;^3 
 
'()p)ii^lil X" 
 
 COl'YKIC.UT DKl'OSIT. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT 
 
 From the pastel portrait by James Sharpless 
 
 Made when the Chancellor was about twenty-tive years of a^e 
 
 Original in the possession of Mr. William Kent 
 
 of Tuxedo Park, New York 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT 
 
 AT YALE 
 
 1777-1781 
 
 A PAPER WRITTEN FOR THE YALE LAW JOURNAL 
 BY 
 
 MACGRANE COXE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 
 1909 
 
F/ ^' 5 
 
 -#^^- — 
 
 Copyright, 1908, by 
 Yale Law Journal 
 
 Copyright, 1909, by 
 Macgrane Coxe 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 
 Two CoDies Received 
 
 MAY 20 1809 
 
 CLA<$ /^ XXc. No, 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT 
 AT YALE 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT 
 AT YALE 
 
 CHANCELLOR KENT (Yale 1781) was essentially and typi- 
 cally a Yale man. In every step of his industrious and use- 
 ful life he illustrated the training of Yale, and, on 
 many occasions throughout that life, from the beginning' to the end, 
 he took occasion to give testimony of his indebtedness to his Alma 
 Mater. He was a Yale man also by heredity. His father, Moss 
 Kent, was a graduate of Yale of the Class of 1752.^ His grand- 
 father, the Rev. Elisha Kent, who was born in 1704, was 
 also a graduate of Yale, of the Class of 1729.^ He himself 
 writes of his grandfather as "a Presbyterian minister who was 
 well educated at Yale College,"^ and there can be no reasonable 
 doubt, I think, but that the Chancellor's great-grandfather, John 
 Kent, of Suffield, and the latter's father, Samuel Kent,* the first 
 American ancestor, who settled in Gloucester, Mass., in 1644, would 
 also have been graduates of Yale had there been, in their day, any 
 Yale to be graduated from ! 
 
 I think that there is a general impression among many that the 
 Chancellor was rather more related to our sister university of 
 Columbia, but this is due undoubtedly to the fact that what may be 
 said to be the crowning work, "the bright, consummate flow'r," of 
 
 1. Biographical Sketches/of the /Graduates of Yale College /with /Annals 
 of the College History /'S>y/¥rM\k\\n Bowditcli Dexter /New York/Henry 
 Holt & Company/ (Hereinafter cited as Dexter's Annals.) Second Series, 
 p. 287. 
 
 2. Dexter s Annals, First Series, p. 384. 
 
 3. 17 Magazine of American History, 247. 
 
 4. Dexter's Annals, First Series, p. 384. 
 
4 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 his distinguished labors were his immortal "Commentaries on Amer- 
 ican Law," which were the result of, and had their origin in, the 
 justly celebrated course of lectures which he delivered at Columbia 
 after his enforced retirement from the Bench at the age of sixty- 
 years, in 1823. But this merely illustrates the fact, of which we 
 have no dearth of modern instances, that Columbia was then, as 
 now, astute in the choice of the seminary from whence to draw its 
 great teachers and administrators of the law. Its deservedly famous 
 school of law was founded by a Yale man, Theodore W. Dwight, 
 of the Yale Law School ; and it is too well recognized to require 
 comment that that school was established upon its sound founda- 
 tion and reared to fame by the learning and ability of Dr. Dwight.^ 
 And, as we all know, that same school, at the present day, is ably 
 presided over by its Dean, Prof. George W. Kirchwey, a Yale grad- 
 uate of the famous Class of '79. 
 
 But no one can review the life, or study the writings, of Chan- 
 cellor Kent without becoming impressed with the fact that he was 
 essentially, in training and in character, a product of this univer- 
 sity ; and that he himself most abundantly admitted it and gloried in 
 it. He peculiarly illustrated in his life and labors that spirit which 
 we are proud to call, and I think, may justly and without undue 
 arrogance call, the Yale spirit. In this we by no means mean to say 
 that the spirit we thus cherish does not exist elsewhere. On the con- 
 trary, it does exist, and we are happy many a time and oft to recog- 
 nize it, in our sister universities ; but we love to think of it as par- 
 ticularly, perhaps, existent at "dear old Yale," where it is certainly 
 ever zealously cultivated. His thoroughness of research, hi? stead- 
 fastness of purpose under adverse circumstances and prosperous 
 alike, his abhorrence of, and entire freedom from sham or "posing" 
 of any kind, his careful deliberation in weighing all the facts before 
 reaching a conclusion, and above all, the cheerfulness and kindliness 
 that clarified and illumined all his life, these are the qualities which 
 go to form what we love to call the spirit of Yale, and these are 
 
 I. The Columbia Law School was founded November T, 1858, by Dr. 
 Theodore W. Dwight (Yale, Law), and almost from the beginning attracted 
 great attention and large numbers of students. By 1875, it had enrolled 
 573 students and was generally recognized as one of the first law schools 
 of the country. The Green Bag, Vol. i, p. 141. Dr. Dwight was at the head 
 of this school thirty-three years, from its foundation in 1858 until 189T. the 
 year previous to his death. Nezv International Encyclopcedia, Vol. VI, p. 557. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 5 
 
 the qualities which are most manifest in the whole life of Chancellor 
 Kent.i 
 
 It would be far beyond the scope of such a paper as this, not to 
 say immeasurably beyond the powers of your humble correspondent, 
 to even attempt to do justice to the tremendous subject of the life and 
 works of Chancellor Kent, but it has been thought that a brief 
 review, somewhat historical in its nature, of tiic Chancellor and of 
 his career, particularly as it touched most closely his Alma Mater, 
 might not be uninteresting or unprofitable. 
 
 Mr. Joline, in his able and delightful paper on "Martin Van 
 Buren, the Lawyer," which he read before the New York State Bar 
 Association at its annual meeting in 1905,- tells us that it is a good 
 thing for such an association as that, and I think it may be 
 said that it may be equally a good thing for a professional journal 
 like this, "to turn for a moment from the learned essays, of whose 
 worth and dignity we are all profoundly sensible, in order to review 
 by way of historical reminiscence the careers of those who adorn 
 the first century of our jurisprudence. . . . Such studies may 
 not add materially to the sum of our knowledge, but they are useful 
 in the promotion of the brotherly spirit and of the professional 
 pride which every well-constituted Bar should possess and cherish." 
 
 Mr. Justice Edward Patterson, Presiding Justice of the Appellate 
 Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the 
 First Department, wrote in 1873 ^ "Sketch of the Law Institute," a 
 large and excellent association of lawyers in the City of New York.^ 
 In the course of that sketch, which will well repay perusal, Judge 
 
 1. Chancellor Kent was of a peculiarly happy disposition. He veritably 
 seemed to revel in work and to rejoice in labor. One of his favorite lines 
 was the encouraging exhortation of Aeneas to his fellows in the midst of 
 their vicissitudes : "Haec olim meminisse juvabit." Aeneid, Book I, v. 203. 
 We find it inscribed in the Chancellor's handwriting in his diaries later 
 referred to {Kent Manuscripts, infra, p. 6), and everywhere he gives evi- 
 dence that he cherished and cultivated its spirit. 
 
 2. The Autograph Hunter / and / O ther Papers/hy Adrian Hoflfman Joline/ 
 Privately printed/ Alderbrink Press, Chicago/MCMVII/.Mar/j» Van Buren, 
 the Lazvyer, a paper read before the New York State Bar Association at its 
 annual meeting, January, 1905. Annual Report of the Association for 1905. 
 Vol. XXVIII, p. 182. 
 
 3. This sketch is, as may well be imagined, from the character and ability 
 of its author, a most charming one, and may be found printed as an intro- 
 duction to the catalogue of the Law Institute Library, published in 1874. 
 
6 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 Patterson gives brief accounts — all too brief, alas, for us — of the 
 various Presidents of the Institute, including Chancellor Kent, 
 who was its first President (1828-1829) ; and in the course of this 
 sketch Judge Patterson says that "of his [Kent's] course at col- 
 lege we have no account." This was true when Mr. Justice Pat- 
 terson wTOte his paper, but since then some interesting data have 
 become accessible upon this period. In 1898, Chancellor Kent's 
 great-grandson, Mr. William Kent of Tuxedo Park, N. Y., wrote 
 a most graceful and agreeable memoir of the life of his distin- 
 guished ancestor.^ In 1891, there was published the diary of Dr. 
 Ezra Stiles, who was President of Yale College during almost all of 
 the four years that the Chancellor was a student there,^ and, in 1904, 
 through the generosity and public spirit of the family of the descend- 
 ants of the Chancellor, a large and most valuable collection of man- 
 uscript letters, journals and other memoranda of the Chancellor, 
 were deposited in the Library of Congress, and there have been, with 
 the most loving and enlightened care, assorted and safeguarded in the 
 Bureau of Manuscripts, under the direction of Mr. Worthington C. 
 Ford. Among these manuscripts are quite a number which refer 
 to the Chancellor's life at Yale, and bear testimony to his high appre- 
 ciation, increasing as life went on, of the advantages he derived from 
 his course there. In a number of journals he recounts the details 
 of visits to New Haven at Commencement times and at other times, 
 during which his whole attention was devoted to the College and 
 those connected with it.^ 
 
 1. Memoirs and Letters/of /James Kent, LL.D. /late Chancellor of the 
 State of New York/author oi/ Commentaries on American Lazv, etc/by his 
 great-grandson/William Kent/of the New York Bar/Boston /Little, 
 Brown & Company, 1898/ (Hereinafter cited as Memoirs.) 
 
 2. The Literary Diary/of /Ezra Stiles, D.D., LL.D. /President of Yale Col- 
 lege./Edited under the authority of the corporation of Yale University/by 
 Franklin Bowditch Dexter, M.A./ (Three volumes, 1769-1781.) New York/ 
 Charles Scribner's Sons/i90i/(Hereinafter cited as Stiles' Diary.) 
 
 3. These manuscripts of Chancellor Kent were given to the Library of 
 Congress in 1904 by Messrs. William and Edwin C. Kent of Tuxedo Park, 
 N. Y., the great-grandsons of the Chancellor. The letters have been arranged 
 and mounted in eleven volumes. There are about 970 of them, some from the 
 most distinguished men of the time, including Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, 
 John Quincy Adams, William Wirt, Charles Sumner, William H. Seward and 
 Charles O'Conor. The journals or diaries were kept by the Chancellor in 
 small, plain, blank books. There are fourteen of these, and each is preserved 
 in a stiff, leather-covered box. They cover a period, not continuously, from 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 7 
 
 Thus it is that we are enabled to get at first hand some insight 
 into the Hfe of the boy who was to become the immortal man. 
 
 Chancellor Kent was born July 31, 1763, at the house of his 
 father, Moss Kent, in the Precinct of Fredcricksburgh, in the County 
 of Dutchess, State of New York.^ At the age of five years, he was 
 sent to Norwalk, Conn., to school. Here he lived with his grand- 
 father (his mother's father). Dr. Uriah Rogers, a physician of Nor- 
 walk, until the spring of 1772, and, as he says himself: "passed 
 nearly four years in an English school and in innocent and youthful 
 sports." He adds that "the government of my grandfather was 
 pretty strict; his family, after the manner of the day, was orderly, 
 quiet and religious."^ When he was about nine years old, on the 
 28th of July, 1772, he went to reside with his uncle, John Kane, 
 Esq., in Pawling Precinct,^ and here he continued his studies, and, 
 as he tells us, "commenced to study Cordery* and the Latin tongue."^ 
 He remained there until April, 1773, and was then sent to Danbury 
 
 1797 to 1847, the year of his death, in the eighty- fourth year of his age. 
 Among the memoranda is an interesting paper in the handwriting of the 
 Chancellor, entitled by him, Chronological Memoranda, giving the dates of 
 the principal events in his life from his birth until his second appointment 
 as Professor of Law in Columbia College, after his enforced retirement from 
 the Bench at the age of sixty, in 1823. See Note, page 24, infra. (The 
 manuscripts will hereafter be cited as Kent Manuscripts.) 
 
 1. The particular region, after the manner of the rural communities of 
 that day, was then known as "the Oblong." It is at present the village of 
 Doanesburg in the Town of South-East, County of Putnam, N. Y., on the Con- 
 necticut border. The territory now embraced in the Town of South-East 
 was originally known as Phillips' Patent, and afterwards as Phillipi. This 
 was its name at the time the future Chancellor entered Yale; and thus it is 
 that we find him entered on Dr. Stiles' roster as Jacobus Kent — Phillipi. 
 Infra, p. ii. The Birthplace of Chancellor Kent, etc., a paper by William 
 S. Pelletreau, containing an interesting letter by the Chancellor, with auto- 
 graph maps of the region of his birth, written in 1846 to his cousin, John 
 CuUen Van Rensselaer, Esquire, 17 Magazine of Am. History, 285. 
 
 2. The Chancellor's memorandum account of the principal events in his 
 life. Kent Manuscripts, Vol III. Memoirs, p. 7. 
 
 3. Mr. Kane had married Sybil, one of the sisters of the Chancellor's 
 father, and from this union are descended the distinguished family of the 
 name in the State of New York, including Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the famous 
 Arctic explorer, and Mr. Grenville Kane of Tuxedo Park, N. Y. 
 
 4. Corderius Maturin, Select Century of Corderiiis' Colloquies, Latin and 
 English, by John Clarke. London. i2mo. Loivndes' Bibliographer's Manual 
 of English Literature (1858) Vol. I, p. 523. 
 
 5. Memoirs, p. 7. 
 
8 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 to a Latin school under the Rev. Ebenezer Baldwhi (Yale 1763)/ 
 a learned, gallant and distinguished brother of the Chancellor's 
 beloved friend and classmate, the equally learned and distinguished 
 Judge Simeon Baldwin (Yale 1781),^ who was the grandfather of 
 the Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin, at the present time Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, and an honored and beloved 
 professor in our own law school. Chancellor Kent has told us some- 
 thing of the high regard and affection he felt for this preceptor in 
 the address which he delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society 
 at New Haven upon the occasion of the fiftieth reunion of his class 
 in 1831.^ 
 
 At the risk of prolonging this article unduly I must ask you to 
 pause with me to hear these words, for they seem to me in a remark- 
 able degree to reflect honor equally upon the orator and his subject, 
 and upon the Alma Mater which nourished and trained them both. 
 
 After giving us an account of the origin and foundation of the 
 College and of its distinguished founders and of its Presidents, the 
 speaker calls our attention to the fact that it is not only to the Pres- 
 idents that w€ owe our debt of gratitude, but that the instructors as 
 well, in more humble spheres, contribute in an invaluable degree 
 to the development of the student. 
 
 "The tutors," he tells us, "in every period of the College history, 
 have been very efficient instructors, and though many of them have 
 been, at the time, 'to Fortune and to Fame unknown,' yet it is cer- 
 tain that the College has been much indebted for the elevation of the 
 standard of moral sentiment, for the cultivation of correct taste, 
 and for the formation of some of the most illustrious of its pupils, 
 to the diligent, steady, painful and unobtrusive counsel and efforts 
 of that meritorious class of teachers." 
 
 And then it is that, having mentioned Mr. Baldwin as among 
 these tutors, the learned Chancellor continues as follows : 
 
 And suffer me for a moment to bring to recollection from among this 
 class of men, the Reverend Ebenezer Baldwin, of Danbury, for it is to that 
 great and excellent man that the individual, who has now the honor to 
 address you, stands indebted for the best part of his early classical instruction. 
 
 1. Dexter's Annals, Third Series, p. 4. 
 
 2. Dexter's Annals, Fourth Series, p. 178. 
 
 3. An/Address/Delivered at New Haven/Before the Phi Beta Kappa 
 Society/Scptcml)er 13, 1831/by James Kent/ New Haven. /Printed by 
 Hezckiali Howe/i83i./Publislied at the request of the ^ B. K. Society/ 
 A printed copy may be found in tlie Yale University Library. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 9 
 
 Mr. Baldwin was a tutor in this College for the period of four years, and 
 he settled as a minister in the First Congregational Church in Danbury, in 
 the year 1770. He was a scholar and a gentleman, of the fairest and bright- 
 est hopes. He was accustomed to read daily a portion of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures and he was extensively acquainted with Greek and Roman Literature. 
 
 His style of preaching was simple, earnest and forcible, with the most 
 commanding and the most graceful dignity of manner; and if I can trust to 
 my own memory, he was pursuing in the pulpit a steady, methodical and 
 comprehensive view of the whole system of Christian Theology. His zeal 
 for learning was ardent, and his acquisitions and reputation rapidly increas- 
 ing, when he was doomed to fall prematurely in the flower of his age. and 
 while engaged in his country's service. Though his career was painfully 
 short, he had lived long enough to attract general notice and the highest 
 respect by his piety, his learning, his judgment and his patriotism. Mr. 
 Baldwin took an enlightened and active interest in the rise and early progress 
 of the American Revolution. His Thanksgiving Sermon in the Autumn of 
 1775 was so excellent, so encouraging and so appropriate that it was called 
 for and printed at the expense of a leading member of the Episcopal Church 
 and it now remains deposited among the documents of the New York His- 
 torical Society.^ In the impending and gloomy campaign of 1776 he was 
 incessant in his efforts to cheer and animate his townsmen to join the 
 militia, which were called out in the defense of New York. To give weight 
 to his eloquent exhortations, he added that of his heroic example. He went, 
 voluntarily, as a Chaplain to one of the militia regiments. His office was 
 pacific, but he nevertheless arrayed himself in military armor. I was present 
 when he firmly and cheerfully bade adieu to his devoted parishioners and 
 affectionate pupils. This was about the first of August, 1776, and what a 
 mom.ent in the annals of the country! There never was a period more awful 
 and portentous. It was the very crisis of our destiny. No occasion could 
 have afforded better proof, or a more unerring test of a patriot's zeal and 
 magnanimous devotion. The defense of New York had then become des- 
 perate. An enemy's army of thirty thousand men, well disciplined and well 
 equipped, was in this vicinity ready to overwhelm it. General Washington. 
 
 I. The text of this sermon was from Habakkuk III: 17-18: 
 
 "Although the Fig Tree shall not blossom, neither shall Fruit be in the 
 Vines, the Labour of the Olive shall fail, and the Fields shall yield no Meat ; 
 the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold, and there shall be no Herd in the 
 Stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my Salvation." 
 
 This sermon was printed in 1776 in a pamphlet of 42 pages, and may 
 be found in the New York Historical Society's Bound Pamphlets, Vol. 551. 
 The title page of the pamphlet is as follows : 
 
 The Duty of Rejoicing/under/Calamities and Afflictions/considered and 
 improved/in a/Sermon/preached at/Danbur_v/November 16, 1775/A day set 
 apart for Thanksgiving in/The Colony of/Connecticut/by Ebenezer Baldwin 
 A.M./Pastor of the First Church of Christ in Danbury/New York/Printed 
 by Hugh Gaine, Bookseller and/Stationer, at the Bible and Crown/in Han- 
 over Square/1776/ 
 
lo CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 in his letter to Congress of the third of August, stated that his army fell 
 short of eighteen thousand men, and part of them were extremely sickly, and 
 that the circumstances around him were melancholy and distressing. Mr. 
 Baldwin was in the American camp, in the suburbs of New York, when the 
 British Army landed on Long Island in the night of the 21st of August, and 
 I heard his letter read at the time containing the notice of that event and of 
 the awful thunder-storm which accompanied it, and hung over the camp for 
 hours, spreading terror and death, as if the physical as well as moral ele- 
 ments of destruction were involved in angry commotion. Defeats, retreats 
 and sickness disheartened and rapidly reduced and dispersed our little army, 
 part of which had been miserably equipped and wasted by disease even from 
 the beginning of that terrible campaign. The thirteen or fourteen regi- 
 ments of Connecticut Militia, scantily filled in the first instance, soon became 
 fatally reduced by sickness, insubordination and impatience under the ser- 
 vice; and they were finally discharged on the 24th of September. Mr. Bald- 
 win fell a victim to the sickness that prevailed in the army, and he had 
 only strength sufificient to reach home, where he died on the first of October, 
 1776, at the age of thirty-two, honored by the deepest sympathies of his own 
 people and with the public veneration and sorrow. 
 
 At the time of the death of the Rev. Mr. Baldwin, Chancellor 
 Kent was in his thirteenth year, and had read, he tells us, Eutropius, 
 Justin and Cornelius Nepos and Virgil and had made progress in 
 Latin exercises. After the death of Mr. Baldwin he continued his 
 studies under Mr. Ebenezer White at Danbury, Mr. Ross at Strat- 
 field, and again with Mr. White at Newton, until he entered Yale 
 College in September, 1777. It will be observed that he was then 
 about one month more than fourteen years of age. 
 
 President Daggett was then rounding out his term of eleven 
 years as President of the College, and in March, 1778, Dr. Stiles 
 accepted the office of President, being inducted into that station on 
 the 8th of July following. Under date of that day President Stiles 
 made up a catalogue of the faculty and students of the College as 
 they then existed^ and there we find- the Class of 1781 enrolled as 
 "Recentes." This seems to me a much nicer designation than the 
 word we now use ! Why should it have been changed ? If it had 
 not, how many of us would have been spared the little sting of mor- 
 tification when our friends addressed us in the days when we felt, 
 perhaps, more important than at any other time in our lives since, 
 by the sarcastically intoned name of "Freshman !" 
 
 1. Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, p. 284. 
 
 2. Idem, p. 286. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE ii 
 
 Well, these "Rcccntes" were twenty-nine in number and among 
 them we find "Jacobus Kent — Phillipi."^ 
 
 As is well known, the work of the students of the College was 
 frequently interrupted during the Revolutionary War by the military 
 operations in the vicinity of New Haven. The Chancellor tells us 
 himself in a note to the ^ B. K. oration that he was in New 
 Haven and saw the British troops in the act of landing at West 
 Haven early on the morning of July 5th, 1779. He tells us that 
 James Hillhouse, who was graduated in 1773, and was in after-life 
 a Senator in Congress from Connecticut and "who still lives as ven- 
 erable for his moral worth and goodness as he has through life been 
 admired for zealous, distinguished and disinterested public service," 
 commanded on that day the 2nd Company of the Governor's Foot 
 Guards ; and that they, by their prompt co-operation with the militia 
 and volunteers, compelled the Rritish troops to take a circuitous 
 route of nine miles before they could enter and plunder the town. 
 The Chancellor adds that among the volunteers were former Presi- 
 dent Daggett, "who fought, was wounded, taken prisoner and mal- 
 treated."^ 
 
 The inauguration of President Stiles on July 8, 1778, marked the 
 reassembling of the College after a long period of dispersion, and 
 Dr. Stiles, in his inaugural address, took occasion to congratulate 
 his audience upon that fact. But it was again dispersed in July, 
 1779, and, during the whole period of Chancellor Kent's attendance 
 between September, 1777, and September, 1781, the College was 
 not open for regular work more than half the usual time ; and, indeed. 
 President Stiles tells us that the Commencement at which Chancellor 
 Kent's class was graduated, September 12, 1781, was the first public 
 Commencement in his Presidency and the first public Commence- 
 ment during a period of seven years.^ 
 
 Chancellor Kent thus describes the condition of the College : 
 
 1. See page 7, supra, note. President Stiles in this catalogue tells us 
 that on July 15, 1778, Yale College consisted of 132 students, of which 123 
 were present and 9 were absent. Idem, p. 286. 
 
 2. Phi Beta Kappa Oration, p. 39. For a more prolonged account refer- 
 ence may be made to a work entitled Yale/and/her Honor Roll/in the/ 
 American Revolution,/ i^/S-i/'Ss, /'mduding original letters, record of service 
 and/biographical sketches/by/Henry P. Johnston./New York./Privately 
 printed/i888./Press of/G. P. Putnam's Sons/New York/ 
 
 3. Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, p. 554. 
 
12 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 The country was so unsettled and disturbed from 1776 to 1781, and the 
 means of subsistence were so difficult that the College was not open and in 
 regular exercise more than half the usual time. But even the collegiate terms 
 broken and interrupted as they were, proved sufficient to give the students 
 a taste for classical learning and philosophical science, and to teach them how 
 to cultivate their own resources in the various pursuits and duties of life. 
 President Stiles' zeal for civil and religious liberty was kindled at the altar 
 of the English and New England Puritans and it was animating and vivid. 
 A more constant and devoted friend to the Revolution and independence of 
 this country never existed. He had anticipated it as early as the year 1760 
 and his whole soul was enlisted in favor of every measure which led on 
 gradually to the formation and establishment of the American Union. The 
 frequent appeals which he was accustomed to make to the heads and hearts 
 of his pupils, concerning the slippery paths of youth, the grave duties of life, 
 the responsibilities of man, and the perils and hopes and honors and des- 
 tiny of our country, will never be forgotten by those who heard them ; and 
 especially when he came to touch, as he often did, with "a master's hand and 
 prophet's fire" on the bright vision of the future prosperity and splendor 
 of the United States.^ 
 
 In this respect, also, Judge Simeon Baldwin, in his letter to the 
 Hon. William Kent, to which we shall presently refer again, said : 
 
 It will be remembered we were in college during part of the Revolu- 
 tionary War, and all the classes were for a time convened for safety in sep- 
 arate country towns, in the center of the State. James Kent and myself 
 joined the class in Glastonbury, under the care of Professor Strong as tutor, 
 and continued together until the January vacation ; were then dismissed and 
 not called together again until June of the next year. We then met at New 
 Haven and Dr. Stiles was inaugurated President.^ 
 
 Yes, we can gather that President Stiles made frequent appeals 
 to the students concerning "the slippery paths of youth" and "the 
 grave duties of life" from an inspection of his own diary. Thus, 
 under date of February 24, 1781, we find the following entry: 
 
 I gave three theological discourses this day as usual on Saturdays. At 
 II o'clock I explained Vincent on Catechism to the Senior Class. In the 
 afternoon a lecture to a select number of serious scholars, about 20, in 
 the library from all the classes. At evening prayers I expounded a Chapter 
 in the Confession of Faith, publickly, in the Chapel. The good Lord accom- 
 pany with a blessing my Endeavours to impregnate the Minds of my pupils 
 with doctrinal and experimental Knowledge in Divine and Heavenly things. 
 
 And under dale of February 17, we find the following: 
 
 1. Phi Beta Kappa Oration, p. 41. 
 
 2. Memoirs, p. 12. 
 
\ 
 
WEST ROCK IN NEW HAVEN. 
 
 d^l^JZ^ ^— ^'>-T ^-^' ^ 
 
 / 
 
 ^<:^-^C:t^ k^ CS3Z ^7^?^aL^ 
 
 Facsimile from Chancellor Kent's copy of Barber's New Haven, 1831 
 
 See pane 13 and Note 4 on same page. 
 
'^. i!]{!pfi;"~" prpjiF" 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 13 
 
 This Aft. a Chamber theol. Lecture — Subject Whether there are any 
 Promises to the Doings of the Unrcgenerate.^ 
 
 President Stiles also gives us a roster of the students by classes 
 for the year 1779- 1780, and here he gives us- the location of their 
 rooms. JJy this time the Chancellor's class had become Juniors 
 and their numbers had been reduced to twenty-six from the number 
 of twenty-nine which they possessed when "Recentes." We find 
 that the Chancellor occupied room 14-E. This was in the only 
 dormitory building then existing, which was then known as Connec- 
 ticut Hall, afterwards known and hallowed to the memory of myri- 
 ads of Yale Sophomores as old "South Middle." President Stiles 
 tells us that 14-E meant room No. 14 on the east front of the build- 
 ing^ and Chancellor Kent, in later years, confirms the fact by many 
 visits he paid to this same room. 
 
 In 1 83 1, the year when the Chancellor returned and delivered 
 the Phi Beta Kappa oration, there was published in New Haven an 
 illustrated duodecimo volume upon the history and antiquities of 
 that town.* Chancellor Kent purchased a copy, and, following his 
 delightful custom, so valuable to posterity, he copiously annotated 
 it. This copy, replete with the most interesting notes and com- 
 ments by its distinguished owner, is now in the possession of his 
 great-grandson and biographer, Mr. William Kent, of Tuxedo Park, 
 and to his generosity am I deeply indebted for being able to illustrate 
 these pages with a few of the pictures from this book, rendered more 
 interesting and illuminating by the autograph notes of the Chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 The facsimile, here given from Barber's New Haven, together 
 with the Chancellor's note in relation to it, gives, it will be seen, 
 a clear and vivid idea of the buildings as they existed, not 
 only in 1831, but in 1777-T781, and it will be noted that here Chan- 
 cellor Kent marks his room. No. 14-E., as being the one on the 
 northeast corner of the top floor of Connecticut Hall. As is well 
 known, at least to every son of Yale, there is to-day in that room 
 upon the west side of the mantle-piece a tablet commemorating the 
 
 1. Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, p. 512. 
 
 2. Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, p. 428. 
 
 3. Idem. 
 
 4. Hisiory/aitd/Aittiquities/of Nczv Haven. (Conn.) from its earliest 
 settlement to the present time./CoIlected and compiled/from the most authen- 
 tic sources/by J. W. Barber./Illustrated with engravings./New Haven/1831/ 
 
14 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 fact that there Chancellor Kent lived during the years 1780 and 
 1781 ; and on the east side of the mantle-piece is another tablet com- 
 memorating the fact that, in the same room, nearly forty years after, 
 lived, during his college days, the venerable and honored Theodore 
 Dwight Woolsey (Yale 1820) from 1846 to 1871, President of 
 Yale.^ 
 
 Again, under date of June 22, 1781, Dr. Stiles, with his method- 
 ical care, made a catalogue of students with their classes and rooms 
 for the year 1 780-1 781, and here our friends are Seniors and there 
 are twenty-five of them, the number that were graduated. 
 
 Chancellor Kent, although a prolific writer on most other impor- 
 tant subjects, wrote but little of himself. In the manuscript sketch 
 of his life, to which we have referred, he devotes but a few lines 
 to his college course.- But most fortunately for us, sixty-seven 
 years later, in February, 1848, his distinguished classmate. Judge 
 Baldwin, to whom reference has been made, in a letter addressed 
 to the Hon. William Kent, the son of the Chancellor,^ supplied a 
 charming and interesting account of the Chancellor's college life, 
 which, in his own memoranda, the Chancellor himself dismissed 
 with but a few words. Space will not permit my incorporating all 
 of this interesting letter here, but it is well worth perusing in toto 
 and can be found in Mr. William Kent's "Memoirs" at page 9. I 
 cannot refrain, however, from quoting a few words from Judge 
 Baldwin's mature estimate of his classmate. He says that he was 
 first introduced to James Kent on the first Monday in May, 1773, 
 at Danbury, that he was then about ten years of age, the youngest 
 of the school, and "a friendly, social, innocently playful boy, beloved 
 by all who knew little Jimmie Kent, as he was familiarly called." 
 
 1. In his journal of his "Excursion to New Haven," September 12-15, 
 1 83 1, when he went there to deliver the $ B. K. Oration, the Chancellor tells 
 us that, on that occasion, he ascended and visited this room, and adds : "My 
 room-mates, when I was Sophomore, were Noyes and Tomlinson, and when 
 I was Senior, they were Noyes and Wright, and they are all alive." Kent 
 Manuscripts, Journal No. 10, 1829-1831. Infra, pages 29-30. 
 
 2. Kent Manuscripts, Vol. III. 
 
 3. The Hon. William Kent, the Chancellor's only son, was a distinguished 
 practitioner at the New York Bar, being for a time a partner of the Hon. 
 Henry E. Davics, afterwards Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. In 1841, 
 Mr. William Kent became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of 
 New York, and in 1846, he was appointed to the Professorship in Law at 
 Harvard University, which had been theretofore held by Mr. Justice Story. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 15 
 
 Judge Baldwin says that he was studious and attentive to all the 
 rules of the school and a good scholar in all the branches taught, 
 and then continues : 
 
 We were then [after the death of the Rev. Ebenezer Baldwin, October 
 I, 1776] separated for one year and met as Freshmen of Yale College in 
 1777. Our class was small, consisting of young men grown up, most of them 
 much older than either of us.' He, I think, was the youngest of the class, 
 but was better fitted for his standing than most of them. While we were 
 members of college the students were often dispersed and their studies inter- 
 rupted in consequence of the war, but he still kept his standing in his class, 
 and, to say the least, in all the classical studies, he ranked among the best. 
 In history, in the belles-lettres studies, and in reading generally, he excelled 
 them all. His attention to what he read was strict, and his memory was 
 uncommonly retentive. It was the common remark of his companions that 
 they could generally tell the author he last read by the style and matter of 
 his next composition. 
 
 He wrote his compositions with great care, and in a pleasing, flowing 
 style. But the rapid flow of his ideas often embarrassed him in public speak- 
 ing, whether extemporary or mcnioritcr. When preparing for public speak- 
 ing, he has often requested me to hear him rehearse, and, by signal, to check 
 him when speaking too rapidly, as he generally would, without knowing it, 
 when he felt the spirit of the subject. On these occasions, when often 
 checked, I have known him to sit down and weep; but he would try again 
 and again, and by repeated trials, did learn, in a great measure, to regulate 
 the rapidity of his speech, which, without attention, would, at times, be unin- 
 telligible. He left College universally beloved by his class and ranked as a 
 scholar among the first. 
 
 Unfortunately, the "Kent Alanuscripts" in the Library of Con- 
 gress do not contain any letters of the future Chancellor written 
 during his college years, nor have I been able to find any elsewhere. 
 But those manuscripts do contain nine letters written to him by his 
 father between December 4, 1779, and August 29, 1781, which man- 
 ifestly bear witness to the sweet and confidential relations existing 
 between the father and the son, and serve to make us all the more 
 regretful that we cannot know the letters of the son to the father 
 which drew them forth. These letters seem to me so interesting 
 that, at the risk of encroaching unduly upon space, I shall venture to 
 set them out here just as they appear in the originals. They are all 
 
 I. Judge Baldwin was born in Norwich, December 14, 1761, and was 
 now, therefore, but sixteen years of age. Kent, as we have seen, was but 
 fourteen. 
 
i6 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 addressed to "James Kent, student at Yale College in New Haven," 
 and all bear the endorsement in the young man's hand, with the date 
 of each, "From my Father." 
 p. q . Campo* ye 4TH December, 1779. 
 
 I Received your Letter of the i6th Ult. and also yours of 30th by the Post 
 and shou'd have sent you those Articles you requested sooner, could I have 
 got 'em. But I have since procured 'em by Loan except the Scale & Dividers, 
 but I suppose your Scale & Dividers & Mr. Hazard's are at Mr. Crosby's at 
 Philippi & I shall go up there in a few Days & hope to find 'em. You must 
 endeavour to borrow or buy 'em at New Haven if they can't be found at 
 Philippi. I send you by the Post 2 Vols Martin's Philosophy & Atkinson's 
 Epitome also 100 Dollars and my black Jackett which I wou'd have got made 
 at New Haven if you can buy Lining for I can get none here. I expect to 
 go to Hartford within 3 or 4 Weekes after Mony and then hope to supply you 
 with more. I hope you will make a wise Improvement of the Advantages 
 you enjoy and be ever mindfuU of the one Thing needfull.' 
 
 I am my dear Son your 
 
 Affectionate Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 ,, T^ c" Cam PC YE 3D May, 1780. 
 
 My Dear Son ^ ' '' 
 
 I send you by Mr. Taylor the Post a Horse ye saddle bags and 91 Con- 
 tinental Dollars and I would have you get leave of the President to come 
 home tomorrow so as not to be on expense with the Horse. I wish you 
 we'd buy Loweth's Grammar, and call at Curtiss's Tavern at Stratford and 
 get a Bag with Some Hay Seed in it that I paid for Last Summer and bring 
 it with you. I am your Affectionate Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 -, T^ „ Campo ye 26TH Dec. 1780. 
 
 My Dear Son 
 
 I send you by Mr. Taylor the Post £2:15:9 State mony & a paper of Ink 
 
 powder & a Blankett. I have not got my Leather Curried yet so that I co'd 
 
 not get you a pair of shoes — & if you can't do without a pair Immediately 
 
 you must buy a pair at N. Haven perhaps it may be a fortnight before I can 
 
 get 'em made. I have but this day dismis'd the mason and workmen. Polly 
 
 has rec'd [torn out] Letters from her husband. His brother John [has] come 
 
 to Philadelphia about 6 weeks ago & is daily expected here I wish you 
 
 could be at home when he is here. 
 
 I am your afifectionate Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 1. A village in the Parish of Green's Farms in Fairfield County, Con- 
 necticut, the home of the Chancellor's father at this time. Dexter' s Annals, 
 Second Series, p. 288. 
 
 2. To sit at Jesus' feet and hear His word. — St. Luke 10: 42, 39. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 17 
 
 My Dear Son ^^^^^ ^'^ 9th Jany 1781. 
 
 I send you by Mr. Taylor ye Post. 25/ & Wo'd Inform you we are all 
 well. If you are willing to come home & see us I would have you hire a 
 Horse if you can conveniently. I can keep the Horse well. You may 
 invite one of your Classmates to come home with you. Mr. John Henderson 
 is not yet come we expect him daily. 
 
 I am your loving Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 ,, e 28TH Feb. 1 781. 
 
 My dear Son ' 
 
 Inclosed I send you £4 :2 :g State moiiy which is all the mony I have at 
 present to spare which I hope will ans'r for a little while. You'll write me as 
 you want it, & I shall endeavour to supply you. It gives me pleasure to do 
 for my dear Children. I hope you will improve yr Time to the best advan- 
 tage & be sure dont forget the one Thing needfull.^ Strive to get yt Wis- 
 dom yt is from above, for if in this Life we only have hope, we are of all 
 Creatures the most Miserable. I shall get you a pair of Shoes made in a few 
 days. Mrs. Henderson rec'd a Letter Yesterday from her brother John. 
 Dat: ye ist: Instant. He says it is uncertain when he shall come as he is 
 detained in transacting Business with Congress. The affairs of Congress 
 with their Agent at New Orleans is committed wholly to Mr. John Hender- 
 son which is the cause of his being detained at Philadelphia. And indeed 
 a great Betrustment for such a Youth. 
 
 I am your Loving Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 My dear Son Greenfarms 30TH Ap. 1781. 
 
 I send you a Horse & saddle & Bags by Mr. Tyler & have wrote to the 
 President to let you come Home on Fryday next — Mr. Tyler will deliver you 
 the horse in the forenoon on Fryday as he must ride him home, & bring him 
 down on Fryday — I wo'd have you bring home every Article of Clothing you 
 have in your custody. 
 
 I send you 12/ in silver mony & £4:3:0 in State mony which is all I had 
 by me — hope it may answer your end. I have wrote to the Steward Mr. 
 Attwater to send me a copy of my account current, you'll call on him for it 
 to bring to me. I wish you cou'd buy some black Ball & bring home & a cake 
 of shaving soap. 
 
 We have had a most agreeable visit from John Henderson for 14 days — A 
 very accomplished Gentleman indeed. He wanted very much to see j^ou. 
 
 I am your Loving Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 P. S. Your Classmate Isaacs was taken 
 off by the enemy Sunday night. 
 
 I. Idem, supra, p. 16, note. 
 
i8 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 My Son Wednesday Morning i8th July, 1781. 
 
 Mr. Taylor the Post wanted my Waggon to bring some Rum from 
 N. Haven. Therefore I thought it best to let him a Horse to go in the 
 Waggon & for you to ride in the Waggon with him & bring home your bed 
 & other Furniture. 
 
 I send you 17/ hard mony & wish you wo'd buy me 2 pair of shoe 
 Buckells one for me & the other for Moss, cheap string ones — such as you 
 think suitable for us. I think it best & cheapest Time to get home Your 
 things now — ■ 
 
 I am yr. Loving Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 My dear Son ^Sth Augt. 1781. 
 
 I send you by Mr. Taylor the Post 10 liard Dollars which Mr. Deliver- 
 ance Bennett was so kind as to lend me. I also send you those Buttons 
 which I suppose you forgot to take along with you— I wo'd have you write 
 me a line by the Post & let me know whether you got those Guineas from 
 Capt. Thorp, & if you are like to get a suit of Cloathes, & what you want 
 from me. I shall endeavour to get all the money I possibly can for you.— 
 
 from your affectionate Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 My dear Son 29th Augt. 1781. 
 
 I have sent by yr. Brother [sic] Saml Hazard £3.0.0 to Mr. Chipman in 
 part payment of the goods you had of him & also £3.18.0 to Mr. Attwater & 
 have wrote to him to wait till I can turn wheat into money for the rest, & 
 to let the President know that he is made easy, which I hope will quiet him. 
 I wish you wo'd speak to Col. Drake & give my compliments to him — & 
 see whether he would entertain your sisters, as they have a mind to come to 
 Commencement. 
 
 from yr. affectionate Father 
 
 (Signed) Moss Kent. 
 
 It seems beyond question from these letters that the same gentle, 
 kindly and cheerful spirit, which, we have abundant evidence, the 
 Chancellor exhibited toward all others, he also cherished and culti- 
 vated toward his father and his family, and in this connection and 
 as illustrative of this fact, I venture to extract a letter which, many 
 years afterwards, When a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State 
 of New York, the Chancellor wrote from Albany where he was then 
 residing to his brother, the namesake of his father, Moss Kent, then 
 a Senator-elect of the State of New York. The Senator had 
 accepted an invitation from Judge Kent to make his home with the 
 latter during the session of the Senate, and, in response to a recent 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 19 
 
 letter of Moss Kent stating- the pleasant anticipations with which he 
 looked forward to this visit, the Chancellor replied as follows : 
 
 T^ -r, Albany, Deck 29x11, 1799. 
 
 Dear Brother : 
 
 Your letter is received and Elislia Kane says he executed your business 
 with the Clerk and forwarded the Bills of Costs to Arch. Kane at Canejo- 
 harie. You cannot possibly anticipate with more pleasure than we do the 
 approach of the third and last Tuesday in January. This past month of 
 December has been rather solitary to us and I reckon upon your living with 
 me with the utmost pleasure. We are preparing everything to make your 
 accommodations comfortable and pleasant. Yesterday your sister put up 
 the curtains of your bed and prepared the room for you. My cellar is filled 
 with provisions and my yard with wood. The Rumford fire place answers its 
 end admirably and the office is always warm. 
 
 As the term approaches I am studying my cases and there are some very 
 important questions that we judges are discussing and settling. I have, how- 
 ever, finished Butler's and Hargrave's Co Litt. and Juvenal almost, in addi- 
 tion to a great deal of miscellaneous reading and avocation and a good por- 
 tion of visits. If you can any ways conveniently finish your county court 
 business you had better be here early or the first week in term and attend 
 the arguments in court. I have no doubt you will be well repaid by infor- 
 mation. The second week the Senate meets and you will have your atten- 
 tion dissipated. The great Le Guen cause is to come before the Senate 
 this winter and you will ha^ve to decide perhaps on very important points 
 as an appellate judge. 
 
 Your sister and little Bess are well and anxious to have you come. 
 
 Your Affte. 
 
 (Signed) J. Kent.* 
 
 And it is this kind and gentle and cheerful qtiality which caused 
 the Hon. Philip Hone, distinguished citizen and Mayor of New 
 York, to write of Chancellor Kent in the latter's seventy-second year 
 as follows : 
 
 I would that Heaven had made me such a man. . . . His constitution 
 sound, the happy result of good habits and a cheerful disposition, and the 
 consciousness of purity of heart and uniformly virtuous intentions. I do not 
 know so perfect a model as Chancellor Kent, or a man so much to be 
 envied.^ 
 
 But the Commencement exercises of the Class of 1781 must have 
 been rather a serious matter, for President Stiles makes the follow- 
 ing reference to them under date of September 12, 1781 : 
 
 1. Kent Manuscripts, Vol. I. 
 
 2. The Diary /of /Philip Hone. /i828-i8ji. /Edited, with an introduction/ 
 by/Bayard Cutting./New York. Dodd, Mead & Co.,/1889. Two Volumes. 
 Vol. I, p. 124. 
 
20 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 Public commencement here. The first puljlic Commencement in my 
 Presidency. Exercises 3 hours in the forenoon & 3 hours P. M. I con- 
 ferred the academic degrees upon 25 Bachelors of Arts & 46 Masters. 
 Total 71. 
 
 And then follows a long account copied from the "public prints" 
 of the exercises in detail. They were indeed so learned and of 
 such length that they would certainly shock the "Bachelor" and 
 even the "Master" of the present day.^ 
 
 Among many other things, 'Chancellor Kent was the Cliosophic 
 orator in English. Judge Baldwin delivered the salutatory oration 
 in Latin. There was an anthem set to music by Mr. Samuel Dwight, 
 (Yale 1773), a Greek oration by Mr. Perkins, a forensic disputation 
 on the question as to 'Whether the literature of the Antients 
 excelled that of the Moderns,' by Mr. Kent and Mr. Gridley on the 
 affirmative, and Mr. Stebbins and Mr. Channing on the negative, 
 and an Oration upon the Oriental Learning, in Hebrew, Chaldee 
 and Arabic by the President." A Latin Valedictory Oration also 
 was pronounced by Mr. Tutor Meigs, and the President closed the 
 exercises of the day with prayer.'^ 
 
 That, however, it produced no unpleasant effect upon the Chan- 
 cellor is evident from two letters which he wrote respectively in 
 September, 1785, and September, 1787, on two subsequent Com- 
 mencement occasions to his classmate, Judge Baldwin, in New 
 Haven,* expressing, in earnest terms, his regret at not having been 
 able to attend the exercises. 
 
 In the first of these letters, after speaking of his anxiety to hear 
 from Mr. Baldwin, and lamenting "that I am not only prevented 
 hitherto from the pleasure of seeing you, but also find such long 
 interruptions in our correspondence," and saying that "the older, 
 therefore, I grow, my friend, the more do I prize you," he refers to 
 the Commencement lately passed as follows : 
 
 1. Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, p. 554. 
 
 2. The manuscript of this Hebrew oration upon the Hebrew literature 
 among Dr. Stiles' papers shows that it was originally composed in 1778, but 
 this was the first opportunity for its delivery! Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, p. 554. 
 
 3. Stiles' Diary, Vol. II, pp. 512, 539, 547, 554, 556. 
 
 4. I am indebted for the privilege of being able to quote from these letters 
 here to the generous kindness of the recipient's distinguished grandson, 
 Judge Simeon E. Baldwin of New Haven, in whose possession the original 
 letters are. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 21 
 
 Your commencement at New Haven must have been very lately. I 
 should like very well to be present once more at the exercises of such a day 
 and I should be allured much more from motives of curiosity than of instruc- 
 tion, provided the President was to deliver another Arabic oration. He 
 always excited my affection from the loftiness of his manners and the good- 
 ness of his heart, but my admiration used to be carried to a very high pitch 
 from my idea of the immensity of his learning and his researches as an 
 antiquarian. He has many fanciful notions which I shall not undertake to 
 refute, nor to defend. But he is the ornament of the age as a scholar and I 
 believe those who are entirely delivered from the pedantry of the schools, 
 and whose ideas are enlarged by history and experience, and created by 
 just criticism and sound philosophy will still see cause to view him with 
 great veneration. I ardently wish that glory and reputation may crown the 
 labors of that, our parent university, and that such moderation and caution 
 may attend the distribution of academical honors that they may be courted 
 with emulation and conferred as a sincere reward. . . . Adieu. Remem- 
 ber me and believe that I love you. 
 
 And in the second letter, dated Poug-hkeepsie, September 7, 1787, 
 the Chancellor writes : 
 
 Commencement I recollect is at hand, in which you are going to recall 
 some of your old sensations and probably embrace some of your old friends. 
 Who can tell my wishes that I was to be of the number? The thought 
 of that scene awakens most deeply my friendly sentiments. You and one 
 or two more recur to me with a tenderness that almost unmans me. I love 
 you most sincerely and my breast refutes the system that makes self-love 
 the foundation of morals. I feel myself a patron of the doctrine of dis- 
 interested affection. My dear friend, may you and I never forget to have 
 an ardent friendship as long as we remain worthy of each other — -may we 
 never cease to cultivate the heart as the source of all our happiness 
 here, and we may make our profession subservient to a most honorable 
 ambition and an unlimited benevolence for mankind. 
 
 Yours most affectionately 
 Simeon Baldwin, Esq. (Signed) James Kent. 
 
 P. S. This letter is conveyed by Mr. Marsh, by whom I hope for the favor, 
 if not inconvenient, of the usual academical publications of Theses, etc. I 
 could wish for a catalogue that I may thereby hear of the existence at least 
 of my acquaintance. . . . 
 
 It is not diffictdt to find the cause of this abstention from these 
 Commencement gatherings, which he yearned so to attend. It was 
 the res angusta domi that held him in its inexorable grip. He told 
 something of it to Judge Baldwin in a letter of September, 1784, 
 (note that this is again a Commencement season), which Judge 
 Baldwin quotes in the account of his classmate already referred to.^ 
 In that confidential letter to his friend the future Chancellor writes : 
 
 I. Supra, page 14. 
 
22 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 I am yet a poor clerk to an attorney, and all my property is confined to 
 my chest; but I have a thirst for knowledge and a determination to put in a 
 claim for some of those honors which imprint immortality on characters ; 
 and this thirst and this determination, I trust, under Providence, will lead 
 forward to some of those good and generous actions, and that sacred integ- 
 rity of conduct and principle, which will render me not a dishonorable object 
 to the few who love me/ 
 
 Again, nine years later, in October, 1793, he wrote his brother: 
 
 . . . I am very healthy, but my business comes on slowly and living 
 is very high. The beef in market is yd., 8d., and gd. a pound, and other 
 things in proportion. But the most serious of all our expenses is wood. 
 It is now i8s. a load at the wharf, and four loads make a cord. The expense 
 of riding, sawing, etc., is about 3.^.; so that every load of nut wood, which 
 is the only wood brought here that will burn, costs me 21s. a load. This 
 extraordinary dearness of wood is owing partly to the great influx of people 
 from the West Indies, etc., but principally because last winter was open, and 
 there was no sledding to bring the wood down to the landings up the river. 
 I endeavor to keep up my spirits all I can, but low spirits and discourage- 
 ments frequently press so hard upon me as to retard my studies. However, 
 I will try a year or two yet, and if it will not do here, I must go into the 
 woods somewhere, as you have done." 
 
 That this was the true and real reason of his abstention is made 
 more clearly manifest from the fact that, as we shall see, for years 
 afterwards, when he had become more at ease in his circumstances, 
 we shall find that he attended the College Commencements and 
 rejoiced in their proceedings with the right and true spirit of the 
 most loyal and enthusiastic Yalensian. The manuscript diaries to 
 which I have referred contain accounts of these visits to his Alma 
 Mater at quite frequent intervals from as early as the year 1813 
 almost to the end of his life, the last visit recounted being that to 
 the Commencement of 1842, when the Chancellor had been out of 
 college sixty-one years and was seventy-nine years of age. Some of 
 them we will examine later. But we may pause to say here that the 
 tone and spirit of the letters above quoted are indicative of the man 
 and of his character. Poverty might deprive him of the gratification 
 of 'his dearest wishes, but it could not dismay him. In the midst 
 of it he was serenely happy and cheerful as he was in the later days 
 of his affluence. It seemed a characteristic of Chancellor Kent 
 throuofhout his whole life that difficulties of whatever kind and 
 
 1. Memoirs, p. 17. 
 
 2. Memoirs, p. 54. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 23 
 
 nature, not only did not dismay him, but seemed, on the contrary, 
 to incite and encourage him to effort. It seemed as if, instead of 
 shrinking before difficulties, he veritably welcomed them, so great 
 was his intellectual enjoyment in searching with industrious and 
 unerring logic the way by which, of necessity, they must be and 
 would be overcome. No labor of research was too great for him, 
 if, through it, he could find the weak points in the obstacles that 
 opposed him, and by it could arm and fortify himself with the pre- 
 cedents and authorities whereby he could overcome them. Another 
 trait or characteristic in this connection impresses itself upon the 
 reader of Chancellor Kent's work, and that is that he never realized 
 or admitted defeat until the last effort had been made. As his 
 younger successors in his beloved Alma Mater have sometimes put 
 it, he never was beaten until the last ball was pitched ! 
 
 The future Chancellor at this time was living in Poughkeepsie 
 and was a clerk in the office of the Hon. Egbert Benson, a distin- 
 guished lawyer, and at that time Attorney-General of the State of 
 New York.^ He says that he was placed there by his father in 
 November, 1781, almost immediately after leaving college. He was 
 admitted to the Bar of New York in January, 1785, and in April of 
 that year he married Miss Elizabeth Bailey, daughter of Col. John 
 Bailey of Poughkeepsie, New York. In his memorandum he says : 
 
 I was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court in January, 1785, at the 
 age of twenty-one, and then married, without one cent of property; for my 
 education exhausted all my kind father's resources, and left me in debt. $400, 
 which took me two or three years to discharge.^ 
 
 On the I2th of April, 1785, he entered into partnership with 
 
 1. Chancellor Kent in a valuable historical address which he delivered 
 before the New York Historical Society, on the occasion of his election as 
 the fifth President of that society, December 6, 1828, has this to say of 
 Judge Benson : 
 
 "Egbert Benson rendered eminent service to this state (New York) 
 through the whole period of the American War. He was zealous, firm, 
 active and extremely useful from the very beginning of the contest. In 1777 
 he was appointed Attorney General, and in that office, in the Legislature, 
 and in Congress, his devotion to the public interest was unremitted. The 
 value of his services as a member of the Legislature throughout the war 
 was beyond all price, and in the able, constant, accurate and faithful dis- 
 charge of the duties of that station he has scarcely an equal in the legislative 
 annals of the state." 
 
 2. Memoirs, p. 22. 
 
24 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 Gilbert Livingston, Esq., of Poughkeepsie, and remained in this 
 connection until he moved to the City of New York, April 27, 1793.^ 
 
 I. In the Kent Manuscripts, Vol. Ill, above referred to, page 6, note, 
 is found the following Chronological Memoranda in the handwriting of the 
 Chancellor: 
 
 1763 — July 31 — I was born at Fredericksburgh in Dutchess County. 
 
 1772 — July 28 — Begun to study Cordery in Latin and English at my Uncle 
 
 Kane's. 
 1773 — May — Went to a Latin School at Danbury under the tuition of the 
 
 Revd. Ebenezer Baldwin. 
 1777 — July & August studied at Newtown with the Revd. Ebenezer White. 
 
 Sept. — Entd. Yale College. 
 1781 — September, took my Bachelor's Degree. 
 
 Nov. loth, entered as clerk to Mr. Benson at Poughkeepsie. 
 1785 — Jany. — Admitted an Atty. of the Sup. Court at Albany. 
 
 April 3d. — Married Miss Elizabeth Bailey. 
 
 I2th — Entered into partnership with G. Livingston. 
 1786 — Oct. loth — Begun housekeeping at Poughkeepsie. 
 1787 — April — -Admitted a Counsellor in the Sup. Court. 
 1789 — Oct. 23rd. — My brother Moss left my house where he had lived for 
 
 three years. 
 1790 — April — Elected a Member of Assembly for D. County. 
 1791 — March 2Sth — My daughter Elizabeth born. 
 1792— April — Elected again a Member of Assembly. 
 1793 — Jany. — I was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. 
 
 April I2th — Dissolved my partnership with G. L. 
 
 27th — Removed to N. York. 
 
 May 26th — My daughter died. 
 
 Dec. 24th — Elected a Professor of Law in Columbia College. 
 1794 — Feby. 4th — My father died. 
 
 March i8th — Admitted Sol. & Counsel in Chancery. 
 
 April 5th — Admitted Counsel in Circuit Court of U. S. 
 1796 — Feby. ist — Appointed a Master in Chancery. 
 
 i6th — My second daughter Betsy born. 
 
 April — elected a Member of Assembly for N. York. 
 
 Elected a Trustee of the N. York Library. 
 
 1797 — March 28th — Appointed Recorder of N. York. 
 
 May — Elected a Governor of the Hospital. 
 1798 — Feby. 6th — Appointed a Judge of the Sup. Court. 
 
 April 7th — Removed from N. York to Poughkeepsie. 
 1799 — Oct. 31st — Removed from Poughkeepsie to Albany. 
 1804 — 2nd July — Appointed Chief Justice. 
 1814 — Feby. — Chancellor. 
 
 [May, 1794 had a degree of LL.D. in Columbia College, N. Y. 
 
 In 181 1 or 1812 do. in Harvard University. 
 
 In 1819 do. in Dartmouth College.] 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT VALE 25 
 
 That his married Ufe was an extremely happy one and that his 
 wife, through all the long years of their association, exerted a most 
 happy influence upon his life and character, shines through all he 
 writes. The "Kent Manuscripts" contain a number of letters between 
 the husband and wife, which abundantly illustrate this fact, but I 
 will quote but two as typical of them all. On Monday, September 
 17, 1804, the future Chancellor, then Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court, residing in Albany, wrote to his wife, who was visiting her 
 parents in Poughkeepsie, in part as follows : 
 
 Dear Betsy : 
 
 I did not intend to have written to you so soon for fear you would be 
 too highly elated and flattered by such marked attention from so great a 
 man as myself. But I must run the risk of spoiling you for the pleasure of 
 the letter. . . . Bess [their little daughter] sticks close to me and walks 
 out with me in all my walks. . . . It is glorious times to study here ! — 
 no noise, no intrusive wife, no rattling Will, no call for market. A piece 
 of canned beef got on Saturday will last some days yet. . . . It is possi- 
 ble I may get a whim in my head by the beginning of next week to jump 
 aboard a sloop with Bess and come down. My love to your parents and 
 sister. Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) J. Kent.^ 
 
 On Saturday evening, September 22nd, Mrs. Kent replied as 
 follows : 
 
 Dear Husband: — • 
 
 With all your imperfections on your head I love you and long most 
 ardently to see you. To tell the truth I grow quite homesick and hardly 
 know how I shall spend all next week here. This place is very pleasant, but 
 all its charms to me are fled. Take away my family and friends and I should 
 scarcely ever wish to see it again. . . . The truth is the gentleman I 
 have the infinite satisfaction of calling my husband will give a zest to any 
 place, or it will have none for me if he is not there. You will perceive I do 
 not lose all recollection of you in my absence. Your image grows brighter 
 every day on my imagination. I fancy I see you sitting this evening in your 
 solitary office shivering with cold with dear little Bess lying on the chairs 
 waiting for you to go to bed, while you are turning over your unfinished 
 pages. My dear, blessed little daughter, I am afraid she is lonesome and 
 unhappy. ... I had the honour of receiving your short agreeable letter 
 of Monday last and should have been very glad to have received another 
 
 1823 — July 31 — Retired from the office of Chancellor, being that day sixty 
 years of age. 
 
 Oct. 29th — Removed from Albany to the City of N. Y. 
 
 Nov. — Reappointed Professor of Law in Columbia College. 
 
 I. Kent Manuscripts, Vol. III. 
 
26 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 this evening, though I suppose you think that would be giving me too much 
 pleasure in one week. . . . Your lovely little boy is very well and is 
 highly delighted. He goes with his grandpa to the barn and in the garden 
 and if possible is sweeter than ever. I think very often of my dear little 
 Bess. I almost regret I did not bring her along. I know her pa will do all 
 he can to make her happy. A week will soon pass away and she will have 
 her mother back again. I hope Peggy gives you comfortable meals. Be 
 patient, my darling husband. Though we laugh and talk a great deal, there 
 is not a human being values you half as much as your devoted wife, 
 
 (Signed) E. K.* 
 
 Chancellor Kent was of particularly agreeable personal appear- 
 ance. The frontispiece shows him as a youth of twenty-five dur- 
 ing the struggles of his early life at the Bar. This portrait was 
 done by Sharpless in pastel and has never before been reproduced, 
 and we arc indebted to the kindness of the owner of the original, 
 Mr. William Kent of Tuxedo Park, for the privilege of being able 
 to reproduce it here." Another portrait of Chancellor Kent was 
 made by Rembrandt Peel in 1843 when the Chancellor was eighty 
 years of age. It is in the possession of Mr. William Kent of Tux- 
 edo Park, and a reproduction of it forms a frontispiece of his 
 "Memoirs." A portrait painted by John W. Jarvis is owned by 
 Yale. A fine bronze statue of the Chancellor stands in the gallery 
 
 1. Kent Manuscripts, Vol. III. 
 
 2. James Sharpless, artist, was born in England about 1751, and died in 
 New York City February 26, 181 1. He was intended for the priesthood, 
 but studied art. He came to this country in 1786 and resided here almost 
 constantly thereafter. He is buried in the church yard of St. Peter's Church 
 in Barclay Street, New York City. He made portraits in pastel of many of 
 the leading men of the time, including General Washington, John Adams, 
 Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Anthony Wayne, Horatio Gates, James 
 Wilkinson, James Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Chancellor Livingston, Aaron 
 Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Chancellor Kent. It is said that after finish- 
 ing a portrait Sharpless usually made another of the same subject either 
 as a replica or otherwise, and that these second portraits he kept as a per- 
 sonal collection of his own. It seems that a portion of this personal col- 
 lection, including the portraits above mentioned, came into the hands of a 
 gentleman of Virginia, probably as security for a loan made to Sharpless' 
 widow, and became scattered during the Civil War. Some forty of them, 
 including those above mentioned, were exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition 
 in Philadelphia in 1876, and these were purchased for the National Museum in 
 Independence Hall. The portrait of Chancellor Kent in this collection is not 
 by any means a replica or copy of the frontispiece. It is undoubtedly a 
 portrait of the Chancellor, but manifestly made at a later period of his life, 
 and the clothes and the method of cutting the hair are altogether different. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 27 
 
 of the central reading-room or rotunda of the Library of Con- 
 gress at Washington. The statue is a very effective one, and a cut 
 of it may be found in Harper's Weekly for August i, 1896 (Vol. 4O; 
 P- 752).' 
 
 But we have already digressed too far and wc must return now 
 to our particular business, which is the relation of this great man 
 to Yale. The Whole of the Phi Beta Kappa oration will form 
 absorbingly interesting reading for any Yale man, but space pre- 
 vents our giving it all as we should like to do. We must leave it now 
 with the Chancellor's concluding words, with which he ended this 
 brilliant achievement : 
 
 Within the last half century this college has partaken largely of the 
 general impulse communicated to society. It has made rapid advances in 
 the number of its pupils, in the elevation of the standard of admission, in 
 the enlargement of the limits of collegiate learning, and in accommodating its 
 course of instruction to the wants and wishes of the age, and to the methods 
 and spirit of the sciences of the present day. The amount of graduates, 
 since the commencement of this century, almost equals the number that 
 received a collegiate degree during the whole course of that which preceded 
 it. History, antiquities and political economy are now academically taught. 
 Chemistry, mineralogy and geology were utterly unknown, within college 
 walls, half a century ago. They are now regarded as sciences of great prac- 
 tical utility, and, under the guidance of genius, erudition and taste, they are 
 cultivated with enthusiastic ardor and astonishing success. The progress of 
 science generally within the time of memory is almost incalculable, and it 
 seems to leave in comparative insignificance, the accumulated knowledge of 
 past ages. We can estimate the space that has been gained by the flood, by 
 looking upon those neglected marks, — those old and stubborn intellectual 
 monuments, which remained stationary, in proud solitude, while the current 
 swept forward on its course. It is the tendency of the general 
 dififusion of knowledge, and of the inquisitive, restless, and business character 
 of the age, to elevate the importance of that mechanical philosophy, and of 
 
 I. There are sixteen of these bronze figures in this gallery and they 
 form a very dignified and impressive feature of the ornamental scheme. 
 They are as follows : 
 Representing 
 
 Religion^ Moses and St. Paul ; 
 
 Commerce — Columbus and Robert Fulton ; 
 
 History — Herodotus and Gibbon ; 
 
 Art — Michael Angelo and Beethoven; 
 
 Philosophy — Plato and Lord Bacon; 
 
 Science — Newton and Henry; 
 
 Poetry — Homer and Shakespeare ; 
 
 Law — Solon and Chancellor Kent. 
 
2 8 . CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 those practical sciences, which gratify with the greatest celerity, and in the 
 greatest abundance, our coarser wants and comforts. But we may rest 
 assured that the efficacy and value of intellectual pursuits increases in a much 
 greater proportion. Artificial distinctions and exclusive privileges are grad- 
 ually losing their hold on society, by the operation of the knowledge and 
 spirit of the times. The masses of free and enlightened human beings are 
 constantly enlarging, and they all lie under the dominion of moral force, 
 and are capable of being swayed by argument and eloquence flowing from 
 intellects of superior cultivation. Knowledge and virtue are the rightful 
 directors of human action, and they arc a result of a liberal and vigorous 
 system of public education. 
 
 It must be the wisli of all the true sons of this venerable university, that 
 it may fulfill its high purpose, and continue to flourish in health and vigor, 
 with expanding views, and increasing luster, down to the latest posterity. 
 
 There is published with the oration a note of the Chancellor's 
 upon his college class and other college mates, then both living and 
 dead, which, because of the distinction of the author and of those 
 it catalogues, ought not to be omitted. It is as follows : 
 
 Of my college class, which graduated in 1781, and consisted of twenty- 
 five, there are twelve still living in good health, and eight of them attended 
 this commencement. Of those eight persons, four had not until then, seen 
 each other for fifty j^ears. Of the students who were in college during the 
 whole or some part of the period in which I was there, and who in after life 
 attained distinguished public honors by their talents and learning, and are 
 now dead, may be selected 
 
 Joel Barlow, the author of the "Vision of Columbus," and American 
 Minister in Europe. 
 
 Stephen Jacob, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont. 
 
 Josiah Meigs, President of the University of Georgia. 
 
 Asher Miller, a Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. 
 
 Noah Smith, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont. 
 
 Zephaniah Swift, author of a Digest of the Laws of Connecticut, and 
 Chief Justice of that state. 
 
 Uriah Tracy, Senator in Congress from Connecticut. 
 
 Mason Fitch Cogswell, President of the Medical Society of Connecticut. 
 
 Roger Griswold, Governor of the State of Connecticut. 
 
 Daniel Farrand, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont. 
 
 Israel Smith, Governor of the State of Vermont. 
 
 John Lovett, Member of Congress from New York. 
 
 Samuel Austin, President of the University of Vermont. 
 
 Josiah Masters, Member of Congress from New York. 
 
 Jedediah Morse, author of the American Geography. 
 
 George Bliss, a distinguished Jurist and first Judge of the County of 
 Hampden in Massachusetts. 
 
 Among the scholars embraced in the period I have mentioned, and still 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 29 
 
 living, and who have been selected to high public trusts, or been pre- 
 eminently distinguished for their literary productions, are the names of 
 
 Ezekiel Gilbert, Member of Congress. 
 
 Ebenezer Sage, Member of Congress. 
 
 Noah Webster, author of the American Dictionary. 
 
 Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury of U. S. ; a Judge, and Gov- 
 ernor of Connecticut. 
 
 Jonathan Brace, Member of Congress. 
 
 Elizur Goodrich, Member of Congress and Professor of Law. 
 
 Jonathan Ogden Aloseley, Member of Congress. 
 
 Simeon Baldwin, Member of Congress and Judge of the Superior Court 
 of Connecticut.' 
 
 Stephen Titus Hosmer, Chief Justice of the Sup. Court of Connecticut. 
 
 Asher Robbins, Senator in Congress. 
 
 Lewis Burr Sturges, Member of Congress. 
 
 David Daggett, Senator in Congress, Judge of the Sup. Court of Con- 
 necticut, Professor of Law.^ 
 
 Abiel Holmes, author of American Annals. 
 
 John Cotton Smith, Member of Congress, Judge of the Sup. Court of 
 Connecticut, Governor of that State, President of the Board of Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 Ray Greene, Senator in Congress. 
 
 The college, and even the State and nation, have reason to be proud of 
 such a roll of illustrious names. The individuals were nurtured amidst the 
 excitements and tumult of the American war. There were other scholars 
 educated within that period, who proved to be men of sound learning and 
 sterling worth, without having attracted attention by their ardent ambition 
 or proud elevation. They have been contented to pass down the stream of 
 life in a gentle current, without noise or eclat. But in the various walks 
 of private life, and in the discharge of the more quiet duties of profes- 
 sional emploj'ment, or as humble and devoted ministers of the gospel, they 
 have been of great utility, and the source of inestimable blessings diffused 
 around the sphere in which they have moved. 
 
 In the "Kent Manuscripts"^ the Chancellor gives a journal of his 
 
 1. Supra, p. 8. 
 
 2. Judge Daggett — United States Senator 1813-1819; Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of Connecticut 1832, and First Kent Professor of Law at 
 Yale 1826-1848. He was the great-grandfather of Mr. David Daggett (Yale 
 1879), one of the most highly esteemed citizens of New Haven, and the 
 genial, beloved and efficient presiding genius of the Graduates' Club. A 
 Historj'/of the/Class of Seventy-nine/Yale College/During the thirty years 
 from its admission/into the Academic Department/i875-i905/by its secre- 
 tary/F. W. Williams/Published for the class/1906/The University Press, 
 Cambridge, U. S. A. 
 
 3. Kent Manuscripts, Journal No. 10 — 1829-31. 
 
30 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 "Excursion to New Haven" for the purpose of attending the semi- 
 centenary of the graduation of his class, and this I also feel to be so 
 interesting and enlightening that it can in no manner be omitted from 
 this paper, and it therefore follows in full : 
 
 Monday, September 12, 183 1, I left the dock at the foot of Maiden Lane 
 in N. York in the steam-boat Hudson, Captain Beecher for New Haven at 
 12 o'clock noon. It was a cool, pleasant day. Young Franklin Miller went 
 with me, and I found on Board Mrs. Dodge (widow), Isaac Lawrence, Esq., 
 Mr. Mix of New Haven, young Dwight, M. Joaquin Morqueva, the Colom- 
 bian President, & a great crowd. I arrived at New Haven at dusk & went 
 up to Professor Silliman's, where I had been invited to stay. 
 
 Tuesday, September 13th. A fine day. I arose early and walked around 
 the Town and it appeared enchanting. It is a large and elegantly built 
 Town in large Squares and adorned with thick and lofty trees, being elms 
 and sycamores. It is rus in urbe. 
 
 At II a.m. I attended the meeting of the Ph. B. K. in the 3d story of the 
 old chapel. R. M. Sherman, Esq., was President. There I saw Ed. Everett 
 and a crowd of the civilians and clergy and Professors. The question 
 was on abolishing the secrets of the Society. Professor Silliman, Doctor 
 Ives, Revd. Mr. Robbins, the Revd. Mr. Bacon of the ist Presbyterian Con- 
 gregation & Judge Daggett spoke. The rule of secrecy was abolished with 
 acclamation. We then marched in procession to the North Church on the 
 Green which I found full of Ladies and Gentlemen. The President of the 
 Society and the chaplain and I ascended the pulpit and after a short prayer 
 I delivered my address. It consumed an hour and 12 minutes. We then 
 went and dined at the Franklin House which is a superb Establishment. We 
 then went to the College Lyceum and there was a large and general meet- 
 ing of the Alumni of Yale College and I presided. The object was upon 
 raising $100,000 by subscription, the sums payable in 4 annual instalments, 
 the first to be paid on I. Jan'y- 1832. President Day, Professor Silliman, the 
 Minister of the 1st Congregation, Mr. Pilkin, Lucius C. Duncan, Esq. of 
 N. Orleans, La., spoke. [I subscribed $400.] 
 
 Wed. Sep. 14th. I took my early morning walk around Town. I attended 
 commencement and sat on the stage with the dignitaries in the Forenoon and 
 then I dined at Judge Baldwin's with my old classmates. There were eight 
 of us who dined together, viz : Baldwin, Boardman, Huntley, Kent, Noyes, 
 Stebbins, Tomlinson, Wells. Channing, Isaacs, Williams and Wright were 
 absent but alive and in health. Judge Baldwin read us an excellent letter 
 from Wright who lives in the state of Ohio in the N. East part in a flourish- 
 ing Country, and he is very richly and neatly settled. He writes like a very 
 pious man. . . . 
 
 That evening I was at a Party at President Day's and there was another 
 at Professor Silliman's. There I saw the Revd. Mr. Stewart, the Naval 
 Chaplain, and conversed with Joaquin Morqueva and with the Revd. Mr. 
 Bacon of the ist Congregation, who is a very fine mercurial little fellow. The 
 Revd. Mr. James Noyce of Wallingford lodged with me. I was introduced 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 31 
 
 to Gov. Peters, Lieut. Gov. Fairchild, Judge Boardnian and a great many 
 Reverend Divines, and I became quite familiar with Professor Everett. 
 
 Thursday, Sep. 15th. I visited Judge Daggett, Mrs. Tucker, old Mr. 
 Hillhouse who resides with his son in an elegant seat; & Mr. Silliman 
 took Professor Everett & me over the Bridge to East Haven, and showed 
 us geological detritus & fine views and Fair Haven full of Oyster Beds. 
 
 I entered on Board the Steam Boat Superior at i P.M. It was crowded 
 with near 400 passengers & it rained. There were visitors and scholars 
 returning from Commencement. There were the Patrone' and his children, 
 Prof. Everett, Prcs. Whcland, Prof. Westerle, Franklin Miller, Zacharias 
 Lewis, Isaac Lawrence, Major Hoops, young Mrs. Dwight. We arrived 
 after dark. 
 
 Total of my Expenses $7. 
 
 I. Undoubtedly either the Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839) 
 or his son. General Stephen Van Rensselaer IV (1789-1868). Both were 
 successively known as Patroon of Rensselaerwick. The former, it will be 
 noted, was just one year younger than the Chancellor. He was graduated 
 at Harvard in 1782, just one year after the Chancellor's graduation at Yale. 
 He, however, was one of the contributors to the fund raised in 1822 for the 
 establishment of the Dwight Professorship (Baldwin's History of Yale Col- 
 lege, (1831) p. 316. For the grant creating the Patroons of the New Nether- 
 lands, July 19, 1640, see New York Colonial Manuscripts, Vol. I, p. 119. 
 Original in the Royal Archives at the Hague. File West Indie. 
 
II 
 
 WE have seen in the March number of the Journal with 
 what simple and genuine enthusiasm the great Chancellor 
 wrote of his visit to New Haven on the occasion of the 
 fiftieth anniversary reunion of his class in 1831. On this occasion he 
 delivered the now celebrated Phi Beta Kappa oration in the Old 
 North Church, as appears from the illustration of the New Haven 
 "green" of that day, and the Chancellor's manuscript note 
 regarding it. In commenting further upon this visit the 
 distinguished orator in his diary records that "the excite- 
 ment of writing and delivering my oration rendered this Commence- 
 ment, and the two or three weeks in anticipation of it, deeply inter- 
 esting." He then proceeds to add some notes about some of the 
 friends he met, about the old New Haven cemetery, and about his 
 college room and college room-mates, which are full of interest to 
 the Yale man of to-day.^ 
 
 1. Supra, pages 30-31. 
 
 2. "The Revd. Mr. Robbins of Stratford is a public spirited man & 
 a great antiquarian in New-England History & a collector of its historical 
 documents & sermons. 
 
 "Mr. Augur is a self-taught Sculptor, & his marble specimens of Jeptha 
 & her daughter are admirable. The Revd. Mr. Bacon is one of the most 
 animated and spirited of the public speakers. 
 
 "I was treated with great hospitality & kindness by Mr. & Mrs. Silli- 
 man. Their eldest daughter is on the eve of marriage with Mr. Church of 
 Alleghany. Their 2d daughter is a rosy, lovely girl named Faith. 
 
 "I saw (& he returned with me in the Steam Boat to N. York) Wm. 
 A. Thompson of Thompson in Sullivan County. He was a class-mate with 
 the Revd. James Noyes who lodged with me at Mr. Silliman's. He has been 
 for 2 or 3 years in England, & is a gentleman of 65 & of the look of a gen- 
 erous & hearty English-gentleman. 
 
 "The Cemetery is much enlarged, & the number & taste & splendor of 
 the sepulchral monuments attracts reverence & thrilling interest. The Patrone 
 
34 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 But this, as we have seen, and as the Chancellor intimates, was 
 by no means his only journey to New Haven for such a purpose 
 of which he has left us an account. In 1813, when 50 years of age 
 and 32 years out of college his diary tells of a trip in the following 
 words : 
 
 Tuesday, Aug. 24. We arrived at New Haven by 11 o'clock. It was 
 extremely dusty and hot as we passed the E. end of the West Rock and 
 entered on the sandy plains of N. Haven. We stayed and lodged at Og- 
 den's on the S. side of the green, and here I enjoyed for the better part of 
 two days the luxury of retracing the footsteps and recalling the images of 
 the years of my collegiate life. Here I had passed 4 years of innocence and 
 simplicity and sanguine hopes of youth, and I eagerly dwelt with fond and 
 tender and melancholy recollection on every spot consecrated by my youthful 
 sports and tread. I zvas chastened into sober reflections under the consid- 
 eration that it was thirty-two years since I left those delightful abodes of 
 the Muses, and that more than a zvhole generation and the best part of my 
 life had in the interval passed away. My old classmates, Baldwin & Perkins 
 went with me to prayers in the chapel and I visited Dr. Dwight and the 
 magnificent collection of stones and minerals presented by Col. Gibbs and 
 superintended by Professor Silliman. With Mr. Daggett we visited Whit- 
 ney's gun factory under the E. Rock, and I visited the cemetery so cele- 
 brated by the novelty and elegance of its arrangement. We also called on 
 Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Woolsey, &c., and left the town in the afternoon of Wed- 
 nesday, August 25th, with the highest respect for its literary institutions and 
 the interesting character of the several gentlemen who had favored us with 
 their attentions.' 
 
 What could be more beautifully and sweetly appreciative and 
 loyal than these words ! Ah " those delightful abodes of the 
 Muses ! " What one of us does not cherish those very sentiments 
 to-day ! 
 
 Again, in 1817, he tells us: 
 
 Wednesday, July 9th, 1817. I left N. York at 7 o'clock a. m. in the 
 Steamboat Connecticut (Captain Bunker) in company with my brother and 
 my daughter Eliza and Miss Henshaw, and we arrived at New Haven about 
 dusk. The day was cool with a N. W. wind and we had a remarkably pleas- 
 ant sail up the Sound. We lodged at Butler's hotel. 
 
 was with me when I ascended & visited the Room in the 4th Story in the 
 College in which I resided with my Room Mates Noyes & Wright the last 
 two years of my collegiate life. 
 
 "My Room Mates when I was Sophomore were Isaacs & Tomlinson, & 
 when I was Senior they were Noyes & Wright, & they are all alive." (Kent 
 Manuscripts, Journal No. 10, 1829-31.) 
 
 I. Kent Manuscripts, Journal 1803- 1816. 
 
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CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 35 
 
 Thursday, July roth. We rambled about N. Haven, visited the ceme- 
 tery and ascended the steeple of one of the new churches, and visited the 
 mineralogical collection in college, and drank tea at Judge Baldwin's in com- 
 pany with President Day, Professor Silliman, Mr. Daggett, Mr. McCracken, 
 etc. The town was clean and quiet and the rows of elms and huttonzvood 
 and the three new Churches, rendered the avenues exceedingly beautiful. 
 
 Friday, July nth. I parted with my Friends at N. Haven and rode to 
 Hartford by the way of Middletown in company with Mr. and Mrs. Pierpont 
 of Brooklyn.^ 
 
 Again in 1824, when in his .sixty-first year, and forty-three years 
 after the grackiation of his class, the Chancellor once more attended 
 the commencement, wc have his memorandum of his visit in the 
 following words : 
 
 Tuesday, September 7, 1824. I sailed in the Steam Boat U. States 
 (Captain Beecher) to New Haven. We started at 8 o'clock a. m. Prof. 
 Nott, the Patrone,^ Dr. Smith of Brunswick and his wife, Prof. Silliman, 
 Mr. Boardman of N. H., and I were on board. It rained all the latter part 
 of the day. We kept near the Connecticut coast and I saw all the farms, 
 (Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Fairfield, &c.) as we passed. We arrived 
 about 5 p. m. and landed at the end of the long wharf in the rain. I lodged 
 with my friend, S. Baldwin, Esq. 
 
 Wed., Sep. 8th. A steady rainy day. The bells all rang at sunrise, it 
 being Commencement day, and I admired the melody of the sounds. I walk- 
 ed before breakfast over the cemetery and read many of the inscriptions on 
 the marble monuments in that solemn, picturesque and highly decorated 
 Land of Silence. After breakfast I called on Governor Walcott and went 
 to the College Lyceum, and joined the procession to the church and attended 
 all the Exercises of the day amid a crowded and gay audience. The stage 
 where I sat was crowded with academical dignitaries. There were Presi- 
 dent Davis of Hamilton College, President Griffin of Williams Town, Presi- 
 dent of Dartmouth, Dr. Stewart, Professor of Theology at An- 
 
 dover, etc. I was particularly pleased with the music in the gallery and 
 with the valedictory oration of Mr. Hall. And I walked through the old 
 college where I lived in 1780. I drank Tea at Mr. J. Hillhouse's and em- 
 barked on board the Steam Boat at 7 p. m. and was back to New York on 
 Thursday, Sep. pth.^ 
 
 Six years later, in 1830, the Chancellor again attended com- 
 mencement, and of this he says : 
 
 Tuesday at 5 p. m., Sep. 7, 1830, I went on board the Steam Boat Hud- 
 son (Captain Sanford) and I had a beautiful sail up the East River. By 
 dusk we were at Throg's Neck. We raced up the East River with the 
 Steam Boat Flushing. The weather was very hot and lightning and clouds 
 
 1. Kent Manuscripts, Journal 1817-1820. 
 
 2. See Part I of this paper, page 31, note. 
 
 3. Kent Manuscripts, Journal 1821-1824. 
 
36 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 to the S. We had passed the lighthouse at Sand's Point before we went to 
 bed. Mr. Townsend of the printing firm of Dwight, T. & Walker, was on 
 board. I had a very oppressively hot berth in the cabin and it rained hard 
 all night. When I left home the weather was bright. I left my brother and 
 N. Howell, Esq., at my house. We arrived at the dock in New Haven by 
 2 o'clock in the night. 
 
 Wednesday, September 8th. I arose by sunrise. It still rained, and I 
 went up in a coach to Bulford's Inn. It is an old house which stood when 
 I was at College in 1780. It stands across the creek E. of the Head of the 
 Long Wharf. Here I got breakfast, and called on Judge Baldwin and Judge 
 Daggett and walked in procession to the church at 9 o'clock under the pro- 
 tection of Professor Silliman. I was honored with a seat on the stage 
 aside of Judge Daggett. I heard 10 orations, i dialogue, and one dramatic 
 composition of the tragic kind in five acts. The forenoon Exercises lasted 
 until half after one. I dined in College Hall with the faculty and Corpora- 
 tion and sat adjoining President Day, Governor Tomlinson, Lieut. Gov. 
 Peters, Bishop Brownell, etc. I visited the old College where I roomed 
 and walked around it and recalled ancient recollections. The middle of the 
 day was pleasant and the assemblage of gentlemen large and selected, and I 
 was cheered and delighted. I visited in the forenoon Professor Silliman, 
 walked with my classmate Stebbins. Drank tea at Judge Baldwin's and 
 reimbarked on board of same Steam Boat at 8 p. m. in the rain attended 
 with sharp lightning, and after a very disagreeable night (for it rained Tor- 
 rents) in a hot crowded cabin I arrived at New York dock before day and 
 was home at sunrise much invigorated in Health and Spirits by my fatiguing 
 tour. The whole expense did not exceed $5.42} 
 
 What son of Yale to-day could say more as to the invigoration 
 brought to " health and spirits " by a visit to commencement than 
 did this fine old man ! And what one of them could get through 
 so pleasantly on $5.42! 
 
 Of the great anniversary of 183 1 we have already learned; and, 
 although we have no detailed account of the Chancellor's visit to 
 the college in the next year, 1832, it is evident that he was there 
 from his own manuscript note appended to the picture of West 
 Rock, which will be found facing page 52. The Chan- 
 cellor climbed West Rock for the first time when a Freshman in 
 college in 1778, and he climbed it again fifty-four years later, when 
 in the seventieth year of his age. What one of us would not be 
 proud to do the same ! 
 
 Nor was even this his last visit. Again ten years later, in 1842, 
 when the distinguished graduate had attained the eightieth year of 
 his age, we find him again at the commencement — the sixty-first 
 anniversary of the graduation of his class ! And of this, which he 
 
 I. Kent Manuscripts, Journal 1829-1833. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 37 
 
 terms " a delightful visit and full of charming reminiscences," he 
 gives us the following account : 
 
 Tuesday, Aug. 16, 1842. At 6 a. m. I went on board the Steam Boat 
 New York (Captain Hinman) for New Haven. Mr. Ch. Chauncey, Mr. 
 Heister, President of the Senate of Pennsylvania, etc., were on board. We 
 arrived before 12 o'clock and I dined and lodged with my classmate, the 
 Hon. Simeon Baldwin. I called and drank tea with Mr. Noah Webster, 
 who looked hale and sound. I saw Mr. Goodrich, who was a tutor when I 
 was in college. I attended a gay evening party at the house of R. S. Baldwin, 
 Esq. Very warm day. New Haven looked gloriously with its avenues of 
 elms. We rode in the afternoon all around the City and admired the beau- 
 tiful streets and buildings denoting wealth and Taste. 
 
 Wed. 17th. I attended a great and most respectable meeting of the 
 Alumni of Yale College in the Philosophical Hall and presided as Chairman. 
 We then walked in procession to the N. Brick Church where I ascended the 
 pulpit and presided as chairman. Prof. Silliman delivered an oration on the 
 History of New Haven and the College and their progressive improvement. 
 I dined with Mrs. Salisbury where I met Mr. Chauncey, Prof. Woolsey, 
 who married the daughter of Mrs. S., the Revd. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, 
 Professor Silliman and Judge Sherman. I called on my wife's niece, Cath. 
 Woolsey, and Mrs. Silliman, and attended a splendid evg. party at Mrs. 
 Street's where Judge Baldwin went with me, and here I saw the Misses 
 Gerry, [ ?] Mr. Skinner and his very pretty wife (once Miss Whitney), Mrs. 
 R. S. Baldwin (the daughter of my classmate Perkins), and here I met 
 Mr. Th. Dunlap of Philadelphia and of the United States Bank, and several 
 other gentlemen. Very warm day. 
 
 Thursday, i8th. Very warm day. My classmate Baldwin and I went 
 to the college at 8 a. m. and joined the procession of the College faculty 
 and Students, etc., to the W. meeting house and I heard part of the morn- 
 ing exercises and speeches of the seniors, and then withdrew and left N. 
 Haven at i p. m. on my return to N. York, where I returned before sun- 
 down. A delightful visit and full of charming reminiscences. I was ex- 
 ceedingly well and active, and far more so than my contemporaries. 
 Total of expenses of the excursion $6.44.^ 
 
 This v^as within six years of the Chancellor's death. He died at 
 his home in New York City, Dec. 12, 1847, in the eighty-fifth year 
 of his age. 
 
 Who was this simple and unassuming gentleman who year after 
 year was going back to meet his friends and class-mates under 
 the elms of his beloved alma mater in this quiet and genial man- 
 ner, keeping an account of expenditures, which it would be well 
 for us amid the extravagant tendencies of the present day to pause 
 and consider? During all this time, while he had been indulging 
 in and enjoying these wholesome associations of his college days, 
 
 I. Kent Manuscripts, Journal 1842-47. 
 
38 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 he had been steadily ascending to the highest pinnacle of an enduring 
 fame. He had impressed his learning and his judgment upon the 
 jurisprudence of his country and of the world, both upon the com- 
 mon law and the equity side, as perhaps no other man ever has. 
 By his plain, plodding and highly instructed industry he had reduced 
 to system and order our administration of the common law, and 
 he had laid deep and everlasting the foundations upon which have 
 been built up the great, merciful and life-giving system of American 
 equity jurisprudence ; and he had at the same time given to the world 
 a statement of and a commentary upon American law which had 
 already challenged the admiration of men not only in his own 
 country but the world over, and which has since become daily more 
 and more recognized as an immortal monument. 
 
 As we have seen. Chancellor Kent had been appointed an Asso- 
 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York on 
 February 6, 1798, when of the age of only thirty-five years.^ From 
 that time, for more than 25 years, until July 31, 1823, he continued 
 his distinguished service upon the Bench. In 1804, he was pro- 
 moted to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,^ and 
 ten years later, in 181 4, he was appointed Chancellor, a station which 
 Chancellor Walworth afterwards said was " at the head of the 
 Judiciary of the State,^ and continued in that high ofBce for nine 
 years until in 1823, when as we already know, having reached the 
 age of sixty years, he was, by operation of the then existing con- 
 stitution of the State, compelled to lay down the duties he had 
 performed so well.* 
 
 One incident of Judge Kent's promotion to the Chief Justice- 
 ship of the Supreme Court is well worth dwelling upon. The 
 vacancy in the Chief Justiceship was created by the nomination 
 of the Chief Justice himself, the Honorable Morgan Lewis, to the 
 office of Governor of the State. Justice Lewis was the nominee 
 of the anti-Federalist party. Political passions were running high 
 in the year 1804, and both parties were putting forth their best 
 efforts to carry this election. Judge Lewis was himself a strong 
 anti-Federalist while Judge Kent was a Federalist of a very ardent 
 
 1. Supra, ■pa.gQ 24, note. 
 
 2. Supra, page 24, note. 
 
 3. 7 Paige's Chancery Reports, address of Chancellor Walworth at 
 the beginning of the Volume. 
 
 4. Constilution of the State of New York, adopted 1821, ratified by 
 the people, January 17, 1822. Article V. Section 3. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 39 
 
 kind. The story is that on the eve of the election these two gentle- 
 men met and fell into a discussion of the probable result of the 
 election. In the course of the conversation Lewis said to Kent: 
 "Judge Kent, if you will vote for me I will make you Chief Justice 
 if I am elected Governor," to which Kent, recognizing, of course, 
 the true spirit of the remark, promptly replied, " No, sir, personally 
 I admire and respect your character and attainments ; but I utterly 
 detest your political principles ! " Judge Lewis was elected, and 
 one of his first acts as Governor was the appointment of Judge 
 Kent to be Chief Justice.^ Would that more of this spirit in 
 judicial appointments by the Executive might be abroad among us 
 at this time ! 
 
 Of his work upon the Bench of the Supreme Court Judge Kent 
 himself has given us an account from which the following is an 
 extract : 
 
 In February, 1798, I was offered by Governor Jay, and accepted, the of- 
 fice of youngest judge of the Supreme Court. This was the summit of my 
 ambition. My object was to return back to Poughkeepsie and resume my 
 studies and ride the circuits and inhale country air and enjoy otium cum 
 dignitate. I never dreamed of volumes of reports and written opinions. 
 Such things were not then thought of. I retired back to Poughkeepsie, in 
 the spring of 1798, and in that summer rode all over the western wilderness 
 and was delighted. I returned home and began my Greek, and Latin, and 
 French, and English, and law classics as formerly, and made wonderful 
 progress in books that year. In 1799 I was obliged to remove to Albany in 
 order that I might not be too much from home, and there I remained sta- 
 tionary for twenty-four years. 
 
 When I came to the Bench there were no reports or State precedents. 
 The opinions from the Bench were delivered ore teniis. We had no law 
 of our own, and nobody knew what it was. I first introduced a thorough 
 examination of cases and written opinions. In January, T. 1799, the second 
 case reported in first Johnson's cases, of Ludlow v. Dale, is a sample of the 
 earliest. The judges, when we met, all assumed that foreign sentences were 
 only good prima facie. I presented and read my written opinion that they 
 were conclusive, and they all gave up to me, and so I read it in court as it 
 stands. This was the commencement of a new plan, and then was laid 
 the first stone in the subsequently erected temple of our jurisprudence. 
 
 Between that time and 1804 I rode my share of circuits, attended all 
 the terms, and was never absent, and was always ready in every case by 
 the day. I read in that time Valin and Emerigon, and completely abridged 
 the latter, and made copious digests of all the English new reports and 
 treatises as they came out. I made much use of the Corpus Juris and as the 
 judges (Livingston excepted) knew nothing of French or civil law, I had 
 
 I. Memoirs, p. 121. 
 
40 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 immense advantage over them. I could generally put my Brethren to rout 
 and carry my point by my mysterious wand of French and civil law. The 
 judges were Republicans and very kindly disposed to everything that was 
 French, and this enabled me, without exciting any alarm or jealousy, to 
 make free use of such authorities and thereby enrich our commercial law. 
 * * * * Many of the cases decided during the sixteen years I was in 
 the Supreme Court were labored by me most unmercifully, but it was neces- 
 sary under the circumstances, in order to subdue opposition.' 
 
 That this rather amusing sketch presents not an unfair estimate 
 of the real condition of the Supreme Court at the time is not now- 
 lacking of ample corroboration. The Honorable John Duer in an 
 address upon the life, character and public services of Chancellor 
 Kent, has this to say of the condition of the Supreme Court at 
 the time in question : "The condition of the Supreme Court at the 
 time of his [Judge Kent's] accession to the Bench, was probably 
 much the same as it had been, with little variation, from the close 
 of the Revolution. It was not a condition that reflected credit on the 
 jurisprudence of the State ; it was not such as the character and the 
 honor of the State and the interests of the public demanded." He 
 then proceeds to show with what marked celerity and efifectiveness 
 this unhappy condition was remedied, largely by the labors of Judge 
 Kent.2 
 
 But amid all these labors Judge Kent thoroughly enjoyed his 
 work upon the Supreme Court Bench, and it was with reluctance 
 that he left it to become Chancellor. The Court of Chancery in 
 the State of New York at that time had not acquired the high 
 authority which it afterwards attained, mainly, it may be said, 
 through the work of Chancellor Kent himself, and the Chancellor 
 was apprehensive that he would not be able to bring the Court up 
 to the standard of authority and reputation which he had set for 
 himself. How abundantly he was in error in this apprehension all 
 the world now knows. As to Kent's work as Chancellor, the fol- 
 lowing is the estimate of Mr. Justice Story : 
 
 1. A most interesting letter of Chancellor Kent to Thomas Washing- 
 ton, a lawyer of Nashville, Tennessee, dated Oct. 6, 1828. A copy of this 
 letter in full may be found in the Green Bag for May, 1897, being Vol. IX, 
 No. 5, page 207. 
 
 2. A/Discourse/on the/Life, Character and Public Services/of/James 
 Kent/Late Chancellor of the State of New York/Delivered by request/be- 
 fore the Judiciary and Bar of the City and State/of New York, April 12, 
 1848/by/John Duer/New York/D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway/ 
 p. Z2- 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 41 
 
 It required such a man with such a mind, at once liberal, comprehen- 
 sive, exact and methodical ; always reverencing authorities and bound by 
 decisions ; true to the spirit yet more true to the letter of the law ; pursuing 
 principles with a severe and scrupulous logic, yet blending with them the 
 most persuasive equity; it required such a man, with such a mind, to un- 
 fold the doctrines of chancery in our country and to settle them upon im- 
 movable foundations.' 
 
 The temptation here to review some of the immortal and con- 
 trolling decisions of Chancellor Kent is very great, but it must be 
 withstood and overcome because the confines of this article will 
 not permit of any such thing, howsoever instructive and interesting 
 such an examination could not fail to be. The subject, albeit all 
 too briefly, has been treated with marked ability and discrimination 
 by Judge Duer in the address to which reference has just been made, 
 by William J. Curtis, Esq., of the New York Bar,- as also by Dr. 
 James Brown Scott, the Solicitor of the Department of State at 
 Washington, Professor of International Law in the George Wash- 
 ington University, and lately technical delegate of the United States 
 to the second Peace Conference at The Hague. ^ 
 
 That the learned Chancellor keenly regretted the necessity of 
 retiring from his judicial labors at the comparatively early age of 
 sixty years was abundantly manifest. He had enjoyed his judicial 
 work, and he made no secret of his dread of a return to the field 
 of active practice. He said somewhere that he would rather saw 
 wood than go back to the practice of the law. 
 
 Most fortunately, however, — I will not say for himself but cer- 
 tainly for his country and the world, — it did not become necessary 
 for the learned Chancellor to re-enter the ranks of the practitioners. 
 
 1. Article by Mr. Justice Story upon Johnson's Reports, written for the 
 North American Review, in 1820. Life and Letters of Joseph Story, edited by 
 his son, William W. Story, London, 1851. Vol. I, p. 232. 
 
 2. James Kent/the Father of American Jurisprudence/An address/ 
 delivered before the Alabama State Bar Association/at Montgomery/June 
 15, 1900,/by/William J. Curtis/of New York/New York/The Evening Post 
 Job Printing House, 156 Fulton St.,/i90o/Privately Printed,/New York 
 City Bar Association Pamphlets, Vol. 141, No. 6. 
 
 3. Great American Lawyers/A History of the Legal Profession/in 
 America/edited by/William Draper Lewis/Dean of the Law Department/of 
 the University of Pennsylvania/Philadelphia/The John C. Winston Company/ 
 1907/ Vol. n, page 491. James Kent by Dr. James Brown Scott, Solicitor 
 of the State Department, Professor of International Law in the George- 
 Washington University, Editor of Scott's Cases on International Law and 
 Managing Editor of the American Journal of International Law. 
 
42 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 Immediately after leaving the Bench he was appointed, or rather 
 reappointed, to the honorable position of Professor of Law at 
 Colum.bia College. To that appointment all mankind is indebted 
 for the Commentaries. Judge Duer in the address already alluded 
 to spoke of this occasion (page 70) as follows : " As a Judge and 
 as Chancellor he had done enough for his own fame and for the 
 interests and honor of his own State. It was to the whole Union 
 that his services were now due, and were soon to be rendered." 
 
 This was not the first time that Columbia University had sought 
 the services of the distinguished Yalensian in the guidance of her 
 School of Law. In December, 1793, thirty years before, it had 
 appointed " James Kent Esquire " Professor of Law. Even in those 
 early days he had entered upon the discharge of his duties with 
 his accustomed zeal and thoroughness. A year was to intervene 
 between his appointment and the beginning of his lectures, and in 
 this interval he prepared with the greatest care an " Introductory 
 lecture" for the use of his prospective students.^ The whole lec- 
 ture is interesting and charming in a high degree, but we can give 
 only a short excerpt : 
 
 This is a sketch of tlie outlines of the course of lectures which are be- 
 fore me. The anxieties which are felt for the execution, are in some 
 measure proportioned to the impressions which result from the dignity of 
 the subject, and the interesting nature of this institution. The science of 
 law, has expressly for its object the advancement of social happiness and 
 security. It reaches to every tie which is endearing to the affections, and has 
 a concern on every action which takes place in the extensive circles of pub- 
 lic and private life. According to the lively expression of Lord Bacon, it 
 may justly be said to come home to every man's business and bosom. 
 
 But notwithstanding the care and pains with which the young 
 lecturer prepared himself for his duty, the result was failure. He 
 tells his own story of this undertaking on the fly leaf of his copy 
 of these first law lectures in the following note : 
 
 I was appointed Professor of Law in Columbia College, December 24, 
 1793- On the 17th of November, 1794, I commenced the reading of a course 
 
 I. An introductory lecture to a course of law lectures, delivered No- 
 vember 17, 1794, by James Kent, Esquire, Professor of Law in Columbia 
 College. Published at the request of the trustees. New York. Printed by 
 Francis Childs, 1794. The original of tliis pamphlet is now in the possession 
 of the trustees of Columbia College, at tlieir office, 6s Wall street. New York 
 City. A reprint of it has been pubhshed in the Columbia Law Review, Vol. 
 Ill, p. 330 (1903). 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 43 
 
 of lectures in the College Hall and delivered the introductory lecture. I 
 read that season 26 lectures (two a week) and was honored by the atten- 
 dance throughout the course of seven students and thirty-six gentlemen, 
 chiefly lawyers and law students, who did not belong to the college. Dur- 
 ing my second course, commencing November 1795, I read thirty-one lec- 
 tures in my office and had only two students besides my clerks. The next 
 season I attempted another course, but no students offering to attend, I dis- 
 missed the business, and in May 1797, sent a letter of resignation to the 
 trustees.' 
 
 What a world of meaning and of encouragement there is in these 
 lines to every student, practitioner or lecturer in the law ! 
 
 It was therefore particularly and doubly gratifying to the Chan- 
 cellor when, upon his retirement from the Bench, the trustees of the 
 same University elevated him to the same responsible position, not- 
 withstanding his apparent failure of thirty years before. 
 
 The Chancellor lost no time in beginning, now for the second 
 time, his course of instruction, and he pursued it with the same 
 thoroughness and care with which he did, and always had done, 
 everything he laid his hand to. On November 9th, 1824, he wrote 
 his brother Moss Kent on the subject as follows: 
 
 I have commenced my lectures and they give me a good deal of trouble 
 and anxiety. I am compelled to study and write all the time, as if I was 
 under the whip and spur. But I take early and regular and habitual exer- 
 cise, and am very temperate, and on the whole am very healthy. I have 
 no reason to complain, but on the contrary have the most persuasive mo- 
 tives of gratitude to God for his continuous goodness." 
 
 In 1826 he concluded to publish his lectures and the first volume 
 appeared in that year. That he had no premeditation or precon- 
 ception of the character of this work is manifest. In the letter to 
 Mr. Washington, already referred to, the Chancellor, referring to 
 this subject, said : 
 
 * * * It was my son who pressed me to prepare a volume of the 
 lectures for the press. I had no idea of publishing them when I delivered 
 them. I wrote anew one volume and published it, as you know. This led 
 me to remodel and enlarge, and now the third volume will be out in a few 
 days, and I am obliged to write a fourth to complete my plan. 
 
 His intention at first was to publish only one volume, although 
 he suggests the need of a second. The result was four volumes. 
 
 1. Memoirs, p. 76. 
 
 2. Memoirs, p. 192. 
 
44 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 The second was published by the same publisher in 1827 ; the third 
 in 1828, and the fourth and last in 1830/ This monumental and 
 immortal work flowed from the pen of this deeply and thoroughly 
 learned author in the course of four short years. Such a thing would 
 have been an utter impossibility but for the foundation that had 
 been laid from the beginning, and but for his constant practice of 
 doing everything he did with the utmost accuracy and thorough- 
 ness. 
 
 Volumes could be filled in merely setting forth the eulogistic 
 comments which have from the beginning resounded through the 
 civilized world with respect to this great work. It will only be 
 possible in the space of this paper to give a very few. A perusal 
 of them leaves no doubt whatsoever that the work, in all its various 
 branches, is esteemed as of the highest authority by the leading 
 specialists in all the departments of the law, public as well as private, 
 international as well as municipal. 
 
 Mr. Justice Story expresses his view in the most solemn and 
 public manner. As all know, in dedicating his own great work on 
 the Conflict of Laws to Chancellor Kent, he wrote on Jan. i, 1834, 
 as follows : 
 
 It is now about thirty-six years since you began your judicial career 
 on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. In the in- 
 tervening period between that time and the present, you have successively oc- 
 cupied the offices of Chief Justice and of Chancellor of the same State. I 
 speak but the common voice of the profession and the public when I say, 
 that in each of these stations you have brought to its duties a maturity of 
 judgment, a depth of learning, a fidelity of purpose, and an enthusiasm for 
 justice, which have laid the solid foundations of an imperishable fame. In 
 the full vigor of your intellectual powers, you left the bench only to en- 
 gage in a new task, which of itself seemed to demand by its extent and 
 
 I. Thus the first Edition of the Commentaries was published volume 
 by volume from 1826 to 1830, all by the same publisher, W. O. Halsted. The 
 title page of the first volume is as follows : Commentaries/on/American 
 
 law/by James Kent/vol. I/New York/published by O. Halsted/Corner/ 
 
 of Wall & Broad Streets/1826. The Chancellor himself supervised 
 the first four editions, including the first. Ten have been brought 
 out since his death, the fourteenth and last in 1896. The title 
 page of this is : Commenlarics/on/American Law/by James Kent/ 
 Twelfth Edition/Edited by/0. W. Holmes, Jr./Fourteenth Edition/ 
 Edited by/John M. Gould, Ph. D./Author of/Law of Waters, joint author 
 of Gould and Tucker's/Notes on the U. S. Revised Statutes, etc/Boston/ 
 Little, Brown and Company/1896/ 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 45 
 
 magnitude a whole life of strenuous diligence. That task has been accom- 
 plished. The Commentaries on American Law have already acquired the 
 reputation of a juridical classic, and have placed their author in the first 
 rank of the benefactors of the profession. You have done for America what 
 Mr. Justice Blackstone in his invaluable Commentaries has done for Eng- 
 land. You have embodied the principles of our law in pages as attractive by 
 the persuasive elegance of their style as they are instructive by the fulness 
 and accuracy of their learning. 
 
 This was but Story's mature confirmation of the judgment he had 
 expressed when first perusing the second volume of Kent's Com- 
 mentaries on its appearance from the press. In a letter to the Chan- 
 cellor on that occasion he wrote, among other expressions of 
 approval, " It will become an American text-book, and range on the 
 same shelf with the classical work of Blackstone in all our libraries," 
 and then added : 
 
 To show you that I speak not at random, I have had occasion to read 
 through your whole chapter as to the relation of husband and wife, and 
 particularly what respects her power over her separate property, to hold as 
 well as to dispose of it, on account of a very interesting case, recently 
 argued before me, upon the effect of post-nuptial settlements to a large 
 amount. I was happy to find that we had read the authorities alike, and 
 stood upon the same conclusions. In the opinion which I shall soon de- 
 liver, I shall rely upon your Commentaries with emphasis.^ 
 
 Calvo, in his dictionary of international law, speaking of Kent's 
 Commentaries in relation to that topic, says, that the only cause of 
 regret is that, following the method of his work. Judge Kent has 
 limited himself to treating the subject summarily ; but that, not- 
 withstanding this, his work is justly considered as a veritable digest 
 of American law, and the best source to consult on that subjcct.- 
 And in his great work on international law^ the same author quotes 
 Chancellor Kent's opinion as authority on no less than twenty-three 
 
 1. Life and Letters/of/Joseph Story/Associate Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States/and Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Uni- 
 versity/Edited by his son/William W. Story/Boston/Charles C. Little and 
 James Brown/1851. Vol. I, p. 526. 
 
 2. Dictionnaire/de/Droit International/ Public et Prive/{i885) Vol. 
 /, p. 420; II est seulement a regretter que, d'apres la nature meme de son 
 ouvrage, le juge Kent n'ait fait qu'aborder sommairement ce sujet.- Quoi 
 qu'il en soit, son livre est a juste litre considere comme un veritable digeste 
 du droit americain et la meilleure source a consulter sur cette matiere. 
 
46 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 heads of international law, many of them the most important of the 
 science.^ 
 
 The disting-uished German publicist and scholar, Robert von 
 Mohl, expressed his appreciation of Kent's work and character, in 
 the following terms : " 
 
 Ueberall tritt der ausgezeichnete Praktiker, der in Abwagung von 
 Entscheidungsgrunden geiibte Richter, der mit den Prajudicien vertraute 
 Anglo-Amerikanische Rechtsgelehrte auf eine eindruckmachende Weise ent- 
 gegen. Es giebt nicht viele Biicher, welche fiir den Verfasser das Gefiihl 
 der personlichen Achtung in gleichem masse erweckten, order in welchen 
 der Stoffmit solcher Sicherheit and Meisterschaft gehandhabt wiirde * * 
 * * * Wenn irgendwo das Wort 'praktisches' Volkerrecht an der Stelle 
 ist so ist es hier.-* 
 
 Professor Abdy in his " Kent's Commentaries on International 
 Law," in the preface to his first edition of 1866, writes as follows: 
 
 I. Le Droit /International/Theorique et Pratique/Precede d'un Expose 
 Historiquc/des Progres de la Science du Droit des gens/par/M. Charles 
 Calvo/Envoye Extraordinaire et Ministre Plenipotentaire de la Rcpublique 
 Argentine /aiiprcs de S. M. L'Einpercur D'Allemagne Associe Etranger de 
 rinstitut de France/, Membre d'Honneur de I'Institut de Droit Interna- 
 tional/, I' Academic des Sciences Morales et Politiques/de L' Academic Royale 
 D'Historie de Madrid, etc./Cinquicme Edition. {Paris, Arthur Rousseau, 
 £diteur, i8g6). The general index under the title Kent {vol. 5, page 56s) 
 gives the following references: 
 
 Sa Definition du droit des gen, i ; Son opinion stir les sources du droit, 
 28; Son Digeste du droit americain, 120; Sa classification du domicile, 6^6; 
 Son opinion sur I' extradition, 95/; sur I'extradition des nationaux, 1028; sur 
 le commerce entre belligerants, 1926; sur les prises maritimes, 2296; sur les 
 commissions multiples, 2300; sur la propriete in transitu, 2361; sur la notifica- 
 tion du blocus, 2849; Sa definition des sieges et blocus, 2827; Son opinion sur 
 les traites de visile, 2946; sur le convoi, 2980; sur la nationalite des tribunaux 
 des prises, 3041; sur le caractere des cours de prises, 3046; sur les prises 
 neutres, 3055; sur le convoi, 2980; sur la destruction des prises, 3031; sur la 
 nationalite des tribunaux de prises, 3041; sur le siege des cours de prises, 
 3056; sur les prises faites apres la cessation des hostilitcs, 31 S7- 
 
 2 Handbuch des Volkerrechts/auf Grundlage Europdischer Staatspraris 
 /von Dr. Franz von Holtzendorff, Professor der Rechte/Berlin 1885/Vol. I, 
 p. 500. 
 
 3 Above all we are impressed by the distinguished man, trained in prac- 
 tical affairs, by the judge skilled in the weighing of the grounds of judg- 
 ment, and by the Anglo-American jurist armed with authorities in an im- 
 pressive way. There are not many books which awaken for their author 
 the feeling of personal respect in a like degree, or in which the material is 
 handled with such sureness and mastership. If ever the word practical in- 
 ternational law is applicable, it is so here. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 47 
 
 The Science of International Law has never lacked able and eloquent 
 exponents from the times of Ayala and Alberic Gentili down to our own. 
 But it must be acknowledged that, among modern authors at all events, 
 there are three whose learning and labor as judges and writers, have shed 
 glory over the legal literature of the United States and have earned the 
 singular distinction of being recognized as authorities on International Law 
 throughout Europe. I need scarcely say that I speak of the honored names 
 of Story, Wheaton and Kent. * * * The third, Mr. Chancellor 
 Kent, has given us the result of years of professional labor, 
 and a life spent in study, in a work which, if small so far 
 as International Law is concerned, contains within its pages wisdom, 
 critical skill, and judicial acumen of the highest kind. For my 
 part, I have so often derived pleasure as well as gain from Kent's Com- 
 mentaries on Law, in every part of that treatise, that I feel a kind of ven- 
 eration for his name; and I do most cordially assent to the language of 
 praise in which a modern writer speaks of him as "the greatest jurist whom 
 this age has produced, whose writings may safely be said to be never 
 wrong.* 
 
 Mr. G. Vernon Harcourt, in his Famous Letters by Historicus 
 in 1862, after taking exception to certain doctrines expressed by 
 certain writers on international law, says : 
 
 Permit me while I am warning your readers against false lights to re- 
 fer them to a guide who will never lead them astray — to the greatest jurist 
 whom this age has produced — I mean the American, Chancellor Kent. Of 
 his writings may safely be said that they are never wrong. The exposition 
 of international law contained in the first volume of the Commentaries has 
 but one fault — that of being too short.' 
 
 And one of our most learned and distinguished judges in this 
 country not long ago expressed the opinion that in his judgment 
 the fourth volume of Kent's Commentaries is the best text-book 
 we have to-day on the law of real property, really far better for the 
 purposes of the schools than most of the modern text books on 
 that subject, and also much the most useful work upon the subject 
 for the guidance of the practitio ner.^ 
 
 1. Kent's Commentaries on International Law; edited by J. T. Abdy, 
 LL. D., Judge of County Courts and Law Professor at Gresham College, 
 late Regeis Professor of Law in the University of Cambridge. Second Edi- 
 tion, revised and brought down to the present time. London and Cam- 
 bridge, 1878. Preface to the first edition. 
 
 2. Letters by Historicus/on some questions/of/International Law/Re- 
 printed from 'The Times'/with considerable additions/London and Cam- 
 bridge/Macmillan & Co./1863/First letter on Neutral Trade in Contraband 
 War, at p. 129. 
 
 3. Hon. George C. Holt, (Yale 1866) ; one of the Judges of the 
 United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
48 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 Amid all of his engrossing labors the learned Chancellor was 
 ever at the call of his fellow citizens to render any public service 
 within his power. Thus in the spring of 1831, the country being 
 greatly aroused by the great debate upon Foote's resolution, in 
 which Webster and Hayne, of South Carolina, took so conspicuous 
 a part, the citizens of New York tendered to Mr. Webster the com- 
 pliment of a public dinner and Chancellor Kent was called upon to 
 preside. His address on that occasion was a master piece. After 
 alluding to the historic debate and the character of Mr. Webster's 
 great speeches, especially that in reply to the second speech of Hayne, 
 he spoke as follows : 
 
 The consequences of that discussion have been extremely beneficial. It 
 turned the attention of the public to the great doctrines of national rights 
 and national union. Constitutional law ceased to remain wrapped up in the 
 breasts, and taught only by the responses, of the living oracles of the law. 
 Socrates was said to have drawn down philosophy from the skies, and scat- 
 tered it among the schools. It may with equal truth be said that constitu- 
 tional law by means of those Senatorial discussions and a master genius 
 that guided them was rescued from the archives of our tribunals and the 
 libraries of our lawyers, and placed under the eye and submitted to the 
 judgment of the American people. Their verdict is with us and from it 
 there lies no appeal.^ 
 
 In May, 1832, a public dinner was tendered to Washington 
 Irving by his friends and admirers upon the occasion of his return 
 home after a long sojourn abroad. This dinner was a famous one 
 of the time. It was given at the City Hotel in New York, and 
 Chancellor Kent again presided. His charming and graceful address 
 upon this occasion may be found at pages 231-235 of Mr. William 
 Kent's Memoirs. Lack of space forbids my giving any portion of 
 it here, but the following letter on the subject from Mr. Webster, 
 found among the Kent manuscripts, is too interesting to be omitted: 
 
 My Dear Sir Washington. June s, 1832. 
 
 I have just opened the newspaper and read the account of Mr. Irving's 
 dinner, and your speech thereat; and I resolved forthwith to write you one 
 line, for the purpose of saying that the speech is a delightful little thing, 
 just, sweet, affectionate. When I read the paragraph in which you pre- 
 fer what relates to the blue hills and mountain glens of our own country 
 
 I. The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, National Edition in 
 eighteen volumes. Boston/Little, Brown & C0./1903/V0I. i, p. 92; Vol. 2, 
 p. 43. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 49 
 
 to sketches of foreign scenes and foreign countries, I wanted to seize your 
 hand and give it a hearty shake of sympathy. Heaven bless this goodly 
 land of our fathers ! Its rulers and its people may commit a thousand fol- 
 lies, yet Heaven bless it! Next to the friends beloved of my heart, those 
 same hills and glens, and native woods and native streams, will have my 
 last earthly recollections ! Dtilce et decorum est, ctc.^ 
 
 Mr. W'ebster held Chancellor Kent in very high regard. He 
 keenly felt the loss to the country in the Chancellor's enforced 
 retirement from the bench. Shortly before that event he recom- 
 mended him for the Presidency of Dartmouth College, and shortly 
 after it for appointment upon the Bench of the Supreme Court. 
 In his letter with respect to Dartmouth College he suggests that 
 the salary of the President should be two thousand dollars a year, 
 that he should be given a long vacation in winter, and that he 
 should be free " from all clerical labor, such as attending prayers, 
 etc.^ The vacancy for which he urged the Chancellor for the 
 Supreme bench was that caused by the death of Mr. Justice Living- 
 ston. On April i6, 1823, he wrote a letter to Mr. Justice Story on 
 the subject, in which he said in part as follows :^ 
 
 You will naturally be anxious to know whether anything is done here 
 as yet in relation to the appointment of your associate upon the Bench. No 
 appointment has been made. Mr. Thompson will be appointed if he chooses 
 to take the office, but he has not made up his mind, as I understand, as yet 
 so to do. If called on now to decide, it is said he will decline. I cannot ac- 
 count for his hesitation, but on the supposition, which I have heard sug- 
 gested, but cannot credit, that he thinks it possible events may throw an- 
 other and a higher office in his way. 
 
 When a man finds himself in a situation he hardly ever dreamed of, 
 he is apt to take it for granted that he is a favorite of fortune, and to pre- 
 sume that his blind patroness may have yet greater things in reserve for him. 
 
 In the event of his finally declining, those now talked of as prominent 
 candidates are James Kent and Ambrose Spencer. If a nomination were 
 now to be made, I think it would be the former of these two names, al- 
 though there are those who wish to give a decided rebuke to the Bucktails^ 
 of New York by appointing Mr. Spencer. What time may produce no one 
 can say. 
 
 1. Kent Manuscripts, Vol. 6. 
 
 2. The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster. Little, Brown & 
 Co., Boston, (1903). Vol. XVI, p. 66. 
 
 3. The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster. Little, Brown & 
 Co., Boston, (1903). Vol. XVI, p. 75. 
 
 4. A name given to a political party in New York opposed to De Witt 
 Clinton and internal improvements. 
 
50 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 In this connection a petition dated April 22, 1823, was addressed 
 to the Honorable William Wirt, then Attorney-General of the 
 United States, by a number of the members of the New York Bar, 
 also recommending Chancellor Kent for the appointment to this 
 vacancy. This petition bears the names, among others, of Thomas 
 Addis Emmet, John Wells, Samuel Jones, David B. Ogden, William 
 Johnson, Peter Augustus Jay and John Anthon. In his letter to 
 President Monroe transmitting the petition, the Attorney-General 
 writes : 
 
 My messenger will wait to bring back Mr. Ogden's letter. Jones and 
 Henry whom he mentions [doubtless as recommending the appointment of 
 Chancellor Kent] both stand high in their profession — Wells very high — but 
 I believe they are all Federalists — Wells certainly is. Whether they are 
 rancorous and how they acted during the war I know not.^ 
 
 On October 31, 1836, the organization known as "The Law 
 Association of the City of New York," held a convention in that 
 city, and on that occasion Chancellor Kent was called upon to deliver 
 an address, which was so highly esteemed that it was afterwards 
 published at the request of the Association. His topic was the 
 responsibilities and duties of the legal profession, and this address 
 is justly regarded as one of the loftiest utterances upon that impor- 
 tant subject.^ Among other things, he said: 
 
 The cultivation and practice of the law is, and ought to be, a sure road 
 to personal prosperity and to political eminence and fame, provided, the 
 members of the bar render themselves worthy of public confidence by their 
 skill and industry, their knowledge, integrity and honour, their public spirit 
 and manly deportment, their purity, moderation and wisdom. There can be 
 no competitors in the race to be drawn from the other classes of society 
 that can compete with them if they will only diligently strive to acquire, and 
 they will, in that case, be almost sure to attain, the solid, useful and orna- 
 mental qualifications which belong to their elevated calling. Legal learning 
 is, in a very considerable degree, indispensable to all persons who are in- 
 vited tQ administer any material portion of the authority of government, and 
 especially if it becomes the province of their trust to make, amend, and di- 
 gest the law of the land, or judicially to expound and apply its provisions 
 to individual cases in the regular course of justice. 
 
 1. Manuscript petition and letter in the possession of the Bar Asso- 
 ciation of the City of New York. 
 
 2. An Address/Delivered before/The Law Association/of the City of 
 New York/October 21st, 1836/by/The Honorable James Kent/Published at 
 the request of the Association/New York/G. & C. Carvill & Co./i836/(page 
 
 s.) 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 51 
 
 And then follow some words and some sound precepts which 
 seem singularly applicable to the conditions of the present day : 
 
 I am induced to press these considerations upon youns? and ardent 
 minds, as I apprehend the tendency of things at present is to disenchant the 
 profession of much of its attraction. We live in a period of uncommon ex- 
 citement. The spirit of the age is restless, presumptuous, and revolutionary. 
 The rapidly increasing appetite for wealth, the inordinate taste for luxury 
 which it engenders, the vehement spirit of speculation and the selfish emula- 
 tion which it creates, the growing contempt for slow and moderate gains, 
 the ardent thirst for pleasure and amusement, the diminishing reverence 
 for the wisdom of the past, the disregard of the lessons of experience, the 
 authority of magistracy, and the venerable institutions of ancestral policy, 
 are so many bad symptoms of a diseased state of the public mind. It will 
 require a most determined perseverance and firmness of purpose, and the 
 most devoted zeal in the rising members of the bar, to resist the contagion, 
 and pursue triumphantly the rewards and honours of professional reputa- 
 tion. They must be constantly on their guard against an intemperate avidity 
 for wealth, or too engrossing a love of pleasure or listening prematurely, 
 and with too ready an ear, to the dangerous seductions of political ambition. 
 
 On reading this address, Charles Sumner, on January i, 1837, 
 wrote to the Chancellor regarding" it as follows : 
 
 I gladly seize the opportunity of Judge Story's transit through New 
 York to thank you for the present of your beautiful and instructive address 
 delivered before the Law Association. I have read it with the greatest in- 
 terest, and feel indebted to you for the elevated views which you have given 
 of the study of the law, and the sketches of some of its expired lights in 
 your own State. No lawyer or law student could quit it without feeling 
 prouder than he was before of his chosen pursuit, and being stimulated to 
 new labors, in short, without attaching himself with new zeal to the single 
 talisman of success, study. 
 
 When I think of the good which you have done, in promoting the study 
 of jurisprudence, by the publication of your Commentaries and of this ad- 
 dress, and by your high example, I say nothing of the sweet influence of 
 your social character and the important bearings of your long judicial life, 
 I cannot but envy you the feeling which you must enjoy. The mighty tribute 
 of gratitude is silently offered to you from every student of the law in our 
 whole country. There is not one who has found his toilsome way cheered 
 and delighted by the companionship of your labors, who would not speak 
 as I do, if he had the privilege of addressing you.^ 
 
 Mr. William Allen Butler, in his learned and graceful address 
 upon the Revision and the Revisers of the Statutes of the State of 
 New York, has this to say of Chancellor Kent : 
 
 James Kent, whose name stood at the head of the Commission thus con- 
 stituted, had retired July 31st, 1823, from the ofiice of Chancellor. He had 
 
 I. Memoirs, p. 236. 
 
52 CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 
 
 served the state as one of the puisne Judges of the Supreme Court, from his 
 first appointment, Feb. 6, 1798, to July 2d, 1804, when he became chief justice 
 and so remained until February 2Sth, 1814, the date of his appoint- 
 ment as Chancellor. His judicial career had placed him on the roll of 
 great judges, and the wonderful revolution in the practice and administration 
 of equity accomplished during the nine years of his service as Chancellor is 
 attested by the tributes paid him by the Bar on his retirement and which 
 occupy the concluding pages of the final volume of Johnson's Chancery Re- 
 ports. 
 
 This brilliant career on the Bench was cut short at the age of sixty 
 years by the operation of the provision in the Constitution of 1821, which 
 perpetuated a similar provision in the Constitution of 1777, disqualifying the 
 higher judicial officers from the exercise of their duties after attaining sixty 
 years of age.^ 
 
 That Chancellor Kent was a very great jitdge and commentator 
 is the common opinion of all mankind. That he was one of the 
 three or four greatest American jurists, is the common opinion of 
 the Profession throughout the world. He certainly ranked with 
 Marshall and Story. As to which of them was the greatest is hard 
 to tell and men will differ. They were all three so great, and have 
 all contributed so much to the happiness and welfare of their coun- 
 trymen, that a discussion of their respective abilities is not a topic 
 upon which it would be fruitful to enter here. But that Kent stood 
 abreast of the other two on the topmost pinnacle of our juridical 
 temple there can be no doubt. 
 
 Dr. Scott, in the admirable article already referred to- gives 
 a highly careful and analytical comparison between Marshall and 
 Kent, at the conclusion of which he says : 
 
 If now we remember that Kent shone with a strong, if not an equal, 
 light in these four fields of judicial activity [municipal, constitutional, inter- 
 national law and chancery], and that he is scarcely inferior in any one to 
 the specialist, it necessarily follows that his versatility gives him an added 
 claim to reverent admiration. The rare poise and balance is not less marked 
 than the solidity and breadth of attainment. If to this rounded, universal 
 and almost perfect equipment, we add the very present and continuous 
 claim of expounder of our law, the conclusion seems well nigh inevitable 
 that Kent rightly assumes his place as the first figure in American jurispru- 
 dence. 
 
 1. The Revision of the Statutes of the State of New York and the 
 Revisers. An address delivered before the Association of the Bar of the 
 City of New York, January 22, 1889, by William Allen Butler. Published 
 for the Association, New York and Albany. Banks & Bros., Law Pub- 
 lishers, 1889. 
 
 2. Supra, page 41, note 3. 
 

 
 
 
 "^■,...^.....,, 
 
 /_<:^ ^^ y^:^, ,:,^^ c-'^-^^(h2?^ 
 
 Facsimile of Chancellor Kent's note in Barber's New Haven 
 
 See page 13 and Note 4 on same page. 
 
CHANCELLOR KENT AT YALE 53 
 
 One thing that strikes us with surprise in the study of Chan- 
 cellor Kent, is the fact that, while a great deal has been written 
 about him, no one yet has undertaken the great and comprehensive 
 story of his life and writings, which ought to be, and some day 
 will undoubtedly be, a monument to his fame. With the exception 
 of the few permanent authorities referred to in the foregoing pages, 
 all is of a fugitive character as compared with the records regarding 
 his great confreres Marshall, Story and the others. Chancellor Kent 
 has not yet had his due in this regard. In one sense this may not 
 be regrettable, for the result may be all the more adequate for being 
 delayed. The work will be a great one, requiring in its accomplish- 
 ment great capacity, acquirement and devotion, but the proper 
 accomplishment of it will not fail to bring high and lasting honor 
 to him who shall achieve it. Who it shall be we cannot tell. But 
 if we might respectfully venture a suggestion, it would be that we 
 have in our own midst an honored professor and distinguished judge 
 who possesses in such a high degree all the qualities of mind, and 
 in addition such peculiar bonds of heredity and sympathy with the 
 subject, that all things seem to point to him as pre-eminently qualified 
 for this great task. But, who ever it shall be, if by these pages 
 I shall have done even the least to forward it, I shall be profoundly 
 grateful. 
 
 As I look back upon the pages of this paper I am reminded of 
 the young lady who said that Hamlet and Othello were so full of 
 quotations. I plead in extenuation, however, first, that it was best, 
 wherever possible, that the Chancellor should tell his own story; 
 and, secondly, that w^here others, so much better fitted than myself, 
 have contributed to illustrate and adorn that story, it was best that 
 they should do it here. 
 
 The situation may also remind us of the anecdote told of an 
 aspiring member of the Yale class of 1866, who in his Freshman 
 year was delivering his first oratorical effort. That effort, likewise, 
 consisted mainly of a succession of extracts from the writings of 
 one great man after another, with comparatively little of the Fresh- 
 man's own work between; then finally, having thus borrowed from 
 a number of the Fathers, he concluded with a long quotation, which, 
 as he put it, was " from the pen of the great James Kent of the 
 class of 1 781, the famous Judge and Chancellor of the State of 
 New York and the distinguished LINONIAN ! " 
 
mf 30 190» 
 
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