USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 47
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Mr. Hamlin removed to Bangor in 1835, and for the residue of life made that city his home. All matters related to its moral or material welfare were subjects of deep and practical interest to him. His probity and public spirit speedily commanded the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens. Their suffrages elected him to the mayoralty on several occasions, and also returned him as representative of the city, for several years, to both branches of the Legislature. He officiated as land-agent of the State for two years. President Lincoln, in view of his efficient talents, appointed him Commissioner of the United States to define the boundaries of the fisheries, under the provisions of the Treaty of Washington.
In national politics Mr. Hamlin early affiliated himself with the Whig Party. His brother Hannibal espoused the doctrines and polity of the Democrats. The twain were thus politically opposed until the year 1854, when the Whig organization was dissolved. Elijah L. Hamlin at once identified himself with the new Republican Party, which was destined to wield such a mighty influence upon the fortunes and destiny of the American people. While the Whigs were still united and active, Mr. Hamlin received their fullest confidence. On two occasions he was their chosen candidate for the Chief Magistracy of Maine, and was sustained by the entire vote of the party.
Local affairs offered many opportunities to the citizens of Bangor for the expression of the popular sentiment in regard to Mr. Hamlin. They voluntarily raised him to such positions of trust and responsibility as those of president of the Bangor Savings Bank, and of the Penobscot Mutual Insurance Company.
Not least among the claims of Elijah L. Hamlin to posthumous remembrance are those which rest upon his historical and scientific investigations. For both departments of research he possessed an insatiable love, and was well and favorably known to many of
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the literary and scientific societies of the country. In 1820, while yet a student, he had the honor of discovering the famous Mount Mica, at Paris, in Oxford County, Maine. This has since become universally celebrated as one of the most extraordinary mineral deposits known to industrial science.
Mr. Hamlin died at Bangor in July, 1872. One of his contemporaries, with full and critical knowledge of his deceased friend, described him as follows: "Mr. Hamlin was a man of unswerving integrity, and faithfully discharged all his duties as a citizen with an eye single to the public good. He was the kindest of friends, the most devoted of fathers, and never wilfully injured any human being. He was a man of untiring generosity, and never turned a sufferer from his door. His hand was ever ready to give the charity which the impulse of his great heart dictated, and these little kindnesses were done with so little ostentation that they seldom reached the public knowledge." A gentleman in thc etymological sense of the term, he was invariably considerate of the feelings of friends or foes. Universally respected by all under whose eyes his public life was passed, he was . also universally beloved by those who enjoyed opportunities of knowing him most inti- mately. He was an embodiment of that ideally honest man whom admitted authority has pronounced to be "the noblest work of God."
Elijah Livermore Hamlin was married to Eliza B. Choate of Salem, Massachusetts- a lady who was cousin of the eloquent Rufus Choate. Three of their children now survive, viz. : Mrs. George Stetson of Bangor, Maine; Mrs. Samuel R. Carter of Paris ; and Dr. Augustus Choate Hamlin of Bangor, Maine.
MES, BENJAMIN, of Bath, Maine. Born October 30, 1778, in An- dover, Massachusetts. The Ames family is eminently distinguished in the annals of the American bar, pulpit, politics, and mechanic arts. The father of Benjamin Ames was a respectable innkeeper, one of whose laudable ambitions was that his son should occupy a better position in society than that which he himself held.
The youth prepared for matriculation at Harvard College, and entered that celebrated institution at the somewhat advanced age of twenty-two years. Graduating in 1803, he left it with the reputation of a student of correct habits, plodding, and partial to logic and metaphysics. His temperament was not genial, nor had the classic literature of Greece and Rome any charms for him. Yet he held a very respectable position in his class.
Selecting the profession of law, Mr. Ames entered the office of Samuel Dana of Groton, Massachusetts. His preceptor was a man of mark, and particularly in zealous
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political partisanship. Under him the young aspirant was initiated into the mysteries of politics, and became familiar with the strifes they ordinarily engender. Admitted to practice as an attorney in 1806, he began professional pursuits at Bath, Maine, highly recommended by his talents and acquirements. Political life in that era was full of rancor. He identified himself with the Democracy, then under the lead of the gifted William King. The latter introduced him to many who became his future clients. His rise in the pro- fession was rapid and enriching. A few years of experience brought him into the front rank of the lawyers of Maine. His list of suits was longer than that of any practitioner in Lincoln County. Nathan Ames, his brother, who for many years was a deputy-sheriff, assisted him in procuring this extensive practice. But many of his suits were in the in- terests of parties who could not pay the clerk's fees. They entailed labor without pecu- niary profit. Notwithstanding his apparent ostentation, Mr. Ames was respected as an astute lawyer and able advocate. Logical, discriminating, and fluent, he studied with tire- less industry, and seldom failed to gain his ends. But, though ingenious, he was neither a great advocate nor orator. Wit, imagination, genius, were strangers to him; and yet in many respects he had no superior at the Lincoln bar.
Benjamin Ames had not the accumulative faculty, so far as pecuniary matters are con- cerned. One of the hardest of workers, he had no proper appreciation of the value of money. Intense devotion to politics banished prudence from his company, and left him in poverty at a period in life when it is too late to repair damages.
For many years Mr. Ames was one of the acknowledged leaders of his party. Official emoluments rewarded his devotion. Under Governor Sullivan in 1807 he was made attorney for Lincoln County, and in 1811 was commissioned as Judge in the Court of Common Pleas, under Governor Gerry. The latter position he vacated in 1814 for a mercantile cruise in some uncertain direction. Some said that he went to Bermuda, others to the Provinces. Whichever it may have been, he escaped all the risks incidental to active warfare, and returned unharmed to his lawyer's office. There he practised for several years. In 1820 he was elected to the first Legislature of Maine, and was placed in the Speaker's chair. In each of the three following years he was again elected, and acquit- ted himself with credit. Chosen Senator from Lincoln County in 1824, he was made presi- dent of the Senate. In 1827 he was once more a Representative of the citizens of Bath in the lower House. This was his last appearance in public life.
Mr. Ames seems to have cared more for the glitter of public life than for its solid rewards. His legal acquirements, acknowledged abilities, and logical powers should have secured for him a seat on the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court. But none of the lucrative offices fell to his lot. Possibly his intense partisanship was to blame for this. In part, too, it may be ascribed to his impulsive restlessness, and unfortunate instability of character, Far from being happy, destitute of literary tastes, and absorbed in the occupa-
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tions of the present, he made no provision for the uncertain future. In making political honors the great end of life he seriously erred. It led him into paths of intrigue, with which insincerity and corruption are closely allied. It neutralized the effect of his many admirable qualities. Quarrelling with General King, his best friend, about the Collector- ship of Bath, he accused that gentleman of supplying the enemy in the War of 1812. The accusation was retorted upon himself. The wordy warfare was long and bitter, and pro- duced only evil results.
Meanwhile the office business of Judge Ames passed into other and younger hands. Debt involved him in its meshes. Necessity obliged him to change his location. Obtain- ing credit, and supplying his family for twelve months, he migrated to Cincinnati, and opened an office in that city. The period covered by these events was from 1827 to 1829. The degree of success with which he met in Ohio is not certainly known. Life-profes- sional life-had to take a new start there. No party friends were on the spot to throw their influence in his favor. He returned home, and on the way, at Providence, Rhode. Island, was stricken down by paralysis of the brain. From the effects of this calamity he never fully recovered. His mind was sadly impaired, and thenceforward his way lay through poverty and permanent failure. This was in 1831-2. Captain B. A. Boynton of the U. S. Army, and his brother-in-law, kindly befriended him. Captain Boynton was in command of the military post at Houlton, then just incorporated as the shire-town of Aroostook County. Here the wrecked lawyer and judge, together with his family, were generously cared for by their noble relative. Lingering there until the 28th of September, 1835, he died at the age of fifty-seven. Judge Ames was a member of the Church of Christ. Restless ambition, conducting him through long years of disappointment and suffering, had done its evil work. But in the ruin it wrought the spirit may have become entirely heedful of the teachings of an Infinite Wisdom, and willing to cooperate with a loving Omnipotence that seeks the restoration of the fallen to an ideal manhood, and through that to everlasting rest and peace. Men are faulty enough with all the Divine aids they may profess to appropriate. What they would be without those aids, we can only conjecture.
Benjamin Ames was married twice. His first wife was Mary Boynton, who died childless, in November, 1810. Subsequently he married her sister, Sally Boynton. Three children-two daughters and a son-were the fruit of the latter union. George Ames, the son, graduated at the West Point Military Academy, afterward went West, studied law, was admitted to practice, did not succeed, and was lost to the knowledge of his friends.
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S TROUT, ALMON AUGUSTUS, Lawyer, of Portland, Maine. Born in Limington, York County, Maine, May 8, 1835. His father, Elisha Strout, was a farmer, and a native of the same town. On his father's side his ancestors were emigrants from England, who settled in or near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and at an early day came to the State of Maine, where they first settled in and about Portland. His mother was Mary Higgins, a daughter of Wal- ter Higgins, a farmer, and born in the town of Limington. Higgins came of an Irish family, who settled in Scarborough, Maine. When three years of age Mr. Strout was taken by his father to Bridgeton, in Cumberland County, where he spent his early years upon a farm. During the winter months he attended the common-schools, and so dili- gently improved his meagre advantages for learning, that at the age of sixteen he was fitted to enter college.
During the next three years he attended the academies at North Bridgeton and Frye- burg, teaching school during the fall and winter months. He commenced the study of law with Hon. Joel Eastman of Conway, New Hampshire, and after ten months' study entered the office of Messrs. Howard & Strout of Portland. Here he found as a fellow- student Eugene Hale, now U. S. Senator from Maine, and with him was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, February 13, 1857. Mr. Strout at first settled at Harrison, in Cumberland County, where he entered at once upon a large and lucrative practice, and acquired considerable reputation as a successful advocate in jury-cases. In 1865 he removed to Portland, Maine, where he succeeded to the business of Shepley & Dana. In March, 1866, he entered into a partnership with General George F. Shepley, which con- tinued until the appointment of General Shepley to a place on the bench of the Circuit Court of the United States, in June, 1869. Mr. Strout continued his law-practice without a partner until 1873, when, finding his increasing business too much to manage without assistance, he formed a partnership with George F. Holmes; and their business is still carried on under the firm name of Strout & Holmes. His association with General Shepley, added to his own industry, brought a very large amount of business, and Mr. Strout soon made his way to the front rank of his profession, both as a learned lawyer and successful advocate.
Mr. Strout's early political affiliations were with the Douglas wing of the Democratic Party. When the civil war broke out, he identified himself with the War Democrats who labored for the preservation of the Union. Finding himself more in accord with the Republican policy, he voted for the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, and has ever since acted with the Republican Party. His legal and political experiences continued to rapidly widen. He acted for the United States as assistant-counsel for the distribution
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of the Geneva Award, and was senior counsel in many important cases. In 1879 he was elected to the State Legislature by the citizens of Portland as a Republican, but was deprived of his seat upon the pretext that, although the return showed that he was elected by a clear majority of over six hundred votes, it also contained the words, "scattering, forty-three votes." In the contest that followed, which resulted in the utter defeat of the attempt on the part of the Fusion Party to capture the Legislature by counting out their opponents, Mr. Strout took a prominent and important part. These events, which have passed into history and form a curious chapter in American politics, require something more than a passing mention. From the clear and comprehensive "Statement of Facts," drawn up by a committee of the Republican members of the Legislature, of which Mr. Strout was chairman, and submitted to the Supreme Court for the opinion of the judges, it appeared that immediately after the annual election of September 8, 1879, duly certified copies of the lists of votes cast for State officers and members of the Legislature were returned into the office of the Secretary of State, as required by law. When the Governor . and Council came to canvass these returns, although it appeared in the clearest manner that a large majority of the members-elect were the Republican candidates voted for at the polls, yet upon various pretexts and for alleged technical defects in the returns the Repub- lican members were counted out, and a sufficient number of Fusionists were declared elected in their places to make a Fusion majority in both Houses of the Legislature. The Governor and Council refused to hear testimony to correct defects, and issued a summons to such as they declared to be elected. Great popular excitement and indignation followed. The Governor and Council, prior to the sitting of the Legislature, submitted certain ques- tions touching the legality of their acts to the Judges of the Supreme Court, but notwith- standing a decision was rendered adverse to their pretensions. they refused to recall their summons or change their action. Public excitement increased, and when the Legislature met in January, 1880, large numbers of armed men assembled at Augusta, and an appeal to force seemed to many unavoidable. The Fusionists attempted to organize a Legislature, and persistently denied the "counted-out" Republican members their seats. They even went through the form of electing a Governor, although they had no quorum of the Legis- lature. In this emergency the Republican members organized a Senate and House of Representatives ; and a committee, consisting of A. A. Strout, L. H. Hutchinson, and S. C. Hatch, was chosen to draw up a statement of the case, accompanied by suitable inter- rogatories, and submit them to the Legislature, in order to obtain an authoritative opinion of the Judges. The committee performed its duties by the production of a statement so clear, exhaustive, and luminous, that its accuracy and completeness have never been ques- tioned. The answer of the court was conclusive, and accepted by all parties.
Not only did the legal acquirements of Mr. Strout afford the most valuable aid in the peaceful settlement of these questions,-so vital to the continuance of a representative
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government,-but he took an important part in the subsequent legislation relating to the same matter. He framed the laws which compelled the return of the State Seal and the returns of the towns and cities in the State, which had been removed by the so-called Fusion Secretary of State from the archives in the State House at Augusta. He took an active part in the investigation which followed, by which the committee were enabled to establish beyond question that the returns had been fraudulently altered and changed. The course of Mr. Strout and his services to the State met with the approval of his fellow- citizens, and he was returned to the Legislature of 1881, where, as chairman of the Com- mittee on the Judiciary, he took an active part in shaping the legislation of the session. At the request of the Republican members of the Legislature, he accepted the chairman- ship of the " Committee on the State of the Commonwealth," to which was referred the remarkable Message of Governor Plaisted; and after submitting a report of great force and clearness, he followed it up by a speech in which he refuted the statements of the Message, and in a masterly manner set forth the advantages and prosperity of his native State. At the unanimous request of the Republicans, he furnished a copy for publication, and it was extensively distributed over the State. In this speech, in discussing that part of the Governor's Message in which he declared that if the Executive acted corruptly in deciding in favor of a candidate there is " no appeal except to force," Mr. Strout said :
" It seems to me clear that the teachings of these passages are not only that the Executive Depart- ment of this government is independent of all courts, but that it is above all law, and that the opinions of the Supreme Court given in cases provided for by the constitution are of no effect; that the only rem- edy to correct the fraudulent and corrupt discharge of official duty is an appeal to force. If this is true, -if the assertions of this Message are true,-then a peaceful resort to the people is not available; for if the Executive may 'act fraudulently and corruptly and decide in favor of a candidate not elected, and there is no appeal except to force,' then, whatever may be the verdict of the people, that verdict may be disregarded, and a corrupt government could continue its usurped powers until hurled from its seat by revolution. Such, sir, was the claim of certain incendiary newspapers, after the opinions of the court rendered during the extraordinary crisis of last winter. But it did not meet with the approval of any party, and as a rule Fusion Senators and Representatives bowed their heads to the decision of a tri- bunal which all the teachings of their lives led them to respect and obey. An appeal to force ! What would be the consequence? It would cause civil war. It would array father against son, brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. It means the destruction of business, the disruption of social ties, and the license of anarchy. And have the people no remedy against the fraudulent usurpa- tions of their rulers, except this? The answer is plain. The government is so divided that the Legis- lative branch shall make the laws, the Judicial Department declare what the laws are, and the Executive carry the laws so expounded into effect. But it can never be true that the Executive can disregard the law or be a law unto itself. The propriety of the provision of the Constitution which requires the Judges to give their opinions 'upon important questions of law and upon solemn occasions,' does not meet the approval of the present Governor, and he declares it to be 'as wrong in principle as it is dangerous in practice.' It may be that he is wiser than the framers of that instrument; but in my
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opinion where the Supreme Court announces what the law is in accordance with that provision, the people of this State, following the teaching of the past, will respect and obey the opinion of the court, whatever may be the example of any Executive officer in trampling it under his feet. Nor will they be obliged to resort to force to carry it into effect. The majesty of the law, the respect of all classes for the Supreme Court of the State, the determination upon all hands to preserve the quiet and tranquillity of the people, would secure a peaceful and easy victory. There must be some tribunal to declare what the law is. The written constitution and the teachings of unwritten law existing long before the constitution have fixed in the minds of the people that the Judiciary is the proper tribunal for this purpose. From its early constitution our Supreme Court has been singularly fortunate in the eminent men who have sat upon its bench-its Mellens, its Shepleys, its Whitmans, its Tenneys; but in my judgment at no time has it been more favored in learning and integrity than it is to-day. And in the hour of doubt and division as to what the law may be in questions nearly touching the highest interests of the State, men will turn to it in the future as they have in the past, with faith and confidence in the purity and correctness of its decision; and when it is received, the people will see to it that their ser- vants from the highest to the lowest accept and enforce it."
Mr. Strout was married to Mary R. Sumner, daughter of Samuel R. Sumner of Grand Rapids, Michigan, December 23, 1861. One son, named Henry Francis, born March 3, 1867, is the fruit of their union.
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EBB, NATHAN, Judge of the U. S. District Court, Portland, Maine. Born in Portland, May 7, 1825. His father, Eli Webb, was a native of Gorham, and a carpenter and builder by trade. His grandfather, Edward Webb, was a native of Windham, a soldier of the Revolution, a farmer by pursuit, and a revered relict of the memorable past, who died in 1849, at the age of eighty-six. The mother of Judge Webb, nee Mary Cobbey, was a native of Westbrook, Maine, and died in 1861, aged sixty-six.
Young Webb's early education was obtained in the Portland Academy. From thence he went to Harvard College, where he matriculated in 1842. Graduating in 1846, with the diploma of A.B., he elected to follow the profession of law, and began the studies pertaining thereto in the office of John Rand. When these were completed, he was admitted to the bar, on the 19th of November, 1849. In February, 1850, he commenced legal practice at Portland, and prosecuted it individually until 1857, when he associated himself with Samuel J. Anderson, under the firm title of Anderson & Webb. This con- nection lasted until 1864, when Anderson retired. Mr. Webb then conducted professional business alone until the fall of 1865, when he formed a partnership with Thomas A. Deblois. The firm of Deblois & Webb continued until the death of the former. On the Ist of January, 1878, the firm of Webb & Haskell was established by the admission of Thomas H. Haskell to partnership relations with Mr. Webb.
In 1864 and 1865 Mr. Webb was a Republican Representative of the city of Portland in the State Legislature, and rendered excellent service in that body. In the fall of the latter year he was elected county attorney for the term of three years, and entered upon the discharge of official duty on the Ist of January, 1866. In 1868 he was elected for a second term of three years. In 1870 he was appointed U. S. District Attorney for the State of Maine. In 1874 he was reappointed to the same office, and filled it with satisfaction to all parties until 1878. In the latter year he received a third appointment for the term of four years, and was confirmed in it, but declined to accept the position. On the Ist of March, 1882, Mr. Webb was appointed Judge of the U. S. District Court for the District of Maine by President Chester A. Arthur.
Purely professional duties have not left to Judge Webb much leisure for other pur- suits during the past years of his active life. His thorough devotion to these has been one of the factors of his recognized soundness as a legist, of his elevation to the National judiciary, and of his high standing both at the bar and in the best society. He has, how- . ever, illustrated a strictly American character by appropriating enough of time and energy to make him a useful and effective member of the city school committee for quite a number of years.
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