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Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, 1863-1865.
History of Hardin County, Iowa Union Publishing Company, Springfield, Illinois, 1883.
E.W. Eastman became a member of the Hardin County Bar in 1857, although he had attended several terms of the District Court prior to that time and was recognized as one of the leading attorneys of the State.
Enoch Worthen Eastman was born in Deerfield, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, April 15, 1810. He was the third of seven children-five boys and two girls. He was brought up to work and until he became of age labored at any and all things that his hands could find to...
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Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, 1863-1865.
History of Hardin County, Iowa Union Publishing Company, Springfield, Illinois, 1883.
E.W. Eastman became a member of the Hardin County Bar in 1857, although he had attended several terms of the District Court prior to that time and was recognized as one of the leading attorneys of the State.
Enoch Worthen Eastman was born in Deerfield, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, April 15, 1810. He was the third of seven children-five boys and two girls. He was brought up to work and until he became of age labored at any and all things that his hands could find to do, his parents receiving his wages. At this time he had only received a limited common school education.
During the next five or six years, after he had become of age, he devoted all his earnings and leisure time to obtaining an education, and acquired what in New England, was called a thorough academic English education. At that time he had no intention of adopting a profession. His object was to know something and be qualified for all ordinary kinds of business. Hard labor often brought upon him sickness and among other misfortunes, he took the smallpox, which left him in delicate health, which was soon followed by fever and general debility. Attending church one Sunday, in feeble health, just recovering from a fever, a good Christian lady, taking him by the hand, said, What is the use for you to try to work; you know you get sick every time you do it? Why don't you study a profession? Be a doctor or a lawyer. Read law and be a good lawyer. He went home, but the voice kept ringing in his ears, Be a good lawyer. And why not? In less than two weeks he began his studies and soon after entered the office of Hon. Moses Norris as a student. The law then required a student to read five years before being admitted to the Bar. He read his legal time, was admitted and practiced in New Hampshire until September 1844, when he emigrated and located in Burlington, Iowa in October of the same year. In November 1847 he removed to Oskaloosa, where he practiced his profession till the fall of 1857, when he removed to Eldora, where he has since continued to reside. His practice has been large and profitable, involving some of the most important cases and securing him liberal fees.
Mr. Eastman was a Democrat until 1857, since which time he has been a strong Republican. He has ever been in the advance and waits not to see how the leaders or political bosses shall go before making up his mind as to the right or wrong of any question. In 1863 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State for two years, receiving the largest majority, which up to that time, had been given to a candidate for any State office. He made an able presiding officer. He took the gavel in hand while the rebellion was progressing, when the patriotism of the Union men of the North was at its heat and when some were endeavoring to sow the spirit of discord among the friends of the Union. Some idea of the boldness of the man and the spirit of the times, may be found by short extracts from his speech made on taking the chair and which will be found on page 65 of the Journal of the Senate, January 15, 1864. He referred to the perilous times in which the people were then living, to the fact that there were disloyal men in Iowa and of the possibility of there being some member of the State Senate, whose devotion to the Union had ceased to exist, and then added:
If unfortunately such a one is here, my heart's desire and prayer to God, is that his tongue may be paralyzed and cleave to the roof of his mouth, whenever he attempts to utter the intent of his heart. For the honor of the State, I do hope that the patriotic men of Iowa, who have taken their lives in their hand and gone to the tented field, will not receive a shot in the rear from any member of this honorable Senate.
In the same speech Mr. Eastman took advanced grounds on the question of the right of speech. He declared that no man has the legal, moral or political right to begin to do that which the law will punish him for consummating; he added:
Believing, therefore, as I do, that the axe should be laid at the root of the tree, I hold it unparliamentary for any one to talk treason or advocate the cause of secession or any dismemberment of our Union or in any way give aid or comfort to the rebellion, by pleading the cause of traitors, denouncing or disparaging the Government, in this Senate, while I preside over it. The right of free speech in a legislative assembly does not extend beyond the bounds of loyalty.
Governor Eastman has always taken an active part in establishing and building up the political, educational and charitable institutions of the State. When he came to the Territory there was no system of common schools in it and he found many opposed to it. By voice and with pen he advocated the system. The following is an extract from his writings, published in a Burlington paper shortly after his removal to the Territory:
As it is the duty of every nation to perpetuate its own existence, and strive to make all its members prosperous and happy and as the present political generation will soon yield its place, with all the responsibilities of this powerful Nation, increased by the progress of art and science and the march of mind, to those who are now youths and sucklings, how indispensably necessary it is for the Government to prepare the mind of the youth for the high station which awaits it and how infinitely more essential it appears when we reflect that this is the only means within the power and control of the Government to enable it to transmit itself unsullied to posterity. It is on this principle-on the blessed truth that the mind of the youth is public property and in the rapid current of events, soon to become both the pillars and edifice of the nation-that our public schools are established. The Nation knows no distinction between the poor and the rich; each are equal, and both are alike to be prepared for any issue. Mind, from its very position in the Government, becomes paramount to property and every other minor thing. The mind of the youth, if I may use the expression, is not only heir to the throne, but is the Government itself in embryo. And herein it follows that, as it is the duty of the Government to know itself, to preserve and perfect its own nature and carefully protect all its members and has a right to everything necessary for its preservation, so it is within its power and duty to appropriate an equal portion of all property, whether its holder has children or not, to the education of all youth and the mind of the poorest child is absolutely entitled to receive from the Government the same nurture as that of the child of the most opulent of the whole Nation.
These articles on education were written in the Territorial days of Iowa and before the controversy arose about expelling the Bible from the schools and dividing the school money to the different religious sects, but upon sectarian instruction Mr. Eastman said:
But of all the evils to be guarded against, sectarian books and sectarian teachers are the most important. They plant the very evils which it is in the province of a proper education to uproot. You must leave the pupil to learn doctrines at home or at church, where he can have the instructions of a professor on each religious creed and doctrinal point. Out Government has no established religion. It tolerates all parties and creeds, but teaches none. It recognizes a great Sovereign of the Universe, before whom all its officers take an oath, and is regulated by a constitution. Of these you can speak, leaving the mind free from bias. You must bear in mind that you are the servant of the Government and not of a political party or religious sect. You are to educate the pupil for the use of the Government. You are also to bear in mind the broad distinction between instructing and educating. You are not simply to impart knowledge. You are not simply to train the memory, making the mind a library or lumber room, stored with other men's thoughts and theories. That is only teaching. You are to expand the mind and train it to think and act for itself-enable it to analyze. You must infuse into the mind self-reliance and give it self-help, self-trust and internal rigor; for every one must act for himself, think for himself, that he may choose the good and shun the evil and he had better think wrong sometimes than not to think at all. The pupil must be inspired with an invincible love of truth, that he may investigate for the sake of truth. You must inspire the whole heart and soul with a love of honor and moral integrity. You must give boldness and heroism to the heart. In short, you must unfetter the immortal mind, unbind the image of God, give freedom to the thoughts, capacity and strength to the understanding, that it may walk alone, and gain strength by its own exercise. This is education, and he who is thus educated will answer the end for which he was made.
That Governor Eastman has in him a heart is evident, from the fact in the reform school trouble, an account of which will be found in the history of that institution, he devoted seventy days to the trial, prosecuting on the part of the State against the superintendent, for which he received nothing, except the satisfaction of seeing a radical reform in the management of the institution and it be made as he expressed it, a humane institution, not a prison, a home, not a bastile.
In 1850 Governor Eastman became a member of Triluminar Lodge, No. 18, Oskaloosa, since which time he has been an active member of the order. He was a representative of his lodge to the Grand Lodge in 1855, 1857 and 1861, on all of which occasions he was of great service on committees, chiefly those of grievance and jurisprudence, as well as in the consideration of important questions in the Grand Lodge. He was also present at the annual communication of the Grand Lodge in 1865 and was one of a committee of three to prepare an expression of feeling prevailing in Grand Lodge, relative to the assassination of President Lincoln. Since that time professional duties have prevented his attendance at Grand Lodge. In 1857 and also in 1858 he was elected Grand High Priest in the Grand Chapter.
In religious matters, Governor Eastman is a Unitarian, but there being no organization of that denomination in Eldora, he worships with the Congregationalists.
He was united in marriage January 8, 1845 with Sarah Caroline Greenough, of Canterbury, New Hampshire. She was a graduate of Bradford Seminary, Massachusetts and was a highly accomplished lady, an excellent wife and mother. From this marriage survive four children; three girls and one boy. Returning home from the Grand Lodge in Dubuque in 1861 he found his wife delirious with typhoid fever of which she died with recognizing him after his return. In 1865 he was again married, uniting with Miss Amanda Hall, by whom he has one son.
Governor Eastman stands six feet one inch in height and weighs about on hundred and seventy-five pounds. He has a spare form, quite muscular and capable of enduring much fatigue. He has an ample chest with wholesome lungs and good digestive apparatus. He has a positive mental temperament, a large and active brain and expressive features. His head is covered with a heavy growth of dark hair, now tinged with gray. His character gathers strength from the base of his brain. He has large firmness, intuitive and logical and comprehends the law of cause and effect or the laws of analogy, by which the true relations of society are determined by the natural laws of their being. In his life he is consistent, and in his declarations earnest and eloquent. He never wavers, but is always true to his convictions. |
