USA > Vermont > Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont > Part 18
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He was a man of solid rather than brilliant parts, but he made his way steadily. E. P. Walton says that it was "characteristic of him that he was slow in everything, but in the end he was almost always sure to be right and that he regarded as the only point worth gaining. He was a thorough and patient
IOI
PECK.
*
student. * Possessing a tenacious mem- ory, he held firmly all that he had secured in years of study, and could instantly bring his great store of learning to bear upon any legal question presented to him." One critic has said that no man in New England since Judge Story has equalled him in knowledge of the common law of England and the law of equity. He and Rufus Choate were once pitted against each other in a case, and that wonderful genius of the profession professed astonishment to find such a lawyer in Ver- mont, and besought him to move to Boston, where he would surely win both fame and fortune. But there were higher things in life for Peck and he persisted in staying in Ver- mont, whose practice he believed was the best in the Union to develop a lawyer of really great attainments.
He was judge of the circuit court from 185 1 till it ceased in 1857. In 1860 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court under the present system and held the position con- tinuously, though desiring toward the end to retire, until his election as Governor in 1874. He was nominated then in response to a strong demand from the people and against the calculations of the old line of managing politicians. He did not, however, make such radical recommendations on the ques- tions of the day, especially with regard to the regulation of railroads, as some of his sup- porters had expected. But generally speak- ing, his administration was able, sound and deeper in its impress on the opinion of the people than that of almost any Governor of recent years. He strongly urged in his mes- sage the establishment of the house of cor- rection to supply a serious lack "in the means of the suppression of crime and the punishment and reform of criminals," and he may justly be called the father of that in- stitution.
On his retirement from the gubernatorial chair Judge Peck retired to his farm in Jer- icho, where he lived in the enjoyment of rural life, of which he was passionately fond, until his death May 18, 1879.
In politics Judge Peck was by nature and early affiliations a Democrat. But the ag- gressions of the slaveocracy early disgusted him, and he became a Free Soiler in 1848, being a member of the famous Buffalo con- vention that nominated Van Buren and Adams ; and after the formation of the Free Democracy or Liberty party he identified himself with it, was its candidate for Con- gress in the Burlington district, and naturally was one of the pioneers in the formation of the Republican party. His patriotism was of the uncompromising kind, and during the war he had little patience with the assailants of the administration. A western lawyer of ·copperheadish proclivities who had been a
FAIRBANKS.
student in his office in former years, and knew his reverence for law and all legal safeguards of the individual, met him one day in Burlington, and speaking of the Val- landingham or some similiar case, asked, "How long are such outrages to be endured ?" "What outrages?" demanded the Judge. "The arrest and imprisonment of American citizens without process of law." The Judge replied, "I don't know what this case is, but I do know one thing, that a good many more men are out of jail who ought to be in, than in who ought to be out." The reply was evidently aimed at the colloquist individ- ually and he subsided. Judge Peck was too great a lawyer, too large-minded a man to allow the forms of law to outweigh the es- sentials of right and justice.
Personally he was a most lovable man, tender and chivalric almost to the point of fault, as it sometimes seemed, when as a judge he was accused of "riding " cases in favor of the weaker party, especially if a woman-modest, kindly, and unostentatious -with a side of poetic beauty to his rugged nature, with its positive integrity. He was profoundly religious, and Gov. W. P. Dill- ingham, who was his secretary of civil and military affairs, says that he was one of the best biblical students he ever met, that he would sit up until nearly midnight talking of religious matters, of the lofty purity of Isaiah and of the mission of Christ, whose divinity, in his opinion, was better attested by His character and by the fact that through Him the Gospel is preached to the poor, than by His miracles.
Governor Peck was never married. :
FAIRBANKS, HORACE .- Governor and son of a Governor, was born at Barnet, March 21, 1820, coming with the family to St. Johnsbury five years later. The general facts about the family are given in the sketch of Gov. Erastus Fairbanks on page 89. Horace was the second son of Erastus and Lois (Crossman) Fairbanks, was edu- cated in the common schools and at the ac- ademies in Peacham and Lyndon, Meriden, N. H., and Andover; Mass. At the age of eighteen he took a clerkship in the firm of E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., became active partner in 1843, and finally the financial manager of its extensive business,+ whose annual product he saw grow from $50,000 to $3,000,000, and force of workmen from forty to six hundred. He was from the beginning identified with the construction of the Port- land & Odgensburg R. R., almost the father of the idea, the piloter of the charter through the New Hampshire Legislature, and the backer of the enterprise with the utmost of his means and credit. The Fairbanks characteristic of benefaction towards St.
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HORACE FAIRBANKS.
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Johnsbury and of desire to devote a share of their prosperity to public good, was very strong with Horace Fairbanks and took shape to correspond with the great success which his adminstration of the business achieved. The result is the great free pub- lic library and art gallery under the name of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, for which the foundation was laid in 1868 and which was finished and dedicated in 1871. The library now contains some 15,000 volumes and in the gallery is a splendid collection of paint- ings including Bierstadt's masterpiece the " Domes of the Yosemite." The cost of this donation was never made public by Gover- nor Fairbanks, but the spirit in which he gave it and the keynote of his whole life, were well expressed in the words of the dedi- cation in which he said : " It gives me pro- found satisfaction and sincere pleasure to present to you and your children and to all who may come after you, the free use of this building and its contents. My highest ambition will be satisfied and my fullest ex- pectations realized, if now and in the com- ing years the people make the rooms of the Athenæum a favorite place of resort for patient research, reading and study."
Governor Fairbanks' active life was spent as a business man rather than a politician, and in moral, educational and religious work rather than office-holding. He was a dele- gate to the Republican national conventions of 1864 and 1872, and was a presidential elector in 1868. The only other political position to which he was chosen, before the governorship, was that of state senator from Caledonia county, to which he was elected in 1869, but was unable by reason of illness to take his seat. His nomination for Gov- ernor was a compromise after a bitter pre- convention fight in the party over the candi- dacy of Deacon Jacob Estey of Brattleboro.
A number of names were placed in the field, arraying different elements against Estey, and finally that of Fairbanks was
brought forward and he was nominated on the third ballot, though he had before de- clined overtures. He was out of the state at the time. The result at the polls was his election by a vote of 44,723 to 20,988 for W. H. H. Bingham, the Democratic can- didate.
The chief criticism of his administration was that concerning his use of the pardoning power. His humanitarianism and his kind- ness of heart made it difficult for him to re- sist appeals that appeared to have any basis of merit to them. It was during this term that the celebrated case of John P. Phair came up, and the Governor granted the con-
demned man a reprieve on the very day fixed for his execution, on a telegram from Boston that seemed to indicate his inno- cence. Phair finally went to the gallows after the Supreme Court had passed on his case, but Governor Fairbanks' conduct, . though bitterly assailed at the time, was amply justified by the circumstances. His inaugural message was to quite an extent devoted to the different systems of prison discipline, the condition of our county jails especially receiving his critical notice, and he earnestly urged more attention to the work of reforming criminals, and a revision of our whole prison system with this in view. His recommendations bore fruit of good in this line, and his administration for what it did and what it proposed, deserved and commanded the respect of thoughtful peo- ple. He was held in high esteem abroad, being a member of the Century Club at New York, and the St. Botolph, Boston.
Governor Fairbanks was married, August 9, 1849, to Mary E., daughter of James and Persis (Hemphill) Taylor of Derry, N. H. Of their three children, Helen Taylor, the oldest daughter, died in March, 1864 ; Agnes, the wife of Ashton R. Willard of Boston, is now living ; and Isabel, wife of Albert L. Farwell, died July 2, 1891. Governor Fair- banks died in New York, March 17, 1888.
SENATORS IN CONGRESS.
The following is a complete list of the Senators in Congress for Vermont. Biographical sketches of the entire list are given on the following pages, with the exceptions noted.
MIKST (L.A55,
Solomon Foot,
1851-66
Dudley Chase, 1825-31
*Moses Robinson,
1791-96 1796-97
SECOND CLASS.
1843 53
tIsrael Smith,
1803 07
Stephen R. Bradley, 1791.95
Samuel S. Phelps,
1853
*Jonathan Robinson,
1807 15
Elijah Paine,
1795 1801
Lawrence Brainerd,
1854-55
tIsaac Tichenor,
1815-21
Stephen R. Bradley,
1801-13
Jacob, Collamer,
1855 65
Iloratio Seymour,
1821-33
Dudley Chase,
1813-17
lake P. Poland,
1865-67
Benjamin Swift,
1833-39
James Fisk,
1817 18
Justin S. Morrill.
1867
Samuel S. Phelps,
1839-51
+William A. Palmer,
1818-25
" l'irst and second class" relate to classes, as defined in the second clause, third section, first article in the Constitution of the U. S.
* Biographical sketch will be found among " The Fathers."
t Biographical sketch will be found among " The Governors."
# Biographical sketch will be found in Part II.
BRADLEY, STEPHEN R., and Moses Robinson were the first senators after the admission of the state into the Union. Mr. Bradley was five times elected the president pro tem of the Senate, the third highest of- fice in the government, was the friend and close adviser of Jefferson and Madison, and all through that era up to the war of 1812 was regarded as the ablest and most potent Democrat in New England. He was on terms of intimacy also with Ethan Allen, and filled a brilliant career during the state's existence as an independent republic, being one of the brainiest of her statesmen, and acquiring great wealth in the land operations in which most of the fathers were engaged.
Stephen R. Bradley was born at Walling- ford (now Cheshire), Conn., Feb. 20, 1754, the son of Moses and Mary (Row) Bradley and grandson of Stephen Bradley, one of a family of six brothers who came to this country in 1637, after service in Cromwell's Ironsides, in which one of them was an offi- cer. Young Bradley graduated from Yale in 1775, having while a student there prepared an almanac for that year, of which an edi- tion of two thousand copies was published by Ebenezer Watson in November, 1774, and having in his course shown frequent promise of the unusual abilities he afterward devel- oped. Soon after graduation he entered the Revolutionary service, being captain of a company of "Cheshire Volunteers," as early as January and February, 1776, being in the fighting about New York, and afterward serving as quartermaster and as aid on the staff of General Wooster, until that patriot fell at Danbury in April, 1777.
The next year Bradley was employed as commissary and in the summer of '79 as
major at New Haven. About this time, probably in the fall or winter previous, he had appeared in Vermont, certainly being present at the May term of court in West- minster in '79, when he was licensed to prac- tice law in the new state. He had in the in- termissions of his military service both taught school and pursued his law studies under the direction of Thomas Reeve, after- ward the founder of the famous Litchfield Law School. He had, before 1780, located definitely in Vermont, for he was in June of that year appointed state's attorney for Cum- berland county, and still earlier, Dec. 10, 1779, had prepared, at the request of the Governor and council, a statement of Ver- mont's case against the claims of New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, en- titled "Vermont's Appeal to a Candid and Impartial World." It was a pamphlet of re- markable power, considering that, coming to the state a stranger to the controversy, he had had actually less than two months to study it up. He reviewed trenchantly the claims of each of the states, laid bare with great skill the inconsistencies and weak points of all, and concluded with the declara- tion that "Vermont has a natural right of in- dependence ; honor, justice and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which our innocent posterity have a right to demand and receive from their ancestors. Full well may they hereafter rise up in judg- ment against us, if, like profane Esau, we mortgage away their birthright, and leave them at the expense of their lives to obtain freedom. We have now existed as a free and independent state almost four years ; have fought Britains, Canadians, Hessians, Tories and all, and have waded in blood to
Samnel Prentiss, Samuel C. Crafts. William Upham,
1842-43
Nathaniel Chipnran,
1797 1803
1George E. Edmunds, 1866-91
1831 42
1 Isaac Tichenor,
BRADLEY.
BRADLEY.
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Hephen for Bradley
maintain and support our independence. We beg leave to appeal to your own mem- ories with what resolution we have fought by your sides, and what wounds we have re- ceived fighting in the grand American cause, and let your own recollection tell what Ver- mont has done and suffered in the cause of civil liberty and the rights of mankind, and must we now tamely give up all worth fight- ing for? No, sirs ; while we wear the names of Americans we never will surrender those glorious privileges for which so many have fought, bled, and died ; we appeal to your own feelings, as men of like sufferings, whether you would submit your freedom and independence to the arbitrament of any court or referees under heaven? If you would, after wasting so much blood and treasure, you are unworthy the name of Americans ; if you would not, condemn not others in what you allow yourselves."
He and Jonas Fay and Moses Robinson were appointed agents to Congress to urge the recognition of the independence of
the state. They arrived there February I, 1780, presented the appeal and declared their readiness to unite in placing Ver- mont on a footing with other states, but had no authority to close with the resolutions of Sept. 24. They said, if given time, they thought they could show that Great Britain had made a distinct government of Vermont, appointed Governor Skeene to preside over it, and hence Vermont had equal right with any of the other states to assume an inde- pendent goverment.
The fruitlessness of this mission has been explained in previous sketches, but the abil- ity and resourcefulness with which Bradley sustained the argument added greatly to his reputation, and though only twenty-six years old, he at once took a position at the forefront among the Vermont leaders. B. H. Hall says : " An examination of his papers affords conclusive evidence that at this pe- riod, and for many years after, he was, in many respects, the ablest man in the state." In September he again went to Congress in
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BRADLIY.
company with Ira Allen, as an agent for the state to meet and defeat Luke Knowlton, the representative of the Cumberland Com ty Yorkers, and Peter Olcott who was there in advocacy of the scheme to form still another state by slicing off strips on each side of Connecticut. How safety was brought out of this complication and an agreement of all the factions reached, is told in the sketch of Ira Allen. Bradley was that year and again in 1781, '84, '85, '88, 'go Westminster's repre- sentative and in 1785 speaker of the House, of which he had been clerk in 1779. Ile was selectman of Westminster in 1782, and town clerk in 1787-'88. He continued to be state's attorney till 1775, and was for sev- eral years a general prosecuting officer for the state. He was register of probate from December, 1781, to March, '91, when he en- tered the United States Senate. In 1783 he was judge of the county court and from October, 1788, to October, 1789, was judge of the Supreme Court. In addition to all this he was active in the military service, being first appointed a lieutenant and then a colonel in the first regiment of the Vermont militia, serving on the staff of Gen. Ethan Allen, and finally in 1791 being made a brigadier-general. He was repeatedly called out with his troops to restore order during the troubles in the southern part of the county and with his skillful management seldom failed of success.
He was a member of the commission that settled the controversy with New York and of that which afterwards established the bound- ary. Hewas a powerful advocate in the conven- tion of 1791, of the ratification of the Federal constitution and of the vote to join the Union, and next to Chipman, is entitled to the chief credit for the sweeping victory which the Union party won there.
By lot it fell to him when elected in 1791 to be a senator of the second class whose term expired in four years, and then as politi- cal lines began to form and the Federalists were a majority, he was defeated for re-elec- tion in 1794, but six years later, after serving one term in the council, in 1798, and one in the General Assembly, in 1800, on Paine's declination to serve another term, Bradley was again elected, and re-elected in 1806, serving with great distinction.
He was president of the convention of Republican members of Congress, and, as such, Jan. 19, 1808, he summoned the con- vention of members which met and nomina- ted Mr. Madison as President, and though there was vigorous kicking by the minority faction of the party when he called the caucus, the nomination that resulted was confirmed by the country. He was placed on commit- tees to which the most important and delicate questions were referred, for example- on the
BRADLEY.
special message of Jefferson, Jan. 13, 1806, transmitting the claim of Hamet Caramelli, ex Bashaw of Tripoli, which involved the then late war with the ruling Bashaw, and Mr. Bradley made the report, including a bill for Hamet's relief, and a resolution of thanks to General William Eaton and his American associates, for their eminently brave and suc- cessful services in Hamet's behalf ; on the confidential message of President Jefferson, Dee. 18, 1867, proposing an embargo ; and on the confidential message of President Madison, Jan. 3, 1811, suggesting that the United States take possession, for the time being, of East Florida, and publish a declara- tion that the United States could not see, without services inquietude, any part of a neighboring territory, in which they have, in different respects, so deep and so just a concern pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign power. This was aimed against Great Britain, and this, in fact, contained the germ of the famous " Monroe doctrine," of 1823.
A still more important service was that for the constitutional amendment of 1803, requiring the Vice-President, like the Presi- dent, to be elected by a majority of the electoral votes, of which he was the author, and which he reported from the appropriate committee.
But Mr. Bradley partook of the New England feeling about the war of 1812. He earnestly counselled Madison against it, and at the close of his term in 1813, he had become greatly dissatisfied with his party's policy and he retired finally from public life.
In 1818 he removed from Westminster to the neighboring village of Walpole, N. H., where, after a happy and contented evening of life, he went to rest Dec. 9, 1830.
Dartmouth and Middlebury both conferred the degrees of LL. D. on him. Some of his contemporaries called him "eccentric " or " erratic," but all united in testimony to his great ability, his power as an orator, and his high qualities of leadership. Graham's let- ters from Vermont in 1 791 say of him : " Few men have more companionable talents, a greater share of social cheerfulness, a more inexhaustible unaffected urbanity."
S. C. Goodrich, or "Peter Parley " who married a daughter of Mr. Bradley, says in his "Recollections of a Lifetime :" "He was distinguished for political sagacity, a ready wit, boundless stores of anecdotes, a large acquaintance with mankind and an exten- sive range of historical knowledge. His conversation was exceedingly attractive being always illustrated by pertinent anec- dotes and apt historical references. His developments of the interior machinery of parties, during the times of Washington, Jef-
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ferson and Madison ; his portraitures of the political leaders of these interesting eras in our history-all freely communicated at a period when he had retired from the active arena of politics, and now looked back upon them with the feelings of a philosopher- were in the highest degree interesting and instructive."
PAINE, ELIJAH .- Senator at the close of the last century, state judge, United States judge for forty years, and a pioneer manufacturer, road maker and scientific far- mer, was born at Brooklyn, N. Y., Jan. 2, 1757, the son of Seth Paine, a respectable farmer of Brooklyn, and grandson of Seth Paine of Pomfret, Conn. He entered Har- vard in 1774, but abandoned his studies for a few months to fight for his country in the Revolutionary army, and graduated in 1781. Then after studying law he came to Ver- mont in 1784, locating first at Windsor where he cultivated a farm, and then pushed into the wilderness and opened a settlement in Williamstown near the Northfield line, and soon established a large manufactory of fine broadcloths, which finally employed one hundred and seventy-five to two hun- dred workmen, erected the first saw and grist- mills in that section, and constructed, at a cost of $10,000, a turnpike road twenty miles through the forest from Brookfield to Montpelier and which he finally presen- ted to the state. Full of energy and enter- prise, with a capacity for large affairs and of extensive scientific attainments, he intro- duced progressive ideas in every direction. He was a pioneer in the rearing of Merino sheep of which he had at one time a flock of 1,500. He also gave much attention to improvement in the breeding of horses, cattle and swine. And in addition to all this busi- ness and to his professional engagements, his farming was done on a vast scale and it is said to have been no uncommon thing for him to have thirty or forty men at work in the field, and himself superintending them. But with all these multifarious activities he grew to be a very able lawyer and a great judge, even while he devoted some of his best years to politics and statesmanlike useful- ness and to educational projects. His re- markable executive ability seemed to win success from everything he undertook, and he died very wealthy for those times.
His public service extended almost con- tinuously through sixty years. In 1786 he was a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state, and was its secretary. From 1787 to 1791 he was Will- iamstown's representative in the General Assembly. Then he was appointed judge of the superior court, and held that office until in 1794 he was elected United States Sen-
PAINE.
ator to succeed Stephen R. Bradley. He was offered a re-election for another term in 1800, but declined it because in the late days of the Adams administration he was appointed United States district judge for the district of Vermont. The appointment was one of those of partisan grab in the last days of Federalist power, which so marred the record of patriotic upbuilding the party had made, but it proved to be a most ad- mirable appointment, for Judge Paine's long career on the bench extending over a period of over forty years, until within a few weeks of his death, April 28, 1842, at the age of eighty-six, was one of strength and honor throughout, bearing with it at notable points the enlightenment he brought to his business operations.
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