The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-01-17
The Late .Budge EPIlran =. Fish
err, Of mississippi.

The recent and sudden death ofthis i~tin-
guished lawyer and jurlst-at George
TO Nm, Texas, TO which place he had just
changed his almost lifetime residence in
ississippi-demands word from those
who knew him best concerning man,
whose name is a household word in the
great State of Mississippi at the least, aud
generally, known among the lawyers Of the
United States.
Judge Fisher was born near Danviile,
kentucky, in Lincoln county, (Which is
now Boyle in November, lSl5 lie
removed to Mississippi, in 1888 and
has since lived there, up to with
in a few months of his death. AT
irst, he located at icks burg, and remained
there for several years connected Nlth
the Clerks offices, ana com pleting his legal
studies under the direction OF Joseph Holt
ESQ, now Judge Advocate General in the
Department oil Justice, at ashington.
Subsequently tie removed to North MlssIs-
sippi, (where he has stree resided
where he practiced at the bar for some il
teen years, and long stood in its front rank,
He was elected TO Judgeship in the High
Court of Errors and Appeals, about the year
1851, which high place he resigned before
the late civil war lie took no active part
in that caIamitous struggle, but was infleX-
IDLY opposed To the Inauguration, "a also TO
the usurpatiOus and violence th3t were the
consequences Oft. AT its close he was the
choic of the Constitutional Convention for
success that he was defeared by rival candi-
dates. Since then he resumed his practice
at the bar, and more recently was one of the
Judges of the Circuit Court, appointed
by Governor AlcOrn's administration.
He was possessed of qualities and
characteristics of heart and mind and
purpose in such combination as are
very rarely found. He united With a chiv-
alrous sense of honor and integrity of heart
and purpose that knew nothing but right
and justice a generous and magnanimouS
soul that responded always to the cry 81
poverty or oppression aud sympathised with
the weak and triendleSS.
His life was grand illustration of un-
bending integrity, and OF steaitast and un-
alterable devotion to principle. Intellectu-
ally he had few equals His mind was OF
the preheDsiVe order which graSped
readily and Immediately the great and es-
sentia and controlling features of any sub
ject and presented them markedly and pow
crfully, whether in social conversation, or in
the impasSiOned language of the advocate,
or in the majestic announcement OF judicial
opinion. As pTacticlng lawyer, ne was a
very Coke upon the elementary principles
of the law; aud no man was more familiar
with forms and precedents. These, united
with magnificent common sense under
standing, made him most formidable oppo-
nent But like all great men he had a true
humility which made him deterential to in
Ieriors. Taken altogether, he was a man OF
unique mould and of sterling worth. Mod
ern degeneracy had not reached him. The
features OF his character had the hardihood
of antiquity. In the days of Washington,
he would have been a Marshall, or in the
late revolution a Chase. His nature was
above mere partnership. No man can
speak in dispara cement OF the heroic char
acter ofhis virtues, lorhe bullded on rock
j. \. NJ.
Jannary 1877