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 52
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Accordingly, the justice commenced reading. For a time he succeeded admirably, making good pro- gress, until he reached the region of erasures, altera- tions and interlineations. Entering it with great determination, he continued until fairly entangled amidst the intricacies of scratched and erased lines, which crossed and recrossed the paper in devious courses, while here and there legal phrases appeared, like distant neighbors in a wilderness, and then he came to a full stop. Taking breath, he commenced again. After much studying, he said :
"Well, I guess likely, if all these words could be
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put together, just as you intended, Mr. Noxon, I think there is nothing wanting."
"Exactly, your honor," said Mr. Noxon. "I neg- lected to put in one or two of those characters called carets, which, your honor understands, show where interlined words should be placed."
" Well, Mr. Noxon, suppose you read the paper, and I'll look over."
Accordingly, the young lawyer again read the pa- per, the justice and the other lawyer looking over ; again it appeared that nothing was wanting; all the requirements of the statute were fully included, and the paper was really a strong one.
"Yes, I see, it's all there, it's all right, very plain to be seen, too, only them carets ain't there," said the justice.
The opposing lawyer, seeing himself in danger of being flanked in his attack, made a desperate struggle, and finally proposed to read the affidavit again him- self, assuring the justice that he could show him the omission very plainly.
" What good will it do you to read the paper. You don't know where them carets should come in, and nobody else but Mr. Noxon and myself do, so you can't read the paper right if you try. I tell you carets are very particular things ; writing wouldn't be much without them. So I shall hold the affidavit good, and if you have got a good defense, no harm will come to you," said the justice.
The cause was then tried. Mr. Noxon succeeded in a case where right and justice were entirely with his client, and where, by bridging an error, he saved his client's honest demand, and his own reputation. The opposing lawyer, however, advised his client to appeal the case, insisting that there was a perfectly fatal error in the affidavit.
"Well, 'Square, 'spose there is a big mistake, what's the use trying to do anything with it. That confounded Noxon-he'll come in and talk to the
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court about them 'ere carups and things, and he'll make black white, and white black, and I shall get beat again. Carups was too much for you that time, 'Square, so I'll pay up and have done with the mat- ter," said the man.
It was the delight of Mr. Noxon to measure weapons with older and more experienced opponents, because he was well aware that in this way he gained strength and confidence. From the commencement to the end of his professional life he was a thorough, laborious and constant student. One of his most marked char- acteristics was his ability to understand the weak and strong points of his own case as well as those of his adversary.
At the commencement of Mr. Noxon's practice our State reports were few, reaching only to the third or fourth volume of Johnson's Reports; but he never failed to consult diligently the common law, and those works on which the careful student depended so much for light and learning. He was a close, constant and practical thinker ; and although he was often charged with indolence-a charge to which many industrious lawyers have been subjected-those only called him indolent who were unacquainted with the study and thought revolving in that mind which in after years so captivated courts and juries with learning and eloquence.
Within a very short time after Mr. Noxon com- menced his practice he was regarded as a successful lawyer, and his brilliant future career at the bar was plainly foreshadowed. But though his professional ambition was great, he knew how to curb it, so that it did not so far overleap itself as to render him for- getful of those enjoyments so necessary to the health and vigorous expansion of his physical and mental powers.
Fishing and hunting were his favorite amusements ; and it may be safely said that, with trout-pole in hand, he threw his line, with the skill of a Walton, into
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every stream where trout abounded in Onondaga and the surrounding counties, while his gun resounded on every marsh, every woody hill-side, every shaded hill- top, in every dell and deep glen within his reach, where a bird could be flushed or game of any kind started.
Many years ago he was attending the Tompkins Circuit, at which the late Judge Robert Monell pre- sided. The cause he was waiting to try was set down for Wednesday morning, the first week of the circuit. On the adjournment of court Tuesday evening, Mr. Noxon accompanied a friend home, who resided a few miles out of Ithaca, where he remained during the night.
In returning to town the next morning the axle of his friend's carriage broke, and he was therefore con- siderably delayed. On reaching the court room he found another cause on trial. It happened that Hon- orable Hiram Gray, then in the midst of his extensive and brilliant practice, was waiting to try the next cause. When the case on trial was disposed of, Mr. Noxon moved his cause, claiming the precedence. Judge Gray, however, objected, on the ground that he had lost his privilege by his tardiness in the morning, and insisted that his case was the next in order. Whereupon, Mr. Noxon, as an excuse for not being present when his cause was called, informed the court of the accident which occurred while on his way to the court room.
" Had it not been for the broken axle, your honor," said he, "I should have been here in due time."
"His excuse is not a proper one, your honor," said Gray ; "he has been off fishing and strayed too far away."
"How do you know that ?" asked Noxon.
"Because," said Gray, "when you came into the house I heard your boots go sgush, sgush, sqush ; and that, as everybody knows, is a sure sign that you have been a-fishing."
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Judge Monell, with that dignity which character- ized him while on the bench, said :
" I myself often indulge in the healthy and pleas- ing amusement of fishing, and I am inclined to encourage the pastime in others. It is a manly art, and should be cultivated ; therefore, brother Gray, you ought to know that upon your own showing the counsel's excuse will be regarded by this court as a proper one. Take a jury, Mr. Noxon."
At the dinner table that day, Gray suggested to Judge Monell the propriety of having the rules of the court so amended that when counsel desire to fish, they can enter an order to that effect in the common rule book, and thereby delay the cause without preju- dice, until they return, provided they do so during the term, if not-then their causes were to go over without costs, as a matter of course.
"That would hardly do, brother Gray," said the judge ; " there would soon be too many bungling fish- ermen about, if such a rule was adopted. If you could make the rule apply only to accomplished fishermen like Noxon, Hurlbert, and some others I could name, I think I should approve of it."
Notwithstanding Mr. Noxon's reflective and spec- ulative mind, he acted with great energy in practical affairs ; and under all circumstances he maintained his firmness and gravity.
This was illustrated in his first case before a mag- istrate. He examined and cross-examined the wit- nesses in the action with unusual ability for one so unaccustomed to the business, and when the evidence was all taken, summed it up very forcibly. Dur- ing his argument, the lawyer opposed told him he lied. Noxon immediately knocked him half sense- less into the lap of the justice, and then continued his remarks as though nothing had happened.
The next day, he was' arrested on a charge of assault and battery, and taken before a magistrate in an adjoining town. This justice, who was a good
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natured, well-meaning Dutchman, having heard the evidence against the prisoner, was very much puz- zled to know what disposition to make of the case. After studying some time upon it, he called to his wife, who was sitting by the door in an adjoining room, and asked her what course he had better pursue.
Polly inquired of one of the witnesses how soon the blow was given after the lawyer told Noxon he lied.
"It was a word and a blow," was the reply.
She then continued her knitting without uttering a word. At length the justice, who was anxiously waiting for her reply, said :
"Vell, Polly, vat you tink now ?"
"I think Mr. Noxon served him right," said she.
"Vell den, I tink so too ; and dat ish the shudg- ment of tish court," said the justice, straightening up with the importance of his official position, and the prisoner was discharged.
In 1828, Mr. Noxon moved to Onondaga Hill, where the court house and clerk's office were then located.
He was then thirty years of age; and although he had been at the bar but eight years, he had already acquired a reputation beyond the limits of his county. His acquaintance increased at each suc- cessive court, and his ability exhibited itself in every trial, attracting the attention and gaining the respect of the distinguished jurists by whom he was sur- rounded.
He continued to reside at Onondaga eleven years ; and when the court house was removed to Syracuse, Mr. Noxon also removed to the latter place. Many now living will remember the interesting and exciting trials which occurred in the old court house at Onon- daga, where Spencer, Savage, Walworth and Nelson presided, and where the old gladiators of the bar con- tended. Among them, James R. Lawrence and Mr.
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Noxon were conspicuous-contesting the rights of their clients in almost every cause on the calendar. James R. Lawrence was in his day a power at the bar. He possessed the rare faculty of causing jurors to be- lieve in him ; while his fine elocutionary powers, set off by a keen and sparkling wit, rendered him attract- ive and pleasing to the people. As a sensible farmer, residing in the town of Manlius, once said of him :
" Lawrence is one of the institutions of Onondaga county. Not to see him in our courts would seem like having no courts at all."
Immediately after becoming a resident of Syracuse, Mr. Noxon formed a copartnership with Elias W. Leavenworth, a lawyer of commanding talents, and a gentleman of many rare and attractive qualities. For the long period of fifty-five years Mr. Noxon's pro- fessional labors were a splendid success. It was during the last twenty years of his practice that he achieved those high honors which are awarded to a successful and popular lawyer. It is difficult to decide whether he excelled at the circuit before the jury-where words of burning eloquence convince men, and cause them to yield a willing assent to the supremacy of the gifted orator-or before the court, where abstract questions of law alone are discussed, and where the only charm which endows the speaker consists in the facility of wielding logic and in the subtlety and com- pass of reasoning.
But in neither place was Mr. Noxon one of those speakers who always talk as long as they are listened to-measuring the quantity of their eloquence by the time that can be afforded for its display-the quality, by the nature and patience of the audience to whom it is addressed. He knew how to express his thoughts in brief, well - timed, admirably arranged and ele- gant language, perfectly free from exaggeration, and suited to the capacity of his hearers. The House of Commons, it has been said, is strewn with the wrecks
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of the reputations of eminent lawyers ; and perhaps the same remark may, to some extent, apply to the legislative bodies of our own country. Often the most successful speaker in the parliamentary arena is he who often " abandons the point of debate altogether. and singles out from the adversary some victim whom he may torture by ridicule or reproach, or lay hold of some popular party topic likely to point the public in- dignation against his opponent, or flatter the passions of his older adherents. Many of the speeches in such places are not, in effect, addressed to the supposed audience, but to the people ; and. consequently, are like scene-painting-which is to be viewed at a distance. and by the unskillful is more remarked for the bold- ness of the figures and the vivacity of the coloring than for nature and truth. It is not the genus delib- eraticum. but the genus demonstrativum of eloquence that is most successful there."
As Mr. Noxon confined his elocutionary powers and his ambition to his profession, he never shared the fate of those who, like actors, are permitted to wear the habiliments of ofice for a brief period. to appear in character for a short time, and then pass be- hind the scenes, out of sight and out of mind. Con- sequently, it is impossible to tell what he would have been, as a speaker or manager, in those places where politicians do most congregate.
That he succeeded at the bar as a powerful speaker and advocate, is certain. That his fame rests on no ephemeral circumstance, but is the result of solid acquirements and of great mental discipline, is equally certain. For twenty years his voice was heard in the court rooms of the surrounding counties. with such antagonists as Mullen and Chittenden. of Jeffer- son ; Allen, of Oswego; Seward, Rathbun. Bronson. and Hurlbert, of Cayuga ; Beardsley, Spencer. Denio, Gridley and Jenkins, of Oneida ; Marvin, Worden and John C. Spencer. of Ontario ; Collier, of Broome; Cady, of Montgomery ; Johnson, of Tompkins; Ste-
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vens, Hill and Reynolds, of Albany ; J. C. Smith and Adams of Wayne; and others, alike distinguished in other parts of the State.
Perhaps no lawyer in the State was more learned in the trial of causes relating to lands in the military tract, than was Mr. Noxon. His familiarity with the titles growing out of disputes relating to lands set apart to soldiers for service in the Revolution, gave him a reputation as wide as the State ; and whenever cases relating to these lands were brought before the courts, among the able and distinguished men at the bar employed in settling these titles, were to be found such men as Kellogg, Cady, Wood, Noxon, and other jurists occupying the front rank in the profession. He was familiar with the practice and proceedings in all the courts of law and equity in the State, as well as the Circuit and District Courts of the United States.
As a criminal lawyer, he often appeared in the de- fense of men charged with high crimes, and although the criminal law was not with him a specialty, who can forget the masterly power with which he probed to the quick an unwilling or refractory culprit on cross-examination ? Who can fail to remember the scathing rebuke and lashing dishonest witnesses re- ceived on the summing up ? It is impossible to give a sketch of the important trials in which he took a part as counsel during a period of nearly sixty years de- voted to his profession, and it is hardly possible that any lawyer of the State had been engaged in more trials and won brighter laurels. Often when he met Spencer of Oneida at the circuit, every cause on the calendar would be stoutly contested by them as an- tagonists, and the fight be as hard and desperate as when "Greek met Greek." Of some of the cases in which he was engaged, and met the giants of the profession, we might mention the case of Wilbur, tried in Madison county for murder, and of Bates for the murder of Riley, tried at Batavia, in which Mr.
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Noxon was counsel for the people ; - of Marsh v. Hutchinson, tried at Onondaga, and in which Hurl- bert, Adams, Randall, Beardsley, Lawrence, Gott, and others were engaged ; of Russell, tried at Balls- ton Spa by Mr. Noxon and John Van Buren on one side, and Honorable J. K. Porter and Samuel Stevens on the other, and in which other distinguished coun- sel also participated. This last case had been pre- viously tried at Poughkeepsie, when Daniel Webster appeared as counsel for one of the parties. He was also engaged in the case of Hubbard v. Briggs, tried at the Wayne Circuit in 1844, and afterwards at cir- cuit six or seven times, and several times in the Su- preme Court and Court of Appeals. In this celebrated case, which for over twenty years was in the courts of the State, many of the master spirits in the pro- fession were engaged ; among others, General Adams, John Maynard, J. A. Spencer, Alvah Worden, Mark H. Sibley, T. R. Strong, Daniel Pratt, George F. Comstock, C. B. Sedgwick, Judge James C. Smith, E. G. Lapham, and Francis Kernan. The libel suit brought by Elam Lynds against the proprietors of an Auburn newspaper, for charging Lynds with cruelty to prisoners as keeper of the Auburn prison, was tried at the Onondaga Circuit, and was summed up by Mark H. Sibley for the defendant, and Mr. Noxon for the plaintiff. The case of Miller v. Opdyke, tried at the Seneca Circuit, involving the title to a military lot, was tried by James Noxon as attorney, assisted by B. Davis Noxon, his father, for the plaintiff, and by S. G. Hadley, assisted by Daniel Cady, for the de- fendant. Other important cases might be referred to as having been tried at the Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis, Herkimer, Oneida, Madison, Chenango, Broome, Cortland, Yates, Cayuga, Tompkins, Chemung, Wayne, and Monroe Circuits, all of which Mr. Noxon was in the habit of attending and displaying there the abilities of a profound and distinguished lawyer.
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Often in the trial of causes at these circuits, with- out knowing what was the question to be tried, Mr. Noxon entered upon the trial, carefully taking the minutes, and as step by step the case unfolded itself, he seized the main points and became master of the case long before the testimony of the parties had been given. Now came into play the wonderful gifts with which nature had so well endowed him. His strong common sense, his quick perception of right and wrong, his keen recollection of important cases and principles which bore upon the case on trial, all made him appear as if he had made of the case a careful and diligent study. Now came a motion in relation to the admission of testimony, and then a motion for non- suit, and then burst forth from his lips that native power and strength which convinced the judge, over- whelmed the adversary, and delighted the auditory. With no effort at eloquence, and no seeming choice of language, his address was the very embodiment of nature's gifted orator, and his words so apt and. expressive, that it seemed as if nature had furnished first the thought, and then the word fittest to express it. But the questions of law were settled, the evidence closed, and then came the address of counsel to the jury. In addressing the jury, Mr. Noxon never flat- tered, never coaxed, and rarely appealed to passion. The strong points in his case, and the weak points of his adversary were held up to the jury in language so plain that no one could mistake his words. If argu- ments were needed to convince, they were drawn from the every-day transactions of life, and jurors were ap- pealed to from their own good sense, from their every- day observation, and from their natural love of right. against wrong. He never feared to tell a jury of the difficulties and embarrassments of his own case ; lie never delighted in poetic flights; he never studied to tickle the ear with enchanting words ; but often in those cases where others aimed to please by well- turned periods, and choice and elegant language, as
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if by inspirations his eloquence and brilliancy in the use of the most common words, and by the most nat- ural and easy figures of speech, won the hearts of the jury and threw a spell over the crowded court room drawn thither to listen to his thrilling words.
The sketch here drawn would be highly imperfect unless we mentioned that to the rare gift and acquire- ments attained by great labor, and incessant toil, he was not less distinguished for those high moral qualities without which true greatness is never earned. To speak of Mr. Noxon as an honest man conveys no just idea of his true nature. That he detested fraud and abominated wickedness and trickery and every form of rascality, was con- spicuous in every act of his life. Truth and fidelity shone forth in every element of his nature. His word was sacred among his professional brethren, and no client ever feared that his rights would suffer while intrusted to his hands. Mr. Noxon was not a pol- itician in the ordinary acceptation of the word. He had no ambition for office. He loved the law and was ambitious of standing on the upper round of the legal ladder. The schemes, tricks, and caucuses of pol- iticians were detested by him as corrupting and defiling. He entertained no higher opinion of a dis- honest politician in his own party than he did of one in the opposition. He loved his principles and en- deavored to persuade men they were right. He felt a bitter feeling and hatred towards all kinds of oppo- sition that npheld fraud. He never winked at iniquity anywhere. His social qualities, his genial nature, his sympathetic heart, which, in his every- day life was exhibited around his own fireside and in his own family circle, were extended to his neighbors and friends. He loved to meet and enjoy the society of the young, and to take by the hand the young man just entering upon his professional life and point him to the stars shining in the legal horizon. His manner
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was so winning, his words so kind, that no one thought of being timid in his presence.
At a meeting of the bar of Onondaga county, called to give expression to the feelings of the bar upon the decease of Mr. Noxon, Hon. C. B. Sedgwick said in relation to the litigation growing out of the titles of land in the military tract :
"The nisi prius courts were held by the judges of the Supreme Court; the giants of the profession, the elder Spencer, Kent, Platt, Van Ness, Livingston, Tompkins and Yates, lawyers of the highest reputa- tion from all parts of the State-Van Vechten, Elisha Williams, Emott, Daniel Cady, Martin Van Buren, were constant attendants upon our courts. These were the men with whom the young lawyers of that day were to measure their strength, and such the tribunals which would decide where victory was to be awarded, and among such lawyers Mr. Noxon was conspicuous. In knowledge of this branch of the law, in careful preparation, in the acumen necessary to mark every nice distinction, in the skill to detect and expose fraud and perjury, in boldness, tact, pertinacity in his hard logic for the court, and his skillful appeals to juries, he was in the front rank of
his profession. Experience in the trial of such causes made him a complete and thorough lawyer, and he stood almost without a peer or rival in real estate law throughout his professional life. At the time Mr. Noxon commenced practice, the reports of this State consisted of Johnson's and Caines' Cases, and four volumes of Johnson's Reports ; the statutes of the State were hardly equal in bulk to one volume of our present Session Laws ; Story and Kent were busy as advocates or judges in acquiring the reputation which afterwards made their commentaries authority. The works of Tidd, Chitty, Saunders, Bacon, Coke, Sugden, Fearne, Blackstone and Phillips, upon prac- tice, pleading, evidence, and leading legal prin- ciples, contained about the whole armory of the
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common law. Mr. Noxon studied the cases which shaped and settled the law of this State as they arose. In many important ones he had a part. In all his career as a lawyer he was distinguished for his accu- rate knowledge of adjudged cases-their reasons, their distinctions and their limitations, and no man had a better memory to retain, or more skill to use this knowledge. From this armory he drew at pleas- ure, battle-axe or scimetar, and wielded them as re- quired with a strong or a cunning hand. I should do great injustice to Mr. Noxon's professional character, if I left it to be inferred that he was merely a real es- tate lawyer. His mind was equally ready or nearly so in other branches of his profession. He was quick- witted and ready as well as strong in the trial of cases. I well remember the story of his defense of a man prosecuted for libel, in calling a man a buttermilk doctor, as related to me by my old preceptor. The case was tried before Judge Van Ness. It was his habit to have a pitcher of buttermilk on the bench, and to drink it freely, after the manner of his Dutch progenitors. In summing up, Mr. Noxon said :
" It is no libel to call a man a buttermilk doctor. I, as well as his honor, the judge, have some such blood in our veins, and I should not feel insulted or libeled to be called a buttermilk lawyer, nor would he to be called a buttermilk judge."
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