The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-01-03
Speech of Senator Foot on the
Death of the late Senator
Collamer.
IN SENATE
Thursday, Dec. Ia 1865.

Mr.. President, rise to ask the Senate
to suspend, for this day, its deliberations
upon public affairs, that we may offer
fitting and appropriate tribute to the
character and the memory of one who
has long been associated with us in the
national councils, but who is with us now
no more. Since our assembling here at
this present session, we have all had oc-
casion to remark-none of us can have
failed TO remark-the absence of one ot
our number; one whom we have long
been accustomed TO meet and hold coun-
Gil with in these Halls. An elder brother
who has long mingled with us in our de-
liberations here; wise and discreet
statesman learned and iudicious coun-
selor pure patriot; just and an up
right man, has been removed from among
us bv the hand of death. IA venerable
form, long familiar to our sight, has been
taken away out of our presence. l bring
no new message to this body--for it has
already been heralded throughout the
country-yet none the less sad, in making
the formal announcement TO the Senate of
the death of my colleague, Hon. Jacob
Colamer. 1t is eminently fit and becom-
ing, Mr. President, as it is also in accord
ancc with an approved and sacred custom
that we pause iol an hour in the routine
OF our daily labors, that we may conse-
crate that hour to the virtues and the
memory of deceased and lamented asso-
clate, who has shared so long and so
largely in our regards, and in the public
confidence, for his mature wisdom and for
his great moral excellence.
"Your colleague, Judge Colamer, is
dead !" was the startling telegraphlc mes.
sage l received at my home about five
weeks ago. He expired at his residence
in Woodstock, Vermont, on the evening
of the 9th of November past, alter a briei
illness of little more than single week.
at his own nome, in the midst of his own
affectionate and devoted household, in the
full exercise OF his intellectual faculties,
with an abiding and mistaken faith in
the Christian religion, and in the cherish.
ed hope of a blissful Immortality.
But three weeks before his decease he
visited Montpelier, the capital of the
State, some fifty miles distant from hi.
; residence, to attend the funeral service.
of a younger and favorite brother. Hav.
ing paid the last sad offices Of respect and
affection to brothers memory, he re.
turned to his own home but alas only
to lay himself down so soon 10 die. BY
this dspen,ation, so sudden and so sad,
the Senate of the United States has lost
one of the oldest, most experienced, and
most trusted of its members the country
one of the ablest and purest of its states.
men society, and the church of which
he was a member. one of their brightest
and wortaiest exemplars; my own State,
and this day there is mourning through
all her borders.
Jacob Collamer was born in Troy, IN
the State of New York, the Sth day OF
January, 1871, and was therefore, at the
time of his decease, in the seventy-fifth
year OF his age, and in the number of his
years was the senior member of this body.
In early childhood he was removed, with
his fathers family, to Burlington, Yer
mont. There his early life was spent -
There he was educated. There his
academic years were passed. He entered
the University of Vermont at the age OF
fifteen, where he graduated in 1910, with
credit and commentator for good schol-
arship, thus giving early promise and
hope to his friends of future eminence and
usefulness. This promise and these hopes
were not doomed to disappointment
Immediately upon the conclusion of his
collegiate course he entered the law Office
of the late Judge Adds OF ST. Albans,
then an eminent and leading lawyer a,
the bar in the State. Having passed
through the usual preparatory course Of
legal studies, he was admitted to the baI
in 1913, and entered at once upon hi:
professional career. After remaining a
few months at st. Albans, and thence
stopping for year or two in the town Of
Randolph, he finally settled at Royalton,
in the county of Windsor, where he resid.
ed during the whole period of his profes
sional career, and until he removed tc
Woodstock, in the same county, in 1886,
where he confined till the time of hi,
death. Here his advancement in profes
sional business and reputation was alike
rapid and gratifying, and soon placed him
in the front ranks of the leading
men Of his time at the bar
Forensic laurels, fresh and fair, gathered
thick aud fast upon his youthful brow,
and he became at once the compeer, AS
he was, the contemporary, of Prentis,
and Phelps. and Royce and Bates o
Van Ness and Upham; of Skinner, anC
Hall and Everett, and early took ranl
even with the senior and more advanced
champions Of the profession, like Daniel
Chapman and David Edmond, anc
Chauncey Langdon, and Horatio Sey
mour, and Chas. X. Williams, and iona
than ii Hubbard, and Charles Marsh
and VIM G, Bradley, who had long helC
supremacy at the bar in our State.
was school of practice like this; il wa
in contact and collision with minds lik,
these, that his own powers were quicken
ed and invigorated, and in which he wa
early trained and disciplined to habits o
close application and study, and whicl
became the fixed habit of his life, an,
was, indeed, one of the chief clements o
his success, and which enabled him 4