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YALE UNIVEESITY LIBRAEY

FORMED BY
James Abraham Hillhouse, B.A. 1749
James Hillhouse, B.A. 1773
James Abraham Hillhouse, B.A. 1808
James Hillhouse, B.A. 1873
Removed 194:2 from the
Manor House in SacJiem,'s Wood
GIFT OF
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR

^n "^Memoviam.

Jitttnes €^. I5rttbg.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
AT A MEETING OF THE NE"W YORK BAR, HELD IN THE SUPREME
COURT ROOM, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1869.

NEW YORK :
BAKER, VOORHIS & COMPANY,
66 NASSAU STREET,
1869.

BAKER iL GOI>"WIX, PRINTERS
PRINTING-HOUSE SQUARE, JN, Y.

lc3

Srt QKIterrroriam:,

JAMES T. BEADY died at the City of JSTew
York, on the 9th day of February, 1869, in the
Fifty-third year of his age.

A meeting of the Bar of the City of New York to
honor the memory of James T. Brady was held on the
13th of February, 1869, in the General Term Eoom of
the Supreme Court.
The committee of arrangements consisted of Messrs.
Clarence A. Seward, Aaron J. Vanderpoel, John E.
Burrill, Augustus F. Smith, George Shea, Hooper
C. Van Vokst, Charles Tracy, and Charles A. Ea-
pallo. Just before the opening of the proceedings, a portrait
of Mr, Brady, draped in mourning, was placed on a
stand at the left of the room, and in front of it a mass
of sweet white flowers, whose only relief was the red
immortelles shaping out "Our Brother,"

At eleven o'clock, Mr. John B. Burrill called the
meeting to order, and said :
Oentlemen — We have gathered here this morning for the purpose
of paying our tribute of respect to the memory of our professional

IN MEMORIAM.

brother, James T. Brady. In common with thousands of his personal
friends and fellow-citizens, we have taken part in his funeral cere
monies. We meet now as his professional brethren, for the purpose
of showing the estimation in which he was held by the Bar of his
native city.
I beg leave to nominate, as your presiding officer on this occasion,
a gentleman who was one of his longest and most intimate friends,
a gentleman who has occupied a judicial position in this City and
State for a longer period than any other gentleman now on the Bench.
I nominate as your presiding officer the Honorable Daniel P. In-
braham, Justice of the Supreme Court of this State.
Upon Judge Ingraham taking the chair —
Mr. George Shea moved that the following gentlemen act as
Vice-Presidents :
Hon. Lewis B. Woodruff, Judge of the Court of Appeals;
Hon. Samuel Blatchford, United States District Judge ;
Hon. T. W. Clbrke, Justice of the Supreme Court ;
Hon. John M. Barbour, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of
the City of New York ;
Hon. George C. Barrett, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas ;
Hon. Jasper W. Gilbert, Judge of the Supreme Court :
Hon. John K. Hackett, Recorder of this City ;
Hon. Gideon J. Tucker, Surrogate of this County ;
Hon. S. B. Garvin, District-Attorney ; and
Henry Nicoll, Esq.
The motion was agreed to.
On motion of Mr. Charles A. Hapallo, the following gentlemen
were named as Secretaries:
Hon. Henry Alker, Mr. Wm. C. Traphagen,
Mr. Hamilton W. Robinson, ]\lr. Sidney Webster,
Mr. Abram R. Lawrence, ^[r. Robert D. Holmes.

Mr. Augustus F. Smith offered and read the following
RESOLUTIONS.
Resolved, That we, the members of the New York Bar, yield "ith
profoundest grief to the omnipotent fint which, in the full vigor and
maturity of his great powers, has called from his sphere (if active
usefulties.s among us, our much-beloved friend and associate, J \mes
T. Brady.

JAMES T. BRADY.

Resolved, As the sense of his professional brethren, that, in his
decease, the social circle has lost a contributor to its enjoyments of
inestimable value, tho Bar has lost its most brilliant ornament, and
society at large has lost a member whose excellence of heart, com
bined with his rare gifts as an orator and attainments as a jurist,
render his death a deeply-afflicting dispensation.
Resolved, That in the admirable traits which distinguished the
character of our lamented brother, jurisprudence is supplied -with its
best practical vindication. They show that in the mind adapted by
nature to great purposes, its study and practice produce the noblest
development — a champion of truth and justice, learned, wise, and
persuasive, a defender of innocence, reliable and unfailing, a consoler
of poor, erring mortality in its hour of trial — second only in the
benignity of its influences to Faith and Piety.

SPEECH OF MR. CLARENCE A. SEWARD.
Mr. Seward said :
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Bar — The death of a stranger
in our household, be he but a sojourner for a night, always occasions
a softened voice and tread, and always clothes us, if but for a moment,
with sadness. Doubly great is our sorrow when the stern old reaper
silently comes and remorselessly binds in his sheaf our familiar, best
beloved, and most intimate friend, companion, brother. When that
blow falls, submission seems to be the only resource, and silence the
only eloquence, for beneath the shado-w of a great affliction one's
heart sits dumb.
Yet there are occasions when the departed claims, for the last
time, his identity in the places which once knew him so well ; when
it seems to be proper that even great personal sorrow should find an
utterance. I cannot permit my brother, James T. Brady, to pass within the
tent whose green vail never outward swings, without expressing, in a
few words, my recognition of the loss of an affection which he always
so openly manifested and avowed. That affection was ever fresh,
ever present, and knew no diminution.
For twelve years did our intimacy daily, nay almost hourly, ripen
in every possible phase of professional and social life. So earnest
and so perfect was it in its every manifestation, that I almost learned
to believe that which he so often asserted, that the highest, purest, and
most unselfish of all earthly affections, is man's love for man,

IN MEMORIAM,

You, my brethren, who knew him longer, as the skillful, brilliant
advocate, will pay just tribute to his intellect, -w'hich seemed ever to
renew its strength at some unseen fountain, and to his silver speech
which produced unrivalled effect, both in pathos and in mirth. There
fore, I will not speak of those. It is of the chief characteristic of the
man — of the chief characteristic of his heart, for that stamps the
man — that I wish now to speak.
On an occasion similar to this — and on none did the characteristic
to which I allude more plainly manifest itself — on the occasion of the
death of Daniel S. Dickinson he said :
" Like you, I honor greatness, genius, and achievements ; but I
honor more those qualities in a man's nature which show that while
he holds a proper relation to the Deity, he has also a just estimate of
his fellow-men, and a kindly feeling toward them. I would rather
have it said of me, after death, by my brethren of the Bar, that they
were sorry I had left their companionship, than to be spoken of in the
highest strains of gifted panegyric."
This, I think, truly indicates the character of our deceased brother.
He valued more a recognition of his worth as a companion, as a friend,
than he did a recognition of the abilities which had been given to him.
This recognition we all know that he obtained ; and that his compan
ionship was prized, the instantaneous gathering of sad faces on Tues
day last — the crowded cathedral, with its beautiful floral offering of
cross and crown and harp — this sad assembly here to-day, where
many an eye is heavy because it long hath wept — all attest.
I think we also know that that which drew us all toward him was,
what seems to me to have been his chief characteristic — his tender
consideration for others ; and this, by the controlling law of his
nature, was invariably manifested toward all, without distinction of
rank or person. In the height of professional contests ; in the bitter
ness of so much of political life as he permitted himself to enter; in
all the jealousies of social intercourse, he never for a moment forgot
due and perfect consideration for those around him. At the Bar, it
was always manifested toward his associates ; and from his lips fell
the first recognition of ability, the first congratulations upon success.
I never knew him to be engaged in a case with others that he did not
publicly acknowledge his obligations to his associates, and commend
their efforts as of more value than his own.
The report of his argument on the trial of the officers and crew of
the schooner Savannah, where he was surrounded by many as asso
ciates, and by sonic ,as opposing counsel, so well illustrates this trait

JAMES T. BRADY.

that I may be pardoned for recalling it. He there said : " I have not a
word to say against my friend, the District-Attorney (Mr. E. Delafield
Smith), for whom I feel a respect I am always happy to express ; nor
against his learned associate, Mr. Evarts, for whom I have a high
regard ; nor our brother Blatchford, who always performs the largest
amount of labor with the smallest amount of ostentation. I was
happy to hear Mr. Mayer on the law of the case. My learned friend,
Mr. Lord, in his remarks, so clear and convincing, called attention to
the lawfulness of privateering. I rest my argument, also, on the fact
to which Mr. Sullivan so appropriately alluded. My friend, Mr. La-
rocque, has called attention to cases that might happen ; and I shall
not mar his argument nor his example by repeating them, or saying
anything in addition."
This, I repeat, was the prominent characteristic of him whose
heart made the appreciation of his companionship of more value than
a recognition of his intellectual force. There was no jealousy in his
large nature ; nor timid apprehension of being overshadowed by the
researches or the abilities of others. But to all he gave full opportu
nity, and to all desert full meed of praise. I doubt if one unkind
word has a lodgment in the memory of any one of us. I know that
we all remember a thousand utterances of genuine, warm, heartfelt
sympathy in professional endeavors. Toward the younger members
of the Bar was this consideration always especially manifested. He
gave to them the support of his strong hand, and himself held it in
position till the support was no longer needed ; but it was his tender
consideration for others that induced him so to hold his hand that no
one else could see it. His language to me always was : " Open the
case; use all that either of us have suggested or discovered. The
other side will probably give me enough to do to answer their
arguments." His fertile brain furnished suggestion, argument, and strategy ; but
none ever heard, from him, of the debt thus created. Generously he
gave to his associates all that he possessed ; aud he found his reward
in the giving.
Courtesy, the offspring of consideration, was also his ; and it re
turned with interest every kind, appreciative word, and it seemed so
to encase him that harshness could never get behind it to make a scar
upon his memory ; and of him it may be truly said, reversing the
words of Sir Thomas More :
" He wrote the injuries that men did to him in dust : their good
deeds he engraved upon marble."

IN MEMORIAM.

With such a character as this, among the associates of his daily
life, it is easily to be seen that among children there would spring up
upon the instant acquaintance, a mutual love ; and by them there was
always strewn along the pathway of his life the offerings of a child's
affection. The murmur of their gentle voices ^vas music in his ear ;
and the anthem commenced by them on earth — which he so lately said,
to Mr. Gerard, would be the first to fall upon his ear in the world
beyond — has already greeted the spirit of our brother on its entrance
to its final home.
It was on the affections of these little ones that he based his hope
for the perpetuity of that Church in which he always believed, and
which at last received him into its bosom. He once said, "There is
one reason why the Catholic Church will always exist and grow
stronger, and it is this : Every night ther(i are thousands of mothers
who teach their little children to pray for the welfare of some little
brother or sister who has gone before; and the belief that their pray
ers on earth can aid the souls of the dead, which our Church always
teaches, is so pleasing to these little ones, that they receive it with
gratitude, and cling to it and to the Church which so instructs them ;
and so that Church will always be replenished." Consideration for
others is readily to be perceived as the basis of this opinion.
But, in conclusion, and borrowing again from his own graceful
utterance : " When once the feet have fallen upon the threshold with
the certainty of welcome, it is the saddest thing in nature to feel that
they can never pass that threshold more." There are many thresholds
here where his feet were ever busy weaving anew the web of social
sympathy, where sorrow reigns supreme to-day — sorrow that his
advancing footsteps will be heard no more — sorrow that his genial
greetings are hushed forever. It remains for us only to write his
epitaph : " He was faithful ! " — faithful to his abilities, his opportuni
ties, and his friends — faithful, above all, to those to whom he was
father and brother, both in one. In the language of one of those
poets whom he loved so well —
" If the spirit ever gazes
From its journeyings back ;
If the immortal ever traces
O'er its mortal tracl^:
Wilt tliou not, 0 brother ! meet us
Sometimes on our way,
And in hours of sadness greet us.
As a spirit may 1 "
I move, sir, the adoption of the resolutions.

JAMES T, BRADY,

SPEECH OF MR, FRANCIS B. CUTTING,
Mr. Cutting said :
Mr. President, and Oentlemen of the Bar — Though laboring this
morning under severe indisposition, the loss that you and I in common
have just sustained is such as to induce me, notwithstanding, to attend
this meeting for the purpose of testifying, with you, the respect, thi^
reverence, and the affection I had for my friend. It is not my purpose
to detain you by any remarks beyond expressing the great grief that
1, in common with you, feel in the calamity that has befallen us. 1
had known Mr. Brady from his very earliest manhood. I have fol
lowed and watched with interest the progress that he made, profes
sionally, from the commencement of his career until he had obtained
the highest honors of the Bar. He had entwined himself very closely
around my heart ; and the separation has caused a pang greater than
I have felt, unless when one of my own immediate family has been
taken from me. Endowed with a noble, a generous, a m.agnanimous
disposition, nature had lavished upon him her rarest gifts. Intellec
tually and morally, all the qualities that could adorn a man had been
bestowed upon him, and nobly he used them ; nobly he exerted them.
In the plenitude of his powers, in the meridian of his manhood, in the
zenith of his fame, it has pleased Divine Providence to take him from
us. Long, however, will he live in our memories. Long, and for
ever — until each of us shall be gathered unto his fathers, will he live
fresh in our hearts, and be remembered as our most dearly esteemed,
respected, and beloved brother.

SPEECH OF MR, JOHN McKEON.
Mr. McKeon said :
Mr. President — This solemn scene recalls to my mind an expfes--
sion of our deceased friend on an occasion similar to this, when we
were engaged in paying the last tribute of respect to a distinguished
member of the judiciary : " Of him, who so eloquently has often
spoken of our dead brethren, who of the living can speak in terms
such as he commanded 1 " For myself, I confess my inability to do
that justice which his memory demands at our hands. I come as the
humblest of you to cast my garland on the marble home in which lie
2

10 IN MEMORIAM,

entombed the remains of him who, while living, in common with you
I admired, and in death sincerely deplore.
Mr. Brady was known to me from his boyhood. Born in this
city, his life has been passed among us. His father, well trained in
classical attainments, imparted to his son much of that information on
which was reared his successful career. At an early age he evinced
the intellectual power which in after life won for him a national repu
tation. His ambition was to be a lawyer. He had an elevated idea
of the mission of the profession. He did not view it as a mere means
for the acquisition of wealth. He looked upon its honors as far more
valuable than all the "gold of Indus" — far above the transitory repu
tations won in high political positions. F(H' the exercise of the duties
required by that profession he brought wonderful advantages. His
peculiarly engaging personal appearance was one of his great gifts.
In addition to this his mental capacities were of no ordinary character.
He was deeply versed in the philosophy of the law. He was not a
mere citer of precedents — Cantor formidarvm — so denounced by
Cicero, but his law was drawn from the deep wells of profound erudi
tion and of reason. His judgment was clear and careful; his knowl
edge of human nature was searching, and you have frequently' seen it
developed in his examination and cross-examination of witnesses. To
these must be added his urbanity of manner; and above all, his elo
quence, which was accorded by all to be of that order that the same
words which are inserted under the bust of Erskine ma}' ^\"ith truth
be said of Mr. Brady: "Nostrce eloquenticc forensis facile princeps.''
This gift of eloquence is not given to all. The power to sway the
will and judgment of our fellow-men — to hold, as if by magic spell,
the intellect land the heart of those wlK.un we address, was conferred
on our deceased brother. Descended of a Celtic stock, he partook of
the fervid imagination peculiar to the race.
He was, indeed, a proud representative of that Homeric race from
which he sprung — which, in the earlier days of our jurisprudence, gave
us an Emmet to adorn our Bar, and in later da) s descendants of that
race who have proved themselves not unworthy of the fame of their
predecessors. The love of the arts, of all that refines whilst it ele
vates humanity, which characterizes the Celt, was developed in Brady.
But his imagination was tempered and regulated by a severe judg
ment and taste. He possessed in a high degree a natural magnetism
of manner and subtle power of sympathetic feeling, which bound his
auditors to him, and held them captive to his appeals. Who will ever
forget that peculiar manner of his wc all have felt and none can de-

J A M E S T . B R A D Y , 11

scribe ? " It was evanescent as the fragrance of the rose." Yet there
was one peculiarity of his eloquence which cannot be passed over.
That genial warmth which came bubbling up from his own large heart
was discernible in every sentence. While we saw the torrent rolling
before our eyes, sweeping in its resistless power every argument of
his opponents, we at the same time saw that wit for which he was dis
tinguished, throwing its brilliant sparks across the stream of his most
serious argument.
We may refer to the period of his introduction to the Bar of this
city as an epoch in its history. In looking back on the past, we see
rising before us George Wood, treading with no uncertain step through
the labyrinths of the law of real property ; Daniel Lord following,
with his legal eye, commerce over the long and dreary waste of wa
ters ; David Graham, the younger, and Ogden Hoffman, standing in
full panoply of intellectual power before our criminal tribunals. Into
the lists where stood these proud knights young Brady sprang, ready
to contend with the mightiest of them. How well he contended many
of you well remember, and the honors now jiaid to his memory are
justified by the triumphs he has won. Mr. Brady, with the exception
of filling the office of the legal adviser of the municipal authorities,
never occupied any public office — yet he was more of a public man
than any one among us. On the great and momentous questions
which have agitated the country for the last thirty years his voice has
always been heard, and no man can say but that on every occasion
his advice was given to his countrymen, it was prompted alone by a
deep sense of responsibility to the interests of his country. No mo
tive of personal advancement, no venal consideration of gain, was ever
ascribed to him. Though we might differ with him as to his opinions,
all agreed that they were dictated by the highest devotion to honor
able principle.
No man was ever more admired by the masses of our people than
Mr. Brady. The scenes which have been enacted before our eyes
within the past few days, are proof of how he was beloved. No
herald was necessary to summon the populace to his funeral rites.
When it became known that he was dead, this great metropolis stood
shocked. His brethren rushed into your court-rooms to e.xpress their
grief. The immense throng which crowded that old cathedral, in
whose vaults he publicly, years since, expressed a wish to be en
tombed, this vast assembly of his grieving brethren of the Bar, all
loudly proclaim the high regard in which, when living, he was held,
and the sincere regret with which his loss is deplored.

12 IN MEM0RIA3I.

Standing by the urn which contains his ashes, from which arises
the perfume of his manly qualities and his genial nature, let us not
forget the lesson his life teaches to our profession — that its highest re
wards may, as was said of Erskine, be obtained without the sacrifice
of honor or consistency.

SPEECH OF MR, JOHN GRAHAM.
Mr. Graham said :
Our loss is almost beyond computation. We bow, with submis
sion, to this affiicting bereavement. We all acknowledge its weight.
We are none of us presumptuous enough to question, or repine at,
its wisdom. While we pour forth our tears, we do not mourn as
those who are unsustained by grateful reflections or pleasing reminis
cences. The obsequies of our departed brother are over. We have had
the melancholy gratification of following his remains to their long,
last home. We have seen his body committed to its mother earth,
honored and consecrated by the most sacred and exalted rites of his
Church. The flight of his soul has been succeeded by her petition that
he soon may, and the expression of her belief that he ine^•itably will,
become an inmate of those mansions not made with hands, and eter
nal in the heavens. All that is now left to us of him is his memory,
and we are here convened to rear to it a monument, though impalpa
ble, yet enduring. " Monumentum cere jiercnnius.'"'
To epitomize the life of such a man — to present the rich endow
ments of his mind, the sublimating qualities of his heart, and all the
commendable elements of his character, within the range of condensa
tion — is to me an absolute impossibility. The cjireer of such a man
demands both the pen and the tomes of the biographer. It is not the
language of adulation to say — so numerous wore his virtues, and so
countless were his claims upon our admiration and esteem — that it
would be easier to tell what he was not, than what he was. " Take
him for all in all, ice shall not soon look upon his like again." He
was possessed of
" A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man."

JAMES T.BRADY. 13

In his domestic relations, as a son and a brother, he was without
fault and without blemish. Bereft of his parents at an early period of
his life, he became, and long continued to be, Ihe head and protector
of a fatherless and motherless family. His devotion to that family is
his highest panegyric. As they divided with him his obscurer and
less attractive, so they rose with him, and became the sharers of that
happiness which attended his brighter and more prosperous days.
As a lawyer, he was great in every department of his profession.
Every branch of it witnessed and acknowledged his ability, and it
would be unjust to his memory to assert that he shone in one sphere
of it more than another. I have ventured to think that what we call
the science of the law, is but the application of the religion of the
great Creat(jr to the administration of the affairs and the settlement
of the concerns of this life. If to be versed- in the great principles of
moral rectitude, which are identified with and attached to that system
of morality of which the divine workman Himself is the author, is to
be a great lawyer, then was our deceased brother a great lawyer. The
emergencies and exigencies of time and locality may require the in
terference of a secular legislature, but to be familiar with these great
principles constitutes the chief excellence and the highest qualifica
tions of a true lawyer.
As a scholar, none will dispute the claims of our deceased brother.
He was descended from a father well known as one of the most accom
plished private scholars of his day. Probably the largest part of the
patrimony falling to him from that father — in addition to a clear and
good character — was the finished education conferred upon and com
municated to him.
In all the relations of life he was a perfect and polished gentleman.
He was never known to compromise, or entirely put off or repudiate
that character. In the performance of professional duty he was ever
ready. He was signally and strongly marked by quickness of per
ception, by the unusual rapidity of his tactics, and by the uniform
soundness and almost infallibility of his judgment As a speaker, he
enjoyed the sobriquet of being the Curran of this Bar. Every weapon
contained in the armory of the true rhetorician he could comm.and to
his use, and wield with the utmost skill and dexterity. Reasoning,
wit, sarcasm, irony, invective, pathos, and eloquence, were all his. In
his disposition he was ever genial, ever steady. He neither provoked,
nor did he nurture animosities. Throughout his whole life he was a
greater respecter of religious things, and his reverence for the Bible
was on every occasion acknowledged.

14 INMEMORIAM,

I had the honor, a number of years ago, of being associated with
him in a sister city — the capital of our nation — in the case of a client
whose defense involved the consideration of the sanctities attending
the existence and purity of the marriage relation. On that occasion
I had the honor — and it was an honor which I am glad belonged to
me — of introducing into a court of justice the precepts of the Bible.
I planted my foot upon it (as it were) as the great law. It was sup
posed, as marriage was a Heaven-created and Heaven-descended insti
tution, that the best way to ascertain the sanctities environing it, was
by resorting to the Canons of the (jireat Being who had instituted it.
The introduction of the Bible into Court on that occasion met the ap
proval of all my associates, and of none more feelingly and sincerely
than the departed brother whose memory we have here met to honor
and to perpetuate.
In the exercise of one of his greatest qualities — his wit — he was
always judicious, and never — if ever, certainly not intentionally —
wounding. 1 recollect on one occasion, some twenty years ago,
being present in a criminal court, where he was engaged in the defense
of a criminal accusation. I happened to be present at the very time
a vice was produced, and from the terror which attended the exhibition
of the vice to the jur^', it was perfectly apparent that the mere pres
ence of that piece of proof was almost fatal to the prospects of his
client. I remember the rebuke he adininistered to the attempt to
overawe, or improperly influence, the jury by its pr(.iduction ; and
when it was stated to him by the prosecuting attorney of the county
that the vice had not yet been ofliered in evidence, the retort he made
completely neutralized and destroyed the effect of the exhibition :
" I not only object to the introduction into the case, but to the very
exhibition, in the presence of the jury, of the vices of our learned and
worthy district-attorney."
His sociability was a marked and prominent element of his char
acter. He had the greatest capacit}- for adapting himself to the soci
ety in which he moved. He could lie the companion of the old or
the young. His transitions " from grave to gay, and livelv to severe,"
wci-c, no doubt h;ippier and more natural than those of any other per
son within the pale of onr knowledge.
Another trait of his character stood forth — it was his charitv.
Probably no man who has flourished in the ranks of our profession,
in onr time, distributed, in the way of money and professional serv
ices, the same amount of charity as our beloved brother. I'overtv
was always to him a -welcome client; and even when he was called

JAMES T, BRADY, 15

upon to represent the wealthy, he never did himself the justice to suf
ficiently tax their abundance to compensate his exertions in the dis
charge of professional duty.
But, alas ! his capacious head — his broad, imposing brow — his
countenance, the index to and mirror of his heart — are never more to
be seen among us.
To the rising members of our profession this visitation appeals
with peculiar force, and addresses itself with well-timed and apposite
instructiveness. However death may invade and thin out our ranks,
the affairs of this life require that these places should still be filled.
Some (ine is delnanded to fill the void created by the departure of our
beloved Brady. Who is he to be? Who shall he be ? Who, among
the rising members of our profession, are girding on their armor for
the contest which is before them ? Who among them are devoting
their days and nights to study and to toil, ransacking the rich store
houses of legal and general knowledge, to gain to themselves the wis
dom of those who have already passed from the sphere of their worldly
usefulness. The duties which awaited our beloved brother, had he
lived, still remain. Who among the rising members of the profession
are developing, and adding to the stock of their strength to qualify
them for the assumption and discharge of those duties 1
Let all of us, old and young, extract from this visitation its appro
priate moral. While it admonishes us of the uncertainly and unrelia-
bleness of human life, let it also resolve us — as was the resolution and
practice of our departed brother — never to lower, but to exalt the
science we profess, and to raise higher, and still higher, the standard
around which we gather. Let us emulate his virtues — let us imprint
upon our recollections his noble example, and " long keep his memory
green in our souls " — looking to that Hand which has smitten us, to
assuage the pain consequent upon its own blow — remembering. Heav
enly Father, that " Sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright
Witli more than rapture's ray ;
As darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day."

16 IN MEMORIAM,

SPEECH OF MR. E. DELAFIELD SMITH.
Mr. E. Delafield Smith said :
Mr. President — I know well that occasions like this are best
adorned by those who bring to them the dignity of years, the lustre
of learning, the glory of renown. And 1 rejoice that while the scythe
of death has been busy in our midst, peers of our illustrious friend
still remain to honor his obsequies. Yet it must be acknowledged
that James T. Brady possessed characteristics, extraordinary in degree
if not in kind, calculated to inspire and to justify, in younger and
humbler members of his profession, a desire to press forward and
stand among the foremost at his bier.
Juniors and even juvenals at the Bar ; aspirants upon the very
threshold of manhood ; youths still lingering in academies and
schools; and little children, tender as those our Saviour caressed, were
as dear to his presence as the most accomplished of the crowned intel
lectual princes with whom it was his pride to cope in the forum, and
his delight to mingle in social festivities.
To all who approached him in his life, rang out the welcome of
his cheerful voice. By its dying echoes, all alike are summoned to
his tomb. The greatest who kneel there must make room for the
least. If, at the home so lately his, where we looked upon his face
for the last time ; if, from the coffin, which was buried in flowers
before the cold earth had leave to press it, his eyes could have opened
and calmly viewed the scene — no floral harp, no cross nor crown,
however beautiful or elaborate, would have won a sweeter smile
than the simplest wreath that struggled for its place in the general
profusion. His kindness and courtesy were universallj' bestowed ; and in
view of this, it is remarkable that they were so singularly acceptable
and flattering to every individual who came within their reach. But
they were a matter of heart, not of manner — too respectful to offend,
too genuine to be resisted. As the generous light of the sun may
illumine half the world, yet the rays that fall on us seem peculiarly
our own ; so the genial glow of his kindness cheered us all, and yet
each felt himself the special recipient of his favor.
There were times, however, when his generosity became marked
and demonstrative. It was interesting to observe witli what judgment
and taste it even then was guarded and directed. In the celebrated trial
of the "Savannah Privateers " — 'to which a preceding speaker referred

J A:\rBS T. BRADY, 17

with great kindness to both the living and the dead — where we felt
the blows which he delighted to deal upon a prosecution, he was asso
ciated with some eminent advocates, and also with some unknown to
profes.sional fame or experience. In his matchless address to the jury,
he repeated, with careful credit, some of the arguments which these
humbler allies had used, and paid them a tribute of praise not less just
in conception than delicate in expression. Of four leading counsel
there arrayed — Lord, Evarts, Brady, Laroccjue — three have gone to
their long home.
In the prominent cases of Home and of Haynes, arising under the
laws for the suppression of the slave trade, and iu the great fraud
case of Kohnstamm, it will not be easy to forget either the ability of
his defenses, or his subsequent assurance of sympathy in the anxious
labors which those prosecutions involved.
He never entered a court-room but smiles from Bench and Bar
responded to his presence. He never appeared upon a islatform but
to be greeted by thronging auditors. No banquet saw diminished
guests while he remained to speak.
" From the charmed council to the festive board,
Of human feelings the unbounded lord."
A lawyer, an orator, a scholar, a gentleman — ^all that these made
him was given to his country in her day of danger, and to the land of
his ancestors in every hopeful struggle.
Great in intellect, great in heart —
" See, what a gTace was seated on this brow ;
Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself."
Our hearts may well be touched as they rarely have been.
Words, unless of fire — tears, unless of blood — should only mock their
grief. " Ye orators, whom yet our councils yield,
Slourn for the veteran hero of your field !
Ye men of wit and social eloquence,
He was your brother — bear his ashes hence 1
While powers of mind almost of boundless range,
Complete in land, as various in their change,
While eloquence, wit, poesy, and mirth.
That humbler harmonist of care on earth,
Survive within our souls — while lives our sense
Of pride iu merit's proud preeminence,
Long shall we seek his likeness — long in vain,"
3

18 IN MEMORIAM.

When " a mighty spirit is eclipsed " — when death comes to the
noble and brave, we cannot but be glad it is the common lot. We
would not shrink forever from the dark path which they are forced to
tread. We would not fail to seek them at last in the better world
beyond. Gentle, genial, generous spirit ! Our hearts shall long resound
with the sweet music of the solemn Cathedral, which breathed a prayer
for thy peace and rest. "  Stay not thy career ;
I loiow we follow to eternity ! "

SPEECH OP MR. JOHN K. PORTER.
Mr. Porter said :
Mr. President — If an artist could produce a perfect likeness of
James T. Brady, as we have seen him under the inspiration of a great
theme, and in the glow of earlier m,anhood, we should scarcely need
anything more to convey to after-times the living impress of the man.
In that intellectual and beaming face, lighted up as it often was with
almost womanly grace and beauty, shone out the character and the
genius which made him the most popular advocate of his time. But,
even if this were possible;, we would not willingly part with him at
the portals of the grave without uniting in an expression, with one
accord, of our affection and admiration for the man, and of the pride
with which we cherish his name.
When the sad tidings of his death reached us on Monday morning,
each of us felt a sudden sense of solitude, as if a light had gone out
in our dwelling ; and we can heartily sympathize with the feeling
which, on the day of the funeral, held the multitude around the
thronged Cathedral, waiting through the burial service to catch the
last notes of the dying requiem. Those who witnessed that scene
needed no other assurance that there were mourners at many firesides
which had been cheered by our brother's benefactions, and that thou
sands of hearts beat iu unison with ours.
There was perhaps no man in the city of New York who united so
many elements of popular strength, or who could have wielded them
to better purpose, if he had chosen to make them subservient to the
ends of personal ambition. His fi'ank and open nature, his striking
and manly presence, and his captivating and fervent eloquence, made

JAMEST. BRADY. 19

him one of the acknowledged masters of assemblies ; but his spirit
of personal independence, and his taste for more congenial pursuits,
disinclined him to the position of a leader, except in his own pro
fession. So, too, in the department of letters, with his liberal and varied
culture, and his brilliant powers as a writer, he would have found it
easy to attain another order of distinction, which to many is full of
attraction ; but his nature was too genial and social to submit to
scholastic seclusion, and he chose rather to commune with men, eye to
eye, in the scenes of more active life.
No one could be more indifferent to the prizes of political life.
He declined, without a moment's hesitation, the high office of Attor
ney-General of the United States, a position which no man in the
country would have filled more gracefully.
The common desire for wealth was one which he did not share.
In the enjoyment of a princely professional income, he gave away,
with an open hand, that which he might easily have so invested as to
roll up the fortune of a millionaire ; but we cannot doubt that he
chose wisely, in view of the universal manifestations of grief at his
death, and of thb prayers and benedictions which followed him to the
tomb. It was in his personal and professional characters that he gained
the marked preeminence which makes his life a record of honor.
Others have spoken of the social traits and personal virtues which
rendered his character so attractive in all his private relations ; and of
those who had the happiness to be numbered among his friends, there
is probably not one who does not feel that, with the death of our
brother, a part of the sunshine of his own life is gone.
The same characteristics which gave him such a hold upon us in
our social and personal relations, were among the elements of power
which contributed to his eminent success as an advocate. His chiv-
alric and manly bearing disarmed hostility and envy. His frank and
generous nature attracted the sympathy of the jury. His jjersonal
rectitude and honor commanded the confidence of the Bench. So, too,
his intrepidity of spirit, his loyalty to truth and fervor of conviction,
imparted to his eloquence a peculiar power, which was oftentimes
resistless. He had other advantages which are rarely combined, even with
those who have risen to eminence at the Bar. He not only had a
thorough mastery of the principles of the law, but also a wide and
varied culture in almost every department of liberal science, which

20 IK ME 310 RI AM,

gave him boundless fertility of illustration in argument. His percep
tion, too, was so ra25id, his mind so clear, and his memory so retentive,
that facts, as they wore presented in the course of trial, ranged them
selves in appropriate order by processes of analysis and induction
which were almost simultaneous. Indeed, in dealing with disjointed
facts, he exhibited at times a power so rare as to seem creative. Give
him the bones, and he would not only shape them into the skeleton,
but he would clothe them anew with breathing life.
His faculties were in just equipoise. He rarely had occasion to
retrace his steps. He had that unfailing common sense which Shiel
happily defined as " the logic of common life." His elements of
strength were so admirably compacted that the ease with which he
achieved results often diverted attention from the means by which
they were wrought out. Perhaps the most marked characteristic of
his arguments was the easy blending of strength with grace, which
enabled him so imperceptibly to produce the impression he desired,
that it seemed to the listener the thought of his own mind, rather than
the conclusion to which he was led by the reasoning of the advocate.
His mode of discussion was suggestive, and the auditor insensibly
became his ally, by following out the line of argument, from the point
at which the speaker designedly paused to indulge in some passing
episode. His manner was so easy and graceful, that before his adver
sary appreciated the tendency of the speech, a lodgment was often
made in the mind of the jury which no answering argument could
remove. He was an archer whose shaft went always straight and true
to the mark. He often carried a cause by a passing felicity of thought
and expression, appreciated only in its practical efl^ect, like the stroke
of Saladin's blade as it divided the cushion of down.
Whatever he touched he invested with light and beauty. From
the moment he appeared in a cause it assumed a new and dramatic
interest. It was sure to be enlivened by wit and eloquence, and the
monotony of forensic discussion was often relieved b\- passages of
exquisite pathos and beauty. His rhetoric was unstudied, and all the
more eflective, as it was the mere incident and never the aim of the
speech. What he would say on any given occasion none of his au
ditors could foresee ; but all were assured before he opened his lips,
that new light would beam on the subject upon which he rose to speak.
Eloquent as he was, his greatest triumphs were those -which he won
by sheer intellectual force. Tn reading the r(.'ports of his forensic
speeches, it is interesting to observe their completeness as close and
vigorous arguments ; while, at the time of their delivery, the atten-

JAMES T. BRADY. 21

tion of all but the court and the jury were mainly attracted by the
grace of his style and the charm of his elocution. In this respect,
many of his noblest productions were not unlike the Corinthian pillar,
in which the strength of the column is lost sight of in the symmetry
of its proportions and the beauty of its decoration. He never ex
hausted his resources in a single eftbrt. Great as the speech might
be, we felt that the speaker was greater, and that he needed only an
occasion to rise to new heights of eloquence and power. If his had
been the exceptional case of genius wholl> free from infirmity, we
could hardly have entertained for him a more admiring affection ; for
his was one of those noble natures, which, like the mariner's needle,
if it sometimes seemed to vibrate, always trembled back to the pole.
We mourn his early death, as the extinguishment of one of the bril
liant lights of the American Bar. We mourn it as the loss of a brother
and a friend, who has left an impression upon us all which time can
never efface. Those of our number who are still young will cherish
his memory when they come to be old, with the freshness and warmth
of youthful love and remembrance.

SPEECH OF MR. CHARLES P. DALY.
Mr. Daly said :
Mr. Chairman — I have been asked by the committee to say some
thing upon this occasion. I feel that they have a right to expect it, as
I have known our lost friend and brother longer and more intimately
than any one in this meeting ; and yet it is that very circumstance
which makes it more painful and difficult for me to discharge such a
duty than it would be for any other gentleman present.
He was the earliest friend of my youth. A large portion of his
life was my life. I have known him from the time that we sat to
gether — he at the age of seven, and I at the age of six, on the same
bench in his father's school room — forty-six years ago. It is very
difficult, therefore, for me, Mr. Chairman, to disch.arge this duty,
bound up as it is with so many memories, e-xtending over such a
range of years, and interwoven with so many incidents of a friend
ship beginning so early, and ending only with death.
I will, as well as I can, say in a few words what it may be ap
propriate that I should say respecting him after what has been al
ready said.
His fathei', a man of considerable acquirements as a scholar, kept

22 INMEMORIAM,

a school in Warren street, in this city, where he taught a limited
number of pupils, but two or three only of whom survive, one of
them being the present Archbishop of New York. In that school I
remember him — a little boy with a large head and a very small
frame. I think I see him. now, with his great head bending over his
desk, and his little feet playing beneath it; his mind intensely fixed
upon his lesson, which he was rather slow to acquire ; for, as has been
the case with many remarkable men in early youth, he gave little or
no indication of the brilliant qualities by which he was afterward
distinguished. I give this as the impression of his schoolmates ; it was not that
of his father, who always regarded him — though a shy and retiring
lad — as a self-reliant and remarkable boy, who would one day make
a figure in the world. I remember him, and such of his schoolmates
as survive will remember him, as a great, warm-hearted little boy ;
exceedingly unselfish, most affectionate in his attachments to his
young school companions, and exceedingly beloved by them; qualities
which in his subsequent career, amid the distinction that attended it,
were never abated nor extinguished, as every one knows that knew
him, or was ever brought into personal contact with him. As an
evidence of this, I may mention a touching incident : An humble Irish
serving-woman, employed in a house where he had been staying tem
porarily, bought, after hearing of his death, out of her small earnings,
a camellia, and bringing it to the door of his late residence in Twenty-
third street, requested that it might be laid upon his coffin. This
beautiful feature in his character, which distinguished him even more
than his intellectual qualities, was one constantly apparent in the re
lations of private friendship ; and it is therefore exceedingh' difficult
for me to dwell upon it.
Of his many professional accomplishments I will refer to one, in
asmuch as it was the one by which he was so eminently distinguished.
It is said that great orators are made by study, care, and practice. In
his case it was otherwise. He had no early forensic training. I
heard his first public political speech, and I was present at the first
trial ot any importance in which he summed up to a jury — the latter
(I think an insurance case) was one in which Mr. O'Conor was op
posed to him. On both of these occasions he was as perfect, and
elicited as much admiration and applause, on the part of those who
heard him, as he ever did in the later efforts of his maturer yeai s.
There was the same unhesitating command of language ; there was, as
Judge Porter has called it, the same "boundless felicity of illustra-

JAMES T, BRADY, 23

tion," the humor, the delicate irony, the occasional pathos, and the
earnestness which made him so magnetic in the influence which he
exercised over a public assembly, and in summing up a case to a jury.
His style was his own. It was formed upon no model, and was in
capable of imitation, for it grew out of, and was a part of, the man.
I will say a word m respect to his professional habits for the bene
fit of the younger and striving members of the Bar, He was a man
of large engagements, professional and public. Greater claims were
upon his time in matters outside of his profession — political, literary,
and otherwise, — than in the case of any other man whom I have known,
and he was as extensively retained in important cases as any other
gentleman of the Bar; and yet, whether it was to argue a question of
law before the highest court of the State, or to try a cause before a
jury, or to deliver a lecture on some literary topic in a neighboring
city, or to go here, or to some other part of the country, and address
a public meeting upon a matter of absorbing public interest, he was,
when the time came, generally prepared, and always felicitous and
full of point and effect. This was owing in part to his great natural
abilities, but it was owing much more to what was not commonly
supposed to be the fact, to his industry. There is not a man in this
city who could, without previous notice, speak more readily or ef
fectively, as I have known to have been the case in many instances,
when it was impossible for him to have been prepared; and yet he
never omitted the opportunity, if he had it, of thinking over what he
would or ought to say, and of maturing in his mind the jDrincipal
points or arguments. I doubt if he ever wrote out a speech in his
life ; but if he could, he arranged in their order the leading features
of it, and left the rest, together with the language, to the occasion ;
and when the occasion came, under the excitement and inspiration of
speaking, a great deal occurred to his quick, fertile, and suggestive
mind; and some of his most felicitous illustrations, his brightest
flashes of wit, and most telling allusions, were born as they were ut
tered. It was this which gave to the whole speech that easy air of
unpremeditated art, and made everything which came from him so
fresh, captivating, and attractive.
I may also mention, as the result of my own observation and ex
perience, that, although his abilities as a forensic orator were very re
markable, and his power over a jury equal to that of any man I have
ever known, his greatest merit, in my opinion, as a lawyer, was his
skill in the management of a cause. He exhibited an instinctive
judgment, a quickness of apprehension, and a knowledge of human

24 INMEMORIAM,

nature, in developing or bringing out the details of a case, that has
rarely been surpassed in my experience, and this, I think, my brethren
on the bench will agree, is the method by which success in legal con
troversies is secured.
I would say something further, Mr. Chairman, if I dared to trust
myself, and could master my own feelings, in reference to his youth,
to his childhood, to his lovely incipient manhood, and the noble
qualities by which he was distinguished, and which he owed in a large
degree, as many men have, to the early influence of a remarkable
mother. He had a father who was, as I have said, an accomplished
scholar, and to whose teaching he was indebted for many of his ac
quisitions, especially in the languages. But he had a mother who
exercised a deejjer influence upon his character. A woman, noble and
handsome in person, as I remember her, having a fine natural intel
lect — one of those mothers clothed with those nameless maternal
graces, and possessing those quiet virtues, which shed their blessed
influence over families, and are felt so long, in their durable effect
upon the future character of their children. Of her, he and his
brothers and sisters were deprived at an early age ; but her influence
remained. He never, during life, loved a human being as he loved
her. Her name was never mentioned in his presence without giving
rise to some expression, the depth and tenderness of which showed
how her memory was embalmed, and rarely before me without the
tears coming to his eyes. Perhaps, as has often been suggested with
respect to other able men, he derived through his mother many of
the fine intellectual gifts of which gentlemen have spoken; and cer
tainly there is no source to which, in the manliness of our nature, we
would more willingly attribute our gifts, than to that parent who is,
particularly among intellectual men, especially cherished and vene
rated. I do not mean to say, Mr. Chairman, that possessed as he was of
so many fine qualities and virtues, that he was without his faults.
There is rarely, if ever, such a thing as perfection in human character,
however we may pretend hypocritically by outward appearances to
assume it: and he was no exception; nor did he pretend to he. I
leave him here ; and will, in the closing words of a poem which was
a great favorite of his during life,
" No fui'ther srck his merits to di.«'lo?c,
Nor draw his frailties from their dread abode,
Where they alike in trembling hope repose-*
The bosom of his Father and his God."

JAMES T. BRADY. 25

SPEECH OF MR. CHARLES O'CONOR.
Mr. O'Conor said :
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bar — My generation, now
drawing toward its close, has already spoken through my peer in
point of age and experience, and my superior in knowledge of man
kind, and in that eloquence which has sought this fit occasion for its
rich display.* Youth has laid upon the tomb of our departed brother
its bright and fragrant wreath. Middle age, his equal and his peer in
experience, in advocacy, and in counsel, has paid its copious tribute.
We have heard the best, the ablest, and the most respected of his
cotemporaries, descant in modest and becoming language upon the
merits of James T. Brady. Venturing any addition to this abso
lutely perfect record of affection, of respect, of homage, may seem
presumptuous. Indeed, I fear nothing may be added worthy of your
attention. It would be otherwise if I possessed his readiness and ver
satility, or if, as should have been the case, he stood at this hour by
my tomb. Were such the case he would speak as I could now wish
to speak of him. Though conscious of these reasons, commending
silence to me, there are some circumstances which might, in the esti
mation of many, render it unbecoming ; and, therefore, however fee
ble the effort or unequal to the occasion, I must present a few re
marks. As one in active life, not unobservant of the things and of
the men around him, not without power of reflection, or unused
to employ it in contemplating the characters of my juniors, I
well knew James T. Brady. 1 was admitted to the Bar previously
to the admission of his father, and to some extent performed
the office of assistant counsel to that father. I often conferred with
him near the desk at which sat his son James — ever commended by
him as the hope of the family. The modesty and silence of the
youthful student seemed to require some such patronage. For, so
marked were they, that notwithstanding the graces of his figure, which
were great even then, and the gravity, sobriety and good sense which
beamed forth from his intelligent countenance, his demeanor might
well lead a hurried observer, such as I was, to pronounce him not
promising. Of course, I observed his subsequent career. Being
many years his senior, my occasions of professional intercourse with
him, either as an associate or as an opponent, were few — in the latter
* Mr, Cutting.

26 INMEMORIAM,

capacity they were extremely few. As an associate, though not fre
quent, they were somewhat remarkable. On some of them Mr.
Brady gave proofs of ability as a lawyer which tended effectually to
fix in the public mind his professional position. Shall I speak of
those qualities for which at the Bar he was distinguished 1 Why need
1 1 They excited universal attention and interest, and they have been
fully placed before you in the observations of his cotemporaries. They
have been portrayed in language most truthful and beautifully expres
sive by those of his own age, and by one very brilliant junior,* The
method in which this duty has been performed njay tend somewhat
to diminish our deep and general grief for his loss. We find that
although Brady has passed away, the fruits of his example remain.
The genius, the abilities, the fine qualities of heart and the attractive
manner that won for him the admiration of all who knew him, also
won for him a host of imitators. In pursuing the course indicated
by his example, they will pay him even a higher compliment than
is expressed in any words they have uttered here to-day. In so
doing they will, in a measure, supply his place. To say that Mr.
Brady was a brilliant orator, would be saying little ; for in this he
was not unsurpassed in the times that have gone befnre us; and what
we have heard to-day gives promise that he will yet be equaled in
the time to come. To sa}' that he was a laborious and faithful coun
selor, or that he was an able, studious, richly-gifted jurist, would be
saying only that which may be truly said of many at our Bar -who
lived in his day, and have survived him. But there are some things
in which Mr. Brady A\as marked and peculiarl}' eminent. Perhaps it
is because his special gifts have been so long familiar to us that it has
not seemed needful to make any utterance concerning them. It is
in reference to these hitherto scarcely noticed features of his character
that I purpose to say a few W(.irds.
I heard from at least one of the speakers a compliment bestowed
upon Mr. Brady's integrity, I do not know that I have heard from
one of them, or more than one at most, any observation referring to
his remarkable self-reliance and di'termination. To these traits I will
confine my remarks. As to self-reliance, I can say that as far as my
observation and experience enable me to judge, no man ever exhib
ited the quality in a higher degree than Mr. Brady. Our city became
vastly extended in his day. When he began life it was compara
tively small, and many things then existed afVccting the daily life of

' Mr, E, Delafield Smith,

JAMES T. BRADY'

the citizen which can hardly be perceived in the great metropolis of
to-day. Mr. Brady began life as a presumed representative of a
nsitional class, not highly fashionable, nor, in the main, composed of
persons in a condition favorable to their bestowal of immediate grati
fications upon youthful ambition. He also belonged to an ancient and
very unfashionable faith, and his political opinions made him a
member of the extremest wing in certainly the least fa,shionable of the
political parties. Mr. Beady was without fortune, without powerful
friends and without any means wherewith to achieve eminence
amongst men but the power of his own brain, his native eloquence,
and, I may say, the strength of his own hand. Under such circum
stances an ordinary young man full of ambition like Mr. Brady,
would only have conformed to the dictates of self-interest in shunning
all reference to these subjects. Yet no man ever saw him lean toward
such a weakness. Down to the last he was proud of the country
from which his parents came, almost forgetting, in the frequency of
his references to it, the glorious land of his birth. Be that, however,
no discredit; for the land of his fathers demanded his sympathy,
whilst the land of his birth was flourishing in illimitable prosperity,
and needed no aid from any quarter. During the early part of his
life, and indeed continuously to the end, when to be sure it was less a
merit, he ever seemed proud of the insignia which in respect to ori
gin, faith and political sentiment, tended to make him a pariah in the
eyes of wealth, fashion and social power. He could not consent to
be loved and cherished as other than just what he \\'as. He stood
by that which James T. Brady believed in .and reverenced, be the
consequences what they might.
Now, in all this, there might seem but little merit had he been a
seeker after political popularity and political eminence. There, like
some others, he might have found compensation. But where reward
was to be found, he was neither a courtier nor a seeker.
His integrity has been spoken of If he had been here and had
heard it, the compliment would have given him offense. Such were Ihe
lofty views entertained by that truly noble mind, such his perfect
truthfulness, his pure integrity, his steadfast adherence to that which
he deemed right, that he would have scorned a compliment on the
score of mere integrity. Perhaps I know this better than some who
hear me. In the whole course of Mr. Brady's life, he never sufl"ered
the slightest even momentary impeachment, save once. His course
on that occasion was characteristic. He scorned all explanation and
simply set censure at defiance. But the hour of clearing up arrived,

28 INMEMORIAM,

when he who had been foremost in the charge, vanquished by the
manifest inadequacy of his own proofs, pronounced Mr. Brady not
only innocent but free from any shade of suspicion. This was done
openly in a public court : it gave to Mr. Brady's client the trident of
victory by the absolute concession of his opponent. Almost any
other man would have made the welkin ring with his triumphant ex
culpation. Quite different was the action of Mr, Brady, He had
from the first hurled defiance at the impeachment : he now treated the
retraction with a proudly scornful disregard. The vindication of his
rectitude was never permitted to find a [dace even in the daily papers;
and it remains unrecorded. You know only the general facts, I shall
not descend to details.
In the respects which I have referred to, Mr. Brady was an exam
ple worthy of imitatiion.
It was my fortune to agree with Mr. Brady in all the opinions
to which I have thus far adverted — not indeed from any special
communion between us, but it so ha2Dpened. We thought alike, I
shall not say whether or not we agreed in reference to the subjects
which I shall hereafter mention.
His exemplary, nay, brilliant line of action, upon the trial of the
crew captured on board the privateer Savannah, has been a subject of
commendation. I will speak of it in connection with my theme, the
inflexible firmness of his character as evinced in the fearlessness with
which he formed opinions, and the steadiness with which he adhered
to them. Conscious of perfect rectitude in all his purposes, no
amount of opposition could induce him to swerve from them.
When that disastrous event took place which divided this great
Republic, and from a band of united brothers converted our people
into two great warring nations, James T. Brady— I speak not to
commend, but t(5 narrate — James T, Beady, oljeying -what might
well have been expected from his highly emotional nature, sprang
to the banner of his own section, and arrayed himself among
his life-long associates. He declined to discuss points of con
stitutional law, or' to weigh questions of mere legal right and
wrong, but he insisted upon calling forth the power of the land to
uphold what in his judgment seemed the interest and honor of his
country. In this he pcrscAcred throughout the struggle. As far as I
am aware, his opinions and feelings remained unaltered to the end.
And yet, perh,aps, the two most remarkable circumstances connected
with his professional career during this period were such as to excite
among superficial observers a doubt of his earnestness. When the

JAMBS T. BRADY. 29

crew of the confederate priA'ateer Savannah were placed upon trial
in the city of New York, for piracy, James T. Brady, unrewarded so
far as I know, appeared as the leading champion of the defense, de
manding an acquittal. When the struggle had passed — when the
mighty conflict was over, a somewhat similar drama was announced.
The chief of that great confederacy was summoned to a similar or
deal ; and, at once, under the influence of similar sentiments, James
T. Beady appeared as his defender. For this unpopular and arduous
office he also declined compensation, though ample compensation was
tendered. In these acts you see evinced the self-relying determination
of the man's character — his firm and discriininating judgment. His
feelings, his prepossessions, his interests, all that could engage the
heart of man, placed him upon the side of the North, Could he have
so directed the enginery of war, its stroke would have been fatal to
every armed foe found throughout the South, But he had a cool, dis
passionate judgment, knowledge of the law and a sense of decorum ;
and these led him to certain definite conclusions. Here, too, I speak
not to commend, but to narrate ; for, on these subjects, there are vari
eties of opinion. He thought that courts, juries and the gallows were
unfit weapons of war ; he deemed them most unfitting accompaniments
of the peace which arras had won. His moral convictions forbade
their employment against those who had chivalrously contended with
us in the field ; and therefore acting in what, to the unthinking, might
seem to be an inconsistent manner, he boldly confronted the common
sentiment, holding its disapproval as naught when in conflict with his
own judgment.
Such was Mr. Beady. It may not have been his most amiable
trait, dr that which commanded for him the highest measure of per
sonal attachment ; but in my estimation his greatest quality was this
sternly inflexible adherence to his convictions. It gave the greatest
efficiency to his fine powers ; it enabled him always to strike justly
for the right, and to speak in mercy for those who should be spared.
Lam free to say it was this which most attracted to him my admira
tion and respect.
Whether the created divinities who preside over this world's fame
will accord to bis memory a niche in their already overcrowded Pan
theon, I may not say ; but, certainly, his associates, one and all now
mourning his premature departure, will hold him in precious remem
brance whilst they live. Whatever of frailty marked his career,
served but to show that he partook of our common humanity and to
invoke a rich blessing on his dying hour. The only flower of earth

30 IN MEMORIAM.

that is immortal then shed its fragrance around him. Penitence, that
opens to its possessor the portals of eternal bliss, gave to his imme
diate family and kindred manifest promise of that happy reunion
which is their consolation, and should be our highest hope.
The question was taken on the resolutions, and they were agreed to.
Mr. Vanderpoel said :
I have been requested to offer, in addition to the resolutions which
have been adopted by the meeting, the following :
Resolved, That the members of the Bar, as a further testimony of
regard and respect for our departed friend and professional brother,
wear a badge of mourning for thirty days.
Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting, subscribed by its
officers, be transmitted to the relatives of the deceased.
Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by the Chair
man to prepare, and cause to be printed in a suitable form, the pro
ceedings of this meeting, that they may be preserved //( menioriam.
The resolutions were adopted.
The President appointed Aaron J. Vanderpoel, Clarence A. Sew
ard, and John E. Burrill to act as the committee.
On motion, the meeting then adjourned.

%ctmQ& ^. ^rctbg.

And he is dead ! He whose mellifluous tongue
So oft has paid high tribute to the dead.
Who now shall praise him ?
Who, of livmg men, has power to speak his worth,
And in fit phrases body forth liis excellence ?
He who could rise to this — why, he were his equal —
And where on earth may such be found ?
Only he who struck the lyre for Lycidas,
Or he, the greater one, who in the Sonnets
Told his mighty love,
Could equal this high argument.
Yet not the less shall he be monrnetl,
Though none be left to fitly phrase our grief.
Or picture forth his worth.
The city mourns ! Through all her crowded streets-
That erst felt thrills of joy, did he but pass — ¦

JAM EST. BRADY. 31

Runs the sad rumor — growing certainty —
That death has claimed her rarest, best-loved son.
Law mourns, and, weeping, bows her widowed head ;
Wit wails her darling fled from mortal sight.
And eloquence is dumb, since silent is his voice.
Art scans in vain the ranks of living men
To find another model for her gods. Full well she knows
Nature has no such masterpiece, nor other had
Since he, who scornful stood before the Grecian sculptor
While he caught the Sun-god's features.
Youth mourns — the ready sympathy, the kindly word —
The heart that throbbed responsive to its own ;
For his, the immortal youth, that genius ever gives,
Age mourns, in selfish grief, that its own meed must fail
Since tardy death too long delayed, and now
He lives no more, to give its well-earned praise,
And children weep their loving gentle friend
Whose ready sympathy made him their chosen playmate.
The children's voices hymn his sweetest dirge."
And manhood mourns its knightliest champion.
Gentle and true and brave. No brighter spear
Went charging down the lists against Giant Fraud.
No courtlier combatant e'er entered list in joust or tournament.
Amidst his peers was found no firmer friend or nobler foe ;
Ah ! long the Bar shall hold in legendary fame their " Launcelot ! " f
And Beauty weeps her warmest worshiper.
And brings the sweetest blooms, the fairest fragile flowers.
To lay beside him — for his tomb she twines the wreath of Amaranth.
Want mourns the stopping of the warmest heart that beat.
The open hand, the ready charity, the willing ear,
Tliat listened to its woe, and quick relieved.
The wise, the great, the rich, shall come to pay their tribute at his tomb.
And there shall meet the poor, the weak, the humble, they who loved him,
They whose tribute tear outweighs all gifts that wealth can lavish now !
February 10, I. E. C.
* " I hope that when I die, the songs of those little ones will be my Funeral
Anthem." — Speech at Gerard Dhmer.
\ " Ah, Sir Launcelot ! " he said, " there thou liest ; and now 1 dare say thou
wert never matched of none earthly knight's hand ; and thou wert the courtliest
knight that ever bore shield ; and thou wert the truest friend to thy lover that
ever bestrode horse ; and thou wert the truest lover, of a sinful man, that ever
loved woman ; and thou wert the kindest man that ever struck with sword ; and
thou wert tlie goodliest person that ever came among press of knights ; and thou
wert the meekest man, and the gentlest, that ever ate in hall amongst ladies; and
thou wert the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest." —
Morte If Arthur,

32 1 N M E 3.1 O R I A M .

^he (Slouvt^.

Court of Appeals, March Term, 1869.
Mr. A. J. Vanderpoel, on presenting the proceedings of the meet
ing of the Bar of New York city, addressed the Court as follows :
Maj/ it please your Honors :
By the kind permission of the Chief Judge, I am allowed at this
time to bring to the notice of the Court the proceedings at the meet
ing of the Bar of New York city, on the death of James T. Brady.
The event is so recent as to be still painfully familiar to each one
of your Honors,
The Courts sitting in his native city have placed upon their records
tributes of regard to Mr, Brady's memory, and it would be gratifying
to his professional brethren that the records of this Court should also
attest the affection and respect we bore him.
Mr, Brady's career as a lawyer, when measured by high and hon
orable professional success, was a long one ; nearly a third of a cen
tury he stood in the front rank of the advocates. When we reflect
upon his professional work, it is hard to realize that he was only fift}"-
four years of age at the time of his death.
Nature had endowed him with great — I may say unusual — intel
lectual qualities ; but your Honors know of how little value is such
an endowment unless aided by industry and perseverance.
We shall not come in vain to this highest judicial forum, where his
presence and his voice were so familiar, for testimonj- that he used
and improved the faculties which had been bestowed upon him so
liberally. Your Honors could appreciate that his arguments displayed not
merely the eloquence ..f woi'ds, but were full of the eloquence of well-
arranged thoughts.
You never failed td welcome his entrance into the court-room,
^'ou expected, when he arose to address you, not only tn be instructed
but to be interested in his presentation of his case. It was sure to be,
marked by richness of language as well as afllucnee of ideas. It was
not the presentation of the case by the hard, dry lawyer, nor by one

JAMEST. BRADY. 33

who had crammed merely for the occasion, but it was the presentation
by a logical mind which could call to its aid in every feature of the
argument apt and happy illustrations from the fields of general liter
ature and history.
But his welcome was not from the bench alone — the right hand of
each lawyer from all parts of our great State was extended to him in
cordial greeting, and he returned the friendly grasp with the same
hearty good will. So marked was the kindly feeling of Bench and
Bar toward Mr. Brady, that he would have been chargeable with in
sincerity if he had asserted that he did not observe it ; and many of
us whose fortune it was to meet him intimately in social life, know
that he was proud of it — that he rejoiced in the consciousness that he
had been proven worthy of the respect and love of all ranks of that
profession to which he had plighted his fidelity.
At the meeting whose proceedings I rose to present to the atten
tion of the Court, resolutions were adopted and addresses made ex
pressing in fitting words the sentiments justly and agreeably enter
tained toward our deceased brother.
Under the permission accorded to me, I will file a copy of the
addresses, and beg leave to read the resolutions.
Chief Justice Hunt, in response, expressed for himself and his
brethren on the Bench their deep sense of the loss sustained in the
death of Mr. Brady, and directed the Clerk to place upon the files of
the Court the papers presented, and to make a proper record of the
proceedings upon the Minutes,

UNITED STATES CIRCUIT AND DISTRICT COURTS.
February 9, 1869.
The large United States Circuit Court room was densely crowded
yesterday morning by the legal profession, the attaches of the several
courts and offices held within the court buildings, and by the gen
eral public, in consequence of the publicity which followed the
first rumor of the death of Mr, James T. Brady, and the certainty
that a formal notice of the sad event would be the first business in
order at the opening of the Court. Crowded as the room was, and
eagerly as others endeavored to crush their way in, the deepest silence
prevailed as Judge Blatchford and Judge Benedict, of the District
Court, took their seats on the bench of the Circuit Court.
Among those present were c-'^'Charles O'Conoe, George F. Com-
5

34 IN MEMORIAM,
STOCK, Stewaet L. Woodford, John K. Porter, United States Mar
shal Robert Murray, District Attorney Samuel G. Courtney, Messrs.
Welcome R. Beebb, John E. Burrill, John MoKeon, Clarence
A. Sewaed, Charles Donohub, Charles A, Rapallo, James B,
Craig, and nearly all the United States Commissioners and Assistant
District Attorneys connected with the courts of this district.
Mr. John E. Burrill, having been selected by his brother profes
sionals present to notify the bench of the loss the Bar of New York
had sustained in the death of so distinguished a member as Mr. Brady,
and to move the adjournment of the Court in respect to his memory,
then with feelings evidently affected by the sad duty imposed upon
him, very briefly communicated the intelligence to the Bench, and
moved the adjournment of the Court.
Judge Comstock then rose, and very briefly addressed the Court
in words expressive of the regret the whole people of the State of
New York will feel when the fact of the death of Mr. Brady becomes
known. It was not alone the Bar, he said, but the whole body of the
citizens that had lost a brother and a friend in the departed.
Mr. Samuel G. Courtney seconded the motion for an adjourn
ment, and announced that a meeting of the members of the Bar then
present would be held, by whom a committee would be appointed, to
whom would be intrusted the task of calling a general meeting of the
Bar of the city, to be held in one of the court-rooms, at which the
usual addresses of eulogy and resolutions of condolence would be
made and adopted.
Judge Blatchford said the Judges of these courts deeply felt
the affliction that had fallen so suddenly upon them. They felt
they had lost a warm and dear friend. Mr. Brady's l.ast professional
appearance in that court-room was on Thursday last, when, although
he appeared to be suffering from illness, he exhibited all those charac
teristics which have so constantly been noticed as attributes of his
character — most gracefully and courteously stepping in to the relief
of a professional brother opposed to him. He (Judge Blatchford)
could truly say that he was always glad to see Mr. Beady in a case
before him — so marked was his fairness and courtesy toward his op
ponent — and the Court could always rely on every statement made
by him. Socially, his genial kindness of heart, love of children, kind
ness to young men, all endeared him to hosts of friends. The Court
unhesitatingly acceded to the request to adjourn, and would order
the fact to be properly entered on the minutes of the Court.
Judge Benedict said his acquaintance with Mr. Brady was almost

JAMES T, BRADY. 35

wholly professional, but the same traits of character that had so en
deared him to others had also endeared him to him. Although he (Judge
Benedict) had but a slight personal acquaintance with Mr. Brady, yet
he seemed to know him better than almost any other member of the bar.
He had seen Mr. Brady iu cases where feeling ran high, yet had he
always maintained that genial kindness of heart and courtesy toward
an opponent that so preeminently marked his career. It was emi
nently proper that the Circuit Court of the United States in this dis
trict, in which he had won such great and honorable distinction, should
adjourn out of respect to his memory. The Court would therefore
stand adjourned to 11 A. M. on Wednesday, the 10th instant, and
the fact of the adjournment would be entered upon the minutes of the
Court.

COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER,
In this Court the proceedings were interrupted by the announcement
of the sad event.
District-Attorney Garvin rose, and, addressing the Court, an
nounced the decease, at an early hour this morning, of Mr. James T.
Beady, the eminent lawyer. Mr. Garvin then proceeded to deliver a
touching and appropriate eulogium to the memory of the distinguished
and deeply-lamented advocate ; and moved that, as a mark of respect
for his many virtues and estimable qualities, the Court do now ad
journ. The motion was seconded, and Mr. B. K. Phelps, associated with
ex-Judge Stuart in the defense of the prisoner on trial, made a few
remarks of regret at the announcement just made.
Charles S. Spencer also rose and addressed the Court on the
melancholy event, and recalled several recollections of the deceased,
alluding in touching language to the last speech ever made by him.
The occasion was the late complimentary dinner tendered to James
W. Gerard. Mr. Gerard, in his speech, had alluded to the deep in
terest he had himself taken in the cause and welfare of school chil
dren, and said he was never so happy as when in the presence of
little children, and thought no music was so sweet as the voices of
children when engaged in singing. It was the nearest approach to, if
not in fact, the music of the angels. In the course of the evening
Mr. Brady, who was present, was called upon to respond to one of
the toasts, and, reverting to the remarks of Mr. Gerard, said that he

36 I N 31 E M O R I A M

(Mr. Brady) also took the greatest pleasure in listening to the singing
of little children, and he hoped that when he died the songs of these
little ones would be his funeral anthem. Mr, Spencer said that was
the last address made in public by Mr, Brady, and doubtless when
he uttered that beautiful sentiment, he scarcely thought his time was
so brief, and that the opportunity for the tribute he so desired was to
be accorded so soon.
Judge Barnard, evidently deeply affected, spoke, in conclusion, of
the many genial and distinguished traits which adorned the character
of deceased, and of his proverbial kindness, courtesy, and self-sacri
ficing affection, which he so frequently displayed. The Judge then
directed that the Court be adjourned to this morning at ten o'clock,
and that a suitable record of these proceedings be made on the
minutes.

SUPREME COURT— CIRCUIT— PART II.
This branch of the court was also adjourned by Judge Cleeee,
upon motion of members of the Bar present, out of respect for the
memory of Mr. James T. Beady, deceased.

SUPREME COURT— CIRCUIT— PART IU.
In this Court, at its opening, Mr. Wm. H. Anthon rose and said :
May it please the Court — With feeling almost too deep for utter
ance, I rise to perform the painful duty of announcing to this Court
the death of Mr. James T. Brady, which occurred at an early hour
this morning. He was endeared to all the members of the Bar by
the recollection of his kindness and gentleness of manner ; and to me,
in particular, by the recollection of many acts of friendship. To the
community at large his death is one which all must feel — a loss to
the Bench, a loss to the Bar, and a loss to the entire community.
He has passed away from among us, and only the recollection of his
virtues remains. " Only the actions of the just smell sweet and
blossom in the dust.'' I am sure, in rising to move that this Court do
now adjourn, I but simply express the warm and earnest feelings of
the members of the Bar who surround me, and who, on an occasion

JAMES T, BRADY. 37

like this, are certainly too deeply affected by emotion to conduct with
calmness and tranquillity the ordinary duties of the Court to-day. I
therefore move you that, as a tribute of respect to the eminent virtues
and the great ability of the departed, the Court do now adjourn, and
that a resolution to that effect be entered on its minutes.
Mr. A. R. Dyett seconded the motion, saying :
If your Honor please, it is with feelings of painful emotion that I
rise to follow the gentleman who has just pronounced a brief eulogy
upon the death of my friend, and the friend of us all. This morning, as
I came to my office, I met a gentleman who announced tome the death
of Mr. James T. Brady. Had he announced the death of my own
brother, I scarcely could have received the tidings with more pain or
regret. I rise to second the motion of the gentleman who has just
sat down ; but this is not the fitting place to pronounce a eulogy upon
one so celebrated, upon one so eminent, upon one so well beloved, the
melancholy tidings of whose decease we have just received. It is
proper and it is right that, pursuing as we do life's earnest march, we
should stop and pause in our haste to drop a tear upon the bier of one
who has fallen in our ranks. There are many around us whom we
love, who are dear to our hearts — our comrades, our peers at the Bar
— but I can hardly help saying, in regard to the loss of one so greatly
honored and so dearly beloved —
Heu quanto minus est cum reUquis versari,
Quam tui meminisse.
" Peace to his ashes ! After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well." I
knew him well. I loved him. I shall miss him from among us. His
place will be vacant for a long time. I shall miss the pleasant tones
of his voice, and the warm grasp of his hand. But, sir, he is no more ;
and overcome with emotion as I am, I can say no more, except that (I
might almost say a melancholy pleasure) I second the motion of the
gentleman who has just taken his seat.
Mr. Justice Ingraham said : — My acquaintance with Mr. Brady com
menced in his boyhood, and the intimate friendship which has existed
between him and myself from that time to the present has taught
me the kindliness of his heart, the worth of his character, and his
great ability. But under the sudden announcement of his death, I
cannot trust myself to speak even of these. I can only say that with
all that has been said by the gentlemen who have addressed the Court,
I fully concur, and think that the loss of no one among us could be

38 INMEMORIAM.

more deplored, and that no one is more entitled to the respect now
proposed to be paid to his memory, I shall, therefore, direct that the
Court do now adjourn, and that such order be entered on the minutes.

SUPREME COURT — SPECIAL TERM.
In the Special Term of the Supreme Court, before Mr. Justice
Sutherland, Mr. Charles A. Peabody announced that since the ad
journment of the Court yesterday a calamity and misfortune had hap
pened to all, in the death of James T. Beady, one of the most eloquent,
learned, honorable, and high-toned members of the Bar, with whom
the Court and all of us had been accustomed to associate for so long a
period. He had, within the last few hours, passed from the scenes of
his labors and triumphs in this world to those of another and a better.
This sudden event he was sure had unfitted them all to assume the
ordinary vocations of the day. In view of these considerations he
moved that the Court adjourn.
Mr. Hooper C. Van Vorst, on seconding the motion, said that it
was fit and proper that the business of the tribunal should be sus
pended in view of the melancholy event which had been just an
nounced, and which had taken all so greatly by surprise. Mr.
Brady was within a few days in the enjoyment of his customary
health. He could not express the loss the Bar of this State and coun
try had sustained in the death of one so honored and distinguished,
and whom they all so sincerely loved. Thej' would no more see
among them " his form and moving so express and admirable," jior
would they ever again be charmed by his manly eloquence.
Mr. Justice Sutherland, with much emotion, said that he deeply
felt the sad intelligence just announced, and fully concurred in all that
had been said. This, perhaps, was not the proper time to express his
sense of the loss the Court and Bar had sustained in the death of
James T. Brady. He directed that the Court be adjourned, and that
the clerk enter an order on the minutes to that effect.

JAMES T, BRADY, 39

SUPREME COURT — CHAMBERS.
In this Court, in the presence of a numerous assemblage of the
Bar, Mr. Justice Cardozo, on taking his seat, said :
I have just learned of the death of Mr. James T. Brady, and am
overwhelmed with grief at the great calamity which has fallen upon
the Bench, the Bar, and the public generally, and, if I may be allowed
to speak of so unimportant a matter, in view of my deep affection for
him, upon myself especially. I dare not trust myself to speak on
this melancholy occasion ; all I can venture to do is to order that, in
deference to the great man who has so suddenly been taken from us,
and in respectful sympathy with his sorrowing relatives, the Court do
stand adjourned until to-morrow, and that suitable mention of the
cause be made on the minutes.

SUPERIOR COURT— PAKT I.
At the sitting of the Court, Mr. Joachimsen announced the mel
ancholy intelligence of the decease of Mr. James T. Brady, and moved
the adjournment of the Court out of respect to his memory.
Mr. Gilbert Dean seconded the motion, and in a few appropriate
remarks referred to the great merits of the deceased, and the loss
the Bar and the community had sustained.
Judge MoNELL, in granting the motion, said the sudden, and to
him wholly unexpected death of his friend, had so overwhelmed him
that he could but in a few words at that time express his deep sorrow
for the great loss which had fallen upon the Bar and upon the whole
community. Mr. Brady and himself were not only nearly of the same
age, but were also nearly cotemporaneous in their admission to the
Bar ; and for more than a quarter of a century he had been his es
teemed friend, for whom he had always entertained the greatest re
spect and admiration. But, as he had said, he could do no more at
present than pay to his memory perhaps the empty honor of causing
the Court to be adjourned as a mark of respect to his greatness and
worth. The Court then adjourned.

40 INMEMORIAM.

SUPERIOR COURT— PART II,
Justice Jones presided, Mr. Vanderpoel announced the death of
Mr. Brady, and moved the Court do now adjourn out of respect to the
memory of Mr. James T. Brady, deceased.
Mr. Darlington seconded the motion.
Justice Jones made a few feeling and appropriate remarks, in which
he briefly reviewed the brilliant career of Mr, Brady, whose death, he
was assured, would be deeply felt throughout the entire community.

SUPERIOR COURT — SPECIAL TERM.
Pursuant to the motion of Mr. Darlington, seconded by Mr.
Hawley, Justice Friedman ordered this Court adjourned in respect to
the memory of Mr. James T. Beady, after passing a fitting tribute to
his greatness and worth.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS,
In Part I. of this Court, the Hon. Geo. C. Barrett having taken
his seat,
Mr. Dennis McMahon rose and said, that it was with the deepest
sorrow that he had but a few moments since learned of the death of
James T, Beady, Mr, McMahon, having paid an eloquent and
touching tribute to the deceased, concluded by moving that the Court
adjourn, William C. Baeeett, Esq., said :
If the Court please : For a long time it has been my good fortune
to enjoy the friendship and society of this great, noble, and kind man.
On my way to this Court I was, for the first time, apprised of the
death of James T. Brady. You know the friendship that existed
between us. We were brought up as boys together, and, from that
time almost up to the hour of his death, one unbroken chain of friend
ship and brotherly love existed between us. You also remember the

JAMES T. BRADY. 41

kind and paternal interest that he took in you, as a boy — as a stu
dent — as a man — and as a brother of his brother on the Bench. But
this is not the time— it is not the place — to speak of social, of family
intimacies. I second the motion, and move that the Court adjourn.
Anthony R. .Dyett, Esq., rose and addressed the Court as fol
lows :
If your Honor please : I would not, sir, unnecessarily lengthen
these sad ceremonies, but I feel as it were impelled to say a few
words of kindness — of love — and of affection, in memory of a man
who, among us all, was so greatly loved, so highly esteemed — and
who is so deeply regretted.
Scarce, sir, has it ever fallen to the lot of a man among his associates
at the Bar, among his friends in the social circle, among the people —
to be so dearly beloved and so universally regretted — as he whose
merits at this moment we recall, whom we so much regret, and whose
memory we should for ever and ever honor and respect.
I heard of his death, sir, this morning. Deeply, deeply was I
moved. It seemed, as it were, to confuse my thoughts — to render me
unfit for my accustomed duties. I felt that I must step aside from the
active duties of my life, and come among my brethren of the Bar to
share their grief.
I could almost say, now, sir — such are my feelings — the emotions
to which I am obliged to yield — I could almost say, " My heart is in
the coffin there with Csesar, and I must pause till it come back to me."
It has been well said, sir, that James T. Brady was a remarkable
man, not only for his wit, not only for his learning and for his eminent
social qualities, but, above all, sir, for the purity of his character,
his strict, unbending integrity, his great honesty. No one, sir, ever
breathed a word against his character as a lawyer or as a man. He
was, indeed, " God's noblest work — an honest man ! " and we may truly
add, he was " Integer vitce scelerisque piirus."
He has fallen among us. I can scarcely realize that he is dead.
It seems to me that the tones of his voice that I loved so much to hear
are still lingering amid the echoes of the forum which he adorned
with his learning, and made pleasant by his presence. I seem to see
him before me now. I cannot feel that he is dead.
It is right, it is proper, sir, that we, soldiers in life's march, should
stay our hasty tread and pause with stacked arms, to shed a tear upon
6

42 IN MEMORIAM.

the grave of the comrade who has fallen in our ranks. It brings
truthfully to our minds, sir, those beautiful lines of Mrs. Hemans ;
" Leaves have their time to fall,
And flowers to wither at the North wind's breath.
And stars to set; but all — i
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, 0 Death ! "
Truly has it been said that "Death loves a shining mark." He
has found it here in our lamented friend, in the zenith of his fitme, in
the vigor of his manhood — almost, I might say, sir, in the flush of his
forensic success. The shaft was sure. He has fallen, and " after life's
fitful fever he sleeps well."
I cannot, with the emotions now pressing upon me, say more about
him ; but it is a pleasant, although a melancholy subject — a pleasant
task to talk about one whom we loved so well. When we recall his
image, we might almost say, " Quis desklerio
Sit pudor aut modus
Tain cari capitis."
Long, sir, will his memory live in our hearts ! Void, void indeed,
is the place which he once filled there. Can it ever be supplied ?
I second the motion which has been made that this Court adjourn,
as a fitting and just mark of respect, and as a tribute to the memory
of James T. Brady.
Judge Barrett, deeply affected, said :
This is no fitting time to speak of the deceased ; my mind is too
confused, and my heart too full. Through all, however, one thought
comes to my lips and seeks expression. It is that our loss is not pe
culiar to the Bar, but is shared by a common humanity. It is not
merely the loss which the French Bar sustained when their great ad
vocate Berryer went to his rest. No ! to that must be added the loss
of the humorist who touches the chords of the human heart ; such as
the English nation would feel were a genius like Dickens taken from
them. Like the latter, ho could at any moment, and at his almost
magical will, affect one to tears or to laughter. He was the Dickens
of the tongue. Wonderful in intellectual power, yet the sorrow for
his death was to be attributed to something higher, nobler, and more
beautiful ; yes, to his great and lovely soul. A citizen of this coun
try, but in no narrow sense, and to bo known to posterity as a citizen

JAMES T. BRADY. 43

of God's great world. Ho was, indeed, one of the great catholic
spirits of the age — large, comprehensive, and universal — and fulfilling
in every act of a noble life the idea of the absolute brotherhood of
humanity. The last time I heard him speak could never be forgotten. Little
did I imagine it would be his last effort. Strong men were swayed
like children, and his beautiful thoughts were indeed a fitting prelude
to a requiem.
This Court has sustained a peculiar loss, for, although owing to the
high-toned delicacy which has been spoken of, he never came before
us, still we knew him not only as the dear brother of our own dear
brother, but as a true friend of us all. If ever a true man went into
the bosom and the heart of eternity with the prayers and blessings of
all who knew him, and of all who had heard of him, it was he.
The motion is acceded to, and the Court is adjourned to Monday
next, at 11 o'clock.

COMMON PLEAS — PART II,
In the absence of Judge John R. Brady, Judge Barrett pre
sided. The Court having been opened, Mr. George Shea addressed the
Court as follows :
YouE Honor : I rise for the purpose of moving that this Court
direct an immediate adjournment ; and, if it meets with the conven
ience of the Court, until next Monday morning. The occasion of this
sudden request is one which has been communicated to mc within the
last few seconds, and it is so unexpected that it leaves me, mentally
and physically, in a condition scarcely capable — certainly not fittingly
capable — of stating to this Court that James T. Brady is no more.
Here should I stop. But I cannot forbear to recall the flict that my
knowledge of him reaches back almost to my childhood, and that our
personal intercourse has run over a period of more than a quarter of
a century. His father and my father were friends and fellow-country
men, and our common and cherished lemembrancc of their talents,
learning, and virtues formed a proud and substantial basis for our mu
tual and traditional regard. I do not feel able to do more than make
this mere announcement of the saddest event of this morning, Asso-

44 IN MEMORIAM

ciations, dear relationships of parentage, friendship, and kindred, now
are coming back upon my memory with a keen freshness of sorrow, not
lessened, though long years have passed since they, also, were broken
by death. Yes, sir, it is not for me, nor is it proper -for this hour, to
attempt to describe and do justice to the magnificent talents of James
T. Brady. They raised him to a great eminence at our Bar — a body
of gentlemen distinguished for learning, honor, and dignity — and gave
him a place in the first line of those advocates who take precedence at
the Bar of the Courts of the United States. We have shared in his
glory by reflection upon us. We always need living examples to
direct and stimulate us. And he was of that order of men who, in the
language of Edmund Burke, " are the guideposts and landmarks of the
State." Those that have been and are such are now fast fading away.
May the fruits of their labors and the testimony of their renown be
preserved,. for our sakes, in colors less fading than those of mem
ory. By his death, this country, and in an especial sense this city, loses
one of our foremost citizens. We at this Bar feel that we all have
lost a friend. I have lost, also, a companion — [here the learned gentle
man was so affected as to be unable to proceed for some moments] —
one, sir, who bore honorable relations to those to whom I, in the order
of nature, have succeeded. His place here is now v\acant, and hard
will it be for those of our brethren who shall be called upon to fill it.
Sir, I move that the Court adjourn.
Mr. Luther R. Marsh, on seconding the motion, said :
May it please the Court :
Your Honor, unquestionably, will yield to the motion to adjourn,
A sad and solemn duty is imposed on some of us, to make this formal
announcement to the Court, of an event just brought to our knowdedge
— the departure of our friend James T, Brady from the scenes of this
life. How little can we know, how poorly foretell the issues of a day !
We came here this morning prepared to continue the trial begun on
yesterday — armed for the conflict — and are met at the door with
the intelligence which suddenly disarms us ; and, instead of taking
hostile positions as we expected, we all unite in testifying our regard
for him who has so suddenly disappeared from our ranks, in paying
our tribute of love, and in mingling the outflow of our soyrow. We,
therefore, join in asking that the business of the Court may be sus
pended for several days, and until next Monday, in token of that

JAMEST. BRADY. 45

respect which the Bar of New York, with complete unanimity, would
pay to one of their most distinguished and best-loved members.
We were wholly unprepared to hear that Mr. Brady had been
removed from us — his manly form and noble features, his cordial sal
utation, his word of wit, his pleasing voice and manner, his winning
presence, were so familiar to us, and constituted so much a part of our
daily expectation, that it seems as if a portion of our vocation were
gone with him. But we must yield to the decree. He, so long ad
mired and so much loved ; he, so long standing in the very front rank
of the Bar, and in some respects, perhaps, in front of that rank, by
himself, alone — is no longer on the roll of living lawyers.
The relations of each of the members of this Court to him, were
such as to make this intelligence strike home with peculiar poignancy ;
and yet, this particular Court as such, will not feel his loss as much
as others ; for, since the accession of his brother to this Bench —
now some thirteen years ago — the voice of Mr. Beady, though often
and earnestly implored, has never been heard at this tribunal. He,
from that moment, withdrew entirely from practice in this forum,
directly or indirectly, that the appearance might correspond with the
reality, and no fee, or tempting cause of popular interest, could tempt
him to swerve from the line of duty his delicate sense of honor pre
scribed — an ever conspicuous trait in his professional life.
This occasion, by its unexpectedness, and the nature of the pending
motion, is not suited for the full expression of our feelings, or of our
appreciation of the character and ability of our brother. The affection
of the Bar will take care that such an opportunity shall be provided.
We all agree — and surely we have time to say — that, perhaps, he was
the most — certainly one of the most — brilliant nisi prius advocates of
his time. Twelve men empanelled constituted the tribunal, as I
think, where his powers were most effectively displayed ; and yet,
when we heard him in banc, on unmixed questions of law, there
seemed no falling off.
There occurs to me, as I speak, an incident, somewhat illustrative
of the readiness with which he held his powers in command. I had a
case, some years ago, of such importance to property and character,
that I deemed it advisable to call in Mr, Brady to share the responsi
bility. But, so crowding and imperative were his engagements, that
I found it impracticable to meet him in consultation — all our appoint
ments falling through. Nevertheless, I sent him notice of the time the
Court had assigned for the argument, and he was promptly there,
though wholly uninformed of the facts or position of the case. I was

46 m MEMORIAM.

glad for the magnetism of his presence, though anticipating but little
actual support from his reply. Purposely opening very fully — more
for him than for the Court — I observed him rapidly taking notes ; and
when I had concluded, he attached and folded his sheets, and handed
them to me. I found them, on perusal, so superior, as points, to those
I had drawn in the leisure of preparation, that I gave them to the
Court in lieu of my own. Then, after the opposing argument, fol
lowed his reply — so complete, so well arranged, so powerful,- that it
would have been remarkable under any state of preparation, but most
extraordinary as a spontaneous production.
The tones of our friend's voice are yet in our ears. Many of us,
perhaps most of us, heard his speech at the dinner given a few even
ings since to James W. Gerard, on his retirement from practice at
the Bar. I suppose that was the last speech James T. Brady ever
made on any public occasion. We remember at how late an hour the
toast was read to which he was assigned ; and we remember, too, how
every guest waited for that speech ere retiring ; and how enthusiasti
cally all testified their delight and wonder. Certainly, it was one of
the most remarkable speeches I have heard — rich in wit, and freighted
with information, every sentence bearing the unmistakable evidence
that it was the then extemporaneous creation of his mind ; for it had
such reference to current events of the evening, and allusions to per
sons present, as carried that conviction very clearly to every one. It
is a cause of great regret — and all the more, since it is the last speech
we shall ever hear from him — that his remarks were not photographed,
so that we could have them as the closing speech of his life — illustrat
ing his peculiar gifts, and embodying the results of his experience ; —
but it is lost to us, and can only dwell, now, in our memories.
The departure of our friend causes universal regret. I doubt if
any one, in any business, or rank of life, or extent of associations,
could have been called away, who had taken such hold of popular
sympathy, and would arouse such evidences of popular affection.
The loss of our brother would seem the more to be deplored as
he was just in the fullness of fame, and in the plenitude of strength.
I have read of the sorrow expressed — I think it was in the address of
President Eliphalet Nott — at the premature death of Alexander Ham
ilton, at the age of forty-eight — when so many years might still have
remained to him, and when he had already so impressed himself upon
the age, both as a lawyer and statesman, that he scarcely had a peer
in history. We may express a similar regret at the apparently unful
filled career of our friend — who had seen not many more days than

JAMES T. BRADY. 47

Hamilton — reasonably sure of ensuing years of activity. With such
opportunities, such richness of experience, such massive power of brain,
what might we not have expected from him, had Providence seen fit
to have lengthened out his years to an added score ?
Mr. Henry Brewster addressed a few remarks to the Court, ex
pressing his deep regret at the loss we had all sustained in the death of
Mr. Brady. Before Mr. Brady was admitted to the Bar, he had
heard his fiither say, when young Brady was about nineteen years of
age, " 1 would give $500 if my son was admitted to practice." And
when he was twenty-five years of age he was known by those that
knew him best as one of the ablest lawyers we then had in the city
of New York.
Judge Barrett, after a brief and touching response, directed an
adjournment of the Court in accordance with the motion.

COURT OF GENERAL SESSIONS.
The court-room yesterday was like a house of mourning, occa
sioned by the news of the sudden death of James T. Beady. It was
in this Court that he won many of the laurels which adorned his brow.
Afler the Grand Jury had brought in a number of indictments. As
sistant District-Attorney Hutchings rose and said :
It becomes my painful duty to announce the sudden death of one
of the brightest ornaments of the New York Bar — James T. Beady.
There was no Court in this State, or the United States, which was not
charmed by his eloquence, enlivened by his wit, and enlightened by
his rare illustrations of jurisprudence. But perhaps in no Court did
he appear to more advantage than in the great criminal cases tried in
this Court. His matchless eloquence secured the acquittal of more
than one unfortunate who trusted his life in his hands. There is not
a member of the Bar within the reach of my voice who cannot bear
witness to his patience, zeal, and devotion to his clients. His elo
quence, like magic, changed many a hesitating or doubting jury into a
unit in his favor. " He was the lord of the tear and the laugh." His
brethren at the Bar honored and loved him. He was the soul of
honor, personally and professionally ; and his heart was so large that
" none knew him but to love him, none named him but to praise."
God, in His mercy, has taken him from us when " his eye was un-

48 IN MEMORIAM.

dimmed, and his natural force unabated," and he has left behind him
none but sorrowing hearts ; for all who knew him feel that they have
lost a friend. As a mark of respect, I move that this Court do now
adjourn, and a suitable entry be made in its minutes.
The Recorder (Hon, John K. Haokett) said : I have learned with
painful emotion of the sudden death of James T, Brady, long and widely
known as one of the most distinguished of the New York Bar. This
announcement, so unexpected, has filled the public mind with sorrow
and none will mourn his loss, aside from his immediate relatives, more
than the Bench and Bar of this city and State, to whom he was endeared
by years of pleasant and memorable associations. I have no language to
express in adequate terms my appreciation of the great loss we have
sustained, A fitting occasion \vill shortly occur when the Bench and
Bar, and all those who loved and respected our departed friend in life,
will unite in doing honor to his memory. It is eminently proper that
the Court, in respect to the occasion, do now adjourn ; aud the clerk of
this Court is directed to make an entry upon the minutes of this motion.
The Court then adjourned to 10 o'clock Wednesday morning.

MARINE COURT.

Mr. QuENTiN McAdam rose in the Marine Court and, after the
opening, moved that, as a mark of respect to the memory of the late
James T. Brady, the Court do now adjourn.
Judge Curtis, apparently deeply affected, said : " In memory of
the great advocate, the sound lawyej', and the Christian gentleman,
James T. Brady, now deceased, this Court will stand adjourned until
to-morrow morning, at 10 o'clock."

JAMES T.BRADY. 49

.-SLarp '^n&iiiuie.
At a stated meeting of the Law Institute, held in their library
room, on the 8th of March, 1869, Charles Tracy, second vice-presi
dent, in the chair, and Clarence A. Seward, secretary pro tern., Judge
Edmonds offered the following resolution :
The Law Institute of New York would be unfaithful to its own
emotions if it omitted to add its sigh of regret to the current of sor
row which has so lately flowed in our midst at the lamented death of
its late president, James T. Brady.
It was within these walls, consecrated to the learning and wisdom
of centuries of our profession, that its members so often witnessed
his presence with pleasure ;
It was here that his generous and genial nature was wont to pour
itself out to the delight of the young and the old, the gay and the
grave ;
It was here that we were accustomed to see him, preparatory to
some forensic effort, skimming, as it were, in bird-like flight over our
thousands of volumes, and seizing by instinct the eternal principles of
law and justice treasured there ;
It was here that, after some startling outbreak of his genius in the
courts, he would meet us in the most sincere unconsciousness on his
part that the effort which had held his auditory in breathless attention
was anything more than every one could do just as well;
It was here that, to his younger and less gifted brethren of the
profession, he was ever ready with his advice, his assistance, and his
cheering words of encouragement ;
And here ought to originate some more enduring monument that
shall not only help to perpetuate his memory amid the busy and en
grossing life of the profession, but preserve for future guidance the ex
ample of his integrity, his genius, his courtesy, and his generosity.
Resolved, therefore. That a committee be appointed, charged with
the duty, in behalf of the Institute, of preparing such a memorial of
him as shall best comport with our regard for him and his claims to
our lasting love and admiration.
Mr. A. J. Vanderpoel moved the following as an amendment and
addition, which, being seconded by Mr. Terry, was adopted:
Resolved, That the Committee be instructed, under the foregoing
resolution, to procure a marble bust of Mr. Brady, to be placed in
the Institute.
The resolutions, as amended, were then unanimously adopted, and
John W. Edmonds, Edmund Terry, Edward Patterson, and Clar
ence A. Seward were appointed the Committee.
Mr. Charles O'Conor was then elected president of the Institute
in the place of Mr. Brady.
7

50 IN MEMORIAM.

.-SbamiltoTi ^iierarg ^ttssocxation.

At a meeting of the Hamilton Literary Association, Brooklyn, on
Monday evening, February 15, 1869, the customary order of busi
ness was on motion postponed.
Alden j, Spooner then said, that he arose to put within the treas
ury of this Society a memory which belonged to it, and which would
always be recurred to as one of its crown jewels. This Society,
founded in 1830, had early drawn to it those enlightened minds, which,
sympathizing with the young, added to the practical pursuits of life
the warmth of friendship and the graces of literary culture. Among
those quite early introduced was James T. Brady, always a young
man — a young man eloquent — who had always for the young those
ready sympathies and attaching qualities which made him so remark
able. With him always came his inseparable and equally-beloved
brother, John R., now Judge of the New York Common Pleas. They
were the ornaments of those Attic feasts, our annual reunions in
January, at which eloquence was the most earnest and honest, and
the best wit had the most lively sparkle ; and with an ardent and
enthusiastic appreciation, and by an extraordinary motion, they were
both early made honorary members of this Association, and have
since been among its cherished names.
Of that of which he thought the least, his great fame at the Bar,
I shall say nothing, while his praises by those who are famous are yet
echoing from the unexampled meeting of the Bar in New York. But
of that of which he thought the most I could say much. To him fame
was nothing when compared with human love and affection. All who
knew him intimately, know that he would gladly have sacrificed all
his fame rather than wound the sensibilities of a child. To the last
he clung to the faith that neither honor, office, nor emolument was
worth the least sacrifice of his boy-nature, and he was content to live
and die the best-beloved member of the Bar of his time. It was this
"boyhood in manhood" that made him a ray of sunshine in all the
Courts — that made him so beloved by us of the earlier fellowship
here, of kin to the later fellowship, and will make his pleasant face
upon our walls the inspiration of generous sentiments and manly
emotions. Mr. Spooner read a letter addressed to Judge Greenwood, J. M.
Van Cott, and himself, in which the sentiments of the deceased in re-

JAMEST. BRADY. 51

gard to the superior value of Friendship over Fame, which, in the
language of the letter, " an old English poet calls ' the avarice of air,' "
was beautifully enforced.
Mr. Spooner alluded to the literary tastes of Mr. Brady, and his
oflen-expressed desire to accomplish something in this direction. He
held in his hand a beautiful story written by him and distributed
among his friends, entitled " Dreamland," after the manner of Dick
ens, of whom he was a great admirer, and of a wish, unfulfilled, to
write the Life of Jacob Hays, High Constable of New York. He
had given a book to the legal profession in the report of the curious
case of Huntington, the forger, defended by him, in which he made
much of the doctrine of moral insanity, but not enough to acquit the
prisoner. The following resolution was then offered by John D. Pray, from
the Committee appointed :
Resolved, That this Association will hold in beloved remembrance,
and cherish with sincere affection, the rare traits of James T. Brady,
Esq., recently deceased, long an honorary member of this Association,
who peculiarly delighted to be with us at our annual reunions, and
who enlivened and illuminated those occasions with his rare and genial
wit and inspiring eloquence.
Resolved, That these resolutions be recorded in the minutes, that a
copy thereof be sent to the family, and that a proper portrait of our
lamented and distinguished friend and brother be procured, to place
upon our walls.
The following poetic tribute (sent in by one of his early friends)
was then read by Mr. Reynolds, the Editor of the Society :

'©o 25. '^. '2B * * *

«•

not all departed.
Dear Friend ;
Your life will brighten mine till my longer span shall end ;
Without, the bells may toll,
Within, you hold my soul,
"With the spell of long ago !
In the youngest-oldest places,
In the oldest-youngest faces,
"With your youngest^oldest graces,
I shall always see you here with the friends we used to know.

52 INMEMORIAM,

Rare Wit;
I see you with us now at Life's early table sit.
In fondest loving union,
And eloquent communion,
Your full heart bubbling high ;
Oh ! we'll meet you at that table,
And we'll greet you while we're able,
With fond mind and memory stable.
With your hearty ringing laugh, and your sparkling boyish eye.
Best lance; In the lists of stirring speech, yours the pennon of advance,
But your hand of strongest blow.
Was the first to raise the foe.
And your spear wounds left no scar ;
For your lips had soothing balm,
And your genial graces warm,
Were the rainbow o'er the storm,
And the love-knots of the vanquished, crowned thee Bayard of the Bar.
Boy, wise ;
Wise in that childish lore which graver men despise,
Studying sweet children's wiles,
Hoarding their playful smiles.
Till from thy heart rose sunlight to thy brow ;
And so, in court or hall.
Or merry festival,
Or with the great or small,
Thy presence cast a ray which set all hearts aglow.
Dear heart ;
ChUd, with thy painted picture book, we cannot from thee part !
We'll seek a joy in grief,
As we turn each colored leaf.
Men-children in old years ;
And we'll keep from life's effeteness,
And we'll love thee in its sweetness,
With one tear for incompleteness,
As we seek the Lord of P.irdon, through this vale of hopes and fears.

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