Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1869-01-12
The Late Judye Bennett.
TENARKs OF DANIEL ROBERTS.

Ct, graduated at Yale College in ISL,
aud afterwards at Tappin Reeves Law
School. He commenced his profession
al life at Bennington, this State, and
there married and buried his first wife
After year or two he removed to
Manchester where he continued in
practice un Ill TIE spring of 1886. Dur
ing this period he was for three years
states Attorney, and for five years
Judge of Probate. In the spring of 1886
he removed to Maine, allured by the
speculation in pine lands, which proved
financially d .sastrous to him. as to many
others.
He was accustomed, with a kind Of
i'm humor, to deduct from the reckon
IN of his age the two years he lost in
Maine. In the fall of 1888, he was, !
may say, recalled from Maine by his
p OCCASIONAL brethren in Vermont, and
more especially TIN ougn the friendship
and respect of his classmate at Yale.
Judge Samuel $. Phelps wuo was then
ABOUT to retire from the Bench to assume
seat in the United States Sena- c. He
was elected Judge of the Supreme
Court in place Of Judge Phelps in 1885,
and remain I'd upon the Bench of the
Supreme or Circuit Court from that late
with the exception of one year, till Tie
year ls59-in all, 20 years of Ollie al SER
vice.
70 you who knew Judge Bennett per-
sonally and professionally, and in p TT
as his associates upon the Bench, AID to
whom he has made himself so familiar
by his opinions, running through 20
volumes of our reports, it seems unne-
cessary that should say more of him,
as lawyer, Judge, or citizen.
These resolutions are intended as
truthful expression of the sentiments Of
the Bar in respect to him, and it was
our special pleasure that there was moth
ing in his history or character that we
needed to conceal or obscure, for the SAKE
of his fame.
Judge Bennett was not brilliant
man; ne was not an orator, nor a
genius he was a mat er of fact, pro
sale man; he lacked grace of manner
and of speech he had no great literary
accomplishments, and yet the clearness
and discrimination of his thought gave
him a simple, perspicuous and accurate
| written style. He was an example of
what industry, diligence, study, probity
and persistent will will MAZE of a man
of plain but strong native faculties. The
law is an eXacting mistress, but he Sc
cured her favOrs as lawyer and Judge.
by yielding himself wholly to her SER
vice.
| The fibre of his mind was Oh rather
than delicate. He grappled with Law
questions in wa; to caution you how
you grappled with him OH his own do
main, for he was hardheaded, clear
! sighted and strong of grasp, not easily
drawn from the real point, nor deceived
| by plat sibilities.
He loved the old law and revered the
ancient lights; in all resp cts cOnserva-
tive and suspicious of new notions. For
long established principles IF the law
he had such reverence that he might
have said, as did Burke of the British
Constitution, have such filial rever-
ence for it, that l will not cut it in pieces,
and put it in he kettle of any magician,
in order to boil it with their puddle OF
cOmpOu Ids into youth ana vigOr."
AS a Judge and citizen, he always
showed himself hater of evil. He was
not facile in compromises with disorder
or wrong. This charact aristic gave to
his ideas and ways an aspect of stern
ness. Yet those who came nearest him,
found his heart had soft side, and was
touched with tender sympathies.
After mis- retirement from the Bench,
by the employment of The Legislature,
he did the principal work of revising,
redrafting compilin the State" in the
form known as the General Statutes of
Vermont" In 1864 he wrote and pub
lished the book known as Vermont
Justice"
Ever after his return from Maine, his
h me was in Burlington. The summer
of 1865 found Judge Bennett quite cut
loose from his accustomed life aud assO-
Citations. His wife, an invalid for many
years, he had recently laid in her tomb
his children had grown up, and were
gone his cottage and garden had passed
inlO other hands, and all traces Of them,
or of their former use, had been Obliter
ated, except from the map of rcgretful
memory; his library he had sold and
scattered his old briefs had gone to the
paper maker old age and sickness were
consolidating and arranging the public
statutes upon him. What had he else
Is. day of June last, he left Burlington,
ard on the 7th day of ] uly he died at the
residence of his son, Hon. Edmund H
Bennett, Taunton, Mass, aged IS years
He was buried in Burlington.
All good men nave their good uses in
one way or another. The Bar, the
Bench and society have need of such
rnen as Judge Bennett. He was pillar
to uphold the social edifice; fastened
anchor to Ike p the ship from drifting
one who had fixed place, and all tbs
world knew where to find him one
whose opinion from the Bench, as Judge
and Chancellor, will serve for the many
generations of lawyers who are to follow
us, as lights and guides through the
mazes OF a perplexing study. We honor
ourselves in honoring his memory.
The Late Je, emiah French.