Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 149

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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1239

BENCH AND BAR OF BROOKLYN.

William Shields, John C. McGuire, John R. Kuhn, William Hemstreet, H. B. Hubbard, Benjamin Baker, Robert Connolly, George T. Walker, Edward Reilly, F. A. Ward, Abraham Lott, William H. Green, Robert Pinckney, J. Z. Lott, Mark D. Wilbur, James D. Bell, J. B. Hurd, George W. Roederick, Alex. T. Car- penter, Hassan H. Wheeler, P. J. O'Hanlon, Patrick Keady, Judah B. Voorhees, John U. Shorter, Jesse Johnson, Thomas E. Pearsall, David Barnett, F. W. Catlin, E. C. Lowe, F. N. O'Brien, W. C. L. Thornton, N. W. Hewlett, H. R. Cruikshank, Arthur C. Salmon, John Hess, Edward B. Lansing, W. G. Cook, A. P. Carlin, Charles E. Lowery, John B. Meyenborg, Henry S. Bellows, George Elliott, Charles Wills, John D. Pray, Richard C. Curren, H. M. Birkett, R. O. Catlin, H. D. Birdsall, William Sweetzer, Assistant District Attorney Clark, and Michael Furst.

THE PROCEEDINGS.

The meeting was called to order by W. C. De Witt, who pro- posed Judge Reynolds as chairman, with Mr. Justice Cullen, Mr. Justice Bartlett, County Judge Moore, Chief Judge McCue, Judge Reynolds, Judge Clements and Surrogate Bergen associated. Charles J. Patterson and F. A. Ward were nomi- nated as secretaries.

Mr. F. E. Dana, by request, offered for adoption the follow- ing:

" The members of the Kings County Bar, represented in a gene- ral meeting convened for that purpose, at the Court House in the City of Brooklyn, on the 16th day of April, 1884, hereby publicly express their respect and esteem for the character of the late John C. Perry. In his professional, official and private life he was alike faithful, upright and modest, and in the dis- charge of his public duties he was able, diligent and singularly courteous. The judicial career which was he about to begin, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Wyoming, would have made those merits more widely known, but the promotion was not needed to secure their recognition here. This expression of regard from his associates in the legal profession, attested by the signatures of the judges who have presided at the meeting, will be transmitted to his family to signify the sympathy which the Bar extends to them in their deep affliction."

Mr. Robert Johnstone seconded the resolution, and Judge Reynolds called for remarks, and named Judge Tracy.

Judge Tracy said that the unexpected death of their friend reminded them all how vain and uncertain was life. In the prime of manhood John C. Perry was stricken down while in the pursuit of ordinary business, and while making arrange- ments to depart to assume an honorable and exalted judicial position. Of the esteem and respect which he possessed in this city, and especially among his professional brethren, the meet- ing was sufficient proof. It was the speaker's good fortune to know Judge Perry long and intimately. He was a noble man, a true and generous friend, fulfilling faithfully every duty of liťc, pursuing his profession in an honorable way and in a high- ly successful degree. Living among them as he had for thirty years, he thought he might say that John C. Perry was without an enemy, which could be said of very few men, and that was certainly a proof that he had not lived in vain. He was honored not only by his professional brethren, but by the City of Brook- lyn, which he had represented in both branches of the Legisla- ture. He had filled public positions which few filled without escaping criticism, but against him not a word had ever been uttered. He had filled those positions and discharged all the duties they imposed without a breath of suspicion against his name. It was fitting that the members of the Bench and Bar should in such a manner commend such a life.

Corporation Counsel John A. Taylor thought that it was highly creditable to the Bar, as a profession, that when a mem- ber fell out of the ranks by death, they should meet and, leav- ing their business for a time, consider the character of the man who had passed from among them. Judge Perry carried with

him at all times the manner of a gentleman. His chief characteristic was his truc manhood. His memory would dwell in the affection of all who knew him, and it was proper that by common impulse they should thus meet and testify to the solid worth of their dead friend.

Mr. Charles J. Patterson said that the genius of John C. Perry was of the quiet kind. For the last two years he had been in close contact with him, and could testify, though with a sad heart he did it, to his worth and nobility as a man. Under a modest ex- terior was hidden a large knowledge of his profession in all its branches. He was most careful and conscientious in the daily business of life, painstaking and faithful in the most minute matters as well as in the greater. On all he did was shed a spirit of kindness, of courtesy, of self-denial, and he would always rather confer a benefit than seek to receive one. He felt that he was a better man for having known Judge Perry.

Mr. H. Benedict indorsed the sentiments of the speakers, and was followed by Mr. M. L. Towns, who eulogized the dead man, and spoke feelingly of the pleasant relations existing between them.

Hon. M. D. Wilber said that he had been a friend of John C. Perry ever since he was admitted to the Bar. He served with him at Albany, and on the same committee, and his influence there was the same as it was in social life. Ilis life was pure and free from any taint of wrong doing. It reflected honor on his constituency there, as it reflected honor on the Bar herc, when the President named John C. Perry as Chief Justice of Wyoming Territory.

Judge Reynolds said that it scemed to him appropriate that they should pause a moment in the midst of the excitement and pressure of business, and take notice of the admonition which had come so suddenly. Judge Perry told the speaker that he intended to open court on Monday next, the 52d anniversary of his birth. He had not only been held in high esteem by the Bar, but had been repeatedly indorsed by his fellow-citizens, and when he was named for the high position to which he was appointed, every judge in the city of Brooklyn signed a letter indorsing him.

On motion, it was ordered that the resolutions be signed by the judges presiding, and that a copy be sent to the family.

THOMAS G. SHEARMAN.

THOMAS G. SHEARMAN, though not native born, is by nature as well as by the education of a long residence in this country thoroughly American in political creed and in loyal devotion to her general interests. He was born in Birmingham, England, in November, 1834, and at the age of nine years came to New York, with his parents. His father was a practicing physician; his mother a lady of superior talent and character, under whose supervision his education was completed at home.

Early in 1857, he took up his residence in Brooklyn, which has ever since been his home, and where he is now, as he has been for some years past, well known throughout the community for his abilities as a leading lawyer and his public services as a citizen.

Mr. Shearman was admitted to the Kings County Bar in 1859, but before completing his studies preparatory to his admis- sion to practice, his literary tastes led him to engage, in connection with the late John L. Tillinghast, in the prepa- ration of a treatise on practice, the first volume of which was published early in 1861, under the general title of " Tillinghast and Shearman's Practice." The second volume was written by Mr. Shearman alone; and the treatise thus completed was at once recognized by the profession as in every way an admirable piece of work. It is understood that the book is now out of print.

1240

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Pursuing his taste in this direction still further, Mr. Shearman devoted some years, after his admission to the Bar, to the prepar- ation of briefs, the codification of certain branches of the law, and other work of a studious and somewhat retired character.

Subsequently, in the year 1869, Mr. Shearman, in association with A. A. Redfield, Esq., published a treatise on the Law of Negligence, of which four editions have been published to this time. This was a pioneer work on this subject, in this country as well as in England; and, in the estimation of the Bench and Bar, has held its own with several works on the same subject since published by distinguished and able writers.

After the publication of this book, Mr. Shearman seems to have abandoned any literary ambition he may have had, and entered actively into the practice of his profession. His great knowledge of cases, English and American, his comprehensive grasp of legal principles, and the clearness of his style, gave him repented successes in the General Term and Court of Appeals, in cases which were considered desperately hopeless even by the lawyers who retained him, who had been beaten in the court below.

The Civil War gave rise to many important and difficult ques- tions of law, not the least of which was whether the Rebellion constituted a "war " within the strict legal meaning of that term, and therefore whether insurance companies were exempt, under the old-fashioned war-risk clause in their policies, from liability for the destruction of Northern vessels by Southern cruisers.

The case of Swinerton r. Columbian Ins. Co., in the Superior Court of New York City, was one involving this novel question. It appeared that a vessel was captured by an armed band of Virginians, two days after Virginia had passed an ordinance of secession, but before the fact was officially published. No evi- dence could be procured by the company that the capture was made under any regular official authority; and the General Term of the Superior Court unanimously held that the capture was not such an act of war as exempted the insurance company from liability under the war risk clause of its policy. The in- surance company's counsel, as a forlorn hope, engaged Mr. Shearman to argue an appeal to the Court of Appeals from this decision, which he did in September, 1867, and with com- plete success, as appears by a report of the case, reversing the judgment below, reported in the 37th volume of the New York Reports.

In 1868, Mr. Shearman went into partnership with the dis- tinguished advocate, David Dudley Field, and his son Dudley Field, under the firm name of Field & Shearman, into which firm, later in the same year, Mr. John W. Sterling was admitted a partner. During the whole existence of this copartnership, its business was one of the largest of any firm of practition- ers in New York.

The new firm was almost immediately called upon to take charge of the legal business of the Erie Railway Company, Mr. Shearman being appointed to the responsible position of office counsel. As such, he had personal supervision of the company's law business throughout the State, and for several years devoted his entire time to their service. The great Inw-suits growing out of the contest for the control of the Erie Railway Company, the Atlantic and Great Western, and the Albany and Susque- hanna Railway Companies, attracted universal public attention, and greatly extended Mr. Shearman's reputation as not only a skillful advocate, but as an inventor, or, rather, a re-discoverer of some lost and forgotten remedies applicable to the cases in hand, and which proved to work with admirable success for his clients. Chief among these was the use of n writ of assistance, as a means of putting a Receiver, appointed pendente lite, into possession of the property, and also the service of an in- junction in a distant part of the State by telegraphic copies. This last procedure called forth loud complaints on the part of some of the leading newspapers of the day, and even of somo lawyers. But the same practice, in both respects, was quickly adopted by his opponents in the same cases. Since that time

the English Courts of Equity have unanimously decided that it is not merely proper to telegraph an injunction or similar writ, but also that a copy of such a writ sent directly over the tel- egraph to the adverse party or his attorney is a perfectly good service, and that disobedience of an injunction thus served is a contempt of court; and this decision being appealed from, has been unanimously affirmed.

In the fall of 1873 Mr. Shearman and Mr. Sterling formed a new firm by themselves. In the now famous trial of Theodore Tilton against Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, which lasted six months continuously in open court, and involved the labor of several months in preliminary and collateral proceedings, Mr. Shearman, as a warm personal friend of Mr. Beecher of many years' standing, was actively engaged as counsel for the defense, his firm of Shearman & Sterling being the attorneys of recerd for the defendant. His application in that case for a bill of par- ticulars had no precedent in this country, and was generally considered by the Bar as hopeless; and a majority of the court before which the motion was first argued would seem to have been of the same opinion; but McCue, J., dissented; and, on appeal, the Court of Appeals created a genuine sensation by re- versing the decision below, in an elaborate opinion by Rapallo, J ., which has been followed in all American courts, and has settled the law on this point.

Mr. Shearman's new firm were, from 1874 to 1876, attorneys and counsel for Mr. Jay Gould in about 100 actions for damages brought against him and others, who were believed to be inter- ested in creating the gold panic of 1869. The trial of these actions attracted a large share of public attention, and popular feeling ran strongly against Mr. Gould and the other defend- ants. The cases were tried before several different judges; but in every instance the defendants were successful.

The case of Black v. The Continental Bank arose out of exten- sive forgeries committed by one Ross, who fled to Brazil with $100,000 in gold, and was never captured. He obtained $60,000 from Mr. Black on a certified check, which the bank declared to be a forgery. On the first trial, ten of the jury favored a verdict for the plaintiff, believing the certification to be genuine. After this, Shearman & Sterling were substituted as attorneys and counsel for the defendant. The second trial (before Van Brunt, J.) was hotly contested, and many new scientific tests were in- troduced on behalf of the defendant, which won the verdict.

Mr. Shearman still continues in the active practice of his profession, being yet a comparatively young man. There are other lawyers in Brooklyn who have doubtless tried more cases in the courts than he has ; but it is well understood that his business out of court, or "chamber business," as it is called, has largely increased in recent years, and that in substantial value it exceeds that of any other lawyer residing in Brooklyn. His connection with cases which have attracted so large a share of public attention and newspaper controversy has made his name more widely known than that of almost any other Brook. lyn lawyer.

In politics, Mr. Shearman has always been a Republican, har- ing been ono of the young men who came of age when that party was formed, and so cast their first votes for its first can- didate, Fremont, and having voted for every Republican Presi dent since. Originally, he was a decided protectionist ; but he changed his views upon this point about twenty years ago, as the result of more careful study, and has ever since been a believer in free trade. It is safe to say that no one has done more to forward its interests, and to diffuse a better under- standing of it among the community, than Mr. Sheart n. With an ardor and force peculiarly his own, and with a mo t earnest conviction of the advantages which would accrue to the country from a free trade system, he has unflinchingly advo ented its adoption. Being of opinion that the questions grow- ing out of slavery, the war and the currency were, however, more important than the issue of free trade, he took no part in

Cho EShelman

1241

BENCH AND BAR OF BROOKLYN.

bringing it into politics, until after the Presidential election of 1880. Since that period he has devoted most of his time and energy, outside of his professional engagements, to the organi- zation of the free trade movement. He was the originator of the Brooklyn Revenue Reform Club, which has become famous throughout the country as the first organization which opened a platform for the free discussion of the great economic issues of the day, instead of confining it to the advocacy of one side or the other exclusively. As chairman of its Executive Com- mittee, he has superintended all its work. He has also had a larger share than any other Eastern man in organizing the free trade movement in Iowa, where it has made a progress so re- markable as to have attracted general interest, the revenue re- formers having gained four or five members of Congress in that State.

Mr. Shearman represents the most advanced views on this sub- ject, being an advocate of absolute, immediate and uncondi- tional free trade, with the repeal of all tariffs and all methods of indirect taxation. Of course, these extreme views are accepted by only a small minority of the people at present; but as Mr. Chearman always declined office when among the majority, he is probably not concerned to find himself in a minority. Buthe is also a thoroughly practical man, ready to accept whatever conces- sions he can secure. He has, therefore, been able to exert con- siderable influence upon the course of economic discussion; and he was selected by the principal free trade societies of the country as the leading representative of the cause before Congress on the hearings lately given upon the proposed reduction of the tariff. He has made numerous speeches on this subject, not only in Brooklyn, but also in the principal cities of this State and in Michigan and Iowa.

In two respects, Mr. Shearman has succeeded in making a marked change in the discussion of these questions. He was the first speaker who analyzed the effects of the tariff, so as to show the relative burdens of the rich and the poor under it. The broad general statement, that tariffs pressed more severely upon the poor than upon the rich, had of course been made a thousand times; but the exact manner and proportion had never, we believe, been stated prior to Mr. Shearman's address before the Revenue Reform Club in 1882, when he put it in substance as follows :

" All indirect taxes impose a burden which is heavy or light, exactly as personal or family expenses are heavy or light. The man whose income is $100,000 a year, and spends only $10,000, will not pay one penny more under indirect taxation than the man whoseincome is $10,000, but who spends it all. All the taxa- tion imposed for the Federal Government is indirect, and a large part of local taxation is really indirect, although usually sup- posed not to be. The annual taxation of this country is $700,000,000 ; while the extra cost of goods caused by the pro- tective features of the tariff and by the necessary profits paid to dealers on the amount advanced by them, for duties or high prices caused by duties, must amount to fully $800,000,000 more. The entire income of our people is about $7,500,000,000, making the annual burden upon incomes, as a consequence of taxation, about 20 per cent.

But taxation cannot be paid ont of anything except savings ; and the savings of the great mass of men whose incomes are small, are necessarily much smaller, even in proportion to their in- comes, than the possible savings of the wealthiest classes. Thus a man with an income of $100,000 per annum can live in Inxury and yet save nine-tenths of his income. But the man who earns only $300 per annum finds it almost impossible, even apart from taxation, to save as much as one-fifth of his income. A tax of 20 per cent. on the expenditures of the former would therefore amount to only two per cent. of his savings, while a like tax on the expenditures of the latter would exhaust 80 per cent of his savings.

Estimating the number of persons engaged in daily business at 15,000,000, and the annual income of 14,000,000 as less than $400 (which the census shows it to be), and assuming that all classes would save the money now paid by them in taxes, if none were levied, the figures show that the annual savings of our people would be over $2,200,000,000, and that more than $1,400,000,000 of this amount would be saved by the vast mass

of persons whose incomes are less than $400 a year. But onr system of indirect taxation bears so heavily upon the poor, that the annual savings of the 14,000,000 persons with small in- comes are reduced to $280,000,000, while the annual savings of the 1,000,000 persons receiving larger incomes are reduced to $485,000,000. Thus, while under a system of equal taxation the small farmers and mechanics would secure a constantly increas- ing share of the national wealth, the effect of indirect taxation is to reverse this result, and to concentrate the wealth of the country, at an ever-increasing rate, in the hands of a small minority of the people."

He was also among the first who succeeded in impressing the public mind with a belief that protection did not increase the nominal amount of wages; the general opinion, even among free-traders, having been that wages were increased by protec- tion in nominal amount, although diminished in purchasing power. He insisted that wages must necessarily advance under free trade, and that their natural tendency to rise is retarded by all protective tariffs. His reasoning appears in this extract from his address to the Congressional Committee, in February, 1884:

" Assuming that the average rate of manufacturers' profit in 1880 was 10 per cent. on the amount expended, the census shows the following to be a fair statement of the different elements of the average cost of each $100 worth of manufactures in 1880:

COST UNDER PROTECTION. $63 21

Materials

Wages.

17 65

Rents, repairs, insurance, interest, &c. . 10 00

Profit, 10 per cent. on outlay .. 9 14

$100 00

A reduction of 15 per cent. in the price of finished articles would increase the demand at home by at least 25 per cent., as the goods would come within the reach of a much larger pro- portion of the community-by a well-known law of trade, that there are at least four persons who can afford to buy an article at one dollar to one who can buy it at two dollars.

Now, the rate of wages depends upon the demand for work- men; and this depends upon the amount of work to be done, and not upon the profit made. If more goods are sold, wages must rise. If fewer goods are sold, even at a larger profit, wages must fall. Therefore, an increase of 25 per cent. in the amount of goods manufactured, even though the goods are sold at cheaper rates, must compel the employment of 25 per cent. more workmen, and thus raise wages 25 per cent.

Under absolute free trade, therefore, there would be a decline of 25 per cent. in the cost of materials and of 15 per cent. in the collective cost of rent, repairs, insurance, interest, &c., an increase of over 25 per cent. in the amount of goods sold, and a consequent increase of 25 per cent. in wages, without any reduction in the manufacturers' rate of profits. The result would be as follows:

COST UNDER FREE TRADE.

Materials

$47 41

Wages

22 06

Rent, repairs, &c.

8 50

Profit (10 per cent.)

7 80

Total $85 77

The correctness of this theory is proved by the history of these United States. A high tariff was imposed in 1816, a higher one in 1824, and a still higher one in 1828. No speech in Congress has been found by ns, and no protectionist book or pamphlet, dating prior to 1842, in which it was cven claimed that wages advanced under any of these tariffs. On the con- trary, a tract issued by the Iron and Steel Association states that in 1829 the wages of farm laborers were $7 to $10 a month with board, and those of mechanics 50 cents to $1 a day without board. The same tract quotes the late Vice-President Wilson to prove that, in 1832 and 1833, under the highest tariff ever known in this country, he worked from daylight until dark, at the hardest kind of work, for $6 a month; that the highest wages paid, even in harvest time, were 50 to 66 cents a day, and that the best wages paid to bright women for housework and weaving were 50 to 66 cents a week.

On October 2, 1819, a protectionist meeting in Philadelphia issued a report upon manufactures and wages, in which the average wages paid to mechanics were g.ven at one dollar a day. Yet, after nine years of the highest protection, mechanics' wages were, as already shown, less than one dollar a day.

1242

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

In 1842, a strongly protectionist committee of Congress examined witnesses on this subject; and their report showed that in the iron manufacture there had been no advance in wages since 1828; and the average rate for unskilled labor generally was stated at 75 cents a day. In 1845, an opportunity was given to manufacturers all over the country to report upon wages under 'the beneficent tariff of '42.' Many reports were sent into the Treasury Department. Not one of them claimed to have increased the rate of wages under that tariff; while several admitted that they had eut down wages. The usual rate of wages for labor in iron furnaces and foundries was stated at 87 cents; and no ordinary workman, even in that exhausting business, was reported at over $1 a day.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 149

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360