St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-14
FROM FARM TO WooLsACK.
Career of the Eminent Jurist Who
Has Been Summoned.


Has Been Summoned.
Samuel Freeman Miller was born in
Richmond. KY, April 5, 1916. His father
emigrated from Reading, in 1872, to
Richmond, KY, where the future JUS
tice was born on April 5, 1916. His
mother was the daughter of parents
who had removed to Kentucky from
North Carolina before his birth. His
early years were spent upon farm, put
the drudgery of agriculture was a
source OF discomfort to him, and employ
ment III drugstore gave him the op-
porlunlty for reading medicine. He
graduated III the medical department of
Pennsylvania university when twenty
two years OF age, and entered upon the
practice OF medicine in Knox county,
Ky. He had been married in the mean
time, and had begun the study of law,
and was admitted to the bar in 1S47.
In 1862 President Lincoln appoiut-
Il Mr.. Miller as associate Justice
OF the supreme court, and he is to-day
the sole remaining appointee of Mr.
Lincoln on the bench except Justice
Field. Of Pennsylvania stock on his
fathers side and NCrth Carolina blood
on his mOther'S-a native of Kentucky
and citizen of Iowa at the time of his
ppointment-Justice Miller has united
all the characteristics of strength,
S0lldlty, intelligence, cOnscientiousness,
that characterize the people from whom
he sprang. Appointed to the associate
justiceShip Of the republics supreme
court in the midst Of the gigantic strug-
gle OF the Union for existence, he was
one of the foremost figures of the fed
eral judiciary in the settlement of the
important questions growing out of that
md
lican from the Fremont campaign i'm
1856, he supported the policy of that
party IN those measures which firmly
established its supremacy and deter
mined the course of the reconstruction.
Among the opinions written by him at
this great period was that in the New
Orleans slaughter house cases, which
maintained the validity of the national
powers under the new constitutional
amendments. In the twenty-eight years
of his service on the supreme bench
Justice Miller delivered opinions in
large number of cases involving high
questions OF government, and his lucid
and Welghty words have settled them
perhaps permanently. III the Kibourne-
thompson case the deilmitation of leg
lslatlve power and personal rights of
the citizen was most clearly made. The
right of the national legislature, how
ever, was upheld by him and the court
of which he was spokesman, in the mat
ter of interstate railroad transportation.
So clear-cut have been many of his
judicial and unofficial utterances in favor
of the constitutional rights of the states
in the Union, that by some state rights
men. even of an extreme school, Judge
Miller was regarded as the firmest friend
in the supreme court of the reserved
rights of the several states.n On
the other hand, his position
on the electoral commission of
1877 gave more satisfaction to Repub-
llcanS than Democrats. But to those
who have watched the career of the
justice his impartiality seemed as con-
spicuous as his common sense and legal
ability. One of the longest in service
on that great tribunal he has been ex-
celled by none in dignity, in faithful
ness to his trust and in ali that makes a
consummate judge. He was eminent.
like Bushrod Washington, for his prac-
teal judgment. and if not so learned as
Story was AS luminous, wise and ju-
dicious as any of the great men who
have adorned the bench from the days
of Jay, 1redell and Ellsworth to the
present time. Twice considered for the
place of chief justice, if the strong
reasons advanced had operated for his
promotion he would have been worthy
successor OF Chase or Waite. A great
Jurist. there was no position in the world
of jurisprudence he would not have
adorned,