USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 23
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 23
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In 1817 his political carcer began as the opponent of proscription and the advocate of cquality and popular rights, in the State contest between the Feder- alists and Liberals. In 1818 he was nominated by the Reform party for Congress in compliment to his fearless bravery. A new Constitution, taking the place of King Charles's charter was framed and adopted in the same year. In April, 1819, he was elected first Representative to the State Legislature from New Haven- previously a strong Federal town. During the session, he was chosen second clerk, assumed the second place on the Judiciary Committee, and took a high position among the principal debaters. Earnest, able, and eloquent, his work proved so satis- factory to his townsmen that they returned him again and again to the House until he was wanted for higher service. In 1820 and 1821 he was chairman of the Finance Committee, and in 18:4, Speaker. In April, 1825, he was elected Repre- sentative to Congress, and vacated his seat in the House, to which he had again been chosen. In Washington he supported the administration of President Adams, who had been chosen to the chief magistracy by the National House of Repre- sentatives. Ile remained in Congress by successive re-elections, from 1825 to 1833.
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Between these years he served as Mayor of New Haven, in 1830-31. In Congress he took high rank among the members. For three years he was a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia; and in 1829 served on that of Ways and Means, the most important committee of the House. Here he served four years, and was associated with McDuffie of South Carolina, Verplanck of New York, and at the close, Polk of Tennessee. Able, active, watchful, and incorruptible, he shrank from no responsibility, and gave his time to the public business as he would have done to his own. Of General Jackson he was for some time suspicious, but when convinced that the President was a wiser and better man than he secmed, Mr. Ingersoll gave him patriotic and wise support. This occasioned his subsequent defeat, in April, 1834, as candidate for town representative in the State election. Secretary Taney, by order of Jackson, had notified the Bank of the United States, that after the ist of October, 1833, no more Government funds would be placed in its keeping. Intense excitement everywhere sprang up, and financial panic followed. Business was paralyzed, factories closed, and operatives thrown out of employment. In vain it was argued that national politics had nothing to do with the State election. The voters believed otherwise, and Mr. Ingersoll was rejected. From that time onward he declined all legislative honors.
Returning to the practice of law, he found himself comparatively without busi- ness. He had, as was customary, wholly abandoned legal practice on going to Congress. Now, at the age of forty-four, as his former clients had engaged other counsel, he was obliged to begin anew. This he did with disciplincd skill and assiduity, and soon regained all he had lost. But pecuniary competency was not very early attained. In 1836, the great fire in New York swept away much of the property that had been reserved for the use of his family. The loss only incited to greater exertion. In 1833 he became State Attorney, and discharged the duties of that official for the twelve years ensuing with wonted faithfulness and success. In December, 1835, he peremptorily declined an clection to the vacancy in the United States Senate occasioned by the death of his old friend, Nathan Smith. Nomination for the governorship of the State was also repeatedly declincd. The resolve to accept no political honors that interfered with the practice of his profession was immovable-save in a single instance. In 1846, President Polk appointed him Minister Plenipotentiary to the Russian court, without his knowledge or consent. On the 9th of August that gentleman wrote Mr. Ingersoll, and said: " In this instance, at least, the office has sought the man, and not the man the office ;" and added, " I hope you may accept the highly honorable and responsible station now tendered to you." The nominee did accept the post, and for two years did " great service to the country" and " honor to the station" as well as to himself. He then
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gladly returned to his profession, and practised it with remarkable vigor and brilliant success for the next twenty years.
Mr. Ingersoll never lost interest in national politics, nor ceased to direct the energies of his party to worthy and patriotic ends. He attended its consultative meetings, influenced it by unobtrusive advice, prepared resolutions, and wrote and spoke as emergency demanded. Through all his active life he preserved perfect freedom from disreputable political practices, and denounced them as unprofitable and demoralizing. He was a statesman of the old, courtlý, dignified, and stainless school. To his profession he gave unstinted love, took no vacations, and brought all the forces of his gifted nature into full play in the achievement of legal excellence and eminence. He was a hard student of books and also of human nature, and his knowledge of both-aided by thorough preparation of his cases, and by fluent speech, graceful elocution, and natural gestures-enabled him to captivate the heads and hearts of juries. He was a remarkably magnetic speaker, and also an accomplished and experienced writer. His life was pure and exemplary, his nature averse to public corruption and private depravity, his habit one of prudent forecast, and his whole example a model of republican simplicity. He continued in practice, with unclouded intellect, until nearly eighty years of age; and died on the 26th of August, 1872, beloved and mourned by all. In his later years he was a communi- cant in Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church.
Mr. Ingersoll was married, on the Ioth of February, 1814, to Margaret Van den Heuvel, of New York, a lady of Dutch ancestry, and of great energy and discretion, who survived his death.
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2
ARRISON, HENRY BALDWIN, lawyer, of New Haven. Born in New - c Haven, September 11th, 1821. His father, Ammi Harrison, was a legal practitioner in the same city, and an influential citizen. He died at Branford, Conn., in 1837. His father, the grandfather of Henry B. Harri- son, also bore the Christian name of Ammi. In the carlier portion of active life he followed the pursuit of a ship-captain in the West India trade, and in the later addicted himself to agriculture. The Harrison family has been prominently identified with Branford from the date of its settlement, and has contributed its full quota of members to the legal and clerical professions. The mother of Mr. Harrison- born in New Haven, and dying there in 1859-was Polly, daughter of Samuel Barney, of Taunton, Mass. Mr. Barney was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, the orderly-sergeant of Benedict Arnold's company, and his associate in the expedi- tion to Quebec. He died in New Haven some time after the declaration of peace.
The early scholastic education of young Harrison was received in the excel- lent public schools of the city. Thence he matriculated at Yale College in 1842, graduated as A.B. in 1846, and subsequently received the degree of A.M. in due course. A hard and successful student while at college, he carried the same habits into the law office of Governor Dutton, with whom he began and continued his preparation for practice at the bar-attending the regular course of instruction in the Yale Law School at the same time. Admitted to the bar in 1848, he at once entered upon professional duties in New Haven, has vigorously prosecuted them in the same city to the present time, and with such distinguished ability as to establish a reputation second to that of no other practitioner in the State. His fame as a man and a citizen is on the same high plane, and has been con- sistently maintained for more than thirty years of forensic and consultative activity- mostly in civil cases-in the courts of the State.
Participancy in legislative and executive functions is naturally and righteously demanded of cultured and upright lawyers, and to this demand Mr. Harrison has rendered prompt and satisfactory response. In 1854 he was elected to the State Senate from the Fourth District-which included the city of New Haven- by the Whig party, and served in that relation for one year. The times were agitated by conflicting opinions and interests. The social system that rested on human slavery as its corner-stone sought to extend its bancful power in larger measure over the national republic, and it had become necessary to resist its arro- gant and cruel claims by all constitutional and legitimate means. Mr. Harrison therefore drafted the Personal Liberty Bill, which, under the title of An Act for the Defense of Liberty in this State, became the law of the commonwealth, after much heated discussion and antagonism. It provides that any one who shall mali-
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ciously pretend that any free person, entitled to freedom, is a slave, with the intent of relegating him, or her, to bondage, shall suffer fine and imprisonment ; that no representation tending to such reduction to slavery shall be received as truth unless confirmed by the testimony of two credible witnesses, or by legal evidence equivalent thereto ; that every person who shall wrongfully seize any free person entitled to freedom, with intent to have such free person held in slavery, shall suffer fine and imprisonment ; that in the trial of any prosecution arising under this act, no deposition shall be admitted as evidence of the truth of its own contents ; that false testimony in behalf of the slave claimant shall be punished ; that whenever any one shall aid parties accused under the provisions of this act to escape from the State, or shall hinder the proper officer in the discharge of his duty, he shall be incarcerated for one year in the State prison ; and that this act shall not apply to apprentices. The act itself is most ingeniously drawn, and throws around the personal liberty of each individual a very thorny fence, in which, to the sharp- ened eyes of experienced slave-catchers, any number of sable gentlemen might be concealed-niggers whose closer acquaintance they did not care to cultivate. Fines of five thousand dollars, and imprisonments five years long, were evils that the possession of no human runaway chattel would quite neutralize-and still worse evils if said chattel were not caught.
After the dissolution of the Whig party, he identificd himself with the Republican organization as soon as formed in the State, became an active and persistent mem- ber of its councils, and in 1856 was its first candidate for Lieutenant-Governor in Connecticut.
In 1865, Mr. Harrison was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives by the Republicans of New Haven, and while there served as chairman of the Joint Railroad Committee of the Senate and House. He also acted as member of several other committees, and notably on that of Incorporations. The impress of his knowl- edge and ability is stamped upon the prohibitory liquor law, which was enacted during the same session. In 1872 he was elected a representative of the Yale alumni to the Corporation of Yale College, has since been re-elected, and is still a a member of that body.
In 1873, he again represented his district in the lower house of the State Legislature, and served with distinction on the Judiciary and other committees, and particularly upon the one which held in consideration the propriety and expediency of calling a convention to revise the laws of the State. In the following year he received the Republican nomination for the chief magistracy, but in the election the popular choice fell upon Governor Ingersoll.
Mr. Harrison was married, in 1856, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas B.
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Osborne, of Fairfield, Conn., who was at one time Judge of the County Court, also member of Congress for two terms, and one of the professors in the Yale Law School, from which he retired a few years before his death at New Haven in 1869.
OWE, ELIAS, JR., of Bridgeport, Conn., inventor of the sewing-machine. Born in Spencer, Mass., July 19th, 1819. The IIowe family is one of greatest eminence in the annals of Great Britain, and also of the United States. Generals bearing that patronymie were in influential commanding positions on both sides during the American Revolutionary struggle. The genius and energy characteristic of the family sought and found entirely new outlets in the case of Elias Howe. He lived with his father, who was both farmer and miller, working upon the farm and in the mill, and attending the district school during the winters.
In 1835 he went to Lowell, and learned the trade of a machinist. Afterward he removed to Boston, and worked in the machine-shops of that eity. There he experimented in the invention of the labor-saving machine that has immortalized his name, and sensibly mitigated the toil of the matron and scamstress. Other inventions of similar character preceded it both in England and the United States, but it was reserved for him to give the idea an embodied efficiency, and to introduec this beneficent instrument into almost every family.
The model was completed, and the first complete sewing-machine designed for general purposes was patented September 10th, 1846. Mr. Howe was then a resi- dent of Cambridge, Mass. " He used a needle and a shuttle of novel construction, and combined them with holding surfaces, feed mechanism, and other devices, as they had never before been brought together in one machine. They were all indeed combined anew by Mr. Howe, who was unacquainted with what had been done by others ; and his machine, though not patented till 1846, was really invented several years before" the machine of John Fisher and James Gibbons, of England, patented December 7th, 1844. "One of the principal features of Mr. Ilowe's invention is the combination of a grooved needle, having an eye near its point and vibrating in the dircetion of its length, with a side-pointed shuttle for effecting a locked stitch and forming with the threads, one on cach side the cloth, a firm and lasting seam not easily ripped."
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Heroically persistent, but poor and neglected, and working for a time as an engine- driver on a railroad, with small wages, and with broken health, he literally forced his way to success. A patent was taken out in England, but from this he realized nothing. After constructing four machines in the United States, he visited England in 1847, and remained two years. His utmost exertions failed to bring the sewing- machine under the favorable notice of the public. Entirely destitute, he returned to Boston, and resumed his trade for the support of his family. Worse even than his want of success in Europe was the discovery that his patent had been violated in America.
From 1849 to 1854 he was involved in expensive litigation with those who had infringed his rights. Trustful friends lent him pecuniary assistance, and in 1854 judgment was finally rendered in his favor. All the essentials of the most improved sewing-machines were first found in that of Mr. Howe, and machines of later date are but modifications of it. In rendering his decision in the United States Circuit Court for Massachusetts, Judge Sprague said : "There is no evidence in the case that leaves a shadow of doubt, that for all the benefit conferred upon the public by the introduction of a sewing-machine, the public are indebted to Mr. Howe." "The lock stitch he introduced has not been improved, and for the general purposes of sewing nothing further is desired."-New American Cyclopedia, vol. xiv., p. 534. It is adapted to the whole range of needlework, from the lightest gossamer to the heaviest harness and upholstery.
Until the expiration of his patent, manufacturers constructed sewing-machines under license from him, and he realized a large fortune from his invention. Inge- nious men effected decided improvements upon his apparatus ; but still of such character that they could only be used subject to his original patents. Mr. Howe pursued a liberal policy in granting licenses for the use of his patent, and thus interested skilful mechanics and enterprising capitalists in the production and sale of the machines. The English purchaser of his patent was too exclusive to imitate his example, and could not produce work of equal quality and cost with that done in the factories of Bridgeport, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. The result was that a new item was added to American manufactured exports-an item which has gone on increasing in value from that day to this. Up to 1854 less than 8000 sewing-machines had been made. Since then the monthly product of all the factories-judging from available statistics-has been fully up to those figures.
When the civil war broke out in 1861, Elias Howe, with the ancient spirit of his family, took a decided stand in favor of the National Government. The for- tune acquired by his genius and toil was nothing in his estimation compared with the life and liberties of the country. At a public meeting, held in Stepney, Conn.,
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the sympathizers with slavery and secession-in the spirit of their kind-threatened to shoot the Unionist speakers. Howe was in the chair, and made the following concise and comprehensive address anent the threat: " If they fire a gun, boys, burn the whole town, and I'll pay for it." The cowardly "peace" men did not care to practise their peculiar policy, and accepted the wholesome advice next given to them concerning duty to the Federal Government in sullen silence.
Mr. Howe next volunteered as a private of the Seventeenth Connecticut Vol- unteers, and served for some time. At one time, when the regiment had not been paid off, and the men needed money, he advanced the thirteen thousand dollars due to them.
On July 19th, 1865, the Seventeenth Connecticut was mustered out at Hilton Head, and embarked immediately for home. It arrived at New Haven on the 3d of August. " Private Elias Howe, Jr., of Bridgeport, chartered a special train, and they proceeded to that city, where they were enthusiastically received," the Rev. A. R. Thompson making the welcoming speech. (History of Connecticut during the Recent War, p. 818.)
Elias Howe was a true and noble patriot, and proud of the honor of serving his country in the capacity of a private soldier. Ilis patriotic countrymen were equally proud of him. He received the cross of the Legion of Honor and many medals. His name must shine resplendent forever in the bead-roll of true fame. He died at Brooklyn, N. Y., October 3d, 1867.
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RIGHT, DEXTER RUSSELL, lawyer, of New Haven. Born at Windsor, Vermont, June 27th, 1821. His father, Alpheus Wright, according to the History of Wallingford, by C. H. S. Davis, M.D., was an officer in the war of 1812, and was severely wounded at the battle of Plattsburg. His mother, nec Anna B. Loveland, was the daughter of - - Loveland, of Rocking- ham, Vermont.
Mr. Wright's ancestors were among the first settlers in the State of Vermont, and one of them was slain in the frontier war's with the Indians and Canadians. His father removed to the northern part of New York, while Dexter was yet a youth, and engaged in the milling and lumber business. He also conducted a woollen factory. Each of his sons was employed in these various pursuits, and was taught some useful trade. Inclining to literary and professional avocations, Dexter preparcd himself for college, and entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, where he graduated in the year 1845. He has since received the degree of A.M., causa honores, . from Trinity College, Hartford.
In the year of his graduation, Mr. Wright accepted the position of principal of the Meriden Academy, Conn., and discharged the duties pertaining thereto, for about a year and a half. Many of the most energetic and successful business men of Meriden received their early instruction from him. Under his thorough teaching and firm discipline the institution acquired considerable reputation and prosperity. From 1846 to 1848 he studied the theory and practice of law in the office of E. K. Foster, Esq., and also in the Law School of Yale University at New Haven. Both in his collegiate coursc and in his legal studies at Yale, he gave much promise of future distinction in his chosen profession, and particularly in the practice of advocacy at the bar. After his graduation from the Law School in 1848, he com- menced the practice of law at Meriden, and continued it for many years.
The public political life of Mr. Wright began in 1849, with his election to the State Senate from the Sixth Senatorial District, by the Democratic party, with which he at that time associated. After serving throughout the session of the Legislature, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents, he sailed for California, and there engaged in land speculations, in the practice of law in the Territorial courts, and in making the political history of the State. In 1851 he returned to Meriden, resumed professional pursuits, and followed them until 1862, when he was commis- sioned as colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers. In the devotement of life to the preservation of the Union, he sacrificed a large and success- ful practice, in the course of which he had acquired the esteem and confidence of all men for his honesty, public spirit, and thorough qualifications as a lawyer. To him the people of Meriden are much indebted for the tasteful beauty and general
Staten Wright
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improvements of their city. His enterprise wrought powerfully in stimulating their zcal and ambition.
In the year 1861 and 1862 he recruited companies and parts of companies for each of the Connecticut regiments then raised for the national defense. At the immense war-meeting, held in Meriden, April, 1861, immediately after the capture of Fort Sumter by the rebels, he was one of the principal speakers, and eloquently urged the necessity of speedy and vigorous action. In May, 1862, he responded to Governor Buckingham's call for volunteers to organize another regiment, designed to form part of the "camp of instruction" at Annapolis, and was commissioned lieu- tenant-colonel of the Fourteenth. On the ist of July came President Lincoln's call for three hundred thousand volunteers for three years, seconded in Connecticut by a stirring appeal from the Governor. The response was spontaneous and grand. In forty-five days Connecticut had filled her quota of 6145; thus leading all the sister States, and had besides a surplus of nearly one thousand men. Seven additional regi- ments were organized, and of the first of these, the Fifteenth, Lieutenant-Colonel Wright was commissioned colonel. This appointment was all the more compliment- ary, in that it was made by Governor Buckingham without any consultation of the recipient's wishes, and solely in view of his fitness and patriotism. That it was as judicious in itself as it was honorable to the new commander was manifest in the fact that he recruited the regiment to its full number, and several hundred in excess, within a very brief period, by his personal exertions and popularity.
The Fifteenth was sent to Virginia in August, 1862, served in Washington for some weeks, then moved across the Potomac again on the 17th of September, and reoccupied their former camp on Arlington Heights. Colonel Wright, at the latter epoch, commanded a brigade, and on December ist marched it through the city, down the Maryland bank of the river, and, recrossing the Potomac at Acquia Creek, reached Fredericksburg, where his regiment was put into Harland's brigade. In the terrible battle that ensued, December 13th, 1862, his regiment bore a part, under the command of General Burnside. He continued with the army in the field until health gave way, and was then honorably discharged upon surgeon's certificate of disability. The twelve months of military service were afterward followed by the appointment of commissioner on the Board of Enrollment for the Second Congressional District, at the special request of Governor Buckingham. The duties of this office also were performed with signal ability and zeal.
In 1863 Colonel Wright was elected to the General Assembly of Connecticut by the Republican party as a representative from the town of Meriden. Important work awaited him in that body, in which he was at once recognized as the Republican leader. Governor Buckingham had just been re-elected Governor by a
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small majority of 2637, in a total vote of 79,247; and, together with his supporters, was enthusiastically determined on the suppression of the rebellion by armed coereion, and on the support of the Emaneipation Proclamation "as a measure of military necessity, alike expedient and just." William W. Eaton introduced resolutions, relative to the case of Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, which embodied in cautious language the doctrines of Calhoun, and affirmed the right of cvery State to judge for itself whether the Federal Government had transgressed the letter and spirit of the national organic law, and to take such measures as, in the opinion of a majority of the people of that State, the exigencies of the case demanded. Im- pliedly, they denied the nationality of the United States, and affirmed that they constitute a voluntary copartnership, dissolvable at pleasure, for cause sufficient. The debate was unsuited to the times. Its true arena was where plunging bayonets, and thundering cannon spoke on both sides the question. Colonel Wright replied to the forceful and vigorous speech of Mr. Eaton in a masterly oration, which eloquently maintained the duty of loyalty to the Federal Union, commanded the convietions of the majority of his hearers, and roused alike the members of the House and the occupants of the galleries to noblest enthusiam. The vote was of strictly partisan character, but was in favor of the Republicans, whom it united more thoroughly than before in the prosecution of the war. Colonel Wright, as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, soon afterward preparcd a bill which provided for a compensated volunteer force, which should be armed, uniformed, and equipped by the State, and which the Governor should have the power of turning over, in whole or in part, to the General Government for short service. The measure met with violent -opposition, and was finally lost, but in its leading features was soon after enacted by stronger Republican legislatures, and under this law an efficient militia was organized.
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