Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/240

Rh "Among the members of the legal profession, Mr. Wells stands in the front rank. As an advocate, a lecturer, and a gentleman of broad and liberal culture, he holds a place among the best; and his legal attainments, tested by long practice in important cases, justified his selection as a member of the Law Faculty of the University

"His legal studies, however, have not fully engrossed his attention, and the intervals of freedom from pressing professional duties have been devoted to following avenues of intellectual culture opened by a liberal education.

"Naturally a clear and vigorous thinker, and possessing the valuable gift of clear and forcible expression, he needed only the opportunities he has enjoyed to secure eminence as an orator, alike at the bar, in the political arena, and in the halls of the University.

"For his duties in connection with the University he possesses special fitness, and it is by that work that he will be most widely remembered. The professional successes of a lawyer, however useful or beneficial, are comparatively ephemeral; but the teacher who has been the means of giving an intellectual impetus, and who has imparted the clear light of absolute knowledge to the inquiring mind, is sure of being held in grateful remembrance. That Mr. Wells has been greatly successful as a professor is conceded by all who have any knowledge of the University, and especially by the students who have been fortunate in having him as an instructor. His abilities are such as to command acquaintanceship with many persons distinguished in professional and political life."

BRADLEY M. THOMPSON.

In 1879 the Board of Regents created a fifth professorship in the Law School, known as the Tappan Professorship, which was named for Henry Philip Tappan, President of the University from 1852 to 1863. Hon. Alpheus Felch was appointed to the chair thus created. It has been truly said of him that his record is a part of the history of Michigan, and that it would be impossible to write of any branch of the powers of the State and make no mention of him. He was born in Maine in 1806, and is still living, honored and beloved of all. In 1821 he was a student at Phillips Exeter Academy, and in 1827 graduated from Bowdoin College, where he was a fellow student with the poet Longfellow, who was graduated from the same institution two years before his own graduation was attained. He was admitted to the bar of Maine in 1830, and three years later took up his residence in Michigan. He successively became a member of the Legislature of the State, a Bank Commissioner, Auditor-General, a Judge of the Supreme Court, Governor, and a Senator in Congress. He was a member of the Senate at the same time Webster, Clay, and Calhoun had seats in that body. At the close of his senatorial term, in March, 1853, he was appointed by President Pierce one of the commissioners to adjust and settle the Spanish and Mexican land claims in California, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. At the close of his labors on the Commission in 1856, Governor Felch returned to his home in Ann Arbor, where he has ever since continued to reside. In 1877 Bowdoin College conferred on him