USA > New York > Saratoga County > The bench and bar of Saratoga County, or, Reminiscences of the judiciary, and scenes in the court room : from the organization of the county to the present time > Part 16
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integrity, and the Chancellor's court being circum- scribed by no rules of law, he often astonished solicitors who appeared before him by the quick manner in which he saw through their legal quib- bles and subterfuges and brushing them away like cobwebs applied the strict dictates of equity to their cases. The only office he ever held outside of the state was representative in congress from Clin- ton county from 1821 to 1823. In 1844, he was nom- inated to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Tyler, but was rejected by the senate ; southern senators deeming him unsound on the "peculiar institution." He was the Democratic candidate in 1848 for gov- ernor. The Van Buren split in the party was the cause of his defeat, and his whig opponent, Hamil- ton Fish, was elected by a plurality vote. The other candidate was Gov. John A. Dix. Chan- cellor Walworth was twice married. His first wife was Miss Maria K. Averill of Plattsburgh. Sub-
sequent to her death, he was united to the widow of Col. John J. Hardin of Illinois, who gallantly fell at the head of his regiment at Buena Vista. She survived him eight years. In his latter years he was appointed a referee by the United States Circuit Court to take the evidence in the celebrated Corning and Burden " hook spike head case ;" in which Burden, the great Trojan iron king, claimed that Corning, his Albany rival, had infringed on his patents. It occupied in its trial over ten years, and he filed his report but a few months previous
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to his death. He was a sufferer from diabetes for a long time, and finally he was relieved from his earthly pain, November 28,1866, and the "Last of the Chancellors" was laid to sleep in the beautiful Greenridge cemetery at Saratoga Springs. He was for many years a prominent member of the First Presbyterian church in that village. He was a great advocate and worker in the cause of total abstinence, and was chosen first president of the New York State Temperance Society in February, 1829, and subsequently president of the American Temperance Union.
Esek Cowen was born in Rhode Island, February 24, 1784. He was the son of Joseph Cowen, who was a descendant from a Scotch emigrant who set- tled in Scituate, Mass., in 1656. His ather removed to this county in the colony from Connecticut which embraced, among others of the pioneers of Green- field, the Fitch and Child families, about 1793. The elder Cowen settled near Scott's corners. A few years later he removed to the town of Hart- ford, Washington county, and purchased a farm on which young Cowen labored in his early years. His son, P. H. Cowen, Esq., informs me that his father has repeatedly told him that the only educa- tional advantages he ever enjoyed was six months attendance in a neighborhood school. He had been gifted by Nature with a most retentive memory and he gathered much useful knowledge from the stud- ies of his younger brother, Solomon, who read aloud to him from his text books. It would be
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hard to determine which gained the most advan- tage, the reader or the hearer ; at any rate the latter became a most patient and careful listener, a quality eminently necessary in a judge. He, also, while engaged in tending the fires of his father's lime kilns, kept his book by his side, and while disen- gaging the free carbonate from its ancient chemical bonds, was storing his mind with the classic and scientific lore of ancient and modern times. Here he gained that quality of observation which enabled him in later years, as has been said of him, to pur- sue two chains of thoughts at the same time, to carefully listen to the argument of an advocates closely compare it with the points made by the opposing counselor and be ready at the moment of conclusion with a decision touching concisely upon all its bearings. He became a thorough master of classical and English literature. He early turned his attention to the law and entered the office of Roger Skinner at Sandy Hill. His fellow students were Silas Wright, jr., Zelulon R. Shipherd and Gardner Stow, all men who left the impress of their lives on the age in which they lived. He was
admitted to the Supreme Court bar in 1810. Form- ing a law partnership with Wessell Gansevoort, they opened an office and began the practice of the law at Ganzevoort ; from whence he removed to Saratoga Springs in 1812. He soon took a front rank at the bar of this county. He married in 1812, Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers, the widowed daughter of Col. Sidney Berry of Saratoga, a brave revolution-
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ary officer, who was a judge of this county and its first surrogate, holding the office from 1791 to 1794, and was a member of assembly from Albany county in 1791, the year our county was erected, and was also chosen the next year with Elias Palmer to be the first assemblymen from Saratoga county. Mr. Cowen was appointed "Reporter in the Supreme Court and Court of Errors" in May, 1824, and held the position until August, 1828. His reports are contained in nine volumes and are highly prized by the profession. He was appointed Circuit Judge by Gov. Pitcher, April 22, 1828, and on the appoint- ment of Judge Samuel Nelson to be Chief Justice, on the retirement of John Savage, he was appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of this state by Gov. Marcy, August 31, 1836; which position he held until his death. Judge Cowen presided with firmness and dignity while on the bench, and was very exacting of the bar in the economy of time. On the occasion of his holding his first Cir- cuit Court in Troy he took his seat on the bench at the appointed hour. Not an attorney was present. Under a lax discipline they had been in the habit of not appearing in the court room before eleven o'clock. He called the calendar and no causes being ready, he ordered the clerk, Archibald Bull, to adjourn the court until the next morning at nine o'clock, adding the remark, that if nothing was ready for trial at that hour he would adjourn the term sine die. The bar took the hint, and the untiring jndge worked them until ten in the evening
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each day of the term. On another occasion he drove to Elizabethtown, Essex county, in a heavy snow storm to attend an adjourned term. Arriving at the court house he found it unopened and no one in sight at the appointed hour. He got out of his sleigh, leaving his son, my informant, holding the reins, went upon the steps, adjourned the term without day and started for Plattsburgh, before the dilatory court officers and bar knew of his presence. As a criminal judge he was strenuous in defending the liberties of citizens, holding prosecuting attor- neys to prove the guilt of a prisoner beyond the peradventure of a doubt before asking a jury to convict him. While sitting on the supreme bench he assisted in deciding many knotty legal points, and his opinions are yet frequently quoted in this and other states. A gentleman, who has attended the sessions of the Queen's Bench in England, informs me that Cowen is frequently quoted by the English sergeants and barristers. His most cele- brated opinion was that involving a question of international law. McLeod, a Canada patriot, in the rebellion of 1837, had been arrested for waging war against a nation with whom our country was at peace. His case was brought before the Supreme Court on a habeas corpus, but it refused to dis- charge him. "The court," says a learned author- ity of that day, " in refusing to discharge McLeod, have nobly maintained the supremacy of the laws, and vindicated the dignity and rights of this state." The opinion was written by Judge Cowen and was
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coincided in by Chief Justice Nelson and Judge Bronson, his associates on the bench. He carefully distinguished between the jurist and the citizens. At the same time he, as a judge, was condemning McLeod for his connection with the rebellion, by going from this state to war upon Great Britain ; he, as a citizen, was entertaining Papineau, Bid- well, O'Callaghan and others of that ill-fated band, at his residence in Saratoga Springs. He died in Albany after a brief illness, during a session of the court, February 11, 1844, having nearly completed the age of fifty seven years. Judge Cowen was a devoted member of the Episcopal communion, and was one of the founders of Bethesda parish Sara- toga Springs. He was buried in the Putnam bury- ing ground, but his remains have since been re- moved to a family plot in Greenridge cemetery. In his early life he held the office of justice of the peace, and, in 1821, he was elected second super- visor .of Saratoga Springs, and was re-elected in 1822. Besides his " Reports," he has bequeathed to the profession as the work of his pen a " Treatise on the Practice in Justices' Courts," suggested by the want of such a work when he held that position, which has frequently formed for years the only library of country practitioners in those humble tribunals ; and "Notes on Phillips' Evidence," pre- pared in connection with Nicholas Hill, jr. Pre- vious to his elevation to the bench he had entered into the law partnerships with Judge Warren and Judiah Ellsworth. The latter now is almost the
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sole survivor of those who had the good fortune to be intimately acquainted with Judge Cowen.
John Willard was a prominent member for many years of our state judiciary. He was born in Guil- ford, Connecticut, May 20, 1792. His paternal ancestry dates back to the settlement of that town in 1659, and came from the Puritan stock which came over with John Winthrop and settled at Massachusetts bay. He was educated at Middle- bury College, Middlebury, Vermont, and was grad- uated therefrom in August, 1813, in the same class with Silas Wright, jr., and Samuel Nelson. He studied law and was admitted to practice in 1817. He established himself at Salem, Washington county, where he soon gained the reputation of being a model lawyer. He was appointed first judge of Washington county by Gov. Marcy, Feb- ruary 13, 1833, to succeed Hon. Roswell Weston ; having held the office of surrogate by appointment the previous year. He was appointed Circuit Judge, September 3, 1836, to succeed Judge Cowen, transferred to the bench of the Supreme Court. He held this office until 1847, when it was abolished. The same year he was elected by the people to the new office of Justice of the Supreme Court for the fourth district, along with Daniel Cady, Alonzo C. Paige and Augustus C. Hand. He drew the term for six years, next to the longest, which fell to Jus- tice Hand. He served his term, and on its expira- tion retired from the bench ; Hon. A. B. James having been elected to succeed him. As a judge
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he was noted for his quick perceptions and firm- ness in ruling as he conceived to be right. His career as a jurist was such as to win for him the universal esteem of the bar of the state. On his appointment to the office of Circuit Judge, he removed to Saratoga Springs, to be convenient of access by railroad to the counselors who had busi- ness before him as Vice Chancellor. In 1856, he was appointed by President Pierce, on the advice of his attorney-general, Hon. Caleb Cushing, one of the commissioners to examine into the validity of the Mexican land grants in California. He performed this arduous duty in a most thorough and satisfac- tory manner, and the United States Supreme Court was guided by his findings in their decisions of the "Mariposa," "New Almaden" and other claims. In 1861, he was unanimously elected to the state senate and served in the first session. His labors there were to sustain the national govern- ment in its contest with traitors ; and he, also, did much to correct the faults he had seen as a judge to exist in the laws concerning the crime of mur- der, and the rights of married women to control their separate estates. Before the next session met he had been called up higher ; having closed his busy and eventful life, August 31, 1862. As a law- yer and a judge he believed in a strict administra- tion of the criminal laws, rightly judging that the lawyer who prostituted lis talents to defend by "quirks and quibbles" a notorious offender was
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directly responsible for the rapid increase of crime. In his writings he says :
In the beginning, as a poor young lawyer getting business slowly I had strong temptations. I was sometimes assigned by courts to defend bad men, but then my only duty was to set forth any extenuating circumstances. Scoundrels who deserved punishment soon learned to keep clear of me. As for such poor fellows, how- ever, as had been thoughtlessly led into crime, I would frequently give them advice, gratis, after telling them to repent and reform."
How strikingly does this compare with the con- duct of David Dudley Field in defending the notori- ous Tweed and the "Ring thieves" of New York ; and with other instances which might be men- tioned, which reflect no honor on the advocates, and which have exerted a baneful influence on the rising generation. Upon leaving the bench, Judge Willard began the preparations of important works which alone would commend him to the admiration of the profession. His treatises on "Equity Juris prudence," " Executors, Administrators and Guar- dians," and "Real Estate and Conveyancing," says his friend, Hon. O. L. Barbour, himself a distin- guished legal author: "Are the results of an unwearied industry, and the fruits of a long and ripe experience. They will ever be regarded as a valuable legacy left to his brethren, by one who loved his profession and was proud to pay the debt he owed it." Much of his success in life he attributed to the judicious advice of his aunt, Mrs. Emma Willard, the distinguished educator, in whose family he had a home in his college days.
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He had the misfortune to lose his daughter, an only child, in 1853. His wife, to whom he was united in 1829, died in 1859. Her maiden name was Miss Emma Smith. They were for many years mem- bers of the First Presbyterian church in Saratoga Springs. They, also, are interred in Greenridge cemetery.
Augustus Bockes, though by his title he is a Justice of the Supreme Court, has ably and hon- orably performed the functions of a judge at Cir- cuit for nearly a score of years. He was born near Greenfield Center, October 1, 1817. His father, . Adam Bockes, jr., was a farmer and was held in high esteem by his townsmon. He was supervisor of the town in 1834. He brought his son up in the ordinary routine of a farmer's boy life, giving him the advantages of the district school to obtain an education. Arriving at the age of eighteen years, young Bockes took and taught a school, and for three successive winters was " lord of the birch and ferule" in the days when "boarding around" was the common lot of the school teacher. The two intervening summers he passed in study at the Burr Seminary, at Manchester, Vermont. Hethen began his legal studies in the office of Judiah Ells- worth in the spring of 1838, and a year later en- tered the office of Beach & Cowen. The latter being Sidney J. Cowen, whose death at sea has has been previously related. He was admitted to practice in 1842. He opened an office in connection with Stephen P. Nash. Afterwards, he formed a law
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partnership with William A. Beach, which con- tinued until 1847, when he was chosen to be the first county judge, at the special judicial election held June 4, 1847, at which he was the whig can- didate for that office. The democrats nominated the veteran lawyer, George W. Kirtland of Water- ford. The contest resulted in the election of Mr. Bockes by a handsome majority. Such was the beginning of what has proved a brilliant judicial career. The honor thus conferred on her son has been reflected on the county which gave him birth. . In November, 1851, he was re-elected by a majority of 1,205 over Edward F. Bullard. Justice Cady having resigned his seat on the bench, Governor Clark, January 1, 1855, appointed Judge Bockes to the vacant justicesh p. He served under that appointment until the expiration of his terin the ensuing December. H' sappearance at the Circuits held by him and the record that he made was such as to commend hi n to the bar and public gen- erally, and he was urge 1 to place himself before the people for an election to that high office. He declined, and returned to the practice of his pro- fession, and Enoch Rosekrans was chosen to suc- ceed him. Four years later, on the expiration of the term of Justice Cornelius L. Allen, he accepted a nomination from the Republican party and was elected over that popular judge. In 1867, he was again placed in nomination and, the democrats making no nomination, was elected without oppo- sition. This was a high honor to an upright judge.
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In 1873, Gov. Dix designated him to be one of the justices to sit at General Term for the third depart- ment. In 1866, he had a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals, in due course under the pro visions of the constitution, as it was previous to the amendment of 1869. In 1875, it was generally understood that he would not make a canvass to secure a re-election, but would hold himself at the will of the people as expressed in the party con- ventions and at the ballot box. The result proved his judicial and personal popularity, for he re- ceived a compliment that has never been given to any other citizen of the state-he was nominated by both parties unanimously and elected by a full vote of the people of this judicial district. A higher mark of confidence cannot be paid to a citizen of our republic. Gov. Tilden showed his apprecia- tion of his worth by again designating him as a jus- tice to sit at General Term. Judge Bockes is noted for his courtly manners and the dignity and urban- ity with which he presides on the bench. Quick to comprehend a point about to be made by an advo- cate, he often anticipates him by a decision of that question. His opinions as given on the bench at the County Courts, Circuits, and General Terms have rarely been overruled when carried to the court of last resort. His friends have hopes of his yet attaining a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals, for which position he is rarely fitted by his habits of close reasoning and logical applica- tion. Judge Bockes was united quite early in life
12*
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to Miss Mary Hay, daughter of Hon. William Hay of Saratoga Springs. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church and is, at present writing, one of the vestrymen of Bethesda parish, Saratoga Springs.
Such are Saratoga's Circuit Judges. Well may her bar be proud of their honored record and point to Walworth, Cowen, Willard and Bockes as judges " semper paratus, semper fidelis"-" ever ready" to do their whole duty, and " ever faithful'' to the important trusts confided to their hands. May their example be emulated and their virtues copied by those who are yet to sit on the bench they have dignified with their presence and labors.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE FIRST JUDGES CF COMMON PLEAS.
· First Judge John Thompson was born in Litch- field, Conn., March 20, 1749. But little of his early history is known to the present generation, beyond the fact that he was descended from the Scotch-Irish colony, which settled at Londonderry, N. H., in the seventeenth century, and was one of the Litch- field colony which emigrated to this state in 1763, and settled in the town of Stillwater. The farm on which Thompson's father settled was at the foot of Potash Hill about a mile and a half southwest of Stillwater village, being that now owned by Robert K. Landon. The Litchfield colony was a Congre- gational society or church in that town which was formed in 1752. In the year 1763, under the lead of their pastor, Rev. Robert Campbell, they resolved to emigrate in a body to the terra incognita of the Saratoga ¡patent, on which they settled under the patronage of Gen. Philip Schuyler. The colony embraced beside the Thompson family, among others the Seymours, Fellows, Palmers, Ensigns and Burlingames, whose descendants yet live in Stillwater. They founded the religious society in that town which from its ancient edifice acquired the name of the "Yellow Meeting House,". and
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which is now the oldest religious society in the county. This colony was eight years anterior to that led by Rev. Eliphalet Ball, under similar cir- cumstances, to Ballston Center. Mr. Thompson was married at an early age, and was an ardent patriot during the Revolution, enjoying the esteem and friendship of Gen. Schuyler. He was ap- pointed one of the first justices of the town of Still- water, on its erection March 7, 1788. He was not bred to the law, but pursued an agricultural life on the acres he inherited from his father. On the erection of the county of Saratoga in 1791, he was appointed to the responsible office of First Judge by Gov. Clinton, on the recommendation of Gen. Schuyler. His commission dates from February 17, the day the bill was passed by the legislature and promptly approved by the governor. While he sat on the bench he made a fearless and upright judge, the minutes of the clerk bearing impress frequently of his quick and apt rulings, showing that though not learned as a clerk in the law he was a deep student of the practice and theories of the courts. He was elected a member of the national house of representatives in 1798, and served in the three sessions of the fifth congress, under the administration of the elder Adams, in which he strenuously opposed the Alien and Seditio 1 laws. It 1801, he was elected and served as a member of the convention called to revise the state constitu- tion. He was again elected to the house of repre- sentatives in 1806 and re-elected in 1808, serving in
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the tenth and eleventh congresses during the last two years of President Jefferson's, and the first two years of Presiden Madison's administration. Dur- ing this period, on March 20, 1819, he reached the constitutional period : viz., sixty years, when he was called on to lay aside his judicial robes, and Hon. Salmon Child was appointed to succeed him. On the 3d of March, 1812, his last term in congress expired, and he returned to private life at his home in Stillwater. During his latter years he was afflicted with palsy, which finally terminated his earthly existence in November, 1823, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. One of his sons was the late Judge Thompson of Milton, the other Dr. Nathan Thompson of Galway. One of his daugh- ters married Dr. Aaron Gregory of Milton, and the second, Dr. Isaac Sears of Stillwater.
First Judge Salmon Child was, also, a native of Connecticut, in which colony he was born in the year 1762. His father was a captain in the Con- necticut line and Salmon joined_Washington's army in the spring of 1781, and participated in the march to Virginia, and in the final triumph at Yorktown. In 1832, he became entitled to a pen- sion by the act of congress, hitherto referred to in these 'pages. "Perhaps_ no" non-professional "man ever received a greater proportion of offices in this county. He was a plain farmer, a sound common sense man, and ever sustained an irreproachable moral and religious'character, the great weight of which brought him into public life. With his
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father he was one of the pioneer settlers of Green- field soon after the Revolution, locating in the south part of the town. He was appointed one of the first justi es of the peace in the town of Greenfield. He was twice elected to the state assembly and sat in the legislatures of 1808 and 1809. In March, 1809, on the retirement of? Judge John Thompson, he was appointed to the responsible office of first judge by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins. He held this office until June 16, 1818, when the term of office of each judge of the Common Pleas in this state was declared to be at an end by an act of the legisla- ture of that year. Not having been educated by previous study or habits to fit him for a high judi- cial position, he had felt for some years his anoma- lous position before the bar, and desired to retire from the bench. He was admirably fitted for a judge in equity, but on the law side of the courts he appreciated the want of a thorough knowledge of its intricacies. Therefore, when Governor De Witt Clinton reorganized the Court of Common Pleas for this county in June, 1818, he gladly relin- quished his seat on the bench to Hon. James Thompson, as one fitted by education and training to administer the law. He accepted the office of Judge of Common Pleas on the same bench for the term of five years. In 1821, he was a member of the constitutional convention, and "in 1828 was chosen a member of the electoral college? and cast his vote for John Quincy Adams. This was his last public office. He was also supervisor of Green-
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