THE LATE JUDGE HITCHCOCK.

A SKETCH OF THE IIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE LATE PRINCIPAL OF THE TALE LAW SCHO01.

BY ONE WHO KNEW HIM.

PROBABLY there is no study which makes so permanent and deep impressions on the memory and feelings as the life of a great man. It is almost impossible for one who reads books to rid himself of a spirit which haunts him, urging him to profitable action or merely bewildering his fancy, in the shape of some departed hero. The form with which youthful ambition invests its ideal object of pursuit is not so often an original creation of the imagination, a compound of such and such virtues, the victor in such and such struggles, or the receiver of such and such particular honors; as it is a breathing image of some great or good man who has lived in another age or adorns our own.

'I would like to be a WASHINGTON, a NAPOLEON, an ADDISON, a FRANKLIN, a WORDSWORTH, a WASHINGTON IRVING, a ROBERT Peel, a MACAULAY,' is a wish often felt by youth, if rarely expressed. And when in the study of biography, the young man learns how greatness has been in nearly every instance the result of a self-making energy, the lesson which it teaches and the wish which it inspires are in the highest degree profitable. Seldom have men found distinction by following luxurious paths, or when wafted along by the zephyr-like breath of powerful friendship and patronage. Those seem to have succeeded best who have felt their way to be paved with difficulties, and with a spirit of adventure almost chivalrous, have thrown themselves into the war of circumstances, and disputed every inch of their march to fame. When we contemplate the career of such men, our prayer ceases to be for showers of extraneous advantages, for the bolstering care of friends, for wealth, (which pays the toll on the turnpike to distinction, but cannot set our limbs in motion,) or for the good fortune of being born to station. We supplicate rather in our silent hearts with some such petition as this: Let my lot, if it be the will of Heaven, be cast among the rugged scenes of life; let me pant and sweat in the race of my ambition, and step painfully over a rocky road; let me be compelled to acquire my means, before I commence to win my end; but give me the unconquerable will, contempt of ease, self-reliance, the grasp of restless energy which never stops to congratulate itself on its former progress, or to fall asleep in order to dream out the gorgeous future. Give me cloud and storm, and the strength to bear them; danger and difficulty, and the courage to meet them like a man.'

The subject of our present notice was one of those individuals, whose career in life awakens in the mind of him who studies it a

desire for independent success. He built his own fortune with his own materials.

SAMUEL JOHNSON HITCHCOCK was born at Bethlehem in the State of Connecticut, in the month of February, of the year 1786. His father was a man in humble circumstances, and was one of the sufferers in the American Revolution. Having a large family, he needed the aid of his son, who was his oldest child, in carrying on the business by which the family was supported. His father professionally plied the trade of a weaver, at the hand-loom, in his own poor cottage, and the son served an apprenticeship at the same trade. Mr. Hitchcock's birth-place was in a remote part of the township, where the incitements to study were few, and where the means of acquiring knowledge were very limited. He was early distinguished for his industry, and imbued with a love of knowledge. His father, being a very poor man, could not afford the expense of furnishing him a light to read by in the evening as late as he sometimes desired. After plying the shuttle through the day, to gain a subsistence for the family, he is said to have been accustomed to seat himself in front of the fire-place with book in hand, and there gratify his insatiable love of knowledge in studying out the words and sentences by the dim and flickering light afforded by the dying embers. Thus did young Hitchcock continue, weaving by day and studying by night until he was fourteen years of age. At that early age, owing to his proficiency in the branches of a common English education, and to his maturity and manliness of character, his services were sought as the instructor of a common school in one of the neighboring towns. He took charge of the school during the winter, but with the return of summer his assistance was again needed in the support of his father's family. It was about this period that he conceived the idea of going to college;' accordingly he commenced the preparatory course of study, under the instruction of the late Rev. DR. AZEL BACKUS, first President of Hamilton College. The Rev. JOHN PIERPONT, who was at that time living with DR. BACKUS as an assistant instructor in preparing a number of young gentlemen for college, in a letter to the writer states, that Johnson' used to work at his father's trade while not actually engaged upon his books, and by this toil at the hand-loom, without any other aid from his father than the use of his loom, and that perhaps rather grudgingly given, as the parent thought this going to college' was not the thing that it had been cracked up to be,' he contributed to the necessary expense of his preparatory studies. In these I occasionally heard him. in his recitations. He was studious, laboriously so; and exceedingly thorough in his lessons; showing a disposition to go to the bottom of his subject. I saw that he had the determination and the ability to distinguish himself as a scholar, and my augury was, that the web of his life, if protracted, would be woven after a very different pattern toward the end of the piece, from what it was at the beginning.'

6

Thus did he continue to labor and study until he was twentyone years of age, at which period he entered the Sophomore class

in Yale College. It is needless to say, that an industrious young man, burning with such noble aspirations as glowed in his bosom, was diligent and persevering in the prosecution of his studies in college. 'I well remember,' says one of his classmates, the first recitation of my division during our Sophomore year. At my right hand sat a newcomer, in a plain rustic garb, with nothing prepossessing in his appearance except a manly countenance, bespeaking at once honesty, perseverance and intelligence. His very first recitation indicated that he would take a high stand as a scholar, and made the candidates for intellectual superiority feel that in him they would find a generous competitor.' He was known as the most diligent student in college; and considering the course of study as wisely marked out by the proper authority, and admirably adapted to discipline and strengthen the intellectual faculties, he was faithful, to a proverb, in the discharge of every duty assigned him. He was distinguished for his accurate and successful investigation, for his methodical habits, for his good judgment, for his keen sagacity, for his generous regard for his fellow-students, and for his respectful deference to his superiors in age and learning. By his wise course he commanded the respect and secured the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. He was one of the few who could receive praise without being grudged, who could be honored without being envied, and who could regard himself with proper self-respect without indulging self-conceit. Of him it may be truly said, that he left college without an enemy. He graduated in the year 1809, with the highest honors of his class, being nearly twenty-four years of age. His valedictory oration, On the Wisdom of Aiming at High Attainments,' was an able defence of the maxims that What man has done, man can do,' and that 'Every man is the architect of his own fortune,' which were practically demonstrated and beautifully illustrated in his own life.

After graduating, Mr. HITCHCOCK found it necessary to seek some employment which would enable him to procure the means to liquidate the debts he had incurred while in college. He accordingly took the charge of a flourishing Academy in Fairfield, Connecticut. As a teacher he was faithful and successful. He spent his time, while not engaged in the duties of his school, as is stated in his private journal, in treasuring up a store of knowledge, which he trusted would one day crown his hopes with as full success as the imperfection of our natures and of our world would allow.' His thirst for knowledge was insatiable; and it was his fervent prayer that he might daily make valuable acquisitions.' None but a hard student would have penned the following sentence, which we extract from his journal: Indeed the scholar's life is a calm and sober existence; he fights no battles; lays waste no fields, but those of paper; experiences no 'hair-breadth 'scapes;' sheds more ink than blood; reads more than he thinks; thinks more than he speaks, speaks more than he writes, and does, in the farmer's sense of the word, about nothing at all.'

He continued to give instruction in the Academy at Fairfield two

years, at the expiration of which time he accepted a tutorship in Yale College. While in this office, he exhibited in an eminent degree those generous, noble qualities of heart and superior intellectual abilities, which were so happily developed in his subsequent life, and which secured for him a name that posterity will not 'willingly let die.' His thorough scholarship, his sound logic, his pleasing manner of imparting instruction, his comprehensive views, his refined taste, his elevated integrity, his extreme modesty, and his kind and conciliating manners, are remembered with affection by many still living. It was his principle to encourage his pupils; and if it was necessary to administer reproof, he never flinched from the task; but he had the rare and happy faculty of doing it in such a manner as to make the offender feel that it was prompted by disinterested kindness, and that it was even a favor to him. Instructors of the present day would do well to remember and practice upon this same principle. He filled the office of tutor four years, and retired, enjoying the entire confidence of the Guardians and Faculty of the College, the esteem and admiration of the students, and the respect and best wishes of all who knew him.

During his tutorship, having chosen the legal profession as the employment of his life, by devoting to the study of the law as much of his time as was consistent with the duties of a laborious and faithful instructor, he prepared himself to enter upon the business of his profession; and accordingly, in the summer of the year 1815, he settled himself in New-Haven as a practising lawyer. He was then nearly thirty years old. Of the variety of his attainments and his extraordinary qualifications for the labors of the profession of his choice, we shall speak in another place. Suffice it for the present to say, that he soon rose to the first rank in his profession, and exhibited such decided proofs of his superiority in the extent, variety and accuracy of legal knowledge, and also in the happy faculty of communicating his knowledge to others, that he was employed in the Yale law-school as an associate instructor with Mr. SETH P. STAPLES, its founder. His connection with the law-school continued until his death. For several years he was mayor of the city of New-Haven, and consented to serve for a short time as judge of the county court for the county of New-Haven. He was also judge of the city court one or two years; and if he had been willing to accept a seat on the bench of the supreme court of the state, he would have received the office by an almost unanimous vote. But he declined being a candidate for this honor, because he deemed its acceptance incompatible with other and more imperative duties. He received the appointment to the presidency of the Hartford and New-Haven rail-road company. He was one of the first and firmest friends of this enterprise, and next to his law-school, he cherished its prosperity. Probably this flourishing corporation is indebted to no individual for its present standing so much as to Judge Hitchcock.

He entertained the highest views of the dignity and usefulness of his profession, and instead of entering the arena of public life,

preferred his situation in the law-school, where he might impart to others something of his own enthusiasm and energy in the prosecution of their studies. On the retirement of Mr. Staples from the law-school, Judge HITCHCOCK became its principal, and the reputation of the school was given and sustained almost entirely by him. It was ever an object of his deep solicitude. He delighted to instruct his successive classes of young gentlemen in the principles of that science which he understood and loved so well; and had reason to anticipate a long life of usefulness in his quiet employment. But the DISPOSER of all things determined otherwise. In the summer of 1845 he was attacked by the typhus fever. But little alarm however for his safety was felt until the very day of his death. The progress of the slow and insidious disease was such that he was unconscious of his approaching end. After an illness of three weeks, he died on the evening of the thirty-first of August, breathing his last without a struggle or a groan, aged fifty-nine years and seven months. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust!'

Such was the life and such the death of one whose existence was consecrated to high and noble ends, and whose memory will ever remain dear to his native State, and whose example and lessons have left a shining track in the success of those whose ambition they have nerved and whose minds they have stored. The termination of a useful life always strikes us with a shock, as if it were not to be expected. We act as if it ought not to be, and lament bitterly over the void made by the loss of such a man. The death of this distinguished citizen cast a deep gloom over the community of which he had long been the ornament and the pride. His life was a public blessing, his death a public calamity. He needs no eulogy, except the simple narrative of his life; and that is above all eulogy.

The chief value of a memoir, as the subject of this sketch once observed, consists in the development of the character of the person described.' We shall, therefore, proceed to notice the striking traits of Judge HITCHCOCK's mind and character, which will be better developed by considering him in the various spheres of life in which he moved. The most characteristic features of his mind were logical penetration, perspicuity and strength. It was solid rather than brilliant; acute in comparing rather than fertile in invention; close rather than rapid in thinking; sagacious rather than quick; searching rather than eager; steady and firm; comprehensive and cautious; patient in inquiry, clear in conception, and exact and forcible in reasoning. His power of intense and protracted application, a quality so essential to the scholar, for success and eminence, was indeed wonderful. Another very prominent trait of his mind was his power of analyzing an intricate question, sifting it of its unimportant ingredients, arranging its essential points in a close, logical order, developing them with an irresistible force, and fortifying the conclusions with an impregnable rampart of reaThis was the basis from which his mind derived its masterly strength and activity. It threaded the mazes of sophistry, and

son.