Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 41

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 41

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In the autumn of 1839 he was nominated as a candidate for State Senate from the Senatorial dis- trict then corresponding nearly in boundary to the present Third Judicial District of this State. There were two vacancies to be filled in addition to the term then expiring. There were, therefore, three Senators to be chosen. The year before, Alonzo C. Paige had been elected by less than fifty majority. But on this occasion the three Democratic candi- dates were all defeated by a majority little more than nominal.

In the spring of 1834 Mr. Parker was appointed District Attorney of Delaware County, which place he held for three years and till the expiration of his term, and was not a candidate for reappoint- ment.

The later incidents of Judge Parker's life are more familiar to our readers. He was appointed, by Gov. Bouck, Circuit Judge and Vice-Chancellor of the Third Circuit on the 6th of March, 1844, and immediately removed to the City of Albany, where he has since resided. He held that office till the spring of 1847, when it was terminated by the adoption of the Constitution of 1846. He was then elected in the Third Judicial District a justice of the Supreme Court of this State for a term of eight years.

At no time in the history of this State have the judicial labors devolved upon a judge been more difficult and responsible than those which he was called on to discharge during his twelve years of judicial service. It was during this time that the Anti-Rent excitement which prevailed throughout a large portion of his judicial district was at its height, crowding the civil calendar with litigation, and the criminal courts with indictments for acts of violence in resisting the collection of rents.

The trial of "Big Thunder," before Judge Parker, at Hudson, in the spring of 1845, lasted two weeks, and the jury failed to agree. When the next Court of Oyer and Terminer was held in that county, Judge Parker was engaged in holding the Court in Delaware County, and Judge Ed- monds was assigned to hold the Columbia Oyer and Terminer in his place. At that Court " Big Thunder" was again tried and was convicted and sent to the State prison.

In the summer of 1845 Osman N. Steele, Under Sheriff of Delaware County, while engaged with a posse in his-official duties in the collection of rent

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dne from Moses Earle, at Andes, in that county, was violently resisted by about two hundred men armed and disguised as Indians, and was shot and killed by them. Intense excitement prevailed in the county. A great struggle followed between those who resisted and those who sought to en- force the laws.

On the 25th of August, 1845, Gov. Wright de- clared the County of Delaware in a state of insur- rection, and a battalion of light infantry was de- tailed to aid the civil authorities in the preservation of order and the making of arrests. At the in- quest held on the body of Sheriff Steele and at a Court of General Sessions, the whole subject was fully investigated. Some indictments were found for murder, but most of them were for manslaughter and lesser offenses.

Over two hundred and forty persons were in- dicted, most of whom were arrested and in custody awaiting trial at the then approaching Oyer and Terminer.

The regular jail and two log jails, temporarily constructed for the purpose, were filled with prisoners. Under these discouraging circum- stances, and with armed men stationed in the Court room and throughout the village to preserve order, Judge Parker opened the Oyer and Terminer at Delhi on the 22d of September, 1845. A brief statement of these proceedings and an extract from the charge of Judge Parker to the Grand Jury will be found in the History of Delaware County, by Jay Gould, published in 1856 and dedicated to Judge Parker.

After charging the Grand Jury he gave notice that, whatever time it might take, he should con- tinue to hold the court till every case was tried and the jails were cleared.

The indictments were prosecuted by the District Attorney, assisted by John Van Buren, then At- torney-General, and by Samuel Sherwood, a dis- tinguished member of the Bar, then of New York, but who formerly resided at Delhi, and the prison- ers were defended by able connsel, among whom were Samuel Gordon, Mitchell Sandford and Samuel S. Bowne.

John Van Steenburgh was first tried and con- victed of murder. Edward O'Connor was next tried with a like result. Both were sentenced to be executed on the 29th of November, then next ; four others were convicted of felony and sent to the State Prison for life, and thirteen were sent to the State Prison for different terms of years. A large number who had been engaged in resisting the sheriff, but who had not been disguised, pleaded guilty of misdemeanors. Some of these were fined, but as to most of them, and as to some who plead- ed guilty of manslaughter, sentence was suspended, and they were told by the Court they would be held responsible for the future preservation of the peace in their neighborhoods, and were warned that if any other instance should occur of resisting an officer, or of a violation of the statute, which made it a felony to appear for such purpose armed and disguised, they would at once be suspected, and might expect to be called up for sentence.

Under this assurance they were set at liberty, and it is but justice to them to say that they became the best possible conservators of the peace, and that no resistance of process by violence has ever since oc- cured in that county.

At the close of the third week of the court, all the cases had been disposed of. No prisoners were left in jail except those awaiting execution or transportation to the State Prison ; the military were soon after discharged, and the log jails taken down, and peace and good order have ever since reigned in the county.

A report of the trial of Van Steenburgh, with a note referring to the business of that court, will be found in I. Park, Cr. Rep., 39. The sentences of Van Steenburgh and O'Connor were subsequently commuted by Gov. Wright to imprisonment for life ; and, about a year later, all those in the state prison were pardoned by the successor of Gov. Wright.

Great credit was awarded to Judge Parker for his successful discharge of the delicate and difficult duties devolved upon him at the Delaware Oyer and Terminer, and at the next commencement the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by Geneva College.

As has been stated, Judge Parker's services as Circuit Judge and Vice-Chancellor terminated in 1847 by the adoption of the new state constitu- tion of 1846, under which an elective judiciary succeeded to the exercise of the judicial powers of the state. In all the counties of the Third Judicial District, meetings of the Bar were held, and com- plimentary addresses to Judge Parker were signed, approving his judicial course, and from his associ- ates on the Bench of the Rensselaer Oyer and Ter- miner he received a similar earnest recognition of his services and of their personal respect.

Judge Parker was one of four Justices of the Supreme Court, elected in the Third Judicial Dis- trict in June, 1847, being chosen by a very large vote; and he entered upon the duties of this office on the first of July, 1847. During his term, he served one year, during the year 1854, in the Court of Appeals. His term of service as a Justice of the Supreme Court expired on the 31st of December, 1855. His opinions in causes pending in that Court will be found in the first twenty-one volumes of Barbour's Supreme Court Reports. In the year 1854 Judge Parker served in the Court of Appeals, and was there associated with Judges Gardner, Denio, Alexander S. Johnson, Allen and others. His opinions in that court are reported in Ist and 2d volumes of Kernan's Reports. Among those most worthy of reference, is the case of Snedeker vs. Warring, reported in 2d Kernan, 170, a case which attracted much attention at the time, for the reason that it presented a very nice question, and one that had not been before decided either in this country or in England. It was finally decided on the anthority of cases adjudged under the civil law on the continent of Europe. It involved the question whether a statue, colossal in size, erected as an ornament on the grounds in front of a coun- try residence, and securely attached to the earth by

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its weight, was real or personal property. The case was argued by very able counsel, and it hap- pened, by the practice of the Court, in turn, to fall to Judges Johnson and Parker to write opin- ions. At the close of the argument, as the judges were separating for the day, in a few words of consultation that took place between the judges who were to write, Judge Johnson said he had an impression that the statue was real property. Judge Parker said his impression was that it was personal. A month later, after both the judges had spent much time at the State Library in exam- ining the authorities, but without having again spoken together on the subject, and after each had written his opinion, ready to be read and discussed at the next meeting of all the judges, Judge Parker met Judge Johnson and said to him: " I have changed my opinion, and have come to the con- clusion that the statue is real property." And Judge Johnson said in answer, "and I have changed mine, and have concluded it is personal property." When the meeting of the judges was held for con- sultation soon afterward, both opinions were read after discussion; the vote stood four and four, and thus it remained till near the end of the year, when on further discussion and consideration, five voted with Judge Parker and two with Judge Johnson, and the case was decided

Judge Parker was nominated by the Democratic Convention for re-election in the autumn of 1855, Ambrose Z. Jordan being the candidate of the Republican Party, then newly organized, and George Gould that of the "Know-Nothing," an American party. Prominent members of the last named party proposed to nominate Judge Parker, but he declined being its candidate. A very small vote was cast for Mr. Jordan, but Judge Gould was elected. That was the year when the American "Know-Nothing " party, suddenly springing up, swept the State by large majorities. Judge Parker was very largely ahead of his ticket, being beaten by the American candidate by only about a thou- sand votes ; while the state officers on the American ticket in the same judicial district had a majority of several thousand.

Judge Parker then resumed the practice of his profession at Albany, and though afterward re- peatedly offered nominations for the Supreme Court and for the Court of Appeals, when the Democratic party to which he belonged was in the majority in his district and in the State, he always declined, and preferred the independent practice of his profession.

In the fall of 1856 he was nominated by the Democratic State Convention for the office of Gov- ernor. The opposing Republican candidate was John A. King. Erastus Brooks was the " Ameri- can " candidate. Though Judge Parker received several thousand majority in the judicial district where he was beaten the year before by about a thousand majority, he was defeated in the State, Gov. King being elected by a heavy majority. Mr. Buchanan, who was elected President that year by the votes of the other States, and against whom the majority in the State of New York was nearly ten

thousand votes more than the majority against Judge Parker, who ran largely ahead of his ticket, tendered to the latter offices of distinction, which the latter declined. And later in his administra- tion, he nominated him for U. S. District Attor- ney for the Southern District of New York, and the nomination was confirmed by the U. S. Senate, without reference, but Judge P. refused to qualify, preferring his own private professional practice.

In the fall of 1858 the Democratic State Con- vention again nominated him for the office of Gov- ernor. His Republican opponent was E. D. Morgan, who was elected by about 17,000 majority, though Judge Parker ran again largely in advance of the rest of the ticket.

Since that time Judge Parker has not been a candidate for any office except that he was elected in 1867 a delegate from the County of Albany to the State Constitutional Convention, in which he served in the years 1867 and 1868, as a member of the judiciary and other committees. The judiciary article framed by that convention was the only por- tion of the constitution finally adopted by the people.

On Judge Parker's retirement from the Bench, he engaged at once in the practice of his profession at Albany, taking into partnership in 1865 his son, Amasa J. Parker, Jr., and adding to the firm in 1876 Ex-Judge Edwin Countryman, under the name of Parker & Countryman. He devoted him- self with great industry and success to his profes- sional duties. He had a great love for his pro- fession and for the principles upon which the law and its administration are founded. He was en- gaged in a large professional practice and in many of the most important cases that have come into the courts, as is shown by the State and Federal Reports. Among the most notable litigations in civil cases was a question of the right to tax National Banks, which he argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the employment of the city of New York, reported in 4 Wallace Rep., 244 ; and in this State, the title of Trinity Church to property in the city of New York; the Levy will case, reported in 33 N. Y., 97 ; the famous con- troversy between the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company and the Pennsylvania Company; and that of the boundary line between the States of New York and New Jersey, reported in 42 N. Y. Rep., 283. He rarely engaged in criminal cases, and his defense of Cole for the murder of Hiscock, and his acting in two or three other murder cases, were exceptional. He declined a retainer of $5,000 offered him to act as counsel in the defense of Tweed.

With the late Judge Ira Harris and Amos Dean, he engaged, in 1851, in the founding of " the Albany Law School," which established a high rep- utation under their government and care, and he continued for about twenty years one of the pro- fessors in that institution, and resigned only be- cause of the pressure of his professional practice. He had found time while on the bench and after- ward for preparing for the press some law books which he thought needed, among which were six

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volumes of Reports of Criminal Cases. He also, assisted by two other gentlemen of the profession, edited the fifth edition of the Revised Statutes of this State.

He was an earnest advocate of the reforms inau- gurated in the State Constitutional Convention of 1847, by which the Court of Chancery was abol- ished and law and equity powers were vested in the same tribunal, and the practice of the courts sim- plified. He visited Europe in 1853 while similar reforms were under consideration in England, and, at the request of Lord Brougham, he addressed the Law Reform Club of England at its annual meet- ing, explaining to its members the results of his experience on the Bench in regard to the changes that had been made in this State, especially as to the administering of law and equity in the same Court.

In politics he was, throughout his whole life, an active member of the Democratic party. Believ- ing thoroughly in the principles of that party as founded by Jefferson, and that their success was indispensable to the welfare and prosperity of the country, he advocated them with earnestness, but always with due respect for the judgment of those who differed from him.

He labored strenuously to avert the catastrophe of civil war, and presided at the famous State Democratic Convention held at Tweddle Hall, in Albany, in February, 1861. He always believed afterward, as he believed then, that with temperate counsels, on the part of the Republican leaders then about entering upon the control of the Fed- eral Government, civil war could have been avoided; but when the first blow was struck at Fort Sumter, and rebellion was thus inaugurated, he did not hesitate to regard the die as cast, and became at once an earnest advocate of a vigorous prosecution of the war on the part of the Government, and freely contributed his own money and time to the raising of men and means for that purpose.

But his patriotism did not prevent his earnest protest against what he deemed the gross abuse of power practiced, for merely partisan purposes, by high Federal officials, in the making of unnecessary, arbitrary arrests of Northern men, whose only of- fense was an honest and independent difference of opinion, and a free confession of it, on subjects of mere party difference in no way involved in the prosecution of the war to put down the rebellion. This tyrannical exercise of power and gross viola- tion of the right of personal liberty he stoutly re- sisted, and not only denounced it on the stump, at the hazard of his own personal liberty, but he freely gave his professional services to obtain re- dress for such wrongs.

A notable instance of this character occurred in the case of Patin vs. Murray, tried at the Greene Circuit before Judge Ingalls in June, 1864, by Judge Parker as counsel for plaintiff, in which a jury composed of men of both political parties gave to this plaintiff for such an arrest and false imprison- ment a verdict of $9,000 damages. An attempt was made to remove this case, after verdict and judg- ment, for retiral, into the U. S. Circuit Court, under an act of Congress that had been conveniently

passed for the purpose of defeating such recoveries. Judge Parker insisted that the act was unconstitu- tional, being in violation of the seventh article of the amendments of the U. S. Constitution, and under his advice the State authorities refused to make a return to the writ of error. Application was then made to the U. S. Circuit Court to com- pel the return, and on demurrer, a peremptory man- damus was adjudged. To review that judgment a writ of error was brought by Judge Parker, and the case was removed into the United States Su- preme Court held at Washington. It was first argued, in that court, in February, 1869, by Judge Parker for the plaintiff in error, and by Mr. Evarts, then Attorney-General of the United States, for the defendant in error.

The Judges were divided upon the question and ordered a re-argument, which took place in Feb- ruary, 1870, Attorney-General Hoar then appearing for the defendant in error, and Judge Parker again arguing for the plaintiff in error. The judgment of the U. S. Circuit Court was then reversed and the unconstitutionality of the act of Congress was established.

The case is reported in 9 Wallace U. S. Rep., 274.

During a long life of professional labor, Judge Parker never lost the tastes acquired in early life for classical study and literary pursuits, and he was in the habit of setting apart a stated portion of his time for such purposes. He enjoyed an occasional return to the reading of the Greek and Roman authors; and those, with the attention given to the current literature of the day and a mingling in the duties of social life, afforded him an agreeable re- laxation from severer studies and a healthful change to the mind. These tastes brought him in con- nection with the educational institutions of the State, in several of which he served for many years as a Trustee.

Among other duties of that character, he was for many years President of the Board of Trustees of the Albany Female Academy, President of the Board of Trustees of the Albany Medical College, a Trustee of Cornell University, and one of the Governors of Union College.

When a member of the Assembly in 1834, Mr. Parker, as chairman of a select committee, had made an elaborate report urging the establishment of a State Hospital for the Insane, which led to a more full consideration of the subject by the people, though it was not till several years afterward that the first State Hospital for the Insane was estab- lished. Doubtless it was owing to the interest Mr. Parker had taken in the subject that he was, after- ward, appointed by Gov. Fenton one of the Trustees of the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane at Poughkeepsie, a trust which he held till 1881, when he resigned, and Gov. Cornell appointed the son of Judge Parker in his place.

Judge Parker married, in 1834, Miss Harriet Langdon Roberts, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and of his large family of children, Mrs. John V. L. Pruyn, Amasa J. Parker, Jr., Mrs. Erastus Corning and Mrs. Selden E. Marvin, all residents of Albany, still survive.

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HAMILTON HARRIS.

While a biographical memoir ought to be strict- ly adapted to its subject in all its lights and shades, it ought also, with a certain measure of indepen- dence in the writer, to be adapted as far as possi- ble to various tastes.

The reflective man will read it for instruction, the frivolous for amusement, and the critic, accord- ing to his disposition either to detect faults or to display its beauties.

The first will require fidelity in the narrative; the second, variety in the incidents, and the third, a watchful attention to the rules of good writing. But, after all, the success of the biographer depends upon the character he describes, just as the pencil of the artist depends for success on the contour of the features he reproduces upon canvas.

In entering upon the duty of presenting to all classes of readers the life and career of Hamilton Harris, such are the facilities presented in the mind, character and career of our subject, that we feel a consciousness that the fault will be ours if the men- tal portrait we are about to give is deficient in its lineaments or wanting in that which truth de- mands ; for there are elements in his character which should render the task successful.

No name is more conspicuously associated with the Albany, and we may well say with the State Bar, than his. Few lawyers have brought to the Bar a more energetic mind, a more fortunate com- bination of legal and scholarly acquirements, or stronger or more practical administrative abilities.

" All professions," says Burke, " particularly the legal, narrow and dwarf the intellect by chaining it rigidly to rules, precedent and procedure." Doubt- less Mr. Harris has felt the full force of this re- mark, for he has always found time in the midst of his most engrossing political and official duties to continue his early classical studies, and a critical reading of history, and the productions of the great English writers. In literature as well as law he has submitted to the most laborious and persever- ing process of private study.

In the preparation of this biography reference has been had to the public journals of the day, from which extracts have been freely made.

Hamilton Harris was born at Preble, Cortland County, N. Y., May 1, 1820. His parents were natives of the State of New York, but his father was of English and his mother of Scotch descent. At an early period in the history of Cortland County they settled at Preble, and they may therefore be regarded as pioneers of that delightful part of the State. When old enough, young Harris began his education in the common school of his native town, and after mastering all the branches taught there, he entered Homer Academy. After success- fully pursuing his studies in that institution for a time, he became a student in the Albany Academy, where he completed a preparatory course for col - lege. He entered Union College in the class which graduated in 1841. At college he was known as a diligent and successful student. We are assured that there was much in his collegiate

course that pointed to future success in life. He was vigorous in health, elastic in spirits, in temper enthusiastic yet self-governed, with powers active and well disciplined, and thus he was in every way fitted to enter upon this critical era of his life well prepared for the intra-monial influences which surrounded him.

The little strifes, rivalries and jealousies of Union were encountered with the same equanimity of temper with which he encountered the more en- grossing rivalries and contests of the Bar, and his own rank in scholarship was from the beginning to the conclusion of his collegiate career of the high- est order.

In 1841 he was graduated with a high reputa- tion as a classical scholar. He distinguished him- self at the commencement exercises by a very able and admirably delivered address. The magnitude of the subject was equaled by the maturity of thought which he brought to its consideration, and it was indeed as strong in reasoning as it was ele- gant in diction.

All of the college productions of Mr. Harris in- dicate his conviction that language is not merely the dress, but the very body of thought ; that it is to the intellect what the muscles are to the princi- ples of physical life ; that the mind acts and strengthens itself through words ; that it is chaos till defined and organized by language. The at- tempt to give clear, precise utterance to thought is one of the most effectual processes of mental dis- cipline. Of his graduating address we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 41

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452