Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men

by Various

Though not retiring from general practice, Col. George has devoted his attention largely to railroad law for many years past, having accepted, in 1867, the position of solicitor for the Boston & Lowell Railroad, and established an office in Boston for the transaction of business in connection with that position. For nearly twenty years previous to that date he had served as clerk and counsel of the Concord Railroad corporation, and had already become familiar with the law of railways and their general relations to the public. To-day there is no higher living authority upon railroad law in New England than Col. George,—no man who understands more thoroughly or can state more clearly the respective rights, duties, and obligations of railroad corporations and the people, in relation to each other, a general understanding of which is becoming more and more essential to the fullest measure of our national prosperity. His public addresses upon the subject, his arguments before legislative committees, courts, and juries, are models of clearness and cogency, admirable in construction and convincing in effect.

Notwithstanding his uninterrupted devotion to the law, Col. George is no less generally known in politics than at the bar. Well grounded in the faith of the Democratic party in his youthful years, his intimate association with Pierce, Peaslee, and other distinguished leaders of that organization in his early manhood served to intensify his feelings and convictions in that regard, so he has ever been a ready and zealous exponent of Democratic principles and a champion of the Democratic cause, contributing his services without stint in conventions, in committee work, and upon the stump, doing able and brilliant service in the latter direction in all parts of the state, and in almost every campaign for the past thirty-five years. He long since came to be regarded as one of the most powerful and effective political debaters in the state. His efforts upon the stump are characterized by the same earnestness, the same sledge-hammer logic, and the same comprehensive array of facts, as at the bar. His mode of warfare, political as well as legal, is of the Napoleonic order. He never assumes the defensive, and if placed in such position by any combination of circumstances he soon transforms it into one of active aggression.

From 1851 to 1853, inclusive, Col. George served as chairman of the Democratic state committee, and again in 1856. In 1852 he was also selected as the New Hampshire member of the Democratic national committee, and he was especially active in the campaign, both in the state and the country at large, which resulted in the election of his friend, Gen. Pierce, to the presidency. His service upon the national committee continued until 1860. He was a member of the Democratic national convention in 1856, and chairman of the state delegation in the national convention at Cincinnati, in 1880. At the state convention of his party, in September of that year, he presided, delivering, upon assuming the chair, one of the ablest addresses ever heard upon a similar occasion.

His party having been in the minority in New Hampshire for the past twenty-five years, he has been comparatively little in public office. Aside from the non-partisan positions heretofore mentioned, he was for three years—in 1847, 1848, and again in 1850—clerk of the state senate. In 1853 he was chosen a member of the legislature, but resigned his seat to accept the office of United States attorney. In this connection it may be mentioned that in 1855 he was tendered, by President Pierce, the office of secretary of the territory of Minnesota, which he at first was inclined to accept, but, after deliberation, determined to forego the chances for political promotion ordinarily involved in an appointment of that character, and remain with his friends and his law practice in his own state. In 1850, Col. George received the Democratic nomination for congress in the second district, and again in 1863, when he made a vigorous canvass, and was defeated by a very close vote. In 1866 he received the votes of the Democratic members of the legislature as their candidate for United States senator. Had he deserted his party and allied himself with the majority when the Republicans came into ascendency, he might readily have commanded the highest honors in the gift of the state, as others less able than himself have done; but his position in the honest regard of the people, irrespective of party, is far higher to-day for having remained true to his convictions and steadfast and active in their maintenance.

His military title comes from his service as chief of the staff of Gov. Dinsmoor from 1848 to 1850. He was also for several years commander in the brilliant and popular organization known as the "Governor's Horse-Guards." As a popular orator, outside the domain of law and politics, Col. George also takes high rank. His oration upon Daniel Webster, at the recent centennial celebration of the birth of that most illustrious son of New Hampshire, under the auspices of the Webster club of Concord, is surpassed in power and felicity of expression by none which the event anywhere called forth.

Col. George was united in marriage, in September, 1849, with Miss Susan Ann Brigham, daughter of Capt. Levi Brigham, of Boston, who died May 10, 1862, leaving five children, three sons and two daughters. In July, 1864, he married Miss Salvadora Meade Graham, daughter of Col. James D. Graham of the United States engineers, by whom he has one child, a daughter. His eldest son, John Paul, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1878, entered the Harvard Law School, and is now a student-at-law in the office of George & Foster. His second son, Charles Peaslee, graduated in June, 1881, at the naval school at Annapolis, and is now a midshipman in the U. S. navy. His third son, Benjamin Pierce, is a member of the sophomore class in Dartmouth College. His eldest daughter, Jane Appleton, is the wife of Mr. Henry E. Bacon, and resides in Portland, Me.; his second daughter, Anne Brigham, is at home; while the youngest daughter, Charlotte Graham, is at school in Washington, D. C.

The family residence of Col. George is the old paternal mansion on North Main street, in Concord, wherein he was born. He has also an excellent farm a few miles out of the city, in Hopkinton, where he makes his summer home, and where, in his little leisure from professional labor, he indulges a fondness for rural pursuits, and especially for the breeding and care of domestic animals, which was one of the characteristics of his boyhood. Incidental as this may be, his farm is known as one of the most highly cultivated in the section where it is located, and his horses and Jersey cattle are the admiration of all lovers of good stock.

As a citizen, Col. George is public-spirited, and freely devotes his time and energies to the furtherance of every movement and the advocacy of every measure which he believes calculated to promote the material or educational welfare of the community. No man in Concord has done more than he to advance the prosperity of the city in every essential regard. The efficiency of the public schools has ever been an object of deep interest to him; and as a private citizen, as a member of building committees, and in the board of education, he has given his services freely in perfecting the admirably equipped public-school system, which is far from the least of the attractions which render our capital city one of the most desirable places of residence in New England.

The general extension of the railway system of the state, to which most that has been accomplished in the development of its material resources for the last twenty-five years is due, has ever found an enthusiastic supporter in Col. George, who has been and still is directly connected with several railroad enterprises in different sections, which have proved of great local and general advantage.

Few men have more or warmer friends than Col. George. A man of positive opinions, frankly and honestly declared, he commands the sincere respect of those with whom he comes in contact in all the relations of life, private, social, public, and professional. Formidable as an opponent, he is nevertheless fair and honorable, as he is true and faithful as a friend and ally. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order, having attained the rank of sovereign grand inspector-general of the 33d degree, and a member of the "Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States."