Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-01-13

terlng upon it's independent career
cannot De overestimated. His opin-
IONS are contained in the first eleven
volumes of our Reports. and a dis
proportional share of the law work
Tell to him, for what reason 7 do moi
know. VI the sixty eight full opin-
iohs III volume !, fifty were written
py the Chief Justice, seven by Judge
freoie. and eleven by Judge Weston.
ana OF these eighteen the Chief .Tus-
tice was disqualified from calling in
eight as he had been of counsel. He
was man OF versatile attachments.
WIN a line literary taste and style,
roma OF people, and therefore people
fond of him, cherry and optimistic.
fuil Of wit and anecdote. and vet
ceeply learned in the law and strict
~ CONSCIENTIOUS in the discharge of
ms ofhclai duties, he was a remarka-
bic combination of jurist scholar and
companion. In person he was tall
and graceful. with an intellectual
countenance and a fascinating man.
ner. His portrait in the Cumberland
County Court House brings back to
US from across the century the figure
OF a handsome, gracious and dignified
gentleman Of the old school than
whom none could have been more
worthy to be the titular head of our
highest Court. He died in Portland
on December 81, 1S40, just eighty
years ago from the day am writing
these words, and lies buried in the
OLD Western cemetery beneath a
monument erected to his memory by
the bar of Maine.
His Senior Associate was William
Pitt Preble. Born in York, November
u, 1888, graduate of Harvard, Coun-
ty Attorney. United States District
Attorney, he was appointed to the
supreme Bench at the age of SO, the
youngest in the history of the State
TO attain that position. He served
elsht years and resigned in 1928 to
enter upon a diplomatic and later q
business career, being the great pro-
moter of the Grand Trunk Railway in
TINS State. He was known as a clear
headed and able magistrate but with
an occasional impatience and irri-
taplilty That did not make for peace
and comfort in the court room.
Inc Junior Associate was Nathan
weston, Jr.. of Augusta. Born in Au-
gusta, July 81, 1882, graduate OF
Dartmouth. admitted to the bar in
1916, he was appointed Chief Justice
or the Second Circuit court under
Massachusetts in 1911 when but %
years of age, serving with credit in
That position until appointed to the
supreme Bench when a little less
than thirty eight. He served as AS
socIate Justice until 1884 and as Chief
Justice until 1871. The term had been
changed by constitutional amendment
IN 1889 to seven years. He was re-
nominated by Governor Kent but the
Council refused TO confirm him.
doubtless on political grounds. His
total judicial service of thirty wears
was marked by industry. patience and
sound legal judgment and the Judi
cial traditions were perpetuated in
his grandson, Chief Justice Melville
Weston Fuller. who for twenty-five
years adorned the bench of the United
states Supreme court.
Such was the personnel of our
Court at its inception. A high mark
of learning, ability and integrity was
set at the beginning aud the influence
of the earliest triumvirate has been
felt down through the intervening
years.
What was the setting? Maine was
then a state of less than 800, 900 in
habitants with a total valuation of
about twenty millions Nine counties
"a 1ir,1,
states made up the Union. James
Monroe was President. John Mar
shall was Chief Justice and only the
year before had announced at a single
term three epoch making decisions
Mccullough V. Maryland, Sturgis V.
Crowningshield, and the Dartmouth
College case a trilogy that has caus-
ed someone to characterize that term
as 'the greatest six weeks in the his
tory of the United States Supreme
Court"
To what authorities could our new
Court turn for precedents? They
were indeed few in number. Maine
of course had none. New Hampshire
had published one volume of repor is.
now seventy eight; Vermont tour
volumes. now ninety-two: Massachu-
sets sixteen, now two hundred and
thrty-three; Rhode Island none, now
forty-one; Connecticut two, now
ninety-three: New YORK sixteen VOL
umes of Johnson's Law Reports and
three volumes of Johnson's Chancery
Reports with James Kent as Chancel-
lor. while the Supreme Court of the
United States had issued UP to 6
Wheaton, sixteen small volumes now
reprinted and combined in four vol
umes: at present there are two hun
dred and fifty-one. The reports Of
the other existing states We're corre-
spondingly few. while the twenty-five
other states comprising the great ter
ritory beyond the Alleghenies. and
whose volumes now crowd our lib
rary shelves, had not then been form
ed
The authorities, therefore. cited by
our Court in the earlier volumes are
not numerous and are chiefly the
early MASSACHUSETTS cases and the
old English Reports. Dyer. Salkeld,
Saunders and the like, with Shop
herds Touchstone and Coke on Lit
Teton In fact our Court was
obliged to develop principles rather
than to discover presidents, and
then, as always. it is safe to be-
ware of the man of few books. If Ire
is a thinker he is a dangerous adver-
sary and q wise leader. ~
IT is interesting to note in this