ADDRESSES 
 
 AT 
 
 THE UNVEILING AND PRESENTATION TO 
 THE STATE OF THE STATUE 
 
 OF 
 
 Thomas Ruffin 
 
 BY THE 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA BAR ASSOCIATION 
 
 Delivered in the Hall of the House 
 of Representatives, 1 February, 191S 
 
 RALEIGH 
 
 Edwards & Beotjghton Printing Company 
 
 1915 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 On tlie evening of February 1, 1915, in the Hall of the House 
 of Kepresentatives, at Ealeigh, the North Carolina Bar Asso- 
 ciation presented to the State of N^orth Carolina a bronze 
 statue of the late Thomas Ruffin. The statue was executed by 
 F, H. Packer of JSTew York. Hon. H. G. Connor, Chairman of 
 the Committee of the Bar Association, presided at the exercises. 
 An address on the life and character of Chief Justice Ruffin 
 was delivered by Hon. "Walter Clark, Chief Justice of North 
 Carolina. The statue was presented to the State by Hon. J. 
 Crawford Biggs, President of the North Carolina Bar Associa- 
 tion,- and accepted on behalf of the State by Governor Locke 
 Craig. It was unveiled by Thomas Ruffin and Peter Browne 
 Ruffin, great-grandchildren of Chief Justice Ruffin, and has 
 been set up in the State Administration Building in which the 
 Supreme Court of North Carolina holds its sessions. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive 
 
 in 2011 witii funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/addressesatunvei161nort 
 
OPENING REMARKS 
 
 By Hon. H. G. Connor, United States Judge for the 
 Eastern District of Xorth Carolina. 
 
 ^ Among the purposes for which the IS^rth Carolina Bar Asso- 
 ciation was formed and maintains its organization, is the per- 
 petuation of the memory of those who, at the Bar and on the 
 Bench have, by rendering service to the State, won distinction 
 and are, to this and future generations, exemplars of life and 
 conduct. We conceive that in rendering this service, we not 
 only contribute to the honor and glory of the Commonwealth, 
 but set an example worthy of emulation, to other organizations 
 of our citizens to contribute in like manner to the perpetuation 
 of like characters in the varied departments of service to the 
 State. Inspiration to higher and nobler lives, we are taught, 
 is imparted not alone by the story of the life and work of the 
 great and good, but in the preservation of their form and fea- 
 ture. by the art of the painter and the sculptor. In pursuance 
 of this purpose and, we think, in performance of this service, the 
 N"orth Carolina Bar Association has, by its own contribution, 
 aided and supplemented by the J^orth Carolina Historical Com- 
 mission and others who honored his memory, caused to be cast in 
 bronze a statue of the form and face of one who, among notable 
 and ^ worthy associates, in like position, has rendered high 
 service, we think it is not exaggeration to say, is recognized as 
 North Carolina's Great Chief Justice, Thomas Riiffin. The 
 work of the artist having been completed, the privilege and duty 
 of taking order for its placing and presentation to the State, 
 was committed to a committee, named by the Association, com- 
 posed of Mrs. George P. Collins, Mrs. Charles R. Thomas, 
 Major John W. Graham, Hon. Francis Nash, Col. Bennehan 
 Cameron, A. B. Andrews, Jr., Esq., and to me was accorded 
 the honor of being named Chairman. The statue is the work of 
 Mr. Frank H. Packer, a justly celebrated artist. It will 
 stand as a memorial of the past, and an inspiration for the 
 
6 Thomas Euffin 
 
 future, at the entrance of the State's Administration Building, 
 wherein her Supreme Court sits. Having appointed this hour 
 for the completion of our undertaking, we have assembled in 
 this, the Hall of the Eepresentatives of the people, to hear from 
 one amply fitted to tell the story of his life, and to present with 
 appropriate, simple and yet dignified, ceremony, to the State 
 the statue of Thomas Euffin. The Eight Eeverend Joseph 
 Blount Cheshire, Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, will 
 invoke the blessing of God upon the work in which we are about 
 to engage. 
 
THOMAS RUFFIN 
 
 By Walter Clark, Chief Justice of North Carolina. 
 
 ''Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, pompous in the 
 grave, solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor 
 omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature." 
 When a great State and a great profession present to the public 
 this memorial of a great citizen who in his day has served them 
 both with fidelity, it is proper that some mention should be made 
 of the circumstances which justify the occasion. These cere- 
 monies and this statue cannot bring honor to him. That is 
 beyond our power. The tale of what he wrought is complete. 
 We can add nothing to it. In the dreamless dust neither honor 
 nor censure nor praise nor calumny can move him. Like Dun- 
 can "-nothing can touch him further." 
 
 The significance of this event is to us and to those who shall 
 come after us. The honor is to those who erect this memorial 
 and to those who approve it. The ideals of a nation are the 
 surest gauge of their worth and of the place they fill. Could 
 the star of Bethlehem vanish in eternal night, men would again 
 incarnate as gods, and erect altars, statues and temples to the 
 virtues which they chiefly admire. We should see well to it 
 that no memorial is placed to one who does not measure up to 
 the highest ideals of the people. 
 
 Who is this man and what did he do that this brilliant as- 
 semblage should be here and that this statue should be unveiled 
 to excite the emulation of aspiring youths in the days to come? 
 To few of the sons of men can this honor be paid, and perhaps 
 to fewer still should it be rendered. The vast majority must 
 be content to believe that their names are in the registers of God 
 though not in the records of man. 
 
 On a marble slab in St. Matthew's churchyard in Hillsboro 
 there is carved the following inscription which sums up the 
 
8 Thomas Euffin 
 
 salient features of a long, useful, and most distinguished 
 career : 
 
 THOMAS RUFFIN, 
 
 The first born of 
 
 Steeling Rtjffix and Axice Roane. 
 
 Born at Newington, 
 
 King and Queen County, Virginia, 
 
 17 November, 1787. 
 
 Died at Hillsboro, Orange Co., N. C, 
 
 15 January, 1870. 
 
 Graduated at Nassau Hall, 
 
 Princeton, N. J., 1805, 
 
 Admitted to the Bar in N. C. in 1808. 
 
 Intermarried with Anne M. Kirkland, 
 
 9 December, 1809. 
 
 A member of the State Legislature, Speaker of the House 
 
 of Commons; a Trustee of the University, twice 
 
 Judge of the Superior Court; in 1829, Justice 
 
 of the Supreme Court in which he 
 
 presided for 19 years as 
 
 Chief Justice. 
 
 Labor ipse est voluntas. 
 
 In the 83d year of his life, in full possession of his faculties, ripe 
 in learning and in wisdom, crowned with public honors and confi- 
 dence, rich in the affection of his kindred and friends, he closed his 
 long, active and useful life in the consolation of an enlightened and 
 humble Christian faith. 
 
 "A man resolved and steady to his trust, 
 Inflexible to ill and obstinately just." 
 
 This is not the occasion for an extended biographical state- 
 ment of his services. It will be possible to fill out merely some 
 of the details of that well rounded and busy life. 
 
 The mother of Chief Justice Kuffin was cousin german of 
 Chief Justice Spencer Roane of the great State of Virginia, 
 and he was bom 17 November, 1787, at the residence of her 
 father, in the county of King and Queen in that State. His 
 father, Sterling Ruffin, of a long descended line of ancestry, was 
 
Thomas Ritffin 9 
 
 a resident of the neigliboriiig county of Essex in that State. 
 He was a planter of means, but later in life he joined the Meth- 
 odist church and served in its ministry till his death. 
 
 His early life was passed, like that of most distinguished men, 
 in the country and on a fami acquiring that sturdy stock of 
 health which is necessary to enable them to breast the obstacles 
 to success in after life. After attendance upon the neighbor- 
 hood schools he was sent to Warrenton, ]^. C, and placed 
 under the instruction of Marcus George, an Irishman, a fine 
 classical scholar and skillful instructor, where he had as school- 
 mates and friends many who afterwards attained prominence 
 in the State. Among them were Col. Cadwallader Jones, then 
 of Halifax, later of Orange, Robert Brodnax of Rockingham 
 and Weldon IST. Edwards of Orange, afterwards a member of 
 Congress and President of the State Convention of 1861. 
 
 From Warrenton Academy young Ruffin passed to iN^assau 
 Hall, Princeton College, N. J., where his room mate was the 
 late Governor Iredell, and among his associates were many who 
 afterwards achieved high distinction in many States of the 
 Union. He graduated in 1805, being 16th in a class of 42. Re- 
 turning home he entered the office of David Robertson at 
 Petersburg, Va., as a student at law, and remained there thi'ough 
 the years 1806-7. Mr. Robertson was a Scotchman by birth, 
 the reporter of the Debates in the Virginia Convention which 
 adopted the Federal Constitution and reporter of the trial of 
 Aaron Burr for high treason. He gained high distinction at 
 the Bar. Puffin's associates under his instruction were John 
 F. May who was later Judge May of Petersburg, and Winfield 
 Scott, the hero later of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane in 1812 and 
 commander-in-chief of the army of the United States that en- 
 tered the city of Mexico in 1846, Whig candidate for President 
 in 1852, and head of the army at the outbreak of the great Civil 
 War. He met Judge Ruffin after a separation of 47 years in 
 New York in 1853 when the latter was attending as a delegate 
 the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 In recalling the pleasure of the reunion General Scott speaks of 
 their association as law students with manifest pride and pleas- 
 ure. He also refers to his subsequent meeting with the Chief 
 Justice in 1861 when the latter was serving as a member of the 
 
10 Thomas Ruffust 
 
 Peace Congress, and says that if the sentiments of Ruffin and 
 Crittenden had i^revailed the sad infliction of the war, which 
 was raging when he wrote, would have been avoided. A letter 
 from President Buchanan to Governor Swain in 1867 expresses 
 the same belief. 
 
 In 1807 Rev. Sterling Ruffin removed to Rockingham County, 
 N'orth Carolina, whither his son accompanied him. Though he 
 had studied for two years for the Bar he continued his studies at 
 Hillsboro under Judge A. D. Murphey until his admission to 
 the Bar in 1808. By this thorough preparation he laid broad 
 and deep the foundation for his successful career. In June, 
 1809, he established his home in Hillsboro and on 9 December in 
 that year he was married to Anne Kirkland, the eldest daughter 
 of William Kirkland, a prominent merchant and leading citi- 
 zen who a few years before had moved to Hillsboro from Ayr- 
 shire in Scotland. The husband was a young lawyer just 
 turned twenty-two and the bride was barely fifteen years of age. 
 During their married life of over sixty years she was the surest 
 resource and support of her distinguished husband in good and 
 evil fortune and he was her adoring lover to the last. 
 
 Young Ruffin must have been of more than usual promise, for 
 in a letter from Judge Murphey to him published in "Mur- 
 phey's Correspondence," written in 1809 soon after Puffin's 
 admission to the Bar, he expresses his confident assurance that 
 the young man was destined to a most distinguished career. 
 His relations with his instructor and friend, Judge Murphey, as 
 shown by their correspondence were always close and cordial. 
 
 In 1813, 1815 and 1816 Ruffin was a member of the House 
 of Commons from the borough of Hillsboro, which was one of 
 the six towns which, following the English custom, continued 
 to send representatives until the adoption of the amended Con- 
 stitution in 1835. In 1816 he was unanimously chosen Speaker 
 of the House. In 1815 and 1816 the town of Hillsboro was 
 represented by Judge Ruffin and the county of Orange by Judge 
 Murphey in the Senate, and Judge Nash in the House. 
 
 It is said that on first coming to the bar Judge Puffin's efforts 
 at argument were diffident, and his speech hesitating and em- 
 barrassed. His friends candidly advised him to abandon the 
 
Thomas Ruffin 11 
 
 profession, but he felt that he had the ''root of the matter" in 
 him and held on. He was well grounded by his studies in a 
 knowledge of the law, and experience soon cured his defects of 
 speech. At a strong bar he soon became a leader, and seven 
 years later, in 1816, while Speaker of the House, he was chosen 
 a Judge of the Superior Court, at the early age of 29, to fill the 
 vacancy caused by the resignation of Duncan Cameron. This 
 position he resigned after two years on the circuit, and returned 
 to a lucrative practice at the bar. He was an indefatigable 
 student, and a frame of iron permitted him any amount of ap- 
 plication. For forty-three weeks of the year he had engage- 
 ments in Court which he kept regardless of weather and bad 
 roads. He was also for one or two terms reporter of the 
 Supreme Court, but was compelled to relinquish the position by 
 the demands of his practice. His work as reporter will be 
 found in the first part of 8 N. C. Eeports (1 Hawks). In the 
 summer of 1825, upon the resignation of Judge Badger, he 
 again accepted the position of Judge of the Superior Court, and 
 during the next three years he administered its duties in such a 
 manner that he was generally desigTiated by public opinion for 
 the succession to the Supreme Court upon the occurrence of the 
 first vacancy. In 1824 he was a candidate upon the electoral 
 ticket in favor of William H. Crawford for President. 
 
 In the fall of 1828 the stockholders of the State Bank of 
 N"orth Carolina, at Raleigh, at whose head were Col. William 
 Polk, Peter Browne and Judge Duncan Cameron, in view of 
 its embarrassments and threatened litigation, prevailed upon 
 him to take the presidency of the bank with an increased salary 
 and with the privilege of practicing his profession. He again 
 resigned his Judgeship and accepting the offer, by his diligence 
 and practical business knowledge and the faith imparted by his 
 acceptance of its headshii), he effectually reinstated the bank in 
 public confidence, and relieved it of its embarrassments. About 
 this time, there being a vacancy in the United States Senator- 
 ship by the appointment of Governor Branch to the head of the 
 ISTavy Department, he was solicited to become a candidate for 
 the vacancy, with strong prospects of success. This he de- 
 clined, saying as he often did, that "after the labor and atten- 
 
12 Thomas Ruffin 
 
 tion he had bestowed upon his profession he desired to go down 
 to posterity as a lawyer." While employed in the affairs of 
 the bank he still remained in full practice at the bar, and his 
 reputation as a lawyer suffered no eclipse. On the death of 
 Chief Justice Taylor in 1829, Governor Owen appointed to the 
 Supreme Court Judge Toomer, a^ lawyer of deserved eminence 
 in the profession, and of a singularly pure and elevated char- 
 acter; but public opinion and the sentiment of the bar had so 
 decidedly marked out Judge Ruffin for the succession that when 
 the Legislature met in the fall of that year he was elected to the 
 position. 
 
 In 1833, upon the death of Chief Justice Henderson, William 
 Gaston was elected to the Bench. At that time the Chief Jus- 
 ticeship was not, as now, a distinct office, but one of the three 
 Judges then composing the Court was chosen as Chief Justice by 
 his two associates. Judge Gaston was the older man and had 
 a national reputation from his sendees in Congress and in many 
 notable cases at the Bar. On the other hand Ruffin had served, 
 with reputation second to none, not only on the Superior Court 
 Bench but for four years on the Supreme Bench. The rela- 
 tions between him and Judge Gaston were exceedingly cordial 
 and indeed intimate. The two men would have voted for each 
 other and the other Judge (Daniel) doubtless wished to be 
 spared the choice between them. In this emergency, as is 
 stated in a letter from Gaston to Chancellor Kent, they resorted 
 to the blind goddess and drew lots. The result was in favor of 
 Ruffin who thereafter presided for nineteen years as Chief 
 Justice. 
 
 In the autumn of 1852 while at the height of his fame and 
 not yet oppressed by the weight of years he resigned office, in- 
 tending to retire forever from the profession and the studies in 
 which he had won renown. But in 1858, on the death of his 
 friend and successor. Chief Justice Nash, he was recalled by 
 the almost unanimous voice of the Legislature, though in his 
 72d year, to resume his place upon the Supreme Court Bench. 
 This he did but did not insist upon resuming the Chief Justice- 
 ship which went to Judge Pearson. After something more 
 than a year's service he found the duties somewhat irksome after 
 
Thomas Ruffin 13 
 
 six years of leisure and resigned again. It was his singular for- 
 tune to have resigned twice from both the Superior and Su- 
 preme Courts. In 1854 the General Assembly being Demo- 
 cratic, Chief Justice Ruffin's name was among those presented 
 by their friends for one of the two United States Senatorships 
 then vacant, but after a long contest Governor Reid and Judge 
 Biggs were chosen. 
 
 It is worthy of note also that in 1848 all three of the Supreme 
 Court Judges (Ruffin, Nash and Battle), the Governor (Gra- 
 ham) and one of the United States Senators (Mangum) were 
 all from the single county of Orange, and in 1841 both Senators 
 (Graham and Mangum) were elected by the Legislature from 
 the same county of Orange in which the Chief Justice then re- 
 sided. The only situation at all parallel, in this State, occurred 
 in 1815 when the Governor (Miller), both United States Sena- 
 tors (Macon and Turner), and Judge Hall were all from the 
 county of Warren. It was a remarkable coincidence that these 
 two U. S. Senators (Macon and Turner) had served in the 
 Revolutionary "War together as privates in the same company. 
 
 During the six years between Chief Justice Ruffin's resigna- 
 tion in 1852 and his reelection in 1858 and again after his sec- 
 ond 'resignation in 1859 he accepted the office of Justice of the 
 Peace in Alamance County to which he had then removed, and 
 he held the county court with the lay justices as their presiding 
 justice. Another eminent lawyer, Thomas P. Devereux, hav- 
 ing retired from the Bar, upon falling heir to a princely for- 
 tune, discharged the same duty for years as presiding justice of 
 the county court of Halifax; and George E. Badger, ex-U. S. 
 Senator, ex-Secretary of the K'avy, and ex-Judge, presided as a 
 Justice of the Peace in the county court of Wake, and there 
 were other instances of like nature. It is related that a North- 
 erner of some distinction being at the Yarborough House in 
 Raleigh walked across to the courthouse on one occasion when 
 Mr. Badger was presiding with his fellow- justices of the peace, 
 and on his return to the hotel said with evident sincerity, "I do 
 not know who that old fellow in the middle is, but he certainly 
 is no fool." 
 
 The law is well said to be a "jealous mistress," but Judge 
 Ruffin took an intelligent and practical part in stock raising. 
 
14 Thomas Euffin 
 
 orcliards, and agriculture and found his recreation in those pur- 
 suits. It was no mere compliment to a distinguished citizen 
 that the State Agricultural Society of North Carolina elected 
 him in 1854 to its presidency and retained him in that position 
 for six years. By his industry, frugality and capacity for the 
 management of property he accumulated a large estate. 
 
 Until superseded by the changes in 1868, he had been for 
 many years the oldest Tnistee of the State University, and 
 took an active interest in promoting its v/elfare. For more 
 than forty years a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, he was one of its most active members in this State and 
 more than once represented the Diocese in the Triennial General 
 Convention. Though a follower of Jefferson in politics he was 
 a warm admirer and personal friend of Marshall and Kent. 
 
 As an advocate, Chief Justice Ruffin was vehement but logical. 
 It is said that in the heat of argument to the jury he would rap 
 the floor with his knuckles. He placed small reliance on rheto- 
 ric and appeals to the imagination. He was physically and 
 mentally capable of vast application and he did not spare him- 
 self any amount of labor. He was in the habit of exercising 
 his mental faculties by daily going over the demonstration of 
 some theorem in mathematics. 
 
 His capacity as a business man was shown in the executive 
 talent displayed by him on the Superior Court Bench, where 
 there is full scope for it, and in which particular the occupants 
 of that Bench are more often lacking than in the knowledge of 
 law. In administering the criminal law upon the circuit, the 
 extent of punishment depends very largely upon the discretion 
 of the judge. Judge Euffin's sentences while not cruel were 
 such as to be a terror to evil doers. His practical mind realized 
 that punishment of criminals Avas required for the protection of 
 law-abiding men. Consequently whenever he rode a circuit 
 crime decreased. He sat upon the Supreme Court bench twenty- 
 three years consecutively, from 1829 to 1852, during nineteen 
 years of which he was Chief Justice. In 1858 and '59 he 
 again occupied a seat on the bench for a year and a half. His 
 opinions thus covered nearly a quarter of a century, and will be 
 found in thirty-five volumes, from 13 to 45 JN". C. Reports, 
 inclusive, and also in the same Reports, vols. 51 and 57. He 
 
Thomas Euffin 15 
 
 wrote while on the bench more opinions than any other Judge. 
 His opinions embrace almost every topic of the civil and crimi- 
 nal law. They are usually long, full and show the concentra- 
 tion of a powerful mind upon the subject in hand. His opin- 
 ions are well beaten out. The print of the hammer is there. 
 
 The chief corner-stone of his fame must rest upon his recorded 
 Judicial Opinions. Were this a meeting of the State Bar Asso- 
 ciation it would be appropriate to discuss some of the more 
 characteristic of them, but this would be too technical for this 
 occasion and time is inadequate, to give them proper considera- 
 tion, xin inadequate discussion would be insufficient for any 
 occasion. The verdict of the Bar and Bench of North Carolina 
 has long been rendered that he was the ablest Judge who has 
 ever presided in this State. He reached the rare distinction of 
 being equally great in both the common law and as an equity 
 lawyer. Chief Justice Pearson, his immediate successor, prob- 
 ably equaled him as a common law lawyer, but fell far short of 
 him in the grasp and application of the great principles of 
 equity. 
 
 While he had due regard for precedent he was great enough 
 not to. be hampered by them in reaching a just conclusion. He 
 realized that the object of the administration of justice is to do 
 justice. In S. v. Moses, 13 N". C, 452, he upheld the intent of 
 the law-making power to do away with "those fetters of form, 
 technicality and refinement which do not concern the substance 
 of the charge and the proof to support it." He said that they 
 were a reproach to the Bench and the object of the statute was 
 to disallow and do away with the whole of them. Mr. Justice 
 Holmes has recently in Paraiso v. United States (207 U. S., 
 368), strikingly characterized the technical construction of 
 indictments in favor of defendants as "the inability of the 
 seventeenth century common law to understand or accept a 
 pleading that did not exclude every misrepresentation capable 
 of occurring to intelligence fired with a desire to pervert." 
 
 In 8. V. Benton, 19 N. C, 131, he established clearly the prac- 
 tice as to trials for homicide and challenges to jurors. In 
 R. R. V. Davis, 19 N. C, 452, he laid down the doctrine (then 
 a new one) of the right of the Legislature to provide for condem- 
 
16 Thomas Ruffin 
 
 nation of a right of way for railroad purposes and that in such 
 cases the landowner did not have a constitutional right to a 
 trial by jury to assess the damages which could be assessed in 
 any manner provided by law, and that payment of compensation 
 did not necessarily precede taking possession of the right of 
 way. In S. v. Rives, 27 N. C, >297, he held that while the 
 interest of a railroad company in its right of way can be sold 
 under execution the corporate franchise is not thus liable to sale. 
 In Webh v. Fulchire, 25 jST. C, 485, is laid down the proposition 
 that where a man is cheated out of his money, though it is in 
 playing at a game forbidden by law, he may recover back Avhat 
 he has paid from the person who practiced the fraud upon him. 
 The game in this case was "three card monte," and the very 
 learned Judge seems as much puzzled as to how the trick was 
 worked as the simple-minded plaintiff himself. His dissenting 
 opinion in S. v. Caesar, 39 ^. C, 391, is a fine example of his 
 inexorable logic. 
 
 In *S^. V. Boyce, 37 N^. C, 584, there is a veiy interesting dis- 
 cussion by him of the right of the owner of slaves to permit 
 them to meet and dance on his premises on Christmas Eve and 
 other holidays, and he shows his humanity by saying that no one 
 should "feel aggrieved that these poor people should for a short 
 space be happy at finding the authority of the master give place 
 to his benignity and at being freed from care, and filled with 
 gladness." When on the Superior Court Bench two persons 
 laid a wager as to a law point and brought an action to have 
 the correctness of his opinion determined. Judge Ruffin 
 promptly solved the difficulty by holding that the point of law 
 in such case was one of fact and therefore the Court could not 
 determine it and dismissed the action, making each party pay 
 costs with an intimation that it was leniency for the Court to go 
 no further. 
 
 There not being time, as I have said, to discuss many interest- 
 ing opinions delivered in his twenty-four years upon the Bench, 
 we may mention, however, that he fixed two notable departures 
 in equity from the English precedents, simplifying our system 
 and freeing it from embarrassments : 1. Refusing the doctrine 
 of Part performance as a basis for decreeing the specific execu- 
 tion of a verbal contract for sale of land. 2. Discarding the 
 
Thomas Kuffin 17 
 
 doctrine of Vendor's lien upon land sold upon credit. There 
 were many other salutary reforms which he instituted by strong 
 and convincing argument in which he has been followed not only 
 by our Court but in many other States. His familiar knowl- 
 edge of affairs, especially banking, and his practical knowledge 
 of everyday life were of great advantage to him on the Bench. 
 He was, as Tennyson says of Wellington, "rich in saving 
 common sense." 
 
 His fame as a Judge is established wherever the English law 
 is known. Mr. Justice Miller, who was the ablest judge prob- 
 ably ever on the U. S. Supreme Court (Marshall not excepted), 
 said it was recreation for him to read Ruffin's superb opinions. 
 Prof. Roscoe Pound of Harvard names as the most distin- 
 guished State Chief Justices in our history, Gibson of Penn- 
 sylvania ; Shaw of Massachusetts ; Puffin of North Carolina, 
 and Doe of New Hampshire, and adds that their only competi- 
 tors in national fame are Marshall, Kent and Story. Professor 
 Thayer in his Essay on Constitutional Law mentions "Marshall, 
 Shaw and Puffin," as preeminent in that department. It is not 
 necessary to quote the opinion of North Carolinians who are 
 unanimous in their admiration, and I will cite only a letter from 
 Judge R. T. Bennett who said that it was his deep conviction 
 that "Chief Justice Puffin is the greatest Judge who ever ad- 
 ministered justice in an English speaking community." 
 
 The lawyers present who are familiar with the opinions of 
 Puffin's great contemporaries on the English Bench — Lords 
 Lyndhurst, Brougham, and Denman — will concur with me that 
 Puffin was their equal in all respects. While he was not as ver- 
 satile as Lord Brougham he was more a master of our common 
 English tongue. He was not as subtle in expression as Lynd- 
 hurst, whose shades of thought were like shadows passing over 
 a bending field of wheat, but he was a straightforward, sincere 
 man, which John Copley, Lord Lyndhurst, was not. There came 
 not before him the myriad forms of commercial law from a 
 great metropolis as to Denman, but he was a better lawyer and 
 a better Judge than either of the three. 
 
 So widely was he known that President Jackson contemplated 
 placing him upon the Supreme Court Bench of the United 
 
18 Thomas Euffin 
 
 States, but the exigencies of politics required the selection of 
 another. Many years later when George E. Badger was ap- 
 pointed by a Whig President to the U. S. Supreme Court, but 
 was rejected by a Democratic Senate, the name of Chief Justice 
 Ruffin was suggested to the President for that honor. Though 
 he was not appointed it may well be doubted if he could have 
 been of more sei'vice to the profession or have added more to 
 his own fame than he did by remaining in a position whose 
 duties he knew so well and among a people who honored him 
 so entirely. Take him all in all we have not "seen his like 
 again." 
 
 While this is not the time and place to discuss the many 
 great opinions delivered by the Chief Justice, opinions which 
 in every line show deep thought, conscientious consideration of 
 the points at issue, and attention to the argument on every side 
 and of the precedents, it would perhaps be deemed an omission 
 by future students if on this occasion no reference were made 
 to the most debated opinion rendered by that Court — Holce v. 
 Henderson, 15 ]^. C, 1. Having myself opened the attack upon 
 that opinion, and assailed it by every argument in my power 
 until it was overturned, it is due to myself, as well as to Chief 
 Justice Euffin, to say that that opinion should be judged from 
 the standpoint of the times in which he labored and not by the 
 views of the present day. Had I been one of his associates at 
 that time it is probable that I should have concurred. I am 
 equally frank to say that if the Chief Justice had been on the 
 Bench when it was reversed with the gathered light shed upon 
 that opinion, and its practical results by the experience of 
 seventy years, he would, in my opinion, have concurred in over- 
 ruling it. He did not have that pride of opinion which pre- 
 vented him from overruling some of his own decisions while yet 
 upon the Bench. 
 
 The women of this day are so rapidly achieving their de- 
 mand for the suffrage that I fear they do not sufficiently appre- 
 ciate the fact that the men had a far longer and more arduous 
 struggle to achieve manhood suffrage. For thousands of years 
 and until a comparatively short time before the American Revo- 
 lution, suffrage was unknown, and then only in England where 
 
Thomas Euffin 19 
 
 it was confined to large property liolders and even that controlled 
 by governmental influence. It is true that the Mecklenburg 
 Declaration and the Declaration at Philadelphia penned by 
 Thomas Jefferson, declared the equality of all men, but he is a 
 poor student of history who thinks that suffrage was then con- 
 ferred upon the masses. Both in our State Constitution at 
 Halifax in 1776 and by the Federal Constitution in 1787 the 
 people were permitted to vote for only one-sixth of the govern- 
 ment, i. e., the lower house of the legislative body. Suffrage 
 was new, the propertied classes were alarmed at giving power to 
 the masses, and they had reason to be because the people were 
 unused to the exercise of power, and were illiterate. In j^orth 
 Carolina the Senate was made elective by men who owned fifty 
 acres of land or more. The Governor, all the State officers, and 
 the Judges were made elective by the Legislature, and the Judges 
 for life, and the county officers, including the sheriff, were made 
 elective by magistrates who themselves were chosen by the Leg- 
 islature, and the clerks of the Superior Court were appointed 
 by the Judges to hold for life. It was not considered safe to 
 jeopardize the rights of property by giving the people any more 
 than .the mere semblance of power in the election of the lower 
 house. When the Supreme Court was created in 1818 it was 
 not, as now, provided for in the Constitution but was estab- 
 lished by an Act of the Legislature, and that body could at any 
 time repeal the Act and abolish the Court. Regularly at every 
 session of the General Assembly for many years a bill to that 
 effect was introduced. Under these circumstances an Act was 
 passed to take out of office the clerks of the court who held for 
 life under judicial appointment, and to make them elective by 
 the people at the polls. This was considered the first step to- 
 wards abolishing all the checks which for nearly sixty years, 
 under the Halifax Constitution, had protected society and prop- 
 erty against what the ruling class considered the dangerous 
 power of the mob. In this emergency seeing matters as they 
 understood the situation and fearing the power of an unedu- 
 cated, and as they thought, a dangerous constituency, the Judges 
 held that this act took from a man an office in which he had a 
 life interest and bestowed it upon another, and not unnaturally 
 they held such act to be, in the phraseology of the present day, 
 
20 Thomas Ruffin 
 
 not "due process of law," and that it deprived the officer of his 
 property without compensation. 
 
 It is true that this opinion was not followed in other States 
 nor by the U. S. Supreme Court, but conditions elsewhere were 
 different. In 1868 when the new Constitution was established 
 all the life Judges were turned out of office and those who suc- 
 ceeded took their offices in absolute denial of the principle laid 
 down in Hohe v. Henderson. Yet with a strange inconsistency 
 when four years later the Democratic party came into power the 
 Republican Supreme Court revived the doctrine of Holce v. 
 Henderson in entire denial of the right of the legislative depart^ 
 ment of the government to take control of the official machinery 
 to execute their views. They extended the doctrine, and when 
 again the same condition occurred in the advent of the Demo- 
 cratic party to power in 1900 the Republican members of the 
 Court extended the application of that decision from places 
 whose salary as in Patrick's case was $2 per year to the control 
 of all the offices of the State which had been created by legis- 
 lative enactment. Under these circumstances a decision which 
 had seemed not unreasonable when rendered in 1833 by so great 
 a court as Ruffin, Gaston and Daniel, but which by its expan- 
 sion had in later times assumed the character of a judicial veto 
 of the people's control of their own government through their 
 Legislature, could no longer be sustained. It was seen by a 
 practical people that such a system was subject to abuse and was 
 no longer workable. Assailed by a series of dissenting opinions 
 which brought the matter to the attention of the people and the 
 Bar of the State, it was debated and considered and with that 
 sound practical sense which enables the Anglo-Saxon race to 
 govern itself, when new Judges were placed upon the Bench 
 they promptly overruled the decision in Holce v. Henderson 
 which the Judges who had appealed to it had so often held to be 
 "that mine from which so much pure gold has been dug." This 
 meant simply — "that decision which has been so useful in re- 
 taining our friends in office." 
 
 In overruling the decision in Holce v. Henderson every 
 Judge who concurred in that action (Mial v. Ellington, 134 N. 
 C, 131), expressed the highest reverence for the Court that had 
 rendered it, and reversed the opinion, as Ruffin himself would 
 
Thomas Ruffin 21 
 
 Lave reversed it, because the legal thought of the country and 
 the experience of our State had demonstrated that, however wise 
 and just the decision had seemed when rendered, it had become 
 out of line with the thoughts and the needs of a new generation, 
 and the Constitution, as we now understand its spirit. 
 
 There are many interesting details and many sidelights that 
 might be thrown upon the character and career of Chief Justice 
 Ruffin by citing from his own correspondence and that of others 
 of that time and by quoting from the newspapers of that era, 
 but such matters will be more appropriate in a complete biogra- 
 phy which it is to be hoped that some member of the profession 
 will yet write of him. It may be mentioned here that his name 
 given at the baptismal font was Thomas Carter Ruffin. He 
 still retained that name for some years after he began the prac- 
 tise of law, for Judge Murphey so addressed him in a letter 
 ■written early in 1814. However when he became a member of 
 the Legislature in 1813 he signed the roll as simply Thomas 
 Ruffin. The eagle had begim to wing his flight. He saw the 
 future before him and laid aside every encumbrance in the "race 
 for the immortal garland," as Milton styles it. Such instances 
 are not rare. Two young men who grew up to manhood as 
 Stephen Grover Cleveland and Thomas Woodrow Wilson en- 
 tered the White House as Grover Cleveland and Woodrow 
 Wilson. Hiram Ulysses Grant, by the mistake of his member 
 of Congress in naming his appointee to West Point, later wrote 
 his name as commander in chief of the armies and president as 
 IT. S. Grant, and there is authority that the greatest of them all, 
 received at baptism the name of George William Washington. 
 Not to go further afield the pale Italian lad who on the bap- 
 tismal registry and among his friends and family bore a name 
 of eleven syllables as ISTapoleone di BuonajDarte, when fame be- 
 gan to fill her bugle with the music of his name dropped 
 half of those syllables and climbed to the supremest heights 
 of power as ISTapoleon Bonaparte. His great, though hostile, 
 biographer. Sir Walter Scott, had the justice to say that "surely 
 he was entitled to write as he chose the name that he himself had 
 made famous." Whatever the reason that moved young Ruffin 
 to shorten his name at the outset of his career, when he reached 
 the icy, storm-swept height which he had viewed from the valley 
 
22 Thomas RrFFiN 
 
 lie wrote "on the dusty roll the ages keep" his name as Thomas 
 Euffin. 
 
 Chief Justice Euffin Avas a delegate to the Peace Conference of 
 1861, and after its failure he was a delegate to the Secession Con- 
 vention of 1861 from the county of Alamance. He then lived at 
 the "Hermitage," formerly the residence of Judge Murphey, 
 about three miles south of the town of Graham, and was active 
 like another Cincinnatus in the pursuits of agriculture. iVfter 
 the war, owing to changed conditions he sold his farm and 
 returned to Hillsboro where he died 15 January, 1870, after an 
 illness of four days, in the 83d year of his age. He raised a 
 family of thirteen children, out of fourteen born to him, and his 
 descendants are among the best known and most prominent 
 people of the State. One of his sons, Thomas Ruffin, Jr., be- 
 came a Judge of high distinction both on the Superior and 
 Supreme Court. The companion of his life, a bride at fifteen 
 and a wife for more than sixty years, survived him many years 
 to receive the love and affection of her numerous posterity and 
 the homage of a wide circle of friends. 
 
 Like other men he must have had his defects and his disap- 
 pointments. His great and shining quality was that he over- 
 came them. The promise, as I understand it, is to "him that 
 overcometh." 
 
 Look at his tall, sinewy figure as you shall soon see it, in 
 monumental bronze; his firm mouth; his nose like an eagle's 
 beak, his flashing eyes. He was a man of iron will, a man of 
 determination, a man who would not be denied. He was every 
 inch a man among men. Those who are familiar with the 
 origin of family names say that "Ruffin" is Xonnan-French. 
 He must have been the descendant of some Viking of old, who 
 standing on the prow of his storm-tossed vessel, gazed intent 
 upon the pleasant land of Normandy that he came to take for 
 his own, and he took it. Fortune and fame came not to him 
 as an unwooed bride. With him, as with all great men. 
 
 "While others slept, 
 He was toiling upward in the night." 
 
 He had a "frame of adamant and a soul of fire." His eighty- 
 three years attest his splendid physical organization, and his 
 
Thomas Ruffin 23 
 
 life work proves his mental capacity in every sphere of activity 
 and his intense application. 
 
 It was Jeanie Deans who said, "When you come to die it is 
 not what you have done for yourself, but what you have done 
 for others you will think on most pleasantly." Through all 
 the work that brings abiding remembrance — that fame which is 
 but another word for a people's gratitude, there runs ever the 
 two words "Duty" and "Sacrifice." We honor the soldier be- 
 cause he endures hardship and stands ever ready to sacrifice his 
 life for his country. The keynote, the corner stone of the 
 Christian religion is worship of Him who gave His life for 
 others. The mere attainment of wealth or of office will never 
 bring remembrance or honor after death. That is reserved for 
 those, who like this man, "live laborious days and scorn de- 
 lights," to serve the public good, and for this do men honor and 
 remember them. 
 
 After long study of his career and his opinions I have found 
 no estimate clearer or more forceful than that made by the dis- 
 tinguished Senator who now represents the historic county of 
 Orange, Mr. ISTash, who in summing up the survey of his 
 services has said "Ruffin was great as a lawyer, great as a 
 Judge, great as a financier and as a fanner, a rugged and in- 
 domitable soul, in a frame of iron, made to conquer, and con- 
 quering every difficulty on every side." 
 
 ISTo mortuary inscription has ever been more true and just 
 than the quotation from the poet which has been engraved upon 
 the marble memorial to the great Chief Justice which stands 
 beneath the shadows of St. Matthew's Church : 
 
 "A man resolved and steady to his trust, 
 Inflexible to ill and obstinately just." 
 
PRESENTATION 
 
 By Hon. J. Cbawford Biggs, President of the North 
 Caeolina Bar Association. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 I am commissioned to perform a most pleasing task on this 
 interesting occasion. These exercises are full of deep interest 
 and significance, because they are an outward manifestation of 
 our State pride, expressing itself in a new field of human 
 endeavor, in so far as this State is concerned. 
 
 All ]^orth Carolinians are justly proud of the achievements of 
 our great men of the past in the various activities of life, but 
 we must recognize the fact that we have done little to perpetuate 
 the proud heritage which they have bequeathed to us. North 
 Carolinians have been content to make history, but have left it 
 largely to others to record or preserve it. "VYe have been con- 
 tent and satisfied with the knowledge that no State in the Union 
 possessed a grander past; and until recent years we have not 
 bestirred ourselves to see that North Carolina occupied its true 
 place in history. We have not exerted ourselves to stimulate a 
 healthy State pride, by preserving in marble and bronze the 
 records of the past, by erecting statues and suitable memorials 
 to commemorate the name and fame of the great men whose 
 services have enriched and glorified the traditions of our Com- 
 monwealth. It is from the experience of the past that we draw 
 inspiration for the future, and any act which emblazons in im- 
 perishable form the great deeds of our ancestors should be re- 
 garded with favor. 
 
 The Supreme Court of North Carolina has an honorable 
 career covering more than a century. During all these years, 
 the Bench and Bar of North Carolina have exerted a command- 
 ing, yea a controlling influence in the life of our State. We 
 have erected statues to the statesmen and heroes of the Revolu- 
 tionary "War, of the Civil War and of the Spanish-American 
 War. We have builded monuments to commemorate the valor 
 of the soldiers of the Confederacy and to perpetuate the heroism 
 
Thomas Ruffin 25 
 
 and self-sacrifice of our women in that titanic struggle. We 
 have in like manner honored the memories of some of our gi-eat 
 leaders of education. 
 
 But this is the first statue in the long history of our State to 
 he erected to any Judge, and it is especially appropriate that 
 this signal honor to the Bench should he accorded to that jurist 
 who, not only among us but throughout this ISTation, is justly 
 regarded as the greatest judge who has ever adorned our highest 
 judicial tribunal and whose life, character and services have 
 been so splendidly portrayed this evening. 
 
 On behalf of the North Carolina Bar Association, composed 
 of over six hundred lawyers, who desire to show in some measure 
 their regard and esteem for one who embodied the highest ideals 
 of our profession, I have the honor to present to the State of 
 ISTorth Carolina, through your Excellency, this magnificent 
 statue of Chief Justice Thomas Buffin. May it stand for all 
 time as a fitting memorial of him whom it represents, and may 
 present and future generations of the Bench and Bar and the 
 people draw from it inspiration for high and unselfish service 
 to the cause of jurisprudence as exemplified in his magnificent 
 career. 
 
ACCEPTANCE 
 
 By Hon. Locke Craig, Governor of N^orth Carolina. 
 
 We have listened witli pleasure and profit to the fitting and 
 eloquent tributes pronounced upon Judge Ruffin. 
 
 It has been the duty of the State to erect a statute to our 
 prominent jurist. We accept this splendid statue with grati- 
 tude to those who gave it. In just recognition of the character 
 and the intellect of the great Chief Justice, we will place it in 
 the entrance hall of this building, the place for the memorials 
 of the highest and noblest of our men in all generations. There 
 it will live through the centuries, typifying in majestic form the 
 majestic man of pure purpose and master mind. In the plastic 
 years of our history he gave form and order to our jurispru- 
 dence. He interpreted statutes and constitutions with the wis- 
 dom of the sages, and delivered judgments that are enduring 
 precedents of righteousness. He was our judge, a distinctive 
 product of North Carolina, but his influence is beyond the limi- 
 tations of the State and the ISTation. He is recognized every- 
 where as one of the greatest judges that our race has produced. 
 In the uttermost parts of the earth, where the English jurispru- 
 dence exercises its beneficent rule, he speaks and will speak to 
 legislatures, to courts, and to executives, directing and enlight- 
 ening them in the way of truth and in the conception and the 
 administration of justice. 
 
 We raise the statue in gratitude that the Old North State too, 
 has produced a judge who gives laws to the judges of the 
 earth. We raise the statue to teach to us and to our children 
 the power and the majesty of an exalted life.