USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of successful New Hampshire men > Part 34
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It has been at various times falsely charged that Mr. Chandler received large fees for prosecuting cotton claims before the department in which he had been an officer. This charge is entirely false. He has never prosecuted, before any forum, any such claims, and the following letter to him, written at a time when Hon. George G. Fogg made such charges against him, proves the correctness of his conduct : -
WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25, 1868.
HON. HUGH MCCULLOCH, Secretary of the Treasury, -
MY DEAR SIR : - It has been stated in publie prints and otherwise, in'a form designed to injure me, that since leaving the Treasury Department I have taken employment against the government as agent or attorney for cotton claims.
As you know that such statements are false, I desire that you will be kind enough to inform me in writing of the understanding that exists as to my relation to such cases.
Very truly yours,
WM. E. CHANDLER.
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SECRETARY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 28, 1868.
DEAR SIR :- Your favor of the 25th instant is received. It was arranged between us, before you resigned your office of Assistant Secretary, that you were not to act as counsel or otherwise against the government in relation to cotton claims, either at this department or before the court of claims. The arrangement was entirely voluntary on your part, and was considered prudent and judicious in view of your connection with this class of claims in the department. I regarded it as a very honorable one as far as you were concerned, as it was unaccompanied by any retainer or employment of yourself as counsel for the govern- ment in such cases, and was without any assurance on my part, or, as I supposed, any expectation on yours, that you should be so employed.
The understanding has not been, so far as I am advised, directly or indirectly violated by you.
Very truly yours,
HON. WM. E. CHANDLER, Washington, D. C.
HUGH MCCULLOCH, Secretary.
Mr. Chandler did not keep out of politics, but was elected as a delegate-at- large from New Hampshire to the national convention of 1868, and subsequently was chosen secretary of the national committee. He held this position during President Grant's administrations, and devoted himself to the successful conduct of the campaigns of 1868 and 1872. In 1876 he declined to occupy the posi- tion longer, but still contributed much of his time to assist in the conduct of the canvass. He had, during this time, become the owner of the largest interest in the New Hampshire Statesman and the Monitor, the leading weekly and daily Republican papers in the state, at Concord, and he was elected, in November, a member from Concord to the constitutional convention which amended the constitution of the state.
After voting in Concord at the presidential election in 1876, Mr. Chandler left for Washington, reaching the Fifth-Avenue Hotel, New York, in the early hours of the morning. The other managers of the national campaign had retired for the night, believing they were defeated; but, coincident with Mr. Chandler's arrival, news reached the committee-rooms that Oregon had been carried by the Republicans, which would elect Hayes and Wheeler by one vote. Mr. Chandler at once comprehended the situation and the points of danger, and, without waiting for consultation, sent dispatches warning against defeat by fraud, to Oregon, Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana. At the urgent solicitation of prominent members of the party, he was prevailed upon to start immediately for Florida, to protect the interests of the Republican party. He there became counsel for the Hayes electors before the canvassing board of the state, and it is universally admitted, by Republicans and Democrats alike, that to him more than to any other man is due the preservation to the Republicans of the fruits of their victory in that state. When the contest was transferred from the states to congress, and, finally, before the electoral commission chosen to arbitrate and decide who had been elected president, Mr. Chandler acted as counsel, and assisted in preparing the case as presented to the commission.
In the report of the special committee sent by the senate to investigate the election in Florida, made January 29, 1877, by Senator Sargent, of California, is contained a full statement of what the committee considered to be the law with reference to the conclusiveness of the declaration by a state canvassing board of the vote of the state for presidential electors, which was the earliest formal exposition of the principles of law which were finally adopted by the com- mission. The authorship of this statement is freely attributed by Mr. Sargent to Mr. Chandler, and the points, briefly stated, are as follows : -
I. The canvassing board was created by competent legislative authority, with jurisdic- tion to ascertain, declare, and certify, in due form, the result of the election, and in this case it did certify that the Hayes electors had been chosen by nine hundred and thirty majority.
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SECRETARY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
This declaration, having been made by a tribunal having unquestioned jurisdiction over the subject-matter, is conclusive, and it has not been and cannot be reviewed, revised, or reversed, by any power anywhere existing.
II. It cannot be reversed by any authority proceeding from the state of Florida. It cannot be reversed by a recanvass of the votes.
III. As the decision of the canvassing board, that the Hayes electors were chosen, cannot be reversed by a recanvass, neither can the title of the electors be impaired upon pro- ceedings of quo warranto.
IV. If the declaration of the result of the election of presidential electors in Florida, made by the state tribunal authorized by the legislature to make such declaration, cannot be reversed by any authority proceeding from the state of Florida, neither can it be re- versed by congress. The constitutional provision, section 1, article 2, is, " That each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof shall direct, a number of electors equal," etc. It is not pretended by any one that the president of the senate, or congress, in counting the electoral vote, can do more than merely ascertain whether or not the electors have been appointed within each state in the manner prescribed by the legislature thereof; and in the present case, if congress shall find that the result of the late election was ascer- tained and declared by the proper tribunal, created for that purpose and authorized by the legislature to make the declaration, that declaration and decision by such tribunal having jurisdiction over the subject-matter is final and conclusive upon congress, and cannot be reviewed, revised, or reversed. It does appear that the canvassing board of the state of Florida, duly authorized by the legislature, canvasscd the result of the election, and de- clared and certified that the Hayes electors were chosen, which result appearing to the gov- ernor of the state, he issued certificates to thic electors so declared chosen, and they pro- ceeded to perform their functions. Beyond this authorized decision and declaration of the proper state tribunal, it is respectfully submitted that neither the president of the senate nor congress can go.
V. In stating this doctrine, that neither the president of the senate nor congress has the right, in counting the electoral vote from any state, to go beyond the decision of that tribu- nal authorized by the state legislature to ascertain and declare the result of the vote of the people of the state for electors, it is not meant to assert that the president of the senate, or congress, cannot go behind the mere ministerial certificate of the governor. It is the duty of the executive to give a certificate to the electors chosen in the manner the legislature may have appointed, and declared to be so chosen by the tribunal authorized by the legislature to make such declaration. But if the governor is, by the state statute, not a member of such tribunal, his certificate is as purely ministerial as that of the clerk of a court certifying a copy of a judgment. It is a valid certificate if it is in accordance with the facts appearing upon the record. It is utterly invalid and worthless if contrary to those facts. Therefore the president of the senate, or congress, in canvassing the clectoral votes, even ministe- rially, and with no authority to go beyond the declaration of the election made by the state tribunal authorized to decide the result of the election, may look beyond the mere ministe- rial certificate of the executive, who has been authorized to decide nothing, and whose cer- tificate is of no value or binding force unless correctly and truthfully issued in accordance with the legally declared election. This distinction, which enables the president of the senate, or congress, to go behind the mere ministerial certificate of the governor of the state, but yet prohibits them from going behind the declaration as to the result of the election duly made by the proper state tribunal authorized to make such declaration, although tecli- nical, is as clear and distinct, and founded upon principles of law as sound and wise, as those which allow any tribunal to go behind a clerk's merely ministerial certificate purport- ing to verify the result of a verdict or judgment in court, without allowing it to go beyond the true record of the verdict or judgment itself.
After Mr. Hayes had been by the commission declared elected president, when his administration surrendered the state governments of South Carolina and Louisiana into the hands of the Democratic claimants, Mr. Chandler vigorously opposed it, and criticised the surrender and the men connected with it in most scathing terms, in letters published in the winter of 1877-78. His fidelity to his convictions of duty was conspicuous ; and his courage and boldness in attack- ing the Hayes administration gave him a lasting hold upon the confidence of the country.
259
SECRETARY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
In 1880 he was elected at the head of the ticket of Blaine delegates from New Hampshire to the Chicago convention, and was especially active in the con- tests in the national committee prior to the convention, and as a member of the committee on credentials, of which Senator Conger was chairman, and which made the successful report in favor of district representation. The following is an extract from the report of the committee on credentials : -
This long current of precedents, and this universal custom of the past, most conclu- sively establish the right of congressional district representation. It is a question of sub- stance and not of form. Whether the delegates have come certified from separate district conventions, or wlicther they have come from a state convention where the district mem- bers thereof have selected their district representatives, and formally reported them to the state convention, and their election has been certified, for brevity and convenience, only by the officers of the state convention, district representation in fact has always been allowed. The right of the congressional district to two members residing within it and representing its sentiments, has been treated as sacred, and your committee do not believe that it should be now for the first time invaded with the approval of a national convention.
Not only does the call for the convention, and the practice and precedents of the party, in one unbroken line, indicate and secure the right of single district representation, but every consideration of the reason of the practice tends to confirm its wisdom. The purpose to be secured in nominating a President is the selection of a candidate the most likely to be accepted by the people; and the nearer we get to the popular feeling, in the manner of se- lecting delegates, the wiser and safer will be our nominations. If a state convention called to choose delegates to a national convention can, by a bare majority, over-rule the choices of the congressional districts and select delegates residing within the districts who do not represent its sentiments, they might as well be allowed to select all the delegates from one congressional district. Residence within a district, coupled with misrepresentation of its sentiments, is a mockery. The delegates thus selected by a state convention will not fairly represent the masses of the Republicans of the state, but frequently will misrepresent them. Nominations made by conventions of such delegates will not be so likely to be ratified at the polls; and, in the opinion of the committee, it is the duty of the convention emplati- cally to disapprove these attempts to over-ride time-honored customs of the party, and to vindicate the right of every congressional district to be represented in a national convention by two delegates of its own selection, and expressing its own sentiments.
When his favorite candidate was withdrawn in the convention, he supported General Garfield, and during the campaign which resulted in his election was a member of the national committee and served on the executive committee.
On March 23, 1881, he was nominated, by President Garfield, as solicitor- general in the Department of Justice; but his confirmation was opposed by Attorney-General Mac Veagh, and also by all the Democratic senators, on account of his extreme radicalism on the southern question. The Republicans, with Vice-President Arthur's vote, would have had one majority ; but the whole Dem- ocratic vote, the absence of the New York senators, the abstention of Senator Mitchell, and the adverse vote of Senator Cameron of Pennsylvania, caused his rejection, on May 20, by five majority.
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Mr. Chandler had been, in November, 1880, elected a member from Concord in the state legislature, which assembled in June, 1881, and he took a leading po- sition. He favored stringent legislation against bribery at elections, and against the issuing of free passes by railroads, and was in favor of controlling by law the regulation of freight and fares upon all railroads within the state. After the close of the session of the legislature, when consolidation was effected be- tween certain Massachusetts and New Hampshire railroads without the consent of the proper authorities, and against the law, he contended against their ac- tion in the courts, in the press, and in all legitimate ways. Its success would have placed the whole railroad interest in the lines running through the center of the state and their branches under the control of Massachusetts capital and
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SECRETARY WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
Massachusetts corporations. His legal positions have been sustained by the court, and the custody and control of the roads ordered to be taken and exercised by their rightful owners.
The latest honor conferred upon Mr. Chandler was his selection by President Arthur as a member of his cabinet. He was nominated, April 7, 1882, for Sec- retary of the Navy, and confirmed April 12, by a vote of twenty-eight to sixteen ; he qualified and took possession of the office, April 17, 1882.
In closing this sketch of a busy and useful life, I must add a few words appre- ciative of the character of one whom as a boy and man I have known for forty years. In his personal habits Mr. Chandler is above reproach,-pure in speech as in action,- with a mind quick to perceive, prompt to execute, and compre- hensive in its scope. He is a man with convictions and the courage to express and maintain them. He has never sought advancement by flattery or pandering to prejudice. Those who know him best have the most faith in his integrity. The best evidence of it is the fact that in twenty-five years of aggressive politi- cal life, while occupying positions of temptation, and criticising freely the action of men who forgot their moral obligations or were shirking their official duties to the detriment of the public good, no one of them has been able to connect him with personal dishonesty, corrupt practice in official life, or political treach- ery or double-dealing. His methods are direct, positive, systematic, exact, and logical. The positions he has held have all come to him in recognition of his ability and earnest efforts in serving the cause he espouses.
Mr. Chandler has been twice married, -in 1859, to a daughter of Gov. Joseph A. Gilmore, and in 1874, to a daughter of Hon. John P. Hale. He has three sons,- Joseph Gilmore, born in 1860; William Dwight, in 1863; and Lloyd Horwitz, in 1869. Mr. Chandler's father died in 1862. His mother is still living in Concord. He has two brothers,-John K. Chandler, formerly a mer- chant in Boston and the East Indies, now residing on a farm in Canterbury, N. H .; and George H. Chandler, who was first adjutant and afterwards major of the Ninth New Hampshire regiment, and is now a lawyer in Baltimore. Mr. Chandler's father was a Whig, a man of great intelligence and firmness of char- acter. His mother is a woman of equally positive traits, and has contributed much to the formation of the character which has given success to her sons.
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HON. WILLIAM C. CLARKE.
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 Atkin- son, 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 New- bury, Mass., who died in 1690, and from Capt. 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.
William C. Clarke pursued his early studies at Atkinson Academy, of which his maternal grandfather was one of the founders, and then entered Dartmouth College, at the age of eighteen years. He was graduated with high honors in the class of 1832, which included Professors Noyes and Sanborn, of Dartmouth, and the late Samuel H. Taylor, LL. D., the noted instructor at Andover, Mass. Im- mediately becoming principal of Gilmanton Academy, he held the position for one year, while beginning the study of law. He continued his legal studies in the Harvard Law School, in the office of Stephen Moody, at Gilmanton, and in that of Stephen C. Lyford, at Meredith Bridge, now Laconia, N. H. On his admission to the bar, in 1836, he began practice in the latter town, and on the creation of Belknap county, at the close of 1840, he was appointed county solicitor. He held this position until the spring of 1844, when he removed to Manchester, and continued the practice of his profession. Two years later he was one of a committee of seven chosen by the town to petition the legislature for a city charter, and at the first city election, in August, 1846, was the Dem- ocratic candidate for mayor. There being two other candidates, there was no choice, and he withdrew his name before the second ballot, in September. In the same year, however, he consented to act as chief engineer of the fire depart- ment of the young city, and he retained this position till the close of 1848, having a number of leading citizens as his assistants.
In 1849 he was elected to the office of city solicitor, which he held for two years, and in 1850 he served as a member of the state constitutional convention. Appointed the judge of probate for Hillsborough county in 1851, he obtained the judicial title which clung to him thereafter. In 1854 he was again the Democratic candidate for mayor, but the Whig ticket was successful. A year later Judge Clarke was tendered, by Governor Metcalf, an appointment to the bench of the supreme court, but declined the position. As judge of probate he discharged his duties with high public approval, but his removal from this office, in 1856, was included in the sweeping political changes which began in
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HON. WILLIAM C. CLARKE.
1855. In 1858 he served as a member of the Manchester Board of Aldermen. Soon after the death of the Hon. John Sullivan, he was appointed, in 1863, to succeed him as attorney-general of the state ; and, receiving a re-appointment in 1868, he continued to fill the office until his death in 1872.
From the time of his admission to the bar until he became the chief prose- cuting officer of the state, Judge Clarke was actively engaged in private legal practice. He early acquired the reputation of a sound and able lawyer, and obtained an extensive clientage. As attorney-general he was highly successful in the performance of his duties, to which he devoted himself with conscientious faithfulness. Recognizing the semi-judicial character of his office, he did not allow the zeal of the advocate to outweigh more important considerations, and, in cases where a minor offense had been committed for the first time, he frequently caused indictments to be suspended, so as to give the culprit both a chance and a stimulus to reform. Hardened or flagrant criminals he pursued with the rigor demanded by the interests of justice, leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to secure their conviction. He drew all his indictments with the greatest care, and it is said that no one of the number was ever set aside. He took equal pains with the preparation of evidence and of his arguments in all important causes. These cases included a number of murder trials which attracted wide attention when in progress, and which afforded marked proof of his legal skill. His sense of duty being above all other considerations, he was unmoved by all attempts to affect his official course by private appeals or by any species of personal influence.
Judge Clarke had a marked distaste for ordinary politics and the arts of the politician. On the few occasions when he consented to be a candidate for an elective office, he did not seek the nomination, but accepted it at the request of his friends. Firmly believing, however, in the original principles of the Demo- cratic party, he often gave his voice and pen to their support, and was long a prominent member of that party in New Hampshire. When the rebellion broke out he did not hesitate a moment in regard to his political course, but was among the foremost of those who urged all citizens to sink minor party differences and rally to sustain the imperiled government. During this crisis he was active in calling and addressing many public meetings, which pledged aid to the most vig- orous measures for the defense of the Union. At the great war mass-meeting held in Concord, N. H., on the 17th of June, 1863,-which was attended by thirty thousand people, from all parts of the state, and was addressed by men of national eminence, including a member of President Lincoln's cabinet, - Judge Clarke called the assembly to order, and read the call, after which he was chosen the first vice-president. Being dissatisfied with the attitude toward the war assumed by many of the leaders of the Democratic party, he was largely instru- mental in organizing the zealous War Democrats of the state into a third, or " Union," party, which nominated a separate ticket for state officers in 1862 and 1863. This organization was not maintained after the latter year, and Judge Clarke thenceforward voted with the Republican party; but, after the early years of the war, he refrained from any active participation in politics, which he regarded as inconsistent with the nature of his duties as attorney-general.
He was one of the original directors of the Manchester Bank, serving from 1845 till 1849, and of the City Bank, with which he was connected front 1853 till 1863. He was also a trustee of the Manchester Savings Bank from 1852 until his death. For many years he was a trustee of the Manchester Atheneum, and when this was succeeded by the City Library, in 1854, he was chosen a member and clerk of the board of trustees of the latter institution, retaining both positions during the rest of his life. He was the first treasurer of the Manchester & Lawrence Railroad Company, holding that office from July 31,
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IION. WILLIAM C. CLARKE.
1847, till his resignation took effect, February 8, 1849; and he was the clerk of that company from February 28, 1854, until he died, being also its attorney when engaged in private legal practice. He was a trustee of Gilmanton Acad- emy, and in 1854 was a member of the National Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point.
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