The Grenada sentinel., 1899-04-29

| W0ouSaICT IMAM SuS bNe3Ses AsSsS1u SsA~s
graves a. they defended your cradle
Notice also that our illustrious friens
was great in reasonable and genial dis
: sent. OF the l.042 opinions be renderet
none was more potent or memorable
than those rendered while he was II
small minority and sometimes in o mi
nority of one. A. learned and distin
guished lawyer of this country said b.
would rather be the author of Judge
Fields dissenting opinions than to b<
the author Of the constitution OF thu
United States. The tendency is to &C
with the multitude. to think what 9th.
ers think. to say and do what others do
Sometimes the majority are wrong
and 1t requires heroes 70 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 lnde-
pendence was a dissenting opinion.
The Free Church of Scotland, under
Chalmers and his compeers was q dis
senting movement. The Bible itself,
Old Testament and New Testament, is
q protest against the theories that
would have destroyed the world, and is
a dissenting as well as DivineIy in
spired book. The Decalogue on Sinai
repeated ten times "Thou shalt moi" ."
For ages to come will be quoted from
law books in courtrooms Justice Fields
magnificent dissenting 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 So
luted all along the line by handclap-'
ping OF applause. Country personages
do not rock their babies in satin-lined
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 GEN.
tury hardly ever reached $7o0 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 to postgraduate course which
our illustrious friend took while admin
istering justice and halting ruf1ianism
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! 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 balked unprincipled specu-
Iators. 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 msinterpretation 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 70
strike effectively for God and ones |
country.
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, 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! |
How suggestive the invitation which
William Writ, the great Virginian,
wrote his friend inviting him to yonder
supreme courtroom: "To-morrow 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 Phocion
as Emmett is Themistocles, and Web
ster is as ambitious as Caesar. He will
not be outdone by any man If it is with
in the compass of his power to avoid
It. Come to Washington. 1t will be q
combat worth witnessing" The SUI
oreme court has stood so high in Eng
land and the United States that the
vices of few who have occupied that
important place have not been able to
disgrace it, neither the corruption of