claims of public justice alike indicate the expediency of appointing immediately a new clerk. In conclusion, the undersigned would respectfully submit also, that so entire a derangement exists in respect to the writs, files, records, and papers of the court remaining with the present clerk that an adjournment of about three weeks will be imperiously necessary after a new clerk shall have been appointed, to enable him by uninterrupted attention, so to arrange the business before the court, as that with safety and convenience, satisfactory progress may be made in it. Nor indeed is it perceptible to the undersigned that there exists any practicable mode by which, without the most serious sacrifice, the business of the term can be brought to a close without resorting to the measures proposed. Having from a sense of imperious duty submitted this view of the business of the court, and which they take pleasure in stating every member of the bar attending cordially concurs in, the undersigned have the honor, with due respect, Resolved, By the governor and judges of the Territory of Michigan, that Augustus B. Woodward and William Woodbridge, esquires, or either of them be authorized and requested to proceed to the city of Washington at the ensuing session of Congress and endeavor to procure the permanent establishment of the southern boundary of this Territory in conformity with the principles of the ordinance of Congress of July 13, 1787, or in the most favorable manner for the interest of the Territory which may be practicable, and also the passage of an act of Congress allowing to the people of this Territory the privilege of electing a delegate to Congress. But in case either of the gentlemen above named should perform the services herein requested, the governor and judges will consider the same as gratuitous. The clerk, Peter Audrain, had become incompetent from old age, to perform his duties.-C. M. B. and do not pledge the Territorial government to any further remuneration therefor. DETROIT July? 1818. LEW. CASS, Governor of the Territory of Michigan.` JOHN GRIFFIN, One of the Judges of the Territory of Michigan. AFFIDAVIT MICHIGAN TERRITORY, COUNTY OF WAYNE. ( I do under oath certify that I have been acquainted with the Honorable Augustus B. Woodward (late chief), a judge of the Supreme court for the said Territory since 1809; that during that time I considered his conduct as a judge to be patient, humane, dignified and independent; that during the period the British and Savages had possession of the country in the late war, his services then rendered to his fellow citizens ought never to be forgotten; at the then most trying event his conduct was most conspicuous in defending their rights against the insults and the aggressions of a cruel, relentless and vindictive enemy. That I have been at balls, dinners, and many other convivial parties with Judge Woodward during the period aforesaid, and upon all these occasions his conduct was that which is becoming a gentleman. That at the commencement of the late session of the Supreme court, I called on Judge Woodward at his quarters, I found him in a very low state of health, I discovered from his conversation that he was determined to attend court; I advised him against it, considering him so very feeble in body, that the exposure in my opinion would occasion his death, which impression I stated to Major Whipple, the landlord where he boarded. The judge notwithstanding did attend court and continued to discharge the functions of his office during its session, to the astonishment of all that witnessed him. J. MCDONELL. Subscribed and sworn to before me the 18th Feby., A. D. 1824. The above is a true copy of the original copied by me the 18th Feby., 1824. AFFIDAVIT MICHIGAN TERRITORY, Alexander D. Fraser, attorney and counsellor at law of the city of Detroit, appeared personally before Robert Abbott, Esq., an acting justice of the peace in and for said county, who being duly sworn deposeth and saith as follows: I have been very intimately acquainted with Judge Woodward for some time back, and I have always considered him a very temperate man, and have never known him to be affected with wine or liquor. I consider him to be a man of an expanded mind, and possessed of general as well as legal knowledge in no ordinary degree. His talents are superior to what generally falls to the lot of man, and his legal requirements, I believe, have here and elsewhere been invariably allowed to be such as would adorn the bench of any country. His independence and integrity on the seat of justice, I cannot believe can be attacked on any earthly foundation, nor have I ever known them to be disputed by any virtuous citizen; and his extreme anxiety to attend to his public stations it is impossible to exceed. Some time previous to the last term of the Supreme court he was dangerously ill and continued so till the sitting of the court, at which time he was in a very reduced state of health, and from his debility I conceived him to be totally unable to attend the court, but to my surprise he made the effort contrary to the expectation of every one (for we generally believed a few days before then that he was dying), and Col. Hatch informed me on the first day of the sitting of the court, that the judge had sent for him to dress him as he was unable to dress himself, that he went and did so accordingly; he added that it was the height of imprudence in the judge to venture out and endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, but Col. Hatch said it was all to no purpose for the judge told him, he said, that he was resolved or determined to attend the court. Col. Hatch added that he believed the judge never would recover from his sickness. On that day I was in court, when I saw the judge come to the court house door in his gig, and he was unable to get out of it. He required help to get out and to conduct him to the bench. Every person I believe, was surprised at his exertion in his feeble state, and I did not suppose that he would or could wait in the court house longer than to charge the grand jury, for which I considered him totally inadequate from his debility, but to the surprise of all he attended punctually every day of the term and apparently gained additional strength every day. The first day I saw him in court I was fully of the belief that he could not live more than a day or two at most. The only exceptionable trait I ever noticed in the judge's judicial character is that he permitted too great a latitude to members of the bar, as I thought, in arguing their causes, and I am totally a stranger to any exceptionable trait in his private character. ALEX. D. FRASER. The above is a true copy of my affidavit sworn before Justice Abbott, Feb. 18, 1824. A. D. FRASER. Sworn to and subscribed this 17th Feb., 1824. 81 ROBERT ABBOTT, Justice of the Peace. COMPLAINT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, to wit: Augustus B. Woodward, one of the judges in and over the Territory of Michigan, complains of Whittemore Knaggs, one of the interpreters for the United States for one of the tribes of savages commonly called Cheboys or Chippeways, in custody of a plea of trespass, for that the said defendant on the 10th day of June, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, at Detroit, in the district of Detroit, in the Territory of Michigan, with force and arms. to-wit: with clubs, etc., assaulted the said plaintiff, and him did then and there strike and wound and other enormities committed against the peace and dignity of the United States of America, and to the damage of the said plaintif. twenty thousand dollars, wherefore he brings suit. Michigan, Oct. 9, 1811. WOODWARD.* ORDER TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, TO WIT: The United States of America to the Marshal of the Territory of Michigan: You are hereby commanded that you take Whittemore Knaggs, one of the interpreters for the United States, for one of the tribes of savages commonly called Chebois, or Chippewas, to be found within the said Territory of Michigan, and him safely keep, so that you may have his body before our judges of our Supreme court of the said Territory of Michigan, to be held at Detroit. on the 3d Monday in September next, then and there in our said court. before our said judges, to answer Augustus B. Woodward, one of the judges in and over the Territory of Michigan, in a plea of trespass for an assault upon a judge to the damage of the said Augustus B. Woodward, as is said. twenty thousand dollars, and of this will make due return. Witness, John Griffin, one of the judges in and over the Territory of Michigan, the 11th day of June, one thousand eight hundred and eleven. WHEREAS, The legislative council of the Michigan Territory, at its last session, have undertaken by law, and of their own authority to appoint a *This episode is explained in Vol. XXIX, page 648 of this series.-C. M. B. presiding judge and to prescribe the order of precedence in the court of the Territory composed of the judges holding commissions under the President of the United States, by the authority of the law of Congress, and whereas a majority of the said judges have acquiesced in the right assumed by the said council.* The undersigned, one of the judges of the said Territory, conceives it to be a duty which he owes to his station to enter upon the journal of the court, a respectful but decided protest against the exercise of the power assumed by the council in this behalf. He denies the competency of the council under its general powers of legislation, or by virtue of any authority derived from the laws of Congress, so to regulate the powers and duties of the judges, as a court, as to confer upon an individual judge any exclusive duty, right, power or privilege, or to the judicial office any title, distinction or disability, not derived from the laws. of Congress and expressed in the commission under which the office is held. He considers that the council by assuming the right to create the office of presiding judge, and appoint a person to perform the duty by prescribing a rule of procedure and subordination to the judges, have exceeded their powers. that the force and effect of the act under which this power is claimed, if admitted to be valid, is to violate the individual rights of the judges and to control the enactments of the paramount legislature by whose authority the judges are constituted, appointed and commissioned. The undersigned makes this protest against the principle assumed, and not against the person designated to preside, by the council, towards whom he entertains a feeling of entire respect and cordiality, and to whom as an equal, he would with all sincerity and cheerfulness accord the duty of presiding were it left to depend upon the comity of the members of the court as heretofore, and not upon the unauthorized enactment of a subordinate legislature. HENRY CHIPMAN. RELATIVE TO QUALIFICATION OF ELECTORS CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, P. On the 6th day of December, 1825, before me, the subscriber, one of the aldermen of the city of Philadelphia, came Robert Stuart, who, being duly sworn according to law, deposes as follows: That he is one of the judges of the county court of Michilimackinac county, in the Territory of Michigan, and, ex-officio, one of the inspectors of election, in which capacity he acted in the last election for a delegate to Congress from said Territory; that he *This act was passed June 28, 1830, and is printed in two places in the Territorial Laws, Vol. 2, page 685, and Vol. 3, page 817.-C. M. B.j |