USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 6
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Court. On account of his general ability as a lawyer and his fine powers of analysis and capacity for ascertaining the equities in a case, and his unim- peachable integrity, he was appointed district judge by President Harrison. Judge Ricks has performed his judicial duties with efficiency, except at such times as the state of his health rendered rest or a change of climate indispen- sable. He spent the winter of 1896-7 in California with some benefit. Judge Ricks is a broad-minded man of unusual mental force and capacity for reason- ing. For several years he delivered lectures in the course at Kenyon College on Common Law and Code Pleading. That institution has conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. He possesses the elements of personal popularity and is much esteemed by his friends in and outside of the Bar.
PHILIP B. SWING was appointed for the Southern District March 13, 1871, and served until his death October 30, 1882.
WILLIAM WHITE was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to succeed Judge Swing, but owing to illness did not qualify and the vacancy was not filled until after his death in March, 1883, when Judge Sage was appointed.
GEORGE R. SAGE was born at Erie, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1828, the eldest son of Rev. O. N. and Elizabeth (Berry) Sage-the former a native of Vermont, and the latter of New York. His father, who died in 1884, was a retired Baptist minister. His paternal ancestors came originally from Wales and settled in Connecticut about 1657. The ancestors of his mother, Elizabeth Berry, came over in the "Sarah Jane Fortune," the first vessel after the May- flower. His grandfather on his mother's side, Samuel Berry, a man of liberal education, was the first schoolmaster of Fredonia, New York. The family removed from Erie to Ohio in 1835, and in 1843 to Covington, Kentucky. They remained there until 1849, when they returned to Ohio, locating in Cincinnati, where they have since resided. Judge Sage was educated at Granville College, now Dennison University, Granville, Ohio, where he graduated in 1849. Before entering college he learned the printer's trade, and during his vacations throughout his college course employed his time in setting type in various printing offices. The year following his graduation he taught mathematics in the academy at Lebanon, Ohio, at the same time studying law. Returning to Cincinnati in 1850, he continued his legal studies under the supervision of Hon- orable Alphonso Taft, father of Judge William H. Taft of the United States Circuit Court. In the fall of 1850 he entered the Cincinnati Law School, where he was a classmate of the late Oliver P. Morton of Indiana. He was admitted to practice at Frankfort, Kentucky, in June, 1852, and on the same day argued his first case in the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. The case involved the control of the property of the Western Theological Institute, of Covington, Kentucky, then worth $400,000, and turned upon questions of constitutional law. Charles K. Morehead and M. M. Benton were the leading counsel with him, and Attorney-General Harlan, father of Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Senator Morehead of Covington, the opposing counsel. Judge Sage received $500, his first fee, for his argument in that case.
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He was then twenty-four years of age. In November, 1852, he was admitted to practice at Cincinnati, and in February, 1854, became a member of the law firm of King, Anderson & Sage. In 1857 he entered into partnership with Honorable Thomas Corwin, whose daughter, Eva A., he married in 1855. In 1858 the firm removed from Cincinnati to Lebanon, Ohio, where they were engaged in practice until Governor Corwin's death in December, 1865, Gov- ernor Corwin, however, being absent from Lebanon most of the time. Judge Sage returned to Cincinnati January 1. 1866, and soon secured a large and lucrative practice in important cases. In 1867 the law firm of Sage & Hinkle was formed, which continued up to Judge Sage's appointment to his present position by President Arthur, March 21, 1883. Prior to accepting this exalted position, Judge Sage held but one public office, that of prosecuting attorney of Warren county, Ohio, which he filled for six years. He had been repeatedly urged to become a candidate for Congress in the Warren dis- trict, but always declined. Judge White, who was appointed to succeed United States District Judge Swing, died in March, 1883, without having qualified as judge. Judge Sage was by President Arthur appointed his successor as United States District Judge for Southern Ohio, and took his seat on the Bench April 7, 1883, the anniversary of the battle of Shiloh. What was known as the iron-clad oath was administered to him by United States District Judge Hammond of Memphis, Tennessee, who was then hold- ing court at Cincinnati under designation, and who at that battle fought on the rebel side. The affirmation of the oath is that the affiant had never volunta- rily borne arms against the United States since he had been a citizen thereof, that he had not voluntarily given aid, countenance or encouragement to per- sons engaged in armed hostility thereto, nor sought or expected or attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever under any authority or pre- tended authority in hostility to the United States, and that he had not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or Con- stitution within the United States hostile or inimical thereto. Judge Hammond, when he was qualified under his appointment by President Hayes, took the special oath provided for those who had participated in the Rebellion. When Lord Coleridge visited Cincinnati, in making a tour of the United States, the fact that the local Federal judge had been sworn in by a Federal judge who was an ex-Confederate, and that the latter had administered the iron-clad oath, was stated to him, and his comment was, that such a thing could not have occurred under any government on the face of the earth, except the govern- ment of the United States. While at the Bar, Judge Sage was employed in a very large number of important cases and was counsel in the only three cases wherein the trial proceedings were reported throughout in the daily press. Two of these, the case of the Irish Filibusters and the Bible case, were of national interest. Shortly before his appointment, Governor Foster tendered him a position on the Supreme Bench of Ohio, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Longworth, but he declined the offer. He has two children, a daughter Caroline, the wife of Captain J. M. Burns, U. S. A., and
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one son Corwin, who is connected with the C. C. C. & St. L. Railroad, at Cin- cinnati. Judge Sage is a close student and an untiring worker ; he is quick to grasp the controlling points in the case before him and limits counsel and wit- nesses to the questions involved, thereby dispatching the business of his court with great rapidity. He was, while at the Bar, noted for his remarkably effective cross examination of witnesses; on the Bench the same intuitive knowledge of human motives and emotions makes him especially strong as a nisi prius judge. Availing himself of the practice of the Federal courts, he charges the jury with great thoroughness, both as to the law and the facts, and his statements of controverted points are marvellously simple and fair. His decisions are written in a literary style at once incisive, polished and pure. As expositions of law they campare favorably with those of any judge in the Federal judiciary. He combines culture that comes from many years' study in all fields of knowledge, and the maturity of intellect that is gained by long experience at Bench and Bar and by contact with men of prominence of sev- eral generations past, with a fund of anecdote and information that is within the reach of few living men.
REPORTERS OF THE SUPREME COURT.
BY E. O. RANDALL.
The court reportorial system took its origin in England, and can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, from which it continued, in a more or less irregular and indifferent form, till the days of Elizabeth's illustrious reign, when Plowden's published reports (1550-1580) raised the office of court reporter to high legal dignity and great literary luster. Plowden was fol- lowed by the distinguished Coke, whose reports are among his most preten- tious and valued legal work, and drew forth from his great rival Francis Bacon this tribute : "To give every man his due, had it not been for Sir Edward Coke's Reports, the law, by this time, had been almost like a ship without ballast ; for that the cases of modern experience are fled from those that are adjudged and ruled in former times."
Subsequent to the adoption of the first Constitution of Ohio (November, 1802) the first enactment organizing the judicial courts of the State was passed April 15, 1803. (Vol. 1 O. L., 35.)
This original act was amended from time to time until February 23, 1816, when, for the first time in the State legislation, recognition was made of the necessity, on the part of the Supreme Court, for putting in permanent form and properly preserving its opinions accompanying its decisions. That law was as follows: * * * It shall be the duty of the court to reduce the reasons of their judgment to writing and cause the same to be filed with the other papers of such cause, and if it should happen that the judges of said court should differ in opinion, then the dissenting judge shall also reduce the reasons of his opinion to writing, and the same shall be filed as aforesaid." (14 O. L., 310.)
The provisions of this act were doubtless complied with, but the reports filed by the court are no longer extant. They were probably relegated to the garret of the clerk's office, where they made unequal struggles " 'gainst the tooth of time, and razure of oblivion."
January 20, 1823, the legislature amended the last act and provided : "Section 6. That the said judges shall appoint a reporter, who shall report all decisions made at said sessions in Columbus, and such other important decisions as he may be directed by said judges to report, and cause the same to be pub- lished as soon as may conveniently be done after such session." (21 O. L., 9.)
After the adoption of the new Constitution (1851) the General Assembly enacted-Section 8, Chapter 32 (S. & C., 379): "The Supreme Court shall appoint a reporter, whose term of office shall continue three years; whose duty it shall be to attend the sessions of said court, and to report under the
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directions of the court its decisions, together with such other decisions as the court may direct him to report, and to cause the same to be published as soon as may be conveniently done. Provided, that no arguments of counsel shall be published with said reports other than a brief containing a reference to the points made and authorities cited, and relied on by such counsel, unless specially directed by the court." etc. (50 O. L., 68.)
April 14, 1854, (52 O. L., 41) an act was passed "regulating the publica- tions of the Ohio Reports," and providing that in lieu of the salary heretofore accorded the reporter. he should have the right of personally publishing the court reports, and be entitled to the emoluments to be derived therefrom.
April 11, 1865, (62 O. L., 119) the General Assembly further amended the last previous act, establishing further requirements as to manner and method of the publication of the reports of the reporter.
April 23, 1872, (69 O. L., 99) the legislature repealed the previous acts ; established a definite annual salary for the reporter, and placed the letting of the contract for the publication of the reports in the hands of the Secretary of State, who was to direct their distribution and sale. This act was further amended as to distribution and publication, May 1, 1871 (68 O. L., 109).
February 2, 1893, (90 O. L., 21) further provision was made as to the appointment of the reporter ; his bond ; salary and term of service.
May 21, 1894, (91 O. L., 419) the General Assembly by enactment took the publication of the reports out of the office of the Secretary of State and placed the letting of the contract in the charge of the reporter, and provided that the publisher should have the control of the distribution and sale of the reports at a stipulated maximum price. The reporter has no pecuniary interest in the publication. That vests entirely with the publisher. The same General Assembly, May 19, (91 O. L .. 341) still further provided for the com- pensation of the reporter because of the additional labor of publishing in the reports, as decreed by rule of the court, not only the opinions, but the memo- randa of the unreported cases.
Under the present legislation, therefore, the reporter is appointed by the judges of the court for a term not to exceed three years, at a stipulated salary, with contingent fees regulated by the number of decisions handed down by the court. The reports are published as a private enterprise by the publisher, upon a contract made with the reporter. form and style of the volume and retail price to the public being determined by statute.
Since the creation of the office fourteen different appointees, including the present incumbent, have discharged the duties of reporter for the court. Among them were lawyers whose names have taken high rank. not only in the legal profession of the State, but of the country. Brief sketches of these reporters herewith follow in the order of their appointment.
CHARLES HAMMOND, born September 19, 1779, near Baltimore, Maryland. His parents, George and Elizabeth (Wells) Hammond were well to do farmers and people of culture, and personally assisted in the early instruction of their son, who, as a boy, became accomplished as a classical student, retaining his
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familiarity with Greek and Latin throughout his life. The family removed from Maryland to Virginia in 1785, locating at Wellsburg, Brooke county, where, in 1800, Charles entered the law office of Phillip Doddridge, one of the most distinguished lawyers of Virginia. Charles was admitted to the Bar at the General Court, sitting at Marietta, Ohio, in 1803. In the same year he was married to Sarah Tillingharst, and settled in Wheeling, Virginia. In 1810 he moved to St. Clairsville, Belmont county, Ohio. Previous to the admission of Ohio as a State, violent attacks were made upon the life and character of the territorial governor. St. Clair, because of his pronounced views as a Fed- eralist and advocacy of a strong government, and the alleged assumption of extreme authority. Mr. Hammond, then in Wheeling, wrote a series of let- ters to the Scioto Gazette, published at Chillicothe, Ohio, defending the gov- ernor with great spirit and talent. Those letters made Mr. Hammond famous as a vigorous thinker, polished writer and intrepid advocate. In 1812 he began, at St. Clairsville, the publication of the Ohio Federalist, which he con- tinued till 1818. This made him the leader of the Federal party in the West. In 1813 he was elected, from Belmont county, to the Ohio State Senate, serv- ing in the 12th and 13th general assemblies. In 1816 he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, and served in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th gen- eral assemblies till 1822. During this time he made a revision of the laws of Ohio, and was the author of many leading acts, especially those regulating the course of descents, distribution of personal estates, chancery proceedings, etc. In 1822 he removed to Cincinnati, which was thereafter his home. In 1821 he was made the first appointee to the office of reporter of the Supreme Court, which office he held till his death in Cincinnati, April 3, 1840. He edited the first nine volumes of the Ohio Reports, and they are monuments to his legal lore and literary acquirements. During all these years he was busy with his law practice, which often called him to Washington, and the pursuit of his profession as a journalist, in which he became equally distinguished. He was the author of the political essays signed " Hampden" in the Na- tional Intelligencer (1820), upon the Constitution, which letters were highly complimented by President Jefferson. In 1823 he became an editorial
writer on the Cincinnati Gazette, and his pen was the chief power in that organ till the great destroyer hushed his voice. As a lawyer and editor he was equally prominent, and his influence in the public measures and political movements of his time was second to none of the great leaders in the West. As a constitutional lawyer he had no superior in the State and but few, if any, equals in the country. Mr. Hammond possessed natural talent of the very highest order, and he has been not improperly regarded as the Alexander Hamilton of the West. In 1819 arose the celebrated case of the State Auditor of Ohio against the United States Bank (9 Wheaton 738). Henry Clay repre- sented the Government and Charles Hammond the State of Ohio. It was argued in the United States Supreme Court in February, 1824, and was a battle of legal giants. Mr. Hammond's reputation was already great, but this case placed him in the highest rank, although the decision of the Supreme Court
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was against him. His argument was a masterpiece, admirable in temper, per- fect in logical construction, comprehensive in its grasp of principles, original, and as a specimen of English composition will challenge comparison with any- thing emanating from the most eminent of the legal profession. Mr. Ham- mond's review of the opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in this case, says high authority, "was perhaps never excelled by even the great constitutional lawyer of Boston." Mr. Hammond's last argument before the United States Circuit Court at Columbus (1838) was declared by Justice McLean, presiding on the Bench, to be one of the most happy and successful efforts of a great and powerful mind he had ever heard. Toward the close of his administration, President Adams tendered Henry Clay a position on the United States Supreme Bench. Mr. Clay declined, and the appointment was tendered Mr. Hammond, but he refused to accept the high honor. Mr. Hammond enjoyed the friendship and intimacy and often full confidence of the leading men of his time-Jefferson, Adams, Clay, Crawford, Marshall, Webster, Jackson, Birney, Harrison ; and others in letters and public utterances acknowledged their appreciation of his noble character and transcendent talents. Lieutenant Governor Greene, of Rhode Island, relates that in a conversation with Chief Justice Marshall, the latter "spoke of Mr. Hammond's remarkable acuteness and accuracy of mind, and referred with emphatic admiration to his argument before the Supreme Court in the bank case. He said that he had met no judicial record of equal intellectual power since Lord Hardwick's time." Mr. Hammond's opposition to slavery and its influence on the government was firm, consistent and powerful. Probably no public writer did more to form a just and reasonable anti-slavery sentiment. He induced the Ohio Legislature, in 1820, to adopt his views and to declare that the existence of slavery had ever been deemed a great moral and political evil, that its tendency was to impair our national character and naturally affect our national happiness. (18 O. L., 147.) Mr. Hammond's writings are unsurpassed for clearness, completeness, brevity and beauty. In elegance and simplicity they compare favorably with the best of the English essayists. "For over forty years," writes one who knewhim well, "Charles Hammond was one of the Republic's ablest, most unselfish and most faithful sons, and a witness to the spirit and principles of government as established by the fathers."
PHINEHAS BACON WILCOX, born September 26, 1798, at Westfield, Connect- icut. The only son of Seth Wilcox and Molly Bacon. Both parents were descendants of Saxon ancestry, the first emigrants in the family to this country settling in the Massachusetts colony about the year 1675. Phinehas during his early boyhood lived and worked upon his father's farm, obtaining such education as his meager opportunities afforded. At the age of sixteen he attended the academy at Cheshire, Connecticut, and the academy at Middlebury, Vermont. At these excellent preparatory schools he was fitted for Yale College, from which he was graduated at the age of twenty-threc. Shortly after graduation he married Sarah D. Andrews of Wallingford, Connecticut, and the new couple started, on their bridal trip, to the then far
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distant wilderness of the "Ohio country," finally locating in the new town of Columbus, on the " Waters of the Scioto," where his father owned land, and where they arrived in the fall of 1821. Columbus never ceased to be his home. He immediately began the study of law in the office of Judge Orris Parish, and was admitted to the Bar in 1824, and at once commenced the practice of his profession, his legal forum then being the old red brick court house in Franklinton. His natural ability, studious habits, superior education and unswerving integrity at once raised him to the front rank of his contemporary practitioners. He rapidly acquired a large practice in Franklin, Madison and Delaware counties. He soon became prominent as a "land lawyer," having mastered all the intricacies of the Virginia Military Land titles, that per- petual source of litigation in those days. He was also distinguished as a chancery lawyer, which practice he preferred. He was a master of common law pleadings, being familiar with all the subtleties of the old English special pleas, and a constant student of English common law. In 1833 he published a work on "Ohio Forms and Practice," which became at once standard authority on those subjects. He published an enlarged and revised edition in 1848. This book was the standard on law and equity practice and pleading, both in the State and the United States courts, until the adoption of the code of civil procedure in 1853, and was in universal use by judges, lawyers and clerks in this and other States under the old practice. In 1849, when the matter of a new Constitution and code was contemplated, he published a pamphlet entitled "Tracts on Law Reform," with a view of molding public opinion against the proposed changes in our law system. His motto was, " We know already the worst of what is-we know not the worst of what may be." Like many lawyers of the old school, he could not abide the new code ; but, upon its adoption, adjusted himself to the new order of things, and in 1862 published bis " Practical Forms Under the Code of Civil Procedure." He was elected prosecuting attorney for Franklin county for the years 1834 to 1836. He was reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio for the year 1840, reporting the tenth volume of the Ohio Reports, and his copious and scholarly notes to some of the cases therein give indisputable evidence of his wide knowledge of the law. general scholarship and remarkable accuracy and terse- ness of statement. So high did he stand in the confidence of the court, that it not infrequently happened that after deciding some difficult question, the court in handing its opinion to the reporter would say, "We have decided so and so in this case, and depend upon you to give the reasons." His note upon assurances of title, in the case of Foote vs. Bennet, 10 Ohio, 317, has been considered one of the ablest and clearest expositions of that abstruse subject, at that time not well understood by even good lawyers, and it received a high encomium from Chancellor Kent. Mr. Wilcox was United States commissioner for the district of Ohio for many years, but he resigned this office in 1858 rather than be made the instrument of re- manding a fugitive slave to bondage. For though he had nothing to do with politics as such, he was a staunch Whig, with a leaning toward the old
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Federal doctrines, and afterwards a decided Republican. Upon the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, he was much disturbed as to the ultimate result upon our institutions. Never doubting that the North would conquer, he believed that the greatest perils would then arise, having little faith in the loyalty of the South to our Federal government thereafter. After a long investigation on the subject, from Magna Charta down, he settled upon cer- tain principles which he embodied in a brief, and sent, in 1862, to his friend Edwin Stanton, then secretary of war. It was a remarkable, pathetic docu- ment. Mr. Wilcox was famous as a student and a scholar, conspicuous for his culture in history and literature, and especially the classics, his knowledge of which he kept through life. His law library was very large and varied, and the reports of the English cases were his delight and pastime. For many years it was the only library of any consequence in the West, and was con- stantly resorted to, both by lawyers and judges, whom he was always ready to assist. The library at his residence was often the scene of interesting and learned discussions, intermitted with rare wit and humor, when Ewing, Stan- bery, Hunter, Goddard, Lane,'Swayne and others of his " brothers " met there. Mr. Wilcox was a man of deep and sincere religious convictions, maintaining through life the principles instilled into his mind by a most excellent and sensi- ble mother, who trained him in the strict views of the Puritans of New Eng- land. It was once said of Mr. Wilcox by Judge Bennet, that he lived upon Coke and the Bible. A distinguished legal friend in Cincinnati, upon hearing of Mr. Wilcox's profession of religion, wrote him : "So you have become a Christian? I had thought that a business man could find something better to do. Let me have your reasons." To this Mr. Wilcox replied by writing an essay, afterwards published by the American Tract Society, and styled " A Few Thoughts," wherein he set forth, in simple and forcible language, the cardinal truths of the gospel, and the reasons for the faith they inspired. Mr. Wilcox's character was once well summed up by one who knew him, as fol- lows: " He was a man of high character and personal integrity, of great benevolence and charity, a fine type of a conscientious Christian lawyer, attending with great diligence and fidelity to the cases of his clients, when, in his opinion, they had a just cause, but discouraging litigation, for the mere sake of litigation or procrastination, and utterly refusing to lend himself or his great legal attainments to any unjust cause, however large the fees or tempt- ing the glory." Mr. Wilcox died on March 25, 1863, at Columbus, Ohio. The late General James A. Wilcox was his son, and Anna Maria, wife of Robert Ellis, his only daughter.
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