The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1909-12-18
PARKER LAUDS
JUDGE PECKHAM
Pays High Tribute in Address To-
day to Late Member of
Supreme Bench
ENHANCED COURTS DIGNITY
Declares That Peekhsm Increased the
Affection of People For the
Highest Tribunal in Land
Devoted to Law.


Washington. Dec. 1S.--With Judge
Alton B. Parker of New York. presid-
ing and delivering the principal ad-
dress OF eulogy, the members of the
bar OF the supreme court of the ". s.
today adopted resolutions commemo-
rating the late Justice Peckham. asso-
ciate justice of the supreme court
Judge Parker's address was upon the
character and accomplishments of the
late justice. Parker said
I'VE are here today" he said. 'to
commemorate a public career embody-
Ing the highest development of our
democratic institutions, as manifest "A
in our judicial system. and, at the
same time. 70 recall n man sturdy. in
dependent kindly modest. well-pols-
ed and many-sided.
"The devotion of Rufus Wheeler
Peckham to the law was akin to his
heritage of life itself. He came from
an ancestry distinctly legal. There
have been families whose members
have Illustrated in one generation
after another, the best human quail
ties, but our history does not reveal
another i'm which the public career OF
son has touched that of father at
more, If so many. points"
After citing Instances in which
Judge Peckham and Judge Peckham's
father had filled the same positions.
Mr. Parker continued:
His personality was engaging and
kindly. His attachment for old friends
warm and tenacious. His hatred af
fraud and deceit was so deep seated.
and his vigilance in its detection so
untiring, that he who i'm the words of
Lord Blackburn, so palters in a double
sense as to Lie like truth could not
thereby escape the consequences of his
deceit
lie loved justice with all his heart.
ara his highest indeed his only am
bition was to devote his life to its adj
ministration. Therefore he welcomed
the opportunity which his modesty
and dignity prevented him from seek
ing, of service to all the people of the
United States i'm their court of last re-
sor..
And so, in a process OF evolution as
orderly had almost said as any ~
the processes of nature-Rufus w.
Peckham came to be a constituent Df
the tribunal which occupies this mod
est court room. And what a Tribunal
1T is at once the eminence and the
base of the most imposing, the most
beneficent, the most firmly planted OF
the governments the world has ever
known.
"In its beginning, statesmen AMI
students Of history gravely considered
a government could live with
such power lodged i'm the court; but
after and amid the vicisstudes of a
and nearly one-quarter. in
volving bitter strife in the domain rf
politics heated and even angry con-
i'm the legislative halls.
quarrels between the legislature and
the executive, and "A contest of arms
evokng a destruction OF lives and ma
terial treasure appalling TO the imagin-
ltion, it's light burns with a brighter
glow and a wider radiance of hope
and assurance aong mankind.
Through IL all this court has pre-
served its serenity its majesty. it's i'm
1uencc it's power and the respect and
confidence OF all the people. To the
sovereign state IL says. Here is the
limit OF your territory or your authcr-
ty,' to the legislative department.
state or national. il says you have
exceeded the limit Of your power and
,our doing is void: to the humblest
md most destitute of humans it un-
ocks the prison door closed upon him
by a sovereign; Go the greatest aggre-
cations OF organized wealth and pow
n II says: dissolve and dispcrse.' and
1 Is so. And all this has been accom-
olishod. i'm the words OF the Marquis
le Mobis, by power which has no
guards, no palaces no treasures. no
armies. but truth and wisdom"
Justice Pcckham. he said had en-
lanced the dignity and increased the
affection of the people for the supreme
,ourt.