Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men

by Various

The powers conferred by this order, it will be seen, are as great as can be conferred by sovereignty itself,—"to hear, try, and determine all causes, civil and criminal, including causes in law, equity, revenue, and admiralty, * * * his judgment to be final and conclusive." Under this commission, Judge Peabody proceeded to organize his court by appointing his prosecuting attorney, marshal, and clerk. Thus organized in New York, the court proceeded, by government transport, to New Orleans, and commenced business. It was immediately filled with causes of the first magnitude, and continued throughout its existence to attract almost all of that class of business. The court held that it had jurisdiction not only of cases originating in it, but that it had power to review on appeal cases originating in other courts. It also ordered causes pending and undecided in other courts transferred to itself, and there decided and ended them. A cause pending in the circuit court of the United States, on appeal from the district court of the United States, was transferred by order of this court and decided. (The Grapeshot. 9 Wallace 129). Mr. Seward, as he and Chief-Justice Chase were dining with Judge Peabody, speaking of the supreme court of the United States, said for the ear of the chief-justice: "His court has some power in time of peace, no doubt, but none in time of war. It is limited to a small class of cases, and in those usually to appellate jurisdiction, and in all cases it is bound by law prescribed for its guidance; in none of which respects was Peabody's court under any limitation;" and (turning to Judge Peabody) he added: "Why, Peabody, all the power of his court is not a circumstance to what you had in Louisiana."

The executive department of this court was no less remarkable than its jurisdiction. The marshal had at his command, by order of the departments of war and navy, all needed aid from the army and navy. A personal escort of soldiers as large as needed on land, and transports and gunboats on water, were always at his disposal, and nothing was needed beyond the exhibition of the process of the court to command their services. Escorts of a thousand and more cavalry were in the service of the marshal at times, and similar facilities were afforded by the gunboats and transports on the rivers, bayous, and lakes of that aqueous state. Even private commercial vessels plying on the Mississippi river and other waters of the state were, by order of the war department, compelled to stop and take on board any deputy of the marshal, at any place where he should demand it by showing his signal, and to stop and land him wherever he demanded it. This they were required to do at all places, however exposed, and where vessels were not otherwise allowed to land for business purposes, on account of exposure to the enemy. The relief to the department of state was complete; for from the time the court commenced business nothing was heard there of controversies which had burdened and alarmed the department previously, and the success of the court in other respects was equally complete, commanding the respect and confidence of the community,—the disloyal as well as the loyal. This office he resigned in 1865, and the court was terminated in July, 1866, on his recommendation, by an act of congress.

In 1862, to meet an emergency, and to avoid having the business of that court interrupted by business of a different character, he was appointed judge of a criminal court in New Orleans, in which for several months he dispensed all the criminal justice administered in the city of New Orleans and the part of Louisiana held by the federal army, excepting only capital cases, which were always tried in the more dignified court held by him. In 1863, while holding the United States provisional court, he was appointed chief-justice of the supreme court of Louisiana,—the appellate court of last resort. In 1865 he was appointed, by the President of the United States and confirmed by the senate, attorney for the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana. That office he declined to accept, and he returned to the practice of his profession in New York as soon as he felt at liberty to retire from the United States provisional court.

In 1870 he was nominated by the Republican party for surrogate of the county of New York, on which occasion he was not elected; but he ran many thousands of votes ahead of his ticket, and lacked less than thirteen thousand of an election, while the majority against the ticket generally, which was headed by Gen. John A. Dix for mayor, himself an honored son of New Hampshire, was more than fifty-four thousand.

He is now, and has been since its organization many years ago, a member of the "Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations," an association, as its name imports, devoted to the advancement of the law governing nations in their intercourse with each other, composed of publicists and advanced students of the science of government from nearly every nation of Europe, and from some of the most enlightened nations of Asia, as well as America. In the proceedings of that body he has taken an active part, attending its meetings, which occur annually, and are held in the different cities of Europe, as Ghent, Geneva, the Hague, Bremen, Antwerp, London, Berne, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Cologne, Liverpool. He has always been a member of the executive committee, and is now vice-president of the association for the United States, in which office he succeeds Charles Francis Adams and the late Reverdy Johnson. He has traveled extensively in Europe, having visited it frequently in the summer vacations of business, and last year (1881), after attending the congress of the Association for the Reform of the Law of Nations, at Cologne, he attended an International Geographical congress at Venice, as a delegate from the American Geographical Society. He is now pursuing his profession in New York, as he has always done since he commenced there, except for the times he has been acting as judge.

In his religious preferences he is Episcopalian. While living in New Orleans, in 1863, 1864, and 1865, he was a member of the vestry of Christ church there, and he has been for many years, and now is, senior warden of Christ church, North Conway, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Judge Peabody has married twice. The first time, as before stated, to Julia Caroline Livingston, daughter of James Duane Livingston, of the city of New York, the mother of his children. His second marriage was to Maria E. Hamilton, with whom he is now living. This lady, daughter of John C. Hamilton, is a grand-daughter of Alexander Hamilton, the favorite aid and trusted counselor of General Washington in the Revolutionary war, the first secretary of the treasury of the United States, the organizer of that department, and in large measure of the government of the United States.

By his first marriage he had five children, who are now living,—four sons and one daughter. His sons are all graduates of college and professional schools. Three of them are lawyers, one is a physician, and all reside in the city of New York. One of them bears the name of Glendower (Philip Glendower), after the Welsh chieftain, Owen Glendower, in recognition of the Welsh origin of the family.

As has been said, Judge Peabody was the oldest of ten children, having had five brothers and four sisters, all natives of New Hampshire. Of his brothers, only one survives with him, Dr. William F. Peabody, of San Francisco, a doctor of medicine, a biographical sketch of whom should form a part of this volume. Dr. Peabody was for a time Professor of Languages in Mount Hope College, Baltimore, following thither his older brother while the latter was teaching and studying his profession there. The Doctor studied his profession in Baltimore, and practiced there for a time; but in the very early days of California emigration removed thither, where he still resides, commanding much respect as a gentleman of high moral and social character and much literary taste, as well as an able physician. Two of his brothers, George B. Peabody and Enoch W. Peabody, after the subject of this sketch, the pioneer of the family, had located in New York, became shipmasters of distinction in the "old" or "Black Ball" line of Liverpool packets sailing from New York, in the days when those ships were the pride of the nation, and the command of one was equivalent to a certificate of the highest character for efficiency and reliable qualities. Of the sisters, three survive and live in Andover, Mass., the last place of residence of their parents.

Note.—Judge Peabody's judicial life has been sufficiently varied and uncommon to attract remark. He has been twice justice of the supreme court of the state of New York, by appointment of the governor, and was offered a place on the bench of another court, which he did not accept; he has been appointed judge of three different courts by the federal government of the United States; he has been three times the nominee and candidate of his party for other judicial places,—twice for the bench of the supreme court of the state of New York, and once for surrogate of the city and county of New York.