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OBITUARY ADDRESSES 
 
 #ccasioii af t\}t iratlj 
 
 OF THE 
 
 mm. ROBERT 11. MORRIS, 
 
 JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT 
 
 FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF THE 
 STATE OF NEW- YORK. 
 
 #bituar]) "^atuty %jijmv]mmt of t|r Courts, 
 
 FUNERAL OBSEQUIES 
 
 UA' 
 
 Reported by HAYES, HINCKS, CAREY and KEMP STON. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 W. K. & J. SIBEI,L, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS, 
 
 X O . 2 W A I, L - S T R E E T. 
 
 18 5 5. 
 
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OBITXJ.A.I^'y^. 
 
 £at|flfion.|lobfrti.Porris. 
 
 [From the New-York Herald, Oct. eeth, anil Hudson Daily Star, Oct. 29tb, 1855.] 
 
 The death of the Hon. Robert Hunter Morris, 
 one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of this 
 District, took place suddenly, on Wednesday last, 
 24th Oct., 1855, at the residence of his father-in- 
 law, Marcena Monson, Esq., of Astoria. There 
 was no member of the Bar more generally known 
 or more universally admired, and the intelligence 
 of his death was received in New-York with feel- 
 ings of intense grief. It was but a few days 
 since, on Tuesday last, that we saw Judge Mor- 
 ris sitting as a spectator in the Court of Oyer 
 and Terminer, apparently in the enjoyment of 
 good health, and on Wednesday he was seized 
 with a sudden attack, and died from the bursting 
 
 m- 
 
of one of the blood vessels of the heart. Judge 
 Morris was fifty-three years of age. His public 
 career is familiar to almost every New-Yorker. 
 He was born in this City in 1802, and when he 
 was a mere lad his father moved to Hudson, 
 where the subject of this notice received his edu- 
 cation. He studied law in the office of Mr. Kil- 
 lian Miller, of Hudson, and commenced practice 
 at Johnston, Columbia County, and was made a 
 Justice of the Peace about the same time. In 
 182*7, Mr. Morris came to New- York to act as 
 Assistant District Attorney. Mr. Morris be- 
 came a member of the Legislature in 1833, and 
 was re-elected in 1834. During the Session of 
 1833, he voted for Silas Wright, Jr., as U. S. 
 Senator, and at the Session of 1834, his vote may 
 be found recorded in favor of the concurrent re- 
 solutions of the Legislature sustaining Greneral 
 Jackson in the removal of the deposits. He was 
 appointed Recorder of the City of New-York by 
 Governor W. L. Marcy in 1838, but it will be 
 recollected, that in consequence of Ms seizing 
 the " Glentworth Papers" while holding that 
 office, he was removed b}^ Grovernor William 
 H. Seward. A plan had been set on foot by 
 James B, Glentworth, before the Presidential 
 
election in 1840, to send on a nunil)er of vo- 
 ters from Pennsylvania, nominally to lay the 
 Croton water pipes through this City, but vir- 
 tually to vote for General Harrison in opposition 
 to Martin Van Buren. Mr. Morris ascertained 
 that documentary evidence of this fact was in the 
 house of Mr. Pierce, of this City, and a few days 
 before the election he proceeded to Mr. Pierce's 
 residence, in company with Mayor Varian, where 
 he seized the " Cxlentworth Papers" and reveal- 
 ed their contents to the public. For this, as 
 we have said, he was removed and F. A. Tall- 
 madge was appointed Recorder hi his place. 
 But the people of New-York viewed the act 
 of the Recorder in a difterent light, and in 1841 
 he was elected Mayor of the City, and was' 
 re-elected to the high position of Chief Mag- 
 istrate of New- York in 1842 and 1843, with in- 
 creased majorities, the last majority being over 
 seven thousand — the only instance in this City of 
 a man being elected Mayor three times in succes- 
 sion. At that period of our City's history the 
 Mayor was elected every year. In 1845, Mr. 
 Morris was appointed Postmaster of New-York 
 by President Polk, and he held that office for 
 four years. While Postmaster, he was elected. 
 
in 1846, a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of the State, which formed the State Consti- 
 tution under which we now act. His speeches in 
 that body upon the term and qualifications of the 
 Governor, the judicial system, the imprisonment 
 of witnesses, the qualifications of voters, the 
 rights of married women in property, and on the 
 constitution as adopted by the convention, are all 
 marked with his peculiar habit of thought and 
 expression. And last of all, he was elected, in 
 1852, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the First 
 Judicial District, for eight years, more than five 
 years of which are unexpired. The law requires 
 that twenty days notice shall be given before the 
 election to fill an oJ6&ce, and as this cannot be 
 done in the present case, the G-overnor will have 
 the appointment of Judge Morris' successor up 
 to January, 1857, when the vacancy will be filled 
 by the people. Some time after his elevation to 
 the Bench, Judge Morris was seized with illness 
 and was unable to attend to his judicial duties for 
 a few months. He resumed his labors, how- 
 ever, afterwards, and last month sat in General 
 Term of the Supreme Court, with Judges Mitchell 
 and Roosevelt ; and next month, had he lived, he 
 was to have presided at the Court of Oyer and 
 
Terminer, now in Session. Judge Morris' popu- 
 larity is apparent from the number of important 
 offices he has held, both by the gift of a President 
 and a Governor, and by the choice of the people. 
 As an advocate at the Bar he was at times forci- 
 ble, eloquent, sarcastic and jocose ; he was a 
 sound lawyer, and in criminal jurisprudence he 
 was considered a very high authority. As a 
 Judge he was impartial, just and patient ; the 
 tyro and the black letter adept alike received his 
 attention and his courtesy ; to the young he gave 
 encouragement, whilst the experienced lawyer re- 
 ceived from him a becoming deference to his po- 
 sition and standing in the profession. As a pri- 
 vate friend he was affable and sincere, and being 
 well stored with a fund of anecdote from vast 
 professional experience, he was an excellent and 
 an entertaining companion. In his domestic rela- 
 tions he was exemplary, and leaves a fond wife to 
 lament his loss ; but to the members of the Bar. 
 who will meet in the Supreme Court, on Saturday 
 morning, at 10 o'clock, we leave the melancholy 
 task of speaking in more extended terms of the 
 character of the deceased Judge, as he was known 
 to the profession and to the community. 
 
^ijouritmeitt of t|e Courts. 
 
 SUPREME COURT — CIRCUIT. 
 
 HON. JUDGES MITCHELL, CT.ERKE AND COWLES PRESn)IX(;. 
 OCTOBER 25, 1855 
 
 The Hon. Robert H. Morris, one of the Justices of the 
 Supreme Court of this District, died at the residence of his father- 
 in-law, at Astoria, on Wednesday noon, after a very brief illness. 
 Judge Morris was in the Court of Oyer and Terminer, as a spec- 
 tator, at the commencement of the trial of Alderman Herrick, 
 which was still pending when the intelligence of his sudden de- 
 cease was whispered, and spread a gloom throughout the City Hall 
 
 In the Circuit Court, ex-Judge Edmonds, in addressing the 
 Bench, said the sudden demise of Mr. Justice Morris, which took 
 place yesterday has cast a gloom over the Bench and Bar ; he did 
 not mean to say now all that his merits demanded, but begged, 
 without further remark, to move that a Committee be appointed to 
 make arrangements for a general meeting of the Bar, to take into 
 consideration their bereavement arising from the sudden death of 
 Mr. Justice Morris, and that the Court, from respect to his 
 memory, do now adjourn. 
 
 He (Judge Edmonds) understood that the funeral would take 
 place from Astoria, at 2 o'clock, on Saturday, and in the meantime 
 the convocation of the Bench and Bar could be held. 
 
 Judge Mitchell briefly said that the motion met with the ap- 
 probation of the Court, and announced that the Committee would 
 consist of Judge Edmonds, D. E. Wheeler, C. O'Conor, W. C. 
 Noyes and J. R. Whiting, Esqrs. 
 
 The Court was then adjourned for the day. Judge Cowles an- 
 nounced that a cause then on trial would be resumed in the morning. 
 
 The Oyer and Terminer did not adjourn, in consequence of the 
 important trial of Alderman Herrick, 
 
COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER. 
 
 HON. JUDGE ROOSEVELT PRESIDING. 
 
 When the Jury retired in the case of the People against Alder- 
 man Herrick, about 6 o'clock, the District Attorney rose and 
 said : — May it please your Honor — Since the last adjournment of 
 this Honorable Court, the Supreme Ruler of the universe, who 
 varies the business of men, however they may plan or intend it, 
 has for the second time in this year of grace interrupted the pro- 
 ceedings of this Court by the hand of His messenger of death. 
 Since yesterday Robert H. Morris has surveyed the transitory 
 things of this life — in which he may never again share — from the 
 world of spirits. It was but a short time ago, in the course of the 
 arguments in this very case, he sat by your Honor's side. Now, 
 he is gone and yonder is his vacant chair. It rather becomes my 
 associates in this case, who knew him longer than I, to speak of 
 the industrious magistrate, the faithful friend and the upright man. 
 But it has been deemed appropriate, that as the officer of this 
 Court, leading its business from day to day, I should move that 
 from respect to the memory of the deceased, and in reverent re- 
 cognition of the mysterious Providence who bereaves the City, the 
 Profession and the Bench, this Court, when it adjourns, do adjourn 
 its business over Friday and Saturday, and until Monday, at 10 
 o'clock, and that the cause of adjournment be noted upon the minutes. 
 
 Mr. Whiting rose to second the motion and said : — I shall not, 
 in seconding the motion of my learned friend, indulge in extended 
 remarks. These more properly belong to the meeting of the Bar 
 which has been called for Satui day morning. It was my fortune 
 to know the late Judge Morris well. I would sum his memory 
 in a few sentences — he had a heart of whose friendship all might 
 be proud. Let us mourn him as gone " where the wicked cease 
 from troubling, and the weary are at rest." I second the motion 
 that this Court adjourn to Monday next. 
 
 The Court said that the two successive and sudden deaths which 
 had taken place within the last twelve months amongst the Judges 
 of the Supreme Court, ought to admonish the remaining members 
 of the Bench of the vanity of human events. Such events should 
 admonish them all of the necessity of cultivating toward each 
 other sentiments of kindness, charity and forgiveness : for who 
 
10 
 
 amongst them did not err ? I take the lesson afforded me to my 
 own heart. I am now the oldest member of the Supreme Court, 
 and I feel the bereavement keenly from its taking my associate, as 
 has been observed, from my very side. For the last time I met 
 him in this Court Room. Small, indeed, appear the petty things 
 of this life when we have such warnings. We are here to-day, 
 and to-morrow we are cut down like the grass of the field, and I 
 trust we will all lay these things to heart. I accept the motion, 
 and order (she proposed adjournment. 
 
 MARINE COURT. 
 
 BEFORE HOX. JUDGE BIRDS.UJ,. 
 
 Mr. Holmes said : — May it please the Court, I rise in response to 
 a request made by many of the members of the profession who 
 now surround me, to move the adjournment of this Court. I have 
 heard, with feelings of the most poignant grief, that Justice Mor- 
 ris, of our Supreme Court, died yesterday. To the young mem- 
 bers of the Bar these are truly heavy tidings, and this is, indeed, 
 a bereavement. They have lost a kind friend, a gentle exemplar 
 and an upright judicial officer — one who looked upon their mis- 
 takes without severity, and whose reproofs for faults were so gentle 
 that even his admonition endeared him the more to them. To his 
 equals he was affable and kind — in his judicial career faithful and 
 honest — in his political life pure and conscientious — in private 
 life, just, courteous and deeply beloved, and in all a bright orna- 
 ment to society. When the hand of death was stretched forth and 
 stripped from his shoulders the judicial ermine, it was found to be 
 as spotless as when a discerning people placed it there. Let us 
 show by a suspension of the business of this Court that we feel 
 the blow which has been struck through the fiat of an all-wise 
 Providence. I, therefore, move that the Court stand adjourned 
 until to-morrow morning, at 10 o'clock. 
 
 Mr. Van Winkle seconded the motion, in a few touching re- 
 marks, when 
 
 Judge Birdsall ordered the Court to stand adjourned to the day 
 and hour named. 
 
 The Common Pleas and other Courts were not in Session. 
 
11 
 
 Pelting of tlje |enc^ anir t|e iar 
 
 SUPREME COURT — GENERAL TERM. 
 
 BWmmMMMB 
 
 Hon. EX-JUDGE EDMONDS, CHAS. O'CONOR, Esq, 
 
 "WILLIAM CURTIS NOYES, Esq , EX-RECORDER 
 
 TILLOU, and JAMES R. WHITING, Esq. 
 
 The members of the Judiciary and of tlie Legal Profession, 
 assembled in the General Teim Room of the Supreme Court, 
 on Saturday, 27th October, 1855, to pay their tribute of respect 
 to the memory of their departed friend and brother, Robert H. 
 Morris, one of the Justices of this Court. The bench, windows 
 and doors, were draped in mourning, and the chair, on which the 
 late lamented Judge sat within the present week, was appropriately 
 enveloped in crape, and was the only vacant seat in the room. 
 The meeting was the largest we have seen on any similar occasion, 
 which have been, alas I too frequent in this city within the last 
 few years ; during which brief period the Bench and the Bar have 
 lost, by sudden death and by the perils of the sea, some of their 
 brightest luminaries and most favored members Amongst the 
 recent dead, we may name Judge Sandford, Judge Paine, District 
 Attorney Blunt, Chief Justice Jones, Edward Sandford and Mr. 
 Woodruff (lost in the Arctic), Judge Edwards, and Henry S. 
 Dodge. 
 
 At the present meeting, we noticed Judges Mitchell, Roosevelt, 
 Clerke, and Cowles, associates of the late Judge Morris, Chief 
 Justice Oakley, Judges Duer, Woodruff, Bosworth, Slosson, 
 
12 
 
 Campbell, Ingraham, I>dly, Kecorder Smitb, ex-Reeorders Tall- 
 madge and Tillou, the Attorney General, (Hon. Ogden Hoffman.) 
 ex-Judge Edmonds, the United States District Attorne}', (Hon. 
 John McKeon,) United States Comnii^isioners, Mortoa aad Betts, 
 the Surrogate, the Corporation Counsel!, and very many of tJie most 
 eminent as welt as the most winpretending members of the profession. 
 
 Judge Ednionds : — In order t& organise this ii»eeting,. I, on be- 
 half of the Committee of Arrangements, propose bis Honor, 
 Judge Mitchell, as the President of the meeting. 
 
 The nomination was unanimou'sly ratified, and Jradge Mitchell 
 took the Chair 
 
 On motion of Wm Curtis Noye«, Esrg., tlie Judge-s of th^ Su- 
 preme Court, the Superior Court and tl>e Coort of Coraiiwn Pleas 
 and the Recorder and Surrogate of the City were appointed Yice 
 Presidents. 
 
 On motion of Mr. D. E. Wheeler, fswmerly law-partner of the 
 late Judge, Messrs. R. J. Dillon, Corporation Counsel, awA E. L. 
 I'ancher were appointed Secretaries. 
 
 Ex Judge Edmonds on behalf of the Comiaittee a>ppoii'ited by 
 3he Court on Thursday last, ofleied the following resolutions : — 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Jastice Morris the Bench 
 and the Bar have lost ain estimable friend and a valuable com- 
 panion aind fellow-labo-rer in. the administration of justice, who was 
 endeared to them by the strict integrity, the unifonii. kiadsess of 
 feeling and st-^rling good sense which, marked his whole life. 
 
 Resolved, That in the name borne by oar departed friead, and 
 in the blood which flowed in his veins, we reeogniie the presence 
 of the spirit of the RevolutioD, to which he was ever true, and 
 v^iich, in our day, in his person, as in forn!.er tim.es in his ances- 
 tors, was .firm, bat unobtrmsive — gentle, yet lanyieldiiag in ite de- 
 fence of the liberty of man. 
 
 Resolved, That m every position of life, as a lawyer and a 
 legislator, as an executive- or administrative officer, in. private and 
 on the Bench, he whose loss v/e now deplore, was distinguished 
 for his inflexible uprightaess of puipose and the fearlessness with 
 which, on all occasions, he acted up to his eonvietious of what was 
 right ; yielding never to importunity what he oaght to deny to a 
 isense of jiistice, utterly regardless of popular clamor when swayed 
 by passion or prejudice, and evincing ever a readiness to sacritice 
 himself for the sake of that which he deenaed to be ricbt. 
 
13 
 
 Resolved, That in lii.s career on the Bench wc evci- ohscrved 
 the predominance of that goodness of heart, integrity of purpose, 
 courtesy of demeanor, which, while they endeared him to us, and 
 now add to the pang inflicted upon us by his departure, yet stand 
 out before us as an example for our imitation. 
 
 Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his widow and his 
 friends in their and our bereavement ; that these resolutions be 
 communicated to them by the officers of this meeting, and that the 
 Supreme Court be requested to enter them at large upon their 
 minutes. 
 
 The resolutions were seconded by Chas. O'Conor, Esq. 
 
 In presenting the resolutions Judge Edmonds said ; — 
 
 If your Honor pleases — -I ought not to ask 
 this assembhige, inteUigeiit, educated, acute, as it 
 is, to adopt resolutions like these in memory of 
 one who has occupied so conspicuous a position 
 among us, without saying some few words in re- 
 gard to them. It is now, Sir, about thirty-live 
 years since sitting in an office as a clerk, pursuing 
 my studies, in connection with a few others 
 younger than myself, I one day saw enter a young 
 man, somewhat rustic in his appearance, shy and 
 timid in manner, hobbling upon crutches, and 
 plainly clad. It was the first time I hacT cv er seen 
 him. My compassion was excited,, for I thought 
 that he was a beggar. Sir, that young man ivas 
 the future Mr. Justice Morris entering that office 
 as a fellow clerk with me. I continued with him 
 there till my own admission to the Bar. After my 
 admission he continued with me as a clerk, and on 
 
14 
 
 his admission he and I together formed a connec- 
 tion in the practice. We were together but a 
 short time, when he received from the powerful 
 family of the Livingstons an invitation to remove 
 to the manor and take charge of their business. 
 He accordingly left the Countv town and retired 
 to the interioi-, where for some years he was en- 
 gaged in practice, and there actually began his 
 professional career. 
 
 For a period of four years prior to that time, I 
 had formed with him ties of intimacy and of 
 friendship, which I rejoice to say have never — 
 whatever the waywardness of my own temper — • 
 been shadowed by a single cloud, so uniform has 
 been his kindness of heart, so generous, and noble 
 and true has been his affection. And for a period 
 of thirty-five years my regard for our departed 
 l)rc)ther has never for one moment been clouded 
 by aught of suspicion or of alienation. He was 
 always, Sir, of a generous and liberal spirit, and 
 wherever he went, that spirit manifested itself. 
 He was ever exceedingly affectionate in his temper, 
 and that afiection ever produced its effect through- 
 out the whole of his life. My own children. Sir, 
 young as they then were, now parents themselves, 
 are mourning over his loss with a strong recollection 
 
15 
 
 of the kindness which bound them to him in tlieir 
 infancy. 
 
 That same kindness of heart, Sir, followed him 
 through his profession in the comparatively un- 
 settled parts of the County where he began his 
 career, and where he became a politician as well 
 as a lawyer : and although in a section of country 
 where the political power was immensely strong 
 against him, he was oyer and oyer again — owing 
 to his personal po})ularity with those who knew 
 him best — able to achieve position and power. 
 
 But it was not long before he discovered that 
 his mind outgrew the position in which he was ; 
 and he accordingly, in 1828, removed to this City, 
 and here, from that time to this, he has resided. 
 I found him, when I came here a few years after- 
 wards, extensively engaged in practice. I need 
 not, to those who surround me on this occasion, 
 and who knew him even Ijetter in his professional 
 career in this City than I did, speak of that ca- 
 reer. I need not speak of his action on the Bench 
 in the Court of Sessions, or of his administrative 
 career as the Chief Magistrate of this City after- 
 wards, in the executive office which he subse- 
 quently filled under the General Administration, 
 or even of his action in the Constitutional Conven- 
 
16 
 
 tion which amended our fundamental law. These 
 are matters known to those who hear me as well 
 as — and perhaps to many of them better than — 
 myself. But I may be permitted to speak of him 
 one moment as a Judge while I was associated 
 with him on the Bench. I speak not of his ap- 
 pearance to the world as a Judge, for there I 
 knew but little of him in comparison with most 
 who hear me. But it is of the trying scenes of 
 the consultation room that I would speak. And 
 those of us who have assembled on such occasions, 
 know how often the heart and the temper are tried 
 to the very core by the scenes there occurring. 
 We, Sir, who have met our departed brother un- 
 der such circumstances know full well that his 
 temper was never disturbed, that his courtesy of 
 demeanor never swerved from the uniform " even 
 tenor of its way," and that even there, amid the 
 stormy discussions which necessarily would arise, 
 that generosity and liberality of heart which mark- 
 ed his whole life was ever conspicuous. 
 
 Early in life he met wdth an accident, under 
 which his health ever afterwards suffered. When 
 I first knew him — as I have already remarked — 
 he could move only with the assistance of crutches. 
 He afterwards became better, but yet that lame- 
 
17 
 
 ness continued during life, and was in very many 
 respects a source of unhappiness and uneasiness 
 to him, for it denied him the advantage of an edu- 
 cation, such as so many of his friends have been 
 able to achieve. It denied to him the privileges 
 of that hard study which is so necessary at the 
 Bar and at the Bench. It also forbade that inde- 
 fatigable industry in the library which, with his 
 natural capacity, would surely have enabled him to 
 attain the very highest eminence in our profession, 
 either at the Bar or on the Bench. And yet, Sir, 
 the talent which was in the man by nature, the 
 great vein of good sense which characterized his 
 whole life, the inimitable tact which alwaj's taught 
 him what was proper to do on an}- emergency, 
 sustained and elevated him in all contingencies, 
 enabled him to overcome all these difficulties, and 
 to attain the exalted position which he held at the 
 time of his death. 
 
 Sir, it is unnecessary for me here to speak more 
 at large, for his merits are as well known to you 
 — and to this large assemblage around — as to me. 
 Yet there was one attribute of his character on 
 which I may be allowed to say yet one word. It 
 was an attribute which-^now when popular preju- 
 dice is even invading the sanctity of the Bench, 
 
18 
 
 and party passions are measuring aspirants for 
 judicial station, by their readiness to pursue a par- 
 ticular line of decision — will be regarded as of in- 
 finite value. It was an attribute which distin- 
 guished him throughout his whole life, that of not 
 fearing to speak what he thought, and to do what 
 he deemed ivas right. No clamor, no opprobrium, 
 no noise, no importunity, could disturb him in the 
 firm attitude with which he always marched up to 
 what was right. And, .Sir, surrounded as we are, 
 we know how to value a quality like that. 
 
 To those of us who knew him well, no eulogy 
 can be necessary, but to those who knew him not, 
 we may safely say— 
 
 " £et tijc fttttire write l)ig epitapl)." 
 
 Mr. CHARLES O'OONOR next arose and 
 said — 
 
 Mr. President : — It was my good fortune to 
 enjoy, during nearly as many years as were named 
 by the honorable gentleman who has preceded 
 me, relations of intimate friendship with Judge 
 Morris. For a brief space, but in a very impor- 
 tant branch of public duty, I had the honor of an 
 official connection with him. / loved and respect- 
 ed him, and therefore avail myself of this occa- 
 
19 
 
 sion to add my mite to the tribute now l^eiiig paid 
 to his memory l)y his professional brethren. 
 
 If association by descent, and consanguinity with 
 names illustrious in the history of our country l^y 
 eminent position, great personal virtue and valua- 
 ble public services, can confer distinction ; Judge 
 MoRRTS might well have carried himself whilst 
 among us, with a far loftier port than he was ever 
 known to assume. It is truly indicated in one of 
 the resolutions submitted to this meeting,, that the 
 names and deeds of his ancestors form an impor- 
 tant part of th(3 annals of our country, and are 
 intimately connected with the rise, progress and 
 establishment of our most cherished principles, 
 and our most valued and valuable institutions. In 
 this remark, and any other which may fall from 
 me, let it be understood that I intend not to ad- 
 vocate any opinion, but expressly to withhold 
 even my own, in respect to any question of party- 
 politics which may have been involved in the acts 
 to which I shall refer, or connected with the emi- 
 nent person whose ioss we deplore. On occasions 
 of this kind, no judgment should be pronounced 
 on the merits of any controversy in which the 
 active life of the deceased may have been en- 
 gaged ; for whatever may be our own opinions. 
 
20 
 
 we can always admire high quaUties, and pay re- 
 spect to virtue and constancy in advocating and 
 sustaining those of an opposite description. 
 
 The family of Judge Morris, in the parent state, 
 was distinguished for its hostility to kingly power, 
 and for its firm attachment to those republican 
 principles on which our government is based, and 
 to which, in one form or other, his countrymen 
 without exception, profess to adhere. Mihtary 
 service, rendered to the Protectorate of Cromwell 
 against the Crown, compelled the emigration of 
 his ancestor, Richard Morris, who settled at Mor- 
 risania, in the County of Westchester, about 1670. 
 From him descended a race remarkable for their 
 uniform firmness and fidelity in maintaining the 
 very principles to which his life was devoted, and 
 for which he cheerfully submitted to exile. 
 
 Judge Morris was the third of his family who 
 presided in the Supreme Court. His great-grand- 
 father, Lewis Morris, was Chief Justice of the 
 Province. On the resignation of John Jay, first 
 Chief Justice of the State of New- York, Richard 
 Morris, the grandfather of our lamented friend, 
 succeeded him in that high office. His grand- 
 uncle, Lewis Morris, rendered important service 
 during the struggle which gave birth to this re- 
 
21 
 
 publk*, a>s ;i Brioadicr Goiieral in the Continental 
 Army, and gave innnortality to his name by affix- 
 ing it to the DecUu-ation of Independence. He 
 was a member of the Continental Congress of 
 "70, — that "assemblage of rational men who first 
 declared the immutal)le principles of justice, and 
 consecrated in deliance of a tyrant the rights of 
 nations." Robert Morris, the father of Judge 
 Morris, took uj) arms in support of that declara- 
 tion at the age of nineteen years, and served until 
 its triumphant establishment in '83. His collate- 
 ral kinsmen were equally distinguished for patrio- 
 tism and services with his immediate ancestors. 
 His grand-uncle, Gouverneur Morris — ^world re- 
 nowned for wit and scholarship — was the principal 
 draftsman of that revered instrument, the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, " the ark of our po- 
 litical safety — the hope of nations yet lingering in 
 political bondage.'' 
 
 Of this honorable stock was Robert H. Morris, 
 and in every act of his life, his character shone out 
 in harmon}' with these antecedents. It was emi- 
 nently a life of struggle — misfortune assailed him 
 whilst yet in his cradle, and failed not to try his 
 spirit full often in after years — yet was he emi- 
 nently successful. To those who have to follow 
 
22 
 
 him and are now beginning the struggle of life, he 
 has left a bright example. In what he achieved, 
 notwithstanding difficulties apparently insur- 
 mountable, in the triumph of this hour, when the 
 Bench and the Bar of his country unite to honor 
 his memory, in this his ultimate success ; it is 
 shown, for the encouragement of the younger 
 members of our profession, that to a fair degree 
 of manly and persevering effort, accompanied by 
 integrity, success, by the bounty of Omnipotence, 
 is always vouchsafed. At the age of four 3^ears 
 Robert H. Morris suffered an accidental injury, 
 which produced permanent lameness. This was 
 to him a terrible misfortune. The sports of child- 
 hood and of youth were denied him. When he 
 attained manhood, the active exercise demanded 
 by his vigorous frame, was also denied him— that 
 exercise which would have been rewarded with 
 high health and its numerous enjoyments — which 
 would have enabled his large brain the better to 
 perform its important functions. These disadvan- 
 tages which would have overcome any ordinary 
 man, to Robert H. Morris only increased life's 
 burthens and diminished its enjoyments. His re- 
 solute temper and unconquerable industry never- 
 theless sustained him to the accomplishment of all 
 
23 
 
 his undertakings ; and few men in the course of a 
 long and prosperous Ufe have effected so much. 
 His parents deemed him incapacitated to pursue 
 any laborious occupation. In none is the sound 
 body accompanying the sound mind more needed 
 than in our own, and nothing could have seemed 
 less practicable in their eyes than that Robert 
 could ever become a lawyer. But Providence 
 had otherwise decreed. Whilst attending school 
 at Hudson, in the County of Columbia, he was led 
 by curiosity to visit the Court-House, and for the 
 first time witnessed one of those dramas of real 
 life, in which he was one day to play so leading 
 a part. An important jury case was on trial, and 
 the first tones that caught his ear were those of 
 Elisha Williams, who was then in the zenith of 
 his power. That matchless orator, at first, at- 
 tracted attention only ; gradually he won upon the 
 youth ; pleasure deepened into delight ; until at 
 length the fire of emulation was kindled, which 
 thenceforth burned on through all the trials of 
 life. Scarcely had the speaker's deep voice ceased 
 from its work of fascination, when the young- 
 auditor's resolve was taken. He hastened to his 
 parents and declared his unalterable determina- 
 tion, in despite of all obstacles, to become a law- 
 
24 
 
 yer. How he entered upon his studies and his 
 career in its earher stages, have been well de- 
 scribed by his friend Judge Edmonds. Within 
 three or four years after his return to New- York, 
 his native City, he had becone an universal fa- 
 vorite with the Bench and the Bar, His great 
 popularity drew hini into political life ; twice or 
 thrice he was elected to the Legislature. Here 
 his influence became more extended. The annu- 
 ally chosen select-men of the interior, and the 
 permanent officials of the Capitol, alike admired 
 and respected him. At the house of the Hon. 
 Wm, L. Marcy, then Governor of the State, he 
 first met the lady who became his companion in 
 life, and who this day bewails his death as a loss 
 to her irreparable. Promoted to the Recordership 
 of Xew-York, Judge Morris became Presiding 
 Magistrate in the department of criminal justice 
 in this City. Whilst he occupied this post a col- 
 lision of opinion arose between himself and the 
 Governor. The contestants were of opposite po- 
 litical sentiments. The affair eventuated in a 
 summary removal, without trial, for, at the worst, 
 a very venial trespass, that is to say, being in 
 the judgment of a political opponent, deemed 
 over zealous in endeavoring to detect a political 
 
25 
 
 crime, whose pei'petratioii tended to injure tlie pnr- 
 ty of the Judge, and to benefit that of the Gover- 
 nor. The merits of that dispute are not now to 
 be discussed. I impeach no man's motives. But 
 I confess myself too much of a conservative to 
 approve the laying of violent hands upon the judi- 
 ciary, except under circumstances rendering it im- 
 periously necessa]'y. This was one of the mai'ked 
 events of Judge Morris' life. It was soon followed 
 by a strong manifestation of populai' confidence. 
 He was elected by the people to the Mayoralty of 
 this City ; he was again, and yet a third time, 
 elected by a vast majority. Ilis removal did not 
 meet the approbation of the peo])le. as appears not 
 only by these facts ; but in 184(), when a new Con- 
 stitution was formed, the very poiver to make such 
 a removal ivas abolished forever ! It is a curious 
 coincidence that Leivis Morris, the hrst Chief Jus- 
 tice, had a similar controversy with the Colonial 
 Executive, which terminated, says Bolton's History 
 of Westchester, in his removal, after having served 
 " unimpeachably for twenty years.'' A remark- 
 able letter to (lovernor Cosby, written on that 
 occasion by the Chief Justice, evinces the same 
 sturdy mdependence which marked the conduct 
 of his great-grandson under like circumstances. 
 
Among other things, he wrote ay follows: — ^" I 
 "am heartily sorry, Sir, for yom- own sake, as 
 "well as that of the public, that the King's re- 
 " presentative should be moved to so great a de- 
 " gree of warmth, which, 1 think, could proceed 
 "from no other reason, but my giving an opinion 
 "in a Court, of which I was the judge, upon a 
 "point of law that came before me, and in 
 " which I might be, innocently enough, mistaken ; 
 " (though I think I am not ;) for judges are no 
 "more infallible than their superiors are impecca- 
 " ble. But if judges are to be intimidated so as 
 "not to dare to give any opinion, but what is 
 "pleasing to a governor, and agreeable to his 
 "private views, the people of this province, who 
 "are very much concerned, both with respect to 
 "their lives and fortunes, in the freedom and in- 
 " dependency of those who are to judge of them, 
 " may possibly not thhik themselves so secure in 
 "either of them, as the laws and his Majesty in- 
 " tend they should be." 
 
 We thus see in the ancestor and the descendant'^" 
 the same defiance of arbitrary power, the same 
 fearless performance of duty, the same firm vindi- 
 cation of motive. 
 
 Public favor spontaneously followed Judge 
 
 * For Recorder MoRKis' Letter to Govenor Seward, see .\ppendix. 
 
27 
 
 Morris through life. He represented this City in 
 the Convention which formed the present organic 
 law of the State. Here it was my pleasure to be 
 his associate, and whilst his votes bear witness to 
 a singular accuracy in perceiving the popular will, 
 and a truly republican fidelity in conforming to it, 
 his whole course in life proves that the coinci- 
 dence arose from principle, not servility. I have 
 never known a man more resolute and self-willed 
 in adhering to the conclusions which his own re- 
 flections had led him to adopt. He conformed to 
 the spirit of the times, because his opinions were 
 trul}^ American, and his every pulse-beat was in 
 sympathy with his country. 
 
 Judge Morris' health had been gradually un- 
 dermined by the consequences of his early misfor- 
 tune, and though his labors were extensive, ardu- 
 ous and valuable since his election to the Bench of 
 this Court, that may, perhaps, be regarded as the 
 least active portion of his public life. On the 
 Bench he sustained the same relations to his 
 brethren of the Bar which had marked him whilst 
 in then' ranks. Those relations I need not at- 
 tempt to describe. They were the genuine off- 
 spring of a most happy temperament. For my- 
 self I can say that rarely have I derived as much 
 
28 
 
 pleasure from association with any individual. 
 Nearly equal in age and experience at the Bar, we 
 were frequently placed in the attitude of competi- 
 tion for forensic success. Such contests are trying 
 to the passions, and very liable to produce irrita- 
 tion, yet never, in a single instance, were the ame- 
 nities of professional intercourse disturbed or sus- 
 pended between us. His demeanor was ever 
 courteous ; his manners were ever amiable and con- 
 ciliatory ; it was, indeed, impossible to avoid re- 
 ciprocating the kind feelings which marked his 
 every word and action. In him the solid, sub- 
 stantial common sense, which it is the fashion to 
 call Saxon, seemed to be happily commingled with 
 the spirit, the vivacity, the readiness and the exci- 
 tability belonging to his Welsh Ancestry. Al- 
 though ever ready to meet, and coolly to respond 
 to a forensic attack, and, if necessary, to "carry 
 the war into Africa," he used no weapons but those 
 which civilized warfare allows. He never used 
 one that left a rankling wound, consequently 
 neither on the Bench nor at the Bar has he left an 
 enemy. 
 
 Judge Morris' talents were not of an order 
 more calculated to please the common than the 
 cultivated mind. What made Robert H. Morris a 
 
29 
 
 lawyer ? It was admiration for the most eloquent 
 lawyer whom the State of New- York has ever 
 produced. His temperament was not that of an 
 imitator, yet, in connection with this known cir- 
 cumstauce in his life, I will advert to a fact as in- 
 dicating the character of his mind. I well remem- 
 ber an occasion whilst he was a leader at our Bar, 
 on which a strong testimony was given of his 
 abilities. Mr. Morris addressed a jury for several 
 houi's, in a case of great importance, then on trial 
 in the Superior Court. The presiding Judge, who 
 had been an intimate friend of Elisha Williams, 
 listened throughout the argument with marked 
 attention, and at its close, stated that Mi-. Morris" 
 tone, manner, diction and arrangement at once 
 easy, natural, persuasive and forcible, had so 
 strongly reminded him of Elisha Williams, that he 
 had been occasionally under an illusion. His 
 fancy depicted the great orator recalled from the 
 shades of death and speaking before him. That 
 Judge still lives and this day honors us with his 
 presence. Perhaps I should not name him. I 
 will say this, however. He is one whose compe- 
 tency to form an accurate opinion none will dis- 
 pute, and who has always been too rigid a lover of 
 truth to pay an unmerited compliment. Let this 
 
j^-_ 
 
 30 
 
 suffice to vindicate the name and feme of Robert 
 H. Morris as a lawyer and as an advocate. 
 
 It is, perhaps, not generally known, that our pre- 
 sent admirable Police system owes its existence 
 to Judge Morris. It was he who, foreseeing the 
 rapid growth of our City, called into council a 
 number of our wealthiest and most influential citi- 
 zens, and first securing their approval and support, 
 framed the law, and carried it through the Legisla- 
 ture by his active advocacy. But I feel that I have 
 trespassed too far upon 3^our time, and should not, 
 in my zeal to applaud, in the indulgence of my ad- 
 miration, or the expression of my grief, engross 
 too much of your attention. I am not his only 
 friend, and others are here, willing and desirous 
 to testify their sense of this great public and pri- 
 vate loss. I will, however, say one thing more : 
 from his bereaved companion I have a note re- 
 questing me to state a fact of deep and solemn 
 interest. Judge Morris died as good men should 
 wish to die — " in the faith of his Maker, in the as- 
 sured hope of a blessed resurrection, and in chari- 
 ty with all mankind." 
 
31 
 
 WM. CURTIS NOYES, Esq. next took the 
 llooi" and said — 
 
 It is (]uite fitting, Mr. President, that the mem- 
 bers of a profession, whose appropriate office it is 
 to aid in the administration of justice, should meet 
 on such occasions as this on which we are now 
 assembled, to show their sense of the merits of 
 their departed brethren. 
 
 We find ample proof of this, in recalling the 
 noble list of those who have more recently — some 
 of them in the spring-time of their lives — ^gone 
 from among us. Among these is Ogden, as a con- 
 stitutional lawyer, with only a single superior ; 
 Graham, as a complete criminal lawyer and elo- 
 quent advocate, almost without a parallel ; Sand- 
 ford, as a 3^outhful Vice-Chancellor and Judge, the 
 imitator and promised rival of Lord Eldon ; Blunt, 
 generous as a man, and accomplished in some de- 
 partments of our profession, beyond any of his 
 brethren : Jones, as Chancellor, as Chief Justice 
 of the Superior Court and as a Judge of the 
 Supreme Court and of the Court of Appeals, in 
 A^ariety and profundity of learning, without a com- 
 peer ; Edward Sandford, unrivalled for industry 
 and legal research, whose professional aml)ition 
 was as large as the deep Atlantic, where his re- 
 
-ffi 
 
 32 
 
 mains rest for ever ; Woodruff, who shared his 
 unhappy fate, and who united a feminine dehcacy 
 with Doric integrity of character worthy of general 
 imitation; Edwards, the very "Bayard" of a Judge, 
 " without fear and without repi'oach ;" and last, 
 and saddest, but not the least — thovigh he died 
 very young — Henry S. Dodge, ''the admirable 
 Crichton" of our profession. These, Sir, are some 
 of the jewels in our casket of professional recol- 
 lections ; for as a Bar, we have met in the charac- 
 ter of a family, with the same interest, the siime 
 i"eputation, and the same destiny ; and although 
 rivalries sometimes distract or alienate us, jet, on 
 such occasions as this, thev are and must be, all 
 
 And now, Sir, another is added to the melan- 
 choly list. He whose loss we now moimi,. was 
 conspicuous in this community for more titan a 
 quarter of a century. At the Bar, in the strife of 
 Politics, in our Legislative Halls, as Mayor of the 
 City and Postmaster, as twice on the Judicial 
 Bench, he attracted public obseryation in an emi- 
 nent degree. This cannot be done without merit, 
 or in the absence of ability ; and this was pos- 
 sessed by him in no common measure. We shall' 
 remembei" him, Sir, and we shalli cherish his 
 
33 
 
 memory, because of his good sense and his profound 
 knowledge of men. This learning, which, for prac- 
 tical purposes, is far better than that of books, he 
 possessed in a great degree. We shall remember 
 him, too, for the sound judgment which character- 
 ized his private as well as his judicial opinions ; 
 for the kindness and urbanity which he invariably 
 displayed on the Bench, and elsewhere, especially 
 toward the younger members of the profession ; 
 for the easy familiarity and correctness with which 
 he discharged the duties particularly of a Nisi 
 Prius Judge ; and for the clearness with which he 
 committed a cause to a Jury, and directed their 
 investigations in quest of truth. He rarely failed 
 in cases of this description, and I do not recollect 
 a single instance in which a Jury, under his instruc- 
 tions, disagreed. We shall remember him, too, for 
 his uniform generosity, for his noble unselfishness, 
 and for that enlarged philanthropy, which embraced 
 all men and all conditions, and which made him so 
 great a favorite, that whenever he became a candi- 
 date for popular distinction, he always distanced all 
 competitors. This trait in his character was noblv 
 exemplified, as some of your Honors will remem- 
 ber, in his able and energetic, but gratuitous ef- 
 forts, in behalf of the two homicides, Clark and 
 
!4 
 
 Sullivan, and in the great exertions which he made 
 to procure their pardon, after what he deemed 
 and what — I am sorry to say — a good many of our 
 profession deemed, an illegal conviction. Selfish- 
 ness had no home in his composition, and all who 
 came within the sphere of his influence, knew and 
 appreciated it. Elevated to the Bench of the Su- 
 preme Court, he discharged the duties of the of- 
 fice, notwithstanding feeble and failing health, and 
 under circumstances, in which no less an ener- 
 getic spirit than his, could have sustained him at 
 all. He discharged those duties with industry, 
 with unquestioned probity, and has left many 
 judgments, which show the vigor of his mind, and 
 the accuracy of his legal knowledge. We may 
 differ with regard to one great act of his life 
 while Recorder- — one which brought him more 
 conspicuousl}^ betbre the public than any other, 
 and which has been alluded to here to day. Gen- 
 tlemen, who express themselves here, are, of course, 
 responsible for their own opinions. If I were 
 called upon to speak upon that subject, I should 
 differ with the learned gentleman who has preceded 
 me, in respect to any censure being applicable to 
 the Chief Magistrate who acted upon that occa- 
 sion. But, in reference to that act, I can say, with 
 
35 
 
 the sincerity of a perfect conviction, that the in- 
 dividual whose loss we now deplore, acted consiaeii- 
 tiously, believing that he was right ; nevertheless, 
 1 have always believed, and still believe, he was 
 wrong. That, however, has passed away. It left 
 no stain upon his character ; integrity of purpose 
 was accorded to him, and it perhaps, rather 
 elevated him in the common regard, especially 
 with his own partizans, because it proved that 
 when he believed he was right, he went forward, 
 regardless of consequences. That was one gi'eat 
 characteristic of the man. 
 
 As an acquaintance and a friend of Judge Mor- 
 ris, of many, many years, a friendship com- 
 menced and cemented in the country when we 
 were both young ; one, whom he was the hrst to 
 welcome, socially and professionally, when, a 
 stranger, he became a member of this Bar, and 
 found himself in solitude, although surromided by 
 multitudes — a kindness which he can never for- 
 get — I offer this tribute to th-e memory of Mr. 
 Justice Morris, 
 
at; 
 
 Ex-Recorder TILLOU then arose and said — 
 Mr. President :• — 1 cannot resist the mourn- 
 ful satisfaction of saying a few words in commen- 
 dation of the deceased. It was my lot, Sir, to 
 have not only professional, but official relations 
 with Judge Morris in years past. Those official 
 relations were at a period in the municipal history 
 of our City, which w^as then, has since been, and 
 still is, regarded as a very interesting one. By 
 professional relations, I had long previously be- 
 come intimate with Judge Morris, and I have had 
 further relations with him in those public stations 
 which he has occupied since being Mayor of this 
 City. Our acquaintance, therefore, may be said 
 to have extended over five and twenty years, and 
 it is due to his memory to say, that from all the 
 knowledge I thus acquired of the man, I believe 
 all that has been said in commendation of him, is 
 strictly true. He was not only an efficient officer, 
 but he was endowed with true benevolence. 
 From my observation of him, I always thought 
 that he was distinguished, not only for his fidelity 
 as a lawyer and advocate, but for the beneficence 
 which marked all his actions. He seemed to de- 
 light most in protecting the helpless against the 
 strong, in guiding the unintelligent, in consoling 
 
37 
 
 the aillicted, and in establishing and guarding 
 the rights of those who seemed to be aban- 
 doned by others. Misfortune not only always 
 met with respect from him, but received effi- 
 cient assistance. He united as many useful 
 and excellent qualities as a lawyer, as any man 
 you could point to ; he was not only faithful, de- 
 voted and industrious, but he was zealous, and 
 when he sincerely believed his cause was right, 
 there was no limit to his exertions, but the limit 
 of his utmost ability. 
 
 But, Sir, it was as Mayor of this City that I 
 knew him most intimately. I happened then to 
 be a member of the Common Council, and had 
 fre(|uent, indeed, daily intercourse with him. I 
 can truly say, that if ever a public officer per- 
 formed his duty conscientiously, indefatigably, 
 industriously, devotedly, and with a deep and' 
 abiding sense of true patriotism, Robert H. Mor- 
 ris was that officer. During that year, many cir- 
 cumstances arose, and many eveotS' occurred, 
 which brought him to the test as to what he 
 would do, and what he would not do, and 
 there never was one single occasion, when he 
 was called upon to do his duty, in which he 
 failed to do it. He always did it fearlessly, 
 
38 
 
 energetically, and to the utmost extent of his 
 ability. The annals of that year will tell the 
 story more accurately than my memory will 
 enable me to do. It was an eventful year. It 
 Avas a year in which many important measures 
 were sugg-ested — some of which were adopted — 
 for the reform of tlie evils that were then deemed 
 to exist in this City. It was in that memorable 
 year, that the finances of this City were, for the 
 first time, so managed, as that the burthen of tax- 
 ation was lessened, and it was to his energies and 
 to his exertions, that it was in a great measure 
 to be attributed. As has been well and truly said 
 by one of the eloquent speakers who have pre- 
 ceded me, it was in that year that Robert H. 
 Morris used his utmost ability to endeavor to im- 
 prove the condition of the Police Department — 
 which, up to that time, had been a subject of 
 general and deserved complaint — and to give to 
 this City a policy and a system, which should enable 
 the life and property of the citizen to be secure, 
 and the laws to be properl}" enforced. In the annals 
 of that year, will be found the plan which he himself 
 suggested ; but he was liberal enough to advo- 
 cate any other plan which was suggested, that 
 had any merit. Often, during that year, have I 
 
39 
 
 sought liini upon official l)uyiuo88, when lie could 
 not be found for some time ; af last, he would 
 be discovered, locked up in one of the uppei- 
 rooms of the Citj^ Hall, tliere, by himself, working 
 industriously and anxiously upon some measure or 
 some document, or some In-anch of his offi(,'ial duty. 
 I doubt whether one single day of that man's exis- 
 tence, during that official term, was spent by him 
 in idleness, oi' neglect of his duty. I never knew 
 him for a moment to evade any thing. I never 
 knew him guilty of a single act of manauivring. 
 I never knew him guilt}^ of an}- thing that might 
 be called, for a moment, a deceitful action. In his 
 official career, he was always trank, candid, open 
 and read}^ to lend all his power to carry out any 
 measure of reform in his department. It always 
 appeared to me, that not only in private, but in 
 official life, he was a model for men to follow. As 
 has been w^ell said, the acts of his relatives and 
 his famil}^ still live in the memory of this nation 
 - — -their actions, their characters and conduct 
 formuig some of the brightest jewels of our his- 
 tory. With all that patrician right — if you 
 please to call it so — to rank and respect, he was 
 modest, unassuming and affiible, and to all, the 
 humblest, as well as the most high, he was dis- 
 
40 
 
 tmguished for the eminent courtesy and kindness 
 of his manners, "Take him, for all in all," perhaps 
 no public man has gone through so long a career, 
 where conflicts and collisions will more or less 
 arise, from their actions in the performance of 
 their duty, and come out with a deservedly 
 greater degree of credit than Robert H. Morris. 
 That he was a true Christian, I always believed ; 
 his conduct showed it. If real charity, if kind- 
 ness of heart, if the exercise of the practical offices 
 of benevolence daily, to the most lowly and un- 
 protected, if devotion to his Maker and his fellow- 
 men — if these constitute the elements of the Chris- 
 tian character — then, indeed, was Robert H. 
 Morris a true Christian. I never heard him 
 avow a principle to which the most fastidious 
 might object. It is, therefore, with satisfaction, 
 that I support the Resolutions which have been 
 offered upon this occasion. 
 
41 
 
 Mu. JAMES R. WHITING then took the 
 floor and said- 
 Mr. CiiAiKMAN : — We have a^ain met hi tlie 
 court of moiirnino-. We are again surrounded 
 with the hahiliments of woe. announcing to us 
 that the shaft of (h:^ath has turned from among 
 the ranks of our ])rofession, and fahen upon the 
 Bench. We have come together to praise and to 
 burv one who was recently enrolled in the ranks 
 of our profession, who, at the time he was stricken 
 down, was in the very midst of his usefulness on 
 the Bench, reminding us that the hand of death 
 may be laid heavily in high places, as well as in 
 low. We have come to speak of one with whom 
 it was our pleasure to associate when at the Bar, 
 and before whom we discharged a pleasurable 
 duty when he presided upon the Bench. 1 l.)e- 
 came acquainted with our late lamented friend — 
 our late professional brother — our still later 
 Judge, who held the even balances without 
 tremulousness — the man, who while in the pro- 
 fession, did his duty and his whole duty, and 
 who, when upon the Bench, performed his duties 
 alike acceptably to suitors and an honest eon- 
 science, and, I trust so truly as to be approved of 
 bv his <ireat ^laker. It was mv fortune. I sav, to 
 
42 
 
 become acquainted with liim about the year 1838, 
 about which period he lirst came to the City of 
 New-Yorlv ; shortl}' before, and in the year 1836, 
 he had been elected a member of the Legishiture 
 of this State. In April, 1838, he was appointed 
 Recorder of the City of JS'ew-York, and succeeded 
 our Richard Riker. He first presided at the May 
 Term of that Court, and in the following June it 
 became my good fortune (if it was so) to receive 
 the appointment of Prosecuting Attorney for this 
 County. I appeared before him on the 4th of 
 June, the day of my appointment. He held the 
 office of Recorder of the City of New-York, un- 
 til the January Term, in 1841, and during that 
 period, in the administration of criminal justice 
 in the City of New-York, I never heard aught 
 against the purity of his character, or the justice 
 of his judgments. I had hoped that there would 
 have been no reference to the scene that occurred 
 in 1831) — a scene that was the result of one of the 
 deei^est laid political plots, to overthrow and de- 
 stroy the purity of the ballot-box of the City of 
 New- York, that ever occurred in this or any other 
 State. And having knowledge of the circumstan- 
 ces connected with that transaction, it appears to 
 me, to be m}^ duty now, or peradventure, I may 
 
43 
 
 never hereafter have another fitting upportnnity 
 to bear testimony to tlie trutliluhiess of pur])08e, 
 and to the lideUtv with which he supposed he was 
 performing a legal and a proper duty upon that oc- 
 casion. I remember well when the information 
 first came to the kn(nvledge of the Kecorder, 
 through Mayor Yarian, who then presided as 
 Chief Magistrate of this City. I remember well 
 when Mayor Yarian, together with his Honor, the 
 Recorder, upon that occasion called on me for 
 legal advice in relation to that transaction. 1 well 
 remember that the infoi-mation received l)y his 
 Honor, the Ma3'or, was reliable ; and I remember 
 well when Recorder Morris made up his mind to 
 accompany Mayor A'"arian to the house of Mr. 
 Pierce ; it was the subject of consultation between 
 themselves. I remember when tlie}^ called upon 
 me on the evening of that night ; it was then sug- 
 gested to me that I should accompany them. I 
 declined, simply askhig what they intended to do 
 at the house of Mr. Pierce. They said they had 
 been given to understand that in calling at the 
 house of Mr. Pierce he would surrender the papers 
 voluntarily. When they left me I did not — and T 
 do not now — believe that they had au}^ intention of 
 assailing the rights secured by law to Mr. Pierce of 
 
44 
 
 entire and perfect protection in his own house. 
 Upon tliat occasion it was alleged against the Recor- 
 der, tliat he had violated the law and invaded the 
 constitutional rights and privileges of Mr. Pierce. 
 The excitement that grew nut of that occasion 
 was purely political, with nothing patriotic about 
 it. The Recorder loved his country ; he loved 
 he]- institutions ; and the last sad resting place on 
 which our future hopes dejDend, is the purity of 
 that ballot-box for which he strove ; and in rela- 
 tion to which, if he committed any error, or his 
 reputation sufl'ered for it, he was nevertheless, 
 the most anxious to support. Sir, at that time, 
 political excitement had gone so far, that men 
 high in office did not hesitate to lend themselves 
 to sacrifice their honor, their conscience, and their 
 duty towards themselves, their fellow-citizens, and 
 their God. But a few days before that transac- 
 tion, a trembling witness entered my office, under 
 the influence of a subpoena, to attend a Grand 
 Jury, and implored to be relieved from the cruel 
 necessity, either of bringing starvation upon him- 
 self and a famishing family, or of walking into 
 THE Grand Jury room and committing a vile, pro- 
 fligate, AND OUTRAGEOUS PERJURY. It wa^ Sup- 
 posed by our lamented brother and his Honor, the 
 
• 45 
 
 Mayor, that the possession of certain written docn- 
 ments would render it unnecessary to drag from 
 the kennel and the gutter the men who had been 
 paid, and whose poverty had yiehled to tempta- 
 tioi]. and save the necessity of phicing those men 
 either in the fearful position of committing ])er- 
 iurv, or of beinc; cast into that long, wide road, 
 that leads to destruction ; by discharge from em- 
 ployment, threatened by men of character, stand- 
 ing, and wealth. And upon that occasion our 
 late and lamented friend, by whose body we now 
 stand, and which we are soon to consign to the 
 tomb — if, I say, he committed an error then in 
 violating private right, or constitutional liberty, 
 he did it m a cause that, sooner or later, will pre- 
 sent the sad spectacle of the utter unfitness of men 
 for self-government. Perhaps a present admiring 
 world may witness a total disregard of our histi- 
 tutions, and an entire neglect of all laws for the 
 preservation of the purity of the ballot-box. As 
 his motive was pure, it will be acceptable in that 
 place whither his spirit has now fled to meet many 
 of the spiiits then inhabiting a tabernacle but of 
 clay, who deemed that life would last forever, and 
 that the last sad reckoning would not come. 
 Many of whom, I say, who were connected in 
 
40 
 
 that transaction have, with him, gone to that 
 judgment to be meted out to them from which 
 there is no appeal, and in relation to which there 
 will be no error. And I say to the memory of 
 that friend of mine, "Blessed are the dead who 
 " die in the performance of their duty, for their 
 " works shall follow them.'' 
 
 That time is coming, and I speak to this large 
 assemblage as a man who has passed the meridian 
 of life, when the severest test of the strength of 
 human beings to sustain a popular and represen- 
 tative form of government is to be made — when, 
 perhaps, within one short week temptation will 
 spread throughout this district, in all its various 
 forms — when men will forget that beautiful por- 
 tion of the prayer which we have all been taught 
 to utter — " Lead us not into temptation." I trust 
 in God, that in this coming contest, at the ballot- 
 box, the services which our departed friend has 
 rendered towards maintaining its purity, will be 
 remembered ; and that every man will place his 
 ballot there upon the responsibility which he 
 owes to his conscience and to his fellow-citizens, 
 unmoved by power, unseduced by favor, and 
 with but a single eye to how he may serve 
 the best and overshadowing interests of his coun- 
 
47 
 
 try ill ])laeiiig upon that J^eiicli those in wlioni 
 the people may trust. 
 
 What is lite ? It is hut the commencement of 
 the race that we are all to run. Our birth is but 
 the starting point and death the goal. Some of us 
 reach the end of the race sooner than others ; and 
 he who retlects properly upon his life needs not to 
 fear death. What is death ? The separation of 
 the soul from the Ijody. Who is it that fears it ? 
 Who is it that is not ready to meet it? We must 
 all meet it, though, perhaps, not so gently and so 
 peacefully as our lamented friend. He met it al- 
 most without premonition. He met it 
 
 " Without a groan or sigh, or gUmce to show — a parting pang." 
 
 Sitting in his chair, in cool and calm conver- 
 sation, the great arbiter of events thought pro- 
 per peacefully and quietly to call him, to himself. 
 Blessed for all of us will it be. if we are prepared 
 to go. The question is one of preparation ; and 
 it strikes me, that when we are gathered together 
 to contemplate a scene like that, it is proper and 
 wholesome and useful to think of our own latter 
 end. The confusion, the turmoil, the strife of our 
 every day life, the excitement naturally flowing 
 from our professional career, often bring us in 
 sharp conflict with each other. We should hus- 
 
48 
 
 IjRiid a spirit of benevolence, a spirit of kindness 
 toward each other, such as would leave us in that 
 condition in which it wei'e better that we should 
 depart, than in a state of angrv controversy. 
 
 I do not intend to dwell upon the various traits 
 of his character which have been alluded to b}- 
 the gentlemen who have already addressed this 
 meeting, but I will say for him, that he had a 
 kind and a noble heart, which knew no guile, and 
 lie had a forgiving spirit. I remember one occa- 
 sion, a day set apart to pass judgment on those 
 who had been convicted during the previous week, 
 and called the sentence day ; Saturday was the 
 dtiy set apart for such purpose ; the Court room 
 was thronged and crowded ; and the convicted 
 culjjrits who were to undergo sentence and punish- 
 ment, were in their box ; from the number a poor, 
 miserable, emaciated female was put into the 
 dock, and asked by the Clerk the usual question, 
 why sentence should not be pronounced against 
 her ; the Judge had his attention called by a gen- 
 tleman then in Court, to a little fellow among the 
 audience, some ten or twelve years old, who, when 
 the woman was placed in the dock, fell from his 
 seat upon his knees, and with upraised arms and 
 clasped hands, seemed breathing forth a prayer to 
 
49 
 
 Him who pardons iniquity. The moment that 
 Judge Morris" attention was called to this affecting 
 scene, the answer was — "Woman, go and sin no 
 MORE."' She departed from the dock, and on 
 her way out of the Court room,, the little fellow^ 
 clasped her by the hand, apparently the only sur- 
 viving friend she had on earth. And will any 
 man tell me that such a response from a Judge 
 upon the Bench on such an occasion, (for, per- 
 haps, some little temporary error,) will not find 
 an echo in Heaven ? 
 
 This was but a single act of many similar 
 which I could mention to the honor of Judge 
 Morris while he was on that Bench ; and al- 
 though a gentleman now living — operated on by 
 political, and, perhaps, not just causes — removed 
 him from the Bench, his reputation did not suffer 
 by such removal. On the contrary it was greatly 
 enhanced, owing to the manner in which such re- 
 moval was effected. A Judge for error of judg- 
 ment should be called to account by his fellow^s 
 only when he is operated upon by improper mo- 
 tives. If his motives are pure, then neither the 
 people nor the Grovernor have the right to inflict 
 so severe a punishment as deprivation of office. 
 Notwithstanding the removal, and in view of all 
 
50 
 
 this, we find our lamented friend elected in 1841, 
 b}' — I had almost said, the unanimous vote of the 
 people, but certainly by — an immense majority of 
 the votes of the citizens of New- York, to the 
 high and dignified office of Chief Magistrate of 
 the City. In 1842 he was again elected, and 
 again in 1843. For these three years he presided 
 over the Municipal Administration of this City, 
 and while doing so, he made no war upon the de- 
 fenceless ; he made no war upon the poor and 
 friendless : he exercised no tyranny over his con- 
 stituents ; and when any act of his was approved 
 by the people, he did not attribute that approval to 
 his personal character, or to his personal standing, 
 or to his extreme severity, but he acknowledged 
 that his dependence was on a suj^erior being, 
 and that he was but the instrument in His hands. 
 Again, he was appointed to the high and re- 
 sponsible office of Postmaster of the City of New^- 
 York. He left that office with a character for in- 
 tegrity, for purity of purpose, unsullied and with- 
 out reproach. In 1852, by the suffi^age of his 
 fellows-citizens, he was elevated to that seat now^ 
 occupied by 3-our Honors, and there, in just, ac- 
 cordance with the rules which had always ac- 
 tuated him, he held the scales of justice true. 
 
51 
 
 And, in three short years thereafter, at an eariy 
 age, in the midst of usefuhiess, with great hopes 
 of a prompt restoration to measurable health 
 from a previous attack, he is cut down by the 
 hand of death. He had hoped again to minister 
 to his fellow-citizens that high, that important, 
 that responsible duty — a duty, the awful responsi- 
 bilities connected with which, there is not a man 
 following our profession, who does not know and 
 in some manner appreciate. I cannot speak of 
 the storms of passion that may be let loose in the 
 private consultation room of the Judges, but I 
 believe, as my learned friend (Judge Edmonds) 
 has stated, that our friend never partook of them. 
 It does not become me to speak of such scenes, 
 because I am personally unacquainted with them, 
 but if there ever have been such storms, let the 
 death of that honest Judge who presided on yon- 
 der Bench, admonish us of the fleetingness of all 
 human things, and let us resolve, that if such 
 scenes have ever occurred, they shall never occur 
 again. The Judges when they enter the consul- 
 tation room should, like the ancient priesthood 
 entering into the holy of holies — take the truth 
 from off the altar on which her bright flame 
 burns, and with firuidance from him who is on 
 
High, and administer judgment and justice, tem- 
 pered with mercy. That cannot be done amidst 
 the turbulent storms of passion ; it can only be 
 done by a cool, calm and dispassionate weighing 
 of the truth. What is life ? A fleeting vapor ! 
 The poet has beautifully said : — 
 
 Our lives like hasting streams must be 
 That into one engulphing sea — 
 Are doomed to fall. 
 " The Sea of Death" whose waves roll on 
 O'er king and kingdom, crown and throne 
 And swallow all. 
 
 Let us all remember this. "Let him who 
 thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he fall," for 
 alike we must all lie side by side with him whom 
 we this day mourn — 'We shall alike appear before 
 a tribunal, where each will be held responsible for 
 the strict performance of his duty here, to him- 
 self, to his fellow-men, and to his Maker — and 
 where we shall all have the full fruition of our 
 conduct while living dealt out to us, without any 
 of the errors and imperfections belonging to that 
 profession at whose shrine we now worship. 
 
 We have, within a very short time, been called 
 together upon one, upon two, upon three, and 
 upon four sad and melancholy occasions like this. 
 Let us each ask ourselves whose turn will it be 
 next, remembering the direction — 
 " Be Bc also rcabg." 
 
53 
 
 The question was then taken and the Eesolutions were unani- 
 mously adopted. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Disosway, it was ordered that the proceed- 
 ings of the Meeting be authenticated by its officers and furnished 
 by the Secretaries for publication in the daily papers. 
 
 The Meeting then adjourned. 
 
 IfrocteMiigs in t|c ioart of Couiuihnen, 
 
 KHIDAV, OCTOBER 20, 1855. 
 
 The President, D. D. Conover, Esq., in the Chair : 
 
 On motion, the reading of the minutes of the last Meeting was 
 dispensed with. 
 
 Councilman Seely then arose to a privilege question, and by 
 permission ofiered the following Resolutions and desired the adop- 
 tion of the same : 
 
 Whereas, On the 2ith instant, by the will of Divine Provi- 
 dence, one of the noblest and most just of our fellow-citizen.s, who 
 occupied one of the first positions before our countrymen as well 
 as before the Bar, as Judge of the Supreme Court, was suddenly 
 called to a higher sphere than that of human greatness, and to 
 the presence of the great and immortal Judge of the Uuiveise, 
 and, 
 
 Whereas, The lamented Judge Roisert II Morris, in the 
 years 1841-'42-'43, occupied the Mayoralty Chair of our great 
 City with honor and credit to himself and to the community, 
 therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, That this Board, deeply sympathizing with the 
 family of the deceased in the loss of one time-honored, respected 
 and beloved by all, tender their sympathy in the beteavenient 
 under which, by the will of God, they are at present afflicted. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of this Board attend the funeral 
 of deceased in a body, from the house of the father-in-law of de- 
 ceased, at Astoria, on Saturday, the '27th inst., at 2 o'clock, P. M. 
 
 This was unanimously adopted. 
 
 The Board of Aldermen had adjourned for the month before 
 the intelligence of the death of Judge Morris was authenticated 
 in the City. 
 
54 
 
 C|e Jfttneral Obsequies. 
 
 On Saturday, October 27th, 1855, after the adjournment of the 
 meeting of the Bench and the Bar, a large number of the mem- 
 bers of the Legal Profession and other friends of the late lamented 
 Mr. Justice Morris, assembled at 2 o'clock, at the residence of 
 his father-in-law, Marcena Monson, Esq., of Astoria, to attend the 
 Funeral Obsequies. G-reat numbers pa?sed up the River on board 
 the steamer Ravenswood, and others went by the cars. The body, 
 inclosed in lead, and afterwards in an elegant rosewood coffin, was 
 placed on trestles in the lobby. A plate of glass permitted in- 
 >pection of the face, which bore no trace of change. Those who 
 had known the Judge, even slightly, during life, would have in- 
 stantly recognized him. The coffin-plate was simply inscribed 
 with his name, and the dates of his birth and death — 
 
 "ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS," 
 
 ■'BORN 1.5 FEB., 1802; DIED 24 OCT., 1855." 
 
 The officiating Clergymen were the Rev. W. H. Ten Eyck, of 
 the Prot. Ref 'd Dutch Church, and the Rev. T. R. Chipman, of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church. The Rev. Mr. Ten Eyck 
 invoked the divine blessing, after which the Rev. Mr. Chipman 
 read the 15th chapter of the 1st EpLstle to the Corinthians, be- 
 ginning at the 20th verse. 
 
bb 
 
 The Rev. Mr. TEN EYCK then made the 
 following 
 
 We have assembled, m}^ friends, to pay the last 
 tribute of resj^ect to one \vho has held a large 
 l)lace in the regards of the public. And I may 
 here remark, that whatever I may say in relation 
 to the departed, is at the request of others, some 
 of whom are very near and dear friends ; and on 
 information received from them, not having my- 
 self had the pleasure of an acquaintance with him 
 whom so many moiu'n. The Brother wliose duty 
 it would have been to speak to you, was absent 
 from home when the arrangements for these ser- 
 vices had to be made, and not returning, as I ex- 
 pected, last evening, the duty devolves on me. 
 
 Robert H. Morris was born in tlie City of 
 New- York, on the 15th of Februai-y, 1802. Both 
 his grandfather and great-grandfathei- were Judges 
 under the English Crown : the former being Judge 
 in the Court of Admiralty at the period of the 
 American Revolution, when he resigned his office, 
 with all its emoluments, and espoused the cause 
 
56 
 
 of the people. After the formation of the State 
 Government of New-York, and m process of time, 
 he received the high office of Chief Justice of this 
 State, and held it during the time prescribed by 
 the Constitution, 
 
 The father of the deceased removed from New- 
 York City to Hudson, when his son was but a lad, 
 and in that City his boyhood and youth w^ere 
 spent, and he there received his education. Hav- 
 ing pursued the study of law he w^as admitted to 
 practice, and commenced his honorable career at 
 Johnston, Columbia County. In 1827, Mr. 
 Morris came to New-York City, where he acted 
 as Assistant District Attorney. Mr. Morris was 
 elected to the Legislature of the State in 1833, 
 and was re-elected. He was appointed Recorder 
 of the City in 1838 ; in 1841, Mayor of the City, 
 and re-elected to this office also twice, the incum- 
 bent at that time holding office for one year. In 
 1845 he was appointed Postmaster of the City by 
 President Polk, and held that office for four years. 
 While Postmaster, he was elected, in 1846, a 
 member of the Constitutional Convention of the 
 State which formed the present State Constitu- 
 tion ; and in 1852, he was elected a Justice of 
 the Supreme Court of the First Judicial District, 
 
57 
 
 for eight years ; only about one-quarter of his 
 term of office had expired when death hiid him 
 low. In February, 1854, he was taken sick, and 
 for a long time his life was considered in great 
 danger. In the Providence of God he was 
 spared, and after nearly five months of great 
 prostration, most of the time he being unable to 
 help himself, he was so far restored as to be able 
 to visit one of the Medicinal Springs in the inte- 
 rior of the State. His health gradually improved, 
 until he was finally able to attend to his duties. 
 He resumed his labors, although never perfectly 
 well, and with fidelity discharged the duties of his 
 office. His general health just previous to his 
 death, had been as good as he had enjoyed for 
 sometime — and the Messenger, as is so generally 
 the case, came suddenly — -we cannot say unex- 
 pectedly, for we think that he did not anticipate 
 many years upon the earth. In all the relations 
 of life, Judge Morris, we believe was beloved, 
 and those who knew him best, appreciated his 
 worth the most. But it is not for me to speak his 
 eulogy. His course is ended, his race is run, and 
 all who were associated with him in life in what- 
 ever capacity, may be admonished that the grave 
 is to be their home. As we stand here to-day, 
 
58 
 
 how impressive is the lesson taught us. How 
 solemn are the thoughts which must crowd upon 
 every mind. The Judge speaks to us not from 
 the Bar nor the Bench — not from the hally of 
 Legislation or the Chair of the Chief Magistrate 
 — but from the Coffin, with the shroud about his 
 prostrate form. And so, my friends, we are re- 
 minded that — it is appropriate for the Minister of 
 the Gospel, whenever he is called to mingle his 
 sympathies with a sorrowing family under cir- 
 cumstances like the present, to say something 
 which is connected with his office. We are re- 
 minded by the event which has called us here of 
 our mortality ; and when we think of that we 
 cannot fail to remember, that in many a respect 
 we are enveloped in mystery. In every depart- 
 ment of knowledge there are points beyond'which 
 unassisted reason cannot go, and where man 
 stands in earnest and inquiring solicitude. But 
 among all the subjects which have called into ex- 
 ercise his reasoning powers, there is not one 
 around which has gathered more of uncertainty, 
 and more of mystery, than man himself. Curi- 
 ously and wonderfully made in his physical frame 
 — curiously and wonderfully formed in his mental 
 constitution, with vast powers both of mind and 
 
59 
 
 of body, man stands forth the noblest of all ani- 
 mal being, and at the same time the most shroud- 
 ed in mystery. From whence he came ? whither 
 is he going? are questions which have agitated 
 his bosom in every period of his history. And 
 they are questions, too, which reason unassisted 
 by Divine Revelation, has never been able so to 
 answer, as not to leave man himself anxiously 
 looking for more light and more knowledge. 
 
 One of the wisest of all the ancient philoso- 
 phers, when about to take the last farewell of 
 earth, said to those about him-— " It is time for 
 us to depart, that I may die and you may live, to 
 which of us it shall be better is unknown to all 
 but God." Dreadful mystery was felt to hang 
 about the future. There has ever been so much 
 to lead man to look for another state of being 
 than that which he possesses here, that he has 
 never been able to settle quietly down in the be- 
 lief that death is an eternal sleep. And there 
 ever has been so much uncertainty about the fu- 
 ture existence of the whole man, soul and body, 
 that he has never, with only the light of nature 
 to guide him, been able to look forward with cer- 
 tainty to a continued life beyond the grave. So. 
 that while some, as did Socrates of old, have 
 
60 
 
 faintly hoped for another hfe ; others have as 
 faintly denied that man would exist after death. 
 And yet, my friends, the testimony which reason 
 gives in favor of such an existence is so strong, 
 that whoever will look at it with a candid mind, 
 cannot — nay, he dare not say — that the grave is 
 man's final home. 
 
 Behold that delicate infant ! It looks fair and 
 beautiful in its mother's arms. The smile of life 
 and oft of joy lights up its countenance, and it 
 seems to have been formed for some other pur- 
 pose than to sleep forever in the earth. But sud- 
 denly death comes, and all that remains of it, or 
 appertains to it, is the day, the shroud, the coffin, 
 and the grave. Look at that noble youth ! He 
 bids fair for some great achievement in knowledge, 
 in art, or in science. But death comes and the 
 light is put out in his tabernacle ; the bounding 
 heart ceases to beat, and all that is now before 
 us is the claij, the shroud, the coffin, and the 
 grave. Look at that earnest investigator of 
 scientific truth ! He goes down into the depths 
 of the earth and brings up knowledge. He ascends 
 into the regions of space, and tells the courses of 
 the planets, unfolds the vastness of creation, and 
 finds himself at home among the stars. He makes 
 
()1 
 
 the earth, the air, and the waters briii^- their tribute 
 to his stores of learning, and men pay. to him the 
 homage of their admiration. But death comes, 
 and his busy mind is darkened. The treasures of 
 his learning are all sealed up, and nothing remains 
 for his fellow-men to contemplate, but the c/r/y, 
 the skroud, the coffin, and the grave. Look at 
 that wise and enlightened statesman ! He threads 
 his way through the most intricate difficulties of 
 governmental policy, and by the solidity of his 
 judgment, and the far reaching wisdom of his 
 statesmanship challenges the respect of his coun- 
 tr3^men. But death comes, and his form is pros- 
 trate. The powers of his mind are all broken, 
 and we have only to contemplate the day, the 
 shroud, the cqffifi, and the grave. 
 
 Look at that fearless champion of human rights ! 
 Senators and Legislators hang in breathless silence 
 on his lips. The stiring appeals of his oratory 
 wake up the fire of patriotism in their bosoms, 
 and they resolve to peril their all for their coun- 
 try. But death comes, and he is laid low in that 
 very presence where he was the all animating 
 spirit, and the wise and the honorable have before 
 them nothing but the day, the shroud, the coffin, 
 and the grave. And look again at the noble 
 
62 
 
 Counsellor and Judge, as he sits among his peers ! 
 His mind cgin grasp the science of law, and follow 
 it in its varied applications. Respected for his 
 legal attainments, he is honored among his breth- 
 ren at the Bar. But in a few short hours, "he is cut 
 down in the ripeness of his intellect, .and we have 
 before us the clay, the shroud,- the coffin, and 
 
 the GRAVE. 
 
 And thus is it with all that live upon th*e earth. 
 The good, the wise, the noble, aiid the brave, are 
 all borne to the great charnel-house, there to sleep 
 in silence. And now, can we believe ; can even 
 men, without the light of revelation, persuade 
 themselves so as to be free from all doubt, and 
 have no fear of their hereafter, that when Death 
 lays the body low, there is an end of man. 
 
 No ! men cannot believe thus. They will not 
 have such belittling views of man. Their aspira- 
 tions and their desires are to live again, and rea- 
 son suggests that they shall. And so they are 
 prepared for the magnificent announcement that 
 there shall be a resurrection of the dead. Though 
 this announcement may not resolve all the mys- 
 teries connected with man's future being, it does 
 give him a rock on which to build his hopes. 
 And as an Ambassador of Christ, we may testify 
 
63 
 
 to our faitli in this glorious doctrine, as we have 
 the emblems of man's mortality before us. And 
 here, in Ixhe presence of such an assembly, may we 
 point to the promise and the power of Almighty 
 Grod for the fulfillment of our expectations. This 
 is the rock on which the Christian builds his hopes. 
 God hath said it, and he has power to fulfill the 
 declaration that ' ' the dead shall hear the voice of 
 the :Son of God and live." 
 
 But along with this comes from the same book, 
 tiiat other declaration in which all are interested, 
 high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearn- 
 ed — after death the Judgment — not the judgment 
 of man, but the Judgment of Almighty God. 
 And in view of this, all, without respect of per- 
 son-a, are told, that in order to meet that Judg- 
 ment, thej need some other righteousness than 
 their own, even the righteousness of Jesus Christ, 
 which is by faith. 
 
 Now, my friends, these truths which we have 
 thus briefly stated, were felt in all their impor- 
 tance by hiam whose prostrate form is before us, 
 and they who knew him best, feel that it is an act 
 of justice tiO his memory that a glimpse of his 
 inner and retired life should be given. We com- 
 ply with th^ir wishes ; not — let us be distinctly 
 
64 
 
 understood — not for the purpose of securing testi- 
 mony to the truth of Christianity from a Judge. 
 Christianity has too much external and internal 
 evidence, that appeals to every man's reason and 
 judgment to require such testimony. No — we 
 speak that the departed may have justice done to 
 his memory. 
 
 Judge Morris, when on his sick bed, in 1854, 
 had his mind specially called to religion ; and 
 then and there received impressions that remain- 
 ed with him until his death. One who was his 
 nearest and dearest friend says, that since that 
 time the Bible was his constant companion when 
 in his retirement. To her he imparted his inten- 
 tion to espouse his Maker's cause, by becoming a 
 communicant in His Holy Church, and he had 
 selected one of the Presbyterian Churches in the 
 City, (the Rev, I)r, Adams') as the place where he 
 would number himself with the regular wor- 
 shipers. Being weak in body, and impressed 
 with the idea that his life would not be long, his 
 thoughts naturally were directed to the last great 
 change, and the needed preparation to meet it. 
 And often, in the still hours of the night, when 
 he was upon his bed, unable to sleep, he was en- 
 gaged in prayer. He was brought, where it is 
 
65 
 
 hard to bring men, to that point when ho woiikl 
 confess himself a sinner, and that only the Atone- 
 ment could meet his wants. One whose Christian 
 experience is large was sought by him, and to her 
 he mibosomed his tlioughts, confessing himself a 
 sinner, recognizing the need of regeneration b}^ 
 the Spirit, and salvation by Christ. It was onlj- 
 last Sabbath that he said — "I have hope only 
 through the blood and righteousness of Jesus 
 Christ.-' He wanted no other Mediator to stand 
 between him and his God. Just as he was 
 breathing out his si)irit into the hands of God 
 who gave it, the last words he uttered were, "I 
 
 AM NOT AFRAID TO DIE*' "' GoD BE MERCIFFL TO 
 
 MY SINS.'' 
 
 We leave you, my friends, to draw your own 
 inferences. But we cannot fail to impress upon 
 you all, the duty of thinking of your hereafter 
 7101V. It is only because men neglect to think on 
 this subject that they live without Christ, and die 
 without hope. While by this dispensation of 
 God's Providence we may all learn " to cultivate 
 towards each other sentiments of kindness, charity 
 and forgiveness." May it not also teach us all — 
 how short is life — how certain is death. And 
 may it not also lead us all to turn to that Savior 
 
66 
 
 who has brought Hfe and immortality to light. 
 Of old it was written — "0 death, I will be thy 
 plagues — grave, I will be tky destruction." 
 And in the fullness of time, he of whom this was 
 written, came, and entering the dark valley, that 
 he might taste death for man, he came forth in 
 triumph, with the exultant language — " I am he 
 that liveth, and was dead ; and behold, I am alive 
 forever more ; and have the keys of hell and of 
 death.'"' 
 
 " death, where is thy sting? 
 O grave, where is thy victory ?" 
 
 What shall be compared to such knowledge ? 
 Who can slight the teachings of such a Gospel ? 
 We pray that you may all be led to consider that 
 you not only must die, but that you also need a 
 preparation for death, in that repentance for sin 
 and regeneration by the Spirit, which is accom- 
 panied by that faith in the atonement of Jesus 
 Christ by which men alone can be saved. 
 
 At the close of these remarks, Mr. Ten Eyck offerol .in ap- 
 propriate prayer, and pronounced the Benediction. 
 
67 
 
 CI]c Clflsiug Cereiuonies. 
 
 The sorrowing relatives and friends of the Deceased, hav- 
 ing sunounded the Body, and taken their " last long-lingering 
 loolv" of one who was so dearly beloved ; the Coffin, preceded 
 by the Rev. Messrs. Tkn Eyck and Chipman, was then borne 
 by hand from the Mansion to the Vault of the Church in Astoria, 
 from whence it is to be removed to the Family Vault at Morri- 
 sania. The Pall-Bearers, were Judges Mitchell, Roosf;velt, 
 Clerke and Cowles, (associates of the late Judge on the Bench 
 of the First Judicial District,) Ex-Judge Edmonds, Mr. Chas. 
 O'CoNOR, Mr. Damel Lord -awI Mv. D.wid E. Wheelei:. The 
 Procession, which was very numerous, moved two and two Imme- 
 diately iifter the Pall-Bearers came Doctors Baylies, Sen'r and 
 Juii'r — who, with the Clergymen and Pall-Bearers, were robed in 
 the usual white scarf — Mr. Marcena Monson, the Father-in-law of 
 the deceased Judge ; Mr. James L. Morris, Mr. William. L. 
 Morris, Mr. Lewis Gr. Morris, his Brothers; Mr. Marcena 
 MoNSON, Juu'r, (formerly Assistant Postmaster of the deceased,) 
 Mr. James A Hamilton, Mr. Thomas W. Ludlow, his Brothers- 
 in-law ; and very many other members of the family, and his per- 
 sonal and profesdioual friends. The Kcv. Mr. Chipman conducted 
 the funeral services at the Vault, in a very feeling and ulo([uent 
 manner. The whole scone was solemn and impressive, and the 
 flags of the Village, as well as those on the ferry boats, were hnlf 
 ma.st, out of respect to the memory of one who, while living, was 
 beloved, and is now mourned as among the dead. 
 
68 
 
 llfQtfi f hDli5[iB& bq onr laoior. 
 
 Jfmteral Sermon 
 
 I K L 1 V E R K U BY THE 
 
 Rev. benjamin F. STEAD, 
 
 33astov of tijc 33tfBl)i)lcvinii G:i)uvc!), ^slovfa, on Suiitjag, IBet. 23, 185j. 
 
 II. TIMOTHY, i., 10. 
 
 Our Savior Jesus Chri-st, who hath abolished Death, axt> hath brought like 
 
 isu immortality to light through the Gospel. 
 
 We have, in this Epistle, a beautiful illustration 
 of the power of the (lospel to support and com- 
 fort those who truly receive it. 
 
 It was written by one who was a prisoner for 
 the Gospel's sake, an embassador of Christ in 
 bonds. He had been called to speak before the 
 Boman tribunal, and had successfully defended 
 himself against the first charge brought against 
 him. 
 
 His Earthly friends, with perhaps a single ex- 
 ception, had deserted him, but his Heavenly Friend 
 
69 
 
 stood Ly him. He was strengthened by the power 
 of God's Spirit, and pleaded the cause, not of 
 liimself only, but of the Gospel. 
 
 Although acquitted on the first charge, he was 
 remanded to prison, and was there awaiting the 
 second stage ol* his trial. Paul did not expect a 
 final acquittal, but looked for his death there in 
 Rome, a martyr for Christ. 
 
 But not with fear and trembling did he antici- 
 pate that event ; on the contrary, he expresses his 
 feelings in that sublime strain of triumphant hope, 
 which has cheered many a Christian and nerved 
 the heart of many a martyr. "lam now ready 
 to be ofil^red, and the time of my departure is at 
 hand. I have fought a good fight ; I have finished 
 my course ; I have kept the faith : henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 wdiich the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give 
 me at that day, and not to me only, but to all 
 them that love his appearing.'' 
 
 If you ask the foundation of this good and glo- 
 rious hope, you will find it in our text, it rested 
 only upon " Our Savior Jesus Christ." 
 
 The very first sentence of Paul's First Epistle 
 to Timothy expresses this sentiment: "Paul, an 
 Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of 
 
70 
 
 God, our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is 
 our liope^^ 
 
 Christ is the ground of the Christian's hope. 
 All that he hopes for, is through Christ. Christ is 
 the object of the Christian's hope ; to he like 
 Christ ; to be with Christ, that is Heaven. 
 
 To one supported by this hope, the galling fet- 
 ters, the gloomy dungeon, the bloody sword of 
 the executioner lost their terror, and his only 
 anxiety, was to inspire his Christian friends with 
 the same holy, fearless confidence, which he felt 
 himself. 
 
 Paul expected soon to die : to die in circum- 
 stances from which human nature shrinks, to die 
 a violent death, to die as a criminal, to die amid 
 the exulting shouts of his own and his Master's 
 enemies ; but with calmness, and fortitude, and 
 exultation, he could face this death and truly say, 
 " None of these things move me." 
 
 What supported him ? 
 
 We can understand why the patriot warrior, or 
 the patriot martyr boldly faces death. But no 
 such motive could apply in the case of Paul. 
 
 It was not patriotism ; it was not the hope of 
 posthumous renown. Apart from his confidence 
 in his Christian principles, he could have no hope, 
 
71 
 
 cither foi- postliumous renown in this worh], or for 
 a happy life in another. 
 
 His energy, his fortitude, his peace of mind, all 
 sprung from this one source, his faith. 
 
 He said, "I believe, and therefore preach.'' 
 With equal trutli, he might have said, " I believe, 
 and therefore die." 
 
 In regard to himself, Paul believed, that although 
 he was a sinner — yea, the chief of sinners — he 
 was a pardoned sinner ; that in Christ he had re- 
 demption through his blood, the forgiveness of 
 sins according to the riches of God's grace ; that 
 being in Christ he was not under condemnation, 
 and being justified by faith, he had j^eace with 
 God through our Lord Jesus Christ : he knew in 
 whom he believed, and that our Lord and Savior 
 was able to keep that sacred deposit which his ser- 
 vant had committed to him : being fully persuaded 
 that the promises of God w^ere faithful, and wor- 
 thy of all acceptation, he rejoiced with joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory. 
 
 In regard to his future destiny, Paul felt per- 
 fectly at ease. He valued his life as needful to 
 the Church, but he regarded death as really desi- 
 rable, because then he should be with Christ. He 
 knew that his body might be treated with indig- 
 
72 
 
 nity, the scorn and sport of the multitude on a 
 Roman Holiday, but he believed the Savior, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, would change his vile body 
 that it might be made like unto Christ's glorious 
 body. He believed, that in a moment, in the 
 twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, his body 
 should be raised incorruptible, and the mortal 
 would put on immortality ; that death should be 
 swallowed up in victory, and that God would give 
 him the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 that having thus been raised up, his soul reunited 
 to his body, made incorruptible, glorious and 
 spiritual, he should be forever with the Lord. 
 This was Paul's creed in regard to his personal 
 salvation, soul and body, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. These expectations were not founded 
 upon the indications of nature, or the speculations 
 of philosophy, or the fictions of imagination, vainly 
 shrinking from a gloomy and uncertain future, but 
 upon the sure word of God. 
 
 All this is summarily contained in our text and 
 its connection. " God hath not given us the spirit 
 of fear ; but of power, and of love, and of a 
 sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of 
 the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his pris- 
 oner : but be thou partaker of the afflictions of 
 
73 
 
 the Grospel according to the power of (iod : wlio 
 hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not 
 according to our works, but according to His owji 
 purpose and grace which was given us in Christ 
 Jesus l^efore the world began ; but is now made 
 manifest, b}^ the appearing of our Savior Jesus 
 Christ, who hath abolished Death and hath brought 
 life and immortality to light through the Gospel.'' 
 
 If we place along side of this Christian hope, 
 that of any heathen, of the wisest and best men, 
 destitute of Divine Revelation, we must be struck 
 with the contrast. In these days, and in these 
 Christian lands, when all our sentiments are so 
 pervaded with the hope of immortality, we can 
 scarcely conceive of the intense darkness which 
 brooded over the human mind in the days of 
 Paul. ■ 
 
 We know enough of the> great inen, both of 
 Grrecian and Roman history, to be assured that 
 their sentiments, their motives, their actions, were 
 in no measure controlled by the hope or the fear 
 of a future existence. 
 
 The hope of a future state is styled by Cicero 
 " a surmise of future ages.'' "It is,"' said Seneca, 
 " a most pleasant thing promised, rather than 
 proved, by our great men." 
 
At his death, Socrates spoke thus : " I hope to 
 go hence to good men, but of that I am not very 
 confident, nor doth it become any wise man to be 
 positive that so it will be.'' "I must now die," 
 said he, " and you shall live, but which of us is in 
 the better state is unknown to all except to God." 
 
 If such was the gloomy uncertainty that brood- 
 ed over the human mind, without Divine Revela- 
 tion, how well is it said that our Savior Jesus 
 Christ hath abolished Death and brought life and 
 immortality to light through the Gospel. 
 
 But so far as there existed a sentiment of im- 
 mortality, how different was it from the Christian 
 sentiment. It was not founded upon any substan- 
 tial basis. It rested upon dreamy metaphysical 
 reasoning, upon foolish traditions, upon absurd 
 mythologies ; while our Christian sentiment is 
 based upon the most authentic facts, upon the in- 
 fallible word of God himself, upon the work and 
 promises of Him who was manifestly the Son of 
 God. 
 
 How different too, the Christian doctrine in re- 
 gard to the nature of that existence. 
 
 The heathen notions were gross, sensual, ab- 
 surd, but the Gospel reveals for the righteous a 
 state of enlarged knowledge, of purity, of happi- 
 
 m- 
 
75 
 
 ness, in harmony with our spiritual nature, and 
 with the character of a holy God. 
 
 The expression used by the Apostle, that our 
 Savior hath abolished Deatli, seems to be an illu- 
 sion to the idea of Death as a reigning power, as 
 a tyrant ruling over men with relentless severity. 
 That tyrant shall be destroyed. In the apocalyp- 
 tic vision of John, Death was cast into the lake of 
 iire. The incarnation of the Son of God was to 
 the end, that through Death He might destroy 
 him that had the power of Death. And in his 
 argument for the resurrection of Christ, and his 
 statement of the resurrection of believei's, Paul 
 declares that Christ must reign until He hath put 
 all enemies under His feet, and that the last of His 
 enemies, Death, also shall be destroyed. 
 
 This final triumph is the object of Christian 
 hope. There is, indeed, a sense in which Christ 
 has actually abolished Death, nullified his power, 
 taken away his sting ; but that blessing is appre- 
 hended only by ftiith, is realized only by those who 
 walk by faith, and live as seeing the things that 
 are invisible. 
 
 To the eye of sense, Death yet reigns, and really 
 and fatally over those who love not Christ. 
 
 They, indeed, remain substantially in the condi- 
 
tioii ill whicli we may presume all mankind, 
 would have been, had not the Grace of God pro- 
 vided a Savior. 
 
 Take away the liope of Salvation, and how 
 gloomy the prospect. 
 
 How universal, how absolute the reign of Death. 
 He puts an end to earthly projects ; in that day 
 earthly plans are brought to naught. 
 
 He strips of earthly possessions ; as we brought 
 nothing into this world, so it is certain we can 
 carry nothing out. He levels all ranks. The 
 small and the great are there. Death is an inexo- 
 rable and an impartial enemy. No wealth can 
 bribe him ; no tears can move him : the strength 
 of the strongest cannot withstand him : the skill 
 of the wisest cannot baffle him. None can redeem 
 himself from Death, nor give a ransom for his 
 brother. 
 
 Thus absolute, seerns the reign of Death, and 
 yet it is true, this assertion of our text, that our 
 Savior Jesus Christ hath abolished Death, True, 
 the ancient edict still remains. ' ' Dust thou art, and 
 unto dust thou shall return," but the dissolution of 
 the body is of itself an event comparatively in- 
 significant. 
 
 Thus certainly, it may be regarded l)v those 
 
 m* 
 
77 
 
 who can say. '' We know tliat if our earthly house 
 of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a build- 
 ing of God, a house not made with hands, eternal 
 in the heavens." 
 
 Christ hath abolished Death, by delivering His 
 people from all the evil consequences of Death. To 
 them, Death is no longer a leap in the dark, no 
 longer a dreadful uncertainty, but only a change 
 from imperfection to perfection, from ignorance to 
 knowledge, from a world of sorrow to the comfor- 
 table presence of God. In the light and hope of 
 the Gospel, the death of the body is only a tem- 
 poTary sleep : it is the decay of a tent, in the place 
 of which shall be erected a building of Divine 
 workmanship and durability. 
 
 Such is the Gospel doctrine on this most inte- 
 resting subject. It is well and briefly expressed 
 in these words: "The souls of believers are at 
 •their death made perfect in holiness, and do im- 
 mediately pass into glory : and their bodies being- 
 still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until 
 the Resurrection." 
 
 In the prospect of death, or in the death of 
 those precious to us, what could be more comfort- 
 ing than this hope of a future life. A hope so 
 well founded, resting on the most rational and 
 
substantial grounds ; a liupe of a life to come of 
 perfect purity from sin, and exemption from sor- 
 row ; a life of enlarged and ever increa;ing knowl- 
 edge, of perfect peace, of endless and uninterrupted 
 happiness. This is an adequate support under all 
 the ills of life. 
 
 To one strong and unwavering in this faith, and 
 whose heart is fixed in the love of God, death 
 has lost its terrors. To such, dying is but going 
 home. Blessed Gospel, that reveals to us this glo- 
 rious truth I Blessed hope, that can support us in 
 every trial of life or death ! 
 
 In every age, Christ's people have found their 
 strength and their hope in these blessed promises 
 of God. 
 
 For more than two hundred years, the excava- 
 tions under the City of Rome were the refuge of 
 the persecuted Christians. During those days of 
 persecution, those caves were at once, dwelling, 
 temple and sepulchre, for the people of God. 
 
 When the Roman Empire fell, these catacombs 
 were neglected, their entrances were closed up, 
 and for a thousand years, they were well nigh for- 
 gotten. In the latter part of the 16th Centuiy, 
 they were opened, and many of their treasures were 
 brought to light. Three thousand marble slabs, with 
 
their various inscriptions, wcm-c broufilit out and 
 placed in tlic wall of a loii,*;- ,u-allery, at the en- 
 trance of the Vatican Museum. There the traveler 
 may now read the annals of a noble army of Mar- 
 tyrs. 
 
 This exhibition is rendered more impressive by 
 the f\ict, that on the opposite side of the gallery are 
 arranged a multitude of inscriptions, taken from 
 heathen monuments. 
 
 How great the contrast ! On the one side are 
 dedications to heathen divinities, embellished with 
 the symbols of the Roman heathen mythology, all 
 full of gloom ; no Hope, no Heaven, no Resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 On the other side, is every emblem and every 
 expression of faith, and hope, and blessedness. 
 Usually the inscription is accompanied by a mono- 
 gram of the name, Chufst, showing the source 
 and ground of all their hopes. 
 
 Among the inscriptions ai'e such as these ; the 
 name of the deceased, with the words, " He 
 sleeps," or '' He sleeps in Peace." The symbols 
 employed illustrate the hopes and doctrines of the 
 persecuted infant Church : there is the palm leaf, 
 sometimes a wreath, sometimes a branch, signify- 
 ing victory over Death, and a crown beyond this 
 
80 
 
 life : there is the anchor, the emblem of Christian 
 hope : the Cross, the emblem of Christian faith : 
 the dove, the ship under full sail, heavenward 
 bound : the letters A II , the apocalyptic title of 
 Christ. All these are full of glorious meaning, 
 and show what it was that sustained these Chris- 
 tian worthies in enduring persecution even unto 
 death. 
 
 The ground of a Christian's belief on this sub- 
 ject of a future life, and of the Resurrection, is 
 simply in Divine Revelation. Here, nature is 
 dumb. No reasoning concerning matter or spirit 
 can satisfy us. The man whose faith is found- 
 ed on such a basis, can hope only amid fears and 
 apprehensions. The ground of our belief must be a 
 " Thus saith the Lord." our ''faith should not stand 
 in the wisdom of men, but in the power of Cod." 
 
 Satished that we have God's woi-d in these 
 Scriptures, we come with confidence to them for 
 light and consolation. 
 
 M'ho of us does not need this light, when we 
 consider our own rapid progress to the end of our 
 earthly career ? 
 
 Who of us does not need this consolation, when 
 we consider those dear to our memory, whose 
 mortal bodies are slumbering in the dust ? 
 
81 
 
 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and 
 we also l:)elieve that those who sleep in Jesus, 
 God wall bring with Him. The pious dead sleep 
 in Jesus. Precious words ! The redeemed spirit 
 is in Paradise with its Lord. The body sleeps in 
 Jesus. It awaits the hour of its Resurrection. It 
 is still united to Christ. Such is the utterance of 
 the voice from Heaven. 
 
 "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." 
 Their Spirits are forever with the Lord : their 
 bodies rest in hope. 
 
 A Christian youth was being borne to the tomb. 
 The venerable father follows, and to the young 
 men bearing the precious object, he says : " Step 
 lightly, young men, step lightly, you bear a tem- 
 ple of the Holy Ghost.'' 
 
 A Christian body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, 
 and when it is laid down to its last long sleep, the 
 Son of God that redeemed it, still regards it with 
 interest and affection. 
 
 It may slumber long, but still, He with whom 
 a thousand years is as one day, watches faithfully 
 the sacred dust. 
 
 As the mother watches her sleeping babe, so 
 does our glorious Savior watch each redeemed 
 body, until the time of the iirst Resurrection. 
 
The centuries th;it your departed friends may 
 sleep, are to the eternal God no longer than is the 
 hour of the babe's slumber to its watching mother. 
 
 But while the body thus rests in hope, the Soul 
 is active and happy in the presence of the Lord. 
 In God's appointed time the final glorious change 
 shall come, when the dead in Christ shall be rais- 
 ed, when the living righteous shall joyfully greet 
 the coming of their Lord, and changed into His 
 glorious likeness, with the pious dead of every 
 age, they shall be perfectly holy and happy, both 
 in soul and body, in the immediate vision and frui- 
 tion of God the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and of the Holy Spirit, to all eternity. This is the 
 life, brought to light in the Gospel. This the 
 Eternal Life, freely oifered as a gift through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 All this, and more than heart can conceive, is 
 included in that closing sentence of Paul's descrip- 
 tion of the happiness of the Christian dead. 
 (/. Thess., iv., 13-17.) 
 " So shall we ever be with the Lord." 
 
 " For ever with the Lord," 
 Amen, so let it be I 
 Life from the dead is in that word, 
 'Tis immortalifcv. 
 
83 
 
 Here in the body pent, 
 Absent from Him I roam, 
 
 Yet nightly pitch my moving tent 
 A day's march nearer home. 
 
 My Father's house on high, 
 Home of my Soul, how near. 
 
 At times to faith's foreseeing eye. 
 Thy golden gates appear I 
 
 ' Knowing as I am known," 
 How shall I love that word I 
 And oft repeat before the throne, 
 "For ever with the Lord." 
 
 The tomb shall echo deep 
 That death-awakening sound : 
 
 The Saints sliall hear it in their sleep 
 And answer from the ground. 
 
 Then when they upward fly, 
 
 That Resurrection word 
 Shall be their shout of victory, 
 
 " For ever with the Lord." 
 
 That Resurrection word. 
 That shout of victory, 
 Once more, " for ever with the Lord," 
 
 
 Amen, so 
 
 let it be. 
 
 
 
 
 This is 
 
 what God\' 
 
 ^ word teaches us to 
 
 hope 
 
 for 
 
 ourselves, 
 
 if we receive Christ to our 
 
 hearts. 
 
 
 This is 
 
 what God's 
 
 word teaches us to 
 
 hope 
 
 for 
 
 our friends who have departed in 
 
 the 
 
 faith 
 
 of 
 
 Christ. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 It is in 
 
 this light 
 
 and with this 1 
 
 lojDe 
 
 that 
 
 we 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
84 
 
 would contemplate the death of one who has re- 
 cently been removed from us. 
 
 The Hon. Robert H. Morris, to whose memory 
 we offer a brief tribute, and of whose death we 
 wish to speak, in connection with the religious 
 trutlis just presented, although not permanently a 
 resident among us, we were wont to regard, on 
 account of his connection and frequent sojourn 
 with an esteemed family of this congregation, and 
 his occasional presence in this House of Worship, 
 as really one of us. 
 
 The public life of Judge Morris has already 
 been spoken of in the appropriate places. He 
 has been eulogized, highly indeed, but we believe 
 not unduly, as a Lawyer, a Magistrate, a Judge. 
 His compeers in these various positions have spon- 
 taneously uttered their sentiments of respect and 
 admiration for his talents, his industry, his integ- 
 rity. 
 
 His courtesy, his generosity, his benevolence, 
 his philanthropy, have been well and truly charac- 
 terized. 
 
 It is not the office of the Minister of Christ, 
 from the desk consecrated to religion, to indulge 
 in indiscriminate eulogies on mortal men, the liv- 
 ing, or the dead ; but it is becoming and proper 
 
85 
 
 to recognize the virtues of onr departed friends, 
 and to magnify the Divine Grace which we regard 
 as the source of all moi'al excellence, and the ordy 
 ground of hope for any of our race. 
 
 Being absent on a Christian duty at the time of 
 his disease and funeral, I follow both the sugges- 
 tion of my own mind and the wishes of those 
 nearest to him, in performing this service, which, 
 from various circumstances, has been necessarily 
 postponed until this day. Although my opportu- 
 nities for personal acquaintance and intercourse 
 with Judge Morris were somewhat limited, they 
 were sufhcient to inspire a high degree of respect 
 and a suicere interest in his spiritual welfare. 
 
 On the subject of religion I found him entirely 
 accessible, ready to converse on the most serious 
 topics ; while the tenor of his conversations indi- 
 cated his recognition of the reality and importance 
 of religion as a personal matter. 
 
 When in the House of God he appeared as a 
 candid and devout listener. I well remember his 
 allusion to a discourse which he heard from this 
 pulpit, on "Man's judgment of himself, contrast- 
 ed with God's judgment.'' Meeting him during 
 the week he expressed himself in such terms in 
 regard to the subject, as indicated a spirit of in- 
 
86 
 
 terest, and as I hoped, a sense of those great 
 practical truths of religion, the sinfulness of man 
 and the holiness of Grod. 
 
 Judge Morris never made a public profession 
 of religion. 
 
 This is a matter of regret. There is no intel- 
 lect so lofty as to be exempt from allegiance to 
 Christ. There is no position so high that it may 
 not be ennobled by the influence of Christianity. 
 
 I am glad to say, however, that our honored 
 Friend recognized this in expressing to her ever 
 nearest to him, his intention to make such a pro- 
 fession, and his conviction, that every one con- 
 scious of the change, which he had realized in his 
 own feelings, should before the world avow God 
 as his Guide and Savior. That in his case it 
 might have been made consistently and properly, 
 we believe was happily indicated by the whole 
 tenor of his last days. 
 
 We all knew Judge Morris as a man of most 
 cheerful temperament, of most genial disposition, 
 of most unhmited kindness. 
 
 The poor heard of his death with sorrow, and 
 felt that they had lost a friend. 
 
 I think that, without exaggeration, we may 
 apply to him the language of the patriarch Job in 
 
87 
 
 the vindication of himself against unjust accusa- 
 tions. 
 
 " When the ear heard me, then it blessed roe ; 
 And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me : 
 Because I delivered the poor that cried. 
 And the fatherless, and him that had none to help 
 
 him. 
 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came 
 
 upon me : 
 And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." 
 {Job, xxix., 11-13.) 
 
 In speaking of his domestic character, I feel 
 that I am approaching holy ground. There are 
 those, it is to be feared, who appear best away 
 from home ; who keep their good manners and 
 kindness for exhibition in public, rather than to 
 be used at home. 
 
 Such was not the case with our deceased Friend. 
 Those who knew him best esteemed and loved him 
 most. He was a joyous light in his household. 
 Only those who have heard the expressions of 
 those most near, can conceive of their estimate of 
 their loss in his death. His private life was of 
 unsullied purity, and in his domestic relations 
 his fidelity and devotion were unsurpassed. 
 
88 
 
 Since the time of Judge Morris' serious illness, 
 more than a year ago, his mind had evidently been 
 especially directed to the subject of his spiritual 
 condition. 
 
 God's Word was his daily study. Often was he 
 seen with folded hands, and moving lips, lifting 
 up his heart to that God who has revealed him- 
 self as the hearer of prayer, and who has gra- 
 ciously promised in answer to prayer, to bestow 
 every spiritual blessing. On the Lord's Day, all 
 professional studies were laid aside, and although 
 physical infirmities kept him from the House of 
 God, he found in the Holy Scriptures appropriate 
 subjects of study and conversation. 
 
 He was familiar with the Scriptures, and often 
 as he studied some point of law, with his surviving 
 companion sitting beside him, he would turn to 
 her and repeat some text as confirming or illus- 
 trating his view of the subject in hand. 
 
 Taught by that Divine Word and Spirit, on the 
 last Sabbath of his life, when in his ordinary 
 health, and having no apprehension of his disso- 
 lution, he made this good confession : 
 
 "I HAVE HOPE ONLY THROUGH THE BLOOD AND 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS OF JeSUS ChRIST."' 
 
 When, unexpectedly to all, but perhaps least so 
 
89 
 
 to himself, liin last hoiii- came, he calmly said, "I 
 AM NOT AFRAID TO DIE,'' aocl expired with a peaceful 
 reliance on the mercies of the Almighty, through 
 the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
 
 This mercy of our God through our Savior 
 Jesus Christ, is the only ground of hope for our- 
 selves or for our friends. This we feel to be a 
 sufficient ground. Our warrant is the true sayings 
 of God, the completed v/ork of redemption wrought 
 by Him who is Mighty to save. Let us, however, 
 remember, that the promise is to those who be- 
 lieve. Jesus saith : " I am the Resurrection and 
 the Life : he that belie vetli in Me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live : and whosoever liveth and 
 believeth in Me, shall never die." 
 
 Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? 
 
 This clear light from Heaven, this wonderful 
 revelation of Divine love, has been granted us, 
 that we might be stimulated to attain that glory 
 which shall be revealed. The light of the Gospel 
 which so illumines the narrow path, casts a still 
 deeper gloom over the broad road. 
 
 The dying heathen goes into the future world 
 with only apprehensions of unknown evil, but he 
 who from the midst of Gospel light goes down to 
 death in impenitence and unbelief, has before him 
 
90 
 
 "a certain, fearful looking for of judgment and 
 fiery indignation." 
 
 Heaven's glories are set before us as an object 
 to be striven for. " To them, who by patient con- 
 tinuance in well doing, seek for glory, and honor, 
 and immortality, God will render eternal life.'' 
 Each one of us is rapidly advancing towards the 
 close of this present life. That event settles ulti- 
 mately each man's condition. The second death 
 stands under the shadow of the first, and He only 
 can deliver us from the one, who in His own glo- 
 rious Resurrection triumphed over the other. 
 
 While we joyfully hope for our departed friends 
 in Christ, let us not ourselves neglect the Great 
 Salvation. But seeking to be made free from sin, 
 and becoming servants of God, may we have our 
 fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 
 For the wages of sin is Death ; but the gift of God 
 is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
91 
 
 .A.i^i^E3sriDi:x:. 
 
 THE EXECUTIVE 
 
 THE RECORDER OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC: 
 
 As I know that Governor Seward, after having 
 written to me for my answer to charges preferred 
 by him against me, has, without waiting for my 
 defence, recommended to the Senate my removal 
 from office, I deem it due to the public and to my- 
 self to publish the annexed correspondence, I re- 
 ceived the Governor's communication on Saturday, 
 the 2d of January, which concludes thus: "I 
 shall expect a reply at your earliest convenience.''' 
 I immediately acknowledged the receipt of it, and 
 stated, " I will at the earliest moment my business 
 in Court will permit, (the January Term of the 
 Court of Sessions will commence on Monday,) re- 
 ply to it." I finished my reply on the 8th of Jan- 
 uary, and forwarded it on the 9th, and yet the 
 Governor, notwithstanding the severe storms which 
 for days interrupted the course of the mails, on 
 Tuesday, the 12th, without waiting for my justifi- 
 cation, recommended to the Senate my removal 
 from office. 
 
 ROBT. H. MORRIS. 
 
 January 15. 1841. 
 
92 
 
 Executive Department, ) 
 Albany. December 29, 1840. ( 
 
 Sir, — My attention has been called to a charge published in 
 several newspapers in the City of New-York, purporting to have 
 been delivered by you to the Grand Jury impanneled for the 
 General Sessions of the peace of the City and County of New- 
 York in November last 
 
 In that charge you give an account of certain official proceed- 
 ings ill which you had been engaged, and you state, among other 
 things, that you proceeded in the night time to the house of a citi- 
 zen, and demanded of him certain papers sealed in a package 
 which had been delivered toliiin for safe keeping, by an individual 
 against whom a criminal complaint had been made before you, but 
 which complaint did not involve any charge of having unlawfully 
 obtained the papers so demanded ; that upon the said citizen hesi- 
 tating to deliver the package, you declared to him that if he did 
 not deliver it, you would search for the papers and seize them by 
 force, by virtue of your authority, as a Magistrate ; and that un- 
 der the coercion of the threat the papers were delivered to you, 
 and in the charge before mentioned, you vindicate this conduct, 
 and maintain that it was strictly legal and proper. 
 
 The most mature deliberation has satisfied me that in the case 
 stated, any search warrant for the private papers of the accused, 
 which papers were not alleged to have been feloniously stolen or 
 unlawfully acquired, would have been a violation of the most sa- 
 cred private rights and of the most cherished principles of civil lib- 
 erty, and that the seizure of such papers, in such case, by you as 
 a judicial officer, without warrant on oath, was more aggravated 
 than the issuing of a search warrant would have been, because it 
 was a mingling of executive and judicial functions derogatory to 
 your station, and dangerous to the citizen. In availing yourself 
 of your station as a Judge, to spread your defence and vindica- 
 tion of these proceedings, before the body to whom was assigned 
 by law the duty of inquiring into your conduct, and who were re- 
 stricted to the evidence, and could have only the Counsel on the 
 part of the people, you not only obtained an improper advantage 
 denied to all other citizens in similar circumstances, but furnished 
 an example to other judicial officers, which, if permitted to pass 
 without censure, maj^ become a precedent of the most alarming 
 tendency. 
 
 With these views I shall deem it my duty to recommend to the 
 Senate your removal from the office of Recorder of the City of 
 New- York, unless you deny the fact of having delivered the pub- 
 lished charge, or unless you can change the conviction of my mind 
 in respect to the illegality of the specified proceeding.>^, by some 
 
93 
 
 legal adjudications, or by expositions of the common law by ele- 
 mentary writers of established authority, and which adjudications 
 and expositions shall be other than those referred to in the charge. 
 I do not call upon you for any facts or pi oofs in relation to the 
 case that was the subject of the complaint before you. With them 
 I have no official concern in the present stage of the proceeedings, 
 and they can have no bearing upon the points presented in this 
 letter. Every Judge, and every Justice of the Peace, has the 
 same right and power of search that you can lawfully claim, and 
 if the power of seai'ch be possessed by such officers to the extent 
 in which you have exercised it and maintained it before the Grand 
 Jury, the dwellings of our fellow-citizens, whether they be inno- 
 cent or guilty of offence against the laws, their family affairs, their 
 private transactions, and even the meditations of their hearts, are 
 all exposed at the discretion of a Magistrate, and we are without 
 safeguards against oppression and the abuse of power. 
 
 If our laws have designed to produce such a state of society, 
 the innocence of the party accused in the proceedings before you, 
 cannot change laws ; and on the other hand your conduct, if it 
 was hostile, as I believe it was, to the spirit and letter of our 
 statutes, cannot be excused by the criminality of the individual in 
 whose person the wrong has been consumated. 
 
 Nor do I call upon you for any proofs in relation to the fact of 
 your having delivered the published charge. Your denial or ad- 
 mission will for the present be sufficient. 
 
 You will perceive, therefore, that if you deny the fact of hav- 
 ing delivered the charge published there will be no occasion for 
 further action, and that, if you admit that fact, all that in the pre- 
 sent view of the case is called for, are the authorities before men- 
 tioned, bearing upon the legality of your proceedings, with such 
 comments on those authorities as you may think proper to make. 
 I shall expect a reply at your earliest convenience. 
 I am your obedient servant, 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
 The Hon. Robert H. Morris, Recorder of the City and County 
 of New-York. 
 
 New- York, January 2, 1841. 
 To HIS Excellency Gov. SEWARD : 
 
 Sir, — Your letter of the 29th of December, was 
 received by me this morning, at half past 10 
 o'clock. I will at the earliest moment my busi- 
 
94 
 
 ness in Court will permit, (the Janiiar}- Term of 
 the Court of Sessions will commence on ]\Ionday,) 
 reply to it. 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, &c., 
 
 ROBERT H. MORRIS, 
 Rccorde?- of the City of New- York. 
 
 To HIS Excellency WM. H. SEWARD, Gove- 
 
 NOR OF THE StATE OF NeW-YoRK : 
 
 Sir, — Professional and official duties have pre- 
 vented an earlier reply to your Excellency's letter 
 of the 29th December ult,, the receipt of which 
 I acknowledged by my note to your Excellency of 
 the 2nd of January inst. 
 
 Your Excellency's letter informs me that your 
 Excellency's " attention has been called to a charge 
 published in several newspapers in the City of 
 New-York, purporting to have been delivered by 
 you" [me] "to the Grand Jury impanneled for the 
 General Sessions of the City and County of New- 
 York, in November last." To which charge your 
 Excellency takes exception, as well as to my con- 
 duct detailed in that charge. 
 
 Your Excellency also uses the following lan- 
 guage : "I shall deem it my duty to recommend to 
 the Senate your removal from the office of Recorder 
 of the City of New-York, unless you de7iij the fact 
 of having delivered the charge, or unless you can 
 change the conviction of my mind in respect to 
 the illegality of the specified proceedings, by some 
 adjudications or by expositions of the common law 
 by elementary writers of established authority." 
 And your Excellency adds, "Nor do I call upon 
 you for any proofs in relation to the fact of your 
 having delivered the published charge. Your de- 
 nial or admission will for the present be sufficient. 
 
95 
 
 You will perceive, therefore, if you deny the fact 
 of having delivered the charge published, thsre 
 will be no occasion foi' further action. 
 
 I cannot call to recollection any act of mine, or 
 any occurrence in my official communications with 
 your Excellency, which should induce your Excel- 
 lency to suppose I could, under any circumstances, 
 deny a '' facf of which I had personal knowledge ; 
 or that could create a suspicion in your Excel- 
 lency's mind that I would permit two months to 
 elapse, after the public prints had given in their 
 report of the proceedings of the Court of Ses- 
 sions, a charge to the Grand Jury, purporting 
 to have been delivered by me, without denying 
 its authenticity, if I had not delivered it ; and 
 I am at a loss to determine how your Excel- 
 lency could, with a proper regard to a sense of 
 duty, receive from me a denial of this ''fact'^ as a 
 circumstance which would destroy all ''occasion 
 for further actionr 
 
 1 did deliver to the Grand Jury of the City and 
 County of New- York, at the November Term of 
 that Court, a charge to which I presume your 
 Excellency refers ; though your Excellency has 
 not informed me of the name of the paper in 
 which your Excellency read it. Your Excellency 
 informs me, " The most mature deliberation has 
 satisfied" you " that in the case stated, any search 
 warrant for the private pa])ers of the accused, 
 which papers were not alleged to have been felo- 
 niously stolen or unlawfully iicquired, would have 
 been a violation of the most sacred private rights, 
 and of the most cherished ])rinciples of civil lib- 
 erty." Your Excellency also expresses an opinion 
 that my conduct "was hostile to the spirit and 
 letter of the statute." 
 
96 
 
 These two last extracts from your Excellency's 
 commimication to me, indicate that your Excel- 
 lency supposes that in my charge I contended that 
 a search warrant could be issued for the private 
 papers of the accused, which papers were not al- 
 leged to have been feloniously stolen ; and that I 
 claimed that the spirit and letter of the statute 
 authorized such search warrant. In my charge I 
 expressly state that no search warrant can be is- 
 sued for the papers of the accused, and that the 
 statutes do not apply to the case of my taking the 
 papers ; and I also stated, that if no other legal 
 authority existed for making search than the stat- 
 utes, my conduct was indefensible. 
 
 To avoid any further misapprehension on this 
 subject, on the part of your Excellency, I will 
 make an extract from my charge. 
 
 " This conduct of mine is contended to have 
 been illegal — and if, after the censures which have 
 been passed upon me, for my previous conduct in 
 this investigation, is made the most prominent act 
 of ni}^ alleged offending." 
 
 The 11th section of the Bill of Rights, 1st Re- 
 vised Statutes, 2d edition, page 84, states : 
 
 "The right of the people to be secure in their 
 persons, houses, papers and effects, against unrea- 
 sonable search and seizure, ought not to be vio- 
 lated ; and no warrants can issue but upon proba- 
 ble cause, supported by an oath or affirmation, 
 and particularly describing the place to be search- 
 ed, and the persons or things to be seized." 
 
 This section shows that a reasonable search and 
 seizure is not a violation of the people's rights. 
 
 [2 Revised Statutes, 625, sections 25, 26, 27, 29.] 
 
 § 25. Upon complaint being made on oath to 
 any officer or Magistrate specified in the Second 
 
97 
 
 Title of this "Chapter, as authorized to issue war- 
 rants for the apprehension of offenders, that any 
 personal property has been stolen or embezzled, 
 and that the complainant suspects that such pro- 
 perty is concealed in any particular house or place, 
 if such Magistrate be satisfied that there is reason- 
 able ground for such suspicion, he shall issue a 
 warrant to searcli for such pro])erty. 
 
 § 26. Such a warrant shall be directed to the 
 Sheriff of the County, or any Constable or Mar- 
 shal of the Town or City, and shall command him 
 to search the place where such property is sus- 
 pected to be concealed, in the day time, (which 
 place shall be particularly designated, and the 
 property shall be particularly described in such 
 warrant,) and to bring such property before the 
 Magistrate issuing the warrant. 
 
 § 27. If there be positive proof that any [)ro- 
 perty stolen or embezzled, is concealed in any par- 
 ticular house or place, the warrant may authorize 
 the search of such house or place in the night 
 time. 
 
 § 29. An}^ Magistrate who shall commit any per- 
 son charged with any offence to prison, or by 
 whom any vagrant or disorderly person shall be 
 committed, may cause such person to be searched 
 for the purpose of discovering any property he 
 may have ; and if any property be found, the 
 same may be taken and applied to the support of 
 such person while in confinement. 
 
 These sections of our statutes have been relied 
 upon to show that I acted not only without law, 
 but against the express letter and spirit of the law. 
 These sections, with the exception of section 11, 
 from the Bill of Rights, have no application what- 
 ever to the question whether I had a right to 
 
1J8 
 
 search for written testimony against Uleiit worth. 
 Before referring again to the 1 1 th section of the 
 Bill of Rights, which, in my judgment, sanctions 
 the course I pursued, I will show what those sec- 
 tions do mean, and to what interests they are ap- 
 plicable. 
 
 The sections 2o, 26 and 27, which I have read 
 to you, are for the same object. They give to a 
 Court oi' Judge exercising criminal jurisdiction, 
 the power to issue a warrant for civil, individual 
 redress. Upon the warrant mentioned in those 
 sections, an individual's property is reclaimed and 
 delivered to him ; such warrant is to answer the 
 same object that is accomplished by writ of re- 
 plevin in civil Courts. These sections do not con- 
 template, nor do they authorize a search warrant, 
 or to ^search property or papers for evidence of 
 guilt. A search warrant cannot be issued to 
 search for the property of the accused, to be used 
 as evidence. 
 
 The 29th section is only for the purpose of au- 
 thorizing the Magistrates to take from the person 
 accused property belonging to the accused, and to 
 apply such property to pa}^ his maintenance while 
 lie is imprisoned. If these sections were the only 
 law authorizing Magistrates and officers to search 
 the premises of accused persons, and take there- 
 from property, then there would be no law to au- 
 thorize the persons and the premises of accused 
 persons, and his papers to be searched ; and there 
 would be no right to take from the premises of ac- 
 cused individuals, either counterfeit bills, or wea- 
 pons with which murder had been committed. 
 
 It is, therefore, perfectly apparent, if these sec- 
 tions of the statute are applicable at all to the 
 question, growinp: out of my taking Clentworth's 
 
r 
 
 — '^ 
 
 99 
 
 papers, that tliey establish that under no circum- 
 stance is there legal right, by warrant or other- 
 wise, to search the person, house or papers of an 
 accused person, to find evidence tending to prove 
 his guilt. 
 
 Your Excellency will therefore perceive, that I 
 take precisely the same view of the statutes, and 
 of search warrants, that is so happily expressed in 
 your Excellency's communication. It is with un- 
 feigned satisfaction that T receive the high au- 
 thority of your Excellency's opinion, formed as it 
 has been, " after the most mature deliberation," 
 th'at under no circumstance can a search warrant 
 be issued for the papers of the accused, which 
 have not been feloniously or illegally taken. I 
 will hereafter, when I consider the law which jus- 
 tifies my conduct, again refer to your Excellency's 
 opinion as conclusive in establishing the legality 
 of my course. 
 
 Your Excellency is pleased to say, " I do iiot 
 call upon you for any facts or proofs in relation 
 to the case that was the subject of the complaint 
 before you ; with them I have no official concern 
 in the present stage of the proceedings, and they 
 can have no bearing upon the points presented in 
 this letter.'* " If our laws have designed to produce 
 such a state of society, the innocence of the part}^ 
 accused, in the proceedings before you, cannot 
 change those laws ; and, on the other hand, your 
 conduct, if it was hostile, as I believe it was, to 
 the spirit and letter of our statute, cannot be ex- 
 cused by the criminality of the individual in whose 
 person the wrong has been consunnnated." 
 
 I am confident that your Excellency, after due 
 reflection, will admit the propriety of my not fol- 
 lowmg your Excellency's dictation, as to what is 
 
100 
 
 or is not essential to my defence, as to what state- 
 ment of facts are or are not necessary to the per- 
 fect understanding of the law, which I claim sus- 
 tains the course I pursued. A Judge who is either 
 to condemn or acquit, (at least in this republican 
 land of equal rights, (leaves to the culprit the dis- 
 cretion and privilege of presenting his defence in 
 such manner as his judgment dictates, to be best 
 calculated truly to exhibit his innocence. I can- 
 not, therefore, be instrumental in establishing a 
 precedent which hereafter might be used as au- 
 thority for a Judge to dictate to the accused the 
 manner and substance of his defence ; and least of 
 all, can I do so in a matter where the Judge dic- 
 tating has prejudged the case, who has, in the lan- 
 guage of your Excellency, determined that the 
 conduct of the accused is " derogatory to his sta- 
 tion and dangerous to the citizen,'' who says to the 
 accused, unless yo\i can change the " conmction of 
 mij mind in respect to the illegality of the speci- 
 fied proceedings," and who also states, "your con- 
 duct, if it was hostile, as I believe it was, to the 
 spirit and letter of the statute,'' &c. 
 
 I will therefore claim and exercise the same 
 right that all culprits enjoy. I will present to your 
 Excellency all the facts and circumstances which 
 I deem necessary to show that I am not obnoxious 
 to the imputations made against me. 
 
 The first charge which your Excellency prefers 
 against me is, that my taking the package of pa- 
 pers from Mr. Pierce was illegal. 
 
 That conduct I justify. I send with this com- 
 munication copies of the affidavits of Jas. Young, 
 Jonathan D. Stevenson, Patrick McArdle, John 
 F. Raymond, Richard M. Blatchford and Robert 
 C. Wetmore, witnesses examined before me, in the 
 
101 
 
 matter of election frauds of tiie fall of I808, and 
 the sprino- of 1839. These are correct copies of 
 the affidavits now in the possession of the District 
 Attorney for the City and County of New-York. 
 I made them a part of this my defence. 
 
 These examinati<)ns were all taken, before I 
 went and obtained from Mr. Pierce the papers 
 which are the subject of this charge. 
 
 The facts thus testified to, established in my 
 judgment that there had been a conspiracy to sub- 
 vert the fundamental principle of our Republican 
 Government ; that among the conspirators were 
 men of wealth, of high standing, of previously 
 esteemed unexceptionable character ; men of tal- 
 ent and corresponding influence in the community. 
 That testimony also satisfied my judgment that 
 the conspirators had been successful ; that votes 
 from Philadelphia had defrauded a majority of the 
 electors of the City and County of New-York out 
 of their just representation ; that adverse to the 
 Democratic Republican principle of our institu- 
 tions, which requires that the majority should be 
 represented, the minority, through the aid of 
 fraud and perjury, elected the officers. 
 
 The testimony of Patrick McArdle, and of John 
 F. Raymond, taken in the order 1 have named 
 them, were both examined on the 22d of October, 
 separately from each other, and testified before 
 Richard M. Blatchford and Robert C. Wetmore 
 were examined. These affidavits showed the con- 
 spiracy, and that the conspirators were numerous, 
 and Raymond's testimony, if true, showed that 
 Robert C. Wetmore was a jn^ominent and active 
 conspirator. 
 
 Richard M. Blatchford was then examined : the 
 first suspicious circumstance in Mr. Blatchford's 
 
102 
 
 testimony is, when he first gives the date of the 
 letter which is said to have been sent to Glent- 
 worth. He testified : " The following is a copy of 
 the letter: New-York, October 31st, 1840. I 
 have made a mistake, as this is written Ixom a 
 copy, and I ask leave to alter it. As altered it 
 should read New-York", October 31st, 1838." 
 This circumstance did excite suspicions in me. If 
 the letter had been written for the purposes of the 
 examination, then it would be natural, as it was 
 written in 1840, that the person writing it would 
 run into the figures of the year he was in the habit 
 of writing ; it was also true that a person in IS 40 
 copying a paper written in 1838, may write 1840 ; 
 still my suspicions were excited, because it was so 
 unprofessional for a lawyer of Mr. Blatchford's 
 known standing and experience, to produce a copy 
 of a copy from which to testify. 
 
 My suspicions were more excited when I heard 
 Mr Wetmore testify, who was examined after Mr. 
 Blatchford. Mr. Wetmore's testimony expressly 
 contradicted the evidence of Mr. Raymond : either 
 his or Raymond's testimony must be corruptly 
 false ; at the time, I was impressed with the be- 
 lief that there was less probability that Raymond, 
 a subordinate politician, would falsely accuse his 
 friend and leader, than that the leader should de- 
 ny his own participation in the frauds. All these 
 circumstances induced me to suppose that the con- 
 spiracy about which I was inquiring would affect 
 individuals who would make desperate eftbrts to 
 free their characters from obloquy. 
 
 The result of my observation has been — and I 
 presume that of your Excellency is the same — 
 that intelligent individuals, possessing wealth, of 
 previously good character, of an elevated standing 
 
103 
 
 i„ iho oomiuunitv, .un-omHlea by dependents and 
 connected in their social and political relations 
 with the elevated and the influential 
 
 of a crime, 
 to avoid detection and 
 
 peeted of the commission of a crime will resort 
 o more desperate means, to avoid detection and 
 conviction, than low and ordinary culprits w 
 presume to use; and that such delinquents not 
 unfreciuently, to avoid the conviction ot one ot- 
 fence will e^llicr cause others to be committed for 
 their 'benefit, or will themselves commit more hein- 
 ous offences, to defeat the prosecution of the one 
 susneotcd As many of the individuals implicated 
 by 'the testimony, in this most vile plot against 
 ti4emen^s rights and privileges-ag>ri.ist the vey 
 foundation of liberty and our boasted dcmociat - 
 institutions, were men of the elevated and influen- 
 tial standing alluded to, I deemed ^t my duty ». 
 an officer, sworn to support our ^'^''^titutioi and 
 to perforin the duties of my office accord ng to the 
 best of my abUities, to make every cg^ f" * » 
 obtain the receipts for moneys paid 'oi' ^ « dkga^ 
 votes mentioned in the testimony f Mi l^oung 
 and Mr. Stevenson, before they should be destroy- 
 ed by those whose characters might be injured by 
 
 their production. . , ,, ,j k„ ;f T 
 
 If ihose could be obtained they would be if 
 may so speak, <«rtH«« witnesses, who would tel 
 the same story, " yesterday, to-day and forever 
 witnesses who could not forget, or fo™. '"g«"'°»^ 
 and plausible misrepresentations, whicb wo Id 
 oive to falsehood the semblance ot truth, i be- 
 ficved, if those receipts could be obtained they 
 would he corroborations strong "as proofs ol holy 
 writ =• of the truth of the transaction. I therelore 
 went and obtained of Mr. ^^'^^'^^ }^'^^^^^l "^ 
 
 pers, as described in my charge to the Giand 
 
1U4 
 
 This package of papers has since been opened — 
 opened before my charge was dehvered to the 
 Grand Jur}^, and it contained the receipts alhided 
 to, and other papers, showing the commission of 
 the frauds. I annex copies of the papers as a 
 part of my defence. 
 
 These papers are a part of the res gestcR, a part 
 aiid parcel of the fraud itself , as much so as couti- 
 terfeit hills are a part and parcel of the act of coun- 
 terfeit 'mg. 
 
 The facts to which I apply the kiw, and call 
 your Excellency's attention, are — 
 
 An examining and committing Magistrate, in 
 the course of his investigation into an offence, 
 treasonable in its effects against the people of this 
 State, discovers that receipts and memoranda giv- 
 en at the time the treason or conspiracy was in 
 progress, by one set of the conspirators to other 
 of the conspirators, for moneys paid by. the last 
 mentioned persons in consideration of the treason- 
 able acts to be rendered and performed, are in the 
 custody of the confidential friend of one of the 
 parties implicated. The Magistrate, fearing that 
 the receipts and memoranda will be destroyed, 
 goes immediately, and in the night, to the dwell- 
 ing of the confidential friend, and in his official ca- 
 pacity demands and receives the receipts and 
 memoranda. 
 
 The receipts and memoranda proved to be of 
 the description supposed, and arc important evi- 
 dence, showing the commission of the off'ence. 
 Your Excellency has been pleased to state : ''Every 
 Judge and every Justice of the Peace, has the same 
 right and power of search that you can lawfully 
 claim, and if the power of search he possessed hy 
 such officers to the extent in which you have exer- 
 
105 
 
 cised it, and maintained it before the Cxrand Jury, 
 the dwellin|o-s of our follow citizens, whether they 
 be innocent or guilt}^ of offence against the laws, 
 their family affairs, their private transactions, and 
 even the meditations of their hearts, are all ex- 
 posed at the discretion of a Magistrate, and we 
 are without safeguards against oppression and the 
 abuse of power." 
 
 I fulh^ agree with your Excellency that every 
 Judge and Justice of the Peace has the same legal 
 power of search that the Recorder of the City of 
 New-York possesses, and contend that they not 
 only have the right, but that it is their imperious 
 duty, at the earliest moment after information 
 reaches them, whether it be day or night, to enter 
 the dwelling of the murderer — to search for the 
 implements which caused the death, before the 
 blood of the victim could be washed from the fatal 
 weapon — to seek for the blood-stained garments 
 of the culprit ; to go into the house of the coun- 
 terfeiter, to search for the implements of his felo- 
 nious labors, and for counterfeit bills and coin ; to 
 enter the dwelling of the burglar for his bars, his 
 false keys, his screws for forcing locks and doors ; 
 to enter the dwellings of conspiring traitors for 
 written agreements of their conspiracy. This 
 power does not authorize either them or the Re- 
 corder to invade tl^e sacred private sanctuary of 
 the honest and virtuous citizen ; and least of all 
 does it authorize them to usurp the power of the 
 Deity, and search " the meditations of their 
 hearts.'' 
 
 The abuse that might be made of a necessary 
 power, never should be used as an argument against 
 the power itself ; for upon this principle, with 
 equal truth it may be contended, that Magistrates 
 
106 
 
 should not have the power of arresting and de- 
 taining criminals, lest they might abuse the power 
 and arrest innocent citizens. 
 
 The power which I exercised has been used by 
 the Magistracy of this City, for a period longer 
 than we have been a nation, and has been exer- 
 cised for the benefit and protection of the inno- 
 cent citizen. To this City the apprehensions of 
 your Excellency do not apply ; neither can your 
 Excellency's apprehensions with justice apply to 
 the country. Although I am a native of this City, 
 much of my early life was spent in the country ; 
 and I know the sterling worth, the staunch integ- 
 rity, the pure patriotism, the indomitable opposi- 
 tion to tyranny and oppression, and the strong 
 practical good sense and intelligence of the in- 
 habitants of the country. I have reason to know 
 them ; the benefits I have received from their as- 
 sociation, from their precept, example and princi- 
 ples, are invaluable to me. I also know their 
 Magistracy, and knowing them as I do, I feel as- 
 siu'ed they cannot abuse the power delegated to 
 them. Your Excellency's ardent patriotism has 
 created spectre abuses that can never be realized. 
 
 Your Excellency's opinion, contained in your let- 
 ter to me, to which I have before alluded, shows 
 conclusively that no search warrant can be issued 
 for the property of the accused, which were not 
 alleged to have been feloniously or unlawfully ac- 
 quired. I would remark, that if the property had 
 been feloniously stolen, or illegally obtained by 
 the accused, the property would not be the pro- 
 perty of the accused, but would belong to the in- 
 dividual from whom he stole it, and the search 
 warrant would be to take from the accused, pro- 
 perty belonging to others — the ordinary case where 
 
107 
 
 searcli warrants lie. As your Excellency could 
 not have intended to speak of papers and property 
 feloniously stolen, and unlawfully obtained by the 
 accuser from the accused, the clear unembari-assed 
 manner of stating your Excellency's opinion is, "that 
 a search warrant cannot issue to take the pro- 
 perty of the accused.'' In this opinion I fully agree 
 with your Excellency, and the authorities certainl}- 
 sustain us in that opinion. The only dift'erence 
 between your Excellency and myself is, that your 
 Excellency is of the opinion that where a search 
 wai-rant will not lie, then no search can be made ; 
 while I contend that there are cases where no 
 search warrant can lie, and yet the Magistrate may 
 search, or may direct others to make the search ; 
 and my opinion is, that it is always most prudent 
 for the Magistrate to be present at the search, to 
 direct it, so that improper acts should not be com- 
 mitted, and that strict!}^ private rights and domes- 
 tic affairs, in which the public's rights and interests 
 were not concerned, should not be violated. 
 
 Was there not such power given by the law to 
 Magistrates, and did not the Magistracy exercise 
 it, the apprehension of your Excellency " and we 
 are without safeguards against oppression and the 
 abuse of power," would be fearfully realized. 
 
 We would have houses occupied by hordes of 
 prowding miscreants, distriljuted through our Cities 
 and Villages ; from these houses — these castles — 
 these Cities of refuge — counterfeiters would sally 
 forth, and impose their counterfeit bills and coin 
 upon the innocent citizen. 
 
 Should they be detected in passing a counterfeit 
 bill or false coin, their persons could not be search- 
 ed to see if tl,iey had other coin or bills of the same 
 description. Their houses could not be searched, 
 
108 
 
 for no warrant can be issued, as the counterfeit 
 money and the implements would be the property 
 of the accused, therefore the scienter could not be 
 established. The same security and immunity 
 would be extended to every grade and chiss of 
 crime, and no one could be convicted unless taken 
 in the act. Such law would produce such conse- 
 quences, and the innocent citizen would be "with- 
 out safeguards against oppression and the abuse of 
 power" imposed and exercised upon them by the 
 vile, the abandoned, and the felonious. There 
 would be no redress for the innocent, because the 
 law which your Excellency contends for, would be 
 an impenetrable shield and a tower of strength, 
 guarding the houses and the persons of depreda- 
 tors against the honest efforts of the despoiled, 
 seeking protection and redress. 
 
 My case is not one in which I had invaded the 
 sanctuary of a citizen's home, or made search 
 amongst his private papers to obtain evidence of 
 his having committed a crime. I took from a de- 
 pository of a criminal, part of his criminal acts, 
 and whether they were taken from a strong box, 
 or hiding place, or a fiduciary, is of no conse- 
 quence in determining the question of right. Nor 
 is it important that in this case the act consisted 
 of written papers, while in other cases they are 
 counterfeit plates, burglars' tools, the implements 
 with which murder has been perpetrated, or the 
 bloody garments of the murderer. If a Magis- 
 trate has the right to search a house for such ar- 
 ticles as these, then my conduct in seizing the 
 Glentworth papers was clearly legal. Whether 
 such a right exists, I shall very briefly discuss ; 
 first premising that as we have already seen, and 
 you so clearly and strongly state, the rules appli- 
 
 S- 
 
lOii 
 
 cable to search wiirraiits ha\ o nothing to do with 
 the question, and that the power I ckdm has been 
 exercised for centuries, and under our institutions, 
 without being before Cidled in question. 
 
 I must still refer j^our Excellency to the authori- 
 ties contained in my charge, hi addition to which 
 I allude to the following : 
 
 In Blackstone, 4th vol. 292, and 1st Blackstone 
 350, you will hnd the powers of Justices of the 
 Peace delined, and the books to which he refers, 
 viz. : Lambard's Eirenarch and Burn's Justice, 
 sliow that a commission of a Justice of the Peace, 
 " hrst empowers him singly to conserve the peace, 
 and thereby gives him all the powers of the an- 
 cient conservators of the common law. in suppress- 
 ing riots and affrays, in taking securities for the 
 peace, and in apprehending and committing felons 
 and other inferior criminals.'' In 1st Blackslone 
 356, t]ie duties of constables are thus descriljed : 
 " The general duties of all constables, both in high 
 and petit, as well as those of the other officers, is 
 to keep the King's peace in their several districts, 
 and to that purpose, they are armed with very 
 large powers of arresting and imprisoning, of break- 
 ing open houses and the like." This means of 
 course, breaking open houses for lawful purposes. 
 
 There is no difference between the powers of 
 Justices of the Peace, and constables, in regard to 
 the arrest of felons, and searches, as the authorities I 
 have cited show, and both hnve power "to pursue 
 felons and keep the goods found on them, as direc- 
 ted by the Court,'' (5th Report 2,) cited in Peters- 
 dorflf's Abridgment, vol. Yb, 129. Some of the 
 cases I have cited in my charge, show clearly, that 
 property and papers found on the persons of crim- 
 inals, have been received in evidence against them. 
 
no 
 
 and without any objection made to the obtaining 
 them by the officers ; such was Watson's case. 2d 
 Starkie"^, C, 140. Rex vs. Salter, 5 Esp. Cases, 125, 
 and the remark of Abbot, C. J., is very strong, 
 that '' an assize had scarcely ever occurred, where 
 it did not happen that part of the evidence against 
 a prisoner, consisted of proof that the stolen pro- 
 perty was found in his house after his apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 In the celebrated case of Fontleroy, the great 
 banker, tried in London, for forgery, he was ar- 
 rested by a police officer in his banking house. As 
 he left to accompany the officer, he locked his desk 
 with a key attached to his watch chain. Upon 
 this fact being stated to the Magistrate, the officer 
 and a solicitor of the bank were sent with the key 
 to search the desk of Fontleroy. In the search of 
 the desk and in a private drawer, they found other 
 keys with wdiich they returned to the Magistrate. 
 They were directed to return to the place, and 
 with the aid of the keys make further search. In 
 an adjoining room to that in wliicli he had been 
 arrested, they found two boxes lettered '" Fontle- 
 roy ;" upon trying the keys, they were found to 
 open the boxes, and they then took the boxes with 
 them. These boxes were examined and found to 
 contain bonds, mortgages, certificates of stock and 
 powei's of attorney, some of which were forgeries, 
 were used as evidence against him upon the trial, 
 produced his . conviction, and he was executed. 
 Now, he was defended by a Counsel of such emi- 
 nence, that he has since been raised to the Bench 
 of England. 
 
 In the late case of Robinson, who was lately ar- 
 rested and committed for the murder of Mr. Suy- 
 dam, at New Brunswick, he was arrested on sus- 
 
Ill 
 
 picion growing out of some declarations he had 
 made. Being brought before the Magistrate, and 
 not sufficient proof appearing against him, he was 
 asked if he would consent to have his liouse search- 
 ed. He positively refused. Without warrant, his 
 house was searched. The flooring of his basement 
 was torn up, and the mangled corpse of Suydam 
 was there found buried. His papers were then 
 searched. Among them, were found a bond and 
 mortgage, which had been given by Robinson to 
 Suydam. The finding of these papers which had 
 shortly before been in the possession of Suydam, 
 connected Robinson with the murder, and will no 
 doubt produce his conviction. For all this there 
 was no search warrant, nor could one have been 
 issued. These are two of the numberless cases 
 which years have witnessed, and every day pro- 
 duces. I need not detail others. Your Excellency 
 will find in the reports countless cases, in which, 
 from what was discovered in searches like those I 
 have described, the community was rid of most 
 desperate offenders. 
 
 The remaining specification which your Excel- 
 lency prefers against me, is for my having deliver- 
 ed my charge to the Grand Jury. Your Excellen- 
 cy says. " In availing yourself of your station as a 
 Judge to spread before the body to whom was 
 assigned by law the duty of inquiring into your 
 conduct, and who were restricted to the evidence, 
 and could hear only the Counsel on the part of the 
 people, you not only obtained an improper ad- 
 vantage denied to all other citizens in similar 
 circumstances, but furnished an example to other 
 judicial officers, which if permitted to pass without 
 censure, may become a precedent of the most 
 alarming tendency.'' 
 
112 
 
 Your Excellency, having resicl my chijrg-e, is in- 
 formed of the excited state of public feelhig at 
 the time it was dehvercd. You have learned the 
 extraordinary, preposterous and dangei-ous opin- 
 ions of the law, which designing men inculcated 
 among the inhabitants of this City, for the purpose 
 of destroying the constituted authorities and the 
 law itself, that guilty men might escape the legal 
 penalties their' criminal acts merited. You have 
 seen that the most plain provisions of the Statutes 
 were denied, the clear and ordinary powers of the 
 Magistracy were disputed ; that brute force at- 
 tempted to wrest from the custody of the law, le- 
 gal testimony, which I have shown was legally 
 obtained ; and that the actors and abettors in this 
 crusade against the law, were men of intelligence, 
 standing and influence. You have also seen that 
 the apprehensions I entertained, which induced 
 me to obtain from Mr. Pierce the possession of the 
 papers, for fear they would be destroyed, were 
 more than realized, and that even the seal of the 
 Supreme Court was prostituted to the purpose of 
 an attempt to destroy testimony essential to vindi- 
 cate the violated laws of the State. 
 
 There was that also which your Excellency has 
 not learned, that which your Excellency cannot 
 understand, and appreciate to its full extent, not 
 having been present and witnessed it. There was 
 among a mass of our fellow citizens, a deep and 
 quiet determination, at every hazard, to maintain 
 inviolate, the sacred institutions of our country ; 
 it was like a pending cloud, which a current of air 
 might remove, or cast with all its fury upon a de- 
 voted City. 
 
 These facts I knew : the apprehended evil that 
 might occur to this City I saw, and determined by 
 
113 
 
 my cluirge to the Grand -Jury, to inf(^rm them, and 
 through them the community, what the hiw was, 
 that they might see what powers Magistrates and 
 Courts possessed ; that I would state facts that 
 would inform the conspirators that their machina- 
 tions were known, to the end that all patriotic 
 citizens might conhde to the legal tribunals the 
 vindication of their violated privileges, and that 
 the violators of the law might be induced to make 
 no further effort to pervert the course of justice. 
 Your Excellency appears to suppose that the 
 Court are not the legal counsellors and advisers of 
 the Grand Jury, and in this your Excellency is in 
 error. The Court are the legal counsellors of the 
 District Attorney, and of the Grand Jury ; and it 
 was my duty to charge the Grand Jury what the 
 law was ; it was not as your Excellency states, 
 " availing" myself of my " situation as Judge." 
 
 Your Excellency appears to believe that the 
 charge was delivered "to spread my defence" be- 
 fore the Jury, and that I delivered the charge to 
 screen myself from punishment. 
 
 If your Excellency so believes, then does your 
 Excellency not know me ; neither do you appre- 
 ciate the motive that actuated me. I then knew 
 and now know, that all my acts were legal, and 
 that my motives were a strict desire fully to per- 
 form my judicial duties to the furtherance of jus- 
 tice, and the protection, of the citizens in their 
 constitutional privileges. 
 
 Your Excellency has been pleased to say, my 
 conduct, if permitted to pass without censure, 
 may become " a precedent of the most alarming 
 tendency." 
 
 I would not obliterate that conduct or that 
 charge, even to save me from your Excellency's 
 
114 
 
 censure. The principle and the motives which 
 prompted that conduct, and caused that charge, 
 are a glowing sun of approbation, whose genial 
 rays the thin vapor of jour Excellency's censure 
 will not shade. 
 
 Your Excellency assigns as one reason for re- 
 commending to the Senate my removal from office, 
 that my conduct, " permitted to pass uncensured, 
 may become a precedent of the most alarming 
 tendency." 
 
 Does it not strike j^our Excellency's judgment 
 that the removal of judicial officers, without re- 
 sorting to the ordinary legal and just course — that 
 of impeachment — "may become a precedent of 
 the most alarming tendency ?'' May it not form 
 a precedent for succeeding Executives (who 
 want tlie discrimination and the patriotism claimed 
 for your Excellency) to authorize the summary 
 removal from office of vigilant Judges, who have 
 detected, and are about punishing the offenders, 
 and place the participators in the crime upon the 
 judgment seat, which would enable them in the 
 language of your Excellency, "to avail" them- 
 selves of their station as Judges, to spread their 
 defence before the Jury, if not to smother the 
 prosecution ? 
 
 This method of removal of judicial officers, un- 
 der the peculiar and unfortunate circumstances of 
 the case, as regards your Excellency's situation in 
 the matter, (Mr. Blatchford being your personal 
 friend, and the father of your Private Secretary, 
 and Mr. Wetmore having been chosen one of your 
 Excellency's aids, both of w^hom are implicated in 
 the crime, for detecting which, your Excellency 
 thinks of recommending my removal from office,) 
 may be resorted to ns authority, to authorize fu- 
 
 
urj 
 
 lure Executives, less scrupuh.us and coiiscieutious 
 than jour Excellency, tor ])()iitical purposes, or at 
 the dictation of political r.ssociates, to remove IVoni 
 oiHce ;dl Judo-es who are not sujiple in their prin- 
 ciples, and accomniodatinp;- in theii' 0})inions. Then 
 an honest .Judiciai-y — the hnlwai'k which protects 
 the peo]de from the prosecutions of the Govern- 
 ment, nnd which ])rotects the honest citizen froin 
 the depredations of felons, would he exchanged 
 for mere echoes of Executive tvill ; ami their legal 
 optnions, judgments and decrees, would be found- 
 ed ordy upon the political character of the parties 
 — not upon the eviderice or judicinl ]n"ecedents. 
 Very respectfully, yours, c^c, 
 
 ROBERT H. MORRIS, 
 Recorder of the Ctly of Nev: YorL\ 
 Jaxuary 8. 1841. 
 
 K K R A T t- ir . 
 Oh i.asc 4, lii,t" T, f.-u- Mr. KiUiMii Mill-r, rea.l Messrs. MoiioU & Biisl.nfil 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 107 454 4 
 
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