Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 22

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 22

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Says Judge Poland : " His published opinions while a judge of the Supreme Court, are models of judicial compositions. For accuracy of learning, terseness of statement, clearness and comprehensiveness of style, I

COLLAMER.

do not know where they are excelled. Had Judge Collamer remained upon the bench to the end of his life, like Chief Justice Shaw of Massachusetts, or Chief Justice Gibson of Pennsylvania, I have no doubt his judicial fame would have equalled that of those emi- nent jurists."

But the next year, after a close and hotly- contested campaign that required two trials at the polls, and with Ransom and Titus Hutchinson the candidates against him, he was elected to Congress and entered upon the national career that continued, with only brief interruptions and with steadily enlarg- ing fame and usefulness, until his death. His colleagues when he took his seat were George P. Marsh, Solomon Foot and Paul Dilling- ham. His first speech was in February, 1844, in opposition to the apportionment resolution, and it attracted a good deal of attention. But the argument which fixed his place in the front rank of the Whig leaders was delivered in the April following, on the tariff, and under the title of "Wool and Woolens," to which a large part of it was given. It is, perhaps, the strongest and most exhaustive argument ever made in favor of protection to wool growing, and as a his- torical, constitutional and economic argu- ment was one of the best Congress has ever heard on the protective side of the question. He served on the public lands committee and was its chairman in the Thirtieth Con- gress. He originated the system now in force of mapping the public domain and thus exhibiting the real location and market status of every section of land. He was prominent in the debates on the annexation of Texas and the Mexican war, taking the Whig view, of course, but with the modera- tion and independence of judgment that so often marked his conduct.

He declined a re-election to Congress in 1848, but a legislative caucus that fall for- mally recommended him for a cabinet posi- tion, and President Taylor on his inauguration named him for Postmaster-General. Here . again his clear-headed and progressive thought brought some good ideas to the administration, and though the service was brief, it is the testimony of his associate in the cabinet, Reverdy Johnson, that the "vast and complicated business of the department was never more ably conducted." Henry Wilson says in his history, the "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," that Mr. Collamer "was a statesman of recognized ability and firmness, and was unquestionably the most decided of any member of the cabinet in his opposition to the increasing encroachments of the slave power."

On the death of President Taylor, in July, 1850, Mr. Collamer resigned with the rest of the cabinet, and again returned to his law

practice in Vermont, and was that fall elected circuit judge by the Legislature. The choice between the Supreme Court and circuit judiciary was offered him, but he pre- ferred the latter and continued to preside in the county courts, until in 1854 the young Republican party elected him United States Senator as an anti-slavery Whig, in conjunc- tion with Lawrence Brainerd of Free Soil antecedents. He at once entered the arena over the Kansas troubles, presented a min- ority report, signed only by himself, upon the condition of affairs in that territory, and he was fully a match for Douglass in the great debate that followed, ushering in the years of controversy that ended with the admis- sion of Kansas as a free state in 1861, a result that was largely developed out of his efforts. He was not and never professed to be an abolitionist, but he understood fully the spirit and purpose and inevitable pro- cedure of the slave power. He long be- lieved that it could be met and defeated by standing on the constitution, but never by yielding to its encroachments. He and Grimes of Iowa, and Fessenden of Maine were most intimate associates through this era, forming in their conservatism along cer- tain lines, and their agreement in economic views a triumvirate not less useful, though less conspicuous than that of Seward, Chase and Sumner which finally aroused and brought to fruition the tremendous moral sentiment of the North on the slavery question. As has been well said of him, he "united the best traits of the radical and the conserva- tive." He was one of the three senators from New England who voted against the tariff bill of 1857.

When his term expired in 1860 he was re-elected for a second term, and filled even a larger place in national councils. Indeed, Vermont presented his name to the Chicago convention that year for the Republican nomination for the presidency, and he re- ceived ten votes on the first ballot of the convention, the only Vermonter, except Ed- munds, who has been so honored in the national conventions of either party. But his name was withdrawn after the first ballot, and though there was some talk of him for the vice-presidential nomination, he was left to do an important work and one for which he was best adapted in the Senate, to meet the storm which was gathering upon the country.

At first, as Sunset Cox says in his "Three Decades," Senator Collamer was " regarded as not indifferent to a compromise which would at least retain the border states, if it did not stop the movement of the Gulf states" toward secession. He and Fessenden were among the few Republicans who declined to vote against the "Crittenden compro-

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mise " of the winter of 1861, proposing by constitutional amendment to forever forbid any revocation of the guarantees of slavery within existing limits, its three-fifths repre- sentation and its perpetual right to recover fugitives, in other words, to intrench the institution securely in the organic law of the land. They did not vote for this amend- ment, but by abstaining from voting at all, signified their willingness to concede so much if it would satisfy the South; and indeed it would only have been putting into constitutional phrase the doctrine upon which all parties had professed to stand up to that time. He voted and spoke power- fully in the panic following Bull Run, for the Crittenden resolution, declaring that the war was waged only to preserve the Union, the su- premacy of the constitution, and the dig- nity, equality and rights of all the states, and as soon as these objects were accomplished the "war ought to cease."

But while he was of the conservative ele- ment of the party, repressing the extreme measures to which the times naturally tended, he was resolute and uncompromising in his stand for the Union. The great act of July 13, 1861, which invested the President with new powers and gave the war its first con- gressional sanction, was drawn by him, and in the words of Charles Sumner, who was so often in conflict with him, it was "a land- mark in our history, and might properly be known by the name of its author as Col- lamer's Statute." He offered the resolution in the amended form it finally took regard- ing the reclaiming and surrender of fugitive slaves, forbidding any army or naval officer under severe penalties from assuming to take any action whatever on the subject.

He opposed in 1862 Sumner's amendment to an appropriation bill prohibiting the do- mestic slave trade, on the ground that any law which should undertake in any way to recognize negroes as merchandise in- stead of "persons," as described in the constitution, was " totally unauthorized and unconstitutional." He offered the bill of 1864, to treat all negroes who had enlisted on the same footing as other troops. But he opposed, as did several of the most radi- cal anti-slavery men, the prohibition of slavery in West Virginia when it was cre- ated into a state and admitted to the Union. He stood out against the bulk of his party in denying the right of Congress to tax the state banks out of existence. He opposed also the Legal Tender Act, making an ex- haustive argument against it as unconstitu- tional. He would not admit the " necessity " or the morality of the greenback issue. He was not willing that the government should be like the man who says, " Here is my note, if I do not pay it you must steal the amount

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from the first man you come to and give him this note in payment."

As the war closed and the era of recon- struction came on, Mr. Collamer found him- self more nearly in line with the more radical section of his party. He denied the right of the insurgent states to participate in any presidential election until Congress had declared that the insurrection was ended. He demanded of the South in the last speech he made, " some security for future peace." His argument for the requirement of the " ironclad oath " is declared by Henry Wilson to have been "among the most lucid and logical presentation, of the reasons for extra-judicial and extra-constitutional legislation." He took the ground fully that Congress could and should control in the matter of reconstruction. But disease and death cut short his service before the struggle over this subject had reached its great historic intensity. He died at his home in Woodstock, Nov. 9, 1865.

The judgment of his cotemporaries was one of profound admiration for his character and abilities. Senator Morrill, in presenting to Congress the statue in behalf of the state, declared him to be its "foremost citizen in ability, moral excellence, and national dis- tinction." Mr. Blaine in "Twenty Years of Congress" sums Collamer up as "an able, wise, just and firm man, stern in principle, conservative in action," and again, "to de- scribe him in a single word, he was a wise man." "Conservative in his nature, he was sure to advise against rashness. Sturdy in his principles, he always counseled firmness. In the periods of excitement through which the party was about to pass, his judgment was sure to prove of highest value-influ- enced, as it always was, by patriotism, and guided by conscience. Without power as an orator, he was listened to in the Senate with profound attention, as one who never offered counsel that was not needed. He carried into the Senate the gravity, the dig- nity, the weight of character, which enabled him to control more ardent natures, and he brought to a later generation the wisdom and experience acquired in a long life de- voted to the service of his state and of his country."

Of his personality the best picture was that drawn at a single touch by Representa- tive Woodbridge, in presenting resolutions upon his death. "You all recollect the sweetness of his face. He seemed, as Sidney Smith said of Horner, to have the ten com- mandments written there." He was a man who was loved by children, by neighbors, by all who knew him. He was a member of the Congregational church for the last twenty years of his life, and he delivered a course of lectures, as reverent as they were learned. on

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" The Authenticity of the Scriptures." He was for some time professor of medical juris- prudence in the Vermont Medical College, at Woodstock, where he gave short but instructive courses of lectures. The Uni- versity of Vermont conferred the degree of IL .. D. on him in 18.19, and Dartmonth in $ 860.

Mr. Collamer wedded, July 15, 1817, Mary N., daughter of Abijah Stone, and seven children were the fruit of this union : Harriet ( Mrs. Eliakim Johnson ), Mary ( Mrs. Horace Hunt, of New York City), Edward, now in Ohio ; Ellen ( Mrs. Thomas G. Rice, of Cambridge, Mass.), and Frances, who resides at the old family mansion at Wood- stock. William Collamer died in 1873, being a man of unusually brilliant parts.

POLAND, LUKE P .- Chief Justice of the state Supreme · Court, both sen- ator and repre- s'entative in Congress, and a man of extraor- dinarily large brain power, though without the qualities of popular success in politics, was born at West- ford, Nov. 1," 1815, the son of Luther and Nancy ( Potter) Poland. The father and grandfather were carpenters and joiners by trade and farmers as well, and the father was Waterville's first representative in the Legislature after it was organized as a town. But the family was in comparatively humble circumstances and Luke's educational advantages were limited to a few weeks each year in the public school, until he was twelve years old, and a bare five months in the academy at Jericho, when he was seventeen. The balance of his youth was passed as clerk in a country store at Waterville, and in work upon the paternal farm and in the saw-mill. But he was an eager student and gathered such knowledge from reading and contact with life that his father approved of his desire to study law, and he set out on foot with a capital consisting of just one change of underclothing, for the neighboring village of Morristown, and teaching school that win- ter, began the study the following spring in the office of Samuel A. Willard.

He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and by the force of his native ability rose so rapidly in the ranks of his profession that twelve years later, in 1848, he was elected

one of the judges of the Supreme Court over a Whig competitor and by a Whig Legisla- ture, though he had himself always been a Democrat until that year when he was can- didate for Lieutenant Governor on the Free Soil ticket. He had before been register of probate for Lamoille county in $839-'40 ; a member of the state constitional conven- tion in 1843; states attorney for Lamoille county in 1844 and '45. His judicial duties kept him out of active politics for the next twenty years, though he was still a Democrat of Free Soil sympathies until after the formation of the Republican party when he joined that. In 1860 he was chosen chief justice of the Supreme Court and held the position until his election as senator. Some important questions went into the crucible of his thought and decision during these years, among them the power of eminent domain or the right to take pri- vate property for public uses and the proper extent and limitation of that power ; the adoption of the common law of England by the United States ; the subject of casements ; the constitutionality of retroactive statutes ; the acquirement of title by adverse posses- sion ; to what extent promises to pay the debt of another are governed by the statute of frauds. His opinion upon the extent of the constitutional power of the state to au- thorize its soldiers in camp to vote was re- garded as a settlement of that vexed ques- tion, and was followed by several states.

Judge James Barrett says of 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 acquiesence of the bar, so emphatically 'the end of the law' in all things appertaining to the business of these courts. As judge of the Supreme Court sitting in bauc his adapt- edness to the place was equally 'manifest. His mastery of the principles of the law, his discriminating apprehension of the principles involved in the specific case in hand, his facility in developing, by logical processes and practical illustrations, the proper ap- plications and results of these principles are very strikingly evinced in the judicial opin- ions drawn up by him, contained in the Ver- mont reports. His memory of cases in which particular points have been decided was extraordinary, and this memory was ac- companied 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 leading cases, and his treatment of the subjects involved ranks with the best specimens of judicial disquisition."

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Upon the death of Senator Collamer, having some years before moved to the east side of the mountain and made St. Johns- bury his home, he was chosen by the Legis- lature to fill out the unexpired term of a little over a year, and in 1866 was elected representative to the lower house of Con- gress and Morrill transferred to the Senate. While in the Senate he was placed on the judiciary committee and piloted the bank- ruptcy bill, of which he was given charge, to enactment. While in the Senate also he inaugurated the greatest work of his con- gressional career, the revision and consoli- dation of the statutes of the United States. The plan, a singularly clear and comprehen- sive one, was his, and passed substantially in the shape he reported it, the direction of all subsequent proceedings in the following seven years was by him, as chairman of the house committee ; the ultimate decision of what was and was not law, the sifting out of statutes that over-lapped one another, or were repealed because of incompatibility or inconsistency ; the construing of difficult or conflicting phrases, the rearrangement of the statutes by subject and in all the detail and diversity of chapters and sections, were all guided ultimately by him. This codification was a work largely judicial in character, and as Hon. Lorin Blodgett said in an address before the Social Science Association at Philadelphia, in 1875, entitled to "a rank quite distinct from if not higher than any previous work of the kind known to history." Both the House and Senate accepted the work as it came from his hands and it be- came law June 3, 1874.

Judge Poland filled several other important posts during his House service. He was chairman of the committee to investigate the Ku Klux outrages, which took evidence fill. ing thirteen large volumes, and whose report had much to do with breaking up that organ- ization. He took a prominent part in the discussion of the vexed question of the Geneva award, advocating the right of the insurance companies to receive the money awarded for vessels and cargoes destroyed by the rebel cruisers where the owners had received their insurance. He was chairman of the Credit Mobilier investigating com- mittee, and drew the report which, though unanimous on the part of the committee, and relegating several prominent men to private life, was regarded as somewhat of a com- promise on the merits of the case. In the winter of 1874-'75, after he had been de- feated for re-election, he was chairman of the special committee appointed to investi- gate the troubles in Arkansas, and his report was in direct antagonism to the views of President Grant and the party leaders, and strong in its condemnation of the policy of

military interference with state elections and state governments. It was a vigorous dis- play of independence, such as he had not often been accustomed to in the heat of the politics of the previous few years, but natural ot his judicial mind. There had been a marked incident of a similar kind while he was in the Senate when he voted in opposi- tion to the bulk of his party in favor of Senator Stockton in the contested election case from New Jersey.

It was in the Congress of 1873-'75, while leading in the Credit Mobilier investigation, and as his great work in the revision of the laws was nearing its end, that Judge Poland seemed to be on the crest of the wave of advancement. There were even suggestions of him for the Presidential nomination in the next campaign. But the prospects were all dashed at one blow, by the passage of the "salary grab" bill, so called, increasing the salaries of members to $7,500 a year and dating it back to the beginning of that Con- gress. Judge Poland voted against the bill, but he would not yield to the storm of pop- ular fury which arose. While other members hastened to convert their extra salary back into the treasury, or give it to their states or benevolent objects, he felt only contempt for their terror. "Here," he said, slapping his trousers pocket, when asked as to the dispo- sition of his extra pay, "here it is and here it is going to stay." He had had a sharp fight against the brilliant Judge B. H. Steele to secure his renomination in 1872, and antagonisms and claims of broken trades arose on every side to confront him.

There had always been weaknesses in him as a politician. His brainy quality could not be denied, and personally there was a spark- ling wit and genial humor that won some men to him, while it seemed to repel others ; there were accusations of greed in money matters, of too much grasping of honors for himself and of too great fondness for whiskey, all of which had some basis of truth, though greatly exaggerated and entitled to weigh but little in the balance against his extraordinary intellectual equipment. But in the peculiar conditions of that year, the political revulsion that extended through the land, they were sufficient to defeat him for re-election in one of the strongest Republican districts of the country.

He was, however, chairman of the state's delegation to the Republican national con- vention of 1876, and was still suggested in some quarters as a vice-presidential candi- date ; but he himself presented Wheeler's name to the convention and was largely in- strumental in securing the nomination for that gentleman. In 1878 St. Johnsbury sent him to the state Legislature, where, of course, he took a leading position. In

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1882, he made something of a contest against Senator Morrill for the latter's seat in the Senate, but unsuccessfully of course. But a " surprise party " in the convention of the new second district of that year secured him the nomination for the House away from General Grout. But he served only one term and despite his great and recognized ability, and long experience, without especial dis- tinction ; he seemed to be out of the current, all the more because it was evident that he would not secure a re-election.

He was married on the 12th of Janua- ry, 1838, to Martha Smith, daughter of Dr. William Page of Waterville. By this mar- riage he had three children. Of these

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Martin 1 .. , the eldest, was educated at West Point Military Academy, and afterward served as captain of the ordnance corps ; he died at Fort Yuma in August, 1878; Mary died in August, 1865; and Isabel is now the wife of A. E. Rankin of St. Johns- bury. Mrs. Poland died in April, 1853. In 1854 Judge Poland married Adelia H. Page, sister of his deceased wife.

He received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Vermont in 1861, was a trus- tee of the institution, 1878, and founded the Westford scholarship there in honor of his native town.

Judge Poland died July 2, 1887.

REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS.

The following is a complete list of the Representatives in Congress for Vermont. Bio- graphical sketches of the entire list are given on the following pages, with exceptions noted.

Nathaniel Niles,

1791-95

Orsamus C. Merrill,

1817-19

§Solomon Foot.

1843.47

jlsrael Smith,

1791-97

Charles Rich,

1817-25

t Paul Dillingham,

1843-47

Daniel Buck,

1795-99

Henry Olin,

1824-25

§Jacob Collamer,

1843-49

Matthew Lyon,

1797-1801

Mark Richards,

1817-21

William Henry,

1847-51

Lewis R. Morris,

1797-1803

William Strong,

1819-21

Lucius B. Peck,

1847-51

+Israel Smith,

1801-03

Ezra Meech,

1819-21

William Hebard,

1849-53

William Chamberlain,

1803-05

Rollin C. Mallory,

1819-3I

James Meacham,

1849-56

|Martin Chittenden,

1803-13

tJohn Mattocks,

1821-23

Thomas Bartlett, Jun.,

1851-53

Gideon Olin,

1803-07

Phineas White,

1821-23

Andrew Tracey,

1853-55

§James Fisk,

1805-09

William C. Bradley,

I823-27

Alvah Sabin,

1853-57

James Witherell,

1807-08

D. Azro A. Buek,

1823-29

Justin S. Morrill,

1855 -- 67

Samuel Shaw,

1808-13

Ezra Meech,

1825-27

George T. Hodges,

1856-57

William Chamberlain,

1809-1I

tJohn Mattocks,

1825-27

Eliakim P. Walton,

1857-63

Jonathan H. Hubbard,

1809-II

George E. Wales,

1825-29

Homer E. Royce,

1857-61

§James Fisk,

1811-15

Heman Allen of Milton,

1827-29

Portus Baxter,

I861-67

William Strong,

1811-15

§ Benjamin Swift,

1827-31

Frederick E. Woodbridge,

1863-69

William C. Bradley,

1813-15

Jonathan Hunt,

1827-32

§ Luke P. Poland,

1867-75

tRichard Skinner,

1813-15

Horace Everett.

1829-43

Charles W. Willard,

1869-75

Charles Rich,

1813-15

¡William Slade,

1831-43

#George W. Hendee,

1873-79

Daniel Chipman,

1815-17

Heman Allen of Milton,

1832-39

Dudley C. Denison,

1875-79

Luther Jewett,

1815-17

+Hiland Hall,

1833-43

¿Charles HI. Joyce,

1875-83

Chauncey Langdon,

1815-17

Benjamin F. Deming,

1833-35

Bradley Barlow,

1879-81

Asa Lyon,

1815-17

Henry F. Janes,

1835-37

+James M. Tyler,

1879-83

Charles Marsh,

1815-17

Isaac Fletcher,

1837-41

William W. Grout,

1881-83

John Noyes,

1815-17

John Smith,

1839-41

§Luke P. Poland,

1883-85

Heman Allen of Colchester,

1817-18

Augustus Young,

1841-43

+John W. Stewart,

1883-92

Samuel C. Crafts,

1817-25

tJohn Mattocks,

1841-43

William W. Grout,

1885-

William Hunter,

1817-19

George P. Marsh,

1843-49

[H. Henry Powers,

1892-

* Biographical sketch will be found among " The Fathers."

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Men of Vermont : an illustrated biographical history of Vermonters and sons of Vermont, Part 22

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