USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 13
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Seventeen years of close application to his extensive business told on his con- stitution, and in the winter of 1860-61 he was compelled to give up work for several months, and the respite restored his health and gave him a new lease of life, which abstemious habits and careful observance of the laws of health pro- tected to the time of his last illness.
On the election of Judge Wilmot to the United States Senate in January, 1861, he resigned the president judgeship of the Twelfth judicial district, and Mr. Mer- cur was appointed to fill the vacancy. He discharged the onerous duties with such entire acceptability to the bar and people, that at the ensuing election he was chosen for a full term without opposition, the district being composed of the counties of Bradford and Susquehanna.
In 1862 a division in the Republican party in the congressional district com- posed of the counties of Bradford, Columbia, Montour, Sullivan and Wyoming resulted in the defeat of the regular nomince. To prevent a similar disaster in 1864, Mr. Mercur was prevailed upon to accept a unanimous nomination and was triumphantly elected by over 40,000 majority, being more than 4,000 more than General Ilartranft, the candidate for governor, had at the same time. He was renominated for three consecutive terms, and before the expiration of his fourth term, in 1872, was nominated by the Republican State convention for Judge of the Supreme Court, the position held to the date of his death.
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ULYSSES MERCUR.
Judge Mercur has filled many prominent political positions of honor. He was a delegate to the first Republican State convention, which was held in Philadel- phia, and also to the National convention that nominated John C. Fremont. He was chosen an elector for Lincoln in 1860. One of the present United States Senators and two of the president judges of Common Pleas Courts in this State were law students under his tuition and graduated from his office. Although Chief-Justice Mercur always took a decp interest in political affairs from the time the anti-slavery question became prominent, he never allowed this to interfere with his devotion to the law and its practice. Of Judge Mercur's reputa- tion on the bench and in Congress it is unnecessary to speak, and we shall only remark in passing that his record was an honor to his constituents, and one of which any gentleman might justly feel proud. His public record was singularly free from demagogy and tricks of the average politician, while in his private life he was as pure as the mountain stream. His political advancements, like his business success, were solely due to marked ability and personal worth. During his nearly quarter of a century in public life his bitterest political opponents never even intimated anything derogatory to his honor as a gentleman and strict fidelity to the trusts confided to his keeping.
His eminence as a jurist was evidenced in his nomination for the high position he held, without having canvassed for the office, over some of the ablest judges in the State.
In Congress Judge Mercur was not a "talking member," though he had few equals in debate, but he was looked up to as one of the most useful representa- tives. He was a member of the judiciary committee, and took an active part in preparing the reconstruction measures rendered necessary by the secession of the Southern States. It was during the discussion on one of the bills on that subject that he made use of this memorable sentence : " If they (the people of the States lately in rebellion) will not respect the stars they must feel the stripes of our glorious flag." One important measure which he was instrumental in pass- ing through Congress deserves to be placed beside the Wilmot proviso and Grow's homestead bill. We refer to the act exempting tea and coffee from duty, thus reducing the price of these almost necessary articles of diet, which are needed alike by the rich and the poor.
In politics Judge Mercur was originally a Democrat (though his brothers were all active Whigs), adhering to the Free-soil wing of the party, having been edu- cated in the same political school with Wilmot and Grow. He was one of the first to protest against the scheme to enslave Kansas and Nebraska, and took an active part in the organization of the Republican party, which we believe had its birth in Towanda, as early as February, 1855, when a meeting was called to give expression to the indignation of the people of the North at the repeal of the Missouri compromise. He was also a delegate to the preliminary State conven- tion in Pittsburgh, and an elector on the Lincoln ticket in 1860. Judge Wilmot always esteemed him his friend and confidential adviser in politics as well as
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ULYSSES MERCUR.
legal affairs, When Wilmot was invited by President Lincoln in the spring of 1861 to act as peace commissioner at Washington, before accepting the appoint- ment he visited Judge Mercur, and after a full consultation decided to go and, to use his own words, " try to prevent a patched-up compromise," which would leave the differences between the two sections of the Union as far from being set- tled as before.
In 1850 Judge Mercur was married to a daughter of the late General John Davis, of Bucks county, and his domestic life was very happy. Five children were born to him, all of whom are still living. The eldest, Rodney A., is a pros- perous young lawyer of Towanda; two other sons, Dr. John D. and James W., attorney-at-law, reside in Philadelphia. The only daughter married B. Frank Eshleman, Esq., a successful lawyer of Lancaster, this State. The youngest son is now in school preparing for college.
The judge was a communicant of St. Stephen's Church, was a strict Sabbatarian, and Sunday seldom failed to find him in the house of worship. His family were connected with the Episcopal Church, and he was a liberal supporter and con- stant attendant upon the services of the church.
In the new position which Judge Mercur assumed, as chief-justice, he attained the same eminence and distinction as in the other stations he had been called upon to fill, and the historian of the judiciary of the Commonwealth will write him among the ablest, wisest and purest who have worn the judicial ermine and adorned the Supreme bench.
Up to the year of his death the judge was in possession of clear, unclouded mental vision and vigorous, well-preserved physical health-literally having "a sound mind in a healthy body." The industrious habits of younger days still clung to him, and during the short recesses of court he spent at his elegant resi- dence in Towanda he was not often seen idle, but busied himself in the investiga- tion of intricate legal questions, writing out opinions, etc.
Genuine sociability and hospitality are family characteristics, and the judge was not lacking in these qualities. He was always "at home " to his friends, and was one of the most entertaining of hosts.
From honest convictions he was a pronounced, thorough Republican, but was not a bigot, and always treated his political adversary with gentlemanly respect. Some of his greatest admirers and warmest personal friends were not members of his political household.
The old " Wilmot district" has never produced a man of whom the people have greater reason to feel proud, nor one who will ever have a warmer place in their hearts than Judge Mercur.
Judge Mercur was stricken suddenly by illness on May 26, 1887, while on a visit to his son, James Watts Mercur, at Wallingford, Delaware county, Pa. The illness proved fatal on the 6th of June, 1887. It is needless to say that the Supreme bench lost one of its ablest members and the community an honored citizen.
HON. GEORGE SHARSWOOD.
GEORGE SHARSWOOD.
H ON. GEORGE SHARSWOOD, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Penn- sylvania, was born in Philadelphia, July 7th, 1810. That city was always his home, and his nearly three-quarters of a century residence within it saw it increase in population nearly ten-fold. As the name indicates, the Sharswood family is of English origin. The first of the American line, George Sharswood, the great-great-great-grandfather of the Chief Justice, emigrated from England and settled in New London, Conn., about the year 1665. Another George Sharswood, grandson of the first George, and great-grandfather of the Chief Justice, was born at Cape May, N. J., October 18th, 1696, and came to Phila- delphia in the year 1706, a lad ten years old. James Sharswood, grandfather of the Chief Justice, was born in this city, March 18th, 1747, o. s. He received a sound education, and early in life showed himself to be an enterprising, public- spirited citizen. He was a captain of volunteers in the revolution, but a spinal injury previously received made it necessary for him to cut short his army career. He was afterward one of the originators of the Democratic party, served in the City Councils, and at one time was one of the representatives from Philadelphia in the General Assembly. He was appointed by Governor Snyder an Associate Judge of the Common Pleas of this county, which could then be held by a lay- man, but declined the honor. In early life he was engaged in the lumber busi- ness, but in his later years he seemed to have given more or less attention to banking. Throughout his long life he enjoyed in a high degree the confidence and respect of the people of Philadelphia. He died in 1836, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. He had two sons, one of whom, George Sharswood, died at the early age of twenty-two, leaving an infant son, also named George Shars- wood, and who is the subject of this sketch. The elder Sharswood accepted the legacy, cared for and educated his grandson, and at his death left such a com- petence as to enable the latter in the practice of his profession to be independent and indifferent, if he chose, to its pecuniary rewards.
At the age of fifteen George Sharswood entered the Sophomore class of the University of Pennsylvania. He there exhibited the same studious habits which characterized his whole life. On his graduation in 1828 he received the highest honors of his class, and delivered the Latin Salutatory. On August 23d, 1828, less than a month after leaving college, he was registered as a student of law in the office of Joseph R. Ingersoll, one of the ablest representatives of the Phila- delphia bar. Years afterward, as a testimonial of the respect and esteem which his instructor in the law had inspired, he dedicated his little work on " Profes- sional Ethics" to Mr. Ingersoll, addressing him as " My Honored Master." Either through the advice of his preceptor, or moved by his own good judg- ment, young Sharswood seems to have determined to become a lawyer before he
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became an attorney. Instead, therefore, of the usual two or three years of superficial skimming or undigested cramming of the dozen or more of the usual law student's text-books, he devoted himself, from the time he was eighteen until twenty-three years of age, to a comprehensive and systematic course of study which would appal a less industrious man, and one which a man impatient for the immediate rewards of his profession would not think of undertaking.
In his note to Blackstone's introductory chapters "on the study of law in general," Judge Sharswood gives a list of books for law students, the careful study of which he thinks is not beyond the reach of any young man of industry and application, in a period of from five to seven years. This list includes twenty- five works on real estate and equity, nine works on practice, pleading and evi- dence, nine on crimes and forfeitures, eleven on national and international law, and the cases on this subject in the Supreme Court of the United States, ten works on constitutional law, and with the cases in the United States Supreme Court reports, nine works on the civil law, cighteen works on the persons and per- sonal property, and four works on executors and administrators. This is exclu- sive of Blackstone and Kent, which he says must first be read again and again. It is further recommended that the leading cases referred to in these eighty-nine works be examined when possible. The Judge was, however, more merciful to his disciples than he was to himself, for the course of preparatory legal reading which he laboriously pursued during his novitiate number over one hundred volumes. In one of his addresses to his class of law students in the University of Pennsylvania, Judge Sharswood gives the list of works which formed a part of his early reading, and which he recommends to all other law students. This list is both curious and valuable, and is as follows :
In Real Estate : Lord llale's History of the Common Law ; Reeves' History of the English Law ; Dalrymple's Essay ; Sullivan's Lectures on Feudal Law ; Sir Martin Wright's Introduction ; Robertson's llistory and Hallam's History ; Sir Henry Finch's Nomotechnia; the Doctor and Student; The I'refaces to Lord Coke's Reports; Littleton's Tenures and The First Institute; Preston on Estates; Fearne's Con- lingent Remainders, not always read by the American student, and more rarely comprehended ; Shep- pird's Touchstone; Preston on Abstracts of Title, and Preston's Treatise on Conveyancing; Ballow's Equity ; Jeremy's Treatise on Equity, and Story's Commentaries on Equity; Powell on Mortgages; Bicon's Reading on the Statute of Uses; Sanders on Uses and Trusts; Hill on Trustees; Lewis on Perpetuities ; Sugden on Powers; Chance on Powers; Sugden on Vendors and Purchasers; Woodfall on Landlord and Tenant; Roscoe on the Laws of Actions; Cruise on Fines, etc .; Pigott on Common Recoveries; Powell's Essay, and Jarman on Wills.
In Practice, Pleading, and Evidence: The Introduction to Compton's Practice ; Tidd's Practice; Stephen on Pleading ; Broom's Parties to Actions; Greenleaf on Evidence; Selwyn's Nisi Prius; Leigh's Nisi Prius, which he has enriched with valuable notes; Mitford's Pleading in Equity ; Story's Equity ; Burton's Historical Treatise; Newland's Chancery Practice ; Gresley on Evidence, and the fourth part of the Institute.
In Crimes and Forfeitures : Hale's History of the Pleas of the Crown ; Foster's Crown Law ; Yorke's Consideration on the Law of Forfeiture ; The Third l'art of the Institutes; Chitty on Criminal Law and Russell on Crimes; this work with his notes, and it has passed through eight editions.
In National and International Law : Burlamaqui's Natural and Political Law; Grotius de Jure Belli et l'acis : Rutherford's Institutes; Valtel's Law of Nations; Bynkershock's Questiones, Publici Juris; Wicquefort's Ambassador ; Bynkershock's de foro Legatorum; McIntosh's Discourse; Wheaton's Ilis-
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tory of the International Law ; Wheaton's International Law; Robinson's Admiralty Reports and Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States.
In Constitutional Law : The Second Part of Lord Coke's Institutes; Hallam's Constitutional History of England ; Millar's Historical View of the English Constitution; Wynne's Eunomus; De Lolme on the English Constitution, with Stephen's Introduction and Notes; The Federalist; Rawle on the Con- stitution ; Story on the Constitution ; Cases decided in the Supreme Court of the United States.
In the Civil Law : Butler's llora Jurichica; Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall, chap. 44; Justinian's Institutes ; Savigny's Traite de Droit Romain; Savigny's Histoire du Droit Romain au Moyen Age; Taylor's Elements of the Civil Law; Mackeldy's Compendium; Colquhoun's Summary of the Roman Civil Law, and Domat's Civil Law.
In Persons and Personal Property: Reeves on the Domestic Relations; Bingham's Law of Infancy and Coverture; Roper on Husband and Wife; Angel and Ames on Corporations; Les Œuvres de Pothier; Smith on Contracts; Story on Bailments; Jones on Bailments; Story on Partnership; Byles on Bills; Story on Promissory Notes : Abbott on Shipping; Duer on Insurance; Emerigon Traite des As- surances ; Boulay-Paty Cour de Droit Commercial, and Story on the Conflict of Laws.
On Executors and Administrators : Roper on Legacies; Toller on Executors; Williams on Executors, and the Law's Disposal, by Lovelass.
In his own study of these works he, no doubt, anticipated the advice he sub- sequently gave to all law students, and pursued " a methodical study of the gen- eral system of law, and of its grounds and reasons, beginning with the funda- mental law of estates and tenures, and pursuing the derivative branches in logieal succession, and the collateral in due order." This is, he said, the most effectual way of making a great lawyer. Judge Sharswood's own life furnishes one of the rare instances in which such a thorough and extensive course of legal study has ever been successfully accomplished.
On September 5, 1831, he was admitted to the bar, but did not on that account intermit his studies, rather gave them a wider range, blending with them some- thing of classical literature, and giving some attention to the modern languages. Until raised to the beneh, fourteen years later, he enjoyed a fair share of profes- sional business, but his real calling was that of a judge and not of an advocate, and these intervening, as well as the preceding years, may be considered simply as preparatory to his real life work.
In 1834 he published the first of a long series of contributions from his pen to the literature and learning of his profession, being an article in the American Quarterly Review for June of that year on " the Revised Code of Pennsylvania." In the year following he was elected one of the viee-provosts of the Philadelphia Law Academy. In the same year appeared an American edition of " Roscoe on Criminal Evidence," enriched by notes and references by Mr. Sharswood. This, his first work as an annotator, has run through seven American editions. In 1837 he was chosen one of the representatives of the city of Philadelphia to the State Legislature, and the year following was elected a member of the Seleet Council of this city. During the years of service in the Legislature, State, and municipal, his legal publications were in a measure suspended, but he found time to edit an American edition of Leigh's "Nisi Prius," which was published in 1838. This contains in addition to Judge Sharswood's copious notes his inter- esting little treatise on account render.
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GEORGE SHARSWOOD.
The affairs of the United States Bank were at that time the subject of great public interest in the country, and especially to the citizens of Philadelphia. It had long been the foot-ball of politicians, and in its later years had drifted into a course of reckless speculation, and illegitimate methods were resorted to by its management to bolster its failing credit. In January, 1841, a committee was ap- pointed by the stockholders to examine into the affairs of the bank, and George Sharswood was made its secretary. To him was delegated the important and difficult task of preparing the report, which occupies four closely printed columns of the United States Gasette of April 8th, 1841, and is reproduced at length in Benton's " Thirty Years' View," II. 370. He was also the author of the second re- port of this committee, answering attacks made upon the first report. In the fall of the same year he was elected the second time to the lower branch of the Legislature, and in 1842 he was returned a third time, making his legislative ex- perience in all three years. The journal of the House for this period shows him to have been one of the active working members of that body. His name ap- pears frequently in connection with proposed legislation, and he is said to have fulfilled the most sanguine expectations of his constituents.
In 1843 the Messrs. Johnson, of this city, began the publication of a quarterly law magazine of a high order of merit called the American Law Magasine. Mr. Sharswood was made its editor, and gave it character and standing. After twelve issues, beginning April, 1843, and ending January, 1846, it was discon- tinued. These numbers are still accessible, bound in six convenient volumes. They constitute a rich mine of legal lore, valuable to both student and practi- tioner. As the magazine does not itself specify the author of the several articles, those written by Judge Sharswood are here indicated for the benefit of the readers of the present day. In the first number, July, 1843, he wrote " Past Nuptial Settlements " and " The Security of Private Property." In the October number, 1843, " Personal Ilereditaments; " in the January number, 1844, " Eng- lish Law Reform ; " in the April number, 1844, " Transfer of Personal Property by Judgment ; " in the July number, 1844, he has two articles, one "On the . Competency of Witnesses," the other " Riots, Routs, and Unlawful Assemblies ; " for October, 1844, he wrote "Compound Interest." For the remaining numbers he does not seem to have contributed any general article, but continued the work of editing. The critical notices of all the numbers were generally written by him, and the digest of cases always. Ilis edition of Stephens' " Nisi Prius" bears date 1844, and in the same year appeared his first edition of " Russell on Crimes," which subsequently passed through nine American editions.
His published works, his public services, and his growing reputation at the bar, all contributed to extend the knowledge of his name and worth at this time. When, therefore, on April 8th, 1845, Governor Shunk nominated George Shars- wood Associate Judge of the District Court of Philadelphia, the nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and was as universally approved by the bar and the public. The next day he took his seat on the bench, being but thirty-five years of age, and has remained continuously in judicial position ever
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since. On the resignation of Judge Jones, February Ist, 1848, Judge Sharswood was nominated and unanimously confirmed President of the court. By an amendment of the Constitution, adopted in 1850, the judiciary was made elec- tive, and all the judges in the State were compelled to submit their claims to popular approval. Other judges had a close contest for their seats, others again were displaced. The intelligent and discriminating action of the people in Judge Sharswood's case furnishes a strong argument in behalf of the elective judiciary system. The Democratic Convention gave him a unanimous nomination, no other name being even mentioned. The Whig Judicial Convention met later, and, in face of the fact that Judge Sharswood was a consistent old-school Demo- crat, they recognized his pre-eminent fitness for the position he held by guberna- torial appointment, and he was nominated on the first ballot, receiving every vote. The Native Americans, Temperance, and Workingmen followed suit, so that Judge Sharswood entered the campaign, such as it was, with the nominations of five conventions and no opposition. He began his term of ten years in Janu- ary, 1852, and as its expiration approached in 1861, he was re-elected without opposition for a second term of ten years, of which he served but six, when he received from the people of the State a richly merited promotion to the Supreme Bench.
During the twenty-two years covering the period of his judicial labors in the District Court, Judge Sharswood delivered written opinions in over four thousand cases ; of these, one hundred and fifty-six only were carried to the Supreme Court for revision; of this number one hundred and twenty-four were affirmed. He sat for ten months each year, with a thousand cases brought to trial before him and his associates, and nearly two thousand brought to a term.
In addition to these labors of his judicial office this was the most fruitful period of his contributions to general legal literature and of his incidental services to his profession. In April, 1850, he was chosen Professor of Law in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1852, when a full faculty was organized in that department of the University, Judge Sharswood was appointed to the chair of the institute of law, and continued to perform its duties until April 21st, 1868, when, having been elected to a seat on the Supreme Court, he deemed it advisable to resign. During this period he delivered many introductory lectures, a selection from which he afterwards republished in book form under the title of "Law Lectures." The little volume is inscribed " To George W. Biddle, Esq., of the bar of Philadelphia. In testimony of a close and unbroken friendship of more than a third of a century, and of the highest admiration of his qualities as a man, a citizen, an advocate and a jurist." These lectures are nine in number, and may be read with pleasure and profit by the beginner in law, and those grown gray in its practice, and by laymen as well. The subjects chosen are : " The Profession of the Law," "Legal Education," " On the Relation of Law to Moral Science," "On Commercial Integrity," " On Natural Law," " On the Civil Law," " On the Common Law," " On the Feudal Law," "On Codification." A lecture on " The
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