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 9
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In 1819 Judge Woodbury changed his residence to Ports- mouth. He served as Judge about six years with great accept- ance. His former associate, Samuel Bell, was so well convinced of his judicial talents that he predicted at that early day that Judge Woodbury would in due time be raised to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1823 the elders of the party with which he was connected designated in the usual man- ner a candidate for the office of governor of the State; but the "young America " wing of the party repudiated the selection and made Woodbury their nominee. With the aid of some of the other party he was elected governor. He served a year, and then resumed the practice of the law. The next year, 1825, he was a representative from Portsmouth, and though he had had no pre- vious legislative experience, was chosen Speaker of the House, and also senator of the United States for six years.
In 1831 he was made Secretary of the Navy, and acted as such three years, and till he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. In that office he served about seven years, within which period he was again sought for as Chief Justice of New Hampshire, but declined the appointment. In 1841 the legislature for the sec- ond time chose him United States senator. He remained in the upper house of Congress till 1845, when, after declining the embassy to the Court of St. James, which was tendered him, he
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was appointed an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The duties of that distinguished position he con- tinued to perform with characteristic punctuality and ability, until his career was terminated by his death, at the age of sixty-one.
In each of the important stations to which he was summoned Judge Woodbury exhibited the same sense of responsibility, reso- lute attention to duty, and unflagging industry. He was endowed by nature with a ready apprehension, vigorous mental grasp, and ambition to succeed. His physical powers were on a scale com- mensurate with his intellectual, and he was capable of enduring the strain of long-continued application to study, without incon- venience. Whatever the problem before him, political or juridical, he grappled with it unhesitatingly, and was very sure to solve it to his satisfaction before he quitted it.
Neither at the bar nor in the Senate was he a brilliant orator, but he had the qualities without which brilliancy is least effective. He never rose without a full understanding of his subject. All the aid which careful study and mature reflection could afford, he brought to the consideration of every question. His facts and his arguments he marshaled logically and systematically. His speeches were no mere tours de force, but full, complete, and ex- haustive. The most important of them are preserved in the three volumes of his writings which were published after his decease.
The mental characteristics of Judge Woodbury fitted him pe- culiarly to administer the law. His calmness and poise, never stirred by feeling or bias ; his even-tempered patience and desire to do exact justice ; his thoroughness, and determination to go to the bottom of the case before him, - these were qualities not only to make him a model judge, but also, which is perhaps, next in importance, to be recognized as such by the community, and gave him his firm hold upon their confidence. Of course his familiarity with the learning of the law was by reason of his position known to the country, as well by the laity as by the profession.
For some time before his decease the eyes of his friends and party had been turning towards him as their probable candidate for the loftiest office in the gift of the people of the Republic, and there seems little question that, had his life been prolonged, he would have succeeded to that high honor. But he had ac- complished enough to prove the great powers that were in him, in administering with such distinction the important legislative, executive, and judicial functions that devolved upon him.
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His alma mater gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1823, as did Wesleyan University twenty years later.
He was united in marriage, in June, 1819, to Elizabeth W., daughter of Asa Clapp of Portland, Maine, and was the father of two daughters and one son, Charles Levi Woodbury of Boston, Massachusetts, lawyer and ex-judge.
SAMUEL GREEN.
J. 1819-1840.
Son of Nathaniel Green ; born, Concord, March 7, 1770 ; admitted, 1793 ; practiced, Concord ; died, Washington, District of Columbia, March 22, 1851.
This was one of four brothers who embraced the legal profes- sion, and the most successful of them in attaining high position. He was prepared at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, to enter college a year in advance. But though he lacked the advantage of a completed liberal education, his earnestness in study and self-improvement went far to compensate for the want of it. In the midst of temptations to which too many of his ·companions yielded, he preserved habits of sobriety and correct- ness of life. His brother, Peter Green of Concord, and Jonathan Rawson of Dover directed his legal reading, and he became an attorney in Concord in 1793.
He was a representative in the legislature in 1806, and the two years succeeding. For the next ten years he was quietly building up a local reputation, and in June, 1819, on the resigna- tion of Samuel Bell, he was made his successor as a Judge of the Superior Court. For this he was largely indebted to the opinion of his townsmen, no doubt, of his fitness for the post, as he had not then any very extended reputation as a lawyer, so far as appears.
He changed his residence from Concord to Hopkinton in 1832. Twenty-one years he remained a Judge, devoting his time and powers conscientiously to his work. He was a highly respectable, though not an eminent magistrate. His disposition was amiable and equable, and his conduct towards suitors and counsel was unexceptionable. Upright and just, he was never suspected of wrong doing or intention. A good lawyer, of sound judgment and useful though not shining talents, ready for work and deter- mined to do his best, he administered the law to the general
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satisfaction. In 1840 he reached the age of seventy years, which severed his connection with the bench.
In 1834 Judge Green became a widower for the second time, and as the emoluments of his office could not have enabled him to make much provision for the future, he was probably not sorry to accept a clerkship at the national capital, for his ultimate support. In that quiet situation he passed the last ten years of his life, con- tentedly and cheerfully.
His first wife was Mary G. Coffin, who died in 1806. In August, 1810, he married Mrs. Ann N. Wardrobe. By his first marriage he had a son and two daughters ; by his second a son.
JOHN HARRIS.
J. 1823-1833.
Son of Deacon Richard and Lydia (Atherton) Harris ; born, Harvard, Massachusetts, October 13, 1769 ; Harvard College, 1791 ; admitted, 1794 ; practiced, Hopkinton ; died there, April 23, 1845.
Upon his graduation from college Mr. Harris began his legal studies under Simeon Strong, of Amherst, and completed them under Timothy Bigelow of Groton, Massachusetts. Near the close of 1794 he fixed his residence in Hopkinton, which then and for years afterwards was about equal in population and im- portance to Concord. He was postmaster of the town from 1810 to 1825, and Judge of Probate for the county of Hillsborough from 1812 till the organization of the county of Merrimac in 1823. In 1816 a commission as Justice of the Superior Court was tendered him, but he declined it. In 1817 he accepted the appointment of county solicitor, and acted under it for six years. In 1823 he was transferred to the bench of the Superior Court, and sat there till 1833, when he was removed from it by the Executive on a legislative address, but was at once replaced in the post of Judge of Probate (for the county of Merrimac), and there served until he reached the constitutional limit of seventy years of age.
These various important public trusts, which covered so large a portion of his active life, are evidence of his ability and integrity. They were bestowed by party opponents, and upon one who ap- parently never possessed the least of those arts by which popular favor is won. Judge Harris had angered the majority of his
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townsmen by injudicious comparisons between his own church and those which they attended; and still more deeply when as chairman of a legislative committee to locate the state capital, he gave the casting vote in favor of Concord, and against his own town of Hopkinton. But there is little doubt that in this he was actuated by the highest desire of promoting the public welfare.
He was a well read and balanced lawyer, and a man of good, but not great capacity. He had no facility as an advocate. He appeared to the best advantage when presiding in the Court of Probate. There his services were appreciated and valuable. As a Judge of the Superior Court he lacked confidence in himself, and as a natural consequence he failed to inspire confidence in others. His removal was a harsh proceeding, but was greatly mollified by his immediate appointment to another position of responsibility better suited to his inclination and his powers.
Judge Harris was named, December 23, 1820, with Charles H. Atherton, his register, to revise the probate laws of the State, a work which they performed so successfully that comparatively little change has been found necessary to be made in them since that time.
He was a good farmer, a devoted adherent of the Episcopal Church, and an active and zealous member and officer of the Masonic fraternity. He appears to have been somewhat tenacious of the social distinctions of his time, and was of a rather reserved disposition.
His wife, to whom he was united in 1799, was Mary, daughter of Eliphalet Poor of Hampstead. They had four children, a son and three daughters, but no lineal descendant of Judge Harris now survives.
JOEL PARKER, LL. D.
J. 1833-1838. C. J. 1838-1848.
Son of Hon. Abel and Edith (Jewett) Parker ; born, Jeffrey, January 25, 1795 ; Dartmouth College, 1811; admitted, 1817; practiced, Keene ; died, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 17, 1875.
The father of Joel Parker paid a comrade for the privilege of himself taking part in the battle of Bunker Hill, and was badly wounded there ; and his obstinate courage, though exhibited in a different field of contention, has been by some thought to be dis- cernible in his son.
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Joel Parker, after fitting at the academy in Groton, Massachu- setts, entered the sophomore class at Dartmouth College, and was graduated at the age of less than seventeen. He studied law with his brother Edmund at Amherst, and " held himself out " as a lawyer in Keene at twenty-one. He was not a man to push himself into practice, in Stryver fashion, and by 1821 decided to make a trip to the West, with the idea of establishing himself there. He went to Columbus, Ohio, and was there admitted to the bar in 1822, but soon after reconsidered the matter and re- turned to Keene.
His talents and industry and learning in due time became known and appreciated, and were rewarded by an ample employ- ment. James Wilson, Jr., though several years his junior, was for a while one of his chief competitors at the bar. Their talents and methods differed in toto. Wilson was ready, dashing, elo- quent, seizing the strong points of his case, and handling them in the most adroit and taking manner, while Parker was studious, careful, elaborate in preparation, logical in argument, but apt to be dry and uninteresting. Of attempting to suit the prejudices of the jury he never dreamed. The two lawyers once attended a two weeks' term at Newport, riding together on horseback, as was the fashion of the time. There they were opposed to each other in nearly every cause that was tried, and Wilson won all the ver- dicts. At the close of the term they set out together on their return. Parker was silent until they were about reaching the halfway house, where they were to dine, and then said abruptly, " Wilson, I'm going home to sell out, and go to sea before the mast ! " "I know what you mean," replied Wilson. "I've always told you there was no use putting nice points of law to the jury." "My clients," returned Parker, a little touched, "are satisfied with the way I try their causes." "So are mine," rejoined Wil- son, " so long as I get verdicts for them." But Joel Parker was not the man permanently to admit defeat.
He was elected a representative in the legislature in 1824, 1825, and 1826. He is also said to have been the author of the act for remodeling the courts of the State, adopted in 1832, after full consideration and discussion, with the approval of Chief Justice Richardson. This act, besides providing for other bene- ficial changes in the judiciary system, gave very full chancery powers to the Superior Court.
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In January, 1833, Mr. Parker was placed upon the bench of that court, where he continued to sit as associate, and afterwards Chief Justice, for upwards of fifteen years. He was admittedly one of the most able and learned of a sequence of jurists rarely equaled in the annals of any State. The opinions which he delivered were very numerous, indicating his familiarity as well with the authorities as with the principles and reasoning of the law. One or two of them are particularly entitled to notice. The early familiar case of Britton v. Turner, in the 6th volume of our Reports, was a distinct advance in an equitable point of view over the prior decisions. If the doctrine of that case originated with Judge Parker, he merits the highest commendation for sub- ordinating his reverence for the antiquas vias to the claims of a shorter and more direct road to exact justice.
But the great struggle, and ultimate triumph, of his judicial career was occasioned by a difference of opinion between Justice Joseph Story of the United States Supreme Court and himself, arising out of the construction of a clause in the national Bankrupt Act of 1841. It was adjudged by the former that a bona fide attach- ment of the property of a bankrupt on mesne process from a state court, prior to the filing of the petition, would not take the property out of the operation of the Act, or constitute a defense against the claim of the assignee, and that the U. S. District . Court could by summary process follow such property (and the avails thereof in case of a subsequent sale or levy under authority of the state court) in the hands of parties or officers, and compel the same to be surrendered to the assignee.
From this view Judge Parker utterly dissented, and in the cases of Kittredge v. Warren in the 14th, and Kittredge v. Emerson in the 15th volume of our Reports, enunciated his convictions of the validity of the lien created by attachment, of the powers of the state tribunals, and of their immunity from the jurisdiction of the inferior courts of the United States, in a manner which was as logical as it was satisfactory to the bar and the legislature of the State. The differences in question were authoritatively settled by the Supreme Court of the United States in Peck v. Jenness, 7 Howard, 612, in which the views of Judge Parker were completely sustained : that an attachment under the circum- stances mentioned was a lien, and of equal operation with a lien at the common law, and that the District Court had no super-
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visory power over a state court. If it is the province of a good judge to amplify his jurisdiction, Judge Story, unless he has been maligned, was among the best. It was certainly a notable pas- sage at arms between redoubtable legal champions ; and neither in ratiocination, nor in the ultimate issue, was Judge Parker the loser in the contest.
Before this question was finally passed on, Judge Parker had left the bench, in June, 1848, and accepted the appointment of Royall professor in the Harvard Law School, having his residence thenceforth in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In this new situation his duties required him to deal with a wide range of legal sub- jects, and, especially at first, made heavy draughts upon his time. But his previous thorough habits of investigation, and his expe- rience at the bar and on the bench, made his work erelong less oppressive, and he performed it with ease, and to the great ad- vantage of the large body of educated young men who were his pupils. For twenty years he occupied his professorial chair, and then resigned it with the undiminished respect and esteem of all connected with the institution.
He did not restrict himself to the work of the Law School. In 1853 he was a delegate from Cambridge to the convention to revise the Constitution, and in 1855 he was a member of a com- mission to revise the Statutes of the Commonwealth ; he was Pro- fessor of Medical Jurisprudence, and lecturer thereon in divers Medical Schools. In addition to this, he was frequently called upon for opinions upon important questions of law, and for some years at least to argue such questions in the courts of his native State. In the Massachusetts Historical Society he contributed valuable and learned papers, especially upon topics which came within the scope of his professional study. During the war of the Rebellion he published a number of pamphlets upon the con- stitutional and other questions arising therefrom, in which he took ground independent of party, but always patriotic. He had, as early as 1856, presided at a meeting in Cambridge after the assault on Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber of the United States, in which, after referring to the violence of the South as threatening the constitutional safeguards of freedom, he uttered these remarkable words : "For myself personally, I am perhaps known to most of you as a peaceable citizen, devotedly attached to the Constitution, and much too far advanced in life for gasconade;
....
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but under present circumstances I may be pardoned for saying that some of my father's blood was shed on Bunker Hill at the commencement of our Revolution, and that there is a little more of the same sort left, if it should prove necessary, for the begin- ning of another !"
The seven years of life remaining to him after the resignation of his chair, Judge Parker spent in Cambridge, holding a non- resident legal professorship in Dartmouth College, in which insti- tution he had always felt a warm interest, having served a number of years on its board of trustees, and having by his will given a considerable part of his fortune for the foundation of a depart- ment of law therein. From that college he received the honorary degree of LL. D. in 1837 ; as he did the same from Harvard College eleven years afterwards.
The impression which has been commonly formed of Judge Parker is that of a grave, austere man, whose interests in life reached little beyond his briefs and his law-books. But there was another side to his character, exhibited to a comparatively small circle. Though he married late, his great enjoyment was in his domestic life. He was especially fond of flowers, and in his earlier years, at least, cultivated them with assiduity. He enjoyed society, and unbent from his severer pursuits, gracefully. No man appreciated a bright thing more thoroughly than he. And it will surprise some who had seen but a single phase of the man, to learn that he has on occasion courted the muse. A lady friend of his, in the earlier part of his practice, addressed him some lines, entitled " A Vision," in which she described her high ideal of the lawyer's mission ; to which Mr. Parker responded by the following : -
THE REALITY.
Oh ! I am a lawyer and live in a den Called an office, a snug and a quiet retreat ; It is sixteen feet one way, the other but ten, And the temperature 's not far above " fever heat." I watch there for clients ; but that's all a hum, Like sprites from the "vasty deep " called, they don't come.
I have pen, paper, ink, and blank writs a good store, Three chairs and a table, a day-book and docket ; Get five writs a term, a defense or two more, Am plus in my idleness - minus in pocket.
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To persuade court and jury I argue all day
And convince them it's right to decide - t' other way.
So much for the profit and pleasure. And now The account as to honor pray let us be casting. That there 's fame to be had, I most freely allow ; People damn the profession to " fame everlasting," They 'll tell you a lawyer but seeks for the pelf,
And for that will out-Herod the D-1 himself ! August 9, 1828.
Judge Parker was joined in marriage, January 29, 1848, to Mary Morse, daughter of Elijah Parker of Keene. He left no issue.
NATHANIEL GOOKIN UPHAM, LL. D.
J. 1833-1842.
Son of Hon. Nathaniel and Judith (Cogswell) Upham ; born, Deerfield, January 8, 1801 ; Dartmouth College, 1820 ; practiced, Bristol and Concord ; died, Concord, December 11, 1869.
Mr. Upham's childhood was passed in Rochester, to which town his father removed in 1802, and he received his later education at the Phillips Exeter Academy and Dartmouth College. He then entered the law office of his brother-in-law, David Barker, Jr., as a student, and on completing his preparation established himself in practice, first in Bristol, and in 1829 in the wider field of Con- cord. Four years after this, at the early age of thirty-two, he was appointed a Justice of the Superior Court. He remained ten years upon the bench, and it was to his business efficiency that he then owed his transfer to the position of superintendent of the Concord Railroad, for which he resigned the judgeship. Railway management, now a distinct and important profession, was then in its infancy, and had to be learned by experience. After a few years of practice as superintendent, Judge Upham made himself so essential to the Concord Railroad that he was chosen president of the corporation, and was altogether connected with it no less than twenty-three years, and up to 1866.
In 1850 he was chosen a delegate to the convention to revise the Constitution of the State, and was made chairman of the busi- ness committee of that body. . In 1853 he was chosen by Presi- dent Pierce as commissioner on the part of the United States to adjust numerous claims which had long been accumulating be-
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tween citizens of this country and Great Britain, and between cit- izens of Great Britain and the United States. In the perform- ance of this duty Judge Upham proceeded to London, and met there the English commissioner, and together they succeeded in adjusting satisfactorily claims amounting in the whole to several millions of dollars, not a few of which were complex, difficult, and involved troublesome questions of international law. In 1862 he was chosen to perform a service of a similar character as umpire in a commission for the settlement of claims between this country and New Granada.
Judge Upham was originally a Jeffersonian Democrat in poli- tics, but in 1861 he took a determined stand against the disunion- ists of the South, and wrote a letter defining and sustaining his position, which had a wide circulation, and was welcomed by the Union men of the North, among the most inflexible of whom he was ever after ranked. In 1865 and 1866 he was a representa- tive in the legislature, and was active in promoting the adoption of the latest amendments to the national Constitution.
Judge Upham's practice at the bar was too brief to give him the opportunities to show his best and matured powers there, but his conduct as a judge was useful and highly creditable. His legal training was of the greatest value to the railroad corporation of which he was so long at the head, and in the service of his country in the commissions already mentioned.
He was a man of indefatigable industry, and conscientious in the performance of every duty. He belonged to a family noted for literary capacity, and was himself a great student, and an easy, versatile, and forcible writer. Several of his addresses - one delivered at the request of the state legislature, a eulogy on Lafayette; another on " Rebellion, Slavery, and Peace," delivered before the Lyceum in Concord ; and a third before the N. H. Historical Society, of which he was the president, on the " Prog- ress of Civil Liberty in New Hampshire " - were published, and were productions of sterling merit. He had prepared a compila- tion, embracing the best thoughts of authors ancient and modern, together with valuable maxims the fruit of his own reflections, which was regarded by competent judges as a work of great merit ; but it has never been given to the public.
Judge Upham's private character was without blemish. He was religious and consistent, a man worthy of all trust and re-
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