The Supreme Court of New jfersey. Jersey, where his father was a distinguished physician for many years. His early educa tion was gained in the schools of his native village, but he was prepared for a collegiate course at Lawrenceville. He entered the college at Newark in Delaware, where he re mained for two years, and then joined the junior class in Princeton and graduated in 1838. After graduation he became a studentat-law in the office of Francis L. MacCullough, one of the leading lawyers ot Salem, and was licensed as an attorney in 1841, and as a counsellor in 1844. He spent some years of his early manhood in agricultural pursuits, and so did not become prominent at the bar as early as he would otherwise have done had he devoted his whole time to his profession. Mr. Clawson soon after he was licensed opened an office in his native town, where he continued to live until his death. His practice must necessarily have been lim ited, as Woodstown was a small, straggling country village, of less than a thousand in habitants; situated ten miles from Salem, the country-seat. It had no mechanical nor manufacturing interests, and the commun ity in and around the town was composed mostly of farmers; consequently very little litigation could have arisen. His father was an influential man; and a brother, who also lived at Woodstown, was a leading citizen in the county, and became a member of Congress. The young attorney had there fore the benefit of this family influence, which must have aided him materially. He could not, however, have succeeded as he did, were it not that his native ability and integrity of character supplemented all outside aid. He became so prominent in his profession, however, that in 1847, when Richard P. Thompson, who had been Prosecutor for Salem County, was appointed Attorney-General, he was selected to fill the vacancy thus caused in the Prosecutorship. He performed the duties of this office ably and diligently, and so satisfactorily that in 1859 Governor Olden selected him as an Associate Justice. The appointment was
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made in deference to a demand that some representative from that part of the State where he lived should be placed upon the bench, and Mr. Clawson was the choice of those who seemed most to have a right to be heard upon that subject. The first judicial district, composing the extreme southern counties, was assigned to him. He died in June, 1861, in the second year after his appointment. It was generally supposed that he was a victim, with so many others, to the mys terious and insidious disease which attacked many guests of the National Hotel at Wash ington, who attended the Inauguration of President Buchanan. Mr. Clawson was one of these guests, and never after this visit to Washington was in his ordinary health. He was not a great lawyer, nor perhaps would he have been equal to the task of performing the duties of an associate justice in a large and important circuit, nor of grappling with the varied and com plicated legal questions which are so constantly arising from the ramified and perplexing relations of the business of the present. But he was a man of excellent judgment, of good, sound common-sense, and of sterling integrity. He brought to his office a determination to do his duty and his whole duty. If industry, honesty, and strict attention to the duties of his position, combined with fair abilities, were all that was necessary to have made a good judge, then William S. Clawson succeeded. It must be remembered, when criticising him and his efforts as Judge, that during all the time he was in office a slow and lingering disease was carrying him to an early grave, and that he should not be weighed in the same balance with other men whose strong, vigorous nature was not disturbed by a lurking disorder which was sapping the fountains of life. John Van Dyke was born at Lamington, in New Jersey, early in 1807. His father, who was a farmer of moderate means, was a descendant of one of the many Germans
