Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/151

 128

only complaint ever made of him was that he did not conceal from them his own opinions of the merits of the case. He felt a solicitude lest, through neglect of his, the jury should go wrong. It was a great loss to Vermont when Mr. Mattocks declined a re-election to the judge ship. He was in comfortable circumstances and the salary was small; the short time of his service, and the record of it which he left in the reports, show him to have been one of Vermont's greatest judges. After serving as Governor one year, he declined a re-election, and having strong premoni tion of the fatal shock which ended his days, he withdrew entirely from active duties, and passed his last years in peace and quietness among his neighbors in the little mountain town of Peacham, having the love and respect of all its people, who were proud of his success. In Lyon v. Strong, Judge Mattocks wrote a dissenting opinion. He says: "This deci sion upon the face of it goes no greater length than that a contract for swapping horses, made on the Sabbath, cannot be en forced in a court of justice. This as an isolated position would receive my most cordial assent; such a transaction is most shameful in any Christian community; but when it is considered that the law is a rule comprehending all cases of a similar de scription, and that the rule cannot bend to the case, but the case must yield to the rule, it follows, I suppose, of course, agreeable to the analogy of the law,"according to this de cision, that no recovery can be had upon con tracts in general, made upon the Sabbath." From this proposition he dissents. The statute which provided that these contracts were unlawful excepted such as were " acts of necessity or charity." And Judge Mat tocks queries, " And what cases shall per sc be adjudged necessary or charitable? How with marriage, the greatest of all contracts among Protestants; this is no sacrament or other religious rite, but a mere civil con

tract; is this void or voidable, or does it come under the saving clause?" And closes: "But for myself, I am not able to view the subject as they (my brethren) do, and I hope it is not for lack of respect for religion or its institutions, for I believe with the Scotch Covenanters in my own neigh borhood that the law, as well as a man, 'may like the kirk well enough without rid ing in the rigging.'" His graphic descrip tion of a transient pauper as a " wanderer ever on the tramp " is in the brief or opin ion in almost every transient pauper case from his day to this. Judge Mattocks was an intense Federalist, living in a Democratic district; he was three times elected a member of the lower House of Congress, but not consecutively; was first elected in 1821, and last in 1841. He was Governor in 1843; at that time the former vice-president of the United States, Richard M. Johnson, visited the State and was re ceived by the Governor and General Assem bly in joint session. Governor Mattocks welcomed his former acquaintance, making one of his always apt speeches of welcome, and concluding in his own inimitable man ner: "How are you, Dick Johnson? I am glad to welcome you to this State and to this chamber." The Vice-President closed his reply by saying, " How are you, Jack Mat tocks, God bless you." Isaac F. Redfield served longer than any other member of the court. His per sonal and professional reputation is shown by the fact of his election at the early age of thirty-one, by a legislature the majority of which were of different political senti ments. His labors during the quarter of a century, when upon the Bench, have given the jurisprudence of Vermont greater lustre than those of any other judge. He was elected Chief Judge upon the retirement of Judge Royce in 1852. His opinions are more distinguished in the line of equity and railway law than in any other department.