AMERICAN

QUARTERLY REGISTER.

VOL. XII.

AUGUST, 1839.

No. 1.

MEMOIR OF THE HON. CALEB STRONG, LL. D.,

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS.

AMONG the distinguished men of our country, whose virtues and public services claim a conspicuous notice in our pages, was the late CALEB STRONG, a native of Northampton, Ms.,-the memory of whom is still fresh in the minds of the present generation.

Mr. Strong was born January 9, 1745. He was the son of Lieut. Caleb Strong, a very respectable inhabitant of Northampton, who died in the year 1776, and the great-great-grandson of Mr. John Strong, the first ruling elder of the church in that town. This ancestor came from Somersetshire in England, and probably from the town of Taunton, in 1630, and first settled in Dorchester, Ms. whence he removed in 1635 or 1636 to Windsor, Ct. and afterwards, in 1659, to Northampton, where he died, sustaining a high reputation for integrity and Christian excellence, in 1699, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. *

Mr. Strong received his degree of B. A. at Harvard University in 1764, having been prepared for that institution by the celebrated Mr. Moody of York, Me. to whose instruction and counsels, many of our most eminent men have acknowledged themselves indebted for their progress in knowledge and early habits of industry and virtuous conduct.†

Soon after receiving his first degree, and, we believe, while on his return from college, he took the small-pox at Brookfield, and probably in conse

Elder John Strong came to this country in the ship Mary and John, in company with Messrs. Warham, Maverick, Mason, Clap, and others. He married his first wife in England. She died on the passage or soon after landing, and two months after, her infant child died. Mr. Strong's second wife was Abigail Ford, whom he married at Dorchester in 1630. From Mr. Strong, most of the families by the name of Strong in New England and New York are supposed to have descended. He had sixteen children besides the one before mentioned, who died in infancy. The names of his sons were, John of Windsor, Ct., who had several children; Return, also of Windsor, three of whose children are mentioned; Thomas, who had fifteen children; Jedidiah, who had eight children; Ebenezer, who had six children; Samuel, who had eight children; Josiah, who died young and unmarried; and Jerijah, who had five children. The five sons last mentioned appear to have resided in Northampton. The names of the eight daughters were, Abigail, who married the Rev. Nathaniel Chauncy of Hatfield; Elizabeth, who married Joseph Parsons; Experience, who married a Fyler of Windsor; Mary, who married John Clark; Sarah, who married Joseph Barnard; Hannah, who married William Clark; Esther, who married a Bissel of Windsor; and Thankful, who married a Baldwin of Milford. Jonathan Strong, the grandfather of the governor and the son of Ebenezer, had seventeen children by his wife, Mehetable Stebbins. The third of these was Caleb. The late Judge Simeon Strong of Amherst was the grandson of Samuel Strong above mentioned, and the son of Nehemiah.

†The Rev. Samuel Moody of York, was born January 4, 1676, and died November 13, 1747. His son, Joseph, was the first minister of the North Church in York. His son Samuel, for thirty years the distinguished preceptor of Dummer Academy, died at Exeter, N. H., December 17, 1795, aged 69. He had eccentricities of character, but he was eminent for piety, and was greatly useful both as a minister and a teacher of youth. He felt a deep interest in the happiness and usefulness of Mr. Strong, and at the close of his studies, preparatory for college, gave him his paternal advice replete with wisdom and affection.

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quence of the course of treatment then common in that disease, lost his sight, which he had but very partially regained, at the time of his admission to the bar, in 1772.* His professional studies had been pursued under the direction of Major Hawley, an eminent and popular practitioner, residing at Northampton, and one of our most distinguished patriots during the troubled period of the Revolution. It is said that prior to his admission, the gentlemen of the bar had determined to encourage no further applications to the Court for that purpose! Having observed, however, his steady attendance upon the Courts for a great length of time, and influenced probably, as well by sympathy for him under his multiplied discouragements, as by the earnest recommendations of his instructor, the rule was dispensed with on that particular occasion.

He had previously so far secured the confidence of his fellow-townsmen, as to be chosen town treasurer, to which office he was elected ten years successively. As early, also, as the year 1772, he was elected one of the selectmen of the town, and continued to be elected for that office, and as one of the committee of safety and correspondence, during the Revolutionary war—a circumstance affording abundant proof, that in the opinion of his townsmen, he was a decided friend of the Revolution.

In the year 1774, he was chosen to represent the town in the Provincial Congress, having his celebrated professional tutor, Major Hawley, for his colleague. No stronger evidence can be desired of his reputation for wisdom and patriotism, than this election, when it is remembered that the struggle with the parent country was becoming every day more certain, and that the people would have intrusted none with their mighty interests, then in jeopardy, but men of the firmest moral courage, and the most unquestionable devotion to civil and religious liberty. Without doubt, he imbibed many of his opinions on the great subjects which agitated the colonies, from the same intrepid foe to royal prerogative, and parliamentary usurpation. That he cordially coöperated with that gentleman in maintaining the rights of his injured country, cannot be questioned, as he was soon afterward elected to the General Court with the same colleague.

In the intervals of repose from public affairs, he pursued with great assiduity his professional business; and the confidence of the magistrates of the county in his ability and integrity, was evinced by their appointment of him to the office of County Attorney, which place he held from 1776 to 1800, a period of twenty-four years.

In the year 1779, he was invested with the highest political trust which can be conferred by the people upon their Agent, having been elected to represent the town in the Convention, which was about to assemble, for the purpose of devising and adopting a Constitution or frame of government, for the preservation of those principles of civil liberty, then greatly menaced and endangered.

In this Convention, Mr. Strong found himself among great men, great by nature and education, and greater by the impetus given by the glorious contest then subsisting. The two Adamses, Bowdoin, Parsons, and other illustrious patriots were there, and among them, Mr. Strong was not undistinguished. He was one of the Committee appointed by that venerable body to draw the plan of a Constitution to be submitted to the people. Their works praise them. The Constitution is a noble instrument. It is adapted to ensure and preserve as much of civil and personal liberty as is consistent with social order, and public security and tranquillity. It

* During the greater part of this period, his father and sisters, with exemplary patience and kindness, read to him daily, professional and other books. Among these books, was the whole treatise of Coke upon Littleton, in folio.

recognizes and establishes the fundamental principle, that government is founded for the people-that all public officers are their agents, amenable to them for the faithful discharge of their trusts. It secures liberty of conscience, freedom of opinion and of the press, the rights of property and reputation, trial by jury, and all the great principles which constitute the fabric of civil, religious and political liberty. After forty years' experiment, the Constitution was submitted to the revision of a numerous representation of the people, who approved its principles, and found but little occasion to alter any of its forms. Blessed be the memory of those who framed it!

In these various employments, Mr. Strong had so recommended himself to public attention, that he was thenceforward constantly called to the exercise of some important function.

In 1780, he was one of the Council, which, until the Constitution went into operation, exercised the whole executive power of the State.

In September of that year, he was appointed a delegate to Congress, but declined the appointment. In October of the same year, he was chosen by the people of the county of Hampshire one of their senators under the new Constitution, and was reelected to the same office until 1789.

In 1783, he was called by writ from the Supreme Judicial Court to take upon himself the "state and degree" of a barrister at law, having been appointed, the year previous, one of the Justices of that Court-an office, which, owing to the narrowness of his income, he had felt himself obliged to decline.

In 1787, he was elected a delegate to the Convention which framed the present Constitution of the United States. He assisted in the great work of moulding the principal features of that instrument; but having been called away, by the illness of a member of his family, he had no opportunity of signing it before its promulgation. But in the Convention of Massachusetts, which adopted it, he was again the representative of his native town, and was one of its most influential supporters and advocates.

In 1783, he was elected by the Legislature one of the Senators of the United States, in the first Congress under the new Constitution, and was reëlected in 1793; but tired of public life, and eager for the enjoyment of domestic quiet and happiness, he resigned his seat before the expiration of his term.

His labors in the Senate were arduous and most beneficial to his country. The duties of the first Congress were quite as important as those of the Convention, which framed the Constitution. Its principles were to be developed; its powers to be applied; the forms of administering it to be settled. All this required great minds, and found them.

Mr. Strong was one of the Committee which drew the Judiciary Act. That Act, like our own Constitution, has borne the test of nearly fifty years, and remains almost untouched by alteration.

On great national questions-on revenue, on internal and external policy-he was one of the most able and powerful supporters of those principles which have given the government strength, and the country glory. ELLSWORTH, STRONG, KING, CABOT, were among the men, in that Senate, who upheld New England's fame, for all that was great in public, and amiable in private life.

On his retirement from the Senate of the United States, Mr. Strong undoubtedly considered his public career as closed. He had yielded, reluctantly in most instances, to the repeated calls which had been made upon him. He had served his native town, in early life, in humble muni