USA > New Hampshire > The bench and bar of New Hampshire : including biographical notices of deceased judges of the highest court, and lawyers of the province and state, and a list of names of those now living > Part 17
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In the spring of 1855 he returned to his native air, but the disease had made too much progress to be then arrested.
He was a man of quick perceptions, good intellectual ability, energetic habits, and agreeable and popular manners.
He was married to B. Jane, daughter of Joseph C. Plumer, Esquire, of Epping, who with one daughter survived him.
GREENLEAF CILLEY BARTLETT.
Son of David and Susan (Cilley) Bartlett ; born, Nottingham, May 7, 1822 ; practiced, Salem and Derry ; died, Derry, April 10, 1893.
Mr. Bartlett has been truly styled a self-made man. Indebted to no famous seminary of learning, he, like the typical New Eng- land country boy, obtained his instruction in the common schools. He early discovered an inclination to be a lawyer, and when he attained the age of twenty-five the wish of his youth was realized, and he began to practice in his own office in Salem. After eight years there he moved to Derry. He represented that town in the legislature of 1866.
He was successful in his chosen profession. He kept his eyes open, and was a diligent worker. His counsel was much sought
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and relied on. He gave no opinion until he had thoroughly in- vestigated the law and the facts. Having once satisfied himself of the proper course, he pursued it with the persistency of a sleuth-hound. He tried causes in the courts with strength and skill, and addressed the jury forcibly. Sometimes in contention he appeared stubborn and blunt of speech ; but he had a kind heart, and in private life was genial and agreeable. He was something of an antiquary, and gathered books and other relics of bygone generations. He labored in his vocation up to the last day of his life.
He married Charlotte J. Kelley of Salem, May 4, 1854. They had five children, of whom one was brought up to his father's profession.
ICHABOD BARTLETT.
Son of Dr. Joseph and Hannah (Colcord) Bartlett ; born, Salisbury, July 24, 1786 ; Dartmouth College, 1808 ; admitted, 1812 ; practiced, Durham and Portsmouth ; died, Portsmouth, October 19, 1853.
Among the many able lawyers in the earlier part of the cen- tury, Ichabod Bartlett was one of the very foremost. He studied his profession with Moses. Eastman and Parker Noyes of Salis- bury. He was in practice in Durham for about six years, and then made his permanent home in Portsmouth. A lawyer of his education and calibre could not long continue briefless, and he seems almost at once to have stepped into a practice of the best class. Only five years after his admission to the bar he was em- ployed as counsel with George Sullivan in the Dartmouth College cases, against Jeremiah Smith, Jeremiah Mason, and Daniel Webster.
Mr. Bartlett won his spurs in a field, and against competitors, that no second-rate man could have faced. He was continually pitted against the leaders of the then renowned Rockingham bar. He was not so learned as Mason or Smith, he had not the melli- fluous flow of Sullivan's oratory, nor the titanic intellect of Web- ster; but he possessed a sufficiency of learning and of logical power, and an adroitness, a dexterity, a readiness, all his own, and an eloquence of the most effective character. His courage and tenacity were quite as remarkable as his other qualities.
Thus equipped, he was a formidable man to meet. For more
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than thirty years he stood among the very first practitioners in New Hampshire, and was retained in a good proportion of the causes where much was at stake. For a considerable part of that time he " traveled the circuit " with the judges, attending the successive terms of the court from Rockingham through to Graf- ton County. His diligence while on the circuit was untiring; he studied and prepared his causes with the utmost care ; his days were given to trials in the court-room, and at night he laid out his work for the morrow. His best powers and exertions were given to his clients, and no one had ever occasion to reproach him with negligence or unfaithfulness. But when the circuit was ended, and. the work that resulted from it was over, he felt himself at liberty to indulge, like Counselor Pleydell, in " high jinks," or the American equivalent of that diversion. His practice as a counselor, indeed, was probably quite secondary to his business in court.
Mr. Bartlett held in the course of his life many official posi- tions. He was clerk of the state Senate in 1817 and 1818; rep- resentative in the legislature from Portsmouth in 1819, 1820, and 1821, in which last year he was elected Speaker ; again repre- sentative in 1830, 1838, 1851, and 1852; and delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1850. He was appointed solicitor for the county of Rockingham in November, 1818, and held the office about three years ; in 1822 he was chosen repre- sentative in Congress, and retained his seat for three successive terms.
It was during his first term in Congress that he had his famous collision with Henry Clay. In point of talents and parliamentary experience Mr. Clay was one of the strongest men in Congress, and when he found a new and comparatively unknown member boldly setting up an opinion adverse to his decree, he attempted to brush him out of the way with the rough side of his tongue. But Mr. Bartlett had abundant spirit, and was no novice in a conflict of wits, and in the encounter with Mr. Clay was adjudged not to have come off second best. The great Kentuckian was not accustomed to such treatment, and was very indignant at it. Mr. Bartlett was warned to be on his guard against an attack else- where with weapons more fatal than words, and went armed ac- cordingly. He was also given to understand that if he would wait after the adjournment of Congress, he would receive a message
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from Mr. Clay such as was then "customary among gentlemen." Mr. Bartlett remained in Washington for three days, but no message came. Evidently his antagonist had become cooler and wiser by reflection. The affair, however, demonstrated the spirit and pluck of the representative of the Granite State.
Upon Mr. Bartlett's return from Congress, he resumed his prac- tice with his accustomed energy. His experience as solicitor gave him familiarity with the criminal law, and besides his civil business he was called upon to conduct the defense in several cap- ital cases. His argument for the prisoner in State v. Ferguson is said to have been one of the most powerful that he ever uttered. The case of Abraham Prescott, charged with murder, strongly en- listed his feelings, for he was convinced that the accused was irresponsible by reason of mental alienation. The indictment was twice tried, and the appeal which Mr. Bartlett made to the jury would at this day have consigned the accused to an insane asylum instead of the gallows ; but the subject of insanity as a branch of medical jurisprudence was then in its infancy.
His arguments were never long ; he did not think it necessary to elaborate any but the great points of his case. He had the art of condensing, - a rare accomplishment in an off-hand speaker. He made every epithet tell, and contrived to get the sympathy of the jury from the start.
An instance indicates how skillfully he could turn the tables upon his adversary by a word. In a cause which he tried before a jury, without result, his principal witness was a man bearing the patronymic of Leathers, - a name of peculiar unfragrance in New Hampshire. Mr. Bartlett being of the opinion, not without reason, that the witness's statements would be more readily cred- ited if he were not handicapped by a bad name, in anticipation of another trial was instrumental in procuring for him the new ap- pellative of Smith, by an act of the legislature. Meantime the other party was not idle, but tampered with the same witness with complete success. So when the cause came again before the jury, and Mr. Bartlett called his witness by his newly obtained desig- nation of Smith, he found that his testimony had undergone as radical a change as his name. After putting the witness through his paces sufficiently to understand the nature of the transforma- tion, Mr. Bartlett said, in a tone that conveyed his contempt to every ear in the court-room, "You may step down and out, Mr. Leathers, we want nothing more of you !"
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Mr. Bartlett was quick to denounce anything like fraud or dis- honesty, in whatsoever quarter it appeared. He was once em- ployed to bring an action on some promissory notes which the testimony produced by the defendant proved to be tainted by illegality of consideration, as they were given to suppress a prose- cution for forgery. Indignant that by the rascality and silence of his client he had been put into the attitude of attempting to enforce an odious claim, Mr. Bartlett flung his papers upon the table, in open 'court, and with the remark that "he trusted the Court would do him the justice to believe that he had before no suspicion of the real circumstances of the case," he abandoned his client to his fate.
Though he could be severe upon occasion, few men possessed more winning traits of character than Mr. Bartlett. The younger members of his profession, especially, entertained for him the highest admiration and regard. He made it a point to notice them and address them, especially in company, where their diffi- dence would have kept them silent. He was always ready to help them in court, when they were at a loss, and to supply the key to unlock the difficulty. The writer remembers an occurrence of this kind, at a law term, where a young and modest practitioner was making his maiden speech. Some member of the Court, forgetting that an interruption might embarrass the beginner, chopped in upon him with a hard question. The poor fellow blushed and stood speechless. Mr. Bartlett quietly whispered to him an answer that satisfied his interlocutor, and restored the young man to his self-possession. He never forgot the kind act, we may be sure.
In his public speeches he had a fashion, when he wished to lay particular emphasis upon a word, of pausing an instant before pronouncing it. One of the elders of the bar described this process as " poising his word before he launched it." It seemed as if he were hesitating in the choice of his expression, and that he always picked out the fittest. But in fact the man never hesi- tated. His powers were always on the alert. If he had had hours for deliberation he could not have done or said the right thing at the right moment more uniformly than he did without a moment's forethought.
One day a brother lawyer was handed a villainous-looking let- ter in Mr. Bartlett's presence. "That letter must have come
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from the jail," said Mr. Bartlett; " I have received a good many such looking ones from there." "No," said the other smartly, "none of my friends are in the jail." " Ah !" replied Mr. Bart- lett, as quick as a flash, " when did they escape !"
Mr. Bartlett wrote little for the press. Beyond a few political speeches, and his poorly reported arguments in two or three crimi- nal trials, a single oration delivered at the age of twenty-two, and one or two trifles hereafter to be mentioned, are all that remain in print to attest his literary powers. He manifested his interest, however, in some matters outside his profession. His services were in great demand at political gatherings, and his speeches, bright and caustic, were very telling. In the campaign that re- sulted in the election of President Harrison, he was particularly active. Indeed, it was supposed to be owing to his extraordinary exertions at that time that he was first attacked by the disease which finally caused his death. Like most men bred on a farm, in an agricultural community, he always maintained an interest in husbandry, and was a member of one or more societies for the promotion of the art. He was one of the original members of the New Hampshire Historical Society, which was the outgrowth of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of New Hampshire by Europeans. Several odes were written for the occasion, among them one which is attributed by Mr. Plumer, who undoubtedly had the means of knowledge, to Mr. Bartlett.
Mr. Bartlett was president of the New Hampshire Historical Society four years, from 1826 to 1830. In 1827 he delivered the annual address before the Society, which was never published. The biographical sketch of Nathaniel A. Haven, Jr., in the second volume of the Society's Collections, is understood to be from his" pen.
Mr. Bartlett was generous, sensitive, and high spirited. Though he could not easily forget a slight or an injury, yet he would do anything for a friend. In his earlier days he had the reputation of being a great "ladies' man." And he never en- tirely lost it, for his polished and deferential manners and agree- able conversation made his society most acceptable to the sex, at all periods of his life. But his attentions were general, and never focused upon any individual, although whispers of an unfulfilled romance in his youth were not wanting.
His attitude towards womankind was the occasion of the follow-
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ing epigram, believed to have been the work of John Kelly of Exeter, -
" He loved the ladies, great and small, He loved the few - he loved the many, But since he could not marry all, He would not marry any !"
JAMES BARTLETT.
Son of Dr. Joseph and Hannah (Colcord) Bartlett ; born, Salisbury, August 14, 1792 ; Dartmouth College, 1812 ; practiced, Dover ; died there, July 17, 1837.
This was a younger brother of Ichabod Bartlett. He studied his profession with Moses Eastman of his native town, and with his brother Ichabod at Durham. After his admission he entered into a partnership with the latter, which continued for about three years. On the 1st of July, 1819, he received the appointment of register of Probate for the county of Strafford, and then, or before, took up his abode in Dover. That office he held for sixteen or seventeen years. In the mean time he was chosen a representative of Dover in the legislatures of 1823 to 1826, inclusive, and a state senator in 1827 and 1828.
He possessed good natural abilities, but lacked ambition. As an old member of the Strafford bar expressed it, " he had a good deal of latent power, but did not love work." He was a popular man, and enjoyed the reputation of being a " smart " one ; which introduced him to convivial assemblages, and at length to habits of dissipation, it is said. His characteristics were strength and clearness, rather than brilliancy.
His first wife, married in June, 1820, was Jane Ballard. His second, married in June, 1831, was Jane M., daughter of George. Andrews of Dover. He left two or more children, one of whom became a lawyer in Bangor, Maine.
JOSEPH BARTLETT.
Born, Plymouth, Massachusetts, June 10, 1762 ; Harvard College, 1782 ; practiced, Portsmouth ; died, Boston, Massachusetts, October 20, 1827.
This eccentric genius removed into this State from Maine, as early as 1809, and lived in Portsmouth for ten or twelve years. He had graduated from college with so high a rank for scholar-
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ship that he secured an election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Shortly after peace was ratified with Great Britain he was in London, England. A happy retort at the theatre one night to a piece designed to ridicule his countrymen introduced him to the company of the young bloods about town, and his wit, audacity, and recklessness rendered him quite popular among them. For a time he led a gay life there, and afterwards boasted that he frequently met with Fox and Sheridan, which is not unlikely to be true. But soon, overwhelmed with debt, he was arrested and imprisoned. Having extricated himself by the proceeds of a comedy which he wrote, he next tried his fortune for a time upon the stage. But finding that London merchants were not disin- clined to reopen trade with America, he purchased a quantity of goods on credit, and set sail with them for this country, but was wrecked on the coast of Cape Cod. A second experiment which he made in trade also failed.
He then returned to his original intention of studying the law. About this time the "Shays rebellion " occurred in Massachusetts, and volunteer companies were raised in and about Boston to aid in suppressing it. Bartlett was chosen captain of one of the com- panies, and marched with it two hours on the road to Springfield, when tidings were received that the insurrection was quelled, and the volunteers were ordered to return to their homes. Upon sur- rendering his command Bartlett made a humorous speech, saying that no doubt Shays had retreated by reason of hearing that he and his brave companions had taken the field against him !
On his admission to the bar, he first made his abode in Woburn, Massachusetts. He soon manifested that spirit of demagogism which, with his wit and impudence, constituted his chief stock in trade. " He harangued in the grog-shops and at the town meet- ings, and at all times had the power of setting the mob in a roar." He painted his house black, and called it "the coffin." He neglected no art to attract notice, and "as odd as Joe Bartlett " became a by-word.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, was his next residence. Here his eccentricities had wider scope. He attended the meetings of the Phi Beta Kappa society, and while ingratiating himself with a certain class of the students, made himself odious to the au- thorities of the college. He managed to get himself chosen to deliver the poem before the Phi Beta Kappa meeting at Com-
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mencement. His production was by no means without merit, but was filled with flings at the professors. He wrote criticisms for the newspapers on the college performances, and took the part of the students who were under discipline ; in short, he was a source of perpetual annoyance to the faculty.
Party politics ran high at this period, and Bartlett contrived to get elected for a year or two as representative in the General Court, but he made little figure there. And in the judicial courts he fared no better, for he had neither the industry, the legal knowledge, nor the moral qualities which have weight with judge and jury. The character of his business and of his clients de- teriorated, and he found it expedient - to use his own phrase - " to see new faces."
In 1803 he removed to Saco, Maine. For a time he made a sensation there, especially in political affairs. He changed sides from Federalism to Democracy, and was chosen to the Senate of Massachusetts, but became embroiled with the leaders of his own party. A civil action for a libel, in which Bartlett was the plaintiff, and in the end the successful party, put money in his purse for a while, but made another change of residence expedi- ent, and Bartlett migrated to Portsmouth in our own State.
Very shortly after his arrival he was invited to deliver an address on the Fourth of July, which was published. His fame as a ready speaker for a time attracted him some business, es- pecially on the criminal dockets of the courts. He wrote con- siderably for the journals of the day, and made no scruple of declaring that his pen was at the service of the highest bidder ; but in his productions under his own name he introduced nothing immoral or offensive to good taste. In 1810 he published a vol- ume of " Aphorisms," which were of respectable literary merit for the time, though containing little that was original. At this day they remind one strongly of the sounding platitudes of Tupper.
When Timothy Farrar took his seat as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1813, Bartlett, who had been in the habit of treating his predecessor in the office with little defer- ence, made an address of a very offensive character to the Court, and then sat down and looked around the bar with the air of having done a smart thing. Judge Farrar quietly directed the sheriff to take him into custody for contempt of court. Poor Bartlett's triumph was short-lived. He was taken by the sheriff
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into one of the jury-rooms, and there he endeavored to excite the sympathy of his professional brethren. But nobody pitied him, and all with one accord assured him that he must make an apology to the Court. He accordingly returned to the court- room, and expressed his regrets to the Bench in a very neat speech. Judge Farrar, in behalf of the Court, accepted his apologies as satisfactory, and he was allowed to resume his place in the bar. But it is said that Bartlett, far from being mortified at the part he had acted, was flattered by the assurance that he had made a very good apology !
John Hale, a most promising young lawyer of Portsmouth, had died some years before Bartlett's removal there. Bartlett, however, on one occasion, improvised an epitaph upon him, and added to its point by interjecting the application of the lines, as follows : -
" God takes the good, Too good by far to stay (that 's him); And leaves the bad, Too bad to take away (that's me)."
Bartlett's fortunes were erelong on the wane. His wife left him on account of his neglect or inability to provide for her ; for- tunately, they had no children. His wit degenerated into buf- foonery and scurrility ; he neglected his person. His employers were from the lowest rounds of the social ladder. It was at this period that he uttered the witticism, - referring to his only re- maining client, a colored man named Cæsar, - " Aut Cæsar aut nullus."
"The last day of suing" is remembered by the older lawyers as a very busy time, when it behooved every practitioner who hoped for a long list of entries to be in his office till midnight. On one of these important occasions, during the latter part of Bartlett's stay in Portsmouth, Ichabod Bartlett, then an active young law- yer, was hurrying to his office, and met his older namesake stand- ing quietly at the street corner.
"Stop," said Joseph. "I can't," said Ichabod, "it's the last day of service." "Pooh, pooh," said Joseph, " I can get more business in the street than in the office. While I've been stand- ing here I've got five defenses," - showing that number of sum- monses which had been served on himself as defendant.
At length the people of Portsmouth virtually hired him to leave
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the town, by taking tickets in a literary recitation which he gave to obtain the means to remove elsewhere.
His last home was in Boston, Massachusetts, where he became dependent upon the benefactions of his brethren of the profession, and the charity of his landlady. He endeavored to eke out his slender means by a second edition of his " Aphorisms," in 1823 ; to which he affixed his early poem of "Physiognomy," which showed real marks of the poetical faculty, and a prose essay on the " Blessings of Poverty," which had at least the merit of being based upon experience.
He died in Boston, October 27, 1827. The following epitaph he composed for himself : -
"'T is done ! the fatal stroke is given, And Bartlett 's fled to hell or heaven ;
His friends approve it, and his foes applaud, Yet he will have the verdict of his God."
JOSEPH K. BARTLETT.
This was a son of Amos Bartlett, born in Bath in the year 1805. He was admitted to Dartmouth College as a freshman, and is represented to have been a superior scholar. He studied law in the office of Jonathan Smith of Bath, and was admitted an attorney in 1831. He started in practice in Mont Vernon, but stayed there only about one year, when he removed to Dunstable, now Nashua, and formed a partnership with Aaron F. Sawyer. Ill health compelled him a year later to abandon New Hampshire, and he proceeded to Cincinnati, Ohio. He lived there but about six months, and died of cholera.
RICHARD BARTLETT.
Son of Caleb and Ruthy (McClintock) Bartlett ; born, Pembroke, January 8, 1792 ; Dartmouth College, 1815; admitted, 1818 ; practiced, Concord ; died, New York, October 23, 1837.
When Mr. Bartlett was fifteen years of age, his regular and handsome handwriting attracted the attention of Philip Carrigain, at that time Secretary of State, and he became the secretary's clerk. There he remained three years, and then entered Phillips Exeter Academy, on the foundation. With assistance from friends he accomplished his college course, with the high honor of
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the valedictory oration, in 1815. He then entered the office of George Sullivan of Exeter, and completed his legal studies, and was admitted an attorney.
Being indebted for the cost of his education, he took the place of deputy Secretary of State, which was offered him, and at the same time advertised himself as a practicing lawyer in Concord. He continued in the secretary's office as deputy until 1825, and three successive years as Secretary of State. Here his services were of great value. He realized the importance of preserv- ing every aid to history that the archives of the State afforded, and had the orderly habit of mind that would have a place for everything and everything in its place. While he occupied the office he did more towards putting the records of the State in good condition than had ever been done before. He caused to be recorded many acts which had been omitted. He procured copies of ancient documents from Massachusetts, and many files which had been retained by Secretary Waldron. He also inaugurated the practice of binding the acts of the legislature into volumes.
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