Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-04-29

er, far back, it held its sessions in the up
per 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 library
was kept. serulcher where books were
buried alive, the hole called by John
Randolph "the cave of Trophoniusl"
What mighty men stood before that bar
pleading in immortal eloquence on ques-
tions of national import! Edmund Ran
dolph and Alexander Hamilton and
Pinkney and jeremiah Mason and Caleb
Cushing and the weird and irresistible
Rufus Choate and George Wood and
Charles OConor 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 yonder
supreme courtroom: Tomorrow
week will come on the great steamboat
! 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 10 in the case, and
he will stretch all his powers. Oakley
is said to be Que Of the finest logicians
of the age, as much Phocion as EN-
NETT is Themistoclcs, and Webster is
as ambitious as Caesar. He will not be
outdone by any man if it is within the
compass Of his power to avoid it, Come
to Washington. 1t will be combat
worth Witnessing The supreme court
has stood go high in England and the
United States that the vices of q few
who have occupied that important place
have not been able TO disgrace it, mel
ther the corruption of Francis Bacon,
nor the cruelty of Sir George Macken-
zie, nor the Sabbath dissertation of Lord
Castlereagh.
To that highest of all tribunals Abra-
ham Lincoln called our friend, but he
lived long enough to honor the supreme
court more than it had ever honored
him. For more than 81 years he sat in
the presence of this nation and of all
nations a model judge. Fearlessness,
integrity, devotion to principle, char
acterized him. No bride ever touched
his hand No profane word ever scalded
his tongue. No blemish of wrong ever
marred his character. Fully qualified
was he to have his name associated in
the history of this country with the
greatest of the Judiciary.
AS at 10 clock day by day on yonder
hill the gavel falls in the supreme
court room and it is announced that the
chief justice CT the United States and
the associate justices nre about to en-
ter, and all counselors at the bar and
all spectators rise to greet them, and
the officer with the words, "Oyez,
oyez, oyez' announces that all is now
ready for hearing and exclaims. "God
save the United States of America, go
wish we could III imagination gather
together those who have occupied that
high judicial place. in this and other
lands and they might enter and after
the falling of some mighty gavel had
demanded attention we could look
upon them-Marshall, the giant of
American Jurisprudence and John Jay,
of whom Daniel Webster said in COM
memoration, "When the spotless ermine
of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, it
touched nothing less spotless than
itself, 4" and Rutledge and Cushing and
Ellsworth aud Joseph Storey, called the
Walter Scott of common law, and Sir
Matthew Hale and Lord Eldon and
Lord Teuterden and Sir James Mcln-
tosh and Mansfield and the long line of
lord chancellors and the great judges
from both sides the sea-and after they
had taken their places in our quickened
imagination the distinguished cases Of
centuries which they decided might
again be called on, after the assembled
nations had calculated, God save the
United States of America, "God save
Great Britain. - God save the ma
tons. .
The SaEctify Of Lnw.
All how the law honors and sancti-
fes everything it touches Natural law.
Civil law Social law. Commercial
law. Common law. Moral law. Eccle-
siastical law. international law. Oh,
the dignity, the impressiveness, the
power of law 1t is the only thing be-
fore which Jehovah bows, but he bows
before that, although the law is of his
own making. The law By it worlds
swing. By it the fate of centuries is
decided By it all the affairs of time
and all the cycles Of eternity will be
governed We cannot soar so high or
sink so deep or reach out so far or live
so long as to escape it. 1t is the throne
on which the Almighty sits. To in
terpret law, what profession What
responsibility What an cxecration
when the judge be a Lord Jeffreysl
What bcnediction if he be a Chancel-
lor Kent
In passing, let me say that for this
chief tribunal OF our country congress
should soon provide a better place. Let
some of the moneys voted for improve
inent of rivers which are nothing but
dry creeks and for harbors which will
never have any shipping and for monu-
mentS to some peOPle-Wnolu III ID !ioU
at all important for us to remember-be
voted for the erection of building
worthy of our United States supreme
court John Ruskin, in "Stones of
Venice, calls attention to the pleasing
fact that in the year SIS the doge of
Venice devoted himself to putting mp
two great buildings-St. Marks, for the
worship of God, and palace for the
administra ton of justice to man. In its
appreciation of what is best let not
1899 be behind 913. With such granite
in our quarries and such architects ca
pable of drafting sublime structure and
such magnificent sites on which to build,
let not another year pass before we hear
the trowel ring on the cornerstone of a
temple to be occupied by the highest
court of the land.
Have you ever realized how much
God has honored law in the fact that
all up and down the Bible he makes the
Judge type of himself and employs
.le scene of courtroom to set forth the
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