The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-12-10

| any of his brethren, so many Of whom
were famous for celebrity, in the dispatch
/ Of business.
| The number Of appeals from his de-
= cisions and rulings was small. Those
: rulings and decisions, were rarely jre-
!. versed or modified. IN, !
But popular and distinguished as be
> was as ascircuit Judge; his eminehceo as
: ia jurist is best illustrated by his labors
{ as an associate justice Of the Court Of
}, Appeals. In that tribunal he found the
j proper theatre for''the display of his i'm
mense learning and the resources Of his
Iteeming intsllect lin, 'that'greatforum
his admirably ,proportioned faculties,
his gracious attention, his appreciative
intelligence; his exquisite apprehension,
enabled 'himi to- comprehend, with .Ithe
quickpess and clearness of intuition, the
questions and the principles involved in
the case. ' '' ''. -...-,.'' Fl. ~ .''' -
q In the consultations Of the Court,
,tthe plenitude and the exaetness of: his
kno wledge, the wise suggestions, of
his prolific mind, the sageness of his
opinions, rarely failed tosway the de-
,|liberations of his brethren and to set
tie their conclusions. .a na
! With such resources and activities,
such fullness and facility, it should
excite NO surprise that it fell to him,
as the organ of the court, to pro-
!. ;nounee so, many Of it's gravest and
most weighty Judgments Dissent
from his argument orhis conclusions
on the most obstruse legal questions
was as rare, as it was unconvinoing:
His own dissentient opinions are nu-
1merous, and if not always conclusive,
they were always mastery. 10 4.
Judge Wardlaw's indomitabae spirit
of inquiry, his passionate love of
! truth, lured hint explore the sources
of all law, as we'll the uncertain and
obscure sources of the common law,
as the scarce less uncertain sources OF
statute law. The lea scripta and the
lea non scnpta yielded their, hidden
treasure to the patient toll of his in.
dustry and the conquering energy Of
his will. The diligence, the fond de-
votion with which be deaHed into the
clements of the common Law, into It's
prescription, into the ancient statutes
which constitute parts of the unwrit-
ten law; the clearness and tho meth.
| cd with which these constituents OF
the common law are traced and pre-
sented, are unsurpassed by the most
successful researches into subject 80
obscured by the dust and the mist Of
time,
! If L. mind teeming with all the
learning Of the law could possess q
peculiar aptitude Q for any branch of
that science, it should be said that
statute law wa" his Speciality. Thc
examination Of the reports will show
fthat eanses which required for their
determination the highest powers of
1idisauisition, or the most elaborate in
I fvestigati0n, were usually committed
to him toprepare and to pronounce the
| Judgment Of, the court. /. ooI}.i Ii.
| But great, cases INVOLVING the stat.
ute law seemed, by, the concession Of
his brethren! to- liei within the limits
iof his especial domain. : To their 80
lutiou he, applied all bis characteristic,
|endowments and requirements.
|H 1tHis"a soufco Of lust pride TO
allnLato the bench, Ito. the bar,
Eandfto all glasses. of citizens T7.!that
the judgments Of our courts, upon the
I, Ip,riiinnciilp5Ies iiin Of the com mon law, upon
the refined ethics Of equity jurispru-
Eaenoe, .lupoai tho 9gveat. principles Of
commercial Law, ,fars CITED with, com.
mendation in all American courts, and
I'm the High coirts>';of Westminster
Hall. Many ofthem, aresuperb mod
els of precision and elegance-most
of them arc learned and wise-all OF
them are respectable and instructive.
+: Itdetraots nothing from the just
fame Of bis predecessors; it: detracts
nothing from the great distinction of
| his contemporaries, to. declare that
Judge Wardlaw made munifcent con-
tributions to the reputs and the re-:
nown of the judiciary of South Caro-
lima. ...
The case of Steel against Mausel, in
the Court Of Errors C Rich: 437),
and that Of the State against Hodges,
| in the Court of Appeals IA Rich.
1256) the former involving the regis
|itry;law and the latter involving the
tax law, are enduring memorials OF
his excellence in that inattractive de-
partment of Jurisprudence, thcstatute
| law. Each of these cases involved
the consideration of a greater mass Of
statute law, pervading q greater Pc
riod of time, perpIexed by a. greater
number of repeating statutes, great
er number of modifying statutes, than
cucumber the statute book on any
other subjects. To educe meaning
and method from this chaos, to mould
into conference and symmetry this
medley of legislative crudeness and
judicial refinement, was task that
mono would approach but the veteran
compiler or the fond antiquary. With
what admirable skill, with what con-
summate toll, with what signal sue
cess this hcrculean labor was achieved
gratifcd judiciary and a grateful
bar bear thoir cheerful and their
unanimous testimony.
If the judgments in these cases are
extended to a volume larger, to a CO.
piousness greater than is common, it
should not be forgotten that the task
was not to combine, nor to compress,
but it was to collect, to analyzc and
-all,4n Nhn nnllntinn itcnlf 1ra c