The Weekly Tallahasseean., 1901-02-07
Continued from First Page).

even as am pleased and grati6ed at
THIS distinguished compliment, l ap-
Proach the theme with fear and
trembling? For who among us can
nope to do justice to the memory of
80 great and good a man? Who
can unroll the venerable record of
John MarshalPs history and fully and
1tly commemorate the name that
DID SO much to lift the eternal pillars
OF our great Republic to the clouds
and make it the stay and support of
millions of Americans, who bow in
Veneratlon before the imposing and
dlgnifed structure of the American
Judiciary of which he today stands
The acknowledged father.
- ALI over the United States the
bench and bar meet todayto cele-
orate the one hundredth anniversary
OF John Marshalps assumption of the
duties of Chief Justice of the Su-
preme Court of the United States.
One hundred and forty-six years
ago IN an obscure hamlet of Virginia
was born the infant, Marshall. How
much transpired that was great dur
ing the life that was ushered in that
dayS Reared subject of England
while still in young manhood he
looked upon and served during the
revolution of the colonies against the
another country; saw the organiza-
ton of the nation; lived to see
Washington, his friend, become
President of an infant country, serve
his term, retire to Mt. Vernon and
die revered and loved; the elder
Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
J.Q. Adams and Jackson successively
fill the Office of President, and each
IN their turn, peaceably under the
aaw, retired to become again private
citizens; saw the beginning and close
of several wars-War of the Kevo-
lution, War with France, War with
TripOi, War of 1S12-14 and the
Seminole and Black Hawk wars.
The boundaries of the nation were
extending with every year, the elec-
trio machines which are now so per-
feet were already being introduced
to the public in crude make, the
means of transportation were i'm
proving and in short the country
which John Marshall saw and knew
when he ascended the bench as Chief
Justice was far behind in social,
political and industrial position the
country which mourned him dead in
1885.
We are not assembled in this Sen
ate chamber to celebrate his deeds
as patriot officer Of the Revolution,
but to do homage to his greatness as
Searcher and expOunder of the laws
of his native land. Man gains wider
dominion by his intellect than by his
right arm. The action of thought is
a pregnant treasury of vast results.
BY its silent conquests we have the
perfected dreams of the blind and
homeless Galllleo. the maxims and
compilations of the Greek Solon,
making clear the path that leads
from modern legal decisions back to
the maxims of the Roman civil law,
the editions de luxe of our library
shelves filled with the brilliant rep
resentative thoughts of Homer, the
Greek, Tasso, the Italian, Balzac, the
Frenchman, Keats, the Englishman,
Scott, the Scotchman, and Poe, the
American. Because of thought we
ride to the capital in palace cars in
stead of carts; because of thought
we transmit messages under the seas
in few moments to the antipodes
and III this domain of intellect the
American citizen is looked upon
wherever he goes as the embodiment
of progress and enlightenment. And
to whose long life do we owe so
much of our stability and possibility
as nation of progress instead of
retrogressiOn, but to our great Chief
Justice, John Marshall
a hundred years have vanished
since he became Chief Justice; we
reverse the order of Persian senti-
ment and look back on the century
gone by; we look around with anx-