Litchfield enquirer., 1847-04-08
EttebfteIn CoaUtp 2ssograpbp.
NATHANIEL CHAPMAN IT. n

cd nothing more than an ordinary common
 school education until after his twentieth year, when he commenced the study of clas
 Sics, enteied Yale College-ani in 1777 at the age of 9 he graduated at that institu> ton. The spring before his graduation he received lieutenanl's commission in the Amer can Army, which he accepted, and immediately entered upon its duties. The succeeding winter, that of l177-7S, he was
 with the Army at Valley Forge, and endu.
 red with il those hardships and sufferings
 which tested the valor and proved the patyi- l o;sm of our soldiery mora conv:ncingly than any thing else that occur2s during our revolutionary struggle. In tAe campaign ot the next season, he was present. at the battle Of Monmouth, and too, IS active part in il as his station wouI, How.
 He soon a0er lcn the ar!nr and com-, tnenced the study of that profession, of which he was afterwards so distinguished an ornament, at Litchfeid, in his native state, and was there admitted to the bar in
 lU9, after having studied but five months.
 tie immediately removed to Tinmouth, VI, where his father had previously settled.
 For complete understanding of Mir. Chip> mans relation to the bar of that State of
 t is necessary to consider the state of the law, and O. those al this time engaged in its administration and practice.
 The government of the "State of Yer monP had been in 0; e ation but about year-i it's Supreme Court, which had been l organized shorter time, had held it's first
 session only the December previous. There
 were al that time no authorized attorneys
 in the state, and the parties to actions then
 tried appeared personally. The Supreme Court consisted of one chic justice and four assistant judges, not one of whom had been legally educated Like most of the early sittlers of Vermont, they were men of visol- oaS intellcc,s, uncultivated by education, and owed their eminence not SO much to ability acquired by study as to their native strength of mind, and their energetic exer.
 else of it in the controversies in which
 they were unavodably involved. At :he
 second session of this court, which was
 held at Westminster iu Cumberland coun-
 ty in May, l779, Stephen R. Bradley and
 Noah Smith were admitted as attorneys, &c.
 These were the frs. licensed practitioners, and he only ones who preceded Mr, c. In the succeeding month, in the words Of the record. at a Superior Court holden st
 Rutland in the county of BennIug ,on, v.. .s.. ? Thursday ofJune, Il. D. 1S47, Nathan icl Chipman was appointed attorney at law sworn and licensed to plead at the bar wi hin the SIa,c." He was thus the thirh lawyer in the state, and the first in the shire now county of Rutland, and such were afl
 terwards his attainments. that he was ever
 acknowledged 10 be in ability and legal ac
 quisilion, as we'll as in point of time, at tn . head of the bar. He entered immediately
 upon his admission, into an extensive prac- l tice-his name appears in nearly ever / 1 case in the court docke,s for the ten su cceding years as attorney either for Il. f plaintiff or defendant. At the first count
 court after the incorporation of the count!
 he was appointed States Attorney, whir .
 office he retained until l785, when he TO!
 quished it in fay y0I orLis brother. Soon af ' this he removed to Rutland, in consequen T
 of that place being selected as the pcrma
 nent shile town. Mir. C. early acQuiI" the confidence of his fellow citizens, and wo honored by them with many important onl :
 oes He was ofIimes the representative { the town of his residence in the G. , eral Assembly, or its delegate 10 State Co = I vcniions. In October, l778, he was for |, :. first time elevated 10 that station, which l.. was so eminently calculated 10 do justice, that of Judge Of the Supreme Court. In l7S9 he was also appointed one of the con : missioners in behalf of Vermont, to adju>,
 with those appoin;ed by New York the d'..
 fercHccs which existed between he tv.1
 states-ani in l79O he was arrointed joi 4 Comni,s toner with Lewis R. Morris, r. , negotiate the admission of Vermont in the Union. The importance of these coc,- missions may be judged of from the resn. 5 which attended them. By the agency o,
 the first, the long protracted and bitter cons trovers.es between two sovereign states Wa - adjusted and ended, and Vermont secured io . herself ,ha, Independent rank and those !" rights, which as she re:cr could rightfu"y
 or honorably, so SAe never would voluntarii :,
 have given up. By means of the last sL.
 was admitted into that union of States.
 which has since become 50 extended a but
 wark of free principles, and 10 whose heiv i in their war of revolution she had contrihu- ted the mite of her ability, and had afforded DO inconsiders ble aid by the exploits of her "Green MoantGiR Boys" at Ticoaderoya a,