Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-05-28

| seek so much to persuade, as by clear and
lucid reasoning and statement to compel
conviction. He had little or none of that
oratory which steals away mems hearts.
He seldom appealed to the feelings. but
stated with wonderful cogency, and some
| times resistless power, the bare, outlined,
| essential facts.
In his personal and private life, as we
knew him upon the bench and off it, he was
a rare specimen of American manhood.
His integrity shone out like great pearl
against the greed and gain-getting of a
baser world. No man was ever suffered in
his presence, on the bench or of it, to seek
| injustice without rebuke. He had mind
| single to the just and right. He followed
that true line undeviatingly himself, and he
meant that all others, so far as ne could
control them, should do the same. And yet
his character does not seem to me to be the
| fawless wilderness of the untried marble,
but rather the rugged strength of granite,
where the common elements, the quartz
and the felspar, are intertwisted into
strength, and the mica iecks the whole
with soft touches of human nature and
this combination made great character, a
strong personality, intense in will domino
ting in intellect, superior 10 faculty. And
yet, with all the stern granite of his nature,
there was many an unsuspected cleft where
tender impulses nestled and chung like
flowers, and found soil enough and
gentlest care for him. A man of strong
feelings and deep convictions, he took life
seriously earnestly and faithfully. And
his end became his work. He died, be-
lieve, as he would best have loved to died;
died with the armor on; died with no be-
lifting of his faculty; died in the full pos
session of all his powers. His passing away
was from the very midst of active duty.
Silently, perhaps, in physique he had faded
during the two or three years preceding his
death, and yet no one of us realized that
the end was near, and he himself, perhaps,
as little as the rest. But the hour struck,
and in the midst of the active exercise of his
profession, admired and respected by all the
people of the State, he passed from our
| midst and has become a name and q dear
memory to us who are left behind him.
| / could not may it please your honors,
let this escaping moment pass without hay
ing said the word which to me seemed fit in
honor Of that memory, for to me he was .
companion and something more even than a
friend.
Chief Justice Peters then said:
Gentlemen Of the Bar:
Again is this court called upon to join
the bar in concentrating by appropriate
proceedings the life and character of one
of its late members.
1t has fallen to my lot, since l came upon
the bench, to speak for the court in honor
of the memory of quite an unusual number
Of my judicial associates, the very mention
of whose names excites anew our admira-
ton of their virtues, the list including the
names of Appleton, Cutting, Danfortl, Bar
rows and Virgin. And now it becomes my
sad but at the same time satisfactory duty
to respond to the resolutions of the bar in
honor of the memory of our late and per-
sonally beloved associate, Judge Libbey.
The scene reminds me that the hand of the
reaper has been busy in gathering from the
worldly field those who fifty years ago
started with me in the race of life as pro-
fessional associates. Judges Virgin and
Libbey were few months only younger
than myself / am beginning to feel that
am today standing not far from the verge
where might exclaim for the loss of friends
in the words of the old poet, feelingly
quoted by my official predecessor on a sim
| liar occasion -
| "How some they have died, and some they have
left me,
And some they are taken from NEAL are depart
ed
| All, all are gone -the old familiar faces
Judge Libbey and myself were early sc-
qusintances and have ever entertained the
| highest respect for him as an associate and
friend, as a lawyer and judge. 1 have no
fear that | may overrate him in anything
shall say on this occasion. There was moth
| ing in his character or conduct requiring
defence or excuse from anybody. Doctor
Samuel Johnson, of literary fame, thought
the old Roman maxim, njhd de moWuiS
nisi bonnHt, should be changed by substitut-
ing the word rerum for boRHm. / have no
doubt that our late brother, could he tell
his wishes, would ask that nothing but the
truth be spoken of him. He was himself
always an ardent lover of the truth.
He was a man of a strong nature and of a
strong mind. All his moral and intellectual
qualities were cast in a large mould. For
many years before he became Judge he
stood in the very front rank of his profess
sion as lawyer, and he certainly achieved
great reputation and distinction in his Ca
| reer on the bench. He must have felt at
an early period in his life consciousness
| OF MS natural powers, TO nave peen
imbued with an ambition to pursue pro-
fessional employment living. as he did in
his youth, in modest if not adverse circum-
stances in quiet country town where the
opportunities for an education were limited
and the announcements for success certain
ly not great.
All the practical qualifications for sue
cessful lawyer and Judge were readily ac-
quired, because they we're natural to him.
His perceptive qualities were remarkably
quick and clear as well as strong. He was
also endowed, as naturally follows from
quick and clear perceptions, with rare pow
ers of discrimination and it was universal
ly accorded to him that he possessed good
deal of natural sagacity and common sense.
These qualities were supplemented and
supported by strong will. He was reso-
lutte, self-reliant man independent in thought
and action, and unalterable in his inclina-
ton to do wha. he believed to be right.
He knew his own mind and always had the
courage to act upon his own convictions.
1t may be very well supposed that one who
possessed such strong characteristics would
be likely to have such a degree of faith and
confidence in his own views as to adj
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