Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-04-12

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of mis- oath. and in fulfilling 1t as in all
true divisions of labor, he economies
the cost of work in his special field,
besides being most essential factor In
the judicial administration of Justice.
And here | may say, in the language OF
Judge Dillon, in his Yale lectures tha,,
English law in the shape in which we
have it is essentially growth, his
| torical development, the work chiefly
| of the lawyers and judges of England
| through a succession of centuries" !"
Moreover, every great document which
has become monument of human lip-
erty, from Magma Charta TO the "war
| amendments" of our National Consti-
tuition, has been prominently the work
| of lawyers or judges. And as in the
past. 80 from the natureof the case it
must be in the future. Law ever will
remain as science which, in the words
of Blackstone, distinguishes the cri-
terions of right and wrong; which
| teaches to establish the one, and pre-
vent. punish or redress the other;
which employs in it's theory the noblest
| faculties of the soul, and eXerts in its
practice the cardinal virtues of the
heart
On such an OCCASION then, it is pc
culiarly appropriate that the judiciary
and Bar of the county be represented
The noble structure to be here erected
is and will he known especially as a
Court House that is, the place where,
by means CT com Is, civil and criminal
justice, to the extent which law and hui
man intirmity admits, shall be judicial
ly administered. That in part, it also
will be devoted to other important util
tiles does not detract from the signiH-
canoe of this one use which gives tn
the building its name. The highly ap-
| preciated honor has been conferred up
on me, as one of the judiciary for this,
with other counties, and a member oi
the Washington County Bar of speak
ing here, as the representative of both
Civil government in the old North
west Territory was formally establish
ed on Marietta soil, July eighteenth
1883. Eight days later, it's first county
named Washington, by proclamation OF
Governor st. Clair, was legally defined.
The famous ordinance of 1887, unde.
which this was done also provided that
"court" should "be appointed" to
consist of three judges, any two Of
! whom might form court" and
'have a common law jurisdiction" It
further authorized the governor and
those judges, or a majority of them, to
adopt and publish such laws of the
original states, criminal and civil as
might "be necessary and best suited TO
the circumstances of the district"
Congress appointed the judges who
were to join in the work, two of whom,
Samuel H. Parsons and James M. Var
mum, Immediately entered upon their
duties as such, and they, with the gov
ernor, on August twentieth, 1888, pub
lished an act establishing general
courts of quarter sessions" county
courts of common pleas and the Of
flee of sheriff, with provision for his
! appointment.
Under, and in accordance with the
powers thus granted, courts were ZAP
pointed" and on the second day of Sep
tember 1888, in one of the block houses
of Campus Martius, the new court OF
Common Pleas held it's earliest session,
Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper and
Archibald Crary being the judges COM
posing it. On convening this first judi
cial tribunal of the great Northwest
| the Sheriff, Ebenezer Sproat, proclaim
ed that court is now opened for tha
administration of even-handed justice
to the poor and the rich, to the guilt
and the innocent without respect OF
persons" One week later the court oil
general sessions of the peace was held
with Putnam and Tupper as justices OF
the quorum, and Isaac Pearce, Thomas
Lord and R. j. Meigs, Jr., assistant
justices. The foreman of it's Grand
Jury was William Stacey.
From this beginning of judicial adj
ministration, within five months from
the day when the famed "forty-eight
pioneers landed at the mouth of the
Muskingum, territorial courts contin-
ued down to the adoption of the first
Constitution for Ohio. and the admis-
sion of the state into the Union, in
1903. Under the judicial system then
established, there were in all seven