Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 03.pdf/497

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
460
The Green Bag.

fere for the release of a prisoner held by the judgment of a Federal court. Lucius Q. C. Elmer was the son of Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, a surgeon in the Revolution ary army, and came of the very best stock in Southern New Jersey. He was born in 1793 at Bridgeton, Cumberland County, 'where he always resided. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania. After leaving that educational institution he entered the office of his relative, Daniel Elmer, who after ward became Associate Justice, and who has already been noticed. He was licensed in 1 81 5 as an attorney, and as a counsellor in 18 18. He began practice at his native place, and it soon became large and extended into the adjacent counties. It was almost considered in his day to be the duty of every young law yer to go to the Legislature. He was not an exception to this almost common law rule, and so he became a member of the lower house for four successive terms from 1820 to 1823, and during the latter year was Speaker of the As sembly. In 1824 he became Prosecutor of the Pleas for his native county, and several times performed the duties of that office in Cape May County. During that time he also was District Attorney of the United States for New Jersey. There was very little business requiring his attention in this last-named office. He himself, in speaking of the court, says that he and the son of the Judge, who was the Clerk, together were unable to persuade the Judge to keep the court open more than a day each term. In 1843 he was elected to Congress, and served one term. In 185ohewas made Attorney-General of the State, but held the office only two years, as in 1852 he was appointed an Associate Justice, which position he held for fifteen years. He was a respect able judge, not remarkable for great breadth of mind in his opinions, but always showing in them care and research, and his course as Judge ever commanded universal respect for his conscientious discharge of the duties of his office. His opinions were favorably -re ceived, but were not always regarded as reli able as those of some of his fellow-judges.

He was a public-spirited man, and supported many of the philanthropical projects of his day. The crowning feature of his character was his strong religious bias, which pervaded his whole life and was carried by him into all its relations. He was quite an author, contributing occasionally to the literature of the New Jersey Historical Society, of which he was for many years an enthusiastic member. He also compiled a book of legal forms, which was largely used by the profession; he made too a valuable digest of the laws of New Jersey. This work has reached its fourth edition; but the later editions have been called " Nixon's Digest," having re ceived many additions from his son-in-law the Hon. John T. Nixon. He wrote a his tory of Cumberland County; but the most important of his published works he called "The Constitution and Government of the Province and State of New Jersey, with Biographical Sketches of its Governors from 1776 to 1845." This is a commendable work, full of information, especially of Lu cius Quintius Cincinnatus Elmer. He received the degree of LL.D. from Princeton College in 1865. In 1869 he retired from active life, and died recently at Bridgeton, well advanced in years. Stacy Gardiner Potts was a Jerseyman by descent through several generations from original settlers in the country in the seventeenth century. The first emigrant of the name was a Quaker from England. With him came Mahlon Stacy. The two families intermarried, and thus the name Stacy found its way into the Potts family. Mahlon Stacy was a large landholder. He bought several hundred acres on both sides of the Assanpink and fronting on the Delaware. In 17 14 he sold this land to Col. William Trent, and from him Trenton, the city which was built there and now the Capital of the State, was named. The grandfather of Judge Potts, who was also named Stacy, owned the house where Colonel Rail, commander of