Connecticut western news., 1899-04-27

graves dS they ueIeuueu your CrduIe. Family coat of arms, escutcheons, en- signs armorial lion couchant, or lion dormant, or lion rampant, or lion com blatant, may attract attentj"n, but bet ter than all heraldic inscription is a family name which means from gener- ation to generation faith in God, self sacrifice, duty performed, life well lived and a death happily died and heaven gloriously won That was the kind of name that Justice Field aug mented and adorned and perpetuated- a name honorable at the close of the century, more honored now at the close of the nineteenth.
 Notice also that our illustrious friend was great in reasonable and genial dis sent. Of 1,042 opinions he rendered, none were more potent or memorable than those rendered while he was in small minority and sometimes In a mi nority of one. A learned and distin- guished lawyer of this country said he would rather be author of Judge Fields opinions than to be the au- thor of the constitution of the United States. The tendency is to go with the to think what others think, to say and do what others do. Some times the majority are wrong, and it requires heroes to take the negative, but to do that logically and in good humor requires some elements of make up not often found in judicial dissent CTS or, indeed, in any class of men. There are so many people in the world opposed to everything and who display their opposition in rancorous and ob- noxious ways that Judge Field was needed to make the negative respected and genial and right. Minorities under God save the world and save the church. An minimizing and precipitate "yes" may be stopped by righteous and he roic ''no. The majorities are not al ways right. The old gospel hymn de- clares it:
 found A few were saved in Noah's ark to many mil
 lions drowned.
 His Dissenting Opinion.
 The declaration of American inde- pendence was dissenting opinion. The Free church of Scotland, under Chal- mers and his compeers, was dissenting The Bible itself, Old Testa ment and New Testament, is protest against the theories that would have destroyed the world and is dissenting as we'll as divinely inspired book. The decalogue on Sinai repeated ten times "Thou shalt not" For ages to come will be quoted from lawbooks in court rooms Justice Fields magnificent dis senting opinions.
 Notice that our ascended friend had such 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 saluted all along the line by handclap- ping of applause. Country parsonages do not rock their babes in satin lined cradle or afterward send them out into the world with enough in their hand to purchase place and power. Pastors sal aries in the early part of this century hardly ever reached $700 year. Econ omies that sometimes cut into the bone many of the homes of the New England clergymen The young lawyer of whom we speak today arrived in San Francisco in 1849 with only $10 in his pocket. Williamstown college was only introductory to a post gradu- ate course which our illustrious friend took while administering justice and halting ruffianism 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 Administering and executing law among outlaws never has been an easy undertaking. Among mountain eers, many of whom had no regard for human life and where the snap of pistol and bang of gun were not unusual re- sponses, required courage of the highest metal
 Behind dry goods box surmounted by tallow candles Judge Field began his judicial career. What exciting scenes he passed throughi. 1. An internal was handed to him, and inside, the lid of the box was pasted his de- cision in the Pueblo case, the decision that had baked unprincipled specula- tors. 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 and threat of violence and flash of assassin's knife to fit him for the high place where he could defy and congresses and presi- dents and the world when he knew he was r1gnt. Hardship is the grindstone that sharpens intellectual faculties, and the swords with which to strike effect lively for God and one's country.
 The reason that life to so many is a failure is because they do not have op- position enough and trials enough or because they ignominously lie down to be run over by them instead of r>ing them for stairs on which to put their foot and mount. Those "born with @ gold spoon in their mouths are apt to take their last medicine out of pewter mug. Have brave heart in all depart ments, ye men of many obstacles There is no brawn or character without them. The roughs glaring and growing around about the shed of courtroom in Marys- vile, Cal, had as much to do with Judge Fields development as Mark Hopkins, the great Williamstown col lege president. Opposition develops courage. I like the ring of Martin Lu- ther's defiance when he said to the Duke of Saxony, "Things are otherwise ordered in heaven than they are at Augsburg.
 Honor of the Judiciary.
 Notice also how much our friend did for the honor of the judiciary. What scenes have been witnessed in our United States supreme court, on the bench and before the bench, wbeth- CT, far back, it held its sessions in the up- per room of the Exchange at New York, or afterward for ten years in the city hall at Philadelphia, or later in the cellar of yonder capitol, the place where for many years the Congressional library was kept, sepulcher where books were buried alive, the hole called by John or6n1ph stfha af Tranhnnir1o t'b