USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > The bench and bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909 : biographical sketches of members, history and catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, historical notes > Part 32
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Lines Composed by Judge Granger while on the Bench trying a Sheep-stealing case.
Alas for Winters, all forlorn, He husked for Hod. the Rustling Corn And through the woods when night was dark, He raided on the sheep of Clark. And one small lamb out of the flock He slew and skinned, without a shock Of conscience, or a thought of wrong. But took the mutton right along.
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The picture of Judges evidence shows how the witnesses impress a judicial mind. It is a reproduction of a paper left by a learned judge upon his desk after a tedious trial. Other similar papers are in my possession, many of them utterly unintelligible. The State pays an enormus sum for Stenographers, but their notes are little value during a trial and the translating of them is too expensive for an ordinary suit. The attic of the Court House contains many pounds of their hieroglyphic papers, and are practically worthless, as different systems are used, and seldom one shorthand writer can read anothers notes. To make our present system of taking evi- dence of full use, the notes should be transcribed during the trial and placed in the hands of the Court and Counsel. Until that is cione lawyers and judges must take their own notes as best they can.
THIE LAWYERS' WAYS.
"I've been list'nin to them lawyers In the court house of the street An' I ve come to the conclusion That I'm most completely beat. First one fellow riz to argy, An' he boldly waded in As he dressed the tremblin' pris'ner In a coat o' deep-dyed sin. Why, he painted him all over In a hue o' blackest crime. An' he smeared his reputation With the thickest kind o' grime.
Tell I found myself a-wond'rin. In a misty way and dim, How the Lord had come to fashion Such an awful man as him. Then the other lawyer started. AAn' with briming, tearful eyes, Said his client was a martyr That was brought to sacrifice,
An' he gave to that same pris'ner Every blessed human grace. 'Till I saw the light o' virtue Fairly shining from his face. Then Hown 'at I was puzzled How such things could rightly be ; And this aggrevating question Seems to keep a puzzling me. So will some one please inform me. An' this mystery unroll, llow an angel an' a devil Can possess the self-same soul. '
That Gshow Sheffier murphy 9
District Court May Tema 1882
Osbor Murphy.
$196,86- (
66Em
m Horse taken Horse thief Horsethief- Nogo. Can't get out of that Wednesday Thursday, Partrige is.
Paid money In
Pais nothing
Barkham
Henry W. Fresigns, asmust. Pay divisent to Gohome - 1 dis pas to Y. Weshow.
THE JUDGE'S NOTES OF EVIDENCE Showing the workings of the Judicial mind
MR. WILLIAM CRIMES. ("OLD GRIMES")
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HISTORICAL NOTE
"OLD GRIMES."
One of the characters connected with our legal fraternity was William Grimes, universally known as "Old Grimes." It is gener- ally supposed that he was a mythical character but he was not. Ile was a run-away slave who came to Litchfield probably about 1808, and was a general servant to the students at the Law School. He was born in Virginia and was the body servant of a man by the name of Grimes, whose name, in after years, he adopted; by the fortunes of business adversities his master was obliged to dispose of him and he fell into the hands of cruel masters from whose bar- barous treatment he ran away to the land of Liberty, which at that time was Litchfield. Judge Reeve had acquired quite a reputation for defending fugitive slaves and Litchfield was thought by them to be the home of the free. Grimes was thrifty, frugal and acquired some little property and owned a piece of land between the present residence of George Kenney and the Fire Department building, to which he moved a small building for a barber shop. Some of the Southern students of the Law School ascertained his status, made matters unpleasant for him by notifying his master who took steps to recover him and he was obliged to dispose of his property through his friends Dr. Abel Catlin and William H. Thompson, who took the proceeds to purchase his freedom. His last appearance on Litch- field Land Records was August 6. 1824. In the latter years of the Law School. Grimes removed to New Haven, where he acted in the same capacity as he had at Litchfield to the students at Yale College. He published in a little pamphlet a sketch of his life, containing the portrait of which a copy is here given. He died about 1850 in New Haven.
His great notoriety consists in the the well-known lines "Oki Grimes is Dead." the history of which as given to me by an old resident of Litchfield, and from other data which I have secured is as follows: Albert G. Green, of Rhode Island, who afterwards became a distinguished man. United States Senator, etc., was a student of the Law School in 1812, and was very fond of making rhymes about all manner of things, and upon all occasions, and Grimes importuned him to make some poetry for him. the result be- ing the lines above referred to, a few stanzas of which are here given.
OLD GRIMES. Old Grimes is dead-that good old man, We ne'er shall see him more : He used to wear a long black coat All buttoned down before.
His heart was open as the day. His feelings all were true : His hair was some inclined to gray- He wore it in a queue.
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Whene'er he heard the voice of pain His breast with pity burned ; The large round head upon his cane From ivory was turned.
Kind words he ever had for all, He knew no base design : His eyes were dark and rather small, His nose was aquiline.
IIe lived in peace with all mankind, In friendship he was true ; His coat had pocket-holes behind, His pantaloons were blue.
But good old Grimes is now at rest, Nor fears misfortune's frown ; He wore a double-breasted vest, The stripes ran up and down.
He modest merit sought to find And pay it its desert ; Hle had no malice in his mind, No ruffles on his shirt.
His neighbors he did not abuse. Was sociable and gay : He wore large buckles on his shoes, AAnd changed them every day.
Thus undisturbed by anxious cares Ilis peaceful moments ran, And everybody said he was A fine old gentleman.
GEORGE CATLIN'S PORTRAIT
The frontisipiece in this book is from an old oil painting that he made of himself when he was about twenty-five years old and is now in the possesston of his daughter in New York city who kindly loaned it for reproduction.
33I
DINNER TO JUDGE SEYMOUR
COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO JUDGE O. S. SEYMOUR
On the 29th of January, 1874, the Bar of Fairfield County gave a complimentary dinner to Chief Justice Origen Storrs Seymour, on the eve of his retirement from the Bench-under the provisions of the Constitution.
Many distinguished guests were present ; many pleasant and interesting things were said, some relating to our Bar and though all are worthy of preservation we have the space for only a few.
The President, Hon. James C. Loomis, introduced the exercises by saying :
GENTLEMEN :- I feel confident that nothing has transpired in the history of the Fairfield County Bar during my long connection with it, which has given more pleasure to its members than the oppor- tunity which this occasion affords, to express to our Chief Justice on the eve of his retirement, our high appreciation of those exalted qualities which characterize and adorn his life, and which has made bim so eminently useful and so universally esteemed, and our deep regret that, in the midst of his usefulness and in the full possession of all his intellectual powers, he is compelled to retire from his high official station and discontinue his invaluable services under the stern provisions of our Constitution, which makes 70 years of age the limit of judicial life in Connecticut.
I assure you, gentlemen, it affords me unfeigned pleasure to as- semble with you around this festive board and unite with our dis- tinguished friends, His Excellency, the Governor of the State of Connecticut : His Honor, the Chief Justice elect, and his honorable associates of the Supreme Court; the distinguished Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Connecticut ; the Judges of our Superior Court and of other courts, and other officials who have honored us with their presence, in paying this well-merited tribute of respect to one who so emiently deserves it.
From the time of a generation at least Judge Seymour has been a star of the first magnitude in the civil, political, judicial and, I may say, religious constellations of the State. He has deservedly won for himself a name that will be known, honored and loved, not only in his day and generation, but so long as the public records endure.
There is no human standard by which we can measure the exact amount of good which results to a State from a busy, active and well spent life in the public service Even the great Amazon is swallowed up in the bosom of the fathomless deep : nevertheless its influence, unmeasured and immeasurable in all its magnitude and power is there, and the great ships which float the treasures of the nations on "Old Ocean" float more or less securely, however 1111- consciously, upon the foundations, which this mighty river has con- tributed to establish and maintain ; so, though we cannot define with
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mathematical precision the exact quantity of good, which has re- sulted to our commonwealth and its citizens from the eminent ser- vices of our distinguished friend, yet no one will doubt but his long, active and useful life spent in the administration of the local affairs of his immediate neighborhood-in the advocacy of the rights of the citizens at the Bar-in the promotion of the public weal in the councils of the State and nation-and in the maintenance of the great principles of justice and equity, according to established authority upon the Bench, have greatly contributed to the stability and pros- perity of our institutions and given additional security to the rights of person and property so eminently and so universally enjoyed.
It has been my privilege to have been honored with the personal acquaintance and I believe friendship of eight of the predecessors of our Chief Justice in that high office-Hosmer. Daggett, Williams, Church, Waite, Storrs, Hinman, Butler-glorious names! They were all high-minded, learned, impartial judges, uncorrupted-in- corruptible ! They have gone down to their graves crowned with honors, having transmitted the ermine of the judicial robes spotless and when that emblem of purity and incorruptibility fell upon the shoulders of him who now so gracefully wears it-it touched nothing less spotless. Ile will soon transmit it to his successor stainless, to be borne by him through his judicial life unsoiled and then trans- mitted in all purity to another, thence to descend from generation to generation, I hope to the latest generation of man, without a spot or blemish.
It would afford me great pleasure to dwell for a few moments. did time permit, upon the many virtues which embellish and adorn the private life of our Chief Justice ; to speak of his devotion to the welfare and happiness of his family and friends-of his tender sym- pathies with the unfortunate and afflicted, of his gentlemanly deport- ment everywhere and on all occasions, of his manly practice at the Bar, of his patience and suavity on the Bench, of his hospitality, his generosity, his integrity, his incorruptibility-but time fails me. I can only say that in all the relations of private life, Judge Seymour has been and is the Christian gentleman, acknowledged and appreci- ated as such by all who know him most, by those who know him best.
Daniel Webster, speaking of himself at a public dinner given him in the city of Boston some years since, said: "If public life has its cares and trials, it sometimes has its consolations : if the approbation of the good is fit to be pursued, it is fit to be enjoyed : if it be, as it undoubtedly is, one of the most stirring and invigorating motives which can operate upon the mind, it is also among the richest re- wards which can console and gratify the heart."
In the spirit of these sentiments of this pre-eminently distinguish- ed statesman-in the name of the Fairfield County Bar-in the presence of this large circle of distinguished friends, and from the lowest depths of my heart, let me say to you, Mr. Chief Justice, in conclusion, you have experienced the cares and trials of public life ;
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you have secured the approbation of the good: you have won a crown ; it is fit that you should enjoy it. Console and gratify your heart with this rich reward and when you ascend from your present high position to the bosom of your family and to the circle of your loving and beloved friends, there to enjoy the honored evening of your useful life in tranquil repose, may the soul stirring and invig- ating consolation cheer and animate you to your latest breath, intensi- fied with the comfortable hope that beyond there is prepared an in- mortal crown, which neither time nor Constitution can take away.
Chief Justice Seymour responded to the toast "Our Chief Justice" as follows :
I stand here to-night on the eve of separation from pursuits to which during a long life I have been devoted. I have enjoyed my professional life at the Bar and on the Bench, and I do not and cannot look with indifference upon my approaching separation from these duties.
I, however, make no quarrel with the constitutional provision under which my retirement takes place. "The days of our age are three score years and ten :" when those years are accomplished, na- ture craves a brief period of repose between, on the one hand, the active duties of life and its final close on the other.
I submissively bow, therefore, to the law of the land. believing it to be in harmony with the law of nature, but at the time I cherish the memories of professional life, and part from it with fond regret. and I will occupy your time a few moments this evening in suggest- ing some particulars wherein the lawyer's life among the varied pursuits of mankind is regarded by me as a favored one.
I was admitted to the Bar in my native County of Litchfield in 1826, and I at once found myself in possesion of a privilege which 1 then thought might be peculiar to myself, but which I afterwards found was common to all young lawyers,-the privilege of fellow- ship on free and easy terms with the elder brethren. I well remem- ber the pleasure of these associations and the help I derived from them. It is pleasant to recall the names of the giants in those days, when I was a stripling. Bacon, Miner, Huntington, Beers, Board- man, the Churches. Smith. When I found myself in a snarl, and that happened to me semi-daily, I always found relief in the ready and cheerfully-given counsel of these my venerable seniors.
It is truth familiar to us all that lawyers, young and old, high and low, rich and poor, associate together with great freedom, not perhaps that we love one another more than the medical faculty, but our business brings us constantly into association with our brethren, our labors are not isolated but performed in public and in each other's company, whereby we become thoroughly acquainted with each other. No man can conduct a complicated cause in court with- out showing his brethren what manner of man he is. If he has mind industry, learning and culture, he shows it ; his temper and disposi- tion will show themselves. If he has integrity and truthfulness in
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him, they will appear. If on the contrary, he is a sham, everybody will see it. The practice of changing partners as associate counsel, brings lawyers into the most intimate relation with each other.
It is amusing to notice gentlemen who are opposed to each other in the morning almost to personal altercation, in the afternoon en- gaged as associates, and at once as familiar and intimate with each other as the Siamese twins. We become, therefore, thoroughly acquainted with each other and wear no masks in each other's society.
In this connection. if time allowed. I would like to describe the bar meetings of olden time which had a lingering existence 50 years ago, but those old-fashioned gatherings could not be conducted on temperance principles and upon the advent of the temperance re- formation, they "took the chills" and died out. But the attraction of the profession lies in the inherent dignity of the law itself, con- trolling as it does by its silent power, the moving masses in all their various relations and interests-in the equity, calm wisdom and dis- passionate justice of its precepts-in its noble history in the past and in the services and accomplishments of its living professors.
The bar has always drawn to itself the best talent and highest culture of the country, and hence the contests of the Bar conducted by skillful and learned counsel. furnish scenes of instructive interest. The marvelous and varied powers of the human mind are in these contests called for and developed in a manner and to an extent unequaled in any other arena.
I readily recall many such scenes as lively and dramatic as the inventions of Shakespeare's genius. I would not be understood however, as saying that the court room is exactly paradise regained. The scenes are generally animated, spirited and varied : sometimes, however, dull and stupid ; sometimes disgusting, exhibiting human nature of its most revolting form and the members of the Bar have much thankless labor, many sleepless nights and bitter disappoint- ments.
But it is in his library that the true disciple of the law finds his highest satisfaction. He can here interrogate the masters of juris- prudence, ancient and modern upon the matters he has in hand. and will seldom fail of getting an appropriate answer. I vield no blind obedience to authorities and precedents. Law is a progressive science. When it is said that law is the perfection of reason, it is not to be understood that all the utterance of judges and jurists are ' such. There are mistakes and errors in the past that the present may correct, and there are mistakes and errors in the present which it is to be hoped the future will correct. but taken as a whole a law library is replete with sound truths applicable, more or less directly, to the various living issues pending before the courts, not mere ab- stract truths worked out in the closet, but truths upon which learned arguments have been heard at the Bar, and learned consultations had by the Bench, so that all available learning on the subject is
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G. IL. HOLLISTER'S ADDRESS
brought forward and receives its due weight. It is difficult to over- estimate the value of the well weighed opinions of such chancellors as Hardwick, Eldon and Kent, and of such Judges as Mansfield, Ellenborough and Marshall.
Among the most cherished memories of my professional life is the intimate acquaintance which I have enjoyed with all the eminent jurists who have adorned the bench of the State during the fifty years. I need not recite their familiar names in this assembly, but you will permit me, occupying the position I do, to repeat the names of those who have filled the high office I am about to lay down, nomina clara each of which upon bare mention suggests all the virtues pertaining to their high judicial position.
When I came to the Bar the Chief Justiceship was held by the learned Hosmer followed in quick succession by Daggett. Williams. Church. Waite, Storrs, and Hinman, and then by my immediate predecessor. the lamented Butler, companion. friend. brother. In this, his native county, he needs no eulogy from me. In the reports of his judicial opinions he has raised to himself a monument aere fernnins. Allow me, in conclusion, to propose as a toast. "The memory of the honored dead of the Bench and Bar of this State."
The toast "The Bar of Litchfield County" was responded to by Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, as follows :
It is difficult to name a portion of this Continent that might with more propriety have been called a wilderness than was Litchfield County at the time of its first settlement, nearly a century after Hartford was founded. The site of the present village of Litchfield was overgrown with alder. It needed an emigrant's faith to foresee the changes that human industry under the guidence of good prin- ciples could bring about in the face of wintry skies and in defiance of steep hills.
In 1772, about fifty years after the organization of the town. Tapping Reeve, son of a clergyman of Brookhaven, established hin- self in this remote and obscure place which had nothing but a Court Honse, Jail and Meeting House to form a centre for the few towns that clustered around it. He could not have driven to the village in a carriage to save his life, for two reasons there were no wheeled vehicles and had there been any, there were no roads that could have been safely traversed by them. This interesting adventurer was a graduate of Princeton, and was then only twenty-eight years old. He was a delicately formed slender man of classical features, pale complexion and large bright eyes. With him went Sally Burr, his wife, daughter of President Burr of Princeton, sister of Aaron Burr. and grand-daughter of Jonathan Edwards-one of the most beauti- ful and accomplished women of her time. They took up their abode in South Street. in a house where I spent four happy years and which now belongs to Judge Woodruff, who is our distinguished guest this evening. Mr. Reeve established himself here as a lawyer and soon attained to the highest distinction in his profession. After
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continuing in it for twelve years, in 1784, when the Revolutionary War was scarcely over, he instituted the Litchfield Law School in which he was the sole instructor until 1797. a period of fourteen years, when he associated with him james Gould, who was after- wards so renowned in the history of American jurisprudence. This school educated young men from all parts of the Union, among whom were John C. Calhoun, Levi Woodbury. John M. Clayton, Roger S. Baldwin. Samuel S. Phelps, Nathaniel Smith. William Elliot, Origen S. Seymour, Lewis B. Woodruff, Truman Smith and other distinguished men, whose names have shed lustre upon the an- nals of our country. Two of these graduates have been judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, fifty of them members of Congress, forty have been judges of the highest State courts and several have been foreign and Cabinet ministers.
Tapping Reeve was not a mere pedagogue, nor was he a mere lawyer. He was a man of genius, and in middle age when his feelings were enlisted in the trial of a cause, he often exhibited powers of eloquence, which from the suddenness with which they flashed upon the minds of his audience and from his impassioned manner, produced an overwhelming effect. He was very unequal in the exhibition of his powers. He was a man of ardent temper- ament, tender sensibilities and of a nature deeply religious. His sympathies led him to espouse the cause of the oppressed and help- less. He was the first eminent lawyer in this country who dared to arraign the common law of England for its severity and refined cruelty in cutting off the natural rights of married women, and placing their property at the mercy of their husbands to squander it at pleasure. His sentiments did not at first meet with much favor, but he lived long enough to see them gain a foot hold in this and other States. His principles did not die with him, but are per- petuated in his "Domestic Relations," and in the jurisprudence of his country. He was an ardent Revolutionary patriot of the Federal school. His fervent piety. well-timed charities, noble impulses, thoroughness, simplicity of character, and disinterestedness all served to render him a general favorite in a widely-extended circle of friends and acquaintances. He died in 1823. in the 80th year of his age. Such was the head and founder of the Litchfield Bar.
The next distinguished member of this Bar if we are to follow the order of birth, was Andrew Adams, born in 1736, who was successively King's Attorney, member of Congress and Chief Judge. He was a man of clear mind and of great learning. After him Major-General Uriah Tracy, born in 1755. From 1796 to 1807 he was a Senator from Connecticut, leader of the Federal party, an intimate friend of Hamilton, Fisher Ames and Morris, and was a man of great legal acumen and particularly famed for his wit.
Then follows Col. Ephriam Kirby, born at Litchfield in 1757. an officer in the Revolutionary army who carried to his grave a frightful wound that he received in the struggle. He was a faithful and
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G. II. HOLLISTER'S ADDRESS
accurate lawyer. In 1789, he published a volume of "Reports of the Supreme Court of Errors." This was the first volume of law re- ports ever published on this continent. Upon the organization of Lousiana, he was appointed by President Jefferson a judge of the newly acquired territory of Orleans, and died on his way to his place of destination in the 48th year of his age.
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