The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-05

through which yOur INQUIRER Sluoieu lus !
Bible in her old age as the name they
bore. the name which you inherited.
Keep it bright, / charge you. Keep 1t
suggestive of something elevated in
character. Trample not underfoot that
which to your father and mother was
dearer than life itself. Defend their
graves as they defended your cradle. Z.
Family coat of arms, escutcheons, en- !.
signs armorial, lion c~ouchant, or lion
dormant, O. lion rampant, or lion COM .
blatant, may attract attention, but bet
ter than all heraldic inscription is a
family name which means from gener-
alton to generation faith in God, self
sacrifice, duty performed, a life well
lived and a death happily died n a
heaven glo-iously won! That was the
kind Of lame that Justice Field aug
mented and adorned and perpetuated-
a name honorable at the close Of b
eighteenth century, more honored now
at the close of h 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 his country aid he
would rather be author of Judge Fields
dissenting opinions than to be the au-s
thor Of the constitution of the United
States. The tendency is to go with the
multitude, TO hink what others think,
to say and do what others do. Some
times the majority are wrong, n it
requires heroes to lake the negative,
but to do that logically and in good
humor requires some elements of make
up not often oun in judicial dissent
erS Or, indeed, in any class or men,
There are so many people in the world
opposed to everything and Who display
their opposition in rancOrOuS n OBJ
nOXiouS way that a Judge Field was
needed to make the negative respected
and genial and right. Minorities under
Coo save the world n a " the
church. An u~nthinking and precipitate
yes may be stopped by a righteous
and heroic no" The majorities are
not always right. The old gospel hymn
f, declares it:
Numbers are no mark that men will
right be found;
A few were saved in Noah's ark to
many millions drowned.
HIS DISSENTING OPINION.
The declaration of American indie
| pendence was a dissenting opinion. The
Free church of Scotland, under Chal-
mers and his cOmpeers, was a dissenting
III II DIUlc llSc11, o1u lCSld-
ment n New Testament, is a protest
against the theories that would have
destroyed the world and is a dissenting
as we'll as a 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 assembled friend had
such a character as assault and peril
alone a 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 handicap
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 and to
purchase place and power. Pastors sal
aries in the early part of this century
hardly ever reached $500 a year. Econ
omies that sometimes cut into the bone
characterized many of the homes of the
New England clergymen. The young
lawyer of whom We speak today arriv-
ed in San Francisco in 1849 with only $40
in his pocket. Williamson college
was only Introductory to a. post gradu-
ate course which our illustrious friend
took while administering justice and
hating ruftianism amid the mining
camps Of California. Oh, those forty
Miners" 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
GERS, 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 high
est metal.
Behind a dry goods box surmounted
by tallow candles Judge Field began
his judicial career. What exciting
scenes he passed through! An Internal
machine was landed 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. 1t took a long
training of hardship and abuse ana
neutrality-suspicious. 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 presi-
dents and the world when he knew he
was right. Hardship is the grindstone
that sharpens intellectual faculties, and
the swords with which to strike effect
lively for God and ones country.
The reason that life to so many is a
failure is they do not have op-
positions enough and trials enough or
because they ANONYMOUSLY lie down to
be run over by them instead of using
them for stairs On which to put their
foot and mount. Those born with a
gold spoon in their mouths are apt to
take their last medicine out Of a pewter
mug. Have brave heart in all depart
ments,ye men of many obstacles! There
is no Drawn or character without them.
The roughs glazing and growing
around o the shed of a courtroom
in Marysville, Cal, had as much to do
with Judge Fields development as
Mark Hopkins, the great Williamstown
college president. Opposition develops
courage. 1 like the ring of Martin Lu-
theirs defiance when he said to the
Duke of Saxony, Things are otherwise
ordered in HEAVIER than they are at
Augsburg
HONOR OF THE JUDICIARY.
Notice also how much our friend did
for the honor of the judicis ry. What
momentous scenes nave been witnessed
in our United States supreme court, on
the bench and before the bench, wheth-
or far honk if bald ifc session IN fbo