History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 5

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168

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In this great speech he took the ground distinctly that slavery could not for any considerable length of time be forced upon the people of that Territory ; and from the above extracts copied from that speech it appears that he clearly foresaw, should that bill become a law, all harmony between the different sec- tions of the Union would be destroyed, and ultimately result in civil war.

Colonel Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, who had served thirty consecutive years in the Senate of, the United States, and had been elected to the House from the St. Louis District to serve as their Repre- sentative in the Thirty-third Congress, was an atten- tive listener during the delivery of this speech, and after its close, remarked to a gentleman who sat near him, "That is a true man sir; a smart man ; a man of brains, sir." He then went forward, took Mr. Morrison cordially by the hand, and congratulated him in the most sincere and friendly manner. Sev- eral days after, the writer of this sketch, called on Colonel Benton at his house, and listened to his con- versation with reference to the excitement over this question which prevailed throughout the North, when he said that "Mr. Morrison's speech on the Kansas- Nebraska Bill was the ablest speech delivered on that. question during this excited and protracted debate."

Years afterwards, when the whole country was con- vulsed by the great civil war, the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the United States Treasury under the lamented President Lincoln, and subse- quently chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, speaking of Mr. Morrison, said, "He was a man of ability and incorruptible honesty. That his course in Congress on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had made a most favorable and lasting impression upon his mind."

But his crowning success in life was that of an ad- vocate, and as such he will be chiefly remembered. In this respect he was endowed with rare gifts, and has had but few equals and no superiors at the New Hampshire bar. He prepared his cases with great care, frequently after the adjournment of the court; would study the evidence far into the night, prepara- tory to his argument in the morning, when men of less nerve would have considered themselves fit sub- jects for medical treatment. He studied the panel as though it had been an open book, and acquainted himself with the peculiarities of each juror. He was apt to seize the salient points in his cause as they

THE BENCH AND BAR.

presented themselves to the jury, and to study the effect of the evidence as the cause progressed. He watched the effect upon each juror with great care as the argument proceeded, and could tell with singular accuracy whether he carried his hearer along with him. When he discovered a leaning against him on the part of any doubting juror, he adapted himself to the views of that juror, with arguments so con- vincing, in a manner of such candor, sincerity and truthfulness, and with an influence so mesmeric that he was quite sure to win him over before he closed.

Hon. Lewis W. Clark, associate justice of the Supreme Court, formerly a law-partner with Mr. Morrison, said of him, in a recent conversation,- "He was the coolest man under fire I have ever seen in court. The most damaging piece of evidence, so far as the jury could observe, produced no im- pression on his mind; and he exercised wonderful judgment in handling a dangerous witness. He knew when and where to leave a witness better than any man I ever saw in the trial of causes before a jury."

SAMUEL DANA BELL was born in Francestown, N. H., October 9, 1798. His father was the Hon. Samuel Bell, LL.D., a judge of the Supreme Court, four years Governor of New Hampshire, and twelve years a Senator of the United States. His mother was a daughter of the Hon. Samuel Dana, of Antrim, N. H. He manifested at an early age the love of study which distinguished him through life. He entered Harvard College in his fourteenth year, and was graduated in the class of 1816. He then com- menced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. George Sullvan, of Exeter, and was admitted to the bar of the county of Rockingham early in the year 1820. He commenced practice in Mer- edith, where he remained a few months, and then established himself at Chester, then a town of some note and the home of several gentlemen of cultiva- tion, taste and distinction. Entering into practice there, he soon acquired the reputation of being a sagacious, learned and trustworthy lawyer. In 1823 he was appointed solicitor of Rockingham County ; in 1825 and 1826 was a member of the Legislature ; in 1827 and 1828 was clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives. Mr. Bell remained in Chester ten years, and then removed to Exeter, and for some years was cashier of the Exeter Bank. In 1836 he removed to Concord, and in 1839 to Manchester. In 1846 he was police judge of Manchester, and two years later was appointed circuit judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1849 he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court, and in 1859 was chosen chief justice, which position he occupied until his resignation, in 1864.

Judge Bell possessed rare personal qualifications for a position upon the bench. Dignified in appearance and bearing, he was distinguished for patience and courtesy. He had all an honorable man's aversion 2

to meanness and the lower arts of the profession. He used liis position and authority to promote no par- tisan or partial purposes. The duties of his position were always properly discharged. He was a man of very decided opinions.

The purity of Judge Bell's public and private life deserves to be mentioned to his honor. The ermine which he wore was unsullied indeed; no shade of wrong or dishonor ever fell upon his name. When he came to Manchester, the present metropolis of the State was a mere village, with its future all undetermined. Judge Bell entered with interest into every movement for the prospective welfare of the town. Among the publie enterprises which he was greatly instrumental in establishing was that of the City Library, which, in spite of all drawbacks, is to-day extensive, valuable and incalculably useful to the people. He was also an early member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and for years held its principal offices. He died in Manchester July 21, 1868.

DANIEL CLARK,1 the third child of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Wiggin) Clark, was born in Stratham, Rockingham County, N. H., October 24, 1809. His father was both farmer and blacksmith. He was re- spected by all who knew him for his integrity. He was industrious, frugal, temperate, kind and obliging. His mother was strong-minded, devoted to her family and very religious. She was not indifferent to the good opinion of others, and was ambitious for the success of her family, and especially of her children. They lived upon a beautiful farm, in the upper part of the town, near the historic town of Exeter. The subject of this sketch remained at home under the care and nurture of his excellent parents until he was thirteen years of age, going to the common district school in summer and winter, or so much of the time as it was kept, and assisting about the ordinary farm- work in vacation. He learned at school easily, and was more fond of his books than of work upon the farm. At the age of thirteen he was sent with his older brother to the academy in Hampton, N. H., and put upon the common English studies. He did not then expect to acquire a more liberal education, al- though his mother had some undefined notions of a higher course of studies for her son. He continued at Hampton at intervals, there a term and at home & term, helping upon the farm, some four years or more, when he determined to go to college. He pursued. his preparatory studies at Hampton, teaching school two winters, and at twenty was prepared for college. Hle entered Dartmouth College, graduating, in 1834, with the first honors of the institution. Rev. Dr. Lord, the president of the college, was then in the prime of his life. Although he had presided over the college but a few years, he had already secured the confidence of its friends, so justly merited, as subse- quently shown by his successful administration of the

1 By Hon. Isaac W. Smith.

HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

affairs of the college for more than a third of a century. Among Mr. Clark's classmates were Albert Baker, who entered upon the practice of the law at Hillsborough, N. H., and died at the age of thirty-one, his untimely death extinguishing hopes which his short but bril- liant career had caused his many friends to entertain of his future usefulness; Hon. Moody Currier, LL. D., of Manchester, Governor of New Hampshire; Hon. Richard B. Kimball, LL. D., of New York City, lawyer, scholar and author; Rev. Edward A. Lawrence, D.D., Marblehead, Mass .; Rev. Newton E. Marble, D.D., Newton, Conn .; and Professor Alphonso Wood, presi- dent of Ohio Female College. Mr. Clark taught school winters during his college course and while pursuing his professional studies, eight winters in all, ineluding the two years before entering college, defraying, in part, the expenses of his education with the funds re- ceived from teaching. Immediately after graduation he entered the office of Hon. George Sullivan, then the attorney-general of the State, son of General John Sullivan, of Revolutionary fame, at Exeter, and com- menced the study of the law, remaining with Mr. Sullivan a year and a half. He completed his legal studies in the office of Hon. James Bell, afterwards United States Senator, at Exeter, and was admitted to the bar of Rockingham County in 1837. In the same year he opened an office at Epping, where he remained some eighteen months, and then, in 1839, removed to Manchester, N. H. This thriving eity was then just rising from the ground. Not a mill was running, the canal even being unfinished. The only railroad then constructed in the State was the Nashua and Lowell. The telegraph and the telephone had not then been invented. The lumbering stage was the only means of public travel. The rates of postage were high and the mails slow and few. The embryo city was hardly more than a desolate sand-bank, where a few hundred people had gathered, allured by the prospect of business about to spring up with the im- provement of the water-power at Amoskeag Falls. Mr. Clark was among the first to open a law-office here. He soon acquired an active practice, which afterwards grew to large proportions, and for twenty years he was employed upon one side or the other of nearly every important trial in the county, attending the courts also in Merrimack and Rockingham Coun- ties. He was employed on behalf of the State in the preliminary examination in the "Parker murder trial," being occupied almost continuously for a period of nearly two months. He succeeded in procuring the extradition from Maine of the supposed murderers after a lengthy trial in that State, and after a hearing, lasting nearly a month, before the Police Court of Manchester, procured their commitment to answer for the crime of murder. Opposed to him as counsel were General Franklin Pierce (afterwards President of the United States), General B. F. Butler, Hon. Josiah G. Abbott and the late Charles G. Atherton,-an array of legal talent seldom seen in this State. Mr. Clark was

employed for the defense in two capital trials in the fall of 1854,-Curtis' and Marshall's. Marshall was acquitted, and in the ease of Curtis the jury disagreed. During the period of his active practice the bar of Hillsborough County was unusually strong. Among its prominent members were Benjamin M. Farley, of Hollis; James U. Parker, of Merrimack; George Y. Sawyer and Charles G. Atherton, of Nashua; Samuel H. Ayer, of Hillsborough; and Samuel D. Bell and George W. Morrison, of Manchester. General Pierce, of the Merrimack bar, also generally attended the courts in Hillsborough County. Of these eminent lawyers, Mr. Morrison is the only survivor. General Pierce, as a jury lawyer, had no superior in the State. He had a very pleasing address, was dignified without being reserved, and possessed a magnetie influence over men, which rendered him a formidable antagonist before jurors. But, in many respects, Mr. Atherton stood at the head of the Hillsborough bar as a lawyer and advocate. He was a man of scholarly attainments, possessed a graceful diction, had a good command of language, knew how and when to use sarcasm, could appeal effectively to the passions and prejudices, was thoroughly read in the law and was perfectly at home in the court-room. With these and other able lawyers Mr. Clark spent the most of his active professional life, and he was recognized as their peer. His prac- tice was as varied as it was extensive. Whatever he undertook was thoroughly done. He was loyal to the court, faithful to his clients, courteous to opposing counsel and kind and magnanimous to the younger members of the profession. In his arguments to the jury he was never wearisome. He seized upon the weak points of the other side and the strong points of his own side and made them prominent to the jury. He wasted no time on immaterial matters. While he did not possess the personal magnetism of Pierce or Atherton's power of sarcasm, he could put before a court or jury his case with convincing power and in its strongest light, and if success did not always attend his efforts, it was not because he failed to present all the favorable views of his case. Legal papers drafted by him were models of accuracy and clearness. They were also remarkable for their brevity, all useless verbiage being avoided. In his writs the cause of action was briefly and clearly set out, and it was rare that he had occasion to apply for an amendment. His clients became his fast friends. His charges were moderate, and no client went away feeling that undue advantage had been taken of his position or that his interests had not been fully protected.

It is unfortunate, perhaps, for his legal reputation that Mr. Clark was drawn into politics. But it was his fortune to live in times when questions of great publie interest were being discussed and settled, and it was inevitable that a person of his ability, education and temperament should not entertain pronounced views on public questions. In the early part of his professional life there was a difference of opinion as

THE BENCH AND BAR.

to the wisdom of encouraging the extension of manu- facturing and railroad operations in the State, and unfortunately the question got into politics, and the two parties took opposite sides. With the acquisition of California came the question of the extension or restriction of slavery, the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise, the civil war, the abolition of slavery and the reconstruction measures after the elose of the war. As a rule, the lawyers of New Hampshire have very generally taken an active interest in political ques- tions. Thus circumstanced, it was hardly possible for Mr. Clark not to have some inclination towards politi . cal life. In 1842 he was elected one of the repre- sentatives from the town of Manchester to the Legis- lature, and was re-elected in 1843, and again elected in 1846. In 1854, after the adoption of the city charter, he was elected representative from his ward, and re-elected in 1855. In 1849, 1850 and 1851 he was a candidate for the State Senate, but his party being in the minority in the district, he failed of an election. He acted with the Whig party until its dissolution, when he helped to form the Republican party, with which he has since been identified. He was often upon the stump during the campaigns pre- ceding the elections in 1854 and 1855, speaking in every portion of the State, from the sea to the moun- tains. He also took part in the election contests during the decade which immediately followed. Party feel- ing ran high, the contests often being exceedingly bitter. No speaker was received with greater enthu- siasm or addressed larger audiences. It was largely owing to his labors at the hustings that a change in the political sentiment of the State was brought about. In 1856 he was a member of the National Republican Convention, and in November of that year was elected one of the Presidential electors in New Hampshire, and voted for Fremont and Dayton for President and Vice-President.

In 1855 the Legislature was called upon to elect two United States Senators. For the first time in a quarter of a century, with a single exception, the Democratic party was in a minority. The opposition was composed of the Whig party, then on the point of dissolving, the American party, commonly known as the Know-Nothing party, and the Free-Soil party. These elements, a year later, were fused in the Repub- liean party. By common consent, Hon. John P. Hale was nominated for the short term, and the contest for the long term was between Mr. Clark and the Hon. James Bell. In the Senatorial caucus the latter was nominated and subsequently elected by the Legis- lature. The contest, although warm, was a friendly one, so that when, two years later, in 1857, the Legis- lature was called to fill the vacancy in the office occa- sioned by the death of Senator Bell, in obedience to the common wishes of their constituents, the Repub- lican members nominated and the Legislature elected Mr. Clark. Upon the expiration of his term he was re-elected in 1860 with little opposition. The ten

years spent by Senator Clark in Congress constituted the most eventful period in the history of the repub- lic. Hle witnessed the rise, progress and overthrow of the Rebellion. This is not the time nor place to review his Congressional life. One will get a glimpse of his position upon the slavery question on page 268, volume i., of Mr. Blaine's "Twenty Years of Congress." He served upon some of the most import- ant committees, and was chairman of the committee on claims, and, during portions of two sessions, presi- dent pro tempore of the Senate in the absence of Vice- President Hamlin. He was a firm supporter of the various war measures adopted for the suppression of the Rebellion, and had the confidence of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton. He failed of a re- election in 1866, as his colleague, Senator Hale, had done two years before, not from any lack of apprecia- tion of the invaluable services they had rendered the country, nor of the honor they had conferred upon the State by their course in Congress, but because the rule of rotation in office had become so thoroughly ingrafted in the practice of the Republican party in the State that a departure from it was not deemed wise, even in the persons of these eminent states- men.

In the summer of 1866 a vacancy occurred in the office of district judge of the United States District Court for the district of New Hampshire, and Senator Clark was nominated for the position by President John- son, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He thereupon resigned his seat in the Senate and entered upon the discharge of his judicial duties. The wisdom of his selection has been justified by his career upon the bench. The office of the district judge does not afford such opportunity for public distinction as the bench of some other courts, the jurisdiction of the court being limited principally to eases arising under the constitution and laws of the United States. New Hampshire, from its size, location and business rela- tions, furnishes only a small amount of business for the Federal courts, and not much of that generally of public interest. In addition to holding his own court, Judge Clark has frequently been called to hold the Federal courts in other States in the First Circuit. He has brought to the discharge of his judicial duties the same learning, industry and interest that charac- terized his labors at the bar and in the Senate. His decisions have commended themselves to the profes- sion for their soundness and fairness. Judge Clark, apparently indifferent to the preservation of his opinions, has neglected to put them in shape for publication in the reports of the First Circuit, to the regret of his professional friends and admirers. He has now (1885) been upon the bench nineteen years. He was entitled, under a law of Congress, to retire in 1879, upon the salary for the rest of his life. But he has preferred to earn his salary, and "to wear out rather than rust out." With his physical strength but slightly impaired, his mind as vigorous as in the

HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

years of his full manhood, he, at the age of seventy-tive, gives promise of many years of future usefulness.

In 1576 he was a member and president of the con- vention called to revise the constitution of New Hampshire.

Judge Clark, in 1550, formed a copartnership with his brother David in the practice of the law, which was dissolved by reason of the ill health of the latter, in 1556. In December, 1556, he entered into copartner- ship with Isaac W. Smith, now upon the Supreme bench of New Hampshire, who read law with him in 1545-50. Their firm was dissolved in December, 1861, at which time his practice of the law may be said to have substantially ceased. So much of his time was absorbed with Congressional duties, and other public duties between sessions, growing out of the disturb- ances caused by the civil war, that he had but little time or inclination to follow the courts or attend to the calls of clients in the office.

Judge Clark has been fully identified with the growth and history of Manchester. He has taken great interest in its material prosperity, and has merited and received the confidence of its inhabitants. Besides representing the town and city five years in the Legislature, he has held various offices of trust, viz .: member of the School Board, chief engineer of the Fire Department, trustee of the City Library, city solicitor, trustee and president of the Manchester Savings-Bank, director of the Amoskeag Manufac- turing Company and trustee of the State Industrial School. No citizen of Manchester, with possibly the exception of the late Governor Straw, has exerted so winch influence for its growth and prosperity as he. As he looks to-day upon this beautiful city of forty thousand people, and their busy mills, well-paved streets, shady sidewalks, fruitful gardens and peace- ful homes, he, if any one, may repeat the words of the Roman poet, " Quorum magna pars fui."

Judge Clark has not failed to take a deep interest in his Alma Mater, which, in 1866, honored herself, as well as him, by conferring upon him the degree of I.L.D. In 1sGl, upon the invitation of the City Councils of Manchester, he delivered a eulogy upon the life of President Lincoln, and in IS80, upon the invitation of the alumni of Dartmouth College, a culegy upon the life of Judge George F. Shepley, before that association, both of which were subse- quently published. In 1869, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the founding of the college, he delivered an address before the alumni at the invitation of the trustees. A copy was requested for publication, which, unfortunately, was withheld too late for it to appear with the other published pro- ceedings of that ocension.

Judge Clark has contributed liberally to the sup- port of preaching, worshiping with the Unitarians. His views correspond with those of Rev. Dr. A. P. Pea- body, of Cambridge, Mass., or with the views of what may be called the Orthodox Unitarians. He has no

sympathy with the doctrines of the ultra portion of that denomination. In more recent years he has worshiped at the Franklin Street Congregational Church (Orthodox), Rev. Dr. George B. Spaulding, pastor.

Judge Clark has been twice married,-the first time, in 1840, to Hannah W. Robbins, who died in October, 1844, leaving no children; the second time, to Anne W. Salter, in 1846, who is still living. He has had four children,-three sons and one daughter. The two oldest are living, engaged in the practice of the law in Manchester. One son died in infancy, and the daughter when between two and three years of age.

HON. WILLIAM C. CLARKE,1-Among the public men of New Hampshire who have lately passed away, none was more widely known in the State, or more sincerely respected, than Hon. William Cogswell Clarke, of Manchester. He was born in Atkinson, N. H., December 10, 1810, being the eldest son of Greenleaf and Julia (Cogswell) Clarke. His father was a farmer and master-mason, the constructor of many fine business buildings in the neighboring town of Haverhill, Mass., and a highly-esteemed citizen of Atkinson, where he served as selectman and justice of the peace. He was descended from Nathaniel Clarke, a merchant of Newbury, Mass., who died in 1690, and from Captain Edmund Greenleaf, of that place, an officer of repute in the wars of the early colonists with the Indians. The wife of Greenleaf Clarke was a daughter of Dr. William Cogswell, of Atkinson, who was a surgeon in the Revolutionary army, and at one time chief of the Military Hospital at West Point.

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 5

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168