Francis Miles Finch was an American judge, poet, and academic associated with the early years of Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. One of his poems, "The Blue and the Gray", is frequently reprinted to this day.

Biography

Francis Miles Finch was born in on June 9, 1827, in Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

. He was educated at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, where, according to a contemporary, he was a "thoughtful scholar in the class-room, a prizeman in the essay competitions, an influential editor of the Yale Lit

Yale Literary Magazine

The Yale Literary Magazine, founded in 1836, is the oldest literary magazine in the United States and publishes poetry and fiction by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year.The magazine is published biannually...

 an impressive speaker in the Linonian, hail-fellow-well-met on the campus, sedate, impulsive, big-hearted, wise, witty, everywhere he was the ideal collegian." Because of his achievements, he became a member of Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....

. Having been graduated in 1849, he returned to Ithaca, became a lawyer, and speedily distinguished himself in his profession. He soon became as a speaker in the political campaigns which preceded and followed the Civil War.

He was a friend of Ezra Cornell

Ezra Cornell

Ezra Cornell was an American businessman and education administrator. He was a founder of Western Union and a co-founder of Cornell University...

 and Andrew Dickson White

Andrew Dickson White

Andrew Dickson White was a U.S. diplomat, historian, and educator, who was the co-founder of Cornell University.-Family and personal life:...

, and at the organization of Cornell University, he became warmly interested in the institution, was one of its trustees, and its counsel and friendly adviser through its early troubles. As Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Finch was left in charge when both Cornell and White were travelling out of town. He also lent the university his literary skills, as a contemporary relates: "His indignation at the attacks upon Mr. Cornell by the enemies of the university aroused him to fight strenuously and successfully in the courts, in the press, and in public meetings, while the music of the university chime, heard at dawn, noon, and nightfall above the ripple or roar of the adjacent waters, inspired him to write songs which have been sung by Cornell students from their first arrival forty years ago until the present hour."

Early in Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

's first presidential term (circa 1870) he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Twenty-sixth District, New York, which office he resigned after holding it for four years.

In May 1880, he was appointed a judge of the New York Court of Appeals

New York Court of Appeals

The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...

 to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Charles J. Folger

Charles J. Folger

Charles James Folger was an American lawyer and politician. He was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1881 until his death.-Early life:...

 as Chief Judge

Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals

Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals refers to the position of chief judge on the New York Court of Appeals.The chief judge supervises the seven-judge Court of Appeals...

. In January 1881, he was re-appointed to fill the vacancy that continued after Folger's election as Chief Judge in November 1880

New York state election, 1880

The 1880 New York state election was held on November 2, 1880, to elect the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly.-History:...

. In November 1881

New York state election, 1881

The 1881 New York state election was held on November 8, 1881, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer and a judge of the New York Court of Appeals, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York...

, Finch was elected to a full fourteen-year term, and remained in office until December 31, 1895. He lectured at the Cornell's School of Law from 1887 onwards, and on the death of Hon. Douglass Boardman in the year 1891, was unanimously elected as dean of the Law School.

Fitch wrote poetry throughout his life, but declined a chair in rhetoric literature at Cornell, thinking his poetry was "only incidents along the line of a busy and laborious life." Perhaps his best known poem, "The Blue and the Gray", written in remembrance of the dead of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, was inspired by a women's memorial association in Columbus, Mississippi

Columbus, Mississippi

Columbus is a city in Lowndes County, Mississippi, United States that lies above the Tombigbee River. It is approximately northeast of Jackson, north of Meridian, south of Tupelo, northwest of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and west of Birmingham, Alabama. The population was 25,944 at the 2000 census...

, who on April 25, 1866 tended the graves of Confederate

Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

 and Union

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 soldiers, treating the dead as equals despite the lingering rancor of the war.

Francis Finch was married May 25, 1853 to Elizabeth A. Brook, who died on March 28, 1892. They had three children: a son, Robert Brooke, and two daughters, Mary Sibley and Helen Elizabeth. He died in 1907, and a collection of his poems, The Blue and the Gray, and other verses, was published by friends two years posthumously in 1909 (see 1909 in poetry

1909 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Andrew Cecil Bradley, Oxford Lectures on Poetry* Founding of the Poetry Recital Society...

).

External links

• The life and services of Ezra Cornell : an address delivered at Cornell University on Founder's Day (January 11th, 1887) by Francis M. Fitch, from the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  
• The Blue and the Gray, and other verses by Francis M. Fitch, 1909, from the Internet Archive