Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-10-09
IN the 4th of the ensu-

| Iished the first edition of his Principles
| Of Governments and also the first edition
| sertations."
Resdming the practice of the law, but
withou a business office. and accept
ing important cases only, he con-
tinued until October 1876, when he was
| again elcctedIChief Justice, and also one
OF a committee to revise the code of
code of 1877, which was written al
most entirely by Judge Chapman,
and of it the most competent Judges
| at that day said, they found mo other
| code of statute laws written in style so
| distinguished for simplicity, perspicuity
and technical accuracy" t21 Ere his
| term of chief justice had expired, he was
! elected United States Senator, holding
| that office from March 1898 to March 1904
Not scorning humber service, he accept
| ed the office of town representative for
| Tinmouth in 1905, and held it each success
| sive year until October 1911. u3.l
| In March 1913 he was elected one of the
! Council of Censors, heading the list; and
! of the very important amendments to
| the constitution proposed by that body
| one being the division OF legislative power
| into two coordinate branches, which was
| adopted in l536--Judge Chapman was very
| able advocate, In pamphlet entitled 1.-THE
| Constitutlonalist"
| From December 1873 to December 1915
! he again served as chief Justice Strictly
speaking, this terminated his official life :;
| and it may be added, that he was displac-
ed on change of political parties in the
! government of the state, as in fact he had
| also been elected in 1913, though to his
| credit it must be said, that he received
more than his party's vote.
| In 1916 he was appointed professor of law
| i'm MiddleDury College, and this position
he held, nominally, until the close of his
! lite. In discharging its duties he prepar-
| considerable attention at the time, and
! four selected from the series because of
! their interest to general readers, were
! printed in the Life OF Chapman. -....
| From 1877. tDOuUl his intellectual DOW
erS were in full vigOr, Judge Chapman at
! tempted little professional business, oW-
| ing to his deafness: but he read much, and
| wrote much, taking the opportunity 10
! re-cast and r1-write his ''Principles OF Gov
| eminent" enlarged by valuable treatise
| on the constitution and government OF
! the United States This volume was
! printed in 1888, when its author was in his
! eighty-first year. Nearly Contemporaries
I Gus with this was his elaborate and able
| argument entitled observations on Mr..
| CaIhOuu's expose of his Modification doc
| trineS.' which was printed in the appen-
! dix To the Life of Nathaniel Chapman.
! The e are his last great works, and though
| written at an age when most men have
reached the second stage of infancy, he
! might safely rest his title to homage and
| tame on these alone. Indeed, his "Prlncl-
! pies of GOvernmento made him famous in
! both Europe and America: the extremes
! in politics equal him great homage-the
| dem 4craric Jefferson, and the aristOcratic
| CZ4r Of Russia. -.
Tbi. brief review Of the public life of
| Chipplan shows that from the second year
| of his residence In. vermont untli ne
retired from professional business
that is, from 1871 until lSl1-he las
Almost constantly engaged in profess
fnSSiOnai and public services; but II w Ii
also be observed that his active life was,
to Il remarkable degree, fragmentary. II
we measure the year5 PASSED eltnef AT me
| bar, or on the bench. on IN oth puOnc
labors. we shall find that the sum OF each
cam be reached only by adding scattered
fr gments of time, IL year or Two al Inc
] fEyN nm lntaTlf 4 IL
tprnating thus again and again; and at no
time do We find more than six years OF
continuous service IN one once Even
the brief SPACE spared hmm tOr ms eIucd-
| tiun. was uividCt( by his service in tile
army. 1t IL apparent then, mat at no ulhe
| could Judge CHIP an have been u I1ch
! man from the avaiis of his prGte sion or
| his Offices; in other business ne was I'M
! fortunate: and the fact was, that almost
| for life no rank ed, with the large majority
| Of hi. fellow citizens, rs Il poor man. though
J in intellectual riches he lowered high
! above princes. ...
| Il is equally obvious that the fragment
| any character of his life aud services would
! be exceedingly unf'tvorabIe, IN the cast 81
! most men. 70 the attainment OF high dis
| tine don in ANY one OF his various HeidS q
/ labor. But we find his case remarkable
! cXcpniion, in that, by the unanimous yer
/ dict OF these. who best knew ana
werB best able TO judge INN, ~
| was alike distinguished for his perfect
| familiarity with the best hterature IA the
Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English Ian
guagas; for his = ide and accurate ae-
| quaiutance with the whole cliclt, II arts
| and scieu, es, and for his profound know
! ledge AMI exquisite Judgment in law aud
| statesman hip. Iii not for me to attelnpt
! to speak II him particulariytn ipspoct to
! either class OF his great attpinments, f0r
indeed this ,ay m @ht ne NJ. sPtn 1t,,, ~
| by orators of the highest repute on taGh
| topic. | think may safely $ ~. however,
! that had Jrd2e Chapman been permitted
! to choose any one field Tor MS Mes Work
/ l,ilRln1aAT tllnDlnrri .rn4
! LAWYER, fudge, or Statesman he would
have reached the slightest eminence IN
either.
| of know edge. 1t Is wonderful to us that
he was 50, when We remember that his
! classical course OF preparation was hrlet'
! tical experience in any one branch
was both brief and at broken in
| tervals of time. The secret, then, OF his
! great and van ed attalnnents Is a valuable
! one for students in all coming time; and
happily the explanation Is as Slnnle
! as The eNampl is valuable. Given
a sound body and mind a taste for read
| ing and profound reflection, and u
! tenacious memory to make has own
! forever all that his MUD once gra pe1--2h
| the rest was accomplished by persistent
| industry, and q systematic course OF study,
| labor ana recreation. six hours OF sleep
| were all that he required during his active
| life: six hours of reading, or study, or
writing, were thus gained daily above the
| average student of talerable industry, and
\ that is inst l;tlE OF the average mans IltB
! of work. In Il word, Chapman donbled the
! usual term of real working and living, by
! his indOmitable industry, we need not
| wonder, then, that she continued through
| life to read the Old Testament in the He
| brew, and the New Testament in Greek,
! with Homer, Virgil and the minor Greek
| and Latin Poets, ca culating to go through
| the course once in a year All tins, l
! fancy, would be quite reading enough for
! n modern man; but with MIR. Chapman
! this course of familiar sreading was for
/ 1-pla ian
mere amusement he scorned not to add
| novels Cl4J 1t is, of course, probable that
/ this prescribed round of annual reading
I was always Surrendefeo When other stud
| les or iabOrs demanded; but the fact that
| he did, by his industry, accomplish this
annual feat, demonstrates the ease and Ta-
! pIdity with which he could scale the
! nights and depths of legal or other lore
! ana Appropriate to himself all that 1t was
| useful to know. Indeed, Daniel Chapman
! declaced that lin his professional studies
he was equally industrious and equally
! successful, and his legal learning became
! deep and extensive. But ms attention
| was not confined to legal science; it eX-
| tended to the whole circle of the arts and
/ sciences I; to all the various trades and oc-
! cuDations of men, Ia short, he was a
| systematic and Iaborious student, finding
| his pleasure so completely in acquiring
! knowledge and applying it to the pursuits
| in which he was engaged, that his life be-
| came eminently intellectual, and emil
| uently practical and useful. Men who so
! live and labor, SO study and strive, may
4
! The writings of Chapman, which have
| been printed are not very voluminous
! and suspect there remains much in man
| uscript, which. though probably not of
| great interest in this day, would show
| both his industry and great learning. His
Reports and Dissertations" are vet in
demand having been republished in ISL
| and his >'Chipman On Governments edi-
tion of 1888 and Chipman's Lectures,
| printed in the ''Life,'' are and ever will be
! valuable textbooks for students in law
| and craftsmanship.
OF his other published writings l viii
! refer only to his letters to Alexander Ham
iton, and the correspondence of the YER
mont commissioners, tof whom Chapman
| was onel and the New York commi sion
| er, on the settlement of the old controver-
| sy between the two States. ChipmaIi was
/! anxious for the adoption of the Federal
| Constitution and the admission of
| Vermont to the Union, but he
/ believed that this would strip mtll-
! titudes OF yermonters of their
4 possessions, as the ultimate decision of
/ their land titles would fall to the United
! States courts. At the same time Hamil-
! ton feared that the requisite number of
1 of iONf M t he for