Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-04-19

child, Lazy Ao"
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. grave, and te at
tend the twenty-frst birthday celeora,
ton of her eldest son, Dudley rlelu
Musgrave. His daughter IS the "ioo"
of Sir Anthony Musgraye, who was gov
ernor of Queensland, Australia. Al'e,
visiting his daughter Mr. Field traVeleo
on the Continent and took the steamer
from Genoa home. He has been at MS
home at Grammercy Park since his re-
turn. and was thought to be IN gooo
health for man of his age-o9 years.
He was taken with pneumonia Wednes77
day night. He had. expected to spennu
his summer among the berkshire hllls
where he was born.
Mr.. Field was born in Haddam Coun-
ty, Conn, on February. II, 1870. us
narily active one. For the term OF l1fe
that is allotted to the average man ne
was engaged with great thoughts ana
great things. Briefly, the record OF
David Dudley Field would run some
thing like this, beginning with his en-
trance to college: In 1921 student at
Williams College; in 1925 law student
in New York City; in 1928 admitted as
an attorney and solicitor; in 1880 ADMIT,
ted as counselor and entered upon legal
career extending over more than nail
century. But in these years he was
engaged upon many things aside from
his legal practice. In 1880 ne Ment
abroad and spent a year there, after
ward writing his Impressions OF his
travels. On his return from abroad ne
set himself to the reforming OF the sys-
tenn of procedure in court. He sought
an election to the legislature, thinking
that as member of that body he would
be in q 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. lie
kept up the fight for a reformed code
with voice and pen, however, with the
result that a 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 fame had preceded him.
Lord Broughton sought his opinion as
to the proposed amendments to the
then existing modes of procedure III
Great Britain, and he was made a lion
of bv the Law Amendments Society. He
was again in England in 1851, when
grand banquet was given in his honor,
at which Robert Lowe, later Lord
Sherbfooke, said in the course OF
speech that Mr.. Field had mot only
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 he
bent his every energy, to this work,
upon which he spent both time and
money lavishly. In 1860 success came
when the commission of which he was
member finished its work and laid
complete before the legislature the
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 ex plain his codes
there. He did so, with the result that
his ideas were in substance adopted
throughout Great Britain and her
colonies. In going around the world
later he found at Hong Kong and Singa-
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
deep interest and eXerted large int1u-
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
headed New York's delegation to the
Peace Congress that was held in Wash
ington 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. It
was in 1877 that he sat in Congress for
about eight weeks, to fill out the unex-
PRED 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 Tor him
to lay that burden aside. Nor, indeed,
did ne until long after he was four score
years old, for it was but a little more
than three wears ago that he ceased to
actually practice his profession. such
has been the career of this member of
tho ,l.a Llc LC;al6l e