USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them preeminent in their own and many other states, Vol. 3 > Part 31
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He was elected a fellow of the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science in 1895; he is a member of the American Philosophical Society, Ameri- can Society of International Law, Ameri- can Academy of Political and Social Sci -- ence, American Historical Association,
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and is president of the National Associ- ation for Constitutional Government. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and vice grand commander of the Society of American Wars. He is also a member of the following clubs: Authors, Century (New York), Metro- politan, Cosmos (Washington) and "Pun- dit" and Browning (Rochester). He has been honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws by Colgate (1883), University of Pennsylvania (1902) and Union (1902), and Docteur es Lettres, University of Switzerland (1900). He married Juliet Lewis Packer, of Williamsport, Pennsyl- vania, June 3, 1886.
ROBERTS, Ellis H., Journalist, Statesman, Scholar.
No intelligent account of the settle- ment and progress of Oneida county and Central New York can fail to note the contributions thereto made by the thrifty and adventurous Welshmen who were among the pioneers of the region. Their incoming dates from 1798, when a com- pany of about a dozen of the race took up land in the town of Steuben from Colonel Walker, the representative of Baron von Steuben of Revolutionary fame, to whom a large domain had been bestowed by a grateful people. Others followed until the towns of Steuben and Remsen be- came practically Welsh communities, and retain that character to a considerable extent to this day. Welsh settlements were founded in Deerfield, Rome, Plain- field, Nelson, and Waterville, and the Welsh population of Utica continued to increase. The Welsh strain is one of the strongest in the population of that city, foremost in its business and professional life, and its high moral tone is due, in large measure, to Welsh inspirations.
Ellis Henry Rogers, long a molder of the thought of Central New York, politi-
cally and socially, is of this sturdy stock. His ancestors were pioneers of progress in the old country and uncompromising non-comformists-courageous and inde- pendent. Michael Jones, of Bala, of kindred on the paternal side, had prob- ably more to do than any of his contem- poraries in the educational and political awakening of Wales in the last century. Roberts, Tyddynddeen and Thomas, of Bangor, noted clergymen, were of the same stock. On the maternal side, Ellis descends from the Williams, who re- sided on the shores of Bala Lake, as ten- ants of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. A member of the family was the Rev. John Williams, a pastor at Sheffield, England, and a divine of national reputation. In the British parliament, to-day, are a num- ber of Mr. Roberts's relations, some of whom visited him in Washington when he was Treasurer of the United States. His father, Watkin, came to this country in 1816, while the building of the Erie canal was proceeding. He was a stone mason and worked upon this mammoth enterprise. His mother, Gwen (Wil- liams) Roberts, followed her husband, with four chldren, two years later, and the family settled in Utica, where Ellis Henry was born September 30, 1827. The father died in 1831 and the struggle of the widowed mother and fatherless chil- dren to maintain an existence in a strange land was a severe one, but, by pluck and grit, they all attained honorable and suc- cessful positions in life.
Ellis Henry's preliminary education was pursued in the elementary schools and the Free Academy of his native city ; and he entered Yale College in the fall of 1846, from which he was graduated in the class of 1850, a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, having held ex- cellent rank as a scholar throughout the course, receiving prizes for English com- position and winning the Bristed scholar-
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ship for proficiency in the classics and mathematics. He was advanced to the master's degree three years later; and for marked erudition, was laureated Doc- tor of Laws by Hamilton in 1869, and by his alma mater in 1884. He was principal of the Utica Academy and also teacher of Latin in the Utica Female Seminary, 1850-51. He married, June 29, 1851, Elizabeth Morris, of the same goodly Welsh lineage-a helpful consort for over fifty years, dying in July, 1903.
His college training inclined him to jour- nalism and he accepted, in 1851, the editor- ship of the Utica "Morning Herald," then at the outset of its notable and cogent ca- reer, which he retained until 1893, also securing in it a controlling proprietary in- terest. Dr. Roberts assumed the editorial chair at a time when government policies of the utmost moment, including vital moral issues, were at stake, almost coincidently with the birth of the Republican party, of which he was to become an earnest cham- pion. He was equipped with superior scholarship, especially well versed in the history of the Republic and with the polit- ical and economical problems pressing for solution. As a writer, he soon ob- tained wide recognition for his wealth of knowledge, the precision of his thought and the force and lucidity of its expres- sion, and above all for the sincerity of his convictions. The "Herald," under the di- rection of Dr. Roberts, gained an exten- sive patronage and materially inspired and controlled public opinion, not alone in Central but also in Northern New York, in the latter section especially be- coming the Republican oracle and having well-nigh a monopoly of circulation, which the Syracuse press, quite as acces- sible to it as the "Herald," vainly con- tested. It is to be added that the "Her- ald" was also quite as distinguished for enterprise as a news gatherer as for au- thority in its editorial columns, rendering
it for years the leading journal of its locality in all respects. It prominently supported the administration of Lincoln in all measures for subduing the rebellion against the Union, and Dr. Roberts, with loyalty and love for the martyred Presi- dent, as a delegate to the Republican Na- tional Convention in 1864, enthusiastical- ly favored his renomination; and when the lines were drawn between congres- sional and executive policies of recon- struction, he was found arrayed with the congressional leaders, even to urging the impeachment of President Johnson.
Dr. Roberts was elected to the As- sembly of 1867, and took a conspicuous and persuasive part in its deliberations, especially in effecting the promotion to the United States Senate of his then friend and neighbor, Roscoe Conkling, who had by a service of four terms, as a representative in Congress, established his standing as an ornate and virile ora- tor; and, as State Senator Andrew D. White said, on seconding Conkling's re- nomination in the Republican legislative caucus, New York needed a voice in the Federal Senate. The voice, indeed, did much for Conkling, but it were to ques- tion historical verity to doubt that Ellis H. Roberts did far more by his personal appeals to produce the desired result than Conkling's most eloquent forensic utter- ances. Roberts was indefatigable in his efforts, not only by articles in the "Her- ald," but by enlisting nearly the entire press of the interior in Conkling's behalf, by standing for the Assembly, at Conk- ling's instance, and by his industrious can- vass among his colleagues in that body. The estrangement between the two that occurred subsequently need not here be detailed. It is sufficient to say, in the can- did review, that the principal fault there- for is not to be imputed to Roberts. In 1868, Roberts again appeared as a dele- gate in the Republican National Conven-
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tion and united in the nomination of Gen- eral Grant for the presidency.
In 1870, Roberts was elected from the Twenty-first (Oneida) District a Repre- sentative in the Forty-second Congress ; and, in 1872, was reëlected to the Forty- third. He spoke in the House as occa- sion demanded, always with full informa- tion and decided effect, in clear, vigorous English, particularly upon economic and financial measures, in the discussion of which he had already shown himself an authority in his editorials and other writ- ings.
Since his retirement from Congress, Dr. Roberts has not held elective office, but has forcibly and ably vindicated Republican principles and policies. He favored, with some hesitation, the re- election of Grant in 1872, and the nomi- nation of Hayes in 1876, but strenuously combatted a third term for Grant in 1880, acting with that element of his party which secured the nomination of Garfield and, in the State, opposing the return of Conkling and Platt to the United States Senate after their resignation therefrom. Dr. Roberts was a staunch champion of Blaine in the presidential canvass of 1884 and cordially supported Harrison in that of 1888. He was appointed by the latter to the important position of Assistant Treasurer in New York, of the United States, and served throughout Harrison's administration. He was president of the Franklin National Bank of New York City from 1893 until 1897, when he was designated by President Mckinley as Treasurer of the United States, continu- ing as such until 1905, when he retired from public life at the age of seventy- eight years, having filled with eminent ability the various offices of honor and responsibility that had been reposed in him. Interested in the cause of higher education, he wrote much on the subject,
and was trustee of Hamilton College from 1872 until 1900.
Outside of his journalistic and official duties, Dr. Roberts has been a prolific writer upon historical and financial themes, and also has deserved promi- nence as a public speaker. He has de- livered courses of lectures at Cornell Uni- versity and Hamilton College, and ad- dresses before the American Bankers' and several State banking associations, and the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science; and has been in constant request as a political orator in the successive presidential canvasses with which he was concerned, on notable his- torical occasions, and as an "after dinner" speaker. He is the author of "Govern- ment Reserve, Especially the American System" (1884), an enlightened exposi- tion of the subject ; and of "The Planting and Growth of the Empire State" (1887). Although an abridgment rather than an exhaustive review, and necessarily trust- ing considerably to secondary rather than original sources, this latter work holds a leading place among histories of New York, revealing its author as diligent in research, philosophical in treatment, en- gaging in style and impartial in tone. Dr. Roberts is still (July, 1916) living in Utica, in hale old age, with faculties un- impaired and, at times, contributing valu- able articles to the press.
CHOATE, Joseph Hodges, Jurist, Orator, Diplomat.
The splendid gifts of mind and person that Joseph Hodges Choate has displayed conspicuously in his long career at the bar and in high official place are meas- urably due to his lineage. He comes of sturdy, intelligent Puritan stock, char- acterized almost uniformly by physical longevity and by signal concentration
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and versatility of thought with its effec- tive expression.
The founder of the American family was John Choate, a native of England, who came in 1643 to Massachusetts Bay while Winthrop was still Governor of the colony, settled at Chebacco (now Essex) and was admitted a freeman in 1667. From him and his wife, Anne, to whom he was married in 1660, the line of de- scent runs through their son, Thomas (1671-1745) first of the family in the an- cestral estate-Hog or Choate Island- and representative in the General Court (1723-25) and his wife, Mary (Varney) Choate; through their son, Francis (1701-77), farmer, church elder and friend of George Whitefield, and his wife, Hannah (Perkins) Choate; through their son, William (1730-85), who was a sea captain, and his wife, Mary (Giddings) Choate; through their son, George (1762- 1826) representative for Ipswich, 1814- 17, and Essex, 1819, and his wife, Susanna, daughter of Judge Stephen Choate, of Ipswich; to Dr. George Choate, the father of Joseph Hodges Choate. In collateral branches also the family has been worthy and often dis- tinguished, Rufus Choate, a cousin of Dr. George Choate, with his magnetic speech, being supremely famous. Dr. George Choate (1796-1880) was a native of Essex, a graduate of Harvard College (1818), a prominent and skillful phy- sician, and a representative in the Gen- eral Court for several years. He married Margaret Manning, a daughter of Gama- liel Hodges, descended from the immi- grant of 1630 and of a family honorable in Massachusetts annals; and to them Joseph Hodges Choate was born in Salem, January 24, 1832. In the mater- nal line Mr. Choate traces his lineage to Philip English, the first great merchant of Salem.
His preliminary education was obtained
in the public schools of Salem. He was graduated from Harvard, in 1852, with Phi Beta Kappa rank, the fourth scholar of the class, in which his elder brother, ,William Gardner Choate, since a United States judge of the Southern District of New York stood first. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, in whose welfare he has ever retained a lively interest, frequently the orator at its reunions and presiding at its banquets. He was graduated Bachelor of Law from the Harvard Law School, in 1854, and after an additional year of study in the office of Leverett Saltonstall, in Boston, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1855. In the same year he moved to New York City, whch has since been his home, was licensed in this State and be- gan the practice which has continued un- interruptedly to the present day. He first entered the office of Scudder & Carter, the latter an accomplished jurist for half a century, with whom he re- mained a very short time when, with a ·commendatory letter from Rufus Choate to William M. Evarts, he was introduced to the office of Butler, Evarts & South- mayd of which Mr. Evarts was the head, in which he remained until 1858, when he formed a partnership with General Wil- liam H. L. Barnes, subsequently a bril- liant lawyer in San Francisco, which was conducted successfully for a year, under the style of Choate & Barnes. He then returned to the Evarts office, as a mem- ber of the firm designated as Evarts, Southmayd & Choate. This association continued until 1884, when it was re- solved into that of Evarts, Choate & Beaman, its successor now known as Evarts, Choate & Sherman, of which the sons of Mr. Evarts and Mr. Choate are members.
Steadily rising in repute and augment- ing in practice, Mr. Choate became the
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recognized "head of the bar" of the me- tropolis, which is the head of the bar in the country, when the senior member, that illustrious lawyer and prince of wits, gave himself wholly to the public service as Secretary of State and Senator. Mr. Choate was equally prominent in trials at nisi prius and cases in banc. His deep analysis of human nature, his discern- ment of situations and skill in eliciting evidence rendered him an expert in the examination of witnesses, while his spark- ling wit, ready repartee and cogent appeals mastered juries. His knowledge of the law, his familiarity with principles and precedents, the precision and solidity of his address and the urbanity of his acumen were also singularly persuasive with the bench; and this not alone in the Appellate Courts of the State, but in the highest tribunal of the land before which he has argued many celebrated cases. Among the cases in different jurisdictions that he has managed several may be men- tioned without, in all instances, specify- ing issues, to wit: Fuardent vs. di Ces- nola, in which he defended successfully the genuineness of the Cypriote antiqui- ties in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Stewart vs. Huntington, concerning the contracts and operations of the Central Pacific; Hunt vs. Stevens; Laidlaw vs. Sage; the Maynard New York election frauds of 1891-92; the validity of the Standard Oil and American Tobacco trusts; the Cruger, Vanderbilt, Tilden, Stewart, Hoyt, Drake and Hopkins will cases; and various others in the Admir- alty courts.
As he has been a maker of the organic law of the commonwealth, as will later be seen, he has also been the constant interpreter of the national constitution as witnessed in many issues before the national tribunal. Among these are the following: The case of the Philadelphia
Fire Association vs. New York, touch- ing the constitutionality of the so-called reciprocal and retaliatory taxation laws against foreign corporations enacted by many States; the Kansas prohibition law; the Chinese exclusion cases, with the pregnant question as to the right of the government to exclude or deport im- migrants of that race; the California irri- gation cases; the constitutionality of the Acts of many western States ; the Massa- chusetts fisheries cases; the constitu- tional right of a State to protect fisheries in arms of the sea and within and beyond the three-mile limit ; the income tax cases, which involved the constitutionality of the Income Tax Law of 1894. Besides these, Mr. Choate has argued many other important cases before the high courts of his own and other States. With John C. Bullitt and Anson Maltbie he achieved a signal triumph in 1889 in the able de- fense of General Fitz-John Porter before the commission appointed by President Hayes to inquire into the justice of the sentence which in 1863 had deprived Gen- eral Porter of his military rank for alleged misconduct in battle, and for the reversal of which General Porter had made the most strenuous efforts for many years. Mr. Choate not only fully established Porter's innocence, but also procured the restoration of his rank. The lawyer's versatility was further displayed in his presentation of the case for the defendant before the naval court-martial appointed to try Captain McCalla for certain alleged breaches of the naval regulations; and a still further illustration of that quality of his mind is to be found in his diplo- matic conduct of the investigation under- taken by the New York Yacht Club of the Defender-Valkyrie controversy, upon charges made by Lord Dunraven as to the conduct of the international race be- tween those yachts.
Mr. Choate has been most honorably
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recognized by his brethren of the bar in the presidencies of the Harvard Law School Association, the New York City, New York State and American Bar asso- ciations. He has been made Doctor of Laws by many leading colleges and uni- versities both in the United States and Great Britain, to wit: Amherst (1887), Harvard (1888), Yale (1901), Williams (1905), Pennsylvania (1908), Union (1909), McGill (1913), Cambridge (1900), Edinburgh (1900), St. Andrews (1902), Glasgow (1904), and Toronto (1915), and in 1902 Oxford University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. He was elected, April 10, 1905, a bencher of the Middle Temple, that most select and honorable legal body, a distinction never bestowed upon any other Ameri- ican. He is also a foreign honorary fel- low of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of the American Philosophical Society, a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the American Mu- seum of Natural History since the foun- dation of each; vice-president of the American Society for the Judicial Settle- ment of International Disputes; Am- bassador and first United States delegate to the International Peace Congress at the Hague (1907); trustee of the Equita- ble Life Assurance Society ; governor of the New York Hospital, 1877; president of the New York State Charities Aid Association ; member of the Massachu- setts Colonial Society; president of the New England Society of New York (1867-71); of the Harvard Club of New York (1874-78); of the Union League Club of New York (1873-77) and is now president of the Century Association. In addition to those already mentioned, he is also a member of the following clubs: University, Alpha Delta Phi, City, Met- ropolitan, Riding, New York Athletic, and Down Town.
These various associations-legal, let- tered, artistic, social and humane-which
have honored him and he has honored reveal at once the wide range of his activ- ities and the insistent call for their serv- ice. If he may be estimated by his tri- umphs at the bar; his constant thought and kindly consideration for its younger members; his identification with great enterprises; his courage and honesty in municipal affairs ; his secret, as well as open, beneficences, for no good and needy cause ever appealed to him in vain; his catholic views and quick sympathies, coupled with independence in thought and action ; his culture in arts and letters ; his social graces, his genial bearing and fascinating address, he may be fairly dis- tinguished as the first citizen of the me- tropolis as well as the leader of the bar. Enchanting as a guest and peerless as the host at the banquet board, he is, like Macgregor, the head of the table wherever he sits. If a notable from abroad visits our shores, he is chosen to bid him welcome. If a philanthropic, educational or clearly political movement is to be advanced he is summoned for the energizing event. If an historic occa- sion is to be observed or respect paid to the memory of a departed worthy, his is the informing utterance or the fitting tribute. Among his most notable ora- torical efforts may be mentioned that at the Metropolitan Fair in New York City, in 1864, that at the unveiling of the Far- ragut statue in New York (1881) and of Rufus Choate in the Boston Court House (1898), a labor of love, as he has often declared that he owes to Rufus Choate more than to any other man or men, to his example and inspiration, to his sym- pathy and helping hand, whatever suc- cess has attended his own professional efforts ; on the "Trial by Jury" before the American Bar Association (1898) ; on Leverett Saltonstall (Boston, 1898); on Richard H. Dana, 1915, and the famous classic on Abraham Lincoln.
Politically Dr. Choate has always been
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a Republican, the attainment of his ma- jority and the birth of the party being nearly coeval. A champion of its prin- ciples, he has taken the stump in its be- half in many campaigns, but has not hesitated to criticize its policies, when they seemed to him unwise, or its local leadership when it failed in rectitude of conduct. In other words he is an inde- pendent Republican ; uniformly the ad- vocate of purity in government and the scourge of abuses and corruption by whomsoever perpetrated. Thus he was prominent in the committee of seventy which, in 1871, broke up the Tweed ring and punished its chief malefactors. He has steadily refused to stand for office, once only consenting, in 1897, to be an inde- pendent Republican candidate for United States senator, but was defeated by what is known as the "organization." He has, however, accepted two positions of ex- alted import, among many tendered him, the one as a reviser of the organic law of the commonwealth and the other as the representative of the Republic in the most important post in the diplomatic service.
The fourth constitutional convention, duly ordered by the people, a large major- ity of the delegates being Republicans, met in the Assembly Chamber at the Capitol in Albany, May 8, 1894, Dr. Choate, who had been a member of the Constitutional Commission of 1890, head- ing the list of the delegates at large. It was an able body of men, many of them having previously received honorable preferment, and was well equipped by learning and experience for the responsi- ble duty it was to fulfill. By practically uanimous acclaim Dr. Choate was select- ed as president. Although without previ- ous legislative experience, he at once re- vealed signal ability as a presiding officer -firm, dignified, impartial, resourceful-
and commanded the esteem of his asso- ciates throughout, at times taking the floor to discuss propositions of exigent concern. He enlightened the convention by his speech, enlivened it by his wit, and charmed it by his courtesy. It framed an instrument accordant with his address on assuming the chair, in which, after prefacing a cordial tribute to the then existing constitution, he said :
We are not commissioned, as I understand it, to treat it (the Constitution of '46) with any rude or sacrilegious hands. To its general features, the statutes, the judicial decisions, the habits of this great people have long been accustomed and adapted, and it seems to me, we should be false to our trust if we entered upon any attempt to tear asunder this structure which, for so many years, has satisfied, in the main, the wants of the people of the State of New York. And yet, he proceeded, there are certain great questions which we are here to consider, which stare us in the face at the very outset of the proceedings and will continue to employ our minds until the day of our final adjournment.
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