The Washington herald., 1913-02-23
NOTED JURISTS PRECEDED
TAFT AS kent PROFESSOR
Two Governors One Ambassador to England and Supreme
Court Judge Have Occupied Chair to Be Held
by President

When President Taft assumes til,
chair of the Kent professorship in Yal,
University in the spring he will be tn,
successor of a most distinguished lin,
of jurists, two of whom were Governor
of Connecticut, one Ambassador TO Eng
land. and the fourth a Supreme Cour
judge. says the New Haven Register
In brief, the incumLents of the Ken
chair of law have been as follows
David Daggett, Ii. D., 1854; Clarl
Bissell, Ii. D., lS47-55; Henry Phelps
IL. D.. 1Sl-l900. AS shown by the date.
there were intermissions. some of con
siderable length, when the Kent profes
sorship was vacant awaiting suitable
instructor of law for the seniors in the
academic department. Naturally all the
holders of the Kent professorship have
been on the faculty of the Yale Law
School as we'll, doing just as Presiden,
Taft will probably do, lecturing as Kent
professor and giving other lectures ir
law and in other departments to a con.
siderable variety of students.
AS the emolument to the holder ot
the Kent professorship amounts to but
$3.50. naturally a learned teacher oi
the law would be asked and would en-
,pect other duties However. the posi-
tion of Kent professor has always been
considered most honorable and most
important and under the incentive of
the learned jurists who have filled the
Ghair hundreds of Yale seniors have
been led to take up law as a profes-
sion. being privileged in many cases to
further pursue their studies in the Yale
Law School undsr the same men who
gave them their first insight into Its
workings while seniors in the academic
department. To again define the Kent
professorship of law: 1T is salary
paid to a professor of law for deliver
ing lectures. or otherwise communicate
ing instruction. to the undergraduates in
the academic department in national.
International constitutional. or munich
PAL law and civil policy and on such
ether subjects as the faculty or corpo-
ration shall from time to time direct
or approve"
Bears HOnorcd Name.
Never has any professorship in any
institution of learning borne more
honored name for who stands higher
in the profession of law than Chancellor
James Kent. whose commentaries are to
This day beacon guides and whose in
fiuenCe upon the development of Amer
ican law has probably been as great as
that of any other man. The long list
of Yale's famous sons contains no
nsme more worthy of honor than that
Of James Kent. who to-day is univer-
sally equal rank with Judges Marshall,
Story and Hale. 1t was admiration or
his genius and character that impelled
few friends of his to found in 1875,
not 1853, as has been stated. the Kent
professorship of law in Yale. In this
brief sketch of the careers of the men
whose names have been attached TO
the Kent professorship. in the cases of
the Yale men Iand all but one was
Yale graduateD perhaps the most in
teresting incidents attaching to life In
the New Haven institution center
about James Kent.
Graduated in i:Sl.
This man. after whom the chair which
President Taft is TO occupy was named.
was graduated in the class of l1Sl, and
it is interesting to note that one of MS
classmates was Simeon Baldwin, grand
father OF the present governor of Con-
necticut He was a mere boy when he
entered the college-only u years of
age. in fact. Here, as he says. he passed
four years Of simplicity and as another
has related distinguishing himself in
his studies He roomed on the fourth
floor of the old building and his room
mates his first two years were 1saacs
and Tomlinson and the last two years
Noyes and Wright. 1t is worthy of re-
izers of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at
Yale and one of his proudest moments
in life he tells us, was the privilege
OF delivering the Phi Beta Kappa Grafton
in the old North Church. New Haven,
in 1881. on the occasion of the 50th ami
versarv reunion of his class of 17S1.
In common with two at least of the
Kent professors of law young Kent was
very poor and had to work his way
hrp-Ia TpI hon la fr,-
ished his law studies he was 500 in debt.
which it took two or three years to dis
charge. He was admitted 10 the bar at
the age of twenty-one. and the young
woman or girl whom he married that
same year, IT'S. was only sixteen. He
had long had the law in mind ever since
that long-rememhered day when copy
Of Blackstone's Commentaries chanced
I" fall into his hands. This and other
works he studied with such diligence as
Rt length to earn the title. THE Black
ttons OF America gained through his
wonderful "Kent's Commentaries" the
of which he did not COM
fnence until he was sixty-threc years of
age.
Visited College Twice.
Not to trace his career at length or in
detail, his service at Columbia is remem-
hered by that fine structure, Kent Hall. |
The State OF New York too highly es-
teems its great Chancellor Kent That
he loved Yale was shown by his visits |
10 the old town and college. He visited
The college in 1852, again in 1872, at the
siNty-first reunion of his class. Evident
y the old gentleman was economical, for |
u that trip he has written with consid- |
arsble seeming qualification. The excur- |
sion to Yale cost me only s6.H." The |
1ld-time friends whom he always took /
lains TO visit on these returns to New |
Haven We're Judge Baldwin, Noah Web
'ter. and Prof Silliman. One of his ia
'orite forms of recreation was to climb /
West Rock, where he had carved his i
lame while in college. One incident is told /
" Chancellor. happening about the time /
le was promoted to the Chief Justice
ship of the Supreme Court One day
Hon. Morgan Lewis approached him and
'aid:
Judge Kent, if you will vote for me, I |
Will make you Chief Justice
No, sir replied Kent, who was a /
'trong Federalist. PERSONALLY / admire
md respect your character. but l detest
our political principles. sir" 1t might
10 related in closing, sketch of Chan
ellor Kent that Webster the great
urist, esteemed his attainments so high
v that he strongly recommended him for
he presidency of Dartmouth College.
DaEEett First in Chair.
The first man TO hold the Kent profess
Orship was Hon. David Daggett a Mas
schusetts man, though of distinguished
ancestry, who was born in |
Ittleboro in 1894. and was graduated from