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 7
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From what I have been saying of Mr. Southmayd you would. I presume, be ready to conclude that he was one of the most cheerly and happy of men. But the case was directly the reverse, and during a considerable period of his life, and that too, the most valuable part of it, he was a very unhappy man, indeed, and I have no doubt he had recourse to much of the indulgence of that peculiar propensity I have attempted to describe for the purpose of dispelling a mental malady which for a long time oppressed and preyed upon his heart. He was for many years the victim of the strongest species of hypochondria that ever mortal man was. It never showed itself in long fits of set- tled melancholy or monomania, but in sudden fits and starts. After hours of cheerful conversation, and while in entire health, he would suddenly complain of great distress, and exhibit unmistakable evi- dence of great terror and apprehensions of immediate dissolution. One very extraordinary instance I will relate. He and I had been alone many hours, conversing and reading together, and he, not in the least complaining, when he at once sprung from his seat, and with a scream as would have alarmed me, had it been any other person, and pressing both hands upon his breast he exclaimed that he was going to die immediately. I stepped to him and gently and calmly said to him, "don't be alarmed, you are not going to die"-for we never treated him as if he thought his distress imaginary,-and put my hand gently upon him to lead him to the bed, when he raised one hand from his breast and thrusting his finger against the side of his head, declared, with another outcry that something was passing through his head. I persuaded him to lie down, telling him the feel- ing would pass off in a few minutes, but he continued to groan for some time. I, knowing what would cure him, took up and began to read to him one of Burke's finest essays which lay by me, and turning to a passage of extraordinary eloquence read it ; on which he sprung up on end in the bed. and exclaimed "was ever anything finer than that!" I continued on reading, and in the course of half an hour he was well and cheerful as ever. This was the most extraordinary in- stance I ever saw in him, but those in a degree like it were frequent. He always went to bed an hour or two before Slosson and I did. he saying that he never was able to get sleep until he had gone through a great deal of such feelings as he never would attempt to describe.
Mr. Southmayd was greatly esteemed in his native town, by. I believe, almost every one, both old and young. He was early in life sent to the legislature, and that often, and was so, I know. the last year of his life. He died of lung fever in March, 1813, about two months after the death of his friend Slosson. At the December Term, 1812, the three who had so long occupied the same room in perfect harmony. were, for the last time there together. At the Feb- ruary Term of the Supreme Court. Sonthmayd and I occupied it, but felt that we were in solitude, and in the next term it seemed to me, most emphatically, a solitude, and more like a family vault than like an abode for living men, and I believe I have never been into it since.
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Mr. Southmayd was undoubtedly an honest and honorable man, of uncommon pleasing manners and much beloved, and I never heard that he had an enemy. Indeed the amenity of his manner and the gentleness of his temper almost forbade it.
The family to which Mr. Southmayd belonged was of the Con- gregational order, and two of his sisters married Congregational clergymen. He, however, joined himself to the Episcopal church of which he was a member after he settled in life, and of which, I be- lieve he was a communicant, but am not sure. He died unmarried, and I believe in the 39th or 40th year of his age.
JOHN COTTON SMITH.
At your request, I now inform you, that the Hon. John Cotton Smith, only son of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith of Sharon, was born there on the 12th day of February, 1765. It is said that for the first six years of his life his instruction and training was almost wholly conducted by his excellent mother, and to her government and precepts he is said to have attributed much of his extraordinary success in life. His common school education, as exhibited in after life, must have been of the most exactly accurate kind. His class- ical instruction preparatory to entering college, was commenced at home, and completed under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Brinsmade of Washington. He entered Yale College in September, 1779, when between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and though young, main- tained a high standing in his class, as appeared by the share he had in the exercises of the commencement at his graduation, the appointees being less than one-fourth of the entire class. Immediately after his graduation in September, 1783, he entered as a law student in the office of the Hon. John Canfield in his native town, and there con- tinued until he could be by law admitted to the Bar, which was in the March Term, 1786, a month after coming to twenty-one years of age : and Mr. Canfield, his legal preceptor, having died a few months after his admission to the Bar, a large portion of business for a long time habitually flowing for management to Mr. Canfield's office, he having for many years been one of the ablest lawyers of the County, Mr. Smith's commencement in business was thereby attended by for- tunate circumstances, and he improved them with becoming industry, and from the very first found himself in a lucrative practice, which continued to increase until called into absorbing public business. He was first elected to the legislature in 1793 and frequently after- wards : indeed, from 1796 to October, 1800 he was constantly a mem- ber, and during the two sessions of 1800 was speaker of the house, and while occupying that station in the October session he was in- formed by the Goveror that he was elected a member of Congress to fill a vacancy which had occurred for the then approaching last
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session of the Sixth Congress, and also for the full term of the Seventh Congress ; soon after which information, he resigned the chair in the house, and returned home to prepare for assuming his newly assigned duties. It so happened that the extra session to which he had been chosen was that, which, by law, was to be holden at the new City of Washington, whither he repaired and served through that term, and the Seventh Congress : was re-elected to the Eighth and again to the Ninth Congress, at the expiration of the Ninth Congress he declined any further elections to that honorable body. During his congressional career he did not participate much in debate, but his fine talent at presiding was early discovered, and caused him frequently to be called to the chair when the House was in committee of the whole, and he thus presided during some of the most memorable debates which distinguished those days. He was during all but the first session, a member of the committee of claims while in Congress, and during the Eighth and Ninth Congress at the head of that committee, though in the minority. In May, 1809. Mr. Smith was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court, which he resigned in May, 1811, on being elected Lieutenant-Governor ; in May, 1813 he was elected Governor, and re-elected to that office until 1818, when, a political revolution having taken place, he retired finally from public life. His administration of the gubernatorial office embraced the greater part of the war of 1812 and 1815, and his duties in all respects were performed with dignity, propriety and grace.
After his retirement to private life much of his time was devoted to religious studies, and his eminent Christian and literary accom- plishments being extensively known and appreciated he was selected as the first president of the Connecticut Bible Society on its estab- lishment. In 1826 he was chosen president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and in 1831 president of the American Bible Society. In 1815 he received the degree of LL. D. As old age pressed upon him his hearing became impaired, and he never would suffer himself to hold public stations when he could not perform all their duties with becoming grace, he resigned all his posts of honor, and on the 7th day of December he died in the 8Ist year of his age.
In an eulogy delivered before the Connecticut Historical Society by the Rev. W. H. Andrews, then of Kent, soon after the decease of Mr. Smith, giving a concise but eloquent historical sketch of his life and character, stating that he was admitted to the Bar in Litchfield County, and observing that at the time there was no bar in the state which presented a more splendid array of legal forensic talents than this, proceeds to state the standing which he at maturity acquired, in the following words quoted, as he says, from the communication of a well informed competent judge, long acquainted with Mr. Smith at the bar :- "He was esteemed, and justly so, an accurate pleader, and a well read and learned lawyer, and though some of those alluded to
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exceeded him in force and popularity as an advocate, none of them surpassed, and in my judgment, none of them equalled him in grace of manner and elegance of diction and utterance.'
Early in life Gov. Smith married Miss Margaret Everson of Amenia. N. Y., a young lady of many accomplishments, who lived to old age. The issue of this marriage was only one child. William M. Smith, Esq .. of Sharon, a gentleman much esteemed for his many virtues and eminent piety. A grandson bearing his name is now the Minister resident of the United States to the court of Bolivia, South America.
NATHANIEL SMITH.
(From Hollister's History of Connecticut.)
"I received a line from my friend. General Sedgwick. stating that is was your desire that he would ask of me, in your behalf, to furnish you with some facts in relation to the late Nathaniel Smith, and my views of his character, which might be of use to you in the preparation of the work you have in hand.
"I am of course aware that this application is owing to the ac- cidental circumstance that I am the oldest, if not the only member of the profession now living, who had much personal acquaintance with that truly able and excellent man, or saw much of him in the exercise of his forensic or judicial talents. Judge Smith was indeed one of nature's nobles, and considering the limited range of his early educa- tion, he had few equals and perhaps no superior in the profession which he chose. and which he eminently adorned. You are doubtless aware that Judge Smith had only such an education in childhood and youth. as the common schools of the country afforded at the time. It was such, however, as a boy of unusual capacity and industrious habits would acquire from such a source, and such as, under the guidance of uncommon discretion through life, rarely permitted its defects to be disclosed.
"When I first went to the Law School in Litchfield, which was in the fall of 1793. Mr. Smith though not over thirty years old, was in full practice. and engaged in almost every cause of any importance. Indeed. he was said to have established a high reputation for talents in the first cause he argued in the higher courts. It was upon a trial for manslaughter, which arose in his native town. and in which he appeared as junior counsel, and astonished the court, the bar, and al! who heard him. Not long afterwards, in the celebrated case of Jed- ediah Strong and wife, before the General Assembly, (she having ap- plied for a divorce), he greatly distinguished himself again, and thus became known throughout the state as a young lawyer of the first promise : and the reputation thuis 'early acquired was never suffered
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to falter, but on the other hand, steadily increased in strength until his elevation to the bench.
"During my stay in Litchfield, and after my admission to the bar. I of course saw Mr. Smith, and heard him in almost all the im- portant cases there ; and as I was located in the south-west corner town in the county, adjoining Fairfield. I almost immediately obtain- ed some business which, though small, was such as during nearly all my professional life caused me to attend the courts in that county, where 1 found Mr. Smith as fully engaged and as highly esteemed as in his own county. In New Haven I also knew he had a very con- siderable practice.
"It is worthy also to be observed, in forming an estimate of Mr. Smith's professional talent and character, that there never at any period was an abler bar in Connecticut, than during his practice. In Litchfield county, were Judge Reeve. Judge Adams, General Tracy, John Allen, Judge Gould, N. B. Benedict, and others : at the Fairfield county bar, were Pierpont Edwards, Judge Ingersoll, and Judge Daggett, constantly from New Haven, Judge Edmonds. S. B. Sher- wood. R. M. Sherman, Judge Chapman, and Governor Bissell ; and in New Haven, besides the three above named, were James Hillhouse, Judge Baldwin, and others.
"As I suppose it not probable that you ever saw Judge Smith, as he ceased to attend courts in 1819, and died when you was very young. I will observe, what you have doubtless heard, that he was a large and fine appearing man, much of the same complexion of the Hon. Truman Smith, his nephew, with whom you are all so well ac- quainted : less tall than he, but of rather fuller habit. His face was not only the index of high capacity and solid judgment, but uncom- monly handsome ; his hair was dark and thin, though not to baldness, except on the fore part of the head, and was very slightly sprinkled with gray. His fine, dark eyes, were remarkably pleasing and gentle in ordinary intercourse, but very variable, always kindling when high- ly excited in debate, they became almost oppressive. His voice was excellent, being both powerful and harmonious, and never broke un- der any exertion of its capacity. His manner was very ardent and the seeming dictate of a strong conviction of the justice of his cause ; and his gestures were the natural expression of such a conviction. Mr. Smith's style was pure and genuine Saxon, with no attempt at classic ornament or allusion. His train of reasoning was lucid and direct, and evincive of the fact that the whole of it was like a map spread out in his mind's eye from the beginning. His integrity was always felt and dreaded by his opponent. He spoke with much fluency, but with no undue rapidity ; he never hesitated for or hag- gled at a word, nor did he ever tire his audience with undue prolixity, or omit to do full justice to his case for fear of tiring them ; and in- deed there was little danger of it. Though certainly a very fine speaker. he never achieved or aspired to those strains of almost
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superhuman eloquence with which his old master Reeve, sometimes electrified and astonished his audience, and yet, in ordinary cases, he was the most correct speaker of the two-though Judge Reeve was, and he was not, a scholar. Mr. Smith, though quite unassum- ing, and often receding in common intercourse and conversation, was, when heated in argument, it must be confessed, often overbearing to the adverse party, and, not only them, but to their counsel. Upon all other occasions, he appeared to be, and I believe was, a very kind hearted, agreeable and pleasant man. To me, he always so appeared, and I have been much in his company.
"Mr. Smith came early into public life, and was frequently elect- ed to the General Assembly from Woodbury. In 1795, he was elect- ed a member of the fourth Congress ; and in 1797. he was chosen to the fifth Congress ; but declined further election. In May, 1799, he was made an assistant, and was re-elected for the five following years, when he resigned his seat at that board in consequence of the passage of the act in 1803, prohibiting the members of the then Su- preme Court of Errors from practicing before the Court. He re- mained in full practice at the bar until October, 1806, when he was elected a judge of the Superior Court, and continued to fill that office until May, 1819, when the judiciary establishment of that year went into operation : from which time he remained in private life until his death.
"In every public station in which Mr. Smith was placed, he dis- tinguished himself. He did so in Congress, at a time when our rep- resentation was as able, perhaps, as it ever has been, and when the character of the house to which he belonged was far higher than it now is. In the Superior Court he was certainly very greatly respect- ed and admired, as an able and perfectly upright judge.
"In private life his name was free from reproach. A strictly honest and pure life, free from any of those little blemishes which often mar the fame of distinguished men, may, I think, be fairly claimed by his biographer to be his due. As a husband, a parent, a friend, a neighbor, a moralist and a christian, I believe few have left a more faultless name."
NOAH BENNET BENEDICT.
In further compliance with your late request, I now place at your disposal some account of the life, character and standing of another highly esteemed member of the Litchfield County Bar.
The Hon. Noah Bennet Benedict was a native of Woodbury, in which he resided during his whole life. He was the son of the Rev. Noah Benedict, long the pastor of the First Congregational Church in that town. Mr. Benedict's early school education must have been
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correct and good, as its fruits invariably showed itself in after life. He graduated at Yale College in September, 1788, when a little short of eighteen years of age. His legal studies commenced soon after his graduation, which were, I believe, pursued principally, if not wholly, in the office of his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Smith, afterwards so highly distinguished as a jurist, which was near the residence of Mr. Benedict's father. As soon as he arrived to lawful age Mr. Benedict came to the Bar, and for the remainder of his life, to wit: about thirty-nine years, it is believed he never failed to attend every regular session of the Courts holden at Litchfield ; and though he never habit- ually attended Courts in other counties, he occasionally did so for the purpose of arguing a particular case. During the long course of his practice Mr. Benedict had an ample share of business, and for the latter half of that period, he was, especially in the Superior Court. the leading advocate, on one side or the other, in most of the trials either to the court or to the jury. His management of a trial was discreet, his argument sound, sensible, and being aided by the well known and generally esteemed integrity of his character, had their due effect. He never attempted to play the orator or to attract attention by fine turned periods, but contented himself with plain reasoning, of which he was no indifferent master.
At a very early period Mr. Benedict was a member of the legisla- ture. But the political majority of the voters in Woodbury becom- ing about this time and for long afterwards decidedly democratic. proved an effectual bar to his political promotion, as far as depended upon that town, but by the vote of the State at large he was elected in 1813 one of the twelve assistants, (as they were then styled, who composed the Upper House of the assembly ), and was re-elected the two following years ; but in the year 1818 an entire political revolu- tion took place in Connecticut, and Mr. Benedict shared the fate of almost every one who held any post of dignity or profit depending upon the public suffrage at large in the State. He was subsequently many years later elected once more to the Lower House. He was also for several years Judge of Probate for the District of Woodbury, an appointment then depending upon the legislature. Mr. Benedict was twice married, but left no living issue. He died in June or July 1831, at the age of sixty, or in his sixtieth year.
In private life Mr. Benedict was entirely unassuming, and a very pleasing companion to all who could relish purity of moral character and conduct, which his whole life was an eminent example : his feel- ings were peculiarly sensitive and delicate ; a loose or profane expres- sion never escaped his lips, and indeed so fastidious was he in respect to the former, that it used to be a matter of amusement with his less scrupulous associates in jocose conversation, to tease his feminine delicacy upon such subjects. Though when alone and unoccupied he had a propensity to indulge in somewhat gloomy reflections, yet he was not averse to participate in facetious conversation when due
NOAH BENNET BENEDICT From an old Painting.
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delicacy was observed. He had a profound respect for religion and was in all respects a good, a very good man.
Mr. Benedict was of somewhat less than midling size, of a medi- um complexion, but his eyes and hair rather dark.
JAMES GOULD.
In compliance, in part, with a request recently received from you. I now send you a brief and imperfect sketch of the literary and pro- fessional character, standing and reputation of the Hon. James Gould. who for a very considerable period of time contributed much to the fame of the County and State for legal science, by his talents as an advocate and especially as an instructor and as a judge of the Supe- rior Court ; with some account of his person and family. Mr. Gould the son of Dr. William Gould, an eminent physician, was born at Branford in this State in the year 1770. The goodness of his com- mon school education is inferable from the perfect accuracy of it, which showed itself in all he did or said in after life. He graduated when a little over twenty-one, at Yale College, in September, 1791, with distinguished honor in a class distinguished for talents.
The year next following his collegiate course he spent in Balti- more as a teacher. He then returned to New Haven and commenced the study of law with Judge Chauncey: and in September of that vear he was chosen a tutor in Yale College, in which office he contin- ued two years. He then joined the Law School of Mr. Reeve at Litchfield and was soon after admitted to the Bar. Immediately af- ter his admission to the Bar he opened an office for practice in that town, where he resided during the remainder of his life.
On his first appearance as an advocate he evinced such an ap- parent maturity of intellect, such a self-possession, such command of his thoughts and of the language appropriate to their expression, that he was marked out as a successful aspirant for forensic eminence. His progress in the acquisition of professional business was steady and rapid.
Fortunate circumstances concurring a few years before his choice of Litchfield as a field of his professional labors, in the removal by promotion of two very distinguished practitioners at the Bar, opened the way to such a choice, and by like good fortune a similar event re- moved one of the two only remaining obstructions in that town to his full share in the best business as an advocate, the only business to which he aspired. As a reasoner Mr. Gould was forcible, lucid and logical : as a speaker his voice was very pleasant and his language pure, clear and always appropriate. He never aspired to high strains of impassioned eloquence, and rarely. if ever, addressed himself to the passions of the Court and Jury, but to their understanding only, and
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was a very able, pleasing and successful advocate. His argument was a fair map of the case, and one sometimes engaged against him, but feeling his superiority, observed, that he had rather have Gould against him in a case, than any other of any where equal powers. because he could perfectly understand his argument, and if suscepti- ble of an answer could know how to apply it In his practice at the Bar he was always perfectly fair and honorable. Within some two or three years after Mr. Gould commenced practice, Mr. Reeve, the founder and until that time the sole instructor of the Litchfield Law School, accepted a seat upon the bench of the Superior Court. This Court made it necessary for him to give up the school, or to associate some one with him in its management, and to deliver lectures in his absence upon the circuits. The Judge selected Mr. Gould as that associate ; and for a number of years they jointly conducted and re- ceived the pupils of the School : and on the final retiring of Judge Reeve from any participation in the instruction of the School. Mr. Gould became its sole instructor and so continued until elevated to the bench of the Superior Court in the spring of 1816, when he in turn had to have recourse to temporary aid for the short time he re- mained on the bench. But a thorough political Revolution having taken place in this State, and a new constitution formed which entire- ly new modeled the courts of law, Mr. Gould took no further share in public employments : and his health being greatly impaired, he never resumed practice at the Bar, but confined himself wholly to his School during the remainder of his life, as far as severe infirmities would permit. He died, as appears by the College catalogne, in 1838.
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