committees have made splendid suggestions as to desirable legislation. After you have improved on their suggestions by your counsel, let us then unite in a hearty effort to secure the enactment of the measures we shall indorse. I sincerely trust that the next President of this Association will be able to report the passage of the measures recommended by it.

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF FRANCIS
BRINLEY FOGG,

MORTON B. HOWELL.

If it were possible to prepare a memorial of Francis B. Fogg, after the manner of that which was constructed of the "venerable sage" whom Boswell immortalized, the result would, in my opinion, be equal in interest and value to that celebrated production. The subjects of the conversations which might be detailed would be of as much importance, and fully as instructive, for Mr. Fogg was neither a conceited moralist, an overbearing egotist, nor an intolerant bigot.

Unfortunately, there was no one near Mr. Fogg to take notes of his daily talk, and at this day few remain alive who were sufficiently intimate with him to recall much of his conversation. He wrote but little outside the strict line of his profession. Not much of that was printed, and whatever may be said now of him must be gleaned from general recollection. Francis Brinley Fogg was born in Brooklyn, Conn., Sept. 21, 1795. His father was a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, of scant means, and dependent upon his salary for support.

He received his early education in the town of his birth, until, about the 18th year of his age. he was invited to continue his studies at the residence of his cousin, William Hunter, at Newport, R. I.

From what has come down to us of school methods in those days, as well as from our own knowledge of Mr. Fogg in later years, it is evident that "the humanities" constituted the main field of instruction. The ancient classics were drilled into the student with little or no regard for the exact sciences or any form of physics. His thorough and familiar acquaintance with Latin and Greek literature, and that of England, from

the golden days of Queen Anne to his own time, had its origin in this early training and the taste thus developed.

His cousin, William Hunter, was a lawyer by profession, but he had been for many years a Senator from Rhode Island, and during one administration, he was Minister of the United States to Brazil. It seems probable, therefore, that he was more politician than lawyer. After concluding his literary course, Mr. Fogg read law in Mr. Hunter's office, and on reaching his majority, he obtained his license as a lawyer.

Mr. Fogg rarely spoke of his student days, and we have no information as to what aid he received in his legal studies. The vigor and grasp of his mind made him capable of acquiring the knowledge of the profession without assistance, and it is more than probable that his legal attainments owed noth ing to any instruction other that obtained by his reading and meditation upon Coke and Blackstone, and the few luminaries that stand out in the legal firmament of that day as the sources from which the neophyte in the law could procure light.

We are told that Mr. Hunter proposed to him that they should together open an office for the practice of law in the city of Philadelphia. Such a proposition from a man of the experience and knowledge of men which Mr. Hunter must have possessed, was a remarkable tribute to the ability and acquirements of so young a man. If the proposition was made, it was declined, and Mr. Fogg decided to leave behind him the culture and refinements of his New England home. and try his fortunes in the then far-distant, and, as the people of the East doubtless looked upon it, uncouth and rough Southwest.

Having relatives-the Greens and Littlefields-in Maury County, Tenn., he fixed upon Columbia as the place to begin his new life, and he reached that town in February, 1818. Columbia was even then the center of a population wealthy, intelligent, refined and educated, and this circumstance, as well as the neighborhood of kinsmen, doubtless induced his settlement there. But to a young man without means, and dependent upon his profession for support, social and intellectual advantages were of less importance than business.

Columbia did not offer the opportunities afforded by Nashville, and to the latter city he removed before the end of the year 1818. The town of Columbia, therefore, had as little remembrance of him as Nashville has of Henry A. Wise, afterwards Governor of Virginia.

In after

The Bar of Nashville at that day contained a large number of lawyers of learning and ability, considering its small popu lation. It would be beyond the purpose of this occasion to enumerate them, and their character, and the subsequent high positions held by many of them might well occupy another paper. He was received by these gentlemen with the kindness and courtesy that everywhere characterize the conduct of the older members of the profession towards the younger. years, Mr. Fogg took pleasure in relating to his family his experiences in Nashville at this time. He said that his office was near that of Felix Grundy, then famous throughout the Southwest as an advocate, especially in the Criminal Courts. One day Mr. Grundy walked into his office, having in his hand a large green bag. Putting the bag upon the table, he said: "Mr. Fogg, the Circuit Court will begin in a few days. I am compelled to leave the city, and cannot be present. Here are the papers in all of my cases. attend to them." Mr. Fogg protested that he could not undertake the responsibility, and begged that Mr. Grundy should not put it upon him. His proposed refusal was without effect, and he was thus thrown suddenly into all of Mr. Grundy's civil cases, at that term. In relating this, Mr. Fogg that, in the trial of the cases, he found that he knew more about commercial law than any of the lawyers, though they were better acquainted with land law than he was, and he gained every case thus put into his hands. From that

added

time on,

When

he said, he had no lack of business.

You must

it is remembered that this was not later than the

year 1819, and that Mr. Fogg was then only in the 24th year of his age, such recognition of ability, and capacity to sustain it, is ample proof of phenomenal power and attainments.

If one

should undertake to examine into the extent and

character of the business done by Mr. Fogg at this period, he would find the material strangely scant and meagre. There

5

is no equity record, except in the Chancery Court at Franklin, which was, until the year 1846, the court of the division which included Nashville. Courts of law were held at Nashville, but there has been no attempt made since 1861 to arrange the records so that they may be accessible.

An examination of the printed reports of the Supreme Court will show that the volumes of Overton, compiled by Emmerson, begin with the insertion of the names of counsel, and often give the main points of the argument; but this men tion grows less frequent, until, in the third volume, omission of both name and argument is the rule. The last case reported in 3 Overton was decided in June, 1817.

Cooke's reports contain cases decided between 1811 and 1814, and the names of the attorneys always appear, and, generally, a resume of their briefs.

Judge Haywood, reporting in his three volumes, cases decided from November term, 1816, to September term, 1818, seems to have studiously omitted any mention of counsel. So, Judge Peck, covering the period from 1821 to 1824, makes no reference to the lawyers engaged, but occasionally refers to the arguments offered.

The first case reported in Martin & Yerger is Abraham Vaughn vs. Phoebe, a woman of color, decided at the January term, 1827. The appellee had sued the appellant for trespass and false imprisonment. "Vaughn pleaded that Phoebe was a slave and his property; to which plea Phoebe replied, denying that she was a slave and the property of Vaughn; upon which replication issue was joined." W. B. Rucks represented Vaughan, and W. L. Brown and F. B. Fogg the appellee. The briefs of counsel on both sides are given in full. This is the first printed record of Mr. Fogg's appearance in the Supreme Court. The case was appealed from Sumner County. The question involved was peculiar, the point being as to the introduction of evidence to show that Phoebe was the child of an Indian woman, and, therefore, could not legally have been a slave. Fortunately for us, no such question can ever again arise. It is not possible to say with certainty that the brief, which is elaborate and learned, was wholly Mr. Fogg's, but the style is plainly his.