USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Biography of the bar of Orleans county, Vermont > Part 3
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I have introduced this long extract from his narrative to his son, because I am well advised that he considered that portion of his life as having had an important bearing and a controlling influence upon much of his after life, and in no slight degree connected with what of success attended his after efforts, and because I cannot but esteem such a testimony, from such a source, of the very highest importance to all who feel themselves interested in the subject of the education of children, physical and moral, as well as intellect- .ual. In this day of comparative profusion and love of ostentation among all classes, and of inefficiency and want of energy and self-
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reliance, if not sometimes of vicious delicacy and effeminacy, among too many of our youth, when even the aspirants for professional or literary honors dare not venture-upon their own resources, with the common blessings of a gracious Providence-the undertaking, in this land of plenty and cheapness, to compass a collegiate and professional education, I have hoped that such testimony, from such a source, will not be esteemed obtrusive or unimportant. And, both because it is better said and more likely to be regarded, I have introduced it in the very words of the witness himself.
There is to be noted in the above extract the countenance and support which a judicious father may give to a son, eager for an education, aside from, and far more valuable, I apprehend, than the giving of money.
I. By cultivating in the son, in some sense, the feeling that he is his own master, and this at an early age, that there may be nothing ever of the feeling of servitude in what he does for the father.
2. By suffering the son to acquire a little property of his own by extraordinary exertion and more than usually rigid economy, which will show him the value of small earnings, and how it is pos- sible, by little and little, to accomplish in time what at first seemed wholly desperate. -
3. By sustaining the son's hope and heart, by permitting him always to feel that his father's house is a resort to fly for shelter in case of disaster and discomfiture in his undertaking, and that even in that event he need not feel himself disgraced, or as having thereby forfeited the good will of the family mansion, or of its pro- prietor and inmates.
There is also farther to be noted here, how very little aid is, in our country, indispensable to the attainment of a collegiate educa- tion ; for Gen. Fletcher passed his regular course at Dartmouth College without any aid, as far as is known, except what is above named. He maintained a high standing for scholarship, as his appointment at commencement, and his election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Junior year, will attest.
I know it has now become fashionable at old Dartmouth to decry all distinctive appointments in college as something addressing itself too much to the more debasing motives of human action ; and it is said the venerable society of the Phi Beta Kappa has fallen
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into melancholy disrepute there, and has sometimes been almost compelled "to hide its diminished head, and peep about to find itself a dishonorable grave." But this is no time to write a disser- tation upon college honors and preferments ; and least of all should one, whose life has been devoted to other pursuits, presume to arraign the venerable teachers and patrons of his Alma Mater-a nursing mother, of whom it pleases me to be able to say, with the utmost truth and sincerity, "I love thee still." But I may be allowed kindly to suggest that in the general rush among all classes and associations, to try some new medicine for an old disease- inordinate love of pre-eminence, with mediocrity of capacity-it was to have been hoped that our institutions of learning should be permitted to wait patiently, to learn whether "the sober second thought of the people "-no unmeaning catchword, though greatly reviled of late-would seriously and pertinaciously require any such remedy from that quarter. So venerable an institution of learning, instead of running after the popular breath-the mere efferves- cence of that staid, sober, and well informed public opinion, which we all feel bound to regard as the true exponent of the vox populi vox Dei-should, it would seem, have felt in some degree the responsibility of making the substance of public opinion, instead of running after its shadow. And perhaps when we all learn to feel the full weight of this just and reasonable responsibility, there will be more true devotion to the interests of the whole, and, of course, less necessity for high sounding pretension in that respect -more practice and less profession of democracy.
Gen. Fletcher, during his college life, in common with most of the members of college of that day, taught school during the win- ter months. It is probable that this exercise, if entered upon with a proper sense of its real dignity and importance, instead of being made, as it too often is, a painful shift to gain a subsistence, would always be found more profitable to the teacher, on the score of mental improvement alone, than the same time devoted to the study of books. It was so with him. The difference between these two classes of teachers, in the improvement of their pupils, is almost incalculable. The education of men, full grown men, good soldiers in the warfare of life, is no mere child's play. It is work for valiant men. "There is no royal road to geometry "-the advance along the way towards any high attainment in liberal
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studies is always arduous, often painfully difficult and dishearten- ing, even to the most devoted lovers of good learning. Gen. Fletcher was always a faithful instructor. I apprehend there would be no danger of doing injustice to others in asserting that almost no office in the state afforded so faithful and thorough a course of law education and of systematic instruction as did his, during the whole course of his professional life.
After leaving college Gen. Fletcher taught in the academy in Chesterfield, N. H., with high credit, as a faithful and competent teacher, for two years. It was during this time that he made the acquaintance of Miss Abigail Stone, whom he subsequently mar- ried, and who survived her husband, but in great feebleness and premature decreptitude, caused soon after the birth of her only child by a severe sickness, consequent upon too early exposure, without proper precaution. The calamity was severely felt by both. I learn from those who were intimate with Mrs. Fletcher, before the event, and who all concur in representing her as an active, ele- gant and accomplished woman, both in person and mind, that she then suffered a most painful change. I have alluded to this sad result, thus in detail, in order to do justice to a trait in Gen. Fletcher's domestic character, which I esteem above all praise. I mean his truthfulness, constancy and devotion to the wife of his choice, through all times and all changes-never in the least abating the watchfulness and tenderness of his first love, through long years of weariness and suffering, on her part, and almost necessary departures sometimes from that evenness and equanimity which vigorous health and buoyant spirits, with the consciousness of being useful, and necessary to the comfort of her husband-would not have failed to preserve. I know that . the self-confident and boastful in regard to human virtue, who know little of themselves and less of others, will be ready to say "he could hardly have done less." But when we reflect how very few wives, among the most fortunate, after the freshness of youthful beauty has grown dim, and the disregard consequent upon familiarity, with even our best friends, has come over them, receive all that attention always from their companions which their affection covets, I feel constrained to say that in my judgment such instances as that to which I have alluded are rare indeed, and to be esteemed in proportion as they are few. Those men who think lightly of such virtues on the one
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hand, and those on the other who think that no degree of virtue is of any esteem, unless it has assumed a prescribed degree of preten- sion, and who will consequently think and speak of Gen. Fletcher as a moral man, perhaps, but not religious, would find, very likely, this practical lesson in his life not unworthy of their study-which might enable them to see whether virtue is not something more substantial than mere pride, and whether, at the last, "He who seeth not as man seeth," will not esteem a life of virtue of more avail towards the attainment of everlasting salvation even, than an empty faith without its legitimate fruits-a holy and virtuous life. I shall not be understood in what I here say, I trust, as to any extent willing to countenance a disregard of the ordinances of our holy religion. Few men, perhaps, respect them more sincerely ; but they are rather the body than the soul of religion-the means rather than the fruits of piety.
As to Gen. Fletcher's religious views and feelings. For upon this point, if I said anything, I would be sorry to misrepresent him, or to be misunderstood myself. The first paragraph in a letter under date of December, 1838, having been written in the confi- dence of long standing and intimate friendship, growing out of a remote family connection and similarity of pursuits, will exhibit his views upon that subject more fully and far more satisfactorily than I could do, and may in some degree explain why I should have spoken thus confidently of his Christian character, when he himself is not known to have expressed any full reliance upon his own hopes. And I have been the more assured upon this point of his character, perhaps, from the consideration that in religious profes- sions the more bold and confident, not seldom, give comparatively little evidence of having well considered the ground of their faith and hope, while on the other hand, many times, the more doubting, and anxious, and self-condemning, and shrinking from the public gaze, show more of the peaceable fruits of righteousness in humil- ity, self-abasement, and holy living. The late Dr. William Ellery Channing, the worthy descendant of a worthy ancestor, whose name he bore, very justly said that all deep, impassioned feeling upon religious subjects is shy and shrinking, and difficult of utter- ance. The paragraph above referred to is as follows :
5
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WASHINGTON, D. C., December 9th, 1838.
I thank you for your kind letter of the 3d instant. It is gratifying, and doubly so when at a distance, to be remembered by our friends. The mention of the old court room at Danville brought to my recollection many reminiscences. It is there I have toiled hard day after day; it is there I have passed the best of my life ; it is there that the malady, which has afflicted me for more than two years, first came upon me ; in short, it is in that very room, and in preparing to appear in it, that I have worn away my health, and broken down my constitution. It is there I have passed days of great toil and mental anxiety. Thanks to Providence, I feel my health gradually returning. Ever since I came south I find my health amending, and I pray God that it may be ultimately restored. The religious cast of your letter, while it was somewhat unexpected to me, was by no means displeas- ing. Believe me, my dear friend, I have ever esteemed my friends the higher, in proportion as I have thought them sincerely religious. I have never considered myself deserving of the name of Christian, but it is a subject that engages my daily meditations. How beautiful the rhapsody of St. Paul : "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them, also, that love his appearing." How different from that of Balaam : "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." One full of holy confidence, the other full of worldly hope. May you and I love the appearing of the righteous judge, which is the earnest of the heavenly crown.
Gen. Fletcher studied the profession of the law with Messrs. Prescott and Dunbar, at Keene, N. H., and was admitted to the bar of the county court in Newfane, Vt., at the December term, 18II. In 1812 he opened an office in Lyndon, where he continued to devote himself to the business and study of his profession till near the close of his life. He was married sometime during the year 1813.
The life of a professional man is almost always barren of inci- dent. It consists of a dead uniformity of labor and study, and study and labor, in nearly constant alternations, at least to those who choose to submit to such alternatives. Professional learning is always, and with all men, difficult of attainment, and only the fruit of long and patient study. Industry, determined resolution and capacity, will always ensure success, and all these Gen. Fletcher possessed, but not in equal degrees. His industry and perseverance, as well as his promptness and faithfulness, in all which pertained to professional responsibility, were almost without a parallel. His capacity was certainly of a very high order, although not perhaps of the very highest. It was just about that fortunate degree of
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excellence, which feels its capability of mastering all problems, which the variety of professional avocations present by dint of labor and study, and not that glowing blaze of inspiration, so to speak, which despises the trammels and restraints of rules, and detests the slow and snail-like pace by which patient industry must ascend, if at all, to those higher points in professional attainments, to which mere genius can never reach.
When he entered the practice he was considered, I apprehend, more learned and critical than, with the same attainments, he would now be esteemed. This difference in the taste of the profession, together with his great industry and indomitable perseverance, gave him then, no doubt, at times the appearance of hypercriticism. But this, in a young attorney, is justly esteemed "a failing which leans to virtue's side," and is one of the most hopeful of excesses, as Gen. Fletcher's after success sufficiently shows. He very soon commanded an extensive practice in the three northeastern coun- ties, which he maintained without abatement and with increasing popularity till about the time of his election to congress, when he wholly abandoned all professional undertakings. This long contin- ued and constantly advancing popularity, in the advocacy of the profession, is not without its parallel indeed, in eminent instances, in our own state, and in the same region, but it certainly is very uncommon in proportion to the whole number of acceptable, and even popular advocates, who, in almost any section of the state are, at some one period during the term of twenty-five years, to be found in successful practice for a time, perhaps, and then give place to other popular favorites ; and this result in his professional course is, in itself, no doubtful evidence of his excellence as an advocate. His practice, too, was of a kind which brought him constant acqui- sitions, and his charges were generally low-always reasonable- which enabled him to derive more profit, in the long run, from the same client, than if his demands had been more exorbitant. He was often called to advocate causes in more remote sections of the state, (if not in other states, of which I cannot speak), and was always a happy and persuasive speaker. His sudden and extempo- raneous efforts, although often-times showy and attractive, were not his happiest or most successful efforts. He required time to collect his materials, and then to arrange and digest and condense them ; and in such cases he was always a graceful and interesting, and
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more than ordinarily successful advocate. His great love of method, and minute subdivision of his topics, not unfrequently exposed him to severe criticism as being over-technical, and sometimes frivolous in his exceptions to the propositions of his adversary, as well as in the outworks with which he essayed to defend his own citadel ; but the far more than ordinary, I may say, eminent success which attended his almost continued efforts at the bar, addressed both to court and jury, show very clearly that he was more easily criticised than overthrown. All will allow that he has left behind him a very enviable professional reputation, and one which those of us who come after him will do well to emulate in more than one particular. It is true, doubtless, that from the relations which subsisted between us for nearly half the term of his professional life, I should be lia- ble to over-estimate his powers of advocacy. But I have guarded against that as I best could, and I flatter myself that those who knew him as well as I did, will not find much to blame in what I have written. His reputation stands, and must stand, mainly upon his professional attainments.
His surprising industry in the preparation of his cases is well shown by the number and extent of the briefs which he made while in practice. Almost all the important cases, for the prosecu- tion or defence of which he stood primarily or principally respon- sible, both in the county and supreme courts, were formally prepared by stitching together the requisite number of sheets of letter paper and writing at the head of each page, or at other convenient dis- tances, the prominent points in the case, in orderly succession, then the subdivisions of the several leading points, if any, and the authorities relied upon in their support, and, if a jury trial, the names of the witnesses to be called, and the substance of the testi- mony expected from them. If the trial was had before the jury, he used his brief in opening the case. He then took very full minutes of the testimony given, and, in summing up, referred both to his brief and minutes. His briefs were many times prepared with such accuracy and minuteness as to have enabled an English bar- rister to conduct the trial without embarrassment. If this prepara- tion of cases before trial was more attended to in our courts, it would greatly facilitate the labors both of the court and counsel, and in no small degree conduce to the just ends of the administra- tion of justice-the impartial understanding and thorough trial,
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and speedy determination of causes. Protracted litigation, which all concur in condemning as a bitter evil, and which has been attributed sometimes to the interested policy of counsel, and some- times, no doubt with some show of justice, to the inefficiency of courts, is perhaps as much induced by the want of preparation of cases on the part of counsel, and- the impatience of courts, (par- donable it might seem, if ever, under such painful perplexities), as by either of the former causes. Gen. Fletcher seldom found a case taking a direction on trial which he had not anticipated and pro- vided against, as he best could.
He continued his classical reading through life to such extent as the other calls upon his time would permit. He read his favorite Latin authors with ease and satisfaction, and became, late in life, a considerable proficient in the study of the French language. His own testimony shows that he retained a still livelier relish for his mathematical, than for his classical studies, even.
He was often called to address his fellow citizens on anniversary festivals and other occasions, and sometimes, also, the literary soci- eties in our colleges. Some of these addresses have been published. One of these, delivered many years since on commencement at the University of Vermont, (of whose board of trust he was at the time a member), was very favorably received. He did not abandon those studies as unimportant to the main object of his ambition-profes- sional eminence ; nor did the comparative disuse of the offices of Apollo and the Muses render him so coy and bashful and blushing, in the presence of those more at home there, as to induce him to forego all efforts in that way.
I come now to speak of Gen. Fletcher's political character. And here, I confess, I feel some little difficulty in determining precisely what rank to assign him. I do not think politics a field in which he ever took delight, or where he was fitted to shine. His kindli- ness of temper, his unwillingness to wound or offend the feelings of others, his peculiar sensitiveness under any imputation or sus- picion of wrong inflicted or intended by him, his total want of all that bravado and bluster, which are so necessary, sometimes, to keep up appearances on the arena of politics, made him averse to the scenes which are there exhibited. I do not find that he ever made the science of government, at any period in his life, a leading study. I apprehend that he never possessed that adroitness and
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tact in anticipating and foiling the false positions of an antagonist, which would have rendered him a dexterous and successful political leader. He was, I think, more fitted to work out a given problem than to propose a theory-more suited to the sphere of a subordi- nate, and to the mere detail of the duties of public life, than either to originate or improve systems. His course of life and habits of thought and study enabled him to select the wisest means for accomplishing a required end, and to urge the most plausible and persuasive reasons for pursuing that end, rather than for determin- ing absolutely whether, in every point of view, the end proposed was the very wisest and best which could be adopted. And having said this, I feel bound also to say that I believe Gen. Fletcher to have always been sincere in his political opinions and party prefer- ences, to have been an original and honest-hearted democrat, a friend of the people from feeling, habit and education. He was also conservative in his opinions, and, from principle, averse to great and sudden changes in the established institutions of the country, unless for sufficient reasons. But I do not think he had any such fearfulness and timidity in regard to change as would have led him to oppose reasonable changes, with a probable chance of improvement. Had he made politics a leading object of his ambition at an earlier period in life, the estimate of his political character must have been very different. But the public offices which he held were rather incidental to the main course of his pro- fessional life, and not expected or intended to divert him from that course, if we except his election to congress in the fall of the year 1836. And at this time even, the unfortunate attacks of epilepsy, which finally terminated his life, had already begun to impair the health of his body and the tone of his mind. He did, nevertheless, continue to discharge his duties in congress for two terms, until March, 1841, with very general acceptance. His health was such that he performed the duty required of him on various committees with credit, and was, for some time, chairman of one of the less important ones. But before the close of the last term, it was but too painfully evident to his intimate friends that the health of his body and the symmetry of his mind were broken down, and that soon " the wheel must be broken at the cistern." From this till the time of his death, October 19th, 1842, he was almost wholly unable to go abroad, or to engage in active labor.
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In regard to his political character and feelings, too, I would be sorry that anything, in my present position or recent pursuits, should, in fact, or in the apprehension of any one, so far suppress any expression of opinion by him upon the points of difference between himself and the opposing political party, as by implication to leave the impression that they either did not exist, or were by him considered unimportant-which might subject Gen. Fletcher to the unjust suspicion of esteeming those matters wholly indiffer- ent which others esteem of the gravest import-or else of being more yielding in his opinions and preferences than would wholly consist with personal independence and self-respect, in which essen- tial ingredients of character he was by no means deficient.
About 1823 he was, for a number of successive elections, the member of our house of representatives from Lyndon, and, at the time of his retiring from that body, the speaker, the duties of which office he discharged with general acceptance, although with no such eminent success as attended his efforts at the bar. Those who were members at the same time, and who witnessed his efforts while on the floor of the house, generally considered that his addresses there were creditable, but from his prominent posi- tion, perhaps, he felt called upon to address the house too often, and upon too various topics, to acquire much fame as a debater. This, to those of us who know him to have been, constitutionally, an exceedingly timid and diffident man, may seem not a little out of keeping with his general character. But it is not unlikely his timidity may have, in some degree, contributed to produce that evil. It very often requires more firmness of nerve to keep silence when one's position seems to require him to speak, than to speak.
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