History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 6

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520

USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 6
USA > New Hampshire > Belknap County > History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire > Part 6

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In 1851 he was first elected a member of the Legis- lature from Wentworth, and served as chairman of the committee on incorporations. The next year he was re-elected, and was made chairman of the judi- ciary committee, and in 1853 he was again a member, and was nominated with great unanimity, and elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He served with ability and impartiality, and to the general acceptance of all parties.

The next winter a new man was to be selected as a candidate for Senator in his district, and at the con- vention he was nominated with great unanimity, and was elected in March, in a close district, by about three hundred majority. When the Senate met, in June, there was some discussion as to a candidate for president, but at the caucus he was nominated upon the first ballot, and was duly elected as president of the Senate in 1854. He was renominated in the spring of 1855, but the Know-Nothing movement that year carried everything before it, and he was de-

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feated, with nearly all the other Democratic nomi- nees in the State.

On the 2d day of April, 1855, he was appointed a circuit justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the State. But in June of that year there was an un- wonted overturn, and the old courts were abolished, mainly upon political grounds, and new ones or- ganized, and new judges appointed. Judge Sargent was making his arrangements to go into practice again at the bar, when he received a request from Governor Metcalf that he would accept the second place on the bench of the new Court of Common Pleas. This offer had not been expected, but, upon consultation with friends, it was accepted, and Judge Sargent was appointed an associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

He acted as judge of the new Court of Common Pleas for four years, until 1859, when, by a statute of that year, that court was abolished, and the Supreme Judicial Court was to do the work of that court in addition to its own, and one new judge was to be added to that court, making the number of Supreme Court judges six instead of five, as before. Judge Sargent was at once appointed to that place on the Supreme bench. He was then the youngest member of the court in age, as well as in the date of his com- mision. He remained upon the bench of that court just fifteen years, from 1859 to 1874. In March, 1873, upon the death of Chief Justice Bellows, Judge Sargent was appointed chief justice of the State, which place he held until August, 1874, when the court was again overturned to make room for the appoiutees of the prevailing political party. Chief Justice Sargent, at the time of his appointment as chief justice, had become the oldest judge upon the bench, both in age and date of commission, so fre- quent had been the changes in its members since his appointment to that bench, less than fourteen years before. He was distinguished for his laborious in- dustry, his impartiality and his ability. His written opinions are contained in the sixteen volumes of the New Hampshire Reports, from the thirty-ninth to the fifty-fourth, inclusive, numbering about three hundred in all. Many of these are leading opinions upon various subjects, and show great learning and research.

After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the attempt to make Kansas a slave State, Judge Sargent acted with the Republican party.

Upon leaving the bench, in August, 1874, he was solicited to go into the practice of the law in Con- cord with Wm. M. Chase, Esq., whose late partner, the Hon. Anson S. Marshall, had recently been sud- denly removed by death. He left a very extensive and lucrative practice, more than any one man could well attend to alone, and into this practice, by an arrangement with Mr. Chase, Judge Sargent stepped at once, and the business firm thus formed continued for five years.

In 1876 he was elected a member of the Constitu- tional Convention of this State. In this convention he acted a prominent part. He received a large complimentary vote for president of the convention, but that choice falling upon another, Judge Sargent was made chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the same place held by Judge Levi Woodbury in the convention of 1850. He took an active part in the debates and discussions of that body, and wielded an influence probably second to no one in the con- vention.

He was also elected by his ward a member of the House of Representatives for the years 1877 and 1878. It was evident from the first, so numerous and important had been the changes in the constitution, that there must be a revision of the general statutes of the State. Early in 1877 steps were taken for this re- vision, and Judge Sargent was appointed chairman of a committee, with Hon. L. W. Barton, of New- port, and Judge J. S. Wiggin, of Exeter, to revise and codify the statutes of the State.

This committee at once commenced their work, and with so much dispatch was it prosecuted that they made their report to the Legislature of 1878, which report was, with various amendments, adopted hy that Legislature. There was also much new legis- lation enacted that year, which the committee were instructed to incorporate with their own work, and this was all to go into effect the 1st day of January, 1879.

The committee revised their work, making the re- quired additions, superintended the printing of the whole, and had their volume ready for distribution before the day appointed. It is the largest volume of statutes ever printed in the State, and it is be- lieved not to be inferior to any other in any im- portant particular.

In the fall of 1878 Judge Sargent was invited by a committee of the citizens of New London to prepare a centennial address, to be delivered on the one hun- dredth auniversary of the incorporation of the town. He at once accepted the invitation, and set about the work, and on the 25th day of June, 1879, he de- livered his address to a large assembly of the present and former citizens of the town and others, the occa- sion being distinguished by a larger collection of people, probably, than ever met in the town upon any former occasion. Being a native of New Lon- don, he took a peculiar interest in looking up its early history and in tracing the lives of its promi- nent men. The address was published in the Granite Monthly in the numbers for July, August and September, 1879, and has been favorably noticed as a work of great lahor and research.

About the 1st of September, 1879, at the end of five years from the commencement of his partnership in business, the question arose whether he should continue for five years more or retire. Having spent nearly forty years of his life in toil, he concluded to

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

take some portion of the remaining time for enjoy- ment, while he had health and strength and capacity to enjoy. He retired from the practice of the law, finding that it was vain to hope for rest and recrea- tion while engaged in that profession. The judge has one of the finest residences in the city, and is enjoying life with his friends and his books. He has also traveled extensively in his own country, and been a close observer of men and things.

In 1864 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for the State of New Hampshire, and was re-elected the next year. After this he declined a re-election.

Dartmouth College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, in course, three years after gradua- tion; also, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, at its centennial commencement, in 1869.

He has for many years been an active member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and for the last ten or twelve years has been one of its vice- presidents.

For many years past he has been connected with the National State Capital Bank as one of its direc- tors. The Loan and Trust Savings-Bank, at Con- cord, commenced business August 1, 1872, and in the thirteen years since then its deposits have increased to over one million seven hundred thousand dollars. Judge Sargent has been president of this bank and one of its investment committee since its commence- ment, and has given his personal attention to its affairs.

In 1876 the New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged was organized and incorporated, and, Jan- uary 1, 1879, a home was opened in Concord at which some ten to twenty aged ladies have since been supported. The funds of this institution are gradually increasing, and its work is being well done. For the last eight years Judge Sargent has been president of this institution, and has taken a deep interest in its prosperity and success.

In compliance with a request from a committee of the trustees, he prepared and delivered, at the com- mencement at Dartmouth College, iu 1880, a me- morial address upon the late Hon. Joel Parker, for- merly chief justice of this State, and afterwards professor of law in Harvard College. This duty Judge Sargent performed in a manner creditable to himself and satisfactory to the friends of the late Judge Parker. His address was printed, with other similar addresses in memory of other deceased judges, graduates of Dartmouth, by other distinguished sons of the college.

He married, first, Maria C. Jones, of Enfield, daughter of John Jones, Esq., November 29, 1843, by whom he had two children. John Jones Sargent, the elder, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1866, and died in Oshkosh, Wis., October 3, 1870, just as he was ready to commence the practice of the law. The second, Everett Foster, died young. For his

second wife, he married Louisa Jennie Paige, daughter of Deacon James K. Paige, of Wentworth, September 5, 1853, by whom he has had three children,-Marie Louise, Annie Lawrie and George Lincoln. The second died young; the eldest and youngest survive.

Since he commenced the practice of the law, in 1843, his residence has been as follows: In Canaan four years, to 1847; in Wentworth twenty-two years, to 1869; and in Concord sixteen years since.

As a lawyer, Judge Sargent was always faithful and true to his clients, a safe counselor and an able advocate. As a legislator, he has been conservative and safe. As a judge, he always studied to get at the right of the case, to hold the scales of justice evenly, to rule the law plainly, so that the party against whom he ruled might have the full benefit of his exception to the ruling, and to get the ques- tions of fact and the evidence, as it bore upon them, clearly and distinctly before the jury. Any one who attended the courts where he presided as judge could see at once that he was patient and pains- taking, industrious and persevering, vigilant and discriminating, impartial and fearless; and any one who reads his written opinions will see that they exhibit great research, learning and ability.

MASON WEARE TAPPAN1 was born October 20, 1817, in the village of Newport, Sullivan County. His father, the late Weare Tappan, being a strong admirer of Jeremiah Mason, who, at that time, was in full prac- tice at the bar, named his son after him, and gave him also his own name and the name of his mother, who was one of the descendants of the celebrated old Weare family.

Weare Tappan was a man of note and ability, prom- inent as a lawyer, and a main pillar in the com- munity in which he lived. He was born in the town of East Kingston, Rockingham County, and early settled in the town of Newport. He read law with the late Judge Ellis, of Claremont, who was one of the ablest and most accomplished lawyers in the State. Mr. Tappan was one of the marked men of his time. Taking an early position on the subject of slavery, he was an old pioneer in the cause. His house was the rendezvous of the anti-slavery lecturer and the home of the fugitive slave. A patriarch of the olden time, strong in his convictions when answering to his con- science, he had determined that he was right ; he died in 1866, but not till he had seen the fulfillment of his hope and prayer, that the curse of slavery might be blotted out and the authority of the government restored.

The mother of Mason W. Tappan died only a few months after the decease of his father. The Concord Monitor, in noticing her death at the time, paid her the following tribute : " The deceased was a fine spec- imen of the old school of ladies, who maintained a lively interest in the present, which, added to her

1 By Walter C. Harriman.

Masoul- Pappany

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great intelligence, rare conversational powers, keen insight of persons, a strong moral nature and a cath- olic spirit, bounded by no creed or color, made her presence a benediction and her life a pleasant recol- lection."

At an early age Mason removed with the family to Bradford, Merrimack County, and here he spent his boyhood days, and here has he always resided. In his youth he displayed many of those strong traits of character which became prominent in after-life. He early formed a resolution to abstain from the use of intoxicating drinks, and that resolution has never been broken. In addition to the regular course of instruction which he received from his parents, he attended old Father Ballard's school, in Hopkinton, and the Hopkinton Academy, which was a noted school in those days. He also became a student at the Meriden Academy.

Having chosen the profession of the law, he pursued the study of the same with his father and with the Hon. George W. Nesmith, of Franklin, who for a long time was one of the judges of the Supreme Judicial Court. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and soon acquired an extensive practice in Merrimack and Sullivan Counties. In the eminent array of legal ability that adorned the bar in those days, by his power as an advocate, he shortly obtained a promi- nent place.

Down to the year 1853 he had given his undivided attention to the law. His practice and his reputation as a lawyer were constantly on the increase. He had belonged to the Whig, Free-Soil and American par- ties. Although his first step aside from his profession was only to represent his town (which was largely Democratic) in the Legislature, to which he was successively elected in 1853, 1854 and 1855, by his personal popularity among his townsmen, it was apparent, from the position that he occupied and the character of the times, that he would drift into broader fields. To turn from his profession and enter the arena of party strife, although a matter largely con- trolled by force of circumstances, was a step not to be taken without due deliberation. In Sullivan County, with always a formidable array of counsel against him, he had achieved some of his greatest triumphs, and had never failed to secure a verdict before a jury. It was with some misgivings that he turned from the certain pursuits of his professional career to tread the uncertain paths in the field of American politics.

In the legislative session of 1854, Mr. Tappan was a candidate for Speaker of the House, and, notwith- standing there was a Democratic majority of about twenty, he came within two votes of an election. In the same year, forgetting past contentions, and moved by the prominent stand he had taken in the Legisla- ture, the Whigs, Free-Soilers, Independent Democrats and Americans came to his support and nominated him a member of Congress from the old Second Dis- trict, and he was elected. He was twice re-elected,

breaking for the first time the long-established rule of giving a member of Congress only two terms, and served in the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth and Thirty- sixth Congresses with distinguished ability, and es- tablished for himself, in those eventful times when " madness ruled the hour," a reputation as an able and fearless champion of the cause of the Union and the great principles of the Republican party. In July, 1856, Mr. Tappan made a speech upon the subject of the extension of slavery into Kansas, the House be- ing in a committee of the whole on the state of the Union. "It was a rich treat," to use the language of the New York Tribune at the time, "and made some of the Southern chivalry 'rise to a point of order,' and ask questions and squirm, and look very uncom- fortable. It was a speech produced by deep research and much labor." In conclusion, Mr. Tappan said : " Mr. Chairman, let me say that we seek no quarrel with our brethren of the South. This is an issue they have forced upon us, and, with God's blessing, we will meet it as becomes worthy descendants of patriotic sires! You sometimes tell us that you want to be let alone. That is precisely what we intend to do ; we will interfere with none of your rights; whatever is ' nominated in the bond ' that we will yield. In turn, is it too much for us to make the same request of you-that you will let us alone? If slavery be a blessing, to you shall inure all its benefits. If it be a curse, do not ask to place it on our soil to involve us in its guilt. We desire to cultivate the relations of peace and fraternal kindness with the people of the South."

The storm of secession was rising, aud all political elements were warming to the contest that was fast coming on. No State in the Union had more reason to be proud of any of its delegation in Congress than had New Hampshire of Mr. Tappan. As was said by one of the leading newspapers in the State at the time, he was "active, enthusiastic and always conciliatory where conciliation is needed. With a heart forced by its very nature to hate falsehood, oppression and wrong, he is just the man whom a free people should delight to honor, and in honoring whom they must honor themselves."

Mr. Tappan, in March, 1858, delivered an able speech in the House upon slavery agitation, nullifica- tion and the Lecompton Constitution, in which he said that he wished "to put on record the protest of New Hampshire of what he conceived to be the most stu- pendous political fraud that was ever before attempted to be perpetrated upon any people." In the winter of 1860-61, in the Thirty-sixth Congress, the celebrated select committee of thirty-three-one from each State -was constituted, to which was referred so much of the President's annual message as related to the then disturbed state of the country. Mr. Tappan was placed upon this committee, and joined with Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin, in a minority report. A report on the part of the majority had been agreed

HISTORY OF MERRIMACK COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

to and submitted, recommending amendments to the Constitution, by which the South would acquire all, if not more, than it had demanded for its institution of slavery. This minority report was a strong docn- ment, and recommended the adoption of the following resolution :

" Resolved, That the provisions of the Constitution are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of the material interests of the country ; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended ; and onr extrication from present difficulties is to be looked for in efforts to pre- serve and protect the public property and enforce the laws, rather than in new guarantees for particular interests, or compromises, or conces- sions to unreasonable demands."

On the 5th of February, 1861, the minority report was submitted, and Mr. Tappan immediately arose in his seat and addressed himself to the issues involved. He began by saying that he was opposed to the rais- ing of this committee at the outset, not because he did not fully understand the perilous condition of the country, but because he believed that the appointment of such a committee would lead to some sort of a com- promise, when any compromise, under the circum- stances, would be humiliating to the North, and he did not believe that any measures that might be passed would he productive of good, and would only add fuel to the flame. He was not unwilling, at the proper time, to make reasonable concessions to any portion of his conntrymen that had grievances to be redressed. But he contended that that portion of the American people who had just succeeded in elect- ing their President, in the modes and forms recog- nized by the Constitution, had done nothing that re- quired apology,-he did not, for one, go into that election to have the principles for which he con- tended abandoned at the first howl of those that were disappointed at the result. Other parties went into the election, and all must abide the result. But no sooner was the election of Mr. Lincoln declared than the fires of revolution broke out. With most indecent haste, the disunionists of the country, who, by their own confessions, had been plotting its overthrow for thirty years, seized the public property, insulted the American flag and, with jeers at the government which had protected them so long, declared themselves ont of the Union. Under these cir- cumstances, he was for postponing all other ques- tions until it was ascertained whether we had a gov- ernment or not. He declared that if this government was a mere cobweb, with no power for its own preser- vation, it would be utterly useless to attempt to patch it up with compromises. He was for narrowing the issue to the question of Union or no Union, govern- ment or no government, and maintained that, if this position had been boldly taken from the start, they would have stood stronger. Every time the people of the free States have wavered, every time her repre- sentatives have evinced a disposition to fall back one step from their position, the Secessionists, with fiercer yells, have advanced two. At the first dawn of trea- son in its borders, the great Nation retires before

it, and is crumbling to pieces withont an effort to maintain its integrity or a finger raised to protect its flag! The enforcement of the revenue laws, the de- fense of the capital and the protection of the public property does not necessarily involve war. He pro- ceeded at length on this line, and in course of his masterly effort uttered the following sentiments :

" Sir, I will indulge in no threats of what would be the result in such an event [in the event of war]. I will make no boasts of the prowess of any particular section of the country. I desire to say no word that can exasperate or inflame, but simply to plant myself on the side of my country and the integrity of its govern- ment, whose Constitution I have sworn to support. Sir, the Union is dear to the people of the Northern States; they would sacrifice much to preserve it as it is; but a Union founded on the protection of slavery as its ' chief corner-stone ' is not the Union for which our fathers fonght, and is not the precious boon which they supposed they had transmitted to their posterity."

The speech was widely circulated, and many of the congratulations that were called forth by it were con- tained in private letters from leading citizens, not only in New England, but throughont the free States. By this heroic maintenance of the " Union as it is and the Constitution as our fathers made it," there were accorded to him an ability and statesmanship which those troublesome times so much demanded in the halls of Congress.

Mr. Tappan's course throughout, as a member of Congress, was characterized by a conscientious regard for the right and the true spirit of independence. Over him there was no unworthy control and with him there was no unworthy alliance. The part he bore as a member of the committee of thirty-three receives high commendation in the first volume of Mr. Blaine's book, "Twenty Years of Congress." His action in the celebrated Judge Watrous case and on the admission of Oregon as a State was not with- out criticism. But that criticism was fully disarmed and his course vindicated. On the 5th of March, 1859, at a great Republican meeting in the city of Concord, the people of every shade of political opinion gath- ered to hear him and listen to an explanation of his position in the Oregon affair. In a candid and able manner he reviewed his action thereon, and concluded by saying "that he would not have taken a different position if every man, woman and child in the State, on bended knees, had implored him to do it; but would have resigned and come home and delivered to his constituents the trust which had been confided to him." A press report says "That the speaker was interrupted here by loud and continued applause such as was never before heard in the city, while three tremendous cheers were given, which showed emphatically that the hearts of the people were with him."

During his Congressional life, which closed with the Thirty-sixth Congress (not being a candidate for re-

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election), he had served on the judiciary committee and was chairman of the committee of claims, and at the time of his appointment as such chairman, the following appeared in the New York Tribune: " The Hon. Mason W. Tappan was conspicuous in the Thirty- fifth Congress as a member of the committee of the judiciary, and during the protracted examination of the charges preferred against Judge Watrous, Mr. Tappan was untiring in the discharge of his delicate duties. His selection now, as the head of the com- mittee on claims, was a compliment due, as well to his past services in Congress, as to his distinguished abil- ity as a lawyer and integrity as a man."

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History of Merrimack and Belknap counties, New Hampshire, Part 6

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1520

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia [Pa.] J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1520