USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 6
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 6
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the constitutional history of England. He had traced its progress through all the storms of civil war in that country, and he understood it well."
Judge Ames was a man of remarkable industry in the pursuit of duty. There was no labor from which he shrank. Whatever his hand found to do he did with all his might. Excessive toil doubtless cut short the period of public service, which only ended with life. Judge Brayton said of him: " He was a man eminently just. He desired to do his duty. He was a man of fearless independence, and he wished not only to be so, but to appear to be so. I recollect that one
day, in a conversation with me-he looked sad that day-he said to me, 'I don't know but I shall be obliged to resign this office.' To my inquiry as to the cause of this apprehension, he answered, 'I have been obliged to exhaust my property to pay off my debts. I don't know but it will take the last dollar. And I cannot sit in court and compel another man to pay his debts when I cannot pay my own.' He had an earnest desire to do justice, and to administer justice, and took a pleasure in being occupied upon the bench in its administration. In a conver- sation with him upon this matter I said to him, 'I wonder that a man of your standing at the bar should have assumed a place upon the bench, where your emoluments will be so much less and your labor so much more?' 'My dear sir,' said he, 'I never designed to continue at the bar all my days. If I con- tinued practice to the age of fifty years, I did not design to continue it longer. I do not like to be at the bar. I do not desire to be compelled to make an endeavor to make the worse appear the better reason ; I wish to pursue the better reason ; that is what I desire to do.'" That spirit was apparent in all his labors, and in all his admirable judicial decisions.
Judge Ames's indefatigable industry was the theme of general remark. Gifted with remarkable native powers, he delighted in their fullest exercise. He never went half way into anything. " The limit of his labor in any matter was the limit of what he could acquire or do in regard to it, nothing less." He was constantly at his post, "in the deadly atmosphere of the court-room, for days and weeks and months, conducting the trial of causes, resting never, till that frame of manly strength and beauty, and that capacious brain, were laid a sacrifice upon the altar of public duty." "As a speaker he had not the qualities usually admired by the popular judgment in an orator or advocate, and in persuasive power over a jury he may be thought to have been deficient. But in a firm grasp of his subject, in its dexterous evolutions from embarrassing details, his steady reference to principles as guides, and in the constant exhibition of a belief in what he asked his hearers to believe, he had a power scarcely inferior, even in its effects." The weight of per- sonal character added very much to the force of his arguments. As " a man of
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unsullied honor, of profound learning, and of a most enlightened understanding"- characteristics of Sir John Holt, one of the greatest of English judges-it could scarcely have been otherwise. " As a writer," remarked the Providence Journal of December 23d, 1865, " hc handled a vigorous and easy pen. If not master of the graces of style, the topics upon which he usually wrote were so thoroughly understood, and the uses to which he sought to apply them so clearly defined in his own mind, that his writings were never without point and weight; and their influence is no small proof of their ability, when we remember the men with whom, in this department, he was necessarily compared. When dealing with professional subjects, his style was excellent, clear in statement and forcible in application, covering the ground completely, and with as much conciseness as was permitted by the nature of the work."
In political life Chief Justice Ames was " an active, but an open and trans- parent leader." The Providence Daily Post, of December, 22d, 1865, said of him, that " his friends and his focs alike knew where to find him. There was with him no trimming, no prevarication, no subterfuge; he was satisfied with his own judgment, and never doubted the correctness either of his own conclusions or his ability so to present his views as to convince others." " As a legislator, men found him a vigilant guardian of what he felt to be the true interests of the State; a bold and well-armed champion of all that he undertook to defend ; an open and unflinch- ing assailant of what he felt called to attack. He has left the impress of his mind and training upon the statute-book of the State."
" In his practice as a lawyer, and in his debatcs as a legislator," said the Hon. W. W. Hoppin, "he wieldcd rather the battle-axe of Richard the Lion-Hearted than the kcen and noiseless cutting cimcter of Saladin." In legal practice, " his thorough acquaintance with the law, great industry, perfect integrity, and an unswerving opposition to fraud in all forms, lcd him steadily up to the heights of his profession, and left him, with the willing assent of his brethren, a leader of the bar." " He loved the law," Judge Greene testified; " and no mian was ever an able lawyer, or an able judge, who did not love the law. He loved the study of it, he loved the practice of it at the bar, he loved the administration of it upon the bench ; and I have often hcard him say that the trial of nisi prius cases as they came before him was one of the most pleasing occupations of his life." One interesting case, tried before the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, is well remem- bered as illustrative of his profound and exact learning, comprehensive intellect, and acute and wise legal discrimination. It involved the consideration of an abstruse chapter in the history of the common law. Mr. Ames, who appeared for the complainants in a bill in equity, asked the court to put a construction upon some
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provisions of a will, and attempted the task of sketching the history of a rule of law which, in its adoption and enforcement, seemed to be opposed to the first principles of justice. In a most masterly manner he showed the origin of the rule, and the reason for its adoption. Commencing with the cases in the time of Edward II., he glanced at the more important causes down to the year 1798, giving a . succinet account of each. Few lawyers could have made a question so dry and technical in itself so interesting, even to the common mind. After giving the history of the law, he showed the reasons for the enactment of our statute, which has practically abrogated it, and contended that the will in question should be construed in the light of this statute. No lawyer in New England could have brought to the discussion of such a subject a mind more full of knowledge ger- mane to it, or could have made himself more thoroughly understood by the court.
But it is as a judge that Chief Justice Ames will be longest and most admiringly remembered. " His decisions have elicited the praise of able judges in other States, receiving the rarer compliment of imitation. They have given the bench of Rhode Island a position and influence outside of the State, which the character of the questions alone would not effect." "These decisions," continues the Providence Journal, " were seldom rendered without labor, and never without careful thought ; and at times they demanded for their utterance and subsequent defence, qualities even higher; a courage of the first order, and a firmness that nothing but conviction could beget. The well-known case of Taylor vs. Place was one of these. It was a case small it itself-in substance, whether a garnishee should be permitted to have a new trial in a case where adverse judgment had been rendered upon affidavits made under mistake-but in its scope, it was as great as any that Holt ever tried, and struck at the foundations not only of our judiciary, but of the Constitution and of free government itself. It was of incalculable importance that just such a judge as the late Chief Justice should have presided at that trial, and have reared the beacon in" his luminous opinion, which will shed its warning and guiding light" through the co-ordinate departments of our government, while they endure. The real parties were the legislative and judicial departments of the State, and the legislative was the assailant. It needed courage that man could not shake; learning and philosophy and enlightened freedom that could not be obscured; independence, that power and hostility could not make waver a hair's-breath; and calmness and moderation which could not be disturbed, to make that opinion, what was needed, and what it is. In building this bulwark for our real liberties, the Chief Justice was unconsciously erecting a monument for himself; and when the citizens of this State, in the future, shall recall, as they will, the peril in which the judiciary, the people and
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the Constitution were placed, they will gladly recognize the imprint of the courage, learning, and wisdom which Judge Ames left there in their defence."
Such a man, from the very constitution and qualities of his nature, must necessarily be intolerant of tricks, evasions, and mere dexterity divorced from moral and legal principles. There were times when he seemed to be harsh and abrupt, but his righteous indignation never ruffled the springs of justice by a breath, or moved the beam of her scales by one hair's width. "Mr. Attorney," said he to Colonel Rogers in the Post-office on the day before his death, " if I have ever spoken harshly to you or to any member of the bar; if I have ever injured your or their feelings, I hope you and they will not lay it to heart, but will forget it; for I only meant to do my duty ; and, although I know for a year or two I have been more in the habit of saying harsh things than perhaps I ought to have been, laboring as I was from disease, yet I know that you will never think of it. And I beg you to assure any gentleman, if any one should ever think that I have said anything harsh to him, that it was not meant, and beg him to forget it."
The Rhode Island bar, by public and unanimous resolution, found in him " the chief qualities that make the good judge-ready, ample, and well-digested learning, quickness of apprehension, grasp of comprehension, acute power of analysis, great logical power, sound judgment, clearness of exposition, and signal skill in applying the principles and formulas of the law to the new and ever-changing affairs of life and business; that these mental characteristics were interwoven with corresponding moral qualities-an inflexible love of truth and justice, unflinching integrity, patient and untiring industry, fearless courage in the discharge of duty, promptness of decision, indifference to popular clamor or popular applause, and while at all times diligent and careful in forming his opinions, and earnest and forcible in their expression, yet ever ready to acknowledge an error or rectify a mistake." Governor McDowell, of Virginia, said of him to a coterie of Southern gentlemen in Washington : " I have been listening for the last two or three days to a young man from Rhode Island. He knows more law than all the judges in the Supreme Court. He knows all the law from Domesday Book to the present time, and has it all by heart ; and he can talk like a Virginian." The unstinted praise of the generous Southerner was in itself a prophecy of Mr. Ames's future judicial pre-eminence.
Judge Ames was married to Mary Throop, daughter of Sullivan Dorr, of Provi- dence, who, with five children, survived her distinguished husband. Of those children, one, Lieutenant S. D. Ames, was executive officer of the Colorado, attached to the Mediterranean Squadron, at the time of his father's death; another was Colonel William Ames, of the Third Rhode Island Artillery, who served with distinguished honor in the Department of the South.
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ARK, JOHN DUANE,-Chicf Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut,- of Norwich, Conn. Born in Preston, Conn., on the 26th of April, 1819. His father, Benjamin Franklin Park, was a native of the same town, and a mer- chant and farmer by occupation. His mother, née Hannah Avery, was the daughter of David Avery, who was a farmer, and also a native of "the land of steady habits."
The early education of Judge Park was received in the public schools of his native town, and was followed by a thorough course of instruction in the celebrated academy at Wilbraham, Mass. Leaving school just as he entered upon his majority, he began independent life as a teacher, and continued in the exercise of that vocation for the next few years, during which period he was also preparing himself by diligent study of the principles and practice of the law for the pursuit of its profession in the civil and criminal courts of the State. In 1844 he entered the law-office of Edward Perkins, of Norwich, Conn., and afterward studied under the direction of the Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, then United States Senator, and subsequently Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut.
In 1847 he was admitted to the bar, at the age of twenty-eight, and commenced practice in Norwich. In 1854 he was elected County Judge, and served in that ca- pacity for one year. Then the County Court was abolished, and its business trans- ferred to the Superior Court of the State. In 1855 he was clected to the Legislature by the Republican party in Norwich, and while a member of that body served in the Committee on New Towns and Probate Districts, and also on several other standing committees. During the session a change in the judicial system of the com- monwealth was effected, and Mr. Park received the appointment of Judge of the Superior Court from the Legislature. The Constitution of the State was also modi- fied in the same ycar, extending the official incumbency of judges of the Supreme and Superior Courts to eight years. In 1863 he was re-elected, and in 1864 was raised by the Legislature to the bench of the Supreme Court. This position he filled with signal ability and gratifying success until 1873, when the same body made him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, in succession to Origen S. Sey- mour. He entered upon his new duties in February, 1874, with the prospect, all being well, of cight ycars' consecutive service.
While a member of the bar in Fairfield County, Judge Park cnjoyed an cxtensivc civil and criminal practicc. His devotion to professional pursuits and judicial functions has been apparently exclusive, or only slightly interrupted by bricf service as one of the directors of the Merchants' Bank in Norwich.
In July, 1862, he was united in marriage with Miss Emma Allen, of Middleboro, Vermont.
J.D. Party 1
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W 'ILLIAMS, THOMAS SCOTT, of Hartford, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Born at Wethersfield, June 26th, 1777. His father, Ezekiel Williams, held many prominent civil and military offices during the American Revolution. He was generally called " Sheriff Williams," because he held the shrievalty for many years. He was also deacon of the Congregational Church at Wethersfield, during a large portion of his adult life, and was long remembered as a most excellent, though eccentric man.
The ancestry of Judge Williams was honorable and pious, and of the sturdy, enterprising stamp which has placed the Anglo-Saxon race in the vanguard of human progress. Robert Williams, his first American progenitor, camc to this country in 1538, and settled in Roxbury, Mass. He had four sons who survived him. Of these, Isaac was born in the year of his father's arrival, and at " maturity" removed to Newton, Mass., which town he represented in the General Court for five or six years. He also filled other offices, both civil and military. His son William was an eminent Congregationalist divine, and pastor of the church at Hatfield for about fifty-six years. President Edwards and Dr. Chauncy united in
ascribing to him the highest qualities of mind and heart. Solomon, his son, sur- passed his father in clerical celebrity, bore the title of Doctor of Divinity, and was pastor of the Congregational Church in Lebanon, Conn., for fifty-four years. He was the grandfather of Chief Justice T. S. Williams, who, on the mother's side, was great-grandson of the celebrated Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Mass.
Judge Williams was the tenth in a family of eleven children, and was the survivor of them all. In childhood he enjoyed all the advantages of thorough religious training. A Scotch lady of high intelligence, and devoted piety, resided in his father's family, and for the first nine years of his life took almost the entire charge of him. Her instruction, example, and prayers did much to mould his character, and give direction to his energies. With her, he read Rollin's Ancient History, and other books. His youth was remarkably free from faults and follies. His brother said of him : "Thomas was like Jeremiah, sanctified from the womb." Study was always a pleasure to him-an occupation in which he needed restraint rather than urging. While quite young, he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Azel Backus, afterward a distinguished divine, and President of Hamilton College, New York, who, on returning him to his father, significantly remarked that if care were not taken, the boy would break his traces. The traces, or rathier the physical and mental forces, were tougher than the tutor supposed, and withstood the strain of self-denying study for very many years. At the premature age of thirteen he en- tered college, and graduated at seventeen. To this he often referred with expressions of regret. Notwithstanding, habits of study and of patient application were formed,
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which constituted the basis for his subsequent professional eminence as lawyer and judge. Obstacles of course confronted him, but they were always overcome by his disciplined ability. He early learned the measure of his own powers, never sought a position beyond his reach, and was never deterred by any seeming difficulty in the way of attaining it. Choosing the profession of law, he pursued the study of it in the Law School at Litehfield, Conn., and subsequently under the direction of Chief Justiee Swift, at Windham, Conn. Judge Reeve said to one of his friends: "Young Williams is the best seholar I have ever sent from Litehfield."
His forensie life began at Mansfield, Conn., in 1798, while yet only twenty- one years of age. Youth and diffidenee made his maiden efforts at the bar very trying. His first plea was in a Windham County court. He removed to Hart- ford in 1803, and found there a field adapted to the development of his resources, and yielding satisfactory remuneration to his toil. He gave himself wholly to his profession. Singleness of aim and application was one of the great secrets of his
success. The bar of the State presented a shining array of learning and ability. Mr. Williams modestly took his place amid the throng, and by his unflinching integrity, extensive legal attainments, and acknowledged power, acquired the confi- dence of court and jury to an uncommon degree, and became a most successful advocate. An eminent lawyer, resident in Hartford, who praetieed at the Hart- ford County bar, prior to the elevation of Mr. Williams to the bench, and who knew him intimately, stated that while his mastery of words and power of illustra- tion were imperfect, his pleading unadorned by the graces of a finished elocution, and unaided by wit and humor, elients were glad to employ, and juries were glad to hear him. The reasons were, his thorough understanding of the legal profession, his exhaustive preparation of the ease at issue, his quiek appreciation of the bear- ing of faets, ready knowledge of men, faithfulness to his elients, faculty of making his elient's ease his own while speaking to a jury, and of throwing his whole soul into his argument. The last was one of the main seerets of his strength. Always ingenious and often exhaustive, his words-at times-were admirably selected, and " at times his elocution was very impressive. He was thoroughly in earnest." The uprightness and dignity of his life inereased his power as an advocate. Never supereilious or overbearing, he was perfectly fearless in upholding the rights of his clients. His outward life was singularly blameless. His character, like an immov- able buttress, stood behind his argument. He attached great importance to the service performed by the bar in the administration of justice, and held that the careful argumentation of cases was of great value in seeuring wise decisions. Yet he was opposed to needless litigation on principle. " Very often in his early, as well as later public life, he induced his clients, and their opponents, to settle their differ-
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ences between themselves, and thus avoid the trouble and expense of lawsuits." Had he been a professing Christian at this period of his career, he afterward thought that high Christian principle would have modified his practice in some particulars.
Mr. Williams was appointed judge in 1829, and in 1834 was raised to the high dignity of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. In this exalted judicial position he served with universal acceptance, never soiling his official ermine nor disappointing the high expectations of his many admiring friends. Peculiarly fitted for his position by a very unusual combination of qualifications, and thoroughly under- standing that the law, as a practical science, could not take notice of melting lines, nice discriminations, and evanescent quantities, he allowed metaphysical refinements and hair-splitting distinctions to have but little influence with him. In his decisions he was exceedingly impartial; always looking at the case, and not at the parties. He had no "respect of persons" in judgment. John Hooker, reporter of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, testified that "Judge Williams was distinguished, when on the bench, as a judge of great decision, of vigorous and comprehensive mind, and of great moral excellence. His perfect integrity, and his intrepid assertion of his views of right, commanded the highest confidence of the community, while the determinations of his intellect were regarded as almost infallible. His knowledge of law was not so much the fruit of constant or extensive reading as of a thorough study of a few ele- mentary books, and the mastery of elementary principles. He seemed to have an almost intuitive perception of the merits of a case, and of the principle which was to be its solvent. He united great modesty and quietness of manner with the utmost firmness. His mind was eminently safe in its operations, as he was never led astray by any false lights from the imagination. He looked wholly at the reality of a thing, and was never disturbed by the gloss which it worc. With all this matter-of-fact habit of mind, and this absence of imagination, he had yet a most genial disposition, and one of the kindest of hearts. His sympathies were warm and active and wide-reaching." Compared with Chief Justice Storrs, he was dissimilar in almost every intellectual point, and yet equally great and distinguished as a jurist. "He generally spoke and wrote in a condensed and vigorous Saxon, with little regard to the balance of his sentences, or the grace of his periods." He "saw whatever he was looking after without seeming to search for it, the nearer and the remoter all coming before his mind alike, as obvious truths which it was a matter of course for everybody to see." He " found everything so plain before him that he was never excited by any consciousness of great intellectual effort. Judge Williams came to his conclusions by a single step, and with something like intuition, and looked about afterward for his reasons; less to satisfy his own mind than to convince his associates on the
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bench, or the public in his written opinions. He never permitted considerations of policy to enter his mind, which was so practical and so honest "that even without the control of his high moral qualities it could hardly have gone astray." His quiet firmness approached very closely to sternness. He never knew what self- indulgence was, and worked through the allotted hours with no thought of his own case. With judicial integrity, he was "scrupulously careful to hold the balance with an even hand, uninfluenced by any and every outside or irrelevant consideration." His exten- sive legal acquisitions, habit of patient research, large forensic experience, quickness of apprehension, native kindness and urbanity, unaffected simplicity and sincerity, Roman love of justice, calm and inflexible firmness, all invested with the robe of a quiet, consistent, watchful piety, refining and elevating his entire character, made him a Judge of the rarest excellence. In this estimate of his official qualities the entire Hartford bar unanimously concurred, and by resolution declared that they afforded " an imperishable example to the living, to guide them in the sure paths to honor and happiness, and to a successful and well-spent life."
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