The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-04
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
SINCE JOHN MARSHALL Assembled
TO THE SUPREME BENCH.
DAYS OBSERVANCE HERE.
JUDGE EMORY sPEER WILL DELIV-
Err THE ADDRESS TO THE BAR.

Exercises in Honor of the Centennial
Anniversary of Chief Justice
MarshaII's Accession TO His Place
on the Bench 10 BE Held in the
United states Court Room To-
nfght-The Appropriations of the
Place Dictated Its Retention and
Thus Limited the Audience-Judge
speer to be introduced by Judge
Robert FaIIigant.
To-day is the centennial anniversary OF
the accession to the bench OF the Supreme
Court of the United States of Chief JUS
tice John Marshall. and in almost every
city of Importance in the land il is being
ittingly observed.
No less fitting and important than the
observances elsewhere will be the tribute
which Savannah will pay tonight to the
memory of the distinguished soldier
statesman ana jurist In the United States
court room at s O'Clock tonight, Judge
Emory Speer will deliver an address, I'M
der the auspices of the Savannah Bar
Association, of which Chief Justice Mar
shall will be the theme, and his public
services the Inspiration.
Because of the limited capacity of the
court room it was thought wisest to
limit the admission, aud the tickets have
already been issued for the full number
of seats. OF these tickets each member
Of the bar was given two, admitting
four persons, and in addition invitations
were sent to the Mayor and Aldermen
and the officers of the city and county,
besides others prominent in the various
phases of the life of Savannah. When
these invitations had been issued there
were none others to be bestowed and in
consequence there are many, who were
anxious to have the opportunity of lis
tening to the learned and eloquent adj
dress of Judge Speer is certain to de
liver, who necessarily must be dsappoint-
I ed
The address will be delivered at a reg
ular session of the United States courts
which will be opened by the marshal in
due form of law. The exercises will he
begun by prayer by Rev. Bascom An
thony, and the orator of the evening will
| be introduced by Judge Robert Falligant
of the Superior Court.
The audience which Judge Speer will
address, small though it must necessar-
| lily be, WILL in its personnel, be worthy
of the theme and of the orators best ef-
! forts. 1t will comprise almost every men,
| Der of the Savannah bar, the judges of
| the state courts the officers of the city
and county, the men In business and the
| professions who make Savannah what she
is to-day. The beauty of the city will
not be lacking, for with that regard for
! the sex that distinguishes him, Judge
! Speer in accepting the invitation to de-
liver the address, specially included "the
| lady friends of us all"
AT one time, when it became obvious
| that the court room would not begin 10
hold half of those who were anxious
| TO attend, the question of holding the eX-
| ercses in some other and larger hall was
| considered 1t was thought best, how
| ever that this should not be done, and
that the original plan should be adhered
| to.
1t was deemed especially appropriate that
| the exercises in honor of the memory of
| Chief Justice Marshall should be held in
| the United States court room, at a reg
ular session of the court. and that the
| address should be delivered by the United
| States Judge.
| In no other place, it was felt, and
der no other combination of circumstances
| could the memory of the great chief JUS
tice of the United States be honored so
| fittingly. This sense of the fitness of the
| method of observance outlined and deter
| mined upon in the first instance, out
| weighed in the minds of the members of
the bar the further desirability of having
! The attendance as large as possible.
| The life of John Marshall was an in
| teresting and romantic one. and even
| without his distinguished services as
| jurist, he would still have been entitled
| to the generation of his countrymen for
| his valor in war, his skill and success as
a diplomatist and his wisdom and
| breadth of view a statesman. He was
| Secretary of State in the cabinet of John
| Adams when he was appointed chief JUS
| tce of the Supreme Court. President Ad-
| ans said that if he had done nothing else
| to entitle him to the regard of posterity
| he would have deserved the veneration of
| his people for giving them John Marshall.
With such theme and with such
wealth of material from which to draw,
| Judge Speer's address cannot be less than
of vital and compelling interest. Too little
| is known of the great Virginian who was
| the lifelong friend of Washington and
| whose services to his country can scarcely
| be measured in words. What words can
| convey of his life and dee5S will no ca ia