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CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR
By Lillian M. Ainsworth
C HESTER ALAN ARTHUR, called "the handsomest pres- ident of the United States," was, like Calvin Coolidge, a product of a small Vermont village. Within its secluded ways and surrounded by the cultural atmosphere of a clergyman's home in the first part of the 19th century, the foundation of
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his future life was laid; the seeds were sown for an integrity of character that stood him well in his later years of political strife, and which was never questioned.
The twenty-first President was born in Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont, on October 5, 1830, and was the older of two sons. Four of his sisters were older, and one younger than himself. His father, the Rev. William Arthur, was a Bap- tist clergyman who came to the United States from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, when eighteen years of age. William Arthur was a graduate of Belfast University, Ireland, and possessed a sound classical education. He spared no pains in the instruction of his older son. Thanks to his fine train- ing, young Arthur took a high position in Union College, New York, in 1845, when but fifteen years old.
The boy was unable to continue his education uninterrupted. His father was receiving a salary of only $500 and had a large family to support. He could not help his son through col- lege, and young Arthur was compelled to teach school winters. He "boarded around" and received a compensation of only $15 a month. He also kept up his college studies and was graduated at eighteen years of age from Union College in the class of 1848. He had become a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. When he left college he had determined to be- come a lawyer, and he continued his education toward that end with the same singleness of purpose that had marked his efforts to complete his college course.
Although Arthur had removed to New York state with the family early in life, his childhood in the Green Mountain State, his contacts through young manhood with Vermont and its traditions colored his entire life. In 1851, he obtained a situation as principal of an academy at North Pownal, Ben- nington County, Vermont. He prepared boys for college and at the same time studied law. His father was pastor of churches in Bennington, Hinesburgh, Fairfield and Williston at various times during Arthur's youth and, like the majority of
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New Englanders, was a staunch Abolitionist. The future President was destined to become a champion of negroes and employed his legal knowledge in their defense. A notable instance of his part in the slave controversy was when he obtained a decision in the Superior Court of New York, later upheld by the Supreme Court, that "no human creature could be held in bondage in the state, except under the national law," a decision that caused intense excitement in slave states. By this decision the Lemmon slaves were freed.
In 1856, Arthur began to be prominent in politics in New York City. For many years he served as inspector of elections at a polling place on Broadway. He took a prominent part in the founding of the Republican party and was a delegate to the convention that founded that party. When Edwin D. Morgan was re-elected governor of New York in 1860, he made Arthur engineer-in-chief of his staff, which was merely an ornamental post until after the outbreak of the Civil War, when it became highly important. Governor Morgan then made him virtually war minister of the state. He was the center around which the military operations of the state re- volved, a state that sent one-fifth of all the soldiers that marched to subdue the Rebellion-a contingent of 690,000 men. As engineer-in-chief of the state militia with the rank of brigadier general and later as quartermaster general and inspector general, he discharged his duties with distinction.
On November 20, 1871, Arthur was appointed by President Grant Collector of the Port of New York, a post he held until suspended by President Hayes in July, 1878. Historians record that his record as collector was immaculate. His re- moval is seen as a political move, a scheme to help one faction in New York Republican politics in its efforts to overcome . another faction. The story of his vindication is read in the events that followed.
At the Republication National Convention held in Chicago in June, 1880, James A. Garfield received the nomination for
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president and Arthur for vice president. The factional con- troversies in the Republican party at the time of their inaugu- ration on March 4, 1881, are familiar to all students of politi- cal history. Arthur assumed the office of chief executive of the United States following the assassination of Garfield, July 2, 1881, and his death on September 19.
Although Arthur came into the presidency at a time of scandal and controversy and was criticised even by members of his own party as a spoilsman and machine politician, he weathered the storm and came through the presidential term in a manner that left no stain upon his character. It has been said of him, "No man ever went into the White House under more unfavorable circumstances and no man ever left it with a cleaner record."
Arthur has not been adjudged a great statesman, but an irreproachable character is often a greater legacy to a country than is outstanding statesmanship without integrity.
Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Herndon of Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was the daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon, U. S. N. Two children were born to them, Chester Alan Arthur, Jr., and Ellen Herndon Arthur. Mrs. Arthur died in 1880.
Arthur outlived his term as president but little more than a year, his death occurring in New York City, November 18, 1886.
On August 19, 1903, a monument and tablet to mark the birthplace of President Arthur in Fairfield, Vermont, were dedicated by the state of Vermont, and an address was given by Senator William E. Chandler of Concord, New Hampshire, one of five survivors of Arthur's administration.
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JACOB BAYLEY
By Frederic P. Wells
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"ACOB BAYLEY, patriot and pioneer, was born at New- bury, Massachusetts, July 19, 1726. His ancestry was from families noted for enterprise and intellectual ability. His youth was spent in a community esteemed for its intelligence, whose leading citizens were men of education and religious devotion. Two of his brothers were Harvard graduates. His brother, Abner, was minister at Salem, New Hampshire, for fifty-eight years. Enoch became a chaplain in the army, and died in service, in the French and Indian War.
At the age of nineteen, Jacob married Prudence Noyes, a daughter of one of the notable families of Essex County. Three years later he removed to what soon became the town of Hamp- stead in the province of New Hampshire. At the opening of the French and Indian War, he entered military service in company with several young men with whom he was intimately associated in after life. He rose in rank by reason of the ability which he showed in the emergencies of the campaign, where he met with many adventures, and several narrow escapes.
This service gave him a knowledge of the country along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and he made the acquaintance of several men who became prominent, later, in the War of Independence. They passed through new communities, he became interested in pioneer life, and his ambition was kindled to become a leader in a new enterprise. During this service he kept a journal, only a fragment of which is preserved.
After the surrender of Montreal, in company with John Hazen, John Bedel, and Jacob Kent, he returned through the wilderness of northern Vermont to the Connecticut valley, carefully examining what was known as "The Lower Coos," of which the group had heard much. They decided that
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these extensive intervales, cleared by the Indians, offered a fine place in which to begin a settlement.
In company with others, most of whom had seen military service, and were fitted for pioneer life, they began, in 1762, the settlement of Newbury and Haverhill, on opposite sides of the valley. These communities, carefully planned and well conducted, attracted settlers from other parts of New England, and a line of settlements soon extended, on both sides of the river, all the way from the Massachusetts line.
In this enterprise Jacob Bayley was the leader, and he was well supported in each town by men of good judgment and large experience, whose suggestions he was ready to use. Two years later, the "Church of Christ of Newbury and Haverhill at Coos," was organized, and a minister was settled. Nothing was so well qualified to attract a desirable class of settlers as a church with an able minister like the Rev. Peter Powers, who became the intellectual leader of the community.
This is shown by the selection of Ryegate as the place of settlement by a colony from Scotland, who were attracted by the prosperity of Newbury and Haverhill and the fact that a church had been established so near. From the Scotch settlers of Ryegate and Barnet have sprung many eminent men. When the Coos country was opened to civilization, the nearest settle- ment was sixty miles away, but in a few years, towns were be- ing settled in every direction.
The success of their experiment led to the formation of plans by Bayley and his associates ,which, had not the War for Independence intervened, might have changed the history of the northern part of Vermont. They planned to obtain, from the government of New York, the grant of a large tract of land which they proposed to divide into townships to be set- tled by associated families from the older parts of New Eng- land, as Newbury and Haverhill had been. To these plans Bayley gave much time and study, but the times were not favorable to new enterprises like this.
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At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Newbury and Haverhill had become a well-established community, with a church, mills, courts, and a number of small manufactures for local needs. Jacob Bayley was interested in education, and led in the attempt to establish Dartmouth College in Haver- hill.
When the war broke out, Jacob Bayley was the most prom- inent man in the eastern part of Vermont, and he embraced the patriot cause with a stout heart. His work during the war consisted mainly in raising and preparing men for service in the field, the gathering and storage of provisions, the over- sight of scouts which he employed to secure information, and an extensive correspondence which he carried on with Wash- ington, and other leaders in the great struggle. He advised the construction of the military road which was begun at Wells River to give a more direct route to Canada. On this he expended much money. It was partly because of these preparations that Burgoyne's expedition did not pass down the Connecticut valley.
His kindness toward the Indians who roamed through the wilderness, and the fair dealing which the settlers showed toward them won their attachment, and secured the Connecti- cut valley from many disasters. It was only near the end of Burgoyne's campaign that he took the field in person, and commanded a division at Saratoga.
As commissary general of the northern department under commission from Washington, Bayley rendered his greatest service; but it was not of a kind to attract public notice. His correspondence was extensive, and he made many long jour- neys on horseback to investigate conditions, which he re- ported to headquarters.
Much has been written concerning the difficulties which attended the establishment of the state of Vermont, and the bitterness which arose between General Bayley and what was known as the Bennington Party. Much of the misunderstand-
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ing arose from the difficulty of communication. Many things in this controversy are obscure, but all was settled when Ver- mont became part of the Federal Union.
General Bayley suffered many hardships, and had several narrow escapes from capture. He expended large sums of money in the purchase of supplies for the army, the construc- tion of roads, the payment of soldiers, and the maintenance of dependent Indians. He never received any compensation for his services, or expenses, and died a poor man. His wife died in 1809, and he spent his old age with his sons, transact- ing business to the end of his life. He retained his faculties to the last. In his old age he would relate the events of his long and useful life with great minuteness. Had there been one among those who listened to his narratives who had realized their value, and transmitted them to writing, many valuable incidents would have been preserved.
General Bayley died March 1, 1815, in the house of his son, Isaac. At the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settle- ment of Newbury in August, 1912, a monument to General Bayley was dedicated on the common at Newbury, with an address by his descendant, Hon. Edwin A. Bayley of Boston.
STEPHEN R. BRADLEY
By Walter H. Crockett
S TEPHEN ROW BRADLEY, by the cogency of his rea- soning, equally with Ethan Allen, demonstrated to the people of America the soundness of the Vermont position in the land controversy with New York; by his wise counsel he aided in negotiating a settlement of the old quarrel and ad- mission to the Federal Union; and by his ability in the na-
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tional Senate he demonstrated his capacity as a wise legislator. He was in his time a strong party leader, but not a blind party follower.
Stephen R. Bradley was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, February 20, 1754. He was the grandson of Stephen Bradley, who had been a member of Cromwell's Ironsides and emi- grated to America in 1637. He was graduated from Yale College in 1775, entered the Continental Army in 1776, as a captain of volunteers, was adjutant and aide to General Woos- ter when the latter was killed in a skirmish at Danbury in 1777. He was commissioned major in 1778 and served in the commissary department. He studied law under that famous teacher, Judge Tappan Reeve, at Litchfield, Connecticut. He came to Vermont, settled at Westminster, and was admitted to the bar May 26, 1779. He served as clerk, and as state's attorney of Cumberland County.
As a young attorney, only twenty-five years old, at the re- quest of the governor and council, he wrote a logical and powerful defence of the Green Mountain commonwealth in its struggle to maintain its title and lands granted by New Hampshire. This pamphlet, VERMONT'S APPEAL TO THE CAN- DID AND IMPARTIAL WORLD, was given official sanction and was widely circulated. It was a militant document, a battle cry of freedom that thrills the reader long after the occasion for its writing has passed. It is a fact worthy of note that most of the leaders in Vermont's formative period were young men. Ethan Allen began his Vermont career before he reached the age of thirty At thirty-three he planned the defense of the land titles of the settlers in the Albany court, and he was thirty-eight when Ticonderoga was captured. Seth Warner came into Vermont at twenty-two. He was elected colonel of the Vermont regiment at the age of thirty-two and was thirty-four when he fought in the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington. Remember Baker was thirty-five when he had his famous encounter with the Yorkers and was killed at
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the outbreak of the American Revolution when he was thirty- eight. Ira Allen, at twenty-three, took an active part in the work of the Green Mountain Boys. At twenty-four he was a trusted officer in responsible posts in the Canadian expedi- tion. At twenty-four and twenty-five he was planning state- hood for Vermont. Nathaniel Chipman was Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court at thirty-seven and at thirty- eight was arranging a settlement of the Vermont-New York controversy. Isaac Tichenor was an agent to Congress at the age of twenty-eight, Speaker of the Vermont House at twenty-nine and justice of the Supreme Court at thirty-seven. In a state settled largely by young men, youthful energy was utilized in laying the foundations of the commonwealth and in putting into operation the machinery of the new govern- ment.
Stephen R. Bradley was a member of two delegations repre- senting Vermont before the Continental Congress in 1780. He represented the town of Westminster in the General Assembly in 1780, 1781, 1784, 1785, 1788, and 1790, and served as speaker in 1785. He was elected a judge of Wind- ham County Court in 1783 and served as a judge of the Su- preme Court from 1788 to 1789. He was a member of the commission that settled the controversy between Vermont and New York, and as a member of the convention called to ratify the United States Constitution, with Nathaniel Chipman con- ducted the chief defence of that instrument. He was one of the first United States senators elected by Vermont, and drew the four-year term. He was an Anti-Federalist, or Jeffersonian Republican, in politics. He was defeated for re-election in 1794. In 1800 he was a member of the General Assembly. In 1800 he was elected again to the United States Senate and was re-elected in 1806, serving from 1801 to 1813. Five times he was elected president pro tem of the Senate. He intro- duced a bill, which became a law, providing for a United States flag of fifteen stripes and fifteen stars, sometimes known
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as Bradley's Flag. He was the author of the constitutional amendment of 1803, providing that the vice president should be elected like the president by a majority of electoral votes.
As one of the most influential members of his party, he called a Congressional caucus to consider presidential candi- dates, before the days of national political conventions, and he presided at this caucus, which nominated James Madison for the office of president. Another evidence of his prominence in political affairs, was the fact that he presided at a party gathering held in honor of Thomas Jefferson and responded to the toast when Jefferson's name was proposed. Although a prominent party leader, he never sacrificed his individual judg- ment or his sense of right to a blind party loyalty. He refused to support President Jefferson and his partisans in an effort to impeach certain judges, and voted against the administration in its attempt to remove Justice Chase from the Supreme Court bench. Beveridge, in his LIFE OF JOHN MARSHALL, comments on Senator Bradley's political independence. Senator Bradley protested against going to war with Great Britain in 1812 with- out adequate preparation for hostilities, and he did not vote for the resolution declaring war. S. A. Goodrich, a well-known author, better known by his pen name of "Peter Parley," a son-in-law of Senator Bradley, stated that "General Bradley was so dissatisfied with the war (of 1812), that soon after he with- drew altogether from public life."
A son, William C. Bradley, was a brilliant lawyer and a mem- ber of Congress. In 1818 ex-Senator Bradley removed from Westminster to Walpole, New Hampshire, where he died Decem- ber 16, 1830. John A. Graham said of him: "Few men have more companionable talents, a greater share of social cheerfulness, a more inexhaustible flow of wit, or a larger portion of unaffected urbanity." Of all the men whom Vermont has sent to either branch of Congress, probably not more than two have held higher rank than Stephen R. Bradley in the esteem of their colleagues or in their standing in the country at large.
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DANIEL LEAVENS CADY
By Arthur Wallace Peach
E VEN a brief survey of the career of Daniel Leavens Cady tends to bring to light forces and factors quite character- istic of the lives of Vermont men of genius-factors that are, by the way, often hidden by the mere details of dates and events associated with widening accomplishment. The basic source of the unique poetic gift that has made Mr. Cady's verse known far beyond the boundaries of New England lies beyond question in his Vermont boyhood and its background. Moreover, in those early days on a farm on the western slope of Ascutney mountain, in a house on the Weathersfield road, may be found the beginning of a love of the state and its people, particularly those of the farm, the hamlet, and the village, that has made the name "Dan Cady" a household word.
The interested student, in tracing those subtle forces to which reference has been made, will find significance in the fact that the poet's maternal great-grandfather, coming from Connecticut, cleared the land on which the house was built that was the birth- place of the poet, March 10, 1861. His father was John Wesley Cady and his mother Mary Ann Leavens, and in their son's name we find the traditional "Leavens." The father was well-known locally, holding many town offices; and he also served in the Union Army during the Civil War. With such a heritage and in such an environment, gifted with a memory that was to store away boyhood impressions for use many years later, the lad who was a poet-to-be, lived the normal life of a boy of the place and the time.
His early education was secured in the public school of his community. He prepared for college by study at Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, New Hampshire, and at Montpelier Seminary. During his college days, he worked as a guard at
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the Vermont State Prison, also taught two terms of school. In 1868, he was graduated from the University of Vermont with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. In order to secure funds for the study of law he obtained employment with the Bur- lington Woolen Company. By the year 1894 he had become the junior partner in the firm of Powell and Cady, New York, and he practiced law there with success until his retirement in 1912.
He returned to Vermont and to the leisure which he has used so effectively, not only in writing his own verse, but in aiding in highly valuable ways the emergence and growth of the literary interests of the state which have made marked progress in the years since. On October 6, 1913, in Burlington, he married Mary Elizabeth (Tanner) Wells, daughter of James Dunbar and Betsy (Dodge) Tanner, of Waupun, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Cady was born. Like Mr. Cady, Mrs. Cady has shown a ready understanding of the problems involved in the literary move- ment in the state, and her interest has been an asset to those with its welfare at heart. It was at the homestead at 368 Main Street, Burlington, that the final decision was reached to endeavor to create the Vermont Writers' Association which has been of pronounced value in furthering the interests of Vermont authors.
The popular appeal and success of the poet's RHYMES OF VERMONT RURAL LIFE, published in three volumes, has tended to form the general assumption that Mr. Cady's first interest in poetry dates from the series, and in some quarters the feeling exists that his poetic achievements rests in these three books alone. An outline of his work reveals the error in any such assumptions. In 19044, he was the author of the Alumni Poem read at the University of Vermont commencement; in 1905, he published a volume, STRAY BREATHS OF NORTH EAST SONG (out of print) ; in 1909, he was one of five poets, the others being Clinton Scollard, Percy MacKaye, Bliss Carman and John Erskine, invited to take part in the Champlain Ter- centenary Celebration-and the NEW YORK TIMES reported
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that the Vermont poet eclipsed his distinguished associates ; about 1915, he published POEMS BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, AND OTHERS; in 1916, he pub- lished MAIZE AND MILKWEED (out of print) ; in 1919, the first volume of RHYMES OF VERMONT RURAL LIFE appeared, made up of verse written for magazines and newspapers dur- ing the period beginning with 1916; in 1922 and 1926, the second and third volumes under the same title were published; in 1926, he issued CARCASSONNE -- WITH SEVEN AMERICAN TRANSLATIONS; in 1927, he was the official poet of the state of Vermont at the Battle of Bennington Sesqui-Centennial, and the poems read on this occasion are found in THE HILL OF BENNINGTON-WITH SEVEN ASSOCIATED LYRICS AND BALLADS, published the same year.
Even the limited summary given above indicates a poetic gift by no means confined to one specific field. The careful student of Mr. Cady's entire poetic works will find evidence of a wide-ranging talent-a lyric gift, for instance, that links it- self with the finest traditions in our language, that has as its background an unusual learning and a scholarly delight in the rich resources of English literature, and back of that a familiarity with the great Latin writers. His superb translation of CARCAS- SONNE emphasizes his ability to sense poetic values in another language. Undoubtedly, also, his travels in Europe and in Egypt and Palestine have deepened and enriched a natural poetic insight that was his long ago when a boy in the West Windsor district. Definite recognition of his poetic stature is seen in the honorary degrees conferred upon him-Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Vermont in 1909, Doctor of Letters by Norwich University in 1924.
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