202|The Green Bag.|}}
in the Harvard Law School. It was in the performance of his duty as a law professor that Simon Greenleaf prepared his work on Evidence, and Parsons wrote his work on Contracts, and on Bills and Notes, as well as on Partnership and Shipping and Admiralty. And in the same way Washburn prepared his work on Real Property. Judge Cooley, dur ing his connection with the Michigan Law School, published his Constitutional Limita tions in 1868, his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries in 1872, his edition of Story's Commentaries on the Constitution in 1874, his work on Taxation in 1877, his treatise on Torts in 1879, and his Manual of Constitu tional Law in 1880. On the appearance of his work on Torts the " Southern Law Re view " declared that " neither England nor America, neither the present nor any other period in the history of the common law, has produced an abler or more learned expounder of its principles." As to the book itself, it declared that it was written " in a style of classic propriety; concise, and yet nothing is wanting; full, and yet nothing is wasted." His greatest work is his " Constitutional Lim itations," a book of unique excellence, which at once gave him a national and later an in ternational reputation. As a law lecturer Judge Cooley was distinguished for the clear ness of his style and the thoroughness of his exposition. The thousands of law students who have sat under his instruction in the University of Michigan hold him in the highest esteem, and no name mentioned in the halls of the University to-day evokes su"ch an outburst of applause as does his. He may well be proud of the grateful apprecia tion in which he is held by the students in the University of Michigan. An almost lifesize portrait of him hangs on the walls of the Law Lecture Room, having been generously presented to the school by Mr. Albert D. Elliot of the Law Class of 1887, and a gradu ate of the Academic Department of Harvard University of the Class of 1882. Charles I. Walker, one of the most hon ored members of the bar of Michigan, came
from a sturdy old New England family " of such timber as had furnished much of the best blood of the West, people of education, intelligence, and independence, as far back as their descent can be traced." He was born in the village of Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y., on April 25, 18 14, whither the family had removed from Providence, R. I., in 18 12. The grandfather of Charles I. Walker was Ephraim Walker, who married Priscilla Rawson, a lineal descendant of Edward Rawson, who graduated in 1653 from Harvard College, and was at one time Secretary of the Colony of Massachusetts. Charles J. Walker was one of a family of eleven children, and ob tained his education at a district school in his native village, supplementing its course by one term at a private school in Utica, N. Y. For some years he engaged in mercantile business in the State of New York until 1836, when he removed to Michi gan, settling in Grand Rapids, where he be came a land and investment agent. This business- he followed for a short period, when it was abandoned by him, and he became the editor of the Grand Rapids " Times," the only newspaper published in those days in the town. But in 1838 journalism was in its turn given up, and having been elected a Justice of the Peace, Mr. Walker entered on the study of the law in the office of George Martin, who afterwards became Chief-Jus tice of the Supreme Court of the State. In 1 841 he determined to complete his legal studies in the East, and removed to Spring field, Mass., and from there to Vermont, in which latter State he was admitted to the bar in September, 1842, being at that time about twenty-eight years of age. He soon succeeded in building up a large and pro fitable practice, but decided in 1851 to re move from Bellows Falls, Vt., to Detroit, Mich., where his brother, the Hon. E. C. Walker, was engaged in successful practice. He at once entered into partnership with him, and soon made a reputation at the bar. In 1836 he was a member of the sec ond convention called to consider the ques