The Suprerne Court of Maine. Among the privileges he then enjoyed was that of hearing the eminent lawyers at the Boston Bar. Among others were Par sons, afterwards chief-justice; Dexter, who had been in both houses of Congress, and the cabinet of the elder Adams; Sullivan and Gore, each of whom was subsequently elevated to the governor's chair in Massa chusetts; and the elegant and brilliant Otis, at that time the delight and favorite of thecity. Upon his admission to the bar, his teacher, Mr. Blake, who appreciated his talents and acquirements, proposed favorable terms of a partnership; but he declined, although urged to accept the proposal, choosing to push his fortunes in Maine. He first opened an office in Augusta, but in a few months was persuaded by friends in that part of the country to remove to New Gloucester, in the county of Cumberland, where he found an opening made by the removal of Judge Whitman to Portland. He had a successful business there, and was chosen a representative of the town the next year. In 18 10, he returned to his native town, and the next year, at the age of twenty-nine, was appointed chief-justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the second circuit, comprising the counties of Kennebec, Lincoln and Somerset. His as sociates were Benjamin Ames and Ebenezer Thatcher. Judge Weston presided with dignity and ease in the new court, faithfully and promptly discharging the duties of the office to the ac ceptance of the bar and the people until 1820, when on the organization of the new State, he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. He was commended to this honorable position, at the side of Chief-Justice Mellen, by his experience and the satisfaction he had given in the discharge of his official functions in the Circuit Court of Common Pleas. Upon the retirement of Judge Mellen, in 1834, by reason of the constitutional limit of his age, he was ap pointed chief-justice of the Supreme Judicial
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Court, his associates being Judges Parris and Emery. In 1825, he was, by the nearly unanimous vote of the legislature without distinction of party, nominated for governor. Retaining however, a preference for the judicial de partment, he declined the proffered honor. His term of service as chief justice was seven years, at the end of which, in October, 1 84 1, a constitutional amendment having been adopted, limiting the judicial tenure to seven years, he retired from the bench. He was nominated by Governor Kent as his own successor, but the council who belonged to the opposite party failed to confirm him. He was placed so early upon the bench that he was removed from active political life. He was appointed a trustee of Bowdoin college in 1820, and served during his life. In 1843, the college conferred upon him the title of LL.D., he having been previously thus honored by Dartmouth and Waterville. He was also a trustee of Waterville College, now Colby University, for thirty-two years. He was a sound and able lawyer. At nisi prius he presided with perfect ease and dignity, calmness and ability. His long ex perience enabled him to rule promptly and accurately upon all points of law raised at trials. He was a model of patience in the hearing of causes; his charges to the jury were clear, full and methodical. To the members of the bar, he was frank and cour teous at all times. Of him as a man and judge, in a carefully considered review of his life, ex-Chief-Justice Appleton thus speaks: "With a mind emi nently judicial, accustomed to the labors of the bench, its duties were easy and their performance a pleasure. As a judge, kind, prompt and ready in his rulings, he presided with an ease and courtesy which inspired the confidence of the young, and with a dignity which commanded the respect of all. Patiently he listened to the arguments of counsel. His charges were in language clear and distinct. With a tenacious memory, he
