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MEMOIR 

OF  THE 

V 

Hon.  Josiah  Gardner  Abbott,  LL.D., 


READ    BEFORE   THE 


OLD  RESIDENTS'  HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION 


Of  the  City  of  Lowell,  November  24,  1S91, 

,/ 
BY  CHARLES  COWLEY,  LL.D. 

WITH    THE 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BAR 


ON    THE   OCCASION   OF 


JUDGE  ABBOTT'S  DEATH, 


His  Draft  of  an  Address  for  the  Minority  of  the  Elec- 
toral Commission  of  1S77,  to  the  People 
of  the  United  States. 


BOSTON : 

Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

1892. 


rniNTED   BY 

MoKNiNG  Mail  Co. 

LOWEI,L,    MASS. 


co:n^tents 


Mr.  Cowley's  memoir, .,-    i_42 

Gov.  Kussell's  letter,         ..-- ...--42 

Mr.  Stevens'  letter,     -------- 43 

Senator  Hoar's  letter, -..-..--43 

Gen.  Butler's  letter,    ------ 44 

Mr.  A.yer's  letter, - 46 

Mr.  Samiders'  letter, 47 

Mr.  Dean's  letter,  -       ....       48 

Mr.  Tyler's  letter, - -       .       51 

Mr.  Webster's  paper,        .-.-----------53 

Froceedings  of  the  Bar  at  Lowell,  ------------57 

Mr.  Cowley's  remarks. - -57 

Mr.  Lawton's  remarks,      --------- 58 

Mr.  Greenhalge's  remarks,      - -..--.       59 

Mr.  Marrcn's  remarks,       ----- 59 

Proceedings  of  the  Bar  at  Cambridge,  - -       -       61 

Memorial,     --- -- 62 

Mr.  Joslin's  remarks, - -63 

Mr.  Browne's  remarks,      .-.- -...-65 

Mr.  Prince's  remarks,        -- -------       G8 

Mr.  Woodbury's  remarks,        -------------70 

Mr.  Cowley's  remarks,      ----- 72 

Judge  Richardson's  remarks,  -------------       71 

Bar  Association  of  the  City  of  Boston,  .-.-.-----77 

Resolution,    --- -77 

Mr.  Loring's  remarks,        - - 78 

Mr.  Kussell's  remarks,       --------------79 

Appendix, ---81 

Proposed  Address  of  the  Minority  of  the  Electoral  Commission,  -----       81 
Judge  Abbott's  Letter  Declining  the  Kepublican  Nomination  for  Attorney-General,     91 

Note— For  Mr.  Stackpole's  letter,  see  page  33;  for  Mr.  Spaulding's  letter,  see  page  34. 
For  General  Butler's  letter  indicating  the  murderer  of  Jonas  L.  Parker,  see  page  29. 


HON.  JOSIAH  CtARDNER  ABBOTT,  LL.  I). 


A    MEMOIR.* 


The  (lentil  of  Ju(1^l;x'  AI)I)()tt  on  the  seeond  cliiy  of 
last  June  startled  the  comnmnity  by  its  suddenness.  His 
sickness  had  lasted  only  ten  days,  and  had  been  little 
known  beyond  his  law  oihce  in  Boston  and  his  smn- 
nier  home  at  Wellesley  Hills.  It  did  not  develop  any 
symptoms  of  a  dangerous  character  until  the  last  day 
preceding  his  death.  It  Ijegan  with  the  grip  and  finally 
assumed  an  acute  bronchial  form. 

The  notices  of  his  life  which  have  appeared  in  the 
pul)lic  journals  have  been  kind  and  appreciative,  though 
not  so  full  in  the  recital  of  facts  as  those  who  know  him 
best  might  reasonably  desire.  The  citizens  of  Wellesley 
expressed  their  sense  of  his  w^orth  and  of  their  loss  by 
resolutions  and  addresses  at  a  public  meeting  called  for 
that  purpose.  If  that  precedent  has  not  been  followed 
in  Lowell,  it  is  not  because  his  merits  are  less  appre- 
ciated in  this  city,  though  thirty  years  have  passed  since 
he  ceased  to  live  here.  A  new  generation  has  come  up- 
on the  stage  of  action  during  those  thirty  years,  which 
cannot  be  indifferent  to  a  life  so  recently  closed,  and  so 
conspicuous  for  ability,  acti\'ity  and  public  spirit. 

Nine  generations  of  the  Abbott  family  have  ihjur- 
ished   in    the    colony,   province    and    connnonwealth    of 

*  Kepi  inted  from  the  Contributions  of  tlie  Old  Eesideiits'  Historical  Association  of 
the  City  of  Lowell,  Vol.  V,  JS'o.  1. 


2  MEMOIR    OF    HON,  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D. 

Massaehiisotts,  including  the  judge  and  the  children 
and  grandchildren  who  survive  him.  The  pioneer  of 
the  family  was  George  Abbott,  an  English  Puritan, 
who  was  born  in  1615,  came  from  Yorkshire  in  1G40, 
and  was  one  of  the  settlers  of  Andover  in  1643.  The 
second  American  Abbott  among  the  judge's  ancestors, 
was  Timothy  Abbott,  who,  when  thirteen  years  old, 
during  King  Phillip's  war,  was  captured  by  the  Indians 
and  held  in  captivity  for  several  months.  His  brother 
Joseph  w\as  killed  by  them.  The  third  was  another 
Timothy,  and  the  fourth  Nathan,  who  was  the  first 
to  be  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  living  in  a  garrison 
house. 

The  fifth  American  Al)l)ott  was  Caleb,  whose  wife 
w^as  liucy  Lovejoy,  and  whose  wife's  sister  was  the 
second  wife  of  the  father  of  the  late  Jefferson  Davis  of 
Mississippi.  Thus  J.  G.  Abbott's  grand-aunt  was  the 
stepmother  of  the  president  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
In  1855,  while  a  student  in  Judge  Abbott's  office,  I  vis- 
ited Washington  for  the  first  time,  and  was  introduced 
by  Caleb  Gushing,  then  attorney-general,  to  Jefferson 
Davis,  then  secretary  of  war.  Neither  of  us  then 
dreamed  that  we  were  within  six  years  of  such  a  struggle 
as  the  war  of  secession  ;  and  I  remend)er  that  in  the 
conversation  I  then  liad  with  Mr.  Davis,  he  spoke  of  the 
Lovejoys  and  also  of  the  Maynards  as  Massachusetts 
families  to  which  he  was  allied,  and  intimated  a  ])nrpose 
to  visit  New  England  when  he  had  left  the  cabinet  of 
President  Pierce,  and  to  learn  more  than  he  then  knew 
of  its  people. 

The  sixth  in  the  line  of  Judge  Abbott's  American 
ancestors  was  his  father.  Caleb  Abbott,  who  removed 
from  Andover  to  Chelmsford,  married  Mercy  Fletcher, 
daughter  of  Josiah  Fletcher,  and  carried  on  the  business 


MEMOIR    OF    IlOX.    .ToSIAlI    GARDNKR    Anr.OTT,    LL.  V.  ,) 

of  :i  country  inercliant  at  Chelnisford  Centre.  He  died 
in  1846  ;  his  wife  died  twelve  years  earlier. 

The  Fletcher  family  to  which  Judge  Abbott's  mother 
belong-ed  w^ere  Enu'lish  Puritans  who  came  from  Devon- 
shire  and  settled  in  Concord,  and  in  1653  in  Chelmsford. 
William  Fletcher,  one  of  these  first  settlers,  owned 
a  large  part  of  the  territory  which  in  1826  was  incor- 
porated as  the  town  of  Lowell,  and  built  his  log  cabin 
near  where  the  City  Farm  buildings  now  stand.  It  is 
said  that  Josiali  Fletcher,  one  of  his  descendants,  and 
one  of  Judge  Abbott's  mother's  ancestors,  married 
Mary  Chamberlain,  daughter  of  the  man  so  renowned 
in  Indian  w^ar  history  for  having  killed  the  famous  chief, 
Paugus,  though  I  do  not  find  this  in  the  Genealogy  of 
the  Fletcher  Family. 

Aniony:  the  nearest  neighbors  of  the  Fletchers  Avere 
the  Pierces,  whose  dwelling  house  stood  near  the  corner 
of  Chelmsford  and  Forrest  streets.  At  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  the  head  of  this  family  was  Benjamin  Pierce, 
who  became  a  brigadier-general,  governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  father  of  Franklin  Pierce,  president  of  the 
United  States.* 

Both  the  grandfathers  of  Judge  Abbott  were  pres- 
ent at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  in  the  war  of 
Independence.  His  grandfather  Fletcher  was  for  some 
time  in  Captain  John  Ford's  company,  and  rose  himself 
to  the  rank  of  captain. t 

Josiah  Gardner  Abbott  was  of  the  seventh  gener- 
ation of  American  Abbotts,  being  the  second  son  and 
the  fourth  child  of  Caleb  Abbott  and  Mercy  Fletcher. 
Accordino-  to   the  town   clerk's  records  he  was  born  in 


'The  best  memoir  of  Governor  Pierce  is  tliat  of  the  late  Joshua  Merrill,  read  before 
tins  association,  and  published  in  the  third  volume  of  its  Contributions. 

t  See  Abbot's  History  of  Audover,  IJailey's  History  of  Andover,  and  the  Genealogies 
of  the  Abbott  and  Fletcher  Families  respectively 


4  ^n:M(iiii  oi'   HON.  .rosi AH   GARDNKR   AIUJOTT,  ll.  d. 

ClieliiLsford  November  1,  1814,  jind  that  is  his  birth- 
date  as  given  in  the  Abbott  Genealogy;  but  for  many 
yeai's  lie  supposed  tliat  liis  birtli  took  place  a  year  later. 

The  l)est  domestic  influences  formed  his  character 
as  a  boy.  Four  events  took  place  during  his  youth, 
which  contributed  to  stimulate  and  enlarge  his  mind. 
First,  the  Unitarian  movement,  into  which  his  father 
entered  with  zeal,  and  helped  to  carrj^  the  church  of 
Chelmsford  out  of  the  Cahinism  of  the  Mathers  into 
the  lil)eralism  of  Channing.  Second,  the  disruption  of 
the  Federal  part}^  and  the  rise  of  Jacksonian  democrac}', 
which  was  espoused  alike  by  the  father  and  the  son. 
Third,  the  stai'ting  of  the  North  American  RevicAv  and 
the  development  of  American  literature,  of  which  J.  G. 
Ab1)ott  was  a  reader  and  a  lover  from  the  first.  The 
day  of  town  libraries  had  not  yet  dawned ;  but  the  peo- 
ple of  Chelmsford  were  in  advance  of  their  times,  and 
they  established  a  liljrary  hy  Aoluntary  condnnation, 
wdiich  was  placed  in  J.  G.  Aldjott's  father's  store.  All  of 
these  events,  particularly  the  establishment  of  the  lib- 
rary, contributed  to  develop  the  mind  of  J.  G.  Abbott  to 
an  extraordinary  degree  of  activity  and  power. 

In  the  sinnmer  of  1823  he  was  old  enough  to  be 
permitted,  with  an  older  In-other,  to  go  off  souie  three 
miles  from  his  home  at  Chelmsford  Centre  to  attend  a 
])rigade  muster  near  Middlesex  Village.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  tluit  even  at  that  early  time  of  his  lite  h(^  felt 
irreater  interest  in  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany,  which  was  then  preparing  to  start  its  first  Avater- 
wheel,  than  in  the  evolutions  of  "  the  embattled  fai-m- 
ers,"  "the  thunder  of  the  captains  and  the  shooting." 

"1  recollect."  he  says,  "'we  gave  up  the  delights 
aud  attractions  of  the  muster-field  aud  soldiers  and  their 
sham  fiu'hts.   aud   trudu'cd   on   sonu'  two  miles  farther  to 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    .TOSTAH    GARDNER    AI5ROTT,    LL.  I).  5 

look  at  the  beginning  of  the  phice  which  is  now  Lowell, 
and  of  which  I  had  heard  so  much  talk  in  the  country 
round  al^out.  All  I  -could  see  was  one  of  the  Merrhnack 
Mills,  the  walls  of  which  were  partly  finished  ;  but  all 
the  surroundings  were  quiet  and  even  wild  enough,  with 
only  a  few  hundreds  of  people,  where  now  [1876]  you 
number  fifty  thousand.  The  recollection  of  that  visit 
in  iny  early  1)oyhood,  has  always  been  very  vivid  with 
me,  and  at  times  it  is  difficvdt  to  realize  the  changes 
going  on  under  my  own  eyes,  in  so  short  a  time."  * 

After  viewing  this  first  mill  of  the  Merrimack  Man- 
ufacturing Compau}^,  these  young  visitors  trudged  on 
down  to  Bradley's  Ferry,  near  the  present  site  of  Central 
Bridge. 

It  is  not  likely  that  3'oung  Abbott  turned  his  face 
toward  Chelmsford  on  that  day,  without  a  passing  glance 
at  the  commanding  bluff  in  Belvidere,  where  St.  John's 
Hospital  now  stands,  where  then  towered  the  famous 
yellow  house,  the  residence  of  Judge  Livermore,  with  its 
large  and  well-kept  lawn,  adorned  with  Lombardy  pop- 
lars, beneath  whose  shade  perhaps  at  that  very  moment, 
the  fair  young  girl,  Caroline  Livermore,  jumped  her 
rope,  in  utter  unconsciousness  that  her  future  hus))nnd 
was  so  near  —  "  so  near  and  yet  so  far." 

From  Bradley's  Ferry  the  Abbott  boys  walked  to 
the  farm-house  of  their  cousin,  Joseph  Fletcher,  which 
stood  near  the  well  which  may  still  be  seen,  covered  by 
a  millstone,  near  the  northwest  corner  of  the  South 
Comino]!.  There  they  obtained  refreshments,  together 
with  information  as  to  the  families  of  the  neighborhood. 
An  old  log-house,  standing  })artly  on  the  site  of  the  Ehot 
Church   and   partly  on  the  adjoining  land  of  Mr.  John 


*  From  Judge  Abbott's  letter  in  the  Proceedings  in  tiie  City  of  Lowell  at  llie  Semi 
Centennial  Celebration  of  the  Incorporation  of  the  Town  of  Lowell,  Marcli  1. 1876,  p.  83. 


C)  MEMOIR    OP    HON.  .TOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D. 

Dennis,  was  pointiMl  out  to  tlieni  as  the  meeting-house  in 
Avliicli  tlie  Rev.  John  Eliot  ])reache(l  to  tlie  Indians  of 
Waniesit.  Two  ancient  ehn  trees  shaded  this  relic  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  which  was  no  more  to  he  seen 
when  the  Ahbott  boj-s  next  came  to  this  place  some 
years  later.* 

This  first  visit  of  J.  G.  Abbott  to  what  is  now. 
Lowell,  preceded  by  from  four  to  five  years  that  spring 
afternoon  when  another  slender  boy,  Benjamin  F.  Butler 
bv  name,  stood  for  the  first  time  on  Christian  Hill  and 
enjoyed  the  panorama  of  the  valley  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Concord  and  Merrimack  Rivers,  which,  as  he  says, 
"glistened  in  the  sunlight,  so  that  the  picture  is  nearly 
as  vivid  now  to  his  memory  as  when  it  first  struck  his 
wondering  eyes."  t 

Chelmsford  had  a  classical  school  which  Abbott 
attended. I  For  four  months,  from  September,  1825,  to 
January,  1826,  this  classical  s(diool  was  taught  by  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  and  the  impression  made  by  him  upon 
young  Abbott  was  very  favorable.  To  the  last  Judge 
Abbott  always  spoke  of  "the  American  Plato"  in  terms 
of  praise.§ 

His  next  teacher  in  that  school  was  the  Rev.  Abiel 
Abbot,  a  very  a)jle  man,  whom  Harvard  College  after- 
wards honored  with  the  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity,  and 
of  whom  a  full  acu-ount  may  be  found  in  "Sprague's 
Annals  of  the  American  Pidpit "  Miss  Antoinette 
Abbott,    the    only    surviving    child    of    Judge    Abbott's 


♦Greene's  Semi-Centeniiial  Volume  of  the  Kliot  CImicli,  pp.  148,  297-301;  Lowell 
Morning  Mail,  May  21, 1888,  and  .June  10,  1892. 

t  General  Butler's  Oi'ation  in  the  rroceediiiKs  before  (juoted.  p.  ;t7. 

+  For  an  account  of  the  remarkable  men  who  attended  this  .school,  see  Perhani's 
History  of  Chelmsford,  in  the  History  ot  the  County  of  Middlesex,  published  by  Lewis 
&  Co..  I'hiladelphia,  Vol.  2,  p.  2t;,<. 

§  Holmes'  Life  of  Emerson.  pi>.  49,  50. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,    LL.  T>.  J 

parents,  writes :  "•  I  have  often  heard  my  In'otlier  say 
that  Dr.  Abhot  was  one  of  the  most  thorough  teachers 
he  ever  had."  Dr.  George  B.  Loring  eulogizes  Dr. 
Abbot  as  a  noble  representative  of  the  best  type  of  our 
New  England  character  in  form  and  feature  and  cast  of 
mind  ;  and  on  meeting  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  1889,  he  w^'ote 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  strongly  resembled  Dr.  Al)bot.* 

Dr.  Abbot  ^vas  sncceeded  by  Cranmore  Wallace, 
under  wdiom  Abljott  studied  for  more  than  a  year,  and 
then,  in  1828,  entered  Harvard  College.  Mr.  Wallace 
afterwards  taught  school  in  South  Carolina,  and  was 
always  well  spoken  of  as  a  teacher  by  the  Abbotts. 

In  1832  Mr.  Abbott  graduated.  It  was  during  his 
college  life  that  the  nullilication  troubles  reached  and 
passed  their  crisis,  and  the  firm  foot  which  President 
Jackson  put  upon  that  movement,  made  liim  more  than 
ever  before  a  Jackson  man. 

For  a  time  he  taught  the  Fitch])urg  Academy.  The 
months  which  he  spent  as  a  teacher,  1  have  heard  him 
say,  were  among  the  most  important  of  his  earlier  life, 
by  reason  of  their  ripening  influence  upon  his  mind,  and 
the  completer  command  Avhicli  he  thereby  acquired  of 
his  previous  acquisitions,  as  well  as  the  new  stores  of 
knowledge  which  he  then  added  to  his  former  stock. 

He  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Joel 
Adams,  near  his  father's  home  at  Cheluisford  Centre. 
Mr.  Adams  was  a  successful  lawyer,  though  his  court 
practice  was  never  large  ;  and  Mr.  Abbott  appreciated 
and  commended  his  acute  legal  mind. 

On  the  night  of  July  2,  1834,  the  figure  of  President 
Jackson  was  cut  and  carried  away  fi'om  the  frigate  Con- 
stitution, at  the  Charlestown  Na\y  Yard.     Young  Abbott 

*  Loring's  Year  in  rortugal.  i>)).  5.  o. 


g  MKMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSTAH    GARDNER    ABROTT,  LL.  D. 

fully  sIiutimI  the  iiKlisA'iiation  wh'u-h  lli;it  i'\c]it  excited 
amoiio"  dcmoerats.  In  18GI  tliis  figure  eanie  iulo  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Joiiatlian  Bowers,  and  now  adonis  liis 
hall  at  WilloAV  Dale.  It  is  impossible  for  one  who  looks 
at  it  now^,  and  who  has  no  personal  recollection  of  the 
teapot  tempest  of  1834,  to  reaUze  how  much  passion  the 
taking  a^vay  of  that  figure  actually  aroused. 

In  the  autmnn  of  1834,  Mr.  Abbott  took  up  his 
al)ode  in  Lowell  and  entered  the  law  oflice  of  Nathaniel 
Wri^dit.  He  was  followed  very  soon  ]>y  Mi-.  James  B. 
Francis,  then  at  the  beginning  of  his  dislinguished 
career  as  an  hydraulic  engineer.*  These  two  young 
men,  destined  to  attain  the  heights  of  their  respective 
professions,  boarded  in  the  same  house,  and  formed  a 
friendshi[)  which  was  ended  only  l)y  Judge  Abbott's  death. 
In  the  summer  of  18o5  l)oth  of  these  fellow-boarders 
narrowly  escaped  death  by  typhoid  fever,  caught  prob- 
ably from  the  same  drain. 

In  the  letter  already  quoted,  Judge  Abl)ott  says: 
''My  ac<iuaintauce  with  Lowell  began  with  the  latter 
part  of  1834,  when  it  had  a  population,  I  believe,  of 
about  twelve  thousand.  I  think  all  who  li\ed  there  at 
that  time  and  for  the  next  twenty  years,  will  agree  with 
me  in  saying  that  no  city  of  its  size,  ever  contained  a 
more  remarkalde  i)eo])le,  or  a  pleasanter  or  more  culti- 
vated society.  1  doiil»t  if  any  place  of  as  large  a  \h)\)\\- 
lation,  ever  had  within  its  borders  a  larger  number  oi 
very  able  men,  who  would  be  marked  and  remarkable  in 
any  community." 

If  this  language  seems  exti-avagant,  1  am  sure  it  is 
sincere.  Curiously  enough,  Wendell  riiilHps.  wbo  left 
Lowell  about  the  same  time  when  J.  G.  Abbott  took   up 


*  For  an  outline  of  this  career  see  Cliark-s  C.  Cliase's  History  of  Lowell,  in  llie  His- 
tory of  the  County  of  Middlesex,  already  (luoted.  p.  14. 


MEMOTK    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    AP-BOTT,    LL.  D.  9 

his  residence  licre,  bears  similar  testinioiiv  to  Lowell 
society  as  lie  saw  it.* 

Ill  April,  I806,  the  town  of  LoAvell  was  incorporated 
as  a  citj^  Mr.  Abbott's  personal  preferences  were  for  a 
non-partisan  administration  of  mnnicipal  affairs.  The 
fact  that  one  citizen  favored  a  high  tariff  and  another  a 
low  tariff,  that  one  favored  a  national  bank  and  another 
favored  state  banks,  was  not  in  his  judgment  a  snfficient 
reason  for  exclnding  the  one  or  the  other  from  an  equal 
share  in  the  exercise  of  mnnici})al  functions.  Bnt 
neither  party  was  willing  to  waive  the  chance  to  elect 
candidates  of  its  own  exclusive  choice.  The  only  office 
under  the  city  charter  ever  held  by  Mr.  Abbott,  was  that 
of  director  of  the  city  libraiy,  which  he  held  for  the  year 
1852.  His  son,  Samuel  A.  B.  Abbott,  Esq.,  has  followed 
his  father's  principles  in  the  management  of  the  Boston 
Public  Liljrary,  being  chairman  of  its  board  of  trustees. 
In  deciding  who  shall  be  employed  in  that  justly  re- 
nowned library,  party  considerations  have  no  placet 

In  November,  1836,  Mr.  Abbott  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  house  of  representatives  for  the  year  1837. 
Two  of  his  colleagues  from  Lowell  in  that  house,  are 
present  to-night,  Hon.  Josiali  G.  Peabody  and  Hon. 
James  K  Fellows.  Among  other  members  of  that  house 
deserving  honorable  mention,  were  Julius  Rockwell,  the 
speaker,  afterwards  judge,  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  John  C. 
Park,  Thomas  Whittemore,  Samuel  Bowles,  Amos  Abbott, 
afterwards  Representative  in  Congress  from  the  Lowell 
district,  and  Charles  P.  Huntington,  who  afterwards 
served  with  Judge  Abbott  upon  the  bench.     The  senate 

*See  Mr.  riiilliiis'  statement  in  Cowley's  History  of  Lowell,  )i.  no. 

t  In  1870  Judge  Abbott  served  as  one  of  tlie  Examinin.u-  Coinniittee  of  tlic  Public 
Library.  Ten  years  later  Samuel  A.  15.  Abbott,  bis  son,  served  in  that  capacity.  Erom 
IST'.I  to  the  present  time  lie  has  been  one  of  its  trustees,  and  for  the  last  four  years  eliair- 
iiian  of  the  board. 


]Q  IMKMOlJi    OF    HON.  .lOSIAIl    (iARDNEU    AIJUOTT,   LL.  D. 

of  1837  coiitiiiiu'd  Charles  Allen  ol"  Worcester,  after- 
wards Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court,  Myron  Law- 
rence of  Belchertown,  William  Livin^ii:ston  of  Lowell,  and 
Linus  Child,  afterwards  of  Lowell.  The  governor  was 
Edward  Everett,  who  adorned  every  position  to  which  he 
was  called.  Mr.  Ahhott's  estimate  of  Samuel  Bowles 
was  considerably  higher  than  that  formed  by  other  men 
at  that  time,  though  none  too  high,  as  the  success  of  the 
Springfield  Eepublican  under  his  management  abundantly 
proved.  But  the  man  who  made  the  deepest  impression 
on  Mr.  Abbott's  expanding  mind,  was  Robert  Rantoul,  Jr., 
the  h'ader  of  the  .lacksonian  democracy  in  the  house. 
Knntoid  perished  in  his  prime,  and  few  survive  of  those 
who  knew  him.  But  no  man  who  reads  his  "Memoirs, 
Writings  and  Speeches,"  will  wonder  that  a  nnnd  so  well 
stocked  with  large  and  grand  ideas,  and  so  capable  of 
clothinii'  them  in  forcible  langnage,  should  have  exerted 
a  decided  hvtluence  over  the  youngest  mend)er  of  the 
house.  Some  of  the  reforms  for  wliich  Rantoul  fought 
have  long  since  been  embodied  in  statute  law,  and  have 
ceased  to  l)e  thought  of;  but  they  were  -burning  ques- 
tions" in  1837  and  for  many  years  thereafter. 

In  January,  1837,  Mr.  Abbott  was  admitted  to  prac- 
tice as  an  attorney  and  counsellor-at-law.  His  first  client 
was  Daniel  Raymond  Kind)all,  who  remained  his  client  as 
lonii'  as  lie  lived.  He  died  in  ISoD  and  Mr.  Abbott  set- 
tled bis  estate  as  executor  ot  bis  will.  Tlie  friendship 
wiiich  Mr.  Abbott  thus  early  b)rnu'd  lor  Raymond  Kim- 
1»all  was  extended  to  John  V.  Kind)all,  nephew  of  Ray- 
mond and  president  of  the  Appleton  National  Bank,  and 
continued  b>r  nearly  b)rty  years  and  was  never  broken 
during  bis  lite. 

His  first  law  partner  was  Amos  Si)aulding.      Owing 
to  the  financial  disasters  of  the  year  1837  hundreds  be- 


MEMOIR    OP    HON.    .TOSIAH    GARDNER    AKIJOT'l-,  LL.  D.  H 

came  insolvent,  and  the  iinu  of  Spaiildiiig  &  AI)l)()tt  re- 
ceived from  their  business  during  that  year  al)out  i^OOOO. 

Mr.  Abbott  was  but  ten  months  older  than  Richard 
H.  Dana,  Jr.,  who  was  for  many  years  his  contemporary 
at  the  bar,  but  he  had  made  a  ])rilliant  start  in  his  chosen 
profession,  and  had  closed  his  career  in  the  house  of 
representatives  Ijefore  August,  1837,  when  young  Dana 
made  that  voyage  from  Boston  to  California,  tlie  story 
of  which  he  has  told  so  well  in  his  "Two  Years  Befoi-e 
the  Mast." 

The  Western  fever  was  then  prevalent  in  the  East- 
ern States.  Caleb  Fletcher  A])l)ott  had  removed  from 
Clielmsford  to  Toledo,  and  was  anxious  that  his  younger 
brother  should  also  remove  to  Toledo  and  become  his 
law  partner  tliei'e.  J.  G.  Abbott  would,  perliaps,  have 
yielded  to  these  solicitations  had  they  not  Ijeen  con- 
trolled ])y  more  powerfid  attractions,  the  nature  of  which 
may  be  inferred  from  the  following  announcement  in  the 
local  papers  of  tliat  time  : 

"IMarried  in  this  city,  .July  21,   1838,  by  the  Kev.   Theodore 
Edson,  .Tosiah  (4.  Abl)ott,  Esq.,  to  Miss  Carohiie  Livermore.'' 

That  event  determined  that  Mr.  Aldjott  should  run 
an  Eastern  and  not  a  Western  career. 

In  the  life  of  Mr.  Abl)ott,  as  in  the  lives  of  Mr. 
Evarts,  Mr.  Benjamin,  and  many  other  American  lawyers, 
great  and  small,  there  was  an  episode  of  journalism.  In 
1840  he  edited  the  Lowell  Advertiser  and  advocati'd  the 
re-election  of  President  Van  Bui-en  as  the  representative 
of  Jacksonian  democracy.  The  Advertiser  was  of  course 
a  partisan  journal.  All  the  ])ublic  journals  then  in  tiie 
country  were  partisan  except  the  New  York  Herald  and 
Garrison's  Liberator.  But  a])art  from  its  pohtics,  Mr. 
Abbott  gave  ti)  the  paper  a  dc('i(h'd  litci'ary  lla\(tr.      Like 


12  MEMOTi;    OK    HON.  JOSIAII    GARDNER    AP.BOTT,  I.L.  D, 

Lord  Bacon,  "lie  took  all  knowledge  for  his  province." 
The  liles  of  the  Advertiser,  preserved  in  the  City  Lib- 
rary,* show  that  even  as  a  journalist, 

•' he  bore  without  abuse 

The  grand  old  name  of  Gentleman, 
Abused  by  every  cliarlatau, 
And  soiled  witli  all  igno])le  use."" 

Many  a  well-turned  paragraph  appeared,  wdiich  owed  its 
origin  to  the  fact  that  a  lawyer  was  at  the  helm,  and  yet 
his  paper  had  no  odor  of  the  law  ofhce,  and  was  never 
used  as  an  aid  to  his  practice  at  the  bar. 

One  of  the  worst  abuses  of  journalism  in  our  times 
is  the  use  of  newspapers  for  or  against  parties  to  causes 
before  or  during  trial.  Li  the  case  of  Mrs.  Hannah 
Kinney,  who  was  tried  in  Boston,  in  December,  1840,  on 
an  indictment  for  poisoning  her  third  husband,  George 
T.  Kinney,  the  temptation  to  give  vent  through  the 
press  to  the  prevailing  impressions  against  the  defendant, 
was  unusually  strong.  Mrs.  Kinney  had  been  the  wife 
of  the  Rev.  Enoch  W.  Freeman,  the  popular  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  in  Lowell,  and  was  vehemently 
suspected  of  having  caused  his  death  by  arsenical  pois- 
oning.! Nevertheless,  not  a  word  appeared  in  the 
Advertiser's  notices  of  the  progress  of  the  case,  calcu- 
lated to  aid  or  hinder  the  prosecution  or  the  defendant. 
As  soon  as  the  case  had  ended  ;  that  is  to  say, as  soon  as 
it  was  proper  for  an  editor  to  express  an  opinion  upon 
it,  Mr.  Abbott  condemned  the  conduct  of  Attorney-Gen- 
eral Austin  in  undertaking  the  prosecution  without 
further  proof. 

It  was  while  Mr.  Abbott  occupied  the  editoi'ial  chair 
that  the  Lowell  Offering  appeared,  and  no  journal  greeted 

*  The  volume  for  1S40  is  one  of  tlioso  presented  to  tlie  city  l»y  tlie  liciis  of  Kislier  A. 
Hiklretli. 

t Charles  ("owley's  Ilistdiy  of  i.owell,  ji)).  in  lit. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    (iAKUNEK    AliliOTT,  LL.  D.  13 

it  with  a  wanner  welcome  than  the  Lowell  Advertiser. 
While  he  deplored  any  condition  of  society  which  com- 
pelled married  women  to  work  for  wages  outside  of  their 
homes,  he  gave  his  deepest  sympathies  to  the  factor}^ 
o-irls  in  all  their  aspirations  for  intellectual  and  moi-al 
culture,  as  well  as  in  their  struggle  for  the  means  of 
living. 

While  Mr.  Abbott  edited  the  Advertiser,  the  late 
Daniel  S.  Richardson,  who  had  already  been  admitted  to 
the  bar,  edited  the  Lowell  Courier.  Nathaniel  P.  Banks, 
afterwards  more  widely  known  as  speaker,  governor  and 
major-general,  succeeded  Mr.  Abbott  as  editor  of  the 
democratic  organ  in  Lowell. 

Tn  those  days  lyceum  lectures  were  much  in  vogue. 
On  man}^  occasions  Mr.  Abbott  rode  out  to  some  town, 
frequently  accompanied  by  his  wife,  gave  a  lecture  on 
some  topic  of  the  time,  and  drove  back  to  Lowell  the 
same  night. 

In  1842,  having  some  time  previously  dissolved  his 
connection  with  Mr.  Spaulding,  Mr.  Abbott  formed  a  co- 
partnership with  Samuel  A.  Brown,  which  continued  till 
1855.  Much  might  be  said  of  these  law  partners,  espe- 
cially of  Mr.  Brown,  who  was  a  very  superior  man  ;  but 
time  would  fail. 

In  1842  he  purchased  of  his  mother-in-law  a  tract  of 
land  on  Stackpole  Street,  and  built  a  stone  house  thereon, 
in  which  he  resided  till  1861.  Many  of  the  shade  trees 
on  Stackpole  Street  were  planted  by  him.  The  songs  of 
the  birds  in  those  trees,  the  murmur  of  the  river  below, 
all  the  voices  of  nature  in  that  region,  pleased  him. 

In  1842  and  1843  Mr.  Abbott  served  the  state  as  a 
senator,  being  on  the  two  most  important  committees  — 
the  judiciary  and  railroads.  The  conmiittee  on  the 
judiciary  has  always  been  considered  of  the   first  impor- 


14  5[EM0IR    or    HON.  .lOSTAH    GARDNER    AllP.OTT,  LL.   T). 

tance;  but  in  the  infancy  of  our  railroad  corporations, 
the  importance  of  the  committee  on  raih'oads  was  very 
great;  and  the  results  of  our  early  railroad  legislation 
are  still  felt  —  sometimes  for  evil,  but  more  generally 
for  good. 

During  the  year  1843  J.  G.  Abbott  was  attached  to 
Goveruoi-  Morton's  staff  as  senior  aide-de-camp. 

On  August  16,  1843,  a  meeting  of  the  Abbott  family 
was  held  in  Andover,  which  appointed  Rev.  Abiel  Abbot, 
D.  D.,  of  Peterboro',  Rev.  Ephraim  Abbott  of  Westford, 
Samuel  Abbott  of  Charlestown,  and  Hon.  Josiah  G. 
Abbott  of  Lowell,  to  erect  a  monument  to  George  and 
Hannah  Abbott  in  their  burial  place  in  the  South  Parish 
of  Andover,  and  also  to  prepare  a  genealogical  register 
of  their  descendants. 

Dr.  Abiel  Abbot  wrote  the  History  of  Andover  and 
the  Genealogical  Register  of  the  descendants  of  George 
Abbott  of  Rowley,  Thomas  Abbott  of  Andover,  Arthur 
Abbott  of  Ipswich,  Robert  Abbott  of  Bradford,  Conn., 
and  George  Abbott  of  Norwalk,  Conn.  In  this  he  had 
Rev.  Ephraim  Abbott,  of  Westford,  as  co-worker.  The 
Genealogy  was  published  in  1847. 

When  Mr.  Littell  started  his  Living  Age,  in  1844, 
Mr.  Abbott  became  one  of  his  first  subscribers,  and  he 
continued  to  take  it  and  read  it  till  his  death.  He  was 
equally  constant  in  his  patronage  of  the  Lowell  Vox  Po])- 
uli,  started,  partly  by  his  aid,  three  years  before. 

Of  Judge  Abbott's  part  in  founding  the  city  of 
Lawrence  (1845),  his  brother-in-law,  Hon.  Daniel  Saun- 
ders, has  spoken  in  a  letter  to  be  published  with  this 
paper,  showing  him  to  have  been  one  of  the  fathers  of 
that  city.  It  is  by  no  fault  of  his  that  Lawrence  stands 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Merrimack  from  that  on  which 
it  should  have  been  builded. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAII    GAKDMJCK    AISBOTT,  LL.  D.  15 

How  important  a  part  he  bore  in  the  upbuilding  of 
Lewiston  is  but  partially  indicated  by  the  number  of 
.shares  of  the  Lewiston  corporations  owned  by  him,  or  by 
the  number  of  years  during  which  he  was  president  or 
director  of  those  corporations.  He  had  an  a})t,itude  for 
large  enterprises,  and  delighted  to  exercise  his  powers 
in  various  ways. 

Among  his  investments,  those  in  woodlands  must 
not  be  forgotten.  He  began  the  purchase  of  woodland 
in  several  different  towns  at  an  early  age,  and  continued 
it  till  the  shadow  of  three  score  years  and  ten  had  passed 
over  him.  He  never  sold  one  of  his  wood-lots,  and  he 
em[)loyed  Amos  Brown  and  his  son  and  grandson  to  cut 
his  wood  for  fifty  years  and  until  his  death. 

About  the  year  1846  the  "  Melvin  Suits  "  came  to 
an  end,  and  Grenville  Parker,  who  had  been  of  counsel 
for  the  defeated  parties,  published  anonymously  his 
pungent  pamphlet  on  the  Judiciary  of  Massachusetts, 
reviewing  and  condemning  the  ridings  of  the  judges  in 
those  cases.  John  P.  Robinson's  paper  in  the  second 
volume  of  the  Contributions  of  this  association  presents 
the  other  side  of  these  cases,  which  excited  a  great  deal 
of  feeling  at  the  time.  The  tide  of  opinion  never  ran 
higher  against  corporations  than  when  the  Proprietors 
of  the  Locks  and  Canals  on  Merrimack  River  obtained 
final  judgment  in  the  last  of  these  suits.  Although 
Abbott  and  Brown  afterwards  became  and  for  many 
years  continued  to  be  the  counsel  for  the  victorious 
corporation,  neither  of  them  ever  failed,  upon  proper 
occasion,  to  express  his  dissent  from  some  of  the  rulings 
which  Parker  condemned.* 

In  1847    the   Appleton    Bank,   now    the    Appleton 

*  Grenville  Parker  jiassed  liis  litter  years  in  West  Virginia,  ami  touk  an  active  part 
in  procuring  its  ailmissiou  into  tlie  Union. 


]6  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JUSIAH    GARDNKR    AHBOTT,  LL.  D, 

Naliuiiiil  Bank,  was  incorported.  Mr.  Abbott  iniiuo- 
diately  coiniueiiccd  to  make  bis  deposits  tbeie,  and  con- 
tinued to  do  so  during  bis  life.  In  fact  be  never  opened 
any  account  elsewbere,  but  during  tbe  wbole  tliirty 
years  of  bis  life  in  Boston,  be  made  all  bis  deposits  in 
tba-t  bank  tbroiigb  its  Boston  correspondent.  Tbat  fact 
tells  it  own  story  as  to  tbe  sound  and  wise  management 
of  tbe  bank,  and  tbe  constancy  of  Judge  Abbott's  at- 
tacbments. 

In  1848  be  "bolted"  tbe  democratic  nominations  — 
Cass  and  Butler  —  for  president  and  vice  president,  and 
su])ported  tbe  free  soil  nominees  —  Martin  Van  Buren 
and  diaries  Francis  Adams.  He  and  Hon.  Cbauncey  L. 
Kna,pp  were  cbosen  delegates  to  tbe  national  free  soil 
convention,  but  bis  professional  engagements  prevented 
biiu  from  going  to  Buffalo,  and  George  F.  Farley,  Esq., 
of  Groton,  attended  as  bis  substitute. 

In  1850  Mr.  Abbott  was  appointed  master  in  cban- 
cery,  and  served  as  sucb  five  years,  Hon,  Artbur  P. 
Bonney  succeeding  bim. 

In  1852,  wben  Kossutb  nuide  bis  tour  tbiougb  tbe 
United  States,  Abbott  gave  bim  botli  sym})atby  and 
material  aid,  and  was  one  of  tbe  citizens'  committee  wbo 
invited  bim  to  Lowell,  and  introduced  bim  to  tbe  people 
in  St.  Paul's  Metbodist  Episcopal  Cburcb. 

Had  tbe  oflice  of  attorney-general  become  vacant 
during  Governor  Boutwell's  time  (1851-52)  it  was  under- 
stood tbat  Mr.  Abbott  would  bave  been  appointed,  so 
well  establisbed  was  bis  reputation  at  tbat  time. 

In  1853  be  was  elected  a  delegate  to  tbe  constitu- 
tional convention  on  tbe  coalition  ticket.  Tbe  new  con- 
stitution proposed  by  tbe  convention  was  rejected  by  tbe 
tbe  peoyde  of  tbe  state,  but  tbe  debates  in  tbat  body 
prepared  tbe  way  lor  tbe  adoption  of  some  of  tbe  amend- 


MEMOIK    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNEl!    AUBOTT,  LL.  D.  ^7 

ments  to  the  constitution  which  that  convention  pro- 
posed. This  was  the  only  legal  body  in  which  Judge 
Abbott  ever  sat  with  George  S.  Boutwell,  Alexander  H. 
Bullock,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  Anson  Burlingame,  Rufus 
Choate,  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  Charles 
Sumner,  Frederick  0.  Prince,  or  Henry  Wilson.  James 
K.  Fellows,  who  had  been  one  of  his  colleagues  in  the 
house  of  representatives  in  1837,  was  one  of  his  col- 
leagues in  this  convention,  Shubael  P.  Adams,  then  a 
Lowell  lawyer,  now  of  the  Iowa  bar,  was  another  of  his 
colleagues  from  Lowell,  and  General  Butler  was  another. 
The  rest  of  the  Lowell  delegates,  John  W.  Graves, 
Andrew  T.  Nute,  James  M.  Moore,  Abraham  Tilton,  and 
Peter  Powers,  together  with  all  the  defeated  whig  candi- 
dates, have  passed  to  the  silent  land. 

The  debates  of  that  convention  show  that  Mr.  Abbott 
favored  an  elective  judiciary,  and  also  favored  makino- 
the  jury  judges  of  law  as  well  as  of  facts  in  criminal 
cases.  A  notable  debate  on  the  right  or  the  power  of 
the  jury,  under  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,*  to 
determine  the  law  as  well  as  the  facts  in  a  criminal  cause, 
took  place  between  Mr.  Abbott  and  Ex-Governor  Morton, 
without  disturbing  the  friendly  relations  which  had  for 
many  years  existed  between  the  disputants.  Two  years 
later  the  legislature  passed  an  act  intending  to  embody 
Judge  Abbott's  views,  which  were  also  the  views  of  many 
others,  including  eminent  lawyers  of  all  parties.!  But 
in  the  case  of  Commonwealth  r.  Anthes,  5  Gray,  185,  a 
majority  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
decided  either  that  this  act  did  not  change  the  law  as  it 


*  uoinmonweaiiii  r.  sorter,  10  JVletcaif,  203(1845). 

t  Tliis  jury  act  of  1855  is  embodied  in  Cliapter  214.  Section  IT,  of  (lie  Public  Stntiites, 
lliough  sadly  eviscerated  by  the  opinions  of  a  majority  of  tbe  judges  in  Antlies' case. 
This  was  one  of  tlie  decisions  at  which  William  S.  Kobinson  (  "  Warrenton  ")  delighted 


18  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  .lOSlAlI    GARDNER    AHBOTT,  LL.  D. 

previously  stooti,  or  that  if  it  did  attempt  to  change  the 
law  and  make  the  jury  judges  of  the  law,  it  was  uncon- 
stitutional and  void.  The  dissenting  opinion  of  Judge 
Thomas  in  that  case  met  Judge  Abbott's  hearty  concur- 
rence ;  and  I  remember  hearing  him  quote  an  old  Eng- 
lish ballad  as  stating  the  ancient  and  true  view  of  the 
functions  of  the  jury  in  Crown  cases,  and  I  give  it  from 
memory  as  he  did  : 

''For  twelve  honest  iiieii  shall  sit  on  his  cause, 
Who  are  judges  alike  of  the  facts  ami  the  laws." 

After  Mr.  Abbott  had  gone  upon  the  bench,  his 
former  law  partner,  Samuel  A.  Brown,  re-argued  this 
question  and  re-asserted  Judge  Abbott's  views,  in  the 
case  of  Commonwealth  v.  Austin,  7  Gray,  51,  but  without 
changing  the  attitude  of  the  Supreme  Court  thereon. 

When  Judge  Abbott  had  formed  an  opinion  after 
mature  deliberation,  he  was  not  easily  moved.  The  mere 
ipse  dixit  of  a  judge  weighed  little  with  him,  and  where 
he  saw  a  court  palm  off  a  pretext  as  a  substitute  for  a 
reason,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  express  his  dissent  in 
forceful  terms.  But  nothing  that  he  ever  said,  in  the 
Constitutional  Convention  or  elsewhere,  could  justify 
Mr.  Dana  in  referring  to  him  in  his  diary  as  feeling  any- 
thing like  a  hatred  toward  the  Supreme  Court.*  If  the 
decisions  of  that  tribunal  did  not  always  suit  him,  it  was 
'•  more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger "  that  he  signified  his 
disapprobation  of  the  error  into  which  it  had  lapsed. 

In  1855  the  Superior  Court  for  the  County  of  Suffolk 
was  established,  superseding  in  that  county  the  old  Court 
of  Common  Pleas.  Its  members  were  Albert  H.  Nelson, 
of  Woburn,  one  of  Abbott's  classmates  at  college  ;  J.  G. 

♦Adams'  IMogiaj.liy  of  KIcliaid  11.  Dana,  Jr.,  Vol.  1,  pp.  240.  242,  LM.'S.  Mr.  Causten 
Browne  showed  a  far  better  appreciation  of  Judge  Abbott  when  be  said  that  he  was  too 
proud  as  well  as  too  generous  for  any  vindictiveness. 


MEMOIR    OF    IIOX.  JOSIAII    GAnUNER    ABBOTT,   LL.  B.  JQ 

Abbott,  of  Lowell ;  Charles  P.  Huntington,  of  Boston, 
formerly  of  Northampton,  and  Stephen  G.  Nash,  of 
Boston. 

Judge  Abbott  accepted  this  appointment  with  three 
ends  in  view:  First,  to  make  a  good  judge,  a'nd  win  such 
reputation  as  usually  attends  a  good  magistrate  ;  second, 
to  secure  for  himself  a  period  of  comparative  rest  from 
the  severer  labors  of  the  bar ;  third,  to  get  such  an  in- 
troduction to  the  bar  and  business  community  of  Boston 
as  would  secure  for  him,  upon  quitting  the  bench,  a  fair 
share  of  the  cream  of  the  law  business  of  that  city.  All 
these  ends  he  accomplished.  The  facility  with  which  he 
despatched  business  wns  very  great.  On  one  motion-day 
there  were  no  less  than  forty-six  hearings  before  him  on 
contested  motions  which  he  decided.  He  was  always 
honest  and  fair  in  dealing  with  counsel.  When  excep- 
tions were  taken  to  his  rulings,  he  never  sought  to 
deprive  counsel  of  the  benefit  of  those  exceptions. 

One  day,  in  the  spring  of  1857,  I  sat  in  his  court 
for  an  hour  or  so,  and  when  he  adjourned  walked  with 
him  to  the  depot.  I  remarked  that  he  seemed  to  en]oy 
his  position.  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  replied,  "it's  pleasant  work 
and  far  less  exhausting  than  trying  cases  at  the  bar.  But 
I  have  had  enough  of  it,  and  can't  afford  to  stay  on  the 
bench.  Don't  mention  it  at  present,  but  I  shall  not  stay 
on  that  perch  after  this  year." 

His  resignation  took  effect  January  1,  1858.  He 
resumed  practice  at  the  bar  for  the  sake  of  its  emolu- 
ments, and  he  did  not  fail  to  get  them.  His  salary  as  a 
judge  was  only  $3,000  a  year;  and  his  income  from  his 
practice  during  the  first  year  after  he  left  the  bench  was 
more  than  $2U,000.  It  afterwards  rose  to  $36,000. 
These  figures  represent  the  returns  from  regular  work, 
without  any  of  those   "windfalls"   with    which  lawyers 


20  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  .lOSIAII    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  I,L.  D. 

are  sometimes  favored.  Large  as  they  are,  the  profes- 
sional incomes  of  lawyers  have  sometimes  exceeded  them. 
The  income  of  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  while  at  the  head  of 
the  British  bar,  is  said  to  have  amounted  in  some  years 

to  $75,000.* 

It  happened  to  me  to  be  present  when  Mr.  Benjamin 
made  liis  first  argument  in  an  English  Chancery  Court.! 
It  was  in  the  year  1868  in  London.  I  had  heard  him 
years  before  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
as  well  as  in  the  senate  at  Washington.  As  I  listened 
to  that  marvelous  feat  of  advocacy  and  saw  how  marked 
an  impression  Mr.  Benjamin  made  upon  the  court,  the 
bar  and  the  bystanders,  the  question  arose,  how  would  J. 
G.  Abbott  have  succeeded  had  he  essayed  a  career  at  the 
EnMisli  bar?  Between  Abbott,  with  his  tall,  well-pro- 
portioned form,  his  Saxon  face  and  Saxon  voice,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  Benjamin,  with  his  short  and  obese  body, 
his  Hebrew  face  and  soft  Semitic  tongue,  the  differences 
were  marked.  And  yet  there  were  marked  resemblances 
between  the  minds  and  methods  of  those  giants  of  the 
forum.  There  was  the  same  clearness  of  statement,  the 
same  mastery  of  the  case,  the  same  earnest,  impetuous, 
on-rushing  tide  of  speech,  flowing  without  ebb;  the  same 
care  as  to  the  matter  of  the  argument ;  the  same  care- 
lessness as  to  the  form,  in  both.  In  my  judgment  Mr. 
Abbott  would  have  achieved  success,  had  he  sought  it,  at 
the  bar  of  the  Babylon  of  London.  But  my  admiration 
for  him  was  such  that  I  cannot  pretend  to  present  any 
estimate  of  him  as  entitled  to  the  weight  of  an  impartial 


*  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  Art.  Benjamin. 

t  Two  cases  were  heard  together,  in  both  of  vvliich  the  United  States  were  jdaintills. 
The  defendants  were  Erazer,  Trenliolni  &  Co.,  and  .lolm  Frazer  &  Co.  Sir  Konndell 
I'alnier.  now  Karl  of  Selhorne,  was  Benjamin's  leading  opimnent.  The  plaintills  pre- 
vailed, and.  as  the  legal  snccessors  of  the  Confederate  States,  recovered  a  large  amonnt 
of  Confederate  property  in  the  defenaants'  hands. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GAKDNER    AKBOTT,  LL.  D.  21 

opinion.  I  prefer  therefore  to  sketch  with  rapid  strokes 
the  outline  of  his  Hfe,  and  to  give  the  opinions  of  otiiers, 
rather  than  my  own,  touching  his  professional  traits. 

In  1859  Judge  Abbott  was  chosen  one  of  the  over- 
seers of  Harvard  College,  and  served  as  such  six  years. 

In  1859  J.  G.  Abbott,  G.  B.  Upton  and  George  S. 
Boutwell,  were  appointed  commissioners  under  the  legis- 
lative act  of  that  year  to  make  an  award  to  the  city  of 
Boston  of  compensation  for  its  relinquishment  of  certain 
rights  on  Arlington  Street. 

In  1860,  when  George  T.  Bigelow  succeeded  Lemuel 
Shaw  as  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court, 
Judge  Abbott  was  offered  a  place  on  that  bench,  but 
declined  it  for  the  same  reason  which  had  led  him  to 
resign  his  position  on  the  Superior  Court. 

In  1860,  as  a  choice  of  evils,  he  voted  for  the  Doug- 
lass ticket  for  presidential  electors. 

In  18G1  Judge  Abbott  removed  from  128  Stackpole 
Street,  Lowell,  to  6  Arlington  Street,  Boston.  But, 
although  he  ceased  to  be  a  citizen  of  Lowell,  he  never 
lost  his  interest  in  this  community.  In  the  letter  already 
quoted  he  says:  "As  you  know,  I  have  passed  some  of 
the  happiest  years  of  my  life  in  Lowell,  and  with  it  are 
connected  some  of  the  pleasantest  and  best  recollec- 
tions of  the  past.  I  took  up  my  residence  there  soon 
after  leaving  college ;  there  I  married  my  wife ;  there 
all  my  children  were  born  ;  and  there  repose  the  ashes  of 
some  of  them  who  so  lived  and  died  that  I  am  sure  their 
native  city  has  never  had  cause  to  be  ashamed  of  them." 

Judge  Abbott  had  early  learned  in  the  school  of 
Jackson  that  the  Union  is  an  institution  to  be  maintained, 
if  necessary,  by  force  ;  and  when  that  Union  w;is  men- 
aced with  destruction  in  1861,  all  who  knew  him  knew 
what   his    position    would    be.      Like    his    friend,   Rufus 


22  MEMOIR    <»F    HON,  .JOSIAH    GARDNER    AHH(  »TT,  LL.  D. 

Choate,  he  would  say,  '•'We  join  no  party  tliat  does  not 
carry  the  flag  and  keep  step  to  the  music  of  the  Union." 
The  first  flag  raised  in  Lowell  after  the  Confederate 
assault  on  Fort  Sumter  was  accompauied  l)y  an  eloquent 
appeal  from  him  which  completely  electrified  the  assem- 
bled throng. 

When  the  militia  of  Lowell  were  called  to  Wash- 
ington for  the  defence  of  the  capital,  even  before  a  man 
of  them  had  buckled  on  his  knapsack,  Judge  Abbott 
gave  General  Butler  $100,  to  be  used  for  the  relief  of 
any  suffering  among  his  soldiers.  He  appeared  before  a 
meeting  of  the  bank  presidents  of  Lowell  and  urged 
them  to  lend  their  money  freely  to  the  government  to 
carry  on  the  war.  Like  Gen.  William  T.  Sherman  and 
other  far-sighted  patriots,  whom  shallow  men  then  pro- 
nounced "  cranks,"  he  foresaw  that  the  war  for  the 
Union  would  be  long  and  bloody,  and  urged  the  enlist- 
ment of  men  for  not  less  than  three  years'  service.  His 
three  oldest  sons  entered  the  army  at  once,  and  two  of 
them  were  sacrificed  in  the  bloody  struggle.  The  Abbott 
Greys,  the  company  which  his  oldest  son  commanded,  in 
the  Second  Regiment  of  Massachusetts  Infantry,*  were 
the  special  subject  of  his  care  and  for  them  he  contrib- 
iited  freely  of  his  money. 

Seeing  how  much  the  officers  and  men  rallying  for 
the  defence  of  the  Union,  required  to  be  taught  what 
their  duties  would  be,  Judge  Abbott  wrote  a  letter  to 
Governor  Andrew  recommending  the  formation  of  camps 
of  instruction.  Fi'om  the  plans  Submitted  by  him,  the 
Camp  Act,  so  called,  the  principal  bill  passed  by  the  leg- 

*  Fletcher  Morton  Abbott,  M.  I).,  tlie  only  one  of  Judge  Abbotfs  three  sons  who 
served  in  the  army  who  survived  the  war,  began  his  military  career  as  a  lieutenant  in 
this  regiment,  and  afterwards  served  as  captain  on  tlie  stall  of  l?rigadier-(ieueral 
Dwight.  See  CJiiint's  Record  of  tiie  Second  Massachusetts  Infantry,  j>.  I'.iT.  General 
Hooker  said,  '"This  regiment,  as  is  known  in  two  armies,  has  no  superior." 


islature  at  the  extra  session  of  1861,  was  prepared  before 
the  session  began.  The  training  received  by  our  volun- 
teers during  their  brief  sojourn  at  these  camps,  was  of 
very  great  vahie. 

When  the  republican  state  convention  met  at  Wor- 
cester in  September,  1861,  to  nominate  candidates  for 
the  state  offices,  its  members  realized  the  necessity  of 
enlarging  their  platform,  in  order  to  attract,  if  possible, 
the  war  democrats.  It  was  felt  that  it  was  desirable  in 
that  perilous  crisis  in  national  affairs,  to  make  the  party 
simply  a  war  party  and  to  postpone  all  other  issues  until 
the  war  for  the  Union  had  ended.  Without  one  dissent- 
ing voice,  if  my  memory  serves  me  correctly,  that  con- 
vention nominated  J.  G.  Abbott  for  the  office  of  attorney- 
o;eneral.  The  wisdom  of  that  nomination  was  too  obvious 
for  discussion,  and  many  of  the  judge's  friends,  demo- 
crats as  well  as  republicans,  urged  him  to  accept  it. 
Since  that  time  some  persons  of  a  very  miscellaneous  sort 
have  filled  that  office;  but  prior  to  that  time  it  had  been 
held  by  lawyers  of  the  first  rank,  and  Judge  Abbott's 
reputation,  if  not  enhanced,  would  surely  have  suffered 
no  damage,  by  filling  an  office  which  Rufus  Choate  and 
John  H.  Clifford  had  adorned.  Nevertheless,  so  fastidious 
was  his  sense  of  personal  honor  and  party  fealty;,  he 
could  not  be  induced  to  accept  that  office.  Nothing  that 
has  occurred  during  the  last  thirty  years  has  changed  my 
opinion  that  his  declinal  of  that  office  was  a  great  mis- 
take. It  seemed  to  me  that  his  true  place  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Union  party,  and  that  by  this  declinal  he 
closed  upon  himself  the  opening  gate  to  a  great  career. 

In  1862  Judge  Abbott  wrote  :  "  If  we  would  suc- 
ceed we  must  be  united  in  our  purpose  to  fight  it  out  — 
to  conquer.  All  true  men  can  and  must  unite  to  carry 
out  that  purpose  —  they  can  and  must  adjourn  all  other 


24  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GAKDNEK    AIJIiOTT,  l.L.   D. 

questions  till  the  war  is  over.  That  purpose  is  large 
enough,  it  is  holy  enough  to  engross  and  satisfy  all."  * 

Truer  words  were  never  spoken,  and  they  were  as 
applicable  to  the  situation  in  1861  as  in  1862. 

Had  Judge  Abbott  accepted  the  nomination,  he 
would  certainly  have  been  elected;  and  the  republican 
party,  though  it  had  an  abundance  of  leaders,  was 
lamentably  in  need  of  such  a  leader  as  he.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  may  be  said  that  by  remaining  with  the 
democratic  party  through  those  years  of  peril  he  per- 
formed an  important  service  to  the  country  by  constantly 
bracing  up  that  party  to  support  the  war ;  the  more  so 
because  that  party  contained  thousands  of  men  who 
were  opposed  to  the  war. 

The  same  wise  foresight  which  prompted  him  to 
advocate  camps  of  instruction  and  long  terms  of  enlist- 
ment in  1861,  led  him  to  oppose  the  stopping  of  enlist- 
ments in  the  spring  of  1862,  notwithstanding  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  of  which  Senator  Wilson 
was  chairman,  reported  that  we  already  had  soldiers 
enough  !  Judge  Abbott  saw  clearl}^  and  said  boldly  that 
the  period  of  the  war  had  been  much  prolonged,  and  the 
sacrifice  of  life  and  treasure  greatly  augmented  by  sus- 
pending the  recruiting  of  our  armies  so  prematurely  at 
that  time. 

In  1862  Williams  College  conferred  on  him  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

On  the  ninth  of  August,  1862,  the  horrors  of  war 
entered  his  own  home  ;  his  eldest  son.  Captain  and  Brevet 
Major  Edward  Gardner  Abbott,  Company  A,  Second 
Massachusetts  Infantry,  was  killed  in  battle  at  Cedar 
Mountain,  Virginia;  and  all  the  hopes  that  clustered 
about  his  future  were  blasted   in   a  moment.     But  this 


*  From  a  uianuscriiit  fouinl  aiiKing  liis  iiapcrs.  entitled  "A  Divided  North,  Treasou." 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNEU    ABBOTT,    LL.  D.  25 

terrible  parental  affliction  only  intensified  his  indomitable 
purpose  to  suppress  the  rebellion.  When  General  Lee, 
flushed  by  his  success  in  Virginia,  led  his  victorious  army 
into  Maryland,  and  when  it  seemed  not  improbable  that 
the  flag  of  the  Confederate  States  would  shortly  float  in 
triumph  over  Philadelphia,  Judge  Abbott  wrote  an  appeal 
to  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  meet  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
irrespective  of  party,  "to  take  counsel  together  for  the 
common  weal."  In  response  to  this  appeal  "  the  People's 
Convention  "  met  on  the  seventh  of  October.  I  do  not 
now  enter  into  any  discussion  of  the  merits  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  that  convention.  Whatever  of  success  or 
failure  attended  those  proceedings,  the  lofty  patriotism 
which  animated  the  call  under  which  that  convention 
met,  is  iDcyond  all  praise.  There  are  passages  in  that 
call  which  for  force  and  elevation  of  style  will  lose 
nothing  by  comparison  with  the  stirring  words  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

On  the  day  preceding  that  convention  Senator 
Sumner  had  spoken  in  the  same  hall.*  I  heard  Sum- 
ner's speech ;  I  also  heard  Abbott's  speech,  and  as  I 
listened  to  the  thunders  of  npplause  which  greeted  them, 
I  recalled  what  I  had  read  of  the  stormy  scenes  of  the 
Greek  republics,  when 

"Under  the  rock-stancl  of  Demostlieucs 
Unstable  Atliens  heaved  her  noisy  seas." 

Joel  Parker,  formerly  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  New  Hampshire,  had  been  selected  to  make  the 
principal  speech  on  that  occasion.  He  was  a  learned  and 
able  man,  pow^erful  in  his  addresses  to  the  intellect,  but 
weak  in  his  appeals  to  the  feelings.  He  had  none  of 
that    versatility   which    enabled    Abbott    to   convince   a 

*  Sumner's  speech  appears  in  the  seventh  volume  of  his  works. 


26  MEMOIR    OF    HON,  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D. 

bench  of  judges,  capture  a  jury,  or  ride  upon  the  whirl- 
wind of  a  popuhir  assembly.  No  sooner  had  the  con- 
vention organized  itself,  than  loud  calls  arose  for  Abbott, 
who,  as  I  happen  to  know,  hnd  made  no  preparation  to 
speak  on  that  day,  though  his  heart  and  soul  were  full. 
He  could  stir  the  emotions.  One  blast  on  Abbott's  bugle- 
horn  was  worth  a  thousand  Parkers. 

The  day  of  that  convention  was  one  of  those  "mo- 
mentous occasions"  referred  to  by  Webster  in  his  oration 
at  Plymouth  Rock,  "  when  great  interests  are  at  stake 
and  strong  passions  excited,"  and  Judge  Abbott  had  just 
those  qualities  which  such  occasions  require.  "  Clear- 
ness, force  and  earnestness,"  as  Webster  said,  "are  the 
qualities  which  produce  conviction."  The  vast  assembly 
was  thoroughly  electrified  by  his  speech,  particularly  by 
the  peroration.  Pointing  to  the  broad  canvass  on  wiiich 
Webster  appears  replying  to  Hayne,  and  raising  his 
voice  to  its  loudest,  clearest  tones,  he  said  :  "  Let  us 
here,  in  the  presence  of  its  greatest  defender,  swear 
that  we  will  give  fortune,  that  we  will  give  life,  that  we 
will  give  all,  to  support  that  constitution  and  establish 
its  sway  over  the  whole  land." 

To  realize  how  much  these  words  really  meant,  one 
must  recall  the  circumstances  under  which  they  were 
spoken  —  the  fact  that  the  oldest  son  of  the  speaker  had 
shortly  before  been  laid  in  a  soldier's  grave  in  the  Low- 
ell Cemetery,  and  that  both  of  his  other  sons  in  the 
army  were  so  broken  in  health  that  their  mother  had 
gone  to  Antietam  to  give  them  her  personal  care.  Called 
to  the  scene  of  that  battle  by  the  condition  of  her  second 
son,  she  met  on  the  field  her  third  son  suffering  from  the 
delirium  of  fever  in  the  brain.  But  none  of  these 
things  moved  him. 

In   the   senatorial   election   of    I860,  and   again   in 


MEMOIR    OF    HOIST.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D.  27 

1869,  Judge  Abbott  received  the  support  of  the  demo- 
crats in  the  legislature,  but  the  republican  majority  was 
overwhelming,  and  Charles  Sumner  was  elected.  The 
same  empty  honor  was  repeated  to  Judge  Abbott  in 
1877,  when  Senator  Hoar  was  chosen. 

On  the  sixth  of  Ma}^,  1864,  his  second  son,  Major 
and  Brevet  Brigadier-General  Henry  Livermore  Abbott 
while  gallantly  leading  his  regiment,  the  Twentieth 
Massachusetts  Infantry,  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness 
was  fatally  wounded.  "  Had  he  lived,"  General  Hancock 
said,  "  he  would  have  been  one  of  our  most  distinguished 
commanders." 

Kichard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  who  visited  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  only  ten  days  before  Major  Abbott's  death, 
wrote  :  "  Sedgwick  spoke  in  high  terms  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts regiments,  especially  the  Twentieth,  and  of 
Major  Abbott,  who  now  commands  it.  He  thinks  Abbott 
a  bright,  particular  star."  Charles  F.  Adams,  who  has 
preserved  this  testimony  in  his  biography  of  Dana,  adds 
that  "  it  was  thought  at  the  time,  by  those  most  compe- 
tent to  judge,  that  no  braver  officer,  nor  one  of  greater 
military  promise,  there  laid  down  his  life." 

To  lose  such  sons  as  Judge  Abbott  lost  in  battle 
was  terrible  at  the  best.  But  the  conviction  that  the 
movements  in  which  they  fell  were  culpably  ill-advised 
and  even  absurd,  added  poignancy  to  parental  grief.  To 
lose  brave  sons  when  their  loss  is  inevitable  in  defence  of 
their  country,  has  been  the  hard  lot  of  many  a  father. 
To  lose  them  through  the  stupidity  or  obstinacy  of  their 
commanders,  is  more  than  ilesh  and  blood  can  bear. 
Many  a  father,  many  a  mothei-,  became  sour  and  dis- 
affected under  such  painful  trials.  But  not  so  with  the 
parents  of  these  brave  brothers,  whose  twin  monuments 
in  the  Lowell  Cemetery  will  perpetuate  their  names  till 


28  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    AT.r.OTT,  LL.  D. 

the  marble  shall  crumble  and  the  granite  shall  decay.* 
Through  all  those  times  which  tried  men's  souls  there 
was  no  truer  patriot  than  J.  G.  Abbott. 

Several  volumes  would  be  required  to  contain  an 
account  of  the  hundreds  of  cases  in  which  Mr.  Abbott 
acted  as  counsel  during  the  more  than  fifty  years  of  his 
practice  at  the  bar.  No  such  account  will  be  attempted, 
neither  would  it  be  desirable  even  if  it  were  practicable. 
For  as  the  life  of  man  on  earth  is  but  a  span,  so  the  in- 
terest in  the  daily  concerns  of  that  life  endures  but  for 
a  moment.  "  A  book  is  the  only  immortality,"  as  Rufus 
Choate  once  said ;  and  the  best  efforts  in  advocacy  are 
generally  forgotten  with  the  occasion  which  called  them 
forth. 

I  will  mention  three  capital  cases  and  three  or  four 
other  cases  in  which  Mr.  Abbott  was  concerned,  and  refer 
to  one  hundred  and  ten  volumes  of  the  Massachusetts 
Reports  (from  the  43rd  to  the  152nd)  for  notices  of  the 
cases  argued  by  him  before  the  full  bench  of  our  Supreme 
Judicial  Court.  Yet  these  indicate  but  a  part  of  his 
professional  work.  There  are  other  cases  of  his  in  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  and  Circuit  Court  Reports 
and  in  the  reports  of  other  state  courts,  and  there  are 
also  hundreds  of  cases  not  reported  at  all  (except  in 
newspapers)  because  they  were  never  carried  to  the 
court  of  last  resort. 

His  first  capital  case  was  that  of  the  alleged  mur- 
derers of  Jonas  L.  Parker,  who  was  butchered  in  a  most 
atrocious  manner  at  Manchester,  N.  H.,  on  the  night  of 
March  26,  1845.t     In  1848  Asa  Wentworth  and  Henry 


*  For  accounts  of  the  operations  In  whicli  these  gallant  officers  fell,  see  Gordon's 
Brookfarm  to  Cedar  INIountain,  Swlnton's  History  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  his- 
tories of  their  respective  regiments,  anil  the  general  histories  of  the  war.  For  their 
personal  history,  see  Harvard  Memorial  I'.iographies.  Vol.  II.  pp.  77-104,  and  Cowley's 
History  of  Lowell,  pp.  181, 182. 189,  I'JO. 

t  rotter's  History  of  Manchester,  pp.  f.l9-G24. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNKR    AT.BOTT,    LL.  D.  29 

T.  Wentworth  were  arrested  upon  suspicion,  but  after 
examination  were  discharged.  In  1850  they  were 
arrested  again,  together  with  Horace  Wentwortli  and 
William  C.  Clark.  They  were  prosecuted  by  Samuel  H. 
Ayer,  the  county  solicitor,  and  were  defended  by  Frank- 
lin Pierce,  Charles  G.  Atherton,  J.  G.  Abbott  and  B.  F. 
Butler.  Public  feeling  ran  very  high  against  them,  but 
they  were  not  indicted  ;  and  no  evidence  sufficient  to 
justify  a  verdict  of  guilty  was  ever  adduced  against  any 
of  them. 

About  the  same  time  J.  G.  Abbott  and  B.  F.  Butler 
defended  Daniel  H.  Pierson,  of  Wilmington,  on  his  trial 
before  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  at  East  Cambridge, 
upon  an  indictment  for  the  murder  of  his  wife  and  two 
children.  Pierson  was  convicted,  and  executed  July  26, 
1850.  From  him  General  Butler  obtained  information 
tending  strongly  to  show  that  Jonas  L.  Parker  was  mur- 
dered by  said  Clark,  who  was  a  relative  of  Pierson.  This 
man  had  been  arrested  and  examined  on  suspicion,  but 
escaped  indictment  by  setting  up  a  false  alibi.  Pierson 
also  attempted  to  escape  the  gallows  by  a  false  alihi, 
but  failed. 

Referring  to  the  question  who  murdered  Parker,  I 
am  permitted  to  quote  the  following  from  a  letter  written 
by  General  Butler  to  a  son  of  his  client,  November  5, 
1885,  after  his  client's  death  : 

"  I  hiid  heen  of  counsel  prior  to  tliat  tri.al,  as  T  was  aftcrAvards, 
for  a  man  named  Pierson,  a\'1io  was  convicted  of  the  murder  of  liis 
wife  and  two  cliildren,  committed  in  Wilmington  in  tliis  state.  Tliat 
n\urder  was  committed  in  a  very  singular  manner  and  witii  a  very 
singular  Aveapon,  to  wit,  a  shoemaker's  knife  ground  to  a  ))oint;  and 
a  razor  was  left  on  the  table  by  the  woman's  bedside  ami  means 
taken  to  have  the  murder  appear  to  have  been  a  suicide.  That  mur- 
der was  not  conmiitted  until  some  years  after  the  Parkei-  murder, 
but  before  the  investigation  of  the  Parker  murder,  as  that  was  not 


30  MEMOIR    OF    HON,  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABROTT,  LL.  D. 

tried  until  some  five  years  after  tlie  deed  was  committed.  Upon  the 
trial  of  tlio  Parker  murder  it  came  out  that  the  murder  was 
committed  with  exactly  such  a  knife,  and  a  razor  was  left  by  the 
dead  hody.  I  was  struck  with  the  coincidence  as  I  had  grounds  for 
suspicion  against  a  relative  of  my  Wilmington  client,  and  the  fact 
was  known  that  on  the  night  of  the  murder  of  Parker,  which  took 
place  between  nine  and  ten,  at  Manchester,  N.  H.,  a  wagon  dra^vn 
by  a  white  horse,  with  two  men  in  it,  passed  through  Lowell  in  the 
direction  of  Wilmington,  and  the  marks  of  the  wheels  of  such  a 
wa<»-on  were  found  in  the  mud  near  the  murdered  man,  which  wagon 
a])i)arently  drove  off  in  the  direction  of  Lowell.  As  my  client  Avas 
about  to  be  hanged  and  it  could  do  him  no  harm,  T  questioned  him, 
assuring  him  that  it  should  not  he  used  to  his  i)rejudice,  as  to  whether 
or  not  he  drove  a  \\agon  that  time  doAvn  from  Manchester  to  Lowell 
and  thence  to  Wilmington.  He  admitted  that  he  did.  I  asked  him 
who  was  in  the  wagon,  and  he  said  he  did  not  want  to  tell  me.  I 
asked  him  with  what  instrument  it  was  done,  and  he  said  with  a  shoe 
knife  and  razor.  I  asked  Inm  what  the  razor  had  to  do  with  it. 
"  Whv,"  he  said,  "  the  man  might  have  cut  his  own  throat  with  the 
razor."  T  asked  him  also  what  was  done  with  the  11,000  l)ill  which 
Parker  A\as  su}>posed  to  have  had  in  his  pocket  which  never  could 
be  traced.  He  said  there  was  no  $1,000  bill  taken  from  Parker,  that 
he  hadn't  any  such  bill.  And,  Avithout  remembering  the  circum- 
stances now,  r  (questioned  him  until  I  was  convinced  that  the  ])erson  I 
liad  hi  my  mind  Avas  the  man  Avith  him.  But  as  the  grand  jury  found 
no  bill  against  my  chent,  and  as  Pierson  Avas  hanged,  I  did  not  feel 
called  ui)on  to  talk  Avith  anybody  about  it  because  I  supposed  there 
was  nobody  so  foolish  now  as  to  believe  that  the  WentAvorths  had 
anything  to  do  with  the  murder  of  Parker." 

Perliaps  "  more  is  meant  than  meets  the  ear "  in 
this  letter.  Perhaps  Daniel  H.  Pierson  himself,  as  well 
as  Clark,  was  implicated  in  the  mnrcler  of  Parker.* 

On  the  nineteenth  of  Jnne,  1860,  Bryant  Moore 
shot  and  killed  his  wife,  at  No.  61  East  Merrimack  Street. 
Under  the  shadow  of  the  scaffold  he  wrote  a  strong 
appeal  to  Mr.  Abbott  to  defend  him.  That  appeal  could 
not  have  l)ecn  made  at  a  more   inopportune  time,   for 


*  Lowell  Morning  Mail.  Nov.  12, 1885. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D.  31 

Mr.  Abbott  was  then  almost  overwholmed  with  cases. 
Nevertheless  he  could  not  with  his  high  views  of  the 
duties  of  the  bar,  refuse  such  a  call  for  help.  He  re- 
quested me  to  do  certain  things  in  the  preparation  of  the 
defence,  saying  that  if  I  would  relieve  him  of  that  j^art 
of  the  work,  he  would  undertake  the  defence.  The  trial 
took  place  in  December,  1860,  and  it  appeared  from  the 
start  that  an  ac(|uittal  was  impossible.  The  most  tliat 
could  be  done  was  to  save  Moore  from  a  vei'dict  of  guilty 
of  murder  in  the  first  degree,  and  thus  save  his  neck.  The 
evidence  would  have  entirely  justified  the  highest  verdict, 
but  through  Mr.  Abbott's  remarkable  power  of  persuasion, 
the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  guilty  of  murder  in  the 
second  degree, —  a  pure  triumph  of  advocacy.  Moore's 
sentence  was  imprisonment  at  hard  lal)or  for  life.  At 
the  end  of  three  years,  however,  a  pardon  was  granted 
to  him,  through  the  exertion  of  Mr.  Abbott's  powers  of 
persuasion  over  Governor  Andrew's  Council.  The  num- 
ber of  capital  cases  in  which  pardons  have  thus  been 
granted  in  this  state,  has  been  very  small,  notwithstand- 
ing the  statements  that  have  repeatedly  been  made  to 
the  contrary.  Moore  afterwards  spent  some  j^ears  in 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  He  returned  to  Lowell  under 
the  name  of  "  Col.  John  B.  Lowe,"  the  military  title 
having  been  conferred  upon  him  by  himself.  He  showed 
deeds  of  land  to  John  B.  Lowe,  and  undertook  to  borrow 
money  upon  the  security  of  a  mortgage  thereof,  but 
nobody  here  would  lend  him  a  sou,  and  he  left  for 
other  fields. 

Mr.  Abbott's  criminal  practice  in  his  earlier  years  was 
very  large,  and  if  there  was  any  merit  in  a  case  he  made 
the  most  of  it,  but  he  never  liked  the  associations  which 
the  criminal  lawyer  cannot  avoid.  He  always  preferred 
the   pursuit  of  remedial  justice ;    and  (d'ter  he  left  the 


32  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAII    GARDNER    ABHOTT,  LL.  D. 

l)e'iicli  his  practice  was  almost  wholly  confined  to  civil 
causes.  But  time  would  fail  to  mention  more  than  two 
or  three  of  them. 

In  1870  Mr.  Abbott  and  B.  R.  Curtis  argued,  before 
the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  the  case  of  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts  against  the  Liverpool 
Insurance  Company,  10  Wallace,  566,  in  which  it  was  held 
that  the  defendants  were  a  corporation,  notwithstanding 
the  British  Parliament  had  said  that  they  were  not. 

About  the  same  time  he  argued,  before  the  same 
court,  the  case  of  the  Merchants'  Bank  against  the  State 
Bank,  10  Wallace,  604-676.  Sidney  Bartlett  and  William 
M.  Evarts  were  with  lihn,  while  B.  K.  Curtis,  C.  B.  Good- 
rich and  B.  F.  Thomas  were  against  him.  The  case  is 
one  of  the  first  importance  to  banks  and  bank  cashiers. 
Mr.  Abbott  rested  his  case  on  one  ground.  Mr.  Bartlett, 
his  associate,  rested  the  claims  of  their  common  client 
upon  another.  A  majority  of  the  court  adopted  Mr. 
Abbott's  view  and  not  Mr.  Bartlett's.  Judges  Clifford 
and  Davis  dissented,  and  Judge  Miller  did  not  sit. 

In  the  case  of  the  Land  Company  against  Daniel 
Saunders,  103  United  States,  316,  Mr.  Abbott  had  his 
]jrother-in-law  for  his  client,  and  John  L.  Patuixm,  now 
judge  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  for 
the  First  Circuit,  for  his  leading  opponent.  Never  did 
counsel  feel  surer  of  victory  in  a  case  than  did  the  coun- 
sel for  the  Land  Company.  Nevertheless  the  decision, 
which  relates  to  the  construction  of  deeds,  and  is  of 
great  importance,  was  in  favor  of  Mr.  Saunders. 

To  argue  questions  of  law  before  a  l)ench  of  judges, 
requires  qualities  of  a  different  kind  from  those  which 
are  required  to  argue  questions  of  fact  before  a  jury. 
How  successful  Mr.  Abbott  was  in  the  latter  field  of 
labor,  hundreds  of  verdicts  of  the  impanelled  farmers, 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,    LL.  D.  33 

mechanics,  and  merclianty  of  Middlesex  and  Suffolk, 
aLuiidantly  attest.  Not  less  successful  was  he  hefore 
benches  of  judges.  Some  who  heard  his  argument  in 
behalf  of  Mr.  Saunders  in  1880,  thought  it  one  of  his 
best  efforts.  So  thoroughly  had  he  mastered  and 
absorbed  his  case,  he  scarcely  looked  at  his  brief  while 
he  spoke.  So  thoroughly  was  he  master  of  himself  and 
of  the  situation,  the  presence  of  the  most  august  tribunal 
on  this  continent  only  stimulated  him  to  put  forth  his 
Ijest  efforts;  and  this  he  did  with  such  clearness  and 
lucidity,  such  strength  and  power,  that  when  he  sat  down 
he  felt  that  his  case  was  won  —  and,  to  the  great  sur- 
prise of  his  opponents,  it  was  w^on. 

Equally  surprised  w^ere  his  opponents  at  the  decision 
won  l)y  him  in  the  case  of  St.  Anne's  Church,*  one  of 
the  most  important  decisions  ever  made  touching  estates 
upon  condition  as  distinguished  from  estates  in  trust.  In 
that  case  John  P.  Robinson,  after  many  years'  retirement 
from  practice,  appeared  with  General  Butler  as  counsel 
for  the  church.  He  never  argued  another  case,  but  was 
afterwards  confirmed  in  that  church.  He  cared  nothing 
for  the  sarcasms  levelled  at  him  bv  J.  R.  Lowell,  thouo-h 
they  will  transmit  his  name  longer  than  anything  that 
he  ever  said  at  the  haw     One  of  them  runs  thus  : 

"But  Jolm  P. 
Robinson,  he 

Says  they  didn't  know  everything 
Down  in  .Jiulee." 

One  of  the  most  just  and  most  discriminating  esti- 
m;ites  of  Judge  Abbott,  is  that  of  Hon.  J.  Lewis  Stack- 
])ole,  of  Boston,  as  follows  : 

"Jiulge  Al)l)Ott's  reputation  as   a  lawyer  was  won    in   tlie   court 
room,  not  in  the  closet.     Endowed  by  nature  Avith  a  body  and  mind 

*See  14  Gray's  IJeiJorts,  pp.  58G-613.    See  also  Charles  Hovey's  History  of  St.  Anne's 
Church  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Contributions  of  this  association,  pp.  30y-32j. 


34  MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,    LL.  D. 

of  <Te;it  viuuv,  with  lu'ver  satislie'd  ninlutioii,  and  untiring  powers  of 
work,  lie  early  came  in  eoiiHict  with  the  most  prominent  lawyers  of 
the  ]Mi(l(lh'sex  l)ar,  and  jtroved  himself  an  o])i>oneiit  worthy  of  their 
steel.  AVhen  later  in  life  he  came  to  the  Suffolk  bar,  he  had  he- 
come  an  advocate  well  trained  to  encounter  its  leaders,  who  included 
Mr.  C'hoate,  Mr.  Bartlett,  Mr.  Duraut,  Mr.  Chandler  and  Judge  Hoar. 

"His  power  of  statement  of  mixed  questions  of  law  and  facts  was 
unrivalled.  None  11  ew^  better  than  he  how  to  elicit  facts  from  a  re- 
luctant or  dishonest  witness,  and  his  appeals  to  juries  were  always 
forcil)le  and  judicious,  and  met  with  merited  success.  His  grasp  of 
the  law  Avas  eminently  a  practical  one,  and  for  many  years  he  was  one 
of  the  most  trusted  counsellors  and  advocates  of  the  Suffolk  bar. 

"  He  always  possessed  the  contidence  of  the  court,  his  kindness 
to  younger  members  of  the  bar  Avas  proverbial,  and  his  death  is 
a  distinct  loss  to  the  profession." 

He  tried  a  great  many  cases  for  younger  lawyers ; 
and  to  the  junior  counsel  associated  with  him  in  such 
trials,  he  way  always  a  tower  of  strength. 

Judge  John  Spaulding,  formerly  of  Groton,  now  of 
Boston,  writes : 

"  When  I  entered  the  profession,  early  in  the  fifties,  there  were 
giants  at  the  Middlesex  l»ar,  an<l  a  young  lawyer  was  under  the 
necessity  of  securing  one  of  them  in  every  important  trial  in  order 
to  match  his  opponent.  The  Middlesex  bar  was  then  renowned,  not 
oidy  for  its  great  legal  ability,  but  also  for  the  thoroughness  of  its 
trials. 

"Having  read  law  with  the  late  George  F.  Farley,  Esq.,  of 
(iroton  (at  that  time  considered  at  the  head  of  the  Middlesex  bar), 
and  having  been  admitted  to  practice,  some  of  the  prominent  citizens 
of  that  town  induced  me  to  open  my  office  there.  I  soon  found  my- 
self engaged  in  some  very  imi)ortant  cases  with  my  old  instructor  as 
niv  opponent.  I  therefore  deemed  it  necessary  to  seek  legal  aid  and 
readily  found  it  hi  Judge  Abbott.  He  was  always  gentle,  encourag- 
ing and  able,  and  although  we  waged  many  a  hai-d-fought  battle  with 
giants  on  the  other  side,  Ave  Avere  signally  successful.  We  never  lost 
a  case!  I  recollect  being  often  obliged  to  call  him  to  my  aid  on  the 
very  eve  of  an  important  trial  —  it  AA^as  Avonderful  how  readily  he 
Avould  <j;rasp  the  evidence  and  Iioav  ehxpiently  and  forcibly  he  Avould 
present  it  to  the  jury.     I  ahvays  found  him  a  gentleman,  high  toned 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  .lOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D.  35 

and  honorable.     1  looked  upon  liini  as  one  of  nature's  noljlenien  and 
sliall  always  cherish  his  memory  with  fond  recollections." 

Outside  of  liis  own  profession  Judo-e  Abbott  was  a 
promoter  of  v.arious  enterprises,  in  whieli  he  invested  liis 
capital  and  employed  his  talents.  It  would  be  tedious  to 
enumerate  all  of  the  corporations  in  which  he  served  as 
president  or  director,  and  I  will  mention  only  a  few  of 
the  principal  of  them.  For  three  years  (1860-62)  he  was 
president  of  the  Hamilton  Manufacturing  Company  at 
Lowell.  For  fifteen  years  (1861-76)  he  was  president  of 
the  Atlantic  Cotton  Mills  at  Lawrence.  For  thirty-five 
years  (1857-91)  he  was  a  director  of  the  Hill  Manufact- 
uring Company  at  Lewiston,  Me.  From  the  death  of 
Homer  Bartlett,  in  1874,  until  his  own  death,  he  was 
president  of  that  company,  and  was  succeeded  in  that 
office  by  his  son,  Samuel  A.  B.  Abbott,  Esq.,  who  also 
succeeded  him  as  a  director  of  the  Franklin  Company  at 
Lewiston,  Me.  For  twenty-eight  years  (1857-85)  he  was 
a  director  of  the  Boston  and  Lowell  Railroad  ;  and  he  was 
president  of  that  corporation  from  1870  to  1884,  both 
inclusive.  He  was  a  director  of  the  North  American 
Insurance  Company  at  Boston,  from  its  organization  in 
1872  to  his  death.  He  was  the  principal  promoter  of  the 
Union  Water  Power  Company  at  Lewiston,  and  president 
of  it  from  1870  until  his  death.  His  son,  Grafton  St. 
Loe  Abbott,  is  its  treasurer. 

It  happened  to  me  toward  the  close  of  the  war  to 
be  brought  much  in  contact  with  General  William  T. 
Sherman.  The  physical  and  intellectual  characteristics 
of  the  general  and  the  judge  were  much  alike.  Both  of 
them  had  that  keenness  of  intellect  which  penetrates  at 
once  to  the  heart  of  a  subject.  Both  of  them  had  that 
lucidity  of  mind  and^that  ((uickness  of  movement  which 
enables  one  to  form  mental  combinations  with  marvellous 


36  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  .lOSTAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D. 

rapidity.  They  held  the  snme  opinions  on  the  topics  of 
that  time.  Whik^  not  opposed  to  arming  the  blacks, 
both  hehl  it  to  be  an  insult  to  the  twenty  millions  of 
white  men  in  the  North  to  say  that  they  conld  not  sup- 
press the  five  millions  of  secessionists  without  the  aid  of 
the  three  millions  of  blacks.  And  when  the  Confederate 
forces  disbanded  both  held  that  the  war  should  cease. 
In  nothing  were  they  more  alike  than  in  their  intellect- 
ual independence. 

One  of  the  most  notable  illustrations  of  Judge 
Abbott's  independence  of  mind  and  self-reliance  was  the 
famous  case  of  the  Trent  in  18G1.  The  seizure  of  the 
Confederate  envoys,  Mason  and  Slidell,  and  their  impris- 
onment in  Fort  Warren,  in  Boston  Harbor,  w^ere  the  sub- 
ject of  the  greatest  rejoicing  among  the  rash  and  the  in- 
(ionsiderate,  and  also  among  thousands  who  were  neither 
rash  nor  inconsiderate.  Statesmen  and  lawyers  like  John 
A.  Andrew,  George  T.  Bigelow,  B.  F.  Butler,  Peleg  W. 
Chandler,  Caleb  Cushing,  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Edw\ard 
Everett,  Theophilus  Parsons,  William  Whiting,  and  a 
galaxy  of  lesser  lights,  glorified  Captain  Wilkes,  and 
endorsed  the  outrage  which  he,  without  orders,  had  com- 
mitted upon  a  neutral  steamer  plying  between  neutral 
ports.  To  me,  on  the  contrary,  the  shouts  of  the  popu- 
lace in  that  critical  hour  presaged  nothing  less  than  the 
doom  of  the  American  Union.  But  among  all  the  law- 
yers of  Boston  old  enough  and  conspicuous  enough  to 
(rive  weio'ht  to  their  opinions,  1  found  but  two  avIio  were 
in  accord  with  me  —  Judge  A))bott  and  Hon.  Charles 
Levi  Woodbury.  "We  can  never,"  Judge  Abbott  said, 
"justify  on  our  principles  the  seizure  of  these  envo^-s 
aboard  the  Trent."  *     Mr.  Woodbury  expressed  the  same 

*  Cowley's  Leaves  from  a  Lawyer's  Life  Afloat  and  Ashore,  pp.  3C-38. 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    .TOSIAH    GARDNER    ARBOTT,  LL.  D.  37 

opinion  in  n  letter  to  Postmaster-General  Blair,  his 
brother-in-L'iw,  who  replied  that  he  had  already  presented 
that  view  to  the  cabinet,  but  that  all  his  associates  were 
against  him.  It  looked  for  a  time  as  if  the  United 
States  would  become  involved  in  a  war  with  Great 
Britain  in  addition  to  that  with  the  Confederate  States, 
and  that,  too,  upon  a  point  upon  which  all  the  precedents 
were  against  us.  Fortunately,  however,  we  tlien  had  as 
our  representative  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  a  man  not  to  be  moved  by  wind  and 
clamor.  He  wrote  to  Everett  and  Dana,  and  to  all  his 
correspondents  in  the  United  States,  correcting  their 
false  views,  and  urging  them  not  to  stullify  themselves  by 
contending  against  Great  Britain  upon  a  point  upon  which 
her  position  was  manifestly  right  and  in  harmony  with 
our  own  contention  heretofore.  Mason  and  Slidell,  as 
we  all  know,  w^ere  given  up  ;  but  it  required  great  moral 
courage,  as  well  as  mental  independence,  to  advocate 
giving  them  up  when  they  were  first  lu'ought  to  Boston. 
Abbott,  Adams,  Woodbury,  and  those  of  less  prominence, 
who  said,  from  the  start,  that  Wilkes  liad  erred,  stood 
like  Athanasius  against  the  world. 

In  1874  Judge  Abbott  was  elected  a  meml)er  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States.  His  seat 
being  contested,  he  was  not  admitted  till  near  the  close 
of  the  first  session.  It  was  in  the  session  which  began 
in  December,  1876,  and  closed  in  March,  1877,  that  he 
most  distinguished  himself.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
special  committee  which  the  House  of  Representatives 
sent  to  South  Carolina  to  investio'ate  the  facts  connected 
with  the  presidential  election  in  that  state,  and  the  i-eport 
of  that  committee  was  prepared  by  him.  N.  P.  Banks, 
who  had  succeeded  him  as  democratic  editor  in  Lowell, 
was  one  of  his  (iolleau'ues  on  this  committee.      He  was 


38  MKMOIR    OF    HON.  .TOSIAn    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D. 

personally  opposed  to  the  bill  ereating  the  electoral 
commission,  which  was  introdnced  dnring  his  absence 
and  without  his  knowledge  ;  but  after  that  bill  had  been 
proposed  by  the  democrats  in  congress  and  accepted  by 
the  republicans,  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  see  that  its 
provisions  were  carried  out.  Had  that  commission  been 
filled  as  it  was  at  first  intended.  New  York  would  have 
had  a  democratic  representative  on  it  and  Massachusetts 
would  not.  But  New  York  had  two  candidates  for  one 
place  —  Fernando  Wood  and  "Sunset"  Cox  —  neither  of 
whom  was  quite  such  a  man  as  the  place  seemed  to  re- 
quire. Judge  Abbott's  friends,  without  his  knowledge, 
resolved  to  propose  his  name  for  that  place  to  the  demo- 
cratic congressional  caucus.  They  did  so,  and  the  caucus 
adopted  it  at  once. 

The  letter  of  Senator  Hoar,  who  sat  with  Abbott 
on  that  commission,  and  the  letter  of  General  Butler,  to 
be  printed  herewith,  sufliciently  indicate  the  inq)ortance 
of  the  part  borne  by  Judge  Abbott  on  that  connnission. 
He  sat  next  to  Garfield,  who  had  known  his  brother, 
Calel)  Fletcher  Abbott,  in  Toledo,  and  who  was  after- 
wards "  shot  into  immortality."  It  was  Abbott's  sincere 
conviction  that  by  the  action  of  that  commission  the 
office  of  president  was  given  to  the  wrong  man.  But 
he  refused  to  listen  to  the  solicitations  of  some  of  his 
fellow-democrats  to  aid  in  preventing  the  completion  of 
the  counting  of  the  electoral  votes.  He  saw  that  Mr. 
Ha3^es  must  have  the  office  under  the  forms  of  the  con- 
stitution, or  General  Grant  must  be  permitted  to  continue 
to  discharge  its  duties  hy  co7isent,  without  any  title  to  it 
at  all.  Between  these  alternatives  he  chose  the  former 
and  he  never  regretted  it.  In  thus  insisting  on  carrying 
out  the  decisions  of  the  electoral  commission,  after  having 
himself  voted  against  those  decisions  in  the  connnission, 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  T>.  39 

and  in  insisting  that  Hayes  slionld  thus  ho  accepted  as 
president,  Judge  Al^hott  rendered  a  service  to  his  country, 
the  magnitude  of  which  can  only  he  appreciated  by  those 
wlio  remember  how  repugnant  that  result  was  to  the 
democratic  party. 

It  was  not  known  outside  of  a  few  that  Judge  Abbott 
wrote  an  address  to  the  country  on  behalf  of  the  demo- 
cratic minority  of  that  commission,  which  was  put  in 
type  and  one  copy  printed  to  be  signed  by  the  demo- 
cratic members  of  the  connnission,  Ijut  it  was  never 
signed  and  the  original  manuscript  was  destroyed.*  'i 

Judge  Abbott  was  unwilling  to  give  this  proposed    ( 
address  to  the  puljlic  during  his  life  ;  but  I  was  permitted 
to  make  a  copy  of  it,  and  the  seal  of  secrecy  is  removed 
by  his  death. 

In  1884,  the  democrats,  after  long  exclusion  from 
power,  elected  their  candidate  as  president.  By  invita- 
tion of  Mr.  Cleveland's  private  secretary.  Judge  Abbott 
met  the  president-elect  at  Albany,  and  had  a  free  and 
full  exchange  of  views  on  the  political  situation  and  the 
selection  of  cabinet  officers.  I  have  been  told  by  those 
who  stood  in  such  positions  that  they  might  be  presumed 
to  know,  but  never  by  Judge  Abbott,  that  he  was  offered 
a  place  in  the  cahinet.  If-  he  was  not  so  invited,  he  cer- 
tainly should  have  been.  A  cabinet  containino-  two  ex- 
members  of  the  Confederate  States  government,  should 
have  included  at  least  one  war  democrat.  Had  President 
Cleveland  sought  and  followed  Judge  Abbott's  counsels, 
his  famous  message  on  the  tariff  would  have  undergone 
considerable  revision  before  being  sent  to  congress,  and 
its  menace  to  the  wool  industry  would  have  been  care- 
fully excised.     No   people   ever  lost  their  liberties  by 

*  For  this  proposed  addifss  see  the  February  (1892)  number  of  the  Magazine  of 
American  History.    See  also  tlie  appendix  hereto. 


40  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAII    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  D. 

keeping  .sheep.  Had  Mr.  Cleveland  learned  that  ini|)or- 
tant  lesson,  lie  niiglit  perlia})s  liave  been  re-elected. 
Jnd«'-e  Abbott's  views  on  the  tarift"  were  pul)lished  in  the 
Boston  Sunday  Globe,  June  26,  and  republished  in  the 
Lowell  Morning  Mail,  June  27,  1887,  and  in  many  other 
journals.  They  were  in  substance  the  same  which  he 
had  published  in  the  Lowxdl  Advertiser  in  1840. 

"•  For  many  years  to  come,"  he  says,  "  the  countr}^ 
will  have  to  raise  from  |100,0()0,000  to  $200,000,(1(11)  a 
year  by  taxation  in  some  form.  On  account  of  the  un- 
equal distribution  of  property,  no  method  of  taxation  (;an 
be  devised  that  is  as  fair  and  just  as  that  of  taxes  on  im- 
ports. A  tarift'  should  discriminate  against  luxuries  and 
in  favor  of  necessaries.  So  too  it  should  in  favor  of  our 
home  industries  and  home  labor." 

In  the  fall  of  1887,  Judge  Abbott  suffered  the 
greatest  affliction  of  his  life.  He  had  lost  two  sons  in 
their  childhood,  and  tw^o  more  on  fields  of  Ijattle.  He 
had  followed  his  oldest  daughter  and  the  husljands  of 
both  his  daughters  to  premature  graves.  But  the  great 
sorrow  of  his  life  came  with  the  death  of  Mrs.  Abbott.* 
The  following  letter,  written  in  the  shadow  of  a  home 
made  desolate  by  her  death,  indicates  his  appreciation  of 
her  worth  better  than  the  words  of  any  other  man  could 
do.  It  is  his  reply  to  a  condolatory  letter  from  Hon.  John 
F.  Kind)all,  president  of  the  Appleton  National  Bank: 

,,     -,,  ,^  Boston,  October  5,  l-SST. 

My  Dear  KiJNrr.ALL: 

1  lliaiik  you  from  my  heart  fur  your  very  sympatlietir  lelter;  to 
one  lieart-broken  as  T  am,  sympatliy  fro)u  a  friend  is  i^ood  ami 
helpful. 

You  eanuot,  and  T  trust  you  may  never  knoAV,  Avlial  such  a  Mow 


*  Mrs.  Abbott  wrote  tlie  memoir  of  her  father,  Judge  Edward  St.  Loe  Livermore, 
which  was  read  before  tliis  association  when  her  liusband  was  elected  an  lionorary  mem- 
ber in  1879.  It  was  published  in  the  second  volume  of  our  Contributions,  and  afterwards 
reiirinted  separately  with  additions. 


MEMOIR    OF    HOX.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    AUBOTT,  LL    D.  41 

means.  Living  ns  wc  liavo  so  long  togetlier,  witli  notliiiig  lilerally 
ever  coming  l)ctweeii  us,  my  Avife  was  absolutely  a  part  of  myself, 
and  taking  lier  aAvay  is  wrenching  away  a  part  of  my  own  soul.  It 
is  not  the  loss  of  a  common  woman  —  she  inherited  the  rol)ustness 
and  strength  of  will  and  character  of  her  father,  the  judge,  and  of 
her  grandfather,  the  first  senator  from  New  Hampshire,  cond)ined 
with  the  tenderness  and  love  she  took  from  her  mother  — a  rare 
meeting  of  qualities.  I  used  often,  in  times  long  past,  to  say  that  if 
I  slionld  be  called  to  my  last  account,  half  the  bitterness  ol"  death 
Avould  be  taken  from  me  by  the  consciousness  that  I  left  behind  me 
one  who  woidd  take  care  of  the  family  better  even  than  I  could 
myself. 

All  this  comes  to  me  now  that  I  have  lost  her,  and  I  find  the 
burden  a  very  heavy  one  to  Itear.  I  again  thank  you  for  your  feeling 
and  sympathy.     .     .     .     Faithfully  your  friend. 

J.  G.  Abbott. 

From  tliis  time  liis  face  assumed  a  sadder,  more 
abstrjicted  look  than  before.  Like  Rabbi  Samuel,  son  of 
Naomi,  he  could  say,  "  Thne  can  replace  all  things,  but 
never  the  wife  of  my  youth."  He  was  a  domestic  man 
from  the  start,  and  grew  more  and  more  so  to  the  end. 
It  was  not  in  courts  of  law,  it  was  not  in  political  activ- 
ities, that  he  found  his  greatest  happiness.  It  was  in  his 
own  home,  among  his  children  and  grandchildren,  in  his 
own  fields  covering  four  hundred  acres,  with  his  horses 
and  his  dogs,  among  the  trees  which  he  trimmed  and  the 
flowers  which  he  planted  with  his  own  hands.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone never  took  more  delight  in  his  home  life  at  Ha  war- 
den Castle  than  Judge  Abbott  in  his  baronial  hall  at 
Wellesley  Hills.  If  he  did  not  enter  into  the  public  dis- 
cussion of  religious  topics  like  Mr.  Gladstone,  he  was  as 
perfect  a  pattern  of  the  domestic  and  social  virtues  as 
''  the  grand  old  man  "  himself. 

He  had  comi)leted  seventy-six  years  and  seven 
months,  and  seemed  likely  to  continue  to  perforui  all  his 
usual  duties  aud  enjoy  his  accustouied   pleasures  for  ten 


42  MEMOIK    OF    HON.  JOSIAII    GA  UDNEK    ATiHOTT,  LI..  D. 

or  fiftt'en  ycnrs  more,  Avlioii  tlie  iiicvita])le  lioiir  came, 
and  ho  passed  to  the  life  l)eyond  life.  To  the  family  and 
friends  of  sneh  a  man  as  Judge  Abbott,  liowever  long 
dela3aMl,  death  always  comes  too  soon.  But  the  sharp 
('•rief  of  love  and  friendshii)  (inds  some  alleviation  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  true  nobility  Avhich  distinguished 
him  through  life,  and  in  the  beauty  of  the  example  which 
he  has  left  to  his  posterity. 

The  Rev.  Leighton  Parks,  rector  of  Emanuel  Church, 
Boston,  where  for  many  years  Judge  Abbott  attended 
pul)lic  worship,  writes :  "  I  believe  he  was  a  man  who 
tried  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  his  God." 

Five  of  his  sons,  Fletcher  Morton,  Samuel  Appleton 
Brown,  Franklin  Pierce,  Grafton  St.  Loe,  and  Holker 
Welch,  together  with  Mrs.  Sarah  Abbott  Fay,  his  young- 
est dauditer,  widow  of  William  P.  Fay,  survive  him. 
There  are  also  eight  grandchildren,  and  it  is  not  un- 
likely that  this  number  may  be  increased,  so  that  his 
race  seems  destined  to  a  long  continuance  upon  the  earth. 
The  recollections  of  Judge  Abbott  which  survive  him  in 
the  hearts  of  those  who  loved  him,  are  more  precious 
than  words  can  express. 


■  To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 
Is  uot  to  die." 


His  Excellency  W^illiam  E.  Russell,  Governor  of 
Massacliusetts,  l)eing  al)out  to  visit  Lowell,  was  invited  to 
l)e  present  at  the  meeting  at  which  the  preceding  memoir 
was  read.  He  returned  his  thanks  for  the  invitation, 
and  said  :  ''  Engagements  that  have  already  been  made, 
and  invitations  already  accepted,  will  prevent  my  attend- 


MEMOIR    OP    HON.    .TOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,    LL.  D.  43 

iince.  This  is  a  great  disappoiiitme'iit  to  me,  as  1  should 
like  exceedingly  to  join  you  in  your  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  one  who  was  an  able  and  much  respected 
jurist  and  lawyer,  and  a  distinguished  citizen  of  our 
commonwealth." 

Hon.  Moses  T.  Stevens,  Representative  in  Congress 
from  the  Lowell-Lawrence  District,  sent  a  letter,  which 
was  read,  expressing  his  regret  that  other  engagements 
compelled  him,  at  the  last  moment,  to  deny  himself  the 
l^leasure  of  listening  to  the  able  treatment  of  so  good  a 
subject  as  Judge  Abbott,  whose  forefathers  like  his  own, 
were  among  the  first  settlers  of  Andover,  and  for  six 
generations  inhabitants  of  that  ancient  town. 


LETTER   FROM    SENATOR    HOAR. 

Worcester,  Mass.,  Septenil)or  17,  189L 
Hon.  Charles  Coivley,  Lowell,  Mass. 

My  Dear  Sir — All  my  recollections  of  Judge  Abbott  are  of  an 
exceedingly  pleasant  character,  I  do  not  think  I  should  sjteak  of 
him  as  my  contem])orary  at  the  bar,  unless  that  word  were  used  with 
a  pretty  comprehensive  meaning.  When  I  was  a  law  student,  from 
1846  to  1849, 1  used  to  attend  court  in  Concord  a  good  deal,  and  was 
present  at  the  trial  of  a  good  many  cases  where  Judge  Abbott  was 
counsel.  He  was  then  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  very  able  har  of 
Middlesex  County,  having  been  out  of  college  sixteen  or  seventeen 
years,  and  having  come  forward  into  leadership  very  rapidly.  ^Vfter 
I  myself  got  well  established  in  Worcester,  I  was  opposed  to  Judge 
Ab])ott  in  several  important  cases.  He  impressed  me  with  his  o-reat 
fairness  and  justice  as  well  as  with  his  great  ability.  I  remember 
that  he  interposed  his  authority  to  compel  a  just  settlement  in  several 
cases.  In  one  of  them,  his  client,  a  strono-  corjioi-ation,  seemed  dis- 
posed to  do  o-reat  injustice  to  a  poor  man,  which  I  think  would  liave 
been  accomplished  but  forjudge  .Vbbott's  insisting  on  a  reasonable 
settlement. 

He  was  in  the  house  of  re])resentatives  for  a  sinolo  session  onlv, 
if  1  remember  right.     The  high  ri'putation   which  he  brouohi  with 


44  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAII    GAItDNER    AT.IiOTT,  I.L.  P. 

him  lo  llu'  house  was  sliown  by  tlie  fact  that  hv  was  made  (nu-  of  llic 
(h'mocralic  mcmliers  of  the  electoral  commission.  In  that  commis- 
sion he  si  at  I'd  tlie  view  of  liis  ])arty  with  gTcat  vigor  and  ability  and 
with  entire  courtesy.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  that  was  a  trans- 
action which  excited  very  deei)ly  the  feelings  of  the  uliole  ]ieoi)U'  of 
the  countr\-  an<l  esjtecially  of  those  who  were  called  upon  to  take 
a  consiiiciious  and  resjionsihle  i)art  in  it.  T  do  not  thiidc  the  kindly 
feeling  toward  .fudge  Abbott  of  his  repubhcan  associates  in  Washing- 
ton was  interruiited  by  anything  which  ()ccui-i-e(l  at  that  time. 

I  am,  faithfully  yours, 

(4eo.  F.  IIoar. 


LETTER    FROM    GENERAL    BUTLER. 

At  TToiNrE,  November  '2'2nd,  1891. 
Afi/  Dear  Mr.  Coxdey : 

I  had  the  jdeasure  to  receive  your  kind  invitation  to  be  ])resent 
at  the  Old  Residents'  meeting  of  our  city,  which  would  have  ]»er- 
mitteil  me  to  ]>av  my  iributi'  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  late 
Judg(f  .losiah  (t.  Abi)ott;  but  the  condition  of  my  health  was  such 
that  its  literal  acceptance  was  inij)ossible,  but  I  take  advantage  of  the 
occasion  to  say  very  hn])erfectly,  a  few  words  on  that  subject. 

Judge  Abl)ott  and  myself  Averc,  from  1881)  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  Avann  i)ersonal  friends.  He  Avas  my  senior,  but  soon  avc  came  in 
contact  A\'ith  each  othei-  in  the  trial  of  causes  as  Avell  before  juries  as 
in  arguments  before  the  Sui)reme  Court,  and  I  Avitnessed  Avith  care 
many  of  his  efforts  in  other  litigations.  Fi-om  actual  j.ersonal  knoAvl- 
edire  1  can  bear  testimony  to  his  high  talents  as  a  laAvyer,  to  his 
fidelity  to  his  clients,  his  untiring  and  ardent  advocacy  of  their  cause, 
his  uniform  courtesy  as  a  gentleman  to  his  ()|i]>onents  in  the  court,  to 
his  honorable  faithfulness  to  all  engagenu-nts  and  understandings 
between  counsel,  and  to  his  great  success  in  his  ])rofessioii. 

In  1855  he  Avas  appointed  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court 
of  the  County  of  Suffolk,  IJoston,  and  acfiuitted  himself  in  that 
position  so  as  to  bring  to  himself  merit  and  distim-tion.  He  resigned 
that  position  because  its  salary  was  utterly  inadecjuate  to  the  labor 
an<l  b<M-e  no  com]>arison  to  the  emolument  of  his  ])rofession  which  he 
resunu'd  in  that  city. 

lie  was  an  aideiil  democrat  and  receiveil  the  iionor  of  a  seat  in 
the   house  of  rcpi-esentativos  from  that   jiaiMy   so  early  that   it  Avas 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    AT.r.OTT,  LL.  IJ.  45 

almost  (loul)tt'ul  wlietlior  lie  was  not  too  young  to  serve.  Soon  after 
lie  was  elected  to  tlie  senate  and  served  there  with  enviahle  disthic- 
tion.  He  was  a})]K)inted  senior  aide-de-eanij)  to  Governor  JNTorton. 
He  was  candidate  for  congress,  ]»ut  heing  in  a  district  with  a  large 
majority  against  his  l)arty  his  election  was  im})Ossil)le. 

When  our  unha])py  Avar  liroke  out  in  18G1,  he  remained  truly 
and  staunchly  loyal  to  the  country.  I  remember  an  incident  on  the 
seAcnteenth  of  April  as  I  was  going  from  Lowell  to  Boston  to  take 
connuand  of  the  Massachusetts  troops  which  were  behig  sent  to 
Washington.  Judge  Ahhott  met  me  in  the  same  train  of  cars  in  the 
morning,  and  said :  "  Well,  general,  I  hear  that  you  are  going  to 
take  command  of  our  soldiers  who  go  to  Washington."  T  said : 
"Yes,  judge;  for  want  of  a  better."  "Well,"  said  he,  "you  will 
have  with  you  poor  soldiers  in  distress  and  suffering  at  some  turn  of 
affairs  ;  let  me  contribute  my  mite  to  relieve  that  suffering."  Putting 
his  liand  in  his  pocket  he  took  out  some  bills  and  handed  me  one 
hundred  dollars.  I  said:  "Judge,  you  are  very  generous,  but  let  me 
give  you  a  memorandum  of  this."  "  No,  no,  Butler,"  he  said  :  "  we 
have  lived  too  long  together  to  need  a  memorandum  in  a  matter  of 
this  sort  l)etween  each  other."  I  said  :  "  Thanks,  judge  ;  T  will  see 
to  it  that  your  mone}^  shall  i-each  its  full  destination." 

Soon  after  he  gave  two  of  his  sons  to  the  war.  I  use  this  phrase 
for  they  were  literally  given  to  the  country,  as  he  lost  them  both  on 
the  battle-field  serving  with  high  honor.  Thus  he  did  his  duty  to 
his  country  at  the  same  time  retaining  his  })olitical  beliefs. 

In  1874  he  was  elected  to  eongress  from  one  of  the  Boston  dis- 
tricts. A  new  member  of  congress  usually  has  to  serve  a  tei-m  or 
two  as  an  apprentice  before  he  can  attain  any  considerable  promi- 
nence in  the  house,  but  Judge  Abbott's  high  standing  and  al)ilities 
gave  him  instantly  high  position  with  his  i)arty,  and  when  in  187() 
the  best  talent  and  the  highest  legal  ability  of  the  house  on  the  dem- 
ocratic side  was  to  be  selected  to  sei've  on  that  most  important  l)ody, 
the  electoral  commission,  having  to  deal  with  new  and  unprecedented 
(piestions,  Abbott  was  selected  with  singular  unanimity.  lie  took  the 
leading  part  in  tliat  commission.  ITe  was  strongly  impressed,  to  say 
the  least,  with  the  ir.regiilarities  under  which  tlie  local  elections  were 
held  and  especiallv  in  the  states  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  which 
resulted  in  the  claimed  election  of  Hayes.  The  minority  decided 
that  a  formal  |)r()test  should  be  made  to  the  countiy,  Mgainst  the 
decision  of  the  majority,  and  Abbott  was  selected  to  jirepare  tliat 
protest,   the  work  and  performance  of  which   required  mucli  legal 


46  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    AUROTT,  LL.  D. 

U'lirniiiL!;  and  llic  ^'reatest  talent  in  itrescntation  of  the  arguments 
w  likli  must  acconii)aiiy  it.  Ho  prepared  the  jtajter  witli  liis  accus- 
tomed skill  and  ability.  It  was  read  before  liis  associates  and 
aj (proved,  but  upon  discussion  the  decision  to  make  any  ])rotest  was 
reconsidered,  all  ao-reeing,  however,  that  if  such  protest  was  to  be 
ma<le  the  one  just  read  was  tlie  very  best  })resentation  of  the  case. 
Political  reasons  bearing  on  the  future  of  the  })arty  were  the  grounds 
of  n(m-presentation  upon  which  the  decision  was  based.  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  examining  Judge  Abl)ott's  paper  with  great  interest, 
l^o  analvze  it  so  as  to  do  it  justice  would  be  far  l)eyond  the  limits  of 
such  a  letter  as  I  am  now  writing.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that  it  Avas 
worthy  of  Judge  Abbott  and  equal  to  any  efforts  of  his  life,  that  is  to 
say,  it  was  done  as  well  as  it  could  be  done  and  with  singular  and 
quite  judicial  impartiality. 

I  take  leave  to  close  by  sayuig  that  a  more  honorable  gentleman, 
a  better  or  more  loyal  citizen  or  a  more  im})artial  judge  has  never 
lived  than  Judge  Abbott,  and  a  truer  friend  to  myself  I  have  not  the 
misfortune  to  mouj-n.     I  am,  very  truly  yours, 

])EX,T.    F.    BUTLEE. 


LETTER    FROM    FREDERICK    F.    AYER,    ESQ. 

New  York,  November  2o,  1891. 
My  Dear  Mr.  Coxdey : 

I  regret  not  being  with  you  at  the  Old  Resi<]ents'  Association 
meeting  to-morrow  evening  to  join  you  in  doing  honor  to  the  mem- 
ory of  Judge  Abl)ott.  While  I  feel  that  I  could  say  much  about 
him  that  would  interest  those  who  did  not  know  him  personally,  I 
could  impart  but  little  to  those  who  knew  him  well.  To  these  he 
spoke  while  living,  and  told  the  story  of  what  he  was,  with  a  com- 
pulsive eloquence  which  we  who  came  after  him  can  only  echo  back. 
I  see  you  are  going  to  read  a  paper  on  him.  You  knew  him  well. 
You  will,  with  your  delicate  sense  of  appreciation  and  your  accus- 
tomed eloquence,  scatter  his  grave  with  flowers.  They  will  be 
plucked  from  the  garden  of  your  knowledge  of  all  men,  varied  and 
variegated  ;  blossoms  worthy  of  his  exalted  character  and  supera- 
bundant manliness  and  gifts.  I  knew  him  during  the  last  fifteen 
years  of  his  life  very  intimately.  My  relations  with  him  were  such 
as  to  carry  me  near  to  him;  and  he  became  confidential  with  me  as 
men  are  wont  to  do  but  seldom  with  their  fellows.     Let  me  write  a 


MEMOIR    UF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    AliBOTT,  LL.  1).  47 

word  of  his  uncorninoii  gift  of  greatness.  His  commaiuliMg  talents 
were  known  to  all.  As  the  world  advances,  higher  is  the  value 
placed  upon  that  which  a  man  is.  Our  admiration  for  mental  traits 
and  gifts,  and  the  calisthenics  of  the  intellect  pales  away,  unless  we 
discover  some  touch  of  greatness.  Judge  Abbott  was  superlatively 
great.  Quick  to  make  allowances  for  all  men,  he  was  a  man  without 
grievances.  He  seized  upon  that  which  was  of  value  in  men,  dis- 
carding and  forgetting  the  rest.  He  was  all  that  nature  intended 
him  to  be.  How  few  there  are  that  can  be  it !  Many  can  act  the 
utmost  that  is  in  them,  without  bein^  it.  To  be  is  to  act,  while 
action,  says  Emerson,  is  only  a  trick  of  the  senses.  Judge  Abbott 
was  himself,  wholly  and  always.  He  once  told  me  he  attended  a 
school  kept  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  His  description  of  Emerson 
as  a  school-master  interested  me  most  because  I  saw  that  Emerson 
had  left  his  character  on  him  in  marks  that  would  never  wear  away. 
He  said  Emerson  never  corrected,  nor  criticised,  nor  found  fault  with 
a  boy,  no  matter  what  the  boy  had  done;  that  only  behind  his 
wondrous  smile,  which  almost  concealed  a  faint  expression  of  regret, 
could  one  read  pages  of  what  he  would  say,  but  never  articulated. 
He  said  the  worst  boy  in  school  was  devoted  to  him.  When  some 
of  the  boys  would  become  engaged  in  rough  quarrels,  he  had  seen 
Emerson  appear  at  the  door  of  the  school-house  with  his  heart  in  his 
face,  and  the  boys  would  forget  their  quarrel  in  an  instant. 

So  it  was  with  Judge  Abbott  himself.  He  moulded  others  and 
made  them  also  great.  Above  malice  ;  above  the  trifling  motives 
that  mould  so  many,  he  grew  to  immense  stature,  and  died  as  he 
lived,  with  his  eyes  ever  on  the  horizon  and  toward  the  rising  sun. 

Very  truly  yours,  Fredk.  F.  Ayer. 


LETTER    FROM    HON.  DANIEL    SAUNDERS. 

My  father,  Daniel  Saunders,  as  early  as  18:50,  became  aware  of 
the  water  power  between  Lowell  and  the  present  site  of  Fawrence, 
although  the  fall  between  the  two  places  was  so  gradual  that  a  boat 
could  be  rowed  the  whole  way. 

Judge  Abbott,  who  was  a  nephew  of  my  father,  was  consulted 
by  him  long  before  any  positive  steps  were  taken  towards  starting 
the  enterprise  which  resulted  in  l)uilding  the  city  of  Lawrence. 
Most  of  the  early  legal  work  was  |)erformed  by  Mr.  Abbott;  and  in 
obtaining  bonds  he  was  frequently  consulted,  and  his  good  judgment 


48  MEMOIK    OF    HON.    JOSIAII    GARDNER    ABBOTT,    LL.  D. 

and  lc'<j;al  attainments  were  of  great  value  in  obtaining  good  titles  to 
till'  present  site  of  Lawrence.  So  good  was  liis  advice  that  no  title 
obtained  has  ever  been  succiessfully  contested. 

I  am  at  the  present  moment  unable  to  give  you  the  number  of 
farms  ])urchased,  but  the  whole  territory  j)urchased  embraces  about 
Lliree  S(|uare  miles.  Thirty  or  forty  dollars  an  acre  would  have  l)een 
a  lar<'C  price  for  most  of  this  land,  which  is  now  worth  from  ten  cents 
to  four  dollars  per  square  foot. 

Judge  Abbott  has  been  more  or  less  connected  with  the  cor]>or- 
ations  of  Lawrence  as  a  stockholder,  and  for  many  years  was  a 
director  and  president  of  the  Atlantic  Cotton  Mills,  and  he  has  always 
taken  <'reat  interest  in  the  manufacturing  enterprises  of  New  Eng- 
land, being  a  large  holder  of  stock  in  various  corporations,  as  a 
director  and  president  of  one  or  more  of  such  corporations  in 
Ijcwiston,  Me. 

Of  his  standing  as  a  lawyer,  his  integrity  as  a  man,  and  his 
position  as  a  citizen,  I  need  not  sjjeak.  They  are  known  to  all  who 
ever  knew  him  by  acquaintance  or  reputation. 


LETTER  FROM  HON.  BENJAMIN  DEAN. 

I  studied  law  in  the  othce  of  lion.  Thomas  Ilopkinson,  after- 
wards Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  I*leas,  and  I'resident  of  the 
pjoston  and  Worcester  Railroad. 

Mr.  Abbott  and  B.  R.  Curtis,  afterwards  Justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  tried  a  case  at  East  Cambridge,  and  I 
expressed  to  Mr.  Ilopkinson  the  general  sentiment,  even  of  that  day, 
of  the  great  ability  of  Mr.  Curtis.  Mr.  Ilopkinson  said  that,  as  he 
was  going  down  the  stei)S  of  the  court  house,  somebody  else  made  a 
similar  remark,  when  a  member  of  the  jury  that  was  not  trying  the 
case  said,  "  I  like  the  tall  one  the  best ; "  meaning  Mr.  Abbott.  I 
have  often  since  then  "liked  the  tall  one  the  best." 

Though  I  have  always  been  a  great  admirer  of  Judge  Curtis,  I 
have  again  and  again  been  struck  with  the  great  fervor  and  vigor  of 
Judge  Abbott's  jury  arguments.  He  seemed  to  be  glad  when  the 
evidence  was  closed,  as  if  when  he  came  to  the  argument,  he  was 
conscious  of  being  master  of  the  situation.  I  never  knew  him  to 
make  a  j»oor  argument.  He  always  warmed  uj)  and  went  on  like  a 
rushing  torrent. 

The  bar  of  Middlesex  was  of  cons])icuous  ability — Judge  Abbott, 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GAKDNEK    ABI30TT,   LL.  I).  49 

General  Butler,  E.  Kockwood  Hoar,  Thomas  Ilopkinson,  ])aiiiel  S. 
Richardson,  Judge  Nelson,  G.  A.  Somerby  and  others,  had  to  be 
sudi  to  compete  with  each  other.  They  were,  besides,  followers  of 
others  older  than  themselves,  who  stru^Q-led  to  retain  their  lessenintr 
ascendency.  I  will  not  yield  to  the  temptation  to  speak  of  them, 
however  deserving  they  may  be. 

When  Mr.  Abbott  was  appointed  to  the  bench,  he  had  his  oflice 
with  me  in  Boston,  and  we  ever  after  had  our  offices  together,  and  we 
continued  close  friends  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

You  will  not  expect  me  to  speak  of  his  judicial  or  public  career. 
It  is  known  to  everybody,  and  I  have  no  especial  knowledge  of  it. 
I  will,  however,  mention  one  incident  of  the  former:  Coming  into 
the  office  after  the  adjournment  of  the  court,  he  said,  there  was 
brought  before  him  a  little  boy  for  sentence,  and  he  said  to  the  dis- 
trict attorney,  "You  don't  expect  me  to  sentence  that  boy.  7" shall 
never  sentence  him.  You  must  make  some  other  disposition  of  his 
case  ; "  then  he  added,  "  I  was  not  going  to  sentence  a  little  boy 
like  that." 

The  professional  and  public  career  of  Judge  Abbott  is  so  well 
known,  that  features  of  his  personal  character  and  habits  will  be 
quite  as  interesting  to  his  old  townsmen.  He  was  very  fond  of  tlie 
gentle  art  of  fishing,  and  we  scoured  the  ponds  of  Middlesex  and 
Plymouth  Counties.  Sometimes  in  Middlesex  County,  Alden  But- 
trick  and  Ilapgood  Wright  were  with  us ;  but  generally,  and  always 
in  Plymouth  County,  we  were  alone. 

ITe  lived  on  Stackpole  Street  and  I  on  Alder  Street,  in  Lowell, 
and  ofter  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  whichever  awoke  fii'st  would 
rattle  his  fish-pole  against  the  other's  window,  and  we  would  walk  to 
Raymond  Kimball's  stable,  ride  to  the  Ridge  Tavern  in  Groton,  and 
j)ut  u})  the  horse.  "Peter"  would  then  take  us  in  a  wagon  to  Knop's 
Pond,  where  we  would  begin  our  sport.  "Peter"  came  for  us  at 
meal  times,  and  the  evening  would  see  us  on  our  way  home.  We 
became  very  expert,  and  we  never  failed  of  a  handsome  catch  of 
pickerel.  Once  Wm.  G.  Russell  invited  us  to  join  him  and  others  at  a 
pond  in  Plymouth,  where  we  had  a  memorable  time.  A  gentleman 
from  New  York  named  Cleveland  had,  the  year  before,  caught  a 
seven  ])Ound  pickerel,  and  became  the  "King  Fisher."  On  this 
occasion  I  was  favored  of  fortune  and  caught  the  two  largest  pickerel, 
one  Aveighing  eight  and  the  other  five  pounds.  These  were  the  finest 
fish,  of  the  kind,  I  ever  saw  —  very  large  ones  for  this  region. 
The   judge  })ronounced   them   "sockdolagers."     I   once,    when   with 


50  HIEIMoTn    OF    HON.    JOSIAII    GARDNER    AliHOTT,    LL.  D. 

Hapgood  Wright,  cauglit  one  in  Springy  Pond,  in  Groton,  weighing 
four  pounds  and  two  ounces.  Mr.  Noah  F.  Gates  told  me  that  he 
saw  a  large  one  lying  in  the  shoal  water  of  the  wooden  wasteway  of 
a  mill  in  Concord  ;  that  he  got  a  pitchfork  and  speared  it  through  the 
head  against  the  wood  underneath;  that  he  gave  it  to  Steadman 
Buttrick  of  Concord,  then  county  treasurer,  and  he  carried  it  about 
showing  it  to  his  friends  in  town.  On  opening  it  a  pound  pickerel 
was  found,  which  Mr  Gates  had  pushed  down  the  big  one's  throat, 
and  in  that  one  another  smaller  one  ;  and  so  he  had  to  go  the  rounds 
of  his  friends  and  neighbors  once  more.  We  used  to  fish  all  day, 
contending  for  the  greatest  catch.  Each  of  us  had  a  style  of  fishing. 
In  some  ponds  with  some  kinds  of  water  and  weeds,  he  could  always 
lead,  while  I  held  my  own  in  others. 

No  one  who  saw  Judge  Abbott  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life? 
walking  with  a  rather  sad  expression  of  countenance,  would  think  of 
him  as  fishing  in  the  ponds  of  Middlesex  County  and  helping  to  draw 
skiffs  from  one  pond  to  another.  We  sometimes  fished  through  the 
ice.  He  told  me  that  on  one  occasion  almost  immediately  after  cast- 
ing the  lines  through  the  ice  of  Muddy  Pond,  General  Stark  caught 
a  five  jiound  pickerel.  He  wound  up  his  line  saying,  "  I  have  done 
my  fishing  for  this  day."  There  was  not  much  luck  on  the  part  of 
anybody  after  that. 

Judge  Abl>ott  was  the  best  of  com|iany,  energetic  and  vivacious 
all  the  day  long.  Though  nervous  and  apparently  excitable,  he  was 
patient  in  listening  to  others  and  entered  into  their  feelings,  hopes 
and  fears. 

He  was  an  indefatigable  and  rapid  worker.  He  had  none  of  that 
tendency  which  is  the  bane  of  lawyers  generally,  to  delay  and  ])ost- 
pone  things.  lie  rather  j)ush  his  business  than  let  his  business  j)ush 
him.  He  was  always  closing  u{)  his  cases  and  reaping  the  results. 
This  was  one  cause  of  his  great  success. 

I  have  alluded  to  Judge  Abbott's  method  of  arguing  cases. 
Many  times  T  have  thought  of  his  coming  within  this  description  of 
JMilton  by  .Afacaulay  : 

"■  It  is  when  jNIilton  escapes  from  the  shackles  of  his  dialogue, 
wlien  he  is  discharged  from  the  labor  of  uniting  two  incongruous 
styles,  when  he  is  at  liberty  to  indulge  his  choral  raptures  without 
reserve,  that  he  rises  above  himself.  Then,  like  his  own  good  genius 
bursting  from  the  earthly  form  and  weeds  of  Thyrsis,  he  stands  forth 
in  celestial  freedom  and  beauty ;  he  seems  to  cry  exultingly : 

'  Now  my  t.ask  is  smoothly  done, 
I  can  fly  or  I  can  run,' 


I 


MEMOIR    OP    IIOX.    JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABIIOTT,    LL.  D.  51 

to  skim  the  earth,  to  soar  above  tlie  clouds,  to  bathe  in  the  Elysian 
clew  of  the  rainbow,  and  to  inhale  the  balmy  smells  of  nard  and 
cassia,  which  the  musky  winds  of  the  zephyr  scatter  through  the 
cedared  alleys  of  the  liesperides." 

You  will  not  understand  me,  as  making  this  in  all  respects  appli- 
cable to  Judge  Abbott.  He  never  wrote  j^oetry;  never  quoted 
poetry;  never  quoted  anything,  though  an  omnivorous  reader.  He 
never  aspired  to  elegance  of  diction.  He  always  seemed  to  feel  that 
when  he  came  to  his  argument,  he  was  master  of  the  situation.  He 
was  eager  to  have  the  evidence  closed.  He  always  had  his  theory  of 
the  case,  and  towards  the  close  of  the  evidence  was  anxious  lest 
something  should  interfere  with  it.  As  he  saw  his  case  clear,  he  was 
eager  to  be  freed  from  the  shackles  of  further  evidence,  and  was  on 
tiptoe  for  the  argument.  Then  he  seemed  to  burst  all  barriers  and 
rush  forward  as  if  there  were  no  doubt  about  anything  he  said. 

I  said  that  he  never  quoted  anything.  He  did  once  and  I  have 
remembered  it  as  the  only  instance  within  my  knowledge.  He  and 
General  Butler  were  trying  a  case  in  which  some  of  the  witnesses 
came  from  a  place  called  Shabbakin,  and  while  the  evidence  was 
going  in.  Judge  Abbott  alluded  to  Shabbakin  in  no  complimentary 
terms.  General  Butler  in  his  argument  said  "that  notwithstanding 
Judge  Abbott's  allusion  to  Shabbakin,  it  ajjpeared  that  he  took  his 
pleasure  rides  through  that  place."  To  which  Judge  Abbott  replied, 
"  that  in  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Christian  had  to  travel  through 
the  '  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death,'  so  he  rode  through  Shal)bakin 
to  the  pleasant  plains  of  Littletown  where  a  portion  of  his  family 
were  sojourning."     (There  were  Littletown  men  on  the  jury.) 

LETTER    FROM    JOSEPH    H.    TYLER,    ESQ. 

I  entered  the  office  of  Abbott  &  Brown  in  September,  1851,  and 
continued  there  most  of  the  time  till  I  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  on 
Mr.  Abbott's  motion,  at  the  April  term,  1853,  of  the  Supreme  Judicial 
Court.  I  saw  much  less  of  Mr.  Abbott  than  of  Mr.  Brown,  for  the 
reason  that  Mr.  Brown  was  constantly  in  the  office,  while  Mr.  Abbott, 
during  the  sessions  of  the  courts,  was  almost  constantly  in  court,  and 
made  only  flying  visits  to  the  office.  When  the  courts  were  not  in 
session  he  was  there  more,  but  then  not  so  regularly  nor  for  so  long 
a  time  as  Mr.  Brown  Mr.  Abbott  tried  all  the  cases  and  Mr.  Brown 
prepared  them,  or  more  particularly  the  law.  Mr.  Abbott  also  tried 
a  great  many   cases  as   senior   counsel    for  other  lawyers,   who  of 


52  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  I,L.  D. 

course,  mainly  prepared  their  own  cases.  "  There  were  giants  in 
tliose  days  "  at  the  Middlesex  bar.  There  was  George  F.  Farley, 
much  Judge  Abbott's  senior,  who  had  won  a  great  reputation  in  try- 
ing cases;  Albert  II.  Nelson,  with  a  voice  and  grace  of  manner 
almost  e(pial  to  those  of  Edward  Everett,  who  became  chief  justice 
of  the  Superior  Court  for  Suffolk  county,  of  which  ^[r.  Abbott  was 
an  associate  ;  Tappan  Wentwortli,  an  indefatigable  fighter ;  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  who  then  had  a  reputation  for  wonderful  ability,  whose 
fame  has  since  become  national,  and  who  is  a  genius  beyond  dispute ; 
Charles  IJ.  Train,  bright  and  easy-going,  but  never  probably  putting 
forth  all  his  power  ;  G.  A.  Somerby,  with  marvellous  powers  of  en- 
durance and  marked  ability  in  trying  cases  before  a  jury;  Daniel  S. 
Richardson,  scholarly,  a  good  lawyer,  and  with  the  dangerous  power 
for  an  opponent  of  making  juries  believe  that  he  was  honest  and  told 
them  the  truth;  Theodore  H.  Sweetser,  not  then  so  eminent  as  a 
lawyer  as  he  subsequently  became,  who,  for  pure  logic  and  clear 
statement,  was  unsurpassed  by  any  of  his  associates ;  Judge  E.  R. 
Hoar,  eminent  then  and  more  eminent  since  as  a  lawyer,  had  been  of 
this  bar,  but  went  early  upon  the  bench ;  and,  finally,  there  was  John 
Q.  A.  Griflin,  younger  than  the  others,  my  own  playmate  and  school- 
mate in  boyhood,  a  student  of  Mr.  Farley,  who,  immediately  upon 
his  admission  to  the  bar,  went  to  the  front  rank,  an  exceedingly 
brio^ht  and  ready  man,  whose  tongue  was  a  Damascus  blade  cutting 
to  the  very  quick,  with  wit,  satire  and  sarcasm,  a  somewhat  dangerous 
power,  and  whose  pen  was  often  used  in  writing  most  trenchant 
articles  for  the  press. 

When  I  say  that  Judge  Abbott  was  the  peer  of  these  men,  and 
the  superior  of  most  of  them,  I  claim  for  him  very  high  ability  as  a 
lawyer  and  advocate.  The  Middlesex  bar  when  these  men  were  its 
conspicuous  members,  was  noted  for  the  ability,  thoroughness  and 
sharpness  with  which  they  tried  their  cases.  Burke  says  "  He  that 
wrestles  witli  us  strengthens  our  nerves  and  sharpens  our  skill.  Our 
antagonist  is  our  helper."  What  helpers  were  such  men  to  each 
other!  Here  was  a  school  of  intellectual  athletes.  Strength,  alert- 
ness, labor,  vigilance  and  persistence  were  necessary,  against  such, 
for  success.  Judge  Abbott  had  a  more  nervous  temperament  than 
most  of  them,  but  his  head  was  always  clear,  even  though  liis  nerves 
were  at  their  utmost  tension.  He  threw  himself  into  his  cases  and 
tried  them  to  win.  He  could  not  save  himself  if  he  would,  and  he 
would  not  if  he  could.  When  he  began  the  trial  of  a  case,  his  whole 
power,  mental  and  physical,  was  put  into  it.     His  arguments  were 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    AHBOTT,  LL.  D.  /jS 

impassioned  and  impetuous.     A  sick  headache  was  the  usual  sequel. 

He  once  said  to  me  that  he  should  not  know  how  to 

practise  law  without  Mr,  Brown.  They  supplemented  each  other. 
It  is  said  that  some  of  the  happiest  matrimonial  unions  are  formed 
by  people  who  are  opposites  in  taste  and  temperament.  jVIr.  Abbott 
and  Mr.  Brown  were  certainly  opposites  in  every  sense.  Mr.  Abbott 
was  content  in  the  court  room,  while  Mr.  Brown  would  have  been 
wild  with  uneasiness.  Mr.  Brown  was  content  in  the  office,  while 
its  duties  would  have  been  irksome  to  Mr.  Abbott.  Mr.  Abbott  was 
bold,  confident  and  aggressive,  while  Mr.  Brown  was  timid,  cautious 
and  hesitating.  Mr.  Abbott  was  no  doubter,  while  Mr.  Brown  was  full 
of  doubts.  Mr.  Brown  labored  hard  and  long  to  reach  his  conclu- 
sions, while  Mr.  Abbott's  conclusions  might  be  termed  intuitions. 
Mr.  Brown  had  more  knowledge  of  law  books  and  Mr.  Abbott  of 
men.  Mr.  Brown  in  the  preparation  of  cases  looked  not  only  on  his 
own  side  but  on  that  of  the  other,  and  probably,  many  times,  thought 
of  points  against  himself  that  never  dawned  on  his  opponent.  In 
this  way  he  was  of  great  service  to  Mr.  Abbott,  who  was  thus  put 
on  liis  guard.  Many,  however,  of  these  ghosts  of  Mr.  Brown's  fears 
would  down  before  Mr.  Abbott's  quick  common  sense.* 


Prentiss  Webster,  Esq.,  son  of  the  late  William  P. 
Webster,  and  successor  of  his  father  as  law  partner  of 
General  Bntler,  then  read  the  following  paper : 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  —  It  is  my  first 
dnty  to  thank  yon  for  yonr  kind  in^'itation  to  be  present 
with  yon  this  evening,  and  to  join  in  honoring  the  mem- 
ory of  Jndge  Abbott. 

Many  of  yon  gentlemen  knew  Jndge  Abbott  in  liis 
boyhood  days ;  were  with  him  in  his  development  to 
man's  estate ;  saw  him  when  he  embarked  on  his  career 
for  life  ;  watched  his  mental  growth ;  followed  him  into 
public  and  private  Ufe  to  learn  his  value  as  a  citizen,  a 
friend  and  a  counsellor,  and  to  jndge  of  his  ability, 
learning  and  fidelity  to  his  trusts. 

*  Lowell  Daily  Courier,  Dec.  29,  1891. 


54  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNER    ABBOTT,  LL.  T). 

It  would  1)0  presuiiiptioiis  on  my  part  to  attempt  a 
surmise  of  the  impressions  lie  made  upon  your  minds ;  of 
these  it  is  for  yon  to  tell  and  not  for  me.  Yet  I  feel  I 
but  echo  3^our  memories  when  I  say  that  — 

"  He  above  tlie  rest 

111  shape  aiid  gesture  proudly  einiuent 

Stood  like  a  tower." 

T  can  only  bear  witness  to  tlie  impressions  made  by 
him  on  one  of  a  succeeding  generation,  and  these  came 
to  me  when  in  his  latter  days  he  had  left  3^our  midst  and 
made  his  home  elsewhere  —  alas  !  not  without  pain  and  soi'- 
row  and  kindly  thoughts  for  those  he  had  left  behind. 

For  the  City  of  Lowell  he  always  held  the  kindest 
of  memories.  To  its  citizens,  his  friends  and  neighbors 
of  former  years,  he  ever  turned  with  wishes  for  them  of 
long  life  and  happiness.  He  was  solicitous  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  city,  kept  apace  with  our  growth  and  an 
interest  in  our  affairs. 

During  the  past  ten  years  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  see  much  of  Judge  Abbott,  both  in  and  out  of  court, 
having  Ijeen  interested  with  him  in  causes  connnon  to 
his  own  office  and  that  of  his  life-long  friend.  General 
Butler.  This  brought  me  to  him  often  many  times  each 
week,  and  when  with  him  and  work  ended,  he  would 
turn  to  his  early  days  in  Lowell,  replete  with  remarks 
on  the  many  changes  which  had  taken  place.  He  loved 
to  talk  of  his  early  associates  at  the  bar ;  of  his  former 
friends  and  acquaintances ;  often  making  Jin  inquiry  for 
this  man  and  for  that  man,  whom  he  had  favorably 
known  in  early  years.  From  persons  he  would  pass  to 
things  and  tell  of  what  building  was  formerly  here  and 
what  building  was  there  ;  wdio  lived  in  one  place  and 
who  in  another ;  each  and  every  conversation  being  of 
particular  interest,  because  of  the    information  he  im- 


MEMOIR    OF    HON.  JOSIAH    GARDNEU    AlJBoTT,  LL.  I>.  55 

parted  and  the  seeming  pleasure  lie  had  in  talking  of  our 
city  and  its  inhabitants. 

With  delight  he  looked  ])ack  upon  the  continuous 
labor  of  days  and  nights  spent  in  the  preparation  and 
trial  of  causes  at  Concord  and  old  Cambridge.  For  those 
who  preceded  him  he  had  a  great  admiration,  and  as 
they  gradually  gave  up  active  work,  their  places  were  ably 
filled  by  Judge  Abl)ott  and  others  well  known  to  you 
older  citizens  of  Lowell.  To  call  the  roll  of  the  practi- 
tioners of  that  time  would  be  to  call  Judge  Abbott 
among  the  first,  a  position  wdiich  he  took  and  creditably 
maintained  among  his  later  associates  in  Suffolk  County. 
Reminiscences  of  those  days  as  told  by  him,  were  most 
interesting,  replete  with  happenings  which  would  to-day 
astonish  judges,  attorneys  and  the  public.  He  compared 
the  practice  at  old  Concord  with  a  happy  family,  where 
the  relations  Ijetween  judge,  attorney  and  juror  were 
most  intimate,  living  together  with  one  object  in  view, 
to  wind  up  the  business  of  the  court  with  a  care  that  a 
proper  meed  of  justice  was  bestowed  upon  the  litigants, 
for  which  each  and  every  attorney  struggled  hard  to  get 
a  goodly  share  for  his  particular  client. 

Judge  Abbott's  varied  experience  taught  hiin  to 
appreciate  the  struggles  of  his  younger  associates.  To 
them  he  had  nothing  but  words  of  encouragement;  for 
them  he  was  ever  ready  with  acts  of  kindness,  and  fi-oni 
them  he  never  denied  his  sound  advice,  that  success  at 
the  bar  could  only  be  had  by  hard,  hard  work,  devotion 
to  the  Ijooks,  exercise  of  perceptive  faculties,  a  steady 
outlook  and  scrutiny  of  every  day  occurences  in  life, 
coupled  with  an  understanding  of  the  lessons  taught 
from  public  practice  in  the  courts.  Such  had  been  his 
own  life,  and  his  example  in  itself  was  wisdom,  to  say 
nothing  of  impress  made  by  contact  with  him. 


56  MEMOIR    OF    HON.  ,IO.SlAll    GAliD^■Eli    AHliOTT,  J.L.  D. 

lie  encouraged  young  men  not  to  falter  in  their 
work  before  the  criticisms  of  the  pu1)lic  on  the  lawyer ; 
for  to  him  in  every  walk  in  life  they  were  sure  to  come 
when  thrown  into  troubles  Avith  their  neighbors,  whether 
on  personal  wrongs  or  wrongs  done  to  their  property. 

He  was  not  inclined  to  harshness  toward  his  younger 
opponents ;  his  relmkes  would  be  conciliatory  and  well 
advised  rather  than  critical;  he  abstained  from  doing 
any  injury  to  their  feeling  unless  he  felt  sure  that  there 
was  an  attempt  to  trick  him,  and  then  his  manner  would 
change ;  though  not  often  in  open  court,  yet  certainly 
in  private  he  would  take  pains  to  bestow  his  kindly 
admonitions  well  laden  with  sound  advice. 

Judge  Abbott  invariably  treated  his  younger  asso- 
ciates, who  were  with  him  in  the  same  case,  with  marked 
consideration.  He  would  carefully  listen  to  their  prep- 
arations before  going  into  court,  and  when  there  w^ould 
never  place  them  in  an  embarassing  position,  Init  was 
ever  on  the  alert  to  come  to  their  aid  wdien  by  force  of 
circumstances  his  junior,  through  his  own  error,  or  the 
subtleties  of  their ^  opponents,  w^ent  Ijeyond  his  depth. 
By  Avay  of  encouragement  he  woidd  put  i4)ou  his  junior 
associates  all  the  burden  of  the  fight  that  could  be  prop- 
erly entrusted  to  him  without  injury  to  his  client's  cause. 
His  pui-pose  was  evidently  to  teach  him  to  stand  alone 
and  gain  confidence  in  himself. 

His  noble  form  and  dignified  demeanor  will  be 
greatly  missed  from  among  them,  and  l)y  you  also, 
gentlenuni  of  the  Old  Residents'  Association,  who  are 
gathered  together  here  this  evening  out  of  affection  and 
regard  for  his  memory;  and  you  should  not  forget  that 

"Your  kindly  act  is  a  kernal  sown 
That  will  jirow  to  a  goodly  tree, 
ShedcUiii;  its  fruit  wlum  time  has  liown 
Down  the  irnll"  of  eternity." 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE   BAR 


THE   COUNTY  OK   MIDDLESEX. 


Pursuant  to  notice  previously  published  in  Boston 
and  Lowell  newspapers,  the  Bar  of  Middlesex  held  a 
meeting  in  the  County  Court  House  at  Lowell  to  take 
steps  to  pay  a  suitable  tribute  to  Judge  Abbott's  mem- 
ory. The  meeting  was  held  on  the  fifth  of  April,  1892, 
and  was  well  attended.  Mr.  Cowley,  the  senior  counsel- 
lor present,  called  the  meeting  to  order,  and  said:  — 

Brethren  of  the  Bar :  — 

It  would  be  a  strange  disregard  of  many  api)roved  jirecedents, 
if  the  Bar  of  the  historic  County  of  Middlesex,  in  which  the  late 
Josiah  Gardner  Abbott  was  born  and  bred,  in  which  he  first  wore 
the  robes  of  an  honorable  profession,  in  which  he  continued  to  prac- 
tice more  or  less  until  his  death,  and  to  which,  by  his  high  rej)utatiou 
as  a  lawyer,  a  judge,  a  statesman,  a  patriot,  and  the  father  of  heroes 
and  martyrs,  he  imparted  increased  renown,  should  give  no  formal 
expression  of  their  appreciation  of  the  loss  which  has  been  sustained 
by  the  Commonwealth  by  his  death.  The  very  walls  of  this  court- 
house, which  so  often  resounded  with  the  echoes  of  his  eloquent 
appeals  to  juries  in  years  gone  by,  would  rebuke  such  a  disregard  of 
ancient  and  approved  custom,  suggesting  to  our  minds,  if  not  sound- 
ing in  our  ears,  the  old  exclamation,  "Wist  ye  not  that  a  prince,  nay, 
a  great  man,  has  fallen  down  in  Israel  ?  " 

The  name  of  Judge  Abbott  is  so  enshrined  in  the  memory  of  his 
coevals,  both  within  and  without  the  Bar,  that  there  is  no  danger 
that  it  will  be  forgotten.     The  Old  Residents''  Historical  Association 


58  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

has  already  held  a  memorial  meeting  in  his  honor.  Pul)Iic  journals 
have  shown  a  generous  appreciation  of  his  character ;  and  you,  his 
professional  brethren,  have  met  here  and  now  for  the  purpose  of 
considering  how  you  Avill  express  your  sense  of  his  worth  and  of  the 
public  loss.  It  seems  desirable  that  some  organization  of  this  meet- 
ing should  first  be  made.     Is  it  your  pleasure  to  choose  a  chairman? 

George  F.  Lawton,  Esq.,  was  chosen,  and  upon  tak- 
ino-  the  chair  said:  — 

Brethren  of  the  Middlesex  Bar :  — 

I  thank  you  for  the  honor  conferred  upon  me.  Nearly  all  of  us 
who  meet  here  to-day  were  admitted  to  practice  at  this  Bar  after 
Judge  Abbott  removed  from  Lowell  and  from  this  county.  But  it  is 
not  presumptuous  for  us  to  claim  a  share  in  his  great  name  and  fame 
for  old  Middlesex.  It  is  a  duty  that  some  memorial  of  him  should 
be  preserved  with  us,  that  some  formal  notice  of  his  death  should  be 
taken  by  us. 

He  lived  in  Lowell  when  he  was  called  to  the  Bar.  All  the 
early  part  of  his  honorable  career  was  here  in  Lowell.  Those  who 
remember  Lowell  at  all  in  those  days,  will  remember  his  stately  form 
upon  our  streets.  His  stature,  his  figure,  his  face,  his  majestic  mien, 
raised  him  as  far  above  others  as  did  his  great  abilities  and  his  high 
character  exalt  him  above  ordinary  men. 

He  was  of  old  New  England  stock.  Doubtless  much  of  it  was 
3^oeman  stock.  But  where  in  the  world  have  there  been  such  yoe- 
men  as  in  old  Massachusetts  in  the  last  two  hundred  years?  Those 
who  are  versed  in  his  genealogy  will  perhaps  be  able  to  account  for 
his  great  superiority  by  tracing  his  ancestry  to  a  superior  source. 
Of  whatever  blood  he  may  have  been,  he  was  worthy  to  have  sprung 
from  kings.  At  all  events  he  was  noble,  and  by  a  better  title  than 
an  inherited  one.     He  was  one  of  Nature's  noblemen. 

Is  it  your  purpose  to  complete  the  organization  of  this  meeting 
by  choosing  a  secretary? 

Harry  A.  Brown,  Esq.,  son  of  Samuel  Appleton 
Brown,  for  many  years  the  hiw-partner  of  Mr.  Abbott, 
was  chosen  as  secretarj^,  after  which  several  members  of 
the  Bar  spoke  substantially  as  follows : 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    HAR.  59 

REMARKS    OF    HON.    F.    T.    GREENHALGE. 

Mr.  Chairman:  — 

It  is  eminently  fitting  that  tliis  Bar  should  participate  in  a  tribute 
to  Judge  Abbott.  He  is  identified  with  the  best  work  of  Lowell  in 
its  early  and  palmy  days,  and  after  he  had  gone  to  live  in  Boston,  he 
continued  to  take  a  warm  and  affectionate  interest  in  Lowell.  He 
had  spent  many  happy  years  here  and  the  graves  of  his  two  heroic 
sons  are  here.  I  can  give  out  of  my  own  personal  exj^erience  an 
illustration  of  the  interest  he  took  in  Lowell  citizens.  I  was  arguing 
a  case  before  the  full  bench,  as  City  Solicitor  of  Lowell  —  it  was  the 
case  of  Chase  v.  Lowell  —  Judge  Abbott  was  present,  and  he  ap- 
peared to  give  earnest  attention  to  the  argument.  A  day  or  two 
afterwards  I  received  a  most  kindly  letter  from  him  saying  how 
much  he  had  been  interested  in  the  case,  complimenting  me  very 
pleasantly  upon  my  part  in  it,  and  asking  me  to  dine  with  the  Law 
Club,  which  was  to  meet  at  his  house.  And  a  most  delightful  dinner 
it  was,  and  most  delightful  company,  and  delightful  courtesy  to  my- 
self, especially  from  my  host.  His  stateliness  had  nothing  frigid 
about  it,  his  courtesy  nothing  of  condescension.  His  affability  was 
marked  by  dignity  and  by  sincerity.  And  as  I  have  said,  he  seemed 
always  eager  to  notice  Lowell  men  and  never  lost  his  interest  in 
Lowell  affairs.  Many  members  of  the  Bar  here  present  can  testify 
to  the  genial  and  noble  traits  of  which  I  speak. 

REMARKS    OF    JOHN    MARREN,    ESQ. 

Mr.  Chairman:  — 

I  was  born  and  brought  up  in  Lowell,  and  from  my  earliest 
childhood  I  knew  Colonel  J.  G.  Abbott  (for  that  was  the  title  he 
bore  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  when  he  was  on  Governor  Morton's 
staff),  and  I  always  admired  that  commanding  figure,  that  frank 
open  face,  that  full  voice,  and  that  earnest  manner  of  speaking,  by 
which  he  moved  and  led  many  a  public  assembly.  I  was  one  of 
those  who,  though  compelled  by  force  of  circumstances  to  earn  a 
hving  by  working  in  the  factories,  felt  strong  intellectual  cravings 
which  could  not  be  satisfied  except  by  books  and  study.  I  became 
a  member  of  the  Mathew  Institute,  a  society  composed  of  the  cream 
of  the  sons  of  the  Irish  immigrants  in  Lowell,  devoted  to  mutual 
improvement.  About  the  year  1850, 1  had  a  particular  friend  in  that 
society  who  was  studying  law  in  the  office  of  Abbott  &  Brown,  and 


50  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    BAR. 

who  was  afterwards  on  General  Butler's  staff  —  Caj^tain  Peter  Hag- 
gerty,  wlio  died  at  Now  Orleans  during  the  war.  As  I  often  called 
on  Ilaggerty  at  that  office,  I  became  acquainted  with  Colonel  Abbott 
and  his  law-partner,  Samuel  A.  Brown.  At  first,  Colonel  Abbott 
seemed  cold  and  distant,  too  aristocratic  to  waste  his  time  in  talking 
to  me.  But  as  soon  as  he  found  that  I  was  earnestly  trying  to  learn 
the  true  merits  of  questions  that  came  up  for  discussion,  I  got  his 
sympathy  at  once,  and  he  often  aided  me,  as  Avell  as  Haggerty,  with 
facts  and  suggestions. 

I  shared  in  the  excitement  of  the  agitation  for  the  ten-hour  law, 
and  it  was  my  dehght  to  address  the  workingmen  of  Lowell  in  be- 
half of  that  measure,  and  there  were  two  or  three  occasions  when, 
through  Colonel  Abbott's  influence,  I  got  invitations  to  speak  at 
public  meetings  of  the  Democracy.  The  names  of  Abbott  and  But- 
ler were  on  all  men's  tongues  as  local  leaders  of  the  Democratic 
party,  and  of  the  Coalition,  which  elected  George  S.  Boutwell  as 
Governor  and  Charles  Sumner  as  United  States  Senator,  and  cleared 
the  way  for  many  reforms. 

Judge  Abbott  was  a  true  leader  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  I 
followed  him  with  the  same  zeal  with  which  the  old  Scottish  clansmen 
followed  Roderick  Dhu.  They  swore  by  their  chieftain's  hat,  and  I 
swore  by  Colonel  Abbott's  polished  beaver.  In  1878,  the  year  of 
the  great  split  in  the  Democratic  party,  I  was  one  of  those  who  voted 
for  Abbott  for  governor.  That  year  the  candidates  of  all  the  politi- 
cal parties  for  governor  were,  or  had  been,  Lowell  men  —  Abbott  and 
Butler,  the  Democratic  candidates ;  A.  A.  Miner,  the  Prohibitionist, 
and  Thomas  Talbot,  the  Republican,  who  beat  them  all.  I  knew 
Ju<lge  Abbott  did  not  want  the  office,  and  that  his  only  object  in  al- 
lowing the  use  of  his  name,  was  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of 
the  party. 

Judge  Abbott's  sympathies  were  always  on  the  side  of  the 
oppressed,  no  matter  Avhat  might  be  the  form  of  the  oppression. 
Who  can  forget  his  eloquent  words  in  Boston  in  favor  of  Home  Rule 
for  old  Ireland  ?  Who  can  forget  the  eloquent  appeal  for  the  Union 
which  he  made  in  front  of  the  Merrimac  House  after  the  attack  was 
made  on  Fort  Sumter  ?  It  was  perfectly  electrical.  Since  the  war 
I  have  often  met  him  at  conventions,  and  he  always  inquired  kindly 
after  those  whom  he  had  known  as  boys  in  Lowell,  and  he  was  always 
glad  to  hear  of  any  success  that  they  had  won.  He  gave  me  credit 
for  showing  good  pluck  in  political  contests,  and  I  was  very  glad  to 
have  his  encouracfement.     I  never  had  a  truer  friend. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  Q2 

The  following-named  gentlemen  were  chosen  a  com- 
mittee to  prepare  suitable  resolutions  or  a  memorial  of 
Judge  Abbott :  Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar,  of  Concord ;  Hon.  F. 
T.  Greenhalge,  of  Lowell ;  James  T.  Joslin,  Esq.,  of 
Hudson ;  Hon.  J.  N.  Marshall,  of  Lowell,  and  Charles  J. 
Mclntire,  Esq.,  of  Cambridge. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned  subject  to  the  call  of 
the  chairman  and  secretary,  and  was  re-assembled  by 
them  in  the  County  Court  House,  at  East  Cambridge,  on 
the  seventh  of  June,  1892. 

Judge  Hoar,  the  chairman  of  the  committee  above 
named,  being  too  infirm  in  health  to  attend  to  the  duty 
assigned  to  him,  wrote  to  Mr.  Greenhalge  as  follows :  — 
Dear  Sir :  — 

By  a  letter  from  II.  A.  Brown,  Esq.,  I  am  notified  that  my 
name  is  on  the  committee  appointed  by  the  Middlesex  Bar  to  prepare 
and  present  resolutions  to  the  Court  in  relation  to  the  death  of  Hon. 
Josiah  G.  Abbott.  I  regretted  very  much  that  the  state  of  my  health 
would  not  even  allow  me  to  be  present  at  Judge  Abbott's  funeral,  as 
I  had  great  respect  for  his  ability  as  a  lawyer,  especially  as  an  advo- 
cate ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  it  is  wholly  out  of  my  power  to 
accept  the  duty  imposed  by  the  vote  of  the  Association.  As  you  are 
the  next  in  order  in  the  list  of  the  committee  which  was  sent  to  me, 
I  suppose  it  is  proper  that  the  notice  of  my  inability  to  serve  should 
be  sent  to  you. 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

E.    R.    IIOAR. 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Greenhalge  acted  as  chairman  of 
that  committee,  and,  in  its  behalf,  at  the  adjourned  meet- 
ing presented  the  following  memorial,  which  was  unani- 
mously adopted,  and  Mr.  Greenhalge  was  requested  to 
present  the  same,  forthwith,  to  the  Superior  Court.  The 
Bar  meeting  then  dissolved. 

The  Superior  Court  was  then  opened  by  Judge 
James  B.  Richardson,  and  Mr.  Greenhalge  presented  the 
following 


62  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    HAR. 

MEMORIAL  : 

Josiah  Gardner  Abbott  was  born  at  Chelmsford,  in  the  County 
of  Middlesex,  Nov.  1,  1814.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1832,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837.  He  soon  rose  to  promi- 
nence in  his  profession,  and  the  sphere  of  his  labors  was  greatly 
enlarged.  In  1855  he  was  appointed  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court 
for  the  County  of  Suffolk,  This  position  he  resigned  Jan.  1,  1858, 
at  once  resuming  the  practice  of  his  profession.  He  held  important 
political  ofhces.  He  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  Massachusetts  in  1837,  and  a  senator  in  1842  and  1843.  He  was 
a  delegate  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  in  1853.  He  was  elected 
to  the  national  House  of  Representatives  in  1874,  and  was  chosen  a 
member  of  the  Electoral  Commission  in  1877.  He  was  president  of 
the  Boston  &  Lowell  Railroad  Company,  of  several  manufacturing 
companies,  and  director  in  many  others ;  he  had  a  large  share  in 
building  up  or  developing  Lowell,  Lawrence,  and  Lewiston.  His 
labors  at  the  Bar  did  not  cease  until  his  death,  which  occurred  July 
2,  1891.  Such  are  the  bare  lines  of  a  great,  useful,  and  honorable 
career  —  of 

"A  life  in  civic  action  warm  — 

A  soul  ou  highest  mission  scut ; 
A  potent  voice  in  parliament  — 

A  pillar  steadfast  in  the  storm." 

The  life,  character,  and  services  of  Judge  Abbott  are  worthy  of 
commemoration  by  the  legal  profession ;  and  such  a  commemoration 
cannot  fail  to  be  productive  of  solid  benefit  to  the  Bench  and  to  the 
Bar.  There  is,  too,  a  propriety  in  such  a  proceeding  by  the  Middle- 
sex Bar.  Judge  Abbott,  it  is  true,  was  a  leader  and  an  ornament  to 
the  Bar  of  Suffolk  County,  and  latterly  his  home,  and  in  a  large 
degree,  his  practice,  was  in  that  county.  But  the  pillar  of  his  fame 
was  reared  in  Middlesex,  and  it  cannot  be  thence  removed,  any  more 
than  the  memorial  column  on  Bunker  Hill.  He  was  a  stately  and 
commanding  figure  at  this  Bar  at  a  time  when  its  members  were  pre- 
eminently distinguished  for  learning,  for  probity  and  power. 

He  was  a  faithful  and  devoted  student  of  the  law.  He  took  a 
large  and  reverent  view  of  his  professional  obligations,  whether  to 
the  Bench,  to  his  brethren  of  the  Bar,  or  to  his  client.  He  had  a 
high,  delicate,  almost  fastidious  sense  of  honor,  in  these  various 
relations  of  the  man  of  law.  His  work  and  influence  could  not  but 
raise  the  tone  of  the  profession.     His  services  on  the  bench  main- 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  '    Q3 

tained  and  enhanced  the  reputation  of  the  Massachusetts  judiciary; 
at  the  Bar  he  proved  what  noble  triumphs  might  illustrate  the  func- 
tions of  the  advocate,  and  what  rich  results  might  crown  the  patient 
labors  of  the  counsellor.  In  spite  of  vulgar  animadversion,  the  pro- 
fession of  the  law  is  one  of  the  most  trusted  guilds  among  mankind, 
and  Judge  Abbott's  life  exemplified  the  fullest  trust  and  confidence 
which  a  community  could  give  to  a  member  of  that  profession. 

And  in  the  best  and  highest  sense,  he  was  prominent  in  political 
life.  It  is  natural,  and  in  many  cases  inevitable,  that  the  functions 
of  the  lawyer  should  gradually  expand  into  the  political  sphere.  In 
the  constitution  of  modern  society,  the  labor  of  the  lawyer  is  every- 
where demanded,  and  everywhere  found.  The  peace  of  families  and 
the  peace  of  states  alike  depend  upon  the  arduous  and  responsible 
work  of  the  lawyer.  And,  as  at  the  Bar  and  upon  the  Bench,  Judge 
Abbott  was  always  "  to  true  occasion  true."  so  too  in  political  action 
he  was  faithful  and  firm.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  man  for  a  crisis. 
This  is  proved  by  many  points  in  his  career,  notably  in  1861  and 
1877.  In  such  times  of  tremendous  import,  he  never  hesitated  or 
faltered.  He  loved  his  party;  but  he  loved  his  country  more  ;  and 
though  in  the  supreme  hour  a  hostile  party  held  his  country's 
standard,  he  was  among  the  first  to  range  himself  with  his  noble  sons 
under  that  standard.  On  the  altar  of  his  country  he  offered  up  with 
the  firmness  of  a  Roman  father  the  children  he  loved  with  more 
than  Roman  tenderness.  He  rose  to  the  height  of  the  second  great 
crisis  in  the  nation  in  1877;  and  again,  the  measure  of  the  occasion 
was  not  beyond  the  measure  of  the  man.  His  sound  judgment, 
trained  and  sharpened  in  his  early  conflicts  with  the  giants  of  the 
Middlesex  Bar,  strengthened  and  broadened  by  his  judicial  experi- 
ence, combined  with  all  the  fervid  loyalty  of  his  nature,  led  him  to 
prefer  before  every  other  object,  the  peace  and  safety  of  his  country. 

Judge  Abbott  stands  before  the  community  as  the  type  of  the 
lawyer,  zealous  and  able  in  all  the  duties  of  the  citizen,  devoted  to 
his  profession,  to  his  family,  and  to  his  country. 

REMARKS    OF    JAMES    T.    JOSLIN,    ESQ.,    OF    HUDSON. 
May  it  please  the  Court: 

I  rise  to  second  the  resolutions  presented  by  the  committee. 
This  is  not  a  heartless  formality.  The  subject  of  this  memorial  was 
a  gentleman  who  appreciated  the  office  and  [)ower  of  friendshij)  and 
the   attachments  which  he  formed  were  of   an  enduring  character. 


64  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

To  those  of  US  who  came  to  the  Bar  when  Judge  Abbott  was  at  the 
height  of  his  professional  success,  and  who  have  been  somewhat  in- 
timately associated  with  him  for  the  past  thirty  years,  the  impres- 
sions which  his  typical  personality  made  will  not  be  easily  effaced. 

Early  in  my  practice  I  had  occasion  to  call  Judge  Abbott  as 
senior  counsel  in  the  trial  of  important  causes.  From  the  first,  I  am 
sure  I  had  his  confidence  and  respect.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  him,  so  gracious  and  cordial  was  his  demeanor,  and  so 
ready  and  willing  was  he  to  impart  from  his  vast  store  of  legal 
knowledge  any  information  to  remove  a  doubt  or  indicate  the  cor- 
rect line  of  practice  in  a  given  case.  He  always  had  the  carriage 
and  bearing  of  a  gentleman,  and  to  those  not  acquainted  with  the 
man  he  might  at  times  appear  haughty  and  reserved.  He  was  not 
obsequious.  He  was  no  flatterer,  and  he  did  not  go  where  he  was 
not  welcome  unless  duty  called. 

To  those,  however,  who  desired  to  advance,  to  those  who  had 
an  inspiration  to  rise,  to  the  younger  members  of  the  legal  profes- 
sion especially  who  were  struggling  amid  difficulty  and  doubt.  Judge 
Abbott  was  peculiarly  kind  and  helpful.  He  had  travelled  the  way 
himself  and  he  knew  the  hard  and  trying  passes  as  well  as  the  dan- 
gers and  pitfalls.  The  greatness  of  mind  and  the  goodness  of  heart 
in  him  were  exemplified,  in  that  he  never  treated  with  levity  the 
simplest  question  that  the  novice  presented.  Although  it  might,  per- 
chance, be  elemental  or  border  on  the  simple,  the  inquirer's  difliculty 
was  seriously  and  candidly  considered,  and  not  unlikely  would  lead 
to  a  full  and  complete  discussion  of  a  number  of  cognate  principles, 
thus  making  the  way  clear  and  luminous  to  the  querist,  beside  filling 
his  heart  with  gratitude  for  his  friend  and  benefactor.  It  was  this 
trait  in  Judge  Abbott,  I  am  sure,  quite  as  much  as  any  other,  that 
caused  the  younger  members  of  the  profession  to  admire  and  respect 
him.  They  felt,  and  they  had  reason  to  feel,  that  Judge  Abbott  was 
their  friend  and  helper.  They  could  go  to  him  as  to  a  friend  with 
the  assurance  that  they  would  receive  a  friend's  welcome,  and  de- 
parting carry  with  them  a  friend's  benediction.  Hence  the  meetings 
which  were  formal  or  occasional,  between  junior  and  senior,  gradually 
grew  into  friendships  which  were  mutually  agreeable  and  lasting. 

Some  of  us  recall  the  fact  that  two  years  ago  at  the  opening  of 
the  June  term  of  this  Court  our  de])arted  friend  was  present,  and  in 
an  adjoining  room  held  our  closest  attention  for  a  half  hour  while  he 
narrated  many  reminiscences  of  his  early  and  later  practice  in  this 
county.     We  were  pleased  that  the  weight  of  years  apparently  was 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  QK 

hanging  lightly  upon  him.  It  was  the  last,  however,  of  such  meet- 
ings here.  In  a  few  short  months  the  summons  came  which  called 
him  to  other  scenes  and  higher  service. 

The  first  twenty  years  of  Judge  Abbott's  professional  life  were 
spent  in  this  county  with  his  office  at  Lowell.  During  that  period 
he  acquired  distinction  and  eminence  as  a  sound  lawyer.  Plis  con- 
temporaries were  men  of  ability,  and  many  of  them  attained  pre- 
ferment with  himself.  Hopkinson  became  a  judge  of  the  Common 
Pleas.  Xelson  was  elevated  to  the  Superior  Court  Bench  in  Boston. 
Ames  became  Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  the  state,  and 
afterward  was  elevated  to  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court.  Gardner 
also  secured  a  position  on  both  the  Superior  and  Supreme  Judicial 
Court  Benches.  Truin  became  Attorney-General,  and  General  But- 
ler has  attained  greater  and  wider  distinction  than  any.  Wentworth, 
Worcester,  Farley,  Sweetser,  Richardson,  Griffin,  and  others  re- 
mained loyal  to  their  profession  and  became  celebrated.  It  was  with 
and  among  such  men  as  these  that  Abbott  commenced,  grew  and 
excelled.     He  survived  most  of  them  and  was  the  equal  of  any. 

During  the  last  thirty-five  years  of  his  life  he  made  Boston  his 
headquarters,  but  Middlesex  never  surrendered  him  and  he  never 
ignored  Middlesex.  He  belonged  to  the  state  and  made  his  influence 
felt  in  Congress  and  in  the  Federal  Courts.  His  life  was  exceptional. 
As  a  lad  he  was  precocious.  His  education  was  thorough  and  early 
secured.  At  the  advent  of  his  majority  he  stepped  into  the  arena  of 
professional  and  public  life.  For  more  than  half  a  century  thereafter 
he  discharged  its  manifold  duties  with  fidelity,  efficiency,  and  honor. 
As  citizen,  lawyer,  jurist,  statesman,  and  scholar  his  fame  is  secure. 
The  Jjar  has  lost,  in  the  death  of  Judge  Abbott,  one  of  its  ablest  and 
truest  representatives.  We  may  well  pause  to  commemorate  such  a 
life  and  speak  a  word  of  eulogy  over  the  departed  ;  nevertheless,  it 
is  not  in  the  spirit  of  sadness  that  we  think  and  speak  of  the  life  of 
our  friend,  replete  with  noble  deeds  and  heroic  acts,  for 

'•'  He  is  not  dead,  but  f?one  before." 

REMARKS    OF    CAUSTEN    BROWNE,    ESQ. 
May  it  please  the   Court: — 

It  is  well  that  this  commemoration  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
those  among  whom  our  Brother  Abbott  passed  the  earlier  part,  of  his 
professional  life  and  laid  the  foundation  of  his  professional  distinc- 
tion.   It  is  well  also,  and  a  most  gracious  act  of  hospitality  on  the  part 


g6  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

of  llie  niannging  committee,  that  representatives  of  the  Suffolk  Bar, 
who  enjoyed  his  companionship  in  later  years,  and  honored  and  loved 
him  to  the  end,  should  be  invited  to  meet  here  with  his  Middlesex 
friends  and  bear  their  part  in  this  public  expression  of  the  high  esteem 
in  which  he  was  held  by  his  j^rofessional  brethren.  But  I  should  do 
myself  injustice  if  I  did  not  claim  the  right  to  stand  among  the 
nearest  of  the  friends  of  a  man  who  was  so  true  and  valued  a  friend 
to  me.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  be  here  and  to  express,  although  briefly 
and  most  inadequately,  my  sense  of  the  loss  we  have  all  suffered  by 
his  death. 

My  acquaintance  with  him  commenced  after  he  had  retired 
from  the  Bench  and  established  himself  at  Boston,  being  then  in  the 
very  prime  of  his  strong,  brave,  high-spirited,  warm-hearted,  stren- 
uous manhood.  As  time  went  on,  our  acquaintaneo  grew  more  inti- 
mate, until  within  the  last  ten  years  I  think  I  may  fairly  claim  to 
have  enjoyed  his  personal  friendship,  and  I  can  truly  say  that  during 
those  years  my  respect  and  affection  for  him  steadily  increased.  I 
value  much  the  memory  of  those  last  few  years  when  I  felt  most 
assured  of  his  friendship  for  me  and  therefore  most  thoroughly  and 
most  honestly  enjoyed  his  society.  As  they  passed  on  and  he  ap- 
proached the  evening  of  life,  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  strong  and 
simple  outlines  of  his  character  stood  out  more  and  more  distinctly 
and  impressively  like  towers  against  a  western  sky. 

I  am,  as  you  see,  not  disposed  now  to  dwell  upon  his  professional 
capacity  and  accomplishments.  I  gladly  confirm  from  my  own 
observation  what  others  have  said  here  as  to  these.  His  ardent  and 
impressive  advocacy,  his  strong  grasp  of  legal  principles,  his  power 
of  wise  i)ractical  counsel,  his  quick  and  healthy  ethical  sense,  without 
which  the  best  of  advocacy  or  of  counsel  cannot  be  attained  —  all 
these  and  more  I  remember,  as  you  do,  with  admiration  and  with 
pride.  But  what  is  uppermost  in  my  thoughts  is  the  force,  eleva- 
tion, and  purity  of  character  which  inspired,  sustained,  and  guided 
his  professional  life.  Everything  else  about  it  seems  to  me  at  this 
moment  to  fall  into  a  secondary  place.  I  should  be  ashamed  for 
myself  and  for  ray  brethren  to  have  to  say  that  this  distinction  of 
our  Brother  Abbott  was  a  rare  one  among  us,  but  it  is  not  given  to 
all  to  have  our  quality  tried  by  such  a  career  as  his.  We  cannot  but 
feel  proud  for  the  sake  of  the  brotherhood  that  the  record  of  his 
professional  life  was  a  record  not  only  of  the  strenuous  devotion  of 
superior  faculties  to  worthy  purposes,  but  of  stainless  honor,  of  mag- 
nanimity, generosity,  courtesy  —  all    those    fine   traits   of   personal 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  C'^ 

conduct  which  keep  the  atmosphere  of  the  Bar  clean  and  wholesome 
and  fit  for  a  gentleman  to  pass  his  life  in. 

He  was  a  true  knight.  As  I  picture  him  now  in  my  mind's  eye, 
with  his  grave  earnestness,  his  unassuming  dignity,  his  ready  and 
hearty  friendliness  with  his  equals,  his  kindliness  towards  the  young, 
the  weak,  and  the  distressed,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  extravagant  — 
at  least  it  suits  my  own  feelings  so  well  to  do  so,  that  I  shall  not 
hesitate  —  to  quote  and  apply  to  him  some  of  the  words  from  the 
Lament  for  Sir  Launcelot:  "Thou  wert  the  courtliest  man  that  ever 
bare  shield  ;  and  thou  wert  the  kindest  man  that  ever  strake  with 
sword ;  and  thou  wert  the  goodliest  person  that  ever  came  among 
press  of  knights;  and  the  gentlest  that  ever  ate  in  hall  among 
ladies ;  and  thou  wert  the  sternest  knight  to  thy  mortal  foe  that  ever 
put  spear  in  rest." 

It  is  just  this  chivalrous  combination  of  the  strong  arm  and 
dauntless  spirit  with  tenderness  of  heart,  loyalty  to  friends,  sincerity, 
dignity,  courtesy,  that  was  so  charming  in  his  friendship  and  is  now 
so  enduring  in  his  memory.  He  had  a  lofty  and  imperious  spirit, 
and  a  fine  capacity  of  indignation  at  all  mean,  small,  and  indirect 
conduct.  But  this,  I  think,  was  quite  unmixed  with  anything  like 
arrogance.  He  was  a  proud  man,  but  it  was  genuine  pride.  It  was 
the  gold  coin  of  self-respect,  not  the  baser  substitute  of  self-esteem. 
His  nervous  organization  was  extremely  sensitive.  He  could  not  but 
have  felt  keenly  —  no  man  more  so  —  any  personal  wrong  or  indig- 
nity, and  yet  I  believe  —  I  know  —  that  he  was  placable  and  forgiv- 
ing. Vindictiveness  was,  of  course,  far  beneath  a  man  of  his  quality. 
He  was  too  proud  as  well  as  too  generous  for  that. 

Let  me,  in  passing,  touch  on  one  other  point,  his  rare  refinement 
of  feeling.  I  think  it  worth  while  to  note  that  the  conversation  of  a 
man  of  such  ardent  temperament  and  such  bold  and  self-reliant 
habit  of  mind,  was  free  from  all  stain  of  immodesty  or  irreverence. 
His  conversation,  like  his  deportment,  was  that  of  a  gentleman. 

It  would  be  a  very  unfair  view  of  his  character  which  did  not 
take  account  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  man  of  fixed  ideas.  Those 
who  like  may  call  it  narrowness  or  prejudice.  His  judgment  on 
questions  of  right  were  deeply  rooted  and  stubbornly  held.  He  did 
not  care  to  discuss  them  at  all.  For  him  certain  moral  propositions 
were  immovably  settled.  Now  this  is  not  now-a-days  a  popular  type 
of  man.  We  live  in  times  when  it  is  almost  set  up  as  a  test  of  intel- 
ligence that  a  man  should  hold  all  his  opinions  subject  to  reconsider- 
ation, shall  accept  all  truth  "without  prejudice."     The  most  liberal 


58  PIIOCEEDINGS    OP    THE    BAR. 

and  enlightened  man  is  considered  to  be  he  who  holds  his  convictions 
most  loosely,  and  is  readiest  to  surrender  them  on  newly  discovered 
evidence.  There  are  some  of  us  that  think  this  to  be  an  unhealthy 
intellectual  climate  to  live  in.  Our  Brother  Abbott  thoroughly  dis- 
trusted and  disliked  it.  He  never  incurred  the  woe  denounced 
against  those  who  "put  bitter  for  sweet  and  sweet  for  bitter,  who  put 
darkness  for  light  and  light  for  darkness."  He  had  none  of  the  fin 
de  Steele  spirit  about  him.  He  was  indeed  at  heart  and  in  his  per- 
sonal life,  a  conservative  of  the  conservatives,  holding  it  to  be  true, 
as  a  general  rule,  that  the  "  old  is  better." 

We  have  all,  I  think,  a  feeling  that  in  his  death  we  have  lost  a 
power  and  an  influence  among  us  not  easily  to  be  spared  ;  a  power 
and  an  influence  tending  always  to  the  maintenance  of  the  simplest, 
and  therefore  the  highest,  standards  of  integrity  and  honor.  It  is 
such  a  character  as  his  that  lives  longest,  and  most  deserves  to  live, 
in  the  affectionate  memory  of  men. 

REMARKS    OF    HON.    FREDERICK    O.    PRINCE. 

3fai/  it  please  the   Court :  — 

I,  also,  am  glad  that  I  am  permitted  to  say  a  few  words  on  this 
occasion,  for  Judge  Abbott  was  my  friend,  the  friend  of  many  years. 
During  a  large  part  of  the  time  I  knew  him  intimately.  We  were 
admitted  to  the  Bar  almost  contemporaneously  —  he  to  that  of  Mid- 
dlesex in  1837,  I  to  that  of  Suffolk  in  1840.  Speaking,  therefore, 
from  a  long  personal  knowledge,  I  fully  endorse  all  that  is  said  of 
him  in  the  memorial.  It  sets  forth  without  exaggeration  his  merits 
as  a  lawyer,  a  judge,  a  citizen,  and  a  man.  In  my  judgment  such  is 
the  opinion  of  the  Bar,  the  Bench,  and  all  who  knew  him. 

When  reading  for  the  Bar,  Judge  Abbott  was  a  faithful  and  dil- 
igent student.  He  knew  that  there  was  no  royal  road  to  professional 
eminence ;  that  the  labor  required  was  severe,  and  that  long  and 
careful  preparation  was  needed  for  the  successful  discharge  of  the 
arduous  duties  of  attorney  and  counsellor.  He  felt  with  Lord  Bacon 
that  "  every  lawyer  was  a  debtor  to  his  profession  from  wliicli  he 
seeks  countenance  and  ])rofit,  and  should  endeavor  by  way  of  amends 
to  be  a  help  and  ornament  thereto."  Pursuing  his  studies  in  this 
spirit  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  was  well  equipjicd  for  professional 
work  when  his  name  was  placed  on  the  honorable  roll  of  attorneys- 
at-law. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  (JQ 

His  talents  and  temperament  well  fitted  him  for  the  siiccessful 
practice  of  the  law,  which  demands  not  only  abilities  of  high  order 
but  peculiar  abilities.  Patient,  pains-taking,  and  laborious  in  the 
preparation  of  his  cases,  when  he  reached  a  conclusion  as  to  the  law 
and  facts  therein  he  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and  his 
advocacy  was  earnest,  zealous  and  bold.  He  always  had  faith  in 
himself  and  his  cause,  and  no  disturbing  doubts  discounted  his 
intense  energy. 

As  might  be  expected  he  soon  reached  a  high  place  among  the 
distinguished  lawyers  of  both  Middlesex  and  Suffolk  ;  and  I  may 
here  say,  that  during  his  time  no  part  of  the  Commonwealth  had 
lawyers  and  advocates  of  greater  ability  than  these  counties. 

Judge  Abbott  secured,  from  the  start,  a  large  business,  and  the 
records  of  the  Court  show  that  for  years  he  was  employed  for  plaintiff 
or  defendant  in  most  of  the  important  suits.  He  could  accomplish 
a  vast  amount  of  business  in  a  comparatively  short  time,  because  of 
his  great  capacity  for  work,  his  systematic  habits,  his  learning,  and 
his  ability  to  see  at  once  and  grasp  the  principles  of  law  involved  in 
his  cases.  He  was  always  interested  in  his  work,  and  carefully  and 
conscientiousl}'^  prepared  it,  doing  nothing  in  a  sluggish  or  prefunc- 
tory  way.  Espousing  the  cause  of  his  clients  with  vigor  and  earnest- 
ness, he  never  wearied  in  his  efforts  in  their  behalf,  and  there  was  no 
relaxation  of  this  vigor  whether  the  amount  involved  in  the  contro- 
versy was  large  or  small.  Doubtless  some  of  his  zeal  came  from 
that  love  of  victory,  that  '•'■  gaudium  certaminis^''  which  naturally 
animates  the  advocate. 

In  his  bearing  to  the  Court  he  was  always  respectful,  and  in  his 
relations  to  the  Bar  he  never  forgot  those  courtesies  which  give  grace 
to  professional  intercourse  and  lightens  professional  labors. 

In  the  conduct  of  his  business  he  was  always  controlled  by  the 
highest  principles  of  honor  and  fair-dealing.  All  could  rely  upon  his 
word;  all  knew  that  his  promises  and  agreements  would  be  honestly 
performed.  While  ever  faithful  to  the  interests  of  his  clients,  he 
never  ignored  what  was  due  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice  — 
forgot  that  the  public  had  claims  upon  the  profession  which  should 
be  recognized.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  when  filling  the  high  posi- 
tion of  judge,  he  discharged  its  difficult  and  laborious  duties  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  profession,  for  he  possessed,  in  an  eminent  degree, 
those  valuable  judicial  virtues  —  patience,  impartiality,  and  industry. 
His  long  experience  in  the  trial  of  causes  before  coming  to  the 
Bench,  enabled  him  to  see  at  once  the  real  points  of  the  cases  before 


70  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    BAR. 

him  as  judge,  and  his  quick  perception  of  controlling  facts,  enabled 
him  to  guide  the  trials  so  as  to  save  time  and  assist  the  juries  in  their 
duties,  without  encroaching  upon  their  rights  or  those  of  lawyers  or 
litigants.  He  rarely  erred  in  his  rulings,  as  the  Reports  show  they 
were  generally  sustained  by  the  Sui)rerae  Court.  Thus  fitted  for  the 
successful  discharge  of  judicial  work,  his  resignation  from  the  Bench 
was  regretted  by  the  Bar  as  a  public  loss. 

Judge  Abbott's  studies  were  not  confined  to  the  law.  He  was 
interested  in  many  of  the  grave  social  problems  which  are  occupying 
the  attention  of  thinking  minds  wherever  there  is  culture,  and  it  was 
evident  to  those  who  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  his  conversation,  in 
his  hours  of  relaxation  from  business,  that  his  investigations  of  some 
of  these  subjects  were  neither  slight  nor  superficial.  He  was  at 
times  greatly  interested  in  public  affairs  and  in  questions  of  govern- 
ment and  administration,  holding  therein,  as  might  be  expected  from 
his  temperament,  positive  and  fixed  opinions;  but  however  widely 
he  differed  from  others  therein,  such  differences  never  caused  enmity 
nor  alienation,  for  all  knew  he  was  entirely  honest  and  conscientious 
in  his  convictions. 

Judge  Abbott  has  done  the  work  of  his  life  faithfully  and  well. 
He  has  furnished  an  example  of  devotion  to  professional  duty  which 
all  who  would  obtain  eminence  at  the  Bar,  should  follow ;  they 
should  adopt  his  motto  —  the  motto  of  the  true  lawyer  everywhere  — 
Pro  cUentibus  saepe^pro  lege^  pro  republica  semper. 


REMARKS    OF    HOX.    CHARLES    L.    WOODBURY. 

May  it  please  your  Honor :  — 

What  my  brethren  have  already  said  of  our  deceased  friend,  has 
been  so  well  said  that  nothing  remains  for  me  but  to  add  the  tribute 
of  my  regards. 

Judge  Abbott  was  an  able  lawyer  and  a  distinguished  citizen  of 
this  Commonwealth.  Brought  up  here  in  Middlesex,  where  the 
reputation  of  its  Bar  for  a  century  has  been  so  deservedly  brilliant 
for  legal  lore,  he  began  his  studies  and  practice  under  the  stimulus 
of  the  high  standard  of  learning  and  skill  that  had  long  distinguished 
this  Bar.     Well  did  he  respond  to  it. 

The  native  keenness  of  his  mind,  his  love  of  study,  the  energy 
with  which  he  mastered  the  great  principles  of  law  and  equity  led 
him  onward.     He  saw,  like  Webster,  that  there  was  room  at  the  top, 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  ^j 

and  he  reached  among  the  leaders  of  the  Bar  a  place  so  distin- 
guished that  his  name  will  go  down  to  posterity  on  the  roll  of  the 
county  of  his  birth  as  one  of  her  most  eminent  lawyers.  His  sound 
and  strong  judgment,  his  unwearying  perseverance,  his  careful  study 
of  his  cases,  his  ready  resources  in  a  trial,  and  his  clear,  terse  and 
impressive  eloquence  made  their  mark  in  the  State  and  Federal 
Courts.  His  legal  reputation  was  not  bounded  by  the  limits  of  state 
or  section.  His  arguments  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washing- 
ton spread  the  reputation  he  already  had  made  at  home.  P^or  thirty 
years  he  stood  among  the  leaders  of  our  Bar;  how  then  can  a  single 
sentence  now  express  his  qualities  or  describe  his  works? 

Judge  Abbott  was  more  than  a  lawyer.  He  reverenced  the 
memories  of  the  great  men  who  founded  our  liberties  and  built  our 
free  institutions.  He  revered  their  work.  The  study  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States  was  a  passion  with  him.  He  believed 
in  the  principles  of  self-government,  nothing  doubting  that  the  free- 
dom of  thought  and  develoi)ment  of  judgment  acquired  by  the 
exercise  of  its  res})onsibilities  would  place  the  prosperity,  happiness 
and  intelligence  of  the  people  of  the  states  of  this  Union  on  the 
broadest  basis  known  to  human  government.  He  contributed  his 
shai-e  as  a  citizen  to  the  public  welfare.  He  studied  the  statesman- 
ship of  his  country  in  its  foreign  and  domestic  relations  with  the 
thoroughness  due  to  his  ability  and  patriotism.  The  breadth  and 
strength  of  his  grasp  on  public  affairs  are  recorded  in  the  annals  of 
the  General  Court  and  of  Congress.  His  public  speeches  bear  their 
testimony  to  his  generous  sympathy  with  the  interests  of  the  people, 
to  the  cautious  intelligence  with  which  he  guarded  the  perpetuity  of 
their  liberties.  Amid  the  usual  conflict  of  political  opinion  natural 
to  our  frame  of  government,  the  sincerity  of  his  convictions  was 
never  doubted.  In  the  broad  fields  of  history,  science  and  literature, 
the  Judge  was  a  constant  gleaner  of  food  for  his  active  and  reflective 
mind. 

Witli  all  Ins  earnest  nature  Judge  Abbott  also  was  a  man  of 
kindly  intercourse,  generous  and  helpful  to  young  men  in  his  jirofes- 
sion.  Frank  in  the  expression  of  his  sentiments,  he  abhorred  a  mean 
thing  and  was  always  ready  to  do  a  kindly  one.  He  was  popular  at 
the  Bar,  had  the  confidence  of  the  Bench,  and  commanded  the  respect 
of  all  who  knew  him.  Age  did  not  destroy  his  habits  of  industry. 
His  books,  his  farm,  his  family  and  his  profession  filled  the  measure 
of  his  daily  employment  to  his  absolute  content.  He  was  active  in 
body  as  well  as  mind.     Within  a  year  of  his  death  he  told  me  that 


^2  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

lie  walked  daily  two  and  a  half  miles  to  his  office  and  as  far  on  his 
retnrn.  To  the  junior  members  of  the  Bar  I  would  say  there  is 
much  of  worthy  example  to  be  found  in  the  life  of  this  sturdy,  high- 
minded,  energetic  and  accomplished  gentleman  whose  loss  we  deplore. 
We  shall  hear  his  eloquent  voice  no  more  in  this  Court  Room, 
but  the  grasp  of  his  vanished  hand  will  linger  on  our  nerves,  and 
kind  memories  of  him  will  long  throng  within  these  walls. 


REMARKS    OF    CHARLES    COWLEY,    ESQ. 

31ay  it  please  the   Court :  — 

After  so  much  has  been  said,  and  so  well  said,  in  praise  of  Judge 
Abbott,  there  is  no  need  that  I  should  pass  his  career  in  further 
review.  But  in  all  this  chorus  of  eulogy,  one  voice  has  been  con- 
spicuous by  its  silence ;  one  well-known  figure  has  been  "conspicuous 
by  its  absence."  Judge  Abbott's  life  as  a  lawyer  ran  for  many  years 
on  parallel  lines  with  that  of  General  Butler;  and  this  occasion 
M^ould  not  have  been  permitted  to  pass  without  a  tribute  from  Gen- 
eral Butler,  were  it  not  that  an  engagement  before  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  in  Boston  at  this  very  hour  deprives  us  of 
the  General's  presence  here,  and  deprives  him  of  the  mournful  satis- 
faction of  laying  upon  Judge  Abbott's  bier  the  tribute  of  his  affec- 
tion and  esteem. 

In  connection  with  what  has  been  said  by  the  distinguished 
gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me,  in  relation  to  Judge  Abbott's 
uniform  maintenance  of  the  highest  standards  of  personal  and  pro- 
fessional lionor  and  integrity,  I  can  testify  that  during  my  connection 
with  his  office,  oral  agreements  were  made  almost  every  day  with 
other  law  offices,  particularly  General  Butler's  office,  touching  cases 
to  be  tried,  and  that  they  were  always  religiously  kept.  No  lawyer 
that  made  an  oral  agreement  with  the  office  of  Abbott  &>  Brown, 
ever  had  cause  to  blame  himself  for  not  having  it  put  in  black 
and  white.  All  the  agreements  made  between  that  firm  and  the 
office  of  Butler  &  Webster,  were  made  orally,  excepting  those  which 
the  law  or  the  rules  of  court  required  to  be  made  in  writing.  In 
later  years,  when  I  have  found  myself,  again  and  again,  the  victim  of 
misplaced  confidence  in  the  oral  agreements  of  other  counsel,  I  have 
thought  how  much  pleasanter  the  practice  of  law  would  be,  how 
much  more  life  would  be  worth  living,  if  all  lives  were  controlled  by 
the  same  high  principles  which  controlled  his  life. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  73 

I  would  not  violate  the  proprieties,  I  might  say  the  sanctities, 
of  this  hour  which  your  Honor  has  dedicated  to  Judge  Abbott's 
memory,  by  introducing  any  subject  of  controversy,  and  I  shall  not 
do  so  by  referring  to  his  course  as  a  member  of  the  electoral  com- 
mission of  1877,  and  particularly  to  his  course  as  a  member  of  the 
Congress  to  which  that  commission  reported  its  decisions  touching 
the  electoral  votes  of  the  four  contested  states.  As  is  well  known, 
he  was  one  of  the  minority  of  seven,  against  the  majority  of  eight. 
But  there  are  comparatively  few  who  know  how  great  a  service  he 
rendered  to  the  country  by  insisting  on  carrying  into  effect  the 
decisions  of  that  majority  when  they  came  up  for  action  in  Congress. 
"The  austere  glory  of  suffering  to  save  the  Union,"  in  the  judgment 
of  Kufus  Choate,  was  the  highest  glory  of  Daniel  Webster,  By  the 
sacrifices  which  he  made  in  seating  President  Hayes,  the  same 
"austere  glory"  was  won  by  Judge  Abbott. 

Among  the  Democrats  then  in  Congress,  particularly  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  there  were  many  who  smarted  under  the 
feeling  that  their  candidate  had  been  defrauded,  and  who  strongly 
favored  resort  to  extreme  measures  to  prevent  the  consummation  of 
the  work  of  the  commission.  This  could  only  be  done  by  obstruct- 
ing in  Congress  the  counting  of  the  electoral  votes  which  the  com- 
mission, by  a  vote  of  eight  to  seven,  had  decided  to  be  entitled  to  be 
counted ;  and  they  undertook,  by  every  variety  of  argument,  and  by 
every  form  of  persuasion,  to  induce  Mr.  Abbott  to  co-operate  with 
them  to  that  end  ;  but  he  stubbornly  refused.  Finding  it  impossible 
to  secure  any  sort  of  active  assistance  from  him,  they  called  on  him 
and  labored  with  him  all  night,  making  the  most  urgent  efforts  to 
induce  him  to  aid  them  passively  by  abstinence  from  action.  Amon(»- 
other  suggestions  pressed  upon  him,  perhaps  the  most  plausible  was 
this,  that  having  voted  in  the  commission  against  counting  the  Hayes 
electors  from  Florida  and  Louisiana,  he  was  not  obliged  to  vote  for 
them  in  the  House.  No  effort  was  spared,  first,  to  induce  him  to 
absent  himself  fiom  his  seat  in  the  House  when  the  votes  Avere  to  be 
counted ;  second  (failing  in  the  first),  to  induce  him  to  refraiti  from 
speaking  in  the  House  in  support  of  the  decisions  of  the  commissioti, 
from  which  he  himself  had  dissented  ;  third  (failing  in  the  second),  to 
induce  hira  to  refrain  from  voting  in  the  House  in  favor  of  those 
decisions.  All  these  appeals,  though  made  by  his  political  friends, 
he  met  with  an  emphatic  No.  Nothing  could  induce  liiin  to  ignore 
the  distinction  between  his  duty  as  a  member  of  tiie  House  and  his 
duty  as  a  member  of  the  commission.  He  held  himself  and  his 
party  bound  to  abide  in  good  faith  by  the  decisions  of  the  majority 


^^  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

of  the  commission,  though  he  denounced  those  decisions  as  utterly 
wrong.  He  saw  clearly,  though  he  bitterly  regretted  it,  that  the 
decisions  of  the  majority  of  the  commission  left  the  United  States  no 
alternative  but  to  seat  Mr.  Hayes  under  the  forms  of  the  constitu- 
tion, though  in  violation  of  its  spirit,  or  to  permit  General  Grant  to 
hold  over  as  president  by  consent ;  and  like  a  true  patriot  he  rose 
above  party,  and  assisted  in  counting  for  Hayes  all  the  votes  which 
the  commission  had  decided  to  belong  to  Hayes.  Seldom  has  the 
patriotism  of  a  public  man  successfully  borne  such  a  test.  No 
advantage  to  his  own  party  could  tempt  him  to  contribute,  either 
actively  or  passively,  to  dispense  with  the  forms  of  the  constitution. 
He  saw  that  future  presidents  would  come  and  go,  as  past  presidents 
had  come  and  gone,  like  shadows;  but  that  ''government  of  the  peo- 
ple, by  the  people,  for  the  people,"  could  only  be  preserved  by  a  firm 
adherence  to  constitutional  forms.  Time  has  approved  his  decision. 
It  seemed  to  me  entirely  proper  that  I  should  recall  the  memory 
of  this  great  episode  in  Judge  Abbott's  public  life,  here  in  the  county 
which  gave  him  birth.  Of  the  fifteen  members  of  that  electoral 
commission,  two  were  natives  of  Middlesex  —  Judge  Abbott  and 
Senator  Hoar.  General  Garfield  was  not  born  in  this  county,  but 
his  ancestors  were,  and  one  of  the  purposes  for  which  he  left  the 
White  House  on  the  morning  when  he  was  shot,  was  to  visit 
the  homes  of  those  ancestors  in  two  Middlesex  towns.  Middlesex 
County  was  well  represented  on  that  commission.  She  has  generally 
been  well  represented  on  great  occasions.  I  am  glad  to  see  her  so 
well  and  so  largely  represented  here  to-day.* 

REMARKS    OF    JUDGE    RICHARDSON. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Bar : — 

There  is  a  propriety,  as  you  have  so  well  said,  in  your  selection 
of  a  court  in  this  county  in  which  to  present  this  expression  of  your 
respect  for  the  character,  and  tribute  to  the  memory,  of  your  dis- 
tinguished brother ;  not  that  his  professional  work  was  all,  or  even 

*Hon.  William  D.  Noitlieiid  of  Salem,  who  was  expected  to  be  present  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  Essex  Bar,  was  prevented  by  his  duties  elsewhere  from  laying  liis 
wreath  upon  the  bier  of  his  friend  of  many  years.  As  a  member  of  the  State  Senate  in 
1861,  he  was  peculiarly  cognizant  of  the  part  taken  by  Judge  Abbott  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Confederate  War;  how  he  urged  the  calling  of  a  special  session  of  the  l.egislature, 
the  establishment  of  camps  of  instruction  and  other  war  measures.  Governor  Andrew 
wrote  to  .senator  Northend.  urging  him  to  confer  with  Judge  Abbott  as  to  the  best 
measures  to  meet  the  new  conditions  which  the  war  had  created.  With  characteristic 
foresight,  the  Governor  wrote,  "  When  we  get  a  session  of  the  Legislature,  we  ought  to 
be  prepared  in  advance  with  bills  approved  by  leading  meml)ers  of  the  Senate  and 
House,  so  that  uo  time  shall  be  lost  by  delays  or  by  casting  about  for  a  policy." 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  ^^ 

chiefly,  done  here,  for  we  know  thmt  it  was  not ;  but  because  at  the 
Bar  in  this  county  was  the  beginning  of  his  long  and  notable  career 
as  a  lawyer,  and  he  Avas  prominently  and  actively  identified  with 
many  large  business  enterprises,  and  with  the  growth  of  the  laroest 
city,  located  in  this  county ;  and  it  is  fit  that  where  the  foundation  of 
his  career  was  laid  and  formed,  should  be  found  this  record  of  your 
appreciation  and  approval,  at  its  completion. 

Not  only  that.  I  think  that  however  much  he  may  have  valued 
the  good  opinion  of  the  world  in  general,  he  especially  prized  the 
favorable  judgment  of  you,  who  were  in  practice  with  him  at  this 
Bar,  and  who  knew  him  so  intimately  and  so  long. 

Judge  Abbott  resigned  from  the  Bench  of  the  Superior  Court 
for  the  County  of  Suffolk  in  1858,  about  two  years  before  the  pres- 
ent Superior  Court  was  established.  I  have  always  supposed  that  he 
could  have  gone  upon  the  Bench  again  if  he  desired,  but  that  active 
practice  at  the  Bar,  with  its  greater  personal  freedom,  was  more 
congenial  and  attractive  to  him,  and  it  certainly  was  more  lucrative. 
For  many  years  after  his  resignation  he  enjoyed  a  large  and  remun- 
erative practice,  and  became  an  authority  in  the  law  of  railroad  cor- 
porations, a  branch  or  body  of  law  which  he  saw  grow  up  and  develop 
into  a  system  of  laws  and  regulations  of  such  magnitude,  that  their 
due  administration  occupies  a  very  considerable  part  of  the  time  of 
legislatm'es  and  courts. 

He  lived  in  a  famous  period  of  the  Middlesex  Bar.  One  of  his 
biographers  has  said  that  Webster  was  educated  into  a  lawyer  by 
being  often  opposed  by  Jeremiah  Mason.  Judge  Abbott  had  hardly 
less  advantageous  instruction — or  discipline  —  from  the  group  of 
very  great  lawyers  of  this  Middlesex  Bar,  whom  he  used  to  meet  a 
quarter  of  a  century  or  more  ago,  several  of  whom,  at  a  venerable 
age,  prove  by  their  presence  and  words  here  to-day,  their  sincere 
respect  for  the  life  and  character  which  you  have  briefly,  but  so  well, 
described  in  your  memorial  address. 

He  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  membership  in  another  body  of 
remarkable  men,  which,  from  the  accounts  which  have  come  down  to 
lis  in  many  ways  concerning  them,  as  well  as  from  the  published 
proceedings,  was  not  only  a  distinction  but  must  have  been  itself  a 
liberal  education,  at  least  upon  great  questions  of  the  first  importance 
in  the  administration  of  law  in  the  Commonwealth.  I  refer  to  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  185B,  in  which  were  Choate,  Bartlett, 
Rantoul,  Hillard,  Butler,  Dana,  Mortoij,  Otis  P.  Lord,  Greenleaf, 
Train,  Prince,  Aldrich,  Charles  Allen,  Hallett,  Dawes,  Sumner,  Peleg 


Yg  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

Sprague,  Joel  Parker,  Nathan  Hale,  and  others  like  them,  constitut- 
ino-  an  assemblage  of  men  which,  for  learning,  ability,  and  high  char- 
acter, I  think,  has  not  been  surpassed  in  this  country  in  this  century. 

I  first  knew  Judge  Abbott  when  I  was  a  student  in  an  office 
with  which  he  had  much  business,  and  from  that  time  to  the  time  of 
his  last  appearance  in  court  —  about  thirty  years  —  I  met  him  very 
often,  and  whether  for  business  or  otherwise,  always  with  pleasure. 
He  sympathized  with  a  young  lawyer  who  had  to  depend  upon  him- 
self. He  looked  at  life  and  business  seriously  and  was  always  in 
earnest.  Perhaps  he  needed,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  greater 
occasions  than  the  ordinary  contentions  in  our  courts  to  call  out  his 
full  power ;  at  least,  I  had  this  impression  after  hearing,'about  twelve 
years  ago,  an  argument  of  very  great  power  and  eloquence  made  by 
him  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  when  it  was  obvious 
that  he  felt  the  stimulus  incident  to  addressing  that  great  tribunal  in 
an  important  cause.* 

But  he  was  not  a  lawyer  merely.  He  was  a  student,  a  great 
reader  of  books,  a  man  of  business,  and  took  an  active  interest  in 
public  affairs.  He  held  many  positions  of  confidence  and  trust,  and 
honorably  performed  his  duty  in  them  all.  He  hated  shams,;pretence, 
and  hypocrisy,  and  did  not  deny  himself  the  pleasure  of  showing  it 
when  in  his  opinion  he  ought  to  do  so.  He  had  a  positive  individu- 
ality. He  was  loyal  to  his  cause,  his  clients,  and  his  friends.  Socially 
he  was  a  dignified,  courtly,  gracious  gentleman. 

The  record  to  be  made  here  now  is  of  no  consequence  to  him, 
but  it  concerns  us,  and  is  of  interest  to  the  Commonwealth.  It  is 
important  that  it  be  made  certain  that  every  person  who  renders 
conspicuous  service  to  the  Commonwealth,  who  contributes  to  her 
prosperity,  to  her  power,  or  to  her  honor,  shall  in  his  appropriate 
place,  have  that  share  in  her  good  name,  and  that  place  in  her  annals, 
which  he  deserves. 

In  compliance  with  your  request,  your  memorial,  with  a  memo- 
randum of  these  proceedings,  will  be  placed  upon  the  records  of  the 
court,  and,  as  a  further  mark  of  respect,  the  court  will  adjourn. 


*  This  was  the  case  of  Land  Company  v.  Daniel  Saunders,  lOS'United  States  Keports. 
316. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BAR  ASSOCIATION 


THE    CITY    OK    BOSTON. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Bar  Association  of  the  City  of 
Boston,  held  Oct.  8,  1892,  John  A.  Loring,  Esq.,  said 
he  had  been  requested  by  the  committee  appointed  at  a 
previous  meeting  to  prepare  a  resolution  with  regard  to 
the  death  of  Judge  Abbott,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Causten 
Browne  (chairman),  Benjamin  Dean,  and  Jabez  A.  Saw- 
yer, to  present  the  following  resolution,  which  he  then 
read :  — 

Resolved,  That  the  secretary  be  directed  to  place  on  record  the 
follomng  expression  of  the  sense  of  the  Association  with  regard  to 
the  deatli  of  the  late  Josiah  G.  Abbott. 

Josiah  Gardner  Abbott,  an  honored  member  of  the  Boston  Bar 
Association,  born  at  Chelmsford,  Massachusetts,  Nov.  1,  1814,  was 
graduated  at  Harvard  in  1832,  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1837,  served 
as  Associate  Justice  of  the  then  Superior  Court  of  the  City  of  Boston 
from  1855  to  1858,  and  upon  his  resignation  of  that  office,  took  up 
his  residence  at  Boston,  and  continued  in  the  practice  of  law  as  a 
member  of  the  Suffolk  Bar  until  his  death  at  his  home  in  AVellesley, 
Massachusetts,  June  2,  1891. 

The  professional  career  indicated  thus  briefly  was  in  a  very  hio-h 
degree  useful,  honorable,  aifd  distinguished.  Brother  Abbott'was  a 
well-read  and  broad-minded  lawyer,  a  judicious  and  candid  adviser, 
an  earnest,  able  and  eloquent  advocate,  an  upright,"  fearless,  vigorous, 
justice-loving  judge. 

All  liis  professional  work  bore  the  stamp  of  clear  intelligence, 
purity  of  purpose,  manliness,  frankness,  and  integrity.     h\  his  inter- 


78  PROCEEDINGS    OP    THE    BAR. 

course  with  the  brethren  of  the  Bar,  tliey  found  him  always  straight- 
forward and  magnanimous,  dignified  and  courteous,  intolerant  only 
of  chicane,  affectation,  or  trifling,  a  knightly  foe,  and  a  steadfast  and 
loyal  friend. 

His  professional  career  throughout  stood  for  an  example  of  the 
liest  principle  and  the  best  conduct,  and  is  remembered  by  us  to-day 
as  a  valuable  part  of  the  heritage  of  the  Bar. 

Called,  on  many  occasions,  to  iindertake  important  duties  in  pub- 
lic life,  he  acquitted  himself  always  Avith  honor  and  distinction ;  and 
the  Bar  joins  with  the  public  in  recognizing  our  common  debt  of 
gratitude  for  his  services,  his  influence,  and  his  example  as  a  citizen 
of  our  Commonwealth  and  country. 

[Signed.]  Causten  Browne, 

Benjamin  Dean, 
Jabez  a.  Sawyer. 


REMARKS    OF    JOHN    A.    LORING,    ESQ. 

It  were  vain  for  me,  Mr.  President,  to  attempt  to  add  to  Avhat 
these  resolutions  so  truly  and  emphatically  express  in  regard  to  our 
late  deceased  brother.  The  first  I  ever  heard  of  Judge  Abbott  was 
when  I  was  a  lad  in  the  town  of  Andover,  where  I  was  born ;  and 
his  first  American  ancestor  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  that  town, 
and  his  descendants  are  scattered  throughout  various  sections  of  the 
country,  and  many  of  them  are  in  the  old  town  now. 

The  first  I  knew  of  him  was  as  a  leading  Democrat  at  Lowell, 
and  after  that  as  a  leading  member  of  the  Bar  of  Middlesex  County, 
and  afterwards  as  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  and  as  a  leading 
lawyer  in  Suffolk  County.  I  have  been  associated  with  him,  and 
have  been  against  him,  and  never  did  I  meet  with  more  courteous 
treatment  from  any  brother  in  the  profession  than  from  him.  lie 
was  my  friend,  and  for  the  last  ten  years  I  have  known  him  inti- 
mately, and  have  seen  him  in  the  private  walks  of  life  —  in  his  own 
household.  He  was  a  model  husband  and  father.  His  abilities  are 
recognized  by  all,  and  also  his  fairness  and  magnanimity. 

I  Avill  add  to  the  resolution  offered  by  the  committee,  the 
following : 

Resolved,  That  a  coj)y  of  these  resolutions  l)e  furnished  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased. 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR.  79 

REMARKS    OF    WILLIAM    G.    RUSSELL,    ESQ. 

There  is  an  age  at  which  it  is  becoming  that  one  should  speak 
on  an  occasion  like  this ;  there  is  an  age  at  which  it  is  more  becoming 
to  be  present  and  to  be  silent!  It  may  be  that,  for  me,  the  latter 
period  is  reached.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I  cannot  be  silent  where 
silence  would  seem  to  indicate  failure  to  recognize  the  worth  of  one 
who  M^as  a  friend  for  more  than  forty  years. 

Strength  and  vigor  were  the  striking  characteristics  of  Judge 
Abbott.  They  were  illustrated  in  every  feature,  every  line,  of  his 
marked  countenance,  and  of  his  manly  form  as  he  strode  along  the 
city  street  or  the  country  by-way,  or  stood  at  the  Bar,  or  sat  in 
council.  The  strength  and  vigor  were  intellectual  or  they  were 
physical.  They  were  demonstrated  in  a  long  life  of  contest  at  the 
Bar,  in  the  j^olitical  arena,  and  in  the  short  term  of  service  upon  the 
Bench,  in  which  he  showed  his  ca})acity  to  fill  any  judicial  position 
however  high. 

It  is  not  of  those  traits,  however,  that  I  would  now  s})eak  ;  but 
rather  of  those  personal  traits  which  attracted  and  attached  to  Judge 
Abbott  those  who  came  within  the  closer  sphere  and  knew  him  inti- 
mately. In  his  terse  way  he  would  say  of  another,  "  He  had  a  heart 
as  biff  as  an  ox."  I  am  sure  that  is  what  he  would  best  like  to  have 
said  of  himself,  and  it  is  truth  to  say  it.  He  was  warm-blooded, 
warm-hearted,  earnest,  impulsive,  vehement  in  expressing  what  he 
sincerely  felt.  This  gave  him  half  his  force  —  it  gave  him  much 
more  than  half  his  power  to  charm.  He  had  a  high,  keen  sense  of 
honor.  In  a  time  and  country  where  the  code  of  honor,  so-called, 
prevailed,  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  he  would  not  have  gone 
through  life  unscathed,  or  at  least  without  meeting  an  adversary  • 
for  he  had,  as  he  transmitted,  fighting  blood.  Yet  in  council  and  in 
action  he  was  calm  and  judicious  in  matters  involving  personal  right 
and  honor.  More  than  once  when  some  younger  brother  has  come 
for  aid  on  questions  of  personal  or  ^professional  conduct.  Judge 
Abbott's  advice  has  been  sought,  and  on  such  questions  his  judg- 
ment always  rang  true.  No  man  in  si;ch  case,  under  his  advice,  ever 
sacrificed  his  self-respect,  many  a  one  has  avoided  a  needless  quar- 
rel. It  is  not  a  paradox  that  the  best  fighter  may  be  the  best 
peace-maker. 

Judge  Abbott  was  at  times  hasty  in  speech.  It  is  possible  to 
respect,  it  is  difiicult  to  find  one  who  never  is  so.     But  he  had  that 


80  PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    BAR. 

innate  kindness  of  heart  which  Avill  cause  to  be  blotted  from  the 
record  many  a  stray  expression,  and  Mall  place  in  its  stead  many  an 
act  of  charity,  good  feehng  and  brotherly  love.  That  record  is  made 
up,  and  it  is  one  of  which  we,  his  brethren,  may  well  make  note,  and 
in  which  we  may  well  take  pride. 

The  question  being  put  the  resolutions  were  unani- 
mously adopted. 


APPENDIX. 


Draft  of  the  Address  Prepared  for  the  Minority 
OF  THE  Electoral  Commission  of  1877, 

BY  THE   HON.  JOSIA.H  G.   ABBOTT,  LL.D. 

The  following  is  the  text  of  the  proposed  address 
of  the  minority  of  the  electoral  commission  of  1877, 
protesting  against  the  decisions  of  the  majority  of  that 
commission;  referred  to  on  pages  39,  44,  45,  73  and  74 
of  this  volume  :  — 

To  the  People  of  the    United  States :  — 

The  minority  of  the  joint  commission  established  by  the  act  of 
Congress  of  Jan.  27,  1877,  to  decide  questions  arising  in  the  count 
of  the  electoral  votes,  desire  to  address  the  people  of  the  whole 
country  on  the  subjects  submitted  to  and  decided  by  that  commission. 

No  more  important  questions  can  ever  come  before  any  tribunal 
or  people  for  consideration  and  determination.  Upon  their  determi- 
nation depends  who  shall  be  the  president  of  this  country,  and 
whether  he  shall  owe  that  great  office  to  the  free,  honest  choice  of 
the  people,  or  to  bribery,  forgery  and  gross  fraud. 

The  minority  of  that  commission,  by  the  law  establishing  it,  had 
no  opportunity  of  reporting  the  reasons  for  their  action  to  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress.  The  presence  of  a  stenographer  at  these  con- 
sultations was  denied,  so  that  no  record  thereof  exists.  No  way  is 
open  to  those  who  did  not  join  in,  but  on  the  contrary  protested 
against,  the  decisions  of  the  commission,  to  make  public  their  pro- 
test except  by  this  address. 

The  returns  of  the  electoral  vote  of  four  states  —  Florida, 
Louisiana,  Oregon  and  South  Carolina  —  were  submitted  to  and 
decided  upon  by  the  commission. 


go  APPENDIX. 


FLOKIDA. 


In  the  case  of  Florida  there  were  three  certificates.  The  first, 
signed  by  the  governor,  certified  that  the  four  Hayes  electors  were 
elected  according  to  the  law  of  Florida  and  the  acts  of  Congress. 
The  second  was  signed  by  the  attorney  general,  and  the  third  by  the 
governor  elected  on  the  seventh  of  November  last ;  and  both  certi- 
fied the  election  of  the  Tilden  electors.  The  attorney  general  was 
one  of  the  three  persons  first  canvassing  the  votes. 

To  the  third  certificate  were  attached  certified  copies  of  all  the 
returns  of  votes  from  every  precinct  in  the  state,  which  were  origi- 
nally made  to  the  secretary  of  the  state,  together  with  an  act  of  the 
Legislature  providing  for  a  new  canvass  of  the  vote,  according  to  the 
law  as  it  had  been  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  result  of 
the  new  canvass  thus  ordered. 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved,  and  it  was  not  denied  that  such  was 
the  fact,  that  by  counting  all  the  votes  returned  to  the  secretary  of 
state,  according  to  the  law  of  Florida  as  expounded  by  the  Su})reme 
Court,  the  Tilden  electors  had  been  duly  elected. 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved,  and  was  not  denied,  that  the  Tilden 
electors  commenced  proceedings  in  quo  loarranto  against  the  Hayes 
electors  in  the  court  of  that  state  having  jurisdiction  by  its  consti- 
tution, notice  of  which  was  served  on  the  latter  before  they  gave 
their  votes,  and  as  soon  as  they  were  declared  elected,  and  which 
was  prosecuted  to  this  judgment  —  that  the  Hayes  electors  had  not 
been  elected  and  had  no  title  to  the  office,  but  that  the  Tilden  elec- 
tors had  been  legally  elected  and  were  entitled  to  the  office. 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved,  and  was  not  denied,  that  the  two 
canvassers  who  had  made  the  certificate  of  election  of  the  Hayes 
electors,  which  by  the  law  of  Florida  was  made  only  prima  facie 
evidence,  had  erred  in  their  construction  of  the  law  and  exceeded 
their  jurisdiction  by  so  doing,  in  their  canvass  of  votes  on  which  the 
certificate  was  based. 

Thus,  it  was  offered  to  be  proved,  and  the  facts  were  not  denied 
that  the  governor's  certificate  given  to  the  Hayes  electors  was  false, 
and  that  the  determination  and  certificate  of  two  of  the  three  who 
made  up  the  board  of  canvassers  was  false  in  fact  and  in  violation  of 
the  laws  of  Florida,  and  that  in  making  it  the  two  had  exceeded 
their  jurisdiction.  It  was  offered  to  be  proved  that  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Florida  had,  in  effect,  decided  that  the  two  canvassers  had 
made  a  false  certificate  and  exceeded  their  jurisdiction,  and  that  the 


APPENDIX.  83 

Circuit  Court  bad  so  decided.  It  was  offered  to  be  proved  tbat  botb 
tbe  Legislature  and  tbe  executive  of  tbe  state  bad  so  determined 
and  bad  attempted  by  all  means  in  tbeir  power  to  prevent  tbe  state 
being  defrauded  of  its  true  and  real  vote. 

Tbe  majority  of  tbe  commission  decided  tbat  tbe  determination 
and  certificate  of  two  of  a  board  of  tbree  canvassers,  witb  minis- 
terial powers  only,  and  wbicb  by  law  was  prima  facie^  not  con- 
clusive, evidence,  must  stand  and  decide  tbe  great  question  of  tbe 
presidency,  althougb  it  could  clearly  be  proved  to  be  false  in  fact, 
and  tbat  in  making  it  tbe  two  canvassers  bad  exceeded  tbeir  jurisdic- 
tion and  autbority,  as  beld  by  tbe  Supreme  Court  of  tbe  state,  and 
altbougb  tbe  Legislature  and  governor  bad  botb  declared  it  false? 
and  tbat  by  giving  effect  to  it  tbe  state  would  be  defrauded  of  its 
true  and  real  vote;  and  altbougb  tbe  electors,  in  wbose  favor  it  was 
made,  bad  been  declared  by  tbe  courts  not  to  bave  been  elected. 
Tbe  injustice  of  tbis  decision  was  tbe  more  marked  and  flagrant  by 
contrast.  All  tbe  state  oflicers,  from  tbe  governor  down,  wbo 
were  voted  for  on  tbe  same  ticket  with  tbe  Tilden  electors,  and  bad 
been  counted  out  by  tbe  same  two  canvassers,  at  tbe  same  time,  and 
by  tbe  same  canvass  by  wbicb  tbe  latter  were  counted  out,  bad  been 
declared  elected  by  tbe  action  of  tbe  bigbest  court  of  tbe  state,  and 
are  now  and  bave  been  bolding  tbeir  several  ofiices  to  tbe  general 
contentment  of  tbe  citizens  of  Florida.  But  tbe  Hayes  electors 
alone  are  permitted  by  tbis  decision  to  consummate  tbe  wrong,  and 
act  in  offices  to  wbicb  tbey  were  never  elected. 

Against  tbis  decision  of  tbe  commission  tbe  undersigned  pro- 
tested and  now  protest  as  wrong  in  law,  bad  in  morals,  and  worse  in 
tbe  consequences  wbicb  it  entails  on  a  great  country. 

It  gives  absolute  power  to  two  inferior  ministerial  officei's  to 
witbbold  tbeir  determination  till  tbe  day  wben  tbe  electoral  vote  is 
cast,  as  was  done  in  tbis  case,  and  then  give  tbe  vote  of  a  state  to  a 
candidate  who  has  never  received  it,  as  was  done  in  tbis  case,  and 
tells  tbe  people  there  is  no  redress  for  such  an  outrage. 

It  is  a  decision  admirably  calculated  to  encourage  fraud,  and 
ensure  its  being  perpetrated  witb  success  and  impunity. 

It  is  a  decision  by  wbicb  the  people  of  a  state  may  be  defrauded 
and  robbed  of  their  dearest  rights  by  a  few  unprincipled  wretches, 
and  be  then  compelled  to  acquiesce  in  tbe  great  wrong. 

It  is  decision  claimed  to  be  based  on  tbe  doctrine  of  state  rights, 
but,  in  fact,  is  in  direct  conflict  with  that  grand  doctrine,  for  by  it, 
states  and  the  peoples  of  states  can  be  stripped  of  their  rights  and 
liberties,  with  no  power  to  resist. 


84  APPENDIX. 

We  protest  against  the  decision  finally  because  by  it  the  people 
of  the  whole  United  States  are  defrauded  and  cheated ;  because  by 
it,  a  person  is  put  into  the  great  office  of  president,  who  has  never 
been  chosen  according  to  the  Constitution  and  law,  and  whose  only 
title  depends  on  the  false  and  fraudulent  certificate  of  two  men  in 
the  state  of  Florida,  instead  of  a  majority  of  the  legal  voices  of  the 
whole  people,  declared  through  and  by  their  electoral  colleges. 

LOUISIANA. 

In  the  case  of  Louisiana,  the  decision  of  a  majority  of  the  com- 
mission is  a  stupendous  wrong  to  the  people  of  that  state,  and  all 
the  other  states,  and  in  defiance  of  all  right,  justice,  law,  and  fair 
dealing  among  men. 

The  law  of  that  state  establishes  a  returning  board  to  consist  of 
five  persons  of  different  parties,  with  power  to  fill  vacancies,  and  to 
canvass  and  compile  the  returns  of  votes  from  the  different  parishes 
I  and  precincts,  and  declare  the  result.  The  board  is  given  power  and 
I  jurisdiction,  provided  affidavits  are  annexed  to  and  received  with  the 
return  from  any  precinct  or  parish,  to  inquire  whether  intimida- 
tion has  existed,  and  if  it  is  established  to  throw  out  the  return  for 
'\  such  parish  ;  but  this  jurisdiction  is  carefully  confined  to  cases  where 
affidavits  are  attached  to  and  returned  with  the  returns  of  the  votes ; 
in  no  other  case  whatsoever  is  the  power  to  reject  votes  given. 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved,  and  was  not  denied,  that  the  board 
giving  the  certificate  to  the  Hayes  electors  consisted  of  four  persons 
j  — all  of  the  Republican  party — instead  of  five  persons  of  different 
I  parties,  as  required  by  law  ;  that  these  four  members  had  been  re- 
quested and  required  by  Democrats  to  fill  the  vacancy  with  a  Demo- 
crat, but  had  uniformly  refused  to  do  so. 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved,  also,  that  this  board  of  four  persons 
—  all  of  the  Republican  party  —  in  order  to  perpetrate  the  frauds 
with  ease  and  impunity,  employed  five  disreputable  persons  as  clerks 
and  assistants,  all  of  whom  had  been  convicted,  or  were  under  indict- 
ment, for  various  offences,  ranging  from  subordination  of  perjury  up 
to  murder.  Indictment,  at  least,  if  not  conviction,  seemed  the  only 
admitted  qualification  of  employment  by  that  extraordinary  board. 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved,  and  was  not  denied,  that  this  board, 
in  order  to  give  the  certificate  of  election  to  the  Hayes  electors,  had 
rejected  ten  thousand  votes,  and  this  was  done,  although  not  a  return 
thrown  out  had  been  accompanied  by  the  requisite  affidavit  to  give 
juriijdiction  to  act  at  all. 


APPENDIX.  85 

It  was  offered  to  be  proved  that  the  members  of  this  returning 
board  in  order  to  give  the  certificate  of  election  to  the  Hayes 
electors,  had  resorted  to  and  used  affidavits  known  by  them  to  be 
false  and  forged,  had  themselves  been  guilty  of  forgery,  and  had 
been  paid  for  making  their  determination,  thus  adding  bribery  to  the 
catalogue  of  their  crimes. 

Numerous  other  corrupt  and  fraudulent  practices  were  offered 
to  be  proved  against  the  members  of  this  returning  board,  among 
the  least  of  which  was  a  wicked  conspiracy  to  rob  the  people  of 
Louisiana  of  their  rights  and  liberties. 

The  decision  of  a  majority  of  the  commission  rejected  all  this 
evidence,  and  held  that  the  certificate  of  election  given  to  the  Hayes   I 
electors  must  stand,  and  could  not  be  inquired  into,  if  all  such  offers 
of  proof  could  be  substantiated. 

By  that  decision  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  told  that 
the  certificate  of  a  board  constituted  in  direct  defiance  of  the  law 
establishing  it,  and  made  by  grasping  a  jurisdiction  never  granted  to 
it,  arrived  at  by  forgery,  perjury,  wicked  conspiracy,  and  the  grossest  i, 
frauds,  and  finally  bought  and  paid  for,  must  stand,  and  cannot  be  ; 
set  aside ;  that  although  thus  steeped  in  sin  and  iniquity,  it  must 
make  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  great,  free,  and  intelligent  people. 

The  undersigned  protest  against  this  decision,  also,  as  bad  in 
law,  worse  in  morals,  and  absolutely  ruinous  in  its  consequences. 

They  denounce  it  in  the  presence  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  in  the  face  of  the  world,  because,  if  intended  and  de- 
signed for  such  a  purpose,  it  could  not  have  been  more  cunningly 
contrived  than  it  is  to  encourage  the  grossest  frauds,  conspiracies  and 
corruptions  in  the  election  of  a  president. 

They  denounce  it,  because  it  will  debase  the  national  character, 
deaden  the  public  conscience,  and  encourage  fraud  and  corruption  in 
all  the  public  and  private  transactions  and  business  of  the  people. 

They  denounce  it,  because  for  the  first  time  it  declares  to  the 
people  that  by  their  organic  law,  the  Constitution,  it  is  ordained  that 
a  man  may  seek  for,  obtain,  and  hold  this  great  office  of  chief  magis- 
trate of  two  and  forty  millions  of  freemen  by  fraud  and  cheating. 

Nay,  more,  that  he  may  openly  buy  the  votes  to  elect  himself, 
and  pay  down  the  price  when  the  purchase  is  consummated  by  the 
count  by  the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  and  call  them  to  witness  the 
payment;  and  that  there  is  no  help  for  it  but  revolution. 

They  denounce  it,  because,  in  effect,  it  puts  up  the  great  office 
of  president  at  auction,  and  says  to  the  whole  world  that  it  may  be 


gg  APPENDIX. 

bought  in  safety,  and  that  there  is  no  way  known  to  man  by  which 
the  title  by  purchase  can  be  disputed  or  gainsaid. 

OREGON. 

In  the  Oregon  case,  a  certificate  signed  by  the  governor  and 
secretary  of  state,  and  under  the  great  seal  of  the  state,  certified 
to  the  election  of  two  Hayes  and  one  Tilden  elector.  The  three 
Hayes  electors  produced  no  certification  of  election  signed  by 
any  person  —  only  a  certificate  of  certain  results  —  from  which 
it  was  claimed  that  it  could  be  inferred  who  were  elected.  The 
law  of  Oregon  required  a  list  of  the  persons  elected  to  be  signed 
by  the  governor  and  secretary  of  state,  under  the  great  seal,  and 
this  requirement,  as  well  as  that  of  the  acts  of  Congress,  was 
fully  met  and  satisfied  by  the  first  certificate.  There  was  no 
certificate  in  the  second  case  in  any  manner  complying  with  the  laws 
of  Oregon  or  the  acts  of  Congress.  Yet  by  the  decision  of  the 
commission,  the  first  certificate  was  rejected  and  the  second  taken, 
although  clearly  neither  in  conformity  with  state  or  federal  law. 

The  undersigned  voted  against  counting  the  vote  of  the  Tilden 
elector,  because,  notwithstanding  the  certificate  of  the  governor  and 
secretary  of  state,  they  were  satisfied  he  had  not  been  elected  by  the 
people  of  Oregon,  and  that  his  vote  would  not  have  been  the  true 
vote  of  that  state. 

The  majority  of  the  commission  decided  to  set  aside  and  reject 
the  certificate  and  return,  precisely  the  same  in  character  that  they 
had  hoUlen  to  be  conclusive  against  all  evidence  in  the  Florida  and 
liOuisiana  cases.  They  adopted  and  acted  on  a  certificate  insufficient 
if  they  regarded  their  former  rulings,  under  any  law,  state  or 
national. 

The  undersigned  denounce  the  Oregon  decision  as  utterly  at  war 
with  and  reversing  the  rule  established  in  the  two  former  cases,  and 
because  it  changes  the  law  to  meet  tlie  wants  of  the  case,  establish- 
ing dilTerent  rules  applicable  to  the  same  facts  to  bring  about  a 
desired  result. 

In  the  Florida  case,  where  the  evidence  failed  to  establish  the 
fact,  the  majority  of  the  commission  voted  to  receive  evidence  to 
prove  one  elector  held  an  ofHce  of  profit  and  trust  under  the  United 
States  when  appointed. 

In  the  Louisiana  case,  where  there  was  no  doubt  that  two  elec- 
tors held   such   offices   when  appointed,  it  was  voted  not  to  receive 


APPENDIX. 


87 


evidence  of  the  fact,  because  it  was  not  offered  to  be  proved  that 
they  continued  to  hold  sucli  offices  where  they  voted. 

Apparently,  the  rules  change  as  the  requirements  of  the  case 
change. 

SOUTH    CAROLINA. 

In   South   Carolina  the  undersigned    voted   against  the  Tilden      ( 
electors  being  declared   elected,   because   they  had    not  received  a 
majority  of  the  votes  of  the  people. 

In  t^^at  case  it  was  offered  to  be  proved,  in  substance,  that 
United  States  troops  in  large  numbers  were  sent  to  the  state  before 
the  election,  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  and  controlling  ihe  votes 
to  be  given  thereat,  by  interfering  with  and  overawing  the  people, 
and  that  the  militia  of  the  state  was  used  for  the  same  purjjose; 
that  the  polls  were  surrounded  by  armed  bands,  who  by  violence  and 
force  prevented  any  exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage  except  on  one 
side  ;  in  fact,  that  tlie  election  was  controlled  by  the  armed  forces 
of  the  state  and  nation,  and  a  resort  to  all  manner  of  brutality) 
violence,  and  cruelty,  and  was  not  free. 

The  majority  of  the  commission  refused  to  admit  the  evidence, 
on  grounds  that  would  fairly  warrant  a  president  of  the  United 
States  in  using  the  wliole  arroy  to  take  possession  of  all  the  ballot 
boxes  in  any  slate,  and  allow  no  voting  except  for  himself  if  he  was 
a  candidate  for  re-election,  or  for  his  party,  and  which  would  require 
both  Houses  of  Congress  to  recount  the  vole  so  obtained,  and  to 
give  him  the  fruits  of  such  a  wilful  and  wicked  violation  of  all  con- 
stitutional law  and  right. 

If  any  decision  better  calculated  to  destroy  the  liberty  of  a  free 
people,  to  destroy  all   faith   in   a   llepublican    form  of  government,  a 
government  of  the  ])eople   by   the  j)eople,  could  be  devised  and  con-  . 
trived,  the  undersigned  have  not  been  able  to  discover  it. 

They  denounce  the  decision  as  an  outrage  upon  the  rights  of  all 
the  people,  and,  if  sustained,  and  acted  on,  as  the  utter  ruin  of  our 
institutions  and  government. 

The  foregoing  is  a  brief  statement  of  the  action  of  the  commis- 
sion. To  defeat  that  action  the  undersigned  have  done  all  in  their 
power.  They  protested  against  it  before  it  was  accomplished,  and 
they  protest  against  it  now. 

They  know  the  commission  was  established  to  receive  evidence, 
not  to  shut  it  out. 


88  APPENDIX. 

They  know  the  conscience  of  this  great  people  was  troubled  by 
fear  that  any  one  should  obtain  the  high  office  of  president  by  fraud, 
cheating  and  conspiracy,  and  that  it  demanded  that  the  charges  and 
counter-charges  of  corrupt  practices  in  reference  to  the  election  in 
three  states  should  be  honestly  investigated  and  inquired  into,  not 
established  and  sanctified,  by  refusing  all  inquiry  and  examination. 

They  know  the  conscience  of  the  whole  people  approved  the 
law  establishing  the  commission,  nay,  hailed  it  with  joy,  because  it 
established,  as  all  believed,  a  fair  tribunal,  to  examine,  to  inquire 
into,  and  determine  the  charges  of  fraud  and  corruption  in  the  elec- 
tion of  three  states;  and  they  believe  that  this  conscience  has  been 
terribly  disappointed  and  shocked  by  the  action  of  the  commission, 
which  establishes  fraud  and  legalizes  its  perpetration,  instead  of 
inquiring  into  and  condemning  it. 

The  undersigned  believe  the  action  of  the  majority  of  the  com- 
mission to  be  wrong,  dangerous,  nay,  ruinous  in  its  consequences  and 
effects. 

It  tends  to  destroy  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  states  and  of 
the  United  States  and  the  people  thereof ;  because  by  it  states  may 
be  robbed  of  their  votes  for  president  with  impunity,  and  the  people 
of  the  United  States  have  foisted  upon  them  a  chief  magistrate, 
not  by  their  own  free  choice  honestly  expressed,  but  by  practices  too 
foul  to  be  tolerated  in  a  gambling  hell. 

By  the  action  of  the  commissson,  the  American  people  are  com- 
manded to  submit  to  one  as  their  chief  magistrate  who  was  never 
elected  by  their  votes,  whose  only  title  depends  on  fraud,  corruption, 
and  conspiracy. 

A  person  so  holding  that  great  office  is  an  usurper,  and  should 
be  and  will  be  so  held  by  the  people.  As  much  an  usurper  as  if  he 
had  signed  and  held  it  by  military  force  ;  in  either  case,  he  equally 
holds  against  the  consent  of  the  people. 

Let  the  people  rebuke  and  overrule  the  action  of  the  commis- 
sion. The  only  hope  of  the  country  rests  on  this  being  done,  and 
done  speedily  and  effectually,  so  that  it  may  never  become  a  prece- 
dent to  sustain  wrong  and  fraud  ia  the  future. 

It  is  the  first  and  highest  duty  of  all  good  citizens  who  love 
their  country  to  right  this  foul  wrong,  as  soon  as  it  may  be  done 
under  the  Constitution  and  laws. 

Let  it  be  done  so  thoroughly,  so  signally,  so  effectually,  that  no 
encouragement  shall  be  given  to  put  a  second  time  so  foul  a  blot  on 
our  national  escutcheon. 


APPENDIX.  89 

The  original  manuscript  of  the  foregoing  address 
was  destroyed ;  but  the  proof-sheets,  corrected  by  Judge 
Abbott,  have  been  preserved,  bound  together,  and  phaced 
on  private  deposit  in  the  PubUc  Library  of  the  City  of 
Boston,  where  they  are  marked  and  numbered  H  90a  11. 
These  proof-sheets  bear  the  following  endorsement  in 
Judge  Abbott's  own  hand  : 

"  This  address  was  drawn  up  by  me  at  the  request  of  some  of 
the  minority  members  of  the  electoral  commission,  to  whom  it  was 
submitted,  and  approved  by  them.  But  some  doubted  the  wisdom 
of  publishing  the  address  at  the  time,  and  so  it  was  not  signed. 

"J.  G.  Abbott." 

This  proposed  address  was  first  published  in  the 
twenty-seventh  volume  of  the  Magazine  of  American 
History,  February,  1892,  pp.  81-92,  as  an  important 
historical  state  paper,  eminently  worthy  of  consideration 
and  preservation. 

The  arguments  made  by  Judge  Abbott  in  the  con- 
sultations of  the  commission  on  the  cases  of  Florida, 
Louisiana,  Oregon  and  South  Carolina,  are  reported,  in 
substance,  on  pages  932-955,  of  the  volume  printed  by 
Congress,  entitled, ''  Count  of  Electoral  Votes  :  Proceed- 
ings of  Congress  and  Electoral  Commission,  1877." 
They  are  specimens  of  his  best  work  in  advocacy.  He 
never  put  forth  his  full  powers  except  when  he  had  a 
cause  to  establish,  or  an  opponent  to  demolish;  and 
when  he  had  several  opponents,  he  always  grappled  with 
the  strongest,  l^hus,  in  discussing  the  case  of  Florida, 
he  grappled  with  Senator  Edmunds,  Senator  Morton, 
and  (though  he  does  not  mention  him  by  name  or  office) 
with  Judge  Bradley,  whom  the  democrats  had  ex- 
pected   to    vote  with  them,    but  who    finally,    perhaps 


90  APPENDIX. 

through  the  influence  of  Judge  Miller,*  voted  with  the 
republicans. 

In  discussing  the  case  of  Louisiana,  in  the  commis- 
sion, Judge  Abbott  aimed  his  guns  directly  at  Miller, 
citing  against  him  his  own  decision  in  the  case  of  Schenck 
V.  Peay,t  turned  Miller's  own  batteries  against  him,  and 
closed  this  argumentum  ad  homimcm  by  saying :  •"  I 
commend  this  decision  of  Mr.  Justice  Miller  to  the  care- 
ful consideration  of  Mr.  Commissioner  Miller."  At  this 
point,  the  sensation  in  the  commission  was  intense.  The 
words  above  quoted  were  toned  down  by  Judge  Abbott 
in  the  published  report. 

In  discussing  the  case  of  Oregon,  he  again  "locked 
horns"  with  the  senators  from  Vermont  and  Indiana  — 
Edmunds  and  Morton ;  and  in  discussing  the  case  of 
South  Carolina,  he  had  another  shot  at  Judge  Bradley. 
It  is  not,  however,  proposed  to  consider  the  doings  of 
the  commission  here,|  but  only  to  call  attention  to  theni 
as  showing  how  well  Judge  Abbott  sustained  himself  in 
that  conflict  of  giants  in,  perhaps,  the  highest  tlieatre  in 
which  he  ever  exercised  his  marvellous  powers. 

Judge  Abbott  and  Samuel  J.  Tilden  had  been  per- 
sonal and  political  friends  for  many  years.  They  had 
been  in  the  Free  Soil  movement  together  in  1848.  One 
of  the  judge's  sons,  Franklin  Pierce  Abbott,  had  studied 
law  in  Mr.  Tilden's  office.  When  he  saw  that  there  was 
to  be  trouble  over  the  counting   of  the  electoral  votes, 

*Mr.  Seymour  D.  Thompson  writes:  "Bradley  had  drawn  np  an  opinion  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Florida  question,  but  Miller  argued  with  him  so  strongly  that  he  induced 
him  to  change  his  views."  —  20  American  Law  Review,  p.  43'J,  May-June,  1892. 

t  Woolworth's  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  Keports,  175. 

t  For  a  republican  view  of  the  electoral  commission,  see  Blaine's  Twenty  Years  in 
Congress;  for  a  democratic  view,  see  Cox's  Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation;  for  a 
foreign  view,  see  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth.  Other  views  might  be  cited,  but  no 
stuaent  of  our  political  history,  and  no  lawyer,  should  fail  to  read  the  volume  above 
quoted,  published  by  Congress. 


APPENDIX.  92 

Judge  Abbott  called  on  Mr.  Tilden  at  his  house  in  Gra- 
mercy  Park,  and  had  a  long  interview  with  him.  Find- 
ing Mr.  Tilden  undecided,  he  urged  him  to  consider  the 
situation  well,  and  to  announce  some  course  which  his 
supporters  might  follow.  The  situation  called  for  reso- 
lute action.  But  Mr.  Tilden  did  not  —  perhaps  he  could 
not  —  determine  upon  any  policy.  In  this  supreme 
crisis  of  his  life  he  seemed  paralyzed  and  incajDable  to 
act.  As  Rufus  Choate  said  on  a  different  occasion, 
"  He  saw   the   situation ;    he   hesitated  —  and  was  lost, 

lost,  LOST  ! " 


JUDGE    ABBOTT  S    LETTER    DECLINING   THE    NOMINATION 
FOR   ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 

The  following  is  the  original  draft  of  Judge  Abbott's 
letter  to  the  president  and  secretary  of  the  Republican 
State  Convention  of  1861,  declining  the  nomination  for 
attorney-general,  referred  to  on  pages  23  and  24.  The 
sentence  enclosed  in  square  brackets  is  omitted  in  the 
letter  as  published  by  Mr.  Stockwell  in  the  Boston  Jour- 
Uiii  at  the  time : 

Boston,  14th  of  October,  1861. 

Hon.  II.  L.  Dawes,  President, 

Stephen  N.  Stockwell,  Esq.,  Secretary. 

Gentlemen :  —  Your  favor  of  the  third  instant,  directed  to  me 
at  Lowell,  reached  rae  some  days  since.  In  it  you  inform  me  of  my 
nomination  for  the  office  of  attorney-general  by  delegates  from  all 
parts  of  the  Commonwealth  assembled  in  convention  at  Worcester. 
I  desire  to  express  through  their  officers  my  sincere  acknowledgment 
to  the  gentlemen  of  that  convention  for  this  kind  and  entirely  unex- 
pected exjiression  of  their  consideration.  I  have  carefullv  and 
anxiously  considered  and  weighed  the  matter.  The  offer  of  so  im- 
portant and  honorable  an  office  from  those  differing  from  me  on 
political  subjects,  is  necessarily  gratifying,   and  from  that  fact  the 


92  APPENDIX, 

more  embarrassing,  but  for  reasons  upon  the  whole  satisfactory  to 
my  own  mind,  not  necessary  to  be  given,  I  do  not  feel  compelled  by 
an  imperative  sense  of  dut}"  to  accept  the  nomination,  and  therefore 
must  respectfully  decline  it. 

Permit  me  to  add  that  I  take  this  course  from  no  want  of  feeling 
for,  or  interest  in,  the  great  good  cause  —  that  of  the  Government, 
the  Constitution,  and  the  Laws.  In  this  war  now  being  waged  against 
the  nation,  I  know  of  but  one  great  absorbing  question  of  political 
duty  and  that  is,  how  shall  the  government  and  the  laws  be  sustained, 
established  and  maintained  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land.  All  other  considerations  in  reference  to  our  political  action 
fade  into  insignificance  in  its  presence.  To  solve  it  successfully  I  am 
wiUing  to  do  and  to  suffer  to  the  end.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  my 
devotion,  to  the  extent  of  my  means  and  abilities,  to  the  Constitution 
and  its  establishment  in  all  its  integrity. 

[We  have  now  but  one  all  controlling  political  duty,  and  that  is 
to  bring  all  that  there  is  of  power  and  strength  in  the  loyal  states  and 
people  to  crush  rebellion  and  punish  traitors  until  that  Constitution 
and  those  laws,  which  South  as  well  as  North  helped  to  make,  and 
solemnly  agreed  to,  and  under  whose  protection  both  have  lived  and 
])rospered,  shall  be  respected  and  obeyed  from  the  extremest  limits 
of  Maine  to  those  of  Texas.]  This  contest  now  going  on  seeks  to 
impose  no  l>urden  on  the  South  not  equally  borne  by  the  North. 
We  are  obliged  to  submit  to  and  obey  the  laws  —  they  of  the  South 
must  be  compelled  to  like  submission  and  obedience.  Until  that  time 
comes  he  is  aiding  the  public  enemy  who  suggests  compromise  with 
armed  rebels.  The  Constitution,  pure  and  simple,  should  be  the 
Avatchword  of  all  true  and  loyal  men  until  armed  resistance  to  law- 
ful authority  is  once  for  all  effectually  ended. 

In  common  with  all  others  who  love  their  country,  I  pray  with 
all  my  heart  and  soul  for  that  good  time  when  the  mighty  power  and 
strength  of  twenty  millions  of  freemen,  rich  in  all  the  arts  of  civiU- 
zation,  intelligent  and  brave,  may  be  so  put  forth  and  directed  to 
sustain  the  best  government  ever  devised  by  the  vat  of  man  as  for- 
ever to  crush  out  this  wicked  rebellion  against  law  and  right.  Let  the 
government  strike  quickly,  heavily,  and  overwhelmingly,  and  it  will 
command  all  of  the  lives  and  the  means  of  good  and  true  men. 

I  remain,  gentlemen,  with  much  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  G.  Abbott. 


J 


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