CHAPTER VII
AFTER THE WAR
With the return of peace in the triumph of the cause for which he had battled, Colonel Ludington by no means lapsed into inactivity or obscurity, but continued to serve the State in various ways with the same earnestness which he had shown in war. For some time he was again a deputy sheriff of Dutchess County, and in the performance of his duties on one occasion was severely stabbed by a desperado named Brown, whom he was arresting. For many years he was a justice of the peace, his long service being ample evidence of the confidence which his fellow citizens reposed in his probity and of the esteem in which they held his intelligence. He had not a legal education. Indeed, as has already been observed and as the composition of his letters clearly shows, his schooling in even the ordinary branches was slight. His rulings as justice of the peace were therefore based more upon common sense and practical, elementary justice than upon technical familiarity with statute law or with the prescribed forms of judicial procedure. His shrewd sense and his just disposition, however, guided him so well that his administration of the office was satisfactory to those who had occasion to use his court, and it was a rare thing for an appeal to be taken against any of his decisions, and still more rare for a higher court to reverse his judgment. After many years of satisfactory service, one of his friends persuaded him that he should pay more attention to the technical conventionalities of judicial procedure, and to that end provided him with a compendium of legal practice. This treatise, admirably comprehensive yet concise, covering a number of foolscap pages of manuscript, is among Colonel Ludington’s papers now in the possession of his grandson, Charles H. Ludington. Colonel Ludington accepted the advice with some misgivings, but studied the compendium, and when the next case came before him he conducted court in a more technically correct way than before. On this occasion an appeal was made by the defeated party to a higher court, and that court reversed Colonel Ludington’s judgment and ordered a new trial. That was something which had never before happened, and was naturally a cause of chagrin to him. He indignantly declared that it was all because of the new-fangled methods of procedure which his friend had persuaded him to adopt, and he thereafter persisted in conducting his court in the old-fashioned way.
Among the records of the Dutchess County justices’ courts, or courts of special sessions, are many entries of cases tried before him. In October, 1803, Henry Ludington, Cyrus Benjamin and Stephen Hayt occupied the bench when “Ruamy Shaw was brought before the court charged with feloniously stealing, taking and carrying away from the house of Isaac Russell a pair of shoes and a Tea Kettle Holder, whereupon the said Court after hearing witnesses for and against the prisoner are of the opinion that the said Ruamy Shaw is guilty, … that she therefore pay a fine of five dollars and stand committed until judgement be complied with.” The fine was promptly paid, in the form of a due bill by William Shaw. In July, 1806, before the same justices, “Else Lake, Spinster, was convicted … for feloniously stealing taking & carrying away one Plad Chinz gown out of the dwelling house of Frances Mead … and that the said court lay a fine of $5, and that she stand committed until the same is paid. She refusing to pay the same, Metimas (mittimus) wrought and delivered to John Griffen const.” That plaid chintz gown was a source of much trouble, for on that same day before the same court, “Phebe Davis, wife of Solomon Davis, was … convicted for feloniously stealing one Plad Chinz gown to the value of $3.50 cents, the property of Frances Mead, and that the said Court lay a fine on the said Phebe of $6 and that she stand committed until the same is paid. She refusing to pay the same, Metimas wrought and delivered to John Griffen const.”
It will be of some quaint, antiquarian interest to recall the phraseology of the commissions which were in those days issued to justices of the peace. One of those issued to Henry Ludington, now in the MS. collection of Mr. Patrick, runs as follows, being practically identical, mutatis mutandis, with others issued to him by later governors.
THE PEOPLE of the State of New York, by the Grace of GOD, Free and Independent.
To David Brooks, … Henry Ludington, … and Ahab Arnold, in our County of Dutchess, Esquires, Greeting:
Know Ye, that We have appointed and assigned; and by these Presents, do appoint and assign, you and every of you, jointly and severally, Justices to keep Our Peace, in our County of Dutchess, and to keep, and cause to be kept, all Laws and Ordinances, made or to be made, for the good of the Peace, and for the Conservation of the same, and for the quiet Rule and Government of the Citizens and Inhabitants of our said State, in all and every the Articles thereof, in our said County, as well within Liberties, as without according to the Force, Form and Effect of the same Laws and Ordinances; and to chastise and punish all Persons offending against the Form of those Laws and Ordinances, or any of them, in the County aforesaid, in such Manner, as, according to the Form of those Laws and Ordinances, shall be fit to be done; and to cause to come before you, or any or either of you, all those Persons who shall break the Peace, or have used, or shall use Threats, to any one or more of the Citizens or Inhabitants of our said State, concerning their Bodies, or the firing of their Houses, or Barns, to find sufficient Security for the Peace, or their good Behaviour towards the People and Inhabitants of our said State; and if they refuse to find such Security, then them in Prison, until they shall find such Security, to cause to be safely kept: And further, We have also appointed and assigned you the said Justices, or any three or more of you, to enquire, by the Oath of good and lawful Men, of our County aforesaid, by whom the Truth may be the better known, of all, and all manner of Larcenies, Thefts, Trespasses, Forestallings, Regratings, Engrossings and Extortions whatsoever, and of all and singular other Crimes and Offences, of which Justices of the Peace may or ought lawfully to enquire, by whomsoever, and after what Manner soever, in the County aforesaid, done or perpetrated, or which shall happen to be there done or attempted: And also, of all those who in the said County have gone or rode, or hereafter shall presume to go or ride, in Companies with armed Force, against the Peace, to the Disturbance of the Citizens and Inhabitants of our said State: And also, of all those who have there lain in Wait, or hereafter shall presume to lie in Wait, to maim, or cut and kill, any Citizen or Inhabitant of our said State: And also, of all Victuallers and Innholders, and all and singular other Persons, who have offended or attempted to offend, or hereafter shall presume or attempt to offend in the said County, in the Abuse of Weights or Measures, or in the Sale of Victuals, against the Form of the Laws and Ordinances of our said State, or any of them, made for the common Good of our said State, and the Citizens and Inhabitants thereof: And also of all Sheriffs, Bailiffs, Constables, Gaolers and other Officers whatsoever, who, in the Execution of their Offices about the Premises, or any of them, have unduly demeaned themselves, or hereafter shall presume to behave themselves unduly, or have been, or hereafter shall happen to be careless, remiss or negligent, in the County aforesaid; and of all and singular Articles and Circumstances, and all other Things whatsoever, that concern the Premises or any of them, by whomsoever, and after what Manner soever in the said County, done or perpetrated, or which shall hereafter happen to be done or attempted, in what Manner soever, and to inspect all Indictments whatsoever, so before you or any of you taken, or to be taken, or before others late Justices of the Peace in the said County, made or taken and not determined; and to make and continue Processes thereupon, against all and singular the Persons so indicted, or who, before you, shall happen to be indicted, until they be taken, surrender themselves, or be out-lawed; and to hear and determine all and singular the Larcenies, Thefts, Trespasses, Forestallings, Regratings, Engrossings, Extortions, unlawful Assemblies, Indictments aforesaid, and all and singular other the Premises, according to the Laws, Ordinances and Statutes, of our said State; as in the like Case it has been accustomed or ought to be done; and the same Offenders and every of them, for their Offences, by Fines, Ransoms, Amerciaments, Forfeitures and other Means, according to the Laws and Customs of our said State, and the Form of the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid, it has been accustomed or ought to be done, to chastise and punish. You, therefore, and every of you are diligently to attend to the keeping of the Peace, Laws and Ordinances, and all and singular other the Premises, and at certain Days and Places, which you, or any three of you shall, in that behalf, appoint, or by Law shall be appointed, you enquire into the Premises, and hear and determine all and singular the Premises, and perform and fulfil the same in form aforesaid; doing therein what to Justice appertaineth, according to the Laws and Ordinances aforesaid: Saving to Us our Amerciaments and other Things to Us thereof belonging: And the Sheriff of our County of Dutchess aforesaid, at certain Days and Places, which you the said Justices of the Peace of the said County, or any three or more of you shall make known to him, shall cause to come before you, the said Justices of the Peace of the said County, so many such good and lawful Men of his Bailiwick or County, as well within Liberties as without, by whom the Truth of the Matter in the Premises shall be the better known and enquired into: For all and singular which this shall be your Commission, for and during our good Pleasure, to be signified by our Council of Appointment. In Testimony whereof, We have caused these our Letters to be made Patent, and the Great Seal of our said State to be hereunto affixed: Witness, our trusty and well-beloved George Clinton, Esquire, Governor of our said State, General and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the Navy of the same; by and with the Advice and Consent of our said Council of Appointment, at our City of Albany, the fifteenth day of August, in the Year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, and in the twenty-sixth year of our Independence.
Geo. Clinton.