Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-04-18

| CIIlu, lIdu 4h
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. grave, and to at
tend the twenty-first birthday celebra-
ton of her eldest son, Dudley Field
Musgrave. His daughter is the widow
of Sir Anthony Musgrave, who was gov
ernor of Queensland, Australia. After
visiting his daughter Mr.. Field travelled
on the Continent and took the steamer
from Genoa home. He has been at his
home at Grammercy Park since his re-
turn, and was thought to be in good
health for man of his age-89 years.
He was taken with pneumonia Wednes
day night. He had expected to spend
his summer among the berkshire hills
where he was born.
Mr.. Field was born in Haddam Coun-
! ty, Conn, on February -, 1905. His
life has been long and an extraordi-
narily active one. For the term of life
that is allotted to the average man he
great things. Briefly, the re cord Of
David Dudley Field would run some
thing like this, beginning with his en-
trance to college: In 1921 a student at
Williams College,; in 1925 law student
in New York City; in 1923 admitted as
an attorney and solicitor; in 1880 admit
ted as counselor and entered upon a legal
career extending over more than half
a century. But in these years he was
engaged upon many things aside from
his legal practice. In 1886 he went
abroad and spent year there, after
ward writing his impressions of his
travels. On bis return from abroad he
set himself to the reforming Of the sys-
tenn Of procedure in court. He sought
an election to the legislature, thinking
that as a member of that body he would
be in position to do much in the way
Of pushing reforms that he considered
wise. He was defeated through the OPP
position of Bishop Hughes, who was
then warning on the public schools. He
! kept up the fight for q reformed code
with voice and pen, however, with the
result that commission was appointed
to reform the existing codes much after
the manner which Mr.. Field advocated.
In 1850 Mr.. Field was in England,
where his lame had preceded him.
Lord BroughtOn sought his opinion as
to the proposed amendments to the
then existing modes of procedure in
| Great Britain and he was made lion
| Of by the Law Amendment Society. He
was again in England in 1851, when
grand banquet was given in his honor,
at which Robert Lowe, later Lord
Sherbrooke, said in the course of a
speech that Mr. Field had mot only
essentially served one Of the greatest
countries in the United States Of
| America, but he had also provided a
cheap and satisfactory code of law for
every colony that bore the English
NAME"
Upon his return to America Mr.. Field
again set to work urging further re-
forms, and from that time up to 1865 be
bent his every energy to this work,
upon which he spent both time and
money lavishly. In 1865 success came
! when the commission Of which he was
a member finished it's work and laid
complete before the legislature the
codes tor New York. They had been
written and rewritten several times,
parts of the civil code as many as
eighteen times. But Mr.. Field had later
! the satisfaction of seeing his work in
! dorsed by most of the states in the
| Union. More than this, he was invited
to visit England and explain his codes
| there. He did so, with the result that
| his ideas we're in substance adopted
! throughout Great Britain and her
colonies. In going around the world
| later he found at Hong Kong and Singa-
| pore his system of practice in use.
After 1865 Mr. Field turned his atten-
| ton to the discussion of an international
| code, and his work in this direction
added to his already great reputation
! abroad.
In all this time Mr.. Field had taken a
| deep interest and exerted large infu-
ence in matters political. He has, how
| ever, held no political office save that of
member of Congress for brief period.
But he figured in large political events.
He was Democrat, but he would have
| none of slavery. He helped bring
| about the nomination of Mr.. Van Buren,
| for President on platform of no extern
sion OF slavery, and through all that
extend slavery into the territories. He
supported Fremont for President, and
in 1860 he sat in the Repub
lican national convention that
nominated Lincoln, and Henry j.
Raymond has said that Mr.. Field
had much to do with the defeat of
Seward and the nomination of Lincoln.
| Mr.. Field was one Of those who hoped
| the War could be averted, and he
Peace Congress that was held in Wash
lngton after Lincoln's election. When
| Sumter was fired on, however, he saw
what was inevitable, and from that to
| the end there was no more energetic
worker for the cause Of the Union. 1t
was in 1877 that he sat in Congress for
about eight weeks, to fill out the uneX
pired term of Smith Ely. About the
same time he was one Of the advocates
before the Electoral Commission.
In all these years while he was en-
gagged in politics, in travel and in his
great work in behalf of reform in the
systems of legal procedure here and
abroad, Mr.. Field did not neglect his
own business, which was simply i'm
mense. 1t seemed impossible for him
| to lay that burden aside. Nor, indeed,
did ne until long after he was four score
years old, for it was but little mere
than three wears ago that he ceased to
actually practice his profession. Such
has been the career of this member of
the remarkable Field family. There
are few like it to be pointed to, wheth-
er it be in the matter of length or brill
fancy.