Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-10-22
nvATu M HoN THOs. o. SMITH.


Judge Of the Common Law Court OF thu
city, the legal profession and the com
munity at large has sustained a LOST
almost irreparable, All in all, he wa'
equal TO the best judges Of the older
times, and has won golden opinions from
competent and disinterested men and
Judges. He was withal an estimable
gentleman, and his loss is felt by the
members Of the bar as that of bosom
| friend. No man was more upright ana
impartial, and, few mere able than he
Such loss is not easily compensated
and the bar and the community at large
look anxiously for competent sue
cessor At n meeting Of the legal pro-
fession held yesterday, a series OF reso'
buttons we're adopted which appear in
another column. The deep and earnest
feeling of all at this sad bereavement was
expressed by several prominent legal
gentlemen.
Charles Kortrecht, Esq, first addressed
the meeting, calling TO mind the warm
attachment and high respect long felt
for him by the members Of the bar
throughout West Tennessee, to whom
for twenty years he has been well known
and highly respected. To those who
had enjoyed his personal acquaintance
it was unnecessary to speak Of his many
virtues and excellencies, his patient
listening to )wearisome and often un'
profitable debate, his indulgent enconr.
agement to the young and timid, his
kindness and respect to the older and
more experienced, his general good ma
ture on the bench, and the iirianess with
which the duties Of his position were dis.
charged Without Disagreement to
others, he was the peer of all who had
preceded him.
Thos. D. Micou, Esq, said that al
though not so long or intimately &C.
quainted as some of the older members
of the bar with the lamented judge, and
though for that, if no other reasons,
sense of propriety might command him
to be silent were the time too precious for
even a stranger to render the homage due
to his eminent ability and exalted worth,
vet he deemed it no violation of true
decorum to give expression to the
thoughts and feelings which impressed
his own mind in common with every one
of the Memphis bar. The character OF
Judge Smith had been subjected to the
severest tests. The upheavings of the
political and social system, the demoli-
ton of old constitutions, the introduce
ton of strange and startling tenetsin the
new, the subjectien of noble and en-
lightened to the domination of seryile
and uninteligent race, had given birth
to implacabe animosities, and embittered
all the relations of society insomuch
that it was almost miracle for any
public man to lie under suspicion of the
favor of one party without incurring the
mortal enmity Of the other. But such
was the strength and integrity of the
mind of Judge Smith that he steered the
vessel of his life in perfect safety between
the rocks on either side.
Called to the bench at the most critical
period Of our judicial bistory-when
there is something invidious even in the
mode of acquiring official position-when
the people, not without reason, look with |
odium on the usurpation that robs them
of their prerogative in the investiture OF
power-he was of course watched with
the closest scrutiny, and liable to have
the purity of his motives impugned in
his every judicial action; yet, uninfu-
enced by the fears of the powers or the |
hope of favor of those who had assumed |
to be the source of his authority, ignoring
all responsibility save to the laws and
his own conscience, he administered the
arduous duties of his Office during the six
terms of his presidency in this court,
with fidelity that won the esteem and
admiration Of us all, giving no occasion
for the slightest whisper Of detraction
nor uncovering the charge of party pre-
objection even in cases contested with |
heat and acrimony between parsisans of
divers political creeds. Take thousand
Of his judgments, and few men can de.
teet even a technical or legal error
none dictum founded on personal or
party bias. The mind of Judge Smith |
was eminently legal one-giised
with that rare faculty, discrimination
of opposite analogies-an intuitive per-
ception Of the proper application of pre-
cedents-and Of the precise point where,
by DETECTION Of the facts, right reason
required different rule.
He was not only the |
upright Judge; he was also q noble, gen
erous, true man, combining all the high.
est social qualities, aud was true exem-
plar of the description a" IRteger rita
sceleyisquer pTrus" The loss Of no man
in this community could have been a
greater calamity to the bench, to the bar,
to the circle Of bis immediate friends, to
the people at large.
The committee on resolutions having
returned, they were introduced by