The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 73

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890, [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt., Vermont watchman and state journal press
Number of Pages: 1066

USA > Vermont > Washington County > The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer: > Part 73

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and neatness of expression. We recollect of having once met with a series of literary miscellany written by him, probably when he was a law student, published first in a newspaper in consecutive numbers, and afterwards republished by some one in pamphlet form, which were all alike marked by neatness of style and beauty of senti- ment, and which, though only intended, doubtless, for mere off-hand sketches, would have favorably compared with our best magazine literature.

Early in the year 1803, he came into this part of the State, and opened an office in the new, but promising village of Mont- pelier, which was to be ever after his home, and the central point of the field of the splendid professional success which he was destined to achieve.

His legal attainments, the genius he dis- played in developing them, the skill he manifested in the management of his cases, and his peculiarly smooth and happy manner as a speaker, appear almost im- mediately, after he commenced practice here, to have attracted attention, and given him a distinguished place in the estimation of all the people of the surrounding coun- try as a young man of unusual promise. But he knew better than to repose on laurels of this kind ; that not to advance in his profession, was virtually to recede ; that he could make no real progress with- out exploring the great field of jurispru- dence, within whose portals he had only just entered ; in other words, not without devoting himself to study, careful, close and unremitting ; and commenced a course, which, passing beyond the applications of all his own special cases, was as extended as the principles of the law itself, when re- garded no less as a science than a system of technicalities, and this course for the next twenty years, while all the time in active employ as a practitioner, he pur- sued with an assiduity and perseverance rarely ever witnessed among lawyers who, like him, have already reached the higher ranks of their profession.

Such a course of legal research, con- ducted by a mind of the discrimination and power of analysis, which characterized

that of Mr. Prentiss, could not long re- main unattended by fruits. We find the legislature of his State, as early as 1822, proffering him, with singular unanimity, a seat as one of the associate justices on the bench of the Supreme Court, which honor he declined, but in 1824 and '25, consent- ed to serve his town as their representative in the General Assembly, and having been triumphantly elected, soon gave unmis- takable earnest of those abilities as a leg- islator and a statesman, which were after- wards so conspicuously displayed in the broader field of the council chamber of the nation. At the session of the legislature of 1825, he was elected first associate justice of the Supreme Court so unanimously, and with so many private solicitations for his acceptance, he did not longer decline a membership in our State tribunal, and went upon the bench, where so scrupulously and ably he executed the duties of his post the next 4 years, that by almost common consent he was elected in 1829, Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and in 1830, a member of the United States' Senate, and. was re-elected in 1836 a second term to the Senate, and before his term of service had quite expired was nom- inated by the President, and without the usual reference of his case to a committee, unanimously confirmed, as the Judge of United States' District Court of this State, in place of Hon. Elijah Paine, then just deceased. This quiet, though highly re- sponsible office, whose duties were to be discharged so near home, he, in his de- clining health, preferred to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, which it was more than intimated from high quarters he might soon obtain. He therefore accepted the post, which he continued to hold till his death, Jan. 15, 1857-

Such was the brilliant official career of the Hon. Samuel Prentiss for the last 34 years of his life ; he never passed an hour without bearing the responsibilities of some important public trust, and was never re- moved from one except to be promoted to a higher one, till he had reached the high- est but one within the gift of the American

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people ; and as a senator, he won an en- viable and enduring reputation in a body embracing almost all the intellectual giants in that highest period of American states- manship. Among the beneficent meas- ures, of which he was the originator and successful advocate, was the law, still in force, for the suppression of duelling in the District of Columbia. His speeches in support of that measure have taken rank among the best specimens of senatorial el- oquence. His speech against the bank- rupt law of 1840 was pronounced by John C. Calhoun to have been the clearest and most unanswerable of any, on a debatable question, which he had heard for years. His stand on this occasion attracted the more public notice, from the fact that he had the independence to contest the pas- sage of the bill, in opposition, with only one exception, to the whole body of his party. And there can be but little doubt that his argument, which was felt to stand still unanswered, had much to do with the repeal of that unfortunate law, a few years afterwards.

Judge Prentiss was obviously held in the highest estimation in the Senate, alike for the purity and worth of his private, and the rare ability of his senatorial character. His equal and confidential relations with Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were at that day well known; while his sterling talents and civic virtues were admitted and admired by all, who, as we were often told at the time, cheerfully joined his more particular associates in conceding him to be the best lawyer in the Senate.

It is in his character as a jurist, however, that Mr. Prentiss will be longest remem- bered. It is, perhaps, sufficient praise for him to say, that not one of that series of able and lucid decisions, which he had made while on the bench of our Supreme Court, has ever been overruled by any suc- ceeding tribunal in this State, nor, as far as we are apprized, by that of any other, though those decisions are, to this time, being frequently quoted in the courts of probably nearly every State in the Union. With the legal profession, facts of this kind involve probabiy the best evidence of high

judicial accomplishment which could pos- sibly be adduced. With those out of that profession, the opinions of other great and learned men respecting the one in ques- tion, might be, perhaps, more palpably conclusive. And to meet the understand- ings of both these classes, therefore, we will close our remarks on this part of our subject by mentioning a curious legal co- incidence, which, while it involved an im- portant decision, was the means of draw- ing forth a high compliment from the lips of one of the most distinguished of all our American jurists :

Some time during Judge Prentiss' Chief Justiceship of this State, Sir Charles Bell, of the Common Bench of England, made, in an important case, a decision which was wholly new law in that country ; and it was afterwards discovered, when the reports of the year, on both sides of the water, were published, that Judge Prentiss had, not only in the same year, but in the same week or fortnight, made, in one of our im- portant suits, precisely the same decision, which was also then new law here, arriving at his conclusion by a process strikingly similar to that of the English justice. This remarkable coincidence, involving the origin of then new, but now well- established points of law, and involving, at the same time, an inference so flattering to our Chief Justice, at once attracted the notice of the celebrated Chancellor Kent, of New York, who, soon after, falling in company with several of our most noted Vermonters, cited this singular instance in compliment to the Vermont Chief Justice, and after remarking that there was no possibility that either the American or English justice could be apprised of the other's views on the point in question, wound up by the voluntary tribute :

" Judge Story, the only man to be thought of in the comparison, is certainly a very learned and able man ; but I cannot help regarding Judge Prentiss as the best jurist in New England."

Perhaps there is nothing about which there is more misconception among men generally than in what constitutes a really great intellect. Most people are prone to

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be looking for some bold and startling thoughts, or some brilliant or learned dis- play of language, in a man, to make good in him their preconceived notions of in- tellectual greatness. And should they see him take up a subject in a simple, natural manner, analyze it, reject all the fictitious, retain all the real, arrange the elements, and, thus clearly proceeding, at length reach the only just and safe conclusion of which the case admits, they would, per- haps, feel a sort of disappointment in not having seen any of the imposing mental machinery brought into play, which they supposed would be required to produce the result. Demagogues might indeed make use of such machinery, but a truly great man, never. For it is that very simplicity and clearness of mental operations which can only make an intellect efficient, safe and great. Grasp of thought, penetration and power of analysis, are the expressions generally used in describing a mind of the

character of that of Judge Prentiss. But they hardly bring us to a realization of the extremely simple and natural intellectual process, through which he moved on, self- poised, step by step, with so much ease and certainty to the impregnable legal po- sitions where he was content only to rest. And to have fully realized this, we should have listened to one of his plain but lu- minous decisions, on a case before sup- posed to be involved in almost insuperable doubts and perplexities-perceived how, at first, he carefully gathered up all that could have any bearing on the subject in hand ; how he then began to scatter light upon the seemingly dark and tangled mass ; and then, how, segregating all the irrele- vant and extraneous, and assorting the rest, he conducted our minds to what at length we could not fail to see to be the truth and reality of the case. That Judge Prentiss possessed, besides his profound knowledge of the law as a science, a finely- balanced and superior intellect is unques- tionable ; and that it became so, in the ex- ercise of those peculiar traits we have been attempting to describe, need, it appears to us, to be scarcely less doubted.

In person, Judge Prentiss was nearly 6 feet high, well-formed, with an unusually expansive forehead, shapely features and a clear and pleasant countenance, all made the more imposing and agreeable by the affable and courtly bearing of the old school gentleman.

In his domestic system, he was a rigid economist, but ever gave liberally when .- ever the object conmanded his approba- tion. Let a single instance suffice for il- lustration : Some years before his death, his minister lost an only cow ; and the fact coming to his ears, he ordered his man to drive, the next morning, one of the cows he then possessed, to the stable of the minister. But strangely enough, the cow selected for the gift died that night. He was not thus to be defeated, however, in his kind purpose; for hearing that the minister had engaged a new cow, at a given price, he at once sent him the amount in money required to pay for it.

Judge Prentiss has gone ; but the people of the town, which had the honor to be his home, will cherish his memory as long as they are capable of appreciating true ex- cellence, and be but too proud to tell the stranger that he was one of their towns- men.

At the October session of the United States District Court, following the death of Judge Prentiss, after a suitable annouce- ment by the district attorney, and the de- livery in court of eloquent tributes to the character of the deceased, by the Hon. Solomon Foot, and the Hon. David A. Smalley, the new judge, the following pre- amble and resolutions were entertained, and ordered to be placed upon the records of the court, as " an enduring evidence of the high veneration in which his memory was held by the Bar" :

WHEREAS, the Hon. SAMUEL PRENTISS, late Judge of the District Court of the United States for the District of Vermont, having departed this life within the present year, and the members of this Bar and the officers of this Court entertaining the high- est veneration for his memory, the most profound respect for his great ability, learning, experience and uprightness as a Judge, and cherishing for his many public

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and private virtues the most lively and af- fectionate recollection, therefore,

Resolved, That his uniformly unosten- tatious and gentlemanly deportment, his assiduous discharge of his official duties, his high sense of justice, his unbending integrity, and the exalted dignity and pur- ity of his public and private character, furnish the highest evidence of his intrin- sic worth, and of his great personal merit.

Resolved, That the District Attorney, as Chairman of this meeting of the Bar, communicate to the family of the deceased a copy of these proceedings, with an assur- ance of the sincere condolence of the mem- bers of the Bar and the officers of this Court, on account of this great and irrep- arable bereavement.

Resolved, That in behalf of the Bar and the officers of this Court, the Honorable the Presiding Judge thereof be, and he is hereby, respectfully requested to order the foregoing preamble and resolutions to be entered on the minutes of the Court.

MRS. LUCRETIA PRENTISS,

daughter of the late Edward Houghton, Esq., of Northfield, Mass., was born Mar. 6, 1786, and received a good English edu- cation for the times. She married Samuel Prentiss, Esq., in 1804, and settled down with him for life in the village of Mont- pelier. Here she became the mother of 12 children, George Houghton, Samuel Blake, Edward Houghton, John Holmes, Charles Williams, Henry Francis, Frederick James, Theodore, Joseph Addison, Augustus, Lu- cretia and James Prentiss.

George H. Prentiss died soon after ar- riving at maturity and settling down in his profession, which, like that of all the rest of the brothers who reached manhood, was that of the law. Augustus, and Lucretia, the only daughter, died in infancy.

The cares, labors and responsibilities of the wife are generally, to a great extent, mingled with those of the husband. Much less than usual, however, were they so in the case of Mrs. Prentiss. In consequence of the close occupation of the time of her husband in his crowding legal engagements when at home, and his frequent and long- continued absences from home in the dis- charge of his professional or official duties, almost the whole care and management of his young and numerous family devolved

on her. And those who know what un- ceasing care and vigilance, and what blend- ing of kindness, discretion and firmness, are required to restrain and check, without loss of influence, and train up with the rightful moral guidance, a family of boys of active temperaments, of fertile intellects and ambitious dispositions, so that they all be brought safely into manhood, will appreciate the delicacy and magnitude of her trust, and be ready to award her the just meed of praise for discharging it, as she confessedly did, with such unusual faith- fulness and with such unusual success. Mrs. Prentiss died at Montpelier, June 15, 1855, in her 70th year.

It would be difficult to say too much in praise of the character of this rare woman. She was one of earth's angels. In her do- mestic and social virtues ; in the industry that caused her " to work willingly with her hands ;" in "the law of kindness " that prompted her benevolence, and the wis- dom that so judiciously and impartially dispensed it ; together with all the other of those clustered excellencies that went to constitute the character of the model woman of the wise man-in all these Mrs. Prentiss had scarce a peer among us, scarce a su- perior anywhere. She did everything for her family, and lived to see her husband become known as he " sat among the Elders of the land," and her nine surviving sons, all of established characters, and present- ing an aggregate of capacity and good re- pute unequalled, perhaps, by that of any other family in the State, and all praising her in their lives. These were her works, but not all her works. The heart-works of the good neighbor, of the good and lowly Christian, and the hand-works that looked to the benefit and elevation of so- ciety at large, were by her all done, and all the better done for being performed so unobtrusively, so cheerfully and so un- selfishly.

D. P. T.

Oh, many a spirit walks the world unheeded, That, when its veil of sadness is laid down, Shall soar aloft with pinions unimpeded, Wearing its glory like a starry crown.

-Julia Wallace.

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THE HON. JOSEPH REED,

Born in Westford, Mass. Mar. 13, 1766, when about 12 years of age left Westford, to live with his uncle in Plymouth, N. H., for about 6 years, receiving only the advan- tages of a common school education, and at 18 commenced and served a 3 years' ap- prenticeship to the carpenter's trade, with James Sargeant, of Plymouth, after which he worked one year for his master for $150, and then continued at his trade nearly 5 years in the vicinity, when he relinquished for good his trade and entered the store of Mr. Mower Russell in Plymouth, but soon removed to Thetford, Vt., where in 1803 he opened a store. In June 1804, he mar- ried first. He had no children by this mar- riage. In 1812, he married second, Eliza- beth, daughter of Rev. Jacob Burnap D. D. of Merrimac, N. H., by whom he had 2 sons, Charles and George W. In 1814, 15, 16, Mr. Reed was elected town repre- sentative of Thetford and received 5 more elections in the next 7 years. In 1818, 19, he was elected one of the Judges of Orange County Court. Having been very successful in trade in Thetford and closed up business there, he removed to Montpe- lier in 1827. In 1830, 31, 32, he was elect- ed Judge of probate for the district of Washington County, and in 1834, was chosen one of the Council of Censors to revise the constitution of the State, and in 1840, one of the presidential elec- tors who threw the vote of Vermont for General Harrison, and he was county treasurer for almost the last 30 years of his life. His second wife, who shared his cares and his fortunes through nearly the most active period of his life, and who was the mother of his children, died and he married her sister, Miss Lucy Burnap, for his third wife, who dying soon after, he married his fourth wife, Miss Frances M. Cotton, daughter of the Hon. John H. Cotton of Windsor, who, with a daughter, still survives him.

Judge Reed at his death, Feb. 6, 1859, left a handsome fortune, and, what is far better, a character which his descendants may be proud to contemplate. Of him, his personal peculiarities and general char-

acter, it was said, in a tribute from a dis- criminate source, which appeared in one of our public journals at the time of his death, -" He was a gentleman of the Old School, precise and methodical in his hab- its ; of noble presence and demeanor ; hon- est and sincere in all his dealings ; reserved and prudent in his speech, sagacious and comprehensive in his views, of resolute and unflinching perseverance, and wise and ample generosity."

This single sentence finely embodies the whole of his general character, yet some of its peculiar traits may be more definitely told. Among which was beside his unbending integrity his particular and nice conscientiouness. But the way in which Judge Reed effected the most good, and for which, doubtless, he will be the longest, and by the largest number remem- bered, was assisting indigent, but promis- , ing young men in obtaining an education. When, in about middle life, he found he had accumulated a property which afforded a yearly surplus over the economical sup- port of his family, and the probable ex- pense of educating his children, he, as he once told a friend, began to feel it his duty to bestow at least a good portion of that surplus on objects calculated for public good. And distrusting the wisdom of many of the schemes of benevolence in vogue, on which others were bestowing their charities, he for some time cast about him for a system by which to bestow his money so that it might conduce to the most benefit to individuals, and through them to society at large. And he soon settled on loaning to any poor young man, showing promise of usefulness, such sums of money as he should need to carry him through College, without requiring any se- curity for the payment of the amounts ad- vanced, and leaving the payment a wholly voluntary matter with the beneficiary. And having made known his intentions, and finding no lack of applications, he at once put hls system in practice, and nobly per- severed in keeping it up to the last year of his life, and till the number of young men educated through his means amount- ed to more than twenty, among whom are

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to be found some of the most eminent men of the country, ornamenting the learned professions, or adding dignity to the offi- cial positions to which their merits have raised them.

Other wealthy men may have been as benevolent, others as patriotic, in bestow- ing money for temporary purposes, but few can boast of having originated, and so persistently maintained, for so long a pe- iod, a system of benevolence so wise and noble, of such wide spread, happy influen- ces which have flowed from the one which stands associated with the memory of the late Joseph Reed.

HEZEKIAH HUTCHINS REED,

was born at Hamstead, N. H., May 26, 1795, and came with his father, Captain Thomas Reed, and family to Montpelier in 1804. From 1804 to about 1812, he for the greater part of the time, attended the academy in Montpelier, and made such proficiency, and exhibited promise

where he went into partnership with his brother, Thomas Reed, Esq., who had al- ready opened a law office in the village. This partnership lasted about 20 years, and was attended throughout with unusual pecuniary success. The Messrs. Reed did a very large business, mostly in collecting and in honorable speculations, acting as advocates in the courts but little more than in the management of their own cases. They invested largely in the stock of the first and second Bank of Montpelier, and bought out nearly all the stock of the old Winooski Turnpike, which they eventually sold out at a good bargain to the Vermont Central Railroad Company. They also became extensive land owners in this and several of the Western States, and their purchases of this character all turned out, in the aggregate, very profitable invest- ments.

Mr. Reed was elected, by general ticket, a member of our Council of Censors in 1841 ; was one of the delegates of Ver- of so much executive talent, at 16, he suc- mont to the National Convention which sessfully taught one of the largest and most nominated Gen. Winfield Scott for Pres- ident, and was for many years considered one of the most influential politicians in the State. In 1851, 52, he was by a large majority elected representative of Montpe- lier in the legislature, and on the establish- ment of the Vermont Bank, in 1849, was chosen its first president and retained in the office till his death. forward winter schools in his town, and soon after went to Fort Atkinson, N. Y., and became a clerk in the store of Mr. Gove, while the American Army was win- tering there in 1813. When the army re- treated southward, he followed it to Platts- burgh, where it took its final stand, and remained with it in the capacity of sutler till the battle of Plattsburgh, September, Mr. Reed was an unusually energetic, stirring business man ; but business and money-making were evidently not the only objects of his life. He was ever public spirited, entering into, and often leading in, all enterprises designed for the public good and the social, religious and educa- tional interests of his town, with his usual zeal and energy; and was always quite ready to help on all such movements by liberal subscriptions. He perhaps should be considered the foremost in bringing about our present Union School. He gave $1000 towards the building to be erected on its establishment. He died suddenly, and almost in the prime of his life, of in- flammation of the lungs, while on a jour- 1814, at which he was present. The fol- lowing winter he taught school in Grand Isle County ; after which he commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. Dan Carpenter of Waterbury; the spring of 1819, was admitted to the Bar, and, during the following summer, went West and settled for practice in Troy, Ohio ; remained about 5 years, collected in his earnings, and invested them in flour, which he put on board one of the flat boats of the Ohio, and sailed down to Natches, sold it, and with the proceeds in his pocket, returned on horse-back through Tennessee, Kentucky and Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, and then by other convey- ance to his old home in Montpelier, ney to the West, June 15, 1856, and now

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The history of Washington county, in the Vermont historical gazetteer:, Part 73

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890, [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Montpelier, Vt., Vermont watchman and state journal press Number of Pages: 1066

Author: Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890, [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Montpelier, Vt., Vermont watchman and state journal press
Number of Pages: 1066