Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
said judge. * * * A copy of this order, certified by the
Secretary of War, and delivered to such judge, shall be deemed
and held to be a sufficient commission. Let the seal of the
United States be hereunto affixed.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
The powers conferred by this order, it will be seen, are as great as can
be conferred by sovereignty itself,--"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." Under
this commission, Judge Peabody proceeded to organize his court by
appointing his prosecuting attorney, marshal, and clerk. Thus organized
in New York, the court proceeded, by government transport, to New
Orleans, and commenced business. It was immediately filled with causes
of the first magnitude, and continued throughout its existence to
attract almost all of that class of business. The court held that it had
jurisdiction not only of cases originating in it, but that it had power
to review on appeal cases originating in other courts. It also ordered
causes pending and undecided in other courts transferred to itself, and
there decided and ended them. A cause pending in the circuit court of
the United States, on appeal from the district court of the United
States, was transferred by order of this court and decided. (The
Grapeshot. 9 Wallace 129). Mr. Seward, as he and Chief-Justice Chase
were dining with Judge Peabody, speaking of the supreme court of the
United States, said for the ear of the chief-justice: "His court has
some power in time of peace, no doubt, but none in time of war. It is
limited to a small class of cases, and in those usually to appellate
jurisdiction, and in all cases it is bound by law prescribed for its
guidance; in none of which respects was Peabody's court under any
limitation;" and (turning to Judge Peabody) he added: "Why, Peabody, all
the power of his court is not a circumstance to what you had in
Louisiana."
The executive department of this court was no less remarkable than its
jurisdiction. The marshal had at his command, by order of the
departments of war and navy, all needed aid from the army and navy. A
personal escort of soldiers as large as needed on land, and transports
and gunboats on water, were always at his disposal, and nothing was
needed beyond the exhibition of the process of the court to command
their services. Escorts of a thousand and more cavalry were in the
service of the marshal at times, and similar facilities were afforded by
the gunboats and transports on the rivers, bayous, and lakes of that
aqueous state. Even private commercial vessels plying on the Mississippi
river and other waters of the state were, by order of the war
department, compelled to stop and take on board any deputy of the
marshal, at any place where he should demand it by showing his signal,
and to stop and land him wherever he demanded it. This they were
required to do at all places, however exposed, and where vessels were
not otherwise allowed to land for business purposes, on account of
exposure to the enemy. The relief to the department of state was
complete; for from the time the court commenced business nothing was
heard there of controversies which had burdened and alarmed the
department previously, and the success of the court in other respects
was equally complete, commanding the respect and confidence of the
community,--the disloyal as well as the loyal. This office he resigned
in 1865, and the court was terminated in July, 1866, on his
recommendation, by an act of congress.
In 1862, to meet an emergency, and to avoid having the business of that
court interrupted by business of a different character, he was appointed
judge of a criminal court in New Orleans, in which for several months he
dispensed all the criminal justice administered in the city of New
Orleans and the part of Louisiana held by the federal army, excepting
only capital cases, which were always tried in the more dignified court
held by him. In 1863, while holding the United States provisional court,
he was appointed chief-justice of the supreme court of Louisiana,--the
appellate court of last resort. In 1865 he was appointed, by the
President of the United States and confirmed by the senate, attorney for
the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana. That office he
declined to accept, and he returned to the practice of his profession in
New York as soon as he felt at liberty to retire from the United States
provisional court.
In 1870 he was nominated by the Republican party for surrogate of the
county of New York, on which occasion he was not elected; but he ran
many thousands of votes ahead of his ticket, and lacked less than
thirteen thousand of an election, while the majority against the ticket
generally, which was headed by Gen. John A. Dix for mayor, himself an
honored son of New Hampshire, was more than fifty-four thousand.
He is now, and has been since its organization many years ago, a member
of the "Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of
Nations," an association, as its name imports, devoted to the
advancement of the law governing nations in their intercourse with each
other, composed of publicists and advanced students of the science of
government from nearly every nation of Europe, and from some of the most
enlightened nations of Asia, as well as America. In the proceedings of
that body he has taken an active part, attending its meetings, which
occur annually, and are held in the different cities of Europe, as
Ghent, Geneva, the Hague, Bremen, Antwerp, London, Berne,
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Cologne, Liverpool. He has always been a member
of the executive committee, and is now vice-president of the association
for the United States, in which office he succeeds Charles Francis Adams
and the late Reverdy Johnson. He has traveled extensively in Europe,
having visited it frequently in the summer vacations of business, and
last year (1881), after attending the congress of the Association for
the Reform of the Law of Nations, at Cologne, he attended an
International Geographical congress at Venice, as a delegate from the
American Geographical Society. He is now pursuing his profession in New
York, as he has always done since he commenced there, except for the
times he has been acting as judge.
In his religious preferences he is Episcopalian. While living in New
Orleans, in 1863, 1864, and 1865, he was a member of the vestry of
Christ church there, and he has been for many years, and now is, senior
warden of Christ church, North Conway, in the White Mountains of New
Hampshire.
Judge Peabody has married twice. The first time, as before stated, to
Julia Caroline Livingston, daughter of James Duane Livingston, of the
city of New York, the mother of his children. His second marriage was to
Maria E. Hamilton, with whom he is now living. This lady, daughter of
John C. Hamilton, is a grand-daughter of Alexander Hamilton, the
favorite aid and trusted counselor of General Washington in the
Revolutionary war, the first secretary of the treasury of the United
States, the organizer of that department, and in large measure of the
government of the United States.
By his first marriage he had five children, who are now living,--four
sons and one daughter. His sons are all graduates of college and
professional schools. Three of them are lawyers, one is a physician, and
all reside in the city of New York. One of them bears the name of
Glendower (Philip Glendower), after the Welsh chieftain, Owen Glendower,
in recognition of the Welsh origin of the family.
As has been said, Judge Peabody was the oldest of ten children, having
had five brothers and four sisters, all natives of New Hampshire. Of his
brothers, only one survives with him, Dr. William F. Peabody, of San
Francisco, a doctor of medicine, a biographical sketch of whom should
form a part of this volume. Dr. Peabody was for a time Professor of
Languages in Mount Hope College, Baltimore, following thither his older
brother while the latter was teaching and studying his profession there.
The Doctor studied his profession in Baltimore, and practiced there for
a time; but in the very early days of California emigration removed
thither, where he still resides, commanding much respect as a gentleman
of high moral and social character and much literary taste, as well as
an able physician. Two of his brothers, George B. Peabody and Enoch W.
Peabody, after the subject of this sketch, the pioneer of the family,
had located in New York, became shipmasters of distinction in the "old"
or "Black Ball" line of Liverpool packets sailing from New York, in the
days when those ships were the pride of the nation, and the command of
one was equivalent to a certificate of the highest character for
efficiency and reliable qualities. Of the sisters, three survive and
live in Andover, Mass., the last place of residence of their parents.
NOTE.--Judge Peabody's judicial life has been sufficiently
varied and uncommon to attract remark. He has been twice justice
of the supreme court of the state of New York, by appointment of
the governor, and was offered a place on the bench of another
court, which he did not accept; he has been appointed judge of
three different courts by the federal government of the United
States; he has been three times the nominee and candidate of his
party for other judicial places,--twice for the bench of the
supreme court of the state of New York, and once for surrogate
of the city and county of New York.
GILMAN CHENEY.
The postal, passenger, and express cars, representing respectively
government, corporate, and private enterprise, constitute a trinity
which has annihilated space and made possible the business progress of
the last fifty years. The third is the creature of a few men, among whom
the Cheney brothers of New Hampshire are most conspicuous.
Their grandfather, Deacon Tristram Cheney, was one of the early settlers
of Antrim, he having come from Dedham, Mass., in 1769, and located near
the Hillsborough line. His son Jesse, who married, first, Miss
Blanchard, of West Deering, and, afterwards, Deborah Winchester, of
Hillsborough, located his homestead near Cork Ridge, on what is known as
the Dimond Dodge place, where there were born to him nine children, of
whom Benjamin P., James S., and Gilman are the three who have made
"Cheney's Express" a familiar phrase in every city and village in New
England and Canada.
Gilman was the fifth child. He was born January 25, 1822, and until he
was eighteen years of age worked at farming in the vicinity of his
native town. At that age he had a little knowledge of books, a strong
constitution, and an abundant stock of courage and ambition, with which
he left home to make a place for himself in the business world. For the
next ten years he was slowly gathering capital, experience, and
knowledge of men and things in the cotton-mills of Nashua, Newburyport,
and Manchester; and, while filling his place to the satisfaction of his
employers, he could not find there the opportunity he wished, and, in
search of a wider and more promising field for action, went to
California. Here he crowded three years very full of adventure and
business success, and then returned to assist his brothers in extending
the express system, which was then in its infancy. He was assigned to
the Canadian division, and, establishing his headquarters at Montreal,
he gave himself heartily to the work, and has since been thoroughly
identified with the enterprise. His position is that of superintendent