From the pastel portrait by James Sharpless Made when the Chancellor was about twenty-five years of age Original in the possession of Mr. William Kent of Tuxedo Park, New York Chancellor Kent (Yale 1781) was essentially and typically a Yale man. In every step of his industrious and useful life he illustrated the training of Yale, and, on many occasions throughout that life, from the beginning to the end, he took occasion to give testimony of his indebtedness to his Alma Mater. He was a Yale man also by heredity. His father, Moss Kent, was a graduate of Yale of the Class of 1752.1 His grandfather, the Rev. Elisha Kent, who was born in 1704, was also a graduate of Yale, of the Class of 1729.2 He himself writes of his grandfather as "a Presbyterian minister who was well educated at Yale College," and there can be no reasonable doubt, I think, but that the Chancellor's great-grandfather, John Kent, of Suffield, and the latter's father, Samuel Kent,* the first American ancestor, who settled in Gloucester, Mass., in 1644, would also have been graduates of Yale had there been, in their day, any Yale to be graduated from! I think that there is a general impression among many that the Chancellor was rather more related to our sister university of Columbia, but this is due undoubtedly to the fact that what may be said to be the crowning work, "the bright, consummate flow'r," of his distinguished labors were his immortal "Commentaries on American Law," which were the result of, and had their origin in, the justly celebrated course of lectures which he delivered at Columbia after his enforced retirement from the Bench at the age of sixty years, in 1823. But this merely illustrates the fact, of which we have no dearth of modern instances, that Columbia was then, as 1. Biographical Sketches/of the/Graduates of Yale College/with/Annals of the College History/By/Franklin Bowditch Dexter/New York/Henry Holt & Company/(Hereinafter cited as Dexter's Annals.) Second Series, p. 287. 2. Dexter's Annals, First Series, p. 384. now, astute in the choice of the seminary from whence to draw its great teachers and administrators of the law. Its deservedly famous school of law was founded by a Yale man, Theodore W. Dwight, of the Yale Law School; and it is too well recognized to require comment that that school was established upon its sound foundation and reared to fame by the learning and ability of Dr. Dwight.1 And, as we all know, that same school, at the present day, is ably presided over by its Dean, Prof. George W. Kirchwey, a Yale graduate of the famous Class of '79. But no one can review the life, or study the writings, of Chancellor Kent without becoming impressed with the fact that he was essentially, in training and in character, a product of this university; and that he himself most abundantly admitted it and gloried in it. He peculiarly illustrated in his life and labors that spirit which we are proud to call, and I think, may justly and without undue arrogance call, the Yale spirit. In this we by no means mean to say that the spirit we thus cherish does not exist elsewhere. On the contrary, it does exist, and we are happy many a time and oft to recognize it in our sister universities; but we love to think of it as particularly, perhaps, existent at "dear old Yale," where it is certainly ever zealously cultivated. His thoroughness of research, his steadfastness of purpose under adverse circumstances and prosperous alike, his abhorrence of, and entire freedom from, sham, or "posing" of any kind, his careful deliberation in weighing all the facts before reaching a conclusion, and above all, the cheerfulness and kindliness that clarified and illumined all his life, these are the qualities which go to form what we love to call the spirit of Yale, and these are the qualities which are most manifest in the whole life of Chancellor Kent.2 It would be far beyond the scope of such a paper as this, not to say immeasurably beyond the powers of your humble correspondent, 1. The Columbia Law School was founded November 1, 1858, by Dr. Theodore W. Dwight (Yale, Law), and almost from the beginning attracted great attention and large numbers of students. By 1875, it had enrolled 573 students and was generally recognized as one of the first law schools of the country. The Green Bag, Vol. 1, p. 141. Dr. Dwight was at the head of this school thirty-three years, from its foundation in 1858 until 1891, the year previous to his death. New International Encyclopædia, Vol. VI, p. 557. 2. Chancellor Kent was of a peculiarly happy disposition. He veritably seemed to revel in work and to rejoice in labor. One of his favorite lines was the encouraging exhortation of Aeneas to his fellows in the midst of their vicissitudes: "Haec olim meminisse juvabit." Aeneid, Book I, v. 203. We find it inscribed in the Chancellor's handwriting in his diaries later referred to (Kent Manuscripts, infra, p. 314), and everywhere he gives evidence that he cherished and cultivated their spirit. to even attempt to do justice to the tremendous subject of the life and works of Chancellor Kent, but it has been thought that a brief review, somewhat historical in its nature, of the Chancellor and of his career, particularly as it touched most closely his Alma Mater, might not be uninteresting or unprofitable. Mr. Joline, in his able and charming paper on “Martin Van Buren, the Lawyer," which he read before the New York State Bar Association at its annual meeting in 1905,1 tells us that it is a good thing for such an association as that (and I think it may be said that it may be equally a good thing for a professional journal like this) "to turn for a moment from the learned essays, of whose worth and dignity we are all profoundly sensible, in order to review by way of historical reminiscence the careers of those who adorn the first century of our jurisprudence. Such studies may not add materially to the sum of our knowledge, but they are useful in the promotion of the brotherly spirit and of the professional pride which every well-constituted Bar should possess and cherish." Mr. Justice Edward Patterson, Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the First Department, wrote in 1873 a "Sketch of the Law Institute," a large and excellent association of lawyers in the City of New York.2 In the course of that sketch, which will well repay perusal, Judge Patterson gives brief accounts-all too brief, alas, for us of the various Presidents of the Institute, including Chancellor Kent, who was its first President (1828-1829) and in the course of this account Judge Patterson says that "of his [Kent's] course at college we have no account." This was true when Mr. Justice Patterson wrote his sketch, but since then some interesting data have become accessible upon this period. In 1898, Chancellor Kent's great-grandson, Mr. William Kent of Tuxedo Park, N. Y., wrote a very charming and agreeable memoir of the life of his distinguished ancestor. In 1891, there was published the diary of Dr. 1. The Autograph Hunter/and/Other Papers/by Adrian Hoffman Joline/ Privately printed/Alderbrink Press, Chicago/MCMVII/.Martin Van Buren, the Lawyer, a paper read before the New York State Bar Association at its annual meeting, January, 1905. Annual Report of the Association for 1905. Vol. XXVIII, p. 182. 2. This sketch is, as may well be imagined, from the character and ability of its author, a most charming one, and may be found printed as an introduction to the catalogue of the Law Institute Library, published in 1874. 3. Memoirs and Letters/of/James Kent, LL.D./late Chancellor of the State of New York/author of/Commentaries on American Law, etc./by his great-grandson/William Kent/of the New York Bar/Boston/Little, Brown & Company, 1898/(Hereinafter cited as Memoirs.) |