The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-08-12
JUDGE CLIFFORD.
Remarks Before the Milwaukee Bar.

Edwin Hale Abbott, Esq, who was former
ly resident of Portland, and who married a
daughter of the late Eben Steele, Esq, of this
city-in the course of his remarks on the late
Judge Clifford, before the Milwaukee Bar
spoke as follows:
Your honor knows how persistent is the dis
position of American litigates to pursue the
rights to the highest court which it is possible
to reach in error or by appeal; but venture to
say that the record of Judge Clifford's circuit
will show an immense number of great causes
which we're finally disposed of in accordance
with his decision, which all parties were wise
enough to adopt as the conclusion of their con-
test, because he had made clear that no other
result than the one which he had announced
would ever be reached in a higher court If
to be a great judge is to be great peace-maker
the blessing pronounced upon those who make
peace fingers around the name of Judge Clifford.
1 recall two great causes which, if my memory
does not now mislead nae, Judge Clifford thus
ended forever. One was the case of Burrill VS..
the City of Boston, in which upwards of mil
lion of dollars were involved, and which was
argued by most eminent counsel, General But
Ter, Mr.. Paine and Governor CASTOR on the one
side, against Judge Curtis and Juoee Abbott
on the other. 1t involved doctrines of ultra
tires, not then SO we'll settled as now; yet not
withstanding the great amount at stake and
the ability of the counsel-shall we n OF rather
say, on account of their learning and ability
the legal fight was over, when Judge Clifford
announced his decision of the great issues.
The nature of litigation in seaboard circuit,
where causes of maritime jurisdiction constant
ly arise, and crimes on the high seas are fire.
quently brought to federal cognizance, gave
Mr.. Justice Clifford great familitary with the
rules of admiralty, while his early experience,
as district attorney and attorney general in his
native state, made him probably, one of the
best criminal judges who has ever administer
ed the criminal law of the United States. If
one were TO name, however, the departments
of law in which he has impressed himself PEE
culiarly upon the jurisprudence of this coun-
try, they would, unquestionably, be maritime
law and the law of patents. Most of the
causes, no viewer, which came before him on
the circuit, were important and peculiar. The
tendency of litigation in that part of the coun-
try is not toward federal courts, unless the SUBJ
ject matter is specially of federal cognizance,
for the tenure on which the state Judges for
the most part hold office is as permanent as it
is on the federal bench. The universal dis
trust which inheres in an elective judiciary,
and helps to crowd the federal docket with Or
binary litigation in other parts of the country,
is there happily absent. The result is that the
unbroken series of reports which preserve the
decisions of Judge Story and his successors in
the first circuit has always possessed a peculiar
value on account 2of the specially important
causes and questions there preserved The
volumes of Clifford's re ports will rank among
the best, and are his own exclusive monument