to consider the latter subject which I have men tioned, may settle it in a manner equitable and satisfactory to all parts of the Union. It is most gratifying to me to learn that you with others of my friends approve so warmly of the position which I have taken. I shall be most happy and fortunate if my course and position should tend in any degree to modify the bitterness of party spirit or serve to unite the great interests with all parts of our country. I should not forget to thank you for the information you were so kind as to give me of the good feeling towards me in your State. I honor no part of our country, for sub stantial qualities and patriotism, more than the New England States, and should deem myself greatly complimented to receive the vote of any portion of her citizens. To the State of Maine I feel grateful for the first movement in New Eng land in my favor. I have but to add that any information or sug gestions which you may be disposed to offer to me will be most acceptable. I am, dear sir, with high respect and esteem, Your mo. obed't ser't, z TAyLQR
Judge Kent sat on the bench fourteen years. It was then the custom to issue one volume of reports each year. Yet I find that occasionally the work of the court in preparing opinions increased the number somewhat from one year to another. Hence the number of volumes containing his opin ions, being numbers forty-six to sixty-two, or sixteen in all, overruns the number of years he occupied the bench. He was a ready and easy writer. His style was clear, beautiful, finished, with no trace of haste, strong and eloquent at times. He generally wrote in the traditional judicial style to which the Massachusetts Supreme Court has always adhered; but at times, when the oc casion was suitable, his eloquence budded out into rhetorical flowers. His first opin ion is in the case of Everett v. Herrin, 46 Maine, 557, relating to property exempted from attachment, and holds that a debtor, who is a foreigner temporarily within the State, is not excluded from the benefits of our exemption laws because he is a foreigner. In
the same volume, at page 579, will be found his joint answer with Chief-Justice Appleton to the question of the House of Repre sentatives addressed to the court upon the constitutionality of the Personal Liberty Laws of the State — a question much agi tated before the inauguration of President Lincoln. As would be believed, these two judges were in perfect accord in their views, and capable of demonstrating, both by prin ciple and precedent, the soundness of their answers. One who believes in human rights reads with pleasure this concluding sen tence : " It is due from the judiciary to it self, and to the Legislature, that it should not resort to special pleading nor to strained constructions of the language of a statute, when thereby, and thereby alone, it is to be rendered unconstitutional." In Felch v. Bugbee, 48 Maine, 10, the ef fect of the insolvent laws of a foreign State upon debts and property within the State is considered fully. It is a much cited case up on the doctrine of lex loci and citizenship as affecting contracts. Hinckley v. Gilmore, 49 Maine, page 63, involved the right to sell, on a writ and before judgment, the logs at tached to enforce a lien. In speaking of the statute, he says : " Those sections contem plate a party, who can and will determine and act from intelligence and according to a formed judgment, and not a mere ' King Log. "... In this case, the action had not been entered in court when the appraisement and sale were made. The property attached was the defendant in the suit, and therefore they could not assent to or refuse a propo sition to sell by consent. The logs were dumb." There is no sentence in any writ ten opinion quoted more often than the fol lowing in Gleason v. Bremen, 50 Maine, page 226, an action, to recover damages caused by a defective highway: "The trav eler has duties as well as the town, and one of the most obvious is to use his eyes to see what is before him on the road, or on its sides, which may require care in passing. "
