The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-01-16
Judge Halls Death

lNwwmhoyz. iron nno1lder, student. col
asgaAn. kawver. ana finally chief JUS
!ssss On 4he chief court OF one OF the
aax1ese Commonwealths of the New
VEauadI Such is the story, in brief.
OF Sars Sees work OF Frederick B. Hall.
lvysro saiea R1ddenly In Hartford, last
night
me caaiee Justice was nearing his
spsveuedeth year and he end of his
Aswxn OF office. He would have retired
EnSh. % by reason OF the age limita-
l4ion imposed by law.
lie was a type OF man very fire.
QuentzT Uroduced upon American soil,
daf4nz the first century OF the repub-
lie. Tha son OF poor parents, in a
day when wages were low and hours
Ioug, and when caste and privilege
we're more potent than now, he had
y BURNING desire for education, and
the reasonably certainty shat the law
yers vvogzld exercise g. large influence
in the state. Thus he chose law for
ID rro9eaaon and attained a distinc-
ton IN it that few men reach.
The idea that q Judge is a man
set apart from ordinary men, in the
sense that his daily life. should be
lived in separation from his Fellows,
and that his speech with men should
be marked with q. quality of distance,
was not included by Judge Hall in his
concept of judicial dignity
His manner and his habits on and
off the bench were modelled upon
those of John Marshall, the great
judge of the United States Supreme
Court, who laid the foundation for
much of the policy which the Supreme
Court of the United States has fol-
lowed in constituting the Federal CON
stitution.
In manner in garments and in all
the outward symbolism that marks
intercourse between man and man,
Marshall was ultra Democratic. The
habits. the customs, the enjoyments,
and the social pastimes of the men
about him were his own. But in his
Interpretation of the. law he was
Hami1tonfan, rather than Jeffersonian,
and, indeed, between himself and JEFF
ferson there was an enernity
Judge Hall was of the school of
Marshall, and during the years which
he sat upon the bench, which were
from 1889 to the time of his DEATH did
much to bring the constitution of
Connections into harmony with that
and his successors had created, when
they moulded the Federal constitution
to make it meet exactly the judicial
conception of that instrument.
Judge Halls death marks in a sense
a legal epoch. The age comes to a
deGnocatitc in spirit as well as in
form. Massive structures of legal
learning, upon which Judge Hall and
mis- predecessors toiIed with indefatig-
able industry and learning are being
swept aside by single statutes, as to
wit all that mass of legal lore and
precedent governing the relations of
master and servant. The judge as the
master OF the constitution is passing,
and Herewith passes much effort and
learning accumulated by Marshall and
his successors.
Not therefore are we to look with
d4sparagement upon the institutions
of the past, or upon the men who
created them. Institutions arrive in
their due course, are constructed and
maintained by men adequate to the
work demanded of them. These give
way, in due season, to other men and
other institutions, modified to meet the
conditions of the newer day.
From man to the wheel, from wheel
to wagon, and wagon to locomotive
IS a necessary order. And so the
judicial use of tomorrow will be 1egi-
timately and necessarily evolved from
that of yesterday.
Judge Hall was a wise and learned
Judge. and a humane and friendly
man. The State is indebted to him.
His death is lamented by his friends,
and regretted by everybody.