IN
PRAISE OF NEW YORK JURIST, JAMES KENT, ON HIS RETIREMENT:
"TO LOSE SO EXCELLENT A JUDGE AT SUCH A TIME
IS TO ME A SOURCE OF UNSPEAKABLE SORROW –
I HAVE LEANED ON HIM FOR SUPPORT IN MANY A DOUBT"
JOSEPH
STORY. Autograph Letter Signed to William Johnson, Salem,
MA, 7 December 1824. 3 pages, 9¾" x 7¾", with
address leaf.
A remarkable legal letter from a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, praising
another major jurist, James Kent, and the law reporter who published
his work. From 1811 until his death in 1845, Joseph Story served
as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, espousing a strongly
nationalist and expansive view of the Constitution. For much of that
period, he was also an influential professor at Harvard Law School and
an important and prolific legal scholar.
James Kent was another leading jurist of the era, serving on the New
York State Supreme Court beginning in 1798 and also as Chancellor of
the New York Court of Chancery beginning in 1814. On both courts, Kent
began the practice of publishing reports, and in 1806, he chose New
York attorney William Johnson to serve as court reporter. From then
until 1823, when Kent was forced to retire from the bench because of
a mandatory age limit, Johnson produced model reports that were enormously
influential; they "disseminated the judicial writings of one of
America’s greatest legal thinkers... [and] established a standard
for other reporters throughout the nation. At a time when written legal
authorities were scarce or nonexistent in much of the country, Johnson’s
reports were a reliable source of welcome information and an important
step in the establishment of a distinctly American jurisprudence."
(See the profiles of Johnson and Kent in American National Biography
Online.)
Story attests to the accuracy of this judgment: in this letter to Johnson
at the end of his many years as reporter, the justice warmly praises
both Kent’s judicial career and Johnson’s record of it.
"I have just received the 7th volume of your Chancery Reports,
which you have so kindly sent me," Story opens. "This
volume fills me with alternate melancholy & pleasure – The
latter, because I see in it so many proofs of admirable learning &
judgment in the Chancellor’s decisions, & so much of accuracy
& sound taste & finish in the Reporter – With melancholy
– because it closes a career so honorable to both, so full of
glory, talent, & pure devotion to the best interests of the public.
To lose so excellent a Judge at such a time is to me a source of unspeakable
sorrow – I have leaned on him for support in many a doubt; &
I have felt cheered in my own humble labours, with the thought that
I might sometimes reach his sober eye without disapprobation.
"I am grieved also to my soul that you are no longer to accompany
me in my researches," Story continues, "& I can
not but feel still more distressed when I consider that no just cause
can be assigned for your removal; & that the whole Country, –
not merely New York, – has sympathised in the universal regret
of the Profession – I have always thought, & still think,
that your Reports are the first...primi inter pares – In sound
judgment, in accuracy, in fullness, in graceful execution I believe
they cannot be surpassed – It is a most cruel reflection that
we lose them for the future, not from the inevitable calamity of death,
but from causes altogether disconnected with the slightest suspicion
of the public or private virtues of the Reporter – If from any
cause Mr. Wheaton [the reporter for the U.S. Supreme Court at this date]
should hereafter decline reporting, I should think it the highest favour
to have you to report the Decisions of the Supreme Court – I pray
you to believe that I shall always take the liveliest interest in your
welfare; & that no one will feel more joy in your elevation to some
station, where your talents & acquirements may be possessed by the
public...."
Story then praises Johnson’s biographical sketch of a lawyer named
Wells, probably John Wells, a prominent New York commercial lawyer who
had died in 1823. "I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you
in New York on my visit this winter to Washington," he concludes.
"Please to present my most cordial respects to Chancellor Kent,
& believe me With the most sincere regard your obliged friend Joseph
D. Story."
A seal tear has resulted in two small losses to the second leaf of the
lettersheet, affecting about five words of text, and the address leaf
is a bit soiled. The piece is in very good condition overall, however,
generally clean and clear.
A superb association of two of the pre-eminent American jurists and
legal scholars in the first half of the nineteenth century. $3000.00
This
image shows only page 3 of the letter, which includes Story's signature.
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