FITZPATRICK, BENJAMIN. 



FLETCHER, RICHARD. 



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FITZPATRICK, BENJAMIN, a Southern 

 statesman and political leader, born in Greene 

 County, Ga., June 20, 1802 ; died in Autauga 

 County, Ala., November 25, 1869. Left an 

 orphan at an early age, he emigrated, in 1815, 

 in company with an elder brother, to Alabama 

 (then Mississippi Territory), and settled in 

 what is now Autauga County. Here, by as- 

 siduous study, without teachers, he acquired 

 a fair education, and in 1821 obtained a license 

 to practise law. Soon after, before he had 

 quite attained his majority, he was elected so- 

 licitor of his judicial circuit, and, by reelection, 

 continued to exercise its duties till 1829, when 

 his declining health forced him to abandon his 

 profession. From 1829 until 1840 he lived the 

 life of a retired farmer in Autauga County, but 

 in the fall of 1840 he stumped the State as a 

 candidate for elector for the State at large, 

 was elected, and voted for Martin Van Buren. 

 In 1841 he was nominated by the Democratic 

 party for Governor, and, after a spirited con- 

 test, defeated his opponent by a majority of 

 more than 10,000 votes. In 1843 he was 

 reflected without a contest, and at the close 

 of his term, in 1845, received from the State 

 Legislature a vote of thanks for the able man- 

 ner in which he had administered the affairs 

 of the State. In 1848 he was appointed United 

 States Senator to fill the unexpired term of 

 Dixon H. Lewis, and again, in 1853, to fill the 

 vacancy occasioned by the election of the late 

 William R. King to the vice-presidency. The 

 latter appointment was ratified by the next 

 ensuing Legislature, which elected him to serve 

 out the remainder of Mr. King's term. In 

 November, 1855, he was reflected for a full 

 term of six years, and in 1860 received and 

 declined the nomination for Vice-President of 

 the United States on the same ticket with Mr. 

 Douglas. While in the Senate he served for 

 several sessions as president pro tern, of that 

 body. In 1861 he left the United States Sen- 

 ate, to take part in the secession movement. 

 About the time of his withdrawal, viz., Janu- 

 ary 19, 1861, he united with S. R. Mallory and 

 John Slidell, in entering into a correspondence 

 with President Buchanan in relation to the 

 demand of South Carolina for the surrender of 

 Fort Sumter. Governor Fitzpatrick was active 

 in his support of the Confederacy during the 

 war, and did what he could for the Confederate 

 soldiers. After the close of the war, he retired 

 to his farm, and had not since appeared in pub- 

 lic, except at the Philadelphia "National Union 

 Convention " of 1866, to which he was a dele- 

 gate. 



FLETCHER, RICHAKD, LL. D., a learned 

 and accomplished jurist of Massachusetts, born 

 in Cavendish, Vt., January 8, 1788; died in Bos- 

 ton, Mass., June 21, 1869. He graduated at 

 Dartmouth College, in 1806, at the early age 

 of eighteen, and studied law in the office of 

 Daniel Webster, at Portsmouth. He was called 

 to the bar in 1809, and settled at Salisbury, 

 N. H., where he remained until about 1825, 



when he removed to Boston. He at once took 

 a high rank among the leaders of the bar, and 

 within two or three years was retained as lead- 

 ing counsel for the Warren Bridge proprietors 

 in the famous case of the Charles River Bridge 

 against them. His associate was the late Wil- 

 liam C. Aylwin; the opposing counsel being 

 Daniel Webster and Lemuel Shaw. The Su- 

 preme Court of Massachusetts were equally 

 divided on the main question involved ; Justices 

 Wilde and Morton adjudging that the charter 

 of the Warren Bridge was constitutional, and 

 Chief-Justice Parker and Mr. Justice Putnam 

 holding that it was a violation of the charter 

 of the Charles River Bridge, and therefore 

 unconstitutional. The case was taken by writ 

 of error to the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, where the constitutionality of the War- 

 ren Bridge charter was sustained by a ma- 

 jority of the court. The volumes of Picker- 

 ing's and of Metcalf 's Reports from this time 

 prove the extent of Mr. Fletcher's practice and 

 the importance of the cases in which he was en- 

 gaged. His practice in the United States Courts 

 was also very large. He was for many years 

 the peer and associate of such men as Justice 

 Samuel Hubbard, Prof. Simon Greenleaf, Peleg 

 Sprague, Franklin Dexter, Rufus Choate, and 

 Charles G. Loring. Among these eminent men 

 few equalled and none surpassed Judge Fletch- 

 er in professional ability. He was repeatedly 

 retained against Mr. Webster and Mr. Mason, 

 and showed himself no unworthy antagonist 

 of them ; while veteran lawyers have declared 

 that, for general legal and especially for nisi 

 priiis business, he had but one equal, and that 

 was Mr. Choate. He was a formidable oppo- 

 nent before a jury, and was equally eminent 

 in arguing questions of law in bank. His 

 range of learning and practice extended over 

 all the branches of the law real estate, com- 

 mercial, criminal, admiralty, and maritime. Al- 

 though he practised for many years in the 

 country, he was distinguished in commercial 

 and maritime law, and particularly in the law 

 of marine insurance. Mr. Fletcher had been 

 a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, 

 and in 1837 he was elected to Congress, but 

 resigned his seat at the end of one session. In 

 1848 he accepted a seat on the Supreme bench, 

 which had more than once been offered him 

 before. He gained much reputation here 

 throughout the country by his able judgments, 

 but the position was not much to his taste, and 

 he resigned it in 1853. He returned for a short 

 time to practice, from which he finally retired 

 in 1858. He was for very many years a trus- 

 tee of Brown University, and for a short time 

 an overseer of Harvard College. He received 

 the degree of LL. D. from Dartmouth in 1846, 

 and from Harvard in 1849. Judge Fletcher was 

 never married. In his religious life he was 

 not only exemplary but active in all good words 

 and works. In the sabbath-school, .in the 

 church, in missionary and other benevolent 

 enterprises, he was always active and ready to 



