LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1872
To William Cox Cochran
16 January 1872
[Autograph signed letter in the possession of Mrs. Ellen Speers, 3915 Sierra Drive, Austin, Texas 78731.]
Envelope:
Addressed to:
William C. Cochran Esqr
Care of Hon \ Cincinnati
J.D. Cox. \ Ohio.
\
Stamp: has been cut out
Postmark: OBERLIN O JAN 16
Letter:
Oberlin 16th Jan. 1872.
My Dear Willey.
Your letter of the 27th of
Nov. has, I fear, not been
answered. I let Ange take
it up stairs & until just now
I have not seen it since. Not
appearing amongst my un-
answered letters I had for
gotten that I had not replied
to it. We all love you dearly.
This you know. You know also
what an extensive correspon
dence I have & therefore will
not att[r]ibute any delay to
answer your letters to
any want of interest in you
or your letters.
We are rejoiced that you are
getting on so pleasantly with
your studies. You say nothing
of Blackstone. I read him
through seven or eight times during
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my law studies. After reading
other works for several months
I would reread Blackstone.
I found that he contained in
the briefest form all, or nearly all
that I found spread out on
the multitudinous pages of all
the writers on Common Law.
The more I read him & other
writers the more I was amazed
at the extent of his legal erudition.
One does not at first nor until
repeated reading realize the
compactness of his thoughts, nor
how much he has crowded into
his four volumes. I should like
to read it again. It sounds
strange to me to hear of a law
student being examined for
admission to the bar after
one or two years study.
I am sure that the young lawyers
in this country with whom I
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have been acquainted
know but little of law.
I do not believe that any one
of them could have been
admitted in New York
under the old Judges that
were when I studied law,
such as Kent, Thompson
Platt, Spencer &c. They held
office not "durante bene placito"
but during good behavior. Or
until they were 60 years of
age unless impeached for
malfezance.
I presume you have facilities
for learning which are enjoyed
but by few. If I were you I would
take a pretty wide course of
study such as will fit you
to be a federal chief justice
if need be. I should want
to understand special pleading.
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Although this has become
obsolete, still I think it
an unwisdom to suffer
it to become so. It makes law
yers more labor, but it saves
a great deal of time for
courts, Jurors, & witnesses.
When the pleadings are thorough
& the issues fully & squarely
joined but few points are
left for the court & jury to
traverse & but few witnesses
needed, & more than all the
court & jury & counsel are
not muddled & confounded
by a loose wandering helter
skelter, tiresome & unintell
igible trial. I find in church
trials that I can reduce the
length of a trial from a week
to a few hours by getting the
parties together & hearing their
cases stated on both sides. Noting
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wherein they agree & wherein
exactly they differ. Let
each explain & reply &
take the course of special
pleading, though not by that
name. I find I can narrow
down the litigated points to
very few, & can try the cause
in a very short time.
I do not think the profession
or the practice of law has
gained any thing by dispen
sing with special pleading.
The practice has been simplified
they say. But so far as I have
had opportunity to observe
I should rather say the
practice has been stultified.
Have you read Vattell on the
law of Nations. If you have
time you will find Starkie
more learned on the laws of
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evidence than Greenfield.
But your Father will advise
you better than I can.
You need to look deeper
than cases, into the great
canons & principles upon
which cases are decided.
Dolly was out here a short
time since. We want to hear more
about that girl baby & its mother.
How are you all. We rejoice
that Kenny is doing so well.
We are all well at present
All unite in much
love to you all.
God bless you
evermore.
C. G. Finney.
P.S. When you come to die
will you be glad that you
spent your life as a lawyer.
That may be well, but is there
not something infinitely better?
Footnotes:
This letter is not in the Finney Papers
Commentaries on the Laws of England, by Sir William Blackstone (1713-1780) was first published in 1765.
There is record of Finney borrowing 2 volumes of Blackstone's Commentaries from the College Library at some point.
James Kent (1763-1847), Smith Thompson (1768-1843), Jonas Platt (1769-1834), and Ambrose Spencer (1765-1848), were all judges of the Supreme Court of New York. Kent, Thompson and Spencer were also Chief Justices (see entries in Dictionary of American Biography, and A Biographical Congressional Directory, 1774 to 1903. 57th Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives Document No. 458 [Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903]). Finney was particularly friendly with the Platt family and with Spencer's son, Theodore.
In English law this meant "during the pleasure of the crown" (Earl Jowitt, Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1977).
The Law of Nations by Emer or Emmerich de Vattel (1714-1767), was first published as Le Droit des Gens in 1758. It "modernized the whole of international law, bringing it down from the realms of speculation into the sphere of natural relations and problems, and became a classic, particularly in England and USA." (See David M. Walter, The Oxford Companion to Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.) It was first published as The Law of Nations in London in 1760, and in New York in 1787.
Neither of these books had been studied by Finney while he was a law student, as they were not published until later. A Practical Treatise on the Law of Evidence by Thomas Starkie (1782-1849) was first published in London in 1824. The first American edition came out in 1826, and was frequently republished and revised.
The other author--called "Greenfield" by Finney--is no doubt Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853). When the first volume of his Treatise on the Law of Evidence appeared in 1842 "the profession at once hailed it as the ablest extant work on the subject, distinguished alike for its deep learning, clarity of style, and practical utility." Further volumes were added in 1846 and 1853. "In its completed form it came to be regarded as the foremost American authority, and passed through numerous editions under successive editors" (Dictionary of American Biography).
This was Cochran's stepbrother, Jacob Dolson Cox Jr. The 20-year-old Dolson was at that time working as an apprentice with the Cleveland Iron Company. He described his visits to Oberlin when he was a boy, and his impressions of his grandfather, in his autobiography, published in 1951 under the title, Building an American Industry: The Story of the Cleveland Twist Drill Company and Its Founder.
Finney's daughter, Helen--William Cochran's mother--had just given birth to Charlotte Hope Cox on 11 December 1871. Hope was Cochran's youngest stepsister.
This was Cochran's 15-year-old stepbrother, Kenyon Cox. He had suffered considerable ill health as a child and had been virtually bedridden for several years. The growth of a tumor on the jaw had nearly caused his death. But after surgery, when he was thirteen, he recovered, and was attending the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati where he aspired to become a painter. See H. Wayne Morgan, Kenyon Cox 1856-1919: A Life in American Art (Kent and London: The Kent State University Press, 1994).