The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abbott, Benjamin Vaughan

ABBOTT, Benjamin Vaughan, American lawyer, eldest son of Jacob: b. 4 June 1830; d. 1890. He was graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1850, and practised law with his brothers Austin and Lyman. He compiled nearly 100 volumes of legal digests and reports. He drew up in 1865, as secretary of the New York Code Commission, the penal code which is the basis of the present one. In 1870 President Grant appointed him one of three commissioners to revise the United States statutes, which occupied three years, and compressed 16 large volumes into one large octavo; thence till 1879 he was occupied on a great revision of the ‘United States Digest.’ Among his lesser works are ‘Judge and Jury’ (1880), collected contributions to periodicals; a Chautauqua book, ‘The Traveling Law School’; and ‘Famous Trials’ (1880).