History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 38

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Publisher: W. Taylor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 38
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 38

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On the erection of the District Court of Lancaster he became the first pre- siding judge, which office he held for several years. £ He finally removed to Philadelphia, where he spent the last years of his life, and died in that city in 1840, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

Hon. John Reed, LL. D., appeared upon the bench in 1820. Judge Reed was born in what was then York, now Adams County, in 1756. He was the son of Gen. William Reed, of Revolutionary fame. He read law under Will- iam Maxwell, of Gettysburg. In 1809 he was admitted to the bar and com- menced the practice of law in Westmoreland County. In the two last years of his professional career he performed the duties of deputy attorney-general. In 1815 Mr. Reed was elected to the State Senate, and on the 10th of July 1820, he was commissioned by Gov. Finley president judge of the Ninth Judicial District, then composed of the counties of Cumberland, Adams and Perry. When, in 1539, by a change in the constitution, his commission expired, he resumed his practice at the bar, and continued it until his death which occurred in Carlisle, on the 19th of January, 1850, when he was in the six- ty-fourth year of his age. In 1839 the decree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Washington College, Pennsylvania. In 1833 the new board of trustees of Dickinson College formed a professorship of law, and Judge Reed was elected professor of that department. The instructions consisted of lectures, and of a moot court of law, where legal questions were discussed, cases tried, and where the pleadings were drawn up in full-Reed being the supreme court. After a full course of study, this department conferred the decree of LL. B. Many were admitted to the bar during this period, most of whom practiced elsewhere, and many of whom afterward became eminent in their pro- fession.

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THE BAR UNDER JUDGE REED.

At this period, and later, the bar was particularly strong. Of the old veterans, David Watts was dead, and Duncan was upon the supreme bench. But among the practitioners of the time were such men as Carothers, Alexander, Mahan, Ramsey, Williamson, Metzgar, Lyon, William Irvine, William H. Brackenridge and Isaac Brown Parker; while among those admitted, and who were afterward to attain eminence on the bench or at the bar, were such men as Charles B. Penrose, Hugh Gaullagher, Frederick Watts, William M. Biddle, James H. Graham, Samuel Hepburn, William Sterritt Ramsey, S. Dunlap Adair and John Brown Parker-a galaxy of names such as has not since been equaled.

Gen. Samuel Alexander was practicing at our bar in 1820, when Judge Reed took the bench. He was the youngest son of Col. John Alexander, a Revolutionary officer, and was born in Carlisle September 20, 1792. He graduated at Dickinson College in 1812, after which he read law in Greens- burg with his brother, Maj. John B. Alexander, and became a prominent law- yer in that part of the State. He afterward returned to Carlisle, and by the advice of Judge Duncan and David Watts was induced to become a member of our bar, at which he soon acquired a prominent position. In 1820 he married a daughter of Col. Ephraim Blaine, but left no sons to perpetuate his name.

As an advocate Mr. Alexander had but few, if any, superiors at the bar. In the early part of his career he was a diligent student and was in the habit of carefully digesting most of the reported cases. In addition to this he was possessed of a tenacious memory and seemed never to forget a case he had once read. He was always fully identified with the cause of his client, and possessed that thorough onesidedness so necessary to the successful advocate.

He possessed also great tact and an intuitive quickness of perception. In the management of a case he was apt, watchful and ingenious. If driven from one position, like a skillful general he was always quick to seize another. In this respect his talents, it is said, only brightened amid difficulties, and shone forth only the more resplendent as the battle became more hopeless. Nor was oratory, the crowning grace and the most necessary accomplishment of the advocate, wanting. He was a forcible speaker, with a large command of language, and with the happy faculty of nearly always finding the right word for the right place. His diction was choice, and in his matter, although sometimes diffusive, in his manner he was always bold, vigorous and aggres- sive. He had the power of sarcasm, was often ironical, and was a master in personal invective. In this he had no equal at the bar. In the examination of witnesses, also, he had no superior.

Mr. Alexander had a natural inclination for mechanics, and was passion- ately fond of anything pertaining to military life. He was for years at the head of a volunteer regiment of the county. He cared for this, strange as it may, appear, more than for his profession, which, toward the close of his life, seems to have become distasteful to him; at least with his abilities unim- paired, he appeared but seldom in the trial of a cause. He died in Carlisle in July, 1845, aged fifty-two.

Hugh Gaullagher, a practitioner at the bar under Reed, studied law with Hon. Richard Coulter of Greensburg, and shortly after his admission com- menced the practice of law in Carlisle. This was about 1824, from which time he continued to practice until about the middle of the century.

He was eccentric, long limbed, awkward in his gait, and in his delivery with an Irish brogue, but he was well-read, particularly in history and in the elements of his profession. He was an affable man, an instructive companion, fond of conversation, with inherent humor and a love of fun, and was popular

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in the circle of his friends, of whom he had many. He was among the num- ber of the old lawyers of our bar who were fond of a dinner and a song, how- over gravely they appear upon the page of history.

At the bar his position was more that of a counselor than of an advocate. Ho was fond of the old cases and would rather read an opinion of my Lord Mansfield, or Hale, or Coke, than the latest delivered by our own judges, "not that ho disregarded the latter, but because he reverenced the former."

He is well remembered, often in connection with anecdotes, and is as fre- quently spoken of by survivors as any man who practiced at our bar so long ago. He died April 14, 1556.

Hon. Charles B. Penrose was born near Philadelphia October 6, 1798. He read law with Samuel Ewing, Esq., in Philadelphia, and immediately moved to Carlisle. He soon acquired a prominent position at the bar. He was elected to the State Senate in 1533, and at the expiration of his term was ro- elected. In this capacity he achieved distinction even among the men of abil- ity who were then chosen for this office. In 1841 he was appointed by Presi- dent Harrison, solicitor of the treasury, which position he held until the close of President Tyler's administration. After practicing in Carlisle he moved first to Lancaster, then to Philadelphia, in both places successfully pursuing his profession. In 1556 he was again elected as a reform candidate to the State Senate, during which term ho died of pneumonia at Harrisburg, April 6. 1857.

William M. Biddle was admitted under Reed in 1826. He was born in. Philadelphia July 3, 1S01, and died of heart disease in that city, where he had gone to place himself under the care of physicians, on the 28th of Febru- ary. 1555. He was the great-great-grandson of Nicholas Scull, surveyor-gen- eral of Pennsylvania from 1748 to 1761, who, by direction of Gov. Hamilton, laid out the borough of Carlisle in 1751. Mr. Biddle was originally destined for mercantile pursuits, but the death of his cousin. Henry Sergeant, an East India trader, who had promised him a partnership in business, put an end to these plans and his attention was turned to the law. He went to Reading, Penn., and studied with his brother-in-law. Samuel Baird. Esq. In 1826. shortly af- ter his admission to the bar, he moved to Carlisle, indneed to do so by the ad- vice of his brother-in-law. Charles B. Penrose, Esq., who had recently opened a law office there, and was then rising into a good practice. Located in Carlisle he soon acquired a large business and soon took a high position at the bar, which he retained to the day of his death. a period of twenty nine years.

Mr. Biddle was an able lawyer and had a keen perception of the principles of law. which, when understood, rednce it to a science. He was endowed with a large fund of wit. in addition to which he was also an excellent mimic, and often indulged in these powers in his addresses to the jury. He was rather a large man, of fine personal presence, great affability, endowed with quick wit and high moral and intellectual qualities which made him a leader at the bar at a time when many brilliant men were among its members.

Gen. Edward M. Biddle was born in Philadelphia: graduated at Princeton College. and then removed to Carlisle, where he studied law under his broth- er-in-law. Hon. Chas. B. Penrose, and in 1530 was admitted to practice in the several courts of Cumberland County.

Hon. Charles McClure was admitted to the bar under Reed in August. 1826. He was born in Carlisle, graduated at Dickinson College. and afterward be- came a member of Congress, and still later, 1543-15, secretary of state of Pennsylvania. He was a son-in-law of Chief Justice Gibson. He did not prac- tice extensively at the bar. He removed to Pittsburgh, where he died in 1546.

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Hon. William Sterritt Ramsey, one of the most promising members of the bar admitted under Reed, was born in Carlisle June 16, 1810. He entered Dickinson College in the autumn of 1826, where he remained three years. In the summer of 1829 he was sent to Europe to complete his education and to restore, by active travel and change of scene, health to an already debilitated constitution. The same year he was appointed (by our minister to the court of St. James, Hon. Lewis McClane) an attache to the American Legation. He pursued his legal studies, visited the courts of Westminister, and the author of Waverly at Abbottsford, to whom he bore letters from Washington Irving. After the Revolution of three days in July, 1830, he was sent with dispatches to France, and spent much of his time, while there, at the hotel of Gen. Lafayette. In 1831 he returned to America and began the study of law under his father. In the month of September of this year his father died. He continued to study under Andrew Carothers, and in 1833 was admitted to the bar of Cumberland County.

In 1838 he was elected a member of Congress by the Democratic party, and at the expiration of his term was re-elected. He was at this time the youngest member of Congress in the House. He died, before being qualified a second time, by his own hand in Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, October 22, 1840, aged only thirty years. An eloquent obituary notice was written on the occasion of his death by his friend, Hon. James Buchanan, afterward Presi- dent of the United States, from which some of the above facts are taken.

S. Dunlap Adair was admitted under Reed in January, 1835. For fifteen years he was a practitioner at the bar. He was born March 26, 1810. While a youth he attended the classical school of Joseph Casey, Sr., the father of Hon. Joseph Casey, in Newville, and was among the brightest of his pupils. He was apt in acquiring knowledge and particularly in the facility of acquiring languages. He became a good Latin scholar, and, after his admission to the bar, made himself acquainted with the German, French and Italian languages. He was well read in English literature, and although not a graduate of any college, his attainments were as varied as those of any member of the bar. He studied law under Hon. Frederick Watts, and soon after his admission was appointed deputy attorney-general for the county. He was a candidate of his party in the district for Congress when William Ramsey, the younger, was elected. He had a chaste, clear style, and was a pleasant speaker. In stature he was below the medium height, delicately formed, near-sighted, and whether sitting or standing had a tendency to lean forward. He was of sanguine temperament, had auburn hair and a high forehead. He died of bronchial consumption in Carlisle, September 23, 1850.

John Brown Parker, Esq., was born in Carlisle October 5, 1816. He grad- uated at the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, in 1834. He read law with Hon. Frederick Watts for the period of one year, completing his course of study in the law school under Judge Reed, and was admitted to prac- tice in April, 1838. He was for a time associated with his preceptor, Hon. Frederick Watts. He retired from practice in 1865, and moved to Philadel- phia, where he resided for some years.

Capt. William M. Porter was born in Carlisle, this county, in 1808; read law under Samuel A. McCoskry, and was admitted to the Carlisle bar in 1835. He died in 1873.

In 1827 John Bannister Gibson, LL.D., was appointed chief justice of Pennsylvania.

He was born on the Sth of November, 1780, in Sherman's Valley, then Cumberland, now Perry, County, Pennsylvania. He was of Scotch-Irish de-

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scent, and the son of Col. George Gibson, who was killed at the defeat of St. Clair in 1791. In 1795 young Gibson studied in the preparatory school con- nected with Dickinson College, and subsequently in the collegiate department, when that institution was under Dr. Nesbitt, graduating at the age of eight- een. in the class of 170S.

During this period he was in the habit of frequenting the office of Dr. Me- Coskry-one of the oldest practitioners of medicine in the place-and there acquired a taste for the study of physic, which he never lost.

On the completion of his collegiate course, he entered on the study of law in Carlisle in the office of his kinsman, Thomas Dunean, with whom he was af- terward to oeenpy a seat on the bench of the supreme court. He was admit- ted to the bar of Cumberland County in March, 1803.

He first opened his office in Carlisle, then removed to Beaver, then to Hagerstown, but shortly afterward returned to Carlisle. This was in 1805, and at this point is the beginning of a remarkable career.

From 1505 to 1812 Mr. Gibson seems to have had a reasonable share of the legal practice in Cumberland County, particularly when we consider that the field was occupied by such men as Duncan, Watts, Bowie of York, and Smith of Lancaster, who, at the time of which we speak, had but few equals in the State. Nevertheless it may well be doubted whether his qualifications were of such a character as would ever have fitted him to attain high eminence at the bar. His reputation, at this period, was not that of diligence in his pro- fession, and it is quite probable that, at this time, he had no great liking for it. In fact, at this period, of his life Mr. Gibson seems to have been known rather as a fine musical connoisseur and art critic than as a successful lawyer. He was a good draughtsman, a judge of fine paintings, and a votary of the violin.

In 1810 Mr. Gibson was elected by the Democratic party of Cumberland County to the House of Representatives, and after the expiration of his term, in 1812, he was appointed president judge of the court of common pleas for the Eleventh Judicial District, composed of the counties of Tioga, Bradford, Susquehanna and Luzerne.

Justier Gibson's personal appearance at this time is within the recollection of men who are still living. He was a man of large proportions, a giant both in physique and intellect. He was considerably over six feet in height, with a museular, well-proportioned frame, indicative of strength and energy, and a countenance expressing strong character and manly beauty.

" His face." says David Paul Brown, "was full of intellect and benevo- lence, and. of course, eminently handsome; his manners were remarkable for their simplicity, warmth, frankness and generosity. There never was a man more free from affectation or pretension of every sort."

Until the day of his death, says Porter. "although his bearing was mild and unostentatious, so striking was his personal appearance that few persons to whom he was unknown could have passed him by in the street without re- mark."

Upon the death of Judge Brackenridge in 1816. Judge Gibson was ap- pointed by Gov. Snyder Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, where, as it has been said, if Tilghman was the Nestor, Gibson became the Ulysses of the bench.

This appointment of Gibson to the bench of the supreme court seems first to have awakened his intelleet and stimulated his ambition. He partly with- drew himself from his former associates, and was thus delivered from numer- ous temptations to indolener and dissipation. He became more devoted to study, and for the first time perhaps in his life he seems to have formed a

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resolution to make himself master of the law as a science. Coke particularly seems to have been his favorite author, and his quaint, forcible and condensed style, together with the severity of his logic seem to have had no small in- fluence in the development of Gibson's mind, and in implanting there the seeds of that love for the English common law, which was afterward every- where so conspicuous in his writings.

It is pertinent here to remark that Judge Gibson, like Coke and Blackstone, seems never to have had any fondness for the civil law. Whether this was on account of the purely Anglo-Saxon of his mind, or on account of a want of opportunity in the means through which to become thoroughly acquainted with the most beautiful and symmetrical system of law which the world has ever known, we can not say, but certain it is that he seems to have cast ever and anon a suspicious glance at the efforts of a judge story, and writers of that school to infuse its principles in a still greater degree into our common law. We need but refer to the opinions delivered in Dyle rs. Richards, 9 Sergeant and Rawle, 322, and in Logan vs. Mason, 6 Watts and Sergeant 9, in proof of the existence of these views in the mind of their anthor.

In an old number of the "American Law Register" there is a review of Mr. Troubat's work on limited partnership by Gibson. It was the last essay he ever wrote, and in it he says: "The writer of this article is not a champion of the civil law; nor does he profess to have more than a superficial knowledge of it. He was bred in the school of Littleton and Coke, and he would be sorry to see any but common law doctrines taught in it." But here Gibson is speaking of the English law of real property, and he afterward says "The English law merchant, an imperishable monument to Lord Mansfield's fame, shows what a magnificent structure may be raised upon it where the ground is not preoccupied."

Hitherto the bench of the supreme court had consisted of but three judges, but under the act of April 8, 1826, the number was increased to five. But little more than one year elapsed before the death of Chief Justice Tilghman. Gib- son was his successor. He received his commission on the 18th of May, 1827, and from this time forward the gradual and uniform progress of his mind, says Col. Porter, " may be traced in his opinions with a certainty and satisfac- tion which are perhaps not offered in the case of any other judge known to our annals. His original style, compared to that in which he now began to write, was like the sinews of a growing lad compared to the well-knit muscles of a man. No one who has carefully studied his opinions can have failed to re- mark the increased power and pith which distinguished them from this time forward." In the language of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens " he lived to an advanced age, his knowledge increasing with increasing years, while his great intellect remained unimpaired."

From 1827 he remained as the chief upon the bench, until 1851, when by a change in the constitution the judiciary became elective, and was elected the same year an associate justice of the court, being the only one of the for- mer incumbents returned. But although "nominally superseded by another as the head of the court, his great learning, venerable character and over shad- owing reputation still made him," in the language of his successor, Judge Black, "the only chief whom the hearts of the people would know.

"His accomplishments were very extraordinary. He was born a musician, and the natural talent was highly cultivated. He was a connoisseur in paint- ing and sculpture. The whole round of English literature was familiar to him. * He was at home among the ancient classics. * He

*He was well read, we have seen it stated, in the British classics, fond of English drama, and familiar with the dramatists of the Restoration.

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had studied medicine in his youth and understood it well. His mind absorbed all kinds of knowledge with scarcely an effort."*

In regard to his mental habits, he was a deep student, but not n close student : he worked most effectively, but he worked reluctantly. The concur- rent testimony of all who knew him is that he seldom or never wrote, except when under the pressure of necessity, but when he once brought the powers of his mind to a focus and took up the pen, he wrote continuously and with- out erasure. When he once began to write an opinion ho very rarely laid it aside until it was completed. This, with the broad grasp with which he took hold of his subject, has given to his opinions a consistency and unity otherwise difficult to have attained. He saw a caso in all its varied relations, and the principles by which it was governed, rather by the intuitive insight of genius, than as the result of labor.

These opinions very seldom give a history of decided cases, but invariably put the decision upon some leading principle of law-referring to but few cases, by way of illustration, or to show exceptions to the rule. He was emi- nently self-reliant. He appeared at a time when the law of our common- wealth was in process of formation, and in its development his formulating power has been felt.

Of his style much has been said. Said Stevens "I do not know by whom it has been surpassed." It is a judicial style, at once compact. technical and exact. His writing can be made to convey just what he means to express and nothing more. His meaning is not always npon the surface, but when it is perceived it is certain and without ambiguity. [It may be interesting to state that Chief Justice Gibson often thought out his opinions while he was playing upon the violin. When a thought came to him he would lay down his instrument and write. As to his accuracy of language, he was in the habit of carrying with him a book of synonyms. These facts have been told to the writer by his son. Col. George Gibson, of the United States Army. ]

It has been said that one " coukl pick out his opinions from others like gold coin from among copper." He was. for more than half his life, a chief or associate justice on the bench. and his opinions extend through no less than seventy volumes of our reports t-an imperishable monument to his memory.

Chief Justice Gibson died in Philadelphia May 3, 1553. in the seventy- third year of his age. He was buried two days afterward in Carlisle.

In the old grave yard, upon the tall marble shaft which was erected over his tomb, we read the following beautiful inscription from the pen of Chief Justice Jeremiah S. Black :

In the various knowledge Which forms the perfect SCHOLAR Ile had no superior. Independent, upright and able, He had all the highest qualities of a great JUDGE. In the difficult science of Jurisprudence, Hle mastered every Department. Discussed almost every question, and Touched no subject which he did not adorn. lle won in early manhood. And retained to the close of a long life, The AFFECTION of his brethren on the Bench, The RESPECT of the Bar And the CONFIDENCE of the people.

Hon. John Kennedy, who had studied under the elder Hamilton and had been admitted to our bar under Riddle in 1799, was appointed to the bench

*Judge Black's Eulogy on ',ibson.

+ From 2 Sergeant and Rawle to 7 Harris.

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of the supreme court in 1830. He was born in Cumberland County in June, 1774; graduated at Dickinson College in 1795, and after his admission to the bar, removed to a northern circuit, where he became the compeer of men like James Ross, John Lyon, Parker Campbell, and others scarcely less dis- tinguished. He afterward removed to Pittsburgh, where his high reputation as a lawyer at once introduced him to a lucrative practice. From 1830 he remained upon the bench until his death, August 26, 1846. His opinions, extending through twenty-seven volumes of reports, are distinguished by lucid argumentation and laborious research. Judge Gibson, who had known him from boyhood, and who sat with him upon the bench for a period of over fifteen years, said: "His judicial labors were his recreations. He clung to the com- mon law as a child to its nurse, and how much he drew from it may be seen in his opinions, which, by their elaborate minuteness, remind us of the over- fullness of Lord Coke. Patient in investigation and slow in judgment, he seldom changed his opinion. A cooler head and a warmer heart never met together in the same person; and it is barely just to say that he has not left behind a more learned lawyer or a more upright man." In David Paul Brown's "Forum" we find the following: "It is recorded that Sergeant Maynard had such a relish for the old Year Books, that he carried one in his coach to divert his time in travel, and said he preferred it to a comedy. The late Judge Kennedy, of the supreme court, who was the most enthusiastic lover of the law we ever new, used to say that his greatest amusement consisted in reading the law; and indeed, he seemed to take almost equal pleasure in writing his legal opinions, in some of which, Reed vs. Patterson, for instance, he certainly combined the attractions of law and romance." He is buried in the old grave-yard at Carlisle.

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280