The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1899-06-16

| graves as thcN ucicnucd your cradle
Notice also that our illustrious frien,
was great in reasonable and genial dis
sent. OF the 1,O42 opinions he rendered
none was more potent or memOrabl,
than those rendered while he was in
small minority and sometimes i'm a mi
nOrity of one. A learned and distin
guished lawyer of this country said he
would rather be the author of Judg,
Fields dissenting opinions than to-b,
the author of the constitution of the
United States. The tendency is TO %
with the multitude. TO think what 9th.
ers think, TO say and do what others do
Sometimes the majority are wrong
and it requires heroes 20 take the mega
tive, but to do that logically and in
| good humor requires some elements OF
make up not often found in judicial dis
senters or, indeed, in any class of men.
The Declaration of American Inde-
pendence was a dissenting opinion.
The Free Church of Scotland, under
Chalmers and his compeers was a dis
senting movement. The Bible itself.
Old Testament and New Testament, is
a protest against the theories that
would have destroyed the world. and is
dissenting as well as a Divinely in
spred book. The Decalogue on Sinai
repeated ten times "Thou shalt not. 3"
For ages to come will be quoted from
law books in courtrooms Justice Fields
magnificent dissenting opinions.
Notice that our ascended friend had
such a character as assault and peril
alone can develop. He had not come to
the soft cushions of the supreme court
bench stepping on cloth of gold and sa-
luted all along the line by handclap-
ping of applause. Country personages
do not rock their babies in satin-lned
cradle or afterward send them out into
the world with enough in their hand to
purchase place and power Pastors
salaries in the early part of this cen
tury hardly ever reached $500 a year.
Economies that sometimes cut into the
bone characterized many of the homes
of the New England clcrgymen. The
young lawyer of whom we speak to-
day arrived in San Francisco in 1S49
with only ten dollars in his pocket
WilliamstOwn college was only intro
ductory 10 postgraduate course which
our illustrious friend took while admin
istering justice and halting ruflianism
amid the mining camps of California.
Oh. those "forty-niners," as they were
called, through what privations.
through what narrow escapes. amid
what exposures they moved Admins
tering and executing law among out
laws never has been an easy undertake
ing. Among mountaineers, many of
whom had no regard for human life;
and where the snap of pistol and bang
of gun were not unusual responses, re-
quired courage of the highest metal.
Behind dry goods box, surrounded !
by tallow candles, Judge Field began
his judicial career. What exciting
scenes he passed through Aninfernal |
machine was handed to him, and in /
side the lid of the box was pasted his /
decision in the Pueblo case. the decis-
ion that had baked unprincipled specu-
lators. Ten years ago his life would
have passed out had not an officer
of the law shot down his assailant. It
took a long training of hardship and
abuse and misinterpretation and threat
Of violence and flash of assassin's knife
to fit him for the high place where he
could defy legislatures and congresses
and presidents and the world when he
knew he was right. Hardship is the
grindstone that sharpens intellectual
and the sword with which TO
strike effectively for God and ones
Notice also how much our friend did
Tor the honor of the judiciary. What
scenes have been witnessed
n our United States supreme court, on
he bench and before the bench. wheth-
n far back it held its sessions in the
upper room of the exchange at New
York or afterward for ten years in the
'ity hall at Philadelphia or later in the
'ellar of yonder capitol, the place where
or many years the congressional IL
'rary was kept, a sepulcher where
looks were buried alive the hole called
~ John Randolph "the Cave Of Tropho-
lius." What mighty men stood before
hat bar pleading in immortal elo-
Iuence on questions of national import
How suggestive the invitation which
William Writ, the great Virginian,
yrote his friend inviting him to yonder
upreme courtroom: "To-morrow a
leek will come on the great steam
oat question from New York. Emmett
nd Oakley on one side, Webster and
lyself on the other. Come down and
ear it. Emmett's whole soul is in the
ase, and he will stretch all his powers.
'akley is said to be one of the finest
)gicians of the age, as much a Phoeion
S Emmett is Themistocles, and Web
ter is as ambitious as Caesar. He will
OF be outdone by any man if it is with :
/ the compass of his power TO avoid d,
. Come to Washington. It will be !
)mbat worth witnessing" The su- ,
rene court has stood so high in Eng !
nd and the United States that the :
ces of few who have occupied that O.
nportant place have not been able to +
sgrace it, neither the corruption of =
rancis Bacon, nor the cruelty of Sir +
Gorge Mackenzie, nor the Sabbath 4
of Lord Castlereagh. h
To that highest of all tribunals Abra- Il
I'm Lincoln called our friend, but he h
red long enough to honor the supreme f,
,,-f l., . I,I I.