THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 325


and was licensed to preach by that Presbytery, April 21, 1767. He accepted a call from the congregations of Upper Octorara and Doe Run, and was installed Oct. 19, 1768, being then about twenty-eight years of age.


Soon after his licensure he married Hannah, a daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair, formerly of Fagg's Manor, and a granddaughter of Lawrence Van Hook, Esq., formerly one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of New York, who was among the first settlers from the United Netherlands.


In the Revolution Mr. Foster engaged heartily in the cause of civil liberty, and encouraged all who heard him to do their utmost in defense of their rights. In the beginning of 1776 he preached a very patriotic and stirring sermon to the young men of his congregation and neighborhood upon the subject of their duty to their country in its then trying situation.


On one occasion Mr. Foster was called to Lancaster to preach to troops collected there previous to their joining the main army. The discourse was so acceptable that it was printed and circulated, and did much to arouse the spirit of patriotism among the people.


Indeed, the Presbyterian clergymen generally were stanch Whigs, and contributed greatly to keep alive the flame of liberty, which our disasters had frequently caused to be well-nigh extinguished in the long and unequal contest, and but for them it would often have been impossible to obtain recruits to keep up the forces requisite to oppose a too often victorious enemy. Some of them lost their lives, and others were driven from their congregations in consequence of their zeal in behalf of their country.


It was a great object with the British officers to silence the Presbyterian preachers as far as possible, and with this view they frequently dispatched parties of light-horse into the country to surprise and take prisoners unsuspecting clergymen.


An expedition of this kind was planned against Mr. Foster. He was a special object for British malevolence, as he had induced so many young men to join Washington's army, which was then lying encamped at Valley Forge. Sir William Howe, the British commander, threatened to hang him to the highest tree in the forest could he but catch him. An expedition was actually sent out by Sir William Howe for that purpose, who sent a body of cavalry to waylay him on his way to the little church in the woods, where he was engaged to preach to a small party of recruits about to join the army at Valley Forge. Mr. Foster was informed of the expedition against him before leaving home by a Quaker neighbor, who, although a friend of the British, was also a friend of Mr. Foster, and urged him not to meet his engagement; for if he did he would certainly be hanged and his property destroyed as had been threatened. Mr. Foster, however, insisted on fulfilling his engagement, and after removing his family to a neighboring farmer's house, and his library and

valuables to another, he started off to meet the recruits.


In the mean time some one had sent word to Gen. Washington of his danger, who at once sent a company of cavalry to protect him in the little church when he was preaching to the recruits. The British soldiers, after proceeding about twelve miles on their way, were informed by a Tory tavern-keeper that their purpose was known, and that a few miles farther on parties of militia were stationed to intercept them, on hearing which they returned to Wilmington without having accomplished their object.


Mr. Foster died on the 30th of September, 1780, at the age of forty years, having been pastor of the Octorara Church, in connection with Doe Run, about twelve years. He had been preaching, and on his walk home was overtaken by a heavy rain, which brought on the attack that terminated his life.


Mr. Foster was evidently a man of very superior mind; and was much esteemed and respected by all who knew him for his solid sense and unaffected piety.


The congregation procured a tombstone to be placed over his remains in the Octorara Churchyard, which bears the following inscription, written by the Rev. Mr. Carmichael :


" HERE LIES ENTOMBED

WHAT WAS MORTAL OF THE

REV. MR. WILLIAM FOSTER,

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE

SEPT THE 30TH, 1780,

IN THE 41st YEAR

OF HIS AGE.


Foster, of sense profound, flowing iu eloquence,

Of aspect comely, saint without pretence,

Foster, the brave, the wise, the good, thou'st gone

To reign forever with thy Saviour on his throne,

And left thy widowed charge to sit and weep alone.

If grace and gifts like thine a mortal could reprieve

From the dark regions of the dreary grave,

Thy friend, dear shade, would ne'er inscribe thy stone,

Nor with the church's tears have mixed his own."


Mr. Foster left eight children, four sons and four daughters, the oldest about thirteen and the youngest one year of age. His will, executed the day before his death, contained, among others, this provision : "My son Samuel to be made a scholar."


This son became the father of our subject, Henry D. Foster. The estate left by Mr. Foster was not large in point of value, but Mrs. Foster was a very prudent, managing woman, and, under the blessing of Providence, was enabled to raise her children until they were of an age to take care of themselves.


Alexander W. Foster, the second son, studied law with a Mr. Burd, who had an office corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets, in Philadelphia. After his admission to the bar he was for a while in a law partnership with George Clymer. In 1796 he and his brother Samuel decided to remove their mother and the remainder of the family out to the western part of the State, where there was a wider field for their talents They settled in Crawford County, purchas-


326 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


ing a farm on Conneaut Lake, six miles from Meadville, for their brothers William and James to cultivate, where their mother and sisters lived with them.


In 1802, Alexander W. Foster married Jane T. Heron, the young and beautiful daughter of Capt. I. G. Heron, a retired officer of the Revolutionary war, then living in Franklin, Venango Co. In 1812 he moved to Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., and practiced his profession there for many years. He with his brother, Samuel B., were among the most eminent lawyers of Western Pennsylvania, and were long re-cognized as the leaders of the bar. He devoted half a century to the labors of his profession. and died in Mercer, 1843, at the age of seventy-two years, after a short illness, resulting from a sudden cold taken while preparing cases to take before the Supreme Court in Pittsburgh. He left a son, Alexander W. Foster, Esq., who became a prominent member of the Pitts-burgh bar. Of his professional standing we have spoken before.


Samuel Blair Foster, the oldest son of the Rev. William Foster, and the father of Henry D. Foster, studied for the ministry at Princeton College, but never preached. He afterwards studied law with his brother, Alexander W., and became an eminent lawyer in Mercer County. Ile was one of the most brilliant lawyers in the State; his eloquence and ability were of a most striking character. He was profoundly versed in the law, and his counsel was much sought after by those who had intricate law cases. His career, although so short, was remarkably brilliant. He did at the early age of forty years.


He married Elizabeth Donnell, a daughter of Judge Donnell, of Northumberland County. The Donnells were prominent in public affairs in that county.


He left a son, who was destined to become one of greatest lawyers in the nation, and eminent as a statesman. Henry D. Foster received his education at a college in Meadville. He came to Greensburg in 1826, and began the study of law in the office of his uncle, Alexander W. Foster. He often spoke during his lifetime of the following incident, which first determined him to become a lawyer. When about ten years of age, while living in Mercer, he attended court one day for the purpose of hearing his father making a speech in an important case on which he was then engaged. His father's brilliant and eloquent address so touched the heart and imagination of young Foster that he fully made up his mind on leaving the court-house to become a lawyer also, like his father, and to emulate him in his fame.


He completed his law studies under his uncle's instructions, and was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County on the 26th of. August, 1829, when not quite twenty-one years of age. His certificate of admission to the bar shows that he was examined by John B. Alexander, R. B. McCabe, and Joseph H. Kuhns, Esq., and who on examination recommended him as qualified for admission. His ability as a lawyer was soon recognized, and he rapidly rose to the highest ranks in his profession. He became thoroughly devoted to his profession, and the allurements of political life were not strong enough to make him neglect his legal studies. He was the lawyer and the jurist combined in one, the practitioner as well as the expounder of the law. His mind was an eminently legal one, which, combined with an unerring judgment and an incisive manner, made him a formidable opponent in a lawsuit. He had no liking for criminal cases, but when he was engaged in one he invariably took the side of the defense. Many incidents are related of his habits as a lawyer, of the remarkable insight he had into the character of men, and his ability to handle them. His power over a jury was considered phenomenal, and very few Cared to oppose him before a jury. He had an extensive practice and might have become wealthy, but was prevented by his extreme liberality to the needy and to his friends. He was generous to a fault. In him the oppressed found a defender, the wronged an advocate, the poor a dispenser of alms.


Judge Gibson, Judge Thompson, and D. Foster were said to be the three great land-lawyers in Penn-sylvania. Judge Gibson has been heard to say that he regarded Mr. Foster as the greatest land-lawyer in the State.


No man in the State made a better reputation as a statesman than Mr. Foster. He took a commanding position from the time he first entered the political arena. When yet a young man, as far back as 1828; he was noted for his stanch support of the Jackson Democracy. He wait three times elected to Congress, and twice defeated. He first served in the Congress of 1842, again in 1844, and for the last time in 1870. He ran for Congress in 1866, but was defeated, and again in 1868, when the returns showed a majority in his favor, but the seat was cm tested by Mr. Covode, his opponent, who succeeded in preventing him from taking his seat. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature during the sessions of 1857 and 1858, and in 1860 was the Democratic candidate for Governor, his successful competitor being Andrew G. Curtin. It was during this campaign that he had his controversy with Stephen A. Douglas, who wanted Mr. Foster to take sides against Breckenridge, which Mr. Foster refused to do. Breckenridge was a cousin of Mr. Foster. This fact had, however, nothing to do with his position in that famous contest.


Mr. Foster's career in Congress was a notable one. It is said that on the occasion of his famous speech on the tariff question, in 1846, he was warmly congratulated by John Quincy Adams, who made the remark that Foster " was the coming man." In the tariff debates of that day he left a record of which any Pennsylvanian might be proud. His bold, manly, clear, and convincing arguments against Mr. Homes, of South Carolina, to repeal the duty on


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 327


railroad iron is a master-piece in itself, both in point of close reasoning and logical abduction, while it demonstrated the fact that he was thoroughly imbued with a sense of the great importance of the iron industries of the State. The tariff then in force was the highly protective tariff of 1842. Bills were introduced in Congress to repeal or modify it and adopt a universal ad valorem principle.


Mr. Foster was offered a number of times, during the period his party was in the majority in this State, the nomination for the judgeship of the Supreme Bench, which he always refused. His only ambition, if, indeed, he had ambition outside the realms of the law, was to become a United States senator. He was supported for the Senate by that wing of the Democracy which refused to support John W. Forney for that position. This defection in the Democratic ranks resulted in the election of Simon Cameron. Senator Cameron was always an admirer of Mr. Foster, and after his nomination for the governorship he offered him a present of a thousand dollars to help pay his election expenses, remarking, as he made the offer, that though opposed to him in politics he liked him, and wanted to serve him. Mr. Foster, of course, refused to accept the gift. In times of great danger to his party he was always selected as the one of the few men who could secure victory to its banners.


He was a man universally loved and respected; his manners were always gentle and attractive, which made him hosts of friends wherever he went. He was the soul of honor, and his life was without stain or reproach.


In personal appearance he was prepossessing and very gentlemanly. He was of medium height, very erect and active. His countenance was of a benevolent type, and an affable expression always dwelt upon it, and lighted it up with a glow that no vicissitudes of fortune, no asperity of political contests, no malevolence ever changed. His eyes were light blue and intellectual in expression, though mild as those of a child. His forehead at sixty-five was without a wrinkle,—" on his brow shame was ashamed to sit." The shape of his head indicated a more than ordinary capacity of mind. His hair, dark in his younger days, turned gray, and then white as he reached old age, he wore in a negligent fashion which became him well.


He married Mary Jane Young, the youngest daughter of Judge John Young, and by her had five children, all daughters,—Mary DeCharms, married to F. Z. Schellenberg, Esq., of Irwin Station ; Elizabeth Donnell, married to Capt. A. K. Long, U.S. A.; Francis Forrester, died at the age of seventeen, unmarried ; Emily F., married to F. A. Hopper, Esq., of Irwin Station ; Hetty Barclay, married to George C. Hewett, Esq., of Philadelphia.


He died Oct.16, 1880, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. F. A. Happer, at Irwin Station, Westmoreland Co., in the seventy-second year of his age. His death, by a singular coincidence, occurred exactly eight years after the death of his wife. The day of their deaths was also the birthday anniversary of their daughter, Mrs. F. Z. Schellenberg.


No man's death for many years in this part of the State called forth such unstinted expressions of sorrow. He was a man singularly fortunate in the possession of the esteem and love of the community.


ARCHIBALD A. STEWART.


Archibald A. Stewart died suddenly on Sunday, July 3, 1882. Mr. Stewart was born in the county of Indiana, this State, March 3, 1833, and at the time of his demise was in the forty-ninth year of his age. He was of Irish ancestry, but of American birth. He graduated at Jefferson College, Washington County, in 1854, at which time he commenced the study of the law under the Hon. Henry D. Foster, lately deceased, and was admitted to the Greensburg bar two years thereafter, where he continued the practice of his profession until his untimely death. In the mean time, however, he had been twice successively elected district attorney of this county, filling the position with distinguished ability.


Mr. Stewart was a noble-hearted man, generous to a fault, and many of the poor and needy and distressed have cause to fondly remember him for his long-continued and disinterested benevolence, for verily he was ever the fast friend of the needy and indigent. He was a man of superior intellectual attainments, well versed in the science and in the practice of the law, and at all times and under all circumstances an honor to his profession. His personal popularity was almost unbounded. He had but few enemies, and they were mostly of such a caste that their enmity was always preferable to their friendship. The deceased was an ardent, unswerving, and uncompromis ing Democrat, and had been such from his youth up, his unalterable attachment to the Democratic creed ever " growing with his growth and strengthening with his strength," always battling in the front ranks, and disbursing his means liberally for the success of the cause he had ever championed. 1


1 The following are the resolutions adopted on the sad occasion by his fellow-members of the bar:


" RESOLUTIONS.


"Resolved, That the Bench and the Bar have learned with sincere regret of the unexpected death of A. A. Stewart, Esquire, in the prime of life. In the morning the shadows are long, at noon they are gone; so it is with the race of man. In the morning of life he indulges in a long expectation, but these fond hopes often vanish like morning shadows before the meridian of life is reached.


" Resolved, That the early death of Mr. Stewart, in the midst of usefulness, will be felt by the Bar, lamented by the community at large, and mourned with sincere and profound regret by the masses who crowded the Sessions. Whoever was obnoxious to the stroke of justice, or in danger of the penalties of the law, he was eager, zealous, and faithful to defend. This eccentricity brought him much labor, often ill requited, but many and lasting personal friends.


" Resolved, That Mr. Stewart's kind and benevolent disposition, his


328 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


HENRY CLAY MARCHAND.


Henry Clay Marchand, one of the most distinguished lawyers that ever belonged to the Westmoreland bar, was born March 9, 1819, and died January 16, 1882, leaving a record of which, for its singular integrity of character, purity of purpose, and intellectual clearness in the domain of forensic disputation, all Westmorelanders may well be proud. He studied law in the office of his older brother, Albert G., and when admitted to the bar, May, 1840, he at once became partner with his brother in the same office. This partnership continued till the death of his brother in 1848.


This was a new and important era in his life. He was the youngest partner of the firm. The prop on which he had leaned was suddenly taken away, and he was bound to rely on his own resources ; but it seems that the mantle of his departed and lamented brother fell on him, and he was enabled to carry on the work as if by the accumulated wisdom and judgment of his deceased brother. He continued to do the business of the office, which increased from year to year, alone until 1864, when John A., son of Hon. Albert G. Marchand, deceased, was admitted to practice, when a partnership was formed which continued uninterrupted till his death.


Henry C. Marchand practiced law at the Greensburg bar for forty-one years. By his diligence and devotion to the duties of his profession he stood for many years prior to his death among the foremost at this bar.


He was, without any doubt, one of the most esteemed, trustworthy, honorable, and successful lawyers in our county ; as a jurist and a counselor he had few superiors in the State. He enjoyed the confidence of the court, the bar, the community, and the general public that knew him in such a measure as few of his contemporaries have.


Whilst he was true to his clients, whose interests he carried in his heart as a sacred trust committed to him, and to the promotion of whose cause he devoted his best abilities, yet he was also loyal to truth and justice, and endeavored to advance the rights and common interests of humanity.


He was always honorable and just towards his colleagues, and did much to ennoble his profession. Possessing genius, nobility of character, he added dignity to his calling.

Forgetful of himself, and always anxious to make others happy, he was truly a man of toil.


Few men have been able to accomplish what he has done, because they either shrink from the toil which he endured cheerfully, or lack the well-digested system by which he worked. He was a pattern to men in his own as well as in other professions.


manly bearing, and his sympathy for every form of human frailty and distress indicated a largeness of heart that won for him hosts of friends and admirers. His fidelity to all the trusts confided to him, either legal or personal, were strictly righteous, fair, open, and honorable."


He was a man of no outward show, but a man of solid worth. He was naturally timid and reserved with strangers, modest, and shrank from public notice ; but among his friends and in his own family he was frank, cordial, full of sympathy, and manifested the kindest interest in all.


As those know best who have seen him oftenest and known him longest, a kinder heart never beat, and tenderer feelings never pulsated in human breast than filled his bosom. This is said not as a matter of sentiment, but as a matter of fact, and of honest conviction, based on our personal knowledge of his character. His heart could always be touched by an appeal on behalf of a worthy cause, and promptly responded to every call coming from the poor and needy. He did not love in word, but in deed and in truth. He never sounded a trumpet before him when he did deeds of charity. He did not let his left hand know what his right hand did. There are many who will miss him, but they will not soon forget the kindness which they received at his hands, known only to themselves and to him who bestowed them.


Now that he is gone we recall his character and his noble life, well rounded. We think of him as the esteemed citizen and the true patriot, as the learned jurist and eminent counselor, the dutiful son and the kind brother, the affectionate husband and the faithful friend, the lover of truth and defender of every Christian virtue. He was a good man, for from his hand flowed deeds of love and acts of kindness. He was a true man ; no guile was found on his lips and no deceit in his heart. He was a just, man, loved integrity, and sought to promote righteousness. He was an honest man, " the noblest work of God," devoting his best talents to promote the highest interests of humanity. He was a magnanimous man; he could forgive a foe and forget an injury. He was a religious man ; he had the profoundest reverence for God and sacred things, and had implicit faith in the atonement of Christ.


" His life was gentle; and the elements

So mixed in him that nature might stand up

And say to all the world, This was a man.

He was a man, take him for all in all ;

We shall not soon look on his like again."


The memorial passed by the bar which met on the occasion of his death, as is their custom on the death of one of its members, to express some token of respect for the deceased, so clearly expresses the salient features of his professional characteristics that it deserves a place in this inadequate sketch.


The bar met in pursuance to adjournment on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 1882, at one o'clock P.M., in the court-room, and at the request of the former chairman, Hon. Judge Hunter, the Hon. Joseph H. Kuhns, being the oldest surviving member of the bar, and chairman of the committee on resolutions, took the chair. The committee on resolutions reported the following memorial, to wit:


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 329


"The committee appointed to express the sentimentp of the members of the bar touching the death of Henry C. Marchand, Esq., respectfully report:


"The bar of Westmoreland County were touched with profound sorrow on learning of the death of Henry C. Marchand, Esq., and as a token of their high regard for him, not only as a member of the bar, but as a citizen, they desire to record here this memento of the impression he has left upon their minds. The marked simplicity of his character, the solidity of his judgment, his sincerity, earnestness, and uncomplaining toil all indicated a man easy of approach, wise in counsel, faithful and zealous in action. He made no claim to mere forensic display, and it would not be in place to mar his unique character as a practitioner at the bar by asserting it here. His chief power lay in a special ability to prepare and arrange to the best advantage all the details useful in a legal contention, and to select with skill and sound legal discrimination the authorities bearing on the litigated point. In this sphere of professional excellence he had, perhaps, no superior at the bar in Westmoreland County. As a citizen and member of society, he was punctual and faithful in the discharge of the duties of life. He was sincere in hie friendships, and in his intercourse with the bar and his fellow citizens he was courteous, cheerful, and decorous. His loss will be felt by all classes of society, and especially by those with whom he had daily business relations. He was the strength and pillar of the family circle in which he moved, the sunshine there of warm and loving hearts. "In view of this great bereavement, we extend to his family and friends the profound and sincere condolence of the members of the bar."


HON. JOSEPH H. KUHNS.


Bernard Kuhns, of German descent, was one of the early settlers in Northampton County. Before 1780 two of his sons, John and Philip Kuhns, settled on a six-hundred-acre tract of land some two miles from Greensburg, which their father had years before patented. The latter was elected sheriff of the county in 1798, and died March 28,1823, in his sixty-second year. His wife was Eliza, the youngest daughter of Dr. David Marchand. Their children were Jacob, David, Daniel, John, Samuel, Joseph Henry, Reuben, and Eliza (married William H. King). They all lived in this county except John, who removed to Putnam County, Ohio, where he became a judge of the courts. Daniel and Joseph Henry Kuhns are the only two now living. The latter was born in September, 1800, in a log house (now weather-boarded), the property of Judge James A. Hunter, and located on West Pittsburgh Street. He first attended school in the old log school-house by the spring on the commons (now part of St. Clair Cemetery, where the superintendent's house is). It was then taught by " Master" Williams. He subsequently attended the academy, and then went to Washington College, where he graduated in 1820. He read law with Maj. John B. Alexander (whose sister he afterwards married), and was admitted to the bar about 1823. He first practiced, but for a short period, with Maj. Alexander, and subsequently by himself. He soon acquired a very extensive and lucrative practice both in the Westmoreland and Supreme Courts. He is now the eldest ranking member of the bar, but retired some five years ago from the practice. In 1850 he was elected by the Whig party to Congress from the district then composed of Westmoreland, Indiana, Somerset, and Fulton Counties. He served one term in the national House of Representatives, but declined a re-election, preferring to resume his profession in which lie stood so high. He was first married, in 1825, to Margaret Alexander, of Carlisle, by whom he had four sons and four daughters, of whom one is H. Byers Kuhns, a leading attorney of the bar. After her death, in 1850, he married Harriet, widow of Hon. William Jack, by whom he had two sons,—Joseph H., Jr., superintendent of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and Lewis, a contractor on the same. When Greensburg was laid out his father and uncle, John and Philip Kuhns, bought lots in it, then covered with fine oak timber, which they cleared off and built upon.


Mr. Kuhns is one of the oldest citizens of the town, and a man whose life has been a useful and successful one, reflecting honor on his ancestors, who were among the earliest pioneers in this region.


JAMES CUNNINGHAM CLARKE was born in Laughlinstown, Westmoreland Co., Pa., on Feb. 2, 1823; removed with his father's family to Blairsville, Pa., in 1831 ; entered as a pupil in the private classical school of Rev. David Kirkpatrick in 1837 ; finished his education at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pa., where he graduated in 1843; same year commenced reading law with the late Judge Coulter in Greensburg ; was admitted to the bar in 1846, and entered on the practice of his profession in Westmoreland County, where he has since continued to reside.

He has identified himself with the various public improvements of his adopted residence, such as the establishment of the St. Clair Cemetery, the erection of the gas-works, serving many years in the Board. of Burgesses and in the School Board, in the latter of which he served (with the exception of a single year) from 1859 till 1881, at which time he resigned. In religion a United Presbyterian. In politics a Democrat, always taking a deep interest in the success of the party to which he was attached.


In 1874 he was honored by the party with election to the State Senate, where he served the sessions of 1875-76, and was re-elected in the fall of the latter year for the term of four years, and served in su,13 capacity during the term for which he was elected.


In 1852 was prominently mentioned as a competent and suitable person to fill the vacancy in the Board of Canal Commissioners caused by the resignation of William Searight.


JOHN LATTA was born in Unity township, Westmoreland Co., Pa., on March 2,1836. In early life he had the benefit of an English academical education at Eldersridge and Sewickley Academies. In 1857 he entered the law-office of D. H. Hagen, Esq., at Pittsburgh, pursuing and completing the study of law at Yale University, and was admitted to the Westmoreland bar in November, 1859. He took an active part in the Presidential campaign of 1860, and in every political campaign since. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1864 and 1872. In the latter convention he voted with the minority of the Pennsylvania delegation against the nomination of Greeley.


330 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


In 1862 he was defeated for the nomination of district attorney by the late A. A. Stewart, Esq., but was nominated the next year for the State Senate, and was elected by the counties of Fayette and Westmoreland.


In 1871 he was elected to the Legislature, and reelected in 1872. He was defeated for the nomination for Congress in the spring of 1874 by the Hon. Jacob Turney, but was nominated by the Democratic State Convention which met in Pittsburgh later in the summer for Lieutenant-Governor, and was elected in the fall of same year. He is now engaged in the practice of his profession in Greensburg, Pa. He has served as a school director for the past fourteen years, and as vestryman in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a descendant of Scotch-Irish ancestry.


ÆSOP'S FABLE.


Æsop relates this fable : Once upon a time a man and a lion were journeying together, and came at length to high words which was the braver and stronger of the two. As the dispute waxed warmer they happened to pass by on the roadside a statue of a man strangling a lion. " See there!" said the man, " what more undeniable proof can you have of our superiority than that ?" " That," said the lion, " is your version of the story ; let us be the sculptors, and for one lion under the feet of a man you shall have twenty men under the paw of a lion." The moral is obvious. And as it has not been our habit to pass panegyrics upon the living, we mean by this that the bar of Westmoreland to-day stands as high as it has ever done in the annals of the past in this Commonwealth, and that the reputation given it by those distinguished men who adorned it with their legal wisdom and erudition has not suffered diminution by our seniors now in practice, and will not be abated when the rising juniors shall have taken their places.


ROLL OF ATTORNEYS ADMITTED TO PRACTICE AT

THE WESTMORELAND BAR.


This list having been made up from the minutes in the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions Courts, although as near perfect as it is possible to be under the circumstances, may not in the first portion be entire. In some of the minutes no admission is noted for the space of several years. The names of some prominent attorneys do not appear at all. No other list has been ever made that we know of other than this. As a rule, the term only at which the attorney was admitted is given. Under the head of " remarks" is noted whether the admitted attorney was a regular student at this court, if he was a practicing attorney at some other bar and thus admitted for the occasion, or if on being admitted at another bar he came here to practice. In the first instance he is marked " regular," in the next the county bar at which he appears to have been a member is given, or simply the word " motion," and in the third instance the word " cer tificate" is used, which also indicates in some instances that the student, being a graduate of some college competent to give a degree which would admit him to practice the law, was entitled to admission by virtue of such degree. The attorney making the motion for admission is also given, unless where the record omits the name, when the word " motion" is used.


Attorneys

Day or Term when Admitted

Remarks

Attorney making Motion

Michael Huffnagle.

Samuel Erwin

Andrew Scott.

H. H. Brackenridge

James Berwick.

David Bradford.

Thomas Duncan.

George Thompson.

John Woods.

John Young.

Daniel St. Clair.

David Reddick.

Jacob Nagle.

Steel Sample.

Henry Woods.

David McKeehan.

Hugh Roes.

George Armstrong.

Joseph Pentecost.

Henry Purviance.

Arthur St. Clair, Jr.

Paul Morrow.

Thomas Collins.

Thomas Headon.

James Morrison.

Thomas Creigh.

Abraham Morrison.

Samuel Mellon.

Jas. Montgomery.

John Lyon.

Thomas Nesbit.

John Siminson.

William Rannells.

Parker Campbell.

Thomas Meason.

David Hays.

John Kennedy.

C. S. Semple.

Samuel Deemer.

William Ayres.

Robert Callender.

Robert Allison.

Ralph Martin.

Samuel Harrison.

Joseph Park.

Joseph Weigley.

Alex. Foster.

William N. Irwine

Jonath. R. Reddick,

Jan. 5, 1779

“ ”

Oct. T., “

April T. 1781

“ ”

“ ” 1782

Jan. T., 1783

“ ” “

" 1784

" 1789

" “

July 6, 1790

Oct. 4, “

Oct. 6, 1791

June T., 1792

Dec. T., "

“ ”

Mar. 11, 1793

Mar. 12, "

Mar. S., 1794

June S., “

Mar. S., 1795

June S., "

Dec., “

" “

Mar. 8., 1796

June 8., "

“ ”

Dec. T. "

June T., 1797

Sept., “

Mar. S., 1798

June T., "

“ ”

Sept. 8., "

“ ”

“ ”

Dec. S. "

Mar. 8., 1799

“ ”

“ ”

Sept. S., 1800

Mar. 8., 1801

June T., "

Sept. T., "

Dec. T., "

“ ”

June T., 1802

Mar. T., 1804





Washington Co.

“ "



Regular.

Washington Co.


Allegheny Co.





Washington Co.

Regular.

“

Allegheny

“ ”



Certificate.

“

“

“

Motion.

Certificate.


Motion.

“

“

“

“

“

“

“

“

“

“

Fayette Co.

Motion.

"


"

"

Sample.

“

Huffnagle.

Smith

“

Brackenridge.

Smith.

“

“

Ross.

Woods.

Smith

“

Woods.

Woods, John.

Ross.

Ross, James.

Woods.

Ross, James.

Young.

Woods, John.

Young.

“

“

“

“

Woods, John.

“ ”

Young.

Woods.

Ross, James.


Armstrong.

Young.

“

Morrow.

Sample.

McKeehan.

Sample, S

“

Kepple.

Callender.

Armstrong, Geo.

Ross, John.

Morrison.

Young.

Sample.

Collins.

Armstrong, Geo.

Othro Srader.

Henry Haslet.

Meshack Sexton.

Henry Baldwin.

William Ward, Jr.

J. B. Alexander.

Samuel Guthrie.

Samuel Selby.

James M. Biddle.

Walter Forward.

Charles Wilkins.

Samuel Massey.

John Reed.

H. M. Brackenridge

Janice Wells.

John L. Farr.

Magnus M. Murray

Daniel Stannard.

James M. Kelly.

Richard Wm Lain

Robert Findley

Neville B. Craig.

Guy Hicox.

John H. Chaplain.

John M. Austin.

Richard Coulter.

James Carson.

Samuel Douglass.

John McDonald.

John Dawson.

Joseph Beckett.

Samuel Kingston.

Charles Shaler.

“ ”

“ ”

June T., "

Sept. T., "

“ ”

Dec. T., "

" "

Mar. T., 1808

Dec. T., "

“ ”

Mar. T.,1808

" “

Nov. T., "

May T., 1809

Sept. T., "

“ ”

Dec. T., "

Feb. T.; 1810

“ ”

May T., "

“ ”

Aug. T., "

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Mar. T.. 1811

Aug. T., “

Feb. T., 1812

May T., "

Feb. T., 1814

May T., "

" “

Dec. T., "

"

“


“

Somerset Co.

Motion.

"

“

“

Allegheny Co.

“

Motion.

"

"



Motion.

Indiana Co.

“ ”

Motion.

Cert. Crawford Co

Allegheny Co.

Armstrong Co.

Allegheny Co.

“ ”

Motion.


Motion.

Allegheny Co.

Fayette Co.

Motion.

“

Allegheny Co.

Addison.

Woods, Jno.

Young.

Armstrong.

Weigley.

Wilkins.

Morrow.

Weigley.

“

Armstrong, Geo.

Ross, James.

Armstrong.

Forward.

Reed.



Wilkins, W.

Reed.

Armstrong.

Ross, Jas.

Weigley.

Wilkins

Weigley.

Forward.

Ross,

James.

Alexander.

“

Wilkins, C.

Wilkins, W.

Coulter.

“

Foster, A. W.

"

THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 331

John A. T. Kilgore.

John Carpenter.

Obadiah Jennings.

Calvin Mason.

Samuel Alexander.

Edward J. Roberts.

Jacob M. Wise.

S. V. R. Forward.

H. M. Campbell.

James Hall.

Andrew Stewart.

Josiah E. Barclay.

W. H. Brackenridge

Ephraim Carpenter.

A. Brackenridge.

John Bouvier.

John S. Brady.

John Y. Barclay.

Thomas Blair.

Sylvester Dunham.

James McGee.

Chauncey Forward.

Gasper Hill, Jr.

H. G Herron.

Charles Ogle.

Joseph Williams.

H. N. Weigley.

W. W. Fetterman.

John Riddell.

Thomas White.

Thomas R. Peters.

A. S. T. Mountain.

John H. Hopkins.

Joseph H. Kuhns.

Richard Biddle.

James S. Craft.

James Findlay.

William Snowden.

John Armstrong.

John J. Henderson.

Michael Gallagher.

Hugh Gallagher.

Richard Bard.

Wm. Postlethwaite.

John Glenn.

Thomas Struthers.

R. B. McCabe.

Daniel C. Morris.

John H. Wells.

Thomas Williams.

Alfred Patterson.

James Nichols.

George Shaw.

Feb. T., 1815

“ ”

Aug. T., "

Oct. T., "

May T., 1816

Nov. T., "

Feb. T., 1817

“ ”

May T., 1818

“ "

" “

Aug. T., "

“ ”

“ ”

" 1819

“ ”

Sept. T., "

Nov. T., "

Feb. T., 1820

May. T., "

“ ”

Aug. T., "

“ ”

April T.,1822

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

May T., "

Aug. T., "

Nov. T., "

Feb. T., 1823

“ ”

May T., "

Aug. T., "

May T., 1824

"

Aug. T., "

Feb T.,1825

“ ”

May T., "

“ ”

Aug. T., "

Nov. T., "

" “ 1826

Feb. T., 1827

Aug. T., "

May T., "

Nov. T., "

Feb. T., 1828,

Aug. T., "

Nov. T., "

May T., "

“ ”

Regular.

Motion


Regular.

“

Allegheny Co.

Regular.

Allegheny Co.

Cumberland Co

Allegheny Co.

Fayette Co.



Regular.

Allegheny Co.


Regular.

Ad. Bedford Co

Armstrong Co.

Beaver Co.

Virginia.

Somerset Co.

Regular.

"

“

“

“

Allegheny Co.

Regular.

Indiana Co.

Motion.

Allegheny Co.

Motion.

Regular.

Motion.

“

“

“

Regular.

Motion.

“

Regular.

Armstrong Co.

Regular.

Motion.

Regular.

Indiana Co.

Regular.

“

Motion.

Regular.

Armstrong Co.

Motion.

Armstrong, Geo.

Reed

Forward.

Report.

“

Alexander.

Report.

Armstrong, Geo.

Alexander.

Forward, W.

Reed.

Kelly.

"

Report.

Foster, A. W.

Reed.

Coulter.

Armstrong, Geo.

Alexander.

“

Coulter.

“

Report

“

“

“

“

Forward.

Report.

Alexander.

“

Coulter.

Alexander.

Report.

Alexander.

Barclay.

Armstrong, Geo.

Foster, A. W.

Alexander.

Barclay.

Coulter.

Report.

Motion.

Report.

Alexander.

Report.

White.

Report.

“

Coulter.

Report.

Motion.

Alexander.

Wm. F. Johnston.

H. D. Footer

M. D. Magehan.

Robert Bnrk.

Joseph J. Young.

William P. Wells.

Thomas L. Shields.

A. G. Marchand.

John F. Beaver.

A. W. Foster, Jr.

John H. Deford.

William B. Conway,

J. M. Burrell.

Augustus Drum.

J. Armstrong, Jr.

H. C. Marchand.

J. F. Woods.

Casper Harrold.

Edgar Cowan.

James Armstrong.

H. P. Laird.

John Creswell.

C. S. Eyeter.

Andrew Ross

Daniel Wyandt.

Amos Steck.

Alex. L. Hamilton.

Alex. H. Miller. J.

Sewell Stewart.

John C. Gilchrist.

Wilson Riley.

J. N. Nesbit.

Francis Flanagan.

Bernard Connyn.

J. M. Carpenter.

Edward Scull

Alex. McKinny.

Thos. J. Barclay.

James Donnelly.

John Kerr.

Wm. J. Williams.

Thos. Donnelly.

John Potter.

Thos. J. Keenan.

“ ” 1829

Aug. T., "

May T., 1830

Aug. T., “

Nov. T., "

" “ 1831

" 1832

Feb. T., 1833

“ "

Nov. T., "

May T., 1834 .

" 1835

“ ”

" 1836

Feb. T., 1840

May T., "

" “

Feb. T., 1842

" "

“ ”

May T., “

" "

“ ”

Nov. T.,

May T., 1843

“ ”

Aug. T., “

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Nov. T., "

May T., 1844

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Aug. T., "

“ ”

Nov. T., "

“ ”

Feb. T., 1845

May T., "

Aug. T., "

“ ”

Regular

“

Motion.

“

Regular.

Motion.

“

Regular.

“

Motion.

“

“

Regular.

“

"

"

“

Motion.

Regular.

“

“

Motion.

“

Regular.

Motion.

Regular.

Motion.

“

“

Regular.

Motion.

“

“

“

Regular.

Motion.

Regular

“

Motion.

Regular.

“

Motion.

“

Regular.

Report.

“

Findlay.

“

Report

Kuhns.

Barclay

Report.

“

Kuhns

Barclay.

“

Report

“

“

“

“


“

“

“



“

Marchand, A. G.

Report.

Beaver

“

Burrell.

Report.

Foster, H. D.

Marchand, A. G.

Beaver.

Cowan.

Report.


“

“


“

“

Foster.

“

Report

P. C. Shannon.

George W. Bonnin.

Jno. Alex. Coulter.

James C. Clarke.

S. B. McCormick.

Wm. A. Campbell.

Wm. H. Markle.

Wm. A. Cook.

L. T. Cantwell.

Francis Egan.

John Campbell.

John C. P. Smith.

Richard Coulter, Jr.

H. Byers Kuhns.

George W. Clark.

Samuel Sherwell.

Jacob Turney.

John Penny.

S. P. Ross.

— Coffee.

W. J. Sutton.

James Trees.

H. S. Magraw.

John E. Fleming.

Thos. G. Taylor.

J. Freetly.

Thos. Armstrong.

James Todd.

J. M. Underwood.

A. A. Stewart.

James C. Snodgrass.

John H. Hoopes.

Thomas Fenton.

James A. Hunter.

Judge Kelly.

John D. McClarren.

John Latta.

— Logan.

John I. Case.

Andrew M. Fulton.

M. A. Canders.

W. R. Boyer.

Jacob Beaumont.

W. H. Stewart.

W. M. Given.

R. B. Patterson.

Albert Dann.

J. H. Hampton.

John V. Painter.

James A. Logan.

James A. Blair.

J. H. Calhoun.

E J. Keenan.

Michael Sarver.

Aug. T , 1845

Feb., T., 1846

“ ”

“ ”

Aug. T., “

“ ”

" 1847

“ ”

Nov. T., “

May T., 1848

Aug. T, “

“ ”

Feb T., 1849

“ ”

“ ”

May T., “

“ ”

Nov. T., “

Feb. T., 1850

May T., "

Nov. T., "

Aug. T., 1851

" “

“ ” 1852

“

" 1853

“ ”

“

May T., 1855,

" 1857

“ ”

Aug., T.

" 1858

" “

Nov. T., "

“ ”

" 1859

Feb. T., 1860

Nov. T.

“ ”

“ ”

May T., 1861

Nov. T., "

Feb. T , 1862

May T., “

“ ”

Nov. T., "

“ ”

Feb. T., 1863

May T., "

“ ”

Aug. T., "

Nov. T., "

“ ”IA64

Regular.

Motion

Regular

“

“

“

“

“

Motion.

Certificate.

Regular.

"

"

“

“

“

“

Motion.

Regular.

Motion.

“

Regular.

“

“

“

Motion.

Regular.

“

Motion.

Regular.

“

“

Motion.

Regular.

Philadelphia.

Indiana Co.

Petition.

Regular.

Allegheny Co.

Regular.

“


"

“

“

Motion.

Certificate.

Motion.

“

Regular

“


Regular

“

Report.

Marchand, A. G.

Report.

“

“

“

“

“

Clarke.

Foster.

Report.

“

“

“

“

“

“

Cowan.

Report.

Burrell.


“


“

“

Foster.

Report.

“

McKinney.

Drum.


Cook.


Armstrong, J., Sr.

Motion.

“

Stokes.

Foster.

Motion.

Report

“

Motion.

Turney.

Armstrong.

Laird.

Foster



Armstrong.

Report

“

Motion.

Latta.

Hunter.

B. G. Childs.

B. H. Lucas.

W. C. Moorland.

T. R. Dulley.

John A. Marchand.

J. J. Hazlett.

J. M. Brown.

W. G. L. Totten.

W. M. Moffett.

Hon. W. H. Lowrie

A. Wiedman.

Cyrus P. Long.

Frank Cowan.

S. P. Fulton.

Samuel Palmer.

H. H. McCormick.

Wm. D. Moore

James R. McAfee.

Alex. J. Walker.

Henry U. Brumer.

J. Trainor King.

George R. Cochran

J. B. Sampson.

John Blair.

George E. Wallace

Thomas P. Dick.

Wm. M Blackburn

John Y. Woods.

Silas McCormick.

John F. Wentling.

George D. Budd.

Dan'l McLaughlin

John W. Rohrer.

D. S. Atkinson.

T. J. Weddell.

David T. Harvey.

G. D. Albert.

Samuel Singleton.

W. D. Todd.

Wm. T. Haines.

D. F. Tyranny.

G. W. Minor.

Silas A. Kline.

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

May , T., 1864

“ ”

“ ”

Nov. T.

“ ”

May T.,1865

“ ”

Aug. T.

“ ”

“ ”

Feb. T., 1866

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Aug.. T.,

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Nov. T., "

“ ”

Feb. T.,1867

Nov. T., “

May T., 1868

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Nov. T., “

Feb. T., 1869

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

May T., "

" “ 

“ ” 1870

“ ”

“ ”

“ ”

Allegheny Co.




Regular.

“

Ohio.

Regular.


Motion.

“

“

Regular.

Pittsburgh.

“

Motion.

Regular.

“

“

“

Pittsburgh.

“

Motion.

“

Philadelphia.

Regular.

“

“

“

“

Philadelphia.

Cumbria Co.

Motion.

Regular.

“

“

“

Motion.

"

Allegheny Co.

Cambria "

Fayette "

Regular.

Stewart.

Motion.

“

“

Given.

Kuhns, Joseph.

Motion.

Kuhns, Joseph.

Motion.

Hunter.

Foster.

Marchand, H. C.

Report.

Kuhns, Joseph,

“ ”

Hazlett.

Kuhns, Joseph.

Report.

“

“

Todd.

Hunter.

Foster.

“

Hunter.

Hazlett.

Armstrong, J., Sr

Turney.

Marchand, H. C.

“ ”

Hunter.

Foster.

Armstrong, J., Sr

Turney.

Logan,

Given.

Cowan.

Foster.

"

Stewart

Hunter

Foster.

Logan

332 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Frederick S. Rock.

James S. Moorhead

James F. Glides.

W. H. Klingensmith

John D. Gill.

Irwin W. Tarr.

M. H. Todd.

Samuel Lyon.

James G. Francis.

Welty McCullough

— Hathaway.

D. Porter.

Joseph J. Johnston

John H. McCullogh

George Shiras.

H. W. Walkinshaw

A. D. McConnell.

W. H. Young.

V. E. Williams.

John M. Peoples.

Alex. M. Sloan.

Alex. Eicher.

J. T. Marchand.

John B. Head.

Lucien W. Doty.

May T., 1870

“ ”

Nov. T., "

“ ”

Aug., T., 1871

“

Feb. T., 1872,

“ ”

“ ”

May T "

“ ”

Aug. T., "

Feb. T., 1873

May T., "

Feb. T., 1874

“ 1877

May T., "

Aug. T., "

" 1878

“

Nov. T., 1879

May T., 1880

Aug. T., "

“ ”

May T., 1881

Regular.

“

“

“

“

“

Motion.

Indiana Co.

Regular.

“

Armstrong Co.

Motion.

Regular.

“

Pittsburgh.

Motion.

Regular.

“

“

“

“

“

“

“

Report

Atkinson.

Stewart.

Marchand, H. C.

Foster.

Wentling.

Armstrong.

Marchand, H. C.

Moorhead.

Fulton.

Armstrong.

Turney.

Latta.

Turney.

Clarke.

Motion.

Marchand, H. C.

Cowan.

Laird.

Report.

“

“

“

“

“

Motion.



Attorneys in active practice Jan. 1, 1882. From the judges' list :


JAMES A. HUNTER., President Judge.


H. P. Laird.

John Armstrong.

Edgar Cowan.

W. H. Markle.

H. B. Kuhns.

Jacob Turney.

John Latta.

M. A. Canders.

W. M. Given.

J. J. Hazlett.

John A. Marchand.

Frank Cowan.

J. R. McAfee.

John Y. Woods.

John F. Wentling.

D. S. Atkinson.

Silas McCormick.

Silas A. Kline.

James S. Moorhead.

W. H. Klingensmith.

John D. Gill.

Welty McCullough.

J. J. Johnston.

G. D. Albert.

A. D. McConnelL

W. H. Young.

V. E. Williams.

John M. Peoples.

H. Walkinshaw.

J. W. Taylor.

A. M. Sloan.

Alexander Eicher.

John N. Boucher.

J. B. Head.

J. Thornton Marchand.

Lucien W. Doty.

P. H. Gaither.


HON. JOHN YOUNG, OTHERWISE HON. JOHN YOUNG FORRESTER.—Elsewhere in this chapter may be found an extended biographical sketch of the Hon. John Young, in which his birth and early life in Scotland and his career in America, especially upon the bench, are narrated. His scholarly accomplishments and other matters of interest concerning him are there also dwelt upon. This gentleman became the hereditary Laird of Forrester, entitling him to the entailed estate of Easter Culmore, in the county of Stirling, Scotland, and, according to laws and customs of that land, used thereafter, in his correspondence and dealings with his relatives and citizens of his native country, the adnomen " Forrester," as required.


Judge Young was born in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, July 12, 1762, and came to America in 1779, and on arrival in Philadelphia entered as a student the law-office of Mr. Duponceau, and afterwards that of Judge Wilson, a man of eminence in his day. 'Being admitted to practice in that city, Judge Young eventually settled as a lawyer in Westmoreland County in 1789. In 1794 he married Miss Maria Barclay. By her he had eight children :


First. Hetty Barclay, intermarried with Edward N. Clopper, Esq., and who became the mother of six children : 1. Mary Young, wife of R. W. Burgess, of Washington, D. C.; 2. Elizabeth Forrester, married to William M. Stewart, Esq., now of Philadelphia ; 3. Edward D. (deceased) ; 4. Margaret Jane ; 5. Col. John Young Clopper, now of Colorado ; 6. Frank Young Clopper, Esq., of Greensburg.


Second. Frank B. Young, who, after being liberally educated in this country, was sent to Scotland to complete his studies, became a physician and a man of much eminence in literature, and was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott He died in Scotland, unmarried.


Third. Ellen M. Young, who married Ephraim Douglass, of Uniontown, Fayette Co.


Fourth. John Young, who was educated at Annapolis, Md., became a midshipman, and was sent abroad to various naval stations. After his father's death, he, being the oldest living son, inherited the titles and estates of his father in Scotland, and became Laird of Forrester. He died in Greensburg in 1846, unmarried.


Fifth. Statira Young, who lived and died in Greensburg, unmarried.


Sixth. Joseph Jameson Young, a lawyer, who settled in Indiana. After the death of his brother John, he went to Scotland and took possession of the estate above referred to, returned, and died in Indiana.


Seventh. Elizabeth Forrester, who married James F. Woods, Esq., of Greensburg, Pa.


Eighth. A daughter, died in infancy.


About 1811 Mrs. Judge Young died, and the judge, remaining a widower for a year or so, took to wife the cousin of his deceased lady, Miss Statira Barclay, by whom he had two children,—Mary Jane, who became the wife of the late Hon. Henry Donnell Foster, at one time the foremost lawyer in the State; and Stephen Barclay Young, still living in Deer Creek, Allegheny Co.


Judge Young was appointed president judge of the district over which he had judicial charge for thirty-one years in 1806, resigned his judgeship in 1837, and died Oct. 6, 1840, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He was a gentleman of remarkable intellectual acquirements and moral characteristics. He was well versed in many languages, speaking some seven different tongues readily, one of which he acquired after he retired from the bench, he having been a man of very studious habits all his life. Of him are existing many pleasing legends, going to demonstrate his possession of the attributes of an unusually lofty and tender character. It is authentically stated of him that he was one of the most merciful of landlords. In seasons of short crops or of distress among his


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 333


numerous tenantry he was in the habit of sending to them, and frequently himself took to them, supplies of provisions, which he freely gave them. His benevolences were a part of his current every-day life, and too much could not easily be said in his praise as a private citizen.


JUDGE JEREMIAH MURRY BURRELL.


In the preceding part of this chapter devoted to "The Bench and the Bar" is told at considerable length the story of the life of the late Jeremiah Murry Burrell, his career at the bar, as a politician, as an editor, in the Legislature., and upon the bench. Somewhat of his characteristics as a private gentleman are there also noted. This sketch is therefore brief, and made as little repetitious of the biographical notes referred to as ittould well be, and is designed mainly to supplement them, especially in its latter paragraphs.


Jeremiah M. Burrell was born in Murrysville, Westmoreland Co., Pa., Sept. 1, 1815. He was the son of Dr. Benjamin Burrell, who came from an eastern county and settled in Murrysville in the practice of his profession, an,d in 1814 married Sarah Murry, daughter of Jeremiah Murry, Esq., a merchant and large landholder. Jeremiah was the only child of this marriage, and after receiving such elementary education as the village school afforded, entered a classical school taught by a Rev. Mr. Gill about three miles from his native village, and in which he studied Latin and the mathematics and prepared for entering college. After a full course of collegiate training at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Washington Co., Pa., he graduated with honor. His father having died, and young Burrell having decided to enter into the legal profession, his mother removed to Greens' burg, where he entered the office of Richard Coulter, afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and after the due course or reading was admitted to the bar, and rapidly made progresc' into a good practice, which became a large one. possessed splendid powers of oratory, which impressed his audiences in the very beginning of his career. While studying law he had stumped the county as a Democratic politician, commanding great admiration, and making countless profitable acquainta' weships, which served him when he entered upon professional practice. He conducted the practice of the law with assiduity, faithfulness, and constantly increasing success for some years, meanwhile paying attention to politics, and at about thirty years of age was elected to the State Legislature, and continued therein, serving three successive terms, the last the sessions of 1847-48.


In 1847 he was appointed judge of the Tenth Judicial District. of Pennsylvania, and in February, 1852, took his seat as judge of the same court under election (as elsewhere stated in detail), and held the post till 1855, when be was appointed by President Pierce judge of the Territorial District of Kansas. Leaving his family in Greensburg, he went to Kansas and en-


- 22 -


tered upon his professional duties in a time of great excitement over the slavery question. Judge Burrell entertained what was known as Douglas' " Squatter Sovereignty" policy in regard to that Territory, and which involved the proposition of the right of citizens of any State to take with them into the Territories south of the Missouri Compromise line, without interference or opposition by others, whatever was regarded as property in their own State. If this policy was a mistaken one, it must be remembered. that it was entertained by many able statesmen of the times, which were those of great political distress in the land, when no man was found wise and prophetic enough to foresee what one of the several conflicting propositions or policies of that day would prove the best or most expedient for the country, or be, all things considered, actually the most just. Judge Burrell's instincts and education inclined him to refined consideration for the rights of all men, and nothing but a supreme reverence for the Constitution of his country could have allured him to lose sight for the moment of the great question of positive and equal justice to and among all races of men.


Suffering from malarial fever in Kansas, Judge Burrell returned to Greensburg in 1856, and after a sickness of some months' duration, died at his home, surrounded by his family, on the 21st day of October of that year.


He married Miss Ann Elizabeth Richardson, daughter of William H. and Henrietta D. Hubley Richardson, of Greensburg. Of this union were six children,—Sarah Murry, intermarried with O. J. Greer, now residing in Bradford, Pa. ; William Richardson, deceased ; Henrietta Hubley, wife of George F. Huff; Benjamin, residing in Bradford ; Mary Richardson, married to J. M. West, Esq., of Bradford, Pa.; and Jeremiah Murry, now a banker in Sanborn, Dakota Territory.


JUDGE JAMES ALEXANDER HUNTER, president judge of the Tenth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, is the son of Scotch-Irish parents, and was born in Lancaster County, Pa., April 18,1835. Judge Hunter comes of a long-lived race, some of his ancestors in both his paternal and maternal lines having lived to be over one hundred years old. His father, James K. Hunter, a native of Londonderry, Ireland, died in Greensburg in 1879, aged ninety years, and his mother, whose maiden name was Eliza Stewart, born in County Tyrone, Ireland, is still living at the age of eighty-three. His parents were married in Lancaster County in 1832, and removed from Eastern Pennsylvania to Westmoreland County in 1841.


Judge Hunter received thorough common-school instruction, and by his own personal efforts provided himself with the means of obtaining an academic education. He taught common and select schools, and when he gave up teaching 'held a " professional certificate" from the county superintendent.


He read law with Judge James Todd, of the Greens-


334 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


burg bar, formerly of Philadelphia, and who was attorney-general under Governor Ritner, and was ad-mitted to the bar in 1858, and opened an office for the practice of his profession in Greensburg. He soon after took into partnership Col. J. W. Greenawalt, who was mortally wounded at the battle of the Wilderness while in command of the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. After the death of Col. Greenawalt he entered into partnership with Hon. J. R. McAfee, the present Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, who eventually retired from the firm to enter upon the publication of the Greensburg .Tribune. Whereafter Judge Hunter formed a co-partnership with Jacob Beaumont, Esq., and that gentleman dying in 1870, he took into partnership W. H. Klingensmith, Esq., who is still in active practice, and with him Judge Hunter continued in partnership till he was appointed to fill the vacancy on the bench occasioned by the resignation of Judge Logan, of the Tenth Judicial District, in 1879.


Judge Hunter was appointed the first register in bankruptcy under the United States bankrupt law of 1867 for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania, composed of the counties of Westmoreland, Indiana, and Fayette. Being elected to the State Legislature for the session of 1869, he resigned his office as register, and thereafter declined re-election to the Legislature on account of his professional practice, which he conducted till July, 1879, when he was appointed by Governor Hoyt president judge of the district, the judicial chair of which he now occupies under popu-lar election to the place in the fall of the same year. He was the candidate of the Republican party for the office he now fills, and was elected by over a thousand majority over his opponent, the late Archibald A. Stewart, Esq., the Democratic nominee, in a largely Democratic district, and was commissioned president judge Dec. 4, 1879.

Judge Hunter has never been other than Republican in politics, and since he came to the bar has taken an active part in all the important campaigns, and being a considerate gentleman, has ever borne himself fairly, without giving offense to opponents, he holding that abuse never gained friends for any cause. The sense of justice and fairness exhibited by the citizen, lawyer, and politician could not but manifest itself, still more distinctly perhaps, in the judge, command-ing for Judge Hunter in his present official capacity the confidence and esteem of the bar and the public.


Though not of robust physique, Judge Hunter bears certain indices of ability to endure extreme mental labor, and safely undergo close application to what-ever pursuit he might engage in. At this period of his judicial career it might be indelicate to himself, as well as of questionable taste as regarde the public, to indulge here in speculative forecasts of the years that still remain of his first term in the judicial office, or the years that may be appended to them ; but it is always safe to say of a man of Judge Hunter's cast of mind and moral nature that he cannot well go back-ward in his career ; that steady and certain progress is the path which his essential character compels him to pursue; that not less but even more honors, duly won, lie along his course in life.


EDGAR COWAN, LL.D., ex-United States Senator. --Senator Cowan is on the maternal side of Scotch-Irish extraction, and was born in Sewickley township, Westmoreland County, Sept, 19, 1815.


The immigrant, Hugh Cowan, came to America at an early day and settled in Chester County, Pa., where William Cowan, the grandfather of the senator, was born on Christmas-day, 1749. He was a man of large stature and vigorous intellectual powers, and was a captain in the Revolutionary army. In the family of his grandfather Senator Cowan passed the early years of his childhood.


Senator Cowan owed nothing to birth or fortune to fit him for his career in after-life, but he had an un-quenchable thirst for knowledge, and from earliest infancy read everything that came in his way. His first book was the Bible, the historical and legendary parts of which he has never neglected or forgotten. Along with this he had the " Vicar of Wakefield," " Robinson Crusoe," " Life of Franklin," " Pilgrim's Progress," " Afflicted Man's Companion," " Baxter's Call," etc. These were all read over and over again till literally worn out. He also went a few months in the year to the country school, learning a little arithmetic, the horizon of the schoolmaster at that day being bounded by the " rule of three." Grammar and geography were unknown. At the age of twelve he was able to borrow books in a circle of four or five miles, and he exhausted all within this area, in a short time. " Rollin's Ancient History," with all its marvels, is still held by him in reverence for the de-lights it afforded him. " Good's Book of Nature" was his next flame, and heated him to such a de-gree that he determined to read medicine.


" Wistar," " Homer," " Meiggs," " Richerand," " Eberle," " Chapman," and others occupied all his spare time as serious studies for some years, but his appetite for all general reading—novels, poetry, his-tory, etc.—greedily devoured the contents of every-thing readable whenever found.


At the age of sixteen he commenced to keep a school in Elizabeth township, Allegheny County, but after six months it being irksome he quit it and re-turned back to Westmoreland County. For some time he was engaged in rough carpenter-work, after which he took to the river, building boats and mining coal down the Ohio. About the satne time he ran a keel-boat from various places along the Youghio-gheny River which were accessible down to Pitts-burgh, carrying country produce and bringing back returns in money or merchandise. Having earned a little money i- this way he entered the Greensburg Academy, and there learned the rtidiments of Latin. Shortly after this he went back to school-teaching,


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 335


first in Rostraver township, and then in West Newton. Early in the fall of 1838 he went to Franklin College, Ohio, and graduated in the fall of 1839, delivering the-valedictory. In 1871 his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. In December of that year, having concluded to study law, he entered himself in the office of Hon. Henry D. Foster as a candidate for admission to the bar. The law not requiring him to read the first year in the office, he spent that year in West Newton and taught school most of the time. The year 1840 was celebrated for the political campaign in which William Henry Harrison was 'elected President. Mr. Cowan conceiving that President Van Buren's administration was corrupt, joined the Whigs, and was somewhat conspicuous, along with the Hon. Joseph Lawrence, of Washington County, Hon. James Veech, of Fayette County, and the Hons. Thomas Williams and Moses Hampton and Dr. William Elder, of Allegheny County, as a speaker in that campaign. The second year, 1841, he read closely in the office of Mr. Foster, and at February term, 1842, was admitted to the bar. He was soon successful, and obtained a full and lucrative practice, the profits of which in great part he expended in books or anything else he wanted without purchasing real estate or in any way attempting to accumulate a fortune. In 1850 he purchased the home where he now resides, on West Pittsburgh Street, and which he has improved and made comfortable.


In 1856 he took an active part in the campaign for Fremont in preference to Fillmore and Buchanan, the former of whom represented Know-Nothingism, the latter Indifferentism to the extension of slavery into the Territories of the United States. Mr. Cowan, on the contrary, was of the opinion that Congress was the proper authority to determine the character of new States admitted to the Union, as to whether they should or not allow African slavery. He disclaimed any interference on the part of the free States with slavery as it existed in the slave States, but he contended that those States had themselves decided that negroes were dangerous property .; that in order to protect it the slave must be kept in ignorance, the tongues of free men must be must and the press muzzled. And when the Northern people took into the Territories with themselves only innocent property, the South ought to enter on the same footing.


Fremont was defeated, and the troubles in Kansas grew worse and worse, until its situation was little better than that of civil war. In 1860 all the elements of the opposition in Pennsylvania united to form a " People's Party," sending delegates to the Chicago Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Cowan was an elector, and was active in that memorable campaign. In January, 1861, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat on the 4th of March, 1861. Secession was now rife in the cotton-growing States, and the situation was one of extreme difficulty. The South relied on the " Declaration of Independence" to justify their secession ; the North, on the other hand, contended that the Constitution was paramount, and established a " Perpetual Union" of the States, in which the minority of the people of any State had an equal right to maintain it with the majority, that the latter had no more right to secede than the former. Here perhaps it is safe to say that upon a fair count of the Southern people there was a majority for the Union, and upon a poll of the free States a majority would have voted against " war" to compel the seceders to come back. The minds of men everywhere were unsettled, the administration was embarrassed, and hesitated as to the proper course to take.


After five or six weeks of this painful uncertainty South Carolina settled it, 12th April, 1861, by an attack on Fort Sumter, then in the possession of the Federals. The North was ablaze in an instant, the insulted flag was on every housetop, and war was inevitable." It is curious to look back and observe how ignorant even the wisest men were as to the nature of the terrible conflict which was to follow. Jefferson Davis calculated that thirty thousand men could defend the Confederacy, and Mr. Seward predicted that in ninety days the Rebellion would be suppressed. Davis failed with half a million of as brave men as ever lived, and Seward had to wait four years before his prophecy could be verified.


Mr. Cowan, in view of the war, laid down for his own guidance at least certain rules, from which he never swerved, and which in all his speeches he endeavored to enforce :


1. The Union having been created by the Constitution, to violate it was to justify disunion. The North can only justify herself in coercing the South by standing strictly on the Constitution.


2. There are two elements to be concilated,—First, the Democratic party in the free States; second, the Union men of the border States and the Confederacy. This can only be done by avoiding all legislation offensive to them, and all partisan crimination of which the secessionists could take advantage.


3. Congress should confine itself to providing sufficient revenue and raising armies, ignoring all party politics.


4. The war should be waged according to the rules of civilized warfare and the laws of nations, as became the dignity of the republic.


5. That the war being made to suppress a rebellion and not to make a conquest of the Confederate States, as soon as the rebels submitted the States should resume their functions in the Union according to the pledges of Congress on that subject.


In pursuance of these rules he voted steadily against all unconstitutional projects,—" legal tender," "confiscation," "national banks," "tenure of office," "reconstruction," " Freedman's Bureau," "civil rights," etc. He also opposed " test oaths," expulsion of senators


336 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


on party grounds, and the giving negroes the right of suffrage, etc.


Mr. Cowan was chairman of the Committee on Patents, a member of the Judiciary Committee, and afterwards of the Finance Committee. He was the author of the three hundred dollar clause in the conscription law, and he was mainly instrumental in preventing the bridge at Steubenville from being built with one hundred-feet spans only ten feet above high-water mark with a draw. He had it raised to ninety feet, with spans three hundred feet. The original bill had passed the House, and had been favorably reported upon in the Senate before it attracted any attention. Had it passed it would have inevitably destroyed the lumber and coal trade of Western Pennsylvania on the Ohio River.


Mr. Cowan was an "old-line Whig," and was largely instrumental in fusing that element with the " American and Republican" elements in Pennsylvania, on the sole ground of opposition to the introduction of slavery in the Territories of the United States. The canvass in Pennsylvania in 1860 was made on that issue, abolition being repudiated.


When elected to the Senate he was almost entirely unknown, except in Southwestern Pennsylvania, having never held any office higher than that of school director; but he was known then as a leading lawyer, a classical scholar in ancient and modern literature, besides being fully abreast in science and philosophy with the best thought of the time. As a lawyer, in the Senate he took rank with Collamer, Browning, the elder Bogart, Reverdy Johnson, and Trumbull. Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, of Mr. Cowan says, " He was always listened to with interest. He was a dashing debater, and came into any controversy when it was at the highest, and was able to maintain himself against much odds."


A very graphic description of Mr. Cowan is given by the poet, N. P. Willis, in the Home Journal, as follows:


"The drive to Hall's Hill was exceedingly beautiful, like an excursion in early October, made mainly interesting to me, however, by the company of the eloquent senator who shared our carriage, the finest specimen I have yet seen of brilliancy and learning, sprouting like luxuriant tendrils upon the rough type of a Kentucky Anak. Of his powerfully proportioned frame and finely-chiseled features the senator seemed as naturally unconscious as of hie singular readiness and universal erudition. He comes from the western part of Pennsylvania, and has passed his life as half-huntsman, half-schoolmaster and lawyer, being a distinguished man only because other people were not so, evidently quite unable to help it. His speech for the flags, very flowing and fine, has been reported at length in the papers. 1 It was stirring to watch the faces of the men as


1 One or two passages from Senator Cowan's speech at the presentation of the flags will show the importance of flag-influence in war:

. . . I am also further instructed to say to you that by the terms of the law directing the Governor to procure colors for each regiment now in the field for the defense of the Union, it was also provided that when the war was over, and you had returned victorious (as it is the earnest wish and prayer of all the people of our good old Commonwealth that you may), your gallant feats in arms will be inscribed on these flags, in order that they may be laid away among the archives of the State, there to remain for all coming ages, a fit memorial of your valor. It may be, too, that when the republic is again in danger, these standards will be brought out


they looked on and listened to him. I realized what eloquence might do in the inspiring of pluck for the battle!”


The Washington correspondent of the Boston Poet thus describes Senator Cowan :


"As Trumbull and Johnson occupied the leading position in the exciting debate on the Civil Rights Bill, I find I have left myself too little space in which to strive to convey some fair idea of Cowan, of Pennsylvania, measuring some six feet three inches, possessed of a voice like the diapason of a small church organ, and a habit of using it in two distinct octaves. Senator Cowan is certainly a most peculiar and Impressive speaker, and possesses one great merit, that of never speaking unless he has something to say. When he rises in the central aisle, and with his tall figure dwarfing everything about him, sends his rolling voice sailing on the waves of fetid air that forms the atmosphere of the ill-ventilated chamber, he reminds one of the description Carlyle gives of Mirabean in the French Convention of 1789. He is to the Conservative Republicans what Johnson is to the Democrats and Trumbull to the Radice.* the oratorical exponent of policy. If he is less philosophic than Johnson, and if he be not as casuistic as Trumbull, he possesses more of that peculiar quality, clear common sense, and a practical way of stating It than either."


A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial gives the following sketch of Senator Cowan, the accuracy of which will be appreciated by all acquainted with the gentleman. Alluding to the late debate on the Post-office Bill, the writer says,-


" And now a gaunt, angular man at the right of Mr. Doolittle takes the floor. You are struck first with his height, sharpness of visage, and extraordinary powers of voice. In the management of the latter, it seems as if those guttural tones were lowered to the utmost for the express accommodation of men of leas altitude and smaller grasp of the perceptive faculties. There is a musical rumble, and a most pleasing diction, however, about every period, and such an assumption of power


and held up before the eyes of your children, so that the glorious record emblazoned upon them may incite them to imitate your example and emulate your courage in the defense of their country and Its constitution. . . . What a magical influence that sjmbol of our country's national honor exerts over us all I In the month of April last the loyal people were plowing and sowing in the fields, hammering in the workshops, and trading at the counters and upon the wharves, incredulous of danger and careless of the coming storm. Suddenly the news came, like as electric shock, that the rebels round Fort Sumter had fired on our flag. Startled and indignant, as if the shot had been directed against himself, every true man was or his feet in an instant, and the banner thus insulted was immediately consecrated the idol of the people. It was everywhere, it waved on every house-top, it fluttered in every breeze, and It was conclusive proof of disloyalty not to bow before it iu the day of its first humiliation. The great heart of the nation was stirred to its very depths, and its heating might be heard in the heavy tramp of thousands of armed men hurrying to the field of battle to wipe out the national disgrace and visit dire retribution upon the heads of those who had caused it. . . . These are the flags of that destiny.' To your hands I commit them. I know that then they will never be dishonored. You have both of you (Col. Samuel Black and Col. J. W. McLean) long years ago given a soldier's earnest of your fidelity to the Republic. You have already followed its flag in the conquest of an empire. One of you assisted In carrying it in a continued succession of triumphs from the Rio Grande to Buena Vista, through Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey,—all now names in history, and monuments of a renown in which your share was honorable. The other accompanied it from Vera Cruz to Mexico, and saw the gloriee of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Molina del Rey, Chapultepec, and Tacnbaya by the way, till it waved finally in undisputed mastery over the halls of the Montezumaa. Never can they be confided to more deserving hands. Take them, they are still auspicious of victory, and the righteous cause which has hallowed them ever—THE CAUSE or THZ PEOPLE—will hallow them still, and assure it. The spirits of your fathers, mighty dead, will hover over your battle-fields, silent witnesses of your heroism in showing yourselves worthy of such sires. The God of battles, too, watches over the brave and true. His blessing ie upon you, and the sheltering wing of his mercy is about you and us, to nave us all by you, in this the darkest hour of the nation's peril."


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 337


and right, figuring in every gesture and mannerism, that it would not be hard to convince the auditors above the floor that this's the Hercules of senatorial debate. Yet there is one other marked and singular characteristic of the speaker that astonishes and overshadows the whole effect. It is the abandon of declamation, the continual sway of that towering bulk, and strap-hazard style of putting those stentorian truths, which, in connection with the magnificent roll and volume of voice, caunot fall to completely engross and surplus the hearer. At this time he is taking the mejority of his senatorial coadjutors to teak for a want of toleration and a lack of respect for the opinions of the minority. The strictures are put forth with such a sweep and power of utterance—just a shade of ironical pomponity in the tone—that one can hardly look upon the subjects of ouch lordly censure without giving way to a sym-pathetic influence to belittle and distract from them too."


Hon. George Sanderson, mayor of the city of Lancaster, in his paper, as below quoted from, describes the speech made by Mr. Cowan in that city Sept. 20, 1868, as the ablest and most telling speech of the campaign :


"The Democratic meeting at the court-house on Monday was one of the largest assemblages of the kind ever witnessed in this city. Every saat was filled, all standing space was occupied, and very many were forced to leave without being able to get ineide the large court-room. It was not a rnere.partisan demonstration. It wae an aseemblage of the earnest, thinking men of Lancaster, drawn together by patriotic motives and a desire to hear the great political questions of the day discussed by a man of the moot marked ability, one who faithfully represented the people of Pennsylvania in the highest council of the nation, a man who could not be lured into the indorsement of unconstitutional measures and pernicioue legislation by any allurements of place, power, or pecu-niary profit. Hon. Edgar Cowan, the chief orator of the occasion, is respected by honest men of all parties, and eateemed as a truthful, high-minded gentleman, possessing the judgment to discern whet the best interests of his country demand, and the resolute will to carry out his conscientious convictions regardless of consequences to himself.


"During Mr. Cowan's speech he was constantly interrupted by spontaneous outbursts of applause, at one point the audience rising en mama to their feet end cheering with full and united voices. We never 8aw au audience listen so attentively.


"During two hours scarcely a man in the vast throng moved, though many of them were uncomfortably crowded and numbers compelled to stand."


The Greensburg Herald of Dec. 5,, 1860, concerning Mr. Cowan's expected election, has the following:


"It is sad that the ' hour brings the man,' so now we have the man for the hour. In Edgar Cowan, Esq., of Greensburg, all the requisites for the poeition harmoniously combine. Already is he looked upon by those who know him intimately as one, if not the most prominent among the candidates. Thie being the fact, it is proper that we should now, in brief, give the public at large not so well poeted some of the outlines of Mr. Cowan'e fitnees.


"He is a native of Westmoreland County, now in his forty-sixth year. From infancy almoet he wa.s, like many of the great men of our nation, thrown upon his own resources. At the close of his collegiate course, early in 1840, he commenced the study of law. During that memorable Presidential canvass his eloquent and sonorous voice wee ofteu heard in his native county, ably discuesing the questions then at iseue before the country. He was a decided favorite among those who eang Tippecanoe and Tyler too,' and could never avoid being compelled to reepond to the calls for 'a speech from Westmoreland's young orator,' made by every political gathering where it was thought he was one of the number present. Hie career at the bar hes been eminently successful, and we think we will not be charged with making any invidious distftictione when we may that, for his diligence, promptnese, and fidelity to the in-terests of his clients, the power with which he grave, and the readinees and clearness with which he unravels all intricate legal queetions, as well ae his fairness towards an adversary, Ire now deservedly ranks among those at the head of the bar in Western Pennsylvania. Thoroughly booked in all the popular sciences and several modern languages, with great physical arid mental self-reliance, he stands forth panoplied to advocate and defend the rights of a free people in every phase of life's checkered pathway, no matter in how exalted or responmible a poeition. In short, he ia a self-made man,, who has hewn his way to the position


he now occupies, indebted to nothing but his own inherent energy cowl Lhe blessing of health

under the free institutions of our country.


" Politically, Mr. Cowan has all his life been an ardent supporter of the doctrines enunciated in the Chicago platform."


The Times has the following :


"SENATOR COWAN.


" When Edgar Cowen was first mentioned in connection with the United State. senatorship, the questions were almost universally asked, Who is he? What is he? and, Where does he come from ?' His was most assuredly not a State-wide reputation; he had been no office-seeker, and very little of a prliticiari, and outside of Iris immediate neighbor-hood his name was almost unknowo, except, perhaps, to circle of chosen Mende or to the leaders of his political party. We were told, however, by those whose candidate he was that he was close student; a man of extensive end varied learning ; an able, shrewd, and faithful lawyer; a powerful and skillful debater, who would not fail to make his mark in the Senate; and, above all, an honest man, who would yield neither to the blandishments of power nor the lust of gain, but would act on his own conviction. of right and duty, be the consequences what they may. So much we were told ; and, beyond this, we had a right to infer, from the fact that he defeated David Wilmot in the Republican caucus, that he was conservative in his view. Indeed, this of itself was enough to satisfy those who opposed him. David Wilmot, hie radical and fanatical competitor, had been laid on the shelf, for the time being at least, and that was glory enough for one day.


" Mr. Cowan was elected and took his eeat, modeatly and unassumingly, with no flourish of trumpets to herald his fame. He seldom rose to speak dnring hie first session, and hie name waa but seldom seen in public print, except in the votes he gave, which generally seemed to be honest and conservative. Yet, though unaseumiug, his reputation was fast spreading among those around him, and at the second session he was placed on the Judiciary Committee, the second in importance of the committees of the Semite."


A prominent newspaper of the day has the follow-ing notice of Mr. Cowan’s position on the Confiscation Bill :


" HON. EDGAR COWAN ON THE CONFISCATION BILL.—Senator Cowan

has received much abuse from the ultra press of the country for his late speech upon the Confiscation Bill of Senator Trumbull. His speech, however, has been indorsed by the President, his Cabinet, a large majority of the leading lawyers and statesmen of Pennsylvania, while Senators Collamer, Fessenden, Doolittle, Browning, and Clarke have expressed upon the floor their hearty concurrence therein. While be has the confidence of such men, he can well await the ultimate indorsement of his,course by the whole reading community, which must cer-tainly follow."


The Tribune, of New York, has the following from a Harrisburg correspondent, dated Dec. 19, 1874:


" Upon the subject of United States senator, within the last week the name of Edgar Gowan has been more frequently mentioned than any other c,andidate. As a lawyer and a statesman, Mr. Cowan is the peer of any man in the Commonwealth; and if there be a man in the State to whom more than another the Democrats owe a debt of gratitude lt Edgar Cowan. Mr. Cowan has given evidence of more ability, manifested more nobility of nature, and exhibited more nerve and independence than any Pennsylvanian that ever filled a seat in the United States Senate, and his election to a seat iu that honorable body at this time would do honor to the Democracy, arid be greeted with joy by a large majority of the people of the Keystone State."


The following is from the gifted pen of Hon. William A. Stokes, editor of the Greensburg Republican :


"HON. EDGAR COWAN.


"It is not for us to pronounce the panegyric of a political opponent, but it is our duty to do justice to all men, for justice is the supreme and all pervading element of Democracy. Wherefore we have not hesitated, in regard to some leading Republican, to express our approval of such portion. of their conduct as were entitled to commendation, while, on the other hand, we have, with equal freedom, condemned error, even in our political friends. Devoted during life to the disinterested support of Democratic principle., we are, nevertheless, not ineeneible to the merit. of our opponents or the mistakes of our friends.


338 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


" For naught so vile that on the earth doth live

But to the earth some special good doth give;

Nor aught so good but, strained from that fair use,

Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.'


" In this spirit of independent impartiality we have now both to censure and commend the course, somewhat inconsistent, of our neighbor and friend, Mr. Cowan. For many years this gentleman was the soul of the Whig and Republican parties in Western Pennsylvania. His integrity and intrepidity gave him vast power, and occasional disagreement with his associates-secondary development of his original Democracy served only to increase his influence and commend him to the kindly feelings of his opponents. Elected to the Senate, he took his seat the same day on which Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated President. He beard from his lips, which had just kissed the Bible as he took the constitutional oath of office, that he had no design, desire, or power to interfere with slavery or to invade in any manner the rights of States or people.


"Nobly, upon many momentous occasions, was he sustained by this patriotic minority of the Senate,—faithful alone among the faithless, powerless in the present, but to whom soon justice will be done, and whose constant virtue will be embalmed in the homage of after-ages. In March, 1863, on the question of indemnifying the President and all others for violation of the habeas corpus, he attacked the malignant majority of the Senate, and pointed to the sole path of safety for the republic with power and wisdom in the following language:


" 'It seems to me that if we of the dominant party were more tolerant of the opposition, and instead of taking pains to insult their beliefs and misrepresent their opinions we should carefully avoid any allusion to them whatever, we would soon disarm that opposition. I have been from the first of opinion that the introduction of any measure, no matter how important it might appear to be in the eyes of its friends, calculated to provoke the hostility of the Democratic party and incite it to opposition was mischievous in the highest degree, and all that we might gain by such a measure would be nothing compared with what we should lose by arousing it to resist it. Their harmonious co-operation with us in the prosecution of the war is worth more to the country a thousand times over than any measure we could propose, and which would tend to alienate them from us. Is there any man living to-day, who loves his country better than his own hobby, who would not be willing and ready to give up all the causes of differences with that great party, composing one-half of our people, for the sake of insuring its hearty and cheerful co-operation with us in carrying on the war? Sir, I had rather have the moral and material aid of the Democratic party in this war than all the legislative projects that could be hatched in the brains of a Congress composed entirely of reformers. One kindly pulsation of its great heart and one sturdy stroke of its mighty arm would do more to pdt down the Rebellion than all the laws-we could possibly pass. I would cheerfully yield all my preconceived notions at any time to secure its aid in this extremity, and with its aid I believe the unity of the republic would soon be restored and the old flag again afloat everywhere, still more the subject of veneration and still more the assurance of safety and protection than it ever was. I would respect the traditions of that party, and deal tenderly with its likes and dislikes, and surely, under no circumstances, would I offend it when it could be avoided.'


* * * * * * * * * * * * *


"'The Constitution, then, being the charter by which our government is created, it is easy to see that outside of that charter there is not, nor can there be, any government; there may be force and despotism, but there can be no law nor true government. And the man who for a moment thinks the government can be saved by violating the Constitution is guilty of either supreme folly or supreme wickedness. He has never comprehended the principles of a free government, or his moral nature has been so far perverted as to prevent him from distinguishing between suet. a government and a despotism. Akin to that notion is another, that the authority conferred and the mode of action prescribed by the Constitution are inadequate to the defense and protection of the liberties of the nation. Now, I venture to assert that nothing could be more unfounded than such a supposition. So far from it, I have no hesitation in saying that if, at this time, the nation relied solely upon the omnipotent discretion of its rulers, without a written Constitution at all, that those rulers, if they were wise, would adopt for themselves just such a set of rules for their guidance as we now have in the Constitution. It authorizes every politic and forbids all impolitic measures. It rises like a wall, behind which the wise statesman intrenches himself to resist the madness of faction or the blind folly of the people when, seduced by demagogues, they desire to resort to dangerous though plausible schemes, schemes which for long ages have been tried over and over again, and always with the same disastrous results; schemes which are sure to find advocates in troubled times, when wisdom stands back fearful of responsibility, and empty, blatant folly rushes forward to offer counsel. Such times we are fallen upon, and our only safety—the ark indeed of our safety—is the Constitution.'


"With what trembling amazement the caitiffs of the Senate must have heard this indignant condemnation of their conduct, this spontaneous outburst of patriotism, of irrepressible integrity, of almighty truth, coming, too, from Pennsylvania, from a Republican, one of the chiefeet among them, but not like them, no public plunderer, no slave of the Executive, no deputy of despotism, no enemy of his fellow-citizens, no perjured traitor, but a man, strong, fearless, and pure, ready to rebuke wrong, and impelled by his very nature to vindicate right against all assailants, exhibiting the occasional weakness of human frailty only in efforts to save those who are predestined to be politically damned, and to preserve connection with a rotten party fast drifting to destruction.


"Thus, and many times, our Senator

"' Shed

On ears abused by falsehood truths of power

In words immortal,—not such words as flash

From the fierce demagogue's unthinking rage,

To madden for a moment and expire,

Nor such as the rapt orator imbues

With warmth of facile sympathy, and moulds

To mirrors radiant with fair images,

To grace the noble fervor of an hour,

But words which bear the spirit of great deeds

Wing'd for the future.'


"The people of Pennsylvania cherish high hopes of the future of Mr. Cowan. Many of them look to him with confidence as the champion of their rights. For ourselves, moved only by the desire to do impartial justice to all men, we are prepared to condemn or commend according to the course which the senator may hereafter pursue."


We quote from the noted English novel, entitled " The Dobbs Family in America," written by the correspondent for the Maxwell Publishing Company of London. The book was published in London in 1865, and has the following concerning the scholarly senator from Pennsylvania :


"The tall, fine-looking gentleman, with keen gray eyes and aquiline nose, is Edgar Cowan, of Pennsylvania. A short time ago I heard one of his brother senators say that he was the most talented man who ever came to Congress from Pennsylvania. This is the opinion; too, of one opposed to him in politics, and therefore more entitled to credence than if it were the expression of a partisan. Senator Cowan has come up from the people. At a very early age he was thrown upon his own resources, and has by his indomitable will and talents mounted to hie preeent position. He is the fullest man in this chamber. Although his specialty it the law, it would be difficult to name a science that he is not more or less acquainted with. Nothing delights him more than to tackle with men of science who are able to throw the ball with him, then the riches of hie well-stored mind are displayed in profusion. Let the subject be what it may, he always touches bottom. He has the appearance of an indolent man, but is really an industrious one.


"In the casual or running debate that frequently occurs here he does not speak with fluency. There is a degree of hesitancy in selecting or finding his words which falls unpleasantly on the ear, but as soon as he is fully aroused all impediment is removed, and his words roll out in well-rounded sentences, the voice full and deep. Some of his tones are disagreeable and harsh, but his voice has greater volume, when he chooses to employ it, than that of any other senator here.


"His style in one point, classic illustrations, is not unlike that of the Boston senator, Mr. Sumner, but iu other respects it is more vigorous and logical than Sumner's. Cowan is practical and argumentative, a wrangler by profession ; Sumner is impractical and visionary, a weaver of finely-spun notions. Sumner lacks determination ; Cowan is as brave as Julius Clasen The one is rhetorical without being wordy, the other is rhetorical and verbose. The style of the Pennsylvania senator ieeymmetrical, while that of Sumner is inflated and pompous. But they are both fond of tradition and classic lore ; here they meet un common ground.


" When Cowan gets well into his subject his face becomes pale and his attitude striking, and he is truly eloquent. He is a conscientious, high-


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 339


minded man, who dares to do what is right regardless of consequences. He has never pandered to the views of cliques or factions, but always shown himself bold and independent, never flinching, but always fairly grappling with the question."


The following's part of an editorial from the Newark (N. J.) Daily Journal :


EDGAR COWAN.


"In point of intellectual and moral status Edgar Cowan is to-day the giant of the United States Senate. Elected as a Republican by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, he has fearlessly, and with a degree of dignity seldom equaled and certainly never surpassed by any statesman of the land, done what he considered to be right, and that in the face, time and again, of party diction.


"In this Congress there are few men, indeed, who can bear more than a Liliputian significance when compared with the ripe statesmen of the Clay, Webster, and Douglas school; but Senator Cowan is a towering and noticeable exception to the rule. An independent and original thinker, a profound, logical, sound lawyer, an able and powerful debater, he is the marked man of the United States Senate.


"His views on all subjects command great respect, and elicit, even from the disunionist., an attention worthy of their force and power. He is a strict constitutional constructionist. While watching with argue-eye the interests of the sovereign State of Pennsylvania, he never is unmindful of the rights of all the States. His earnest appeal is ever ready to redress a wrung, be it against the North or South, the East or West"


The following is from a Lancaster paper:


"Of course we do not class Mr. Cowan with the Radicals. He is in every sense of the word a national man, and one of the wisest and ablest statesmen of the present day. He was elected as a Republican in the wiuter of 1861, and took his seat on the 4th of March of that year. Mr. Cowan, though recognized as one of the ablest lawyers and beet stump-speakers of this State, was not known outside of Penusylvania at the time of his election, and even here he was little known as a politician, except in his own section of the State. He had never sought office, had never occupied any official position, and had never filled the role usual to seeking itinerant politicians. Those who knew him beet knew him as a scholar, as a lawyer, as a profound political thiuker, as an honest, bold, outspoken man ; and they expected and predicted that he would take high rank, even in eo exalted a body as the Senate of the United States.


"Those expectations and predictions have been abundantly fulfilled. Mr. Cowan took his seat in the Senate just at the outbreak of the war, at a time when this nation was entering upon a struggle in which both its material strength and the statesmanship of its public men were to be subjected to the severest ordeal. The military power of the rebels was not the only obstacle to be overcome. As is the case in all revolutionary periods, there was great danger to be apprehended from the excesses of excited feeling. In a crisis such as that through which we have just passed that public man is to be esteemed the wisest and most truly pa; triutic who breasts popular opinion when he flinds it taking a wrong direction, and employs alt the might that is in his whole nature to protect the Constitution of his country and to preserve the majesty of its laws inviolate.


" Fully as much as any man in the Senate of the United States, Mr. Cowan has proved himself to be possessed of this the highest quality of a great statesman. He not only showed himself to be perfectly familiar with the Constitution of the United States, able to comprehend fully all its provisions, and alive to the necessity of adhering closely to its teachings, but he exhibited an extended knowledge of other forms of government, and an intimate acquaintance with their working, both In times of peace and in the midst of revolutionary struggles such as that through which we were passing. The very first attempt which was made to overstep the limits of the Constitution excited the fears and aroused the opposition of Senator Cowan. It mattered not to him that it was a party measure. Yielding to no man in devotion to the Union, he knew no party when the Constitution of his country wee assailed. He always believed and asserted that there was strength enough in this nation and power enough in the hands of the government to preserve the national life and honor without the violation of a single provision of that sacred Instrument. Hence he was at all times found battling against every unconstitutional act, whether attempted under the plea of military necessity or the strained inference of powers not granted. How he has labored in that noble work the whole country is well aware. His clear, logical, and eloquent speeches have been read until to-day there is not a village or hamlet in all this broad land where Edgar Cowan is not known and honored."


The following speech delivered as stated in the introduction, all of which is taken from the Boston Courier of Aug. 2, 1864


"The following in a speech by Hon. E. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, delivered in the Senate of the United States on the 27th of June, few days before the close of the late session of Congress. The Senate had under consideration at the time Mr. Trumbull's amendment proposing to repeal the joint resolution of July 17, 1862, which qualifies the Confiscation Act and limits forfeitures under it to the lifetime of the offender:


" Mr. Cowan said, ' I think. Mr. President, that our course in regard to the Southern people has been of a character entirely the reverse of that which would have been successful iu suppressing the Rebellion. We were filled with incorrect ideas of the work we were engaged In, or of the only tnethods by which we could perform the gigantic task we had undertaken. We started out with exaggerated notions of our own strength, and we disdained to think that our success depended upon the loyal men of the South ; we thought we did not need them, and treated them accordingly. Think of such a proposition as that contained in this law, that if they du not lay down their arms in sixty days they will be punished by lose of their estates I How, pray, are they to lay down their arms? Surely we know enough to know that this is mere mockery, and that the rebel President might as well expect soldier in our snake to lay down his arms upon a promise of his protection.


"Mr. President, I have sometimes doubted whether we could be serious when we expect any good results to come from such measures as this, which not only exposes us to ridicule but does harm to our cause. What was wanting in this crisis of our History with new criminal legislation when the code was complete before? We had a statute punishing treason with death, a just and proper punishment, one well according with the magnitude of the crime as well as with the majesty of the law which inflicted it. For all those who conspired the dismemberment of the republic, who used the means and perverted the State governments to bring it, this is the fitting punishment, because it is the highest, and falls upon the guilty alone where it ought. I would have had no additional laws; in war they are not needed.' I would have contemplated no reforms within the area of the Rebellion; they cannot be made at such a time. What we wanted was men and money ; these granted, the true function of Congress was over until peace was restored and all parties again represented. But, above all things, I would not have played into the hands of the enemy; I would not have done that which the rebels most desired to have done, because I have no doubt that this and all kindred schemes have beau the very ones which they moat wanted us to,adopt. I do not know that Jefferson Davis ever prays; but, if be does, 1 havens doubt that he would pray—'


" Mr. Wade.—` Pray for just such an advocate !'


" Mr. Cowan.---' Pray for such a statesman as the honorable senator from Ohio, the most effective ally he ever had or could have.


"'He would have prayed for measures on our part which were obnoxious to all people of the South, loyal and disloyal, Union and disunion. He would have prayed that we should outrage all their common prejudices. and cherished beliefs ; that we should do these things by giving ourselves over to the guidance of men whom it was part of their religion to hate, to hate, personally and by name, with an intensity rarely witnessed in the world before. He would have prayed for confiscation general and indiscriminate, threatening as well the victims of usurpation as the usurpers themselves, as well those we were bound to reams as those we were bound to punish. Fervently he would have prayed for our emancipation laws and proclamations as means to fire the Southern heart more potent than all others; they would rally the angry population to his standard of revolt, as if each had personal quarrel. He would then have a united South, while, as the result of the same measures, a distracted and divided North.


"That is the way I think he would have prayed, and would pray now. Is any man so stupid as not to know that the great desire on the part of every rebel is to embark in revolt with him the whole people of the disaffected districts? Is not and has not that been considered enough to insure success to him? And where does history show the failure of any united people, numbering five or six millions, when they engaged in revolution? Nowhere ; there is no such case.


"' What did we do to bring this unity about in the South? We forgot our first resolve in July, 1861, to restore the Union alone, and we went


340 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


further,'and gave out that we would also abolish slavery. Now, that wea just exactly the point upon which all Southern men were the moat tender, and at which they were the most prone to be alarmed and offended. That was of all things the one beet calculated to make them of one mind against us; there was no other measure, indeed, which could have lost to the Union cause so many of them. It is not a question either as to whether they were right or wrong, that was matter for their consideration, not ours ; for if we were eo desirous of a union with them, we ought not to have expected them to give up their most cherished institutions in order to effect it. Unions are made by people taking one another as they are, and I think it has never yet occurred to any man who was anxious to form a partnership with another that he should first attempt to force the other either to change hie religion or his politico. Is not the answer obvious, would not the other say to him, " If you do not like my principles why do you wish to be partner with me? Have I not as good a right to ask you to change yours as a condition precedent ?"


"'So it was with the Southern people; they were all in favor of slavery, but one-half of them were still for union with us as before, because they did not believe we were abolitionists. The other half were in open rebellion because they did believe it. Now, can any one conceive of greater folly on our part than that we should destroy the faith of our friends and verify that of our enemies? Could not anybody have foretold we would have lost one-half by that, and then we would have no ohe left to form a Union with? We drove that half over to the rebels, and thereby increased their strength a thousand-fold.


"' Is not all this history now? The great fact is staring us full in the face to-day, we are contending with a united people desperately in earnest to resist us. Our most powerful armies moat skillfully led have heretofore failed to conquer them, and I think will fail as long as we pursue this fatal policy.


" Now, Mr. President, I appeal to senators whether it is not time to pause and inquire whether that policy which has certainly united the Southern people in their cause, and which quite as certainly has divided the Norther; people in their support of ours, ought to be abandoned at once? Why persist in it longer? Can we do nothing to retrieve our fortune by retracing our steps? Can we not divide the rebels and unite the loyal men of the loyal States by going back to the single idea of war for the Union ? or is it now too late? Have we lost irrecoverably our hold on the affections of our countrymen who were for the Union in 1861, even in 1862? Is there no way by which we could satisfy them that we yet mean Union, and not conquest and subjugation? And what a difference in the meaning of these two phrases! The first offers the hand of a brother, the second threatens the yoke of a master. Or are we obliged now to exchange the hopes we had of Southern Union men for that other and miserable hope in the negro? Is he all that is left of loyalty in the South, and the only ally we can rely upon to aid us in restoring the Union? Ye gods, what have we come to at last? Either to yield to an unholy rebellion, to dismember an empire, or to go into national companionship with the negro ! Is this the alternative to which our madness has brought us ?


" Mr. President, these things are enough to drive a sane man mad. After all our pretension, all our boasting, how absurd will we appear in the eyes of all other nations if we fail in this struggle! Especially as almost all the measures about which we have occupied ourselves for the last three years have been based upon our success already assumed as a fixed fact. We provided for confiscating the estates of rebels before we got possession, we emancipated slaves before we got them from their masters, and we provided for the disposition of conquests we have not made; we have disposed of the skin of the bear, and the bear itself is yet uncaught. All this we have put upon the record; the statute book will bear witness against us in all coming time, and we cannot escape the consequences if we fail.


"Mr. President, our government was intended to be one of law, preeminently of law. There was to be nothing in the administration of it left to the arbitrary will of an individual or individuals. This was its merit, or intended so, par excellence. I am for preserving its character in that respect strictly. Let no man, from the President down to the most petty officer, dare to do anything, whether to friend or enemy, except as warranted by law. Let us make war according to law, and let us have peace according to law. If we fight a belligerent enemy, let us do it according to the law of nations. If we punish or restrain a refractory citizen, let us do it by the law of the land, " by due process of law." Had we had faith in our Constitution and laws and our people, we had not been in our present condition. Had we made war and war alone, the loyal people North and South to a man would have been with us. The voice of faction, if not entirely hushed, would have been harmless. The capital of the demagogue would have been worthless, and the nation would have been irresistible. Had we treated the negroes the Constitution treats him, as a person, as another man, had we made no distinction or difference between him and other citizens, we had not aroused ageing him that tribal antipathy which will be far more likely to destroy him than a false philanthropy will be likely to elevate him in the scale of being. If he was friendly to us, the same use could have been made of him that we have made ; we could have enlisted him in our armies now as we have been enlisting him in our navy for long years. We could have received him as a volunteer, if he was able-bodied, without looking to his complexion, and we could have drafted him without inquiring into the relations which existed between him and his master, any more than we inquire into the relations of the white man of twenty years of age with his parent or hie guardian. State laws adjusts all these questions, but to the United Stater; it made no difference whether he owed service to individuals or not ; he owed hie first duty to the republic, as military service was required. All this was lawful, and no loyal man ever did or would have complained of it kindly done in the proper spirit.


"'I have only to say in conclusion, air, that I hope that the joint resolution will not be repealed, and that this and all kindred projects will fail in the future, for the simple reason that they strengthen the rebels by uniting their people with them, and they weaken the Union cause by dividing its friends and distracting them with unnecessary issues. Let us unite upon the single idea of suppressing the armed opposition to the government. Let the energies of the nation be devoted solely to that purpose, and success may yet come, if success is possible.'"


The following is from the Pittsburgh Leader, independent, but generally favoring the Republican party:


"THE COMING CONFLICT.


"THE NEXT U. S. SENATOR.


"It is not from among those who are willing only that a great Commonwealth like ours should make its selection for such an honorable place, now, in.ieed, sadly dishonored by the character, or rather want of character, of some who now represent many of the States inn that body, but it should search until it finds, as fit to be its representatives, men of high and commanding intellect, of earnestness and force, and of sound practical judgment.

"Of all the men named for that position there are none the superior and but few the equal, in point of ability, of Ron. Edgar Cowan, of Westmoreland County.


"Taking his seat in 1861 as a senator of the United States, elected by what was then known as the People's party,' this gentleman, while properly enough upholding in so far as was just and right the political interests of his particular party, did not feel bound to follow it in all its windings. Regarding the preservation of the Union as one of the first essentials to the peace and prosperity of the people of both sections, and utterly opposed to every proposition looking to a dissolution of the Unipn, peaceful or otherwise, Mr. Cowan was ready and earnest at all times in his support of the government in putting down the Rebellion. But believing that legal power enough existed, under the Constitution, in the Federal government to enable it to maintain itself, he opposed every infraction of that instrument. The Constitution, he believed, was intended to be maintained inviolate, just as he believed the Union must be preserved ; butt he could not see, as did the party in power, the necessity of violating the one to preserve the other. A preserved Union with a violated Constitution would be such an Union as heaven and hell, held together only by the power of the strong, the unquestioned masters, the weaker unquestioning serfs. Tine oaths Mr. Cowan had taken to support and maintain the Constitution were not esteemed by him as idle pledges, to be taken to-day and cast off to-morrow, but obligations binding here and hereafter. All this time, and in all the long years that ran through a fierce and bloody war, Mr. Cowan looked not behind him, and as bill after bill was presented, and law after law was enacted violating the plainest letter and the clearest spirit of the Constitution, he vainly implored his Radical colleagues to stay their mad hands in the work of destroying all that was good and grand in our government, that they might supply its place with an Union broken and a Constitution destroyed forever.


"Against the unjust expulsion of Senator Bright, of Indiana; against the insane schemes of men crazed with the fury of fanaticism, who sought by unconstitutional and wicked confiscation laws to impoverish the whole South and to make private property lawful prize of war; against legal-tender acts, which debased our currency and made the dollar of to-day the half-dollar of tomorrow, changing daily and hourly, with victory or defeat, the standards and measures of value ; against the


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 341


national banking laws, which substituted for government greenbacks without interest a currency bearing interest against the people as a government and the people as individuals, triplicating gain at the expense of many to the enrichment of a few ; against the Freedman's Bureau, which coat the people fifty millions of dollars directly and many hundreds of millions indirectly, with its swarms of carpet-bag Governors and marshals and other Federal office-holders; of and agalnet all these out-rages and all others of a kindred scope and design, at all proper times and in all proper places. In his place in the Senate and before the people Mr. Cowan most earnestly, even prophetically, protested and spoke, but spoke In vain. His predictions then have become history now, and his Republican colleagues of those days can only look back, since the whirlwinds of November have scattered the cohorts of Radicalism like chaff, aud with anguish recall to mind how they had been warned of their certain destruction unless they paused in their wild career.


"Is it necessary to remind for people of this? Need they be told that to revenge itaelf upon him for his manlinees in rebuking them for their wrongdoing, even the Senate of the United States, with a petty malig-nity never before exhibited towarda a senator, refused him a confirmation when hie 1811010 was laid before it by President Johneon as minister to Austria? Happily in their madness they stopped not with a refusal to confirm him alone, but almost every decent name. presented for every high office, unlees stamped with the eces1 of Radical subordination, met with the same fate, and that which was intended aa a sting and a reproach became, among good men, en honor and a boast. Shall we not now, when in power, repay those who, in the dark hours of our country and our party, toiled for it and us when the toilers were not many, who through good report and evil report held the even tenor of their way, with no thought for the morrovr save in 80 far am the morrow might per-chance lift from our heads the load of incompetency and corruption which was daily plunging us downward into the very depthe of destruc-tion.


"It has been said, and said truly, that Mr. Cowan la no politician. While this may be weakness, or rather a want of strength among politielans, it hi a point that ahould most strongly commend him to the people. They have wearied of politicians as etistesmen. The country has been too long in their hands for ite good, and it is time that a little wholesome statesmanship should be infused into our system. With the machinery of political organizations, and the manner and method of organizing and controlling political movements, Mr. Cowan is not familiar, and certainly canr.ot be called a time-server, else he had not been numbered with the Democracy to-day. Had policy controlled him, he has shown himself a very inapt student, and has read the history of parties with but little profit when he learned only to abandon even a oorrupt but still the strong and powerful organization in the very full-new of party strength, arid cast his fortunes with an organization then few in numbers', without consolidation or leaders, and loaded down with impracticables who never learned while they never forgot anything. " What more fitting rebuke to the insolence of fanaticism than to send back to the Senate one who, like Mr. Cowan, has been the subject of their most intense dislike and most rampant hatred? And when our representatives meet together to select one to represent our Commonwealth in the Senate, it does seem to us that personal preferences should be lost sight of, and that freely and with universal accord he should be chosen.


"Much more could be written on this subject, but we have said enough to indicate our views fully and unreservedly, and we trust that our words may bear good fruits."


The following is from the National Intelligencer :


"On the outside of to-day's paper will be found a brief but most important speech made in the Senate by Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Cowan is one of that large class of Republicans who honestly believed that Republicanism meant reform, and that the war was simply for the restoration of the Constitution and the Union. The change which has taken place in the course of policy adopted must necessarily separate such men from their former political associations, and induce them to act with those who still seek the great and honorable objects which the administration has abandoned. The National Intelligencer's description of the speaker will invite attention to what he says: "Entering the Senate at the opening of the Thirty-seventh Congress he early won for himself the admiration and respect of his associates, without distinction of party, by the learning and dignity with which he explained and defended his views of public policy, while the independence and eloquence for which be was conspicuous in debate early drew to him the attention of all who mark with interest the progress of our parliamentary discussions.


" Mr. Cowan, we need not eay, is a distinguished member of the Republican party, but in hie whole career as a. legislator he has made it apparent that he considers his first and highest allegiance due to the country. and therefore never narrows hie mind so as to give to the former the homage that should be paid only to the latter."


"’ WORDS OF TRUTH AND SOBERNESS.'—Under this head the National Intelligencer republished some excellent remarks of Senator Cowan's during the late session of Congress, which we in tarn republish in our columns this morning. The words of the senator are indeed words of truth and soberness;. those of Paul before Agrippa were not more so, though doubtless many an abolition Foetus will say with loud voice that the senator is beside himself. But the senator is not mad. What he says is surpassingly just. These things are known to every enlightened patriot; nay. they are known to the President himself, whom ws fain would hope that the senator almost persuades to Ire a conservative. "'Among all the members of the National Legislature who have been called to give counsel for the safety and welfare ot the republic in this day of severe trial, says the InleUigenoer in introducing Senator Cowan's remarks, we know of none who has brought to the discharge of his duties a higher intelligence, clearer sagacity, or a more patriotic fidelity than the Hon. Edgar Cowan, the learned senator from the State of Pennsylvania.'


"This is deserved praise. If not born for the universe,' like Burke, the Pennsylvania senator has not, as Goldsmith said much too strongly of the glorious orator and philosopher of Beaconsfield,—


' narrowed his mind,

And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.'


"Meanwhile, we commend the remarks of Senator Cowan to the attention of our readers. His main views on the fundamental question of the hour are thoroughly sound."


In 1842, Senator Cowan married Lucy, daugher of Col. James B. Oliver, of West Newton, Westmoreland Co. Col. Oliver died in 1873, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.


Senator and Mrs. Cowan are the parents of three children,—Elizabeth, intermarried with J. J. Hazlett, Esq., a member of the Westmoreland County bar ; Frank Cowan, a member of the same bar, and a physician, a gentleman of extensive scientific and literary attainments, a world's traveler, who has recently made the circuit of the globe, after thorough visitation of all the most important countries of Europe ; and James, who resides with his father.


HON. HARRISON PERRY LAIRD, of Greensburg, present State senator, representing the Thirty-ninth District, is on the remote paternal side of Scotch-Irish and English extraction. His great-grandfather, John Laird, was the son of a gentleman of County Donegal, Ireland, who owned in perpetuity a farm of ninety acres, lying within a mile of Raphoe, in that county, and which is still held in the Laird name. The mother of John Laird was an English lady. Tlie last-mentioned gentleman, who married in Ireland a lady named Martha Russell, migrated with her to America about 1760, and settled in Adams County, Pa., in the manor of Mask, on Lower Marsh Creek, in the townsbip of Strabane, and there reared a family, one of which was William Laird, his youngest son, and the grandfather of H. P. Laird, and who in-herited his father's farm in Adams County. William married a Miss Jane McClue, and became the father of several children, the youngest of whom was Fran-cis, who was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., and thereafter studied for the ministry, and being licensed to preach as a Presbyterian minister, re-


342 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


moved when a young man into Westmoreland County about 1797, when he entered upon his clerical career. He was subsequently installed over the churches of Poke Run, in Westmoreland County, and Plumb Creek, irk Allegheny County, and continued to preach till 1854. He was a man of marked ability, skilled in classic lore, and in the mathematics, and although a man of no ambition for public distinction or honors, he received from Washington College, Pennsylvania, the Doctorate of Divinity, its voluntary tribute to his learning and ability. He married Mary, the daughter of the Hon. John Moore, the first president judge of Westmoreland County,1 who was also a member of the first Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, held in 1776, and was a State senator shortly subsequent to 1790, representing the district of which Westmoreland County was a part.


Rev. and, Mrs. Laird were the parents of several children, Harrison P. being their youngest son. He received his first discipline in books under a noted teacher, Jeremiah O'Donovan, a gentleman who had been educated for the Catholic priesthood, but who never took orders. Mr. O'Donovan was a man of varied and extended learning, a versatile genius, and withal somewhat of a poet, and the author of a history of Ireland. Mr. Laird remained under his tutelage for two years, and became deeply attached to his teacher, still preserving the fondest remembrances of him. His next preceptor was the Rev. David Kirkpatrick, D.D., who kept a classical school at Loyalhanna Mills, in Westmoreland County, which Mr. Laird attended for two years. He then entered Jefferson College, Washington County, Pa., from which institution he graduated. After graduation from college he took charge of Madison Academy, in Clark County, Ky., for a year,, and leaving it entered as a student Transylvania University, Ky., where he took courses of lectures for a year, after which he returned to Pennsylvania, and took a seat in the law-office of Hon. Charles Shaler, of Pittsburgh, and under his direction read law for two years, and was admitted to the bar of Allegheny County, and immediately after admission to practice located in Greensburg, where he still follows his profession.


Shortly after his advent to Greensburg he was elected to the State Legislature, in the year 1848, and was re-elected in 1849, and again in 1850,—three terms in succession. At that period of his legislative experience he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and chairman of the Bank Committee, and drew up the banking law of 1850, some parts of which were copied or incorporated in the present National Banking Act of the United States.


In the fall of 1880 he was elected to the State Senate from the Thirty-ninth Senatorial District, consisting of Westmoreland County, for the term of four years.


1 For the distinction of president judges see chapter in which the subject of the early judiciary is treated.


Since Mr. Laird came to the bar he has devoted himself with singular assiduity to his profession and to general literature, to which, being nnincumbered by a family, as he is and ever has been, he has been able to give more time than could most other members of the bar. Aside from the classical languages usually studied in our colleges, Mr. Laird is conversant with the French and German languages and with the Hebrew, and following a proclivity of research into ancient tongues has of late taken up the study of Syriac.


HON. JACOB TURNEY, of Greensburg, is on his paternal side of Hollandish stock ; on his maternal, of the same and of English extraction. His great-grandfather, whose surname was Dorney, since changed to Turney, migrated from Holland, and settled in an early day in Eastern Pennsylvania, where Daniel Turney (or Dorney), the grandfather of the Hon. Jacob, was born, and who was one of a large family of children, three or four brothers of which left their home in Eastern Pennsylvania at about the same time for Western and Southern countries. One of them settled in Ohio, where his descendants are now numerous ; another in Tennessee, where he raised a large family, one of his descendants being the present Chief Justice Turney of that State. Another of the brothers went to North Carolina, and permanently located there, where the Turney name designated quite extensive families. Daniel 'Turney made his way to Westmoreland County, and settled near what is now Hannastown, in what was then the capital town of an extensive territory which was comprised under the name Westmoreland. He was a farmer. There were born to him six sons and two daughters, and of whom Jacob Turney, Sr., was in number the third child, born 1788. In youth he located in Greensburg, where he spent the rest of his life. He held several public offices,—those of county commissioner, county treasurer, etc. He was an active politician, and contracted a cold (from the effects of which he ultimately died, Jan. 4, 1827) on the Allegheny Mountains, where he, with others, was storm-stayed on his return from a political State Convention at Harrisburg to which he was a delegate, in or about the year 1820. Jan. 23, 1810, he married Margaret Singer, a daughter of Simon Singer and Mary Clouser Singer, natives of Carlisle, Pa. Mrs. Singer died in Greensburg about 1819. Mrs. Margaret Singer Turney was born May 11, 1792, and is still living, in the clear possession of unimpaired mental faculties, an intelligent, sprightly, and witty lady, a woman of remarkable accuracy of memory, which seems to be as unclouded now as ever.


Jacob and Margaret Turney became the parents of five sons and two daughters,—Daniel ; Nancy Williams, who married Robert Story, of Hempfield, Westmoreland Co., and died Feb. 5, 1881, in the sixty-seventh year of her age ; Samuel Singer Turney, a printer by trade, formerly editor of the Pennsylvania


THE LEGAL PROFESSION - 343


Argus, and from about 1870 to 1882, postmaster of Greensburg; Lucien B. ; Lucinda, intermarried with Richard B. Kenley, of Ludwick ; Robert Williams, now, and for over twenty-five years past, connected with the Pennsylviania Railroad ; and Jacob, Jr.

Jacob Turney was born in Greensburg, Feb. 18, 1825, and received his literary education in the common schools, and in Greensburg Academy, and reverts with special affection to Peter R. Pearsol, a famous instructor in the common schools. During the years of his minority, Mr. Turney, while attending school a portion of the year, devoted other portions to some business occupation, and among other things learned the printer's trade. After learning that trade he was appointed and served as deputy sheriff, and thereafter attended the academy, leaving which be engaged as clerk in the register's and recorder's office of the county, and while so engaged commenced reading law under the direction of Hon. A. G. Marchand, at that time a man of great eminence in his profession. Mr. Marchand dying before Mr. Turney had completed his studies, he continued reading under Henry C. Marchand, and was admitted to the bar at May term, 1849, and entered upon the practice of his profession, at once securing to himself, through a large acquaintanceship made while in the recorder's office, and by his personal manners, which were popular, and in no measure calculated to antagonize others, a lucrative practice. In 1850 he was elected district attorney of Westmoreland County by a large majority over his competitor, being the first district attorney elected under the then new law. He was re-elected in 1853, and served till 1856. During his term of office the Pennsylvania Railroad was in process of construction, giving rise to an unusual amount of criminal business. Trials for murder were frequent, and Mr. Turney obtained prominenCe as a practitioner, especially by the long-contested trial of George Ward and Malcom Gibson, charged with the murder of Luncinda Sechrist, a case enumerated among the remarkable criminal trials of the land, and which resulted in their conviction of murder in the first degree. But on a new trial granted, the prisoners, after a protracted trial, were, to the astonishment of the community, who generally condemned the jury for their verdict, acquitted, when they immediately left the region. The noted case of Hugh Corrigan, indicted for the murder of his wife, known as " Big Mary," convicted of murder in the first degree, and condemned to be hung, but who cheated justice by taking a dose of poison a few days before the appointed time of execution, will be long remembered as one of the remarkable trials conducted by Mr. Turney.


In 1855-56, Mr. Turney, being an earnest Democrat, took a prominent part against the Know-Nothing or American party, and stumped the county in opposition to that organization. In 1856 he was one of the Presidential electors who cast the vote of the State for James Buchanan for President, and in 1857 was nominated, without solicitation on his part, for the State Senate, and was elected senator for the district composed of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties for the term of three years, served during the term, and at the close of the session of 1859 was elected president of the Senate.


During the late war Mr. Turney was known as a pronounced War-Democrat, and in 1871 he was prevailed upon to permit the use of his name in the hopelessly Republican district of Westmoreland and Indiana Counties as a candidate for the State Senate in opposition to Gen. Harry White, and was defeated by a reduced Republican majority.


In 1874 he became the Democratic candidate of the Twenty-first District, composed of the counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, and Greene, for Congress, and was elected representative to the Forty-fourth Congress, and in 1876 was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. During his congressional career he served upon the Committees on Elections and Privileges, Mines, Mining, and Territories, and other committees with great credit to his constituents.


Leaving Congress, Mr. Turney returned to the practice of his profession, which he is now actively and profitably pursuing. Though eminently successful in his official career and gratified by the confidence reposed in him by his constituents, Mr. Turney regards it as a mistake in a professional man to even temporarily abandon his practice for public life.


Feb. 2, 1854, Mr. Turney married Miss Mary Stew- , art Richardson, daughter of William H. and Henrietta D. Richardson, of Indiana County, by whom he has had eight children, seven of whom are living,—Barton R., deceased ; Catharine M., married to A. L. Kinkead, Esq., of Pittsburgh ; Mary Stewart, William R., Thomas C., Elizabeth F., Jacob M., and Henrietta M.


JAMES Ross McAFEE.—The grandparents of James R. McAfee on his paternal side migrated to America from the north of Ireland and settled in Franklin County, on the Conococheague. They were the parents of two children, a daughter and a son, May and John. May married Thomas McCurdy about 1800, and subsequently removed to Indiana County, Pa., there raising a family of ten children, only two of whom are now living. The son, John, the father of J. R. McAfee, removed from Franklin County to Westmoreland County about 1801, and in 1806 was married to Mary Thompson, a daughter of John Thompson, a native of County Derry, Ireland, who about 1775 settled on a farm on the Big Sewickley, in South Huntington township.


Mr. John McAfee and his wife immediately after marriage settled near Smithton, on the Youghiogheny River, on a farm whereon they resided a few years, and thence removed to Indiana township, Allegheny Co., and there settled on a farm which Mr. McAfee bought from the late James Ross, Esq., of


344 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


Pittsburgh, who was the Federal candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1798, and after whom the subject of this sketch was named.


To these parents were born four sous and six daughters,-:--Joseph, William, John, James Ross, Matilda, Catharine Eaton, Margaret, Mary, Nancy, and Jane. The last-named daughter died in infancy. The rest of the children lived to maturity.


John McAfee died on the 28th of March, 1834, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, Mrs. McAfee on the 24th of March, 1870, in the ninety-first year of her age.


James Ross McAfee was born in Indiana township, Allegheny Co., Pa., March 10, 1822. He was raised upon the farm, and received his education in the common and select schools and the Greensburg Academy, but when eighteen years of age engaged in teaching school, and occupied himself more or leas with teaching for a period of ten years. In 1850 he entered upon merchandising, and continued at that business till 1857, when he was elected superintendent of common schools of Westmoreland County (May, 1857), and served from the 1st of June of that year till June 1, 1860. In 1859, during his term as superintendent, he was entered as a law student in the office of Gen. Richard Coulter, and read law with him until the latter went into the army in the war of the Rebellion, when Mr. McAfee entered the office of James A. Hunter, Esq., now Judge Hunter, and with him completed his studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1866.


From 1862 to 1864, Mr. McAfee served as assistant United States assessor for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania. In 1864 he resigned the position of assistant assessor, and was elected to the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania from the Westmoreland and Indiana District, and was re-elected in 1865. He served as assistant clerk of the State Senate for seven years, and one year as assistant clerk of the House. In 1879 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth under the administration of Governor Hoyt, in which he is now serving.


In 1868, Mr. McAfee was one of the Republican delegates of his district to the Chicago National Convention which nominated Gen. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax Vice-President. In the same year he was one of the two secretaries of the Republican State Central Committee of Pennsylvania, Galusha A. Grow being chairman. Mr. McAfee was originally a Whig, and cast his first vote for President for Henry Clay in 1844, and has been identified with the Republican party from its birth to the present.


In July, 1870, McAfee established The Greensburg Tribune, and in January, 1872, bought out and consolidated with his paper the Greensburg Herald, and associated with himself as proprietors and editors D. S. Atkinson' and T. J. Weddell, Esqs. In 1874, Mr. Weddell retired from the paper, selling his interest to his co-proprietors, and the business of the establishment has since been conducted under the firm-name of McAfee & Atkinson.


Jan. 23, 1844, Mr. McAfee was united in marriage to Miss Maria E. Reed, daughter of the late Joseph and Sarah Gilchrist Reed, of New Alexandria, Westmoreland Co. Mr. and Mrs. Reed subsequently removed to Ashland, Ohio, in which place both of them died. Mrs. McAfee died March 18, 1852. She was the mother of four children,—two sons and two daughters. One of the sons died in infancy, the other in his twentieth year. The daughters are still living.


Feb. 15, 1853, Mr. McAfee married Miss Louisa A. Craig, eldest daughter of the late Samuel and Sally A. Hogg Craig, of Saltsburg, Indiana Co.


CHAPTER XLIV.


THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.


The Profession in the Early Days of the Province and State, and in Westmoreland—Quackery --Dr. James Postlethwaite—John Ormsby, M.D.—Dr. Alfred T. King—Dr. David Alter—The Westmoreland Med. ical Association and Society—List of Enrolled Practitioners—Dr. Henry G. Lomison—Dr. David Alter—Dr. James A. Fulton—Dr. J. Q. Robinson—Dr. W. J. aline—Dr. J. T. Rrepps—Dr. J. D. Milligan.


THE position which the medical profession has always occupied in the history of the Province and the State is a matter of just pride to all Pennsylvanians. In commenting upon this subject in the time of the colony, a knowing author has collected certain facts which we shall make use of substantially as he has. 1


In the colonies of the South medical men, as a class, were in themselves of little merit, and socially and politically had no importance, whence in Pennsylvania the case was exactly reversed. Although Gabriel Thomas asserts, in mentioning the attractions of the colony, that it had neither lawyers nor doctors, and was therefore both peaceable and healthy, yet there is no doubt that two physicians of good reputation came out with Penn, and that from that time on the profession was respected, and was always extending its influence and its services. The country physicians, except in the back districts, where the practice was of the rudest sort, were apparently men of good repute, eking out a slender professional income by farming or shop-keeping, but the most eminent of the profession were gathered, of course, in Philadelphia. The best doctors were expected to be apothecaries as well, and dispense medicines to their patients. They almost invariably walked in making their round of visits in the towns, and in the country rode on horseback. Midwifery was given up exclusively to the women. The profession, as a whole, was of a remarkably good quality, and it is said that in all Philadelphia there were not more than two or three


1 H. C. Lodge, Hist. of the Eng. Col. in America, chap. xiii.


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quacks. The services rendered to the progress of medical science by the profession in Pennsylvania were as great if not greater than in any other colony, and were in themselves very considerable. Inoculation was successfully introduced in 1731, although not without the usual hard contest with existing prejudices. Three years later, Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, a graduate of the London schools, published an essay upon the " Iliac Passion," the first medical essay produced in Pennsylvania, and one of the earliest which appeared in the colonies. About the middle of the century he began to lecture upon anatomy, and was the pioneer in this branch of medical instruction. He was also one of the first physicians appointed to the hospital founded in Philadelphia in the year 1750. Ten years later, Dr. William Shippen began a course of anatomical lectures in a private house, and by these small beginnings he and his friend, Dr. Morgan, succeeded in starting the medical college which in the year 1765 was ingrafted upon the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shippen subsequently did much to raise the practice of midwifery from the rule of thumb methods of the old women, who had a monopoly of this department. These energetic and able men, among whom Dr. Rush, famous also by his controversy with Cobbett, held a leading place, were fair examples of their profession. They were men of family, position, and wealth, were educated abroad, and were adherents of the English school. They not only did much to advance medical science in America, but they helped to break the old tradition of barbers and apothecaries, which even now weighs upon medicine in England, and to put the profession in its true position, and to render it attractive, honorable, and desirable to men of all ranks and of the highest attainments.


The people of Westmoreland were fortunately favored in early having good medical practitioners among them, but these were few, and complaint was made that even then the status of the profession, taken generally, was not high.


In an article prepared for and published in The Greensburg Gazette in June, 1824, entitled "The Medical Character of Westmoreland County," the writer took special occasion to refer to the necessity of legislative action for the protection of the medical profession, and to show at length the evil effects of quackery in the profession at that day. It is probable that the article might have been instigated by personal motives ; but even if it was, the character of the contributor, who was evidently a practitioner in good standing and a competent authority, entitles it to our observation. We give the latter part of the article entire as a contribution to the medical literature of the county:


" But let us," he says, " proceed to the more immediate object of this communication, viz., a review of the medical character of this county, from which it will appear whether a few salutary restrictions on the practice of physic would not procure more whole some effects than some of the alterations in our tariff that have called forth so much eloquence and argument from some of the first men of the nation.


" There are about forty persons in this county who follow the practice of medicine for a living. But how few of this number are entitled to the honorable epithet of physician ? Not more, I will venture to say, than one-fourth. There are a few gentlemen of that profession who hold a distinguished rank, who have been gifted by nature with comprehensive, vigorous, and penetrating minds, and who have prepared themselves for the important duties of their station by a regular and systematic education—men to whose skill and honesty I would cheerfully intrust myself if in need of their assistance ; but the fact is notorious and unanswerable that it is but a small minority that merit this character. Much the greatest number come under a very different description, a description easily drawn by reversing that which has just been given.


" Encouraged by the total want of anything in the laws of Pennsylvania regulating the practice of physic, as is customary in all well-regulated governments, and in most of our sister-States, an establishment was formed in this county many years since by a notable junto of quacks. Perhaps their history should be more distinctly traced to one individual, whose name is familiar to almost every person in the county, a man who but a short time previous to his settlement here is said to have laid aside the more creditable employment of a blacksmith,—a business certainly not well calculated to fit him for his new profession. With scarely as much knowledge of his mother-tongue as would enable him to read a common English author, and not as much as would enable him to write legibly, without any knowledge of disease or the nature and power of remedies, or of the structure of the human system, he began his career, depending wholly and solely on his cunning, his effrontery, and his ignorance.


"As there are materials in human nature of every grade and description, this man soon found subjects on whom to commence his operation. To those who were of the most ignorant class, and who are always disposed to lend their belief to what is marvelous and incredible, he told the most wondrous tales of cures and operations that he had performed elsewhere. When applied to, even in trifling cases, his first object was to put some terrific name upon the disease, and alarm the patient as much as possible by pointing out the danger of his situation. For instance, a common cold would be called catarreous fever,' or ' consumption ;' a disordered stomach would be called scurvey of the stomach,' and an innocent wart a `cancer.' In this way not only the patient himself, but whole neighborhoods were led to believe that cures which were in fact no cures were performed by him, and were to be considered as most astonishing evidences of his skill in the healing art.


346 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


" Another method pursued by this mighty mock defrauder of the tomb' was to follow business wherever he could find it when business did not follow him,—to take patronage, as it were, by storm. For instance, did he hear of a neighbor being sick, under the semblance of benevolence and disinterested love, he would take his horse, visit him, and tender his services. If he had children to vaccinate, he would expatiate on the dangers of smallpox and the efficacy of vaccination, and humbly request the privilege of performing the service, waiving altogether for that time the idea of compensation. This, however, would serve for book entry and after-consideration.


" In short, no species of villany, hypocrisy, or deception was left unresorted to, and it is truly astonishing with what success he employed them, for it is to be confessed, to the disgrace of the good sense of the country, that his business extended far and wide.


" I have been thus particular in describing the character of this individual because, as he was the origin of a regular system of quackery in this settlement, he has ever stood the envied sample of imitation for that batch of young adventurers who have passed under his talismanic touch, and issue forth under the imposing name of ' Yankee Doctors.'


"These creatures he was in the habit of gathering up in dozens from the rejected filth of society, drilling them a few weeks in the art and mystery of quackery, and then sending them forth to prey upon the vitals of the community. And of this same fraternity are many professors of the healing art at present in this and the adjoining counties. Their progress can be traced in whatever direction they have gone by the numerous victims to their rashness, ignorance, villany, and seduction. Many a father mourns a promising member of his family nipped by their rude hands in the blossom of life; and many an innocent but senseless girl points to them as the authors of her crime and the murderers of her peace."


Not many fields more congenial to the quack and the empiric could be found than the back country of Western Pennsylvania some three generations ago. It was not until the warm sun of enlightenment had well-nigh reached the noonday height of this century that the phantoms of a traditionary superstition one by one fled before his penetrating rays from their latest lurking-places in the dusky abodes of credulity and ignorance. At this day, it cannot be gainsaid, traces of the same credulity still exist, but they now exist as the nature of the wolf exists in the habits of the house-dog. This credulity is now covert ; it was then open and palpable. And even in districts not accessible to the doctor of the nearest village, or among those who were too poor or too mean to ask the services of a doctor, there was always some one in the neighborhood who stood ready to cure and heal by virtue of occult mysteries. The flow of blood was stopped by reading a passage from the Scripture ; spells of acute forms were traceable to the manifesta

tion of evil spirits ; and even chronic and constitutional disease in their worst forms, and for which medical therapeutics to this day has failed to prescribe a cure, were brought within the list of curable afflictions which such miserable knaves professed to heal.


Empiricism and quackery have existed in the honorable profession of medicine from time immemorial. It is the peculiarity of quacks that they are as outspoken against regularly educated physicians as they are forward in professing their own systems and obtruding their knavery upon a helpless following. So it is related of Paracleus, the prince of empirics, that he treated his contemporary physicians with the most sottish insolence and illiberal vanity, and told them that the very down on his bald pate had more knowledge than all their writers, the buckles of his shoes more learning than Galen and Avicenna, and his beard more experience than all their universities!' This man flourished in the fifteenth century, near Zurich, in Switzerland, and under the shadow of a famous seat of learning. But he scarcely professed to greater and more numerous cures than Dr. Ormsby, and had no panacea more efficacious in his dispensary than was to be found in the saddle-bags of the majority of country doctors two generations ago. Blue-mass was to these what the holy ointment of Fierabras PM to Don Quixote.


But the land was then cursed not only with quacks but also with knaves. Of the presence of these medical impostors—used for want of a better addition—there is abundant evidence. Of one, the most conspicuous of these, we shall have something to say after, however, dwelling at some length upon one who has been regarded with the greatest veneration in his profession, and who was an ornament to it and a blessing to his race.


JAMES POSTLETHWAITE.


James Postlethwaite, the subject of this memoir, was the seventh son of Samuel and Matilda Postlethwaite, citizens of Carlisle, Cumberland Co., Pa. He was born in that town on the 12th of January, 1776. His father, Col. Samuel Postlethwaite, was a plain, sensible citizen, who was respected for inflexible integrity, and very much liked on account of his mild, friendly, and amiable disposition. He died at an advanced age, in his garden, of an attack of apoplexy. He was born in this country, but was of English descent. Goldthwaite, Cowperthwaite, Thistlethwaite, and Postlethwaite are all names of Teutonic origin, and not uncommon in Yorkshire and the north of England.


The maiden name of the mother of Dr. Postlethwaite was Matilda Rose. Her father was a lawyer, distinguished in his profession for unusual ability.


Pre-eminent among the early physicians of Westmoreland was Dr. James Postlethwaite.


It is a loss to the little world of Western Pennsyl-


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vania, says his biographer,' that Dr. Postlethwaite had no fidus Achates to preserve and transmit his colloquial remarks, for they are certainly more worthy of a place in libraries than a large part of the " Conversations" and " Recollections," " Ana," " Table-Talk" that have been recorded and preserved for future generations. But all this is somewhat digressive, and so revenons a nos moutons.


James Postlethwaite was placed at a very early age at a grammar school, which was under the superintendence of the celebrated Ross, a most accurate and learned linguist, whose grammar of the Latin language was so long the one used in American academies and colleges, and where the accidence of Latin is so simplified and its acquisition so facilitated that it has all the information contained in the Scottish and English classical grammars, without any of their laborious and painful pedantry. With such a preceptor, Teucro auspice et Teucro duce, how could Postlethwaite fail to attain an extensive and critical knowledge of Latinity ?


Dickinson College, at Carlisle, was then regarded as one of the best institutions of learning in the United States. It was then under the control of the Presbyterian denomination, at that time the most wealthy and numerous body of Christians in Pennsylvania. For more than a score of years it has been in the hands of the Methodists, and, without meaning any disrespect to that religious sect, it may be stated that Dickinson has degenerated from its former high character. It may be that hitherto Methodism has depended too much upon divine assistance, and neglected the carnal means for the acquisition of knowledge. This neglect or contempt of mere human or secular knowledge is not sustained by the authority or examples of Holy Scripture, for worldly wisdom and useful knowledge are subjects of fine and frequent praise in the sacred writings. Moses was imbued with the profound erudition of the priesthood of Egypt, and the Apostle Paul knew so well the histrionic literature of Greece that he could embellish his discourses with extracts from their dramatice writers as readily as an English divine can adorn his sermons with quotations from Shakspeare: for example the following line from Euripides, which, quoted by the apostle, and thus made well known, has passed into a proverb in nearly all Christendom, " Evil communications corrupt good manners."


When Dr. Postlethwaite was a youth a liberal education was then far more limited than it is at present. For instance, Dr. Postlethwaite was considered to be well educated in his day, and yet, although a first-class Latinist, he knew nothing of Greek beyond the alphabet. For enlarged and liberal education at that time the American people had not the opulence, the books, or the speedy and constant communication


1 James Johnston, Esq., to whom we are much indebted in this sketch, and for other personal reminiscences.


with the old seats of learning in Europe. Often, too, the pressing necessities of existence, limited means, and large families forced men upon the stage of life before they had acquired a complete preparation. At an early age James Postlethwaite left college, and in June, 1792, commenced the study of medicine in the office of Samuel A. McCoskey, a successful and popular practitioner in Carlisle. The extent of his acquirements at his time of life was a matter of general astonishment. He was indebted for them in part to himself, and in part to nature. His ardor in pursuit of knowledge was indefatigable, and the ease with which he unfolded the intricacies and evolved the complications of any subject,. no matter how recondite, appeared not like the effect of study, but like acts of intuitive apprehension.


Sir Walter Scott had not yet shown mankind what wonders could be worked in the field of romantic fiction, and the sun of Lord Byron had not arisen to attract and awe the learned world by its lurid splendors. The genius, learning, and taste of Robertson, Hume, Goldsmith, Smollett, Gibbon, and Rollin had illuminated and popularized historical researches, and this renascency of this kind of learning in the latter half of the last century, along with a natural inclination of mind on the part of James Postlethwaite, had caused the careful perusal of history to be a daily duty with him, and by the change itself constituted an amusement in the intervals of severe professional study that ultimately tended to the invigoration of his mental powers, while at the same time it furnished him with a fund of accurate and extensive historical information, which armed him cap-a-pie in religious and political controversy. Of all the muses he liked Clio best, the heroic muse of history, and his heart kept time to the grand strain wherewith the poet salutes her, and which bursts upon the ear like a full band of martial music,—


Quern Denm, or Heroa lyre, vel acri

Tibia sumus celebrare, Clio?"


In 1795 and 1796, James Postlethwaite went to Philadelphia to obtain medical instruction in the University, and its rolls bear evidence of his matriculation. He had the rare felicity of listening to the wisdom of those Esculapian sages who first gave the medical school. of Philadelphia the high reputation it has since enjoyed. These eminent physicians and lecturers were Drs. Shippen, Wistar, and Benjamin Rush, who were seldom equaled and never surpassed by those who succeeded them..


In 1794 there had been an insurrection in Western Pennsylvania to resist the payment of a small tax laid upon whiskey by the Federal government. Although a youth in years, yet a man in knowledge, James Postlethwaite had accompanied the military expedition west to quell the rebellious rising in the capacity of an assistant surgeon. He so well liked the country west of the mountains that when he had


348 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


finished his medical education he resolved to locate himself in Westmoreland County.


In 1797, mounted on horseback, he directed his course towards the new home of his destination. He did not depart joyously, like a young man full of animal spirits and the love of adventure. It was with a heavy heart, and eyes moistened with tears that he halted on a hill westward of his native place and took a long, mournful, lingering look over it and its beautiful scenery. Nearly all love their native places, but Carlisle had reasons peculiar to herself for the attachment of her children. Carlisle was the centre of an intelligent, handsome, and well-mannered popular tion, in a rich and highly-cultivated agricultural district. It possessed one of the best institutions of learning in the United States. It had been a British military station before the Revolution ; there were remains of old-fashioned, old-world manners, and when Dr. Postlethwaite migrated there were still reminiscences of ruffle-shirted, silk-stockinged, periwigged, red-coated officers, who had jigged and jilted, floundered, flounced, and fluttered before the deluge of the Revolution among the fair dames and damsels of the valley of the Cumberland. But though Carlisle be a bonny town, Dr. Postlethwaite was forced to leave it, and at length found himself located in the quiet and sequestered village of Greensburg, in the backwoods county of Westmoreland. However, his body only was in Greensburg, for his heart was in the environs of Carlisle, in the safe custody of Miss Elizabeth, daughter of James and Margaret Smith, old and highly-respected citizens of Cumberland County, who resided near Carlisle. To recover joint possession of this important corporeal appurtenance, Dr. Postlethwaite returned to Cumberland, and wa.s,married on the 11th of April, 1799, to the aforesaid Miss Smith. There are very few couples that ever suited one another better than his lady and Dr. Postlethwaite, and they lived in a state of uninterrupted connubial happiness until their separation by his death. This marriage had been one of affection, not of convenience or interest. They possessed health, quiet, and competence, and were blessed with a family of healthy, handsome children.


When Postlethwaite first established himself as a medical practitioner in Greensburg, being a conscientious man, he felt the full responsibility of his duties, and so he arduously studied the best authors of the old school of medicine,—Cullen, Sydenham, Fordyce, Rush, Darwin, and Abernethy. In addition to the mental exertion necessary for this professional study, he, in common with other country physicians, was forced to undergo an amount of daily labor equal to that of a coach-horse. It will be remembered that when Dr. Postlethwaite began to practice medicine in Westmoreland, and for a score of years afterwards; there were not even turnpike roads. Travel by steam, both on water and land,. was unknown, and conveyance was slow, laborious, and expensive. Population was sparse, the country wild and covered with forest, and the roads rough, crooked, hilly, and dangerous. The shops of apothecaries and medical prescriptions were rare or unknown, and every village physician was obliged to carry his drug-shop in his saddle-bags. In addition to his ordinary duties, a country physician was expected to pull teeth, bleed, extract wild hairs, and usher children into this world of woe, or, in other words, act as physician, surgeon, optician, dentist, nurse, and man-midwife.


In Scott's story of " The Surgeon's Daughter" there is a description of the rough life of a village doctor in a rural district of Scotland, which is not altogether unsuited for that of a medical practitioner in Westmoreland in the beginning of the present century. The Scottish country doctor, like the ghostly lover in Burger's German ballad of Leonore, mounts his horse at midnight, and traverses in the darkness paths which to those unaccustomed to them seem formidable even in daylight.


"Let the wind howl through Lush and tree,

This night he must away ;

The steed is weight, the spur is bright,

He cannot stay till day.


" And hurry 1 hurry I off he rides

As fast as fast might be ;

Spurn'd from the courser's thund'ring heels

The flashing pebbles flee."


For these nocturnal rides through a wild and rough country, at the risk of life and limb, the compensation was very inadequate to the toil and danger. Besides attending to all the cases in his own vicinity, tin country physician was at the command of every one within a circuit of forty miles.


The celebrated traveler, Mungo Park, who had experienced both courses of life, gave the preference to traveling as a discoverer in the deserts of Africa to wandering by night and day as a medical practitioner in the wilds of a country district in Scotland.


All this is bad enough, and perhaps the description is too highly colored to suit our country ; but still it was no amusement for ladies to ride in a dark and stormy night, in a matter of life and death, over shocking roads, through the long and dark woods of Westmoreland.


Dr. Postlethwaite soon obtained a good practice, and throughout his life stood at the head of his profession in Westmoreland. But his education, his obscure location in a backwoods village, in absence of suitable incitements to ambitious exertions, and the diversion of his mind to studies outside of his profession prevented Dr. Postlethwaite from attaining the highest medical position, such a status, for example, as that held by Addison, of Pittsburgh. In addition to what knowledge could be gained ;n this country, the eminent physician, Addison, had studied surgery in Edinburgh, chemistry in Leyden, and walked the hospitals in London. Moreover, in a city there are more opportunities of information than in the country. The rewards and honors of persons


THE MEDICAL PROFESSION - 349


eminent in the profession are much greater, and as there is more competition the faculties must be con-centrated on professional studies, and not applied to extraneous subjects, or allowed to stand in a state of stagnation. But according to good and sound opinion, the professional standing of Dr. Postlethwaite was highly respectable. He was well versed in the doctrines of the old and established school of medicine. He had clear perceptions of the nature and seat of morbid action, and great readiness in the application of suitable therapeutical means to relieve pain and remove disease.


In discharging the duties of his profession his deportment was always extremely kind. He appeared to feel deep sympathy with suffering humanity, and this attracted to him the hearts of his patients. To his professional brethren his conduct was always urbane, and he towered a.s far above the low back-biting and petty jealousies of his profession as the summit of a snow-clad mountain above the unwholesome vapors that settle at the foot. In dealing with patients he presented an example of high-toned integrity and charitable feeling now almost unknown in the profession. He was not an avaricious man, yet he asked a fair compensation for his services, and at one time of his life was willing and anxious to accumulate a competence " for the glorious privilege of being independent."


But though willing enough to take the advice of honest Iago, and " put money in his purse," he has been known to lose a wealthy and liberal patient by insisting upon total abstinence from strong drink as a necessary condition before he would agree to continue his professional attendance, and by endeavoring to convince the gentleman that health and the use of ardent spirits are incompatible. He was known to attend, with all the kindness of a woman, and without hope of any pecuniary return, upon an unfortunate and wretched man who was raving with delirium tremens.


Having emigrated to this county when land was "cheap as dirt," and having had a good practice for thirty years, had Postlethwaite been as avaricious as he was talented, or had he flayed patients alive, as is now the practice of a portion of the profession, instead of a few thousand, he might have died worth several hundred thousand dollars. There is much standard or conventional joking about the fleecing of clients by lawyers ; but the doctors now often improve on the practice of the other learned profession, and, in addition t,o the robbing of patients, they act on the sentiment of some sanguinary gentlemen of the high-way that " dead men tell no tales."


Dr. Postlethwaite was an honorable, truthful, and courageous gentleman, who discharged the duties of his profession with care and sincerity, to the best of his knowledge and ability ; but yet he never held what nature designated as his proper place, the highest position in his profession. With the whole


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force of his strong and acute intellect directed upon medicine, he ought to have been a doctor whose ipse dizir would have passed without contradiction. But he had no professional enthusiasm, and, instead of medicine, the main inclination of his mind was towards politic,s and religion.


When Postlethwaite was just emerging from youth into manhood two great political parties, known as Federalists and Democrats, came into existence. Dr. James Postlethwaite, both from education and conviction, became a decided Federalist. He gave his first vote to the Federal party, and adhered to it until it passed out of existence. After he had married and taken a position in society he became a copious and careful reader of political books and newspapers, and kept full and accurate notes of the results. So conversant was he with American political history that he had few equals and no superior in that kind of information. He knew well the history and reason of every article in the Federal Constitution, and he was as well or better acquainted with Hamilton, Adams, and other leading Federalist writers than with Wistar, Rush, and the eminent expounders of the medical profession. His fugitive contributions on political subjects would fill a volume, and are worthy of collection and republication. They were first published in the Greensburg anti-Democratic papers, and in the old Pittsburgh Gazette.


The newspaper contributions by which he acquired the greatest local notoriety are to be found in a controversy which he maintained with the Hon. Richard Coulter upon the subject of the administration of John Quincy Adams, in connection with the election of Jackson to the Presidenby. It occurred during the Presidency of Adams, and excited so deep and general an interest that the newspapers in which the dispute was published were in anxious and extensive requisition. Judge Coulter's articles were published in the Westmoreland Republican and Farmer's Chronicle, edited by Frederick A. Wise; those of Postlethwaite appeared in the Greensburg Gazette, then under the editorial management of John Black.


Judge Coulter and Postlethwaite were the two ablest men in their professions and the first citizens in the social circle in which they lived, and so the controversy excited as much interest as an encounter between two choice lances, two champion knights', in the days of chivalry. As is usual in such cases, the respective friends of the two gentlemen claimed for either of them the honor of victory, but the combatants themselves were willing to have it considered as a drawn battle. Each confessed that he had put forth his whole strength, and had found an antagonist worthy of his steel. At this distance of time, and with the changes produced by it, one would be better able to form a just judgment of the merits of the dis-tinguished adversaries in the controversy.


While Dr. Postlethwaite detested Gen. Jackson, he admired Daniel Webster. When it young man, and