CHAPTER II.
BENCH AND BAR.

Page 3

HON. J. EVERETT SARGENT, LL.D.--Judge Sargent, now of Concord, has been well known throughout the State for more than a quarter of a century. Besides an extensive legislative acquaintance, he has, as judge of the different courts and as chief justice of the State, held terms of court in every shire-town and half-shire town in every county in the State. He has been emphatically the architect of his own fortune, and by his energy and perseverance has reached the highest post of honor in his profession in his native State. He is genial and social with his friends; he loves a joke, and belongs to that small class of men �who never grow old.� He loves his home, his family and his books. No man enjoys the study of history and of poetry, of philosophy and of fiction, better than he, while law and theology come in for a share of attention. He is a kind neighbor, a respected citizen, a ripe scholar, a wise legislator, an upright judge and an honest man.

In the year 1781, Peter Sargent, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, moved from Hopkinton, N. H., to New London, at that time equally well known as Heidelberg. This locality had been known by this latter name for a quarter of a century or more. It was granted by the Masonian proprietors, July 7, 1773, to Jonas Minot, and others as the �Addition of Alexandria.� It was first settled in 1775, and was incorporated as a town by the Legislature, June 25, 1779. Peter Sargent, who thus moved into the town two years after its incorporation, was one of ten brothers, all born in Amesbury, Mass, who settled as follows: Amasa, Ezekiel, Thomas and Moses always lived at Amesbury; James settled in Methuen, Mass.; Peter, Nathan and Stephen came to Hopkinton, N. H., and settled there, and Abner and Ebenezer came to Warner, N. H., and settled there. These ten brothers, with four sisters, were the children of Deacon Stephen Sargent, of Amesbury, Mass.

(Christopher Sargent, an older brother of Deacon Stephen, graduated at Harvard, entered the ministry and was the first settled minister of Methuen, Mass. His eldest son, Nathaniel Peaslee Sargent, graduated at Harvard, practiced law at Haverhill and was for many years a judge of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, and was chief justice of the State in 1790 and 1791, when he died, aged sixty.)

Stephen Sargent was the son of Thomas (second), who was the son of Thomas (first), who was the son of William Sargent. Stephen married Judith Ordway, of West Newbury, Mass., September 26, 1730, was chosen deacon of the Second Congregational Church in Amesbury, May 10, 1757, and died October 2, 1773, aged sixty-three.

William Sargent was born in England about 1602, and was the son of Richard Sargent, an officer in the royal navy. William came to this country when a young man, married Judith Perkins for his first wife, who died about 1633, when he, with several daughters, was one of the twelve men who commenced the settlement at Ipswich that year. He soon after went to Newbury, and helped form a settlement there. Soon after, about 1638, he, with several others, commenced a settlement at Hampton, and about 1640 he removed to Salisbury, and was one of the eighteen original proprietors, or commoners, who settled in New Salisbury, since known as Amesbury. His second wife�s name was Elizabeth, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and William. He had several lots of land assigned him at different times, and was one of the selectmen of the town in 1667. He died in 1675, aged seventy-three.

Thomas Sargent, son of William, was born April 11, 1643, at Amesbury; married Rachel Barnes, January 2,1667-68, and had children, among whom was Thomas, Jr., born at Amesbury, November 15, 1676, who married Mary Stevens, December 17, 1702, and was the father of Stephen, whose family has been mentioned, and who was born at Amesbury, September 14, 1710.

Peter Sargent, son of Stephen, married Ruth Nichols, of Amesbury, and moved to Hopkinton, N. H., about 1763, where they lived some eighteen years and raised a large family, and, when he went to New London, took them all with him. His children were Anthony, Abigail, Ruth, Judith, Peter, Ebenezer, Amasa, John, Molly, Ezekiel, Stephen, William and Lois. These all came from Hopkinton to New London in 1781, except Lois, who was born subsequently in New London.

Ebenezer (the son of Peter), the father of the judge, was born in Hopkinton in 1768, and was, of course, thirteen years old when he came to New London with his father�s family. After becoming of age he procured him a farm, and, on the 25th of November, 1792, he married Prudence Chase, of Wendell (now Sunapee); the daughter of John and Ruth (Hills) Chase. They had ten children, as follows: Anna, Rebekah, Ruth, Seth Freeman, Aaron Lealand, Sylvanus Thayer, Lois, Laura, Jonathan Kittredge and Jonathan Everett. Jonathan Kittredge died young; the other nine lived to mature age, and five of them--three sons and two daughters--still survive. The parents had only a very limited education, having been taught to read and to write a little, the schools of those early times only furnishing instruction in these two branches. They always lived upon a farm, securing what was then considered as a competence, and both died in New London, having lived together more than sixty-five years.

The following, then, is the order of descent:

1. Richard Sargent, of England.
2. William, son of Richard, born in England, 1602.
3. Thomas, son of William, born in Amesbury, April, 1643.
4. Thomas, Jr., son of Thomas, born in Amesbury, November, 1676.
5. Stephen, son of Thomas, Jr., born in Amesbury, September, 1710.
6. Peter, son of Stephen, born at Amesbury, November 2,1736.
7. Ebenezer, son of Peter, born at Hopkinton, N. H., April 3, 1768.
8. Jonathan Everett Sargent was born at New London, N. H., October 23, 1816. He lived at home working upon the farm until he was seventeen years of age, and, being the youngest child, his father had arranged for him to live at home and take care of his parents, and have the farm at their decease.

While living at home his advantages for schooling were very limited, being confined to eight weeks winter school each year, the farm affording too much work to allow of his attending the summer school after he was nine or ten years of age. He attended one term at Hopkinton Academy and one term at a private school at home before he was seventeen. For years he had been thirsting for knowledge, and had resolved that, if any way could be provided for taking care of his parents in their old age, he would obtain an education. When about sixteen his youngest sister was married, and she, with her husband, made an arrangement with her parents under which they moved upon the homestead farm and assumed the care of her parents for life. So, at seventeen, Everett, as he was always called, arranged with his father that he was to have the remaining four years of his time till twenty-one, instead of the sum which his older brothers had received upon arriving of age. He was to clothe himself and pay his own bills, and call for nothing more from his father.

This arrangement was made in the summer of 1833, and that fall he worked in the saddler�s shop near his father�s and taught school the next winter; and in the spring of 1834 he went to Hopkinton Academy, then under the charge of Mr. Enoch L. Childs, where he remained through the season. He taught school the next winter, and then went, in the spring of 1835 to Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, where he remained, under the instruction of Mr. Cyrus S. Richards, until commencement in 1836, when he entered Dartmouth College. After he had thus, without assistance, fitted himself for and entered college, his father, very unexpectedly to him, gave him fifty dollars to pay his expenses the first term, and offered to loan him a few hundred dollars, if he should need, in his college course, but that it must be considered as an honorary debt, to be repaid, with interest, after graduation.

But, by teaching school every winter and two fall terms in Canaan Academy during his course, he earned enough to pay all his expenses in college with the exception of two hundred dollars, which he borrowed of his father, and gave him his note for the same, with interest, which he adjusted within a few years after graduation. Though out of college two terms, besides winters in teaching and another term on account of sickness, yet he was always ready at each examination to be examined with his class in all the studies they had been over, and always took a high stand at these examinations. He was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated in 1840 among the first, in his class.

He had long before this made up his mind to turn his attention to the law as a profession, and he accordingly began the study of the law at once with Hon. Wm. P. Weeks, of Canaan, and remained with him till the spring of 1841, when he was advised by his physician to go South for his health. He went first to Washington, soon after to Alexandria, D. C., where he taught a High School, then to Maryland, where he remained a year in a family school, when, having regained his health, he returned to New Hampshire in September, 1842. He had, upon his arrival in Washington, entered his name as a law student in the office of Hon. David A. Hall, of that city, and continued the study of the law under his direction while engaged in teaching, and he was admitted to the bar of the Courts of the District of Columbia in April, 1842, only about twenty months after leaving college. By the rule of that court, any one might be admitted upon examination without regard to the length of time he had studied. So he was examined in open court by Chief Justice Cranch and his associates upon the bench, and was admitted.

After returning home he continued his legal studies with Mr. Weeks until the July law term, in Sullivan County, in 1843, when he was admitted to the bar in the Superior Court of Judicature in this State. He then went into company with Mr. Weeks at Canaan, where he remained till 1847, when he removed to Wentworth, and opened an office there. He had been appointed solicitor for Grafton County in November, 1844, while at Canaan, and he at once commenced a lucrative business at Wentworth; was reappointed solicitor, in 1849, for five years more, thus holding the office for ten years, to 1854, performing the duties to the entire acceptance of the county and the people. He declined a reappointment.

In 1851 he was first elected a member of the Legislature from Wentworth, and served as chairman of the committee on incorporations. The next year he was re-elected, and was made chairman of the judiciary committee, and in 1853 he was again a member, and was nominated with great unanimity, and elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He served with ability and impartiality, and to the general acceptance of all parties.

The next winter a new man was to be selected as a candidate for Senator in his district, and at the convention he was nominated with great unanimity, and was elected in March, in a close district, by about three hundred majority. When the Senate met, in June, there was some discussion as to a candidate for president, but at the caucus he was nominated upon the first ballot, and was duly elected as president of the Senate in 1804. He was renominated in the spring of 1855, but the Know-Nothing movement that year carried everything before it, and he was defeated, with nearly all the other Democratic nominees in the State.

On the 2d day of April, 1855, he was appointed a circuit justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the State. But in June of that year there was an unwonted overturn, and the old courts were abolished, mainly upon political grounds, and new ones organized, and new judges appointed. Judge Sargent was making his arrangements to go into practice again at the bar, when he received a request from Governor Metcalf that he would accept the second place on the bench of the new Court of Common Pleas. This offer had not been expected, but, upon consultation with friends, it was accepted, and Judge Sargent was appointed an associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

He acted as judge of the new Court of Common Pleas for four years, until 1859, when, by a statute of that year, that court was abolished, and the Supreme Judicial Court was to do the work of that court in addition to its own, and one new judge was to be added to that court, making the number of Supreme Court judges six instead of five, as before. Judge Sargent was at once appointed to that place on the Supreme bench. He was then the youngest member of the court in age, as well as in the date of his commission. He remained upon the bench of that court just fifteen years, from 1859 to 1874. In March, 1873, upon the death of Chief Justice Bellows, Judge Sargent was appointed chief justice of the State, which place he held until August, 1874, when the court was again overturned to make room for the appointees of the prevailing political party. Chief Justice Sargent, at the time of his appointment as chief justice, had become the oldest judge upon the bench, both in age and date of commission, so frequent had been the changes in its members since his appointment to that bench, less than fourteen years before. He was distinguished for his laborious industry, his impartiality and his ability. His written opinions are contained in the sixteen volumes of the New Hampshire Reports, from the thirty-ninth to the fifty-fourth, inclusive, numbering about three hundred in all. Many of these are leading opinions upon various subjects, and show great learning and research.

After the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the attempt to make Kansas a slave State, Judge Sargent acted with the Republican party.

Upon leaving the bench, in August, 1874, he was solicited to go into the practice of the law in Concord with Wm. M. Chase, Esq., whose late partner, the Hon. Anson S. Marshall, had recently been suddenly removed by death. He left a very extensive and lucrative practice, more than any one man could well attend to alone, and into this practice, by an arrangement with Mr. Chase, Judge Sargent stepped at once, and the business firm thus formed continued for five years.

In 1876 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of this State. In this convention he acted a prominent part. He received a large complimentary vote for president of the convention, but that choice falling upon another, Judge Sargent was made chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the same place held by Judge Levi Woodbury in the convention of 1850. He took an active part in the debates and discussions of that body, and wielded an influence probably second to no one in the convention.

He was also elected by his ward a member of the House of Representatives for the years 1877 and 1878. It was evident from the first, so numerous and important had been the changes in the constitution, that there must be a revision of the general statutes of the State. Early in 1877 steps were taken for this revision, and Judge Sargent was appointed chairman of a committee, with Hon. L. W. Barton, of Newport, and Judge J. S. Wiggin, of Exeter, to revise and codify the statutes of the State.

This committee at once commenced their work, and with so much dispatch was it prosecuted that they made their report to the Legislature of 1878, which report was, with various amendments, adopted by that Legislature. There was also much new legislation enacted that year, which the committee were instructed to incorporate with their own work, and this was all to go into effect the 1st day of January, 1879.

The committee revised their work, making the required additions, superintended the printing of the whole, and had their volume ready for distribution before the day appointed. It is the largest volume of statutes ever printed in the State, and it is believed not to be inferior to any other in any important particular.

In the fall of 1878 Judge Sargent was invited by a committee of the citizens of New London to prepare a centennial address, to be delivered on the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town. He at once accepted the invitation, and set about the work, and on the 25th day of June, 1879, he delivered his address to a large assembly of the present and former citizens of the town and others, the occasion being distinguished by a larger collection of people, probably, than ever met in the town upon any former occasion. Being a native of New London, he took a peculiar interest in looking up its early history and in tracing the lives of its prominent men. The address was published in the Granite Monthly in the numbers for July, August and September, 1879, and has been favorably noticed as a work of great labor and research.

About the 1st of September, 1879, at the end of five years from the commencement of his partnership in business, the question arose whether he should continue for five years more or retire. Having spent nearly forty years of his life in toil, he concluded to take some portion of the remaining time for enjoyment, while he had health and strength and capacity to enjoy. He retired from the practice of the law, finding that it was vain to hope for rest and recreation while engaged in that profession. The judge has one of the finest residences in the city, and is enjoying life with his friends and his books. He has also traveled extensively in his own country, and been a close observer of men and things.

In 1864 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for the State of New Hampshire, and was re-elected the next year. After this he declined a re-election.

Dartmouth College conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, in course, three years after graduation; also, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, at its centennial commencement, in 1869.

He has for many years been an active member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and for the last ten or twelve years has been one of its vice-presidents.

For many years past he has been connected with the National State Capital Bank as one of its directors. The Loan and Trust Savings-Rank, at Concord, commenced business August 1, 1872, and in the thirteen years since then its deposits have increased to over one million seven hundred thousand dollars. Judge Sargent has been president of this bank and one of its investment committee since its commencement, and has given his personal attention to its affairs.

In 1876 the New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged was organized and incorporated, and, January 1, 1879, a home was opened in Concord at which some ten to twenty aged ladies have since been supported. The funds of this institution are gradually increasing, and its work is being well done. For the last eight years Judge Sargent has been president of this institution, and has taken a deep interest in its prosperity and success.

In compliance with a request from a committee of the trustees, he prepared and delivered, at the commencement at Dartmouth College, in 1880, a memorial address upon the late Hon. Joel Parker, formerly chief justice of this State, and afterwards professor of law in Harvard College. This duty Judge Sargent performed in a manner creditable to himself and satisfactory to the friends of the late Judge Parker. His address was printed, with other similar addresses in memory of other deceased judges, graduates of Dartmouth, by other distinguished sons of the college.

He married, first, Maria C. Jones, of Enfield, daughter of John Jones, Esq., November 29, 1843, by whom he had two children. John Jones Sargent, the elder, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1866, and died in Oshkosh, Wis., October 3, 1870, just as he was ready to commence the practice of the law. The second, Everett Foster, died young. For his second wife, he married Louisa Jennie Paige, daughter of Deacon James K. Paige, of Wentworth, September 5, 1853, by whom he has had three children,--Marie Louise, Annie Lawrie and George Lincoln. The second died young; the eldest and youngest survive.

Since he commenced the practice of the law, in 1843, his residence has been as follows: In Canaan four years, to 1847; in Wentworth twenty-two years, to 1869; and in Concord sixteen years since.

As a lawyer, Judge Sargent was always faithful and true to his clients, a safe counselor and an able advocate. As a legislator, he has been conservative and safe. As a judge, he always studied to get at the right of the case, to hold the scales of justice evenly, to rule the law plainly, so that the party against whom he ruled might have the full benefit of his exception to the ruling, and to get the questions of fact and the evidence, as it bore upon them, clearly and distinctly before the jury. Any one who attended the courts where he presided as judge could see at once that he was patient and painstaking, industrious and persevering, vigilant and discriminating, impartial and fearless; and any one who reads his written opinions will see that they exhibit great research, learning and ability.

MASON WEARE TAPPAN^[1] was born October 20, 1817, in the village of Newport, Sullivan County. His father, the late Weare Tappan, being a strong admirer of Jeremiah Mason, who, at that time, was in full practice at the bar, named his son after him, and gave him also his own name and the name of his mother, who was one of the descendants of the celebrated old Weare family.

Weare Tappan was a man of note and ability, prominent as a lawyer, and a main pillar in the community in which he lived. He was born in the town of East Kingston, Rockingham County, and early settled in the town of Newport. He read law with the late Judge Ellis, of Claremont, who was one of the ablest and most accomplished lawyers in the State. Mr. Tappan was one of the marked men of his time. Taking an early position on the subject of slavery, he was an old pioneer in the cause. His house was the rendezvous of the anti-slavery lecturer and the home of the fugitive slave. A patriarch of the olden time, strong in his convictions when answering to his conscience, he had determined that he was right; he died in 1866, but not till he had seen the fulfillment of his hope and prayer, that the curse of slavery might be blotted out and the authority of the government restored.

The mother of Mason W. Tappan died only a few months after the decease of his father. The Concord Monitor, in noticing her death at the time, paid her the following tribute: �The deceased was a fine specimen of the old school of ladies, who maintained a lively interest in the present, which, added to her great intelligence, rare conversational powers, keen insight of persons, a strong moral nature and a catholic spirit bounded by no creed or color, made her presence a benediction and her life a pleasant recollection.�

At an early age Mason removed with the family to Bradford, Merrimack County, and here he spent his boyhood days, and here has he always resided. In his youth he displayed many of those strong traits of character which became prominent in afterlife. He early formed a resolution to abstain from the use of intoxicating drinks, and that resolution has never been broken. In addition to the regular course of instruction which he received from his parents, he attended old Father Ballard�s school, in Hopkinton, and the Hopkinton Academy, which was a noted school in those days. He also became a student at the Meriden Academy.

Having chosen the profession of the law, he pursued the study of the same with his father and with the Hon. George W. Nesmith, of Franklin, who for a long time was one of the judges of the Supreme Judicial Court. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and soon acquired an extensive practice in Merrimack and Sullivan Counties. In the eminent array of legal ability that adorned the bar in those days, by his power as an advocate, he shortly obtained a prominent place.

Down to the year 1853 he had given his undivided attention to the law. His practice and his reputation as a lawyer were constantly on the increase. He had belonged to the Whig, Free-Soil and American parties. Although his first step aside from his profession was only to represent his town (which was largely Democratic) in the Legislature, to which he was successively elected in 1853, 1854 and 1855, by his personal popularity among his townsmen, it was apparent, from the position that he occupied and the character of the times, that he would drift into broader fields. To turn from his profession and enter the arena of party strife, although a matter largely controlled by force of circumstances, was a step not to be taken without due deliberation. In Sullivan County, with always a formidable army of counsel against him, he had achieved some of his greatest triumphs, and had never failed to secure a verdict before a jury. It was with some misgivings that he turned from the certain pursuits of his professional career to tread the uncertain paths in the field of American politics.

In the legislative session of 1854, Mr. Tappan was a candidate for Speaker of the House, and, notwithstanding there was a Democratic majority of about twenty, he came within two votes of an election. In the same year, forgetting past contentions, and moved by the prominent stand he had taken in the Legislature, the Whigs, Free-Soilers, Independent Democrats and Americans came to his support and nominated him a member of Congress from the old Second District, and he was elected. He was twice re-elected, breaking for the first time the long-established rule of giving a member of Congress only two terms, and served in the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses with distinguished ability, and established for himself, in those eventful times when �madness ruled the hour,� a reputation as an able and fearless champion of the cause of the Union and the great principles of the Republican party. In July, 1856, Mr. Tappan made a speech upon the subject of the extension of slavery into Kansas, the House being in a committee of the whole on the state of the Union. "It was a rich treat,� to use the language of the New York Tribune at the time, �and made some of the Southern chivalry �rise to a point of order,� and ask questions and squirm, and look very uncomfortable. It was a speech produced by deep research and much labor.� In conclusion, Mr. Tappan said: �Mr. Chairman, let me say that we seek no quarrel with our brethren of the South. This is an issue they have forced upon us, and, with God�s blessing, we will meet it as becomes worthy descendants of patriotic sires! You sometimes tell us that you want to be let alone. That is precisely what we intend to do; we will interfere with none of your rights; whatever is �nominated in the bond� that we will yield. In turn, is it too much for us to make the same request of you--that you will let us alone? If slavery be a blessing, to you shall inure all its benefits. If it be a curse, do not ask to place it on our soil to involve us in its guilt. We desire to cultivate the relations of peace and fraternal kindness with the people of the South.�

The storm of secession was rising, and all political elements were warming to the contest that was fast coming on. No State in the Union had more reason to be proud of any of its delqation In Congress than had New Hampshire of Mr. Tappan. As was said by one of the leading newspapers in the State at the time he was �active, enthusiastic and always conciliatory where conciliation is needed. With a heart, forced by its very nature to hate falsehood, oppression and wrong, he is the man whom a free people should delight to honor, and in honoring whom they must honor themselves.�

Mr. Tappan, in March, 1858, delivered an able speech in the House upon slavery agitation, nullification and the Lecompton Constitution, in which he said that he wished �to put on record the protest of New Hampshire of what he conceived to be the most stupendous political fraud that was ever before attempted to be perpetrated upon any people.� In the winter of 1860 61, in the Thirty sixth Congress, the celebrated select committee of thirty-three--one from each State was constituted, to which was referred so much of the President�s annual message as related to the then disturbed state of the country. Mr. Tappan was placed upon this committee, and joined with Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin, in a minority report. A report on the part of the majority had been agreed to and submitted, recommending amendments to the Constitution, by which the South would acquire all, if not more, than it had demanded for its institution of slavery. This minority report was a strong document, and recommended the adoption of the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the provisions of the Constitution are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of the material interests of the country; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended; and our extrication from present difficulties is to be looked for in efforts to preserve and protect the public property and enforce the laws, rather than in new guarantees for particular interests, or compromises, or concessions to unreasonable demands."

On the 5th of February, 1861, the minority report was submitted, and Mr. Tappan immediately arose in his seat and addressed himself to the issues involved. He began by saying that he was opposed to the raising of this committee at the outset, not because he did not fully understand the perilous condition of the country, but because he believed that the appointment of such a committee would lead to some sort of a compromise, when any compromise, under the circumstances, would be humiliating to the North, and he did not believe that any measures that might be passed would be productive of good, and would only add fuel to the flame. He was not unwilling, at the proper time, to make reasonable concessions to any portion of his countrymen that had grievances to be redressed. But he contended that that portion of the American people who had just succeeded in electing their President, in the modes and forms recognized by the Constitution, had done nothing that required apology,--he did not, for one, go into that election to have the principles for which he contended abandoned at the first howl of those that were disappointed at the result. Other parties went into the election, and all must abide the result. But no sooner was the election of Mr. Lincoln declared than the fires of revolution broke out. With most indecent haste, the disunionists of the country, who, by their own confessions, had been plotting its overthrow for thirty years, seized the public property, insulted the American flag and, with jeers at the government which had protected them so long, declared themselves out of the Union. Under these circumstances, he was for postponing all other questions until it was ascertained whether we had a government or not. He declared that if this government was a mere cobweb, with no power for its own preservation, it would be utterly useless to attempt to patch it up with compromises. He was for narrowing the issue to the question of Union or no Union, government or no government, and maintained that, if this position had been boldly taken from the start, they would have stood stronger. Every time the people of the free States have wavered, every time her representatives have evinced a disposition to fall back one step from their position, the Secessionists, with fiercer yells, have advanced two. At the first dawn of treason in its borders, the great Nation retires before it, and is crumbling to pieces without an effort to maintain its integrity or a finger raised to protect its flag! The enforcement of the revenue laws, the defense of the capital and the protection of the public property does not necessarily involve war. He proceeded at length on this line, and in course of his masterly effort uttered the following sentiments:

�Sir, I will indulge in no threats of what would be the result in such an event (in the event of war). I will make no boasts of the prowess of any particular section of the country. I desire to say no word that can exasperate or inflame, but simply to plant myself on the side of my country and the integrity of its government, whose Constitution I have sworn to support. Sir, the Union is dear to the people of the Northern States; they would sacrifice much to preserve it as it is; but a Union founded on the protection of slavery as its �chief corner-stone� is not the Union for which our fathers fought, and is not the precious boon which they supposed they had transmitted to their posterity.�

The speech was widely circulated, and many of the congratulations that were called forth by it mere contained in private letters from leading citizens, not only in New England, but throughout the free States. By this heroic maintenance of the �Union as it is and the Constitution as our fathers made it,� there were accorded to him an ability and statesmanship which those troublesome times so much demanded in the halls of Congress.

Mr. Tappan�s course throughout, as a member of Congress, was characterized by a conscientious regard for the right and the true spirit of independence. Over him there was no unworthy control and with him there was no unworthy alliance. The part he bore as a member of the committee of thirty-three receives high commendation in the first volume of Mr. Blaine�s book, �Twenty Years of Congress.� His action in the celebrated Judge Watrous case and on the admission of Oregon as a State was not without criticism. But that criticism was fully disarmed and his course vindicated. On the 5th of March, 1859, at a great Republican meeting in the city of Concord, the people of every shade of political option gathered to hear him and listen to an explanation of his position in the Oregon affair. In a candid and able manner he reviewed his action thereon, and concluded by saying �that he would not have taken a different position if every man, woman and child in the State, on bended knees, had implored him to do it; but would have resigned and come home and delivered to his constituents the trust which had been confided to him.� A press report says �That the speaker was interrupted here by loud and continued applause such as was never before heard in the city, while three tremendous cheers were given, which showed emphatically that the hearts of the people were with him.�

During his Congressional life, which closed with the Thirty-sixth Congress (not being a candidate for re-election), he had served on the judiciary committee and was chairman of the committee of claims, and at the time of his appointment as such chairman, the following appeared in the New York Tribune �The Hon. Mason W. Tappan was conspicuous in the Thirty-fifth Congress as a member of the committee of the judiciary, and during the protracted examination of the charges preferred against Judge Watrous, Mr. Tappan was untiring in the discharge of his delicate duties. His selection now, as the head of the committee on claims, was a compliment due, as well to his past services in Congress, as to his distinguished ability as a lawyer and integrity as a man.�

He was also a member of the vigilance committee, the chief duties of which were to watch the �Black Horse Cavalry.�

We had reached the period of civil war. Armies were gathering, and the principles he had enunciated in the national House of Representatives he was ready to defend in the field. Abraham Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers for three months, and Colonel Tappan was one of the first men to enlist in the State. The command of the First Regiment naturally went to him, and he was accordingly appointed and commissioned by Governor Berry. The regiment was mustered into the service of the United States from the 1st to the 4th of May, 1861, and on the morning of the 25th left for the seat of war. The regiment received one continued ovation as it moved to the front. In New York City it was presented with a silk flag, by Judge Bowney, and its passage through the streets of the great metropolis on the day of the funeral of Colonel Ellsworth created a scene never to be forgotten. It was the first regiment that had entered the field fully equipped, with field and staff officers mounted, and with seventy-five horses and twenty-one baggage-waggons. It wheeled into line, behind the funeral cortege and marched down Broadway. Baltimore was reached in the afternoon of May 27th. The men disembarked from the cars, and, with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, marched to the tune of �Yankee Doodle � unmolested through the city that had shed Union blood. On reaching Washington, the regiment marched up Pennsylvania Avenue and on to Kalorama, where it went into camp. As soon as the column had passed the White House, President Lincoln sent for Colonel Tappan, and, complimenting him highly on the appearance of his men, said, taking him by the hand, �Colonel Tappan, your regiment looks more like war than anything I have seen.� On the 10th of June the regiment was joined to a brigade commanded by Colonel Charles P. Stone, and marched to Rockville, Md. At this time the Confederate army was skirting the right bank of the Potomac, and at no time during the war was the national capital in greater peril.

On the 14th of June the regiment moved towards Poolesville, the object of this movement being to guard the river against the enemy, who were in large force at Leesburg, Va. On the 17th the enemy opened fire on a portion of the regiment with rifles and six-pound cannon, and while Colonel Tappan was moving with the remaining portion of the regiment to the scene of action, he was ordered back to guard against an anticipated attack from another direction. He was placed in command at Poolesville, and established a line of pickets for a distance of fourteen miles, from his camp, at Poolesville, down to Concord Ferry, thence up the Potomac to the mouth of the Monocacy. On the 6th of July a detachment, under command of Colonel Tappan, moved to Sandy Hook, the reserve to be sent there by rail on the 7th, and that night moved up the river on the Maryland side twelve miles, arriving at Sharpsburg at two o�clock in the morning, and at Williamsport, twelve miles farther, in the afternoon, where they forded the river and stood on the �sacred soil� of Virginia. Here they joined the brigade, which moved forward to Martinsburg, where they joined the command of General Patterson, who had his running fight with Johnston, called the battle of Falling Waters. July 14th the regiment, with the rest of the division, moved on towards Winchester. The enemy fled at their approach. They reached Bunker Hill in the afternoon of the same day. The troops were anxious for battle, but instead of marching on Winchester, a retreat was ordered to Charlestown. On the day of the battle of Bull Run, the 21st, the division marched to Harper�s Ferry and went into camp on Bolivar Heights. July 21st found the regiment again in camp at Sandy Hook, and August 2d, their term of enlistment having expired, they embarked on board the cars for New Hampshire, being mustered out of the service at Concord, the 12th of August, 1861.

The men of Colonel Tappan�s regiment were a portion of the time wrechedly clad, and endured many hardships. Owing to the reputation the regiment had acquired since entering the field, it was placed as the leading regiment on the right of the army in its extended operations in Maryland and Virginia. Of Colonel Tappan, �New Hampshire in the Rebellion� says �As a commander he was patriotic, brave and thoughtful of and kind to his officers and men, and respected by all.�

Colonel Tappan was appointed colonel of the Fourth Regiment upon the resignation of Colonel Whipple, but declined the appointment, feeling that it would be doing injustice to the brave ranking officers of that regiment. He was, subsequently, unanimously elected colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment by its soldiers; but Colonel Tappan, as well as the Governor of the State, thought it, advisable that the commission should go to another.

For the last twenty-five years Colonel Tappan has been engaged in the constant practice of the law. He has always maintained a large practice in his county, and in many noted trials in other parts of the State he has been engaged. In the celebrated Paul R. George will case he was associated with the late Caleb Cushing at his particular request.

By a close application to the study of the law through a period of five years, Colonel Tappan was admitted to the bar, after a thorough examination, such a lawyer as the late Judge Perley, with no common knowledge in all its branches, and perhaps fitted, had he so inclined, to become what is popularly known as a technical lawyer. But rather than a strict adherence to the mere technicalities of the law, but taking a broader and more comprehensive view of what the law is and what the practice of it ought to be, it is more in accordance with his nature to rely on the merits of each individual case and the great law of reason and common sense as applicable to them.

In 1876, Colonel Tappan was appointed Attorney-General of the State by Governor Cheney, which position he now holds. The administration of his office, and the manner he has conducted the large number of State and capital cases that have fallen to him, has been characterized by ability and a faithful discharge of its varied and important duties.

As an advocate, he goes to his work with great assurance, moulds his thought into shape with stalwart strength, is clear and convincing, and the conviction that he is sincere in the cause he presents is impressed upon those that hear him.

During the time that he has been thus actively engaged in his profession he has, in many heated political campaigns, for which the State is so much noted, taken the stump in behalf of the cause of the Republican party, and what he deemed to be for the welfare of the whole country. In the great contest of 1868 in Warner, the home of his friend and the nominee of the Republican party, General Walter Harriman, he made a speech of four hours� duration, in reply to Richard Vaux, of Pennsylvania, who had spoken there the day before, and had taken the ground that in the reconstruction of the Southern States the administration had acted outside of the Constitution Colonel Tappan, taking as his test the clause in the Constitution that the �United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government,� proceeded with heavy blows to destroy the argument of the day before. The impression that this speech made upon the writer, as well as upon the minds of all that heard him, still remains, and it was the opinion, regardless of party, that the object of it was accomplished.

In the national campaign of 1872, Colonel Tappan joined the Liberal Republican movement, and supported his lifelong friend, Horace Greeley, for the Presidency. Between these two men the strongest ties of friendship existed. Colonel Tappan believed that, more than any other man, Horace Greeley was the framer and builder of the Republican party. He was in Washington, as a member of Congress, during the great contest for the Speakership of the House of Representatives. Horace Greeley was there, and he regarded him as the master-spirit that dared the jarring and discordant elements, and, uniting them on General Banks, secured his election as Speaker. The war being over, and the people of the North and South being citizens of one common country, he believed that the desired era of peace and reconciliation would be brought about by the election of Horace Greeley, and preferred that it should come under the leadership of such a Republican than under a reign of the Democratic party. He therefore supported Horace Greeley, and while this course subjected him to adverse comment and criticism no one doubted his sincerity or the motives by which he was actuated. Nor did it imply that he had renounced any of the principles of the Republican party, to which he had adhered from the day of its birth, and with which, in the course of events, he again found himself in full accord.

Colonel Tappan has been three times married. His first wife was Emeline M. Worth, of Sutton, by whom he had one son, Frank M. Tappan, Esq., who resides near his father, in Bradford. His second wife was Mary E. Jenkins, of Boston, and his present wife was Imogene B. Atwood, of Lisbon, by whom he has a little daughter, Helen L. Tappan

Of Colonel Tappan, as a man and a citizen, the writer concludes this sketch by quoting from a letter of a neighbor, as follows: �Mr. Tappan�s kindness to be poor and afflicted, his fidelity as a friend, his sensitiveness of heart and his honor in his profession are proverbial among his most intimate acquaintances.�

JOHN HENRY ALBIN^[2] was born October 17, 1843, at West Randolph, Vermont. He is the son of John and Emily (White) Albin. At the High School in Concord, N. H., he prepared for college, and entered Dartmouth at the fall term of 1860, and graduating therefrom in 1864, he commenced the study of the law with the late Hon. lra A. Eastman of Concord, who was a prominent lawyer and at one time one of the judges of the Supreme Judicial Court. He pursued his legal studies assiduously, without interruption, until October, 1867, when he was admitted to the bar. In April, 1868, he became a partner of Judge Eastman. In December of the same year, Samuel B. Page, Esq., removed from Warren, N. H., and became a member of the firm. They did a large business and it was one of the leading firms in the State. It was dissolved in 1874, at which time Mr. Albin became associated with the writer of this sketch, and by reason of whose appointment as Attorney-General of the State, the relation was for a short time dissolved, as under a statute the Attorney-General was disqualified from practice, except in cases wherein the State was a party. This statute being repealed, the association was renewed.

Mr. Albin formed a partnership with Nathaniel E. Martin, Esq., of Concord, under the title of Albin & Martin. This firm has an extensive legal business.

Mr. Albin was a member of the Legislature from Concord, in 1872-73. During his first term he served upon the Judiciary Committee, and in 1873 was chairman of the Committee on Railroads.

In 1875 he took up his residence in Henniker, N. H., but continued his business in Concord. He was elected to represent the town in the Legislature of 1876, during which session he was a member of the Judiciary Committee, and of several important special committees he was made chairman.

Mr. Albin has given much time and attention to Odd-Fellowship, and takes great interest in the mystic brotherhood. He has held all of the official positions in the Grand Lodge of the jurisdiction, and at its annual session in 1879 was elected Grand Master. In September, 1881, he represented the Grand Lodge in the Sovereign Grand Lodge at its session in Cincinnati, and in that at Baltimore in September, 1882. At the session held in Cincinnati, September, 1881, a committee was appointed to prepare a Degree of Uniformed Patriarchs, which consisted of William H. Crocker of Chicago, Theodore B. Elliott of Milwaukee, John H. Albin, C. B. Colledge of Washington, D. C., and John Heeseman of Charleston, S. C. The laborious duty of preparing the work contemplated, fell to Mr. Albin, and was performed with great care; he reported a Degree which was accepted by the committee and almost unanimously adopted by the Sovereign Grand Lodge, at its session in Baltimore in September 1882. This committee was continued in existence, with full power over the Degree until it was discharged by the grand body at its session held in Providence, in September, 1883. At the September session of 1884 at Minneapolis, Minn., Mr. Albin was made chairman of the Committee of the Patriarchal Branch of the Order, and at the same session a special committed was appointed for the purpose of making any revision that might be deemed necessary so far as that Degree was concerned, and also to report such legislation as might be necessary to carry it into full effect. That committee was composed of Mr. Albin, ex-Governor John C. Underwood of Covington, Ky., and Edward A. Stevens of Minneapolis, Minn., with instruction ** report at the session of the Sovereign Grand Lodge, at Baltimore, September, 1885.

To those who know Mr. Albin it is not too much to say, that he is one of the most active, industrious and well-read lawyers in the State and notwithstanding his constantly increasing business, he keeps himself thoroughly read up in the latest legal decisions, and makes it a point to provide himself with the best and newest text-books in the profession. No case comes to his hands but is first thoroughly investigated in all its legal aspects; and in preparing and present his cases to the court, jury, or whatever tribunal are to hear the same, in fact, in the whole conduct of a trial, he takes high rank at the New Hampshire bar. No pains are spared and no labor is shirked which he considers will in any way tend to advance the cause or the interests of his clients.

Although actively engaged in his profession, Mr. Albin takes great interest in agricultural pursuits, and upon his farm in Henniker he spends many days of pleasant recreation.

He was married, September 5, 1872, to Miss Georgie A. Modica, of Henniker. They have two children, Henry A., born February 6, 1875, and Edith G., born August 5, 1878.

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