Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches

Saturday is a day of rest in Cambridge by immemorial usage. To force upon the undergraduates a recitation on Saturday afternoon, would outrage their feelings to such an extent, as to justify in their opinion a resort to the last appeal, namely, a rebellion. Yet under Story's ministrations the law-students were eager to violate the sacredness of Saturday, to which the Judge assented, animated by a zeal superior to their own. So that the whole week was devoted to lectures, and the conducting in moot courts of prepared cases. "I have given," says the Judge in a letter to a friend, "nearly the whole of last term, when not on judicial duty, two lectures every day, and even broke in upon the sanctity of the dies non juridicus, Saturday. It was carried by acclamation in the school; so that you see we are alive." One of the pupils describes a similar incident; a case was to be adjourned, and Saturday seemed the most convenient time, "the counsel were anxious to argue it; but unwilling to resort to that extreme measure. Judge Story said – Gentlemen, the only time we can hear this case, is Saturday afternoon. This is dies non, and no one is obliged or expected to attend. I am to hold Court in Boston until two o'clock. I will ride directly out, take a hasty dinner, and be here by half-past three o'clock, and hear the case, if you are willing. He looked round the school for a reply. We felt ashamed, in our own business in which we were alone interested, to be outdone in zeal and labor by this aged and distinguished man, to whom the case was but child's play, a tale twice told and who was himself pressed down by almost incredible labors. The proposal was unanimously accepted." The same interesting communication describes the scene which took place when the Judge returned to Cambridge in the winter from Washington. "The school was the first place he visited after his own fireside. His return, always looked for, and known, filled the library. His reception was that of a returned father. He shook all by the hand, even the most obscure and indifferent; and an hour or two was spent in the most exciting, instructive, and entertaining descriptions and anecdotes of the events of the term. Inquiries were put by the students from different States, as to leading counsel, or interesting causes from their section of the country; and he told us as one would have described to a company of squires and pages, a tournament of monarchs and nobles on fields of cloth of gold: – how Webster spoke in this case, Legaré or Clay, or Crittenden, General Jones, Choate or Spencer, in that; with anecdotes of the cases and points, and all the currents of the heady fight."

Judge Story's gracious and dignified demeanor upon the bench is too well known, and not closely enough connected with an account of his home life, to justify a description here. All who have spoken upon the subject, have borne witness to the kindness and courtesy with which he treated the bar, particularly the younger members, who most need, and best appreciate such consideration. No lawyer was provoked by captious remarks, or mortified by inattention or indifference, or that offensive assumption of superiority which places the counsel at such disadvantage with the judge, and lowers his credit with his clients and the spectators. With novices at the bar his manner was patient and encouraging, with the leaders whose position was nearly level with his own, attentive, cordial, at times even familiar, but always dignified. Among the prominent lawyers upon the Maine circuit, was his classmate in college, and intimate friend, Hon. Stephen Longfellow, the father of the poet, of whom the following story is told. When any objection or qualification was started by the Court, to a point which he was pressing upon its attention, too courteous to question or oppose the opinion of the Judge, he would escape under this formula, "But there is this distinction, may it please your honor;" which distinction, when it came to be stated, was often so exceedingly thin, that its existence could be discerned only by the learned gentleman himself. This little mannerism was known and observed among his friends in the profession, one of whom now living composed and passed round the bar this epitaph: "Here lies Stephen Longfellow, LL. D. Born &c. Died &c. With this Distinction. That such a man can never die." This epitaph reached the bench; and Mr. Longfellow himself, who not long afterwards on an argument, was met by a question from the Judge. "But, may it please your honor, there is this dis – " "Out with it, brother Longfellow," said Judge Story with a good-humored smile. But it would not come. The epitaph records the death of the distinction.

The interest which Judge Story felt in the prosperity of his University, was not wholly confined to the Law-school, with which he was immediately connected. He was one of the overseers of the College, and entered warmly and prominently into every question affecting the welfare of the Institution; from an elaborate and recondite argument upon the meaning of the word "Fellows," in the charter of the college, – the doubt being, whether none but resident instructors were eligible as Fellows, or whether the word is merely synonymous with socius or associate, – down to a reform in the social observances of the students upon the occasion of what is called Class Day. The old custom had been for the students on the last day of their meeting, before Commencement, to partake together of an undefined quantity of punch from a large reservoir of that beverage previously prepared. In more modern times, this habit came to be justly considered as subversive of sobriety and good order, and it was proposed to recast entirely the order of exercises. Of this reform Judge Story was an advocate; he was present at the first celebration under the new order of things, and was much gratified and elated at the change. Class Day is now the culminating point of the student's life – the exercises are an oration and poem in the morning, and a ball and reception in the afternoon and evening. More ladies visit the College on that day, than on any other, and the students have in lieu of their punch the less intoxicating recreation of a polka.

Judge Story was about five feet eight inches tall, not above the middle height, with a compact and solid figure; and active and rapid in his movements. He seldom, if ever, loitered along; his customary gait was hasty and hurried, and he had a habit of casting quick eager glances about him as he moved. The expression of his face was animated and changing, his eyes were blue, his mouth large, his voice clear and flexible, and his laugh hearty and exhilarating. Late in life he was bald upon the top of his head, and his white hair below, and the benign expression of his countenance, gave him a dignified and venerable appearance, particularly when seated upon the bench. His personal habits were regular and systematic in the extreme. He never rose before seven, and was always in bed by half-past ten. His constitution required eight good hours of sleep, and he did not hesitate to gratify it in that particular. It was never intended that all men should rise at the same hour, and it is no great exercise of virtue on the part of those who do not enjoy sleep, to get up early. After breakfasting he read a newspaper for a half hour, and then worked faithfully, till called off to attend the lecture room or the court. After dinner he resumed his labors so long as daylight lasted, and the evening was devoted until bedtime to light reading, or social recreation in the midst of his family. He could pass easily from one species of employment to another without loss of time, and by working steadily when he did work, he was enabled to go through a very great amount of labor without any excessive fatigue or exhaustion. In this way his life was prolonged, and he retained to the last, undisturbed possession of all his faculties. He died in September 1845, at the age of sixty-six, having been for thirty-four years a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and for sixteen years a Professor of law in the school at Cambridge.

WHEATON

Among the persons whom religious persecution compelled to leave England during the reign of Charles I., and seek an asylum in the new world, was Robert Wheaton, a Baptist clergyman. He first established himself in Salem, but when the intolerance of that community led those of his persuasion to remove elsewhere, he joined Roger Williams, and assisted him in founding the now flourishing State of Rhode Island.

From him Henry Wheaton was descended. He was born in Providence, 1786, and entered Rhode Island College at the age of thirteen. He was already remarkable for his love of reading, particularly in the branches of history and literature, and appears to have studied more from the pleasure he had in the acquisition of knowledge, than from any love of distinction. He graduated at the age of seventeen, and immediately after entered upon the study of the law, in compliance with his father's wishes rather than from personal inclination; for at that period he is said not to have entertained any particular leaning towards the legal profession. In 1806 he went abroad to complete his education. He passed some time at Poitiers, where he learned to speak and write French fluently, and had an opportunity of studying French law, and especially the Code Napoleon, which had then but recently been promulgated. He also attended the courts of justice, and heard some of the most distinguished lawyers of the time, of whose eloquence he often spoke in his letters to his family. He always recurred with pleasure in later years to the time he passed at Poitiers. The kindness he experienced from the family in which he lived, the graceful politeness and cheerfulness of the French character, gave him ever after a predilection in favor of France. After spending a few weeks in Paris, he went to England, where he applied himself to the study of English law. He was often at the house of Mr. Monroe, then our Minister in London, who seems to have taken some pains to converse with him on the political and social state of Europe. Perhaps these conversations contributed to form his taste for diplomatic life, in which he was destined to play so distinguished a part, and also to lead him in its course to show that willingness to impart information of a similar kind, to the young men by whom he was himself surrounded, which was so pleasing a trait in his character.

Soon after his return from Europe he was admitted to the bar in his native State, where he continued to practise till 1813. At that period, feeling the want of a wider field in which to exercise his talents, he determined, having previously married his cousin, the daughter of Dr. Wheaton of Providence, to remove to New-York with his wife. We must not omit to mention, that before leaving Providence he pronounced a Fourth of July Oration, in which he spoke with generous indignation of the bloody wars which then distracted Europe, and the disastrous consequences of which his residence in France had given him an opportunity to observe. But although thus warmly opposed to wars of conquest, there were cases in which he deemed resistance a sacred duty; he therefore zealously devoted his pen to encouraging his fellow-countrymen in resisting the unjust encroachments of England. During two years he edited the National Advocate, and the spirit as well as the fairness with which its leading articles were written, insured the success of the paper, and established his reputation in New-York. At the same time he held the office of Justice of the Marine Court, and for a few months that also of Army Judge Advocate. In 1815 he returned to the practice of his profession, and published in the same year a Treatise on the Law of Maritime Captures and Prizes, which Mr. Reddie of Edinburgh has since pronounced to have been the best work then published on the subject; no small praise, if we consider that Mr. Wheaton was only thirty years of age at the time it was written. In 1816 he was named Reporter of the Supreme Court at Washington, and continued to hold this place until 1827. The Reports, of which he published a volume yearly, and which were highly esteemed by American lawyers, were abridged without his consent soon after he went abroad. The publication of this abridgment occasioned a lawsuit, which ended only with his life. The following letter, for which we are indebted to the kindness of Professor Parsons, of the Law-school in Cambridge, will, we think, be read with interest. We must only remark, that it is an error to suppose that Mr. Wheaton shunned general society after he went to Europe; he joined in it, on the contrary, more than is usual to men of his age in our country.

Cambridge, May 22, 1853.

"I am very glad to offer even a slight contribution to this memorial, of one so worthy of all respect as the late Mr. Wheaton. And you must permit me to express the hope that the sketch you now propose to make, will hereafter be expanded into that history of his life and exhibition of his character, which should be given to the world, in justice to him and to the very many to whom it would be most acceptable. I can speak of him from personal acquaintance, only after a long interval, when even recollections so pleasant as those of my intercourse with him have become somewhat dim.

"It was at the very close of the year 1821, that I went to Washington, to pass some months there. The commissioners to distribute the money due to American citizens under the then recent treaty with Spain, began their sessions that winter. Mr. Webster was employed by most of the large claimants in New England, and I went with him to assist him generally, and also charged by some of those claimants with the especial care of their interests. In New-York I became acquainted with Mr. Wheaton; and he was with us during a part of the journey to Washington. As fellow-travellers, we became intimate, and during the whole of my stay in Washington, – nearly three months, – this intimacy was kept up. From many parts of the country, eminent lawyers were at Washington, in attendance upon the Supreme Court, or charged with the care of cases before the commissioners under the Spanish treaty, and I was meeting them continually in society; and I had the good fortune also to, become acquainted with many of the most distinguished members of government and of Congress, and visited freely in the whole range – then less broad than now – of society in Washington.

"Wherever I went I met Mr. Wheaton. Every where he was upon the footing, not of a received, but of a welcomed guest; and he seemed to be most intimate in the best houses. It was easy to see the cause of this. His important position as Reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States – which office he had then held for six years – brought him into immediate contact not only with the judges of the court, but with all who practised in it; and it might be supposed that with them he would be on terms of intimacy and friendship. But there was something in the character of that friendship, that no mere position explained; and he inspired an equally warm regard in many who never met him in his official duties. Among all his friends, if I were to name any persons, I think it would be Mr. Webster himself, who treated him as he might a brother; Sir Stratford Canning, Minister from England, and M. de Neuville, the French Minister, who appeared to give tone and character to Washington society so far as any persons can influence elements so diversified and refractory, and in whose houses he stood on the footing of a confidential friend; Mr Lowndes of South Carolina, a most wise and excellent man; and lastly and most of all, Chief Justice Marshall. Let me pause a moment to say one word of this great and good man, to whose greatness and whose goodness, equally, this country is, and while its prosperity endures, will be indebted; for his greatness rested upon his goodness as its foundation. Even his wide and accurate learning, his clear and close reasoning, his profound insight into the true merits and exact character and bearing of every question, and the unerring sagacity which enabled him to see the future in the present; all these together, and whatever more there might have been of merely intellectual power, would not have enabled him to lay the foundations of our national and constitutional jurisprudence with the depth, breadth, and firmness, which all attacks upon them have, as yet, only made more apparent, if it had not been for his moral character. Here lay the inmost secret of his power. Men felt, and the nation felt, his incorruptibility; meaning by this, not merely the absence of that baser and more obvious selfishness, which most men of decent self-respect overcome or suppress; but his perfect and manifest freedom from all motives and all influences whatever, which could tend to cloud or warp his understanding, or qualify the utterance of his wisdom. He did not stand before us a man of living ice, perfectly safe because perfectly cold; for he was affectionate and gentle as a child; excitable even to enthusiasm, when that kind heart was touched; listening, not only with an equal strength to the strongest, but with a perfect sympathy to the eloquent, and with a charming courtesy to all. There he stood, and no one ever saw him and heard him, and did not know that his one wish was to do his great duty; and that his admirable intellect came to its daily tasks, and did them, wholly free from all possible distortion or disturbance, not because he was strong enough to repel all the influences of party, or passion, or prejudice, or interest, or personal favor, but because none of these things could come near enough to him to be repelled. By the happy constitution of his nature, there was no flaw in him to give entrance to any thing which, could draw him one hair's breadth aside from the straight course of truth and justice, and of the law, which in his mind was but their embodiment and voice. Of this good and great man there is as yet no adequate memorial; and it would require a strong hand, and if not an equal, at least a sympathizing mind and heart, to construct one which shall indeed be adequate. But I indulge the hope that it will be given to us before the generation which knew him shall pass wholly away. And you, I am sure, will pardon me for using this opportunity to render to his cherished memory this slight and evanescent tribute. I do but indulge myself in saying a part of what I have frequent occasion to say to the many students to whom it is my official duty to teach the law of their country as well as I can, and therefore to speak often of Marshall.

"The Chief Justice treated Mr. Wheaton with the fondest regard, and this example would have had its influence had it been necessary; but in fact the best men then in Washington were on the most intimate and confidential terms with him. The simple truth is, that universal respect was rendered to him because he deserved it. He was a gentleman: and therefore the same gentleman to all and under all circumstances; yes, he was indeed and emphatically a gentleman, and combined – with no base admixture – all the elements which go to compose what we mean, or should mean, by that word, as thoroughly as any one that I have ever known.

"I did not meet him after leaving Washington until a short time before his death, and then not often. I saw very little change in his manner, for he appeared to be as glad as I was to revive the pleasant recollections of that distant winter. But I have been told that after he went abroad, he was considered somewhat silent, and even disposed to avoid rather than seek general society. I cannot say how this was during those later years; but when I knew him in Washington, no one more enjoyed society, and few sought it more, or were more sought by it. He was, – not perhaps gay, – but eminently cheerful; and his manner was characterized by that forgetfulness of self, which, as in great things, it forms the foundation for the highest excellence, so in the lesser matters of social intercourse it imparts a perpetual charm, and constitutes almost of itself, the essence of all true politeness.

There was with Mr. Wheaton, no watching of opportunity for display; no indifference and want of interest when the topics of conversation, or the parties, or other circumstances, made it impossible for him to occupy the foreground; no skilful diversion of the conversation into paths which led to his strongholds, where he might come forth with peculiar advantage. Still less did he – as in this country so many do – play out in society the game of life, by using it only as a means of promoting his personal or professional objects. Certainly, one may sometimes help himself importantly in this way. Very useful acquaintances may thus be made and cultivated, who might be rather shy if directly approached. Facts may be learned, and opportunities for advancement early discovered, or effectually laid hold of, by one who circulates widely in a society like that in Washington, or indeed any where. Nor perhaps should it be a ground of reproach to any one, that in a reasonable way and to a reasonable extent, he seeks and cultivates society for this purpose. But, whatever may be the moral aspect of this matter, or whatever the degree in which conduct of this kind is or is not justifiable, there was in Mr. Wheaton's demeanor nothing of this; nothing of it in appearance, because nothing of it in fact; for one who is mainly, or in any considerable degree governed by a purpose of this kind, must be cunning indeed, to hide it effectually; and cunning of any sort, was a quality of which he had none whatever. Every body felt and knew this: and therefore every body met him with a sense of confidence and repose, which of itself would go far in making any person more acceptable as a friend or as a mere companion, in a society of which the very surface constantly exhibited the many whirling under currents of Washington life. In one word, there was in him nothing of trick; but that constant and perfect suavity which is the spontaneous expression of universal kindness; and an excellent understanding, well and widely cultivated, and always ready to bring forth all its resources, not to help himself, but to help or gratify others, and all others with whom he came into contact, and all this, with no appearance of purpose or design of any kind; for it was but the natural outpouring of mind and heart, of one who was open to the widest sympathy, and whose interest in all persons and things about him was most real and honest, because he loved nothing so well as to do all the good he could, by word or deed, or little or much, to one, or few, or many. He was therefore most popular in society. But when we speak of Mr. Wheaton's social popularity, we must be careful to use this word in a higher than its common sense; and if I have made myself at all intelligible, I think you will understand both the cause and the character of that popularity.

"And more than this I cannot say. Time has effaced from my memory details and especial circumstances; nor can I therefore, by their help, illustrate this slight sketch of Mr. Wheaton's character and position, during those pleasant months which he helped so much to make pleasant. Of these particulars, my recollection is dim enough. But no lapse of time will efface from my mind the clear and distinct recollection of the high excellence of his character, or the charms of his conversation and manners; nor shall I ever lose any portion of the affection and respect with which I regard his memory.

"I am, very sincerely,

"Your friend and obedient servant,

"Theophilus Parsons."

Cambridge, May 23, 1853.

In 1821, Mr. Wheaton was elected a member of theConvention for revising the Constitution of the State of New-York, which having been formed amid the tumults and perils of war, seemed defective and insufficient to the wants of a richer, more enlightened, and more numerous society. In his sittings he turned his attention more particularly to the organization of the tribunals. In 1824, he was appointed by the New-York Legislature a member of the commission appointed to draw up the civil and criminal code of the State, a work in which he continued to be engaged until 1827. It has been remarked that this was the first effort made by any State possessing the common law, to reduce its disconnected and diffusive legislation to the unity of a code; so that his name is thus connected with one of the most important landmarks in the history of American law.