Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 63

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thomas), 1822-1907
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1160

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 63

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Glas Glow

493

BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

himself from both he went with an nucle on a fishing voyage to the coast of Labra- dor, and to use his own language, "Hove a line, ate the flesh and drank the oil of the cod, came back after a four months' cruise in perfect health, and had not another sick day in twenty years." On his return from fishing he studied law in Lowell in the office of William Smith, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar in 1841. (11 his examination for admission by Judge Charles Henry Warren of the Common Pleas Court an incident occurred which the writer takes the liberty of describing in the words used by him in a sketch of General Butler furnished by him for a history of the bench and bar of Middlesex county: " It happened that on the day of the examination a case was on trial in which the question of admitting certain evidence had somewhat puzzled the judge. The case was Robert Reed against Jenness Batchelder, which was finally carried to the Supreme Court on exceptions, and is reported in the first of Metcalf, page 529. It was an action of assumpsit on a promissory note given by the defendant when a minor to Reed & Dudley, July 26, 1835, and payable to them as bearer. The defence, of course, was infancy. But in July, 1839, while the note was in the hands of the promisees, and after the defendant had come of age, he verbally renewed his promise to pay to Henry Reed, one of the firm of Reed & Dud- ley, and the note was subsequently endorsed to Robert Reed, the plaintiff. The plaintiff's offer to put the renewal of the promise in evidence was objected to by the defendant's counsel, and on the day of the examination above referred to, Judge Warren had sustained the objection. Mr. Butler had been present during the trial, and the general question was asked him by the judge, what effect such a renewal of promise would have, and what he thought of his ruling. The student replied that he thought the ruling wrong and the note good; that the note was not void, but only voidable, and when the verbal promise was made the note became at once negotiable. The judge was sufficiently impressed with the correctness of the answer that he re- versed his ruling the next day. Exception was taken and the case was carried up. Judge Shaw, in the opinion of the Supreme Court, overruled the exception and de- cided that though the renewal of promise was made verbally to Henry Reed, one of the firm of Reed & Dudley, it at once became negotiable, and in the hands of Robert Reed, to whom it passed, was good." The writer has given this incident as he re- ceived it from the lips of General Butler himself several years before the publication of " Butler's Book."

So much has been written and so much is generally known concerning the vari- ous steps by which General Butler rose to eminence in his profession, that it is unnecessary to narrate them in this register. Born among the common people, all his instincts led him to feel an interest in their welfare and to protect their rights. Thus by birth, by education and all the influences surrounding him he was an earnest and consistent Democrat. Coming on the stage when in Massa- chusetts especially, the aristocratic element which entered so largely into the com- position of the old Whig party, looked upon a Democrat as a vulgar and danger- ous member of the body politic, the treatment he received at the hands of his political opponents, who could see nothing in an advocacy of the rights of the laborer and mechanic but the dishonest trick of the demagogue, was the means of begetting much of that spirit of bitterness which he at times displayed in his acts and speech. In 1853 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in 1859-60 a member of the Senate, and in the former year performed an important part

494

HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.

in the revision of the statutes. In that year the act establishing the Superior Court was passed and was drafted and efficiently supported by him. In that year also the writer was with him in the Senate, and to quote again from the sketch written by him and already referred to, " had abundant opportunities to observe and measure the vari- ous qualities of his head and heart. Though opposed to him in politics he was not suffi- ciently blind to fail to discern those traits of character which have attracted to him the circle of friends whom, like satellites, he has always carried with him in his social and political orbit. He disclosed two sides-a sharp bitterness of antagonism and the warmest of hearts; a harshness of deportment at one time, and at another a polish of manner and conversation not easily excelled; now inspiring those about him with fear, and again as gentle as a child, as affectionate as a brother, as loving as the dearest friend. His character seemed to consist of extremes; like the extremes of the magnet, one attracted, the other repelled, and no one looked on him with entire indifference. So in his treatment of men, while he could be implacable in his enmity, he could never forget a friend or be faithless to his interests.

General Butler became early interested in the military system of the Commonwealth and attaching himself to its service was, in 1860, in command of one of the brigades of the State militia. In that year he was a delegate to the Democratic National Conven- tion held in Charleston. He had attended every convention of a similar character since the nomination of James K. Polk in 1844. The committee on the platform at the Charleston convention, of which the general was a member, was divided into three parts each of which made a report. The majority demanded a slave code for the ter- ritories and the protection of the slave trade. One of the minority reports referred all questions concerning the rights of property in States or Territories to the Supreme Court and the other, signed by General Butler alone, re-affirmed the Democratic prin- ciples laid down at the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati in 1856. The report of General Butler was adopted, but the convention adjourned to meet in Balti- more on the 18th of June without making nominations. At Baltimore the convention divided and one section nominated Stephen Arnold Douglas, of Illinois, for president, and Herschell Johnson, of Georgia, for vice-president, and the other nominated John Cabell Breckenridge, for president and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for vice-president. The Douglas platform said: "We do not know whether slavery can exist in a Territory or not. There is a difference of opinion among us on the subject. The Supreme Court must decide and the decision shall be final and binding." The Breckenridge platform said: " Slavery lawfully exists in a Territory the moment a slaveholder enters it with his slaves. The United States is bound to maintain his right to hold slaves there. But when the people of a Territory frame a State constitution they are to decide whether to enter the Union as a slave or free State. If as a slave State they are to be admitted without question. If as a free State the slave owner must retire or emancipate his slaves." General Butler gave in his adherence to the Breckenridge platform, and in that year was made the Breckenridge candidate for governor of Massachusetts, receiving only six thousand out of one hundred and seventy thousand votes.

But notwithstanding his attitude during the campaign of 1860, no man exhib- ited more indignation at the disunion movement which succeeded it, or more patriotism in resisting and crushing the rebellion. On the 15th day of April, 1861, Fort Sumter had fallen and the president's proclamation calling for troops was issued.

495

BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

The brigade called for from Massachusetts, consisting of the Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Eighth Regiments of militia, was placed under the command of General Butler, the Third and Fourth Regiments going by water to Fort Monroc and the Sixth and Eighth by land to Washington. The arrival of General Butler at Annapolis, Mary- land, with the Eighth Regiment, his reconstruction of the railroad to Annapolis Junc- tion, and his possession of Baltimore need not be described here. The incidents connected with his possession of Baltimore are interesting. The War Department knew little concerning the condition of that city, and General Scott, in the belief that extensive military movements were on foot there among the rebel sympathizers, was planning a descent upon the city with an armed force of great completeness and strength. But General Butler, much to his mortification, with his militia regiment anticipated him and was quietly encamped on Federal Hill before General Scott had ordered or knew of his movement. To make his descent on the city successful and safe it was important that he should first learn the feeling of the people and ascer- tain, if possible, whether any military organization had been formed in the city with a hostile purpose. To ascertain this General Butler resorted to one of those ingenious devices which his fruitful brain was always devising in emergencies, and which have made his professional life so successful. While at the Relay House he discovered an organ-grinder plodding along on his way to Baltimore. He at once bought the organ and clothes of the man for fifty dollars and a new suit, with the stipulation that the musician should remain a few days in camp. Captain Peter Haggerty, a member of the General's staff donned the Italian's clothes and started for Baltimore with the organ on his back, with instructions to see everything. hear all the talk in public places, and especially to ascertain whether there were any organized forces in the cily preparing to move on any expedition. Three days passed and no word having been heard from the captain, General Butler became fearful that he had been identi- fied and captured. At the end of the third day, after the general had retired for the night, he was awaked by an organ-grinder outside of his tent, and Captain Haggerty appeared with his pockets loaded with coins which he had collected in the streets of Baltimore, and with the news that the city was in a harmless condition and that an attempt at its occupation would be safe. The occupation was made, but was not approved by General Scott, who sent him the following dispatch: "Sir, your haz- ardous occupation of Baltimore was made without my knowledge, and of course with- out my approbation. It is a God-send that it was without conflict of arms. It is also reported that you have sent a detachment to Frederick; but this is impossible. Not a word have I received from you as to either movement. Let me hear from you." He was soon after removed from the Department of Annapolis and, May 16, 1861, made major-general of volunteers in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina with headquarters at Fort Monroe. Early in August he was suc- ceeded by General Wool in the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and placed in command of the volunteer troops outside the fort. Not long after he was placed in command of an expedition to reduce the forts at Hatteras inlet, which sailed August 22, and was successful. On the 16th of September, 1861, he was sent to Massachusetts, with an order from the War Department "to raise, organize, arm, · uniform, and equip, a volunteer force for the war in the New England States, not exceeding six regiments of the maximum standard of such arms, and in such propor- tions and in such manner as he may judge expedient ; and for this purpose his orders

496

HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.

and requisitions on the quartermaster, ordnance and other staff departments of the army are to be obeyed and answered; provided the cost of such recruitment, arma- ment and equipment does not exceed in the aggregate, that of like troops now or hereafter raised for the service of the United States." With these troops General Butler sailed from Boston February 20, 1862, and took possession of New Orleans after the reduction of the forts on the Mississippi River, May 1, 1862, by Admiral Farragut. He remained in command of the Department of the Gulf until succeeded by General Banks on the 14th of December, 1862. On his return to Washington he was again appointed to the command of the Department of Virginia and North Car- olina, and during the campaign of 1864 participated in the military operations before Petersburg and Richmond. In December, 1864, he commanded an expedition against Fort Fisher, and in November, 1865, resigned his commission. From 1866 to 1871 he was a member of Congress from the Essex District and in 1868 one of the man- agers in the impeachment trial of President Johnson. In 1882 he was the successful candidate for governor of the Democratic party of Massachusetts, and after one year's service was defeated in 1883 by George D. Robinson. For many years General But- ler made Boston his professional headquarters and up to his death, which occurred in Washington, January 11, 1893, he continued to enjoy a practice which not only included every county in Massachusetts but extended into many other States of the Union. When George F. Farley died his bitter enemy, John P. Robinson, rubbed his hands with glee in the belief that hell was kindling a hotter fire than usual for the reception of its guest. While there were many who heard the announcement of Gen- eral Butler's death with a feeling akin to that of Mr. Robinson, it is not too much to say that no public man has ever died in Massachusetts with such troops of friends to lament his loss and so many blessings of the poor and needy who had shared the ben- efactions of a warm and generous heart.

NATHAN MORSE IS the son of Nathan and Sally (Gilman) Morse, and was born in Moultonborough, N. H., July 24, 1824. He attended the public schools of his native town when not employed on his father's farm. In 1837 his father was ap- pointed postmaster of Moultonborough under the administration of President Van Buren, and in 1842 the son was made assistant postmaster. In 1843 he came to Bos- ton and studied medicine for a time, but not finding the prospect of a medical career an agreeable one, decided to adopt the profession of law. In 1845 he entered the Harvard Law School and graduated from that institution in 1846. While pursuing his law studies his means were limited and the writer, who knew him at that .period, can bear testimony to the perseverance and energy displayed by him in securing an education which has enabled him to not only establish himself safely in his profession but to take high rank also at the bar. He earned his own living by means reflecting the highest credit on his courage and self-reliance, and on the 14th of October 1847, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar. Practicing for a time alone, in 1852 he formed a partnership with Ambrose A. Ranney, a native of Vermont, who had been admitted to the Suffolk bar in June, 1848, under the title of Ranney & Morse. The firm was not long in establishing itself on a prosperous footing, and for more than thirty years few law partnerships in Boston have been better known or stood higher in the con- fidence of the community. Mr. Morse. was a member of the Boston Common Coun- cil in 1863, but with that exception he has resisted the allurements of political life and devoted himself with unremitting zeal to the welfare of those who have con-

497

BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

fided their interests to his care. He married in Boston, November 18, 1851, Sarah, daughter of Daniel Deshon.

EBENEZER MOSELEY, son of Ebenezer and Martha (Strong) Moseley, was born in Windham, Conn., November 21, 1781, and graduated at Yale in 1802. He studied law with Judge Chauncey, of New Haven, Judge Clark, of Windham, and Judge. Hinckley, of Northampton, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar. In 1805 he settled in Newburyport and had at various times as students in his office, John Pierpont, afterwards distinguished as a Unitarian clergyman, and Caleb Cushing. In 1813-14 he was colonel of the Sixth Regiment, and from 1816 to 1820, and from 1834 to 1836, was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In 1821-22 he was a member of the State Senate, and in 1832 a presidential elector. He married, June 17, 1811, Mary Ann, daughter of Edward Oxnard, and died at Newburyport, August 28, 1854.

PEREZ MORTON, son of Joseph and Amiah (Bullock) Morton, was born about 1751, and graduated at Harvard in 1771. He was an attorney of Suffolk county in 1779 and a barrister in 1786. He was appointed attorney-general of Massachusetts Sep- tember 7, 1810, and held office until May 24, 1832, when James T. Austin was ap- pointed. He died in 1837.

SAMUEL NILES graduated at Harvard in 1731. In 1775 commissions were issued to new judges of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk county by the majority of the Council in the name of " the Government and People of Massachusetts Bay in New England." These judges were Samuel Dexter, John Hill, Samuel Niles, and Samuel Pemberton. He died in 1804.

RICHARD S. SPOFFORD was the son of Dr. Richard S. Spofford, of Newburyport, and was born in that town July 30, 1833. He was descended from John Spofford, who settled in Rowley, Mass., as early as 1643. His father was born in Georgetown, Mass., May 24, 1787, and was educated at Phillips Andover Academy, and after study- ing medicine with his father and in Philadelphia, graduated at the Harvard Medical School in 1816. He began to practice medicine in Rowley, but soon removed to New- buryport, where he became distinguished in his profession, and where he died uni- versally lamented January 19, 1872. His wife was Mrs. Frances Maria Lord, a native of Plymouth, England, a daughter of John Mills, a Scotch poet and a descendant of Christopher Kilby, who was the agent in England of Massachusetts Colony, and for whom, on account of his gift to Boston at the time of the great fire, Kilby street was named. Mrs. Spofford's mother was a daughter of James Mothershead Errington, and was after she became an orphan the adopted daughter of Mrs. Susannah Raw- son, the author of "Charlotte Temple." Mrs. Spofford's first husband, George Lord, was a brother of the wife of Rev. John Pierpont, the well-known clergyman and poet. Richard S. Spofford, the subject of this sketch, was educated by his father and at Dummer Academy, and studied law with Caleb Cushing in Newburyport and at Washington while Mr. Cushing was attorney-general under the administration of President Pierce. He acted also as secretary of Mr. Cushing in Washington, and while serving in that capacity was sent by the government, though only twenty-three years of age, on a special mission to Mexico. After Mr. Cushing left the cabinet in 1857, Mr. Spofford continued his law studies for a time, and was admitted to the Suf-

498

HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR.

folk bar September 17, 1857. He began practice in Boston, and had his legal head- quarters there until his death. In 1858-59-60 he was a representative in the Massa- chusetts Legislature from Newburyport, and the writer, who was in the Senate dur- ing the first two years of his service, remembers well the impression he made on the House by his striking figure, his elear eye, his handsome face, and his clear and in- cisive oratory. It is given to few men to win confidence and affection as he never failed to do among those with whom he came in contaet. For a time he was the chairman of the Democratie State Committee, and was serving in that capacity at the time of the nomination of General Butler for governor of Massachusetts in 1882, when the general was chosen over his competitor, Robert Roberts Bishop. In 1884 he was a candidate of the Democratic party for Congress, and for a considerable time was the attorney of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad. In the controversy relating to the fisheries during the first administration of President Cleve- land he made himself familiar with all its conflicting questions, and aeted with great efficiency as counsel for parties claiming rights within the asserted jurisdiction of the United States. He married, December 19, 1866, Harriet E., daughter of Joseph Newmarch, and Sarah (Bridges) Prescott, a native of Calais, Me., where she was born April 3, 1835. Mrs. Spofford was taken by her parents to Newburyport in her girl- hood, and she received her education at the Putnam School in that town, and at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N. H. At about the age of sixteen years she began to write short stories, and in 1859 contributed to the Atlantic Monthly a story of Parisian life entitled " In a Cellar," which established her reputation. She has since written "The Amber Gods," "Azarian," "New England Legends," "Marquis of Carabas," "Art Decoration applied to Furniture," "Sir Rohan's Ghost," " The Servant Girl Question," "The Thief in the Night," "Hester Stanley at St. Marks," a book of " Poems" and " Ballads about Authors." Mr. Spofford made his residence at Deer Island on the Merrimac River, and died August 11, 1888.

HENRY FOWLE DURANT Was the son of William Smith, a lawyer of Hanover, N. H., and was born in that town February 20, 1822. His name was changed from Henry Welles Smith to the name at the head of this sketch by an aet of the Massachusetts Legislature November 25, 1851. He was educated at the public schools and at Har- vard College, where he graduated in 1841. The writer, who graduated the year after, remembers him as not specially studious, but possessing refined and somewhat lux- urious tastes, which interfered somewhat with his pursuit of the regular studies of the college. He was recognized, however, as a young man of ability, capable with diligence of reaching the highest rank. After leaving college he studied law with his father in Lowell, who had removed there with his family when Henry was an infant, and in the office of Benjamin F. Butler, and was admitted to the Middlesex bar in March, 1843. After his admission he was associated with his father in busi- ness in Lowell until 1847. During the five years of his practice at the Middlesex bar he underwent such an initiation into the profession as no other county could furnish. With such men as Butler, Abbott, Farley, Robinson, Somerby, Train, Wentworth, and Richardson in the arena, it may be easily imagined that shrewdness, energy, re- source, strong nerves and mental muscle were needed to ward off and return the hard blows which these trained gladiators were accustomed to inflict. With the les- sons learned at the Middlesex bar he removed to Boston in 1847. where he was as- sociated with Joseph Bell for a time, and began a career almost phenomenal in its

499

BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER.

success. His management of cases in court was artistic. So well taken were the preliminary steps, so deeply laid was the foundation, so complete and comprehensive was the preparation of evidence, and so adroitly was it brought out, and so carefully studied and understood were the characters of jurors with their whims and fancies and prejudices, that he won verdict after verdict in the face of the ablest opponents, and placed himself by general consent at the head of the jury lawyers at the Suffolk bar. While in full practice he became associated with John H. Cheever in the formation of the New York Belting and Packing Company, and also in the purchase of iron mines in the northern part of the State of New York, both of which enterprises largely enhanced the fortune, the foundations of which his professional labors had laid. In 1863 his only son died, and the affliction into which he was thrown so subdued and chastencd him that he abandoned the law at the very full tide of his career, and devoted him- self to the service of the church, not only as a layman interested in its support, but often as a preacher, calling others to enter the path he had resolved to tread as a fol- lower of his Lord and Master. Becoming a zealous philanthropist he believed that he could expend his wealth in no better cause than that of founding a college for the superior education of women. Wellesley College at Wellesley, Mass., was the final result of his plans and charities, an institution built and equipped at an expense of one million dollars, and opened in September, 1875. He did not wait for death, when his fortune would be no longer of use to him, to bestow this blessing on the women of the Commonwealth, but he saw the fruit of his labor ripen while living, and the college which he had created auspiciously launched on its beneficent career. Mr. Durant married May 23, 1854, at Brooklyn, N. Y., Pauline Adeline, daughter of Col. John Fowle, of Alexandria, Va., and died at Wellesley, October 3, 1881. Mr. Durant left by his will an annuity of $50,000 for the maintenance of the college, and Mrs. Durant, since his death, has entered heartily into her husband's work as the friend and benefactor of his noble enterprise.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 63

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thomas), 1822-1907 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Boston History Co. Number of Pages: 1160

Author: Davis, William T. (William Thomas), 1822-1907
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: [Boston, Mass.] : Boston History Co.
Number of Pages: 1160