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canvass, and no more is it flattery to preserve their moral likeness. It is not ostentation in good men to serve their generation, and it is not ostentation to preserve the record of what they have done. For these reasons, which I doubt not will be satisfactory to you all, I shall be more particular, and more extended than common, in my remarks upon the life and character of our departed friend; for I am persuaded that we shall be agreed in the sentiment that few men have led a life in which there is less to be deplored and more to be admired,than is to be found in the life of Judge Reeve. I have always felt both the positive and the negative excellence of his character; but never, until this memoir has demanded a closer inspection and comparison, have I felt the full power of the entire combination of all the prominent points in his character, as great points and good, while the failings inseparable from humanity are uncommonly few and small.

As a man he was blessed undoubtedly with a mind of the first order; which shed a light on the subject submitted to its inspection; which enabled him with precision to mark its relations and to place them in day-light to the inspection of others. His person was well proportioned and commanding, his countenance regular and interesting, his eye especially was filled with mild but most animated expression. His voice, before it failed,* was full toned and musical, and his eloquence, when his soul was raised and his heart awake, was powerful. It was the eloquence of a vigourous mind, of a vivid imagination, and an expansive heart. It was animated argument, which assailed the heart by the understanding, and the understanding also by the heart, and seldom failed to secure the willing captivity of both. His humour was genu

*Note B.

ine,* his sensibilities exquisite, his affections copious and ardent. Few minds are formed to receive or to communicate more social enjoyment, or to inspire or feel more ardent affection.

As a man he possessed naturally an uncommon purity of character, in every sense of that term. His delicacy was exquisite; his honour most honourable, his integrity most inflexible, his conscience most conscientious, his humanity most humane. His patriotism was ardent, his public spirit expansive, while his moral courage inspired both confidence and admiration. He was naturally timid. His nervous sensibilities exposed him to easy excitement and alarm, and yet when dangers pressed, and decision was demanded, his courage rose with the danger, and his decision with the urgency of the demand. He who in ordinary circumstances might be startled at the shaking of a leaf, when the public good required judicious counsel, knew not discomposure, and when it demanded undaunted action, was a stranger to fear.

Such naturally was the mind and character of our departed friend. One of the best minds, it would seem, which nature in her happiest efforts is permitted to form.

From a mind and heart thus constituted we should anticipate an honourable and useful life, and such a life unquestionably our dear friend lived. His professional knowledge in the beginning was accurate, and for one of his age, ample, and through life was regularly increased. His deportment at the bar; his treatment of the judge and jury, the opposing counsel, and the witnesses, furnished an example worthy of imitation, and which was attended eminently with a purifying, elevating influence, both in the county and in the state. He was chaste, respectful, kind, dignified. *Note C.

No coarseness, no vulgarity, no rudeness, mingled in his most earnest professional collisions. In the examination of witnesses he was candid and honourable; no attempt to confound, to intimidate, to perplex, and though powerful beyond many, he was never oppressive or overbearing, while toward the junior members of the bar, his course was affectionate, and even paternal.

In the management of cases his integrity was inflexible. He would not prostitute his talents or legal science to pervert justice. If unfortunately his cause was a bad one, as bound by his oath to do, he would say all the favourable things of which'it admitted and there leave it. There was no chicanery in his practice; nothing low, nothing mean, nothing fraudulent, or criminally artful. His power with the court as an advocate consisted in his luminous exhibition of the great points of his case, and with the jury, in the interest which he manifested in his cause, and the delicacy and sincerity with which he conducted it. The happy talent of speaking out his soul by his looks, and pouring out his heart into his argument, inspired a confidence that whenever he made an earnest effort he followed the sober convictions of his conscience and judgment.

As State's Attorney he conducted the public business of the county with great ability and uprightness, and yet with such humanity tempering his justice as disarmed even criminals of displeasure and conciliated their esteem.

Upon the bench he was distinguished for his legal science, his inflexible integrity, and while he presided in the court, for his laconic and luminous charges to the jury.*

In the year 1792 he commenced his law lectures, which he continued until the latter part of the year *Note D.

VOL. I.-No. II.

1820. The plan of giving lectures in the manner he conducted them was original with the judge, and the number who from all parts of the nation have sought legal science at his lips, as well as the number of his pupils who have been, and are, distinguished at the bar, and in the state and national councils, attest the wisdom of his plan and the distinguished ability with which it was executed.

President Dwight, by his talents and official labours, exerted a powerful national influence through his pupils, and next to him, if not equally so, has been the national influence of Judge Reeve, especially on the subject of legal science and correct professional deportment.— This ascendancy over his pupils, derived from the power of his mind, was greatly increased and rendered delightful to them, by the virtues of his heart, and especially by the delicate and truly paternal treatment which they all experienced at his hands, and which inspired them all with an ardent and imperishable affection for him. The testimonies of affectionate remembrance from his pupils, many of whom are men of wealth and eminence, have been frequent, and as honourable to them as they were cheering to the judge, and especially toward the close of life, the fervency of grateful affection, increased in expressions of filial respect, and acts of substantial munificence.

Though his domestic afflictions withheld him from the active scenes of the revolution, none entered more deeply into his country's cause than he. He shared with his generation in all the solicitudes, hopes, fears, self-denials, and losses, of that arduous day. He possessed, though in early life, the confidence, and participated in the counsels, of the wise, and great, and good men of that day; and at the moment of greatest dismay, when Washington fled with his handful

of troops through the Jersies, and orders came for New-England to turn out en masse, and pursue, and make a diversion to save him,-the Judge was among the most ardent to excite the universal movement, and actually went in the capacity of an officer to the vicinity of NewYork, where the news met them, of the victory at Trenton, and at Princeton, and once more Washington and the country were delivered.

Though eminently qualified to shine in public life, he was not ambitious of popular distinction, and though always within the reach of it, and often solicited to accept of it, he always declined, partly from the state of his family, and partly, I have no doubt, from his vehement aversion to ambitious ostentation.

He was not envious. He saw with pleasure, and admitted with candour, the excellence of his contemporaries at the bar, and was especially cheered and delighted with the opening talents of young men who rose up around him, to whom he never failed to extend a cheering personal influence.

We may say, in closing our account of his public life, that he has served his generation by the will of God, both eminently, and honourably. No stain by his own act has been fixed upon his reputation. No breath of calumny has ever whispered a charge implicating his purity, or his honesty, or his honour. His sun from its rising to its setting hour, has shined full-orbed without the shadow of an eclipse.

But were we to confine our remarks to the public character and deportment of our friend, we should have but a partial view of his character or usefulness. There is much indeed to excite admiration in great traits of character and illustrious deeds, but it is the daily, noiseless tenor of the good man's way that constitutes the greatest amount of real service rendered to his generation.

We may say then in the first instance that for our generation he rendered a numerous household eminently prosperous and happy. His affection, pure and copious, extended to every member of his family, which, combined with his intelli gence and ever watchful and unwearied ministrations for their good, rendered his house always the dwelling place of instruction and enjoyment. But while his affection for his family was so peculiar as would seem to have allowed no capacity for expansion, it did expand wonderfully. His neighbours felt and rejoiced in his affection. I have never known an individual who loved so many persons with such ardour and was himself beloved by so many.*

In the concerns of the town he was always attentive, always in his place at the town meetings until incapacitated by infirmity, consulting the public good, and ready always to do his part. His bosom was a stranger to the economy that for little personal savings would expose the public to great deprivations and injuries, he lived not for himself only.

It was never his

study to ascertain how much he could do for himself, and how little bestow for the public good, but according to his ability his purse was ever open as his heart. God grant that his mantle may fall upon us all, and his blessed example speak to our hearts long after he is dead.

His deep interest in the prosperity of this society, and his unceasing vigilance and efforts for its good, are known to us all. His judicious counsels and his strong hold upon the affections and confidence of this people, rendered him a central attraction in times of discord and peril. When the society was blessed with a revival, he performed more pastoral labour in visiting and conversation than any other man. There was scarce a district

*Note E.

or family which he did not visit; it seemed as if there was not a single convert, with whose exercises and history he was not familiarly acquainted.

While the society and church were vacant his influence was great, and if our union as a pastor and people is to be regarded as a blessing to us, he was eminently instrumental in its procurement. To me and mine he has been pre-eminently a father. I have loved him greatly, and have received, I am persuaded, my full share of his ample affection. If my ministry has been made useful to you, much of that usefulness has been derived from his counsels, and his benevolent co-operation, and his unceasing

prayers.

Such was Judge Reeve as a man and a member of civil society.-But if we were to close our account of him here, we should leave him unknown in a world where he lived, and moved, and had his being,-where he displayed illustriously his capacious mind, and illustrated most delightfully all the great and noble affections of his heart,-where he discovered his chief sources of enjoyment, and received that preserving, and purifying, and animating impulse, which made him shine as a light in the world. I refer to his religious character. For though as a man he was so pure and excellent as would seem to supercede the necessity of a change of heart; there is not an instance perhaps on record, where religion has excited within a prominent and specific new characterics, or called into being more distinctly a new world of interest and action. And it is proper to say here, that though much which gives lustre and loveliness to his character is owing to his powerful mind and unusually happy temperament, yet all that rendered him as a man, great, and lovely, and useful, was purified, and ennobled, and conse

man

more

crated to the service of man, by the power of religion. His intelligence, his knowledge, and his talents, were consecrated to God, and were exerted in subordination to his will as the rule, and under the influence of love to God, a sense of accountability, and the hope and expectation of eternal life.

His public and his private life were under the dominion of religion, yet his interest as a patriot was never separated from his interest as a Christian. His religion though ardent was not enthusiastic. The fire of his heart was kindled to intenseness by the most sublime and comprehensive views of God, his character, law, gospel, and government in all its unerring rectitude and great results, that I have ever known. This was strikingly manifest always in his prayers; especially in those which I heard about the time of my settlement, and soon after the death of his only son.* His doctrinal opinions were those of the Reformation, explained and vindicated, as they have since been, by Edwards, and Bellamy, and West, and Hopkins, and Dwight. The peculiar traits of his piety were ardour, constancy, activity, humility, and gratitude. His views of the evil of sin and of the greatness of his own sin, were emphatically deep and affecting. In his last conversation with me, after assenting to my suggestion that the blood of of Christ cleanseth from all sin; he said, "Yes, it does, it is sufficient; but if there could be a case in which

the sins of one who had obtained mercy should exceed the provisions of the atonement"-he faultered with deep emotion, and when he could speak, added, "I should expect to find that I am the man that had thus sinned."

As a man of prayer he was eminent. He not only prayed at stated times, as a duty and an exercise

*Note F.

of devotion, but he abounded in seasons of prayer, as a part of the work and labour of his life; he gave himself to prayer. He prayed habitually for the influence of the Holy Spirit upon the church and town, to revive religion; and there is reason to believe he felt early in his own soul the approach of spiritual blessings, in the fulness and fervency of quickened intercession.

But his benevolence which wrestled with fervent importunity for those that were nigh, did like Abraham plead for those that were afar off; he prayed for the churches of the state and nation,-and for all men. Though himself a statesman and wise in human counsel, and indefatigable in action, he was one of those patriots who prayed for his country. For a number of his last years especially, there is reason to believe that no inconsiderable portion of his time was devoted to devotion and supplication. He was in the habit of praying for the conversion of individuals, and many are the instances in which he rejoiced over them as the children whom God had given him.*

Before the first revival he experienced a spirit of prayer for a long period preceding it. He believed in the millennium, and prayed earnestly for its approach, and rejoiced in the indications of its advent.

Judge Reeve lived always in a state of simplicity and fulness corresponding with his exertions, his standing in society, and the wishes of his friends. Though blessed with a good income he neither lived nor died affluent; and for reasons which in the day of judgment will add new honours, it is believed, to his character, and new joys to his heart. He was a lover of good men, and given to hospitality.

*Note G.

+ The losses he sustained in the warthe support of his aged father twenty

His sufferings at times were as great, and especially in his last sickness, and for the three or four last hours, as it is possible for the human body to experience; but during the whole of it his soul was in peace, constituting the strongest instance I have ever known of the power of religion. The nerves seem to be the medium of sensation, and when suffering falls exclusively upon the nervous system, it is unspeakably more exquisite than muscular suffering can be, and of all pains most distressing and agitating to the mind, there is nothing like it. And I have known few men whose nervous sensibilities were at all times more acute; but in the wildest state of discomposure, and agitation, and in all that extremity of amazement and anguish which fell upon him, and which is supposed to have been the immediate cause of his dissolution, there was in his heart a tranquility which seemed like a calm in the bosom of a whirlwind. This was indicated by a placid countenance, the moment his paroxysm ceased, and by the heavenly composure which spread over his countenance about a minute before he ceased to breathe, when exhausted nature ceased to suffer, and heaven broke upon his soul.

On Tuesday he apprehended that the hour of his departure was come; and though in a state of great debility and of extreme suffering, he caused himself to be raised in his bed, called his family around him, and took of each of them a most affectionate farewell, and pronounced on each a paternal benediction.

On Friday, he prayed audibly, and though in great suffering, his prayer consisted of ascriptions to God, of holiness, and

years the remission of charges to his poor clients-his munificence to the poor, and his pious patronage of religious institutions, and missionary efforts.

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