USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > Memorial of the city and county hall opening ceremonies, Buffalo, N.Y. > Part 7
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In a word, Mr. Chairman, let us but be true to our profession and to ourselves, and we shall not only repay the rich honors and advantages which the public authorities have here confided to our keeping, but have a noble opportunity of showing to our fellow- men how manifold are the benefits which flow to society from a conscientious, learned and upright Bar.
Mr. Henry W. Box moved that Hon. E. Carlton Sprague be chosen to preside at the proposed banquet of the bar of Erie county at the Tifft House to-morrow evening. The resolution having been adopted, Mr. Sprague was called for, and addressed the meeting as follows:
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ADDRESS OF E. C. SPRAGUE.
I beg leave to thank the meeting for this expression of its respect. I do so most gratefully, for there are, indeed, few things in this life that I value more than the regard of my professional brethren. And now that I am upon my feet, although I had not expected to say a word upon this occasion, I find it difficult to repress alto- gether the recollections that are crowding upon my memory, some of which may be interesting, particularly to the students here pres- ent. I entered upon the study of the law, in Buffalo, in the sum- mer of 1843, in the office of Fillmore & Haven, then perhaps the leading office in the State, west of Albany. The life of law stu- dents then differed in many ways from the same life now. We took turns in the morning sweeping out the office and making the fires. I well remember Mr. Fillmore coming to the office one morning, and finding some dust around the leg of a table unswept (by the negligence of the clerk that morning, who he was I will not say), and exclaiming, that he feared that so negligent a clerk
WOULD NEVER MAKE A LAWYER.
The office hours were from eight A. M. to one P. M., from two to six P. M., and from seven to ten P. M. The pay was nothing the first two years, and two dollars a week the third. Much time was given in those days to chat with country clients and to politics. In the back room was a long high desk upon which the principal newspapers of the State were kept in files, and it was the custom of the press to come to the lawyer's office for counsel and direction as to the political policy to be pursued, and the candidates who should be nominated. And I assure you that our political affairs were not the less purely or ably conducted by reason of the counsel of the profession in those days.
I cannot omit a word in memory of the gentlemen with whom I studied my profession. As a, statesman, Mr. Fillmore's name is known as widely as civilization itself; but to the younger men in the profession I wish to bear testimony to his great learning, his profound investigations, his excellent sense, and his unwearied industry as a lawyer. I have not known his superior, upon the whole, as a professional man. I wish also to express my admira- tion for that strict conscientiousness which I may say that I know governed the most trifling as well as the important actions of his life. Differing from him as I and many of us did in re- gard to his policy while President of the United States, I have I never had the slightest doubt, that he was governed in all that he did by the highest sense of duty, and that he most conscientiously believed that the measures he sustained were calculated to promote the welfare of the country.
I cannot describe to those who did not know him the wonderful tact and humor, the genial conversational power, the unflagging industry, the professional skill, and the peculiar
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ELOQUENCE OF SOLOMON G. HAVEN.
He was the prince of jury lawyers, and it is no disparage- ment to others to say that in my judgment I have never seen his equal in this department of the profession at this or at any other bar. To him, too, more than to any other man, I think, we owe the courtesy and good temper with which the contests in our courts have been conducted by the profession since I have known it. He set a most praiseworthy example in this respect, and it had a marked influence. And in closing let me say that it seems to me that now is a fitting time to congratulate ourselves upon this fact so far as we are deserving of praise, and to resolve that the future shall be an improvement upon the past. As one, I can truly say, after a practice of nearly thirty years in my profession, that I do not carry in my memory a single unkind or uncourteous word expressed to or about me by any member of the profession, during either the trial or the argument of a cause. And I am sure that all will join me in the resolve, that, entering as we are now upon
A NEW CHAPTER OF OUR LIVES
as lawyers, all unkind recollections of the past, if any such there be, shall be cast out from our memories and trodden under foot. As my brother Locke well said the other day, in summing up a cause in which we were the opposing counsel, let us endeavor more and more to bear in mind that success in a law-suit, the reputation of lawyers, the parties to litigation, are of little conse- quence compared with the maintenance of the laws of the land, and that the highest function of the lawyer is to aid in the pure and intelligent administration of justice.
Hon. A. P. Laning, being loudly called for, said he could only unite his congratulations with those present upon the occupation of their new quarters. How well the Commissioners had fulfilled their obligations he should leave to those present and to a generous public to judge.
Hon. L. L. Lewis was also called upon and responded briefly, reciting some of his experiences in reading law, and in his struggles and difficulties in his early practice. He entered a law-office the same year that Mr. Sprague did, 1843. During his five years of study he received no more no less than one dollar. If law students of to-day think they are inadequately compensated, they may con- gratulate themselves that they are quite as well paid as he was. He congratulated the Bar, both old and young members, upon the completion of the elegant court rooms in the new Hall, and hoped that their occupancy would inspire the profession to renewed efforts to raise it to a higher plane, both socially and professionally.
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Appropriate remarks were also made on behalf of the younger members of the profession by Messrs. C. W. Goodyear and H. R. Squire; after which Mr. George Gorham offered the following resolution :
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Bar of Erie County, that at the sessions of the General Terms of the Supreme and Superior Courts, the Judges should enter in a body ; that the Crier of the Court should announce their coming and that the members of the Bar should rise and remain standing until the Judges have taken their seats.
Mr. Gorham supported his resolution with some well-put argu- ments, citing similar usage in other courts and places to justify the adoption of the proposed practice here. He was followed by Messrs. George Wadsworth, John Norris, General Scroggs, George W. Cothran and M. A. Whitney, in support of the resolution, and by Messrs. L. L. Lewis and J. C. Strong, who thought the matter had better be deferred and referred to the proposed Bar Association, when formed, or to a meeting of the Bar called for the purpose of considering the question.
The resolution was finally adopted by a very decided majority, and the meeting adjourned sine die.
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THE COMMON COUNCIL.
DEDICATION OF THE NEW CHAMBER.
THE first regular weekly meeting of the Common Council in the magnificent Chamber of the City and County Hall, was held on Monday, March 13, 1876, at 2 o'clock P. M. It was deemed emi- nently fitting and proper on such an occasion to observe some formalities other than the usual routine of business, which should commemorate an event of no little importance and long to be remembered by the present generation in Buffalo. Accordingly, the programme arranged by the committee was carried ont in good order, in the presence of as large a company of ladies and gentlemen as the spacious room would accommodate. Only those to whom tickets had been issued were admitted, as otherwise the crowd who would have sought admission would have been quite too large. Extra seats for the visitors were provided in the lobbies, and also within the railings. The Germania Band, numbering forty pieces and in full uniform, was ranged in front of the platform occupied by the City Clerk and reporters.
Shortly after two o'clock the meeting was called to order by the president, Alderman A. S. Bemis. All the members were present.
His Honor Mayor Becker, the Rev. Drs. J. C. Lord, Wm. Shelton, and A. T. Chester, ex-Mayors Hiram Barton and Chandler J. Wells, and Hon. G. W. Clinton occupied seats upon the dais with the presiding officer.
Dr. Lord opened the special exercises in pronouncing the following prayer :
O, Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that we are permitted to come into this noble edifice and look upon this great work. We thank Thee that in Thy holy and eternal providence Thou hast suffered it thus to be brought to completion ; that no fires have devoured it; that no raging whirl- wind has torn it apart, and that no trembling of the earth has torn it asunder, and that we have it fully and complete here to-day. We give thanks to God for all His mercies, and implore His divine benediction upon this structure in the years to come, that it may be spared to the city
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that it may be preserved in Thy providence, that it may remain in future gen- erations as a monument of those of the present age. O, we pray Thee, that the legislators who may assemble in this place from time to time, and year to year, may be guided by Thy good spirit. May they have that spirit of wisdom and understanding which alone can come by Thy divine love. May the coun- sels of this body be just; may they ever be free from corruption ; may they ever seek the good of the great city. O, Lord, we ask Thee to bless them in their incoming and outgoing. Lord, guide and bless and sanctify them. May this fair city grow until no man can count the number of its population ; and may it spread like its sister cities in power and commerce. O, Lord, grant that Thy divine work come, and may the people grow wiser, and may they improve, and may they receive the Gospel of the blessed God, and that this land may be known as a Christian land, and under Christian influence and guided by Christian influence. Now, O, Lord, hear our prayer, as we commend this body to Thee. Be Thou, O, Lord, their guide, their protector and their friend; and do for them bountifully beyond what they are able to ask, or even to think. Amen.
Hon. Philip Becker, Mayor of Buffalo, and one of the Building Commissioners, then spoke as follows:
ADDRESS OF MAYOR BECKER.
Mr. President and Members of the Common Council:
We have assembled here. to-day to celebrate the opening of the new City and County Hall, and the duty has devolved upon me as chief executive of the city to welcome you, and through your pre- siding officer to entrust to your care and custody this beautiful Council Chamber. You have reason to be proud, called as you are by the voice of the people to occupy seats in this room and in this magnificent structure, which is deservedly the pride and ornament of our city.
From a small village, with but few houses, Buffalo has grown to be a beautiful, prosperous and enterprising city, and has attained the name of Queen City of the Lakes, from her position, beauty and importance. The rapid progress, wealth and enterprise of her citizens required, notwithstanding the financial depression of the time, a public building for the accommodation of the different departments of the city government. Immediately upon the ap- pointment of the Board of Commissioners, the matter was promptly taken in hand, and the result of their labors is demonstrated to-day, in the completion of this superb edifice.
Permit me, gentlemen, to say that when you convene in this Chamber, to attend to your official duties, you should lay aside all partisan and personal considerations, and guard the honor and pledge yourselves to be loyal to
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THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CITY.
Responsibilities and duties always important, at times onerous and delicate, rest upon you. Let your actions be animated by a spirit of harmony, and you will not only receive the plaudits, but
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the gratitude of your constituency. You are the first corporate body to hold its meeting and deliberations in this Chamber, and as it happens to be in the centennial year, an event that will not easily be obliterated from our memory, let all your actions be in conformity with the interests of the taxpayers. You are the
LEGISLATIVE BODY OF THIS CITY,
and to your hands is entrusted the interest of the entire community. Aim toward economy, reduction of taxes and the general improve- ment and prosperity of the city, and you will have the respect and confidence of every well-minded citizen. I hope and trust that no act or actions of the Common Council will ever disgrace or dishonor this Chamber. It is my most sincere wish that all your proceedings hereafter may be of such a nature as to merit the approval of the executive branch of the municipal government and the citizens at large.
In reply to Mayor Becker, President Bemis said :
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT BEMIS.
Mr. Mayor : On behalf of the Common Council of the city of Buffalo, and of the people we here represent, I thank you, sir, and the Board of Commissioners, of which you are a member, for the generous and substantial manner in which these spacious accommo- dations have been provided for this Council, and in accepting the same, I have to ask, that you will please convey to the Board of Commissioners, the unqualified approbation of this body, in all things pertaining to their acts, in regard to the interests of this city in the trust reposed in them.
The Council will undoubtedly take such action in the premises as will give fitting expression to its views upon this subject, to be entered upon the minutes of this Board.
Addressing the Council and those present, President Bemis then spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the Common Council: This Board assembles to-day, under an agreeable change of circumstances, especially in regard to its place of meeting, and it would seem eminently proper that some fitting recognition of the change that has been wrought should be manifested by this Council, at this, its first meeting here. And as this occasion calls to my mind reminiscences concerning the early history of this Franklin square, which, taken in connection with the history of this building, it may not be deemed inappropriate to relate at this time. I am, therefore, led to ask your indulgence in a few brief remarks applicable to the occasion.
Gentlemen, as I stand here to-day, and view the vast proportions and elegant style of this spacious and commodious Hall that has
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been provided and set apart for the use of this Council, and con- trast the scene of to-day with the sorrowful scenes of long ago that have been witnessed upon the ground whereon this grand structure has been erected, I confess that I feel almost over-awed at the change which the transition from the solemnities of the past to the grandeur of the present has produced.
MEMORY CARRIES ME BACK OVER HALF A CENTURY
to the days of my childhood and early youth, when the land upon which this building now stands, was the common and only burial- place for the dead of the then village of Buffalo, for which purpose it had been dedicated by the Holland Land Company, when laying out the village. My aged mother, who is still living in Buffalo, informs me that her father, Gamaliel St. John and Elias Ransom, organized a " chopping bee," and cleared this ground of its original timber- growth, and laid it out aa s place for the reception of the dead. Mr. St. John had buried his second son here, soon after coming to Buf- falo, and he and his eldest son were subsequently buried here in 1813, both having been drowned together in the Niagara river, by the upsetting of the boat in which they and a party of men were crossing from Black Rock to the Canada shore, in the interests of the American army, and in the endeavor to open up and establish communication with a portion of the American forces, then holding possession of Fort Erie and other posts in the vicinity. And here, almost beneath the place where I now stand, the remains of my father reposed for nearly thirty years, having been buried here in 1823. Others of my kindred, also,
SLUMBERED IN THIS SACRED PLAT OF GROUND
for many years; and it is a somewhat singular coincidence, that the kindly acts of my grandfather, St. John, in giving a respectable and sightly appearance to this village burial-ground in its earliest use, became coupled with the fact, that members of his own family were about the first-and the very last that found sepulture in it, his daughter, the wife of the late Judge Samuel Wilkeson, being the last. Judge Wilkeson was the Mayor of this city at the time of his wife's death in 1836, and the Common Council granted him a special permit to bury her here, long after interment in this ground had. been prohibited. Many of the early settlers in Buffalo, whose names are now only remembered by a very few of the living of to-day, rested here from their labors, as did also some of their children and their children's children after them. And here also, in this old graveyard, the children of fifty years ago were wont to wander from their sports upon the adjacent green. The village school- house was near by, and this was their favorite place of retreat when let loose from school. Thus, the children of my time became curi- ous lookers-on at many a scene of sorrow and sadness, at times when their sports were interrupted by the lamentations of those bereaved,
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who brought hither to this once hallowed and holy spot their loved ones to be returned to their parent dust. And such were the scenes here of the long ago, that come up before me to-day in contrast with the present. And what a change! But death, the great har- vester of all earthly and human hopes is also a most constant gleaner; and the hand of ambition is seldom if ever stayed, and pays but poor respect at times to the dead or the living.
Buffalo had grown to an incorporated city in 1832, with Ebenezer Johnson for its first Mayor, a portrait of whom has recently been presented by his daughter, Mrs. Dr. Lord, to be hung upon the walls of the Mayor's office in this building.
THE FIRST VISIT OF THE ASIATIC CHOLERA
to the shores of America in 1832, brought a most unwelcome guest to this young and growing city; and the consequences were direful indeed. The capacity of this common burial-place was taxed to its uttermost, and interments in it were therefore soon prohibited. Meanwhile other cemeteries were established, and many of the dead removed thither from this ground, by the voluntary acts of surviv- ing friends; and finally in 1852, the remains of all were removed by order of the Common Council, and at the public expense, to a lot in Forest Lawn, procured for the purpose. The remains of about two thousand bodies were so removed, and with few exceptions were without recognition by surviving friends, and without tomb- stones or tablets were promiscously interred, where they now sleep unnumbered and unknown, awaiting identification at the final res- urrection. The city erected a fitting monument to the memory of a few distinguished officers of the war of 1812, whose remains were among those removed to Forest Lawn, and thus ended the " grave- yard scenes " in this time-honored and historic ground. The city having acquired absolute title to this land before the removal of the dead, a new era soon dawned upon the visions of men in regard to its future use. Some agitated the project of a public square or park. The city authorities had also been required by decisions to vacate the Terrace between Main and Pearl streets, then occupied by what was known as the Terrace Market building-the upper story of which was devoted to the use of the Common Council and city offices. Hon. Hiram Barton was then Mayor; and to his fore- sight and energy, was due the plan of purchasing the Franklin street front of this public ground, and the fitting up of the build- ings thereon for city purposes, and with a view also to its ultimate use as a site for a City Hall, when a new one should be required. This project was carried into effect in pursuance of an enabling act of the legislature. The land was purchased and merged with the old burial-ground, and the whole was dedicated as Franklin Square, reserving in the center thereof, a site for a City Hall.
I had the honor of being a member of this body at the time this was done, and voted for the measure; and I have been spared and favored to be here to-day, at the consummation of the plans of
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nearly a quarter of a century ago, and permitted to take part with you in these ceremonies. The good people of this city, and the county of Erie have most nobly seconded these early efforts that were made. Nay, we might almost say, they have been extrav- agant and lavish, in these times of financial embarrassment through- out the land, in erecting such a grand and costly structure as this City and County Hall proves to be. But when we consider that the wants and
REQUIREMENTS OF OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT,
for all time to come, as well as for the present, have formed a chief part of the study of the Commissioners who have been entrusted with the construction of this building, we cannot but say, that their labors have been arduous indeed, and exceedingly well performed ; and that the accommodations and conveniences provided for the several branches of the city and county governments, as well as for the judiciary, are all that could be desired, and will prove adequate therefor, while these granite walls shall stand. The various depart- ments of the city government have been transferred to this mag- nificent edifice; and it remains for the Common Council to inaugurate herein the legislative branch thereof. The session of to-day will, therefore, form a note-worthy event in the history of this city in connection with the dedication of this building in this centennial year; and the record of this day's proceedings will long outlive the members whose names are recorded at this first roll-call of the Common Council in this elegant and spacious Hall.
Gentlemen of the Common Council, we are here assembled, with our fellow-citizens in attendance,
TO SOLEMNLY DEDICATE THIS CHAMBER
to the uses for which it has been set apart ; and it were well, indeed, if we, the members of this body, should likewise here dedicate our- selves to the welfare and prosperity of this city, and to its people as well, who have entrusted us with the powers we here possess; vouchsafing to them, if it were possible for us so to do, that the local legislation of this city shall from this day forward, have a new departure, that shall be commendable in their sight, and that shall prove worthy of imitation, by all who shall come after us, to occupy these seats.
At the conclusion of the address of the presiding officer, Hon. George W. Clinton, Chief Judge of the Superior Court, was intro- duced, and spoke as follows:
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ADDRESS OF HON. G. W. CLINTON.
Mr. President and Gentlemen: I feel most deeply the honor you have done me. But I cannot-I know I cannot-adequately express my sense of it, nor my respect for you. Old recollections of the day of little things, when I was Mayor of our then infant city, and of the men, now dead, whose virtues and exertions con- tributed to confirm its safety and exalt its honor, crowd into my mind and almost overwhelm me. But neither recollections of the past nor exultation in the greatness and goodness of our dear city can make me eloquent. The contrast is too great, the grief too deep. It seems to me, removed as I have been for many years from active public life, that I belong to the puny past rather than to the glorious present. The unwonted magnificence of this noble Council Chamber confounds me, and the solemnity of this audience disturbs me. Were it not for the fact that in you I recognize my own dear friends and neighbors, I might well imagine myself standing in the Roman Senate, this Chamber is so perfect and so grand. Ebenezer Johnson, the first Mayor of Buffalo, went to his reward many weary years ago. But when his son-in-law, the Reverend Dr. Lord, in- voked the blessing of Almighty God upon our city and ourselves, the majestic form of that worthy man and faithful citizen rose up before me. My old college friend and room-mate must excuse me. I must say that his presence gives me profound pleasure, and that 1, in common, I doubt not, with all who hear me, venerate his well spent life and reciprocate his prayers.
Rightly understood, there is wondrous and solemn truth in the oft-quoted lines :
" How fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay ! Princes or lords may flourish or may fade ; A breath can make them, as a breath has made ; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied."
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