Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
the age of seventy, the same enthusiasm in all objects of interest that
characterized his former visit, thirty-six years before.
Amid his multiplied cares and duties, Dr. Cogswell has found time to
devote no little attention to agriculture; and his broad acres, on the
sunny slope of "Riverside," give evidence of successful labor. There,
amid the rural retirement of his country home, he passes the summer
months of his green old age, with his delightful family, receiving his
friends with the easy, cordial grace of old-time hospitality. His
interest in all that relates to the welfare of the people among whom he
has lived for half a century remains unabated. The public schools, the
intellectual and social life of the town, improvements in agriculture,
and the dignity and proprieties of local management,--all claim his
attention and enlist his co-operation; and to him belongs the noble
prestige of the honored and beloved fellow-citizen.
"His prosperous labor fills
The lips of men with honest praise;
And, sun by sun, the happy days
Descend below the golden hills."
HON. CHARLES A. PEABODY.
Hon. Charles. A. Peabody, of New York city, was born in Sandwich, in
Strafford (now Carroll) county, N. H., on the 10th day of July, A. D.
1814, and was the son of Samuel and Abigail Peabody, who were natives of
Boxford, Essex county, Mass. His paternal grandfather was Richard
Peabody, of Boxford, an officer in the war of the Revolution, who had a
command at Ticonderoga and elsewhere. His mother, whose maiden name was
Wood, was the daughter of Jonathan Wood, also of Boxford. His maternal
grandmother's name was Hale. Her family claimed to be descended from a
branch of the family of Sir Matthew Hale. On his father's side he is
descended from Welsh ancestry. The name of Peabody (as tradition of
heraldry has it) is composed of two words,--_pea_, meaning mountain, and
_boadie_, meaning man,--and signifies mountain man, or man of the
mountains. It was first borne by a chieftain of a clan in the mountains
of Wales. After the battle between Nero and Boadicea, about the year 61,
the Queen's forces, although routed, refused to surrender, and such of
them as escaped the sword of the Romans fled to the mountains, and there
maintained a wild independence under a chieftain, who, from that fact,
acquired the name of Peabody, or man of the mountains.
The father of our subject, who was a lawyer of fine talents, and much
respected as a gentleman of high moral and social qualities and much
general culture, was graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of
1803. He was a college-mate of Daniel Webster and Ezekiel the cherished
brother, whose name Daniel desired always to have associated with his
own. An intimacy between himself and Ezekiel, contracted in college,
continued throughout their lives. He lived and practiced law in
Sandwich, Epsom, and Tamworth, N. H., at different periods of his life;
and, after retiring from business, moved to Andover, Mass., in his
native county, for the better education of his younger children, about
1843, where he died in 1859. His wife survived him, and died at Andover
in 1872.
The subject of this sketch--the oldest of ten children--was educated
partly by private tuition at his father's house, partly in
Massachusetts, and partly in the classical schools (academies) in the
northern part of New Hampshire,--at Wolfeborough, Gilford, Sanbornton
(now Tilton), and Gilmanton. He fitted for college with the intention of
entering Dartmouth, the _alma mater_ of his father. Failure of health at
the critical time defeated that purpose, however, and had almost
unlimited control over his movements and destiny for a time much longer
than the term of a college course. In the years 1832 and 1833 he lived
most of the time in Beverly, Mass., where he taught and studied as
health and circumstances permitted. In 1834 he went to Baltimore,
attracted by advantages of climate over northern New Hampshire, and the
greater facilities afforded there for his temporary occupation of
teaching, by which to support himself and render needed pecuniary aid in
the education of younger members of the family. There he pursued the
study of law in the office of Nathaniel Williams, at that time attorney
of the United States for the district of Maryland. He remained in
Maryland a little more than two years, when he returned to New England
and entered the law school of Harvard University. He remained there
until 1839, when he went, in November of 1839, to the city of New York,
where he has since resided. There he entered an office as a student,
introduced by the late Rufus Choate, of Boston. But he soon commenced
business as a practitioner at the bar. In 1846 he married Julia Caroline
Livingston, daughter of James Duane Livingston, of the city of New York.
Mr. Peabody continued the practice of law in the city of New York,
taking no active part in politics, but always observing with interest
the course of events in the general government, and especially those
connected with slavery and the slave power. He was an unconditional
Whig, and his residence at the South in early life had given him such
knowledge of slavery, in its effect on the slave, the owner, the free
population, white and colored, and on general prosperity, that he early
formed very positive opinions concerning it and its very great evils. On
this, as on all other subjects, he was conservative and temperate in his
opinions and feelings, taking no part in extravagant denunciations of
those engaged in it, but always deprecating such courses as being, to
his mind, not only inexpedient and unwise, but also unjust. With the
strongest possible convictions against slavery on all grounds, moral and
economic, he counseled moderation in the treatment of it. He was ever
opposed to intemperate agitation, as tending to no good, but liable to
lead to great evil. He was for years prior to the formation of the
Republican party an active member of the Union Safety committee in New
York, a body of conservative gentlemen of the highest character,
organized to repress acrimonious treatment of the subject, as tending to
alienate the different sections of the country, and to imperil the peace
and possibly the integrity of the nation.
When the Republican party was organized, adopting as its principles on
the subject of slavery that it might remain undisturbed where it then
existed, but should on no condition be extended into territory where it
did not then exist, he accepted those views as the best terms for
freedom to be obtained peaceably, and perhaps the best the lovers of
freedom were warranted under the constitution in demanding. In 1855 he
was a member of the convention which organized the Republican party of
the state of New York. In the same year he was the candidate of the
Republican party for election as justice of the supreme court of the
state, to succeed Robert H. Morris, but his party was in the minority.
In the same year (1855) he was appointed, by the governor of the state,
justice of the supreme court, as the successor of Henry P. Edwards,
deceased. In 1856 he was appointed justice of the supreme court of the
state to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of James R. Whiting.
In 1857 he was again the candidate of the Republican party for justice
of the supreme court, but the party was not sufficiently strong to elect
him. He served on the bench of the supreme court the terms for which he
was appointed, and received more than the votes of his party at the
times he was nominated for election.
While serving as justice of the supreme court, and when his term in that
court was about to expire, he was offered, by the governor, the
appointment of city judge. This would have made him judge of the court
of general sessions, the principal criminal court of the city, having
jurisdiction of cases of the highest class. This appointment he did not
accept. In 1858 he was appointed, by the governor of New York,
commissioner of quarantine, to succeed Ex-Gov. Horatio Seymour, with
authority to abolish the then present station and erect a new one
elsewhere, as the commission might decide. His associates in this
commission were men of the highest character, and the commission was one
of importance at the time,--just after the quarantine buildings had
been destroyed by a terror-stricken mob, and the wildest fears that
contagious diseases might be transmitted from such a station had taken
possession of many minds.
In 1862 he was appointed, by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, judge of the United States Provisional Court for the state of
Louisiana. This court was called into existence by the necessities of
the federal government in respect to its foreign relations, after the
conquest of New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana by the army of the
United States, during the late war of the rebellion, and while that
territory was held in military occupation. A large part of the
population of New Orleans and Louisiana was persons of foreign birth and
allegiance, having claims on their respective governments for the
protection of their rights. Those governments, when appealed to, made
demands through their ministers, resident at Washington, on the
government of the United States, and the number and importance of these
claims had become so great that the state department was much
embarrassed by them. Mr. Seward, secretary of state, had been more than
half his time since the conquest occupied by them, and they had, in some
instances, assumed such proportions as to threaten seriously the
relations of the government with foreign powers. In this condition of
things it was resolved to constitute a tribunal which should be
empowered to decide all these questions, and keep them from the
department. Accordingly, the government resolved to establish a court at
New Orleans, which should have power to hear and determine every
question which could possibly arise out of human transactions, and to
make the decisions of that court conclusive of the rights of all
parties. To effect that purpose, the following order was made by the
President of the United States:--
EXECUTIVE ORDER,
ESTABLISHING A PROVISIONAL COURT IN LOUISIANA.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, }
WASHINGTON, October 20, 1862. }
The insurrection which has for some time prevailed in several of
the states of this Union, including Louisiana, having
temporarily subverted and swept away the civil institutions of
that state, including the judiciary and the judicial authorities
of the Union, so that it has become necessary to hold the state
in military occupation; and it being indispensably necessary
that there shall be some judicial tribunal existing there
capable of administering justice, I have, therefore, thought it
proper to appoint, and I do hereby constitute, a Provisional
Court, which shall be a court of record for the state of
Louisiana, and I do hereby appoint Charles A. Peabody, of New
York, to be a provisional judge to hold said court, with
authority to hear, try, and determine all causes, civil and
criminal, including causes in law, equity, revenue, and
admiralty, * * * his judgment to be final and conclusive. And I
do hereby authorize and empower the said judge to make and
establish such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the
exercise of his jurisdiction, and to appoint a prosecuting
attorney, marshal, and clerk of the said court, who shall
perform the functions of attorney, marshal, and clerk, according
to such rules and regulations as may be made and established by