Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/206

A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Ohio. cellaneous library, a very large one for those days, he bequeathed to his eldest sister, Mrs. E. N. Burr. In politics Judge Couch was moderate in his views, but gave to the administrations of Madison and Monroe his steady support. In moral character he was above reproach, adhering strictly to the principles of his

Puritan education. Jacob Burnett, LL.D., was born in New Jersey, on the 22d of February, 1770, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 1oth of May, 1853. He was edu cated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, graduat ing with high honors in 1791. He read law under Judge Boudinot, at Newark, and in the spring of 1796 was, by the Supreme Court of the State, admitted to practice. He at once proceed ed to Cincinnati, Ohio, when that now prosperous city con sisted of a few frame houses, and forty or fifty log-cabins, with LUTHER a population of one hundred and fifty people all told, the esti mated population of the Northwestern Terri tory, at that time, being but about fifteen thou sand. He was appointed, under the ordin ance of 1787, by President John Adams, a member of the legislative council of five persons, for the Territory. Judge Burnett remained a member of this council until its dissolution by the organization of the Ter ritory into a State. He was the author of the greater portion of the territorial laws, and has been spoken of as Justinian, that

179

great law-giver. He retired from the ac tive practice of law in 18 17. In 182 1 he was appointed a member of the Supreme Court Bench, and was afterwards elected to that position by the Legislature. He re signed from the Bench in 1828, after hav ing been elected to the United States Senate, to fill the place made vacant by the resignation of General W. H. Harri son. He accepted this high honor, as no other man has done, in Ohio, with the ex press understanding that he was not to be re-elected; and what is still more strange, in the light ofsubsequent history, he positively refused to accept a re-elec tion. On leaving the United States Senate, he left politics behind him, never to re-enter the same. About the time of his election to the Supreme CburtBench of Ohio, he was elected professor of law in the University of Lexington, Vir ginia, from which in DAY. stitution of learning he received the honorary degree of doctor of laws, Nassau Hall, his alma mater, con ferring the same degree upon him. Judge Burnett was a man of strong likes and dislikes, and it was said of him, " that once you had his friendship you always had it, unless proven absolutely unworthy of the same." A believer in the inspiration of the Bible, his conduct, both public and private, was beyond criticism. When Blennerhasset was to be tried as an accessory to Aaron Burr in his treasonable conspiracy against