Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-11-18

plish"
He brought to the bench this spirit, and many
judgments of this court have been radiant with It's
glory. They will be beaconS on the track to pilot
generations OF lawyers to come. Let the hopeful
enthusiasm of youth look upon his virtues and
stunning his imperfeetiOns strive for his height OF
learning and power. Can the neOphyte, who sees
in dreams the cleaning splendor of professional
grandeur but attain the one and avoid the other,
he may confidently expect the highest rewards to
which the noble profession leads
Mr.. Jenkins
MAY IT PLEASE THE CoURT:-I rise to a double
purpose-for myself, to lay a twig of laurel upon
the grave of the great chief justice; by command
of the bar of Milwaukee, TO execute the com
mission to this court with which they honored me.
At the appointed age of three score years and
ten, at the zenith Of his fame he who but yester
day presided in this court, has passed from his
field Of labor.
He died as he long wished to die in the dis
charge of Judicial functions, with mental power
unabated, with his professional harness upon
him
A mind comprehensive and powerful in its
grasp; quick of perception; profound learning in
the law; close familiarity with the writers of the
past; thorough mastery and precision of language:
classical beauty of diction; wonderful power Of
imagery; great nervous force and energy Were
the marked characteristics of him who lowered
LAWYERS.
His arguments were models of their kind-clear
IN statement, clothed in the garment of classic
thought and speech, rich in metaphor, scathing in
invective, terrible in denunciation.
These unhappily, will soon be forgotten. The
fame of the advocate is ephemeral, fading with
the memories of those who heard him. We write
the record of our lives upon the sand. The IN
coming tide of succeeding generation blos out the
record forever; and so, the wonderful pleas of Ed
ward George Ryan, addressed to court or jury
Will pass from remembrance with the hux of
time. The fame Of the advocate cannot long sur
Vive.
lie will, however, be long and best remember
ed by his record upon the bench. Called late
in hfe to high judicial station he seemed eminated
with new energy, inspired with lofty ambition.
10 his duty he brought the matured
powers of gifted intellect enriched by culture dis
cplned by long professional experience. Almost
ut bound, he attained to national reputation us
4 great judge, bringing honor to his state, its
court and its bar.
discriminating; able, incorruptiblc. No nobler
crown awaits an honorable cndeavOr. In every
judgement he had warrant, sharp accurate, CON
Vincing. Reason was his professional deity in
whose clear light every cause must be judged; to
whose decree every suitor must bow. He hestated
not to yield individual opinion to the wiser judg
ment of the law. He measured every cause By
principle. No human sympathy supposed
special equity could swerve him from true judy
ment. In vain to him the specious plea:
''Wrest once the law to your authority;
To do a great right, do little wrong"
And so the record of his Judgment is a record
of attachment to principle containing no false pre-
cedent returning TO plague the inventor"
Ills opinions, as his addresses, are models in
consciousness of statement chOiceness Of language
elegance Of diction. Every word has its appro-
pirate Office, fruitful in force, pregnant with
meaning. Rarely do they contain OJiicr dicta. lie
was content to rule the essential point involved.
He mad learned that difficult of judicial les
sonS-When to stop.
His great service to the state may not now be
measured. The principles of law established
during his tenure OF Office must find their full
consequence in the future. His mind, aiding to
determine great rules of action, has thus been
woven with the warp and woot of human society,
largely influencing mems business and mems
lives. Who may place bounds to his sway
Who may measure the effectiveness of his life?
Enough to say that the Immortality of his in
fuence is in the line of the Immortality of Justice
The life of Judge Ryan was one long struggle
"a struggle against himself-a struggle against
mtoward fOrtune-a struggle against infrmity
which the world knew little of and allowed not
for. And so to most men he seemed arrogant and
proud; whereas to those who knew him best, he
was, when acquit of infirmity, companionable and
considerate. s.s
He possessed none of the arts of the courtier.
ie would neither bow subservient to power nor
be patient in the presence of wrong and oppres-
fion. Like the oak Of the forest, he could break
put could not bend. Power ght crush hint
could not silence him. So he was often the cham
pion of the lowly against the POWERFUL think
out of abhorrence of the oppressor, rather than
from sympathy to the oppressed. He hated the
wrong more than he loved the victim or the
wrong.
Such man could never be popular; he never
sought to be. he despised the popularity that Is
run after. He challenged the fame that waits up
grand deeds, upon great intellectual and moral
power. Men admired him. The world recognized
graud intellect, and marvelled at its power. 1t
apprehended his great requirements, and hOnOred
him. Put it could not love him. 1t neither com
pretended the man. nor allowed for his infrmity.
Indeed he never sought the worlds appreciation.
He was al-suficiept to himself He shut himself
up within himself asking neither sympathy nor
love. He seemed of different mould from other
men above the need of sympathy, or too proud
to claim it. If, perchance, within the silence Of
his chamber there came, at last, with ebbng life.
yearning for human sympathy, or human love,
he yet made sign. He died as he had lived,
grand, gloomy and peculiar wrapt
in the solitude of his originality" ...
The future, not the present can do full justice
to great jurist. The softening touch Of time,
blotting from the memory every human frailty of
his nature will preserve for honor and for exam
pie the high endOwments and vast attainments Of
a master mind. / trust the future. The people
of this commonwealth, whose Jurisprudence hc
has moulded into symmetery and based upon the
sure foundation of reason and of right; this high
appellate court of which he was the ornament and
the chief; the bar of Wisconsin, ennobled by his
connection with it, and of which he was as well
the actual the official head, viii fttingly honor
the name and secretly preserve the fame of the
great chief justice.
MAYIT PLEASE Your HoNoRs:-The bar Of
Milwaukee in memorial of him. who was one of
US and of whom we are proud, but who in a ldrg-
measure belonged TO the state, have deemed 1t
fitting. with your permission, TO place upon these
walls the portrait Of the late chief JUSTICE; and
have commissioned me, in their names, to tender
the picture to the court. Tt seemed to them be
coming that the likeness Of the great judge should
grace the court in which he had presided, in per-
petual remembrance and honor of him. and for
example to US who for so little time remain, and
to those who shall so soon succeed us-in the
truthful language he once employed on like oc-
casion:
''As a memorial Of life sealed in honor and
usefulness. by death-and an instruction 10 US
that we are compassed about with SO grea5 a cloud
Of witnesses to see how we play our parts in the
noble profession which is charged with the earth
ly administration of the justice of God"
If the spirits Of the dead, indeed revisit the
scenes of earth; if the departed indeed take cog
nizance Of the affairs of time, may we not indulge
the hope that the free spirit Of the great judge yet
fingers within this accustomed temple. May we
not trust to catch from him, speaking TO US at
least, in this counterfeit presentment of him,
e"iue spark Of inspiration TO aid in the Intelligent
discharge of duty; 10 prompt US TO d better and
nobler life; to advance yet higher the standard OF
professional honor and professional attainfnents.
1t but remains in fuifiilmert of the trust where
with L am charged, to make formal presentation,
n"w Of this picture to the court and in the name
of ne bar Oh Milwaukee, to ask your acceptGnct
of it. 90