Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1853-07-09
Biosyopb:fol.
rHE LATE JUDGE orpsoy.


preme Court Of Pennsylvania, is notable
loss TO the jurisprudence Of our country. He
was Judge OF most extraordinary ability
no man on the Bench possessed proiouujer
knowledge of the law, or was fitted with
more vigorous, comprehensive, and accurate
mode Of stating it, The volumes Of the
Pennsylvania Reports contain every where
the most striking proofs Of his talents, and
will be all enduring monument Of his fame.
In The course oi few months We shall be
enabled through the kindness OF gentleman
al our bal, 10 present TO our leaders blo-
graphical sketch Of the late distinguished
Judge. In the meantime we may be per-
mil,ed 10 transfer TO these pages the follow
ing elegan, and beautiful ri,ule to his mem
DRY, delivered at the session OF the Supreme
Court, al Harrisburg, by Chief Justice Black,
on The accoun, of the death Vf Judge Gibson.
-44meriean LaD Register. 1.rrf
Chief Justice Black said Il: is unneces-
sary TO say that every surviving member OF
the Court is deeply grieved by the death of
MIR. Justice Gibson. In the course Of nature
it was no, 10 be expected that he could live
much longer, for he had attained the ripe
age of seventy six. But the blow, though
not a sudden, was severe one. The inli.
we all boie to him, would have been suffi-
cieut for some emotion, even if he had been an
ordinary man. But he was the Nesior OF the
Bench, whose wisdom inspired the public
mind with confidence in our decisions. By
This bereavement the Court has lost " hat no
time can repair; for we shall never look upon
his like again.
We regard him more as father than a
brother. None of us ever saw the Supreme
Court before he was in ii !; and 10 some of US
| his character as a great Judge was familiar
even in childhood. The earliest knowledge
Of the law we had was derived in patt from
| his luminous exposiions of it. He was a
Judge of the Common Pleas before the
! youngest of US was born, and was a member
| Of this Court long before the eldest was ad-
milied TO the bar. For nearly quarter Of 4
cenlnry he was Chief Justice, and when he
was nomnally superseded By another, as the
head Of The Court, his great learning, venera.
BILE character and overshadowing reputation
still made him the only Chief whom the
hearts Of the people would know. In the
course Of his long service he discussed ant
decided innumerable questions. His opinon'
are bound in no less than seventy volumes o
The regular reports, from second Sergean
and Rawle 10 sixth Harris.
A, the time of his death he had been lon
ger in Office than any contemporary Judg
in the world and in some points of charac
Ter he had no, his equal on the earth Sue
vigor, clearness and precision OF thought wa
never before united with the same felicit
of dction. Brougham has skeched Lor
Stowell justly enough, as the creates, judi
cial writer that England could boast Of, fo
force and beauty Of style. He selects
; sentence and calls on the reader 10 admir-
the remarkable elegance Of its structure
a believe that Judge Gibson never wrote a
opinion in his life from which passag
more graceful in lis turn Of expression, tha
this which is selected with so much care b
a jealous friend, from all Of Lord Sowelfs.
His written language was a transcript
. his mind. 1t gave the world The very ior
(: and pressure of his thought. liwas accura,
!, because he knew The exact boundaries OF II
2 principles he discussed. His mental deeis
II took in the world outline and all the detail
;, OF the case, and with bold and stead
. hand he painted wha, he saw. Ae mac
. others understand him, because he unde
4. stood himself. ruca M
r -Cui feeta potenier er1t res,
Nee farundio dsssret hune, nee lueidus ord
His style was rich, but he never turn,
on, of his way for figures of speech.
e, never sacrificed sense TO sound, or preferr
T, ornament 10 substance. II he reason
h much By comparison, it was rot 10 make
composition brillian, but clear. He spoke
it, metaphors often, not because they we
10 sought, but because they came 10 his mi
10 unbidden. The same vein Of happy illusl
u tion ran through his conversation and
ps private letters. | was most Of all slru
re with il in careless memorandum, intend
be when il was penned for no eye but his ov
at He never thought of display, and seemed
h, tally unconscious that he had the power
er make any.
he His words were always precisely adap,
'e, to The subject. He said neither more
TO less Than just the thing he ought. He
ad one faculty Of great poel--ihal OF expr
in sing thought in language, which could |
yer afterwards be paIaPhrased. When
he legal principle passed through his hands,
Is, sent il forth clothed in dress which fiji
IS, ii so exactly, that nobody ever presumed
ny give i, any other. Almost universally
eT- syllabus Of his opinion is sentence fr
,er itself; aud the most needless student,
ed looking over Wharton's Digest, can sci
SO the cases in which Gibson delivered
nio Judgement as readily as he would pick 8
Va coins ont from among coppers. For i,
III reason il is, that though he was the Ii
Ing voluminous writer. OF The court, The citaii
." from him at the bar are more numei
than from all the res, put together. uls"
'n The dignity, purity and richness OF