St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-05-27

jam: He walked in all the sins of his |
father which he had done before him."
and of King Azariah: "lIc did that |
which was right in the sight of the |
Lord. according to all that his father |
those who have gone before in our line |
us certainly as we have obligations to
those who subsequently appear in the
household. Not SO sacred is your old
fathers walking staff, which You keep
in his memory, or the eyeglasses
through which your mother studied the
Eible in her cid age as the name they
bore, the name which you inherited.
Keep it bright. charge you. Keep IT
suggestive of something elevated in
character. Trample not underfoot
that which to your father and mother
wasdcar<r than life itself. Defend their
graves as they defended your cradle.
Family coat of arms. escutchcons. en-
signs armorial. lion couchant, or lion
rampant, or lion combatant, may at
tract attention, but better than all her
aldie inscription is family name which
means from generation to generation
faith in God, seli-sacrifice, duty per-
formed, a life well lived and a death
happily died, and Heaven gloriousiy
won. That was the kind of name that
Justice Field augmented and adorned
and perpetuated-a name honorable Mt
the close of the eighteenth 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 the 1,G4a opinions he rendered
none was more potent or memorable
than those rendered while he was in
small minority and sometimes in mi
nority of one. a learned and distin-
guished lawyer of this country said he
would rather be the author of Judge
Fields dissenting opinions than to be
the author of the constitution of the
United States. The tendency is to go
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 to 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 indie
pendencc was 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 Divinely in
spircd book. The Dccalogue on Sinai
repeated ten times Thou shalt not"
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 handicap
ping of applause. Country personages
do not rock their babies in satin-lincd
cradle or afterwartl 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 $700 q year.
Economies that sometimes cut into the
bone characterized many of the homes
of the New England clergymen. The
young lawyer of whom we speak to-
day arrived in San Francisco in 1S4o
with only ten dollars in his pocket.
Williamstown college was only intro
ductory to Postgraduate course which
our illustrious friend took while admin
istering 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! 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. ard in
side the lid of the box was pasted his
decision in the PucbloAasc, the decis-
| ion that had balked unprincipled spccu-
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 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 siarpens intellectual
faculties and the sword with which to
strike effectively for God and ones
country.
| Notice also how much our friend did
for the honor of the judiciary. What
i momentoIs 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, sepulcher where
books were buried alive. the hole called
by John Randolph 'thc Gave of Tropho-
nius." What mighty men stood before
that bar pleading in immortal clo-
qucnce on questions of national import
How suggestive the invitation which
William Writ, the great VirRinian
wrote his friend inviting him to yondel
supreme conrtroom: Tomorrow a
week will come on the. great steam
boat question from New York. Emmett
and Oakley on one side, Webster ant
myself on the other. Gone down ana
hear it. Emmett's whole soul is in til,
case, and he will stretch all his power.;
Oakley is said to be one of the fines
logicians of the age, as much Phociol
rs Emmett is a Themistocles, and Web
steT is as ambitious al Caesar. He vii
not be outdone by any man il il is with