The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-04-14

lal Court yesterday afternoon, at 8 o'clock,
Judge Howard, the President of the Cumber-
land Bar Association, made few well-timed
and appropriate remarks Introductory to q
series of resolutions (passed by the Association
at q former meeting) which had been drawn up
By the committee and referred to the decease
Of Gen. Samuel Fessenden. The resolutions
were then read by Gen. George f. Sbepley.
chairman Of that committee, and were as fol-.
lows:
Resolved, That the members of the Cumber-
land Bar have received with profound sensibili-
ty the announcement of the decease of the Hon
Samuel Fessenden, who was for MANY wears
the most distinguished member and the Presi-
dent of this Association.
Resolued, That while we deplore his absence
frem this scene of his earthly labors where his
face was familiar, where his greatest efforts
were made, and where his claims to great dis
tiuction were ever cheerfully admitted and
his intellectual powers fully appreciated. we
will cherish the memory of his high and va
ried attachments, and will not forget that he
never prostituted his great abilities by sacri-
fee of right to expediencJ or wavered in his
advocacy of the cause of truth and humanity
to win the need of public applause. That his
sympathies and his exertions were ever enlist
ed in favor of the poor and the oppressed That
he was ever ready to defend the cause of the
poor and the fatherless, and to see that they
who are in need and ms cessity have right
While we miss his genial presence and ever
cordial and kindly greeting, we know his hope
full and humble Christian character has fitted
him to pass from death to life, and that he will
live here also in the memory of his bright ex-
ample and in the respect and gratitude of the
people of Maine.
Resolued, That the Cumberland Bar will
manifest its respect for the memory of the de-
ceased and its sympathy for his bereaved FAM
ilu Inv attending N q h0dU no fy,
of our departed brother, and that these resolu-
tons be presented to the Supreme Judicial
Court at the April term, and the presiding
Justice be respectfully requested to cause
them to be entered on the records of the Court,
and that copy be transmitted to the family
| of the deceased.
Judge Barrows said in response to the reso-
| luGions:
| 1t is well for us now and then to cease
| awhile from the strife and turmoil of this
| worlds work, and turn aside to lay wreath
| on the fresh grave of departed worth. Though
| our words cannot reach the ear of our friend
| and brother who is gone, nor "honor's
voice awake the silent dust, yet the contem-
| piation OF strong and wise and good mans
lite and character cannot fail to be salutary to
| ourselves.
| cannot but feel that the lesson to be drawn
| from the long and useful and in the main sue
| cessful life of him to whom these resolutions
/
those venerable men whose learning and dig
| nifty adorned this bench quarter OF a century
| ago. They were his peers and contemporaries
They had wrought by his side, more or less
and had opportunities of observing him in the
early vigor and maturity of his powers and
we're better capable of approaching his profes.
| sional ability and excellence.
As to these it is perhaps enough for me to
| say that he came to this bar and acquired a
| good standing there at time when Mellen
| ox,I opdn rr nd lI1x~x
| Greenleaf and Preble, not to mention by name
other highly respectable practitioners placed
the Cumberland Bar in the front rank in New
England.
But cannot forbear an allusion to single
prominent trait of his professional character
well worthy of imitation; and that was hi.
earnest and unselfish devotion to the interest
| of his clients. 1t never could have been sale
of him that he consulted his own ease, com
| fort or pecuniary interest at the expense o
those who came to him for counsel. He es
| pOuSed no civil cause without being first firm
| ly persuaded in his own mind that it had sub
stantial justice for its b isis, and starting witt
that hypothesis, he seemed at times absolutely
incapable of recognizing or accepting any
testimony as true any law as sound that mill
tated against it.
AnG he fortified his position with the mos
unremitting assiduity of labor and diligence
of research, neglecting no legal analogy il
his exhaustive study of the case that promised
to be of service. He made the cause his own
and whatsoever his hands found to do he die
it with his might" and this oftentimes with
scarcely possibility of remuneration for the
wearing outlay of labor and time, but solely
from his abiding conviction that it was his du
ty as lawyer to maintain right and Justice in
the true spirit of chivalry for all and sundry
who claimed his assistance to that end against
whatever edds And thus not seldom "out Of
the nettle danger he plucked the flower safety
for clients threatened with ruin.
While have spoken of this trait as note
worthy in him, am proud to say to the honor
and credit of the legal profession that it is by
| no means uncommon. True as steel to right
| and justice, prompt and Jealous to maintain
| the cause of the paor, the defrauded and the
| representatives things may be said of most
lawyers who have ever attained any eminence
| worth mentioning. speak OF them here and
now not because they are rare but because in
these respects General Fessenden was prinau.
| inter pdres
said his life was in the main successful
| one. Success is too often measured in this
| country by the number and importance of the
Offices man fills, the magnitude and value OF
| the public trusts confided to him. OF such
success General Fessenden had very little.-
Intaminatis fulget hororibus;
Nee sumit aut ponit secures
ArbitriO populars aura.
The wants of a large family and the meagre-
ness of the salary prevented his acceptance OF
| judicial position, and his zeal in the cause OF
| the enslaved when such zeal was not the ready
way to political preferment barred his prog
| gress in that direction. But the things which
were nearest his heart prospered in his hands
and under his eye, and that is after all the
best and only true test of success in life. He
reioiced in his family, and in hosts OF personal
friends, and in the daily doing of many gener-
GUS and kindly acts, and in the triumphs of
law aud Justice in the courts and in the asser-
ton and maintenance of the rights of free
speech and in the progress of all social reforms
and he lived to hear liberty proclaimed
throughout all the land to all the inhabitants
thereof.
He was the consistent and active friend of
every reform Yet he was by no means of
that class of reformers, the manifestation OF
whose spirit is such that even their opposition
to bear batting and kindred amusements might
fairly be supposed to proceed not SO much
from compassion for the sufferings of the COM
batants as from ill-wilI to the delighted spec
tators. 1t was genuine love for the whole
humanrace, a cordial desire to make everybody
with whom he came in contact or whose des-
tiny he could influence better and happier
that inspired his efforts.
He had very little of another kind of success,
much coveted nowadays, in the accumula-
ton of wealth. But affirm that that want
counts for nothing in estimating the success Of
mans life.
"Non possdentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum: rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui Deornm
NUMEROUS sapienter ut
Duramque callet pauperiem patti
Pejusque lethe fagitium timet."
His large earnings were bountifully dispens-
ed, not only in the support and education of
his family, but in the promotion of every good
and charitable purpose. His house was the
home OF the most liberal hosptality-a hospi-
tally extended not merely to those who could
make return in kind, but to the wayfarer the
needy and the friendless, sometimes even to
the criminal outcast from society, and always
to the fugitive from oppression. He gave to
him that asked, and from him who would Dor
row he turned not away when he had it to
lend, To all the needy and the distressed, of
whatever color or nation or creed, his hand
was open as the day in charity.
think tn mute advocacy of some of the
least of those in Christi heritage to whom he
gave cup of cold water, or whom he babe
God-speed in the name of the Lord. will adj
vance him to higher seat and greater happi-
ness IN Heaven, inasmuch as the doing of those
things or the performance of kindred uses was
the chief delight of his soul on earth
He was reverent believer in the great
truths Of the Christian religion, a loving fol-
lower of the Saviour in whom he trusted
Yet similarity of creed counted for less in his
estimation than disposition to serve God and
y do good, and 1 think he was of the opinion
that
'He prayeth best who loveth best
AL things both great ana small"
In fine, he was jealous in every good word and
work. He has gone to his reward-and that,
l take it, consists not in being ministered unto
but in ministering still (all the infrmities of
flesh being removed) with ever increasing
powers and means, to the welfare and happi-
ness of his fellow-creatures.
Let us try to leave q like example to those
VINO come after us SO that haply it may be
found at the end of our lives that the world is
not the worse for our having lived in IL