Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 2: The Bench and Bar, 1888 (part 2 of 3)

RuFUS Choate, the son of David and Miriam (Foster) Choate, was born on Hog Island, in the town of Essex, October 1, 1799. He began the study of Latin in 1809 with Dr. Thomas Sewell, and continued his studies with Rev. Thomas Holt, Wm. Cogswell and Rev. Robert Crowell. He afterwards spent seven months at Hampton Academy, then in charge of James Adams, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1819, from which college he at a later day received the degree of LL.D. Degrees were also awarded to him by Yale in 1844 and Harvard in 1845. After leaving college he studied law in the office of William Wirt, at Washington, and at the Dane Law School in Cam- bridge, and was admitted to the Essex bar, in Salem, at the September term of the C(mrt of Common Pleas in 1823. He began practice in Danvers, where he remained until 1834. During his residence in Danvers he was a State Representative in 1825, State Senator in 1827, and member of Congress from 1832 to 1834. In the latter year he removed to Boston In 1841 he succeeded Daniel Webster in the United States Senate, when that gentleman resigned his seat to become Secretary of State under President Harrison. In 1853 he succeeded John H. Clifford as attorneygeneral of Massachusetts, and in the same year was a member of the Constitutional Convention. In 1858, in consequence of ill-health, he gave up professional labor, and in 1859 sailed for Europe. At that time the Cunard steamers from Boston touched at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and when reaching that port he was too feeble to proceed, and landing, died in that city July 13, 1859.

Mr. Choate, before he removed to Boston, had been distinguished at the bar ; and after the death of Mr. Webster, in 1852, he was universally recognized as standing at the head of the bar of Massachusetts. In legislative fields he seemed out of his element. In the dominion of law, to which he gave his heart and soul and strength, he was supreme. Though an orator of the first class, his greatest forensic efforts were before a jury, and no gladiatorial show ever exceeded in interest the continuous exhibition of logic entwined with wreaths of eloquence in which he indulged before a reluctant jury, until one after another of the panel yielded to him his judgment and was ready, as he triumphantly saw, to give him his verdict. The writer has seen him address himself for an hour to a single juryman, until he saw at last that he, with the rest, was secure. He was a man of large frame, broad shoulders and upright figure, surrounded by a head and face which it is as impossible to describe as the flash of the lightning in the cloud or the aurora in the

Though contrasting strongly with Mr. Webster in every movement and feature, he was perhaps as striking in appearance, and in an uncovered crowd would have been as likely to arrest the attention of the stranger. There was a fascination about him which always won the sympathy of visitors to the court-room where he was engaged for the side in whose interest he was acting. The juror could no more easily escape this fascination than the visitor, and to this may be attributed a part of his success. The writer was in court at Mr. Webster's last appearance before a jury in Boston, and Mr. Choate was opposed to him. It was one of the many contests in which the heavy-moulded dray-horse, which would only exhibit his strength when he had tons to draw, was pitted against the racer. The racer won the case because there were no tons to draw, and because activity, alertness, swiftness and grace alone were needed.

Few lawyers in Massachusetts have been so much beloved as Mr. Choate. To the young members of the bar he was always courteous and kind ; to his peers he was always considerate and liberal. His death was felt as a public loss, and not only the various societies and the bar to which he belonged put on record their tributes to his memory, but the citizens of Boston met in Fanueil Hall and passed resolutions in his honor.

Charles Jackson, born in Newburyport May 31, 1775, graduated at Harvard in 1793 and received the degree of LL.D. from his alma mater in 1821. He was a son of Jonathan Jackson, of Newburyport, who afterwards removed to Boston and there died March 5, 1810. He studied law with Theophilus Parsons and was admitted to the Essex bar in 1796. In 1803 he removed to Boston and attained very soon a high rank. In 1813 he was appointed by Governor Strong associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, and left the bench in 1823. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1820, and in 1833 was appointed one of the commissioners to codify the State laws. He died in Boston December 13, 1855.

Stephen Minot was born in Concord, Mass., September 28, 1776, and graduated at Harvard in 1801. He studied law with Samuel Dana, of Groton, and was admitted to the bar in Middlesex County in 1804. He practiced for a short time in New Gloucester and in Minot, Maine, and finally settled in Haverhill. He was, from December, 1811, to June, 1821, judge of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas, and county attorney from 1824 to 1830. He died in Haverhill April 6, 1861.

Samuel Putnam, LL.D., A.A.S.^ - " Samuel Putnam was born in Danvers, on the 13th of April, 1768. He was the son of parents of superior intelligence and worth, the line of his ancestry in that place running back into our greatest American antiquity. His father. Deacon Gideon Putnam, amid the emergencies of an early settlement, seems to have exercised a variety of those needful functions which devolved upon men of most native sense and energy. His mother, who united to keen wit most acute feelings, having, of ten children, only this one spared, would often betray the smile and tear in the same moment, and this only one left of her offspring was naturally of so very slender constitution that faintly indeed in his youth could his after career have been anticipated, and only a bold casting of the horoscope have meted out to him his coming years or attainments. Samuel went to school in Beverly, whither for a time the family removed, and afterwards, at the age of ten years, he studied in the academy at Andover. He saw the soldiers under Arnold as they were going down to attack Quebec, and they were pleased that the little boy - who appears to have had melody born

Samuel Putnam

"Before the Revolution, too, he had seen a regiment of soldiers in command of General Gage, the British governor. He was himself distantly related to the celebrated General Israel Putnam. But his vocation was not to the turbulence of battle, but to the serener air of peaceful studies, and having entered Harvard College, with others, a class-mate of John Quincy Adams, he received his graduation in July, 1787, and continued an enthusiastic friend of his alma mater to the end of his days.

" His father had destined him to be a teacher, but, moved by the inspiration and other destiny of his own nature to a different sphere of greater intellectual study among men, he went to Newburyport to study law with the distinguished Judge Parsons, yet was by him - his class of pupils being full - directed to Master Bradbury, as he was called, a sound and learned lawyer. He established himself in the practice of his profession, soon very extensively at Salem ; held a leading rank as an advocate, and, against eminent opponents, was prompt, acute, ready, and able, with all the ingenuity at command needful, to serve his client. No advocate of the time is understood to have been better versed than he in the principles of the common law. He had peculiar skill and fame in the branch of mercantile or commercial law, which was a rare reputation at that period, so that the great Samuel Dexter, in an important case sent his client to Essex, to Mr. Putnam, as the man to consult in that early school of the law in Massachusetts."

So late as the year 1885, Lord Esher, the present distinguished Master of the Rolls, pronouncing the judgment of the Court of Appeals of England in an important commercial case said: "The first case to be dealt with is the American case of Brooks vs. The Oriental Insurance Co. It came before a judge whose decisions I have often read with admiration, and from whom I have certainly received great assistance, Mr. Justice Putnam."

" The renowned Justice Story, who had been his scholar, dedicated one of his works to his former teacher, with a high tribute to his sagacity and knowledge, as well as unspotted integrity. He took a decided and ardent part in the political questions of the time, but it is believed, in all the fire of parties that during his early manhood so hotly blazed out, he had no zeal that was not matched by his fairness, or at the core and in the seed outdone by his charity. But so did he retain his earnestness, and so determined was he in his opinions, that he always, to the close, considered it a duty, even at personal inconvenience, to cast his vote.

exercise this high oflBce for twenty-eight years. I state what is in the cognizance of those familiar with the subject, in saying he had the respect of all good men for the manner in which he performed its solemu and responsible duties. No man ever held the scales of justice more even. None was ever more intent on making righteous decrees; none ever more fearless and independent in his decisions ; none more solicitous for the deliverance of the wrongfully accused, and none more indignant against all trickery, lying and fraud. Members of the bar join with his compeers on the bench to declare that no opinions or judgments of a high tribunal were ever more likely to be sound, sober, practical, and to the point, than his, as they are recorded in the books.

" He adhered with great conservative firmness and inflexibility to his principles ; but one of his associates told me his principles were good to adhere to. It is the award of another sincere observer of his course that, engaged as he had been in politics, with his whole heart espousing one side, on his becoming judge he put the politician entirely off", and, in his place, knew no distinction of fellow or foe. It is an unequivocal sign of the goodness of his heart, that, while nobody could suspect he was at all influenced by any regard to human favor - so clearly and evidently above all personal regards and consequences was he in his duty - he yet carried into the execution of that duty the singular urbanity which stamped his whole deportment in private life.

" In 1825 he received from the University in Cambridge the title of Doctor of Laws. In 1842, while still able to accomplish well the work falling to him in his lofty sphere, he retired into private, there to prove completely that no role of oflice, but what was solid and genuine, gave him his real consequence in the world. I am persuaded from every quarter will be confirmed the assertion, that he bore himself with admirable fidelity and acceptance in all the relations he sustained. He was exceedingly hospitable, kept open door, cordially invited his friends to come in, delighted to serve them at his table, and forgot not - how could he with his inclination? - to send a portion to the stranger and the poor, or to some humble neighbor, after whose comfort his benevolence yearned. He was glad to go with his guests over his old paternal estate, which it was a special pleasure to him to increase and improve. He cherished and fondled his farm, but had not the ambition of some to accumulate wealth. He loved to set out trees, whose growth and full flourishing only his posterity could see. I remember he once showed me how much a limb had grown on one of his trees; he had, I think, brought the branch to town, assuring me it afforded him as much satisfaction as another man would derive from a dividend.

"He desired kindly constructions of the deeds and motives of others, and would allow no ill intent to be ascribed where any excuse was possible, while all unfairness everywhere met his steady disapproval. Eespecting harshness of remark he often quoted a saying of his own father: "That may be true, my son, but you should not say so." This love of all that is spiritually accordant was naturally connected with or issued in a great love of music, especially of sacred music, under his own roof or in the temple. He had a very sensitive ear to the precision of the note ; could scarce abide any falseness of tune, was never more pleased than when some beloved old hymn rang up to heaven, and when not listening to the anthems of the sanctuary, or the voices kindred and dear to him, found, what was to him, a delicious feast in the minstrelsy of the birds. There was, in truth, an infinite sweetness in him ; his face was favor, his look an invitation, and he could not keep his hand from blessing the head of a child as he went along. He was, I think, a very happy man, not exempt from trial, tasting some pain and sadness as the springs of health and life were broken up, but finding in existence a large boon for overrunning thanksgiving. He had favorite books and authors, and found in reading, and in hearing his friends read, the pleasant occupation of much time. The enjoyment which a good old age has of youth was his to an uncommon degree. The first time I saw him was with the young all around, evidently both attracted by his love for them, and overflowing him with the tokens of their own, so that in their looks and motions they seemed to make one life together ; and I remember well his presence, like a blessing, once, on occasion of the usual gathering of the children of our own society on the afternoon of Fast Day. I have heard it repeatedly said, in gratitude to him or commendation of him, that he loved to encourage young men in their commencing efforts, and by a word or a line from the desk of his tribunal would cheer and stimulate them.

" During the stormy period of our public affairs, before and after 1812, he was among the stirring spirits. He repeatedly represented, in both branches of the Legislature, his section of the State, and, we may not doubt, uttered always, without compromise, the deliberate conclusions of a thoughtful mind, and the deep sentiments of a guileless heart."

Judge Putnam was married October 28, 1795, to Sarah Gooll, of Salem, who survived him by eleven years. He had three sons and five daughters, who lived to grow up. All were married, and all but one survived their father. He died July 3, 1853, in his 86th year.

Leverett SA.LTONSTALL was born in Haverhill June 13, 1783. It is probable that no native of Essex County who has held his residence through life within its limits has been so conspicuous and so universally respected and beloved. It may be said, too, with perfect truth, that no family in New England can boast of a more extended pedigree or more genl c blood than that whose name he bore and whose fame he contributed so much to maintaiu. He was the son of Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall, of Haverhill, and Anna, daughter of Samuel White, of Haverhill, a descendant of William White, a settler in Ipswich in 1635, and one of the first settlers of Haverhill in 1640. Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall, born February 10, 1746, was the son of Richard Saltonstall, of Haverhill, and his third wife, Mary, daughter of Elisha Cooke, whose wife, Jane Middlecott, was a greatgranddaughter of Governor Edward Winslow, of the Old Colony. Mary Cooke was also great-granddaughter of Governor John Leverett. Richard Saltonstall, born June 24, 1703, was the son of Richard Saltonstall, of Haverhill, and Mehitabel, daughter of Captain Simon Wainwright, of Haverhill. The lastmentioned Richard Saltonstall, born April 25, 1672, was the son of Nathaniel Saltonstall, of Haverhill, who was appointed in 1692, by Governor William Phipps, one of the judges of the Oyer and Terminer Court to try the witches, and refused to serve, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Ward, of Haverhill. Nathaniel Saltonstall, born in Ipswich in 1639, was the son of Richard Saltonstall and Muriel, daughter of Brampton Gurdonand Muriel (Sedley) Gurdon, of Assington, County of Suffolk, in England. Richard Saltonstall, born at Woodsome, County of York, England, in 1610, came to New England with his father. Sir Richard Saltonstall, in

1630, returned in 1631, married in England about 1633, and coming back to New England in 1635, settled in Ipswich. He died on a visit to England, at Hulme, April 29, 1694. Sir Richard Saltonstall, of Huntwick, Knight, baptized at Halifax, England, April 4, 1586, was lord of the manor at Ledshara. He was the son of Samuel Saltonstall, and his first wife, Anne, daughter of John Ramsden, of Longley. He married three wives, - first, Grace, daughter of Robert Kaye, of Woodsome, who was the mother of the son Richard; second, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas West, Baron de la Warre ; and third, Martha Wilford. He was one of the original patentees of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and after his first wife died he came to New England with Winthrop in 1630, bringing his children. He began the settlement of Watertown, returned to England in

1631, and there died about 1658, giving in his will a legacy to Harvard College. Samuel Saltonstall, the father of Sir Richard Saltonstall, the date of whose birth is unknown, died January 8, 1612-13, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Hull. He married three wives, - first, Anne Ramsden, above mentioned, who was the mother of Sir Richard Saltonstall ; second, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Ogden ; and third, Elizabeth Armine, widow of Hugh Armine, mayor of Hull. Gilbert Saltonstall, the father of Samuel, had a seat at Rooke's Hall, in Hipperholme. He died in 1598 and was buried at Halifax December 29th. In his will he mentioned his wife, Isabel, and left legacies to the Halifax Church and the

Halifax Grammar School. It is unnecessary to follow the pedigree further in detail. It is sufficient to say that beyond Gilbert, above mentioned, through two Kicbards, another Gilbert and two other Richards, it goes back to either John or Richard, the sons of Thomas De Saltoustall, of the West Riding of Yorkshire, who flourished about the year 1300. Every generation has been distinguished for the eminent men it has produced, and in the direct line of the subject of this sketch, every ancestor back to Richard, who came with his father in 1630, has been a graduate of Harvard. To this list of graduates the names of Mr. Salstonstall himself, and of his son, Colonel Leverett Saltonstall, the present collector of the port of Boston, may be added.

Nor is the Saltonstall pedigree the only ancient one to which the family of Mr. Saltonstall may lay claim. The family of Gurdons, one of whom, Muriel, daughter of Brampton Gurdon, married Richard Saltonstall, who came to New England with his father in 1G30, has a recorded pedigree inthehands of Sir William Brampton Gurdon reaching back to Sir Adam Gurdon, who lived in the thirteenth century. The mother of Muriel Gurdon was Muriel Sedley, and the Sedley family, too, has a pedigree which is only lost in the reign of Edward the First. And still another family mingles its blood with that of the Saltonstalls. Sir Richard Saltonstall, who came to New England with his son in 1630 and returned to England in 1631, married for his first wife, from whom the Essex branch of the family sprang, Grace, daughter of Robert Kaye, of Woodsome, and the pedigree of the Kaye family, as taken from the Yorkshire visitation, published by the Harleian Society, reaches through a plain channel back to the time of William the Conqueror. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Saltonstall, besides the blood of his own immediate family, carried in his veins not only that of the Winslows and Leveretts of New England, but that of some of the most ancient families in Great Britain.

Mr. Saltonstall pursued his preparatory studies at Phillips Academy, and graduated at Harvard in 1802. In 1838 he received from his alma mater the degree of LL.D., the degree of A.B., from Yale, in 1802, and of A.M. from Bowdoin in 1806.

He studied law with Ichabod Tucker, of Haverhill, and afterwards with William Prescott, and after a short term of practice in his native town, removed to Salem in 1806. At that time the Essex bar contained on its rolls the names of Nathan Dane, William Prescott, Samuel Putnam, Joseph Story, John Pickering and Daniel A. White. By the side of these eminent men, with whom he came constantly in competition, he grew step by step, until he became their professional peer. Samuel Putnam was called to the bench of the Supreme Court in 1814, Joseph Story was appointed to the bench of the United States Supreme Court in 1811, Nathan Dane gradually relinquished 1 ractice, Daniel A. White was made judge of probate and John Pickering finally removed to Boston. As these early rivals, one after another, left the field, Mr. Saltonstall attained the position, which he held for many years and until his death, of leader of the Essex bar. He possessed every qualification for a successful lawyer, especially in a county like Essex, made up of small towns with honest, plain, matterof-fact people, among whom the character and life of a professional man were criticised and prized as much as his acumen and learning. The character and life of Mr. Saltonstall were singularly pure. Every man in Essex County knew it, and, when involved in difficulties, felt sure that his counsel would be wise and his services discreet and honest. For many years the Essex bar has had a reputation for fair and honorable dealings not possessed by that of every county in the State, and that reputation Mr. Saltonstall did much to establish and maintain. The confidence of his fellow-citizens of both the city of Salem and of the county was many times and in various ways manifested. By Hon. Stephen C. Phillips, who knew him well, it was said, that "at an early age he took his seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and in that body at different periods, even to the very close of his public life, he rendered perhaps his most valuable services, and was distinguished and honored beyond almost any of his cotemporaries. He was an effective debater and in the committee-room none could surpass him in the faithful, patient and intelligent performance of all his duties. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate in two most important political junctures, and as a leader of the majority he assumed a full share of responsibility for its acts. As president of the Senate, too, he performed his duties with admirable dignity and to universal acceptance. In the political service of Massachusetts he felt himself at home, and the State never had a citizen who maintained her character with a nobler pride or labored for her welfare with a purer zeal." On the incorporation of Salem as a city, March 23, 1836, her citizens did him and themselves the honor of making him their first mayor, and in that capacity he served until 1838. In the latter year he was chosen Representative to Congress, and remained in office until 1843. In the discharge of his duties as Representative he was singularly fiiithful, useful and earnest.

During the latter half of his Congressional life he was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, and on his shoulders fell the burden of the investigation and inquiry, and of the preparation of the report and bill, which finally resulted in the passage of the tariff of 1842. He was an active and honorable member of the old Whig party, conscientiously devoted to its interests at a time when party policies were continuously distinct; and sincerely believing that the success of the policy of that party would best promote the welfare of the country. He was not a partisan in the sense in which so many are partisans to-day, and would have indignantly refused to follow his party into the support of new measures devised purely for party purposes, without reference to the public good. When he advocated a measure, therefore, he spoke with a conviction behind his words, with a heart pouring out its fullness from the tongue, and hence the impressive and convincing eloquence of which he was a master.

Mr. Salstonstall was conspicuous in other than legislative and legal fields. He was president of the Bible Society, president of the Essex Agricultural Society and of the Essex Bar Association, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the board of overseers of Harvard University.

The relations of Mr. Saltonstall with his family were to the last degree confiding and tender. To say that he was beloved is only to repeat what may be said of nearly every husband and lather. To say that he was worthy to be beloved is a better and a juster tribute. The affection which is merely incident to relationship fades with time. " The tears of his children, though forty years have elapsed since his death, still start when they recall the virtues of their father, and exemplar, and friend.

Mr. Saltonstall married, March 7, 1811, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Sanders, of Salem, - and died in Salem May 8, 1845. On the 8th of May a meeting of the Essex bar was held at Ipswich, at which Benjamin Merrill was chosen president, and Ebenezer Shillaber secretary ; and resolutions offered by Joseph E. Sprague, and seconded by Nathaniel J. Lord, were passed as a tribute to his memory. On the same day, in the Supreme Court, Mr. Merrill presented the resolutions of the bar, and addressed the court. Judge Wilde replied, expressing "his sympathy with the feelings of the bar, and his regret at the loss of so useful and excellent a citizen as Mr. Saltonstall, whose worth and excellence he had known and highly esteemed for forty years."

On the 10th of May, at a special meeting of the City Council of Salem, Mr. Roberts submitted re solves concerning the loss sustained by the city in the death of Mr. Saltonstall, which were unanimously passed.

The Massachusetts Historical Society took appropriate notice of his death by eulogies spoken by various members, and at a later day by a memoir in its published proceedings. On Sunday, the 18th of May, Rev. Dr. John Brazier delivered, in the North Church in Salem, a discourse on his life and character ; and a commemorative sermon was also preached in the East Church by Rev. Dr. Flint.

Isaac Ridington How, son of David How, was born in Haverhill March 13, 1791, and graduated at Harvard in 1810. He studied law with William Prescott and continued through life in the practice of law in his native town, where he died January 15, 1860.

Hampshire, in 1776. His preparatory studies were pursued at Phillips Academy under the instruction of Joseph S. Buckminster, and with his brother, James Cushing Merrill, he graduated at Harvard in 1807. He studied law with John Varnum in Haverhill and began practice of the law in Andover in partnership with Samuel Farrar. He was at various times a memberof both branches of the Legislature, and, aside from his law studies, was through life a diligent scholar, and especially proficient in Greek and Latin literature. He died in Andover December 24, 1869.

Michael Hodge was born in Newburyport in 1780 and graduated at Harvard in 1799. He studied law in his native town and there followed his profession. Samuel L. Knapp describes him in his personal sketches as a man " who was never perfectly satisfied with his profession, for in his character was exhibited that moral enigma which has so often perplexed the metaphysicians, - great personal intrepidity united to a painful and shrinking modesty ; a fearlessness of all the forms of danger to a diffidence in the discharge of professional duties." He married, in 1814, Betsey Hayward, daughter of Dr. James Thacher, of Plymouth, Mass., and widow of Daniel Robert Elliott, of Savannah, Georgia, and had James Thatcher, a graduate of Harvard in 1836, who was lost on Lake Michigan with a career in the paths of science already brilliant, but yet full of hope and promise. Mr. Hodge died in Plymouth on the 6th of July, 1816.

Jedediah Foster was born in Andover October 10, 1726, and graduated at Harvard in 1744. He finally established himself in Brookfield and married a daughter of Brigadier-General Joseph Dwight. He was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1776 and died October 17, 1779.

Charles Amburger Andrew was born in Salem in 1805 and graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1832. He also studied in the office of Leverett Saltonstall and was admitted to the bar in 1831. He died at Salem June 17, 1843.

Benjamin Lynde Oliver was born in Salem in 1789 and studied law with Joseph Story and Samuel Putnam. He was admitted to the Essex bar in June, 1809. He died in Maiden June 18, 1843.

Ebenezer Mosely, sou of Ebenezer and Martha (Strong) Mosely, was born in Windham, Conn., Nov. 21, 1781, and graduated at Yale College in 1802. He studied law with Judge Chauncey, of New Haven, Judge Clark, of Windham, and Judge Hinckley, of Northampton. In 1805 he settled in Newburyport, and at various times had as students in his office John Pierpont, afterwards a clergyman ; Governor Dunlap, of Maine; Robert Cross, Asa W. Wildes and Caleb Cushing. In 1813-14 he was the colonel of the Sixth Regiment, and, as chairman of the Board of Selectmen , welcomed Lafayette on the occasion of his visit to Newburyport. From 1816 to 1820 and from 1834 to 1836 he was a member of the House of Representa- tives, and in 1821 and 1822 a member of the Senate. In 1832 he was a Presidential elector and threw his vote for Henry Clay. On the 17th of June, 1811, he married Mary Ann, daughter of Edward Oxnard, and died at Newburyport August 28, 1854.

LoNSON Nash came to the bar in 1807 and settled in Gloucester, his native town. He was a Representative in 1809 and Senator in 1812. He retired in 1860 and died at Great Barrington February 1, 1863.

William Fabens, son of William and Sarah (Brown) Fabens, was born in Salem April 14, 1810, and graduated at Harvard in 1832. He early settled in Marblehead and was engaged in law practice until his death, March 11, 1883. He was trial justice from 1860 to 1878, a State Senator in 1859, a trustee of the Nautical School during the entire period of its existence, and for many years an active member of the School Board of Marblehead.

Caleb Gushing. - Newburyport, from the first settlement of the country, has been greatly distinguished for the eminence attained by her sons, daughters and citizens, in letters and active life. She can point to a long list of statesmen, orators, poets, jurists, divines, inventors and merchants, who do her honor. One of the least of our cities in territory and population, she has made herself famous at home and abroad, in the States of the Union and the nations of the globe. Among the names of her jurists she counts Bradbury, Parsons, Jackson, Lowell, Greenleaf, Wilde and a host of others famous for their knowledge of common law and international law, as well as for their legal opinions and decisions uttered in our courts ; but no one of them in his varied acquirements aud duties has done more credit to himself and the place of his birth or residence than Caleb Gushing. There have been in this century, or in this country, few to compare with him. It has been said that no man is great in everything or great at all times ; but as we look back on his career, from youth to old age, we discover no dimness, no weakness. As a polygon presents in its many sides and angles, in its roofs and towers, its lights and shadows, the evidence of its own strength and beauty and the skill and genius of its designer and builder, so he, in deeds aud words, through a long life and under varied circumstances, in success and in defeat, stands as an illustrious example of what a man may be and may do, when he puts a human will and indomitable persistejicy in what he undertakes to accomplish. He was a scholar lofty in his attainments; an author and an orator equally expert with pen or voice ; a lawyer attractive at the bar, profound on the bench and celebrated as minister of justice - attorney-general for the country, uttering opinions which nations were bound to respect. He was a statesman the compeer of Webster, John Quincy Adams and Charles Sumner, who were his friends and admirers, and no man has shown greater knowledge of the science of government - of the principles on which are based our own and foreign institutions. He was a diplomatist of high rank, negotiating treaties in South America, Spain, China, in pressing our claims before the extraordinary tribunal at Geneva, where sat the distinguished commissioners from Germany, Italy, Spain, England and America, who listened to no other man more gladly.

It did not matter where he was placed, what duties he was to perform or with whom he was to act, he never failed in courage, capacity or power and perseverance. He was equal to the occasion. The late Isaac O. Barnes, many years United States marshal for the district of Massachusetts, who knew Mr. Gushing intimately, and was himself a scholar and a wit, being one day in the Public Library of Boston, was approached by a young man, who inquired where he could find an encyclopaedia. Mr. Gushing passing at the moment. Colonel Barnes, pointing to him, replied: "There is a living, self-moving cyclopedia, from whom you can obtain information upon every question that has interested any people in any age of the world." This seems almost a literal truth. He had made himself personally acquainted by his travels with all the continents of our globe, he had crossed the oceans and great seas, climbed the Rocky Mountains, the Alps and the Andes and sat on the foot-hills of the Himalayas; had conversed with the Russian at St. Petersburg, the German at Berlin, the Italian on the Bay of Naples, the Frenchman at Paris, the Spaniard at Madrid, the Tartar in Eastern Asia, each in his own tongue, and at the reception of foreign ministers by President Pierce, surprised them all in his facility of language. He studied religions with the preachers of Geneva, the priests of Rome and the Brahmins of India, and he had discussed politics and international law with the highest minister of state in China. The schools had found him a most enthusiastic student, the forum an eloquent advocate, and to his reading of books there was no end. He was literally the devourer of books and the digester of their contents. He was the only man we ever knew who could read a dictionary and delight in the study of every word ; and that did Caleb Gushing on the first appearance of Webster's Unabridged, containing one hundred and fourteen thousand words, and, more than that, unsolicited aud without remuneration, like a proof-reader, he marked every error or mistake ; so he could study a volume of abstract principles because he could surround each statement with the children born from it, and thus evolve from naked truths passages of beauty. This single fact of his reading we may cite: " When called to the Supreme Bench he had long been out of the practice of law, and to prepare himself for duty, read fifty-seven volumes of the Massachusetts Reports - all up to that date - in nineteen days, or three full volumes per day, and so thoroughly did he the work that he was familiar with every decision they contained. This he could do because he was untiring in labor and needed little sleep. He often read eighteen hours a day through many successive days, and what he received into the mind he retained there. It was not a mere reading by the eye, but it was absorbed in the mind, - transcribed upon the tablet of memory, and ever ready of use. He h;id a most remarkable power of abstracting himself from the material world in which he lived and concentrating all his force in the world of thought. This gave him seasons when he was uncommunicative, followed by others when he was the most affable of men.

Coming to the consideration of such a person, the details of his life will be not uninteresting. He was born in Salisbury, a town at the mouth of the River Merrimac, January 17th, 1800, and removed with his family to Newburyport two years later. He was the eldest son of Captain John N. Cushing by his first wife, Lydia Dow, of Salisbury. It is not always clear how much one inherits from his ancestors, and how much he is of himself; therefore, we add that he was from an old colonial family, not previously unknown to fame, whose tendencies in professional life were to the pulpit and the bar. Among those bearing the same family-name was William Cushing, who succeeded his father, John, as a justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts before the Revolution of 1776, whom President Washington raised to the Federal Supreme Court on the organization of the government in 1789. He was of Scituate, which may be termed the "home-nest" of the family, and thence came to Salisbury, Rev. Caleb Cushing accepting the pastorate of the first parish of that town, in whose line the subject of this sketch appears. His father, though at his death the largest ship-owner of the Stale and the most wealthy merchant of Newburyport, at the birth of his son was a seaman, poor in estate and much absent on long voyages at sea. Caleb Cushing, therefore, in boyhood owed nothing to his surroundings save what he inherited from his father, - a love of labor and a desire to be self supporting and independent. He was exceedingly fortunate, however, in being a pupil at school of a distinguished teacher and mathematician, Michael Walsh, who took pride in him and, admiring the robustness of the lad, who then had within him the man to be developed, Master AValsh shaped his course, inspired his ambition and prepared him for college. He graduated at Harvard at the early age of seventeen, third in a class of sixty-two, which included many others of future fame, and so did he excel in his rhetoric and oratory that he, one of the youngest, was selected to make the address to President Monroe, when he .visited the university in 1817. After that, for two years, in the same institution, he was tutor of mathematics and natural philosophy.

Leaving college he studied law, first at the Harvard Law-school, and later at the oflBce of the Hon. Ebenezer Moseley, at Newburyport. Admitted to the bar in 1822 he rose rapidly and soon acquired a lucrative practice. At that time the Essex bar rivalled that of Boston, in the learning and skill ot its members, and Caleb Cushing and Rufus Choate stood at its head, their friends often disputing which should be first. It was a generous rivalry, in which each held the other in the highest esteem ; Cushing thinking Choate unsurpassed in his magnetic eloquence, and Choate declaring that in law he feared no opposing counsel so much as Cushing.

In 1823, Mr. Cushing married Miss Caroline, daughter of Judge Wilde of the Supreme Court: a lady of rare intellectual endowments and much literary culture. She accompanied him on his two years tour of Europe, and after her return published a very popular volume of letters on France and Spain. Her death, which occurred in 1832, was an irreparable loss, and he remained a widower and childless for nearly a half-century to his own decease. It was during his European travels - a tour of inspiiction and study of the institutions, laws, manners and monuments of the old world, that he formed a strong attachment to Spain - a love for its literature and people, that went with him through life. On his return he wrote his best book, " Reminiscences of Spain," in two volumes. He was so interested that he became as familiar with its language as with his own, so that later, when introduced to the Court of Madrid, as American minister, he surprised the King by the purity of the Spanish tongue in which he addressed him. The same thing was noticeable in the trial of cases in the courts at Washington. At the commencement of President Pierce's administration, as Attorney General, he had to deal with Mexican claims where the documents were in Spanish, and the court-room would be crowded by ladies and gentlemen who understood not a word of the language, but gladly listened to the music of his clear, rich voice, as he pronounced the sonorous words ; the same may be said, however, of his exact and thorough training in all the languages used by him. He would never allow himself to mispronounce. After he was seventy years old, he spent months in Paris to improve his pronunciation of French, preparatory to addressing the convention of Geneva, in which that was the common tongue. Indeed, if he could have given time to it, he would have appeared as one of the greatest philologists of the age.

In 1825, Caleb Cushing entered political life, being elected representative to the State legislature from Newburyport. He was then in the pride of his early manhood, fully equipped for the battle of life. He was well-formed, about the ordinary height, of commanding presence, with black hair, bright eyes, and in cold weather wore a loose cloak, falling from the shoulders, after the fashion of the ancient toga, showing him the Roman he was. His appearance was impressive, and no one failed to perceive that he was no ordinary person. He w^as the most brilliant man in the house, and the. next year passed to the Sentae. He was again a member of the legislature in 1833 and

1834. Twelve years after, when war was pending with Mexico, and his services were needed, he was a fifth time elected, and subsequently in 1850 and in 1869. Indeed as often as other duties would permit, the people of Newburyport, who were proud of him, and never failed him in any emergency, sent him to represent them in the General Court. They always rejoiced in his success, and always welcomed him home with open arms. There was never an hour when he had not so the confidence and affection of neighbors and townsmen, that they would not have elected him to any oflSce within their gift. It was said that Napoleon appeared greatest at a distance ; Mr. Gushing had it to his credit that he appeared greatest to those who knew him longest and best.

In 1834 he was elected to congress, from the district then called Essex North. For colleagues, he had the venerable ex-president, John Quincy Adams, who became much attached to him, and whom in some respects, especially in independent politics, he much resembled ; Robert G. Winthrop, who alone of the ten survives, Levi Lincoln, Leverett Saltonstall and others, making in the whole, the most distinguished delegation that Massachusetts or any other state ever sent to Washington. They were all opposed to General Jackson, then president, though Mr. Gushing s-urprised some of his constituents who declared Jackson an ill-bred and vulgar frontiersman, by saying that he was one of the most polite and gentlemanly persons he had ever met at home or abroad.

In Congress Mr. Gushing immediately took high rank. He was appointed on the Committee of Foreign Affairs with John Quincy Adams, and they alternately were the head of that committee, and probably no two men in Congress were so well versed in international law or in the history of our foreign relations. Daniel Webster said " that Mr. Gushing had not been six weeks in Congress, before he was acknowedged to be the highest authority on what had been the legislation of congress on any given subject." He held his seat for eight years, and entered heartily and fearlessly into the discussions of that day. It was, in the era of duelling, the frequent habit of opposing parties to badger new members, in hopes to break them down, but when it was attempted on Mr. Gushing, and he turned face to face with his opponent, rough old Ben Hardee, of Kentucky, who was the terror of weak and diffident minds, Mr. Gushing spoke in the severest tones the rules of the House would permit, and closed by giving notice that he held himself responsible for his words there or any where else. The House rang with applause and the galleries so vociferated - the ladies waving their handkerchiefs and the men clapping their hands and shouting, that a motion was made to clear the galleries, but that was not necessary, for the people filled with admiration that this young member - it was his second speech - had dared to beard the old lion in his den, that they retired of themselves, and it was the talk of Washington and the time. There was no duel but the many added their belief that Mr. Gushing -meant all his words implied.

Mr. Gushing at that early day, in 1836, if ever, had no sympathy with the Abolitionists, but he protested against the idea of suppressing or restricting Liberty that slavery might widen and deepen; and when Henry A. Wise, then representative from Virginia? discussing the admission of Arkansas, threatened to plant slavery in the heart of the Northern States, Mr. Gushing broke loose upon him in a burning torrent of words : " Introduce slavery into the heart of the North!" - here he hesitated and gazed scornfully into the face of Wise - " Vain idea ! invasion, pestilence, civil war may conspire to exterminate a people. This, in the long lapse of ages incalculable, is possible to happen. You may raze to the earth the thronged cities, the industrious villages, the peaceful hamlets of the North. You may plant its soil with salt and consign it to everlasting desolation. You may transform its beautiful fields into a desert as bare as the blank face of Sahara. You may reach the realization of the infernal boast with which Attila, the Hun, marched his barbarous hosts into Italy. . . . All this you may do, it is within the bounds of physical possibility, but, I solemnly assure every gentleman within the sound of my voice, I proclaim it to the country and the world, that you can not, and you shall not, introduce slavery into the North." Here he stood immovable from first to last. He believed in selfgovernment and in local State government, as the basis of American freedom and constitutional liberty, and he would preserve the rights of the States and the liberties of the republic at the same time.

Mr. Gushing was in favor of extending the area of freedom, of enlarging the republic west to our natural boundary, the Pacific Ocean, and north and south as circumstances should require. Hence his plea for Arkansas, his defense of our rights in Oregon, and his readiness to annex Texas. And what he advocated he was ready to defend in the field if the occasion demanded. Therefore, in the face of the severest opposition to the Mexican War, in Massachusetts, he not only urged the measure in debate, but himself volunteered, assisted to raise the regiment called for, and when the Legislature refused an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars to assist them to reach their destination, he advanced the funds from his own resources. He led the regiment as colonel and was appointed a brigadier-general soon after landing in Mexico.

In the great struggle of John Quincy Adams for the right of petition - the heroic and the last contest of the venerable sage of Quincy - Mr. Gushing was his faithful friend and active coadjutor, and uniformly in congress was on the liberal and progressive side. Robert C. Winthrop, on a recent occasion, referring to Mr. Cushing's congressional career, spoke of " his varied ability, vast acquirements, unwearied applicaxl tion and his fame and skill as a writer and debater." " Nor will I forget," added he, " his very amiable traits of character, which prevented difference of opinion or of party, sundering the ties of social intercourse. He knew how to abandon a policy or quit a party without quarrelling with those he left behind." Thus we see him, a Democrat, in the most friendly relations with Charles Sumner, at Washington, spending an evening of every week in discussing public affairs and inquiring what might be done for their common country. Like relations held he with Secretary Seward, and with all the Eepublican presidents from Lincoln to Grant inclusive.

He retired from politics, after the Rebellion broke out, and spent most of his time at Washington, where every administration during his life had the benefit of his well-formed opinions ; nor was there a single branch of the government that did not avail itself of his service. When not connected officially with them he was held in reserve for any emergency that might occur. Nothing personal or political jirevented his serving his country. He was intensely loyal and patriotic; never man more so; ready to sacrifice anything for the unity and perpetuity of the government. We recall his words in dismissing the national Democratic convention, over which he was called to preside at Charleston, S. C, when we stood on the brink of the Rebellion: " I pray you, gentlemen, in returning to your constituents and the bosoms of your families, to take with you, as your guiding thought, the sentiment, the Constitution and the Union." Those were the waymarks and the guides of his life.

After leaving Congress he at once entered upon the duties of minister to China, to which he had been appointed by President Tyler to negotiate a treaty. This he did, going east to China and returning in the same direction, via Mexico, with the best treaty to that date ever made with that ancient people ; perfecting his work and circumnavigating the globe in fourteen months. The treaty was submitted to the Senate that had, on political grounds, three times rejected him as secretary of the treasury, and was so satisfactory as to be ratified without a dissenting voice

His next important service w^as as attorney-general under President Pierce, to which he was called from the Supreme Bench of Massachusetts, which occasioned one of his associate judges to pay him this compliment, " when he came to the bench we didn't know what we could do with him ; and when he left, we didn't know how we could do without him." As Attorney-General, he perhaps appeared to the country at large, better than in any position he had before held ; and when he retired, carried with him a higher reputation for profound knowledge, than any of his predecessors. He was then at his maturity, in the fulness of physical and mental strength, and his labors were the most arduous and varied. It was not uncommon, for weeks in succession, for him to be in his office from four o'clock in the morning till midnight.

and every conceivable question on our relations to matters at home and abroad, wsa submitted to him. His opinions fill three volumes, of the fifteen in the whole, to the date of his retirement ; and no less authority than William Beach Lawrence, in his edition of Wheaton, declares " they constitute in themselves a valuable body of international law." They show also his fidelity to the principles of the fathers of the republic.

In the short space allowed this sketch, we may not go into particulars. That he had the confidence of the country may be seen in this : President Lincoln appointed him a commissioner to adjust claims pending between this country and Mexico, Spain and other peoples ; President Johnson made him a special envoy to the United States of Colombia ; President Grant appointed him minister to Spain, counsel for the United States to Geneva and would have made him chief justice of the Supreme Court, had not Mr, Cushing asked him to withdraw the nomination, not made at his solicitation, upon the dissent of a single Senator ; and at every point his action was endorsed by the country, the public press applauding.

He now retired to his home. Though still strong, but pressing hard u^jon four-score years, he could see that the end was near, and he heard the message : " What thou hast to do, do quickly." He obeyed, turned his attention to his private affairs and sought rest with personal friends, in the town and by the river he had loved so well, and where he had been loved. His mission was finished ; he had all the honors desired ; his fortune was ample; he had really nothing more to do, than to be himself, as he was to the end, and utter his last prayer for his country. He died January 2, 1879, and was gathered to his fathers. He sleeps on the western slope of the hill, where the n*ys of the setting sun longest linger on the marble that bears his name, and the name of her who was dearest of human kind to him. He had built the tomb for his wife, and in it prepared his own resting place - a place for one ; he determined at her decease, forty-five years before, there should be no more.

Daniel P. King, though never admitted to the bar, passed through a course of study in law and deserves a place in this record. He was born in Danvers January 8, 1801, and was the son of Daniel and Phebe (Upton) King, of that town. He fitted for college at Phillips Academy and graduated at Harvard in 1823. In 1824 he married Sarah P., daughter of Hezekiah and Sally (Putnam) Flint, and finally settled down at Danvers as a farmer, following the occupation of his lather before him. He was a Representative to the Legislature from his native town in 1835, Speaker of the House in 1840 and 1841, president of the Senate in 1843, and was chosen in the last year Representative to Congress, continuing in office until 1849. His natural gifts, cultivated by his collegiate and legal studies, specially fitted him for legislative duties, and more particularly for that class of them

Elias Hasket Derby was born in Salem September 24, 1803, and graduated at Harvard in 1824. He studied law in the office of Daniel Webster, and appears on the official list of lawyers admitted to the bar to have been admitted at Salem in the year of his graduation from college. He settled in Boston, and by an increasing practice in railroad cases soon became identified with railroad interests, in the promotion of which he was far-seeing and bold. He was a prolific writer for newspapers and magazines, having in all his productions an eye to the advancement and prosperity of Boston. He was at one time president of the Old Colony Railroad, and died in Boston, March 31, 1880.

George Lunt, son of Abel and Phoebe Lunt, was born in Newburyport December 31, 1803, and graduated in Harvard in 1824. He was admitted to the Essex bar in 1833, and until 1848 practiced law in Newburyport. In that year he removed to Boston, and in 1849, under the new Whig national administration, was appointed district attorney for Massachusetts, succeeding Robert Rantoul. During the four or five years which preceded the war he was one of the editors of the Boston Courier, and was earnest in his opposition to all the measures on the part of the North which tended to dissatisfy and estrange the South. His convictions were doubtless as sincere and pure as those who denounced him, but his love for an unbroken union mingled with a timidity which shrunk from a test of its strength, made him appear at times what he was not, an advocate of slavery and its attendant evils.

Outside of the columns of newspapers, Mr. Lunt's publications were chiefly poetical, while the newspapers themselves contained many a poetical gem from his pen, which eventually found its way into a public collection. A volume of his poems was published in 1829, another in 1843, another in 1851 and still others in 1854 and 1855. The last few years of his life Mr. Lunt spent in comparative retirement in Scituate, and died in Boston May 16, 1885.

Stephen Palfrey Webb, son of Captain Stephen and Sarah (Putnam) Webb was born in Salem March 20, 1804, and graduated at Harvard in 1824. He studied law with John Glen King, of Salem, and was admitted to the bar in 1826. He settled in practice in Salem, and was, before 1853, Senator, Representative and mayor. In that year he went to San Francisco, where he was also chosen mayor in 1854, and returned to Salem, again to be chosen mayor in 1860, '61 and '62. He was city clerk of Salem from 1863 to 1870, and finally removed to Brookline, where he died in 1879. He married, May 26, 1834, Hannah Hunt Beckford Robinson, daughter of Nathan and Eunice (Beckford) Robinson.

Joanna (Lovett) Rantoul, was born in Beverly, August 13, 1805. In his childhood he gave no doubtful promise of the traits of mind and character that were prominent in his maturer years. Happy in home influences, and in those of his earliest school-life, he not only learned with wonderful facility, but manifested a power of thought and reasoning so unusual for his age, that there was never any purpose other than of securing for him the best means of education attainable. He was fitted for college at Phillips Academy in Andover, and entered Harvard in 1822, graduating in 1826. His college life was one of untiring Indus - try. Fourteen hours out of the twenty-four were, oftener than not, spent in study. He paid little attention to the college curriculum, easily reading Latin and Greek at sight, and in mental, moral and political science reciting from his own " inner consciousness," in words of which the professor could find no trace or analogue in the text-book. He devoted a great deal of time to the higher literature of continental Europe. The French language he learned by reading it, and it early became as familiar to him as the Englit^h. In German, under the tuition of Dr. Follen, he belonged to the first class in Cambridge that ever studied that tongue. His chief aim was to become conversant with the political history and institutions of the European nations, and with the history and science of government and legislation. He was as intimately acquainted with Grotius and Puffendorfi", Machiavelli and Beccaria, Montesquieu and Jeremy Bentham, as the foremost of his classmates were with their required class-work. But, notwithstanding his incessant labor, he was not indifferent to college society, though he took part in it mainly in behalf of the interests which he held in the highest re gard, and with the view of raising the standard of general culture. " The Institute of 1770 " was formed by the union of three pre-existing societies, one of which, while surrendering the distinctive portion of its name insisted on retaining the index of its birth-year. This new society was organized, virtually by him, for the sole purpose of literary and scientific work, and in its earlier years was among the most efficient educational forces in the university. Mr. Rantoul's high place in the esteem of his classmates was manifested in his election as class-poet, and, although in after years he wrote but little verse, he had already shown, and certainly showed by that very poem, a talent which, with adequate cultivation, might have given him no inconspicuous place among American poets. Mr. Rantoul, on leaving college, entered the law-office of John Pickering, and at a later period that of Leverett Saltonstall.

He was admitted to the bar in 1829, and established himself for a time in Salem, where his principal business was as junior counsel for the Knapps in the celebrated White murder trial, in which he collected and prepared the evidence for the defense. In 1831 he removed to South Reading, and in 1833 to Glouxlii cester, which town he represented in four successive Legislatures. In 1835 he was appointed on a committee for revising the statutes of Massachusetts, and in the three following years he served and performed very elBcient service on the Judiciary Committee. He first distinguished himself in the Legislature by his opposition to the charter of a " ten million bank," at a time when paper money, often of difficult and doubtful currency, flooded the country, and shortly before the suspension of specie payment by the New England banks. His action was with the Democratic party ; but it was universally admitted that it was his able argument (which might stand now as an independent treatise on the philosophy of finance), that won over a sufficient number of the Whig majority in the House, though it was regarded as a party measure, to defeat the scheme. There was hardly an important subject before the House on which he remained silent ; and his speeches were not harangues, but thorough arguments, based on facts, statistics and principles, and requiring, in order to answer them, if not an ability equal to his own, at least an amount of diligent study and careful elaboration which few legislators were, or ever are, willing to bestow.

The subject of capital punishment, commended to him by his father's lifelong interest in it, was among those which he early and often urged on the attention of the Legislature. As chairman of committees he made three reports in as many successive years in favor of the abolition of the death-penalty, besides as many carefully prepared speeches, and not a few shorter ones in the progress of debate. He afterward wrote " Letters on the Death-Penalty," addressed to the Governor and Legislature of Massachusetts, which were reprinted by order of the Legislature of New York. He also embraced every available opportunity for delivering lectures and addresses on this subject. His writings upon it probably contain all that has been or can be said in opposition to capital punishment, and they have been largely quoted wherever the question has been discussed on either side of the Atlantic.

In 1839 Mr. Rantoul opened an office in Boston, having his home in Beverly. In 1843 he was appointed Collector of the port of Boston and Charlestown, and in the following year United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, which latter office he resigned in 1849.

During the period of his legal practice in Boston he had the management of a singularly large number of cases of prime importance, both for clients of his own and in behalf of the government, and in several instances he not only gained his cause against the strongest possible array of opposing counsel, but won their hearty applause; and when he lost a case he seldom failed to have the verdict of an intelligent public fcr what he had made to appear the better side. One of his most remai'kable cases was that of Sims, the fugitive slave, whose defence he was called to undertake without an hour's previous notice, yet in whose behalf he made an argument to which, as we read the report of it to-day, it seems as if nothing could have been added, whether on the score of constitutional law or of natural right. A large proportion of the cases in which he appeared as an advocate were, like this last-named, such as he espoused with his whole heart, equally from feeling and from principle, so that he identified himself fully and entirely with the person or cause under trial.

Mr. Rantoul, at the outset of his public life, attached himself to the Democratic party from sincere conviction, and with full knowledge that this was not the way to obtain place or office, or even the recognition of ability or merit, in Massachusetts. But he never bore any part, nor felt any sympathy, with the pro-slavery sentiment, in which, for many years, the two great political parties had vied with each other in that sordid sycophancy to the South which culminated in the Fugitive-Slave Law. The passage of this law roused intense indignation in Massachusetts, and led to the building up of the Free-Soil party, with which the leaders of the Democracy were free to form a coalition, while loyalty to Mr. Webster restrained the opposing i^arty from giving unanimity of expression to the feeling which, beyond a question, was universal throughout the State. Mr. Rantoul had several times before been nominated for Congress and had received a very large minority cf votes. In 1851 he was elected by the Massachusetts Legislature, in which the Free-Soil party held the balance of power, to fill out Mr. Webster's unexpired term in the United States Senate, on his becoming Secretary of State, and in the same year he was chosen as a member of the House of Representatives for the Essex South District.

During the brief period of his Senatorship there was no occasion which called upon him for more than a few short speeches, on matters of no permanent importance. But in the House he at once took a prominent part in debate, not wholly in connection Avith the slavery issue, but on other subjects of national interest. On the occasions on which he addressed the House he showed himself armed at all points, whether for defence or for assault, and was probably the man above all others, whom the abettors of such wrongs as had assumed to their view the aspect of right most dreaded to encounter.

His vast learning, his tenacious memory and his prompt command of its resources, made him a most; formidable opponent, while the same qualities fitted him for the efficient advocacy of measures conducive to the national progress and well-being.

But his career was cut short at the moment when he was winning the highest distinction, and when especially the friends of freedom were depending on his already well-proved strength as their champion. He was preparing a speech on the fisheries, a subject which he doubtless understood better than any other man in Congress, when he was arrested by an attack of erysipelas, which, after a very brief illness, terminated fatally on the 7th of August, 1852.

In our summary narrative of Mr. Rantoul's professional and official life, we have described but a small portion of his work in and for the community of which he was a citizen. He was pre-eminently a public servant, ixnselfish and philanthropic, deeming it his highest privilege to advance the true interest and well-being of his country and his race. This was his ruling ambition, and it was an ambition that gave him no rest. He cared not for station or office, except as a post of usefulness. He would not have accepted the highest position in the world had it impaired the liberty of speech and pen ; while he was content to remain a private citizen so long as he could make himself heard and felt by multitudes.

Mr. Rantoul bore no small part in the creation of facilities for travel and transportation. When the extension of the Boston and Worcester Railroad to Albany was first agitated, and the crossing of the mountain-spine in Western Massachusetts seemed an almost hopeless enterprise, he undertook the advocacy of this measure, and had large influence in procuring subsidy for it from the State and in winning for it the favor of private capitalists.

Illinois was indebted to him for like service, attended with no small personal loss and sacrifice, in the construction of her Central Railroad, and his name, so beneficially connected with her history, is kept in enduring memory, and has been given to a town that has sprung into being since his death.

In the cause of education Mr. Rantoul held a foremost place. He was among the founders of the system of Lyceum lectures, and lectured himself whenever he could find opportunity, in those early times when the lecturer sought only to instruct, not to amuse, his hearers, and had no compensation other than their gratitude. He started the publication of a series of Lyceum lectures and other popular tracts, in successive numbers, under the title of " The Working Men's Library."

He was one of the earliest movers in the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and was intimately associated with Horace Mann, as his defender and coadjutor in the reform of the common schools of the State. He procured the publication of two series of many volumes, which he virtually edited, under the name of " The Common-School Ijibrary," - one series for the older, the other for less advanced pupils, - both consisting chiefly of standard works in various departments of knowledge, which in their ordinary editions were beyond the reach of common readers. He was an earnest advocate of the temperance cause, and, while conforming himself to the purest moral standard, he spared no effort when, by public address or by private influence, he could hope to bring his fellow-citizens up to the same elevated views. Indeed, his high tone of character, his friendly interest in whatever was of real moment to those around him, his perpetual propagandism of the primal truths and great causes that were dearer to him than success, prosperity or fame, gave him a commanding and beneficent influence over men of all classes and conditions with whom he was brought into relations, more or less intimate.

In 1831 Mr. Rantoul married Jane Elizabeth Woodbury, of Beverly. He had two sons, both living, - Robert Samuel, of Salem, a lawyer, who has been a member of both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature; and Charles William, now a resident of Florida.

Nathaniel James Lord was born in Ipswich October 28, 1805, and graduated at Harvard in 1825. He studied law in the law school at Northampton, under Judge Howe and Professor Ashmun and in the office of Leverett Saltonstall, at Salem, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1828. He was associated with Mr. Saltonstall in business until 1835, and afterwards, until the autumn of 1853, was actively engaged alone in the practice of the law. After the death of Mr. Saltonstall, in 1845, he was the acknowledged leader of the Essex bar. In his earliest professional life, as the junior partner of Mr. Saltonstall, he had little opi:)ortunity as junior counsel to show his extraordinary ability, but as soon as he launched his own boat and assumed command, he only waited for the death of his old venerable partner and the removal of Mr. Choate to Boston to become identified with his native county as its greatest lawyer. Besides these two eminent men, he had to cope with John Glen King, Joshua Holyoke Ward, Caleb Cushing, Robert Rantoul and Ebenezer Mosely, but his repeated trials of strength with these skillful antagonists, vindicated his claim to the first honors of his profession. He died at Salem June 18, 1869. On the 21st a special meeting of the Essex Bar Association was held, to take notice of the death of their late associate, at which William C. Endicott, the president of the association, delivered an address, analyzing and eulogizing the character of the deceased. He was followed by Asahel Huntington, Jonathan C. Perkins, Thomas B. Newhall and William D. Northend. At an adjourned meeting, held June 28th, Alfred A. Abbott, in behalf of a committee appointed at the previous meeting, presented a memorial on the life and character of Mr. Lord, which was accepted and ordered to be entered on the records of the association.

On the 2d of July, 1869, Mr. Abbott, in behalf of the Association, read the memorial in the Supreme Court, in session at Salem, and moved that it be placed on the records of the court. The motion was seconded by William C. Endicott, who was followed by Mr. Huntington in a motion that a copy be sent to the family of Mr. Lord. Chief Justice Brigham then addressed the bar, and in respect to the memory of Mr. Lord, the court adjourned.

Jeremiah Chaplin Stickney, son of John and Martha (Chaplin) Stickney, was born in Rowley January 6, 1805. He pursued his education at the Bradford Academy and at the Salem Latin School, and graduated at Harvard in 1824. He studied law with David Cummins, and was admitted to the bar in 1826. He was postmaster of Lynn under President Jackson, Representative to the State Legislature in 1839 and 1840, reappointed postmaster of Lynn by President Pierce in 1853, and continued in ofBce-until 1858. He married, December 25, 1829, Mary, daughter of John Frazier, of Philadelphia, and died August 3, 1863.

Jonathan Cogswell Perkins was born in Essex November 21, 1809, and graduated at Amherst in 1832, of which institution he was chosen a trustee in 1850. He studied law at the Dane Law School and in the office of Rufus Choate, and was admitted to the Essex bar, at Newburyport, in 1835. In 1845 and 1846 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, in 1847 and 1848 a member of the State Senate, in 1848 president of the Salem Common Council, in 1853 a member of the Constitutional Convention, and in 1848 was appointed by Governor Briggs an associate judge of the Common Pleas Court, holding his seat until the abolition of that court and the establishment of the Superior Court in 1859. He received from his alma mater the degree of LL.D. in 1867. He edited and annotated " Daniels' Chancery Practice, with American Forms," " Sugden on Vendors," "Arnold on Insurance," " Benjamin on Sales," " Williams on Executors and Administrators," " Pickering's Reports," " Vesey's Reports," "Abbott on Shipping," "Angell on Watercourses," " Jarmin on Wills," and the several works of Chitty on Contracts, Bills, Criminal Law and Pleading. He died December 12, 1877, in Salem, where he had always lived after his admission to the bar in 1835. After he left the bench he was city solicitor of Salem.

Joshua Holyoke Ward was a native of Salem, where he died June 5, 1848, at the age of thirty-nine. He graduated at Harvard in 1829, and pursued his law studies in the office of Leverett Saltonstall at Salem, and at the Dane Law School at Cambridge, receiving the degree of LL.B. in 1832. In 1844 he was appointed one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas, and remained on the bench until his death. He was a man of exceptional ability, with a promise universally recognized of a brilliant judicial career.

Otis Phillips Lord, brother of Nathaniel James Lord, was born in Ipswich July 11, 1812, and having fitted for college at Dummer Academy, entered Amherst with the class which graduated in 1832. He was the son of Nathaniel and Eunice (Kimball) Lord, and descended from Robert Lord, who came from Ipswich, England. He studied law with Judge Oliver B. Morris, judge of probate in Hampden

County and in the Dane Law School at Cambridge, from which he graduated in 1836. He was admitted to the bar in Salem in December, 1835, and began practice in his profession in his native town. In 1844 he removed to Salem, where he resided until his death, March 13, 1884. He was a member of the House of Representatives in 1847, '48, '52, '53, '54, in which last year he was Speaker. In 1849 he was a member of the Senate, and in 1853 a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Upon the organization of the Superior Court, in 1859, he was appointed by Governor Banks an associate justice, and held this position until he was appointed by Governor Gaston, December 21, 1875, an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. The latter position he resigned December 8, 1882, and he died in Salem on the 13th of March, 1884.

On the 22d of March, only a few days after his death, a meeting of the members of the bar of the commonwealth was held in Boston, at which sentiments were expressed containing a just and deserved tribute to his character and services as a jurist and a man. Attorney-General Edgar J. Sherman, in presenting resolutions on that occasion, said that " for nearly a quarter of a century Judge Lord served the commonwealth as a judge of the highest tribunals with distinguished ability, and it was only when infirmities became inexorable that he reluctantly abandoned the position which was dear to him both as the post of duty and of honor. . . . He had a natural instinct for the law. His learning was not extensive, and his temperament was always too impatient for much research; but he could recognize a distinction or detect a fallacy at a glance. In his power to grasp and enunciate principles, to analyze and marshal evidence, to seize upon and with remorseless clearness and logic to present the controlling elements of a case, he was seldom, if ever, surpassed. , . His personal character was one of marked individuality, but it is no flattery of him to say that its most prominent features were the warmth and sincerity of his friendship, his rugged honesty, and a courage which never paltered with his convictions."

Chief Justice Morton, in the course of his response, said, " Judge Lord was a rapid thinker, and quickly formed impressions upon any questions of law presented to him. Whether his views were right or wrong, he saw them clearly and strongly ; and such was his power of forcible expression, that there was at times danger that he might make the worse the better reason. But he had such control over his mind that he could grasp and appreciate any fair argument which tended to refute his views?, and had the candor to abandon at once his position when convinced that he was in error. ... In every relation of life he was a man of marked individuality and force. In every aspect of his character he was a strong man. He was fctrong in his intellect, strong in his emotion-, strong in his friendships, strong in his dislikes and

George Minot, son of Judge Stephen Minot, of Haverhill, was born in that town January 5, 1817. He graduated at Harvard in 1836, and studied law with Rufus Choate, preparatory to his admission to the Suffolk bar in 1839. He is best known for the " Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts," which he published in 1844, and to which he added a supplement in 1852. He died at Reading, Mass., April 16, 1858.

Robert Wormsted Trevett was born in 1789, and graduated at Harvard in 1808. He studied law and settled in Lynn in 1813, where he died January 13, 1842.

Stephen Bradshaw Ives was born in Salem March 9, 1827, and was the son of Stephen B.Ives, of that city. He received his early education in the public schools and graduated at Harvard in 1848. Alter leaving college he taught school one season in Newbury, and afterwards had charge as principal of one of the Salem grammar schools. He studied law in the office of Northend & Choate, in Salem, and was admitted to the bar at Salem at the March term of the Court of Common Pleas in 1851. For a year or two he was clerk of the Salem Police Court, and in 1853 began active practice. By his eminent qualifications for his chosen profession, guided and spurred by an unusual enthusiasm in its pursuit, he early secured a large business and won an enviable reputation. He died at Salem February 8, 1884, and on the next day a meeting of the Bar Association of Essex County was held in the court-house, in Salem, and a committee consisting of William D. Northend, George F. Choate, A. A. Abbott, Daniel Saunders and Charles P. Thompson was appointed to prepare resolutions of respect to be presented to the court.

In the Supreme Judicial Court, sitting at Salem on the 24th of the following April, a worthy memorial was read by Alfred A. Abbott, who was followed in appropriate remarks by Mr. Northend, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Saunders, Charles A. Benjamin and Leverett S. Tuckerman.

Chief Justice Morton, presiding, accepted the memorial in behalf of the court and added his testimony to the high character, indomitable energy and professional skill of Mr. Ives. The whole bar acknowledged the truth of Mr. Abbott's statement that for " thirty years he pursued a career which has had few parallels in the history of the Essex Bar."

Alfred A. Abbott, son of Amos Abbott, was born in Andover May 30, 1820. He was educated at Phillips Andover Academy and entered Yale College in 1837. At the end of his junior year he left Yale and entered Union College, from which he graduated in 1841. In 1843 he graduated also from the Dane Law

School at Cambridge. His law studies were finished in the office of Joshua Holyoke Ward, and he was admitted to the bar in 1844. He commenced practice in that part of Danvers which is now Peabody, and made that his residence until his death, October 27, 1884. He represented the town of Danvers in the Legislature in 1850-52, and the county of Essex in the Senate in 1853. In the latter year he was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and was appointed district attorney for the Eastern District. He held office as attorney until 1869. In 1870 he was appointed, upon the death of Mr. Huntington, clerk of the courts, and in the same year he was chosen for Mr. Huntington's unexpired term. He continued in office until his death, having been twice re-elected.

In a memorial read by William D. Northend, president of the Essex Bar Association in the Superior Court at Salem, December 8, 1884, Mr. Northend said : " Mr. Abbott was something more than a lawyer or clerk of the courts ; he was a man of broad culture and large knowledge and experience outside his profession. He read the best books and was a thorough student of English literature. His occasional public addresses were models of excellence. Bis style was elegant and graceful and his language most felicitous. . . . He had a very sympathetic nature, his delivery was forcible and impressive and as an orator he had no equal in the county since the days of Rufus Choate. If he had sought distinction in the general practice of his profession, there was no place at the bar or on the bench to which he could not have justly aspired ; or if he had cherished political ambition, he had the qualities which would have insured him a high position and reputation as a statesman."

John K. Tarbox was born in that part of Methuen which is now Lawrence May 6, 1838. His parents, of Huguenot extraction, were poor, and at the age of eight years he was left an orphan under the guardianship of Rev. Bailey Loring, of North Andover. He was educated in the public schools of Methuen and Lawrence and the Franklin Academy of North Andover, and while still a youth, entered as clerk the drugstore of Henry M. Whitney, of Lawrence. In 1857, at the age of nineteen, he became a student in thelawoflfice of Colonel Benjamin F. Watson, of Lawrence, whose attention had been attracted by his exhibition of mental activity and who advised him to prepare himself for the profession of law. In 1860 he was admitted to the bar and also to a partnership with Colonel Watson, and at a later day was a partner of Edgar J. Sherman, the present attorney-general of the commonwealth. During a part of the war he was a paymaster's clerk, and on the 28th of August, 1863, was mustered out of the service as lieutenant of Company B, Fourth Massachusetts Regiment.

After leaving the service he became the political editor of the Lawrence American, and in 1864 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In

1868, '70, '71, he was a Representative from Lawrence, in 1873 Senator and in 1873-74 mayor of that city. In 1870, '72, '76, '78, he was an unsuccessful candidate of the Democratic party for Congress, but in 1874 was chosen and sat in the Forty-fourth Congress. In 1879 he presided at the Democratic State Convention, and, in 1883, while city solicitor of Lawrence, was appointed by Governor Butler insurance commissioner. He was reappointed by Governor Robinson in 1886, and won a deserved reputation, not only for the faithful and thorough performance of the duties of that office, but also for his exhaustive labors in the revision and codification of the insurance laws of the State, in obedience to a resolve of the General Court. He died in Boston, May 28th, 1887.

Nathan W. Harmon was born in New Ashford, January 16, 1813. His early life was spent on a farm with the educational advantages of the common schools. He fitted for college at Lenox and graduated at Williams in 1836. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar in Berkshire County, and his name is on the list of admissions to the Essex bar in 1842. After practising law a few years in Berkshire County, a part of the time as partner of George N. Briggs, afterward Governor of the Commonwealth, he removed to Lawrence and made that place ever afterward his residence. In 1857 he was a member of the House of Representatives, and at a later time a member of the State Senate. In 1876 he was appointed Judge of the Police Court of Lawrence and held ofiice until January of the present year (1887), when, on account of enfeebled health, he resigned. He died September 16ih, 1887, leaving two daughters, Harriet and Cornelia, and one son, Rollin E. Harmon, Judge of the Police Court of Lynn.

Hon. James Henry Duncan was born in Haverhill, Mass., December 5, 1793. On the paternal side he was of Scotch-Irish descent. His great-grandfather, George Duncan, was one of the colony that came from Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Londonderry, N. H., 1719. His grandfather, James, came to Haverhill about 1740, where he established himself as a merchant. He died in 1818, aged ninety-two years. He had ten children, the sixth of whom was James, who married Rebecca White, and died January 5, 1822, aged sixty-two years. He left two children - Samuel White, who died October 21, 1824, and James Henry, of this sketch.

On the maternal side the family of Mr. Duncan covers the entire history of Haverhill, a period of more than two centuries, and on the paternal side the three generations cover more than half of this period.

Mr. Duncan early evinced a fondness for books, and at the age of eleven years he was sent to Phillips' Academy at Exeter, N. H., then the leading classical school in the country. Here he was brought into the companionship of Edward Everett, Jared A. Sparks, Buckminster, John G. Palfrey and John A. Dix. The stimulating influence of such companions, aided by his own quick faculties, rapidly developed him ; and at the age of fourteen he entered Harvard College. He was graduated in due course, in the class of 1812, with Dr. John Homans, Judge Sprague, Bishop Wainwright, Henry Ware, Franklin Dexter, Charles G. Loring and others. In college Mr. Duncan held a high rank, especially in the classics, the careful study of which was strongly apparent in the smooth, rounded. Latinized style that marked his conversation and public speech.

The career, thus happily begun, was followed by the study of the law, - first in the office of Hon. John Varnum at Haverhill, and afterwards with his cousin, Leverett Saltonstall, at Salem. In 1815 he was admitted to the Essex bar, and entered upon practice at Haverhill. For several years Mr. Duncan gave his entire time to his profession ; but the death of his father, January 5, 1822, left him in the charge of a considerable estate, which gradually withdrew him from its duties, though he did not wholly relinquish practice until 1849, when he took his seat in Congress. It has been thought by many a misfortune for his own reputation, that the cares of property interfered with the ardent practice of his profession. His ready and sympathetic eloquence, his thorough honesty and comprehensive judgment gave promise of a brilliant future. But probably his life was more widely useful than if he had remained an advocate. As a lawyer he was devoid of trickery, and he instinctively repudiated those indirect methods often employed in the profession. Though richly gifted as an advocate, he had a constitutional aversion to litigation, and thus was oftener engaged in settling cases than in disputing them. We copy here from the resolutions of the Essex bar, passed after his death :

" Renolved, That we desire to expiess and put on record our respect for the memcry and characterof the Honorable James H. Duncan, whose recent death was bo sincerely and deeply lamented in the particular community where he was born and lived, as well as by the public at large. Mr. Duncan entered on the practice of the law in the courts of this county, more than fifty years ago, after a thorough preparation, according to the usages of the day, partly in the office of the late Leverett Saltonstall, so distinguished here in his generation, and his kins man and friend. He pursued his profession here for many years, with marked fidelity and success, always trusted and respected by his brethren, until, having served his State honorably and usefully in both branches of the Legislature, he was called by the general voice of his fellow citizens into the public councils of the country, now more than twenty years ago, since which time he has withdrawn himself wholly from the practice of the profession, and attendance on the courts. Of late years he has been known as a lawyer, to much the largest portion now in practice at this bar, only by the ' tradition of the elders,' among whom, as well as in the courts, he had obtained and always held a 'good report.'"

Mr. Duncan lived what might be called a public life ; yet it was through a certain evident fitness that led him to be called to its duties, rather than from his own seeking. A short time previous to his admission to the bar, he was elected major in the Haverhill Light Infantry ; and, passing through the various grades of militia service, he rose to the rank of colonel, by which title he was afterwards commonly addressed. He was early a trustee of the Essex County

On the formation of the National Republican party, popularly known as the Whig party, in 1827, he was elected to the State Legislature, and in the three succeeding years to the Senate, when he declined re-election. In 1837-38, he was again found in the House; and in the two following years, he was a member of the Council. In 1857 he was again elected to the Legislature. On the passage of the State Insolvent Law, in 1838, he was appointed one of the Commissioners in Insolvency ; and on the passage of the United States Bankrupt Law, in 1841, he wa.s made Commissioner in Bankruptcy, holding the oflSce until the law was repealed. In 1839 he was elected a delegate to the convention at Harrisburg that nominated General Harrison for the Presidency. In 1848 he was chosen to represent his district, then the largest manufacturing district in the United States, in the national Congress; and was re-elected in 1850.