The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-29
BREWER is DEAD.
Continued from Page oneo

| was one of The leading LAWYERS of
America, contemporaneous with Chas.
| O'Connor, Samuel J.. Tilden, William
| M. Evarts, James 7. Brady and men
| of that caliber. He was a Democrat
| in political belief, but never a politi-
clan. He could not change his con-
v1ctlonS, and frequently they inter-
posed between him and preferment.
He was an anti-slavery man and acted
with the Republican party in it's ear
lier history, and. with Tilden, had sup
| ported Martin Van Buren,, the Free
| Soil candidate for president in 1913
| He was at Chicago in 1860, and it was
David ID. Field, as much as David Davis
or Horace Greeley, who contributed to
| the victory of Lincoln over Seward. He
| supported LincoIn's administration and
did much to bring the Democratic par
| ty of the north to the support of the
war. In 1876 he voted for Hayes
against his fellow Democrat and fellow
bolter In 1S48, Tilden; but he believed
Tilden was elected, so expressed him
self, and was sent to congress to up
hold Tilden'S cause. He was of that
| matchless array of counsel that plead
| ed Tilden's cause before the electoral
| commission. Before that he had de-
nounced the reconstruction infamies of
the Republican party visited on the
south and had proclaimed with a loud
the bayonet.
But David D. Field has a title to
fame about and superior to any of
these things. He was the father of
the code of practice, a legal reform of
incalcula BILE advantage to the English
speaking peoples of both hemispheres.
He drove technicality from the prac-
tice, and opened great profession to
minds too downright for riddles and
puzzles and Jargon and the artificial
reasonings and arbitrary precedents
of a dozen or SO form of pleading that
had for nomenclature ''Michaelmas
term and HILLARY term" and things
like that. Nearly all the American
80. l.
England, and most, if not all, of her
dependencies. This fine old New York
lawyer, the dean of the profession at
the legal metropolis of America, be-
queathed this great reform to law and
justice.
Stephen J. Field was taught by his
brother, though he had been a pupil
of his brother-in-law, Brewer, in Asia.
on his return to America he was a
Forty miner" in California. There he
practiced law, and was a politician
and judge. 1t would take a Robert
Louis Stevenson to tell his career in
that frontier in that pioneer day.
He, too, was a Democrat, but ad-
hered to the Union in 1861, and may
be it was his effort, more than any
other individual, that held the Pacific
coast true to the Union
Mr.. Lincoln put linn on the supreme
bench with Davis and Miller, and he
was associate justice of the United
period than any other man, and a
period some weeks greater than Jus
tice John MarshalPs service as chief
justice of that tribunal
Cyrus w. Field achieved more than
any other of the brothers. Early in
life he accumulated fortune, and
spent it all in the novel and seeming
w impossible enterprise of the ocean
telegraph. His efforts in that behalf
were as heroic as the struggles of
Bruce before the day of Banockburn,
but a score of defeats and disappoint-
ments were ultimately crowned with
victory.
Emilia Ann Field was the second |
child and eldest daughter of David |
Field She became the wife OF the
Rev. Josiah Brewer, and to them were
born seven children, among them Da-
vid J. Brewer, born June 20, 1887, at |
Smyrna, Asia Minor, where his par |
ents were then stationed as mission
aries of the Church of Christ. He was
educated at Wesleyan university ana
at Yale, and when a youth he read
law in the office of his uncle, David |
Dudley Field, in New York city. Sub
sequent1y he was graduated from the |
Albany law school.
Judge Brewers Career.
When a very young man, he located
at Leavenworth. Kan. and opened
law office 1t was Just before the war,
and it was troublOuS times and IL
turbulent people. He was on the pro-
hate
25, and two years later he was district
fudge. At 33 he was on the Kansas SUI
preme bench, where he continued I'll!
1884. when he was appointed judge OF
the Eighth federal circuit. IN AooY
President Harrison selected him to NIL
the vacancy on the supreme bench oc-
casioned by the death of Justice Stan
ley Matthews.
oninions that attracted considerable
attention One was that railroad case
from Texas, in which it was held that
federal courts had the right to restrain
rates fixed by state commission II
they were unreasonable. which amount
I'D to SAYING that the power to conns-
cate was not lodged in state ralroao
commission. +,
Then there was the Debs case
fudge Brewer decided that. 1t was held
mat the federal court had power to re-
strain by injunction any interference
with interstate commerce, and PUNISH
nv fine and Imprisonment one disooey-
ing the Injunction.
IN the Fairbanks case, Justice Brew
ar held that the government had no
mower to impose a stamp tax on d lor-
aign bill of lading.
In the Holy Trinity church case, he
held that the statute prohibiting con-
tracts for bringing into this country
foreign laborers. did not apply TO MIN
sters of the gospel. and the court salo
n that decision that ours is CHRIS i
tan nation Is
These are a few of the cases he ad-
indicated, and they TESTIFY TO the
strength and originality of his MIND I
He dfssented in the insular cases. he {
las long. been considered one OF the /
,blest Judge on the bench. s
ESTIMATE OF JUSTICE BREWER t
ate Chief Justice Horizons Sketch OF /
Former Associate.
The following sketch of Justice !