New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-05
FEITTTTE II. FILLER.

Chief Justice Fuller. who died yester-
day at his summer home in Maine, had
continued i'll our time the tradition Of
long service in that post created by Chief
Justices Marshall and fancy. Until Mar
shall came into the court brief tenure
had been the rule for its presiding jus
tees. John Jay served only six years.
He was succeeded by John Rutledge. the
only Chief Justice to sit by a recess alp
pointment He presided over one term
before the Senate had a chance TO act Oh
his nomination. and, his mind having be-
come affected by the time Congress as
sembled. the Senate rejected him. Oliver
Ellsworth held the office only three
years. resigning it after he had been sent
TO France on diplomatic mission. Mar
shalls great success in expanding the
powers and influence Of the court was
due largely TO his unbrollcn tenure of
thirty-four years. fancy, who followed,
held the Office Wenty-eight years. Chief
Justice Fuller approached their records
with q service of twenty-five years. His
two immediate predecessors had shorter
terlns-Morrison Il. Waite one of four
teen years and Salmon L. Chase one of
only nine years.
Most of the Chief Justices were fig
they we're appointed When Afr. Fuller
was nominated III 1883 by President
Cleveland he was almost unknown out
side the Chicago courts, and adverse
comment was heard GA the selection of
q comparatively inconspicuous lawyer,
whose only public experience had been
gained as member Of the Illinois Leg
islature and as delegate TO four Demo
cratic national conventions. The nomina-
ton reached the Senate on April 80, 1888,
was warmly opposed in the Judiciary
Committee and was not faVorably acted
on until july 20 following. But in his
long and useful service on the bench AIr.
Fuller thoroughly disproved the notion
that only a statesman or a lawyer who
had been conspicuous in national politics
could be transformed into a successful
Chief Justice. 1t would be extrayagant to
rank him with Marshall or fancy as G
moulder of the court policy But in dis
charging the duties of his great Office he
displayed ia q high degree capacity, bal
ance, dignity. consistency and all the
other qualities which combine to form
the true judicial temperament. He soon
won the respect and esteem of the coun-
try, which has long thought of him as
worthily maintaining the best traditions
of the chief justiceship.
In estimating his work as a Judge it
must be remembered that ia his political
ideas and sympat hies he was somewhat
ont of touch with the period in which he
lived He was a Democrat in Maine st
the time the Free Soil agitation was ear
rying that state away from its old politi
cal Inoorings. He remained a Democrat
in Illinois ana was delegate TO the
Democratic National Convention which
nominated General George Il. Mcclellan
for the Presidency and declared that the
war for the Union was failure. He was
lso a delegate 10 the conventions which
nominated Greeley, Tilden and Hancock.
Facts like these explain his adherence
10 ideas and theories of government
more in harmony with the period of his
early Youth than with that of his matu-
rity. IN the court he represented Il sur
Hital OF the repressiye strict construction
notions Of fancy, which had been swept