Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-10-18

never was n man, N1tn OF WlJnOuV 1U-
dicial training, assigned more difficult
trust at more critical period, than was
confded to the late Chief-J ustice by his
appointment as head of the judiciary of
the United States. A few have brought
to the performance of grave and judic-
ial duty, higher discretion and firm
ness, greater ability and moderation
or sereneT self possession than he
did. These enable him from the first
to fulfill every requirement of the pO-
sition, and to bear himself as one accus-
toned to its restraints. He was at home
in the traditional gown from the day he
took his seat, and his manner was as
one "always and altogether judge"
Although Mr.. Chase has never claim
ed great distinction as lawyer, he had
for many years been regarded as an able
jurist by those acquainted with his pro-
fessioal career, and competent to Judge.
And, being endowed with physical
strength equal to his mental energy, he
was no sooner commissioned than he en-
tered upon the work of preparation
with all the application of which he was
capable, and with firm resolution to
do honor to the place, rather than be
honored by it. With this determina-
tion he studied the best models of judic-
ial style, familiarized himself with every
principle of law, its practice, rules and
decisions of the tribunal over which he
was to preside And so well did he ac-
complish the task that the bar of the
court and his brethren on the bench
were astonished to find his opinions at
once, as one of the latter has expressed
it, "models of judicial excellence" His
knowledge of every department of the
law was discovered to be deep and pro-
found, and his acquaintance with pre-
cedents wide rs the range of decision.
This was early remarkcd-so early that
one year after his accession, when the
writer of this paper first became famil-
lar with the affairs of the court, the
fact was already the wonder of the pro-
fession and the exclamation of his late
political associates
1t is clear, from a close comparison of
styles, that, unless nature endowed them
with such similar mental organizations
as to beget in their minds like processes
of reasoning, his immediate predecessor,
Chief-Justice Taney, was his chosen
model, and that from habitual study of
his works he imbibed from him man
ner of judicial composition strikingly
identical. There is in their judicial wri
tings, the same succinct statement Of
facts, the same directness in dealing with
the main question in n ease, and care to
avoid irreverent and immaterial matters
suggested in the argument.
There is the same skill in grouping,
Of arraging the subjects of discussion,
and the ''same faculty of marshaling
conclusions SO that they will swell and
increase, in momentum as the opinion
proceeds, and calumniate in convincing
logic as it is concluded. There is the
same elegance of dction, force of ex-
preston, and ease and grace in passing
from subject to subject. There is the
same concentration, the same precision
and power. and like absence Of abrupt
ness, coaresencss and incongruity. There
is no assertion no defamation no prolix-
ity but, in brief, presence and absence of
everything required to make their opin-
ions exact parallels of judicial complete
ness and intellectual mastery. 1t is not
claimed that this eminent jurists was his
special study, admiration and example
because he did not find great excellence
elsewhere-for to do so would be to do
injustice to his estimate of others, and
violence to truth-but because Mr.. Ia
ney's terse, unimaginative style peculi-
arly recommended itself TO his taste as
a foreible and compact form of express
sion for judicial utterances, better
adapted to the use of reason and logic
than the most rhetorical aud embellish-
ed forms. Marshall was an ideal of his
of what y Judge should be; but his more
elaborate aud mctaphorical style had
not the sympathetic charm for him
which he found in the simple, synthetic
sentences of fancy, and which are sc
remarkably reproduced, in his own writ.
ings.-J s. Benson, ia Harper's Nag
dzine for October.