LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. «*-/■ ^"3% PRESENTED BY UNITED STATES OE AMEEIOA. CSmiffttu m> ¥♦ SMrfcett* SKETCH OF THE LIFE WILLIAM H. Y. HACKETT. FRANK W. HACKETT i.'t'printed from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register lor. January, 1879. «w»s^; BOSTON : FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 18 7 9. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM H. Y. HACKETT. A GENERATION is fast disappearing from among us, which had grown into early manhood long before steam, the tele- graph, or the improved methods of education began to work changes in the conditions of society. Their struggles to obtain a start in life were made under circumstances which it is well nigh impossible should again exist. Not that privation and hardship do not await the youth of to-day ; but the rugged features which characterized New England living at the opening of the present century, stamped upon young men from the farm an impress, whose precise likeness is no longer to be seen. The story of their career cannot too often be told, to encourage the formation of those habits of frugality and patient industry which alone lead to usefulness and success. William Henry Young Hackett died at his residence in Portsmouth, N. H., August 9, 1878, aged seventy-seven years and ten months. He was born at Gilmanton, N. H., September 24, 1800, and was the eldest of six sons and three daughters, children of Allen and Mary (Young) Hackett. The others were Jeremiah Mason, Nancy Young, Hiram Stephen, Mary Jane (wife of An- drew Dyer Leighton), living at Belmont, N. H. ; Eliza Ann (wife of Jeremiah Carlton Hackett), living at Boston ; George Washing- ton, Charles Alfred (living at the homestead in Belmont, formerly a part of Gilmanton), and Luther Allen. It is difficult to determine whence came the two or three indivi- duals of the Hackett name, of whom traces are found soon after the settlements in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Occasional mention is made of the name in English history, and John Placket (bishop of Litchfield, 1661-70) has secured a place in literature by his life of Archbishop Williams ; while Sir Charles Hacket, an officer in the service of the Estates, who aided in capturing Mon- trose, lives under a ban in the popular ballad of "The Gallant Grahams." We find Hackettstown in Carlow County, Ireland; and since the time of Sir Thomas Ilacket, Lord Mayor of Dublin, in 1G88, and a rigid catholic, the name occurs with considerable frequency. Certain physical traits in the descendants of the Xew England ancestry lend credibility to a tradition that they came from Holland, whence, in 1794, emigrated Thomas, father of James Henry Hackett, the actor, whose son, John Keteltas, has been for some years Recorder of Xew York city. The earliest ancestor now known of William Henry Young Hack- ett, bore the family name of William, and lived at Salisbury, Mass., where many of his descendants were shipwrights. He was probably the " Will Hacket," who had a grant in 1656, at Dover, " touching Bellemie's Bank freshet," and was taxed at Cocheco, 1657-8. He sold his land to Thomas Hanson and went to Exeter, where a daughter Maiy was born in 1665. By occupation a mariner, Capt. William Hackett married Sarah Barnard, at Salisbury, January 31, 1667 ; owned land in that town, and lived there till his death in 1713. John, the second child of William and Sarah, was born at Amesbury, in 1669; all the other children at Salisbury. "Will Hacket " took the oath of allegiance at Exeter in 1667, and was rated there in the province lists in 1681 and 1682. Savage thinks the two may be the same person, and that he may originally have come from Lynn, where was Jabez in 1644, who removed to Taunton. Capt. William Hackett commanded the sloop " Indeavour of Salsbury, in the county of Xorfolk, in Xew England," in 1671, and in May of that year acted a conspicuous part in the first recorded jury trial in Xew Jersey. Gov. Carteret had insisted that payment of duties at the custom-house in Xew York, by vessels entering Sandy Hook, gave no right to trade in the province of Xew Jersey, but that license therefor should be taken out at the custom-house in Elizabeth Town. Capt. Hackett, not entertaining that view of pro- vincial sovereignty, undertook to trade on the Jersey side, after having paid the duties only at Xew York. The governor seized his vessel and summoned a jury to try the offender upon a charge of illegal trading. The captain conducted the defence himself, and is said to have presented with much ability fourteen grounds for acquit- tal, enough, one would conceive, to bewilder an ordinary jury. That body, " after a 2d and 3d going forth," came in and declared that " the matter Committed to them is of too great waight for them," and were discharged. A second jury suited the governor's purpose better. They promptly found Capt. Hackett guilty, and his sloop was declared forfeited.* * III. E. J. Records, 75; Hatfield's History of Elizabeth, 135. The children of William and Sarah Hackett were Sarah, John, Ephraim, William, Judah, Ebenezer and Katharine. From Judah was descended the late Dr. Horatio Baleh Hackett, the distinguished biblical scholar and writer. Ebenezer, born Oct. 17, 1(587, mar- ried Hannah, daughter of Jarves King, and had twelve children, the oldest son, Ephraim, having been born at Salisbury, Oct. 3,1711. At the age of twenty-three, Ephraim Hackett married Dorothy, daughter of Stillson Allen, of Salisbury, and great-granddaughter of Mr. William Allen, a leading man at the settlement of the town in 1638. In 1749, or near that date, Ephraim Hackett made his way to Canterbury, N.H., then little more than a wilderness, though grant- ed twenty-two years earlier. He bought a large tract of land, took an active part in town and parish matters, and lived to a hearty old age upon the "Hackett homestead." The children of Ephraim and Dorothy were Ezra, 1 Hezekiah, Ezra, 2 Jeremiah, Betty, Mary, Ephraim, 1 Miriam, Ephraim, 2 Dorothy, Allen, Charles and Ebene- zer, the last six having been born in Canterbury. Jeremiah, a farmer of Canterbury, died there in the prime of life, in 1797. His children by his wife Polly (Robinson), all born in C, were Sarah, Bradbury, Jeremiah, Allen, Daniel, Polly, Asa, Betsey, Susan and Patty. Of these, Allen, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born July 15, 1777. He studied at Gilmanton Academy, at its opening in 1791, and married Mary, daughter of Joseph Young, a prominent citizen, who after marrying Anna Fol- som, at Exeter, in 1711, had removed thence to Gilmanton, with the Folsoms and Gilmans. Mr. Allen Hackett began life as a tanner, but soon gave up this occupation for that of a fanner in Gilmanton, in which pursuit he met with fair success. He was a large, fine-looking man, reserved in manner, a great reader, and of considerable repute as a sagacious and influential politician. He died in 1848, highly esteemed for his many sterling qualities. Mr. Hackett's mother enjoyed a reputation for beauty, as well as for superior mental endowments. She had neglected no opportu- nity to cultivate her mind, readily assimilated what she gathered from books, and proved herself a thoroughly good mother to her child- ren. With the taste that William Henry early displayed for study she heartily sympathized, and she stimulated his ambition to devote himself, upon growing up, to some calling more intellectual than farming as then practised. Between mother and son there existed a harmony and affection which did much to shape his character and insure his success in after life. Upon him fell the ordinary duties of the oldest boy of a former's family. Though conscientious in the performance of duty, he can- not be said to have taken kindly to any species of farm work. Said his father, " Clearing up brush heaps is the only mark of a good farmer I ever saw in AVilliam Henry." Playmates were few, and it was in books that he found his chief recreation. Much of his 1* 6 reading and study was done by candle-light, after the day's work in the field. At the age of twelve he was permitted to attend the academy at the "Corner" (as the village was called), and walked daily two miles each way over a hilly road, besides continuing to help his father at spare hours. To purchase a geography and atlas, he went into the woods with an axe, and cutting a. cord of wood, hauled it to the Corner, where for two dollars he delivered it at the purchaser's door. Says Judge Ira A. Eastman, who though his junior at the academy, remembers the circumstance: "I do not think he did this from necessity (because his father was a man of considerable means for those days ) , but from an ambitious and most commendable desire not to bring upon his father any more charges than he could help. In those times the feeling and disposition of young men, farmers' sons, generally was to help forward the inter- ests of parents and the household, and to pay all their own expenses, when it could possibly be done." For the eight years that he prosecuted his studies at Gilmanton Academy, he profited by the instruction of Mr. Andrew Mack, a Dartmouth graduate, and a highly successful teacher. Mr. Hackett was quick to learn, and improved his time to the best advantage. Says Asa McFarland, Esq., of Concord: "I remember particu- larly the commendation Mr. Mack bestowed upon him for his per- severance in acquiring useful knowledge." During this period, in addition to working upon the farm, he tended for a brief season in a country store, and taught school for several terms. Before he left the academy, we find that he had begun his law studies, bor- rowing for the purpose text-books of Stephen Moody, Esq., the only lawyer in practice at the Corner. Matthew Perkins, Esq., received him at the age of twenty into his office at Sanbornton Square as a student at law. " I should never," he wrote years afterwards, " have quitted farming (which I regard as the happiest occupation for those suited to it) , if I had not felt that I must be a lawyer or nobody." After diligent application to his law studies for about a year and a half, he obtained the consent of Ichabod Bartlett to enter his office at Portsmouth. In April, 1822, he set out from Gilmanton to make, from choice on foot, the trip of more than forty miles to Portsmouth. He wore a new homespun suit, the work of his mother's hands, and carried a change of clothes in a bundle, which with three dollars in money completed his outfit. From Northwood, where he passed the night at a friend's house, he happened to be taken in a chaise to Portsmouth, arriving there at nightfall, without personal acquaintance with a single individual in the town. Rock- ingham County could then boast a bar of great distinction. Web- ster had but recently left Portsmouth for Boston ; Mason, Bartlett, Cutts, and N. A. Haven, Jr., were in active practice, while "Wood- Jbury, though upon the bench, kept his law-office open for students, of whom Franklin Pierce was one. The brilliant George Sullivan lived at Exeter. Mr. Bartlett had acquired an exalted reputation for adroitness and skill in the trial of jury cases, qualities which, added to his eloquence, were soon to gain him the title upon the floor of Congress of " the Randolph of the North." Our young candidate for professional honors entered at once upon a course of advanced study, varied by office work, which kept him busy each day till ten in the evening. To help meet expenses he resorted to school-keeping. After teaching the High School at Portsmouth for three months (working at the office during spare hours and evenings), he was asked to accept the situation as its permanent head, at a salary of six hundred dollars a year, an offer which he gratefully but promptly declined. His good friends in the country were sorely exercised, and predicted that he had made the mistake of a life-time. In 1824 he was chosen assistant clerk of the Senate, and aa'ain in 1825. Three years later he served a term as full clerk of the Senate. His admission to the bar took place in January, 1826, soon after which he formed a law partnership with N. A. Haven, Jr., which promised him great advantages. The sudden death of this accomplished and estimable man cut short this privileged rela- tion, and for fifty-two years Mr. Hackett continued at the bar with- out an associate in business. His practice grew extensive and va- ried, both in the state and federal courts, and before committees of the legislature. In his early years there was much commercial liti- gation, a fair share of which fell to him ; while at a later period investments in railroads and manufactories introduced new subjects of legal controversy, where his acumen and practical good sense were of great value to his clients. Few cases involving property to any considerable amount have been litigated in that part of New Hampshire during the last half century, in which he has not been retained of counsel. Mr. Hackett was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, Dec. 13, 18(31, on motion of Hon. E. M. Stanton, and argued one or two important causes before that tribunal. Just as he was coming forward in his pi'ofession, " the case lawyer " was disappearing. In the earlier days so scanty were the re- ports that a well-equipped practitioner was expected to know pretty well by heart the " cases " in which leading principles had been laid down, so as to cite them readily from memory. Though Mr. Hackett's memory was extraordinary, he had early schooled himself to retain principles rather than cases. He had a natural aptitude for pursuing a legal doctrine to its results, and applying legal prin- ciples to anew condition of things. Upon the submission of a ques- tion for his opinion, he would prefer to turn it well over in his mind and arrive at a conclusion, before looking at the books. His argu- ments, which are in many cases printed in extenso in the N. H. 8 Reports, are marked by clearness and logical force, and by a rea- soning from a few underlying principles rather than by a display of authorities. Not that he omitted a decision that told in his favor, for he knew pretty much every point that had been settled in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and held it tenaciously in memory, but he had not that superstitious reverence for an authority that is sometimes seen at the bar. He believed in law reform, and to him as much as to any single member of the profession, is due the foot- hold which equity practice has at last got in New Hampshire. He declined judicial position, and to the end of his life enjoyed a full measure of success as a persuasive advocate, and a safe and judi- cious counsellor. At the time of his death he was the president of the Bar Association of New Hampshire, and the oldest practitioner at the Rockingham bar ; indeed, he had continued in active prac- tice a longer period than any of his predecessors at that bar. An interesting reminiscence of these fifty-two years is the fact that he was the last survivor of the array of eminent counsel en- gaged in the Bradbury Cilley will case, tried at Exeter before Chief Justice Joel Parker, in 1833. The trial, which lasted more than a week, was held in the parish meeting-house, which was crowded with those in attendance, many of whom were ladies. For the appellants appeared Messrs. Hackett, Sullivan and Mason ; for the appellees, Messrs. Bell, Cutts, Atherton and Webster. Mr. Mason addressed the jury for four hours, while Mr. Webster consumed about six hours, both efforts being masterly displays of forensic elo- quence. The jury found for the appellees. An incident of the trial Mr. Hackett was accustomed to relate as follows : — Being junior counsel, he read the pleadings at the opening, and as he descended from the platform to return to one of the pews in front, an elderly member of the bar, then retired from practice, motioned to him with some concern in his countenance. Mr. H., as he leaned over to hear what was to come, could scarcely conceal his amusement at the monition, "I am afraid, Sir, that Mr. Mason is not aware what a great mistake he is making to undertake this case at his time of life."" Mr. Mason was just sixty-five ! His active political life, as is true of so many of the profession in New Hampshire, may be said to have begun with his law prac- tice. Year after year he was counted upon to preside at meetings, or to make political addresses, in his own or neighboring towns. He warmly espoused the principles of the whig, and its successor, the republican party. Repeatedly chosen to represent Portsmouth in the legislature, he served upon the important committees of rail- roads and the judiciary, soon going to the head of each as chairman. To facilitate business, and to prevent measures of doubtful utility from being passed, were his objects rather than to win reputation as a debater ; still, though he seldom took up the time of the house by speech-making, no member retained an influence more weighty or more certain to be relied upon, when he head occasion to exercise it. Elected to the senate in 1861, his labors and sound judgment greatly strengthened the hands of the executive at that stirring period. In July of that year he used the following prophetic language, in reply to a senator who had denounced the bill for raising troops as un- constitutional : " This rebellion is to be crushed and the union pre- served. The senator is probably correct in believing that the gov- ernment will be stronger after it has subdued the rebellion than ever before. Every true man must wish it to be strong enough to be able to fulfil its duties. Terrible as this crisis is, it was as in- evitable as the American revolution, and will in its results be as full of blessings. In the end the rebels will find their level, and the loyal men will enjoy a lasting peace under a government of their own making." In 1862 he was made president of the senate, a position which he filled to the acceptance of both political parties. He headed the whig electoral ticket for president in 1852, and the republican elec- toral ticket at the reelection of Mr. Lincoln in 1864 ; and was one of the vice-presidents of the convention which re-nominated Pre- sident Grant, in 1872. In 1876 he acted as temporary chairman of the convention for revising the constitution of New Hampshire, and unexpectedly received a very large and flattering vote as per- manent president. He rarely failed to attend a caucus, and proba- bly throughout his long life never once omitted to deposit his vote on election day. For the last twenty-six years ex-Gov. Goodwin and himself went in company to the polls at each election, whether municipal, state or federal, and deposited their votes together. Mr. Hackett entered the Piscataqua Bank as a director in July, 1827, and served continuously as a bank director ever since, a period of fifty-one years. In January, 1845, upon the organization of the Piscataqua Exchange Bank, he became its president, and held that office till August, 1863, when the charter expired. He was an earnest promoter of the national bank system, and frequently communicated with his friend Secretary Chase in person and by correspondence upon the details of the subject. While the act cre- ating these institutions was pending in Congress, he had made an arrangement to organize a national bank at Portsmouth, and await- ed for their completion the news of its passage. He at once assumed and retained during life the presidency of the First National Bank of Portsmouth, which claims the honor of being the first national bank organized in the country. He was senior trustee of the Portsmouth Savings Bank, one of the oldest institutions of the kind in the union ; and president of the Piscataqua Savings Bank, chartered largely by his efforts, which went into operation in April, 1878. His continu- ous term of service as president of a discount bank, doubtless ex- ceeded that of any similar official in the United States. To banking Mr. Hackett had given his best thought, and the 10 uniform prosperity of the corporations under his charge attests the soundness of his judgment upon matters of finance. He under- stood the science of investing money, not only as a means of im- proving private fortune, but in its wider influence upon the commu- nity at large, and upon the national credit. lie was consulted by many in various walks of life, seeking advice what to do with their savings, whom he encouraged by his kindly manner, and to whom he freely accorded the benefit of his long experience. It is safe to say that few men in any community, by example, by private coun- sel and by public lecture, have done so much to impress upon young people the principles of economy and of sober living. Like all busv men, he managed to find leisure for the indulgence of tastes outside his daily occupation. Besides accomplishing a vast amount of miscellaneous reading, he had, while a student, formed the habit of contributing to the press, and for over fifty years the columns of the Portsmouth Journal were enriched from time to time with thoughtful, well- written articles from his pen. For about a year, in 1842, he was one of the editors of The Wash- ingtonian, a weekly newspaper devoted to the cause of temperance by means of moral suasion. At the request of the family he pre- pared a memoir, some years since, of Andrew Halliburton (a gentle- man of literary tastes at Portsmouth), for private circulation, of which a recent critic has said : " It is a model in that kind of composition. Clear and epigrammatic in style, with well chosen language and a pleasing cadence of structure, the piece displays much nice discrimi- nation of character, and abounds in just and judicious reflections." He is the author also of an admirable sketch of the late Charles W. Brewster, prefixed to the second series of the " Rambles about Portsmouth." He wrote numerous essays and lectures, and deliver- ed several public addresses upon special occasions, all of which are characterized by precision of thought, earnestness of conviction and a well sustained style. His chief excellence as a writer is to be found in the many obituary and quasi-biographical notices of friends, or townsmen, which it had been his fortune for years to furnish. Hardly a single individual of prominence in Portsmouth has passed away during the last forty years that Mr. Hackett has not sketched the events of his life, and presented a kindly but just estimate of of his character. To mark through a long stretch of years the growth and development of character, and to keep vivid in memory a record of his co temporaries, was a habit in which he found peculiar pleasure. The last personal frhud for whom he performed the sad office of a parting tribute, was Charles B. Goodrich, of Boston. They were about the same age, had practised law together at Ports- mouth under similar circumstances, and Mr. Goodrich's death, which he keenly felt, preceded his own by a little more than two months. Though not an antiquary or genealogist, he recognized the fine flavor of* an authentic bit of early history or biography ; and in the 11 range of local tradition his memory had treasured up a rich fund of incident and anecdote. Of late years he was frequently applied to for information about people who were passing off the stage half a century ago ; and he could recall a name or verify a date from mem- ory with apparent ease. His bright clever sayings went the rounds of the bar, and he proved no exception to the rule that lawyers, as a profession, are good story tellers. When Mr. Hackett related an anecdote, and he always had a pertinent one ready, his good humor and happy mode of expression brought sure enjoyment to the lis- tener. Two years ago, at his suggestion, the bar association of New Hampshire appointed a committee of one member from each county, of which he was made chairman, to collect materials for sketches of the bar of the state from the earliest times. His death, it is to be feared, has closed the only source from which much of this valuable information could have been derived. In recognition of his attainments at the bar, as well as of his lit- erary tastes, Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of A.M. in 1858. When the New Hampshire Historical Society was formed at Portsmouth, May 20, 1823, he was present, an incident to which he alluded at the semi-centennial celebration at Concord in 1873, at which date but one other survivor was living. He did not join the society, however, till 1834, since which time he had proved himself one of its most efficient members. He was chosen its vice president in 1860, and served as president from 1861 to 1866. He had been director in three railroads, of one of which he be- came president ; and at his death was a director, or president, of several organizations in Portsmouth of a business, educational or charitable character ; as well as trustee and treasurer of the Pice Public Library, of Kittery, in Maine. On the 21st of December, 1826, he married Olive, second daugh- ter of Joseph Warren Pickering, Esq., of Portsmouth, a lineal de- scendant of John Pickering, who came to Portsmouth in 1636, and owned Pickering's Neck, a large tract of land at the south part of the town.* The young couple began housekeeping in the dwell- ing-house where they ever since lived, where they celebrated their golden wedding, and where the widow still survives. They occu- pied the same pew in the church of the South Parish (Unitarian) for upwards of half a century. In person Mr. Hackett lacked but little of six feet in height, was of a well built frame, of dark complexion, with fine black * Their children and grandchildren are as follows; William Henry, b. Dec. 6, 1827 ; m. Mary Wells Healey, of Hampton Falls, N. H., Dec. 4, 1851. Children— Mary Gertrude, b. Feb. 20, 1853; Wallace, b. May 1, 1856; Bes- sie Bell, b. Feb. 28, 1863. Mauianna, b. June 9, 1836; m. Nov. 14, 1877, to Robert Cutts Peirce, of Portsmouth. Frank Warren, b. April 11, 1841 ; Harvard, 1861. Ellen Louisa, b. Aug. 22, 1842; m. Oct. 11, 1865, to Eben. Morgan Stoddard, of Lcd- yard, Conn. Children— Mabel Virginia, b. Portsmonth, Va., Dec. 13, 1870. 12 hair that had become but slightly tinged with gray at the date of his death ; and was somewhat quick and nervous in move- ment. The engraving that accompanies this sketch may be relied upon as fairly presenting his features. Happy in his domestic rela- tions, while he assumed the responsibilities, he was to a surprising degree exempt from the trials and misfortunes of life. And when it pleased God to remove him, after years of health and prosperity, the stroke was tempered with mercy. In full vigor of mind, and with perfect composure, he bade those about him a loving farewell, and gently fell asleep. It is not for the writer here to venture upon an outline of char- acter, where affection may blind one to faults and magnify virtues. But in so far as it stands revealed from the facts thus imperfectly set forth, do we not recognize in him " a workman that needeth nut to be ashamed"? LIBRARY OF CONGRESS inn mil 014 041 454 2