USA > New York > Livingston County > The annual address: The judges and lawyers of Livingston County and their relation to the history of western New York > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
24
Livingston County Historical Society.
tice. Here professional success again awaited him. After practicing alonesome time, the well remembered firm of Hubbard, Smith & Noyes was formed, With this combination of learning and talent success was an inevitable result. But for some reason the firm was dissolved after the lapse of a year, and a new firm under the name of Smith & Noyes was immediately formed. This business relation continued two or three years with considerable success, when it was dissolved, each of the parties continuing to practice alone. In the fall of 1859 the eminent firm of Van- Derlip & Smith was formed. This relation continued through the long period of seventeen years, and was dissolved by the death of its junior member. Its success- ful career is too well known to the public to require any comment here. In the trial of a cause he detected with keen quick observation, the weak points of his adversary, while, with an instinctive ingenuity and skill, he defended, disguised or strengthened his own assailable points as occasion required. In the thrust and in the parry he was equally at home. When opposed by a sharp, pettifogging trickster-one who resorted to knavish shrewdness for success, instead of the learn- ing of his profession, or when a deep, shrewd, deceitful, lying witness came against him. then his sarcasm fell withering, heavy and effectual. With his brethren of the bar he was honorable, high minded and courteous, and everywhere his word washis bond. At the bar and in the popular assembly Mr. Smith was a forcible, log- ical and persuasive speaker. As a politician he was bold, ardent and adroit, a democrat, who never furled the banner of his party for the sake of policy, but always carried it aloft in triumph or defeat-like Bruce at Bannockburn, planting its standard on the hard rock. Mr. Smith represented his town in the board of supervisors several successive years. In the fall of 1×60 he was a candidate for member of assembly. Although in his district there was an overwhelming repub- lican majority, he reduced the majority of his opponent, a very popular man, to barely thirty-five. He would have been elected but for some disaffection in his party in one of the towns of the county. In 1872 he sustained an irreparable loss in the death of his only son-his only child. He was a young man of much intellec- tual promise. From this terrible blow Mr. Smith never recovered. Like a strong tree that has withstood the whirlwind, though many of its green leaves have been swept away, among whose broken boughs the birds no longer warble, so he with- stood this terrible stroke of fate. To his friends it was plain that nothing could banish his lost boy from his thought. In my confidential Interviews with him, when his sad heart was laid open to me, as it often was, I felt that in his musings, at his home or in his office,
"Grief filled the room up of his absent child, Laid in his bed, walked up and down with him ; Put on his well known looks, repeated all his words, Reminded lim of all his gracious parts, Stuffed out his vacant garments with his form."
But his sorrow is at an end, the valley and the shadow is past, he sleeps well and peacefully by the side of him whose loss silenced the music of his life. In pri- vate life Mr. Smith was a valuable and influential citizen. Kindness was innate in his nature. As he possessed a fund of pleasing anecdote, set off by lively wit and sparkling repartee, he was a favorite in the social circle. "To those who loved him not he was lofty and sour," and to his enemies who crossed his path in hatred he was Implacable and aggressive in his resentment ; he knew how to be a turbulent and effective hater. By a singular providence the Dansville bar within a brief period lost three of its members. They were in every sense of the word not only ornaments to the home bar but to that of the county. Two of these, Faulkner and Smith, I have already mentioned, the third was the young, gifted and lamented
JOHN G. WILKINSON,
who died in the morning of his life-In the dawn of his professional career. As he possessed talents of a high order, accurate and practical learning, laudable and well balanced ambition, well directed determination and untiring industry, his career must have been eminently successful if not brilllant. He died in the spring of 1875.
SAMUEL D. FAULKNER.
The death of Judge Faulkner occurred so recently, memoirs of his life more or less elaborately written, for the journals of the county, are so fresh in the public mind, that any reference to him on this occasion may at first seem the work of supererogation. But, conscious that a brief biography of a lawyer so eminent, and of a judge so enlightened, impartial and useful, even though iinperfectly written, will be a rare embellishment to the archives of our society and a treasure to our bar, I shall. in obedience to my duty, give you an outline of his life. I beg leave, however, to do so in language used by me in another place. Samuel Dorr Faulk. ner was born at Dansville, N. Y., November 14th, 1835. He was a son of Judge James Faulkner and a brother of Endress Faulkner, whose life and career I have already attempted to describe. Nature was prodigal of her intellectual gifts to him, and from his earliest years to the close of his life he evinced a grateful sense of her favors by doing all in his power to enhance the value of her gifts. Under the in- structions of an accomplished private tutor he commenced his classical education at home, making rapid proficiency in his studies. He completed his preparation for college at Berkshire. N. Y., and entered Yale in the year 1855. He was graduat- ed in the class of 1859 with distinguished honors, the rich reward of the most dili- gent and untiring study. While in this institution he was one of the five editors of the Yale Literary Magazine, a publication of high rank at home and abroad. The written and oral productions of his college years were distinguished for such
25
-
Annual Address by L. B. Procter.
facility of expression, by such argumentative force, such forensic point, that his friends were early convinced that the bar would be his future field of action. And it was so. Soon after leaving college he entered the Albany law school, where he chiefly prepared for his call to the bar. He was admitted to all the state courts in the year 1860, and immediately commenced the practloe of his profession In his native village. His professional advancement was rapid and permanent, placing him, at an early age, among the leaders of the Livingston bar. His practice soon extended into the adjacent counties, where his abilities as an advocate were liber- ally acknowledged. Like most lawyers, Judge Faulkner was naturally attracted to the political field, where. under the banner of the Democratic party, he became a leading and influential partisan. On the platform he vindicated and sustained the doctrines of his party with well-digested arguments, and in the language that had the grace at once of spontaneity and art, and he soon ranked with the leaders of the democracy in this state. It was believed in the beginning of his political life, that as the republican party was so strongly dominant, not only In Livingston county but in his congressional, judicial and senatorial districts, the chances of the young lawyer for political advancement were extremely limited. Notwith- standing this, in the autumn of 1866, the democrats of the second assembly district of Livingston county nominated him as their candidate for the legislature. His opponent was a popular, energetic and determined man, who entered the contest with the prestige of a large Republican majority in his favor. After an earnest canvass Faulkner was elected by a decisive majority. He was the first democrat ever elected by his party in Livingston county to the assembly. This, with his acknowledged ability, gave him a high position on his first entrance into the leg- islature. His subsequent career as a legislator, his speeches delivered on the floor of the house, the varions reports and memorials of which he was the author, are indubitable evidence of his talents as a parliamentary speaker and writer. Though one of the youngest members of the house, he was one of the most influential and respected. On retiring from his legislative duties he resumed more actively than ever the duties of his profession. In the fall of 1867 he was tendered a renomina- tlon for the assembly. It was not only tendered to him but he was strongly urged by his party to accept. He peremptorily declined, saying that he would never ac- cept another office in the gift of the people, except one that was in the line of his profession. In the fall of 1870 he was nominated for county judge, by the democrats of his county. Though, as in the case of his nomination for the assembly, his party was in an almost hopeless minority, he was elected, and in January, 1871, took his seat upon the bench. With a mind, habits and attainments eminently practical, he entered upon the duties of his office destined to achieve eminent suc- cess. He closed his six years of judicial service-the term fixed by the constitution -prepared to lay down the ermine without one spot or blemish upon it. But he was not permitted to lay It down. In the fall of 1876 he was nominated and re- elected county judge, entering upon his second judicial term in January, 1877. During his first term his health began to tail. and his friends soon became pain- rully conscious that he was suffering under the ravages of consumption. To avoid the rigor of our northern winters and with the hope of being restored to health, he sought the mild and softer climate of the south, where for several years past he spent his winters. This for a time resisted the insidious disease, Inspiring In him- self and friends strong hope of his ultimate recovery. But the hope was only an illusion. There was a time, when, had his ambition been less, when, had he re- tired from his judicial and professional labors, he might have recovered his health. But he loved the labors of his office and of his profession. He never undertook, In sickness or In health, the discussion or decision of any legal question that he had not fully investigated, and of which he had not made himself the master. He loved his duties, judicial and professional, with enthusiastic devotion, and there- fore. regardless of failing health, he pursued them with untiring energy. Perhaps he fondly looked forward to recovery. But, alas! it never came, and he fell with hls armor on, intent on the discharge of his duties ; and dying in early manhood a victim to his own ceaseless devotion to them, and of the profession that now mourns his loss.
"So the struck eagle stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Views his own feather in the fatal dart That winged the shaft that quivered in his heart."
In his struggle with a lingering and fatal disease, accelerated if not wholly cansed by unremitting devotion to his duties, there is a mourntul resemblance be- tween his fate and that of his distinguished brother, Endress. Jndge Faulkner was a close, thoughtful lawyer. He was well aware that it is often the case that young men, consclous of possessing fine intellectual powers, depend too much upon them, and thus neglect that severe mental discipline, that thorough, patlent investiga- tion, without which distinction is seldom attained, especially in the legal profes- sion. He knew that few persons leap Pallas-like into full professional honors and success, though in the legal, as in other professions, impudence, pretentious Ignor- ance and swelling conceit, often push men, for a time at least, rapidly up the dell- cately graduated professional ladder. Hence it was his ambition to be, as Cicero recommends, able, apte, distincte, ornate, discere. How well he succeeded his career at the bar fully attests, His mind was one of singular elasticity and power. All of his mental faculties, all of his passions, predilections and prejudices were subordi- nate to self control-to a calm judgment that presided over all. As a speaker at the bar or in the popular assembly, he was ready, ingenlous, often impressive- always Interesting. He was possessed of a clear, pleasant voice, appropriate gestlc- nlatlon ; never affected, churlish, ostentatious or pedantle; always expressed him- self in language simple, natural, idiomatic. As a judge he was acute, sagacious and
26
Livingston County Historical Society.
reflecting. Even during the hurry and excitement of a trial, his active mind and his ready knowledge of the law enabled him to dispose with much accuracy of a large amount of business, With the light of his experience, with rare sagacity, he soon discovered the right and wrong of a case. Usually in his charge to the jury he divested a case of those artificial incumbrances and entanglements, thecreation of artful connsel, and presented the points in a clear, fair and distinct manner. His opinions exhibit research, are written with care and perspicuity, always ap- proaching the point on which the case turned with directness and celerity which rendered it apparent even to the casual reader. This was exhibited in his recent charge to the jury in the Hinman case-a case that was hotly, stubbornly contested on both sides to a degree seldom equaled at the bar, a case full of conflicting evi- dence, sharp, angular and novel legal questions, that seemed impossible to harmo- mise ; and yet Judge Faulkner divested the case of everything except the real facts pertinent to it, with fairness and perspicuity, that opposing counsel were eminent- ly satisfied, and the almost impossible task of the jury rendered easy. To say that the death of such a man is a public loss is to repeat the genera. opinion of the community.
CLOSING REMARKS.
Thus I have, in an imperfect manner, discharged the high and honorable duty assigned me through the courtesy of this society-the duty of sketching the lives of the judges and lawyers of Livingston county who are numbered with the dead. To a large extent my field of labor presents a history of that county. In view of the great research, labor and the peculiar qualifications which the task re- quires, I venture to undertake it with much diffidence, and, I trust, with an entire abuegation of all personal considerations. In reverence to the memory of the dead, in respectful recognition of the feelings of their surviving friends, I have appreci- ated the high responsibility and delicacy of the position I occupy here to-day-feei- ing almost conscious of acting under the mandate of a voice coming from the past, saying, "Put off thy shoes, for the ground on which thou standest is holy ground !" Therefore, reverent to this voice, in closing my task, permit me to add that while striving to shun the faults and to emulate the virtues of those whose history and career have been committed to me, to the affections and gratitude of the people of Livingston county, and of western New York, to the safe keeping of the impartial historian and the honored archives of our society we commit their memory.
NOTE .- As I designed this address as a history of the life and times of the de- ceased, judges and lawyers of Livingston county, and to that end a history of the county, I have in preparing it for publication given an extended sketch of several eminent members of the profession to whom I had only time to briefly allude in delivering it; giving it more the appearance of a series of biographies. In this re- spect it will be more appropriate for the archives of our society.
IFSTATE
JUN
*
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 014 109 867 6
$
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.