Litchfield enquirer., 1881-09-01
Gov. Hubbard's Eulogy on Judge - 2 @- xseymour.

tue lOtD ult., EtsolutlOuS WtIc pdcccu Ou tuC
 death of Judge Seymour. and addresses were
 made. by exsJudge Waldo, stae'sAtty. dIAm-
 mersley and Henry O. Robnsan Esd. and
 others. Ex.Goy Hubbard spqke as fpl iows:A ~3I q S41 H z 2 SW We are wont to be more generous in our judgment of the dead than of the living. l 'fis q very eongenient virtue, this, for it en- Tables some men to nurse their jealousies till l jealousy can nolonger harm, and then to make l by post mOrtem laudations seeming compen -satiou for ante lnorteIn detractions and malig
 mites But think we can all Say to-day in
 very truth and soberness and with nothing of -extravagance in eulogy. that we have just lost.
 the foremost, undeniably theforemost lawyer,
 and, take him for all in all tAe noblest citizen | of our state.
 Imade the ,acqtiaintance of Judge Seymour many years ago in the legislature as his asso- .ciate on tht Judiciary committee Say h s associate; for so it was as matterof form
 but as matter of fact he was the Judiciary con- mittee and only his clerk he one of tue l leaders of his county bar aud not then out l of my law studies It has been my privilege to have been on terms of personal friendship with him ever since, and each recurring year has served only to broaden and deepen my res pect and admiration for the man.. His life was full and rounded one in all reiatioRs, but he was, above all things else lawyer-a lawyer in the largest sense Ofthe word. There have been very few persons at the bar of this state who have honored this profession more, or been more honored by it. i have known him less as practicing lawyer than as a judge, and what l have to say will, therefore, relate for the most part to his judicial fcharac- | ter. III t4]FIt}L4Ax u | He possessed, to begin with, an intellect which, if not brilliant or original, was recep- tive and absorbent in very high degree, and which not only held and assinilated it's stores but weighed shem, as it were, in balances
 Resided this judicial temper of mind. he. brought to the bench very ample attainments ln the science of law, large and varied ex perience in practice at the bar, and certain sinewy common sense which added to his oth- CT attainments apractical Awefking value that nothing else could have given. The posses sion of this last faculty is so important to- the judicial mind that no amount of mere learning, industry, or even of genius can possibly make up for it's absence. hardly need add--what would naturally result from the premises that he had larger measure of what is known amongst lawyers.as judicial wisdom, that su- preme endowment of judge.
 Accordingly, though possessed of discrim
 mating intellect, he did not suffer it to became
 
 iegai Science to the advicesand ever varying affairs of men. He had anabundarfce of cas-. learning, but was not case lawyer. His opin- ions rarely failed to reach the very heart of a cause, were always simple and direct both in manner and matter, and never overlaid with parade of learning though never reached without much care and research. He was not little in this respect like that English judge reported in Leigh, who, after having listened to battle of the books between two learned sergeants, concluded thus: Ut will be seen that have cited few cases in Support of this opinion, not that have not read or considered and puzzled myself with the multitude that. were commented on the argument: but be- cause finding them like Swiss troops fighting on both sides, ,9I have laid thems aside and gone on what seems to me to be thespirit of the law."s& s' ..z ~&sS~ ~ <@ -
 Neither did he ever attempt to display his quickness of parts by running ahead of the evidence or argument in a case, assthe man. ner of some is, prejudiclng the conclusion by hasty prepossession. He was well aware that it is a thousand times easier to plant truth in the mind than to supplant an error there. He seemed to realize that the learning of the bar is as indispensable to the bench as the learning of the bench to justice, and that. as Lord Bacon says-perbaps somewhat too absolutely-"it is no grace to judge first to ind that which he might in due time have learned from the bar" RFsA# ~ In word, he was never-so quick itted~as to distance the cause, nor on the other hand so dull. witted as to get distanced by it.
 have never known judge who was more 'scrupulously watchful of the movemen nts of triai more intent on the precise matter in hand more completely tOtus is iLlis. His wits were never wool gathering, and he abstained frCp hri md i,,Hi " into hotchpot during hearing. He never lacked in attention, even when counsel lacked in force orprecision. He used, as you all well remember, tn take very few notes of epi. dence; but his ears antmemOry were marvel ously alert to all the disclosures efsthe cause He had habit of listening to Nan argument with closed eyes-owing 1 suppose to weak ness of vision; but how sleepess his attention and reason were and how those shut eyes of shis used to~Open5 with mild surprise, some times with expressive reproach, at any perver sion of fact or lawo any other abuse either in matter or manner of the just liberties of argument! A, casual observer might easily have supposed him a sleepy if not sleeping judge. But he was never thus for a single
 instant; not even after that most drowsy and unjudicial thing still tolerated by some DOT tion of the American bench and bar, mid day recess and dinner To men of sedentary
 lives and brain work, plethoric stomach is only another name for plethoric brain and the afternoon struggles of either bench or bar with self-imposed stupor, though very praiseworthy, are little helpful to speedy re, | coveries and besides they don't add great | deal to the dignity of the court. -... He seemed to me to possess iu a marked de. l gree what we are accustomed to call the judi. cial conscience. His moral sense was keen and discriminating. and heshad a quick scent
 for the discovery of fraud, falsehood and op-
 pression in the entangements of cause l Then again, how impartial and impersonal | justice was as he administered it i; and how l blind to the face both of friend and foe. He | might have been trusted, I should say, to sit 1 ID his own cause, except that in the stern eth.
 ics of the law no man of woman born may do
 that, or judge cause and have so much as farthing sinterest in ita ;HeAwas made up, as
 1 aaalyze him, fet great Chancellor. The | office, under whatever name held, is the high est civil function exercised aneng men, k is I the Keeper of tlle peoples cohseienee e1egis 1 1atures and parlianfehts are tie keepers of the
 peoples power. It concerns itself with that
 toughest of human problems, business morals
 and everyday honesties of common life, a great code involving thesnicest and most in.
 trlnsic casuistries-a code which even the gos-
 pei can .onty define, the pulpit only preach, -2ha tle iegBiatures fonly prescribe in gener.
 als, but which chancery defines and prescribes I n detait and@-what is-nlofe so tae purpose .l applies andsexecutes with a>Quiver of all, of f every sort of-coercive, restraininig and biting .I remedies, not by money compensations only
 as at law, but by specific relief and the enfogc.
 ed updoing of things done which ought not to
 have done which ought nor to have beer, done l II there be higher or more difficult office in
 in the state than this, know not what it is Such yaf office he would have flledIto1 it's full and made itihastrious with the noble ethics of
 equity law carried home to the business of 4 ntaA-s Haw- w-heawas at tha. bar 1 have less
 means of knowing but on the bench he man, lfested an instructive aversion to those techni. calties, strategies and circuities which stand
 in the way of the right and prompt administra
 tion of justice. As also a certain natural bent
 to reach out from the law side of the court
 and borrow relief from the equity side-to the
 brealxinp downw aS sanYe of ,,c afslaeo xp;sdo,,