USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 23
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were, in a transition state in many of its features, and the symptoms of those inno- vations which subsequently occasioned al- most acrimonious controversy on the elec- tive supreme bench, had begun to manifest themselves. In 1851, under the judiciary amendments to the constitution, he was made one of the candidates by the Demo- cratic Convention for the Supreme Bench, together with John B. Gibson, then Chief Justice; Ellis Lewis, then President of the Lancaster District; Walter H. Lawrie, of the district court of Pittsburgh, and James Campbell, late of the common pleas of Philadelphia. At the election he received the highest popular vote. On the opposite ticket were such men as William M. Mere- dith and Joshua Comley and Richard Coul- ter, the last-named being elected.
Judge Black became chief justice by lot, drawing the shortest term. In 1854, his term having expired, he was re-elected to the supreme bench over Hon. Daniel M. Smyser and Hon. Thomas H. Baird by a very large plurality vote. His judicial ca- reer, though brief, was distingushed; his decisions, contained in the State reports from Fourth Harris to Fifth Casey, are cited as emphatic expositions of the law; and when he was obliged to dissent from the majority of the court, his opinions contain- ed unquestionable law at the time. His loy- alty to his great predecessor in the chief justiceship, as well as his own firm convic- tions regarding what were then acknowl- edged landmarks of the law, held them to-
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gether against what they conceived to be innovations; and this position was main- tained by him after his lamented and re- nowned colleague, Judge Gibson, was re- moved from the bench by death. These evolutions, however, take place in law, as well as in other human affairs; and the body of our jurisprudence received a deep impress from his terse and vigorous style, the clearness and logical force of his rea- soning, almost formulating a code on many subjects discussed by him.
Shortly after the 4th of March, 1857, while upon the supreme bench, President Buchanan appointed him Attorney-General of the United States. In this position, upon which he entered with no other experience as a lawyer than the practice of Pennsyl- vania law affords, and no political experi- ence other than may be gained by any citi- zen, he acquired distinction. In law, the great cases of the California land grants, in- volving in extent over 19,000 square miles, including a large part of San Francisco,the whole of Sacramento and other cities, and in money $150,000,000, called into exercise not only the legal ability, but the profes- sional skill of the Attorney General, result- ing in a great triumph of justice over a most stupendous fraud. This laid the foun- dation as a lawyer, and secured that mar- velous success that attended his subsequent professional career.
In statesmanship, during that trying per- iod of our country's history, there devolved upon him the most onerous duties. He was the principal adviser of the Presi- dent, who was a man of high intellectual ability, but who, on account of the warring elements of his cabinet, was compelled to lean his arm upon his Attorney General for support. Upon the resignation of Gen. Cass, Mr. Buchanan appointed Judge Black Secretary of State. The events of the clos- ing months of that administration are me-
morable, and the action of the cabinet has been but recently revealed. The course of Judge Black has been vindicated by the documents prepared under his own hand or supervision, and the legal and constitu- tional status of the government and its pow- ers, in case of secession as then expounded, and the wisdom of the determination of the many intricate questions arising in that crisis, have been sustained in the light of subsequent events.
During the earlier portion of that admin- istration, the great struggle between the North and the South for the occupation of the territories under existing institutions culminated. The Lecompton constitution and other troublesome matters raised issues that severed the dominant party. The great champion of territorial rights, Stephen A. Douglas, had announced doctrines on be- half of the party which the attorney-general entering the arena, showed to be unsound. It was in that controversy that Judge Black first attracted the attention of the people of the United States to that keen power of logic and force of rhetoric which have made him so famous in polemics.
At the close of Mr. Buchanan's adminis- tration Judge Black was nominated for the supreme bench of the United States, but, in that crisis, and in the midst of the poli- tical excitement thereby occasioned, it was not acted upon. He was subsequently ap- pointed reporter of the supreme courts, and published two volumes: First and Second Black.
At the close of Mr. Buchanan's adminis- tration he became a resident of York, and participated in the trial of some local causes.
The career of Judge Black after his re- tirement from public life was unexanipled in the line of professional success as a law- yer. His name is associated with greater cases and larger fees than that of any
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American lawyer who preceded him, in the highest tribunal of the land or in local courts. The war gave rise to a class of cases which, strange to say, involved the fundamental principles of liberty, the strug- gles for which had been handed down to us from a past age, and which, it was presum- ed, had been settled a century before. The cases of citizens of the republic, Blyew, Mc- Ardle and Milligan, have made the state trials of the United States of America more illustrious than those of Great Britain, for they arrested in this land the encroachment of a government, Republican in form, upon the absolute rights of individuals, when the excitement of the hour seemed to obscure the better judgment of those in power. They established the judiciary as truly the bul- wark of liberty.
The case of Blyew arose under the Civil Rights' Bill. The defendant had been sen- tenced to death by a Federal court in the State of Kentucky, but the prisoner, for whom Judge Black appeared, was released by the supreme court. The case of Mc- Ardle arose under the Reconstruction acts. The defendant was held under a conviction by a military commission, and under the ar- gument of Judge Black would have been re- leased had not Congress invalidated the jur- isdiction of the supreme court. The prisoner was then released by the government. The case of Milligan was a trial and conviction before a military commission. He, too, was under sentence of death, approved by the president of the United States. The case came before the supreme court on a writ of habeas corpus. The argument of Judge Black, in this last mentioned case, is one of the most memorable of forensic ef- forts before any tribunal. The case is among the most celebrated of State trials, and its result, the discharge of the prisoner, main- tained inviolate the constitution of the United States.
In 1876, the year that completed the cen- tenary of American independence, a presi- dential election took place, the contest over the result of which shook the pillars of our electoral system. By an electoral commis- sion, mutually agreed upon by the contest ants, the question of the result in the several disputed States was determined by a ma- jority of the commission according to their political predilections. Judge Black, as one of the counsel for Mr. Tilden, contend- ed with great force against the fraudulent returns which were counted. His effort in the South Carolina case is a masterpiece of bold invective.
Judge Black occupied no official position after leaving the cabinet, except as a mem- ber of the constitutional convention of Pennsylvania, 1872-3, as a delegate at large. His appearance in that body attracted the marked attention of his fellow members, as did also every word he uttered there, not only in debate but in ordinary conversation. Though he participated but little in its pub- lic discussions, he largely influenced the ac- tion of the convention on many important subjects, notably those upon the restric- tions of railroad corporations and upon legislative jobbery. Afterward he took the part of the people before the ju- diciary committees of the legislature against monopolies, as manifested in the combinations in defiance of the new consti- tution, and contended for the power of the general assembly to check their rapacity. In the matter of legislative jobbery, the of- fense of private solicitation under which the conviction of prominent lobbyists has been secured, was owing to him, as well as in a great degree the limits put upon the legislative power.
Judge Black acquired fame as a contro- versialist on many subjects connected with his own political experience on questions of political reform and the redress of wrongs.
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He also entered the arena in defense of Christianity, with a force of logic that the champion of the attack has not been able to answer.
His colloquial powers were of the highest order. It has been regretted that there has been no Boswell to transcribe his many wise and witty sayings, the strength and drollery of his observations, his readiness of forensic repartee, nay, his deep philoso- phy. The table-talk of many of the literati, such as Coleridge, for instance, has been given to the world, and the coteries of France, where the great Franklin appeared with his practical wisdom, have been cele- brated by historians. Are there not many observations of our own savant that may yet be profitably gathered for publication?
Judge Black enjoyed the powers of his intellect to the last. He seemed to be in the enjoyment of sound health when stricken by the hand of death at his beautiful home, "Brockie," near York. He died, Angust 19, 1883. His high character, his open heartedness and wealth of intellectual re- sources have made his memory sacred among the people of his adopted home, the fame of which has been enhanced by his presence.
J AMES WILLIAMSON BOSLER .* How shall I attempt to give, even in rudest outline, the true sketch of a hu- man life? Even the best biography gives but a distorted skeleton, without flesh and blood. Johnson is embalmed in Boswell, but how much of Jolinson, even in this completest of all human biographies, has escaped? We know each other but imper- fectly while we live and measure others with imperfect and partial standards when they have departed. For, after all, we but give the faint outlines of the picture as it is reflected in ourselves.
To write such a sketch of the life of Mr. Bosler we shall not attempt, save in so far as the few facts and suggestions gathered serve to give some glimpse, as it were, of a strong and kindly personality that has gone from among us; to attempt to do more than this would be presumptuous, for, as Emerson has said of thought, human souls "will not sit for their portraits."
I was too young and my personal ac- quaintance with Mr. Bosler too slight to gather more from my own knowledge than the strong impression of his kindly per- sonality, and I think but few, even of those in our own community who were his closest personal friends, knew him for the man he really was. They knew his genial comradeship, his charming bon hommie, his kindly hospitality, his modest and unassuming manner without pretension to seem other than just what he was; a smaller circle knew his generosity of heart; all knew of his large business tact and far seeing judgment-his pecuniary success in life,-but few knew, or now know his wide acquaintance in later life with the most prominent public men of the day and his large influence in helping to mould the "passing destiny" of the State and of the Republic. The prophet hath honor save in his own country and the real influence of a man is known only after he is dead.
Such has been the case with the subject of this memoir. His predominant trait, as known to his casual acquaintances and to his fellow townsmen, was his modest, his sunshiny geniality, his unassuming kindli- ness and generosity. He was the kind of a man who would do anything for a friend and who seemed to have no enemy. Wealth and success may conceal this where enmity may wear a mask, but in this case there was no enmity to be concealed. The man in this world who meets with masks must wear one, and he wore none. £ In dress
* Contributed by Bennett Bellman, Esq.
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he was neat and unostentatious as in man- ner, and in manner he was the same to the laborer and to the millionaire. Success did not bring him envy or make him proud and the influence which his wealth, his practical intelligence and large knowledge of business and of men gave to him to wield, he used in a wider sphere than that of which he ever spoke save to his closest friends-nor did the general public know. His correspondence, to which we have had access, reveals it, and of this we dare use but a fragmentary portion.
James Williamson Bosler, deceased, was of German lineage. He was born upon the homestead farm, in Silver's Spring township, Cumberland county, Pa., April 4th, 1833. He was the third son of Abram and Eliza (Herman) Bosler, and was de- scended upon the paternal side by the fourth generation from Jacob Bosler, who settled in Donegal township, Lancaster county, Pa. His descendant, John Bosler, (the grandfather of the subject of this memoir) married Catharine Gish, of Lan- caster county, after which he removed to Silver's Spring township, Cumberland county, in 1791, and there purchased the homestead where our subject was born. Abram Bosler, the father of James W. Bosler, was the youngest child of John and Catharine (Gish) Bosler. He married, February 20th, 1830, Eliza Herman, of Silver's Spring township, a daughter of Martin and Elizabeth (Bowers) Herman, the former of whom was descended from Martin Herman who emigrated from Ger- many in 1754 and settled in Silver's Spring township in 1771. Their son, Christian, born in Lancaster county in 1761, was a soldier in the Revolution, fought under Washington at Germantown, passed through the trials and sufferings at Valley Forge, and was present at the seige of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis. He was, upon the maternal side, the grandfather of our subject. He married Elizabeth Bowers, of York county, Pa., in 1793, and their daughter, Eliza, married Abram Bosler, the father of our subject, as above mentioned. Abram Bosler died at his residence in Carlisle (to which place he had removed in 1871) De- cember 31st, 1883, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was a prominent farmer and merchant, and had been en- gaged in the milling and distilling business for many years. He was a life long mem- ber of the Presbyterian church, first at Sil- ver's Spring and subsequently of the Sec- ond Presbyterian church, at Carlisle, as was also his wife. Their eight children, all born in Silver's Spring township, were: J. Herman, James W., Benjamin C., Joseph, Elizabeth Bowers, Mary Catharine, George Morris and Charles, who died in infancy.
James W. Bosler obtained a good, but not a complete collegiate education. His lines were not those of the student of books but of life. He knew less of books than of men. He remained upon the homestead farm until he entered Cumberland Acad- emy, at New Kingston. Two years later he entered Dickinson College, at which in- stitution he remained during his junior year. He was possessed of only moderate means, and after he left college, in 1852, he taught school in Moultrie, Columbiana county, Ohio, during the winters of 1853- 54. He then went to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he read law and was ad- mitted to the bar. His inclinations led him to a business life, and at Wheeling, W. Va., he entered a store and next bought and controlled one in the same Ohio county where he had taught school. In 1855 his store was destroyed by fire and he determined to go further west, which movement was the beginning of his re- markably successful business career. He
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made the long journey to Sioux City, on the frontier of Iowa, where the recently or- ganized territories of Kansas and Ne- braska stood on the further banks of the Missouri river, ready to become the battle ground of the slavery and free labor ques- tions. Here he formed a partnership in the banking and real estate business with Charles E. Hedges, and there established the "Sioux City Bank" under the firm name of Bosler & Hedges, and later en- gaged in the forwarding and contracting of supplies-goods, grain and cattle-for the Interior and War Department of the Government from his extensive ranches on the North Missouri river. The partner- ship was dissolved in 1866, but Mr. Bosler continued and extended the business until the time of his death. He was the pioneer representative in this line from Cumber- land county. He lived for half a century and built up a fortune not only for himself, but for his family, for his brothers partici- pated in his success. As this was then upon the frontier of civilization most of the business which came to the bank was nat- urally connected with the government op- erations. The Indians were close by, many of whom by treaty had to be fed by the government. Railroads, in the course of time, led straight through that country. The raising of cattle on the nutritious grasses of the plains was known to this man among the earliest. He became a strong and successful operator and up- builder in this new field of energy. If he was a man who seemed to have exceptional opportunities it was because he made them, and was the architect of his own fortune. "He who will not take advantage of oppor- tunities," said Napoleon, "may be sure that opportunities will take advantage of him." There is luck in life, and real or seeming chance, but more than this there is cool, clear sighted judgment and the indomita-
ble will which strives with circumstances and conquers fortune.
During his residence in Sioux City he was an active politician; he erected by con- tract the school house and jail of that city, and was nominated for the State Treasurer of Iowa on the Democratic ticket. He was elected to the State Legislature, and in 1859 he was sent as a delegate to that polit- ical convention at Charleston, South Caro- lina, where "a distempered individual broke down one of the great parties of the coun- try and made the civil war inevitable."
At the brink of the war he married in 1860, at Rose Balcony, near Boiling Springs, Helen Beltzhoover, daughter of Michael G. and Mary (Herman) Beltz- hoover, and with her he lived out the war period at Sioux City. Having by dint of energy and business sagacity by this time acquired a large fortune, he returned, in 1866, to his native county in Pennsyl- vania, and built himself a beautiful resi- dence in the suburbs of Carlisle, where, although still continuing his extensive bus- iness in the West, he continued to reside until his death. For many years before his death he was a warm personal friend of Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, whose ancestors were originally from Cumberland county, and he was on intimate terms with a large number of the distinguished men of the country. Among these were such men as Garfield, Arthur and Brewster. He was a member of the Republican National Committee in the memorable campaign of 1880, and he, John Roach, the shipbuilder, and Senator Chaffee, of Colorado, were ap- pointed a committee to take charge of the interest of Mr. Blaine in his campaign for the Presidency in the Chicago Convention of that year.
Says George Alfred Townsend, better known as "Gath," in speaking of Mr. Bos- ler, "His work for his party, his State, his
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neighborhood was always that of a leader. Without any pretention he went to the front when an important thing was to be done, and by his example other men be- came as generous, and to him the election of General Garfield was as much due as to any man in the United States. He organ- ized the financial support of that campaign, when it had begun to droop, and he never asked to be named in the matter, but on the contrary compelled those who had knowl- edge of the subject to omit reference to him." Again in a published article he says: "Every time that he (Mr. Blaine) made a campaign for the Presidency, Mr. Bosler's subscription was at the top, but he was not content with giving money alone, he made other men give up to his measure. When Garfield was running for President in 1880 Mr. Bosler made a list of rich men who should have a sense of con- sonance with the government, and he re- fused to take from these men any sub- scription less than ten thousand dollars. In many cases these men had business rela- tions with him, and he said to them, "I want you on this list, and it will be a mat- ter of sacrifice for you as for me."
Although not a member of that conven- tion of 1880, he was present and was a most interested spectator of it. In a letter written to him by Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster the action of some of the delegates of that convention is eloquently compared to the charge at Balaclava-"it was grand, but it was not war-it was not politics." But when the candidate was named Mr. Bosler gave his loyal adhesion and support to Mr. Garfield and became his friend.
"The Roscoe Conkling Republicans," says Townsend, "made repeated efforts during the Star Route investigations to besmirch Mr. Bosler. The idea was that if Mr. Bosler could be shown to have any connection with the Star Route matters
some slime would attach to Mr. Blaine himself. His only relation with that ele- ment was a banker's relation. They had within the Post Office Department made up their combination, but they needed money to buy their equipments. As it was the act of the government through its rep- resentatives, Mr. Bosler loaned the money. They were never able to make any mark upon his character."
The most interesting of all Mr. Bosler's political correspondence is that between himself and Hon. Benjamin Harris Brew- ster, who was one of Mr. Bosler's closest friends, and who frequently enjoyed his hospitality. These letters were written in 1880 and 1881; they were often written on successive days, and they deal in the most unreserved manner with the characters of many of the most noted public men of the clay, and with the unpublished secrets of the campaign, in the city of Philadelphia, the State and of the Nation.
The warm personal intimacy which ex- isted between Mr. Blaine and Mr. Bosler may be judged by the following beautiful tribute which was written by Mr. Blaine to Mrs. Bosler several years after his death. He says: "As the years go by I realize more and more how great was my own loss in the death of your husband, and from that I can realize in some faint degree how in- estimable was your affection. He was the dearest and most unselfish of friends, and I keep his memory green in my heart." Some have said that Mr. Blaine was cold. He was present at the funeral of Mr. Bos- ler, and there was a tear that glistened in his eye as he stood beside the silent form of his dead friend.
Another wrote: "He certainly was one of the grandest specimens of American manhood I ever knew, and one whose loy- alty and devotion to friendship will never
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be forgotten by a single person who ever had the right to call him friend."
Mr. Brewster wrote to him: "For you and your labors and anxiety and generous interest in my behalf, I can never-never be too grateful, and I hope I may get to be able to show my gratitude in some practi- cal way. It has been one of the great compliments of my life that I have in some happy way attracted the esteem and jeal- ous good feeling of an earnest, honest, able and practical man like yourself."
Mr. Brewster might well say so. At the time when these letters were written Ben- jamin Brewster, the erudite, the polished, the profound lawyer and gentleman of the old school, had the bee of office very badly in his bonnet. He wanted the Senatorship and Mr. Bosler aided him, but he was de- feated; he wanted to be Postmaster Gen- eral and was afraid that another possible appointment would crowd him out; and then-what at first he feared was not within his reach-he wanted, more and more, and with an ever increasing and pathetic long- ing-to be Attorney General-and he got it, and he got it principally or altogether through the influence and efforts of his friend, Mr. James Bosler. This we know is unwritten history. Here is some frag- mentary proof:
We find from these letters that Mr. Bos- ler was ardent for Mr. Blaine. Mr. Brew- ster, who wanted the Senatorship, wished Mr. Bosler to reach Gen'l Bingham and other such Blaine men who could control representatives. December 28tl1, 1880, he writes that Mr. Blaine has been offered the Secretaryship of State, and that he will ac- cept it-that the intention was to give either the Attorney Generalship or Post- master Generalship to Pennsylvania. "I hope," he says, "not the Postmaster Generalship, as that will rule me out if I fail in the present enterprise." He
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