received a common school education. He tried very few causes and was not distinguished as an advocate. He was elected to the Council from his county, in 1829 and continued in that office for three or four sessions; in 1832, he was made Vice President of that body. None of his opinions are reported. The most important case before him is that already referred to of Hendrickson vs. Decow, the celebrated Hicksite and Orthodox Quaker cause. He referred this case, as has already been stated, to Chief Justice Ewing and Associate Justice Drake, whose opinions he adopted in deciding it. It was carried to the Court of Errors where the decree of the Chancellor was affirmed, but not by a unanimous vote. After his retirement from the office of Chancellor, Mr. Sealey was several times a member of the Legislature, and died in 1846, at the early age of fifty-five years.

Peter D. Vroom was the son of a gentleman of the same name, who took a prominent part in the Revolution and attained the rank of Colonel in the Revolutionary Army. He was a very prominent citizen in his time, and was one of the representatives of the Dutch element so predominant in the County of Somerset. His distinguished son was born at Hillsborough in that County, in 1791, was prepared for college at the Somerville Academy and, in 1808, entered the Junior class of Columbia College, in the City of New York and graduating in 1809, entered the office of George McDonald, an attorney, of Somerville and was licensed as an attorney in 1813, becoming counsellor in 1816 and a Sergeant at law in 1828. He does not seem to have been fortunate in his early locations, settling first at Schooley's Mountain in Morris County, where he remained about a year and a half, then removing to Hackettstown, and, after two years, locating at Flemington. These different changes did not aid him in acquiring practice, but he did have a degree of success. While at Flemington, he met a Miss Dumont, a daughter of one of the most distinguished families of his native County, whom he afterwards married. The effort which first. gave promise of his future success was made by him in the case of Kline vs. Ramsey, which was so able as to receive a very pronounced encomium from Chief Justice Kirkpatrick. From Flemington, he removed to Somerville and remained there about twenty years. Не never ceased to regret his numerous changes and it is quite certain that if he had carried his native talents to some large city he would have met with success earlier in life. About the year 1824, the Republic was convulsed with political strife, when Gen. Jackson came to the front as

for them to use his drafts as precedents in their own practice. It is said of him that he never made a mistake in drawing any legal paper. There perhaps never was a lawyer at the bar of New Jersey more safe as an adviser than Isaac H. Williamson. His perception of legal principles seemed to be intuitive and he easily grasped the most intricate questions. He revelled in abstruse legal problems and gave up his whole mind and heart to the acquisition of legal lore. He could not be tempted from his profession to any participation in party politics and his reading outside of his profession was of such a character as would aid him in discharging the duties incumbent upon him as Counsellor and Advocate. He read history, examined mathematics, studied political economy and abstruse sciences, but they were all used by him as aids and adjuncts in the prosecution of his legal studies. Light literature he never touched and it is doubtful whether he ever read any poetry at all. He was a very able advocate and a successful one. He was, perhaps, the profoundest jurist that ever adorned the Court of Chancery and yet his style both in speaking and writing was faulty. No scholar can read his published opinions without desiring to criticise them. He succeeded Mahlon Dickerson as Governor, in 1817. His election occurred at a time when party politics ran high and when the parties were about equally divided. He had only a majority of seven in the joint meeting that elected him Governor. His opposing candidate was Joseph McIlvaine and strange to say, it was not so much a question of fitness and ability, or even of politics, as of locality that decided his election. He was re-elected for twelve years, without serious opposition, but in 1829, the Democratic party, under the leadership of Gen. Jackson, became overwhelmingly powerful and he was obliged to give way to Peter D. Vroom. He preferred the practice of law to the position of Chancellor, but no man was better equipped as an Equity Judge than Isaac H. Williamson. His salary was only about $2,000, but, in addition to this, there were some fees connected with the office, which if they had been collected, would have made the income from the office quite respectable. When Governor Williamson assumed the duties of Chancellor the business in his court was quite unimportant, but the profession soon learned that a master mind was in control and the court gradually became very busily engaged in settling disputes between suitors. Governor Williamson worked very many important changes in the practice of his court, making himself familiar with the principles governing the

English tribunals of Equity, after which that of New Jersey was modeled and introducing these principles to the very great advantage of members of the bar and of their clients. Adequate remedies, before his time, had never been afforded to mortgagees for the foreclosure of mortgages, but he introduced a system by which full relief was given to persons holding this kind of security and the perfect method now adopted by the court to meet every exigency that might arise in suits of foreclosure, owe their origin, in many cases, to Chancellor Williamson. Unfortunately there is no book of reports of cases covering his time; this is much to be regretted, as doubtless stores of legal wisdom, suggestions and decisions with reference to the principles involved in the practice of courts of equity would be discovered in his opinions. One case in which he delivered an opinion is reported in 3d Stewart, 145. No Chancellor prior to his time ever conferred more dignity on the court or impressed himself as more deserving the respect and confidence of the community than did Isaac H. Williamson. Governor Williamson returned to the bar after his failure to be reelected Chancellor and very soon secured a lucrative practice. He was engaged in almost every important cause, on one side or the other, which was brought into the courts. In 1832, Chief Justice Ewing died and all eyes were turned to Mr. Williamson as his successor, but he declined the nomination, giving as his reason that his mind for so many years had been directed to equity jurisprudence that he feared he was unfitted to assume an office where the rules of the common law must govern.

Notwithstanding his aversion from political life, he was elected for two years to the Council from Essex County, and in 1844, became a member of the Constitutional convention, of which body he was unanimously made the President. His health failing he was unable to meet with that important body during the latter part of its sessions and died before the year closed, at the age of seventy-seven. Although he was not a graduate of any collegiate institution, Princeton conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., as a mark of respect from the trustees over whom he had presided for more than twelve years.

Governor Williamson was one of the most genial of men, his laugh was an inspiration, trilling out like a child's, full of life and soul. He was of a merry disposition and enjoyed the society of friends, loved a joke, enjoyed a song, but never lost his personal dignity. He was the life of any company and the younger members of the bar loved him for his

success.

a prominent candidate of the Democratic party for President. Mr. Vroom and his father had always been consistent Federalists, but now they supported the new party. It was charged by the leading Federalists in New Jersey that Adams had deserted their organization and had connected himself with that of which Thomas Jefferson was the leader. Mr. Vroom represented the County of Somerset in the Lower House of the Legislature for three terms-1826-27 and 1829. The Democratic majority in the Legislature, in 1829, was overwhelming and it resolved to elect members from its own organization to all offices within its gift. As has already been stated, Governor Williamson's term expired in 1829; Garret D. Wall was named as his successor, but he declined and Peter D. Vroom was elected by the ruling party, as Governor. The position was an exceedingly delicate as well as a difficult one. The peculiar fitness of his predecessor for the office. of Chancellor might well make the new appointee doubtful of his own Williamson had proved himself equal to every emergency during the whole time he occupied the position of Chancellor. Vroom lacked some of the characteristics that so eminently fitted the retiring. Governor for the performance of the duties of the highest judicial office in the commonwealth, and cannot be called his peer, but was nevertheless admirably equipped. He was an independent thinker; his anxiety to reach a correct conclusion might lead an ordinary observer to infer that his mental processes were not rapid; his mind really moved with great celerity and he easily grasped ideas; his judgments were accurate and rarely overruled. His practice at the bar gave him unmistakable advantage in the sifting of human testimony. The system then prevailed of reducing the evidence of witnesses in his court to writing through the medium of masters and examiners. He had no Vice Chancellors but was obliged to meet the requirements of his position alone. Every detail connected with a case received his attention and an examination of the reports during his term of office reveals the fact that he gave untiring industry to the examination of the cases submitted to him. The first book of equity reports, published in the State, is that collected by Nathaniel Saxton and begins with the opinions of Governor Vroom. He could not have profited by the opinions of his predecessors as none were published. In one respect the bar have been very much benefited by Chancellor Vroom's opinions; his precedents, forms of decrees and other papers were very

correct and valuable. He held his office until 1832 when, as before stated, Samuel L. Southard became Chancellor for one year.

In 1833, Vroom was re-elected and held the position for three years. His health then failing, he retired from public life and resumed his practice at Somerville. In 1837, President Van Buren appointed him a commissioner to settle certain claims under a treaty made with the Choctaw Indians which made it necessary for him to remain in Mississippi for several months. In 1838 he was elected on the Congressional ticket a representative to Congress. But his election and that of several of his colleagues on the Democratic ticket was disputed in consequence of some technical questions arising upon certificates of the returns of votes and this gave rise to the celebrated "Broad Seal War." There was no doubt that the Democratic ticket, in that election, received the majority of votes and, after a severe contest, he was admitted to a seat in Congress. By this time he had removed to Trenton, where he resided up to the time of his death. After his removal he was elected to the Constitutional Convention from Somerset county, although not then a resident there. He took a leading part in this Convention, was chairman of one of the most important committees and resisted several innovations upon the jurisprudence of the State proposed to the Convention. Two years after the adoption of the Constitution of 1844, in connection with Henry W. Green, Stacy G. Potts and William L. Dayton, he revised the statutes of New Jersey, making a thorough revision so as to adapt past legislation to the new Constitution. Shortly after finishing this great work, Governor Fort, a Democratic Governor, nominated him for Chancellor to succeed Henry W. Green, but he at once declined. In 1852, he became a Presidential elector and voted for Franklin Pierce for President. In 1853, President Pierce tendered him the appointment of minister to Berlin, which he accepted and remained attached to the Prussian court. until 1857, when, at his own request, he was recalled and returning to Trenton resumed the practice of his profession. After this, he confined himself almost exclusively to arguments in the higher courts, upon appeals brought up by writs of error and other process. In 1861, the alarming state of affairs in the Republic led the Legislature of Virginia to call for the appointment of commissioners by all the States of the Union to meet in what was afterwards known as the "Peace Congress." The proposal from Virginia involved the selection of men of