Litchfield enquirer., 1864-05-26
The late Judge Sanford.
 NEW MILFORD, May I7th. 1864

NEW MILFORD, May I7th, 1864.
 JAMES HUMPHREY, JR., Eso.-Dear Sir: = noticed some inaccuracies in the remarks oi Mir. Platt of Meriden upon the Resolutions re- garding my beloved father, which I should be pleased to have corrected in your paper.
 1st-He was not educated at the Litchfield Law School, but at that of the late Mr. Justice Chapman in Newtown. Still he did attend, ] believe. some of the lectures of Judge Gould while in tue office of Mir. Beers.
 This correction I deem due not only to his memory, but also to the reputation of Judge Chapman's Law School, which was cotempo- raneous with that of Litch6eld.
 2nd-He was not unsuccessful in practice at Litchfeld, but on the contrary remarkably suc- cessful. The very first argument in the Su- perior Court which he ever made to a Jury, was in an important islander case. His asso- ciates were Asa Bacon and Noah B. Benedict My fathers argument occupied aH hour and a half, was listened to with the closest attention and elicited universal admiration. Judge Chapman, who presided, commended it warmly and publicly.
 Soon after he began practice in LitchGeld he was taken into partnership by Hon. Seth P Beers, at that time States Attorn ey and As sistant Commissioner of the School Fund, and had recently been Speaker of the House of Re presentatives. The business of Mir. Beers was probably, at that time, as lucrative as that oi any practitioner in this County. The articles of partnership my father very lately showed me, and found he was to receive one half oi the net profits of the joint business, and one hundred dollars more, with the use of the office and library of MT. Beers rent free. Iknow ou the best authority that my father had four ishing practise at Litchfeld until his removal to Norwalk. He removed to Norwalk for .tanaily reasons solely. My father. my uncle o. s. Seymour, and my uncle by marriage Geo c. Woodruff, Were all then settled in Litchfeld It was felt that the three were too many for one family interest in one place, and it was there fore determined that my father, who was the eldest, should remove as he did.
 3rd-1t is true that at Norwalk he at first obtained but little bushes, being a stranger but before he left the place, which he did in about two years, he was intrusted with his fu share of professional employment. He was, as have often heard, completely bowed down with grief, by the sudden death of my mother and suffered the m ore, because it was the sec ond affliction of the kind he had been compel led to endure.
 He brought me an infant of IA months te Bridgewater to be cared for by his mother. and in order to watch over and rear me, and to repose his torn heart and shattered energies he removed to this place. He did not design to remain here, but became engaged in his pro- fession, married into family of wealth, found his health delicate and gradually abandoned the idea of removal
 4th-His practice, here, was for many years extensive for the County, and for the few years he remained at the Bar, equal, certainly, to that of any other Lawyer in this County. He was never in political life but once, when he was elected to the Senate by majority of two hundred and fifty larger majority (more than double) than any man of any party has obtain ed in this District, either ten years before ol ten years since his election. The candidate o his party (Whig) was beaten the year before and also the year after his election (le55) He,was, at the first and only Session of the Leg islature in which he ever sat, made Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and took an active and leading part in the framing and passage of the Prohibiting Law and the Per sonal Liberty Bill, the chief measures Of that year.
 When approached on the subject of his ele- vation to the Bench at this Session of the Leg islature, he took the ground that it was an office to be neither sought nor declined-but he was elected Judge by larger vote than that by which MT. Foster was at that time elected Speaker and U. s. Senator, some of his chief political opponents in the Legislature voting for him. Z
 With thanks for your kindness, Yours truly, H.s. s.