History of Rochester, (Plymouth County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Tristam Burges, representative, was born at Rochester, Mass., Feb. 26, 1780; son of John Burges, a sturdy patriot who served throughout the revolutionary war, and who was a cooper, farmer, and father of eight children. At the age of twenty-one Tristam, who had enjoyed but twelve weeks' schooling, had served his apprenticeship with his father, and determined to obtain a college education. This, by hard work and in the face of untold difficulties, he accomplished, and was graduated from Rhode Island college in 1796, with valedictory honors. He opened a school, known as "Hacker's Hall," in order to obtain means to fit himself as a lawyer, and in 1799 he was admitted to the bar. His eloquence made him the acknowledged leader of his profession; the court house was thronged when he spoke, and he soon became prominent in public affairs. An oration delivered in 1810, "Liberty, Glory, and Union," gave him additional celebrity, and in 1811 he was elected to the state legislature. In 1817 he was made chief justice of the supreme court of Rhode Island, and in the same year was appointed to the chair of oratory and belles lettres at Brown university, a position which he filled with distinguished success for fifteen years. In 1824 he was elected to represent Rhode Island in the 19th Congress, and was re-elected to the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd congresses. His first speech in the house was on a bill regulating the judiciary of the United States, and won him national renown. Because of one of the similes in this speech he was thereafter known as the "Bald Eagle of Rhode Island." When Mr. Burges first entered Congress, it was the custom of the southern members to revile New England; but these insults grew fewer as one by one, Southern representatives came to realize that none of them could cope with the fiery eloquence of Mr. Burges when his wrath was awakened. Even John Randolph of Virginia, who was so eloquently sarcastic, so bitter in his hatred of New England, could not withstand the torrent of fiery indignation and terrible bursts of sarcasm which Mr. Burges poured out, and some of his replies to Randolph have become historic. The most striking of these was in reply to Randolph when he applied the words "Delenda est Carthago" in denouncing New England. "Let New England be destroyed," said Mr. Burges,"what shall we say of a spirit regarding this event as a consummation devoutly to be wished? A spirit without one attribute or hope of the pure in heart; a spirit that begins and ends everything, not with prayer, but with imprecation; a spirit which blots from the great canon of petition, 'give us this day our daily bread,' that foregoing bodily nutriment he may attain to a higher relish for that unmingled food prepared and served up to a soul hungering and thirsting after wickedness; a spirit which at every rising sun exclaims, 'Hodie, Hodie, Carthago delenda!' (To-day, to-day, let New England be destroyed!)" Then followed the historic sentence: "Sir, Divine Providence takes care of his own universe! Moral monsters cannot propagate; impotent of everything, but malevolence of purpose, they cannot otherwise multiply miseries than by blaspheming all that is pure, prosperous and happy. Could demon propagate demon, the universe might become a pandemonium; but I rejoice that the father of lies can never become the father of liars; one adversary of God and man is enough for one universe; too much ! oh, how much too much for one nation." Mr. Randolph could not withstand the unparalleled severity of this retort; he immediately left the hall, and his voice was never raised there afterwards. In 1836 Mr. Burges was nominated on the Whig ticket for governor but failed of election, and retired from public life resuming his profession. He wrote The Battle of Lake Erie, and published several speeches and orations. He died Oct. 13, 1853.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Rochester, (Plymouth County) Massachusetts

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