The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II, Part 70

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1180

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The last years of his life Mr. Binney lived in retirement. He employed his time in phil-

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osophical, literary and religious pursuits. Among other produets of his pen during this period of his life is a charming small volume, named the "Leader of the Old Bar," in which he gives delightful sketches of Mr. Lewis, Jared Ingersoll and Edward Tilgh- man, the three great men who flourished dur- ing the generation immediately sueceeding the Revolutionary war. On the death of Chief Justice Tilghman, Binney delivered a eulogy giving just praise to the greatness and achievements of that great judge. Al- most the last appearance of any kind before the public by Mr. Binney was at the meeting of the bar held on the death of John Ser- geant.

Mr. Binney died on August 12, 1875, at the venerable age of ninety-five years. At the time of his death, Mr. Binney was the oldest member of the bar. Mr. Binney had a fine commanding person, an uncommonly handsome faee, a dignified and graceful man- ner of address and a most melodious voice, under perfeet control and modulated with unusual skill. Of Mr. Binney, at the close of his long and glorious life, ripe with honor, was justly said that he had never knowingly committed an injustice toward a client, or the opposite party, or prosecuted a cause that he thought a dishonest one, and he had washed his hands of more than one that he had discovered to be such after he had un- dertaken it, as well as deelined many which · he pereeived to be such when first presented to him. Mr. Chauncey has said that Hor- ace Binney never lost a case he ought to have won, unless John Sergeant won a ease he ought to have lost.

Throughout life, even from early boyhood a good seholar, Mr. Binney, long before death, closed the book of his life. He had a masterful knowledge of the law, so that he fairly earned his title as the Nestor of our bar, but not any less by his undoubted ge- nius as by his great industry. Besides his great learning and wonderful genius as an

advocate, Binney possessed a character as spotless from guilt of wrong as it is given for the lot of mortal to possess.

Charles Chauncey, Horace Binney and John Sergeant are the powerful triumvirate who flourished in their full splendor during the first half of the nineteenth century. Of Messrs. Sergeant and Binney we have al- ready spoken. It remains to say a few words about Mr. Chauncey. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1777. His father, Judge Chauncey, was a distinguished mem- ber of his profession in New Haven. Charles Chauncey graduated from Yale College and was admitted to the New Haven bar in 1798.

On recommendation of Oliver Ellsworth, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court and an old friend of the Chauncey family, Mr. Chauncey came to Philadelphia, which was then the capital city of the nation, and the Philadelphia bar was the most dis- tinguished bar in the country .- William Lewis, Jared Ingersoll, Edward and William Tilghman, William Rawle and A. J. Dallas were there in their full power and eminence. Mr. Chauneey, with unnecessary modesty, said to Judge Ellsworth that the many dis- tinguished men at the bar of Philadelphia made his success there improbable. Judge Ellsworth replied that that was the ground of his recommendation. It is true that Phil- adelphia had at that time the strongest bar in the country, but from this very circum- stanee it would supply the best models and demand the most study and effort on his part, and that his education and intelligence required nothing but these to carry him to the position he would desire to attain in his profession.

When Mr. Chauneey came to Philadelphia, he devoted a short time to learn the local praetiee and then applied for admission as an attorney from the bar of Connecticut; but Judge Coxe was not sure that the courts had the authority. Thereupon, on the advice of Mr. Edward Tilghman, Mr. Chauncey was

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admitted to the bar of Chester county, and then to that of Philadelphia in 1799. His sueeess at the bar was rapid and his industry and education enabled him to become thor- oughly acquainted with the law. He was a elose student through life. He made an ef- fort to become master of the law, his belief being that in this way he was performing his full duty to his elients. In his speaking to the eourt or addressing the jury, Mr. Chauneey had no words to lose. His speech- es were consequently noted for their brevity and for the singular elearness of thought and expression.

His mind was judicial rather than speeu- lative, and had he aeeepted a judicial offiee, he no doubt would have left a name as a great and good judge. He preferred the sphere of praetieing at the bar, however, and as far as known, never held any publie office, though a judicial position was at least on one oeeasion offered to him.

He praetieed at the bar for fifty years. Nothing greater ean be said of him than to say that he was the peer of Sergeant and Binney. Mr. Chauncey died in 1849. As a memorial of the respeet with which he was held, a meeting of the bar was held August 21, 1849, in the rooms of the Cireuit Court of the United States, and Mr. Horaee Binney, for years the friend of Mr. Chauncey, deliv- ered a beautiful eulogy on his life.

Peter Stephen Du Poncean, one of the most interesting eharaeters of the first half of the last eentury, was a Frenehman by birth and was born in 1760. His father was an officer in the French army and desired the son to pursue the same ealling. His mother wanted him to become a priest. His near-sightedness seemed to have decided the matter and he was sent to a Benedietine eollege, where he beeame an abbe. He had, by ehanee, come aeross an English grammar when he was six years old, and had, by its aid, sueeeeded in learning the English language so as to speak it fluently. In his intereourse with the En-

glish families, while he was an abbe, he im- bibed certain Protestant ideas and shortly left the abbey and went to Paris. He se- eured the appointment of seeretary to Baron Steuben, coming with him to this country in 1777. Ile served in the Revolutionary army as captain under Steuben, served at Valley Forge, and participated in the eampaign of the South in 1781. His health appeared to have been permanently broken and he re- signed his eommission and eame to Philadel- phia, being then twenty-one years of age. Ile was admitted to the bar in 1785, and had an extensive practice for thirty years. He was well versed in international law and was master of the maritime law. In the latter years of his life he gradually withdrew him- self from aetive praetiee. He took a deep interest in jurisprudenee and took a promi- nent part in the organization of the Law Academy, of which he was the first provost.

Du Poneean was a great seholar and phil- osopher. He was president of the Historieal Society of Pennsylvania, and of the Ameri- ean Philosophical Society. He died on March 4, 1844, at the age of eighty-four years. In appearance Mr. Du Poneean was short of stature, stout and very short-sighted. He always wore glasses.

David Paul Brown .- Probably the most picturesque member of the bar of his day was David Paul Brown. Mr. Brown was born in Philadelphia in 1795, the son of opulent par- ents. Ile received his education partly from private instruction at home and partly by a elergyman of Massachusetts. On finishing his edueation, he deeided to take up medi- eine, and entered the office of that eminent physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush, who died shortly afterward. The attachment of Mr. Brown was more to Dr. Rush than to his pro- fession, and on the death of the doctor, he abandoned the idea of studying medieine and commenced to study law, and for that pur- pose he entered the office of William Rawle, the elder, one of the great names of our bar.

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Mr. Brown was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1816. Six months after he was admit- ted to the bar, he met a friend who was ad- mitted about the same time with himself, and asked him how he was getting on. He an- swered, "As well as could be expected." On being asked how he was getting on, Mr. Brown answered: "I can say that much at least and more, too, I can say that I have got along better than I expected, and it is not saying much after all, for I had but one cli- ent since I have been admitted, and I gave him sueh wretched adviee that I wonder he did not return and kick me out of my own office. "

Mr. Brown was a brilliant and powerful speaker, and he soon attracted attention in the community. He was an orator of great powers and spoke with great fluency and effect. In speaking he did not use any notes. He appeared in many criminal eases. He was, in fact, a favorite criminal lawyer and was engaged in most of the important cases. He tried a great many capital cases. It was the result of his long experience in those eases that he. in 1850, published his "Capital Hints in Capital Cases," a set of rules to be observed in the trial of capital eases. He also published, in 1835, for the benefit of the young attorneys, his "Golden Rules for the Examination of Witnesses." Mr. Brown was especially successful in crossexamination of witnesses, and indeed he often was guilty of the fault of cross examining too much and getting from the witness more than he want- ed to get. Mr. Brown was of fine, stately form ; he was portly and carried his figure with fine force and effeet. He was always dressed in the height of fashion with more or less jewelry about his person. He always carried a gold snuffbox in his hands. He was very partieular about his appearanee and is known to have changed suits several times during the progress of a case which lasted well into the night. In later life, Mr. Brown was not very prominent before the public,

having a very moderate practice. He used his spare moments in literary pursuit, and published "The Forum; or Forty Years of Full Practice at the Philadelphia Bar," a book in which the author has given us some interesting aecounts of some of the figures of our bench . and bar from the earliest times until the first part of the nineteenth century.

William Morris Meredith was born in Phil- adelphia in 1799. He was the oldest of a family of eleven children. His father, Will- iam Meredith, was a lawyer of some renown in Philadelphia. On his mother's side Mere- dith was connected with Governor Morris and Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence and governor of New . Jersey.

Mr. Meredith graduated from the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania in 1812, at the early age of thirteen years with seeond honors. He studied law with his father and was admit- ted to the bar in 1817, at the age of eighteen. Meredith himself has often related that he was practicing ten years before he made enough to pay for his eoats or offiee rent, and still longer before his sueeess became marked. Indeed, he had at one time, in de- spair of ever succeeding, seriously considered the plan to abandon the law and his native city and go to New Orleans to enter a mer- cantile eareer. However, he did not carry out his plan. He did mueh better; he em- ployed his leisure time to make himself mas- ter of the law. He read the reports both of our state and the English Common Law Re- ports, and with his remarkable memory he acquired a vast store of knowledge which he used certainly to great advantage when his praetice did come.

Mr. Meredith came first to prominence be- fore the public in the case of Commonwealth vs. Cook, in 1823. In that series of criminal trials, Mr. Meredith and his associate, Mr. James C. Biddle, made themselves eonspicu- ous in the courage and intrepidity which they displayed in protecting the rights of

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their clients, the prisoners, against a judge who evidently was carried away by publie opinion which was deeidedly hostile to the eriminals. The elimax seemed to have been reached when Mr. Meredith asked a juryman during the paneling if he was biased against the prisoner. The juror answered, "I have more against you." Mr. Meredith called the attention of Judge Hallowell to this an- swer, but the judge refused to consider that a ground for challenging. Mr. Meredith then replied, "I thank my God that we ean chal- lenge peremptorily and do ourselves the jus- tiee which the court denies us. I have never known any court of justice guilty of such gross violations of its duty in refusing to punish the insolenee of a juror to counsel in the discharge of their duty."

Judge Hallowell said: "Take eare, sir; we will punish you." Mr. Meredith answered that if he had been guilty of any offense the eourt might punish him. On the next day the court ordered Mr. Meredith and Mr. Bid- dle to be taken in custody and eommitted in the debtor's department of the prison till June 1 for contempt of court. The sentenee was carried out and both of these gentlemen stayed in prison to the end of their sentenee. It was shortly after this that Mr. Meredith made his first appearance in publie life, and from 1824 to 1828 he served in the legisla- ture, being eleeted as a Whig, and at the head of a small Federalist minority he was virtually the leader of the house. While in the legislature, he was instrumental in the establishment of the House of Refuge, of which he became manager, and he also be- eame director of the Deaf and Dumb Institu- tion. He took aetive interest in both of these institutions until his death. When he re- turned to private life, he devoted more of his attention to his practice, and in a few years he made rapid strides toward aequir- ing a large and luerative practice. In 1836 his praetice had been inereasing with very great rapidity, and from that time until 1849

he was the leader of the bar. Hardly a ease of importance was tried that Mr. Meredith was not retained either on the one side or the other. In 1841, on the election of Presi- dent William Harrison, Mr. Meredith was made United States district attorney. He was at the same time president of the Select Couneil.

His position as district attorney was des- tined to be short-lived, as President Harrison died soon after his election, and Mr. Mere- dith sent in his resignation. He was retained by the eity with Binney and Sergeant in the Girard will ease, but the court refused to hear more than two counsel from each side, and Messrs. Binney and Sergeant, the two senior counsel, argued the ease on behalf of the city.

Right here it may be in place to speak about Meredith's seruples in money mat- ters. He was against contingent fees and never took one. He believed it tended to de- grade his profession. He was known often to have returned a fee when he might with perfeet propriety have retained it. In the Girard will ease, the city fixed the fees for each attorney at $10,000. Mr. Meredith par- tieipated in the preparation of the ease, but because he was not allowed to argue before the court, he returned his fee to the city.

When General Taylor was elected presi- dent, Mr. Meredith became Secretary of the Treasury in 1849. Mr. Taylor died in 1850. and he, together with the other members of the cabinet, tendered his resignation, and in a short time he returned to Philadelphia. From that time on Mr. Meredith practiced almost entirely as senior counsel. The prae- tiee, on his return to Philadelphia, was large- ly in the hands of his juniors; of the great men of his day, such as Binney, Sergeant, Chauneey and Joseph R. Ingersoll, some had died and the others had retired from active praetiee.

Soon after returning to Philadelphia, Mr. Meredith was nominated by the Whig party

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for the Supreme Court, but the Whigs were fast losing their ascendancy, and Mr. Mere- dith, together with the other Whig candi- dates, was defeated.

During the ten years from 1851 to 1861, Mr. Meredith's practice was very remunera- tive, almost as much as before he went to Washington. His labors were, however, less exacting and he was enabled to devote much of his time to reading.

In 1861, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, " a shadow was hanging over the state admin- istration. The governor and his administra- tion were threatened with a scandal in con- nection with disposing of the money appro- priated by the state for the wars. In the midst of it all came the resignation of Sam- nel N. Purviance, as attorney general. Mr. Purviance was considered a man of integ- rity and had the respect and confidence of the people. IIis resignation at such time de- stroyed the public confidence in the admin- istration and almost paralyzed public credit. At such a time Governor Curtin called on Mr. Meredith to aceept the office of attorney general. Mr. Meredith's health was not very good, and his doctor protested against his assuming the office. Meredith, however, saw the path of duty and determined to ac- cept the office. The publication of his ac- ceptance of the office of attorney general had the effeet of clarifying the situation as if by magic, and Pennsylvania was able to send to the field her quota of men, and, more than that, she raised and equipped the Pennsyl- vania Reserve in advance of the Federal req- uisition. Governor Curtin, in his speech be- fore the Constitutional Convention, on the demise of Mr. Meredith, said that it is true that "Mr. Meredith had accepted with re- luetance the office of attorney general and the executive from whom he received that office is not ashamed to say today and in this distinguished presenee, that he did certainly solicit Mr. Meredith to take a place near him as chief adviser, and that his acceptance of

the office of attorney general dissipated a cloud which hung over the administration. For his service then, if for no other act of his life, the people of the state are under grate- ful obligation to him."

Mr. Meredith filled that office through Governor Curtin's two terms until 1867. When he returned to Philadelphia, his health was broken and his physical vigor, which had formerly been so great, had disappeared from him. He was selected by President Grant as counsel to represent the United States before the Geneva tribunal. He took efficient part in preparing the case, but the condition of his health was such that it would have been hazardous for him to un- dertake the journey to Geneva. It is said that the ultimate decision of that tribunal was along the lines indicated by Mr. Mere- dith in his preparations. He declined to ac- eept any compensation from the United States for his services.

In 1871 Mr. Meredith was elected at the head of the Republican ticket as member of the Constitutional Convention, and by the unanimous vote of the delegates, was chosen the president of the convention and set vig- orously to work at his task and was in con- stant attendance until June, 1873, when he became ill. Ile expected soon to be able to resume his seat, but died August 17, of the same year.

Unconsciously, perhaps, Mr. Meredith made an important reform in conducting cases. Before his time attorneys made their oral arguments accompanied with copious briefs and read lengthy extracts from them. Often attorneys would write out and read the whole of their speech. In all these the man- ner of speaking was formal and pompous. Mr. Meredith spoke without notes, absolute- ly extemporaneously. In addressing the jury he often had one foot on a chair and his manner of speaking was more colloquial. He spoke in a plain, matter-of-fact sort of way, in good plain Anglo-Saxon words. The

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foree of his speech was irresistible. Being the leader of the bar, his example was fol- lowed by others, and since his time the law- yers, in speaking before the jury, or in argu- ing before the court, speak extemporaneous- ly, and are much less formal in their manner of address.

We cannot close this sketch of Mr. Mere- dith without saying that he was full of wit and humor. Those who remember him, all mark his wit. When in court he was usually surrounded by a cirele of admiring members of the bar who delighted in his eonversa- tion. His witticisms are among the tradi- tions of the bar.

Mr. Meredith was probably the greatest lawyer Philadelphia ever had. He was the last of that great list of men who triumphed in the carly part of the nineteenth century and made our bar illustrious throughout the country. In his accomplishments, in his great suecess at the bar, in his great powers as a speaker, in his great character and his integrity, he stands on the rolls of our bar as an example for those who come after him. In the words of Hon. Robert L. Ashhurst, before the Pennsylvania bar association, "Pennsylvania has had to mourn no greater son, nor is there anyone whose memory and example should be more precious to her peo- ple."

George Mifflin Dallas was the son of Alex- ander I. Dallas, of whom we have already spoken at some length. George M. Dallas was born in Philadelphia in 1792. He grad- uated from Princeton in 1810 with the high- est honors in his class. After graduating he studied law with his distinguished father, and was admitted to the bar in 1813.

Mr. Dallas, like his father, held several important positions, and consequently did not spend a great deal of his time in the practice of his chosen profession. Among the more important offiees he held was that of mayor of the city, to which he was elected in 1828. He soon resigned from that office to

accept the position of United States district attorney. In 1831 Mr. Dallas was sent to the United State senate, being one of the young- est men of that body. In 1837 he was ap- pointed by President Van Buren Minister to Russia, and he remained at that post for two years, being reealled at his own request.

The next four years Mr. Dallas spent in Philadelphia to practice his profession. In 1844 he was elected on the Democratic tiek- et, viee president of the United States. On the end of his term in that great office, Mr. Dallas again returned to Philadelphia and was engaged in his profession. The only oth- er offiee he held after that was that of Min- ister to England, to which position he wasap- pointed by President Buchanan. Mr. Dallas showed great diplomatic skill in handling the affairs of his government and was par- ticularly active in the adjustment of the Central American question. At the end of his term, in 1861, Mr. Dallas returned to Philadelphia and lived in retirement the last few years of his life. He died at his home in his seventy-third year, in 1874. In these va- rious offiees of publie trust Mr. Dallas ac- quitted himself with great honor to himself and advantage to the city, state and coun- try, which he served at different times.

As a member of our profession, Mr. Dallas had justly acquired an eminence for his learning and for his abilities. As an advo- eate he possessed great powers and won a great reputation. He early aequired a name for being an orator of great eloquence and power. His style of speaking was formal somewhat, but he spoke with all the grace and finish of a United States senator and a viee president.

Among the other members of the Dallas family who have acquired fame at the bar of this city was St. George Tucker Camp- bell, a nephew of George M. Dallas, who was admitted to the bar in 1835, and was among those lawyers who, in ability and renown among their profession, ranked close to the

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leaders of our bar, second only to such men as Sergeant, Binney, Chauncey, Ingersoll and Meredith. Mr. Campbell died in 1874, at the age of sixty years.

George M. Dallas, the present judge of the Circuit Court of the United States for this circuit, is another nephew of George Mifflin Dallas. Judge Dallas was admitted to the bar in 1860, and earned a prominent place at our bar as a lawyer and an orator. After being appointed to the bench of the circuit, Mr. Dallas has won the honor and respect of the bar and the community as a judge.

George Sharswood was born in Philadel- phia in 1810. He graduated in 1828 from the University of Pennsylvania, with the highest honor, and delivered the Greek sa- Intatory. He studied law with Joseph R. Ingersoll and was admitted to the bar in 1831. He had been practicing for five years when he was elected to the state legislature in 1837, where he had opportunity to display his great genius. In 1838 he became a mem- ber of the Select Council, and in 1842 was again elected to the legislature. In 1845 he was appointed judge of the district court, and later became presiding judge of the dis- trict court. That position he retained both by appointment and by election at the hands of the people, after the adoption of the con- stitution of 1851. In 1863 Judge Sharswood was elected to the Supreme Court bench, and by seniority in office became chief jus- tice. On serving his full term he retired from the bench in 1883. This event was marked by a dinner given by the bar of Phil- adelphia in his honor.

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The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II, Part 70

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, H. C. Cooper, jr., bro. & co.
Number of Pages: 1180