Ch rist C/i u rch .
��159
��pliance therewith Gov. SmN'th, in March of the next year, appointed as comniissioners Mr. Stearns, Levi W. Barton, and David D. Ranlet. These gentlemen entered upon their labo- rious duty at once, and discharged it .with a faithfulness and completeness that did them great credit. They audited the war expenses of every town and city in New Hampshire, a work involving great expenditure of time, and submitted a full and com- prehensive report to the governor at the June session following. In the house a special committee was ap- pointed to take this report into con- sideration, and Mr. Stearns was made chairman. Throuoh his efforts the committee decided not to recommend the assumption of the town and city debt by the state, and the house sus- tained the report by a decisive vote.
It is in connection with this legis- lation that Mr. Stearns is best known, and the results attained were unques- tionably due to his wise and skilful management. With the exception of the office of moderator of Rindge, which he has held for twent\' years (the longest term ever known in the town), Mr. Stearns has held no elec- tive office, until 1886, when the Repub- licans of the Cheshire senatorial dis- trict elected him senator. It is need-
��less to predict that he will take a lead- ing part in the debates of that body, and impress legislation with his expe- rience and wisdom.
He is a partisan, but he is straight- forward, and his political opponents entertain for him the deepest respect. He has contributed not a little to the ascendancy of the Republican party in our state, and has aided in keeping its tone pure and its policy sound, and in making it worthy of any vic- tories it may achieve.
In Ezra Scollay Stearns we have a good specimen of the New England man of affairs. He is a speaker of great clearness and persuasion, a writer both graceful and terse, and a politician of sagacity and resource. In no other country save in New England, where it originated and still exists, can this particular type of manhood be found. It is the combi- nation of semi-professional man with the man of business, and is indige- nous only to our soil.
Senator Stearns is a courteous and unassuming gentleman, who has the faculty of winning friends and keep- ino- them. He entertains broad views on public questions, and is a son of whom New Hampshire may well be proud.
��CHRIST CHURCH— (Concluded). By Axxie Wentwortii Baer.
Under date of March 16,. 1832, I penses to go to Saco for the organ,
found a list of subscribers desirous Hosea Crane gave SlO, and the use of
of having an organ in Christ Church, a horse to go to Saco. J. W. Pierce
They raised $243, and John Went- gave 640. In the church accounts I
worth gave SlO, and his time and ex- read, " Bishop Griswold, $20." I
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