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

style of descendant. 1t declares of King
Abijam. ale walked in all the sins of
his father which he had done before
him. - and of King Azariah. "He did
that which was right in the sight of
the Lord, according to all that his IA
ther Amaziah had done. We owe a
debt to those WHO have gone before in
our line as certainly as we have obliga-
tions to those who subsequently, appear
in the household. Not so sacred is your
old fathers walking stuff which you
keep in his memory or the eyeglasses
through which your mother studied the
Bible in her old 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 was
deurer than life itself. Defend their
graves as they defended your cradle.
Fnmily coat OF arms escrtcheons, en-
signs armorial, lion couchant, or lion
dormant. or lion rampant, or lion COM
batant. may attract attention, but bet
ter than all hrraldic inscription is Il
family name which means from gener-
alton to generation faith in God, self
sacrifice, duty performed, life well
lived and death happily died and a
heaven gloriously won That was the
kind of name that Justice Field aug
mentod. and adorned and perpetuated-
a name honorable at the close OF the
century, more honored now
at the close of the nineteenth.
Notice also that our illustrious friend
was great in reasonable and genial dis
sent or l.042 opinions he rendered,
none were 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 author of Judge Field 8
opinions :han to be the au-
thor. the constitution of the United
States. The tendency is to go with the
multitude to think what others think,
to say and do what others do. Some
times the majority are wrong, and 1t
requires heroes to take the negative,
but tc do that logically and in good
humor requires some elements of make
up not often found in Judicial dissent
ers or. indeed. in any class of men,
There are so many people in the world
opposed to everything and who display
their opposition in rancorous and OBJ
noxious ways that Judge Field was
needed to make the negative respected
and genial and right. Minorities under
God save the world and save the church.
An unthinkirg and precipitate yes
may be stopped by a righteous and he
roic "no. The majorities are not al
ways right. The old gospel hymn de-
clares it:
Numbers are no mark that men will right be
found;
A few were snvad in Noah's ark 10 many mil
lions drowned
His Dissenting Opinion.
The declaration of American lnde-
pendence was dissenting opinion. The
Free church of Scotland. under Chal-
mers and his compeers was n dissenting
The Bible itself, Old Testa-
ment and New Testament is protest
against the theories that would have
DESTROYED the world and is dissenting
as well as divincly inspired book. The
dccalogue on Sinai repeated ten times
s.Thou shalt not. For ages to come
will be quoted from lawbooks in court
rooms Justice Fields magnificent dis
senting opinions.
Notice that our assembled 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
saluted all along the line by handicap
ping of applause Country parscnases
do not rock their babes in satin lined
cradle or afterward send them out into
the world with enough in their hand to
purchase place and power. Pastors sal
aries in the early part of this century
hardly ever reached $500 a year. Econ
omies that sometimes cut into the bone
many of the homes of the
New England clergymen. The young
lawyer of whom we speak today arrived
in San Francisco in 1919 with only S10
in his pocket Williamstown college
was only Introductory to a post gradu-
ate course which our illnstrious friend
took while administering justice and
hating rufianism amid the mining
camps of California. Oh, those "forty-
nineys. as they were called, through
what privations. through what marrow
escapes. amid what exposures they
moved Administering and executing
law among outlaws never has been an
easy undertaking. Among mountain
GERS. riany of whom had no regard for
human life and where the snap of pistol
and bang nf gun were not unusual re-
sponses. required courage of the highest
metal
Behind dry goods box surmounted
by tallow candles Judge Field began
his judicial career What exciting
scenes he passed throughl An Internal
machine was handed to him. and inside
the lid of tie box was pasted his de-
cision in the Pueblo case, the decision
that had baked unprincipled specula-
tors. Ten years ago his life would have
passed out had net an officer of the law
shot down his assailant 1t tcok Il long
training of hardship and abuse and
1nisinterpretation 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 presl-
dents and the world when he knew be
vas right. Hardship is the grlndstone
that sharpens intellectual faculties. snj
the swords with which to strike effect
ivelx for God and ones country.
Tie reason that life to so many is a
failure is because they do not have op-
position enough and trials enough or
because they ANONYMOUSLY lie down to
be run over by them instead of using
them for stairs on which to put their
foot and mount. Those "born with a
gold spoon in their mouths are apt to
take their last medicine out of a pewter
mug. Have brave heart in all depart