USA > New York > The bench and bar of New-York. Containing biographical sketches of eminent judges, and lawyers of the New-York bar, incidents of the important trials in which they were engaged, and anecdotes connected with their professional, political and judicial career > Part 42
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This advice, coming from a man so distinguished, greatly encouraged Dickinson, and he resolved to profit by it. How often have words, thus kindly spoken by men of influence and position, given strug- gling merit a new impetus, reconciled it to sacrifices, to inquietude, and to intense labor. Such words often inspire a hope which in the fullness of certainty, in the anticipation of success, gives glimpses of the . reward of toil and self-denial.
In the year 1821-22, Mr. Dickinson was engaged in teaching school at Wheatland, New York. Borrow- ing Blackstone's Commentaries of a lawyer in a neigh- boring village, he commenced the study of law. Never satisfied with the surface of things, he studied that great work with a severity, patience, and industry which rendered him master of it.
In the year 1822, he was married to Miss Lydia Knapp, a lady of many personal and intellectual charms. This union resulted in a long life of domes- tic happiness. The following extract from a letter
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written to Miss Knapp, in October, 1858, attests his affectionate regard for his wife :
"It was thirty-six years ago yesterday, since I mar- ried your dear aunt. Oh, how many lights and shadows of life have flitted by during those eventful years! How many joys have sent their refreshing influences-how many poignant and unutterable griefs have caused the heart to bleed with anguish too terri- ble for description ! But a kind Heaven has dealt graciously with us, and we have learned to remember that this is not an 'abiding city,' and that the loved and the lost, who have gone before us, will not return to us, but we shall go to them. This marriage gave me a faithful, devoted and affectionate wife, and her relatives have ever been as dear to me as my own."
A beautiful poem, written a few days before her death, and dedicated "To Lydia," appears at the conclusion of this sketch.
After his marriage, in view of the many expenses of a legal education, he decided to engage for a time in the occupation which he had learned. Accordingly, in the spring of 1823, at the solicitation of the citizens of Columbus, Chenango county, he removed there, and commenced the erection of a small building, which he designed for a cloth dressing and wool carding shop.
When the building was partly enclosed, he was one day at work upon it. Those who were engaged with him noticed an unusual reticence in his manner, and that he seemed deeply engaged in study. Sud- denly he threw his hammer behind a door, exclaiming, "There, I shall never touch that again ;" then putting on his coat, he left the building without uttering another word. Seeking his wife, he informed her that he had decided to leave the business in which he was engaged, and to commence preparing for the legal pro- fession.
With true devotion and a lofty ambition she encouraged him in his project, assuring him that he
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had the ability to succeed, and that she would make any sacrifice to aid him.
He returned again to the business of teaching and surveying, employing every leisure moment in the study of law ; in this way two or three years passed away.
While attending the various courts in central New York as a witness, he made the acquaintance of the late Lot Clark, who, in those days, was a resident of Norwich, New York. Mr. Clark was eminent at the bar, and widely distinguished in the political, finan- cial, and legal affairs of the State. His discerning and sagacious mind discovered in the young surveyor abilities of the highest order. Learning that he desired to study law he encouraged him in the undertaking, invited him to pursue his studies in his office, gener- ously offering any assistance in his power.
The friendship of Lot Clark was the circumstance which led to the future success of Mr. Dickinson.
Completing the necessary arrangements, he soon became a student in that gentleman's office, and, under his instructions, commenced the regular prose- cution of his studies. To his surprise, Mr. Clark, in a few days, discovered that his student had already acquired a very correct knowledge of the elementary principles of law, and was well versed in the rules of evidence-that by devoting a few months to the study of the practice, he would be well qualified for his admission to the bar.
But there existed an impediment in the way, which seemed almost insurmountable. The rules of the Supreme Court at that time required seven years' study in the office of some practicing lawyer, before a student could be admitted to his examination ; and, although Dickinson had effectually pursued legal studies for at least three years, he was considered by law as having now just commenced his legal educa- tion, not having studied according to the rule of the
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court. Years must elapse before he could even be examined for his admission to the bar.
" I am determined to persevere," said he one day to Clark, after he had been in the office a few weeks; " though I hardly know how I shall sustain myself and family for so long a time, but I believe there will be some way provided."
" Yes, persevere, make yourself thoroughly ac- quainted with the practice and the rules of the courts ; when you have succeeded in this, I will see what else can be done for you," said Mr. Clark.
Accordingly, Dickinson applied himself to his studies as he was directed ; the business in the office was extensive, and hence he had an opportunity to learn the practice from actual experience, as well as from the books. He did not neglect to review the common and statute law which he had previously read ; in this way eight months passed away, when, one day Mr. Clark said to him :
"I think you can now pass a very creditable ex- amination."
"I feel confident that I can ; but what will all this avail me ?"
Mr. Clark informed him that the chief justice some- times suspended the rule and admitted students ex gratia to their examination.
"It is very rarely done, I know," he continued ; "but I have thought it best for you to accompany me to Albany next week ; the General Term will then be in session there ; I will introduce you to Chief Justice Savage, with whom I believe I have some influence, and endeavor to induce him to give you an order for your examination in the class which will be examined at that term."
A new world of hope opened before Dickinson at this suggestion, and he eagerly acceded to it.
The first Monday of October, 1828, saw Daniel S. Dickinson at Albany for the first time. He, who in a few years was destined to return there-to enter its 35
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Senate chamber the gifted senator, and, as the lieuten- ant-governor of the State, to become its dignified and accomplished presiding officer, and the profound statesman, now, obscure and unknown, awaited with trembling hope the fiat which would place him upon the stepping-stone to all those honors.
In the course of that day, Mr. Clark called at the rooms of Judge Savage ; after some general conversa- tion, he said to him :
"Judge, I have a student whom I wish to have admitted to the class for examination this term."
" You know, Mr. Clark, that the clerk is the proper person to make the order for examination of students," said the judge.
"But this is a case, Judge, where you alone have the power to make the order; for, although he is a well-read student, he has now actually pursued his studies within the rule, but a little over eight months, and I desire that you will suspend the rule and give him an order for his examination."
A shade passed over the brow of the judge, as he listened to this request.
"Mr. Clark," said he, "I should be most happy to oblige you in this or any other matter, but my duty will not permit me to grant the order you desire. I have decided to admit no more students to examina- tion who have not complied with the rule. I have oc- casionally done so, I am sorry to say, where the stu- dent was unworthy ; and unless it is a very extraor- dinary case, I shall not vary the rule again."
" I consider this to be a very extraordinary case, or I certainly should not have applied to you," said Mr. Clark.
"There is but one way for me, and that is to rigidly adhere to the practice established by long usage," said the judge.
"Well, Judge, will you hear the circumstances under which the young man, through me, makes this application ?"
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"I think it will be useless, but to oblige you, I will; proceed, Mr. Clark."
"I propose that the young man shall himself relate the circumstances," said Mr. Clark.
" I think that is not worth while," said the judge.
"Judge Savage, I ask as a particular favor, that you see and talk with this young man, and if, after that, you decide to deny his request, I shall be satis- fied."
The judge consented, and in due time Dickinson was alone with the chief justice of the State of New York. He knew that the hopes of coming years rested upon the result of that interview; that if his request was denied, several weary years must elapse before he could attain that goal which from his child- hood, he had so ardently desired to reach. His friend had informed him that there was some doubt as to his success, and therefore he entered the presence of the man who was to decide his fate, conscious that he was to plead his own cause, and summoned all his self- possession and manhood to his aid.
Judge Savage received him with that courteous dignity for which he was distinguished ; he listened attentively to the story of his life, as with simple, unaffected eloquence, he "ran it through, even from his boyish days." He spoke of his early desire to study law, of his struggle to obtain a classical educa- tion, how, when the day's labor was over, he applied himself to his studies-how, when attending the carding machine, with his book by his side, lie be- came acquainted with the authors of antiquity,-and how he worked out those problems which gave him his knowledge of surveying, and how he commenced and continued the study of law, down to the time when he first became acquainted with Mr. Clark ; but he made no appeal for sympathy ; he rested his cause on the bare, unvarnished facts ; he answered promptly and respectfully all the numerous questions asked him by the judge.
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The interview lasted an hour and a half, and when Dickinson left the room, he carried in his hand the order for his admission to the class of students which were to be examined the ensuing evening. With a light and joyous heart, he returned to his hotel, where he found his friend anxiously waiting for him.
"Well, how did you succeed with the chief justice ?"
Dickinson replied by handing him the order of Judge Savage. Clark rapidly glanced over it.
"You have won your first great case," said he, "and it is indeed a great one ; what is better, you won it yourself. As you have succeeded, I have no hesita- tion to inform you that Judge Savage utterly declined to grant this order on my request. But I did not dare inform you of it, fearing that you would be discouraged and refuse to make any. further effort."
"I made no particular effort, Mr. Clark ; the judge seemed willing enough to grant the order. I simply related to him, in a plain way, the history of my life, and answered all his questions as correctly as I knew how."
"Exactly, sir ; you have the talisman of success, the girdle described by Homer, which gave an invis- ible power. You were modest and unassuming, but deeply in earnest ; a strained effort would have ruined your cause with the judge. Now for your ex- amination. Give this paper to the clerk, he will enter your name on the list of students to be examined ; be' on hand promptly, and to-morrow you will be a law- yer," said Clark.
That day the chief justice and Lot Clark met at a dinner given by an eminent citizen of Albany, to the judges and members of the bar.
"Judge," said the latter, "I am happy that you decided to grant my student an order for his exam- ination."
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"He is a young man of extraordinary abilities, Mr. Clark,-a person of learning. Why, sir, I con- sider him a good lawyer already-he will be an ornament to the profession, and in a short time ; he has the ability to make his mark in the world, and he surely will," said the judge.
Dickinson passed a very creditable examination, and was duly admitted to the bar.
Chief Justice Savage left the bench of the Supreme Court, in September, 1837, but before that event, Daniel S. Dickinson occupied a seat with him in the Court for the Correction of Errors-then the highest tribunal in the State, and with him adjudicated the great legal questions which came before it, and their opinions are committed to posterity in those reports which record the decision of the New York courts.
Immediately after his admission to the bar, Mr. Dickinson opened an office at Guilford and commenced his practice. Such had been the habits of his life, such his intercourse with the people, that he had been enabled to study deeply the great book of human nature-a study more essential to lawyers than to any other class of men ; for the hopes, the fears, the frail- ties, and the passions of men, are matters which they have constantly to encounter. Mr. Dickinson's prac- tice soon became the source of a competent income, and his respectability as a lawyer was established by the number of his clients and his success in their behalf. His occupation as a surveyor had given him a general acquaintance with the people, with the situations of the lands in central New York, and the titles thereto. These circumstances were of immense advantage to him ; to them he was indebted for the early reputation which he attained as a real estate lawyer. Actions of ejectment at that period occupied very much of the attention of the courts ; few lawyers better understood the complications of those actions than he.
He had been fortunate in making the acquaintance of several eminent business men at Binghamton,
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through whose influence he was induced to make that beautiful town his future home. He removed there in June, 1831. Here great professional success awaited him-a success which soon gave him a position with the ablest lawyers in the State.
He was constantly engaged in the trial of causes, and in many respects he was peculiarly qualified for an advocate. In those actions in which he could touch on grave, gay, and pathetic subjects, he soon became powerful, "shedding on the world of nisi prius, hues of living beauty," touching on the verge of a sphere which Wirt himself would not have disdained to occupy.
Superior to any thing like trickery or chicanery, he yet was subtle, cautious, and wary. A quick and accurate observer of men and things, as has been said of another, he looked at them from a point of view in which it was his particular business and interest to observe them. Thus, he could "weave a web of diffi- culties for an opponent something like the silken threads in which the shepherdess entangled the steed of Cervantes' hero, who swore in his fine enthusiastic way, that he would sooner cut his way to another world than disturb the least of those beautiful meshes."
One of the most powerful competitors with whom Mr. Dickinson had to contend was John A. Collier, a man by whom it was no disgrace to be over- thrown. Close, terse, logical, unimpassioned, but deeply learned in the law, particularly in evidence, in contracts, in equity and in the common law, he was one of those leading spirits which gave to the bar of the State its superiority. His abilities as a politician were scarcely less remarkable than his legal accom- plishments. As was said of Lord Ellenborough, he was a real chief-such as the rising generation of law- yers may read of, or figure to themselves in imagina- tion, but may never behold to dread or to admire.
He was not only a rival of Mr. Dickinson at the
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bar, but his powerful opponent in the political field ; for years the intellectual contests of these men struck out those vivid sparks which exhibited the powers of the combatants. Though these contests were not entirely free from acrimony and irascibility, yet the courtesies and amenities of the profession were generally observed by both of them.
In the summer of 1844, they were engaged in the argument of an appeal from one of the vice-chancel- lors to the chancellor, at Saratoga, in a matter con- nected with a Chenango county Bank. During the argument, a young lawyer, who had just been exam- ined for a solicitor before Judge Parker, at Albany, entered the room ; he was there for the purpose of taking the solicitor's oath before the chancellor. His time was limited, but he waited patiently until Mr. Collier closed a long, and to him exceedingly dry speech. Mr. Dickinson immediately arose and commenced his remarks. As it was impossible for the young man to wait the conclusion of another argu- ment, he approached the lawyer and said :
" Will you be kind enough, sir, to stop speak- ing long enough for me to take the solicitor's oath ? My great haste is my apology for asking this favor."
Mr. Dickinson ceased speaking, and regarded the intruder with a look of surprise, mingled with some severity, which, however, instantly passed away, and he replied :
" Oh, certainly, certainly, sir ; we need one more solicitor in the State of New York, and you shall be the one, for I see you intend to be on time."
The young lawyer having taken the oath, signed the roll, thanked Mr. Dickinson, and retired. He entered into practice, became eminent at the bar, and in a few years met Mr. Dickinson as his opponent in a very important case.
"I see you do not remember me, Mr. Dickinson ; perhaps you may recollect, some years ago, at Sara-
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toga, you informed a young man about to take the solicitor's oath, that the State of New York needed just one more solicitor, and assured him that he should be the one, as he was on time. I am that for- tunate solicitor."
"So you are a solicitor by my permission, are you ?" said Dickinson, laughing, and taking the law- yer by the hand. "Since then, you have won a posi- tion as a solicitor in which you have done honor to the bar and to the State, and therefore, you really were the one that was needed." From that time, to the close of Mr. Dickinson's life, their relations were intimate and friendly.
Yielding to the natural affinity which the American lawyer has for politics, Mr. Dickinson became an ardent political partizan, strongly attached to the Democratic party. His success as a speaker gave him a high position in his party, while his urbanity and geniality rendered him a favorite with the people. He had been at Binghamton but a short time, when he was tendered the nomination for Assembly by the Democrats of Broome county. But professional am- bition prompted him to decline, and though he be- came a powerful champion of his party, he refused all official distinction, until the autumn of 1836. Yield- ing to the solicitation of his friends, he then accepted the nomination for senator from the Democratic party of the old sixth Senatorial district, one of the largest and most important in the State.
His nomination was highly complimentary to him. He was elected by a heavy majority, and commenced his Senatorial duties on the 3rd day of January, 1837. John Tracy was then lieutenant-governor, and the Democratic party was dominant in the State. Mr. Dickinson was honored by a prominent place on several important committees, the duties of which he discharged with vigor and ability. With a cautious and discriminating use of those rare abilities which he possessed, he soon rose to the position of a leader in a
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body composed of men whose singular lucidity of thought and expression, whose versatile attainments, persevering industry, and elevated views, rendered the Legislature of New York conspicuous before the nation.
Mr. Dickinson entered the State Senate at a time when political discussions were strong and fierce ; and, as one of the leaders of the Democratic party, he was the subject of many maledictions. As censure is said to be the tax which man pays for being eminent, he paid liberally for his position. But he encountered this species of warfare with firmness, and in turn assumed the aggressive with such vigor and power, that he was as formidable in the attack as he was invulner- able in defense; but he always commanded the secret, and often the open respect of his political antagonists.
Some of his speeches in the Legislature won the commendation of all who were not so blinded by party that they could observe nothing bright-nothing meri- torious in the utterances of a political opponent. One of the most able and eloquent of his Senatorial speeches was delivered on the 10th day of February, 1837, on the introduction of a bill in the Senate for the repeal of the usury laws.
Governor Marcy, in his annual message to the Legislature, that year, recommended the repeal of the usury laws, and the measure was strongly advocated in the Senate, by the powerful abilities of Samuel Young, of Saratoga. Mr. Dickinson warmly opposed the measure, and, as has been said by another, the discussion of the question led to an animated and ยท interesting debate ; but the agitation ended for a time, and for many years afterwards, as a public question, by the adoption, at the same session, of additional safeguards and more severe penalties against usury. In the course of that remarkable speech, Mr. Dickin- son said :
"But the honorable senator from the fourth, Mr. Young, asserts that the usury law prevents competition
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between money lenders ; that if the usury laws are repealed, money will flow into the State freely, and that there will be an abundance to be loaned at less than seven per cent. Who, I ask, believes that this will be so ? Interest is intended to be the fair average value of the use of money ; that it may not reach every individual case is not pretended ; there is an average moral rate, and that should be, and is, in contemplation of law, the legal rate. Seven per cent., I assume, is not only a fair compensation for the use of money, but is the average value of its use. Who has ever known a money lender, however unenter- prising and stupid, and however humble in his begin- ning, who has not grown into affluence by an interest of even seven per cent., while his vigilant and enter- prising neighbor, who has embarked in other business, has failed to keep pace with the gains of money accu- mulation ? No one will pretend that a fair competi- tion is prevented at less than seven per cent. The rate of interest in England is five per cent. ; in France, four; in Holland, three; and in all the adjoining States, six. Now, where is the capital to 'flow in' from ? How does the senator from the fourth explain why capital will be invited at an interest of less than seven per cent. when it will not come at seven ? Why does not this liquid substance begin to flow now ? Two per cent. has invited England ; three per cent. has invited France ; four per cent. has invited Hol- land ; one per cent. has invited all our neighboring States, and yet the capital, we are told, refuses to ' flow in.'
"The senator from the fourth has informed us that one house in New York has paid usury enough to purchase a farm upon the fertile and almost classic plains of Saratoga ; that another has paid sixty thou- sand dollars of usury within the last year, and that six or eight millions of dollars of usury have been paid within the year in the city of New York alone. I am much obliged for the information ; this explains
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all,-it is a sufficient sum to induce the moneyed sharks to pursue the ship of State for a long time to come. If they have succeeded in obtaining this enor- mous amount while the laws are in force, what, I ask, will they do when they are repealed ? .
"While the senator from the fourth is sheltered behind Jeremy Bentham, he will doubtless think my attempt to assail his impregnable citadel like storming Gibraltar with a pocket pistol ; but I have done so upon his invitation, and claim to have both my mo- tives and courage appreciated for even attempting it. If I am annihilated in the struggle, I can say with Hannah More, in her Sacred Drama :
"''Twill sweeten death To know I had the honor to contend With the dread son Anak.'"
Mr. Dickinson's speech upon the governor's mes- sage, delivered in the Senate, January 11, 1840, attracted much attention. It was entirely political in its nature, and, as speeches on such occasions usually are, it was made to settle political scores. It was gen- erally commented upon by the press of the State, each political party discovering faults or merits, according to its political tendencies.
He delivered many other important speeches while in the State Senate, many of which bear the impress of the statesman.
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