USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Centennial biography : Men of mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1776-1876 > Part 16
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desirable to the good man, and that proves at once a defence against the inconveniences of penury, and the vices of profusion.
In the year of Mr. Denny's retirement from the active duties of the sanctuary, death snatched from his side the fond partner of his pilgrim- age, a lady of exalted worth, and by the same stroke broke his cheerful spirit and firm constitution. Companions also who shared his better years and pastoral intimacy, had then dropped away one by one around him, until he was left almost alone, like the gray oak of the forest, surrounded by generations of a younger growth. He continued to languish under increasing infirmity, until repeated attacks of paralysis accelerated his decline and deprived him of the power of articulate speech. It was not until several months after this trying visitation, (December 16th, 1845.) that the mysterious hand which often chastens out of plenitude of love, called him, by a voice gentle and meek as the breathing of infant slumber, from the sorrow of his earthly state to the joyous assembly of the just. His person, cast in the finest mould for strength, activity and proportion, was well adapted to the air of dignity which nature herself had impressed upon it. His mind was of a strong and discerning order, always governed by candour and sincerity, and warmed by the love of truth. His views were expressed in the language of simplicity and earnestness, neither adorned nor obscured by the garnish of imagery or the flashes of rhetoric.
In doctrine Mr. Denny was a decided Calvinist, and conscientiously attached to the standards of the Presbyterian Church. Modesty and humility were interwoven with the very texture of his heart, and its liveliest sympathies were always in expansion for the sick, the suffering and the desolate. Neither inclemency of weather nor transient illness were suffered to detain him from the exercises of the pulpit, and he enjoyed, in no ordinary degree, the esteem and affection of the people among whom he laboured. He was actuated in social intercourse by a manly, tolerant and liberal spirit, and has left to all who stood in private or public relations to him, an example of many virtues with which humanity is not often adorned, which they may fail to imitate, but can never cease to admire and love.
JOHN BANNISTER GIBSON, LL. D.
OHN BANNISTER GIBSON, late Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was born in Shearman Valley, Pennsylvania, November 8th, 1780. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel George Gibson, an officer of the Revolutionary Army, who fell in St. Clair's expedition against the Indians on the Miami, in 1791. He received his preparatory education in the grammar school attached to Dickinson College, and subsequently studied in the collegiate department, from which in due time he gradu- ated. He entered the office of Thomas Duncan, who was afterward an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and passed through a severe course of reading for the legal profession, and was admitted as an attorney at law at the bar of Cumberland county, in 1803.
He first opened his office at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and after a few years removed to the town of Beaver, in the same state. From this latter locality he changed to Hagerstown, Maryland, and shortly after- ward returned to Carlisle. In 1810, he was elected by the (then) Republican party as a representative in the lower branch of the Legis- lature, and was re-elected the following year, during each session fill- ing prominent stations on committees, etc. In July. 1813, he was appointed President Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District of Pennsyl- vania, and three years after was commissioned an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court, which, at that time, was considered equivalent to a life tenure, the appointment being " during good behaviour." At the death of Chief-Justice Tilghman, in 1827, he was appointed by the Gov- ernor to succeed him. In 1838, at the date of the adoption of the then New Constitution of the State, he resigned his office, but was imme- diately re-appointed by the Governor.
By a change in the Constitution making the Judiciary elective, his seat became vacant in 1851. During the same year he was elected an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, being the only one of the former incumbents who was nominated by the Democratic party. He discharged the functions of his office until attacked by his last illness. He died in Philadelphia, May 3d, 1853. As a jurist he stood among the highest in the land. At home and abroad his transcendent legal ability was universally acknowledged. His judicial opinions are among the richest treasures of the country.
JOSHUA WILLIAMS, D. D.
R. WILLIAMS had not the advantage of entering, at an early age, on a course of studies preparatory to the ministry. He was graduated at Dickinson College, in the year 1795, then under the presidency of Dr. Nisbit. His theological studies were pur- sted chiefly under the direction of Dr. Robert Cooper.
In the year 1798, in the thirtieth year of his age, he was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Carlisle. The year following, he received a call from the united congregations of Derry and Paxton, Dauphin county, which he accepted, and was ordained to the work of the ministry, and installed pastor of said charge. by the Presbytery of Carlisle, in the autumn of the same year. After having served the people of this, his first charge, for about four years, he received a call from the Presbyterian Church at Big Spring, left vacant by the death of the Rev. Samuel Wilson, which he judged it to be his duty to accept, and accordingly he gave up the charge of his former congregations, and was installed pastor of the latter in the year 1802. Under the labours of a prolonged pastorate, his general health declined, and a complication of infirmities reduced his physical strength. His nervous system, especially, became disordered, and, as a consequence, he often suffered great mental depression. A year or two previous to his release from his pastoral charge, under the impression that he was unable to perform, as they should be done. the duties of a pastor, he proposed resigning his charge. But the congregation earnestly remonstrated against his doing so, and assured him of their being well satisfied with such services as his feeble state of health permitted him to render. About the year 1829, at his earnest request, the pastoral relation between him and the congregation of Big Spring was dis- solved. From the day of his installation till his resignation he lived and laboured among his people with uninterrupted harmony and growing interest.
After retiring from his pastoral charge, Dr. Williams did not at all abandon the duties of his office as a minister of the Gospel, but con- tinned, as his health permitted and opportunity was afforded, serving vacant congregations in the bounds of the Presbytery, and frequently assisting his brethren on special occasions. In these labours of love he seemed to take great interest, often crossing mountains and riding
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a distance into neighbouring counties, to preach the Gospel to the des- titute. Dr. Williams' last illness was only of about four days continu- ance. He had at various times expressed his fears of the dying strug- gle, but in his own case death seemed wholly disarmed of all his terrors. His end was peaceful, without a disturbed feature. On the morning of the 21st of August, 1838, he seemed literally to fall asleep in Jesus. The next day a very large concourse of persons (most of whom had been formerly the people of his charge,) together with eight or ten ministers, attended the funeral, and testified their very great regard for him, whom they had so much reason to love, and to venerate. His remains were deposited in the Big Spring churchyard, nearly in view from the sacred desk where he had so long preached to that people the Gospel of God, which brings life and immortality to light.
In the death of Dr. Williams the church lost an able and faithful advocate of the truth. His retired situation and unobtrusive disposi- tion were, no doubt, the occasion of his being less publicly known than he justly merited. His talents and attainments as a minister of the Gospel were such as always to command the highest respect from all who knew him. He was naturally possessed of strong and vigourous intellectual powers. His judgment was sound and discriminating. He had a remarkable taste and aptitude for metaphysical discussions, which, however, never seem to have led him into erroneous specula- tions on the doctrines of religion.
As a steward of the mysteries of God, he was well instructed and furnished for every good work, above most others in the sacred office. His mind was richly stored with theological knowledge ; with every part of Scripture he seemed familiar, and could quote any passage to which he wished to refer with great readiness and accuracy. He employed much of his time in reading instructive authors, and always with a view to the furnishing of his mind the more thoroughly for the duties of his office, and for his own personal edification.
As a preacher of the Gospel, Dr. Williams was grave and solemn in his manner, and highly instructive in his discourses. His usual method in his sermons was to explain his text, if it needed explanation, then state the subject or doctrine illustrated, and confirm this by Scripture and argument. And to make the truth bear upon the hearts of his audience, his first object was to instruct, then to persuade, believing that truth is in order to righteousness, and that there can be no correct practice till the mind be enlightened, and the heart sanctified through the truth of the Word of God.
In his manners and conversation, this excellent man was courteous
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and affable, yet always dignified. He was truly a lover of hospitality. It gave him great pleasure to have his brethren in the ministry visit him. Nor were such occasions suffered to pass without improvement. Very few men, we are assured, ever possessed in the same degree with Dr. Williams the happy faculty of communicating solid instruction in social conversation. Some useful subject was always introduced, and discussed in such a manner as to be at once interesting and instructive. The great doctrines of the Cross, which he professed to believe and which he preached, were not held by him as mere theoretical subjects, without a salutary and practical influence on his own heart. It was seldom, except to intimate friends, that he would freely unfold his imbued with the precious truths of the Gospel,-that he had felt intensely religious experience, but then it was manifest that his mind was deeply the power of that Word of God which he preached to others. Having fought a good fight, and kept the faith. he finished his course, leaving no room or reason to doubt that he passed to the possession of that crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to all them that love His appearing.
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GEORGE CHAMBERS, LL. D.
HE father of the subject of this sketch, Benjamin Chambers, was born in the year 1775, and was a son of Col. Benjamin Chambers, the founder of Chambersburg. When a youth of but twenty years, he enlisted in the company of his brother, Captain James Chambers, and marched with it to Boston. Soon after he joined the army he was commissioned a captain, and in that rank fought at the battles of Long Island, Brandywine, and Germantown, with credit and gallantry. During the retreat of the army from Long Island, the Pennsylvania troops were assigned to the distinguished but hazardous honour of covering the movement. While assisting in this delicate and perilous manœuvre, Captain Chambers had the great good fortune to arrest the attention of General Washington, win his commendation and receive from him, as a signal token of his approbation, a handsome pair of silver-mounted pistols, which have always been treasured as a precious heir-loom in the family, having recently been bequeathed to Benjamin Chambers Bryan, a great-grandson of the original donee.
But the diseases of camp and the rigours of military life compelled Captain Chambers to retire from the army; just at what period of the struggle is not definitely known. Although no longer engaged in regular military service, his skill and experience and great personal courage made him the captain and leader in many expeditions against the Indians, whose savage and bloody forays upon the settlements of Bedford and Huntingdon counties were constantly creating great con- sternation aud alarm.
At the conclusion of the treaty of peace with England he became extensively engaged in the manufacture of iron, and was the first to make iron castings in the country.
Influenced by the same enlightened liberality which characterized his father, he donated, in the year 1796, two lots of ground in Chambers- burg as a site for an academy. A charter was procured in 1797, and shortly afterwards a suitable building was erected, and a select school organized and opened under the tuition of James Ross, whose Latin Grammar for many years maintained its distinguished position, without a rival, in the colleges and seminaries of our land.
Captain Chambers left upon record, among the last business acts of his life, his solemn testimony to the importance and value of education,
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by earnestly enjoining upon his executors, in his will, that they should have all his minor children liberally educated. This betokened a zeal for learning that was certainly very rare in that day. He died in IS13, crowned with the esteem, respect, and love of the community for whose welfare and prosperity he had taxed his best energies, and to whose development he had devoted the labour of a lifetime.
George Chambers, his oldest son, was born in Chambersburg, on the 24th day of February, A. D., 1786. It was not unlikely that such a father would put George to his books while very young. This seems to have been so. He must have been taught to read and write, and have acquired the other rudiments of a common English education, at a very early age ; for when he was but ten he began the study of Latin and Greek in the classical school of James Ross. He subsequently entered the Chambersburg Academy and became the pupil of Rev. David Denny, an eloquent, learned, and much revered Presbyterian clergyman. He was ambitious and studious, and had made such pro- gress in the ancient languages and mathematics that in October, IS02, he was able to pass from the academy into the Junior Class at Prince- ton College. He graduated from that institution in 1804, with high honour, in a class of forty-five, among whom were Thomas Hartley Crawford, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Samuel L. Southard, and others who rose to distinguished eminence at the bar, in the pulpit, and in the councils of the nation.
He chose the law as his profession, and entered upon its study with William M. Brown, Esq., in Chambersburg. Having spent a year with him, he became a student in the office of Judge Duncan, in Carlisle, then in the zenith of his great fame. Having passed through the customary curriculum, he was admitted to the bar and sworn as a counsellor in the courts of Cumberland county, in the year ISo7.
Shortly afterwards, he returned to Chambersburg and commenced the practice of his profession. When he entered the arena, he found the bar crowded with eminent and learned lawyers. Duncan, Tod, Riddle, and the elder Watts practiced there and monopolized the busi- ness. With such professional athletes, already crowned with the laurels of the profession, and clad in armor that had been tempered and polished by the lucubrations of more than twenty years, it seemed a hard, indeed an almost impossible, task for a young and inexperienced man to compete.
Mr. Chambers, however, courted notoriety by no adventitious aids. Indeed, he thought so little of all the usual methods of inviting public attention, that it is related of him that he dispensed with " the shingle."
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that ornament of the office-shutter which the newly-fledged lawyer is so apt to regard as an indispensable beacon to guide the footsteps of anxious clients. Nor did he advertise his professional pretensions in either card or newspaper. He was quite content to recognize in the law a jealous mistress, who would be satisfied with nothing less than the undivided homage of heart and mind.
.His professional career was not distinguished by rapid success at first. Like almost all who have attained the highest honours at the bar, his novitiate was severe. He found the first steps of his journey toward eminence beset with difficulties and full of discouragements. After weary years of waiting, success came at last-as it must always come to true merit. When it did come-and, perhaps, it came as soon as it was deserved-he was prepared to meet its imperious demands.
Mr. Chambers had a mind most admirably adapted to the law. It was acute, logical and comprehensive, of quick perception, with strong powers of discrimination, and possessed of rare ability to grasp and hold the true points of a case.
Added to these natural abilities was the discipline of a thorough education, supplemented by a varied fund of knowledge acquired by extensive reading, which ranged far beyond the confines of the litera- ture of his profession.
Besides all this. he possessed, in a most eminent degree, that crowning ornament of all mental stature, good common sense-without which the most shining talents avail but little.
It is not surprising, therefore, when the opportune time came that was to give him the car of the court, that he should attract atten- tion. From this time his success was assured, and his progress to the head of the bar steady and unvarying. This ascendancy he easily maintained during his entire subsequent professional life. Not only was he the acknowledged chief of his own bar, but also the recognized peer of the first lawyers of the state.
From 1816 to 1851, when he retired from active practice, his business was immense and very lucrative. He was retained in every case of importance in his own county, and tried many cases in adjoining counties.
He was well read in all the branches of the law, but he especially excelled in the land law of Pennsylvania. He had completely mastered it, and could walk with sure and unfaltering step through all its in- tricate paths. His preparation was laborious and thorough. He trusted nothing to chance, and had no faith in huicky accidents, which constitute the sheet-anchor of hope to the sluggard. He identified
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himself with his client, and made his cause his own, when it was just. He sought for truth by the application of the severest tests of logic, and spared no pains in the vindication of the rights of his clients. He was always listened to with attention and respect by the courts, and whenever he was overruled it was with a respectful dissent.
The writer of this tribute" came to the bar after Mr. Chambers had retired from it, and cannot, therefore. speak of him as an advocate, from personal knowledge. But tradition, to whose generous care the reputation of even the greatest lawyers has too uniformly been committed, has fixed his standard high. His diction was pure and elegant ; his statement of facts lucid; his reasoning, stripped of all false and vulgar ornaments, was severe and logical; his manner earnest and impressive, and, when inspired by some great occasion, his speech could rise upon steady pinions into the higher realms of oratory.
His influence with juries is said to have been immense. This arose in part, doubtless, from their unbounded confidence in his sincerity and integrity ; for he was one of those old fashioned professional gentlemen who stubbornly refused to acknowledge the obligation of the professional ethics which teach that a lawyer must gain his client's cause at all hazards and by any means. While he was distinguished for unfaltering devotion to his client, and an ardent zeal in the protection of his interest, he was not less loyal to truth and justice. When he had given all his learning and his best efforts to the prepara- tion and presentation of his client's case, he felt that he had done his whole duty. He would as soon have thought of violating the Decalogue as of achieving victory by artifice and sinister means. His professional word was as sacred as his oath, and he would have esteemed its intentional breach as a personal dishonour. He despised professional charlatanism in all its forms, and had he come in contact with its modern representative, he would have been his abhorrence.
Washington College, Pennsylvania, manifested its appreciation of his legal learning and personal worth by conferring upon him the degree of LL. D. in the year 1861. This honour, entirely unsolicited and unexpected by him, was a spontaneous mark of distinction, as creditable to the distinguished literary institution that bestowed it as it was well earned by him who received it.
Mr. Chambers having determined, in carly manhood, to devote himself with an undivided fidelity to the study and practice of the law, and to rely upon that profession as the chief architect of his fortune
* J. McDowell Sharpe, Esq.
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and his fame, very seldom could be enticed to embark upon the turbulent sea of politics. His tastes and habits of thought ran in a different channel. Office-seeking and office-holding were uncongenial pursuits. The coarse vulgarity and bitter wranglings of the "hustings" shocked his sensitive nature. Indeed, no one could be less of a politician, in the popular acceptation of that term. He was as much superior to the tricks of the political intriguer as truth is superior to falsehood. His native dignity of character, robust integrity, and self respect, united to an unbounded contempt for meanness, lifted him so high above the atmosphere of the demagogue, that he knew absolutely nothing of its undercurrents of knavery and corruption.
But in 1832, at the earnest solicitation of his party, he became a can- didate for Congress in the district composed of the counties of Adams and Franklin, and was elected by a majority of about eight hundred. He served through the Twenty-third Congress, the first session of which, commonly called " the Panic Session," commenced on the 2d of December, 1833. The most conspicuous and distinguished men of the nation were members, and the Congress itself the most eventful and exciting that had convened since the adoption of the Constitution.
Mr. Chambers was again a candidate and elected to the Twenty- fourth Congress by a greatly increased majority, and at its termination peremptorily declined a re-election.
During his congressional career he maintained a high and respecta- ble position among his compeers. He was not a frequent speaker, but his speeches, carefully prepared, closely confined to the question under discussion, and full of information, always commanded the attention of the House.
He served on the Commitee on the Expenditures in the Depart- ment of War, on the Committee on Naval Affairs, on the Committee on Private Land Claims, and on the Committee on Rules and Orders in the House. To the discharge of these public duties he gave the same industry, care and ability which always characterized the manage- ment of his affairs in private life. He was a conscientious public ser- vant, zealous for the interests of his immediate constituents, and careful about the welfare and honour of the nation.
In 1836, Mr. Chambers was elected a delegate from Franklin county to the Convention to revise and amend the Constitution of Pennsylva- nia. This body convened in Harrisburg on the ad day of May, 1837. and its membership was largely composed of the foremost lawyers and best intellects of the State.
Mr. Chambers was appointed a member of the committee to which
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was referred the Fifth Article of the Constitution. relative to the judici- ary-by all odds the most important question before the Convention.
The controversy over this article was bitter and protracted, between the advocates of a tenure during good behaviour and the advocates of a short tenure for the judges. Mr. Chambers opposed any change in this respect of the old Constitution, and throughout the various phases of the angry discussion stood firmly by his convictions.
On the 12th of April, 1851, Governor Johnston commissioned Mr. Chambers as a Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Burnside. He sat upon the Bench from this time until the first Monday of the following December, when under the amended Constitution, the new judges received their commissions. He was nominated by the Whig State Convention in 1851 for this office, but was defeated along with his colleagues on the same ticket, having received, however, from the voters of his native county, and of the adjoining counties, a very complimentary endorsement.
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