The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-07-01

- 1HS II
This fine youth had returned to become
a drill-master of soldiers Of North
Carolina. Such experts were very rare
in the South in 1861. 1t was in this ca
pacity that young Clark began his i'm
portant service in behalf of his beloved
South, and dear old North Carolina, and
thoroughly he performed his duty all
the way TO the end as he began 1T. He
rose by merit and devotion to duty and
actual service in the field to the rank
of Lieutenant Colonel, and before he
was eighteen, if | am not in error. He
won fame and secured the praise of sol
diers Of higher rank by his fidelity, en-
DURANGO, conservation to duty and un-
flinching courage in the face Of the
enemy. Such was Walter Clark in youth
amid fiery days that indeed tried mems
souls" and showed the stuff of which
manhood was composed. That Waiter
Clark was faithful and valiant is a fact
known to Gen. NJ. w. Ransom and other
older men who saw bin in battle and
in years of service. After the satanic,
cruel, brutal war had ended the in
genuous youth took up his studies afresh,
was graduated with highest honors at
the University of North Carolina, if !
am not mistaken in my recollection, en-
tered upon the study of law and IN due
time began its practice. By intense in
dustry, u~nfagging p~ertinacity OF viii,
thorough knowledge and high conceptions
of duty, he forged ahead until he stands
today at the head of his profession IN
this great old State, with character
equal to any responsibility and demand,
faithful, earnest, devoted, b~rOad-gauged
systematic, pure and upright, without
fear and without any we'll based grounds
for reproach. He is indeed in a noble
sense a true gentleman, a man OF
amiability, Of many yirtues-temperate,
self contained, calm, resourceful, not
hasty in judgment, not eXorbitant in
ambition, not overbearing, not proud.
not rapacious, not oppressive, mot too.
exacting, not pulled up with vanity and
overlooking with presumption, but OF
sterling qualities all the way through,
and of infexible truthfulness and hon
esty.' He is in a word one of God
A~lmighty's gentlemen" as Augustus
Hare phrased tia Christian.
A great deal has been written of judges
and justice. Statesmen, Philosophers,
historians, novelists, essayists, divines,
lawyers, poets have all had something
to say of the honest or corrupt judge, and
of holding the scales of justice evenly.
All men OF sense ana CndIdcIcF love
justice, and aim to do right. The senti-
mont of justice is all prevailing, and
was never more so thar in this country,
in the virgin days of the young and
puissant Republic during the first half
of the last great, teeming, inventive
century. Since that golden prime" of
the great statesmen, and the prevalence
of genuine political principles true to
civil liberty and the rights of the peo-
pic, there has been delay. The natural
conscience has been smittcn and the high
standards of right and honor have been
sadly lowered or destroyed. | believe
that Justice Clark had a high standard
ever before him of the equities, and in
his great office has steadfastly held to
the noblcst ideals in judicial records, and
among the grandeSt types of men who
! wore the ermine. l hold sincerely that
he has been always an honest, upright,
conscientious judge, aiming at justice,
seeking the essential underlying prin-
ciples and striving at the best con-
illusions. The simple, fundamental prin-
ciple of Justice has been his guiding star
through all the mazes and intricacies of
law. Justice and honor and thought
nave been the fundamentals in the build
ing of his character as a iurist. He
mas UNDERSTOOD ana dClCu upon lIlS great
cardinal virtue Justice, writ large in
Gods Book, cngravCn upon the very soul
by the finger of the Almighty, the one
great, unerring rule of conduct from
which there should never be any varia-
bleness or shadow of turning. The
Frenchman, Chateaubriand, a splendid
genius, said that Justice is the bread
of the nation; it is always hungry for it"
Hazlitt, the English critic, said that
I'VE are sure to judge many if we do
not feel right" | hold firmly that Judge
Clark has always illustrated in his life
the fullest justice, that he has feared
God and loved the People. / believe his
heart has been upright before God, that
he has relied upon Him for help and
guidance, that he has delivered only
righteous judgments, that he has never
once fled Ito devices to support and cover
injustice,' that he has walked circum-
specify, humb1y, t~rustingly, reverently
before his Maker and that mono shall be
able to so stab him as to seriously in
jure his good name, much less to sup
plant him. In William Pcnn's noted
"Adyice to His Children he said to
them: Let justice have it's important
course, and the law free passage.
Though to your loss, protect no man
against IL LOT you are not ABOVE the
law. but the law above you. Live,
therefore,, the lives yourselves, you
would have the people live, and then
you may have right and boldness to
punish the trangressor." Oh, if all Of
our judges had lived after that model,
up to that standard of right, how much
purer and more commanding their
characters would be. II there are some
who can not stand that proper, rigid test
of fidelity and rectitudo, Judge Clark
can and be it said to his honor.
l am no lawyer or iurist, but l am
a citizen of a great State and born in
it, and I'M interested in the faithful,
just, righteous administration of law;
am interested in all that enters into our
civilization, that concerns the science
Of government, the maintenance of So
ciety, the prosperity and glory and honor
of the State. Having known so long
and SO intimately Justice Clark-now
quite forty years. know him to be a