History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 9

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 9

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With the war, his term of office as Governor ex- piring, he resumed the practice of the law. In 1866 he was chosen president of the New England His- torie-Genealogical Society. In 1867, with the same bravery and heroism that had marked him thitherto,

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though against the judgment of many of his friends, he began his strenuous and able assaults upon the prohibitory law of the State. All this time his broad national reputation, his great popularity, his sound judgment, his conciliatory and liberal sentiments, were marking him as the coming man in the national councils. It seemed as if years of new usefulness lay before him. But he had finished his work.

On the 30th of October, 1867, he died at his resi- dence in Boston. His remains were afterwards brought to Hingham ; and on the 30th of October, 1869, after solemn services in the New North Church, at which he had formerly been an attendant, his Boston pastor, James Freeman Clarke. pronouncing the address, he was buried in our cemetery, near its crest, and not far from the Soldiers' Monument. At his feet are the village he loved, the branches under which he sauntered, and the picturesque stretch of the bay over which he had so many times gone to and from his home. He rests at scarce the distance of the sound of the voice from the threshold on which he stood, when, on the 3d of September, 1860, he addressed his fellow-citizens of Hingham, who had come to con- gratulate him on his nomination as Governor, and in the course of his remarks spoke these hearty words :

" I confess to you, my old neighbors, associates, and kinspeople of Hingham, that I could more fitly speak by tears than by words to-night. From the bottom of my heart for this unsought, enthusiastic, and cor- dial welcome, I thank you. I understand-and this thought lends both sweetness and pathos to the emo- tions of the hour-I am here to-night among neigh- bors, who for the moment are all agreed to differ and all consenting to agree.

.. How dear to my heart are these fields, these spreading trees, this verdant grass, this sounding shore, when now for fourteen years, through summer heat and sometimes through winter storms, I have trod your streets, rambled through your woods, sauntered by your shores, sat by your firesides, and felt the warm pressure of your hands, sometimes teaching your children in the Sunday-school, sometimes speak- ing to my fellow-citizens, always with the cordial friendship of those who differ from me oftentimes in what they thought the radicalism of my opinions. Here-here I have found most truly a home for the soul free from the cares and turmoil and responsibili- ties of a careful and anxious profession. Away from the busier haunts of men it has been given to me here to find a calm and sweet retreat. Here, too, dear friends, I have found the home of my heart. It was into one of your families that I entered and joined myself in holy bonds of domestic love to one of the

daughters of your town. Here, too, I have first known a parent's joys and a parent's sorrows. Whether you say aye or no to my selection, John A. Andrew is ever your friend."

Governor Andrew, when in Hingham, lived on the east side of Main Street, in the first house northerly from Water Street, in the Hinckley house on the same, and in the Thaxter house ou the opposite side of Main Street, in the old Hersey house on Summer Street, overlooking the blue water and sweet with the fra- grance of clover-fields, and also in the Bates house on South Street. His habits, like his nature, were simple. He loved to drive and walk ; he enjoyed the breezy trips and neighborly chat of the steamner ; his heart went out to children and won them ; he was especially fond of conversation, full of anecdote and story, and not averse to controversial discussion. His humor and cheer were always abundant. He sang old psalms, he recited noble poems that dwelt in his memory, he was running over with the quaint history of old times and odd characters, and to the last there never faded in his breast the warm, glad enthusiasm of boyhood. His sympathies were touched as quickly as a girl's. Each year he went to Maine to stand beside the grave of his mother ; each day some sad woman or poor boy thanked him for his humanity, for in him the unfor- tunate always had a helper and a friend. No heart less generous could have uttered those memorable words that expressed his great and genuine hu- manity: "I know not what record of sin may await me in another world, but this I do know : I never was mean enough to despise a man because he was poor, because he was ignorant, or because he was black." Add to all this his incorruptibility and honesty, his ficry patriotism, his unswerving sense of right and wrong, his pure glow in act and word, and we may trust that, as his monument rises over his grave, it will point to the example of purposes so lofty, of a soul so magnanimous, and a mind so sound that it will be like a beacon-light to guide the way of future generations to the like achievement of the fullness of a noble life.

JOHN D. LONG.1-One of the foremost men in Massachusetts to-day, and one who may fairly be classed among the " growing" men of the country, is ex-Governor Long, of Hingham. Though he has risen to prominence rather as a politician than as a lawyer, he has yet given sufficient of his time and of his energies to his profession to render this chapter a most appropriate place wherein to tell, in a brief fashion, something of what he is and what he has done.

1 By A. E. Sproul.

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

John Davis Long was born in Buckfield, Me., Oct. 27, 1838. He came of Massachusetts stock, his kins- folk on his mother's side belonging in Worcester County, and on the paternal side in Plymouth. On the former he is of kin to John Davis, who was Gov- ernor forty years before ; and on the latter he is a direct descendant from Thomas Clark, one of the Pilgrims. His father was a man of local prominence in Maine, having been a candidate for Congress on the Whig ticket in the same year that the subject of the present sketch first saw the light. He, however, though re- ceiving a plurality of the votes cast in the district, failed of an election upon a second trial. As a boy, the future Governor of Massachusetts was of a stu- dious, thoughtful bent, and, after having possessed himself of such a common-school education as his native town could give him, he was sent to an academy in the neighboring town of Hebron, whose principal was Mark H. Dunnell, afterwards a congressman from Minnesota. After making an exceptionally good record at the academy, the young student entered Harvard College, in 1853, at the age of fourteen. Here, as previously, he worked away manfully at his books, standing fourth in a large class for the whole course, and second for the senior year. He composed the class ode for his commencement-day in 1857, and, with a " good-bye" to his Alma Mater, turned his face hopefully and courageously towards the future. It may be said that he has never yet looked back. The same firm will which held him to his desk as a student, and determined him to achieve a mastery of his books, has in later years enabled him to improve to the utter- most the opportunities which have come in his way" for honorable self-advancement ; while the broadening and cultivating influences of his more studious years may easily be observed, ripened and strengthened by the passage of time, in the graceful sentences of his public addresses, as well as in the bearing of kindly courtesy which marks the man in his intercourse with his fellows outside the bounds of official life.

Like so many young men of liberal education, Mr. Long found the atmosphere of a school-house so nat- ural to him, and one in which he felt so thoroughly at home, that, having finished his tasks at the benches, he stepped forward, almost as a matter of course, to the teacher's desk upon the platform. The desk which it fell to his lot to occupy was that of princi- pal of the ancient academy in Westford, Mass., one of the retired towns of Middlesex County. Here he remained for two years, achieving marked success ; but he had determined to leave the ranks of the peda- gogucs and become a lawyer. To a young, ambitious, well-educated man the law scemed to hold out oppor-

tunities for preferment far in advance of any success which he might reasonably hope to achieve as a schoolmaster. This was a most important step for the young man, and that it was well taken later events seem to abundantly prove. After passing a year at the Harvard Law School, he studied in the law-office of Sidney Bartlett, in Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1861. Returning to his boyhood home, he opened a law-office there; but the meagre practice which came to him by no means corresponded in. amount with what he had good reason to fecl were his capabilities, and after a year or two's endeavor to build up a business in Buckfield, he came to Boston in the fall of 1862. For a while in the office of Peleg W. Chandler, and afterwards of Woodbury & An- dros, he entered the office of Stillman B. Allen in 1863. Here, in a broader field, and with more fav- orable surroundings, he quickly obtained a lucrative and increasing practice. He continued in the firm (which was afterwards increased by the addition of Thomas Savage, under the style of Allen, Long & Savage) until he was elected Governor, when he withdrew because of the pressing duties of official life, although his name still appears in the Boston directory among the long list of lawyers there printed.

In 1869 he made his home in Hingham,-a quaint and beautiful old town on the picturesque "South Shore" of Massachusetts Bay,-and in 1870 he mar- ried there Miss Mary W. Glover. She bore him two children, both daughters, but her own health became undermined, and after a prolonged illness she died in February, 1882.

Mr. Long came of age about the time of Mr. Lin- coln's election, and in that campaign made his maiden stump-speech in his native town for the Republican candidates. His first vote was for Israel Washburn as Governor of Maine, and he was a delegate to the Maine Republican State Convention of 1861, at which James G. Blaine, then a young man, was an advocate of the resolutions then adopted. Mr. Long was nominated that year at a Republican caucus in his native town for representative to the Legislature, but was defeated by a split in the party. Coming the next year to Boston, he took no active part in politics until after his residence in Hingham. There, in 1871 and 1872, he followed Charles Sumner in his opposition to Grant, and into the Greeley movement. In each of those last-named ycars he ran on the Inde- pendent ticket for the Legislature, but was defeated. In 1874, returning to the Republican fold, he was nominated by the Republicans for representative, and elected to the session of 1875 from the then Second Plymouth District (consisting of the towns of Hing-

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ham and Hull). He was now fairly launched upon his public career. Hon. John E. Sanford, of Taunton, was then Speaker of the House, and Mr. Long, who had been appointed chairman of the Committee on Bills in the Third Reading, was by him frequently called to the chair. While thus engaged, Mr. Long added, by his parliamentary skill, his unfailing good humor, and, more than all, by the exercise of that wonderful tact which is one of the most marked. as it is one of the most precious, of his inborn characteristics, to the popularity which he had already begun to achieve upon the floor of the House. When, therefore, Speaker Sanford permanently laid down the gavel, it was one of the natural consequences that Mr. Long, who had been returned by his constituents to the House of 1876, should be elected Speaker. The ex- pectations which had been raised by his success as a presiding officer in the brief opportunities which had been previously afforded him were more than re- alized. He made one of the very best Speakers that ever graced the chair of the House, and he was unani- mously re-elected in 1877, and in 1878 he received all but six votes for the same position. During these years his popularity had been broadening throughout the State, and in the Republican State Convention of 1877 his name was brought forward as a candidate for Governor. Having received two hundred and seventeen votes, he withdrew his name. In the con- vention of 1878 he received two hundred and sixty- six votes for Governor, but was finally nominated for Lieutenant-Governor, Hon. Thomas Talbot being placed at the head of the ticket, which was hand- somely elected at the polls in the following November.

The fall of 1879 was an eventful one in Massachu- setts politics. Governor Talbot had declined a renom- ination for Governor, and the field, on the Republican side, was open. The two leading candidates during the few weeks preceding the State convention were Hon. Henry L. Pierce and Lieutenant-Governor Long. Mr. Pierce was a man of influence, of large means, and a favorite with the so-called " older heads" and more conservative of the Republican party managers. The young Lieutenant-Governor, however, with his clean, successful record and his wide personal popu- larity, was earnestly pushed forward by the younger and more progressive elements of the dominant party. Still, until within two weeks of convention day, Mr. Pierce was the foremost candidate. The most influ- ential newspapers of Boston and several other impor- tant centres favored his nomination, and he had, at the time named, an unquestioned lead, though possi- bly not a great one. Early in September, however, occurred an event which materially altered the politi-

cal situation, and helped in an important, if not in a decisive, manner to foreshadow the successful nomi- nee. This event was the holding, in Wesleyan Hall in Boston, by Mr. Henry H. Faxon, of a convention (really a sort of select mass-mecting) of the friends of temperance throughout the State. Mr. Pierce was avowedly a "license" man, and as such was obnoxious to the prohibitory wing of the Republican party. The Lieutenant-Governor was "sound," however, upon this question, and was therefore certain of the temperance vote, which, could it be consolidated by au awakened interest, would almost certainly hold the balance of power. It was to awaken just this inter- est, therefore, that Mr. Faxon, a wealthy resident of Quincy, sent out invitations to friends of the temper- ance cause throughout the State to attend the con- vention at Wesleyan Hall. The response was gener- ous, the enthusiasm great, and the impression produced a powerful one. The Lieutenant-Governor was cor- dially indorsed, and he awoke the next morning to find himself the leading contestant in an honorable canvass for a great office. At the convention he re- ceived six hundred and sixty-nine votes on the informal ballot for a candidate for Governor, against five hun- dred and five for Mr. Pierce, and his nomination followed without opposition. The race was not yet run, however, for Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, a man who held, and still holds, a high place in the affections of what are sometimes improperly termed the " com- mon people" of the State, determined to contest for the prize of the Governorship, and secured a nomina- tion at the hands of the larger portion of the Democ- racy, though a conservative minority of that party put Mr. John Quincy Adams in the field. There was, too, an extreme wing of the prohibitionists of the State who preferred not to adopt Mr. Faxon's idea of furthering temperance principles within the Republican party, and who therefore nominated their own candidate, the Rev. D. C. Eddy. It was well understood that neither Adams nor Eddy could be elected, and that the contest really lay between Lieu- tenant-Governor Long and General Butler. It was the young, newly-fledged politician against the old and battle-scarred campaigner. The campaign was as lively as only a canvass with Gen. Butler as an ac- tive participant can be, but the result showed a hand- some plurality-even a satisfactory majority-in favor of the Republican nominee. As a matter of record the following detailed statement of the vote is of interest :

Long.

122,751

Butler. 109,149

Adams 9,989

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Eddy.

1,645

Scattering.

108

Long's plurality. 13,602

Long's majority ..

1,860

[A plurality elects in Massachusetts.]

In 1880, Governor Long was unanimously renom- inated, and also in 1881, being clected both times, his Democratic opponent in cach year being Hon. Charles P. Thompson, of Gloucester, a gentleman possessed of many friends outside of his own party, and who had previously defeated Gen. Butler at the polls in a con- gressional contest. The comparative vote of Governor Long and Mr. Thompson in 1880 and 1881 is below given :

1880.

1881.

· Plurality. 53,516

Long ... ... 164,926

111,410

Thompson ... 96,609

54,586

42,023

Governor Long, one of the youngest Governors that the State has had, made a reputation, while fill- ing the exalted office of chief magistrate of Massachu- setts, which will endure. He wrote his name high up in the list of those whom the Old Bay State has delighted to honor, and who, in honoring themselves, have honored her. The three years of his adminis- tration were among the most satisfactory which the State had ever known, and it was with reluctance that the people accepted as final his Excellency's ex- pressed wish, in the fall of 1882, to retire from the Governorship. He was gladly taken up, however, by the voters of the Second Congressional District as a candidate to represent them in the National House of Representatives, and, being nominated for that office by the Republicans by acclamation, he was elected without the least difficulty. His record while in Congress has been such as to give every citizen of Massachusetts the highest satisfaction. As a debater and a parliamentarian he has proved his skill, and he has abundantly demonstrated his ability to " hold his own" in the larger arena of the National House as certainly as he did beneath the burnished dome on Beacon Hill. Probably his most effective and im- portant speech was that in opposition to the " Bonded Whiskey Bill," so called, on March 25, 1884, to which it was said that he dealt " a death-blow." His speeches respecting the Chalmers-Manning and Pcelle-English contested election cases also earned him the merited congratulations of his congressional associates. At the Republican National Convention, which opened in Chicago on June 3, 1884, Congressman Long was chosen to present to the convention the name of Massachusetts' choice for Presidential nominee,-the Hon. George F. Edmunds, of Vermont. His speech on that occasion was a model of its kind, and one of the very best of the nominating addresses of the convention.

In accordance with a former custoni, Harvard Col- lege conferred upon him, in 1880, as Governor of the State, the degree of LL.D. Although, under the cir- cumstances, hardly more than a pleasant compliment, there was in Governor Long's case a decided fitness in his recognition by the most ancient and most notcd educational institution in the State, if not in the country. The recipient was an educated man, re- taining, despite the excitements of political life, a marked and most unusual devotion to books. In 1879, just before the opening of the campaign for the Governorship, in which he was to be the success- ful candidate, there was published, by a Boston house, a blank verse translation of Virgil's " Æneid" from his pen, which, though it may not find, as that of Dryden did, another Pope to commend it as " the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language," has yet received approval from competent critics, and has served to give its author a deservedly high reputation as a classical scholar. Had he but mingled, even to a slight degree, the victories of the field with the triumphs of the forum, the writer of the present imperfect sketch might not inappropri- ately have begun his task as Virgil did his " Æneid," -" Arma virumque cano." Governor Long has also written a number of poems, essays, etc., for various periodicals, while his inaugural addresses, his Thanks- giving and Fast-Day proclamations, and his political speeches in general, have been models of correct English.

One secret of his remarkable success in so short a time is his possession of that valuable faculty, denied to so many men and women, of fixing firmly in his memory names and faces. To be able to say, as the Governor could, to some gentleman whom he had met but once before, long previously, and then but for a moment, "How do you do, Mr. Jones ?" is to give the possessor of such a capability a hold upon the man so addressed which is not to be lightly over- looked. It is the most delicate possible flattery, and all the better and more effective for being entirely unstudied and natural, as in the case of Governor Long. As a public speaker he is in great request. He is not an orator, in the true sense, since he is neither blessed with a commanding presence, a full, sonorous voice, nor a proper capacity for gesticulation. But as a " speaker"-whether upon the political stump or in response to an after-dinner toast at some festive gathering-he is one of the most effective and pleas- ing men in New England. His voice, though not trumpct-like in its quality, is clear, smooth, and well modulated, and at times not lacking in power. His gestures, though but sparingly employed, arc graceful

William ZaTh

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and effective. But his chief charm as a speaker lies in the admirable way in which the matter and the manner of his remarks harmonize with each other. His sentences are always polished, clear-cut, and trenchant, and they mean just what they are in- tended to mean,-no more and no less. No slipshod diction makes him appear either a blunderer or an equivocator, as in the case of some public men of his time, nor is there any but the most careful method observed in arranging the proper sequence of different portions of the same address. Even in a heated polit- ical campaign his speeches never contain an offensive word, though neither lacking in sarcasm nor ridicule, within proper bounds. His political speeches are clear. connected, logical arguments, such as a lawyer might make to a jury of intelligent, thoughtful men in behalf of a client in the justice of whose cause he has perfect faith. As an after-dinner speaker, he is one of the most felicitous.

His official career thus far, as outlined in the pre- ceding pages, is a remarkable one, and is one to be held up as an encouragement to all young men, though but few can hope to make so rapid progress as his has been. Within a very few years he has been the re- cipient of a multitude of honors, any one of which would be regarded by most men as a sufficient reward for a lifetime of endeavor. And the end is not yet.

WILLIAMS LATHAM, eldest son of Galen Latham, was a native of East Bridgewater, was educated at Bridgewater Academy and Brown University, from which latter institution he was graduated in the class of '27. He studied law with Zechariah Eddy, and began the practice of his profession in Bridgewater, where he actively engaged in the duties pertaining thereto for over half a century. He married Lydia T. Alger, of West Bridgewater, who survives him, and who, like her husband, occupies high place in the esteem of all who know her. His death occurred Nov. 6, 1883, at the age of eighty years and two days. In equity and real-estate cases he had a large practice, and his professional life was one of untiring industry and faithfulness to his clients, among whom he was noted for his fairness and integrity. He was for many years active as a trustee and in the settle- ment of estates. He never aspired to be an orator or to argue cases at the bar, yet few lawyers more fully informed themselves so much in detail concerning all possible ramifications of the law and the facts. He would have been a model attorney for an English barrister. He was the last mau to make a display of his knowledge, and his work in many a cause of set- tlement, often more difficult and laudable than a case in court, was seldom known to the world. He was

a peacemaker, not a stirrer of strife. He abhorred shams and appeared wholly without guile, which the world would declare was saying very much for a law- yer. He had a native bluntness of speech which never gave offense but went directly to the centre of his subject, and with this always came his hearty and earnest denunciation of anything savoring of mean- ness or wrong.doing. He believed in the homely maxim, "Pay as you go." Of the strictest integrity, he had those qualities which attract men and always win appreciation and confidence. Of perfect method, exact, exhaustive, industrious, enthusiastic, faithful in everything he undertook, he took pride and excelled in perfecting a title, tracing a lineage, settling family strife, and, with sagacious foresight, guarded against all evils in the future. It is no small thing for any man to have practiced at the bar of Plymouth County for more than fifty years, and to have enjoyed so good a reputation, such universal respect and esteem, and have maintained during so many years so solid, firnı, and excellent a character. He was early interested in antiquarian research, and his knowledge of the Old Colony was surpassed by few, if any, of his contem- poraries. He was much versed in Indian history, and had given much study to the origin of Indian names. His knowledge of the genealogical history of this region was quite remarkable. Indeed, his well-kept records upon this subject would furnish material for an interesting history of the families of the three Bridgewaters. His interest in public affairs was not such as to lead him to take any active part in political matters, though he usually cast his vote at the annual elections, and was discriminating in his judgment of character and the claims of men put forth for public office. His public spirit was carly manifested in a desire to adorn and beautify his town with shade- trees, and many hundreds of these monuments to his memory are the pride of his town and the neighbor- ing one of East Bridgewater.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 9

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