Connecticut Reports, Vol

FROM "CONNECTICUT REPORTS, VOL. LXVIII" 1882 592 APPENDIX. Obituary Notice of Chief Justice Seymour. irresistible flashes of wit, and of illustrating men and things 'with touches of poetical fancy, gave him a truly wonderful power of fascina tion by talk. Nor was he in the least overbearing in conversation, as is often the case with good talkers, but added the influence of unfailing politeness to marvelous powers of persuasion, such as one must have felt to appreciate. OBITUARY NOTICE OF CHIEF JUSTICE SEYMOUR. Hon. Origen Storks Seymour, Ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, died at Litchfield, where he was born and had always resided, on the 12th of August, 1881, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Judge Seymour was a man of very rare qualities of mind and heart. It is safe to assert that no member of the Connecticut Bar ever drew to himself in larger measure the respect and affection of his professional brethren and the confidence and esteem of the public at large. Judge Seymour was born February 9th, 1804. His father was Ozias Seymour, for many years sheriff of Litchfield County. His grand father, Mnj. Moses Seymour, bore a distinguished part in the Revolu tionary War. Gov. Horatio Seymour of New York, Senator Horatio Seymour of Vermont, and many other noted public men of the name, were his family relatives. He graduated at Yale College in the class of 1824. His college standing was very good, although from weakness of eyes he was compelled much of the time to depend on having his lessons read to him by others. After his graduation he studied law and was admitted to the bar of Litchfield County in 1826. He entered into partnership with Mr. George C. Woodruff, and soon rose to a leading position in the very able bar then practicing in that county. He frequently represented the town of Litchfield in the legislature, and was elected Speaker of the House in 1850. In 1851 he was elected to Congress, and again in 1853. In 1855, on the reorganization of the courts, he was elected by the General Assembly one of the four new judges of the Superior Court. His eight years, term expired in 1863, just after a severe and bitter political contest growing out of the civil war, between the Republican party, which favored the prosecution of the war, and the Democratic party, which favored a peace, in which the former had carried the state. Judge Seymour had been from early life and always remained a member of the Democratic party, and though he had given great satisfaction as a judge, there had grown up, in the heated state of public feeling, a distrust on the part of the APPENDIX. 593 Obituary Notice of Chief Justice Seymour. prevailing party of all judges who adhered to the Democratic party, especially in view of very important legal questions that might come before the courts, with regard to measures taken in support of the war. In this state of things Judges Seymour and Waldo, two of the most upright judges that ever sat upon a bench, and whose thorough loyalty no ouo could seriously question, were dropped and the vacancies filled by new appointments. Judgo Seymour at once resumed practice at the bar, going into partnership with 1ds son, Edward W. Seymour, then a leading lawyer in Litchfield. In 1864 and. again in 1865 Judge Seymour was nominated for Gov ernor by his party, but the favorable turn of the war and the' passage of a constitutional amendment allowing soldiers to vote in the, army gave the Republican candidate a large majority in both years. In 1870 a Republican legislature atoned in some measure for the injustice before done him by electing him with great unanimity a judge of the Supreme Court. In 1873, upon the death of Chief Justice Butler, he was elected Chief Justice, and held that position till he retired under the constitutional limitation as to age in 1874. It is a fact worthy of notice that he was elected to a seat upon the benches of the Superior and Supreme courts and finally to the chief-justiceship by legislatures that were opposed to him in politics. After his retirement from the bench Judge Seymour was almost constantly employed in the hearing of causes as a referee. He had the public confidence in so high a degree that his services in this character were sought from every part of the state. In 1876 he was chairman of the commission whose labors finally settled the long disputed boundary between this state and New York. He also did a public work of great value as the presiding member of the commission which prepared the new code of practice which was adopted by the legislature in 1879. He gave much careful thought and labor to the matter and it was largely the influence of his name that led to its adoption. After its enactment he delivered public lectures at Hartford and before the Yale Law School in explanation of it. Judge Seymour was a man of great judicial capacity. His mind worked without friction. It was saturated with legal principles, the result of a thorough digestion of what he read rather than of extensive reading. "With this knowledge of legal principles he had a remarkably sound judgment in applying them. There was no feature of his mind more noticeable than his common sense. He had a perfect comprehen sion of fine legal distinctions, but no fondness for mere legal casuistry. He had a strong sense of justice, and while versed in technicalities could never willingly sacrifice justice to them. But it was the moral qualities of the man that drew to him the public esteem in so large measure, and which entered so largely into his judicial character. He was a man of the most absolute integrity; 75 FROM "CONNECTICUT REPORTS, VOL. LXVIII" 1882 694 APPENDIX. Obituary Notice of Chief Justice Seymour. he was perfectly fair-minded; was conscientious in the highest degree; patient in listening to testimony and argument, even when a good excuse might have been found, if ever, for impatience and inattention ; he was of the most unruffled temper; he was full of kindness and sympathy, the only criticism to which he was open on the bench being that he was too unwilling to give a party the pain which an adverse decision would sometimes inflict, but his convictions were clear and decided and his conscience gave them the authority to which they were entitled. Without the slightest descent from self-respect and independence, he yet conciliated every one with whom he came in contact" by the kindliness of his manner and the manifest goodness of his heart. The younger members of the profession, who came before him in the' trial or argument of causes, have reason to remember with gratitude the friendly interest which he took in them. He was a man wholly without pretension. He was never opinion ated. He had no self-assertion. It would hardly be possible for one to be more utterly unassuming than he. It was in a great measure this lack of all assumption that gave him such a hold upon the plain people about him. Juries always trusted him when at the bar. All who knew him felt certain of him as a man of " simplicity and godly sincerity." His simplicity of manner was but the natural garb of the simplicity of his heart. Yet with all he had a rare shrewdness. He was a good judge of human character and motives. He could not be imposed upon by pre tences and plausibilities. He saw through such artifices as quickly as through sophistries in argument. He had a great love of nature. The beautiful landscape on which he daily looked was like daily food to him. There were few things that he enjoyed more than driving with friends over the charming region about Litchfield and calling their attention to the beauty of the scenery. He loved flowers. His growing crops, the ripening fruit upon his trees, were watched with less of pecuniary interest than of an almost poetic enthusiasm. And he was a thoroughly religious man. He was helped to this by his fine spiritual nature, which was indeed the foundation of his whole character. He was from early manhood a communicant in the Episco pal Church, and in the parish with which he was connected was one of the most active members, always representing it as delegate in the conventions of the diocese, and for several years past representing the laymen of the diocese in the national triennial conventions of the church. He was always very liberal in his gifts to religious and char itable objects. Judge Seymour was married on the 5th day of October, 1830, to Miss Lucy Morris Woodruff, a daughter of Gen. Morris Woodruff, a prominent citizen of Litchfield, and sister of his law partner George C. FROM "CONNECTICUT REPORTS, VOL. LXVIII" 1882 APPENDIX. 595 Obituary Notice of Chief Justice Seymour. Woodruff, Esq. She survives him, with three of their sons, Edward W. and Morris W. Seymour, who are in the practice of law at Bridgeport in this state, and Rev. Storrs O. Seymour, who is now rector of St. Michael's parish at Litchfield. He suffered a great affliction in the loss of an only daughter three years before his own death. On the 5th day of October, 1880, Judge Seymour and his wife cele brated their golden wedding amidst their relatives and friends, many attending from all parts of the state and some from other states.

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