USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Lodge no. 61, F. and A. M., Wilkesbarr?, Pa. with a collection of masonic addresses > Part 27
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at its next session passed a bill establishing a session salary, and for- bidding further compensation. During Governor Hoyt's administra- tion a plan for refunding the public debt falling due was matured and carried into effect, resulting in a material saving of interest and a general improvement in the State finances.
"His messages and state-papers are proof, not only of a high literary attainment and a most intimate and thorough understanding of the general history and principles of the government, but also of minute and detailed working. If the turn of his mind was theo- retical and philosophical, he never failed to be intensely practical at the proper time. He had theories, but they were not visionary. He went below the surface and into the very foundation of moral, social and political questions, but was never led astray, or failed to reach sound and practical conclusions. To the performance of his duties he brought industry and thoroughness. Executive work was done promptly and on time. Without the appearance of haste or worry he could turn off a great burden of detail, and while seemingly always at leisure for the reception of friends, he was in reality a hard and patient worker, always abreast of what he had to do.
"In all business relations with Governor Hoyt, official or otherwise, he was always to me the very soul of honor; while not inclined to open his thoughts to all men, yet those who knew him best could feel an assurance that his animating inclination and purpose was always honorable, and that he was incapable of a mean or dishonest act."- The Wilkesbarre Record, December 5th, 1892.
Through the exertions of Governor Hoyt, marked reforms took place in the methods of punishing persons, especially the young, convicted of first offenses against the criminal laws. A humane man, his humanity led to his urging the building of a reformatory ; and through his influence the State Legislature made provision for the construction of the Huntingdon Reformatory after the most approved and successful models, for the purpose of providing a place where unfortunate criminals not yet hardened in crime might be brought under good influences and helped along in the path of reform. "He became interested in the intro- duction of the reformatory system for first offenders through his official visitations to the penitentiaries. The evils of as- sociating young persons who may have fallen inadvertently
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into a violation of law with old and hardened offenders were apparent. To inform himself thoroughly on the methods of reform, Governor Hoyt visited other States where reform- atory systems are in successful operation. After thorough investigation he formulated a plan which was submitted to the General Assembly."
His interest and activity in and about the important sub- jects of criminology and penology did not cease with his retirement from the gubernatorial chair.
In 1883 and 1884 he was one of the Vice Presidents of the National Prison Association of the United States, of which the Hon. R. B. Hayes, former President of the United States, was President.
This Association was re-organized in 1883, and from that time to the present has been doing valuable work. It has been the direct cause of improvements in several of the larger prisons of the land, and, by the moral force exerted through its conferences and publications, has done much towards mitigating the abuses in the Southern prisons, the atrocities in the "convict camps," and the outrageous meth- ods which prevail in many of our Northern jails.
A very important feature of its work is with reference to discharged convicts or ex-prisoners. How utterly and com- pletely desolate, solitary, and forlorn the man is who has been released from prison and means to reform, God and the man himself alone know! His old comrades will have nothing to do with him. He can have no companionship with honest men until he has proved himself worthy of it.
He is an object of suspicion, and he knows that he is. Honest labor refuses him a place because of his disgrace and shame. If it is an inclement season, he must meet the bitterest cold with a crushed soul ; the very chill of his body and his hunger have a tendency to drive him back to his old life, which is always invitingly open to him. If ever a man needs help, he needs it. The Prison Association has
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every facility for helping such men, and it does help hun- dreds of them every year.
In 1884 Governor Hoyt became a member of the Board of Public Charities of Pennsylvania, and he held the office for a number of years.
The National Conference of Charities and Correction is an organization that deals with the treatment of the delinquent, dependent and defective classes, and studies the causes and remedies of crime, pauperism and dependency. From its beginning, in 1874, it has never endeavored to carry out any policy, but it has relied for its influence solely upon free discussion of these problems and the publication of its dis- cussions. It has exercised a large influence in the promo- tion of important reforms in the treatment and care of the insane, the care of dependent and defective children, juvenile reformation and prison reform.
Upon the occasion of the twelfth annual meeting of the National Conference at Washington, D. C., in June, 1885, Governor Hoyt read a lengthy paper, which received the closest attention, and drew forth the most favorable com- ments, of the conference. He said, in part :
" The men and women thus annually assembled are neither vision- aries, dogmatists nor hobby-riders. We have now reached a step in our progress where we can stop and pick up defective and vicious members of society who drop out or desert. Good men are seeking some formula under which the true relations of such may be restored without annuling the law of society organization. It is not a hundred years since the insane were confined in dungeons, or were the butts and menials of debased criminals.
It is but a little more than a hundred years since a prison became little else than a mere inclosure into which society emptied its suspects or its convicts, either for torture or death, thinking to get rid at once of the prisoner and responsibility. Yet humanitarians have found a better use even for convicts than physical and moral death. * *
If I were to attempt to forecast the future I should be glad to con- template in the near future all prisons as reformatories ! There would be no two views of the prisoner-one by the judge, another by the
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warden. Both should understand the individual case, and the dis- charge be under conditions as solemn as the commitment. There would be a fixed purpose contemplated by the framer of the penal code, who kept his eye steadily on the criminal from the day he medi- tated his crime until he walked, conditionally released, out from his prison ; and that only after society had successfully exhausted its punitive and remedial process upon him. Serving out a sentence would then mean rehabilitation, or, failing in this, society could capture the offender as an escaped prisoner.
The issue of the great discussion is not yet actual-it is plainly possi- ble. Let us not expect to produce results within the walls of a prison better than we can produce without them. Let us not expect that the convicts will be better men than the mass of citizens whom the grace of God has kept outside !"
During his gubernatorial term Governor Hoyt received, in 1881, the degree of LL. D. from the University of Penn- sylvania, and in 1882 the same degree was conferred upon him by Lafayette College. From the latter college he had also received, in 1865, the degree of A. M., ad eundem.
Upon his retirement from office in January, 1883, Gover- nor Hoyt took up his residence in Philadelphia, where he opened a law office and resumed his professional work. He soon enjoyed a lucrative and an extensive practice, and was also General Manager and Chief Attorney for Pennsylvania of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. In 1890 he returned to Wilkesbarré, where he continued in the practice of his profession until prostrated by ill health.
Governor Hoyt was often called upon to deliver addresses before literary, scientific and other bodies in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In June, 1866, there was a reunion at Stam- ford, Conn., of the members of the Hoyt family-527 of them being present. One of the most pleasing of the addresses delivered was that by General Hoyt, who said, among other things :
"I am proud of the honest, steady, unflinching look of the faces be- fore me; the pleasant sheen that glitters from beneath the eyelashes of our sisters ; the uprightness and the broad, square shoulders of the
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brothers, sitting along these aisles. You don't look like people who need to apologize for being here in the world. It is to be further noted, that we authenticate ourselves as Hoyts by many well-defined traits of our mental and corporeal physiognomies. Perception, reverence, and order are our strong points ; I see their development all over the as- semblage. It is again to be noted, that of about 600 supposed to be present, all have written their names 'of their own proper handwriting,' not one resorting to the short, royal form of 'his X mark.' * *
Among the conclusions to which a comparison of notes here has led us, one seems to be that none of our name has achieved eminent dis- tinction among the great ones of the world ; and none has given us unpleasant notoriety among the base ones of the world. If your chair- man has attempted to develop any extra enthusiasm by emphasizing his call upon me as upon 'General Hoyt, of Pennsylvania,' let me at once prick the sides of any vanity in this regard. I thank God that (with legions of others) I was enabled in a quiet and, I hope, faithful way, if obscurely, to serve my country 'during the war'-a part of the time as Colonel of the 52d Pennsylvania Volunteers. (You will excuse me for saying, parenthetically, that of course it was a good regiment.) The balance of the title is a harmless brevet as brigadier-general-a little out of the region of mere 'militia generals'-perhaps nothing to have 'sot much pride onto.'
Once for all, let us see under the shadow of what a name we do stand ! It is distinction enough for us, and glory enough for the whole Hoyt family, that WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN is our right cousin, that he is the son of Mary Hoyt.
Having come some distance to this gathering-to this rally under the old family roof-tree-here in old Connecticut, the traditional land of traditional habits, long since baptized 'Steady,' I cannot sit down without one word further. I come from Pennsylvania, strong and great, the Keystone of the Federal arch ; I come as one of her dele- gates, as a 'Pennsylvania Dutchman,' if you please, and, if necessary, to vindicate her thrift, her steadfastness, and her institutions ; not in competition or contrast with Connecticut, but as a co-equal and a co- worker in the field of ideas, of which New England is not the exclu- sive proprietor. We are all ' Yankees,' and the Yankee should, will, and must dominate the country and the age. These hills have borne great crops of great men-which, at last, is the best product-men attuned to the keynote of our social structure, the importance, the in- violability, the integrity of the manhood of the individual.
I am in entire accord with all that I have heard said here of Con- necticut and Massachusetts ; but, within the proper limits of 'State
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rights,' I am for my own Commonwealth. I revere and love the solid- ity of the mountains, the men, and the civilization of the State of my birth. I hold that my grandfather did a smart thing, if he never did a great thing, to-wit : when he left Danbury, Fairfield county, Con- necticut, and went to the Wyoming Valley, in Pennsylvania. As this occurred two or three quarters of a century before my time, I take no personal credit for it ; but I am glad of it. There are broad and pleas- ant fields in the Valley of the Susquehanna, and I am sure they are quite as conducive to the 'income tax' as the acre lots of Fairfield county, fenced with their own stone, and plenty 'more of the same or similar sort left.' My Danbury cousins will pardon me if I negative any intention of offence by the equivalent assurance that I do not in- tend to go back on Danbury, nor have I any present purpose of going back-to Danbury."
November 10th, 1879, Governor Hoyt read before the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania and a large number of invited guests, a paper entitled "Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne: A Syllabus of the Controversy between Connecticut and Pennsylvania." After the reading of the essay the following resolutions were adopted :
Resolved, That the Historical Society of Pennsylvania deems the delivery of a discourse before it, by the Governor of the Common- wealth upon an important historical subject connected with the honor of the same-the first occasion in the history of the Society that its members have been thus gratified-an event of such importance as to demand from it a special expression of its satisfaction.
Resolved, That the Society sees in this act of the Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth an assurance, most welcome to it, that the ob- jects of the Society are appreciated in their full value by the Govern- ment of the State, and sees also an augury of the happiest kind for the stability and future usefulness of the institution.
Resolved, That the thanks of the Society are due in an eminent de- gree, and are here given to his Excellency, the Hon. Henry M. Hoyt, Governor of Pennsylvania, for his discourse pronounced this evening -a discourse distinguished alike for research and ability."
This essay, which evinces a vast amount of research and knowledge of legal and historical facts, is the most valuable treatise that has ever been written on the subject discussed.
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It has been published under the auspices of the Historical Society and is an Svo book of one hundred and forty-five pages.
In September, 1880, the Second General Council of the Presbyterian Alliance assembled in Philadelphia, and there were present delegates from nearly all the reformed churches throughout the world which adhere to Presbyterian forms and doctrines. Many of these delegates were men of great ability and reputation as scholars and teachers. Governor Hoyt, as Chief Executive of the Commonwealth within the borders of which the council had assembled, delivered an address of welcome which attracted very considerable atten- tion and applause from those who heard or read it. " With- out doubt," says General Palmer, "his discussion upon that occasion was both unexpected and astonishing. The grave and reverend members, versed in all the doctrine and dogma of the Presbyterian Church, were amazed at the learning of the speaker in his treatment of abstruse theological questions which are outside the investigation of laymen, and only understood by those bred and educated in the schools of the Church. No one who heard him doubted the intellectual force of the lawyer who could stand before the wisest men of that Church, which is celebrated for the dialectic skill of its preachers, and speak to them of the doctrines which, since the days of Calvin and Knox, have furnished food for complex and learned discussions. It was an illustration of the many sided character of Governor Hoyt's mental culti- vation and of the breadth of the great intellect now gone out into the great unexplored and unknown mystery beyond the grave."
The corner-stone of the new armory of the First Regiment of Infantry, National Guard of Pennsylvania, was laid in Philadelphia with Masonic ceremonies April 19th, 1882, and Governor Hoyt delivered the oration on the occasion.
The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the organiza-
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tion of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, F. and A. M., was celebrated with great éclat in Philadelphia on St. John the Baptist's Day, June 24th, 1882. The Grand Lodge, accom- panied by seventy-six subordinate Lodges under its jurisdic- tion, paraded through the principal streets of Philadelphia to the Academy of Music, where an appropriate program of ceremonies was carried out, the chief features of which were addresses by prominent members of the Craft. Governor Hoyt delivered an address on "Masonry and its Relations to the Outer World."*
At the commencement exercises of Williams College, Massachusetts, in July, 1883, Governor Hoyt delivered an eloquent address on the duties which men of education owe to their times, and how those duties may be most success- fully accomplished. In December, 1884, he delivered an address before the students of Swarthmore College, Penn- sylvania, on the subject of " Protection, or Defensive Duties." In July, 1885, he, with thirteen other graduates of Williams College, sent to the Trustees of the college a protest against the manner in which the doctrine of Free Trade was being taught to the students of Williams by Professor Perry ; and also objecting to having the Cobden Club Prize awarded at the college. As a result the Trustees appointed a com- mittee to consider the advisability of having a course of "protective" lectures delivered. Professor Perry of Williams College shared with Professor Sumner of Yale the distinc- tion of being the most prominent of the educators who were endeavoring to poison the minds of American collegians with British Free Trade heresies. In the Fall of 1885 the students of Williams invited Governor Hoyt to deliver an address to them on the subject of Protection. He delivered the address early in February, 1886, and forcibly presented his ideas with reference to a protective tariff.
*See Chapter VI. for a copy of this address.
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Early in 1886 Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., of New York, published an octavo book of 435 pages, written by Governor Hoyt and entitled "Protection versus Free Trade: The Scientific Validity and Economic Operation of Defensive Duties in the United States." Although written in the in- tervals of business engagements, this book was clearly the result of a thorough and impartial investigation of the science of political economy in its relation to protective tariffs. The book has had a wide circulation among scientific men and students and has attracted considerable comment. A second edition was published in 1888.
During the Presidential campaign of 1888 Governor Hoyt was General Secretary and Manager of the American Pro- tective Tariff League, with headquarters in New York City. Very important services in behalf of the Republican party were rendered by the league, and particularly by Governor Hoyt-services which aided greatly in electing President Harrison.
For a good many years Governor Hoyt was a director of the Wyoming National Bank, Wilkesbarré; a member of the Wilkesbarre Law and Library Association, and of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society-of which he had been one of the organizers in February, 1858. For ten or more of the last years of his life he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Williams College.
Governor Hoyt was initiated into LODGE 61 December 27th, 1854. He was Secretary of the Lodge in 1859 and 1865, Junior Warden in 1860, and Senior Warden in 1861. In December, 1861, he was elected Worshipful Master of the Lodge for the ensuing Masonic year. On St. John's Day all of the officers of the Lodge were installed except Brother Hoyt, who was absent with his regiment in the army. He did not attend any of the meetings of the Lodge during the year, until December Ist, 1862, when he presided as Worshipful Master at the annual election of officers. He
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was elected an honorary member of the Lodge February 15th, 1875. In December, 1882, he became a member of the Committee on Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
He was Marked in Shekinah R. A. Chapter No. 182 May 6th, 1856, and was exalted to the Royal Arch Degree June 9th, 1857. He was Scribe of the Chapter in 1859, King in 1860, and High Priest in 1861, 1868, and 1869. In 1870, 1871, and 1872, he was District Deputy Grand High Priest of the district composed of Luzerne, Pike, Monroe, and Wayne counties, Pennsylvania. September 4th, 1872, the officers of the Grand H. R. A. Chapter of Pennsylvania made a visitation to Shekinah Chapter at Wilkesbarré. Very many Royal Arch Masons, representing the various Chapters in Companion Hoyt's district, were present on this occasion, and in the course of their work they adopted the following testimonial : "Resolved, That we, the representatives and members of the several Chapters under the supervision of the Hon. H. M. Hoyt, D. D. G. H. P., take this occasion to express our appreciation of the zeal and ability shown by him in giving to us the true work of the H. R. A. Chapter of Pennsylvania, as exemplified by its Grand Officers this evening ; and in infusing into the several Chapters deep in- terest in the work-the results of which are shown by the assemblage this evening of the largest number of Royal Arch Masons ever convened in Luzerne County."
Brother Hoyt received all the degrees of Templar Ma- sonry and was admitted to membership April 21st, 1868, in Packer Commandery No. 23, at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania. He withdrew from the Commandery November 21st, 1871, intending to connect himself with Dieu le Veut Commandery No. 45, then just constituted at Wilkesbarré. He was a mem- ber of Enoch Lodge of Perfection at Bloomsburg, Penn'a, having received the first fourteen degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in that Lodge July 16th, 1868.
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Governor Hoyt was married at Kingston, Penn'a, Septem- ber 25th, 1855, to Mary E. Loveland, born at Kingston April 20th, 1833, daughter of Elijah Loveland (b. February 5th, 1788; d. September 3d, 1846) and Matilda Buckingham (b. April 26th, 1793 ; d. March 24th, 1855) his wife. Elijah Loveland, who removed to Kingston from Norwich, Ver- mont, in 1812, was fifth in descent from Thomas Loveland, of Wethersfield, Conn., who was made a freeman in 1670.
Mrs. Hoyt died at Wilkesbarré September 30th, 1890, and was survived by her husband, one son, and two daughters. HENRY MARTYN HOYT, JR., the eldest of these three children, was born at Wilkesbarré December 5th, 1856. He was graduated from Yale College, a Bachelor of Arts, in 1878. He became a student-at-law in the office of the Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, Philadelphia, and also attended the regular course of lectures in the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving in 1881 the degree of LL. B. The same year he received from Yale the degree of A. M. Having been admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in June, 1881, he removed to Pittsburg, Penn'a, where he practiced law for a while; later going to New York City to accept the position of Assistant Cashier in the U. S. National Bank. In March, 1886, he became Treasurer of The Investment Company of Philadelphia, and held that office until September, 1890, when he became President of the company. He resigned in June, 1894, and returned to the practice of his profession in Philadelphia. January 3Ist, 1883, he married Anne McMichael, daughter of Morton McMichael, Jr., and grand- daughter of the late Hon. Morton McMichael, who was for many years editor and proprietor of The North American, Philadelphia, sometime Mayor of that City, and for a long time closely, conspicuously and creditably identified with its affairs.
Governor Hoyt died at his home on South Franklin, Wilkesbarré, Thursday, December Ist, 1892, after an illness
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of several months. His funeral took place from the First Presbyterian Church on the following Saturday, and " was one of the most impressive held in Wilkesbarré in many a day." The Governor (R. E. Pattison) of the State, accom- panied by various members of his staff, was present and acted as one of his pall-bearers ; and many other gentlemen of prominence, from various parts of the country, were in attendance. At a meeting of the members of the Luzerne Bar the following preamble and resolutions were adopted :
"The Bar of Luzerne county has been often called, of late, to mourn the decease of some one of its leading members. Another honored one has now fallen. Ex-Governor Henry Martyn Hoyt died at his residence, in Wilkesbarrè, on the morning of Thursday, December Ist, 1892. This sad event was not unexpected, for, when laid low on his bed of sickness some time ago, it was foreseen that his disease would, in all probability, have a fatal termination. Before this, how- ever, for a period of nearly two years back, he gave evidence of an enfeebled constitution, and, as the months rolled by, the steady pro- gress of an insidious disease was apparent. Notwithstanding this, the death of Governor Hoyt has come as a painful shock to his innumerable friends. He had been distinguished, during all his life before, as the possessor of an exceptionally robust physical nature, and it was hoped that its strength was dormant and might yet avail him to resist success- fully the stealthy approach of his malady. His vigorous physique was united with an intellect broad and profound in building up a strong and commanding personality. It is because he has so recently ap- peared to us as the type of a splendid manhood that his death startles us as an untimely one. A short time ago it seemed as if advancing years had passed him by with the purpose of leaving no trace of their progress upon him, so fresh and young did he look.
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