New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-12-26
JUsTIob SAMUEL NELSON.
kMrRrTED TRIBUTE.
EIs RETIREMENT, HIS SERVICE, AND


sntaS States after an uninterrupted service on the
sonch Of nearly fifty years, furnishes an occasion
raiv found in history for presenting to our bench,
An, bar and country an illustration of the benefits
rbich indicial labor and example may confer, when
,,,snired and guided by that grand common sense
.rboh a distinguished author has said is more IN
common than the genius for writing good poetry
,,nited with profound and varied learning, great e1-
perionce, and stern, S.ering resolve % aanl-
;ster ;pstos with an even hand. The public caree.
of this great Judge is closed. At the age Of eighty
yearA with his mental faculties all uniGlpalred with
memory so capacious and sound that he can restate
complicated facts in cases long since heard by MN
and forgotten by the counsel concerned in them;
with mind stored with knowledge from long con-
yerse with books and men with body still healthy
and strong; with cheerful spirit, and tastes re-
fined and cultivated, he has gone, as did the great
Lord Mansfield at a still more advanced age, to the
xnioyments he so well loves of farm and garden and
books. Of home, family, friends. He has left the
bench, not because the grasp and comprehension OF
grave and difficult questions beyond his mastery,
but because he feared his bodily strength might DO
unequal to the performance of that full share OF
judicial work, involved in the examination OF bulky
cases, and the writing of opinions A sense of duty
less delicate and exaetins than his might have LED
him to feel, with some of his eminent associates,
that if be could have sat with them for some time
longer to hear causes and bpg tQ he consultation
room the benefit of his great learning and expert
enee. 10 Soaid have rendered service to the bench
and to the public equal to that performed by either
of his brethren He has however thought it to be his
duty to resign He has done So and now LET us glance
briefly at his judicial life of half century
and from that learn more Of what constitutes
q great magistrate than is taught by the
career of any other living man This as the most
eminent members Of the American Bar well Know
Is no formal unmeaning praise but an earnest, bon
est tribute, which they freely pay to him and to
this may be added like tribute, as earnestly felt
and most cordially uttered by his associates. Sew
eral of them who came to their great places amid
the storms Of political strifediferng widely from
him in their political views-soon learned, In the
saim atmosphere in which they sat- to feel the noble
Influences of his grand and just nature; soon real
zed how sincerely he respected their opinions; with
ahat courtesy and kindness he urged his own; and
Of length came to know that, hand in hand with
him they could safely search for the truth and
with him labor for the practical administration of
that Justice which, a great divine has said, hath
its scat in the bosom Of God
The public life of Judge Nelson commenced early.
In 1921 he was a member Of the convention which
trained the Constitution of the State of New-York
and 10 April, 1928 he appointed Circuit Judge,
aud as such for many years presided in civil and
criminal trials at Ris pyiRs. The writer of this first
saw him after he bad become ChiefJustiee of the
Supreme Court of the State of New-York when that
Court was composed Of three judges whose principal
duty it was to hear and decide questions of law 1t
was then tribunal Of great dignity and learning,
with fame 90 ustrous that It's decisions bad long
been cited as authority in Westminster Hail. and III
all the StRtss of the Union where the common law
prevailed. The dignity of this Court was not les
sened nor itsluster dimmed during the period Judge
Nelson there presided nor indeed was its author
ity sensibly impaired until it was OBJ
liberated In 1896 when upon its ruins
was constructed the disoordant judicial system
with its elective judges, which, with important
notifications lately made stin prevails. Neither
lawyers nor suitOrs need be told that with the
introduotion of this change commenced the decline
Of our courts until at length the Judiciary of the
State of New-York, which had long constituted in
great paft the glory of its history became reproach
and a byword. Bench and Bar, in accordance with
the inevitable law, sank together, sympathzlng as
they descended.
The causes which have led to this unfortunate
aeOay from which we are now slowly recovering, are
10 be found in the misguided efforts OF so-called
reformers. aided, If not inspired, by misguided
press Under the old systen, which produced judges
like Kent and Nelson, and lawyers who were the
"a
two great branches of jurisprudence - Law and
Eauty-so distinct in their natures that neither
cod6ers nor LEGISLATORS can abolish tho difference
was confidod to different persons. Equity was ad-
ministered by Chancellor, assisted by few Vice.
Chancelors all learned men, who alone were author
lied to grant injunctIOns and appoint fecelvers-a
power rarely, if aver, abused To assist these and
thoae who sat in the law courts. there existed o
thoroughly trained Bar no member OF which could
omen his lips in court until be had practcsd three
years "a an attorney nor could he become an attor
new until he had pursued classical aud legal studies
or the latter for the period Of seven years II Is
strange but true that one Of the arguments en-
ployed to abolish this Judicial system was that the
nowers of the Chancellor especially that OF grsntinR
inipuctions were misohievous, while it was urged
thai the profession of the law ought to be open to
all who irrespective OF mental training could pro-
duoe certificates Of good moral character; and by
radical change in the forms Ofpleading and practice
Iaziness and ignorance were attempted to De put
upon an equal footing with diligence ana learning;
and with these helps to reform, judges were mace
elective hundred full blown Chaneellors succeeded
to the place of one aud Of the few MISCONCEPTIONS
and almost at the BEGINNING of their rule, more in
functions were granted in the City Of New-York in
sngle year than had been before issued throughout
the city and State in an entire generation AT
length the atmosphere became 80 filed with them a.
20 give rise TO the ocose but true saying that an III
junction epidemic prevailed -.-..r
Before this radical change, which gave MS an
elective judiciary, hundred Chancenors, broods OF
unfiedged lawyers to try their Impractical fingers
upon the harmOnies Of the Code, and court OF last
resort admirably oentrived, Ike Falstafs civil
wars 10 offend none but the virtuous. Judge
Nelson who had already as Circuit Judge, az Asso-