Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1901-02-05
JOHN MARSHALL,
eminent JURIST
Memory Honored by Bench
and Bar of Country.
DAY DEDICATED TO Law


Washington Participated In by
Dignitaries of the acknowledgment
Address by Wayne MacVeagh.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4.-John Marshall
of Virginia was installed as chief JUS
| tice Of the United States 100 years age
today, and 10 o'clock this morning the
centennial anniversary of that OCCASION
was celebrated with impressive ceremo.
nies in the hall of the house of repre-
sentatives at the capitol The program
arranged by the joint committee of con-
gress and William Writ Howe of New
Orleans, president of the American Bar
association, was simple and dignifed, as
becam%the life of the great jurist The
president and his cabinet, the members
of the supreme court, the members OF
the senate and house, the diplomatic
corps and members of the district bar
association attended as invited guests.
Many other distinguished persons were
in the galleries which were reserved for
| those holding cards of admission. AL
though the various official bodies en-
tered the hall together, they were not
announched as on former occasions.
President Mckinley and the mem bers
Of the cabinet were the last to arrive.
The entire assemsDlage rose and re-
mained standing until they had seated
themselves
Representative Dalzell of Pennsylva-
MIA called the assemblage to order. He
stated briefly the action of congress in
providing for the ceremonies and the
selection of Chief Justice Fuller as pre-
siding officer. The chief justice, in his
judicial robes, was escorted to the chair
by Representatives Grosvenor of Ohio
and Richardson of Tennessee.
Rev. DR.. William Strother Jones of
Trenton, n. j., a great grandson Of
John Marshall, invoked the divine bless
ing. The chief justice, introducing
Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, who was to
deliver the Grafton, paid an eloquent
tribute to the memory of John Mar
shall, which evoked hearty applause
from the assemblage.
Chief Justice Fuller's Address.
Chief Justice Fuller's address was de-
voted almost entirely to the considera-
ton of his predecessor career as an
expounder of the federal constitution.
He referred briefly to the judicial work
OF the earlier days of the nations his
tory, and then presented the task which
lay before Marshall when he assumed
the duties of the chief magistrate of the
land. saying:
in fho of &1
organization, during which Jay and
Rutledge and Ellsworth, giants in those
days, presided over its deliberations,
had dealt with such of the government
problems as arose in a manner worthy
of its high mission; but it was not until
the questions that emerged from the ex-
citing struggle of 1900 brought it into
play that the scope of the judicial power
was developed and declared and its sig
nifcant effect upon the future of the
country recognized.
"The president who took the oath of
office administered by the chief Justice
on March 4, 1901, in his inaugural in
cluded among the essential principles of
our government the support of the state
governments in all their rights as the
most competent administrations for our
domestic concerns and the surest bull
warks against anti-republican tenden-
cies, and the preservation of the general
government in its whole constitutional
vigor as the sheet-anchor of our peace
at home and safety abroad; but it was
reserved for the chief justice, as the
organ Of the court, to define the powers
and rights of each in the exercise of a
jurisdiction which he regarded as in
dispensible to the preservation of the
Union and consequently of the inde-
pendence and liberty of these states
1.-THE people, In establishing their fu-
ture government, had assigned to the
different departments their respective
powers, and prescribed certain limits
not to be transcribed, and that these
limits might not be mistaken or disre-
garded, the fundamental law was writ
ten. And, as the chief Justice observed,
TO what purpose are powers limited
and to what purpose is that limitation
committed to writing if these limits
may at any time be passed by those in
tended to be restrained p"
He quoted Chief Justice Marshall s
famous utterances to the effect that the
amendments to the constitution must be
interpreted by its intention, and said of
his words III that connection:
''These were plain legal rules of con-
struction, yet III their application is to
be found the basis of the national fabric,
| the seed of the national growth, the
vindication of written form of gov
ernment, and, simple as they new ap-
pear to be, their application then re-
| quired the highest judicial qualities.
| Chief Justice Fuller went on to say that
the powers and duties of the various
branches of the government had not
been well defined. and that there was
| intense antagonism between them for
the supremacy. Justice Marshal's part
| in this service was, he said, impress
slvely:
"To hold the balance true between
| these poles; to tread the straight and
narrow path marked out by law, regard
less of political expediency and party
politics on the one hand and of jealousies
of the rising power on the other; to
reason out the governing principle in
| such manner as TO leave the mind free
to pursue it's own course without per.
| pleXity and to commend the conclusions
reached to the sober second thought;
| these demanded that breadth of view,
that power Of generalization, that clear
hess of expression. that unerring dis
cretion, that simplicity and strength OF
character, that indomitable fortitude,
which, combined in Marshall, enabled
him to disclose the working lines OF
that great republic, whose foundations
meant revolution laid In the principles
of liberty and self government, lifting
mp their hearts in the aspiration thai
they might never be disturbed, and
looking to that future when its lofty
towers would rise into the midst oi
sailing birds and silent air. ="
AT the conclusion of Justic Fuller'G
remarks, Mr.. McVeagh delivered hil
grafton.
Mr.. MacVeagh's Grafton.