New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-01-03
Appointed to u. S. Su-
preme Court Bench Dur
ing Taft's Term.
TRIED TO RESTORE
PEACE IN MEXICO
Member of a Distinguished
Georgia Family, Was Famous
as Lawyer.

Washington. Jan. 2.7Joseph Rucker
Lamar, Associate Justice of the Su-
premc Court of the United States, died
at his home here tonight after an
illness Of several months. He was fifty
eight years old. and had been on the
Supreme Bench for FIVE years.
The immediate cause of death was
gradual heart failure, fastened by in
fammation Of one Of the lungs. which
had threatened TO develop into pneu-
monia. The attending physician de
clared, however, that the primary cause
was oyerwork. due "a Justice La
mars srduous duties in the Supreme
Court and as commissioner OF the
United States in 1914 to the Mediation
Conference between the United States
and Mexico at Niagara Falls.
Exhausted by last years term Of
court. Justice Lamar went to White
Sulphur Springs, ". Va, in June. He
improved until September, when a clot
in an artery caused him to lose the
use for time of his left arm and leg
II was some time before he recovered
from this attack, but when he re-
turned to Washington in October he
planned to return 10 his work on the
bench in February.
About a week ago the justice con-
tracted a cold. His weakened heart
was unable to bear the added burden.
Arrangements for ;he funeral were
not completed to-nighr, but the burial
will take place in Augusta, Ga, for
many years the home Of the justice.
The funeral party will! leave for Au-
gusta Tuesday afternoon.
1t is believed that President Wilson
will act at once in filing the vacancy
caused by Justice Lamar's death, be
cause of the important cases awaiting
consideration before full court.
There is a tradition that the Lamar
family was of Huguenot origin and
fed from France at the revocation Of
the Edict of Nantes. The family set
tied in Georgia at an early date, and
is 70 that state much what the Lees
are TO Virginia, the Bayards to Della
ware and the Adamses to Massachu-
sets Mirabeau Lamar, who led the
winning cavalry charge at San Jacinto
and became Governor of Texas; l.. Q. c.
Lamar, the elder. one of Georgia's most
distinguished judges, and L. Q. c. La
mar, the younger, Senator and Justice
of the Supreme Court. are well re-
membered the nation over in the later
generations.
Joseph Rucker Lamar, nephew OF the
younger L. Q. {. Lamar, was born In
L Georgia on October IA, 1857, and was
educated at the University of Georgia,
at Bethany College, West Virginia, and
at Washington and Lee University. He
was a member of the Georgia Legis
! lature in 1S86-1SS9, a commissioner 10
revise the code of that state in 1895
and an Associate Justice OF the Su-
preme Court of Georgia in l9O3-l9O5
The last named office he resigned to
resume the practice of law, in which
for years before he had been highly
successful. Both at the bar and IN
the Legislature he did much TO i'm
prove the legal processes and the ad-
ministration of justice, and thus made
himself a marked man in his profess
sion.
Justice Lamar. who was a Democrat,
was appointed an Associate Justice Of
the Supreme Court of the United States
on December ~. 1910, by President
Taft. and took his seat and began his
duties on January 3 following. In ad-
dition 10 his services on the bench, he
was one of the commissioners who met
at Niagara Falls in the spring of 1914
in an earnest, but futile. effort to re
store peace and constitutional order