The Bar Association's Action

In respect to the death of Gov. Felch : The Washtenaw County Bar is in niourning. Alpheus Felch died at bis home in this city 011 June IStb, ÏS'JO in the ninety-second year of his age. For over 50 years he had been a rueinber of this bar and during the greater portion of the time an active praetitioner. It is fitting that we should place upon record some appreciative testimonial, in words of love and respect for the grand life among us and so beautifully finished, but in this case, death was without its sting. It carne as naturally as sleep. Honorable Alpheus Felch was born September 2S, 1S04, in Limerick, York County, Jlaine. He was left an or phen at about three years of age, and lived with his grandfaiher, Abijan Felch, a soldier of the revolution who liad í-emoved to that región while it was still a wildemess. Young Felch was ambitious to obtain an educatiou and prepare for college and for that purpose entered Phillips Exeter Academy in 1821. He afterwards entered Bowdoin College and graduated therefrom in 1827. After graduating from Bowdoin, he entered upon the study of the law, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar at Bangor, Jlaine. Soon after being admitted to the bar he determined to settle in the west and removed to Monroe, Michigan, in 1833 and entered upon the practiee of his chosen profession. In 1S13 he removed to Ann Arbor, where he has since resided. Governor Felch was a member of our State Legislature in 18357 and in 1838-9. He was also appoined one of the State Bank Coinmissioners in 1838 and served as such for two years and did much to improve the banking system of our state. In 1842 he served as Auditor General for a short period. He was appointed one of the Justices of our State Suprema Court in 18-13 and served until 184G when he assumed the duties of Governor to which office he had been elected. He was ex-officio Kegent of the University of Michigan 1S42-4C. and 1846-47. In 1S47 he resigned his position as Governor of the state and was elected to the Senate of the ünited States in which positiou he served until 1853. He was afterwards appoiuted by President Pierce one of the commissioners to settle the Spanish and Mexican land claims in California under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidelgo and was chosen President of the Commission. The work of tliis sion involved many important questions and decisions and tlie reports of tlie same filled forty volumes. The work of tlie Coinmission was eornpleted in 1856. Governor Felcli retired froni the practice of law Ín 1873 and was a member of the faculty of the Law Department of the University of Michigan in 1870-83. In 1877 Bowdoin College bestowed upon him the degree of I L. D. Governor Felch was President of the State Pioneer Society for many years previous to his death and took great interest in preserving the early history of our state. The foregoing record discloses that a biography of Alpheus Felcli would be a fair index to the history of the state of Michigan from 1S35 to 1870. During this period ne helped to mate a state out of a territory, and tïirougn his wise counsels the condinons of state sovereignity and local self-govermnent were so cautiously obseded as to inake our present prosperity possible. The people had so much confidence in his integrity and good judgment and in his ability iu legislation, administration and jnrisprudence, that they bestowed upon him every honor within the gift of the state. His public life and service to our people eould not be written without the writing of a book of many volumei. In his death we feel most keenly the loss of a great lawyer and cultured jurist and a highly respected private citizen. In 1843, Mr. Felch, so long known among us as our ex-Governor Felch, purchased a residence in the City of Ann Arbor, and from that time to this, he has continuously lived within the sound of our court house bell and within sight of our University campus. At the bar, he was almost pre-eminent in industry. Few men have burned more midnight oil than he. No man ever charged him with unfaithfulness, negligence or indifference to any case. He was also a great genius but not an orator or an advocate ín the popular sense. He seldom ed in rhetorical expressions and w;is always simple and modest to an extreme. He secured his verdicts by reason of the conceded intellectuality and genuineness of the man. Men believed what he said because he said it. and such is the work of true genius. Governor Felcli set a very high standard in professional et bics. He never resorted to any ineretrlcloua nietliods to secure practico. He had the highest ideas of the dignity of his profession and was something more than an honorable gentleman. He was an open hearted, sympathetic friend; always faithful to his client's cause, but never forgetful of his duty to his fellow man. Por over 50 years he has lived in this comniunity, and dies leaving a reputation as a private citizen, untarnished by a single act, and equal tu that of any man that ever lived. He has appeared almost daily on the streets of Amn Arbor as an object lesson, as a man possessing all the virtues with no vlees, as a man upon whom nuniberless honors state and national had been thrust without disturbing the equipoise of character and without any yielding to temptations to step aside from the path of rectitude and righteousness, and, more than all, as a man whom all men loved and who loved all men. ïhe value of such a cbaracter to a community cannot be fully appreciated. There is not a living member of this bar who does not feel its influence upon his own life. Therc is one solace left us. He is dead but his life still lives. His life stands as a perpetual beacon light to guide the generations that shall follow him to purity of life, integrity of character, fldelity to duty and to worthy and noble citizenship. In the words of the poet Longfellow, who a fellow student of Alpheus Pelch ut Bowdoin College: "Po hen a great man dies, l'or years heyond our ken The hght he leaves beliind him lies Upon the paths of men." We express to the family of the ceased our sympathy and request that the clerk of this court present them an engrossed copy of lilis memorial. Resolved, That this memorial be presented to the Supreme Court of this State, to the United States Circuit Court for the Eastem District of Michigan and to the Circuit Court forthe County of "Washteuaw with the request that it be spread upon the journals of these courts.