Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/278

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Yale Law School.
241

ing only upon reaching the age set by the constitution for the retirement of judges. His lectures upon Constitutional Law, delivered before both the Law School and the seniors of the college, were made especially interesting by the recollections of a long public service and familiarity with the practical application of constitutional principles, and also by his intimate fellowship with men of national fame and influence. Old federalist that he was, he undoubtedly shaped the views of many a future lawyer toward a conservative national policy. During the last few years of his connection with the school he took little active part in its work on account of his extreme age. He died in 1851, at the age of eighty-six.

Between 1842 and 1847 three professors served for short periods. One of these was Judge William L. Storrs, who was at the time of his appointment a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, and later its Chief-Justice, and had been in the State Assembly and National Congress. A scholarly and brilliant lawyer, he became one of Connecticut's most distinguished judges, and was unfortunately compelled to relinquish his professorship because of its interference with his judicial duties. During the present year some members of his family[1] have founded in the school a lectureship which will bear his name.

DAVID DAGGETT.

Mr. Henry White, an able and well-known real-estate and probate lawyer, assisted in the school for about two years. Professor Isaac H. Townsend was connected with the school about four years, was appointed professor in 1846, but died early the following year at the age of forty-four. He was peculiarly well fitted for such work, and by his untimely death the school lost an instructor of much promise.

At this time the school had become fully identified with the College, or University as it is now called. The connection, as said before, dates from the publication of the names of the students in the College Catalogue in 1824, and the appointment of Judge Daggett in 1826. Degrees were conferred upon graduates for the first time in 1843, and in 1846 the school had been formally constituted, by vote of the Corporation of Yale College, as one of its co-ordinate branches.

When it became necessary in 1847 to find new instructors, the choice fell upon Hon. Clark Bissell and Mr. Henry Dutton. The former was at the time Governor of the State, and had been for ten years a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. He discharged his duties in the school with great ability until 1855, when he retired from active life. Governor Dutton is still well remembered, especially by his old pupils, for his brilliancy and versatility and his warm kindly disposition. At the time of his appointment he already had considerable experience in public life, and was known as

  1. The daughters of the late Lucius F. Robinson, of Hartford, a nephew of the Chief-Justice and a graduate of the school in the Class of 1845.