Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1897-02-19
essss County 9srala.
Geo. A. Bingham and Ossian Ray.
MEMORIAL Address.

-hEs 1"o SN"hfNf@N" ~ N''N
Grafton and Coos Bar association
1t occurs to me that it is more desira-
bic and useful to speak of our brethren
who have gone home from Court as we
saw them living and To analyze their lives
and work rather than indulge in the
emotional. / am not, however, iudiffer-
ent to the fact that the sensations one
experiences in passing swiftly through
life land especially after getting well
along the wayi are peculiar and exceed
ingly interesting. Even minds cooled by
the philosophers Of lille are thrilled when
each looks back upon his own hopes. am
billions and purposes in life and reflects
that he once thought that none could
ever have had such burning hopes, such
exalted and grand aspirations or such
important purposes as his own. There is
no love nor sorrow nor hope like ones
own. Kindly nature did well to give
each some sacred thoughts he'd scarcely
tell Ia ony." 1t gives a curious even it
is a selfish zesI to living. And SO it is
well that
There are things of which we may not speak !;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are tnin.S that nakt the strong heart
weak.
And bring pallor into the cheek
And a mist before the eye
o lite lite! How it sobs and throbs in
secret. And then in its common meters
all our hearts accompany the pulsations
of others as long as we live. So human
sentiments rest on self first; and then
out of a multitude of hearts beating in
unison come more generous sentiments
concerning Others whose hearts and
lives touched our own. OF two such 9TH
ers l would speak briefly and tenderlv,
but justly and truly and as distracted
from personal sentiments as nature will
permit; for we should profane the dead
bv neither falsehood nor fiattery.
l take great comfort in feeling no en-
harrassment or fear lest it be thought in
trusive i'll me, an inhabtant OF another
State, to speak concerning these two
lives i'll this presence; for looking back
over nearly half century into our little
Guildhall Court House see that a ma
5ority perhaps of those attending court
there iro.n this side the Connecticut river
were born in Vermont. Among Others
the Hcywoods were there, the Bentons
and the Binshams and often | sit in
memory and hear through the years
that have come and gone since then the
pleasant bon mots which sparkled in the
salient wit Of Fletcher, the gatling gun
like volleys with which Ray used tc
break through column of opposing
witnesses the earnest and erudite logic
of Ladd; the elegant and thrilling tone.
of Buras; the pleasing and earnest ut
terances of the Bnghams; the strong
words of the Bentons; the scarcely audi
BILE but undermining logic of Harvey
the grave and measured language of thu
elder Haywood; the tireless mining ofou
present Chief Justice Rossand the exuber
ant voice and language of Bartlett which
bore the same relation to forensic oratorN
that proiusion bears to the most elegan
music. 1t mattered little to those law
yers where one WAS born or from
whence he came with specimens of hi
work. And SO in humble imitation @
their sublime hospitality, we, their SUE
cessors, have never experienced any ter
ritori;ll contention but only that emula
ton of "who can best work and bes
agree"
A word concerning the times in whic
our late Brothers George A. Bingham
and Ossian Ray were developed as law
yers may not be amiss. Both were Dor
and began lite in Vermont in the days i
which trials before magistrates were col
Quoted in primeval crudity and with a
most bar room license. These trial
were eagerly sought by the people bot
as occasions for entertainment as well {
rude law schools. Young bingham b
gan in the office of Thos. Bartlett
Lyndon and Ray in that of Jesse Coopt
of lrasburg, who was almost equal
prominent with Bartlett, but who pc
sessed entirely different characteristic
In those days some of the most exhaus
i've efforts of lawyers were made in mo.
obscure and rural places. and anon
most rustic people. Lawyers were a
customed to travel about las Fletcfs
used to say "Whipping the Cat" and 1
live in the rudest but most hospital
style. Then special pleadings, whiG
were not required to be i'll writing
those courts, we're much in use; and
gal questions were then discussed vii
great efforts and often important que
tons of law went up to the higher co ur
from those interior tribunals. Anybot
had a right las they do now to appe
as Attorney in those courts. tt
brought these forums right down ev
into the households of the humbest int
viduals. They brought students al
young lawyers directly in contact wi
the ablest and most distinguished in t
State. 1t was great event i'll any CO..
munity in which one was held. Ea
lawyer had his friends and admireI
Everybody took sides, and spirit
contention ran high. The collisions
the lawyers pleased the "crowd" viii
regarded the whole affair as a person
encounter in which the result depend
entirely on Individual skill nrnwess "a