USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 41
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William P. Preble prepared for matriculation at college under the tuition of the Rev. Rosewell Messinger of York, and graduated at Harvard in 1806. Among his classmates were several who afterward rose to literary and scientific distinction. His own tastes were of mathematical character. In 1809 he was appointed tutor in mathematics at Harvard, as the successor of Dr. Ichabod Nichols. In this position he remained two years, with equal pleasure and profit to himself and others. Law rather than education commanded his preferences. Beginning the study of it in the office of Benjamin Hasey at Topsham, and continuing it in that of Mr. Orr in Brunswick, he passed on to actual practice. From York, where he first opened an office, he removed to Alfred. There, in 1811, he was ap- pointed attorney for the county of York. Removing to Saco in 1813, he there received the appointment of U. S. District Attorney from President Madison in 1814. From Saco he went to Portland in 1818, and made that place his permanent home.
Of quick and clear perceptions, strong logical abilities, and very perspicuous style of address, he sought to convince the judgment of juries-a nobler aim than the seduction of passion. The verdicts thus obtained were in harmony with justice and truth, and vastly more creditable to himself than any that could be won by eloquent sophistry. The bar of
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Maine at that time contained men of power and distinction, like Mellen, Whitman, Green- leaf, and many others. Of these Mr. Preble was the acknowledged peer. So high did his reputation rise, that at the end of nine years' legal practice he was selected in 1820 as one of the three judges composing the highest judicial tribunal of the new State.
Judge Preble's occupancy of the bench was comparatively brief. His decisions ap- pear in the first five volumes of Greenleaf's Reports, and are remarkable for sound argu- ment and lucidity of statement. Learned and clear-sighted he undoubtedly was; but like most men of his special education, liable to fits of impatience and irritability, which are clearly inimical to the self-poise and command of circumstances that should distinguish members of the judiciary. Nevertheless, his decisions were received with universal respect.
Judge Preble relinquished his august position in 1828 to enter upon diplomatic ser- vice. He had been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the Hague by President Jack- son. The King of Holland had been selected as arbitrator in the Northeastern Boundary dispute, and Judge Preble was to represent the interests of his country in that momen- tous case. The monarch made his award in January, 1831; basing it not upon the merits and proof of the controversy, but on the general beneficence of compromise. The line he suggested was the St. John to the mouth of the St. Francis, thence up that river to the head of its southwest branch; and from thence due west to the limit previously determined. Judge Preble forcibly protested against this award, and returned home to resist its acceptance.
Judge Preble was cordially sustained by the citizens of Maine in opposition to the decision of the arbiter. In 1831 he was sent to Washington as the agent of the State, in order to enforce its rights. The subject occasioned long debates in the U. S. Senate. The dispute was wearisome, and many statesmen wished to see it peacefully ended. In July, 1832, an agreement was made between the Maine Commissioners and the agents of the United States, whereby Maine was to cede the land in question to the United States, and to receive a million acres of land in Michigan as compensation. Renewed negotia- tions with Great Britain followed ; both sides became angry ; the so-called Aroostook War broke out in 1839, and the trouble was not quieted until 1842, when the Webster- Ashburton Treaty established a definite boundary, for which the British Government paid an equivalent money consideration. Judge Preble's agency throughout the whole difficulty was very influential. In 1842, as one of four commissioners chosen by the Legislature, he performed the last political act of his life in adjusting the terms of final settlement. The genius of Judge Preble for projecting and creating lines of international communi- cation was fully equal to that for diplomacy. Much of the latter was needed to make him efficient as one of the great pioneers of human progress. The opus magnum of his busy, energetic life was the railroad connection between the Great Lakes, the St. Law- rence River, and the Atlantic Ocean at Portland. Toil, care, intellect, tact, persistence,
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were all required-and that in extraordinary degree-to effectuate this grand scheme. The completion of the railway from Portsmouth to Portland in 1842 suggested the neces- sity of transportation facilities from the vast interior to the sea-coast. In September, 1844, Judge Preble and Josiah S. Little were sent to Canada as a committee to engage the assist- ance of its government and people in the construction of this great international highway. On the 18th of October they reported favorably to an immense public meeting in Portland. A reconnaissance of the intended route was made by James Hall, an engineer; and the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Company was incorporated on the 10th of February, 1845, with a nominal capital of three million dollars. On the 12th, Judge Preble, charter in hand, started in the depth of winter for Canada; travelled by express teams through the un- trodden wilderness; helped to obtain a charter, dated March 18, 1845, from the Canadian Government for a company that was to construct a connecting road, and with a transcript of that charter returned to Portland. In June subscription books were opened. On the 25th of September, the shareholders, representing $612,500 of stock, organized the company, and unanimously elected Judge Preble president.
On the 30th of November, 1845, Judge Preble sailed for England in quest of aid for his great enterprise. There he had to meet the unscrupulous hostility of those who sought to divert the route from Portland to Boston. Mr. Galt, the able representative of the Canadian Company, rendered much assistance, and together they achieved a partial success. Returning to Portland in February, 1846, the terms of union with the Canadian Company were next settled. A uniform gauge of five feet six inches, the place of junction, and other particulars were agreed upon as the basis of mutual action. William P. Preble, on behalf of the American company, was one of the signers of the convention. On the 4th of July ground was broken at Fish Point, in Portland Harbor. Judge Preble threw out the first spadeful of earth to inaugurate the work, and accompanied the action by a suitable address. Great popular enthusiasm attended the beginning of the undertaking.
Not only did Judge Preble use muscle and voice in furtherance of this grandly benefi- cent work, but also an able and forceful pen. "An Address to the Citizens of Montreal" in 1845 was followed by " An Address to Mr. Gladstone, the English Colonial Secretary" in 1846, and by " A Memorial to the Governor-General of Canada" in 1847. All are excellent state papers. On the 22d of July, 1848, the road was in successful operation to the town of North Yarmouth, and was advancing to Minot, thirty-six miles from Portland. His report to the shareholders, presented on that day, closed his connection with the rail- road. Exposure and fatigue had impaired his health and enforced his retirement. But he continued to exhibit the keenest interest in the work, repeatedly and urgently appealed to the public to come forward in aid, and lived to see the railroad extended from Portland to the St. Lawrence, and thence along the northern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie to Lake Huron. It was opened to South Paris January 1, 1850; to the point of junction at
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Island Pond early in 1852 ; and to the St. Lawrence in 1853. Judge Preble's claim to perpetual remembrance would be sufficiently valid if it rested on no other foundation than his share in the creation of this great international thoroughfare.
William Pitt Preble was quite as influential a politician as he was a railroad promoter. Beginning life as a zealous Federalist, he veered around and became an equally zealous Democrat. His zeal in the cause of the National Administration was rewarded by the office of U. S. District Attorney for Maine in 1814. No one labored more ardently than he to separate Maine from Massachusetts. Many conventions on that moot question were held after 1783 ; the people were almost evenly divided on the subject, and it assumed the import- ance of a party question. Massachusetts was Federalistic, Maine Democratic. The Demo- crats wanted separate State government for the sake of official patronage; for a similar reason the Federalists did not want it. Independent voters, who believed that local interests would be better managed by a local government than by the distant one of Mas- sachusetts, cast their influence in favor of separation. Numerous petitions praying for separation were presented to the Legislature, and referred to a committee, which recom- mended that the matter be submitted to a vote of the people. An act was passed at the June session which provided that " If it shall appear that a majority of five to four, at least of the votes so returned [to a convention to assemble in September], are in favor of separation, the convention is to proceed in forming a constitution, and not other- wise."
The agitation in the mean time was very active. Judge Preble wrote and spoke very earnestly in favor of the measure. When the vote came to be counted at the convention, it was found that 11,927 had voted in the affirmative, and 10,539 in the negative. The measure was evidently lost. But Judge Preble was an experienced diplomat, fruitful in expedient, acquainted with casuistry, accustomed to special pleading, and he endeavored to prove that the five-ninths majority had been obtained. His reasoning was ingenious but not conclusive. In fact, it was utterly unsound, and failed to convince a strong minority-some of whom were favorable to separation-of the convention. They solemnly protested against Preble's report, its reasoning, its principles, and against further action on the subject. The formation of a constitution under such circumstances was, in their opinion, a violation of express law, and an invasion of the rights of their constituents. The Legislature of Massachusetts took the same view of the subject, and declined further action. Judge Preble was one of a committee appointed to publish an address in response to the protest ; and also of another committee charged with the duty of applying to the Massachusetts Legislature to carry the act of separation into effect. Nothing satisfactory came out of the application. The matter rested, but only to be renewed, with successful result, in the ensuing year. In the Convention of 1819 Judge Preble was a representative from Portland, and assisted in the preparation of the constitution. Here, too, his mathe-
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matical genius came into play, but not to the satisfaction of five of his Portland colleagues, who thought that the apportionment of representatives was unjust to the large towns.
In educational matters he revealed the ordinary interest of a cultivated New-Englander. Trustee of Bowdoin College from 1820 to 1842, he discharged his duties with a prompt fidelity that was recognized in 1829 by the collegiate bestowment of the honorary title of LL.D.
Judge Preble never permitted any written composition of his own to appear in print without the most elaborate preparation. His reputation for intellectual power was far beyond his measure of success. The infirmities of his temperament were hindrances to the attainment of popular favor. As an oral debater he appeared to the best advantage. His propositions were stated with light and power ; and when all his faculties were stimu- lated to intense activity by the magnitude of the occasion, his mental forces wrought with greatest ease, and produced arguments that, by strength of logic, aptness and beauty of illustration, and masterful eloquence, usually gave him the victory over his opponents.
Broken down by hard usage, the constitution of Judge Preble failed forever on the 11th of October, 1857, at the age of seventy-three. He was first married in September, 1810, while a tutor at Harvard, to Nancy Gale, daughter of Joseph Tucker of York, and at one time Collector of that port. Two daughters and one son were the fruit of their union. The son bears the same name as his father, resides in Portland, is a lawyer, and has served as clerk of the District Court of the United States. The eldest daughter married Stephen Long- fellow, Jr., a lawyer of Portland ; the youngest married Lieutenant Allen of the U. S. Army. Judge Preble's second wife was Sarah A., daughter of Thomas Forsaith of Port- land, by whom he was the father of one son, who, with his mother, survived the distin- guished sire.
ANLEY, JOSEPH HOMAN, was born in Bangor, Maine, October 13, 1842, while his parents were temporarily residing there. His father, James Sullivan Manley, was born in Putney, Vermont, July 17, 1816; and was the son of Amasa Manley and Lydia French. His great-grandfather, Jesse Manley, was a native of Stoughton, Massachusetts. Mr. Manley's grandparents moved to Maine in 1819, and his father became widely known in Maine as one of the publishers of the Gospel Banner, and also one of the publishers of the Maine Farmer. He died December 9, 1861. Mr. Manley's mother was Caroline Sewall, daughter of Charles Sewall, and granddaughter of General Henry Sewall, of Revolutionary fame, a member of one of the oldest Puritan families of New England, whose name is of great antiquity in England, and which has been distinguished in New England for generations "in arts,
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manley
Morrovoliton Publishing & Engranng Co. Boston.
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letters, and war." Mr. Manley springs from sturdy New England stock, and his ancestors upon the maternal side were among the earliest settlers of Augusta, where he has himself resided all his life, save a few months in early infancy.
When five years of age the subject of this sketch was afflicted with a severe illness, from the effects of which he has never fully recovered. Owing to this long illness his early education was interrupted and impaired. He attended the public schools, and in 1853 entered the "Little Blue School" for boys at Farmington, Maine, founded by the late Jacob Abbott, and then under the management of Alexander H. Abbott. Here he remained four years, but feeble health forced him to abandon a collegiate course. In 1861 he commenced the study of law, and was in the office of the late Theodore H. Sweetser and William S. Gardiner (now Judge) in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Manley graduated at the Albany Law School in February, 1863, receiving the degree of LL.B., and was admitted to practice in the courts of New York when only twenty-one years of age. In 1863 Mr. Manley commenced the practice of law in Augusta, forming a partnership with H. W. True. In 1865 he was appointed by the late Justice Clifford a Commissioner of the U. S. District Court, and was in the same year admitted to practice in the U. S. Dis- trict and Circuit Courts. Had Mr. Manley remained in the practice of his profession he would have achieved a brilliant reputation, but he inherited a great interest in the excite- ments and struggles of political life, and this tendency led him to enter the political field, in which he has since borne an active and influential part. In 1865 and 1866 he was elected a member of the Augusta City Government, and in the latter year was President of the Common Council. In 1877 he was a member of the Board of Aldermen. In 1869 he was appointed agent of the Internal Revenue Department, and stationed first at Utica, N. Y., and subsequently at Pittsburgh, Pa., Chicago, Ill., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, Mass. He held the position until November, 1876, when he resigned to engage in private business. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in accepting his resignation, said, " I desire to express to you my regret that on account of private business matters you feel compelled to sever your connection with this Bureau, and to assure you of the just appreciation which this Office entertains of your long and valuable services to the Government."
Mr. Manley spent the winters of 1876-7-8 in Washington as the Agent of the Penn- sylvania Railroad in the adjusting of its claims with the Treasury Department. In the spring of 1878 he purchased of Joseph A. Homan, Esq., one-half interest of the Maine Farmer, and at once assumed the active duties of general editor, which he performed with conspicuous ability, until he laid down the editorial pen to assume the duties of the Federal position which he now so acceptably fills. Mr. Manley has taken an active part in politics since he became of age. He has been a Republican all his life. He was a member of the National Convention at Chicago in 1880, having been elected by acclamation from the
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Third Congressional District of Maine, and voted steadily for James G. Blaine, until Maine changed its vote to James A. Garfield. For many years Mr. Manley was Chairman of the Republican County Committee of Kennebec County, and in October, 1881, when Mr. Blaine resigned his position on the Republican State Committee, Mr. Manley was unanimously elected by the members of the State Committee to fill the vacancy, and at the State Con- vention in June, 1882, the choice was unanimously ratified. He was also chosen as one of the five members of the State Executive Committee, which organized and conducted the successful political campaign of 1882.
In March, 1880, Mr. Manley was appointed a Trustee of the Maine Insane Hospital, and since that time has rendered valuable service as Secretary of the Board. In May, 1881, without any solicitation on his part, he was appointed by President Garfield as Postmaster at Augusta, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He entered upon his duties July 1, 1881, and his administration has proved most energetic, able, and popular. He promptly secured the establishment of the free-delivery system for his city, affording the citizens a convenience which they highly appreciate, and he has made many other improvements. His office is one of great importance, being the fifth post-office in the United States in the amount of second-class mail-matter handled.
Mr. Manley has always felt a deep interest in educational matters. He is a trustee of the "Cony Academy Fund," and in connection with his co-trustees, Hon. Joseph H. Wil- liams, William R. Smith, John L. Cutter, and Daniel A. Cony, Esqs., erected the magnifi- cent Cony High School building, on the east side of the river. He is a member of the High School Committe, and a director of the public schools of the Williams School District. In 1881 he was elected a trustee of the Augusta Savings Bank, one of the largest savings institutions in the State-a marked tribute to his efficiency and integrity as a business man.
Mr. Manley was married in 1866 to Susan H., daughter of the late Governor Samuel Cony, an accomplished lady, combining with the sterling qualities inherited from her dis- tinguished father, a rare and endearing individuality of her own, which has rendered her the light and life of a charming home, and won the enduring esteem of "troops of friends." The marriage has been blessed with four children : Samuel Cony, Lucy Cony, Harriet, and Sydney Sewall Manley, whose young lives open with a promise as fair as the hearts of their parents could wish.
Mr. Manley has held many positions of honor and trust with acceptability and with credit to himself, and while few men of his years have a wider personal acquaintance with prominent men of the country, his acquaintances are almost universally his friends. He has a pleasing address, a genial and winning manner, is gifted with fine conversational powers, and is a fluent and forcible writer. In social intercourse he is amiable and enter-
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taining, in his attachments strong and earnest ; and as the best evidence of a successful career, it may be truthfully said that he stands higher now than at any previous period of his life in the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and he is destined to a long and highly successful life.
ESTON, NATHAN, of Augusta, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine. Born July 27, 1782, in Augusta, Maine. His ancestors were of purely English nationality. John Weston, the first immigrant of that name into this country, came from the county of Buckingham, England, at the tender age of thirteen years, and landed at Salem in 1644. Thence he re- moved to Reading, Massachusetts, where he died in 1723, aged over ninety years. His son Stephen died in the same town in 1753, aged eighty-eight, leaving a son Stephen, who died in Wilmington, an adjoining town, in his eighty-first year. Nathan Weston, fifth son of Stephen, second, was born at Wilmington in 1740; married Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Samuel Bancroft of Reading, in 1771 ; served in the French War; engaged in the lumber business at Merrymeeting Bay, and then in trade at Augusta, about the year 1781 ; represented his town in the General Court of Massachusetts for two years ; was a member of the Executive Council in 1806 and 1807; and died in 1832, aged ninety-two.
Nathan Weston received his early scholastic instruction in Hallowell Academy, then under the care of the distinguished educator Samuel Moody. From thence he entered Dartmouth College, acquired high standing, and graduated honorably with a class of forty- four members. He was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the Alpha of Dartmouth. On leaving college he at once began the studies appropriate to the profession of law in the office of Benjamin Whitwell of Augusta, remained there a few months, and then entered the office of George Blake of Boston. The latter gentleman was U. S. District Attorney, a learned lawyer, and a leading Democratic politician. Under him the young student had ample facilities for learning and practice, and enjoyed the opportunity of listening to the most eminent practitioners at the Boston bar. Duly accomplished in knowledge of law and legal procedure, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar in July, 1806, and soon afterward began practice in Augusta. Thence he removed in the following spring to New Gloucester ; did a successful business, married, represented the town in the General Court of 1808, and returned to Augusta in 1810.
Under Governor Elbridge Gerry's administration in 1811 radical changes were made in the men and measures of the old Commonwealth. With somewhat unscrupulous zeal, an unnatural arrangement of the towns in Essex County was made to secure a Democratic Representative from the new district. Major Russell of the Boston Centinel exposed the
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absurdity of it by means of a map hung up in his office. Gilbert Stuart the artist re- marked on seeing this, that it formed a picture resembling some animal, and with his pencil added what looked like claws. "There," said he, "that will do for a salamander." Russell, disgusted by the hideous figure, rejoined, " Salamander ! Call it Gerrymander." So it was called. The designation became a byword. An engraving of the picture was made, and used with telling effect in the following political canvass. Unpopular as it was; the action of the Democratic Government exercised great influence on the future of Mr. Weston. Under the provisions of " An Act establishing Circuit Courts of Common Pleas within this Commonwealth," three circuits were formed in Maine. The second embraced Lincoln, Kennebec, and Somerset counties, and was called the "Second Eastern Circuit." Of this Mr. Weston was appointed Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Weston at the epoch of his elevation was only twenty-nine years of age, and had been in legal practice less than five years. In this time he had not distinguished himself, but had acquired very influential friends. Notwithstanding all opposition, the change was beneficent and judicious. A court of three educated judges was substituted, in the Second Circuit alone, for three courts and ten judges, not one of whom was a lawyer. Judge Weston presided at all judicial sessions with dignity and ease, promptly discharged the duties of his office, and won the favor of both bar and people. On the organization of the new State of Maine in 1820 he was appointed one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. The experience he had had, and the satisfaction he had given in the ex- ercise of his official functions in the Common Pleas, powerfully commended him to this honorable trust. Holding the office for fourteen consecutive years, until near the close of 1834, he was then elevated to the Chief-Justiceship, as the successor of the eminent jurist Chief Justice Mellen. In October, 1841, he retired from the bench, in consequence of the adoption of a constitutional amendment limiting the judicial tenure to seven years.
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