The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 145

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II > Part 145

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Edward Winslew, of Droitwich, England, was the father of the four brothers who came to Plymouth, and became leading men, one of whom was Governor Winslew, and of the colony; frem whom sprang a long line of honered descendants, among whom is Hon. John Winslow, whose biography we have thus imperfectly sketched. Mr. Winslow is still in the prime and vigor of manhood, possessing qualities that attract the highest esteem, and in the possession of that learning, ability and ex- perience, which point to a fortunate, happy and prominent career in the future.

Sincerely Towy

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BENJAMIN D. SILLIMAN.

Ir would be quite impossible to pursue the plan of our work without referring st some length to Mr. Silliman, at least to his public life; for that, like the lives of all public men, belongs to his fellow-citizens, and in this case to the profession of which he has been so long sn honored member. It is, therefore, but an act of justice that we give some portions of his public life in this work, candidly, and with exact obedience to unvarnished fsets.

His private life needs no description from us; it is written in the hesrts and minds of his fellow-citizens in a better and stronger manner than could be done by the pen of the ablest writer. Besides, we lack that intimacy which would enable us to sketch it as it should be portrayed; yet we may venture the assertion that his professional and private life are in harmony.

Mr. Silliman was born at Newport, R. I., September 14, 1805. His father was Gold S. Silliman, of that place. His mother was Miss Hepsa Ely, daughter of Rev. David Ely, and a grand- danghter of Rev. Jedediah Mills. After due preparation he eatered Yale College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1824. Mr. Silliman's father gradusted at Yale in 1796; his grandfather, Gen. Gold S. Silliman, in 1752; his great-grand- father, Gen. Ebenezer Silliman, graduated at Yale in 1727. Mr. Silliman is also a nephew, we believe, of the late distinguished Professor Silliman. His maternal grandfather graduated at Yale in 1769, and his maternal great-grandfather in 1722. No name is more honored in the history of Yale College than that of Silli- man.

"Mr. Silliman," says his class biographer, "on leaving Yale College, pursued the study of law in the office of Chancellor Kent, and his son Wm. Kent, (afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court, ) in the city of New York. He was admitted to the Bar in May, 1829, and with the exception of a visit to Europe in 1848, has heen steadily engaged in the practice of his profession in New York and Brooklyn from that time to the present. Though elwaya taking a deep interest in politics, he has limited his par- ticipation therein mainly to the advocacy of principles through the press, and to services in conventions, State and National. He has generally declined public office, as inconsistent with his professional duties, though he has served in the Legislature, aad as Attorney for the United States for the Eastern District of New York, which office he resigned in 1866; he was also ap- pointed, and acted, as a member of the Commission for the Re- vision of the Constitution of the State in 1873. He was nomi- asted by the Republican party as their candidate for Attorney- General in 1873, but the ticket (with the exception of two of the candidates, who had also been nominated by another party- the "Liberal Republican") was not successful.

The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on Mr. Silliman hy Columbia College in 1873, and the like honorary degree was also conferred upon him by Yale College in 1874."

His characteristics as a lawyer-candidly presented-are ex- teaded knowledge and & just estimate of fundamental prin- ciples; close acquaintance with cases and decisions; accuracy in forms and in the rules applicable both to the practice and the rights of the parties; indefatigable industry in his in- vestigations, which he conducts with clear discrimination and judgment. He states his points with singleness and perspicuity, sustaining them by fair and cogent argument, seldom failing to exhibit in their support the learning of the cases and the best reasoning of the judges. He is never guilty of unworthy finesse, of misrepresentation of facts, or of unjustifiable betrayal of the understanding into the power of misguided feeling; he is alike feithfnl to his client, the jury and the court, though by no means wanting in that policy and tact so necessary to the success- ful lawyer.

As & speaker at the Bar or in the public assembly, he has a full share of advantages, though he makes no pretension what- ever to oratory; indeed, he is unpretending in every phase of life, public or private.

A description of the important cases conducted by him in the various courts, State and Federal, would render this sketch too

voluminous; suffice it to say that the records of these courts, couched in plain, official language, form a valuable history of his career at the Bar. To say that Mr. Silliman is a polished scholar, with the instincts and tastes of a scholar, is only to reiterate what has been repeated of him by the press, by his contemporaries, and by the many public demonstrations of his scholarly attainments. His acquaintance with distinguished men, men of illustrious and historic name, has been, and still is, exceedingly large. His relation with Chancellor Kent, and his distinguished son, Judge William Kent, began when he was a student in their office; it ended only when death, the "great proprietor of life," removed those illustrious men from the world. These relations were reciprocal, and perhaps there is nothing that brings up so much pleasure from the past to Mr. Silliman as the memory of this friendship. Surely no man understood the character of the great commentator more thoroughly than he did; while his relations with Judge William Kent were very intimate, and their friendship mutually warm. This friendship was exhibited on the part of Judge Kent in many ways, prominently in a series of beautiful letters written by him, while traveling in Europe, to Mr. Silliman. In one of those letters he gave an admirable description of some of the English judges whom he met.

It is said by an excellent critic and litterateur that Judge Kent's letters to Mr. Silliman are most charming, and though all unstudied, and written in a sort of colloquial style, are yet masterpieces of English literature.

Judge Kent died at his country residence at Fishkill, January 4, 1861. This sad event was the source of much grief to Mr. Silliman. The intelligence of his death reached the city of New York the next day, producing the most profound sorrow, not only with the members of the legal profession, but in all circles.

A meeting of the Bar called to express the feelings of the pro- fession on the death of their distinguished brother was held January 12, 1861; this meeting will always be remembered in legal history.

Hon. DANIEL P. INGRAHAM, of the Supreme Court, presided; the vice-presidents were Hon. SAMUEL R. BETTS, of the United States District Court ; Hon. MURRAY HOFFMAN, of the Superior Court ; Hon. GREENE C. BRONSON, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ; Hon. LEWIS B. WOODRUFF, of the Superior Court; Hon. CHARLES P. DALY, of the Common Pleas ; Hon. JOHN R. BRADY, of the Common Pleas ; DANIEL LORD, Esq. Secretaries: Hon. William Fullerton, Alexander Hamilton, Jr., J. C. Carter, Esq., and D. B. Eaton, Esq. After a series of resolutions had been presented to the meeting by John Van Buren, Mr. Silliman arose and moved their adoption. His address in doing this was an appropriate and feeling tribute to the memory of his distin- guished friend. He delineated the judicial and private character of Judge Kent in a manner so truthful that it was a perfect mental portrait. He said : " It might, perhaps, be difficult to say whether Judge Kent was more remarkable for his intellectual and professional or for his moral superiority; but that which, in this hour of bereavement, touches us most nearly, is the sur- render which we must make to the remorseless grave of one whose gentle and generous nature, whose genial sympathy, whose warm affections had so endeared him to us that our ad- miration of the lawyer, the jurist and the scholar was even exceeded by our attachment, by our love, for the man. He is cut off from us in the very glory of his manhood, with his faculties and his affections in the fullness of their strength and action -- ere age had dimmed their brilliancy, or impaired their power, or chilled their ardor.

Judge Kent was born at Albany in 1802 ; he had the best ad- vantages for an education. After being graduated at Union College, he pursued his studies and entered the profession in which his father, the great Chancellor, stood pre-eminent.

He commenced his career as a lawyer, in one respect, under a disadvantage-the shadow of a great name. The world is apt to measure the son of a great man by an unfair standard. In- stead of passing on his merits and talents by comparison with other young men, his contemporaries and peers, it withholds its commendation unless he displays abilities which would add to

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his father's fame. But Mr. Kent quickly showed himself equal even to such a task. He was early engaged in very important causes, in which he manifested powers and learning that placed him at once in the foremost rank of the profession. * * * *

He possessed remarkable power of analysis, and saw with the quickness of intuition the right and morality of a case, and the principle of law involved, and was ever ready with the learn- ing of the law requisite for their illustration. The force of his argument was aided by the singular felicity and purity of the language in which it was always clothed; so beautiful and at- tractive was his style, so happy his illustrations, so abounding in wit and grace and learning and thought that, whether he was arguing a case or trying a cause, not only the court or jury which he was addressing, but all who were present having no concern with the subject, including alike the members of the Bar and mere spectators, were all his eager and delighted listeners."

Mr. Silliman's description of Kent as a judge will be resd with interest:

"He continued in the active practice of the profession until 1841, when he was appointed to the office of Circuit Judge, on the retirement of Hon. Ogden F. Edwards, and when the ermine rested on his shoulders, it touched nothing less spot- less than itself. Never were the high duties of a judge per- formed with more of purity or fidelity. Never were the scales held by a more even hand. Never were the kindly and charit- able impulses of a gentle nature more entirely restrained and subordinated to the duty of an inflexible and impartial admin- istration of the law, whether in criminal or in civil cases. In 1844, his health having been impaired by too close applica- tion to his judicial duties, he resigned his station on the Bench, to the great-it is not extravagant to say the universal -- regret of the profession and of the community. He then visited Europe, and while there, in 1846, received the invitation, which he accepted, from Harvard University, to succeed Judge Story in the Law School at Cambridge. The same industry, and success, and usefulness which had marked his previous career attended his services in the Law School, until the close of 1847, when he resigned his professorship that he might be with his venerable father, whose twilight was fast fading inte night."

Mr. Silliman gives a brief review of Judge Kent at the Bar, after having resumed his profession, describing some of the very important cases which he conducted.

"In these cases, not to speak of many others," he says, " Mr. Kent exhibited abilities of the highest order and the rarest learning, and earned a reputation which (in the language of one of the resolutions before us) justly placed his memory by the side of his illustrious father. The great men of the Bar were engaged in the learned discussion of these cases. I may not name those who are still among us, and most of whom are now present, but of those who are gone were Jones, and Jay, Ogden and Webster, and Griffin, and Sanford, and Spencer, and Beardsley, and Hill, and Butler. Such were the allies and the adversaries of our departed brother-such were his friends and compeers-such were the great intellects with which his own found congenial intercourse. * * * Judge Kent possessed, as did his father, a most remarkable memory. He forgot noth- ing. Every fact, every rule, every principle, when once attained, remained with him always.

Judge Kent combined what are, perhaps, rarely combined- large general knowledge with great accuracy of knowledge. As a bettes-lettres scholar, he had few equals in this country. His reading was not limited by the ordinarily wise rule, 'Non multa sed multum,' butit was both mulla et multum. Whatever hestudied he studied thoroughly; he read everything and he remembered everything; what he read did not remain with him a mere accumulation of knowledge and ideas, but became a part of his mental nature, storing and strengthening his mind without impairing its originality. A mind thus enriched, and with such resources, could never have suffered from solitude. It would find within itself abundant sod choice companionship. Em- inently was this the case with our departed friend and with his venerable father.

Chancellor Kent, during his last illness, passed many silent watches of the night without sleep. When asked if in those long, sleepless hours he suffered from sad and depressed feelings, he replied that he did not, but that, on the contrary, he derived great satisfaction in reviewing in his mind some leading principles of the law-going back to its origin-to the reasons from which it sprang-and then recalling in their order the subsequent cases, in England and this country, in which it had been considered, shaped, enlarged or qualified, down to the final settled rule. * * * * **

Continuing his remarks concerning Judge Wm. Kent, Mr. Silliman says :

"Honors sought him, prosperity attended him, friends loved him, and now deeply lament his loss. I have never known s man whose wit and humor and knowledge were so abounding and so blended, and the instructiveness, and beauty, and grace, and the simplicity of whose conversation was so attractive and fascinating. I have never known a man more fearless in assert- ing the right, and in the performance of what he deemed his duty. I have never known a man more inflexible in principle, or more strictly upright. Though to a stranger what I have said might appear the strained language of eulogy, yet this meet- ** * ing is full of witnesses of its truth. * I will not trust myself to speak of the personal relations and almost life-long intimacy that make his death to me, indeed, a calamity, nor of the hopeless sorrow of that home of which he was the light, the pride and the joy; but with the same beautiful invocation which he lately uttered on the death of Mr. Butler, let me ssy: 'Tread lightly on his ashes, ye men of genius, for he was your kine- man ! Weed clean his grave, ye men of goodness, for he was your brother! "

We have quoted liberally from Mr. Silliman's address because of its full and just description of Judge William Kent, and be- cause of its happy allusion to his illustrious father. Such a de- scription is eminently appropriate with the intended plan and scope of our work.

It is, perhaps, proper to add that Mr. Silliman was followed in his remarks by those great lights of the Bar, William Curtis Noyes, James T. Brady, Hon. William Fullerton, and others. Since this meeting of the Bar, Mr. Brady and Mr. Noyes have followed Judge Kent to the tomb.

Mr. Silliman's address at the meeting of the New York City Bar, November 2, 1872, on the death of Marshall S. Bidwell, Esq., and his memorial address before the Bar Association on the death of Edgar S. Van Winkle, Esq., February 13, 1883, have passed into legal history.

Perhaps among all Mr. Silliman's productions none exhibit more research and scholarly sttainments than his Address before the graduating Law Class of Columbia College, delivered on the evening of Wednesday, May 15, 1867, and his Review of E. C. Benedict's Translation of the Hymns of the Middle Ages and other Medicval Hymns, published in 1868.

We cannot, in forming our history of the Bar, avoid the temptation to quote portions of Mr. Silliman's address to the graduating class above referred to. In his exordium he says :

" In welcoming you, gentlemen, to the brotherhood of the Bar, you may well be congratulated on the peculiar advantages you enjoyed in preparing for its duties. You have not been left to pick up, as you best might, here and there, scattered frag- ments of legal knowledge, but you have been systemstically in- structed in the principles and philosophy of the law. You have been guided and trained by eminent and learned teschers in 8 school that ranks second to none in the land for the completeness of its system and the thoroughness of its instruction. You come not as undrilled militia, but as graduates from the very West Point of the profession.

Widely different have been (with few exceptions) the oppor- tunities of legal instruction in this country until a comparatively recent period. The student was required to enter the office of a practicing attorney, and there to pursue his studies. He was st once engaged in the practice of thst of which he had not learned the principles. He became familiar by daily observa- tions, and as a copyist, with the forins of conveyancing snd phraseology of pleadings, without understanding their reason. * * As a general rule, it was impossible for the attorney, in whose office the student was engaged, to give any material attention to his studies, and his progress and attsinments, there- fore, lacked system, and were slow, confused and uncertain. A formal and superficial examination finally passed him to the Bar, where he could rarely feel at home until he had acquired by subsequent laborious and anxious practice a knowledge of very much that he should have attained at the outset. * * In Europe, on the other hand, full and careful instruction in the prin- ciples of law has ever been a pre-requisite to admission to the Bar, and the schools in which such instruction has been given have been organized, fostered, and more or less regulated by public authority. Regular schools of law were established in Rome, in the time of Augustus, at which those who aspired to

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the honors of the forum were assiduous students. None but the thoroughly learned and skilled could dream of such honors where Sosavola, Sulpicius and Cicero had been competitors, and where even the boys, according to Cicero, were taught the " twelve tables' as a necessary lesson (discebamus enim pueri XII tablulas ut carmen necessarium*) to instruct them in so much of the laws as should, he obtained by every Roman citizen. In France such schools existed as far back as the twelfth century. From so early period the law has been, and still is, most fully and elaborately taught hy renowned professors in the Universities of Germany and Holland. In England the schools of law have been less regular and complete than on the Continent, but the qualifications of candidates for the English Bar have, neverths- less, been messured by a very high standard."

Speaking of the perfect system of instruction, and the profic- iency of students in the Law School of Columbia College, Mr. Silliman says:

" We regard the annual reinforcement of the Bar by a class of accomplished and educated gentlemen who have been thus thoroughly taught in the principles of the law, and whose minds have been carefully disciplined and trained for its in- tellectual duties, as sure to elevate the standard of legal at- tainment, and to promote the honor and usefulness of the profession. * * * * * * * * * *

A grand futuro beckons you, and you have the best prepara- tien for the course. But we must bear in mind that other stout knights, who have had no such advantages as you have had, will enter the lists with strong lances, and compete with you for the higher prizes. The great lawyers who preceded us-the Hamil- tons, the Kents, the Jays, the Van Vechtens, the Spencers, the Hills, the Wellses, the Oakleys, the Duers, the Woods, the Talcotts, the Ogdens, the Hoffmans, the Van Burens, the Butlers-had not such training as you have enjoyed. But what summits did they not sttain !

I have spoken of this school as the ' West Point' of the pro- fession ; but we have seen within the last six years that other soldiers than those who graduated at West Point won victories and reapad laurels-marched to the front with muskets on their shoulders and returned with stars on their shoulders."

Mr. Silliman then proceeds to briefly consider the rise and progress of our laws, and their derivation from the laws of antiquity.

"Many of the provisions of our 'Revised Statutes' had their origin far back among the centuries, and our professional pre- decessers in ancient Rome and Greece enforced and adminis- tered many of the rights and remedies which are enforced and administered in the City Hall to-day. Since the foundations of much of the law with which you are to deal were laid in those ssrlier ages, the archaeology of law is an important part of legal study, and it is not more important than attractive.

In the early history of Rome, we find the Romuluses and Remuses disposing of their property by last wills and testaments, making every variety of bequests, devises and trusts, which called for numerous rules of interpretation. Land was bought and sold, and deeds given; and in her subsequent Codes were various laws relative to sales, highways, easements, bailment, marriage and divorce, ante-nuptial marriage settlements, parent and child, guardian and ward, domicile, subrogation, partner- ships, joint stock associations, corporations, arrest for debt, in- junctions, slander, libel, bail, arbitration, statutes of limitation, common pastures, riparian ownership, alluvion, boundaries, the rste of interest, maritime contracts and liens, common carriers, snd most of the other rights and instrumentalities of modern civilized society. The law as to trusts and trustees was well defined long before the Christian era, and we find Cicero remind- ing Atticus that adverse possession did not apply in cases of trust or guardianship.

Among the legal antiquities which almost verify the saying that there is 'nothing new under the sun,' is an Egyptian deed, executed more than a hundred years before the Christian era, which was sometime since found in a tomb in Upper Egypt, by the side of s mummy, supposed to be that of the grantee. It was written in the Greek language (which it seems was com- monly employed in that country during the Greek dynasty). It has sil the parts requisite at this day in a warranty deed. It contains the dsts, the names of the parties, the consideration, the grant, the description of the premises, and the warranty of title, and is under seal.

Still esrlier deeds (six hundred years before Christ) are re- cited in the book of Jeremiah, indicating the date, the names of

the partics, the purchase money, a description of the purchase money, witnesses, seal, and the book of records."

He makes the following pleasing allusion to the laws of Equit- able Estoppel :

"This law," he says, "existed fifteen centuries before Christ, when Moses, in effect, * ruled that Qui tacet consentire videtur. The same great lawgiver and judge, who was also the earliest re- porter (7 Colce's R., 126), established principles of the law of bailments, t which continue to be in force to this day. Lord Coke, in his reports, dissented from the doctrine of Moses, as held in the leading case of Laban v. Jacob (reported in Genesis, xxxi., 39), but Sir William Jones, in his excellent work on Bail- ments (p. 41), differs from Coke, and concurs in the early opinion of Moses."

In referring to lawyers in regard to hasty legislation, &c., Mr. Silliman says:

"With all their respect for precedent and their adherence to principles, lawyers have been the constant pioneers and advo- cates of judicious reform and checks on hasty legislation."

After commenting upon the many salutary changes that have been made by the laws in practice, and the doing away with the mysteries and subtleties of special pleading and the disappear- ance of technicalities, and the simplifying the modes of pro- cedure and the enlargement of the power of amendments, he very candidly says that-

" All change is not improvement, and much of the hasty legislation at Albany, and its consequent litigation-though profitable to lawyers-is hurtful to the people. Much, too, is, to say the least, of doubtful wisdom."

In speaking of the honor that should govern the practicing lawyer, he said:

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884, Volume II, Part 145

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345