The Republican journal., 1908-10-01

and upon every platform where the ora
tors of that organization labored to wake
the people to public duties, and in the dis
trict schoolhouse meetings. his name was
on the lips Of every speaker and was used
to stir the masses as a slogan to the con
science of the voters in conjunction with
the battle cry of Free Speech, Free
Men and Fremont" Hannibal Hamlin,
who had but a few weeks previously, in
the United States Senate, by public
speech. divorced himself from the Demo
cratic party, with whose fortunes he had
been prominently identified from early
manhood, was now the candidate of the
Republican party for Governor, and as
he addressed large mass meetings all
over the State his one great test was
demand that the judiciary of the State
be indicated through justice to Judge
Davis, which could only De accomplished
by the overthrow of the organization
that was responsible for such fragrant
wrong.
When occupying the same seat with
Ex-Vice President Hamlin in 1888 on
| Journey from Chicago to St. Louis to
attend the G. A. r. national encamp-
ment, in the all-day journey we discussed
many old-time happenings IN the state
Of Maine and he INDUCED IN many, to
me, extremely interesting "reminiscences.
| Among other things he spoke of the cam
paign OF 1856, and said that one OF the
most valuable assets of his party at that
time was the unjust removal Of Judge
Davis. and that he regarded it as equally
potent with the important national issues
involved IN promoting the overwhelming
victory Of the party that he led to such
an emphatic triumph.
T +l.sf "a
for county attorney nominated by the
| Free Soil party Of Waldo county. He
was the first editor of Republican news
paper in the county Progressive Age.
! He was the first State treasurer selected
by the first governor elected by Repubil-
cans. Also the first judge appointed to
| the supreme bench by that governor,
! after brief incumbency as treasurer,
| and the only Judge removed from that
| exalted office in the State. The story OF
J that remarkable event and the contest 1t
| involved, the final vindication Of Judge
! Davis. who was always sustained by the
greatest men at the bar and general pub
! lie, will be told IL detail in this article.
Joseph Davis with his family settled IN
! Brooks in 1920, coming there from stand
ish, Maine He had been influenced to 90
| so bv his old neighoor, Joseph Roberts,
~ $500
| the first man to open Brooks to settlers
j by locating there. Mr.. Davis bought
! land for his farm on the side of what IS
! locally known as the Doctor Roberts hill.
/ His three bows were aged respectively,
/ ten. four and two years. and were des-
! tined, because of unusual qualities and
/ force of character, to impress themselves
strongly upon their town, county and
State. The Davis boys began in tender
wears the hard toll of rocky farm. They
were given the ordinary privileges of
those days to secure the smatterng OF
an education conferred by the eXtraordl-
nary difficulties of that early period:
With the great march OF educatlonal
progress, with the prodlga1ty IN our
| times of text books, newspapers, perl
! odicals and magazines of every variety,
literature galore for children, which then
had no existence, it is difficult for the
mind to comprehend the utter poverty IN
educational opportunities for the am
! bilious boy on the farm of the pioneer.
! In the sparsely settled districts OF that
| period the mental atmosphere was light
| and thin. Books were few and hard to
obtain, and time to read them limited,
when all the energies of every member
of a family were involved in the problem
of getting the necessities OF life and to
+ find cash to pay the moderate taxes anu
small annual installments upon the home
stead property Watts hymns constl-
tuted standard literature, and the DAVIS
boys, although most liberal in religion,
were accustomed to partake of the spirit
ual food at the Free Will Baptist church,
from the lips of Elder Samuel Whitney,
the celebrated preacher politician, who
gave them the privilege of embalmlng IN
memory the lines of Doctor Watts. Judge
Davis once made the statement that every
verse of the original edition was at the
end of his tongue.
Noah Webster had about that time be-
gun his reform of the English language
and good spelling was not then lost art.
Lindley Murray's grammar was eagerly
studied at the closing of the days labor
by the light of the fire in the big old
fashioned open-place, the boys taxing
turns in it's use. Woodbury. made great
progress as a grammarian and soon de-
veloped ranking authority in that local
ity in con jugating and parsing .compll-
Gated sentences, in which he had for close
rivals Ezra Abbott, later for years
professor in Harvard College, and We'll