Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/476

 The Supreme Court of Connecticut. and settled at Hartford to practise in 1803. He was frequently sent to the State Legis lature, and was for one term in Congress. A scholarly man, of quiet tastes, with a comprehensive mind, always practical and thoroughly in earnest, although without much grace or skill in speech, he was a successful lawyer, and one of the best judges Connec ticut has had. He was especially hon ored for the unusual

purity of his personal character. The present Re porter of the court, Hon. John Hooker, in biographical sketches of Ju "0es Williams and Storrs (afterwards Chief-Justice) con tained in the appendix to volume 29 of the Connecticut Reports, has made a most ad mirable comparison of their judicial abilities and methods. By well-considered criti cism he has brought out most clearly the peculiar excellence of each as a judge. We cannot do better than quote one or two pas CHARLES B. sages : — "While belonging in common to the list of great chief-justices, they were yet very dissimilar. Indeed two men of superior intellects and of the same general tenor of life could hardly be found more unlike in the leading characteristics of their minds. That of Judge Storrs was pol ished in the highest degree by classical study and a life-long familiarity with the best English literature, and his utterances were always in the most elegant diction of the schools; the mind of Judge Williams had derived from his collegiate education little but discipline, and he generally spoke and wrote in a condensed and vigorous Saxon, with little regard to the balance of his 57

433

sentences or the grace of his periods. Judge Storrs had a mind of extraordinary penetration, that could look down the deepest abysses of thought without agitation, and could explore the profoundest depths without losing its way; Judge Williams saw whatever he was looking after with out seeming to search for it, the nearer and the remoter all coming before his mind alike, as ob vious truths which it was a matter of course for everybody to see. The mind of Judge Storrs was stimulated and ex cited by the adventurous character of any mental exploration; that of Judge Williams found everything so plain be fore him that he was >iever excited by any con sciousness of great in tellectual effort. Judge Williams came to his conclusions by a single step and with some thing like intuition, and looked about afterwards for his reasons, and then less to satisfy his own mind than to con vince his associates on the bench, or the public in his written opinions. Judge Storrs in seeking his results moved along down the line of a close logic, and reached his conclusions by a prior ANDREWS. consideration of the rea sons. I can hardly con ceive anything more exquisite than the move ments of his mind, as it was feeling its way along through a maze of perplexities, in the con sultations of the judges, which it was my privi lege to attend as reporter of the court." The death of Judge Williams did not occur until 1861 . In 1833 Samuel Church, of Salisbury, who had been proposed for the bench twice be fore, was elected and from 1847 until his death in 1854 served as Chief-Justice. He was a prominent member of the Episcopal