The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-12
A LIBRARY I'M HIS HEAD.
A COlored Man in Washington Whom Law
yers All Over the Country Know.

Washington Letter in New York Sun.
Opposite the winding staircase which ascends
to the rotunda, and directly beneath the Supreme
Court room, is the finest law library in this coun-
try. 1t contains 63, 900 volumes, and the annual
additions amount to about 1000 volumes.
Though nominally part of the miscellaneous
library, and under the jurisdiction of Mr.. Spot
ford, 1t has had for years its librarian and sep
arate Accommodations. Within the portals of
this vast collection the profoundest lawyers of
the United States have laboriously traced legal
principles and marshaled arrays of authorities.
The rule of silence is without breach. In this
legal reservoir there is that quiet which rests
upon the waters in whose depths genuine pearls
alone are found.
The legal explorer meets with but one annoy
ance. There is not gas-jet or lamp within the
room. No employe dare even carry a match.
After the fire of 1851 which proved so disastrous,
statute was enacted prohibiting the use of com
bustibles of any kind within the libraries. And
| thus, when dusk prevents the eye from longer
following the studied text the doors are closed
and, perhaps In the middle OF a sustained argu-
ment which the reader would fain pursue to con-
clusion, the volume must be resigned.
The assistant law librarian. John Francis
Nicholas Wilkinson, is colored gentleman. He
is the oldest attache in either library. For TWEEN
tyeight years he has been the familiar puryeyor
of the law books, and in every leading Office of
the larger cities he could find q lawyer whom
| he knows. No authorizations of the law re-
porters stagger him. He refers to no dictionary to
names used, but promptly goes to the proper al
cove and unerringly brings forth the desired re-
port, whether it be one of a musty British series
or some earlier State collection of opinions whose
editor sought to emblazon his own name upon 1T
rather than employ the modern convenience OF
consecutive numbers. 1t is this perfect familiar
ity with the library which impresses Mr.. Wlkin-
son upon the visitor. The pages of the Supreme
Court justices are momentarily coming down
with acquisitions for authorities that may range
from the ancient Breton laws, French causes
celebres, reports of the court de cessation to
the whole domain of American decisions With
the precision of Swiss bell ringer Mr.. Wilkinson
draws out the required works from the shelves
But what is more remarkable as a feat of mem
orizing is the accuracy of his recollection Of
cases. He has no need of recourse to digests to
locate the leading cases of our Jurisprudence.
The library has grown during Mr. Wilkinson's
incumbency from l5, 900 to 63, 900 volumes, but
he has kept pace with it,
For six generations back, MIR. Wilkinson's an
cestors have been free. He has African, Indian
and white blood in his veins. In 1884, when the
fear OF slave instruction terrorlzed the South
and the free negroes were driven from Virginia,
Wilkinson's father became o resident OF Wash
ington, where he was caterer to the leading
statesmen who messed together there The
son was early placed in backyard, and
followed brick making until he was twenty nine
years old, filling the winter intervals with
catering and playing in a band. In 1857 he was
employed a laborer to assist in cleaning the
general library. Congress made an appropria-
ton for an additional laborer, and Wilkinson
got the permanent job. Wilkinson was soon
detailed to the law library, and there, through
the grades of laborer, messenger, and assistant
librarian, he has served ever since. In 1867 Mr..
Lincoln removed John S. Meehan, the law
librarian, after thirty-one years service, and ap
pointed DR.. Stevenson, of Terre Haute, in his
place. The new appointee discharged every
employee except the younger Meehan. Wilkinson
was told that it had been decided to employ no
colored help. But he was restored in few
months, and the Supreme Court and Reverdy
johnson, then on the library COMMITTEE, re-
quested that he be never removed