The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-06-18
CHIEF JUSTICE McSHERRY.
RESPONSE TO THE TOAST
''THE COURT OF APPEALS.o

At the dinner given by Governor
Lowndes to the Court of Appeals on
January 2Sth, at Annapolis, Chief
Justice McSherry" spoke in the fol-
lowing happy vein:
In this distinguished and brilliant
presence, l feel greatly disconnected
upon being called by his Excellency,
without moments warning, to res
pond to the sentiment he h S been so
good as to propose, and | should in
gloriously evade the task were not the
subject one so full of historic interest
and so replete with interesting Incl
dents. What / may say will, of
course, relate to the past. 1t would
not be within the bounds of propriety
fer me to speak of the attainments and
high judicial character of my brothers
on the bench; and if spoke of them
at all, and spoke truthfully, it would,
of necessity, be in words of the highest
encominm.
Perhaps, no appellate court in the
land can date back so far as the Court
of Appeals of Maryland It's reports,
embracing its own and it's immediate
predecessors decisions, in 1858. From
that time-covering those two cetu-
ries and nearly four decades-it has
had but ten reporters, including the
present reporter; and since its organ
ization, under the Constitution of l776,
it has had but eleven chief justices.
The abundant evidence of the wisdom
and judicial attainments of it's judges
are to be found in the III volumes of
its reports. For 100 years it has oc-
cupied apartments in the same build
ing-the venerable State House
across the way. Inl706 over it's bench
was suspenped full-length portrait Of
Queen Anne presenting to Annapolis
its charter; but when, seventy years
afterward, the Declaration of Inde-
pendence lighted the watch-fires of IL
berty upon every hilltop, and the
drums beat and trumpet's sound sum-
moned the chivalry OF Maryland to
crowd the serted ranks of the resist
less Maryland Line, that portrait, to-
gcther with every other insignia OF
royalty, was swept away, and forever
obliterated from the public buildings
Of the commonwealth
The court has been a great court !;
but no tribunal can be greater than its
opportunities. The Court of Appeals
Of Maryland has been fortunate in pos
sessing those surroundings, without
which it could never have attained the
eminence 1t has reached. 1t requires
great lawyers and great State to
produce a great court. | am safe in
saying that no State in the Union has
produced greater lawyers than Mary
land. | speak not of those of to-day
who are not inferior to their brethren
of the past, but l allude to the illus
trious men who have passed away, but
whose fame has been written with a
pen Of iron upon the imperishable
shaft of history. | do not pause to
call the long and honored muster roll
but merely as illustrations | mention
such names as Luther Martin, William
Pinkney, Roger B. fancy, Reverdy
johnson and John V. L. Mcmahon.
1t is not too much to say that Luther
Martin was the most extraordinary
lawyer that ever lived. If sober, he
could not try case if drunk, he was
invincible. When, after his marvel
Ious defense of Aaron Burr, he was
broken down by dissipation and age,
the Legislature of Maryland enacted
a statute imposing tax of $40 upon
each lawyer practicing in the State,
and appropriated the proceeds to his
support, no lawyer of Maryland
dreamed of questioning the measure,
though it could not have been sus.
tanned upon any known rule of law.
The court Of Appeals has not only
had tha advantage OF able lawyers
practicing before it, but it has enjoyed
that other essential requisite of great
ness-it has been located in q great
State ! do not mean Il State whose
domain is imperial; or whose borders
encompass vast territory, but great
ia all That constitutes State, for Ma
ryiand has produced accomplished aud
m"gnii.rcnt men. who have hccn the
leaders OF thought and action in the
councils Of the nation, upon tie field
and ~ the seas: and she has, above
all, been blessed with the tairest
daughters in the world.
1t was, surely, with prophetic eye
that the ilustrious founder OF Mary
land, looking forward through the dim
and misty veil of the future, and seeing
that the humble colony which he
planted on the beautiful st. Mary S
would grow into a prosperous and
glorious commonwealth, selected in
anticipation the words of the Psalmist
for the motto of his great seal-"Scu-
to bone voluntatis tue coronasti nos. F"
And he was equally apt in placing on
the seal the other legend of his coatof-
arms Manly deeds and wolnanly
words" | have said, and | now re-
peat, that Maryland has been pre-emi-