Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/110

 The Supreme Court of Vermont. Judge of the county court should be one of the judges of the Supreme Court, pre sumably an able jurist. The system is still in force, and has added dignity to the county courts, while litigants have had greater confidence in having their rights protected. In 1824 and 1825, he repre sented Montpelier in the Assembly, and it was due to his efforts that the change was made, and when the act took effect, he was again elected judge and accepted the office, holding it until 1829, when he was elected Chief and served one year. He was then elected United States senator on the first ballot, by a Legislature which did not have a majority politically in accord with him. He was re-elected in 1836, but resigned in the spring of 1842, upon being appointed, by universal consent and unqualified appro bation. United States district judge after the resignation of Judge Paine; he held this office until his death. He was of quiet and dignified bearing, eminently studious and strictly methodical in his habits. He had nine sons who entered the legal profession: one, Samuel B., was judge of the Superior Court in Ohio. No opinion of his, while on the Bench of our Supreme Court, has ever been over-ruled. When in the Senate he was on terms of inti macy with the leading members, all of whom had great respect and admiration for his talents and civic virtues, and he was regarded by many as the best lawyer in the body. His speech against the Bankrupt Act of 1840 was pronounced by John C. Calhoun to have been the clearest and most unan swerable of any, on a debatable question, which he had heard for years, and Chancel lor Kent said of him: "Judge Story, the only man to be thought of in comparison, is certainly a very learned and able man, but I cannot help regarding Judge Prentiss as the best jurist in New England." Judge Nelson sat in circuit, in the district with Judge Prentiss, and Mr. Phelps, well quali fied to judge of both, has written : " Prentiss

89

carried the scales and Nelson the sword; Prentiss carried the scales hung upon a dia mond pivot, fit to weigh the tenth part of a hair, so conscientious, so thoughtful, so con siderate, so complete in his knowledge of every principle and every detail of the law of the land. When he held up the scales, he not only weighed accurately, but every body felt that he weighed accurately. His very modesty, the distrust of himself and fear lest he should go too far or too fast, deprived him to some extent of what might be called the courage of his judicial con victions. Nelson, when they sat together, always took care to assure himself from Judge Prentiss that he was right in his con clusions; they never differed. It would have been very difficult to have brought Judge Nelson to a different conclusion from what he was aware Judge Prentiss had arrived at, but the sword of justice in Nel son's hand was ' The sword of the Lord and of Gideon,' and when a decision was reached it was put in force without delay or further debate, and without recall; and so it was that the court became like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. It carried with it authority, inevitable respect and confi dence. It was the terror to the evil doer, and a prompt protector of the just." And the same writer adds: "He was a man of rare and fine powers, of complete attain ments in jurisprudence, a student and thinker all the days of his life; conservative in all his opinions, conscientious to the last degree, thoughtful of others, a gentleman in grain, because he was born so." Stephen Rovce, born in Tinmouth, was soon taken into the wilderness near the Canadian line, and in his fourteenth year sent to his native town to attend the com mon school, there being none in Berkshire. The following year he entered upon the academical course at Middlebury, and en tering the college there, graduated in 1807. During his college course, owing to the ill