The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1885-11-06
FAMOUS NORTH CAROLINIANS
SOME EMINENT MEN NORTH CAR
OLINA HAS PRODUCED.
Memoir of Hon. James Cochran Dobbin,
Sccretar. OF the Navy During President
PieTce'~ Administrations.

. >
Secretary OF the Navy During President
Pierce'> Administrations.
To THE CHRON4LE:-The late Cochran
D5bbn was born in Fayetteville, n G.
January 18th, 1914. He died at Fayette
Vile, August 4th, 1914, precisely one
month after the death of his illustrious
colleague, Hon. William L. Marcy. Mr.
Dobbiu's ancestry in both lines of descent
was excellent and honorable, marked by
eminent purity OF life, and conspicuous
in every social grace. The subject of our
sketch was prepared for college by the late
William J. Bingham, and entered the
Freshman class at Chapel Hill in 1923,
graduating in 1882. He commenced the
study OF law under the guidance of the
late Judge Strange, of Fayetteville aud
was called to the bar in 1S3j. His pro-
fvssion4l success seems to have been as
snred Aom the first, he rapidly advanced
- a commanding rank at the Fayetteville
bar then numbering on its rolls men
whose names were almost synonymous
with recognized ability, and impassioned
eloquence, Toomer, Eccles, Strange and
Henry. Professional as we'll as political
honors fell thick upon him. In 1S45 he
was elected by the Democratic party to
represent them in Congress, declining Il
reelection at the expiration of his term;
III 1S4s he represented his native county
in the Legislature and in the face of ap-
parently invlncible obstacles, secured the
appropriation for the Lunatic Asylum on
DiA's Hill, which constitutes an unfading
memorial OF his magnetic elOquence. In
1852, Mr.. Dobbin was a delegate to the
Baltimore Convention which nominated
Mr. Pierce for the Presidency. The nomi-
nation was largely due to his persuasive
eloquence, and upon the accession of Mr..
Pierce to the Presidency in 1858, Mr.. Dob
bins eminent services received appropriate
recognition in his appointment to the posi-
ton of Secretary of the Navy At the
early age of thirty nine his fame had
passed beyond all local limits, and his
career as Secretary Of the Navy, served
in large measure to broaden the renown
he had secured, at time when most men
have scarcely attained the unheralded de
gree OF provincial nOtOrlety. The opening
of Isolated Japan to the stimulating lnt1u
enceS Of Christian civilization was in great
measure due to the efforts of Mr.. Dobbln.
Every phase of the naval service received
Il high degree of efficiency from his pure,
active and self sacrificing administrator.
In March, 1858, Mr.. Pierce's administra-
tiCn having expired Mr.. Dobbin returned
to his quiet home near Fayetteville at
which place he died, August 4th. Con
sumption had set its fatal seal upon him
even before his accession to the naval de
partment. In the face of disease, whose
rayages We're painfully visible to those of
his own household, he had pursued the
absorbing labors Of his high trust, with
undisminished vigor. No man was more
regardless of self; none more conspicuously
Illustrated that sublime repression of
himself which the poet laureate has char
acterized as the ideal grace of his ideal
hero. The writer of this sketch then a
a boy of thirteen, was present at his death
bed His innate suavity, gentleness and
dignity, never fOrSoOk him-eyen under the
pressure of continuous and acute suffering.
They seemed to rise superior to all the at
taeks of a remorseless disease, as they
had risen above all the anxieties and dis
fractions that are the natural concoml-
tants of SO lofty a temperament and so
brilliant a life. On the 9th of August, he
was laid to rest by the side of his wife,
in the beautiful cemetery at Fayetteville,
amid the scenes and associations of his
early years. OF his three children but one
survives him-the honored wife of an es-
teemed merchant of New York.
His two sons died-the younger in July
1865, the elder in August 1869 Both eX-
hibited in their lives and characters many
of the nobler traits of their father, and
the elder, who inherited his name, re-
ceived with it full measure Of that re
sistless eloquence," by which his ancestor
had '.welded at will'' the discordant
voices of a fierce democratic. James c.
Dobbn, Jr., may be pronounced with no
trace Il fulsome panegyric-the ''young
Lycidasn of our North Carolina annals.
Amid the young men of the present gen
Grafton III North Carolina, there seems tc
prevail a strange forgetfulness | should
rather say-lack of knowledge, in regard
to the colossal minds of old, cast in the
mighty mould in which those massive age:
ran" The dead but sceptered sOvereigns'
Il former era, no longer rule the spirit
of this oblivious day. AS history is tn,
essence of innumeIable biographies"
have INDUCED my fancy with the pleasing
hope, that this concrete presentation of
North Carolina gentleman, in whose har
monisusly blended character were ex
hibited all those qualities Of mind anC
heart of which chivalry but dreamed
may serve in some degree to exer
that elevating and ennobing influence
which is the highest result of all his
tOrical instruction. In brief caree
of scarcely more than twenty years o
professional activity, Mr.. Dobbin hat
sounded all the depths and shoals o
honor, had attained the loftiest dignitie
and developed an elocution as chaste, ant
a voice as winning as that of Canon Ear
rar. The writer received, while a prisone
Of war at Johnson's Island, Ohio, in 1864
a letter from the late President Pierce
which set forth in graceful and concis
terms the distinctive nobleness of his for
mer associate Yet despite all this, | hay
read catalogues or enumerations of ''illus
trious North Carolinians," in which ther
was not an allusion to Mr.. Dobbin's his
tOry-net even the mentioning of hi
name 1t is said that this strange forget
fulness is a characteristic Of North Care
linans. | trust that it be not true.
prevails, | suspect, in some measure, i
all clmes and in all ages. May this i'm
perfect effort to recall his memory, to tn
Consciousness of his own cOuntrymer
impart to some of the younger race fu
measure of that potent inspiration whic
descends from those Percivals and Galt
hads of a former age who ''wore th
white flower of blameless life"
H. E. S.
College of Charleston, Oct. %, 'o5.
Democrats to Have Seats at the Fir
Table.
Baltimore's new Mayor, Mr.. Hodge
makes the following declaration: ''Thoug
elected as a Democrat | shall strict