Similar meetings of the members of the bar, were held at Albany and Utica, for the purpose of manifesting their approbation and respect for the services, talents, and character of Chancellor Kent.

Brockholst Livingston, an associate judge of the supreme court of the United States, died this year. He possessed an intellect of the highest order, and was an able lawyer.

Several distinguished lawyers from this state, were announced as candidates for the office which had become

struction of his family while he was yet young. In 1741, the Reverend Samuel Dunlop, the maternal grand-father of Mr. Wells, with a small colony of Scotch and Irish emigrants, penetrated by the way of the Mohawk valley into the interior of this state, and made a settlement upon a branch of the head-waters of the Susquehanna, and gave it the name above mentioned.

"They were joined in 1744 by John Wells, the paternal grandfather. At that time Cherry Valley was the extreme verge of civilization. South and west extended the far unbroken wilderness in all its freshness and majesty. A few German families were scattered along the valley of the Mohawk; but the Mohawk tribe of Indians, that tribe who were emphatically the Romans of the North American Aborigines, and who gave their name to the beautiful river upon whose banks they dwelt, were still there-still guarding the graves, and roaming over the hunting-grounds of their ancestors. Mrs. Grant, in her memoirs of an American lady, has given an interesting account of a voyage up the Mohawk in early times. It was nearly thirty years after its ascent by the little party who settled Cherry Valley; but settlements were not advanced then with the rail-road rapidity of our day, and the valley of the Mohawk still possessed much of its origi nal freshness and primitive beauty.

"It would be interesting to pause here, and consider the changes that the cen tury, which has now almost elapsed, has produced. The Mohawks, with the confederated tribes, the Six Nations, have almost disappeared; and the then wilderness has budded and blossomed under the fostering care and industry of the millions of white men who have succeeded them.

"Among the first buildings erected in the little colony of Cherry Valley was a small church built of logs, and here the Rev. Mr. Dunlop, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Wells, first raised the standard of the cross amid the toils and pri vations incident to a new settlement. John Wells, senior, was appointed the first justice of the peace; and, as one of the justices of the quorum, was associated and intimate with the celebrated Sir William Johnson.

"His eldest son, Robert Wells, married a daughter of Mr. Dunlop; and of this marriage was John Wells, the subject of this sketch, born in 1770, as beforementioned. At the time of his birth the elements of discord were in motion. Oppo sition to the mother country was then gaining force with all classes of society, and the dec ded and uncompromising tone in which the rights of the country were maintained, was preparing the way for a physical defence of these rights. The war of the revolution found the little settlement of Cherry Valley still a fron. tier. In the summer of 1778, occurred that dreadful massacre in the northern

vacant by Judge Livingston's death; among whom, were Chief Justice Spencer and Mr. Henry Wheaton. The president finally appointed Smith Thompson, late chief justice of this state, then secretary of the navy.

Chief Justice Spencer, Judge Van Ness and Judge Platt, after being constitutionized out of office, resumed the practice of law; but Judge Spencer did not long continue at the bar. He probably found it unpleasant to meet on terms of equality, and contend with lawyers for whom he

part of Pensylvania, which has been immortalized in Gertrude of Wyoming. The inhabitants of Cherry Valley fled on learning the fate of their brethren of Wyoming, but returned to their homes in the fall of the same year, under an im pression that there was no longer any danger by reason of the advance of the season. They returned only to share the fate of their friends of Wyoming. On the eleventh of November in the same year, a party of Indians and tories, led on by Walter Butler and the far-famed chief Joseph Brant, made an incursion into the settlement, and destroyed it, killing many of the inhabitants. John Wells, Jun., had been left with an aunt in Schenectady for the purpose of attending school. This favor had been solicited by the aunt when the other members of the family were about to return to Cherry Valley, and thus he escaped that melancholy fate which awaited the return of the others to their home. His father and mother, uncle and aunt, four brothers and sisters were killed. His grandmother, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Dunlop, also fell a victim; and these great misfortunes brought down in a short time afterwards the grey hairs of the reverend clergy. man himself with sorrow to the grave.

"One common grave received all of his family, who were killed on the 11th of November, and the eloquent advocate, in after-life, paid several visits to the valley of his birth, and shed a tear over the spot where reposed the ashes of his kindred." After briefly recounting the difficulties encountered by Mr. Wells in acquiring, without the aid of either wealth or relatives, a good classical education, and after giving an account of his sharp and successful competition as a lawyer and his elevation to the highest rank in his profession, Mr. Campbell says, "Mr. Wells died at Brooklyn Heights in September, 1823, of what was stated at the time to be high billious fever, and which was, in fact, the yellow fever. He fell a victim to his benevolence and humanity. His house was on Brooklyn Heights; and nearly beneath it, and close to the water, were some small residences, inhabited by very poor people. He called at one of these houses, learning that some of the inhabitants were sick, for the purpose of seeing what he could do for their relief. Having made some provision for their immediate necessities, the call was again repeated. The yellow fever broke out at this spot, and Mr. Wells was one of the first victims. His death cast a gloom over the city. All felt that a great man had fallen. Meetings of members of the bar were called in this city and in Albany. In this city, resolutions were passed, which were highly creditable to his memory; and they were supported by Josiah Ogden Hoffman in a speech of great power and feeling. All considered him, in the language of Mr. Cowen, to have been the pride of the New-York bar.' All mourned over the bereavement which they had sustained."

had so long acted as a judge; and having accumulated a fortune which rendered his pecuniary circumstances easy, he retired from a competition, which, to him, must have been at times irritating as well as painful.

Judge Platt continued to practice with high reputation, as an advocate, for several years afterwards; but, shortly before his death, he, likewise, retired to a country seat in Clinton county.

Judge Van Ness, also, opened a law office in the city of New-York, but his health soon became impaired. He lingered awhile, oppressed with a chronic disease of the dyspeptic kind, and finally, in the hope of recovering his health, travelled to the south, and died in one of the southern states. He was invincibly attached to political pursuits, and fond of the bustle of public life; and, possessing as he did, a mind extremely sensitive, it is not improbable that the loss of his official station, and the utter prostration of his political prospects, may have induced the disease of which he died. He was, in person, address and intellectual endowments, formed for one of the most distinguished men of the age. At the head of an executive department at Washington, he would have shone with a lustre unrivalled.

CHAPTER XXX.

FROM JANUARY 1, 1824, TO JANUARY 1, 1825.

THE approaching presidential election, and the unusual number of presidential candidates, produced so many parties in this state, in addition to the two pre-existing parties, and the great political revolution which occurred during the year 1824, would, if an attempt were made minutely to detail the action, and causes of action, of distinguished individuals, and the fractions of parties, swell this work to a size not warranted by the limits I have prescribed to it. I must therefore content myself with simply giving my reader an account of the acts of the leading politicians who took part in the controversy, which, during this year, raged with unequalled violence; and I shall confine myself to a very few remarks on the probable motives by which the actors were governed.

The legislature convened on the 6th of January. In pursuance of a long established custom, the republican members of the assembly met in caucus on the evening of the 5th, for the purpose of nominating a speaker. Those members who had been elected in opposition to the regular republican ticket, in several of the counties, such, for instance, as those from the counties of New-York and Dutchess, met and deliberated with the regularly nominated and elected democratic members. There were, in fact, very few Clintonian or federal members chosen. Mr. Crary from Washington, and Mr. Cunningham from Montgomery, were Clintonians, but they were self-nominated candidates, and disclaimed being members of any political party.

Samuel J. Wilkin, son of Gen. James W. Wilkin, of Orange county, with whose name the reader is familiar, a young man of fine talents and great merit, was a Clintonian; but he had been elected from the county of Orange, a very large majority of whose electors were decidedly hostile to Mr. Clinton. He undoubtedly owed his election to the hostility of a majority of that county to Mr. Crawford as a candidate for the presidency, and to his own superior personal merits. The people's party, in caucus, supported Gen. Tallmadge for speaker, but the attempt to nominate him was defeated by a large majority; and Richard Goodell, of Jefferson county, was nominated, and the next day elected without serious opposition.

Mr. Goodell had been a captain in the United States army, during the last war, and served as such with considerable reputation. He was a modest, frank, and honorable man, but not familiar with the business of legislation; heavy and slow in mental action, and by no means well fitted to preside over a deliberative body, in such stormy times as occurred during the forty-ninth session of the New-York legislature.

The governor's message was delivered on the day the two houses organized. As an official paper it was greatly superior, both in structure and style, to his first message.

The governor again urged upon the legislature the necessity of a revision of the statutes, and he took strong ground in favor of encouraging domestic manufac tories by an increase of duties on foreign importations. I mention this circumstance for the purpose of remarking that at that time, and for several years afterwards it was a part of the democratic creed, in this and other northern states, that home industry should be protected by imposing heavy duties on commodities manufactured abroad. On the subject of choosing the presidential electors by the people, the governor stated that "The choice of elec