MICROFILMED 1986 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY GENERAL LIBRARY BERKELEY, CA 94720 COOPERATIVE PRESERVATION MICROFILMING PROJECT THE RESEARCH LIBRARIES GROUP, INC. Funded by THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION Reproductions may not be made without permission. THE PRINTING MASTER FROM WHICH THIS REPRODUCTION WAS MADE IS HELD BY THE MAIN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA 94720 FOR ADDITIONAL REPRODUCTION REQUEST MASTER NEGATIVE NUMBER 6- 0740 AUTHOR : Bar Association e€ San Franc sCO- TITLE : Memonal commemorative ... PLACE: [ San francisco] DATE :£ 1242 VOLUME 7;!! | F860 | 2b- - CALL 02 NO. v7 % NEG. | NG. O70 T7860 -2 v. 7:11 Bar Association of San Francis co. Memorial commemorative of the life and services of Samuel M. Wilson. Adopted and ordered printed by the Bar Association of San Francisco, August 13, 1892. [San Francisco, 1892] 4p. 23cm. [Pamphlets on California biography, v.17, no. 11] Cover title. FILMED AND PROCESSED BY LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA 94720 soBno. 86 1115/0 DATE 3 8 6 REDUCTION RATIO 8 IR ‘DOCUMENT "SOURCE BANCROFT LIBRARY OL ql lee = |e No On = fl MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIAL 1010a ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 2| LE CE EE ELLE Tow 1 T | I I [ I 3 T | T al EC | , ; + S| 3 WL i Lead) 9 ! TTT TTT TTT TTT (Memorial Commemorative of {fe Life and Services of Samuel MM. Wilson @Vopfed and ordered (Printed fp fhe Bar @ssociation of San Grancisco, @ugusf 13, 1892, in Demoriam SAMUEL M. WILSON. EATH has again entered the ranks of the pro- fession, and this time has claimed for victim not only a leader, but in some respects the most remarkable man among those who have made the Bar of San Francisco distinctively illustrious. Be- coming a member of that Bar in the very early days, for nearly forty years he figured prominently in its legal controversies, and had finally reached the dis- tinction of being, at the time of his death, at the head of the profession in California. Nor was this distinction grudgingly conceded him by the members of his own profession, or by them alone, but by both lawyer and layman the concession was unanimous and cheerfully bestowed. He attained this high rank by his great natural abilities united with qualities of professional character of the highest order of ex- cellence, and supplemented by a patience and in- dustry seldom surpassed. Like many of the noted men of our country he was born and grew up in the great West, and like them he had something of the bigness and freshness of his environment, and also like them he had that flexi- 1 bility and plasticity which enabled him to easily adapt himself to that environment, and thus to put to the greatest possible use the exceptional abilities with which nature had endowed him. This was illustrated, in a professional way, by his immediate mastery of our Practice Act on his entrance to the California Bar, which, as having been taken from New York, was entirely unlike anything to which he had been theretofore accustomed. So complete was this mastery, that in the early days he was frequently taken to be a New York lawyer by those who were not acquainted with his origin and life. Mr. Wilson, until within a few years before his death, had enjoyed perfect health, but an attack of rheumatism, some years ago, brought on an enforced retirement from the most active part of his work His recovery, however, seemed to be perfect, and on the resumption of his professional labors, there re- mained scarcely any perceptible traces of his illness. Shortly after his recovery from this illness, he made an extended tour of Europe and Egypt, returning to San Francisco in the month of October, 1891. On his return he found many weighty matters awaiting him, and immediately, with all his old time ardor, he plunged into work. Those who came in personal contact with him in these last days of his life were struck with the clearness, no less than with 2 the vigor, of his mind, and with his enthusiasm, as well, which years and occasional illness seemed to be without power to abate. He argued causes in the Supreme Court with the same force and skill as of old, and but recently led in an important land case which took several weeks to try, and which embraced the most intricate and puzzling detail, and was en- gaged in the trial of another one at the time of his death, leaving its trial unfinished. Nothing seemed to indicate that the end of this busy life was near; no token was given of the breaking of the golden bowl, the loosening of the silver cord; so far as outward seeming showed, a score of years might still be his; and yet, at the very moment the great lawyer and ad- vocate was pleading for the rights of his client, Atropos stood by his side with her inevitable shears, determined, in but a few days more, to cut the thread of his life. The fatal day came on the third of June, 1892. This day he spent in his office hard at work at those things which fell to his hand to do, and feeling no premonition of what was so soon to happen. Early in the afternoon he began to experience some discom- fort, and for that reason left his office at an earlier hour than usual; but on passing into the street his discomfort increased, and he thereupon called a car- riage in which he was taken to his home in a state of 3 exhaustion. He soon rallied, however, sufficiently to converse intelligently upon his condition, and to re- oret that he should be giving anyone trouble on his account; but the rally was of short duration, and he expired early on Saturday morning, about ten hours after the fatal seizure, retaining his mental faculties up to nearly the very last moment. The life, thus suddenly ended, was begun at Steu- benville, Ohio, on the 12th day of August, 1823. The boy went to school at the Old Grove Academy at that place, and left its halls to make a way and place for himself. He naturally took to the law, and was for- tunate in having an uncle in the profession with whom to study. This was Gen. Samuel Stokeley, who was a member of Congress, and with whom he re- mained until 1844 when he was admitted to practice. Soon after this he removed to Galena, Illinois, and there formed a partnership with the late Judge J. P. Hoge. In 1853 the partners came to San Francisco, and here continued their partnership for eleven years. In 1866, Mr. Wilson formed a partnership with A. P. Crittenden, which continued until the latter’s death in 1870. In 1874, Mr. Russell J. Wilson was taken into partnership with his father, and in 1882, another son, Mountford S. Wilson, became associated in the prac- tice of the law with his father and brother. Mr. Wilson was married on July 5th, 1848, to Emily + Josephine Scott, who still survives him. The children of the marriage were five boys, one of whom died in infancy, while four still survive: John Scott Wilson, Russell J. Wilson, Frank P. Wilson and Mountford S. Wilson. Mr. Wilson never permitted any temptation, no matter how seductive, to swerve him from the straight path of the law; and while always an ardent Demo- crat, and taking an earnest interest in matters po- litical, he never permitted himself to stand for any office save two, and these were in the line of his pro- fessional work. One was membership in the Consti- tutional Convention of 1878, and the other was mem- bership in the Board of Freeholders which was elected in 1879 for the purpose of framing a charter for San Francisco, in both of which bodies he played an im- portant and conspicuous part. And it is a coincidence worth noting, that of these two bodies, Hoge and Wilson, whose lives had touched at so many points, were members, and that the former was chosen Presi- dent, and the latter, Chairman of the Judiciary Com- mittee, of each of them. During Gov. Haight’s administration, Mr. Wilson was earnestly tendered the appointment to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Bench of the State created by the resignation of Judge Sanderson, and during President Cleveland’s administration he was offered 5 the Chinese Mission and also the Mission to Spain, all of which appointments he declined. It would be vain to attempt to here give a history of the career at the bar of the subject of this Memorial. Such a course would make it necessary to far outrun any reasonable limit of a paper of this kind. Indeed, to write such a history would be to write a history of the courts of San Francisco and of the Supreme Court of the State. It is but truth to say, that Mr. Wilson was connected with the most important and interesting causes appearing in the California Reports, and that he has, perhaps, more than any other prac- tising lawyer, impressed himself upon the legal his- tory of our State. His first case in the Supreme Court was that of People v. Coleman, reported in the fourth volume of California Reports, and was of the gravest consequence. The question there was, whether the Revenue Act of 1853 was in contravention of the State or Federal Constitution. In that case the whole question of taxation in respect of the power to tax, etc., was gone into by the Court, and the Act sus- tained. This case has been cited and relied on by the Judges of our Supreme Court a great number of times, and the Revenue Laws of the State have been framed in accordance with the principles there enunciated. He was a prominent figure in the great will cases of 6 Broderick, Black, Low and Reese, his work in the latter being especially noteworthy for the industry and ingenuity displayed by him in it, and in which he was completely successful, and that, too, against a powerful array, which was strongly aided by the opinions of John F. Dillon, Charles O’Conor and Theodore W. Dwight. For many years Mr. Wilson had been a practitioner at the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was there recognized, as at home, as being one of the brightest exemplars of the California Bar. Many important cases were won by him in that august tribunal againt most eminent Eastern Counsel. In nearly all the noted cases involving our munici- pal titles, or involving questions of constitutional law, he has borne a leading part; while in Mexican grant cases, and in cases covering questions of commercial law, no hand has been more frequently seen than his. Indeed, his professional life in the Courts touched every question in civil practice, while his office work was scarcely less extensive in its range. His business was always a varied and large one, and he commanded fees proportionately. The result was, that although he maintained an extensive establishment, and enter- tained lavishly, he yet accumulated a large fortune. Mr. Wilson, as we have said, never swerved from the straight path of the law, and declined official pre- 7 ferment; but more than this, he gave none of his time to societies or associations. He was a life mem- ber of the Bar Association, of which he was at one time the President, and was a member of the leading social clubs, but beyond this he never went. Not- withstanding, however, his unremitting devotion to the law, he never failed to meet all just social obliga- tions, nor to do his whole duty to his State and City, or to his political party, when he felt that any one of them needed his professional services. In Samuel M. WiLson we have a professional char- acter perfect in its proportions, and beautiful in its symmetry. We see in him a striking illustration of the power of concentration when industriously used in the interest of special achievement. He was a man wonderfully endowed by nature for success at the bar, but all this endowment could never have carried him to the eminence he reached had there not been com- bined with it an industry that never flagged, and a painstaking to which nothing was trifling or insig- nificant. He rises before us as a man who set out to be, before and beyond everything else, a lawyer, pure and simple, and who never bated a jot in pursuit of his object. And a lawyer, complete in every part, he became—indeed, the very ideal of one. His professional standard, both in matter of learning and conduct, was of the very highest, and many of his brethren were 8 partial enough to think that he reached his own standard. He was, in very truth, and will still remain, a model for the young aspirant at the bar. He never took anything for granted; he never de- pended upon intuitions or inspirations. Like Turner, the great painter, he knew nothing of genius short of hard work; and this work he cheerfully gave, no matter what the hours might be, night or day. His case was always one to be mastered to its very core, and he never rested satisfied until he so mastered it. He knew perfectly well when he went into Court what he proposed to do, and how he proposed to do it, and he generally knew what the other side would do, and how they would do it. He was as careful to study the opposing side as he was to study his own, and sought to conjure up every possible contingency which might arise during the progress of the litigation. If any- thing arose during the trial which he did not under- stand, he would, by deft management, evade direct issue on the point until he could look into it and see what it meant. He was always afraid of that which he did not understand ; but when knowledge came, he was fearless. It was the pole star of his manage- ment of a case, never to take a step except on solid ground and with perfect knowledge of all the sur- roundings. There may have been those of his con- temporaries who were quicker on the moment to grasp 9 the fullest significance of a point, but no one of them in the end dug deeper down on it than he, or at the last, better understood it in all its implications and bearings. He never looked upon anything in a law- suit as insignificant; to him everything demanded the carefullest attention, and the most painstaking labor. In the trial of a case, he would never, under any circumstances, permit himself to be hurried. All must be done with due deliberation and precisely as he had beforehand mapped it out. And with it all, he was, except when annoyed beyond endurance, even-tem- pered and imperturbable. Indeed, he was the soul of courtesy to his professional brother, and to the Bench, respectful and deferential to a degree. In oral argument he never rambled, or discussed irrelevant matters. In regard to this, he was as care- ful in preparation and arrangement, as he was in other parts of his case, while his written arguments, particu- larly those in the Supreme Court, show prodigious learning and almost unexampled industry. He was exceedingly fluent in argumentative discourse, sympa- thetic in voice, apt in the choice of words, forcibly persuasive, graceful in manner, and while lacking, perhaps, somewhat in imagination, rose frequently to eloquence. He always spoke from fullest knowledge of the subject, and never permitted his point to be lost in a maze of florid or redundant rhetoric. He was 10 always direct, clear, methodical and strong. It would be a mistake to say of him that he was essentially a Court lawyer; on the contrary, he was as much at home in a common law case before a jury, as he was in an equity case before the Court, and he was as strong in the one as he was in the other. Few could sum up a case to a jury better than he, and if there was an element of pathos in it which could be turned to the benefit of his client, he was always equal to the occasion. Indeed, nature had given him a voice well adapted for this, for it was so sympathetic and rich as to be almost musical, while he was never at a loss for appropriate language. In consultation, Mr. Wilson was tolerant and cour- teous; he never presumed, by virtue of his standing at the Bar or of his seniority in the case under discussion, to be dictatorial, or to enforce, other than by statement and argument, his views upon his associates. Every- thing presented he treated with consideration and seriousness; but if an authority were relied on, he was never satisfied until he himself had personally exam- ined it. He never, at any time or under any circum- stances, so far as we knew the man, set himself upon a pedestal, or deemed himself worthier or abler than his professional fellows. Our brother was not only admired on account of his commanding abilities, but he was scarcely less than 11 loved by those who enjoyed the happiness of his friend- ship. His was a companionable, sociable nature, and he delighted in good talk. He had traveled so much with his eyes open, had met so many different kinds of men, had read so.much, and was gifted with such conversational powers, and was withal so kindly, that conversation with him at the right time and place was a thing to be remembered. There was nothing sullen, or crabbed about him, while self-conceit and self-con- sciousness were entirely lacking in his composition. Although his professional labors were arduous and well-nigh incessant, yet he so ordered his time as to be enabled to take such frequent excursions into litera- ture and the general learning of the day, as to be quite accomplished in those directions. He was, besides, exceedingly fond of the opera and theatre, and ration- ally enjoyed both. With all his labors he did not neglect the calls of society. His nature was a singularly well-balanced one, and he knew the value, as well as felt the duty, of meeting his friends socially, and particularly of gath- ering.them around him at the board where hospitality and good taste were never lacking. At the head of his table on such occasions, he was no longer the lawyer overburdened with work and care, but the man of the world and society, who, for the time being, was the centre from which radiated the fire of wit and humor. 12 His devotion to his family, as husband, father and grandfather, was such that nothing could exceed the beauty of it; while his friendships were so warm and lasting, that no man could well wish for sweeter memories of himself after death. Mr. Wilson was of medium stature, and slightly rather than strongly built, but his presence was com- manding and masterful, while in demeanor he was dignified and courteous. This dignity was one, how- ever, which could unbend on occasion, for nature had given him that priceless possession—sense of humor, and he knew the value of a good hearty laugh. He had, besides, a keen sense of wit, as many encounters at the social board could well attest, while in after dinner speaking he was always interesting and graceful. Sueh was the man who, before he had reached the psalmist’s allotment of years, has been taken from us; but how gloriously was he taken! His career was a completely rounded one; he had achieved success, he had seen his children honorably grow up with families around them, and with success already in their cup of life; he was permitted to labor almost to the very last moment, and fell, as it were, in the thick of battle, and in the full glory of an assured place among the profes- sional immortals. He was thus happy in his life, and glorious in his destiny, so that we might well say of 13 him, as Pindar said of Hieron .—“To be happy is the chiefest prize; to be glorious the next lot; if a man have lighted on both and taken them to be his, he has attained unto the Supreme Crown.” The cup of Death was pressed to his lips, as it must be to the lips of us all; but in his case he was fortunate enough to taste of its bitterness under the solace of great compensations. Such a death was a fitting end to that life the memory of which shall not easily be lost to our professional traditions, while the Bar Association shall ever treas- ure his name and fame as one of its dearest and most revered possessions. END ~ OF TITLE srt —————————— bs — CRETE Se AE ELE REE RRARIRA AY EERSTE CASA " " ’ EH EL EE NT CE MER Ne - | T END OF REEL. PLEASE ~ REWIND.