Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-08-20
Aailcaster fr1teligellcer.
MOUNTAINEERING. AUG. 20. lees.l

Aailcaster fatelligetlcer.
MOUNTAINEERING. AUG. 20. iees.D
jeremiah Sullivan Black.
The complete sketch Of Judge Blacks
life which we print, in connection with
the melancholy news of his death, leaves
little necessary to be said in praise of his
services and character. No comprehen-
siye account of what he was and what
he has done would fail to carry with it
fit eulogy of the great man who is now
dead and whom all intelligent c0ntem.
porary criticism accounts to have been
the foremost man of the commonwealth.
His public career extended over a period
of forty years, and though it made him
q conspicuous national figure and at the
bar and in the federal councils he
ranked with the best minds that have
adorned official life under our
government, he was essentially a
Pennsylvania and the best pro-
duct of that composite citizenship
which peopled this state. Uniting the
German and the Scotch-Irish strains,
born in rural region which has developed
30 many specimens of exceptional physi-
cal and mental vigor, almost self.taugbt,
studying the models Of English liteIa-
ture by the light of the pine knot and
the ancient classics behind the plow, it
was only the resolute purpose to wipe
the mortgages off his fathers farm that
induced him to quit the rural life and
agricultural pursuits he best loved and
engage in the profession of which he be-
came one of the leading representatives,
and in the practice of which his early
training and associations served him so
we'll.
Once upon the bench his elevation to
the highest honors of his profession was
a natural sequence, and in the office of
chief justice of the supreme court of
Pennsylvania lin which ex Chief Justice
Agnew and Chief Justice Mercur are his
only living successors) his decisions en-
riched the literature of that high court
alike by their reasoning and their style.
In the Buchanan cabinet the brilliancy
Of his services asa lawyer, especially his
redemption of the San Francisco land
titles from the bogus claims which COW
cred that city three deep, we're lost sight
of in the more critical duties which con
fronted him when the dissolution of the
cabinet and the secession events in the
South called him 10 the chair of state.
If any doubt ever existed as to how he
met the duties of that place, it was dis
PEELED some years ago when he
broke long silence and rebukcd
the spirit of misrepresentation
with the incontrCvertible proofs of
his sagacious counsel and patriotic
conduct in that trying hour. Some re-
gret has been expressed that he did not
live to answer the recent onslaught upon
him by Jefferson Davis for his conduct
in 1861, but really the epithets and abuse
of Mr.. Davis needed no reply, for they
were occasioned simply by Mr.. Blacks
performance of what his countrymen
have long since adjudged to have been
his duty.
The integrity of his official conduct is
attested by The fact that he quit the cabi
net seven thousand dollars in debt but
the emoluments of law practice which
opened up before him, beyond all his ex-
pectations, gained for him a competence
which enabled him not only to select his
own field for the exercise of his lofty
genius as advocate and counsel, but per,
mitted him to become the unpaid tribune
of the people in nearly all of the greatest
cases with which his name has been as
sociated in the last twenty years. The
value of his services in saving our con-
stitutional system from the subver-
sion which threatened it is beyond cal.
culation. Without an office, except in
his hat, and with no law partnerships,
his counsel was eagerly sought and his
services solicited with kings ransom
by suitors who had weightiest interests
at stake but no case was ever under.
taken by him with the same delight as
when he became the advocate of the
peoples rights, whether against the
oppression of usurped and centralized
political power or the aggressions of i'll
corporated capital and insolent plutOc.
racy. 1t was upon this latter subject
that he felt most sensitively and pro-
foundly for the future of his country and
his commonwealth, and this theme most
frequently engaged his pen and voice of
late.
As controversialist and historian of
events among which he moved, no man
of his age welded such vigorous pen or
commanded more engaging style. His
magazine and newspaper articles were
contributions to American literature
which are not paralleled for vividness or
vigor, and no knight who ever broke
lance in this field with him, whether
challenged or challenger, came out of
the fray a victor.
But it was in his private life and fire.
side virtues that Judge Black displayed
his noblest self. The charm of his con
versation, its richness of learning. the
grace and aeniality of his wit, were tie
delight of all who ever enjoyed them !;
the singular purity of his life and the
heroic moral courage Of his opinions