History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 6

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 6

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He was in Congress but for one term. There he was in a small minority, and did not participate mueh, if any, in debate, but gave close attention to tho busi- ness of the House, particularly such as related to matters of financo, and was active and influential on committees.

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THE COURTS AND BAR.

while he was a member were: an amendment of the sisted by his relative, the late Bartholomew Brown, Constitution requiring the electors of President to who was pre-eminent for the power and excellence of his voice, and the late Rev. Dr. James Flint, for fourteen years the minister of the parish, and others, he trained it to a degree of perfection in psalmody rarely equaled, and gave it an impulse in the right direction that is felt to the present day. name. on distinct ballots, the persons voted for as President and Vice-President ; the impeachment of Judge Chase; and the purchase of Louisiana from France. On all these questions he, with a majority of the Massachusetts delegation, voted in the nega- tive, against the last because he had a doubt (in which Mr. Jefferson, the President. participated. but yielded to the pressure of circumstances) of the right of the treaty-making power. under the Constitution. to buy territory to be admitted into the Union as a State. and also because of an uncertainty as to our title under the treaty of cession.

After attending to all his official duties and corre- spondence, he found himself with many leisure hours on hand. These he employed in reading classic authors. among them Ovid's " Epistola Heroidum," in the original .- an interesting book .- which "he found. in a bookstore in Georgetown, stowed away amon_ a heap of second-hand volumes ;" in translat- ing the works of Horace into English verse; and writing an interesting and amusing poem. in one canto, called the " Indian Pudding." He rarely engaged in any awasement, except an evening game of chess with Samuel W. Dana, a member of Congress from Connecticut ; " in which." he said in a letter to a relative, "I am generally conqueror, and have therefore become more skillful than my teacher."

He was a great lover of music, and from youth to old age studied it as a science. More than fifty years ago he commenced the publication of the " Bridge- water Collection of Sacred Music," of which he was the principal editor, although his name never appeared in the title-page. The work passed through nearly thirty editions, and rendered essential service in im- proving the then-existing style of music, by substitut- ing for tunes that were neither dignified, solemn, or decent such as were chaste, classical, and sufficiently simple to be adapted to the wants of a worshiping assembly. Many pieces of his composition obtained a widespread circulation, and were generally per- formed,-among them, au anthem, called " Lord's Day. ' and a piece of several quarto pages, beginning with the words, " Jesus shall reign." He also pub- lished a series of articles in the Boston Musical, Gazette on the history of music, and wrote a treatise on harmony, which a competent judge said, if pub- lighed, " would have done him no discredit."

The success of his efforts for reform were exten- sively visible, and especially in the church, where he was a constant worshiper. There he was one of the choir for more than a quarter of a century; and as-

He was much of an antiquarian, as is evinced by his well-written " History of Bridgewater," which is a monument to his memory that will endure for cen- turies, and. it may be hoped, as long as the art of printing. That was a work of vast labor. Its nu- merous scattered materials were to be searched for and gathered up from the State, county, town, church, and family records, and other sources, and reduced to a system. This he did with great care, good judgment, and accuracy .- considering the peculiar liability to mistakes in a work of the kind; and has thus fur- nished the people of the Bridgewaters with a house- hold book. valuable now and hereafter as a repository of historical and genealogical faets most interesting to them and their posterity.

His private character is a model for imitation. Hc was affable and familiar ; his manners were simple and easy ; his temper gentle, even, and cheerful ; and his whole deportment such as to inspire confidenec and respect. Hospitality reigned in his house, and chcer- fulness beamed from his countenance on his happy family, and was reflected back by them. He was eminently a man of peace, and all his life long ex- erted a peculiarly happy faculty he had to promote it in his own neighborhood, and elsewhere within the sphere of his influence.

HON. ABRAHAM HOLMES1 was born in Rochester, June 9, 1754. He was admitted to the bar of Plym- outh County at the April terin, 1800. He was then nearly forty-six years of age. Ilc had previously been president of the Court of Sessions, and though not regularly educated for the profession, the incin- bers of the bar voted his admission in consideration of " his respectable official character, learning, and abilities, on condition that he study three months in some attorney's office." He might be called, with great propriety, a self-made lawyer. He continued in practice till August, 1835, when eighty-onc years of age, with a considerable degree of reputation and success. Even when thus advanced in life he was a regular attendant upon the sessions of the court, and was regarded as an acute and learned lawyer. In his intercourse with the bar he was courteous and famil- iar, especially toward the younger members.

1 By Rev. N. W. Everett.

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

He was full of anecdote and traditional lore, abounding in wit and humor. His mind was well stored with facts relating to the older members of the bar, and so late as June, 1834, when eighty years of age, he delivered a very interesting address at New Bedford to the bar of Bristol County, in which he diseoursed of the rise and progress of the profession in Massachusetts, with sketches of the early lawyers, of the necessity of such an order of men, and upon the duties of the profession.

He was a member of the State Convention to re- vise the Constitution in 1820, and took a part in the debates. He was a member of the Executive Couneil of Massachusetts for the political year, May, 1821-22, and May, 1822-23, when Governor Brooks was in offiee.

He furnished some items for " Tudor's Life of James Otis," wrote an essay on the nature and uses of a " Writ of Right," and he left in manuscript many interesting reminiseenees of the olden times.

His writings show great ability. Rev. Jonathan Bigelow, who knew him well, said, " If he had only been favored with a liberal education, it would have been his own fault if he had not become the chief justice of Massachusetts."

After his decease, which occurred Sept. 7, 1839, the members of the bar of the counties of Bristol, Plymouth, and Barnstable, at a meeting held at Plymouth, Oet. 25, 1839, paid a most respectful trib- ute to his talents, learning, and character, and adopted a resolution expressing a high sense of his profes- sional worth, as a man " whose mind was enriched with various learning, whose memory was a reposi- tory of the most valuable reminiscences, whose legal attainments gave him high professional eminenee, and whose social qualities were an ornament of the eirele of friendship during a long life of integrity and usefulness."

Mr. Holmes was one of those grand old characters whose history it is delightful to contemplate. Inti- mately associated with the Otises, of Barnstable, and the Freemans, of Sandwich,-those giants of the Revolutionary period,-he struek hard blows for the cause of freedom. In old age he writes, " The retro- speetion of these olden times resuseitated all the feel- ings, sensations, and animations of 1774, such as none ean feel in the same degree who did not live at the time and participate in the fears and hopes, toils and dangers of those times. The contemplation of those events gives me a satisfaction unknown to the miser in counting his hoards, the agriculturist, when his eorn and wine inereaseth, or the merchant, when his ships return laden with the riches of the East."

Through life he held a correspondenee with the greatest and best men of our country, and letters still in existence show that they felt honored by his friendship.

HON. CHARLES JARVIS HOLMES,1 son of the preceding, was born at Rochester, May 9, 1790.

He studied law in the office of his father, in Roch- ester, and was admitted to the Plymouth County bar in 1812, just before the commencement of the second war with Great Britain. He practiced his profession in his native town more than a quarter of a century, identified with the feelings and interests and enjoy- ing the confidenee of his fellow-citizens. He repre- sented Rochester in the Legislature of Massachusetts in the years 1816-17, 1819-20, 1824, 1826-27, 1831-32. He was a senator from Plymouth County in 1829-30, a member of the Executive Couneil in 1835, and an elector of President and Vice-Presi- dent in 1836. He filled all these offices while re- siding in Rochester.

In December, 1838, with a view to more extended professional practice, he removed to Taunton. In 1842 he was appointed by President Tyler collector of customs for Fall River, to which place he removed his residence. He remained there till towards the elose of his life. He filled at various periods other offices of some importance, as master in ehaneery, commissioner of bankruptcy, ete. All the duties of these offices he faithfully discharged. He was a man of ardent friendship, genial temperament, of a high sense of honor. His intellectual powers were strong and well cultivated, although he was not educated at college. He was a careful reader of the English elassies, and a thorough student of the law. In po- litieal life he was ardent, sanguine, strong in his eon- vietions, and indefatigable in maintaining them. He wrote his own epitaph, elosing with these words : " By profession a lawyer ; by practice a peacemaker." He died at Fall River, May 13, 1859, aged sixty- nine.

THOMAS BURGESS1 was born in Wareham, Nov. 29, 1778 ; died in Providence, R. I., May 18, 1856. He was distinguished through life by serupulous in- tegrity, by habits of great industry, and by the con- seientious discharge of every trust, as well as by emi- ment sagacity and prudence, merited and acquired the confidence of his fellow-citizens in a measure which is accorded only to the most blameless. His counsel was sought with a peculiar reliance on its value, and the weightiest affairs and the most delicate duties were intrusted to him without apprehension. A

1 By Rev. N. W. Everett.

THE COURTS AND BAR.

judge of the Municipal Court of Providence, an office which he held from the organization of the city gov- ernment till within a few years of his death, he pre- sided over the distribution of the estates of that large and wealthy community with more than satisfaction to those whose interests demanded an exact and watchful guardian. He was also judge of the Com- mon Pleas till a new organization of the courts super- seded that office, which had never been in wiser or purer hands. His professional practice, with his other undertakings, secured to him, under the bless- ing of God. a prosperous position, and he was able and ready to lend cheerful and considerate assistance to those who needed his kindness, and to bear his part in works of public beneficence. The honorable profession of the law has seldom furnished a worthier example of the Christian virtues than his character displayed from youth to age,-uprightness, fidelity, discretion, diligence, and the fear of God. His son, Thomas Mackie Burgess, was mayor of the city of Providence, R. I., for ten successive years, and his sons, George and Alexander, became bishops in the Episcopal Church.

TRISTAM BURGESS, the " Bald Eagle of the North," was born in Rochester, Feb. 26, 1770; died Oct. 13, 1853. He graduated at Brown University in 1796. with the first honors of his class. He studied law in Providence, R. I., and was admitted to practice there in 1799. Soon after his admission to the bar, while pleading a case in one of the smaller courts, being severe and personal in his remarks, he was interrupted by the judge, who asked him if he knew where he was and to whom he was talking. " Oh, yes," said Mr. Burgess : "I am in an inferior court, addressing an inferior judge, in the inferior State of Rhode Island." In 1815 he was made chief justice of the State. In 1825 he was elected to Congress. He took his seat in the United States House of Representatives in December of that year, and in a few days offered an anti-slavery petition from Salem, in this State. At once the sharp, piercing voice of John Randolph was heard : " Mr. Speaker, I understand that the petition of the gentle- man is from Salem, and I move that it be referred to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union." Mr. Burgess sprang to his feet and cried, imitating Mr. Randolph's peculiar voice exactly, " Mr. Speaker, and I move that the gentleman from Roanoke be referred to the same committee."

"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."

In a contest with the distinguished representative from South Carolina, he went on to say that Mr. Mc-

Duffie had not adopted the style of speaking common to scholars and gentlemen. The following may be taken as a sample of his language in reply : "It would (and the gentleman certainly knows it) be very unbecoming in me to say what might very appropriately be said of him. The gentleman seems to claim the whole right to himself. Few men would, I believe, pirate upon his property. The fee-simple of the honorable gentleman in his principles, opinions, and thoughts, together with his own manner of expressing them, will never be feloniously invaded by any person of sound mind and having the fear of God before his eyes. He says, what he is, he is himself. Why, sir, I do not ques- tion this. He is himself, and neither he nor any other person will ever mistake him for anybody else. The honorable gentleman need not fear being lost in the ordinary samples of existence. His individuality is secure. It is very probable there is but one specimen in the whole mass of moral, intellectual, and physical being. With what other thing can he be confounded ? Men would as soon mistake the fiery element, or the angry action and fiery visage of a wildcat, for the quiet blood and peaceful countenance of the lamb."

The most famous encounter between Mr. Burgess and Mr. Randolph occurred during a debate on the tariff. Mr. Burgess having remarked, in the course of his speech, that there was a disposition among some gentlemen to support British interests in preference to American, Mr. Randolph rose and interrupted him, saying, " This hatred of aliens, sir, is the undecayed spirit which called forth the proposition to enact the alien and sedition law. I advise the gentleman from Rhode Island to move a re-enactment of those laws, to prevent the impudent foreigner from rivalling the American seller. New England-what is she ? Sir, do you remember that appropriate exclamation, ' De- lenda est Carthago ?'" Mr. Burgess replied as fol- lows: " Does the gentleman mean to say, sir, New England must be destroyed ? If so, I will remind him that the fall of Carthage was the precursor of the fall of Rome. Permit me to suggest to him to carry out the parallel. Further, sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I am not bound by any rule to argue against Bedlam ; but where I see anything rational in the hallucinations of the gentleman, I will answer them." At the command of the Speaker he took his seat, remarking as he did so, " Perhaps it is better, sir, that I should not go on." The next day he resumed his speech on the subject, and referred to Mr. Randolph as a spirit which exclaims at every rising sun, "' Hodie ! hodie ! Carthago delenda ! To-day ! to-day let New England be destroyed !' Sir, Divine Providence takes care of its own universe.

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Moral monsters cannot propagate. Impotent of every- thing but malevolence of purpose, they cannot other- wise multiply miseries than by blaspheming all that is pure, prosperous, and happy. Could demon propa- gate demon, the universe might become a Pandemo- nium ; but I rejoice that the Father of Lies can never become the Father of Liars. One adversary of God and man is enough for one universe. Too much- oh ! how much too much-for one nation !"

Mr. McDuffie, by the part he took in this discus- sion, came in also for a large share of Mr. Burgess' notice, who introduced one of his speeches by saying that the inhabitants of the sea sport ; only in foul weather, and when "the winds and waters begin to hold controversy" the whole population of the mighty realm is awake and in motion. "Not merely the nimble dolphin gives his bright eye and dazzling side to the sunshine, but the black, uncouth porpoise breaks above the waters, and flounces and spouts and goes down again. The foul cormorant, stretching his long, lean wings, soars and sinks, piping shrill notes to the restless waves. The haglet and cutwater spring into flight, and, dashing over the white crest of the lofty billows, scream their half counter to the deep bass of the mighty ocean." These were personal references, called out, as he went on to say, by the " wailing menaces, calumnies, and all the demonstra- tions of outrageous excitement exhibited on that floor by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph), the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. McDuffie), and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cambreling)." He said he would defend New England, though he would not take part in the contest of the two parties, each of which had been assailing her ; " for when cat and cat fly at each other, though the fur and skin may suffer, yet what prudent boy will risk either hands or eyes in parting the combatants, in any attempt to in- terrupt the kitchen-yard melody of their courtship ?"

At the centennial celebration of Brown University, Sept. 6, 1864, the Hon. John H. Clifford, in the course of an eloquent address, said, "The brilliant Burgess, our Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Let- tres, whose fame is bounded by no local limits, before whose scathing retort in the Congress of the United States the Ishmaclite of Virginia statesmen, Randolph of Roanoke, for the first time quailed and was for- ever silenced."

The philippics of Demosthenes may have produced a greater effect upon his auditors, but from the time when Chatham's thunder rolled through the corridors of the British House of Commons until now, for scorching invective that, like lightning, burns when it strikes, Tristam Burgess stands peerless.

His biographer says, " The richiness of his classical and scriptural allusions was beyond that of his com- peers. The acuteness of his logic was felt and ad- mitted by all, even his opponents. The brilliancy of his scholarship, the beauty of his allusions, his ex- quisite ornamentation of his more finished efforts, these are points that give him a far higher title to remembrance than the deadly thrusts of his satire."

ZEPHANIAH SWIFT1 was born in Wareham, Feb- ruary, 1759, and died in Warren, Ohio, Oct. 27, 1823. He was a graduate at Yale College in 1778, and es- tablished himself in the practice of the law at Wind- ham, Conn. ; was a member of Congress from 1793 to 1796; was secretary of the mission to France in 1800, and in 1801 he was elected a judge, and from 1806 to 1819 was chief justice of the State of Con- necticut. In 1814 he was a member of the cele- brated Hartford Convention. He published a " Digest of the Law of Evidence" and a "Treatise on Bills of Exchange" in 1810, and a " Digest of the Laws of Connecticut," 2 vols., 1823. In the celebrated Bishop case, tried a few years ago, in Norwich, Conn., Judge Culver, in quoting an opinion from him, styled him "Connecticut's ablest jurist sixty years ago." A master of jurisprudence and busy in the courts, he had a hand and a heart for every grand moral enterprise. When that glorious pulpit Titan, Lyman Beecher, was stationed at Litchfield, Conn., in the early days of the temperance reform, Judge Swift was one of his chief supporters, and aided him when his aid was invaluable. It was about this time that Dr. Beecher published a volume of temperance ser- mons that became famous throughout the world.

SETH MILLER, EsQ .- At .the regular meeting of the Plymouth County Bar Association, on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 1876, Albert Mason, Esq., Payson E. Tucker, Esq., and William H. Osborne, Esq., were chosen a committee to prepare a suitable expression of the respect and esteem entertained by the members of the bar towards the late Seth Miller, Esq., of Wareham, who at the time of his decease was the senior member of the bar in active practice in the county.

The tribute of respect printed below was presented to the association at an adjourned meeting, and it was voted that it be entered in full on the records of the association, and that the same be presented to the court by Hon. B. W. Harris, with the request that it be entered in full on the records of the court.

On Wednesday morning Mr. Harris, in an exceed- ingly appropriate speechi, presented this expression to

I By Rev. N. W. Everett.

THE COURTS AND BAR.

the court, and moved that the same be entered at large on its records.

Hon. Perez Simmons followed Mr. Harris in a very tender allusion to his long acquaintance with Mr. Miller. and the uniform kindness, sympathy, and courtesy which Mr. Miller cver extended to his brethren of the bar, and paid a high tribute to the purity of his life and character.

Judge Allen briefly replied. and ordered that the motion be allowed.

The following is a copy of the record :

" PLYMOUTH SUPERIOR COURT, October Term, 1876 .- The members of the bar practicing in Plymouth County have heard with regret of the decease of their brother, Seth Miller, Esq., of Wareham, who died at his home, Ang. 22, 1876, and was at the time of his decease the oldest lawyer in active practice in this connty.

" He was born at Middleboro', Jan. 10, 1801 : graduated at Brown University in the close of 1823; studied law at Middle- boro', with Judge Wilkes Wood, and at Boston, with Thompson Miller. Esq .. and immediately upon his admission to the bar opened an office at Wareham, where he continued to reside and practice until his death.

" It is said of him that although he tried comparatively few cases, he never omitted to attend a term of the Common Pleas or Superior Court at Plymonth till he was stricken with illness in the last year of his life.

" Mr. Miller was a sonnd lawyer, especially well versed in the law of real property, a good and safe counselor, careful and methodical in his habits, painstaking and thorough in whatever he undertook. His practice was largely that of attorney, under the old division of labor, and he usually associated other coun- sel with him when he appeared in court, but occasionally tried an important cause alone, and gare his antagonist good reason to know that he avoided such conflicts from choice alone.

"In professional intercourse he was courteous, kind, and genial, particularly to the younger members of the bar, who felt that he was always ready to give them aid and encouragement. The habits of reading and study acquired at college he main- tained to a considerable degree through life, and was fond of referring to the older English poets, and of quoting from them and from the earlier orators of the country.

" Mr. Miller was much respected and esteemed by the people in whose midst he spent his days, and will be gratefully remem- bered for kind offices performed, for many of them in time of need.

" He was a trial justice at Wareham for a long period, and most acceptably represented his town in the convention that met in the State-House, at Boston, May 4, 1853, to revise the Constitution. He also held various local offices. He was presi- dent of the Plymouth Connty Bar Association from its forma- tion in June, 1867, to the time of his death, and he took a warm interest in its prosperity.

"The elosing of a long and useful life brings not the peculiar sadness that attends its sudden termination in early manhood, and yet we feel it hard to part from one whom we have known and loved for so many years. There will long be a vacant place in our number. We shall long miss his kind and genial presence. " To preserve these memories of our much esteemed brother, and to testify our affectionate recollection of him and his work with us, we ask that this tribnte may be entered upon the recorda of the court."

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 6

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706