MASON, JEREMIAH, LL.D., 1768-1848, b. Oonn., son of Jeremiah Mason, a col. in the revolutionary war. He graduated at Yale, in 1788, and was called to the bar in 1791. He began the practice of his profession at Westmoreland, N. H., near Walpole, whither lie removed in 1794. Three years later, be removed to Portsmouth, which was his home for the next 35 years. He was soon recognized as the head of his profession, in a state whose bar was then, and perhaps since, unequaled in this country, and which could number among its members Ezekiel and Daniel Webster, and Jeremiah Smith. He held the office of attorney general for the state in 1802, and was elected to the U. S. senate, in 1813. He became one of the foremost debaters in that body, his speech delivered in 1814, on the embargo, being especially powerful. But he was, before every thing else, a great lawyer, and he soon tired of politics, and in 1817, resigned his seat in the senate, and resumed the practice of his profession. He afterwards served, for a number of terms in the New Hampshire legislature, where his service had little connection with politics, but was given largely to revising and codifying the state laws. It was he who. framed for the legislature its report on the Virginia resolutions with regard to the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the state enjoyed in many other directions the benefit of his legal learning and sagacity. But he felt the need of a larger field for the display
of his talents. and in 1832, removed to Boston, where the Websters had long preceded him. He was employed in Boston upon many great cases, and maintained till his age compelled him to retire, the high reputation which he had won elsewhere. His was onc of the most acute legal minds in America. He was a greater lawyer than Webster, how ever inferior to him in other respects; and Webster, who had abundant occasion to con ceive a respect for Mason's abilities, while they were both engaged in the trial of causes at the New Hampshire bar, does not exaggerate in giving his estimate of Mason: " Of my own professional discipline and attainments, whatever they may be, I ewe much to that close attention to the discharge of my duties, which I was cornpelled to pay for 9. successive years, from day to day, by Mr. Mason's efforts and arguments at the same bar." " The characteristics of his mind," he adds, " as I think, were real g-reatness, strength, and sagacity. Ile was great through sound sense and sound judgment."