USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 5
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 5
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secration to God and country, and untiring devotion to the best interests of the army, invested him with commanding worth and influence. On the necessity of pure morals and of simple dependence on the Divine arm for victory in the momentous war- fare the patriot hosts werc waging, he strenuously insisted. No sympathies, prayers, or personal exertions within his power to extend were spared, but all his resources were lavishly poured out to achieve success.
When the clouds of war cleared off, and sweet and blessed peace rcturned, Mr. Smith joyously rejoined his family and resumed his local ministerial toil. Missionary tours enlarged the area of his labors, and added to his signal and extensive usefulness. As an ardent friend of education, he strenuously assisted Dr. Manning in the establish- ment of Brown University, and in laying the foundations of its future prosperity in sufficient preliminary endowment. To obtain funds for its support he travelled, at much personal sacrifice, through various parts of the country. He knew not how to fail, and in this enterprise of love achieved his wonted triumphs. For forty years he sustained the honor of being one of the Fellows of the University, and in 1797 received from it the honorable diploma of Doctor in Divinity.
Dr. Smith's pastoral term of service to the First Baptist Church in Haverhill was protracted to the length of forty years, and was characterized by growing excellence and effectiveness. Personal influence on those who approached him grew with his years. Like many ministers of intense individuality, he dreaded the possibility of outliving his usefulness. He rather preferred the cxperience desiderated by Charles Wesley in the stanza :
" O that without a lingering groan, I may the welcome word receive ; My body with my charge lay down And cease at once to work and live."
On the Lord's Day, January 11th, 1805, he prcached with unusual unction and force from the text, John 12 : 24: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it dic, it bringeth forth much fruit." A gracious revival of religion followed. On the next Thursday he was smitten with paralysis, lay speech- less for a week, and then passed to his home in the celestial city. His ashes now rc- pose in the village cemetery at Haverhill.
Dr. Smith was a man of commanding presence, large and well-proportioned in stature, inspiring respect by his dignity, and winning affection by his affability and grace. His voice was of remarkable compass and power, and his genuine eloquence aided his message in finding a way to the hearts of his bearers. His views of re- vcaled truth were of strictly evangelical character, and his preaching combined in due and just proportions the doctrinal, the experimental, and the practical. The Rev. Dr.
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Sprague states that he never wrote his sermons, and justly remarks that the life of his ministry is among the treasured things belonging to memory and to God.
Dr. Smith was united in marriage, soon after his settlement in Haverhill, with Miss Hepzibah Kimball, of Rowley, Mass. Of the four children who sprang from that union, the first, Hezekiah, became a farmer, and dicd, prior to 1860, in Northumberland, N. H .; the second, William, was at one time engaged in maritime pursuits; the third, Jonathan Kimball, died in Newton, Mass., October, 1843, aged 68. The youngest, Rebecca, became the wife of Thomas Wendall, of Boston, and died in the early part of the present century. Mrs. Smith survived until the 9th of December, 1824.
AGGETT, DAVID, LL.D., of New Haven, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Born in Attleborough, Bristol County, Mass., Deccm- ber 31st, 1764; died at New Haven, April 12th, 1851, in his eighty-seventh year.
Judge Daggett belonged to the Puritan stock of the New England Pilgrims, and was the fifth in line of direct descent from John Daggett, who immigrated with Winthrop's company in 1630, and settled at Watertown, Mass. Thomas, son of the emigrant, John Daggett, removed to Edgartown, on' Martha's Vineyard, with Gov- ernor Mayhew, in 1644. Married Hannah, the eldest daughter of that gentleman ; became a magistrate of the island, and died about the year 1690. His son, Deacon John Daggett, removed with his four sons, about the year 1707, to Attleborough, where he built and dwelt in what was styled a "garrison house," for protection against the Indians. Thrce of the four sons of Deacon John Daggett have, for many generations, been represented in New Haven by their descendants. Thomas Daggett, Jr., fourth in lineal descent from the first settler, and father of Judge Daggett, was a man of vigorous intellect, excellent common-sense, decided religious character, in full sympathy with the preaching of Whitefield, Edwards, Bellamy, and the Tennents, and thoroughly trained his son in the principles of picty and virtuc. The nature of the son responded to the careful culture of the father, and in early boyhood gave indications of future distinction. At twelve years of age "he was selected by his venerable instructor and pastor to read the Declaration of Indepen-
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dence before a large assembly in his native town, the first time it was read therc after it was proclaimed by the American Congress."
When sixteen years old he entered the Junior class at Yale College-two years in advance-and graduated in due course, and with high honors, in 1783, in the same class with John Cotton Smith and other subsequently famous men. The times were very troublous. His class entered in the year of General Tryon's invasion of New Haven, and graduated almost simultaneously with the signature of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States. On taking his second or Master's degree, he delivered an oration of such extraordinary merit that it received the honor of publication. Soon after graduation, in harmony with his strong prefer- ences, he began the study of law with Charles Chauncey, Esq., of New Haven, and continued therein until January, 1786, a little more than two years. At the same time he supported himself by discharging the duties of butler in college, and of preceptor in the Hopkins Grammar School. Some months afterward he was chosen to the office of tutor in Yale College, but declined to accept the post in view of the pursuance of legal practice. He was admitted to the bar of New Haven County at the age of twenty-one, and immediately began the active duties of his profession.
Mr. Daggett's political life commenced in 1791, when he was chosen to represent the town of New Haven in the General Assembly. Thenceforward he was annu- ally re-elected until 1797. The Rev. Dr. W. S. Dutton, from whose address at the funeral of Judge Daggett we quote, remarks that, "Of the political parties which grew out of the adoption of the [Federal] Constitution, he united, as did the great body of the people of New England at that time, with that which was called Federal. Of this party, though he was not a mere partisan, but a true statesman, hc was a firm, consistent, and thorough supporter." In the Legislature of Connecticut, and also in that of the United States, he was a sagacious and powerful advocate of its general principles and policy. As its exponent he held what was almost equiva- lent to the political control of his own State for many years; and in the sub- sequent disintegration of old parties and the crystallization of new ones, was never reluctant to have it known that he belonged to the same school of politics with Washington and Hamilton, Jay and Pickcring, Adams and Ames, Ellsworth and Sherman. Three years after he entered the House of Representatives, in 1794, he was chosen to preside over it as Speaker. Though one of the youngest, he was also one of the most influential of its members, and was re-elected, year after year, until chosen a member of the Council, or Upper House, in 1797. The constitu- tion of that body was very different from that of the present Senate. At the autumnal election twenty of the ablest men in the State were chosen, without regard to locality, and at the ensuing spring election the twelve out of the twenty
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who had the highest number of votes were chosen to constitute the Senate. The body thus created embraced much of the political wisdom, ability, and experience of the State, and was unusually permanent in duration. Mr. Daggett retained his seat in it until 1804, when he resigned. In 1805 he was again a member of the Lower House, and in 1809 was once more chosen a member of the Upper House of the General Assembly. In June, 1811, he obtained the appointment of State's Attorney for New Haven County, and held that office until his elcction to the United States Senate, in 1813, when he resigned it. In May of the same year his previous four years' service in the Council closed, and he was sent as Senator to the Congress of the United States for six years from the preceding 4th of March.
At the close of his Senatorial term, in 1819, he returned to his extensive and lucrative practice of law, and in November, 1824, became an associate instructor in the Law School of New Haven, with Judge Hitchcock. In 1826 he was appointed Kent Professor of Law in Yale College, and held both positions until advanced age and increasing infirmity obliged him to relinquish them. As a teacher of law he commanded the respect and veneration of the students by his great legal abilities and experience, while he won their hearts by his courtesy, kindly counsel, and generous helpfulness. When sixty-two years of age, in May, 1826, he was appointed by a Legislature of opposed political principles and preferences an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the State. The appointment was a proof at once of the patriotism of that body and of his superior mental, moral, and legal qualifications. In the fall of 1826 the Corporation of Yale College honored themselves and Judge Daggett by conferring upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. During 1828 and 1829 he was Mayor of the city of New Haven, and in May, 1832, was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. He continued to exercise the functions of that dignitary until December 31st, 1834, when, having reached the age of seventy, the limit assigned by the State Constitution to judicial incumbency, he retired to less publie life.
In most aspects of his character Judge Daggett was a model worthy of imita- tion. His punetuality was unfailing, his thoroughness and integrity in business remarkable, his self-reliance and confidence of success the outgrowth of natural and acquired abilities. " His quick and thorough insight, his well-balanced judgment and strong common-sense, his quick and ready perception of fitness, his wit and humor, his power of varied and felicitous illustration, his ready memory, his energy of feeling, his concentration, his clear and nervous language, his practical knowledge of law- these, joined to his qualities of person and manner, . made him an advocate, who, in his best days, had, on the whole, no superior, if he had an equal, at the bar
0
Thomas
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of Connecticut." He was a true and accomplished gentleman, a thorough student of the Bible and of Shakespeare, a regular attendant on and a liberal supporter of the Gospel ministry, "an enthusiast with regard to preaching," a conductor of family worship from the year 1815, and a really religious man from 1832 onward. In the latter year he joined the North Congregationalist Church, and died peace- fully in its communion. The members of the New Haven bar and the Court of Common Couneil adopted resolutions expressing eminent appreciation of his char- acter and services, and the whole city, in some sense, paid its tribute of respect to his memory.
In 1785 Mr. Daggett was married to Wealthy Ann, daughter of Dr. Æneas Munson, of New Haven. She died in July, 1839, having bornc her husband nine- teen children, of whom only three survived him. In May, 1840, he was married, a second time, to Mary, daughter of Major Lines.
URFEE, THOMAS, of Providence, Chief Justiec of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. Born in Tiverton, Newport County, R. I., February 6th, 1826. His father, Job Durfee, was a native of the same place, and for many years held the highly important offiec of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. In that position he established an enviable reputation for distinguished ability and legal learning. He died July 26th, 1847.
The mother of Judge Thomas Durfee, nee Judith Borden, of Fall River, Mass., belonged to a family long and influentially identificd with the manufacturing and other 'interests of that prosperous eity. Judge Durfee's scholastic career began in the local institutions of Tiverton. At the age of fourteen he entered upon preparation for college at East Greenwich, R. I., under the able tuition of Revs. James Richardson and Nathan Williams. In the fall of 1842 he matriculated at Brown University, and graduated therefrom in September, 1846. After that,-selecting the profession of law,-he began and completed his preparatory studies in the office of Tillinghast & Bradley, at Providence, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1848. In 1849 he became the reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, and discharged the duties of that funetionary until 1854. In the latter year he was elected, by the General Assembly, a member of the Court of Magistrates for the city of Providence, and held the office, by annual re-election, for six years, during all but one of which he was the presiding justice.
His life has been pre-eminently devoted to legal and judicial duties, which were
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but briefly interrupted by election to the General Assembly in 1863. In the following session-that of 1863-4-he officiated as Speaker of the House. In 1865 he was elevated by the members of his own political organization, the Republican party, to a seat in the State Senate. Service therein was unusually short. It only lasted a week. At the end of that period he was chosen an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Ten years later, in 1875, hc succeeded to the position of Chief Justice of the State, and entered upon his duties on the 6th of February in that year,-being at the time exactly 49 years of age.
In the walks of literature,-professional and polite,-Judge Durfee is favorably known. In 1857 he completed a treatise on Highways, which had been but little more than begun by Joseph K. Angell. In 1872 appeared a small volume of verses from his pen, entitled, The Village Picnic, and Other Poems, which was received with commendation by competent critics. In 1877 he delivered an oration at the dedication of the new court-house in Providence, which was subsequently published by request of the General Assembly. The reminiscences of legal practitioners therein contained are exceedingly graphic and interesting. Nor is his discussion of the modern aspects of law procedures any less valuable. Increase of litigation, and the more purely scientific nature of modern practice, have differentiated the forensic efforts of modern lawyers from those of their predecessors of fifty, or even thirty years ago. "The lawyer who has many cases to try must husband his powers. He cannot exert them as prodigally as if he had but few. He therefore adopts a more simple and business-like manner of speech. Again, it is not every case that admits of oratory. Cases for eloquence are cases which involve the primary interests, or appeal to the primary feelings of mankind. It is when some personal or domestic right is violated, or political privilege impugned, or historie principle invoked, or when the mystery of crime awakes curiosity or appalls the conscience, or when a case abounds in reve- lations of character or of striking contrasts and vicissitudes, that eloquence finds its appropriate field, and safcly essays its sublimest flights. But such cases are few, and do not multiply with the progress of socicty. In our day the cases which chiefly employ the courts grow out of the complexities of business, and relate to artificial or conventional rights and duties, or to questions of negligence, or to pecuniary valucs, or to interests in property, or to the more delicate demarcations of power and responsi- bility in business affairs. In such cases eloquence is of small avail; but it is precision of language, clearness of method, completeness of analysis, logical fertility and patness of illustration, flooding the argument with light-not the chromatie splendor of the imagination, but the dry, white light of the understanding-which carries conviction to the jury or persuades the court. Such an exhibition of intellectual power is more fascinating often to the appreciative mind than eloquence itself; but it is not eloquence, and it does not captivate the crowd."
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Judge Durfee's legal lore comprises much that is not contained in many a State library. It includes a knowledge of the sources whence the principles and maxims of legal jurisprudence have sprung. He delights in that "new light" which, "rising in the dusky dawn of the primeval world, is just beginning to shine through the lenses of history and archæology into the obscurer provinces of the law. The study of comparative jurisprudence is showing that there is in law, as there is in language, a substratum common to the Aryan nations, pointing to their common origin, and so imparting to the dryest and most crabbed of legal antiquities a truly human and philosophic interest."
Judge Durfee is a trustee, and is also the chancellor, of Brown University, which in 1875 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. The honor was wisely bestowed. That it was the simple recognition of sterling merit was apparent at the time; nor is it less so in the light of the Providence Court-House address, in which he insisted that "the crying need of the times is wisdom and ripe experience, combined with disinterested patriotism, to enlighten public opinion. Where can we look for them," he asks, "if not in the legal profession? The accomplished lawyer is by education nine tenths of a statesman. He has what, in the conglomerate of races which constitutes the American people, so few have-a living sense of the continuity of our civilization. He knows how it has broadened 'slowly down from precedent to precedent.' He can trace through a thousand years the glorious lineage of our liberties. He can follow the right of property back almost to its origin. He knows the steps by which it has been emancipated from feudal fetters. Hc knows the sanctions by which its inviolability is secured. He can see how, pivoted upon that inviolability, it has become the mainspring of modern progress. For him to-day is but yesterday unfolding. He distrusts the bastard progress that cannot find its pedigree in the past. Having a mind of such prudence, such knowledge, such various training and capability, he needs only preserve his probity and patriotism, and keep himself conversant with the questions of the day, to be the weightiest of public counsellors."
Judge Durfee was married, in October, 1857, to Sarah J. Slater, daughter of John Slater, and grand-daughter of Samuel Slater, one of the great manufacturers of Rhode Island.
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MES, SAMUEL, of Providence, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. Born in Providence, September 6th, 1806. His parents were Samuel and Anne (Checkley) Ames, of the same city. The patro- nymics of both indicate descent from the sound, sturdy Anglo-Saxon stock of the mother country -- a stock from which, both in Great Britain and the United States, have come many gifted men, who, like Judge Ames, were the life of their respective social circles, and also accomplished lawyers, eloquent orators, erudite and incorruptible judges.
Young Ames pursued his earlier scholastic studies in the local Providence institutions, and completed his preparation for college at Phillips Academy, in An- dover, Mass. He then entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 1823, at the carly age of seventeen. Among his classmates werc William R. Watson and Dr. Fearing, of Providence, Judge Mcllen, of Massachusetts, and the celebrated George D. Prentice, of the Louisville Journal. During his collegiate career indications of future eminence were abundant and striking. His quick, active mind intuitively discovered the relations of things. His powerful memory and vigorous reason made him a broad, accurate, and comprehensive scholar.
Selecting the profession of law after his graduation, he first pursued an ele- mentary course of study under the auspices of General Samuel W. Bridgham, and then completed his preparation for the bar at the celebrated Law School in Litch- field, Conn. There, under the direction of the acute legal minds at the head of the school, he acquired a sound knowledge of the principles of law, and also of their practical application, which was of the greatest service as soon as he com- menced practicc. Admitted to the bar of Rhode Island, he at once took a commanding position among his compecrs, some of whom were brilliant and su- perior practitioners.
The entrance of Judge Ames upon the duties of public political life was synchronous with the stirring agitations for the abrogation of the old colonial charter, and the substitution of a constitution suited to the necessitics of the commonwealth. Hc frequently appeared before the people in their public assem- blics, was an ardent politician, and in all cxciting campaigns was one of the most effective speakers. He proved to be an excellent debater, basing his arguments upon facts, and enforcing his opinions with sharp logic and winning eloquence. His practice in the courts of the State and of the United States was cxtensivc and lucrative. In 1832 he was associated with the late Joseph K. Angell in the preparation of a treatise on the Law of Corporations, which passed through seven or more editions, the later being greatly enlarged and rewritten by Mr. Amcs. It is still a standard authority on the subject to which it relates.
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He was for many years a member of the General Assembly for the city of Providence, and left the impress of his influence on the legislation of the period. During the troubles of 1842 he held the office of Quartermaster-General of the State. In 1855 he served on the Commission for Revising the Statutes of the State, and in 1856 yielded to the earnest solicitations of the members of the bar, and of other influential citizens of the State, and accepted the office of Chief Justice, to which he was elected at the May session of the General Assembly. He was at the same time made reporter to the court. The duties of his offices were discharged with distinguished success. The decisions of the court, as reported by himself, in four volumes, are remarkable for their elearness, their learning, and their conformity to the settled principles of jurisprudence.
In 1861 Chief Justice Ames was one of the delegates from Rhode Island to the Peace Convention which was held in the city of Washington. There his learn- ing, justice, patriotism were all in exercise to " devise some righteous method of averting the calamities of rebellion and of civil war from the land, but,-as the sequel proved, -- without avail. In the autumn of 1864 his health began to fail under the onerous labors he had imposed upon himself, and in November, 1865, only a few weeks before his death, he resigned the office of Chief Justice, which for nine years he had held with the highest eredit to himself and the State. He died of apoplexy, after an illness of two hours.
But few men, comparatively speaking, have left behind so precious and pleasant a memory as Judge Ames. The Hon. Samuel Curry, who knew him intimately for thirty years, said : "For a time, in the early part of our acquaintance, we lived in the same family, lodged under the same roof, and ate at the same table. In that cirele he had no friend but me, I had none but him. We had our early morning and our evening walks together; and I take great pleasure in say- ing here that I never enjoyed a friendship more dear or interesting to me in those years than the friendship of Samuel Ames. My first impressions of his character, as I now recolleet them with many saddened feelings, were of his genial, exuberant sociability, his vivacious and playful temper, and his great acquirements-literary. scientifie, and historic. He loved talk. There was no subjeet of general knowl- edge that he did not love to pursue. I think I never knew a man, at the age of thirty years, so well read in literature and history as the late Chief Justice was at that age. He delighted in the best English classics, prose and poetry. He was profoundly read in English history. He could tell you at any moment of the rise and fall of the regal houses of England; he could tell you of the rise of the ducal and baronial houses of England, and he could tell one at any time all about
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