishing my purpose. I daily read all through the ad vertisements in the papers in search of some want which my capacity could fill during such hours of the day as I was not occupied at the uni versity. I found none to my purpose; but just as my scanty purse was empty, I was so fortunate as to get employment with the pencil, for the afternoon hours, in the office of an architect in town, who had been an old acquaintance of my father, and who, during my father s prosperity, had received his patronage. My pay was small, but so were my wants, and 1 was content to get just enough compensation to support me with economy. I remained in his employ until I graduated ; each day after the recitations were through, plodding my way to his office, and passing the time till dark in architectural drawing. Situated as I was, I could not and did not take any of the honors of 442 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. our class when we graduated. Oftentimes, on the commencement of a new text-book, I was for weeks without a book for want of means to buy it, and my only time and opportunity for study was an hour before recitation in the morning, when the library was open. But 1 had a satisfaction which no one could take from me. I was battling out my purpose and succeeded ; and when I took my degree, no one knew how hard 1 had worked and how much I had suffered to earn it. After graduating I found an opportunity, by teaching a class in Latin and mathematics and drawing, in a select school, to earn better compen sation than before ; and in this manner supporting myself, while I pur sued rny legal studies in the office of an eminent practitioner in New- York city, until, at the May term of 1845, 1 was admitted to the Supreme Court of the state. I threw myself at once upon my profession, abandoning all other labors, although, during the last year of my law studies,! had earned six hundred dollars by teaching, and could not expect to do so well at once in my profession. But I had gained the lever with which I was to work in future, and I determined to use it at once. The first year s labor brought me four hundred dollars ; the next seven hundred and fifty ; the next twelve hundred, and the next two thousand. This brought me to the May of 1849. During my law studies, and during these four years of my practice in New-York city, I had entered somewhat into political life. 1 had always, from my first investigation of the political questions at issue in the country, chosen the whig school as the faith of my adoption, and I felt, when I had made my first politi cal speech, which was for " Tippecanoe and Tyler too," as though I had taken the first step on the ladder of fame, and might ascend. The excitement that pervaded every part of the country on the dis covery of gold in California did not at first interest my mind nor direct my aspirations towards this region. I was making money and friends. I was happy, and surrounded with congenial objects. Those too whom I loved were there, and the thought of severing all these ties at first never entered my mind. But as the tide of emigration swelled onward from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific, and as friend after friend, taking his departure for this El Dorado, came to bid me good-by, I be gan to look at the subject with more careful calculation. I sa\7 in the future a great state that should rival, during the present generation, her most prosperous sister states. I saw that the silent solitude of the Pacific Ocean was to be at last broken by the genius of American enterprise, and that its commer cial wealth was to pour through this golden gate a tide of treasure as precious as the gold that was tempting half the country to emigra tion. I saw that there was a future for California that no man could picture, and that to grow with her growing and to be prosperous with her prosperity, to become identified with her interests, and to be a part of herself, was worthy of my ambition. 1 saw around me at home men of genius and ambition who had toiled for years struggling against ill-fortune, and who, though worthy, had yet come no nearer to wealth or renown. The field at home was wide and splendid, but the aspirants and con testants for position were many, and the race for fame and pre-eminence ALFRED WHEELER, OF CALIFORNIA. 443 was to be against those skilful and experienced, and there was but little chance for advancement save by the slow and steady perseverance of years of toil. I had already begun to acquire some little fame. I had scribbled rhyme and prose for the journals of the day, and was known somewhat as a poet and a man of literary taste, but Parnassus was not the hill to which I aspired. I had, too, for sundry political speeches, been puff ed in the newspapers, and on several occasions had received the praise of professional brethren, and the congratulations of clients for efforts at the bar. I was making money besides, but I was restless at the tardi ness with which fame and wealth were to be won, and so I resolved, in the face of expostulations and warnings of friends, to emigrate to California. Packing up a select law library of about a hundred volumes, I took passage, and on the 19th of May, 1849, sailed, via Cape Horn. I landed at San Francisco on the 13th day of November following, the day of the adoption of the constitution of the new state, and had the gratification of depositing my vote in its favor as the first act of my citi zenship here. Having taken breath, after a long and tedious sea voyage, I looked about to familiarize myself with the anomalous condition of affairs. Business was done without care and without system, and money flowed about from hand to hand as though it had no value. " Go it blind 1 was the maxim that ruled. Buy to-day and sell to-morrow anything, no matter what; real estate or merchandise everything was in demand. Gold-dust was the currency, and everybody had his pocket full. I was amazed, and so was each new-comer. The condition of af fairs was indescribable. One fact was apparent industry was here the mother of wealth; and as to fame, nobody thought of it. It was an empty bubble which, though you might buy, you could not sell, and was not worth keeping. As to the courts, there were two, one called the Court of First Instance, and the other the Alcalde s names preserved from the former dis pensation under Mexican rule. These ran a sort of opposition business, each claiming to be superior to, and independent of the other. About a dozen lawyers, all young men, and most of them shrewd and intelli gent, practised before the courts. Every system of practice prevailed, and every kind of jurisprudence known to the common or the civil law, and much which would have been found in neither, was in force ; and the great and ruling doctrine seemed to be that the plaintiff must be en titled to his case, or he would not have brought suit. The pay of the judges was in the shape of fees ; and on the rostrum of the judge, where the scales of justice should have been, the scales for gold-dust were in sight. Of course, business was dispatched with alacrity. Summing up a case to the jury was not to be permitted except in extraordinary circum stances. The jury having heard the evidence, were presumed to know just as much about the case as the counsel, and were not permitted to be mystified by any legal sophistry ; besides, the docket was growing in length hourly. Counsel fees were of that extraordinary amount which would have been horrible to clients anywhere else. Forty-eight pounds of gold-dust an acquaintance told me he paid to one lawyer for only a few days services in a single matter. But all these things have been now a hundred times repeated, and are familiar matters of history. 444 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. I looked at my purse, and found that my outfit and expenses had re duced it to about five hundred dollars. An office, not much larger than a good-sized packing-box, demanded two hundred and fifty dollars a month rent in advance. Board was for forty dollars a week, and furni ture higher than anything else. I looked about for a partner in busi ness and in expenses, not daring to venture on such a sea of outlay alone. I found one who, like myself, had just arrived, with a small library and a small purse, and who had, like myself, large hopes and great deter minations. We agreed to try the field together. We hired an office, bought a couple of chairs, (more were unnecessary, as clients had no time to sit down,) and, finding that a common table would cost from fifty to a hundred dollars, we bought a pine board for fifteen dollars, and, with hammer and saw and our own ingenuity, made a table for our selves. The next day our shingles, with golden letters, brought all the way from home, where they had not done us a great deal of service, were most invitingly and conspicuously nailed upon the outside of the building. A week passed away, and we had made a thousand dollars. We felt that our star had begun to shine, and that we might breathe freely when looking at the future. Party politics at this time were at a low ebb, though the democratic party had got the start, and had filled all the offices that were to be filled with men from their own ranks. Those of us who felt an interest in the whig party saw that, to guard the future, we must look out for the present. We met, and organized a whig committee as a nucleus for the gathering of whig forces in time of need. After I had been here six weeks making money and acquain tances, a vacancy occurred in the house of assembly of the state legisla ture. An election, to fill the vacancy, was called, and the prominent whigs of the city proposed that I should accept the nomination of the party. It is no vanity to say that I reluctantly consented. I was mak ing too much money to go to the legislature for sixteen dollars a day. However, it was agreed upon, and my name was put in the field as the whig candidate, and Mr. O Grady as the democratic. His name de feated him, and 1 was, as they said, triumphantly elected. I took my seat, and became an active and I hope useful member. After the adjournment I returned to my professional duties, and was soon after appointed, by the council of the city of San Francisco, com missioner to investigate the tenure by which real estate within the city was held, and the title of the city to land within its limits. I was en gaged for some months on this matter, and took great pains to make a report which should become, as it has, a standard-book of reference with every real-estate lawyer in the city. For these services the city paid me ten thousand dollars, though, considering the labor performed, and the prices of professional labor, they were in reality worth more. Fortune favored me with prosperity and her most substantial favors. On the 22d of August last, I had the honor to be appointed, by his Ex cellency Millard Fillmore, United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. The death of James M. Jones, United States Judge for the same district, and the non-appointment of any new incum bent, has prevented the organization of that court, and I have not been able, therefore, to enter upon my official duties. I hope, however, soon to do so, and shall, in my career there, aim to tread that path which my THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 445 early hopes pictured, and to which all my aspirations in life have been directed. You will see that in this brief biography there is no brilliant achieve ment that can call forth admiration there is no remarkable career that might not have happened to every reader. I claim no genius that is not common to all men. I started in life with a purpose, and the determi nation to achieve it. If I have been blessed with fortune s substantial tokens and some worldly honors, perseverence and industry are the only talismanic charms that I have used. I am, very respectfully, yours, ALFRED WHEELER. CAPTAIN THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF ABERDEEN, MISSISSIPPI. BENJAMIN COOPWOOD, the father of the subject of the ensuing sketch, was an Englishman by birth and education, but having emigrated to the colonies prior to the commencement of revolutionary hostilities, he espoused the liberty -side of the quarrel between the oppressor and the oppressed ; and when the contest waxed warm, and to the unnatural oppression was added the physical force of the mother against the daughter to enforce the wrong, he entered with heart and hand into the conflict in favor of freedom and independence. He joined the colonial army, and remained in the service of his adopted country throughout the active operations of the war, in which he was severely wounded three different times. After the last great decisive battle had been fought and won at Yorktown, and the revolutionary storm had measur ably subsided, and the thunders of the last great guns in the struggle were dying away in the distance, the war-worn soldier retired from the fields of blood and of victory in company with George Tho mason, his future brother-in-law, to join the father of the latter in Goochland county, Virginia, and to supply, as best they might, the parent s loss of his four sons, who, from time to time, had, one by one, fallen by the side of their brother while fighting the battles of their country. The kindred sufferings of the two, and the kindly offices of the one to the other while in the army, evoked a sympathy and cemented a friendship between them which terminated not with the closing scenes of the dan gers they had shared and through which they passed, but were culti vated and increased with the return of peace, until a still closer bond of union bound them together. The former married the sister of the latter, and the daughter of William Thomason, whose four sons the two young men had left dead on the battle-ground. Mr. Coopwood and his wife settled in Albemarle county, and culti vated a small farm, where, in the vicinity of the rich and varied moun tain scenery of the Blue Ridge, and amid the golden pomp of autumn, on the llth day of September, 1793, Thomas Coopwood, whose name heads this article, was born. In the year 1801, his parents emigrated from the Old Dominion and 446 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. settled in Granger county, Tennessee, whence they removed to the county of Smith, in 1806. Here they purchased and paid for a large quantity of land for their moderate means, and thought themselves set tled for life; and, doubtless, would have been but for the fraud prac ticed upon them by their vendor, who sold them possessions to which he had no title. They were shortly after evicted by those having titles paramount, and with the loss of the entire purchase-money and nearly all of their little property, they again removed, and settled in 1809, in Madison county, Alabama, then the Mississippi territory, where, as though to verify the oft-repeated proverbial saying, that troubles never come singly and alone, but always in crowds the husband and father died in the month of October of that year. And now, in deep distress and poverty, in the midst of the wilderness wilds of a new and almost entirely uninhabited country, save by the savage tribes of lawless In dians that roamed through the deep forests that shaded their hunting- grounds, or swarmed on the banks of the neighboring creeks and rivu lets, far away from friends and relations, the widowed mother with her nine children was left to struggle against the cold, chilling tide-winds of adverse circumstances, which with so bold a current had thus strongly set in. In this trying emergency there was no time to lose in unneces sary and unavailing lamentations over the dead, while the wants and necessities of the living were pressing around about and within the very family circle of which the deceased had so lately been the head, the front and the protection. To hesitate was to yield to the pressure, and to yield was ruin. As soon as the humble funeral rites of sepulture were performed, a family council was held, and it was finally determined, and definitely agreed, to retrace their traveled steps and return to the county of Smith, in the State of Tennessee. And although the future was shrouded in gloom and beset with difficulties, before which the proudest might have bent and the boldest might have quailed, yet young Thomas, then but a small boy, with his mother, two sisters and six brothers, hesitated or failed not. He pressed on, and on he went to the place destined to witness the opening scenes of his noble self-reliance and youthful exer tions, accompanied by a determination and energy seldom equaled and perhaps never surpassed by any of his species. But now his energies were all fully aroused and he had confidence in himself, and all had confidence in him; for his management in the ar rangement, and skill and energy in the execution of his plans had been fairly and fully tested, but a few months before, in being sent by his father, prior to the removal thither, with a drove of cattle to their in tended location in the Mississippi territory, where, with a younger brother, he by accident got out of provisions, and although fresh meats were readily attainable, yet during many weeks they must have suffered in the extreme for bread, but for the ready plans, prompt exertions and active energy of young Thomas. His brother wanted to abandon their flocks and return home. But this was inconsistent, and at war with the inclination and every feeling of the nature of Thomas. And he resolved neither to abandon the enterprise nor to suffer much in maintaining his position. He forthwith opened a trade with the Indians, although he had nothing to trade on. But he went it on reciprocal credit, and THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 447 bought and sold on time, and soon, in the speculation, he had an ample supply of dried venison, hams and corn, which, according to the most approved methods of the culinary art amongst the red merchants with whom he traded, he reduced to bread. And thus plenty was restored to the two young and otherwise starving herdsmen. As necessity is the mother of invention, and the infant germ springs from the parent seed in the rising or sinking scale of gradation from cause to effect, so the character of the man is heralded forth by the con duct of the boy under trying circumstances, and based upon it like a statue rested on and fitted to its pedestal by the plastic hand of the master artist. And so it will be seen by subsequent developments, it has emphatically been in the career of him who is the subject of this notice. He has carried with him the disposition here discovered, as a basis of his movements, in every change through which he has passed in a long and eventful career. Himself young, and the prospects of the whole family overshadowed with melancholy forebodings of evils to come, they returned to the county of Smith, where, according to the plan, they were all to be kept together, and the younger children raised, educated and supported in comfort, decency and respectability. And the reader has seen what there was to do it with. Thomas was their chief reliance their main stay. Nothing daunted, however, on their arrival in the vicinity of their former residence, he rented a farm, and unaided by any assistance, save of course the advice and care of his mother, and the labor of such of his brothers as were able to work, he toiled almost day and night for three years, during which time he had not only plentifully and com fortably supported the family, and punctually paid his rents, but he had purchased and paid for a sufficient quantity of good land, which he converted into a well stocked farm for his mother, on which she moved, and lived and raised her children in comfort, respectability and plenty, and all of them with a good business education. In the mean time, and during the winters, when he could be spared from the crops, he earned the money with which the land was paid for by cutting cord- wood at Harbert s iron works, in the eastern part of the state in which he lived. All the while, every moment that could by possibility be spared, or stolen, from the pressing labors and duties that rested upon him, Tho mas devoted to the perusal of such books as were within his power to procure such as history, treatises on political economy, government and international law Montesquieu, Voltaire, Paine, Volney. and the English poets, were the chief works which fell in his way. He read some, however little, if it was only one page every day, at meal-times and nights, which supplied food for reflection and study while engaged at his labors, when his mind had sufficiently contemplated the condition of things around him, and revolved his plans for the future. This, however, was done without any view to, or expectation of ever, either studying a profession or filling any responsible station in political life. By this time, the last war with Great Britain was declared, and the fighting had commenced. When the call for soldiers was made on his state, Thomas, now that he had provided well for his mother and family while he might be absent, entered as a volunteer in the service of his 448 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. country, in the second, as his father had done in the first war with Bri tain s haughty monarch. He accompanied General Jackson to the Creek nation, and was with him throughout, until after Weatherford, one of the first and boldest of the chiefs of the nation, but the last to come in, voluntarily surrendered himself at the Hickory Grounds to the mercy of the general, and proudly sued for peace. He was in most of the battles fought in this service, in which he acquired considerable reputation as a private, and popularity among the men, so much so, that he, young as he was, on his return home, was elected captain of the company in which he had served in the war, over one of its most popular and deserving members ; and it will be remembered that, at the time of which mention is now made, the position was a high station of both honor conferred and trust reposed. The contest was animated, but conducted with propriety ; for to the victor was to be awarded, by the voice of the company, the glory of being the better soldier ; and on his brow was to be worn the warrior s wreath. And, as it was consi dered that it was necessary sometimes for a commander to be able to speak as well as willing to fight, it was thought expedient that to their military prowess and skill in marshaling men, they should add an ex hibition of their oratory and skill in the arrangement of words ; so the two aspirants took the stump at the precinct on the day of the election. This last feature in the programme of the canvass w r as supposed to have been introduced at the instance of his opponent, as he was a somewhat experienced public speaker, and Mr. Coopwood, it was known, had never made the first attempt in that direction. Be this supposition, however, as it may, Mr. C. was not the man to permit his opponent to lead where he dared not follow. He mounted the stump on the spur of the occasion, and then and there instantly made his first experiment in speech-making, which so far transcended the expectations of all, as well as the eloquence of his adversary, that, at the close of his remarks, the crowd, by its applause, gave clear indication of his election, by a consi derable increase on what had been supposed to be his previous proba ble majority. And so it turned out. The voters went straight to the polls, and Mr. C. was elected by a handsome majority ; whereas, but for the speech, it would have been a very close election, the result till then being regarded by all as somewhat doubtful. This speech, doubt less, had considerable influence over his course through subsequent life. This event for him marked, perhaps, the proudest day and the brightest spot in a whole life -long, varied and checkered career ; for the designa tion of honor then acquired he has studiously avoided parting with ever since ; never, at any time, or under any circumstance, seeking any office in the military which would rank him nigher in point of title. And, al though but a small dot in comparison with the many more important marks his own perseverance, industry and talents have set up along the course he has traveled, why should it not be the proudest day, and the most memorable event of his life 1 It was the first step to dis tinction among men in the career of a youth struggling with adverse circumstances through darkness up to the light. It was his taste ; and his good sense, too, as well as his taste, in this respect, is admirable, for even the general, the commander-in-chief, at last, is but the magni fied captain. THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 449 This new position gave rise in his mind to new thoughts and new labors. The military became the object of his studies, combined with Roman and Grecian history, and the modern wars and modern tactics of Europe. Shortly after this, Captain Coopwood intermarried with the daughter of a neighboring farmer, settled a small plantation, and turned his at tention mainly to the cultivation of the soil ; but not abating in his zeal for the acquisition of knowledge, he pursued his studies, as heretofore, at convenient times and on suitable occasions, when to do so would not interfere with his regular business. An anecdote, not generally known, which has been related to the writer, for the authenticity of which, however, no avouchment is made, is here inserted, as being characteristic of the man who, though poor, was content with his lot, and determined to be comfortable in it, while at the same time he was pressing all the surrounding circumstances, and even the laws of nature, into his service to increase his fortune and elevate him above the station he then occupied. In one point of view, it may be regarded as a remarkable development of a rare combination of strongly marked and happily clustering mental endowments. The moral, however, it is believed, is an admirable one, in many points of view ; but particularly for its striking illustration of the adage, that where " there s a will there s a way," and the laws of nature will assist us in it. The story goes, that about the time of his marriage he purchased his land, first, because the soil was good, and, secondly, because on it there was, as he said, the most convenient and suitable building-spot for the dwelling of a new-married poor man that he had ever seen. On the site thus indicated, he determined to fix his residence, and there he col lected his timbers for the building, and then invited his neighbors to his house-raising. None of them had seen the place selected, not even his brothers. They knew where the land lay ; they came on that ; but the site for the house they had to hunt for. It was not on that beautiful little circular hill, sloping off so gently in every direction and losing itself in the extended plains around. It was not on the road -side in front ; nor was it on the gentle declivity of the little range of hills, falling off and wasting away into the fertile little valley beyond. It was not in the valley itself. These places had all been examined, and there were no logs, no timbers there. Where could it be 1 These were all the places fit for building on, anywhere, upon the whole tract of land. Where could be the place ? asked his neighbors and brothers one of ano ther. It was agreed that the captain was sometimes a little disposed to quiz his friends ; but then it was not April-day ; and what was more, they all knew that he needed a house. They had not quite agreed to give up the hunt, disperse and return home, when the well-known crack of a rifle was heard in the distance from the direction of the hills in the east. The report was a familiar one. They knew it at once. It was the re port of the captain s gun. They instantly made for the woods which led off to the hills in the direction whence the sound had emanated ; and then another and another shot was heard, and away in the direction the company hastened in double-quick time, fearing that, perhaps, the gunner might be too closely pressed in dangerous conflict with some of the many beasts of prey that, at that time, infested the forest. At last 29 450 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. they arrived at the place ; and there, to the utter astonishment of every one, away down in the deepest hollow between two of the highest hills, uniting and blending into one above, and forming the most beautiful level plain on the west, and running off, dividing, widening and wasting away into the cane-brake and swamp on the east ; below, there lay the logs and there lay all the timbers for the buildings, and there, on a stump in the midst of all sat the captain, with his gun by his side. He had been shooting signal guns for the guidance of his invited and expected companions at the house-raising, as they might be gathering in. He looked like a man who had started to market with a load of plunder somewhat too wide for the road he traveled, and had, unfortunately, got wedged in between the side-walls that pressed the narrow moun tain-pass, and was resting over his burthen and reflecting upon the best means to extricate it from the difficulty. Almost breathless and half- exhausted, they all at once demanded to know, what on earth was the matter. That was the site for his building. It was no joke. Some laughed and made fun of his location, others remonstrated, and used all the arguments they could against the impropriety and downright folly of building in such a place as that. His brothers got mad, and scolded, and swore they would go home they would help to build in no such place. But there lay the logs and other timbers all around, as they had rolled down, on either side, from th top of the hills above to the bottom below, and there was no getting them away in any direction. The hills were too steep on every side but one, and there the cane-brake and the swamp presented their impassable barriers there they were closed in, and there they had to stay. While his friends remonstrated, the captain demonstrated. He laid down his premises, as follows : It makes but little difference where the rich build ; but that the poor man had a duty to perform in this respect. It is the duty of the latter to build at that point on his own land, where concentrate the greatest number of converging advantages. That he, the captain, was not rich, but poor; and that the place whereon he stood, in the hollow, was the point on his own land, where concen trated the greatest number of converging advantages, of any building spot on the whole tract. The major premiss was admitted. The minor denied. He was required to prove it. He showed first that he was a poor man. This was easily done. Then he showed that on perfect levels, everything stood stagnant, and still. It neither run to you, nor rolled away. There was a fair set-off: no advantage there. That on hills, nothing run to you, but everything rolled away : there was less than no advantage; there was a positive disadvantage. He then show ed that, at the base of a hill, every thing on that side, from the heights above, would run to you. Here was an advantage this advantage was more than doubled, where the point selected was at the base of two hills on opposite sides, because the one acted as a check to the force of gravitation, imparted by the rapid descent of the other. But this was not all; at the point then selected concentrated all the advantages of three hills, it being walled in on every side, save one, which afforded an outlet for the refuse matter, which being once used, was no longer needed, but pushed off into the swamp. This was a plain case the minor was proved. THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 451 The case then stood : The major admitted, the minor proved ; and the conclusion followed as a matter of course, the place where the timbers lay, was the place to build on. He had gained his point, his friends yielded. The house-raising went on, and the buildings were speedily erected. By means of troughs, properly arranged, he conducted the purest water, fresh, cold and clear, from the beautiful little spring that gushed out of the side of the hill above, as it rolled along within its wooden bed prepared for it, sparkling and gurgling to the very door of their cabin below. There it was to drink, to cook, to wash, to cool the butter and milk, and to put out fire in case of need. He cut his wood on the side or top of the hill, and it rolled right to the place where it was wanted. Here, with half the trouble, and double the convenience, he lived in more comfort than his neighbors, by making the laws of gravitation labor for, and subserve his interests, and minister to his wants. But was this location not sickly 1 asked one of his friends from a distance, who, when on a visit, was admiring the beauty and convenience of the improvements of the homestead. Sickness! No: There was nothing there to make sickness out of. Every thing there was clean, neat, clear and bright, and cool and comfortable. But that swamp? But that swamp was east of the residence, and made it more healthy. It drained off every thing noxious, while the rays of the rising sun every morning called up all the effluvia and miasmatic vapor from the lagoons and low-grounds in the bottom below, in an opposite direction from the house. But still, the captain said when he got rich, he would build on the hills. And lest it should hereafter be forgotten, it may be as well here to remark that at the time when this account is being written his plan tation covers over seven hills, and his dwelling stands in the centre, upon the most elevated of them all, with hundreds of acres of the rich est soil, in a high state of cultivafion, spread in the distance around. He was born in the vale of obscurity, his youth was beset with diffi culties, and his building his first house in the humble hollow between the hills, was a fit emblematic memento of his then condition in life, as his present residence on the hill is and will be of the heights to which he has climbed. He commenced at the foot of the ladder, and if he has not reached the top, he has certainly climbed high, and reached an elevated position, which is heightened in comparison, when to remembrance is called the ponderous load he has carried on his journey. But to return. While living in the hollow, he cultivated his farm, and made money on the capital invested, until he engaged in the pro duce trade, as a more speedy method of increasing his fortune, in which he accumulated rapidly, for a time, when all of a sudden there came a derangement in the money market, a crash in the business transactions of the country, and a panic ensued, while heavy purchases were on his hands, and the result was that it took all that he had to pay what he owed. But he paid it to the last cent, and without suit, as he believed it was better to sell his own property without costs, than to permit another to do it for him with costs, and at a sacrifice. Reduced to poverty again, with barely enough to subsist upon, Capt. Coopwood removed with his family to Lawrence county, Alabama, then a territory, where he settled in the woods, built cabins, and im- 452 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. proved lands, and bought and sold as usual; and in the course of a few years he had a good farm, well improved, and hands enough to work it. In the mean time, having pursued his studies as formerly, and at the same time mixing and mingling much among the people, always in the line of business, however, and being desirous to keep the law, and not to break it, he turned his attention to the science which embodied its principles. He read Blackstone s Commentaries, Chitty s Pleadings, Coke upon Littleton, Starkie on Evidence, and various other books, merely for information and improvement, without any intention at the time of ever commencing its practice as a profession. Having accumulated a competent property, and not being required, from the necessity of the case, longer to perform, in person, any portion of the labor of his farm, and being inspired with a laudable ambition, as well as patriotic motives to serve his country, he was induced, in the year 1824, to become a candidate to represent the county in which he lived, in the lower branch of the state legislature. He ran against the Hon. John White, a gentleman of fine talents, excellent qualifications, and high reputation, and was beaten by him, by a majority of about seventy votes. This only served to arouse his ambition, and he there fore resolved to present himself to the people again. In 1825 he was again a candidate, and was elected by a large majority over all opposition. He served his first session, and made his first ex periment as a legislator at Cahawba, then the seat of government of the state. Having mixed extensively with the people, he was one of them, knowing their wants, arid understanding their interests, while, to a com plete identity with them in their inclinations and wishes, he added talents for commanding and controlling the services of those with whom, in his new career, he was called upon to act, rarely equaled, if ever surpassed, by any. He served them, with their highest approba tion of his course, six regular sessions in the House of Representatives, when he was promoted by the voice of the people, his former constitu ents, to the Senate. As senator, he served them three regular annual sessions, and one called session, when, in 1836, he removed from the state, and took up his residence in the county of Monroe, in the State of Mississippi, where he is now living. It is not intended here to speak in lengthened narrative of the capacity of Capt. Coopwood as a legislator. To do so would be an unnecessary consumption of time and space. It is enough to say that he seldom failed to carry his point, in whatever respect he chose to present his views and preferences, to the body of which he was a member. Study ing to be useful, he always informed himself of the wants and interests of his constituents ; and to subserve these, being the end in view, he always made the attack, or came to the rescue, prepared and fortified with the necessary support from above, below, around, to secure suc cess in the undertaking. In the accomplishment of his purposes, he looked mainly to the adaptation of the means to be employed, to the ends to be attained; and as he selected them, so they served him. But the indorsement of his course, by the approbation of the people, who so long retained him in their service, and doubtless would have continued him still longer, but for his removal from their midst, is the best eulogium which can be bestowed upon him as a faithful representative. THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 453 In 1830, while a member of the legislature/at the earnest persuasion of his friends, added to the frequent calls made upon him for legal ad vice, Captain Coopwood applied for, and obtained a license to practise law, and opened an office in the town of Moulton, the seat of justice for Lawrence, the county which he represented. This, to him, was rather a, change of scene, than the opening of another act in the great drama of life s onward current; for so long had he been a close observer of the apparent movements in the business transactions of the court-house pageantry, that there was but little for him to learn, save in what lay deep-hidden in the background, behind the front view of the scenery, obscured by the webbed intracacies of the science itself, having little or nothing to do with the modus operandi of the practice of the profession. A peep, however, behind the scenery, into the green-room preparations of the more distinguished actors, disclosed at once to the keen eye and penetrating vision of the captain, much of the valuable material benefi cial to the service in which he had embarked, confusedly mixed, how ever, with much more that was rather deleterious than productive of good : that the pure grains lay so scattered and intermingled with the mere dross and rubbish, that it was scarcely worth the labor to extract what was acquired in the gathering : that \vhile all aspired to the honors and professed to wear them, but few performed the drudgery necessary to the accumulation of the treasure ; and that fewer still waved the magic wand that brought the unalloyed particles together in quantities appre ciable to the popular gaze, or even to the vision of the judge himself, and that even these were, many times, meanly rewarded and poorly paid ; and therefore he now as before wisely determined to do as the world did in which he lived ; and not to be eccentric, where eccentricity did not pay well. So he bit his lip, held his tongue, exchanged a wink for a nod, seized upon, and appropriated whatever of the practical came within his reach, lightly skipped and passed over the abstruse, and discarded, in toto, all that could be classed in the category of the abstract. In short, he was at once, and almost by intuition, as he has been ever since, the bold, plain, direct, firm-minded, self-willed, practical lawyer. Discarding mere matters of form, he seized with rapidity, and held with a firm grasp, the substance of his client s cause; and very philoso phically concluding that the world would pass judgment that he was the best lawyer who gained the most cases, he brought all his energies and all his talents to the attainment of that end, without stopping to satisfy himself, whether the principles brought to bear were well estab lished by precedent or not. And in this he has been generally success ful. Few lawyers have ever enjoyed a larger run of business, in a country practice, under like circumstances, than he did, from the very commencement of his professional career to its termination. And fewer still have succeeded so well, with a like amount of other business matter pressing on their hands to claim their attention. In the argument of his cases, preferring the chances before the jury, on the merits of the facts and circumstances, under what he regards as the great principles of natural justice, to questions of technicality before the court, his habit has generally been to remain quiet until the evi dence has closed, and then to seize the strong points presented by the 454 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. testimony, and to throw -them in a solid form, with the boldness of an unbounded confidence in the prevailing justice of his client s cause, right at the best guarded and most strongly fortified point of his adversary s ground of defence, or point of attack, and by main force, and the short est and most direct route possible, take the field, and gain the victory, or lose the battle. Seeming always thoroughly to understand his case, his boldness has seldom failed to inspire his own side with confidence, while it intimidated the opposition, and has done much in aid of his suc cess, and not unfrequently has it made to the mind of the jury the worse appear the better cause. As he has disregarded mere matters of form in pleading, so he has eschewed all attempt at ornament in his style of speaking; and with matters of substance before him, he has always progressed with the argument, from his premises to his conclusion, in the briefest possible time. His speeches at the bar have always been, as elsewhere, remarkable for their pith, point, force and brevity. In the examination of witnesses his manner has been modest, mild, courteous, and kind ; or bold, blufF, dogmatical, and severe, as the occa sion seemed to require, according to the behavior of the party testify ing ; always shaping his questions according to the emergency, to elicit the answers desired to sustain whichever side of the issue joined he might chance to occupy ; and when the testimony has once been detailed, he has always recollected it; with remarkable accuracy. Generous and kind in his disposition, courteous and urbane in his de portment, with much of the " suaviter in modo et for liter in re" he has ever been pleasant and agreeable in his intercourse with both the bench and the bar, except on occasions when persuaded in his own mind that intended wrong was about to be perpetrated, and then he has been re markable for the facility with which he could change the even-flowing current into boisterous and angry waves, overriding by storm whatever barriers presented themselves in his way. To the younger members of the profession he has always been ready to lend countenance, afford encouragement, and give assistance to their efforts, and advance their prospects in their professional career. His wife died in 1832. While a member of the Senate, and engaged in the practice of the law, he embarked to some extent in the land specu lation then opening in North Mississippi, and examined much of the Chickasaw cession, in which he became involved, with nine others, and bound for one hundred and fifteen thousand, three hundred and sixty dollars. All of his co-operators and co-obligors in this transaction, but one, failed, which left the heaviest responsibility upon him ; but every dollar has been paid, besides something upward of fifty thousand more for various friends, in consequence of his indorsement of paper for their accommodation. And with all these liabilities hanging over him, while almost every one much indebted was breaking and hiding out his pro perty, his " goods and chattels, lands and tenements," were all standing there, fair to view, reachable, and sometimes reached by execution, but never sold. In these financial difficulties he sometimes had to take the benefit of such stays and delays as the regular and often lengthened course of the law allowed him, but it was always with the boast that, un til every dollar for which he was liable was paid, the last dime s worth THOMAS COOP WOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 455 of his property should remain without cloud over his title, subject to the payment thereof. He is now worth, at a fair valuation, clear of all liabilities, about fifty thousand dollars. In 1836, having lived about four years a widower, since the death of his wife, he again determined to marry, and led to the altar Miss Minerva, the daughter of Dr. John Ellis, a native of Virginia, who had, years before, emigrated with his family, and settled in Lawrence county, Alabama. He immediately afterward removed to Aberdeen, in Mon roe, county, as above stated, where, the following year, he resumed the practice of his profession, with renewed ardor and his usual success, in which he has been engaged, pretty generally, ever since, until, in 1850, he announced his determination to abandon the practice and retire from the bar ; since which time he has taken little or no new business, and now only appears in such of the old and complicated cases in which he had been retained as still linger upon the docket. Within the last year he has sold his town residence and his plantation in the prairies, and purchased land, and moved his negroes as well as his white family to it in the hills, where he now resides, for the sake of the calm retirement it affords from the noise and bustle of a town life, and the active business pursuits which he has so long been accustomed to. But ere he had done so, and while he was making his preparations for that purpose, he received the nomination from the Union party, in 1851, for a seat in the lower branch of the state legislature, and was prevailed on to accept the appointment and run for the station, as a means to wards securing, amongst other important measures, a charter for the great New-Orleans and Nashville Rail-road running through the town of Aberdeen. He was elected by a large majority, and was warmly solicited and pressingly urged by his friends, both before and after his arrival at Jackson, in consideration of his long and tried experience in matters pertaining to legislation, and his known familiarity with parliamentary rules and usages, to accept the speaker s chair ; but he firmly declined the proffered honors of the station, upon the ground that he could better promote the immediate interests of his constituents by occupying a place on the floor ; besides that, it would be more congenial to his feelings and wishes to be ready and at liberty at all times to participate in the de bates as they might arise on the various subjects presented. In this, as in most other things, he had his own way, and made one of the most attentive, active, laborious, and useful members of the last session, and succeeded, by good management, in obtaining a charter for the road in question in conformity with the wishes of his constituents, and in doing as much, and even more, in other respects, to meet their approbation, than was expected under all the circumstances. A whig in principle, he was untrammeled by party shackels, support ing whatever his judgment approved, and opposing all that he regarded as objectionable. Bold and independent in the discharge of the duties assigned him as representative from the county of Monroe, as he had ever been when representing a different county in another state, he fear lessly grappled with whoever and whatever assailed him, or in anywise impeded his progress in the just vindication and proper support of the rights of his constituents. It remains to be seen whether they will ap- 456 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. prove his course, and reward his labors with the same high appreciation that had been awarded to his efforts during his previous legislative career. It must not be forgotten that the whig central convention for that year nominated him, and run his name for governor of the State of Mis sissippi in 1 845. Of course he was not elected, for at that time the de mocratic party was largely in the ascendency throughout the state ; and besides he never left his home on an electioneering expedition, nor took any active part in the matter, one way or the other, during the canvass. He did not even formally accept the nomination, and neither sought nor desired the position. It has never been the absorbing and predomina ting desire of his heart to acquire political distinction, and judicial sta tions he has never sought. Captain Coopwood is about five feet ten inches high, well set, broad shoulders, full chest, and of full, round, fleshy proportions, but by no means corpulent. He has a large, well-proportioned head, measuring well in every direction, and particularly so in the basilar region, with originally dark hair, bordering on black, but now quite bald, and slightly gray. His eyes are of a dark-blue color, rather small, but full of ani mal vigor; large, full, round face, high, prominent cheek-bones, full and elevated forehead. He is a true believer in all the proprieties and precepts of the Chris tian religion, but not in the remotest degree tinctured with fanaticism. If he does not always tread the narrow path, walking in the command ments, keeping them blameless, it is because to err is human, and he knows that to forgive is divine. He is warm, cordial, and kind to his friends, and severe, harsh, and bitter towards his enemies. He has strong family predilections and attachment to wife and chil dren, with the principle of "self, me and mine" greatly predominating in his organization ; he makes a kind master, good neighbor, with much benevolence to the poor ; and what is remarkable for one organized as he is, whose life has been one continued struggle for property, under adverse circumstances, he spends his money freely and liberally. Now in his fifty-ninth year, the captain is as full of energy, activity, life and vigor, as a boy of twenty ; and is one of the most .companion able men alive. To hear him talk, and see his movements, on a long, tedious, dull, traveling journey, far away from home, is to be, in spite of his thinned locks and bald head, almost half convinced that his iron frame and elastic spirits will never wear out nor fail him ; but that his primal manhood is traveling round in circles, and he is to live and re live his whole life over and over again. In this brief sketch, if the leading, prominent traits of a well-formed character, through a long, busy, checkered, and most active career, have been sufficiently marked out to bring to the mind of the reader the faint and general resemblance in outline-picture of the genuine arche type, there will be found, doubtless, much to condemn, but much to admire and to imitate there will be found patterns for the youth in ad versity, who has the mind to comprehend what is around and above him, and the will to direct his course through the one up to the other, determined on his way to reap the reward of his labor in the transit THOMAS COOPWOOD, OF MISSISSIPPI. 457 there will be found models for the man of the world, who lives not in the studied creations of his own genius, but who seizes upon whatever he finds already created and prepared for the purpose by the heads and the hands of others, and reduces it to practice and appropriates it to his own use, as well as to the benefit of the millions moving along life s great thoroughfare in company with him there will be found much for the study and imitation of him, who, born under the presiding influence of a more propitious star than he, has made, amid the storms that raged, shipwreck of his fortune, but who desires to rise again, and is will ing to exert his energies to do so there will be found advice for the poor, seeking wealth ; example for the obscure, aiming at distinc tion ; lessons for the ignorant, in the pursuit of wisdom, and counsel for the wise, who desire to be useful. Whether at this point of time he is viewed away in the background lying in the distance, as the mere child, feeding his father s cattle, and trading with the Indians for bread; toiling on the farm through " summer s heat and winter s cold" for the support of his sisters and younger brothers ; cutting cord- wood at the iron-works to purchase his mother a farm or, as the youth, fighting in defence of his country ; on the stump, making his first speech to his comrades in support of his own promotion or, as the man, building his house in the hollow of the hills to suit the convenience of his family ; trading in produce and losing his property ; or, in the woods, taking a new start in a new country ; or, in the more prominent, but not more laudable, position in the councils of his country, making laws for the government of the people, or playing the lawyer before the tribu nals created for the administration of the laws, in the dispensation of justice ; or, trading in lands, walking in, or working out of embarrassing moneyed difficulties in all through all, the character of the man pre sents a rich theme a curious and interesting problem for the con templation and solution of the mental and moral philosopher. It is not pretended that he has no faults. It would be hard labor a dry, dull and monotonous task, indeed, to sketch the life of one, whose character was composed, entire, of one straightforward, even, smooth cur rent of uninterrupted good, with no relief, in light or shade, of compara tive or superlative degree, to enliven and animate the picture. The writer would loathe the task, though he might love and attempt to copy the virtues of the original. Faults are magnified and objected to main ly by those having much greater ones, and committing, in consequence, much more heinous enormities but faults, to the philosophic mind, are not objectionable ; for in man it is true, and the principle runs through all nature, that the capacity for evil must exist in order to the accom plishment of good. Man s conduct does not always square with his sentiments. In conduct, Julian developed the virtues of a Christian, Constantino the vices of a pagan. But the sentiments of Julian led back thousands to paganism, and those of Constantine, under Heaven s rule, helped to bow to Christianity the nations of the earth. In con duct, the humblest votary to the service of Leo, who believed in the miraculous efficacy, in the cure of souls, of the indulgencies sold by Tetzel, may have been a better man than Luther. To the sentiments of Luther, however, the mind of Christendom is indebted for the grand est revolution the world has ever known. The writer is no eulogist, but he would, when called upon to decide, 458 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. sit equipoised in the judgment-seat, and simply, and independently of friends and foes, the living and the dead, "render unto Csesar the things that arc Caesar s." This is believed to be the true object of history ; and in this alone can it be properly said that it is "philosophy teach ing by example." The writer is well awarf of the difficulties that con front the historian at every step of his progress, in attempting to trans fer to paper by the use of language the exact picture of the character to be drawn. To the mere sketch- writer, perhaps, the difficulties are in nowise diminished. And it has been well said by one, on whose ca pacity to decide the world has long since passed judgment, that * in every human character and transaction there is a mixture of good and evil ; a little exaggeration, a little suppression, a judicious use of epithets, a watching and searching skepticism with respect to the evidence on one side, a convenient credulity with respect to every report or tradition on the other, may easily make a saint of Laud, or a tyrant of Henry the Fourth." Jn the pages before the reader, the writer has endeavored to keep his pen on the exact line in the equi-distance between the two ex tremes. How far he has succeeded, in this respect, must now be left for others to determine. HON. JOHN W. NASH, OF VIRGINIA. JOHN W. NASH, the subject of the present memoir, is one of the judges of the General Court of Virginia, and the judge of the Second Judicial Circuit of that state. The Second Judicial Circuit comprises the city of Petersburg and seven of the adjoining counties, extending from the James River to the North Carolina border, and is inhabited by an enlightened and highly cultivated population. Judge Nash is by birth a Virginian, and a native of the county of Fauquier, and is of purely Virginian and English descent. He is now in the 59th year of his age, and resides in the county of Powhatan. His education, though classical, was not complete ; but this deficiency was in a great measure supplied by subsequent reading and study. He studied law in 1812 and 1813, with John Love, Esq., a distinguished lawyer in the county of Prince William, and commenced his professional career in the county of Cumberland, on the south side of James River, in 1813. The United States was at that time engaged in the war with Great Britain, and Mr. Nash, who was then a very young man, with the characteristic ardor of men of his age, earnestly espoused the cause of the war, and gave to Mr. Madison s administ ration his hearty support. This necessarily placed him in opposition to that brilliant, but eccentric politician, the late John Randolph, of Roanoke, within whose congressional district he then resided ; and in the memorable contest of that day between the late John W. Eppes and Mr. Randolph, he gave to Mr. Eppes a cordial support. To this circumstance, perhaps, is to be attributed his early attention to politics : for in 1818 we find him returned as a delegate JOHN W. NASH, OF VIRGINIA. ^ 459 from the county of Cumberland to the legislature of the state; and it was during the session of 1818 and 1819, that the statute laws of Vir ginia (which had been previously revised and compiled by Mr. Leigh and others) were acted on by the legislature, and we find Mr. Nash one of the members of the committee in the House of Delegates to whom those bills were referred. He was thus afforded an opportunity of becoming still more familiar with the statute laws of the state, which were in after-life to engage so much of his attention. He served, however, only one session as a delegate from the county of Cumberland, but voluntarily resigned his seat for the purpose of devoting himself more exclusively to his profession. In 1820 he removed to the county of Amelia, where he united the pursuits of agriculture with the practice of the law, a thing not unusual with the country lawyers of Virginia and the other southern states. In 1825 he was elected, with the late Governor Giles, to represent the county of Amelia in the legislature, for the express purpose of opposing the call of a convention to alter the then constitution of Virginia, which, with the aid of others, they suc ceeded in preventing at that time. He served for the next two sessions in the legislature, but again voluntarily resigned for the purpose of pur suing his profession. It was during his residence in Amelia that he became involved in a discussion in the public papers with the late Wm. H. Fitzbugh, of Fairfax, in relation to the American Colonization Society, who was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Parent Society at Washington, and a most accomplished gentleman and elegant writer. Mr. Nash admitted the philanthropy in which the society originated, but with many others of that day, distrusted the success of the enterprise, and feared the influence which the indiscreet efforts of its advocates might produce upon the peace and tranquillity of a southern commu nity. Mr. Fitzhugh was its unqualified advocate. Mr. Nash wrote under the signature of Caius Gracchus, and Mr. Fitzhugh under that of Opimius. Their controversy attracted much of the public attention at the time, and was subsequently republished by Ralph Randolph Gur- ley, the resident agent of the parent society at Washington, in the African Repository, and again in pamphlet form. The publication may be referred to as furnishing specimens of Mr. Nash s style as a writer, and we refer to it only for that purpose ; for we have been in formed that subsequently his opinions underwent much change upon the subject, and that he is at this time a sincere well-wisher of the colony in Liberia, and to the objects of the institution generally. In 1830 he sold out his plantation in Amelia, and removed to the county of Pow- hatan, the place of his present residence. He had not long been a resi dent of Powhatan before he was again elected to the legislature, in the spring of 1832. He continued a member of the House of Delegates until the spring of 1835, when he was elected to the Senate of Virginia, of which body he continued a member for the next seven years. While a member of the Senate he was elected to preside over its deliberations, and acted as its speaker for the last three years of his service. In 1842 he voluntarily resigned his office as speaker of the Senate, and member of that body, being heartily tired of public life, and the strife and tur moil of party politics. The period which elapsed from 1832 to 1842, which embraced the 460 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. last term of General Jackson s administration and that of Mr. Van Bu- ren, is known to have been one of deep interest and excitement in the political history of the country. In 1833, the State of South Carolina put forth an ordinance of Nullification, -which drew from General Jack son his famous Proclamation of that day, in which he denounced the proceedings of South Carolina as revolutionary in their character, and declared the determination of the Federal Government to execute its laws by force, if it should become necessary. This proclamation, and the Force Bill, which was passed by Congress by a large majority, although they had the effect of putting an end to the heresy of Nullifica tion, were regarded by many of the politicians of Virginia, and others, as erroneous in principle, and otherwise objectionable; and being fol lowed, in October, of the same year, by the removal of the United States deposits from the Bank of the United States, led to a serious division among the friends of the administration, and laid the founda tion for the present division of the political parties of the country into "Whigs and Democrats. Mr. Nash sided upon these questions with the administration. The doctrine which claims for a single state the power to declare a law of Congress void, and to prohibit its execution within her limits, at the same time that she remains a member of the Union, was too gross an absurdity ever to be admitted by him. He attached too high a value to the Union, and understood too well the principles of the Federal Constitution, to hesitate a moment in support of the principle of the Proclamation and the Force Bill, which affirmed the constitutional obligation of the President to execute the laws of Congress, although resistance thereto might be made under the authority of a state. The kindred doctrine, of the right of any state, at pleasure, peaceably to secede from the Union, finds no better favor with him than the doctrine of Nullification. He believes them to be revolutionary in their charac ter, and belong to that class of moral and political rights, the exercise of which can only be justified when it is necessary to resist oppression by political revolution. Entertaining these opinions, and having been through life attached to the democratic party of the country, he gave to General Jackson s administration, and that of his successor, a cordial support. He is decided in his politics. But he was never, either in public or in private life, a bigoted, or intolerant partisan, and has often been heard to declare that he would as soon quarrel with his friend for the color of his hair, as he would fall out with him for any honest differ ence of opinion upon the subject of politics. Hence it is that he numbers now, as he has always done, many of his warmest friends among those who differ with him upon party politics. And it is perhaps owing to this fact, and the high regard which he has for freedom and independence of opinion, on the part of others, that he was elected, on one occasion, speaker of the Senate, in a time of high party excitement, with a majority of political opponents in that body. In 1848, Judge Nash was appointed to his present office by the Governor of Virginia, which appointment was confirmed at the next ses sion of the legislature, without opposition. Since he has been upon the bench, he has reviewed much of his early reading, and has discharged the duties of his office in a manner satisfactory to the public, and free from PIERRE A. ROST, OF LOUISIANA. 461 objection from any quarter. His circuit is one among the largest in the state, and perhaps there is none in the commonwealth in which a greater number of intricate legal and commercial questions are present ed for discussion and decision. The members of the bar in his circuit are generally enlightened and well informed ; and many of them are among the first lawyers in the state. In his person. Judge Nash is rather below the middle stature ; and in early life was a little corpulent. In his manner he is courteous and re spectful, but frank and decided. He has had much intercourse with his fellow-men, both as a politician and a man of business, and hence has acquired a large stock of practical information as well as a knowledge of human nature. His leading attributes of character however are his unbending love of justice, and his great devotion to truth, which he has been often heard to declare lay at the foundation of every other virtue. He has been thrice married, and is the parent of eight children, five sons and three daughters. His oldest son is a practising physi cian ; his second son, is now engaged in merchandising in Mexico ; his third, in the practice of the law ; and the two youngest, have not yet finished their education. His daughters reside with him. In his habits, he is temperate and industrious, and free from all ostentation, either in dress or manners. A utilitarian in principle, he always prefers that which is useful to that which is only ornamental. HON. PIERRE A. ROST, JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA. PIERRE ADOLPHE ROST was born in the Department of Lot et Ga ronne, in the then Republic of France, and was the eldest son of Jean Jacques Rost and Sophie Delas. His father was a Huguenot, and in favor of the new order of things. During the Reign of Terror, he had been entrusted with authority which the weight of his personal charac ter enabled him to exert on the side of mercy, when it was most dan gerous to be merciful. His mother was a Catholic, and belonged to a family warmly attached to the fallen dynasty. The first political dis cussions he had were with his uncles, on the maternal side ; and as he invariably had the better of them in argument, they came to the con clusion that he was a mauvais sitjet, and that poor Sophie would have trouble with him. His father thought differently. He had confidence in his son, and treated him from infancy as a companion and a friend. He was fond of appealing to his imagination, and of conversing with him upon the lives and actions of distinguished men. He dwelt with particular plea sure on the life and character of Franklin, whom he greatly admired. Franklin s republic was frequently mentioned, and the good old gentle man might easily have been led to believe that every citizen of it was a Franklin. 462 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. After receiving the rudiments of education at and near home, young Rost was sent to the college, first in the old Roman city of Cahors and afterwards to the Lycee Napoleon at Paris. He passed his examina tion for the Polytechnic school, when he was little over sixteen years of age, and was classed and admitted as the nineteenth of the success ful applicants. Soon after his admission, his father died suddenly. This loss was so seriously felt by him, that it affected his health, and for a long time depressed his spirits. At the beginning of the ensuing year, the allied armies first crossed the Rhine, and invaded France. The entire battalion of the Poly technic school asked to join in repelling the invasion, and was attached to the garrison of Paris. Its conduct and admirable discipline at the battle, under the walls of that city, on the 30th of March, 1814, won the respect and the admiration of the enemy. Young Rost stood at the right flank of the battery when it was charged by a body of Bava rian cavalry, and the men at the guns compelled to retreat, until they succeeded in turning against their assailants four of the guns on the left, which mowed them down like grass, and cleared the battery before the guns could be spiked. Each then returned to his post, and continued to annoy the enemy long after the other positions had been surrendered, and until the order to retreat was passed ; so that it may be said that the subject of this notice fired the last shot for the deliverance of his native land. He then retreated with the arrny of Paris, and joined the Emperor at Fontainbleau. After the Restoration, he returned to the Polytechnic school, and applied for a commission on the return of the Emperor from Elba. Pie was on the eve of obtaining it, when, the battle of Waterloo again subjected France to the rule of foreign bayo nets, and of their allies, the Bourbons. He was then offered a situation in the gardes du corps, which he refused, feeling, to use his own expres sion, as if his country had gone from under him, and had left him afloat on the wreck of the empire. His thoughts then reverted to the country of Franklin ; a country about which he knew nothing ; but which he loved because his father had loved it, and he resolved to make it his home. He was warmly attached to his mothers and sisters ; but painful as the separation was, he felt that his destiny was there, and that it must be accomplished. He left in the beginning of 1816, being then nineteen years of age, and landed in New-Orleans in the spring of that year, a stranger to all, but full of health and youth and hope, and conscious of being at home the moment he trod on American soil. After being in New-Orleans a short time, he went to Natchez, where he made many acquaintances, who have been ever since his steadfast friends ; one of the most agree able was that of George Eustis, the present able Chief-Justice of Loui siana, who was then preparing for the bar ; one of the most useful was that of a gentleman of education and intelligence, who proposed to learn French with him, and teach him English, which offer was thank fully accepted. After a few weeks, his teacher gave up the French in despair, but was so well pleased with the progress of his pupil in Eng lish, that he insisted upon continuing his lessons, and in the fall of that year he had the satisfaction to see "him write and speak English with tolerable accuracy. PIERRE A. ROST, OF LOUISIANA. 463 About this time Congress made to the French emigrants and exiles a donation of one hundred thousand acres of land, on the Black War rior, for the purpose of cultivating the grape vine. Mr. Rost was re gistered for a section of this land, but not believing that the swords of French officers could be turned into plowshares, or that such a colony had any chance of success, he never took possession of his share of the grant. After losing time, and becoming greatly involved by a com mercial enterprise, and an unsuccessful attempt to improve an island on the Mississippi River, he turned his attention to the study of the law, under the guidance of Joseph E. Davis, a worthy brother of the dis tinguished soldier and statesman, Jefferson Davis. After a seclusion of six weeks, during which days and nights were devoted to study, he passed a remarkable examination, and was admitted to the bar. The late Judge Taylor, who examined him, complimented him on his legal acquirements, and cheered him by the promise of success and fame in his new profession. He soon after removed to Natchitoches, in the state of Louisiana, where he established himself permanently. All the wealthy population of that part of Louisiana was, at that time, either French, or of French origin ; and the facility which he had of addressing juries in their own language, secured to him from the start a profitable practice, of which the liberality of the bar enabled him to avail himself under powers of attorney, until he was admitted to practice at the next term of the Supreme Court. The bar of West ern Louisiana numbered, at that time, many first-rate men. Josiah Johnston, Alexander Porter, Henry A. Bullard, William Wilson, and Isaac Thomas, have a national reputation, and would have stood among the first in their profession anywhere. With the liberality peculiar to the legal profession, all those men welcomed the young Frenchman among them, and seemed as much pleased with his success as with their own. Their good report soon spread his name throughout the state, his practice became quite large, and in a few years he had the happi ness to pay the debts he had left behind hirn, with interest, and to lay the foundation of a competency which he has since attained. His for mer creditors not only became his clients, but took pains to recommend him, and put him in the way of much valuable business. The courts of general jurisdiction sitting at that time but twice a year, he had much time left for self improvement, and availed himself of it to the utmost. The facility he had of reading French, Spanish, and Latin, gave him access to all the origins of the law of Louisiana, and he went through a systematic course of study, at times, by him self, and at other times with Judge Bullard, who, like him, was fond of scientific investigation. Domat was his text book ; Pothier, including the Pandects, Merlin and Toullier, his favorite commentators ; Grego- rio Lopez, Salgado, the Curia Philippica and Febrero, were also read by him, arid the changes which the laws of Spain then in force in Loui siana had made in the Roman law, carefully noted. He was thus qualifying himself to sustain with honor the position which favorable circumstances had made for him at the bar. So far, however, from obtruding his studies upon the public, he took pains to conceal them, and was ever ready to lead the dance, or join his friends in the sports of the field. 464; SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The cases that came before the court at that early day frequently presented the dramatic incidents of a border country. A brief notice of a few of them may be interesting to our readers, not only as sketches of manners, but as disclosing the modus operandi of the sub ject of this notice, and the character of his mind. Tom Tippett was a drummer in the regiment stationed at Canton ment Jesup, about fourteen years of age. Having been punished by the sergeant of his company, the next morning, when off duty, he stepped up to him, within the precincts of the fort, took deliberate aim, and shot him dead. He was surrendered for trial to the city authority. On leaving the fort, he told his commanding officer that he knew he must die, but that he would die like an American and a soldier, and bring no disgrace upon his company. This having been related by the officers to Judge Billiard and Mr. Rost, they volunteered in his de fence. Mr. Rost pleaded to the jurisdiction of the court on the ground that, by the constitution of the United States, Congress was to exercise ex clusive legislation over all places on which forts, magazines, arsenals, and dock-yards were erected ; and that this grant of power divested at once and forever the state court of jurisdiction. The arguments made use of by him were much the same as those upon which the celebrated passenger case has lately been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. But the court held, that it was not the grant of power by the federal constitution to Congress which divested the state court of jurisdiction ; and that the exercise of the power by Congress alone produced that effect. Under the principle of the decision in the passen ger case, this defence should have prevailed. The offence not having been committed while the accused was on duty, it could not be brought under the martial law ; and as Congress had not provided for such a case, there was no law under which he could be tried. By the decision of the court he was subjected to a trial, which, through the great exer tions of his counsel, resulted in a verdict of manslaughter. Dr. Provost had been a distinguished surgeon in the French army. He was fond of strife, and had exaggerated notions of honor and per sonal dignity. He was arrested for a threat, on the affidavit of one of his neighbors, and brought for examination before Spotswoods Mills, who was a justice of the peace and a practising lawyer. Mills was then a candidate for the legislature. He required Provost to give bonds to keep the peace, and the latter not being able to comply with the order on the spot, his hands were tied behind his back, a rope was .placed around his neck and tied to a tree in the yard of the house in which Mills was at the time, and he was suffered to lie out all night. On the next day, this being midsummer, the constable walked him thirty miles to the jail of the parish, his hands still tied, and a rope around his neck. As soon as he reached the town of Natchitoches. he gave bonds and was set at liberty. His hands were much swollen, and he was in a state of mental excitement bordering upon insanity. He thought that Mills had suffered these outrages to be committed upon him to propitiate his enemies, whose votes he wanted, and sent him a challenge, to which he received no answer. Several days passed, during which the election took place, and Mills was elected. One PIERRE A. ROST, OF LOUISIANA. 465 evening after dark, Provost met him in the street, and said, he asked him whether he would fight him. Mills answered that he would not; and Provost stabbed him through the heart. He was put upon his trial for murder, and entrusted his defence to Mr. Rost. The ground of defence taken in argument was, that the time which had elapsed between the outrage committed upon the accused, and the revenge taken for it, did not, under the facts of the case, raise a pre sumption of malice. The common law was the custom of a country where money was held, in public opinion, a sufficient atonement for all outrages to person and character. After, therefore, the aggrieved party had had sufficient time to reflect upon the remedy which the law gave him, and which public opinion and his own sense of honor sanctioned, if he failed to avail himself of it, and resorted to personal violence, there was no ade quate motive for Ms acts, and malice was justly presumed. But the accused belonged to a race among whom the atonement required in such cases was blood, and mortal combat the only form of trial recog nized by public opinion. That until this was had, the outraged party felt as a disgraced being ; and delay, so far from bringing counsel to him, must increase his exasperation, and ought to place him in no worse situation than if the act had been committed in the heat of passion. That in a common law country, the state of mind which would induce a party firmly to believe that the only remedy he had in such a case was to meet his adversary in mortal combat, could not be considered as being sound, and the accused was entitled to the benefit of this kind of insanity. This characteristic distinction between the two races was traced with great research through their judicial history. The defence, however, was unsuccessful, and the accused found guilty. His disposition, and the strength of his national instincts and preju dices, were strikingly shown by the last request he made of the sheriff. The deputy of that officer had charge of the jail, and had treated him, as he thought, with unnecessary harshness during his confinement. The day before his execution, he sent for the sheriff, thanked him for his uniform kindness, and told him he had a request to make which he (the sheriff) must promise to grant. The sheriff said he would, if it was possible. " Nothing easier," said Provost. " You are an honest man, and must not disgrace yourself by hanging me. I insist on being executed by your rascally deputy, and that you shall not be present." The promise was given. An Indian had been accidentally killed by another Indian while both were in a state of intoxication. The relations of the deceased were ab sent at the time; but they soon heard of his deathj and came from the Indian territory to exact blood for blood from the homicide. He was advised to flee, but would not, and, in blind submission to the law of the red man, agreed to surrender himself on a certain day to be shot. The court was then sitting, and Mr. Rost proposed to the presiding judge to prevent the horrid sacrifice, by giving the victim a fair trial by a jury, many members of which were known and respected by the relatives of the deceased, and impressing upon the latter the necessity of abiding by the verdict, whatever it might be. The judge consented 30 466 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. at once, and had the Indian arrested, and confined in jail for safety. Mr. Rost visited him, informed him through an interpreter of what had been done, and asked the names of his witnesses. Those names were accordingly given. They were those of Indians of three or four differ ent tribes, now much reduced in numbers, and dwelling together. On the day of the trial, the prosecutors were all called into court. The killing was proved by a white man, and the witnesses for the defence were called. The district attorney objected to their being sworn, on the ground that they were insensible to the obligations of an oath from defect of religious sentiment and belief. They were then examined as to their faith, and, to the delight of those who heard them, they all tes tified to their belief in a future state and in a Great Spirit who would reward them if they told the truth, and punish them if they lied. They were then examined in chief, one of the party firs^ translating the dia lect of his tribe into Mobilian, which is the lingua franca of the Southern Indians, to an old Indian trader, who translated in French to the sworn interpreter of the court, by whom it was done into English. The tes timony of all those witnesses thus given in different languages, was con sistent throughout, and bore the impress of truth. It made cut a clear case for the defendant. The case was then argued, and the judge gave a charge to the jury, which was translated to the prosecutors. l\e jury retired, and after being out some time, returned into court with a ver dict of not guilty. The judge caused the verdict to be translated to the prosecutors, and told them that the jury had done justice ; and if they now took the life of the accused, they would be punished as murderers. Mr. Rost then rose and stated to the court that the prosecutors had left their hunting- ground to come and avenge the death of their relative, as it was their duty to do ; that justice had been done to the accused, but that was not sufficient. Justice must also be done to the other side: they must be indemnified for the inconvenience they had been put to, and the loss they had sustained ; and as the coffers of the treasury would not unlock at the bidding of his honor, he moved that the bar, jury, and by-stand- ers, contribute a sufficient amount to satisfy them. This was done as soon as proposed, and the prosecutors declared themselves satisfied. It was the first time that a court of justice in Louisiana took jurisdic tion of an offence committed by an Indian against another Indian. Till then the Indians had been permitted to enforce their own barbarous laws. The precedent has since been followed, and it is to be hoped that it will hereafter be considered as the law of the land. Mr. Rost was elected to the state legislature in 1822. In the early part of the ensuing session a bill came up to create a new parish, with the singular name of St. John the Evangelist. This name was under stood to have been given in deference to the wishes of a worthy old gentleman, who had made a donation of land to the new parish for the erection of the public buildings, and whose name was Jean. After the sections had been adopted, Mr. Rost, who, till then, had been a silent member, rose to move an amendment to the title. He said that he yielded to none in respect for the memory of the great saint who had been selected as the patron of the parish. But he did not think any good would result from the honor intended for him on this occasion. PIERRE A. ROST, OF LOUISIANA. 467 Honors were rendered to departed great men, less for their own sake than for the beneficial influence those honors had upon the living ; and the men whose examples were most worthy of imitation, should be first honored. It was painful to say, that in the present state of the world, evangelical sanctity found no imitators. The saints of liberty had, in this respect, superseded those of the church, and he was about to propose the name of one of those saints as a substitute. He moved that the title be amended by striking out the name of St. John the Evangelist, and inserting the name of Lafayette. The motion was re ceived with applause. Major Davezac, who sat next to him, almost kissed him for the idea, and the change was made without a division. This little incident gave him the ear of the house, and he soon after made himself conspicuous by his opposition to a bill punishing usury as a crime, and enabling debtors to recover back the usurious interest paid by them within the five previous years. Only two votes, includ ing his own, were recorded against it on its final passage. But it was returned by Governor Robertson, with his objections ; and on a re-con sideration, the majority of two-thirds, required to pass it, could not be had. At the ensuing session he took an active part in the debates of the civil code, by which Louisiana is now governed. He and Judge Grima formed the enrolling committee, and were authorized to make all necessary corrections of form. In 1820 he was nominated for the state senate in opposition to a gen tleman who till then had defied all opposition, and considered it a duty to his friends to use all proper exertions to secure" his election. The county of Natchitoches was as extensive as some of the states of this Union ; and the northern and western portions of it were at that time occupied by a sparse American population. He made appointments to address the people at various places, and they came from great dis tances to hear him. Those men, mostly emigrants from Tennessee and Georgia, considered this a giant step in the civilization of Louisiana, and were delighted with their candidate. They all joined in his sup port, and he was elected. These were the first stump speeches made in Louisiana, and Mr. Rost has often expressed doubts whether he conferred a benefit upon the state by introducing the practice. He remained in the senate four years; at the end of which time he was put in nomination for Congress. He was then engaged to a daughter of the late Jean Noel Destrehan, whom he married before the election. This caused him to neglect the canvass and he was defeated by a few votes. He then removed to New-Orleans, where he continued in the exercise of his profession till the summer of 1838, when he took his family to Europe, on a visit to his mother and sisters. He returned in the fall, and two vacancies having occurred on the bench of the Su preme Court, he and his old friend, George Eustis, were appointed to fill them. They both resigned after a few months. Judge Eustis re sumed the practice of the law, and Judge Rost retired to one of his estates, formerly the homestead of the Destrehan family, and for some years devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. He went from the be ginning upon the principle that the best planting is that which pays best, and was quite successful in the application of it giving his peo- 468 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. pie all necessary comforts and all indulgences compatible with a judi cious discipline, liberal in expenditures, attended with ascertained pro fits, and making none on a large scale as long as the result remained doubtful, he was soon cited as an authority among planters ; and in 3845 was called upon by the State Agricultural Society to deliver a discourse at their annual exhibition, which he did in a manner satisfac tory to those who heard him. His speech was republished in the agri cultural journals of the country, and translated into Spanish in the island of Cuba. After a fair trial, he did not find that the pursuit of agriculture gave sufficient occupation to his mind ; and on the re-organization of the state judiciary in 1846, he accepted again a seat in the new court, of which his old friend and colleague, Judge Eustis, was appointed chief justice, and he is now a member of that high tribunal. It does not comport with the design of this work to review the de cisions in which he has been the organ of the court. But it may be said that they are remarkable for vigor, logic and learning, as well as for always calling things by their right name, without the least regard to persons or position. The stern rebuke of his censure is said to have driven from the bar several men who disgraced it ; and cases of fraud, which constituted their sole practice, have become comparatively scarce. The Supreme Court of Louisiana deserves in this and other respects to be held up as an example. It has equity as well as law jurisdiction, and the cases that come before it are frequently to be decided under different systems of jurisprudence. The Mississippi may be said to be the dividing line between the two great jurisdictions of the civil and of the common law into which this continent is divided ; and New-Orleans is the place where the two systems meet, and nearly all the conflicts between them occur. The cases in which they arise are known to be the most intricate and difficult in jurisprudence. Notwithstanding this, the court has decided thirty-five hundred cases in less than six years, and none are ever left on its docket at the end of each year that coun sel are willing to try. The unequaled facility of recovering debts in Louisiana, has become proverbial amongst northern merchants. It is not out of place to mention that the military education of Mr. Rost enabled him to acquire distinction of another kind. At Natchez a company of artillery was formed, of which he was first lieutenant, and under his drilling it became in time quite respectable. His fame as a martinet followed him to Red River, and he was made in succession lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the 19th regiment of Louisiana Militia. At the first general muster after his appointment, two hundred and seventy-three privates did not answer to their names. He had every one of them fined, and caused those who refused to pay the fine to be confined in the common jail for seventy- two hours, as he was authorized by law to do. The parties punished were very much exasperated, but they did not miss muster again ; and at the next yearly review, the regi ment proved to be by far the best drilled and disciplined of any in the state. We will close this notice by stating, on reliable authority, that Mr. Rpst attributes much of his success at the bar to his uniform popularity with courts and juries; and the latter, to a strict adherence on his par* W. F. BULLOCK, OF KENTUCKY. 469 to the rules of conduct he had prescribed for himself at the beginning of his forensic career: these were, never to misrepresent the facts of his case never to speak when he had nothing to say never to repeat what he had once said. He ever kept in mind, that although judges and juries are compelled to listen, persuasion is impossible when the compulsion is permitted to be felt. He took pains not to weary their patience. He addressed himself at once to the strong points of his case, and when his story was told he was done. The mathematical education he had received, here bore its fruits. He would as soon have thought of repeating a demon stration in geometry, as a legal argument. In this respect, as well as in earnestness of manner and form of thought, he has been said to be not unlike John C. Calhoun. HON. W. F. BULLOCK, OF KENTUCKY. BIOGRAPHICAL sketches of those who have attained merited distinc tion in American law, have a charm and force in them, that commend them to every sound thinker. We naturally feel an interest in tracing the footsteps of those who have reached elevated positions in public confidence, and have wielded their influence for the public good ; who, loving truth and integrity for their own sakes, have undeviatingly fol lowed their dictates, no matter what the personal consequences might be. Records of this kind are calculated to raise the ministrations of law in public estimation, and are guides for the junior members of the profession, in their pursuit of reputation, distinction and position. The HON. WILLIAM F. BULLOCK, whose career we are about to sketch, has long been conspicuous in a corps of celebrities, second to none in this Union in point of ability and fame. The Kentucky bar has long enjoyed a high reputation, and its members have largely influenced the character, not only of the Great West, but of the Union. The mother of most of the western states, she can point to her deeds in the National Councils for the past fifty years, and her sons glory in the fame of her Breckenridge, Nicholas, Davies, Clay, Rowan, Barry, Crittenden, Sharp, Boyle, Owsley, Mills, Trimble, Bibb, Robertson, and a host of others, who contributed to the imperishable legal renown of the state. For a long period of time, in the early history of Kentucky, Lexing ton enjoyed a large portion of the renown of the state. That city is the centre of one of the richest agricultural districts in the western country. The first newspaper printed west of the Alleghany Mountains was published in Lexington ; and Transylvania University, for a number of years the most renowned institution in the great valley, was located there. From that venerable hall of learning, Kentucky scattered, with a profuse hand, her intellectual treasures over the West and South. 470 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. While Transylvania University was under the auspicious administration of President Holley, it is doubtful whether any city in the United States possessed a larger share of intellectual activity than Lexington. A love of literature and science pervaded all ranks; education flourish ed in all its departments; the general pursuit of knowledge which char acterized the people, enabled them to support for many years the finest public library in the West, to which was attached reading-rooms, containing all the best periodicals in the English language. The great genius of Matthew Jouitt, one of the noblest artists upon canvas that this country has produced ; and the cultivated taste, public spirit and enterprise of John D. Clifford, commanded the prosperity of the fine arts in Lexington at this period. Philosophy, literature, classical learning, science and art, went hand and hand ; and Lexington was the glory, the pride, and the cynosure of the Great Valley. That was the golden age of literature, science and art, in the West. In addition to the resources of intellectual growth and activity al ready mentioned, Lexington maintained, for about fifteen years, the ablest, most prosperous and successful medical school in the western country. The renown of her medical teachers was co-extensive with the Union, and none of the successors of this school have ever rivaled the ancient fame of the medical department of Transylvania University. The reputation of the medical school finally overshadowed the fame of the University. Nor were the interests of a law school neglected in the inidst of these intellectual energies; but one was established, as a department of the University, which speedily attained a high rank. The genius and abi lities of the bar of Lexington were illustrated by Henry Clay, William T. Barry, William Blair, Jesse Bledsoe, Joseph Cabell, Breckenridge, and others, who, with less extended fame, enjoyed a high reputation at home. It was in the midst of these intellectual energies, that the subject of the following sketch first saw the light, and to his career we now direct the attention of the reader. William F. Bullock was bom on the 16th January. 1807, in Fayette county, Kentucky, of which Lexington is the county seat. At an early period he exhibited a fondness for study, and such was the proficiency attained at a country school, that he entered Transylvania University, and graduated in 1824, when he was but seventeen years of age. The writer of this sketch knew him at the time of his matriculation in the University. No student ever entered those classic halls with a higher reputation ; and his devotion to study, his modesty and good habits, enabled him to add largely to his youthful fame. At the time of his graduation, he was esteemed as second to none of the distinguished eleves of Transylvania University, then in the zenith of her renown. As an orator, he was unrivaled in that institution ; and such was his great distinction, that upon the return of Mr. Clay to Kentucky, after his vote for Mr. Adams, when his congressional district determined, in its own language, " to speak its instructions to Henry Clay, in a language that could neither be misunderstood nor mistaken," the youthful orator of Transylvania was selected to deliver the speech, welcoming th< patriot of Kentucky to the hearts of those who had long entrusted W. F. BULLOCK, OF KENTUCKY. 471 their political interests to his keeping. It was an occasion of deep in terest; it drew people from various parts of the state, and an immense assembly of Kentuckians, and citizens of other states, was gathered to receive the illustrious sage of Ashland. For the time being, the eyes of the nation were upon Lexington. The traducers of the fame of her most illustrious son looked on the scene with fear and trembling, while the friends of the administration of Mr. Adams looked to it as a source of hopeful energy and triumph. In the midst of all these great inter ests, in the presence of that great assemblage, indeed, of the American people, the young orator of Transylvania addressed a speech of wel come to Henry Clay, that was worthy of the occasion. It was an effort of eloquence of which any son of Kentucky might well have been proud. Even during the mighty response of Mr. Clay, whether its eloquent tones were moving the best feelings of our nature, or its withering scorn was hurling its defiance and its anathemas upon the heads of those whose machinations were struggling for his ruin, the calm and elevated eloquence of the youthful orator worked its way into the memories of the people, and placed him conspicuous among the speak ers of Kentucky. In 1828, Mr. Bullock moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and commenced the practice of law, in the midst of as formidable competition as could be found in the state. But the same habits that had given him such enviable distinction in the curriculum of Transylvania University, soon attracted attention to him in his new sphere of duty, and gave him high rank among the able men who adorned the Louisville bar. After a probation of ten years at the bar, the public voice called him to a seat in the Kentucky Legislature. He was a member of the House of Representatives, in 1838, 1840 and 1841, and was the author of some of the noblest monuments of Kentucky legislation. To his well-directed efforts, efforts that never knew fatigue while the cause needed exertion, Kentucky is indebted for her common school system. He introduced the bill into the legislature, and by his elo quence, his entire mastery of the whole subject, and his untiring labors, both as the eloquent exponent of the cause before the representatives of the people and the profound writer for the press, he so deeply engraved the merits of the common school system upon the public mind, that it now defies all the powers of its enemies. Various efforts have been made to cripple this system, and the most formidable was the attempt in 1843 to cancel the bonds of the state, which had been given to the Board of Education, on account of a loan of the mo ney that had been appropriated to the common school system. The original appropriation was eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, a portion of the dividend paid to Kentucky from the surplus revenue of the general government. This sum was loaned to the state on her bonds. In 1843, an attempt was made to cancel these bonds, by which the common school system would have been utterly destroyed. Mr. Bullock was not at that time a member of the legislature, but he ear nestly appealed, through the press, against this great outrage. While the danger lasted, he was always at his post, battling for the cause that had enlisted his zeal and his best abilities. To his noble exertions, his thorough understanding of the subject, and his persuasive eloquence, 472 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Kentucky is indebted for her common school system, a system that is scattering innumerable blessings among the rising generation. A pro found debt of gratitude is due to Judge Bullock for his services in the cause of education. Nor were the philanthropic exertions of Mr. Bullock, while he was in the legislature, confined to the cause of popular education. When efforts were first begun in Kentucky for an improved management of the insane, those efforts found in him a zealous and intelligent cham pion. In 1842, he produced a profound impression upon the public mind, by a report which he submitted to the Kentucky legislature on the management of the insane. He acccompanied the report with a speech which commanded the attention of the state, and to his exertions the triumph of the cause is due. Kentucky has been exceedingly liberal since that time in her appropriations to the insane ; and the lunatic asylum now compares for excellence with any in the United States. To Judge Bullock is due the honor of the improvements in Kentucky in ameliorating the condition of the insane. Although a feeling of animosity existed at the time between Lexington, where the asylum is located, and Louisville, with whose representation he was connected, he nobly spurned all local and selfish considerations, and advocated the philanthropy for its own sake. He did for Kentucky what Pinel did for France. Another crowning glory of Judge Bullock s legislative career, was in his successful exertions to procure an endowment from the state for.an institution for the education of the blind. His eloquent advocacy of the cause, his zeal and energy, were crowned with success ; and, in 1841, the legislature of Kentucky appropriated ten thousand dollars towards establishing a school for the blind. This is the favorite elee mosynary institution in Kentucky. The legislature has been liberal HI its endowments for its support, and the institution has resources now amounting to some twenty-five thousand dollars for the erection of buildings and furnishing the school. In one respect, the Kentucky school for the blind is in advance of every other in the country. In response to an appeal on the part of the trustees, the legislature gave that body the power to confer upon all meritorious graduates of the institution a copy of the Bible and of the Constitution of the United States, printed in raised letters. The state deserves much credit for this noble munificence. Judge Bullock was one of the original trustees of this institution, and has been one of the most active and useful members of the board to the present time. He has been President to the Board of Trustees from its first organization until now. These are the monuments of the legislative career of Judge Bullock, and his friends point to them as the characteristics of the man. They have conferred unnumbered blessings upon Kentucky, the effects of which will go on increasing from year to year. To be the acknowledged author of the Common School System of Kentucky, of the vastly im proved means which now exist in Kentucky, by law, for managing, protecting and curing the insane, and of the institution for the edu cation of the blind, is an honor of which any man might well feel proud. His legislative career is a model for those who wish to confer W. F. BULLOCK, OF KENTUCKY. 473 real blessings upon the commonwealth, and to obtain a good report for themselves. After the close of his legislative career, Mr. Bullock again resumed the practice of his profession. In 1846, he was appointed to the bench, as judge of the fifth judicial district. The appointment gave general satisfaction. His high legal reputation, his urbanity of demeanor, his decision and firmness, and his universally acknowledged integrity in all things, gave an earnest of a successful career in this new sphere of use fulness which has been fully redeemed by his judicial course. There is no court in Kentucky that sustains a higher character, nor is there one that commands a greater degree of confidence. The interests com mitted to this court are of much greater magnitude than are to be found in any other judicial district in Kentucky. Louisville, the com mercial emporium of the state is in the circuit, and the most important questions of commercial law are frequently presented for adjudication. This court, also, has criminal jurisdiction, and the criminal docket is the largest and most interesting in the state. This complication necessarily requires a judge of ability and learning. The judiciary of Kentucky has been adorned with names that would have commanded respect any where, but no one has ever attracted a larger show of public confidence and respect than Judge Bullock s. A striking evidence of this fact is furnished by the election of judges by the people in the sixth year of Judge Bullock s judicial life. The new constitution of Kentucky re quires the election of judges by a popular vote ; and in 1851, the first election took place. The district had been so changed, that but one of the former counties in Judge Bullock s district remained, and three new ones were added to it. In this state of things, a competitor for the office presented himself under auspicious circumstances for success. There were portions of the district in which this gentleman had for merly commanded an extraordinary popular vote, and he was supposed to be much more favorably known in the new portions of the district than Judge Bullock. But the election showed the deep hold that an upright and independent judge has upon the public affection. Notwith standing the popularity of his talented opponent, Judge Bullock was elected by a large majority. This election is one of the many gratify ing evidences that prove that the people are capable of selecting the proper characters for judicial stations. In the performance of his judicial functions, Judge Bullock knows no authority but duty to law and justice. He is singularly free from all those elements that narrow, warp, and bias the mind, and he holds the scales of justice with as perfect an equipoise as is possible to any hu man being. He knows neither fear, favor, nor affection, and can neither be cajoled nor denounced into doing judicial wrong. He is clear in his judgment, prompt in decisions, and firm and unwavering in the dis charge of every duty. The dignity of the court is firmly and steadily maintained, and throughout the district entrusted to his care, order, based upon law, reigns supreme. The firm, independent and conscien tious discharge of duty has given him a strong hold upon the popular sentiment; and the fact that such discharge of judicial duty is the surest road to popular favor, is full of promise for the perpetuity of 474 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. our free institutions. An unawed, unswerving judiciary, is the bulwark of freedom. In 1849, the trustees of the University of Louisville elected Judge Bullock to the chair of "The Law of Real Property and the Practice of Law, including Pleading and Evidence," in the law department of the university. The preceding sketch of the characteristics of this dis tinguished jurist has prepared the reader for the history of his career as a teacher. He is highly appreciated by his eminent colleagues in the school, and commands the respect and affection of his classes. He has greatly contributed to the success of this department of the university. Profoundly versed, as Judge Bullock is, in the science of law, with a mind singularly clear and full, possessing great powers of elocution, perspicuous and direct in his teachings, with an enlarged and matured experience in the practice of law, he could not fail to be a most impres sive and popular teacher. We have thus briefly sketched the character and career of the Hon. William F. Bullock, of Kentucky. We have known him from his youth upward, and feel no ordinary gratification in recording his pros perous, useful and animating history. In all his various responsibili ties, he has ever been true to the highest interests of humanity, to the strictest integrity and to the holiest dictates of justice. In his public and private life he has lived as Milton did " Ever in the great taskmaster s eye." " ! HON. DANIEL A. WILSON, OF VIRGINIA. DANIEL ALLEN WILSON was born in Cumberland county, Virginia, the 21st day of May, 1790. His ancestors were among the early set tlers of the state. His father, Richard Wilson, of James City, served in the Revolutionary War as an officer of the Virginia militia, and was engaged in the battle of Guilford and the siege of Yorktown, which ter minated that ever-memorable struggle. His mother, Priscilla, was the daughter of Daniel Allen, of Cumberland. At an early age he entered Hampden Sydney College, at which celebrated seat of learning he ac quired a high reputation for scholarship and honorable deportment. The manly and generous qualities that exhibited themselves in his inter course with his fellows; the kindliness, sincerity, and independence of spirit that formed his social character, won for him, to an unusual de gree, the esteem of those with whom he was associated ; while the faith ful performance of his scholastic duties, and the facility with which he mastered his studies, attracted the regard of his teachers, and excited hopes of future distinction, not disappointed in the sequel of his life. After his academic studies were completed, he entered the law-office of William Daniel, subsequently one of the most eminent judges of the General Court of Virginia, under whose direction he prosecuted the DANIEL A. WILSON, OF VIRGINIA. 475 study of the law. In 1810 he was admitted to the bar, and entered at once upon a lucrative practice. As a lawyer, he gained most reputa tion as an advocate ; and was particularly distinguished for his success before juries in criminal cases. In all the duties of the practitioner multiform, delicate, and trying as they are his integrity was above reproach; and his fairness, ability, and skill, commanded the confidence and admiration alike of his professional brethren and of the public. He was esteemed by all as a conscientious counselor, an eloquent advocate, and a learned and discriminating jurist. During the war of 1812 he performed two tours of service, as lieu tenant of a volunteer troop of cavalry, from his native county ; and though the fortunes of war did not bring him into the presence of the enemy, the promptness with which the company rallied to the defence of the country, and the high degree of discipline and soldiery excellence attained by the Cumberland calvary, made it one of the most noted corps in the service. In 1814, having resumed the practice of his profession at Cumberland courthouse, he was united in marriage with Ann Rebecca, daughter of John Macon, of Powhatan. He continued the practice of the law with unvaried success and distinction until the year 1824. when, yielding to the solicitations of others, and lured, it may be, by political aspirations, lie became a candidate for, and was elected to a seat in the General Assembly. From that period until 1828, when he declined being a candidate for re-election, he continued to represent his county in the House of Delegates without opposition. During the term of his ser vice in this capacity, and afterwards, he was on terms of intimacy with Tazewell, Randolph, Giles, and other statesmen of Virginia of world wide renown. This era of the legislative history of Virginia was mark ed rather by an unusual amount of talent than by political excitement or agitation. The subject of this sketch was one of the leaders of that division claiming to adhere most rigidly to a. strict construction of the Federal Constitution. He was chiefly instrumental in the election of Tazewell to the Senate of the United States ; and in the contest of 1826, between Randolph and Tyler for a seat in the same body, he exerted himself warmly in favor of the former. During the cessation of party strife that succeeded the election of Jefferson, and characterized the administrations of Madison and Mon roe, and the early part of Adams , the legislature of Virginia was main ly engaged in the consideration of questions of state policy. Wherever questions of a party character arose, and especially such as involved the rights of the states, Mr. Wilson was always found co-operating with those who demanded that the action of the federal government should be restricted to powers clearly granted by the constitution. He was a firm supporter of the doctrines of that school founded by Jefferson and Madison, and of the principles set forth in the celebrated resolutions of 1798- 99. But during the political calm to which reference has been made, no question, of other than minor interest, involving federal poli tics, arose. Among other subjects of state policy, a reformation in the judiciary system came under consideration. In imitation of the English practice, and without regard to the sparseness of the population, the common law and chancery jurisdiction were divided, and vested in 476 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. separate tribunals. The common law jurisdiction was vested in Cir cuit Courts, held by judges in each county of the state while the chancery jurisdiction was vested in Courts of Chancery, held by chan cellors for large districts the whole state being divided into only five. This arrangement occasioned very great inconvenience to suitors, and sometimes led to a denial of justice. Not unfrequently the Courts of Law and those of Chancery differed as to their respective jurisdictions, and in some cases there was no mode of determining which was the rightful tribunal. But the chief inconvenience resulted from the size of the districts. Suitors were required to travel great distances, and re main at great expense, awaiting the tedious action of lawyers and the court, and the dilatory movements of parties, whose interest it frequent ly was to retard the decree of the chancellor. This attendance upon the courts was the more arduous from the want, at that time, of all facilities for travel, except the ordinary roads and conveyances. Experience of the evils of such a system prompted Mr. Wilson to undertake its reformation, and accordingly he moved a resolution of inquiry into the matter; and shortly afterwards, as chairman of the committee appointed for the purpose, reported a bill, blending the com mon law and chancery jurisdictions, and conferring it jointly on the Circuit Superior Courts of each county in the state. The bill, through his influence, passed the House of Delegates, but was lost in the Senate. The scheme was, however, so favorably received by the people, that it was adopted a few sessions later, and yet remains almost the only fea ture of the judicial system that has not since undergone a change. Its adaptation to the circumstances and wants of the people of Virginia has been tested and approved by the experience of twenty years. In 1829 Mr. Wilson was elected by the General Assembly one of the eight members of the Council of State. In 1830, the Council hav ing been reduced by the amended Constitution, from eight to three, he was again chosen one of the three. The office of Councilor was, at this period, one of great responsibility and corresponding honor. By the organic law of the state, the Governor was directed, before he exercised any discretionary power conferred on him by the Constitution or laws, to require the written advice of the members of the Council. In the absence, or at the death or resignation of the Governor, the eldest Councilor acted as Governor of the state. The era of which we are speaking, is one of the most brilliant in the history of Virginia. Then Giles, Floyd and Tazewell stood at the helm of state. Randolph, of Roanoke, was in the zenith of his unequaled powers, and, with all his mental idiosyncracies. was the steadfast advocate of state rights. Taze well was the most accomplished and astvite statesman and jurist of the age. Giles was possessed of a most vigorous and searching intellect, and was an ardent co-laborer with the others in support of the Virginia construction of the Federal Constitution. Peter V. Daniel, who now adorns the bench of the Federal Judiciary, was then prominent and in fluential in controlling the policy of the state, and moulding the political sentiments of its people. These were the associates and friends of Mr. Wilson. With these kindred spirits, he assisted in directing the desti nies of the " Old Dominion" for a series of years, more glorious than any since the days of the Revolution. DANIEL A. WILSON, OF VIRGINIA. 477 In 1840 Mr. Wilson, having again become a private citizen, was elected by the General Assembly one of the Judges of the General Court of Virginia. The office was conferred at the solicitation of many members of the legal profession in the circuit, with whom he had been long and intimately associated in the practice, and who possessed the amplest means of knowing his moral and mental qualifications for the high trust. Its acceptance imposed no ordinary amount of duty and responsibility. The docket, with perhaps a single exception, was the largest in the state; and many of the cases involved interests of vast and extended moment. In the town of Lynchburg, and the county of Buckingham particularly the one the most active and enterprising place of business for its number of inhabitants in the state, the other a large and populous county, in which unfortunate speculations had en tailed a class of suits extraordinary in number and character the diffi culties of the post were most embarrassing. In Lynchburg, a heavy bank defalcation had involved the citizens and money institutions in prosecutions and litigation, that brought up the most intricate principles of criminal law, and the most delicate questions of commercial relation. In the discharge of these trying duties, the Judge s fixed and unwearying purpose seemed to be, to arrive at the truth, and to administer the law. He displayed throughout the tedious process of the various trials, (what are indeed the striking characteristics of his judicial bearing,) patience, courtesy, dignity, and veneration for the laws, as they are written. In no other department of civil government do such important occa sions so frequently occur for the exercise of the rare and exalted endow ments of moral and mental excellence, firmness, decision and foresight, as the judiciary. The timely and efficient execution of the laws the protection and preservation of the public and private rights of the citi zen the dispensation of impartial justice between excited parties and the maintenance of the quiet dignity the calm, temperate and com placent manner that will inspire confidence, respect and obedience are some of the varied and momentous obligations which devolve on those to whom its administration is intrusted. The character of the judge must, therefore, possess a well adjusted combination of the purest and noblest mental and moral elements. Unmoved by the impulses and frailties that seem the inseparable concomitants of humanity, he has daily to observe and to analyze their practical operations and effects in others ; impassive and emotionless the chosen incarnation of the law he delivers, expounds and administers its will and its judgment ; and, with truthful conceptions of the peculiar and complicated linea ments of each case of litigation, he is prompt, when the palliation of circumstances dictates the course, to relax the rigor of the law, and to give full and free expression to the mild, just and humane spirit from which it emanates, and for whose vindication and protection it ought alone to be enforced. Under the happy influences of our popular institutions, it may be said with striking propriety, that the usefulness and efficiency of the tribu nals of the country are secured and enhanced in proportion to the con fidence and respect with which they inspire the members of the com munity. The cheerful obedience, which the good citizen acknowledges to be an indispensable duty he owes to the tribunals of the law, will 478 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. become a sullen submission so soon as the dispenser of the law fails to display prominently, in the discharge of judicial duties, the essential attributes of the good and upright judge. No American can resist the temptation to indulge an excusable impulse of national pride, \vhile re flecting upon the widely different circumstances which, in this respect, attend the administration of the laws of theUnited States and of England. The judicial systems of the two countries, though springing from the same venerable source, and founded on the same great, unchanging principle, bring into requisition the appliances of their peculiar and con genial agencies in order to inspire respect and" to secure obedience. In England the law is administered by officers, who, elevated high above the people, alike ignorant of the social and moral composition and the interests of those whose private and public rights they adjudicate and determine, seek to make themselves respected only by the display of official insignia, and to awe men into unworthy obsequiousness by their imperious manner; they are sustained in authority and their decrees enforced by the constraining presence and vigilance of a powerful con stabulary. Here the judge, selected from the body of the people, has the honorable distinction conferred upon him exclusively in con sideration of the possession of the high qualifications requisite to the station ; he will retain the manner to which a freeman may consistent ly and honorably yield a cheerful and ready obedience, and will endear himself and the tribunal over which he presides to the hearts of the people by the continual display of his ardent love of justice, his impar tiality, firmness, independence, unvacillating judgment, and kind, cour teous and dignified bearing. The strength, efficiency arid moral influ ence of a tribunal thus organized appealing directly to the republican loyalty and devotion of the people are inconceivable. It exerts a widely diffused, ennobling influence which elevates the sentiments of all to the standard of its own excellence. Parties freely submit their dearest rights to its arbitrament, confident that justice will be consult ed and its unerring judgment rendered. The court becomes truly the temple of justice the shrine of purity and of truth and every citizen that crosses its consecrated threshold bows instinctively to the irresist ible emotions of respect, obedience and veneration, which a sense of the presence of the embodiment of virtue, justice and exalted worth in spires in the manly heart. Judge Wilson discharges the onerous duties and responsibilities of his office with an industry and ability which few of his distinguished compeers have attained. He is ardent and untiring in devotion to business of inflexible sternness and independence of sound, discrimi nating and far-reaching judgment and sagacity thoroughly imbued with the passion of the great masters of the profession and familiar with all the useful and ornamental attainments of the accomplished jurist. He presents, in a remarkable degree, the rare combination of all the essen tial qualifications for the position which he fills with so great honor to himself, and so much of usefulness and benefit to his native state. Judge Wilson forcibly illustrates, in his official bearing, the happy tendency of that conservative republicanism which pervades alike all the institutions of the country. Plain and unostentatious, his judicial manner harmonizes with the impressive simplicity of his character. DANIEL A. WILSON, OF VIRGINIA. 479 Generous, frank and cordial, no man approaches him insensible of the genial inspirations of his presence. His temper is, at all times, even under circumstances of the most annoying and provoking nature, in perfect subjection to his will. Cool and dispassionate, he allays, by the silent influence of his example, the angry feelings and fierce passions which are so often momentarily engendered in the transaction of legal business ; and the rude and wicked spirit that defies the physical appli ances of the law s power, stands reproved, abashed, silent and respect ful in the serene and dignified presence of the virtuous judge. He is the type of the republican judge. The universal love, admiration and esteem in which he is held by the people of the circuit where he presides, evince their high appreciation of the public and private worth and excellence of his character, and is per haps the most congenial, as it deserves to be the most enduring monu ment of his matchless virtues. Notwithstanding the constant pressure of judicial duties, Judge Wil son has not been insensible to the patriotic impulses of a true son of the " Old Dominion." He has been the sterling advocate of a liberal internal improvement policy. He felt that the vast commercial, manu facturing and productive resources of Virginia were to be explored and developed, before she could hope to attain the pre-eminent place that nature seemed to have designed her to occupy ; and this result could be accomplished alone by the prosecution of. an extensive and judicious system of internal improvement, that would, in time, unlock her moun tain fastnesses and expose their hidden treasures afford the varied pro ductions of her fertile soil quick and cheap access to market and reach out arms of iron to embrace the trade and travel of the populous cities and growing states of the rich and teeming valley of the Mississippi. Judge Wilson became the early friend of this policy, and has continued one of its staunchest and ablest advocates. When that link in the chain of the great southwestern improvement the Virginia and Ten nessee Rail-road received its charter from the legislature of the state, in the newspapers and on the hustings he exerted all the energies of his vigorous mind and the fervor of his eloquence in its behalf. His heart glowed with a new life in anticipation of the re generation of the old commonwealth. He looked to this mighty im provement as an essential element in the consummation of this result; and he felt a commensurate interest in its success. With the wise men of the state he foresaw that the connection of the capes of Virginia with the California seaboard, by a continuous railway, penetrating the heart of the richest mineral and agricultural regions of the state, and drain ing the broad valley of the Mississippi, would speedily secure to Vir ginia an increase of population, energy, wealth and prosperity of which even an approximate estimation would startle and astound the mind. The cycle of a few years will prove that his labors in this behalf have not been the least valuable of the services he has rendered to his native state, the memory of which will endear his name to her people, and ex cite their profound and lasting gratitude. 480 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. HON. BRADLEY B. MEEKER OF MINNESOTA. HON. BRADLEY B. MEEKER, the subject of this brief notice, is a native of Fail-field, State of Connecticut, where he was born on the 13th of March, 1813. On his paternal side he is descended from an ancient family, whose lineal ancestor, Robert Meeker, settled in the town of Fairfield as early as 1650. His mother was the daughter of Peter Nichols, who married Hannah Burr, the daughter of Increase Burr, a near relation of the Rev. Aaron Burr, one of the early Presidents of Princeton College, New- Jersey. His parents, who still survive and reside in his native town, enjoy the happiness that proceeds from a life spent in laudable and successful efforts to raise a large family to indus try and intelligence. Entering upon life in humble circumstances, and embarrassed at the commencement by surety debts contracted for re lations, most of their life has been a severe struggle between pecuniary- dependence on the one hand, and the attainment of a competency on the other. Their sons, therefore, were all educated to labor, and from twelve years and upwards, were compelled to exchange the school- house for the farm, and books for the plow, with the exception of a short interval during the winter. Bradley, who was the second of seven children, was not excepted from this hard necessity of his brothers; and until he was sixteen years of age, had enjoyed no other educational advantages than such as were to be gleaned from a common district school in the neighborhood, where only reading, writing and arith metic were but imperfectly taught. At this period an incident oc curred that constitutes an era in the history of his life. It sometimes happens that the merest accident, as a tale, a dream or a romance, turns the course of one s days, and colors or controls his entire subsequent career. It was about this time that he obtained the use of Rollin s Ancient History and Pope s Iliad ; both of which he read with avidity and profit. The latter was his companion at home and in the field, and, no doubt, principally contributed to kindle a love for literature, and to inspire him with an honorable emulation in the pursuit of knowl edge. His taste for and attachment to books had now become mani fest, and his father for the first time began to entertain the purpose of sending him to a grammar-school; but his large family and limited means, on the other hand, discouraged the idea. This obstacle, how ever, was overcome by the timely and friendly interposition of the ven erable Deacon Joseph Hyde, of Greensfarms, who resided near the academy, and who received him into his family, where he was boarded during the winter for his services between school hours. Here he com menced the study of the English and Latin grammars, which he prose cuted during the winter months, under the direction of Nathaniel Adams, Esq., but which he was compelled to abandon as the spring approached, and return again to the farm. During the spring and sum mer days, he toiled incessantly in the field ; but the nights were all his BRADLEY B. MEEKER, OF MINNESOTA. 481 own, and these were consumed in preserving unaided what he had ac quired the winter previous, and adding somewhat to the original stock of knowledge. It was during this summer, too, that he acquired a thorough knowledge of geography, having used for this purpose Morse s large edition, and atlas. In the mean time, his progress and devotion to books had attracted a wider circle of friends, among which number he had the honor of including Gov. Tomlinson of Connecticut, then one of the trustees of the Weston Academy, taught by the Rev. Nathaniel Freeman, an eminent Greek and Latin scholar. Here, by the pa tronage of the former gentleman, he was placed at school, and com menced the study of the ancient classics, which he prosecuted the win ter and summer following, and afterwards continued at Wilton, Ct., under the auspices of Hawley Olmstead, Esq., a distinguished and ac complished teacher, until he was admitted, considerably advanced, to Yale College, in 1834. On leaving this institution, his thoughts were turned westward, and by the advice of friends, was induced to settle in Richmond, Madi son county, Kentucky. Here he commenced the study of the law, teaching at the same time, with signal success, the County Seminary, for upwards of a year. In the year 1838 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice in Richmond. The bar at this place then stood deservedly high throughout Kentucky, a state distinguished for its forensic and legal abilities. Among the number might be named the Hon. John White, afterwards Speaker of Congress ; Hon. Daniel Breck, soon after appointed a judge of the Court of Appeals of that state, and subsequently elected to Congress ; Col. William Caperton, Maj. S. Turner, and William Goodloe, since a circuit judge. It is not to be presumed that a young man in the very vestibule of his profes sion, unaided by fortune and unbacked by friends, could enjoy anything like a full tide of practice in the midst of such formidable competitors. Up to the fall of 1844, therefore, the time when he had resolved on changing his residence, his share of the business, though daily increas ing, was inadequate to his expectations, and did not keep pace with his thorough learning and acknowledged qualifications. But if his harvest in fees at this place was comparatively small, he did not neglect the opportunity afforded by this circumstance of turning his time to the greatest account. There is no greater mistake than that ordinarily entertained, that an early or rapid start in a profession is any sure precursor of substantial and abiding success. This remark is eminently true in reference to the law. The most profound jurists and the most illustrious judges that ever adorned the English or American bench, have plodded their way slowly and laboriously to. their distinction and usefulness ; and were, doubtless, most fortunate in not having overmuch practice at a period in their professional lives when, if ever, they could ground and fortify themselves well in the knowledge of a science too profound in its principles and too infinite in its details to be compassed in any in considerable portion of one s existence. This period was spent by Judge Meeker in severe and unrelenting application to legal studies and researches, well assured, meantime, that his laborious and inces sant toil would be crowned with ultimate and certain success. In 31 482 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. 1845, he changed his residence from Richmond to Flemingsburg, Ky. Here his perseverance and energy of character were fully rewarded by his steady and increasing success. The regularity of his habits, (the effect of previous rigid discipline,) his care and attention to business, together with his familiar acquaintance with the principles and practice of his profession, seemed to promise him at no distant day its highest rewards. There is little of incident in the life of a merely professional man, no matter what be his success in the line of his calling. In it, there is no lure or glitter to attract or excite the attention or admiration of the thoughtless and giddy multitude. Nothing short of that lesser attribute of greatness the pulling down or up-heaving of society by its enemies the bold and boisterous career of a reckless and unscrupu lous demagogue, rather than the more difficult task of defining, uphold ing, and enforcing those principles of a community by which its dearest rights and interests are secured and protected, commends itself readily to popular applause or wonder. Judge M. never actively engaged in politics ; but, on the contrary, is averse in his feelings and tastes to the partisan conflicts of the times. It is true, his pen was early engaged in calling the attention of his adopted state to the propriety and justice of constitutor al reform. His articles upon this subject were quite numerous, and were republished and read with interest and profit throughout the state. The interest thus awakened resulted in a call of a convention, which revised and remodeled the Organic Law of Kentucky, making the principal officers of the state, including the ju diciary, directly elective by the people ; a measure stoutly opposed by a strong minority, but which, in its practical operations, has vindicated itself, and fully justified the confidence thus reposed in the only source of all legitimate power in this country. Early in the spring of 1849, President Taylor appointed him one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Minnesota, soon after that territory was organized by Congress. He immediately repaired to this new field of usefulness, and entered upon the responsible du ties inseparable from such a station in a young and rapidly rising territory. ALBERT G. GRIDLEY, OF NEW-YORK. 483 f ALBERT GALLATIN GRIDLEY, PRESIDENT OF THE KIRKLAND BANK. ALBERT GALLATIN GRIDLEY, of Clinton, in the town of Kirkland, Oneida county, New-York, was the second son of Orrin Gridley, for many years a resident of the same village. Mr. Gridley, the elder, commenced business, as a merchant, in Clin ton, about the year 1809, with no capital except his own untiring in dustry, and a character and conduct without blemish and without reproach. In the pursuits of commerce, he diligently employed him self, extending his business as prosperity smiled upon him, and in creasing his fortune by those slow but uniform additions which furnish the surest pledge, alike of individual wealth and national abundance. Thus he continued for thirty years, discharging all his duties as a citizen and a Christian, and acquiring a reputation for business capacity and for sterling integrity, which will be long remembered in the county of his residence. He was one of the very few merchants who success fully withstood all the shocks and disasters of trade from 1812 to 1840 ; and the names of Bacon, Gridley, Case and Knox, in the south ern section of Oneida, will long be regarded as equivalents for success in business and integrity in character. His wife was of the Kellogg family, a name identified with the whole history of the place from its earliest settlement, and, indeed, the history of Clinton, of the town of Kirkland, and of Hamilton College, located in its midst, is every year associated with the names of Kellogg and of Gridley. Albert G. Gridley, the subject of this sketch, was born at Clinton on the fifth day of August, 1813, and his early life was passed in his native place. Destined, by his father s wishes and his own inclination, for a merchant s life, he received a thoroughly practical and scientific education ; and, at the age of seventeen years, he entered as a clerk his father s store. Arriving at his majority, he became a partner of his father, and so remained until the fall of 1837, when the father retired from the store, and the son took the whole business, and for seven years prose cuted it with diligence and success. In October, 1839, Mr. Gridley married Miss Sophia D. Hickcox, a lady of fine mind and rare accomplishments, and a daughter of Benja min Hickcox, Esq., long a resident of Clinton and one of its most worthy citizens. During the latter part of the period of his continuance in trade he associated with him as a partner his younger brother, Frederick Grid- ley, (now a successful broker in Buffalo,) and in the spring of 1 844 he sold out to him his whole interest in the business, and after a few months delay he removed to Buffalo. There he engaged extensively in the ship-chandlery and commission business, and prosecuted it with great energy and success until the spring of 1847. 484 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. During his residence in Buffalo he became well known as an enter prising merchant, a useful citizen, and an accomplished gentleman. His father, after retiring from trade, invested a portion of his capital in banking, and established in Clinton a private institution, well known as the " Kirkland Bank." In this new department of business he proved himself fully adequate to its peculiar duties, and conducted it to his own profit, and the great satisfaction of the community, until his death, which occurred in 1847. Before his death he had invited his son to return to Clinton, and en gage in banking ; and after very short deliberation Mr. Gridley closed his business at Buffalo and resumed his residence at his native place. Within a few days after his arrival there, the sudden decease of his father threw upon him a large amount of labor and care : he engaged in the settlement of the estate of his father ; the bank forthwith re quired a head ; he became its president and chief financial officer, and soon its owner. Since that time Mr. Gridley has resided in Clinton ; and as the centre of his family circle, a citizen and a man of business, he has made good his title to the honored name which he inherited from his ances tors. Possessed of ample wealth for a country gentleman, he has never lavished it in useless extravagance or vain display ; and on the other hand, endowed with a cultivated taste, his income has always been expended for such refyied enjoyments, such social comforts and such deeds of goodness as are befitting his means and his position. The prominent peculiarity of Mr. Gridley s character and habits is this, that while no man is more devoted to business, none more punctual in the performance of all its duties, or more thorough in the enforce ment of all its claims, yet, when the hours of business are passed, he devotes his leisure to the pursuits of literature and to social and domestic pleasures. He has none of that all-absorbing passion for money which is quite too prevalent, which drives sleep from the eyes, and bows the body with premature decay, which hardens the whole soul, and causes its restless subject to turn coldly away from every object which does not respond to his cry for " more." His example is worthy of imitation. And in this " age of gold," there is a high duty imposed upon men of taste and wealth so to hus band and increase the one as not to blunt and destroy the other. Too often is property without its pleasures, and labor without its re wards ; and for one sufficient reason, that both are vainly devoted to reckless waste or unsatisfying accumulation. Firmness also is a prominent trait in Mr. Gridley s character. Clear in his perception of what is right in opinion and conduct, he never hesitates to take his position by word and deed ; cheerfully conceding to others the full enjoyment of their own rights, he is equally decided in the assertion of his own. His course of conduct once adopted, he is not easily turned from its pursuit, and whether it be business or amuse ment, he follows it with a resolution that never falters, and a perseve rance that rarely fails. Mr. Gridley is now thirty-nine years of age, and as yet only enter ing upon his business life ; and his origin, the early training which he ALLEN HAMILTON", OF INDIANA. 485 received behind his father s counter, and his own personal history fur nishes the surest guarantee of his future success. Whether he remains in his quiet country home, or removes to a larger sphere of business and of influence, his friends have an assurance that adversity will be borne without despondency and prosperity enjoyed without unseemly triumph. ALLEN HAMILTON, ESQ., PRESIDENT OP THE FORT WAYNE BRANCH OF THE STATE BANK OF INDIANA. IT is a crowning glory of the United States that the paths to wealth, and to political and social distinction, are here open to all to the adopted as well as the native-born citizen ; and there are few whose histories better illustrate what can be accomplished by energy and integrity, under republican institutions, than the subject of this sketch. MR. HAMILTON is a foreigner by birth. He was born in the year 1798, in the county of Tyrone, in the north of Ireland. His ancestors emigrated from Scotland at an early period, and their descendant, whose biography we shall briefly sketch, seems to unite in his disposi tion and character some of the most striking qualities of both nations : the warm-heartedness and impulsiveness of the Irish, with, the energy, perseverance and frugality of the Scotch. His father, Andrew Hamil ton, was a younger son, a lawyer by profession, and maintained, for many years, a respectable standing as an Irish attorney. He held, for some time, the honorable and lucrative position of deputy clerk for the crown. Having, however, lived fully up to his income, and resigned his clerkship, and soon after his resignation, having been attacked by a severe sickness, which prostrated not only his physical, but, to some degree, his intellectual energies, his affairs fell into confusion, and he became deeply and, as it proved, inextricably embarrassed. About the same time, his elder brother, to whom had descended the real estate of the family, became involved in expensive and protracted litigation, which resulted in leaving him in circumstances scarcely bet ter than those of his brother Andrew. As soon, therefore, as young Hamilton, who was the eldest of the family, became old enough to appreciate his condition, he perceived that he could expect no aid from his father or his relatives, and that if he made headway in the world, it must be by his own efforts. This conviction, however, it seems, instead of disheartening him, only stimu lated him to exertion, and developed powers that otherwise might ne ver have been brought into action. It was the habit of self-reliance, thus formed in his boyhood, that nerved him to leave his home and his friends cross the Atlantic travel on foot from Montreal to Philadel phia, push on to the west, and fight his way to wealth and respectabili ty, amid the hardships and dangers of a wilderness country. 486 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Fortunately for Mr. Hamilton, his mother, Elizabeth Allen, was a woman not only of warm affections but of great strength of character. Though highly connected, and reared in opulence, the embarrassments of her husband neither embittered her disposition nor impaired her energies. It is to her influence, her instructions and prayers, that Mr. Hamilton mainly attributes his success in life, and his escape from those follies and vices into which young men, exposed as he has been, are so apt to fall. From her he learned those lessons of moral recti tude for which he has been ever distinguished. From her, too, he in herited, as far as it was hereditary, that energy of purpose which has enabled him to overcome difficulties which, to most young men, would have been insurmountable. Finding that the embarrassed circumstances of her husband would deny her son proper opportunities for an education at home, and determined to do for him everything in her power, she applied to her aunt, Mrs. Montgomery, of Donegal county, to take him for a sea son into her own family, and send him to an academy in the vicinity of her house. The application met with a favorable response, and young Hamilton, at the age of twelve, was transferred to the hospitable mansion of Mrs. Montgomery, where he remained for two years at tending school and enjoying the advantages of a fine society, which the position and talents of his relative drew around her. When he was fourteen, he returned home, and found that the embarrassments of his fa ther had so much increased, during the past two years, as to make it the duty of his son to do what he could to aid in the support of the family. He therefore reluctantly gave up his studies, and the hopes he had en tertained of obtaining such an education as would qualify him for the bar, and for the next four years he devoted himself exclusively to the service of his father. When he was eighteen years old, at one of his annual visits to Mrs. Montgomery, he was introduced to a gentleman who had just returned from a tour through the United States, and was warm in his praises of this new country and its free institutions. From this gentleman he obtained a copy of Jefferson s Notes, which he read with avidity ; and from this time the United States became to him the land of promise. During this visit, a grandson of Mrs. Montgomery, a young gentleman of his own age, now an English barrister, taunted him with his poverty and his gloomy prospects. Hamilton was proud and sensitive. Undeserved as he felt the reproaches of his companion to be, they nevertheless wounded him severely. He reflected more seriously than he had ever done before upon his own prospects and those of his family. The country about which he had been hearing and reading, where there were no privileged classes and no bloated aristo cracy, but an open field for the exercise of industry and talent, came up to his mind in vivid contrast with his dearly loved but down-trodden Ireland, and before he returned home he determined to emigrate to America, as soon as he could raise money enough to pay his expenses. Mrs. Montgomery, to whom he communicated his determination, warmly approved of it, but insisted that he should go to Canada in stead of the United States. This was contrary to his wishes, but hav ing confidence in her judgment, and being promised letters to friends of hers in Quebec, he submitted himself to her direction. Returning ALLEN HAMILTON", OF INDIANA. 487 home, he set himself resolutely to work to make the necessary arrange ments for his departure, and having, within the next year, by his own exertions and the aid of some friends, raised money enough to pay for his passage, and to support him for a few weeks after his arrival in the New World, he bade adieu to his relatives and friends, and to his na tive land, and sailed for Quebec in July, 1817. Having arrived at his place of destination, he delivered his letters of introduction to a Mr. Irwin, of the police department, by whose kind ness he became acquainted with some families of distinction, through whose influence he obtained the promise of employment as clerk in an extensive shipping house. He was, however, doomed to severe disap pointment. Before he entered upon the discharge of the duties of his clerkship, he was taken down with ship fever, which had broken out in the ship in which he had taken passage, before her arrival in Quebec. The attack was a severe one, but a stout heart and a good constitution triumphed over the disease, and, after being prostrated for six weeks, during which time his little stock of money was nearly exhausted, he was able to leave his room, but not to occupy the place that had been secured for him. The terrible fever, which is so generally fatal, had, in this instance, been foiled of its prey, but it had so impaired the consti tution of the young emigrant, that his physician was of the opinion that a Canadian winter would be too severe for him, and advised him to leave Quebec for a milder climate. In accordance with this advice, he proceeded to Montreal, but had scarcely reached that city before he had a relapse, on his recovery from which he found that he had but a little more money than enough to pay the expenses of his sickness. In a strange land, without friends and without money, and with a constitution severely shattered by disease, the prospects of the young adventurer were gloomy enough. Unable to work, without a single acquaintance to whom he could apply for advice, he determined to make an effort to reach the United States. Selecting, therefore, from his wardrobe such articles of his clothing (not excepting his only overcoat) as were not absolutely necessary for his journey, he disposed of them for such price as he could obtain, and with a small bundle, containing a change of linen, and a few dollars in his pocket, he started for the South. He walked to St. John s, and passed over to Vermont in an Indian canoe. Continuing his journey, he proceeded on foot, through Albany and New- York, to Philadelphia, the climate of which he supposed would be more favorable to him than that of any city further north. This journey must have been as disheartening to the unfortunate emigrant as can be easily imagined. He had no acquaintance in the United States. His constitution, which had been excellent before he left Ireland, had given way under the attacks of fever at Quebec and Montreal. His natural enthusiasm, had yielded to the stern realities of his trials and his sufferings ; yet day after day, he pursued his toilsome journey, sustained by a firmness of purpose that would not yield to discouragements, and by the hope that fortune would yet smile upon him, and open the way for him not only to better his own condition, but to secure a home and a compe tency for his parents. Having reached Philadelphia, and taken the 488 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. cheapest respectable lodgings he could find, he started out in quest of employment. All his efforts were, for a time, unavailing. Penniless and almost disheartened refused employment as a common porter on account of his delicate appearance he wandered through the streets until his eye was arrested by an advertisement for laborers on the door of an iron store. He immediately entered the store, and presented himself before the proprietor, and asked for work. Fortunately for Hamilton, the gentleman he addressed was a kind-hearted Quaker, who was at once interested in the delicate appearance and earnest but re spectful manner of the young Irishman. He drew from him his history, and promised him assistance. Nor was the promise forgotten. In a day or two a clerkship, with a salary of one hundred dollars a year and board, was obtained for the young adventurer, and from that time his lucky star was in the ascendant. He remained with his employer, at an increased salary after the first year, until the spring of 1820, when he determined to visit a cousin, General James Dill, who, he under stood, resided at Laurenceburgh, Indiana. He arrived at Laurence- burgh in July ; found his cousin, clerk of the court for Dearborn county, and entered his office with a view of preparing himself for the bar, agreeing to write six hours a day for his board and the use of his cousin s library. While at Lawrenceburgh, he was introduced to some of the first men of the state, and became intimate at the house of Hon. Jesse L. Holman, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and after wards Judge of the United States Court for the District of Indiana; one of whose daughters, Miss Emeline J., a young lady of rare virtue and accomplishments, he afterwards married. In the year 1823, Captain Samuel C. Vance, who had been an officer under the gallant but unfortunate General St. Clair, was appointed Ke- gister of the Land Office, at Fort Wayne, in the heart of an unbroken wilderness. At his instance Hamilton was induced to visit this frontier post. The situation of Fort Wayne, at the junction of two beautiful rivers, the St. Mary s and St. Joseph s, at the head of the great Wabash val ley, pleased and interested him. He perceived also its great local ad vantages, and, shortly after his arrival, he determined to make it his place of permanent residence. As soon as this resolution was formed, he entered the office of Captain Vance as deputy register, and pursued for some time his legal studies, with a view of being admitted to the bar as soon as the naturalization laws of the country would permit. It shortly, however, became obvious to him that the practice of the law, in so new a country as the one in which he had located, would not be profitable enough to enable him to carry into effect his long-cherished plan of removing his parents to the United States, and he determined to turn his attention to merchandising, the only business that seemed to promise safety in investment, and speedy and profitable returns. His good character enabled him to purchase a small stock of goods on credit, and the year after his arrival at Fort Wayne he commenced a small trade, chiefly with the Indians. His success altogether exceeded his expectations, and in the course of a year or two he found himself with capital and credit enough to carry on an extensive and profitable business. ALLEN HAMILTON, OP INDIANA. 489 It was the good fortune of Mr. Hamilton to be connected, in his mer cantile and real-estate operations, with Cyrus Taber, Esq., now and for many years past a resident of Logansport, one of the most enterprising and indefatigable men of the state. The connection was formed soon after Mr. Hamilton settled at Fort Wayne, and continued for many- years. The firm of Hamilton & Taber became widely known, and none in the state has ever enjoyed a higher or more merited credit. Mr. Hamilton was also fortunate in securing at an early day the con fidence of John B. Richardville, for many years the principal chief of the Miami Indians. This chief was one of the most remarkable men which his nation, prolific as it has been of marked characters, ever produced. Clear-headed, cautious, prudent, non-committal, always adroitly obtain ing the opinions of others before he made known his own, no advantage could be obtained over him in his negotiations with the government, and no trader could obtain the good-will of the nation contrary to his wishes. For some time after Hamilton settled in Fort Wayne, the chief marked his course with his usual caution and discrimination, and, being pleased with the manly character, steady habits, and honorable bearing of the young stranger, he solicited his friendship, and gradually gave him his confidence. For many years before his death he took no important step in relation to his own affairs or those of the nation without consulting his friend, The friendship of the chief secured for Hamilton, to a large degree, the confidence of the nation ; and while this confidence resulted in solid advantages to him, it was never abused. After the death of Richardville, and before the nation was re moved to their present home, west of the Mississippi, he continued to be the steadfast friend of the tribe, and exerted in their councils a greater influence than was probably ever possessed by any one who was not of their blood. In 1829, the year after his marriage, Mr. Hamilton sent to Ireland, for his next younger brother; and in 1831, he prepared to carry into execution his long-cherished determination of removing his parents and other brothers and sister to the United States. Before this could be effected, however, his mother died, and he was thus denied the happi ness of welcoming her to the home he had labored so hard to secure for her in his adopted country. The rest of the family accepted his invi tation, and he had, soon after, the satisfaction of greeting them under his own roof, and making suitable provision for their comfort and happi ness in their new home. Nor is it as a business man, and in pecuniary matters alone, that Mr. Hamilton has been successful ; he has received a liberal share of public honors. In 1824, he was appointed sheriff to organize the county of Allen, which office he subsequently held two years, by election of the people. In 1830, he was elected county clerk, which office he held for seven years. In 1834, he was selected to be secretary of the commis sioners appointed to negotiate a treaty with the Miamies. In 1838, the same office was again tendered to him and accepted. In the spring of 1840, under the administration of Mr. Van Buren, the government being desirous of extinguishing the title of the Miamies to their lands in Indiana, and inducing them to remove to the West, ap 490 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. pointed Mr. Hamilton, though a political opponent of the administra tion one of the commissioners to treat with them upon these important matters. A treaty was effected in accordance with the wishes of the government, by which the Indians sold their remaining lands in Indiana, and agreed to remove to the home that had been secured to them west of the Mississippi, within a period of five years. These three last and important treaties could not, it is probable, have been effected without the co-operation of Mr. Hamilton. Such was the confidence reposed in him by the chief and his council, that no treaty could have been made contrary to his wishes and advice. He advised the Indians to sell their lands in Indiana and remove, be cause he had been long satisfied that their preservation, as a race, de pended upon their being withdrawn from the corrupting influences that surrounded them where they were. In 1841, Mr. Hamilton was appointed, under the administration of Gen. Harrison, agent of the Miami es, which office he held until the election of Mr. Polk, when he resigned. During this period he dis bursed between $300,000 and $400,000, and discharged the responsible duties of the agency to the satisfaction of the government and the Indi ans. As agent, although not clothed with any judicial power, it became necessary for him to decide upon the merits of claims which were present ed against the tribe for payment on the receipt of their regular annuities. His conduct, therefore, was watched with the utmost keenness and jealousy, and it is the highest compliment to Mr. Hamilton, that during his guardianship of the Miamies, no charge was ever brought against him implicating his honor or his integrity. The Indians confided in him as a friend and protector, while the traders were forced to respect an integrity that could not be seduced, even while it stood in the way of their interests. In 1850, Mr. Hamilton was elected delegate for the county of Allen, to the convention for the revision of the constitution of Indiana. The county was largely democratic, and his competitor a democrat of large acquaint ance and skilful address. The election of Mr. Hamilton, under such cir cumstances, by a handsome majority, is evidence of the estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. In the convention, he was appointed chairman of the committee on currency and banking, being among the most interesting and exciting subjects that demanded the consideration and action of that body. Being himself favorable to a continuance of the present state bank system, but, at the same time, not opposed to a well-regulated system of free banking, that should give entire security to the bill-holder, he necessarily came in conflict not only with those who were opposed to all banks, but also with those who were so wed ded to a particular theory, as to be unable to see merit in any other. The result of the deliberations of the convention upon these subjects was the adoption of a provision authorizing the establishment of free banks, in imitation of the New- York system, and also of one granting to the legislature the power of incorporating a state bank and branches. The authority was therefore left to the people to adopt either system, or both, as the wants and experience of the future should direct. The adoption of these compromise provisions was as much owing to the course and influence of Mr. Hamilton as that of any other ALLEN HAMILTON, OF INDIANA. 491 member of the convention. Under the new constitution a free "banking law has already been enacted. If, upon a fair trial, this system should prove to be defective, or should fail to attract capital enough to afford the necessary facilities for the large and rapidly increasing business of the state, after the expiration of the charter of the present bank, the legislature can adopt the state bank system, without any change of the constitution. The wisdom of the convention, in the disposition it made of this sub ject, is generally acknowledged. The aim of Mr. Hamilton in the convention was to be useful, and although he was not classed among the eloquent men of that body, there were few who brought to bear upon the subjects that came up for consideration clearer views or safer judgment. He believed that the organic law of a state, while conservative in its character, should throw no obstacle in the way of progress in the right direction. While he opposed the radicalism that would entirely dis regard the experience of the past, he would not hesitate to adopt a principle which appeared to his mind practicable, and in accordance with the spirit of the age, merely because it had not received the sanction 01 previous law-makers. His views, and those of kindred minds, pre vailed in the convention, and the new constitution of Indiana, while it violates no law and fully protects the person and property of the citizen, presents no barrier to the most searching and comprehensive reforms. Mr. Hamilton is in the enjoyment of an ample fortune. The little trading post, Fort Wayne, has become one of the most interesting and important towns in the state, and the wilderness which a few years since surrounded it has become the home of a large and enterprising population. His mercantile operations were entirely successful, and his investments in real estate have more than realized his anticipations. His present position is an agreeable contrast with his prospects when he wandered through the streets of Philadelphia, seeking employment as a common laborer. For some years he has been engaged in no regular business. He holds, and has held since its organization, when other offices and engage ments did not present, the presidency of the Branch Bank at Fort Wayne. The duties of this position have not occupied much of his time, and he has enjoyed for many years the " otium cum dignitate" which is the legitimate result of honest enterprise and successful labors. 492 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. JOHN ADAMS KNOWLES, t < OF LOWELL, MASS., PRESIDENT OF THE APPLETON BANK. IN an age when it is more difficult to find readers for books than books for readers, the life of one whose course has been devoid of any remarkable incident or striking peculiarity, will present no claim to public attention, except as it furnishes an instance of practical success, attending sagacity, perseverance, and high-minded and honorable principle. To a young man, struggling amid the difficulties which so often beset the beginning of his career, a knowledge of such an exam ple is the best legacy which he can receive. Mr. KNOWLES was born in Pembroke, in New-Hampshire, April 25, 1800. He was the youngest of thirteen children born to a farmer of very limited means, and all but one lived to mature years. At the age of fifteen he left home, by his father s permission, to seek his for tune in the world, amid the disadvantages of no means of support, of feeble health, and an imperfect education. A five years experiment at various mechanical employments con vinced him that he had not the physical stamina to enable him to per form the labor requisite in such pursuits, and turned his attention to the hope of earning a living by some other method than the labor of his hands. A native thirst for knowledge was now gratified and strengthened in a private school kept by John O. Ballard, Esq., in Hopkinton, New- Hampshire. His connection with this teacher he remembers as one of the fortunate circumstances of his life. Mr. Ballard was a gentleman between fifty and sixty years of age; and, besides being eminently qualified as an experienced instructor to aid his pupils in acquiring mere book learning, he had been engaged for several years in commercial transactions, which gave him a fund of practical information, and an en larged knowledge of the world. It may encourage other teachers in like circumstances to know, that his generous readiness to impart good counsel was appreciated, perhaps, by more than one young pupil, who hi after years remembered and profited by his advice. As soon as Mr. Knowles was competent to teach a common country school, he availed himself of the slender assistance which that employ ment yields. He continued teaching and studying until he was twenty- four years old, by which time he had read through the usual course of studies preparatory for admission to college. At that advanced age, destitute of means, and still in feeble health, he deemed it neither pru dent nor right to incur the expense of a liberal education, but entered instead upon an itinerant course of teaching, with the double purpose of strengthening his constitution, and enlaiging his knowledge of the world. In the autumn of 1827 he came to Lowell, Mass. This manufactur ing village at that time numbered only three thousand inhabitants, and had only the year before been incorporated as a town. It was fortunate for Mr. Knowles that he came at that time to this fresh and vigorous JOHN ADAMS KNOWLES, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 493 community, and here fixed himself to grow up with its growth, and share its prosperity. Soon relinquishing an evening school in which he had been engaged, he entered his name as a student-at-law in the office of Elisha Glidden, Esq., December 10, 1827. Here he performed the duties of a clerk, and read the usual elementary books, until 1830, when he went to Dedham, Mass., to attend the lectures of the Hon. Theron Metcalf, now one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Mr. Metcalf s lectures on law were held in high repute, and here Mr. Knowles acquired a more thorough knowledge of the theory of his pro fession, as the business in the office of a good lawyer had before given him instruction in its practical details. In 1832 he was admitted to the bar. He immediately opened an office in Lowell ; and from that time until 1847, when he retired from the active business of the profession, he never knew the want of clients. In 1833 he was married to a daughter of William Appleton, late of Portsmouth, N. H. In 1835 he was chosen a representative of the town of Lowell in the Massachusetts Legislature, and in 1844, 1845, he represented the city of Lowell in the same body. In 1847 he was a senator from Middlesex county in the Massachusetts Senate, but de clined a nomination in 1848, as he had been chosen treasurer of the Lowell and Lawrence Rail-road, and president of the Appleton Bank, in Lowell, which two offices he still holds. The bare names of these places of honor and trust will indicate, even to the stranger, traits of character, marked by intelligence, probity, con fidence, which have entitled him to public respect, as they will intimate also a position of ease and independence in regard to worldly wealth ; while the contrast between the last seventeen years of success and the previous seventeen years of struggle, suggests the important inquiry, by what means this success was wrought out ? Of course, we cannot speak of the living as we do of the dead ; yet we should hardly be excused if in this connection we did not refer to an honesty and integrity never sullied by the breath of suspicion to a sagacious attention to business, which, even amid the constant draw back of ill health, has been most exemplary, and to an urbanity and amenity which have always smoothed even the most perplexing trans actions. As a proof of this it may be named, that in the hundreds of real- estate transactions in which he has been engaged, in looking after his own property or managing that of others, he never had a lawsuit grow out of any one of them, or even a serious difficulty ; while, in his pro fession, so little litigious has been his temper, that his rule seems always to have been to keep his clients away from a lawsuit, if that were possi ble ; or, if not, to get them out of it as soon as he could. It is to the high praise of the legal profession that it has furnished so many men who have felt that they owed a duty to the public in the ad vocacy of those causes which tend to promote good order and good morals. The subject of this brief sketch has not been behind his bre thren in the discharge of this duty. His aid has been ready in the pro motion of any public good. In the cause of temperance, especially, he has labored with zeal and perseverance. His interest in the religious education of the young he has proved by sustaining, for years, the office SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. of superintendent of a Sunday-school ; and when we speak of him as a professing Christian, and an officer in a Christian church, it will be un derstood that he himself has been a pupil in a school where we may learn the highest virtues of our humanity. There are some goddesses which are most successfully wooed by in direct approaches to them. Health is best sought by thinking nothing about it. Happiness flies from the man who is bent upon seeking it, and comes of its own accord to him who is wisely pursuing other ends. And something like this is true of wealth. The man who is determined to be rich, and seeks no end but gain, almost always overdoes the mat- ter, as a thousand greedy but penniless speculators all over the land bear witness. Mr. Knowles is an illustration of the success a man will meet with who regulates his affairs by correct moral principles, and trusts to these principles for the result ; and if they bring with them, when followed, first of all, for their own sake alone, a reward " in the life that now is," the consequence will not surprise those who have faith in a certain old word of promise. It would be pleasant to enter the domestic group, and the little circle of friends, where he is greatly beloved, and in which his humor and wit afford a genial mirth ; but we feel that there we hardly have any right to enter ; and here we must close our sketch of one who, starting with nothing but feeble health, has, at the early age of fifty-two, attained a position of useful and honored success. Sic itur ad astra. HON. SAMUEL HALL, OF INDIANA. SAMUEL HALL, son of John and Elizabeth Hall, was born on the 1st of June, 1797, in Somerset county, in the State of Maryland. In the year 1805, his father moved with his family to the west, and located in Jefferson county, Kentucky, where he died in the year 1822. His mother was a Ward, sister of the late David L. Ward, one of the most enterprising men of the age, who amassed an immense for tune by his individual efforts. She still lives in the enjoyment of good health, in the ninety-fifth year of her age. At the time the subject of this memoir was a boy, there were but few schools in the State of Kentucky. The test of qualifications in a teacher, in those days, was his handwriting. If that was good, no fur ther inquiries were made. If bad, no qualifications, however exalted, could secure him a place as a teacher. All the schooling the subject of this memoir received, was in a log cabin on " Flat rock," in Jefferson county, Kentucky. He had, however, pious parents, who instilled into him the principles of virtue, and a strict regard for truth. In the year 1815, while yet a boy, he, with the consent of his parents, left his home in Kentucky, and settled in Princeton, Gibson county, Indiana. Through the recommendation of friends, he obtained a situa- SAMUEL HALL, OF INDIANA. 495 tion as clerk in a country store. His employer soon after dying, he was again out of business. Being entirely out of funds, he contracted with the late Gen. Robert M. Evans, then clerk of the circuit court for Gibson county, to write in his office. By the terms of the contract young Hall was to get his board, and fifty dollars per annum ; a little over four dollars per month. While thus engaged he employed all of his leisure hours in the study of the law. By the most unremitting per severance, he prepared himself for the practice in seventeen months. Not seventeen months devoted to study ; but the spare hours in that time from his daily employment. His practice was, to rise early in the morning, and study till breakfast, write in the office till four o clock p. M., and then resume and continue his study till twelve, and some times one o clock at night. Often has he trimmed the midnight lamp while poring over Blackstone, Coke upon Littleton, Plowden and Bacon. He had no instructor, no guide, other than the books he bor rowed. Though the path before him looked dark and gloomy with out funds without education and without patronage, yet he never wavered in his purpose. His course was onward. He had determined, if he lived, on success, and success crowned his efforts. In 1820, he obtained a license and commenced the practice of his profession, and such was his attention to business, that he soon obtained a large and lucrative practice. Though he was not an eloquent speaker, yet his earnest manner always commanded respect, and engaged the attention from both court and juries. He made it a point to study and investi gate in extenso every litigated case in which he was employed. He never trusted to chance what he could reach by vigilance and study. He was always ready, when his cases were called, to take them up and dispose of them. In the course of time, he acquired the enviable repu tation of being an honest and successful lawyer. Early in his profes sional career, he adopted a rule from which he never departed and that was, to make an effort to bring about a compromise, without suit. Many persons, now residing in Southwestern Indiana, are living wit nesses to his success in restoring a friendly relation between disputants, who, if they had not been checked in time, would have embarked in lawsuits, that might have taken years to settle, and probably at the ruin of the parties. In the year 1823, he was admitted as an attorney and counselor of law, in the Supreme Court of Indiana, and in the district court of the United States. He continued the practice of his profession, without in terruption, until the year 1829, when he yielded to the solicitations of his friends, and became a candidate for the legislature. He was elected over his opponent by a large majority. He was re-elected in the year following to the same office, and was appointed chairman of the judi ciary committee. In that capacity he introduced many reforms in the practice of the law. In 1832, he was elected, by the General Assembly, president judge of the fourth judicial circuit of the State of Indiana. He held this office for about two years, when, to the regret of the bar and community, he resigned it. It is a part of the history of the times, that in the year 1836, the western country ran wild on the subject of internal improvements. 496 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. The State of Indiana embarked in schemes which would have cost, when finished, thirty millions of dollars. A Board of Public Works, con sisting of nine members, was created by the General Assembly. This Board had extraordinary powers. The subject of this memoir was cho sen as a member. He entered upon the discharge of the duties as signed him in the spring of 1837. From the very onset, he attempted to check extravagant appropriations of money. He made efforts to confine the expenditures within the means under the immediate con trol of the Board. He warned the friends of the system of the ruinous consequences of entering into engagements beyond their present means to meet; that such a course would, in the end, break down the system, and b ankrupt the state. But his warning voice was disregarded. A mania for a grand system seemed to have blinded the great mass of the community. Finding his views opposed, at the end of seven months he resigned the office as a member of the Board. At a subse quent period, after the system had exploded, the legislature appointed a committee to investigate the subject, and the conduct of the members of the Board to whose management the system had been confided. That committee was composed of three whigs and two democrats. They spent months in the investigation of the matter. They at last made a report to the General Assembly. Some members of the Board they censured. Against others they recommended suit to be brought, in the name of the state. As respects the subject of this memoir, the following is extracted from the journals of the senate: "MR. SAMUEL HALL. " This gentleman served as a member of the Board of Internal Im provement, and acting commissioner on the Central Canal, for eight or nine months. During this time, he was engaged in active service, at tending to all the arduous duties imposed on members of the Board of Internal Improvement at that period. The act of 1836 allowed to members of the Board a compensation of $2 per day and reasonable expenses. By a somewhat liberal construction of the act, and in the opinion of the committee an unjustifiable one, the Board construed this act to allow them $2 per day for the entire year, as appears from the testimony of Mr. Yandes, Gen. Long and others ; the entire pay would amount, at this rate, to $730. " Not being able to keep small accounts of expenditures with conve nience, by an equally liberal construction of the act, the Board fixed the rate of their daily expenditure at $1 50 per day for the entire year, making total allowance for expenses tlie sum of $547 50. By this ar rangement, the annual salary of each member of the Board was raised to the sum of $1,277 50. It is but just to remark, that one member of the Board justifies his allowance by the usage established by mem bers of the legislature under a similar act, in taking their per diem for holidays and Sundays during the session. So far as the holidays are concerned, your committee think that the case is fully in point, and that those members who vote for adjournment at Christmas and Newyear s day, should by no means charge the per diem for that time. We are admonished by this instance, by which one abuse is justified by another, to set better examples in the future. Mr. Hall, in this matter, stands on high ground : he performed duties equal, or nearly so, to those of SAMUEL HALL, OF INDIANA. 497 any other member of the Board of Internal Improvement, and received his per diem for the time actually engaged in the public service, charg ing no more than actual expenses, making a total for eight months service, of a little less than $95. We find no charge against him whatever." In the year 1840 Judge Hall was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana for the term of three years. Being ex-officio presi dent of the senate, he discharged the duties as presiding officer ot that body for two sessions only. At the close of the first session, the senate, in token of respect, unanimously adopted the following resolution : " On motion of Mr. Chamberlain, it was " Resolved, That as an expression of the regard we entertain for Lieu tenant Governor Hall, president of the senate, we extend to him our thanks for the dignified, impartial and highly satisfactory manner in which he has presided over our deliberations." At the close of the second session, the senate unanimously adopted the following resolution: " On motion of Mr. Davis, " The orders of business were suspended and leave granted him to introduce the following resolution : "Resolved. By the senate unanimously, that the Hon. Samuel Hall, president thereof, is entitled to our thanks for the impartiality, dignity and ability which has characterized his presidency, during the present session of the General Assembly ; " Which was adopted." The reason why Judge Hall did not take his seat as president of the senate the third session to which he was elected, may be inferred from the following proceedings, which are taken from the journals of the senate : "On motion of Mr. Collins, " The orders of business were suspended, and leave granted him to offer the following, which were unanimously adopted : " Whereas, In the dispensation of an inscrutable Providence, it has pleased the Giver of all Good to visit the Hon. Samuel Hall, Lieuten ant Governor of this state, with a severe domestic bereavement, by taking from him and his family his excellent consort, whose exemplary life and many virtues have endeared her to a numerous acquaintance, and shed lustre within her sphere, and given happiness to all around her: Therefore, " Be it unanimously resolved by the senate, That the melancholy afflic tion of the Hon. Samuel Hall, in the loss of his wife, is deeply felt by the senate. "Resolved, unanimously, That the sympathy of the senate be ten dered him, and that the senate s sincere condolence is hereby assured him in the deeply afflicting dispensation it has pleased Providence to visit upon him. " Resolved, unanimously,. That the Secretary of the Senate be direct ed to communicate a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions to the Hon. Samuel Hall." Judge Hall was called upon to preside over the deliberations of the 32 498 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. Senate of Indiana at a time when party spirit raged at its highest. It required stern integrity and a firm resolution to prevent a bias in favor of party predilections. But he had. presided but a short time when his political friends ascertained that nothing was to be expected from him but a strict and impartial discharge of his duty. Having accumulated a large estate by his assiduity to business, Judge Hall gave up the practice of the law, as a business, about the year 1840; and has not since given much attention to the legal profession. In the year 1849 it was decided by the people of Indiana to call a convention to remodel their constitution. In the year following, an election took place throughout the state for the election of delegates to the convention. It may be proper here to premise, that Judge Hall has always been a consistent whig. He was appointed one of the Vice-Presidents of the great Whig Convention which assembled at Nashville in the year 1840. In the year 1844 he was appointed a Delegate to the Baltimore Con vention, and after reaching that place was chosen one of the Vice-Presi dents ; which latter convention nominated Henry Clay for President of the United States. With a knowledge of these facts, the democrats, as well as the whigs of Gibson county, with great unanimity, united in placing in nomination, and afterwards electing him a Delegate to the State Convention to amend the constitution. That convention assembled on the first Monday of October, 1850. It was democratic, nearly two to one. Judge Hall was placed as chair man of one of the most important committees " On State Debt and Public Works." Identified with the prosperity of his adopted state, he felt a deep in terest in looking forward to that period of time when Indiana shall be out of debt. He made a labored calculation, based upon the future resources of the state, by which he proved with great clearness, that in sixteen years, the last dollar of her indebtedness will be paid off. In order to prevent a diversion of the revenues of the state he drew up and reported the section which provides that " all the revenues de rived from the sale of any of the public works belonging to the state, and from the net annual income thereof, and any surplus that may, at any time, remain in the treasury, derived from taxation for general state purposes, after the payment of the ordinary expenses of the govern ment, and of the interest on bonds of the state, other than bank bonds ; shall be annually applied, under the direction of the General Assembly, to the payment of the principal of the public debt." He also reported another section, which prevents any new debt be ing contracted on the part of the state, except to meet casual deficits in the revenue. Both of these sections were incorporated in the new con stitution. Thus, when Indiana wipes out her present indebtedness, (which will be done in a few years,) she cannot again involve herself by embarking into new schemes of public works. Judge Hall has, for many years, contended that it was wrong in the fundamental laws of a country to allow any person to become answer able, as security, for the debt of another. He says, the contracting par ties being alone interested in the PROFITS growing out of the contract, GEORGE H. GORDON, OF MISSISSIPPI. 499 the one in selling, the other in purchasing, they alone should run the risk of A LOSS. He brought the subject before the legislature of Indiana, in the year 1831, but the doctrine being new, did not meet with much favor. He brought the subject before the convention in 1850. As chairman of the committee to whom the subject was referred, he reported the section here appended. It was sustained by a respectable minority in the convention, but was voted down by the majority. He thinks the time will arrive when it will be adopted as the law of the land. The section above referred to read as follows: "No man shall be held to answer for the debt, default or miscarriage of any other person upon any contract entered into from and after the year 1860, except in cases where executors, administrators, guardians, trustees, and public officers, are required to give bond and security, and where security is given to persons acting in a fiduciary capacity." HON. GEORGE H. GORDON, OF MISSISSIPPI. IN reviewing the history of those who precede us on the stage of human life, the mind is naturally turned in a train of imitation ; and in perusing the biographical sketches of those who have pursued an even, upright and honest course of life, the youths of the country will mark out those who may be taken as guides and exemplars for their future course, and will be stimulated with an ardent desire to emulate them in integrity, virtue and benevolence. But nothing will tend more to stimulate the young men who have adopted the law as their profession, to untiring and virtuous exertions, and to arouse them from that gnawing lethargy and despondency which drive so many to the festive board and resorts of dissipation, than the contemplation of the lives and history of those who have arisen from comparative obscurity to the highest position in society ; who have ob tained the unlimited confidence of the community, and by a virtuous education and their own endeavors have carved out their path to fame and fortune. The character of the subject of this memoir has suggested these reflections, and strikingly illustrates the success which attends a correct walk of life. GEORGE H. GORDON was born in Wilkes county, North Carolina, at a place called the " Mulberry Fields," on the 12th day of July, 1801. His father, Mr. John Gordon, was the immediate descendant of George Gordon, a highly respectable Scotchman, and one of the early settlers of that part of North Carolina. His mother was a descendant of the family of Herndons, of South Carolina, who bore a conspicuous part in the struggle for independence. They were both distinguished for deep and earnest piety, and, though not making the sacred ministry his profession, his father was a preacher SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. of the Methodist Episcopal Church until his death. In 1811, Mr. Gordon removed from North Carolina, and settled in Maury county, Tennessee, and being in moderate circumstances, it was necessary that his sons should work at manual labor, and in performing the usual work necessary in farming, as was the custom in those good old times, for the sons even of the more wealthy inhabitants. For several years after his father s settlement in Tennessee, the subject of this sketch con tinued to labor in the field during the cropping season, and in the interim attended the common country schools, and applied himself as siduously to study. Possessing naturally an energetic, active and in vestigating mind, seeking every opportunity, and anxiously striving to obtain useful knowledge, he soon acquired a good English education, but being of a light and slender frame, he was unsuited for continued manual labor; he was, therefore, in 1814, placed by his father as a clerk in the store of a respectable merchant, where he remained two years, and from his strict integrity and attention to business, he gained the confidence and lasting friendship and esteem of his employer. In 1817, he was entered as a student in. the Franklin Academy, then a flourishing institution in Tennessee, under the immediate control and management of the celebrated Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, where he completed his education. On his return from school, he found the pecuniary affairs of his father considerably embarrassed, in conse quence of becoming security for others ; and seeing but little prospect of success in that part of the country, for a young man without for tune, and solely dependent on his own exertions, and as yet untried talents, he at once determined to seek a more auspicious field whereon to commence the struggle of life. Therefore, in the fall of 1820, with but slender means, but with a firm reliance on his own industry and energy, and a fixed and unalterable determination to adhere, upon all occasions, and under all circumstances, to the great principles of honor, virtue and integrity, which had been so strongly impressed upon him, both by precept and example, under the paternal roof, he left his home and friends for what was then considered a far dis tant land. On the 3d of November, 1820, he arrived at Woodville, in Wilkin son county, State of Mississippi, then a newly-settled town with but few inhabitants. Shortly after his arrival at Woodville, he was em ployed as deputy-clerk in the courts at that place. After he became engaged in the business of the clerk s office, his strict moral habits, open, frank manners, and close attention to business, soon obtained him many friends, and attracted the attention and won the esteem of many of the first citizens in the community; among these were the late John P. Hampton, then one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, and Joshua Childs, afterwards one of the judges of that court. These gentlemen, seeing the facility with which young Gordon acquired a knowledge of the business in the clerk s office, and his prompt and correct manner of dispatching the various duties of clerk, advised and urged him to study law, ofTeiing him their instruction and the use of their libraries. This liberal offer could but be regarded as very flattering to a youth who had so recently become a settler among strangers. Yet kind and flattering as it was, its acceptance was attend GEORGE H. GORDON, OP MISSISSIPPI. 501 ed with difficulty and embarrassment, for Mr. Gordon being entirely destitute of pecuniary means, and having engaged to perform labor for another for a small salary, which was necessary for his support, he could not think of engaging in another pursuit without the assent and con currence of his employer. This he mentioned to Judge Hampton, but the Judge assured him there could be no difficulty on that account, that his studies would interfere but very little with the performance of his duties as clerk, and that his situation in the office would be of great ad vantage to him in learning the practical part of the law, so essentially necessary to be well understood by the successful practitioner. Upon communicating the proposal alluded to, to his employer, the late Isaac Dillahunty, then clerk of the Circuit and County Courts at Woodville, and asking his advice on the subject, he not only sanctioned it, but ad vised its acceptance without hesitation, at the same time assuring Mr. Gordon that he should have his aid and assistance in any way he might have it in his power to bestow it. This generous concurrence of Mr. Dillahunty determined Mr. Gordon to accept the offer, and he imme diately commenced the study of the law, attending through the busi ness hours of the day to the ordinary business of the clerk s office, and devoting all his spare time to his studies, frequently continuing them until a very late hour at night. By this close application, and the practical knowledge derived from performing the various duties of clerk, he acquired a knowledge of the law very rapidly. In the fall of 1822, his friend, Mr. Dillahunty, died, but he continued his studies with unremitted application until June, 1823, when he was licensed by the Supreme Court of Mississippi to practise law. Immediately after obtaining his license, he commenced the practice of his profession at Woodville, where he has resided ever since. From his long and intimate connection with public business, he had acquired a general acquaintance with the community and a large num ber of friends ; he, therefore, very soon obtained quite an extensive practice, and by his industry and strict attention to the business of his clients, it continued to increase until he was engaged on one side or the other of nearly all the important cases in the courts where he practised. It is known, and has often been the subject of remark, that whenever Mr. Gordon obtained a client, so strong was the confidence usually re posed in him by the client that he rarely abandoned him to seek for other counsel, but generally engaged him as his lawyer in all cases he might afterwards have in the courts ; hence many of the oldest citizens in the community where he resides were his earliest clients, and are still his most devoted friends. In the year 1828, Mr. Gordon was elected colonel of the militia of his county, and with his accustomed energy and perseverance soon brought his regiment to a much higher state of organization and discipline than was usual in the militia at that time. As a lawyer, Colonel Gordon holds a high rank among his com peers of the Mississippi bar, which, as a body of common-law lawyers, is not surpassed by any bar in the Union ; his practice of later years has been confined principally to important cases in the higher courts. He has been engaged, and has taken an active part, in most of the great legal questions concerning the banking operations in Mississippi, with in the last ten years. He has always insisted upon exacting of the 6 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. banking corporations of the state a rigid compliance with their obliga tions, and in all his arguments pressed and urged a strict adherence to the terms and stipulations of their charters. As a debater, Colonel Gordon is forcible, perspicuous and explicit; and while he presses his points with enthusiasm and energy, he scrupulously avoids harshness or offence, but observes the utmost good humor and politeness towards his adversary. As an advocate, he is faithful and prompt in his attend ance to all business entrusted to his care, and enlists in the cause of his client with as much zeal and earnestness as his own. From his knowledge of the elementary principles of the law, acquired by his early studious habits, and his intimate acquaintance with the statutes and reports of different states, as well as those of his own, he is never at a loss in giving an opinion in the most complicated case, or in pressing an important point at the bar. His open, frank and liberal manner, and aversion and repugnance to indulging in petty quibbles, in conducting the practice with reference to his brethren of the bar, have secured him their confidence and esteem. With the young mem bers of the profession, his intercourse has always been marked by kind ness and solicitude for their advancement, and has elicited their respect and gratitude. Through the whole course of his practice he always used every exertion to discourage litigation, and conciliate and compro mise cases which tended to excite family dissension and promised no beneficial result to the litigants; and thus, by advising a course of right, justice and equity, he frequently conciliated disputes which might other wise have terminated unfortunately to the parties. Soon after Colonel Gordon came to the bar, he was solicited by his friends to take a part in the discussion of the politics of the day, and to become a candidate to represent his county in the legislature ; this he declined on account of its interference with his professional business, and his disinclination to engage in political contests, but afterwards, being again solicited and urged to become a candidate, he gave his consent, and was repeatedly elected, and served several sessions as a member of the legislature. As a politician he has always been a warm advocate and supporter of the great democratic republican prin ciples maintained by Mr. Jefferson and Madison in 1798 and 1799, and adhered to and insisted upon by Jackson, Randolph, Macon, Calhoun, Barbour, Polk, and other distinguished republicans since their day. As a legislator, his course was marked with candor, frankness, and independence ; observing on all occasions the utmost courtesy towards his brother members, never engaging in the petty squabbles of the house. He spoke but seldom, and then only on questions of consideration and importance ; hence he was popular, and commanded respect and attention whenever he addressed the house, and his views and opinions exercised considerable influence. In 1830, the question of inviting the location of a branch of the Bank of the United States in the State of Mississippi was introduced in the legislature. Col. Gordon took the lead in opposition to this measure ; and in a strong and clear argument, contended that the charter of the parent bank was unauthorized by the federal constitution, and that an institution exercising such vast power and patronage was at war with GEORGE H. GORDON", OF MISSISSIPPI. 503 the true spirit of our institutions, and dangerous in its ultimate ten dencies to liberty ; that any action of the local legislature to bring about the establishment of a branch of that bank within the state, would be a violation of the state constitution ; and, moreover, would have the effect of encouraging the establishment of extensive local banking within the state, whereby the state would ultimately be flooded with worthless bank paper, to the great detriment of the peo ple, and the ruin of the credit of the state. But after a warm contest,* the resolution inviting the location of a branch of the bank was passed by the legislature. It is only necessary to refer to the history of sub sequent events in Mississippi to see how far the prediction of Colonel Gordon was correct. While in the legislature, in 1836, he took an active part in arousing the minds of the representatives to the necessity of adopting and carry ing out a proper system of internal improvement by the state, and as earnestly and zealously opposed such a system by the federal govern ment, as unsanctioned by the constitution, and contrary to the general policy of the country. In the same year, as chairman of the committee to whom were re ferred so much of the then governor s message as related to the unfor tunate interference of our northern brethren with the domestic institu tions of the South, he presented a calm, dignified, and forcible report, fully and clearly portraying the true state of northern feeling, and with prophetic correctness predicting what would be the inevitable result of this fanaticism, if the well-disposed of our northern brethren would not throw themselves into the breach, and check the wild torrent which threatened the dissolution of the Union. He also took an active part in the discussion of other important measures brought forward whilst he was a member of the legislature ; and is the author of many laws now on the statute book of Mississippi. Aside from Colonel Gordon s professional and political reputation, he is universally distinguished in the community where he resides for his benevolent and charitable disposition ; and in the town and vicinity where he has lived for many years, to which he is connected by the strongest attachments and dearest associations, by his liberality, exer tions and example, he has promoted the prosperity and advancement of several benevolent societies, thereby without design securing the warm est feelings and attachment of a large class of the community. Having acquired an ample fortune, he has not been unmindful of its noblest use ; simple in his tastes and habits, luxury has no charms for him, and to provide for the widow and orphan, to assist youth in their honorable endeavors, and to aid " the good man struggling against adversity," have been his highest pleasures. It is unnecessary here to narrate the many instances of individual kindness and charity performed by the subject of this sketch, solely with a desire to ameliorate the condition of the poor and needy, that have incidentally come to the knowledge of the writer. We need not dwell upon this theme, for it may be truly said he is one of those " who do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame," but we could not pass altogether in silence a trait so noble and marked in 504 SKETCHES OF EMINENT AMERICANS. his character, so worthy of imitation, and which has afforded him cuch pure sources of gratification. Colonel Gordon has frequently been solicited to become a candidate for high judicial stations, but declined on account of his disinclination to hold public office, and preference for domestic retirement. He is now one of the oldest practising lawyers in the state of Mississippi, and by sobriety, industry and integrity, has obtained a position as a man, a lawyer and a politician, inferior to none in the state. RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW SENT ON ILL AU6 8 2003 U. C. BERKELEY U.UBbKKbLEY LIBRARIES 864530 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY