But how are their decisions to be known?

	Francis Kernan was born in Wayne, Steuben County, on January 14, 1816. He graduated from Georgetown College, Washington, D.C., in 1836. After studying law in Watkins and Utica, he was admitted to the bar in July 1840 and entered practice with Joshua A. Spencer. Serving as State Reporter from 1854 to 1856, he published four volumes of the New York Reports. Elected to the State Assembly in 1860, Kernan, as the Democratic candidate, subsequently won a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1862, representing the Oneida district. He unsuccessfully ran for reelection in 1864. In 1875 he was elected to the United States Senate, the first Democratic Senator from New York in 24 years. He held this position until 1881, when he resumed his practice after an unsuccessful bid for reelection. As Senator, Kernan served on the Judiciary Committee and was often consulted by President Abraham Lincoln on matters pertaining to war. During this time period, he, along with Roscoe Conkling and Horatio Seymour, served as the heads of state politics, known as the "Utica trio." He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1867, a member of the Board of Regents of the State University of New York from 1870 to his death, and for over 20 years served as school commissioner in Utica. He and his wife, Hannah Devereux, had 10 children. Kernan died in Utica on September 5, 1892. (Photograph courtesy of the U.S. Senate Historical Office)
	Born in New York City on March 2, 1814, Smith moved to Rochester as a child and graduated from Columbia College in 1832 and Harvard Law School in 1833. After law school, he returned to Rochester, where he engaged in private practice and briefly served as City Attorney. In 1850 he was selected as chair of mathematics and instructor in political economy at the newly established University of Rochester. In 1853 Smith wrote A Manual of Political Economy, a popular treatise that promoted the "American System" of economic thought. He was appointed State Reporter in 1857, publishing 13 volumes of the New York Reports. During Smith’s tenure, the practice of numbering the reports consecutively through the entire series and only secondarily by the reporter’s name was instituted, a custom which has been followed since. He was appointed Commissioner of Immigration in Washington, D.C., in 1864 but left this position shortly thereafter to become Examiner of Claims at the Department of State where, under William H. Seward and Hamilton Fish, he helped shape department policy. In 1871, at the behest of the Japanese government, Secretary Fish appointed Smith to serve as legal advisor to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, the first American chosen to assist the Japanese government in an official capacity. The treaties and reforms initiated by Smith were instrumental in bringing about the industrial revolution that occurred in Japan during the period of 1876 through 1886. Smith returned in 1876 to Rochester, where he remained active in the city’s affairs and helped rear his grandchildren, among whom were Wolcott and Caroline Balestier, friend and wife, respectively, of Rudyard Kipling. Smith died in Rochester on October 21, 1882. (Photography courtesy of the Rochester Historical Society)
Page 28 Home