Background
Charles was born on November 27, 1824 in New York, United States, the son of Samuel Dwight Southmayd, a merchant, and Mary (Ogden) Southmayd.
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Charles Ferdinand Southmayd
Edit ProfileEducation
His formal education, begun in a private school, was terminated at the age of twelve and a half when his teacher "announced to his astonished father that he had taught the boy all that he knew and he had thoroughly mastered it".
Career
His first working place was in the law office of Hurlbut & Owen, where he at once began his legal training. When Judge Elisha P. Hurlbut formed a partnership with Alexander S. Johnson the following year, Southmayd went with him. By dint of great diligence and the exercise of a remarkable power of concentration he soon attained such a proficiency in the law that he became known in the firm as the "Chancellor, " and, in the course of time, entered into a partnership with Johnson.
When this partnership was dissolved on the election of Johnson to the New York court of appeals in 1851, Charles E. Butler and William M. Evarts, impressed by the legal ability Southmayd had displayed in the important case of Iddings vs. Bruen in which they were opposing counsel, asked him to join their firm. This association continued until the retirement of Butler in 1858 - a resignation that proved premature since he later rejoined the firm.
Some months later, Joseph H. Choate joined Evarts and Southmayd to make up the famous legal triumvirate of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate.
Through careful savings Southmayd amassed a considerable fortune, and in 1884 he retired from practice. Unfortunately, law had absorbed him to such an extent that he had no interest to turn to during the remainder of his life. His days were filled with vague apprehensions and with the nursing of his innate conservatism, a conservatism that made him object to elevators, automobiles, elevated trains and electric street cars, and even led him to view a European trip by Choate's daughter as all nonsense.
He sold his real estate holdings lest unbeknown to him his properties be used for immoral purposes and he be held accountable under the terms of a new law making landlords responsible in such cases. Before he died, however, he was to frame one more great argument, that which he wrote in the case of Pollock vs. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. , resulting in the decision that held unconstitutional the income tax imposed in the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act.
Although he never appeared in court and others obtained the glory, Choate insists that it was Southmayd's brief which was the one to influence the Supreme Court in its opinion. It is characteristic that he wrote this brief ten years after he had retired from active practice, because he felt his own income threatened and that offended his conservative sense of property right. He died in 1911.
Achievements
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Charles Ferdinand Southmayd was one of the most brilliant lawyer of his time, served in Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, that attracted to the firm many of the most important cases of that period. Although Southmayd detested trial work and never appeared in court unless the vital interests of his clients demanded his attendance, the clearness of his intellect and the soundness of his learning, as well as his unimpeachable integrity, contributed in no small measure to the deserved preeminence of the firm. His activity influenced the status of Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Elihu Root describes him as "the typical solicitor, learned, logical, cautious, independent in judgment, stubborn in opinion, caustic in expression" (Choate, "Memorial, " post).
Connections
References
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Born
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Died
July 11, 1911 (aged 87) -
Nationality
American