History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 158

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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The rudeness of which we speak was of manner and voice, not of language. For he had made him- self well acquainted with classical authors, and his style was often to be compared favorably with those lawyers who had ever had the best opportunities for culture in that respect. It was simply a wonder to hear him when thoroughly aroused, when, with his one gesture, a perpetual sawing the air with his out- stretched arm, his stentorian voice sounding to a pitch not to be reached by one in a thousand, he poured forth continuously for hours an unbroken stream of eloquence, sometimes in language classic as was employed by the best men of Greece.

What was my amazement when, in his first sentence, he acknowledged all my points, and denied none of my authorities, but assumed a position which had never entered my mind; to the support of which, directing all his great powers, in one-fourth the time employed by me, he not only satisfied the court, but convinced me that I was utterly wrong. In short, after all my toil and time and confidence, I was beaten, shamefully beaten." The instance given of his high sense of professional honor is given in the "Forum." Having been engaged by an influential citizen to defend him in a case of considerable mag- nitude, in the course of the trial it became apparent that the client had grossly misrepresented the case, and had been, in fact, guilty of a gross fraud ; where- upon Lewis threw up his brief, and when called upon to speak for the defendant, he promptly declined. "Will you not speak ?" said the client. "No, sir," said the counsel. "What then," said the suitor, " have I paid you for?" "You have paid me," re- plied the judignant advocate, " that you might have justice done, and justice will now be done, without my further interference."

Mr. Lewis confined himself more strictly to the law and paid less attention to politics than most of his contemporaries of equal professional rank, but he merits notice and remembrance in politics as the draftsman of the famous act of 1780, abolishing slavery,-the first act of the kind passed in any country.

Mr. Lewis was the most notable man of his time for his carelessness in the placing and preservation of his papers, and otherwise slovenly in the appoint- ments and keeping of his office. This was the more notable because at that period the leaders of the bar were more distinguished than at any other time since for the neatness and order, and even luxuriance, with which their offices were kept. But a man seldom gets entirely over the habits and manners formed in childhood. His country-seat was near the Falls of the Schuylkill. Here he lived in almost entire ex- clusion the few years previous to his death, in his seventieth year. In religious faith he was a Quaker. He was buried in the graveyard of the Friends' Society.

Withal, he was a man of exemplary sincerity and honor. An instance of the first is given by himself in an account of a case of great importance that he was engaged in at New York. He had courteously given a brief statement of his case and bis authorities Richard Peters was born in Blockley in 1744. He received his education at the Academy of Philadel- phia, and afterward studied law, and was admitted to the bar in the year 1763. Eminently precocious, as eminently gifted in wit and humor, he rose with celerity into notoriety, yet he was not one to give to his profession the devotion that is necessary, even with the very greatest natural endowments, to enable one to rise to the very highest and necessary place. Probably there has never been on the bench of Philadelphia one of whom the memory that bas been cherished is more hearty and even affection- ate. Appointed a justice of the United States Dis- to Alexander Hamilton, who had been called into the case suddenly by Chancellor Kent, Mr. Lewis' oppo- nent, who had been taken sick. Mr. Lewis says, Hamilton "thanked me, left me, and in an hour afterward we met again in court, and the argument at once proceeded. I spoke for several hours. The judges seemed to be convinced, and I was perfectly satisfied with the cause and myself. During the ar- gument Mr. Hamilton took no notes, sometimes fixed his penetrating eye upon me, and sometimes walked the chamber, apparently deeply interested, but ex- hibiting no anxiety. When I had finished, he imme- diately took the floor and commenced his reply. trict Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

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in 1792, where he sat for thirty-six years, he began a career which" for punctuality, painstaking investiga- tion, anxious concern for the dispensation of justice to all, the humble and the exalted, has perhaps never been surpassed. An elegant classical scholar, to a great degree familiar with the literature of Europe, and with the language of two of them, France and Germany, he was withal the most incomparable hu- morist of his day, and it was charming how the dry and often painful work of his court was enlivened by sallies, never out of place, nor inconsistent with the speedy dignified progress of judicial proceedings. Then he was of an integ- rity so unspotted that no man, counsel or client, ever doubted that, so far as the bench was concerned, jus- tice would not be hindered in its reudition by any- thing that was repugnant to it. Inferior to such as Washington and Tilghman in professional learning, he yet has ranked justly high among those who have oc- cupied that exalted station since its first organization. In some respects he made himself particularly distin- guished. Especially was this the case in the mat- ter of admiralty rulings. When he died (in 1828), at the meeting of the bar of Philadelphia, Charles J. Ingersoll made an address, in which he paid to the de- ceased a compliment so de- served and so fitly spoken that we insert it here :

advantage to navigation, besides being in i-elf a most tocorat jeg har. acteristic, that he uniformly vindheated and prote te l th it . inte, help- less, but useful claes of mankind, the omnion sail ors, tout the .ppres- sion and extortion of their superiora, whether master, men sant, or proctor. Judge Petera was a man of considerable quicknem of [ er .ep- tion and of great sagacity. His judgments have been mostly supported,

Richard Peter.

"To have beeo thirty-seven years 8 judge without ever failing to be punctual, patient, and puinstaking, is more than but few can boast of. But Judge Peters, moreover, was 8 man whose purity wae never doubted, and whose judicial faithful- ness altogether was of a high desert. With the land laws, so important in this State, be wus remarkably con- versant. In the sea-laws, so important to the United States, be was al- most the founder or reviver of a code which has not only beon sanctioned throughout America, but received the remarkable acknowledgment of its nucobecione adoption, about the same time, by the most profound judge of the greatest marine empire,-Lord Stowell, in Great Britain.

" It is a distinct merit lo thie system of Judge Peters of the utmost

even when he differed occasionally with the .000-62 pers wh fr thirty years has presided on this circuit, and - play. 1 al the qual ties of a great judge,-Judgu WushIngton Let ut ils, that n thirty years these gentlemen never differed but in einsch, nti usingmient, the m wt cordial harmony marking and strengthening their administration The constant cheerfulness which never forsook Judge Washington t the last, we all remember."

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In the resolution adopted by the bar at this time it was said of Judge Peters,-

" His purity and integrity were never questioned. His industry, vigi- lance, fidelity, and punctuality never failed. No suitor was denied or delayed justice. The poor and humble were protected in their rights, aud wrong-doers, of whatever class, were restrained aud punished."

Hugh Henry Brackenridge occupied a place among Judge Duncan was a native of Carlisle, Cumber- land Co., and son of a Scotch emigrant. He was educated at Dickinson College, and studied law at Lancaster under Judge Jasper Yeates, who was then on the bench of the Supreme Court. After admission to the bar he returned to Carlisle, where he was in practice for many years, and until his appointment to moved his residence to Philadelphia, and resided in the city until the time of his death. Nevin says,- the men of that period, remarkable in various ways. Born in Scotland in 1748, his family emigrated when he was five years old to America. By some means he had worked himself up into the place of teacher in an humble school in Maryland, and with the earnings therein saved he went to Princeton College (then called Nassau Hall), and, graduating in 1774, he . the Supreme Bench. After his appointment he re- studied for the sacred ministry, and was appointed to a chaplaincy in 1777. Giving up this profession, he went to the study of law, and was admitted to the " At the bar Mr. Duncan was distingnisbed by quickness and acute- ness and discernment, accurate knowledge of men and things, with a ready use of the legal knowledge he so largely possessed. He was also remarkably ready in repartee." Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1780. In 1799, when Chief Justice Mckean was elected Governor and Edward Shippen made chief justice, Bracken- ridge became associate judge of that court along with Modesty seems to have been a family trait among the Tilghmans. Not very far below the great judge whom we have noted was his first cousin, Edward Tilghman, born at Nye, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in 1750. He was educated for the bar at the Middle Temple. During the war of the Revolu- tion he remained abroad. On his return, and after his admission to the bar, he rose easily into practice, and was so eminent a man that the chief justiceship of the State was offered to him by Governor Mckean upon the death of Chief Justice Shippen; but he declined it, and gave his influence in favor of his cousin. Edward Tilghman was a deep-read lawyer, particularly well versed in the abstruse doctrines of devises and contingent remainders. Judge Duncan said of him, "With one glance he took in all the beauties of the most abstruse and difficult limitations. With him it was intuition." Judge Yeates. Judge Brackenridge was the first to give a decided start towards overturning the decorum that had always seemed so becoming to the adminis- tration of justice especially in the courts of Philadel- phia. To this there, perhaps, never lived a judge that was more indifferent. The accounts given of his dress and general physical deportment are almost shocking, and nothing but his well-known integrity and faithfulness to his duties would seem to have made it possible to tolerate them. It was often amusing to see the continued mutual repugnance be- tween the two associate justices, a repugnance that not only almost never allowed them to harmonize in opinion, but sometimes in the absence of the chief justice to sit without speaking to each other, or if speaking, in words usually, however, begun by Judge Brackenridge, of petty fault-finding. Yet he was not capable either of perpetrating deliberate wrong or Mr. Binney says of him ("Leaders of the Old Bar"),- tolerating its perpetration if he could prevent it, even upon one whom he disliked or his associate. As an " It was this quick and accurate glance that distinguished him in his arguments at the bar. The difference between cases, which to some men seemed contradictory or diecordaut,-the little more or less in cir- cumstance,-he knew, and could touch as quickly as the musician touches the flate and sharps of a key-board. And he did it without the leaet affectation of learning, passing aloug them from one key to an- other with the purest modulation, and bringing them into harmony with the key of his own argument." instance of the latter, when Justices Shippen and Yeates were charged (in 1805) before the Senate with oppression upon a suitor in their court, although he was not included in the impeachment, yet he requested that he might share the fate of his brothers as he coincided with them in opinion. The justices were acquitted, but the House petitioned the Governor to remove Justice Brackenridge for what they considered defiant conduct. This the Governor peremptorily refused to do. The rank of Justice Brackenridge is quite below many of those whom we have noticed in previous pages in this chapter, but his eccentricities were such as to make him one of the most frequently mentioned among his contemporaries.

The colleague of Justice Brackenridge, Justice Jas- per Yeates, was a man his opposite in manners and breeding and superior professional attainments. He had studied in one of the Inns of Court in London.

He was fond of society, but for its pleasures never neglected his official duties. Justice Yeates died at Lancaster March 14, 1817. The commission of Thomas Duncan, who was appointed an associate justice in his stead, bears date the same day, March 14, 1817.

William Bradford, Jr., son of Col. William Brad- ford, the printer, was admitted to the bar in March, 1778. He was born in Philadelphia Sept. 14, 1755, studied at the College of New Jersey, and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1772. He studied law with Edward Shippen, commencing in 1775. In 1776 he entered the American army as a volunteer, was appointed captain, and became deputy muster- master, with the rank of colonel. He resigned in April, 1779. According to the records, he was ad- mitted to the bar a year before that time. He resided for a short time at York, Pa., hut shortly afterward

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came to Philadelphia. In August, 1780, the Supreme Executive Council of the State appointed him attor- ney-general, as successor of Jonathan Diekinson Ser- geant. He held this office until Aug. 22, 1791, when he was appointed one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the State. He resigned that office in 1794, when he was commissioned, on the 28th of January, by President Washington, Attorney-General of the United States, succeeding Edmund Randolph. He died Aug. 23, 1795, from the consequences of exposure. Mr. Rawle says,-

" Hie course wae as lofty as his mind wae pure. His eloquenco was of the best kind. His language was uniformly classicel. His fancy frequently interwove some of those graceful ornaments which delight when they are not too frequent, aud which do not interrupt the chain of argument. Yet his manner was not free from objection. I have wit- nessed in him what I have occasionally noticed in the public speeches of Charlee Jamee Fox,-a momentary hesitation for want of a particular word, and stopping and recalling part of a sentence for the purpose of amending it. Nor was his voice powerful, nor always varied by those modulations of which an experienced orator knowe the utility."

David Paul Brown ("Forum") says that "within his comparatively limited space of life (he died before attaining the age of forty years) he exhibited more talents and achieved more honors than any other man of his day."

Very high on the list of the distinguished men of that generation stands the name of William Rawle. He was born in 1759. After studying for some time under Councilor Kemp, of New York, he attended at the Temple. The most loving of all those admirable sketches in the "Forum" of David Paul Brown is that devoted to his preceptor. It is delightful to read a tribute so felicitous in expression and so just, springing from recollections of what were ascertained by the most familiar intercourse with one of the great- est lawyers and one of the best men of his day. In 1791, Mr. Rawle was appointed by President Wash- ington district attorney of the United States, which position he resigned after the election of Mr. Adams. He had declined more than onee the office of the At- torney-Generalship of the United States. Mr. Rawle devoted much of his leisure time to studies in litera- ture, science, and art. His contributions to literature will be noticed in their proper place. He early con- ceived an earnest hostility to slavery of every kind, especially to that which obtained in the United States, and was one of that trio of eminent counsel (himself, Jared Ingersoll, and William Lewis), who, in 1805, argued before the High Court of Errors and Appeals of Pennsylvania the constitutionality of the existence of that institution in the State.

It is sad to contemplate a life so eminently felici- tous from its beginning to past middle age, and then declining by the loss of so many dear objects. One after another of his grown-up children,-two daugh- ters and one son,-all of much promise, and not long afterward his wife, were removed by death. To add to this, his immense fortune was lost, and old age found him poor and to a great degree desolate.

But whoever can receive misfortune without com- plaint is superior to it, and such a man was William Rawle. The sketch in the "Forum" concludes thus : " For upward of a year before his translation to more kinder and congenial elimes, while chiefly confined to that bed, which proved to be the bed of death, it was my privilege to have frequent opportunities of seeing and conversing with him. What a solemn and sublime sight! His whole soul had become con- centrated and fixed on things above, and growing purer, as it looked toward heaven, was fashioned to its journey. He passed from works to reward on the 12th day of April, 1836.

'Night dews fall not more softly on the ground, No weary, woru-out winds expire so soft.'"

In 1800, John D. Coxe was president judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the city and county of Philadelphia, and president judge of the First Cir- cuit. Jacob Rush was appointed president judge in 1806, and remained in that position over fourteen years. In 1806, by an act of February 24th, it was established that the First District should be Phila- delphia City and County only, and President Judge Rush was relieved of the labor of traveling the eir- cuit. Samuel Badger was appointed associate judge April 15, 1814. He was a lawyer, and the first asso- ciate judge skilled in the law who had been appointed. He did not remain long upon the bench. Thomas Armstrong dated his commission from April 8, 1817. He was also a lawyer, and about this time the policy of the appointment of lawyers as associates seemed to have considerable strength at Harrisburg. George Morton, a lawyer, was commissioned Jan. 11, 1819. Edward D. Ingraham, also a lawyer, was appointed March 3, 1819. It is doubtful whether Ingraham ever took his seat upon the bench. He was suc- ceeded, on March 29th, of the same year, by Ilugh Ferguson, who was not a lawyer. lle had been an active politician, and for many years colonel of the militia. Judge Ferguson remained on the bench for a long time. On the 19th of June, 1820, John Hal- lowell was appointed president judge, to succeed Judge Rush. In 1825, Judge Hallowell was trans- ferred to the District Court. Edward King was ap- pointed president judge of the Common Pleas April 22, 1825. He was a young lawyer, quite active as a politician, and held, at the time of his appointment to the bench, the office of clerk of the Orphans' Court. President Judge Coxe is suid by Brown "Forum"-to have held "a highly respectable posi- tion as a lawyer and a judge." He was admitted to the bar in 1780.

Judge Jacob Rush was admitted to the bar in Sep- tember, 1777, and was one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and also of the Iligh Court of Errors and Ap- peals, before the adoption of the Constitution of 1790. He was a brother of Dr. Benjamin Rush, and was born in 1746. He graduated at Princeton College in 1765. He died Jan. 5, 1820. Brown says of him,-

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

" He was a man of great ability and great firmness and decision of character. He was also au elequent man. Perhaps there are few speci- mens of judicial eloquence more impressive than those charges which he delivered during his occupation of the bench. An accurate idea of his style may readily be formed from an extract of his charge to a grand jury in 1808, and his sentence pronounced upon Richard Smith for the murder of Carson in 1816. We refer as much to the moral tone of his productions as to their literary and intellectual power. . . . Some of his early literary essays were asciibed to Dr. Franklin, and for their terse- ness and clent ness were worthy of him. . . . Judge Rush's charges to the jury generally, and his legal decisione, were marked by soundness of principle and closeness of reasoning. Having been a judge of the Supreme Court and of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, he never appeared to be satisfied in his position in the Common Pleas, yet his up- rightness of conduct and unquestionable abilities always secured to him the respect and confidence, if not the attachment, of his associates, the members of the bar, and the entire community. He was one of the gen- tlemen of the old school, plain in his attire, and unobtrusive in his de- portment ; but while observant of his duties toward others, he was never forgetful of the respect to which he was himself justly entitled."

The fame achieved by Jared Ingersoll was well sustained by his two sons. Charles J. and Joseph R. Ingersoll were both eminent at the bar and in politics, though in the latter field, which is not often the case with brothers, they widely differed, the elder being a stanch Democrat, and. the younger a Whig, though less prominent in political action.

Charles Jared Ingersoll was admitted to the bar on the same day as Thomas Sergeant. He became conspicnons in politics and as an anthor. He was a member of Congress in 1813-15, United States dis- trict attorney for Pennsylvania from 1815 to 1829, member of the Legislature from the county in 1830- trict in 1841-49. He was a member of the Pennsyl- vania Constitutional Convention of 1837-38. In his later years he was a frequent candidate for Congress, without success, and he was well known politically. He died May 14, 1862.

having borne up till she had placed me at the bar died." His collegiate studies were pursued at Dick- inson College, and on their completion he began the study of the law under Judge Duncan, who was his kinsman, and was admitted to the bar in 1803. It is interesting to read of his continned struggles for sup- port, and the compass of his ambitions hopes, after he came to the bar,-first, his going to Beaver County, in a remote part of the State, thence to Hagerstown, Md., thence again to Carlisle. A curions anecdote is told of him that, on one occasion, when he was in- formed that another lawyer had slandered him, on his meeting with the latter he gave him a flogging. The assailed challenged him to a duel. Meanwhile he had ascertained that his informant was mistaken in the person who had offended. Gibson, however, promptly accepted the challenge, and then, seeking out the real offender, flogged him. When the matter was explained to the challenger he was satisfied with the apology extended by Gibson, and through the interference of Judge Duncan the matter was amica- bly settled. In 1812 he received the appointment of president judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Tioga County, and on the death of Judge Bracken- ridge, in 1816, was appointed by Governor Snyder associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania.

Judge Gibson's rank is among the very highest of Pennsylvania judges. In the matter of personal

31, and a member of Congress from the Third Dis- , character his reputation was on a level with the best. Higher praise than that is not possible, when it is remembered how character has ever been cultivated and appreciated by the bench of that State. The assurance of his incorruptible integrity, an agreeable judgment that was nnsusceptible, either of bias or Joseph R. Ingersoll was admitted June 2, 1807, and for many years held a high position. He kept out of political life until the time of the excitement caused by the repeal of the charter of the United States Bank. He was a Whig, and held political opinions in opposition to the policy of Gen. Jackson. He was a member of Congress from 1835 to 1837, and from 1841 to 1849. He was minister from the United States to England from 1850 to 1853, He died Feb. 20, 1868. He was president of Select Council from 1832 to 1834. Both these are noticed in the chapter on literature. prejudice, a mind of uncommon quickness and width of comprehension qualified him eminently for judi- cial service, and made him be regarded with profound respect by all classes. On the death of Tilghman, in 1827, he was appointed chief justice, and presided over the court for the long period of twenty-three years, until the judges were made elective by the amendment to the Constitution in 1850, when he was one of the five judges elected by the people, but on drawing lots for the terms, the shortest term, carry- ing with it the chief justiceship, was drawn by Judge Black. He remained, however, a member of the court nntil his death, in 1853. Judge Black, in the conclusion of a very able panegyric pronounced after his death, said, "Abroad, he has for very many years been thought the great glory of his native

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 158

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992