Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-26
DEATH or JUDGE sANpERsoN

In the death of Judge S. w. Sanderson
the State has lost one of the foremost Of
iurists and u man whose life and attain
ments have adorned the pages of her his
tory. Judge Sanderson was pre-eminentiy
great lawyer. The qualities that made
him such were evidenced by analytical
powers and profundity of reasoning such
as are given to but few to possess. 1t may
be appropriately said that he was born to
the robes of the law Its science was TO
him the sum and substance and the high
est achievement of human wisdom. He
rose superior at all times to the forms of
legal procedure, and grasped, analysed and
applied the reason of the law. That was
not to him sound law that was not fortified
by reasons having their basis in the under
lying principles of the best civilization.
In looking back at his striking record we
see nothing but u succession of successes.
On the bench he took a position that at
once made his opinions models of logical
reasoning and exemplars as legal treatises.
Holmes has well said that every mans
biography is at his own expense. He fur
nishes not only the facts, but the report"
Judge Sanderson's whole life record is
written in his achievements as lawyer.
They are at once fact and report. His
legal declarations faithfully depict the
quality of his mastery mind, and far bet
ter than is possible to any biographer.
The world scarcely needs to know of what
race Judge Sanderson came, what were the
struggles of early life with him, or what
the social atmosphere in which he moved.
1t is enough for it to know him by the
manifestations of his great mind. He was
one of the few lawyers to whom the law
gave nothing, but to which he constantly
contributed. His was ever the judicial
attitude; he forever moved in Judicial
calm; his realm was that of reason, cut of
which springs all law. Judge Sanderson
was born in the State Of Vermont in the
year 1894. He was early educated in the
school and academic system of his State,
and, entering thereafter first Williams
and then Union College, was graduated
from the latter venerable institution while
vet very young man, and with the high
est honors of his class. His natural bent
was for the study of the law. The dispo-
sition of his mind fitted him pre-eminently
for profession in which the analysis of
human motives, the study of the constltu-
ton of society, and the consideration OF
the methods by which man attains to the
highest possibility in the doing of justice
between men, constitute its end and aim.
He was early admitted to the bar, anG at
once proved his right to prominent place
in the ranks Of the distinguished men who
have adorned the calling. He came to
California in 1850, after some short prac-
tice with his brother, an able advocate, in
Florida. His first practice in this State
was in FL Dorado county, where his posi-
tive qualities of character and his legal
acumen received immediate recognition
and early hurried him into the law-making
department of the Government. In the
Legislature he at once attracted State at
tention, and his abilities made him imme
diately distinguished factor in that body
As the author Of one of the most notable
Acts of his day-the specific contract bill
he was brought still more PROMINENT,
into public view. His call to thu
Supreme Bench and the Chief Jus
ticeship, shortly afterward, was in natura
sequence to his career up to that time
That he was eminently fitted for the plac'
was so clearly demonstrated that thosl
who knew him best, and best fathomed tn,
mental qualities of the man, would hav,
considered his rejection as little less thar
a public calamity. From the day tina
he assumed the robes of that high offic,
he became q chief legal authority. Tn
certainty and the CELEBRITY with which h
erasped material issues presented for ad
justment, the clearness with which he de
fined and set apart human rights, tn
vigor and force with which he reasone'
out any propositions to which his SCUM
Judgment committed him, made Judg
Sanderson unquestionably one of the mos
distinguished judicial figures of that day
And that was in an era when the mos
involved and troublous questions affecting
the principles of government and touching
the constitution of society in Californi'
were arising. The State was as yet in ;
formative stage; society was unsettled il
its purpose and methods; land titles wer'
deeply entangled with the complexities o