The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-08
The Supreme Court
 of the United States
BY THOMAS H. CLARK.

associate of his resigned to become 1 Chancellor Rutledge of South Carolina. Even Marshall who was destined to establish the constitution on lasting
 bases, felt privileged for months joint l " to perform his duties as chief justice and Secretary of State. In tho long j'way as measured by new world stand- l ards. in the more than one hundred and sixteen years of existence, the court through the enormous growth of Legislation, has pushed steadily on In influence and power, making 1t seem
 far cry from its early first essays and It's transcending place now
 There is a certain interest attaching to the roll of names that mark the
 historical record of the court in mem- bership. Twenty eight States have have been eight chief justices: John
 Jay.s of New York; John Rutledge. of South Carolina. who gat. but failed of
 confirmation; John Marshall, of yir- | Salmon F. Chase. of Ohio Morrison R. i Waite, of Ohio, and Melville W. Fuller, l-of Illinois. The average length of service of the chief Justices has been There have been fifty-three associate Justices with an average length of ser | vice of sixteen years These have been:
 South Carolina, John Rutledge and Will Ham Johnson; Massachusetts. William | Cushing. Joseph Story, Benjamin R. l Curtis. Horace Gray and Oliver Wen
 dell Holmes; Pennsylvania, James Will
 son, Henry Baldwin. Robert C. Grier, l William Strong and George Shiras, Jr.. 1 Virginia, John Blair. Bushrcd Wash ington, Philip P. Barbour and Peter V. Thomas Johnson. Samuel Chase and 1 Gabriel Duval; North Carolina, James | Iredell and Alfred Moore; New Jersey. | William Patterson and Joseph P. Brad Hey; New York, Brockholst. Livingston,
 smith Thompson, Samuel Nelson, Ward | Hunt Samuel Blatchford and Rufus ". | Peckham Kentucky Thomas Todd. Robert Trimble and John M Harlan; Stanley Matthews, and William R; Day; | Georgia, James Nj. Wayne and William
 B. Woods; Tennessee. John catron and Howell F. Jackson; Alabama. John lHampshire. Levi Woodbury; Maine Nathan Clifford Iowa, Samuel F. Mil l Ter: Illinois. David Davis, California,
 stephen J. Field and Joseph McKenna: David j. Brewer; Michigan, Henry
 White.
 The Supreme Court consists at pres w. Fuller, and in the order of the ap- pointment, Associate Justices Hons. John Marshal Harlan, Dav1d J. Brewer,
 Edward ?. White. Rufus " Peckham Joseph Mexican, Oliver Wendell Holmes
 and William R. Day. There are two living ex-Associate Justices, the Hon. Geo. Shiras. Jr., of Pennsylvania, and
 Henry B, Brown of Michigan.
 There has been no little newspaper
 speculation as to the probable cour SC
 of those members of the Court who are
 eligible to retire and those who VIII
 become eligible in the next few years Ibe Chief Justice and Mir. Justice lIar-
 Ian are eligible now and have been foi
 more than two years past. Efr. Justice 1. Brown has just retired. Mir. Justice
 Brewer will be eligible to retire n
 June 1907, and Mr. Justice Pcckham lr
 November. 1908; so four members of ths
 Court will be competent to retire dur. ling the current term of President | Roosevelt.
 It Is hardly permissible to speculate , on the probable decision of these va z rIous Justices with respect to the re tirement act It will not, though. bt inappropriate tc say that no Chief Jus tice since Jays time has ever volun' : tarily relinquished his post. MT. Jus tice Harlan has recently publicly de : clared that he has no intention ofVre , tiring. !, i, nothing in the standard erected by so oiety in Washington to induce Jus ! tice to quit the bench and continue ' ' residence at the Capitol. What offe does he holdT' is deeply signtfican ! question in Washington, in spite of tn 2 curious, current, illfounded rumor tha , there exists in the place an old, ex elusive, wealthy, cultured class VII HOOK WltA NpHtSiPt NPNA. s ' i. lofffceholders. The present ofice-holde | of rank counts there as elsewhere. An he must be a present ofhce-holder. f There have been some lew seiectlon : made in the past that would incline tn observer to think the appointing powe . not daily mindful of the noble charaets I | of the tribunal, but happil s these were rare. If washing toms spirit could he foreve ' preserved 1t would be fortunate cir 1, cumstance Less accomplished tha f many, he perhaps above all his con : Itemporaries possessed Institutional sa eacity and he felt profoundly the vaiu r to the American people of loftily main e taining a great court as the supreme ar lbIter of the Constitution and the law a passed in pursuance thereot.