opposition upon the ground that the requi site five-ninths of the whole vote of the peo ple was not in favor of separation. The pro test of the minority drafted by him was sus tained by the legislature of Massachusetts. In 1816, 1818, and 1821, he was again a rep resentative in Congress where he took strong ground in favor of restricting slavery in Mis souri. He favored a bankrupt law; advocated a reduction of the duty on molasses; and strenuously opposed Jackson's course to wards Florida as illegal, unjustifiable, and ar bitrary. In 18 19 he was a member of the constitutional convention which prepared the constitution of Maine. In 1822, Maine having been erected into a state, he was appointed chief-justice of the Court of Common Pleas by Gov. Parris, a Democrat of the most pronounced type. The Governor had been a student in the office of the Chief-Justice and selected his teacher for the important office, notwithstanding their political antagonisms, because he knew he possessed the highest qualifications for the discharge of its duties; for, says a mem ber of the Cumberland Bar, one in every way well qualified to judge, " he was a man of strong convictions upon all subjects, hav ing the courage to assert and maintain them on all proper occasions, caring not for pop ularity, but living true to his own views, doing what duty called for, and leaving results to care for themselves." Judge Whitman presided in the Common Pleas for about twenty years, and was ap pointed, in December 1841, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor Kent, to succeed Nathan Weston who suc ceeded Judge Whitman as a lawyer at New Gloucester when he removed to Portland. The latter office he held until 1848, when he resigned at the age of seventy-one years, having been a judge nearly twenty-seven years in all. His name as counsel appears in all of the Massachusetts State Reports un til the separation, and after his first term in Congress the most important causes were
intrusted to his care. As a judge of the Common Pleas, riding the western circuit, he was everywhere respected and honored as a wise, learned and upright judge. These qualities, combined with the confidence which the community had in him, that "he bore not the sword in vain," have given him a place in the judicial history of Maine unex celled for painstaking care and sound com mon sense in the decision of causes. He felt at all times the full weight of the re sponsibility resting on him, and he was con scientious in the highest degree lest injustice or oppression might flow from his official acts. His opinions, to be found in Vols. XXI-XXIX, Maine Reports, are character ized by simplicity and directness of applica tion. His exalted character and distinguished judicial services were justly recognized the same year, 1843, by his alma mater and Bowdoin College, in conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He retained his residence in Portland until 1852, when he removed to his native place, and there lived in retirement and comfort until his death, at the age of eighty-nine. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, near Portland, sur rounded by the graves of his immediate family. The tributes he paid his ancestors in the Bridgewater speech, above referred to, pic ture many of his own traits of character. He tried to follow the golden rule as nearly as possible. Holding firmly to his opinions, he was tolerant and charitable towards others. He said in an oration before a Masonic lodge, of which he was a member, " If the omniscient eye of heaven can behold our multiplied transgressions, and yet restrain the arm of wrath and righteous indignation, how much more ought we, who are all subject to like infirmity, to be willing to forbear one toward another! " A more kindly man never lived. He would not speak ill of others nor listen to remarks of that kind from others. In the same oration he says, " There can be nothing more idle and wicked than
