USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 40
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The organization of the Republican party. about 1856, engaged his active attention, and to the end of his life he was one of its leaders and earnest supporters by tongue and pen. He was greatly interested in the growth and development of Newark, and suggested and took part in many plans for its improvement. He was counsel for and part owner in one of the lines of horse rail- ways, and took part in the purchases and consolidation which led to the equipment
and operation of all the lines with electri- city.
He was an incorporator of the Howard Savings Institution, a founder of the Hos- pital of St. Barnabas, and from its organ- ization in 1867 until his death, a member of the board of trustees ; a charter member and for many years on the board of governors of the Essex Club : and was connected with the Historical Society, to which he contri- buted addresses on Judges Field and Nixon, a paper on the bicentennial of the purchase of East New Jersey, and other important articles. His expressions of political and legal opinions appeared in the public press : and his wide reading familiarized him with literature past and present, and every de- partment of modern progress especially in the fields of science and invention.
Mr. Keasbey built a country house in Morristown in 1891, and in 1894 he gave up his home on Clinton avenue, Newark, and took his extensive library to Morristown. He lived scarcely a year after this, and died suddenly in Rome, while he was travelling in Italy with his daughters. His wife, Ed- wina L. Keasbey, died August 18. 1888.
An estimate of his ability expressed in the "Newark Daily Advertiser," on the oc- casion of his death, was as follows :
In learning, in culture, in refinement, in the profundity of his legal knowledge, in the sagac- ity of his business judgment, in the clarity of his intellectual opinions, in his appreciation of the true, the beautiful and the good. and in the warmth of his social life and the intensity of his friendship he was a remarkable and distinguished man. Few men in our State have the wide range and sweep that marked Mr. Keasbey's intellectual equipment. He could have shone in many fields of endeavor. but he chose the law, in which he achieved so many and brilliant triumphs. In the world of letters, had he chosen to walk in that field. lie would have made a high name and fame for himself, so rich was his power of expression. so well stored his mind. and so wide his grasp of essential things. Even in his busy career he found time to write much, and in everything he wrote there was a firmness of expression, a delicacy of touch, a force. a vigor and a chiarm which dis- closed the true man.
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MCCLELLAN, George Brinton,
Distinguished Soldier, Governor.
George Brinton McClellan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1826, son of Dr. George and Elizabeth (Brinton) McClellan.
He matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania with the class of 1844, and left at the close of his sophomore year to enter the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in July, 1846, second in the class. He was appointed to the Engi- neer Corps as brevet second lieutenant, and served in the war with Mexico, 1846-48. He was engaged in opening the road from Matamoras to Tampico, 1846-47; siege of Vera Cruz, March 9-29, 1847: battle of Cerro Gordo, April 17-18; promoted second lieutenant, April 24, engaged in skirmish of Amazoque, May 14; battles of Contreras, August 19-20, and Cherubusco, August 20; constructing batteries against Chapultepec, September 9-13 ; assault and capture of City of Mexico, September 13-14, 1847. He was at West Point, New York, attached to a company of engineers, 1848-50. and in com- mand of troop, 1850-51. He was brevetted first lieutenant, August 20, 1847, for Con- treras and Cherubusco; captain, September 8, 1847, for Molino del Rey, which brevet he declined, and captain, September 13, 1847, for Chapultepec. He was assistant engineer in building Fort Delaware, 185J- 52; engineer of the exploring expedition, Red River, Texas, 1852; chief engineer, Department of Texas, 1852, and in charge of surveys on the coast of Texas, 1852-53. He was engineer in the exploration and survey of the western division of the pro- jected Northern Pacific railroad through the Cascade Mountains, 1853-54 ; collected rail- road statistics for the War Department, 1854-55 ; and was a member of the military commission sent to the theatre of war in Europe, 1855-56, and his official report was published by order of Congress, 1857. He devised the McClellan saddle in 1856, which
came into general use in the army. He was promoted first lieutenant, July 1, 1853, and captain in First Cavalry, March 3, 1855, on the eve of his departure to Europe, and on his return to the United States resigned his commission in the army, January 16, 1857, to take position as chief engineer of the Illinois Central railroad, serving 1857-58. and was vice-president of the St. Louis and Cincinnati railroad, 1860-61. He was ap- pointed major-general of Ohio volunteers, April 23, 1861, and was in command of the Department of the Ohio from May 13 to July 15, 1861. He commanded the Federal forces in Western Virginia ; engaged in the action at Rich Mountain, July 11, 1861, and by a forced march surprised Colonel John Pegram near Beverly, July 12, 1861, and compelled him to surrender. For his services in Western Virginia he received the thanks of Congress, July 12, 1861. He ivas commissioned major-general, U. S. A., May 14, 1861, and was placed in command of the Division of the Potomac, with head- quarters at Washington, D. C., July 27, 1861. On August 17, 1861, he was given command of the Department of the Poto- mac ; on August 20, 1861, of the Army of the Potomac, and November 1. 1861, was made general-in-chief of the armies of the United States. He advanced upon Manass- as, Virginia, March 6-10, 1862, and trans- ferred the Army of the Potomac to the Virginia peninsula, which movement was followed by the siege of Yorktown, April 5-May 4, 1862; occupation of Williams- burg. May 5-6, 1862; battle of Fair Oaks. May 31-June 1, 1862, and Seven Days' bat- tle before Richmond, June 26-July 2, 1862. He was familiarly known as "Little Mac," and appears to have had the full confidence of his officers and men. The Peninsular campaign was abandoned by order of Gen- ernal Halleck, who had been made gen- eral-in-chief of the Federal army. McClel- lan having asked to be relieved of all re- sponsibility of the operations outside the Army of the Potomac. After General
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Pope's army was defeated, August 31 and September 1, 1862, President Lincoln went to McClellan's house in Washington and instructed him to meet the retreating army, take command, and save Washington, and it was under this verbal order from the President that the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Virginia were merged as the Army of the Potomac and prepared to meet the Confederate army under Gen- eral Lee in the Maryland campaign, the last campaign of Mcclellan. He was in command of the defences of Washington, September 2-8, 1862, and of the new Army of the Potomac from September 8 to No- vember 10, 1862, and during this time fought the battle of South Mountain, Sep- tember 14, 1862; the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862; transferred his head- quarters to Warrenton, Virginia, where dur- ing October and November he received re- inforcements and placed the Army of the Potomac in a condition to protect the na- tional capital from further danger. On November 10, 1862, he received notice from the War Department to report at New York City on waiting orders, and the command of the Army of the Potomac was trans- ferred to General A. E. Burnside. Gen- ernal McClellan visited Boston in the win- ter of 1862-63, where he was presented with a sword, and in June, 1864, he delivered the oration at the dedication of the soldiers' monument at West Point, New York. He was nominated as a candidate for President by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 29, 1864. At the meeting of the Electoral College, McClellan and Pendleton received from New Jersey, Ken- tucky and Delaware twenty-one votes, to two hundred and twelve for Lincoln and Johnson.
He resigned from the army November 8, 1864, visited Europe, 1865-68, with his family, and on his return took up his resi- dence in Orange, New Jersey. He declined the presidency of the University of Cali-
fornia in 1868, and that of Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1869. He had the supervision of the building of the Stev- ens battery under the terms of the will of Edwin A. Stevens, 1868-71 ; was engineer- in-chief of the Department of Docks, New York City, 1870-72; planned the bridge erected over the Hudson river at Pough- keepsie; was president of the New York Underground Railroad, of the United States Roliing Stock Company, and of the Atlantic and Western Railroad, and in March, 1877, was nominated by Governor Robinson, of New York, Superintendent of Public Works in New York State, but the Senate refused to confirm the appointment. He was nominated by acclamation by the Dem- ocratic State Convention of New Jersey for Governor of New Jersey, September 19, 1877, and was elected, serving 1878-81. He introduced reforms in the State militia, pre- served the non-partisan character of the judiciary, established schools for industrial education, recommended needed reforms in the prison-labor system, and left the public schools and other institutions of the State in a prosperous condition. He was a mem- ber of the board of managers of the Na- tional Home for Disabled Soldiers, 1881- 85, and pronounced the oration at the dedi- cation of the battlefield of Antietam in 1885, his last public service.
He married Mary Ellen, daughter of General Randolph Barnes Marcy, and their son, George Brinton, was a representative in Congress from New York City. General McClellan translated from the French: "Manual of Bayonet Exercises," adopted for use in the United States Army ( 1852), and is author of: "Government Reports of Pacific Railroad Surveys" ( 1854) ; "Opera- tions in the Crimea, and Organization, In- struction and Equipment of European Armies" (1857) ; "Reports on Organiza- tion of the Army of the Potomac and its Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland" (1864); "The Peninsula Campaign," in the
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"Century," May 5, 1885; and two articles in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," 1887.
He died in Orange, New Jersey, Octo- ber 29, 1885.
PITNEY, Henry Cooper,
Prominent Lawyer, Jurist.
Former Vice-Chancellor Henry Cooper Pitney, whose death occurred January 10, 19II, was one of the most distinguished lawyers and jurists of New Jersey. A natural legal acumen led him to the law, and he gained a high reputation for un- wavering honesty in his dealings with clients, thoroughness in the preparation of his cases, and brilliant advocacy of every cause in which he was employed. In ability to deal with the technicalities of scientific problems, in the knowledge of equitable principles and of equity law, he stood un- equalled. These qualities fitted him as well for pleading in the higher courts as before a jury, and in both he was highly success- ful. On the bench, to his profound knowl- edge of the law he added a natural sense of justice and a fervent desire to carry out the principles of real equity.
Mr. Pitney came from a family seated in New Jersey for almost two centuries, and having a long and honorable English lineage. His immigrant ancestor. James Pitney, was a manufacturer in England. having his shop on London Bridge. His grandfather, Mahlon Pitney, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
Henry Cooper Pitney. eldest child of Mahlon Pitney (2) and Lucetta, daughter of Henry Cooper, was born January 19, 1827, in Mendham township, Morris coun- ty, New Jersey, on the ancestral farm which afterward came to him by descent. He be- gan his education under private tutors at home, and afterward attended the school of Ezra Fairchild. in Mendham (later in Plain- field), where he had for classmates the eminent Presbyterian divine, Rev. Theo-
dore Cuyler, and the distinguished lawyer William Fullerton. At the age of fifteen he was taken from school on account ot delicate health, and remained at home unt: his nineteenth year, studying at interval- In 1846 he entered the junior class of Princeton College, from which he was grad- uated with the degree of Bachelor of Art- in June, 1848, the year in which he came of age; later he received the Master's de- gree, and in 1891, in recognition of hi- eminent legal and scholarly attainments, the same institution conferred upon him the degree of LL. D.
After graduation Mr. Pitney began the study of law under Theodore Little and Hon. Ira C. Whitehead, the latter a former Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jer- sey. In 1851 he passed a satisfactory ex. amination and was admitted to the bar x, attorney, and in 1854 as a counsellor. In the following year he opened an office in Morristown, but for some time his practice amounted to little, and he gave the major portion of his time to study. and, as he de- clared afterward in life, herein he laid the foundation of his later success as a jurist. In the early years of his practice the great activity of the iron mining in- dustry in Morris county gave rise to much important and difficult litigation, in which he took a very active part. His natura! taste for the study of scientific questions gave him an advantage in this class of prac- tice, and he became recognized as an author- ity on questions of law relating to mining engineering. He was also active in the de- velopment of the Morristown Water Com- pany, and took part in many important case. involving water rights, and soon became an authority on questions of law relating :) hydraulic engineering. As the business of our equity courts increased, he became prominent in the trial of important cases in that forum. For many years before he went upon the bench his practice had prin- cipally been as counsel in important cases throughout the State. in most of which ! "
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was associated with and opposed by men who were recognized leaders of the bar. He was enthusiastically devoted to his pro- fession ; thorough and untiring in the prep- aration of his cases; loyal to the interests of his client-yet always fair to his oppo- nent, and frank with the court. His mind was analytical and searching, and rarely failed to discover at once the ground upon which the contest must be decided. He was indefatigable in the examination and discussion of authorities, and always pre- sented his arguments with earnestness, vigor and convincing power ; he invariably commanded the attention and respect of the court, and won the victory whenever the case warranted. In 1862 he was appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas for Morris county, and served as such for five years with entire success and much credit to himself. He continued in practice until April, 1889, when he entered upon official position in the line of his profession. For several years he had acted as Advisory Master in Chan- cery, and was one of the first ten Advisory Masters appointed by Chancellor Runyon, in pursuance of a statute passed for that purpose to relieve the Chancellor in the congested work of the court. These were later superseded by the Vice-Chancellors, and he co-operated with Chancellor Za- briski in the framing and enactment of the law providing for the appointment of the latter. On April 9, 1889, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor by Chancellor McGill, and he was reappointed in 1896 and again in 1903. In the absence of the Chancellor he was several times appointed, under the statute, a Master to act for the Chancellor. As Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Pitney brought to his office every required qualification, and added materially to his high prestige. Many notable cases were adjudicated by him, among them being the famous Tobacco Merger case. The amount of judicial work accomplished by him was immense, and would have overtaxed the energies of an ordinary man. His long experience in the
trial of cases enabled him to sift and analyze testimony, and to group together the basic points in the case. His profound legal knowledge especially fitted him to apply principles, while his alertness of mind fore- cast the end of an argument from its very beginning ; and his keen perception gave him a remarkable power of logical discrim- ination, which resulted in the famous equitableness of his decisions. His scorn of fraud and wrong made him sometimes appear intolerant, but he was always fair. minded and open to conviction.
Vice-Chancellor Pitney retired from the bench by resignation on April 9, 1907- the eighteenth anniversary of his appoint- ment to the position, and soon after his eightieth birthday-on account of an in. creasing deafness, although his other phy- sical faculties were unimpaired, and his in- tellect was unclouded. In honor of his birthday event, on January 19, 1907, the Bench and Bar of New Jersey gave him a complimentary dinner in the Waldorf-As toria, New York City, where a distinguish. ed assemblage numbering more than two hundred lawyers and jurists listened to lofty encomiums upon his life and services. uttered by Chancellor William J. Magie, who presided ; Supreme Court Justice John Franklin Fort (afterward governor), Vice. Chancellor Frederic W. Stevens, formet Attorney-General John W. Griggs, all of New Jersey; Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, and Hampton L. Carson, form- er Attorney-General of Pennsylvania. Vice- Chancellor Pitney was greatly affected by this fine tribute, and betrayed the depth of his feeling in his response to the toast of his health. The speeches and toasts were afterward printed for private circulation. Three months later, on the day when he sat as Vice-Chancellor in Jersey City for the last time, the members of the Bench and Bar presented to him a handsome hall clock as a further tribute of their affection and good will.
Mr. Pitney exerted himself usefully in
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connection with many interests of great value to the community. In 1865 he aided in organizing the National Iron Bank, of which he became a director, which office he held during the remainder of his life. In 1896 he was chosen as president of the bank, and served in that capacity until his death. He was also an organizing member and a director of the Morris County Sav- ings Bank. In 1870 he was one of a com- pany which purchased the Morris Aqueduct property, after purchase by the town had been rejected at the polls. He was made president of the water company, and re- mained such until his death. and the prop- erty was so capably administered by him that it became highly valuable. He was one of the leading spirits in the Morristown Library and Lyceum, and a trustee ; a mem- ber of the Washington Association of New Jersey, of the Sons of the Revolution, and a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church Df Morristown. He was a Republican in politics, and for a time served on the county committee of the party. After his retire- ment from the bench Mr. Pitney spent much of his time in his law office in the National Iron Bank Building hearing some cases specially as Advisory Master. He was also actively occupied during his last years with the affairs of the Morristown Water Company, the National Iron Bank and the other local interests just mentioned. He was also agreeably occupied with the supervision of his farm at Mendham, where he was born and which since 1760 had been owned successively by his great-grandfath- er, his grandfather, his father and himself.
Mr. Pitney married, April 7. 1853, in New York City, Sarah Louisa, daughter of Oliver and Sarah (Crane) Halsted, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Children: Sarah Halsted, married Finley A. Johnson ; Henry Cooper, Mahlon and John Oliver Halsted, all lawyers, and written of elsewhere in this work; Catherine James, married to George R. Van Dusen, a lawyer of Phila- delphia ; Mary Brayton; Frederic V., mar-
ried Elizabeth, daughter of the late Rev. George H. Chadwell, D. D., former rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Morris- town.
After his death, at the opening of the February term, 1911, of the Court of Chan- cery, at Trenton, there were proceedings in memory of the deceased Vice-Chancellor, consisting of addresses by Attorney-Gen- eral Wilson, former Chancellor William J. Magie, R. V. Lindabury and former Justice Gilbert Collins, followed by a formal min- ute prepared on behalf of the Vice-Chan- cellors and read by Vice-Chancellor Emery, all of which were made records of the court and will be published in the Equity Reports. On this occasion his character was fittingly summarized in these words :
His was a personality at once striking and dis- tingaished. At the bar and on the bench he has made his impress upon two generations of men. Vigorous in mind and body, endowed with the highest qualities of courage and manhood, ripe in judgment, learned in the law, sensitive to truth, and a natural lover of justice, he has found a place of enduring eminence in the profession of his choice.
His very instincts and character fitted him for special usefulness in the arena of equity. He despised deceit and the dissembler. He hated fraud. By temperament he found keen pleasure to use his own words, in "laying bare a fraud into which a crafty designer had lured an un- wary and innocent victim." Such problems aroused his keenest activities and righteous indig- nation .. So, too, the man who suffered by acci- dent or mistake made high appeal, not so much to his sympathies as to his inherent love of fair play. Those who sought to evade a just and law- ful undertaking outraged his ideals of morals and manliness. To such he made it clear that the remedy of specific performance could teach les- sons both of morals and manliness, for by it how often did he compel some men to do by force of the court's decree what all men should have done by choice. To him a duty arising from con- fidence or trust reposed was a solemn and sacred obligation. His whole life by precept and exam- ple proclaimed it. And so it was that the negli- gent or dishonest trustee learned from him new or forgotten lessons of honesty and of diligence. And through the whole gamut of activity that comes to the equity judge his very instinct helped
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1.im enforce the lessons of honesty, of fairness, of diligence and duty, of manliness and or morals.
If his hand was sometimes heavy his heart was always tender. If his manner was sometimes brusque his motives were always true to high and righteous ideals, and those who knew him best loved him best, and loved him with tender con- sideration.
His mind was vigorous, resolute and splendidly trained, and his deliverances were clear, cogent and courageous. In the philosophy of the law just as in the physical universe, a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. His reasoning was direct and not by devious paths. "He thought straight," as Bacon said of one of the judges in his own time. In an issue of law neither casuistry nor the complex refinement of reasoning brought confusion to his mind. The real issue was discovered and laid bare. The non- essentials were swept aside and the true principle and controlling trend of authority were speedily and appropriately applied. And so it was that the journey was short between the story of wrong when he heard it, and the relief which was sought.
In a controversy of fact he found the truth with unerring instinct. Those who knew him at the bar said his skill in marshalling and analyz- ing facts was masterful, and that faculty or gift would seem never to have left him, but rather to have grown with judicial experience. His opin- ions, I think, were lucid and useful to an unusual degree. This was not alone because he was a learned judge, but in part at least because the controlling facts were recited with such clearness and completeness, and analyzed with such care, that the principle of equity at length invoked was obvious and convincing. Thus when the facts had been passed in complete review the legal principle in its application was both illuminated and emphasized. It is this characteristic which made his opinions to me, at least, of special value.
A notable figure has passed from our sight-a striking, forceful, unique personality that for over half a century was familiar to the public view in the discharge of duties connected with the ad- ministration of justice. In these, and all other duties, Henry C. Pitney served his age and his time faithfully and well, and then, full of years and of honors, like the patriarch of old, "after he had served his own generation, fell on sleep."
His career on the equity bench was the longest in this court, with one exception, and embraced the greatest service and work of his widely useful life.
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