Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
influence. There is nothing in it to startle. There is no dramatic
exhibition. It is the farthest possible from the sensational. There are
never any protruding logical bones. He never indulges in any
prettinesses of diction. But a critical analysis (the last thing one
thinks of in listening to him) reveals the elements of his power. His
themes are always elevated themes. One sees the most earnest convictions
held in perfect independence and honesty; a natural development of
thought in an always fresh and orderly way; a diction as clear as a
pellucid brook; illustrations drawn from wide observation, always simple
and frequently beautiful; a genial, sometimes intense, glow pervading
his whole discourse; and a dignified but simple manliness throughout.
Fully six feet in height, and with liberally developed physique, he
impresses one at first mainly with the idea of manly strength. But it
takes no great time to see that commanding intellectual abilities are
fully parallel with his physique; and those who hear him, and especially
those who know him, find an equal development of a generous nature which
inclines always to sympathy, and with which he answers, in public and
private, to every appeal to his helpful power. In doctrine he is
understood to hold the main tenets of what is called _old_ theology, but
as forces rather than dogmas, and liberally instead of severely applied.
Mr. Spalding's literary work has been extensive, but mainly upon current
newspaper periodicals. This has given him, of course, a valuable
directness and clearness of expression. A few sermons and other
productions have been published: A sermon on God's Presence and Purpose
in the War, November 26, 1863; a discourse commemorative of Gen. Samuel
P. Strong, February 28, 1864; a discourse on the 250th anniversary of
the settlement of Dover, May 18, 1873; a discourse commemorative of the
character and career of Hon. John P. Hale, November 27, 1873, which the
poet Whittier characterized in the highest terms,--a fine specimen of
judicious analysis, in which he does justice to the pioneer of the
anti-slavery cause in the United States senate,--a justice now lately
apparently purposely ignored out of a desire to magnify a brilliant but
later laborer. The Relation of the Church to Children, November 6, 1873.
The Dover Pulpit in the Revolution, July 9, 1876,--for which he searched
and well used the manuscript of his eminent predecessor, Dr. Jeremy
Belknap. The fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Conference
of Churches of Strafford county, June 18, 1878. The Idea and Necessity
of Normal-School Training, December 26, 1878. Annual Report of the
Trustees of the State Normal School, June, 1879. Memorial on the Death
of Garfield, September, 1881. Historical discourse on the one-hundredth
anniversary of the Piscataqua Association, October 26, 1881. On the
death of Wells Waldron, November 13, 1881. On the death of John Riley
Varney, May 5, 1882.
In addition, however, to his other work, he has been, and is, the editor
of the _New Hampshire Journal_, a successful weekly in the interest of
the Congregational churches, from which some of his keen editorials have
met with favor throughout the country.
Mr. Spalding was a member of the constitutional convention of New
Hampshire which met January 8, 1877. He represented Dover in the New
Hampshire house of representatives in 1877. He is also a trustee of the
state normal school, by appointment of the governor and council, his
first appointment, for two years, being made in 1876, and his
chairmanship of that board commencing soon after and now continuing. He
became a member of the school committee of Dover in 1875, and still
continues, having been its chairman from 1876. He was chosen trustee and
one of the executive committee of the New Hampshire Missionary Society
is 1873; and still retains each position. He received the degree of
Doctor of Divinity from Dartmouth College in 1878.
Dr. Spalding married Sarah Livingston, daughter of Rev. Dr. John W.
Olmstead, manager and editor of the _Watchman and Reflector_; her
mother, Mary, was daughter of Richard Montgomery Livingston, a lawyer of
Saratoga, N.Y. Their children are Mary Livingston, Martha Reed,
Catherine Olmstead (who died August 29, 1881, aged fourteen), Gertrude
Parker, and George Brown.
JAMES F. BRIGGS.
BY HENRY M. PUTNEY.
John and Nancy (Franklin) Briggs were of that class of working
Englishmen who had the courage to flee from hard surroundings which no
strength could overcome, and seek in a new world, among strangers, a
chance to improve their condition. They were factory operatives at Bury,
Lancashire county, England, where their son JAMES F. was born, October
23, 1827. When he was fourteen months old they took passage on an
emigrant ship for America, and after a rough voyage of more than seven
weeks landed in Boston, March 4, 1829. Going direct to Andover, Mass.,
the father found employment in a woolen-factory there. From that place
he removed to Saugus, where he worked a short time, and from thence to
Amesbury, which was the family home until 1836. In the fall of that year
the father, in company with two brothers, bought a small woolen-factory
at Holderness, now Ashland, N. H., and, having established his home near
by, commenced business on his own account, in manufacturing woolen
cloths. But few operatives were needed to run this mill, and they were
mainly the three proprietors and their children, among whom was the boy
James, then a lad nine years old, who had begun to earn his living in a
factory before the removal from Massachusetts, the family circumstances
being such that all had to contribute to its support as soon as they
were able. He was continuously employed in the mill for the next five
years; but during this time he had learned enough of books to make him
ambitious to know more; and, as the affairs of the family were fairly
prosperous, at the age of fourteen he was sent to the academy at
Newbury, Vt., and afterwards to the one at Tilton. Being an expert
operative, able to take the wool from the fleece and convert it into
cloth, by working in the factory a part of each year he earned the money
to pay his expenses at these institutions one or more terms every year
until 1848, when he arranged to commence the study of law with Hon.
William C. Thompson, at Plymouth; but in February of that year his
father died leaving a family of eight children, six of whom were younger
than James, in destitute circumstances. This affliction, which threw the
care of the family largely upon the young man, compelled him to change
somewhat his plans; but he did not for a moment lose sight of the object
he had in view, and, as he could not enter the law office at Plymouth,
he borrowed books from it and pursued his studies during such time as he
could get at home, for a year, when he entered the office of Hon. Joseph
Burrows, then a practicing lawyer at Holderness.
In 1849 the family removed to Fisherville, in order that the younger
children might obtain employment in the factory there, and he completed
his studies in the office of Judge Butler, from which he was admitted to
the bar in 1851. A few months later he commenced the practice of law at
Hillsborough Bridge, whither he went a perfect stranger, without money
or reputation. But he had ability and energy, was willing to work, knew
how to live within a small income until he could make it larger, and
little by little he gained clients and friends, who gave him a lucrative
practice, accepted his counsel, followed his leadership, and established
his reputation as the most popular and influential man of the town. In
1856, 1857, and 1858, he was sent by a nearly unanimous vote to
represent Hillsborough in the legislature, where he was at once accorded
a prominent position as a member of the judiciary committee, and the
third year was honored by the nomination of his party for the
speakership. At this time he acted with the Democratic party, and
continued to do so until the war of the rebellion, when he felt that all
loyal men should unite to save the Union and maintain the national
authority, and, having been nominated by the Democracy of his district
for councilor upon a platform which enunciated peace-at-any-price
doctrines, to which he could not assent, he declined the nomination, and
from that day has been an ardent, active, and enthusiastic Republican.
While the Eleventh Regiment was being recruited, he tendered his
services to the governor of the state and was appointed quartermaster on
the staff of Col. Harriman. In this capacity he served through the
battles of Fredericksburg, the military operations in Kentucky, and the
Mississippi-river expeditions which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg
and Jackson, for about a year, when he was prostrated by the malaria of
the southern swamps, and compelled to resign and return to his home in
Hillsborough.
During his absence in the field, and the illness which succeeded his
return, his legal business had become somewhat demoralized, and on the
recovery of his health he concluded to start anew in a wider field of
action in Manchester, to which city he removed in 1871, forming a
partnership with Hon. Henry H. Huse, which still exists. Manchester gave
him a cordial welcome. Her mill operatives and other mechanics greeted
him as an honored graduate of their school, who in his after triumphs
had never forgotten the hard road by which he had journeyed to success;
her lawyers and clients were already well acquainted with his
professional abilities; her soldiers recognized him as an old companion
in arms, and her politicians as an earnest Republican who could and
would be a tower of strength in every campaign. Under these
circumstances he did not have to wait for business or political
preferment. Soon after opening his office he was appointed city
solicitor, and in 1874 he was elected to the legislature from ward
three. Two years later he was chosen senator from the Manchester
district, and in the same year was sent to the constitutional
convention.
In all these positions he won reputation and friends to such an extent
that in 1877 he was nominated for congress without substantial
opposition, and elected by a large majority. At the expiration of his
first term he was unanimously renominated, and after an exciting
campaign was re-elected by a majority of eight hundred and forty-nine
over the combined Democratic and Greenback vote. Two years afterwards it
became a question whether he should be returned. The traditions and
prejudices of the district were strongly against a third term. Four
other able and deserving men were ambitious to succeed him, and he
declined to push for the nomination, but accepted a call to take the
stump in Maine, leaving it for his friends to determine whether his name
should be used in the convention. To one of these, who wrote him that he
ought to return from Maine and attend to his canvass, he replied: "I am
assured that I can be of considerable service here, and, as it is of
vastly more importance that the cause shall triumph in this state next
Monday than that I shall be renominated, I must remain and trust to you
and others to decide whether it is best to send me back to Washington.
Whatever that decision may be, I shall be satisfied." The convention met
just after the disastrous defeat of the party in Maine, and when it
appeared that there was only a desperate chance for its nominee to be
elected. It decided that if any man could succeed he could, and a few
days after he took the stump. Manchester, which was counted a doubtful
city when the convention assembled, gave him more than eight hundred