•"m-nvtwc-

: «***,"'¦•**•

*:mw:wHwy-r*m#<*mv'''' ¦¦ ¦

Yale University Library
39002012508157

:'f:'yy- -y-yMS-

:-¦¦''¦"¦ . "

: '

Ilptf

mmm

~ %.--;-£- ^-*-—r' " - ~-7> r -*'-"—---

- . ¦ ¦¦ ¦
7 ..¦.¦¦¦-¦-.-.-.--¦ .- - -:---: ;
---------- .. - -

-

Gaels

7

-
- ,

#li^s

i'77'TV?

;.¦-:¦.-'¦ ¦-¦¦
¦ -
' '"-T-;-t;--T"i''-— " *¦ '-
y^-y-y^'z

;v-!#J6«R*.C?- i>*_v
YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATES

Gift of

A. Nevibold Morris

THE

Supreme Court

OF THE

UNITED STATES

A Series of Biographies.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY

HON. SAMUEL F. MILLER, LL.D
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

*rttft iortfaits (gnflrawtl on $\n\.

WASHINGTON, D. C. :
W. H. BARNES & CO., Publishers.
1877.

Copyright, 1877, by WILLIAM HORATIO BARNES.

CONTENTS.

THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY 
JOHN JAY, Chief Justice 
JOHN RUTLEDGE, "
OLIVER ELLSWORTH, " 
JOHN MARSHALL, " 
ROGER B. TANEY, " 
^SALMON P. CHASE, " 
MORRISON R. WAITE, "  ,
^NATHAN CLIFFORD, Associate Justice.
-NOAH H. SWAYNE,
^SAMUEL F. MILLER,
"DAVID DAVIS,
- STEPHEN J. FIELD,
-WILLIAM STRONG,
^JOSEPH P. BRADLEY,
WARD HUNT,

2127 354555 65 73 79
83 8995
101 107
113

(D

THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY.

By Hon. Samuel F. Miller, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

The judicial system of the general government of the
United States is a very peculiar one, whether we have
regard to the judicial power, or to the organization by which
that power is exercised. The source of all the jurisdiction
of all the Courts, which constitute this system, is the second
section of the Third Article of the Constitution. Its first
clause reads as follows : " The judicial power shall extend to
all cases in law and equity arising under this Constitution,
the laws of the United States, and treaties made or which
shall be made under their authority ; to all cases affecting
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls ; to all cases
of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to
which the United States shall be a party, to controversies
between two or more States, between a State and citizens
of another State, between citizens of different States, between
citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of
different States, and between a State, and the citizens thereof,
and foreign States, citizens or subjects."
A part of this power is, by the next clause of the same
section, vested in the Supreme Court of the United States,
namely: all cases affecting ambassadors, other public minis-
3

4 THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY.
ters and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party,
of which that Court shall have original jurisdiction; and
appellate jurisdiction in all other cases mentioned in the first
clause, with such exceptions and under such regulations as
Congress shall make. The remainder of this power has been
distributed within the several States, by Acts of Congress,
#,mong two classes of Courts, the District and the Circuit
Courts. For judicial purposes the States are divided into
fifty-six Districts and nine Circuits. In most instances,
each State constitutes a judicial District, but there are
several States which have been divided into three Districts,
and thirteen of tlie States are divided into two Districts.
Each of these Districts has a Circuit Court and a District
Court, with jurisdiction over different classes of cases, gen
erally, thougli in some classes it is concurrent. To adminis
ter the law in these Courts, there are fifty Judges of the
District Courts, and nine Judges of the Circuit Courts.
And the Supreme Court consists of nine Judges, called by
law the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of that
Court. Besides these Courts, which may be said to constitute the
judicial system proper of the United States, there have been
established by authority of Congress, Territorial Courts for
all the organized Territories, a Court, called the Supreme
Court of the District of Columbia, and the Court of Claims,
which are in some respects anomalous in their character,
though, properly speaking, Courts ofthe United States.
It does not comport with the limits of these prefatory
remarks to define the jurisdiction of these Courts. It may

THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY. 5
be said, generally, that the punishment of all offenses
against the laws of the United States, and the enforcement
and protection of all rights arising under the Constitution,
laws and treaties of the general government, so far as they
may become matters of judicial cognizance, are confided to
them. In addition to this, the Circuit Courts find the most
prolific source of their jurisdiction in controversies between
citizens of different States, and between such citizens and
aliens, without regard to the nature of the subject matter of
the suit.
As this latter jurisdiction extends to all possible subjects
of litigation between such citizens, it will be seen that the
judicial function in the Federal Courts demands not only
spicial familiarity with the Federal Constitution, treaties,
and Acts of Congress, the law of Admiralty, including prize,
and the law of nations; but it requires the same knowledge
of the laws of the several States, whether Civil Law, Com
mon Law, or Statute Law, which is expected of the Judges
of these States in regard to each, for of all these laws the
Judges of the Courts of the United States take judicial
notice. Controverted questions arising in all this extensive field
of the law, come by way of appeal for their final decision to
the Supreme Court. Not only do they come from other
Federal Courts over which that Court exercises the
ordinary appellate jurisdiction of a superior over an inferior
Court of the same general system, but questions which
involve in their solution rights claimed under the Constitu
tion, laws or treaties of the United States, or any author-

6 THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY.
ity exercised under that government, are brought into that
Court for final decision from the Courts of the several
States, without regard to the amount in controversy in the
case. In this way the most important and delicate questions
which it is possible for any Court to entertain, are the
customary and almost daily subjects of that Court's de
cisions. Whenever it is supposed that a Statute of a State
is in conflict with an Act of Congress, that Court is the
arbiter of the dispute. Or if such a Statute is forbidden by
the Constitution of the United States, or otherwise infringes
upon the domain of federal power, the Supreme Court is
called on to declare it a nullity.
In all these conflicts which are frequent between the
laws and the authorities of the States, and those of the
nation, this Court peacefully adjudicates between the parties
asserting rights under each. If in doing this it is called on
to declare void a law of a State sanctioned by its Legisla
ture, its judgment is as prompt, and submission as cheerful,
as in the exercise of the most ordinary jurisdiction. And
if it becomes its duty, as it has on several occasions, to
declare void an Act of Congress, because it is in violation of
the Constitution, this high and solemn duty is performed
with reluctance, but always with firmness.
This Court has thus come to be called the appropriate
expounder of the Constitution of the United States, and an
erroneous opinion prevails, that it was mainly established
for that purpose. But the functions of this high tribu
nal are, after all, only judicial. It can decide nothing as to

THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY. 7
the construction of the Constitution of the United States,
or of the validity of a State Law, or of an Act of Congress,
except as such a question comes before it in a case- of which
it has judicial cognizance. There must be proper parties,
rights to be determined as between these parties, and a
formal litigation of these rights in a manner appropriate to
judicial tribunals, before the Court can decide or can express
an opinion in regard to them.
But when such questions have thus arisen, and been de
cided by it, the decision has been almost uniformly acquiesced
in, though not without occasional criticism.
One of the highest functions that has ever been vested in
any Court, as a part of its regular jurisdiction, is that reposed
in the Supreme Court, in suits to which States are parties ;
and the reports of its decisions show many cases, in which
States of the Union have contested their rights against each
other in that tribunal. A Court which can thus bring by
its process into its forum, States, which call themselves
sovereign, and administer justice between them in the same
manner as between individuals, and which exercises the
duty of declaring void the laws of the States, and even the
Acts passed by Congress, which seeks the rules for its deci
sions in the law of nations, the Constitution and laws of the
United States ; in the common and the civil law, and in the
Statutes of all the States of this Union, should have for its
Judges, men of the highest attainments, and the soundest
judgment. To secure for the Judges of all these Courts purity, fidel
ity, and independence, the Constitution of the United States

8 THE AMERICAN JUDICIARY.
has made the tenure of their office to depend on the length
of their lives, and their good behavior. They can only be
removed by impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors.
This purpose is further assured by the provision that the
salary or compensation for their services cannot be diminished
during their continuance in office, and as an inducement to
men of ability, to accept the judicial office, it is provided by
an Act of Congress, that any Judge of a Court of the United
States, who has arrived at the age of seventy years, and
who has also served ten years as such Judge, may retire
from service and receive his full salary for the remainder of
his days.
It is of the men who occupy these judicial positions, and
discharge these laborious, important and honorable functions,
that the ensuing pages are to speak. They ought to
be — it is hoped they will be — read with an interest comen-
surate with the importance of the place occupied by them
in the system of a government which we fondly assume to
be the equal in the true attributes of greatness of any in
the world.

JOHN JAY
rirt." Chief jTLStica. US

JT

XF7.7TGEK.. aFTTjrHSMl

JOHN JAY.

JOHN JAY was born in the city of New Tork, December 12,
1745. His great-grandfather, Pierre Jay, was a Huguenot
whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantes compelled to renounce
his religion or abandon his native France. He chose the latter
alternative, and in 1685 emigrated to England, where he found a
home. When the family emigrated, his son Augustus was absent
in Africa. On his return to France, unapprised of the misfortunes
of his parents, he found himself amidst the fires of persecution
which were raging with fearful violence. Aided by the kindness of
friends, he got safely away in a vessel bound for Charleston, South
Carolina. Having landed there, he found the climate unfavorable
to his health, and going North, he finally settled in New York.
Here, in 1697, he married the daughter of Mr. Balthazer Bayard,
who was also a descendant of a Protestant French family. He
engaged successfully in mercantile pursuits, and died in 1751, at
the advanced age of eighty- six. He left four children, three
daughters and a son, Peter, born in 1704, who was bred to mercan
tile pursuits. He was married in 1728 to Mary Van Cortlandt,
daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, by whom he had ten children,
of whom John was the eighth.
While still an infant, he was removed with the family to an estate
which his father had purchased, at Rye, on the shores of Long
Island Sound, about twenty-five miles from New York. He was
taught the rudiments of knowledge by his mother, under whose
tuition he made rapid progress, and was prepared, when eight years
old, to enter a grammar school. At that age he was placed in the
boarding school of Rev. Mr. Stoope, at New Rochelle, a village but
9

2 JOHN JAY.
a few miles from Rye. In 1760, in his fifteenth year, Jay entered
Columbia (then King's) College, where he pursued his studies with
great ardor and industry. Before he had completed his collegiate
course, he determined to study law, and paid particular attention to
those branches which he considered most useful in his profession.
During his last year in college he read in the original the elabo
rate work of Grotius, Be Jure Belli et Pacis. He graduated
on the 15th of May, 1764, on which occasion he spoke the Latin
Salutatory. Two weeks after leaving College, he became a student in the
office of Benjamin Kissam, Esq., a lawyer of eminence. The
celebrated Lindley Murray, who was his fellow-student for about
two years, writes of him in one of his letters : " His talents and
virtues gave at that period pleasing indications of future eminence;
he was remarkable for strong reasoning powers, comprehensive
views, indefatigable application, and uncommon firmness of mind.
With these qualifications, added to a just taste in literature and
ample stores of learning and knowledge, he was happily prepared to
enter on that career of public virtue by which he was afterward
honorably distinguished and made instrumental in promoting the
good of his country."
In 1768 he was admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership
with Robert R. Livingston, afterwards Chancellor of New York
during a period of twenty-four years. The professional business
of the province was not at this period of a very important character,
but such as it was, Mr. Jay obtained a large share of it. As his prac
tice increased it naturally happened that he was occasionally brought
in antagonism with Mr. Kissam. It is related that on the trial of
a cause where they were engaged upon opposite sides, Mr. Kissam
being puzzled by some point made by his antagonist, observed
that he had brought up a bird to peck out his own eyes. " Oh,
no," replied his former pupil, " not to peck out, but to open your
eyes." In 1774 he married Sarah Livingston, daughter of William Liv
ingston, Esq., afterwards Governor of New Jersey. His dawning
domestic happiness and bright professional prospects were over
shadowed by clouds which were gathering on the political horizon.
10

JOHN JAY. 3
The Boston Port Bill, which became a law on the 31st of March,
1774, created a profound sensation in all the colonies. A public
meeting of the citizens of New York was called to consult on the
measures proper to be pursued in view of the emergency. This
meeting was held on the 16th day of May, 1774, when a committee
of fifty was appointed to correspond with the other colonies. Mr.
Jay was one of this committee, and also of a sub-committee to
answer the letters received.
He was afterwards elected one of the delegates from New York
to the first Congress, which met on the 5th of September, 1774, at
the Carpenters' Hall, in Philadelphia. He was not quite twenty-
nine years of age, and with one exception was the youngest member
of that body. From the beginning he took an active part in the
deliberations, and was a member of the first committee appointed
by Congress. He was the author of the "Address to the People of
Great Britain," which was remarkable for its manly tone, its eloquent
and forcible statement, its earnest and fearless expostulation. With
out knowing the writer, Mr. Jefferson pronounced it " a production of
the finest pen in America." That this was the general opinion may
be inferred from the numerous labors of a similar character which
were subsequently required of him. As the author of many of the
most important addresses by which the patriots assured the world of
the justice of their cause, he contributed much to secure to Congress
the high encomium pronounced by Lord Chatham in the House of
Lords: "When your lordships," he said, "look at the papers trans
mitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness,
and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make
it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow that in all my
reading and observation, and it has been my favorite study — I have
read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states
men of the world — that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity,
and wisdom of conclusion, under such complication of circumstances,
no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General
Congress at Philadelphia."
Mr. Jay returned to his constituents from the Congress of 1774
with enlarged experience and enhanced reputation. He was elected
by the citizens of New York a member of a committee of sixty with
11

4 JOHN JAY.
general and undefined powers, whose principal duty was to observe
the conduct of all persons with regard to the non-importation act, to
the end that all violators of it might be made known and univer
sally contemned as the enemies of American liberty. They called
on the citizens to arm and perfect themselves in military discipline,
and ordered the militia to patrol the streets at night to prevent the
exportation of provisions.
Mr. Jay was a delegate from New York to the second Congress,
and took his seat in that body on the 13th of May, 1775. The
battle of Lexington, which had just occurred, made it apparent that
hostilities with the mother country were now inevitable. Neverthe
less, there were some members of Congress, and many of the citi
zens who were not yet prepared to throw off their allegiance to the
king. They demanded that further efforts should be made to obtain
redress. That all such persons might be conciliated to the patriot
cause, Mr. Jay advocated another petition to the king, which he
carried against a strong opposition. It proved a useless appeal, but
it had the effect which he desired — of adding numerous friends to
the American cause.
In the month of April, 1776, while attending the Continental
Congress, Mr. Jay was elected a member of the Provincial Congress
of New York, which assembled on the 14th of May. That body
demanded his presence and his aid in their deliberations. As he
held his seat in the general Congress by appointment of the former
Provincial Congress, they had the right to command his services.
He promptly repaired to New York, and devoted himself constantly
and actively during the remainder ofthe year to the duties demanded
of him in his native State. Not being permitted to return to his
seat in the Continental Congress, he was deprived of the honor of
aiding in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and of
affixing his name to that great historical instrument.
Soon after taking his seat in the New York Congress, Mr. Jay
reported a series of resolutions, which were agreed to, calling on the
people to elect deputies to a new convention with power to establish
a form of government. The new convention thus provided for met
at White Plains on the 9th of July, and on the same day the Dec
laration of Independence was received from Congress. This import-
12

JOHN JAY. 5
ant document was referred to a committee of which Mr. Jay was
chairman, and he immediately reported the following resolution :
" Besolved, Unanimously, that the reasons assigned by the Conti
nental Congress for declaring these United Colonies free and inde
pendent States, are cogent and conclusive ; and that while we lament
the cruel necessity which has rendered this measure unavoidable, we
approve the same, and will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes,
join with the other colonies in supporting it."
Mr. Jay was appointed a member of a secret committee for the
purpose of obstructing the navigation of the Hudson River. He
was dispatched by the committee to Connecticut for a supply of
cannon and shot, " with authority to impress carriages, teams, sloops,
and horses, and to call out detachments of the militia, and generally
to do or cause to be done, at his discretion, all such matters and
things as he might deem necessary or expedient to forward and
complete the business committed to his care." His efforts were
successful and in a short time he had twenty cannon delivered at
West Point.
All the powers of government were exercised by the convention,
and so numerous and important were the subjects which claimed
their attention that the special business for which they were assem
bled could not be taken up until the 1st of August, when a com
mittee, of which Mr. Jay was one, was appointed to report a form
of government. The report, which was drawn by him, was not pre
sented until the 12th of the following March. The draft of the
Constitution presented by him, with several amendments, was adopted
on the 20th of April, 1777. Having been a few days before sum
moned to attend his dying mother, some articles which he had
intended to offer as amendments were omitted, and some additions
made of which he did not approve.
He strenuously urged the insertion of an article in the Constitu
tion recommending the future Legislature of the State to take effectual
measures for abolishing domestic slavery, as soon as it could be done
consistently with public safety, and the right of private property,
" so that in future ages every human being who breathes the air of
this State shall enjoy the privileges of a freeman." At a later period
in his life he maintained that " to contend for our own liberty and
13

g JOHN JAY.
to deny that blessing to others involves an inconsistency not to be
excused." Mr. Jay was chosen president of a society formed in
New York for promoting the manumission of slaves, and protecting
such of them as have been or may be liberated.
Under the new Constitution of New York, Mr. Jay received the
appointment of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State.
Before the convention dissolved, in May, 1777, they appointed a
Council of Safety from among their own members, to administer the
government until a Governor and legislature should be duly chosen
and in a condition to act. As one of this council, Mr. Jay was
almost constantly occupied until the following September. On the
9th of that month the first term of the Supreme Court was held at
Kingston, and the Chief Justice presided. His charge to the grand
jury could hardly fail to allude to the situation and prospects of the
country. " It affords me gentlemen," he Said, " very sensible pleas
ure to congratulate you on the dawn of that free, mild, and equal
government which now begins to rise and break amid those clouds
of anarchy, confusion, and licentiousness which the arbitrary and
violent domination of Great Britain had spread in greater or less
degree throughout this and other American States."
Mr. Jay continued to hold the office of Chief Justice until Sep
tember, 1779, but for a considerable time previous to that date he
did not discharge its duties. An emergency occurred, which, in the
judgment of the Legislature, made it necessary to send him to the
Continental Congress, and he was accordingly sent once more to the
scene wherein he had won his earliest laurels.
After an absence of more than two years, Mr. Jay again took his
seat in Congress, on the 7th of December, 1778. Three days after,
he was elected President, on the resignation of Mr. Laurens. Soon
after his election, Washington wrote to congratulate him on the hon
orable and important post he had been chosen to fill. " The opinion
I entertain of your public character," he said, " concurs with every
personal consideration to make the choice pleasing to me." He held
this important office until the 27th of September, 1779, when he
was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. The objects of
this mission were to obtain the acknowledgment of the independence
14

JOHN JAY. 7
of the United States, to negotiate a treaty of alliance, and to procure
pecuniary aid.
Mr. Jay sailed on the 26th of October in the frigate Confederacy.
On the 7th of November the ship was dismasted in a storm, and
with difficulty reached Martinique on the 18th of December. On
the 28th Mr. Jay embarked at St. Pierre in the French Frigate Au
rora, and arrived at Cadiz on the 22d of January, 1780. Having
communicated his commission, to the Spanish Court he was invited
to Madrid, but at the same time informed that it would not be
proper for him to assume a formal character, which must depend on
a public acknowledgment and a future treaty. Spain was not in
clined to form an alliance with the United States, to grant them
aid, or even to acknowledge their independence unless on conditions
which would promote her own selfish schemes. The Spanish Min
ister demanded that Spain should be guaranteed the possession of
Florida, and the exclusive right of navigation on the Mississippi.
To this Mr. Jay would not consent.
The difficulties of the mission were greatly complicated and in
creased by the fact that Congress, presuming that negotiations
would be successful, had drawn on Mr. Jay for the payment of bills
to the amount of ,£100,000 sterling at six months' sight. These
bills soon began to be presented for acceptance. He obtained the
promise from the Spanish government of the means to meet drafts
to the amount of about $13,000, and this encouraged him to hope
for further pecuniary aid, but he was held in suspense until it was
probably supposed that his embarrassments had rendered him more
docile, when he was again urged to relinquish the claim of the
United States to the navigation of the Mississippi. To this demand
he again declined to yield, and was then informed that Spain would
advance no more money. In this emergency, Mr. Jay patriotically
resolved to become personally responsible by accepting all future
bills which might be presented, and thus at least preserve the credit
of the United States for the next six months. By the assistance
of Dr. Franklin, who was then in France, and some further aid from
Spain, all the bills which he accepted were finally paid.
While thus laboring, with an energy and boldness almost heroic,
to overcome the difficulties in his mission, he had the mortification
15

8 JOHN JAY.
to learn that Congress had authorized him to relinquish the right
of navigating the Mississippi below the southern boundary of the
United States. He presented the plan of a treaty in accordance
with these instructions, bat at the same time he practically saved
his country from the results of her willingness to make a bad
bargain by requiring on his own responsibility that a treaty should
be immediately concluded or the United States should not in future
be bound by the offers then made. His demand was not acceded to,
and negotiations still delayed to reach a favorable issue. Mr. Jay
soon after proceeded to Paris as one of the commissioners for nego
tiating a peace with England, and the Spanish Ambassador at the
French Court was authorized to continue negotiations with him,
but these progressed no further than an interchange of the views of
their respective governments in relation to the western boundary of
the United States.
The commissioners charged with the important duty of conduct
ing negotiations for a termination of the war were greatly disabled
and embarrassed by instructions which left the terms of peace
under the control of the French Minister, whose advice and opinions
were given a controlling influence. To none of the commissioners
were these restrictions more displeasing than to Mr. Jay, who
thought the dignity of his country compromised, and her Minister
degraded by such domination of a foreign power. He earnestly
requested Congress to relieve him from the unpleasant position, but
this being refused, he continued to act under the commission. The
motives which impelled him in all these transactions were of the
purest and most patriotic character. During his residence at
Madrid he had seen enough to give ground for suspicions that the
French, though sincerely desirous of rendering the United States
independent of Great Britain, were not willing to see this accom
plished in such a way as to give them a power and importance which
might lead them to dispense with her patronage.
At the beginning of the negotiations for peace, Mr. Jay and Dr.
Franklin were the only American commissioners present. Mr.
Adams, one of their coadjutors, joined them on the 26th of Octo
ber, and the other, Mr. Laurens, on the 29th of November. Mr.
Oswald, commissioner on the part of Great Britain, had been au-
16

JOHN JAY. 9
thorized in his instructions " to treat, consult of, and conclude a
peace or truce with any commissioner or commissioners named, or
to be named by the thirteen colonies or plantations in North
America," etc. According to their instructions, Mr. Jay and Dr.
Franklin consulted Count de Vergennes, the French Minister, and
he advised them to proceed. Mr. Jay, however, objected to treat
with the British commissioner, unless the independence of his
country was first recognized, and without the concurrence of Dr.
Franklin or the knowledge of the French Minister, he assured Mr.
Oswald of his determination not to enter upon any negotiation in
which he should be recognized only as a commissioner from tho
colonies. The British Cabinet being informed of this objection
replied that it was intended to recognize the independence of the
United States by the treaty which would be the result of the nego
tiations. Mr. Jay, however, continued firm in his resolution, and
at length Mr. Oswald received a commission authorizing him to
treat with the " Commissioners of the United States of America."
The firmness of Mr. Jay thus secured the recognition of the inde
pendence of his country before the negotiations for a treaty of
peace were formally entered upon.
The negotiations now proceeded, and in a few weeks the prelimi
nary articles were agreed to without the knowledge of the French
government. They were signed by Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr.
Jay, and Mr. Laurens on the 30th of November, 1782, but were not
to take effect until peace should be concluded between Great Britain
and France. By these articles all the claims of the United States
were granted, and France being deprived of all pretext for con
tinuing the war, a preliminary treaty was signed between that
nation and Great Britain on the 30th of January, 1783. Congress
proclaimed a cessation of hostilities on the 11th of April, and on the
15th formally ratified the treaty. In September the definitive
treaties between the belligerent powers were signed at Paris. The
American definitive treaty was ratified by Congress on the 14th of
January, 1784. Thus the great struggle for American independence
was crowned with final and complete success.
For the benefit of his health, which had been impaired by the
climate of Spain and by his subsequent exhausting labors, Mr. Jay
17

10 JOHN JAY.
visited Bath, and derived essential benefit from the use of the
waters. He then returned to Paris, and spent a few weeks of leisure
in the enjoyment of the polished society which he found in that me
tropolis. He earnestly desired to return to his native country, and
to private life. He declined a commission to negotiate a treaty of
commerce with Great Britain, and having heard that he would prob
ably be appointed Minister to England, he wrote to the Secretary
of Foreign Affairs, requesting that he might not be considered a
candidate for that position. As soon, therefore, as the definitive
treaty was signed he prepared to return home. Having resigned
his Spanish mission, he left Paris on the 16th of May, 1784, and
arrived in New York on the 24th of July. On his return to his
native country he was met by his friends and fellow-citizens with the
most unequivocal manifestations of their respect and gratitude.
When the probability of Mr. Jay's return had been made known
to Congress, that body elected him Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
Soon after his arrival, the State Legislature appointed him one of
their delegates to Congress. He continued at the head of the
Department of Foreign Affairs until the organization of the govern
ment under the Federal Constitution, in 1789. During the period
of a little more than four years in which he held this important
position, he was constantly disabled by the feebleness of the govern
ment under the old articles of confederation. Every occasion for
the exercise of sovereignty betrayed the imbecility and inefficiency
of the government, greatly to the mortification of Mr. Jay as the
officer whose duty required him to be most prominently in the fore
ground. It was not strange, then, that Mr. Jay should be among the fore
most to favor the formation and adoption of a Constitution which
should secure a stronger National government. He was not a mem
ber of the convention which formed the Constitution of the United
States, but he most earnestly and efficiently advocated its adoption
by the States. He united with Mr. Madison and Mr. Hamilton in
writing a series of essays in explanation and commendation of the
Constitution when it was submitted to the people for a final decision.
These essays were collected and published under the title of " The
Federalist." 18

JOHN JAY. H
Mr. Jay labored still further to promote what he regarded as the
true interests of his country by publishing an address to the people
of the State of New York in favor of the adoption of the Constitu
tion. When the Legislature called a convention to decide the ques
tion, he was elected one of the delegates. The convention consisted
of fifty-seven members, forty-six of whom were anti-Federalists.
Nevertheless the Constitution was adopted, by a majority, however,
of oiJy three votes.
The new government going into operation in March, 1789, Presi
dent Washington gave to Mr. Jay the highest possible testimony of
his confidence and respect by requesting him to select any office he
might prefer. His choice was for a place in the Judiciary, and he
was accordingly appointed the first Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States.
In April, 1794, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Great
Britain to negotiate a treaty for the regulation of commerce, and a
settlement of the disputes between the two countries growing out of
alleged infractions of the treaty of peace. On the 19th of Novem
ber, 1794, he concluded a treaty of amity, commerce, and naviga
tion between Great Britain and the United States. This treaty gave
great offense to France, and produced a fearful excitement in the
United States. The stability of the government was placed in the
utmost peril, but the firmness of Washington, whose judgment ap
proved the treaty, carried the country through the crisis. The
Minister who negotiated the treaty was assailed and denounced by
a numerous and powerful antagonistic party.
Returning from abroad, Mr. Jay arrived at New York in May,
1795, and found that he had been elected Governor of the State.
The circumstances under which he had been elected caused him to
regard it as his duty to accept, and accordingly he resigned the office
of Chief Justice. He held the position of Governor until 1801,
when he declined to be again a candidate, and withdrew from public
life to his paternal estate at Bedford. President Adams nominated
him for his former position in the SuPreme Court, but he declined
the honor, on the ground that his " duty did not require him to ac
cept it." 19

12 JOHN JAY.
The very outset of his life in retirement was overshadowed by a
great bevearement which he suffered in the loss of his excellent wife,
who died in 1802. Whether in public or in private life, he was con
stantly cheered by the consolations, and guided by the precepts of
Christianity. Religion was with him a matter of settled principle,
never laid aside for convenience, nor brought forward on special oc
casions for effect. In his retirement he devoted much of his time
to study and reflection. He was a member of most of the great
religious associations of his time, and was President of the American
Bible Society.
For several years before his death Mr. Jay's health gradually de
clined. In 1827 he was dangerously ill so that his recovery was
not expected. When apprised of his danger he received the infor
mation without any apparent emotion, but conversed with cheerful
ness and animation. On being urged to tell his children on what
his hopes were founded, and whence he drew his consolation, he
replied, " They have the Book." From this attack, however, he re
covered, but did not fully regain his former vigor. On the 14th of
May, 1829, he was suddenly seized with paralysis, which almost
deprived him of the power of speech, though his intellect remained
unimpaired to the last. He died on the 17th of May, in the eighty-
fourth year of his age.
John Jay stands conspicuous among the great men who laid the
foundation of the American Republic. It is the highest evidence
of his exalted character that he possessed the unlimited confidence
of Washington. No man ever received higher praise from a co-
temporary than that which was uttered by John Adams, when he
said, " When my confidence in Mr. Jay shall cease, I must give up
the cause of confidence and renounce it with all men." His excel
lent moral qualities, exalted intellectual gifts, and ardent patriotic
impulses, in their combination, formed a character which will
ever be a model to his countrymen, and an ornament to American
history. 20

mmgmM

r /7

Y.n.£c.>|-G J.S'jsrmFrom.aJlrawm.^bT-J^ioes Han-mgn£terftifi origuijiliy"Cci Trumbull,

^¦ysy yyriLwyw&,

yy, lyJy?

JOHN KUTLEDGE.

JOHN RUTLEDGE was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in
September, 1739. His father, Dr. John Rutledge, was a
native of Ireland, who emigrated to South Carolina, in 1735. He
married Sarah Hext, a lady of liberal endowments and cultivation,
who became the mother of the future jurist in the fifteenth year of
her age. She was left a widow at twenty-six, with seven small
children, two of whom, John and Edward, became men of great
distinction. John Rutledge was favored with the instructions of Rev. Mr. An
drews, an English clergyman and a successful teacher, under whom
he pursued classical and other studies for several years. In the
summer of 1755, a few months before arriving at the age of seven
teen, he left school and entered upon the study of law with James
Parsons, a barrister of distinction at the colonial bar, and at the
time of his death, which occurred in 1779, Vice-President of South
Carolina. Rutledge continued in the office of Mr. Parsons for two
years, and then proceeding to London, he entered as a student in
the Inner Temple. He remained there three years, during which
great expectations were formed of him. The letters of his fellow
students to their friends at home spoke of his talents in terms of
admiration. He returned home to engage in the practice of his
profession in 1761. Even before his arrival in Charleston, he re
ceived flattering proof of the reputation that had preceded him.
While the vessel in which he was returning was eight or ten miles
below the town, a gentleman, who was defendant in a suit for breach
of promise which was coming on for trial, went down in a pilot-boat
to meet him and engage him for his advocate. In this case, Rutledge
displayed so much ability and eloquence as to astonish all who heard
him. He obtained a verdict for his client and received a hundred
21

2 JOHN RUTLEDGE.
guineas for his fee. He gave the whole purse to his mother, whose
self-denial and economy, cheerfully practiced for her children,
deserved, as it received, their lasting gratitude. Rutledge was not
compelled, as are most lawyers, to rise by tedious steps to a promi
nent place in his profession, but suddenly found himself a leader at
the bar with all the business he desired. He was employed in the
most difficult cases and retained with the largest fees.
Two years after being called to the bar, Rutledge was married to
Miss Elizabeth Grimke', a union from which he derived unalloyed
happiness. He was ardently attached to his wife, and her death,
which occurred in 1792, was one of the causes of the malady which
clouded the evening of his life. In 1764, he was appointed pro
tempore Attorney General of the Province, and performed the duties
of that position until June, 1765. His practice was interrupted by
the stirring political events in which he figured preliminary to the
Revolution. In 1764, Governor Boone refused to administer to Christopher
Gadsden the oaths which the law required every person returned as
a member of the Legislative Assembly to take before he entered
upon his duties. This aroused the indignation of the House, as
being a violation of their constitutional privileges as the sole judges
of the qualifications of their own members. By his courageous and
eloquent speeches, Rutledge did much to excite the Assembly and
the people to resist such encroachments of the royal governors, thus
fanning the spark which became the great revolutionary conflagra
tion of a few years later.
The passage of the Stamp-Act, called forth a proposition from the
Assembly of Massachusetts to the different Provincial Assemblies
for appointing committees to meet in congress as a rallying point of
union. Many objections were made to this novel project in South
Carolina, but they all vanished before the eloquence of John
Rutledge. A vote for appointing deputies was carried in South
Carolina before the proposition was accepted by the neighboring
provinces. John Rutledge was appointed one of the deputies to the
first Congress, which, in 1765, assembled in New York. Although
one of the youngest members of that body, his distinguished abilities
attracted marked attention and gave him great influence.
22

JOHN RUTLEDGE. 3
A few years followed in which Mr. Rutledge was no further
engaged in politics than as a lawyer and a member of the provincial
legislature. But, in 1774, a more extensive field was opened before
him. He was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress.
When the members of the Convention were considering with great
difference of opinion what instructions they should give their dele
gates, John Rutledge brought forward a motion to give no instruc
tions whatever, and advocated it in a most eloquent speech. He
demonstrated that anything less than plenary discretion in the
delegates would be unequal to the crisis. To those who stated the
dangers of such extensive powers, and begged to be informed what
must be done in case the delegates made bad use of their authority
to pledge the State to any extent, Rutledge answered : " Hang
them." The proposition so vigorously supported was triumphantly
carried. Furnished with such ample powers, the delegates from
South Carolina took their seats in Congress under great advantages,
and by their conduct justified the confidence reposed in them.
The people of South Carolina established a new constitution on
the 26th of March, 1776, and in conformity with its provisions, Rut
ledge was elected president and commander in chief of the StaU\
He applied himself at once to the work of organizing the new govern
ment and in preparing for defense against an expected invasion by
the British. When General Lee, who commanded the continental
troops, was disposed to give orders for the evacuation of Sullivan's
Island, Governor Rutledge directed that it should be held, at all
hazards. He wrote to General Moultrie, who commanded on the
island : " You will not evacuate the fort without an order from mc ;
I would sooner cut off my hand than write one." This brave deter
mination, which resulted in saving an important stronghold, proved
to be a most important service to the patriot cause.
Mr. Rutledge resigned the presidency of South Carolina in March,
1778, after an efficient service of two years. In February, 1779,
he was recalled to the executive office, but under a new constitution
and with the name of Governor, substituted for that of President.
His utmost zeal and energy were required to meet the extraordinary
emergencies growing out of the invasion by the British. He fully
met the public expectation, and at the close of his executive service,
23

4 JOHN RUTLEDGE.
in 1782, both the Senate and House of Representatives expressed
in emphatic language the grateful sense they entertained of his
unwearied zeal and attention to the interests and welfare of the
State. In January, 1782, Mr. Rutledge was elected a delegate to Con
gress, and took his seat in that body on the second of May. The
surrender of Cornwallis in the preceding autumn had impressed the
people that the war was over, so that they were no longer disposed to
act with suitable vigor. Fearing that this languor would encourage
Great Britain to recommence the war, Congress sent deputations of
their members to rouse the States to a sense of their danger and duty.
John Rutledge and George Clymer were sent in this capacity to the
Southern States. They went to Virginia and made a personal
address to the Assembly of that State. Rutledge drew such a
picture of the situation, and the danger to which the country was
exposed by the backwardness of particular States to comply with the
requisitions of Congress, as produced a very happy effect.
Soon after the termination of his congressional services, Mr. Rut
ledge was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States
to Holland, but declined serving. In 1784, he was elected a Judge
of the Court of Chancery, in South Carolina. He drew the bill for
organizing it on a new plan, and in it introduced several new pro
visions which have been very highly commended as improvements
on the English Court of the same name.
In 1787, he was a member of the Federal Convention, which
framed the Constitution of the United States. As soon as it went
into operation, he was designated by President Washington as an
associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was
immediately confirmed by the Senate. The first term of the Supreme
Court was held in New York, in February, 1790, but Rutledge was
not present. On the 16th of February, 1791, he was elected by the
Legislature, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of South
Carolina. He accepted the office and resigned his seat in the
Supreme Court of the United States.
Upon the resignation of Chief Justice Jay, President Washington
appointed Rutledge to the vacant post, his commission dating July
1, 1795. About that time Jay's treaty reached Rutledge and
24

JOHN RUTLEDGE. 5
stirred his deepest indignation. He denounced it in violent terms,
thus calling forth the eager approbation of the enemies of the admin
istration and the indignation of its friends. Rutledge sailed for
Philadelphia on the 31st of July, and was present at the August
term of the Supreme Court. Of his judicial bearing while presiding at
this term of the Supreme Court, Mr. Wharton says : " Enough has
come down to enable us to say that though tinged with that haughti
ness which in later years had marked him, it was graceful and
courtly, and that his natural impetuosity had been subdued by the
approach of age, the weight of long public service, and the anxiety
of a position which he could not but regard as too insecure." On
the adjournment of the Supreme Court, after a session of a few days,
the Chief Justice returned to Charleston. It became evident that
his intellect was disordered. When Congress met in December,
the Senate refused to confirm his appointment. This act, which
was the dictate of prudence, " extinguished the last spark of sanity
and closed his public career." The remnant of his life is a blank
and a void. It was passed in the fluctuations of a disease which
prostrated alike mind and body. He languished, with brief inter
vals of convalescence, until the 18th of July, 1800, when his death
occurred — " the wearing out of an exhausted frame rather than
the result of positive illness."
The portrait of Rutledge by Trumbull, an engraving of which
accompanies this sketch, is said to give an accurate idea of his per
sonal appearance. " He was tall, his frame well formed and robust.
His forehead was broad and full ; his eyes dark and piercing. His
mouth was compressed, and together with the lower part of his face"
indicated firmness and decision. His hair was combed back from
his forehead, and according to the fashion of the times was powdered
and tied behind. His aspect was resolute — almost stern, and was
an expression of blended thought and determination."
It has been well said of Rutledge by one of his biographers that
" the high position he held in the opinion of cotemporaries was the
result of qualities equally high and rare. Though his feelings
were warm and ardent they seldom controlled his judgment.
Vigorous common sense, and an impulsive energy that forthwith
executed its dictates, were his greatest excellencies as a public man.

6 JOHN RUTLEDGE.
He had nothing in common with that class of politicians who are gov
erned by metaphysical niceties and logical distinctions, unrepressed
and uncorrected by broad views and extensive generalizations.
He saw things in their practical relations, and formed his judgment
accordingly. He had one quality which, even unallied with high
abilities, will always have great weight in the affairs of mankind —
he was always in earnest. His opinions were not suspended in
doubt, nor his inspirations and original impulses neutralized and
confounded by refined speculations. Energetic and ardent he pressed
forward to his objects with unfailing and unfaltering resolution.
Earnestness was the characteristic of his eloquence and the secret of
its power."
Nevertheless, Rutledge was by no means a perfect character. He
has been described as " proud and haughty, imperious in manner,
hasty and obstinate in temper, and as not entirely exempt from
those frailties which social customs in his day tolerated, if it did
not encourage." Yet he undoubtedly deserves to be ranked among
the very ablest and greatest of the revolutionary leaders. He was
eminent as an orator, a legislator and a jurist. He possessed
administrative talents of the first order. He was a man of tireless
action, intense energy, and exhaustless fertility of resource. He
possessed the qualities of decision and firmness in a remarkable
degree, and was endowed with an indomitable will. He possessed
the firmest physical courage, manifested by intrepidity in the midst
of danger. He possessed the higher and rarer trait of moral cour
age. He feared not to incur a responsibility, or boldly avow an
unpopular principle. He scorned alike to conceal an opinion and
to abandon a principle. Beyond most men of his time, he was free
from the restraints of party, maintaining unfettered independence
of thought, word and action. 26

EngaiyGT. Storm FraaaDr.iwm.gbT J wiea Herring afterlfae oiigijiaLtyCab'Tnvnur

il IEIJ^KEB^ISo

yf?,, iy^y

OLIVER ELLSWORTH

OLIVER ELLSWORTH was born at Windsor, Connecticut,
April 29th, 1745, the son of David Ellsworth, a respectable
farmer, and Jemima Leavitt, a lady of good mind and exemplary
piety. His early years were passed on his father's farm, where he
acquired those habits of industry which did so much to promote his
subsequent eminence. His father desired that he should be a
minister, and with that view placed him under the instruction of
Dr. Bellamy, a clergyman of considerable eminence, with whom he
pursued the studies preparatory to a college course. At the age of
seventeen he entered Yale College, and remained a member of that
institution two years, when he removed to Princeton, where he
graduated, in 1766, with respectable rank as a scholar.
He then commenced the study of theology with Dr. Smalley, a
Connecticut clergyman of distinction ; but after a year spent in this
pursuit he changed his plan, and entered the paths of jurisprudence.
He studied law with the first Governor Griswold, and subsequently
with Judge Root, of Coventry. In obtaining his education, Ells
worth had incurred some pecuniary obligations, which he determined
to meet before beginning his career as a lawyer. He possessed a
tract of unimproved land on the Connecticut river, solely valuable
for its timber. To this he proceeded with his axe, and in the course
of a few months cut and transported down the river to Hartford,
wood enough to pay his debts.
Soon after being admitted to the bar, Mr. Ellsworth married
Miss Abigail Wolcott, a daughter of Mr. William Wolcott, of East
Windsor. Being as yet a "briefless barrister," he was not able to
rely entirely on his profession for support, hence he accepted from
his father the lease of a wild and uncultivated farm in the north
west part of Windsor. He bad scarcely money enough when he
went to live on the farm, to buy a load of rails. He was compelled
27

2 OLIVER ELLSWORTH.
for several years to rely almost wholly upon his agricultural labors
for support. The extent of his professional receipts for the first
three years after being called to the bar, was only <£3, Connecticut
money, per annum. He was too poor to keep either a horse or a
servant. His farm was situated about ten miles from Hartford,
whither, when the Court was in session, he walked every morning,
and returned in the same manner at night. One day while going
to Court he was met by a friend in his carriage, who asked him why
he went on foot so much. "Ah," replied Ellsworth, "we must all
walk at some period of our lives, and I choose to do my walking in
my younger days, while I am able." This reply seemed more
appropriate in after years, when the situation of the two friends
was reversed.
But the days of adversity were finally numbered. An opportunity
at length occurred to inform his neighbors what talents he possessed.
He was employed in a suit of some importance, and so ably did he
conduct it that he obtained a verdict for his client and secured the
favor of the community. During the trial of this cause he heard a
stranger inquire, " Who is that young man ? He speaks well."
These words sank into his heart, and as he went home he ruminated
upon them. They were words of merited praise, which came when
most needed, to inspire confidence and hope. Of this incident he
spoke with pleasure even in his latest years. From that time his
prospects brightened. Clients gradually increased, and it was not
long before he had a large and lucrative practice. He took up his
residence in Hartford, and was soon after appointed State's
Attorney, a lucrative office which he held for several years.
From this time until public employments withdrew him from his
profession, he had a larger practice than any other member of the
Connecticut bar. The late No'ah Webster, who was a student in
Ellsworth's office, has stated that his docket frequently numbered
from a thousand to fifteen hundred cases. The " profits of his
practice were judiciously invested, and the fortune thus acquired
was augmented, by the economy and simplicity of his mode of life,
to a degree of wealth at that time rare in Connecticut.''
Mr. Ellsworth first appeared in public life as member of the
General Assembly of Connecticut, which convened at Hartford, in
28

OLIVER ELLSWORTH. g
April, 1775. He took firm ground in favor of American indepen
dence. In October, 1777, he was elected by the Assembly of
Connecticut ja, delegate to the Continental Congress, but he did
not take his seat in that body until October, 1778. Soon after his
appearance in Congress he was appointed a member of two very
important committees — the Marine Committee and the Committee
on Appeals. The former, acting as a Board of Admiralty, had
general charge of all naval affairs; and the latter heard and
determined appeals from the several Admiralty Courts established
-in the different States, in cases of capture on the high seas.
When Ellsworth entered Congress he was but little known
beyond the limits of his own State, and there his reputation was
for skill and ability as a lawyer. He was almost wholly wanting in
political experience, but this deficiency was compensated by " busi
ness talents of a very high order — powers of investigation and
reflection, uncommon powers of argument, sound judgment, steady
application, ardor and devotion in pursuit of public interests." He
was nominally a member of Congress, but, being at intervals
relieved by some one of his colleagues, his period of actual service
did not extend over two or three years. In August, 1783, he
returned home, and did not again take his seat in the Continental
Congress. Although re-elected by the Legislature of Connecticut,
he declined the service. He also declined the appointment of Com
missioner of the Treasure, tendered him by Congress in the
following year.
While still in the Continental Congress Ellsworth was, in 1780,
elected a member of the Governor's Council, a post which he held
until 1784. The Council was a co-ordinate branch of the Legislature,
and also constituted the Supreme Court of Errors, with legal and
equitable jurisdiction. Ellsworth,. when present, took an active part
in its deliberations and had great influence over his colleagues.
" Whenever any important case was under consideration in the
Council or Court of Errors," says Mr. Wood, " Mr. Ellsworth in the
recess, if one occurred, retired to his lodgings and continued travel
ing the floor, unconscious of anything except the operations of his
mind until he went through his course of thought and research. During
this time his lips were in motion and an indistinct utterance was
29

4 OLIVER ELLSWORTH.
kept up, intermingled with pinches of snuff as often as once a minute,
till he arrived at his conclusions. His mind then seemed to find
instant relief and he gave himself up to amusement jand cheerful
conversation. In this moment of relaxation he frequently delighted
himself with the sports and prattle of children." The love of
children was one of his prominent traits of character, which bore
strong testimony to the kindliness of his nature. Neither the weight
of public cares, nor the strife of politics, corrupted the native purity
of his heart and life.
In 1784, Ellsworth was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court
of Connecticut. The decisions of the Court while he was a member
of it are collected in Kirby's Reports. Few of his opinions, however,
are reported in full, and the cases themselves do not possess much
novelty or interest.
Ellsworth was a member of the Convention which framed the Con
stitution of the United States. In that body he was among the most
earnest and the ablest of what was termed the States-Rights party.
He objected to the term National Government, and proposed, instead,
the Government of the United States as the proper title. He would
not only preserve the identity of the States but their equality also ;
and as a means to secure this, he insisted that in the Senate each
State should have an equality of suffrage. He was of opinion that
the number of Representatives should not be large, not only on the
ground of expense, but for the reason that the public business would
be more promptly and better conducted with a small representation.
He was opposed to conferring on Congress the power to issue paper
money. On the proposition to proportion representation to direct
taxation, and both to the white and three-fifths of the slave popula
tion, Ellsworth voted in the affirmative. He would not intermeddle'
with the subject of the importation of slaves. "Let every State
import what it pleases," he said. "The morality or wisdom of
slavery are considerations belonging to the States themselves."
He favored six years as the term of the Executive Office. He de
sired that the power of appointing the Federal Judiciary should be
given to the Senate rather than to the President. During the final
proceedings of the Convention, Ellsworth was absent, and for that
reason his name was not attached to the Constitution. Although
30

OLIVER ELLSWORTH. 7
objecting to some of the details of that instrument, he nevertheless
gave it his unqualified support. He advocated its adoption in the
Connecticut Convention of which he was a member in January
1788, and did much to secure its ratification in that body by an
overwhelming majority.
Ellsworth was elected by the Legislature of Connecticut to the
first Senate of the United States, which met in New York, March
4, 1789. The day after the organization he was appointed chairman
of a committee to bring in a bill for organizing the Judiciary of the
United States. The labor chiefly devolved on him, and the original
bill in his handwriting is still preserved in the archives of the Gov
ernment. His service in the Senate was very laborious. The
subjects that engaged his attention were of great magnitude and
variety, embracing questions of constitutional law, finance, commerce
and political economy. His opinions^ wrote Wolcott, at that time
Auditor of the Treasury, were supported by him " with all that bold
ness and reason, which gave him a predominant influence in the
Senate." He was, said John Adams, " the firmest pillar of Wash
ington's whole administration in the Senate." As a parliamentary
orator, a writer has said, "his characteristic features were strength
and originality of thought. In argument and debate he was always
powerful and impressive, frequently ardent and animated."
After the rejection of Rutledge, Ellsworth received from Wash
ington the appointment of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States. With much hesitation and doubt as to his
fitness for the office, he accepted ihe appointment, and resigned his
seat in the Senate. Immediately upon his appointment, he com
menced a very extensive course of legal studies upon those points
in which he felt himself especially deficient, and pursued it with
Unremitted application in every interval of public employment.
When he entered upon the office of Chief Justice, March 4,
1796, the Supreme Court was sitting in Philadelphia, and he pre
sided during the remainder of the term. " There was much in his
personal appearance and bearing to grace the distinguished position
he occupied. He was tall, erect and dignified ; his large blue eyes,
well set under heavy and highly intellectual brows, were firm and
penetrating. His silk robe and powdered hair heightened his
31

6 OLIVER ELLSWORTH.
natural advantages, and gave him in the scat of justice a dignity of
demeanor which was felt by all who appeared before him. And yet,
withal, there was a characteristic plainness about him, a homeliness
that was unmistakable. His manners were simple and unaffected.
He was patient, attentive, impartial and laborious. His patience
and diligent attention, united to his quickness of apprehension and
the clearness of his perceptions, contributed to great dispatch of
business and soundness of decisions. His opinions, as they are
preserved in the reports, are concise and perspicuous. Seizing the
leading points in the case, and throwing aside all adventitious cir
cumstances, he established the principle clearly and definitely,
without any ostentatious parade of legal research or far-sought
ingenuity of argument. His dignity, courtesy and ability secured
him the confidence and esteem of the bar. His simplicity, purity
and modesty compelled affection and respect."
In 1799 a crisis occurred in the political intercourse of the
United States with France, involving danger of hostilities, and
requiring peculiar skill in negotiation. President Adams accord
ingly appointed, as envoys extraordinary to the French Republic,
Chief Justice Ellsworth, Governor Davie of North Carolina, and
Hon. William V. Murray, then resident Minister at The Hague.
With reluctance Ellsworth accepted the appointment, and near the
close of the year set forth on his mission. On the part of the
United States the negotiations were almost exclusively conducted
by him. It was a new and unaccustomed scene to him, and although
his usual vigor of mind did not desert him, he appeared in it to less
advantage than in any other situation in which he was placed in the
course of his long and- active life. But slightly acquainted with
the arts, the forms and the ambiguous and guarded language of
diplomacy, he frequently laid himself open to his adroit adversaries,
and it required all his firmness to recover the ground thus incau
tiously lost. The treaty, however, which was the result of the
negotiations, was, in all probability, the best that could be procured,
and as such was ratified by the President and Senate.
After concluding his labors in negotiating the treaty, Ellsworth
found himself in a very distressing state of health. He wrote to
his friend Wolcott, from Havre : " Sufferings at sea, and by a
32

OLIVER ELLSWORTH. 7
winter's journey through Spain, gave me an obstinate gravel,
which, by wounding the kidneys, has drawn and fixed my wander
ing gout to those parts. My pains are constant, and at times
excruciating ; they do not permit me to discharge my official
duties. I have, therefore, sent my resignation of the office of Chief
Justice, and shall, after spending a few weeks in England, retire
for winter-quarters to the south of France." On his arrival in
England, Ellsworth proceeded at once to Bath. He soon abandoned
the idea of returning to France, and remained in England until his
departure for the United States in the following spring. From the
Bath waters he derived no permanent benefit, although the more
distressing symptoms of his disease were alleviated. The voyage
home was a severe trial to his impaired constitution.
Although he returned home with the intention of retiring alto
gether from public life, he was elected a member of the Governor's
Council. He did not refuse the call of public duty, and contin
ued in this station the remainder of his life, faithfully attending to
the public business in spite of the attacks of disease and the pres
sure of domestic affliction. In 1807 he received the appointment
of Chief Justice of Connecticut, but he declined the office, a severe
attack of his painful disease warning him that his life was approach
ing its close. Upon every recurrence of the paroxysms that char
acterized his distressing malady, his health grew more and more
feeble. Though he experienced flattering intervals of relief, he
could have but little hope of ultimate recovery. His sufferings in
the latter stages of his disease were very great and "during his
last sickness," says Dr. Dwight, "he was at times deprived of his
reason. In his lucid intervals, the observations which he made,
and the sentiments whieh he expressed concerning the nature, excel
lence and rewards of Christianity, were declared by those who were
present not only to have been pious, ardent and sublime, but
wonderful." He died on the 26th of November, 1807, in the sixty-
third year of his age. He was .buried in the cemetery near his
accustomed place of worship, on the north bank of the Farmington
river where a neat monument with an appropriate inscription, has
been erected to his memory. 33

8 OLIVER ELLSWORTH.
" Oliver Ellsworth," says Dr. Dwight, " was formed to be a great
man. His person was tall, dignified and commanding. Without
haughtiness, there was yet in his manner and aspect something that
everywhere and at all times compelled respect. The prevailing
expression of his countenance was grave and serious. His forehead
was high and broad, his eyes blue and penetrating. His features
were regular and well-proportioned, but plain withal. His social,
moral and intellectual qualities were of a character to challenge
respect and esteem. No man was more modest and unassuming;
more just, frank, kind and obliging in his deportment. He was
eminently social in his disposition, and mingled freely with all classes
on an even and friendly footing. His high moral qualities were
universally acknowledged ; the shafts of calumny were never aimed
at him. In the elevated course assigned him by his country he
remained not only secure from the lips of slander, and without a
blot upon his fair fame, but with that true dignity which always
accompanies real greatness. The sincerity of his principles no man
doubted. The purity and excellence of his character are rare in
any station, and in the higher walks of life are almost unknown."
34

.mine :marsiiaj;l lld.

JOHN MARSHALL.

JOHN MARSHALL was born in Fauquier County, Virginia,
September 24th, 1755. His father, Thomas Marshall, served
with distinction as a colonel in the Revolution, signalizing himself
especially at the battle of Brandywine, where his regiment bore the
brunt of the British assault led by Cornwallis in person. He was
the father of fifteen children, of whom John was the eldest. He
was a planter of narrow fortune, but possessed of fine natural
talents which he had cultivated with great diligence. We have the
testimony of Judge Marshall that " he was a far abler man than
any of his sons. To him," he added, " I owe the solid foundation
of all my own success in life." The home of the family being in a
frontier settlement, facilities for education were limited, hence the
duty of training his children devolved upon the father. Colonel
Marshall superintended the studies of his eldest son, and implanted
in his mind a decided taste for English literature, especially for
history and poetry. At the age of twelve he had transcribed Pope's
" Essay on Man," and other poems by the same author. The love
of poetry thus awakened never ceased to exert its elevating
influence upon his mind. In youth he sometimes indulged in
poetical composition, and to the latest years of his life took a deep
interest in the works of the great masters of the divine art.
At the age of fourteen he was sent to Westmoreland, a hundred
miles from home, and placed in the school of Rev. Mr. Campbell.
Returning home at the end of a year, he resumed his studies under
the direction" of Mr. Thompson, a Scotch clergyman, who had
recently become pastor of the parish. Under the guidance of this
gentleman, he pursued his classical studies about a year, in which
35

2 JOHN MARSHALL.
he commenced reading Horace and Livy. His further scholastic
attainments were made without the aid of a teacher, and were the
results of his own unassisted efforts. He took great delight in
athletic exercises, and to this circumstance may be due the remark
able physical vigor which he retained to a very advanced age,
notwithstanding the enormous labors of his subsequent official
career. He was intended for the law, and commenced the study of the
profession at the age of eighteen, but the great acts about to open
in the drama of American History drew him away from his books to
mingle in more stirring scenes. He became deeply interested in
the great questions preliminary to the impending revolutionary
struggle which then agitated the public mind. He joined a military
company composed of gentlemen of the county, and applied himself
with ardor to learn the drill. He put his acquirement to immediate
use by training a militia company in the neighborhood, and when
the news came of the battle of Lexington, he addressed the company
in eloquent terms and urged them to prepare for every emergency.
In the summer of 1775 he received an appointment as first lieutenant
in a company of minute men, whose uniform was a green hunting
shirt with "Liberty or Death" in white letters on the bosom. In
September they were ordered to march into the lower county for
the purpose of defending it against a force commanded by Lord Dun-
more. Marshall's company took an important part in the battle of
Great Bridge, and formed the flanking party which advanced in the
face of a murderous discharge from the enemy posted on the cause
way, and terminated the engagement.
In July, 1776, Marshall was made first lieutenant in the eleventh
Virginia regiment on the Continental establishment. In the
following winter he marched to the North, and in May, 1777, he was
promoted to the rank of captain. He took part in the engagement
at Iron Hill, and in the memorable battles of Brandywine, German-
town and Monmouth. He shared the hardships and sufferings of
the troops at Valley Forge, and by his cheerful spirits encouraged
his companions in the darkest hours of that dreadful winter. He
acted frequently as deputy judge advocate, and secured the warm
regard of General Washington. A large part of the Virginia line
36

JOHN MARSHALL. 3
being in effect dissolved by the expiration of the term of enlistment
of the soldiers, iu the winter of 1779, Captain Marshall was sent to
-, Virginia to take command of a new corps to be raised by the Legis
lature. While waiting for orders he improved his leisure by
attending a course of law lectures delivered by Mr. Wythe, after
wards chancellor of the State, and lectures on natural philosophy,
given by Bishop Madison, at William and Mary College. He received
license to practice law, but his military duties called him back to
the army. The effort to raise additional forces in Virginia was
not successful, and Marshall set out on foot and alone to make the
journey to headquarters. On his arrival in Philadelphia his appear
ance was so shabby that the landlord of the hotel at which he
stopped refused him admittance. He remained in the army until
after the invasion of Virginia by Arnold, in 1781, and then, there
being a redundancy of officers in the Virginia line, he resigned his
commission. The surrender of Cornwallis which soon occurred, terminated the
long struggle for independence. The Courts which had been closed
during the war were reopened, and Marshall entered upon his pro
fessional career. He was successful from the first, and rapidly rose
to distinction at the bar. Personally he was very popular. The
benevolence of his heart, and the invariable placidity of his temper,
gained him1 hosts of friends. His extraordinary power of mind, by
which difficulties were seized and overcome with ease, and without
parade, commanded the attention and respect of the Courts of
Justice. In the spring of 1782, Mr. Marshall was elected a member of the
State Legislature from the county of Fauquier, and in the following
autumn was appointed one of the executive Council. In January,
1783, he was married to Miss Mary Willis Ambler, whom he had
met at Yorktown soon after the battle of Great Bridge. This lovely
and estimable lady lived for nearly fifty years after her marriage to
enjoy the honors of her distinguished husband.
In 1784, Mr. Marshall resigned his seat in the executive Council
and fixed his residence in Richmond for the advantages in the
practice of his profession which the place afforded. Notwithstanding
his removal from the county, his old neighbors of Fauquier re-elected
37

4 JOHN MARSHALL.
him a member of the House. In 1787, he sat in the same body as
a member from the county of Henrico. He participated largely in
the discussion of the political questions which then divided the
country. What should be the nature of the government which must
succeed the imbecile Confederation, was now the absorbing question ;
and all was uncertainty as to how it would be decided. One party
advocated a government which should act directly on the people,
and by its strength be adequate to all its exigencies ; the other was
jealous of federal influence, and desired to maintain state authority
unimpaired. Marshall stood with Washington and Madison in the
former party. The latter had been for several years a member of
the House of Delegates. He was the author of the resolution pro
posing the Convention to frame a Constitution, and in this as well
as other measures to secure an efficient federal government, he
received the steady and strong support of Mr. Marshall.
The Philadelphia Convention having agreed upon a Constitution,
it was submitted to the States for their ratification or rejection. In
June, 1788, the Virginia Convention to act upon the subject
assembled, and Marshall was a member of the body. The instru
ment having come forth under the auspices of General Washington
and other distinguished patriots of the Revolution, was at first
favorably received in Virginia, but it soon encountered decided
hostility. It was for many months the topic qf vehement discussion
on the hustings and in the newspapers. The final struggle took
place on the floor of the Convention. Mr. Marshall took a conspicuous
stand among the distinguished advocates of the adoption of the
Constitution, defending it with masterly ability against powerful
assailants. On these great occasions — the debates on taxation, on
the judiciary, and on the power over the militia, he gave full scope
to his resistless logic. The Constitution was finally adopted by a
majority of ten votes. The reputation of Marshall was greatly
enhanced by the part he had taken in the debates.
Having given most efficient aid in securing the adoption of the
great federal plan of government, Mr. Marshall determined to
relinquish public life and devote himself exclusively to the duties of
his profession. A man of his eminence could hardly adhere to such
a resolution. The Legislature having passed an act, in 1788, that
38

JOHN MARSHALL. 5
Richmond should be entitled to a representative in the House, Mr.
Marshall was urged to become a candidate. The hostility of the
State rights party to the National Government, and the necessity
of having in the Legislature a champion of the Federalists, were the
grounds on which he was reluctantly induced to accept the place.
He served in the Assembly during the sessions of 1789, 1790 and
1791. During this period every important measure of the adminis
tration was discussed in the State Legislature with great freedom
and no little acrimony. Marshall defended the administration and
supported the federal policy with calmness and moderation, and
yet with all the vigor which his friends had expected. When, in
1792, he retired from the Legislature, he left not an enemy behind
him, although he had overthrown many in debate.
He subsequently, until 1795, devoted himself exclusively to his
practice, which had greatly increased. In the spring of 1795, he
was again elected to the State Legislature. Since the close of his
former service in that body, the city of Richmond had been divided
between two opposing candidates, the one his intimate personal and
political friend ; the other a most zealous partisan of the opposition.
He attended the polls at an early hour and gave his vote for his
friend. While the election was progressing, a gentleman demanded
that a poll should be opened for Mr. Marshall, but he emphatically
expressed his disapproval. He returned from the polls and imme
diately gave his attendance to the business of one of the Courts,
which was then in session. A poll was, however, opened for him in
his absence, and in the evening he received information of his
election. The gre it subject of discussion at this period was the treaty with
Great Britain negotiated by Mr. Jay, in 1794. The Senate advised
its ratification, but violent efforts were made by the opposition party
to induce tho President to withhold his approval. It was denounced
as the sum of ail evil. A meeting in Richmond had characterized
it as insulting, injurious, dangerous and unconstitutional, when
Marshall appeared as the champion of the treaty and the adminis
tration. He defended the treaty with such force of reasoning that
his hearers reversed their former action and adopted resolutions in
favor of the Federal policy. 39

6 JOHN MARSHALL.
The subject soon found its way into the Legislature, when the
opponents of the administration introduced condemnatory resolu
tions. They emphatically denied the constitutional right of the
Executive to conclude a commercial treaty. Mr. Marshall took part
in the debate upon the resolutions, and delivered a speech which i3
represented to have been one of the noblest efforts of his genius.
" His vast powers of reasoning," says Judge Story, " were employed
with the most gratifying success. He demonstrated not only from
the words of the Constitution and the universal practice of nations,
that a commercial treaty was within the constitutional powers of the
Executive, but that this opinion had been maintained and sanctioned
by Mr. Jefferson, by the whole delegation of Virginia in Congress,
and by the leading members of the convention on both sides. His
argument was decisive, the constitutional ground was abandoned,
and the resolutions of the assembly were confined to a simple dis
approbation of the treaty in point of expediency."
The success of Marshall in this great contest, as the advocate of
the administration, with all the Republican force arrayed against
him, greatly extended his honorable renown. President Washington
invited him to accept the office of Attorney General, but he declined
it as interfering with his lucrative practice at the bar. He continued
in the Legislature, as his duties then did not conflict with his pro
fessional engagements, and remained a staunch advocate of the
policy of Washington, which he ably defended against the strictures
of the Republican members.
Soon after he was offered the appointment as Minister to France,
to succeed Mr. Monroe, but declined the honor for the same reason
which had impelled him to refuse the Attorney Generalship.
General Pinckney, of South Carolina, was appointed, but the
French Directory refused to receive him as Minister from the
United States. President Adams being sincerely anxious to
exhaust every measure of conciliation, determined to send a new
commission of three envoys. Mr. Marshall now yielded his objec
tions, and, in conjunction with General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry,
proceeded as Envoy Extraordinary to Paris, to negotiate with the
Directory in relation to the obstructions thrown in the way of the
commerce of the United States. The negotiations failed, but the
40

JOHN MARSHALL. 7
correspondence between Marshall and Tallyrand was highly honor
able to the powers of the former, and greatly enhanced his reputa
tion. His official dispatches are characterized by Justice Story as
" models of skilful reasoning, forcible illustration, accurate detail,
and urbane and dignified moderation. In the annals of our diplo
macy there are no papers upon which an American can look back
with more unmixed pride and pleasure."
On his return home Mr. Marshall was greeted with the most
flattering demonstrations of the approval of his countrymen. When
he landed at New York he was honored with a military escort, and
crowds of citizens thronged his lodgings to testify their respect and
gratitude. A public dinner was offered him by members of both
houses of Congress, " as an evidence of affection for his person, and
of their grateful approbation of the patriotic firmness with which
he had sustained the dignity of his country during his important
mission." Mr. Marshall returned to the bar, but was not permitted to
remain long in private life. He positively refused for a consider
able time to become a candidate for Congress, and avowed his
determination to remain at the bar. General Washington sent for
him to visit him at Mount Vernon, and did not disguise the fact
that his object was to induce him to become a candidate for Con
gress. Mr. Marshall interposed, as an objection, the necessity of
attending to his private affairs. Washington replied, that there
Were crises in national affairs which made it the duty of a citizen to
forego his private for the public interest. He considered tbe
country to be then in such a crisis. He detailed his opinions freely
on the nature of the controversy with France, and expressed his
conviction that the best interests of America depended upon the
character of tho ensuing Congress. Mr. Marshall yielded ; and
who could have resisted such an appeal, from such a man ? After
a warm contest he was elected to Congress, August 1, by a small
majority, and took his seat in December, 1799. During the canvass
he was offered a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, but
declined the honor.
Marshall entered Congress at a period of bitter political animosity
and sharp conflict between the two great parties. The forces of the
41

8 JOHN MARSHALL.
Republicans inspirited by the rapidly increasing revulsion against
the Federal administration, seemed about to drive their antagonists
from the field. In this crisis Marshall appeared in Congress as the
Federal leader. In the debates upon great constitutional questions
" he was confessedly the first man in the House," says Mr. Binney.
"When he discussed them, he exhausted them; nothing more re
mained to be said ; and the impression of his argument effaced that
of every one else."
The great event of Marshall's career in Congress was the speech
which he made in defense of the administration in the affair of
Jonathan Robbins. This person had committed a murder on board
a British ship and fled to the United States. On the requisition of
the British minister, who alleged that Robbins was a subject of Great
Britain, he was surrendered by President Adams in compliance with
a clause in Jay's treaty. The opposition in Congress seized upon
this act of the President, and made it the occasion of the most
furious assault. A resolution was introduced to censure the Presi
dent for the surrender of Robbins, at the dictation of the British
minister. This called forth an animated debate in which Marshall
was the leading defender of the administration. The speech which
he made on this occasion has been pronounced one of the best
evidences he ever exhibited of that massive strength of reasoning
which he possessed in a greater degree than any other statesman of the
time. " It has," says a competent authority, " all the merits and
nearly all the weight of a judicial sentence. It is throughout inspired
by the purest reason and the most copious and accurate learning.
It separates the executive from the judicial power by a line so
distinct and a discrimination so wise that all can perceive and
approve it. It demonstrated that the surrender was an act of polit
ical power which belonged to the executive ; and by excluding all
such power from the grant of the Constitution to the judiciary, it
prepared a pillow of repose for that department, when the success
of the opposite argument would have planted thorns." Judge Story
says of the speech that " it was an answer so irresistible that it
admitted of no reply. It silenced opposition, and settled then and
forever the points of national law upon which the controversy
hinged.1' 42

JOHN MARSHALL. 9
In May, 1800, Mr. Marshall was appointed Secretary of War,
but before he entered upon the duties of this position, he was
nominated for Secretary of State, as the successor of Mr. Picker
ing. In that capacity he conducted several important discussions
with the British Minister, and drew up the instructions to Mr.
King, the American Minister to England, which still hold a promi
nent place among great State papers.
On the 31st of January, 1801, Mr. Marshall was appointed by
President Adams, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
"John Adams," says Mr. Evarts, "from the Declaration of Inde
pendence down, and with the singular felicity of his line of personal
descendants, has many titles to renown, but by no act of his life
has he done more to maintain the constituted liberties which he
joined in declaring, or to confirm his own fame, than by giving to
the United States the great Chief Justice Marshall, to be to us,
forever, through every storm that shall beset our ship of state —
' Like a great sea-mark, standing every flow,
And saving them that eye it.' "
In his forty-sixth year, John Marshall began the long and
splendid judicial career which has made his name immortal in
American history. He brought the most eminent talents to the
discharge of the functions of his high office. In the great tribunal
over which he presided, his influence was paramount. Entering the
Supreme Court so near the beginning of the national existence, and
presiding over it so long, he had a moulding and formative influence
upon the government as lasting as its duration. His opinions
settled great questions of constitutional law which agitated the
entire nation, and might ultimately have destroyed the government.
Because Marshall became Chief Justice when he did, and had so
long a tenure of office, the American Government is what it is
to-day. Besides his judicial labors, Judge Marshall contributed valuable
additions to the historical and biographical literature of the country.
He wrote a " Life of Washington," largely based upon unpublished
official documents, of which the first edition was published in 1805,
43

10 JOHN MARSHALL.
in five large volumes, and the second, greatly improved and com
pressed into two volumes, in 1832. " The History of the American
Colonies," which originally constituted an introductory part, was
published separately, in 1824. Judge Marshall's personal and
official relations with the subject of his great work, peculiarly
qualified him for the task. He produced a work which is the most
valuable and trustworthy record of the events attending the estab
lishment of the Government.
Judge Marshall's long and useful career was closed by death on
the 6th of July, 1835. For many years he had suffered greatly
from a disease of the bladder. A surgical operation gave him
relief, but an injury received in traveling brought on an attack of
liver complaint. He removed to Philadelphia in order to obtain the
best medical aid, but this failed to effect the purpose, and he died
there in the eightieth year of his age. To the last he retained the
faculties of his mind and met death with the fortitude of a philos
opher and the resignation of a Christian. He was a firm believer
in the Christian religion, a regular attendant of the Episcopal
Church, one of the vice-presidents of the American Bible Society
and president of the Colonization Society. He maintained through
life a deep-seated religious faith which never wavered. He continued
even in his old age to repeat night and morning the simple prayer
which he had "been taught in the nursery at his mother's knee.
In his personal appearance, Judge Marshall was ungraceful.
Mr. Wirt describes him as " tall, meager, emaciated ; his muscles
relaxed, and his joints so loosely connected as not only to disqualify
him apparently for any vigorous exertion of body, but to destroy
everything like harmony in his air or movements." In spite of his
ungainly person he was a great social favorite, and his neighbors
regarded his eccentric figure with affection as well as respect. The
black eyes under their bushy gray brows, beamed with good nature,
and his lips habitually wore a smile. Benevolence displayed itself
in every word he uttered. 44

JCca-£S-~by- ~V7 G- JsLcTro"*31-

'Negroes are not lacliirlerl TmcLeT the -vfarcL
"Citizens" in the Constitution"

¦y ,yy,^ ~L\ ~o? try

ROGER BROOKE TANEY.

ROGER BROOKE TANEY was born of Roman Catholic
parents in Calvert County, Maryland, March 17, 1777.
After receiving the rudiments of education at home, he became a
student in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he
graduated at the age of eighteen. In the spring of 1796 he went
to Annapolis, and entered upon the study of law in the office of
Jeremiah Townley Chase, one of the Judges of the General Court
of Maryland. He determined not to go into society until he had
completed his law studies, and he adhered to that determination. In
the midst of the polished and educated society for which Annapolis
was noted, he never visited in any family, and respectfully declined
all hospitable invitations. He associated only with students, and
studied closely, reading law twelve hours in the twenty-four.
After three years of such application, in the spring of 1799, he
was admitted to the bar. His first forensic effort was in a case of
assault and battery before the Mayor's Court of Annapolis. He
suffered excessively from nervous trepidation. His own account is
interesting, especially to all beginners in public speaking: "I took
no notes, for my hand shook so that I could not have written a word
legibly if my life had depended on it ; and when I rose to speak I
was obliged to fold my arms against my breast, pressing them firmly
against my body, and my knees trembled under me so much that I
was obliged to press my limbs against the table before me to keep
me steady on my feet." Yet he managed to keep possession of his
reasoning faculties, made a good argument, and gained his case.
This excessive physical trepidation on many occasions gave him deep
pain and mortification. When a very old man he wrote : " It was
45

2 ROGER BROOKE TANEY.
the struggle of my life to keep it down ; but long as that professional
life was, I was never able entirely to conquer it."
Mr. Taney entered political life as a Federalist, in 1799, when he
was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, from his native
county. He was personally popular at home, and there seemed no
doubt of his re-election, but a new political question suddenly sprung
upon the people, turned the tide against him, and he was defeated.
In March, 1801, he took up his residence in Frederick, Maryland,
where he lived in the successful practice of his profession for more
than twenty years. In the fifth year of his residence there he con
tracted a happy marriage with a sister of Francis Scott Key, author
of "The Star Spangled Banner."
In March, 1819, Mr. Taney was counsel for the defense in a case
of much interest in the light of subsequent events. Rev. Jacob
Gruber, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, preached at a camp-
meeting in Washington County, Maryland, to an audience of three
thousand persons, of whom about four hundred were negroes. In
the course of his sermon on this occasion he said :
" Is it not a reproach to a man to hold articles of liberty and inde
pendence in one hand and a bloody whip in the other, while a negro
stands and trembles before him with his back cut and bleeding ? It
seems curious to read the newspapers, and find 'for sale, a planta-
tation, a house and lot, horses, cows, sheep, and hogs ; also a num
ber of negroes, men, women, and children, some very valuable ones ;
also a pew in such and such a church.' In this inhuman traffic and
cruel trade the most tender ties are torn asunder, the nearest con
nections are broken."
For using such language, Mr. Gruber was indicted by the grand
jury as intending thereby unlawfully and maliciously to incite the
slaves who heard him to insurrection and rebellion, for the disturb
ance of the peace of the State. As leading counsel for the defense,
Mr. Taney maintained that his client had a right under the laws of
Maryland to use such language from the pulpit. In his address to
the jury he said:
"Shall I content myself with saying he had a right to say this ?
that there is no law to punish him ? So far is he from being the
object of punishment in any form of proceeding, that we are prepared
46

ROGER BROOKE TANEY. 3
to maintain the same principles, and to use, if necessary, the same
languige here in the temple of justice, and in the presence of those
who are the ministers of the law. A hard necessity, indeed, com
pels us to endure the evil of slavery for a time. It was imposed
upon us by another nation while we were in a state of colonial vas
salage. It cannot be easily or suddenly removed. Yet while it
continues it is a blot on our national character, and every real lover
of freedom confidently hopes that it will effectually, though it must
be gradually, wiped away, and earnestly looks for the means by
which this necessary object may be best attained."
So ably did Mr. Taney manage the defense in this case that the
jury promptly brought in a verdict of "not guilty." But our
chief interest in this case arises from the fact that it was the occa
sion for putting the young attorney on the record as possessing a
natural and undisguised abhorrence of American slavery, and as
desiring and predicting its ultimate extinction.
As a lawyer Mr. Taney now had a well-deserved reputation
throughout the State of Maryland. He was distinguished for hon
esty and integrity. It was his habit to discourage rather than pro
mote litigation ; he invariably advised his clients to settle their
disputes amicably in all cases where he thought it could be effected.
He was remarkable for his deference to the bench, respect for the
jury, and courtesy towards his professional brethren. He sought
no aid from the rules of rhetoric, none from the graces of elocution ;
yet his language before the jury is described as always chaste and
classical, and his eloquence as " sometimes persuasive and gentle,
and sometimes impetuous and overwhelming." Above all, his ex
alted private character gave him, with the honest juries of Fred
erick County, an extent of success which even his great abilities as
an advocate would not have enabled him otherwise to secure.
In 1823 Mr. Taney removed to Baltimore, and in a b;ir among
the most able and talented in the United States, he took a position
second to none. In 1827, upon the unanimous recommendation of
the Baltimore bar, he was appointed Attorney-General of Maryland.
He was often heard to say that he never desired to hold any office
but this. 47

4 ROGER BROOKE TANEY.
But the time came when Mr. Taney was to enter the wider arena
of national politics. In June, 1831, he became Attorney-General
in the Cabinet of President Jackson, who had by this time clearly
developed his "decentralizing policy." He was opposed to the
renewal of the National Bank charter, to the continuance of the
high protective policy, and to internal improvements by the Federal
Government. In the winter of 1832 the Bank of the United States petitioned
Congress to pass a bill renewing its charter. Such a bill was
promptly passed, and sent to the President for his approval. Mr.
Taney, who was in Annapolis at the Court of Appeals, had previ
ously written to General Jackson, giving his reasons why the bill,
if it was passed, should be vetoed. The President called him to
Washington, and Mr. Taney aided in preparing a message vetoing
the bill, which was sent to Congress. Mr. Taney was the only
member of the Cabinet who favored the veto.
As General Jackson was a candidate for re-election, the bank
question became a definite issue between him and his opponent, Mr.
Clay. The bank entered with terrible earnestness into the contest.
Its loans were sown broadcast over the country. In the year pre
ceding its petition for a renewal of its charter, it had increased its
loans and discounts from forty millions to more than sixty millions
of dollars. While its petition was actually pending in Congress, it
swelled the amount of its loans to more than seventy millions of
dollars. Thus the money power was fairly in the field exerting its
immense influence in the election against General Jackson. The
struggle was fierce and desperate ; but the defeat of Mr. Clay and
the consequent condemnation of his policy were overwhelming. He
received only forty-nine electoral votes out of two hundred and
eighty-eight. Thus emphatically indorsed by the people, General Jackson pro
ceeded to carry out his policy of opposition to the Bank of the
United States. In his annual message he intimated that the
deposits of the government were not safe in the Bank of the United
States, and recommended an investigation into the transactions of
the institution. A motion for a select committee to inquire into the
condition of the bank was scornfully rejected by the House of Rep-

ROGER BROOKE TANEY. 5
resentatives, and the subject was referred to the Committee of Ways
and Means. This committee, founding their action upon false
statements furnished by the bank itself, reported a resolution
" That the government deposits may, in the opinion of the House,
be safely continued in the Bank of the United States." This res
olution was passed by a vote of 109 to 46. Of those who voted
for it, fifty were borrowers from the institution, and many were on
the list of its retained attorneys.
The great issue was now made by the House of Representatives
with the executive whether the bank, which turned out to be insol
vent, should keep the deposits of the government for its own pur
poses, or they should be secured without loss for the benefit of the
people. The bank had already violated its charter by dealings to
which it had resorted in order to conceal its insolvency, and by its
evasion of the payment of $5,000,000 of the public debt which had
been required to be paid out of the public money on deposit.
In the great issue which the administration had made with the
Bank of the United States and its adherents, General Jackson
relied chiefly upon the fidelity and statesmanship of Mr. Taney.
In a letter to the President, dated August 5, 1833, Mr. Taney
said :
" My mind has for some time been made up that the continued
existence of that powerful and corrupting monopoly will be fatal to
the liberties of the people, and that no man but yourself is strong
enough to meet and destroy it ; and that if your administration
closes without having established and carried into operation some
other plan for the collection and distribution of the revenue, tbe
bank will be too strong to be resisted by any one who may succeed
you. Entertaining these opinions, I am prepared to hazard much
in order to save the people of this country from the shackles which
a combined moneyed aristocracy is seeking to fasten upon them."
Mr. Taney had the deepest abhorrence of the influence of money.
"It is," said he, "a fixed principle in our political institutions to
guard against the unnecessary accumulation of power over persons
and property in any hands. And no hands are less worthy to be
trusted than those of a moneyed corporation." Mr. Taney was so
deeply impressed that it was the duty of the President to remove
49

6 ROGER BROOKE TANEY.
the deposits of the government from the Bank of the United States,
that when the President intimated that perhaps his agency would
be required to effect the removal, he assured him that he was ready
to perform the duty at any sacrifice.
Mr. William J. Duane, a lawyer of Philadelphia, who had been
appointed Secretary of the Treasury, June 1, 1833, was known to
General Jackson as an opponent of the bank, and was supposed to
concur in the contemplated measures against it. On the very even
ing of the day of his appointment, Mr. Duane had been informed
that" General Jackson expected him to remove the public deposits
from the bank. He promised the President that if he could not
bring himself to remove the deposits he would resign. Before the
day fixed for the removal, October 1, 1833, he declared that he
would do neither. Thereupon, General Jackson removed him on the
23d day of September, and appointed Mr. Taney in his stead. On
the following day the latter entered upon the duties of Secretary of
the Treasury, and on the 26th of the month he gave the order for
the removal of the deposits to take effect on the 1st of October.
The order of removal merely directed that thereafter the revenue
should be deposited in certain designated State banks. The depos
its already in the Bank of the United States were only to be drawn
out when needed for the use of the government.
The bank at once put forth its whole strength, which reached
every point in the country, to bring about as much distress as pos
sible by the time Congress should meet, with a view to compel a
restoration of the deposits. Under pretense that the loss of the
deposits compelled it, the bank called in its loans to such an extent
as to make the whole nation groan under the pressure. For months
there were the most fearful scenes of dismay and ruin. Commerce
was crippled ; property became unsalable ; the price of produce and
labor was reduced to the lowest point. Tens of thousands of labor
ers were thrown out of employment, and many wealthy people were
reduced to poverty. All this distress the bank strove to make the
sufferers believe was caused by the removal of the deposits.
The Senate, under the lead of Mr. Clay, passed resolutions con
demning the act of General Jackson as unconstitutional, and that cf
Mr. Taney as inexpedient and unjustifiable. But the House of
50

ROGER BROOKE TANEY. 7
Representatives, fresh from the people, justified both the President
and the Secretary of the Treasury, who declared against the renewal
of the charter of the bank. Thus the great contest ended in a com
plete triumph of President Jackson and Mr. Taney.
Near the close of the session of Congress, on the 23d of June,
1834, the President sent to the Senate the nomination of Mr. Taney
as Secretary of the Treasury, which was the next day rejected.
Thereupon, Mr. Taney resigned his commission and returned to the
practice of his profession at Baltimore. His return was greeted with
ovations by the people of Baltimore and Frederick. Resolutions
approving his course were passed at primary meetings all over the
United States, and public dinners tendered to him. But approval
of his course was most significantly given in the fate which befel the
Bank of the United States. The institution soon collapsed, sinking
more than $50,000,000 in its ruin.
In January, 1835, Mr. Duvall, Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court, having resigned his seat upon the bench, General Jackson
immediately nominated Mr. Taney to fill the vacancy. Chief Jus
tice Marshall, although he disliked General Jackson and his policy,
had a high estimate of Mr. Taney, and expressed a desire for his
confirmation. At the last moment of the session, the nomination
was brought up in the Senate, and was indefinitely postponed, which
was equivalent to a rejection.
Chief Justice Marshall died in the summer of 1835. On the
28th of December following, President Jackson nominated Mr.
Taney for the vacancy in the Supreme Court. Since his nomina
tion for Associate Justice the political complexion of the Senate had
changed, and, notwithstanding a most violent opposition led by .
Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay, the nomination was confirmed by
a majority of fourteen votes. This appointment was undoubtedly
made by General Jackson as a reward for the aid of Mr. Taney
on the bank question, and especially for the act of removing the
deposits. In the January term, 1836, Chief Justice Taney took his seat for
the first time on the bench of the Supreme Court. All persons
interested in the character and practical operation of our govern
ment, watched with interest to see what would be the drift of the
51

8 ROGER BROOKE TANEY.
opinions of the new Chief Justice. There were then pending three
important cases involving the validity of State laws, and the rela
tive powers of State and Federal governments. They were all
decided in favor of State rights, and a strict construction of the
Constitution. But these questions were soon to be overshadowed by those of
more exciting interest to the people, relating to the extension of
slavery. By the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, territory that had
by the Missouri Compromise been assigned to occupation only as
free territory, was to be made slave or free, as should be decided by
the settlers. Thereupon ensued a contest for the occupation and
control of that territory by emigrants from the slave and the free
States, which ended in most direful scenes of blood and murder.
The people of the entire union were excited by the pending struggle,
and the most serious consequences threatened the distracted country.
In the midst of this excitement, James Buchanan was inaugurated
President of the United States. Despairing of his own strength to
lay the storm which threatened to engulf the nation, and catching
at a straw, he announced in his inaugural that a case relative to the
constitutional question about the occupation of the territories was
pending in the Supreme Court of the United States, the decision of
which might remove the danger. It was the celebrated Dred Scott
case. The decision was announced on the day after the inaugura
tion. The opinion of Chief Justice Taney, concurred in by six
judges out of the eight who composed the Court, was that it was
incompetent for the Congress of the United States, directly or in
directly, to exclude slavery from the territories of the Union.
No previous decision rendered by the Supreme Court had ever so
profoundly excited the American people. It aroused a feeling of
intense disgust in all who were opposed to the further spread of
slavery. The repose which Mr. Buchanan fondly dreamed would
be secured to the country by the Dred Scott decision was not
realized. The public mind was agitated more violently than ever.
The question was appealed to the people, and after thorough dis
cussion was reversed in the Presidential election of 1860. Presi
dent Lincoln reasserted the right of the people to self-government
when in his inaugural he said : " The candid citizen must confess
52

ROGER BROOKE TANEY. 9
that if the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the
whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the Supreme Court, the
instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in per
sonal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers,
having to that extent practically resigned their government into the
hands of that eminent tribunal."
The decision of the people reversing the Dred Scott decision was
not accepted by the slaveholders. They appealed to war as the
court of last resort. In this the decision of the people was signally
sustained. Slavery, which under the decision of the Supreme Court
could be carried everywhere, it was now decided could exist no
where. It was -sentenced to everlasting death, and all laws and
decisions which had for- their object its establishment and perpetua
tion, were remanded to the limbo in which are accumulated the
harmless instruments and agencies of an effete barbarism.
Chief Justice Taney, now beyond the age of eighty, threw all the
influence of his high office in opposition to the war waged by the
government for the suppression of the rebellion. It is impossible
that war should be carried on without a practical suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus, and yet Chief Justice Taney endeavored to
enforce this writ in the very face of measures adopted as military
necessities, and deemed essential to the existence of the govern
ment. One of the most remarkable instances was the case of
Merryman, arrested under orders ofa Major General of the United
States Army, and imprisoned in Fort McHenry upon the charge of
treason in being publicly associated with and holding a commission
as lieutenant in a company having in their possession arms belong
ing to the United States, and avowing his purpose of armed hostility
against the government. On the 26th of May a writ of habeas
corpus was issued by Chief Justice Taney, sitting at chambers,
directed to the commandant of Fort McHenry, commanding him to
produce the body of Merryman before the Chief Justice in Balti
more <m the following day. The officer to whom the writ was
directed declined to produce the prisoner, claiming that he was duly
authorized by the President of the United States in such cases to
suspend the writ of habeas corpus for public safety. The Chief
Justice immediately ordered that an attachment issue against Gen-
53

10 ROGER BROOKE TANEY.
eral George Cadwalader for contempt. The marshal was not per
mitted to enter the gate, and hence was unable to serve the writ
of attachment.
The Chief Justice subsequently prepared an elaborate opinion in
this case, in which he said :
" If the authority which the Constitution has confided to the Judi
ciary Department and judicial officers may thus upon any pretext,
or under any circumstances, be usurped by the military power at
its discretion, the people of the United States are no longer living
under a government of laws ; but every citizen holds life, liberty,
and property at the will and pleasure of the army officer in whose
military district he may happen to be found." The Chief Justice
directed the clerk to transmit the proceedings and opinion in the case
to the President. Mr. Lincoln, however, paid no respect to the opinion.
But little more remained of a life now protracted long beyond the
usual allotment. Chief Justice Taney died on the 12th of October,
1864, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
That Mr. Taney was an able jurist must be admitted by all who
attentively study his long career. When elevated to the Supreme
Bench he was personally but little known outside of Maryland; and
elsewhere it was supposed that he was neither a learned nor a pro
found lawyer. This, however, was a mistake growing out of the
fact that he had figured prominently in certain political acts which
were distasteful to many able statesmen and popular journals whose
policy was to make him appear unworthy of judicial honors. But
his accession to the Supreme Court brought with it no deterioration
of that high tribunal either in learning or dignity. Having great
talent for the prompt and orderly dispatch of business, he greatly
improved the practice of the Supreme Court, which under his mould
ing hand became a complete and well-ordered system. He possessed
great power of subtle analysis, balanced by excellent common sense
and great experience in practical business. His opinions are maiked
by perspicuity, by logical precision, and cogency of reasoning. If
not so abundant in the citation of authorities and precedents as some
other judges have been, he surpassed most in his facility of setting
forth the results of research which he made luminous under the light
of a well-disciplined intellect. 54

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE was born in Cornish, New
Hampshire, June 13th, 1808. He was sixth in descent from
Aquila Chase, who emigrated from England and settled in the town
of Newbury, Massachusetts as early as 1630. His grandfather,
Samuel Chase, had seven sons, five of whom were educated at Dart
mouth College. One of these, Dudley Chase, was Chief Justice
of New Hampshire and was two terms a United States Senator. The
youngest of them became Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, and subse
quently of Illinois. Ithamar, another member of this remarkable
family, and father of the Chief Justice, was a farmer, who is
described as " a man of substance and credit with his neighbors,
and not less with the people of his State." He was a member of
the State Legislature, and was spoken of for Governor, although
he was never a candidate for that office. He married Janet Ralston,
of Scotch family, a woman of remarkable energy and force of char
acter. During the war of 1812 Ithamar Chase engaged in the
manufacture of glass at Keene, New Hampshire, but the re-intro
duction of foreign manufactures on the return of peace, was dis
astrous to his business. He died in 1817, leaving his family in
straitened circumstances.
Young Chase, the eighth in a family of eleven children, was thus
left in tender years to the sole care of his mother. With scanty
means, her thrift and energy sufficed to save her children from
ignorance, and sent them forth into the world with good principles
and honorable purposes. Spending his early years on a farm,
Chase obtained that physical vigor which rural life and labor
develop and establish. His first attendance at school away from
home was at Windsor, Vermont. When twelve years old he went
55

2 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
to Ohio to live with his uncle, the Bishop, under whose direction, for
about two years, he pursued academic studies, and performed farm
labor. He then returned to his mother's charge, entered Dartmouth
College, and graduated in 1826, at the age of eighteen.
He soon after went to Washington with the design of teaching
and studying the profession of law. He advertised for pupils, but
met with no encouragement. He went to his uncle, then a United
States Senator, possessing influence with the administration of Pres
ident Adams, and requested him to secure a clerkship for him.
His reply was not likely to be forgotten: "I once procured an
office for a nephew of mine," he said, " and he was ruined by it. I
then determined I never would ask for another. I will lend you
fifty cents to buy a spade with, but I cannot help you to get a clerk
ship." Disappointed in this direction, the joung man applied to
Mr. Plumley, principal of an academy, who employed him to teach
the boys' department. He thus earned a subsistence while he pur
sued the study of law with the distinguished William Wirt, then in
the maturity of his powers, and at the zenith of his fame. He
derived further benefit from his residence in Washington, by the
opportunity it afforded him of observing the celebrated statesmen
of the day. It was his privilege to see the great Chief Justice
Marshall on the bench of the Supreme Court, and to hear Webster,
Binney, and other famous lawyers at its bar.
After a rigid examination, Mr. Chase was admitted to the bar at
the age of twenty-two, and proceeded to Cincinnati for the practice
of his profession. For a few years, like most young men without
influential business connections, he had a struggle for professional
foothold. While waiting for business he occupied himself in pre
paring an edition of the statutes of Ohio with notes and a histor
ical introduction. The work possesses a permanent value, justifying
the assurance Chancellor Kent gave him, that "this surprising
labor would find its reward in the good He had done, in the talents
he had shown, and in the gratitude of his profession."
In 1834 Mr. Chase was appointed Solicitor for the United States
Bank in Cincinnati. In the ten years which followed his admission
to the bar he established a reputation for ability, integrity, elevation
of purpose, and capacity for labor which promised the highest pro- ¦
56

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 3
fessional rewards. His career, however, was destined to be rather
political than professional.
He early engaged in the controversy respecting slavery and the
slave power in the United States, taking the unpopular anti-slavery
side. He held slavery to be against natural law and right, and
was for confining it within the narrowest limits, in respect to the
exercise of political power and the expansion of its territory. In
1837 he appeared as counsel for Matilda, a colored woman claimed
as a fugitive slave. He took the ground that Congress had no right
to impose on State officers the duty to assist in rendering up fugitive
slaves, nor to legislate on the subject at all. He maintained that
the States were by the Constitution made solely responsible for the
performance of that duty, and had a right to prescribe such pro
ceedings as they saw fit to prevent unjust arrests and detentions.
These views were enforced with great eloquence and power, but did
not prevail against the current of judicial opinion and public senti
ment at the time. In a subsequent case he took the broad ground
that slavery was a local institution dependent upon State laws for
its existence and continuance. His great maxim was, " Slavery
is sectional, Freedom is national."
In 1842 Mr. Chase was employed to defend Van Zandt, the
original of the famous Van Tromp in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," who
had been a farmer in Kentucky, but had liberated his slaves and
removed to Ohio, near Cincinnati. He believed slaveholding to be
wrong and his kindly nature, prompt to succor the distressed, found
especial gratification in aiding fugitives from bondage. He was
indicted under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 for harboring fugitive
slaves and aiding them to escape. The case was carried to the
Supreme Court of the United States, where, in 1846, it was ably
argued by Mr. Chase and Hon. William H. Seward. Such, however,
was the universal bias created by dread of the slave power that the
decisions were all adverse to Van Zandt.
The vexed question had now been fully introduced into the poli
tics of the country. Mr. Chase was one of the most persistent and
prominent of the agitators who organized the Liberty Party, the
first step in the political movement resulting in the formation of the
great Republican party which finally, overthrew, the slave-power in
57

4 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
the United States. He supported General Harrison for the Presi
dency in 1840, but when it became evident, in 1841, that no reliance
could be placed on the Whig Party in the direction of anti-slavery,
he procured the assembling of the Liberty Party Convention in
Columbus. Other conventions were held in Cincinnati, Buffalo and
elsewhere, in 1843, 1845, 1847 and 1848, resulting the latter year
in the nomination of Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams
as candidates of the Free-Soil Party for President and Vice-Presi
dent. Mr. Chase presided over the last-named convention and drew
up the platform of principles and policy which it adopted. The
object most prominently avowed was that of preventing the extension
of slavery in the new Territories.
Mr. Chase was originally a Whig, but in pursuit of his great
object of crushing slavery and the political power by which it was
upheld, he allied himself to any party which for the time gave evi
dence of a disposition to further his aims. In 1849 the Legislature
of Ohio consisted of nearly equal numbers of Whigs and Democrats
with a few Liberty Party men who held the balance of power.
These uniting with the Democrats elected Mr. Chase to the United
States Senate, a result the more surprising from the fact that he had
not previously held any political office whatever. He did not escape
the adverse criticism which is always visited upon men who reap the
benefit of such coalitions, nevertheless all that he personally said
and did in connection with this election was " elevated and without
guile." During Mr. Chase's senatorial term occurred the great debates in
Congress upon questions relating to the extension of slavery in the
territories, which resulted in the repeal of the Missouri Compro
mise. He took a leading part in these debates, and was noted for
the frankness and independence with which he declared and main
tained his sentiments. He championed the unpopular doctrine that
slavery was sustained only by local laws ; that all new territory was
free by the laws of nature and the principles of the American gov
ernment, and could only be made slave territory by usurpation and
wrong ; that only the original States which had entered into the
constitutional compact were bound to render up fugitive slaves, and
then only after such proceedings had as they might deem just and
58

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 5
reasonable for preventing illegal seizures and detentions. His
views were shared by few in Congress at the time, but events
were rapidly approaching, which asserted the sagacity and foresight
with which he comprehended the situation.
In October, 1855, Mr. Chase was elected Governor of Ohio, and
was re-elected in 1857. He discharged the duties of this most
important office with credit to himself and benefit to the State.
When the Republican National Convention assembled in 1860 to
choose a candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Chase was one of the
prominent candidates for the nomination. This honor, however,
was conferred upon Abraham Lincoln, whose great qualities fully
justified the wisdom of the American people in electing him to the
Presidency. In nothing did that remarkable man more signally
manifest his sagacity than in his choice of the men whom he selected
as his constitutional advisers. " By the arrangement of his cab
inet," says Mr. Evarts, *' and his principal appointments for critical
services, Mr. Lincoln showed at once that nature had fitted him for
a ruler, and accident only had hid his earlier life in obscurity. I
cannot hesitate to think that the presence of Mr. Seward and Mr.
Chase in the great offices of State and the Treasury, and their faith
ful concurrence in the public service and public repute of the Presi
dent's conduct of the government, gave to the people all the benefits
which might have justly been expected from the election of either
to be the head of the government, and much else besides."
Mr. Chase had been again elected by the Legislature of Ohio to
the United States Senate, but had hardly taken his seat in March,
1861, when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. The
abilities which he displayed in the administration ef this office have
been unsurpassed in our history. He found the Treasury empty,
and the credit of the government at the lowest ebb. " He solved
the apparently impossible problem of levying the enormous taxes
which should support military operations on the largest scale, and
yet not break the back of industry, which alone could pay them."
He negotiated loans in every form that financial skill could devise,
and to the utmost verge of the public credit.
One of his expedients, demanded by the exigencies of the time,
was the issue by the Government in February, 1862, of currency
59

6 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
notes, which were made a legal tender in payment of debts. He
devised the system by which the paper money of the country was
transferred from State to National banks, and by which all notes
issued were based on funded bonds of the Government of equal or
greater amount. "This transaction," says Mr. Evarts, "financially
and politically transcends in magnitude and difficulty of itself alone
any single measure of administrative government found in our
history. Yet the conception, the plan and the execution under
Mr. Chase took less time and raised less disturbance than it is
the custom of our politics to accord to a change in bur tariff, or a
modification of a commercial treaty. The management of the
finances of our civil war was the marvel of Europe and the admira
tion of our own people. For a great part of the wisdom, the courage,
and the overwhelming force of will which carried us through the
stress of this stormy sea, the country stands under deep obligations
to Mr. Chase as its pilot through its fiscal perils and perplexities.
Whether the genius of Hamilton, dealing with great difficulties with
small resources, transcended that of Chase, meeting the largest
exigencies with great resources, is an unprofitable speculation.
They stand together in the judgment of their countrymen, the great
financiers of our history."
Secretary Chase had more than once offered his resignation, which
Mr. Lincoln had been unwilling to accept. Finally a persistent
difference of opinion arising between the President and himself as
to the appointment of an Assistant Treasurer of the United States
in New York, induced Mr. Chase, on the 29th of June, 1864, to
tender his resignation, which was accepted by Mr. Lincoln on the
following day. Some criticism of this event at the time attributed
it to "personal acerbity" and the "mischiefs of competing ambi
tions." But the appointment of Mr. Chase to the Chief Justice
ship of the United States soon put an end to such surmises.
On the very morning of that nomination a self-appointed deputa
tion of the enemies of Mr. Chase waited on the President to protest
against it. They could not deny his fitness, nor his fidelity to
principles, nor the integrity and purity of his character, nor the
prevailing public sentiment in his favor; but they sought to influence
the President by producing some letters written by Mr. Chase, in
60

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 7
which Mr. Lincoln was rather freely criticised. The President
read them, and with characteristic humor observed, that if Mr. Chase
had said harsh things about him, he in his turn had said harsh things
about Mr. Chase, which squared the account. With his own hand
he wrote out the nomination and sent it to the Senate, with a pro
found sense of the propriety and fitness of the act. Mr. Lincoln's
estimate of the grandeur of Mr. Chase's services and of the sub
stantial greatness and nobility of his character was not diminished
by the estrangement which had arisen between them, for in the very
heat of it he had said, " Of all the great men I have ever known,
Chase is equal to about one and a half of the best of them."
Mr. Chase was nominated for Chief Justice on the 6th of De
cember, 1864, and was confirmed by the Senate without the custom
ary reference to a committee. He arrived in Washington on the
evening of the same day, and before sleeping wrote to Mr. Lincoln
a note of grateful thanks, declaring, however, that more than office
he prized the President's confidence and good will. The eminent
fitness of the selection was universally acknowledged. "Appointed,"
says Mr. Justice Clifford, " as it were, by common consent, he
seated himself easily and naturally in the chair of justice, and grace
fully answered every demand upon the station, whether it had
respect to the dignity of the office, or the elevation of the individual
character of the incumbent, or to his firmness, purity, or vigor of
mind." "As presiding officer of the Court," says Mr. Justice Bradley,
" and as a constitutional judge, the Chief Justice fully met the duties,
responsibilities and dignity of his high position. But his long ser
vice in political life and absence from the bar induced him to lean
largely upon the experience of the other members of the bench in
matters of technical law. In every case of public consequence de
pending upon constitutional or fundamental principles he exhibited
the same largeness of mind which characterized his entire career.
His opinions on some questions have been criticised as exhibiting a
leaning against the Federal Government and its authority in which
as an executive officer he had taken so large a part. For example,
on the question of the constitutionality of the legal- tender notes,
he changed his opinion and held these unconstitutional. But it is
61

8 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
fairly due him to accept his own explanation that he assented to
the law as a pressing necessity when framed, but subsequent reflec
tion convinced him that he was mistaken."
Hon. William M. Evarts, in commenting on this remarkable change
of opinion, says : " The error of the Chief Justice, was his follow
ing his strong sense of the supreme importance of restoring the
integrity of the currency, and his impatience and despair at the
feebleness of the political departments of the government in that
direction, to the point of concluding that the final wisdom of this
great question was to deny to the brief exigency of war, what was
so dangerous to the permanent necessities of peace. But a larger
reason and a wider prudence, as it would seem, favor the prevailing
judgment which refused to cripple the permanent faculties of
government for the unforseen duties of the future, and drew back
the Court from the perilous edge of law-making, which, overpassed,
must react to cripple in turn, the essential judicial power. The
past, then, was not discredited, nor the future disabled."
In 1868 Chief Justice Chase was called upon to preside over the
Senate pending the impeachment and trial of President Johnson.
The attention of the whole country and of foreign nations was fixed
upon the transaction at every stage of its progress. Four-fifths of
the Senate belonged to the party which had instituted the impeach
ment and was demanding conviction. "Against all these immense
influences," says Mr. Evarts, " confirmed and influenced by a storm
of party violence beating against the Senate-house without abate
ment through the trial, the President was acquitted. To what wise
or fortunate protection of the stability of government do the people
of this country owe their escape from this great peril ? Solely, I
cannot hesitate to think, to the potency — with a justice-loving, law-
respecting people — of the few decisive words of the Constitution
which to the common apprehension, had impressed upon the trans
action the solemn character of trial and conviction, under the
sanction of the oath to bind the conscience, and not of the mere
exercise of power, of which its will should be its reason. In* short
the Constitution had made the procedure judicial, and not political.
It was this sacred interposition that stayed this plague of political
resentments which with their less sober, and intelligent populations,
62

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 9
have thwarted so many struggles for free government and equal
institutions. Over this scene, through all its long agitations, the
Chief Justice presided, with firmness and prudence, with circumspect
comprehension, and sagacious forecast of the vast consequences
which hung, not upon the result of the trial as affecting any personal
fortunes of the President, but upon the maintenance of its character
as a trial, upon the prevalence of law, and the supremacy of justice
in its methods of procedure, in the grounds and reasons of its con
clusion. That his authority was greatly influential in fixing the
true constitutional relations of the Chief Justice to the Senate, and
establishing a precedent of procedure, not easily to be subverted;
that it was felt, throughout the trial, with perseverance, force, in
the maintenance of the judicial nature of the transaction ; and that
it never went a step beyond the office which belonged to him — of
presiding over the Senate trying an impeachment, is not to be
doubted." In June, 1870, Chief Justice Chase had a stroke of paralysis,
from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He attended
the regular terms of the Supreme Court commencing in December,
1871, and December, 1872, and while his mind remained clear and
his logical powers unimpaired, his powerful frame was much en
feebled, and his general appearance indicated that he was nearing
the close of his career. He died in the city of New York, May 7th,
1873, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.
Chief Justice Chase was thrice married : first, March 4, 1834,
to Katharine Jane Garniss, who died December 1, 1835; again,
September 26, 1839, to Eliza Ann Smith, who died September
29, 1845; and again, November 6, 1846, to Sarah B. D. Ludlow,
who died January 13, 1852. Although he was the husband of
three wives, his married life was less than thirteen years. He had
six children, only two of whom lived to mature years — Katharine,
daughter of his second wife, who married Senator Sprague, of
Rhode Island, and Janet Ralston, daughter of his third- wife, who
married William Sprague Hoyt, of New York City.
In his eulogy on the Chief Justice, delivered at Dartmouth Col
lege, Mr. Evarts makes the following interesting estimate of his
character : 63

10 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.
" If I should attempt to compare Mr. Chase, either in resemblance
or contrast, with the great names in our public life of our own
times; and in our previous history, I should be inclined to class
him, in the solidity of his faculties, the firmness of his will, and in
the moderation of his temper, and in the quality of his public ser
vices, with that remarkable school of statesmen who, through the
Revolutionary War, wrought out the independence of their country
which they had declared, and framed the Constitution by which the
new liberties were consolidated, and their perpetuity insured.
Should I point more distinctly at individual characters, whose traits
he most recalls, Ellsworth as a lawyer and judge, and Madison as a
statesman, would seem not only the most like, but very like, Mr.
Chase. In the groups of his cotemporaries in public affairs, Mr.
Chase is always named with the most eminent. In every triumvirate
of conspicuous activity, he would be naturally associated. Thus, in
the preliminary agitations which prepared the triumphant politics,
it is Chase and Sumner and Hale ; in the competition for the
Presidency, when the party expected to carry it, it is Seward and
Lincoln and Chase ; in administration, it is Stanton and Seward
and Chase ; in the Senate, it is Chase and Seward and Sumner.
All these are newly dead, and we accord them a common homage
of admiration and of gratitude, not yet to be adjusted or weighed
out to each."
Mr. Chase was six feet and two inches in height, with a frame
and figure proportionate to his stature. He had an unusually large
head, blue-gray eyes under massive brows, wide nostrils and heavy
lips, but of that peculiar shape which indicates great firmness. He
was remarkably near-sighted, and was sometimes unable to dis
tinguish intimate acquaintances even across a room. He had a
singularly impressive presence, and was one of the few men who,
even in crowds, attract general observation. 64

^:^^Wt-

CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE

ENGRAVED TOP BARNE5 AMERICAN GOVERNMENT '

MORRISON R. WAITE,
CHIEF-JUSTICE.

ORRISON REMICK WAITE was born in Lyme,
Connecticut, November 29, 1816. He is the eldest of
the eight children ofthe late Chief- Justice Henry Matson
Waite. of Connecticut. His ancestors settled in Lyme,
Connecticut, nearly a hundred years before the Revolution. One
ofthe earliest ancestors, whose name has been preserved, was Thomas
Waite, whose son, Marvin Waite, was on the first electoral ticket
in Connecticut after the war, and cast his vote for Washington.
He had nineteen elections to the General Assembly, was Judge
of the county court for several year;?, and one of the commission
ers to sell the State's lands in the " North-western Territory " and
to fund the proceeds. This was the origin of the noble school fund
of Connecticut.
A half-brother of Judge Marvin Waite was Remick, of Lyme,
who married Susannah Matson, a sister of the mother of Hon.
William A. Buckingham, late Governor of Connecticut, and now a
Senator in Congress. The eldest son of Remick was Henry Mat-
son Waite, who was born in Lyme, February 9, 1787, and gradu
ated at Yale College in 1809, with high reputation for ability. He
studied law under the direction of Governor Matthew Griswold,
became a lawyer of learning and ability with a large and gen
eral practice, and was frequently elected to the lower branch of the
Legislature. In 1832 and 1833 he held a seat in the State Senate,
in 1834 he was chosen an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of Connecticut, and in 1854 was appointed Chief-Justice by the
almost unanimous vote of both branches of the Legislature. He
65

2 MORRISON R. WAITE.
held this office until 1857, when he reached the seventieth year
of his age, the limit prescribed by the State Constitution. He died
December 14, 1869. It has been said that no one ever held the
office of Chief- Justice of Connecticut who possessed in a higher
degree the esteem of thebar and the confidence of the people. He
married, in 1816, Maria, daughter of Col. Richard Selden, of Lyme,
and grand-daughter of Col. Samuel Selden of the same town, an
officer of the Revolutionary army. Mrs. Waite was a woman of
superior intellect and character, and many of her qualities are
reflected in her children.
The present Chief-Justice entered Yale College at the age of
seventeen years, and graduated with honor in 1837 in a class which
included William M. Evarts, Edwards Pierrepont, Prof. Benjamin
SiHiman, Jr., and others who have become influential and distin
guished men. He stood high as a scholar, and was eminently gen
ial, courteous, and unobtrusive. He was distinguished for his
evenly-developed and well-balanced mind.
After graduating Mr. Waite began the study of law in his
father's office in Lyme, but finished his studies, preparatory to ad
mission to the bar, in the office of Samuel M. Young, Esq., then a
prominent attorney in Maumee City, Ohio. On his admission in
1839 he formed a partnership with Mr. Young. The firm having
determined to remove to Toledo, in 1850 Mr. Waite proceeded to
that place, where he opened an office and established a successful
business. Two years later Mr. Young followed, and the firm of
Young & Waite continued until Mr. Waite's youngest brother,
Richard, came to the bar, when the brothers formed a part
nership, which continued until the elevation of the senior partner
to the Chief-Justiceship.
From his advent in practice Mr. Waite's course was stamped
with success. He quietly and unostentatiously pursued his pro
fessional labors, constantly growing in influence and power both
as a lawyer and a citizen. He was soon acknowledged as a leading
counselor and advocate in North-western Ohio. His distinguished.
ability, his studious habits, and his conciliatory manners, all con-
66

MORRISON R. WAITE. 3
tribnted to his popularity and success. From the first his mind
was firmly set upon his profession, from which no attraction could
hire him. As a lawyer he was without ambition, save for such
distinction as might come of faithful and honorable pursuit of his
profession. His studious habits and unflagging industry secured
to him familiarity with the law in all its branches. One who often
met him as opposing counsel says that " his assertion on any ques
tion of law was always accepted as indisputable." He proved him
self capable of grasping all the minute details affecting in any way
a legal question. He manifested a reverence for law which is not
a mere slavish worship of forms and technicalities, but an intelli
gent appreciation of the great principles of truth and right under
lying the whole fabric of civilized legislation.
Politically Mr. Waite was a Whig, nntil the disbandment of
that party, and since that time has been a Republican. He was
always too deeply engaged in bis profession to become much" of a
partisan, and consequently never came to be recognized as a party
leader. The conservative turn of his mind tended to lead him in
opposition to radical political measures. This was shown during
the war in his support of the policy of Mr. Lincoln, rather than
the more summary measures advocated by some of the antislavery
leaders. Bnt to all the war measures of the Government he gave
earnest and effective support, making himself especially useful in
aiding the recruiting service of the army.
In 1849 Mr. Waite was elected to the Ohio Legislature as a
Whig, and served with credit and usefulness, although acting with
the minority. In 1850 he was a candidate for the State Constitu
tional Convention, but was defeated on strict party grounds — there
being a large Democratic majority in the district. In 1862 he very
reluctantly became a candidate for Congress, after repeated and
persistent importunities from prominent citizens of both parties.
Leading Republicans in the State had advised the people of the
various districts to disregard strict party lines, and unite on the
simple basis of the support of the Government and the suppression
of the rebellion. In the Toledo Congressional District a conven-
67

4 MORRISON R. WAITE.
tion was held, which urged more radical measures than those which
the Administration had adopted, demanding the confiscation of the
property of leading rebels, aud proposing virtually to make the
abolition of slavery an end rather than an incident of the war.
About the same time appeared a call, signed by Republicans and
Democrats, for a convention of those " who were for the maintenance
of the Government and the determined prosecution of the war, to
the putting down ofthe rebellion and the restoration of the Union.''
The first of these conventions nominated Mr. J. M. Ashley, and
adopted a radical antislavery platform ; while the other nominated
Mr. Waite, and indorsed the war-policy of the Administration,
pledging itself in all ways and at all times to give its full and
undivided support to such measures as the Government should
deem necessary to crush out in the shortest time the wicked rebel
lion. Not long after this Edwin Phelps was brought out as the
Democratic candidate. Through the superior organization and
management of Mr. Ashley's frieuds, and the lack of organization
on the part of the supporters of Mr. Waite, the former succeeded
by a purality vote of seven thousand and thirteen to five thousand
eight hundred and fifty for Waite, and five thousand two hundred
aud thirty-four for Phelps. The high esteem in which Mr. Waite
was held at home is shown in the fact that he received within five
hundred of all the votes cast iu Toledo — having a majority of
twelve hundred, the most emphatic indorsement ever given to any
man by the people of that city.
The position of Mr. Waite was substantially the one on which
the war was conducted to the end. Mi-. Lincoln's preliminary proc
lamation of emancipation appeared during that campaign, and it
was heartilj sustained by Mr. Waite and his friends, not only as
just toward the rebel slaveholders and the slaves, but as sound
war policy, inasmuch as it was calculated to promote the " para
mount object— to save the Union." Although not a zealous parti
san, he has always been decided and positive in his expression of
opinions in strictest accord with the principles and policy of the
Republican part v. 68

MORRISON R. WAITE. 5
The friends of Mr. Waite have repeatedly urged him to become
a candidate for judicial positions, but he invariably refused. When
Judge Hocking Hunter, having been elected to the Supreme Bench
of Ohio, declined to serve, Governor Brough offered the posi
tion to Mr. Waite, who declined the honor.
The first position occupied by Mr. Waite, in which he attracted
the attention of the whole country, was that of counsel for the
United States in the arbitration at Geneva, associated with Hon.
Caleb Cushing and Hon. William M. Evarts. He was not an
applicant for the appointment, and was not even aware that such a
position was to be filled. The appointment was made at the sug
gestion of Secretary Delano. In November, 1872, Mr. Waite being
in New York closing up an important case which had been pend
ing for a year and a half, received a dispatch, forwarded to him
from Toledo, appointing him one of the counsel for the Govern
ment at Geneva. He accepted, and in December departed for his
post of duty.
He performed the required service to the entire satisfaction of
the Government and the country. He took a laboring oar in the
preparation of the case. He submitted an argument on the ques
tion of the liability of Great Britain for permitting the Anglo-Con
federate steamer to take supplies of coal in her ports. In that
effort he displayed high logical power and comprehensive grasp
of international questions.
Having successfully closed his labors at Geneva, Mr. Waite re
turned to his home and resumed the practice of his profession. In
April, 1873, he was nominated by both political parties, and unan
imously elected one of the delegates from Lucas County to the
Convention called to form a new Constitution for the State of
Ohio. Upon the assembling of that convention in May, 1873, Mr.
Waite was chosen its president.
The death of Chief-Justice Chase having created a vacancy in
the highest judicial office in the United States, there was intense
interest throughout the country to know who would receive the
nomination. Hon. George H. Williams and Hon. Caleb Cushing
69

C MORRISON R. WAITE.
having been successively nominated and withdrawn, on the 20th
of January, 1874, the President sent to the Senate the name of
Mr. Waite. Just one year before, Mr. Waite, on the motion
of Caleb Gushing, had been admitted to practice in the Supreme
Court. The nomination was the 'more honorable because of the
fact that Mr. Waite not only made no effort to influence the Presi
dent's choice, but advised against such efforts when offered by his
friends. Not only was the appointment made without any solici
tation on the part of Mr. Waite, but it is believed that no pressure
was brought to bear upon the President to bring about the result.
Never was an appointment made to this high office in a manner that
better befitted it.
The nomination was received with general approval by the coun
try. The "New York Times" pronounced the nomination "a
thoroughly respectable one, evincing in the President an earnest
desire to discharge his very difficult duty in a conscientious manner."
" The Cleveland Herald" said " that out of the entire list of possi
ble appointees, not one name presented stronger claims of eminent
fitness than that of Mr. Waite. The qualities most needed for the
high office are precisely those for which he is most distinguished."
The "Detroit Tribune" said, "He combines the three qualifica
tions which the complications attending this important matter
made it certain must characterize the next nominee, namely, pro
fessional fitness for the place, a record of original Republicanism,
and a reputation for honor and integrity without blemish and
above suspicion."
The "Detroit Free Press" (Dem.) pronounced the nomination
" the best the President has ever made." The " Cleveland Leader"
said, " The mantle of Chief- Justice Chase has fallen upon another
Ohio lawyer, of whom it is but just to say that he is worthy of the
office and of the great man whom he succeeds. Among all the
eminent lawyers from whom the President might have fitly chosen
a successor to Mr. Chase, none, we are assured, could have been
more acceptable to the Senate, the bar, and the people generally,
irrespective of parties." The "Cincinnati Gazette" said, "The
70

MORRISON R. AVAITE. 7
nomination is not only unexceptionable in every way, but is an
admirable one. The selection is honorable to General Grant, and
befits the high character the Supreme Court should have. Mr.
Waite is a lawyer of thorough training and of large practice, and
has long ranked with the first lawyers of a State not lacking in
high legal talent." The " Louisville Courier-Journal " said, " Mr.
Waite doubtless possesses the solid virtues which will win for him
a reputation not less enduring, nor hardly less honorable, than that
which is acquired by a dazzling display of more brilliant genius.
He will make a safe and conservative judge."
When the news of the nomination reached the Ohio Constitu
tional Convention it found that body in session, with Mr. Waite
presiding. A gentleman stepped up to congratulate him and found
him ignorant of the fact of his nomination. The news was received
in the most enthusiastic manner by the members, to all of whom
Mr. Waite had become personally endeared. Unusual excitement
prevaded the convention during all the remainder of the day, bnt
the calm, unruffled dignity of the presiding officer would not have
revealed the fact that anything unusual had occurred.
The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce gave a public reception
to the new Chief-Justice and the Convention over which he pre
sided, having previously adopted the following resolution :
" Resolved, That this Chamber has heard with lively satisfaction
of the confirmation of Hon. Morrison R. Waite as Chief-Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States, and rejoice that a citizen
of our State of such well-known integrity of character and talent
has been chosen for the second position in our Government."
Mr. Waite was confirmed as Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States by a vote which was never equaled in its
favorable character within the memory of the oldest senator. The
nomination was discussed for about an hour, during which speeches
were made by Mr. Sumner, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Edmunds, and Mr.
Thurman. The speech of Mr. Sumner was oue of the best and
most impressive which he ever delivered in the Senate. He spoke
with much feeling of the importance of the office and the great
71

8 MORRISON R. WAITE.
responsibility of the Seuate, and paid a high tribute to the profes
sion of the law, and to some of the great judges and lawyers of the
past. Mr. Sherman spoke of Mr. Waite's high standing at home,
and assured the Senate there was not a man in the world who had
the respect and admiration of his neighbors to a greater degree
than he. Not a breath of suspicion or reproach had ever been cast
upon him, and the senator did not believe that a man existed
whose character was more spotless, or whose sense of justice and
honor was more acute. During the entire discussion not a word
was said in opposition to the nominee. The nomination was
spoken of by all as creditable. When the discussion was ended a
vote was taken bjr yeas and nays, and the result was something
which rarely, if ever, occurred in the Senate. He received every vote
cast. Sixty-three senators voted for his confirmation, and not one
against him. Chief-Justice Waite took the oath of office March 4,
1874, and immediately entered upon the duties of his high office.
He was married September 21, 1840, to Miss Amelia C. Warner,
of Lyme, Connecticut. They have for many years been active
members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. They have had five
children, three of whom are living: a son who is Superintendent
of the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad, another son
who has recently been admitted as a partner in the law firm at
Toledo, and a daughter at home.
In the prime of intellectual vigor, of prepossessing presence and
dignified manners, Chief-Justice Waite will not only ably fill, but
really adorn, the high position to which he has attained. He has
the logical skill, the judicial temper, and the just mind which com
bine to make the jurist. Added to these high professional quali
ties, he is distinguished for purity of character, a large humanity,
a generous nature, and a loyalty to his convictions, which make
him beloved and respected as a man.
72

&^r?

<r^£0^

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE , SUPREME COURT OF THE II . 3 .

ARMES PUBLISH

NATHAN CLIFFORD.
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

'ATHAN CLIFFORD wasborninRnmhey, Grafton Coun
ty, New Hampshire, August 18, 1803. His ancestors emi
grated from England at an early period and settled in the
southern part of New Hampshire. His grandfather re
moved to Rumney, where his father resided until his death, in 1812.
The former served as an officer through the Revolutionary War,
and was in all the important battles from Bunker Hill to Yorktown.
His great-grandfather on the mother's side was in the old French
War, and was wounded at Braddock's defeat.
Young Clifford received the rudiments of education in the .public
schools of his native place, which he attended only a few months in
a year. At the age of fourteen, having profited enough by this
limited instruction to understand its deficiencies, he succeeded, with
the reluctant consent of his parents, in becoming a pupil in Haver
hill Academy, where he remained until 1820. He then availed him
self of the superior advantages of the Literary Institution at New-
hampton. At the latter place he was able to prosecute his studies
bnt little more than a year, and at the expiration of that time he
entered the office of Hon. Josiah Quincy as a student at law.
During this period of four years, from the age of fourteen to that
of eighteen, he had literally worked his way — teaching school at
intervals, and receiving little or no aid from his family — through a
course of culture which fitted him for the successful study of his
chosen profession.
At that time admission to the bar in New Hampshire could only
be obtained after a laborious preparation of five years, and this
73

2 NATHAN CLIFFORD.
term, though interrupted by his necessary resort to school teaching,
Mr. Clifford had faithfully completed in 1827. In May of that
year tlie Supreme Court of New Hampshire admitted hint to
practice, and he at once removed to the western portion of Maine,
and established himself at Newfield, in the County of York. He
carried with him there not only a substantial fund of legal knowl
edge, but habits of industry and reflection which could not fail con-
stantly to increase it. He consequently soon made his way to the
confidence of the people, and found himself in possession of a
lucrative and increasing business. He carried with him also to his
new home political opinions which had been early formed in the
school of Democracy, bnt which he found directly opposed to those
of the community among whom he was now to reside. Of about
three hundred voters at that time in Newfield there were scarcely
twenty Democrats, and it marks strongly the influence which he
had gained there, and the estimation in which his character was
held by his fellow-townsmen, thafin the fall of 1830 he was elected,
by a majority of one hundred and one, to represent them in the
State Legislature. To this position he was three times successively
re-elected, and in 1833, having received the unanimous vote of his
party friends in caucus, be was chosen Speaker of the House. He
presided with an ability and fairness which gained him the approv
al of even his political opponents, and made his elevation to the
same office in the following year no less a recognition of his own
desert than a compliance with general usage.
Having already become a leading member of the bar in the
county where he resided, he was now to have an opportunity of ex
tending his practice and acquaintance throughout the State. In
1834 he was appointed Attorney-General of Maine, and continued
in the successful discharge of the duties of that office until the close
of his official term in 1838. The Supreme Court had then, besides
its usual docket of appealed cases, original jurisdiction of all crimes
against the State. Mr. Clifford's labors in his new capacity were,
therefore, onerous and important. He performed them, however,
with the same fidelity and care which have marked his whole career
74 .

NATHAN CLIFFORD. 3
in life, and resumed his- local practice at their conclusion with an
enlarged reputation and increased success. But his retirement was
soon to terminate by his removal to a broader sphere of public duty.
One of the severest political contests ever known in Maine was
that of the autumn of 1838. The Democratic party having been
defeated the previous year, ardently took the field to recover the
State, and sought to strengthen their ticket in every section by the
nomination of their best and strongest men. Under these circum
stances Mr. Clifford was nominated and elected a Representative to
Congress from the district in which he lived. He took his seat at
the opening of the stormy session of 1839-40, when the organiza
tion of the House depended upon the decision of the New Jersey
case. Mr. Clifford delivered one of the most able and elaborate
speeches which that discussion produced. From the terms of the
Constitution, from the analogy of precedents, and from the authority
also of reason and propriety, he argued with convincing force not
only that the House had power to determine the election returns
and qualifications of its own members ; that this power commenced
with their first assembling in Congress ; that it was as competent to
investigate a Governor's certificate as it was to investigate any other
presumptive proof; and that when, as in the case under considera
tion, that certificate was controlled by unquestionable evidence, it
was not only the right, but the imperative duty, of the House to dis
regard it. The issue of this important question was in accordance
with these views.
But the Twenty-sixth Congress was not destined to repose, even
after the violence of its organization. The nomination of General
Harrison by the Whig Convention at Harrisburgh had" opened the
presidential campaign with a warmth and ardor seldom equaled,
and the rising contest gave shape and color to almost all the subse
quent discussions in the capital. Iu the House the whole field of
politics was thrown broadly open, and Mr. Clifford improved the
occasion thus offered to review, in the clearest manner, the history of
American parties, and to deduce from it the cardinal sentiments by
which they were then divided. A large edition of this speech was
75

4 NATHAN CLIFFORD.
published and its wide circulation in his own district, contributed,
no doubt, to swell his majority in the next election. He was one of
those Democrats who survived the political storm of 1840.
One of the first acts of the new administration was to call a
special meeting of Congress, and Mr. Clifford's second term, there
fore, embraced the first three sessions of the Tyler period. They
were marked by discussions of the deepest interest, involving a
thorough examination of every prominent political question of the
time. Warmly opposed to the whole series of Whig measures then
proposed — the national bank, the protective tariff, the bankrupt law,
the assumption of State debts, and the distribution of the proceeds
of the public lands— Mr. Clifford during the Twenty-seventh Con
gress defined his views concerning them not only by his votes bnt
by his speeches. His reported arguments, especially those on the
tariff and the distribution bill, furnish the most honorable testimony
both of his steadfast adherence to his principles and the vigor of his
intellect. He never failed to wage unrelenting war against any
other protection of American industry than that which incidentally
results from a well-arranged system of revenue duties.
It has long been the usage in Maine, and the Northern States
generally, not to return the same representative to Congress for
more than two successive terms. Under the influence of this limi
tation Mr. Clifford was excluded from again representing his district
in the House. He took leave of Congress, therefore, on the 3d
of March, 1843, and at once returned to his profession iu Newfield.
He retired from Congress with a high reputation not only for ability
in debate, bnt for a thorough and accurate knowledge of parliament
ary laws. Such was his amenity of temper, and his courteous and
dignified bearing, that, notwithstanding his zealous and unflinching
support of his political opinions, he was able to preserve the most
cordial relations with all his Congressional associates, and to carry
with him to his home their best wishes for his personal success.
The summer of 1843 witnessed the largest assembly of delegates
which the Democratic party had ever convened in Maine. It met
in the city of Bangor for the double purpose of selecting a candidate
76

NATHAN CLIFFORD. 5
for Governor, and of choosing delegates to represent the State in
tlie approaching Democratic National Convention. Over that as
sembly Mr. Clifford was chosen to preside, and he was subsequently
a member of the Baltimore Convention which nominated James IT.
Polk for the presidency. Although his original preference had been
for the re-election of Mr. Yan Buren, he supported the nomination
with untiring ardor during the animated canvass of 1844. He ad
dressed large masses of the people in nearly every section of the
State. Meeting with especial care the tariff issue of the Whigs, he
did more, perhaps, than any other political speaker of that period,
to disseminate among the voters of Maine the principles of the
Democratic party on the subject of " protection." Largely through
his efforts his party achieved a victory at the fall election in the
State, the influence of which was felt in every quarter of the Union.
With these occasional interruptions Mr. Clifford, after leaving
Congress, devoted himself with great assiduity to the business of his
profession. He had again obtained a large practice, when he was
summoned by President Polk to a place in his Cabinet, as Attorney-
General of the United States. He discharged the duties of that
office in a manner to prove himself a worthy successor of those who
had preceded him in that distinguished place. While a member
of the Cabinet he vvas appointed Commissioner to Mexico to negoti
ate a treaty of peace. The President inadvertently failed to sign
his name to the message in which he nominated Mr. Clifford.
When the secretary informed the Senate, in executive session, of
this -fact, Mr. Webster inquired if the message Was in the hand
writing of the President, and having been informed that it was, he
moved that the informality be overlooked, and that they confirm
Mr. Clifford at once, leaving the signature of the President to be
appended to the message afterward. The nomination was unani
mously confirmed, and the same evening Mr. Clifford set ont upon
this important mission. He landed in Vera Cruz on the 8th of April,
and soon after was formally received by the American army drawn
up in line on the plains of Mexico. The Commissioner remained
in the capital until a quorum of the Mexican Congress could be con-
77

0 NATHAN CLIFFORD.
vened, and then proceeded to the city of Queretaro, one hundred
and fifty miles north of Mexico, where the Government had made
its head-quarters. After ratifications of peace had been exchanged,
and the American army had evacuated the country, Mr. Clifford
remained under a new appointment as Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary. He held this position until October 16,
1849, when he returned to the United States.
Returning to Maine he changed his residence to Portland, where
he resumed the practice of his profession, forming a partnership
with Hon. John Appleton, Assistant Secretary of State under Mr.
Buchanan, and Minister to Russia. He continued to devote him
self to the practice of law until 1858, when he was appointed by
President Buchanan Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States.
When Mr. Justice Clifford went upon the bench of the Supreme
Court of the United States nearly all the District Judges in his cir
cuit were old men, almost past service, consequently an unusual
amount of labor devolved upon him. He was untiring in the in
dustry with which he applied himself to his judicial duties. For
years he scarcely took a day of vacation, save such as were occupied
in traveling from one court to another.
His opinions, as published in some thirty volumes of Supreme
Court Reports by Howard, Black and Wallace, form an important
part of the judicial history of the country. He has for several
years been the senior member of the Supreme Court, and on the
death of Mr. Chase he became acting Chief-Justice. No living
American has filled so many exalted positions in public life. His
career has traversed the three great departments of the American
Government — the Executive, the Judicial, and the Legislative — and
in every position he has made a record of distinguished honor.
78

' yzsatiK.v uru>jm5tJi~Y~

NOAH H. SWAYNE,
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

kOAH H. SWAYNE was born in Culpepper County,
"Virginia, December 7, 1804. He was the youngest of
five children of Joshua Swayne, a prosperous and influ
ential farmer, and a member of the Society of Friends.
The family were Pennsylvanians, Francis Swayne, the earliest
American progenitor, having come over with William Penn and
settled on a farm near Philadelphia, which is still in the hands of
his descendants. Joshua Swayne died in 1S08, having in the mean
time removed to Jefferson County, and leaving his children to the
care of his widow, a woman of marked vigor of mind and excel
lence of character, who carefully watched over the education of her
sons. Noah was kept at school in the neighborhood until thirteen,
when he was sent to the academy of Jacob Mendenhall, at Water
ford, in Loudon County, then in high repute with the Society of
Friends. In his fifteenth year he was recalled, and placed at Al
exandria with Dr. George A. Thornton, a physician of eminence,
who united with his practice a small apothecary's store. It was
intended that the studies commenced here should eventually be
continued in a hospital at Philadelphia, but the plan being inter
rupted a year later by the death of Dr. Thornton, the design was
abandoned, circumstances fixing the purpose of the student on the
study of the law. A collegiate education being deemed prerequi
site to this, he returned to school at Alexandria, where, under a good
classical instructor, he pursued his studies with great earnestness,
until a thorough preparation for college was accomplished, at which
time the pecuniary losses of his guardian deprived him of the means
to carry out his purpose. He, therefore, entered at once, as a stu-
3 79

2 NOAH H. SWAYNE.
dent, the law office of John Scott aud Francis P. Brooks, at War
renton, finding there, as a fellow-student. Henry S. Foote, after
ward Governor and Senator from Mississippi. A close and lasting
intimacy ofthe two arose from this association.
Admitted to the bar in 1823, the non-slaveholding example of
his father, combined with his own observations from the same point
of view determined him to remove immediately to Ohio. The
entire journey, in the fashion of those days, was traveled on horse
back. After passing at Zanesville the year of preliminary resi
dence, at that time required by law, before attorneys from other
States were permitted to practice in Ohio, he opened an office, in
1825, at Coshocton, the county seat of an adjoining county. His
success was considerable and immediate. During the first year he
was appointed prosecuting attorney of the county, and was occu
pied with this and private practice until 1829, when he was elected
to the Legislature.
A pretty ardent Democrat of what was. then known as the Jef-
fersonian school, after serving one term he was invited to various
paths of political preferment, but chose to return permanently to
his profession. During the next year he was appointed United
States Attorney for the District of Ohio, and removed to Colum
bus, where the courts ofthe United States in Ohio were then held.
These and the Supreme Court of Ohio offered ample aud inviting
occupation, in view of which he declined the office of Presiding
Judge of the Common Pleas for that circuit, to which two years
later he was elected by the Legislature.
In 1832 he svas married, at Harper's Ferry, Yirginia, to Miss
Sarah Ann Wager, of that place. A number of slaves, who became
his property by the marriage, were, by the joint purpose of his wife
and himself, immediately manumitted.
Tlie years following, until his elevation to the Supreme Bench,
were given to untiring labor at the bar. and varied only by devo
tion to domestic life, and to such public interests as engage a gen
erous care from private citizens. After nine years the office of
District Attorney was relinquished for exclusive private practice.
SO

NOAH H. SWAYNE. 3
In 1837. the finances of Ohio liaving broken down under the burden
of its public works, then incomplete, Alfred Kelly, Noah II. Swayne,
and Gustavus Swan were, by a resolution of the Legislature, ap
pointed Fund Commissioners, to take charge of the State debt, and
endeavor to restore credit and supply means to complete the public
works. The Commissioners served three years, during which time
both objects were economically carried out, they declining any com
pensation for the service.
A controversy over the location of the east portion of the bound
ary line between Ohio and Michigan liaving occasioned serious
excitement, followed by au inroad of armed men from Michigan,
William Allen, Noah H. Swayne, and David T. Disney were sent
by the governor to Washington to seek a peaceable solution ofthe
controversy, which was finally effected, leaving the disputed ter
ritory in Ohio.
In 1840 William M. Awl, Noah H. Swayne, and James Hoge
were appointed by the Legislature a committee to inquire and re
port upon the number and condition ofthe blind within the State.
The labors of the committee were extended and various, resulting
in the admirable Asylum of Ohio for the Blind, with which, as also
with the Asylums for the Deaf and Dumb aud for Lunatics, Judge
Swayne was actively connected as trustee for many years, till the
increasing scope of his professional engagements compelled him to
give them up.
Meantime, what he regarded as subversion of the policy and pur
pose of the Democratic party, by the gradual encroachments of
pro-slavery influence, had occasioned a complete revulsion of polit
ical attachment, finding vent in strenuous efforts toward the election
of Fremont, and strongly identifying him thenceforth with the op
ponents of the influence above referred to. The disclosure of the
purpose of secession met his indignant rebuke, and at the outbreak
of the war nearly his whole time was given to the service of the
Governor in assisting the Ohio levies to the field.
The sixth circuit of the Supreme Court of the United States, com
prising, at that time, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, was
81

4

NOAH H. SWAYNE.

then presided over by the venerable Judge M'Lean, between whom
and Judge Swayne warm friendship had existed many years. The
wish the former frequently expressed, that he might be succeeded
by Judge Swayne, originating with himself, had spread, perhaps,
from him to leading members of the bar within the circuit. Some
recent arguments at Washington had had a like effect with other
members of the Supreme Court, and on the unexpected death of
Judge M'Lean, a decided expression, from both the bar and the
court, with tokens of strong popular approval, had the concurrence
of the President. Judge Swayne was appointed by President
Lincoln, in February, 1862, a Justice of the Supreme Court, and
unanimously confirmed. The discharge of his duty since then has
been constant and arduous as before. The accuracy and erudition
of his judicial labors have been promoted by accumulated stores
from many years' research, resulting from his habit of invariably
noting down whatever ought to be preserved. The results are
found in the Reports, beyond which we are not furnished with
details. Every occupation and vicissitude of life has been accompanied
and supported by enthusiastic study of ancient and modern litera
ture and general knowledge. The degree of LL.D., conferred on
him by Yale, Dartmouth, and Marietta Colleges, was but a recog
nition of the studies of a life-time, the same as had been given to
his exertions at the barby his elevation to the bench.
82

c)^^^L^ # Mx^c^

IAT'2 JUSI'ICS. JCI^RBME COURT OF THE UNITED STATE:-.

WH BARNES. PUBLISHER

SAMUEL F. MILLEK,
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

AMUEL F. MILLER was born in Richmond, Kentucky,
April 5, 1816. His father was a Pennsylvania German,
who emigrated from Reading to Kentucky in 1812. His
mother was a native of Kentucky, of North Carolina
parentage. His parents being in poor circumstances, his educa
tion was obtained under various disadvantages and with continued
struggle. He graduated in the medical department of Transyl
vania University in 1838, and practiced medicine for several years
in Knox County, Kentucky, during which time he was married.
After he had two children, and while in active practice, he deter
mined to adopt the law in preference, from an unconquerable repug
nance to the profession in which he was then engaged. He studied
law while practicing medicine, was admitted to the bar in Ken
tucky in 1844, and was at once remarkably successful.
In politics Mr. Miller was a decided Whig, the ardent friend of
Henry Clay. He supported General Taylor for the Presidency
with much earnestness. In 1848, when a Convention was to be
chosen for revising the Constitution, the people of Kentucky were
convulsed by the emancipation question. Mr. Miller took an
active part, and made great efforts to secure the election of dele
gates in favor of emancipation. His own county elected an eman
cipationist as a delegate to the Convention. The new Constitution
fixed slavery more firmly than ever on the people, providing, among
other things, that no slave should be emancipated in the State with
out provision by the master for his support. It enunciated the
odious doctrine that the right of property in slaves does not de-
83

•2 SAMUEL F. MILLER.
pend upon statutory enactment, but is a natural right. The Con
stitution thus pledging the State to slavery, made Kentucky an
unpleasant residence for a professional man who had taken the high
ground occupied by Mr. Miller; hence he determined to make his
home in a free State. Accordingly, in the spring of 1850 he re
moved to Iowa, and took up his residence in Keokuk. That city
constitutes part of a tract of one hundred and twenty thousand
acres which had been granted both by treaty and act of Congress
to the " half-breeds of the Sac and Fox Indians." The want of
any more particular designation of the grantees was a source of
protracted litigation in the courts of that place. The Federal
Court for the State was then held there, and in the litigation aris
ing out of these circumstances he soon had a large and varied
practice, including real estate, admiralty, steamboat, and commer
cial suits. He immediately took a front rank in his profession,
and within a year was regarded as leader of the Iowa bar.
Mr. Miller became a Republican at the incipiency of the party
in 1854, and gave unsparingly of his time, labor, influence, and
money to promote its success. He invariably declined nomina
tions for office which were urged upon him, save in a single instance,
when, after repeated refusals to run, he allowed his name to be
used in a hopeless canvass for the State Senate.
When Mr. Lincoln became President there were nine Judicial
Circuits in the United Slates, five of which were in the South,
the States of the North-west and the Pacific coast, having their
Federal Courts held by District Judges alone. There were at the
same time two or three vacancies on the bench of the Supreme
Court. Mr. Lincoln sent a message to Congress suggesting that the
occasion was favorable for a reorganization and rearrangement
of the Circuits. His suggestion was adopted, and under the ar
rangement thus consummated a new Circuit was constituted from
the North-western States. The bar throughout these States turned
almost unanimously toward Mr. Miller as the most suitable man
for Associate Justice of the Snpreine Court. At the same time
tweutv-seven of the thirty-six Senators then in Congress, and
84

SAMUEL F. MILLER. 3
more than one hundred Representatives, united in requesting his
appointment. He was accordingly nominated in July, 1862, and
was confirmed by the Senate without the usual reference to a com
mittee. Judge Miller's public life may be said to have commenced with
his accession to the bench. This occuri'ed at a very critical period
in the history of the Government. Among the first cases in whose
decision he participated were the Prize cases reported in Volume II
of Black's Supreme Court Reports. These not only involved the
general doctrines of the law of prize which had been in practical
abeyance in this country since the war of 1812, but many new and
difficult questions growing out of the application of those doctrines
to a war between different parts ofthe same country, and especially
the law of blockade arising under such circumstances. The opin
ions of the Court in these cases were mostly delivered by the senior
judges; but Justice Miller's influence in shaping the judgments of
the Court, and in determining the principles on which these judg
ments were based, was soon felt and acknowledged.
The cases which perhaps first attracted to him special attention
were those in which he differed from a majority of the Court.
Among them were suits from the West, growing out of the efforts
to enforce the payment of bonds given by municipal corporations
in aid of the construction of railroads. Against the legality of
these bonds Judge Miller always steadily opposed his judg
ment, and his dissenting opinions in the case of Gelpcke vs. The
City of Dubuque, (1 AVallace,) and subsequent cases, are among the
most vigorous of his judicial productions. The highest Courts of
many of the States have concurred with him, among the most recent
of which is that of New York.
But perhaps his most important opinions are those in exposition
of the clause of the Federal Constitution which ordains that Con
gress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations,
among the several States, and with the Indian tribes. In the case
of the United States vs." HoUiday (3 Wallace, 407) he delivered the
opinion of the Supreme Court, holding that the law of Congress
85

4 SAMUEL F. MILLER.
prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors to Indians was justified by
the Constitution, though the liquor was sold within the territorial
jurisdiction of a State, and without the limits of every Indian
reservation. But the most important and far-reaching of the judg
ments of the Supreme Court delivered by him on that subject is to
be found in the case of Crandall vs. Nevada, (6 Wallace, 35,) in
which it was held that no State could levy a tax on passengers, or
on public carriers for conveying passengers through such State on
the way to another. Under this decision the odious tax on railroad
passengers, from which the States of Maryland, Delaware, and New
Jersey had for many years derived a large revenue, were abandoned
or held void, and the right of every citizen of this great country to
avail himself of all the usual modes of travel and conveyance with
out paying a tax or tribute for that privilege to the State through
which he traveled, was decided and established beyond controversy.
In the cases of Lot vs. Hinton and Parham vs. Woodruff (8 Wal
lace) he also delivered the opinion of the Court, holding that the
same clause in the Constitution forbids each State from imposing
taxes discriminating against the products of sister States in favor
of its own. Iu the railroad tax cases recently decided from the
State of Pennsylvania, in which the question at issue was the power
of that State to levy a tax on the railroads of the State for goods
transported over those roads to or from other States, he declared
in a dissenting opinion, concurred in by Judges Field and Hunt, that
by no devise or evasion, by no form of statutory words, can a State
compel citizens of other States to pay it a tax, contribution, or toll for
the privilege of having their goods transported through that State
by the ordinary channels of commerce.
An opinion delivered on the Circuit in the case of the Clinton
Bridge, reported in Woolworth's Reports of Miller's Decisions, has
attracted much attention in Congress and in other places. .It de
clares that under this same clause in the Constitution it is not only
the right but the duty of Congress to assume the control and regu
lation of all railroad traffic when it exceeds the bounds of a single
State. This is the first judicial declaration of a principle, to which
86

SAMUEL F. MILLER. 5
public attention is now largely and actively directed, as the only
available relief from the extortions of those overgrown monop
olies. His dissent in the original decision of the legal- ten der question in
Hepburn vs. Griswold, (8 Wallace, 603,) attracted universal atten
tion from its vigorous and close logical reasoning. In this he meas
ured strength with the late lamented Chief-Justice, and, as was gen
erally conceded, with no discredit by the comparison. The opinion
thus delivered, concurred in by Justices Swayne and Davis, left a
Btrong impression that the judgment of the majority could not
stand long as the opinion of the Court, and its reversal inside of
two years justified that impression.
In the case of Watson vs. Jones, (13 Wallace, 679,) the grave
question of the weight to be attached to the action of the ecclesias
tical tribunals of the various religions denominations of this conn-
try when they were brought into the Courts as the foundation of
civil rights to property, was for the first time brought before the
Supreme Court of the United States. The decisions of the State
courts were found to be numerous, somewhat conflicting, and rest
ing largely on the facts peculiar to each case. Those of England, in
which there is an established Church, with mere toleration of
dissenters, were found not to be in harmony with our institu
tions on that subject. After an exhaustive review of the
whole subject, the principle is laid down that in all questions of
ecclesiastical doctrine, discipline, and government, the decision of
the highest tribunal of each denomination as to its own rules on
those subjects will, in the civil courts, be accepted as the true ex
position of the principles of that organization, without further
inquiry as to their soundness. This judgment has met the general
approbation of cultivated minds in and out of the Church as one
which will carry the courts safely through a most embarrassing
class of cases.
But, perhaps, the most important opinion of the court during
Mr. Justice Miller's connection with it, if not equal in importance
to any ever delivered by the court, is that of the Slaughter-House cases
87

6 SAMUEL F. MILLER.
of the December term, 1872. It required an exposition of the Thir
teenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitu
tion, which came before the court for the first time in these cases.
They had been twice argued in the Supreme Court, and had been
held under advisement for over a year. Public attention was very
largely turned to the expected result, and it was believed by the
court, and by many eminent statesmen and constitutional lawyers,
that the continued existence of the States with any vital powers as
a part of our national Government was practically involved in the
decision. In this opinion Mr. Justice Miller, speaking for tho court, held
that while these amendments secured liberty, suffrage, and equality
of civil and political rights to the African race, and placed the
protection of these rights, and others belonging to citizens of the
United States, under the control of Congress, the right of the States
in regard to the control of domestic and internal legislation remained
unimpaired otherwise than as above expressed. (16 Wallace, 36.)
The general acquiescence of the public in the soundness of this
exposition of the recent amendments of the Constitution, and the
references to it in the recent debates in Congress on the Civil Rights
bill, leave little room to doubt that it will in future be received as
the authoritative declaration of the effect of these amendments on
our political system.
Mr. Justice Miller has to an extraordinary degree the respect and
confidence of the bar of the United States. When the recent
vacancy occurred in the Chief Justiceship there was no name sug
gested for the position with so near an approach to unanimity on
the part of the profession as that of Mr. Justice Miller. With the
utmost purity of private character, with official integrity above sus
picion, with talents which singularly befit his judicial eminence, he
well deserves the esteem and honor in which he is universally held.
As he is in full vigor of mind and body, with great powers of in
tellect devoted without distraction to the discharge of the high
trusts imposed upon him, it is a reasonable expectation that his
valuable services will long be continued to the country.

*> >aawk*„i«

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT OT THE U.S

V H BARNES PUBLISHER

DAYID DAYIS,
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

" 'AVID DAVIS was born in Cecil County, Maryland, March

9, 1815. He was educated at the Academy in Newark,
Delaware, and at Kenyon College, Ohio, under the presi
dency of Bishop Chase, where he graduated in the year
1832. Having made choice of the law as his profession, he, in the
fall of the same year, entered the law office of Judge Henry W.
Bishop, of Lenox, Massachusetts. In this office, under the judicious
advice of his preceptor, he pursued his reading in the elementary
writers for the space of two years, and finally completed his pre
paratory studies with another year's attendance on the lectures of
the law school in New Haven, Connecticut.
The great West was already then, as it has remained ever since,
the alluring field of opportunity and ambition to all young men of
talent and energy east of the AUeghanies. Mr. Davis pushed out,
with little save thorough preparation for his chosen profession, to
what was then the almost extreme frontier. In the fall of 1835 he
located himself in the town of Pekin, the county-seat of Tazewell
County, Illinois. This was long before the railroad era, and Pekin,
favorably situated on the Illinois River, the as yet principal com
mercial highway through the Prairie State, made claim to promis
ing chances of future importance, both as an agricultural and a
trading center. Here, in the current western phraseology, Mr.
Davis " hung out his shingle " and began the practice of the law.
A year's experience, however, convinced him that he had not wisely
chosen his location. The river towns were at that period, as a rule,
very unhealthy ; and though he succeeded beyond his expectations
89

2 DAVID DAVIS.
in obtaining professional business, he was, as soon as the hot sum
mer months came, prostrated with the prevalent malarial fever,
¦which unpleasant fact, decided him to seek a new home.
Eastward from Pekin, toward the center of the State, lay the ad
joining county of M'Lean, comprising then an almost limitless ex
tent of high, grandly undulating prairie, broken by timber belts
along the streams and occasional groves on the slopes and ridges.
In this beautiful and fertile region a new community was being
rapidlj7 concentrated, irresistibly attracted by the local advantages
of soil and climate, and the still more obvious benefit of cheap
lands. The now flourishing city of Bloomington, with a popula
tion of twenty thousand, was then a straggling village of four hun
dred and fifty souls, having been located only five years previously.
As the county seat of M'Lean Oounty, however, it was necessarily
both the official and political center. In fact the push and enter
prise, which have since given it prosperity, were already then stir
ring its small bnt ambitious population ; and no doubt Judge Davis
was at that early beginning of his legal career much cheered to
find that the embryo metropolis had already, after a four years' ex
istence, replaced its first log court-house, built in 1832 at a contract
price of $339 75, by an aspiring brick building 40x45 feet in size,
two stories high, the erection of which loaded the comity with
what for years proved a crushing debt of $8,000. Here among the
hardy, self-reliant pioneers, who rapidly filled up both town and
county, and who have contributed their full share to give central
Illinois a degree of solid affluence and power unrivaled among the
newer States, Judge Davis laid the permanent foundations of his
home and fortune, and here he remains still, except for that portion
of the year which demands his official labors in Washington.
In the West every lawyer is necessarily a politician. The struct
ure of society is such that every man who can think clearly and
talk fluently is forced, whether he wishes it or not, into an active
participation in local and general politics ; and Lincoln, Douglas,
Browning, Baker, Trumbull, and others, are convincing examples
that it is not only a spontaneous, but also a healthy and useful school
90

DAVID DAVIS. 3
of earnest, practical statesmen. The Whig party, then a hopeless
minority in the State, followed the sagacious policy of nominating
its youngest and ablest leaders as candidates for public favor. In
the hotly contested campaign of 1840 Judge Davis was made the
Whig candidate for the State Senate from a district comprising
M'Lean and six other counties, but was defeated by his Democratic
competitor. He had, however, made a canvass so satisfactory to
his party, having only been beaten by a small majority in the seven
counties, that two years later, in 1842, he was again nominated by
his Whig friends for the lower house of the State Legislature, which
nomination he declined.
Two years afterward the call to party leadership for the third
time was so pressingly urged upon him that he could not refuse it.
This contest resulted in his election as the Whig representative to
the State Legislature, in which capacity he served acceptably to his
friends and usefully to the public during the winter of 1844-5.
The most important measure of the session, and in the furtherance
of which he actively joined, was that relating to tlie Illinois and
Michigan Canal, at that time a most vital scheme of internal im
provement for Illinois, which had languished and been suspended
through the financial mismanagement and disasters of 1836-7.
Under the favorable legislation and counsels of this session of
1844-5 this great work was resumed, and completed three years
after — a consummation which marks a turning tide from bankruptcy
to solvency in the financial history of Illinois.
The State having partially recovered from its prostration, was
now beginning a period of rapid growth and development. Its
first Constitution, adopted in 1818, had been outgrown for years,
though fierce partisan rivalry had hitherto prevented its reform. A
partial hill in politics was succeeded by a popular vote in favor of
a Constitutional Convention. It was held in the year 1847, and
Judge Davis was chosen a member without opposition. The
occasion called together the best men of the State, who, during a
laborious and earnest session of three months, drafted what was for
that dav a most admirable instrument, and which was adopted by
91

4 DAVID DAVIS.
an overwhelming vote of the people in the following spring, and re
mained unchanged until 1871. The Convention was not wdiolly
free from selfish and angry partisanship; but after all, the net re
sult was a liberal and statesmanlike yielding of conflicting views,
and the final engrafting in the Constitution of a large number of
progressive and most salutary reforms, embracing, among others, a
limitation of the power of the Legislature to contract debts, a pro
hibition of the lending of State credit to individuals or corpora
tions, a most rigid economy in official salaries, liberal but clearly
defined qualifications for citizenship and office, the abolition of ap
pointments by the Legislature, the substitution of an elective
judiciary, and, finally, the imposition of a two-mill tax to reduce the
principal of the State debt — a measure more efficacious than any
other in restoring the long-lost credit of the State. Judge Davis,
in common with the other practical and far-seeing men of both
political parties in the Convention, gave his voice and vote for these
changes, while on appropriate committees he was more immediately
instrumental in securing a provision, against the hasty division of
counties, and in defeating the adoption of a code — thus retaining
the English common law practice which still prevails in the State.
The new organic law went almost immediately into effect, and
in the same year, 1848, Judge Davis was, without opposition, elected
one of the nine Circuit Judges provided by the new Constitution.
His circuit was a very large one, embracing, in all, fourteen counties,
and including both his home town of Bloomington, and Springfield,
the capital of the State. Of the fourteen years of this judicial
service which Judge Davis now performed a most interesting
volume might be written, so full was it of earnest work, of fresh
impulsive life, aud of curious adventure, incident, and humor. The
hard and monotonous labors of traveling almost incessantly from
county to county, often dragging through miry roads and swimming
swollen streams, holding from twenty five to thirty terms of Circuit
Court every year, were also somewhat relieved by the sincere at
tachments he formed among the people, and the hearty hospitality
with which they welcomed his every return. So well did he dis-
92

I) A V I D D A V I S . 5
charge the duties of his office that lie was, without opposition, re
elected in 1855, and again, without opposition, in 1861. He had
just entered upon his third six-years' term as Circuit Judge when
President Lincoln, in 1862, appointed him an Associate Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States.
In 1860 he was a member of the famous Chicago Convention,
and wielded important influence in bringing about the nomination
of his intimate personal and political friend, Abraham Lincoln,
who, as the leading lawyer of Central Illinois, had been engaged in
almost constant practice throughout the circuit in which Judge
Davis presided, and in the course of which a close friendship was
formed and matured between the two men, interrupted only by the
untimely death of the great President. When the rebellion broke
ont Judge Davis was one of the foremost of the hosts of Union
men who have made for the State of Illinois such a proud record
in support of our imperiled Government. Not only did President
Lincoln constantly seek and receive his friendly advice, bnt, in 1861,
he confided to Judge Davis, Judge Holt, and Mr. Campbell the
delicate and important duty of investigating the Fremont-M'Kinstry
Quartermaster mismanagements and corruptions at St. Louis. In
1872, at the Liberal Republican Convention held in Cincinnati,
Judge Davis had a large and influential number of adherents, and
great probability existed for some time of his becoming the nomi
nee. The best informed leaders of that movement still think that
his candidacy would have brought them a much more auspicious
result at the ballot-box.
On the Supreme Bench of the United States Judge Davis has
been for twelve years an' unremitting and most efficient worker.
To characterize him as an administrator of the law, he may be best
described as possessing, in an eminent degree, what may be termed
integrity of intellect. With a quick apprehension he looks through
the surroundings of a case and seizes upon the principle of justice
and equity which should determine it. Having found this, he
steadily adheres to the pivotal point upon which the discussion
turns. There are usually many points raised in a case not necessary
' 93

6 DAVID DAVIS.
for its determination. It is the part of judicial prudence that the
court should not involve itself in the discussion of difficult questions
until the necessity of the case demands it. No judge recognizes
the propriety of this rule of conduct in a greater degree than Judge
Davis. His opinions are, therefore, noted for their brevity, except
on a few great occasions which demand elaboration, as in the cele
brated Milligan case.
It will be remembered that Milligan, a citizen of Indiana, who
was in no wise connected with the military or naval service, was
arrested by a military order in October, 1864, on charges of trea
sonable acts, tried b}7 a military commission, and sentenced to
be hung on the 19th of May, 1865. Milligan brought the case to
the Supreme Court on proceedings by habeas corpus.
The Judge opens his opinion by the declaration that " the im
portance of the main question cannot be overstated, for it involves
the very frame-work of the Government, and the fundamental prin
ciples of American liberty." After appealing to historical prece
dents, and citing the principles which control our jurisprudence on
this subject, he denies the jurisdiction of the military commission
in a few well-selected sentences. " When the courts are actually
closed, then on the theater of active military operations, where war
really prevails, there is a necessity to furnish a substitute for civil
authority. ... As necessity creates the rule, so it limits its
duration ; for if military government is continued after the courts
are reinstated,' it is a gross usurpation of power." The army had
saved the Union. It was for the court to save the Constitution.
Judge Davis was married in October, 1838, at Lenox, Massachu
setts, to a daughter of Judge Walker of that place, Miss Sarah W.
Walker, of whom, with their two children now living, a daughter
and a son, his family consists. The degree of Doctor of Lavl's has
been conferred upon him by the Wesleyan University at Blooming-
ton, Illinois, by Beloit College of Wisconsin, and by Williams Col
lege of Massachusetts. 94

r'*'J'"-1t2DEull km-'.s.-:? r"""' ¦>'¦ " *

J&?y&***/%^4

/

ASaO-'-AlR JUSTICT . .RUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

W h 9APNF':-.PUHLiOHK.R

STEPHEN J. FIELD.
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

STEPHEN JOHNSON FIELD was born in Haddam, Con
necticut, November 4, 1816. The removal of his father,
^jjkf Rev. David D. Field, D.D., to Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
took him to that place, where he passed his childhood. The
residence of a near relative in the East afforded him the opportunity,
when he was abont thirteen years old, of going to Greece and Asia
Minor, in which countries he remained until he was sixteen, travel
ing extensively' and making himself proficient in the Greek lan
guage. Returning to America, he entered Williams College, Mas
sachusetts, where he graduated in 1837 with the highest honors of
his class.
He entered upon the study of the law, in the city of New York,
with his brother, David Dudley Field, whose partner he afterward
became. After devoting himself to the business of the firm for eight
years, in 1848 Mr. Field again went abroad. Remaining in Europe
until the next year, he found on his return to the United States
that, owing to the discovery of gold, a vast tide of population was
setting toward California. He emigrated thither, and in December,
1S49, arrived on the Pacific coast. After remaining a few days
in San Francisco, he went to the northern part of the State and
established himself at Marysville. Before the rapidly accumu
lated population of the new country could organize a Territorial
or State Government, the necessity for a temporary organization of
courts for the administration of justice under the then existing
(Mexican) laws was met by the proclamation of the military gov
ernor acting under the directions of the President, for the election
95

2 STEPHEN J. FIELD.
of judges or alcaldes, and lesser magistrates. Judge Field was
chosen by the people alcalde of the Marysville District in January,
1850, and acted in that capacity until the organization of the
judiciary under the State Constitution during the following summer.
He discharged the novel duties of this difficult position in such a
manner as to secure universal acquiescence in his decisions, and so
established order and a respect for law and rights among the rest
less and discordant elements by which he was surrounded.
The public confidence, thus secured, manifested itself in his elec
tion in the following autumn to a seat in the Assembly of the State,
to represent Yuba County, from which the counties of Nevada and
Sierra have since been created. His term in the Legislature was
one of activity and usefulness. He drafted the act " Concerning the
Courts of Justice and Judicial Officers "' of the State, which de
fined the jurisdiction and powers of the different courts and judges.
This act remained in force, with some alterations principally drawn
by himself, until the amendments to the Constitution of the State
were adopted in 1862. Of these amendments, it may be here said, he
was also the author. With a few changes made in the Legislature,
the amendments are as he drew them for the Judiciary Committee
of the Senate of California. After they were adopted he prepared
the draft of the present act l; Concerning the Courts of Justice and
Judicial Officers," which was presented by the chairman of the Judi
ciary Committee. While a member of the Legislature he also in
troduced bills to regulate proceedings in civil and criminal cases.
Those bills were taken from the codes of New York reported by
the Commissioners of the State ; but over two hundred sections of
these were rewritten and modified, to meet as well the peculiar con
dition of the State and the requirements of its Constitution, as his own
views of what would constitute the best practice. These bills be
came laws, and, with some amendments found necessary during a
period of nearly twenty years, remained on the statute-book until
the adoption of the recent codes, in which they are substantially
embodied. He was the author of the policy, still adhered to by the
State, of exempting from execution and forced sale the homestead
96

STEPHEN J. FIELD. 3
and household furniture, the books and instruments of professional
men, and the tools of farmers, artisans, and miners. He was also
the author of the following provision of law enacted during his
legislative term : —
"In actions respecting mining claims proof shall be admitted of
the customs, usages, or regulations established and in force at the
bar or diggings embracing such claim ; and such customs, usages,
or regulations, when not in conflict with the Constitution and laws
of California, shall govern the decision of the action."
This brief provision solved a very perplexing problem, and has
ever since remained undisturbed. Upon it rests the settled policj',
not only of California, bnt of all other States and Territories in which
the precious metals have since been discovered. This policy has
also received the sanction, of the National Congress, and in cases
arising in the Federal Courts.
Judge Field resumed the practice of the law in 1851, aud con
tinued in it successfully until 1857, being employed in a majority
of cases appealed to the Supreme Court from the northern half of
the State. In 1857 he was elected by the people a Justice of the
Supreme Court of the State (then composed of three judges) by a
majority larger than had ever been given to any officer in the State.
The term for which he was chosen commenced in January, 1858 ;
but a vacancy having meantime occurred, he was appointed by a
Governor opposed to him politically to fill the unexpired term pre
ceding that for which he had been elected. He thereupon took his
seat on the bench in October, 1857; and on the resignation of
Judge Terry, in 1859, he became Chief Justice.
Of his judicial services in this capacity the following account,
written by Hon. Joseph G. Baldwin, who was for three years an as
sociate of Judge Field on the Supreme Bench of California, and who
is also widely known as the author of " Partisan Leaders," and
"Flush Times in Alabama and Mississippi," will be read with in
terest : —
" When he came to the bench, from various unavoidable causes
the calendar was crowded with cases involving immense interests,
97

4 STEPHEN J. FIELD.
the most important questions, and various and peculiar litigation.
California was then, as now, in the development of her multiform
physical resources. The Judges were as much pioneers of law as
the people of settlement. To be sure something had been done,
but much had yet to be accomplished, and something too had to be
undone of that which had been done in the feverish and anomal
ous period that had preceded. It is safe to say, that even in the
experience of new countries hastily settled by heterogeneous crowds
of strangers from all countries, no such example of legal or judicial
difficulties was ever before presented as has been illustrated in the
history of California. There was no general or common source of
jurisprudence. Law was to be administered almost without a
standard. There was the civil law, as adulterated or modified by
Mexican provincialism, usages, and habitudes, for a great part ofthe
litigation ; and there was the common law for another part, but
what that was was to be decided from the conflicting decisions of
any number of courts in America and England, and the various
and diverse considerations of policy arising from local and other
facts. And then contracts made elsewhere, and some of them in
semi civilized countries, had to be interpreted here ; besides all
which may be added that large and important interests peculiar to
this State existed — mines, ditches, etc. — for which the courts were
compelled to frame the law, and make a system ont of what was
little better than chaos.
" When, in addition, it is considered that an unprecedented num
ber of contracts and an amount of business without parallel had
been made and done in hot haste, with the utmost carelessness;
that legislation was accomplished in the same way, and presented
the crudest and most incongruous materials for construction ; that
the whole scheme and organization of the government, and the re
lation of the departments to each other, had to be adjusted by judi
cial construction, it may well be conceived what task even the
ablest jurist would take upon himself when he assumed this office.
It is no small compliment to say that Judge Field entered upon the
duties of this great trust with his usual zeal and energy, and that
98

STEP HEN J. FIELD. 5
he leaves the office not only with greatly increased reputation, but
that he has raised the character of the jurisprudence of the State.
. . . He has more than any other man given tone, consistency,
and system to our judicature, and laid broad and deep the founda
tion of our civil and criminal law. The land titles of the State,
the most important and permanent of the interests of a great com
monwealth, have received from his hand their permanent protec
tion, and this alone should entitle him to the lasting gratitude of
the bar and the people."
The court had, before Judge Field became one of its members,
held that "the mines of gold and silver found in the public lands,
as well as in the lands of private citizens, were the property of the
State by virtue of her sovereignty." He delivered the opinion in
which this was reversed, and another in which he laid down the
doctrine that the minerals in the soil belonging to the United
States pass with the soil by a grant thereof, and that neither the
sovereignty of the United States, nor of an individual State, ex
tends to the ownership of such minerals. Decisions by him, com
pelling the fulfillment of obligations by municipal corporations, have
attracted very general attention, and received high commendation
from leading jurists and law writers. The decisions of the court
concerning mortgages are mainly his.
Judge Field was appointed by President Lincoln to be an Asso
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1863,
all the representatives in Congress from the Pacific Coast uniting in
urging the appointment. In different departments of the law in
that court his labors have been considerable; while in all that re
lates to the region west of the Rocky Mountains they have been of
the highest importance, especially in that peculiar class of cases
growing out of the claim by the city of San Francisco to land,
as successor of a Mexican Pueblo. In commercial and other
questions he has taken his share, and in the adjustment of constitu
tional law the opinions delivered by him in the well-known test-
oath cases in 1867 are remarkable for their clearness and power,
and will undoubtedly stand the tests of time and reason. His dis-
99

6 STEPHEN J. FIELD.
senting opinions in the confiscation cases, in the legal-tender cases, and
in the famous New Orleans slaughter-house case, which involved
the construction of the Fourteenth Amendment, also attest both his
judicial ability and his strong individuality of thought and action.
In 1866 Judge Field received the degree of LL.D. from Williams
College. In 1869 he was elected Professor of Law in the Univer
sity of California by the Regents of that institution, which posi
tion he now holds. In 1873 he was appointed by the Governor of
California one of a commission to examine the code of laws of that
State adopted at a previous session, and to prepare amendments to
the same for legislative action. The commission duly made a re
port, and its principal recommendations were adopted by the Legis
lature. During our civil war the Government found in Judge Field one
of its most patriotic adherents, and most vigilant and active sup
porters and defenders. Both his private and public words and
acts contributed much to secure the steady and unswerving loyalty
of California in that great crisis. 100

ftvm

yn4

?

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

V H BA(lNCS,PLiBLi:.HER

WILLIAM STEONG,
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

jBj&jfflLLIAM STRONG was born at Somers, Tolland Coun-
|$j||fj ty, Connecticut, May 6, 1808. His father and mother
were both of English origin. His father's ancestors
emigrated to this country in 1630, and settled in Massachusetts. A
branch of the family came at an early day to Connecticut. His
grandfather was a lawyer of eminence ; his father, a graduate of
Yale College, and a Congregational minister, was settled for many
years as pastor as Somers. He owned there a small farm, on
which his son worked, during school vacations. His early educa
tion was obtained at the district school of his native town. His
father took charge of his classical and mathematical studies. He
was then sent for a year to an academy in Monson, Massachusetts,
after which he entered Yale College, at the age of fifteen. There
he took the full course of four years, and graduated in 1827, high
in his class.
After leaving college he taught school for three years and a half,
to pay the debt incurred in his collegiate education, and to enable
him to carry out his purpose of pursuing a course of legal studies.
He then returned to Yale, and entered the Law School, taking part
of the legal course. Finding his means insufficient, he opened a
classical and mathematical school in Burlington, New Jersey, at
the same time pursuing his legal studies under the direction of the
late Hon. Garret D. Wall. Returning to the New Haven Law
School, he pursued diligently his studies under Judge Daggett,
afterward Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, and
Judge Hitchcock, both very eminent and successful professors of law.
• " 101

2 WILLIAM STRONG.
Graduating at the Law School in 1832, Mr. Strong was admitted
to the bar in Connecticut, and near the close ofthe year to the bar
in Philadelphia.
Under the advice of his friends, Hon. Horace Binney and Hon.
Charles Chauncy, he settled in Reading, Berks County, Pennsyl
vania. At that time the town and county were thoroughly German,
and that was the common language used. The young lawyer at
once addressed himself to the acquisition of the language, and was
soon able to speak and write it fluently. This was ever after of
great service to him. His practice grew rapidly and soon became
large, and he drew around him, in his new home, a large circle of
warm and influential friends. In 1836 Judge Strong married a
daughter of Hon. Garrick Mallory, presiding Judge of that judi
cial district. She died in 1843. In 1849 he was married to his
present wife, the daughter of Hon. Edward Davies, of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, a Representative in Congress from 1837 to 1841.
In politics Mr. Strong was in early life a Democrat, and as such
he was elected a Representative from Pennsylvania to the Thirtieth
and to the Thirty-first Congresses. He was Chairman of the Com
mittee on Elections, and in that capacity made many able and judi
cious reports in contested cases. He declined to be a candidate for
a third term. After leaving Congress he again devoted himself
wholly to his profession, being the acknowledged head of the bar
in his county and district.
In 1857 he was elected on the Democratic ticket a Judge of the
Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania, for a term of fifteen
years. He gave all the influence of his high position and character
to the support ofthe Government ofthe United States against the
Rebellion. He resigned in October, 1868, to resume the practice
of his profession in Philadelphia. His professional services were
eagerly sought after. He was employed and consulted in a great
number of the most important cases, both in the Federal and State
Courts. His practice promised unusual pecuniary reward, when,
unsought and unsolicited by him or his friends, President Grant, in
February, 1870, tendered him the appointment of Associate-Justice
102

WILLIAM STRONG. 3
of the Supreme Court ofthe United States. In that high tribunal
he at once gained a conspicuous position, and that not only on
general questions of law, but on the special cases growing out of
the recent rebellion. Although his judgments are marked by great
fairness and moderation on these exciting questions, they have, at
the same time, been uniform, consistent, and inflexible in maintain
ing the supremacy of the Federal authority. While he has con
strued most favorably and liberally every act of beneficence or
pardon, by the General Government, toward the rebels, he has also
most firmly insisted upon obedience and submission, on their part,
to the amended Constitution and the laws of the United States.
Many of these questions, with which our Supreme Judiciary has
been occupied the last few years, were new and difficult. The
principles of international law, the laws of war, and the policy of
modern civilized nations, as they affect the rights of citizens, neu
trals, and belligerents, and as they are modified by the genius and
structure of our own Government, the advancing civilization ofthe
age, and the special legislation of Congress, were to be expounded,
reconciled, and applied by this Court in numerous and diverse
cases. While many of these questions have given rise to acrimo
nious political controversy, and sometimes popular clamor and
turbulence, it speaks well for the wisdom, fidelity, and conserva
tism of the Court, that its deliverances upon them have not only
been generally submitted to and acquiesced in, but have been
almost universally approved.
One of Judge Strong's first opinions was the case of Bigelow vs.
Forrest, (9 Wallace, 339.) French Forrest was an officer in the
Confederate Navy. His real estate in Yirginia had been seized,
libeled, condemned, and sold, under the Confiscation Act of 1862.
He died in 1866. His heir at law brought suit to recover it back
from the purchaser. This heir at law had also been an officer in
the Confederate service. In the opinion, it is clearly shown and
maintained, that under the Constitution of the United States — the
Act and Resolution of 1862 — forfeiture for treason was limited to
the life ofthe offender, and could extend no further.
103

WILLIAM STRONG.

In Miller vs. the United States, (11 Wallace, 268,) where the
power of the Government to confiscate the property at all, under the
Constitution, was ably and vigorously attacked, Judge Strong, in
a full and exhaustive opinion, maintains the power of Congress to
legislate to that end, and the Courts to enforce the legislation, by
virtue of the general war powers conferred in the Constitution, and
as distinguished from the municipal and sovereign power of the
Government to punish treason and rebellion. It is doubtless the
fullest, clearest, and ablest judicial exposition yet made on this
much controverted question.
In the United States vs. Wiley, (11 Wallace, 508,) he discusses the
questions of how far, for what time, and between what persons, the
war of the rebellion suspended the running of the statute of lim
itations. In Montgomery vs. the United States, (15 Wallace, 395,) it was
held that a citizen of New Orleans, who, after its capture by Far-
racmt and Butler, purchased cotton, etc., from inhabitants of a part
of the same State outside the Union lines, was guilty of a breach
ofthe non -intercourse laws, and could acquire no title to the prop
erty purchased. In the Planters' Bank vs. the Union Bank,
(16 Wallace, 185,) Judge Strong, in a most thorough and masterly
manner, reviews the right of the Government, under the laws of war
and the legislation of Congress, to seize and confiscate property of
rebels in belligerent territory. He shows, that after General But
ler's proclamation of May 1, 1862, there could be no seizure and
confiscation of private property in the city of New Orleans ; that
under no circumstances, or at any time, could the military com
manders make any order for confiscation ; that power rested in
Congress alone.
In the Fannie, (11 Wallace, 238,) Thorp vs. Hammond, (12 Wal
lace, 408,) the Scotia, (14 Wallace, 170,) the Commerce, (16 Wal
lace, 33,) the Sapphire, (18 Wallace, 51,) the questions of the
relative rights and liabilities of steam and sailing vessels are dis
cussed and expounded, and the rules and principles by which
these are to be determined, in cases of collision, so set forth and
104

WILLIAM STRONG. 5
developed that no seafaring man need err therein or mistake his
rights and duties.
But the ablest and most important opinion delivered by Mr.
Justice Strong, since his accession to the Supreme Bench, is that
in the Legal Tender case, (12 Wallace, 457.) Hepburn vs. Gris
wold (8 Wallace, 606) had previously decided the Legal Tender
act unconstitutional, so far as it applied to debts contracted prior
to its passage. The majority of the Court, as then constituted,
having determined to overrule the case of Hepburn vs. Griswold,
so recently decided, committed to Judge Strong the task of sus
taining their ruling by reason and authority. How well he per
formed that duty is known to the country. The clear statement
of the questions, the complete analysis of the arguments on the
one side and the other, the collocations of the reasons and author
ities by which they were sustained or refuted, are grouped so lu
cidly and so naturally, as to make them palpable to the commonest
comprehension. The view taken of the power of Congress under
the Constitution, in dealing with this great question, discards the
narrow, technical, legal ideas so strenuously urged upon the Court,
and adopts the same broad, beneficent, and statesman-like construc
tion of Hamilton, Marshall, and Story. In its style and diction,
the opinion is marked by that simplicity, purity, and elegance, that
is at once so attractive and appropriate in a legal opinion.
On questions of insurance in many of its phases, on corporations
on patents, on the rights of the States to tax corporations and indi
viduals, on the power and functions of the Federal and State Courts,
and the multifarious and important questions that came before this
great tribunal, the last nine volumes of their Reports bear marks of
his great industry and learning.
In every respect Judge Strong's profession was well, chosen. His
early inclinations and predilections were for the law, and all his
preparatory studies were pursued in reference to it. The charac
teristics and qualities of his mind were admirably adapted to master
and unfold its principles. His many published opinions as Judge,
both in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the Supreme Court
105

6 WILLIAM STRONG.
of the United States, bear the marks of deep research and profound
legal erudition; while in language and construction they are models
of purity and simplicity, and rank their author as one ofthe ablest
jurists of the age. He has greatly endeared himself to his asso
ciates and the profession by his simple yet dignified manners, and
by uniform courtesy and kindness to all.
As previously intimated, Judge Strong was a moderate and con
servative Democrat until the contest over the Kansas-Nebraska
Act. He could not conscientiously support his party in that and
cognate measures, but sympathized with the views and principles
of the rising Republican party. He was favorable to the election
of Lincoln in 1860. His legal and literary acquirements have been
acknowledged by the degree of LL.D., conferred by Yale, Prince
ton, and Lafayette Colleges.
From early life Judge Strong- has been in his religious belief a
Calvinistic Presbyterian. He is now a ruling elder in the New
York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington. He has long
been a Commissioner in the American Board of Foreign Missions.
He is a Vice-President of the American Bible Society and of the
American Sunday-School Union, President of the American Tract
Society, and a member of the Evangelical Alliance.
Judge Strong's long career of honor and usefulness, both in pub
lic and private life, affords an excellent model and example to
the youth of our land. His early struggles, his patient, persistent
industry, and his complete success, are so many encouragements
to them. His life teaches, too, the still higher and better lesson,
that success may be attained, and the highest public stations
reached and filled, without a single blot or stain resting upon the
private and personal character. It shows also that eminence in
public life is entirely consistent with enlarged private charity, sys
tematic benevolence, a kind disposition, engaging manners, gener
ous confidence in man, and unfaltering faith in the Divine wisdom
and goodness.

106

Jf « fyJumjiiSms a »»• ^-^

DX%

ASSOCIATE JUSTICE .SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

W H.BAKNES. PUBLISHER

JOSEPH P. BEADLET,
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

-OSEPH P. BRADLEY was born in Berne, Albany
County, New York, in 1813. His paternal ancestors
were among the first settlers of New Haven. His imme
diate family emigrated to Albany County in 1791, and
settled in the Helderberg region. His mother was a Gardiner, be
longing to a family from Newport, Rhode Island. He was the eldest
of eleven children, and was brought up on his father's farm at
Berne. He early exhibited a strong proclivity for reading and
study, and managed, by the aid of his father's library and that of
the town, which was kept in the neighborhood, to make consider
able progress in historical and miscellaneous reading, such as
travels, essays, theological discussions, etc. His school education
was confined to the merest elementary studies ; but being fond of
mathematical investigation, a taste derived from the maternal side
he mastered algebra, trigonometry, and surveying, and reduced
the last-named study to practice. He commenced teaching school
in his sixteenth year, and continued it at intervals until he left his
native State. By these various means he profited as much, per
haps, as he could have done in a seminary 6f learning. Health a
habit of observation, and a deep thirst for knowledge in a youn^
man, are almost certain elements of success.
At eighteen, being tired of country life and the little prospect it
afforded for the future, young Bradley accepted the invitation of
the parish clergyman, Rev. A. H. Myers, to live in his family and
pursue the necessary course of study for entering college. He ac
cordingly entered Rutgers College, New Jersey, in 1833 and
107

JOSEPH P. BRADLEY

graduated iu 1836, in the same class with Hon. Frederick T. Fre
linghuysen, Cortlandt Parker, Esq., aud others, who subsequently
became eminent in their several professions.
After receiving his academical degree, Mr. Bradley at first as
sumed the principalship of an academy in Millstone, New Jersey,
but soon took to the study of law in the office of A. Gifford, Esq.,
in Newark. Here he was admitted to the bar in 1839, and for
thirty years devoted himself assiduously, to the laborious practice
of his profession. He was engaged during that period in many of
the most important causes which were contested in the New Jersey
courts, and the United States courts of that district. These em
braced land, commercial, patent, and corporation cases, as well as
criminal trials. In 1860, with other counsel, he argued the cele
brated New Jersey Bridge cases before the Supreme Court at Wash
ington ; these and the Albany Bridge case being argued together.
In politics he was originally a Whig, and on the dissolution of
that party became a Republican. Although often urged to accept
nominations for office, he always eschewed political life until
1862, when he ran for Congress in the Fifth District of New Jer
sey on the Republican ticket, and was defeated, the district being
strongly Democratic. In 1868 he headed the Grant and Colfax
electoral ticket of New Jersey. He was a warm supporter of the
late war, regarding the integrity of the nation as essential to the
triumph of free institutions. On several occasions he attended the
new regiments to the field, and addressed them on the issues of the

war.

He was for many years a director and principal counselor ofthe
New Jersey railroad companies. In this position his influence was
exerted to induce the companies to abandon their monopoly privi
leges and transit duty on passengers and freight, so odious in other
parts of the country, both of which objects at last were consum
mated. He also strenuously advised and seconded the efforts that
were made by the railroad lines of New Jersey during the war, and
especially in the spring and summer of 1861, in forwarding troops
and military supplies. 108

JOSEPH P. BRADLEY. 3
From 1851 to 1863, notwithstanding the pressure of professional
duties, he acted as mathematician or actuary of the Mutual Benefit
Life Insurance Company of Newark, and from 1865 to 1869 was
President of the New Jersey Mutual Life Insurance Company.
While residing in Newark, Mr. Bradley was a director in various
financial institutions. Hiscounsel in periods of difficulty was always
highly regarded. He brought to the various questions raised that
clear analytical judgment for which he is distinguished.
In 1849 he delivered an address on Progress before the literary
societies of Rutgers College, and other addresses on similar occa
sions since, several of which have been published. He has also
delivered lectures before the classes of that institution on Political
Economy and Constitutional Law. In 1851 he delivered the an
nual address before the New Jersey Historical Society, on the
" Perils through which the Federal Constitution has passed, and
which still threaten it ;" aud in 1865 an address on the Life and
Character of Honorable William L. Dayton. In June, 1870, he
was called upon to deliver the centennial address at Rutgers College,
which, together with the proceedings on that occasion, have been
published. He received the degree of LL.D. from Lafayette Col
lege, in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1859.
Mr. Bradley was always fond of scientific studies, and kept up
an acquaintance with the latest discoveries and improvements.
His association with men distinguished in this pursuit brought him
continual pleasure, and correspondence with them called out the
best qualities of his mind. The same habits of investigation were
brought to bear on his own profession. He was never content with
the mere practical part, but was fond of law as a science, and made
considerable acquaintance with the civil law, which he has un
doubtedly found of service in his judicial duties, especially in the
southern circuit.
In October, 1844, he married the youngest daughter of the late
distinguished Chief-Justice Hornblower, of New Jersey. Being
much worn in health by mauy years of toil, he went to Europe in
1865, and returned after an absence of five months, much benefited.
109

4 JOSEPH P.BRADLEY.
Travel brought to him not only recreation and health, but the en
joyment ofa cultured mind.
In February, 1870, after the resignation of Mr. Justice Grier, and
the sudden death of Mr. Stanton, who was appointed to succeed
him, there being then two vacancies on the bench of the Supreme
Court, President Grant nominated Mr. Strong and Mr. Bradley to
fill them. The latter was confirmed by the Senate on the 21st of
March, and was allotted to the fifth circuit, which embraces the
southern tier of States from Georgia to Texas. At that time this
was the most important section of the country in reference to the
exercise of Federal jurisdiction. It is true, that since the creation
of circuit judges there has not been the same necessity for the
presence of the justices of the Supreme Court in the circuits as be
fore ; and the increase of the business in the Supreme Court is such
as often to prevent them from presiding at the regular terms of these
courts. Judge Bradley visits his circuit regularly, after the close of
each term of the Supreme Court, and has had occasion to make
some important decisions. One of these — his decision in what is
known as the Slanghter House cases, in June, 1870 — excited much
interest in the public mind. This was the first decision in those
cases, and involved the construction of the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution. Judge Bradley, in an opinion afterward pub
lished in the first volume of Abbott's United States Reports, held
that this amendment placed every citizen of the United States under
the protection of the General Government, wherever any of his
fundamental rights as a citizen were invaded by the State Legis
lature. The Legislature of Louisiana had created a corporation
with the exclusive right to keep slaughter-houses in New Orleans
and vicinity for a distance of twenty or thirty miles. Judge Brad
ley held that this monopoly was an unwarrantable invasion of the
rights of those citizens who desired to engage in the same business,
and therefore void ; and that, under the Fourteenth Amendment,
the courts of the United States could declare it void. The Su
preme Court of Louisiana, in a similar case, held that the Legisla
ture did not exceed its authority ; and its decision being brought
110

JOSEPH P. BRADLEY. 5
to the Supreme Court of the United States, was affirmed by a vote
of five judges to four ; thus, in effect, overruling the opinion of
Judge Bradley. But the case has given rise to a considerable di
versity of opinion.
In the legal tender cases, Justices Strong and Bradley both gave
opinions in favor of the constitutionality of the act of Congress ;
and the position taken by them has been the subject of much ani
madversion on the part of those who advocated the contrary view,
it being even charged that they were appointed for the purpose of
obtaining a decision sustaining the act. This charge has been shown
to be unfounded and unjust. Tlieir appointment was urged, and
under consideration, long before the first decision of the court was
known, and without any reference thereto. A re-argument of the
question was asked for, on the ground that there was not a full
bench when the former decision was pronounced ; and it was in
sisted that the importance of the question rendered such a course
under the circumstances, justifiable and proper. At all events
there seems to be no ground for doubt that the two new judges,
as well as those with whom they concurred in the action taken by
the court, acted conscientiously.
Justice Bradley has recently been called upon to give an opinion
on another question of very grave importance. In April, 1873, a
lawless assemblage of whites attacked and killed a large number of
colored persons at Colfax, in Grant Parish, Louisiana. They were
indicted for this outrage in the Circuit Court of the United States,
under the Enforcement act of May 31, 1870. Several of them beinc
convicted, motion was made to arrest judgment on the ground that
the United States Courts had no jurisdiction. It was contended
that it was merely riot or murder, which are only offenses against
the laws of the State. The charge of the indictment was, of a con
spiracy to intimidate and injure the colored people, (who were
alleged to be citizens of the United States,) with intent to prevent
them in the exercise and enjoyment of the right peaceably to as
semble, secured to them by the first amendment to the Constitu
tion. Other counts charged similar violations of the right to bear
111

6 JOSEPH P. BRADLEY.
arms, the right to equal benefit of the laws, the right to vote, etc.
For the Government, it was contended that this was a crime against
tho United States, and a direct breach of the Constitution. Justice
Bradley held that the right to assemble, bear arms, etc., was se
cured by the Constitution only as against the acts of the Govern
ment, and not as against acts of individuals, which were punishable
by State laws ; aud that violence inflicted by individuals against
colored persons, or any other persons, to prevent their enjoyment
of civil rights, was nothing more than an ordinary criminal act,
amenable to the State laws, unless committed against those persons
because of their particular race or color. If done for that cause,
the crime is cognizable by the Federal authorities. As this fact
was not alleged in the indictment he arrested the judgment, and the
circuit judge being of a contrary opinion, the case is to be decided
by the Supreme Court. Justice Bradley, in this case, conceded
that whenever, by any act or law of a State, an individual is de
prived of a constitutional right, he is entitled to redress, in some
form, in the courts ofthe United States. It cannot be denied that
the question involved in this opinion lies at the very foundation of
the constitutional relations of the Federal and State Governments
as affected by the recent amendments to the Constitution.
The opinions of Justice Bradley in all the various cases decided
since he took his seat in the court, exhibit, in their fullest extent,
the high qualities wdiich have insured him success. Thoroughly
master ofthe great principles upon which the profession of the law
is based, with a clear understanding ofthe nature, spirit, and scope
of our national Constitution, he unites that correct judgment which
properly applies this knowledge to particular cases. His style of
writing is commensurate with his wide range of culture and thought,
as is evidenced by his public addresses and written opinions. His
ultimate reputation will undoubtedly place him among the first
judges ofthe nation. 112

C^c r^i^

A.- o

.L*.TE JUSTICE OJ THE ETJPMME COW.
mf THE UNITED STATES

WAED HUNT,
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE.

*ARD HUNT was born in Utica, Oneida County, New
York, June 14, 1810. The Hunt family is of English
origin, but for a century and a half the records show a
New York branch of the original stock. The father of
the subject of this sketch, Montgomery Hunt, was a gentleman of
education, and for many years cashier of the old Bank of Utica,
which was indebted to his financial ability for the marked reputa
tion it acquired as a leading country bank with a high standing in
New York city. When a boy of about fourteen years Ward Hunt
lost the care and affection of a most excellent mother, who is re
membered as a woman of genial manners, a generous heart, and a
fine intellect.
In his seventeenth year he entered Union College, where he grad
uated with credit. He then attended the law school of Judge
James Gould, at Litchfield, Connecticut. Having completed the
course, he returned to Utica and entered the office of Hiram Denio,
since eminent as a Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. He
was admitted to the bar in 1831, having just reached the lawful age.
In those days the professional business afforded by banks was im
portant to a young lawyer, and the connection of his father and
friends with the Bank of Utica at once secured to Mr. Hunt an
auspicious beginning, and his partnership with Judge Denio shortly
after added materially to his professional prospects. He soon com
manded a lucrative practice, which, with his patrimony, placed him
in an independent position. The bar of Oneida County, distin
guished for men of legal eminence, was of a character to demand
113

2 WARD HUNT.
ability of all who sought distinction. Mr. Hunt showed himself
fully able to compete with his ablest antagonists. His practice was
of the miscellaneous character common to country districts — now
law, then equity ; now that of an attorney, then of a solicitor, and
commonly as a counselor in all cases. He was connected with
some of the most important trials, and won distinction at the bar
for clearness of mind and fairness in his conduct of cabes. He was
always a deliberate and orderly speaker, and, without any effort at
rhetorical display, he possessed an aptness in illustrative anecdote
and allusion that pleasantly enlivened his formal speech and his
ordinary conversation.
Mr. Hunt's earliest political associations were with the old Dem
ocratic party, of which General Jackson was then the presidential
candidate, and for whom his first electoral ballot was cast. A fewr
years after, in 1838, Mr. Hunt was elected by that party to the As
sembly of New York, and served as a member of that body in
1839. On the formation of the Republican party, in 1856, wdien
General Fremont became its candidate for the presidency, Mr. Hunt
severed his connection with the Democratic party, and acted zeal
ously with the new organization.
In 1865 Mr. Hunt was nominated by the Republican party as its
candidate at large for Judge of the Cuiirt of Appeals, and the re
sult was his election by a majority exceeding thirty-two thousand
votes. This placed him in the judicial seat long ably occupied by
his partner, Judge Denio, whom he succeeded in January, 1866.
In 1868 the resignation of John M. Parker as Judge of the Court
of Appeals, and the death of the Chief Judge, William B. Wright,
concurred to give Judge Hunt the position of Chief Judge of that
Court. Of his judicial ability his opinions as published in the
" New York Reports " testify to the sense of the profession, which
can best judge of them. His demeanor in his high office was
urbane and courteous. Possessed of even and well-controlled tem
per, he well sustained the dignity of his position.
In December, 1872, Hon. Samuel Nelson resigned the office of
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which
114

WARD HUNT. 3
he had held for many years, and Judge Hunt was at once nomina
ted by the President as his successor, and was confirmed by the
Senate. On the 7th of January following he took his seat upon
the bench of the Supreme Court, and has taken a part in all the
decisions made by that body since that time.
While holding the United States Circuit Court, atCanandaigua, in
1873, Judge Hunt tried the celebrated case of Susan B. Anthony, in
dicted for illegal voting. In an able and elaborate opinion he de
cided, as a matter of law, that Miss Anthony was not a legal voter.
She knowingly and voluntarily gave a vote wdiich was illegal, and
thus was subject to the penalty of the law. The Judge directed the
jury to find a verdict of guilty. It was insisted by the counsel for
the defense, in arguing the motion for a new trial, that an error wTas
committed in directing the jury to render a verdict of guilty. It
was argued that this direction made the verdict that of the court
and not of the jury, and that the provisions of the Constitution
securing a trial by jury in criminal cases had been violated. The
motion for a new trial was denied in an elaborate decision, in wdiich
numerous authorities were cited. Among other things Judge Hunt
said : —
" The right of trial by jury, in civil as well as in criminal cases,
is a constitutional right. The first article of the Constitution of the
State of New York provides that ' the trial by jury, in all cases in
wdiich it has been heretofore used, shall remain inviolate forever.'
Article 7 of the Constitution of the United States contains a similar
provision. Yet in cases when the facts are all conceded, or when
they are proved and uncontradicted by evidence, it has always been
the practice of the courts to take the case from the jury and decide
it as a question of law. No counsel has ever disputed the right of
the court so to do. No respectable counsel will venture to doubt
the correctness of such practice, and this in cases of the character
which are usually submitted to a jury. The right of a trial by jury
in a criminal case is not more distinctly secured than it is in a civil
case. In each class of cases this right exists only in respect of a
disputed fact. To questions of fact the jury respond. Upon ques-
115

4 WARD HUNT.
tions of law the decision of the court is conclusive, and the jury are
bound to receive the law as declared by the court. Such is the
established practice in criminal as well as in civil cases, and this
practice is recognized by the highest authorities."
Another important case which attracted general attention was
the Credit Mobilier suit, based upon the act of Congress of March,
1873. It came before Judge Hunt, holding the Circuit Court at
Hartford, Connecticut, in September, 1873. The case was argued
on demurrer to the complaint by the most eminent counsel on both
sides. Judge Hunt delivered a very able and elaborate opinion, in
which he sustained the demurrer and showed that the United States
could not properly be a plaintiff in the case, but that " redress must
be sought through the corporation, unless they refuse to bring suit,
in which case the action must be by a shareholder of the corpora
tion." Judge Hunt is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in
which he was educated, and has held therein many honorable offi
cial trusts. In all his relations, both public and private, he is every
where esteemed for the correctness and purity of his life. He has
been twice married, first to the eldest daughter of the late Chief-
Justice Savage, of the State of New York, and again, in 1853, to his
present wife, daughter of the late James Taylor, Esq., of Albany.
A son bearing the same name, a practicing lawyer of the city of
Utica, and a married daughter, wife of Arthur B. Johnson, Esq.,
of the same place, constitute the remaining family of Judge Hunt.
116

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

; -";¦--' ¦ -|

=»=— —^-^  -^~l~B_iifr- 1311 - i__

""¦- 7 , .'" "~: - ''¦•zimtiBaKaMf'Vbvry ".';<•««*¦¦ :j -.;¦?.

s -.,"/*'" *

" P ™7<ilfa 1^M9- W*MW ^m c^ *
7* ¦ ¦ ¦¦¦¦.¦¦.¦¦. ': ¦'¦' ¦-.¦-¦¦¦
^ - - - | ' " " "
.,¦.'¦ '¦. .' . ¦ .
" .. ¦ ¦ , •¦¦...'.¦
'¦¦¦¦¦¦¦'¦ .;;

¦ .• "¦"¦¦ ¦ ¦ .."..¦. *¦
: ; 7

7 ¦. 7;7;%^gRW^gj .'.'.: ¦' ... ' ,

-.¦•¦-¦?".¦' -:-C :¦¦':':¦

' ¦-

'l&stll^JksfjiM&Zi

'ukimmi-:.M;k.M,

Jnz^u. ,,, .:/-.., :,'--:,l^Uk-~3

Aft**/#

^essto^Ltm

£..~tIKJj*\.