VOL. X.

New Hampshire has always taken a pardonable pride in the prosperity of her children who go forth to other states, and, achieving distinction in the land of their adoption, reflect honor upon the state of their nativity. Their names in life, and memories when dead, are cherished with affection on every hill-top and in every valley, from the sea to the lakes and the mountains. But she also looks with parental pride and affection upon that larger and almost innumerable list of other sons and daughters who have won distinction in life and a place in history within her narrow limits.

The remark is not altogether an infelicitous one, that the chief products of New Hampshire are granite, ice, and men. Webster said (vol. 2, Webster's Works, p. 499), "Its soil is sterile and stubborn, but the resolution to subdue it is stubborn also. Unrelenting rocks have yielded and do yield to unrelenting labor; and there are productiveness, and health,

No. 7.

and plenty, and comfort, over all her hills and among all her valleys. Manly strength, the nerved arm of freemen, each one tilling his own land and standing on his own soil, enjoying what he earns and ready to defend it,-these have made all comfortable and happy." The rugged discipline enforced upon her children in their struggles for success has developed a type of manhood and womanhood mentally, morally, and physically equipped to grapple successfully with the duties of life. It is in the history of him whose name stands at the head of this article, and whose life has been spent upon her soil and largely in her service, that we find a marked example of that large company of her sons, who on her rugged hills and in her narrow, prosperous valleys, amid the grandeur and sublimity of her mountains and lakes and beneath her healthful skies, have achieved distinction not circumscribed merely by state lines.

Daniel Clark, the third child of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Wiggin) Clark, was born in Stratham, Rockingham county, N. H., October 24, 1809. His father was both farmer and blacksmith. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity. He was industrious, frugal, temperate, kindly, and obliging. His mother was strong-minded, devoted to her family, and very religious. She was not indifferent to the good opinion of others, and was ambitious for the success of her family, and especially of her children. They lived upon a beautiful farm, in the upper part of the town, near the historic town of Exeter. The subject of this sketch remained at home under the care and nurture of his excellent parents until he was thirteen years of age, going to the common district school in summer and winter, or so much of the time as it was kept, and assisting about the ordinary farm-work in vacation. He learned at school easily, and was more fond of his books than of work upon the farm. At the age of thirteen he was sent with his older brother to the academy in Hampton, N. H., and put upon the common English studies. He did not then expect to acquire a more liberal education, although his mother had some undefined notions of a higher course of studies for her son. He continued at Hampton at intervals, there a term and at home a term, helping upon the farm, some four years or more, when he determined to go to college. He pursued his preparatory studies at Hampton, teaching school two winters, and at twenty was prepared for college. He entered Dartmouth college, graduating in 1834 with the first

honors of the institution. Rev. Dr. Lord, the president of the college, was then in the prime of his life. Although he had presided over the college but a few years, he had already secured the confidence of his friends, so justly merited, as subsequently shown by his successful administration of the affairs of the college for more than a third of a century. Among Mr. Clark's classmates were Albert Baker, who entered upon the practice of the law at Hillsborough, N. H., and died at the age of thirty-one, his untimely death extinguishing hopes which his short but brilliant career had caused his many friends to entertain of his future usefulness; Hon. Moody Currier, LL. D., of Manchester, ex-governor of New Hampshire; Rev. Newton E. Marble, D. D., Newtown, Connecticut; Hon. Richard B. Kimball, LL. D., of New York city, lawyer, scholar, and author; Rev. Edward A. Lawrence, D. D., Marblehead, Massachusetts; and Prof. Alphonso Wood, president of Ohio Female College. Mr. Clark taught school winters during his college course, and while pursuing his professional studies, eight winters in all, including the two years before entering college, defraying, in part, the expenses of his education with the funds received from teaching. Immediately after graduation he entered the office of Hon. George Sullivan, then the attorney-general of the state, son of Gen. John Sullivan of Revolutionary fame, at Exeter, and commenced the study of the law, remaining with Mr. Sullivan a year and a half. He completed his legal studies in the office of Hon. James Bell, afterwards United States sena

tor, at Exeter, and was admitted to the bar of Rockingham county in 1837. In the same year he opened an office at Epping, where he remained some eighteen months, and in 1839 removed to Manchester, N. H. This thriving city was then just rising from the ground. Not a mill was running, the canal even being unfinished. The only railroad then constructed in the state was the Nashua & Lowell. The telegraph and telephone had not yet been invented. The lumbering stage-coach was the only means of travel. The rates of postage were high, and the mails slow and few. The embryo city was hardly more than a desolate sand-bank, where a few hundred people had gathered, allured by the prospect of business about to spring up with the improvement of the water-power at Amoskeag falls. Mr. Clark was among the first to open a law office here. He soon acquired an active practice, which afterwards grew to large proportions, and for twenty years he was employed upon one side or the other of nearly every important trial in the county, attending the courts also in Merrimack and Rockingham counties. He was employed in behalf of the state in the preliminary examination in the Parker murder trial," being occupied almost continuously for a period of nearly two months. He succeeded in procuring the extradition from Maine of the supposed murderers after lengthy trial in that state, and, after a hearing lasting nearly a month before the police court of Manchester, procured their commitment to answer for the crime of murder. Opposed to him as counsel were Gen. Franklin Pierce (after

wards president of the United States), Gen. B. F. Butler, Hon. Josiah G. Abbott, and the late Charles G. Atherton,-an array of legal talent seldom seen in this state. Mr. Clark was employed for the defence in two capital trials in the fall of 1854,Curtice's and Marshall's. Marshall was acquitted, and in the case of Curtice the jury disagreed. During the period of his active practice the bar of Hillsborough county was unusually strong. Among its prominent members were Benjamin M. Farley of Hollis; James U. Parker of Merrimack; George Y. Sawyer and Charles G. Atherton of Nashua; Samuel H. Ayer of Hillsborough ; and Samuel D. Bell and George W. Morrison of Manchester. General Pierce, of the Merrimack bar, also generally attended the courts in Hillsborough county. Of these eminent lawyers, Mr. Morrison is the sole survivor. Gen. Pierce, as a jury lawyer, had no superior in the state. He had a very pleasing address, was dignified without being reserved, and possessed a magnetic influence over men, which rendered him a formidable antagonist before jurors. But in many respects Mr. Atherton stood at the head of the Hillsborough bar as a lawyer and advocate. He was a man of scholarly attainments, possessed a graceful diction, had a good command of language, knew how and when to use sarcasm, could appeal effectively to the passions and prejudices, was thoroughly read in the law, and was perfectly at home in the court-room. With these and other able lawyers Mr. Clark spent the most of his active professional life, and he was rec

was as varied as it was extensive. Whatever he undertook was thoroughly done. He was loyal to the court, faithful to his clients, courteous to opposing counsel, and kind and magnanimous to the younger members of the profession. In his arguments to the jury he was never wearisome. He seized upon the weak points of the other side and the strong points of his own, and made them prominent to the jury. He wasted no time on immaterial matters. While he did not possess the personal magnetism of Pierce, or Atherton's power of sarcasm, he could put before a court or jury his case with convincing power and in its strongest light, and if success did not always attend his efforts, it was not because he failed to present all the favorable views of his case. Legal papers drafted by him models of accuracy and clearness. They were also remarkable for their brevity, all useless verbiage being avoided. In his writs the cause of action was briefly and clearly set out, and it was rare that he had occasion to apply for an amendment. His clients became his fast friends. charges were moderate, and no client went away feeling that undue advantage had been taken of his position, or that his interests had not been fully protected.

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It is unfortunate, perhaps, for his legal reputation that Mr. Clark was drawn into politics. But it was his fortune to live in times when questions of great public interest were being discussed and settled, and it was inevitable that a person of his ability, education, and temperament should

public questions. In the early part of his professional life there was a difference of opinion as to the wisdom of encouraging the extension of manufacturing and railroad operations in the state, and, unfortunately, the question got into politics, and the two parties took opposite sides. With the acquisition of California came, the question of the extension or restriction of slavery, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the civil war, the abolition of slavery, and the reconstruction measures after the close of the war. As a rule, the lawyers of New Hampshire have very generally taken an active interest in political questions. Thus circumstanced, it was hardly possible for Mr. Clark not to have some inclination towards political life. In 1842 he was elected one of the representatives from the town of Manchester to the legislature, and was reëlected in 1843, and again elected in 1846. In 1854, after the adoption of the city charter, he was elected representative from his ward, and reëlected in 1855. In 1849, 1850, and 1851 he was candidate for the state senate, but, his party being in the minority in the district, he failed of an election. He acted with the Whig party until its dissolution, when he helped to form the Republican party, with which he has since been identified. He was often upon the stump during the campaigns preceding the elections in 1854 and 1855, speaking in every portion of the state, from the sea to the mountains. He also took part in the election contests during the decade which immediately followed. Party feeling ran high, the contests