Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-01-25
ADDRESS OF HON. Il s oRroN

TIE following is the address Of Hon
Fl. s. orion, delivered in the Assem-
bly,. on Monday evening, January 10th,
on the announcement Of the death Of
Judge Paine:
Mir. SPEAKER: 1t is but mourn
ful and melancholy duty to speak Of
the virtues and services Of distinguish
ed citizen who has 50 recently with
drawn from the stage of active life be-
hind the dark cur aims Of the dead
/ An aHectionate husband and father,
an able aud upright judge, a good citi-
zen and an honest man, has fallen from
among the living and from his post Of
honorable duly. The State aud SO
ciety may well feel the shock. BY
this affecting dispensation of Provi-
dence am reminded how strangely
fatal has been the high place he has re-
Gently honored In but little over
twenty-five years, Of the twelve judges
of our Supreme Court, one full half are
now numbered with the dead. Chief
Justice Stowe AID Wilton, Judges
hnowlton and Crawford, Smith and
Paine, have gone to their account be-
fore the courts above. We may we'll
pause and be thoughtful upon the shore
Of the dark ocean, where they disap-
peared aud where we must sail 50 soon.
The manhood and earnest practical
Iife-work of Judge Paine have been
wholly spent within our State, and be
come material part Of her short and
eventful history His public services,
diversified and valuable, have iliustra
ted the very noblest traits Of human
character
In the halls of legislation as an Off
Ger Of the gallant army cf the Union !;
as lawyer al the bar, and as a judge
upon the bench, he has always been
faithful, capable and honest. Always
practiclng prudent yet generous econ
omy, he has lived within the legal
compensations of his business and his
Office, without defrauding single in
dividual Of his rights or property, and
without drawing an unearLed dollar
from the public treasury ; and like the
very noblest example OF public virtue
III the history of Republics, he has left
the public service withou the accumu
atlon of wealth.
Permit me to refer to two distinguish
ing instances, the one while he was at
the bar, and the other while Oh the
bench, affording most impressive and
indubltable proof of his independence
aud honest convictions of right under
circumstances too often apt to sway the
Judgment of men not grounded, like
him, in the principles Of unswerving
integrity.
1t is well known that he was always
an earnest and honest advocate Of inn
mediate and unconditional negro emar-
cipation, or, in other words, an aboli-
zionist ]; and at time too, when it
exposed him to political prescription,
If not to personal reproach and long
before the time when its hypocrltical
professions were speedily compensated
with. the emoluments of Office. In
1851 he appeared before the Supreme
Court, then composed Of three judges,
since gone to their reward, in the case
| of the rescue of the fugitive slave,
Glover, at Milwaukee, and made one OF
the clearest, most conclusive and most
eloquent arguments against he constl-
tutlonaiity OF the fugitive slave Law,
made In any court IN the country. Ills
services In that case were voluntary and
without compensation. | will remem
Der, that in that effort he won the ad-
miration of even those prejudiced and
opposed to his position, for his philan-
thropy, manliness. and great ability.
Again, in 1868, during the fercest
excitements of the war, and while the
public sentiment of the nor,h seemed
favorable to almost any concession of
the legal and constitutional rights Of
the states or the people to strengthen
the arm OF the natonal executive ~ its
struggle with rebellion and when
the ast,seeming of opposition to every
possible measure of the administration
was violently assailed as disloyalty and
treason; when martial law was declar-
ed and the writ of habeas corpus sus-
pended throughout the Union, by the
proclamation Of the President-Jadge
Pane, with the concurrence OF Judge
Dixon and Cole with the fearlessness
of just and impartial Judge, unsway
ed by prejudice, and unaffected by
political excitement, pronounced one
Of the clearest and ablest opinions Of
his judicial career, denouncing the
doctrine that martial law could prevail,
or the writ Of habeas corpus be suspen-
dod anywhere in this count.y, where
the rebellion did not exist, and boldly
discharging The prisoners held In a
military camp and under military
warrant. These two trials of the very
hig hest qualities Of the man and the
judge a.e sufficient to speak volumes in
his praise.
In all his judicial investigations he
was clear, logical and discriminating,
averse to following precedents blindly,
and only convinced by reason. natur-
ally leaning toward the humanities and
equities Of the law. without regard to
mere form and technicalities.
4Vhile he was living our supreme
bench presented combination Of tai
ent, legal learning, experience and
judicial purity, now borne alone by his
surviving associates, at least, equal to
the best and superior to most of the
Supreme Courts of the States. We
shall indeed be most for innate if his
vacant place can be filed by one pos
sessing equal qualifications and fitness.
Ia our official and pers onal relations,
let US honor his memory and renew our
obi cations of public aud private duty,
and be true to every trust in imitation
of his example While one and an
other of our fellow men fall from our
midst by the hand Of death, let US be