By competent evidence, is meant such as the nature of the thing to be proved requires; and by satisfactory evidence, is meant that amount of proof, which ordinarily satisfies an unprejudiced mind, beyond any reasonable doubt.

There Simon was educated at the Latin school and studied the Greco-Roman classics. Simon Greenleaf (December 5 1783 – October 6 1853) American lawyer and jurist was born at Newburyport Massachusetts. In 1801 he joined the law office of Ezekiel Whitman (the later Chief Justice of Maine) and in 1806 was admitted to the Cumberland County bar as a legal practitioner.