New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-14
4 NEsToR OF THE BENCH.

A notable career on the federal bench ended
last week when John ]. Jackson, United States
District Judge for the Northern Dlsulct OF
West Virginia, resigned his commission. Judge
Jackson retires after an active service or forty
| three years and seven months. he was ap-
pointed a district judge by President Lincoln on
August 8. 1861 He had been member of the
Virginia Legislature, and, though q Democrat
had vigorously opposed secession. When VIZ
ginia withdrew from the Union he cast his fort
unes with the western counties, which remained
loyaI and which were subsequently organized
into a separate State. President Lincoln nomf-
mated Judge Jackson to fill vacancy In the OLD
Virginia district He became few years later
the first United States District Judge FOR the
District Of West Virginia, and administered JUS
tice single-handed within that jurisdiction until
1901, when the State was divided into two DIS
tricts-the northern and the southern. For the
last four years he has been the District Judge
for the Northern District.
In State like West Virginia, cut until re-
Gently into isolated sections, the work OF dis
trict judge entails excessive physical burdens
To travel by rail from one West Virginia town
to another circuits of hundreds of miles are
often necessary. The railroads run across the
State from east to west, and there have been
until within year or two no north and south
connecting links. To go from Charleston, the
route may lie east through old Virginia to
Washington, and then west again through Mary
land In Judge Jackson's early days communl-
cation between the different parts of the COM
monwealth was still more difficult. Yet he
travelled this exacting and exhausting circuit
for over forty years, with practically no abate-
ment of his mental or physical powers and no
sapping of the vitality and force Of character
which endeared him TO the community he served.
methods but judge and a man he never
failed to measure up to the full standard of
faithfulness and uprightness. He retires at
eighty years, still hale, vigorous, justly con-
tented with a record of continuous service I'M
paralleled in our judicial annals.
His term Of forty three years and seven
months far outruns, in fact, that OF any other
federal judge Several Of our Supreme Court
justices have served terms Of over twenty
FIVE years. John Marshall was Chief Jus
tice for "a years. Roger 3. fancy held the
same pest for rs years. Among the associ-
ate justices Joseph Story and Stephen J. Field
served 81 years; John Mclean and James
NJ Wayne, 80; Bushrod Washington, 81 WILL
lam Johnson, so; John Catron and Samuel f.
Miller, g. anG Samuel Nelson, 81. John NJ
Harlan, the senior member of the present court
is in his twenty-eighth year of service. r. R.
Nelson, a district judge in Minnesota, who re-
tired In 1885, had record Of thirty-eight years.
But of the District Circuit and Supreme Court
judges now sitting comparatively few seem to
have crossed the twenty year line, and fewer
still can hope to continue In the harness long
enough to dispute Judge Jackson's nestorship
Judgeships nowadays are either bestowed on
men of maturer years or Judges are firing sooner
under the burdens Of office; for the average 1u-
dicial tenure seems shorter than it was in the
earlier days of the Republic Judge Jackson's
career recalls both in its rigor Of service and
it's exceptional duration, the conditions of those
earlier days His retirement is notable because
it marks the passing Of an older order. With
his retirement the last link is broken which
bound the judiciary Of Chief Justice Taney's
era with the judiciary of to-day.