Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 16

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842

USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 16

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In 1836 Erastus Fairbanks was elected to represent the town in the state Legislature, and was re-elected for the two succeeding years. In 1844, and again in 1848, he was chosen a presidential elector for the state. In 1848 he was appointed with Charles K. Williams and Lucius B. Peck to prepare a general railroad law, and also one relating to manufacturing corporations, and their report still remains embodied in the statutes of the state. In 1852 he was elected Governor by the Legislature, having fallen a few hundred short of a majority in the popular vote, be- cause of the candidacy of Brainerd and the Liberty party. In the closing days of the Leg- islature of that year the law for the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors was passed : Governor Fairbanks signed it, and in conse- quence was defeated for re-election the next year. The figures and particulars of that interesting contest are given in the sketch of Governor Robinson, his successful competi-

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tor. The Whigs desired to fight out the issue in 1854 with Governor Fairbanks again as a candidate, but he declined a nomination because of his business engagements.

In 1860, however, the Republican con- vention unanimously made him its candi- date, and he was easily elected over John G. Saxe, the poet, Democratic candidate. His administration in 1861 secured for him a reputation as a "man with a brain and con- science." By his energy and patriotism ; he being "as lavish of his own time and money as by was sparing of the people's ; and as regardless of his private interests as he was devoted to the public good," he earned the name of the war Governor. War meant loss of property and credits which the firm had in the South, but he never wavered for a moment in the conviction that the Union must be sustained. He called an extra session of the Legislature eight days after the assault on Sumter, and it placed $1,000,000 at his disposal without check on his discretion, for the arming and forwarding of troops, but at his earnest request a com- mittee was appointed at the October session to audit his accounts, and on its report the Legislature adopted a series of resolutions highly complimentary to the ability and patriotic devotion with which he had ex- ecuted the trust. The first six regiments of the state, of the famous "Vermont Brigade," and the first company of sharp-shooters were organized and mustered into the service under his administration. The Governor's services all through this trying period were purely a patriotic offering. He declined even to draw his salary, such was his sentiment on the subject, and it still remains in the treasury a monument of his self-sacrifice.

As a man of business, he had the power that easily assumes and carries on great op- erations. In 1850 he was active in the con- struction of the Passumpsic R. R., and was for years president of the company. He was also a leading and efficient member of the company that constructed the Sault Ste. Marie canal. He was always a man of deeds rather than words. " A staid and stable cit- izen, a successful man of business, a dignified and courteous Christian gentleman," is Colo- nel Benedict's description of him in " Ver- mont in the Civil War." A man of wide reading, to which he devoted an hour every day, of wide and practical information, in- tensely earnest in his convictions, and reso- lute in carrying them out, he was well equipped in every way for success in both private and public life.

He made work of public good, especially the interests of the town, an integral and a necessary part of his business. Anything that touched the community touched his in- terests. Probably his most enduring reputa-

tion is that of a business philanthropist. Prominent among his home charities repre- sented in an active way may be mentioned the founding of the Academy, with his broth- ers ; and his endowments assist in maintain- ing the Athenæum, the Museum of Natural Science, and the North Church. Front 1849 until his death, he was president of the Ver- mont Domestic Missionary Society, and for many years was a corporate member of the American Board of Foreign Missions.

He was married, May 30, 1815, to Lois Crossman, of Peacham. His married life continued to within a few months of half a century. They had nine children, of whom four now survive : Charles, Franklin, Sarah (Mrs. C. M. Stone), and Emily (Mrs. C. L. Goodell).

Governor Fairbanks died Nov. 20, 1864.

ROYCE, STEPHEN .- Governor in 1854 and 1855, for twenty-five years a member of the Supreme Court of the state, and for six years the chief justice, had some of the brainiest and most patriotic blood of the state in his veins, and belonged to a family that for four generations has been distin- guished in Vermont affairs. He was the grandson of Maj. Stephen Royce, a Revolu- tionary soldier and a member of the Dorset convention that declared Vermont's inde- pendence, and son of that Stephen Royce, also a Revolutionary soldier, who was Berk- shire's first representative in the Legislature. On his mother's side he was a grandson of Judge and Doctor Ebenezer Marvin, like- wise a Revolutionary officer, who was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, a surgeon in the Continental army, judge of the county courts in Rutland, Chittenden, and Franklin for six- teen years, and member of the Governor's Council for eleven years. His nephew, Homer E. Royce, was a member of Congress for four years, and a judge of the Supreme Court for nearly a generation, and for eight years chief justice.

Governor Royce was born in Tinmouth, August 12, 1787, but removed with his parents to Huntsburgh (now Franklin), in 1791, and two years later to the still newer town of Berkshire where there were at the time only two other families. His oppor- tunities for schooling in his early youth were very meagre, but besides an able father he had in his mother, Minerva Marvin Royce, the best of teachers and character de- velopers, and at the age of thirteen he was sent to Tinmouth to attend the common school, and a year later began an academ- ical course at Middlebury under Charles Wright, afterwards a famous clergyman, and in 1803 entered Middlebury College, where he graduated with the class of 1807 which contained such a remarkable number of

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eminent men. Twice was he interrupted in his academical and collegiate course by the necessity of returning to the farm to work. But he persevered, made his journey back to college on foot, with packages of furs secured in the wilderness, from which he obtained the money for the purchase of necessary books.

After graduating at the age of twenty, he taught district school for one term and studied law with his uncle, Ebenezer Mar. vin, Jr., with whom he was afterwards in partnership for a few years. He commen- ced practice at Berkshire, where he remained two years, then for six years was at Sheklon, representing the town in 1815 and 1816, and in 1817 went to St. Albans, where he re- mained the rest of his life, pursuing his pro- fession with ever-increasing success until he was called to the bench. St. Albans sent him to the Legislature in 1822, 1823, and 1824 and as a delegate to the state constitu- tional convention in 1823. He was a mem- ber of the legislative committee in 1816 that made a strong report in favor of adopting the constitutional amendment proposed by North Carolina for choosing both presi- dential electors and congressmen by the dis- trict system, the same principle substantially as has recently been tried in Michigan. He was state's attorney for Franklin county from 1816 to 1818 and held the office of judge during 1825 and 1826, when he declined a re-election and resumed his professional practice until 1829, when he was again elected to the bench and continuously re- elected for twenty-three years until 1852, rising to be chief justice in 1847, and hold- ing that position until he positively refused a re-election. In 1854 the whigs nomi- nated him as their candidate for Governor and he was easily elected.

In 1855 he was re-elected, and at the end of his term retired to private life, passing the remaining twelve years until his death, Nov. 11, 1868, in a serenity and well-earned contentment that made a beautiful picture, with its easy hospitality, its enjoyment of literature and social amenities, and its care from kindred ; for, though he was never married, his declining years were attended by nephews and nieces. His local attach- ments were deep, and among his later works was a carefully written history of Berkshire, though he did not live to complete it.

His personal appearance is described by B. H. Smalley as "tall, erect, with a vigorous and well-proportioned frame, of a command- ing presence and a serene majesty of man- ners. His face was mobile, expressive, and strongly marked. The gleam of his mild gray eye illuminated his countenance and revealed every emotion whether grave or gay that was passing within, moving the looker-on by a

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sort of magnetic influence to sympathize with him." Professionally his ideal of honor was high.

He made it a rule never to accept a fee in a case in whose justice he did not believe, and if afterwards he was convinced it was wrong, to compel the client to settle or abandon the case. As a judge, he resem- bled Marshall and Chipman in his way of stating a case, laying down the legal principles and seklom referring to the books for authority ; in other words, regarding the law in its high relation as the science of reason and right, which authorities can only illuminate, not slavishly bind. He followed this method even while confining himself to the case before him and carefully avoiding any essays upon law at large. He refused to report cases where there were no new prin- ciples involved, and it is said that he also refused to report some when he was satis- fied, npon reviewing the case, that his de- cision had been wrong, holding that it was bad enough to have done injustice to an individual without sending it out as a prece- dent for future wrongs. He had considera- ble trouble because of these omissions to report, and the Legislature withheld a part of his salary for a time, but without moving him. Politically his career cannot be said to have been a notable one. The times of his prominence were not of a kind to call forth great powers, and it is doubtful if his tem- perament was of a kind to strive in political turmoil. He made a good and painstaking Governor.

FLETCHER, RYLAND .- The first dis- tinctively Republican Governor of the state, was born in Cavendish, Feb. 18, 1799, the son of Dr. Asaph and Sally (Green) Fletcher. His father who came from Westford, Mass., in 1787, had been a member of the conven- tion that framed the constitution of that state and was a man of considerable prominence both professionally and politically in Ver- mont, being a judge, legislator, councilor and presidential elector. One of the sons, Richard, who studied law with Daniel Web- ster, and after whom one of the latter's sons was named, represented Massachusetts in Congress and was a judge of her Supreme Court. Another, Rev. Horace Fletcher of Townshend, was quite a distinguished Bap- tist clergyman. The family was of English and Welsh origin and probably farther back of French, and Rev. John Fletcher, the early Methodist philologist and philosopher rank- ing next to Wesley himself for his influence on religious thought, belonged to one branch of it.

Ryland was the youngest of Dr. Fletcher's children, had only a common school educa- tion, worked on his father's farm through his

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young manhood, teaching district school winters, but by his solid merits of mind and character grew to be a man of local influence. He was seized with the "western fever" in 1836, but after a few months' vain quest of fortune in the several parts of the country, was glad to return to old Vermont. He was early identified with the militia of the state, joining the company at Cavendish at the age of eighteen, being made a lieutenant the next year, captain two years later, major in six years more, then successively lieutenant- colonel and colonel, until in 1835 he was ap- pointed brigadier-general, resigning when he went west. He became active as an anti- slavery man as early as 1837, and was the intimate associate of Garrison, Giddings, Wilson, Tappan, Gerrit Smith, and John P. Hale, in their work for the cause. He attend- ed the great meeting of the anti-slavery lead- ers in 1845, at Fanueil Hall, Boston, and was with Henry Wilson present at the Philadel- phia meeting of the Native American or Know-nothing leaders to launch a new party, and he and Wilson were the only decided anti-slavery men present, and after their elo- quent appeals to commit the proposed party to this cause, the convention finally adjourned in great excitement without accomplishing the purpose for which it had been convened.

In 1854 the practical fusion through the action of the state committees of the Whigs with the Free Soilers and Liberty party men resulted in the selection of Mr. Fletcher as candidate for Lieutenant-Governor after the nomination had been refused by Oscar L. Shafter, and he was elected this year and in 1855 on the ticket with Governor Royce. He distinguished himself as the presiding officer of the Senate, and in 1856 was nomi- nated by the Republicans for the chief magistracy, and was elected by a majority of 23, 121 over Henry Keyes, Democrat, and re-elected the next year with a majority of 23,688, also over Keyes. In his messages he took strong ground for prohibition, and recommended the appointment of a board of education, which was done. He began the agitation for the establishment of a reform school with the first gubernational recom- mendation to that effect. It was during his adminstration that the state house was de- stroyed, and the location and construction of the new one determined.

He retired from office after trying respon- sibilities, with general agreement that his record had been a clean and creditable one. He was again summoned to the public ser- vice in 1861 and '62, when his town sent him to the Legislature to give the weight of his reputation and influence, as well as his ability and experience, to the war measures of the state. He of course exerted a large power for good in this emergency. He was

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also a member of the Constitutional Con- vention of 1870, and strongly favored the policy of biennial elections. He was several times a presidential elector and a delegate to Republican national conventions. He was identified with temperance work from a very early period, gave many lectures on the subject, and was for several years president of the State Temperance Society. While colonel in the militia he induced the officers of his regiment to pass a vote to abolish the custom of " treating " on parade days. He was prominent in the denominational work of the Baptist church, and always active in Sunday-school duties.

Governor Fletcher's distinction was won, not as a man of brilliant abilities, but as one of well-balanced and well-poised character, pure of purpose, high of aims, and sound of judgment. As a public speaker he was most logical and convincing, without oratorical display, but with a power of pointed illustra- tion and simplicity and clearness of state- ment that went straight to the understanding of the ordinary audience.

Governor Fletcher wedded, June 1 1, 1829, Mary, daughter of Eleazer May of West- minster. Of the three children of this union only one, Col. Henry A. Fletcher, Lieuten- ant-Governor of the state in 1890, survives. Governor Fletcher himself died Dec. 19, 1885, at Proctorsville.

HALL, HILAND .- Governor in 1858-'59, for ten years a

1 congressman, Comptroller of the United States Treasury for about a year more, and per- haps the most indefatigable of the state's his- torians, certain- ly the most fruit- ful in results, was born in Ben- nington July 20, 1795, the eldest of seven chil- dren of Deacon Nathaniel and Abigail (Hubbard) Hall. He was descended on both sides from good English stock, from ancestors who were among the first settlers of Middletown, Conn., going there from Boston in 1650.

Hiland was brought up on a farm, receiv- ing only a common school education with one finishing term at the Granville, N. Y., Academy. But he had besides the best of all education, in an experience of several terms, with all its power of development and discipline, as a district school teacher. And

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he was from early youth an omniverons reader, especially along historical and bio- graphical lines, absorbing the contents of every book he could get in the neighbor- hood, often by the light of coals on the hearth of an old fashioned fireplace, even candles at that time being a luxury. He was a born patriot, and at the age of eigh- teen was interested in the formation of the " Sons of Liberty," a society of young men in Bennington to uphold the rigorous prose- cution of the war of 1812, and in protest against the pro-English sympathy that was then so rampant in New England.

Studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1819, and continued its practice through his active life at Bennington, except when called away by official duties. He repre- sented the town in the Legislature in 1827, was clerk of the Supreme and county court for Bennington county in 1828, and was state's attorney in 1828-'31. On the forma- tion of party lines afresh, after the "era of good feeling" under Monroe; he espoused the cause of the National Republicans dur- ing the brief existence of that party under John Quincy Adams, then became a whig, and finally a Republican. In 1833, on the death of Hon. Jonathan Hunt, he was elected to succeed him in Congress and rep- resented the old south district of the Senate for ten years, when he declined a renomina- tion, and attempted to return to private life. His service in Congress was a laborious rather than a speechmaking one, his com- mittee places being on that of postoffice and post roads, and Revolutionary claims.

His chief speeches were in May, 1834, joining the attack on President Jackson's removal of the government deposits from the national bank, and in May, 1836, favoring the distribution of the surplus among the states, from which Vermont received nearly $100,000 as her portion to be added to the school fund of the towns. Both these speech- es were printed and extenivesly circulated by the Whigs as campaign documents. In one of the premonitory struggles over the slavery question, he presented a strong minority re- port on "incendiary publications " in oppo- sition to the message of the President and the advice of the Postmaster-General and in answer to a report made in the Senate by Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina. So thor- oughly and convincingly did it answer the position of the slave party that the majority of the committee did their best to suppress it by failing to make a majority report. But it found its way into the newspapers and was widely published and commented on.

Mr. Hall did an important and permanent service in connection with the act of July 22, 1836, in procuring the passage of which he took an active and leading part and by which

in the reorganization of the postoffice depart- ment a system for which the settlement of accounts was established, which inaugurated an economical administration.

He made a big and single-handed and tri- mmphant fight against the fraudulent claims which had for years been put in by Virgin- ians under the name of commutation half pay and bounty land claims, founded on al- leged promises of the state of Virginia or of the Continental Congress to officers of the Revolutionary armny. It was an organized raid led by influential Virginians, Governors and congressmen, and had been pushed through Congress with little opposition, so that over $3,000,000 had been collected in the names of deceased officers, and the de- mands were fast multiplying. Mr. Hall's habit of thorough and exhaustive investiga- tion stood him in good stead in this fight. He went through the Revolutionary archives at Washington and the public records at Richmond, he found authentic evidence that every one of these claims was unfounded, and he made a report as chairman of the committee on Revolutionary claims to this effect. The whole Virginia delegation, led by ex-Governor Gilmer, who was getting I per cent on all he could collect of these claims, aided by their sectional sympathizers in the South and political in the North, at- tacked him bitterly and attempted a re- opening of the case by means of a select committee. Hall in response gave a list of sixteen of the last claims that had been paid, and on which over $200,000 had been drawn, challenged the Virginians to show that a single one was well or honestly founded and offered to withdraw his opposition if they could. The fight lasted through several days. Mr. Hall sustained every position he had taken in the debate, and so thoroughly dis- comfited his assailants as to win the plaudits of ex-President Adams and of the whole country. The result was a select committee and a report from it prepared by Mr. Hall which definitely suppressed the rascality.

He was president of the large "Whig " convention held in Burlington in 1840, and made the opening speech, and introduced to and presented Hon. Daniel Webster at the famous "Stratton Whig convention," held on the top of the Green Mountain on the 16th of August of the same year.

He was bank commissioner of Vermont for four years, from 1843, judge of the Su- preme Court for a like period until 1850, when he was appointed second controller of the United States Treasury. He had an opportunity while in the latter position to do the country a permanent service, and to lay down lines which have since been followed in departmental practice. He took the ground that he should, if satisfied of the

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illegality of an expenditure, reject it, no matter who ordered it, even if the head of a department, or if sanctioned by the Presi- dent himself. He held this ground against the published opinion of three former attor- ney generals. He showed conclusively that judicial authority had been designedly con- ferred on the accounting officers as a check upon lavish expenditures in the several de- partments, and a second edition of his pub- lished opinion, which has since been followed in the department, has recently been printed for government use.

In 1851 he was appointed by President Fillmore, with Gen. James Wilson of New Hampshire, and Judge H. I. Thornton of Alabama, a land commissioner for Cali- fornia, resigned his position as controller, recommending for his successor, Edward J. Phelps of Burlington. He was chairman of the commission and wrote the opinion in the famous Mariposa claim of Gen. J. C. Freemont, which included almost without exception, all the points that would be liable to arise in the adjusting of land claims under the treaty with Mexico. After the election of President Pierce, he remained for a time in San Francisco with the law firm of Halleck, Peachy, Billings & Park as general adviser, and to assist in the prepara- tion of important papers.

He returned to Vermont in the spring of 1854, and resumed the practice of his pro- fession at Bennington, was a delegate to the first Republican national convention at Phila- delphia in 1856, and in 1858 was elected Governor by a majority of 16,322 over Henry Keyes, Democrat, and re-elected in 1859 by a still larger majority, 16,717, over John G. Saxe, Democrat. He spoke severely in his message of the attempt, by a decision of the Supreme Court, to legalize slavery in the Territories, he pronounced the decision in the " Dred Scott " case as " extra judicial, and as contrary to the plain language of the constitution, to the facts of history and to the distastes of common humanity." He, however, acted as chairman of the delega- tion from Vermont to the fruitless " Peace Congress," at Washington in February, 1861, on the eve of the rebellion.

Mr. Hall always took a deep interest in the history connected with the territory and state of Vermont. He delivered the first annual address that was made before the Vermont Historical Society ; and for six years, from 1859, was its president and was after- wards active in the preparation of the mate- rials for a number of the volumes of its col- lections, and otherwise promoting its success. He read several papers at the meetings of the society, some of which were published ; among them, one in 1869, in vindication of Ethan Allen as the hero of Ticonderoga, in

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refutation of an attempt made in the " Galaxy Magazine " to rob him of that honor. He contributed papers to the "New York His- torical Magazine," to the " Vermont Histori- cal Gazetteer," to the " Philadelphia Histori- cal Record," and also to the "New England Historic Genealogical Register." In 1860, he read before the New York Historical Society a paper showing why the early inhabi- tants of Vermont disclaimed the jurisdiction of New York, and established a separate government.

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 16

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896 Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 842

Author: Ullery, Jacob G., comp; Davenport, Charles H; Huse, Hiram Augustus, 1843-1902; Fuller, Levi Knight, 1841-1896
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Brattleboro, Vt. : Transcript Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 842