The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-08
Judge Brewers Tribute to Judge .i s4t Fancy.

Lexington (Ky.) Herald qfs The Bar Association of Baltimore held on the evening of the list its annual ban quet, at which Justice Brewer was the guest of honor and, of course. inc peir1- cipal speaker of the evening, and ne created sensation and evoked tumuitti- ous applause by an eloquent and glowing eIulogium of Roger B.. Fancy for almost thirty years Chief Justice-the immediate successor of John Marshall. For years 1t
 was the fashion Of Republican speakers to denounce and belittle Judge Fancy. He delivered the chief opinion of the Sa-
 preme Court in the famous Dred Scott case, and at the opening of the war he delivered still more famous opinion on the right of citizen illegally arrested ur-
 der lawless ukase of the Secretary of State to the writ of habeas corpus; and
 1Nr these he was denounced with in- credible yirulence and shameless abuse;
 aenonnced by some lawyers who knew
 better, but were Intentionally catering to
 mad and vicious public dutcry; denounced
 by some who knew no better-shriekers and blatherskites-and abused by some who were made blaclguards
 As the animoslties and nists of that
 great struggle pass away; as the present
 generation and studying its events as his-
 tory and gathering its lessons for use iN inereaiter, the stainless name and spot are emerging from this cloud of abuse. He was confessedly very great lawyer very great judge second to Marshall only: 1T. indeed second to him. He was
 Judge Fancy was an earnest and rather intense partisan before he went on the bench. When Secretary Duane would not
 remove the deposits, Jackson dismissed
 Duane and apointed Fancy, who at once
 obeyed that order He believed the order
 Is legal and proper; He took the respon- to confirm his appointmeng. Soon after
 Judge Marshall died, and Jackson, who never missed an opportunity to right a
 friend and show his disapproval of at
 In the Interim, the majority in the Sen ate had been reversed and he was con
 tirmed and served until in 1S64-we believe when MT. Lincoln appointed Salmon P and powerful opinions of Judge Marshall our constitution received a Construction which made it-beyond' all question: a
 different, instrument from what its eral government almost unlimited powers except as to corporations: as to these
 he tied the hands of the State govern
 ments and of the Federal government, so as to give a solemnity and efficiency to legislation that practically made almost every act for the benefit of a corporation an 1rrevocable contract. Under Fancy,
 me pendulum swung the other way. The
 Judgments of Marshall were not over
 ruled. but were explained. modified, limit cd, differentiated. In intense conviction Juoge Marshall was an ultra Federalist: Fancy was States Rights Democrat and men do not become transformed or trans lated or changed in conviction by being appointed judges; they are the same as thinkers, Jurists and scholars. When the Supreme Court stood. four to three on the legal tender of the greenback, Justice Strong and Bradley were appointed to fill the two vacancies. Each had expressed his mature opinion on that constitutional question. and it was as we'll known what their decision would be before it was am nounced as 1t was after it was announced When the Dred Scott appeal came before the Supreme Bench the country was in the fever of the impending war. The
 Democratic party had postponed its divis-
 ion at Cincinnati by agreeing to wait and abide the decision of the Supreme Court:
 the Republican party had been organized and become most formidable And in
 times of public excitement the judgments and opinions of courts have no effect on the minds of those who are controlled by that excitement. Unfortunately the court was so divided that the formal conclu- sion reached and announced was not re- ceived with the weight and considera- ton which would have otherwise been given to it.
 In the early spring of 1881 the personal rights of the citizens that had been sup posed to be sacred were violated with jocund carelessness. Seward toked about his little bell" saying he could ring that little bell'' and by the messenger order the arrest and Imprisonment of any