Reuben Hyde Walworth. brought him no fame nor credit. It .must also be conceded that his administration of the case was the only serious charge ever made against his fairness and integrity. It seems a pity that the last twenty years of this life should have been so much en grossed in such trifles as recording a family history and settling a dispute between rival manufacturers. In a similar period Kent gave mankind his Commentaries. Both had previously performed enormous labors, and perhaps Walworth should not be blamed for seeking rest and amusement. He had fairly earned it by his vast and imperishable achieve ment, but his published reminiscences would be of large value and interest. One feels constrained to say that he gave up to family what was meant for mankind. The Chancellor was a religious man, and a firm believer of the Christian faith after the old-school Presbyterian fashion. He was active in all ecclesiastical matters — one of the incorporators of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and vice-president of the American Bible Society and the American Tract Society. His gifts to religion and charity were frequent and generous. In 1838 he sustained the Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge in cutting off the new school churches of the Presbyterian denomina tions from the fellowship of the General Assembly, on account of the slavery ques tion. He received the degree of LL.D. from Princeton, Harvard and Yale. It is rather surprising to note how small a ripple upon the ocean of life was caused by the going down of this celebrated lawyer.
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Although he had held more judicial power than any other man of his time, and had exercised an influence upon the jurisprudence of the state and the pecuniary interests of its citizens quite unparalleled — a power and an influence which are marvelous when one carefully considers them, and which society will never again consent to enable one man to acquire — and although he had been blameless in his great office, yet he had ap parently outlived the recollection of the com munity. Very small notice was taken of his death. His legal friends and neighbors at Saratoga held a Bar meeting, at which the conventional things were said, but at which there was no approach to a just estimate of his remarkable public services. These pro ceedings are reported in 49th Barbour's Re ports, and the reporter states that there had been a similar meeting in the city of New York, addressed by Daniel Lord, James W. Gerard and Charles O'Conor, but that its proceedings had never been published, and he had been unable to obtain a copy. So far as I can discover the Court of Appeals took no official notice of his death, although at about the same period it wept officially over two or three deceased judges of that court (the names escape my recollection), and Walworth's portrait was hanging on the wall of its court-room. Such is professional fame! But Wal worth has left an imperishable mark upon our laws which change and reform can never obscure, and the praise of men is of small account to one who, like him, can enter Heaven's chancery with clean hands.
