Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/380

852 of the assembly in 1827-'30, an unsuccessful candidate of the anti-masonic party for congress in 1830, and again a member of the assembly in 1835-'8, serving during his last term as speaker. From 1839 till 1843 he was lieutenant-governor of the state, and in 1842 he was the unsuccessful whig candidate for governor. Subsequently to that period he lived in retirement, except during the administration of President Fillmore, when he filled the office of assistant U. S. treasurer in New York. During the latter part of his life, which he passed in New York, he was much occupied with educational, charitable, and reformatory projects, and at his death was president of the New York historical society, and of the American Bible society.

BRADLEE, Caleb Davis, clergvman, b. in Boston, Mass.. 24 Feb.. 1831; d. in Brookline, Mass., 1 May, 1897. He was graduated at Harvard in 1852, and in December, 1854, became pastor of the Allen street church, Cambridge, where he remained for three years. Then he took charge of the Church of tlie Redeemer, Boston, and later of other Unitarian churches in Massachusetts. He published two volumes of sermons and "Recollections of a Ministry of Forty Years," and also contributed prose and verse to periodicals, especially the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register." He was a member of the American authors' guild and many other societies. He received the degree of D. D. from Tuft's college.

BRADLEY, Denis, R. C. bishop, b. in Ireland in 1840. His family emigrated to the United States, and settled in Manchester, N. H., in 1854. After finishing his classical studies at Holy Cross college, Worcester, he entered St. Joseph's seminary, Troy, in 1867. He was ordained in 1871, and stationed at the cathedral in Portland, Me., where he remained nine years, filling the offices of chancellor of the diocese and rector of the cathedral. He was then appointed pastor of St. Joseph's church, Manchester, N. H., and in 1884 was consecrated bishop of Manchester.

BRADLEY, Joseph P., jurist, b. in Berne, Albany CO., N. Y., 14 March, 1813 : d. in Washington, 22 Jan., 1892. His earliest ancestor in the United States was Francis Bradley, who was a member of Gov. Eaton's family in New Haven, Conn., in 1650, and removed to Fairfield in the same state in 1660. From Francis Bradley the judge is the sixth in line. In 1791 the family removed to Berne. His father was Philo Bradley, and his mother was Mercy Gardiner, of a Newport, R. I., family. The father was a farmer, and had a library containing historical and mathematical works. Joseph was the eldest of eleven children, and worked on the farm until he reached the age of sixteen. His opportunities for obtaining an education consisted principally in his attendance, three or four months in each vear, at a country school when he was between the ages of five and fourteen; but he made constant use of his father's library, and his attainments must have been very considerable. He taught a country school every winter from his sixteenth year till his twenty-first. During this period he also practised surveying occasionally for the neighboring farmers. His love of study attracted the attention of the clergyman of the village, who offered to prepare him for college. This invitation he accepted, and at the age of twenty Mr. Bradley entered Rutgers, where he was graduated with honor in 1836, unusually distinguished as a mathematician. After devoting six months to teaching, he began the study of law with Arthur Gifford at Newark, N. J., and was admitted to the bar in November, 1839. In May, 1840, he opened an office in Newark, where he continued in practice thirty years, until his appointment to be a justice of the supreme court. He was engaged in many of the most important and difficult cases that arose in the New Jersey courts and in the courts of the United States for that district, and his services as a counsellor were sought in a multitude of other business transactions. His professional career was attended throughout with great success. In 1860 he argued the celebrated New Jersey bridge case in the supreme court of the United States with a power and cogency that were long remembered. During many years he was a director and principal counseller of the New Jersey, Trenton, and Philadelphia, and of the Camden and Amboy railroad companies, and his influence was exerted to induce those companies to yield, in favor of the public, monopolies granted to them by the legislature, but odious to the community at large. From 1857 till 1863 he was the actuary of the mutual benefit insurance company of Newark, and from 1865 till 1869 was president of the New Jersey mutual life insurance company. He was also a director of various other financial institutions. In 1849 he addressed the literary societies of Rutgers college on the subject of "progress," and he delivered lectures to the classes on political economy and constitutional law. In 1851 he delivered the annual address before the historical society of New Jersey on "The Perils through which the Federal Constitution has passed, and which still threaten it," and in 1865 he delivered an admirable address on the life and character of the Hon. William L. Dayton. In June, 1870, he delivered the centennial address at Rutgers college. He contributed valuable articles to several cyclopædias. In 1859 Lafayette college conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. In March, 1870, he was appointed by President Grant a justice of the supreme court of the United States, and was designated circuit justice for the large southern circuit. Subsequently, on the resignation of Justice Strong, he was assigned to the third circuit, embracing the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. During his membership of the supreme court a very large number of cases have been brought into it, involving questions arising out of the civil war, the reconstruction and other acts of congress, the constitutional amendments, the difficulties and controversies of railroad companies, and other subjects. In no former equal period have as many cases of supreme importance been decided by that court. Many of them were not only novel, but intricate and difficult of solution. In the investigation and decision of all of them Judge Bradley bore a distinguished part. His mind was remarkably analytical, capable of discovering and appreciating occult though important distinctions. Added to this, his legal learning was so large and accurate, his acquaintance with English and American decisions so extensive, and his habit of looking beyond the rule for the reason or principle upon which it is founded so constant, that his opinions have been of high value. Those opinions appear in more than forty volumes of the supreme court reports, beginning with 9th Wallace. Many of them are notable alike for the importance of the subject discussed and for the manner of the discussion. In patent cases Judge Bradley exhibited marked ability, his natural aptitude for comprehending mechanical devices qualifying him unusually for such cases. His opinions in maritime cases, in cases relating to civil rights and habeas corpus, in suits upon policies of insurance, and in cases in which statutory or constitutional construction has been required,