USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 29
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 29
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In 1837, President Van Buren appointed him on a commission to adjust claims under the treaty with the Choctaw Indians, and he was required to spend scv- eral months in Mississippi under that appointment.
In 1838 he was elected to Congress on general ticket. Hc, with others on his ticket, were denied by Governor Pennington a certificate, under the great seal of the State, of their election, though they received a majority of the popular vote. This was done because some of the returns were irregular, and only Congress could go behind them. The result of that " Broad Seal war" in Congress, as it was called, admitted Governor Vroom and his associates to their seats, after examining the rejected returns, but the prima facie sanctity of the seal was defended. Gov- ernor Vroom was the hero in the fight. The House of Representatives was not the field best adapted to the exhibition of the rare virtues and unselfish char- acter of such a man, and he gladly returned to his legal practice, but transplanted himself from his na- tive county-seat to the capital of the State. Having lost his wife several years before he left Somerville, he found for his new home a second one in the daugh- ter of Gen. Garret D. Wall. In 1850, Princeton Col- lege conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.
Standing now at the head of the bar in the State, he enjoyed a large and agreeable practice, which he pursued to the end of his life, except when interrupted by the claims of statesmanship. He yielded to the influence of his friends, and accepted the govern- mental mission to Prussia, and with his family re- sided in Berlin from 1858 to 1857. He represented his government with ability and dignity. but i. happy when he was allowed to return home.
1 I. South, 141.
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
The spirit of his inborn patriotism impelled him to go as one of nine commissioners from New Jersey to the Peace Convention, represented by twenty States, in the city of Washington, to avert, if possible, the terrible civil war then ready to break upon the coun- try. He was conceded to be the Nestor of that distin- guished commission, and though their efforts proved fruitless, the able and patriotic services of Governor Vroom in that connection were worthy of his high Christian statesmanship. His political convictions, as also all his other convictions, were very strong ; they settled deep in his honest nature, and of course his prejudices were strong. But how beautifully the nobility of his soul asserted itself, when in 1863 be- fore that large, inflamed, and misinstructed assemblage of men, at Somerville, who had conceived the military draft to be an act of despotisin to be resisted by arms, he appeared and uncovered his hoary head and fixed those dark, penetrating eyes of his upon the surging multitude, and with uplifted hand said, "Peace, bestill ! the law is valid till the courts pronounce it invalid. However obnoxious the enforcement of the draft may be, its forcible resistance will involve a greater wrong. Wait upon the courts." These brave words from this revered oracle of the Somerset Democracy dispelled the spirit of riot and ruin. His speech was eloquent, and was at considerable length published throughout the country with happy etfect.
Governor Vroom was a leading member of the con- vention to frame a new Constitution of the State in 1844, aud was on the commission to revise the statutes to make them conform to it. When Chief Justice Green's term expired Governor Fort tendered that high office to Governor Vroom, but he declined it.1 There were other offices aud public trusts of some importance which he filled. He was a trustee of Rutgers College and strongly attached to that institu- tion, to which he sent his sons to be educated.
The foregoing is a meagre outline of this superior and honored son of New Jersey, one whom we do not hesitate to cali a model man. His personal appear- ance was very attractive, and indicative of his inward character. He was always dignified, courteous, and kind; condescending to men of low estate, accessible to all, and cordially helpful to young members of the bar. His private life was pure and beautiful ; he left no stain upon the pride and affection of his household. His public life was a model to public men. Avoiding the snares of speculation and reckless adventure and a haste to be rich, which wreck so many fortunes and reputations, he was favorable to all wisc enterprises, but prudent and moderate in all things. No political slate made up by leading partisans, however promi- nent a place upon it might be assigned to his name, could inveigle him into an alliance which his sense of honor and his conscience repelled, though other good
men might unite in the scheme to obtain success. What some persons regarded as coldness in his nature was only a reservedness which shielded him and helped to keep him unspotted from the world. Whether on the woolsack or at the court of Berlin, in Congress or in the village prayer-meeting, before a jury or in the Sunday-school, he was always the inflexible, consistent Christian.
Governor Vroom was a model lawyer, both as counselor and as advocate before the court and before the jury. Among his contemporaries in his best days were George Wood, the Frelinghuysens, Southard, Dayton, H. W. Green, all eloquent and strong, but each having special excellence. Governor Vroom combined in large, if not full measure, the special excellence of each. He was logical and learned, en- thusiastic and pathetic, calm and persuasive. He may not have beeu so terse and direct as some, nor so vehement and lofty as others, but he was polished, thorough, and exhaustive. When he had gone over a case there was nothing left to be presented. Nor was he weak enough to gauge the value of his ser- vices by the moderate grade of his fees.
His religious life was full-orbed. From youth to old age he was true to his convictions and his vows. He gave his beuefactions and benedictions to the cause of temperance, of African colonization, of the Bible, of Sunday-schools, of his Dutch Church, in which he was a ruling elder, and his Dutch College, of which he was a trustee.
Very slowly and gently did his strength depart. After having been at the bar sixty-one years, he died at peace with God and with the world, Nov. 18, 1874, at the age of eighty-three years, and was buried iu his native soil, on the banks of the Raritan. He had by his first wife one son, John P. Vroom, an aecom- plished young lawyer, who died suddenly in his father's office in 1865, and a daughter, Miss Maria, still living. By his second wife four sons, viz., Col. Peter D., of the United States army, who was wounded at South Mountain, in the late war ; Garret D. W., who is in his father's place in Trenton, high at the bar ; James W., a lawyer at Newark; and Governeur P., who died in 1870, as he was just ready for the bar.
SAMUEL R. HAMILTON was born in Princeton, a son of John Hamilton and Phebe Ross, his wife. Their ancestors came from Scotland. Samuel gradu- ated at Nassau Hall in 1808, and studied law with Isaac H. Williamson at Elizabethtown. He was ad- nitted to the bar in November, 1812, and opened an office in Princeton, where he practiced for several years. Then he removed to Trenton, where he re- mained the rest of his life. He acquired a large practice, and attended the courts of Hunterdon, Som- erset, Middlesex, and Burlington before Mercer was formed. He enjoyed a trial by jury more than one before the court. He was regarded as a keen, fear- less lawyer, always ready for a tilt with any foc. He
1 }le had declined a seat in the cabinet .twice, once as Attorney- General and once as Secretary of the Navy.
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
had a good deal of public spirit and of military pride, and wearing the title of general, he honored his epau- lettes on all proper occasions. He was quartermaster- general of New Jersey for many years. He was neat and partieular in his tastes, and his services in super- intending the grounds and building of the State-house were of publie value. He took an interest in the affairs of the Presbyterian Chureli in Princeton while there, and in Trenton throughout his residenee there. He was industrious, abstemious, and attentive to a large practice till the close of his life. He filled the office of prosecutor of the pleas of, Mereer County only a few years before his death. His sons were Morris R. Hamilton, an attorney by profession, but now eonneeted with journalism in Camden ; John R. Hamilton, and S. Alexander Hamilton, and he had at least one daughter. He died twenty years ago.
WILLIAM HALSTED belonged to the family of Hal- steds, of Essex County; N. J. He was a brother to Chancellor Oliver Spencer Halsted, of Newark.
He graduated at Princeton in 1812, and was ad- mitted to the bar in November, 1816, and early settled in the city of Trenton.
Mr. Halsted was an industrious and indefatigable lawyer. He was eomely in person, having an intelli- gent and pleasant faee, with a keen black eye. He had a large praetiee, and was retained in many im- portant eases. He early arrayed himself as counsel . against the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, and he was usually retained by those who had suits against that company. He was prosecutor of the pleas in Hunterdon from 1833 to 1837.
In 184- he was cleeted to Congress, and he sue- ceeded James S. Green as United States distriet at- torney for the district of New Jersey, having been nominated by President Taylor. In the last years of his life he became blind. He attended the Episcopal Church. Mr. Halsted was a prominent lawyer in the State for thirty years, and his name in the reports indicates in some degree the extent and eliaraeter of his praetice. He was for many years reporter, and he published nine volumes known as Halsted's Reports, and also a digest of the same. When the late eivil war broke out he raised the first regiment of cavalry in New Jersey, and went out as the colonel of the regiment, but he was not long in the service. He died Mareli 4, 1873, aged eighty-four years.
JAMES SPROAT GREEN was a son of Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., president of Prineeton College, and was born in Philadelphia, July 22, 1792. He graduated at Diekinson College in 1811, and eame to Princeton with his father in 1812. He studied law in the office of Thomas P. Johnson, and was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1817, and.opened his office in Prinee- ton. He passed through the various honorary de- grees of the bar, and obtained a large practice, usually attending the Somerset, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and often the Monmouth and Burlington Circuits. He was a pleasant speaker, an agreeable man, a promni- 1
nent lawyer, and popular with his elients and with the masses. He was the law reporter of the State from 1851 to 1836, and published three volumes of Green's Reports. He represented Somerset County for several years in Council, beginning in 1829. He had been a strong Federalist, but advocated the elee- tion of Gen. Jackson to the presideney. President Jackson nominated him United States distriet at- torney for New Jersey, which office he held till the eleetion of President Harrison, in 1840. President Tyler nominated him Secretary of the Treasury, but the Senate being Whig refused to confirm him. He joined other Prineeton men in the internal improve- ment system, and became a direetor in the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, and in the joint eom- panies, and was treasurer of the joint companies. He was trustee of Prineeton College and Church, treasurer of the Theological Seminary for many years. He was assigned a chair in the law department of the college which was attempted to be established in 1847. He held many loeal offices in the township and borough. He took an active interest in the Presbyterian Church, and taught a elass in the Sun- day-school, but was not a communicant. He bore his share of publie duties, and identified himself with the people. In his later years he gave more atten- tion to the interests of the joint companies than to his legal praetiee. He belonged to the Democratic party. He was at the time of his death a manager of the lunatic asylum. He was genial in his manners, and for fifty years he was a useful, prominent, and honorable eitizen of Prineeton. He died quite sud- denly Nov. 8, 1862, seventy-two years of age. He left a widow and five children, three sons and two daughters.
His sons, Ashbel Green and Robert S. Green, were both admitted to the bar of New Jersey, but the former began the practice in the city of New York, and oeeupies a very respectable position at the New York bar as well as at New Jersey, and the latter, though he praetieed at Elizabeth for several years, has also established a respectable praetiee in New York. His son, James S. Green, M.D., is a skillful physician at Elizabeth, N. J.
RICHARD STOCKTON FIELD was a son of Robert C. Field, of Whitehill, Burlington Co., N. J., and who graduated at Prineeton College in 1793, and who in 1797 married Abby Stockton, the youngest daugli- ter of Richard Stoekton the signer. His grandfather was Robert Field, a warm patriot who presided at a public meeting in Burlington which sent delegates to the convention in New Brunswick in 1774, and he died in 1775. Robert C. Field died in 1810. The family claim an honorable and ancient English an- cestry. After his death his widow and her five ehil- dren removed to Princeton, and remained there during the remainder of her long life. Richard, though prob- ably born in Whitehill, spent his boyhood in Prince- ton and was there educated. He graduated at Prince-
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HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.
ton College in the class of 1821, and read law with his uncle, Richard Stockton, who was then in the zenith of his professional honor and success, and he i of New Jersey, he received from President Lincoln was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in 1825. He : the appointment of United States district judge for began his practice at Salem, N. J., where he married . New Jersey, then vacant by the death of Judge Dick- Miss Mary Ritchie, who died in 1852 at Princeton, to | erson. which place Mr. Field removed in 1832, and made it Judge Field was a very reliable incumbent of that office, which became an important one by reason of the war, as well as on account of the civil business which arose out of the Bankrupt Act. He took much pride in the office and great pains to fulfill the duties which devolved upon him, and his services were of value to the country. his permanent home through life. At that time there were but three lawyers in Princeton, Richard Stockton having died in 1828, viz. : James S. Green, William C. Alexander, and David N. Bogart, all Democrats, and Mr. Field was a Whig. He was active in pro- curing a charter for a bank in Princeton, and soon be- came its president. In 1837 he was elected to the Judge Field never married again. His palatial residence at Woodlawn, in Princeton, was widely known for its beauty and the arboriculture surround- ing it. He was hospitable, generous, enthusiastic, with a good legal mind and with legal attainments, literary in his taste and honorable in his instincts. His sudden and sad death, while opening his court, April 20, 1870, cast a shadow over a bright and useful life. Assembly from Middlesex County, and was very zealous for forming the new county of Mercer, which was accomplished in the session of 1837-38. While a member of the Assembly he obtained the election in joint meeting of attorney-general, and Mr. Day- ton, a member from Monmouth, was chosen justice of the Supreme Court. Attorney-General Field prose- cuted the pleas in the counties of Middlesex, Essex, and Mercer and elsewhere occasionally. The salary HENRY WOODHULL GREEN was born in Lawrence, about six miles from Trenton, on the old road to Princeton, Sept. 20, 1804. He was a son of Caleb Smith Green, an intelligent and thrifty farmer. He was one of several brothers. George S. Green and Judge Caleb S. Green, of Trenton, survive him, and John C. Green, the princely benefactor of Princeton institutions, having died soon after him. of the attorney-general was only nominal at that time. He retained that office till 1841, having filled it with ability. He continued his practice for twenty years after that time, acting as one of the counsel for the joint companies and for the bank, and in the management of fiduciary trusts and estates. He held no political office during that period, but took an in- terest in the law-school established in 1847 in the college, and was one of the professors who gave lec- tures to the law students while the school survived.
He was a member of the State Constitutional Con- vention in 1844. He took an interest in the New Jersey Historical Society, and was its president at the time of his death. Several of his articles and addresses ; ton, where he continued to reside till his death. He
have been published in the proceedings and issues of that society, the prominent one being a volume on the Provincial Courts of New Jersey. He was zcal- ous in the cause of popular education, especially in the normal school and its adjuncts, and he was the president of its board of trustees. He devoted much of his time to literary pursuits, and published one or more articles in the Princeton Review, and several of his public addresses have been published in pamphlet form.
When John R. Thomson died in 1862, leaving his seat in the United States Senate vacant, Governor Olden appointed Mr. Field his temporary successor, and the Legislature appointed him to fill the short unexpired term of Mr. Thomson. Mr. Field made the most of this opportunity, and being a warin Re- publican and earnest in his convictions, he defended the administration of President Lincoln with empha- sis, and unhesitatingly justified the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The boldness and patriotism which he exhibited on the floor of the Senate at a critical hour of the nation attracted special attention
to Mr. Field, and as there was no hope of his re-elce- tion to the Senate by the then Democratic Legislature
Henry W. Green, after attending the Lawrenceville School, entered Princeton College, and graduated in the class of 1820, at the age of sixteen. He then en- tered the office of Charles Ewing, afterwards chief justice, and prepared for the bar, to which he was admitted in 1825. He commenced practice in Tren-
confined his circuit practice principally to the coun- ties of Hunterdon and Burlington. He early took high rank as a strong and thorough lawyer. He was industrious and enthusiastic in his profession, and an ardent admirer of his preceptor, the chief justice. He studied his cases thoroughly and always went into court prepared. He had a clear, strong voice and great vehemence of manner, and he tried his causes with a determination to win. He was very successful iu his practice, both before the court at banc and before the jury. The impetuosity of his feelings too often impelled him to treat his antago- nist and the witnesses opposed to his client with un- due severity. This perhaps was his chief infirmity when at the bar.
He was elected a member of the Assembly in 1842 from Mercer County, but he found that was not the place for him. He was not made of the stuff that a Legislature is usually made of, and he went no farther in that direction. He was a member of the conven- tion to form a new State Constitution in 1844, and was a member of the National Whig Convention at
Photograph by Brady
My L. Dayton.
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
Baltimore which nominated Clay and Frelinghuysen : admitted to the bar of New Jersey as attorney- .: on the Presidential tieket. He made an eloquent speech in support of the nomination of Mr. Freling- huysen for the Viec-Presidency in that convention. , about the same age,-Mr. Southard at twenty-fot .:. Mr. Dayton at twenty-three (the latter in the term of | May, 1830), and both took the degree of connecter
chief justice, in place of Chief Justice Hornblower, and he filled that place for two terms of seven years each. He filled the place with pre-eminent ability. In 1861, Governor Olden nominated him for ehan- cellor, and this office he filled with marked ability until his term had almost elosed, when his excessive labors broke down his health, and his robust physique had to succumb. He never knew how to husband his natural strength, or how to save an unnecessary waste of both mental and bodily vigor. The State may well be proud of him as a jurist. He was twiec mar- ried, and each time to a daughter of Chief Justice Ewing. He was a trustee of the College and of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and a warm friend and benefactor of both. He published while at the bar three volumes of Chancery Reports. His por- trait, hanging in the Supreme Court, is a fine one, and gives a true idea of the lofty and magisterial bearing of the man.
In 1846 he was nominated by Governor Stratton for . as soon as their three years of probation as attorney- had expired. They both moved from their native county to commenee the practice of law, and were both elected to the State Legislature from the coun- ties of their adoption, Mr. Southard being sent to the House of Assembly by the county of Hunterdon at the age of twenty-eight, and Mr. Dayton to the Leg- islative Council by the county of Monmouth at the- age of thirty, and both were appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court during the first year of their legislative terms. They were afterwards both elected to the Senate of the United States, Mr. Southard at the age of thirty-four, Mr. Daytou at that of thirty- five, and both were afterwards appointed to the office of attorney-general of New Jersey. If Mi. Dayton did not, like Mr. Southard, become a cabinet minister, he became instead minister plenipotentiary to one of the first governments of Europe in difficult times, whiel required the performance of duties quite as arduous and responsible. Finally they both died in the full prime of mature life,-Mr. Southard at the age of fifty-five, and Mr. Dayton at fifty-seven ; and during their respective careers both stood out with striking distinctness as the most marked and emi- nent men of their native State.
Except the judicial places above mentioned, Chan- cellor Green never held office of any importanee. When a young man he was reeorder of the city of Trenton for several years, and he was employed as re- viser of the laws. And with the exception of his many and elaborate opinions judicially rendered on the beneh, and published in the reports, he has not published much. He published an article in the Princeton Review on the trial of William Tennent.
He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Trenton, and also a ruling elder at the time of his death. He took a voyage to Europe after his health failed, but returned without material benefit there- from. He died Dec. 19, 1876, leaving a widow, one daughter, and one son-Charles E. Green-surviving him.
WILLIAM L. DAYTON, late minister plenipoten- tiary of the United States to France, was born at Basking Ridge, Somerset Co., N. J., Feb. 17, 1807, and died suddenly at Paris on the 1st day of Deeem- ber, 1864.
Mr. Dayton's father was not wealthy. Although a man of considerable character and intelligence, he was a plain mechanic, and had to exert himself stren- uously to give his children an education,-a duty which was honorably and faithfully discharged, two of his sons being trained to the bar, and a third being educated as a physician. We are not surprised, there- fore, that his son William, after leaving college, de- voted a portion of his time to teaching school at Pluckamiu, as a means of replenishing his resources whilst pursuing his professional studies. He studied law in the office of Hon. Peter D. Vroom, then re- siding at Somerville; but the interruptions to which he was subjected delayed his admission to the bar til! May term, 1830, five years after he had taken his aca- demical degree. The general impression inade by him at this period was that his talents were less bril- liant than solid; and that by his mental constitution, though capable of much energy and power when roused to exertion, he was rather indolent and slug- gish than alert and active. No doubt the cause of this impression was the fact that Mr. Dayton was always more of a thinker than a mere student of
Mr. Dayton was just twenty years the junior of his distinguished fellow-townsman, the Hon. Samuel L. Southard, and his mother, whose maiden name was Lewis, was a cousin of that distinguished Jersey- man. Both of them bore the maternal surname in their own name, and quite a remarkable parallel existed between their respective careers. Both being natives of Basking Ridge, they received their early . books, and, like Patrick Henry, was making more training in its celebrated school, Mr. Southard under progress in his studies whilst musing with himse li along the trout stream or the fowling range than in the dusty office surrounded by the more dusty book". He paid sufficient attention to the latter, however, la lay in a sound stock of common law learning and be.i its founder, Dr. Finley and Mr. Dayton under his successor, Dr. Brownlee. Both pursued their more advanced studies in the College of New Jersey at Princeton, Mr. Southard graduating at the age of seventeen, and Mr. Dayton at eighteen. Both were | principles. Mr. Dayton never became or made any
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