lege, and he began practice and married in South Carolina. Witherell resigned in 1828, when nearly seventy years old, and exchanging places with William Woodbridge, became Secretary of the Territory, so that afterwards, in the occasional absence of Cass, he acted as Governor. Woodbridge was from Connecticut, and was a son-in-law of John Trumbull; he was Governor of Michigan in 1840, and by a coalition between Democrats and Whigs became United States Senator. It was he who suggested to Webster the extradition clause in the Ashburton Treaty.
The last three judges in the territorial list were all appointed by General Jackson. They were George Morell, who will be mentioned farther on; Ross Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, who was afterward and for many years the first district judge in Michigan; and David Irwin, of Virginia, who was to succeed Doty in the special judgeship. Their nominations were sent to the Senate at that stormy session when Van Buren was rejected for minister to England, and it was three months before they were finally confirmed. Indeed the point was made by Thomas Ewing that there were no vacancies to fill, since, under the Ordinance of '87, the judges were entitled to hold office during good behavior. Wilkins, who was probably the last survivor of the territorial bench, was born at Pittsburgh in February, 1799, and was a graduate of Dickinson College in the class of 1818. When Michigan entered the Union, in 1836, he became the United States District Judge; and he held that office, without missing a term of court, until he resigned in December, 1869. He died May 17, 1872. In his earlier years he had been a Methodist class-leader, and he remained a Methodist until he was old, when his religious speculations led him toward the Catholic Church. There was one doctrinal point, however, which still troubled him, as he admitted one day to an old-time Methodist friend, the late William Clay. Mr. Clay was a profound student, and a man of rare skill in dealing with metaphysical subtleties. "Why," said he, unguardedly, "that's easy enough;" and seating himself with the judge upon a dry-goods box, he made the knotty point so plain that to his own subsequent chagrin his venerable friend found every obstacle removed that had kept him out of the Romish communion, and soon after joined that church.
In addition to these twelve men, two thirds of whom may be called eminent,—at any rate, they are in Appletons' Biographical Cyclopædia,—there were four others who received early appointments to the territorial bench of Michigan,[1] but who did not serve. Two of these were Samuel Huntington, who did not accept, and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., who was not confirmed; both were afterward governors of Ohio, and Meigs was also Chief-Justice of that State, United States Senator, and Postmaster-General under Madison. The others were one John Coburn, who preferred a judgeship in Louisiana Territory; and William Sprigg, of whom I know nothing, but suppose to have been a Marylander, as were Tom and Dick of that name who were members of early congresses. Able, however, as most of the judges no doubt were in many ways, such small trace as is left of the jurisprudence of their times does not go far to prove it. In the fall of 1822 the "Detroit Gazette" was full of attacks upon the court, though Woodward was the target for most of the ponderous abuse of its contributors. One feature of the newspaper criticism was the publication of a series of reports entitled "Notes of Trials, Arguments, and Proceedings in the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, September Term, 1821." These notes purported to give the conversations and discussions of the judges with each other and with the bar, even to the exhibition of their disagreements and asperities; and every instalment was headed with the words:—
- ↑ Campbell's Judicial Sketch.
