The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-02
THE NATIONAL ERA WASHINGTON, B. g, JUNE =, 1859
THE REVIEW

III
Memoir of heophilus Parsons Chief Justice Of 'he su
Hpreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts; with Notices
Of some of his Contemporaries BY his sou, Theophiiu
Parsons Boston: TScknor & edt 1859 For sale
r. by Taylor L. Manry, w sshingsoa, d. C. .------.-
| The great difficulties which beset the author
| Of this memoir have been admirably overcome
He was to- avoid the exaggeration natural tc
flial reverence. He was to depict the charac
ter and reproduce the life of truly great man
|. who has left but few memorials behind, and
who moved not on the conspicuous theatre Of
national politics, but in the more withdrawn
sphere of judicial duty in a single State. The
task has been performed with an evident desire
to avoid excessive praise, and yet with an evi
dent and exalted estimate of the character which
he strives to portray by his acts and by the
testimony of his cont emporaries, far more than
| by his own description.
| Chief Justice Parsp pms was unquestionably a
man of varied and mi psf vigorous powers. BY
Temperament and onlprinciple, and with great
intensity of conviction and feeling, he was q
high Federalist. The picture which the me-
moir presents of the feelings and habits oil
thinking Of the period Just previous and during
and subsequent to the American Revolution is
in high degree interesting. 1t has genuine
New England flavor about it, which will charm
the reader who is native to that soil, and at
tract and instruct all who love to contemplate
the forefather times.
| There is sketch Of his pure Puritanic an
cestry, followed by consideration of his char
acter as a statesman, lawyer, judge, a
scholar, and man, in his personal, social, and
family relations. All these chapters have a
limpid flow of narrative, Astounding with slight
ripples of humor and wit, which sparkle on its
surface, which render the whole journey, from
the beginning to the close of his life, pleasant
and instructive.
AS lawyer, he was noted for his brevity and
compactness; as judge, for his wonderful dis
patch of business; as scholar, for his varied
attainments, his boundless craving for knowl
edge, and his incessant activity; as a man il
his social and family relations, for that singular
mixture of humor, of reserve, of strong affec
ton and small manifestation of it, which con
stitute the staple of the stanch and excellent
New England character
The chapter which contemplates him as
statesman assigns to hi an important agency
in the early annunciation of the great princi
pies subsequently embodied in the Constitution
of the United States, and in the measure which
resulted in the adoption of that instrument
The facts there announced are not likely to b.
known to any readers but those who are familiar
with the early history oflMassachusetts, as con
tanned, not in general histories, but in passing
publications and in official records. They viii
be found interesting and instructive.
The authors political philosophy, as ex
pounded in this chapter, strikes us as very cold
blooded as well as com monplace and super
fetal. 1t is that which traces different political
principle and action to Universities of nationa
character and which, Ignoring the right anC
wrong of the questions involved, affects, with ju
dicial impartiality, to assign an equal measure
of praise or blame-or, rather, an equal absence
of all praise or blame-to both parties. "Tha
the negro slave stands in antagonism to the
dollar is one of the reasons that there are nc
slaves at the North that he stands in subser
| NleHcy 10 power, anu IeeCtS MS masters state o
authority and command, is one among the rea
| sons why there are slaves in the South" This
kind of talk, which comes in dignifed shap(
here, as high political philosophy, can be found
IN the columns of every newspaper which is
| the apologist of Slavery, or of subserviency tC
the Slave Power, almost as often as the paper
is issued. Suppose it to be so. What then? ].
there no right or wrong i'm the case? Is an,
and every course of conduct indicated wher
it is traced to some source in the selfshnes
and sin of men? 1t must be admitted tina
extremely conservative men are rather com
monplace and dull, when they attempt to b.
sage and sagacious. The remark is verified
by another ancient and unmeaning style o
comment on extremes, such as thus Moth
ing wiser can be done than to seek in all the
questions and exigencies of life that middle
point of rest in which extremes meet and to
wards which extremes compel each other t.
tend" Now, we are persuaded that some
thing much wiser than this can be done. II
is to seek first what is right az itself and not
to look for right as the equpoise Of two
wrongs-as the point midway between two
wrongs. 1t is to ascertain if it be question
on which there can be t,eO sides and a naidaLc
ground; or whether the middle ground is only
the yawning gulf between right and wrong
the abyss that lies between heaven and hell
Immense and inconceivable is the amount of
platitude and folly which has hid itself under
this wise-seeming but most unmeaning formula
! of the medium between two extremes.