James Fisk son of Stephen and Anna (Bradish) Green Fisk, was horn at Greenwich, Mass. , and traced his descent from Nathan Fiske, who was in Watertown in 1642. His father died when James was two years old. His childhood, as far as is known, was one of privation and limited opportunities.
Education
He was self-educated but his speeches show a wide range of information and a thorough command of English.
Career
He served over three years in a Massachusetts line regiment of the Revolutionary army and while in Congress once remarked that it had been a valuable experience which he never regretted.
After the close of the war he engaged in farming near Greenwich, represented the town for several sessions in the General Court (1791 - 96), and became a Universalist preacher.
In 1798 he moved to Barre, Vermont. This region was still in many respects frontier territory and Fisk apparently led the typical life of many of its leaders. He cleared a farm, preached occasional sermons for neighboring congregations, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and soon acquired a position of local influence.
As a Jeffersonian Republican he represented Barre in the legislature in 1800-05, 1809-10, and again in 1815. He also served as judge in the Orange County Court for 1802 and 1809. In 1805 he entered the Ninth Congress and served until the adjournment of the Tenth in 1809. The Federalists of New England still treated Republican representatives with condescension or contempt and Fisk underwent some of these disagreeable experiences.
He was a man of real ability, however, and his position as a New England Republican undoubtedly gave him more prominence than he might otherwise have had. One of his early speeches, on Spanish relations (Annals of Congress, 9 Cong. , 1 Sess. , pp. 96673 ) is an able production.
He was reelected in 1810, however, and served throughout the Twelfth and Thirteenth Congresses. He gave full support to the Madison administration, voted for war in 1812, denounced Federalist disloyalty, and was one of the most effective leaders of the New England minority, serving on both the ways and means and judiciary committees.
In 1812 Fisk declined President Madison’s offer of a judgeship in the Indiana Territory, and on his retirement from Congress in 1815 served for a year as member of the supreme court of Vermont.
In 1817, he was elected to the United States Senate but served for only a few weeks, resigning January 8, 1818, to accept the post of federal collector of revenues for the district of Vermont, serving until 1826.
He moved to Swanton in 1819 and lived there until his death.
Achievements
Religion
After the close of the war he engaged in farming near Greenwich, represented the town for several sessions in the General Court (1791 - 96), and became a Universalist preacher.
He followed orthodox Jeffersonian doctrines, favored economy, reduction in army and navy, the gunboat program, strict construction, and the rest.
Politics
He supported the Embargo and was defeated in 1808 as a result.
Views
He shared the prevalent idea that Canada would be easily conquered and in one of his speeches urged that such a conquest was the safest way to protect commerce. On the other hand, he believed that a navy had proved “the bane of every country which has had anything to do with it” {Ibid. , 12 Cong. , 1 Sess. , pp. 969-70).
Personality
In his later years he appears to have been regarded as a local Nestor with a great fund of reminiscences about the men and events of the Jeffersonian era. Physically he is said to have borne a strong resemblance to Aaron Burr, and to have had the same flashing, penetrating eye.