Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/238

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Michigan University Law School.
203

tion of the admission of Michigan as a State, and which finally accepted the terms proposed by Congress. In 1840 he became a representative in the State Legislature, and in 1867 was appointed a circuit judge by Governor Crapo, to succeed Judge Witherell, who had died in office. He held the place but ten months, when he resigned because of the inadequacy of the salary. Becoming a professor in the Law School in 1859, he continued to hold his chair for fifteen years, when his failing health and the pressing demands of business compelled him to retire from his professorship. The subjects upon which he had lectured were Contracts, Agency, Bills and Notes, Corporations, and Partnership. It is not passing the bounds of truth and soberness to say that Judge Walker was a most able and successful law lecturer and teacher, and it is doubtful whether any man who has been connected with the Law Faculty of the University of Michigan ever surpassed him in those respects. His lectures were always prepared with the greatest care, his method was excellent, his style clear and elegant, and his citation of authorities was made with great good judgment. No student ever went forth from the Michigan Law School without a profound respect for him. When in the year 1886-1887 he consented to re-enter the Law Faculty for the year to fill a temporary vacancy which had occurred, he was cordially welcomed by all.

HENRY B. BROWN.

Of these three men Walker, Campbell, and Cooley, President Angell in his commemorative address delivered at the semicentennial of the University in 1887, spoke as follows:—

"Perhaps never was an American law school so fortunate in its first Faculty, composed of those renowned teachers, Charles I. Walker, James V. Campbell, and Thomas M. Cooley,—all living, thank God, to take part in this celebration, and to receive the loving salutations of the more than three thousand graduates, who, as learners, have sat delighted at their feet. The fame which these men and those afterwards associated with them gave to the school was a source of great strength to the whole University."

In March, 1868, Charles A. Kent, a prominent member of the Detroit Bar, was elected Fletcher Professor of Law in place of Ashley Pond, who had resigned after a few years of service. Mr. Kent was born in St. Laurens County in the State of New York in 1834, and was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1856. For a time after graduation he taught school, being the principal of an academy at Montpelier, Vt. He studied theology at the Andover Theological Seminary from 1857 to 1859, but giving up theology for law, he came to Detroit in 1859, and entered the law office of Walker & Russell as a student, and was admitted to the bar in the following year. Mr. Kent has never been a candidate for public office, but has devoted himself entirely to the profession of the law. He consented, however, in 1881-1882, to serve as a member of a commis-