Obituary Sketch of George C. Wooodruff.

The younger members of the bar, who practiced with him when he had become a leader, will not forget the kind and considerate treatment, professional and personal, that they received at his hands. He was always ready with a word of encouragement or praise, and never failed to extend substantial aid whenever opportunity offered.

Mr. Lippitt in the years prior to the war of the rebellion took a somewhat active part in public affairs. He was a democrat in politics. In 1844 he represented the town of New London in the General Assembly, and his last public service was in the same capacity at the session of 1878. He proved himself on both occasions, a capable and faithful legislator. From 1850 to 1853 he was mayor of the city of New London, and in that position displayed executive ability of a high order. In 1860 he was a delegate to the national democratic convention which nominated Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency, and in the canvass that ensued he took an active part. When the rebellion broke out he joined the ranks of the war democracy, and during the four years following was an unwavering and enthusiastic supporter of the Union cause.

In his home life, after the professional duties of the day were done, Mr. Lippitt found his chief pleasure and almost his only recreation. He was a great reader of books and papers, always kept himself informed as to current events in the world's history, and had a passion for scientific and mechanical literature which he gratified to the fullest extent. During the rebellion he was a close and eager student of all military movements, keeping track of the armies of both sides evening after evening in his library, and many a time before the end of the great struggle came, he had, with that sanguine temperament to which allusion has already been made, fought the battle of the Union to a successful issue on the maps.

For a number of years prior to his death Mr. Lippitt had been a communicant of St. James's Protestant Episcopal church in New London. His life was that of a good citizen, a wise and honorable counsellor, a painstaking and competent public servant, a faithful friend and a loving husband and father.

OBITUARY SKETCH OF GEORGE C. WOODRUFF.

GEORGE CATLIN WOODRUFF was born on the first day of December, 1805, in that portion of the town of Litchfield known as South Farms, which has since been incorporated under the name of Morris. The eldest son of Major General Morris Woodruff and Candace Catlin, he was the fruit of the union of two of the oldest families of Litchfield County, families on both sides illustrious in the annals of that county.

Obituary Sketch of George C. Woodruff.

His early education was pursued at the then famous Morris Academy, where he fitted for college. Entering Yale in 1821, he graduated four years later among the foremost scholars of his class. After graduation he studied his profession under Judge Gould at the Litchfield law school. Wishing to select a favorable place for the practice of his profession he took, for those days, an extensive journey through the Ohio valley, but finally deciding upon Litchfield as his home, he opened an office there in 1827. From that time on Mr. Woodruff took a leading position at the bar of Litchfield county, gradually rising until he became its acknowledged head. This of itself is no small praise when speaking of a bar that was second to none in the state, where in early life he was daily thrown into conflict with those giants in our profession, the two Churches, Huntington, Bacon, Smith, and others of their able contemporaries. Early sought out by his fellow citizens for offices of public trust almost every official duty that could be performed by an American citizen was at various times confided to him-justice of the peace, grandjuror, postmaster, town treasurer, town clerk, bank director and president, clerk of the Superior Court, colonel in the militia, member and clerk of the General Assembly, judge of probate, member of congress-the duties of each in turn performed with that rigid exactness and scrupulous integrity which marks the perfect man. As a member of the thirty-seventh Congress he served with distinction on the committee on public lands, his exact legal training fitting him to be of special use to the country in legislation affecting the lands and titles of our public domain. As chairman of the judiciary committee in our own state legislature his legal talents had a wide range of topics and more clearly demonstrated his varied learning. To him the state at large owes many of the best features of the revision of our statutes adopted in 1875. In 1873 he was elected by the senate a judge of the Superior Court, but owing to the influence of "King Caucus" his election was not concurred in by the House, and a life devoted to the legal profession was denied this crowning honor.

As a lawyer Mr. Woodruff was prominent in those branches where certainty is possible. The law of real property, of descent, of construction of statutes, was to him an exact science. He searched the books for principles and authorities with an industry that never tired till the end was reached. He began the trial of a cause with every point guarded, and if the evidence sustained his theory, or an adversary inadvertently granted his premise, then his law, his authorities, his logic were incontrovertible. It was in the trial of questions of law, the drier and more abstruse the better, that his most consummate skill was shown. In the Supreme Court of Errors not infrequently his entire argument was written out with the most pains-taking care.

That all classes of people should implicitly trust Mr. Woodruff was natural. That confidence was begotten of an honesty, a faithfulness, a

Obituary Sketch of George C. Woodruff.

zeal that was unswerving. No better proof of this could exist than the fact that at some time he was not only the counsel for every town in Litchfield county but of many of the towns in adjoining counties.

It need hardly be said of Mr. Woodruff that he was a religious man; few gain the highest rank in our profession without being such, so firmly are the everlasting principles of law and equity based on the justice and love of God. In his personal character he was the embodiment of the best elements of Puritanism—a democrat in politics because he believed not only in man's ability to govern himself, but in the absolute duty of self-government, he carried the same principle into his religion and his worship. A Congregationalist by instinct and education, he not only believed in the principles of Congregational government, but his sturdy manhood could brook no interference with its exercise. The liberty of worshipping God after the dictates of his own conscience was to him no meaningless phrase. To him the fatherhood of God was man's proudest claim to manhood. In his intercourse with his fellow men he was quiet, unobtrusive, reserved; he was of that honesty that loathes dishonesty, of that truth that hates a lie, of that manliness that despises a sham. To him life was duty, duty life. Even his pleasures were tinted in that hue. Fond of nature, it was after all in his garden and orchard, gathering their fruits, rather than skeptically examining the mysteries of nature's laboratory, that his greatest pleasure was found. His favorite reading was history, and he was himself the author of a history of Litchfield; genealogies delighted his leisure hours.

Of Mr. Woodruff's domestic life, pleasing a picture as it presents, crowned as it was by a golden wedding, this is not the place to speak, and yet there is one feature of it so intimately connected with his professional life and which had so powerful an effect upon it, that a word may not be amiss. Early in life he married a sister of the late Chief Justice Seymour, and Judge Seymour married the only sister of Mr. Woodruff. Side by side these gentlemen lived and practised their profession. Sometimes as associates, and again as opponents, so zealously contended each for the rights of his client, that jealousy itself never harbored a suspicion that all honorable means were not used to succeed. These conflicts were often close and exciting, and yet their friendship was never broken; rather was their esteem increased as their days lengthened. Such contests left each combatant stronger, better able to serve his clients and the state.

Mr. Woodruff died at Litchfield on the 21st day of November, 1885, in his eightieth year. In whatever relation of life one looks at him, as citizen, as neighbor, in private life or public station, as counsellor or judge, he was one of the best products of our American civilization.

Strong and hale up to his last sickness, possessed of the respect and esteem of all, every faculty perfect, he passed away, leaving one more of those noble examples of which our bar and state may justly be proud.

S.

Obituary Sketch of Mahlon R. West.

OBITUARY SKETCH OF MAHLON R. WEST.*

THE death of MAHLON ROCKWELL WEST, on the 22nd of April, 1886, closed a life of most worthy aims and uncommon industry. A just estimate of its success involves the knowledge of his early struggle with and mastery of adversities, such as the lack of fortune and education ever opposes to the ambitions of youth.

Mr. West was born at Stafford in Tolland County, August 27th, 1826. His father was a farmer with a large family and small estate. Arriving at his majority, young West found himself the possessor of an ordinary district school education, and a few dollars earned by teaching. His resolution to seek a wider field of labor and influence found no encouragement except from his own earnest aspirations. But he determined to become a lawyer; and so, in 1848 we find him a student at Stafford, in the office of Mr. A. P. Hyde, since of Hartford, and daily going nearly three miles from his father's house to his books. His preparatory studies ended in 1850, by his admission to the bar at the March term of the Tolland County Court, and he immediately commenced practice in his native town, where he remained more than nineteen years, with a constantly increasing business, and the respect and confidence of every one; and he was finally recognized as the leading lawyer of the county.

In November, 1869, he removed to Hartford, and there successfully continued his practice until his last sickness, which was brief. From November 1st, 1869, until November 1st, 1876, David S. Calhoun was his law partner.

He was a delegate to the democratic national convention of 1860, and steadily supported the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas. In 1874-5 he was an alderman of his city, and for one year was president of the board. He represented the town of Hartford in the legislatures of 1877 and 1881.

On the 23d of May, 1854, he married Miss Julia A. Smalley, of Northfield, Vermont. A son was given them, his only child, who died at Hartford, January 24th, 1871. Mrs. West died April 3d, 1880, after a protracted illness. Miss Marcia A. Fairman, of Stafford, became his wife October 11th, 1881, and she is now his widow.

In his private life Mr. West was not merely blameless. He was trusted and beloved. Tender in sympathy, steadfast in friendship, upright in all his dealings, sensitive to criticism but loyal to every command of duty, simple in habits and modest in manner, ready with

* Prepared at the request of the Reporter, by David S. Calhoun, Esq., of the Hartford Bar.

Obituary Sketch of Mahlon R. West.

head, hand and heart in every movement for the welfare of individuals or the community, he entered no relation, whether domestic, social or with the church of which he was a devout member, in which his affectionate, faithful, self-denying nature did not compel a warm appreciation.

As honesty was the leaven of his private character, so it naturally pervaded his public and professional life. Public recognition was grateful to him; but when it came it was a tribute to his worth, and not the dividend of a selfish trade or the reward of court paid to rascally jobbers in votes. Zealously attached to the political faith which was his by inheritance and conviction, he never forgot that he owed a higher fealty than to party.

As a lawyer he did not quote the precedents of legal license to satisfy the doubts of conscience; for his conceptions of right overlapped those of the law. And by this broader rule of justice he tested every proposed plan of professional action, apparently insensible to those temptations which many find so hard to resist. Clients, therefore, ever found him a reliable counselor. Courts and juries saw him candid, and his brethren knew him, both as an antagonist and an associate, as generous, truthful and fair. His early necessities had made him prudent and ecomonical; but he prized the true honors of his profession more than its gains, and a just cause needed not the added stimulus of a full purse to enlist his interest and best service.

Mr. West's position at the bar was such as his diligence, ability and integrity had won and deserved. He always lamented the limited educational opportunities of his youth, and to them an occasional diffuseness in pleading and argument may be attributed in part, and partly, perhaps, to an imperfect faculty of method. But his reading was varied and accurate, his memory trusty, his judgments of men and their motives unusually quick and correct, his application of legal principles to facts ready and sound, and his care in the preparation of causes unlimited except by time; for he was an insatiable and tireless worker. Though of slight frame and a nervous temperament, and with no outward signs of uncommon vigor, his endurance of prolonged mental exertion was surprising. No point in a case escaped his scrutiny. In his office labors he was cautious, pains-taking and thorough; but in a trial he was alert, ready in resource, and prompt to discover and to act; and in his arguments there came successive troops of crowding and fervid thoughts, which scoured the whole field of contest and left unnoticed no point of attack or defense. As a speaker he found force, earnestness and simple illustration more ready and effective than graces of style or arts of elocution. There was nothing in his presence or manner to alarm an opponent; but on the one who augured from them an easy victory, there always waited a bewildering surprise, and usually defeat. If any one of his fellows was