Yale University Library

39002014838370

llemorlal address on the life and oharacter

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lEMORIAL ADBRESS

LIFE AND CHARACTER

HON. CHARLES lARSH, LL. D.,

t

I

RiiAD BEFOBB THB

VERMONT HISTOEICAL SOCIETY,

IN THB HEPRESBNTATIYES' HALL,

OCTOBER 11, 1870,

JAMES BARRETT, LL. D.

JIVDGB OP THE SUPREME COURT,

I'nbllBlied pursuant to a resolution of tile Legislatni-e.

MONTPELIEE:
JOUENAL STEAM PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
1871.

:i\

lElOElAL ADDRESS

LIFE AND CHARACTER

HON. CHARLES lAESH, LL. D.,

BEAD BEFORE THE

VERMONT HISTOEICAL SOCIETY,

IN THE REPRESENTATIVES' HALL,

OCTOBER 11, 1870,

JAMES BARRETT, LL. D.,

JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT.

Published pursuant to a resolution of the Legislature. ,

MOlfTPELIER:
JOURNAL STEAM PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
1871.

Cf 71. 24

ADDRESS

Mr. President : — I see by the public announcement that
the designated service .for this evening is " the Annual
Address." I have prepared myself to respond to this
announcement only by reading a memorial paper.
• But before proceeding, it seems fitting that I should allude
to the bereavement -which this Society has recently experi
enced in the sudden and untimely death of its President,*
¦who was also, for all the years of his manhood,, one of its
most earnest and efficient members, officers, and workers.
This event, following so soon upon the death' of , his worthy
and distinguished predecessor! in the presidential office —
his friend and most zealous and successful co-worker in real
izing to the public the peculiar purposes which the Society
was designed to serve, — is doubly potent as a cause for sor
row; and doubly potent as an admonition to the living, how
certain is death, and how uncertain the continuance of life
atid work on earth. In such an hour as he thought not,
even as a thief in the night, the Son of Man came. May
the living lay it to heart.
While to the rising and middle aged generations of the
present day in this State the names of Allen, and Chitten-
* George F. Houghton, Esq. fKev. Pliny H. White,

den, and Baker, and Warner, and Eobinson, are familiar as
designating prominent and historic characters in the scenes
and deeds that brought into organized and distinctive exist
ence, as a body politic, what, ultimately became a member of
the American Union as the State of Vermont, there are
other names, now hardly known to fame, that designated
men whose life and deeds entered largely nnto the rudi-
mcutal growth and fruitful inaturitj- of the State, as it now
stands forth in its excellence of character..
The emergencies, springing from the colonial complica
tions between New York and New Hampshire in reference
to the territory now constituting Vermont, required the defi
ant boldness, the judicious shrewdness, the fruitful adroit
ness, the unflinching persistence, and the obdurate fortitude
that characterized and distinguished the men whom I have
named and their prominent associates. But when those
emergencies had been so far solved. that Vermont had estab
lished its independence as a State, and as such could fulfil
its functions only by establishing social order iipon the
foundations of law, then it was that the class of men to
whom I secondly referred, but did not name, became as
important and serviceable as the former class had been.
The former founded the State as a political organization.
The latter developed its capabilities, through legislation and
judicial administration, for realizing to the dwellers withia
its borders the beneficent results for which it was designed
by its founders. The State, as a political organization of
constitutional basis and frame-work merely, is of nothing
worth. It is only, when it ordains and administers law that
it becomes a vitalized and active power for the common

weal. To the most casual reflection it is obvious that the
law in its administration — the law, as the prescribed rule of
the right, duty and liability of every human being within
the State, in reference both to person and property, in all
the relations and enterprises of associated life — is the. sole
instrumentality by which the government acts in the accom
plishment of the purposes for which it has existence. The
makers and ministers of law supervene upon the makers of
constitutions of government. The former give practical
operation and eiFect to the work which the latter have
brought forth.
When Vermont first assumed an independent existence
upon the basis of a constitution of government in 1777, the
then present object of chief interest was to continue and
consummate successful resistance to thp claims and course
of New York in reference to the New Hampshire Grants.
This continued for several years, during which little atten
tion was given to the general and special legislation, and to
the establishment of a systematic and well considered body
of jurisprudence, such as was necessary, and would be ade
quate, to tho upbuilding, consolidation and improvement in
social prosperity and cultivation of the entire body of the
people as their numbers should increase and their wants be
multiplied. This is fully illustrated by the fact that the
constitution of 1777 was not submitted to any action of the
people after having been adopted by the convention at
Windsor ; by the fact — to modern minds somewhat amusing
— that the legislature, in 1779, solemnly enacted that the
constitution — that constitution under which the legislature
had been elected and was then assembled and acting — " shall

6
be forever considered, held and maintained as part ofthe laws
of this State"; — rather a marked instance of the stream
undertaking to rise higher than its fountain spring. Again,
in 1782, in the words of the preamble : " To prevent dis
putes respecting the legal force of the constitution of this
State, and to determine who are entitled to the general priv
ileges of the constitution and laws," the legislature proceeded
to re-enact, with some additions, the act of 1779 just recited.
It is further illustrated by the fact that the laws passed at
several successive sessions of the legislature were declared
to be temporary, and to remain in force only till the rising
of the next session thereafter.
The meagre, crude, and fragmentary character of the
law, as well as the meagerness of the ideas of the then con
trolling minds in reference to law, as the rule of the rights,
duties, and liabilities of all the subjects of the government,
could not be made more palpable than by an enactment of
1779 — a part of which I cite, as follows :
" That no man's life shall be taken away ; no man's honor or
good name be stained ; no man's person shall be arrested, re
strained, banished, dismembered, nor any ways punished ; no man
shall be deprived of his wife or children ; no man's goods or es
tates shall be taken away from him, nor any ways endamaged,
under color of law, or countenance of authority, unless it be by
some express law of this State warranting the same, established
by the General Assembly ; or, in defect of such law, in any par
ticular case, by some plain rule, warranted by the word of God."
" Be it further enacted hy the authority aforesaid, That common
law, as it is generally practiced and understood in the New Eng
land States, be and is hereby established as the comiuon law of
this State,"

In such a condition of the law, both statutory and com
mon, in a State not then a member of the Union, and in
controversy with New York as to the right and fact of sep
arate existence, and with New Hampshire as to territorial
limits on the East, the population of which was largely
spiced with persons who had left their homes in other Prov
inces and States as a measure of safety to themselves, as
well as for the good of the countries they had left, and in
such condition and habits of mind — such views, purposes
and modes as characterized the aggregate of the inhabitants,
the field was by no means the most inviting to educated pro
fessional men. Yet that field was most urgently needing
men of study and cultivation in general learning, as well as
in the particular department of the law, — men of clear
moral apprehensions and strong moral convictions — men of
uprightness and integrity, of effective force of intellect and
will in behalf of the right in law and morals, to be exerted
in efforts, judiciously directed, to the bringing order out of
confusion, and to resolve the prevailing chaos into a law es-
tablisbed, law governed, and God fearing State.
At an early day, and an opportune time, such men began
to appear in the persons of Stephen R, Bradley, Stephen
Jacob, Nathaniel Chipman, Amasa Paine, Daniel Buck, Dan
iel Chipman, Charles Marsh, Asa Aldis, and others, their
cotemporaries and co-workers. To them belonged the
work of asserting for the State the law in its true signifi
cance — the law as a system based on principles of justice
and equity, as embodied in the common law of England,
but to be modified, adapted, and supplemented by wise legis-

8
lation, and all to be so done and administered as to serve
all the needs of the young, crude, restless and growing
State ; and that work they did both wisely and well.
Por the present occasion I am to speak particularly of
one of that class of men — Charles Marsh.
I trust I shall not be thought to have transcended proper
limits if I range somewhat beyond merely the personal biog
raphy of one who was so conspicuous in his day as a law
yer and a citizen — derived in maternal ancestry from Major
John Mason, famous in the early scenes of Connecticut his
tory — a cousin, in the same line, of Jeremiah Mason, the
greatest of New England lawyers — a son of Joseph Marsh,
of Hartford, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Vermont, —
an uncle of President and Professor James Marsh, the most
eminent of American ethical and theological philosophers,
and of Dr. Leonard Marsh, recently deceased, one of the
most learned classical, scientific and professional scholars of
his day — and father of George P. Marsh, the statesman, di
plomatist, and autkor, and, in all departments of human
learning, accorded the first rank by the learned both of this
country and of Europe. As the object of my being called to
my present duty is that I may contribute somewhat in further
ance of the proper ends of this association as the Vermont
Historical Society, and in view of the great honor that has
been brought to the State by those who have borne, and
still bear, the illustrious name of Marsh, all vitalized by the
same family blood,, I trust I shall, not weary by some detail
of personal statistics.

9
Mr. Marsh was born in Lebanon, Conn., July 10, 1765.
He was a descendant of John Marsh, who emigrated from
England to the colony of Massachusetts in 1633, and removed
from that colony with the Rev. Mr. Hooker and his congre
gation to commence the settlement of Hartford, Conn., in
1635. John Marsh married Anne, a daughter of Deputy
Governor (or assistant) John Webster, and by her he had a
numerous family. He survived her,' and married for second
wife the widow of Richard Lyman, of Northampton, Mass.,
by whom also he had children. Most of his immediate de
scendants remained in Hartford and its vicinity, with an in
heritance of an extensive landed estate. John Marsh's
grandson, Joseph, removed in 1697 to Lebanon, Conn., and
there resided till his death. Por many years he held prom
inent and influential positions in that region. He had a son
Joseph, who also spent his life in Lebanon. The second
Joseph also had a son Joseph, who was the father of Charles
— the subject of my present reading. That third Joseph —
the father of Charles — also resided in the same town, ex
cept for a short time, till, in 1773, he removed to Hartford,
Vermont, where he settled upon land he had purchased, and
the same that now constitutes the farm of Hon. John Porter,
a little below Qaeeche Village. He had also purchased
other extensive tracts in Hartford, and in neighboring
towns. Having had much experience in business and public
afi"airs in the colony • of Connecticut, upon removing to
Vermont he at once became interested and active in the
questions and controversies that w^e agitating the embryo
2

10
State, and was soon called to stations of trust and responsi
bility. Por a while he seems to have sympathized somewhat
with those who favored the jurisdiction of New York. In
1776, he was twice chosen a delegate for the county of Cum
berland to the Provincial Congress of New York. That
county then included the greater part of what are now Wind
ham and Windsor counties, and portions of Rutland and
Bennington. It appears, however, that he was not present
at the sessions of that Congress, except for a short time in
the summer of that year. Notwithstanding that early ten
dency, he nevertheless favored and sustained the establish
ment of an independent State Government, and under it
was elected the first Lieutenant-Governor. In the same year,
1776, he was commissioned Colonel of the Northern, ox " Up
per Regiment," (as it was then designated,) of Cumberland
county. In the year 1777, on the call of Gen. Schuyler
for reinforcements for Gen. St. Clair, when Burgoyne was
approaching Ticonderoga, Col. Marsh marched thither with
the quota required from his regiment. But the fortress had
been evacuated before he was able to reach St. Clair's army. '
I have recently received a letter from the Hon. Roswell
Marsh, of Steubenville, Ohio, a grandson of Governor Joseph
Marsh, who was born and brought up in the same family
with his grandfather, and was eighteen years old when his
grandfather died in 1811. Prom his recollection of conver
sations in the fa.mily, in which.the grandfather, with various
other persons, freely participated, touching the early events
of revolutionary and state history, he is certain that his
grandfather, who was then the colonel of a militia regiment,

11
was present and took part in the battle of Bennington, as
were also two of his brothers and one of his sons. Mr.
Marsh's memory aud convictiqns are entitled to great reli
ance. He is one of the marked men of the family, and has
been for many years one of the ablest and most, honored
men of the Ohio bar. He has recently retired from profes
sional practice with public demonstrations of reverence and
respect for his ability and his worth. I have the memoran
dum of a note from Governor Hall, in which he says he
thinks that Col. Marsh was not at that battle, but that he
may have been subsequently in the service on the Hudson.
I propose to file Mr. Marsh's letter, or a copy of it, in the
archives of this Society. It is valuable as a graphic memo
rial sketch of its distinguished subject. QSee Appendix.)
After the battle of Bennington, Colonel Marsh aided
in the rear of the army of Burgoyne in cutting off his com
munication with Canada.
Although Colonel Marsh had been somewhat identified
with the interests of New- York, he was a member of the
convention that met at Windsor on the 4th of June, 1777,
and which elaborately set forth the reasons for separating
Vermont from New- York, the members re-affirming the
Declaration of Independence made at Westminster in the
next previous January, and solemnly pledging themselves to
each other to maintain their new and independent state
organization, and to resist by force of arms the fleets and
armies of Great Britain. At this convention the name of
the State was changed from " New Connecticut " to Ver
mont. He was also elected a member of the convention

12
which adopted the State Constitution, at Windsor, oh the 3d
— 4th of July of the same year.
Colonel Marsh represented Hartford in the first General
Assembly under the State Constitution, in 1778. He had
been, the .same year a candidate on the popular vote for the
office of Lieutenant-Governor. On the meeting of the Legis
lature, a count was made of the votes for State officers while
the retiirns were incomplete. Upon that count it was sup
posed that he had not been elected. Thereupon the Assem
bly proceeded to elect him to that office. It turned out,
however, that he had in fact been elected by the people.
By virtue of that office he was President of the Court of
Confiscation for the eastern half of the State. At the next
October session, the Assembly discarded the towns on the
New Hampshire side of Connecticut river that had been
admitted to a union with Vermont by the vote of a. majority
of the towns in Vermont and the vote of the Assembly in
June of that year. Governor Marsh regarded that action
to be a breach of faith, and he opposed and protested against
it. In consequence of a change in public sentiment on that
subject, he was not elected Lieutenant-Governor the next year.
He was, however, elected to that office -'in 1787, 17»8, and
1789. In the interim he represented, Hartford several years
in the General Assembly. He was also for twelve years
chief judge of Windsor County Court. In addition to his
official note, he was widely known as an active and consis
tent Christian, and a liberal supporter of the religious and
benevolent objects of his day. He died at the age of
eighty-five years, honored and long remembered for his

13
noble character, and his life of vigorous activity and efi'ec-
tive beneficence. His home in Hartford was the scene of
a hearty and generous hospitality, and was the birthplace
of a large family of children and grandchildren, among
whom were the James, and Leonard, and Roswell, already
named. As before intimated, Charles Marsh, on the maternal
side, was descended from Major John Mason, who, in 1^1, or
1^2, emigrated from England to Dorchester, in Massachu
setts. After short residences in several places in that colony
and in Connecticut, he settled permanently in Norwich, Con
necticut. For many years he took a conspicuous part in the
civil and miUtary affairs of the Colony. He was entrusted
with the enterprise of putting a quietus upon the terrific and
troublesome Pequot Indians, and he did it in the most effec
tual and lasting manner.
Colonel Jeremiah Mason, of Lebanon, Connecticut, and
his sister Dorothy, were of his descendants. Colonel Jere
miah was the father of the eminent lawyer of the same name
who died in Boston in November, 1848, at the age of eighty
years. Dorothy, in 1750, became the wife of our Governor
Joseph Marsh, and fifteen years later she became the mother
of Charles, our present theme, who was the senior of his
cousin Jeremiah Mason by about three years. In many
mental and- professional traits they bore a strong likeness.
Throughout their long lives they kept up the most friendly.
and intimate intercourse.
When his father removed to Hartford, in 1773, Charles
was a feeble boy, and thought to be unable to endure the

14
first year of border life in the forests of New Connecticut,
as Vermont was then called. He was therefore left in the
family of his sister, Mrs. Rockwell, in Lebanon, till the next
year. He was then carried on horseback behind his mother
to the family home in Hartford. In reply to some question
ing of mine, he once humorously said that when, the family
moved to Verment, he was so puny he was thought to be
not worth the bringing, and so he was left behind for a year.
He was then brought on ; but proving worthless, for any
practical us^ at home, he was sent to college.
Mr. Marsh established himself in Woodstock in 1789. In
1786 the legislature had designated Woodstock as the shire
of Windsor county. In 1787 it was enacted that the courts
should be held at Windsor till the court-house should be
built by the inhabitants of Woodstock to the acceptance of
the judges of the county court. In 1790 it was enacted
that the courts should sit alternately at Windsor and Wood
stock, with this curious proviso : •' Provided always, and
this grant is upon this express condition, that the court
house in said Woodstock, and the court-house in said Wind
sor, shall be finished by the respective towns, free of any
expense to said county, and furnished with good iron stoves,
to the acceptance of the judges of the supreme court, be
fore the next stated term of that court in said county." A
somewhat singular contingency on which to leave the matter
of having any courts at all in the county to depend. In
1791 it was enacted that the act making said two shires
should remain in force for three years after the passing of
the same, after which Woodstock should be and remain as
the shire town in said county.

15
When Woodstock was first designated as the shire, what
now constitutes the main and most beautiful portions of the
village was owned by Capt. Israel Richardson, and was
called his farm.
On the 29th of May, 1787, he conveyed to the county, by
metes and bounds, what are now the public grounds and park
in that village. In the meantime the building of a court
house was in progress, and had proceeded so far as to ena
ble courts to be held in it ; but before it was finished it was
burned in 1791. 'Thereupon another was built upon a dif
ferent location. In 1789, within what is now the village,
besides the rjidiments of a court-house, the only buildings
were a tavern, put up by Capt. Richardson, " to accommo
date court folks " — four dwelling-houses, a dilapidated grist
and saw-mill that had been built in 1776 — and a 30 by 40
,. feet barn, in which Rev. Aaron Hutchinson, father of the
late chief judge Titus Hutchinson, gathered the first church
in town. All that constitutes Elm street and its contiguous
grounds and houselots, was an unbroken forest, and re
mained such for a little while after, when it was purchased
by Mr. Marsh for £1000, and opened for improvement.
On going to Woodstock in 1789, and for a portion of that
year, while he was building a dwelling-house for himself on
the north side of Queeche River, near where he built his
brick mansion in 1805, 1806, and 1807, he boarded at a
farm-house about a mile out of the present limits of the vil
lage. He got to his office by a route of more than two
miles — twice crossing the river — once by a ford way, and
walking over a road with here and there a dwelling-house.

16
on lands that were in the beginnings of being converted into
farms. In the early years of his professional life his place
of worship was a log meeting-house on the summit of a hill,
outside of the limits of the village, and some three-fourths of
a mile from his dwelling-house. The Rev. Mr. Daman, an
orthodox congregationalist, was the minister. At this- pe
riod the .principal part of the population of the town was in
the southern and western sections — the village being in the
north-eastern, and near the north line. Such, in brief, was
the local habitation to which Mr. Marsh resorted as a young
lawyer, with the fortunes of a life for himself, a youthful
wife and prospective family depending on the man he was,
and should prove himself to be.
By recurring to the dockets of the courts in Windsor
county in 1790, it appears that the leading lawyers in the
county were Stephen Jacob and Amasa Paine of Windsor,
and Daniel Buck of Norwich. Several other established
lawyers, some residing in, and some out of the county, were
doing more or less of the business. On the old docket of
the May term of the county court of that year, Mr. Marsh's
name is entered in eighteen of one hundred and thirty-fivef
cases. On the docket of new entries his name appears for
the plaintiff in sixteen of the seventy-nine cases, and for the
defendant in five cases. The names of Chipman, Bradley,
and Tyler appear occasionally — being Nathaniel Chipman,
Stephen R. Bradley, and Royal Tyler — all thBn prominent
in the profession, and afterwards in official life. The county
court was then composed of Gov. Joseph Marsh — father of
Oharles — Chief Judge, Elias Weld and Elijah Robinson,

17
Assistant Judges. The supreme court from October, 1789,
to October, 1791, was composed of Nathaniel Chipman,
Noah Sinith, and Samuel Knight.
Prom such beginnings Mr. Marsh and the county seat grew
apa%e. The establishment of the shire was matter of strong
controversy between tho interests that favored the older
town of Windsor on the one hand, and Woodstock on the
other. The act of 1786, designating Woodstock as the shire,
did not quiet the* matter, as is evinced bythe subsequent
legislation already referred to, continuing down to 1791.
In the controversy that was on foot when Mr. Marsh located
himself in Woodstock he at once vigorously enlisted. He
told me that one object he had in making his home in Wood
stock was to do what, aud the utmost that he could to
establish the county seat in that place, and to build up a
village that would be eligible and pleasant to reside in as a
home. Woodstock as the county seat, and as a village for
residence and business, bears witness, in its history and
character, to the success that attended the efforts in those
respects, in which Mr. Marsh was recognized by all as the
leading man.
The fact may not be without interest that the interposi
tion of the Legislature was invoked to enable Mr. Marsh to
get admitted to the Bar in Vermont. By an act of 1787
no person could be licensed by either the County or Supreme
Court to practice law in this State, unless he had previously
studied three years with a licensed attorney of the State,
and on examination by the Court — a deduction of one year
/ 3

18
being made in case the applicant had obtained the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in some university or college. Various
surmises were rife as to the motives of some leading law
yers in the State, who had prompted, the enactment of that
provision of the law. On graduating at Dartmouth College,
in 1786, Mr. Marsh went at once to the celebrated ?law
school of Tapping Reeve, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Excuse
the interpolation of an incident. His outfit was an old
mare, saddle, and bridle, with which to perform the jour
ney, and three dollars in money, with which to pay the
expenses, and -they were adequate to both purposes. The
extent of his wardrobe may be inferred from the fact that
after arriving and taking up his quarters in a family for
board, the woman of the house noticed that he constantly
wore his surtout. On asking why he did not lay it off, she
was frankly informed that it -vyas the only coat he had. The
old mare, saddle, and bridle, were turned to the account of
paying expenses at the school.
After completing the prescribed course of study in that
school, he was admitted to the Bar in the State of Connecti
cut. On returning home in the fall of 1788, he found that
the law regulating the admission of attorneys, as it existed
when he left home under the statute of 1779, had been
changed by the act of 1787, and that he was thereby
excluded from the Bar of Vermont until he should have
studied two years more with some licensed attorney in. this
State. This becoming known to prominent men in Windsor
and Orange counties, a vigorous memorial was preferred to
the Legislature at the October session of 1788, whereupon

19
the following act was passed. Mr. Marsh was examined
and admitted to the Bar soon after its passage.
" Passed Oct, 17th, 1788," — "An act to operate as a proviso to an
act, entitled an act for the appointment and regulating attorneys
and pleadings at the bar,
" TVhereas, Charles Marsh, of Hartford, in the county of Wind
sor, find State of Vermont, after having acquired a public education
with a view of becoming an attorney-at-law. in this State, has been
at expenses of a regular course of study of law in the State of
Connecticut, and has there been admitted an attorney at the bar :
And whereas, since the said Marsh commenced the study of law as
aforesaid, an act has been passed prohibiting the admission of
attorneys in the State, unless they shall have studied a certain
time with a practicing attorney in this State :
'' Therefore, It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the
St ite of Vermont, that nothing in that clause of said act referred
to in the preamble of this act, shall be construed to extend to said
Marsh, but any of the Courts in the State are hereby impowered
to admit and appoint him a regular attorney-at-law, agreeable to
the known rules and customs of sucji Court, any thing in said act
contfrtned to the contrary notwithstanding," •
Mr, Marsh graduated at the age of twenty-one years. He
was admitted to the Bar in his twenty-fourth year, and set
tled in Woodstock as before stated.
I am able to allude to only two facts as indicating his
character and standing as a student in college. In his col
lege days the Valedictory Orator was chosen by the graduat
ing class, Mr. Marsh and Asahel Huntingtbn. were the
only candidates forthe honor. Huntington was elected by
the casting vote of Mr. Marsh.
The other fact is (and it was told me by Mr. Marsh him
self) that he was deputed by the students of Dartmouth to
obtain from Harvard College a charter for the New-Hamp-

20
shire Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa Society in Dartmouth
College. To do this he performed the journey from Hano
ver to Cambridge on horseback. That Alpha was organized
in 1787, and he was one of the six, out of a class of twenty-
five, that were elected members of the Society. Then, as
now, the rule was that-only one-third of any class should Ije
eligible — that third to be selected with reference to rank
and ability as scholars. Of him as a student in the law
school, I know of no traditions. By his favor I am the for
tunate owner of several volumes of manuscript exercises
and notes written by himself, as part of the course of his
instruction and training as a "student of the law. They
show that the law was taught as a systematized science,
in its principles, technical rules, and practice, and that in
the entire course, he was most faithful, laborious, and pains
taking. His rapid rise to a commanding position in the courts of
the county, as well as his appointment (the first in the State)
to the office of District Attorney, by President Washington
— which office he held till Mr. Jefferson came into the Pres
idential chair — indicate very pointedly, that both as a stu
dent and a young practitioner, he assiduously prosecuted
and successfully mastered the learning of the law.
At an unusually early period of his life as a lawyer, he
came to take rank with the most eminent ability of the bar,
and his services were sought in nearly all parts of the State
in the most important litigation, both in the courts of the
State and t)f the United States. As he was approaching
the maturity of his manhood, he was recognized as primm

21
inter pares, and for many years the first rank was accorded
to him by general consent.
He, however, was subjected to the common lot and fate of
mere professional ability and rank in this country, and, to
a large extent, in all countries, as shown and attained in the
practice of the law. The lawyer's efforts are made in the
service of his client, in private consultation, in secluded
study and investigation, in elaborate and tedious prepara
tion. His open displays are made in the unthronged forum
of the court-room. Often his most masterly strokes of power
and exhibitions of learning are only witnessed by an audi
ence made up of the judges, fhe opposing counsel, sometimes
the anxious parties, a few indifferent lawyers, and equally few
less appreciative and more indifferent laymen. Sometimes,
indeed, he has the good fortune of a larger audience, when
some exciting cause of wider, interest calls in the crowd to
witness a jury trial. But even then the interest is confined
to that audience. It dies with the occasion. The only rec
ord or memorial of the effort made, and the ability displayed,
is the evanescent impression produced upon those who wit
nessed it ; and that, beyond the time and the occasion,
passes at most into a vague tradition that hardly survives to
the next generation.
Having been, the student, and for a year the partner of
Mr. Marsh, and intimate in my association with him for the
last ten years of his life, I had an interest to avail myself of
opportunities for learning, what I could of his professional
career and character, — and what I could of the character
izing incidents and features of his efforts as a lawyer.

22
When I became his student, in August, 1839, he was
passing through his seventy-fourth year. While I remained
in his office he was engaged mainly in a few cases of impor
tance in the Supreme Court and Court of Chancery.
He participated in a few jury trials, but did not take the
burden and responsibility of putting in the evidence and
making the leading argirmcnt. His last great argument to a
jury was made for the plaintiff in June, 1839, when he was a
month less than seventy-four years of age. It was in the fa
mous slander suit of Skinner v. Grant — a Universalist against
a Baptist clergyman. He encountered, as leading counsel for
the defendant, Hon. Samuel S. Phelps, who had recently
passed from the Bench of the Supreme Court to the . Senate
of the United States, and who was then in the primal matu
rity of his wonderful intellectual powers, and was the fore
most man of his generation at the Bar of Vermont. The
venerable barrister bore from the field the wreath of vic
tory, while the younger combatant retired with honorable
wounds, but aching from the blows he received in return for
those he gave.
Por the three years and more of my occupancy of the same
office with him, Mr. Marsh was habitually at .his, office table
in his armed rocking-chair soon after breakfast,' and
remained till the hour for dinner, and again soon after
dinner, and remained till the hour for tea. When not
occupied with some matter of business, he was reading the
current public journals, or making interesting and instruc
tive conversation on important subjects, and especially sub
jects appertaining to the law, remarking largely upon the

23
legislative and judicial history of the State, and interspers
ing graphic sketches of the marked men of the bar and
bench, and illustrating by incident and anecdote. During
that period, Judge Collamer was a member of the Supreme
Court. His residence was near Mr. Marsh's office. When
at home in vacation, it was his custom to frequent the office
and discuss with Mr. Marsh the cases before, the Court, and
thus get the benefit of his suggestions and- views upon im
portant subjects of the law.
Prom all my sources of knowledge and judgment, I may
confidently say that Mr. Marsh was endowed with the high
est order and best quality of intellectual gifts, and that they
were faithfully developed and cultivated by the studies and
discipline of the best classical and professional schools of
his day, and were further continuously developed and culti
vated, sharpened, and refined, by the most studious, system
atic, and vigorous pursuit of the law by him as a practitioner.
Por breadth and profoundness of comprehension, for keen
ness and subtilty of discrimination, for rapidity and justness
of analysis, fpr clearness, strength, and force of logical ar
gumentation, for effectiveness in advocacy, as well as for a
thorough, appreciative, and practical familiarity with all the
artificial technicalities of the law, he was long recognized by
bench and bar as having no superior, and, for all those qual
ities in combination, as having no equal.
His lawyership was of a type and quality that are less prev
alent in recent than in former times. It was the result of a
profound study and mastery of the law, not only in its defin
itions, propositions, rules, and technicalities, but in its prin-

24
ciples, and reasons, and logic, — a study that not only stored
the mind with knowledge, but trained it to the most patient
application, to the largest and most facile comprehension,
to astuteness in discrimination and distinction, to subtilty,
and point in reasoning, — a study where a knowledge of the
law was necessary in order to enable one fo. get tolerably on
in practice, — where liwrnledge and mental effort were not
substituted by digests, and leading cases, and specific trea
tises, and reports whose name is legion, to which resort is
had for some pat dictum, or some case in point. Then the
library of most country practitioners contained no digest but
Comyn's, few text-books but Coke on Littleton, Bacon's
Abridgement, Hale's or Hawkins' Pleas of the Crown, and
Blackstone's Commentaries ; no books on Pleadings but
some brief hand-book of practice, Lillies' Entries, and Saun
ders' Reports. A comparison of the Bar in past generations
with it in the present suffices for commentary as to the prac
tical result of the modes of achieving the old lawyership
and the new, and indicates quite decisively which mode has
produced the abler, larger, more reliable, more accomplished,
and higher style of professional men.
In legafl drafting and special pleadings he was a consum
mate master. I was told 'by the late Chief Judge Royce,
who knew Mr. Marsh well in the zenith of his professional
eminence, that not unfrequently the court would advise less
skilled lawyers, whose cases had got swamped in the entan
glements of inartificial pleading, to seek the aid of Mr.
Marsh in extricating and putting them in techincal form and
on the proper footing, and that he never failed of doing it in

./f(

25

the best manneivfPor the characterizing qualities thus indi
cated, he attained and held his high position in the estimation
of the profession and the courts. The more general appre
ciation of him, however, was due to his marked qualities as
an advocate. In these modern day.s it can hardly be un
derstood. that the hiost effective advocate that the bar of the
State has produced, (unless perhaps David Edmunds, in his
brief and brilliant career, be excepted as his peer,) was
hardly ever known to address a court or jury in a speech of
an hour long. It can hardly be understood that he never
undertook to play the orator, or to tickle untutored ears, or
astonish rustic minds by the utterance of things beautiful
and grand, with momentous emphasis, and thrilling modula
tions. His voice was small, almost feeble. The. audience
had to listen to understand what he was saying. He talked
to the court and jury only, not heeding anybody outside.
He talked quietly and without any considerable gesticula
tion. What there was of gesture was mainly by a signifi
cant and almost speaking use of the forefinger of his right
hand. He addressed himself to courts and juries for the
sole purpose of securing the verdict and judgment for his
client. He mainly spoke to their understandings, reason,
and jttdgment, with such adaptations to their emotional na
ture as would be likely to facilitate their arrival at the re
sult he desired. The explanation of his short addresses is,
that he selected as the subject of discussion only the points
that would control in the decision to be made. The minor
and less material points he never presented himself, nor
replied to when' presented by his adversary. He took his
4

26
stand upon the fewest points possible, and trusted the result
to his success in maintaining them. He presented the case,
thus eliminated of all its trashy margin of bewildering du-
biosity to the easy comprehension of the tribunal, and urged
his views with a force of logic and a plausibility of reason
that, in great measure, excluded from the judging minds
he ¦was addressing the entertainment of any counter views
of the case. Clear in his own views, he presented them so
clearly and with such point, that other minds were clear in
their apprehension of them ; and what they so clearly saw
and appreciated, they would be very likely to be satisfied
with adopting and acting on, rather than on ol^er views,
more vague, less clear, less clearly apprehended, and of
course less influential, and less reliable as the basis of a find
ing and decision of the matters in controversy. Judge Royce
once told me of an instance quite in point, of which he was
witness and participant. After the close of the last war
with Great Britain, not a few of the leading business men
of the State sought to improve their fortunes by illicit trade
with Canada. The result -was that, under Judge Hutchin
son, as United States District Attorney, several of them
were prosecuted at the same time. Each retained some
leading member of the bar as his counsel for advice and de
fence. In this way most of the eminent lawyers of the State
were thus employed. Judge Royce and Mr. Marsh being of
the. number. As the respective clients stood in the same
peril, and upon the same grounds of law and evidence, they
and their counsel put heads together and made common
cause in the matter of defense. The cases were to be
brought on for trial at a term of the United States Court

27
at Windsor. The accused with their counsel all appeared.
It was understood that the District Attorney was to bring
on a particular case for trial, as a test case. Thereupon
• counsel held a consultation to arrange the field management
of the battle. Mr. Marsh was selected to make the argu
ment for the defense. The trial proceeded. The evidence
seeraed to be ample for securing a conviction. The District
Attorney opened the argument to the jury with exulting con
fidence. When he sat down, said Judge R., the jury seemed
to have sealed their verdict ; and when Mr. Marsh arose
they seemed to say to him by their manner that they did not
feel complimented by his undertaking to argue in defence.
He said that himself and his associates were wondering
what Mr. Marsh could say upon the evidence by way of ar
gument against a conviction of the respondent. He, how
ever, began, and had not proceeded long when one juryman
and then another began to show attention, and the audience
began to grow hushed. Soon the attention of the jury be
came absorbed and eager, as also did that of court and bar
and audience. The jurymen leaned for^yard in their seats.
Their eyes became kindled and strained, and their mouths
ajar. He went through his speech and sat down. Judge
Hutchinson arose to reply, but he had been completely un
horsed by the argument of Mr. Marsh. He was unable to
collect and bring his ideas to bear. He made a few inco
herent remarks and sat down — virtually abandoning his case
as in a kind of despair. After a brief charge from the
court, the jury retired ; but they soon returned with a ver
dict of not guilty.

28
I venture to relate another instance, in which Mr. Marsh
once said to me that his argument was the most satisfactory
to himself of any he ever made. A Mrs. Lamphear and
her son were jointly indicted for the murder of the son's
wife. The belief was general that they were guilty of the
act, and a large proportion of the community had fdfe-
doomed them to the gallows.
They were very poor, and very degraded and despicable ;
and this seemed to . give point and conclusive force in the
public mind to whatever might be construed into evidence
of their guilt. They had in vain sought the aid of the law-
yers in the county, who were accustomed to conduct trials
in court. Such was Mr. Marsh's character and standing
that they had not ventured to apply to him. He heard of
their inability to procure the aid of counsel, and the reasqn
intimated was the force of public sentiment against the
accused. Thereupon he volunteered to defend them.
The day of trial came, and the court-house and the town
were thronged by the multitudes, who were interested to aid
by their presence in securing the conviction of those whose
guilt was in their minds beyond a doubt. The trial was
long and tedious, and through the whole the clamor for their
condemnation was brought to bear to infiuence the result.
The evidence was closed and the argument was made in
behalf of the State. Tlie Court took its recess for dinner.
Mr. Marsh made his argument for the defence on the com
ing in of the Court in the affernoon. His first object was
to counteract in the minds of the jury the outside pressure
and influence of the strong prejudice and clamor against the
respondents.

29
I have authentic knowledge of his opening sentences.
Said he,
" Gentlemen of the Jury, I know that my clients are poor and
mean, wicked and criminal, and that tbey ought to be hung. I
have no manner of doubt that they have done enough a thousand
times over richly to entitle them to the gallows. But, gentlemen,
that is not the question.
"They stand charged before you with having done a specific
act ; and you sit there under the oath of God to say from the evi
dence given you in court, whether you find beyond a reasonable
.doubt that they have done that specific act ; and if you, in passing
upon that question, permit any consideration aside from the evi
dence given you in court to influence you in the slightest degree
in the verdict you shall render, you will as richly deserve the state
prison as they deserve the gallows."
This pretty distinctly presented to the mind* of the Jury
their position and their duty. How different in its effect
fr6m what would have been any deprecation of the preva
lent clamor, or attempted apology or extenuation for the
despicable character of his clients. After that opening, he
proceeded to argue the case upon the evidence, as bearing
upon the real matter in issue under the indictment. The
accused were acquitted ; and it was afterwards universally
conceded that the acquittal was right.
Excuse me for relating another instance.
In the latter days of Judge Collamer's practice, before
going upon the Bench in 1833, and when he had succeeded
to the leadership, from which Mr. Marsh was receding as
old age was supervening upon his great powers, he was
employed to- take the burden of defending a person indicted
for a grave offence. Mr. Marsh was called in as advisory
counsel. It was a case of great importance and interest.

30
Mr. Marsh, however, was not expected, nor was he expect
ing, to take part in the argument. Nevertheless, alter the
evidence was closed, Judge Collamer requested him to make
some remarks by way of opening the defence to the jury.
He consented to do so, and proceeded with one of his brief
and characteristic arguments. I was told of the scene by a
very intelligent and appreciative witness of it. As Mr.
Marsh was proceeding, Judge Collamer sat looking intently
and unconsciously into Mr, Marsh's face — his own becoming
pale and eager. The crowded audience were hushed, every
one inclining forward as if almost drawn from hi^ seat by
the intensity of his interest and emotiori — some sobbing,
and all in tears. At the close, Judge Collamer arose, .and
said to the jury that he had expected to address them in
behalf of his client, but after the argument that had just
been made, he could not pardon himself if he should
imperil his client's cause by attempting to add anything by
way of argument in his defence, and then resumed his seat.
Let these instances suffice for specific illustration ; but
pardon another reference to Judge Royce.
In a protracted conversation, with which he favored me a
few years ago, he dwelt particularly upon Mr. Marsh's pro
fessional qualities and character, and illustrated thehi by
relating. many incidents that had fallen within his own per
sonal observation. He said that, for resources and adroit
ness in conducting the trial of a cause, he surpassed any
lawyer he ever knew, — that he had seen instances in which,
as the trial was proceeding, the current seemed to be irre
sistible against him, and his defeat was seeming certain,

31
when, all at once, as if by some magical sleight, the current
would be reversed^ and bear him to a successful result.
And he said, in summing up, that what was very rare and
remarkable, Mr. Marsh equally excelled in every depart
ment of the law ; and, taken for all in all, as a practitioner
of the law, he was the ablest man he had ever known, either
in the State or out of it.
Those who knew Judge Royce— ^how judicious and judit
cial he was in all his views and opinions, how discriminat
ing and how just, and at the same time how free from
enthusiasm in his favorable judgments of men, will regard
his judgment concerning Mr. Marsh as entitled to confidence
and respect.
I turn now to say something of Mr. Marsh in his personal,
as distinguished from his professional character. Possessing
such strength, and scope, and brilliancy of mind as are in
dicated by his great professional ability and success, he was
not merely a lawyer. Though not distinguished for his at
tainments in science or refinement in literary culture, he was
largely conversant with all subjects that would grace the
high-bred lawyer and citizen, who felt an impelling interest,
and took an active part- in everything that affected the na
tion, the state, the church, and society. His cast and habits
of mind led him in the direction of political, ethical and
theological readings rather than of the classic prose and
.poetry of his mother tongue. In the departments first
named he was eminently versed. Pew men stood more in
telligently upon clear and well defined principles, or could
maintain themselves with larger resources of fact and force

32
of argument. He was hardly less a theologian than a law
yer. In politics he was a Federalist of the school of Wash
ington, and thus he lived and died, without " shadow of
turning." He was a valiant champion of the elder Adams
till he made terms and entered into social fellowship with
his arch enemy and unscrupulous maligner, Thomas Jeffer
son. Thenceforward he held him in unspeakable contempt.
He profoundly despised John Quincy Adams after his early
treason to his father by joining hands with Mr. Jefferson in
politics. In theology he was a Calvinist of the Edwards school, and
was earnest for that faith as embodied and represented in
the orthodox congregational creeds. . From his middle life
to his death he was a professing, earnest, and sincere Chris
tian — contributing largely of his means and his personal
efforts to all enterprises judiciously adapted to the spread
and prevalence of the religion of the Bible. He gave to
his jiarish the site for the meeting-house and the parsonage.
He was a strong pillar' and a faithful worker in the Church
of which he was a member, and very efficient in staying up
the hands of the ministry. He participated freely in the
conference and prayer-meetings.
He was a corporate member of the American Board
for Foreign Missions from the year 1818. He was one
of the founders, and for many years, was President of
the Vermont Bible Society. He was also Vice President
of the American Bible Society, and of the American Edu-"
cution Society. He was also one of the early members,
and most' interested patrons of the American Colonization
Society.

33
Mr. Marsh was an intelligent and faithful patron of sou^d
learning, and was recognized as such at an early period of
his life. In 1809 he became a member of the Board of
Trustees of Dartmouth College, and held the place for forty
years, and till he was removed by death. He came into the
Board at an important epoch in the history of that institu
tion. The administration of the President, John Wheelock,
who had then held the office for thirty years, was causing
great concern to some of the Trustees. Yet the majority
was, as their predecessors had been, subservient to the views
and wishes -of the President — giving a formal and unques
tioning assent and ratification to all his policy and practical
measures. As the son, heir, and successor of Dr. Eleazer
Wheelock, the founder and first President of the College,
he conceived, and was apparently acting upon the idea, that
although, under the charter, the College was a public elee
mosynary corporation, yet it was in reality a corporation
sole, and he was the sole corporator. His course of admin
istration in reference to all its interests seemed to indicate
that he regarded it as really a private foundation, in the
benefits of which the public might share under such a practi
cal governance as to him should seem meet, and that it was
his right to subordinate the public interests to his^own per
sonal views and purposes. Judge Elijah Paine, of this
State, had become a Trustee in 1806. He and some other
of the Trustees were disposed to change that course and
tendency of the Presidential administration. Mr. Marsh
added to their number, and gave the preponderance against
the policy and course of the President. Measures were

34
adopted and events were in train that, by gradual progres
sion, culminated in 1815 in the dismissal of the President
from his office. In the meantime, and following thereupon,
through the instrumentality of the President, aided by his
partisan friends, the interposition of the Legislature was
secured, and the College, under the charter, was supplanted
by a University under a legislative act of incorporation.
Thereupon ensued scenes of controversy, attended with more
or less of warlike demonstrations and violence, which gave
occasion for, and resulted in, the famous " Dartmouth Col
lege Case."
At an early day, and from time to time, this State had
been a larger pecuniary benefactor to the College than even
the State of New Hampshire. The town of Wheelock, in
1785, was donated to the College by act of our State Legis
lature ; arid there we«e several other smaller grantrs of land.
This State then, as it ever since has, furnished a considerable
proportion of the students to the College, — now indeed
furnishing about one-fourth ofthe entire number in the College
proper. In those days, Vermont was deemed to be worthy
and entitled to have an influential and efficient representation
in the Board of Trustees. Such men as Nathaniel Niles,
Stephen Jacob, Elijah Paine, Charles Marsh, and Samuel
Prentiss were her representatives. The first four were for
many years members at the same time. Judge Paine, Mr.
Marsh, and Judge Prentiss were members together for some
years. The quota of Vermont is now reduced to one. The
first four were members during all the period of the origin,
progress, and culmination of the great controversy ; and they

35
were of the most active and most effective in carrying it
through to a successful triumph for the College, as against
the removed President and the University.
I had hoped to be able on this occasion to develope with
considerable particularity and fulness the position and part
that Mr. Marsh maintained in that matter. But I must
content myself with saying, in brief, that he was the leading
brain and pen of that Board in the conduct of the warfare
in behalf of the College. In professional learning and
ability he was eminently superior to any other member of
the Board during that period. His pen for attack and
defence was the most pointed and powerful. His fearless
and uncompromising firmness, and his vigor of action in
behalf of what he deemed the right, when great princi
ples of law and morals, and great public and personal
interests were involved, distinguishingly fitted and desig
nated him as a foremost man in such a conjuncture in the
affairs of the College. I have in my possession the printed
" Vindication of the Trustees " in answer to the " Sketches "
and the "Review" of the sketches, covering eighty-two
pages of large octavo, with an appendix of twenty-two
pages more, which evinces the point and power of Mr.
Marsh's pen.
I have also in my possession copies of letters to Mr.
Marsh from the eminent counsel, by whom the cause of the
College was argued before the Superior Court of New
Hampshire and the Supreme Court of the United States —
Jeremiah • Mason, Jeremiah Smith, Daniel ^Webster, aad
Tho. Hopkinson of Philadelphia, while the litigation was

36
in the process of being put on foot in proper form, and
while it was pending for final argument. These letters
show that Mr. Marsh held equal rank with them in weight
of opinion in council, and was relied upon by them in devis
ing and carrying forward the measures that would bring the
subject matter of the controversy to a material and decisive
issue for the judgment of the law thereupon. As he did not .
participate in the final arguments in either of the courts, of
course his name was not heralded by the published' reports
of " The Dartmouth College Case " ; — a noticeable instance,
showing how the most momentous and successful exertions
of eminent professional learning and ability may have no
public audience, and no "trumpet that sings of fame."
As before remarked, Mr. Marsh continued to hold his
place as Trustee till removed by death in- 1849. To the
last years of his life he was. active, and exercised a control
ling influence in the discharge of the duties of his office.
I have authentic assurance . that, in all matters within the
province of action by the Trustees, he was individually the
most pronounced and effective member of the Board. I
know some instances in the latter years of his office in which
both President and Professors had, for some imputed delin
quency, a moving experience of his personal interposition.
I dismiss this topic with saying that, next to his family, the
College was .cherished 'by him as an object of affectionate
interest to the close of his life.
As a man in his individual personality — as a man, indi-
pendently of, and characterizing him in, his conventional
position and relations- — domestic, social, professional and
official— he was marked and noteworthy.

. 37
He was tall, more than six feet, of a well proportioned
frame, spare of flesh, but not cadaverous — of a fine and
sensitive nervous and muscular organization — of great
equipoise and self-control over a temper that was both sus
ceptible and strong. He was remarkably neat in his person
and his dress. He always wore a suit of bla,ck. His coat
retained the cut of earlier days and did not vary with the
changing fashions. He wore a broad, white neckerchief,
with his shirt collar folded down over it, and he adhered to
the ruffled bosom to the last of his life.
His mind was of the first order in quality and strength —
quick, active, vigorous, and earnest — and was trained by
study and use to the most facile action and effort.
In his moral composition he was equally marked. His
apprehension of right and wrong had no nimbus of dubiosity.
The distinction between them in his mind was as by a line of
fire issuing from an impassable gulf. What was 'settled in
his mind as right, was right and nothing else. Though he
was rapid in his mental and moral processes, he was rigor
ously cautious as to the correctness of his results. He
endeavored by all his means to be sure that he stood on
solid premises. He was careful that his reasonings should
lack no element or feature of sound and legitimate logic,
nor be turned awry by impertinent influences. Upon his
conclusions he stood immovably, fearlessly, and maintained
himself with giant strength against all odds in controversy.
He enjoyed some advantages in this respect, for he was
so constituted, tempered and trained, that, provided he se
cured his own self-respect, he made no question with himself

38
how others might regard what he thought, or said, or did.
Though he was not indifferent to the approbation and good
opinion of others, he would only secure it as it might be ob
tained by his acting up to his own moral convictions.
Hence he was plain and outspoken on all subjects of inter
est — public, social, and personal ; and though he was not
forward or intrusive — though his ordinary bearing in his
intercourse with those around him was marked by a gentle
modesty and a quiet gracefulness — still, he never compro
mised his opinions, or modified his expression of them, when
he had occasion to make them known, from any considera
tions of social complaisance or of personal delicacy.
With such clearness and strength of comprehension and
conviction, it was natural, as was the fact, that he should
have a kind of imperiousness and impatience of manner
which would be manifested as occasion should prompt ; and
often it -bore discomfortingly upon those who became the
objects of it. Still, he was of delicate sensibilities, of a
placable spirit, and a large, kind, and generous heart.
Though his manner was controlled and free from boister-
ousness when he was under the strongest -excitement, still
there was a power in it that told with strange effect. In
the prosecution of his moral convictions by word and act,
the emotion of fear as to consequences never seemed to have
been consciously felt by him.
There was a period when it was pretty extensively
thought that the judges of the supreme court were accus
tomed in their official administration to show favor to the
parties and counsel who were of their own political faith,

39
and disfavor to those of a different cast. Those judges
were of a party to which Mr. Marsh did not belong. After
some supposed experience in this respect, as Mr. Marsh was
addressing the jury in behalf of a client whose politics were
obnoxious to the court, he admonished the jury that the pre
siding judge would be likely in his charge to do what he,
could to secure a verdict against his client, — but that they
were sworn to find the facts from the evidence, and it was
no part of the judge's province to meddle with that matter
in his charge, — and in that respect it was their duty to dis
regard what the judge might say. The judge interrupted
him, calling him to account, and intimated that he would
commit him for contempt. Mr. Marsh quietly turned to
wards him, and extending his forefinger somewhat in the
direction of the judge's nose, said in a suppressed tone —
" I defy you to do it. Your honor dare not do it." The
judge quailed, and the argument proceeded.
There was another instance, when Judge Skinner — one
of the most upright and able of our judges, — was presiding
in the trial of a cause by jury, in which Mr. Marsh regarded
it of great importance to make a searching cross-examina
tion of an adversary witness.
As he was proceeding, the judge somewhat impatiently
interposed, indicating by his manner that he thought Mr.
Marsh was going beyond the limits of propriety. He ex
plained to the court the propriety of what he was doing,
and proceeded with his cross-examination. Soon the judge
interrupted him again, and agg,in Mr. Marsh explained, and
was proceeding as before. Again the judge interposed still

40
more pointedly, and with somewhat of menace in his man
ner. Mr. Marsh thereupon arose, and, with his arms folded
across his breast, addressed himself to the judge in a man
ner of cool and overmastering fearlessness, amounting al
most to defiant boldness, in the assertion of what he deemed
his right, and said, " I have made known to the court the
reason of the course I am pursuing. I regard it important
to the rights and interests of my client that I should be per
mitted to proceed. In my long experience in the courts, I
think I have learned what are my rights, as well as what
are my duties both towards my client and the court, and I
have self-respect enough to insist upon the one and perform
the other, and I am in no need of being instructed by the
court as to either. I will thank your honor not to interrupt
me again while I am undertaking to cross-examine this wit
ness." The cross-examination proceeded, and the judge did
not interrupt him again. The result was that the witness
was shown from his own mouth to have been false and lying
in the testimony he had given.
For one so highly endowed with ppwers that would have
enabled him to shine in the high offices of the State and Na
tion, and with full consciousness of those powers, he was
most remarkably free from that cast of ambition which almost
uniformly inspires such men with a desire for such offices.
He never held but two offices depending on the popular
vote. He was member of the 14th Congress (1815-1817).
He was nominated against his will and protest, and after he
had left Montpelier, where had assembled several self-com
missioned leading politicians to designate a candidate. He

41
did not heed instructions in his official action, but voted ac
cording to the dictates of his own judgment in the discharge
of his sworn public duty. Among other things that were not
savory to his constituents, he voted in favor of compensating
the members of Congress by an annual salary of $1500.
Hewas not again elected. He would have been likely to
make a still poorer show in securing popular favor in these
later times, when the crowning merit of a public represent
ative is deemed to be, that he is but the echo of the voice
of hiis constituents. The other office was that of member of
the Council of Censors in 1813.
Although conscious of his powers and ability, he was not
self-seeking. He exercised, as it were, a judicial judgment
upon the comparative merits of others and himself, and
accorded to others the full measure of their dues. In this,
too, he was controlled by his delicate and uncompromising
sense of right and propriety in all matters touching public
and "personal interests, as involved in, and affected by the
holding and administration of public office. While his father
was chief judge of the county court, it was the province of
that court to appoint the state's attorney. That office, upon
the solicitation of the bar, was tendered to him. He de
clined to accept it, for the reason that he deemed it improper
for him to hold it while his father was presiding judge of
the court from which he would have received the appoint
ment, and in which he would have to act in performing his
official duties.
The office of chief judge of the supreme court was ten
dered to him at the time Nathaniel Chipman, in 1813, was
6

42
restored to that position. I once asked Mr. Marsh why he
did not take it. He said that, while such a man as Nathan
iel Chipman was available for the place, he should have
been so ashamed of himself if he had consented to take it,
that he should not have been able to hold np his head in the
face of the public. That was a weakness not very preva
lent at any period. I think cases of it have not been re
cently known.
I may here with propriety remark that there existed be
tween Mr. Marsh and Chief Judge Chipman a very cordial
and intiruate friendship. I know of no man for whom Mr.
Marsh felt a more profound reverence and esteem.
What has thus been shown of Mr. Marsh illustrates what
was true in fact, that he was very little affected in his judg
ment and action by considerations of personal favor to
himself, to be secured by catering to popular sentiment, or
cultivating popular eclat. Though he had great respect for
the intelligent and considerate judgment of others, he had
none for the spasmodic and zealous demonstrations of parti
san popular sentiment. He regarded the vote of majorities
as a very uncertain and unstable test or evidence either of
the right or the expedient in religion, or in morals, or in
politics. And the eclat achieved by securing the shout and
song of mere popular applause he regarded with supreme
contempt. No considerations in that respect were ever sup
posed to have affected his own views, expressions, or actions
upon any subject in any. relations of life.
His entire, uncalculating, unselfish and fearless indepen
dence gave ,him great weight of influence in all matters in

43
which the action of others was to be based upon, and con
trolled by, an intelligent judgment, led to a result by the le
gitimate and substantial reasons of the thing.
While Mr. Marsh was neither waggish nor droll, he
nevertheless had a keen and ready wit, which laughed in
genial humor, or wounded with a purposed stroke^ as occa
sion might call it into exercise. His faculty of drawing the
ludicrously grotesque as well as of limning the repulsive
and detestable in conduct and character, has probably not
been equalled in the State.
His pupil and partner, and life-long neighbor and friend,
the late Honorable Norman Williams, was accustoined to
recount instances in illustration in both directions. But
time forbids that I should recite them.
I beg pardon for obtruding one that fell under my own
observation. An important cause in chancery came on for
argument at a term of the Supreme Court in 1841. The
court was composed of Williams, Chief Judge, Royce,
Redfield, and Bennett. Mr. Marsh was counsel for the
defendant. He had seated himself at the table, folded his
paper, and selected his pen for the purpose of taking
notes of the argument to which he expected to reply. As
the orator's counsel commenced, Mr. Marsh, with pen in
hand, was ready to make his notes. After maintaining his
position for awhile, and finding no occasion to use his pen,
he laid it down, and settling back in his chair, with his
head dropped upon his right shoulder, he was quietly enjoy
ing his pinch of snuff. At the end of about thirty minutes,
the advocate made a brief pause. On starting anew, in a

44
tone and emphasis peculiar to himself, he said, — "And now,
your honors, I am going to suggest one idea." " Are
you ? " interjected Mr. Marsh. " Stop, let me take it down,"
in the most quizzical tone of mock sincerity, at the same
time, with a nervous motion, catching up his pen and put
ting himself in position, he sat intent to catch the forth
coming "'owe idea." The scene was so comical in the
manner in which Mr, Marsh interloped upon the unwary
advocate — his voice and motions, and the expression of his
face', that all the judges and all the lawyers^ the advocate
excepted — incontinently burst into a spontaneous and hearty
laugh. The laughter subsiding, the advocate went on, —
Mr. Marsh for awhile retaining his position, ready for the
promised idea. After continuing thus for some minutes, he
dropped his pen, and settled back with a kind of sigh of
disappointment, saying in a most deprecatory tone, "Ah, a
false alarm after all " ; again provoking a merry laugh.
He found no further use for his pen during the residue of
the argument. «
Chief Justice Williams once said to me that Mr. Marsh
wielded the most powerful we.apon of severity of any man
he ever knew. I have heard others, who knew him well,
make substantially the same remark. And what was quite
peculiar, his most agonizing strokes were administered with
entire quietness of manner, with suppressed voice, and in
language of rigorous chasteness. He scarified, and flayed,
and slaughtered with a polished weapon. But woe to the
person on whom it fell.

45
Judge Hutchinson, in speaking to me of Mr. Marsh, said
that he had the most wonderful faculty of making any
body appear contemptible, of any person he ever knew.
Said the Judge, —
'¦ Once when I was State's Attorney a man was indicted for
stealing hay out of his neighbor's barn. The case came on for
trial, and Mr. Marsh defended the accused, I introduced as a
witness an entirely credible man, who testified fully all about it, —
that he saw the respondent go into the barn, and then he looked
through a crack between the boards and saw him pitch down the
hay and bundle it up and carry it out of the barn, and then saw
him go off with it ; and there was no sort of doubt about the theft
having been committed just as the witness testified. But when
Mr, Marsh came to argue the case, he made that witness appear
so mean and contemptible — peeping through a crack to see his
neighbor steal hay — that the jury didn't pay the slightest atten
tion to any thing he had testified, and they brought in a verdict of
not guilty,"
Mr. Marsh had been sued by a lawyer of Rutland, who
was more favorably regarded for his ability than his
uprightness, on some alleged personal claim. The suit was
unfounded and vexatious. He went to Rutland at the
proper time for the purpose of attending the trial. Instead
of proceeding to trial, the plaintiff applied for a continu
ance, making a verbal statement of his reasons, and offered
to put the statement in writing and verify it by his oath.
Mr.- Marsh objected, and stated the grounds of his objec
tion, and closed his remarks by saying : — "I beseech your
honors to forefend that man from the crime of perjury, by
not affording to him either the temptation or the opportunity
to commit it, as he certainly would do, if he should make
oath to the statement he has made to the cour^." The

46
court declined to receive his affidavit, and the cause was
ended by a judgment for the defendant.
I should not be justified in citing further illustrations.
I quote a paragraph from a memorial sketch, written soon
after Mr. Marssh's death, by the late President Lord, — one
of the keenest and most appreciative discerners of the
quality and character of others that I have ever known.
His ideas of Mr, Marsh were formed from an intimate per
sonal acquaintance of thirty years.
"His ma'nner was simple and quiet. Except that his eye was
ever penetrating and searching, he seemed ordinarily in repose.
But his temperament was highly nervous and excitable. Under
a strong impulse he was impetuous and severe. He could then
deal in sarcasm and invective ; and On such occasions one would
not choose to be the subject of his criticism or the victim of his
indignation. However, it was not in matters personal to himself
that he was apt to become excited ; but when his cause, his trust,
his country, or his faith seemed to be in danger. It ,was his keen
discernment of truth, his sense of right, his regard for fitness, his
jealousy for important interests, that made him ready to take
alarm, and roused his lion spirit. For that reason those who knew
him took it not unkindly though he sometimes exceeded the liinits
of conventional complaisance, and bore more heavily upon an
adversary than they would have dared or chosen. They would as
soon complain of electricity because the lightning sometimes
strikes. If he took stronger views of the subject that excited
him than most men, it was because he had a stronger mind, more
comprehensive of principles and relations, and more prophetic of
results. If he was sometimes more confident and uncompromis
ing, yet who is not when he knows himself is right, and the wbrld
is wrong. If he stood by his own judgments against the suggestions
of expediency and policy, yet, if there were no such men, then
wisdom and virtue would be mere abstractions, of no practical ac
count or value in a world that could not otherwise be saved,"
Mr. Marsh was not a politician ; yet he felt a constant
and absorbing interest in public affairs as affected by na-

47
tional and state legislation, and by the executive adminis
tration of both governments. He was iu correspondence
with leading men at Washington upon subjects of congres
sional and executive action, and was full and frank in sug
gestion, criticism, approval, and condemnation. I kpew of
his writing several letters, not only to the delegates from
Vermont, but to Mr. Webster and Mr. Choate. He was re
garded by them, and by many of the eminent men of the
country in all stations of political and judicial office, as their
peer, and he commanded their profound regard and respect.
He was at times in correspondence with Chancellor Kent.
Mr. Marsh was a model gentleman of the old school, and
of the highest social breeding. With great simplicity of
manner, he bore himself with a courtly and attractive grace.
He was familiar with the best forms of society, both in city
and country^ and his baronial family home was the free re
sort of leading families of New England and New York, as
well as of the poor and the lowly of his own neighborhood.
Though riches, for the sake of being rich, were no object of
his ambition or effort, and though he gave no thought to the
accumulation of property as an independent and ultimate
purpose, his very large and lucrative practice brought a
large current income, a portion of which was expended in
the .purchase of an extensive real estate constituting his
farm and homestead. He disposed of portions of that real
estate from tiirie time, till some four hundred acres were re
maining, which, a few years before his death, he conveyed to
his youngest son,' — thereby relieving himself from the burden
of its management, and making provision for the proper sup-

48
port of himself and his wife, in the accustomed family ar
rangement, during the residue of their lives. " Beautiful
for situation " was the house in its grounds and its com
manding outlook over the village, and through a wide sweep
of deligTitful landscape. It has now become the residence
of Mr. Frederick Billings, who has enlarged the mansion,
and is extensively improving the surrounding grounds. All
the residue of Mr. Marsh's income was currently expended
i.n the support and education of ids family, in maintaining
the large and generous hospitalities of his home, in dispens
ing aid and comfort to needy neighbors and dependents,
and in free contributions to worthy enterprises of religious',
philanthropic, and social interest. Aside from his real es
tate he had no self-accumulating moneyed investments.
Mr. Marsh was twice married; — first, in 1789, to Mis^
Nancy Collins of Litchfield, Connecticut, by whom he had a
son and a daughter. That son bore his father's name, and
was in all his qualities a worthy son of such a sire. ,He
was educated at the same college and" the same law school
as his father, and gave sure signs of great eminence if his
life had been spared ; but he died of consumption in 1817,
at the age of twenty-seven years. He had settled as a law
yer, and had married, in Lansingburg, New York. The
daughter died some fifteen years ago, the widow of Dr. Bur-
nell, of Woodstock. Mr. Marsh's first wife died in 1793.
His second wife was the widow of Josias Lyndon Arnold,
who was a large proprietor of lands in St. Johnsbury and
vicinity, and a part of whose name was given to the town
of Lyndon. He settled in St. Johnsbury as a lawyer, and

49
there died in 1796, aged twenty-eight years. Mrs. Marsh
was the daughter of Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Plainfield, Con
necticut. The family was, and has continued to be, one of
the foremost in social position, and most favorably known
in Connecticut and wherever its descendants have been dis
persed and settled. As the wife of Mr. Arnold, she made
her wedding tour from her home in her father's household
to her new home in Vermont on horseback, and for a con
siderable distance before reaching St. Johnsbury on a mere
bridle road cut through otherwise unbroken forests. As
the wife of Mr. Marsh she was the mother of four sons —
Lyndon A., George P., Joseph, and Charles, and one
daughter, Sarah B., who became the wife of the Hon.
Wyllys Lyman, late of Burlington, and by him she was the
mother of a son, who is now holding a commission in the
.United States Army, and of a daughter who is the wife of our
present distinguished Senator Edmunds. They are the
only surviving grandchildren of Mr. Marsh. The son,
Joseph, and the daughter Mrs. Lyman, died nearly thirty
years ago. The other sons survive. The second wife died
in 1853.
It seems proper to say, that with a wife who was meet for
him, and was his peer, the family of Mr. Marsh was of con
trolling influence in giving form and character to the social
organization and development of the growing village and
town. Both of them gave the best of their energies and
efforts, and contributed most liberally of their means, in
devising and carrying forward all plans of policy and action
that would tend to the upbuilding of a social order that
7

50
should answer to their desires in respect to the place of
their family home for all the fortunes and experiences of a
life for themselves and their children. Woodstock in its
social history is the memorial and witness of the (juality and
manner of their work. The better forms of social life
throughout the county and the State are not without signifi
cance to the same effect.
Mr. Marsh died at his residence, of an acute inflammation
of the lungs, after a short but painful illness, on the 11th
day of January, 1849. His faculties of body and mind had
not suffered the decay so common to old age. Except that
their natural force was somewhat abated, they remained
unimpaired to his last sickness, and in that his mind was
clear, strong, and active 'to his last moments. •
Upon -his death, obituary notices of various length and
fulness were extensively published in the journals of the-
time. I have alluded to one, very full, discriminating and
just, by President Lord. I .have the copy of another,
printed in the National Intelligencer, at Washington, and
supposed to be from the pen of Judge Phelps, who was then
Senator in Congress.
But I must close this . long and inadequate paper ; and I
do so by repeating in substance what I penned many years
ago on the same subject'.
To apprehend and appreciate the true measure and worth
of the man, it is essential to hold in mind the character and
condition of the field in which he .began and prosecuted the
work of his life of manhood. In tee beginnings Vermont
was known by a bad, rather than a g6od, name — rather as

51
the asylum of rogues and refugees from justice, than, as
now, as the model and proverb of virtue, intelligence, pros
perity, and happiness. The territory was wild and rugged.
Only the germinal elements of society existed. Government
was in embryo. Judicature and jurisprudence were crude,
fragmentary, and inadequate. Education in literature,
science and art, had no footing in the State. The maturing
of a complete form of constitutional government — of an
ample and well adjusted system of statutory and judicial
law — of an orderly and upright administration of justice;
the devising and sustaining and rendering effectual of the
eariy measures that have resulted in our established and
controlling religion, in the general intelligence and higher
education of the people, and in the good order and refine
ment ¦ of society, are of the work and fruits of the life,
efforts, and influence of Mr. Marsh and his associates of
kindred spirit, ability, and worth. If he had chosen his
field of action in some of the jmportant towns in the older
States of New England, he would have been known as Par
sons, Gore, Story, Mason, and Smith have been, and still are
known. His fame would have been more on the tongues of
men, in the public journals, and the printed books. Under
the fortunes and lot of his life, Vermont, in the best features
of her history, in character and position, is an eloquent and
enduring memorial of his life, and services, and worth.

APPENDIX.

Steubenville, September 26, 1870.
Bear Sir : — I have just received a letter from my cousin,
Charles Marsh, of Woodstock, asking for you some information
as to my grandfather, Joseph Marsh, of Hartford, Vermont. I
wrote to him on the 23d of September, 1869,. giving him such in
formation as I had from conversations in the family respecting my
grandfather until his death in February, 1811. (That letter has
been mislaid.) I was eighteen years and sixteen days old when
he died, and had lived in the same family with him — being the
oldest son of Daniel Marsh, who was the second son of Joseph.
My grandfather was what is called a reticent man. He spoke
only incidentally of the events of his life. What I learned
of his participation in public affairs was mostly from conver
sations between him and old men of his own age who visited
Mm, and with whom he talked familiarly of the events in which
they had participated. He was colonel of a regiment of militia
of the 'New Hampshire Grants. The sudden movemejits at Hub-
bar^ton prevented his being, there. I am certain from hearing
him, Judge Paine of Willramstown, Major Bailey of Weathers-
field, I think, also, his brothers, Abel and Elisha Marsh, and
his oldest son Joseph, all speak of the battle of Bennington as
an event in which they had a share — that they were there. I
have also heard them and my father, who was a younger man,
often speak of camp life whilst the regiment guarded the river to
prevent Burgoyne's retreat and cut off supplies from reaching
Hm. The Rev- Lyman Potter, of Norwich, was chaplain of the
regiment. He removed West about 1801 or 1802, and settled
three miles from here, on the former residence of Logan, the
Mingo Chief. We became intimate after 1820, and he often spoke
of my grandfather, of whom he was an admirer, and of early
events, and of the war. He was at Bennington, and in the camps
at Whitehall, Fort Ann, Fort Edward, and Sandy Hill. After

54
Mr. Potter's death, my grandfather's papers came into my hands,
and amongst them I found Mr. Potter's receipt to my grandfather
as colonel for his pay as chaplain of the regiment, upon which,
and some evidence obtained at Norwich, his widow obtained a
pension. My grandfather's book-learning was very limited, but he was
by no means ignorant. I have often heard him say that he never
went to school 'but one month in his- life, — but he always added,
in speaking of it to his family, that there were other ways of ac
quiring knowledge. He was not an indiscriminate reader, and in
his latter years he read but little. He had a tenacious memory,
and what he read he made his own. He had a close logical mind,
and he excelled in acquiring knowledge from conversation as well
as in imparting it. His conversation was the most interesting I
ever listened to. It was never trifling. His temper was equable.
He was kind, never irritable, and all children loved him. His
politics were of the pure Washingtonian school, in which he
trained all his family.
If his charity ever fell short, it was towards a man who spoke
disrespectfully of Washington, He was a sincere, earnest Chris
tian, but was free from bigotry. When I was fifteen years old, he
used his influence successfully to have his grandchildren — about
twenty around him — ; attend a dancing-sehool. I remember how
he reproved his brother deacon, Clark — who was a very bigoted
man. Whilst they were earnestly debating the matter, deacon
Clark, being, fond of music, beat time with his foot to a fiddle that
old Peter, a black man, was playing in the kitchen. He silenced
the deacon by boldly charging him with dancing.
In person, my grandfather was of large stature and of good pro
portion. As tall at least as Lyndon, he was broad-shouldered,
large boned, lean, of great muscular power. His weight was over
two hundred pounds, I have seen him do things at eighty years
old that none of his descendants could do. "He wore small clothes
and the triangular hat. He was a bold and graceful horseman.
He kept a chaiss, but he never used it when he rode alone.
Much of the original surveys of Hartford, Pomfret, Woodstock,
and Barnard, were made by him.
•As I have thus described him, he rests in my remembrance; It
would be strange if I were not partial to his memory.
Truly, EOSWELL MARSH.
Hon. James Baeeett.

YALE UNIVERSITY L