Litchfield enquirer., 1874-02-12

ders. It needed an emigrant's faith tc : foresee the changes that human industry 7 under the guidance of good principles could bring about in the face of wintry skies and in defiance of steep hills. In 1772, about fifty years after the or ganization of the town, Tapping Reeve, son of a clergyman of Brookhaven, estab. lished himself in this remote and obscure
 place which had nothing but a Court House, Jail, and Meeting House to form : centre for the few towns that clustered around it. He could not have driven to the village in a carriage to save his life, for two reasons-there were no wheeled
 vehicles and had there been any, there
 were no roads that could have been safely
 traversed by them. This interesting ad-
 venturer was a graduate of Princeton, and
 was then only twenty-eight years old. He
 was delicately formed, slender man of
 classical features, pale complexion and
 large bright eyes. With him went Sally
 Burr, his wife, daughter of President
 Burr of Princeton, sister of Aaron Burr,
 and granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards
 -one of the most beautiful and accom-
 pllshed women of the time. They took
 up their abode in South Street, in house
 where spent four happy years and which
 now belongs to Judge Woodruff, who is
 our distinguished guest this evening. Mr.
 Reeve established himself here as a law yer and soon attained to the highest dis
 tlnctlon Ill hls profession. After continu- Ing Tn 1t for twelve years, i'll l794, when the Revolutionary War was scarcely over, he instituted the Litchfield Law school in which he was the sole instructor until 1798. period of fourteen years, when he associated with him James Gould, who was afterwards so renowned in the history of American jurisprudence. This school educated young men from all parts of the Union, among whom wore John c. Cal houn, Levi Woodbury, John NJ. Clayton, Roger s. Baldwin, Samuel s. Phelps, Ma thaniel Smith, William Elliott, Origen s. Seym our, Lewis B Woodruff, Truman Smith and other distinguished men, whose names have shed lustre upon the annals of our country. Two of these graduates have been judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, fifty of them members of Congress, forty have been judges of the | highest State courts and several have been foreign and Cabinet ministers
 1 Tapping Reeve was not mere peda- gogue, nor was he mere lawyer. He was man of genus, and in middle age 1 when his feelings were enlisted i'll the tri- al of a cause, he often exhibited powers of eloquence, which from the suddenness with which they flashed upon the minds of his audience and from his impassioned manner, produced an overwhelming effect He was very unequal in the exhibition of his powers. He was a man of ardent tenn perament, tender sensibilities and of a na- ture deeply religious. His sympathies led him to espouse the cause of the op- pressed and helpless. He was the first eminent lawyer in this country who dared to arraign the common law of England for its severity and refined cruelty in cutting off the natural rights of married women, and placing their property at the mercy of their husbands to squander 1t at pleasure. His sentiments did not at first meet with much favor, but he lived long enough to him, but are perpetuated in his ''Donestic Relations, and ill the jurisprudence of his country. He was an ardent revolu- tionary patriot of the Federal school. His fervent piety, well-timed charities, noble impulses, truthfulness, simplicity of char acter, and disinterestedness, all served to render him a general favorite in widely extended circle of friends and acquaint- ances. He died in 1923, in the 80th year der of the Litchfield Bar
 
 Bar, if we are to follow the order of birth, was Andrew Adams, born in 1736, who was successively Kings Attorney, mem- Der of Congress and Chief Judge He was a man of a clear mind and of great learning. After him comes Major Gener- al Uriah Tracy, born in 1755. From 1796 to 1907 he was Senator from Connecti- cut, leader of the Federal party, an inti- mate friend of Hamilton, Fisher Ames and Morris, and was a man of great legal acumen and particularly famed for lis wit.
 Then follows Col. Ephriam Kirby, born at Litchfield in 1757, an officer in the Rev olutionary army who carried to his grave 4he maSks of frightfu1 wound that he received in that struggle. He was a faith full and accurate lawyer. In 1799, he pub lished volume of Reports of the De- cisions of the Supreme Court Of Errors D This was the first volume of law reports ever published on this continent. Upon the organization of Louisiana, he was ap- pointed by President Jefferson ajudge of the newly acquired territory of Orleans, and died on his way to his place of desti- nation in the 18th year of hls age.
 After him in the order of birth comes Nathaniel Smith, who was born about the year 1763 and who, after severe struggles with poverty and an imperfect, early edu- cation, rose so rapidly in his profession, that at the end of fourteen years after he commenced the study of the law under Judge Reeve, he was sitting by his mas ters side on the bench of the Supreme Court of Errors Judge Church and Judge Williams have both told me that he was in their opinion the most gifted 1 1Y, khic to4a I o4 attempt any sketch of him, but if you will allow me will quote passage fIom letter written me by David S. Boardman, who knew Mr. Smith and how to estimate him. He says:
 l s'His voice was excellent, being both powerful and harmonious, and never 1 broke under any exertion of capacity. His manner was very ardent and:. these em- ing dictate of stroug conviction of the l justice of his cause, and h1s gestures were the natural expression of such convic- tion. MT. Smiths style was pure and gen. 1 uine Saxon, with no attempt at classic or nament or allusion. His train of reason | ing was lucid and direct, and evincive of l the fact that the whole of 1t was like a map spread out in his minds eye from the beginning. His ingenuity was always felt and dreaded by his opponent. He spoke with much fuency but with no un- due rapidity, he never hesitated for or | haggled at a word, nor did he ever tire his audience with undue prolixity; or omit to do justice to his case for fear of tiring them; and indeed there was little danger of it.''
 There is only one brief specimen of the style of this eloquent man handed down to us. This is part of his argument in the case of Jedediah Strong and wife before the General Assemly, and which is to be found i'll volume of our reports In argu- ing against the theory advocated by Judge Reeve in favor of married women, he took the opposite or common law ground and expressed himself as follows:
 '.But the manners have led the law and the law the manners, until every barrier is broken down and we seem about to bury in oblivion forever the rule that the yrifn bac m soropo4o