Life and character of Hon. Thomas
Ruff In
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LIFE AND CHARACTER
OF THE
HON. THOMAS RUFFIN,
Late Chief Justice of North Carolina.
^ MEMORIAL ORATION,
WILLIAM A. GRAHAM,
Delivered before the Agricultural Society of the State, by its request,
at the Annual Fair in Raleigh, Oct. 21st, 1870.
EALEIGH, N. (J.
NlCnOIiS & GOKMAN, BOOK AND JOB rBINTER.S.
LIFE AND CHARACTER
OF THE
HOJ(. THOMAS RUFFIN,
Late Chief Justice of North Carolina.
A MEMORIAL ORATION,
BY
T\1LLIA]\I A. GRAHA^r,
Delivered before the Agricultural Society of the State, by its request,
at the Annual Fair in Raleigh, Oct. 21st, 1870.
EALEIGH, K 0.:
NICHOLS & GOKMAX, BOOK AXD JOB PRIXTERS.
1871.
ORATION.
The patriotic people of tbe Coimty of Kockingliam
in a public assemblage at tbeir first Superior Court
after tbe deatb of Cbief Justice Euffix, in which
they were joined with cordial sympathy by the gen-
tlemen of the bar of that Court, resolved to manifest
their appreciation of his talents, virtues and pubhc
usefulness, by causing to be pronounced a memorial
oration on his life and character. Such an offering
was deemed by them a fitting tribute from a people
among whom his fiimily first settled upon their arri-
val in Xorth Carolina, and with whom he had been
associated as a planter and cultivator of the soil from
his early manhood till his decease.
The Agricultural Society of the State, of which for
many years he had been a distinguished President,
subsequently determined on a like offering to his mem-
ory at their annual Fair. The invitation to prepare
such a discourse has been by both l)odies extended to
the same individual. The task is undertaken with dif-
fidence, and a sense of apprehension, that amid the
multiplicity of other engagements, its fulfilment may
fail in doing justice to the subject of the memoir.
Thomas Ruffin, the eldest child of his parents, was
born at ^''ewington, the residence of his macernal
(rrand Father, Thomas Ptoane, in the County of King
and (,)ueen, in Virginia, on the 17t]i of Xovember,
1787.
4 Life and Cliaracter of the
His Father, Sterling Euffin, Esquire, was a planter
in the neighboring County of Essex, who subse-
quently transferred his residence to I^orth Carolina,
and died in the County of Caswell. Ardent in his
religious sentiments, and long attached to the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, he very late in life, entered
the ministry, and was for a few years prior to his
death, a preacher in that denomination.
His Mother, Ahce Eoane, was of a family much
distinguished in Virginia by the public service of
many of its members, and was herself first cousin
of Spencer Eoane, the Chief Justice of that State
in the past generation, whose judicial course, con-
nected as it was with questions of difficulty and
importance in constitutional law, gave him high pro-
fessional, as well as political, distinction ; but it may
well be doubted, whether, in all that constitutes a
great lawyer, he had any pre-eminence over the sub-
ject of our present notice, his junior kinsman in
Xorth Carohna, then but rising into fame, and des-
tined to fiU the like office in his own State.
His Father, though not affluent, had a respectable
fortune, and sought for the son the best means of
education. His early boyhood was passed on the
farm in Essex, and in attendance on the schools of
the vicinity. Thence, at a suitable age, he was sent
to a classical Academy in the beautiful and health-
ful village of Warrenton, in North Carolina, then
under the instruction of Mr. Marcus George, an
Irishman by birth and education, a fine classical
scholar and most painstaking and skillful instructor,
especially in elocution, as we must believe, since
Hon. Thomas Rnjjln. 5
amoug his pupils who survived to our times, we
fiud the best readers of our acquaiutance iu their
day. His excellence in this particular was probablj'-
attributable to his experience on the theatrical stage,
where he had spent a portion of his life. He
made his first appearance in the State at the
Convention in Hillsborough, in 1788, which rejected
the Federal Constitution, in search of employment
as a teacher, was engaged by the Warren gentlemen
then in attendance, and many years subsequently
was still at the head of a flourishing school, in
which our student entered. The system and dis-
cipline of Mr. George conformed to the ancient
regime^ and placed great faith in the rod. He is
described as a man of much personal prowess and
spirit, who did not scruple to administer it on his
pupils, when sloth, delinquency or misbehavior requu:ed,
without reference to age, size or other circumstances.
Yet he secured the respect of his patrons, and the
confidence of the public, and inspu^ed the gratitude
and affection of his pupils in a remarkable degree.
This turning aside from our subject, to pay a
passing tribute to his old preceptor, is deemed to be
justified not only by the long and useful labors of
Mr. George, in the instruction of youth in the gen-
eration in which Mr. Kuffin's lot was cast, but because
he himself entertained the highest appreciation of the
profession of an instructor, accustoming himself to
speak of it as one of the most honorable and bene-
ficent of human employments. Throughout his labo-
rious and well-spent life, he often acknowledged his
6 Life and Character of the
obligations of gratitude for the earl}^ training lie liad
received under the tuition of this faithful, but some-
what eccentric son of Erin. And it may well be
doubted whether Lord Eldou, in the maturity of his
wisdom and great age, retained a more grateful and
affectionate recollection of Master Moises of the High
School of IS'ew Gastle, than did Chief Justice Eufifin
of Master George of the Warrenton Male Academy.
At this institution were assembled the sons of most
of the citizens of Eastern North Carolina and the bor-
dering counties of Virginia, aspiring to a liberal edu-
cation. And here were formed friendships, which
he cherished with great satisfaction throughout lite.
Among his companions were the late Eobeit Broad-
nax, of Eockingham, subsequently a planter of large
possessions on Dan Eiver, among the most estimable
gentlemen of his time; and Cadwallader Jones, then
of Halifax, but afterwards of Orange, at different
periods an officer in the l^avy and in the Army of
the United States, a successful planter, and a model
of the manners and virtues which give a charm to
social intercourse. With both of these gentlemen his
early attachments were in after life cemented by the
union in marriage of their children. Here, too, he
found ^Yeldon I^. Edwards, of Warren, subsequently*
distinguished by much public service in Congress and *
under the Government of the State, thenceforward
his lifelong friend, with whom his bonds of amity
seemed to be drawn more closely as others of his con-
temporaries dropped from around him. Of these four
youths of the Warrenton Academy, at the beginning of
Hon. Thomas Biiffin. 7
the nineteeutli century, Mr. Edwards alone surw^es.
Long may he live to enjoy the veneration and respect
dne to a life of probity, honor and usefulness.
From the WaiTenton Academy young Euffin was
transferred to the College of Nassau Hall, at Prince-
ton, New Jersey. It is believed that his father, who
was a deeply pious man, was controlled in the selec-
tion of this College in preference to that of William &
Mary, in Virginia, next to Harvard University the
oldest institution of learning in the United States, not
only by a desire to place his son in an unsuspected
situation as to his health, which had suffered from the
malarial influences prevaihng in the tidewater region
of Eastern Ykginia, but to secure him as well fiom
the temptation incident to College hfe, in an institu-
tion, in which as he supposed, there was too loose
an authority and discipline exerted over the sons of
aflluence and ease. He entered the Freshman class, at
Princeton, and '^graduated at the commencement in
1805;" the sixteenth in a class of forty-two mem-
bers, '* being the first of the second division of in-
termediate honors." The late Governor James Ire-
dell, of North Carolina, was in the class succeeding
his own, and for nearly the whole of his College
course, his room-mate. Thus commenced a filendship
between these gentlemen in youth, which was termin-
ated only by the death of Mr. Iredell. Among oth-
ers of his College associates who became distinguished
in subsequent life, there were Samuel L. Southard
and Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, Joseph
K. lugersoll, of Philadelphia, the Cuthberts and Ha-
8 Life and Character of the
bershams, of Georgia, Christopher Hughes of Maryland,
and Stevenson Archer, of Mississippi.
Eeturning home with his bachelor degree, Mr. Euf-
fin soon afterwards entered the law office of David
Eobertson, Esquk-e, of Petersbm^g, as a student of
the law, and continued there through the years 1806
and 1807. Here he was associated as fellow-student
with John F. May, afterwards Judge May, of Pe-
tersburg, and Winfield Scott, afterwards so highly dis-
tinguished in arms, and the only officer down to his
time, except General Washington, who attained the
rank of Lieutenant General in the army of the United
States. General Scott, in his Autobiography, describes
their preceptor, Mr. Kobinson, as a Scotchman, a very
learned scholar and barrister, who originally came to
America as a classical teacher ; but subsequently gained
high distinction as a lawyer, and was the author of the
report of the debates in the Virginia Convention
which adopted the Federal Constitution, and of the
report of the trial of Aaron Burr for high treason.
In a note to the same work. General Scott mentions
his chancing to meet Judge Euffin in N'ew York in
1853, while the latter was attending as a delegate,
the Protestant Episcopal Convention, of the United
States after a separation of forty-seven years, and
recurs to their association together with Judge May,
as law students, and to the conversation in which
they then indulged, with manifest pride and pleasure.
He also refers to their subsequent intercourse in the
city of Washington, in 1861, while Judge Euffin was
serving as a member of the Peace Congress, and ex-
Hon. Tlwmas Euffni. 9
presses the opiiiiuu, that, "if the sentiments of this
good man, always highly conservative (the same as
Crittenden's,") had prevailed, the country would have
escaped the sad inflictions of the war, which was
radnii at the time he wrote.
Sterhng Ruffin, the father, having suffered some re-
verses of fortune, determined to change his home,
and removed to Eockingham County, North Carolina,
in 1807. His son soon fohowed,' a wilhng emigrant.
It was in :N'orth Carolina he had received his first
training for useful life: here was the home of most
of his early friends, and here he confidently hoped
to renew his association with Broadnax, Jones, Ed-
wards, Iredell and other kindred spirits.
He doubtless brought with him a considerable store
of professional learning from the office of Mr. Eob-
ertson, in which he had been more than two years a
student, but on his arrival in :Nrorth Carolina, he
pursued his further studies under the direction of the
Honorable A. D. Murphey, until his admission to the
bar, in 1808. Early in 1809, he estabhshed his home
in the town of Hillsborough, and on the 9th of De-
cember, in that year, he was united in marriage
with Miss Anne Kirkland, eldest daughter of the
late Wihiam Kirkland, of that place, a prominent
merchant and leading citizen.
The twenty years next ensuing, during which his
residence was continually in Hihsborough, comprehends
his career at the bar and on the Bench of the Su-
perior Courts. In 1813, 1815 and 1816, he served
as a member of the Legislature in the House of
10 Life and Cliaracter of the
Commons from this town, under the old Constitutiony
and filled the office of Speaker of the House, at the
last mentioned session, when first elected a Judge
upon the resignation of that office by Duncan Cam-
eron. He was also a candidate on the electoral
ticket in favor of Wihiam H. Crawford for the Pres-
idency of the United States, in 1824. But his as-
pirations, tastes and interests inclined him not to po-
litical honors, but to a steady adherence to the pro-
fession to which his life was devoted. He found at
the bar in Orange and the neighboring counties to
which his practice was extended several gentlemen,
his seniors in years, who were no ordinary competi
tors for forensic fame and patronage; of whom it
may be sufficient to name Archibald D. Mm^Dhey, Fred-
erick :N"ash, William l^orwood, Duncan Cameron, (who
although he had suspended his practice for a time,
resumed it not long after Mr. Euffin came to the
bar,) Henry Seawell, Leonard Henderson, Wilham
Eobards, I^icholas P. Smith, of Chatham, and later of
Tennessee. His first essays in argument are said not
to have been very fortunate. His manner was diffi-
dent and his speech hesitating and embarrassed. But
these difficulties being soon overcome, the vigor of
his understanding, the extent and accuracy of his
learning, and his perfect mastery of his causes by
diligent preparation, in a short time gave him posi-
tion among these veterans of the profession, secured
him a general and lucrative practice, and an easy
accession to the Bench in seven years from his ini-
tiation at the bar. His reputation was greatly ad-
Hon. Thomas JRuffin. 11
vanced and extended by the manner in which he ac-
(initted himself in this oflQce. The ^wants, however,
of an increasing family and an unfortunate involve-
nieiit hy suretyship forbade his continuance in a sit-
uation of no better income than the salary which
was its compensation. He resigned to the Legislature
of 1818, and immediately returned to the practice.
Mr. Euffin had kept up habits of close study of his
profession before his promotion to the Bench, and
the leisure aflorded by the vacations of the office was
eagerly availed of, for the same object. He came
back to the bar not only with his health renovated,
which had never been very robust, but with a bright-
ness in his learning and an increase of fame, which,
in the Supreme Court then recently estabhshed on its
l)resent basis, and in the Circuit Court of the United
States, as well as on the ridings in the State Courts,
brought to him a practice and an income, which has
hardly ever been equalled in the case of any other
practitioner in i^orth Carolina. For forty-three weeks
in the year he had his engagements in Court, and
despite of all conditions of the weather or other im-
pediments to travelling in the then state of the coun-
try, rarely fliiled to fulfil them. He held the appoint-
ment of Eeporter of the decisions of the Supreme
Court for one or two terms, but rehnquished it from
the engrossment of his time by his practice ; and
his labors are embraced in the prior part of the
first volume of Hawks. Mr. Archibald Henderson,
Mr. Gaston, Mr. Seawell, Mr. Murphey, Mr. Moses
Mordecai, Mr. Gavin Hogg, and Mr. Joseph Wilson,
12 Life and Character of the
all men of renown, were, with Mr. Euffin, the chief
advocates in the Supreme Court at that period, Mr.
Kash and Mr. Badger being then upon the Bench;
and according to tradition, at no time have the ar-^
guments before it been more thorough and exhaus-
tive. The late Governor Swain being a part of this
period a student of the law in the office of Chief
Justice Taylor, in a public address at the opening
at Tucker Hall, in which he gave many reminiscences
of former times in Ealeigh, mentions a prediction in
his hearing of Mr. Gaston to one ot his clients in
1822, that if Mr. Eufl&n should live ten years longer
he would be at the head of the profession in [N'orth
Carolina. By the same authority we are informed,
that only a year or two later. Judge Henderson de-
clared that he had then attained this position of
eminence. Among the professional gentlemen he met
in the. wide range of his practice on the circuits,
in addition to his seniors already named, were Bart-
lett Yancey, Augustine H. Shepperd, Eomulus M.
Saunders, James Martin, Thomas P. Devereux, Jas.
F. Taylor, Charles Manly, Wm. H. Haywood, Jr.,
Daniel L. Barringer, Samuel Hillman, John M. and
James T. Morehead, Bedford Brown, Wilhe P. and
Priestly H. Mangum, Francis L. Hawks, Thos. Set-
tle, John M. Dick, George C Mendenhall, and sev-
eral others, of high distinction among the advocates
and pubUc characters of the State; by all of whom
his eminent abilities and attainments were fully ac-
knowledged and appreciated.
In the summer of 1825, upon the resignation of
Hon, Thomas Buffni. 13
Judge Badger, ]\Ir. Euffiu again accepted the appoint-
liieiit of a Judge of the Superior Courts. His recent
successes had reheved hiui of embarrassment, and
supphed him a competent fortune ; his health deman-
ded relaxation and rest; and his duties to his family,
now quite numerous, in his estimation required more
of his presence at home than was consistent with
the very active life he was leading. He therefore
relinquished his great emoluments at the bar for the
inadequate salary then paid to a Judge, and virtually
closed his career as an advocate. By the bar and the
public he was welcomed back on the circuits, and for
the three following years he administered the law with
such universal admiration and acceptance, both on the
part of the profession and the people, that he was
generally designated by the public approbation for the
succession to the Bench of the Supreme Court when-
ever a vacancy should occur.
The reputation he had established by this time,
however, did not merely assign him capabilities as a
lawyer, but ascribed to him every qualification of a
thorough man of affairs. It was conceded, at least,
that he could teach bankers, banking and merchants
the science of accounts.
In the Autumn of 1828, the stockholders of the old
State Bank of Xorth Carolina, at the head of whom
were William Polk, Peter Browne and Duncan Cam-
eron, owing to the great embarrassment of the affairs
of this institution, involving disfavor with the public,
and threats of judicial proceedings for a forfeiture of
its charter, prevailed on him to take tlie Presidency of
14 Life and Character of the
the Bank, with a salary increased to the procurement
of his acceptance ; and with the privilege on his part
to practice his profession in the city of Ealeigh. In
twelve months devoted to this office, with his charac-
teristic energy, mastering the affairs of the Bank with
a true talent for finance, making available its assets
and providing for its liabilities, and inspiring confidence
by the general faith in his abilities and high purpose
to do right, he effectually redeemed the institution,
and prepared the w^ay to close out in credit the re-
maining term of its charter.
At this period, also, another place of high political
eminence was at his choice, but w^as promptly declined.
A vacancy having happened in the Senate of the Uni-
ted States by the appointment of Governor Branch
to the head of the Navy department, and the Honor-
able Bartlett Yancey, who had been the general favor-
ite for the succession, having recently died, Mr. Rufiin
was earnestly sohcited to accept a candidacy for this
position with every assurance of success. But his de-
sire was, as he himself expressed it among his friends,
^' after the labor and attention he had bestowed upon
his profession, to go down to posterity as a lawyer."
Irrespective, therefore, of his domestic interests, and
the care and attention due to his family, of which no
naan ever had a truer or warmer conception, he could
not be diverted from his chosen line of lile by the at-
tractions of even the highest political distinction.
While assiduously employed in the affairs of the
Bank, to which was devoted the year 1821), his services
Avere still demanded by clients in the higher couits,
Hon. Thomas Ruffln, 15
aud his reputation at the bar suffered no ecUpse.
Upon the death of Chief Justice Taylor, in this year,
the Executive appointment of a successor was confer-
red on a gentleman of merited eminence in the pro-
fession, and of a singularly pure and elevated charac-
ter ; hut the sentiment of the majority of the profes-
sion as well as public opinion, had made choice of Mr.
liuffin for the permanent office, and he was elected a
Judge of the Supreme Court at the session of the Leg-
islature in the autumn of 1829. In 1833, upon the
demise of Chief Justice Henderson, he was elevated to
the Chief Justiceship, in which he won that fame
which will longest endure, because it is incorporated
in the judicial literature of the country, and is co-ex-
tensive with the study and administration of our sys-
tem of law.
Before directing attention to his labors in this high-
est court of appeals in the State, it is appropriate to
remark on his prior career as an advocate, counsellor
and Judge of the Superior Courts. Of his arguments
at the bar, at nisi prius, or in the Courts of appeal,
no memorials have been preserved save the imperfect
briefs contained in the causes that have been reported.
His nature was ardent, and his manner of speech ear-
nest and often vehement in tone and gesticulation.
Though versed in hcUes lettre^s, and with tastes to rel-
isli eloquent declamation, it was a held into which he
did not often, if at all, adventure. His reliance was
upon logic, not upon rhetoric; and even his illustra-
tions were drawn from things practical, rather than
the ideal. Analyzing and thoroughly comprehending
16 Life and Character of the
his cause, he held it up plainly to the view of others,
and with a searching and incisive criticism exposed
and dissipated the weak points in that of his adver-
sary : and all this, in a vigorous, terse and manly Eng-
lish, every word of which told. Few advocates ever
equaUed him in presenting so much ot solid thought
in the same number of words, or in disentangling com-
plicated facts, or elucidating abstruse learning sd* as to
make the demonstration complete to the minds of the
auditory ; capacities, doubtless gained by severe cul-
ture, a part of which, as I learned from an early stu-
dent in his office, had been a daily habit, long after
his admission to the bar, of going carefully over the
demonstration of a theorem in Mathematics. Thus
habituated to abstract and exact reasoning, he de-
lighted in the approach to exactness in the reasoning
of the law, and no student could more truly say of his
professional investigations, ^^ Lahor ipse est vohiptas.'^
The accuracy thus attained in his studies, gave him
high eminence as a pleader, in causes both at law and
in Equity; and among his associates usually devolved
on him the office of framing the pleadings in the causes
in which they were engaged. It also gave him rank
among the great counsellors of the time, whose opin-
ions were not the result of cramming for an occasion,
or a fortunate authority, but the well considered reflec-
tions of gifted minds imbued with law as a science,
and who had explored to their sources, the principles
uvolved in the subjects they examined, and made them
their own. This full developement of his forensic char-
acter does not appear to have been manifested until
Hon, Thomas Euffin. 17
after Lis retuiu to the bar subsequently to his first
service ou the bench. But from this period tiU his
second retirement, in 1825, he had hardly a rival in
the bar of the Supreme Court of the State or the
Circuit Court of the United States, except Archibald
Henderson and Gaston, and had a command of the
practice in all the State Courts he attended. As a
Judge of the Superior or nisi prius Courts, he exhib-
ited equal aptitude for the Bench as for the practice
at the Bar. With an energy that pressed the business
forward, a quickness rarely equalled in perceiving and
comprehending facts, patient and industrious habits of
labor, and a spirit of command which suffered no time
to be lost, he despatched causes with expedition, but
with no indecent haste. Whilst he presided, it was
rare that any cause before a jury ever occupied more
than a single day, and none is remembered that ex-
tended beyond two.
It may be inferior to the dignity of the occasion to
indulge in professional anecdotes. The promptness,
however, with which he disposed of a case of some
novelty on the circuit, may justify a passing notice.
The plaintiff and defendent had disputed on a matter
of law, and growing warm in the controversy, laid a
wager on the ({uestion of whether or not the law was
as affirmed by the plaintiff; and a suit was brought to
have the point determined. After the contract of wa-
ger had been proved, the plaintiff rested. The Judge
called on the counsel for the plaintiff to prove that he
had won. The counsel replied that that depended on
the I'oint of law wliich he submitted to his Honor.
18 Life and Cliaracter of the
The Judge rejoined, that it was oue of facts in the
the controversy^, on which he was forbidden to express
an opinion; but for then" trifling with the Court in
instituting such an action, he ordered it to be dismiss-
ed, and each party to pay half the costs, with an inti-
mation, that it was leniency in the Court to stop with
no greater penalty. It is worthy of remark, that about
the same time, as we since learn fi^om the reports,
Chief Justice Abbott, in the King Bench in England,,
ordered a cause " to be struck out of the paper," the
subject of the action being a wager on a dog-fight,
upon the ground that it was insignificant, and it would
be a waste of time to try it.
In administering the criminal law, in which the ex-
tent of punishment generally depended on the discre-
tion of the Judge, his sentences were such as to in-
spire evil doers with terror, but eminently tended to
give protection to society and confidence to honest and
law-abiding men.
His accession to the Bench ot the Supreme Court
was a source of general satisfaction to the profession,,
and to the people of the State, by whom his enlight-
ened labors in the circuits had been witnessed with
admiration and pride. He at once took a conspicuous
part in the proceedings of this high tribunal, and for
twenty-three years, that he continuously sat there, pro-
bably delivered a greater number of the opinions on
which its judgments were founded, than any Judge
with whom in this long career he was associated.
These opinions are found through more than twent^^-
five volumes of books of reports, and form the bulk
lion. Thomas Ruffin. 1^
of our jiulieial literature for a full geueration. They
embrace topics of almost every variety, civil and
criminal, legal and equitable, concerning probate and
administration, marriage and divorce, slavery and
fieedom, and constitutional law, wliicli can enter into
judicial controversy, in the condition of society then
prevailing in the State, and constitute memorials of
her jurisprudence, by which the members of the pro-
fession are content she shall be judged in the pres-
ent age and by posterity. They have been cited
with approbation in the American courts. State and
National, by eminent legal authors, and in the ju-
dicial deliberations of Westminster Hall ; and the
Xorth Carolina lawyer who can invoke one of them
as a case in point with his own, generally consid-
ers that he is possessed of an impenetrable shield.
It has been rare in England that a Judge or Ad-
vocate has reached high distinction in the courts
both of common law and Equity. The student of
the judicial arguments of Chief Justice Ruffin will
be at a loss to determine in which of these branches
of legal science he most excelled. To the votary of
the common law, fresh from the perusal of the black
letter of the times of the Tudors and early Stuarts,
and captivated with its artificial refinements and
technical distinctions as to rights and remedies, he
would appear to have pursued his professional edu-
cation upon the intimation of Butler in his remin-
iscences, that " he is the best lawyer, and will suc-
ceed best in his profession, who best understands
Coke upon Littleton ;" or, advancing to the modern
20 Life and Cliaracter of the
ages of greater enlightenment and freer intercourse
among nations, that he had made a specialty of the
law of contracts, bills of exchange and commercial
law generally; whilst his expositions of Equity causes
win satisfy any impartial critic, that he was at least
equally a proficient and master of the principles and
practice of the jurisprudence of the English Chancery,
and would induce the belief that, like Sir Samuel
Eomilly or Sir William Grant, his practice at the
bar had been confined to this branch of th* pro-
fession. The minute distinctions between the limits
of the jurisdiction of the Courts of Equity and com-
mon law, he comprehended and illustrated with a
rare discrimination and accuracy.
During the term of his service in that Court, it
will be remembered by the profession, that three
great departures were made from long established pre-
cedents in the EngUsh Courts of Equity, which have
tended to give simplicity to our system, and to free
it from the embarrassment and confusion of the au-
thorities in the English cases ; namel}^. First, in ad-
hering to the direction of the statute of Frauds,
and refusing to decree the specific execution of a
contract for the conveyance of real estate required
to be in writing, upon the ground that the parties
had acted upon their agreement, and that it had
been partially carried into execution. Second, in dis-
carding the doctrine that a vendor who had sold
land and parted with the title, trusting his vendee
for the purchase money, yet had a lien on the land
as a security for its payment. Third, in negativing
Hon, Thomas Riiffin. 21
likewise the EDglish doctriue of a married woman's
equitable right to a settlement for lier maintenance
before her husband should invoke the power of the
court to reduce her estate to possession. These have
been acknowledged as salutary reforms both at
home and abroad, in all of which Chief Justice Euf-
fin concurred and delivered leading arguments in their
support. Accustomed tenaciously to adhere to prece-
dents upon the theory, that the wisdom of a suc-
cession of learned Judges, concurred in or tolerated
by the Legislature from age to age, is superior to
that of any one man, and that certainty in the rules
of the law is of more importance than their abstract
justice; yet where there had been no domestic prece-
dent, and those abroad were at variance with the com-
mand of a statute or with obvious principles, he readi-
ly embraced these opportunities to symmetrize and per-
fect the system of practical morality administered in
the American courts of Equity.
His familiar knowledge of banking and mercantile
transactions and skilfuluess in accounts, gave him a
conceded eminence in the innumerable causes involving
inquiries of this nature. During his presidency in the
Supreme Court, it cannot fail to be remarked that
there was a great advance in the accuracy of pleadings
hi Equity causes, and in a general extension of the
knowledge of Equity practice throughoat the circuits.
And the precision and propriety of entries in every
species of procedure were brought to a high state of
perfection, mainly by his investigations and labors, in
conjunction with those of that most worthy gentleman,
22 Life and Character of the
and modest but able lawyer, Edmund B. Freeman,
Esquire, late Clerk of the Court, whose virtues and
pubhc usefulness, connected as he was for so many-
years in close and friendly association with the imme-
diate subject of om^ remarks, now likewise gone down
beyond the horizon, I am gratified the opportunity
serves to commemorate.
In the department of the law peculiarly American, in
which there comes up tlie question, whether the Legis-
lature can legislate to the extent it has assumed, or
other expositions of the Constitutions of the State or
Union, though the occasions for such exercises were
rare in the quiet times of his judicial hfe. Chief Jus-
tice Euflin shone to no less advantage, than in those
dependent on municipal regulations. His conversancy
with pohtical ethics, pubhc law and English and
American history, seems to have assigned to him the
task of delivering the opinions on this head, which
have most attracted general attention. That delivered
by him in the case of Hoke against Henderson in
which it was held, that the Legislature could not,
by a sentence of its own in the form of an enact-
ment, divest a citizen of property, even in a public
office, because the proceeding was an exercise of ju-
dicial power, received the high encomium of Kent
and other authors on constitutional law; and I hap-
pened personally to witness, that it was the main
authority relied on by Mr. Eeverdy Johnson, in the
argument for the second time, of Ex parte Garland,
which involved the power of Congress by a test oath,
to exclude lawyers from practice in the Supreme
Hon. Thomas Buffln.
Court of the United States, for having darticipated
in civil war against the govepnment ; and in which,
its reasoning on the negative side of tlie (luestion,
was sustained by tliat august tribunal.
The singular felicity and aptitude with which he
denuded his judgments of all extraneous matter, and
expounded the very principles of the case in hand,
usually citing authority only to uphold what had
been demonstrated without it, is the most striking
feature in his numerous opinions. No commonplaces
or servile copying of the ideas of others fill the
space to be occupied, but a manly comprehension of
the subject in its entire proportions, illustrated by
well considered thought and lucid and generally grace-
ful expression. His learning was profound, but not
so deep as his own reflections. His powers of ab-
straction subjected every thing to scrutiny, and rare
was the fallacy which passed through that crucible
without exposure. If he did not develope new truths
the old were made to shine with a fresher lustre,
h'om having undergone his processes of thought and
illustration. His stjie of writing was elevated and
worthy of the themes he discussed. His language
well selected, and exhibiting a critical acquaintance
with English philology. A marked characteristic in
his wiitings, as it was also in his conversation, was
the frequent, dextrous, and strikingly appropriate use
Tie made of the brief words of our language, usually
of Saxon derivation ; as in his response to the trib-
ute of the bar to the memory of Judge Gaston :
*' We knew that he was, indeed, a good man and a
great Judge."
24 Life and Character of the
In tl\e autumn of 1852, while in the zenith of his
reputation, and not yet pressed with the weight of
years, Chief Justice Euffin resigned his office and re-
tired, as he supposed forever, from the professional
employments he had so long and with so much re-
nown pursued. But on the death of his successor and
friend. Chief Justice Kash, in December, 1858, he
was called by the almost unanimous vote of the
General Assembly then in session, to fill the vacancy,
and sat again as a Judge of the Supreme Court
until the autumn of 1859, when failing health ren-
dered his labors irksome, and he took his final leave
of judicial life. Six years of rest in his rural home
had induced nothing of rust or desuetude : he wore
the ermine as naturally and gracefully as if he had
never been divested of its folds; his judicial argu-
ments at this time evince all that vigor of thought
and freshness and copiousness of learning which had
prompted an old admirer to say of him, that he
was a ^* born lawyer." It is not improbable that this
preservation in full panoply was in some design
aided by the circumstance, that in a desire to be useful
in any sphere for which he was fitted, he had ac-
cepted the office of a Justice of the Peace in the
county of Alamance, in which he then resided, and
had held the County Courts with the lay justices
during this period. Though near ten years later, and
when he had passed the age of eighty, in a matter
of seizure, in which he took some interest for a
friend, under the revenue laws, in the Circuit Court
of the United States, a branch of practice to which
Hon, TlwDKis Buffin. 25
lie bad uot beeu habituated by experience, I had
occasion to obserte that he was as ready with his
pen in framing the pleadings, without books of au-
thority or precedent, as any proctor in a Court of
admiralty.
In looking back upon his long life devoted to the
profession, and the monuments of his diligence, learn-
ing and striking ability that he left behind him, it
is no extravagance of eulogy to affirm, that if the
State or any American State has fostered great ad-
vocates, counsellors or Judges, he assuredly was of
this class.
But when, as Coke to Littleton, we bid " Fare-
well to om- jurisprudent," who had basked so long
in the '* gladsome light" of jurisprudence, we have
not wholly fulfilled the task assigned us. Jurispru-
dence was indeed his forte ; and that in its most
enlarged sense, embracing the science of right in all
its aspects. Considering how thoroughly he had mas-
tered the systems prevaihng in England and the Uni-
ted States, the fullness of his knowledge in kindred
studies and the facility with which he labored and
wi'ote, it is to be regretted that he did not betake
himself to professional authorship. But there are other
aspects of his character than that ot a lawyer and
Judge.
At an early period he became the proprietor of an
estate on Dan river, in Kockingham, on which he es-
tablished a plantation at once, and gave personal di-
rection to its profitable cultivation from that time until
his death. Carrying his family to Ealeigh for a so-
26 . Life and Character of the
journ of twelve months upon assuming the Presidency
of a Bank as akeacly stated, he removed thence to
Haw river, in Alamance, in 1830, and there under his
own eye carried on the operations of a planter with
success until the year 1866, when the results of the
war deprived him of laborers, and he sold the estate
and removed again to Hillsborough. The law has been
said by some of its old authors, to be a jealous
mistress, and to allow nb rival in the attentions of
its votary. Chief Justice Euffin, however, while dili-
gently performing the duties of his great office, and
keeping up with the labors of his cotemporaries,
Lynnhurst, Brougham, Tenterden and Denman, in
England, and the numerous Courts exercising like
jurisdictions in America, found leisure to manage his
farm at home as well as to give direction to that
in Eockingham. And this, not in the ineffective
manner which has attended the like efforts of some
professional men, but with present profit and im-
provement of the estates. From early life he ap-
peared to have conceived a fondness for agriculture,
including horticulture and the growing of fruit trees
and flowers, which his home in the country seemed
to have been selected to indulge. Here for thirty-
fiye years, in the recess of his Courts, he found re-
creation in these pursuits and in the rearing of do-
mestic animals ; the f-esult of which was the most
encouraging success in orchards, grapery, gardenc ereal
crops, flocks and herds. Combining a knowledge of
the general principles of science, with fine powers of
observation, and the suggestions of the most ap-
proved Agricultural periodicals, he was prepared to
Hon. Thomas Ruffin. 2<
avail himselt' in practice of the highest iutelhgence
ill the art. It was therefore uo empty comphment
to a great jurist and leading citizen, when the Ag-
ricultural society of Xorth Carolina, in 1854, elected
him to its presidency after his retirement from the
Bt-nc'h, hut the devotion to public uses and service,
of an experience and information in the cultivation
of the soil, and all its manifold connections and de-
pendencies, which few other' men in the State pos-
sessed. He was continued in this distinguished po-
sition for six years, when declining health demanded
his retirement; and at no time have the interests
of the society been more prosperous, its public ex-
hibitions more spirited; and it may be added, that
on no occasion did he ever manifest more satisfac-
tion than in the reunions of its members.
His farming was not that of a mere amatcun in
the art, designed as in the case of other public
characters of whom we have read, to dignify retire-
ment, to amuse leisure or gratif}^ taste, though few
had a higher rehsh for the ornamental, especiaUy in
shrubbery and flowers. This, he could not, or did
not think he could afford, but to realize subsistence
and profit, to make money, to provide for his own,
and to enable him to contribute in charity to the
wants of others. He consequently entered into all
the utilities, economies and practicabilities of husr
bandry in its minute details, realizing the English
proverb, quoted in the writings of Sir Francis Head,
that *' a good elephant should be able to raise a
cannon or pick up a pin."
28 Life ami Clmracter of the
The liberal hospitality that he dispensed through-
out life was a most conspicuous feature in the pe-
riod thus devoted to practical agriculture. His na-
ture was eminently social, his acquaintence in his
high position extensive, his dwelling near one of the
great highways of travel through the State in the
old modes of conveyance, easy of access ; and the
exuberance of his farm, garden, orchards and domes-
tic comforts were never more agreeably dispensed,
than when ministered to the gratification of his
friends under his own roof The cordiality and ease
with which he did the honors of an entertainer in
an old-fashioned southern mansion, is among the
pleasant recollections of not a few between the Por
tomac and the Mississippi. It was here, indeed, sur-
rounded by a family worthy of the care and affection
he bestowed upon them, relaxed from the severe
studies and anxieties of official life, in unreserved
and cheerful intercourse, that, after all, he appeared
most favorably.
By his industry, frugality and apitude for the
management of property, he accumulated in a long
life an estate more ample than usually falls to the
lot of a member of the profession in this State;
and although much reduced by the consequences of
the civil war, it was still competent to the comfort
of his large family.
Judge Euffin was, until superseded by the changes
made in 1868, the oldest Trustee of the University
of the State, and always one of the most efficient
and active members of the Board. For more than half
Hon, Thomas Euffin. 29
a century on terms of intimate intercourse with its
Presidents, Caldwell and Swain, and the leacUng Pro-
fessors, ]\ritchell, Phillips and their associates, he
was their ready counsellor and friend in any emer-
gency; whether in making appeals to the Legislature
in behalf of the institution for support and assistance
in its seasons of adversity, or in enforcing discipline
and maintaining order, advancing the standard of
education, or cheering the labors both of the Fac-
ulty and students. His criterion of a collegiate edu-
cation was high, and he illustrated by his own ex-
ample the rewards of diligent and faithful study. He
retained a better acquaintance with the dead lan-
<niaf^es than anv of his compeers we have named ex-
cept Gaston, Murphey and Taylor. In ethics, history
and the standard British classics, his knowledge was
profound. In science and in natural history, more
especiahy in chemistry and those departments per-
taining to Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology and
the hke, his attainments were very considerable, as
they were also in works of Mies lettres, Poe:ry, taste
and tiction, at least down to the end of the novels
of Scott and Cooper. He worthily received the hon-
orary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University
of North Carolina in 1834, and the like honor is be-
lieved to have been subsequently conferred by his
Alma Mater at Princeton.
His style and manner in conversation, in winch he
took great delight and l)ore a distinguished part in
all companies, abounded in pleasiuitry, but exhibited
the same wide range of thought and information
30 Life and Character of the
with his pubhc performances, and was full of enter-
tainment and instruction to the young. His temper-
ament was mercurial, his actions quick and energetic,
and his whole bearing in the farthest possible degree
removed from sloth, inertness and despondency. In
pohtical sentiment he accorded with the school of
Jefferson, and for more than forty years was a con-
stant reader of the Kichmond Inquirer, the editor
of which, Mr. Eitchie, was his relative ; though no
one entertained a more exalted reverence for the
character, abilities and patriotism of Marshall, with
whom he cherished a familiar acquaintance while in
practice before him at the bar, and after his own
elevation to the Bench. Later in life he formed a
like kind and admiring acquaintance with Chancellor
Kent.
In the muter of 1861, the Legislature of ]S"orth
Carohna, having acceded to the proposition of Vir-
ginia, on the approach of the late rupture between the
States of the Union, to assemble a body of delegates
in the city of Washington, to consider and recom-
mend terms of reconciliation. Judge Kuffin was ap-
pointed one of the members in the "Peace Confer-
ence," and is understood to have taken a conspicu-
ous part in its deliberations and debates. We have
the testimony of General Scott, in his Autobiography,
already quoted, that his counsels in that assembly
were altogether pacific. President Buchanan, in his
work in defence of his action in that important crisis,
makes assertion of the same fact. After the failure
Hon. Thomas Ruffin. 13
of the efforts at adjiistmeut, aud the war in bis
opinion had become a necessity, Judge Euffin accep-
ted a seat in the State Convention of 18C1, and
threw into its support all the zeal and energy of
his earnest and ardent temper; one of his sons, a
grandson and other near connections taking part in
the dangers and privations of its camps and battle-
fields. When defeat came, he yielded an honest
submission and acquiescence, and renewed in perfect
good fiith his allegiance to the government of the
United States. Too far advanced in years to be Ion.
ger active in affiiirs, bis chief concern in regard to
the public interests thenceforward, was for the con-
servation of the public weal, and that the violent
convulsion of which we had felt the shock and the
change might be permitted to pass without any se-
rious disturbance of the great and essential principles
of freedom and right which it had been the favorite
study of his hfe to understand and illustrate.
With the close of the war his farm about his man-
sion having experienced the desolation of an army en-
campment, and its system of labor being abolished,
he felt unequal to the enterprise of its resuscitation
and culture, and therefore disposed of the estate and
again took up his abode in Hillsborough. Here, in
occasional occupation as a referee of legal controver-
sies, in directing the assiduous culture of his garden
and ground-, in desultory reading, in which he now
and then recurred to his old favorites among the
32 Life and Character of the
novels of Scott, in the duties of hospitality and the
converse of friends in the bosom of his family, he
passed the evening of his days. In the sense of im"
becihty or decrepitude, he never grew old, but was
blessed with the enjoyment of a remarkable intellec-
tual vigor and fine flow of spirits almost till his
dissolution. And in anticipation of death in his last
illness, he laid an injunction on his physician to ad-
minister to him no anod^me which should deprive
him of consciousness, as he did not wish to die in
a state of insensibihty.
On the 15th of January, 1870, after an illness of
but four days, though he had been an invalid from
an affection of the lungs for a year or more, he
breathed his last, in the 83d year of his age. His
end was resigned and peaceful, and in the consola-
tion of an enhghtened and humble christian faith.
Por more than forty years a communicant in the
Protestant Episcopal church, he was one of its most
active members in the State, and more than once rep-
resented the Diocese in the Triennial Conventions of
the Union.
The venerable companion of his lite, a bride when
not yet fifteen, a wife for more than sixty years,
yet survives to receive the gratitude and affection of
a numerous posterity and the reverence and esteem
of troops of friends.
This imperfect offering is a memoir, not a panegyric.
It contains not history, but ^((/rticulas Mstorice — scraps
Hon. Thomas Rujlin. 33
of bistoiy which it is hoped may not be without
their use to the . future student oi our annals, for
the eharaeter we eonteniphite is destined to be his-
torical. His hfe was passed in the pul)lie \iew in
the most important public functions — in contact with
the most gifted and cultivated men of the State for
half a century; it ran througli two generations of
lawyers. It was given to a profession in which were
engaged many of the first minds of other States, and
I can call to recollection no Judge of any State ot
the Union who in that period has left behind him
nobler or more numerous memorials ot erudition, dili-
gence and ability in the departments of the law^ he
was called to administer. The study of his perfor-
mances will at least serve to correct the error of
opinion prevailing with many at the North, that the
intellectual activity of the South delights itself only
in politics.
To the members of the Agricultural Society and to
this audience his devotion to, and success in agricul-
ture is a sul)ject of only secondary interest to his pro-
fessional fame. It has been remarked by one of the
British essayists, as " a saying ot dunces in all ages,
that men of genius are unfit for business." It is per-
haps a kindred fallacy to wiiich pedantry and sloth
have given as much countenance on the one hand as
blissful ignorance on the other, that high culture and
enulition as in the case of the learned professions,
is incompatible with success in practical atlairs in
other departments. We have before us the life of one
who demonstrated in his own person, that it is pos-
34 Life and Characttr of the Hon. Thomas Ruffin.
sible for a great aud profouud lawyer to take a lead-
ing part and become a shining liglit in practically
promoting the first and greatest of the industrial
arts, and although there be no natural connection
between these occupations, that tlie same well-direct-
ed industry, patience and energy which had achieved
success in the one, was equal to a like triumph in
the other ; whilst in high probity, in stainless mor-
als, in social intercourse, in the amenities of life, and
the domestic affections and duties, his example will
be cherished in the recollection of his friends, and
may well be commended to the imitation of our
youth.
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