USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > History of Huntingdon County, in the state of Pennsylvania : from the earliest times to the centennial anniversary of American independence, July 4, 1876 > Part 17
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1864. He was elected a delegate to the Republican Na- tional Convention in 1868, but had his place filled by his alternate, being detained in the Supreme Court to argue a case involving the constitutionality of a law of the State disfranchising deserters-a question in which political par- ties took a deep interest.
" Taking an active part in the canvass of that year, public attention was directed to him as a candidate for the U. S. Senate. When the Legislature met, he was elected to suc- ceed Mr. Buckalew, and took his seat March 4th, 1869. He was assigned to the Committee on Claims, Pacific Railroads and Naval Affairs. His senatorial record shows him to have been an attentive, industrious and able member of that body. In the last session of this Congress, he was appointed Chairman of the Select Committee, to investigate the alleged outrages in the Southern States. He first spoke in the Senate upon the bill to repeal the 'Tenure of-Office Act.' He has since spoken in review of Commissioner Wells' Report ; upon the admission of Virginia to representa- tion ; upon the eligibility of Mr. Revels and General Ames to seats in the Senate ; upon the Funding Bill ; in advocacy of the repeal of the Income Tax, and upon other subjects. His speeches are generally brief, sensible and without attempt at ornament.
" Mr. Scott opposed the repeal of the Civil Tenure Act. ' We have,' said he, 'this principle given to us now, a most valuable principle in the administration of this Govern- ment, which prevents the President from exerting a power which, in the hands of a bad man, with the immense patron- age at his command, would be the absolute control of all the offices. Shall we surrender it ? I say no. Incorporate it in whatever legislation you may have, and that principle is of more importance to us for the future of this country than any mere question of temporary convenience about men getting into office or getting out of office.'
" One of Mr. Scott's best speeches on the floor of the Sen- ate was his Memorial Address on the life and character of his friend, Hon. John Covode, (Representative from the
0
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Twelfth Congressional District of Pennsylvania), delivered Feb. 10, 1871. Referring to the traits of character, public and private, which distinguished the deceased, he said :
' He was not a man of learning ; he was a man of intellect. It was not that cultivated intellect which often leads men to be mere thinkers, whose thoughts end in dreams and sometimes afterwards are caught up and made practical by the earnest workers of the world. His was that busy, practical brain, which made him a man of action, a type of the untiring working men who are making their mark upon this active century, who study their fellow men more than books, and who are indispensable to the earnest thinkers of the age. Earnest thinkers and earnest workers need each other. Earnest thought is earnest work in one sense, but not in all senses. The earnest thought of a commander who plans a campaign or maps out a battle field may be earnest work for him ; but it is not that kind of earnest work which carries forts and routs opposing armies. The men who do this kind of work should live in history, as well as those who plan and direct it to be done.
'I saw recently a large painting of the battle of Gettys- burg, ordered by the State of Pennsylvania. It represents the pinch of the fight-the repulse of Pickett's charge. Its central figure is a private Union soldier, tall, muscular, with all the energy of determined action apparent in every feature and in every limb-with a musket clenched franti- cally in his hands and drawn to strike an assailant. He seems to be the real leader of all who are behind him. The commanding generals are in the dim distance. I thought, as I looked upon it, that men of action, in our day, are coming to the front. If a man's life has not im- pressed his fellow-men, his funeral will not. But his funeral may tell how his life has impressed them; and standing there, no one could doubt the sincerity of the sorrow which his death had occasioned among those who knew him best. A bad man could not be so mourned.'
"Having introduced an amendment putting coffee and tea on the free list, Mr. Scott, in advocating this measure, on
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the 15th of March, 1872, made an able and exhaustive speech on the Tariff. He presented the argument in favor of protection to home manufactures with an elaborate array of facts and figures. Having been placed in a position where the operations of the disqualifications of the Four- teenth Amendment were forced upon his attention, he gave it as his opinion in a speech before the Senate, Dec. 20, 1871, that it would be the part of wisdom to remove these disabilities.
"One of Mr. Scott's most distinguishing labors in the Senate was his voluminous report-the result of much labor-on the alleged outrages in the South. On the 17th of May, 1872, he delivered an able and extended speech, based on this report, advocating the extension of the Ku. Klux Act. 'Others,' said he in closing, 'may hesitate upon this subject. I cannot. Government was instituted to protect the citizens, and we shall be derelict to our duty if we permit the more than four millions of citizens in the South against whom this conspiracy has been formed, to be subject for a day to these great calamities, and subject to them at a time, too, when the strongest motives will be ope- rating for the infliction of just such outrages as those I have described.'
" In the Senate, Mr. Scott has fully filled the prediction of the Pittsburgh "Gazette" at the time of his election : 'Be- ing a lawyer of great depth and acute discernment, it may naturally be supposed that he will soon take a front rank with the foremost in Congress, peculiarly in questions in- volving international law, and the interest and protection of home manufactures, a subject on which he is well informed,. and entertains broad and favorable views.'
"In private life he has been an active and leading spirit in all the prominent enterprises of his neighborhood. He was an original member of the Huntingdon and Broad Top. R. R. Co., gave freely of his means and labored assiduously for the success of the enterprise, and has lived to see his labors crowned with success."
The foregoing sketch was prepared during Mr. Scott's
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term in the Senate. A few facts may be added which might properly have been included in it, and others that are neces- sary to complete it to the present time.
The committees upon which Mr. Scott served in the Forty- First Congress, were Claims, Pacific Railroads and Naval Affairs, and upon the special Senate committee as to the condition of the late insurrectionary States, of which latter committee he was chairman.
In the Forty-Second and Forty-Third Congresses, he was upon the Committee of Claims, of which he was chairman in the latter Congress, Pacific Railroads and Finance, and was also chairman of the joint select committee as to the late insurrectionary States.
One of the principal subjects of general public interest in which he took part during the remainder of his term, was the in- come tax, the bill to repeal which he introduced into the Senate. After passing that body, and upon going to the House, a constitutional question was raised as to whether the Senate had power to originate such a bill. On this question a conference committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Hooper, of Massachusetts, Allison, of Iowa, and Voorhees, of Indiana, on the part of the House, and Messrs. Scott, Conkling, and Casserly, on the part of the Senate. This conference resulted in a disagreement, and reports were made accordingly to both houses, Mr. Scott as chair- man, preparing the report to the Senate sustaining the power of the latter. He participated in the discussion of the bills relative to the Texas Pacific Railroad, and, in all their stages, of the bills relative to the Centennial Commission and the Centennial Board of Finance ; the tax and tariff bills ; the bill regulating bridges across the Ohio river ; the Caldwell, Kansas, Senatorial case; the bills in relation to currency and banking ; the Louisville and Portland canal ; and the bill relative to the repeal of moieties, of the committee of conference on which he was a member.
A few months after retiring from the Senate, Mr. Scott was tendered and accepted the position of General Counsel for the Pennsylvania Company. The offices of the Company
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being located at Pittsburg, and his presence being required there, he removed to that place with his family in 1875, and severed the relation of citizenship which had existed with Huntingdon county during his whole lifetime.
CHAPTER XXIX.
REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS-FIRST ELECTION -- APPORTIONMENTS -- DIS - TRICTS TO WHICH HUNTINGDON COUNTY HAS BELONGED-NAMES OF REPRESENTATIVES AND YEARS OF THEIR ELECTION-HON. R. MILTON SPEER-SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.
The first election for members to Congress participated in by the people of Huntingdon county was held in 1788, under the Constitution of the United States, which had been adopted the previous year. It provided that until an enumeration of the inhabitants, which was to be made within three years after the first meeting of Congress, and an apportionment thereunder, Pennsylvania was to have eight members. At the election in 1788, no districts having been formed, they were elected by the State at large. That may have continued to be the method for some years, but how long we have not been able to ascertain. No act of Assembly can be found districting the State prior to 1802. It is only from that year, therefore, that we can give the names of those who represented the county, or the districts to which it belonged, in Congress. The following are the districts, the counties composing them, the members, and the year of their election :
1802, FOURTH DISTRICT.
DAUPHIN, CUMBERLAND, MIFFLIN AND HUNTINGDON.
1802, David Bard.
1804, David Bard.
Robert Whitehill.
1806, David Bard. Robert Whitehili.
1808, David Bard.
Robert Whitehill.
1810, David Bard, Robert Whitehill.
1812, NINTH DISTRICT,
MIFFLIN, HUNTINGDON, CENTRE, CLEARFIELD AND M'KEAN.
1812, David Bard. 1814, Thomas Burnside.
1820, John Brown. 1 1816, Wm. P. Maclay. 1818, Wm. P. Maclay.
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1822, TWELFTH DISTRICT.
HUNTINGDON, MIFFLIN, CENTRE AND CLEARFIELD. 1822, John Brown. 1826, John Mitchell. 1824, John Mitchell. 1828, John Scott.
1830, Robert Allison.
1832, FOURTEENTH DISTRICT.
HUNTINGDON, MIFFLIN AND CENTRE. (Clinton added in IS39.)
1832, Joseph Henderson.
1834, Joseph Henderson.
1836, W. W. Potter.
*1838, W. W. Potter.
1839, Geo. McCulloch.
1840, James Irvin.
1842, James Irvin.
1843, SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT.
CENTRE, HUNTINGDON, JUNIATA AND MIFFLIN.
1844, John Blanchard.
1846, John Blanchard. -
1848, Samuel Calvin.
1850, Andrew Parker.
1852, EIGHTEENTH DISTRICT.
SOMERSET, CAMBRIA, BLAIR AND HUNTINGDON.
1852, John McCulloch.
1854, John R. Edie.
1856, John R. Edie.
1858, S. S. Blair.
1860, S. S. Blair.
1862, SEVENTEENTH DISTRICT.
CAMBRIA, BLAIR, HUNTINGDON AND MIFFLIN.
1862, Archibald McAllister. 1868, Daniel J. Morrell.
1864, Abraham A, Barker. 1870, R. Milton Speer.
1866, Daniel J. Morrell. 1872, R. Milton Speer.
1873, EIGHTEENTH. DISTRICT.
FRANKLIN, FULTON, JUNIATA, HUNTINGDON, SNYDER AND PERRY. 1874, W. S. Stenger.
Hon. R. Milton Speer, Representative in the Forty-Second and Forty-Third Congresses from the Seventeenth Congres- sional District of Pennsylvania, was born in the village of Cassville, Huntingdon county, on the 8th day of September, 1838. He is of Irish descent, both of his parents having emigrated to this county from near Belfast, Ireland.
Upon the death of his father, in the fall of 1852, Mr. Speer entered the Seminary at his native village and remained
*W. W. Potter died October 28th, 1839, and at a special election held on the 20th of November, of the same year, Geo. McCulloch was elected for the unexpired term.
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there until the fall of 1856. During the succeeding winter, he taught school, an avocation at which he was engaged several years subsequently, while a law-student. In May, 1857, he commenced reading law with Wilson and Petriken, and was admitted to the bar at Huntingdon, in November, 1859. He entered upon the practice of his profession in the following April, and has continued at it without interruption, except such as was rendered unavoidable by the several offices he has filled. In 1863 he was Assistant Clerk in the House of Representatives at Harrisburg. He was editor of The Union, the organ of the Democratic party of Huntingdon county, from August, 1859, to January, 1861.
In the Congressional contest of 1870, Mr. Speer's majority in the district, composed of the counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Blair and Cambria, was eleven votes. The opposing candidate was the Hon. Daniel J. Morrell, who had been twice elected to Congress, and who was an able and popular representative. The defeat of the latter was not regarded as possible during the campaign, and was a complete sur- prise to his party and friends. It was effected by changes principally in Huntingdon county. In the borough of Hun- tingdon, Mr. Morrell had in 1868, a majority of sixty-two; in 1870 Mr. Speer had a majority of two hundred and ten.
In 1872 Mr. Speer was re-elected over Hon. A. A. Barker, who had also been previously a member of Congress.
CHAPTER XXX.
PRESIDENT JUDGES-APPOINTMENTS PREVIOUS TO 1851-ELECTIONS IN THAT YEAR AND SUBSEQUENTLY-HON. GEORGE TAYLOR-HIS DEATH- PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF MEMBERS OF THE BAR-SKETCH OF IIIS LIFE-ASSOCIATE JUDGES-PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS AND DISTRICT AT- TORNEYS.
Until 1851 the President Judges, as well as the Judges of the Supreme Court and the Associate Judges, were appointed by the Governor, and held their offices during life or good behavior. In 1850 an amendment was made to the Consti- tution of the State providing for an elective judiciary, and on the 15th of April, 1851, the necessary legislation was en- acted for carrying out the amendment. The following have been the President Judges appointed for the judicial dis- tricts embracing Huntingdon county :
Robert Galbraith, Commissioned Nov. 23rd, 1787.
Thomas Smith,
Aug. 20th, 1791.
James Riddle, First Presided Aug. Sess., 1794.
Thomas Cooper,
Nov. " 1804. Jonathan Walker, Commissioned Mar. 1st, 1806.
Charles Huston,
First Presided Aug. Sess., 1818.
Thomas Burnside, ¥ 1826. Geo. W. Woodward, Commissioned Apr. 9th, 1841.
A. S. Wilson,
Mar. 30th, 1842.
George Taylor, Apr. 6th. 1849.
The amendment of 1850 made the term of office of Presi- dent Judges ten years. The following have been elected : 1851, George Taylor.
1871, John Dean. 1 1861, George Taylor.
The Judges who have presided in the courts of Hunting- don county have been men who were eminent for their legal learning, abilities and integrity. The most distinguished were Walker, Huston, Burnside, Woodward and Taylor. The latter, having been upon the bench much longer than any of the others, and having died within a few weeks of the expiration of his second term by election, was perhaps the most sincerely and profoundly regretted. While charg-
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
ing a jury, at the regular term of the Blair county court. on the 24th day of October, 1871, he became so ill that he was obliged to leave the court-room. Towards the evening of the same day, he was stricken with paralysis in both of his lower limbs, causing entire helplessness of the body, but not impairing the vigor of his mind. On the 30th of October he was brought to his home in Huntingdon. His condition did not improve, but gradually became worse until the morning of November 14th, when, without a struggle, he gently passed away.
The proceedings at the meetings of the members of the bar of Huntingdon county and the Twenty-Fourth Judicial Dis- trict, after his death, were more than formal. Eloquent and feeling speeches were made by Hon. J. G. Miles, Hon. R. M. Speer, Hon. S. T. Brown, Hon. John Williamson, Wm. P. Orbison, Esq., Hon. David Blair, Hon. Samuel Calvin, Hon. John Scott, Augustus S. Landis, Esq., and P. M. Lytle, Esq.
The resolutions adopted by the bar of Huntingdon county, were reported by a committee consisting of R. M. Speer, John Williamson, William P. Orbison, Thos. W. Myton and T. H. Cremer, and were as follows:
Having heard with profound sorrow of the death of Hon. Geo. Tay- lor, President Judge of the Courts of this District, which occurred at his residence this morning, and recognizing in this sad event a com- mon loss and a public bereavement, and expressing the unanimous voice of the Bar of this county, we do resolve :
1st. That Judge Taylor, by his modest manner, his eminent ability, his spotless integrity and his unquestioned fairness, has discharged the duties of President Judge of this District for more than twenty- two years, in such a manner as to make honorable his high office, to deserve and receive the unshaken confidence of the people, and to surround his name when living, and his memory now, when dead with the highest reward of honest labor-the grateful acknowledg- ment of duty well and faithfully done.
2nd. That, in the presence of his opening grave, we deelare him to have been an honest man and a fearless, able and incorruptible Judge, the clearness and strength of whose mind were equaled only by the warmth and kindness of his heart.
3d. That having begun the struggle of life, unaided and alone, his steady march to deserved distinction was alike the reward of his great ability and his conscientious discharge of public duty.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
4th. That eminent as he was in official Iffe, and much as he will be missed and mourned in the Courts over which he has so long and so acceptably presided, the tenderness and affection of his heart, and the kindness of his nature, doubly endeared him to his family and his friends, to whom, in this hour of their grief, we tender the poor consolation of our unmixed sympathy.
6th. That as our last tribute to the memory of the honored dead, we will attend his funeral in a body, and wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days ; and we hereby direct these resolutions to be presented to the Court, to be entered upon its records, a copy fur- nished to his family, and that they be published in all the papers of this District.
The Bar of the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District adopted the following resolutions, reported by a committee consist- ing of Hon. Joseph Irwin, Hon Samuel Calvin and Col. R. A. McMurtrie, of Blair county ; Hon. Geo. W. Early, Robert L. Johnson, and George M. Reade, Esqs., of Cambria county; and Hon. D. Clarkson, Hon. John Scott and P. M. Lytle, Esq., of Huntingdon county :
The members of the Bench and Bar of the 24th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, assembled to express their feelings upon the death of Hon. George Taylor, late its President Judge, feel that they are called to pay a tribute to the memory of no ordinary man. We come not only to bear testimony to the purity and ability of his judicial ad- ministration, but also to drop the tear which is due to the esteemed and beloved friend ; for of him it may in truth be said that he had in as high a degree as any Judge upon the Bench the warm personal re- gard of his judicial associates, and of the gentlemen of the Bar among whom he discharged his duties. Added to a strong, clear, discrimi- nating mind, thoroughly disciplined by early study and imbued with the elementary principles of legal science, were a reverence for Supreme authority, a recognition of his responsibility to that authori- ty, a love of justice and a high moral courage. Strong as were his feelings and convictions upon any subject which might incidentally mingle in the contest of the Courts, his sense of right was stronger, and of no man who ever sat upon the Bench was there less complaint of personal bias or partiality to suitors. If proper to apply to any man the first ideal of a Judge, "an able man, a man of truth, who fears God and hates covetousness" it might be applied to him. Feel- ing that he has died at the close of an honorable service of almost a quarter of a century, we who have had every opportunity of observing and learning the traits of his character, bear testimony to its worth in these brief words, and do resolve :
1st. That we will now proceed in a body to attend his funeral, and will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
2nd. That the members of the Bar of the several counties of the District will take measures to have the proceedings of this meeting placed upon the records of their respective counties.
The events in the life of such a man as Judge Taylor are not numerous. All the distinction he achieved was in the line of his profession as a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar, became distinguished as an advocate, was appointed, elected and re-elected a Judge, and spent more than twenty- two years in the performance of his judicial duties. The details of his life have been clearly and succinctly told by his friend Col. William Dorris, of the Huntingdon bar :
"George Taylor was born at Oxford, Chester county, Pa., on the 24th of November, 1812. He was the fourth child of Matthew Taylor and Rebecca his wife, whose maiden name was Anderson .. His father was an humble but honest blacksmith, with a large family and limited means; and he was consequently afforded few facilities for acquiring even the rudiments of an education. He did not so much as learn the grammar of his own language in a school, nor was he in a school or any other institution of learning as a student, after he was thirteen years of age. He was, therefore, truly and emphatically a self-taught and self-made man. Several years of his early youth were profitably occupied in teaching a country school, in Dublin township and in Trough Creek Valley, in this county. During this period he diligently availed himself of all the means of improvement within his reach ; greatly increased his scanty stock of knowledge, and in the quiet seclusion of his rural home, unnoticed by those around him, laid the foundation of his future success. He was between thirteen and fourteen years of age when he came with his father and family to Dublin township, Huntingdon county. Subsequently he found employment in the office of the Prothonotary of Huntingdon county, and in 1834 commenced reading law in the office of Gen. Andrew P. Wilson. He was admitted to the bar of this county on the 12th of April, 1836, and soon after gave promise of success in his profession, and by his masterly efforts, in a number of important cases, acquired an early and distinguished repu-
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
tation as a lawyer and an advocate. In 1840 he assisted in the prosecution of Robert McConaghy, who was tried, in this county, for the murder of six of his relatives. The case was one entirely of circumstantial evidence, and in a speech of matchless eloquence, in a clear, logical analysis of the facts, he so traced the murderer through all his windings, and so fastened the evidence of his guilt upon him, that there was no escape. The writer has frequently conversed with the very able counsel of the prisoner as to the electrical effect of the argument, and they said it was perfectly overwhelming; that the jury, the judges and the audience were so complete- ly carried away that any attempt at a defense seemed to be useless, and conviction followed inevitably. This was the greatest effort of his professional life. At this time, and for several years after, he was practicing, in partnership with John G. Miles, Esq., under the firm name of Miles & Taylor. Afterwards he acted as Treasurer of the county, and during the year he held that office he made such progress in study- ing Greek that he could read the New Testament in the original tongue.
"When the Legislature, in 1849, passed an act changing the Judicial Districts of the State, and increasing their num- ber, he was recommended, almost unanimously, by the Bar of Huntingdon and Blair counties, for the President Judge- ship of the 24th District, composed of the counties of Hunt- ingdon, Blair and Cambria. In April, 1849, Gov. Johnston conferred upon him the appointment, which was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. After the amendment to the con- stitution, making the Judiciary elective, was adopted, and by which the commissions of all the Judges in the State were terminated in December, 1851, Judge Taylor was unanimously nominated as a candidate and elected in October, 1851. After serving his term of ten years he had so won the hearts of the members of the Bar of the District, that, without dis- tinction of party, they asked him to be a candidate for re- election and he was again triumphantly elected. During the twenty two years of his Judgeship he faithfully discharged his duties, and never, from sickness or any other cause, failed to hold the regular terms of Court in the District.
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