USA > New Hampshire > New Hampshire as it is. In three parts. Part I. A historical sketch of New hampshire. Part II. A gazetter of New Hampshire. Part III. A general view of New Hampshire. Together with the constitution of the State > Part 35
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The following comparison between the two great states- men, Clay and Webster, drawn by Mr. Preston, of Ken- tucky, in his eulogy upon Mr. Webster, will probably give a very just idea of his style of oratory : "Clay - bold, brilliant, and dashing, rushing at results with that intuition of common sense that outstrips all the processes of logic - always commanded the heart and directed the action of his party. Webster seemed deficient in some of these great qual- ities, but surpassed him in others. He appeared his natu- ral auxiliary. Clay - the most brilliant parliamentary lead- er, and probably unequalled, save by the Earl of Chatham,
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whom he resembled - swept with the velocity of a charge of cavalry on his opponents, and often won the victory be- fore others were prepared for the encounter. Webster, with his array of facts, his power of statement and logical deductions, moved forward like the disciplined and serried infantry, with the measured tread of deliberate resolution, and the stately air of irresistible power."
Mr. Webster removed to Boston in 1816, that he might find a wider field for his professional pursuits, and in 1822 was elected to Congress from that city by a large majority, and in 1827 he was first elected a member of the United States Senate. On the election of General Harrison to the presidency, he was appointed secretary of state, but resigned this office soon after the commencement of President Ty- ler's administration, and in 1845 returned to the Senate.
His speeches, both in the Senate and on special occasions, are among the most remarkable and most valuable produc- tions, not only in this country, but of any age or country. Men may differ with regard to his political views and pub- lic measures, but all must acknowledge him the greatest intellect of his age. Nor was he less esteemed in private life than honored in public station. Kind and cheerful in the domestic circle, he won the affection of all who knew him ; and when, on the 24th of October, 1852, he peace- fully departed this life, in the seventy-first year of his age, the nation mourned his loss.
His last words, " I still live," are true throughout the civilized world, and so they shall remain while history endures.
En grav & by H W Smith from a Dage by Whipple
May have Melder
Printby TR Bolland
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MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, OF DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS .*
This distinguished gentleman was born in Rindge, New Hampshire, September 22, 1798. He was the eldest child of Samuel Locke Wilder, Esq., a worthy merchant and farmer in that town, and its representative several years in the legislature of this state. His father moved there, in early life, from Lancaster, Massachusetts. His paternal ancestors performed important services in the Indian and revolutionary wars, in the suppression of Shays's rebellion, and in the organization of the state and national govern- ments. " Of all the ancient Lancaster families," says the Worcester Magazine, " there is no one that has sustained so many important offices as that of the Wilders."
Having given him the advantages of the common school, his parents sent him, at twelve years of age, to New Ips- wich Academy, and subsequently placed him under the instruction of a private teacher, for the study of the clas- sics. When he had nearly completed his preparation for college, they discovered that his inclination was not for sedentary, but for active life. Partly for the confirmation of their own opinion, and partly also for the exercise of his sense of personal responsibility, they gave him his choice, either to continue his studies and prepare for one of the learned professions, to enter the store with his father and fit himself for mercantile pursuits, or to go on to the farm with the workmen and become an agricul- turist.
At first he chose the latter ; but Providence soon called him from the farm to the store, where he served an ap-
* See plate.
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prenticeship till he reached his majority. Then he was admitted into the firm, called S. L. Wilder & Son. In this connection he transacted a large and lucrative business for several years, and, in addition, discharged the duties of postmaster in that place.
His first marriage was December 31, 1820, to Miss Tryphosa Jewett, of that town, by whom he had six chil- dren ; and his second August 29, 1833, to Miss Abby Baker, of Franklin, Massachusetts, by whom he also had six children. Of his offspring, seven still survive, and five are not, for God has taken them, together with his two wedded companions.
In 1816, when he was only eighteen years of age, he exhibited a partiality for military tactics, and received an appointment in the staff of the twelfth regiment of New Hampshire militia, in connection with which he remained till 1820, when he took command of the Rindge Light Infantry, a new independent company, raised and equipped mainly by his exertions. After two years he was promoted to the office of lieutenant colonel, and the next year to that of colonel of the regiment ; but he resigned the office the succeeding spring, on account of his removal to Boston, being then in the line of rapid promotion to the highest military honors.
Upon the transfer of Mr. Wilder's family and trade to Boston in 1825, he engaged in the West India goods busi- ness as a wholesale merchant, and subsequently as an im- porter ; but in 1827 he entered a large commission house, in which he still continues. The firm is at present called Parker, Wilder, & Co., and sustains the reputation of one of the most active and reliable houses in New England. It owns and transacts the business of a large number of cotton and woollen mills.
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He and his senior partner, Isaac Parker, Esq., brother of Hon. Joel Parker, late chief justice of this state, rank among the merchant princes of Boston. They sustain official relations to several monetary institutions of that city.
Upon the death of Mr. Wilder's first wife, he sought the retirement of the country, and moved into his present residence in June, 1832. It is the first house in Dor- chester on the road from Roxbury to Milton Hill. It is called " Hawthorn Grove," standing back from the street, and surrounded with shades and hedges in variety. All its buildings are convenient and tasteful. On either side, and in the rear of the house, are gardens and nurseries. His conservatories rank among the best in the country. Amateurs pronounce his collection of trees and plants the best that can be found. His library contains the most rare and valuable works on his favorite art.
He usually devotes the morning and evening to study ; the rest of the day to the superintendence of his workmen at home, and to his mercantile business in Boston. This plan, long continued, has enabled him to make large and various literary acquisitions.
He was one of the early members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, of which he was elected president in 1840. He had previously submitted to that body a resolution, which separated from it the Mount Auburn Cemetery Association, and which secured the annual pay- ment, by the latter to the former, of one quarter of the receipts from the sale of lots, in consideration of the soci- ety's relinquishment of its claim to those consecrated grounds. This arrangement has proved, in a high degree, beneficial to both organizations. It has enabled the asso- ciation to adorn its grounds, and to erect its beautiful temple and observatory, and also the society to offer more
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liberal premiums, to make numerous and important ad- ditions to its library, and to construct its commodious hall in School Street in Boston.
During Mr. Wilder's presidency of that society, it greatly increased its funds and its number of members. At the laying of its corner stone, and the dedication of its hall, he delivered appropriate addresses, reported in its Transactions and in the periodicals of that day. Under his energetic and wise administration, its triennial festivals rose to the highest rank among the gala days in Massachu- setts. They assembled the refined and fashionable of both sexes, from city and country, who crowded the old Cradle of Liberty to its utmost capacity. On these occasions Fancuil Hall was tastefully decorated, and its tables were crowned with flowers and fruits in abundance and in variety. Mr. Wilder's sentiments and speeches at these festivals, together with the responses of the distinguished cultivators and of the chief masters of eloquence, fill a large space in the society's Transactions."
In 1848, when he resigned the office, the society acknowl- edged its obligations to him in a vote of thanks, accom- panied with magnificent pieces of silver plate, and inscribed with his name and in testimony of his " zeal and success in the cause of horticulture and floriculture." During this period of eight years he also did much for the promotion of pomology, by large annual importations of fruit trees, by the growth of seedlings, and by his encouragement of nurserymen throughout the country.
On the termination of his official relation to that society, he headed a circular for a national organization for a kindred purpose. This is now known as the American Pomological Society, and Mr. Wilder was elected its first president - an office which he now fills.
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At the biennial meeting of this association in 1852, he delivered, by appointment, a eulogy on the life and charac- ter of Andrew Jackson Downing, Esq., who perished by the conflagration of the steamer Henry Clay on the Hud- son. He closed with these graphic words : "Downing is dead ! But the principles of artistic beauty and pro- priety, of rural economy and domestic comfort, which he revealed, await a more full and perfect development ; and as they advance towards a more glorious consummation, grateful millions will honor and cherish his name. His memory shall live forever."
At the late meeting of this society in Boston, he deliv- ered a scientific and yet practical address on pomology,* which called forth the strong and unqualified commenda- tion of its members. Its session of three days closed with a levee, which he gave at the Revere House, and with a vote of thanks for his " able lecture," for his sumptuous entertainment, and for the dignity and fidelity with which he had presided over their deliberations.
Mr. Wilder's knowledge of horticulture well qualified him for a leader in enterprises for the promotion of agri- culture. He commenced his operations in this department in his own county of Norfolk, Massachusetts, where he joined in a call for a convention, that organized an agri- cultural society, of which he was elected and still con- tinues president. At its first exhibition in Dedham, Sep- tember 26, 1849, he delivered an address on agricultural education. He was followed by Governors Briggs, Lin- / cold, Reed, and Hill, by Hon. Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Robert C. Winthrop, Horace Mann, Charles F. Adams, Josiah Quincy, and others, in a strain of kindred eloquence.
Transactions for 1854.
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Then and there commenced a new era in the history of American agriculture. Kindred associations sprang up in other sections, and the cause was subsequently advocated by him in lectures before the agricultural societies in Berk- shire, Bristol, and Hampshire counties, and before the agri- cultural society in this state.
Before the latter of these bodies, he closed with this beautiful apostrophe : " My country, let the eagle of thy liberty, which so lately stood upon the cliff of thine At- lantic coast, but which stands to-day upon the lofty height of thy rocky mounts, stretch her broad wings from shore to shore, and continue to shelter the happy millions of thy sons. And from those wings, from year to year, may her young eaglets fly to other lands, till the reign of universal freedom shall introduce a universal jubilee. My country, MY COUNTRY ! glorious prospects are before thee - union, wealth, and power ; intelligence, virtue, and immortal re- nown ! "
In 1850 Mr. Wilder was elected from his county to the Senate of the commonwealth, a body of which he was chosen president, and during its session submitted a plan, which was cordially adopted, for a board of commissioners to examine and report to the next legislature on the con- dition and the means of promoting agriculture in that state. Of this commission he was chairman, and, with Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, of Amherst College, submitted an elaborate and invaluable report. From this body arose the Massa- chusetts State Board of Agriculture as a distinct and per- manent department of the government - a board of which he is still an acting member, which has its secretary and commodious rooms in the capitol, and which promises to do for agriculture what the board of education has ac- complished for the system of instruction in that common- wealth.
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Mr. Wilder next undertook the formation of a kindred national society. In the spring of 1851 he headed a call for a convention of delegates of state agricultural socie- ties at Washington, District of Columbia, June 24, to con- cert measures for their mutual advantage, and for the promotion of American agriculture. This convention was fully attended by gentlemen from all parts of the country, and by members of Congress. It organized the United States Agricultural Society, which elected him for its president - an office which he still holds.
It held its first exhibition, which was confined to that noble animal the horse, in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was attended by twenty thousand people, and many thou- sand dollars were awarded in premiums. Never before were so many rare specimens of the different breeds of that noble animal brought together. The sight of them, mounted or driven in the vast amphitheatre, was truly a sublime spectacle.
The second exhibition of this society was held in Spring- field, Ohio, and confined to neat cattle. In this depart- ment it was a scene of equal interest with the former. Many thousands of dollars were distributed in premiums. The speeches of Mr. Wilder, on each of these occasions, are fully and faithfully reported in the society's Trans- actions.
In the autumn of 1849 an association was formed in Boston, called the Sons of New Hampshire. It consists of the many hundreds of emigrants from that state in and around that commercial metropolis of New England. Of this body Daniel Webster was the first president, and the subject of this narrative the second. At its first festival, Mr. Wilder renders this grateful tribute to their native state : " She has raised men, great men ; and had
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she performed no other service, this alone were sufficient to associate her name with that of Sparta and of Athens in the history of mankind. Her Stark was a modern Leonidas, and among her orators [pointing to Mr. Web- ster] none would hesitate to point out a Demosthenes." (Great applause.)
The death of Mr. Webster he noticed on four different public occasions. On the first of these, when he met the New Hampshire legislature and executive at the Fitchburg Depot, at the head of the Sons of New Hampshire, to re- ceive them as their guests, on the occasion of his obse- quies, he said, " The loss to us, to the country, and to the world is irreparable. The whole nation mourns." On the second of these occasions he closed with this apos- trophe : " Sainted patriot ! there, in those celestial fields, where the sickle of the great reaper shall no more cut down the wise and the good, we hope at last to meet thee -- there, in those pure realms where the rainbow never fades, where thy brilliant star shall shine with pure efful- gence, and where the high and glorious aspirations of thy soul shall be forever realized." The third was when he was elected to fill the place of Mr. Webster as president of the association, and the fourth was at the second festi- val of that voluntary society.
Mr. Wilder is yet in the vigor of his manhood, and on the flood tide of success. He has, we are informed, works in the course of preparation on his favorite arts, which promise to be of great value to the world. His numerous speeches and addresses, if collected and published in a uniform edition, would make a handsome and valuable royal octavo volume. None have contributed more to promote American horticulture and agriculture. His affa- ble, yet dignified manners, his appropriateness on all occa-
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sions, and his long and valuable services render him a favorite with the common people, and also with the élite of society. Long may he live to serve his generation and his Creator.
EDMUND BURKE.
Although Mr. Burke is not a native of New Hampshire, yet his long residence in this state, the important offices which he has filled, and the high position which he occu- pies as a public man and citizen, entitle him, in our judg- ment, to a place among our sketches of the eminent public characters of our state.
The subject of this sketch was born in the town of West- minster, Vermont, on the 23d day of January, 1809. His father was a farmer, not wealthy, but possessed of a com- petency quite sufficient for the support of himself and a numerous family. His circumstances, however, required that he should labor with constant industry, - the lot of most New England farmers, - and bring his family up to the same habits of active toil. The subject of this notice was not exempt from the salutary training and discipline in the habits of robust and health-giving labor, from which but few of the sons of the tillers of the soil are exempt. He labored with his father from the time his age and strength would permit until he was fifteen years of age, going to the common school of the village in which he was born, during the summers in the tenderer years of his life, and during the winters when he had arrived at an age when his services were valuable'and necessary upon the farm. At the age of fifteen, his father, unable to give him an academical education, but desiring that he should have every advantage in his power to give him a respectable position in society, proposed that he should make an effort
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to become a member of one of the learned professions, offering to give him his time, and promising to extend to him such aid as might be in his power, if he would ac- cept the generous offer of his parent. He readily em- braced the opportunity, and immediately commenced the study of Latin, with the view of pursuing the study of the law. He continued the study of that language with great industry for six months, under the tutorship first of William F. Hale, Esq., formerly of Bellows Falls, Ver- mont, and recently a clerk in one of the departments at Washington, and subsequently of Henry A. Bellows, Esq., now of Concord, in this state ; and at the end of that time, being then in his sixteenth year, he entered as a student at law in the office of the Hon. William C. Bradley, of Westminster, then and for a long time one of the most eminent counsellors and jurists of the state. Mr. Bradley was also distinguished as a politician as well as lawyer, and possessed conversational powers of most remarkable eloquence and brilliancy. It is not strange that he should insinuate his opinions and principles (which were of the democratic school of politics) into the mind of a susceptible and impressible young man. To this circumstance, and also to the hereditary principles of his family, enforced by the precept and example of his father, who was a de- voted disciple of the Jeffersonian school, and was also a man of extensive reading for one in his station in life, and pos- sessed of a strong mind, Mr. Burke undoubtedly owes the very decided political cast of his character.
Having followed his professional studies during the period of nearly five years, the term required of students who had not the advantage of graduation at a college, Mr. Burke was admitted to the bar of Windham county, in that state. He was soon after admitted in Cheshire county, in
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this state, and in the spring following (April, 1830) he emigrated to Coös county. He first settled in the town of Colebrook, but subsequently removed to Whitefield, where he made a permanent location. Mr. Burke re- mained in Whitefield, in the practice of his profession, until the fall of 1833, when he removed to Claremont, in Sullivan county, in order to take the editorial charge of a newspaper published in that town, called the Argus. It · is proper here to remark, that Mr. Burke has been often heard to observe that he never spent three years of his life so profitably as those he spent in the town of Whitefield. He says he went into Coos county with the impression that the people were less informed than those who lived in re- gions longer settled ; but he soon found his error. On the contrary, he says he has never met with a community of men generally more intelligent, more imbued with strong common sense, more patriotic in sentiment, and more gen- erous in their feelings than he found in Coos county. Among these people he laid in a large store of practical knowledge both of men and things.
But to resume the thread of our narrative. His connec- tion with the Argus was Mr. Burke's first introduction to the editorial profession, and perhaps the foundation of his subsequent political career. Of course, the Argus, under his control, was a political paper, democratic in its poli- tics, and of very decided character. After publishing the Argus in Claremont till the autumn of 1834, Mr. Burke was induced to remove with his paper to the neighboring town of Newport, where, with the exception of a residence of five years at Washington, District of Columbia, he has ever since resided, and now resides. A short period after his removal, the Argus was united with the New Hamp- shire Spectator, another democratic paper published in
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Newport, the new paper assuming the title of Argus and Spectator, and being also under the editorial control of Mr. Burke. Our space will not permit us to comment particularly on Mr. Burke's career as an editor while in charge of the Argus and Spectator. It is sufficient to say, that, under his control, that journal advocated with great zeal the radical doctrines of the party to whose interests it was devoted, and, we believe, to the very general satisfac- tion of its patrons. It is due to Mr. Burke to say, that he started some doctrines in the columns of the Argus and Spectator which were regarded by some of his own sup- porters as rather novel and startling at the time, but which have since become cherished articles of faith in the demo- cratic creed.
So industriously and ably had Mr. Burke conducted his paper, that at the end of three years he had acquired a reputation as a political writer, which induced the late Ex-President Polk and the late Felix M. Grundy, then United States senator, of Tennessee, to offer Mr. Burke the editorship of the Union, the leading democratic organ of that state, published at Northville, at a high salary. Mr. Burke accepted the offer, and published his valedic- tory in the Argus and Spectator, preparatory to his mi- grating to Tennessee. But many of his patrons, hearing of his intention, proposed to him to remain; and as an in- ducement, they offered him the nomination for Congress, then, by the usages of his party, due to Sullivan county. This high and unexpected compliment an aspiring and ambitious young man could not decline. He accordingly permitted his name to be used, and succeeded in obtaining the nomination. This was in the summer of 1838. In the election of March, 1839, Mr. Burke, with his col- leagues on the democratic ticket, was elected a representa-
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tive for New Hampshire in the twenty-sixth Congress of the United States, being then but thirty years of age. He took his seat in that body at the commencement of the session of 1839-40, and was subsequently twice reëlect- · ed, making, in the whole, a congressional term of six years.
In referring to his congressional career, we think we do Mr. Burke no more than justice to say that it was credit- able to himself and honorable to the state. He was a true party man, and the few speeches made by him while he was a member were devoted to the support of the prin- ciples and measures of the democratic party. They secured
to their author great popularity with his party. His speech upon the independent treasury, and also his speech upon the tariff, are monuments of intellectual labor, of which
any man may be proud. They bear the marks of profound and critical research. But there is one speech, delivered by Mr. Burke. while a member of Congress, which com- manded the applause of all his constituents, without dis- tinction of party. We allude to his eloquent and beautiful defence of our state against the rude and unprovoked at- tack of a Mr. Arnold, a member from Tennessee. We have seldom read a retort so condensed, conclusive, and overwhelming. This effort alone entitles Mr. Burke to the gratitude and praise of every true son of New Hamp- shire, and fully justifies his claim to the high regards of the native-born citizens of the Granite State. While a member of Congress he was also an active, industrious, and efficient member of important committees.
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