USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume III > Part 20
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ROBERT FRAME.
Robert Frame was a descendant of the Frame family of Indian River Hundred, in Sussex County, his father bearing the name as his own. He was born December 6, 1800. As a boy and young man he was shy and diffident. After three years of legal study under the direction of John M. Clayton, he was admitted to the Kent Bar in 1824. His talents were early recognized and he soon won success in his chosen pro- fession.
Six years after his admission he was appointed Attorney- General of the State by Governor Hazzard, as the successor of Thomas Clayton. Although but thirty years of age at the time, his administration of the office was signally successful, and all authorities agree that no abler or more efficient At- torney-General has served the State. He continued in the place for the full term of five years. He served one term in the State House of Representatives, being elected in 1838. These were the only public offices held by him.
He married, in 1829, Jeannette Macomb Clayton, daughter of Thomas Clayton, afterwards Chief Justice, and had two sons, Robert and Thomas C. The latter for many years has been a practicing physician in Dover. He has many of the literary tastes of his distinguished father. Thomas Clayton Frame, Jr., son of Dr. Thomas C. Frame, and grandson of Robert Frame, has been for ten years last past one of the most active members of the Kent County Bar. Robert Frame,
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after a career of but little more than twenty years at the Bar, died in Wilmington in 1847, and his remains lie buried in the graveyard adjoining the First Presbyterian Church in that city. His sound legal learning, his familiarity with the classics, and his polish and elegance as a public speaker fitted him for the exalted position he attained at the Bar, and but for his early decline in health, resulting in his death in his forty-seventh year, he would, doubtless, have reached the highest places in political life.
GEORGE P. FISHER.
The Fisher family was among the early settlers in Sussex County. They were descendants of John Fisher, who came from England with Penn in 1682. In the third generation from John Fisher, the emigrant, was Thomas Fisher, son of Jabez, born in 1763 in Worcester County, Maryland, but com- ing with his father to Lewes, Delaware, while yet a small boy. Thomas Fisher served twice as High Sheriff of Sussex and moving to Kent in his later years served twice as Sheriff in that county, and occupied other public stations.
At his death in 1835 he left one son George Purnell Fisher, the subject of this sketch. Born at Milford, October 13, 1817, George P. Fisher was educated in the free schools of Kent County, taking a higher course at St. Mary's College, Mary- land, and graduating at Dickinson College in 1838. His law course was under the direction of John M. Clayton for whom he held the tenderest affection, and he was admitted to the Kent County bar in 1841. Five years later he became Secre- tary of State under Governor Joseph Maull, and the latter dying after serving but a few months, Fisher was continued as Secretary of State under Governor Temple. While John M. Clayton acted as Secretary of State in the Taylor cabinet, George P. Fisher served as private clerk or secretary, and was in close touch with Clayton when the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty was promulgated.
In March, 1855, he was appointed Attorney General of the
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State by Governor Causey and served the full five years term with great credit to himself and to the entire acceptability of the people of the State. In 1860 he was the candidate of the Bell and Everett party for Representative in Congress, and the Republicans also giving him their support, he was elected over his two Democratic opponents. He served two years in Congress, taking a determined stand for the Union cause, and making a fine impression at Washington. The writer re- members to have seen Judge Fisher for the first time during the campaign of 1860. He was then in the prime of life, of commanding physique and with his erect and soldierly bear- ing made an unusually impressive figure. He was renomi- nated for Congress by the Republican party in 1862, but failed of re-election by a very small majority.
Early in 1863 he raised the First Delaware Cavalry and was appointed Colonel, but before the regiment got into active service, Fisher was appointed by President Lincoln one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. President Lincoln formed the warmest attachment for Fisher during his service in Congress at the outbreak of the Civil War. He served on the Bench from March, 1863, to May, 1870, and as a judge displayed great aptitude and ability. On his retirement from the Bench he was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Columbia by President Grant. In this office he served for five years, when he re- signed and returned to Delaware. The only other public office held by him was First Auditor of the Treasury Depart- ment, which came to him through President Harrison in 1889.
In temperament and general character he was one of the most lovable and agreeable of men. His fund of information of men and things, covering as it did so long and interesting a period of State and National politics, was marvelous, and made him most companionable. He combined with a high order of ability, the gentleness of a woman and notwithstand- ing the restless scenes through which he passed, and the rebuffs which came to him, he showed no spirit of vindictive- ness, but was always a gentleman.
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The years of his life were lengthened out beyond the allotted four score. He died at Washington February 10, 1899, and his dust was laid away in the old Methodist graveyard at Dover.
NATHANIEL B. SMITHERS.
Nathaniel Barratt Smithers was born in Dover, October 8, 1818. Both his father and grandfather were named Nathaniel, and both held important offices in Kent County. His mother was Susan Fisher Barratt, a granddaughter of Philip Barratt, on whose land the revered Barratt's Chapel was built. After a preparatory education obtained at Dover and at West Nottingham, Maryland, he entered Lafayette College at six- teen years of age and graduated there in 1836. He afterwards attended the law school of Judge Reed at Carlisle and was admitted to the bar there in 1840. A year later he began the practice of law at Dover.
Possessing a remarkably studious disposition he applied himself with great diligence to the study of legal principles. With clear perception, good judgment, and a remarkable memory, he soon impressed the court and community as a man of strong intellectuality and in a few years was recog- nized as one of the leaders of the State. His personal inclina- tion was towards a life of quiet study. He disliked the strife and tumult of the forum. If his lot had been cast in a larger field, where he would have been forced out of his retirement, his talents would have necessarily attracted wide attention. Living the quiet, sheltered life that he did, the rare ability he possessed was known to but few.
In early days he was a Whig in politics. In 1860 he joined the Republican party and was a delegate to the National Con- vention that nominated Lincoln for President. As a political speaker, he was strong and convincing. On the election of Governor Cannon in 1862, he became Secretary of State, but served less than a year, resigning that office to take a seat in Congress, to which he had been elected at a special election
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in November, 1863. He served but one term in Congress, being defeated for re-election, but during his incumbency of that high office he showed the same rare ability that his friends at home always accorded him, and his associates at Washington were impressed with his familiarity with the great questions of state that were then occupying public atten- tion.
He never afterwards held public office until the winter of 1895, when on the election of Joshua H. Marvil to the gover- norship he was prevailed upon to accept the office of Secretary of State, but the death of the Governor three months later terminated his tenure of that office. During the whole of his active professional life the affairs of the State were in the con- trol of his political opponents. If it had been otherwise, in all probability he would have been named for high judicial posi- tion, for which he possessed unusual qualifications.
Socially Mr. Smithers was most entertaining. Those of his own generation are gone, but some are still left who remember the little office on the south side of Dover green where for so many years Mr. Smithers took pleasure in reviewing current events with casual visitors, or where the younger members of the bar were always welcome to discuss with him some mooted point of law. After a visit to him there was a feeling that one had been in touch with greatness.
His home life was ideal. His only living descendant is a grandson, who bears his name. Four children graced his home, two of whom died in infancy. A daughter, Sadie, very like her father in temperament and characteristics, died as she was budding into womanhood. A son, Nathaniel Barratt Smithers, Jr., studied law with the father, and was admitted to the Kent County Bar in 1887. The son died at the age of thirty. Nathaniel B. Smithers was a man of deep religious convictions. In his later life he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. At his death, on January 16, 1896, he left a widow, Mary E. Smithers, to survive him. She was the daughter of William Townsend, of Frederica, and a woman of superior character.
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JACOB MOORE
Jacob Moore was the son of Louther T. Moore, and was born at Laurel, Delaware, November 21, 1829. His father for many years was a prominent merchant at Laurel. Gradu- ating at Union College in 1850, Jacob Moore studied law with Edward Wootten and was admitted to the bar in April, 1853. He applied himself with great diligence to his profession and soon won a commanding position at the bar. For twenty years prior to his death he was the acknowledged leader of the Sussex bar, being retained as attorney on one side or the other on nearly every case on the trial list. He served as attorney for all the railroad companies in the county, and for the old Dominion Steamship Company which at that time con- trolled a line of steamships running from Lewes to New York.
Mr. Moore's early political affiliations were with the Demo- cratic party, but at the beginning of the Civil War his adher- ence to the Union cause brought him into the Republican party; to which party he gave zealous allegiance during the remainder of his life. It was largely through his efforts that William Cannon, a warm personal friend, was nominated by the Republican party for the office of Governor in 1862. In 1863 he assisted in the organization of the Sixth Delaware Regiment, joining the same as a private, but afterwards reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1864 he was appointed by Governor Cannon Attorney General of the State. His administration of this office was exceptionally good, and at the close of his five-year term, the Court openly com- mended the record that he had made. Personally, Mr. Moore was a delightful companion ; bright, cheery, most in- teresting in conversation, he was a general favorite everywhere and no man had a wider circle of personal friends. He mar- ried in 1860, Eliza R. Rodney of Georgetown. His son, Charles L. Moore has been for several years a practicing attorney, occupying the office formerly used by his father. Jacob Moore died suddenly December 13, 1886, and there was . a general feeling of regret at his death throughout the State.
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GEORGE V. MASSEY.
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GEORGE V. MASSEY.
A member of the Delaware Bar who has gained enviable distinction in his chosen profession is George V. Massey. His early life was spent in the country. He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 1841. In his early boyhood he spent some years near Newark and in the vicinity of Wilmington, and later attended school at Perkiomen Semi- mary and at Delaware Water Gap. He studied law with Nathaniel B. Smithers at Dover, and was admitted to the bar October 23, 1865.
Mr. Massey enlisted as first lieutenant in the First Regiment of Delaware Cavalry Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, and afterwards, with the rank of captain, served on the staff of General H. H. Lockwood and in the Adjutant-General's department, and later with the Inspector-General's department with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At the close of the war he resumed his residence at Dover, and his admission to the bar followed a few months later.
Possessed of great native force, and with a rugged physique, he impressed himself as a man intent upon winning his way. Of unusually industrious habits, and with a power of endurance seldom seen, he applied himself diligently to the conduct of the business that came to him, and by close application, that began in the early morning hours and lasted until late into the night, he versed himself in the principles of the law and became fully equipped for the brilliant and successful career at the bar that opened before him.
He occupied for many years an adjoining office to that of his preceptor, Mr. Smithers, and from the latter doubtless re- ceived both inspiration and encouragement that had their influence in his after life. He came to the bar when Ridgely, Comegys and Smithers were at the head of the profession in Kent County, and an abler trio is seldom found. And for many years he practiced law side by side with James L. Wol- cott, afterwards Chancellor, and later he and George Gray were the general attorneys in Delaware for the Philadelphia, Wil-
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mington and Baltimore Railroad and the Delaware Railroad and its connections. For three years immediately prior to his removal from Delaware he associated James Pennewill with him in the practice of the law. Mr. Pennewill two years later became an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Delaware.
As a trial lawyer Mr. Massey has few superiors, and as a counselor and advisor he is unexcelled. His wide knowledge of legal principles, his quick discernment of the real point at issue, his almost unerring wisdom in matters of judgment, and his clear and forcible power of expression make a com- bination of talents that thoroughly fit him for the highest seat among the busy corporation lawyers of the present day. It was not surprising, therefore, that possessing these qualifica- tions, he was called, after thirty years of active practice in the three counties of Delaware, to serve the great Pennsylvania Railroad Company, first, as Assistant Solicitor, and later as the head of its legal department at the central offices in Phila- delphia, being known now as General Counsel. His duties in this behalf led him to remove his residence from Dover to Philadelphia in 1895.
He spent a year in directing, as one of the four members of the Board of Control, the great World's Columbian Exposi- tion, held in Chicago, in 1893, and to him, more than to any one man is due the successful conduct of that giant enter- prise. His services in that direction mark the only departure in his career from the practice of the law. His political af- filiations have always been with the Republican party. If he had chosen to give his attention to politics he would have made an invincible leader. In the meeting of the General Assembly in 1889, he came within one vote of securing the caucus nomination of his party for United States Senator. Of late years he has given no time to politics.
Genial, frank, and honest, he has gathered about him a host of loyal friends. The three score and more of years have not abated the natural forces. The capacity for work is still
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dominant. He is enjoying the respect of all men. The vigor and faithfulness of his work have brought their reward. He has won because he deserved to win.
RICHARD HARRINGTON.
One of the most conspicuous and in many respects the most interesting figures that ever graced the Delaware bar, was Richard Harrington. Handsome, brilliant, ambitious, of lofty ideals, of splendid attainments, of matchless eloquence, and overflowing with personal magnetism, he rose like a dazzling meteor, flashing for a brief moment across the sky, then fading away, and leaving those who beheld it full of wonderment and admiration.
Richard Harrington was the third son of Chancellor Har- rington and was born at Dover, Delaware, on the 19th day of February, 1847. He received his early education in the schools of the town, from which he entered Georgetown Col- lege, in the District of Columbia, and was graduated with high honors. He soon afterwards returned to Dover, and be- gan the study of law under the late Hon. Nathaniel B. Smithers. After finishing his course as a law student, he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the practice of his pro- fession in his native State. About two years afterwards, he removed to Washington, where, by reason of his rare oratori- cal powers, he at once took front rank as an advocate, and soon became a conspicuous figure at the National Capital.
After several years of private practice in which he had gathered round him an extensive and enviable clientage, he was appointed Assistant District Attorney for the District of Columbia, under the late Judge George P. Fisher. Here his genius and extraordinary talents shown forth resplendent, gaining for him a national reputation. In 1875, he returned to Dover, and resumed there the practice of his profession. Soon afterwards he entered again into politics, for which he had a love and natural aptitude, and which he had practically put aside during his busy Washington life. In 1882 he was
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chosen chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, and in that year conducted the most brilliant and vigorous campaign the State of Delaware ever saw.
Mr. Harrington's advent into politics was made in his childhood. Even at that early age, he had studied and be- come familiar with the questions of the day, and when but a boy of thirteen years, he stumped the State for his party and became locally famous as a speaker. Everywhere people flocked to listen to the gifted boy and marveled at his utter- ances.
The promise of boyhood was richly fulfilled in maturer years, which brought with them a wide range of knowledge, and acquaintance with the best literature and a familiarity with the classics. In those later days, the mere announce- ment of his name as a speaker was sufficient to pack a court room, crowd the largest hall, or draw an assemblage of the people at a mass meeting. His extemporaneous speeches were his best ones. Preparation seemed to hinder him. The moment he rose on his feet his thoughts began to flow, clothed in as beautiful language as ever fell from human lips. He was like a great musician seated at his instrument, improvis- ing soul-inspiring music. His printed orations, while beauti- ful to read, were but the shadows of the delivered speeches. They lacked the charm of the voice, the flash of the eye, the force of dramatic action, with which the speaker so magne- tized and swayed the multitude.
It is related of him that at a dinner in Washington, given to Dean Stanley, at which Beecher, and many of the foremost orators of the day were present, a toast was proposed to the District of Columbia. A. R. Sheppard, who was then Gov- ernor of the District, was called upon to respond. He de- clined, saying he was not a public speaker, and suggesting that his friend Mr. Harrington respond to the toast. For once in his life, the young orator was embarrassed. The suddenness of the situation, the presence of so many distinguished men, was enough to make him shrink from the task. It was more
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graceful, however, to respond than to decline, and for twenty minutes, those gathered round that table sat entranced. When he sat down, Beecher heartily congratulated him, and subsequently Dean Stanley mentioned in his memoirs, pub- lished in England, that "the best young orator I ever heard is an American named Harrington."
In the court room his resistless eloquence carried everything before it. His intensity fascinated the jury, his wit captivated them, his denunciation awed them, his subtile argument con- vinced them. As a man, Richard Harrington was generous, warm-hearted, and true. He possessed great originality, wonderful executive ability, and in the discharge of his duty, was bold and fearless. He was married during his residence in Washington to Ruth Anna Ridgely, daughter of Dr. Henry Ridgely of Dover, the issue of the marriage being two sons and a daughter. He died at Dover in October, 1884, and was buried at Lakeside cemetery in that town.
JOHN BASSETT MOORE.
John Bassett Moore, the son of Dr. John A. and Martha A. (Ferguson) Moore, was born at Smyrna, Delaware, December 3, 1860. He received his early education at home and at pri- vate schools, and was for some years a student at Felton Seminary, an institution which was established largely through the enterprise of his father, and which for a time flourished under the management of the late R. H. Skinner. In June, 1877, he was admitted to Lafayette College at Easton, Penn- sylvania, but in the autumn of the same year decided to go to the University of Virginia, of which he afterwards became a graduate. In 1880 he entered upon the study of the law in the office of Edward G. Bradford, Jr., at Wilmington, Dela- ware, where, in 1883, upon his admission to the bar he began the practice of his profession.
In the summer of 1885, at the request of Thomas F. Bayard. who was then Secretary of State of the United States, he passed a competitive civil-service examination for a law clerk-
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ship in the Department of State at Washington. He took this step only with the idea of gaining experience and with the expectation of remaining in the public service not more than a year. In January, 1886, he was chosen for a special mis- sion to the Samoan Islands, but circumstances having arisen which delayed the mission he was appointed early in August of that year Third Assistant Secretary of State. In June and July, 1887, he acted as secretary to the conference between Mr. Bayard, as Secretary of State, and the British and German Ministers at Washington on Samoan affairs, and prepared all the protocols of that conference as they have since been pub- lished. From November, 1887, to February, 1888, he acted as American secretary to the conference at Washington on the Northeastern Fisheries, his colleague on the British side being Sir J. H. G. Bergne.
In 1889, when Grover Cleveland was succeeded as President by Benjamin Harrison, Mr. Moore was requested by Mr. Blaine, the new Secretary of State, to retain his post as Third Assistant Secretary. Mr. Moore had in fact treated the office as being in a proper sense non-political, but, as he was a Democrat in politics, he had taken the requisite steps to re- lieve the new Secretary of State of any embarrassment. Mr. Blaine, however, immediately asked him to remain, and after- wards reiterated the request in very gratifying terms, and Mr. Moore continued to hold the position until the autumn of 1891, when he resigned it to accept the new chair of Interna- tional Law and Diplomacy at Columbia University, in New York, the only full professorship in the United States at that time on those subjects.
In April, 1898, on the outbreak of the war with Spain, Mr. Moore was appointed Assistant Secretary of State. This highly honorable office he had on certain previous occasions felt obliged by personal circumstances to decline, but, when it was unexpectedly offered to him by President Mckinley, in the exceptional condition of affairs then existing, he promptly accepted it. In September, 1898, hostilities with Spain being
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over, he resigned the post of Assistant Secretary of State, to become secretary and counsel to the American Peace Commis- sion at Paris, and participated in this capacity in the negotia- tions that ended in the signature of the treaty of peace with Spain on December 10, 1898. In 1904 he acted as agent of the United States before the arbitral board under the protocol between the United States and Santo Domingo of January 31, 1903.
Mr. Moore has written extensively on International Law and cognate subjects. His publications embrace : A Report on Extraterritorial Crime (Washington, 1887); A Report on Extradition, prepared for the first International American Conference (Washington, 1890); A Treatise on Extradition and Interstate Rendition, 2 vols. (Boston, 1891); American Notes on the Conflict of Laws (Boston, 1896); A History and Digest of International Arbitrations, 6 vols. (Washington, 1898); American Diplomacy, its Spirit and Achievements (New York, 1905); A Digest of International Law, 8 vols. (Washington, 1906). His works on International Law are more voluminous and cover a wider field than those of any other American publicist, present or past. He is a member of various learned societies, American and foreign, including the American Historical Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Academy of Political Science, the American Bar Association, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Institut du Droit International, and the Institut Colonial International. He is one of the editors of the " Political Science Quarterly," of the "Revue du Droit Inter- national," and of the " Journal du Droit International Privée." He is an LL.D. of the Columbian (now George Washington) University (1899), Delaware College, (1900), and Yale Uni- versity (Bicentennial, 1901). In 1890 Mr. Moore married Helen Frances Toland; they have three children, Phyllis Elwyn, Anne Ferguson, and Angela Turner.
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