Draft talk:Andrew Salter Woods

Potential addl refs[edit]

a biographical sketch by Harry Bingham https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memorials_of_Judges_Recently_Deceased_Gr/qD0xAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Andrew+Salter+Woods&pg=PA25
This encomium is full of praise without saying anything very specific. Some of the things said Nobody ever claimed that he was a brilliant advocate. (p 27); He never made large displays of legal learning. (p 29); might be seen as criticisms, but are immediately followed by explanations for why they are not intended that way. No adequate explanation for what happened during his term in 1855 other than to say it was not on account of any fault of his (p 25)
a portrait and, maybe, something about him https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Green_Bag/-PqRAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Andrew+Salter+Woods&pg=PA474
search engine says there is another hit, but I had to read carefully through this disquistional material to find it starting to discuss Woods on the page numbered 480. It rather indifferently assesses Woods's actions while on the bench, pointing to no specifics we could draw on for this article. There is an indication, however, that Salter's tenure as chief justice marked a turning point in the history of the NH supreme court, but it is disappointingly vague about what this turning point was. Quite a few years later, the court was reconstituted from the Superior Court of Judicature into a Supreme Court, but this does not seem to be what the Green Bag is going on about. (The Charles Henry Bell source already cited in the draft says something to the effect that in 1855 the court was reformed by statue abolishing the position of chief justice, but no more detail that that.)
There's an anecdote about him offering a toast in 1827 to "military chieftains" Washington and Jackson, but it seems inconsequential https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Littleton_New_Hampshire_Annal/041wxo_qUp8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Andrew+Salter+Woods&pg=PA300

— jmcgnh^{(talk) (contribs)} 08:46, 29 August 2023 (UTC) — jmcgnh^{(talk) (contribs)} 07:23, 30 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]