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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1947

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OFx

MOSES BIGELOW,

WRITTEN BY REQUEST OF THE NEWARK
COMMON COUNCIL,

BY HIS SON

SAMUEL F. BIGELOW, A. M.

NEWARK, N. J.
1890.

^31

BIOGRSPHICSL SKETCH
OF
MOSES BIGELO¥.

CHAPTER 1.
BIRTH, ANCESTRY, YOUTH AND MARRIAGE.
MOSES BIGELOW, the twelfth Mayor of the
City of Newark, was born at Lyons Fsfrms,
Essex County, New Jersey, on January 12, 1800. He
was a son of Timothy Bigelow and Hannah Ogden
Meeker Bigelow. His great grandfather, "John Big
elow, a grandson of John Bigelow of Watertown,
Massachusetts, was born .in Hartford, Connecticut,
in the year 1667, and after marrying Abigail Rich
ards of Glastonbury, Connecticut, January 11, 1710,
moved to New Jersey in 1714. His grandfather,
John Bigelow, and his father, Timothy Bigelow,
were natives of Hanover Township, Morris, former
ly Hunterdon County, New Jersey. His ancestors
both in New England and New Jersey, were people
of means, and his grandfather made investments in

4
lands and mines in Morris County. They were also
interested in public affairs and held various local
offices. His father, and his uncle Aaron Bigelow, were
soldiers in the war of the Revolution. The former
a boy, served in the ranks ; the latter obtained dis
tinction as a lieutenant and as a captain. His
mother was also exposed to the dangers and vicissi
tudes of that conflict, living during the war, the
period of her childhood, in her grandfather's house
near the " Stone School House " at Lyons Farms, a
region subject to frequent hostile incursions by the
Hessians of the British Army.
Mr. Bigelow married February 4th, 1836, Julia
Ann Breckenridge Fowler, daughter of Dr. Samuel
Fowler of Sussex County, the learned mineralogist
and member of Congress from New Jersey during
President Jackson's administration, and grand
daughter of Colonel Mark Thomson, an officer of
the war of the Revolution, a deputy of the Provin
cial Congress, and a member of Congress from New
Jersey during President Washington's administra
tion. Mr. Bigelow's boyhood was spent at home He
attended school at Lyons Farms and Elizabeth, was
studious and thoughtful, and when of age, had read

s
all the standard books at hand and excelled in many
branches of knowledge, particularly in mathematics.
He thought of becoming a lawyer, and was en
tered as a student in the office of Governor William
Sandford Pennington, and when diverted to other
pursuits continued to have a leaning towards legal
studies, which he afterwards pursued in a desultory
way. He later manifested his interest in literary
matters by joining several literary societies. He
also became a member of the Franklin Literary
Association, the Newark Library Association and
the New Jersey Historical Society. He retained
through life studious habits and his evenings were
usually spent with his family and his books.

CHAPTER II.
EARLY NEWARK AND BUSINESS.
NEWARK from its birth was a town of manufac
turers. Most of the settlers from Connecticut
had learned useful handicrafts that they practised
at times and taught their sons. To be a carpenter,
a shoemaker, a wagonmaker, a blacksmith, a miller,
a distiller, was better than to be a drudge on a farm,
to care for cattle and to clear fence and cultivate
new lands. Thus it was mechanics multiplied, and
being skillful and industrious, and having easy com
munication by water with other towns, their fame
spread rapidly, and Newark's reputation as an enter
prising manufacturing town was established before
the revolution. In 1806 a writer represented it to
be " one of the most flourishing towns in the United
States, noted for its fine Cider, Carriages, Coach-lace
and Quarries." He also said : "At least one-third of
the population, both in the town and the adjoining
country, are employed in making shoes." In 1830
there were eighteen shoe factories in the town with
a capital of $300,000, employing 1075 hands.

In 1 82 1, when Mr. Bigelow settled in Newark,
it was a busy place of 7000 inhabitants, employed
principally in making shoes, hats and carriages, for
sale in the southern States.
Mr. Bigelow became a manufacturer of shoes
for the southern market and was largely engaged in
that industry until 1830. In the previous year his
only brother David, a young man of great promise
and much esteemed in Newark, five years his junior
and only twenty-four years ' of age, died in Cincin
nati, Ohio, where he had opened a warehouse for
the sale of the goods manufactured in Newark,
Mr. Bigelow's business plans were disarranged by
the death of his brother, upon whom he was depen
dent for business assistance, and soon afterwards
he withdrew from shoe manufacturing. Cincinnati,
at the time referred to, was one of the country's
frontier cities ; the facilities for intercourse between
the east and west were few and rude and the risk
great ; and the opening of a warehouse in that city
at so early a date, and in his youth, is ilustrative of
enterprise characteristic of Mr. Bigelow,
His next venture was with Pruden Ailing in the
wholesale grocery trade in 1831, when he organized
the firm of Bigelow & Ailing, which carried on busi
ness on the north east corner of Broad and Market

9
Streets, contemporaneously with John H. Stephens
and Joel W. Condit. The grocery business was an
important industry of the town at that time ; trans
portation to and from New York was difficult and
expensive, and country merchants from Essex,
Morris, Passaic, Sussex and Hunterdon Counties
bought their goods in Newark. Incident to the
trade was the sale in bulk, of imported and other
liquors. Mr. Bigelow was always a temperate man
in all things but never a teetotaler or prohibitionist
in the use of intoxicating drinks. Believing that all
reforms in politics, morals and religion, must proceed
from the people as results of education, and could
never be effects of legislation, he gave little heed to
the visionary schemes of those well-meaning people
who seek to prevent the use of liquors by legislative
enactments, unsupported by popular sentiment.
There have been temperance revivals from time
immemorial, little ripples to be soon overwhelmed
by contrary and opposing currents without making
lasting impressions on the surface of affairs. One
of these revivals occurred while the firm of Bigelow
& Ailing was in existence.
There were no clubs then, and their store house
centrally located, was the meeting place of leading
citizens. Pending the revival a committee was
B

10
appointed to wait upon the wholesale grocers to re
quest them to discontinue the sale of liquors. Mr.
Bigelow was of handsome person and of a gentle
and retiring manner that attracted confidence. He
received the committee graciously, listened to their
request, and asked time for its consideratidn until
the following Monday morning. He was always
precise in pecuniary matters, and during the inter
vening time he estimated the loss on stock to the
firm, if it complied with the committee's request.
On Monday morning he informed the committee
that the firm, appreciating their benevolent efforts,
was willing to accede to their wishes if the commit
tee and their associates would suffer half the loss
made neccessary by the abrupt closing of the
business, and presented his estimate of the amount
and extended to them the privilege of verifying it
by the firm's books. It is needless to say the com
mittee declined the offer. And yet so keen was his
sense of honor and of personal accountability for
the manner of his intercourse with his fellows that
he would not continue in an occupation not ap
proved by his conscience, and soon after withdrew
from this profitable business.

CHAPTER IH.
SOUTHERN BUSINESS AND THE FINANCIAL
REVULSION OF 1 837.
THE greater part of Newark's leading men of
the period from 1825 to 1845 were descendents
of the first settlers. Born in a locality associated
with many reminiscences of the revolution, nurtured
by pious mothers, trained by austere fathers, devel
oped by exercises in the open air, with their forefa
thers' plain habits unchanged, and their natural
impulses unrestrained by foreign associations, they
were a public spirited, an honorable, a dignified, an
intelligent, a self-reliant, enterprising, handsome
body of men, who gave a tone to the town that
lasted for many years. They identified their own
and the town's interests, and^were as careful of the
town's reputation as of their own reputations, and
even as late as i860, it was said that none of New
ark's public financial institutions had failfed in its

12
obligations. Guided by this body of men the place
made rapid progress. The manufactories were in
creased in number and extended in variety.
Shoe manufacturing continued a leading indus
try, but other industries also advanced rapidly, and
among them, that of making clothing for the south
ern market, in which 1591 men were employed in
1835- In 1836 Mr. Bigelow organized the firm of
Robinson, Bigelow & Co., which a year afterwards
was changed to Bigelow, Canfield & Ingraham, to
manufacture clothing to be sold at wholesale to
southern dealers. In this industry were then en
gaged inany of Newark's shrewdest and most intelli
gent business men, and while it gave employment
to a larger number of mechanics than any other
trade, it gave promise of rich rewards to capitalists.
Although not familiar with the manufacturing
branch of the business, Mr. Bigelow had a practical
experience and a general knowledge of finances
that well fitted him for the successful operation
of an extensive manufactory He also comman
ded sufficient capital, and was fortunate in his
associates. Prior to 1836 Shipman, Robinson & Co., had
made a large sum in the same business, and by

13
arrangement, their customers were transferred to
the new firm. It will be recalled that this was the
year preceding that of the great financial revulsion
that most severely affected Newark and extended
over the whole country.
In a letter to a friend dated February 5, 1844,
Mr. Bigelow gives an interesting account of this
business experience. In the first year the new firm
manufactured $107,000 and sold $90,000 worth of
clothing, of which $49,878 were never paid. In
1840, when all the Mississippi banks failed, the firm
paid from 30 to 58 per cent, discount for collections
in that State, and almost as much in other southern
States. During its business career the firm's bad
debt? amounted to more than one third its gross
sales. But other firms of equal standing suffered to a
like extent from the country's disordered affairs,
among them Andrew Rankin, Shipman & Co.,
Waldron, Thomas & Co., and Doremus, Suydam &
Nixon, and numerous others of the highest repute
for honor and sagacity, some of which fell never to
rise again. Doctor John S. Darcy and John Ailing
gave their personal endorsements to sustain the
house of C. Ailing & Co., and James Vanderpool,
father of a member of the firm, mortgaged his

14
property for $50,000 to the State Bank to further
assist it. There was no business firm of repute in
Newark that did not suspend payment in this
unfortunate period.
The disastrous result of his last venture seri
ously affected Mr. Bigelow, but his conduct was so
manly, and his course of action so honorable in his
troubles, that public respect for him which had
always been great was much increased.
The National Bankrupt Law gave relief from
importunate creditors to many of his associates, but
the solicitations of his friends were ineffectual to
induce him to obtain peace in this way, and he paid
his debts in full and ever afterwards had the high
est credit. The settlement of his disordered affairs re
quired that he should visit his southern debtors.
The facilities of locomotion in the whole country
were rude then as compared with the present time ;
and, in the south especially, crude and uncomfort
able ; there were no steam cars ; stage coaches were
few and rough ; steamboats on the great rivers, and
saddle horses were the common conveyances. Mr.
Bigelow traversed nearly all of the southern States,
including Texas, on horseback, and although his
experience was unpleasant in some respects, for, to

15
his great discouragement, he saw how poor and en.
tirely unable to meet their moneyed obligations the
people were, it was very beneficial in other respects,
as it gave him a knowledge of the people and their
domestic institutions that was very valuable, and
that could have been acquired in no other way.
Notwithstanding his heavy losses in that section,
he never felt unkindly to the people.

CHAPTER IV.

MOSES BIGELOW & CO.
HIS marriage was contemporaneous with his
engaging in clothing manufacturing, and he
brought his young wife to a house on Park Place,
adjoining the Park House, where he lived several
years and his two oldest children were born. His
wife had inherited an ample fortune from her grand
father, and at one time he contemplated removing
with his family to one of her farms in Warren Coun
ty, but could not overcome his aversion to seeming
to be dependent on her, and patiently awaited the
subsidence of the financial storm that had wrecked
the country before commencing anew his career.
One effect of his reverses was to make him
extremely cautious, and it was not until 1846 that
he decided to again take the risks of trade. His
business ability was recognized both in New York

and Newark, and several offers of copartnership in
old mercantile houses of high standing in New York
were declined by him.
In 1846 he decided to engage in varnish manu
facturing. He felt that the trade was not suscept
ible of a development worthy of his energies and
concluded to test its experiences for a year or two
before joining his name to that of the firm of which
he was a member. This test, while not altogether
satisfactory, showed that, if the profits were not
large, the risk was small, and in 1848 the firm of
Bigelow and Price was created. Under his intelli
gent direction the business of this firm was exten
ded to all parts of the country, and the firm became
known as one of the strongest and most honorable
in the trade. Its business methods were enterpri
sing, intelligent, exact and reliable, and inspired
confidence to such a degree that the firm's credit was
always greater than its requirements. The profits
annually increased and afterwards, under the title of
Moses Bigelow & Co., the business yielded to Mr.
Bigelow, until his death, a very large income, with
which he generously maintained an expensive house
hold in his handsome residence, 1020 Broad Street.

CHAPTER V.

AN OFFICER OF CORPORATIONS.
ONE of the wonders of this enterprising and
changing country has been the multiplication
of private and quasi public corporations. These
corporations were so few and unimportant in their
operations at the time of the creation of the Federal
and State governments that they had slight con
sideration in framing the constitutions. It has been
by legal fictions that the Federal Courts have ob
tained a complete and essential jurisdiction over
them. Now that they may be organized under the
general laws, they are so numerous and powerful
as to fetter individual enterprise, and to divide with
the legislatures the power of government.
When charters were obtained by special laws,
incorporators were generally the most reputable
citizens. The officers of the old Newark corpora-

20
tions were naturally the representative men of the
town, and without wishing to detract from the
merits of their successors, I cannot forbear to say
that in innate ability, honesty, and vigorous man
hood they excelled those to whom these dignities
are now generally awarded.
Mr. Bigelow always found time amid his busi
ness cares for attention to matters that concerned
the general welfare. He shirked none of the re
sponsibilities of citizenship, and both in private and
public matters cared for the general good. He was
thus among the foremost in creating and maintaining
substantial business institutions, and none of which
he was an officer ever failed in its public obligations.
He was energetic in promoting the construction of
the Morristown, now the Morris & Essex Railroad,
and in 1835, with J. P. Jackson and J. M. Meeker,
a committee of citizens, successfully sought its in
corporation by the legislature. He also obtained
the charter of the Mechanics' Fire & Marine Insur- .
ance Company, long a leading institution. He like
wise was an incorporator and a most active director
of the Howard Savings Institution, and of the Fire
men's Insurance Company, and for some time the
latter's President. He also was an incorporator and
a director of the Republic Trust Company, the

21
Citizens' Gaslight Company, and other institutions
not now recalled
His conscientiousness was too great for him to
hold a trust position, the duties of which he did
not understand, and his intelligence sufficient for
him to learn all the methods of the most intri
cate corporate business, so he always proved an
active, valuable and, influential member of every
association with which he was connected, and the
success which has attended many of these institu
tions is as much due to his good judgment, as to
that of any other person.
Benevolence was well developed in Mr. Bigelow,
and he sought those positions wherein he could
assuage pain He was an incorporator and first
President of The New Jersey Society for the Pre
vention of Cruelty to Animals, and by appointment
of the Supreme Court, served faithfully for many
years without compensation, as a trustee of the
Trenton Asylum for the Insane, and was constant
in attending the meetings of the Board and making
inspections of the Asylum.

-»»

'-^^^^^P^S^i^^i^*-

CHAPTER VI.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.

AT no period in our country's history has politi
cal excitement been greater, and has party
animosity been more bitter, than from the beginning
of the century to 1845. The perennial questions
about national banks, revenue tarriffs, internal im
provements, and the respective powers of the State
and Federal governments were warmly, intelligently
and exhaustively discussed. The Congressional re
ports of those days are political encyclopaedias for
the politicians of these days, and in the comprehen
siveness of their arguments on these subjects verify
to a certain extent the truth of the adage, " there
is nothing new under the sun." Every man was
then a politician, and every one, with superior intel
ligence, a student of political economy.

24
Developing into manhood during this period,
Mr. Bigelow early formed opinions on these ques
tions that were never changed.
Political lines in Essex County have been very
closely drawn ever since the foundation of the gov
ernment. There are few sons that have left their
fathers' party. Federalist families produced Whigs ;
and they, the later Republicans. The earlier Re
publican families produced Democrats. There are
a few exceptions to the rule, that serve to emphasize
its significance. This continued family divergence
in party associations is due in some degree to intel
lectual processes, but, in a greater degree, to senti
ment. The influential men in Essex County of the
revolutionary era accepted the doctrines of Adams
and Hamilton and were Federalists; and their
power transmitted was sufficient to keep the people
in accord with the succeeding parties maintaining
similar doctrines for many generations. It was not
until 1856 that a Democrat was elected Mayor of
Newark. Mr. Bigelow accepted the doctrines of Jefferson
and was a Republican and a Democrat all his life.
In his fidelity to these doctrines and these part
ies, he never wavered under the most trying
conditions.

25
His intimate associates were of the opposite
parties, and his business interests and political am
bitions would have been advanced by a change, bat
he never wavered even during the hot times of the
war of the • rebellion. In his younger days he
co-operated in politics with the Van Arsdales, Elias
and Jacob, Dr. John S. Darcy, Archer Gifford,
Zephaniah Drake, Cornelius Dickinson, John H.
Stephens, Henry S. Darcy, James Hewson, and
James Thomson, and in his older days with William
Wright, John C. Denman, Theodore Runyon, John
McGregor, James Smith, Nathaniel C. Ball, Jerome
B. Ward and Frederick H. Teese, who were local
leaders of the democratic party, without seeking or
desiring public office ; but frequently representing
his party in local, state and national conventions.
Mr. Bigelow was in some respects well equipped
to be a successful politician. He had a fine presence,
benevolent manner, great sincerity, superior intelli
gence and an unsullied reputation. He was also
cautious, reticent, independent, truthful, dignified,
firm, and ambitious. His disposition and conduct
were uniform in the privacy of home life and the
publicity of affairs. He had, however, a personal
pride that withheld him from unseemly efforts to
advance his fortunes. He also abhored bribery in

26
politics, and upon one occasion, spurned a guberna
torial nomination, to be obtained irregularly, and
suffered a defeat in the state convention by a few
votes. His popular strength was not unappreciated
by his associates, but he was never a candidate for,
and never held any popular office but that of
Mayor of Newark.

CHAPTER VII.
ELECTED MAYOR OF NEWARK.
TH E republican party was in its formative state
in 1856, and divided into two factions, one of
which nominated Theodore P. Howell, and the other
Henry N. Parkhurst, for mayor. The democratic
party nominated Mr. Bigelow, who was elected.
He was the first democrat to be mayor of Newark,
and took office in January 1857. He was elected
several times until 1864, and then succeeded by ex-
Chancellor Theodore Runyon, another democrat,
who held office for one term, when a republican was
again installed.
Mr. Bigelow took office January 6, 1857. The
city then had a population of 57,000, and a variety
of manufacturing industries in successful operation,
and promised to be what it has since become, a
most important and populous manufacturing centre.

28
The imperfections in the government were under
stood, and the necessity of changing its village
forms realized. An improved charter, prepared by
the common council and citizens, was obtained the
same year, and it was necessary for him to recom
mend and supervise such changes in the city ordi
nances as would promote homogeneity between them
and the charter.
To this work he devoted himself with a zeal
and intelligence worthy of the highest praise. To
facilitate taxation, he suggested the preparation of
block maps of the city lots and streets, and re-num
bering the houses ; to extinguisji the public debt, he
procured the establishment of sinking funds, saying:
"It is unwise to create a debt without making at
the same time some provision for its extinguish
ment, and unjust to burthen posterity with the
whole debt." To procure better water, he induced
the purchase of the rights of an old private water
company, and the formation of the Newark Aque
duct Board, saying : " For an element so indispen-
sible as water we ought not to depend on the
pecuniary interest of a private company." He
advocated and procured a reorganization of the
police department, established the office of auditor,
and fixed its methods of business, organized a dis-

29
pensary of medicines for the poor and a board of
health, and obtained a codification of the city ordi
nances. It would be a work of supererogation to
continue the enumeration of his efforts to improve
the business methods of the city, to maintain its
financial standing and to promote the health and
comfort of the citizens. These efforts were unceas
ing and effective and were estimated at their full
value by his fellow citizens, who, without distinction
of party, awarded him full praise for his faithfulness
and intelligence. He was an aggressive mayor and exercised
freely his right of veto, arid in only one instance,
when he opposed the purchase of the City Hotel,
to be transformed into the present City Hall, was
his veto disregarded. He exercised a careful super
vision of all the city offices, observed the deportment
of the clerks, and made regular examinations of
their books, frequently inspected public works in
progress, and ascertained the profits of contractors,
and gave the same care to the public as to his pri
vate business.
The financial affairs of the city were his special
charge during the war, and although the common
council finance committee always co-operated with
him, his methods were approved and his plans

30
adopted by them and all public loans were negotia
ted by him. In this time of general demoralization
there were no embezzlements from the city treasury
and no corrupt practices in the city business.
It is not out of place to narrate an incident in
his official life to which the genial Governor William
Pennington was a party.
The Mayor was very conscientious in the per
formance of his duties and never shirked any official
responsibility. Believing it necessary to discipline
an unfaithful subordinate, he was doubtful of his
power, and casually consulted the Governor, inquir
ing whether the mayor had the necessary power.
The Governor replied : " Certainly ; certainly ; if the
charter does not give you the power, the common
law does ; the man should be punished." And he
was punished despite the efforts of many politicians.
In his annual message of January 1861 to the
common council, he expressed the views on civil
service reform now held by many statesmen. He
then said: "One of the most important functions
devolving on you is the appointment of the officers
of the city government, who are by law under the
general supervision of the mayor. Capable, faith
ful and experienced incumbents, who take pride in
an intelligent and faithful discharge of duties, will

31
lighten your labors and facilitate the transaction of
public business. The object of the establishment
of the several offices is the public good, which cer
tainly can be best promoted by retaining in the public
service men of capacity, experience, and fidelity.
Claims to public place based on other grounds than
the public good ought not to be recognized. The
experience acquired by a faithful and competent
officer is of great value to the public, and, if the
rule be established, that the tenure of place depends
on a faithful discharge of duty, and on that alone,
the motives to perform that duty are increased and
strengthened and the temptations to engage in
electioneering schemes and to connive at practices
inconsistent with the public interests are greatly
lessened. I respectfully submit these suggestions,
believing that the policy indicated will conduce to
the greatest good of the people and receive their
approbation." Before the end of his term the municipal ma
chinery was in good working order ; laws and
ordinances necessary for the proper exercise of mun
icipal functions had been obtained, system in direct
ing the financial affairs established, and capable
officers selected for the several departments. Be
sides, the moral tone of the municipality had been

raised. Upon his induction to office the Mayor
said to the Common Council : " The reputation of
the city depends as much or more upon the charac
ter of her citizens as upon municipal regulations."
He thought that a bad people could not be made
good by good laws nor a good people bad by bad
laws ; other and more powerful causes operate to
raise and to lower a people. He believed that laws
to be effective must be representative of the people.
And so, by precept and example he strove for the
moral improvement of the citizens ; and no one
could recall any time in his long term of office when
he had said or done anything unbecoming the
exalted position of chief magistrate.
His influence with officials and people became
very great, as was illustrated in the case of the
latter, when a howling mob of several thousands,
too numerous for the local police and military to
cope with, that had assembled during the war to
oppose the military draft, dispersed after a few
words spoken by him, as he rode on horse-back
among them.

CHAPTER VIII.
MAYOR DURING THE REBELLION.
HIS term as mayor extended through the war of
the rebellion. If it were possible to separate
democrats from republicans, it could probably be
demonstrated that as many of the former as the
latter participated in the war on the union side ; but
it served political purposes to denounce all demo
crats as " copperheads " with rebel sympathies. A
few civil officers of the government in subordinate
positions were particularly offensive in their whole
sale denunciations, and even the Mayor with his
well known antecedents, did not altogether escape
their vituperations ; indeed, upon one occasion,
refusing to act officially in accordance with the sug
gestions of a petty United States civil officer, he
was grossly insulted by him, when weak and danger
ously sick in bed in his own home, where the sub
servient underling had meanly intruded. This officer
was Falstaffian in all things but physical propor
tions, and probably enjoyed this manifestation of

34
undefined power. Such brutal illustrations of exu
berant patriotism were few, and with this exception,
the Mayor was always treated with the respect that
he demanded and to which he was entitled.
Fortunately many of his public acts and utter
ances during this period are recorded. In his
annual message to the Common Council on January
3, i860, he said : " You are the representatives of a
city with a national reputation for the superiority
of its mechanical productions, and of the industrial
metropolis of a state, proud of her revolutionary
history, her steady devotion to the constitution, and
the union, and of her individual loyalty to the
rights of every other state. Whatever differences
of opinion may arrise among us on questions of
local policy, our memories of the past, and our
hopes for the future must ever conspire to remind
us, that next to that kind Providence who has ever
watched over us, our speeches, our acts and affec
tions are due, in all sincerity, to the support of
these principles, which respecting and upholding
the rights of all, will forever preserve us, as one
people, with one constitution, and one destiny."
And again on January 7, 1862, he said : " Every
stipulation of the constitution should be regarded
as sacred by every citizen, until altered or abolished,

35
because it is the great organic law of our confeder
acy, the solemn covenant of patriot fathers, and the
political ligature of the nation."
"Whoever assails its authority, by word or
deed, is an enemy of the Union of the States and
the peace and happiness of his country. The gov
ernment organized under it, is within its prescribed
limits sovereign just as the several states are sov
ereign, except so far as they have delegated power
to the general government. Both are sovereign
within their respective spheres. It is the duty of
both, as well as of every citizen, to be governed by
and obey the constitution and the laws, as they are
expounded and adjudicated by the appointed trib
unals. Respect for and obedience to law is the
highest political duty of every American citizen.
If the law or the constitution require alteration, it
is the people's prerogative to make it by the pre
scribed means."
And again on January 6, 1863, he said : " In my
opinion the provisions of the federal constitution
do not recognize the right of any state to withdraw
from the union at its pleasure ; nor had there arisen
anything in the administration of the government
to justify, in any mode, a separation of the states
and the rupture of our national union, associated

36
with such precious memories, identified with our
proudest and fondest hopes, and so essential to our
prosperity at home, our respect and dignity abroad."
The Mayor had opposed the election of Presi
dent Lincoln, but when the chief magistrate, enroute
to Washington, passed through Newark, he was
publicly received and escorted through the streets
of the city by him ; Mr. Lincoln, the Mayor, and
the ill-fated Colonel Ellsworth riding in the same
carriage. This reception was cordial and dignified,
and drew from Mr. Lincoli;! many expressions of
praise ; and later in the war, then about to begin,
he frequently referred to the ovation given to him
in Newark, at the beginning of his term as the most
cheering incident of his tiresome and dangerous
journey to the capital.
Afterwards the Mayor presided at the great
union meeting at the court house and appointed
the relief committee of which Governor Marcus L.
Ward was the efficient chairman. He also used his
influence to obtain such appropriations of funds by
the common council as were deemed necessary to
properly equip the departing soldiers, and to pro
vide for their families in their absence ; and under
his supervision a large sum of money was paid to
these families, at slight expense to the city.

CHAPTER IX.

HOME LIFE AND FAMILY.

IT IS not becoming to dwell upon the home life
of Mr. Bigelow. It is sufficient to say that he
was a most kind and indulgent father and husband,
loved and venerated by his family that he always
maintained in great elegance. He had five sons and
two daughters, Samuel Fowler Bigelow, now a law
yer of Newark, Moses Bigelow, a manufacturer, who
succeeded to his father's business, and married his
cousin Lila, daughter of Colonel Samuel Fowler, of
Sussex County, Julia F. Bigelow, who died unmar
ried soon after attaining her majority, Henry Bige
low, who died in infancy, Frederic Bigelow, who
married Harriet VanRensselaer Bleecker, and died in
his twenty-seventh year, and Josephene Bigelowi
who married John C. Kirtland. Three only of his

38
children survived him, and his death, which occurred
January lo, 1874, was probably accelerated by his
domestic bereavements.
By his request without ostentation, his body
was carried by his personal friends Beach Vander
pool, Joseph A. Halsey, Judge David A. Depue,
Dr. J. Marshall Paul, Joseph N. Tuttle, David
Campbell, Jabez P. Pennington, and Jeremiah C.
Garthwaite to a tomb in Mount Pleasant Cemetery
that he had already prepared, and placed in the
same plot with the bodies of his father and mother
and children ; and probably every one of the large
concourse of mourners at his obsequies concurred
in the sentiment expressed by Rev. Jonathan F.
Stearns, who officiated on the occasion. "When
he died a natural gentleman passed away."

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