Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-03-09
EX-JUSrlgE NILES.
HIS MEMORY HoNoRED sY MEMBERS
OF THE BENCH AND Bah.
A Memorial by Ex-Justice hIcKinstry,
and = Fitting Tribute by Justice
I. Ii. Mcfarland.

At a special session q the Suprem
Court on Friday, ex-Justise Z W. NJ,
Kinstry read memorial adopted by III
San Francisco Bse Association upon th
late ex.Justice AGaison G. Niles, whic
paid deserved tribf1e to the character @
the deceased jurist in his professiona
capacity and as a citizen.
In behalf of the Court, Justice MeFar
land, who was an intimate friend of Ii,
deceased IN Nevada co1nty years ago
eloqGently replied, charactcriziDg.. the de
ceased as one of natures noblemen, ir
whom confidence could be 7eposed at all
times and under all circumstances. His
eulogy was as follows:
The Court is in full sympathy with the senti-
ments OF the memorial just presented from the
bar; andiit is ordered that the same BE entered
of record. The late Addison C. Niles completed
his early student life-as a student os general
learning and Of the learning of the lGw-in an
Eastern State. but his whole career on the
arena of practical business life commenced and
ended here. He was collegiate graduate, and
was one OF the many who brought the culture
of our elder Atlantic sisters to adorn the newer
conditions of our frontier life. He was as
thorough a Californian as ever labored among
and loved our golden slopes, our graceful val
leys and our sunny shores. And it happened
that during most of his life here was his inti-
mate friend, and for long time his townsman
and neighbor.
When he entered upon his term of Justice OF
this Court he seemed to me to occupy as enyi-
alb c position as anyone whom it has been my
lot to know. He was then in the prime of early
manhood. He had inherited mental and PHYSICAL
characteristics offs high order of excellence and
superiority. His mind was broad and capacious
and of the finest texture; and it bad been cult
vated to that degree which develops and
strengthens, but does rot, by overloading turn
original powers into mere sponges to receive
the flow OF other mems thoughts. His face and
features were handsome ana dignifed and ex-
pressive. His physical health and strength and
endurance seemed TO be equal 10 all reasonable
demands. His social qualities endeared him
to all who enjoyed the good fortune of
his friendship. He had great capacity for
enjoyment, and was largely of the poetic tenn
permanent. He took great delight in both na-
ture and art. He particularly loved the ocean,
and made long voyages on its most remote
and unfrequented waters. His general educa-
tion was exceedingly complete, and his study
of law had been regular, systematic and thor
ough. He had been at the bar long enough to
see the practical application of principles to
cases. and to avoid the mistakes of mere ciois-
tered professors who know little of real men
and things But he had not been practitioner
SO long as to wish to run the paths into which
he had settled, under and through established
highways. He was partner at Nevada City
for several years of the late John r. Mcconnell,
one OF the most learned lawyers and men l
have known, and who was then in the full ca.
reer of a large and lucrative practice In that
practice, owing to the peculiar condition of that
region of country, questions were continuously
met for which adjudicated cases afforded no
precedents, which had to be argued upon broad
general principles, to which the philosophy of
the law had to be applied by the most compre
hensive reasoning, and to the solution of which
mere case lawyers" afforded no aid. 1t was
under such circumstances that Judge Niles re-
ceived his practical education in our profes-
sion. he was never very. fond of oral argu-
ment, and he disliked to go before a jury. But
in the preparation of case, in the construction
of pleadings, end IN the presentation of law
questions to q Cours-p particularly in the form
of written briefs--lia had few superiOrs.
scarcely ever knew another man who could
put thought INTO language with such comDi-
nation of gracefliiness and force. His taste in
htefar ~ competition was exquisite. 1t has been
stated that be once engaged in the newspaper
business. Tlsi statement has only this founda-
ton. Hon, 4. q. tie who was editor and
proprietor Of the Ne, lda Journal. published at
Sacramento as State Senator. induced Judge
N end .payseif-then law partners-to edit
= pei during his temporary absence. 1t
vas A. snat Time published only once week,
and tne ounes o. scitorship were not very ardu-
ons, but some OF the little things which Judge
Niles wrote for the Paper hurrfedIw and during
Of professional labors were literary
sembled very much that of Addison OF Wash
lngton Irving l recollect that NewsYear's
address written by MIN at that time was 4
model of simple elegance. He wrote also, at
different times, few short poems CT great
merit and a number of literary addresses and
papers, but, so far as know, they were never
published or put into any permanens form.
While his general scholarship was more thor
ough than that of ordinary college bred men in
the United States, his tastes led him especially
to great familiarity with the whole range of
bellies letters. But in his wri ings he never al
ous thought; he never put the incident in the
place of the principal, and those who choose to
examine his opinions delivered while Justice
Of this Court, particularly those IN the half
dozen volumes OF reports commencing with ~
CAL, will find them most excellent examples of
the finest judicial style being characterized by
strength and eonciseness.
He was one OF tie kindest, gentlest and most
modest and unselfish OF human beings
man or woman-whom ever knew. He never
intrigued for his own advancement. Ne had
motor, at least, never exercised-;he ant of
always putting the best foot foremost he never
passed for more than he was worth; he never
passed for as much as he was worth except with
the few who knew him intimately. He he'd
nothing of the cold, calculating, polite, schem-
ing, thrifty, insineeIe, cruel eld successful
disposition which Shakespeare gives to that
"ingrate Bolingbroke, who became Henry w..
and into whose mouth the great dramatist puts
that celebrated description of the crafty arts by
which he sought to pluck allegiance from
mems hearts" He never husbanded his men,
tai resources, or looked after his own iane
have been informed that when q, member of
this Court he frequently, during consultations,
expressed, either orally or ON loose written
with great fullness and exactness,
the substance and form OF opinions which after
ward appeared without any sign of his author
ship.
Whatever faults Judge Niles had came from
that warm side of human character where dwell
the generous and the liberal virtues-where the
sources are OF those genial and amiable aud So
cial qualities which make some men love each
other. Such qualities sometimes run into ex-
cesses bat this is true also of their conn erparts
IF indeed the contractions of selhShness can
be called "excesses-'' Il can be said of him
without the slightest resery alton or doubt-that
from his cradle TO his grave no cloud, no mist,
no breath. no speek, ever obscured, or rested
for a moment, on the bright surface of his char
acter for integrity, and for all the oPen, truth
fui, honorable, manly virtues.
For long time Judge les was financially in
easy circumstances: during the last few years
of his life he was what the world calls poor.
The failure of a moneYed institution under
mined his fortune, and it speedily disappeared.
But he always had an estate in ,hings, real and
personal, which breaking banks and shrinking
values do not touch, and which the assessor
does not sehedule IN the sunset and stars in
the shores of the deep sounding sea and in the
broad ocean itself o., whose breast he loved to
be "borne like lis bubbles onward in land
seapes yariegated with tree and grass aud flower,
musical with the voices OF birds and brooks; in
the companionsbip of genial friends; in the
ophers and poets of all times; in the rich
thoughts of mis- own miud, in the choice works
of the sculptor and the painter and in the love
of the beautiful and the grand wherever found
in nature or art or man. And from this estate
he derived an income more valuable than the
overfiowing revenues which ofsen come to duller
men from the OWNERSHIP of sock and bonds,
and from titles in fee TO broad acres and brick
blocks. All, how hand it Is to tell who makes
the most out of;human life
And iftbere be a1etner lie; If Plato's dream
of Immortality be not as unsabstantial as were
many OF his 'ideas,' ii the expectations of
millions of Christian men and women be not
utterly baseless may we not hope, at least. that
our departed friend has entered a sphere of
higher. existence. with faculties and capacities
more suited to its cou6k tions and demands
than those possessed by many who still linger
here upon this bank and shoal of time waiting
for
'.The tide returning kolrse
To sweep them from our sighF."
The Court directed that the foregoing be
ordered spread in full upon the minutes.
PROPERTY TRANSFERS.