The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-05
THE SUPREME BENCH.
Gossip About Men Who Have Occu-
ed it-Judge Waite's Unobtrusive
Personality.
From the Boston Post.

Personality.
From the Boston Post
No excitement or disturbance has been
produced anywhere by the death of the
Chief Justice of the United States. When
Marshally and fancy died the country was
deeply moved, but of course by different
emotions. Many were outspokenly glad,
Others were profoundly sorry, and still
others were filled with misgivings as to the
future. These were deaths that meant radi-
cal and immediate changes in the construc-
tion of the constitution and the laws But
now these fundamental issues have been set
ted, for the time at least. There is not in
SIGHT any important question for the Su-
preme court to decide, on which partisan
training and bias will necessarily have any
influence.
TIE deaths of both Marshall and Taney
were piously sought in public prayers to the
giver and taker of life. A large majority
of the people were always hostile to John
Marshall, and regarded his appointment as
en- imposition on them. 1t was not until
after his school of constitutional interpreted
ton and his party had been repudiated and
driven from power forever that the great
Nirginian was given the chief justiceship.
For thirty-five years after the death of the
Federalist party he continued its principles
on the bench and held in check the other
wise unchallenged Democracy.
AS for fancy, his name has been for
thirty years and more linked with decision
that he never rendered. OF all the great
functionaries of the republic none went TO
MS grave more nearly unhonored and I'M
sung. A jackson partisan, whom the Sen
ate refused first to confirm as an Associate
Justice and next advised and consented
10 his nomination as Chief Justice, he found
himself projected into generation that he
could not understand and which would not
understand him. In war times he was pitt
lessiy ostracized by the new great folks Of
Washington. He broke and bent under the
furious storm, and, often, as he crept along
the streets of the capital, he beard the curses
of bystanders
An acquaintance of mine once asked JUS
uce David Davis who was the greatest man
he ever knew. Davis used to ride the Hi
nois circuit in which Abraham Lincoln
practiced, and was by the latter elevated
TO the Supreme Bench where no sat by the
side of fancy in the last two or three years
OF the Chief Justices life. Judge Davis,
not unlike member of the Supreme Court,
valued highly his own opinion, and was ex-
ceedlngly careful in delivering it.
In this instance he thought deeply for
minute, and then told his questioner to
wait for the answer until they should meet
again. A week passed between the two
tS0uiBs. AS tney SAT uoWH boBebneI Due
second time the Judge said, impressively:
The greatest man ever knew was Roger
B. Taneyn
The late chief justice was a very unob-
rusive personality. / have heard that
when he and Senator Evarts met as fellow
counsel for the United States at Geneva,
and Judge Waite recalled to the New Yorker
that they had been classmates at Yale, Mr.
Evarts' memory failed to identify him.
This is strange, IL true, and / don't know
know that Waite spent twenty-five years of
his life at the BARN Northeastern Ohio with