AMASA J. PARKER
AN ALBANIAN of high intellectual qualities, who has passed his four-score years, and who has been a resident of this city for forty-four years, adorning its history by distinguished public service and private virtues is the Hon. Amasa J. Parker. He is a true representative of those enterprising New England pioneers who came from their old homes to aid in the development of the then new state of New York and the great western territories. Away back amidst the howling wilderness, where the cheering rays of the sun scarcely ever beamed upon their humble log cabins, they lived and toiled for the good of their country, their families, and their cherished civil and religious institutions. Judge Parker’s ancestors were among those who defended their homes from the invasion of the red men during the old French and English wars, when many a deed of horrid cruelty was enacted by the savages – when the tomahawk and scalping-knife in the hands of murderous foes gleamed through the thick forests, and when fears prevailed on every side, through the light of day and the darkness of night. And when the declaration of American independence was proclaimed, those worthy ancestors were found fighting on the side of the colonists in defense of the just rights of free men; and they laid not down their arms until this new republic was established, and the goddess of liberty forever enshrined in the hearts of the American people.
Thomas Fenn, the maternal grandfather of Judge Parker, was a resident of Watertown, Conn., and for more than thirty sessions he represented his town in the state legislature, closing a long and useful life with the highest esteem of his fellow-citizens.
It appears by Kirby’s Reports, page 62, that he was engaged in administering justice in that state in the earliest days of its organization.
On the 2d of June, 1807, Amasa J. Parker, the subject of our sketch, was born at Ellsworth, town of Sharon, Litchfield County, Conn. Here his father, the Rev. Daniel Parker, a graduate of Yale, was an earnest and devoted minister of the Congregational church, where he labored over twenty years. He was moreover extensively acquainted with various branches of learning outside of his chosen profession, and was particularly an accomplished classical scholar. It is many years since his remains were borne to their last resting place, but still his memory is devoutly cherished by his distinguished son.
In the year 1816 the elder Parker removed with his family to this state, where he became a distinguished and successful teacher. His son Amasa was then a lad of nine years, and under the instructions of his father was taught the rudiments of learning, while other professors and teachers assisted in the development of his intellectual powers and in the completion of a most thorough education. He was prepared in a full college course of study, and in the summer of 1825 passed an examination on the whole course at Union college and received his degree with the class of that year. His early proficiency in knowledge was mainly due to his natural taste, his real love of books, his close mental application, and the teachings of a learned and painstaking father. Two years before receiving his collegiate degree he was chosen principal of the academy in the city of Hudson, N. Y., a high mark of literary honor for a youth of sixteen and one that was well merited. He retained this position four years, and was one of the youngest and most successful principals that ever took charge of a literary institution in this country.
It was during this period that the taste and inclination of young Parker for the study of the law were unmistakably unfolded; and to gratify his desires in this direction he resigned his principalship in 1827 and entered more fully upon his favorite pursuit. And so speedily did he acquire a general knowledge of the elementary principles of legal science in the office of his uncle, Amasa Parker, a distinguished counselor of Delhi, N. Y., that he was admitted to the bar in 1828, at the age of twenty-one. Promisingly opened his legal career – a career which for sixty years has reflected honor upon him and the profession he loves so well. On admission to practice he immediately entered into partnership with his uncle; and the firm of A. & A. J. Parker, of Delhi soon became widely known throughout the state. The firm did a large amount of business – larger, perhaps, than any other country office in the state.
Fully equipped by previous thorough training for the duties of his profession, and with a heart devoted to his work, our rising young lawyer closely attended the circuits of Delaware, Greene, Ulster, Schoharie, Broome and other counties of the state, as well as the stated terms of the old court of chancery and the supreme court. And so active and diligent was he in his professional work that, at the time of his appointment to the bench in 1844, he was said to have tried more cases at the circuit than any other lawyer of his age in the state. By his great industry and his remarkable promptness, never failing to keep his appointments, always ready for “work or warfare,” he was enabled to perform to the advantage of his clients, a vast amount of legal work. His constantly-growing reputation as an able advocate and an upright citizen naturally called for the exercise of his talents in other fields of human activity. From his youth up he was familiar with political science as he was with the law. And his early ambition was to entrench himself within the strongholds of democracy.
He has earnestly and often advocated the cause of the old Jeffersonian principles since the year 1828 when he cast his first ballot for Andrew Jackson, who was that year elected president of the United States.
In the autumn of 1833 the Democratic Party nominated him for member of assembly from Delaware county; and such was his popularity with all classes of citizens that he was chosen to the legislature without opposition. In the assembly he manifested the same energy of character, directness of purpose and unremitting industry that had already been the growing glory of his professional career. But other and higher political honors were in store for him. In 1835 he was elected by the legislature a regent of the University of the State of New York, being the youngest person ever chosen to that position.
In the fall of 1836 he was elected to the twenty-fifth congress from the twentieth district, then composed of the counties of Delaware and Broome. It is a striking instance, of his great popularity, that during those exciting times in our political history no candidate was nominated in opposition to him by the Whig party. It was the memorable presidential campaign of 1836, when Martin Van Buren defeated Gen. William Henry Harrison. Bitter were the strifes which followed that election; and when at the extra session of congress in September, 1837, Judge Parker took his seat, he found himself sailing upon a stormy political sea. But he possessed his soul in patience and sailed fearlessly over the troubled waters. He was a formidable opponent of the principal measures of the Whig party in congress, and an earnest leader and advocate of the administration policy. The one great measure that was agitated in congress, frequently leading to acrimonious debate, was that of the sub-treasury scheme proposed by President Van Buren and opposed by the Whig party and by some of the democrats. Judge Parker brought his rare intellectual resources and his impressive oratory to bear upon this subject in the advocacy of the measure, which, however, failed to become a law at that congress.
While in congress, Judge Parker served on several important committees, and was always an earnest supporter of his party, making some telling and elaborate speeches, among which were those on the Mississippi election case, the sub-treasury bill, the public lands and the Cilley and Graves duel.
At the close of his active and eventful congressional term he returned with renewed devotion to the practice of his profession at Delhi. He held the office of district attorney of Delaware County during a term of three years. In the spring of 1844 Governor Bouck appointed him circuit judge and vice-chancellor of the third circuit. He then took up his residence in the city of Albany, where he has since lived as one of the leading figures in his profession and in the walks of social and domestic life. He was circuit judge of the third circuit and vice-chancellor till the spring of 1847, that court having been then abolished by the adoption of the constitution of 1846.
In the summer of 1847 he was elected by a large majority a justice of the Supreme Court in the third judicial district for a term of eight years, which expired in 1855. During the year 1854 he served in the court of appeals, his associates being Judges Gardner, Denio, Alexander S. Johnson, Allen and others. His numerous and ably-written opinions of cases argued in the supreme court will be found in the first twenty-one volumes of Barbour’s Supreme Court Reports. His opinions in the court of appeals are reported in the first and second volumes of Kernan’s Reports. One of these opinions, which created no little interest at the time, was in the case of Snedeker v. Warring, involving the question whether “a statue, colossal in size, erected as an ornament on the ground in front of a country residence, and securely attached to the earth by its weight was real or personal property.” Judge Parker’s opinion that it was real property finally prevailed, and the case was so decided.
During the summer of 1853 Judge Parker visited Europe and was cordially received by distinguished lawyers and jurists of the old world. At the request of Lord Brougham he delivered an address before the Law Reform club of England, regarding the admirable workings of the legal reform that had been made in this state by the constitutional convention of 1847, in the administration of law and equity. He visited many of the famous places abroad, carefully studying the legal and educational systems of various countries, and the results accomplished by the labors of men in past centuries; and, highly pleased with what he had seen, he returned home greatly invigorated in mind and body. When the so-called “know-nothing or American party” carried the state by large majorities in 1855, Judge Parker was an unsuccessful candidate for justice of the supreme court, George Gould being elected over him.
It has been well remarked of Judge Parker, that “at no time in the history of this state have the judicial labors devolved upon a judge been more difficult and responsible than those which he was called on to discharge during his twelve years of judicial service. It was during this time that the Anti-Rent excitement which prevailed throughout a large portion of his judicial district was at its height, crowding the civil calendar with litigation, and the criminal courts with indictments for acts of violence in resisting the collection of rents. The trial of ‘ Big Thunder,’ before Judge Parker, at Hudson, in the spring of 1845, lasted two weeks, and the jury failed to agree. When the next court of oyer and terminer was held in that county, Judge Parker was engaged in holding the court in Delaware County, and Judge Edmonds was assigned to hold the Columbia oyer and terminer in his place. At that court ‘ Big Thunder ‘ was again tried and was convicted and sent to the state prison.”
In the summer of 1845, Osman N. Steele, under sheriff of Delaware county, while engaged with a posse in his official duties in the collection of rents due from Moses Earle, at Andes, in that county, was violently resisted by about two hundred men armed and disguised as Indians, and was shot and killed by them. Intense excitement prevailed in the county. A great struggle followed between those who resisted and those who sought to enforce the laws.
On the 25th of August, 1845, Governor Wright declared the county of Delaware in a state of insurrection, and a battalion of light infantry w