The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1899-04-29

y .NN~ NH"H #Aa AL ~ @aHN1
meant everything honorable and Gun
secraied for a long while. bat by the
deed OF one son SacriEcCL. dissraced
and blasted look out how you rob
your c~onsecrsied ancestry Of the name
| they handed 20 sou uuSuiliei, Better
as trustee 10 that name add something
worthy. Do something TO honor the
old homestead. whether a mountain
cabin or a city mansion or > country
parsonage.
Rev. David Dudley Field. though y
years passed upward. Is honOrcd to-day
by the Christian life, the service, the
death OF his son stephen.
Among the most absorbing hooks Of
the Bible is the book Of Kings which
again and eain illustrates that though
pieSf is not hereditary, the style of pa
rentage has much to do with the style
Of descendant. IL declares Of hing Abb
jam: he walked in all the sins Of his
father which he had done before him"
and OF King AAariah; lie did that
which was right in the sight Of the
Lord. According to ali that his father
Amaziah had done" We " a debt TO
those who have gone before in u line
rs certainly as We have obligations to
those who subsequently, appear in the
household. Not 50 sacred is your old
fathers walking staff. which you keep
in his memory. or the eyeglasses
through which yonr mother studied the
Bible in her old age as the name they
bore, the name which YOU inherited.
Keep il bright. | charge you. Keep IL
suggestive Of something elevated in
| character. Trample not underfoot
that which TO your father and mother
wasdearer than life itself. Defend their
graves as they defended your cradle.
Notice also hat our illustrious friend
was great in reasonable and genial dis
sent OF the l.O42 opinions he rendered
none was more potent or memorable
than those rendered while he was IN
gmall minority and sometimes in a 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 10 go
with the multitude, to think what 9TH
ers think, TO say and do what others do.
Sometimes the majority are wrong,
and il requires heroes 20 take the mega
tive, but to do that logically and in
good humor requires some elements Of
make up not often found in judicialdi lis
senters or. indeed. in any class Of men
The Declaration OF American Indie
Pendence wal q dissenting opinion.
The Free Church Of Scotland, under
Chalmers and his compeers was . 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
q dissenting as well as a Divinely in
spired book. The Decalogue 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 assembled friend had
such a character as assault and peril
alone can develop. lie 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 handicap
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 cen
fury hardly ever reached 500 a 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 ls4g
I with only ten dollars in his pocket
Williamstown college was only intro
: ductory 10 a postgraduate course which
our Nustrious friend took while admin
istering justice and halting rufianism
amid the mining camps OF California,
| Oh, those 'forty-niners," as they wers
/ 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 undertAk
: ing. Among mountaineers, many o
whom had no regard for human life
and where the snap of pistol and banl
: of gun were not unusual responses, re
b quired courage Of the highest metal.
e Behind a dry goods box, surrounds
n by tallow candles, Judge Field begai
his judicial career. What exciting
scenes he passed through An inferno
machine was handed 10 him, and in
side the lid of the box was pasted hi
T decision in the Pueblo case, the decii
d ion that had baked unprincipled specU
y lstors. Ten years ago his life woul
. have passed out had not an Office
IS OF the law shot down his assailant. ]
le took a long training of hardship an
1t abuse and misinterpretation and threl
of OF violence and fash Of assassin's knit
10 to fit him for the high place where /
r could defy legislatures and congress-
d and presidents and the world when /
knew he was right. Hardship is Il
rs grindstone that sharpens intellectu
faculties and the sword with which
re strike effectively for God and one
a country.
r. Notice also how much our friend d
be for the honor Of the judiciary. VIII
be momentous scenes have been witness,
in our United States supreme court, {
RI the bench and before the bench, whet
On er far back IL held its sessions in Il
'se upper room Of the exchange at Ne
30 York or afterward for ten years in Il
* city hall at Philadelphia or later in Il
ali cellar Of yonder capitol, the place whe
OF for many years the congressional
es, brary was kept, a sepulcher whe
nm books were buried alive, the hole call
at by John Randolph "the Cave Of Troph
ld- nius!" What mighty men stood befo
IN, that bar pleading In immortal e
nd Quence on questions Of national impoI
lth