USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. I > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
200
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
At the German Mai Fest, also in 1852, he delivered an elaborate ad- dress from which this thought is taken:
I have often thought that we in the west were a crowd rather than a community. We are no transmitted society, inheriting fellowship, bound by blood and alliance, grown up together to dwell and labor in our fathers' places. We come here in the full maturity of life and char- acter; we meet here from all quarters of the civilized earth. Our native manners, language and habits of life, of thought and of society, act in fact as a principle of repulsion between us. We scatter into clans rather than merge in society. This is all wrong. We meet here by no acci- dent; we are here to accomplish a great providence. The meeting in . this great valley of the blood, the language, the literature, the man- ners, the arts, the industry of all Christendom, to mix and merge and to become the elements of a new society and the seed of a new race, under the freest institutions and on the richest soil God's sun shines upon, is no blind chance; it is a pregnant combination ordained of the Provi- dence which watches over the nations, and guides the progress of human civilization. We are here to mix our blood in a new race of men, su- perior to all races because sprung from all.
The literary faculty was so strongly developed in Judge Ryan that, had he devoted himself to letters instead of the law, he undoubtedly would have won a place in the front rank of American authors. His gifts and desires lay largely in that direction. It was his purpose, had time been allowed him in the severe labors of the law, to write a law text-book and also an English grammar. His editorials in the news- paper for a time under his control were models of thought and diction. Since his death there have been discovered among his private papers the title page, preface and commencement of a story he had at one time begun to write, but had never gone beyond an opening paragraph. This suggestive fragment is here reproduced in full:
Egotisms of A Backwoods Pedagogue, by Hugh Leslie. I turn the trouble of my countenance Merely upon myself. -Shakespeare.
201
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
Preface.
I am what I profess to be, an egotist. These pages are but the writ- ten indulgence of a contemplative egotist.
If what is here written should be read, it will satisfy, if approved, it will gratify the egotist. If read and censured, egotism has its sure consolations for criticism; if neglected and unread, the thoughts in these pages will grow the stronger and clearer in the secret repetitions of conscious egotism. Anyway, the egotist is repaid for the pleasant labor of writing.
Dear reader-for reading, you are dear to the egotist-do not lightly condemn me for my candor. The philosophy of self is not al- ways selfish. God is the great Ego, and God is love. True egotism is benevolent ; true sympathy is but the reflection of benevolent egotism.
Read and judge. H. L.
CHAPTER I.
The red sun of the Indian summer is just sinking behind the woods. The rich tints of autumn on the trees which crown the bluff die of brighter and more varied brilliancy in the subdued and broken light which penetrates them from behind. Below, the deep shadow of the woods is on the river, here and there relieved by the sunlight which breaks through, dancing on the calm waters in tune with the gentle western breeze which plays among the tree tops. The distant hum of the town down the river is too faint to disturb the beautiful solitude in which the scene is sleeping.
Here on the yet green bank, with broad clear waters at my feet, I have come to rest after my day's labor. This is my reward for the weariness of the schoolhouse and the turmoil of the town. To be alone with nature in its beauty, while the spirit turns within upon itself in chastened contemplation, is life indeed. Solitude like this is less lonely than most society.
Society! What matters it to me here that in yonder burgh seems to be concentrated all the pretension which is the vice of all that is called society in western villages. Well, indeed, do I know that there is no family there of speculator, merchant, clergyman, lawyer, doctor or mechanic which does not look with civil condescension on the school- master, because I am a schoolmaster and pretend to be nothing else,
202
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
and because neither lands nor goods attest my worth. But let me believe that I am a gentleman, in all that goes to make one, the equal of any and the superior of many of them, a voluntary exile from circles of which the good folks yonder are able to achieve only a rude imitation, and so smile serenely at the appreciation of the good society of the village of La Fontaine.
Only this, and nothing more. Not a line or word in continuation of an idyl that must have been faithful in thought, full of sound sense, and beautiful in language and expression. It certainly would have graphically described some of the social absurdities and crudities of the early and unfounded west.
Among his papers was also the rough outline of a poem of Judge Ryan's composition, which seems to have been written about the time of the loss of his first companion; and with the reproduction of which these random quotations will be brought to a close.
Ah me! To be Alone, uncared for and unaided. Wearing out life In hopeless strife, Heart dead, mind broken, spirit jaded. I know I owe Duties that might make life a treasure, But that my heart Has now no part In aught that can make living pleasure. To tread- For bread
highways, Life's*
Without one heart
To be apart With mine in sweet affection's by-ways.
*The poem was incomplete in this line; words having been supplied and then erased.
203
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND . BAR OF WISCONSIN.
1
Oh would I could Be off and be at rest forever! In the dull grave At last to have The peace that life can bring back never.
Yet no Ah no! Heirs of my grief ye do not know yet, The love that bears Lone years on years, For ye the calm grave to forego yet.
Mr. Bryant in his contribution to the Green Bag on the supreme court of Wisconsin, relates an incident or two of Judge Ryan: He was once arguing a cause before the supreme court of the United States. Chief Justice Chase presided, and during Ryan's argument the great chief justice turned to an associate and began a whispered conversa- tion. Perceiving this, Ryan paused and waited until the chief justice turned as if to inquire the cause of his silence. Then Ryan said, with great dignity but significant impressiveness, "what I am saying is worth hearing." It is said that the chief justice blushed deeply, and after- wards gave perfect attention.
His sarcasm was biting, but it could be kindly. On being told that a legal acquaintance had married a fortune and obtained a fine federal appointment, he exclaimed: "God bless him! The lucky, lazy dog! He never opened his mouth but to yawn, and never opened it but a sugar-plum fell into it."
The next change in the composition of the court resulted from an amendment to the constitution increasing the number of judges from three to five, and extending the term from six to ten years. This amendment was adopted by the people November 6, 1877. In the meantime the salaries of the judges had been increased from two thousand dollars, as fixed in 1852, to two thousand five hundred dollars
:
204
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
in 1857, to three thousand five hundred dollars in 1867, to four thousand dollars in 1868, and to five thousand dollars in 1873. Each of these increases applied only to judges appointed or elected after the act making it took effect.
In April, 1878, David Taylor and Harlow S. Orton were elected associate justices; they qualified on the 18th of that month. From that time until the death of Chief Justice Ryan (October 19, 1880,) the court consisted of the three persons named and Judges Cole and Lyon.
DAVID TAYLOR.
David Taylor was born at Carlisle, Schoharie county, New York, March II, 1818. On his father's side he was of Irish ancestry; on his mother's of Dutch descent. He was graduated from Union College in 1841, and admitted to the bar at Cobbleskill, New York, in 1844, where he practiced law two years. In February, 1846, he arrived in the terri- tory of Wisconsin, and, after looking over Milwaukee and Green Bay, determined to settle at Sheboygan. He became a member of the firm of Taylor & Hiller in July, 1846. He faithfully and acceptably dis- charged the duties connected with local offices, and served one term as district attorney of Sheboygan county. In 1853 he was elected to the popular branch of the legislature and in 1854 was chosen a state senator, serving in the sessions of 1855 and 1856, and was again elected to the senate after ten years' service as circuit judge, sitting in that body in 1869 and 1870. His second election as senator occurred in November, 1868, while he was circuit judge, his term as such not ex- piring until December 31, and his term as senator beginning on the next day. Under this state of facts and the provision of section 10, article 7, of the constitution that "Each of the judges of the supreme and circuit courts shall receive a salary, payable quarterly, of not less than one thousand five hundred dollars annually; they shall receive no fees of office or other compensation than their salaries; they shall hold no office of public trust, except a judicial office, during the time for which they are respectively elected, and all votes for either of them for any office except a judicial office, given by the legislature or the people,
205
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
shall be void," it was contended by Judge Taylor's opponent that he was ineligible and his right to a seat in the senate was contested. The question was referred to the judiciary committee, a majority of which re- ported that they were of the opinion that the last clause of the section quoted "was only intended to give force to the prohibition contained in the first clause, and not to add a new or further prohibition, and that its effect is the same as though it read 'and all votes given for either 'of them for any office to be held during the term of his judicial office, shall be void.'" This view was sustained by a vote of eighteen against eight.
A. M. Blair has said of Judge Taylor as a legislator that "he was quiet, careful and attentive, looking up all questions thoroughly; never aggressive, never in search of new ways to pay old debts, but looking after defects in the old law and devising a new way to make the old better, instead of taking a new way to accomplish the same thing. He . endeavored to understand everything, and to favor nothing he did not understand. He was not a brilliant member of either house. In his first session his merits were not appreciated or perhaps not perceived. The first and third sessions of the legislature in which he served were active and stirring ones. In the first a trial by impeachment of Judge Hubbell was held, and in the third there was during its session a trial to ascertain who was the legal governor. The deceased took no special part in either."
Judge Taylor's judicial career began in 1857 on his appointment by Governor Bashford to the judgeship of the fourth circuit to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge William R. Gorsline. He was elected to fill the unexpired portion of the term, and upon its expiration was chosen for a full term, thus extending his service as circuit judge until January 1, 1869, having failed of re-election the previous April. Campbell McLean was his successor. The memorial of the bar of the supreme court, prepared by W. H. Seaman, S. U. Pin- ney, W. C. Silverthorn, F. C. Winkler and Elihu Colman, expressed that during his service on the circuit bench Judge Taylor earned wide reputation for judicial ability.
206
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
On his retirement from the bench Judge Taylor resumed the practice of the law at Sheboygan, remaining there until 1872, when he removed to Fond du Lac, and entered into partnership with J. M. Gillet and subsequently with George E. Sutherland. His practice was large and increased up to the time of his election as associate justice of the supreme court.
In 1857 the legislature provided for the appointment of commis- sioners "to collect, compile and digest the general laws of the state" for publication. The governor appointed David Taylor, Samuel J. Todd and F. S. Lovell to perform that work. The result was the re- vised statutes of 1858. By 1871 Judge Taylor had prepared and there was published "The revised statutes of the state of Wisconsin, as altered and amended by subsequent legislation; together with the unrepealed statutes of a general nature passed from the time of the revision of 1858 to the close of the legislature of 1871, arranged in the same man- ner as the statutes of 1858; with references showing the time of the enactment of each section, and also references to judicial decisions in relation to and explanatory of the statutes." The preparation of this work (there being two volumes, aggregating more than two thousand two hunded pages) was a great undertaking, requiring patient industry and the closest application. These statutes came into general use and were known as "Taylor's Statutes." They were so satisfactory to the bench and bar that when, in 1875, the legislature provided for a new revision of the statutes Judge Taylor, with William F. Vilas and J. P. C. Cottrill, was designated by the justices of the supreme court to prepare a bill for that purpose. The result of the labors of these gentlemen and Messrs. Harlow S. Orton and J. H. Carpenter, who, two years later, were selected to assist them, was the revised statutes of 1878. Judge Taylor served as the president of this commission.
In 1877 an amendment to the constitution was adopted increasing the number of justices of the supreme court from three to five. By an understanding reached between the republican and democratic mem- bers of the legislature the additional members of the court thus provided for were to be taken one from each of these parties; and a caucus of
207
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
each party was held by the members of the legislature for the purpose of selecting the candidates of each. The republican caucus, by a very close vote, chose Judge Taylor as its candidate, the leading candidate in opposition to him being William E. Carter, then of the Grant county bar, now a practitioner in Milwaukee. In April, 1878, Judge Taylor was elected without opposition as an associate justice of the supreme court, and drew the short term of eight years, Harlow S. Orton drawing the ten-year term. Both sat on the bench of the supreme court for the first time April 18, 1878. At the expiration of his term Judge Taylor was re-elected without opposition for the ten years ending in January, 1896. His first written opinion is reported on page 49 of the 44th volume Wisconsin reports, and his last in volume 79, p. 471; so that his labors in the supreme court are represented by thirty-six volumes of its reports. He prosecuted his labors almost without interruption up to the third of April, 1891, without any diminution of his powers, and in the afternoon of that day, after working as was his wont, went to his home and within an hour or so was dead.
On the third of June, 1891, formal proceedings were had in the supreme court in commemoration of the life of Judge Taylor. Ad- dresses were made by W. H. Seaman, who presented the memorial of the bar of that court, William F. Vilas, A. M. Blair and Charles E. Esta- brook. The following is the address of Mr. Vilas:
"May it please the court :- I would lay upon the grave of the de- parted รก garland of personal remembrance and regard; and I wish I might contribute some aid to the true estimation of his character and excellence by such as lacked the advantage of intimate association to understand him fully.
"Upon the retrospective glance over all his long, laborious, useful and blameless life, no shadow of evil falls. Research and inquiry will discover only constant devotion; unostentatious but excellent works; steadfast, patient, valuable service to his profession and society; a man not only without display but without the least attempt to shine, but one never failing in robust, healthful usefulness in his station and all the undertakings of his life.
208
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
"Yet to the world at large, and indeed to very many, perhaps most of those with whom he came in casual contact, Judge Taylor wore a seeming of unsocial reserve, which limited intercourse and acquaintance and often wrought a misconception of his nature. Touched myself, in some measure, by this erroneous view of him in the earlier years of acquaintance, our enforced intimate association as collaborators during three years of the last revision of the statutes brought him out to me in clear light, and disclosed not only the freedom of his mind from anything like false pride or want of sympathy with men, but those excellent features of ability and character which ever after have com- manded my cordial respect and esteem.
"And now, reverently meditating on the spirit which has gone from his clay, the warm desire that his memory may be preserved by the profession and people of the state with discriminating appreciation and justice, directs my thought to those characteristics which ruled the conduct of his life, and a knowledge of which is essential to the proper measure of his worth.
"Judge Taylor's most distinguished peculiarity, which governed and explained his career, his general conduct and manners as well as accom- plishments, was the constancy and intensity of his devotion to the labors of the law. No man within my range of observation ever gave himself more exclusively, so unceasingly and untiringly, to this single field of thought and effort. Whatever other studies may have engaged his care, if any ever did for much time, he manifested in his later years little interest in them. Beyond a passing attention to the current af- fairs of the country and topics of the day, of which information came easily, he never seemed to yield himself or his thoughts at any length.
"But to the law he addressed a capacity for labor unexcelled and rarely equaled, with a constancy as faithful as his capacity was great. He seemed never weary, never wistful to interrupt the calm, steady, unremitting assiduity of his toil. The magnitude of effort to under- stand or elucidate any subject under his hand, the measure of time or personal labor, was no consideration with him. No task was formidable to his simple steadfastness. Through all the hours of the day, day after
.
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN. 209
day, week in and week out, year upon year, without excitement and without ceasing, he bent his mind to the tasks before him, toiling on with each to its complete and satisfactory accomplishment, and entering upon the next as readily as he finished that in hand. Relaxation and recreation were nothing to him. Seemingly he never desired either; holidays and vacations were merely interruptions. The pleasures and enjoyments which others indulge and seek, games, pastimes, entertain- ments, had no apparent charm; and if he suffered them even to check his labor, it was rather from a consideration of others than to please himself. He was, therefore, essentially a contemplative man, his mind ever meditating his problem, the intellectual machinery always running, always grinding its grist. His thought was ever introverted; his atten- tion occupied by that within him, not by things without. Incidents external were rather a hindrance than a help; interruptions, not attrac- tions.
"Necessarily, his were the manners of a preoccupied man. Yet such was his composure of countenance that his introspection was com- monly not apparent to the ordinary observer, and when he passed with slight notice a friend or acquaintance, it happened not infrequently that the reason for it was denied the credit due. But it needed only to enter the chambers of his mind and witness the busy scene within, to understand the subjects and the methods of his thought, in order to dissipate utterly the superficial misconception. Once in appreciative communion with him, the perception was instant and easy of simplicity and sincerity of purpose, of patient effort to discern and unfold the right, of sympathy with the interests and concerns of men, and the utmost readiness to accept any aid or criticism which helped him to solution of the doubt he wrestled with or unfolded the true course of thought. Any man more free of the mere pride of personal opinion, less impatient of correction, more ready to receive any benefit of another's thought, so that it truly informed his own, I never encountered. In performance of the public duty already mentioned-to which we were called by appointment of this court-it so happened that he and I wrought much together, in a close co-operation, not only on important
210
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
measures of the law, but often upon words and phrases, those stubborn substantives of useful statutes. He was the old, well-stored lawyer, sur- charged with a life of study, long professional and judicial service, and especially expert in statutory knowledge, as one of the revisers of twenty years before and the compiler of a later edition which had long super- seded in use the former work. He brought to the undertaking not only his extraordinary ability for labor, but unusual fulness of legal learning and ripeness of study. Yet the just precedence of these circumstances he never manifested in anything but their value to the duty before us. In every moment of conference his acceptance was as free and easy as his contribution, of everything in every form, whether of suggestion or of criticism, that might promote the utility and excellence of the work in hand. I speak now to his associates of many years in judicial labor; but confidently, that your testimony may be invoked to superadd in more effective tones the proof of these marks of a just, strong, honest- minded man, too great and too generous, too simple and too true, to think of anything but the worthy end of legal labor in its highest use- fulness to men.
"He ardently loved justice and surely yearned to see justice done in every cause. His anxious care for this is manifest in every opinion he wrote. It was a virtue that, taken with his untiring assiduity and his disregard of personal seeming, wrought with him some vice of manner and of aim. It exposed his opinions sometimes to criticism for their length, though not for their substance. There was perhaps now and then a fault, but an inconsiderable one, for which he rather accepted reprehension than incur the risk of error by too much compression.
"And I have thought he missed sometimes, in his ardor for the seeming equity of the case, the highest aim of a judge upon this supreme tribunal of the state, whose true function it much more surely is to rule and maintain the law with comprehensive wisdom and unfailing stead- fastness for the guidance of the whole people, those out of court as well as those before it, than merely to give to suitors a Solomonic resolution of each particular controversy.
"But this occasion affords no latitude for the suitable portrayal of
2II
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
the character and services of the man or the judge who is gone. Sum- marily, it must be said that a career of conspicuously valuable service to the state has been closed by his loss. Though he may not rank as a great or brilliant man, Judge Taylor deserves to be long remembered as an unusually good, useful and serviceable lawyer and judge, who was perhaps of more real advantage to his time and his kind than if he had been a greater one, as the world reckons greatness. That lack of what- ever it may have been which excites the admiration, that calls a man great, he made up in accomplishment by his faithful and enduring toil, and not only became greatly learned in the law and wise in judgment, but put his learning and his skill, by industry that never tired, into forms of value to his fellowmen.
"And Heaven vouchsafed him an end befitting his life. No idle years of inane waiting, no sinking by disuse in slow mortal decay. But while still in the strength of manhood, without lingering pain or burden- some contemplation of the coming changes after that full day's toil which was his wont and joy, he was called to his rest as the laborer, retiring home at night, seeks the repose of Nature in reward of honest doing.
"May his ashes lie in hallowed peace, and the bar and people whom he served keep his memory in deserved honor."
Chief Justice Cole said in response to the memorial and addresses:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.