USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 31
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Mr. Allen, as has been said, resigned his position as Chief Justice and Chancellor in 1876. His wife's health was such that she could not live in the warm climate of Honolulu. Great were the expressions of regret at his withdrawal. A banquet was given him by the court and citizens. Resolutions of regard were tendered him by the bar, and sorrow and regret was felt by every one at his departure. The Islands knew they were losing a tried and trusted friend. From that time until his death, he resided in Washington as Minister, attending to the interests of the Islands in the United States, which of course since the treaty were numerous. On the appointment of Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister at Washington, and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, to the position of Ambassador to St. Petersburg, Mr. Allen became Dean of that body.
His death on the Ist day of January, 1883, was sudden and painless. He was ap- parently in good health, and was in the best of spirits. With his young son Frederick, his Secretary of Legation, he drove to the White House to be present at the diplomatic re- ception which always takes place on New Year's Day, and at which the Ministers and their Legations appear in full court costume. As Dean of the Corps he took his place at the head of that body, and led them in to be presented to the President, Mr. Arthur. After an hour's chat with different gentlemen and ladies, he went to the ante-room to put on his coat, to go to a breakfast given to the corps by Mr. Frelinghuysen, the Secretary of State. He sat down on a sofa, apparently a little tired. His head suddenly began to sink upon his chest, as if he were fainting. His son caught him in his arms, and laid him back upon the sofa. Medical attendance was called, but he neither spoke nor breathed again. Honored and respected, the mourners at his funeral were, the President, the Cabinet, Senators and Representatives, Admirals and Generals ; his pall-bearers, his fellow-members of the Diplo- matic Corps.
Mr. Allen married in 1857 for his second wife Miss Mary Harrod Hobbs, a daughter of Mr. Frederic Hobbs of Bangor, Maine. By her he had two children, Frederick and Mary. The children of his first wife were : Ellen, who was married to Henry Tiffany. Esq., of New York, and afterward to the Hon. C. C. Harris, Mr. Allen's successor as Chief Justice and Chancellor ; William F. Allen, now Collector-General of the Port of Honolulu ; Elisha H. Allen, a merchant in New York City ; and Sarah Fessenden Allen, now the wife of Dr. William F. Wesselhoeft of Boston.
Metropolitan Publishing & Engraving Co Boston
Henry W Panie
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P AINE, HENRY WILLIAM, Lawyer, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was born August 30, 1810, in Winslow, Maine. His father, Lemuel Paine, was a native of Foxborough, Massachusetts, a graduate of Brown University, and a lawyer by profession. His mother, Jane Thompson Warren, was the daughter of Ebenezer T. Warren of Foxborough, the brother of General Joseph Warren who fell at Bunker Hill. Of the three children of Lemuel and Jane T. (Warren) Paine, Henry William was the second.
After the usual preparatory education, he entered Waterville College (now Colby University) in 1826, and graduated therefrom with credit in 1830.
For twelve months after graduation he remained in the college as tutor. He then commenced the study of law in the office of the late Samuel S. Warren of China, Maine, continued it for one year in the Law School of Harvard University at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, where Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, and Judge Thomas of Boston were among his classmates, and was admitted to the bar of Kennebec County, Maine, as attor- ney-at-law, in the autumn of 1834.
Beginning professional practice at Hallowell, Maine, he prosecuted it with great suc- cess until the summer of 1854, when he removed to Boston, opened an office in that city, and made his domicile at Cambridge. While resident in Hallowell, he represented the citizens of that place in the Lower House of the State Legislature during the sessions of 1835-6-7, and again in that of 1853. He was also Attorney for Kennebec County through five years of his earlier practice. Later on he was repeatedly offered a seat on the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.
Since his removal to Boston, the like office in Massachusetts was tendered to him there. But as he preferred to remain at the bar, all these flattering offers were successively and firmly declined. In 1863 and 1864 he was the unsuccessful candidate of the Demo- cratic Party for the Chief Magistracy of Massachusetts.
Mr. Paine is a close and devoted student, and very popular in literary circles.
An intimate personal and professional friend, the eminent Chief Justice Appleton of Maine, who knew him long and well, bore the following testimony to his character : "He is a gentleman of a high order of intellect ; of superior culture; in private life one of the most genial of companions ; in his profession a profound and learned lawyer as well as an accomplished advocate."
Mr. Paine has always enjoyed a large and lucrative practice both in the State and Federal courts, and especially as Referee and Master in Chancery in most difficult and important cases. He is a learned and valuable lecturer on real-estate and property law in the Law School of Boston University. '
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In recognition of his merit, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater in 1852. Henry William Paine was married on the Ist of May, 1837, to Lucy E. Coffin of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
A daughter, Jane Warren, born July 16, 1838, is the only issue of their union.
OLMES, JOHN, ex-U. S. Senator, of Portland, Maine. Born in Kings- ton, Massachusetts, in March, 1773. His surname is of purely Anglo- Saxon character, and is frequent among the sturdy English stock from which his ancestors sprang. He was the second son of Malchiah Holmes, who owned extensive iron-works at Kingston. The earlier years of life were spent in manual labor at the furnace. There he drew the attention of the temporary school- master of the village, who, surprised by his intelligence, advised his father to educate him. This he consented to do. In December, 1792, the young man, released from ordinary toil, began the study of Cheever's "Latin Accidence" at the town school. The Rev. Zephaniah Willis of Kingston was his next tutor. Under him he made such progress that in 1793 he was admitted, one year in advance, to Brown University. A zealous and persistent student, he yet suffered from lack of previous culture. Frank and bright, he soon won the friendship of his college companions. Fearless, easy, and independent, he was the peer of any in a class that contained Tristram Burgess of Rhode Island, Chief Justice Aldrich of Vermont, and others of subsequent celebrity.
Graduating in 1796, he resolved to adopt the profession of law, and began the neces- sary studies in the office of the distinguished Benjamin Whitman of Hanover. Diligent in business, and laudably ambitious of success, he was fully ready for practice at the bar, to which he was admitted in 1799. The eastern section of New England apparently offering the best advantages, he determined to begin practice there. In September, 1799, he settled at Alfred, Maine, which then contained about eight hundred and fifty inhabitants, and which offered very favorable opportunities to an accomplished lawyer. For several years he was the only legal practitioner in that locality. Land titles were in very questionable condition. Settlers had made improvements without any title to the soil. Mr. Holmes was employed by the proprietors to investigate their claims, and did so with zeal and suc- cess. In the litigation which followed, some of the best legal talent of Maine and Massa- chusetts was engaged, and some very important questions in the law of real estate were settled. These cases brought Mr. Holmes into extensive practice and familiar acquaintance with the law of real estate. His fees were of corresponding magnitude, and awakened some- what of envy in his legal opponents.
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The bench and the bar at that time contained many gentlemen who had not been edu- cated as lawyers. Judges and lawyers generally travelled their circuits on horseback. Poor fare and rough usage were common incidents of professional life. The assemblies of law- yers, jurors, suitors and witnesses at the law-terms were occasions of much merriment and dissipation. The grave dignity of jurist and legist were frequently left in the court-room. In the bar-room they seldom appeared. Mr. Holmes readily contributed his quota to the amusement of his companions. When he entered the bar there were only forty-five law- yers in Maine; and of these, no less than ten resided in the populous county of York. Among them were Mellen, Thacher, Cyrus King, Judah Dana, and others of similar calibre. Beside these, the bar of Maine embraced Chief Justice Parker, Justice Wilde, and Solicitor-General Davis-afterward of Massachusetts-Chief Justice Whitman, and others who were eminent in their profession, and mainly in public life.
John Holmes was an excellent legist, but not of the first order. Witty rather than logical, quick of perception, and prompt to pounce upon the weak point in an adversary's argument, his facile eloquence and infinite humor were always turned to the best account. He was master of the art of ridicule. In the U. S. Senate he turned this to good account in a debate connected with nullification. Years previously the eccentric John Randolph had satirized certain active politicians as partners ; the firm consisting of " James Madison, Felix Grundy, John Holmes, and the Devil." Mr. Tyler, in the discussion, reproachfully inquired what had become of that celebrated firm. Holmes instantly responded, " The first member is dead, the second has gone into retirement, and the last has gone to the Nullifiers, and is now electioneering among the gentleman's constituents; and thus the partnership is legally dissolved." This retort brought down the house upon the head of the unlucky querist. In the management of his cases this fun-loving propensity some- times operated to his own disadvantage and that of his client. Yet he was very successful with juries, a popular advocate, and for several years the acknowledged leader of the York bar. His characteristic wit and humor sometimes gave him the victory over more accom- plished lawyers of irritable temperament who were his principal competitors.
The extensive and profitable business of Mr. Holmes did not satisfy his aspirations. Much as he loved "the gladsome light of jurisprudence," he loved the glare of political publicity still more. He did not love law less, but loved politics more. Sanguine and ambitious, he began life as an outspoken. Federalist of the old school, and by voters of that party was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature from Sanford and Alfred in 1802 and 1803. But Federalism was not popular with the majority in Maine, and its partisans were unable again to return their representative. The Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts failed to bring increased strength to their ranks. Democratic principles were overwhelm- ingly ascendant. Holmes made a virtue of necessity, adopted them, and again appeared in the political arena as their exponent. This policy may be excused by the maxims of
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worldly prudence, but cannot be justified on sound ethical principles. Prior to his con- version, or perversion,-as some regarded it,-he had used his poetical talents with con- siderable effect at the expense of his Democratic antagonists, who had held a caucus for the selection of candidates at Kennebcc in 1810. Total abstinence was not the Maine Law at that epoch, and aspirants to official station had tested the efficacy of treating as a means to success. The leading Democratic politicians of York County figured in his stanzas, which indced were uncommonly effective for effusions of that character.
Mr. Holmes identified himself with the advocates of the National Administration toward the end of the year 1811, and defended the war measures of President Madison. At the next election he was chosen as Representative of the citizens of Alfred to the General Court of Massachusetts. His new political associates, anxious to reward the accession of their distinguished convert, nominated him for the Speakership, in opposition to Timothy Bigelow, the old official. The latter, whose political friends were largely in the majority, was elected ; and the defeated candidate became the persistent assailant of all the measures of the majority, and an energetic and active leader of the party he had recently adopted. In 1813 he was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts, and was a member of that body throughout the following war with Great Britain. He boldly defended the measures of the National Administration, and as boldly attacked the anti-war policy of Massachusetts. In 1813 he was tendered a commission as lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Lane's regiment in the U. S. Army, but declined to accept the proffer. The keen and cultured Federalists did not spare the feelings of the man who had deserted their ranks. Daniel A. White's cutting sarcasm, Harrison Gray Otis's brilliant irony, Josiah Quincy's biting humor, wcre used against him with telling effect. But he bore his part in the unequal contest with unabashed firmness. Wit he could use as tellingly as they. Dialectics were less familiar to his hand, and yet constituted a weapon that he could use with force and effect. Cool, wary, always ready, and never confessing defeat, he took refuge in satire, when logic no longer afforded a cover.
Mr. Holmes was appointed Commissioner by President Madison, under the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent, to divide the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay between the United States and Great Britain, in 1815. In 1816 he was returned as Representative to Congress from the York District, in succession to Mr. King. In 1818 he was again elected without opposition, receiving 1106 out of 1182 possible votes. Parties were then in transitional condition, and little occurred to excite the public mind. The separation of Maine from Massachusetts was a matter for whose interests he found time, while performing the duties of Commissioner and Representative. He was one of the leaders of the movement, and had to bear his full share of blame for all that was injudicious and ill-considered in it. The proceedings of the Brunswick Convention in 1816, in adopting the unique arithmetic of a report which maintained that five ninths of the aggregate majorities of the corporations
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were ipso facto a majority of five ninths of the legal voters of the district, were certainly unjustifiable. He, as chairman, signed that report, and received the discredit attaching to the arithmetical calculation. The Legislature of Massachusetts refused to sanction so pal- pable a perversion of the meaning of language, and declined to grant the requests of the convention. The next attempt at constitutional separation was legal and effective. The Portland Convention of October, 1819, consisted of the ablest and most prominent men in Maine. Holmes was chairman of the committee that drafted the constitution under which the citizens of that commonwealth now live. In 1820 he was the first Senator elected to represent the new State in the National Senate, and continued to discharge that most honorable office until 1827. In the year 1828 he was again elected to fill the unex- pired term of Judge Parris, who had consented to transfer his services to the bench of the Supreme Court of Maine. His Congressional career closed in 1833. Returning with all the ardor of youth to the practice of law,-after a successful political course extending over twenty-two years,-he again illustrated all his well-remembered qualities, with the added wisdom and ripeness consequent on his long public life. To the Legislature of Maine he was again returned as the Representative from Alfred in 1836 and 1837. In 1841 he re- ceived the appointment of U. S. Attorney for the District of Maine from President Harrison. He died in the incumbency of this office, on the 7th of July, 1843.
John Holmes was a completely successful man so far as the realization of ambitious aims is concerned. His reputation is not that of a statesman, but of a partisan. He was a guerilla chieftain rather than a great general. His personal influence over Maine and its affairs was preponderating for some time; but he is not accorded the paternity of any great or pre-eminently useful measure. He was of the second-not the first-class of public servants. His private character was excellent. As husband, parent, and neighbor, there was little or nothing lacking that could reasonably be desired. Vigilant and liberal in the promotion of popular education, public-spirited in matters of local improvement, and deeply interested in all that pertained to municipal welfare, he was one of the most highly prized of local citizens. Through his efforts all the courts of York County were established at Alfred in 1833. He also had the route of a railroad from Portland to Dover laid out through his adopted town, but failed to raise the funds necessary to com- plete it.
In 1837 Mr. Holmes removed to Thomaston, but from 1841 to the time of his death alternately resided at that place and in Portland. In 1840 he published a digest of public and private law, in octavo form, under the title of "The Statesman." It contains "a suc- cinct statement of general principles in constitutional and municipal law." The closing period of his life was restful and pleasant. He sought and found peace in close communion with the God and Father of us all. Intellect was clear, faith unclouded, confidence assured.
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In this condition he passed away. Court and bar honored his memory. Freemasonry paid him its peculiar honors, and appropriate religious services were held at his funeral.
John Holmes was married twice. In September, 1800, he espoused Sally Brooks of Scituate, and by her had two sons and two daughters. His eldest daughter married Judge Daniel Goodenow of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. His second wife, to whom he was married in July, 1837, was the accomplished daughter of General Knox, and the widow of James Swan of Boston. Their union was childless. She survived her honored husband.
RUMMOND, JOSIAH HAYDEN, Lawyer, of Portland, Maine. Born at Winslow, in the same State, on the 30th of August, 1827. His first American ancestors formed part of a colony of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who emigrated from the North of Ireland, and settled in Georgetown and Arrowsic, near the mouth of the Kennebec River, in 1729. Alexander Drummond, with his family of two sons and two daughters, was a prominent member of the immigrant band. His eldest son, Patrick, married for his second wife Susannah, daughter of the Rev. Robert Rutherford, the first Presbyterian minister settled in Maine, and pastor of the colonists in the mother-country. John Drummond, eldest son of Patrick and Susannah, married Marry McFadden, by whom he had two sons, Rutherford and John. The latter settled in Winslow, near Fort Halifax, on the eastern bank of the Kennebec, and married Damaris, daughter of Colonel Josiah Hayden, who had served as a major in the Revolutionary Army, and had cleared one of the first farms occupied in that locality. John Drummond, second, had issue, of whom Clark, the eldest son, born July 5, 1796, suc- ceeded, his father in possession of the farm. He married Cynthia Blackwell, and of her Josiah Hayden Drummond was born.
Young Drummond's early days were spent at the ancestral homestead. Educational advantages were limited to the public schools, supplemented by private institutions. In these he manifested an extraordinary aptitude for mathematical studies. From there he was sent to Vassalborough Academy, where he completed his mastery of Colburn's Algebra, soon after he had entered his thirteenth year. Preparation for college was resumed in the autumn of 1840. In August, 1842, he matriculated at Waterville College (now Colby University), and graduated therefrom in 1846. During the two years of his preparatory course he officiated as assistant teacher of mathematics in the academy, and in his col- lege course gained high reputation for proficiency in that department of learning. In more mature life the love of mathematical investigation was not lost, but mathematical studies have uniformly been maintained as means of relaxation from professional duties. At the
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commencement of his Senior year in college, the Principal of China Academy suddenly resigned, and after a few days' notice, Mr. Drummond assumed the vacated post, and per- formed his duties for the period of six months. He then returned to college. Subsequent to graduation, he again became the principal of that establishment, and continued in that relation for a year and a half, when he resigned it in order to take charge of the Vassal- borough Academy, of which he was the head for the next twelve months.
Exchanging the educational for the legal profession, Mr. Drummond commenced the study of law in December, 1848, in the office of Boulette & Noyes at Waterville, and was admitted to the bar of Kennebec County in October, 1850. Immediately after that event he made a business trip to California, where he was admitted to practice at the bar. Re- turning to Waterville in the summer of 1851, he began practice in the office of Boulette & Noyes, both of whom retired from active pursuits, and devolved their professional business upon Mr. Drummond. Some litigated cases constituted a portion of the legacy bequeathed by his old preceptors, and these he argued in due course before the courts. His mathe- matical training and his admirable industry in the collocation of authorities enabled him to prepare arguments which raised him at once to high standing among his contempo- raries. The retirement of Boulette & Noyes had given him a profitable business, which he skilfully prosecuted at Waterville until 1860, when he transferred himself and practice to the city of Portland.
While resident in Waterville, Mr. Drummond bestowed close attention upon political affairs. By birth and education he was affiliated with the Democratic Party, but was intensely antagonistic to the extension of slavery beyond its existing limits. His first vote at the polls was cast in favor of General Cass for the Presidency. In 1849 he was a member of the State Convention, and voted, as did all his associates save one, for the "Wilmot Proviso" resolutions adopted by it. With many misgivings he finally acquiesced in the compromise measures of 1850 and 1852, and advocated and voted for the election of General Franklin Pierce. When the Kansas-Nebraska question came into National politics, he announced that whenever his party, as such, should abandon the doctrine of the non- extension of slavery, he could act with it no longer. He was a member of the State Con- vention of 1855, and when the platform of political doctrines was adopted, at once left that body, declaring that he could not follow the party in the path it had chosen. The accidental death of an adopted daughter prevented him from taking an active part in the ensuing gubernatorial canvass ; but in the year following he did efficient service in perfecting the organization of the Republican Party, spending nearly eight weeks on the stump, and speaking twice and often three times a day.
In the absence of Mr. Drummond from home, and without his knowledge, he was nominated by the Republicans of his town as a candidate for the Legislature, and was elected Representative to the Lower House by more than a two-thirds vote, In the
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House he served as Chairman of the Committee on Railroads. The " war of the gauges" was at its height. He bore a prominent part in the debates as leader of the " broad-gauge" interest, and thereby won an influential position. Re-elected in 1857, he received the nomination for the Speaker's chair, and in a very animated contest was elected. In 1858 he took the stump, but not as a candidate for office. In 1859 he was elected by the Republicans one of the Senators for the Kennebec District, and served as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, and also of the Committee upon the " Peck Defalcation." During the session ' the Attorney-General died. Numerous gentlemen were suggested for the succession. Mr. Drummond was first named on the day before the caucus, but his consent to become a candidate was not given until within twenty-four hours of its meeting. On the second ballot he received all the votes but three. He was elected at once, but did not accept the office until the close of the session, when he resigned his seat in the Senate, and qualified as Attorney-General. Re-elected in 1861, 1862, and 1863, he absolutely declined further election in 1864, in consequence of the interference of his official duties with regular professional business. The same reason induced him to avoid political life, except as he was accustomed to take the stump in all contested elections, and with one further exception in the fall of 1868. A vacancy in the Legislature had been occasioned by the death of one of the representatives of Portland. Mr. Drummond consented to fill the vacancy, and was nominated by acclamation after his election for the Speakership, and was chosen by the Republicans as a matter of course.
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