The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-05-11
charleston News and Courier Rsport.l

iual thirteen states, and, continuing, paid
an eloquent tribute to some of the historic
names which have adorned the profession
in South Carolina.
He defined lawyers as those persons who
are versed in maintaining the integrity of
the social structure, and then turning back
to the dawn OF history he passed in review
the lives and work of some of the worlds
great lew-givers.
The imposing structure of the Mosaic
scripture, though ascribed to divine in
spiration, was after all the work OF great
lawyer. To the race of Moses belonged
one of the greatest lawyers this country
had ever produced, man whose fame in
England was no less great than in Amer
ica-he referred to Judah 2. Benjamin.
Passing in review the histories of Greece
and Rome, he said that all that remained
of the great empires and republics OF an
cient days were their laws and two great
social structures built up by law, literature
and art. In English history the speaker
reviewed the lie of Alfred the Great and
the system OF laws Which he had given to
his people, then successfully commented
upon the great legal epoch in the history
OF the Anglo-Saxon race. Magma charta,
trial by jury, the bill of rights and the
habeas corpus act were all touched upon
in mastery manner, the speaker giving
brief synopsis OF each and OF the condi-
tons by which each was produced.
The American people are Anglo-Saxons
and have inherited the essence of the En-
glish law.
One more achievement of legal minds,
concluded Mr.. Voorhees,, in connecti N
with the constitution, challenges the at
tention. respect and veneration of lawyers,
whenever aud wherever assembled. The
creation of the supreme court of the
United States, as provided for in the third
article of that hallowed instrument, can
never be passed in silence when ques-
ton of what the world owes to the profess
sion of the law is under consideration. As
the chosen interpreter of the constitution
and the highest and last resort of arbitra-
ment of every conflict of rights that can
arise within its scope, we bow with uncov-
cred heads before the lofty history and
the luminous landmarks with which it has
lighted up the world and measured the
progress of human freedom.
No sectional thought can exist in con-
templating the supreme court of the
American Union, and yet here under a
southern sun and In state decorated with
the names of great lawyers from John
Rutledge to James l.. Pettigru, it seems as
If we inhale, in peculiar manner the at
mO5phere of that great tribunal. To
southern states, to southern lawyers, be-
long its highest honors. John Rutledge,
born in this beautiful city in 1889, won
distinction at the bar prior to the revolu-
ton. During the struggle for independ-
ence he was governor of South Carolina
and commander-in-chiefo of her forces. He
was member of the convention which
framed her temporary state constitution,
and also a member of the congress of the
confederation. Under the first act of the
congress of the United States passed Sep
TENDER. 1889, to provide for judicial courts,
Washington sent his name to the senate
first on the list OF associate justices of the
supreme court. and his appointment was
at once confirmed. This position he after
ward resigned to become chief justice of
his native state.
In the meantime, upon the resignation
OF John Jayln 1874, Washington promoted
Rutledge TO the chief iusticeship of the
supreme court of the United States. To
this position he was not confirmed, be-
cause of broken health, mentally and
physically, which retired him from public
life, and five years later laid him in his
honored grave. After brief interval. in
January, 1901, another southern lawyer
was appointed chief justice and began a
judicial career without q parallel in any
age or country. John Marshall of Vir-
ginia was forty-six years old when he as
cended the bench in the beginning OF the
century. He had been a colonel in the
revolution and member of congress after
independence was achieved, but these dis
tinctions are almost blotted out and for
gotten in the blaze of his judicial fame.
For thirtyfour years this man of tran
scendent intellect endowed with the very
genius of Jurisprudence, and vet with the
guileess simplicity of childhood, adj
dressed himself to the task of finding out,
and making known, the meaning of the
constitution of his country, in all its
points, in ali its bearings on the complex
systems of government, then for the first
time In history put in operation. The
constitution was a new and untried exper-
iment, an infant in age. undeveloped in
strength and assailed with predictions
from high quarters of It's early overthrow,
when Marshall first bent over its provis-
ions, and evoked their power, their wis
dom and their perpetual glory.
The record shows that but Two decisions
OF the supreme court involving constitu-
tional questions had been made dnring its
brief existence before Marshall became its
chief justice, and that more than fifty Of
the gravest constitutional character were
afterward rendered during his servicer, the
majority of them being delivered person.
ally by himself He had no presidents to
guide him. A written constitution of gov
eminent was thing hitherto unknown to
the nations OF the earth. No decided
cases of courts could be produced throw
ing light on such a system as ours The
relations between the states and the gem
eral government and between the states
themselves and between the citizens of
different states were all as novel and un-
tried as a utopian dream.
Marshall touched them and they stood
for the practical realities, assuming shape.
order, harmony, strength. symmetry and
imposing grandeur. The difficult and
often obscure boundaries of Jurisdiction
were first surveyed by his penetrating
vision and traced by his unerring hand.
During this period also the calendars of
his court teemed with abstruse questions
growing out OF the wars with which the
young country had been visited or threat
ened; the maritime jurisdiction, the DOW
ers of admiralty, the law OF prize the
force OF treaties, were all to be defined. Ii
10 not an over-claim nor too much to say
that for the constitution as it now stands.