The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 143

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II > Part 143

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This portrait, an admirable representation of Judge Neilson, executed by the hand of a master, waa hung in one of the principal court-rooms, where the portraits of Judge Greenwood, Judge Reynolds, and Judge Thompson were placed ten years ago.

BENJAMIN F. TRACY

is distinguished not only for his eminent career as a lawyer, but as a learned, impartial and laborious judge ; an acute, in- dependent-minded legislator, who follows the leadership of his own judgment, subordinated to partisan interest only ao fsr 86 it enhances the interests of all his constituency ; a determined enemy to all political quackery. He is also distinguished as a soldier, inspired by a self-sacrificing patriotism ; as s fearless, able prosecuting officer of government, who discharged difficult and responsible duties with clean hands and an honest hesrt, in times when peculations and stupendous fraud were nearly overwhelming it; when strong defiant rings and unscrupulous juntas were, by the unstinted use of money, corrupting the very sources of justice.

Benjamin F. Tracy was born at Owego, N. Y., April 26th, 1830. His father, Benjamin Tracy, is one of the oldest and highly respected residents not only of Owego, but of the county of Tioga; a pioneer of the Southern tier; one of that band, most of whom are now banished from earth, whose virtue, integrity, enterprise and industry made the desert bloom, and who laid the foundation for the wealth and culture of thst beautiful region.

With the first development of young Tracy's nature he indi- cated a love of booka and of study; as years went on he exhibited more than ordinary intellectual strength and activity. He began his education at the common school of his native village, where he laid the foundation of a practical, thorough and useful educa- tion. He mastered all the branches taught in those time-hon- ored primary institutions, where Lindley Murray's "English Reader " was the principal reading-book, still remembered for the purity, elegance and taste of its diction. It was, perhaps, the study of this excellent book that gave Tracy the strong, perspic- uous style which distinguish his written and oral productions.

Leaving the common school, he entered Owego Academy, where he remained several years an ardent, industrious, thorough student, acquiring an excellent English education. It was his early ambition to become a lawyer-an ambition which stimulated him in the prosecution of his scientific and literary studies.

Accordingly, after leaving the academy, he entered the office of Nathaniel W. Davis, Esq., a respectable lawyer in Owego, as a student of law.

At that time the path to the legal profession had not been smoothed and illuminated by compenda, abridgments and digests, as it now is. Neither were lawyers made as easily snd cheaply as at the present time. The subtleties of Blackstone, couched in its pure, terse and elegant style ; Coke on Littleton, Fearne, Sugden, Preston, Chitty, Archbold and Graham, with their intellectual subtlety, were the principal sourcea from whence the law-student then derived his legal knowledge. .

But young Tracy possessed a mind peculiarly constituted to grasp intelligibly the metaphysical and critical niceties of these quaint but venerated authors. He found in the pages of our own illustrious Kent a never-failing source of intel- lectual delight and profit. He did not merely " read law," but he studied it as a science which ia the " embodiment of all

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human reason." He believed that to be familiar with the sources of legal knowledge, to know the appropriate places of the most dissimilar principles, and to be able from close study to comprehend their limits, bearing and relations, is essentially the foundation of a legal education. The effect of these convictions upon his studies, and on his future professional and judicial career, will be readily seen in the progress of this memoir.

After a few months' study, he began to try causes in Jastices' Court-that humble arena of legal strifes in which so many powerful gladiators of the Bar first learned to wield their intellectual weapons.

Nothing exceeds the interest with which Judge Tracy in- vests his description of his early practice in these primary courts; his contests with the old-fashioned petti-fogger of that day-& race of beings now nearly extinct-whose ambi- tion never soared higher than the court of a County Justice, whose conceit and ignorance was only equaled by their blatant impudence and bluster -- legal bull-dogs, with no other training for hunting down their game than the qualities we have named. These were not the only opponents with which the young student had to deal in these courts. At that time many of the ablest members of the Bar appeared in them ; he was, therefore, compelled to study hard, think closely, act with energy and caution, and watch every point with the closest at- tention, in order to sustain himself ngainst the attacks of his more experienced opponents. But he himself soon became formidable in the attack and strong in the defense, and his suc- cess as a lawyer in these courts was assured. It is said he was seldom defeated in a case which he had fully and maturely pre- pared to try. With such a course of study, with such severe discipline in the trial of causes, Benjamin F. Tracy, in May, 1851, was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the State.

Fortunate in the possession of popular endowments, strong in professional knowledge and experience, with a judicious self- reliance, he entered upon his practice as an attorney and coun- selor-at-law, in his native village. It would, perhaps, be the work of supererogation, under these circumstances, to say his success was assured from the beginning.

Love of intellectual labor, perseverance and determination in pursuing it, stand next to genius in the category of human excellence. Indeed, they often eclipse it, for without these qualities genius is inert and brilliancy useless.

At the Tioga Bar, he was compelled to measure himself with the ablest representatives of that and other Bars of the Southern Tier-with Daniel S. Dickinson, possessing a mind of great activity; full of the springs of an effectivo eloquence, as power- fal at the Bar as he was in "listening senates;" John A. Collier, whose intellect, naturally active and logical, was admirably pre- cise, perspicuous and searching; Alexander S. Divin, dis- tinguished for the vigor and grasp of his mind, depth of his learning, terse logic, and genial nature; Hathaway, a man of marked intellectual vigor, cultivated and enlarged hy learning, keen, fervid, witty, whose arguments at the Bar are still remem- hered na beautiful specimens of legal oratory; John J. Taylor, George Sidney Camp, John M. Parker, Steven Strong, and other eminent members of the Southern Tier Bar. Such was the arena, such the contestants, against whose prowess young Tracy was compelled to make his way to professional distinc- tion. That he did this, is, alone, sufficient evidence of his capacity ns a lawyer.

It was natural that such a mind as Tracy's should find irresist- ible attractions in the political field. Very early in his profes- sional career he gave his allegiance to the old, and now historic Whig party, but though strong and ardent in his political con- victions, he was not aggressive in maintaining them. In Novem- ber, 1853, he became the Whig nominee for the office of District Attorney for Tioga County-at that time a Democratic strong- hold. It was an ordeal to the young lawyer; but with his usual confidence and courage, he came out of the apparently hopeless

contest victorious, being elected hy an exceedingly handsome majority.

The office of District Attorney at such a Bar was calculated to stimulate all his powers, awaken all his energies, and put in requisition all his learning. The whole system of our criminal law was then full of technicalities, and the courts, in their ad- ministration of it, were scrupulously strict in adhering to subtle forms and rigorous rules. Thus, the prosecuting attorney was compelled to walk, as it were, over mines which the touch of some skillful antagonist might suddenly explode. But Mr. Tracy was equal to the duties of his office. His patient in- vestigation, careful preparation, quick insight into the objec. tive point of a case, shielded him from motions to quash his in- dictments, motions in arrest of judgment, and all those skill- ful attacks, in which keen and learned lawyers assail the publio prosecutor. We believe he never had an indictment quashed. It was in the discharge of his duty as District Attorney of Tioga County, as we shall hereafter see, that Benjamin F. Tracy pre- pared himself to enter upon a wider, more difficult and responsi- ble field as a prosecuting officer of the United States.

At the expiration of his term as District Attorney, he was again placed in nomination for that office. This time his opponent was Hon. Gilbert C. Walker, popular not only with his own party, but with the people generally. The prospects of Tracy's election at first seemed dubious, but after a close and heated contest he was triumphantly elected by a majority of 900. At a later period Walker was elected Governor of Virginia, and subse- quently became a distinguished representative in Congress from the 3d Congressional District.

Notwithstanding Walker's defeat, he became an intimate and valued friend of Tracy's, and, in 1857, his law partner. The firm soon became one of the most influential in the Southern Tier counties, controlling an extended and a highly remunera- tive business. This relation continued two years, when it was severed by Walker's removal to Chicago.

At the expiration of his second term, Tracy was again tendered the nomination for District Attorney, but his rapidly increasing civil business compelled him to decline. In the meantime his reputation continued on the ascendant, until it was generally acknowledged that he was the most successful lawyer who ap- peared at the Tioga Bar. This is evinced by the fact that he often tried eleven or twelve causes of his own at its circuit, being successful in every one. Charles O'Conor once remarked, "that a lawyer who succeeds in one-half the causes tried by him is eminently successful."

The secret of this success, and of Tracy's control of the popular mind, may be found in his sincerity, constancy, and direct- ness. There is no deceit in his nature; men are never left in doubt about his views; and, what is better, he is never in doubt about himself; one always knows exactly where to find him. His sympathy is always with the masses. No man understands the impulses of the people better than he, and he has an intense sense of justice between man and man, estimating men accord- ing to their true worth. He never stands on assumed dignity, nor by word or manner indicating any assumed personal superi- ority. In his official positions his policy was never timid or vacillating. Whatever the responsibility, he never hesitated to assume it, but always moved promptly to the front. Perhaps nowhere in his whole career were these features more conspicu- ously exhibited than when discharging the duties of United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

As time went on, the cloud of Civil War began to gather over the land, and then it was that the self-sacrificing patriotism of Tracy developed itself in private life, in legislative halls, and amid the stern events of war.

Upon the dissolution of the Whig party, Mr. Tracy became a Republican from principle. In the autumn of 1861 he was nomi- nated and elected a Member of Assembly by the Republicans and War Democrats of Tioga County, taking his seat in that body

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January 7th, 1862. Atter a close and somewhat bitter contest, Henry J. Raymond was chosen Speaker of the Assembly. In this contest Tracy exhibited abilities that rendered him quite as con- spicuous and successful as a legislator as he was a lawyer. He was a friend of Raymond's, warmly supporting his claim to the Speaker's chair. Indeed, he was the leader of the Raymond party in the contest, evincing abilities and influence that added largely to Mr. Raymond's success. Tracy's leadership was promptly recognized by Mr. Raymond, who immediately upon his nomination moved that Tracy be appointed chairman of the committee to call future caucuses of the Republican members of the Assembly. Tracy's legislative career, though short, was ex- ceptionally creditable for the work performed and the responsi- bility thrust upon him. Mr. Raymond, whose warm friendship he enjoyed till the sudden death of that gifted statesman, recog- nized his personal ability by causing his appointment on the most important committees, making him a member of the Judic- iary, and Chairman of the Railroad Committee, and of "Bills entitled to early consideration "-the latter position, as head of the "Grinding" Committee, giving him largely the control of legislation. He soon distinguished himself in the House by his readiness in debate, and the terse logic of his speeches. He evidently, in speaking or writing, is guided by the maxim of Quintilian, Cura sit verborum ; solicitude verum. "To your ex- pression be attentive, but about your matter be solicitous."

Early in the session Mr. Hubbard, Chairman of the "Ways and Means," reported from that committee a series of resolutions upon the subject of finance, committing the Legislature to a national policy of carrying on the war exclusively on specie basis. Tracy, having moved an amendment to the resolution, in sub- stance pledging the credit of the nation in every form available for the prosecution of the war, made, in support of his amend- ment, the first legislative speech ever made in the United States in favor of the issue of paper money for carrying on the war. His career in the Legislature was not only honorable to himself, but useful to his constituents, and to the public. He was a frequent, though not obtrusive speaker, neither courting nor shunning debate ; never feeling that it was necessary to his reputation to speak on every question that came up for discus- sion. His great aim was to forward the business before the House, especially the business in his charge.

At the close of the session he returned to Owego and resumed the practice of his profession.

"In the spring of 1862, still remembered as a period of alarm to the friends of the Union cause, new levies were imperative for the Federal army, and Gov. Morgan at once appointed a com- mittee in each Senatorial district to organize a general recruiting effort. Tracy was one of the committee for Broome, Tioga, and Tompkins counties. He accepted the charge, and, in addition to general service as a member, he received a commission from the Governor, and personally recruited two regiments, the 109th and the 137th, making his headquarters at Binghamton. The active work was completed in thirty days, and Tracy was ap- pointed colonel of the 109th, with which he reported to Gen. Wool, at Baltimore, in whose department it remained until transferred to that of Washington. In the spring of 1864 the regiment was ordered to join the Ninth (Burnside) Corps, then a part of Grant's advance. Colonel Tracy led his regiment with great gallantry in the battle of the Wilderness, when its loss, on Friday, May 6th, was upwards of eighty killed and wounded. Near the close of the fighting on that day, he fell exhausted, and was carried from the field. Urged by the staff of his command- ing officer to go to hospital, he refused, bnt resumed the lead of his regiment, and held it through three days of the fighting at Spotsylvania, where he completely broke down, and was com- pelled to surrender the command to the lieutenant-colonel.

As soon as he became satisfied that months must elapse before he could again join the army, and not liking military service in

a hospital, he tendered his resignation, and came North to re- cruit his health. Ia the following September, without solicita- tion on his part, Secretary Stanton tendered him the appoint- ment of Colonel of the 127th United States Colored Troops, which he accepted. Subsequently, he was ordered to the com- mand of the military post at Elmira, including the prison camp and the draft rendezvous for Western New York. This was a large and important command. In the prison camp there were at one time as many as 10,000 prisoners.

The treatment of prisoners of war has been a subject of ex- tended and bitter controversy between the North and the South. That there was much suffering and great mortality at Elmira is not denied, because these are inseparable from large military prisons; but that either can be attributed to cruelty or neglect is positively denied. Nothing that could be reasonably done to alleviate the suffering of the prisoners was omitted. The very hest of food was supplied in large quantities, while the harracks were large and commodious-nearly all new and built expressly for the prisoners; the accommodations and supplies furnished them being in all respects the same as those supplied to the Federal troops on guard, and to the volunteers received at the draft rendezvous."

There are a class of men who achieve distinction that seem to resemble the mechanic who forms his calculations and fashions his machinery upon the abstract considerations of the mechani- cal powers, making no allowance for friction, the resistance of the air, or strength of his materials. This was not the case with Judge Tracy. He exerts a quick, careful examination of every circumstance by which he is surrounded, even though sprung upon him instantaneously. Perhaps nothing in his life more strongly illustrates his ability to overcome sudden difficulties than the triumphant manner in which he repelled the dastardly attack made by Hill, of Georgia, in the House of Represent- atives, March, 1876, upon our treatment of rebel prisoners at Elmira. It was virtually an attack upon General Tracy, and took place in the celebrated debate between Hill and Blaine, in which the former, incensed by the representations of the latter of the horrors at Andersonville, referred bitterly to the Elmira camp, charging upon its management cruelties quite equal to those recorded of the Southern prisons.

General Tracy was at home at this time, and it was by mere accident that he learned the nature of the debate in progress at Washington, and of General Hill's charges. This occurred at a time when the General was deeply engaged in an absorbing and important matter.

One morning, while rapidly glancing over a New York daily, his attention was arrested by the heading, in large capitals, of a column, as follows: "HILL, OF GEORGIA, ON THE ELMIRA PRISON ; he alleges that the rebel prisoners confined in it during the war were treated with great inhumanity," &c., &c. After reading it carefully, burning with indignation, he hastened to telegraph Mr. Platt, member from the Twenty-eighth District; a full, well- worded reply to Hill. This reached Mr. P., in the House, while the debate on the subject of the prison at Elmira was still in progress. Immediately arising to a question of privilege, he sent the remarkable telegram to the clerk, by whom it was read to the House. It commanded profound silence, falling upon Hill and his Southern friends like a sudden clap of thunder. Hardly was the reading concluded when Hon. C. C. Walker, a member from the Elmira district, an intense Democrat, sprang to his feet, and, in a few glowing and effectual words, fully sus- tained General Traoy's telegram ; alleging that, to his own knowledge, every word of it was true. This ended the debate, completely refuting the charges made by Hill.

"Upon the conclusion of peace, General Tracy went to New York, entered the firm of Benedict, Burr & Benedict as a part- ner, and resumed the practice of his profession. This associa- tion continued until October, 1866, when Tracy received the

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appointment of United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, when he terminated his relations with the firm mentioned."

While in practice in New York, he exhibited all the qualities of what may be termed a great lawyer.

Space will not permit us to describe at length the causes in which he achieved signal professional triumphs. We may, how- ever, refer briefly to one of these cases, that of United States, vs. William Chase Barney, et al., indicted in the fall of 1865, for an attempt to defraud the government by making and executing fraudulent bonds for the exportation of goods; a case of great importance, and which attracted general attention. The firm, of which Gen. Tracy was a member was retained for the de- fense, which was assigned to Tracy. Daniel S. Dickinson was then District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and, assisted by Samuel Courtney, Esq., and John Sedgwick, Esq., appeared for the prosecution. This was a formidable array, but Tracy, with characteristic self-possession and self- reliance, entered upon the defense. It came up for trial in New York, before Judge Shipman, of Connecticut, when Tracy promptly gave notice of a motion to quash the indictment, on the ground that there was no statute of the United States by which a crime committed in the Custom House of the City of New York, could be punished. When the day appointed for the argument arrived; his distinguished opponents treated the motion as a matter of small importance, void of merit, and felicitated themselves on an easy victory. But the learned and accomplished judge-with a mind at once comprehensive and acute-frem the beginning, took another view of it, and listened with the mest profound attention to Tracy's argument, in which he presented his points in all their force-arranged them with artistic skill, so as mutually to sustain and strengthen each other, presenting an imposing and harmonious whole. It was only when Tracy had concluded his argument that the counsel for the government comprehended their danger, and then the struggle commenced in earnest. But to the bold theory of Tracy, that there was no law for the punishment of the crime alleged against his client, they could give no adequate answer, and the indict- ment was quashed.

In the autumn of 1866, Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman, who had for some time discharged the duties of United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, resigned the office he had discharged so acceptably. The resignation of Mr. Silliman was generally regretted by the Bench, the Bar, and the public generally. The appointment of Judge Tracy as his successer was very popular and the manner in which he dis- charged the duties of the office, entitles him to the highest con- sideration and, it is no affectation to say, to the gratitude of the National government. That he had this, in its fullest sense, must be to him the most gratifying, nay, the proudest incident in his long and distinguished career.

"Gen. Tracy was placed in this official position at a period requiring the maximum of courage, legal acumen and energy on the part of the Federal prosecutor. His district contained a large proportion of the whiskey production of the seaboard, more than five hundred distilleries being counted within its limits. Very many of these were small illicit affairs, and all were contriving to cheat the government of its dues.

For two years Gen. Tracy gave his exciusive attention to this class of revenue defaulters, fearlessly exercising all the powers of his official authority and professional talents against its members, rich or poor. The struggle was a severe one, the 'Whiskey Ring' using its immense profits to bribe revenue officers, and to subsidize the best legal talent ; and, had its assailant been wanting either in ability or moral or physi- cal bravery, the victory might have been on its side. Tracy was net enly an honest servant of the United States, but a relentless enemy ef all who aimed to defraud the country. Despite threats and proffered temptations, he did not relax his pursuit. In the

winter of 1867, at the request of the Ways and Means Committee of Congress, indorsed by the Internal Revenue Commissioner, he drafted a bill regulating the collection of taxes upon distilled spirits, which, in one year after it became a law, resulted in securing $50,000,000 for the United States Treasury, instead of the $13,000,000 collected the previous twelve months. Before the multifarious assaults of this admirable enactment, the combination of distillers, lawyers and traitors in office was obliged to succumb. Mr. Rollins, the commissioner-in-chief, declared, after the battle, that had it not been for the United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and two other United States District Attorneys, the internal revenuc system of the United States would have been an utter failure. In 1873, Mr. Tracy resigned his Federal position and resumed the practice of his profession in Brooklyn, where he has sinco resided, and where his practice is very extensive." He has been engaged in most of the important trials that took place at the Kings County Bar. Among these trials was the famous Tilton-Beecher case, by far the most important legal contest that ever took place in the State of New York, if not in the United States. Gen. Tracy entered into it not only as one of the coun- sel for Mr. Beecher, but as his warm personal friend. In the discharge of his duty, the brilliancy of his talents, the depth of his learning, and his legal oratory were liberally acknowledged by the illustrious lawyers with whom he was associated, and by whom he was opposed. The difficult and onerous duty of opening the case of the defendant was assigned to him. Under the circumstances that surrounded the whole case, this duty was peculiarly difficult and embarrassing. The manner in which he discharged that duty was not only a triumph for himself, but for his client. His intellect was never more vigorous and active. The subject was particularly adapted to the organization of his mind; he was at home amid all its intricacies, and successfully encountered all asperities and prejudices with a facility that exhibited consummate skill and extraordinary reach of thought. As has well been said, "Perhaps no speech ever delivered at the Bar was so widely read; and probably no professional address ever made a greater impression upon the public mind than this. The current of public opinion had been heavily against Mr. Beecher for some weeks, and the evidence of Mrs Moulton, shrewdly reserved by Mr. Tilton's counsel for the close of the case, had produced a profound sensation-so strong, indeed, that Mr. Beecher's enemies, and many of his friends, believed that its effect could not be overcome.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 143

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345