Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887, Part 9

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Co., Printers and Binders
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Vermont > Essex County > Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887 > Part 9
USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887 > Part 9

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*Sketch furnished by a friend.

Sale

LITTLE. I'MILA.

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ity for arranging in his mind all the circumstances and evidences in a case, and to discern the turning point. Combined with his deep bass voice and. fine physical appearance, which carries with it an air of true dignity, is a manner always pleasing and effective, especially when addressing the jury. The writer chanced one day to overhear the following remark in the court- room: "When he arose to address the jury I could read nothing but the very soul of conviction in those deep black eyes, and I knew the case was his." He is honest in his practice with his brethren at the bar, a firm friend, and always generous to his foes. He appears at his best in the supreme court where he stands in the front rank. He has a remarkable power to state, without verbosity, a legal proposition so it can be most clearly understood, and at the same time carry with it a great weight. He is a man of independ- ent mind, and could never learn the use of policy. He looks upon all the world alike, giving much respect to the good and sensible of all classes. To the rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, he is the same generous friend through prosperity and adversity. Anything which has an air of vulgarity or of pomposity about it is hateful to him. He reads poetry as naturally as he does prose, and after the labor of the day he loves the sentiment of a good poem which teaches-

" For a' that and a' that, Their tinsel show and a' that, The honest man, though e'er sae poor, Is king o' men for a' that."

George W. Hartshorn was born in Lunenburgh, Vt., September 5, 1827, son of Colburn and Elizabeth (Fay) Hartshorn. He was the tenth in a family of twelve children-all sons. He fitted at Guildhall and Lancaster academies, graduated from Dartmouth college, class of '48, and went to Camden, N. J., as a teacher, where he was connected with the West Jersey- man, a newspaper, and took part in politics as a public speaker. In 1850 he returned to Vermont, and has since resided in the state. He published the Orleans County Gazette, at Irasburg, from July, 1854, to June, 1856, and was county clerk of Orleans county. In 1857 he was appointed collector of customs at Canaan, and located in this town, where he also engaged in law practice, having been admitted to the bar in 1853. He was collector of customs fifteen years, and has been postmaster eleven years, representative from Canaan in 1858-59, state's attorney about four years, town clerk several years, first selectman, and town superintendent of schools, and has held other offices. He married, in 1851, Alice M. Bean, of Kirby, has one daughter, Mrs. Agnes H. Johnson, of Canaan. His wife died April 13, 1884.

CALEDONIA COUNTY.

[No connected sketch of the Bench and Bar of Caledonia county has been furnished us ; but we give a few contributed biographical sketches of some of the prominent judges and lawyers of that county .- ED.]

CALEDONIA AND ESSEX COUNTIES.

The following sketch is condensed from the excellent article from the pen of Rev. T. Goodwillie, published in Vol. I., Hemenway's Historical Gazet- teer :-

Hon. John Mattocks was born in Hartford, Conn., March 4, 1777. His father, who was treasurer of the state of Vermont from 1786 to 1801, came with his family about the year 1778 or 1779, and settled in Tinmouth, Rut- land county, Vt. John, his youngest son, became the fourteenth governor of Vermont. Having been admitted to practice law before he was twenty- one years of age, he opened an office in Danville, and commenced the prac- tice of his profession in 1797, but the next year removed to Peacham, where he resided till his death. In a few years he became a celebrated lawyer, and ultimately a very popular man, being elected to every office for which he was a candidate. He was one of the great men of Caledonia county ; indeed, he was one of the eminent men of the state of Vermont. He practiced law about fifty years, the most of the time in the courts of four counties. He was often engaged in every jury trial at a whole session at the county court, and won every case. He represented Peacham in the legislature of Ver- ment in 1807, and again in 1815 and 1816, and also in 1823 and 1824; and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1835, when the measure for a state Senate was adopted, and which he advocated. During the last war with Great Britain he was brigadier-general of militia in this part of the state. He was judge of the supreme court of the state in 1833 and 1834, but declined a re-election. He was a representative in Congress from Ver- mont in 1821-1823, 1825-1827, and 1841-1843, and was governor of Ver- mont in 1843-44. It is said that he resembled, in many respects, the cele- brated lawyer Jeremiah Mason, of New Hampshire.

He did not receive a liberal education-was a self-educated man, and pos- sessed in an uncommon degree the "sanguine temperament," as physiologists call it, being distinctly characterized by vigor, vivacity, and activity of mind, a ready and retentive memory, lively feelings, and a humorous disposition. His wonderful talent of appropriating the contents of books enabled him to obtain a tolerable knowledge of standard English, and the current literature of the day, as well as a considerable acquaintance with history. His style, as may be seen in his reported judicial opinions, was direct and forcible. His great and universally acknowledged power as a lawyer was advocacy before a jury. His power was not owing to his eloquence as an orator. He employed no flourishing or fanciful sketches to fascinate the jury ; but in a familiar and colloquial manner he talked the matter over with them, and talked his side of the case into them. When a member of Congress and governor of the state, he took an early and decided stand against human bondage. In a speech he made in Congress when he presented a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, he said, "I present this petition because I believe in my soul that the prayer thereof ought to be granted, so as to free this land of liberty from the national and damning sin of slavery in

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this, our own bailiwick, the District of Columbia." He was a courteous, kind, and charitable man, beloved by all who knew him. He died August 14, 1847, aged seventy years.

Hon. Samuel B. Mattocks was born in Middlebury, December 14, 1802, and graduated at Middlebury college in 1821. He read law at Danville with William Mattocks and George B. Shaw, and was admitted to the Caledonia county bar in 1826. There he practiced his profession until February, 1833. when he was appointed cashier of Caledonia bank, at Danville. He held this position until 1837. He also held the position of register of probate for eight years, between 1826 and 1836. In 1835 he was appointed clerk of the county and supreme courts, and held this office until 1848, when he resigned and again assumed the duties of cashier of the bank, and held the same until 1856, when he went to Lyndon, having been appointed cashier of the bank there, which position he held until 1874, resigning then by reason of ill health. With his other duties, from 1837 to 1847, he served nine years as judge of probate. He was state senator in 1847 and 1848, and also represented Dan- ville three years in the state legislature while residing there. Mr. Mattocks traced his lineage back to James Mattocks, one of the first settlers of Boston, coming from England in 1634. His grandfather, Samuel Mattocks, of Tin- mouth, was Vermont's first treasurer, and one of its early judges, while his uncle, John Mattocks, was one of Vermont's ablest governors and judges. The life of Samuel B. Mattocks has been a busy one. He was an exemplary christian, a courteous gentleman in all his business relations, kind to the poor, an affectionate husband and father, and a worthy citizen. He died Febru- · ary 28, 1887.

Luke Potter Poland,* of Waterville, Vt., the oldest son of Luther and Nancy (Potter) Poland, was born at Westford, Vt., November 1, 1815. He is descended from the best Anglo-American stock. Joseph Poland, his grand- father, by trade, a carpenter, joiner, and cabinet-maker, in 1780 moved from Ipswich, Mass., to North Brookfield, Mass., and five years later he mar- ried Rachael Hathaway. Seven children were the fruit of this marriage. He died in 1845, at the age of ninety. Luther, his second son, born March, 1790, married Nancy Potter in 1812. In 1814 he moved to Underhill, Vt., where he followed the paternal occupation, adding farming. He moved from Underhill, in 1821, to Coit's Gore, now Waterville. He was elected its first representative to the legislature in 1826. He also held many other offices of trust, and was for many years a worthy deacon in the Congregational church. He died in June, 1880, having attained the advanced age of ninety-one years. The early advantages of Luke P., like those of many of the eminent men of Vermont, were very limited. He had the advantages afforded by the district school, until he was twelve years old, when he became a clerk in a country store at Waterville, for two years. Here he learned to write a good

* By Hon. Jonathan Ross.

CALEDONIA AND ESSEX COUNTIES.

hand, to keep accounts, to cast interest, and to transact ordinary business. He spent at home the three following years, helping his father at his trade on the farm, and in running a saw-mill. Hence the sometimes remark of the judge, " I was brought up and educated in a saw-mill." Having exchanged boards from the saw-mill for cloth to make necessary clothing, he then at- tended, for five months, Jericho academy. This ended his school advantages. But his active, retentive mind had received training and development from many sources ; from the farm, the shop, the store, the saw-mill, the public school, the academy, and the few books to be obtained in the neighborhood, which were eagerly sought, and their contents mastered. He had now become confident of an ability to open and serve in a wider field of labor than the few paternal acres. With his father's approval, with a single change of under- clothing, his own master, he went, on foot, to Morrisville to teach the winter school. He proved a successful teacher, and was engaged for the second winter. Physically, as well as mentally strong and well developed, sana mens in sano carpore, he excelled in athletic sports-was an expert ball player. Of a combative, investigating turn of mind, he naturally turned his attention to the study and practice of the law as a profession. He entered upon its study at the close of his first school, in the office of Judge Samuel A. Willard, at Morrisville. Here he continued to exhibit the same habits of industry and perseverance. Judge Willard soon became aware of his sterling quali- ties and good judgment. To enable him to acquire means to pursue his studies before he was admitted to the bar, Judge Willard sent him to Greens- boro to look after his business there. He opened an office and gained quite a practice. He made, meantime, such proficiency in the study of the law, . that at the December term, 1836, of the Lamoille county court, the first term after the organization of the county, when only twenty-one years old, he was admitted to the bar. The faithfulness and ability already manifested induced Judge Willard to take him into his business as a partner for three years. After the dissolution of the partnership he remained at Morrisville, practicing his chosen profession until he was elected judge of the supreme court. The care, faithfulness and ability which he brought to the discharge of the duties of an attorney, attended, as they always are with success, soon gained him a large and constantly increasing practice, mostly in Lamoille, Orleans and Washington counties. Starting with no property, and with a family, he became an intense worker. Driven by necessity arising from the wants of an increasing family, as well as by a natural desire for success, he acquired a facility and rapidity in the dispatch of business, a mastery of principles and cases, a comprehension of and power to marshall facts, that is rarely equalled. The knowledge acquired by a varied experience in the common affairs of every day life greatly aided him, not only in understanding his cases, but in presenting them so as to be readily comprehended by others. He was care- ful in preparing, skillful in managing and presenting his cases to the jury. He was clear, cogent and logical in the statement of the law and its application

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in the higher courts. He yielded gracefully to inevitable defeat, but was too combative to surrender so long as a fortress remained uncarried. In 1848, a Free Soil Democrat, he was elected judge of the supreme court over a Whig competitor, by a Whig legislature. He subsequently received seventeen suc- cessive elections by viva voce vote. He was elected chief justice in 1860, and held the office until he resigned, in 1865, to accept the appointment to the United States Senate, in the place of Judge Collamer, deceased. At the early age of thirty-three the discharge of his judicial duties brought him into close association with such men as Stephen Royce, Isaac F. Redfield, Milo L. Bennett, Daniel Kellogg, and Hiland Hall, men eminent in the judicial an- nals of the state. Nor did he suffer in the comparison. He was, emphatic- ally, " the right man in the right place." By intuition, apparently, but really by close and vigorous application, he mastered the broader principles of the law. He was greatly aided in applying them by the knowledge of common affairs early gained, and by his broad, strong, discriminating common sense. He was quick to discern the controlling element in the facts of a case, which made a principle applicable or inapplicable. Clear in comprehension, he stated his views forcibly and with remarkable clearness. His plain, pointed, discriminating charges were so helpful that the jury rarely disagreed. His presence was fine, his bearing courtly, his self-command great. He had, withal, enough of the natural school-master to command and maintain the best of order, even in the heat of conflict. Stenographic reporters were then un- known. Each presiding judge took full minutes of the testimony. A rapid writer, he rarely stopped, or allowed a witness to be stopped, but kept all so closely at work that order became a prime necessity. He had no superior as a nisi prius judge.

Hon James Barrett, many years Judge Poland's associate at the bar and upon the bench, writes concerning him : "In thirty years conversancy with the bench and bar of Vermont, it has not been my fortune to know any other instance in which the presiding judge in his nisi prius circuit has been so uniformly, and by the spontaneous acquiescence of the bar, so emphatically " the end of the law' in all things appertaining to the business of these courts. As judge in the supreme court sitting in banc, his adaptedness to the place was equally manifest. His mastery of the principles of the law, his discrim- inating apprehension of the principles involved in the specific case in hand, his facility in developing by logical process and practical illustrations, the proper applications and results of these principles are very strikingly carried in the judicial opinions drawn up by him, contained in the Vermont Reports. His memory of cases in which particular points have been decided, is extra- ordinary, and his memory is accompanied by a very full and accurate appre- hension of the very points, and grounds, and reasons of the judgment. Some of the cases in which he drew the opinion of the court, stand forth as lead- ing cases, and his treatment of the subject involved, ranks with the best specimens of judicial disquisition."

CALEDONIA AND ESSEX COUNTIES.

Another distinguished jurist of Vermont, upon his appointment to the Senate, remarked: " The state so far as her interests depend upon the char- acter of her courts and their administration of the law, has suffered irrepair- able injury by the transfer of Judge Poland from the chiefship of her judiciary to a seat in Congress."

Among the doctrines discussed by the leading cases above referred to are, the power of eminent domain, its proper extent and limitation ; the adoption of the common law of England, by the United States; the subject of case- ments; the constitutionality of retroactive statutes ; the acquirements of title by adverse possession ; what promises to pay the debt of another are within the statute of frauds. His discussion of the subject last named is exhaustive and the elucidation of the then much confused subject has made the conclu - sions reached elementary. His opinion upon the extent of the constitutional power of the state to authorize soldiers in camp to vote was regarded as a settlement of that vexed question and was followed by several states. Since leaving the bench he has had a large practice, mostly in the court of chan- cery and in the higher state and federal courts. He has rarely engaged in the trial of jury causes. He has been chairman of the executive committee of the National Bar Association since its formation. In his early career he was somewhat active and influential in politics. He was first a Democrat ; later he belonged to the Free Soil wing of that party, and was their candidate for lieutenant-gover- nor in 1848. On being elected to the bench he withdrew from active participa- tion in politics, yet in his principles was loyal to the principles of free soil and free men. He became identified with the Republican party upon its formation, and has ever remained devoted to the principles in support of which the party , was called into existence. In the discharge of his duties as senator he dis- played the eminent ability, sound judgment and fearless advocacy of what he deemed right, which had marked his earlier course and inspired the 'confi- dence of his associates. As a member of the judiciary committee the bank- rupt bill which had passed the House was intrusted to his care. The commit- tee were about equally divided upon the expediency of the measure. His skillful management and large personal influence secured its passage. But the meas- ure for which he is entitled to the greatest credit, having been its originator, and had its supervision to completion, is the revision of the United States laws. These laws, enacted, modified, and repealed, session after session by Con- gress, for nearly one hundred years, had remained without revision or consolida- tion. On many subjects it was difficult to ascertain what the statute law was. The magnitude and importance of this work, and his connection with it, cannot better be stated than was done by the Hon. Loren Blodgett, in an address de- livered before the Social Science Association, at Philadelphia, in 1875, as follows :--

" Early in the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, 1865-6, Hon. Luke P. Poland, the senator for Vermont, and a member of the judiciary commit- tee of that body, introduced a bill for the revision and consolidation of the

Luke P. Poland

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statutes of the United States, which was passed by the Senate, April 9, 1866, by the House of Representatives soon after, and became a law June 27 following, substantially without amendment, in the form originally given it by Judge Poland. This singularly clear and comprehensive plan was auhered to with almost literal faithfulness to the end, -- the term of labor required proving much greater than was expected-but in all other respects the foresight of Judge Poland was clearly shown and abundantly vindicated.

At this time, as subsequently shown, the real work of verification of the draft as being truly the unrepealed statutes of the United States, general and permanent in their natures, began at the hands of respon- sible parties. . The House committee on revision of the laws, of which Judge Poland was chairman, took the report up with the full determination to per- fect and enact it into law. Having originated the whole work while a mem- ber of the Senate in 1866, and followed it as the chief director of all subse- quent proceedings in both houses of Congress for seven years, Judge Poland had an interest in consummating what all regarded as a great work, which no other member of either branch could claim. In all the later work, the energy and determination of the distinguished chairman, Judge Poland, were always conspicuous, and it must in justice be said that the final decision as to what was, and what was not law, was his own and not the com- missioners, or any one of them. His able associates of the committee shared in responsibility, but none took the leading part, and the House, to which he made report at intervals, as enough of its verification should be completed for its action, in all cases, sustained his report.

" The Senate, still more indisposed to review his work, enacted the revision in a body precisely as it came from the House, and the whole became law June 23, 1874, without amendment, from the report of the committee on revision."

With reference to the extreme difficulty of the work, the same eminent authority adds : " The work of deciding was to a great extent judicial in its character, with the additional difficulty of being required to construe a statute without a case and without argument. * No test so severe, both as to familiarity with the ordinary construction of these statutes and as to legal discrimination in regard to the intrinsic incompatibility of acts which had successively overlapped each other for nearly a century, without codifica- tion or special report, has at any time been applied to a body acting with the necessary haste of a committee in Congress during an active session. Indeed, under no circumstances and at no time has a like effort been made. * *

In reviewing the work of this revision or codification, it is impos- sible not to accord it a rank quite distinct from, if not higher, than any pre- vious work of the kind known to history. * To arrange, or rather rearrange, the statutes enacted over so long a period according to the subjects treated and in all the detail which the diversity of chapter and sections in each act require in their relation to the different subjects of legislation, is

CALEDONIA AND ESSEX COUNTIES.

alone a great task. Still more difficult is the adjustment of conflicting laws and the elimination of all that is repealed, because it is inconsistent or incom- patible under the changed circumstances as well as the changed text of later legislation. What was actually done in the present case was sufficient to in- voke the very highest degree of ability and discrimination in thus judging the law without a case and without argument. (Laws are easily decisive and easily construed at the time of their enactment, but the strength that remains in them after the lapse of half a century is often reduced to a very small measure in consequence of a general incompatibility extremely difficult to define.)"

While engaged in this very difficult and laborious task, Judge Poland was also conducting investigations of the most voluminous and laborious charac- ter. He was chairman of the committee raised to investigate the Ku Klux Klan outrages. The evidence presented filled thirteen large printed volumes. The exposure made practically broke up the organization, and was of ines- timable value to the nation. He was also chairman of the important com- mittee appointed to investigate the transactions of the Credit Mobilier Com- pany. This investigation occupied several months, and the unanimous re- port created much excitement in political and social circles. It was sustained, and in effect relegated several prominent members of Congress, of Judge Poland's party, to private life.

During the reconstruction period Judge Poland was also conspicuous. He was chairman of a special committee raised to investigate the state of affairs in Arkansas. He supported the majority report of the committee in a very able speech. After a sharp fight the report was sustained by a majority of seventy, a result which created no little surprise, as the fight had been very vigorous, and it was known that the result would be unpalatable to the Executive.

He took a prominent part in the discussion of the question of the proper distribution of the fund received under the Geneva award. He maintained the right of insurance companies to the money received for vessels and car- goes destroyed by rebel cruisers, whose owners had received payment from the insurers. In these ten years of his congressional life, no other member of either branch of Congress was so intimately identified with so many impor- tant measures. His eminent intellectual ability, and particularly his innate love of justice, inhaled with the free air of his native state, which, developed and strengthened by a long judicial service, enabled him to rise above mere partisan considerations, and to decide each question upon its merits, com- mended him to these important positions. This quality of fairness, displayed from the commencement of his political career, made him acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats as the chairman of committees for the in- vestigation of questions, the result of which might effect the interests of either of the two great contending parties.

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Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, Vt. 1764-1887, Part 9

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Co., Printers and Binders Number of Pages: 886

Author: Child, Hamilton, 1836- comp. cn
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N. Y., Syracuse Journal Co., Printers and Binders
Number of Pages: 886