Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1872-07-16
and the Union were saved and sla-

L mention these great names to
show who were the companions, ri
walls and associates of Judge Dunn in
those early times. And through
their recommendation as we'll as that
OF his personal merit, he was appoint
ed by Andrew Jackson Chief Justice
of the United States District Court
for the territory of Wisconsin. 1t
was while acting in this capacity
that the old settlers first became ac-
quainted with him here.
On the bench he was dignified
without ostentation, courteous and
obliging, yet firm and unswerving-
he paid less attention to authority
than most judges, yet the reasonable
ness, harmony and relation of legal
principles were understood without
an effort by q mind in which nature
had implanted the germ of all that
Coke and Blackstone, or Story and
Kent have written.
will here relate an anecdote
which, | think, expresses the general
opinion of the judicial character and
peculiariarities of the Chief Justice.
While sitting on the Supreme
bench at Madison with his associates,
Miller and Irwin,a young and brassy
attorney was assailing with great ve-
hemence a circuit decision of the
Chief Justice. 81 say, your honor"
exclaimed young Blackstone, 81 say
you have been guilty of grand larce-
ny of stealing within my personal
knowledge" You need not guess
their honors were astounded at the
audacity ofthe language. The brow
OF his Honor began TO gather dark
ness and the lightning was about to
strike. "Do not be angry, Mr.. Chief
Justice" continued the impudent
speaker, because | have exposed
your crimes before this tribunal
Ever since you have been on that
bench you have been in the habit Of
stealing something from the law and
giving it to equity"
This sudden conversion of a crime
into a compliment saved the attor-
ney's scalp; bat | think he correctly
estimated the judicial leaniugs of the
Chief Justice. Judge Dunn was new
err an office-seeker. Popularity came
to his doors, he never sought it,
with the insane mania for popular
applause he was never afflicted; with
the arts Of the demagogue he was
utterly unacquainted. He would not
have accepted the Presidential chair
at the sacrifice of his self respect or
personal honor To oblige his con-
stituents, not to crafty any doug
ings" after short lived political
fame, be gave them the rdVantages
of his learning and experience in
the formation Of our state coustitu-
tion,a represented them two terms
in the State Senate. He loved his
family, his home, his dwelling and
the shrubbery that surrounded it
He loved the wheat field and the
meadow, exhaling their fragrance
like gift to the gods. He loved his
pasture grounds, and the cattle and
horses that rejoiced in them He
loved nature in all its forms, (and
who that was young when the west
was young does not? ?, be loved tho
manly pastmies, hunting aud fishing,
and never lost his relish for these
sports as long as he was able to aim
the rifle or emulate the skill of Isaak
Walton.
At the bar he car, led with him the
same traits as distinguished him on
the bench. | commend to the junior
members of the profession one pc
culiarity of his. He never attempt
ed to confound or ensnare an inexpe-
rienced witness. This disgraceful
practice of showing off professional
skill in an effort to crush the truth
by hiding it under the confusion and
shame Of an unwary deponent, has
recently met with the disapproba-
tinn of our Supreme Court. 1t is a
practice which tends to convert the
halls of justice into lbquisiLorial dun
geons, where innocence AID inexpe-
rience, and hardly truth itself dare
to enter. That it is wholly unneces-
sary, the course pursued by Judge
Dunn abundantly proves. He al
ways succeeded in extracting from a
truthful witness all he new, ana dis
close the bias OF one who would con-
zeal the trnth. Yet he never accept
ed his answer with jeeriDg nod or
ironIcal affirmative.
Judge Dunn possessed a full share
of quiet unobtrnsive humor. But
he regarded more the feelings of a
friend than his reputation as wit.
Though bis well aimed shafts hit the
very centre of our foibles and weak
nesses, they were delt with so kind
ly hand that they left no ranking
wound to be avenged.
La his aesthetic tastes he was too
practical to be an idealist, yet he
loved poetry, and those works of the
Imagination that reflected the har-
monies of nature. | remember to
have heard him once repeat q part
of the first book of the Odyssey with
such zest and JUNCTION that had he
been clothed in themantle of HELEN
ic bard, | might have imagined him to
be old Homer himself.
These are some of the lines:
s'The for VISIONS various arts renowned
Long exercised in woes muse resound
Who when his arm had wrought the destin' d fall
OF sacred Troy and raid her heaven built wall,
0utspread his canvass to the treaeherous breeze
And various chimes explor'd and unknown seas
Passd Ger the bound were living nortals tread.
And hald the awful shades Of kings and heroes
dead
Judge Dunn was well versed in
the great English classics. He re-
veled in all that Pope and Butler,
and Cervantes and Shakespeare have
written. But the ephemeral. chaffy.
yellow-cOvered literature of the
times-the SLAYER and hydrophobia
of deceased imaginations, the mias-
ma exhaled from added brains and
rotten hearts, with its explosions of
blood and love and murder, and even
thunder-Judge Dim despised the
whole revolving mass of mental and