Transcription
[uncorrected ocr]
SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE
Prominent Members of the
Orange County Bar
Prepared by
WALTER C. ANTHONY
Published by the
ORANGE COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
Go
PREAMBLE
"To all persons to whom these presents shall
-come; Greeting!"
'Know ye' that the preparation of this little
book is due to a desire on the writer's part to
learn and record as much as possible regarding
the careers, the characteristics and the personal
appearance of the lawyers of Orange County in
former days :
The publication of the book is due to the
interest felt by the Orange County Bar Associ-
ation in the lawyers who have shaped the history
and moulded the professional ideals of the
Orange County bar of this day.
The writer is painfully aware of the imperfec-
tions of his part of the work. He owes much to
the assistance that has been given by friends,
especially by Hon. William Graham, L. L. D. ;
but even with that help the book falls far short
of being what it was intended to be. The most
perplexing problem connected with it has been
whom shall we include and whom omit? Prob-
ably some are included who should not have
been and doubtless a number are omitted who
were entitled to "honorable mention." If this
latter fact is the cause of disappointment or
dissatisfaction on the part of anybody I beg him
to remember that the work only professes to
contain sketches of some of tho distinguished
lawyers of the county.
The intention was to give in this volume
accounts of only such members of our bar as
had "dcpartefl out of this world" before this
work was begun, — to wit before January ist,
T917. A partial modification of this rule has
bf'cn made in the case of Mr. I.owis K. Carr.
This has been done because no portrait of Mr_
Carr can be found in any publication so far as
the writer is informed and unless it was con-
tained in this book the time would soon come
when it would be extremely difficult, perhaps
impossible, for the younger members of our bar
to learn what manner of man Mr. Carr appeared
to be.
In fact this last suggestion may be applied
with equal force to a number of the men whose
careers are sketched in this book. Of several of
them no portrait has ever been published; of
several others portraits are only to be found in
books that are out of print and hard to procure.
These facts go far towards justifying the publi-
cation of this work.
In a few years it would become well nigh
impossible to make a collection of the portraits
of the former leaders of our bar which would
be as nearly complete as is that contained in
this volume.
If any reader of these 'sketches' is offended by
the frequent appearance of the pronoun T — in
its various forms — will he kindly remember that
in a work of this kind it is extremely difficult to
avoid that objectionable feature.
The writer hopes that the labor involved in
the preparation of this little book will be some,
though a very inadequate, return for the invari-
able kindness and courtesy with which he has
been treated by his fellow-lawyers during the
many years that have elapsed since he came
among them and became a member of the Orange
County Bar.
WALTER C. ANTHONY.
Newhur^h, N. Y.
September, 19/7.
Sketches of Some of the Prominent
Lawyers of Orange County.
The bar of Orange County has never been
without its full quota of exceptionally able men,
but never in its whole history had it a larger
proportion of distinguished members than it had
during the early years of the igth Century — or
in other words just about a hundred years ago.
Since then we have had many lawyers whose
homes v/ere in this county who were men of
state-wide reputation; but between 1800 and
1820 there were a number of the members of
our bar who were men of national repute. In
fact there is a tradition that Aaron Burr had an
office at Goshen at that time. Be that as it may
it is a fact that as Attorney General of this State
under appointment of Governor Clinton in 1789;
as a member of Assembly in 1800; and as a
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1801
(of which he was chosen President) he was in
each instance credited — or should I say debited?
— to "Orange County."
The reason why men of first class ability were
content then to settle at a distance from the
cities is not far to seek. In the year 1800 the
population of Oranp;e County was about thirty
thousand and that of New York City was about
sixty thousand. Albany had a population of
between five and six thousand. Outside of these
two cities there was no place of importance anv-
where in the State. In fact if Long; Island is
excepted nearly all there was of the State of
New York in the way of population was con-
tained within a strip forty miles wide extending
from the East River to Saratoga, the Hudson
River being the middle of the line.
This situation which induced some of the
most prominent lawyers of the State to maintain
their offices at that time in the rural districts
was by no means confined to Orange County.
In Dutchess County James Kent had withdrawn
from active practice late in the i8th Century,
when he was appointed Judge of the Supreme
Court; Smith Thompson, Thomas J. Oakley,
James Emmet (ist) and others were still resi-
dent in that County. In Columbia County
Martin Van Buren (who ranked among the
greatest lawyers of the State prior to becoming
its greatest politician) ; Benjamin F. Butler, his
partner, who soon outstripped the senior member
of the firm in real forensic ability; and the in-
comparable Elisha Williams, one of the greatest
advocates this State has ever produced if the
traditions of the bar are to be credited, were
adorning the bar of that County during a number
of the early years of the igth Century.
To return to Orange County: — Among the
group of brilliant and able lawyers who resided
here at that time the leader of the bar was
unquestionably
JOHN DUER
who was born at Albany, N. Y., on October 7,
1782, and died at the home of his son, William,
on Staten Island on August 8, 1858. His father
(William Duer) was an army officer and was
stationed at Albany at the time of John's birth,
which occurred while the mother was visiting
her husband at the last named city.
In early life the subject of this sketch seems to
JOHN" Dl'KU
have been inclined to adopt his father's profes-
sion and at the age of sixteen he entered the
mihtary service. Apparently he soon tired of
this as he resigned after two years and a little
later began to "read law" in the office of Alex-
ander Hamilton in the City of New York. He
removed to Goshen in, or about the year 1800,
and was there married in 1804 to Annie Bedford
Bunner. Ruttenber and Clark's history of the
County states that her brother Rudolf Bunner
was John Duer's first partner in business. Mr.
Duer seems to have continued to make his home
at Goshen until about the year 1823. In the year
182 1 he was elected as a delegate from Orange
County to the Constitutional Convention which
was held that year and in that convention he
made a deep and lasting impression by his ability
and eloquence. The Constitution prepared by
that convention was adopted by vote of the
people and went into effect on January i, 1823.
The discussions in the convention had empha-
sized the need, which had been felt for a long
time, for a revision of the statutes of the State.
This work had been done, nominally, several
times prior to 1821 — but none of these so-called
'revisions' was anything more than a mere re-
enactment in a consolidated form of the existing
statutes as they had been passed from time to
time, with some amendments, suggested by the
revisers or inserted by the legislature ; there was
no attempt at systematic arrangement in any of
them.
As an outgrowth of the work of this Constitu-
tional Convention of 182 1 the legislature passed
an act in the year 1824 appointing James Kent,
(then ex-chancellor), Erastus Root, (then
Ivieutenant Governor), and P.rniamin F. Butler,
(then District Attorney of Albany County) to
revise the statutes of the State. It may safely
be guessed that Kent's selection was due to his
standing at the bar; Root's to his official position
as Lieutenant Governor; and Butler's to the
influence of Martin Van Buren who had been
his partner in business and was then United
States Senator. Be this as it may the selection
of Mr. Butler was a most fortunate one. He was
not only a lawyer of exceptional ability but was
an extremely industrious and systematic worker;
and he only of the three original appointees
continued in the work of revision until it was
completed. Judge Kent declined to serve, and
the Governor — Yates — thereupon appointed John
Duer, the subject of this sketch, to fill the
vacancy thus arising, and he promptly accepted
the appointment. Mr. Root retired from the
Commission in 1825 and the Legislature there-
upon passed an act enlarging the powers of the
Revisers and substituting Henry Wheaton in
Mr. Root's place. This new member of the
Commission was at that time the Reporter for
the Supreme Court of the United States; later
he entered the diplomatic service of this country
and in March, 1827, resigned his office as Com-
missioner and in his place Mr. John C. Spencer
was appointed. This appointment was also a
fortunate one as Mr. Spencer was not only a
lawyer of first class ability but was withal an
untiring and indefatigable worker.
He remained on the Commission until its work
was completed in 1828 and on the loth day of
December in that year its third* (and final)
report was adopted by the Legislature and
became "the law of the land," to take effect
January i, 1830. Meanwhile Mr. Duer had found
it necessary to withdraw from the Commission
owing to the pressure of his professional engage-
ments, and possibly on account of the additional
work involved in connection with the office of
United States District Attorney (Southern
• Three Special Sessions of the Legislature were
helf] to consider and adopt the (three) reports of these
Commissioners.
8
District of New York) to which he had been, or
was about to be, appointed. Butler and Spencer
completed the work without further assistance.
It is only fair to Mr. Duer's memory to say
that at the time he retired from the Commission
— which was late in the year 1827 or early in
1828 — its labors were well advanced towards
completion. The outline, scope and arrangement
of the whole work had been decided on and the
Commissioners reports theretofore made to and
adopted by the Legislature covered those de-
partments of the law which were peculiarly
involved and intricate. It is also due to his
memory to say that his fellow Commissioner,
Benjamin F. Butler, expressly and openly credit-
ed Mr. Duer with having first suggested the plan
for "a new and more scientific revision of the
statutes," and with being "the soul, the master
spirit, of the Commission."
It v/ould be impossible for anybody who was
not educated in the law to appreciate properly
the importance of the work done by these Com-
missioners. It has been of the utmost value to
the people of this State — and not to them only
but throughout the United States, for it has
served as the guide and basis of much of the
legislation of nearly every State — perhaps of all
the States — of the Union. No wonder that one
of these Commissioners (Butler) gave instruc-
tions that this inscription be engraved on his
monument, "A Commissioner 10 Revise the
Statute Laws of the State of New York."
The lawyers of this generation seldom realize,
if ever, the confusion and intricacy which marked
our legal system — if system it could be called —
prior to this revision of our statutes; and the
extent and accuracy of the knowledge of the law
as it then existed which was required in these
men to destroy the old structure and to replace
it with the new can hardly be appreciated. If
they had done nothing more than write off the
old rubbish by which the title to real estate was
sought to be regulated and to replace it with the
present system they would have deserved the
lasting gratitude of their fellow citizens and of
all future generations. It was a jungle, a
labyrinth, full of springes and pitfalls : they made
it a comparatively plain and open highway — but
even yet the wayfaring man, though not a fool,
may easily err therein. Even yet the remark
made by one of the wittiest lawyers who ever
practiced in this County that "a knowledge of
the law of uses and trusts comes only through
fasting and prayer" holds true to a large extent.
It is a strait gate and "few there be that go in
thereat." But this branch of the law which is
now "deep" was then bottomless. And that
portion of the revised statutes which covers this
abstruse subject seems to have been prepared by
John Duer! No clearer proof of his surpassing
ability as a lawyer could be asked!
As showing the spirit in which this work was
done I quote a passage from a letter written by
Mr. Duer to one of his fellow Commissioners
regarding their work. He says, "Let us act and
labor under the belief that we are working for
posterity and that great results are dependent
(as I am convinced they are) upon our success."
In another letter he says, "I am satisfied that we
shall have to work continuously eight or ten
hours per day."
And what was their reward? In part it was
the consciousness of a public duty well done.
In part the gratitude (now almost forgotten) of
their fellow citizens and of their brother lawyers.
And what financially? Mr. Duer and Mr.
Spencer each received four thousand five hun-
dred dollars — and Mr. Butler was paid six
thousand five hundred dollars. His larger com-
pensation was due to his having been enp^apred
longer in the work and having prepared the
indexes.
10
This compensation (?) was at the rate of about
twelve hundred dollars per year. Beggarly as
it seems it was far more liberal than the legis-
lature had planned to be, for in the original act
appointing the Commissioners it was provided
that their work should be completed in two
years and that their compensation should be one
thousand dollars each!
Mr. Duer held positions of great honor and
usefulness later in life, but it may well be
doubted whether he was ever able to render
another as great and enduring service to the
community as he did as one of the Commissioners
to revise the statutes of this State. In 1828 he
was appointed United States District Attorney
for the Southern District of New York and that
position he held for a year or two. In 1849 he
was elected to be one of the judges of the Super-
ior Court of New York City — a court since
abolished but which then had jurisdiction nearly
identical with that of the Supreme Court except
that it was confined to a more limited territory.
In May, 1857, he was appointed Chief Judge of
that Court and this position he held until his
death. His decisions are scattered through the
Superior Court reports which cover the years
when he was on the bench and they give evidence
of his legal ability and learning.
In addition to the work which he did as a
judge he reported the decisions of the Superior
Court during the last six years of his life. These
decisions constitute the six volumes of "Duer's
Reports." He also prepared — though this was
done earlier in his life — a treatise on Marine In-
surance which was very highly esteemed in its
day.
As has been stated already. John Duer's father
was an officer in the army of the United States.
His mother Catherine Alexander was a daughter
of William Alexander, the Lord Sterling of
Revolutionary days. Their children were Wil-
li
liam, John and Alexander and perhaps others of
whom the writer has not learned. William was
scarcely less distinguished than John, having
been a justice of our State Supreme Court for
many years. Alexander v/as also a lawyer and
is said to have been in partnership with his
brother John at the time the latter removed from
Goshen. Alexander married Miss Maria Wes-
cott of Goshen. He died at a comparatively
early age leaving two daughters, one of whom
became the wife of Judge David 'F. Gedney.
The Duer family inherited, through their mother,
an interest in large and valuable tracts of land
lying in this County and in Southern Ulster
County and they were very possibly influenced
by that fact in choosing Goshen as their place of
residence. The record of litigation as to some
of these lands can be found in the nth volume
of Johnson's Reports at page 364 and again in
the 13th volume of same at page 536 under the
name of "Jackson ex. dem. Livingston against
DeLancey."
In 1804 John Duer married Annie Bedford
Bunner as already stated. Their home in
Goshen was spoken of for many years after they
removed to New York and down almost to the
present time as a center of all delightful and
uplifting influences. They and other leading
citizens of Goshen of that day gave a tone and
charm to society in that village which lasted for
more than half a century — and for aught the
writer knows is still felt.
John Duer is uniformly spoken of by those who
knew him as a remarkably eloquent man; a
ready and forcible speaker who had all the
attractive elements of the orator — a commanding
presence, persuasive manners, a melodious voice,
an unusually full and choice vocabulary and close
reasoning powers. His educational advantages
were not good but by diligent study and appli-
cation he overcame this impediment completely
12
and became a profoundly learned man not only
along the lines of his own professional work but
in the broader fields of literature and philosophy.
It has been recorded by those who knew him well
that he could read Latin, French and Italian
without being aware that he was reading a
foreign language. Withal he was a Christian
gentleman of the highest and best type. Orange
County has a right to be proud that the character
and career of such a man were so largely shaped
in her midst and has reason to be thankful that
his ihfluence in behalf of good citizenship and
high culture was so long exerted among his
neighbors and friends in his early home.
He left several children — one of them, a son
named William, was at one time in the diplomatic
service of the United States Government ; and
two unmarried daughters who taught a school on
Staten Island down to a comparatively recent
date.
OGDEN HOFFMAN
The subject of this sketch came of a family of
marked distinction. His father, Josiah Odgen
Hoffman, was a lawyer of very high standing,
and his half-brother, Charles Fenno Hoffman,
was as well known in literary circles as was
Ogden among the lawyers. Murray Hoffman, a
cousin of his, was a lawyer of eminence and a
justice of the Superior Court.
Some facts appearing in the older reports of
the decisions of our courts have led me to sus-
pect that Ogden Hoffman was really named in
full for his father "Josiah Ogden" and that he
NOTK. — A brief, but «-xrcll<nt Hkftcli nf John Diior
l8 Klven In Hutt«:nhfT and Clark'H History of Ornnire
County, anfl the trlbutOH paid to hlH memory at th<; time
of hia death arc preflxed to the 6th volume of Duer'n
ReportH.
18
(wisely) dropped the less euphonious name. In
many of the older cases for instance occurring
between 1800 and 1820 the attorney for one of
the litigants is stated to have been "J, O. Hoff-
man;" but about 1820 to 1825 several cases
appear in the reports in which one of the attor-
neys is stated to have been "J- O- Hoffman, Jr."
This was doubtless the one whom we know
merely as "Ogden Hoffman." See i Cowen's
Reports, page 45, and again same volume, page
58. In both these cases The Bank of Orange
County was plaintiff and in both Hoffman was
plaintiff's attorney. In other words it was
Goshen business and the attorney was "Ogden"
Hoffman in all probability.*
The elder of these two famous lawyers was
celebrated both for wit and for learning and
seems to have been as full of mischief and play-
fulness as a schoolboy all his life. Edwards in
his "Pleasantries About Courts and Lawyers"
gives several anecdotes of this "learned counsel-
lor" of the olden time one of which relates an
incident said to have occurred in the Court
House at Goshen and which consequently may
be not out of place here. Elisha Williams, the
famous advocate from Columbia County, was
summing up a case. Mr. Hoffman — Josiah O. —
in sheer mischief took occasion to inform a
brother lawyer sitting near him in the bar that
he was afraid one of the jurors did not hear that
superb speech as he was very hard of hearing.
He took care to say this in a "stage whisper"
which would be heard readily by Williams' client
who sat close to the gentleman to whom Hoff-
man spoke. The client fidgetted uncomfortably
for a few moments and then pulled Williams'
coat tail and whispered to him "speak louder,
Mr. Williams." As the speaker was then using
• This was not the only instance of this sort in the
Hoffman family. Murray Hoffman's name was David
Murray, but he dropped the "David."
14
OrjDKN HOKKMAN
the full volume of his powerful (but melodious)
voice the client's suggestion was not adopted and
presently Hoffman again whispered to his neigh-
bor that the deaf juror evidently did not hear
Mr. Williams as he was paying no attention at
all to what was being said. Again the client
tugged at Mr. Williams' coat and urged him,
"For heaven's sake speak louder, Mr. Williams."
Everybody in the courtroom began to see the
joke except the anxious client and v/hen Hoffman
said to his neighbor a few minutes later that
Williams would surely lose his case unless he
spoke louder the client could control himself no
longer and springing to his feet appealed to the
Court to direct Mr. Williams to speak loud
enough for the deaf juror to hear. What
happened next is not stated by Mr. Edwards but
no doubt Williams told Hoffman that he "owed
him one" and would pay him the first chance he
got. Such were some of the pranks of the grave
and dignified counsellors of a hundred years ago.*
Ogden Hoffman — or Josiah Ogden Hoffman
(2nd) — if that was really his full name — was
born on May 3, 1793, in the City of New York
and died in that City on May i, 1856. His
mother's maiden name v/as Mary Colden. She
was a daughter of David Colden who was the
youngest son of Lieutenant Governor Cadv/al-
lader Colden. Her father was obliged to leave this
country at the close of the Revolutionary War
on account of his sympathy with the English
cause. He and his family went to England.
There he soon died and his widow and children,
including this daughter, Mary, v/cre brought to
this country and made their home with Cad-
wallader Colden (2nd) at Coldenham in this
county. These facts possibly influenced Ogden
• Thp Court IToiisf of t)iiit flav )h phnwn at the
extrerrip left of the plrtnro of OoKhon whlfh anpoars
on nnothor pncf. It stoofl nhoiit whom tho f'ounfy
Clork'n ofTlro stnnrl.M now. Tho roiirt room wa.H on tho
second floor of that bullclinp at the west end
16
Hoffman in his choice of Goshen as the place
where he would study law. He was among
relatives who were people of standing and influ-
ence.
One of the daughters of this lady, in other
words a sister of Ogden Hoffman, Matilda by
name, was betrothed to Washington Irving.
Her death at the age of seventeen left him so
deeply bereaved that he never met another
woman whom he could love and as is well known
he died a bachelor.
In 1812 the subject of this sketch graduated
from Columbia College and in 1814, on the last
day of that year, he was appointed a midshipman
in the United States Navy. The following year
he served under Commodore Decatur on the
"President" and with the Commodore was taken
prisoner. He seems to have obtained an early
release however, for he served again with Decatur
in the war with the Barbary States. In 18 16 he
resigned from the navy, much to the disgust of
Decatur who said that he regretted that such a
promising man had "left an honorable profession
for that of a lawyer."
Soon after this young Hoffman began to
"read law" in the office of his father in New York
City and a year or two later came to Goshen
and continued his legal studies there. At this
point in his career there is a bit of obscurity as
to his course. Some authorities state that he
studied law at Goshen with John Duer; others
merely say that he continued his studies at
Goshen with a lawyer of that place with whom he
afterwards formed a partnership. Furthermore
some of the biographical encyclopedias state,
in connection with their account of the life of
William H. Seward, that he studied law at
Goshen in the office of John Duer and Ogden
Hoffman. These statements seem to indicate
quite clearly that Duer and Hoffman were co-
partners in business in or about the year 1820,
16
at Goshen. The circumstance is not of any great
importance of itself, perhaps, but it is certainly
of interest when the standing and ability of the
two men is taken into account. It is safe to say
that seldom, if ever, have two lawyers of such
pre-eminent ability and such wide reputation
been associated as copartners in business in this
County. What a team it must have been! And
when the fact that Seward was a student in their
office is added we have a group of three of the
ablest men in the State brought together in one
law office in the quiet little village of Goshen!
It is a noteworthy circumstance too that both
the members of this firm of Duer & Hoffman (if
such copartnership actually existed as it seems
almost certain was the case) should have had a
military experience — one in the Army and the
other in the Navy of the United States — before
entering on the study of the law.
Mr. Duer removed from Goshen to New York
in or about the year 1823 and Mr. Hoffman
followed him to that city a few years later, in
the year 1828 or thereabouts. He was elected
in 1826 to the Assembly from Orange County
and in 1828 from New York. He was District
Attorney of this County from 1823 to 1826. At
about the time of his removal from Goshen he
is said to have formed a copartnership with Mr.
George F. Talman but whether it had reference
to business matters at Goshen or to those in
New York City the writer has not learned. Be
that as it may it is certainly a fact that very
shortly after his removal to New York he formed
a partnership with Hugh Maxwell who was then
the District Attorney of that County.
Ogdcn Hoffman's career after he went to the
metropolis was so conspicuously successful and
prominent that his fame as a lawyer is probably
more widely known than that of any other attor-
ney who ever had his home in Orange County.
He filled the office of District Attorney of New
17
York County from 1829 to 1835 ; was a repre-
sentative in the United States Congress for two
terms from 1837 ^^ 1840 ; was United States
District Attorney — for Southern District of New
York — in 1841 ; and Attorney General of this
State in 1853-4 a^d 5. This last mentioned office
had been filled by his father, Josiah Ogden Hoff-
man from 1795 to 1802.
As an advocate Ogden Hoffman stood among
the very first of his day. To great readiness and
fluency of speech he is said to have joined a voice
of such rare sweetness and charm, that it led to
his being spoken of frequently even to this day
as "the flute." For profound learning in the law
Mr. Duer was probably his superior but as an
advocate Hoffman seems to have 'oeen the more
popular of the two. In looking at the portraits
of the two men which are presented with this
article it suggests itself that very possibly Hoff-
man was the more "magnetic" of the two. He
looks it.
Fifty years ago when I was a student in the
office of Judge David F. Gedney, at Goshen, he
told me this anecdote about Mr. Hoffman. Not
many years after he removed to New York he
was brought back to this County to defend a
man who had been sued for breach of promise
of marriage. Mr. Samuel J. Wilkin of Goshen
was the attorney for the plaintiff and the trial
constituted a battle royal, for when Mr. Wilkin
was in good health he was equalled by few and
excelled by none before a jury. I speak of his
health because he was subject all his life to very
intense headaches which were likely to attack
him during any exciting trial and which com-
pletely prostrated him when they occurred. On
the trial of this breach of promise case, however,
he escaped without any such attack and when
the "summing up" was reached he was in fine
shape. Gedney as a boy of twelve or fourteen
years was in the court room and listened to the
18
addresses of these two brilliant men and as he
himself told the story he said, "I listened en-
tranced to the speech of Mr. Hoffman and v/hen
it ended, and a hush fell upon the audience, it
seemed to me that Mr. Wilkin might as well
remain silent; that it would not be possible for
any mortal man to undo the effect of Mr. Hoff-
man's address to that jury. But Mr. Wilkin's
speech which followed was as much better than
Hoffman's as the latter's was better than one
that I could have made as a boy at that time."
Hoffman had then made a great reputation in
New York City and was naturally on his mettle
when brought back to try an important case
among his old neighbors.
The plaintiff had a verdict for fifteen hundred
dollars which in that day was u... [truncated due to length]