USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume III > Part 18
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The duties of this position, and especially the trial of the numerous criminal cases incident thereto, gave young Brad- ford an intimate knowledge of the criminal law and ripened the forensic talents and skill for which in after years he was famous at the Delaware bar.
Gifted by nature with ready speech, keen perception and a lively imagination, he was an attractive speaker, and never failed to arouse and hold the attention of his auditory, court or jury. He always possessed the confidence of the court, and among his professional associates and with the public main- tained ever a high reputation for probity and honor. He was especially fond of the forensic exploitation of purely legal questions, and in these argumentative displays appeared to the greatest advantage. Even as a student of law Mr. Brad- ford began his political career, taking the stump in the cam- paign of 1840 in behalf of Harrison and Tyler. He was sent to the Legislature in 1849 as a representative from New Castle County, and was offered the Whig nomination for Congress, but declined that honor.
President Lincoln appointed him United States District Attorney for Delaware, and President Johnson reappointed him July 22, 1865, but in the following year he resigned because of his inability to approve of the President's policy.
December 12, 1871, President Grant appointed him Judge of the United States District Court for Delaware, an honor he well merited because of his acknowledged legal ability and because of his exalted personal character.
Judge Bradford served as City Solicitor for Wilmington, was for thirty years a director of the Farmers' Bank, and for many years a vestryman in Trinity Church. The following high
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eulogy was spoken of Judge Bradford : "There were four epochs in the life of Mr. Bradford ; one of them was when he, with Edward Betts and other of the younger men, dared to differ openly with Mr. Clayton ; the second was the organization of the Republican party in Delaware which resulted in 1856 in three hundred votes for Fremont, and is expressive not only of his courage but of his clearness in perceiving the real issues which seemed radical and extreme, but which were soon to become the position of a vast majority of the people of the free States ; five years later, when the test of secession or union sifted all, his course was again brave, open and patriotic.
" He was unflinchingly faithful to the unity of his country and uncompromisingly hostile to the effort of disruption ; resolute in his denunciation of the treason of the time, and eloquent in his appeals for the forces that symbolized liberty and union."
"Again five years later in the reconstruction period his course was straightforward and courageous, and in behalf of impartial suffrage he was an ardent advocate, and did not stop to debate whether the Republic dared be trusted with the free franchise of all the American people, but stood for the justice of equal rights and against the injustice of dis- franchising a citizen on account of color."
Judge Bradford's career as a judicial officer was creditable to him, and useful to the public service. After his elevation to the bench, the business of the United States Court was greatly increased, and many important cases, involving large interests, came before him for adjudication. The opinions delivered by him upon debated questions of law, were care- fully prepared, and promptly delivered. His health was very poor during the last year of his judicial life. He died Jan- uary 16, 1884.
LEONARD E. WALES.
Leonard Eugene Wales was born November 26, 1823, and like Judge Edward G. Bradford came from a long line of New
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England ancestors that reached quite to colonial times. Ile was the third child of the Hon. John Wales and Ann, daughter of Major John Patten. Finishing his academic studies at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Conn., he entered Yale College and graduated therefrom in 1845. He then studied law under his father, and on May 8, 1848, was admitted to the bar of New Castle County, and at once began to practice in Wilmington. For two years he was associated with John A. Alderdice in the editorial conduct of the Whig organ, the Delaware State Journal. After filling for several years the position of clerk of the United States Courts for the District of Delaware, he was elected City Solicitor of Wilmington in July, 1853, being re-elected the following year. In April, 1861, he enlisted in Company E. First Regiment, Delaware Volunteers for three months, and was chosen Second Lieutenant. The duty of this regiment was to guard the line of the P. W. & B. R. R. whose bridges it was feared might be destroyed by the rebels, and direct communication between Washington and the North be thus interrupted. He was honorably mustered out at the end of this term of service.
In May, 1863, he was appointed Commissioner of Enroll- ment for Delaware to superintend the draft then necessary to fill the ranks of the Union armies. The duties of this position were difficult and trying, calling for the exercise of a large discretion, and requiring no end of tact and good judgment upon the part of the official. Mr. Wales performed this deli- cate service with marked good sense, efficiency and fidelity to the government. While thus engaged, Governor Cannon appointed him Associate Justice of Delaware for New Castle County, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Milligan, and he fulfilled the functions of that office with en- tire acceptability to the bar and to the public until the death of Judge Bradford in 1884, when President Arthur appointed him United States District Judge for the District of Delaware.
During the temporary disability of Judge Nixon, of the
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New Jersey District, Judge Wales was assigned to hold United States Courts in that State, and succeeded in despatching promptly the entensive legal business of that district without any interference with the judicial duties in his own home field.
Judge Wales' administration of his office was marked by a patience and courtesy that won the grateful recognition of the members of the bar. He was attentive to every detail of his work, and his judgments, which were delivered with decision, were always well considered, and showed in the opinions accompanying them a thorough consideration of the facts and the law involved.
Judge Wales was a Whig, and after 1856 allied himself with the Republican party, then first organized in Delaware, though not taking part in political contests during his judicial incum- bency. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and, moreover, took active interest in many public concerns. He was always a leading member of the Historical Society of Delaware, and from 1879 until his death was annually hon- ored with an election to its presidency. He also had a lively interest in the Ferris Reform School, being a member of its Board of Trustees. The Judge never married, but lived with his sister in the old-fashioned Lovering mansion house, for- merly the manse of the old Lovering farm, but now in the very center of one of Wilmington's most attractive residence quarters.
He died February 8, 1897, and was buried in Wilmington.
EDWARD G. BRADFORD, JR.
Edward G. Bradford, Jr., is the son of Edward G. Bradford, who was Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware from 1872 to 1882, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. Edward G., the younger, was born in Wilmington, March 12, 1848, and after a preparatory edu- cational course pursued at the Wilmington Military Academy and the Academy conducted by T. Clarkson Taylor, he entered Yale College, from which institution he graduated with honors
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in 1868. Adopting the law as his chosen profession, he studied for three years under his distinguished father, who was then one of the leading practitioners at the New Castle bar, and was duly admitted to the bar in 1870.
Of a studious disposition, he soon showed by his conduct of the earliest cases entrusted to him that he was an unusually well-read lawyer, and it was but a few years until he was recognized as one of the leading and ablest members of the bar. His success, both as a counselor and as an advocate, was firmly established within five years after his admission. Fol- lowing the footsteps of his father, he became an enthusiastic Republican in politics, and in 1880 was elected by that party a member of the State House of Representatives, in which body he served a term with great credit, and although representing the minority party his ability was acknowledged by both political friends and foes. In 1888 he was chairman of the Delaware delegation in the Republican National Convention held at Chicago.
From 1880 to 1897, while in the active practice of the law, his name appears as counsel in most of the important causes tried at Wilmington, and as a legal adviser his services were enlisted by a large and intelligent clientage. No member of the bar possessed more fully the respect of the court, and in the preparation and presentation of his cases no one could excel him. He served for a few years as attorney for the Levy Court Commissioners of New Castle County. On the death of Judge Wales in the late winter of 1897, the Bar turned instinctively to Mr. Bradford as his successor, and a petition in his favor was signed by almost every member of the Bar of the State. His nomination by President Mckinley followed, and on May 11, 1897, he was confirmed as Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, and since that time has exercised the functions of that office. As judge he has measured up to every requirement. Impor- tant cases in admiralty, bankruptcy, receiverships and patent causes have been heard and determined by him; and his
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decisions, based upon his extensive knowledge of legal prin- ciples have almost without exception been upheld when appealed to a higher tribunal. A man of strong convictions, but imbued with a high sense of justice, his career on the bench has been marked by a firm and positive course which has indicated that he is complete master of the situation, and equal to all emergencies. He is held in high respect by the members of the Bar.
Judge Bradford has for many years been a member of St. John's Episcopal Church, and is also interested in the Church Club of Delaware, the Society of Colonial Wars and the His- torical Society of Delaware. Judge Bradford married in 1872, Eleuthera Paulina, daughter of Alexis I. DuPont. His son Edward G. Bradford, Jr., is a member of the New Castle County Bar, having been admitted in 1903. He is the third Edward G. Bradford identified with the legal profession in New Castle County, and gives promise of the same high measure of success which has marked the careers of his eminent father and grandfather, whose names he bears.
GEORGE GRAY.
Could the verdict of all classes within the borders of the Diamond State irrespective of party affiliations be had, a con- sensus of opinion would undoubtedly nominate George Gray to the post of honor of Delaware's first living citizen. Since the genesis of any man's character and fame, rightly begins with his greatgrandfather, it may be useful to recur a moment to Mr. Gray's ancestors.
Early in the eighteenth century George Gray's paternal greatgrandfather, William Gray, son of Andrew Gray, sailed from Belfast, Ireland, for America, with his wife and young son William. Both he and his wife died on the voyage of ship fever. Having fortunately inherited an ample estate, the young orphan was carefully reared by his guardian, and when a young man became a successful merchant. He married Jean Caldwell, the daughter of Major Andrew Caldwell, of a
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prominent Revolutionary family. Their son, Andrew Gray, who was born in Kent County, Delaware, after receiving an excellent education in his youth, graduated later from the University of Pennsylvania.
Until 1808 young Andrew Gray lived upon the large landed estates in Kent County inherited from his maternal grand- father, Andrew Caldwell, but lived thereafter upon a farm in Mill Creek Hundred near Newark. Though five times elected to the House and Senate of the General Assembly of the State, between 1816 and 1824, he took little active part in public affairs, spending much time in the study of the classics, of which he was very fond, and in the composition of essays, chiefly of a philosophical character.
He married Rebecca Rodgers, daughter of Colonel John Rodgers, of Hartford County, Maryland, and sister of Com- modore John and George Rodgers who won distinction in the navy in the War of 1812. Of this marriage was born, in Kent County, May 25, 1804, a son, Andrew Caldwell Gray. Young Andrew graduated from Princeton College in 1821 at the early age of seventeen, and shortly after began the study of law under James R. Black, Esq., later an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of Delaware.
In 1826, upon his admission to the bar, he settled at New Castle. His professional success was pronounced, and he speedily acquired prominence both in legal and in commercial circles, becoming counsel for the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal Company, and in 1853, its president. Retiring in 1854 from active practice as a lawyer, he became prominently identified as director, president, etc., with the new railroad development in the State, and as president, with a number of its most important banking and manufacturing enterprises. Against all importunity he refused political honors, though as a Democrat taking a lively interest in public affairs. Andrew C. Gray was a man of spotless integrity, everywhere reverenced and loved for his unselfish and benevolent char- acter. He married Elizabeth Scoffield of Stamford, Conn.
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George Gray, one of their four children, was born in New Castle, May 4, 1840. After receiving the invaluable benefit of an early training in the public schools of his town, young George Gray was prepared for college by the Rev. A. M. Wiggins and Professor William F. Lane, and in 1857 entered Princeton in the junior year, graduating thence with high standing at the age of nineteen, in two years thereafter. He was ever as a youth of a studious habit, fond of machinery and much given to haunting the machine shops and manu- factories of his native town and of Wilmington, examining the construction and uses of the machines employed in the various manufacturing processes therein. He was likewise fond of boating, and on the nearby Delaware, acquired suffi- cient knowledge of boats and sail-craft and of their practical handling to make him quite a sailor. Soon after leaving college he began reading law under the tutelage of his father and the Hon. William C. Spruance, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State. He then spent a year at Harvard law school, and in 1863 was formally admitted to the bar.
His legal brethren and the State at large were not long in discovering in him the possession of those high qualities of brain and character which have not only placed him at the very front of the profession in his own State, but have also brought him distinction and influence in the counsels of the nation, and indeed made his name known beyond the sea. As a lawyer he was careful and thorough in the preparation of his cases, and although not a brilliant trial lawyer yet he was a strong one, and had the habit of securing verdicts, which after all is the main thing. He was always a Democrat, and while tak- ing a great interest in the political and in all other State interests, George Gray never in his life sought office. But his party, appreciating his qualifications for service and leader- ship, often urged his candidacy, but it was not until 1879, when for sixteen years he had been before the public as a lawyer, and active in the counsels and battles of the party,
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that he consented to take at the hands of Governor John W. Hall the office of Attorney-General for the State. His able conduct of that position as he followed the ambulatory court throughout the State, more than ever brought him into prominence as a lawyer, while his kindly methods deservedly attached to him hosts of admirers and friends of all political views, who with flattering unanimity demanded his reappoint- ment by Governor Charles C. Stockley, which was done.
Mr. Bayard entered President Cleveland's Cabinet as Secre- tary of State in 1885, and the Democracy of Delaware instinc- tively turned to Mr. Gray as the most fit successor to his mantle of leadership in State and Senate, and accordingly on March 16th of that year the General Assembly chose him to fill the remaining two years of Mr. Bayard's term, and at the end of that period re-elected him for the full term of six years, and again in 1893 for six years more. During his fourteen years' career in that great forum many weighty questions of national and several of international importance were debated and decided, and Senator Gray at length took his station among the few leading spirits who through their learning, wisdom and force of character shaped the legislation and poli- cies of those years. He warmly supported the International Arbitration Treaty, that beneficent principle which is ever gathering force, to bring at last the day " when the war-drum will throb no longer and the battle-flags be furled in the Par- liament of Man." His arraignment of the Election Bill of President Harrison was very forcible. The strong hatred of war, which he shared with President Mckinley, led him to give his adherence to the latter's reluctance to call a halt in Spain's unparalleled brutality towards Cuba. His final action as a member of the Peace Commission which met at Paris after the close of the war with Spain displays the frankness and the high moral courage of the man. What heightens the quality of this courageous act is the further fact that it was done in the very teeth of the sentiments of his own party leaders and press everywhere denouncing that course as impe-
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rialistic. He had at first opposed the retention by the United States of the Philippines, but when convinced of the wisdom of that course withdrew his objections and signed the treaty. At a reception given him by the Board of Trade of Wilming- ton, January 15, 1899, upon his return from Paris, he ably vindicated his changed attitude in an address, which is a fine specimen of robust reasoning couched in eloquent dress.
In 1898 his party was about to return him to the Senate for the fourth time, when he declined the honor in view of his expected assignment by President Mckinley to one of the two additional United States Circuit Court Judgeships for the Third Circuit of which office he is now a distinguished in- cumbent. Although Senator Gray was one of the leaders of the opposite party, President Mckinley, sharing the un- bounded confidence of the whole country in his character and attainments, frequently availed himself of his wide experience and intelligent judgment in solving some of the difficult problems in statesmanship in his administration, no other Senator being summoned, it is said, to the White House for consultation oftener than Senator Gray. No loftier compliment could possibly be paid the political candor and patriotic in- tegrity of any man. Judge Gray served on the Joint High Commission to settle certain disputes between the United States and Canada ; and was a member of the International Arbitration Commission which met at the Hague in 1900; and also of the Alabama Coal Strike Commission. His fre- quent choice for these offices of arbitration, and the uniform success of his efforts therein, prove that in addition to his high legal and other qualifications and his unquestioned in- tegrity, he is also the possessor, to an eminent degree, of an impartial and judicial temper that peculiarly fits him for these important tasks. Evidently President Roosevelt so believed when in 1902 he conferred upon him the exalted honor of chairman of the famous Anthracite Coal Strike Com- mission, with wide powers to settle the perplexing questions involved in the Pennsylvania coal strike of that year, one of the gravest industrial crises that ever arose in this country.
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His selection commanded the respect of the immediate parties to this bitter controversy, and of the nation at large whose comfort, not to say, indeed, whose very lives were being imperiled. And his earnest and sagacious labors contributed in a large measure to avert a colossal calamity whose meas- ureless evils appalls the imagination to contemplate. The difficulties these arbitrators met, by reason of the complex character of the interests represented, and the acrimonious antagonisms aroused between those interests, were prodigious ! The quiet, poised temper of Chairman Gray, and the native honesty of his character were never better shown than in his skillful guidance of this Commission. All knew him learned and experienced in the law, and believed him fair; and this trial disclosed him also gifted with a tactful diplomacy which happily composed seemingly irreconcilable differences, and made possible the settlement which was satisfactory to the principals themselves and to the whole country. An eminent lawyer not of his political faith, declared that no other man in the country "could have brought these opposing elements to the common agreement of appending their approving sig- natures to the Commissioner's report." Judge Gray wrote his own and his state's name right nobly anew on the rolls of fame that day. Since George Read signed the three great charters of the nation's freedom, and John M. Clayton accom- plished "the world's first universal fact," the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, no son of Delaware has written history in characters at once so large and so enduring ! On the 4th of July, 1903, he addressed at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, a large concourse of citizens composed of both mine operators and mine workmen, giving words of wise counsel to both, and declaring that their late peaceful meeting signalized a splendid advance towards the true principles that should govern the mutual relations of capital and labor.
Judge Gray has always been a strong Democrat, and from his early entrance into professional life has zealously cham- pioned the principles and candidates of his party. With one
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exception, viz., that Quixotic episode in his party's history, wherein, among other doctrines equally sound, their candi- date solemnly proclaimed it as one of the principles of his economic system, that the Almighty had foreordained that a bushel of wheat and a 16 to 1 silver dollar should be eternally joined in indissoluble bonds of matrimony ! The Senator " gagged " at that and much more like it.
He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1876, 1880, 1884 and 1892, and took a prominent part in them all. In 1880, at the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati, and again in 1884 at Chicago, he presented the name of his distinguished fellow-citizen, Hon. Thomas F. Bayard as a candidate for President. His eloquent speech in placing Mr. Bayard in nomination at Cincinnati is quoted in full in the Chapter entitled "Great Speeches on Great Issues," in Thomas V. Cooper's " American Politics."
Judge Gray himself was honored with the nomination as the Democratic National Standard Bearer at the Convention held at St. Louis in 1904, L. Irving Handy, Esq., in an able speech pursuant to the unanimous instructions of the Demo- cratic State Convention at Dover June 8, 1904, offering his name for the suffrages of the convention. Beyond doubt, his candidacy would have saved the party the inglorious Water- loo they met under the banner of the feeble " sage of Esopus." Mr. Gray was married in 1870 to Harriet, daughter of Charles H. Black, M. D., of New Castle, Delaware. Two daughters and three sons were born to them. May 26, 1880, Mrs. Gray suddenly died. August 8, 1882, Judge Gray married Mar- garet J. Black, the sister of his first wife.
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PROMINENT DELAWARE LAWYERS.
SAMUEL WHITE.
A member of the Bar of whom little is known, but who gives evidence of having been a lawyer of force and character is Samuel White, admitted to the Kent Bar in 1793. He was the only son of Judge Thomas White who was a resident for many years of Mispillion Hundred, where he was the owner of wide-spreading acres and dispensed a generous hospitality. Judge White served on the bench of the Common Pleas Court, was Register of Wills for Kent and altogether a leading man of the county. He became interested in the cause of Metho- dism in the early days and between him and Bishop Asbury sprang up a strong friendship which lasted until the death of the Judge in 1795. Samuel White was born at his father's homestead in 1770. He studied law in the office of Richard Bassett after being educated at Cokesbury College. The latter institution was the first educational institution established by the Methodists in the United States. It was located in Har- ford County, Maryland. He served for two years as a Captain in the United States army, and showed a decided tendency towards military life.
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