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 57
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On the morning succeeding the trial, Dr. Yates, who was foreman of the jury, went to Mr. Angel's room at his hotel, and stated that he had come at the request of the jury, and in accordance with his own inclination, to thank him for doing complete justice to the case and the opposing counsel, who, in the con- sciousness of his strength and the force of his influ- ence, was sometimes overbearing and oppressive to- wards those who were younger and more humble than himself.
From this time forward, Mr. Angel experienced no difficulty whatever in his professional pursuits, or the discharge of his professional duties. His business in- creased rapidly, and very soon equaled in amount the practice of any lawyer in the county, and never after, when able to attend to business, has he been without a client or something to do. He rapidly rose to dis- tinction as an advocate, and acquired an influence with juries that seemed to know no limit. His style of speaking was plain, deliberate, and impressive, en- forcing his positions with a clearness and logical pre- cision that usually amounted to little less than dem- onstration, and presenting his conclusions and the reasons upon which they were based with a candor that never failed to carry entire conviction of his sin- cerity to the mind of the hearer.
In politics, Mr. Angel was a Democrat of the strict- est sect, and early attached to the Bucktail party. In 1821, he was appointed surrogate of the county of Otsego, which office he held for several years, and discharged its important and perplexing duties with the greatest satisfaction to all parties concerned, and to the public at large.
In the fall of 1824, at the time of the election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency, he was the candidate of the Republican party for their repre- sentative in Congress from the district of Otsego. His opponent was Dr. Campbell, of Cherry Valley, an esti- mable and popular man, connected with several large
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and influential families of the early settlers of the county. The contest was warm and spirited, and Mr. Angel was elected by a handsome majority.
On entering Congress, he took early and decided ground against the Tariff and the Bank, and steadily opposed every species of monopoly, entertaining the opinion that it was not the legitimate function of gov- ernment to regulate the private business affairs of the people by means of special legislation. He was placed on the Committee on Territories, of which the late President Polk was also a member, and a feeling of friendship and confidence, which was never impaired, existed between them until the president's death. During the term for which he was elected, he was emphatically a working member, seldom participating in debate. At the period of his election, there were three papers published in Otsego county, two at Cooperstown and one at Cherry Valley, all of which supported the cause and administration of Mr. Adams. Immediately upon entering Congress, he united him- self with the supporters of General Jackson, and con- tinued a firm and consistent friend of him and his administration during the remainder of Jackson's political life.
In the fall of 1828, he was again elected to Congress by a large majority over General Crafts, of Laurens, one of the most wealthy and influential men in the county. At the same election, General Jackson received a large and decided majority in Otsego county.
During his second term, in consequence of a defect in his eyesight he was excused from serving on any of the committees, and devoted himself generally to the business of the House, which he perfectly under- stood, and made himself familiar with its minutest details.
During the winter of 1830, many important and exciting questions were the subjects of discussion in the House, embracing the Tariff, Internal Improve- ments by the general government, and the removal of
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the southern Indians beyond the Mississippi river. In all these questions Mr. Angel took a deep interest, and often participated in the debates. On the first day of April, 1830, the bill for the construction of a road from Buffalo by way of Washington to New Orleans being under consideration, he submitted his views on the general principle of the bill, in an earnest and forcible speech against it, and in favor of the doctrines afterwards promulgated by General Jack- son, in his celebrated veto of the Maysville road. This was the first set speech he had ventured to make in Congress, and it attracted attention for the plain, pointed, and direct manner in which the subject was treated, and the strong common sense that character- ized its positions. It received the compliment of the profound attention of the House, and produced no little sensation.
In the fall of 1830, Mr. Angel was again put in nomination as a candidate for re-election. In the convention, several prominent members of the party were also presented for nomination, and their claims were zealously urged, but without success, and Mr. Angel received the nomination by a large and decided vote. His opponent in the canvass was Horace La- throp, Esq., of Cherry Valley, an intelligent lawyer and worthy man, who had once been elected clerk of the county, when the political majority was largely against the party to which he was attached. In this contest, the entire strength of the opposition was put forth, and a combination of interests and feeling evoked to defeat Mr. Angel, which for a while ap- peared likely to prove successful.
One of the unsuccessful candidates in the conven- tion also thought it his privilege to oppose him at the polls, and in a remote town where Mr. Angel was but slightly acquainted, produced a large defection against him, and while the regular Democratic ticket received a majority of thirty, the majority against him was one hundred and sixty. Never before in the his-
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tory of the county had a candidate been so fiercely and violently opposed. The whole contest turned upon the Congressional candidate, and the rest of the ticket on either side was left to take care of itself. But while the wealth of the county interested in manufac- tures, combined with the religious fanaticism of some, and the disappointed ambition of others taking re- venge at the polls, was arrayed in confident force against him, he was nobly sustained by the sturdy yeomanry of his district, whose votes could not be controlled by political jobbers, wire-pullers, and small politicians, and Mr. Angel was elected by a small majority.
Under the circumstances, his election may be re- garded as one of the greatest political and personal triumphs ever won in the county of Otsego. To the managers of the opposition it was equally a matter of surprise, disappointment and mortification, and they were at a loss to understand the cause of the extent and strength of the devotion manifested by the mass of the people for their favorite candidate.
At the succeeding session of Congress, the only question of interest in the discussion of which Mr. Angel took part, was the claim in behalf of James Monroe. While the subject was under consideration, Mr. Angel submitted his views at length against the principles of the bill, in a speech of great clearness and power. It is sufficient to say of this speech, that subsequently, when some of the members from New Hampshire, who acted and voted with him in relation to this matter, were in nomination for re-election, and were assailed for having opposed this claim, the speech of Mr. Angel was published and circulated in their districts as containing a perfect vindication of their conduct and their votes. And still more recent- ly, in 1844, when Mr. Polk was assailed while a can- didate for the presidency, on the same ground, in some of the Southern States, this speech was extensively circulated and with great effect, for the purpose of re-
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moving any unfounded prejudice that might exist on the subject.
With the termination of this Congress, Mr. Angel closed his Congressional career, and again retired to private life. During the entire period of his last two terms, he had been nearly blind, and was dependent upon his friends for his reading, and employed an amanuensis to conduct his correspondence and pre- pare his notes for the debates. So great was this difficulty, that when about to address the House on the subject of the Buffalo and New Orleans road, he was unable to read the title of the bill, although dis- played in coarse print, and was under the necessity of asking a friend to read it for him. It was under these disadvantages that his most important Con- gressional labors were performed, and we are better able to appreciate their character for this un- derstanding of the matter.
Mr. Angel was the intimate personal friend of Mr. Calhoun, who manifested for him an undiminished feeling of friendship and regard during his life, not- withstanding the rupture of their political relations when Mr. Calhoun severed his connection with the party. Among his intimate personal associates and confidential friends while in Congress, were Judge Clayton, of Georgia, General Houston, then of Ten- nessee, and Ogden Hoffman and Silas Wright, of New York. With this class of men he was held in high esteem, and it is no light matter of praise that he was counted worthy of their confidence and regard.
On retiring from Congress, he found his profes- sional business so much disturbed, and his health and sight so greatly impaired, that he hesitated to engage again immediately in such arduous duties. But shortly recovering both health and sight, he form- ed, early in the summer of 1833, a copartnership with Honorable Morris Brown, then a resident of Ham- mondsport, New York, an eminent member of the Steuben bar, and now a leading member of the Penn
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Yan bar. Mr. Angel's reputation gave him a promi- nent position in his new field of action, and the busi- ness of the firm was exceedingly prosperous.
At the time he decided to leave Otsego county, Martin Grover was a student in his office. Mr. Grover had become so attached to his preceptor, that he ac- companied him to Hammondsport, and in the office of Messrs. Brown & Angel completed his legal studies. After his admission to the bar he removed to Angelica and there commenced the duties and responsibilities of an active and successful professional life.
Judge Grover entered upon his practice with the most unflagging industry. He is a native of Otsego county, and at an early period of his life, entered Hartwick Academy, where he won the commendation of his teachers by a practical and successful prosecu- tion of his studies. "The ardor with which he sought for knowledge, in every useful form, may be compared to a miser seeking for gold." The same love of knowledge and investigation characterized him as the law student and the practitioner.
Often when professional labor occupied his time during the day, instead of retiring to rest at night, he sought his library and rarely left it until long after midnight. When the duties of his profession began to press him, he seemed to be indifferent to sleep.
An eminent lawyer who knew him intimately during the earlier years of his practice, once said to the author :
"I often admired Mr. Grover's stores of legal learning, and I was always attracted by his vast fund of information on other intellectual subjects, for he was equally familiar with others, natural philosophy, history, biography, metaphysics, statistics, and poli- tics. He possessed, in a remarkable degree, the power of retaining what he learned, and his stores of knowl- edge were ever ready at his command."
The devotion of Judge Grover to his profession, the ardor with which he explored its vast fields of
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learning, led to a day of results and triumphs ; he soon became one of the most popular lawyers in west- ern New York. His intellectual and moral constitu- tion, his education, his habits and his sympathies, all conspired to render him a favorite with "the sover- eigns," and while he continued at the bar he was emphatically the people's lawyer, whom they have de- lighted to elevate and honor. He has represented them in Congress, and for many years has pronounced the laws for them from the bench, and they have recently given another proof of their confidence by placing him for a term of years upon the bench of the highest court in the State.
In 1835, Judge Grover, prompted by his confi- dence in Mr. Angel's legal attainments and abilities, prevailed upon him to remove to Angelica, and enter into business with him. This arrangement was fortu- nate for both parties ; it combined strength of intel- lect, long experience and research, which soon brought the well-deserved emoluments of ardent pro- fessional devotion. The firm of Angel & Grover, during a period of nine years, was engaged in nearly every important case which was tried at the Angelica bar-a bar by no means inferior in ability and versa- tility of talent.
From the days when Ambrose Spencer sat upon its bench down to the present time, it has been an arena where the most gifted intellects of the State have contended, and there every kind of legal combat has been witnessed. There, John C. Spencer, S. A. Talcott, J. A. Collier, Luther C. Peck, John B. Skinner, Henry Wells, Robert Campbell, George Miles, Fletcher M. Haight, Martin Grover, and Wil- liam G. Angel, have contended.
It was the fortune of Mr. Grover not only to con- tend with these eminent lawyers, but with a class equally powerful who came to the bar after them- men like David Rumsey, Wilkes Angel, M. B.
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Champlain, Washington Barnes, S. G. Hathaway, Ward, Hawley, and others.
The firm of Angel & Grover continued until the year 1843, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Angel formed a copartnership with his son, Hon. Wilkes Angel, now of Belmont. This relation continued to exist until 1847, when the senior partner was elected county judge of Allegany county.
In 1846, Judge Angel was elected a delegate to represent Allegany county in the constitutional con- vention which met at Albany on the first day of June, 1846. The proceedings of that convention attest the ability and labor with which he devoted himself to the discharge of his duties.
As chairman of the committee on the appointment or election of all officers whose power and duties are local, and their tenure of office, he performed severe as well as delicate duties. The report on the matters submitted to that committee, which he made to the convention on the fifteenth of July, 1846, was a docu- ment prepared with masterly skill and ability, and re- veals the vast amount of labor and investigation which it required and he gave.
Of the many speeches which Mr. Angel delivered in the convention, the one which he made on the ninth of June, on the qualification and the duties of the executive, was not excelled by any speech on that subject in the convention. His speeches on the ap- portionment- on the election and tenure of office of the Legislature- on the judiciary articles-on the canals and finances, and on the rights of married women, were pregnant with practical, useful and lib- eral suggestions, and furnished the convention with a fund of valuable information which greatly aided the members in their deliberations.
With the adjournment of this convention, Mr. Angel resumed his professional duties. But he was not permitted to continue long in practice. In June, 1847, he was elected county judge of Allegany coun-
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ty. He discharged the duties of that office in the most acceptable manner four years and a half, and then retired forever from all public duties.
The learning, experience, ability, sound sense and impartiality which he brought to the bench, ren- dered him a favorite with the bar, and inspired the community with a general respect for him.
Judge Angel died at Angelica, on the thirteenth day of August, 1858, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
Through life, his manners and habits were plain and unassuming ; he delighted in the society and con- versation of the learned and the intelligent. The sunny playfulness of his nature remained undimmed by the approach of age, giving peculiar grace to the autumn of his life, for it seemed like hoarded treas- ure, purified by the ordeal through which it had passed, "preserving his mind fresh and green from the frosts which bowed his form and whitened his locks."
Down to the latest period of his life, books were his delight, and when the author pleased him, he read and re-read his productions, gathering new beau- tics with each repeated reading ; and thus the sun of his life went down, clear and unclouded.
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.
Born at Kinderhook .- His Early Life .- Is Sent to Hudson Academy .- Makes the Acquaintance of a Young Lawyer .- Friendship of the Lawyer for him, and the Reasons .- Butler becomes a Student in his Office .- The Lawyer's Career .- Is Elected to the Senate .- Martin Van Buren, at Hudson .- Removes to Albany .- Hostility of the Federalists to him .- Boswell's Description of Wilberforce applies to him .- His Characteristics .- Butler Accompanies him to Albany and Continues his Studies with him .- Butler as a Law Student .- Unites with Dr. Chester's Church .- Incidents .- Is Admitted to the Bar, and becomes a Partner of Mr. Van Buren .- His Marriage .- The Cases of Wilkes 7. Lion, and Varick v. Johnson .- The Medcef-Eden Case .- Aaron Burr Associated in the Cases with Butler and Van Buren .- Interesting History of the Cases .- Butler's Early Cases in the Supreme Court and Court of Errors .- Appointed District-Attorney .- Appointed to Revise the Statutes of the State with John C. Spencer and John Duer .- The work which Butler Performed on the Commission .- The manner in which the work was Performed .- Character of the Work .- Adopted in other States and in England .- Butler Elected to the Assembly .- His Labors in that Body .- John C. Spencer and Ambrose L. Jordan in the Senate .- Character of the latter .- Regent of the University .- Butler Tendered the Office of United States Senator .- Declines .- Appointed a Commissioner with Theodore Frelinghuysen to Settle Difficulties with New Jersey .- Appointed Attorney-General of the United States. -Popularity of this Appointment .- Appointed Secretary of War in Jackson's Cabinet .- Holds both Offices .- Butler's Opinions as Attorney-General .- Felix Grundy .- His Opinion of Butler .- President Van Buren .- Butler Resigns his Scat in the Cabinet .- Subsequently Resigns the Office of Attorney-General .- Removes to the City of New York .- Resumes the Practice of Law .- Is Tendered the Office of Secretary of War under Mr. Polk .- Declines .- Death of Mr. Butler's Wife .- He Visits Europe .- Sudden Return, and the Cause .- Mr. Butler and Judge Kent Engaged in the great Case of Levit v. Curtis .- Butler's labors in it .- Effect on his Health .- Butler's Professional Life Referred to by Judge Kent .- Other Incidents in his Life .- His Literary Tastes and Acquirements .- Characteristics as a Lawyer .- Visits Europe .- Interview with Judge Kent before Sailing .- Travels on the Continent .- Reaches Paris .- Sudden Death.
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER was born at Kinderhook landing, in the county of Columbia, on the 17th day of December, 1795. His father began life as a me- chanic, but subsequently became a merchant. He
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was a man of strict integrity, industrious in his voca- tion, and honorable in his relations to the society in which he lived.
The early years of young Butler were passed in at- tending a common district school and aiding his father in his store. He is represented as a boy of respectful manners and of an intellectual turn of mind. While engaged in the store, he became a favorite of a Pres- byterian clergyman whose residence was near his father's. He was a man of great piety, generous and high-toned, liberally educated, and endowed with those qualities which are naturally attractive to young and ardent minds.
This good man duly appreciated the constitution and susceptibilities of Butler's mind, and inscribed upon it traces of light and beauty which were never effaced. He sowed in it those seeds of religious truth which bore abundant fruit in after years. From this clergyman Benjamin received his first knowledge of books, and his first impressions concerning the pleas- ures and business of life ; by him he was taught to explore the records of past ages, in order to observe the footsteps, not only of conquerors, statesmen, and. orators, but of the benefactors of the human race, "martyrs to the interests of freedom and religion, men who have broken the chain of the captive, who have traversed the earth to bring consolation to the cell of the prisoner, and whose lofty faculties have explored and revealed useful and ennobling truths."
At fourteen, Benjamin was sent to the Hudson Academy. His mental endowments, close applica- tion and pleasing manners gained him many friends, and he was regarded as a promising scholar.
A few years previous to this, a young lawyer who had practiced some time in a small village in Colum- bia county, received the appointment of surrogate of that county, and removed to Hudson. He had the reputation of being a young man of much promise, and had already gained a respectable position at a
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bar where William W. Van Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rens- selaer were the ruling spirits. These gentlemen were Federalists, distinguished at home and abroad, not only for their legal ability, but also for their polit- ical influence. But the young lawyer was an active Democrat; and as this was a period when political dissensions were peculiarly bitter, he was compelled to contend in the political, as well as legal arena, against these powerful men. For him, the struggle was trying, and the labor intense, for he had no powerful friends and no wealth to aid in the unequal contest. But he belonged to the people, his sympa- thies were with them, and they in turn regarded him with favor. With this advantage, and by the most unwearied exercise of his abilities he held his ground, gaining each day in strength, popularity, and in the confidence of the community.
At the period when Butler became a student at Hudson, this lawyer had just been elected to the State Senate against a distinguished Federal politician, and in spite of a strong opposition. It was, therefore, to him, a day of triumph and rejoicing. Among those who aided him in achieving this success was the elder Butler, who had long been his intimate friend.
The senator elect extended the friendship and esteem which he felt for the father, to the son, and often invited the latter to his office and house, en- couraged him in his studies, and saw with pleasure his rapid progress. When finally his academic course ended, the lawyer took him into his office as a student at law. The intimacy thus begun never ended in life.
Step by step the advocate ascended to the summit of fame, and indelibly wrote his name on the page of his country's history ; that name is Martin Van Buren. The student followed closely in his footsteps; and though he did not ascend as high as his perceptor, he has yet left a bright and imperishable name, and a 48
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personal history instructive to the student, the lawyer, and the statesman.
In the spring of 1816, Van Buren moved to Albany, where he entered upon his extraordinary professional career. His devotion to the Democratic party, his incessant efforts in its behalf, subjected him to the fierce attacks of the proud and power- ful Federal leaders, who early foresaw that he must be disposed of ere he became a lion in the pathway. No effort was spared which tended to his political and even social degradation. His humble origin was often referred to in language of contempt, his want of early education was enlarged upon, his character traduced, and his talents depreciated. Being slight in form and moderate in stature, his person was also sneered at ; but those who watched his career attentively were re- minded of Boswell's description of Wilberforce, when addressing the electors of York from the hustings. After his triumphant return in 1784, "I saw," says Boswell, "what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the table ; but as I listened, he grew and grew, until the shrimp became a whale." So with Van Buren ; the Federal leaders adhering to the custom in politics, de- nounced him as feeble in intellect, -as a shrimp men- tally and physically ; but at the bar, in the popular assembly, his eloquence and thought caught the at- tention of court, jurors, and electors, and he rapidly passed beyond the reach of his assailants, who beheld him occupy one distinguished position after another until he reached the highest in the nation.
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