Part 21

Nor should we be misled by false notions of the reserved right of the States to secede from the Union. This assumed right, claimed by the States in rebellion, is false in theory; it is of the highest criminalty in practice, and without the semblance of authority in the Constitution. The right of secession, (said the lamented Webster,) "as a practical right, existing under the Constitution, is simply an absurdity; for it supposes resistance to Government under the authority of the Government itself--it supposes dismemberment without violating the principles of Union--it supposes opposition to law without crime--it sanctions the violation of oaths without responsibility, and the total overthrow of the Government without revolution."

The history of this wicked rebellion already shows that many of those who have shared the largest in the offices and emoluments, as well as in the blessings of the National Government, have fallen the lowest in infamy in attempting its overthrow.

If this Union is to be perpetuated, and the Government itself is to exist as a power among the nations, its laws must be enforced at all hazards and at any cost. And especially should courts and juries do their whole duty, without respect to persons, when crimes are committed, tending to the subversion of the Government and the destruction of our cherished institutions.

At the January term, 1864, he delivered another admirable charge, in which he discussed the questions arising under the then recent act of Congress authorizing a draft under the direction of the President without the intervention of the State authorities, and by a very logical and conclusive argument established the constitutional validity of the act in question. The crime of resisting the draft, obstructing its execution by the officers appointed for that purpose, and enticing soldiers to desert, were defined with great clearness, resisting the enrolling officer being held to be within the offences embraced in the act. These were but a few of the topics treated by the Judge. The entire charge was able, well-timed and patriotic, and was admirably calculated to conciliate and unite public opinion in support of the law and the measures of the Government to enforce it.

In 1865, the health of Judge Willson began to give way and symptoms of consumption appeared. He was strongly urged by his friends to leave his business for a time and seek the restoration of his health in a milder climate. As Winter approached he yielded to their persuasions and visited New Orleans and the West Indies. Unhappily the weather was unusually severe for those latitudes, and he derived no benefit from his trip. He was glad to reach the quiet and comfort of home once more. His sense of duty was so strong that, though unfit to leave his home, he came down to the city, opened court, so as to set the machinery in order, but found himself unable to preside and was compelled to return home, where he awaited in patience the coming of the destroyer.

On the evening of November 11th, 1866, he died. A few hours before his death he suffered much, his breathing being labored and painful. As his end approached, however, he became easier, and his life went out without a struggle. Some months earlier, the Judge, who had for years been an attendant of the services in the First Presbyterian church, and an active supporter of that congregation, made a profession of religion and received the rite of baptism. He was perfectly conscious to the close of his life, and although hopeful of recovery, as is usual with the victims of consumption, had been fully aware of his precarious situation, and had thoughtfully contemplated his approaching end. He left a widow and a daughter, Mrs. Chamberlin, well provided for.

On the announcement of his death the members of the Cleveland Bar immediately assembled, and young or old, of all shades of opinion in the profession, vied with each other in bearing testimony to the uprightness, ability, and moral worth of the deceased. His death occasioned unaffected sorrow among those who had known him, and among the large number of his legal brethren who had greater or less opportunities of official intercourse with him he did not leave a single enemy. The Bar meeting unanimously adopted the following resolutions of respect:

We, the members of the Bar of the Northern District of Ohio having learned that our brother, the Hon. Hiram V. Willson, departed this life yesterday evening, (Nov. 11,) at his residence, and desiring to pay a tribute of affection and respect to one who was our beloved associate at this Bar for twenty-one years, and anxious also to acknowledge our obligation to him, by whose influence and labors the Courts of the United States were established in our midst, and who has so ably and uprightly presided over those Courts for a period of more than eleven years, do hereby

_Resolve,_ 1st. That in the death of Judge Willson the Bench has lost a learned, upright and fearless Judge, ever doing right and equity among the suitors of his Court, fearing only the errors and mistakes to which a fallible human judgment is ever liable. Urbanity and courtesy to the older members of the Bar, protecting and loving kindness to its younger members, and deep and abiding interest in the reputation of all, were among his distinguishing characteristics.

2d. That in him we have lost a near and dear friend, disliked, disrelished by none, but esteemed and loved by all.

3d. That we wear the usual mourning and attend his funeral in a body, on Wednesday next.

4th. That the Chairman of this Committee present this report to our Court of Common Pleas, and request the same to be entered on the record of said Court.

5th. That the United States District Attorney for Northern Ohio be requested to present this report to the Circuit and District Courts of said District at their next term and request that the same be entered and recorded in said Courts.

6th. That the officers of this meeting be directed to send a copy of its proceedings to the family of the deceased.

At the opening of the next term of the United States District Court under Judge Sherman, the successor to Judge Willson, these resolutions were read, and warm eulogies on the deceased were made by U. S. District Attorney, F. J. Dickman, U. S. Commissioner Bushnell White, George W. Willey Esq., Hon. K. P. Spalding and Judge Sherman.

The funeral services over the remains of Judge Willson were held in the First Presbyterian church, conducted by Rev. Dr. Atterburry, assisted by Rev. Dr. Aiken. The Supreme Court of Ohio, United States Courts of Pennsylvania and Michigan, the Cleveland Bench and Bar, and the City Government were fully represented at the ceremonies, which were also

## participated in by a very large concourse of citizens.

Samuel Starkweather.

As a member of the legal profession, both on the Bench and at the Bar, as the chief magistrate of the city, and as an United States revenue officer, and as a citizen of Cleveland, Samuel Starkweather has held honorable prominence for forty years.

He was born in the village of Pawtucket, Massachusetts, on the border of Rhode Island, a village celebrated as the seat of the first cotton manufactures in the United States. He was the son of the Honorable Oliver Starkweather, an extensive and successful manufacturer, and grandson of the Honorable Ephraim Starkweather, who was prominent among the patriots of the Revolution.

The subject of this sketch worked on a farm until nearly seventeen years of age, when he began to fit himself for college, after which he entered Brown University, Rhode Island, where he graduated with the second honors of his class, in the year 1822, and was soon afterward elected a tutor in that institution, which position he held until the year 1824, when he resigned, to commence the study of the law, which he pursued in the office of Judge Swift, in Windham, Connecticut, and afterwards in attendance upon the lectures of Chancellor Kent, of New York. He was admitted to the Bar of Ohio at Columbus, in the Winter of 1826-7, and soon after settled in Cleveland, then a village of a few hundred inhabitants, and was recognized as a lawyer of learning and ability in this and the adjoining counties.

Mr. Starkweather was prominent among the leaders of the Democratic party of this State, when its principles were well defined, and was a strong adherent to the administrations of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, but his being always in the political minority in the part of the State in which he lived, prevented those high political preferments which otherwise would have been conferred upon him. In this connection it is proper to say, that for Mr. Starkweather to have attained the highest eminence in the legal profession, it was only necessary that he should have made it his specialty.

Under the administrations of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, Mr. Starkweather held the office of Collector of Customs of this District, and Superintendent of Light-Houses, and under his supervision most of the sites were purchased, and the light-houses erected on the Southern shore of Lake Erie. He continued to hold these offices in connection with his practice of the law, until 1840.

In 1844, Mr. Starkweather was elected Mayor of the city of Cleveland, having previously taken a leading part in the City Councils. He was re-elected in 1845, and was again elected Mayor in 1857, for two years, and in these positions was active in promoting those improvements in the city which have tended to its prosperity and beauty. To Mr. Starkweather the public schools of the city are much indebted for the interest which he has always taken in their behalf; and to his advocacy and efforts, with those of Mr. Charles Bradburn, the High School of the city owes its first establishment.

In the early struggles for advancing the schemes of railroads, the accomplishment of which has made Cleveland the great city of commerce and manufactures, no one was more active than Mr. Starkweather. When the project of building the Cleveland & Columbus road was at a stand-still, and was on the point of being, for the time, abandoned, as a final effort a meeting of the business men of Cleveland was called. The speech of Mr. Starkweather on that occasion, parts of which are quoted to this day, had the effect to breathe into that enterprise the breath of life, and from that meeting it went immediately onward to its final completion. So well were the services of Mr. Starkweather in behalf of that road appreciated at the time, that one of the Directors proposed that he should have a pass upon it for life.

Mr. Starkweather, in 1852, was the first Judge elected to the Court of Common Pleas for Cuyahoga county, under the new constitution of the State, in which position he served for five years with ability and satisfaction to the members of the Bar and the public generally. For a considerable portion of his term, the entire docket of both civil and criminal business devolved on Mm, when an additional Judge was allowed the county. He presided at some very important State trials, in which, as in the disposition of a very large amount of civil business, he exhibited abundant legal learning and judicial discrimination.

Since he retired from the Bench he has been known as a citizen of wealth, of retired habits, but of influence in public affairs, and retaining to the full the conversational gifts which have made him the life and charm of social and professional circles. Indeed it may be said that either at the Bar, in well remembered efforts of marked brilliancy as an advocate, or on the Bench, occasionally illuminating the soberness of judicial proceedings, or in assemblies on prominent public occasions occurring all through his life, eloquence, wit and humor seemed ready to his use. A fine _belle lettres_ scholar, classical, historical and biographical adornments and incidents seemed always naturally to flow in to enrich his discourse, whether in private or public. He has often been spoken of as of the Corwin cast, perhaps a slight personal resemblance aiding the suggestion. He certainly has the like gifts of the charming conversationalist and the popular orator, in which last capacity, for many years, he was the prompt choice of the public on leading occasions, such as at the grand reception given to Van Buren after his defeat in 1840; the magnificent reception tendered by the city to Kossuth; at the completion of the Cleveland & Columbus Railway on the 22nd of February, 1852; at the dedication of Woodland Cemetery, and at many other times when the public were most anxious to put a gifted man forward.

[Illustration: Truly Yours, Moses Kelly]

Moses Kelly.

The subject of this sketch was born January 21st, 1809, in the township of Groveland, now county of Livingston, then county of Ontario, State of New York. He was the oldest son of Daniel Kelly, who emigrated from the State of Pennsylvania to Western New York in the year 1797. He is of Scotch-Irish descent in the paternal line, and of German descent on the side of his mother. His great grandfather, on his father's side, emigrated from the North of Ireland to America, early in the eighteenth century, and settled in the State of Pennsylvania, within a few miles of the city of Philadelphia; his grandfather, born there, was a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. Kelly lived with his father, on a farm in Groveland, until he was eighteen years old, having the usual advantages, and following the ordinary pursuits of a farmer's son.

At the age of eighteen he entered the High School on Temple Hill, in the village of Genesee, Livingston county, New York, and commenced preparing for college, under the tuition of that eminent scholar and accomplished educator, the late Cornelius C. Felton, who subsequently became President of Harvard University. Mr. Kelly entered the Freshman class at Harvard in 1829, and graduated with his class in the year 1833. He immediately commenced the study of the law, with the late Orlando Hastings, Esq., of Rochester, N. Y., and read three years in his office and under his direction, when he was admitted to practice. He came to Cleveland in the year 1836, and formed a law copartnership with his old friend, college classmate and chum, the Hon. Thomas Bolton; the firm name was Bolton & Kelly. This partnership continued until the year 1851, when S. O. Griswold Esq., who had been their law student, was taken into the firm; the firm name thereafter being Bolton, Kelly & Griswold. This connection continued until the close of the year 1856, when Mr. Bolton was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Since Judge Bolton retired from the firm Messrs. Kelly & Griswold have continued the practice of law under that firm name, and are still engaged in the practice.

Mr. Kelly has made commercial law and equity jurisprudence his special studies, and in these branches of the law his great skill and learning are acknowledged by all his brethren. Indeed, as an equity lawyer he stands at the head of the profession.

It will be seen from the year 1836 until the present time, Mr. Kelly has devoted himself closely to the practice of the law; the only interruption to this was a two years service as State senator in the legislature of Ohio during the years 1844 and 1845. He was elected to the senate by the Whig party of the counties of Cuyahoga and Geauga, these two counties then composing one senatorial district. During the first session of the General Assembly, of which he was a member, the Democrats had a majority in the Senate while the Whigs had the control of the lower house. As is usual when a legislature is thus politically divided, no measures of general interest were adopted. But there happened during that session to arise a question which showed Mr. Kelly's independence, and true character. The Democracy had made complaint of the Whig extravagance and laid great claim on their own part to retrenchment and economy in the State administration. The Whigs to make political capital, proposed a bill reducing the salaries of all State officers; the salary of the Judges was put at $750 per year and the pay of all other State officials in the same ratio. The measure was adopted by the party caucus, and was carried through the lower house.

It was hoped by many that the Senate, being Democratic, would defeat the bill, and thus the Whigs would have credit for great economy at the expense of the Democrats. But when it came to that body, the Democracy, not to be out done by their opponents, favored the bill.

Mr. Kelly, singly and alone of all his party, opposed the measure, and spoke and voted against it. The bill was finally carried but was repealed in the course of a year or two afterwards.

The most prominent subject before the legislature at the second session was the establishment of a suitable banking system for the State. The business men of Cleveland were in favor of free banks, but the great body of the Whig party were strongly in favor of a State Bank and branches, and having a majority in both houses in the session of 1845 were determined to establish that system. Mr. Kelly succeeded in engrafting upon the State Bank scheme the Independent Bank system, with State stocks pledged to secure the circulation, and also in adding additional checks and safeguards to the State Bank. His efforts in this direction were duly appreciated by his constituents, and at a public meeting, called by the principal business men of the city, irrespective of party, his action on the Bank bill was specially approved.

It is to be observed also that the present National Bank system is modeled after the plan of free banking advocated by Mr. Kelly at that time.

During the same session a question arose in which Mr. Kelly took an

## active part, in opposition to the great body of his party, the event of

which vindicated his sagacity and practical statesmanship. The question was upon a bill to grant to the Ohio Life and Trust Company authority to issue bills to circulate as currency, to the extent of half a million of dollars. At the time this bill was introduced no banking System had been adopted by the legislature; most of the charters of the old banks had expired prior to that time, and the State was without an adequate bank circulation of its own. The chief stockholders and managers of that corporation were men of high character and great wealth. The company had been successfully managed, and its credit was then deservedly high. Also the principal men of the company were leading Whigs, among these were Judges Jacob Burnett and John E. Wright of Cincinnati, Nathaniel Wright of Cincinnati and Alfred Kelley Esq., who was also at the same time a member of the senate from the Franklin district, and this application on the part of the company was backed by the presence and Personal influence of these gentlemen. The plea made by this company for this additional banking privilege was exceedingly plausible, and the measure was approved in a caucus of the Whig members almost without inquiry. The bill was introduced into the Senate by the Hon. Alfred Kelley, and its success was considered certain. Mr. Moses Kelly, alone of his party, expressed his opposition to the bill. Urged as the measure was by so many leading men,' and introduced by the acknowledged leader of the party, it seemed that such opposition must be fruitless. But on the third reading of the bill Mr. Kelly attacked it in a speech of great vigor, and strength of argument. He opposed it as unjust towards any banking system that might be established and as unwise in giving additional privileges to an already powerful corporation. Bat he opposed it chiefly because it gave to the corporation power to issue bills as money simply on individual security. He contended that whenever the State permitted any corporation or organization to issue bills to pass as money the faith of the State should be pledged to their ultimate redemption. While paying a high compliment to the ability and integrity of the managers of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, he declared there was no security but what in the future it might pass into the control of Wall street shavers and brokers, and from thence to ruin, and the people of the State left remediless with a worthless circulation in their hands. His vigorous opposition, and the strength of his argument awakened the attention of the party to the evils of the measure, and notwithstanding its powerful backing, the bill was effectually killed by Mr. Kelly's speech.

Mr. Alfred Kelley was greatly grieved at the failure of this measure. He however lived to see his error, and the ruinous failure of that company through the recklessness of the Wall street management into whose hands, as had been predicted, that company finally fell. Judge John C. Wright, now in Columbus, advocated the aforesaid measure. He was then the senior editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, and the influence of his paper was given to the bill. Although old, he was in the full enjoyment of his powers of intellect, and at that time wielded a great influence in the political affairs of the State. It happened that he was present in the senate chamber when Mr. Kelly made his speech against the bill; although chagrined at the defeat of the measure in which he had such personal interest, so struck was he with the originality and force of the argument of Mr. Kelly, and with his independence of character, and ability to rise above mere party considerations in his legislative career, that he sought Mr. Kelly's personal acquaintance, and during the remainder of his life there existed a warm personal friendship between them.

At the expiration of his term of service Mr. Kelly returned to the practice and ever since has devoted his energies to his profession. The office of Bolton & Kelly has been the school of many prominent lawyers. Among the members of the Cleveland Bar who studied under them are Messrs. F. T. Backus, George Willey, John E. Cary and his present partner, Mr. Griswold. Mr. Kelly was City Attorney in the year 1839, and a member of the City Council in 1841. While he was in the Council he was active in support of the Lake Shore improvement, which stopped the rapid encroachment of the Lake upon the shore in front of Lake street.

In 1849, Mr. Kelly was appointed by the legislature one of the Commissioners of the city of Cleveland to subscribe on behalf of the city to the capital stock of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company. He accepted the trust, and for a number of successive years thereafter, until the stock of the city in that road was disposed of, was chosen a Director of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company, to represent the interests of this city in the capital stock of that company.

In September, 1866, he was appointed by President Johnson District Attorney of the United States for the Northern District of Ohio, and held the office until the next March, not having been confirmed by the Radical senate for the reason that he had been a member of the Philadelphia Convention of the previous summer.