RESOLUTIONS xxxvii 



at stake ; and also in important probate cases, all of great 

 importance at the time and of equal moment to-day. 



Regent Shipman's last conspicuous legal work was as a 

 delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in session 

 in Albany during the summer just past, and it is the judg- 

 ment of his confreres that he was one of the ablest and most 

 industrious members of that great deliberative body. It is, 

 I think, the judgment of his friends and of some of his asso- 

 ciate Regents, that his labors as a student of constitutional 

 revision, during a long and depressing summer, so under- 

 mined his constitution and impaired his vitality that he was 

 unable to combat an illness of pneumonia, with ensuing com- 

 plications that caused death. 



President Finley, in intimate touch with the work of the 

 constitutional revisers, cooperated freely with Mr. Shipman, 

 and understands how seriously and laboriously our sleeping 

 friend applied himself to the task of a revision of the consti- 

 tution that would command the approval of our citizenry. 



There was an incident attending the final work of the con- 

 vention which evinced the tolerant, courteous and forbearing 

 attributes of the honored dead. The record shows that when 

 the final vote was taken to determine whether the prepared 

 revision should be submitted to the people, Mr. Shipman, an- 

 nouncing that as written it did not express his ideals, credited 

 the convention with having wrought with fidelity for the best 

 as that body saw it, and, therefore, would not oppose its sub- 

 mission to the people, but voted to do so. This was typical 

 of the man, of the tolerant and able lawyer, of the fair- 

 minded publicist — seeking to attain the best in the science of 

 government. 



In the usual acceptation of the term, Mr. Shipman was not 

 a politician. He was an adviser as to public policies in city 

 and state, but not a practical performer ; he was wise in coun- 

 sel, always advocating movements and policies of the better 

 sort. 



It is the ambition of most lawyers of his learnedness in 

 the law, and of his juridical attainments, or qualities, to look 

 forward to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, or 

 higher, and it is to his honor if he cherished that ambition. 

 But for his untimely death such a preference would doubt- 



