Evening journal., 1912-06-20
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Supreme Courts Young
est Man in the Law
By Holland

/ happened one day TO say to Col
onel George Corkhill who was a.
that time United States district at
torney for the District of Columbia,
and who prosecuted Guiteau for the
murder of President Garfield, that l.
once heard David Davis. who was for
fourteen years associate Justice of
the United States Supreme Court
and for six years United States Sem
ator from Illinois. say that Samuel
z. Miller was the youngest man who
had ever been appointed Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court and
that Justice Davis. observing my
perplexity, had added with twinkle
in his eye:
i mean the youngest man IN the
law"
Further than this be would not 30
by way of explanation.
Colonel Corkhill was a son-in-
law of Justice Miller and was for
many years in most intimate person
al association with that Justice who
was considered by many lawyers the
ablest member of the Supreme
Court bench of his time
II know what Justice Davis meant;
] know very we'll what he meant
Colonel Carkhil said. HE meant
that Mr.. Miller became an associate
justice of the Supreme Court only
fourteen years otter he had been ad-
mitted to the bar. That record, |
happen 10 know. is unprecedented,
and Justice Miller was very proud Of
it."
1T was very curious combina-
tion of circumstances which made
my father-in-law lawyer and
which fourteen years later led him
10 his appointment by President Lin
coin to the Supreme Court
When Young man Justice Miller
learned the trade of druggist in his
native town IN Kentucky it oc-
CURED to him one day when he was
putting up prescriptions that it
would be better for him il he wrote
| the prescriptions instead of COM
pounding them So he borrowed,
some medical books and began the
/ study of medicine. He afterwards
took course in a medical colRgs
and then began the practice of med
icine
He built up a good practice As
:
/ terward became as lawyer and
Judge One day he was called to a
desperate case. II was that Of a
child stricken with a fever. His per-
| sonal sympathies we're so greatly
stirred that he could not have felt
worse if the sick child had been a
member Of his own family
He lost the case and he grieved
necessarily over it. so that at last he
said to himself that If the loss of pa
tients affected him in that way he
never would be very successful as a
physician. / suspect that he was be-
ginning to feel something OF repug-
nance 10 the practice Of medicine.
He was reading one evening az
that time in his office an account Of
! the battle in Mexico which gave Gen-
eral Zachary Taylor bis national
fame. Temporarily he forgot the
distress which the loss of the patient
had ocoasioned him; II had. in fact,
produced lort of melancholy. Sud-
denly. il occurred 10 him that II he
I could be a lawyer he could take part
in politics: he could advise hl
friends from the stump that General
Taylor would be a splendid Whig
candidate for President and he
would be rid Of the unpleasant eN-
periences which had been his lot
when practicing medicine. The very
next day he borrowed some law
books and began to read law. and
two years later he was admitted ia
the bar And in the Presidential
campaign Of 1S4S he went upon the
stump and supported General Tay-
ior
Fourteen years later, there oc-
Cured vacancy on the United
States Supreme Court bench, ane
members Of Congress from Iowa
called upon President Lincoln TO re,
commend the appointment Of Samuei
F. Miller of Keokuk to the vacancy
Soon after heing admitted 10 the nar
my father-in-law had moved IL
Iowa.
''Wer. gentlemen, said Lincoln.
when he had heard the delegation. J
have heard all you have to say, nul
want to tell you that it won
make any difference with me about
the appointment
"The delegation looked somewhat
chaerined and its disappointment
was plainly visible till a moment "a
ter the President added that wha'
had been said 70 him about Mr. NIL
Ter would make no difference WIZ
him because he had already deter
mined to appoint him to the vacan-
cv whether any man recommenoee
him or not In 1858, at Keokuk' MT
Miller had delivered a speech on the
extension of slavery into the terri.
tories that had greatly impresse'
Lincoln. In that speech Mr.. Mlllel
, took the same view that Lincoln o,'
with respect to extension. LincolI
never forgot the speech, nor the I'm
preston it made on him, and II Wa
this which caused him to make W
his mind in 1852 to appoint my iatn
, er-in-law to the Supreme Cour'
E bench whether any man recommend
ed him or not"
(Copyrieht 1912. by E. J. Edwards
All rights reserved)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards VIII tel