The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-05-20

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 that our illustrious friend
was great in reasonable and genial dis
sent. OF the 1,042 opinions he rendered
none was more potent or memorable
than those rendered while he was in
small minority and sometimes in q mi
nority of one. A learned and distin-
guished lawyer of this country said he
would rather be the author of Judge
Field 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 20 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
pendence was 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
protest against the theories that
would have destroyed the world, and is
dissenting as well as 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. 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-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 tins CEN
fury hardly ever reached $500 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.
| Wi11io rpcto1pr on1lara o,,1v ;pfro
ductory to postgraduate course which
our illustrious friend took while admin
istering justice and hating 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 dry goods box, surrounded
by tallow candles, Judge Field began
his judicial career. What exciting
scenes he passed through! ninfernal
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. II
took long training of hardship and
abuse and misinterpretation and threat
of violence and fash of assassin's knife
to fit him for the high place where he
could defy legislatures and congresse.
and presidents and the world when he
knew he was right. Hardship is the
grindstone that sharpens intellectual
faculties and the sword with which (
strike effectively for God and ones
country.
Notice also how much our friend die
for the honor of the judiciary. What
momentous scenes have been witnessed
in our United States supreme court, OF
the bench and before the bench, wheth
er far back it held it's sessions in the
upper room of the exchange at New
York or afterward for ten years in tn,
city hall at Philadelphia or later in tn,
cellar of yonder capitol, the place wher,
for many years the congressional Ii
brary was kept, sepulcher wher
books were buried alive, the hole called
, by John Randolph 1.-THE Cave of Tropho
nius!" What mighty men stood befor,
that bar pleading in immortal clio
quence on questions of national import
How suggestive the invitation whicl
William Writ, the great Virginiar
wrote his friend inviting him to yonde
supreme courtroom: Tomorrow
week will come on the great steam
; boat question from New York. Emmett
; and Oakley on one side, Webster an,
! myself on the other. Come down an,
: hear it. Emmett's whole soul is in tn
, case. and he will stretch all his powers
Oakley is said to be one of the fines
} logicians of the age, as much Phociol
: as Emmett is Themistocles, and Web
r ster is as ambitious as Caesar. He wi
: not be outdone by any man if it is with
= in the compass of his power to avo;
1 it. Come to Washington. 1t will be
! combat worth witnessing" The 81
preme court has stood so high in Ems
. | land and the limited States that th