USA > Vermont > Orleans County > Biography of the bar of Orleans county, Vermont > Part 4
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I cannot better illustrate the comparative excellence of his extem- poraneous efforts on the floor of the house, and those of a profes- sional forensic character, made on mature preparation, than by alluding to one of his arguments before the house of representatives in the case of Norman Cleveland, who had been convicted of murder in the county of Orleans and sentenced to suffer death. His friends joined him in petitioning the legislature for a commu- tation of his punishment. By permission, Gen. Fletcher appeared as his counsel at the bar of the house of representatives. The former respectability of Cleveland, who was at the time of his arrest a physician in considerable practice in the shire of the county, and
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connected by marriage with some of the most influential and respect- . able families in that portion of the state, and some little irregulari- ties, which were alleged to have occurred in the trial of the cause, conspired to throw around this case, at the time, a very unusual degree of interest. Mr. Fletcher's argument, happily combining these extraneous and incidental sources of interest with the palli- ating circumstances of the case, in regard to the real motive which induced the homicide, was said by those who listened to its delivery to have produced very great effect. The punishment of death was commuted to that of imprisonment in the state prison for the term of five years.
He was military aid to His Excellency Richard Skinner during his term of office, and for many years adjutant and inspector gen- eral of the Vermont militia, both which offices he discharged with credit. In this last capacity he was in attendance upon His Excel- lency C. P. Van Ness during the visit of the venerable Lafayette to this state, and was by that worthy patriot made the dispenser of his bounty, by which the aged Gen. Barton was relieved from his imprisonment for debt in the common jail in Danville.
I have thus briefly sketched the outlines of the life and character of one who was my friend, and, in some sense, my early patron. I can only add that he was an indulgent parent, a kind-hearted friend, charitable to all, unwilling to offend or pain any one, hos- pitable and generous, and accomplished more for good and less for evil, I think, than most others. " Et ipse quidem, quanquam medio in spatio integre @tatis creptus, quantum ad gloriam, longissimum cvum peregit. Quippe et vera bona, que in virtute sita sunt, im- pleverat."
EPHRAIM PADDOCK.
By ELISHA MAY, ESQ.
E PHRAIM PADDOCK was born January 4, 1780, and died at St. Johnsbury, Vt., July 27, 1859. He married Abbie Phelps November 2, 1807. She was born August 2, 1786, and died July 1, 1860. They had two children-Horace, who for many years was one of the most esteemed citizens of St. Johnsbury, and Charlotte, who was the wife of the Rev. W. W. Thayer, the librarian at the athe- næum of the same town. Mr. Paddock was elected judge of the su-
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preme court in 1828, and held that office until 1831. Such, in brief, is the history of this eminent lawyer ; it is almost all that can be told of the men of the legal profession everywhere.
The law reports and court records contain the principal results of such men's labors. They do not seek to shine anywhere save in their profession. Living in retirement quite a part of their lives, their fellow men, in fact, know but little about them.
Judge Paddock was never a brilliant man. He possessed but few of those qualities in debate that made Mattocks, Bell, and Cushman famous. He had other qualities of a great lawyer which those men did not possess, particularly the last two.
Industrious, honest and fair, the briefs and opinions of Judge Paddock show careful study and good discrimination. We find the first opinion of the subject of this sketch in 2 Vt. Rep., p. 39, Wil- liams vs. Hicks, in which the court were brought face to face with the recent questions of patent rights, and promissory note given for same. That case and the following ones contain references to the English authorities, with which the author was plainly familiar.
At this time, 1829, we had few Vermont authorities upon most questions of law. Many states that have now excellent reports then had none. Massachusetts had issued the 6th volume of Pick- ering, Maine the 5th, and New Hampshire the 4th volume of reports. New York had more decided cases than any other state ; but there were no adjudications of many commercial and criminal questions. In equity the books were then well up.
Vermont then needed, and she found judges well qualified to break up the ground for an excellent series of reports. Sound sense and correct information were found in the bench of 1828-31.
We find the accomplished Prentiss, the solid Hutchinson, the sound Royce, the scholarly Williams, and the honest Paddock. Few of the cases decided in the 2d-3d Vermont Reports have been reversed or criticised. These men rode no hobbies.
We are told that Judge Paddock preferred the work of practicing lawyer to that of the bench. He at once, after 1831, dropped back into his practice, and in 1852-53 we find him vigorously at work at the bar, settling the question of duties of listers, etc .- 24 Vt., 9.
The older citizens of St. Johnsbury refer to Judge Paddock as one of the most urbane of men, kind to his family, doing all he 6
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could to make society better, helping the young business men, and as greatly interested in the schools of the town.
It is to men of his time-to the late Erastus, Thaddeus, and Joseph Fairbanks-this section of Vermont owes much. They saw the need, and furnished the means for obtaining a better education.
Some of the beautiful trees that adorn Main street in the village of St. Johnsbury were planted by Judge Paddock. They form a fitting monument to his pure, happy and spotless life.
That he was a student and lover of the law any person could easily determine by looking at the library he left, now for the most part in the possession of a distinguished judge of the supreme court.
That he was a man of excellent spirit and business capacity the men of St. Johnsbury, who knew him intimately, all testify.
Success, that he attained, was well deserved.
His portrait which now adorns the walls of the Caledonia county court room, is that of a plain, frank man ; while not handsome, it is manly and honest.
THOMAS BARTLETT.
By HON. GEORGE N. DALE.
T 'HIS man, who in some respects was distinguished from all others, was a son of Thomas Bartlett. The latter was born in Plymouth, Mass., married Anna Little of Providence, R. I., and was one of the first settlers of Burke, Caledonia county, Vt., where the subject of this sketch was born in 1808, and where he received a common school education. He read law first with Hon. George C. Cahoon, and then with Hon. Isaac Fletcher-both of Lyndon- and was admitted to the bar in Caledonia county about 1835.
He commenced practice in Groton, Vt., remaining two or three years, and then removed to Lyndon, where he resided until his death, having an office at St. Johnsbury the last two or three years of his life. September 13, 1835, he married Harriet Smith of Newbury. Only one of six children survived childhood. This was . Dr. H. C. Bartlett, a very popular young man, who, with his wife, was lost in the disaster to the steamer " Columbus." Mr. Bartlett (first named), was state's attorney in and for his county during the years 1839, 1841 and 1842. During those years he was rapidly ris-
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ing as a public speaker. His physical inability-a partial paralysis of an arm and leg, occasioned by over-exertion and exposure on the farm-instead of being a deformity, added much to his appearance and his presence, and commanded mingled charity and respect, and, in pleasing contrast with his large form and powerful voice, was of itself eloquent. Sympathy with him and unbounded admiration for his style of speaking was universal. No man ever lived more largely in the minds of his admirers than did Thomas Bartlett. He filled the whole circle of his friends with the brilliant light of a genius, warmed by a great soul filled with generous impulses, and (we must admit, but without apology), intense longings for fame.
He was in the Vermont senate in 1841, 1842 and 1843. As a senator he ranked high and became at once very popular, but here he was not in his element. He was too limited in his means of mental exercise. He felt the want of excitement. He represented the town of Lyndon in the general assembly in 1850, 1854 and 1855. Here he found ample room for the exercise of all his facul- ties, and he improved his opportunities. Brought into more direct contact with the people, he soon became known and admired throughout the state. His keen sayings and clever illustrations were in the mouth of every one. He was representative in con- gress from 1851 to 1853, inclusive.
As a legislator he was too little designing to appear himself prominent upon the record. He would not be inclined to originate any legislation with a view to personal credit, nor to identify him- self with it, nor with a purpose to honor himself thereby. But he made efforts in the state and national houses which rank among the finest ever made in either place-notably his scathing denunci- ation of the common school book steal in our state ; and an effort that forever silenced an arrogant and impudent fellow in congress.
Nothing but a want of such discipline of the mind and polish as a liberal education would have afforded him prevented his standing alone and without a peer as a forensic orator, is the opinion of many who knew him. His reasoning was powerful and ingenious, but not systematic. In appearance he was tall-over six feet in physical stature-prominent lips, yet so compressed as to indicate great determination of purpose, and the keenest realization of the most trying emergency and a willingness to meet it. Thomas Bartlett was a man of that kind of swarthy complexion which with
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long-neglected hair, beard and habit, would suggest desperation, but with his well shaved face, nicely trimmed hair, and neat, and when circumstances would permit, rich dress, it gave him an air very dis- tinguished and dignified. In voice, action and thought, he was bold, frank, and at times, terribly defiant. He was as tender- hearted, sensitive and sympathetic as a girl, and his palsied leg and arm were as eloquent as the rich tones of his heavy, yet pathetic voice, especially when defending the weak and abused. At the same time he had an unmeasured contempt for meanness, and could hate the man indulging in it with a hate that was more than a hate, against which, whenever and wherever personated, his voice rose as a terrific storm in terrible invective. His style was at times extravagant, but he was capable of the closest and clearest expressed logic. His analytical style of reasoning was almost a wonder, replete with unexpected pictures and startling illustrations, racy, and filled with bursts of thrilling eloquence. To example imperfect and faintly remembered instances : He was prosecuting a traveling circus, who traveled, advertised, and in every way held itself out as Sears & Co.'s circus, for so negligently putting up seats that plaintiff fell and was injured. The defendants claimed that the cir- cus belonged to a Mr. Faxon of Liverpool, and that he alone was responsible. Said the advocate : "Gentlemen, I have a dog, and a mean cur he is, too. He comes when I whistle. He goes when I say 'ste-boy.' He follows me wherever I go. 'T. Bartlett' is marked on his collar. I am out with him on a day, and he raven- ously attacks my neighbor's sheep. I am called on for damages. I reply, 'Sir, my name is on the collar of that cur. He goes when I say ' ste-boy,' comes when I whistle, follows me and is under my direction entirely, but I can't pay you ; that dog belongs to Mr. Faxon of Liverpool !'" Then followed some half dozen more illus- trations as pat as this one-only the dim outlines of which I have reproduced here-completely overwhelming the defense, and win- ning a verdict for the plaintiff.
He was solicited by a young and inexperienced attorney to assist in the defense of a poor widow, whom two rich plaintiffs had got involved in the technicalities of the law. He concluded somewhat as follows : " In conclusion, gentlemen, I am here at the solicitation of my young brother without scrip and without price. I told him I would charge nothing. I reconsider. I will charge, and I ask him
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here and now to promise to discharge the obligation. It is this : When my now shattered formshall be laid in its tomb, my lips sealed with death, my voice silent in the grave, my wife set upon by legal robbers armed with the technicalities of the law, and he is standing by with ripened experience and a warm heart, I ask him to walk as boldly to her defense and with as pitying a heart as I have come out to the defense of this poor woman." Then lifting up his palsied arm with the hand of the other, and turning to his young associate, he ad- ded, with terrible emphasis, "Will you do it?" His exact words cannot be reproduced nor his manner described, but many eyes were dimmed. There was no noise in that court room. Defending the case of an old man against a charge of assault and battery,in which plaintiff claimed defendant had produced a hernia, the proof of which failed, the plaintiff 's attorney begged in his argument for damages for a common assault, and said, " We do not demand a million of money from this old man ; give us fair, reasonable damages." The defend- ant was a perfect picture of very neat poverty. Mr. Bartlett com- menced his address somewhat as follows : "Gentlemen of the jury, I knew my brother R- when a boy. He was a magnanimous boy. I see him ripening into a wonderfully magnanimous man. But today he has capped the climax of his magnanimity. He says he don't demand a million of money from my client. Good God ! gentlemen of the jury, if he should demand and recover at your hands a million of money from my poor old client, it would reduce him to comparative want. It would seriously interfere with his annual rents and profits."
His sudden transitions from the most stirring passages of his speech to a quiet, deliberate, or pathetic style were seldom equalled. In a flash the whole man, voice, mode, manner and every expres- sion, including attitude of body as well, would be changed, and that, too, without creating the slightest shock or unpleasant sensa- tion. He was very adroit and exhibited great courage in turning a tide of sentiment when he saw it setting against his client.
On one occasion the writer was conducting a case that was almost without question, and in which the client merited sympathy, and counsel flattered himself that a sentiment prevailed that could not be disturbed.
Then the tall form of Mr. Bartlett arose and seemed to assume most gigantic proportions, and with the most serio-comic facial
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expression, and in measured cadences, he commenced : " Gentlemen of the jury : We will now conclude these solemn exercises by singing ' Hark, from the tomb a doleful sound ! Mine ears, attend the cry,' and while the choir is singing I will invite my friend to ' come view the ground where he must shortly lie.' Then continu- ing in a strain of grandiloquent drollery, it was not long before the speech which preceded him was out of sight and out of mind. But as in this case, at times his purpose would be so apparent as to destroy the effect of the effort on the case. But, as the client remarked, he " would make things look blue" at such times.
Few men would venture to talk to a jury upon so intricate a sub- ject as special pleading, but I have heard him perform the daring feat of explaining to a jury how a demurrer reaches back through the record, and fastens on to the first defect in the pleadings, in most peculiar manner and language, which latter I cannot even recall. I recollect, however, that after a variety of wonderfully ingenious illustrations of the subject, he closed by saying, "So you see, gentlemen, the plaintiff demurs to the defendant's plea, and the defendant replies, Well, I say, what of it, too? If I have not replied to your declaration properly, I have not replied at all, you say. Now I say your declaration is defective, and so there is no declaration for me to reply to."
The field for the exercise of his illustrative faculties seemed boundless. He was not a remarkable technologist, nor was he, as a rule, a very close reasoner. But his wonderful power was in his broad common sense, and quick apprehension and aptness in deal- ing with questions of fact, especially those involving probabilities.
In the trial of a case in which the party claimed he did not have time to get off a crossing in time to prevent a collision, not having over two minutes in which to do so, Mr. Bartlett having concluded his address upon that branch of the case, suddenly stopped, and remained steadfastly gazing over the heads of the jury full into the large round face of the clock over and behind them. His impress- ive manner gradually secured a breathless silence. Then he con- tinued, addressing the clock-"Tell me, thou ingenious chronicler of time, how long will you be in telling us two minutes ?" He then commenced moving his hand to and fro in correspondence with the sound of the seconds and counting them for two minutes ; and, in the minds of the jury, the man could have been far from
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danger long before the expiration of the longest two minutes that the man on the other side ever lived through.
No circumstance or object which he could appropriate ever escaped his quick eye.
On another occasion he was discussing a question of damages against a railway company which had substantially ruined his cli- ent's little village residence by building a high embankment, or "dump," along in front of his house, shutting out the view of the highway and a beautiful prospect beyond, and compelling him to climb out of his house as out of a cellar. A measurement of the land so taken was made, and the quantity was stated by the com- pany and its value per acre as a means of getting at the amount of damages. In reference to this Mr. Bartlett said: “ Gentlemen, I have a nice broadcloth coat. It cost me one hundred dollars. The cloth was five dollars per yard. This company sends its agent, and he cuts one-fifth of a yard out of the part most prominent to view, and the company say, 'Mr. Bartlett, you have been damaged for my convenience and ought to be paid for it, and, by heaven, you shall be. Here is one dollar-every cent the cloth cost.'"
No one can describe Mr. Bartlett, he was possessed of such spon- taneity, such vivid imagination, warm social qualities, generous sym- pathies, tender-heartedness and lion-like make up, mentally and physically.
He was, of course, not without faults, and during his latter days he was somewhat irritable. But he never lost his magnanimity. His contempt for what he regarded mean or ungenerous led him in his denunciations at times very near the borders of abuse. His bilious temperament at times assumed the "grand, gloomy and peculiar " type ; but in it there was no personal malice or envy, and out of it would pour floods of light and warm good-fellowship after the " clouds rolled by." But woe be to the man who took advantage of his infirmity, or sprung an unknown or quietly and designingly obtained docket order on him. Then the offending party had best get in out of the storm, for little technical rules would bend and sway like young willows in a gale. His life created interesting incidents enough to fill a volume. It is saying much, but I venture the remark that the variety in style of his oratory, especially instances of the grand and stormy, yet never destructive or uncon- trolled order, were seldom equaled. His torrent-like, but never
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boisterous or harsh, voice one would seem to hear like hearing the sound of Niagara after being separated from either. His personal influence was great, his presence warm, impressive and enlivening, and the impress of his absence correspondingly deep. The sun never sat on a sadder day to his immediate personal friends than that on which he died, nor did eternal night ever close down upon a life which was succeeded by a more lonely stillness.
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE BAR
OF
ORLEANS COUNTY, VERMONT.
MOSES CHASE.
T 'HE subject of this sketch was born in Cornish, N. H., Novem- ber 29, 1772, and was the son of Moses Chase, one of the early settlers of that town. His primary education was obtained at the common schools and academy of his native town, and he subsequently took a full course at Dartmouth College, from which institution he graduated with high honors. He went to Litchfield, Conn., and there pursued the study of the law, and upon his admis- sion to the bar, he was married January 20, 1800, to Deborah Ball, of Litchfield, and at once started for the new state of Vermont, and settled at Bradford for the practice of his profession. The first session of court for the new county of Orleans was to be held at Craftsbury on the 24th day of March, 1800, and Moses Chase attended, and on the second day of the session was admitted to the bar, he being the first attorney to be admitted to practice in that county. Mr. Chase lived at Bradford, and practiced his profession until 1833, when he moved to Lyndon. He practiced law but little after removing to Lyndon, and died July, 1861. He raised a family of nine children. As a lawyer he was well read and a safe adviser, always thinking more about the interest of his client than his own fee. In fact, his fee was a secondary matter, and nothing but a pinch of poverty would ever induce him to call for it ; consequently he was not successful financially. Like a great many lawyers of his day, the matter of practicing law for the money it would bring him never entered his head. He was a man of very strong impulses, and always went into a case with all the force and vigor of which he was possessed, and which was great. No man at the Bradford bar would call out so many spectators to a trial, because he always
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE BAR
made it interesting. As a citizen he was highly esteemed, his pur- poses were noble and his advice sound, and he always desired the highest good of the individual, and of society. He was generous to a fault, and would give to charity when he ought to have been circulating a subscription paper for his own family. It was often said in Bradford that Moses Chase was provoked if he lost a chance _ to head a subscription paper for any good cause.
JOSEPH C. BRADLEY.
OSEPH C. BRADLEY, son of Capt. Miles Bradley of New J Haven, Vt., deceased, was born in Salisbury, Conn., August 8, 1779. His mother was Jane Hogoboom, a native of Germany. He came, when quite a small boy, with the family to New Haven, Vt. He was educated at Middlebury Academy, and after complet- ing his course there, was principal of the same school. He studied law with Hon. Daniel Chipman, and was admitted to the bar of Addison county in 1798, and within a year or two moved to the then new county of Orleans and settled at Greensboro. He at once took a prominent part in the affairs of the new county, his name ap- pearing in almost every case for several years. He was the first state's attorney for the county of Orleans, holding the office for two elections-1800 and 1801. He moved to Hardwick, as near as I can ascertain, about 1804, and in 1813 returned to New Haven, Vt., where he opened an office, and continued in active practice until about 1840, when he moved to Bristol, and died there August 2, 1854, leaving a widow, who died in the same house September 18, 1855. He married Mary White Warner of Hardwick, daughter of Gen. Jonathan Warner, about 1808, by whom he had seven children. He was postmaster in New Haven twenty years, and justice of the peace seventeen years, holding the office after his removal to Bristol.
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WILLIAM BAXTER.
T "HE Baxters of Orleans county are sprung remotely from the Baxters of Norwich, England, who came to America about 1632, and with others from the same county, Norfolk, founded Nor- wich, Conn. The name Baxter is strongly associated with Norwich,
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for about 1775, a colony from Norwich, Conn., founded the newer Norwich in Windsor county, Vt. Among those who came to Nor- wich in 1777 was Elihu Baxter, and his bride, Triphena Taylor. Fifteen children were born to them in Norwich, the oldest, William Baxter, born August 3, 1778, being the subject of this sketch.
After obtaining what education he could at the schools of that vicinity, he pursued the study of the law with Hon. Daniel Buck of Norwich. After the completion of his law studies, he commenced the practice of his profession at Brownington, and was admitted to the Orleans county bar November 23, 1801, being the second (Moses Chase having been the first), to be admitted in that county after its organization, and resided there until his death Octo- ber 1, 1827. The Vermont Historical Gazetteer says of him : " William Baxter, although somewhat rough, was a man of great shrewdness and talent, and was for many years at the head of the bar in northeastern Vermont. At the time he came to Browning- ton all the property he possessed was a pinch-beck watch, a horse, saddle, bridle, saddle bags, a few law books, and some few shillings in money. He hired his board and horse-keeping at Judge Strong's, remarking when he went there that he could not pay his board then, and did not know as he ever could ; he engaged to pay ten shillings and six pence per week. Luke Gilbert, Esq., one of the prominent inhabitants of the town at that time, hearing that a young lawyer had come into the place, and learning the enormous price he was to pay for board for himself and horse, remarked that 'he had come to a very poor place, and would find very poor picking.' Mr. Bax- ter (though in very poor health always), soon won for himself a good reputation as a business man, and acquired much notoriety for his perseverance, quickness of apprehension in financial mat- ters, and good judgment of law, as well as ability as an advocate. He was as good a collector as lawyer, and very particular about paying promptly to his clients all that he had collected for them. In the early years of his practice as collector, before he had any property of his own, he was accustomed when collecting for several individuals, to mark each package separately, putting upon the paper the name of the person for whom it was collected, that it might be ready when called for. His perseverance in collecting demands for others, and his prompt manner of doing business, soon brought him into great notoriety about the county, and a large
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