New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-05
EIGHTH CHIEF JUSTICE
Mr.. Fuller Held the Place
Twenty.tWo Years.

To sperd TWENTY-FIVE years Of long life as
2 foremost expounder OF the Constitution.
and then to die on the birthday of the ma
tons independence-such was the lot OF
Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller, OF the
United States Supreme Court His death
was the third among the members OF the
Supreme Court within ten months, follow
ing those of Justice Rufus ". Peckham and
Justice David J. Brewer.
Chief Justice Fuller and his fast friend.
Mark Twain, who died earlier in the year,
the nations most august and dignlneo
iurist and her most popular ann irrepfes-
sible hunlorist, were often taken for each
other. Both were short, light of frame, and
both in the years in which they acquired
their greatest fame wore long. flowing
white hair and mustaches. Mr.. Fuller was
only two years the authors senior. Both
were associated with the unfolding Of that
marvellous empire, the Mississippi Palley.
But the iurist was Down East Yankee
bv birth. education end tradition.
a Family Of Lawyers,
| On February II, 1888, biting winters day.
he was born at his fathers home in Au-
sugta. the centre and capital Of Maine.
His father was a lawyer in that city, and
he had an uncle who WIS d lawyer In the
neighboring city Of Bangor. His grand
father on his mother side. Nathan Yves
/ ton. was associate justice of the Supreme
Court Of the state and his paternal grand
father. Henry Weld Fuller, a classnlate Of
Daniel webster's at Dartmouth, was a
Judge in kennebec County. The offspring
/ of such a clan imbibed the law with his
mothers milk.
Young Fuller prepared for college in Au-
gusta and when twenty years ole entered
Bowdoin Following his graduation, four
wears later he studied law in his uncle s
Office in Bangor, and then took a course of
lectures at the Harvard Law School The
uncle in Bangor was George Melville Yves
ton after whom the future Chief Justice
was named. With another uncle. Benjamin
G. Fuller. he formed partnership in the
law in Augusta, after Ia ving been admitted
! to the bar. in 1855 This uncle was also as
| ISOLATED with him for a short time as ed
| ;tor OF The Age" q Democratic paper, in
his native town.
Begins Practice in Chicago
| In 1856 Mr. Fuller served as president OF
the Common Council Of Augusta, and per
formed the duties Of City Solicitor. But
before the year was out he forsook the
scene OF his birth and boyhooSi, deserted
the cornforta bic nest which the influence
OF his family had prepared for him, to ex-
pand and grow with the larger life of the
West. Chicago was a small place in those
DAYS, but an ideal environment for young
man who could keep pace with its develop
ulent.
So in Chicago the young lawyer resumed
the practice of his profession, at the age
Of invent three. He had already displayed
remarkable ability in the law. His engag-
ing manners brilliant attachments and
eagerness for hard work soon brought him
clients, and within two years he appeared
before the Supreme Court Of Illinois in the
case Of Beach against Derby.
From that time on his success as a prac-
tiloner WIGS remarkab BILE, and he was closely
associated with the legal, political and So
cial progress Of the city of his adoption.
The cases in which he was Interested ap-
pear In more than one hundred of the Law
reports of Illinois. He was a personal
friend and the ardent adnirer OF Stephen
a Douglas. In 1862 he was a member OF
the convention to revise the Illinois con-
sltution. and in 1868 he served as a mem
/ Der OF the lower house of the Legislature.
He vas a delegate 10 the Democratic na-
tional conventions Of 1854. 1872. 1876 and 1880.
/ a19 GIidGe du SlosueaI speech IN $50 IN
placing Thomas A. Hendricks in nomina-
ton.
First Case in Supreme Court.
| Mr. Fuller began TO practise in the fed
erai courts early in his career His nrst
case before the United States Supreme
Court was that Of Dows agt Chicago,
brought 10 restrain the collection Of a tax
On shares OF bank stock His first personal
appearance in the Supreme Court was 10
argue the case Of the Traders Bank agt.
Campbell. involving the question as TO
| whether judgment against a bankrupt
could constitute q fraud ulent preference.
His appearances after that were many and
frequent. 1t is a singular coincidence that
| ia the first case heard by the late Chief