History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 9

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 9

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For several years Mr. Lincoln represented Wor- cester in the Legislature-always with credit. In 1822 he was elected Speaker of the House, in which a majority were of the opposite political party. This is an evidence of that remarkable freedom from par- tisan bias which he displayed on all occasions. Many years afterwards, when a member of Congress, he felt it his duty to reply to an attack which a member of his own party had made upon the President, to whom he was politically opposed, and did it with so much dignity and effect that the supporters of the adminis- tration published his remarks. He would not win by any but the fairest means and the most direct argu- ments.

His promotion was rapid. He left the Legislature for the Lieutenant-Governorship, and while in that office was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court. On that hench he remained only a year, but brought to the performance of its duties a learning and a dignified urbanity, which gave evidence that there als , he would have added to his reputation, and to that of the court, already distinguished for its high character. In 1825 he received the nomination for the office of Governor of Massachusetts from both political parties. He said that, owing to his judicial position, this was the only way in which he should have considered it proper to accept the nomination. For nine years he held the office by successive re- elections, most of them practically uncontested, and no more faithful or efficient officer has filled the chair. Interested in everything that could contribute to the welfare of the Commonwealth, he imparted a stimulus to internal improvements of all kinds. Canals and railroads, the improvement of agriculture, the up-

Declining to accept a tenth term as Governor, he was persuaded to take the seat in Congress left vacant by the election of John Davis to the gubernatorial office. There he remained during four Congresses, and again sought to retire among his friends and his home enjoyments, free from the constant turmoil of public life.

During the rest of his life this retirement was broken only at intervals. In 1848 Worcester, having received a charter, organized its municipal govern- ment, and called upon him, as its first citizen, to occupy the mayoralty. This duty he cheerfully per- formed for one year. For twenty years thereafter he lived amid its growing population and thriving indus- tries, always interested in every movement of progress, and contributing by his management of his large landed property to rendering it a city of beautiful streets and home-like residences. Much of his time was devoted to the encouragement of agriculture. In his own fine farm and herd of cattle he took infinite delight, and the Worcester Agricultural Society, of which he was president for thirty years, owed much to his constant care. Though eminently a man of affairs rather than of books, he took a deep and rational interest in scientific and literary investigations.

The American Antiquarian Society acknowledges its indebtedness for his contributions to its library, and his own share in its proceedings.

His pastor, the Rev. Alonzo Hill, speaks of him as a deeply religious man, constant in every good word and work for the church and society which his father had been largely instrumental in establishing. Regu- lar in his attendance on public worship, his erect figure was every Sunday to be seen on his way to the church, a mile from his home, until the infirmities of age in the last year of his life prevented.

One who knew him well says that his great charac- teristic was faithfulness-a thoroughness in whatever matter, large or small, that he undertook. He had an ambition to possess the respect and good-will of the public, but this ambition was subordinate to the determination to deserve that esteem. No consider- ations of present advantage or of personal friendship were sufficient to deter him from the course which seemed to him the proper one. This was well illus- trated when, as Governor, it became necessary for hiru to appoint a chief justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Judge Parker. Resisting the claims of an intimate friendship, the urgency of influential sup- porters and a natural desire to gratify long-standing expectations, he selected a man whom his judgment a-sured him was best qualified for the office. Long afterwards he used to say that the act of his Governor- ship ou which he looked back with the most complete satisfaction was the giving to the judicial history of the Commonwealth the services of Lemuel Shaw, and

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every lawyer must sympathize with this self-congratu- lation.

During the Civil War he was a most earnest sup- porter of the government by word and act. Too far advanced in years himself to take the field, his elo- quent words incited others and his steady courage sustained the drooping faith of those who doubted our ultimate triumph. His last public service was to act as one of the electors-at-large, and to cast a ballot for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. A patriot to the core, with a son and grandson in active service, he never felt that he had done enough for his country while there remained any service which in its hour of need he could perform.

Judge Washburn has well summed up his virtue when he says: "I have little hesitation in saying that I have never known one whose life and character had more of completeness in its composition than his. Among his characteristics were a steadiness of purpose, a quickness in expedients, a judgment cool and well-balanced, discriminating nicely in the selec- tion of agents and the application of means, and withal, a courage that shrunk from no responsibility, and an industry that was alike incessant and unwearied."

Long may such citizens be found among us, long may we recognize and honor them, and God will save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In 1868, the year of Governor Lincoln's death, there passed away a life-long friend who had arrived at an equal length of days. REJOICE NEWTON was a native of Greenfield, and a graduate of Dartmouth Col- lege in 1807. After studying law for three years he was admitted in Hampshire County, and was so for- tunate as to form a partnership with Francis Blake, then at the height of his successful practice in Wor- cester. This connection continued for four years, which must have been full of instruction and inspi- ration to the younger man, while the latter's method- ical habits and calm judgment must have been of service to the brilliant orator. After the dissolution of the partnership the friendly relations were still maintained, as is evinced by letters written by Mr. Blake in the last year of his life.

For seven years Newton discharged with efficiency the duties of prosecuting attorney for the county. At the end of that time, in 1826, he formed a part- nership with Wm. Lincoln, the scholarly historian, a brother of Governor Lincoln. As a lawyer, he was respected as a safe and careful adviser. In the House and Senate of the State he served usefully several terms. In numerous business enterprises of the city he took an active interest, and his services were in request on hoards of directors of financial institu- tions. By attention to business and judicious invest- ments he accumulated a handsome property, and was able to retire from active pursuitsand enjoy his hooks and his farm during the last ten or fifteen years of his life. Like Governor Lincoln, he had a great fond- ness for

Heath and woodland

Tilth and vineyard, hive and horse, and herd.

His tastes in this respect he was able to gratify, for his broad acres were his only care for many years. One of the beautiful hills which overlooks the city of his adoption still bears his name, and now, annexed to an adjacent park, reminds us that the farms of a few years ago are becoming the city locations of to- day.

It was remarked of Mr. Newton that, winning or losing in the court-room, his imperturbable temper was never disturbed. Such a command over one's self is invaluable to any man, but to none more than to the advocate, when, in the sharp contests of jury trials, a keen opponent is ready to take advantage of every lapse, and the twelve men are observing as carefully the conduct of the counsel as the statements of the witnesses.

At the ripe age of eighty-five Mr. Newton com- pletely withdrew from that world which had become accustomed to his absence by the strictness of his retirement from active life. The papers of the day, in alluding to his death, spoke of him as one not known to their modern generation.

This bar has contributed largely from its numbers to the ranks of historical scholars. In the case of ISAAC GOODWIN the taste for investigation of the rec- ords of the past and for literary work was so strong as to make the ordinary business of the lawyer a dis- tasteful drudgery. Born in the town of Plymouth in 1786, and pursuing his studies there until he was ad- mitted to the bar, in 1808, it would have been strange if he had not imbibed a love and reverence for the tradition of olden time. He did not receive a colle- giate education, but, after passing through the com- mon schools, entered the office of Joshua Thomas, a distinguished counsellor in his native town. His first office he opened in Bostou, but, after a trial of less than a year, sought a less thoroughly occupied field for his unpracticed efforts in the town of Ster- ling, in this county. There he undertook such busi- ness as came to him, and found leisure for his favorite studies. His contributions to legal literature were works of considerable value. The first, a treatise on the duties of town officers, was a much-needed guide for the conduct of country selectmen through diffi- culties that not infrequently perplex them. In later years it was the foundation of a larger and more com- plete work on the same subject by Judge Thomas, which for years remained a standard reference book. Whether such compilations do not as often mislead the lay reader who relies on his own interpretation of their language as they assist him may be doubted, but in the hands of the trained student they prove most useful tools. "The New England Sheriff " was his second venture in this field, and till this day that work is a valued part of a lawyer's library.

In 1826 he removed to Worcester, where he had al- ready formed strong literary friendships with William

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Lincoln and Christopher Baldwin, the editors of The Worcester Magazine, and other gentlemen of like tastes. For this periodical he wrote a general history of Worcester County, which continued through sev- eral numbers, and also a history of Sterling. Both these writings gave evidence of painstaking investi- gation, and the earnest desire of the author for im- partial accuracy. His style is not enlivened by many of the graces of diction, but the plain tale is set down with admirably terse exactitude. To state the facts was the aim he set before him, and to do that well is more than half the power of the success- ful advocate.

He was often called upon to deliver addresses of an historical nature. His oration on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the destruction of Lancas- ter by the Indians, was one of the most noteworthy of these. His death occurred in 1832, when in his forty-seventh year.

For more than twenty years a most prominent fig- ure at all sessions of the higher courts in this coun- ty, adding dignity to every occasion, was that of Sheriff Willard. He was a native of Harvard, born in 1784, and entered the bar in 1809, after a course of study in the office of Richard H. Dana, in Boston. For a short time he practiced in Petersham, but soon removed to Fitchburg.

In 1824 Governor Lincoln, with his usnal sagacity, selected him for the office of high sheriff of the county. His manner of discharging the duties of that position was a model for all who should come after him. Courteous and respectful to all, he in- sisted that the decorum which he observed on public occasions should not be infringed by others. With the instincts of the old-school gentleman, he was most careful in his regard for the etiquette to be maintained in his relations to court and bar. To a greater extent than in our modern haste we are apt to imagine, a respect for forms assists rather than re- tards the proper dispatch of business, and the digni- fied sheriff, CALVIN WILLARD, ever entered his ear- nest protest against any attempt to override the estab- lished order, on the plea of a more expeditions re- sult. After resigning his office in 1844, he lived in Millbury and Worcester until his death, in the latter city, in 1867.

For forty years of Worcester's steady growth in all the arts of peace her prosperity was shared by SAM- UEL M. BURNSIDE. The contrast between the sur- ronndings of his birthplace and of his mature life is striking. He was born in 1783, in Northumberland, then a frontier town in New Hampshire. There his father, a typical frontiersman, who had fought in the French and Indian Wars, had established a home in the wilderness, and had maintained his foothold despite rude climate and desolating savage. Through the Revolution he served in military expeditions, and in the intervals cultivated the land which he had so hardly secured. From such environ-

ments the son went out to the life of a steady law- yer, in a community remarkable for the quiet of its every-day life, where nothing more terrible than the sham battles of training-day disturbed the seren- ity of the inhabitants. He brought with him to his work the same persistent energy which carried the father over difficulties, and placed the son in posses- sion of fortune and reputation. After graduating from Dartmouth in 1805, and a year or two of peda- gogic experience, he entered the office of Artemas Ward, then practicing in Charlestown. Mr. Burn- side says that the practice of Judge Ward was then immense, and that he was so much of the time ab- sent from his office that his students were left much to their own discretion in their course of study. He had, however, an opportunity to draw conveyances and pleadings under the supervision of his preceptor, which was of great value in forming habits of accu- racy and conciseness of expression. In 1810 he was admitted as an attorney in the Supreme Court with- out having, as was the usual rule, been previously sworn at the bar of the Common Pleas. In the same year he came to Worcester, and commenced business with an excellent preparation for success.

Those who knew him speak of his great industry and his mastery of fundamental principles as the con- spicuous elements of his power. Well read in the learning of his profession, he wisely diversified his pursuits by a continued attention to the classics, and in the latter years of his life, during which he gave up active labors these studies provided a constant source of enjoyment for his well-earned leisure. He died in 1850, but his name is still associated with the business interests of the city, where are the evidences of his prosperous career.

EDWARD D. BANGS was the son of Judge Edward Bangs, who has been mentioned. He was born in Worcester in 1790 and studiel in his father's office. Admitted to the bar in 1813, he at once formed a partnership with William E. Green, who had been associated with his father previous to the latter's ele- vation to the bench. Though esteemed a good law- yer and careful of the interests committed to him, he never acquired a fondness for professional labors. His mind rather turned towards purely literary in- vestigations. and in his position as Secretary of State, to which he was elected in 1824, he found duties much more fitted to his tastes. He always seemed to take pleasure in assisting the inquiries of others in his department, and spent the happiest years of his life in the Boston State-House. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1820, and was associated in the representation of Worces- ter with Levi Lincoln. His youth and modesty pre- vented his taking an active part in the proceedings of that body or of the House of Representatives, where he sat for several years. He succeeded Re- joice Newton in the office of county attorney, but re- signed in a few months to assume the Secretaryship

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of State. llis health had become so impaired in 1836 as to cause his retirement from office, and he lived but two years longer. He was distinguished for his gentlemanly bearing and invariable courtesy

trained judgment and clear perception of the funda- meutal principles of law generally brought him to a correct conclusion as to what the law ought to be, and he then proceeded to sustain his position by the of manners-qualities which he inherited from his | arguments which had convinced his own mind, and father. Like him, also, he was a devoted horticul- turist-a taste which seems naturally associated with gentle breeding.

by precedents illustrative of the principles which he maintained. Courts learned to know that his argu- ments were based on careful reasoning and might be sion of the issue, even though they might fail to

Massachusetts was most fortunate in having iu her | relied on to contribute something towards the deci- public service, at the same time, two such men as Levi Lincoln and JOHN DAVIS, and that they were , carry complete conviction. Before juries his evident - vandor, his plain statement of the facts as he viewed them, and entire comprehension of the way in which his array of evidence would impress the mind of the unprejudiced auditor, give him a power which pressed strongly towards a favorable verdict. Judge Paine remarked of him that he had more common sense than any three lawyers of his acquaintance, and this saving grace was conspicuous in all his actions and utterances.

trained to command the applause of listening senates in the forensic contests of the Worcester Court-house will always remain the pride and the incentive of the young aspirant for legal honors at our har. Born in Northborough in 1788, some six years later than Gov- ernor Lincoln, and finding more obstacles to his rapid progress in youth than the son of the Attorney- General, Mr. Davis, through life, pressed close upon the footsteps of his predecessor, and in generous rivalry left it doubtful which should deserve best of the republic. He was descended of a line of sturdy ycomen, the first of whom in this country was Dolor Davis, whose name is found upon the Cambridge records in 1634. His father, Isaac Davis, a respected farmer of Northborough, found it a task sufficiently laborious to force from the reluctant soil a comfort- able living for his large family, and he of them who would secure an education must struggle for it him- self. Until he was nineteen years old John Davis, by his own account, was employed most of his time npou the farm. He, however, found sufficient time for study by himself and in the district schools to fit himself for Leicester Academy, where he made good use of the short time at his disposal, and entered Yale College in 1808. There he graduated in due course with high honors. Francis Blake was, at that time, in the very zenith of his brilliant power, and his reputation attracted to his office the youth emu- lous of his tame. After three years of study with Mr. Blake, Davis was admitted to the bar in 1815. For a few months he tried the worth of his acquire- ments in Spencer, aud no doubt was satisfied that he could bear his part in a more crowded forum, for he soon came back to Worcester and there set up his standard.

For a year previous to Mr. Lincoln's promotion to the Supreme Court he joined forces with Mr. Davis in practice. Afterwards the firms of Davis & Charles Allen and Davis & Emory Washburn trans- acted a large share of the business of the county, and proved most formidable allies until 1834, when Gov- ernor Davis finally retired from the courts to give his attention exclusively to public duties. In the dis- charge of these, as was most natural, he won his most wide-spread distinction.

His political career began with his election to Con- gress in 1824. During his first term he was rather an observer than an active participant in debate, but in 1827 he attracted attention by his earnest advocacy of the so-called American system. From that time onward he was an able champion of the protective tariff on every occasion, and whatever may be thought of the soundness of his deductions, it is certain that he handled his facts with skill and presented with utmost vigor the now hackneyed arguments which have prevailed with the majority of New Englanders to the present time. His speech in reply to McDuffie, of South Carolina, the leader of the free trade party in the House, was esteemed his most powerful pre- sentation of the case, and gave him a national repu- tation.

The next year Mr. Blake's failing health compelled A declaration made in one of his speeches is re- markable by contrast with what any member of Con- gress at the present day would be able to say on the same subject. In defeuding his constituents from the charge of self-seeking in their demand for tariff legislation, he says: " During the seven years I have held a seat on this floor, no one has applied to me to ask any favor of the Executive for him, nor has any one sought my assistance in procuring an appoint- ment of any kind, unless it is to be the deputy of some little village post-office." If our representa- tives could obtain a like exemption from vexatious him to withdraw from active practice, and Mr. Davis succeeded to his office and his business. Undertak- ing the task of wearing such a mantle and called upon at once to contend with antagonists so formid- able as Lincoln, Newton, and Burnside, his powers were put to proof and rapidly developed. In the ten years that elapsed before he entered Congress and Lincoln became a judge he had attained a com- manding position, and had increased the large client- age which he inherited from Blake. As a lawyer it was said of him that he did not possess a considerable familiarity with reported decisions, but that his well- importunity, their undistracted attention to purely

Charles Allen Charles

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THE BENCH AND BAR.

legislative duties might bring forth at least some re- sult.

In 1833 Governor Lincoln announced that he should not again be a candidate, and the Whig Con- vention, with practical unanimity, selected Mr. Davis as their nominee. He accepted with evident reluctance, feeling that his usefulness in Congress was assured, while the new honor brought with it untried responsibilities. His loss to the service of the whole country was deplored outside of Massa- chusetts, one of the influential journals declaring that he was the right arm of the Massachusetts dele- gation in Congress.

The Anti-Masonic party, then at the culmination of its strength in this State, liad put in nomination John Quincy Adams, and Davis was made to feel it his duty to accept the leadership of his party in a dubious conflict, and such it proved to be. lu the popular election there was no choice, but in the Legislature Davis received a majority. The difficult task of acceptably filling the chair which his friend Lincoln bad so long adorned he accomplished with credit, and was elected for a second term, but re- signed when chosen to fulfill the more congenial du- ties of United States Senator. In that august body, where he sat from 1835 to 1841, and from 1845 to 1853, he was cotemporary with the triumvi- rate, Webster, Calhoun and Clay, whose overshad- owing greatness tradition continues to magnify. But reading the plaiu story of the times, it is evident that Senator Davis was a potent factor in moulding legislation, and that his grasp of national questions was in most cases liberal and always strong enough to make itself felt. Not only on the tariff, but ou our commercial relations, the fisheries, financial topics and our intercourse with foreign powers, he made his opinion respected by making his knowledge evident.

His two terms of service in the Senate were di- vided by two years in the State Governorship and two years of private life. He lived but one year after retiring from the Senate, in 1853, to enjoy that contemplation of a life well spent, which he might so deservedly anticipate.

Two years after Mr. Davis' admission to the bar there applied to the examiners for this county a tall, slender youth, whose clear-cut profile, close curling locks and keen glance gave to his countenance an almost classic beauty. As his examination pro- ceeded, the questioners became so interested in the thoroughness of the knowledge he displayed, and the aptness of his replies, that for their own gratification they prolonged their inquiries after they were satis- fied of the qualification of the candidate for en- trance to the bar.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 9

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576