The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-06-01
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, JUNE L. 1899

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 a dry goods box, surrounded
by tallow candles, Judge Field began
his judicial career. What exciting
scenes he passed through! An internal
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. 1t
took 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
faculties and the sword with which to
strike effectively for God and ones
country.
The reason that life to so many is
faiiurn iS hoonTco thox- lo mt no vo ON
position enough and trials enough or
because they ANONYMOUSLY lie down to
be run over by them instead of using
them as 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
i mug. Have brave hearts in all depart
| ments, ye men of many obstacles!
There is no Drawn or character without
them. The roughs glaring and growing
| around about the shed of a courtroom in
Marysville, CAL, had as much to do with
Judge Fields development as Mark
| Hopkins, the great Williamstown col
| lege president. Opposition develops
courage. l like the ring of Martin
| Luther's defiance when he said to the
duke of Saxony: Things are other
| wise ordered in Heaven than they are
at Augsburg"
Notice also how much our friend did
| for the honor of the judiciary. What
momentous scenes have been witnessed
in our United States supreme court, on
| the bench and before the bench, wheth-
| er far back it held its sessions in the
| upper 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 IL
brary was kept. a sepulcher where
books were buried alive, the hole called
by John Randolph "the Cave of Tropho-
nius!' What mighty men stood before
that bar pleading in immortal elo-
quence on questions of national import!
Edmund Randolph and Alexander
Hamilton and Pinkney and jeremiah
Mason and Caleb Cushing and the weird
and irresistible Rufus Choate and
George Wood and Charles O'Conor and
James T. Brady and Francis B. Cutting
and men now living just as powerful.
| How suggestive the invitation which
William Writ, the great Virginian
wrote his friend inviting him to yonde1
supreme courtroom: Tomorrow a
week will come on the great steam
boat question from New York. Emmett
and Oakley on one side, Webster and
myself on the other. Come down and
hear it. Emmett's whole soul is in the
case. and he will stretch all his powers
Oakley is said to be one of the finest
logicians of the age, as much Phocior
; as Emmett is Themistocles. and Web
ster is as ambitious as Caesar. He viii
not be outdone by any man if it is with
.. in the compass of his power to avoit
| it. Come to Washington. 1t will be
combat worth witnessing" The su
preme court has stood so high in Eng
land and the United States that the
vices of few who have occupied tha
important place have not been able tt
disgrace it, neither the corruption o
Francis Bacon. nor the cruelty of Si
George Mackenzie, nor the Sabbath
desecration of Lord Castlereagh.
RI To that highest of all tribunals Abra
ham Lincoln called our friend, but h
lived long enough to honor the suprem
$ court more than it had ever honore,
t him. For more than "a years he sat il
, the presence of this nation and of al
4 nations model Judge. Fearlessness
i integrity. devotion to principle, charac
!, terized him. No bribe ever touched hi
! hand. No profane word ever scalde,
$ his tongue. No blemish of wrong eve
marred his character. Fully qualities
! was he to have his name associated i
| the history of this country with tn
, greatest of the judiciary.
t As at 12 o'clock day by day on yonde
hill the gavel falls in the supreme court
: room, and it is announced that the chic
$ Justice of the United States and the al
1 sociate justices are about to enter, an
D all counselors at the bar and all spec
D tators rise to greet them, and the office
: with the words: "Oyez, oyez. oyez.