If

it will be forthcoming. The world has not depreciated. There is as much capacity in it as there ever was. it is called for, it will come to the surface. If it is made, as it should be, the exclusive requisite to public office of importance, it will not fail to be found. It is time there was courage enough to controvert the idea that in some parts of this country is making its way, that all that is necessary to qualify a man for high office is the cunning that enables him to get into it. The government of the country requires personal superiority; superiority of natural capacity, superiority of attainment; the acquirements of those who have been willing to toil while others slept; and it is time that we had the sense to think so, and the courage to say so.

When the day comes, as it has come in too many other places, when the road to high office shall require a man, instead of attaining the requisite superiority, to divest himself of all appearance of superiority to the general mass of mankind, and to assimilate himself as completely as possible with those who are inferior; and having thus achieved a mean and unworthy popularity, then to exercise his ability in crawling into place, by traffic, and management, and intrigue – when that time comes, I say, it will need no prophet or astrologer to cast the horoscope of our State. The dry-rot will permeate every timber of the edifice that our fathers reared and all the glory of the past will be lost in the dishonor of the future.

X

SKETCH

OF THE LIFE OF

ISAAC FLETCHER REDFIELD

CHIEF-JUSTICE OF VERMONT

Published in Vol. XLIX of the Reports of the Supreme Court of Vermont, p. 519

ISAAC F. REDFIELD

SINCE the publication of the last volume of these reports, Isaac Fletcher Redfield, for more than twentyfive years a Justice, and for more than eight years of that time the Chief Justice, of the Supreme Court of Vermont, has passed away. Though not a member of the Court at the time of his death, some notice here of a life in so large a part devoted to its service seems appropriate and becoming.

He was born in Weathersfield, Vermont, on the 10th of April, 1804, the eldest of a family of twelve children. His father, Dr. Peleg Redfield, removed to Coventry, in Orleans County, in 1808, where he spent most of his life, a prominent physician and much-respected citizen, and died in 1848, at the age of 72. Judge Redfield graduated with high honors at Dartmouth College in 1825, entered immediately upon the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in Orleans County in 1827. He rose rapidly in his profession and in public estimation, and held from 1832 to 1835 the office of State's Attorney for that county. In February, 1834, on motion of Daniel Webster, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, Chief Justice Marshall presiding.

At the October session of the Legislature of Vermont in 1835, he was elected a Justice of the Supreme

Court. He was then only thirty-one years of age, the youngest man who has ever attained that office in this State. His election was entirely unexpected to himself, especially as his political opinions were not in accordance with those of the majority of the Legislature; and it afforded a very marked proof of the personal and professional reputation he had acquired. His associates on the bench at the time he took his seat were Charles K. Williams, Chief Justice; Stephen Royce, Samuel S. Phelps, and Jacob Collamer. It is not too much to say that the Court thus formed has never been surpassed in this country. Judge Redfield accepted the appointment with much hesitation and distrust of his own powers; but had very soon the satisfaction of knowing that he was regarded by the bar as the fit associate of his distinguished compeers.

For twenty-four successive years after his first election (the judges being then annually elected in Vermont), he was unanimously re-elected by the Legislature, though a large majority of that body were during that time opposed to him in political sentiment. Judge Williams, in 1846, and Judge Royce, in 1852, successively retired from the Chief Justiceship, full of years and honors. Judges Phelps and Collamer had meanwhile passed from the bench to the United States Senate, the former in 1838, the latter in 1842. Judge Redfield succeeded Judge Royce as Chief Justice, and was eight times unanimously elected to that office. These facts are far more significant to show the estimation in which he was held by the bar and the people of Vermont than any comment that can now be made. His term of office was longer than that of any judge who ever sat upon the bench in the State,