HUXGERFORD, WILLIAM. 



361 



Griswold, at Black Hall, in the town of Lyme, 

 for the two succeeding years, when he was ad- 

 mitted to the bar at New London, in 1812, and 

 opened an office for practice at his father's in 

 Hadlyme, where he remained for the following 

 seven years. After he came to Hartford he 

 speedily took high rank in his profession, and 

 such men as Roger M. Sherman and Judge 

 Daggett, though very considerably his seniors, 

 honored him with their confidence and inti- 

 macy. Daring the first eight years of his pro- 

 fessional life, while at East If addam, his business 

 and income from his practice were exceedingly 

 small, scarcely sufficient to meet his expenses ; 

 yet, daring this time he devoted himself most 

 earnestly to the study of the law and ele- 

 mentary treatises within his reach, and pa- 

 tiently and most carefully prepared the cases 

 committed to his care. While thus making 

 himself familiar with the leading treatises, 

 and the maxims of the law during these 

 eight years Coke upon Littleton was read 

 ami reread many times; Ferae on contingent 

 remainder was his companion and delight; 

 and Blackstone was read through thirty times 

 in coarse, and he was so familiar with the text 

 that, for years after, he could give every divis- 

 ion and subdivision in its order, without ref- 

 erence to the book. He also read carefully 

 English history as a part of his professional 

 study, and traced out with the greatest care 

 the origin, rise, and establishment of the laws 

 and ordinances which lie at the foundation of 

 the system of jurisprudence, brought here by 

 the Puritan ancestors; and he became more 

 familiar with English history and its connec- 

 tion with English law, and the cause that gave 

 rise to particular rules of practice, than, per- 

 haps, any other American lawyer. During this 

 time he always read and studied attentively 

 the works of Shakespeare, as the great deline- 

 ator of character, and as affording an insight 

 into the passions of the heart, and the causes 

 which influence and control the actions of 

 men. Law, Shakespeare, and the Bible, were 

 his constant study, while history filled up the 

 time not given to the others. This p*eriod of 

 the first eight years of his professional life, 

 thus devoted to patient study, was the founda- 

 tion of his great learning as a lawyer, his suc- 

 cess as an advocate, and his familiarity and 

 ready application and adaptation of the great 

 principles which underlie the science of all 

 law to new facts and cases as they arise in 

 the progress of business, and in the develop- 

 ment of new fields of industry, and the new 

 nnd ever-changing sources of litigation. His 

 industry was proverbial and wonderful. His 

 endurance seemed to know no limit. When 

 he commenced his profession there were few 

 elementary books and scarcely any reports to 

 be had, and, in this dearth of books and law 

 treatises, at one time he wrote out an entire 

 volume, which he could not otherwise procure, 

 that he mignt use it as a reference in the trial 

 of his cases. Ho also compiled a manuscript 



volume of all the legal maxims which he could 

 find in the course of his reading, or heard in 

 the trial of cases to which he listened, and this 

 he used as a text-book. When he came to Hart- 

 ford, the first volumes of the "Connecticut Re- 

 ports " had been published, and they contained 

 not more than three or four cases upon the sub- 

 ject of insurance. The whole law upon in- 

 surance has been established and settled since 

 that time, and he had the chief agency in dis- 

 cussing and settling those principles. The law 

 relative to steamboat navigation, involving 

 that of common causes, the law growing out of 

 railroad charters and the condemning of lands 

 for railroad uses, have all grown out of the 

 progress of the age, and the great and leading 

 cases connected with these branches of trade 

 and business were investigated by him, and 

 settled. The great case of the Hartford & 

 New Haven Railroad Company us. Kennedy 

 is the leading case upon the subject of the 

 personal liability of a subscriber or holder 

 of stock, for the payment of installments, and 

 has been followed and sanctioned in every 

 State in the Union. The opinion as delivered by 

 Judge Huntington, compiled from the brief and 

 argument of Mr. Hungerford, contains nothing 

 either in the arguments or illustrations, or the 

 authorities, which is not contained in his brief, 

 and has, by the most learned lawyers and 

 judges all over the land, been pronounced one 

 of the most able and exhaustive arguments 

 ever printed upon this subject it has been 

 spoken of as " one of exceeding power, nay, of 

 amazing scope and ability." He had the confi- 

 dence and commanded the attention of the 

 court by the force of his arguments, the clear, 

 logical, systematical, and orderly presentation 

 of the facts of the case from which he would 

 demonstrate, as conclusively and clearly as 

 ever a mathematical proposition was demon- 

 strated, that the result should be in his favor; 

 and, when he was through, there really seemed 

 left no room to question the conclusions which 

 necessarily followed from them. His own 

 convictions were formed after full investiga- 

 tion of his case after ascertaining as far as pos- 

 sible what claims would be made on the other 

 side, and how far and what proof could in any 

 probability be adduced in support of the ad- 

 verse claim. Neither judge nor triers had any 

 doubt of his sincerity. He would not argue a 

 point which he did not himself believe. The 

 judges knew and believed this, and so did the 

 triers, and this gave him a power and influ- 

 ence which were astonishing, and while at the 

 bar he was successful in more cases than any 

 other lawyer in the State ever was. His mind 

 was of the highest order, and the most com- 

 prehensive grasp, disciplined by habits of 

 patient and arduous investigation, profound 

 research, close reanoning, and great powers of 

 concentration, combined with extensive reflec- 

 tion and sound judgment. He was always 

 cool and self-possessed, and nothing could di- 

 vert him from his argument or distract his 



