[Pamphlets. American history]

68 THE NEWBUtRYPORT CELEBRATION.
administration of justice has been indebted to the integrity and ability of
those who have sat in the tribunals, or pleaded the cause of the innocent at
the bar; and how much the legislation of the country has been benefitted by
the wisdom and patriotism of those lawgivers who trace their origin to this
town.
This is not the occasion, nor am I the person, to enlarge on the merits of
the great and good men, among the living and the dead, who, born here, have
consecrated themselves to justice, their country, and their God. But you will
indulge me in speaking briefly of one, who but a few months ago, closed a
long and eminent professional career. I allude to the late Professor Greenleaf.
I had not the pleasure and honor of a personal acquaintance with this
respected son of Newbury, until he became Royal Professor of Law in the
School at Cambridge, then illustrated by the learning and eloquence of Story..
On that occasion I first knew him. He and I were inaugurated as Professorshe of Law, and I of Greek, on the same day. From that time I enjoyed his
unbroken friendship, as long as he lived. Of his course and character as a
boy in your public schools; of his struggles as a young man, with poverty;
of his Christian submission to the bitter lot of sorrow and bereavement that
fell heavily upon the early periods of his domestic life; of the success which
crowned with triumph these brave conflicts; many, probably, here have more
personal knowledge than I; but I am sure no one can have a deeper impression of the purity and nobleness of character, which came forth tried like gold
from the heat of the contest.
Mr. Greenleaf was one of those men, who know how to make the most of
time. No client ever suffered wrong from feebleness or neglect, at his hand;
for he spared no effort and shrunk from no study that could throw light upon
the cause he had undertaken to conduct. As a teacher, he shone with peculiar
lustre. The large body of intelligent young men who sat under his instructions valued them beyond all price. Calm in his manners; with the dignity
of superior intellect and extensive knowledge; with the blandness and
courtesy of a Christian gentleman; considerate of the feelings of all who
stood to him in the relation of scholar to master; conscious of his responsi-'bilities to them, and through them to his country-he commanded in an
extraordinary measure, their love and veneration.
Mr. Greenleaf's contributions to the literature of his profession, I cannot,
of course, professionally speak of. His studies lay in a province far remote
from mine. Of his work on Evidence, however, I may say, that besides
taking the very highest rank among the text books of legal science, it is one
which any educated gentleman may read with pleasure and profit. Of another
work, the ingenious application of the rules of legal evidence to the testimony
of the Evangelists-I may say that it is a striking illustration of the earnest
interest he felt in the establishment of the Christian Faith on the foundation
of the most rigorous argument, while the daily beauty of his life proved with
what fidelity he made the precepts of Christianity his rule of conduct.
Mr. Greenleaf was not, technically speaking, a literary man. In his youth