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 6
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1 believe I have said enough in regard to Judge Reeve as an advocate, and that is the extent of your enquiry. As a Judge, you are acquainted with his reputation, historically, though you probably never saw him on the bench, as he left it nearly thirty-nine years ago, to wit, in May, 1816, to the regret of all admirers of legal learning and lovers of impartial justice.
As I loved and admired Judge Reeve while living, and mourned him when dead, I love to think and talk of him now that I have at-
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tained to a greater age than he did, though he reached some eighty- four years, and I feel tempted to obtrude upon you some such leading incidents of his life as I am in memory possessed of, and which can- not be much longer retained.
Judge Reeve was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman and was born on the south side of Long Island. He was educated at Prince- ton College, where he graduated in 1763 at seventeen years of age as I have heard him say. He was immediately appointed tutor of the grammar school connected with the college, and in that station and as a tutor in the college itself, he remained seven years. He then came to Connecticut to study law, which he prosecuted in the office of Judge Root, then a practicing lawyer in Hartford, and as soon as he was admitted to the bar he settled in the practice at Litchi- field. This I suppose to have been in 1772. He had previously married Sally Burr, the eldest child and only daughter of President Burr of Princeton College, and the sister of the celebrated Aaron Burr, who was a pupil of Judge Reeve in the grammar school. The Revolutionary war having commenced within a short time after he came to the bar, there was but little civil business done in the Courts until its conclusion, or nearly so. He therefore early betook himself to giving instruction to young gentlemen who looked forward to the legal profession for support and advancement in life, when the cir- cumstances of the country would allow of its exercise. This employ- ment tended greatly to systematize and improve what stock of legal science he already had acquired, and aided by his uncommonly fine talents and native eloquence early secured to him, the deserved rep- utation of an able lawyer. About the close, I believe, of the Revolu- tionary war, either through an acquaintance with the late Judge Sedgwick or otherwise he was introduced to some practice in Berk- shire County, and in the celebrated crim. con. case of Winchell vs. Goodrich, gave such a display of his oratorical powers as astonished the natives, and that, together with the conspicuous part he took with Judge Sedgwick in the great case of General Ashley's negroes, which put an end forever to slavery in Massachusetts, he established a rep- utation which ensured him business there as long as his avocations at home allowed him to attend to it. This however, I believe, was not very long. The delicate health of his wife, and his great professional business at home induced him to forego any business which called him abroad, and to utterly decline any sort of public appointment whatsoever, during her life. She died to the deep grief of as devoted a husband as ever lived, a few months before it became necessary to fill two vacancies in the Superior Court, occasioned by the death of Chief Justice Adams and the final extinction of mental capacity in Judge Huntington-and to one of those vacancies Judge Reeve was appointed.
I must draw this long letter to a close. It is enough to say, that no act of Judge Reeve's life ever, in the least degree, lessened the admiration and respect entertained for his capacity, integrity and
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learning, or even diminished the esteem and affection cherished for the spotless purity of his moral deportment through a long life, nor the reverence extorted from all for the deep religious impression which adorned his old age and perfected his character. He was, I presume, in youth extremely handsome.
JOHN ALLEN
John Allen was born in Great Barrington, Mass., sometime, I believe, in 1762, of respectable parents, though not distinguished in society, as I remember to have heard him say that he was the son of a joiner. There were but two children in the family, a son and a daughter, both much distinguished in life for many good qualities, and especially for dignity of manner and deportment, but the winning and amiable accomplishments all fell to the lot of the female, gaining her many admirers and among others, an husband worthy of her, in that excellent man, Elizur Goodrich of New Haven. Their father died during the minority of both children. Mr. Allen, having an excellent common school education, though not a classic education, became a teacher, and being impelled by a spirit of adventure, some- what romantic as he was thought in those days, went suddenly, and without the knowledge of his friends, and while yet a minor, to Ger- mantown near Philadelphia, where he obtained a place as instructor of the young classes of an academic establishment of some note at the time. How long he remained in the above mentioned establish- ment I do not know, but soon after leaving the place, and I believe almost immediately, he came to New Milford, and taught a school for some six months, and from here went immediately into Mr. Reeve's law school, and after the accustomed period of study was admitted to the bar, and immediately settled in practice in Litchfield, where he spent his life. He confined himself almost entirely to the practice of Litchfield County, though occasionally when called, in consequence of the eminence to which he soon attained in the profession, he prac- ticed in other counties, in some cases of importance, and especially in the Federal Circuit Court, in which. for a few years after the forma- tion of the present Constitution of the United States, some consider- able business was done. Mr. Allen, however never went abroad in quest of business, thinking that the very great share of Attorney busi- ness which he acquired in being always found in his office, equal, at least in point of profit, to what counsellor business he might obtain by attending Courts in other counties, considering that all the coun- sellor business flowing from the attorney business which he did, he was sure to be engaged in. From the time I entered the law school in the fall of 1793. I occupied a room in his office, and had free ac- cess to his ample library and boarded at the same house with him. During all that time, and all the remaining years of his prosperous
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practice, which indeed lasted till the apparent commencement of his rapid decline, soon followed by death, he was engaged in almost every case of any importance in the Superior and County Court. He was certainly, a very successful and powerful advocate, equally with the Jury as with the Court, a thoroughly read lawyer, equal in point of legal science to any one at our bar during the fore part of the time I am speaking of, except Tapping Reeve, who had no rival, and in the latter part of the period, James Gould, of whom I need say nothing as you knew him in his meridian light. Mr. Allen always made dili- gent and faithful preparation of all cases committed to his care, and made himself fully acquainted with every point of law and every ac- cessible point of evidence which could arise in the case, and was therefore usually successful when the case deserved success.
If I knew that you ever saw Mr. Allen, I would omit any attempt to describe his personal appearance, for I am sure any one who ever saw his colossal form and imposing visage, would never need to have him described in order to recall his appearance. He was six feet four or five inches high, very erect and with an attitude and walk well calculated to set off his full stature, and though quite lean, weighed full 230 pounds. His countenance was strongly marked and truly formidable, his eyes and eye brows dark, his hair dark, what little he had for he was quite bald, far back, even before middle age, and in- deed his whole appearance was calculated to inspire dread, rather than affection. His manner and conversation were, however, such as to inspire confidence and respect, though little calculated to invite familiarity, except with his intimates, of whom he had a few, and those, knowing the generous and hearty friendship of which he was capable, were usually, much attached to him and ready to overlook all his harsh sallies, imputing them to the "rough humor which his mother gave him." His feelings were not refined, but ardent, gener- ons and hearty. His friendships were strong and his aversions equal- ly so-and as I used to say of him, speaking to others, "his feelings were all of the great sort." He neither enjoyed nor suffered any thing from many of those little incidents which so often affect, either pleasingly or painfully, minds of a more refined texture. As he had no taste for such things, nor, as it would seem, any faculty of per- ceiving, so he knew no language appropriate to their description, but in respect to those things and principles which he thought worthy of his regard, he lacked no power of language to make himself fully and forcibly understood. For neutral ground, either in morals or politics, he had no taste, and but little less than absolute abhorrence. As a specimen of his feelings and language, better than I can des- cribe, I will give you the laconic answer to an enquiry of him, why he took the Aurora the leading democratic paper in the county, then under the guidance of that arch democrat, Duane; he replied it was because he wanted to know what they were about in the infernal regions. And after giving this specimen I need make no futher at- tempt to give you an idea of his humor, manners and language.
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After Mr. Allen was married, which was not till he was towards forty years old. and went to house keeping, I boarded at his house at his express solicitation for many years while attending Court ; though he took no other one, nor ever named to me any price, nor would he count the money I handed to him when leaving for home, seeming to receive it only because I refused to stay on any other terms. I there- fore saw much of him in his family, where his conduct was always dignified, proper and kind. He was proud, very proud, and justly so, of his wife, who was a woman of much personal beauty, polished manners, and great and even singular discretion, and for whom he entertained, I believe, an ardent affection.
Before his marriage and at the age of thirty-five Mr. Allen was elected a member of the fifth Congress, where he distinguished him- self at a time when Connecticut was never more ably represented in the House of Representatives, and would undoubtedly have been cho- sen for as long a period as he would have desired to be a member of that body, but he declined a further election. He was elected an Assistant in 1800, and was re-elected for the five succeeding years, and as such was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Errors. For several years, previous to his election to Congress, he had repre- sented the town of Litchfield in the General Assembly. His wife was a grand daughter of the first Governor Griswold. His only son, the Hon. John Wm. Allen of Cleveland, Ohio, has been a member of Congress from that State and is now a very distinguished man there. His only surviving daughter resides also in Cleveland, and is the wife of her brother's immediate successor in Congress. Mrs. Allen, after a rather brief widowhood, accepted the hand of a Mr. Perkins of Oxford in the State of New York, a man of respectability and wealth.
BARZILLAI SLOSSON.
The request, which is the subject of yours of the 4th inst., is too alluring in its nature to be long unattended to. So nearly am I alone in the world that an invitation to hold converse about those of my age and standing in life, and who have now slumbered in the grave for more than forty years, and especially those who were so much beloved and esteemed as were those of whom you solicit my at- tention, is quite irresistible.
In speaking of Mr. Slosson, I must first observe that I had form- ed a tolerably correct notion of him before I ever saw him. When I was a boy his father was often at my father's house, intimately ac- quainted there, and I believe, scarcely ever passed that way without calling and holding a pretty long chat. for he was never in a hurry, and his peculiar turn of mind, abundance of common sense, and great fund of wit, joined to his singularly slow, emphatic and sententious
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mode of talking, was such as to secure the attention of any one, and especially a boy. He used, occasionally to speak of his children, and especially of his oldest son Barzillai, of whom he was manifestly very proud, representing him to be always at the head of the school when small, and afterwards used to speak with high gratification of his in- dustry and tact at acquiring the higher branches of knowledge with- out the aid of an instructor, and more particularly the knowledge of the dead languages, of which he knew nothing himself. And this account given by the old gentleman, from intimate intercourse and frequent conversation with his son, when I afterwards became ac- quainted with him, I found was by no means exaggerated. And to his excellent and accurate common school education, he owed much, very much of his character for exact accuracy and correctness in all that he said and did through life. He was about the best reader I ever heard, wrote a fair, handsome and legible hand, and in the 1in- failing correctness of his orthography and use of terms, no lexico- grapher excelled him, and in everything pertaining to mere English, home and common school education, no one appeared to be more thoroughly proficient. And in Greek and Latin I never saw his su- perior, except old President Stiles, nor with that exception perhaps, his equal, unless it was old Parson Farrand of Canaan, and in the other branches of collegiate education he was, to say the least, above mediocraty. As he entered college not until the senior year, and. I believe, did not even attend during the whole of that year. he could not, of course, expect to shine and did not shine in the college honors depending upon the faculty, but he availed himself of the right to become a candidate for the honors of Dean Scholar, and obtained the first premium for excellence in Greek and Latin. in a class of unusually high reputation. This, I suppose, he did merely, out of a laudable pride, for he did not avail himself of the pecuniary re- ward which would have required him to reside in New Haven ; for he went, immediately after his graduation with one of his class- mates ( Mr. afterwards the Rev. Dr. Smith,) to reside in Sharon, as one of the instructors in the Sharon Academy, then in full and successful operation. He soon after became a student at law, under Gov. Smith's instruction, and the first County Court which sat after his two year's clerkship had expired, being in Fairfield County, he went, there for examination and admission to the Bar. This was I believe at the November Term, 1793. It was not until he began to attend Court at Litchfield, and while I was in the law school there, that I first became personally acquainted with Mr. Slosson though I had barely seen him once or twice before. After my admis- sion to the Bar, being located in adjoining towns, we often met each other before Justices, and consequently before the upper courts. From our frequent meetings and intercourse at Litchfield and else- where, I became greatly attached to him, and finally, for a number of years he and I, with Southmayd for our constant companion, always occupied the same room at Catlin's Hotel during every court until his
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death and there was the last time I ever saw him in life. Soon after the Court adjourned, hearing of his rapid decline, I set out to visit him, and on the way, heard that he had died the night before. 1 how- ever went on and stayed with the family until I assisted in burying him. This was in January, 1813, and in that grave I felt that I had buried a sincere, and I am sure, a much loved friend : on whose char- acter and conduct in life I could reflect with melancholy satisfaction. unmarred by a single reproachful recollection or one which I could wish to have forgotten.
Mr. Slosson had been out of health for a very considerable time. and fears were apprehended on his account, in which he fully and rationally participated. So gradual, however, was the operation of his disorder. that he continued his attention to business until some three or four weeks before his death. He attended court at Litch- field, the first and I think the second week of the December term, the month before his decease.
Mr. Slosson's great fondness for ancient literature, rendered him scarcely just in his comparative estimate of that with modern im- provements. As a lawyer he was highly respectable in theory and remarkably accurate in practice : as a pleader, I do not remember that he ever had occasion to ask for an amendment, or to alter a title of what he had written. As an advocate he was clear. deliberate, methodical and logical in his deductions. He spoke in much of the peculiarly emphatic manner of his father, above mentioned, though not with his unusual slowness. He was always cool and self-pos- sessed, rarely warming into any high degree of animation, or aiming at effect to appear eloquent. but he never failed to secure a respect- ful .and satisfied attention. Though not one of the most leading advocates of which there are always some three or four at any Bar. he might, at least be estimated an equal to any of the second class of the Litchfield Bar which was then, certainly, a highly respectable one.
Though not an aspirant after public preferment, and from his habitually modest and retiring habits, not calculated to push his way where opportunities offered, he was yet, at the time of his decease. in a fair way of promotion. He was early and often elected to the legislature from his native town, and indeed their usual representa- tive until the October session. 1812, when he was elected Clerk. which in those days was a sure stepping stone to further advance- ment, and having myself been a witness of the manner in which he performed the duties of that office, for which no man was better qualified, I am sure he established a reputation, which. had Provi- dence permitted. promised .a solid and lasting existence.
Mr. Slosson's political opinions were of the genuine Washingto- nian. political school. None of your heady, rash, and merely parti- zan netions found favor with him. He was a constant and honest adherent to the political views then prevalent in this State. He left a widow and two sons-the oldest John William, has been and I
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believe now is a merchant in Kent. The second son, Nathaniel, a very promising boy, was, I believe soon after his father's death, taken under the care of his uncle, William Slosson, a distinguished lawyer of New York, and was by him educated at Union College and for the Bar, and died soon after his admission.
The foregoing sketch of the leading incidents in Mr. Slosson's life, may be a sufficient indication from which to deduct his true character, but I must indulge myself in adding, that I never knew or heard of a single act of his life, either in youth or mature years, that left even a shade upon his reputation. Cool and deliberate in his temperament, never hurried away by enthusiasm, for enthusiasm never manifested itself in his nature, except in his passion for ancient literature, he was sure to think and act with propriety. He was nevertheless warm and faithful in his attachments, but not so far as to warp his conscientions regard for integrity. He was perfectly just and generous in his intercourse with the world, honest in his predilections and uncompromising in his love of virtue and detesta- tion of vice. In morality his principles were without a taint and his practice through life in conscientious conformity with them. In re- ligion he was a firm and steadfast believer in the great doctrines of the gospel, though not a public professor. His principles were those of true rational Calvanism, unswayed by vindictive zeal or hysteri- cal weakness.
You observed in your letter that you never saw Mr. Slosson. He was a small man, not much, if any, under medium height, but of slen- der frame and countenance. Though not dark complexioned his countenance was rather dusky. his skin not clear, his features though far from handsome bespoke intelligence and were therefore not dis- agreeable. His general appearance was more like that of the late Leman Church than any other member of the Bar I can think of. though he was somewhat larger and more erect.
SAMUEL, W. SOUTHMAYD.
In the life, conduct and character of Samuel W. Southmayd there were some peculiarities, such as render it a matter of difficulty to des- cribe him in such a manner. as to make them intelligible to one who did not personally know him.
I never saw, or heard of him until I became a member of the law school in the fall of the year 1793, of which he had then been a mem- ber about one year, I believe, and of which he continued a constant attendant during the eighteen months which I spent there. He was admitted to the Bar the next term after 1 was, to wit: September Term, 1795, and passed as good an examination as I ever heard there, or elsewhere, he having been for the full period of three years under Judge Reeve's tuition. He was a native of Watertown, where
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he settled in practice, and where he spent his life. Like Mr. Slosson, he had an excellent common school education. Beyond that, his ac- quirements did not extend far in an academic course-enough, how- ever, I believe, to enable him to understand the homely law-latin used in our books. Few have entered upon the practice of law, with a better store of legal learning than Mr. Southmayd, but the place in which he settled was not calculated from its location and the habits of the people, by no means litiguous, to furnish much practice, and he was too honest to promote litigation ; and furthermore, he had no legal adversary there except an old gentlemen who never had any more legal learning than was necessary for a Church Warden, and whose ignorance made him the victim of Southmayd's merry witch- ery and innocent cunning, of both of which he had a superabundance. though he never indulged in malicious, or even very serious mischief. and indeed in none except such as would do to relate for the purpose of making fun in merry company. Anecdotes of that description used to be related in great numbers. As a pleader. Mr. Southmayd was always sure to have all in his drafts which was requisite and per- tinent to the object in view, and in all his declarations, affording room for coloring circumstances to be inserted, there was pretty sure to be found, slyly slipped in, some ingenious slang whang, or South- maydism, as we used to call it. He was not ambitious of arguing cases in Court, but when he did, he always displayed much ingenuity. and attracted respectful attention from the audience as well as from the triers. And before arbitrators, referees and committees a more formidable opponent could hardly be found. And although his prac- tice was not large, and as was observed of Mr. Slosson he was not among the leading practitioners at the Litchfield Bar, he was certain- ly a very respectable lawyer, upon a par with the foremost of the sec- ond class, and much beloved and respected by all whose good opinions are desirable.
As was observed in the outset, there were peculiarities in Mr. Southmayd's private character and deportment, which it is difficult to describe or reconcile. Though of a benevolent disposition and full of good nature and kind feelings, there was yet in him a vein of ad- venture after intellectual amusement, which, from its very nature. could not be gratified but at the expense of others, and often to such an extent as to render them ridiculous in the view of third persons to whom the results of the adventure was related. I have many times joined most heartily in the laugh at the relation of the result of many such seemingly innocent pieces of roguery, though I could not help condemning the mischief, while participating in its fruits. In all such indulgences, Southmayd never entertained the least ma- lice, for his heart was a stranger to it, but his intense love of fun, and enjoyment of the ridiculous often impelled him to go beyond the line of honest propriety. I used often to reproach him with it, but my admonitions were not well calculated to take effect, when given at the close of a hearty laugh.
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