[Family 16.) Benjamin F. Hall 8, Asbury7, Zalmon6, William5, Joshua4, Isaac3, Isaac2, Francis1 : b. in Whitehall, N. Y., July 23, 1814; m., 1843, Abby Farnbam, dau. of John I. Hagaman, of the county of Seneca, N.Y. During the same year he united with the Episcopal church in Auburn, where he continues to reside.
Mr. Hall commenced the study of law when twenty years of age, in Judge John H. Parker's office in Whitehall, having had good advantages at school previously. In 1735, he was received into the office of Seward & Beardsley, at Auburn, N. Y., and the next year became a partner in the firm. In the same year he received the honorary degree of A.M. from Geneva college.
Two years afterwards he was licensed to practice in the highest courts of the State, and in 1840, in the United States Court. Not long afterwards he formed a partnership with John P. Hurlbert, of Auburn. In the division of professional labor between the partners, Mr. Hall took upon himself the equity branch of it, from choice, and made it a specialty, and was distinguished for his industry. In 1844, he re- presented his county in the Legislature, where he introduced a bill and ably advocated it, to submit to the people the question of appointing a Constitutional Convention which he deemed very essential to effect a modification of the courts and to disolve the Court of Chancery. To carry this measure was his chief motive for permiting himself to become a member of Legislature. His object was achieved in the convention of 1846. Mr. Hall wrote and published several treatises of merit on the inherited and statutory titles to lands.
In 1850, he was appointed by Pres. Taylor, through Maj. Bliss' influence (who was Mr. Hall's old school mate in Whitehall), to supersede Gen. Lewis Cass, as Resident Minister at Rome. And the papers were made in readiness, when the president died, and they were not delivered to Mr. Hall, by his successor. But President Filmore appointed him to a more ardurous if not more honorable labor. It was that of collecting and compiling in volumes with proper indices the official decisions of the several attorney generals of the United States from its foundation. This work Mr. Hall performed to the satisfaction of all concerned, and produced the results in six large volumes.
Attorney General Crittenden reports to the president his opinion of the labor of Mr. Hall as follows, "Sir : I have carefully examined the six vols, prepared for the press by your direction, by my assistant, Mr. Hall, of New York. As many of the decisions rescued by him from the ravages of time and moths, and put into form were only brief endorsements by their authors. Mr. Hall has been obliged many times in the course of his labors to put his pen into dead men's hands in order to indict traditions worth preserving. He found it necessary not only to supply language when it was wanting, but to frame the decisions of Randolph, Bradford, Lee, Lincoln, and Breckenridge, almost, if not entirely anew. He has made the text of all the decisions intelligible and clear, and prefaced each with a valuable synopsis, which not only required care and attention, but also thought and a thorough "understanding of the points decided. I have only to add that in my opinion the work has been executed remarkably well. No one but a lawyer and scholar accustomed to digest in his mind the details of administrative history, and of public questions and cases could have executed it at all." Mr. Seward also said in the Senate, " In the entire range of my personal acquaintance I know of no other man who could have performed that service for government as he has performed it. He has wrought a marvel. He has revived men and made them speak. He has reduced the misty traditions of administration to comprehensible words. He deserves the gratitude of the officials in charge of every department of the government."
After Mr. Hall's return to Auburn he was elected its mayor ; became a director of the Southern Central Railroad Co. ; vestryman in St. Peter's church, Auburn ; trustee of a beautiful rural cemetery projected by himself on the site of the noted cabin of the famous Indian Sachem Logan, on an eminence in the suburbs of Auburn called Fort Hill. He wrote a law book on the Land Laws of the Western States, and another on the Jurisprudence of Insanity ; and two histories, one, the History of the Colonization of British America, and the other, the History of the Republican Party in the United States, which completed the number of twelve books, of which he was the author. He was also the editor of the Daily Republican Journal, in Auburn, styled "The Union" during two years preceding the election of President Lincoln.
The next and most prominent incident in Mr. Hall's life was his appointment by President Lincoln in the spring of 1861 to the office of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Colorado. Colorado had been erected into a territory during the winter of 1861, through the influence of Stephen A. Douglass, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the confederacy, in case of civil war, which was expected. Col. William Gilpin of the army was appointed governor of the new territory, and was requested to proceed with Judge Hall to the place assigned them without delay; they went in April ; the United States Fort Garland was under the command of Maj. Sibley, afterwards Gen. Sibley of the rebel army, and as soon as Gov. Gilpin came into the territory, Maj. Sibley passed out of it into Texas, with as many officers and soldiers as he could persuade to go with him. He recruited in Texas and was in command of an army of about 800 men. He sent recruiting officers also into Colorado, who secretly, mostly in the night, obtained many enlistments. Gov. Gilpin being aware of their movements ordered his marshal in Denver to construct a strong prison in that city, and then obtain a posse of loyal men and imprison the recruiting officer and as many of his men as he could find in arms. The marshal succeeded in capturing and imprisoning one of rhe recruiting officers, Capt. Joel McKee and fifty of his men in one night. This raised a great commotion among the secession sympathizing population which were very numerous in the city and in the territory. And they formed a plan to apply to Judge Hall who was holding a court in the city for a habeas corpus, not doubting that it must be granted since Congress had not yet suspended that right of the citizens, and as soon as the prison door was open to bring any one of the men before the court the outside friends would avail themselves of this opportunity to rush upon the sheriff and release all the prisoners. But Judge Hall was adequate to the occasion ; and decided that as the history of the "Habeas corpus act" showed that it was intended to leave its suspension to the judiciary, as in the application for any other suit at law, in case the judge should deem it necessary, as in the case of rebellion or invasion, he therefore declined to grant a writ of habeas corpus for Joel McKee, this was Oct. 14, 1861.
This position which Judge Hall took was a surprise to both friend and foe, but it saved the territory of Colorado to the Union, and the city of Denver from destruction. This position of Judge Hall was vindicated at the time in a book written for that purpose by Horace Binney of Philadelphia. The day Judge Hall retired from the bench the lawyers held a meeting in his court room, and framed an address of thanks, containing the following passages, and had it recorded in the minutes of the court. "The results of your administration of the law here for nearly four years fully vindicate your policy and judgment. It devolved upon you when you came here to lay the foundation of a future civilization and to erect upon it the edifice of a systematic and enlightened judiciary. That you have succeeded in this to a remarkable extent, the records of this court attest. You leave behind you the evidence of unusual foresight, untiring industry, great legal ability, purity of intention and of an inflexible purpose to be faithful to your trust." And the Denver Commonwealth said : "Chief Justice Hall carries with him the best wishes of the best portion of this community to his new field of labor.
A few of the lawyers and speculators complained of some of his early decisions before they understood his judicial policy. But ever since they comprehended his ideas in respect to our lands they have approved it. We think we are warranted in stating that at no period of his administration here has there been a single voice lifted up against his legal ability, patience, patriotism and purity. He has been an industrious, patient, politic, able and upright judge. By those whose ante-territorial ranche and mining titles have been upheld and confirmed by his decisions as against the rapacity of jumpers and speculators he will long be regarded as a public benefactor.
In the early part of the year 1864, Judge Hall was appointed by President Lincoln, consul to Valparaiso, when he resigned his office of chief justice in the expectation of going there. But before he was able to find a vessel or steamer which was going down to that distant Pacific port in the face of the pirates then sweeping the southern seas, President Lincoln was assassinated and Secretary Seward and his son Frederick, his assistant, nearly killed, and instead of going to that post of duty at all, he, at the request of the wounded secretary, went into the State department a while to superintend the bureau having charge of our commercial relations.
Since 1868, Judge Hall has been a private citizen of Auburn, enjoying his books and his family. Judge Hall has very kindly furnished nearly all of the material for this line of Halls, and other valuable materials for other portions of this book.
His children were born in Auburn :
