Life and character of Hon. Thomas Ruff In CB K9Z4-! C.4- ' The University of North Carolina Library From the ERNEST HAYWOOD LIBRARY Established in Memory of John Haywood, Trustee 1789-1827 Edmund Burke Haywood, 1843-46 Ernest Haywood, '80 by Burke Haywood Bridgers, *03 C6 c,4- ^ / LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE HON. THOMAS RUFFIN, Late Chief Justice of North Carolina. ^ MEMORIAL ORATION, WILLIAM A. GRAHAM, Delivered before the Agricultural Society of the State, by its request, at the Annual Fair in Raleigh, Oct. 21st, 1870. EALEIGH, N. (J. NlCnOIiS & GOKMAN, BOOK AND JOB rBINTER.S. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE HOJ(. THOMAS RUFFIN, Late Chief Justice of North Carolina. A MEMORIAL ORATION, BY T\1LLIA]\I A. GRAHA^r, Delivered before the Agricultural Society of the State, by its request, at the Annual Fair in Raleigh, Oct. 21st, 1870. EALEIGH, K 0.: NICHOLS & GOKMAX, BOOK AXD JOB PRIXTERS. 1871. ORATION. The patriotic people of tbe Coimty of Kockingliam in a public assemblage at tbeir first Superior Court after tbe deatb of Cbief Justice Euffix, in which they were joined with cordial sympathy by the gen- tlemen of the bar of that Court, resolved to manifest their appreciation of his talents, virtues and pubhc usefulness, by causing to be pronounced a memorial oration on his life and character. Such an offering was deemed by them a fitting tribute from a people among whom his fiimily first settled upon their arri- val in Xorth Carolina, and with whom he had been associated as a planter and cultivator of the soil from his early manhood till his decease. The Agricultural Society of the State, of which for many years he had been a distinguished President, subsequently determined on a like offering to his mem- ory at their annual Fair. The invitation to prepare such a discourse has been by both l)odies extended to the same individual. The task is undertaken with dif- fidence, and a sense of apprehension, that amid the multiplicity of other engagements, its fulfilment may fail in doing justice to the subject of the memoir. Thomas Ruffin, the eldest child of his parents, was born at ^''ewington, the residence of his macernal (rrand Father, Thomas Ptoane, in the County of King and (,)ueen, in Virginia, on the 17t]i of Xovember, 1787. 4 Life and Cliaracter of the His Father, Sterling Euffin, Esquire, was a planter in the neighboring County of Essex, who subse- quently transferred his residence to I^orth Carolina, and died in the County of Caswell. Ardent in his religious sentiments, and long attached to the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, he very late in life, entered the ministry, and was for a few years prior to his death, a preacher in that denomination. His Mother, Ahce Eoane, was of a family much distinguished in Virginia by the public service of many of its members, and was herself first cousin of Spencer Eoane, the Chief Justice of that State in the past generation, whose judicial course, con- nected as it was with questions of difficulty and importance in constitutional law, gave him high pro- fessional, as well as political, distinction ; but it may well be doubted, whether, in all that constitutes a great lawyer, he had any pre-eminence over the sub- ject of our present notice, his junior kinsman in Xorth Carohna, then but rising into fame, and des- tined to fiU the like office in his own State. His Father, though not affluent, had a respectable fortune, and sought for the son the best means of education. His early boyhood was passed on the farm in Essex, and in attendance on the schools of the vicinity. Thence, at a suitable age, he was sent to a classical Academy in the beautiful and health- ful village of Warrenton, in North Carolina, then under the instruction of Mr. Marcus George, an Irishman by birth and education, a fine classical scholar and most painstaking and skillful instructor, especially in elocution, as we must believe, since Hon. Thomas Rnjjln. 5 amoug his pupils who survived to our times, we fiud the best readers of our acquaiutance iu their day. His excellence in this particular was probablj'- attributable to his experience on the theatrical stage, where he had spent a portion of his life. He made his first appearance in the State at the Convention in Hillsborough, in 1788, which rejected the Federal Constitution, in search of employment as a teacher, was engaged by the Warren gentlemen then in attendance, and many years subsequently was still at the head of a flourishing school, in which our student entered. The system and dis- cipline of Mr. George conformed to the ancient regime^ and placed great faith in the rod. He is described as a man of much personal prowess and spirit, who did not scruple to administer it on his pupils, when sloth, delinquency or misbehavior requu:ed, without reference to age, size or other circumstances. Yet he secured the respect of his patrons, and the confidence of the public, and inspu^ed the gratitude and affection of his pupils in a remarkable degree. This turning aside from our subject, to pay a passing tribute to his old preceptor, is deemed to be justified not only by the long and useful labors of Mr. George, in the instruction of youth in the gen- eration in which Mr. Kuffin's lot was cast, but because he himself entertained the highest appreciation of the profession of an instructor, accustoming himself to speak of it as one of the most honorable and bene- ficent of human employments. Throughout his labo- rious and well-spent life, he often acknowledged his 6 Life and Character of the obligations of gratitude for the earl}^ training lie liad received under the tuition of this faithful, but some- what eccentric son of Erin. And it may well be doubted whether Lord Eldou, in the maturity of his wisdom and great age, retained a more grateful and affectionate recollection of Master Moises of the High School of IS'ew Gastle, than did Chief Justice Eufifin of Master George of the Warrenton Male Academy. At this institution were assembled the sons of most of the citizens of Eastern North Carolina and the bor- dering counties of Virginia, aspiring to a liberal edu- cation. And here were formed friendships, which he cherished with great satisfaction throughout lite. Among his companions were the late Eobeit Broad- nax, of Eockingham, subsequently a planter of large possessions on Dan Eiver, among the most estimable gentlemen of his time; and Cadwallader Jones, then of Halifax, but afterwards of Orange, at different periods an officer in the l^avy and in the Army of the United States, a successful planter, and a model of the manners and virtues which give a charm to social intercourse. With both of these gentlemen his early attachments were in after life cemented by the union in marriage of their children. Here, too, he found ^Yeldon I^. Edwards, of Warren, subsequently* distinguished by much public service in Congress and * under the Government of the State, thenceforward his lifelong friend, with whom his bonds of amity seemed to be drawn more closely as others of his con- temporaries dropped from around him. Of these four youths of the Warrenton Academy, at the beginning of Hon. Thomas Biiffin. 7 the nineteeutli century, Mr. Edwards alone surw^es. Long may he live to enjoy the veneration and respect dne to a life of probity, honor and usefulness. From the WaiTenton Academy young Euffin was transferred to the College of Nassau Hall, at Prince- ton, New Jersey. It is believed that his father, who was a deeply pious man, was controlled in the selec- tion of this College in preference to that of William & Mary, in Virginia, next to Harvard University the oldest institution of learning in the United States, not only by a desire to place his son in an unsuspected situation as to his health, which had suffered from the malarial influences prevaihng in the tidewater region of Eastern Ykginia, but to secure him as well fiom the temptation incident to College hfe, in an institu- tion, in which as he supposed, there was too loose an authority and discipline exerted over the sons of aflluence and ease. He entered the Freshman class, at Princeton, and '^graduated at the commencement in 1805;" the sixteenth in a class of forty-two mem- bers, '* being the first of the second division of in- termediate honors." The late Governor James Ire- dell, of North Carolina, was in the class succeeding his own, and for nearly the whole of his College course, his room-mate. Thus commenced a filendship between these gentlemen in youth, which was termin- ated only by the death of Mr. Iredell. Among oth- ers of his College associates who became distinguished in subsequent life, there were Samuel L. Southard and Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Joseph K. lugersoll, of Philadelphia, the Cuthberts and Ha- 8 Life and Character of the bershams, of Georgia, Christopher Hughes of Maryland, and Stevenson Archer, of Mississippi. Eeturning home with his bachelor degree, Mr. Euf- fin soon afterwards entered the law office of David Eobertson, Esquk-e, of Petersbm^g, as a student of the law, and continued there through the years 1806 and 1807. Here he was associated as fellow-student with John F. May, afterwards Judge May, of Pe- tersburg, and Winfield Scott, afterwards so highly dis- tinguished in arms, and the only officer down to his time, except General Washington, who attained the rank of Lieutenant General in the army of the United States. General Scott, in his Autobiography, describes their preceptor, Mr. Kobinson, as a Scotchman, a very learned scholar and barrister, who originally came to America as a classical teacher ; but subsequently gained high distinction as a lawyer, and was the author of the report of the debates in the Virginia Convention which adopted the Federal Constitution, and of the report of the trial of Aaron Burr for high treason. In a note to the same work. General Scott mentions his chancing to meet Judge Euffin in N'ew York in 1853, while the latter was attending as a delegate, the Protestant Episcopal Convention, of the United States after a separation of forty-seven years, and recurs to their association together with Judge May, as law students, and to the conversation in which they then indulged, with manifest pride and pleasure. He also refers to their subsequent intercourse in the city of Washington, in 1861, while Judge Euffin was serving as a member of the Peace Congress, and ex- Hon. Tlwmas Euffni. 9 presses the opiiiiuu, that, "if the sentiments of this good man, always highly conservative (the same as Crittenden's,") had prevailed, the country would have escaped the sad inflictions of the war, which was radnii at the time he wrote. Sterhng Ruffin, the father, having suffered some re- verses of fortune, determined to change his home, and removed to Eockingham County, North Carolina, in 1807. His son soon fohowed,' a wilhng emigrant. It was in :N'orth Carolina he had received his first training for useful life: here was the home of most of his early friends, and here he confidently hoped to renew his association with Broadnax, Jones, Ed- wards, Iredell and other kindred spirits. He doubtless brought with him a considerable store of professional learning from the office of Mr. Eob- ertson, in which he had been more than two years a student, but on his arrival in :Nrorth Carolina, he pursued his further studies under the direction of the Honorable A. D. Murphey, until his admission to the bar, in 1808. Early in 1809, he estabhshed his home in the town of Hillsborough, and on the 9th of De- cember, in that year, he was united in marriage with Miss Anne Kirkland, eldest daughter of the late Wihiam Kirkland, of that place, a prominent merchant and leading citizen. The twenty years next ensuing, during which his residence was continually in Hihsborough, comprehends his career at the bar and on the Bench of the Su- perior Courts. In 1813, 1815 and 1816, he served as a member of the Legislature in the House of 10 Life and Cliaracter of the Commons from this town, under the old Constitutiony and filled the office of Speaker of the House, at the last mentioned session, when first elected a Judge upon the resignation of that office by Duncan Cam- eron. He was also a candidate on the electoral ticket in favor of Wihiam H. Crawford for the Pres- idency of the United States, in 1824. But his as- pirations, tastes and interests inclined him not to po- litical honors, but to a steady adherence to the pro- fession to which his life was devoted. He found at the bar in Orange and the neighboring counties to which his practice was extended several gentlemen, his seniors in years, who were no ordinary competi tors for forensic fame and patronage; of whom it may be sufficient to name Archibald D. Mm^Dhey, Fred- erick :N"ash, William l^orwood, Duncan Cameron, (who although he had suspended his practice for a time, resumed it not long after Mr. Euffin came to the bar,) Henry Seawell, Leonard Henderson, Wilham Eobards, I^icholas P. Smith, of Chatham, and later of Tennessee. His first essays in argument are said not to have been very fortunate. His manner was diffi- dent and his speech hesitating and embarrassed. But these difficulties being soon overcome, the vigor of his understanding, the extent and accuracy of his learning, and his perfect mastery of his causes by diligent preparation, in a short time gave him posi- tion among these veterans of the profession, secured him a general and lucrative practice, and an easy accession to the Bench in seven years from his ini- tiation at the bar. His reputation was greatly ad- Hon. Thomas JRuffin. 11 vanced and extended by the manner in which he ac- (initted himself in this oflQce. The ^wants, however, of an increasing family and an unfortunate involve- nieiit hy suretyship forbade his continuance in a sit- uation of no better income than the salary which was its compensation. He resigned to the Legislature of 1818, and immediately returned to the practice. Mr. Euffin had kept up habits of close study of his profession before his promotion to the Bench, and the leisure aflorded by the vacations of the office was eagerly availed of, for the same object. He came back to the bar not only with his health renovated, which had never been very robust, but with a bright- ness in his learning and an increase of fame, which, in the Supreme Court then recently estabhshed on its l)resent basis, and in the Circuit Court of the United States, as well as on the ridings in the State Courts, brought to him a practice and an income, which has hardly ever been equalled in the case of any other practitioner in i^orth Carolina. For forty-three weeks in the year he had his engagements in Court, and despite of all conditions of the weather or other im- pediments to travelling in the then state of the coun- try, rarely fliiled to fulfil them. He held the appoint- ment of Eeporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court for one or two terms, but rehnquished it from the engrossment of his time by his practice ; and his labors are embraced in the prior part of the first volume of Hawks. Mr. Archibald Henderson, Mr. Gaston, Mr. Seawell, Mr. Murphey, Mr. Moses Mordecai, Mr. Gavin Hogg, and Mr. Joseph Wilson, 12 Life and Character of the all men of renown, were, with Mr. Euffin, the chief advocates in the Supreme Court at that period, Mr. Kash and Mr. Badger being then upon the Bench; and according to tradition, at no time have the ar-^ guments before it been more thorough and exhaus- tive. The late Governor Swain being a part of this period a student of the law in the office of Chief Justice Taylor, in a public address at the opening at Tucker Hall, in which he gave many reminiscences of former times in Ealeigh, mentions a prediction in his hearing of Mr. Gaston to one ot his clients in 1822, that if Mr. Eufl&n should live ten years longer he would be at the head of the profession in [N'orth Carolina. By the same authority we are informed, that only a year or two later. Judge Henderson de- clared that he had then attained this position of eminence. Among the professional gentlemen he met in the. wide range of his practice on the circuits, in addition to his seniors already named, were Bart- lett Yancey, Augustine H. Shepperd, Eomulus M. Saunders, James Martin, Thomas P. Devereux, Jas. F. Taylor, Charles Manly, Wm. H. Haywood, Jr., Daniel L. Barringer, Samuel Hillman, John M. and James T. Morehead, Bedford Brown, Wilhe P. and Priestly H. Mangum, Francis L. Hawks, Thos. Set- tle, John M. Dick, George C Mendenhall, and sev- eral others, of high distinction among the advocates and pubUc characters of the State; by all of whom his eminent abilities and attainments were fully ac- knowledged and appreciated. In the summer of 1825, upon the resignation of Hon, Thomas Buffni. 13 Judge Badger, ]\Ir. Euffiu again accepted the appoint- liieiit of a Judge of the Superior Courts. His recent successes had reheved hiui of embarrassment, and supphed him a competent fortune ; his health deman- ded relaxation and rest; and his duties to his family, now quite numerous, in his estimation required more of his presence at home than was consistent with the very active life he was leading. He therefore relinquished his great emoluments at the bar for the inadequate salary then paid to a Judge, and virtually closed his career as an advocate. By the bar and the public he was welcomed back on the circuits, and for the three following years he administered the law with such universal admiration and acceptance, both on the part of the profession and the people, that he was generally designated by the public approbation for the succession to the Bench of the Supreme Court when- ever a vacancy should occur. The reputation he had established by this time, however, did not merely assign him capabilities as a lawyer, but ascribed to him every qualification of a thorough man of affairs. It was conceded, at least, that he could teach bankers, banking and merchants the science of accounts. In the Autumn of 1828, the stockholders of the old State Bank of Xorth Carolina, at the head of whom were William Polk, Peter Browne and Duncan Cam- eron, owing to the great embarrassment of the affairs of this institution, involving disfavor with the public, and threats of judicial proceedings for a forfeiture of its charter, prevailed on him to take tlie Presidency of 14 Life and Character of the the Bank, with a salary increased to the procurement of his acceptance ; and with the privilege on his part to practice his profession in the city of Ealeigh. In twelve months devoted to this office, with his charac- teristic energy, mastering the affairs of the Bank with a true talent for finance, making available its assets and providing for its liabilities, and inspiring confidence by the general faith in his abilities and high purpose to do right, he effectually redeemed the institution, and prepared the w^ay to close out in credit the re- maining term of its charter. At this period, also, another place of high political eminence was at his choice, but w^as promptly declined. A vacancy having happened in the Senate of the Uni- ted States by the appointment of Governor Branch to the head of the Navy department, and the Honor- able Bartlett Yancey, who had been the general favor- ite for the succession, having recently died, Mr. Rufiin was earnestly sohcited to accept a candidacy for this position with every assurance of success. But his de- sire was, as he himself expressed it among his friends, ^' after the labor and attention he had bestowed upon his profession, to go down to posterity as a lawyer." Irrespective, therefore, of his domestic interests, and the care and attention due to his family, of which no naan ever had a truer or warmer conception, he could not be diverted from his chosen line of lile by the at- tractions of even the highest political distinction. While assiduously employed in the affairs of the Bank, to which was devoted the year 1821), his services Avere still demanded by clients in the higher couits, Hon. Thomas Ruffln, 15 aud his reputation at the bar suffered no ecUpse. Upon the death of Chief Justice Taylor, in this year, the Executive appointment of a successor was confer- red on a gentleman of merited eminence in the pro- fession, and of a singularly pure and elevated charac- ter ; hut the sentiment of the majority of the profes- sion as well as public opinion, had made choice of Mr. liuffin for the permanent office, and he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court at the session of the Leg- islature in the autumn of 1829. In 1833, upon the demise of Chief Justice Henderson, he was elevated to the Chief Justiceship, in which he won that fame which will longest endure, because it is incorporated in the judicial literature of the country, and is co-ex- tensive with the study and administration of our sys- tem of law. Before directing attention to his labors in this high- est court of appeals in the State, it is appropriate to remark on his prior career as an advocate, counsellor and Judge of the Superior Courts. Of his arguments at the bar, at nisi prius, or in the Courts of appeal, no memorials have been preserved save the imperfect briefs contained in the causes that have been reported. His nature was ardent, and his manner of speech ear- nest and often vehement in tone and gesticulation. Though versed in hcUes lettre^s, and with tastes to rel- isli eloquent declamation, it was a held into which he did not often, if at all, adventure. His reliance was upon logic, not upon rhetoric; and even his illustra- tions were drawn from things practical, rather than the ideal. Analyzing and thoroughly comprehending 16 Life and Character of the his cause, he held it up plainly to the view of others, and with a searching and incisive criticism exposed and dissipated the weak points in that of his adver- sary : and all this, in a vigorous, terse and manly Eng- lish, every word of which told. Few advocates ever equaUed him in presenting so much ot solid thought in the same number of words, or in disentangling com- plicated facts, or elucidating abstruse learning sd* as to make the demonstration complete to the minds of the auditory ; capacities, doubtless gained by severe cul- ture, a part of which, as I learned from an early stu- dent in his office, had been a daily habit, long after his admission to the bar, of going carefully over the demonstration of a theorem in Mathematics. Thus habituated to abstract and exact reasoning, he de- lighted in the approach to exactness in the reasoning of the law, and no student could more truly say of his professional investigations, ^^ Lahor ipse est vohiptas.'^ The accuracy thus attained in his studies, gave him high eminence as a pleader, in causes both at law and in Equity; and among his associates usually devolved on him the office of framing the pleadings in the causes in which they were engaged. It also gave him rank among the great counsellors of the time, whose opin- ions were not the result of cramming for an occasion, or a fortunate authority, but the well considered reflec- tions of gifted minds imbued with law as a science, and who had explored to their sources, the principles uvolved in the subjects they examined, and made them their own. This full developement of his forensic char- acter does not appear to have been manifested until Hon, Thomas Euffin. 17 after Lis retuiu to the bar subsequently to his first service ou the bench. But from this period tiU his second retirement, in 1825, he had hardly a rival in the bar of the Supreme Court of the State or the Circuit Court of the United States, except Archibald Henderson and Gaston, and had a command of the practice in all the State Courts he attended. As a Judge of the Superior or nisi prius Courts, he exhib- ited equal aptitude for the Bench as for the practice at the Bar. With an energy that pressed the business forward, a quickness rarely equalled in perceiving and comprehending facts, patient and industrious habits of labor, and a spirit of command which suffered no time to be lost, he despatched causes with expedition, but with no indecent haste. Whilst he presided, it was rare that any cause before a jury ever occupied more than a single day, and none is remembered that ex- tended beyond two. It may be inferior to the dignity of the occasion to indulge in professional anecdotes. The promptness, however, with which he disposed of a case of some novelty on the circuit, may justify a passing notice. The plaintiff and defendent had disputed on a matter of law, and growing warm in the controversy, laid a wager on the ({uestion of whether or not the law was as affirmed by the plaintiff; and a suit was brought to have the point determined. After the contract of wa- ger had been proved, the plaintiff rested. The Judge called on the counsel for the plaintiff to prove that he had won. The counsel replied that that depended on the I'oint of law wliich he submitted to his Honor. 18 Life and Cliaracter of the The Judge rejoined, that it was oue of facts in the the controversy^, on which he was forbidden to express an opinion; but for then" trifling with the Court in instituting such an action, he ordered it to be dismiss- ed, and each party to pay half the costs, with an inti- mation, that it was leniency in the Court to stop with no greater penalty. It is worthy of remark, that about the same time, as we since learn fi^om the reports, Chief Justice Abbott, in the King Bench in England,, ordered a cause " to be struck out of the paper," the subject of the action being a wager on a dog-fight, upon the ground that it was insignificant, and it would be a waste of time to try it. In administering the criminal law, in which the ex- tent of punishment generally depended on the discre- tion of the Judge, his sentences were such as to in- spire evil doers with terror, but eminently tended to give protection to society and confidence to honest and law-abiding men. His accession to the Bench ot the Supreme Court was a source of general satisfaction to the profession,, and to the people of the State, by whom his enlight- ened labors in the circuits had been witnessed with admiration and pride. He at once took a conspicuous part in the proceedings of this high tribunal, and for twenty-three years, that he continuously sat there, pro- bably delivered a greater number of the opinions on which its judgments were founded, than any Judge with whom in this long career he was associated. These opinions are found through more than twent^^- five volumes of books of reports, and form the bulk lion. Thomas Ruffin. 1^ of our jiulieial literature for a full geueration. They embrace topics of almost every variety, civil and criminal, legal and equitable, concerning probate and administration, marriage and divorce, slavery and fieedom, and constitutional law, wliicli can enter into judicial controversy, in the condition of society then prevailing in the State, and constitute memorials of her jurisprudence, by which the members of the pro- fession are content she shall be judged in the pres- ent age and by posterity. They have been cited with approbation in the American courts. State and National, by eminent legal authors, and in the ju- dicial deliberations of Westminster Hall ; and the Xorth Carolina lawyer who can invoke one of them as a case in point with his own, generally consid- ers that he is possessed of an impenetrable shield. It has been rare in England that a Judge or Ad- vocate has reached high distinction in the courts both of common law and Equity. The student of the judicial arguments of Chief Justice Ruffin will be at a loss to determine in which of these branches of legal science he most excelled. To the votary of the common law, fresh from the perusal of the black letter of the times of the Tudors and early Stuarts, and captivated with its artificial refinements and technical distinctions as to rights and remedies, he would appear to have pursued his professional edu- cation upon the intimation of Butler in his remin- iscences, that " he is the best lawyer, and will suc- ceed best in his profession, who best understands Coke upon Littleton ;" or, advancing to the modern 20 Life and Cliaracter of the ages of greater enlightenment and freer intercourse among nations, that he had made a specialty of the law of contracts, bills of exchange and commercial law generally; whilst his expositions of Equity causes win satisfy any impartial critic, that he was at least equally a proficient and master of the principles and practice of the jurisprudence of the English Chancery, and would induce the belief that, like Sir Samuel Eomilly or Sir William Grant, his practice at the bar had been confined to this branch of th* pro- fession. The minute distinctions between the limits of the jurisdiction of the Courts of Equity and com- mon law, he comprehended and illustrated with a rare discrimination and accuracy. During the term of his service in that Court, it will be remembered by the profession, that three great departures were made from long established pre- cedents in the EngUsh Courts of Equity, which have tended to give simplicity to our system, and to free it from the embarrassment and confusion of the au- thorities in the English cases ; namel}^. First, in ad- hering to the direction of the statute of Frauds, and refusing to decree the specific execution of a contract for the conveyance of real estate required to be in writing, upon the ground that the parties had acted upon their agreement, and that it had been partially carried into execution. Second, in dis- carding the doctrine that a vendor who had sold land and parted with the title, trusting his vendee for the purchase money, yet had a lien on the land as a security for its payment. Third, in negativing Hon, Thomas Riiffin. 21 likewise the EDglish doctriue of a married woman's equitable right to a settlement for lier maintenance before her husband should invoke the power of the court to reduce her estate to possession. These have been acknowledged as salutary reforms both at home and abroad, in all of which Chief Justice Euf- fin concurred and delivered leading arguments in their support. Accustomed tenaciously to adhere to prece- dents upon the theory, that the wisdom of a suc- cession of learned Judges, concurred in or tolerated by the Legislature from age to age, is superior to that of any one man, and that certainty in the rules of the law is of more importance than their abstract justice; yet where there had been no domestic prece- dent, and those abroad were at variance with the com- mand of a statute or with obvious principles, he readi- ly embraced these opportunities to symmetrize and per- fect the system of practical morality administered in the American courts of Equity. His familiar knowledge of banking and mercantile transactions and skilfuluess in accounts, gave him a conceded eminence in the innumerable causes involving inquiries of this nature. During his presidency in the Supreme Court, it cannot fail to be remarked that there was a great advance in the accuracy of pleadings hi Equity causes, and in a general extension of the knowledge of Equity practice throughoat the circuits. And the precision and propriety of entries in every species of procedure were brought to a high state of perfection, mainly by his investigations and labors, in conjunction with those of that most worthy gentleman, 22 Life and Character of the and modest but able lawyer, Edmund B. Freeman, Esquire, late Clerk of the Court, whose virtues and pubhc usefulness, connected as he was for so many- years in close and friendly association with the imme- diate subject of om^ remarks, now likewise gone down beyond the horizon, I am gratified the opportunity serves to commemorate. In the department of the law peculiarly American, in which there comes up tlie question, whether the Legis- lature can legislate to the extent it has assumed, or other expositions of the Constitutions of the State or Union, though the occasions for such exercises were rare in the quiet times of his judicial hfe. Chief Jus- tice Euflin shone to no less advantage, than in those dependent on municipal regulations. His conversancy with pohtical ethics, pubhc law and English and American history, seems to have assigned to him the task of delivering the opinions on this head, which have most attracted general attention. That delivered by him in the case of Hoke against Henderson in which it was held, that the Legislature could not, by a sentence of its own in the form of an enact- ment, divest a citizen of property, even in a public office, because the proceeding was an exercise of ju- dicial power, received the high encomium of Kent and other authors on constitutional law; and I hap- pened personally to witness, that it was the main authority relied on by Mr. Eeverdy Johnson, in the argument for the second time, of Ex parte Garland, which involved the power of Congress by a test oath, to exclude lawyers from practice in the Supreme Hon. Thomas Buffln. Court of the United States, for having darticipated in civil war against the govepnment ; and in which, its reasoning on the negative side of tlie (luestion, was sustained by tliat august tribunal. The singular felicity and aptitude with which he denuded his judgments of all extraneous matter, and expounded the very principles of the case in hand, usually citing authority only to uphold what had been demonstrated without it, is the most striking feature in his numerous opinions. No commonplaces or servile copying of the ideas of others fill the space to be occupied, but a manly comprehension of the subject in its entire proportions, illustrated by well considered thought and lucid and generally grace- ful expression. His learning was profound, but not so deep as his own reflections. His powers of ab- straction subjected every thing to scrutiny, and rare was the fallacy which passed through that crucible without exposure. If he did not develope new truths the old were made to shine with a fresher lustre, h'om having undergone his processes of thought and illustration. His stjie of writing was elevated and worthy of the themes he discussed. His language well selected, and exhibiting a critical acquaintance with English philology. A marked characteristic in his wiitings, as it was also in his conversation, was the frequent, dextrous, and strikingly appropriate use Tie made of the brief words of our language, usually of Saxon derivation ; as in his response to the trib- ute of the bar to the memory of Judge Gaston : *' We knew that he was, indeed, a good man and a great Judge." 24 Life and Character of the In tl\e autumn of 1852, while in the zenith of his reputation, and not yet pressed with the weight of years, Chief Justice Euffin resigned his office and re- tired, as he supposed forever, from the professional employments he had so long and with so much re- nown pursued. But on the death of his successor and friend. Chief Justice Kash, in December, 1858, he was called by the almost unanimous vote of the General Assembly then in session, to fill the vacancy, and sat again as a Judge of the Supreme Court until the autumn of 1859, when failing health ren- dered his labors irksome, and he took his final leave of judicial life. Six years of rest in his rural home had induced nothing of rust or desuetude : he wore the ermine as naturally and gracefully as if he had never been divested of its folds; his judicial argu- ments at this time evince all that vigor of thought and freshness and copiousness of learning which had prompted an old admirer to say of him, that he was a ^* born lawyer." It is not improbable that this preservation in full panoply was in some design aided by the circumstance, that in a desire to be useful in any sphere for which he was fitted, he had ac- cepted the office of a Justice of the Peace in the county of Alamance, in which he then resided, and had held the County Courts with the lay justices during this period. Though near ten years later, and when he had passed the age of eighty, in a matter of seizure, in which he took some interest for a friend, under the revenue laws, in the Circuit Court of the United States, a branch of practice to which Hon, TlwDKis Buffin. 25 lie bad uot beeu habituated by experience, I had occasion to obserte that he was as ready with his pen in framing the pleadings, without books of au- thority or precedent, as any proctor in a Court of admiralty. In looking back upon his long life devoted to the profession, and the monuments of his diligence, learn- ing and striking ability that he left behind him, it is no extravagance of eulogy to affirm, that if the State or any American State has fostered great ad- vocates, counsellors or Judges, he assuredly was of this class. But when, as Coke to Littleton, we bid " Fare- well to om- jurisprudent," who had basked so long in the '* gladsome light" of jurisprudence, we have not wholly fulfilled the task assigned us. Jurispru- dence was indeed his forte ; and that in its most enlarged sense, embracing the science of right in all its aspects. Considering how thoroughly he had mas- tered the systems prevaihng in England and the Uni- ted States, the fullness of his knowledge in kindred studies and the facility with which he labored and wi'ote, it is to be regretted that he did not betake himself to professional authorship. But there are other aspects of his character than that ot a lawyer and Judge. At an early period he became the proprietor of an estate on Dan river, in Kockingham, on which he es- tablished a plantation at once, and gave personal di- rection to its profitable cultivation from that time until his death. Carrying his family to Ealeigh for a so- 26 . Life and Character of the journ of twelve months upon assuming the Presidency of a Bank as akeacly stated, he removed thence to Haw river, in Alamance, in 1830, and there under his own eye carried on the operations of a planter with success until the year 1866, when the results of the war deprived him of laborers, and he sold the estate and removed again to Hillsborough. The law has been said by some of its old authors, to be a jealous mistress, and to allow nb rival in the attentions of its votary. Chief Justice Euffin, however, while dili- gently performing the duties of his great office, and keeping up with the labors of his cotemporaries, Lynnhurst, Brougham, Tenterden and Denman, in England, and the numerous Courts exercising like jurisdictions in America, found leisure to manage his farm at home as well as to give direction to that in Eockingham. And this, not in the ineffective manner which has attended the like efforts of some professional men, but with present profit and im- provement of the estates. From early life he ap- peared to have conceived a fondness for agriculture, including horticulture and the growing of fruit trees and flowers, which his home in the country seemed to have been selected to indulge. Here for thirty- fiye years, in the recess of his Courts, he found re- creation in these pursuits and in the rearing of do- mestic animals ; the f-esult of which was the most encouraging success in orchards, grapery, gardenc ereal crops, flocks and herds. Combining a knowledge of the general principles of science, with fine powers of observation, and the suggestions of the most ap- proved Agricultural periodicals, he was prepared to Hon. Thomas Ruffin. 2< avail himselt' in practice of the highest iutelhgence ill the art. It was therefore uo empty comphment to a great jurist and leading citizen, when the Ag- ricultural society of Xorth Carolina, in 1854, elected him to its presidency after his retirement from the Bt-nc'h, hut the devotion to public uses and service, of an experience and information in the cultivation of the soil, and all its manifold connections and de- pendencies, which few other' men in the State pos- sessed. He was continued in this distinguished po- sition for six years, when declining health demanded his retirement; and at no time have the interests of the society been more prosperous, its public ex- hibitions more spirited; and it may be added, that on no occasion did he ever manifest more satisfac- tion than in the reunions of its members. His farming was not that of a mere amatcun in the art, designed as in the case of other public characters of whom we have read, to dignify retire- ment, to amuse leisure or gratif}^ taste, though few had a higher rehsh for the ornamental, especiaUy in shrubbery and flowers. This, he could not, or did not think he could afford, but to realize subsistence and profit, to make money, to provide for his own, and to enable him to contribute in charity to the wants of others. He consequently entered into all the utilities, economies and practicabilities of husr bandry in its minute details, realizing the English proverb, quoted in the writings of Sir Francis Head, that *' a good elephant should be able to raise a cannon or pick up a pin." 28 Life ami Clmracter of the The liberal hospitality that he dispensed through- out life was a most conspicuous feature in the pe- riod thus devoted to practical agriculture. His na- ture was eminently social, his acquaintence in his high position extensive, his dwelling near one of the great highways of travel through the State in the old modes of conveyance, easy of access ; and the exuberance of his farm, garden, orchards and domes- tic comforts were never more agreeably dispensed, than when ministered to the gratification of his friends under his own roof The cordiality and ease with which he did the honors of an entertainer in an old-fashioned southern mansion, is among the pleasant recollections of not a few between the Por tomac and the Mississippi. It was here, indeed, sur- rounded by a family worthy of the care and affection he bestowed upon them, relaxed from the severe studies and anxieties of official life, in unreserved and cheerful intercourse, that, after all, he appeared most favorably. By his industry, frugality and apitude for the management of property, he accumulated in a long life an estate more ample than usually falls to the lot of a member of the profession in this State; and although much reduced by the consequences of the civil war, it was still competent to the comfort of his large family. Judge Euffin was, until superseded by the changes made in 1868, the oldest Trustee of the University of the State, and always one of the most efficient and active members of the Board. For more than half Hon, Thomas Euffin. 29 a century on terms of intimate intercourse with its Presidents, Caldwell and Swain, and the leacUng Pro- fessors, ]\ritchell, Phillips and their associates, he was their ready counsellor and friend in any emer- gency; whether in making appeals to the Legislature in behalf of the institution for support and assistance in its seasons of adversity, or in enforcing discipline and maintaining order, advancing the standard of education, or cheering the labors both of the Fac- ulty and students. His criterion of a collegiate edu- cation was high, and he illustrated by his own ex- ample the rewards of diligent and faithful study. He retained a better acquaintance with the dead lan-