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 38
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tion was not, to a man quick and fertile of resources like " Jack Hale," as he was called, a matter of so serious moment.
As might be expected, he had great popularity. No man could resist his hearty and winning ways. He lived in good and rather lavish style, and had no financial capacity, so that he was some- times remiss even in paying over moneys that he had collected for others. It repeatedly happened that those to whom he was thus indebted called on him, brimful of indignation and threats of legal proceedings. But he always received them so cordially, and smoothed down the ruffled feathers so deftly, that they would eventually leave him in entire good humor, and without having alluded to the real cause of their visit. His politeness and tact were a shield that no ill-nature could penetrate ; and he possessed a fund of anecdotes which he related with a humor that was irresistible.
Mr. Hale was married in early life to Lydia Clarkson, daugh- ter of Jeremiah O'Brien of Machias, Maine, and had several chil- dren, of whom the eldest son was his namesake, the distinguished lawyer and statesman.
JOHN PARKER HALE, LL. D.
Son of John P. and Lydia C. (O'Brien) Hale ; born, Rochester, March 31, 1806 ; Bowdoin College, 1827 ; admitted, 1830 ; practiced, Dover ; died there, November 19, 1873.
Being a young man of brilliant parts, Mr. Hale was not too much addicted to study while in college, and, if Mrs. Ann Royall is to be credited, was a little inclined to dissipation. But if so, he fully redeemed himself in after life. Not that he ever became a close student : his perceptions were rapid, his memory retentive, and his knowledge was obtained by something like intuition. He read law with Jeremiah H. Woodman of Rochester and Daniel M. Christie of Dover, where he settled in practice. His ability soon brought him into public notice. He was chosen a represen- tative in the state legislature in 1832, and in 1834 was appointed United states District Attorney by President Jackson, and re- appointed in 1838 by Van Buren, but was removed by Tyler in 1841. In 1842 he was elected to Congress, and reelected two years later, serving four years. Here began his divergence from his party, which was destined later to bring him into great prom-
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inence. He opposed the admission of Texas into the Union, as an extension of slave territory. For this the Democratic party of New Hampshire struck his name from their ticket of nominees for Congress. He accepted the issue, and became the candidate of the Free Soil party, to which the Whigs gave their support. He made the tour of the State, and addressed the citizens everywhere with eloquence and power.
In June, 1845, occurred his celebrated debate with Franklin Pierce, the champion of New Hampshire Democracy, who was put forward to reply to Mr. Hale. It was a memorable passage-at- arms, and Mr. Hale's friends were delighted with his success. He was said to have risen to a height of eloquence that he never reached before. The next year he was a member of the legis- lature, was placed in the chair of the House, and was elected a senator of the United States for six years. In 1855 he was again chosen to the United States Senate to fill out the unexpired term of Charles G. Atherton, and in 1858 was chosen for the third time, and held his seat till the spring of 1865. He was the earliest member of the Senate chosen on the Free Soil issue, and for two years or more the only one. He was no silent member. He took part in the business and debates, never hesitating to utter his views on all questions plainly and firmly. But he had the happy faculty of never giving needless offense. Yet he dealt hard blows sometimes, but in so manly a fashion that it would have seemed cowardly to resent them. Moreover, it was the part of prudence not to come to too close quarters with a man of the courage and wit and eloquence of the New Hampshire senator. He was long a member of the Committee on the Navy, and origi- nated and carried through the Senate two reforms, which were established by law: the abolition of flogging and of the spirit ration in the navy. In securing this desirable legislation he felt an honest pride.
He was twice nominated by the Free Soil party of the country for the presidency of the United States : in 1848 when he declined in favor of Van Buren, and in 1852 when Franklin Pierce was elected.
In March, 1865, Mr. Hale was appointed minister to Spain. It was a position for which he had no special adaptation, and in which, by reason of his want of familiarity with the language and customs, he was obliged to repose the utmost confidence in others.
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His friends had no doubt that his confidence was abused, and that certain charges made against him, which were never substantiated, were utterly baseless. Surely it must be admitted that he was the last man to attempt to make petty gains out of his official privileges. He was recalled in 1869, and returned home. The remaining three or four years of his life he was an invalid, his life work all done.
Mr. Hale was not a learned but he was a ready lawyer. He had unfailing tact, good humor, and natural oratorical skill. The opponent who fancied he had put him in a corner usually found there were unexpected ways out of it.
In one cause which he was conducting the adverse counsel had attempted to break down his principal witness by presenting the notes of his discrepant testimony on a former trial. Mr. Hale, in his argument, in order to show the liability to error of such notes, read to the jury that part of the inimitable trial of the action of Bardell v. Pickwick, where the little judge inquired of Mr. Win- kle whether his name was Nathaniel Daniel, or Daniel Nathaniel, and on his reply that it was only Nathaniel and not Daniel at all, the judge retorted : " Why did you say Daniel, then ?" " I did n't, my lord." "You did, sir," returned the little judge : " how could I have got it on my notes unless you said it ?"
A story is related of Mr. Hale's free translation while a student in college of an apothegm of some classical author to the effect that a thing well begun was half done. The student astonished his professor by rendering it: " A man who is well lathered is half shaved."
The surrender by President Polk of his confident claim of the Territory of Oregon to "fifty-four forty" was characterized by Mr. Hale as an exhibition of Christian meekness, - " but unfortu- nately he did not receive the promised reward of the meek, - he did not inherit the land !"
In 1851 Mr. Hale was counsel for the respondents in the " res- cue cases " in Boston, and for Rev. Theodore Parker in a some- what similar case at a later date. The questions involved aroused his deepest feeling, and he acquitted himself on the trials with the highest credit, and won the warm commendation of Richard H. Dana and unstinted praise from Mr. Parker. Dartmouth Col- lege in 1861 conferred upon Mr. Hale the well-merited degree of Doctor of Laws.
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At the turning crisis of his career he declared that the inscrip- tion he most desired upon his tombstone was, that he was willing to surrender office rather than bow down to slavery. He kept the faith, and his name will ever stand high on the roll of the cham- pions of freedom.
He was married to Lucy, daughter of William Lambert, Esq., of South Berwick, Maine. Two daughters were the issue of the marriage, one of whom became the wife of Hon. William E. Chandler of the New Hampshire bar.
SALMA HALE.
Son of David and Hannah (Emerson) Hale ; born, Alstead, March 7, 1787 ; admitted, 1834 ; practiced, Keene ; died there, November 19, 1866.
At the age of thirteen Mr. Hale began to learn the trade of a printer in the office of the " Farmer's Museum," a newspaper of note at Walpole, and when he reached eighteen he was the editor of the "Political Observatory," a weekly journal issued in the same town. Not long after this he determined to study law, and pursued that design under the direction of Roger Vose at Wal- pole, of Samuel Dinsmoor and of Phineas Handerson at Keene. His entrance to the bar was postponed by his appointment in 1812 to the clerkship of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Cheshire, to which the clerkship of the Superior Court was added in 1817. These offices he continued to hold, through sundry changes of the court, with the exception of a few years, until 1834.
In 1816 he was elected a representative in Congress, and served one term from 1817 to 1819, but declined a reelection. In 1823 he was chosen a representative, and in 1824 a senator in the state legislature. He was also secretary of the commission for settling the boundary line between the territory of the United States and of the British Provinces, under the treaty of Ghent.
In 1834 he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Keene, with the great advantage of a thorough knowledge of the forms and methods of legal proceedings, and a wide acquaintance. He did not engage much in the trial of causes, but was a studious, prudent, judicious counselor. He was essentially scholarly in his tastes and habits, a great reader, familiar with the French and other modern tongues, and a writer of a correct and elegant style.
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He contributed numerous articles for newspapers and periodicals, and was the author of a school history of the United States which won the prize of $400 offered by the American Academy of Lan- guages and Belles-Lettres for the best work of that character. It long held its place in the schools, and was reprinted several times abroad. He also compiled the " Annals of Keene," which went through two editions.
He was no recluse, and took a deep interest in passing events and the questions of the day. Modest and retiring in his manner, he was regarded as one of the best informed and most interesting men in his section. He was an early member and president of the State Historical Society. He received in 1824 the honorary degree of A. M. from the University of Vermont.
Mr. Hale's wife was Sarah K. King. They had two children, a son, Hon. George S. Hale, counselor at law in Boston, Massa- chusetts, and Sarah K., who became the wife of Harry Hibbard of Bath.
SAMUEL HALE.
Son of John Hale ; born, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1745 ; Harvard Col- lege, 1766 ; practiced, Portsmouth; died, England, 1787.
This gentleman was in practice in Portsmouth as early as 1771, and was admitted to the Superior Court the next year. He is described as a man of decided intelligence, of enlarged informa- tion, and of an affectionate and honest heart. Moreover, he pos- sessed a ready wit, but was perhaps sometimes no sufficient respecter of persons in the exercise of it. A good clergyman of Portsmouth once observed, in a religious conversation with a friend, that " by the foolishness of preaching " men were brought to the knowledge of the truth and eternal life. Mr. Hale, who was present, exclaimed, " Faith, parson, your congregation will stand a good chance ! "
In the Court of Common Pleas the clerk, wishing to absent himself, requested John Pickering, afterwards the distinguished judge, to officiate for him. Wyseman Clagett, knowing Mr. Pickering's aversion to taking an oath, objected, unless he were sworn. Pickering said he would not swear, but would give his honor that he would perform the duty faithfully. "Honor !" said Clagett, "a knave is an honor." "Yes," said Hale, pointing
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to the bench on which sat the four justices of the court, " and there are four in the pack."
Mr. Hale showed himself to be a decided, as he was a thor- oughly honest, opponent of the American Revolution, and early in its progress quitted his home in Portsmouth and placed himself within the British protection. The legislature of New Hampshire thereupon proscribed him and forbade him to return into the State.
Mr. Hale went to England toward the close of the war, and never again saw his native land, nor the wife and child whom he left when he passed within the enemy's lines. But he wrote affectionately to his wife, and strove to have the obnoxious legis- lation of the State against loyalists repealed. But while he was yet in middle life, death closed his career.
His wife was Lydia, daughter of Judge William Parker of Portsmouth, His child was John P. Hale, afterwards of Ro- chester.
OBED HALL.
Son of Hon. Ebenezer L. and Lydia (Dinsmore) Hall ; born, Conway, Feb- ruary 23, 1795 ; practiced, Bartlett and Tamworth ; died, Tamworth, May 21, 18,73.
In the war of 1812 Mr. Hall was in the military service for a short time, in a company of militia at Portsmouth. His early education was imperfect, and he studied law three years with Enoch Lincoln of Fryeburg, Maine, and two years with Lyman B. Walker of Meredith. He first set up in practice at Bartlett, and about 1820 changed his residence to Tamworth. He was representative in the legislature in 1840 and 1841, in which latter year he was appointed register of Probate for the new county of Carroll. That post he occupied ten years. In 1854 and 1856 he was a state senator.
He was a lawyer of respectable acquirements, but preferred to give his time and attention to politics, which did not conduce to his legal progress nor to his pecuniary profit. He gave much attention to his farm, being partial to agriculture. He was pub- lic-spirited, and in private life benevolent and kindly.
His first wife was Elizabeth Gilman of Tamworth, who bore him one daughter ; his second was Caroline E., daughter of John Carroll of Maine. She left him a daughter, who outlived her father.
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JOHN HAM.
Son of Dodrick Ham ; born, Dover, December 30, 1774 ; Dartmouth Col- lege, 1797 ; practiced, Gilmanton ; died there, March 7, 1837.
This gentleman was fitted for college at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and studied his profession at Portland, Maine, with William Symmes, and at Durham with Ebenezer Smith. Ad- mitted an attorney in 1800, he fixed his residence the same year in Gilmanton. He represented the town in the legislatures of 1813 and the two years next following, and was one of the select- men seven years, beginning in 1823. For more than thirty years he was one of the trustees of the Gilmanton Academy.
He is described as a pretty good lawyer, though he never ac- quired a very extensive practice. He had a good farm and culti- vated it well, and seems to have had a greater inclination for tilling the soil than for the contentions of the courts. In term time he often acted as assistant to the clerk. He was honest, amiable, and well liked. His countenance wore a smile of good humor, and he was a noted player upon the violin. These pecu- liarities are uncomplimentarily alluded to in a line of Moses L. Neal's verse, -
" And simpering John with his long fiddle-bow."
It is to the credit of Mr. Ham that the merciless poetaster of the opposite party, in the times of high political feeling during the war of 1812, could find in him no more vulnerable character- istics for the shafts of his ridicule, than a smiling countenance and a partiality to music.
Mr. Ham took to wife Wealthy C., daughter of Moses Bing- ham of Hanover, June 9, 1808. They had six children.
PHINEHAS HANDERSON.
Son of Gideon and Abigail (Church) Handerson ; born, Amherst, Massa- chusetts, December 13, 1778 ; admitted, 1804; practiced, Chesterfield and Keene ; died, Keene, March 16, 1853.
When this gentleman was a child of only a few months old, he was carried in the arms of his mother on horseback to Clare- mont, and there he received his slender early education. He became a faithful reader of books of sterling value, and thus
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supplemented the deficiencies of his school instruction. In 1799 he began the study of the law in the office of George B. Upham of Claremont. In 1805 or 1806 he settled in Chesterfield, and pursued his profession there until 1833. He was elected a select- man in 1811; representative in the legislature in 1812, 1813, and 1815 ; and state senator in 1816, 1817, 1825, 1831, and 1832.
In 1833 he removed to Keene. He was elected councilor in 1841 and 1842, and representative in 1843 and 1849. From 1827 up to the day of his death he was the president of the Cheshire County bar.
Mr. Handerson was a lawyer of ample learning and intellectual power, but was not ambitious for public distinction. His great aim was to do right.
He was a genuine peacemaker. Of him it may be said in the language of Pope, in his epitaph upon a barrister : -
" Many he assisted in the law, More he preserved from it."
" He was a noble man," was the testimony of James Wilson, Jr., who practiced beside him.
He was married, in 1818, to Hannah Willard, daughter of Rev. Samuel O. Mead of Walpole, and had eight children, seven of whom were daughters. One of these was the wife of Francis A. Faulkner of Keene.
JOHN ADAMS HARPER.
Son of William and Mary (Lane) Harper ; born, Deerfield, November 2, 1779 ; practiced, Sanbornton and Meredith ; died, Meredith, June 18, 1816.
Mr. Harper obtained his education at the Phillips Exeter Academy, which he entered in 1794. Thomas W. Thompson of Salisbury was the first director of his law studies, and they were completed in the office of Jeremiah Smith at Exeter. About the year 1802 he commenced practice in Sanbornton. Four years later he moved to Meredith Bridge, now Laconia. From 1805 to 1808 he was clerk of the state senate; and in 1809 and 1810 he represented Meredith in the lower house of the legislature. In 1810 he was chosen a representative in Congress, and served from 1811 to 1813. On the question of declaring war against England he cast his vote in the affirmative, and took part in the
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debates. He was tendered the commission of lieutenant-colonel in the army, but declined it by reason of his unwillingness to leave his young and dependent family.
His personal appearance was prepossessing, his manners were engaging, and he was eminently social and popular. His intel- lectual abilities were of a superior order, but he was not proof against the temptations of conviviality, which seriously lessened his power of usefulness, if it did not shorten his life.
Mr. Harper was the compiler of the "United States Repository and New Hampshire Register for 1801," a useful little annual, of a series which contains a valuable mass of important statistics and local information, not to be found in any other publication.
His wife was Susan, daughter of Dr. Isaac Thom of London- derry. She, with two children, survived him.
MATTHEW HARVEY, LL. D.
Son of Matthew and Hannah (Sargent) Harvey ; born, Sutton, June 21, 1781 ; Dartmouth College, 1806; admitted, 1809; practiced, Hopkinton ; died, Concord, April 7, 1866.
The main facts in the life of Mr. Harvey are given in his own words, as follows : "My father was a farmer. I was fitted for college in the family of Rev. Samuel Wood, D. D., of Boscawen ; read law in the office of John Harris, Hopkinton, and was ad- mitted in Hillsborough County, and commenced practice in Hop- kinton, where I continued till 1830. Meantime, in 1814, I was chosen representative to the state legislature seven years succes- sively, the last three of which I was Speaker. During the last year I was elected to Congress, and served four years. When I returned home I had been elected to the state senate, and so con- tinued three years, being president all that time; then chosen councilor two years, and then in 1830 elected governor of the State. During that year I received the appointment of Judge of the United States District Court (by General Jackson), and have held that office to the present time (1864), - a period of fifty years of office-holding; not omitting a day. Though often a candidate, I was never defeated."
Judge Harvey lived two years longer, and died in office. His is a very remarkable, if not an unexampled record, and carries with it, in this case, the assurance of superior understanding,
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fidelity to duty, and a genuine interest in the general welfare. As lawyer and judge his rank was creditable ; as a public officer none was more conscientious ; as a man he was liberal, benevolent, and religious. His modesty and aversion to display led him to for- bid the customary procession at his inauguration as governor. In his message to the legislature he was the first to advocate the abolition of the illogical and cruel practice of imprisonment for debt. It was at his recommendation that inmates of the state prison were, on being discharged, supplied with the means of immediate support, so that they might not have the excuse of want for resuming criminal practices.
His degree of LL. D. was given him by Dartmouth College in 1855.
Judge Harvey was married in 1811 to Margaret Rowe of New- buryport, Massachusetts. They had two children, both of whom died before their father.
HARRISON GRAY HARRIS.
Son of Deacon Richard and Lydia (Atherton) Harris ; born, Harvard, Massachusetts, July 2, 1790 ; admitted, 1815 ; practiced, Sutton and Warner ; died, Warner, March 8, 1875.
Mr. Harris was left an orphan at the age of eleven, and went to live with his brother, John Harris, at Hopkinton. Under his tuition, and at the public schools, he obtained his education, and he studied law with Estes Howe of Sutton, with Judge Taft of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and with John Harris of Hopkinton. On being admitted, he opened an office a few months at Sutton, and then in 1816 established himself in Warner. There he con- tinued in practice until about fifteen years before his decease, when he retired. He had always been fond of agriculture, and given no small part of his time to the cultivation of his land, and in his later years this became his great resource.
Mr. Harris was a careful, old-school lawyer, "who wrote out everything with exceeding nicety." His attainments in his pro- fession were ample, but he had little of the forth-putting dis- position to push himself into notoriety ; on the contrary, he is said to have been inclined to undervalue his own powers and acquire- ments. He never sought office, but when chosen to positions of trust in the town he performed his duties faithfully. He was
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one of the originators of a lyceum and a library, and active in the improvement of the schools of his town. His reading was extensive, especially in historical subjects. His nature was social, and he was for sixty years a deeply attached member of the Masonic order.
His wife was Mary, daughter of Richard Bartlett of Warner, and bore him five children.
JOEL HARRIS.
Son of Richard and Lydia (Atherton) Harris ; born, Harvard, Massachu- setts, September 29, 1781 ; Dartmouth College, 1804 ; practiced, Hopkinton ; died, Harvard, Massachusetts, December 2, 1817.
This was the second of three brothers, who came from Massa- chusetts into New Hampshire to pursue the legal profession. He read law in the office of his elder brother, John Harris of Hop- kinton, and on his admission in 1807 began practice there. He remained only two years, however, when he returned to the place of his nativity. There he continued to the close of his life.
His wife, whom he married September 20, 1808, was Mary Blood of Bolton, Massachusetts. They had five children.
ALBERT RUYTER HATCH.
Born, Greenland, October 10, 1817 ; Bowdoin College, 1837 ; admitted, 1841; practiced, Portsmouth ; died there, March 5, 1882.
Mr. Hatch studied law in the office of Ichabod Bartlett in Portsmouth, and there he set up in practice in 1841. He ad- mired Mr. Bartlett greatly, and caught many of his fashions of manner and of speech. Mr. Hatch determined from the start that he would not, unless desired by his client so to do, employ any senior counsel to present his causes to the jury, but would argue them himself. The result of this rule was to give him great familiarity with the role of an advocate, and to make his name and person well and early known to the frequenters of the courts.
In 1847 and 1848 he was a representative of Portsmouth in the General Court, and in the latter year he was commissioned solici- tor for Rockingham County, and clerk of the United States Court for the district of New Hampshire. The former office he filled
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for eight years, and until a change in party ascendancy ; the lat- ter until his resignation, after twenty-five years' duty. In 1873, and the three following years, he again served as a representative in the legislature, and in 1874, his party being in the majority, he was Speaker of the House.
He was a decided but not a violent partisan, and his opinions and advice were always heeded and respected by his party. He was an alderman of the city of Portsmouth, and a member of the High School committee ; a director of the Portsmouth and Dover Railroad, of the Portsmouth Bridge Company, and of the Athe- næum. He took deep interest in Freemasonry, and was an active member in the various Masonic bodies in Portsmouth, for twenty- five successive years being elected Commander of the Knights Templar there. In the Episcopal Church he was a leading mem- ber ; a vestryman of St. John's, and one of the trustees of the new Christ's Church.
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