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Nothing is known of the author of this diary other than what can be gleaned from its contents.
He was evidently a lawyer in Camden, New York, well-educated, thoughtful, and eloquent, with decided
opinions on various topics. The One entry reads, in part: Dec. 18 To day attended a meeting which for its object the consideration of
the Evils of Slevery. Slavery! A loathsome sound to greet the ear of an American at this stage
of the 19th Cnetury; but loathsome as it is, it must be sounded in tones of thunder...ere it
shall die away in the sweet and mellow notes of Liberty!
&su_address;
Another gives his opinion of the general quality of a legal arguments offered in court:
Dec. 22 To day, attended as Council before a Justice's Court, and before a perfect basswood Justice: who, though designing to do justice to the parties, would be apt to do as much injustice to the character of our Esquire, as by his tardy perception and muddy intellect, he would, through mistake, despoil the rights of those who left their affairs to his decisions. Disputation is very much recommended to sharpen the wits of men, but it must be of a higher order than we engage in before our Justice's Courts, or I am sure it would tend to sink even a splendid intellect below the zero of high-minded controversy. However, it may be said to require considerable talent to beat an idea into the head of some of our squires and consequently would tax one's ingenuity not a little to make his language clear and explicit enough to make the Justice keep on the side of truth, or rather to discover where the equity of the matter lay, or so to befog his intellect that he could not discover when he was right or wrong.
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E. W. Stewart Diary,
&su_name;
Purchase, 2016.