Judge Haines left the Bench at the expiration of his term on November 15, 1866, and was succeeded by David A. Depue, who held office as Judge and Chief Justice and was a strong pillar of society, until November 16, 1901.
A Persian proverb says that a Stone fit for the wall is never left in the road, and so, as it was according to the evident fitness of things that Mr. Dodd should become a Judge, that event came to pass when Chancellor Zabriskie, in 1871, appointed him the first Vice-Chancellor. In 1875 he resigned his office, and in 1881 was reappointed by Chancellor Runyon. He became also a specially appointed Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, thus strengthening its equity side. In a Court many of whose most important issues are in equity, and one of whose members is the Chancellor, who is precluded from sitting in equity cases, it is always well that some of the Judges should have, or have had, the valuable experience of sitting alone in equity, and dealing at first hand with the rules of equity practice and procedure. This has been the case with Justice Bergen and Mr. Dodd. No other instances occur to me.
The highwater mark of Vice Chancellor Dodds judicial duty was reached in the memorable case of Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. National Railway Co., 23 Equity 441, decided at the February term, 1873. This was before the General Railroad Law, and there was a strong movement, backed by much public opinion, and attended by some public excitement and high feeling, to break the monopoly of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by uniting interests and connecting existing roads, so as to secure an independent through line between New York and Philadelphia. The purpose was meritorious, for the State needed another through line. The case which Vice-Chancellor Dodd decided was in form an application to enjoin the National Railway Company from proceeding with the construction of its road in New Jersey with intent to use it as part of a through line from New York to Philadelphia. The argument which, with the reading of proofs, took two weeks, was upon a rule to show cause why an injunction should not issue pursuant to the prayer of the bill. Attorney-General Stockton, Mr. Theodore Cuyler and others were counsel for the complainant, and Mr. Cortlandt Parker and others represented the defendants. I went to Trenton to hear the opinion. The reading of it took about an hour. The gist of the opinion, which was for the complainant, was this,—not that several links might not form a chain, but that the defendants so-called links formed no chain because the legislative acts which created them indicated no intent that they should connect. The opinion shows Vice-Chancellor Dodds strong judicial qualities; admirable language and style, clear statement, controversial force, persuasive reasoning and exposition, all, in their combination, leading up to a high level of jurisprudence. I know of nothing in the New Jersey books more skillful or nobly ethical than portions of this opinion. Vice-Chancellor Dodd would not have esteemed it praise to be told that the case was a test of his nerve, for, though his feelings were easily wounded, he was far above being moved by clamor, either before or after a decision. I will not dwell on Vice-Chancellor Dodds other opinions. They are numerous and may be consulted in the volumes in which they are printed, beginning with 22nd Equity.
A strong magnet was drawing Vice-Chancellor Dodd away from the law to a pursuit attractive to one of his mathematical bent: I mean the intellectual side of the science and art of life insurance, and it finally captured him. Perhaps some readers of the New Jersey Law Journal have been favored, as I have been, by polite letters from one or more insurance companies, offering options between two or three propositions about equally unintelligible, and have, perhaps improvidently, solved the problem by selecting the one which seemed to promise most immediate cash. To such persons, if any there be, I respectfully commend the perusal of a valued and interesting book of about four hundred pages which lies before me, entitled Reports to the Board of Directors of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, made by Amzi Dodd as Mathematician or President, from October, 1877, to January 21, 1901. I can say like Hamlet, I am ill at these numbers, if I may be pardoned for perverting the meaning of the Prince of Denmark, but I have sufficient comprehension to see that the same man wrote the opinions and the reports, and that they are characterized by the same high mental and moral qualities.
Mr. Dodd was fond of Governor William Pennington and liked to talk about him. They became acquainted when they met in a cow case at Orange. An old womans cow was run down and killed by a Morris & Essex train and young Dodd sued the railroad. It had not then been judicially determined in New Jersey whether a cow or the locomotive had the superior right of way. The case was tried before a Justice of the Peace with a jury. Dodd was very much on his good behavior and treated the Governor with extreme courtesy. He had the crowd with him and triumphantly won the verdict. The next day Governor Pennington called on him, or sent for him, complimented him on his management of the case, and spoke of his own friendship with Amzi Dodd, an uncle of young Amzi, who was a capable Newark lawyer, a careless, unsystematic man of whom I heard Mr. Cortlandt Parker tell that he carried his papers in his hat, and was said sometimes to lose both hat and papers together.
One day, Amzi Dodd, the uncle, came into Governor Penningtons office and said: Good morning, Governor. Confound these young fellows! They get all my books away from me. Now there is Elmers Forms. I own a copy of it, and it has my name in it, but it is gone. It is a very useful book. I need it every day. Governor, have you a copy that you can let me have?
Governor Pennington, who was a courtly gentleman of the old school and something of a wag, answered very gravely:
Mr. Dodd, I agree with you about Elmers Forms. It is an excellent office book. I consult it every day and should be sorry to be without it, but you know, Mr. Dodd, that I am always ready to oblige you, and I will cheerfully let you have it if you will promise in writing to return it when I need it. Certainly, said Mr. Dodd, and dashed off a serio-comic agreement to return the book when called for. He folded the document and handed it to the Governor, and the Governor handed him his own missing book.
I told this to my old Yale friend, William Pennington of Paterson, a nephew of the Governor, who chuckled and said, I can see him doing it.
Governor Pennington used often to associate young Dodd with him in the trial of causes. He had been Governor under the old Constitution and ex-officio Chancellor, but was not scholarly and relied very much on his knowledge of the world, tact, and strong common sense. Mr. Dodd once told me that while the Governor knew very little law, he was a most dangerous antagonist before a jury. If he had the close he was almost sure to get the jury with him, and if you had the close he would sit in front of the jury and smile your speech away.