The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-04-30
A PRESENTATION
OF POR TRAITS
Pictures Of Judges Moore
and IredeIf.
TO The SUPREME COURT
By THE SOCIETY Or SONS OF
THE REVOLUTION.
THE SPEECH Of HON. JuNIUS DAVIS
It Viii b. p bishsd in Pamphlet and Fo'm
Valuabl. Contribution to the Early
History of his State and Of
By THE SOCIETY Or SONS OF
THE REVOLUTION.
THE SPEECH Of HON. JuNIUS DAVIS
The County

~ Yesterday morning, at the opening
of the Supreme Court, an interesting
ceremony took place.
The portraits of james lredell and
Alfred Moore, Justices of the United
States 0upreme court, were presented
to the court by the North Carolina
Society of the Sons OF the Revolution.
The presentation was made Tor the
Society by Hon. Junius DAVIS, of VII
mington, and accepted on behalf OF
the court by the Chief Justice Mr..
Davis said:
MAY it please you, the Chief Justice
.and Justices of the Supreme Court,
AT the request of the Society or
the Sons of the Revolution. of which
| am a member, | have the pleasure
and honor of presenting TO yon por-
traits of two of the ATTEST AMI most
distinguished jurists OF North Caro-
lima. Alfred Moore and James lredel!.
1t is brilliant and goodly ssembly
which has been gathered mere. and III
to which they are introduced, Rutsin,
the great eXpounder OF the law,
whether common, commercial, equity
or constitutional, the illustrioIs and
talented CASTOR, the scholarly MIR
ply, Taylor, Hall. Henderson, Pear
son. pre-eminent in the common law
and others. all great lawyers, bn;
even into such company may they
enter as peers. with proud front, with
lofty dignity. and a serene confidence
in their own splendid abilities.
s'.As we recall the names and fame of
the mighty giants of the law. whose
shades now look down upon rs from
these walls, an involuntary feeling of
wonder is excited in us, that no one
of them whose words have reached
throughout this broad land, and,
echoing across the wide ocean in the
courts of England, have commanded
respect there, should have been cali
ed to sit in that august tribunal,
which administers the laws of this
great Republic. And yet SO it is, that,
only at the birth of that court, "a cen
fury ago, has d sdhsof North esroIina'
been honored with seat upon the
Supreme Bench of the United States
l Looking back over that 100
Years. what retrospect is before us!
IN every department of art, science
Ind industry, in arts of war and IN
the arts of peace, what vast progress.
what rapid strides have been maae;
and i'm no science bds there been
greater or broader> progress than II
the science of the law. When Moore
and Iretell came to the bar, the law
was in its infancy, a vast unexplored
field. with but a few well-known land
marks to guide the toiling student on
his way Now that field is covered
with a multitude of roads, ever
branching out and crossing and inter-
secting and bisecting and overlapping
each other, until the whole is one tan
gled maze through which the breth-
rem wander with dizzy brain and UNI
certain step. Whether the benefit to
the world at large has been equal 10
the progress. is a question some cya-
les have asked, but which | will not
attempt to answer. In that day a
COPY of Coke. Bacon, Hawkins. a Few
stray volumes of Reports, perhaps the
ancient Plowden, or Dyer. or Coke. a
strong luminous intellect. hard com
mon sense. and what my Lord Ken
Won called sthe reason Of the thing
were all the weapons OF the we'll
equipped lawyer. There were no
encyclopedias, no Codes. no State Re-
ports. but precious little homemade
statute law. and no ease lawyer.
Only strong men could succeed. and
as rule only strong men came to
the bar The lawyers of that dav
were not only laborious Students. zeal
Gus and diligent i'm the pursuit OF
knowledge, but they were also tie
leaders of the people. More than al
others they moulded and directed
public sentiment into that current
which finally swept OH to the crcatinn
of these United States. The p,omi-
nent part which they were to take N
the Revolution was foreseen by Burke.