USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 10
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In political matters William King arrayed himself on the side of the Democrats. His brothers were no less prominent in the ranks of the Federalists. The difference between his education and theirs may have had much to do with the choice of partics, and with the consequent opposition. He became the leader of the Democracy in Maine. He was the fly-wheel that regulated all the machinery-the newspaper, the club-room, caucus, town and State conventions, outrunners for candidates, distributors of circulars and speeches-of political campaigns. He knew how to direct all move- ments in the wisest and most effective manner. Had he, like his brothers, been blessed with a first-class education, he might have been one of the leading men of the United States. Endowed with the abilities and skill of Talleyrand, he had infinitely more of moral principle and virtue.
The mutual antagonism of the Federalists and Democrats in Mr. King's earlier career was violent and fierce. In many towns and villages there was neither friendly intercourse nor even the courtesies of conventionality between them. Houses were divided against themselves, families were estranged, and burning hatred raged in the hearts of bitter partisans. Neutrality was out of the question. Society was in a condition of smothered civil war. The Embargo Act paralyzed trade, locked up the ships in the harbors, and filled the land with doubt and dread. It brought poverty upon tens of thousands, and wealth to none except a few satellites of power. Bath, in which Mr. King resided, had its full share of dissension and strife. Samuel Davis, the greatest merchant in that section of the District, was the head of the Federalists, and in common with his family and friends was at perpetual feud with Mr. King, the distinguished general of the Democrats. Hos- tilities broke out everywhere-in church, in state, in society, in the markets, at the polls. A singular illustration of the extremities to which this bitter feeling proceeded was given
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by General King in his erection of a church for the worship of God. Davis, his opponent, aided by pious friends, had built a large and stately edifice on the top of a hill, looking down upon the city. General King beheld it with great seriousness, and was determined not to be outdone by his adversary. Contributing largely from his own funds, and drawing liberally upon those of his religious associates, he built a church similar to it on the opposite side of the way. One was called the North and the other the South Church. The congregations which assembled in the two buildings were orthodox in doctrine, but, measured by the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, decidedly heterodox in demeanor toward each other. The Rev. William Jenks, D.D., afterward of Boston, was instrumental in effecting an eventual reconciliation. A strong, energetic man, who thus makes even the churches subservient to his will, must necessarily be a leader of men. William King obtained from some the title of the Sultan of Bath. These latter events occurred between the years 1812 and 1817.
General King was a stanch but not uniformly discreet friend of the churches. In 1 818 he was chairman of a committee of the Massachusetts Senate which reported a bill granting four townships of land and $3000 a year for several years to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, which was afterward chartered as Waterville College, and is now the Colby University. Opposition to the report was soon manifested. Petitions in favor of it were circulated among the Baptists and their friends for signature in the following summer, and in the ensuing January session of the Legislature were presented to that body. But the tone of the petitions was so offensive, and their reflections upon other literary institutions so disparaging, that the object of the petitioners was frus- trated rather than furthered. General Fessenden attributed the objectionable language not to the trustees but to General King, who had prepared the printed petitions. The point at issue between them was whether the trustees had approved the petition. This King-excepting a single trustee-affirmed and Fessenden denied. The bill was defeated. The public press then took up the matter. The Democrats used it as an argument in favor of separation, that as the Massachusetts Federalists had withheld fostering care from the literary institutions of Maine, the District should assume a position in [which it could bestow a proper endowment upon them. This argument had great weight with the Bap- tist denomination, to which the Waterville institution belonged. General King was a member of the board of trustees of the Waterville Seminary, and had the sorrow of injuring an institution whose interests he wished to promote, by a zeal that lacked the quality of discretion.
General King's influence in bringing about the separation between Massachusetts and Maine, the erection of the latter into a distinct State, and the formation and adoption of its excellent constitution, was remarkably powerful. He governed the Democracy of Maine with singular skill and dexterity. His popularity was such that he was elected by an
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immense majority the first Governor of the new Commonwealth. No sooner had he been inaugurated than, with the largeness of mind and soundness of judgment that dis- tinguish the true statesman, he laid aside all partisan predilections, and administered the duties of his office with wise and impartial ability. His official appointments were very judicious. Before his term of office had expired, he resigned the chief magistracy to accept an appointment from Washington under the provisions of a treaty with Spain.
In 1828 General King was appointed Commissioner of Public Buildings, and was authorized to procure plans and estimates for the construction of a State Capitol at Au- gusta. Twelve and a half townships of land were set aside for sale, that the proceeds might pay the cost of erection. The models and plans furnished by Charles Bulfinch of Boston, and which were copies of those of the Massachusetts State House on a reduced scale, were accepted. The work commenced in 1829, but cost $139,000, instead of $80,000 -the original estimate. General King had evidently resolved that the work should not be marred for want of sufficient expenditure. Nor was he perhaps to blame. The amount of the builder's bill is often in excess of the architect's estimate.
From 1831 to 1834, General King was Collector of Customs at Bath, Maine. His interest in current politics was unfailing. One of his biographers adduces as an instance of this his hailing a passenger who had just arrived by the Eastern stage at Paine's Hotel, Portland, with the ejaculation and inquiries, "Ah, Major Wood, is that you? What is the news from Boston ? How go the votes?" This was from an open window, at four o'clock on a cold winter morning. An early-riser, he was up before the dawn, and ready to receive the first intelligence of political events.
General King was a man of tall and finely formed figure. His classic head, command- ing features, imposing forehead, and black beetling eyebrows invested him with the air and mien of a military man. His martial cloak of blue and red deepened the impression on the minds of spectators. Kind of heart, but impetuous and careless of consequences, he would pause if on a leisurely ride to relieve a beggar who besought his charity, but if in haste would ride over that very supplicant without a thought or care as to the injuries he might sustain. His very faults attracted admirers : his virtues commanded warm and con- stant friends. Old age was clouded. It ended in tempest and darkness. Loss of property was accompanied by domestic trials and afflictions. His mental powers, once so forceful and active, were utterly broken. His sun went down in gloom. He died June 17, 1852, aged eighty-four.
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P ARRIS, ALBION KEITH, of Portland, Governor of Maine. Born at Hebron, Maine. He was the only child of Samuel Parris and Sarah Pratt, his wife, of Middleborough, Massachusetts. Thomas Parris of London, England, was his forefather, and had four sons living in that city in 1660. Of these, John became the minister of the Reformed Church at Agborough, near Plymouth. Thomas, son of the Rev. John Parris, sailed for America on the 28th of June, 1683. Topsham, in Devonshire, was the place from which he set out on his voluntary expatriation. Landing in this country, he first went to Long Island, married there, and then removed to Boston. Losing his wife in that town, he removed to Pembroke, Massa- chusetts, and married a Miss Rogers, by whom he became the father of four sons and three daughters. Thomas, his son, married Hannah Gannett of Scituate, and by her had four sons. Benjamin, one of these sons, married Millicent Keith of Easton, Massachusetts, and had five sons and three daughters. His principal employment was that of an instructor of youth. His residence was in Pembroke, Massachusetts, where he died November 18, 1815. Samuel-who bore the same name as that of the notorious minister of Salem, Massachu- setts, in whose family the witchcraft tragedy had its origin-was born August 31, 1755, did excellent service as a Revolutionary officer on land and sea, married Sarah Pratt at the close of the struggle for independence, and was permitted to rejoice in the paternity of an only child. That child, however, was to be singularly fortunate, and to realize his hopes in every department of social activity. Samuel Parris was one of the first settlers of the town of Hebron ; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Oxford County for several years ; a frequent representative of his fellow-citizens in the General Court; a Presidential elector in 1812, and a voter for the elevation of De Witt Clinton to the Presidency of the United States. He died in Washington, at the house of his son, on the 10th of Sep- tember, 1847, aged ninety-two.
Albion K. Parris spent the first fourteen years of his life on the paternal farm. Then he began preparation for college. Entering an advanced class at Dartmouth in 1803, he graduated in 1806, in the same class with General Fessenden of Maine and Judge Fletcher of Massachusetts. Soon afterward he commenced the study of law in the office of Chief Justice Whitman, who then practised in New Gloucester, but who removed in the follow- ing winter to Portland. A diligent and thorough student, the young aspirant to profes- sional honors was admitted to the Cumberland Bar in September, 1809. Immediately thereafter he established himself in legal practice at Paris, Oxford County, and commenced a career of brilliant and uninterrupted success.
Official position early presented itself to the acceptance of Mr. Parris. In 1811 he was appointed attorney for the County of Oxford. In 1813 he was returned to the
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Gencral Court of Massachusetts as the representative of Paris. Next, in 1814, he entered the State Senate as the choice of the citizens of Oxford and Somerset counties. In November of the same year he received an election by his confiding constituents to the Fourteenth Congress of the United States, and in 1816 was elected to the Fifteenth Con- gress. While serving his second term as representative in the popular branch of the National Legislature he was appointed Judge of the District Court of the United States for Maine. This was in 1818, when only thirty years of age. Honors thick and fast crowded upon him; and not the least of these was that of being selected as successor to the venerable Judge Sewall, who had held the office from the organization of the Government.
Fixing his residence in Portland, Judge Parris was chosen in the following year, 1819, to membership in the convention called to form a constitution under which Maine should seek admission as a State to the Union. The ablest leaders in the inchoate common- wealth composed the convention. Judge Parris was an active member, and served in the committee that drafted the constitution. He was also appointed treasurer by the convention.
On the adoption of the constitution, and the admission of Maine as the twenty-second member of the sisterhood of States, Judge Parris was appointed Judge of Probate for Cumberland County, as the successor of the venerable Samuel Freeman. Ability, fidelity, and acceptance in all these important and honorable trusts commended him to the citizens for elevation to the chief magistracy of the State in 1821, when Governor King resigned the office to accept that of one of the Commissioners on Spanish Claims. Considerable dissent was manifested by some of the Democratic Party; but, notwithstanding this, Judge Parris was elected, assumed the exercise of gubernatorial functions, and made himself so . acceptable to the majority, that he was continued in office, by successive elections, for five years. In 1826, in his annual message, he positively declined further service in that capacity.
Governor Parris was an able and excellent administrator. Nothing occurred to rouse the mind or heart of the public. It was an era of profound repose. The most important matters claiming attention were the property shared in common with Massachusetts, and the Northeastern Boundary dispute with England. The latter was assuming threatening aspect, and was beginning to create serious alarm. On his recommendation, the Legislature authorized the Governor to procure "all such maps, documents, publica- tions, papers, and surveys, relating to the Northeastern Boundary of the United States, as he may deem necessary and useful for the State to be possessed of." The controversy was eventually settled without resort to the dread arbitrament of arms.
Governor Parris was an intelligent and ardent advocate of education, temperance, and religious culture. He frequently urged them upon the Legislature, which received his
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recommendations with respectful consideration. When, in 1825, General Lafayette visited the State, the illustrious guest was warmly greeted by many of his old companions in arms. The Executive received him with appreciative and generous hospitality. His visit extended to Augusta. Legislature and Governor, in warm and complimentary language, welcomed him as the guest of the State. His journey was a triumphal progress-his reception one of warmest and most respectful gratitude.
The general appreciation of Governor Parris's eminently serviceable qualities was next illustrated-during the last year of his Administration-by election to the Senate of the United States in the room of John Holmes, whose official term expired on March 3, 1827. Scarcely had he familiarized himself with the duties of his new position when, in June, 1828, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine, in succession to Judge Preble. Lengthened public service had deprived him of the facilities for acquaintance with decisions on litigated cases, and with the advance of legal science. But this deficiency was soon industriously supplied by application to the study of reports and of learned elementary treatises. Thus thoroughly qualified for juridical duties, he entered upon them with an ability, quickness, and impartial faithfulness that commanded the unqualified approbation of the bar and also of the general public. Judicial qualities, however, had not time to reach mellow maturity, nor fame to wreathe his brow with judicial honors. Before these results could be fully attained, he consented to the transfer of his energies to a position of greater ease and pecuniary profit. Through the kindness of Mr. Van Buren, he was appointed to the post of Second Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States, with a yearly salary of three thousand dollars. This place he held for thirteen years, until 1849. With characteristic promptness and fidelity he performed all the duties pertaining to it, throughout the Administrations of Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk. Quitting this responsible situation, he returned to Portland, was elected Mayor in 1852, and declined renomination in the following year. Thenceforward he preferred the repose of purely private citizenship. Representative in Congress at the age of twenty-eight, Judge of the United States Court at thirty, and Governor at thirty-three, not only proved the early development of his powers, but his popularity with his constituents. It was due to him that he should be permitted to rest. Neither brilliant nor erudite, he was yet compe- tent to every situation he was called upon to fill. He was a thoroughly available man. His industry and devotion to present duties, his faithful and prompt action, his foresight, his suave self-adaptation to varying circumstances, made him successful in any and every office confided to his care.
Death came suddenly, but not unannounced, to Governor Parris, on the morning of February 11, 1857. His departure was mourned as a public loss. Press, bar, and people united to do honor to his memory as that of a man who had deserved well of his country. His life was always regular and exemplary. Punctual at church as at his office, he gave all
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the influence of precept and example to the observance of the Sabbath and of all Christian duties. On his return to Portland from Washington he joined the High Street Congrega- tional Church, lived as one of its most consistent members, taught in the Sunday-school, exemplified Christian usefulness, and died at length in full assurance of eternal life and blessing.
Albion Keith Parris was married in 1810 to Sarah, eldest daughter of the Rev. Levi Whitman of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Three daughters and two sons were the fruit of their marriage, and, with their mother, survived him.
ENT, EDWARD, of Bangor, Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Born in Concord, New Hampshire, 8th January, 1802. He was the sixth child and the youngest son of William Austin Kent, a native of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who had settled in Concord. His mother was a native of Sterling, Massachusetts, and sister of Prentiss Mellen, the first Chief Justice of the State of Maine. The entire family of Mr. Kent consisted of four sons and four daughters, of whom the majority attained social position and distinction.
Edward Kent, after the usual elementary and academic education, matriculated at Harvard College, mastered the usual curriculum of studies, and graduated therefrom in 1821, at the age of nineteen. Among his classmates were Ralph Waldo Emerson, the unique philosopher ; Josiah Quincy, afterward Mayor of Boston ; Robert Barnwell, Presi- dent of South Carolina College ; Charles W. Upham, Member of Congress ; and Judge Edward G. Loring. Electing the legal profession, he qualified himself for its practice by comprehensive study under Benjamin Orr, one of the most eminent lawyers of Maine, and under the tuition of Chancellor Kent, the most distinguished legist and legal commen- tator in the United States.
Looking around for a suitable place in which to establish himself, in 1824 he visited Bangor, then a thriving town of twenty-five hundred inhabitants. In September, 1825, he opened a law-office in that promising centre, and became the seventh lawyer in the locality. His fine personal appearance and affable manners won him many friends. Intellectual pursuits connected with the law especially attracted him. The routine drudgery of the profession was irksome, and he sought relief in writing political articles for the press, and in the discussion of political questions. The discussions of the local debating society, of which he was an active member, touched the core as well as the æsthetics of political ethics. " Whether it is commendable in a candidate for office to be active in promoting his own election" was at one time the subject of debate. His own subsequent life, not less
EdiMent.
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than his position in the debate, gave a negative answer to the question. Admitted to practice in the Supreme Judicial Court in 1827, after having complied with the rules of the court by two years' practice in the Court of Common Pleas, he was appointed the same year, by the Governor of the State, Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions. This office he held from April, 1827, to the end of the December Term in 1828. About this time he entered into copartnership with Jonathan P. Rogers, a distinguished member of the bar, and then officiating Attorney-General of the State. This connection lasted two or two three years.
In 1831 a business connection was formed with Jonas Cutting, afterward a Justice of the Supreme Court, under the title of Kent & Cutting ;- this association continuing for about eighteen years. The stable and growing popularity of Mr. Kent was manifest in his repeated election to fill town offices-Moderator at public meetings, Town Agent, mem- ber of School Committee of Superintendence,-for succeeding years, and Representative to the Legislature from the Bangor District in 1828 and 1829. At the age of twenty-six, when he entered the Legislature, he quickly made a State reputation for himself by resisting the incorporation of Argyle as a town, and its annexation to the Bangor District, on the ground that it was owned by Waterville College, and that it contained only two freeholders ; that a majority of the inhabitants remonstrated against incorporation because it would subject them to ruinous taxation, and that the constitution prohibited the altera- tion of the established representation until the next general apportionment. This position the Supreme Court subsequently sustained. In the summer of 1829 the selection of Mr. Kent was preferred for the orator of the Fourth of July, that a partisan celebration might be avoided. It is recorded that he was listened to " with gratified attention," the oration being "a chaste and eloquent production, breathing the sentiments of enlightened patriot- ism, unsullied by the bitterness of party-spirit, and worthy of the day." In 1836 Mr. Kent was chosen Mayor of the city of Bangor, and the following year was again elected by an increased majority. In this office he gave great satisfaction, and received the ready support of those citizens whose names were identified with the objects of education and good morals. His second inaugural gratified the friends of temperance by the following language :
"The subject of pauperism leads to the consideration of its prolific source-intemperance. As a municipal corporation we are interested in this subject, for our burdens and taxes are swelled by the crime and misery attendant upon this destroyer of human life and human happiness. As the consti- tuted guardians of the public weal, it is our duty to do what we can to restrain its ravages. I trust that the resolution adopted by the Board of last year will be adhered to, and that no legalized and licensed drinking will be found in our limits. In my view, the sanction or influence of legal authority should never be given to a traffic which fills our jails with criminals and almshouses with paupers, and our whole land with want and misery."
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In 1836 Mayor Kent was nominated by the Whigs for the chief magistracy of the State. Rejected at the polls,-for the Whig Party, to which he belonged, was in a minority,-he was again nominated in 1837, and elected. His election was a great shock to the leaders of the Democratic Party. Maine had for many years been a Democratic State. They resorted to all kinds of partisan tactics to prevent his inauguration. They made war upon the returns from several towns with the design of invalidating them. The conflict ended finally by referring the matter to the Supreme Court, who sustained the position of the Whigs, and declared Edward Kent elected Governor by the majority of the votes. On the 19th January, 1838, he was inaugurated. His Message was one of intrinsic importance. He excused the suspension of specie payments in consequence of the pressure of the times, but urged resumption at the earliest possible day. He insisted that the Northeastern Boundary-line should be run as authorized by Congress, and that the General Government should extricate the State from all the perplexities that the dangerous dispute about limits had created. At the opening of the next session of the Legislature he presented a detailed statement of the measures he had taken to settle all difficulties. In the two following years occurred the " Aroostook War," which brought the controversy to a crisis. In 1840 he was again a candidate for the Governorship, but there was no election by the people. Out of the four highest candidates the House sent the names of John Fairfield and Edward Kent to the Senate. The latter body, being largely composed of Whigs, elected Mr. Kent by a two-thirds majority. He held the office during 1841.
"No portion of the public life of Governor Kent," said Ex-Governor Washburn of Maine, in a letter to a friend of Judge Kent, "able and honorable as it was, better illustrated his ability, firmness, and patriotism than that which was connected with the exciting and important question of the Northeastern Boundary. He understood it as few men in the State, and none out of it, did; and under his Administration more was accomplished in the way of bringing it to the earnest attention of the General Government and of the nation at large than had been effected for many years. Among the results of his action, the War Department took the matter in hand in earnest, and ordered a recon- naissance to be made to ascertain the military features and resources of the State, and to perfect a plan for its defence, by the establishment of military posts and communications, arsenals, depots of arms, etc. As Governor Kent said in a Message to the Legislature, 'the question was rescued from the death- like torpor in which it had so long rested; a new impulse was given to the cause; for the first time the whole subject was made the formation of a Congressional report, and enlisted in investigation and debate the talents and eloquence of some of our ablest statesmen. . . . It was assumed and treated as a National matter, which involved the vital interests of one member of the confederacy and the plighted · faitli and constitutional obligations of the Union to make the controversy its own.' A commission was also appointed by the Governor, under the authority of the Legislature, to ascertain and run the boundary-line, by whose report the entire practicability of the line as claimed by the State of Maine, and its consistency with the terms of the Treaty of 1783, were established beyond question. 'I confess,'
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