Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/388

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Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, Horace W. Fuller, 15^ Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of inter est to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetia, anec dotes, etc. "THE GREEN BAG." WE gladly publish the following communica tion, from which it appears that uninten tional injustice was done the memory of the late Judge Corwin of the Ohio Supreme Court, in the May issue of The Green Bag. We regret that such was the case, and make such amends as possible by this publication. Springfield, III., May 23, 1895. Editor " The Green Bag," 15 54 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. My Dear Sir. — My attention has been called to an article which appears on page 233 of the issue of The Green Bag for the current month, as follows : — "John A. Corwin was electedjudge of the Supreme Court from Champaign County in 1853, but was not on the bench long until he resigned. He was a very eccentric man, and not possessed of good habits. When he died, in 1863, the papers contained about a four-line notice of his death." Judge Corwin was my uncle. I bear his name. I saw him die. I lament his loss. I revere his memory. In all my experience I never knew a more undeserved reflection upon the memory of the dead than this publication. In any newspaper office it would be righted in an instant. I venture to hope that a magazine devoted to lawyers and the bench, supposed to be the protectors of the weak, will do no less, in the way of even-handed justice, than a daily paper. In this firm belief I come to you for a patient hearing* and a decent recognition of the merits of John A. Corwin. I should be unworthy of the name I bear if I didn't do this. My uncle's body is buried in the cemetery at Urbana, Ohio, my native place. It is with the remains of my grandfather and my grandmother, by my father and by my brother : by his wife and his little boy. I am the only grand child left from my grandfather's stock bearing the name of Corwin, and the duty of calling your atten

tion to what I think a lamentable error devolves on me. I do not know Mr. Kinkead who wrote this statement. I cannot conceive his object. Had he used information right at hand, he would have gotten the exact data concerning my uncle. Had he gone to Senator Thurman or visited Urbana, but forty miles west of Columbus, or consulted with Judge John H. Young or John H. James of Urbana, both friends of my uncle, he could have gotten the facts. He mentions all the other judges of the Supreme Court of my uncle's time, telling when they were born and when they died, and giving information concerning them. He does not render my uncle this poor tribute, but dismisses him with a slur. Permit me, therefore, to call your attention to a few facts, and to give you the names of witnesses, by writing whom you can easily verify what I say. John A. Corwin in early life was a printer. He maintained himself at college by his own labor, and became an eminent lawyer. For many years he was a partner of his father, Moses B. Corwin, who served two terms in Congress. He was for a long time a partner of my father, Ichabod Corwin, who, for the ten years preceding his death, was judge of the Common Pleas Court of the district composed of the counties of Champaign, Miami and Darke. John A. Corwin was one of the finest lawyers Ohio ever knew. He was of grand personal appearance, a chivalrous, high-minded man. No poor person ever appealed to him for help in vain. He was the defender of the oppressed. He was one of the youngest men ever honored by a seat on the Su preme bench of Ohio. He was for many years a partner in business with Robert B. Warden, Supreme Court Reporter, whose name appears in this same article. He was an associate of George E. Pugh and George Pendleton, of Chase, of Thurman, of Judge William White, of Judge William J. Gilmore, of James and Isaiah Pillars of Lima, Ohio; of Judge William Mungen of Findley, Ohio. If I remember right. Senator Calvin S. Brice of Ohio was a friend and admirer of my uncle. Pendleton or Pugh, I forget which, defeated my uncle for the United States Senate from Ohio, in a Democratic caucus, by a single vote, in a contest where a nomination was equivalent to an election. His fame was so great that he participated in many of the most important trials in Ohio and the south. He was a grand 355