Litchfield enquirer., 1847-06-17

OiS<rict ot vermont, which Cmce k0 a4c9pt'
 cd and retained until l79l, when having
 Aeeoms diSsatis6ed with the inactivity of
 i'S dutieS, As rssigHsd it. During the tins
 ct his incum bency, but a sHan portion sf
 which was occupied by the duties sf the
 office, he prepared and published tive works
 upsR his native subject, the law. The
 first of these was . volumh of reports of
 courts, and of distortions upon.vsrious hraA-
 ches of eur law, entitled Reports and Dis
 sertioAs." These were the first judicial de-
 termina,ions, and the first legal essays ev-
 or edited or published in the state, and
 though the authenticity of the former aad
 judicial decisions of our courts, and ofour
 authority of the latter depend upon his ac-
 curacy of Judge C.'s observation and reco.
 lection, and the correctness of his reasen>
 ing, it has ever been considered an authora-
 tive work, and descisions and doctrines
 there reported or laid down, have at this
 day an effect little less than concluSive.A-
 His other work was Principles of Govern
 ment," which was subsequently enlarged
 and amended, and which will be noticed
 hereafter.
 He was again chosen Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in l796, at the same time
 was appointed one of committee, to revise
 our statute laws. The duties of this com
 ni,tee were mostly discharged by Jndye c.
 alone, the result of which was the laws of
 l797, which Is often spoken ot by our ablest
 lawaefs, as being tho best compilation we
 ever possessed, and which was said by those
 competent to judge, to be the best code of
 laws that could be found in the Congression>
 al Library at Washington.
 In l797 ne was elected U. s. Senator and served the state in that capacity during the six succeeding yeo-s. In his politics he was firmly attached to the principles of Washington, Hamilton, and the elder Ad- ans, and was desirons of having the senes. al government untrameled in the exercise of ,he powers given to i, by the constitution, aud believed those powes: not 10 be so limit ed as to be of no efficacy whatever. 1t was owing to the change of poli tics which made MT. Jefferson president, that Judge Chip man was not re elected. He returned fsom Washington 10 full practice in the county and state, and about this time he removed his residence from Rutland to the town of his first settlement, and lived in Tinmeuth until his death. In 1913 he was one of the Council of Censors, a body peculiar to Vermont, chosen septennially, whose duty il is 10 inquire whether the constitution had been preserved inviolate during the last aad also to propose such amend- ments to it as they shall deem necessary 1 and important. In October of this year, and also of the succeeding one, 1874 he was al ain choren Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. After leaving the bench in 1915, ha continued in practice but few years.
 OfJudge Chipnah's character and a.tain> ments as a lawyer it is unnecessary 10 speak; his reputation throughout the state as practitioner, his elevation so efteR te its highest judicial station, and the character of his legal works all unite in representing 1 him as at the head of his profession, and [ we'll justify the eulogium recently bestowed upon him by the present chief justice, 70 in an opinion of the Supreme Court recent. y pronounced by himin D important case ;seaks of Judge c. as "the distinguished md able jadge, and lawyer, and statesmen, vho has done so much to give stability, and orm, and substance to our laws, and civil md political institutions, and who in that way gave higher character to our state han any other man whatever.
 In 1915 Judge ChipmaR was chosen pro- pssor of Law In Middlsbury College, to upply the vacancy occasioned by the rssig- alton of his brother, the Hon. Daniel ,hipman. This trust he continued to held | the time of his death. though the prstss- srship was during several of the last years { his life merely nominal one. Al the of this institution, in lSOOhs vas placed at head of the board of it's trus. ses, and so continued until his deceass. Ie had previously, in l797, beea honored ,ith the degree of LID, by Dartmouth Col .gs.
 Judge C's acquaintance with other bran hes of knowledge was but little less extsn> i've than his legal attoinments. tie wac ultimately acquainted with the classics Of ,is mother tongue, and scarcely less so with hose of the Latin and Greek. Ofthe whole of the last two languages, no one lad a better knowledge and so great was his iondness for them, that he had made them aearly as familiar as his own. He ob- lained a competent knowledge of the He brew after his 4Osh year,f and during the last years of Ais life, he read from the Old Testament in the original. He was deeply conversant with all the learning of pas. time, and as iatimately acqaaiKted with the discoveries and revelations of the pres- en, day. History, philosophy, the natural sciences, the subtlelies and the correct principles of metaphysics were each oflhssa as they are 10 most of those who have dc voted their whole attention Q a single branch of the m indeed, it was not anfrs- auently remarked lhat there was no man in the state so universally learned. Ia the above studies principally he sPsnt his de- clining years, nor was hs in the meantime ferge,ful of the law, but by close attention to all these, did he preserve his mind su